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I clapped a firm hand on his shoulder. “Good. Knock ’em dead out there, bro.”
As we rejoined the group, I sent Kira a look. When she saw me, I gave her a hand signal as surreptitiously as I could, letting her know we were all set. She smiled back, and her face relaxed a bit. We were as prepared as we were going to be.
Cameras came swooping out of the mansion. One of them shot high into the sky, then slowly lowered. Von stood beneath it with his arms wide open, grinning up at the lens. It would probably end up being the most dramatic opening shot in history.
“Good afternoon. We come to you from Bloodstone Island for another deliciously dangerous challenge,” Von said once the camera was close enough to hear him. He swept a hand toward us, showing the whole world our stupid, shimmery outfits. “Behold—our alphas and prize mates. Our numbers have dwindled, but the passion has not. Each of these lovely people is ready and willing to show you what they’ve got.”
I flinched as someone touched my back. Whirling, I found one of the staff witches. She moved down the line, touching each cast member’s zipper. A spell? Von kept yammering on while I reached over my shoulder and tried to pull the zipper down, but it was locked in place by whatever the witch had done. Panic filled my chest. Why the hell did they need to magically lock the zippers? There was nothing to do but listen and find out. I returned my attention to Von.
“Now, for today’s challenge…” He pointed to the sky. “It’s late afternoon. That is a very important time. Many creatures are out hunting at this time of day. Our contestants will be part of that hunt. Each member of our cast will be sent into the jungle to hunt a specific creature. Simple enough, yes?” The vampire smirked wickedly. “But there is a catch. Late afternoon is the time when the island griffins are most active in their hunts.”
“Oh, fuck,” I muttered, understanding dawning on me.
“Griffins,” Von went on, “are typically not a danger to higher-cognition creatures. They tend to only eat fish, smaller mammals and reptiles, and the occasional deer or small river serpent. However, what they truly love is gold and treasure. For centuries, the creatures have been known to fill their nests with loot stolen from pirates, kings, and warlords. As you can see, our contestants have been dressed to be very, shall we say, conspicuous. Any griffin coming across them will take their special outfits to be a treasure and won’t hesitate to rip them to shreds to get that fabric off them.” Von smiled ruefully. “Our staff of witches has bewitched the suits to be unremovable, but the contestantscanshift with them. We don’t want them to be completely defenseless, now do we? Of course not. When they shift, the suit will morph around their bodies.”
J.D. nudged me and whispered. “I thought you said griffins don’t hurt people? When we heard one screeching the other day, you said that, didn’t you?”
“I said they don’t attack youunlessyou have something shiny they want. Well, now wearethe shiny thing they want,” I hissed.
“Crap.” J.D. shook his head and went back to listening to Von.
“We are giving our contestants more free rein this time. They can pair up or go it alone on their hunts. They can move through the jungle as a group, like they moved through the swamps in one of the earlier challenges. To kick things up a notch, though, there is a one-hour time limit. If they have not returned from hunting their creature in one hour, the protective wards around the mansion will slam shut and lock them out.”
This challenge was designed to get at least one or two eliminations. For once, that worked in our favor, as long as we didn’t get killed by griffins or other monsters before getting Mika to Zoe and Crew.
“Time for our contestants to choose their prey.” Von held up a hand, and two of the witches walked over, each holding a shiny brass bowl in their palm. “In one bowl, we have contestant names, and in the other, we have the creatures you will each hunt. I’ll pull names and creatures at random. The slip of cotton bearing the creature’s name also holds their scent. That will give you a good start on finding them.” He paused for a moment to put a hand to his chest. “I do want to send my deepest condolences to the families of the staff members who retrieved these scents. A very sad day that was. Anyhow, on with the show.”
Von put his free hand into the name bowl and swirled it around before pulling the first victim. He grinned. “Chelsey.” He then pulled her creature. “Oh, looks like you’ll be hunting a feral bear shifter.”
Chelsey swallowed hard and nodded. Von went through the names and creatures. J.D. was to hunt a mad vampire. Gavin got to hunt a ghost, and a witch handed him an enchanted weapon to complete the task. Tate received a demon, and the big man did not look happy about it. Abel was given a corrupted fae, and Mika, a banshee.
It wasn’t lost on me that Kira and I were the last names to be drawn. The witches had probably bewitched the bowls to ensure Von drew our names last. I wouldn’t put anything past the show at this point.
Von’s eyes brightened when he pulled my name. “Wyatt Rivers. Oh, let’s see what you’ll be going after.” He dug into the other bowl and read the flapping piece of fabric. He let out a theatrical gasp, and I knew I was screwed before he even said anything. “Wendigo.”
A little sigh drifted out of my chest. Of course. I’d seen one a while back during one of the challenges. It was probably the only one on the whole island since the things were incredibly rare. Of course Von would give that thing to me, but at least Kira didn’t have to go after it.
The witch walked over and handed me the fabric. I sniffed it, catching the scent—rotten meat, fetid musk, and something like ammonia.
While I memorized the scent, Von pulled the final name out of the bowl. Mostly for show since everyone on earth knew Kira’s name was all that remained.
“Kira Durst,” Von said with a little giggle. “Who elsecouldit be? Looks like you’ve won the prize.” He pulled a final piece of cloth from the other bowl. “A surprise.”
“Huh? What does that mean?” Kira asked, taking the words right out of my mouth.
Von waved the cloth toward her. “Exactly what it sounds like, silly. The creature you are to hunt is one we have no name for. It’s only been glimpsed three or four times. The staff member who went in search of it managed to track it down and get the scent, but…” Von made an awkward face and shrugged. “All we found of the poor man was his severed hand holding this.” Von shook the cloth again. “I think you’ll be up for the task, though.”
The rat bastard was screwing with her on purpose. All the rest of us knew what we were hunting. Even the ones who weren’t trained could at least make some sort of game plan. Kira couldn’t even use all the thousands of hours of training and research she’d done as an operative to figure out how to take down her quarry. All she would get was a few seconds before the thing tried to rip her apart.
“A little good news for everyone,” Von added. “You do not have to kill the creature. Though, if you do, kudos to you. With only one hour, we understand that time will be a little tight for you to bring down most of the creatures you are going after. So, what will we require as proof? A body or head, if you are feeling very frisky, but in lieu of that, a token is all that’s needed for success. A demon horn, a claw, ectoplasm, some fur—you get the idea. Any questions?”
There were none. We were all too worried about what we had to do over the next hour. Before Von could say anything else, a blood-curdling shriek came from deep in the jungle. A moment later, a responding call echoed from even deeper. Griffins.
“It sounds like our special guests are ready,” Von said with a wink to the camera. He turned and pointed at an archway carved into the jungle’s foliage. “That is the starting and finishing line. No paths this time. Once inside, you are free to go wherever you want on the island. On my mark, your timer will begin. Three… two… one… go!”
There was no time to think or worry, no time to formulate a plan. The others knew it, too. The mad rush of people running toward the jungle reminded me of people fleeing disaster, running from a flood or fire. The only difference was, we were runningtowarddanger instead of awayfrom it.
Tate, Chelsey, and J.D. shifted even before we entered the jungle. Von was right—the golden suits morphed to fit the wolf bodies perfectly. I decided to get my bearings first once we were in the jungle before deciding what to do next. Behind me, I could hear Von and a few of the staff members clapping as we rushed into the jungle. Kira, always a faster runner than me in human form, burst through the archway and into the shadows of the jungle. Digging my toes into the ground, I put on more speed to catch up to her. More cameras appeared and zoomed in to follow each of us.
