Blood Flame (Flame 1)

How?

You’ll think of something but now I must go. Connor felt Heather shift her focus, though he didn’t understand why until she spoke his name. Connor, a thousand apologies for using you as I did to take my own life. I didn’t realize how much I’d hurt you until Violet told me. Will you forgive me?

Connor hadn’t expected Heather to address anything with him. And Violet was right, Heather’s death had ruined something inside his heart. Still, in this moment, he couldn’t hold it against her. This is a hellish world. I only wish I could have saved you that night.

I didn’t know I could trust a vampire. I thought you’d send me back to my abductors.

You had no reason to think differently.

Good-bye, Connor. And Evan, remember, you must atone and do it now. Or I will be lost to you forever. Our son, too.

Connor felt there was something significant in these last words about atoning, but he didn’t know what. Maybe her insistence that Evan ‘do it now’ referred to the location.

The next moment, a soft breeze blew through the terrible space. Heather departed, and the fight left Evan completely.

“I’ve made a mistake,” he said quietly. “You can let me up now.”

Connor’s cop training made him leery. But his instincts, enhanced by his time with Iris, caused him to levitate off Evan. However, he retained control of Evan’s sword.

He flew back slowly several paces, holding his hands wide, the blade secure in his grip, knees bent. If Evan attacked again, he was ready.

But Evan looked wrecked as he stared at Connor. He even looked around the space as though wondering how he’d gotten here. Iris still held Seraphina in a vampire thrall, a very strange thing to see, when she was just a witch. The dark cloud of Seraphina’s spell had disappeared as well.

Evan called to the vampires waiting outside the building. When they flew in, he quickly took one of their swords.

Connor moved swiftly in Iris’s direction, wondering if he’d just made the worst mistake of his vampire life.

But Evan dismissed the vampires, ordering them to return to their homes. He then drew close to Connor. “When I give the word, I want you to take Iris out of here as fast as you can. We had the place wired.” There it was, the reason Heather had told Evan to take care of business now. He understood then what Evan meant to do.

Connor nodded to him. “Let me contact Iris first.”

Evan dipped his chin.

He reached for Iris telepathically. Did you hear Evan?

Yes.

Do you trust him?

I do.

I’m going to grab your shoulders and pull you out of here at exactly the same time, a single smooth flow of motion. Do you understand and do you trust me?

Yes and yes. Absolutely.

Then we’re good to go.

Connor nodded to Evan.

“On three,” Evan said, sounding unusually calm. “One … two … three … ”

At the same moment that Connor wrenched Iris away, he watched Evan’s sword slide into Seraphina’s stomach.

Connor pulled Iris tight against him, then flew her swiftly through the doorway and into the air, higher and higher, but arcing southeast toward Elegance.

The explosion followed within three seconds of their departure and was bigger and louder than at Sentinel. This time they weren’t directly beneath the blast. However, the ensuing shockwave catapulted them even farther into the night sky.

He didn’t try to battle the wave, but flew with it until it dissipated. When they were a full mile distant, Connor slowed his flight, turning them in the air to face No Man’s Land. The debris cloud obscured the night and car alarms sounded all over Five Bridges.