Eternal Flame (Night Watch 3)

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 ass**les 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 f**king perfectly! The FBI was going to grab Jana, more of the paranormal ass**les were going to burn-killing two f**king 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.