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I’d heal. Eden wouldn’t, not if she was in that inferno.
Still holding my breath, I rose to my feet and examined the door blocking my way. The fire had eaten deep into the wood. A single hard kick, and I was through.
Brien caught up with me in the hall. Flicking a smoldering ember from my shoulder, he said, “Twilight went back for the boat. Cain’s seeing if there’s another way in.”
I tested the smoke-filled air with a shallow inhale. There was enough oxygen for my needs, although I couldn’t see more than a meter or two in front of me.
“What about Pascal?” I asked.
“I staked the motherfucker.”
“Good.”
We hadn’t gone three meters when we came across a man lying face down in a pool of blood. Nice clothes, dark hair touched with silver.
The hairs on my body lifted. Beside me Brien muttered a curse.
I crouched, turning the man over. Esposito stared unseeingly up at me, his throat torn, skin ashy from having his blood drained.
A muscle jumped in my cheek. “I think we found Eden’s kidnapper.”
“Yeah.” Brien shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
An impotent rage coiled in my belly. Too bad the SOB was already dead because at that moment, I could’ve killed him myself.
“Don’t be,” I returned flatly, rising to my feet. “He got what was coming to him. But where’s Eden?” The terrible fear slashed at my chest again.
I squinted into the dense smoke, but all I saw were a couple of open doors. “I don’t sense her on this level.”
We moved forward, me in the lead, until we came upon a flight of narrow metal steps. “You take the lower level,” Brien said. “I’ll check the rooms on this floor, just in case.”
“Thanks.” I surged forward, descending the stairs in two giant steps.
The smoke wasn’t as thick on the lower level, giving me hope that Eden might still be alive. After noting the gate at one end of the hall, I did a quick search of the bathroom and the place where Eden had clearly been kept prisoner; her scent was strong.
The bastards had locked her in a windowless cellar without even a cot to lie on.
Brien poked his head inside the open door. “No trace of her upstairs.” He took in the waste bucket with a grimace. “Bloody Lilith. This is where they were keeping her?”
“Yeah,” I said grimly, coming out of the cell. I indicated the gate. “Lemaire must’ve taken her out that way. Hurry.”
The gate was locked, but fortunately, it was constructed of iron, not silver. Brien and I each took hold of two iron pickets and tore it off its hinges. We tossed the gate aside and took off down the narrow, twisting passage.
We reached the main cavern in time to see Lemaire fumbling with the motor and Eden creeping away. A dizzying relief crashed through me.
“Shadows,” I mouthed at Brien.
He nodded, already graying at the edges, as I followed suit.
“I’ll take care of Lemaire,” he said before he disappeared completely. “You get Eden.”
I sensed rather than saw him flit across the cavern toward the boat. I sprinted along the water’s edge to Eden.
And then I was stepping out of the shadows and gathering her into my arms.
Now Eden’s eyes met mine, large and dark with emotion. Her short hair was matted, her face bruised and dirty.
It didn’t matter.
