he have left her?
The Delta Pack was too young to understand that Samantha was not an animal, not prey.
Alon turned back. He had to reach her before they did.
* * *
Samantha scrambled after Alon as he evaporated before her. She stifled a scream as his body became clear as water and then turned to smoke. An instant later he billowed upward like a storm cloud, leaving her earthbound and craning her neck to watch him disappear into the new green leaves above her. His clothing fluttered down to earth as if blown from a laundry line high in the treetops.
So this was his second form. Of course he had outdistanced her yesterday. He could fly like a storm cloud, a fierce dark storm cloud.
He was Naginoka, Ghost Child, a real living, breathing Toe Tagger. She realized she knew nothing about him except what he had allowed her to see.
If he was born of Nagi, how could Alon be so attractive? And then she realized what had to be the truth. Alon had told her that he had three forms. She knew what they were—smoke, handsome and hideous.
She’d seen the first two. If she was right, his natural form was as much a part of him as her bear form was a part of her. Had he run to keep her from seeing him as he was born?
She should know better than to kiss her enemy, yet just the memory excited her. Was it his immense power, the danger that hung about him like a mantle, or the loneliness she could taste on his tongue? Samantha had never met anything that was stronger than she, except her dad, of course. And there were precious few creatures that could outrun a grizzly. Alon had done it without breaking a sweat.
She pressed a hand to her heart as it pounded painfully against her ribs. Fast, as if she had been running instead of standing in his arms.
Her initial spark of excitement had ignited like dry tinder, burning her up inside. She had kissed Alon, the son of her most bitter enemy.
Samantha’s neck ached from staring past the mighty pines and through the limbs to the blue skies beyond. Where had he gone?
She glanced to the ground at his clothing, a gray sweater that smelled of pine and damp black jeans, scattered about.
He couldn’t carry them with him. That meant that yesterday he had run her down and still had time to change into something else before intercepting her. She found that disconcerting and irritating. Did he have little stashes of garments tucked in the trees, hidden in caches like a squirrel hides seeds? She gathered his belongings, folded them and then hugged them to her chest. She inhaled his scent of autumn leaves and freshly turned soil. Alon smelled of the earth.
She tried to understand what was happening. She would have guessed something had frightened him, but she knew that was impossible. He could remove the soul from a living body and he could fly. What did he have to fear?
And then his words came back to her.
These woods are not like the ones you have known. It is not safe for you.
Samantha sat down hard, clutching his folded pile of clothing as if it were a pillow.
Her fingers tingled and it took a moment to realize that something was coming, something fast. She faced this new threat. It came from upwind as if it had no reason to shield its approach. She inhaled the strange sweet scent that reminded her of Alon, but was not exactly his.
They came at her in a pack, using the ground cover to circle her like wolves, giving her only flashes of vision. The silver of fur, the gleam of a deadly ridge of quills. Samantha roared. Still in human form, the sound was more a shout.
Pale flesh flashed through the undergrowth, so fast it was only a blur. One came at her from behind and she whirled, seeing the little ghostly gray Halfling, scrambling on all fours like a chimpanzee, teeth snapping, trying for her Achilles tendon. She swung a foot but the thing was too fast, reversing direction and scampering away as one landed on her back. Sharp teeth scored her shoulder before she could throw her new attacker aside.
She needed to change but knew she would be powerless for just a moment during her transformation. That instant might be all they needed to end her life. These Toe Taggers were pale as corpses and