Chapter Fifteen

Violet sprung into action, disappearing down the hall and into her bedroom. I could hear her throwing things around, probably attempting to pack, and Quinten followed suit. He ducked back into the room we’d been sharing, and he came back out with our envelope of money.

There was no telling when we’d need it.

“Violet come on!” Quinten shouted. “The place is on fire!”

Already smoke filled the hallways, and it began to seep in under the front door, filling the room with a thick, musky smell. I coughed, covered my nose with the collar of my shirt, and closed my eyes to keep the smoke out.

“Violet!” Quinten roared.

She appeared from her bedroom, carrying a large duffel bag that was overflowing with her possessions. I saw the edge of a golden picture frame, and a man’s watch peeking out from under the flap, and instantly figured that they were Peter’s before he was killed.

Of course she won’t leave his things behind, I thought to myself. I would never leave anything of Quinten’s behind if that was all I had to remember him by. It would be like losing him a second time, and God knows it was probably hard enough for her the first time.

Violet rushed past us, and ripped her front door open. It slammed against the wall, leaving a doorknob shaped dent in the wall, but it didn’t look like she cared. She turned to us. “Alright, let’s get out of here. Make sure to stay close to me and Quinten, Alanna. This fire can’t be a coincidence, since we just ran into Eli.”

I hadn’t even thought of that yet, but she was definitely right. Eli could be trying to force us out into the open so he could attack, but he’d be mad to do it in view of the police department, the fire department, and the news reporters.

Maybe that’s what he’s aiming for. What if he’s trying to expose vampires? He could be the one behind the Council member murders!

I had a lot to think about later, but for now I had to focus on getting me and my baby out of the apartment in one piece. Right now, that trumped everything else. I couldn’t worry about the other residents in the apartment building, or about Violet, or even about Quinten. I had to trust that they could take care of themselves…my baby couldn’t.

Quinten grabbed my hand and dragged me out into the hallway, which was filled with smoke and screaming people. Women scurried around, calling out for children lost in the smoke, and I felt a moment of hesitation. Shouldn’t we do everything in our power to help anyone we could?

I can’t be the cause of another child’s death, just because they had the misfortune of sharing an apartment building with Violet. I have to do what I can to help.

“Don’t even think about it Alanna!” Quinten snapped, pulling me closer. He wrapped his arm around my waist, refusing to let me out of his sight as he jogged after Violet. “You can’t help them without putting yourself or our baby at risk. This smoke isn’t good for him.”

Him? Since when is this baby anything other than a monster to him?

Quinten pulled me through the halls to the stairs, and I tried not to bump into anyone. All the residents were panicking, and I didn’t blame them. Violet’s apartment was a few floors up, and the floor above us had been almost entirely engulfed in flames. I couldn’t take the time to stop and think about the poor women and children caught up there.

I just couldn’t.

The walls of the building quickly caught fire, and the heat they gave off was nearly unbearable. I had to shove my free hand into my pocket, and pull down the sleeves of my sweater to avoid getting burns on my arms. It didn’t help that throngs of people were smashed together on the stairs, all clamoring for the escapes.

Parents got separated from their children, Violet got separated from us, and I got separated from Quinten. One moment he was there, pulling me forward, and the next, I was ripped away from him and lying face-down on the ground. People stepped around me, over me, and on me, all just trying to get to freedom.

One woman crushed my hand, and I tried my hardest to shield myself from further injury. I could hear Quinten screaming my name, but it sounded like it was getting farther and farther away, and that worried me. How strong did someone have to be to keep Quinten from getting back to me? Whoever was doing it certainly wasn’t human.

That meant that Eli probably had help, and right now those people were inside the apartment, trying to either kill me or drag me out for Eli to play with. I couldn’t let that happen, and I wouldn’t, not as long as I was still breathing.

The flow of bodies lessened, until I was alone on the floor of the hallway. I could hear Quinten still yelling my name, and I peeked up through the gap in my arms, and frowned. Standing two doors down from me was a man dressed all in black, from the hat on his head, the gloves on his hands, and the boots on his feet.

There was a red gas can in his hands, and he grinned. “Man, this place is ancient; it went up like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “It sucks for the people on the top two floors. I’m pretty sure most of them didn’t make it out. Oh well. Less humans to get in my way.”

I forced myself to my feet and I took a defensive crouch in the hall. My hands curled into fists, and I felt my entire body tense up in preparation for the fight to come. He sniffed with disdain, and cocked his head to one side. “You don’t actually think you can fight me, do you?”

“You don’t actually think I’m just going to lie down and take it, do you?”

He dropped the gas can, threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, I’m gonna enjoy this.”

He threw himself at me so fast I never saw it coming. One moment he was standing in the doorway, and the next he was tightening his hand around my throat. He lifted me off the ground and slammed me against the wall. My skull cracked, my vision blurred, and when it refocused, he was peering directly into my eyes.

His fangs were inches from my throat, and I wouldn’t let them get any closer.

I brought my knee up directly into his groin, and his grip loosened just enough for me to squirm my way free. I dropped to the floor, and threw my entire weight into a tackle that knocked him off his feet and onto his back. I wasn’t sure how fighting would affect the baby, but I knew that if I died, he’d die for sure.

I brought my hand down on his nose, smashing it into pieces. There was a split second where nothing happened, before it started gushing blood. He coughed twice, and I grabbed a fistful of his shirt, and slammed my head down into his. His eyes went unfocused, and I backhanded him across the face. He spit up a mouthful of blood, and I jumped to my feet and raced down the hall.

The building was still on fire, and the smoke from the fire two floors up had wafted down the stairs, and it filled the hallway. I coughed, and stopped to cover my mouth and nose with my shirt again. Smoke inhalation probably wasn’t great for me at the moment.

When I reached the next flight of stairs, I heard the sounds of fighting, and then Quinten’s familiar grunt of pain. I took the steps two at a time, trying not to think about the vampire one floor up that was most likely already on his feet and racing after me. If he was smart, he’d find a window and flee that way instead of coming back for round two.

When I reached the bottom step, I saw Quinten fighting two vampires dressed in a similar fashion as the one upstairs. Without hesitation, I threw myself at the nearest of the two, slamming my fist into his stomach so hard he doubled over wheezing. I brought my foot up and kicked him in the face, breaking his nose. His eyes started to water and he dropped the knife in his hand, giving me a chance to look at Quinten.

He was bleeding from a cut to his right bicep and another on his thigh, but he was otherwise unharmed. I turned back to the vampire in front of me just in time to receive a wild haymaker to the jaw, which sent me sprawling to the floor.

I brought my leg up and swung it out, before slamming it into his left knee. His kneecap shattered and he screamed in pain, before dropping to the floor of the hallway. That’ll take a moment or two to heal, I thought to myself. But he’d be back up on his feet soon enough and I didn’t want to give him that chance.

I picked up the dropped knife and, dodging his flailing arms, pierced his chest with the tip. His heart burst with a wet sounding pop, and his entire body took on a grayish tinge to it as all the blood drained from his body. He shriveled up like a prune, and then slumped to his back and stopped moving.

Quinten was still fighting the other vampire and, to make things easier on him, I yanked the knife from the corpse of the vampire I’d just killed and threw it. The point missed his heart, but buried itself in the right side of his chest. He sucked in a breath, and looked down at the knife protruding from his chest, almost like it was a reflex or something. In that moment, Quinten slipped behind him and twisted his neck.

It snapped, and he slumped to the ground. I didn’t think he’d get back up but, just to be sure, Quinten took the knife and pierced his heart, like I’d done just a moment before. For a second, he just watched the body of the vampire that had just tried to kill him, and I had to put my hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

“We have to go! This place is still burning,” I said, looking up and down the halls.

The hallway we were in was almost entirely shrouded in black smoke, and it was impossible to see the stairs down to the next level. Quinten took my hand though, and led me through the hallway, somehow more sure of his steps than I was. I trusted him completely, and just closed my eyes and let him lead the way.

The smoke on the second floor wasn’t nearly as bad, and I was able to actually see. Violet was there, sinking her fangs into the throat of some poor vampire that was stupid enough to challenge her. Then, she produced a titanium stake, and stabbed him through the heart. From nearly fifty feet away, I could still hear his heart burst, and I looked away so I wouldn’t see him convulse and shrivel up like a raisin.

Violet ripped the stake from his chest and turned to face us. Blood was spattered down the front of chin and neck, but miraculously none of it had gotten on her clothing. She wiped her face clean, and then licked the blood from her fingers. I tried not to shudder.

“Alright, let’s go,” she said, nodding to the stairs.

I could hear firefighters and the sound of water pounding the building. It wouldn’t be too good for the firemen to find us just standing around with a bunch of dead bodies so Quinten took my hand and dragged me down the stairs. I managed to stay close this time and, when we burst from the front door of the apartment building, we got several incredulous stares from people watching the building burn.

A firefighter grabbed my arm and steered me away from the building and to the back of an open ambulance. Before I could even protest, he placed an oxygen mask over my face, and left me to help someone else.

All around me, I could hear the sounds of wailing parents, crying couples, and screaming children. One woman was busy fighting two firemen that were trying to keep her from running back into the burning building for her daughter, who was being babysat by an elderly woman on the top floor.

Neither of them made it out.

The elderly woman had six children in her apartment, and all six of them, if they were lucky, died of smoke inhalation instead of the actual fire. Other than the woman and those six children, five other people hadn’t made it out, bringing the body count up to twelve.

If you didn’t count the three vampires that were dead for sure, and the one that started the fire. I really hoped he hadn’t made it out, since he’d caused so much pain and destruction. While I sat there breathing into an oxygen mask to help clear my lungs, Quinten was dragged away by a firefighter.

He struggled, but I shook my head. “It’s alright, just go. I’m not going anywhere.”

Quinten looked at the EMT in the back of the ambulance. “My girlfriend is pregnant. Take good care of her.”

The EMT immediately began checking my vitals while the firemen led Quinten away. He didn’t look happy to go, but he didn’t put up a fight anymore. The firefighters questioned him, and he kept shooting me nervous glances. From my position in the back of the ambulance, I could hear Quinten telling them about a “mad man” that set the building on fire, and then tried to kill us.

I really hoped the firefighters bought that, because if not, we’d be likely suspects. Aside from the firefighters inside, we were the last three out, and Quinten had blood down his pants from where he was cut. I wasn’t sure if that would work in his favor, or if it would work against him.

The EMT hopped out of the ambulance and looked at me. “Just take slow, deep breaths, and try to calm down,” he said. I’d been breathing a little faster than normal, on account of the fact I’d almost just been burned alive and murdered by what were probably vampire assassins. “I’m going to check on some other people, but I’ll be right back. Ok?”

I gave him a thumb’s up, and he left me alone in the back of the truck. I did what he told me to, and I took deep, even breaths. All around me, people were panicking, crying, or were passed out from smoke inhalation. I was just glad that for the moment both Quinten and I were still together and relatively unharmed.

This could have gone so much worse for us.

I immediately felt guilty at the thought of those wailing parents and their lost children, and I sighed. It seemed like everywhere I went I caused death and destruction. If I hadn’t been staying with Violet, these families would be broken and irreparable right now. These mothers would still have their children, and Violet would still have a home filled with her late mate’s things.

Suddenly, my eyes started to burn, and I hastily wiped away tears before they could finish forming. I did not need to cry right now. Crying was a sign of weakness, and I needed to stay strong for both Quinten and our baby.

“I thought you weren’t the crying type,” a voice purred from behind me.

Before I could even react, am arm wrapped around my throat, and Eli hauled me out of the back of the ambulance. I kicked and flailed uselessly. He had a tight hold on me, and I couldn’t even scream for help. There were dozens of people standing around, but they were too busy watching the building burn to the ground to notice me being dragged away down the street.

It helped that Eli could move faster than the human eye could follow, and before I knew it, I was being pinned up against the wall of an alley. He put his face inches from mine, and his smile grew, exposing his fangs. He leaned over and pressed his warm lips to my throat, and he chuckled. “I thought I might have imagined it earlier, but I didn’t. You’ve got a little monster growing inside of you…”

“He’s…not…a monster,” I managed to choke out.

Eli laughed, sending chills up my spine. It’d been a while since I’d been this close to him, and I’d almost forgotten how crazy he could be without even trying. This close up, I could see the derangement in his icy blue eyes, along with the hardness of his face. He wanted me dead, and it was only a matter of time before it happened.

His gaze traveled down to my stomach. “I should kill you now and just get it over with,” he murmured. “I have the feeling it’ll save me quite a bit of trouble down the road, but I must confess, I’m a little curious as to how this…baby…will turn out. I’m sorely tempted to wait until it’s born. Then I can just kill it, causing you pain, and you’ll be too weak from labor to fight back. I could easily kill you after.

“Hmm…decisions, decisions. I could always just rip it out of you now, and see what it looks like. Yes, I think that’s what I’ll do.” His fangs glistened, and his fingers curled into dangerous weapons. He was serious!

“No, please don’t,” I cried. “Don’t hurt him.”

His hand inched closer, and I struggled harder than ever before. The hand around my throat tightened, and black spots started to dance around my vision. I felt myself begin to fade away, and I knew this was it. I’d never see Quinten or my family again, and I’d never be able to see my baby. He and I were both going to die in this moment, and there was nothing I could do.

His hand pressed against my stomach, and I flinched. His nails dug into the flesh of my stomach, trying to burrow their way to my womb, where he could try to rip out my unborn child. I wasn’t sure there was anything to grab but, if there was, Eli was determined to find it.

Suddenly, a massive dull brown wolf slammed into Eli’s side, tearing him away from me. His fingers, embedded in my stomach up to the nail bed, ripped away, tearing a bit of flesh with them. I fell to the ground and twisted, careful to land on my side instead of my stomach. Eli’s screams caught my attention, and I looked up just in time to see the large brown wolf bite off Eli’s hand at the wrist.

With the hand in its mouth, the wolf turned around and darted out of the open alleyway, leaving a bleeding and shocked Eli behind. I was too weak to move, let alone get up and run, but I didn’t have to. Right now there was something Eli wanted more than his revenge on me…revenge on the creature that took his hand.

He got up shakily, and I noticed that his hand was bleeding sluggishly. Occasionally a spurt of blood would fly through the air, and I winced. Instead of attacking me again, he sprinted toward the opening of the alley and peered out. “This isn’t over between us, Alanna. I’m going to have my revenge if it’s the last thing I do,” he called over his shoulder.

When I looked up again, he was gone, and I was alone on the dirty floor of the alley. With Eli gone, I curled up in a ball and burst into tears. I was so confused! I didn’t know how to even begin explaining what happened; I just couldn’t believe it, even though I’d seen it with my own two eyes.

Scurried footsteps brought my attention back to the alley, and I looked up into Quinten’s terrified eyes. “Alanna! What happened? I looked over at the ambulance and you weren’t there!”

His gaze traveled to my stomach, where my shirt was torn and bloody. I could feel the wounds in my stomach, and I cringed. The shock was wearing off, and I could finally feel the pain that flared up when Quinten touched it.

“Oh, god, what happened?” he asked again.

Violet looked over his shoulder with a worried expression. “Alanna, what happened?” she asked.

“Roger Mason just saved my life…”