Play with Fire -- Sam Tinnesz

We might've moved faster crawling. Dakota was awash with drying blood; I was still trying to get my head right and track at the same time. Luckily Chiro's trail wasn't exactly impossible to suss out, even at night. The giant beast had smashed through the undergrowth, leaving behind, like his canine companion, wide swatches of smeared blood and stomped plants. It was the battered undergrowth that gave him away more than anything else; the fresh scent of torn leaves, trampled berries and churned earth gave my straining eyesight a much-needed break. For a while, anyway, until it seemed my prince had changed back into a man and disappeared.

There weren't any signs of Leda, not that we expected to find a struggle or anything.

"Did you see her fall, or were you stone cold then?" Dakota asked in a hushed voice as we navigated through the gloom.

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the awful sight from my memories. "I saw."

"Do you think there's any chance she could survive something like that?"

"We owe it to her to find out," I said, but the words rang false even to my ears. I stopped against the flat ground, sensing a small descent ahead- nothing too dire, just an uneven slope of winding roots and stone. Dakota bumped into me with a soft exclamation. "You know, you should go back. This time tomorrow I'll either be strapped down on his horse or we'll be making introductions. The others need someone to take over if I don't come back."

Dakota snorted. "Well I can't find my way back now with my bad shoulder and all. I'm a liability."

"Thanks for the reminder."

She stepped beside me, rubbing her arm. To get down the slope quickly we held hands, grabbing onto whatever saplings we could reach to make life easier on ourselves. She was an off-color shadow in the growing darkness, her filthy dress the last pale hue to vanish. "This is a trap," she said as night pressed in. The leaves on the ground hissed and rattled like snakes as we disturbed them.

My fingers brushed an oozing stain across the brush. I wiped it away on my pants. "Which means Chiro won't be  playing hard to get." 

"Chiro?" I didn't need to see Dakota's face to know a heavy scowl had crossed her lips. "You've raised animals. You know killing gets a lot harder when you keep referring to them by their first names."

"Not always," I said, reflecting on Akta. While I wasn't confident that I could kill him, there wouldn't be any hesitation when push came to shove. Where was the Stag tonight? I wondered. Whose life was he ruining tonight?

"And just what are you intentions with this Chiro?" she continued.

We reached the base of the hill. I dropped her hand. "You sound like my step-dad."

"As I should," Dakota said. "Look, I know this guy helped you and he might help us now, but we can't just forgive him for what he's done. He brought more than one of us here, I'm sure, and he just got Leda killed."

"We got Leda killed," I said, letting go of that dim faint hope her heart was still beating. "And if he wasn't there, who's to say someone else wouldn't have died, or more of us? This is dangerous. We're not all getting out alive, and even if we are, there's no guarantee we'll be okay."

Dakota's feet were angry stomps behind mine. "Tay, c'mon. He needs to die."

I trekked on. "You saw what he turned into. We could use one of those. He's a lot more effective than a couple sticks and stones."

"I saw a monster," she continued. "I saw a top competitor in a sick game. Maybe your weird friendship is an advantage, but you've got to be the one to use it first."

"So you want me to kill him?"

"He killed you once already, remember? Even the score." We trudged along in flickering silence, as vivid veins of electricity pulsed within the clouds. A breeze rushed through the trees, carrying the sweet scent of rain and masking the wet patters on leaf and branch. We stood still, scanning the ground, waiting for another illuminating flash to find part of a track.

"So this thing with your mom," Dakota began, "what's that mean for us?"

"Not sure," I said, scanning the forest floor. The flashes were quick and bright and near continuous in the hot night. "I was too busy trying to get back here. I'm guessing she'll try again, and I need to be ready, have something to say."

"Could she tell my dad I'm okay?" Dakota asked with a softly hesitant tone I'd never heard from her. "Make it sound happy, like I'm getting my nails done in heaven or something."

"What about the truth?" I asked. "You could tell him yourself, maybe. If we figure out how this works."

"You're the demon, Tay. I'm just...not. Besides," -confidence returned to her voice as the thunder closed in-"truth is I remember falling. I remember what it felt like to hit the rocks. I remember laying there just long enough to know my body is rotting in a grave. What happens at the end of this Hunt? That girl on the rocks is dead and buried. As long as we're here we'll always be one bite away from dying in a viper pit. Why should Dad lose me twice? Why should he know about this kind of hell? Isn't the one he's living bad enough?"

"It sucks," I said.

Thunder rumbled. Dakota sniffled and wiped her face. "Yeah."

"Maybe there's a way out," I said. With the advent of light rain it was getting difficult to hold a conversation, especially one destined to stay in the realms of hoarse whispers. "Maybe my mom knows it. Maybe Chiro does. The riders of the Wild Hunt had weapons and armor and physical bodies. There's gotta be something to that."

"They're demons. You're half demon. Maybe the rules are different for you."

"So we break the rules. We get out together with the rest of the girls. There's a peddler I met in the forest, someone who works for a witch the demons all seem to have a healthy fear of. If we can survive the Hunt, maybe we can find them."

As if to remind us that survival was an hour-by-hour situation, a rosy glow lit the dank forest far ahead: a crackling fire tucked just inside....we waited for another flash...the entrance to a bleak cave. A white horse grazed just to one side, head lowered and tail swishing, eating its fill before the storm worsened. The animal's head lifted here and there, but it never looked quite at us.

"Damn," Dakota said, making a beeline for the jovial flames. "What a cozy welcome mat. My toes are gonna enjoy this."

I snatched her elbow. She grunted in pain. With a short apology I hung on. "He knows I'm coming; he doesn't have to know about you. I'll see what his plans are. Keep watch outside."

Wincing, Dakota pried my fingers off her arm. "You shouldn't care what his plans are, Tay. He isn't one of us. He's a demon. He's always going to be a demon."

"I know." I said, glad for stretch dark rain so she couldn't see the lie plain on my face. She was right, of course. He was a demon. He'd hunted us down with all the rest of them. If I got the chance I needed to take it, and yet strategy suggested this wasn't the right time. I pushed back the nagging suspicion I didn't want to kill him. Want had nothing to do with it, I told myself. I've got to buck up and do what needs to be done.

"How you doing it?" she asked, rightfully bothered by my reply.

The horse's ears flicked as raindrops fell. I watched the darkness beyond the cave, searching the gloom for a wolf's eyes. Finding none, I rolled my shoulders and gestured at the steed. "If Chiro's home, I'll get him out by the fire where you can see us. When you see me close enough to him, steal his horse. Cause a distraction. That's all I need."

Dakota pushed the wet hair from her face. "You want me to take this guy? I don't want you getting sentimental."

"I can do it," I insisted, reaching for the knife as if touching it would convince her.

"Tay, c'mon."

"I'll do it," I said, pulling ahead. "Go on and steal his horse."

"And the wolf?" she asked, peering through the gloom as I had.

"He dropped you on my command, didn't he? I got Gabe covered."

"Jesus, Tay, enough with the names already."

"Steal his horse," I repeated, waving her off. "Just remember it's pitch black and raining. Try not to break the poor thing's legs on your escape."

Just like that, we separated. The woman crept a fair distance behind me, but as the rain strengthened I couldn't even hear my own steps over the waterlogged din. Chiro knew I was coming. But without sight of him or Gabriel, I was beginning to doubt parting ways with Dakota. What if he picked her off now, too? What if he was using the fire as a lure to draw me in?

The horse's head whipped around in my direction. It snorted, pawed the ground. For a second the mere fact that I'd been spotted had me frozen in place, and then I remembered that I wanted to be spotted. I pushed on through the last yards of forest. The horse kept its distance, but with a ripple of shadows I'd forgotten all about the nervous animal in favor of the wide, wicked smile of Chiro's pet.

The wolf's harvest moon eyes winked into existence across the dancing flames. The fur along his spine rose in a jagged line. He snarled, but that snarl dimmed to a growl. After a quick check around us, I walked to the edge of the cave, just inside the droning downpour, braced my hand on the stone, and carefully, very carefully, held out the back of my palm. "Hey, boy," I said. "You staying nice and toasty?"

Gabriel's head cocked to one side and then the other, listening, assessing. And then his lips closed over his fangs. The fur flattened. Ears perked, he limped to my hand and sniffed. A moment later, my hands were deep in stinky wolf fur and he'd collapsed on the ground. Pressing my back against a cool wall so I couldn't be caught from behind, I itched his belly in the firelight, occasionally calling out for Chiro or anyone else in the distant depths.

The endless water that poured across the cave's entrance paused in its cascade to pinging off steel and  flesh. Gabriel flipped onto his stomach, tail inches from thumping embers. I followed the hound's intent gaze. Chiro shook the water from his hair. His sword rested against his shoulder as he strolled in, soaked to the bone. And I knew right then, sitting beside the flames with the glare of lightning looming past the curtain of rain, that Dakota should've knocked me cold and done the job in my stead.

Why? Because want had everything to do with it.

Chiro stood framed in the wild night with that naked blade resting against his skin. Water dripped from his bare chest, made his pants stick tight against his thighs. Firelight spread attractive shadows across his chest and shoulders as he moved around to the far side and pulled a rag from a bag partially concealed in shadow.

I hadn't intended to fall speechless, but those stormcloud grey eyes locked on mine and I found myself wondering how the hell I'd let myself sleep next to that without trying anything.

"I can smell you and your harem, Tay Wilson," he announced, wiping his blade. "One of them is very close to a trap.

And there came the reason to break my trance. I could stay chaste and virtuous in his bed because I'm a human and he's a demon. I rose. "My ladies." I moved around to the front of the fire. "We aren't a harem. We're ladies. And they don't belong to me, either."

There was a faint screech and a triumphant, "Missed me, you bastard!"

Chiro's lips turned up at the sound. "Vibrant bunch, you are."

"Highly motivated."

He stepped a few feet closer to me, a few more feet closer to the fire, which seemed to dry his skin almost too quick for my liking. The rag dropped to his feet. "I've heard talk of some highway robbery in this neck of the woods."

I glanced past the curtain of rain, wondering if Dakota was really alright. "We're taking back what belongs to us."

In a smooth motion the edge of the blade pressed unwavering against my chin. The lightest pressure directed my gaze onto his.

"Are you planning on stealing from me?" he asked, gaze as steady as the cool steel.

I knocked the blade away against my bracer. The metal pressed into the leather without cutting. I stepped into his reach, so close I could touch his glistening bare skin, see if those muscles felt as firm as they looked. "Planning on more than that," I said, "If you've come to try and catch us."

"I don't try, Tay Wilson. I take." His slight smile, the confident purr in his voice, the way his hand had found my waist without my realizing it; it all served to make my heart race in a way I didn't fully comprehend.

The slim knife felt heavy at my hip. I should've let Dakota take this one. I should've—I regripped the handle. It didn't matter. Take out the competition. Do what has to be done.

The horse screeched in terror. Gabriel leaped after its retreating form.

Chiro's head turned.

The knife caught in his shoulder. The next thing I felt was the hard ground on my back. The next thing I saw were his eyes staring into mine. With his weight bearing down, the dagger lodged in his shoulder just out of my reach, I kneed him in the stomach. He grunted. He held me down with one hand; the other ripped the dagger out and threw it into the fire.

I tried again, tried to kick him somewhere more sensitive. He moved to avoid it; my foot found purchase against his knee and I pushed myself from his grasp. There was a brief scuffle of elbows and claws and a whole lot of cursing from both sides, and then I was face-down, my arm pulled painfully against my back

Chiro leaned against my ear. "I could end you right here," he said.

"You could do a lot of things to me right here," I wheezed into the dirt.

He jerked my arm further. "You're filthy."

I twisted my neck to get a glimpse of him. "So are you."

"At least I bathed today."

"Licking your paws doesn't count."

The pain eased. His grip fell from my arm. "Not a polite creature, are you?"

Panting, I rolled halfway over and looked up at him. While my chest rose and fell in sheer exhaustion from the struggle, Chiro looked about as breathless as a marathon runner who went for a jog around the block. "So are you gonna get off me or what?" I asked.

He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. The cut in his shoulder was barely a trickle now. He glanced down at it, and then at me. "Not yet," he purred, adjusting me so I was flat on my back. "I want your undivided attention."