“What’s that?” Ethan asked
“Dragon’s breath,” she said. “Burns through pretty much anything. Handy for starting fires.”
Ethan didn’t say anything at first. He simply watched her set the powder alight with a fuse. The gunpowder flared up, and then a split second later, the dragon’s breath ignited with all the fury of a fifty-ton flying, fire-breathing lizard.
“Hot damn,” Ethan said, whistling. “That is handy. Where do you get it?”
“You can make it with a basic skill set in Chemistry as it’s no harder to craft than gunpowder,” she explained. “There’s usually a few people you can pay to do it as well in a decent-sized town. It’s hardly a technological secret.”
“Gunpowder isn’t that hard to make, right?” Ethan asked. “Can you teach me both?”
Zoey grimaced. “I better not.”
“Why?”
“Not until you’re at least a novice in Chemistry,” she said. “And I can’t help you there.”
“Oh, right, penalties and critical failures,” Ethan said as his body hunched.
“Exactly,” she said. “You’ll probably end up grabbing the wrong reagents on your first go and nuking half the world when you mix them together.”
“I don’t think they have nukes here.”
“No, but there’s a first time for everything,” she said.
Ethan conceded the point, and when his stomach rumbled, he changed the subject. “Maii went hunting?” he asked, noting the jackal still wasn’t around.
“That’s what he said.”
“Wonder if he’ll get a rabbit,” Ethan said. “They make a good stew, I think.”
“Usually. But he might get something else. So, don’t pin your hopes on anything in particular.”
Ethan grunted, but when her words sank into his mind, his face soured. “God, I hope he doesn’t come back with a rat. Or worse, half a rat.”
Zoey laughed and shook her head. “You’ll survive.”
“Maybe not,” Ethan said. “In fact, I’m going to go tell him right now we don’t want rat.”
Ethan wandered off in the direction he’d last seen Maii go. He didn’t get very far before his stomach rumbled again, and he decided that his time might better be spent foraging for food on his own. With that in mind, he started a search of the area for something, anything, delicious that was definitely not a rodent.
His quest for food ended up not taking him far. Near the base of some sort of leafy tree (a pine, oak, or palm tree, Ethan knew) that stood fifty yards from camp, greenish mushrooms with white stalks and gills grew. Ethan, though, realized he didn’t have much (if any) skill in the game when it came to wilderness survival; it seemed as if that didn’t matter at least for today, thanks to the insane amount of luck he possessed. Hopefully, Zoey would know what they were, too, as he wasn’t keen on taking his chances ingesting an unknown fungus.
“A dozen ought to do it,” Ethan said, picking twelve of the largest caps before heading back.
When he returned, Zoey had already put some more wood on the fire and was currently using the flames to warm her hands. “We should reach Weynock tomorrow,” she said, stretching her arms. “Maybe by midafternoon.”
“That’s not bad,” Ethan replied. “Found some stuff for the stew. Do you want to eat now or later?”
“I’m not hungry,” Zoey said. “You two can eat whenever.”
“Not at all?”
“Nope.”
“How come?”
“I’m just not, okay?” Zoey snapped.
Ethan straightened, unsure what he’d said or done to elicit such a reaction. “I didn’t mean anything by it,” he finally said as he sat down on a large flat stone across from her.
Zoey took a deep breath and sighed heavily, her shoulders falling in the process. “Sorry,” she said. “Haven’t eaten in a while. It makes me cranky.”
“But—” Ethan cut himself off when Zoey looked up at him and shot him a glare. “Alright, I get it,” he said before rummaging in his pack for the mushrooms he picked. “But if you change your mind, you can have some of these, assuming they’re the edible kind.”
Terror gripped the woman’s face. Faster than Ethan thought possible, Zoey dashed toward him and knocked the mushroom caps out of his hand. “Holy crap, Ethan,” she said, frantically whipping out her wineskin and dousing his hands with the water. “What the hell are you doing with those?”
“Apparently, I’m staying far, far away from them,” he said, eyes fixated on the spot where they’d landed.
“Yeah, good idea,” she said, shaking her head. “Those were death caps.”
Ethan felt his stomach go in knots and his legs weaken. “I take it they’re a little poisonous?”
“Yeah, in the same way a bite from a black mamba carries a little bit of venom,” she said, laughing and shaking her head. “Cripes, Ethan, you can’t just go eating stuff around here—especially stuff that you don’t know what it is.”
“I wasn’t going to eat it without showing you first,” he said.
“Glad to hear, but don’t go picking stuff without my consent, either. What if you’d decided to lick your fingers?”
“I’m guessing I’d be dead.”
“Very,” Zoey said with a definitive nod. “Look, I told you, if you’re not at least a novice in something, you could royally screw it up, and if you’re unsuccessful when you’re untrained, you’ve got double the chance at a critical failure. Case in point, what you brought back on your foraging attempt. A single bite from even a small death cap would kill you in under a minute.”
“God, I wish I wasn’t so dumb and useless,” he said, plopping to the ground and crossing his legs in front of him.
“You’re not useless,” Zoey said. “Or dumb.”
“I did just try and kill us with mushrooms. Hell, I couldn’t even do that right.”
Zoey laughed, which instantly melted the worry from both their faces. “You won’t be like this forever, I promise. Enjoy the training wheels while you can. This world gets really scary, really fast once they come off.”
“Right, well, I guess in the meantime, I’ll have to wait for Maii to bring back dinner,” Ethan replied.
Zoey shook her head, likely out of pity, going by the look in her eyes. “I don’t think he’s hunting for anyone but himself.”
“Does that mean I get to starve?”
Zoey shook her head one more time before she went into her own pack, reached inside, and tossed him a large, hefty biscuit. “Here. Eat this,” she said. “You can buy me another one when we get to Weynock. They’re cheap.”
“What is it?” Ethan said, inspecting it.
“Hardtack.”
“Hard what?”
“Hardtack,” she repeated. “Pretty much flour and salt. Tastes like crap, but it’ll fill your belly and takes forever to go bad.”
Ethan hesitated, but when a stab of hunger ran through his gut, he decided something was better than nothing, and he gave it a bite. Bad, as far as describing its taste went, was an understatement. Aside from being jaw-breaking in terms of hardness, the biscuit tasted like pressed sawdust, and Ethan had to take two swigs of water to get the first mouthful down. A few bites later, Ethan gave up and handed it back to her.
“I’m good now, thanks,” he said. “If I go to sleep, I’ll be fine.”
“You do that,” she replied, cozying up to the fire. After a few moments, her eyes found his, and the ones she had stared a little too hard with a little too much annoyance for his likes. “You’re not sleeping.”
“Yeah, sorry,” he said before turning his pack into a makeshift pillow. “Where are you going to sleep?”
“Don’t know yet,” she said, surveying the campsite. “Now, seriously. Get some rest. I’ll take first watch.”
Ethan nodded, quietly scolding himself for thinking she might snuggle up next to him on her own. He thought about inviting her to join him, but given how hard she’d shot him dow
n when they first met, he figured another attempt at wooing her wouldn’t amount to much at best and would completely backfire at worst.
Thus, Ethan spent the next thirty minutes or so practicing his sleight of hand skills with the halfpenny he’d looted off the kobold. He only did so because his body told him that although he was tired, he wasn’t quite ready to close his eyes for the night. But by the time he finally decided to call it a night, he felt like he could keep the coin palmed with no one noticing, or even “magically” make it disappear with a simple wave of his hand.
Ready to pass out, Ethan pocketed the coin and looked for Zoey once last time. He saw her at the edge of the campfire’s light with her back turned. She had her hands on her hips for a moment before they reached up and started fixing her hair. As she did, she turned halfway, presenting him with a side view of her body. His eyes followed every curve she had, from the top of her head, across her button nose, down her slender neck, across the rise in her full chest before sliding across a flat midriff and down the gentle curves of her legs.
Ethan took in a long, deep breath and wished he was the kind of guy who knew how to go up to a woman as gorgeous as she was and have something clever to say. Or at least not utterly stupid. However, he did seem to have genuinely made her smile a couple of times. Maybe as they spent some time together, things would change. Who knew?
And if he was lucky, maybe she’d visit him in his dreams that night where anything could truly happen.
He smirked at himself at that last thought. Little lame. Little stupid, but whatever. It was what it was.
His eyes closed, and he fell asleep a moment later.
# # #
Someone straddled his waist.
That was Ethan’s first conscious thought when he opened his eyes. A dark female silhouette loomed above, leaning back and studying him as a panther might a recently caught rabbit, trying to decide whether or not it wanted to play first or get right down to eating.
Ethan’s face scrunched as he tried to make sense of it all and decide whether or not he was still dreaming. He had to be.
“Zoey?” he whispered. “Is that you?”
“Shhh,” she whispered back in a sultry tone. “It’s late, and you’re tired.”
Her voice echoed in his ears and sent him into a trance, one that he both struggled to break free of and longed to stay forever in its blissful state.
“What are you doing?” he asked. He tried to sit up, but she placed both hands on his chest and gently pushed him to the ground.
Zoey leaned close, her dark hair covering her face even more than the shadows were. “Do you want me to leave you alone?” she asked, her hands now rubbing across his body.
Ethan felt his groin stir. “No. No, that’s not it at all.”
“Good,” she said, leaning back. She rocked her hips a little before trailing an unusually sharp nail down the side of his face and across his neck. “Ethan, can I be honest for a moment?”
“Of course.”
“You look absolutely delicious.”
Ethan cocked his head, not sure what to make of it, or even if he should care. The clouds overhead parted at that point, and light from a full moon swept the campsite. Zoey stretched her arms up over her head before brushing her hair over her ears and out of her face.
And when the light struck her, Ethan’s heart skipped a beat.
His eyes hadn’t found Zoey’s hazel ones as he’d expected. What he found were eyes as black as the abyss looking back at him, eyes filled with excitement and hunger, eyes whose devilish nature came second only to the predatory grin Zoey flashed him a moment later.
Ethan’s mind reeled, and he shook his head, hoping to God that what he was seeing was a trick of the light. His fright, however, only lasted a few seconds. The more he stared at her, the more he was drawn into her hypnotic gaze. A tantalizing scent wafted from her skin, one that eased him back into a docile state where both mind and body relaxed.
Without warning, Zoey threw herself forward, eyes gleaming in the moonlight, fangs glistening. She used one hand to drive his head to the side, and with the other, she pinned his left arm to the ground. Her open mouth found his exposed neck where pain exploded a moment later.
Ethan gasped as he arched his back. Euphoria washed through him as he felt her go to work. His vision dimmed while goosebumps ran across his skin. He didn’t know what to make of it all, but he could still see the top of Zoey’s head and feel her attached to his neck. Somewhere in all of that, he realized his blood was flowing.
Did he care?
Not in the least.
After what had to be hours, Zoey rose to her full height while still keeping him straddled. Soulless eyes casually regarded him as she wiped the bottom of her lip with her finger. “Delicious,” she said. “Exactly as I thought.”
Ethan nodded stupidly. “Thanks?”
“You’re welcome,” she replied, patting the top of his head. “I still want a peach, though. Now go back to sleep. You’re going to need the rest. I promise.”
Chapter Twelve
Weynock
Ethan woke, barely, to rays of sunshine on his face and a throbbing skull. Fleeting images of the night before ran through his mind, images of Zoey on top of him, images that felt far more dreamlike than real, much to his utter confusion.
“Time to rise, Master Ethan,” Maii said, sounding amused when Ethan prodded his neck with his fingers.
Ethan sat up, instantly regretting the act as a sharp pain shot through his head, and then an even sharper one as he turned his head to look at the jackal. The animal sat on the other side of a pile of blackened coals with a freshly killed rabbit at his feet and a grin on his face.
Ethan narrowed his eyes as a thought—no, a certainty—as to where the source of his dreams was. “You better not have.”
“I better not have what? Killed a rabbit?”
“Messed with my head. I told you not to. Ever.”
Maii’s eyes lit up with delight as he flashed his lips pulled back. “I’m not ‘messing with you’ as you like to say.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care what you believe,” Maii said before taking a bite of his breakfast. Once he finished chewing and had swallowed, he licked his chops with an air of satisfaction about him. “Delicious. Care for some? I’m getting full.”
Ethan was barely paying him attention as he was desperately trying to make sense of the fragmented images still floating in his head. Zoey had…had what, last night? Grabbed him? Kissed him? Scratched him? No. None of that seemed to be it.
Then what was it? She’d had fangs, hadn’t she? Actual fangs, which meant she did what? Bite him? Was that why his neck hurt?
No. No way.
Ethan frowned and shook his head as he wrestled with an image that wouldn’t leave: Zoey, framed by the moonlight, looking down at him with gleaming canines and eyes darker than a demon’s heart.
“Oh, damn,” he muttered.
Ethan snapped his head up, and he scanned the area for her. She wasn’t anywhere to be found, but he did see her pack lying on the ground nearby.
“Something the matter?” Maii asked.
“That wasn’t a dream,” he said, as much to himself as the jackal. “Was it?”
“Maybe this is a conversation best had with her,” he offered. He then shrugged. “Or not, given its perilous nature. Sometimes ignorance not only provides bliss but a little bit of safety, too, albeit temporarily.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“I can’t.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?” Ethan said. He then held up his ring. “You have to obey me, you know.”
“Only to a degree,” Maii coolly replied. “I don’t have to speculate, and truth be told, I honestly have no idea what she’ll say. I don’t think I’ve met anyone quite like her before. However, I’d wager you have an inkling of what she might tell you.”
Goosebumps formed on Ethan’s arms and quickly spread acr
oss his body as more and more of his encounter with Zoey crystallized in his mind. “What is she?”
“A recent companion?” Maii replied. “An intriguing female of uncharacteristic beauty complemented by no small amount of wit and reflex?”
“You know what I mean. Is she human?”
“Is who human?” asked a voice from behind.
Ethan spun around to find Zoey stepping into camp with a small sack filled with something in hand. If recent events proved true, he hoped it wasn’t a severed head.
“Well?” she asked, drumming a set of fingers on her hip.
Ethan almost played it off. Almost. He’d never been one for confrontation in the real world, but since this was a chance to reinvent himself, he opted for the straightforward approach. “You.”
“Oh,” she said as if they were shooting the breeze. Even though a good half dozen paces separated them both, Ethan caught a glimpse of fire in her eyes. “What do you think?”
“That depends,” he replied. “What happened last night?”
Zoey’s brow dropped, and she shot him a lighthearted, pained look. “Ooooh, last night,” she said. “Given that you’re asking and Maii is now shying away from me, I’m going to venture to say that what happened last night is precisely what you think happened.”
Not ready for her bluntness, Ethan didn’t know what to do. The air caught in his chest until he forced it out. Part of him wanted to run for Weynock as fast as he could, but the other part, the part that refused to stay stuck in the mindset of the old Ethan, the Ethan who rarely stood his ground, rooted him in place and took over. “How could you do that?”
“It’s quite easy,” Zoey replied nonchalantly. She then made a half snarl. “Though, I’m annoyed my charms seem to be failing. You shouldn’t have remembered any of it.”
“I can’t believe you ate me,” Ethan said.
Zoey held up a finger. “Correction: I nibbled you,” she said. “And technically speaking, you wouldn’t be talking to me right now if I’d eaten you.”
“Well, not unless you only ate part of him,” Maii interjected. Zoey shot him a glare, and the jackal inched to the side. “What?” the jackal asked. “It’s true.”
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