“Barnabas, like the vampire in Dark Shadows? Brilliant.” Fen’s face broke into a lopsided grin for a split second before he turned and bellowed, “Barnabas, you sonofabitch—where are you? C’mere, you cursed hellhound!”
They paused to listen, but all Nik could hear was crackling wood and the whoosh of flames. Fires bellowed like angry beasts.
A dark smudge had appeared on the hallway ceiling above them when the drywall fell. Cage pointed at it, but then cocked his head and listened a moment. “I heard him, too! Middle bedroom on the right.”
Fen was closest. He crouched and disappeared through the doorway. Damn it, he was only three feet ahead of them, but Nik groped blindly as he reached where he thought the door should be.
“Watch it!”
Nik turned in the direction where he thought Cage stood, but his outstretched hands clutched nothing but smoke. Then the room spun; no, it was him. Spinning. Falling amid a rain of singed Sheetrock that sparked on his shirt in hot pinpricks.
His cheek slammed into the smooth wood of the floor, and he had just enough time to think it was oddly cool against his skin before a splinter pierced his cheek and something heavy fell on him, knocking out what little breath he had left.
Things went black for an instant. Maybe several instants. Maybe he was dead, because he seemed to be moving independently of his arms and legs.
Something hard cracked his head and jarred him out of his stupor. “Sorry, mate. Door facing.” The voice came from above him, and finally he realized Cage Reynolds was hauling him out of the burning house in a classic fireman’s carry. Yeah, he might trust the man from now on.
“Down.” His voice came out somewhere between rooster and chain-smoker, but Cage got the message, setting him down as soon as they’d cleared the front door. He kept a firm grasp on Nik’s arm, though, and hauled him down the stairs at what the colonel might call triple-time.
But he could breathe now. Nice thing, breathing. To hell with dignity; Nik gasped in big lungfuls of cool night air. Out here, it might smell like smoke, but it inhaled like oxygen.
“You’re all right, mate? Gotta go and check on Fen.” Cage leaned over him, soot smudged across both cheeks and part of his shirt missing.
“Yeah.” Nik coughed up half a lung. “M’okay. Go.”
The pressure on his arm disappeared, and the world tumbled again. He landed face-first—again. This time it was on wet, cold mud, though, which felt pretty damned good. He thought he might just lie in the mud puddle for a few seconds. Then he’d be ready to help.
He closed his eyes, thinking he might need a few minutes instead of seconds, but cracked them open when feet came to a stop a few inches in front of his nose, splashing mud on his face and in his mouth. He craned his neck, looking up and up and up.
Tall woman, Aidan’s wife. Mate. Whatever.
“Take Hannah to our house, and Fen, too,” she yelled, and Mirren answered . . . something. Nik groaned and closed his eyes again. Just a little nap and he’d get up.
At least they’d gotten the girl out. Nobody had mentioned the dog. He liked dogs. This dog had sure caused a lot of drama, though. He might like to get a dog when he—
“Hey, Nik. Nik. Wake up.” It was Krys again. Mrs. Aidan.
“M’awake.” He sort of opened his eyes.
“Uh-huh, sure you are. Mel, sit here with him, will you? He’s not burned, but he needs to keep this on until he’s able to stand up by himself.”
This what? Nik raised his head an instant before Mrs. Aidan shoved him onto his back and smacked something over his nose and mouth. The mud didn’t feel as good oozing down his ass as it had on his face.
He opened his mouth to tell her he didn’t appreciate her bossy attitude but, in doing so, he took in a breath of air. No, not air, but real oxygen. He raised his hand and felt the mask over his face, the tube stretching toward . . .
“Leave it on.”
Damn, but his eyes burned. The woman leaning over him was the strawberry blonde he’d seen helping bossy Mrs. Aidan turn on the fire hydrant.
Nik tried to sit up. His shoulders hovered about two inches off the ground for a couple of excruciating seconds before he gave up, flopping back into the mud.
The woman laughed. “You are one dirty boy.”
Yeah, well. She had a big black smudge across her nose that qualified her for Barnum & Bailey’s clown act.
“Oh, stop glaring at me. I’m Melissa Calvert.” She frowned. “You’re one of the new Rangers?”
He slipped a hand up and edged the oxygen mask away from his mouth. “Yeah.” He didn’t recognize his own voice. Sounded kinda sexy. “How are the others?”
She reached out and slapped the mask back over his mouth. All the women in this freaking town were bossy. Robin would fit right in.
“Hannah’s unconscious, but her burns weren’t bad. Krys thinks it was smoke inhalation and she’ll get it out of her system during daysleep. Fen got burned bringing her out, though. The whole ceiling came down just after Cage got you.”
Yeah, he owed Cage Reynolds a big cigar.
Melissa looked up at the house. “Damn it. This is gonna make even more people leave Penton. It’s like God doesn’t want us to rebuild.”
Nik suspected God had nothing to do with it. He’d be interested in digging around in the ruins after daylight to see what he could find. He was no fire investigator, but Ranger duty had honed his powers of observation pretty sharply—plus, he could use his Touch on whatever was left.
The fact that he remembered he was a Ranger meant the oxygen had finally revived his smoke-saturated neurons. This time, when he tried to sit up, he only wavered once. Might as well be really reckless and pull off the mask.
“How do your lungs feel? You breathing okay?” Melissa turned the wheel atop the small oxygen tank to the “Off” position. “If you get light-headed, tell me and I’ll give you some more.”
“Thanks. I’m Nik Dimitrou, by the way. One of the new Rangers, as you guessed. You’re a nurse?”
No, that wasn’t right. Melissa Calvert. Her dossier had identified her as Aidan Murphy’s human familiar, at least until she was turned vampire by the nutcase who’d tried to destroy the town.
“I had a year of nursing school, so I help Krys out when I can—that’s Aidan’s mate.”
Nik nodded. “The bossy redhead.”
Melissa laughed, and Nik felt badly for comparing her to a circus clown. He just hoped he hadn’t said it aloud. She was pretty, even with the black nose and fangs.
“Krys wouldn’t disagree with you, and neither would Aidan.” Her voice softened. “And here comes your rescuer, who seems to make a habit out of saving people.”
Cage walked toward them from the direction of Aidan’s house. He looked as wiped as Nik felt. “Guess I owe him a . . .” What did one give a vampire as a thank-you gift? “A pint of blood or something.”
Melissa grinned. She was the first vampire in Penton that Nik had seen flash a fang so openly. Maybe she hadn’t figured out how to keep them hidden yet, being a newbie and all. “Better hurry, Cage,” she said. “He’s still kinda delirious and is offering to repay you in blood.”
“Good thing, because my feeder left town tonight.” Cage looked down at the muddy ground, shrugged, and sat down in the spreading mud puddle alongside Nik. “Hannah’s and Fen’s feeder, too, although neither of them will be needing anything until tomorrow night.”
“She’s gonna be okay?” Melissa reached out and smoothed Cage’s hair away from his face. Interesting. The man had been all hot over Robin—and, Nik had to admit, she’d been all hot over him—but Melissa’s gesture seemed awfully intimate. Then again, Cage had saved her from being tortured by Matthias Ludlam. Made sense that they’d be tight.
Still, he’d want some reassurances. Robin wasn’t Nik’s great romance. Hell, he wasn�
��t even sure he believed that fairy tale anymore. But if Cage Reynolds hurt one piece of her surprisingly vulnerable little heart, the vampire would find out what Rangers could do during daylight hours.
Nik liked Cage, but Robin came first. Besides Kell, his Ranger buddy back in Houston, she was his best friend. Sure, they occasionally had benefits, but not as often as she’d made it sound. The friendship came first.
“I guess I should go and help Krys.” Melissa dragged the toe of her sandal in the mud. “I wonder where Aidan will want Fen to take his daysleep? And you, Cage? Hannah already goes with Aidan and Krys to . . . wherever they go.”
Which brought up an interesting question Nik wasn’t sure anyone would answer, at least not until they got to know him better. Where did the vampires of Penton take their daily naps? He knew there were spaces underneath the community houses, but those were too obvious. Their enemies could send in humans to knock them all off in one big vampire slaughter if they were that easy to find.
“Yeah, it’s going to take some sorting out,” Cage said. “I think Mirren wants all of us, including you and Nik here, at his place before dawn to figure it out.”
Melissa looked down at Cage. “So we could be bunk mates?” She didn’t exactly look happy.
“Looks like.” Cage didn’t look too elated about it, either. Interesting.
What he did look was as tired and grubby as Nik. He scrubbed his palms over his cheeks and flicked off dried flakes of mud. More like iron-rich clay, Nik decided. In the harsh glare of the portable floodlights someone had set up, it looked more orange than brown.
Behind them, the fire continued to burn, but it had already done its worst. The adjacent house had been soaked enough to prevent the flames from consuming it.
“I’ll see you later at Mirren’s, then,” Melissa said, picking up the portable oxygen tank. “You too, Nik.”
“Right,” he said. “Thanks for the O.”
Cage watched Melissa leave, and Nik watched Cage. Couldn’t read his expression, though. “She seems nice—well, in a bossy sort of way.”
“She is.” Cage laughed. “Both nice and bossy. She’s had a rough few months, that one.”
Maybe he’d counseled her in his psychiatrist role. Or maybe that intimate touch she’d given him meant more. “You’re good friends, then?” At Cage’s sharp look, he added, “I’m just trying to suss out the local dynamics. Friendships.”
Cage shrugged, tugging what was left of his shirt over his head and tossing it in the mud in a heap. “We’re all friends, all the lieutenants and fams—those are feeders that are bonded to one vampire, but you probably knew that already.”
“Yeah, the colonel’s pretty thorough in his dossiers.”
“Then you know Mel used to be Aidan’s fam—had been for a long time. So it upset the balance of things when she was turned vampire.” Cage had been scanning the block while he talked. “I just realized Robin wasn’t here. Is she okay? Have you seen her?” He climbed to his feet, looking farther down the block toward the old mill.
“I haven’t seen her since we first heard about the fire and left Mirren’s.” Nik wasn’t sure if that meant Robin had found something, or if she hadn’t. He rolled to his hands and knees, willing his wobbly legs to propel him upright. Cage held out a hand, and Nik hesitated before taking it. Habit and hard experience had taught him to touch with caution, but he grasped Cage’s hand and accepted the help. It felt good to be standing upright.
“Thanks for that—and for getting me out of there when the ceiling started coming down.”
“No problem. Shouldn’t we look for Robin? She doesn’t know the area and no way that fire was an accident.”
Cage hadn’t quite gotten the big picture on Robin yet, if he still thought of her as a frail flower in need of saving. “She’s a—oh no.”
“What? What’s wrong? Is something wrong with Robin? Oh . . .” Cage’s voice trailed off, but his mouth didn’t close.
Nik waved at the vision of a wood nymph walking toward them from the old mill. “I was about to say, Robin will show up when she’s good and ready.”
And probably naked, he didn’t add, since that was now obvious. She had a beautiful, tight little body and no qualms at all about uncovering it. The moonlight made her fair skin glow, and even when the glare of the floodlights hit her, she looked pretty damned good.
Shaking his head, Nik grinned and took a step back. There was no controlling this particular drama, so he might as well enjoy the show. He didn’t know what would come out of her mouth, but it was bound to be highly entertaining.
Nik pulled his own singed shirt over his head and held it out to her when she got within reach. “You might want to put this on before ashes fly into Cage’s open mouth.”
She snatched it out of his hand and held it up. There were more holes left than shirt, so she tied the sleeves around her waist in a smoky approximation of an apron. “I thought I might see something if I flew over the area, but it was too late. Whoever set it was already tucked out of sight. You two all right?”
Cage’s expression had gone from open-mouthed gape to appreciative astonishment, and he seemed incapable of speech.
Which Robin noticed as well. She walked to within a foot of him and reached up to flick more mud off his cheek. “Is the little girl okay?”
Cage nodded and cleared his throat with some effort. “She’s fine. You’re, uh . . . fine as well, I see.”
Robin laughed, a surprisingly sweet sound that always took Nik by surprise. “Get over it, vampire. I’m naked. If you haven’t seen a naked woman in your, what, seventy or eighty years of life, then it’s time you did.”
She huffed out a frustrated breath and edged around Cage close enough for her breast to brush against his arm. Not an action he missed. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it.
“Any female body parts I need to explain to you?” She stared at him until he shook his head in a quick negative. “No? Good. I’m hungry, then. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 13
A pang of longing swept through Melissa as soon as she opened the door to the community house. Soft music, something vaguely Celtic, filled the dimly lit room. The banked embers of the fire flickered in orange and gold shadows on the polished floor.
Mirren sprawled on one of the plush leather sofas with Glory curled up next to him, her hand resting underneath the hem of his black T-shirt, his arm around her both possessive and protective.
Melissa recognized the signs of post-feeding euphoria mixed with love. She’d had enough brushes with violence to know that the experience left you desperate for the warmth of another, desperate to hold the most important people close, desperate to be held.
If you hadn’t run away from Mark after you were turned, you could’ve had that.
She put on a bright face that belied the thoughts buffeting her inside, as thick and heavy and choking as the smoke from the house fire. It was the internal storm of a woman who’d thought she knew her own heart, only to fear she might have been wrong.
“Hey guys, sorry to interrupt.”
Glory answered without looking around. “You’re not interrupting. We’d have to actually be doing something for you to interrupt, and we’re too tired to do anything except sit here.”
She sat up and yawned, which set off another unexpected wave of longing in Melissa. Vampires didn’t yawn; they simply had a slight fading of power as dawn approached. Her arms and legs were already growing heavy in anticipation of daysleep, still two hours away. She envied Glory her humanity and the sureness of her heart.
Glory settled back, propped against Mirren’s shoulder. “Krys says a couple of other scathe members—Shawn and that guy who’s running the gas station—are gonna spend their daysleep in the space beneath the house across the street, along with Fen and Hannah. There’s nothing else anyone can do tonight.”
Except for Cage, all the lieutenants and their mates were spending their daysleeps in an underground bunker somewhere in Penton; even Melissa didn’t know its location. The rest of the scathe had an elaborate setup west of town. Cage had spent his first daysleep under the now-burned community house so he could keep an eye on Fen until the newcomer had convinced everyone, particularly Mirren, to trust him.
Mirren leaned forward. Shadows from the firelight danced across his face, but not so much that Melissa couldn’t read his somber expression. “We need Cage to move in with the lieutenants tonight,” Mirren said. “Aidan wants you there, too. Both of you. From now on.”
Melissa’s heart sped up. “Why?” Not that she didn’t welcome the news that she would be spending her daysleep near Cage. Maybe if she could spend more time with him, she could finally get the chance to put things to rest between them. Plus, he should stay with the lieutenants since he was one of them. She, however, wasn’t. “I get why he wants Cage there, but why me?”
Mirren glanced at Glory before he turned those searing gray eyes her way again. “Matthias escaped. We have to assume he’s alive, and you’re pretty high on his hit list—even more than Glory and Krys. You’re the one he turned and kidnapped. And Cage not only helped you escape but played Matthias for a fool by infiltrating his organization.”
Old fears and weighty dread settled on Melissa’s shoulders like a yoke. She was so tired of being afraid, so ready to move on, so sick of being a victim.
A new thought poked a tender root into her fear and gradually took hold. Why was she afraid? Matthias had killed her once. She’d been through the worst. If he came after her again, as a vampire she could fight back. Maybe even be the one to finally kill him.
The firelight grew warmer and brighter with her epiphany. She had options. She was not weak. She lived in fear only if she chose to, and she chose not to. Not anymore.
Allegiance (The Penton Vampire Legacy) Page 12