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“Cas!” I froze at Damien’s voice behind me.
I looked over my shoulder, to Damien, who stood several feet behind me. Reality hit me, and I remembered where I was, what was happening. What was I doing? I released Marcus, stumbling back. He looked pained at the sight of me, worried. My emotions were a whirlpool in the pit of my stomach, and it felt as if I was losing sense of who I was.
Marcus’ two men lay at Damien’s feet, dead. I hadn’t even seen Damien’s fight, had forgotten he was even there with me. I’d become so absorbed in attacking Marcus that I was oblivious to everything around us.
Marcus groaned as he pushed himself up, and I jerked my gaze back in time to see him brush the blood from his face. “She’s spicy, Damien. I’d love to get her back in my room again.”
Damien roared, and before I knew what was happening, he lashed out at him. He was slower than usual, likely due to his head injury. I rushed to his side. Marcus whipped around and his foot slammed into my stomach, knocking me to the ground. I recoiled, curling into myself as bile rose in my throat.
I opened my eyes, struggling to push myself to my knees as I clenched my side where he’d kicked me, wondering if he broke any ribs.
Damien grabbed Marcus in his moment of distraction and slammed him up against the wall.
“Now!” Marcus yelled, and my heart dropped into the pit of my stomach as I twisted around, eyes darting around the room. Hidden amongst the scrapped car frames at the far end of the bay, I found one of Marcus’ men. I looked back, but Damien had been too distracted in his rage against Marcus that he hadn’t noticed.
The guy held a flip lighter, and he flicked the dial, sparking it to light as he hovered in the corner. Behind him laid a pile of gas cans, the flammable fluid still dripping from the spouts. Time stopped as I realized what he was about to do.
“Stop!” I yelled, pushing myself to my feet and jolting toward him. I wasn’t fast enough. He let the lighter slip from his fingers and ran for an escape. It fell to the ground, and the moment it touched the concrete, the liquid flamed and spread wildly around us.
The fire split in both directions, coming for us while stretching back to the gas cans that were piled nearby. They exploded, the plastics blowing apart with a sound that shook the room. Fire shot up into the air in a blaze, and I fell to the floor, arms shielding my head from the debris. After a moment, I opened my eyes. I hadn’t been hurt.
It was too late.
Before I could think of what to do, I was surrounded. The flames stretched and snaked in trails everywhere throughout the shop as it consumed everything. Me? I was trapped, cut off from Damian as he fought with Marcus, and any means of escaping the fire as it raged.
The fire alarms rang out across the building, but the sprinklers didn’t start. Marcus had likely disabled them. Bastard.
Tears welled in my eyes, my lungs failing me, and I watched in horror as Damien and Marcus fought amidst the flames. There was no way through to them, no way to help him from this distance, and the paths of fire crossed and intertwined around me. The flames showed no sign of dying out, and I wondered if Marcus had concocted some mix of flammable liquids to ensure they wouldn’t.
A crash of metal caught my attention, and I looked back as Damien knocked Marcus into a stack of barrels. His head jerked to me and for a moment, the terror in his eyes made it difficult for me to breathe.
“Get out of here!” he yelled.
I looked around, but I was trapped. “I can’t!”
Damien’s eyes darted around. There were no shadows for him to use to get to me, nothing to douse the flames, and the others were nowhere to be seen. The smoke from the oil burned my throat and lungs, and I coughed, the air hot around me. His eyes met mine and he stood helpless, unable to get to me.
Marcus rose slowly from the mess of barrels that Damien had just thrown him into. His eyes met mine from across the way, and something in me rose.
Hurt him.
I winced as the voice returned.
Burn him.
“No!” I whispered harshly, clamping my hands over my ears. “Stop it!”
Do it. He deserves it.
My eyes lifted to Damien and Marcus as they clashed once again. Damien fought with everything he had, but I knew he had to be struggling.
It would be so easy to do it.
I found myself frozen, unable to take my eyes off them. My foot began to slide forward of its own accord, closer to the flames. Marcus knocked Damien to the ground. As Damien twisted over onto his hands and knees, my eyes jerked to Marcus. He had recovered fully, grabbing a broken metal pipe from the pile of junk nearby.
Make him pay. Do it now.
My hand, no longer my own, reached out into the flames, the warmth dancing over my palm, lacing between my fingers. It felt as if another’s hand was atop mine, pulling it out and away from my body. The fire flickered and licked at my skin, yet I remained unburned. I stretched both my hands out, my eyes closing. I should be burning, shouldn’t be able to stand the heat from the intense flames that snaked around the building, but it felt more warm than hot, as if I were basking in the sun. I opened my eyes as Marcus attacked, but Damien kicked him before recovering and rising to his feet to defend himself.
