Background
Blood Is Thicker. When all else fails, there’s always family. Then again, for some, the loss of a family member is the driving force for what they do. This result directly connects your hero’s story to her relationship with one or more family members, or perhaps to the loss of her family in this savage, terrible world. Somehow, joining the Legion is a part of it all.
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 130 lbs
Hair Color: Auburn with red streaks
Eye Color: Green
Age: 18
Physical description: Lean, curvaceous dancer's body, athletically toned musculature. Rose and thorns tattoo on her lower back
Father: Aranax (Asgardian fire demon, unknown to her)
Mother: Jacqueline Mackenzie (deceased)
Brothers: Unknown
Sisters; Unknown
Other Family: Unknown
***
The knock on the door sounded loudly in the small room of the apartment.
“Shit! Shit, fuck!” Sierra exclaimed, disentangling rapidly from Cody’s embrace.
“My mom’s home!”
“Your mom’s hot,” Cody said languidly, still relaxed from their recent spate of marijuana, tequila, and sex.
Sierra glared at him, and then gasped as the door opened.
“Sierra Jacqueline Mackenzie!” Jacqui Mackenzie said in surprise at seeing the two naked teens.
Cody quickly sat up, grabbing a pillow to put over his lap, knocking over a bottle of tequila they had shared.
Jacqui scowled.
“You know the rules, young lady! No boys in the house! And have you been drinking and smoking weed again?”
Sierra grimaced. Fucking parents! She grabbed a sheet to wrap around her naked body.
“Just a little?”
Jacqui crossed her arms, glowering at her teenage daughter.
“Young lady, do not sass back at me!”
“Sorry, Ms. Mackenzie. It was my fault,” Cody said. He wondered if he should move and grab his boxers.
“You’re damn right,” Jacqui shot back.
“Now get out of my apartment!”
“Right…” Cody drawled.
“Can you hand me my boxers…” He pointed to the undergarments on the lamp near Jacqui.
Jacqui rolled her eyes.
“Sierra, you are so much better than this! Don’t make the same mistakes I did. I forbid you to see this...idiot anymore!”
Sierra’s eyes narrowed.
“Forbid? You forbid me! Fuck! What is this? You can’t choose who my friends are! I love Cody!”
“Love? You’re eighteen, Sierra. You don’t know what love is. You’re also grounded.”
Sierra’s eyes narrowed. Small little flames started flickering in her red hair.
“Grounded! You can’t ground me! The big dance is this weekend! All my friends are going!”
“Well, you’re not,” Jacqui insisted. She eyed her daughter.
“Sierra...what’s--?”
“Fuck you, Mom!” Sierra said angrily, her eyes actually seeming to burn.
Cody and Jacqui stared.
“Whoa…” Cody muttered.
Sierra didn’t even seem to notice.
“I’m not like you, mom. I didn’t pick up some stranger in a bar and get knocked up and have a kid! Cody and I are going to get married!”
“Wait, what--?” Cody stared at Sierra blankly.
“Shut up.” Sierra shot Cody a look.
“Sierra, calm down. S-Something is happening to you…” Jacqui said nervously, backing up slightly.
Cody was scrambling into his pants.
“Gah!” Sierra screamed.
“Stop telling me what to do! I hate you!” Fire erupted from Sierra’s body. It engulfed the room. Jacqui and Cody screamed as their clothes and hair caught fire, their skin melting. Paint peeled on the walls and the furniture burst into flame.
Sierra stared around her in shock. It was...beautiful...fascinating… The flames danced, almost...sang to her…
And then it was broken by screams. Sierra gasped.
“Mom! No!” She rushed to her mother’s burning body as it writhed on the floor. She tried to put it out, but Sierra’s hands were aflame. What? She barely felt the heat! It wasn’t burning her; it was almost...caressing her… The flaming wrap of the sheet around her nude body fell away in charred tatters and Sierra felt the fire around her, lifting her arms, felt the loving caress, sensual, almost...sexual. She shuddered, in pleasure, not horror, even as the stench of charred flesh filled her nose.
The smoke started to get to Sierra, though, and she coughed, shaken out of the revelry. She heard the ceiling crack, fire licking into the walls. She should get out. She looked at her mother’s and Cody’s still forms, a bit dispassionately, before she stumbled through the smoke.
The stairwell was a chaos. The tenement her family lived in was old. There was no elevator. Flames were already starting to emerge as the fire spread. Sierra reached out to help Mrs. Kowalski down the stairs when the old woman yelped in pain at her touch, a severe burn raising blackened blisters on her sking.
“Girl! What are you!” the old woman gaped.
“I...I don’t know…” Sierra was still enshrouded in flames, her red hair lifting in the heat winds of the inferno.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me!”
***
Sierra slumped in the dark corner of the tiny room, shivering. She wasn’t cold. Something deep inside her glowed steadily, pushing back the chill of the dank, featureless room. The concrete walls and steel door were blackened and partially melted from the periodic outbursts of fire that erupted from her body. She didn’t recall how long she had been here. She had stood and watched, enraptured, as her tenement building went up in flames. She vaguely recalled people jumping from the upper stories rather than succumb to the fire. Something inside of her reveled in it. That’s what made her shudder. Eventually someone pointed her out to the Whykin police. She had been stunned into unconsciousness and woke up here. The room was solid, her flames having little effect.
A small panel in the door slid open and a set of eyes peered inside. She backed away into the corner fearfully. She knew the routine. But the door didn’t open, at least not yet. The eyes disappeared and she heard voices from the corridor.
“One hundred and one people were killed in the fire. A hundred twenty-three more were seriously injured. Some of them might not make it,” the familiar voice of the police captain could be heard.
“Tragic,” said a new voice.
“Murder,” the captain growled.
“Don’t know why they bothered with a trial. Should have shot her in the head right there on the scene.”
“Ah, yes. She is a filthy D-Bee, not a girl who just lost her family and doesn’t know what is happening to her.”
“What are you? Some kind of D-Bee lover?”
“Oh, I’m a lover all right.” There was almost a grin in the man’s voice.
“D-Bee has nothing to do with it though. She isn’t a D-bee,” he pointed out.
“Six of one…” The captain chuckled.
“Certainly she’s a looker, that one. My men woulda had some fun with her if they weren’t so damn scared of getting their bits burned off.”
“Well, you seem to have her well handled now.”
“For now. At least until she’s executed tonight.”
“Right…” the new voice said.
“Wanna look? Dawkins! Reynolds! Get over here! Open her up!”
“No…” Sierra murmured.
“No...please...no more…” She tried to back as far away into the corner as she could as she heard the locks on the door jerk open. As soon as the door was opened it began. Two officers held a fire hose. The water slammed hard into Sierra’s naked body, pressing her against the wall, soaking her, chilling her. She turned, trying to avoid the worst of the blast. The men just laughed.
Sierra slumped to the floor when the hose was finally turned off, red hair dripping and clinging to her bruised and scraped skin.
“No…” she coughed. She heard the footsteps splashing in the puddles as they approached and looked up at the smirking captain and another man. The stranger was handsome, with disheveled dirty blonde hair. He wore basic armor and had a laser pistol at his side and a vibrosword on his back. His face was mostly inscrutable, though his brow was slightly furrowed as he took her in.
“C’mon, girl!” the captain said, grabbing a fistful of her soaked red hair, dragging her from the corner.
“NO!” Sierra screamed, kicking and thrashing to no avail. He was simply too strong, and she was too weak from not eating and mistreatment. She tried to touch the fire inside of her. It swelled slightly, her body steaming, but then it was squelched as the captain shoved her head into a large trough of water that the other officers had filled, holding her head under. She struggled and tried to scream, her lungs filling with water, denying her breath. The world started to blacken, but before she passed out her head was yanked up.
Sierra coughed up water, gasping and wheezing.
“Please…” she begged, her green eyes staring up at the stranger.
“Please help me…”
“
It will all be over soon,” was all the man said, his voice steady, even, offering her no hope.
***
Doused and dripping, naked and manacled, Sierra was dragged out of her cell. She could barely stumble along as the officers dragged her down the corridor out into the bare dirt yard behind the station. Wood splinters gouged her naked back as she was shoved up against a pole and shackled there. She looked out blearily through her wet red hair. The police captain and another officer with a rifle stood there, and the stranger was there as well.
Did he wink at her?
The captain nodded to the other officer, who brought his rifle up, sighting down it. Sierra squeezed her eyes closed, trying to reach the fire inside of her, to do anything. She didn’t want to die!
But...she deserved to. All those people she killed! Her mother!
Sierra started to sob.
“Do it…” she choked.
“I killed them...I killed them all...I killed my mother...and I...I liked it…” She slumped against the pole.
“Ready!” the captain called in a strong voice.
“Aim! Fi--”
Two shots rang out. Sierra tensed. After a moment, she opened one eye. The stranger stood there calmly changing out the e-clip in his laser pistol. The captain and the officer lay on the dusty ground with a hole in their heads.
“Well, that certainly went better than I expected,” the stranger commented as he walked calmly, but briskly, toward her after scooping up the keys from the captain. He moved behind her and undid the shackles tying her to the pole. Sierra slumped forward and he caught her deftly.
“Easy,” the stranger said, gently lowering her to the ground. “
We don’t have a lot of time before someone wonders where their captain is.”
The stranger went and retrieved a backpack from nearby and pulled out some clothes.
“Put these on,” he said.
“Who...Who are you?” Sierra murmured, staring up at her handsome savior. He flashed her a smile that made her heart warm in a way that had nothing to do with the fire inside of her.
“You can call me Jude,” he said, giving her a wink.
While Sierra dressed, Jude turned his back to give her some privacy and busied himself with pulling the captain and the officer into an out of the way corner of the yard. One nice thing about a laser pistol, there wasn’t any blood to leave a lot of evidence. He scrounged around their bodies a moment before returning to where Sierra was just picking herself up off the ground.
“Here,” Jude said, handing her a laser pistol and a credchip, along with the backpack.
“You know how to use one of these?”
Sierra shook her head.
“Not really.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to teach you. For now, this end points at anyone you want dead. Then pull this with your finger.” He gave her his boyish grin again, and Sierra couldn’t help but giggle.
“Why are you helping me?” Sierra asked.
Jude shrugged.
“I got bored of Whykin. And…” he shrugged,
“got into a touch of trouble myself.” He laughed.
“And I never could resist a beautiful damsel in distress.” He lifted her chin with his finger and pushed back her soaking red hair, his blue eyes staring into her greens.
Sierra thought she might melt.
There was a long moment, and then Jude said,
“So I guess we should go.” He stepped past her to the rear gate, fiddling with the keys.
Sierra straightened up, her jaw firm. She tossed him the backpack.
“I just have to do one more thing,” she said.
Jude gave her a puzzled look, and then his eyes widened slightly as the teenager stalked back toward the police station. Flames flickered in her red hair and eyes, steam rising off of her.
“Uhm...Sierra, love…”
But she was already inside. Jude had the sense to duck through the door before the explosion of fire and screams erupted.
***
“So where are you taking me?” Sierra asked as she started the fire while Jude made camp in the lee of a rock wall. The first day out from Whykin had been spent avoiding patrols searching for them. Jude seemed to know the area well enough, and now three days out he had decided they were far enough out they could risk a proper fire and some real food.
“To Castle Refuge,” Jude said, contemplating the tent. It looked like it would be a nice night, no rain threatened, and the moon was full, the stars out. He decided against the tent and set out the sleeping bags instead.
“There are people there that can help you control your abilities.”
“There are people like me?” Sierra asked, staring up at her handsome savior.
Jude gave a bit of a smirk.
“More than you might think,” he said.
“And you’ll be safe there.”
Sierra merely nodded, staring into the flames as they leapt and danced. She felt the pull, the call of them.
“Do you...think I deserve to be?” she asked quietly.
Jude came around the fire and knelt down. He lifted her chin to lock eyes with her.
“Did you mean to start that fire?”
Sierra swallowed.
“N-No,” she said.
“I...I was angry and...it just sort of...came out,” she said with a sob.
Jude gathered her against his chest in a hug.
“I won’t say it will be easy,” he told her quietly.
“You will have to find a way to live with what you have done. But...it doesn’t mean your life has to end. There is still good in the world you can do, and that is what Castle Refuge is all about.”
Sierra sobbed, clinging tightly to the older man for several minutes before she pulled back, sniffling and wiping her eyes and nose. Jude produced a handkerchief.
“Thanks,” Sierra sniffed, giving an unladylike nose blow.
“C’mon,” Jude said, helping her stand.
“I promised I’d show you how to use that pistol. I’d rather you not shoot me accidentally.” He flashed that grin of his.
Sierra giggled.
“I’d rather not shot you accidentally, too,” she said.
Jude poured a can of beans into a pot and put it on the fire. Then he walked a bit away to a log and placed the can on it. Returning to her, he pulled the laser pistol from her hip, standing very close behind her.
“Okay, here’s how you hold it,” Jude said, sliding his arms around her and placing his hands on the gun. Sierra shivered slightly at his warm breath against her ear.
“Now there’s the sight. Look down that and line it up with the can. When you’re ready, exhale your breath and squeeze the trigger slowly, don’t jerk it.”
Sierra took several breaths and then exhaled, doing as he said. The shot blasted wide into a tree.
“Not even close,” Jude laughed.
“Try again.”
Sierra tossed him a glower. She took a few more shots, managing to wing the can with the last one.
“You know, you are kind of distracting, Jude.”
She heard the amusement in his voice.
“Is that so?”
Sierra turned in his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck, the laser pistol dangling loosely in her hand.
“Yes. And I haven’t thanked you for saving me.”
“No thanks necessary,” Jude murmured, his face coming closer to hers.
“It doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be appreciated…”
“You know, it might get a little chilly tonight. I could keep you warm.” Sierra went up on her toes and kissed him.
Jude hissed a bit as Sierra’s kiss literally scalded his lips.
“Maybe you better go let off a little of that heat first,” he said, giving her a smile.
Sierra flushed in embarrassment.
“Yes, you’re right,” she said, turning and walking away, peeling off her top as she did so, flames erupting from her naked torso.
Jude just grinned and shook his head. He was going to get so burned…
***
The shadowed clearing was a welcome relief from the heat and the chase. As Sierra landed, a flaming feather from her wings drifted down, igniting a patch of grass. Sierra stared into the flames, her eyes becoming unfocused.
“Oh, fuck. Not again…”
Sierra sat in a bar somewhere, in a shadowed corner, swirling a drink in her hand. She looked down at the nice dress she was wearing. The place seemed rather upscale, more along the lines of the hotel bar in her hotel in Nashville than any dive she had frequented growing up in Whykin.
At the table sat a young woman, and Sierra blinked, and then stared. Jacqueline Mackenzie was about twenty years younger, golden blonde hair falling in a cascade down her shoulders and shimmering in the low light of the club. She wore a beautiful low cut dress of expensive quality. It showed off her lush curves, and the color brought out her blue eyes. She sipped a drink with a rather bored expression, brushing off several attractive young men that attempted to flirt as she jotted down some notes on a napkin.
A man slid onto the stool beside Jacqueline. He was older than her by maybe ten years. His hair was red, like the streaks of red in Sierra’s auburn locks, and his eyes a brilliant green, like Sierra’s eyes. He wore a black perfectly tailored bespoke suit with a red tie. And he was drop dead gorgeous, with perfect features and a handsome, dashing smile.
“Damn…” Sierra muttered, sipping her drink and staring at the man.
“Tequila,” the man said to the bartender.
“Two glasses. Leave the bottle.” He had a slight accent, but Sierra couldn’t place it.
The man poured the two shots and used a perfectly manicured finger to push one over in front of the woman sitting next to him.
Jacqueline looked up at the man, then at the drink, and raised an eyebrow.
“I have a drink already,” she said.
“Thank you.” She turned back to her notes, giving him the brush off.
“Ah, but I noticed you are drinking club soda. That is hardly a way to celebrate your new promotion.”
Jacqueline looked up with surprise.
“How did you--?” She studied him, his handsome features.
“Do I know you?”
“Not yet, but I do hope we get to know each other...intimately.”
Jacqueline scoffed.
“Hardly,” she said, turning back to her work.
“No, I think you want to talk to me.”
Sierra blinked. Had she seen a flash of...flames behind the man’s eyes?
Jacqueline looked up, blinking, staring into his eyes. Her features softened, almost slackened. She smiled.
“I’m Jacqui,” she said, offering her hand.
“I know.” The man smiled.
“Aran,” he introduced himself.
“Drink up.”
Jacqui looked down at the shot of tequila, then at her club soda. She shrugged and tossed back the shot. She gasped as it burned down her throat.
“Good girl,” Aran said, tossing back his own and pouring the each another. He lifted his to her in a toast.
“To good careers, and beautiful babies.”
Jacqui laughed.
“I’m pretty sure those two are mutually exclusive,” she said.
“I’m not looking to settle down.” She tossed back the tequila, doing better this time.
Aran grinned.
“Neither am I,” he said.
Sierra lost track of how many drinks her mother had with the handsome stranger. She waved to the bartender for another drink herself. When she turned her attention back, Jacqui and Aran were on the dance floor, in each others’ arms.
Sierra wandered over to the bar and picked up the napkin her mother had been writing on. It was notes of some kind. It looked like the beginnings of some kind of speech, politics. Royal politics. Sierra looked back at her mother, laughed and leaning against Aran, staring deeply into handsome man’s eyes. Did she see the flames there that Sierra saw?
Sierra couldn’t remember her mother ever talking about her life. Sierra assumed they had always been poor, her mother a whore and a euphie addict. What was all of this? This had to be a fantasy, right?
Sierra looked back at the napkin. Flames had begun curling the edges, consuming the delicate paper.
“Shit!” she exclaimed, reaching out for the fire to put it out.
It didn’t go out. It engulfed her hand. It didn’t burn her, but...she couldn’t control it! Fire had never disobeyed her like this before! Not since the day she first manifested, since she burned her mother and boyfriend, burned her tenement and everyone inside.
Her mother! Sierra’s eyes went to Jacqui. She had her eyes closed, cheek resting against Aran’s strong, muscled chest. Aran stared right at Sierra, those flames behind his green eyes. He gave her a knowing smile.
Sierra’s heart skipped. She looked around. Flames had started licking at the walls and curtains of the club. No one seemed to notice, even when the fire caught dresses. People burned, blackened, then melted like wax, the pop and stench of boiling fat, so familiar to Sierra. She inhaled deeply of the smoke and flames, still getting a thrill despite the horror. It was so primal, so...free.
The sounds of the club and flames faded. Sierra opened her eyes to darkness. Moans touched her ears, soft gasps and pants, a whispered name,
“Aran!”
Sierra called on her powers, seeing through the darkness. She looked on a bed, two naked bodies entwined in passion, moving as one.
“Jacqui!”
Sierra gagged.
“Oh! Oh, fuck, no!” she exclaimed, turning away quickly.
“Yes! Aran! Faster!”
“Oh, hell no! I am not going to watch this!” Sierra raced for the door, yanking it open just as she heard her mother reach ecstasy.
Sierra fled out into the rest of the apartment, the echoes of her mother’s passion chasing her.
“There is not enough brain bleach in the world to make me forget that,” Sierra said with a groan.
She paused, looking around. The apartment was upscale. Luxurious, even. It was twice the size of their old tenement, maybe more. Two bedrooms, one of which had been converted into an office, it appeared. Sierra opened a curtain and looked out into the darkness at the lights of Whykin. She recognized the building. It was an upscale residential tower in center city, and she was staring out at the royal palace.
“Damn, Mom!” Sierra gaped.
Her gaze fell on a picture, and Sierra picked it up. It was her mother, in graduation robes from the Royal University of Whykin, holding her diploma, flanked by an older man and woman. Who were they? Sierra had never seen them before, but they shared her mother’s features, and looked very proud of their girl.
Sierra put the picture down again and wandered into the kitchen. She found a good bottle of tequila and opened it, drinking straight from the bottle as she poked around.
Movement from the door caused Sierra to jump and spin around, nearly dropping the bottle of tequila. She put it down and stared at Aran where he stood in all his naked glory. She couldn’t help but run her eyes down his form.
“God damn…”
Aran met Sierra’s eyes. Flames licked behind them again as he grinned at her.
Sierra felt heat rise in her, sympathetic, calling. It wasn’t desire or lust. Something else. Something more...kindred.
“Yes, Jacqui will do nicely,” Aran said, though Sierra wasn’t sure if he was speaking to her or not. She moved past her and picked up the bottle of tequila, turning to head back to the bedroom.
“No!” Sierra said.
“You leave my mother alone!” She leapt at Aran, but her arms only embraced flames. Her clothes caught fire. Again she instinctively reached to put them out, and again they disobeyed. Her dress burned away, leaving her naked.
“Hm.”
Sierra spun around, finding Aran standing in the doorway. He took a sip from the bottle and ran his eyes over Sierra’s naked body.
“Definitely a beauty.”
The normally unashamed girl quickly covered herself with her hands, but Aran was already walking toward the bedroom.
“Mom!” Sierra yelled, charging after him. She burst into the bedroom and pulled up. Her mother was stretched out, having fallen asleep, drunk, worn out, and naked, with a satisfied smile on her face.
Aran sat beside her, stroking Jacqui’s hair. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. Then he looked at Sierra. Their eyes met again. She felt the fires inside of her stoke, felt the flames licking through her hair, dancing in time with the fires behind his eyes. She tried to tamp it down, but her fires refused to obey, responding with delight. The carpet burst into flame, the curtains caught.
Aran leaned down over Jacqui. He kissed her stomach. There was the sizzle and scent of burning flesh. Jacqui stirred fitfully. Aran sat up, revealing a kiss shaped mark burned into Jacqui’s stomach.
Sierra remembered that mark. Her mother had always said it was a birthmark.
Aran stood and got dressed. He walked past Sierra, not even acknowledging her. She heard the front door close as the bedroom and her mother burned away.