Playing With Fire (26 page)

Vaze
didn’t spend a single minute alone in his room without looking over his
shoulder. He wouldn’t even dare to slip into the white puffy shirt and
comfortable black trousers that he found in the drawers until he was absolutely
sure that they weren’t laced with poison. He kept his hooded cloak, and
concealed a dagger beneath its folds. Vaze almost jumped out of his skin as his
door opened behind him.

Drawing
his dagger, Vaze whipped around and held it defensively. His intruder looked at
him unfazed. Vaze let out a relieved sigh as he put his dagger back in its
sheath and faced the wolf girl Yuki.

“I’m
not looking to be skewered anytime soon,” she said straight forwardly. “I just
need to talk to you.”

“What
is it?” Vaze’s heart was still racing. He thought his fears were only due to
his five years of solitude when he was always running and hiding, never knowing
if he was going to see the light of day when he went to sleep.

“Something’s
off about this place, and that inn keeper, Matilda,” Yuki stated, and Vaze’s
heart almost skipped a beat. So he wasn’t the only one who noticed something
was wrong. “The minute she walked outside the birds stopped chirping as if they
were afraid of her. That’s never a good sign.”

“I
know, I noticed that too,” Vaze said. “She also got angry for a split second
when I looked into the guest book. Isn’t it also strange that no one else would
be here? We haven’t even seen any other people working in the inn.”

“I
wouldn’t doubt other people being here,” Yuki contemplated. “I checked out my
window the second I got into my room. There was a perfect view of where we left
our horse and cart, but neither was there.” Vaze didn’t answer for a minute
since he was deep in thought.

“Just
watch your back,” Vaze finally replied. “We can’t be sure about anything
without solid proof, but that doesn’t mean we should get comfortable.” Yuki
nodded and left Vaze to himself.

“I
can’t let my guard down,” he said quietly to himself. “Not when Scarlet is
still in danger.” The thought of her shot pain throughout his body as if
longing had become a knife. Vaze hadn’t realized how attached he become to
Scarlet. It had gotten to the point of a fierce protective sense coming about
him when he wondered about her wellbeing. Shaking away his thoughts, he went
down to join the others for a meal.

It
was short and quick, and the food was nothing special: unsalted veil with
slightly stale bread and water. None the less, the tired group thanked Matilda
for the meal and went back to their rooms for some long overdue sleep, despite
the fact it had just became midday.

Before
Vaze let himself be claimed by exhaustion, he hid a sharp jagged dagger beneath
his pillow, and other assorted weapons in the rest of his room. Yuki kept
herself in a mid-transformation, not entirely wolf but with the abilities of
one such as strength, hearing, and sense of smell. Almost everyone was taking
precaution—everyone except Al. He felt very safe in his bed, and drifted off
almost right away.

Gidian
laid an excessive amount of protective spells on Kyra’s room, for she had not
yet woken up. The energy the spells took from him began to make Gidian drowsy.
Before he knew it, he was asleep on the floor, just barely finishing his final prayers
to the Healer asking protection against demons. The prayers did not seem
necessary to some people, but Gidian had always thought of them as necessary,
for who could answer and help him but the mighty Healer? Gidian did not use
evil black magic like almost every other magic user in the world. He was not a
warlock or a wizard. He could only use his Guardian’s power to protect, or to
overpower evil. Often confused with sorcerers, Gidian was one of the last
remaining Lumens, as was Al—though he didn’t know that was the proper name for
what he was called.   

Siren,
instead of sleeping at all, sat on the bed with her long sword gripped in her
hands. She was itching for a fight, and hoped she wouldn’t be disappointed. The
aggressive quality the Healer gave Scarlet was also apparent in Siren, and it
was much harder to control when in the form of a child. As an adult, she had
been able to subside it with a compassionate and caring quality, but as a child
she had yet to gain it back.

And
so the exhausted group slept into the night until the moon hung high in the
sky. They had all relaxed a bit, but no one besides Al could shake their uneasy
feeling that something was wrong.

Outside
their doors, Matilda, no longer wearing the disguise of a wench, stalked down
their hallway. She could sense that they were all asleep now; even the little
Guardian brat had decided to rest her eyes for a moment.

“
Arizule
,
come my pets,” Matilda said hardly above a whisper. Black smoke arose from the
floorboards and licked at the witch’s face. She giggled and ran a hand through
it, and it purred in response. “Show them their heart’s deepest desires my
pets, and when they are most vulnerable, kill them. But, for the Guardian, make
her fears a reality.”

The
black smoke growled in delight, and began to drift back to the floor. It spread
out across the hall, and then dispersed, a bit going under each door way. The
smoke at the end of the hall tried to disappear under the door, but recoiled
shrieking. It fled back to the witch in fear, and she bit her lip in
frustration.

“So
the famous Gidian wants to protect his precious flower, Kyra?” Matilda’s lip
twitched in disgust. “Fine. I can just take care of her the old fashion way.”
Matilda made her way slowly to Kyra’s door, imagining what the rest of her prey
would wake up to. She smiled at how stupid mortals could be. Letting oneself too
close to things was how all of her past prey met their undoing. She had a long
list, and each person on it was crossed off it in their own blood. She couldn’t
wait to cross these six off of it as well.

Vaze
still had a hand on the dagger under his pillow even though he had drifted off
hours before. He started to fidget as the hairs on the back of his neck began
to stand up and his breathing started to become shallower. He was having a
nightmare about fighting Enzio, and he was losing. His heart began to beat
faster and sweat began to gather on his brow.

“Vaze?”
a small voice whispered in his ear and he immediately burst out of sleep
panting hard, holding a dagger to his intruder’s neck. He gasped in disbelief
as his eyes met the surprised grey ones of his intruder.

“Scarlet?”
he gasped, but didn’t lower the dagger, but only because he was so shocked he
forgot he was holding it to her throat. She smiled at him and he could feel
himself melt inside as he stared at her through wide eyes.

“This
sure does seem familiar,” Scarlet joked as she observed the dagger. Scarlet put
her hands up for him to see, as if he could ever think she was a threat.
“Except last time you looked a little bit more intimidating.” Vaze suddenly
realized he was still holding the dagger up to her neck, and he immediately
threw it back under his pillow.

“How
did you get here?” he asked as he sat up. The bare skin of his torso gleamed
with sweat as the white moonlight touched it from outside his window. It made
him a little bit colder since he wasn’t wearing a shirt but he didn’t notice.
“Velkire kidnapped you.”

“I
escaped,” she said as if it were no big deal at all. The familiar cockiness of
her attitude put Vaze’s longing heart at ease. He didn’t even think of asking
how.

“Being
there was torture Vaze, I couldn’t stand it.”
“Did he hurt you?” A sudden flare of anger built up in his chest and he tensed,
thinking of what he’d do to Velkire if he had even laid a finger on Scarlet.
Scarlet shook her head and looked up at him with her gorgeous grey eyes.
Something about her mood had changed, but Vaze could not see what it was. He
had never seen her like this.

“He
didn’t touch me,” she said. “No one did. But I couldn’t stand staying there,
being all alone. I couldn’t stand being away.” She placed a hand on his, and
his heart almost stopped.

“What?”
His words came out as a breathless whisper as Scarlet sat down next to him,
never letting go of his hand.

“You
heard me Vaze.” The way she said his name made him have butterflies in his
stomach. “I can’t stand being away from you. I realized it when I was locked
away all by myself. Vaze, I love you.” Her hand touched his cheek as she leaned
closer to him, her eyes drifting closed. As if on instinct, he tensed up.
Vaze’s heart felt as if it were going to burst out of his chest as their lips
touched lightly at first. Her lips were soft and gentle as they melded onto
his, and the touch made him melt inside.

He
expected her to pull away like the last time, but to his surprise, she kissed
him again, this time pulling him closer, sliding her hand into his hair. As if
it were a reflex, Vaze put both arms around her. Scarlet’s kisses made his head
feel light and giddy. His desires were becoming a reality, and it made him the
happiest he had been in a long time as he stroked her hair with one of his
hands lovingly.

Across
the hall in Yuki’s bedroom, a little chubby hand touched her face, and she
jolted awake snarling. A baby boy with raven black hair and brown almond shaped
eyes sat on her torso sucking his toes in his toothless mouth. When he saw her
he clapped his tiny hands and laughed. His nose crinkled as his mouth opened in
a happy giggling smile. Yuki’s anger and hatred melted away, along with her
half transformation. She stared at the little baby with her own large brown
almond eyes in disbelief. He held his chubby arms out to her with his fingers
grasping at the air. He bounced up and down on his bottom as he made the noises
babies usually make, until one sound came out as a word.

“Yucky,”
he drooled as he continued to bounce up and down. Tears filled in Yuki’s eyes.
Her baby brother had never been able to say her name right, but it was the
first word he learned to say. He hadn’t even learned how to say mama or papa,
no matter how hard their parents tried to get him to. She remembered the first
day he had ever spoken, when she walked through the door and saw her parents
trying desperately to get him to say something. Before, she had hated him
because once he was born, no one paid attention to her. She tried to walk past
her little brother without so much as making eye contact, but the minute she
walked through the door he held out his arms towards her and started bouncing
up and down. She only looked at him quietly, until he said her name. In that
moment, all of her disdain towards her little brother was washed away, and was
replaced with love, and the urge to protect. Even though she had hated him, he
wanted her more than his own parents.

“Elijah!”
Yuki picked up her baby brother with tears streaming down her face and held him
close. He started sucking on his hand as she cradled him in her arms. “Oh
Elijah, I’ve missed you so much.” Yuki’s voice started to choke up, and the
emotions she had been keeping locked up inside came out. She started crying
tears of joy, and little Elijah looked up at her and stroked her face with his
little soft hand. She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

In
her room, Siren felt something was happening, even in her unconscious state.
She forced her eyes to open and scowled at herself for falling asleep for so
long. She was in the same exact position she had been in when she had gotten
into the bed and was still clutching her long sword as well. Without moving,
she let her eyes scan the room through cracked eyes. Seeing nothing suspicious
she decided to stretch out her sore body. She stopped cold as she felt
something snake up her arm.

Looking
down, she saw vines wrapped around her entire body, and she jumped. The minute
she moved the vines tightened and held her in place. She opened her mouth to
scream, but more vines shot out from under her bed and covered her mouth like a
gag. She struggled against them, but they were too strong.

The
closet across from her burst open, and blank, glassy, grey eyes stared into
Siren’s. Siren’s scream was muffled by the vines as she stared horrified at the
dead body that was hanging from a noose in her closet. Blood soaked its body as
it swung gently from a ghastly slit across its throat. A look of horror and
fear that was frozen on its face was only partially covered by the dead girl’s
long dark brown blood matted hair.

Siren
jerked and thrashed violently against the vines, desperate to move, desperate
to get to the dead girl. Her efforts though, only caused the vines to hold
tighter and slowing Siren could start to feel it squeezing on her bones,
threatening to snap them like twigs. She didn’t care. All Siren could think
about was the body. She had to get to the girl.

She
had to get to Scarlet.

Making
her way past her door, Matilda could faintly hear Siren’s muffled screams. The
witch grinned. Her pets were all she had taught them to be and so much more.
She could tell by Siren’s screams of agony and horror that they had penetrated
her mind with ease, and were making her darkest fears a reality. Fear was easy
to conjure, but penetrating a Guardian’s mind was not. The fact at least one of
her pets had succeeded meant that the rest would accomplish their tasks. The
dagger Matilda held in her hand brushed her skirt lightly as she walked past
Siren’s room and stopped in front of Kyra’s door. With a devilish smile, she
slipped a hand on the doorknob and twisted slowly. It opened as easily and
quietly as if there was no door at all, and Matilda slinked in like a cat
stalking a mouse. She closed the door gently behind her and laid her eyes on
the sleeping woman.