Page 19 of Consumed By Fire

“I’m not your enemy, Octane. I don’t mean you any harm, or your people, for that matter. I just want to go home. That’s all! Why can’t you get that through your thick skull?”

“I get it, but there are those among your kind who don’t have the same outlook as you, Trinity. Do you have any idea how dangerous your little stunt was?”

Her eyes go a little hazy with confusion. “Um…I wouldn’t hurt anyone. I would never—”

“For you!” I rasp. “Dangerous for you, I mean. You could’ve been hurt…or worse.” Again, I want to shake some damned sense into her, but I refrain.

“I…um…I…no…I had to get away!” she finally stammers. I don’t think she thought this through.

“What if one of the patrols had spotted you? I wouldn’t have been able to save you. The penalty for trespassing is death. You would have been slaughtered.” I look around us. “You could still be. We’re far away from camp.” My jaw tightens. My whole damned body tightens. This could still end in disaster. Trinity could be killed, and despite the fact that I didn’t make her trespass, I would feel responsible. Then there’s the little added bonus of how much shit I’d be in if I was discovered with a Red. I’d never get out from under the pile of crap that would be dumped on me. My main reason for being this pissed is that you can’t question a corpse. I still want my answers.

“They don’t know.” Her eyes narrow as understanding dawns. “Your own people don’t know what you are doing. That you have me. You would get into trouble for this.”

“No. They would not approve.” There’s no use hiding it. “And yes, I would be in deep shit.”

“Because it’s wrong!” she throws back.

Because they don’t want me to find out what she knows. Because HQ is up to something, or some of those in power are. Either way, they wouldn’t like this one bit. I mean, why don’t we ever question Reds? Why don’t they want us to know what’s going on? Because there sure as shit is something going on here. I’m going to find out what it is.

“It’s not for the reasons you think,” I tell her. “Come on.” I start walking. “It’s a long way back to camp, and we can’t fly back. You couldn’t have picked a worse day for trying to escape. Visibility for miles and miles and the fact that it’s light out didn’t help you, either. We just have to pray we weren’t spotted.” I wasn’t exactly quiet in my pursuit, either. I was just so damned mad.

We start walking.

“It’s not like I had much choice. The opportunity presented itself, and I took it.” She shrugs.

I frown. “By opportunity, you mean Kim came along?”

“Yes, I overpowered her and took off. I hope she doesn’t get into trouble for something I did.” Her voice is small, and for the first time, she looks fearful.

“You can save it. I know she helped you escape.”

“No!” She shakes her head. “That isn’t true at all. She took me out for a walk, and I took full advantage.”

“She helped you escape because you helped her the other night. I get it. It’s fine. I think it’s admirable…what you did. I mean, you went against your own kind to help a human female you don’t even know.” I’m not trying to blow smoke up her ass. I mean it.

She looks taken aback for a moment. “It was the right thing to do. Those males were out of line.”

“Were you with them? Part of their group?”

For a second, I think she isn’t going to answer, but instead, she shakes her head. “No, I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”

I don’t quite buy it, but I don’t push it. At least she’s telling me something, and something is better than nothing, which is all I’ve been getting.

“We’d better get going.” I give her the once-over.

Crap, this is bad!

“What?” She turns away a little, like she’s shy, which is just plain stupid because I’ve seen her naked more than once.

“Your tattoos stand out like a sore thumb,” I huff. “It’ll take us a day or two to get back to camp, and I don’t want you getting spotted. We’re going to have to be really careful.” I look up, half expecting to see a dragon or two. This is a shitshow.

“Can’t we shift as soon as it’s dark?”

“Absolutely not!” I look up again and scan as much of the sky as I can see through the trees. It’s less sparse in this section of the jungle. “We may have been spotted already.” I have an uneasy feeling inside me. “Let’s keep going. The sooner we get far away from where we landed, the better.” If we were seen descending, any patrols might come and investigate. I know I would.

We keep walking. The jungle is too sparse for my liking. We’ll be safer once we get deeper.

We haven’t gotten very far when a loud crashing sound echoes through the jungle, causing birds to scatter. We freeze in our tracks. My head snaps up; my eyes narrow as I scan our surroundings.