Eternal Flame (Night Watch 3)

More screams. “Vampire bitch!”

Something heavy thudded, shaking the den. Probably a demon hitting a wall.

“I’ve got the cop.” Davey swiped the back of his right hand over his mouth and smeared the blood. “And the agent.”

His back teeth clenched. Attack. “I’ll find them both after I kill you.”

“No.” Davey shook his head. “You’ll find their bodies. I sprayed the blood all around the place. Without a shifter, you won’t be able to find ‘em. Not until it’s too late.”

Fuck that. He’d send out his blast and he’d find them.

“Tell you what …” Davey nodded, as if he’d just reached some kind of big, damn decision. “I’ll let you hunt ‘em. I’ll give you two minutes-because hey, you’re supposed to be the big, super demon, right? The badass hybrid.”

Zane didn’t speak, but his nostrils flared. He sent out his power, searching for Tony. Searching …

And he hit a damn brick wall of darkness.

Davey laughed and jumped back. “Really, did you think I’d make it that easy? I can’t let you just probe and find them.”

The f**ker had blocked the humans. Shielded them somehow.

“Two minutes,” Davey said again. “And this whole place will be going down. Think you can save one of them in that time?”

Flames began to flicker near Davey’s feet.

Zane sent out a hard burst of his power. The flames didn’t die. They didn’t flicker. They surged higher. Hotter.

“I learn from my mistakes.” Davey bared his teeth. Teeth that were too sharp for a demon. “This time, I’m using all of my power, too.”

And the little bastard was strong.

The lines of fire raced across the room, then the fire split in two, one branch of flames snaking toward the right, one to the left.

“Better hurry,” Davey murmured. “If the fire gets there first …”

Shit. Zane ran to the left.

“Choose well, demon. Because one of them is already dead. No point in saving the dead.” Death is already there.

“'Course, vampires don’t like the fire too much, either, do they?”

Zane didn’t look back at the taunt, but he felt the rush of heat and knew that Davey had sent another blast of flame out into the den. How was the demon so strong? Because he’d stolen power from the shifter? Or from a hell of a lot more paranormals?

“Dee! Simon! Get the hell out of here!” Zane shouted, and he kicked down the door on the left, ignoring the flames that burned his legs and his arms. That blood … he raced down the hallway, getting a few desperate inches in front of the fire. Hurry, hurry. Another door. Another—

His foot slammed into the door. Wood shattered. The thick stench of death hit him then. “No! Fuck, no, Tony!” He shoved his way past the broken wood.

But Tony wasn’t the one on the floor. Kelly lay there, her eyes wide open, and her throat ripped out. The flames raced toward her, as if homing in on her.

“Tony!” He spun around, but the flames were walling him in. Zane pushed his power at them, but that f**king kid was stronger than he was. Stronger than any demon he’d ever seen.

Playing with me before. Just jerking me around. More screams rose over the flames. Dee. Simon. They needed him.

Zane stopped pushing his power at the flames. He just ran forward and jumped right through the fire.

Something tapped her on the cheek. “Hey, pyro, come on, wake up.” Another tap, harder this time. “Zane’s not even around now. You’ve got to wake up soon.”

Zane. Her eyelids flew open, and she found Jude staring down at her, his nose less than an inch from hers.

“About time.” He grabbed her arms and hefted her up. Because she’d been on the ground. What? Why had she been lying on the ground? “I’m smelling fire, and I’m not leaving my team in there alone with the flames.”

Fire? His team? She stood on shaky legs and turned-then caught sight of Dusk. Jana sucked in a sharp breath. “That ass left me.”

“No, he tried to protect you.”

Same thing.

“But now they need us.”

Yeah, she could see that. “Then let’s get the hell in there.”

Zane raced after the second snake of fire, even knowing that he was too late. The den fell around him. The beaten walls couldn’t hold up against the flames again.

“Zane!” Dee’s desperate voice called through the fire and the smoke.

“Get out!” Vamps had a tendency to burn way too fast, and he didn’t want Dee burning because she was trying to save his ass. “Go!”

Everything was falling around him. He lunged forward, no longer even feeling the blazing bite of the fire on his flesh. The door had burned, and he rushed inside. Zane flew down a corridor, following the flames and—

Tony’s desperate eyes met his. The cop had a gag in his mouth, and he was handcuffed to a chair—and flames were eating at his legs.

Zane leapt across the room and knocked Tony back. They hit the floor, hard, and he started slapping at Tony’s legs. But those flames-those flames flared brighter.

They homed in on Kelly. They’re f**king doing the same with him. Zane had to get Tony out of there. He grabbed the cuffs, jerked, and they broke apart.

Tony started slapping at the flames.

“Run,” Zane shouted.

Tony coughed. Choked. “Wh-where?”

Because there was no way out. The flames had circled them. The flames had—

Zane blew out the back wall. He hoisted Tony over his shoulder and hauled ass, running right for the streams of sunlight he could see flickering through the smoke.

He hit the cement, and felt the bite on his knees. Zane glanced back. The flames were higher, surging and twisting, but not coming past the edge of Dusk.

Maybe there were some f**king limits to Davey’s power after all.

Tony coughed and heaved against him. Zane lowered him carefully.

“You got him!” Dee ran up to him, her face stained by soot. Simon was at her back. Sweat sliding down his face. “I knew you would!”

He hadn’t been so sure.

Tony was crouched on the ground now, almost hacking his lungs up.

“Those demons are burning in there.” Simon’s voice was cold, hollow. “They were pumped up so high that they ran toward the flames, not from them.”

The roof collapsed on Dusk. Far, far away-sirens called out. The human cavalry. Coming, at long last.