Things were beginning to fade, and the nothingness called to me, a siren song so tempting that I wanted to let go, to drift into that lovely place, the warm, sweet place where the pain stopped. I managed to look over at hershe was curled in on herself, unmoving. Probably whimpering, I thought dizzily.
Useless human, who probably belonged in hell anyway.
And then she lifted her head, staring at me, and I could read her thoughts easily. She was going to make a run for it, and I couldnt blame her. She wouldnt last five minutes out there in the darkness, but with luck Id be unconscious by the time they began ripping her flesh from her bones. I didnt want to hear the sounds of her screams as she died.
One more try, and then Id let go. I tried to rise, to pull the last ounce of strength from my poisoned body, struggling to warn her. Do not . . . I said. You need a fire . . . to scare them away.
She rose, first to her knees, then to her bare feet, and I sank back. There was nothing else I could do. She was frightened, and she would run
And how am I supposed to start a fire? she said, her voice caustic. I dont have any matches and Im not exactly the camping type.
I could just manage to choke out the words. Leaves, I gasped. Twigs. Branches.
To my glazed surprise, she began
gathering the fuel from nearby, and within a few minutes she had a neat little pile, with branches and logs on the side.
The last of the twilight was slowly fading, and I could hear them beyond the clearing, the odd, shuffling noise they made, the terrible reek of decaying flesh and old blood.
She was looking at me, expectant, impatient. Fire? she prompted.
My . . . arm, I barely choked out. The last ounce of energy faded, and blessed darkness rushed in. And my last thought was now it was up to her. I had done everything I could.
And the night closed down around us.
CHAPTER THREE
HED PASSED OUT. I STARED down at him, torn. I should leave him, I thought. I didnt owe him anything, and if I had any sense at all Id get the hell out of there and leave him to fend for himself.
But I could hear those noises out in the darkness, and they made my blood run cold. They sounded like some kind of wild animal, and in truth Id never been Outdoors Girl. My idea of roughing it was going without makeup. If those creatures out there liked to eat meat, then they had dinner stretched out on the ground, waiting for them. It even smelled as if he were already slightly charbroiled. I didnt owe him anything. So what if hed pulled me back from the jaws of hell . . . or whatever it was? He was the one whod pushed me there in the first place. Besides, hed only gotten slightly singed, and he was acting like it was third-degree burns over most of his body. He was a drama queen, and after my mother and my last boyfriend, Id had enough of those to last me a lifetime.
Hell, who was I kidding? Whether he deserved it or not, I wasnt going to leave him as food for wolves or whatever they were. I couldnt do that to a fellow human beingif that was what he was. Though I still didnt have the faintest idea how I was going to start the damned fire.
I edged closer, looking down at him. He was unconscious, and in the stillness the unearthly beauty of his face was almost as disturbing as the unmistakable evidence of fangs his grimace of pain had exposed. Was he a vampire? An angel? A fiend from hell or a creature of God?
Shit, I muttered, kneeling beside him to get a closer look at the burn on his arm. The skin was smooth, glowing slightly, but there were no blisters, no burned flesh. He was nothing more than a big baby. I reached out to shake him, then yanked my arm back with another Shit, as I realized that beneath the smooth skin fire burned.
That was impossible. It looked as if coals were glowing deep under the skin, and the eerie glow was putting out impressive amounts of heat.
There was a shuffling noise in the underbrush, and I froze. My comatose abductor/savior wasnt the highest priority. The danger in the darkness beyond was worse. Whatever was out there was evil, ancient, and soulless, something foul and indescribable. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach, a nameless dread like something out of a Stephen King novel.
This was just wrong. I wrote cozy mysteries, not horror novels. What was I doing in the equivalent of a Japanese horror movie? Not that thered been any blood as yet. But I could smell it on the night air, and it sickened me.
I glanced back at the small pile of twigs and grasses that Id assembled. My fingertips were scorched, and on impulse I scooped up some dried leaves and touched them against his arm.
They burst into flames, and I dropped them, startled; they fell onto the makeshift pyre, igniting it.
The fire was bright, flames shooting upward into the sky. But darkness had closed in around us, and the monsters were still waiting.
I put more leaves on top of the fire, adding twigs and branches, listening to the reassuring crackle as they caught. It was only common sense, using fire to scare away the carnivorous predators in the darkness. Even cavemen had done it. Of course, cavemen hadnt started fires from the scorched skin of a fanged creature, but I was handling things the best I could. Hell, maybe saber-toothed tigers had had fire beneath their pelts as well. Anything was possible.