The Seeker's Game

Checkmate

It was strange, how easily they accepted me. I had anticipated more of a challenge, really. Although Jeb's strange intuition made me put my guard up around him.

The only moment where I had been caught unawares, was when Jamie had decided to show me where all the "cool" stuff was.

It was the vehicles they used on their "raids".

While Jamie had gone to fish something out of the backseat of one of the cars, I walked around them slowly. My eyes narrowed as I looked at the number plates and tried to commit them then to memory.

'Jamie.'

I jumped when I saw the same guy, Ruben, staring directly at me with dark eyes that were trained to kill. He continued to stare at me as he addressed Jamie in a clipped voice. 'I told you, don't come in here.'

Jamie scrambled out of the car and looked bashful as if he'd been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to.

The sneaky devil.

My smile froze when I saw Ruben still glaring at me.

Seriously, what was this human's problem? I was technically human, why was he glaring at me? Was he trying to assert dominance as a leader here?

He had no idea who the true alpha was here.

I made a mental note to watch him.

People who meddled served me no good. When this came to the final blow out I would make sure to dispose of him first.

Judging by his body type, he wouldn't go down without a fight. I had to be smart.

I was no fool when it came to human bodies. Although my preference was females, I also knew the inherent liabilities of choosing the weaker sex.

Back on the Fire Planet, the male and female species were of equal disposition and power.

It was different here. I didn't like it.

Looking him up and down, I let out a smirk and walked away. I would not be intimidated by his futile attempt to scare me. Although it might jeopardise my plans at giving his trust, I would not be his doormat.

I could feel his eyes burning a hole in the back of my head as I walked away.

Jamie ran to catch up with me and gave me a guilty smile. 'Sorry, Ruben doesn't like me in there. Says it's not for "kids".' His face looked indignant. 'Even though I'm not a kid.'

I gave him a cheeky smile. 'Of course not. Look how tall you are!'

He gave a superior sniff. 'Exactly. Ruben is always in a mood.' Then he looked me up and down with wide eyes. 'I've never seen a girl as tall as you before. You're even taller than Melanie!'

'Melanie?' I frowned.

'Oh sorry.' He did a little skip. 'She's my sister. She's tall, but nowhere near as tall as you.'

I smiled, my mind distracted by some alleyway that led into an unknown darkness. I would have to check them out later.

'Where are we?' I asked, looking around again and surprised by how high some of these ceilings were.

'Underground.' Jamie shrugged.

'What?' I stopped walking. The thought had never occurred to me.

I was so inconceivably stupid. 'Where?'

Jamie shrugged. 'In some volcano.'

Ingenious.

When I tried to pry for more answers on a more specific location, Jamie would only shrug saying he didn't know.

Irritated, I tried to keep my face neutral.

Another flaw of my host. She had had a severely sheltered life. Anything outside of Arizona was another world.

Born, raised and lived her life in the same place. Before I came to occupy her body, she had achieved a degree in mechanical engineering.

Apart from that degree, I had been forced to learn almost everything for myself. While every other soul had been eased into their human life, I had been thrown in the deep end and forced to swim. This host had forced me to use all my resources to make up for her lack of knowledge regarding the outside world.

Feckless neophyte.

Her only saving grace was the fact that I had come to occupy her body.

Now, I had knowledge. A lot of it and definitely more than the average.

Combine that with my inherent knowledge of other planets, made me the perfect weapon in the quelling of this stupid resistance.

A resistance I had now successfully infiltrated.

Once we made it back to the eating hall, I saw a lot of heads turn, curious to see who the new human was.

I was completely thrown off by how many human survivors there were.

There had to be at least forty. That was nearly double my initial estimation.

I had severely screwed up.

If I had known how many there were, I would have attempted some plan in regards to planning for back-up. But I had nothing. I was by myself.

Squaring my shoulders, I entered the line for food and picked up a tray. Although people looked at me, there was no need to speak to me with Jamie chatting away at my side.

Once we sat down at a table, someone came up beside Jamie and sat down. He had dark hair, was relatively largely built, and had a mischievous smile on his face, which lit up his blue eyes. 'I think that's enough for today, eh? Let some of us have a chat with the newcomer.'

Jamie grumbled. 'Why? No one has tried to talk to her.'

He elbowed Jamie in the side. 'That's because you won't leave her side.'

He looked at me guiltily. For once, I felt sorry for him. I looked at the guy and tried the best fake smile I could muster. 'It's ok, we're friends. Jamie is an adult.'

Jamie grinned. 'Exactly! Here that Ian? I'm an adult.' He folded his arms and nodded his head.

Ian raised a quizzical eyebrow at me and held up his hands. 'Well pardon me, good sir. May I please engage this lady in a social exchange so that we may become more well acquainted with each other?'

Jamie frowned, as if he was trying to run Ian's words through his head and make sense of them. 'Her name is Phoenix, but only I get to call her Nyx. And sure, I was just about to get some desert anyway.'

As Jamie left, Ian let out a small laugh. 'Nyx? I like it. Mind if I call you that?'

I shrugged. 'I don't care.'

Ian then ran a hand through his hair. 'Sorry, I meant to introduce myself earlier, but I had something to do first.'

He was strangely nice for a human. I had been expecting the humans to be more apprehensive about strangers, but perhaps my theory was wrong. Then I thought of Ruben.

Or maybe it was only this human that was nice.

Ian then looked up to something behind me and raised his hand. 'Wanda, over here.'

Swiveling in my seat, I turned to see a girl that looked around my age approach us, with long golden locks for hair. She was doll-like.

'Ian, you need to slow down. I'm not used to having short legs.' Her voice was like a pixie as well.

She then sat down beside Ian, who then took her hand. They smiled at each other warmly and I resisted the urge to gag.

'Wanda, meet Nyx. Nyx, Wanda.'

Wanda's eyes lit up. 'Nice to officially meet you Wanda. You look like you're doing much better.'

As I stared, I noticed the reflection of something behind her eyes. She was a soul.
Slowly, I felt a smile creep up on my face.

Checkmate.