Playing With Fire

by Adrienne Woods et al.

  I entered and all of them were here: Darius, Francine, his wife, Eric next to her. I used to feel sorry for him, but not anymore because I know he was the main reason behind Danny’s death. Luke was there too along with Katia and the little one who wasn’t so little anymore—she was in her teens. And lastly, my eyes fell on Sebastian.

  He didn’t smile at me.

  They all sort of bowed, accept Darius. He was my biggest concern as he was once the strongest behind the veil. He could take out the entire squad in hand-to-hand combat.

  “Marick,” Sebastian said, “why did you destroy our home?”

  “Because this is it, Sebastian. No going back. If your Danny is an imposter, this is the end of the line for you.”

  “I didn’t sign up for this,” Katia yelled.

  “Then you should’ve thought about that—”

  “Oh, shut up, Marick!” She yelled. “Shifters have been doing this to you. You should ask how the fuck they know what they know about her still being alive.”

  I froze as Katia said that.

  “She’s not,” I whispered.

  “I hope you are prepared for this wake-up call, because she is still a fucking pain in the butt as she always was. I’m not dying for this shit.” She walked toward the exit, but the guard stopped her.

  “Katia, please.” Luke stopped her. “Nobody is going to die tonight.”

  I huffed. She had a good head on her shoulders. She’d asked a question tonight I never thought of. Why was it only shifters pretending to be Danielle, trying to make me believe she was still alive?

  “I was fooled before, so I brought someone that can’t be fooled.”

  They all looked at me.

  “Minaut is outside.”

  “You brought Minaut?” Francine asked. “Are you insane.”

  “No, so I hope you are dead sure about this.”

  Sebastian held his hand up to his brother’s wife. He nodded. “It’s fine. I’ve never seen a wisp who wasn’t sure.”

  “She’s never seen a wisp in her entire life.”

  My jaw clenched immediately as she said that.

  “Damn it, Marick,” Sebastian noticed my expression. “She drank the Forgotten potion. She doesn’t remember shit. So, to her, she has never laid eyes on a wisp before. Stop doubting us. We didn’t do it.”

  “Then bring her out!” I yelled. I just wanted to get this over with.

  He sighed. “You’re seriously fucking this up,” Sebastian said in a loud whisper. “Danielle,” he said and looked at Darius.

  “Danielle, please, this is it.”

  “He’s going to kill me.” Her voice filled the warehouse and pulled on my heartstrings again.

  “He won’t because you are not an imposter.”

  “Fine.” She said and grunted. My hope was climbing. She was trying so hard to change my mind.

  She stepped out of Darius’s protection, wearing a pair of jeans.

  “I told you she needed to wear a dress,” I said sternly to Sebastian.

  He huffed with a smile. “It’s Danielle Marick, no one is going to tell her what to wear. Not even a fucking prince.” He turned around and reached out a hand toward the imposter who looked like my dead wife. I saw her burned body in my arms, smelled her burned flesh, saw the ring on the floor.

  It can’t be her.

  She moved closer, scared of me. I didn’t like that, not one bit.

  She walked toward Sebastian. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “You said it’s not going to be painful,” she whispered.

  “I said it’s going to be hard.”

  “I won’t hurt you,” I said, and her gaze snapped toward mine. She moved close enough for me to touched her, and a current flow through me. Was it only my imagination? I had to have Danielle in my arms again, even if she was an imposter. She gazed up at me. Her eyes were filled with fear, not confidence like she used to carry. She broke her gaze with me and looked toward Sebastian again.

  I gazed down at her, caressed her face, and gently tilted her head to the side, exposing neck. Nothing marked that this was a shifter. There is always a flaw in the change. I found her one beauty spot on her neck. She was trembling slightly at my touched. I pushed my hand in her hair, found the second buried in her hair line.

  My heart started to beat faster as I check the other side. I softly pulled away the blouse from her shoulder and found the third one. I pulled back her shirt.

  “You were supposed to come in a dress,” I said gently.

  She raised her eyes to meet mine. “Why? To reveal the mark on my butt cheek?”

  I froze.

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “It’s there. I’m not going to pull off my jeans to show you unless you want me to knee you in your royal balls,” she said.

  Sebastian smiled, and Luke tried to suppress his.

  “To be honest with you,” she said, “I don’t believe that I am the person they say I am. I told them this was a mistake. But maybe my past wasn’t as horrible as I think it was. I want to believe in the fairytale that Sebastian keeps telling me about, but what is the chance? You don’t even want to hear out someone that used to be your best friend, or so I heard. What’s the chance that you will believe the word of an imposter?”

  She spoke those words with so much meaning. I couldn’t stop staring at her.

  “I’m sorry if this is hard for you.” I nodded. “This happened a few times too many, and each time I had to see my wife dying all over again as they refused to change back into their true form,” I said and stepped back. “Minaut?”

  Sebastian pulled her back. Fear was evident on her face.

  “You did a great job, Sebastian.”

  “I didn’t do fuck all, Marick. Minaut will tell you.”

  “We’ll see.”

  My gaze fell to the ground.

  “What is a Minaut?”

  “You like cats. You’ll think she is awesome. But just in case, stand very still, and whatever you do, don’t freak out.”

  She nodded.

  Minaut entered and everyone gasped.

  I got the feeling that she really caught Minaut off guard too, but she recovered fast.

  Minaut wasn’t stupid, but she didn’t decide yet.

  Danielle stared at her.

  “She’s what our kind calls a wisp.”

  “She’s a huge fucking cat.”

  More sniggers from the others. To me, it wasn’t funny. It’s what she told me the first time she saw Minaut too.

  “She knows you really well, Danielle. This is the last test.”

  Minaut showed me, through our connection, that it will only take a few minutes, that she was going to look for the mark.

  I closed my eyes, drowning them all out.

  Sebastian gasped.

  “Marick, Minaut chose you?”

  “I told you. I’ll never be fooled again.”

  “What is she doing?” Danielle asked.

  “She’s communicating with Marick, looking for you Danielle. Let her. She will find you.”

  She made the sound, a vibration that came deep from in her throat—not a purr but like a calling. I hated that sound, but I saw colors. I don’t know what Danny’s colors were to Minaut. She will show me who this person truly is.

  She carried on a long time with it. What was she doing? She wasn’t sure. No, Minaut had to be sure. No, it wasn’t that. Minaut was testing her still. Evaluating her. She never took this long.

  Who is she Minaut? I asked in my head, but no answer came.

  Then everything stopped. It left me dizzy. I never felt this alone or shutout before.

  The imposter was on the ground. Minaut was on top of her and everyone raised their guns.

  “Woah, woah,” Luke and Darius held up their hands.

  Danielle’s laughter filled the warehouse. “You sure are beautiful, but you’re crushing me.”

  I looked back at Minaut. She wasn’t attacking her—she was licking her.

>   My connection with Minaut was gone.

  I frowned as I stared at the two on the ground. Minaut finally got off, and Sebastian helped Danielle up. She was still laughing when she reached out her hand to pet Minaut.

  The wisp pushed forward to nuzzle her outstretched hand.

  “So, did I pass the test?” she asked Sebastian.

  “Yeah, I should say so.” Sebastian smiled. He looked at me.

  I stared at Danielle, confused. It was really her.

  “Marick, we didn’t do what you think we did. They gave Danny the Forgotten potion.”

  I nodded, still confused. I came here to do one thing, to kill them, and I found Danielle.

  Chapter 9

  DANIELLE

  * * *

  I’ve never been so scared and yet so relieved in my entire life.

  The giant cat, or whatever she was, couldn’t stop touching me. She literally knocked me over. I saw it in her eyes. She was looking for something. She was so hostile and, in a second, it changed. It was so intense that it brought tears to my eyes, and then she jumped on me with her weight and pin me to the floor.

  I thought she was going to rip me to pieces, but a gruff tongue scraped over my cheek, licking me furiously.

  Her purr calmed me immediately, even when the guns flicked up and Luke yelled at everybody to wait so that they could see what he and Sebastian were seeing.

  Minaut finally let me go. I was scared to pet her. She was so big. But when I reach out my hand, she stepped into it.

  This was it. She found what she was looking for, and it was enough for her.

  I wish I could say the same for Marick.

  When Sebastian told him again that they didn’t do what they were accused off, I looked up at him and the way he was staring at me, confused and disorientated, not knowing what to believe, I felt sorry for him.

  How could I not remember this man that was standing a few feet away from me.

  Sebastian went closer and hugged him. Marick wanted to pull away but soft whisper came from Sebastian, and eventually, Marick submitted and grabbed Sebastian in a hug too.

  He didn’t cry, or maybe he did but no sound came.

  Everyone was staring. Even the cat as if she could understand everything.

  Their hug finally broke.

  “I need to call Eli,” Marick said and walked out.

  Minaut stayed, and everyone smiled and cheered, hugging each other as if their sentence were already lifted.

  “Shouldn’t you follow him?” I asked the cat as if she was supposed to answer me.

  The cat stared at me.

  I huffed.

  “Holy fuck,” Sebastian said looking at Minaut and then at me.

  He looked back at the exit where Marick disappeared through and back at me.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “I think Minaut left Marick and chose you.”

  “What?” Katia said. “She’s a human.”

  “Didn’t matter before.”

  “How did you know this?” Francine asked.

  “Marick told me almost everything.”

  I looked at Sebastian. “You were really that close.” I felt sorry for him. He lost the trust of his best friend.

  “We were that close, the three of us, Danielle. Still am, well, I never stopped.”

  “So, what now? I am Danielle?” I asked, confused again.

  “I always knew you were Danielle. You had the fairytale, not the nightmare.”

  Tears filled my eyes again thinking about Eva. She wasn’t a monster’s child. She was a prince’s child.

  “He will forgive you. Just find a way to tell him, please.”

  The cat looked up at me with soft gray eyes. There was no way she knew what we were talking about.

  Sebastian went on his haunches and put his head against hers. It was like a reunion among old friends. An apology.

  It was weird how I was seeing things with this cat. I could never tell what Noir wanted, but with her, it was so easy.

  I still fear the fact that I was a wife. I had no idea about how to be one, but I know through the stories that he loved me—a lot.

  And for the first time, a part of me felt it too. It was a strange feeling, like it finally sank in. I was loved, and not tortured and manhandled the way I thought.

  “What is taking so long?” Darius, with his arms crossed, said to Luke who stood next to Sebastian and me.

  “It’s a lot of formalities, son. It was either annihilation tonight or reinstatement. The annihilation would’ve been much quicker.”

  “They can still annihilate us,” he whispered, and Minaut growled.

  “Not with Minaut at Danny’s side.”

  “Shh, he didn’t mean it.” I patted her beautiful face. Still, I got the feeling she didn’t like what Darius was saying.

  There was a small commotion outside and then it was silent.

  “Marick?” Sebastian asked when the one guard went into a trance.

  Minaut growled again. It was deep and low.

  Marick walked in and jabbed the guard in his throat.

  He didn’t believe Minaut. He kicked the dying guard and threw him on the ground. The others all pointed their guns at us.

  “Minaut!” Marick yelled as the guards fired their first bullets, but it hit something solid and they backed off.

  Sebastian covered me, Francine, and Eric. Darius covered Katia, Luke, and Louise.

  They still wanted to kill us.

  “I told you this was a mistake.”

  “It’s not, Marick,” Sebastian said. I saw how Marick attacked them all behind the shimmering glance that surrounded us. Sebastian let go of me.

  “Minaut let me out.”

  Minaut was doing this? How could a cat wield—what? A shield?

  Marick got hit in the shoulder, but he didn’t go down.

  “No!” Sebastian yelled, and Marick opened his palms and screamed, but no sound escaped his lips. All the weapons shot up in the sky and hovered in midair.

  I was witnessing magic.

  When the guards shot up in the air, my gaze moved over to Marick again.

  He was doing this.

  When he lowered his hands, they came crashing down hard to the ground.

  Marick fell too.

  The shield vanished. Minaut and Sebastian ran over to Marick.

  I couldn’t breathe. Please don’t let him be dead.

  Luke and Darius went to check on the guards, to see if they were still alive and took their guns.

  “I told you they weren’t going to listen!” Darius yelled at Luke.

  “Open your fucking eyes. Marick just saved our lives. We need to get him to a hospital!” Sebastian yelled. “Hold on,” he begged Marick. “Katia, go find keys.”

  She left the building with Louise right behind her, and I merely stood there. This wasn’t happening.

  “Let’s go.” Francine reached me.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “This has Eli written all over it,” she said. “Darius was right. He wasn’t going to listen, no matter what Marick said.”

  His father was that sadistic that he would kill his own son. More and more, I found I didn’t like this family.

  Don’t. You know nothing about this family. I thought, but the weird part was that it didn’t feel like my own thoughts.

  What was happening to me?

  Louise came back. “Let’s go.”

  Sebastian and Luke carried Marick out of the warehouse.

  A limo was waiting outside with Katia behind the wheel. Louise opening the back door for Sebastian.

  I climbed in with Francine behind me.

  Last was Minaut, and she came to sit on the floor next to me, watching Marick like a hawk.

  Katia drove like a madman to what I hope was the nearest hospital while Francine tried to stop the bleeding pouring from Marick’s shoulder with Luke’s help. Sebastian spoke softly to Marick, begging him to hold on.

 
Minaut left my side and went to Marick. She climbed on top of him, and I gaped at her. Why do cats do that at the most inconvenient times?

  But then a soft glow came from her as she made herself comfortable on Marick’s body.

  “I forgot how magical wisps are,” Francine said, patting the cat between the ears.

  “Hold on, Marick,” Sebastian kept saying.

  We all stared at the cat laying on top of Marick, purring and glowing. I couldn’t stop watching.

  “C’mon, Marick,” Sebastian begged him.

  A grunt came from Marick. “I forgot danger always seems to follow you.”

  Sebastian chuckled. “I remember it the other way around. What happened?”

  “I don’t know. My father didn’t give a shit about what I said. I’m sorry, Bas. I should’ve listened.”

  “Shh, you listened tonight.”

  “Minaut, I’m fine. Please.” He tried to push her off, but she didn’t listen.

  He gave up as she was still glowing.

  “So, what did she show you?”

  “Nothing. I can’t feel her anymore.”

  “She really made the decision.”

  “She always had a thing for Danny.” Marick spoke my name using the sweetest tone.

  They both chuckled again, and Minaut climbed off Marick and came over to me.

  She was covered in blood when she stopped glowing—Marick’s blood.

  “So, what now?” Francine asked.

  Marick sat up straight and held his head in his face.

  “I have a safe place my dad doesn’t know about. It’s outside of Paris.” Marick got up and stretch out his shoulder. “We can stay there for a while until I found out what happened.”

  “Take Minaut with you,” Sebastian said.

  “No, she stays right here. She can protect all of you.”

  “He still wants to kill us?” Francine asked.

  “That doesn’t sound like my father.” He sighed. “I’m so sorry about everything.” He looked at Francine who sat next to me.

  He sounded sorry.

  “Katia, take the off ramp up on your right,” Marick said. He covered his face with his hands.

  “Thank you for doing the right thing tonight. For a minute, I thought you lost your mind,” Sebastian said.

  Marick chuckled. “I did.”

  I couldn’t help to think that I had something to do with that reply. I looked down at Minaut who was staring at me.