Playing With Fire (28 page)

Resting
by the foot of the bed, Gidian’s eyes fluttered open slowly. His back ached
from sleeping on the hard floor for so long, and for a minute he didn’t
remember where he was or why he was there. His memory came back to him quickly
and he cringed, hoping Kyra wasn’t awake to find him on the floor of her room.
He didn’t want her to think he was a pervert and was watching her sleep,
because he knew that wouldn’t end well at all. He started to inch his way up,
until he saw a shadowy figure standing beside the bed. The light prevented him
from seeing her face, and for a moment he thought it was Kyra. He stopped and
tried to hide himself, but then saw a faint of metal in the moonlight. He
looked back to the bed and saw Kyra’s peaceful sleeping face and his heart
almost leapt out of his throat. Unable to think of a spell, he lunged at the
intruder, and the dagger flew out of their hand as he made contact and cluttered
to the floor.

For
a second, Siren almost thought nothing was wrong in Yuki’s room. She found the
wolf girl awake crying tears of joy and clutching something to her chest, and
when Siren had burst through the door, she showed her the baby in her arms. It
was a beautiful little boy, but the second it looked at Siren things went sour.

The
baby’s big brown eyes turned into hollow sockets that glowed red and it hissed
at Siren. Yuki stared at it in horror as its little body grew into an enormous
copy of a Blood Wolf. It snatched Yuki in one giant hand and roared at Siren.
Siren swore under her breath and pointed the tip of her enormous long sword at
the shadow beast. The power the Healer had given her prickled all over her
body, eager to be released. Even for a Guardian, Siren’s power was unique. She
had the power of Holy Light, which given the situation, could give her nearly
infinite power. It had been a long time since she had even tapped into the
power, but it was as natural to her as breathing. Her heart pounded in her
chest as white light began to shine from within her, illuminating the room.

“Being
of the damned,” she said as her eyes began to change from her own to sockets
spewing angry white light. “In the name of my holy Lord and Creator, I shall send
you to the depths of hell where you shall be burned by flames in unrelenting
darkness for eternity!” The Holy Light engulfed her sword and made it a beacon
of light in the dark room. The creature drew back from her and released Yuki as
it tried to get away from the small Guardian.

Yuki
stared at Siren in amazement. She looked like an avenging angel sent by the
Healer, which wasn’t too far off at all. Siren lunged at the beast and sliced
through it as if it were paper. It howled in pain as it burst apart into tiny
wisps of smoke and light. When it was gone Siren turned back at Yuki, and
smiled. The light faded out of her as she walked back to the wolf girl.

“Are
you alright?” Siren asked as if nothing happened. Yuki nodded in amazement.
Siren smiled again and turned away from her towards the door. “Good, now we
should help Al and Vaze before something bad happens.” She walked towards the
door confidently, but then stopped abruptly, and collapsed. Yuki scrambled over
to her.

“Siren,
what’s the matter?” Yuki put a hand on her, and drew it back quickly. Her skin
was cold, and she shook violently.

“
No,
not now
,” Siren whispered, fear apparent in her voice. “
Not when they
need me
.”

Not
knowing what to do, Yuki snatched the blanket off of her bed and wrapped Siren
in it in hopes of warming her up. Siren was swearing silently but colorfully.
She had not expected lack of strength in the body she had would cause this
condition. Madam Gale had warned her not to use her power while still in the
form of a child, and it seemed her prediction of an aftershock had come true.
At the same time, neither of them noticed the other smoke creature gliding into
the room. It had been assigned to attack Gidian, but it had not found him in
his room, and decided with all the commotion going on to find someone else to
kill. It had picked out these two, since the Guardian was weak and the wolf
girl was hardly a threat while she was incapacitated. It had already picked up
on the small Guardian’s greatest enemy and was already beginning to form behind
the open door. It would only be a matter of time before their blood would stain
the walls, and their bodies became a meal for the beast. If the beast had had
an actual mouth, it would be drooling at the thought.

With
one last desperate attempt, Al threw himself at the door, and it burst open
unexpectedly, causing him to fall into the small pile of splintered wood. Dots
of blood appeared on his skin as he grazed the sharp splintered wood, but he
hardly noticed. He shot his head up and searched the room, only to gape in
amazement. Scarlet was on top of Vaze on the bed, trying to skewer him with a
dagger.

Vaze
saw Al and let out a sigh of relief that he would have help. He shot a look of
victory up at the imposter, but instead his heart almost burst. The imposter
once again was wearing Scarlet’s eyes, and the look on her face matched one of
Scarlet in rage perfectly.

“Scarlet?”
Al yelped in shock. “What are you doing?” The imposter turned her face to him.

“What
does it look like?” she snapped in a perfect impression of Scarlet. “This
pervert tried to sleep with me! I’m going to stick you like the damned pig you
are Vaze!” Vaze shot a look at Al, pleading him to see the truth, but he just
stared in disgust.

“You
pig!” Al shouted at him as he got up and made his way over to them. “I trusted
you! I thought we were friends! What kind of a friend tries to sleep with his
friend’s
sister
!”

“Al,
I didn’t,” Vaze struggled to look at him and keep the imposter from killing him
at the same time, and trying to speak made it even harder. “Do you really think
I’d try to do that? You’ve got to trust me!”

“That’s
a load of crap!” the fake Scarlet screamed with her eyes flaring with hatred.
“Al, who’re you going to believe, a lying pig or your own flesh and blood?”

“Save
the lies for someone who cares.” Al’s voice came out as a quivering hiss, and
Vaze couldn’t see his face at all. The blade began to hover closer to his neck,
and Vaze started to think this might be the one time he wouldn’t escape alive.
Rather than look at the imposter when death took him, Vaze closed his eyes and
imagined the real Scarlet, smiling and laughing. At the very least, he wanted
her to be the last image burned onto the inside of his eyelids.

“
Da
mihi lumen!
”

There
was a crash against the wall accompanied by an inhuman shriek, and the pressure
over Vaze disappeared as bright light turned the black from behind his eyelids
red. He opened them, and, to his surprise, found Al pinning the imposter by her
face against the wall with his hands seeping sunlight out of his palms. The
imposter’s skin melted away and was replaced by shadowy smoke.

“Go
back to the hell hole you crawled out of!” Al’s eyes were blazing with fury as
he shoved his hand farther into the creature’s head, seeming to pass through
the skin like structure entirely. With a loud pop, the creature burst into
light and tiny wisps of smoke. Al released the light from his hands, and once
again the moon was the only source of light in the room.

 “Are
you alright Vaze?” Al asked.

“I’m
fine,” he replied. “How did you know that she was a fake?”

“I
saw Scarlet being taken away by a demon,” Al said quietly. “I know if she went
willing to go like that for all of us, she wouldn’t risk coming back if she did
escape, because she would know she might be putting us in danger. And the fake
called me her flesh and blood. Scarlet knows better than anyone in my family
that none of us are truly related to each other, and she would never call any
one of us that.”

Gidian
and the attacker hit the ground with a loud crash, and the attacker let out a
gasp as Gidian knocked the wind out of them. As swiftly as he could, Gidian
pinned the attacker down. The attacker struggled underneath him, but Gidian
held fast. His attacker looked at him and immediately recoiled. Gidian’s cheeks
flushed as he looked at the beautiful woman, whom at the moment he was man
handling.

“I’m
so sorry ma’am, I didn’t mean to,” Gidian stuttered as he got up off of her.
She smiled at him in response.

“Don’t
worry, it wouldn’t be the first time a man has thrown himself at me.” The
woman’s voice was soft and flirty, which made Gidian flush again as she raised
a hand to him. “Unfortunately, this will be the last time you throw yourself at
anyone.” Gidian didn’t have time to react as the woman’s eyes flared from black
to red, and her nails extended into sharp dagger-like claws that reached all
the way over to him, piercing his flesh.

Gidian
could only stare at her with wide disbelieving eyes as he felt the claws pierce
deep into his flesh. His gaze shot to Kyra, whom still slept soundly in her
bed. He opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words, Gidian coughed
hoarsely, and blood splattered the woman’s spear like nails. He knew he had to
do something fast, but he could only think of saving Kyra.

“Kyra,”
he coughed up blood, but the words came out. “Wake up, Kyra!”

Back
in Yuki’s room, Yuki was still trying to no avail to make Siren better. Though
she couldn’t tell for sure, it seemed to her that she was getting worse. Siren
tried to speak, but her words came out slurred and unintelligible. She didn’t
notice that behind her, the smoke had almost finished forming, and now occupied
most of the room with its hulking head grazing the ceiling. Siren’s pulse went
up higher as it began to become solid—everything about it was all too familiar
to her. The twisting horns, the blackish brown blood matted fur, even its heavy
steamy breath coming from its nostrils made her shiver at the memory of the
fight to the death she almost lost nearly a century before. With all the
strength she had, Siren uttered the only words she could bear.

“Yuki…behind
you…”

Yuki
heard it without Siren’s warning, and was already turning around, but even then
it was too late. Yuki gasped as she stared into the deep emotionless red eyes
before her, and froze in place, hardly able to breath.

In
the hallway, Al was using all his might trying to open his master’s door by
smashing into it once again. His body was already sore from doing this so many
times over, and he knew it would be black and blue by the morning, but he
didn’t stop trying. Eventually, half out of pity and half strained by losing
precious time, Vaze told him to stop and let him handle it. With one mighty
kick, Vaze made the wooden door fly off its hinges in a shower of wooden
splinters while Al stared in amazement and a hint of jealousy.

Vaze
shrugged it off and entered the room with his dagger ready. Al followed close
behind with his palms spewing light into the dark room. Unlike the other rooms,
this one was starved of moonlight, so Al’s spell cast ghostly shadows
everywhere.

A
floor board squeaked under Al’s foot and he jumped in fright, accidentally
bumping into Vaze. Vaze shot him a look, and Al shied away. Vaze sighed shaking
his head and made his way over to the bed. A motionless lump huddled under the
covers. Hesitantly, Vaze slipped the tip of his dagger under the blanket, and
drew them back. Gidian sleeping soundly would have been preferable—a bloody
body was possible—but he hadn’t expected to find what he did.

Suddenly,
a shrill scream cut the air, followed by a blood curdling roar. Vaze cursed and
darted out the door leaving Al staring dumbstruck at the pillows made to look
like a person. Still in shock, Al turned to run after Vaze.

Kyra
was sleeping soundly until a shriek pierced her ears, forcing her eyes open by
pure instinct. The glint of a knife blade was enough to wake her up entirely
while she spun out of the way, allowing the blade to miss by hardly a hair’s
width. She heard her attacker hiss under her breath as Kyra lunged out of bed.
Her hand shot to her hip where her dagger always rested, only to find it was gone.
Kyra’s attacker laughed as Kyra swore. Hostility bred from countless battles
filled Kyra’s eyes as she focused her gaze on her opponent. A beautiful blonde
woman smiled back at her mockingly, and an unearthly roar broke the silence
between them.

“Looks
like my pets are finishing off your friends already,” the woman said. “It won’t
be long until all the screaming stops, and the bloody mess is cleaned up.”

“Who
the hell are you?” Kyra hissed, ignoring the woman’s taunting.

“Oh
dear, you’re not very lady like are you?” The woman put a hand over her mouth
and gasped innocently. “If I didn’t know any better I might’ve mistaken you for
a foul mouthed man.”

“Drop
the act and tell me who you are!” Kyra snarled like a ferocious lioness, but the
witch looked at Kyra as if she was a small kitten that she wanted to kick.

“Impatient
aren’t we, Special Forces captain Kyra?” The woman purred, and Kyra’s eyes
widened in surprise. “Oh yes, I know who you are. I know all about your many
accomplishments and battles you have under your belt. Are you not the ‘first
woman to ever become a captain of Moraj’s army’? Or the ‘youngest to ever
defeat a general in hand to hand combat’ and ‘a survivor of a Convergence’ all
at only the age of ten? It’s shocking I know so much about you, when you don’t
even know my name. It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Matilda Desule,
also known as the Black Witch, due to my many talents with black magic and its
many creatures. However, I think you know of my master. Does the name ‘Velkire’
mean anything to you?”