Playing With Fire Read Online Free PDF

hall, and Tommy opened the door. He was the first to slap Jack on the back, Samuel the second. Sylvia hugged him, and Langley gripped his forearm.
    I hung back. My heart had swelled to twice its size and tears blurred my vision. I was so grateful to see him again, but I couldn't touch him like the others. The way I felt at that moment, seeing him with windswept hair and flushed skin but completely unharmed, I would have combusted immediately. As it was, I felt hot enough just looking at him. Hot and suddenly exhausted. The wait had been excruciating on my nerves.
    Jack must have known why I kept my distance. He offered a small but troubled smile and said, "Hello, Hannah. Are you all right?"
    I laughed. "You're asking me if I'm all right?"
    "Are you?"
    "No!" I said still smiling stupidly through tears of relief. "I've been absolutely terrified waiting for you. We all have."
    "Well?" Langley said, gruff. "Has it gone?"
    Jack shook his head.
    "You mean it's still out there?" Sylvia cried.
    Jack put his arm around her shoulders. "You'll be safe here."
    "But we'll be prisoners in the house."
    "Uncle never goes out and you hardly do either in winter," Jack said. "The rest of the household…" He looked at me. "The rest of us will have to find something to occupy ourselves until it's caught."
    "Tell us about it," Langley said. "What was it?"
    "Not out here," I said. Mrs. Moore or one of the servants could come at any moment, and we couldn't risk them overhearing. "Come into the parlor. Tommy, a fresh pot of tea please."
    "I need something stronger than tea," Jack said.
    Tommy disappeared down the corridor that led to the service area. We made our way back to the parlor.
    "Well?" Langley blurted out before we were completely settled once more.
    Jack shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know. I've never seen anything like it."
    "Describe it."
    Jack looked at Sylvia and me sitting side by side on the settee. "Not in front of the ladies."
    "We're not so delicate that we can't hear the details," I said.
    Sylvia pressed a hand to her stomach. "Speak for yourself." She did not leave, however. Perhaps, like me, she felt compelled to hear more despite feeling sick.
    Tommy arrived with glasses and two bottles on a silver tray. He set the tray down and filled two of the glasses. He handed one to Jack and the other to Samuel. Langley declined.
    "Sherry?" he asked Sylvia and me. We both nodded and accepted a glass.
    "It was human," Jack said, holding his tumbler between the fingertips of both hands. "Yet not."
    "That doesn't make sense," Sylvia said.
    "In what way was it human?" Samuel asked. "It had arms, legs and a head?"
    "You could be describing an animal," I said.
    "Animal is a more fitting description than human." Jack sipped thoughtfully. "It stood upright, however. It was large. Larger than me, but hunched over. It had claws and jagged teeth, and fur all over its body."
    "So we weren't too wrong when we told the servants it was a wild dog," I muttered.
    Sylvia swallowed her entire glass of sherry and held it out for a refill. Tommy obliged.
    "Did it have a canine face?" Samuel asked.
    Jack shook his head. "Not particularly. Its ears were pointed but small, its nose longer and wider than anything I've ever seen, but I wouldn't call it a muzzle. The eyes were yellow. When it looked at me..." He drained the glass. "When it looked at me, I thought I saw fear in those eyes. Fear and desperation. Very human emotions. But then something changed. It was like something else took over entirely, and any humanity it displayed vanished. The only emotion I recognized was hunger. It wanted to kill."
    "If it hadn't been for your fire," I said, quietly, "it may have killed you."
    "Instead, it went for the builder." He shook his head and looked down at his glass. "Why didn't he leave when the others did?"
    "Why didn't you?"
    Samuel, Sylvia and I finished our drinks in unison. The sherry burned my throat as it went down. It didn't calm my frayed nerves