Where is Jane?
He didn’t see her. Firefighters weren’t even on the scene yet. They wouldn’t make it there in time, not with a blaze like that, one that had magical aid. The smoke was thickening, the flames crackling, and Aidan ran right inside the burning building.
He knew his way to the ME’s office—he could get there in the dark. So getting past the smoke and the flames wasn’t hard for him. He held his breath as best he could and moved fucking fast. There were no prying eyes to see him.
He kicked in the door to the ME’s lab. He heard coughing. And a weak… “H-help…”
But that voice wasn’t Jane’s.
It was Dr. Bob.
Aidan grabbed the ME and hoisted him over his shoulder.
“F-fire…spread t-too fast…g-got asthma…” The guy was wheezing. “C-can’t breathe…s-smoke…”
“Where is Jane?” He didn’t see her. Didn’t smell her. But…
Maybe she’s in one of the storage lockers. The lockers for the dead. His stomach clenched at the thought. Jane didn’t belong there. She should be outside, running, laughing, happy.
“H-he took her. The vamp…they’re g-gone—”
Aidan spun away from the flames. He raced through the building, but didn’t go out the front exit, not with that freaking crowd out there. He went to the back of the place and hurtled through a big picture window on the first floor. Glass flew all around him.
The ME screamed.
Dr. Bob should be grateful. He was going to be able to breathe one hell of a lot better now that they were outside. Aidan ran with him, moving away from the flames. Then he lowered the doc and propped him up against a street lamp. “Breathe,” Aidan ordered him. “Nice and fucking slow, got it?”
The doctor nodded, but he was wheezing hard.
The same way Jane was wheezing at the college. I remember that…
“I-I wasn’t—wasn’t b-burning—”
“Get your breath back first,” Aidan growled at him. “Then talk to me.” Jane didn’t burn. She made it out of the lab. She’s—
Dead?
Alive?
Aidan didn’t know for sure.
“Don’t listen to the sniveling bastard,” a low, rumbling voice said.
Aidan stiffened. Vincent. He didn’t spin around to confront the vamp, but he did let his claws slide out. The better to cut off his head.
“When I got to him,” Vincent blasted, “the not-so-good doctor had a bottle of liquid fire in his hands. He was standing right over Jane. She was helpless. Helpless. And he was going to burn her to ash.”
Bob’s eyes were wild. Desperate. His wheezes had gotten worse. “N-not J-Jane—”
“I saved her.” A hard pause came from Vincent, then he said, “You should be grateful to me.”
“You saved her.” Aidan’s canines had lengthened in his mouth. The better to tear into the vampire. I won’t control my instincts this time. My wolf wants Vincent dead, and so the fuck do I. “Is that the same way you saved her when you broke Jane’s neck?” Because it was the only thing that made sense to him. She’d been shot—but her neck had been fine. One moment, she’d been wheezing. He’d been trying to get to her and then…
Jane was gone.
“Would you rather I let her suffer? Let her drown and choke on her own blood?” The vampire demanded and his words were all the confession Aidan needed. He’d killed her.
“Would you?” Vincent yelled at him. “Because that was happening. She’d taken your bullet. Risked her life for you, and I wasn’t going to let her suffer needlessly.”
“I could have given her my blood! Saved her!”
He heard the rustle of footsteps as Vincent rushed toward him. “Jane wasn’t meant to be saved! She was meant to be transformed!”
Bastard. Aidan whirled, slicing out with his claws. His claws ripped into the vampire’s stomach, cut deep, and then Aidan drew back, ready to take Vincent’s head.
“Aidan?”
That was…Jane’s voice. Jane’s beautiful, sweet voice.
His head whipped to the right and then Aidan stilled. He didn’t take the bastard’s head. He couldn’t move at all because Jane was stumbling toward him, walking out of a narrow alley. She was naked, and her hair trailed over her shoulders.
“She transformed quickly,” Vincent whispered. “She’s going to be so powerful. Probably even stronger than I am.”
She didn’t look powerful right then. She looked fragile, delicate, beautiful, and so very lost.
“Aidan?” Jane said his name again, almost desperately. “What’s happening? How did I get here?”
He ran to her. Her scent had changed—grown deeper, richer. Even more lush. She didn’t smell like a vampire. No death and blood clung to her. She was just his Jane.
He looked at her and didn’t see fangs.
Her eyes were wide. Scared.