Page 54 of Consume Me

“Where do we look?” I asked.

The high-pitched siren of an alarm answered me.

Chapter 21

CLARA

Pain doubled me over as a strong arm wrapped protectively around me. I couldn’t bring myself to look up. “Clara, we need to move. They’ll have heard that.”

As if on cue, a siren blared outside the door. We were out of time, but now I wasn’t alone. Now I had someone by my side who would get me out of here. I struggled to my feet with Norris’s help. As soon as I was up, I threw my arms around him and began to cry.

For the first time in days, I felt safe. Warmth swirled around me like a blanket as Norris wrapped me tightly in a hug.

“It’s okay, Your Majesty. I’m here.”

I twisted my head, bracing myself before seeing what had happened only moments ago, but Norris tried to shield my view.

“No, don’t turn your head.” He tried to keep me from looking back to where David had stood, but I turned anyway.

I wasn’t certain what I’d feel. I hated him. I loved him. But the sight of David strewn across the floor, hands clutching a bloody wound made me sway on my feet. Norris kept me upright.

“Clara,” David called weakly, stretching out a hand. “Please…”

Part of me wanted to go to him. Part of me hated the idea of him dying alone. He was my brother—or he had been. We’d commiserated over falling in love with royal men. I’d picked out his wedding band. We were supposed to be family.

The rest of me remembered how he’d tried to haul me back to the bed. He was going to let them kill me. He was going to choose cowardice over family. Why shouldn’t I do the same?

“We only have a moment,” Norris warned me. “We need to get a move on. Someone knows I’m free.”

“It’s…an…evacuation,” David said, shaking his head. “The siren only goes off when a location has been burned.”

Burned? That meant nothing to me, but Norris’s eyes narrowed. “Then we have even less time if protocol is the same.”

“Five minutes.” David waved his outstretched hand and for the first time I realized he was holding something in his bloody palm: his security badge. “This will get you out. Take the northern corridor.”

“What about the my room? Rachel?” I asked. She was there. She was trapped. Or would they take her with them?

“There’s an exit on the east end of the cell block, but you don’t want to go down there. There are...” He coughed and a small fountain of blood trickled down his lip “…explosives. Counter measures.”

Norris covered me as we approached David, keeping the gun trained on him the whole time. He whipped the badge from his hand and backed me away.

David’s head lolled a little as he tried to reach for me. “Tell Edward I love him. I’m sorry. You need to go. Don’t bother with…”

The words faded from his lips as his head tipped to one side.

“Is he…” I couldn’t bring myself to ask.

“He will be,” Norris said grimly. He glanced at the flimsy hospital gown I had on just as another contraction hit.

I bent forward, crying out. It felt like I was being torn in two. My hands instinctively covered my womb. The baby couldn’t come now. Not like this.

Norris kept a hand on the small of my back, looking ill at ease about our situation. The man could walk into a room shooting, yet it only took childbirth to make him uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, but we have to go. If this building has been burned…”

He didn’t have to finish the sentence. Smoke began seeping under the door frame. Norris let go of me and wrenched a sheet off the bed. Tearing a swath he held it to my face. I took it, grateful.

“You ready?” he asked.

The corridor outside was chaos, but no one seemed to notice or care that we were there. Then again, Norris was wearing a guard’s uniform. He kept the gun out, but no one stopped us. The few personnel we came across seemed occupied with their own tasks. A few had files. Others were racing up the northern corridor. When Norris turned to lead us that way, I shook my head.