House Rules - Chloe Neill Page 0,113

his arms. Darius looked limp and pale, but he was still breathing.

“Little help?” Jonah asked.

“Working on it.” I ran to the door and propped it open just as Jonah hustled through.

Awkwardly, he trotted down the stairs, arms bulging under Darius’s weight. Vampires were strong, but he’d given Darius blood, and weakened himself in the process.

“Two minutes and thirty seconds until detonation,” said the warning voice.

“This is going to be close,” I muttered, gripping the interior railing as we moved as quickly as possible down the stairs to the sixteenth floor. When we reached it, I burst through the door and came face-to-face with the pointy end of Ethan’s sword.

“It’s me,” I said, tipping it out of the way. “Where is she?”

Lakshmi lay prone in one corner, unconscious, her arms chained to a length of plumbing that rose through the floor.

He looked at me. “I’ll get her. You get the hell out of here.”

Jonah appeared in the stairwell behind me, face pale, Darius in his arms. His eyes widened in surprise as he caught sight of Lakshmi in the corner.

“Michael chained her because they were trying to get away,” I said. “That’s how Darius made it to the roof.”

“And you hired that asshole?” Jonah asked Ethan, placing Darius on the floor and jogging toward Lakshmi.

“I didn’t know he was an asshole at the time,” Ethan murmured. Together they pulled at opposite ends of her chain, sweating with the sudden exertion of trying to break it apart.

“Katana,” I said. “I’ll aim for a link in the chain; you both pull her away.”

“Your katana isn’t strong enough,” Jonah said.

“It’s been tempered by my blood,” I said. “It’s strong enough.”

I had no idea whether my bluff was right, but what choice did I have? We had to try something.

“Two minutes until detonation,” said the announcer.

I didn’t give them time to argue, but raised my katana in the air. Realizing I was serious, they each grabbed one of Lakshmi’s arms and braced themselves.

“One, two, three!” I yelled, and, silently apologizing to the blade, I brought the katana down with all the force I could muster.

Sparks and metal flew, and I heard a pop that I bet was Lakshmi’s left shoulder, but the chain broke, and she tumbled into Ethan.

“One minute and forty-five seconds until detonation.”

“I really hate that lady,” Jonah said, helping Ethan lift Lakshmi into the air. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, and cast a glance from Ethan to the edge of the sixteenth floor, which disappeared into darkness.

“Let’s do it,” Ethan said.

We ran to the edge and looked down. We were sixteen stories up, and it was a long way to the ground.

“One minute and thirty seconds until detonation.”

“We’ll jump it,” Jonah said.

I shook my head, panic suddenly setting in. “It’s too far. I’ve never jumped that far before.”

“It’s not too far,” Ethan said. “Jonah taught you to jump, and I saw you do it in Nebraska. You can do this, too, Merit. Trust me.”

He looked over at me, and our eyes met. Promises and hopes and dreams swirled there, adrift in an ocean of fear. But we had to keep trying.

“One minute and fifteen seconds until detonation.”

“I love you,” he said.

Tears swam in my eyes, blurring my vision. I wiped them away with the edge of my sleeve. “I love you, too.”

“Anytime now, kids!” Jonah yelled out.

“Jump!” Ethan said, and I didn’t bother to hesitate. I hit the ledge at a full run and bounded over it toward the ground. Jonah did the same, with Darius in his arms, then Ethan, with Lakshmi in his.

We jumped.

* * *

For a split second, the entire city swam before us, the edges bent by the curvature of the earth. And then, as if gravity bowed to us instead of the other way around, the world slowed, and that single, gigantic leap became one small step.

But one small step with a hell of a lot of acceleration.

We hit the ground, buckling the asphalt before us. My knees ached with the force of the fall, but we were all still standing.

The percussions began to sound behind us. “Time’s up,” Ethan yelled out. “Run!”

Pain and fear disappeared. We were driven only by survival, by the need to escape the heat of the blasts that had already begun behind us.

We ran with speed that would have blurred our movements to any onlookers, then vaulted the fence just as the heat of the explosions began to grow. We made it a few more feet before the shock wave