by Nina Pierce
Though it happened, firefighters weren’t supposed to return to the scene.
“Didn’t they get the photos and collect everything they wanted last night?” Josh asked.
Sykes stared him down. “Obviously not, Burkett. With the number of fire deaths, he’s making sure he doesn’t miss anything. Imagine his surprise when he went back this morning and the place was torn apart. And not just from axes and water. The only obvious people on the scene were you three.” He paused, his narrowed eyes probing for guilt. “I’m talking the master suite, a guest bedroom and the living area. You sure you three didn’t see anyone or do a little investigation on your own?” None of them moved. With serious deliberation, he laid his palms on the desk and leaned forward. “Seems some things he wanted were missing. Not the least of which was the computer from the office.”
“What the hell would we do with a piece of melted plastic?” Josh asked.
The alarm was his only answer.
“Attention South Kenton fire,” the dispatcher called. “Repeat. Attention South Kenton fire. Report of structure fire. One-seventeen Chestnut Hill Road, a tenth of a mile past Goughan’s bridge …”
Reese took the shortest route to the bay, pounding down the stairs in front of Josh, Timmons and Sykes. Stepping into his boots, he pulled up his bunker pants, sliding the suspenders over his shoulders in one sweeping motion. He shrugged into his coat, grabbed his helmet and lumbered toward the engine. Routine. His thoughts focused on what lay ahead, not the motions of his muscles. He pulled the lanyard, releasing the air tank tucked in the seat’s back before his butt ever hit the vinyl. His seat belt and air tank straps snicked into place as adrenaline filled his veins and sharpened his senses.
He’d get through this long night one fire at a time.
* * * *
Ronan pressed harder on the gas pedal of the Volvo, sending it hurtling along the treacherous mountain road leading up to Glenn’s farm. Weaving in and out of the forest, the asphalt rising and falling with the rocky California terrain, he had a hard time keeping the car on his side of the road. The headlights bumped along the low-hanging trees, the shadows opening only long enough for him to pass, then closing quickly behind him. This section of forest held tight to its secrets.
The car bounced over the rise on the picturesque bridge and the chassis slammed down hard on the tar. The Volvo screeched with the impact. Ronan didn’t care. He pushed the needle of the speedometer to a chilling angle.
He needed to find Alex.
The woman may have charmed Burkett and Colton, but Ronan knew she was as guilty for crimes committed against vampires as he was determined to make her pay. Despite what his cohorts thought of her innocence, Ronan had every intention of stopping her. That’s why he’d been sitting at the tavern waiting for Alex when the call about the fire at Glenn’s had blared over the firefighters’ pagers.
Every off-duty firefighter at O’Malley’s answered the call and he’d left with the surge. They’d headed to the station. He’d driven up the road. There was no doubt in his mind, if Alex wasn’t at O’Malley’s—she had to be with Glenn.
Ronan had wondered about her connection to the transgressions in South Kenton for months. After this morning—he no longer had any doubts. He’d even pressed her in the winery earlier in the morning, and he’d been so close to breaking through her tough exterior. Ronan slammed his fist on the steering wheel, imagining it was Reese Colton’s face. The man had rotten timing. But then again, he hated Colton and everything he did, especially since a woman was involved.
Hating his boss wasn’t good for his career with RISEN. Ronan didn’t really care. He’d stay with the organization only as long as it suited his needs. Competing for a woman’s attention, even if he only wanted to use her, was just bad politics. Still, it raised his hackles. It was obvious Colton was sniffing around Alex, looking for more than wine and friendly banter. Ronan had been trying to gain her trust for the last several months, but she barely gave him the time of day.
He’d backed off in the wine cellar when Colton had shown up. But when Josh had brought the proof of Alex’s crimes, it had pissed him off beyond reason that Colton hadn’t looked beyond his dick. The facts had been laid out in plain sight and both of the older vampires had turned a blind eye.
Well he didn’t need either of them. He could bring Alex to the tribunal without them. Who cared if it ruined his career with RISEN? He hadn’t planned on staying with the organization after he finished this assignment. Making Alex pay for her atrocities against vampires and shoving the whole case up Colton’s self-righteous ass would be a two-fer.
As he came over the last rise before the farm, the forest glowed with a sickly orange fog of smoke. The drive from O’Malley’s was no more than fifteen minutes. Ronan’s heart pounded rapidly in his throat as he rounded the final corner and saw the conflagration in front of him. Alex’s black Honda was parked behind Glenn’s truck, exactly where he expected to find it.
He opened the door before he’d completely stopped. He killed the engine and jumped out. The destruction was unbelievable. Flames lapped out of broken windows, reaching up to taste the siding and lick the sill of the roof. Sparks danced in merry wonder upon the black smoke billowing into the night and shadowing the fat disk of the moon, watching from high above. The doors were thrown wide, frightened animals spilling from the barn and scattering in fear.
“Alex!” Ronan yelled, running toward the building. His voice was swallowed by the fire as it roared its power and shook something within the building. It was all happening so fast. “Alex!” he yelled again. Someone was here. Below the thunder of the devastation, like a steady drum beat, Ronan heard a heart pounding hard and steady. He hoped it was Alex.
The female vamp needed to pay for what she’d done, but not until the tribunal had a chance to pass judgment in front of the whole vampire clan. She needed to be taken alive. He was still a hundred feet from the blaze, the heat pressing angrily against his skin and snatching his breath. Even an immortal couldn’t survive that beast.
Ronan registered the sound of sirens. Help was on its way. He wondered if Colton would be one of the first firefighters on the scene and be the one to save her. Wouldn’t that be rich? Rescued from the flames only to be found guilty and destroyed by the fires of justice.
He watched the silhouette of a person running from the woods, then along the side of the building. Lumbering and clumsy, she stumbled and went down. He’d studied Alex far too long, not to know the lithe form was her. He was upon her before she could recover. Liquid fire dripped into the grass around them as the metal of the roof fed the flames. Grabbing her arms, he hauled her weak form upright, aware that the vampire within her hadn’t taken control.
Her wide eyes searched his face in confusion. “I can’t find Glenn. I think he’s in there. I don’t think we can save him.” Her fingers dug into his arms, but her voice was deadly calm.
* * * *
Reese jumped from the engine, assessing and evaluating even as he pulled his face mask over his hood and settled his helmet in place. The shadowed sight of Ronan holding Alex drew his fangs long. Nason had wanted her drawn and quartered earlier in the afternoon and now, Reese wasn’t sure if the vampire’s embrace was protection or confinement.
The two vampires moved as a unit toward them. Ronan broke from Alex only long enough to yell over the roar of the fire. “We can’t find Glenn Karr. I suspect he’s in the barn.”
“We’ll get him.” Sykes spoke with a conviction Reese didn’t feel. The fire had chewed through the back half of the barn and danced in victory along the roof shingles. Sykes turned to his men. “Burkett, Colton, the fire’s too advanced. You’ll need to take water and do your search. Timmons and McLeod vent the roof and attack from there. We’ll have someone else go in with the imaging camera and more hoses.”
Josh pulled the hoses from the tanker as Reese grabbed Ronan’s arm. “I expect you to keep her safe, Nason.”
“You do you
r job. I’ll do mine.” He wrenched his arm free, guiding Alex away from the destruction.
“He won’t hurt her. We have to go. Now.” Josh handed him the hose nozzle and they ran into the blaze. Reese knew two tankers and a second engine had been called in when they’d reached the scene and Sykes had assessed the fire. Off-duty firefighters had poured into the station when they’d found out it was Glenn’s place lighting up the night. They stood by waiting to be called in to help. Despite the number of firefighters ready to do battle, they would be hard pressed to save any part of the structure, let alone the lives of any living creature unfortunate enough to be in the belly of the fire.
Pulling back on the lever on the hose, Reese let the water spew forth in a great plume as he entered the barn. Josh leaned into him, his gloved hands holding tight. Though either of them was strong enough to overpower the bucking hose, for appearance’s sake, they followed protocol. With giant sweeping motions, Reese fought back the tempest. Flames crept up the wooden walls, hissing as the men aimed the water and reclaimed small portions of the building. The firefighters pushed forward at a steady pace, their gaze cutting through the inky smoke, searching for any signs of life.
In the center of the barn, they found their first victim. The fire had consumed the stalls along the walls and was working its way into the hayloft, but the floor remained nearly unscathed. A quick glance confirmed the body, drained of blood and lying before them, wasn’t Glenn. Josh bent to check for signs of life, but they both knew the heart had stopped beating long before the man had been staked spread eagle to the floor. His head was contorted to one side, the bruised and swollen puncture marks at his neck further evidence of the gruesome ending to his life. Even in the shimmering light, the pentagon painted on the wooden planks was visible. Reese had no idea if the elaborate setup was a hoax or a warning to other vampires.
He detested leaving the body, but Timmons and McLeod had already broken through the roof above them. Tampering with evidence of murder, even if it seemed to point directly to a pagan ritual and a vampire slaying, was criminal.
Josh lifted the mic off his shoulder, held it to the speaker of his face mask and spoke to Sykes. “One body. Center barn floor. Dead. Send recovery team with video. Burkett and Colton moving to back of barn to continue the search.”
Their boss’s confirmation crackled in his ear. Reese took a quick glance at the light display in his face mask. Three lights marching across his nose from left to right indicated the air level of his tank. One red. One yellow. One green. Two green lights had already dimmed. Depending on how shallow he kept his breathing, Reese still had fifteen or twenty minutes of air left in this tank. Plenty of time to battle their way to the back of the barn. Already another team had hoses working on the blaze behind them. Until he and Josh finished searching the barn, their hose would only clear their way. Battling the fire would come later.
Josh nodded and Reese pushed into the belly of the beast. Back here, where the fire had most likely begun, it had eaten through the rafters. A portion of the hayloft on the right side of the barn had already fallen victim to its heat. It lay crumpled in on itself, the thick smoke and flames lifting in triumph toward the night sky. The fire had burned its way across the ceiling and birthed droplets of flame that rained down around them. But the water was slowing its progress. The thunderous roar of the fire and the hissing sound of defeat ebbed and flowed in Reese’s ears.
“Over there.”
Reese followed the direction of Josh’s finger. The last couple of stalls of the barn in the back left corner had been walled off. Probably a tack room or an office. Smoke poured from the closed door. Even if the fire hadn’t worked into the space, there was little chance of a human surviving the heat and toxic smoke. But Glenn wasn’t human.
They aimed the hose at the door and pushed back the flames slithering down the walls. Reese swept the water, allowing Josh access to the door. His partner shoved it open and jumped back as fire leapt from the space. Reese didn’t need the thermal imaging camera to see the burned body on the floor, its torso propped against the wall. The stake protruding at an angle from the center of Glenn’s chest would have only paralyzed him, but the ferocious heat had singed off his hair, melted his clothes and blackened most of his skin. Even an ancient vampire couldn’t recover from those wounds.
He hated to think Alex had anything to do with hurting this man, but her presence made it hard to deny. What the hell was happening in South Kenton?
“We’ve got someone. We need more water.” Reese called into his mic.
Reese shut off the water and knelt next to Josh. Reese was breathing hard and his face mask began to vibrate as the green light dimmed, leaving the warning glow of one yellow and one red light. His air was running out. He didn’t care. Glenn was the unofficial head of vampires in the mountains of California. The vampire’s death would be felt across the population. They needed to save him. Splaying his gloved hand over Glenn’s chest, he looked at Josh who simply nodded. To hell with protocol. No one needed to see Glenn broken this way. Reese pulled the stake from the vampire’s heart.
Glenn arched and the edges of the wound fluttered. The faint pulse of blood echoed in Reese’s ears.
“We need to get him out of here,” Josh’s alien voice filtered through the speakers of his mask.
“Hold on Glenn,” Reese shouted over the din of the fire. “You’re going to make it. We’ve got you.”
Josh hefted Glenn’s legs and Reese gingerly scooped his hands under the man’s shoulders. Two guys arrived with water, pushing back the flames that had continued to claim the walls. Josh and Reese left the others to battle the fire and ran out the back door with Glenn’s still form. Laying him in the deep grass under the pretense of doing CPR, they watched to see if his body could repair the gaping hole in his chest.
Nothing happened. The chasm remained. Glenn’s life hung by a thready pulse that was barely audible to Reese’s acute senses. He didn’t want to think it was too late to save the ancient vampire and he ripped off his mask and gloves and dug his fangs deep into the tender flesh of his wrist. Reese didn’t care who saw him. Bringing the life-giving liquid to Glenn’s mouth, he urged his mentor to drink, but the blood spilled over Glenn’s blackened lips and down his chin.
“Fight, Glenn. Damn it all! You can do this.” Reese could barely speak past the emotion burning his throat. He squeezed his wrist harder, blood pouring forth. Hope rose as the vampire’s mouth opened, the fluid flowing across Glenn’s tongue.
But Glenn wasn’t drinking. He was trying to speak.
“Don’t talk. Focus on repairing your body.”
Glenn lifted his hand, his eyes imploring Reese to hear him.
Reese pulled away his wrist and leaned in close to the death rattle bubbling from Glenn’s lips.
“Hope …”
“Of course there’s hope. Just drink.”
Glenn closed his eyes. “No … Hope … here.”
“What the fuck is he saying?” Josh threw off his helmet, leaning in next to Reese. “Glenn, do mean the reporter Hope? My Hope?”
“Vampire attack … fire …”
Josh replaced his helmet, calling frantically into his mic as he ran back into the fire. “There may be another victim. Repeat. There may be another victim. Adult female. Blonde.”
Reese forced his wrist back to Glenn’s mouth, but his blood poured untouched over the vampire’s slack lips. Emotion clogged his throat. “Glenn, you can do this. It’s not too late.”
“No.” The word gurgled out with the blood frothing from his mouth. “Don’t. Blame. Her. Not … her … fault …”
“Who Glenn?”
But there would be no answer. Like a hammer to a gong, Glenn’s heart pumped for the last time and their connection went silent. The eerie stillness echoed painfully in Reese’s ears. His mentor’s clouded eyes rolled back in their sockets searching for redemption, as Glenn’s taut muscles relaxed into the waiting arms of death.
&nb
sp; Chapter Six
Emotional exhaustion replaced the marrow in Reese’s bones, making his limbs unusually stiff and heavy. The fingers of his left hand hung loosely over the bottom of the steering wheel and his right was slung over the top. He drove like an old man on a Sunday drive, his foot muscles too lethargic to exert more force on the gas pedal. Reese just wanted to get back to the log cabin in the woods, lay his weary body down and shut out the world—and the pain. The night had been much too long. The devastation much too overwhelming. And its aftermath, a weight he could barely shoulder.
He’d left Josh at Hope’s empty apartment.
A search of the fire scene last night and the surrounding woods in the pre-dawn hours hadn’t turned up any evidence of the woman. Even her bright yellow VW was nowhere to be found within the town limits of South Kenton. Reese wished he’d understood more of what Glenn had been trying to communicate.
With the John Sampson’s body staked to the floor, his throat slashed open by a vampire, Hope and her car missing, and the fire burning up everything in its path, Reese wasn’t sure who to blame or how to interpret Glenn’s final words. He hadn’t really had much time to think about it all.
The fire at the farmhouse had taken hours to extinguish. Reese had been on auto-pilot since the lifeless body of his mentor had been spirited away by the coroner the night before. The pieces of Reese’s shattered soul lay scattered in the back field where Glenn’s life had tragically ended. There had been nothing left in him to feel the sting of worry when Alex had accepted Ronan’s offer to take her home.
Don’t blame her.
In Reese’s book, that could mean only one person. The stab of suspicion kicked him full in the gut. The anger that had kept him going through the night rose fresh and raw again. If Alex was responsible for Glenn’s death, Reese would hunt her down and eliminate her himself. Fuck the tribunal. Fuck a fair hearing in front of RISEN. Fuck his heart. There was no reason to murder an ancient vampire like Glenn, who had saved so many from self-destruction. If she were the cause of all his pain, Reese would kill her with his own hands. He made himself that promise as Ronan’s taillights had receded into the night.
