AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wasn’t about to let it all go up in flames without a fight.
I bolted off into the house, tearing through clouds of smoke and fending off a fireman or two. My skill at avoiding them and my dedication to entering a burning building had me looking as much like a quarterback as it did a madwoman.
I was also painfully aware of someone on my heels, waiting to pry me from the door jambs if necessary. They could take me out kicking and screaming. I’d allow it. But not until I found that box.
Five seconds in the house and I realized just how stupid I’d been. Fine, not stupid. Just hopelessly distraught and clinging to whatever remnants of my grandmother I could.
My lungs constricted against the thick clouds of smoke. The air tasted dark and chalky. It stole the breath from my chest and dried my lips like sand in the desert. The world around me blurred into tiny gray and white swirls, but I pressed ahead. I stumbled into a wall, propping myself up against it for support. My grandmother’s room was somewhere close. I knew the house so well, there was no need to see the rooms to navigate through the smoke.
I made it to the room in just a few short seconds, flailing the door open as I propped myself up against the frame. I could barely make out the details of the figurines on the top of the dresser. Not even the dolls were discernible in my diminishing focus.
The colors on the music box twinkled brightly through the haze encircling my head. I felt dizzy, so dizzy, but still I reached for it. My hands slid down off the table, pulled down by some unknown force. All the while, the floor rose up to meet me, slamming into the side of my head with a numbing pressure.
Am I on the floor? Did I slip and fall?
If I did, I couldn’t remember any of it. All I knew was how incredibly tired I was and how difficult it was becoming to keep my eyes open. I strained against the weakness in my throat compelling me into silence. Nothing fled past my lips. No cries for help, no sobs.
Nothing.
A shadow passed in front of me.
A ghost, maybe? Or something sinister.
No matter the case, I was helpless to fight it.
The world around me slid into the abyss until nothing remained but the darkness.
Chapter Two
Hunter
Iwould honestly like to say I’d never seen anything like it, but then that would be a stretch, even for me.
There was never any surprise anymore to how foolish people could be when it came to preserving their material possessions. They would even do something so stupid as risk their lives by running headfirst into a fire, just to salvage a perfectly replaceable, perfectly ordinary object.
The girl in front of me was no different.
She bolted into the house—no warning, no reason. Led purely by a whim, she not only put her life in danger but mine and my men.
It took us half an hour to put out the fire. By then, she had already come to and had inhaled enough oxygen to restore at least part of her strength. I eyed the music box stationed between us on the back of the truck.
All that trouble for a silly trinket. It had better be worth it.
“Thank you,” she said weakly. The rough undercurrent of her words revealed just how much of the smoke she had inhaled. She must have been asleep for a while, taking in all that smoke without even realizing it.
I pushed down the feelings welling up inside of me. No matter how many times I did this, there was always something about the potential loss of life that struck a nerve. Some people get pretty numb to it after a while.
Not me.
At least not in the last six years or so.
I watched her, curious to know what would possess a woman like her to put her life at such a risk. The long blonde strands framing her face made her look so sweet and innocent. She couldn’t have been much older than twenty. So much time ahead of her—so much potential.
Almost lost forever.
“What were you doing?” The words blurted past my lips before I had the chance to capture them.
Fuck, I was already out of line. But this woman had to see reason.
