Playing With Fire (7 page)

That
scared the crap out of me. He may have just been saying that so that I would
share what happened, like when Jake tricked me into coming clean about shoving
live squirrels into Darren’s pillow to get back at him. I searched his words
for a loophole, or some hint that he was lying.

“Can
demons in physical form go back to spiritual form?” I asked, trying to keep as
much information as I could from being figured out. Vaze laughed. Though I
should have been mad, his laugh was light and kind and it comforted me.

“I
can’t see why they would want to, they would be vulnerable to Guardians in
spiritual form, and for a Guardian, that is when they are strongest. It would
be pure suicide unless they are targeting someone without a Guardian, but that
is rare.” He spoke as if he were talking to a clueless child. That was half
true as I was completely clueless, but I wasn’t so much a child any more. I was
short but I didn’t look a thing like a child. If I wasn’t height challenged, I
could pose as old as Seth if I wanted, due to early curves. But rather than get
mad at Vaze for subconsciously offending me, I simply nodded. There was no way I
was going to go back to sleep after that dream, so I decided to prolong the
conversation.

“About
this Sight thing,” I started. “Do you know anyone who has it?” Vaze didn’t
answer at first.

“Just
one,” He said with a distant look. A sad smile formed on his face. I had a
slight urge to ask him who, but by his reminiscent expression I came to the conclusion
that it was another personal topic. I decided not to ask.

“Can
they see everyone’s Guardians or just their own?” I asked.

“Everyone’s,”
he replied. “The only ones they can’t see are departed Guardians. They can also
see demons in spiritual form unfortunately.”

A
distant howl ripped through the air, making me jump away from the sound, but into
Vaze. I accidently knocked him on his back and fell on him.

“Sorry,”
I said, embarrassed that I was a klutz.

“It’s
alright, you’re smart to be scared,” He said but stopped short of blushing. Or
maybe it was the reflection of the fire. “But unless you want to stay like
this, can you please get off of me?”

I
turned deep red and scrambled away. “I’ll take this post. You can go to sleep,”
I said quickly, trying to change the subject.

“I’m
fine, I just started my post about thirty minutes ago,” he said. “You don’t
really want to be alone out here—I can tell. After Jake’s post I had planned to
take the whole night, only because I knew your oldest brother was the bravest.
It’s no doubt the rest are brave, but I wouldn’t want to put them through it.
However I knew Jake could handle it. I couldn’t even imagine Al doing a post by
himself.”

I
laughed. Al would be as pale as a ghost after something like that, and would be
stuttering for a couple of days. But it was true. I didn’t want to be the only
one awake in this forest. In the forest of my own home, I knew everything that
happened. The worst predator I could run into was a small black bear, but those
bears were lazy and have seen me so much they probably think of me as a friend.
And even if they didn’t, it would take only a few minutes for me to make them a
bear barbeque buffet.

But
in the Forest of Death, I knew nothing. For all I knew this could be home to a few
dragons. I have always been afraid of dragons, only because they possess the
same power as I do. However, the difference was they had metal plated scales
that protect them from harm. I didn’t. To them I’d probably be just as sweet
and chewy as spicy pastry. The thought was sickening, so to put it plainly, I
stopped thinking.

I
rolled back onto my cloak, and tried to rest my eyes a bit. It was easier said
than done. Tuning out the forest proved a task for the strong-willed.

I
finally decided to stop fighting it. I wasn’t going back to sleep and
apparently neither was Vaze, so there was no point in trying. We decided to
keep watch on opposite sides of the fire, to be able to see in all directions.
I heard a couple more howls, but did my best to keep my cool. The warmth of the
fire made it feel a little like home during the summer, back when I would go
outside and nap in the warmth of the sun. I liked heat, but my skin was always
ice cold no matter the circumstance.

The
whole time I spent thinking about home, a different noise rose from the air.
The sound of music slowly made its way over to our camp, and I was oblivious to
it.

“Do
you hear that?” Vaze asked while looking around. I strained my ears. I heard
nothing.

“Hear
what?” I asked back.

“Music…”
He breathed softly. He stood up slowly with a blank stare, as if in a trance.

“What
are you doing?” I asked in confusion. My confusion grew as my brothers slowly
rose to their feet as well. They had all been fast asleep, and they still
looked like they were asleep. “Guys, what’s going on?”

None
of them answered me. Instead they bolted into the trees away from me. I
scrambled up from the ground, unsure as to what to do. A flash decision came to
me when another blood curdling howl shot through the air, much closer now than
before. I bolted as fast as I could to catch up to them.

I
was whipped by passing corpse branches as I ran through the blackness of the
forest. I could hardly see, but I could see enough to catch glimpses of Jake’s
fair hair or Al’s pale skin flashing in and out of sight. Unfortunately, they
were quite a distance away from me. I struggled to catch up, but to no avail.

Soon,
there was a break in the trees ahead of me. Silvery moon light flooded in
through the large opening and I saw Vaze and my brothers running towards an
amazing sight. The opening led to a break in the forest, and in the middle was
an enormous stone castle. The very foundation seemed to be made out of a greyish
black stone. An orange-reddish glow came from every window in the immense
structure. The sight took my breath away. It was amazing, yet at the same time,
it was terrifying.

I
was entering the clearing when I was grabbed around my waist by a strong arm. A
pure white hand shoved over my mouth and pulled me back into the trees. I tried
to scream, but all that came out was a terrified squeak as I watched Vaze and
my brothers entered the gates of the castle.

“Do
not try to go after them,” a deep voice warned. “If you want to save them, and
live to tell the tale, you can’t do it that way. That is pure suicide, running
into the immortal queen’s castle like that when you are not under her spell, no
matter how heroic or how powerful one is.”

I
struggled to free myself as my kidnapper dragged me back into the forest.
Whenever I got close to getting free he tightened his grip around both my waist
and my mouth.

“Stop
struggling!” The voice said frantically as he dragged me back into the Forest
of Death –“I’m trying to save you!”—emphasis on ‘
BACK INTO THE FOREST OF
DEATH’
.

I
wasn’t going to cooperate. I opened my mouth as wide as possible and clamped
down on my perpetrator’s hand. I seemed to be biting hands a lot lately. A
concealed yelp came from my attacker and he quieted down quickly, but he didn’t
put his hand over my mouth again.

“I’m
not the one who needs saving!” I protested. “I have to save Vaze and my
brothers!” My captor flipped me around and grasped my shoulders firmly, making
me stare directly in to his coal black eyes.

“I
know!” He said. “But if you’re going to save them, you’re going to have to let
me save you first!”

I
stared at him with my mouth gaping so wide an owl could have flown right in and
I wouldn’t have noticed. His skin was pure white with absolutely no color at
all. He looked like he could be around Seth’s age, but I knew he was older—by
a
lot
. His long hair was so dark I assumed that it was the color a blind man
sees. He was tall and lean, though much stronger than he looked. But what stood
out the most were his teeth, which were normal all except for four sharp fangs
where the canines should be.

“You’re
a….” I said with wide eyes and my voice fading out. Blood left my face. The
hair on the back of my neck stood straight up.

“Please
don’t scream,” he said pleadingly. “You don’t understand what is going on.”

I
listened to one thing, I didn’t scream. Instead I lunged at the vampire and
pinned him to the ground with my knees and with my dagger drawn at his throat.
He was so shocked, he didn’t react. I knew my only chance was to kill the
unholy beast before he killed me.

“Wait
no, wait!” he pleaded while putting up his hands in surrender. “You’re not
getting into that castle without me!”

I
stopped with my dagger lightly pressed against his neck and a thin trickle of
ruby red blood appeared on his snowy white skin. I didn’t pull back though, I
wasn’t a very trusting person in the first place and at the moment I was on the
edge.

“How
do I know I can trust you?” I asked skeptically. “I don’t even know you and
worse, you’re a vampire.”

“That’s
good, you’re not easily tricked, but I stopped you from going into the home of
the queen of vampires,” he said. “Right now I’m trying to be the good guy, but
you’re making it kind of hard.”

“Well
if you’re the good guy, why’d you let Vaze and my brothers go in there and not
me?” I asked angrily. If he had been there the whole time, then he could have
saved all of us. The fact that he didn’t pissed me off.

“I
tried to stop them,” he said soberly. “I tried to block the queen’s curse, but
it seemed to only work on you. Now the only hope they have of getting out of
there alive is us, so we should work together, and not kill each other.”

Though
I didn’t want to admit it, the leech was right. Without them I was short five
partners, and I wasn’t the best at thinking things through, as I hope you have
already realized. I got off the vampire, and allowed him to get up. I didn’t
offer help. I would agree to working with the bloodsucker, but I wasn’t going
to like it. From all the stories Seth told me, vampires were evil creatures
with no feeling and thought they were superior to humans; which in my eyes is
bull. No one is better than anyone else, no matter what. Every life has some
kind of value, even homeless scum like my brothers and I. Hell, even flies do,
though I don’t know how, but I’m pretty sure they do.

The
vampire got up from the ground and brushed off his silver garbs. He wiped the
blood from his neck and licked it off his fingers. I looked at him in disgust.

“Don’t
blame me,” he said looking at me with hurt eyes. “If I had things my way, I
would still be human.”

“It’s
still disgusting,” I said. The vampire rolled his eyes and offered me a hand.

“My
name is Gabriel,” he said while offering his hand to me. I returned his warm
gesture with an icy stare.

“Scarlet,”
I hissed in response. He drew back his hand quickly, as though I would bite
it—again.

“So
what do I have to do to get in there?” I asked impatiently. Gabriel smiled.

“I
have a secret way,” he replied mischievously. “No one in the castle knows about
it except for me, so we won’t be bothered by anyone, not even the rats.”

He
gestured for me to follow him as he walked away from the clearing with the
castle. I took one long last look back at it.

“I
promise, I’ll save you guys, or die trying,” I said aloud to make it a solid
promise, though they wouldn’t be able to hear me. I was going to leave this cursed
forest with every last one of my brothers, or die here with them.

I
followed the vampire through the dense corpse trees. A distant howl cut through
the air. I didn’t flinch, let alone acknowledge it. I kept a dead set pace with
a dedicated mind. I didn’t even care that I was following a vampire into a dark
place where no one could hear me scream.

Soon
enough, Gabriel stopped. He stomped around on the ground all around him until
instead of a small thud coming from each stomp, the sound of something hollow
being hit came to both our ears. Gabriel turned to me and smiled.

He
crouched to the ground and brushed dirt away. A small circular handle appeared
and he lifted it to reveal a trap door leading into a dirt tunnel. There were
hardly any supports in the tunnel, and it looked like it could collapse any
second, but I hopped into the black abyss almost the second Gabriel revealed
it. Gabriel hopped down after me, and closed the trap door behind him.

I
had prepared to light the way with my fire, but as soon as the trap door closed
I saw that there was no need. Strange blue stones illuminated the dark tunnel.
The light they gave off was hardly enough to see by, but it didn’t matter to
me. I started walking when a firm hand fell onto my shoulder.

“That’s
not a good idea,” Gabriel’s deep voice said from behind me. “Since this tunnel
is natural there are also natural trenches in here, so I should lead the way,
because I know these tunnels by heart.”

I
let him pass in front of me to lead the way without a fight. I didn’t really
care to be honest. If the vampire wanted to fall down a trench and die first,
it was cool with me. That would actually be a good thing. I’d know where not to
step after that.