Where Fires Dare to Burn

Chapter 19 - Trapping is a Dangerous Game

The blade shone viciously under the light of the cabin's single bulb. Luke felt a fresh surge of unbridled terror as the man advanced, twirling the weapon expertly. His whole body froze; he couldn't breathe, his eyes following nothing except that shining, murderous glint of steel. Could this really be how he was going to die? Cut to pieces by some sociopathic big game hunter in a backwoods cabin?

"Get away from me!" Luke screamed at last, his composure finally melting away into blind panic.

To his immense surprise, DeVergne actually stopped in his tracks, just a couple of feet away with the knife poised to strike. He straightened up, looking to his right. His brow furrowed. Luke could only watch, willing that horribly sharp blade to stay away from him. The woman at the door dropped a hand to the gun holstered at her hip. The other man pushed up from his position leaning against the wall, frowning.

"Simon?" he asked. "What is it?"

"I heard something." DeVergne stepped back from Luke, knife still clutched tight as his sharp eyes darted accusingly back and forth.

Luke tugged at his bonds while they were distracted, but the ropes remained as tight as ever. He cursed inwardly, wishing that some kind of luck could fall his way; wishing that he could get out of here and tell the whole wide world what was happening in the woods of Lasquette Bay. His thoughts flashed to Oaklynn, thoughts of her having her horn carved out by DeVergne's butcher's blade. Impotent rage sizzled inside him at that image but right now there was nothing he could do about it.

Then his ears pricked up at a strange sound from outside the cabin, faint but growing gradually louder. A muffed thunk thunk thunk seemed to bleed into the woods around them, rising like a bizarre drumbeat. For a moment Luke thought he felt a tremor in the ground. The noise swelled, no longer playing on the fringes of his senses.

An instant later, the wall to his left exploded inwards with a crash.

A blizzard of pulverised wood showered him, and Luke flinched, closing his eyes for a moment as the splinters rained down. When he looked back again his mouth dropped open in surprise when he saw Oaklynn standing there.

She was fully transformed, and she wasn't alone.

Luke stared in amazement at the trio of Karkadda. He recognised Kasper, the young man's sinewy physique accented by the reinforced lines of bone, his expression grim below the curving scythe of a horn that rose from his forehead. Beside him was the girl who always seemed to be not far from the volatile Karkadda, her long dark braids gleaming like strands of night under the transformation.

Oaklynn stood out in front, but instead of the ethereal blue-white of the others, now a baleful crimson light blazed from her body. Her eyes burned with wrath and her horn shone like a blade of fire. Shattered remnants of the cabin wall she'd just smashed through fell to the ground around her like autumn leaves as she stepped forward. Her head snapped briefly to Luke. Rage twisted her other-worldly visage, and she turned back to the poachers.

She didn't speak. She just charged.

The man closest to her never stood a chance. Luke watched with a mixture of shock and awe as she rocketed forward with inhuman speed, lowering her head like a bull and letting out a blood-curdling screech. The poacher got his pistol halfway from its holster before she struck him, ramming her horn straight through his sternum.

There was a sickening crunch of breaking bone and the man let out a gurgle of surprise as he was impaled. Her charge barely faltered, and three more powerful strides carried the dying poacher backwards until she slammed him into the opposite wall. Oaklynn wrenched herself loose with a powerful jerk of her neck muscles, spraying blood across the ceiling, and the man's corpse thumped limply to the ground.