Hounded [Wild Hunt Series: 2]

23: Smoke

Two of the demons raised their torches at the sound of Shail's monstrously loud approach. The cat made no attempt at stealth as I pressed myself flat against his rocky hide, trying in vain to minimize the hits of branch and thorn as he whipped through the undergrowth. The firelight seemed to brighten as we hurtled down the hill, illuminating in ruddy stains the blood drizzling down the landshark's pallid hide.

Dakota was too wise to shout, but I could practically hear her swearing as she undoubtedly raced back to the Walrus and other girls for help. There goes Tay, off doing something stupid. There goes Tay, not doing what she's told. There goes Tay, desperate for help yet running off on her own.

And for what? A bowl of shark fin soup for Shail?

This was the wrong choice, I knew. It was just an animal, something my own cat was prepared to chow down upon had he been given the chance. Hell, we could even save the shark from the troop and the animal might still end up filling Shail's belly. 

A twig ripped across my check and hair. I winced and dared another look toward the gathering seven demons and their captive.

The cat-faced demon yanked the leash, attempted to tug the landshark further up the creek while the other six demons prepared to ward off the incoming threat. The animal measured about ten feet long from snout to rump. Adding on the tail increased its length by a few feet, but I didn't have a good enough view of its madly thrashing appendage. Eyeless and brimming with snapping teeth, the animal did not make for much of a compassionate sight, but it was clearly in distress, in pain, suffering...

Tortured, trapped, unable to escape...This wasn't fair. Life wasn't fair, nor what came after, but facts didn't matter; rational decision making had flown out the window several minutes ago- I had to save this animal. A sudden rush of anger flashed blue through my finger nails. Snowflakes sparked off the crag cat's hide. I had failed enough. I had suffered enough. I needed to save it.

Apart from the cat-faced demon, the other six had positioned themselves together on the edge of the bank. We charged into their mass with a wild cat roar. A spear glanced off the crag cat's hide, the wooden shaft  clattering harmlessly against my arm. In the next instant the cat's clubbed tail knocked a pair of demons off their feet as he whipped around to catch a torch in his claws. 

And just like in the hunt, where I was neither stronger, faster, nor more agile than anyone else, one wrong move and a dark hand on my shoulder was enough to tear me from my mount. I hit the rocky bank with a grunt. A shadow fell over me, one with burning orange eyes and lathered fangs. We rolled, the demon's fingers digging into my throat, my own reaching desperately for its eyes. 

But unlike the hunt, this time there ice filled in my veins. 

A red frost blossomed where my nails had scored the demon's cheek. Within seconds it had frozen the monster's face in an anguished snarl, coursing down its shoulders and back, every dark hair now silvered.  

It was frozen solid before we hit the creek.

But the fingers had frozen tight around my neck, trying even in death to squeeze the life from my lungs. The warmer water loosened its grip, but I felt a sharp sting of skin peeling away in the shape of a handprint as I tore myself free, sitting up through a thickening layer of ice and curling white smoke. 

The creek around me was freezing over with frightening speed; the thin layer had already thickened a quarter inch. Every step in my mad scramble to the bank shattered and cracked. 

The demons, the five left alive, anyway (Shail had cracked one skull and had momentarily lost interest in the rest to paw at his kill) vanished into the gloom. 

A sharp cry and the sound of breaking ice had me turning back to the creek. The landshark, spear buried deep in its flank, yelped and panicked, stumbling deeper into the smoking, frozen section of water. Ice reformed around its leg, biting at the animal's thick legs. The creek was not deep and water from higher ground continued to lift the ice, but the elemental magic was wild and unpredictable. I didn't know how to turn it off, didn't have the faintest idea what would happen to anything that crossed over the magical hotspot where I'd fell in.

But I couldn't rescue the animal alone.

"Shail," I hissed, rubbing my neck. The cat ignored me. I took a few frosty steps toward him, realized I couldn't touch him, and paused. "Hey!" I yelled at the landshark instead, flinging a rock, clots of frozen mud, whatever I could find. "You've got to get out of the water! Get out of the water!"

Ice continued to spread along the creek; the shark-like animal charged madly through the ice until it stomped across the demon's frozen corpse, smashing it to pieces. By the time tendrils of smoke drifted up its legs, it was too late. Within seconds the creature was frozen solid, jaws wide, eyes rolled back, not out of hunger, but terror. 

For the second time I heard the unnerving crackle of muscle and flesh freezing over.

As the quiet returned to the night, and it became apparent to Shail that the life, and thus, the fun, had left his prey's body, the crag cat turned his attention to the curious sound. Kill abandoned, he padded through the reeds to the edge of the creek. 

"Don't!" I yelled, before the night was filled with the chants of my name by a familiar voice, one whose reliable comfort I missed. Lucas, I thought dimly as I took a knee in preparation then gently fell on my side. Why would he summon me? And would Dakota return quick enough to save Shail? I tried once to regain my footing, but my body felt so heavy and my mind so light, as though my soul had become a balloon untethered and free to float...

The moon high above seemed to swallow the stars, and then I was looking at not stars, but stubby candles set in an antique chandelier, whose flickering lights illuminated a bruised face and glittering, bloodshot eyes.