“It’s not just a burning branch, it’s a torch,” Sam said. “It’s not just something he found. It’s only burning at one end, a branch wouldn’t do that. Someone with hands had to have made it. Someone gave it to him.”
“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 Leader,” Lana shouted. “Pack Leader.”
“He doesn’t hear you.”
“He’s a coyote, he can hear a mouse in its hole from fifty feet away,” Lana snapped. Raising her voice to a scream then, “Pack Leader. Pack Leader. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Sam was back at the spy hole. “He’s right outside,” he whispered.
“Pack Leader, don’t,” Lana begged.
“They’re all backing away.”
“Oh, God.”
“Smok
e,” Edilio said, and pointed a flashlight beam at the door’s threshold.
Lana hefted a gold brick and began beating at the boards they had nailed over the door. Edilio grabbed her arms.
“You want to burn alive?” Lana demanded.
Edilio released her.
“We’re coming out,” Lana 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.