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Another scream. Jana. He broke Catalina’s hold. “Cat, get out of here! Run, and I’ll find you!” But first, he was getting Jana.
“I’m alive because I told them your weakness.” Her whispered words floated behind him. “I’m sorry, Zane.”
He spun back to face her. “Cat?”
Her shoulders were slumped. Her head down. “They were going to put on the third bind. I didn’t have a choice. They know about?—”
The drugs. Shit.
She looked up at him. A tear tracked down her cheek. “I’m sorry.”
The screams had stopped. He could smell smoke drifting in the air. Coming closer. “Fire’s coming.” Catalina’s weakness. “Get out. Just run!”
Fear had her eyes flaring wide, but she shook her head. “Not without the others.” She stumbled down the hallway, lifting her hand toward him. “Come with me, Zane. Don’t go back, they’re waiting for you! It’s all a trap.”
He knew it, but… “They’ve got someone I—” Someone, what? Someone he needed? Someone he sure as shit wouldn’t leave behind? She didn’t leave me. “I’m not leaving her,” was all he said.
Catalina’s lips parted, and her eyes seemed to lose a bit of focus. The shift in her glance always happened when she used her magic. “No.” A bit sad. “You can’t leave her.”
There wasn’t time to waste. Zane ran down the hall, bellowing Jana’s name.
A mass of swirling and crackling flames shot down the hallway. He shoved the fire to the side even as water poured down from the sprinklers above him. What the hell?
The door to the holding room was open. He rushed inside, and the smoke barreled its way down his throat. “Jana! Jana, pull back the fire!”
But Jana was lying in the middle of the room with her hair a black curtain around her face. Flames ate at the walls and the ceiling.
Beth stood near those flames with her body swaying.
Hell. He poured his power out as he fought the flames. The heat scorched his flesh.
The fire retreated from him, and he leapt to Jana’s side. She was slowly pushing herself up.
“Pull it back,” he growled, locking his fingers around her arms as he drew her close. “It’s okay, baby. I’m here now. You can ease up on the f?—”
She blinked at him. Her eyes were tired, weak, and dark blue.
He heard the laughter then. Wild, wicked laughter. He turned his head and found Beth staring at him—with eyes gone dark red.
“N-not me,” Jana stuttered as her hands twisted to hold tight to him. Her nails sank into his skin. “Not a-anymore.”
Another ball of flames flew straight at him. He threw his body over Jana’s even as he sent the fire slamming into the south-side wall with a psychic surge of energy. Jana coughed beneath him and shuddered.
“You’re going to die, demon!” Beth yelled, her voice rising above the flames. “You’re both going to burn!”
Zane glanced up and saw the flames rolling over the ceiling. Looked like clouds of fire. Not. Good.
“You should have joined us when you had the chance.” More laughter from Beth. “Now I’ll just burn you until there’s nothing left.”
The hell she would.
Zane threw up his hands, pushing a powerful wave of energy at her just as Beth’s flames came for him again. The flames froze in mid-air, caught between them, and Beth screamed.
“She won’t be able to…handle it.” Jana coughed again and pushed against him. “Not the first time…not…”
The flames swelled. They shoved against his hold. Burned so hot.
“The ceiling’s gonna fall.” Jana jerked from beneath him. “We’ve got to get out of here!” Her hands grabbed at his arms. “Come on!”
