Into the Flames

by Multi-Author

  “I know what you told me, child. But I have eyes, don’t I? You’re dragging around here like you haven’t been feeding enough.”

  Alex propped the dish bucket on her hip and reached up to caress his cheek. “I appreciate that you worry about me, Glenn, but really, I’m fine. I just had something that needed to be done tonight. I couldn’t put it off. It’s done now. I told you I’d be back and now I’m here.”

  “Well, at least leave the dishes and take Hope home. With all that’s been going on in town, I don’t want her walking home alone tonight.”

  “Fine, but you can’t keep me from coming back and helping you close up.”

  Before he could argue, Alex disappeared through the kitchen door Hope held open.

  “What was all that about?” Hope asked as the door flipped closed behind them.

  “You know Glenn. He worries too much.” Alex set the bucket of dishes in the sink and turned on the faucet, relieved to be away from Glenn’s scrutiny. She’d heard the faded sound of his concerned thoughts and had shored up her mental blocks. His suspicious gaze had searched her face seeking the truth. Perhaps remorse had her misreading his furrowed brow. It was probably nothing more than concern puckering his wise expression and pursing his lips, but the intensity sparking in the ancient vampire’s eyes had churned the guilt in her belly. Alex hated being so duplicitous, even if she did it to protect Glenn.

  “Yeah, well you don’t look like you’re feeling so good.” Hope dragged a chair from the corner and settled at the butcher block island in the middle of the kitchen. “You’ve been losing weight.”

  Alex had felt an instant connection with this woman a year ago when the human had started dating Josh and coming into the tavern with the firemen. After thirty years of being immortal, it felt good to make a true connection with the normal life that had been ripped from her. “Don’t you start on me, Hope Grayson.”

  “I’m just saying. You’ve been moping around the last few weeks like somebody ran over your dog.”

  “Don’t be so melodramatic.” Alex added soap to the bin and let the suds overflow the dishes. “I don’t even own a dog.”

  Hope drained her martini. “Figure of speech, my dear. Figure of speech. My point is you look like shit. Your eyes are carrying more bags than the Duchess of Cambridge on a three day press junket. And your hair? Well let’s just say I’ve seen straw with a softer texture.”

  Alex hadn’t noticed until this moment how the words slurred from Hope’s lips. She laughed, trying to make light of the brutal truth of her best friend’s assessment. “How many drinks have you had?”

  “Three. But don’t change the subject. What’s going on with you? I’m a reporter. I smell a story.”

  Alex couldn’t tell Hope the truth. There were just too many things her friend wouldn’t understand, like how the exhaustion weighing down Alex’s limbs went against her very nature. Or how the fabric softener Hope used on her clothes used to mingle pleasantly with her over-priced perfume, but now caused Alex’s stomach to sour. Bone-weary and barely able to pull herself through her days, Alex hoped she would soon be on the road to feeling like the person she hadn’t been in many decades. But there was no way to explain any of that to Hope without exposing a world that existed only in the woman’s nightmares.

  Trying to lighten the mood, Alex forced another laugh. “What you smell, Miss Hope, is the alcohol stewing your brain.” She dried her hands on her apron, untied it and threw it on the sideboard. “I’ll leave those to soak. We need to get you home.”

  Hope stood and hugged her tightly. “And you my dear friend need to get some sleep. I don’t like seeing you this way.”

  “You’re as bad as Glenn. You both worry too much. I’m fine.”

  Hope held her at arm’s length, her gaze scouring her face, but Alex refused to break. The woman could tell she was lying. Alex could see the disappointment in the way she shrugged and headed out the kitchen door. Like Glenn, Hope had too much respect for her privacy to call Alex on her obvious lies. Guilt knotted hard in her gut, making her queasy, but Alex had no choice in the matter.

  No one—least of all an honorable vampire like Glenn or an innocent human like Hope—needed to know what she’d been doing tonight.

  Chapter Two

  Though everything around Reese hummed with nervous energy, including the humans pumped up on adrenaline, his bunched muscles remained still. Sitting in the back seat of Engine One as it screamed through the night, Reese was singularly focused on the job ahead. When he’d accepted this assignment a year ago, he’d held little hope being undercover as a firefighter would offer much in the way of excitement. Given his physical superiority, he’d been pleasantly surprised by the grueling demands firefighting required of both his mind and body. He’d actually grown to enjoy the easy comradery of his team and the challenges they faced together as they fought to control a fire.

  The air tank strapped to his back had been released from its storage area in the back of his seat within minutes of closing the back door. Both the gloves and mask in his hands would be pulled on at the scene. Even immortals couldn’t survive the high heat and noxious fumes fires produced.

  Josh sat beside him, working the thermal imaging camera out of its holding box and powering it on. Reese leaned forward, making sure the images were feeding to the monitor sitting on the floor between them. If someone was trapped, they were assigned the rescue. Even after thirteen months in the department, no mortal had discovered the unique talents the two men possessed that made the job of pulling victims from burning buildings a simpler task.

  The engine turned into the parking lot of an apartment complex, everyone in the truck evaluating the scene. Only one apartment on the second floor of the structure was currently involved. An orange hue glowed from its windows, but no flames had escaped into the night. Probably a kitchen stove fire or a cigarette carelessly tossed into a bedroom wastebasket. The residents of the building huddled in dazed confusion in the corner of the parking lot. Many clutched clothing, photos or purses like prized possessions, knowing it may be all that remained after the beast raging above them had been slain. A young couple comforted each other and a crying infant. Reese assessed all this in the seconds it took Timmons to pull the engine into place.

  The firefighters jumped from the truck, each knowing the role they would play in saving people and property. An older man broke from the crowd, running toward the engine, frantically waving toward the building and shouting, “She’s still up there.”

  Deputy Chief Sykes laid a beefy hand on the man’s shoulder. Frantic victims didn’t disseminate accurate information. Mere seconds meant the difference between rescue and recovery. “Tell us who’s up there and where she might be.”

  “Mrs. Linscott. She’s got Alzheimer’s. Back apartment. Second floor. I tried—”

  Sykes turned to his men. “Burkett. Colton. Don’t wait for water. They’ll be right behind you. Fire appears contained on the west side. Watch yourselves that it doesn’t flash over.”

  Reese didn’t need to look behind him to know McLeod was running a line from the hydrant to the engine while Timmons pulled the hose from the rack on the truck. The two men would work together to bring water into the building while he and Josh began the search. Their platoon was a finely tuned instrument, each moving in perfect synchronization and complement to the rest of the team.

  It went against Reese’s baser nature to run toward fire. And that’s exactly why he and Josh had taken these jobs. The tribunal believed no one would look for vampires working as firefighters and their undercover investigations would be more fruitful. They’d been accepted without question into the brotherhood. And though it appeared no one suspected what they were, they weren’t any closer to discovering the motive behind the unsolved fires than they were thirteen months ago when they’d arrived.

  With his bunker suit and the air tank strapped to his back, Reese had added no less than sixty-five pounds of ge
ar. He barely felt the added weight as he donned his mask, flipped the switch at the bottom of his air tank and entered the building, noting the lack of smoke in the foyer. He leaped up the six stairs to the first landing in one bound, his gaze sweeping the darkness of the two lower apartments. No one here. Rounding the corner, he could hear the pull of air behind him as Josh followed. Both reached the second landing in two graceful leaps.

  Reese turned another corner, looking up the eight steps to the second floor. The heart of the fire lay ahead of them and to the left. It pumped black smoke into the hall like blood through arteries. The light on Reese’s shoulder barely cut through the dense air. If there was someone up there, they needed to move quickly. Fire. Smoke. A disoriented elderly woman. It was a sure recipe for disaster.

  Neither McLeod nor Timmons could see from this angle, so he and Josh jumped to the second floor hallway.

  Fed by furniture, carpeting and wood, the fiery animal to his left mushroomed. Windows exploded in the burning apartment and instinct would have had them ducking from the intense heat. Instead, they both pushed forward, searching the small apartment.

  “Call out. Anyone here?” Josh yelled into the smoke. Even without a response, they opened every door and closet and looked under every bed before confirming the apartment was empty. As the hungry flames reached out and devoured the living room drapes, leaving the remnants dripping across the couch, Reese and Josh left the apartment. The fire wasn’t their concern. Timmons and McLeod were nearly at the top of the stairs with the hose at the ready. They would battle the tempest into submission while they searched for victims.

  He and Josh entered the second apartment. No lights were on, but with his keen sight Reese didn’t need them to see that only smoke, not flames rolled along the ceiling in this apartment. It hadn’t yet come down to eye level. For the benefit of anyone who might be watching the monitor in the truck, Josh swept the imaging camera around the living room.

  “Clear.” Josh’s voice was tinny and hollow through the side speakers of his mask.

  “Hello. Anyone here? Call out.” Reese hollered into the apartment. Nothing.

  Josh moved through the living room toward the kitchen while Reese split off to search the rooms on the other side of the apartment.

  “Clear,” he heard Josh shout again.

  Turning the corner into the hall, he nearly ran into her. The frail woman appeared unaffected by his presence. Veins glowed through the papery skin of her hands. Her nervous fingers laced and rolled over each other as her eyes searched the night. A cotton nightie ballooned on her frail frame. “Dark. It’s so dark. Where’s Benjamin?” Her pale eyes turned to him. He watched the soft expression of confusion harden to terror. “You’re not here to help me find Benjamin. You … you …” Her finger shook at him as her shuffling feet moved her unsteadily toward the refuge of the bathroom behind her. “You unholy creature. Don’t come near me.”

  Damn. Reese had no idea if the bunker gear frightened her or if unconsciously she sensed something deeper. Animals, children and the elderly often sensed his true nature.

  It didn’t matter what spooked her. He needed the docile victim of a moment ago, not the frightened women stubbornly backing away from him. Reese pulled off his face mask. Definitely not procedure, but he needed her to see him as human and calm down, or taking her from her apartment would not be pleasant for either of them. “Mrs. Linscott. I’m Reese. I’m a local fireman. You need to come with me. Your building is on fire. You aren’t safe.”

  “Benjamin!” she shouted for help as she retreated into the bathroom and attempted to shut the door. Reese held it open with his heavy boot. The radio in his ear confirmed Timmons and McLeod were getting ahead of the fire next door. Still, they needed to find this Benjamin and get them both clear of the building in case it flared and the situation became more dangerous.

  Josh entered the hallway and shot Reese a quick look and smiled. He left him to deal with the belligerent occupant and wordlessly went in search of Benjamin.

  “Mrs. Linscott, Benjamin is outside and waiting for you.” Hell if Reese knew if that were true, but he wasn’t above lying to keep someone out of harm’s way. He’d clear out this woman and let Josh worry about the other occupant.

  “Benjamin? You know where Benjamin is?” Her death grip on the bathroom door relaxed.

  Josh came out of the bedroom, the camera hooked to his gear. The heavy gloves on his hands protected him from the claws of a snarling cat. Animals, especially cats, didn’t like vampires. Reese bit back a laugh.

  “Benjamin.” The woman gracefully pushed past Reese and grabbed the cat from Josh. With her attention on the animal, Reese replaced both his mask and air supply and directed her to the door. He’d carry her if he had to. But at the moment there was no imminent danger and he could let her move at her own pace to safety.

  White walls of steam had replaced the black smoke in the hall. The orange glow was gone, leaving only the heaviness of the night and the thudding sound of an axe against a wall. A stove fire. Josh broke off to check on the charred apartment and help the others assess the walls for hot spots. The supply of water no longer needed, the hose lay limp and flat at their feet.

  Reese led Mrs. Linscott and her feisty cat down the stairs and into the waiting embrace of her worried daughter.

  Deputy Chief Sykes was focused on the radio as Reese moved to the engine. “We’ve got another call,” he said simply. Reese didn’t need to hear any more. He’d learned to read the man months ago. Though his words were calm, tension sluiced off Sykes in waves and Reese immediately ran to the building to help Timmons and Josh retract the extra hose.

  “Colton, Burkett and Timmons with me in the engine.” He heard over his radio. “We’ll leave McLeod with the tanker. They’re calling in everyone. Let’s get moving. This one’s big.”

  * * *

  Before the last three patrons had left, Alex had worked her way through the small kitchen. The grease was scooped and turned off and the dishwasher hummed its way through the last load of dishes. Without Chris to help in the kitchen, they hadn’t served anything that wasn’t pre-packaged, couldn’t be nuked or dropped in the deep fryer. It hadn’t really mattered. Patrons landing at O’Malley’s in the late evening weren’t seeking comfort from a great steak or delicious sandwich. They were usually looking for the pity party found at the bottom of a beer bottle or shot glass.

  Alex swiped at the sticky table, stifling another yawn with the back of her hand. She’d deposited Hope safely back at her apartment, wishing she too could have headed home. Refusing to give credibility to Glenn’s concern, she’d returned to the tavern and now pushed herself to get through their nightly closing routine.

  Co-owning a family tavern like O’Malley’s had been her lifeline over the years. Thirty years was a long time to tend bar and draw drafts. Customers of the tavern didn’t seem to notice that she hadn’t aged in that time. Though the lack of wrinkles was a definite plus, Alex detested being a creature of the night. Most vamps enjoyed the company of their own and sought the rowdier establishments in the valley. Not Alex. Solitude and quiet were more her speed. This tavern, nestled in the quiet hills, offered cover for her true identity. It was also remote enough to keep prying eyes from discovering her clandestine activities. With everything set in motion, she only needed another month, maybe two, and then she’d move away without anyone, including Glenn, knowing what she’d been doing.

  Until then, she’d keep up appearances.

  Not wanting the man behind the bar to suspect something was wrong, Alex kept her complaints to herself. As Glenn polished the seasoned mahogany, she wordlessly moved on to stacking chairs and cleaning the floor. Next he’d cover the drink garnishes and transfer them to the fridge out back and she’d stack the clean glasses. Their routine was a graceful ballet they’d performed so many nights, the choreography required nothing more than the pulsing rhythm of the late night show playing on the corner televisio
n.

  She hated lying to the ancient vampire. Glenn had been one of the original vampire clan who’d come over from Europe in the late 1700s. He’d settled in South Kenton years before she’d arrived as a fresh-faced college kid from back east ready to find her independence and take on the world. It hadn’t quite unfolded as she’d planned. After her accident freshman year, Glenn had become her surrogate father. He’d nurtured her, showed her how to control the beast and taught her what it meant to be immortal. She, in turn, had bought an owner’s share of the tavern and used her chemistry skills to help perfect their blood wine.

  Glenn believed in the vampire codes and that immortality was a blessing bestowed on only a select few humans strong enough to survive the transition. Alex believed it was an unnatural curse that had stolen her life. She would go to any lengths to be sure no other human had to suffer the way she had.

  If Glenn knew what she was up to, Alex had no doubt it would break his heart. As much as she hated what she was—she loved the man who had created her.

  She’d become all too familiar with the signs of need. “Push through the next thirty minutes and the night is yours,” she mumbled, trying to convince her body to ignore the gnawing in her gut and the throb at her temples. There was only one thing that pushed the nausea and dizziness back into the void and made this whole thing manageable. As exhausted as she was—sleep wasn’t going to help.

  “Alex?” Her name was spoken with persistence, pulling her from the fog of self-pity. “I think you need to see this.” Glenn grabbed the television remote, turning up the volume.

  Alex stared in disbelief.

  Hope stood in front of the news camera, the chaotic scene behind her incongruent with her calm voice and flawless appearance.

  How had she gotten there so quickly?

  “… the home of Professor Paul Morgan.” Hope said before looking down at her notes. “We know several surrounding towns have been called in to fight the blaze, but we have no information whether anyone was in the home.” The cameraman zoomed in on the mansion being devoured by the deadly fire. Firefighters in heavy gear worked hoses spewing water that didn’t seem to be slowing the progression of the flames.