Vax threw the syringe on the floor. It felt as though fiery claws were inside him, thousands of them, ripping through him. But he wasn’t going under yet. Not yet. “A few minutes,” he muttered. His heartbeat was racing like a damned racehorse. He could hardly breathe. The smoke was getting thicker. He saw a big, furred face over the vamp’s shoulder.
Then two. Then three. Four
Was he seeing double? No. It was the other wolves. “What, you all here to make sure I don’t get out?” he said. His tongue felt thick. He swallowed and started to say something else, but the smoke was getting to him and he ended up in a coughing fit.
“Actually, I think I will have them carry you out. You see, I’ve a mind to see if you survive. You’re a stubborn one, aren’t you? You might live through it. I’d like to see what comes of you.”
“Talk, talk, talk,” Vax mumbled. He closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. He did a quick mental assessment. It was all still there. For now. A smile spread across his lips. “I don’t need a few minutes.”
He struck out. Thomas’s scream ended abruptly as his body exploded into flames.
“OH, no.”
Jess climbed out of her car, staring in shock at the building in front of her. The smoke was so thick, she could hardly see the building. The heat was intense—a few years ago, Jess had been driving through Louisville, Kentucky, when a blaze went up near Churchill Downs. Wasn’t every day a fire threatened the historic racetrack, so she had made a detour and done a few quick interviews, taken some pictures with the digital she kept in her trunk.
It had been a five-alarm blaze.
Up until now, Jess hadn’t ever seen anything quite like it. But now the heat was so incredible, her skin felt burned. The fire seemed to have a life of its own. “Oh, my God…Vax,” she whispered. She took off running, but she didn’t make it even five feet. Big hands, hard as stone, wrapped around her arms. “Put me down, you bastard!”
“You cannot go in there,” he whispered.
Jess struggled and screamed, “Vax is in there!”
“You cannot go in there,” he repeated. “The fire will kill you.”
“Vax…” Jess sobbed. No. She struggled harder. She had to get inside. Had to…
She didn’t realize she was screaming it until a big, warm hand came up and cupped her face, and Malachi murmured, “You can’t. I am so sorry.”
“It won’t kill me.”
Like a drowning man catching a rope, Jess latched on to Kelsey’s words with a desperate kind of hope.
“No.” Malachi’s voice was a low, threatening growl. “You will not, wife.”
A faint smile canted her lips. “He’s still alive in there, baby. I can’t just leave him.”
Malachi flung a hand towards the blazing inferno. “Nobody could be alive inside of that.”
“A witch could. He’s keeping the fire under control. I can feel it. He knows I can feel it. He needed me here so I could put it out when he was…” Kelsey’s voice trailed off, and she shook her head. “There’s no time for this, Malachi. He’s alive. I can feel him.”
The big vampire closed the distance between them and caught Kelsey’s arms in his hands, dragging her up against him. “You will not go in. I shall go.”
She shook her head. “You can’t. Even for you, big guy, fire is deadly. The fire is spreading. Besides…” Her gaze slid to Jess, and Jess didn’t have to be a mind reader to know what the witch was thinking. Malachi had to stay out to keep Jess under control.
Still, he wasn’t letting it happen. Kelsey gave him a humorless smile and shook her head. “Sorry, baby. You know I have to.” Right in front of them, Kelsey disappeared. Malachi’s fingers closed around the empty air that had been her arms. His hands clenched into tight fists, and impotent anger carved deep lines into his face.
Jess saw a bitter, furious knowledge in his eyes. The ache in her heart spread.
Jess heard the wail of sirens in the distance. Squeezing her eyes closed, she started to pray silently. Please…please…please…
SMOKE choked her. Blinded her. Before she even tried to locate Vax, the first thing Kelsey did was absorb as much fire as she could. It was like eating the flames. Manipulating fire was as easy as breathing for her. Few knew it, but controlling the fire elements was her strongest gift. It had been the first gift to emerge when she was young, and it was the first she had learned to control.
She’d had no choice—as powerful as her ability to use fire was, she was terrified of it. She’d had to learn to master that fear, and the gift, or it would have destroyed her. She’d been inside burning buildings before. Fire had marked her body. It had haunted her dreams every night for years. Even now, decades later, the nightmare slipped out of her subconscious when she least expected it, waking her in a cold sweat with a scream lodged in her throat, her flesh stinging as though she could feel the fiery kiss of flame on her skin.
Yeah, Kelsey was no stranger to it. But she hadn’t ever dealt with anything like this. Around her, the flames eased back, and she forced a cool wind through the narrow hall. It pushed the smoke away for now. She hoped it would be long enough.
She heard screaming above the roar of the flames. Vax lay on the floor just a few feet away. So far the fire hadn’t touched him, but if he kept forcing it to burn, he was going to burn with it. That was the whole point—Kelsey had figured that out the second they’d seen the smoke billowing out of the warehouse.
She had felt Vax’s presence, and she had known he was alive. Just as she had known that Vax was keeping the fire burning because somehow those wolves were still alive. These weren’t just wolves. She could scent the violent magick inside them—the magick would keep them alive for a little while longer.
Vax’s face was a vivid shade of red, and his eyes were glowing manically. Panting, he looked at her. “Get out of here, Kelsey. I have to…” He broke off as a fit of coughing hit him. “Make sure they die.” His gaze fell away, and she looked down to stare at the syringe on the floor. “He got me anyway. I’m over.”
“No. You’re not.” She focused a little more, and the cooler bubble of air that surrounded her swelled, surrounding him. She dipped a hand inside her pocket and drew out the vials there. Silver nitrate: no good witch left home without it. There were four. She broke the seals and turned, hurling them towards the still-screaming wolves. She gave a push with her magick to make sure the silver nitrate hit. The wolves were all burning—with that much exposed flesh, their bodies would absorb the silver that much more quickly.
One fell down dead before the vials even hit. “Let it go, Vax,” Kelsey said. “Come on, buddy.”
His lashes fluttered. They closed. Kelsey braced herself for the worst, but he didn’t burst into flame in front of her. Thank God. She wasn’t sure she could have lived with that image in her head. But the faint relief she felt died quickly. Vax hadn’t extinguished the fire, for a reason—he had started it, and he would let it burn until he’d destroyed whatever he wanted destroyed. As long as it burned under his control, he could keep it from spreading.
But unconscious, he wasn’t in control. “Shit.”
Desperate, Kelsey dropped to her knees beside him. The concrete was hot and burned her skin through her jeans, but she gritted her teeth and blocked out the pain. Cupping his face in her hands, she pushed past his instinctive shields, trying to force him back into wakefulness.
There was a poison inside him. Something that was burning through him like acid. Kelsey didn’t have time to try drawing it out—instead she just blocked it. It was an urgent move, blocking him from feeling the pain. “Damn it. You stubborn bastard, open your eyes.”
She felt him. Knew he was aware of her. Get out… The words weren’t said out loud, but she heard him nonetheless. Get out, Kelsey.
“Not without you, pal. You go, I go. And if you take me with you, Malachi will kill himself just to come after you and kick your ass from paradise and back,” she said.
THEY were
no longer alone. Fire trucks surrounded them, and Kelsey still wasn’t there. Tears burned Jess’s eyes, and sobs clawed their way up her throat. Spinning away, Jess moaned. Her legs wobbled under her, but when she would have fallen down, Malachi caught her. “Shhhh. Don’t give up so easily,” Malachi murmured. But she didn’t know whether he was trying to comfort her or himself.
Firefighters swarmed around them, trying to shove them back, but Malachi wasn’t going anywhere. He was too big and too mean looking; plus the firefighters had their hands full. He kept an arm around Jess and they both stood there staring at the inferno. Minutes passed.
The firefighters seemed to be winning the battle. It didn’t seem right that the huge fire was so easily contained. It didn’t make sense. It should have spread, but it didn’t. Jess didn’t much give a damn, though.
She felt Malachi stiffen behind her. “Kelsey.” His voice was harsh.
Unsure what to expect, prepared for the worst, Jess looked up at him. There was an agonized look in his eyes, and the bottom of Jess’s stomach fell out.
Nonononononono. She bit her lip to keep from screaming. Malachi didn’t have to say anything. The torment on his face said it all.
Vax wasn’t coming out. Neither was Kelsey.
She closed her eyes, an icy-cold numbness spreading through her. She welcomed it. It was better than the devastating pain that waited for her. Gone. Just like that. “He knew,” Jess muttered, forcing the words out of her tight throat. She licked her lips and looked up at Malachi.
Except the vampire wasn’t there.
Hell.
She searched the crowd for him, but it was a futile effort. She knew where he was—she just hoped that, in the chaos, nobody had seen him disappear into thin air. It was stifling hot, but she was freezing. Nerves and fear had turned her blood to ice, and she just couldn’t get warm.
“He’s gone.” She scrubbed her hands over her eyes. Everything felt so surreal. Unfinished. Even saying the words out loud didn’t seem to make it connect. “He’s gone.”
The ache in her heart spread, and she pressed her fist against her lips as the sobs struggled free from the knot in her chest. The echo of her mother’s words came back to haunt her. Is it worth it?
Jess just didn’t know. Vax would have gotten Masters. Deep inside, she knew that. The sick, monstrous bastard was gone. But so was Vax, and she knew that ache was one more that she would have to live with every day. For the rest of her life. After only a couple of days, he had forced his way inside her heart, where she had sworn she’d never let anybody in. He’d done it anyway.
She hunched her shoulders, curling her body in. It didn’t help. Grief spread, a physical pain that seemed to grow with every passing second.
There were some startled shouts. Downright shock. Quiet at first—Jess just blocked it out. But then it got louder and louder, and slowly she turned. This time, when her legs went out from under her, there was nobody there to catch her.
Inexplicably, the fire was practically extinguished. The charred, skeletal remains of the building were still smoking and dripping with water. It wasn’t possible. Jess didn’t know how it happened. A fire just didn’t go that fast from a greedy monster that consumed everything to a smoky, smoldering mess of debris.
But as amazing as that was, it wasn’t what held everybody’s attention. What held their attention came stumbling out the door. Malachi first. There were some comical double takes as the firefighters who had tried to move Malachi back recognized him under the soot and smoke. He carried a limp, motionless body in his arms. The man Malachi held was so covered with ashes and soot, his flesh looked black.
Behind Malachi stood Kelsey. Her face was a painful, vivid shade of red, and her clothes were black.
Jess ran for them. Hands went to grab her and she shook them off, dodged those who would have blocked her way. She came to an abrupt stop, staring at Vax’s face as numbness spread through her. She was afraid to ask. Afraid to let herself feel anything: hope, fear…anything.
“He’s alive.” Kelsey said it in a soft, raspy voice. Her face was so red—even her eyelids looked red. Sunburned, almost. She weaved back and forth on her feet.
A couple of paramedics gathered around them, but Kelsey wouldn’t leave Mal’s side. She gave Jess a pleading look, but Jess never saw it. As paramedics took Vax from Malachi, Jess followed them. Their bodies blocked her from him, and she forced her way through, ignoring everything they said and did.
She had to see for herself. Had to.
She reached out and touched his wrist. Her eyes closed as she felt the strong, steady pulse under her fingers. Relief flooded her, swamping the tension and adrenaline that had been keeping her upright. She stood and tried to take a step away, letting the paramedics do their job.
Except she only made it two steps.
“THAT wasn’t exactly the kind of distraction I was looking for.”
Jess jumped as the voice came out of nowhere. She looked up and saw Kelsey standing by Vax’s bed. Pain streaked through Jess’s head and she winced, touching the tender laceration at the base of her skull. “Don’t ever pass out in front of paramedics,” she warned. “They don’t like it.”
A humorous smile appeared on Kelsey’s lips. “I’ll remember that. But while they were fussing over you two, it gave Mal and me a chance to slip away. Have you spoken with the police?”
Jess nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know who you are or where you came from. I was supposed to be meeting a source, somebody who had leads on the recent kidnappings. Vax was supposed to meet me there, backup type of thing, but I couldn’t find him when I got there.” She forced a smile. “I know how to fabricate a believable alibi.”
Then she looked down at her hands. “They won’t tell me anything. Privacy, yadda yadda, and all.”
There was a look in the witch’s eyes that Jess didn’t like. Kelsey reached out and touched a hand to Vax’s face. He had an ashen look to his skin, and he lay on the bed as still as death. So far Jess had been kicked out of the room four different times as various doctors examined him.
The last one had been a neurosurgeon, and he’d had a weird look in his eyes, his mouth set in a grim line as he left the exam room.
Jess had hoped that maybe Kelsey could tell her something, but apparently Jess was just going to be kept in the dark. Kelsey pressed fingertips to his temple. Vax never moved. Kelsey stood silent and still for a moment, but when she looked at Jess, the nasty little knot of dread in Jess’s belly got worse.
“He’ll be fine. Mostly.” Kelsey looked away evasively and turned as if she were going to leave.
“Don’t you dare leave,” Jess snarled, reaching out and clamping a hand around the woman’s wrist. She dug in her fingers. “What is going on? You know something. I can see it in your eyes.”
An unhappy smile curved Kelsey’s lips. “Yeah,” she muttered, her voice flat, almost bitter. “Yeah, I know something. But you’ll have to talk to him.”
“And where can I find him?”
Kelsey blinked. “Here?”
Glaring at her, Jess said, “It’s not like he can stay here. When are you all going to get him out of here? Where are you taking him?”
The witch did a nervous little shuffle with her feet, her eyes looking everywhere but at Jess. Finally she turned to Jess and said, “He’s not going anywhere. At least not until he can walk out of here on his own. And that will be a few days.”
“But…” Jess let go of Kelsey’s wrist and looked back at Vax. “What’s going on?” She reached out, skimming the tips of her fingers over his jawline. Just recently there had been a bruise. She’d put it on him. She’d seen the dark shadow of it. It had been gone in less than a day.
If he could heal that quickly, then how could they leave him in the hospital? More, if he could heal that quickly, why did he need to be in a hospital, and why wasn’t he waking up? “I need to know what’s going on.” Something was wrong. She felt it in her gut.
Shaking he
r head, Kelsey said, “No. You got questions? Yeah. Me, too. I’ve got a couple dozen questions easy. But I can’t answer them for you.” She turned away, but then looked back at Jess. “Thank you for covering for the two of us. The last thing we need is to get pulled into an arson investigation. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and strangle my husband.”
Kelsey hated leaving. She really did, but it was the only way. Kelsey focused on her husband and let the magick carry her away. Jess didn’t look away from Vax again. Kelsey’s heart broke a little, but she didn’t have any certain answers for the other woman, and for all her suppositions, it wasn’t her place to explain what she thought had happened while Vax was down in that fiery hellhole.
When Kelsey opened her eyes, she was back in a small, cramped hotel room. It wasn’t a nice one, but it was close to the hospital and that was what counted. From the window, they could see the sprawling medical campus. Kelsey hated leaving Vax there. But she couldn’t get him out without attracting a hell of a lot of attention, and after the fire, they couldn’t risk it. They had to get a few Hunters out here, preferably some who had medical experience and the ability to blend in with mortal society.
“Strangle me for what?”
Rolling her eyes, Kelsey turned around and demanded, “Do you have to constantly eavesdrop?”
Malachi lifted a big shoulder. “No. I just enjoy it so.” He reached out and traced the upper curve of her lip. “Now, why are you strangling me this time?”
Curling her hand into a fist, Kelsey slugged him in his belly. It was a lot like hitting a brick wall, but it sure was therapeutic. “What the hell were you thinking, going in there?”
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