Page 19 of Tempting Fire

Chapter Five

As soon as the door closed behind him, panic set in. The fire no longer felt soothing, it looked like it could jump out of the hearth and engulf her. Her gaze careened around the room, nothing seemed familiar. Somebody could get in at any second. She needed Zarek, but it would be even worse outside.

It didn’t matter, she would be safer with him. Chloe shoved off the couch and ran limping towards the door, she tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Hurry!” Finally, the door opened.

She winced with pain as her bare feet met hot pavement.

“Zarek!”

Why didn’t he answer? She looked up and saw the blue of the sky. It was the same blue that had painted the sky that day at Cherokee Lake. She clamped her hand over her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she peeked down at the burning pavement, she could handle looking at her feet.

Her breath caught as she saw the flowers beside the path. They were red like blood.

“Zarek! Where are you?”

Why didn’t he hear her? She looked up. The lodge wasn’t ahead of her, she was moving in the wrong direction. She was moving towards the ski slopes. Chloe stumbled, crashing to her knees. She was so small and the trees were so tall, towering around her, laughing down at her.

It wasn’t safe.

“Zarek!” she screamed. She knew it was useless, he wouldn’t hear her. Wait, she wasn’t supposed to scream, it would bring Evie, then her sister would be hurt. But if she didn’t scream, they would keep hurting her, and the pain in her foot and her knees were nothing compared to what would come next.

Chloe whimpered and covered her head.

“Chloe?”

Wave after wave of color dripped across her vision. Birds screeched, they were going to claw at her. She ducked, trying to get away from their vicious talons. They were going to make her bleed even more.

She heard screaming.

Oh God, someone was being tortured.

“Chloe.”

“What did you do to her Zarek?”

Was that Trenda?

Blessed blackness.

***

She lifted her forearm up in the semi darkness and turned and twisted it until she could see the pretty vein clearly. It popped out just a little, so easy to see even in the evening light. How often had Chloe admired it? Contemplated it? Oh she never really was going to do anything like harm herself, was she? That’s not what an Avery did. But it was a pretty vein, so inviting. And wouldn’t it make everything easier?

She took a deep breath. Then another. Moving her arm in the light.

Calm. She needed to find calm. Her breath hitched.

God, everything hurt. She just wanted it to stop, but that wasn’t the answer. She knew that in her heart. So she had to push through, but she didn’t know how. She hated that she had woken up, sleep was so much better. She wanted to cry, but there weren’t any tears left.

She rolled over in the hotel bed, conscious of the fact that Zarek had to have carried her after her freak-out. She clamped her hand over her wrist. She couldn’t keep looking at it. If she considered the ultimate escape after every crazy episode how would she ever improve her score on FreeCell Solitaire?

She snorted out a laugh.

Great, she couldn’t even laugh like a normal person.

She heard a commotion from the other room. It was a man’s voice, and woman yelling. Chloe crept out of bed and went to the door to listen. It was Trenda doing the yelling and she sounded out of control, maybe it was in the blood.