He fears separation will only lead to our demise, but I can’t turn back now. I am already running down the hall, back toward my bedroom. I need to find Will. He is human now, and without a vampire bodyguard, he is doomed.
I reach the door to the guest bedroom—the only room in the manor without a permanent resident—and find it still closed. I knock, hard, hoping I will wake Will before I realize how stupid that is. The manor is on fire. There is no time for pleasantries.
“Will!” I shout, hacking as I take in another lungful of smoke. Vampires do not require oxygen as desperately as humans do, and we can hold our breath much longer. If the smoke is affecting me this badly, how are Will and Holland holding up?
I hear someone fumbling behind the door, and when I grab on to the handle, I jerk my arm back, screeching. Grinding my teeth, I seethe, gnawing on my lip until the pain subsides. I glance at my palm. It is bright red, my skin raw, inflamed. As much as I want to run outside and sink my arm into a mound of snow, I do not.
“Will!” I scream again, realizing my friend is in grave danger.
If he is still alive, I think, before I chastise myself for allowing such dark, depraved thoughts to enter my mind. I need to think clearly, stay positive, or we will not survive to see the night.
I stand back, trying to remember the fire safety courses I was taught in school before my mother pulled me out to homeschool me. In this dire situation, I remember nothing—literally nothing—from those classes. What am I supposed to do when the doorknob is hot? I remember specific instructions, but I do not remember what they are.
Way to pay attention, Ava.
I make the sudden, and probably rash, decision to kick in the door, praying I can summon magic strong enough to smother the flames before I am engulfed. I know this is Will’s only chance at survival.
“Ava, wait! Don’t—” Jasik shouts. My sire is rushing toward me, but I have already made my decision. I have to help Will—at any cost.
I snap my leg outward, firmly planting the sole of my boot against the wood door. I thrust forward, kicking it in. The door flies into the room, disappearing into the darkness. The room is silent, still.
There is no fire.
“Will!” I shout again.
“Ava!” he calls from inside the room.
Will responds, his voice muffled. I enter the room, cradling my arm so I do not irritate my wound, but when I glance down, it is gone. The raw, blistered skin is healed. Did I recover? Or did I imagine it all? Was the doorknob even hot? Regardless, I do not have time to consider our circumstances. Not when the manor is soon to be ash.
I run to Will’s side just as Jasik reaches the doorway. Will is huddled in the corner, a wet towel wrapped around his face, covering his mouth. His eyes are teary, and he blinks several times as I approach him.
“Come on,” I yell, pulling him upright. He leans against me, weaker and lighter than I remember him to be, and we make our way through the smoke. The thick streams of haze seem to be stronger in his bedroom, yet there is no fire. How is that possible?
“What is going on?” Will shouts. He keeps one hand wrapped around my waist and the other covering his mouth, muffling his speech.
Even though I still hear and understand him, I do not respond, because I have no idea what is going on. And I am fairly certain that is not the answer he wants.
“We need to keep moving,” I order. We cross the threshold and step into the hallway, where the smoke seems less intrusive. It is still hard to breathe and becoming even harder to see, but there is something about greater numbers that makes me feel safer. Alone in Will’s dark bedroom, it felt like all eyes were on me, like we were not alone in the darkness.
The other hunters are cluttered in the hallway, guiding the vampires toward the end, where the stairs will lead us downstairs to the manor’s main level.
Then what?
Where can we go?
We can’t go outside, and waiting out the fire by hunkering down in the basement seems like an even worse idea.
We are trapped. I see it in the hunters’ eyes. No one wants to admit it, but