“Coby!” I screamed his name as I ran down a floor to the living room to check the north facing windows, finding a haze of orange.
I snatched Arys’s journal from where it had fallen and shoved it into my bag with my phone and car keys. If I wanted to make it out, that would be all I could take with me.
Again, I screamed for Coby. I was frantically searching for a way out. It didn’t take long for the fire to find its way inside. Smoke filled my lungs and burned my eyes as the shriek of the smoke detectors assaulted my ears.
I slung the strap of my bag across my chest and ran for the upper floor. I crashed into Coby on his way down. He reached out to steady me on the stairs as I lost my balance.
“We have to get out.” I coughed as the smoke rolled in thicker. My eyes burned and watered, blurring my vision.
Flames crawled through the kitchen toward us, trapping us near the front door, which was already a mass of crackling fire. There was nowhere to go but up.
Without a word, Coby pulled me along behind him, back up the stairs to the master bedroom. He slammed the door shut behind us while I ran to open the window. I gulped the burst of outside air into my burning lungs. Before long, the fire would reach us; it was moving fast.
A cold spark deep in my core informed me that Arys was near. I would have wept with relief, but we still had a fire to escape. Coby joined me at the window, surveying our only option.
“We have to jump,” he declared. “And, we have to do it before that reaches us.”
I followed his gaze to the wall of flames eating their way through the main floor of the house and climbing toward us fast. The heat was already scorching us where we stood. We were high enough for the fall to be risky, but we didn’t have another alternative.
I felt Arys’s touch on my mind. His worry was as strong as his rage. I had no time to engage with him.
Not if I wanted to live.
Briefly, I considered the shift to wolf. We’d be stronger that way, but Coby was too new. I couldn’t know how he would act as a wolf. Besides, the neighbors would have called 911 by now. We would have to jump, now.
“You first.” Coby’s hand was firm on my back, urging me to go for it.
I hesitated for just a moment. Casting one last look back around the bedroom, where I’d spent so many nights back when the wolf was new, I saw Raoul’s house for the last time. It had never really felt like mine. Why should it now?
It was the home of many memories, both good and bad. Friendships had formed inside that house. Hearts had broken. Hell, I lost my virginity in the office downstairs. But, I had no time for nostalgia. My time in Raoul’s house was finally done.
I took one last look into Coby’s hazel eyes, wild with panic. He was new. He didn’t belong here. For some reason, that made it easier to let go. I climbed up into the window frame, steadied myself the best I could, and jumped.
For that one heart stopping second I was airborne, all I felt was relief. Relief that my entanglement with Raoul was over. The house and everything it represented had reached its final end.
However, pain quickly followed as I hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud. I followed the momentum and rolled away from the house.
Coby was right behind me; an anguished cry escaped him as he landed. I took a moment to clear my head and assess my injuries. I seemed to be ok other than my aching lungs and a twisted ankle.
I was barely on my feet when Arys materialized from the darkness beyond the glow of the flames.
Blood spatters decorated his pale face. His eyes were pure wolf. He ran his hands over me, searching for wounds I didn’t have. The fire was reflected in his eyes, flickering amid the terror in those icy blue depths.
“Are you alright? Did he hurt you?” Arys’s voice was rough, laced with the growl of the wolf.
“Who?” I gasped, turning to check on Coby who stood stiffly, pain contorting his features. “Who did this?”
“Vampire.” Arys confirmed. “I tangled with him out front, but the neighbors came out. I had to let him go.”
Sirens shrieked in the distance. They would arrive in time to contain the fire to my property. They may even save the garage where Raoul’s Jaguar was housed. However, they could do nothing to save his home.
With shaky hands, I pulled my keys from my purse. “Please, get my car out of here before it’s ruined. Go before the cops get here.”
Arys’s gaze flicked from me to Coby. I couldn’t answer his unspoken question. Not yet. So, I shook my head and pressed the keys into his hand.
“I can’t leave you.” He shook his head, his face masked with stubborn refusal.
“It will be sunrise soon. You don’t have a choice.” I kissed him quickly and then shoved him away. “Go.”
He slipped away as stealthily as he’d appeared.