“I-I’m sorry,” Paris whispered.
Razor sharp teeth filled his mouth. Aidan wanted to rip and tear and claw. “You took…me away…from her.” He dropped his hold on Paris. If he touched the other wolf a moment longer…I’ll kill him. My own friend…and I want to kill him.
The pain in his chest wasn’t lessening. It grew, burning hotter and harder every moment. And in his mind, Aidan just kept screaming Jane’s name. He could feel his sanity slipping away. Moment by moment, breath by breath.
Need her. Can’t…can’t be without her.
“She was gone, Aidan.” Paris slowly straightened. Blood dripped from the claw marks on his neck. “You kept trying to give Jane your blood, but she was already dead. Her…her neck was broken.”
Aidan remembered that but… “Wrong.” Drew had shot her. He hadn’t gotten close enough to touch Jane.
So how did her neck get broken? I could have gotten to her, given her my blood…
But her neck was broken.
“I’ve taken steps,” Paris said, his voice hesitant. “You…you won’t have to deal with the repercussions.”
His wolf clawed at his insides. “What have…you done?” His words were an animal’s roar.
Paris flinched. “I couldn’t let you go through it again…I…I didn’t want you to be the one…”
To kill her.
Aidan howled again and he drove his fist into the wall right next to his best friend’s head.
“No! Aidan!”
That scream was Annette’s—she was rushing inside his office.
“She’s going to burn, Aidan. It will all be over. Jane won’t rise. She’ll just go…” Annette put her body in front of Paris’s. “He won’t fight you, but I will.”
She’s going to burn. “Where is my Jane?”
“She’s dead, Aidan,” Annette said flatly. “Where do you think the dead go?”
To the ME. The fucking ME.
Without another word, he ran away from them.
“You’re too late!” Annette yelled after him. “And, please, just let her go!”
Impossible.
“I told Jane…I warned her…she had to stop being the hero! It was only going to get her killed!”
And it had. She’d taken the bullet meant for him and lost her life.
***
Bob held the bottle of fire in his hands. “What am I supposed to do here? Open it? Pour it on you?” He lowered the bottle. “Smash it on you and watch you burn?”
Jane’s expression was still so peaceful.
He couldn’t do it. If the werewolves wanted her gone—then the werewolves could come and handle this shit themselves. He wasn’t burning Jane. He wasn’t—
“Just what the fuck…” A low, sinister voice demanded. “Do you think you’re doing with that?”
Bob whirled around. A man was there—big, tall, with a face carved of granite and eyes that burned with hate.
And fangs. I can see his fangs.
“You thought to kill her while she couldn’t even fight back? When she had no chance to defend herself?”
“No!” Bob shook his head, frantic. “I-I wasn’t!” Who the hell was that guy? And why hadn’t Bob heard him enter the exam area?
The vampire snatched the bottle from Bob’s hands. Then he threw the bottle against the wall. It shattered and flames—hot, insanely, magically hot and blazing too fast—immediately began to roll up the wall.
“Jane will rise and you will not stop her.” The vampire grabbed Bob and jerked him close. “You would kill her while she slept.”
“No!” That had been the plan the werewolves wanted, not him. “No, I—”
Fangs tore into his throat. Bob screamed. The bite was like being stabbed with an ice pick. The pain had nausea rising in his throat, and he struggled against the bastard, knowing that he’d be vomiting all over the vamp any second.
But the vamp tossed him aside. The vamp threw him so hard that Bob’s back dented his filing cabinet. He crumpled onto the floor, struggling to see the vamp through the rising smoke and flames.
And the vamp…
He scooped Jane into his arms. The sheet that had covered her body fell to the floor.
“Y-you can’t take her,” Bob cried out.
“Like I’d leave her here for you to kill. Fucking bastard, why don’t you burn?” Then the vamp was leaping toward the door, with Jane in his arms. Bob pushed to his feet and stumbled after him.
The fire is on the walls. On the ceiling. It was raging so fast and hard. Paris hadn’t told him it would be this fast. It was unnatural. It was—
Voodoo. What the hell did I expect?
He had to get out of there.
Or he would be burning.
***
Aidan smelled the smoke and the acrid scent just made him run faster. It fueled the terrible fear and rage within him. Jane can’t burn.
He needed to see her again. Needed to touch her. Needed to tell her how fucking sorry he was.
She’d given her life for him. That hadn’t been the plan. Things shouldn’t have ended that way. A burst of speed had him near the ME’s building. Humans were rushing outside of that place, some coughing on smoke. Choking.