Kindling Flames: Flying Sparks (The Ancient Fire Series Book 2) (36 page)

“Looks like you were right,” Rupert said to Elliot. “Lord Dakine and someone Sue doesn’t recognize are coming in.”

“Then it is almost time to get started,” Darien said and turned to the group. “Anyone not coming needs to start heading out now.” His voice carried over the crowd with ease. “You’ll not have the option when Lord Dakine calls the hounds to the hunt.” A bustle of activity started as the humans made sure their friends had everything they needed before leaving. Clara had made it very clear to everyone that no humans were allowed on the hunt.

Brian came up to Vicky and gave her a hug. “Good luck, darling,” he said before turning to Darien. “I’ve made sure everyone has a good, heavy cloak with them, just in case. Give us a call when you’re done, and we’ll come get you as fast as we can.”

“Thank you,” Darien said, shaking his hand. “Hopefully, this will not take too long.” Brian waved goodbye and left.

“What was that about?” Vicky asked, confused by their conversation.

“The vampires riding in the hunt could have some problems if we don’t find the ifrit tonight.” Darien explained as he watched the humans leave. “The Wild Hunt will protect them from the sunlight as long as they ride, but if this thing ends in the day, Clara has made sure everyone has a good cloak to hide under till Brian can come get us.”

Vicky thought about this for a second. “That makes sense.” She looked around at all the cloak-covered figures. The several that didn’t have cloaks must have been wolves.

“Good evening, Kian Dubhlainn,” Lord Dakine called as he approached the circle of light. “Cailín. Alpha. Master Clara. Master Elliot.” Dakine nodded to each person in turn. “Are all here?”

“Good evening, Lord Dakine.” Darien bowed to the elf lord. “All are here and ready.”

“Very well. Let us put out these torches and call the hounds,” Dakine said, and the torches were extinguished, dropping the field into total darkness.

Vicky felt a hand touch hers in the dark, and she took it and squeezed. Darien’s familiar hand and leather bracers squelched the fear that rose in her. They stood for a few minutes in silence, letting their eyes adjust to the natural light of the night. Vicky started to be able to make out the shape of people moving in the blackness around her. She looked back up at the amazing stars above her to marvel at the beauty of the Milky Way cutting across the sky.

“Beautiful,” Darien’s voice whispered from the dark shape next to her.

Vicky turned to look at him. She could just make out his eyes. It surprised her that she could tell they were green in the lack of light.

“Yes,” she agreed, not sure if she meant the stars or the green eyes sparkling next to her.

Darien drew in a long breath and opened his mouth to let it rush out in a heavy sigh. “I’ll take you out stargazing some other time.” He pulled her towards the line of trees behind them. “Right now, we have work to do.”

Vicky followed him, trusting that he could see better then she could.

“Zak,” Lord Dakine called, “call the hounds.”

Vicky felt the pressure from Zak’s tentacle release her leg as he wobbled forwards, towards the trees. She could just make out his shape, slightly darker than the ground around her. Her eyes were getting used to the dark, and she looked around at the people standing behind her. There were now easily three times the number there had been before the lights had gone out. Vicky stepped a little closer to Darien and held on to his arm tighter.

Looking down at her, he turned to see what had frightened her. He squeezed her hand reassuringly. “They’re here for the hunt,” Darien whispered as he pulled her in front of him and wrapped his arms around her. “You’re safe.”

Vicky leaned in against his cooler chest. She could feel his heartbeat speed up to match hers, and somehow that comforted her. Closing her eyes, she relaxed a little in Darien’s arms. Vicky was startled back to reality when an eerie warbling came from the dark mass just outside the woods. It went on for a long time as the tension level in the crowd around her rose. Vicky huddled in the circle of Darien’s arms as the sound stopped and silence filled the air. The normal sounds of bugs and wind that filled the night died off as everything waited for the forest to respond to Zak’s call. Darien patted Vicky’s side, startling her into taking a breath before she passed out. She hadn’t realized she had been holding the air, afraid to break the strange silence that had taken over the area.

“There are your hellhounds,” Darien whispered as he pointed to the edge of the forest, just in front of Zak.

Vicky’s eyes caught movement as something squirmed out from behind a tree.

Zak called to it coaxingly, and it wiggled out to be seen by the group. It returned a warbling call similar to the original call.

Vicky could feel the question in the sound. Zak answered back, and she felt the promise and eagerness in his voice. Even in the dark, she could tell the thing that had come from the woods was the same type of fay as Zak.

The smaller ball of tentacles wiggled happily and chirped some type of all clear.

Horror filled Vicky as the entire tree line came alive with wiggling tentacle balls.

Darien shushed her gently, trying to soothe the fear from her.

She tried to be calm as Zak led the first creature over to them. He barked, and Darien stepped back, releasing Vicky. She turned to protest being given to the mass pouring out of the forest, but Darien shushed her again gently.

“I’ll be right here,” he said as he patted her back. Darien took a hold of a lock of Vicky’s hair and held on to it as Zak pulled her a step closer to the mass.

The fay took hold of her left hand and pulled the gauze from the burn. He forced Vicky to bend over to show the burn to the new creature.

She shivered as the tentacle touched her timidly. It gurgled at Zak as it felt her palm.

Zak let out a growling gurgle towards Lord Dakine and Darien.

“The medallion!” Dakine said as he stepped forwards. “It’s keeping the hounds from the scent.”

Darien was just a step faster and found the cord wrapped around Vicky’s neck. He pulled loose the knot and slipped his hand up under her cloak to catch the silver away from her skin.

The new hound cooed slightly and writhed in happiness as it pulled away from Vicky to tumble past her into the people waiting.

Darien let out a sigh of relief and slipped the necklace into Vicky’s bag before stepping back to where he had been. Hellhounds were funny creatures. When given a scent, they would follow it to the ends of the earth until they caught their quarry or they tired of the chase. It was very rare for the hounds to tire of a chase in the real world. Extreme caution was always used when giving the hounds a scent.

Vicky watched as each of the writhing masses of tentacles came up to touch her hand with a feeler. Each one would gurgle excitedly before wobbling past and brushing her legs with their tentacles as if they were tasting her.

One of the hounds gurgled loudly after feeling her and wrapped a tentacle around her wrist tightly.

Zak barked at the fay and lunged after it, growling. The fay attached to Vicky pulled her over into the writhing mass of hounds as Zak grabbed onto the offending creature.

She shrieked in fear as the hellhounds swamped her.

Dakine grabbed onto Darien’s shoulder to hold him back as Zak grappled with the offending hound.

The two creatures rolled around on the ground for a moment, snapping and tearing at each other until one yelped loudly and backed away from the fight. Zak stood up, waving his tentacles angrily at the beaten hound before turning back to save Vicky from the other fay clinging to her. He ripped them away with a snarl and tossed a few back towards the woods.

The tentacle balls retreated, leaving Vicky curled on the ground with Zak standing over her protectively. He snarled and barked as the hounds backed up. Turning his attention to Vicky, he whimpered lightly to see if she was okay. She uncurled a little and nodded as Zak touched her softly with his feelers. Sitting up, Vicky let him into her lap, and he pulled her hand out for the hounds again.

It was all Darien could do to stand back and watch as the mass of tentacles flowed back over Vicky to start touching her hand again.

Zak sat in her lap and snarled at any of the fay that got overly touchy with her.

Darien had lost his hold on the strand of hair when she had fallen into the hounds, and he was dying to wade into the mass to take it up again. The thin strands had grounded Vicky to him so that one of the fay couldn’t just disappear with her. That had been the only reason he had left her hair down this evening. Darien closed his eyes and put his trust in Zak to protect her from the unpredictable fay.

Elliot touched Darien’s shoulder as the last of the hellhounds touched the burn on Vicky’s left hand.

The balls of tentacles had wiggled back into the group and found someone that ‘tasted’ right to join up with. The hounds left unpaired rolled around between the people, waiting for the hunt to start.

When Zak was sure all the hounds were done with Vicky, he wiggled out of her lap.

Darien stepped forwards to help her to her feet and checked to make sure she was okay. He pulled a few leaves from her hair before holding her to him, glad she was unharmed.

“Now what?” Vicky said as he released her.

Darien took her hand. “Now, we ride.”

Zak let out a warbling cry. The hellhounds picked up the call and started to change. Vicky gasped in horror as she watched one of the masses of tentacles thrash about as if it was in agony before splitting open. She nearly threw up as the creature literally turned itself inside out. Unable to pull her eyes away, she watched the quivering mass as it reshaped itself into a dog.

It had the same long, lean body of a greyhound, but it was much larger and black as night. The dog yelped in pain as it tried to stand up before the transformation was complete. Vicky stared in amazement as the creature shook itself and stood up on wobbly legs. It sniffed the ground for a moment before starting to move off into the night, each step firmer then the last.

Vicky nearly fell over when something nudged her in the back. She whipped around to find herself face to face with the largest horse she had ever seen. At its shoulder, the horse stood almost as tall as Darien was and was midnight black. Its black eyes shown with intelligence, and it whinnied at her before bending over to nuzzle her. Vicky stepped back, unsure of the large animal above her.

The horse snorted its displeasure at her retreat before grabbing up a lock of loose hair to nibble on.

“Stop it, Zak,” Darien scolded the large animal as he patted its shoulder. “You’re scaring her.”

Vicky stared in disbelief at the creature. “Zak?” she asked, looking at the animal.

The horse whinnied again as it stomped its foot and nodded its head.

She reached out to touch his nose as Zak nuzzled her. Vicky looked around at the rest of the group to see there was a horse for everyone. “We’re going on horses?” she asked.

Darien chuckled. “What did you expect for a hunt?” he teased. “Motorcycles?”

Vicky’s mouth worked, but she could think of no comeback.

He took ahold of Zak’s shoulder to mount up, but the fay danced sideways away from him. “Zak!” Darien growled.

Zak glared at him.

“We talked about this. We ride together, or she doesn’t go.”

Zak glared at him for a moment longer before snorting loudly and turning his head away from the vampire.

Darien growled lightly as he went to the horse’s side and swung up with practiced grace. He held his hand down to Vicky as soon as he was settled on Zak’s back. “Come on.”

She looked up at him, stunned. “I can’t ride a horse,” Vicky protested as she wrung her hands together.

“It’s Zak.” Darien leaned over so that it would be easier for her to get his hand. “He won’t let you fall, and neither will I.”

Vicky waffled for a moment before taking his hand.

He pulled her up in front of him. “I can’t believe you’re a farm girl and don’t know how to ride a horse.” Darien dug at her a little.

“Hey,” Vicky snapped back. “My daddy lived in a time when they had these things call tractors. There was never a need for something as unpredictable as a horse. And that stupid mule always dumped everyone off in the creek, so I never rode him.”

He chuckled at her. “Then this should be fun.” Darien squeezed Zak with his legs to get him moving.

Zak ignored him.

Darien clenched his jaw. “Would you please tell him to listen to me?”

Vicky smiled and patted Zak on the neck just below his mane. “Come on, Zak.” Her pleading was rewarded with a soft snort as he nodded his head. “Thank you.” Zak let out a short neigh before starting to move under them. Vicky grabbed on to his mane for dear life.

“Easy there,” Darien said, easing her fingers out from Zak’s hair. “It’s okay to hang on, but there’s no need to pull.” He placed her hand on Zak’s neck softly before wrapping his arms around her. Using his knees, he signaled Zak over to Lord Dakine.

Zak trotted over to the elf lord mounted on a slightly smaller horse.

“Are we leading, or do you want to?” Darien asked as Zak danced around with excitement.