“You guys will be the prey,” Gideon instructed, “and we’ll be the predators. You know the rules. Shifting is allowed, but minimal bloodshed. You have two minutes to hide. The clock starts now.”
Minimal bloodshed? What the hell kind of game was this?
Mikaela grabbed my arm and hauled me away from the front of the log cabin and into the woods, away from the others in our team that were considered the prey. We ran deep into the woods, dodging branches and hopping over logs. Just as I was running out of breath and my breathing came in ragged gasps, we stopped and Mikaela pushed me flat against a tree.
“Take off your jacket,” she whispered, helping me out of my coat before I could respond. Tossing it over a high branch overhead, she switched directions and we started running in the opposite direction.
“What are you doing? Where are we going?” I said breathlessly, trying valiantly to keep up. I was really out of shape. Jesus. I need to stop eating so many pancakes.
“We need to lead them away from us. They can scent us.”
“Scent us? Like, by smell? What are they, dogs?” I grimaced as I almost tripped over a branch.
“Some are wolves, others are panthers, or tigers, or foxes. They can catch our scent easily,” Mikaela said. “We have to trick them by making them believe we’re somewhere else.”
All those animals are chasing us, probably in their animal form. Holy shit balls. What did I get myself into?
“What did they mean by ‘minimal bloodshed’? Don’t you just get tagged and that’s it?” I asked naively.
Mikaela peered over at me as she continued to run. “You have to fight if you get caught. They don’t take prisoners.”
My eyes widened. “That’s kind of extreme, isn’t it? I mean, it’s just a game!”
She shook her head, changing our direction once again. “Not to us. If you get caught and can’t fight your way out, it means you’re weak.”
I rolled my eyes. “So, this is like training. Great,” I said dryly.
“Don’t worry, Octavia. I can fight our way out as long as they don’t gang up on us.”
We continued moving throughout the woods, changing directions and dropping small pieces of clothing to divert our scent. Forty-five minutes into the game, we heard the first scream. Mikaela’s grip tightened on me and she picked up her pace.
This felt like we were in a horror movie being chased by Michael Myers. In moments like these I missed Tristan the most, although I would never admit that to him. I must be really frightened if I was that delirious.
Mikaela pulled me down a ridge and we slid down a mountain of leaves and brush in a shower of dirt and twigs, then she dragged me inside an alcove … or more like a cave beneath a tree. She pulled me against her and clamped a hand over my mouth, shutting me up and practically cutting off my air supply.
I was about to protest and start wailing on her, but then I heard footsteps above us.
“Their scent is strong here,” said a voice I didn’t recognize. He sniffed the air a couple of times and added, “Go tell Kai we found them.”
Mikaela tensed behind me and I locked up with her. She must have known we were being hunted. It was why she was going above and beyond to scatter our movements and scent. But now, we were stuck. If we made the slightest sound, we would be discovered, if we hadn’t been already.
The sound of multiple feet pounded away and we stood there in silence, waiting for the scene to unfold. My heartbeat accelerated with each passing second. I was afraid I would burst into flames just due to fear alone. Within minutes, the collection of feet returned, humans and a mix of animals stopping right above us.
“All right, Corey, where are they?” Gideon asked. “I don’t see them hog-tied or anything.”
“Their scent is the strongest here. They must be hiding,” said the one I assumed was Corey.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Kai sang. “I don’t want to hurt you … much.”
They all laughed and my body was paralyzed with fear. This was all a sick game to them. A bloody one, and I was helpless. Absolutely helpless. All this time, Tristan had been teaching me about bringing out and controlling the phoenix, but no one ever taught me how to defend myself. I kept getting put in these dangerous situations where I had to depend on others to save me. Fuck that. I’d never been the damsel-in-distress type, and I wasn’t going to start now.
I peeled Mikaela’s hand from my mouth, her hand protesting, but I yanked it off me. Peering over my shoulder to look at her, I tried to convey that I was done hiding. As quietly as possible, I took a large step forward, away from Mikaela. The fates must have been on my side, because my footsteps were silent in the leaves and the hunters didn’t notice me.
I closed my eyes and tapped into the phoenix nestled inside me. I felt her answering warmth spread through my veins and the flames covered me from head to toe, licking my skin with each building flare. With a ripple from my back, I released the phoenix and we walked out of the alcove beneath the tree.
Standing exposed in the middle of the clearing, I whistled for the hunters. It was Gideon, Kai, their previously unseen lackey Corey, and a huge, shaggy wolf.
“Hey, boys!” I yelled as I asked the phoenix to fly above me. “Looking for me?”
Kai had the biggest grin on his face as he turned to face me. His silver hair was wild, as if he’d run his hands through it too many times. “As a matter of fact, we were. You certainly don’t disappoint, Octavia.”
“You said minimal bloodshed …” I looked at my hand and sparked a flame. “But you didn’t say anything about fire.”
Gideon laughed. “We’ll have to remember that next time.”
“So … who’s coming to get me first?” I raised a questioning brow and looked at each of them in the eye.
The wolf started growling and snapping its canines.
I smiled at it. “Come on, doggie,” I goaded. “Come get a treat.”
The bristling wolf leapt off the ridge toward me and the phoenix looped around and shot an arc of fire at him, catching him mid-flight. He whined as he fell from the sky and dropped to the ground with a thud, his coat singed. The animal whined and rolled around on the soil to put out the flames and Corey slid down the ridge to help him.
“Now, Octavia,” Kai chuckled. “Play nice.”
I shrugged. “Why should I? You weren’t planning on playing nice with me. What was it you said? Oh, right, you weren’t going to hurt me … much.”
Gideon and Kai shared a meaningful look and lunged off the ridge in unison. I sent the phoenix after them, but they were too fast, easily gliding out of the way of the fiery blast.
Approaching me from each side, I thought my proverbial goose was cooked until Mikaela came bounding out of hiding and jumped on Kai’s back. He grappled with her as she wrapped an arm around his neck, giving me the opportunity to focus on Gideon, who was circling me with a dangerous glint in his eye.
The flames covering my body started to rescind and I suddenly found myself grasping for the flames. Although they were dissipating, the phoenix continued her protective hover, but didn’t return inside me.
How strange.
“Now we’re on equal footing,” Gideon smirked as he charged toward me.
I think I squealed, then barely dodged out of the way of his tackle and grabbed a fistful of dirt, throwing it in his face.
“Ah!” He stumbled back, shaking his head and dusting the dirt from his eyes. “That’s a little girl’s trick.”
I summoned the phoenix and she flew toward me, landing on my shoulder. I felt the sharpness of her claws on my skin. I touched her and when I pulled my hand away, a line of fire followed like a whip.
“Holy shit,” I mumbled as I realized I could take fire from the phoenix. Well, technically from me, since she was part of me. I snapped the whip at Gideon’s feet and he backed away. “Yeah, I can manipulate fire, bitch!” I shouted confidently as I whirled the whip around like a lasso. Looking back, I w
as probably a little too confident, because I didn’t see the fist that jabbed me in the back of the head and knocked me out.
I felt something grainy in my mouth. As my senses began to return, I realized I was laying on my belly, face down on the ground, with a mouth full of dirt. Gross. When I lifted my head and scanned my surroundings, I saw I was back at the log cabin in the front yard. Kai and Gideon sat on the porch steps and watched me wake up.
I managed to get to my knees but winced at the pain throbbing in the back of my head. I reached clumsy fingers to probe my head and found a knot the size of a tennis ball. It was sore to the touch.
“What did you do to me?” I groaned.
“Brought you back to reality, firecracker.” Kai grinned. “Your phoenix has been perched on the porch waiting for you to wake up.” He pointed to the side, and there she was in all her orange and red flamed glory. She hadn’t gone away.
“I don’t understand. Where’s Mikaela?”
“Licking her wounds elsewhere,” Gideon said as he cleaned his nails with a knife. “We need to talk.”
Forcing out an inkling of bravado, I scoffed, but boy, did that hurt. “I have nothing to say to you.”
“Well, we have tons.” Kai stood from the steps and placed his hands on his hips. “What have those vamps been doing to you? You can’t fight to save your life.”
I frowned. “Excuse me?”
“We have our work cut out for us, Kai,” Gideon sighed. “She’s a blank slate. A mere pup.”
“Hello?” I waved a hand at them, my irritation rising.
“Yeah, but I don’t know how much we can do in three days,” Kai mused.
“I’m right here, you know!” I yelled. “You could at least have the common decency to include me in the conversation, please!”
Gideon faced me. “We’re trying to get you in fighting shape, Octavia.”
“Because you’re sorely lacking,” Kai continued.
I placed my hands on my knees and breathed deeply as I attempted to process their words and all that had happened during the ‘game’. And trust me, the pounding of my head made it hurt to think, but I forced my way through the pain. Kai and Gideon weren’t trying to hurt me … at least I didn’t think so. They were feeling me out. I touched the back of my head again and winced. They could have done it without the violence. I glared at them.
They wanted to teach me how to fight, which was what I was mentally grousing about when I was freaking out beneath the tree. But why? What was in it for them? Did Killian ask them to do this?
“You could have just offered to teach me. You didn’t have to scare me half to death.”
They snickered at one another. “What’s the fun in that?” Kai said. “Anyway, we needed to see what we were working with.”
“Obviously not much,” Gideon muttered.
I glowered at him. “I’ve never been in a fight in my life.”
“We can tell,” Kai smirked. “But first things first: you need to learn to fight without using the phoenix.”
“When your fire disappeared, I could see the panic written all over your face,” Gideon said as he pointed his knife at me. “You can’t depend on it.”
“All right, get up.” Kai hopped off the steps and motioned me toward an open space in front of the cabin. I stood awkwardly and followed him. “We’ll teach you some defense moves first, then we’ll move on to offense. Ideally, you need to put some muscle on those bones and build some upper body strength, but we only have three days so we’ll have to work with what we got.” He held up his hands with the palms out, facing me. “Punch me.”
“What?” I exclaimed, looking between him and Gideon. “I thought we were working on defense?”
“We are, but first I need to measure your strength and see your form,” he explained. “Now punch me.”
Hesitating at first, I did as Kai asked and lightly punched his palm.
“You call that a punch?” he gaped at me and Gideon chuckled behind me. “Give me some feeling, firecracker. Hit me like you really want to hurt me.”
“Who said I didn’t?” I muttered. Blowing out a breath, I pulled my fist back and swung it hard into his palm, the force radiating through my fist and arm. I gritted my teeth to stop from squealing in pain.
“There we go,” Kai grinned. “That’s more like it.”
For the next few hours, I volleyed back and forth between Gideon and Kai as they taught me how to block and dodge hits, as well as maneuver out of holds. It was like a self-defense class for dummies. They were patient, which was surprising, and delicate, which was alarming. I expected them to be rough and manhandle me, but it was the complete opposite. They obviously took my self-defense education very seriously.
We even practiced a while with the phoenix, and I was impressed with how well she and I worked together. When it was time to put her away, it took me a minute to figure out how to get her back inside.
We didn’t have time to get to the offense part of the lesson before the sun started slinking toward the horizon, signaling it was time for dinner. I had just enough time to shower off the sweat and grime and change.
I plodded upstairs on leaden feet and found the clothes I arrived in lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. I bent to pick them up and something heavy fell out of my pants pocket. I picked up a silver pocketknife and flicked it open; the bright metal gleamed under the side table lamp. This must have been what Echo put in my pocket.
I thought about what she did before I left, how she tapped my heart. Did she mean to tell me to stab through the heart? Was this a weapon to hurt, or worse, kill a shifter? Something told me it would be bad if I got caught with this.
I stuffed the knife under my pillow, folded the rest of the clothes, and put them away in an empty drawer. Undressing quickly, I headed to the bathroom to shower.
Once I was dressed in a pair of fresh jeans and a sweater, I headed down the hall to find Killian waiting for me in the living room. When he saw me, he stood.
“I heard you had an eventful day,” he began, taking me in from head to toe.
“And I have the bruises to prove it,” I winced. My entire body was sore. Even the hot shower I took didn’t ease the aches.
Killian laughed softly. “I hope the guys went easy on you.”
I nodded. “So, I’m guessing that was your idea?”
He shrugged. “The game of Man Hunt, no, but I did want them to help you learn how to defend yourself. I don’t want what happened at NightCrawlers to happen to you again. Especially if someone out there wants to get ahold of you.”
He must have come to this conclusion last night after our talk. The gesture was sweet, I guess, if a bit extreme, but noble, nonetheless.
“Thank you,” I said sincerely. “It was … nice of you, I guess.” I looked away, feeling indescribably awkward. He was practically looming over me. I felt so small compared to him, and I wasn’t small by any means.
“No problem.” He cleared his throat. “We’re having a barbecue down at another cabin, followed by a bonfire where we’ll gather around and tell stories. I would like for you to come.”
“Sure.”
Killian smiled and walked over to the coat rack to grab our jackets, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that someone had returned the jacket we lobbed over a tree branch to throw off our trackers. Shrugging into the warm layer, we opened the door and headed down the stairs that looped around the outside.
I followed the Alpha past a couple of cabins with cheery lights and torches guiding the way and noticed a mass of people grouped together at one house. A bonfire had already been lit and people were walking around with paper plates heaped with food and red plastic cups filled with drinks.
Thunderous music blared from inside the cabin and people were talking and laughing, having fun. Killian took my hand and led me around the side of the cabin where they were serving the food. We both got a plate and I decided to test its limits by filling mine with a hamburger, two hotdogs, some ri
bs, chicken, mac and cheese, potato salad—
“Whoa, are you going to eat all that?” Killian raised a brow at my overflowing plate.
I looked down, realizing I may have overestimated the strength and carrying capacity of the plate. “Uh … yeah. Don’t judge.” After slathering on a vast array of condiments and grabbing some utensils, I followed Killian to an empty log situated close to the fire.
As soon as we sat down, I didn’t wait for him to start before I began shoveling in my food. I was famished and ate like I hadn’t eaten in days. I knew I had an audience, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t one of those chicks who cared about people seeing her eat. After spending time on the streets being hungry, you learned not to care.
After scraping every inch of my plate, I looked over at Killian.
“You’re a beast, Octavia—and I say that as a compliment.” He laughed as he took my plate and handed me a couple of napkins.
I wiped my hands and face and accepted a red cup from Killian. After I sniffed it, I confirmed it was beer and took a nice long gulp. I hadn’t had a sip of alcohol since the night I died. There was no reason for my sobriety, I just hadn’t thought of it. Maybe deep down I thought if I hadn’t been drinking that night, I might have been more alert.
Someone cleared their throat beside me and I peered up into the face of the man who tried to disembowel me. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t intentional, but I was holding my guts in after he scratched my abdomen the night of the fight at NightCrawlers. He was twiddling his fingers and staring down at his shoes, obviously uncomfortable.
“Matthew,” Killian said. “This is Octavia. Although I believe you two have already met.”
I frowned and remained silent, not sure what to say or what I was supposed to feel. Was I still angry? I mean, if he hadn’t done what he did, I wouldn’t even know I was a phoenix. My killer probably would have gotten ahold of me again, and who knew where I’d be right now? A prisoner somewhere, locked in someone’s basement to do their bidding until the moment I expired. Maybe his attack was a blessing in disguise. Or maybe I was just crazy for forgiving this nut job.
Phoenix Burn (From the Ashes Trilogy Book 1) Page 16
