Zac’s mouth twitched as he nodded. “Deal. Thank you.”
“No, thank you. All of you.” She encompassed Lia in her gaze as well. “For allowing me to be a part of your world.”
“You have my brother to thank for that.” Lia winked. “If he hadn’t rescued you, you wouldn’t have known this world exists.”
Gwen nodded. “True. And if I—”
Something crashed through the stained glass of the entrance door causing Gwen and Faith to jump out of their seats and Lia to shriek. In an instant, fire blazed in the foyer immediately taking the center round table as its first casualty. Suddenly they heard something falling as though from the sky and another conflagration hit the outer wall by the courtyard.
“Fuck,” Zac swore. Gwen gawked when his eyes changed colour to red-orange. He and Faith approached the blaze trying to find something to tamp it down. Lia was behind them brandishing a huge bowl filled with water that sloshed as she ran.
“Stand back!” She threw the water at the fire but it only made the conflagration bigger. The smell of pine resin became overwhelmed by the smell of sulfur.
“Greek fire,” Zac roared, his face furious. “Everybody out!”
“My work,” Gwen cried.
“Can be replicated,” Zac snapped. The fire ran through the living room, voracious in its ferocity.
“I need my purse! My passport’s in there!”
“Bloody hell, Gwen! There’s no time!”
The fire roared around them.
“Lia!”
Gwen didn’t see what was happening, too intent on quickly getting to the room to grab her bag. When she whirled around, an exasperated and angry Faith was behind her.
“This is my only identification.” Gwen defended.
Faith didn’t wait for her to follow.
They rushed back to the dining room stepping back at the intense heat of the fire that quickly ate through the curtains and furniture. The acrid smell of burning blood and chemicals filled their lungs. Gwen’s laptop had succumbed to the heat, the screen cracking. The temperature was becoming intolerable. They both started coughing.
“The courtyard,” Faith shouted. “The gate on the other end!”
The pushed forward just as fire flashed against the patio doors blocking their escape. Glass splintered and shattered causing them both to turn away and shield their faces.
Suddenly a gust of wind surrounded them and a strong band wrapped around Gwen’s waist causing air to whoosh out of her. Her vision changed as the burning ground floor receded.
Zac placed her and Faith down inside Lia’s bedroom. The huge curtained window that looked out to the gardens was wide open.
“Climb over the sill.” He commanded, his voice raspy and hard.
Gwen went ahead scrambling over the sill followed by Faith. They moved away from where people could see them before Zac wrapped his arms around their waists again and gently brought them down to the ground. They sprinted away from the burning house towards the grilled fence where Lia busy giving directions to 911.
Several men swarmed around them. Some broke away after Zac spoke to them running interference and keeping the crowds away.
“Cynn mortals,” Faith said, her face smeared with soot.
“Can they help stop the fire?” Despair filled Gwen at seeing Marek’s home in flames.
“Short of throwing earth on it and creating a crater in the property, nothing,” Zac said, his face filled with rage. “No one saw who propelled the fire’s source into the house. I’ve called the Cynn mortal working in the police department to see if he can gain access to surveillance footage.”
Outside, the gates, people watched in horror as the house continued to burn. In minutes, two fire trucks arrived with hoses spewing out water that only further increased the flames. The heat was too intense and they had to evacuate the grounds. Gwen felt as though she was in the middle of a scorching desert rather than in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans. Even the leaves of trees twenty feet away from the furnace curled and dried up in the fiery heat. Unable to do anything, the firemen started dousing the nearby houses with water to protect them from any embers drifting from the burning house.
Gwen watched as the flames ate up iron and timber, her heart breaking at the loss that was almost her own. She glanced at Lia whose tears streamed down her face as she watched her house burn to the ground. She approached Marek’s sister and placed an arm around her shoulder.
“I’d rather be left alone, please.” Lia froze, her voice thick from her tears had anger threading through it. “This wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for you.”
Gwen reeled from the verbal slap.
“Lia!” Faith gasped in shock.
Lia closed her eyes. “Just leave me alone.” She ran towards Zac who was arguing with one of the firemen.
“Gwen, she didn’t mean it.” Faith held her firmly by the shoulders.
“Yes, she did.” Gwen dragged her eyes away from Lia to look at Faith. She was unable to stop the sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach or the cold that crept over heart like ice taking over a pond. “And she’s right.”
“No, she isn’t.” Faith was firm in her resolve. She turned to look at Zac in exasperation. “Zac’s telepathed, I have to go. When things die down, Lia will realize that what she said was stupid.” She paused, her eyes turning glassy before they cleared. “Zac wants all of us to dig around the house if we can. The firemen don’t have anything to battle it with and there’s no choice but to let it burn. The ditch will help stop the fire from spreading and will allow it to die down until the Cynn mortals can get the foam to douse it with.”
Faith didn’t wait for Gwen to follow her. Gwen watched Zac, starting to dig with his bare hands several feet away from the burning house. Huge packs of earth and grass created successive mounds by the side of the impromptu ditch. Faith followed suit, the strength of how she carved out the ditch almost inhuman. Taking a cue from Zac and the Cynn mortals Gwen had recognised patrolling the perimetre of the house, the firemen grabbed shovels and pick-axes from their trucks or anything they could find and started digging. Others continued to point the water hoses on the walls and roofs of nearby houses, watching and assessing the blaze from their vantage point.
Gwen searched around, looking for something to help her stab and gouge the ground. The heat was intense as the fire of a thousand tiny suns. Sweat poured down her cleavage with the whiff of January air cooling her back. Her face felt like it was melting under the heat from the tip of a Bunsen flame. She looked at the garage only too glad that Marek had taken his car and Hank had borrowed his bike. She sprinted to the garage. The fire hadn’t reached it yet but as she went she couldn’t stop the small terrified sounds coming from her throat when she heard glass splintering, her arm automatically shielding her face. Marek had left the garage door open and Gwen quickly entered looking for a shovel.
Lia was right. She had brought this on them. It didn’t matter that Marek had offered to help or that he had asked her to stay in his house. She should have followed her instincts, stayed in a hotel and cooled her heels there instead of involving all of them, or temporarily rented a place where she could study Marek’s blood. Marek’s house would still be standing.
And she wouldn’t have known what it was like to deeply fall for him.
She felt so alone, unfettered. And with the house burning down, Marek had nothing and she had lost him in the process. Would he blame her for the destruction of his home? She wouldn’t hold it against him the same way Lia did. She had to leave, not that it would bring back the house but at least, by leaving she nullified the chances of putting Lia and Marek in danger again. She couldn’t put Zac and Faith in danger either. She had to stop all of this.
Before she left Marek behind.
Marek hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand in frustration. What the hell was going on for traffic to back up at this time of the day? Mid-day bumper to bumper traffic that hardly crawle
d was unusual. He looked away to the side in frustration.
“Bannach, smoke.” Rogue pointed to him from the passenger seat.
Dread filled Marek. “That’s close to the house.” He looked around. Shit! There wasn’t any space to manoeuvre his Alfieri to the side. Fuck the car.
Marek climbed out and slid over the car’s hood before Rogue got out. Horns blared and expletives were hurled at them. Marek didn’t care.
They ran through the streets as quickly as the wind, their fireblood giving them super human strength.
“That’s the house!” Rogue roared.
Gwen!
They ground to a stop just outside the cordoned off area. Shock immobilized Marek. What the hell happened? He didn’t know how the house burned so quickly. Zac and Faith were digging a trench around the house together with the firemen. Marek’s jaw clenched. Greek fire. Who the fuck had Greek fire? Marek’s narrowed and furious gaze took in the destruction. He had lost his home but the memories would remain but he would never be able to take the loss of Gwen.
Where is she?
Panic seized him. Rogue rushed to Lia who stood to one side. Firemen and the police kept the crowds away. Cynn mortals, those who Marek knew, helped step up the digging. But Gwen was nowhere to be found.
“Lia! Where’s Gwen?” He rushed to his sister.
“Marek, I’m sorry,” she sobbed against Rogue, her eyes pleading. “I’m so sorry.”
“What did you do, Lia?” Rogue pushed her at arms’ length, his voice troubled. “What happened?”
“I pushed her away. I said horrible things.”
“Gwen,” Marek shouted. Disbelief mixed with his desperation. He sprinted towards the house. She couldn’t have been left inside. The heat was unbearable but he’d been in worse fires.
“Marek,” Faith shouted, stepping away from what she was doing. “Gwen’s out.”
Marek closed his eyes. He bent down from the waist, gripping his thighs, relief washing over him. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” Faith wiped her brow with the back of her hand causing a line of dirt to smudge her forehead. “I had to help Zac contain the blaze. I left her over there.”
Faith pointed to the spot near the garage, but Gwen wasn’t there.
“Marek!”
He whirled around when he heard Hank.
“Gwen’s gone,” Marek snarled. The thought of Gwen disappearing was robbing him of thought.
“And Sebastian Highmore is here. In New Orleans.” Hank informed him, his voice grim.
“Fuuuck!” Think Bannach. Think!
“Marek.” His name was just a whisper that he thought he was hearing things. “Marek.”
He looked beyond the spot Faith had pointed out. His relief was boundless at seeing Gwen walking toward him from the garage. She had a shovel in her hand but his joy was cut short. Even at a distance, he saw the regret that filled Gwen’s gaze and the pain that contorted her face.
He moved to her slowly.
She faltered.
He strode briskly.
She fell to her knees.
He sprinted shouting her name.
She fell, face first to the ground.
“No,” he roared in anguish, sprinting to turn her around. “Gwen. What happened? Gwen!”
Gwen was shivering, her eyes lolling in her head.
“Marek.” She gasped.
Marek searched her body, there were no signs of bullet wounds.
“Baby, please. Tell me.” He tried to remove the panic in his voice but Gwen’s ashen face and clammy skin wasn’t helping.
“I’m…co…old.”
“Yes, I know, babe. I’m going to help you okay?”
Gwen jerked her head several times in assent.
There was no time for Marek to hide what he was going to do. They were far enough from the people’s focal point. He didn’t give a shit if people noticed.
“I’m going to hold your hand, okay,” he stated gently.
“Why?” Gwen’s feverish eyes held her innate curiosity. Marek would have kissed her if it weren’t for the peril she was in.
“I need to take out whatever is inside you.”
“The…pl…plague?” Her head rolled from side to side, her face suddenly contorting in pain. Her lips stretched in a grimace and a wail broke from her throat. Her face relaxed as the pain eased. “The…dream…”
Gwen was hallucinating. Marek had to move fast. He lay his hand on the grass that was cool and warm at the same time. He encircled Gwen’s wrist with his other hand. He didn’t know what was inside her or if she would feel any pain. But he had to try to take out what was making her deteriorate rapidly.
He closed his eyes concentrating on the disease inside Gwen, searching for it, honing on the point of entry which he couldn’t find on her skin until his blood sensed the pin prick on her thigh. Marek hissed. The virus was spreading and mutating fast. Marek’s jaw clenched. Eyes shut he moved his hand and grabbed Gwen’s thigh. Gwen let out a scream jarring Marek for a split second that he opened his eyes.
“It hurts!”
“I know, baby,” His heart twisted inside his chest. Gwen was sweating and her face reflected her agony. “I know. It will be over soon.” He didn’t really know that but he needed her to believe in something so that she could hold on. He pressed down and hardened his heart against the pain she Gwen was going through.
And she was dying.
“No!” he roared.
He had healed so many people through his long life. Why couldn’t he heal the woman who meant more to him than his own existence?
You will heal her.
His eyes snapped open to find out who spoke. A beautiful woman with shiny jet black hair flowing down to her waist and golden skin appeared a few feet away and watched him. She wore clothes that harked back from a time when man based the passing of time on the rising and setting of the sun. Her eyes were the same colour as his. Her face kind.
You will heal her. She continued even though her mouth didn’t move. Find it in you to bring out your wall of fire. Only then can you save the one you love.
“But I can’t,” Marek said, his voice thick. “I’ve never healed with a wall of fire. I don’t have time to learn that now and Gwen is dying.”
The woman looked at Gwen then smiled.
Only this once, Firebinder. Then it will be your turn to teach those of our kind.
She raised her arms looking up to the sky. The earth shook under Marek. He knelt taking a now feverish and unconscious Gwen into his arms as a wall of flame surrounded them both.
Marek didn’t waste time. Instead of just holding on to her wrist, he let his entire body absorb whatever was killing Gwen. He grunted as his body did as he commanded, opening his pores up to siphon out the disease. His fireblood took notice. It greedily siphoned every bit of the virus, sucking it out of Gwen, covering it and passing it through Marek’s veins. He grunted as pain shot through every nerve ending as the disease battled with his blood’s healing gift. Satisfied that he had been able to take out everything, Marek immediately sank his fingers into the earth, his hand easily sinking into the ground. The pain was excruciating. His pulse hammered him as though it had a mind of its own, pounding against his temples, his back, the back of his eyes. His heart. He thought that the beating muscle would explode inside him. He forced himself to stop thinking of the pain and concentrate on pushing the disease to the ground where the earth’s mantle would burn it to nothingness.
Marek held on to Gwen. His hand held on to the earth. He felt the disease scream in fury through his veins as his fireblood pushed the virus through his system and into the earth like thick tendrils of black ooze with a stench so disgusting for it to even have a name. Soon, Marek felt the vestiges of the disease ran down his arm, his wrist, his fingers, and finally out of his nails. The moment the disease left him, the wall of fire sank to the ground. Marek saw his mother’s now charred garden once more, smelled the acrid burning of his family h
ome, and heard the chatter of the crowd and the shouts of the firemen.
You’ve done well, Firebinder. The woman said. A smile ghosted on her lips.
“Thank you…Immaru,” he whispered.
Immaru nodded her approval and bowed before her apparition disappeared.
“Marek!” Rogue sprinted to him. “What the hell happened? One minute you’re here, the next minute you’re gone.”
Zac and Faith followed. Lia lagged behind, her face forlorn.
Marek had no time to explain. He looked down at Gwen, brushing away the wet tendrils of her hair. Her lips were parted, her breath fanning him from her blue tinged lips. Relief added to the weakness he felt. The woman he loved was alive. That was all that mattered. Recuperation and rehabilitation would come next and he’d be there for her. Whether she liked it or not. But his joy was short-lived because Gwen’s breathing suddenly stuttered.
“Gwen…” he spoke softly, tamping down his fear. “Baby, wake up for me.”
But Gwen’s head rolled against his chest, her breathing laboured. The chills had left her now she was burning. Marek’s heart squeezed until he thought he couldn’t breathe.
“Gwen, please.” He tried not to beg, tried to be strong. But the very idea of Gwen slipping away from him once more was too much for him to bear and his heart broke. He curled her closer into his arms to whisper into her ear.
“Don’t let this thing between us disappear, Gwen Fraser. Don’t let it end either because I have fallen for you. I love you, Gwen. Stay with me. Please stay with me…”
Marek rocked Gwen’s body against his own as he continued to ask her to stay. Moments later, Gwen heaved a breath. The tension that everyone around them felt lifted like the smoke rising up from the burning ruins.
“Stay with me, Gwen.” Marek stopped rocking to look at her face, and lose himself in her moss green eyes.
“I will,” she mouthed, too weak to put any sound in the words before she gave in to oblivion.
Firebinders: Marek (The Firebinders Book 1) Page 21
