Finally, we found our way into a large open space.
Here, the area was painted with flickering flames and the smell of smoke hung in the air, everything and everyone now dressed in shades of red and yellow and orange. A large bonfire snapped and crackled in the center, devouring beams of old lumber and wooden pallets. Other young people milled about with masks hanging loose, some already dipping into their cache of Pixy Stix and Good & Plenty, jaws chewing slowly, mouths creased in sugary grins.
That was when I caught a glimpse of myself in a cracked mirror. I gasped, retreating into the shadows. My own mask had unintentionally slipped during the course of the evening. Now many of my Darkling features were more pronounced: slender pointed ears sticking out of long dark hair, my eyes reflecting the firelight with a silver glow. I turned away from the others, adjusted my appearance and hastily glanced back in the mirror. Completely human again.
Jake was staring at me.
“I liked the way you looked. Before,” he said, his voice low.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It’s Halloween,” he said. “You can wear any disguise you want tonight.”
I shook my head, trembling. No. I couldn’t. It wasn’t safe.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
I looked into his eyes, wishing it were true. Wishing he were strong enough to protect me if anyone found out who I really was, if they turned on me.
Just then Hunter pushed his way to the center of the crowd. In one arm he carried a long stick with a human skull on top.
“Is that real?” I whispered to Jake, suddenly imagining my own head on a pike. That sort of brutality hadn’t happened since the Middle Ages. But it was part of my tormented Darkling heritage. It could happen again. Anything could happen if the humans realized Darklings weren’t myth.
“Of course, it’s not real.” Jake took my hand, pulled me close to him, then slid one arm around my waist. “It’s just part of the game. Hunter does this every year.”
“Game?” Suddenly I was intrigued. Like all Darklings, I loved games. Humans were so easy to trick, and if the game was played right I would win. That would be a tale worthy of boasting about around the fires of home.
If I ever went home again.
Chapter 73
Wet Wood and Smoke
Thane:
The press of so many humans crowded into one place was exhilarating. I drifted through the crowd, touching each of the warm bodies as I passed, feeding off their excitement and sugar high. My strength had grown throughout the evening. The broken arm had completely healed, and now I sauntered with a bravado I hadn’t felt in moons, each footstep claiming this little village as mine. I no longer masked my scent or pretended that I liked the fragrance of wet wood and smoke.
River clumped along beside me, trying so hard to maintain his disguise that all of his movements had become wooden and unnatural. He had followed behind me and the rest of the trick-or-treaters for almost a mile before he finally caught up with us. But there was no bitterness between us now. It no longer mattered whether the lad held his disguise. In this flickering firelight few would notice. Together, we were stalking Hunter, taking our time, knowing that soon enough we’d be sharing another feast.
Just then I stopped and ran a gaze through the crowd.
I could smell the presence of another Darkling, not far away, trying to hide, the sizzle of reality folding, casting a familiar odor into the brisk night air.
Then I found her standing in the moonlight, surrounded by a pale silver outline. Wearing human skin, hanging on the arm of one of the teenage boys—Elspeth. Even dressed as a human, she was quite lovely. I could see the Darkling features through her disguise, the delicate bone structure, slender chin, high forehead, all attesting to her Blackmoor clan lineage. And I could sense her hunger, though she tried to quench it. It made all the colors around her a smidgen brighter, especially those in the young man who strode with a quiet confidence at her side.
That was the one she wanted.
I snickered. Let her hunt. She deserved to take whatever she wanted, her father had all but abandoned her over the years. And soon all of this, including that teenage human she favored, would belong to me.
I grinned, a smile too deep and decadent for the six-year-old child that I pretended to be. Maybe, when this was all over, I’d invite her into my clan. She was a few years younger than I was, but she’d be useful. She could help train my half-breed children once they were born.
And she’d make a good mate.
I inhaled deeply, let her new scent swirl through my head—crushed rose petals and clover—imagined her training my children—our children—how to fly and hunt, how to cast enchantments. Maybe I would take a whole flock of wives, like they used to in the old days. A few humans mixed into the bunch.