“Are you hurt?”he asked, his voice low but urgent.
“I’m fine,” I murmured, reaching up to cup his hands.“He didn’t bite me.”
Rathiel’s gaze held mine for a beat longer than necessary.I swallowed hard, pushing aside the strange, unsettled feeling his concern stirred in me.I drew his hands away from my face and was about to suggest we clean up the mess, when movement in the shadows behind Rathiel caught my eye.The first vampire, the one I’d knocked unconscious—I hadn’t killed him.And now he was barreling right toward us.
“Watch out!”I shouted, my voice sharp as I tried to shove Rathiel aside.
I was too late.The vampire’s claws tore through Rathiel’s back with a sickening rip, shredding through fabric and flesh.Rathiel staggered, dropping to one knee and almost dragging me down with him.He let go of me and bowed over, blood blooming across his shirt in a dark stain, soaking the fabric.It would take more than that to kill him—I knew that without a doubt—but that knowledge didn’t stop the surge of fear and fury that erupted within me.
The vampire turned toward me, baring his bloodstained claws, but I didn’t give him a chance to strike again.Something primal ignited within me, and I reached deep inside myself, to the part I’d kept buried for so long, one that pulsed with the heat of Hell itself.I hadn’t summoned my powers in a decade for fear of exposing myself, but seeing Rathiel injured awakened that part of me.I wanted our enemy toburn.
My desire to cause chaos and destruction and death sparked the fires within me, and my hands ignited with blazing crimson flames.The power surged through me with a fierce, undeniable intensity, and for the first time in ten years, I felt like myself.Like I’d just woken up from a long nap.
With a sharp cry, I flung my arms out, and hellfire erupted from my hands, roaring through the alleyway like a living entity.The blaze scoured across the ground, casting a blood-red glow over the scene as it whipped toward the remaining vampire.
The hellspawn barely had time to curse out loud before the flames engulfed him, his screams echoing off the alley’s brick walls.I directed the fire with everything I had, keeping it controlled, guiding it around Rathiel as the fire devoured everything in sight, including the corpses, reducing their bodies to nothing but ash in a matter of seconds.
But as powerful as the hellfire was, I could feel it draining me, pulling on my strength as I struggled to keep it from touching Rathiel.He was right there, just inches from the most intense flames.I gritted my teeth, focusing every ounce of willpower on controlling the blaze, forcing it to curve away from him, to protect him at all costs.
Finally, when all evidence of our presence here tonight was nothing more than a pile of smouldering ash, I let the flames flicker out, leaving the alleyway in silence, save for the crackle of dying embers.
Panting for breath, I hurried to Rathiel’s side and dropped next to him, my hands still tingling from the aftershocks of the hellfire.He was bleeding heavily, his face pale, but his eyes were still alert, still full of that fierce determination.I glanced at his back, where the vampire’s claws had torn through his shirt, revealing deep, jagged gashes that cut through muscle and exposed torn flesh.I was pretty sure I could see some bone peeking out at me.
“Hey…you okay?”I whispered, while fully knowing he wasn’t.
He nodded weakly, but the pain in his eyes was evident.I could see that the wound had taken more out of him than he wanted to admit.Of course, he’d never let it show, not fully.That was just who Rathiel was—stoic to the point of stubbornness.He could be bleeding out, and he’d still fight.Hell didn’t breed weak soldiers.It was infuriating, really, but I knew better than to push him on it.This was how he coped, how he kept control, and I had to respect that.
“Let’s get out of here.I’m sure someone’s called the cops by now,” I told him.“Can you move?”
“Yes,” he stated gruffly, before pushing to his feet.
He stumbled and I immediately darted forward to catch his weight.
Fear twisted in my gut, sharp and unforgiving.Why did it bother me so much to see him hurt?I’d faced dangerous situations before, seen others injured, but this…this felt different.Rathiel was different.It wasn’t just that he was stronger, faster, more capable than anyone I’d ever known.There was something more—an ache in my chest at the sight of him bleeding, at the thought of him in pain.
I shook my head, trying to clear the confusion.Now wasn’t the time to get lost in thoughts and feelings I couldn’t make sense of.But the unease wouldn’t leave me, a nagging sensation that I was missing something important, something unattainable that lay just out of reach.
With one last look at the smouldering alleyway, I extinguished the remaining flames and slipped an arm around Rathiel to steady him.His weight was heavy against my side, but he kept his footing, his pride clearly refusing to let him lean on me too much.
“I need to get you back to my apartment so I can look at those wounds,” I said, glancing at the blood still seeping through the shredded fabric of his shirt.
He grunted, giving a terse nod.
We’d barely taken a step when I paused and cursed.With a wince, I turned and glanced back at the alleyway, where Rathiel’s and my winter jackets lay in a pile of ash and soot.I wasn’t one to carry a purse, I usually just stuffed everything in my pockets—wallet, keys, phone.Which meant, I had no money, no bus pass, and no way into the apartment.All of it, gone.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“Shit is right,” a sharp voice replied.
Adrenaline surged, and instinct kicked in.I let go of Rathiel seconds before hellfire blazed to life in my palms.My heart pounded as I readied to launch a fireball at the intruders, my instincts screaming that it had to be more vamps.But then, through the haze of panic and flames, I recognized their faces.
I shook out my hands and snuffed the fire.“What the hell are you two doing here?”
Eliza’s wide-eyed gaze swept over the scene—the vampires’ charred remains, the blood splattered across the alley, and Rathiel leaning heavily on me for support.Her expression was equal parts horrified and awestruck.“You did this?”she whispered, disbelief clear in her eyes.“I mean, I saw it, but…wow.”
“Yousaw?”I repeated.“Were you following us?”
“Yeah,” Mason answered bluntly, without the slightest hint of guilt.“Caught the tail end of your light show.Pretty impressive, by the way.”His sharp gaze settled on Rathiel, his tone turning gruff.“Those weren’t just any attackers, were they?Hellspawn, I’d wager?”
