Eternal Flame

by Lauren DeStefano

Page 26

 

  “Help … me …” The voice came again and Zane hurried forward, even as he shoved back those greedy flames. He rushed down the hallway and turned right. Another room, this one with chains on the walls.

  He found Davey on the floor. His legs were pinned by a heavy metal cage that had fallen onto him. Hell, this must be some kind of damn containment room. Fire circled around Davey, but the demon held the flames back from him, keeping a protective circle around his body. A circle that barely seemed to be holding. Blood dripped from his temple. “Don’t leave me here. ”

  Zane stared down at the kid. “You chose the wrong side. ”

  Tears leaked from his eyes. “I chose the-the only side that I had! I was trying-trying to save l-lives!” The fire inched closer. Young Davey wasn’t a strong demon, that much was obvious, or he would have freed himself by now.

  A weak demon. A kid. One who’d been pulled in and used by humans gone crazy with their own power.

  “Tell me where you keep the paranormal prisoners. ”

  The flames inched closer to Davey’s legs. That circle was failing. The demon screamed.

  “Tell me. ”

  Davey broke. His face crumpled and he cried out, “End of the hall, go right!” He pointed with a trembling hand. “Third door! They weren’t hurt, they weren’t—”

  “They were. ” Disgust had his voice thickening, but Zane waved his own hand and the metal flew off Davey’s legs.

  The guy gasped, staring up at him with wide eyes.

  “We’re not all evil, kid. You need to start realizing that. ”

  Davey pushed to his feet. Almost fell right back down. A broken leg wouldn’t stop a demon. The guy could still manage to get out of there.

  Zane turned away from him. He tore down the hall. ”Catalina!” With two binding marks, she’d never be able to control the fire. If it came after her the way it had come after the others …

  Burn, witch.

  Her worst fear.

  His feet pounded on the hard floor as he searched for her, running down that snaking hallway and following the desperate directions Davey had given him. If the kid had been lying …

  Zane turned a hard right, then slammed his foot into the third door he saw. The door shattered and flew forward and he saw Catalina on the floor. Her hands were jerking at the chains that bound two men to the wall.

  She whirled toward him with a gasp, but the fear left her eyes when she saw him. “Zane! Help me!”

  The fire hadn’t gotten to them yet. Smoke seeped inside the windowless room from the vents, but otherwise, they were okay. He hurried forward and grabbed the manacle on the first guy’s hand. The man, blond, young, with glinting blue eyes-shit, the guy I saw when I went into Jana’s mind-just shook his head. “You can’t break ‘em. They’re reinforced, even I can’t—”

  Zane shattered the manacle. “You can’t because they’re made of silver. ” They know your weakness. The old story about werewolves and their silver weakness was based on some fact. He broke the other manacle. The shifter stepped forward, then staggered. Long cuts and incisions covered his chest and legs. Fuck.

  Catalina jumped to her feet and put her arms around him, trying to help him to balance.

  The other guy hadn’t moved. His skin was gray, his dark head hung low, and the scent of blood was heavy around him.

  “Be careful, Zane,” Catalina said, “they’ve bled him for days, and he hasn’t—”

  The guy’s head snapped up when Zane got close, and wickedly sharp fangs came at his throat. Zane caught the guy’s chin in one hand and held tight. “Easy. ” Black eyes stared back at him. Not demon eyes. The sclera was still white, but the iris had faded to pitch black. A vamp in hunting mode. No, a vamp who was starving. “I’m not on the menu. ”

  The vamp snarled. Zane fired a fast glance at Catalina. “We leave this one. He’s too far gone. Vamps attack anyway and he’s—”

  “Please. ” A desperate whisper from the vampire. “Won’t… bite…. Don’t… leave…. ”

  “He comes with us. ” Catalina stared at him with a raised chin. “They drained his blood for the last four days. He’s starving. ”

  “All the more fucking reason to leave him here. ” Zane didn’t ease his grip. Wasting time. Was Jana still outside? Had she already left him? “A hungry vamp is a dangerous vamp. ” No, any vamp was a dangerous vamp. “We don’t have a lot of time. The fire’s coming—”

  “I-I know, but we can’t leave him!”

  He glanced back at the vamp. At those dark eyes.

  “Won’t … bite … you…. “ the vamp said again. His fangs were still out, his eyes still so dark. “ Begging …”

  His jaw clenched. “If you do, you’re dead, Drac. ” Simple fact. He eyed the chains holding the guy. Looked like the same kind of metal he used for his cuffs. “Cat, is there a little something extra on these …?”

  He glanced back and saw her trembling nod.

  “Do you have enough magic to break it?”

  She sucked in a sharp breath. “I’ll use everything I’ve got. ”

  Too dangerous, she shouldn’t—

  She began to chant, low but fast, breaking the spell that had been weaved on the cuffs.

  “My spell,” she whispered as her shoulders sagged and her face paled and more shame flared in her eyes.

  Shit. They’d forced her to help keep the vamp trapped. Bastards. If this place weren’t already burning to hell and back… Growling, he broke the manacles, snapping the locks and freeing the vamp.

  The vampire fell forward and slammed into Zane. Zane caught him, grunting at the impact. That vamp’s teeth were way too close to his throat. There was only one vamp in the world he’d bleed for, and Dee wasn’t anywhere near them. “Watch it,” he ordered, but the vamp just slumped harder against him.

  He looked down. The vamp’s eyes were closed. The guy was dead to the world-well, again.

  Zane hefted him up and draped the vamp over his shoulder. “We’ve got to get out of here, we’ve got to—” “You’re not going anywhere. ”

  Shit. He knew that they’d taken too long. He turned around and found Beth in the doorway. Flames flickered behind her, bright orange and red flames.

  Beth’s red stare-the stare of an Ignitor charged up and burning hot-tracked across the room, landing briefly on them all, as if marking them. Maybe she was. Aim and fire. “None of you are leaving. ” A brief smile. “Not alive, anyway. ”

  Zane dropped the vamp to the floor and stalked forward. The guy’s groan rumbled in his ears, blending with the crackle of the flames. “Cat, get ‘em all out. ” He’d take the Perseus agent on.

  “How?” Catalina’s scream. “There’s only one door, and she’s—”

  Blocking it with a wall of flames. Yeah, he saw that.

  “The walls are reinforced with steel. Your witch is too weak to break out. ” Beth came closer. Those flames danced right along with her. “They’re all too weak to do anything but die. ”

  They might be. He wasn’t. Zane sucked in a deep breath, letting his own power swell. Then, spinning away from Beth, he blasted a long, hard wave of energy at the far wall. The wall exploded, shooting outward with a scream of metal.

  “Go!”

  The fire caught him then. A hot lick that raced up his legs and back. Instantly, he pushed down the flames but, dammit, that had hurt.

  Beth’s laughter filled his ears. “Bad mistake. You just traded your life for theirs. ”

  Because he’d given the bitch the perfect moment to strike. Shit. And he still had to focus his power, use his energy to protect the others, because she’d let the fire loose and it was racing for Catalina. And Catalina-she stood frozen, staring at the flames with eyes too wide, terrified, as—

  Jana jumped through the hole he’d knocked into the wall.

  “Zane!”

  No, shit, no! “Get out!
”

  More laughter. “Oh, no, she’s just the one I was hoping to burn. Payback’s coming,” Beth said.

  Jana’s gaze widened. The flames were spreading too fast. Eating the floor, the walls …

  And burning like a bitch at his back.

  Hold it … control it … He couldn’t focus his attack on Beth. Not with the fire so close to the others. He pushed against the fire, but the flames kept flaring higher. Her fire’s stronger than-

  Jana ran for Catalina. She grabbed the witch’s arm and yanked her. “Move!”

  Catalina shook her head and finally seemed to snap back to reality. She turned and hauled ass, dragging her shifter with her.

  Yes…

  “The man on the floor-get him!” Catalina screamed to

  Jana.

  Um, not a man, not really—

  Jana dove over the flames and grabbed the vamp’s hand. “I’ve got him. Zane-stop Beth! Save yourself!”

  She did have the vamp. She grabbed both his wrists and she started pulling him toward their new escape hole.

  So Zane turned his attention back to the woman who was trying to burn him.

  “No!” Beth screamed, and the fire flared higher, hotter. “She’s not getting away!”

  “Yeah, she is. ” But you’re not. He could concentrate just on her now. And he knew how to stop an Ignitor.

  The flames circled them, caging him and Beth together. Her eyes were so red he couldn’t even see her pupils anymore. Red as fire. Her body trembled and drops of blood splattered from her nose.

  “You started the fire at Night Watch, didn’t you?” he asked. Another Ignitor, it made sense now, it—

  “Yeah, yeah, I paid the assholes to torch the place. ” Her voice rasped out. More blood flew from her nostrils, and she began to shake. “My plan, my call-and it would’ve worked fucking perfectly! The FBI was going to grab Jana, more of the paranormal assholes were going to burn-killing two fucking birds!”

  His hands clenched. Before he ended this, he had to know … “Who is your boss? Who set this whole nightmare up?” Who was behind Perseus?

  She laughed at him. Laughed with madness and power echoing in the wild sound. “I am Perseus. A human killing the monsters. ”

  He didn’t want a lesson in Greek myth. “Who’s your boss?” he roared over the flames. Who’d begun the chain of death? He had to know, he had to—

  “My game,” she told him with a sick smile. “What? Don’t you think a human could do it? Don’t you think a human could take down demons? Could send them to hell?”

  “I think …” Shit, it was hot. Sweat trickled down his face and back. “Humans can be damn dangerous. ”

  Another laugh. The fire leapt higher. “Yes … we can. ”

  “Your fire is getting out of control. ” Wait… just wait. He had to give Jana time to clear out with the others before he struck. Perseus was about to explode.

  Implode.

  Her eyes widened. “Scared, demon? Because you know I’m stronger than you? You can’t stop my fire!” That circle of flames closed tighter.

  “No, I’m not scared. ” He shook his head. He didn’t hear Jana’s footsteps anymore. Couldn’t, not over the crackle and roar of the flames. “But you should be. ” Only one way to stop an Ignitor’s fire. He sent his own fire and power plunging right at her. The blast hit Beth in the chest, and she stumbled back, screaming.

  The fire went wild. Uncontrolled, for that brief moment, the circle broke and the flames licked back toward Beth, turning on her. Delicate human flesh.

  Beth didn’t get up.

  But a scream rose above the flames. Pain filled. Afraid. Female. Not coming from inside—outside. Jana.

  She’d gotten out, but what-who-had been waiting for her? Fuck, fuck!

  Another scream broke the air. Then, “No, dammit, stop!”

  Zane lunged for that hole in the wall, shouting her name. The smoke and flames chased him as he burst outside.

  He flew forward, sucking the fresh air into his lungs.

  “Jana!”

  There. Jana was near the swamp. On the ground … with that asshole vampire over her. His teeth in her neck. She was pounding his back, kicking, shoving, while her right hand struggled to reach a gun that was just a few feet away.

  But where was her fire? Why hadn’t she just burned the asshole to ash?

  “Get the fuck away from her!” He roared.

  The vamp didn’t stop. Snarling, Zane lunged forward and closed the distance between them in seconds. He grabbed the vamp by his neck and hauled the bastard back.

  Jana cried out, and he saw the blood dripping down her neck. Her blood.

  He threw the vamp into the muddy swamp water. “Baby, fuck, baby, are you okay?” Her face was stark white, and she was shaking.

  And crying. Jana—crying?

  He’d kill that bastard, and he’d make sure the vamp stayed dead. His fingers trembled when he touched her neck. Her blood stained his fingers.

  The world went red.

  Zane surged to his feet and locked his stare on the vamp. The bastard was rising from the water, his eyes open, his fangs bared.

  Jana’s scream. Her blood. Fucking bastard!

  Chapter 13

  “No!” Catalina flew in front of him. Zane shoved her to the side. Now wasn’t the time for the witch to—

  She grabbed his arm and held tight. “He didn’t know what he was doing, Zane! They bled him nearly dry! It was instinct. He needed to survive, he needed—”