“Pray she does not come for us,” Van Resen rasped, clutching the big man’s wrist.
The old ranger winced, but swung around when a loud hiss cut through the night.
The drumming halted and the revelers went quiet, for there by the fire, Lilly had come wide awake. With her hands and feet still bound, she struggled against the carrying pole; but her eyes were a blazing crimson.
And there was no fear in them.
Two savages had been kneeling to cut her bindings, but there was no need for with a shrug the girl snapped every rope that held her, and in a single action she leapt to her feet.
“Lilly’s alive!” Jacob wept from the ground.
“Run girl!” Seward roared with newfound passion, his big fists shaking the bars until their bindings creaked.
The savages were also surprised, and from out of the group of stupefied revelers, the shaman approached the girl with spyglass pressed to his eye.
At Captain Seward’s side, Van Resen watched paralyzed with fear and fascination as the medicine man lifted his free hand, and shouted a command at the girl.
But Lilly moved quickly, and with a pile-driving action of her hand drove the spyglass deep into the shaman’s eye socket and out the back of his head.
The man fell dead instantly as his masked guards charged at Lilly.
She slashed at the first with a claw-like hand and he fell spraying blood from his throat. Another guard tumbled over his crumpling legs, and the girl pulled him close to rip his jugular with her teeth. Thick red blood spurted into Lilly’s smiling mouth.
She stepped forward cradling the dying man in her dripping embrace, moving away from the fire and toward the stunned gathering like a ghastly thing of nightmare.
“Lilly!” Seward hollered, but he went unheard as the girl lapped at her grisly feast, walking slowly as blood painted her cheeks and flowed over her night dress, moving across the bare ground between the savage revelers and the fire.
“What did they do to her?” The ranger turned to Van Resen.
“Call her no more! That is not Lilly Quarrie,” the scientist warned coldly, eyes gleaming with excitement and terror. “She is a changeling—of the kind!”
“What in hell...” Captain Seward growled and then cried out as skull-masked warriors formed a half circle before the girl with arrows nocked and bows raised.
Lilly saw them too, hissing as she raised the corpse and flung it at the group.
The savages dodged the gruesome missile and shot their arrows.
Seward and Jacob cried out for the girl.
But there would be no saving her. At that distance it was an easy shot and fully nine arrows dug into her bosom and abdomen.
Then Lilly’s face began to change. Where she had once been in all aspects beautiful, now her every feature turned to dark desire and ugly, hellish rage.
She slashed with her hands where the missiles protruded from her body to snap their slender shafts away, but they had struck her deeply.
Poor Lilly staggered back toward the fire.
As the castaways cried out helplessly, the warriors shot more arrows home and the girl’s appearance altered again as she writhed bloody and steaming beneath the onslaught.
Then the burnished hate was swept away like vapor, and in its place was the lovely girl again—Lilly Quarrie.
Frightened now as she stumbled barefoot between rocks that ringed the roaring blaze, she fell back upon the gleaming coals and burst into hot, white flames.
“Lilly!” Seward reached through the bars to claw the air as the savages closed to shoot more missiles at the shape that writhed in the fire.
“Poor Lilly!” Jacob moaned, weeping against the bars. A terrible expression gripped his features as he glanced back at the unconscious Quarries, as he lowered his head.
“Bastards!” Tears burned across the ranger’s glaring face. “Oh my girl!”
“Purified by fire...” Van Resen muttered to himself, lifting his eyes skyward.
As the savages approached the flames with caution, one knelt by Phillip Holmes who had come to consciousness as Lilly took her final steps. He made as if to plead his case, but the warrior drew a knife and plunged it into the Englishman’s heart, fearful that he too would spring up and kill.
Reeling, the castaways shouted their fury at such bloody-handed murder, but their outrage was drowned out by a new and terrifying sound.
CHAPTER 35 – Fire and Death
A blood-chilling roar rattled the palisade wall, causing the ground to shudder and the savages to fall upon their faces. This challenging cry rang with raw nature and passion, yet some other force was there to shape it—a fierce primordial essence unheard since the dawn of time.
“What in hell was that?” Seward muttered, wiping tears away and glancing about, fists ready, hoping that violence could put Lilly’s death from his mind.
“The worst I fear...” Van Resen said, grabbing the overwrought ranger’s forearm and pulling him close.
“From the beach, doctor!” Mr. Quarrie cried, brought full awake by the sound. “We heard something like it there...”
“And the night Miss James was taken,” Jacob remarked, face ashen as he helped Mr. Quarrie to his feet.
“What was it?” the old ranger rasped through gritted teeth. From the mad set of his features he was ready to strike at friend or foe alike.
“Captain you must trust me going forward and do as I say in this regard. The author of that call is dangerous,” the scientist warned, looking warily past the bars.
“That noise came from a man?” Mr. Quarrie shouted, kneeling by his unconscious wife.
“Yes—er—seemingly, and while he may aid us, his help comes at a price that no one else should pay.” The scientist stared at the fire pit where the flames crackled over the coals, then turned to see Jacob prop Miss James against his side. The woman’s face was a mask of blood, and there was no sign of consciousness.
Again, the challenging bellow shook the village and by the fire pit many of the savages hurried to cower by the wall...
...while others donned their masks and
