Page 19 of The Flame

“I do,” Rissa told him softly. “I remember every word. I also remember seeing you cry out as his curse took hold and that red light surrounding you and your demon. And when the Coyote took his shape too. How the breaking of your bones sounded when you took on your Coyote form. I remember the sight of your teeth and your red fur. I remember it all.”

“Then you know that from that day to this one, I have never been alone, not for one moment, that damn Coyote has been with me every day, every second of every day. I can’t get a moment of peace. When he melded me to the demon that was his real curse.” TankaTae snarled.

“Oh, poor you Tanka Tae.” Rissa scoffed. “What did you expect when you allowed that demon into your soul? There are always consequences to your actions.”

TankaTae shook his head. “That is not always true, Rissa. I have lived a long time and now I am a very rich man. And I will live a lot longer and just get richer as the years pass.”

“If that is so, why are you here?” Luther spoke up as he growled. “Shouldn’t you be on a cruise to hell, motherfucker?”

TankaTae looked over at him. His brows furrowed. “What kind of human are you?”

Luther grinned at him. “One that is full of fire. I am a guardian.”

The Coyote man stared at him then back over at Rissa. “She has a council now?”

Rissa shrugged. “It matters not to you. You will be ended before all of this is over, demon.”

“You can’t defeat me alone, Shaman.” TankaTae sneered at her. “Your daughter is dead and has been for some time and this young one....” He paused to study Amira. “I sense lots of power but no learning.” He then moved his cold gaze back to Rissa. “It is a little early to be making that kind of threat against me, is it not?”

Rissa shrugged as she turned her head to stare at Milo.

He only stared back at her while not saying a word as he was more than a little afraid of her and he had killed her daughter.

Rissa now spoke to him, “You brought this hellspawn here. I told you once that you would never see the mountain again. I cursed you and your pack. Why did you think Amira would help you? You did nothing but lie to her all her life.”

“Old woman, you are the real curse on my life.” Milo snarled. “Your curse marked me for all these years and I am sick of it. I know it is why I have lost so much money and I can never win. I can’t wait to piss on your grave as I’m walking out of the mountain with buckets and buckets of gold.”

Rissa just snorted. “You will never see that gold, just as you will never find the mountain. You are nothing more than a stain on your kind and on the earth... a pissant if you will. You have gambled your life away to the demon of greed and now you look to the daughter you denied her whole life to help you? You are a joke.”

“And you are a judgmental old fool.” Milo growled. “Just like your daughter, Winsome. I could barely stomach being close to her, when I visited. Her touch made my skin crawl and I could hardly believe it when she told me she was having my child. Even the thought that I created that girl turned my stomach until the day she was born. So I took the kid. Yeah, I took her and I kept her, hoping one day she would bring me back here. I didn’t even look back after I stole that brat from her mother. Only I sure as hell didn’t expect to have to keep her, for her whole life.”

Rissa grew enraged and began cursing him in a language no one else knew, a more ancient dialect than any used today.

Except for TankaTae, he in fact did understand it as he laughed out loud. “Milo, you have definitely been insulted. However, every slur she used about you is true.” He laughed again. “In some ways it is good to hear the old tongue.” He shrugged. “The People of today only seem to speak in slang, using words like sick that means a good thing. Bad that means someone to be admired while looking at Tiktok and burying themselves in entertainment. In a way, I do admire such careless waifs, it is easier to take advantage of them. No goals, no search for power. It is such a shame really.” He stared at Rissa, then he froze in place as he caught sight of someone standing behind Rissa and Amira. His eyes flashed red, then gold and back to red. “No, no, no. You can’t be real!” He turned to Milo and yelled, “You lied to me, you fucking, mangy wolf!”

Milo stared at him in utter confusion as he stepped back. Fear invading his expression.

TankaTae turned to run away.

Rissa turned to look at Luther. “Now, lay down your flame.”

Luther looked a bit surprised then he smiled. Turning, he raised his hands, extending his arms. Fire shot out from both hands and the flame reached the fleeing TankaTae.

“Whoa!” Captain shouted, as he didn't know about Luther’s fire.

“Damn straight!” Diesel laughed.

TankaTae was burning and it made his escape quite short and painful too. He began screaming in pain as a red color glowed around him. He changed to his wolf-coyote form then back to a human form in flashes of bone crunchings and fur appearing then disappearing. His screams changed at the same time as his body did. Howls turned to growls and voices poured out of him as he ranted in different languages.

Milo turned his head and watched as the flames came from the mortal biker’s hands and he saw the red glow around TankaTae as he literally burned. He looked back at Rissa and saw her holding Amira’s hand while she chanted, then his eyes got huge in his face as he finally spotted Winsome on the other side of her mother.

Winsome, the very same woman he thought was dead all this time—was still alive. He couldn’t believe his eyes. She didn’t look a day older than when he had last seen her. Now his body began to shake as he saw his own demise coming. He turned and ran back into the shadows of the forest.

He stopped next to his father and the others in the trees, who were watching TankaTae slowly burn. The flames died down but TankaTae was still screaming, as the supernatural fire had not finished him off.

He looked to be in bad shape when Rissa stopped the chant.

Luther then lowered his hands as his flame slowed and the fire from his palms went out.

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