Gone (Gone #1)(95)

"The Darkness," Lana whispered.

"This cabin will burn like a match " Sam said.

"No. I don*t want to burn" Lana cried." We have to get out, make some kind of a deal with Pack Leader."

"You said he'd kill us," Astrid said. She had her hands over Little Pete's ears.

"They want me alive, they want me to teach them human ways* that's what the Darkness said, he can't kill me, he needs me."

"Try," Sam said.

"Pack Leaded Lana shouted. "Pack Leader," "He doesn't hear you."

"He's a coyote, he can hear a mouse in its hole from fitly feet away" Lana snapped. Raising her voice to a scream then> "Pack Leader. Pack Leader. I'll do whatever vou want."

Sam was back at the spy hole/'He^ right outside," he whispered.

"Pack Leader, don't" Lana begged. "They're all backing away,* "Oh, God."

"Smoke" Edilio said, and pointed a flashlight beam ai ihe door's threshold.

Lana hefted a gold brick and began beating at the boards they had nailed over the door Ecifio grabbed her arms.

"You want to burn alive?" Lana demanded.

Edilio released her

"We're coming out," Una shouted as she banged at the boards. "We're coming out."

But the boards were no easier to remove than they had been to put up. A yellow tongue licked beneath the door.

Sam pulled back suddenly from the spy hole. "Fire"

"I don't want to burn " Lana wailed.

"It's the smoke that kills you," Sam whispered, looking at Astrid. "There's got to be a way out"

Astrid said,"You know the way out"

From the back wall now, smoke snuck in through cracks and seams.

Lana hammered at the boards. Smoke was gathering under the rafters. The cabin was burning quickly. Already the heat was becoming intolerable.

"Help me" Lana cried. "We have to get out"

Edilio sprang into action, helping to pull boards away.

Sam leaned over Little Pete's head and kissed Astrid on the mouth. "Don't let me turn into Caine" he said.

"HI keep an eye on you " she said.

"Okay. Everyone get back from the door," Sam said, but too quietly for it to register above the panic sounds.

He grabbed Lana's hand as she swung with a gold brick.

"What are you doing?" she cried.

"You saved my life with your power," Sam said. "My turn."

Lana and Edilio and Quinn shrank back from the doorway.

Sam closed his eyes. It was easy to find the anger. He was angry at so many things.

But for some reason, when he tried to focus on the outrage of this attack, his mind's eye did rot call up pictures of the coyote leader, or even of Caine. The picture in his mind was of his own mother.

Stupid. Wrong. Unfair of him, even cruel.

But still, When he reached for his anger, it was his mother he saw.

"It wasn't my fault," he whispered to that image. He raised his hands. Fingers splayed wide, ttut at that moment the half-burned door burst open. Flames and smoke were everywhere, a torrent of choking smoke.

And through the inferno leaped a coyote as big as a Great Dane.

That, Sam thought, made it easier.

A flash of green-white light erupted from his upraised hands and the coyote dropped to the floor. An eight-inch hole was burned clear through his body.

A second flash, like a thousand flashbulbs, and the front of the cabin blew apart.

The sudden vacuum swallowed some of the flame, not all, just a pause in the inferno and Szm was moving, dragging Astrid by the arm, Astrid dragging Little Pete in turn. The others shook off their shock and followed.

They advanced through ihe hole in the cabin and the coyotes surged forward, a mass of dangerous teeth beneath cold, focused eyes.

Sam let go of Astrid, raised his hands and the light exploded again. A dozen coyotes caught fire and fell or writhed or ran screeching into th* night like mad sparklers in the retreating gloom.

"Pack Leader" Lana warned in a voice reduced to a croak by the smoke that swirled around them. She was leaning on Edilio's arm, the two of them safely out of the cabin but tar from safe on the lawn.

The cabin tell with a crash behind them and burned like a bonfire. The orange light revealed a hundred staring, uncomprehending canine faces. Their eyes and teeth shone.

Pack Leader stood out from his pack, facing Sam, bristling, fearless.

Pack Leader barked a command and the entire pack moved as one, a wave of snarling tury.

Sam held his hands high and beams of purest green-white light fired. The first wave of ccyotes caught fire instantly. They turned in terror and raced Dack through their brothers and sisters, setting oft complete panic.

The pack turned tail and ran into the night. And Pack Leader was no longer fearless* nc longer leading, but following, racing to keep up with his beaten army. Some burned as they ran and set alight dry shrubbery.

Sam lowered his hands to his sides.

Astrid was beside him.

"Dude" Quinn said in an awestruck voice.

"I don't think they'll come back" Sam said.

"Where to now, man?" Edilio as<ed him.

Sam stood gazing out at empty desert, so dark still that it swallowed all the light of the burning cabin. He wanted to cry, He hadn't known he had that much anger inside. It made him sick. His mother had done herbest, she wasn't to blame. He wanted to throw up.