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A hard shake of Jude’s head. “Not alive.”
The ceiling groaned again, and plaster fell to the floor. Time to get out of hell. Zane waved his hands, shoving back the fire as Jude raced for the door.
“Come on,” he told Jana, covering his mouth with his left hand. “Let’s?—”
She slumped beside him. Fell into his arms.
Too much smoke.
Dammit, how dumb could he be? Ignitors could start the fires, they could shoot out those flames, but their bodies couldn’t handle the smoke. That was why they worked better from a distance. Long-range assassins. See the target, send the flames, and escape.
He held her tight against his chest and ran for the door, dodging the lingering flames and the falling debris. Hold on, baby. Hold on.
Zane burst through the broken remains of the front entrance just seconds after Jude. He rushed forward and nearly slammed into the firefighters who charged toward the building.
EMTs were there. They tried to take Jana from him. Tried to pull her from his arms. “No, dammit!” He coughed and tasted ash. “We’re cuffed!” They weren’t taking her any place without him. He held her tighter and hurried to the ambulance. She’d need oxygen, fast. She needed to breathe clean air. Her mouth and nose were stained with ash. He put her on the stretcher. AN EMT placed a mask over her face.
“Get her a blanket!” Zane held her hand, probably too tightly but screw it. “She’s freezing.” Her body had begun to shake. “Jana?”
She moaned into the mask.
He was such a fucking idiot. All the Other knew that Ignitors could bring the heat, but the smoke—hell, it was fucking poison to them. They could control the flames, not the smoke.
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder. He looked back and saw Pak staring at Jana.
“It wasn’t her!” Zane snapped. “Look, I know what you’re thinking.” What Zane had even initially thought. “But it wasn’t her. She helped me. We saved as many as we could!” But Zane had seen the dead, and he would remember them for the rest of his life.
Hollings, the charmer who had a way with the ladies. Giles Lang, the hybrid demon who’d been trying to fit in. Stacey Keith—ah, hell, she’d been a year away from retirement.
All gone.
His thumb brushed over Jana’s knuckles. “She didn’t do it,” he said again.
“Then who the hell did?” The fierce question didn’t come from Pak. Jude had stalked up to the ambulance, and he watched Jana with eyes that glowed too brightly. “There was no accelerant. I didn’t catch so much as a whiff of scent?—”
Jana’s fingers tightened around Zane’s. His gaze snapped back to her face. Her eyes were opening, slowly, and the twinge of red still remained.
“A fucking Ignitor.”
She flinched at Jude’s snarl.
Zane hunched over her. “Back off!” He took a breath. Her eyes were on him. “It’s okay.” His voice was still rough, but softer, for her. “You’re going to be all right.” She looked so vulnerable. So defenseless. Another one of her tricks? A quick deception?
No. She’d fallen in that inferno. She’d sagged in his arms, and fear had iced his heart. “Just breathe, baby.”
But she was shaking her head. She shoved off the mask and started coughing.
“Jana!”
Tears leaked from her eyes. “How…many dead?”
His lips thinned. “At least three.” The fire had been too strong.
As he watched Jana, the vulnerability slowly disappeared. She swiped away the tears from her cheeks. The fear and the horror disappeared from her face until nothing remained.
Now she’s pretending. The mask was back, and he didn’t like it one bit.
She pushed up on the gurney and the blanket fell away. “We need to get out of here,” she raised, her voice hoarse from the smoke. “This was an attack, it was?—”
