Shadows of Fire (13 page)

Josh
pulled the hoses from the tanker as Reese grabbed Ronan’s arm. “I expect you to
keep her
safe
, Nason.”

“You
do your job. I’ll do mine.” He wrenched his arm free, guiding Alex away from
the destruction.

“He
won’t hurt her. We have to go. Now.” Josh handed him the hose nozzle and they
ran into the blaze. Reese knew two tankers and a second engine had been called
in when they’d reached the scene and Sykes had assessed the fire. Off-duty
firefighters had poured into the station when they’d found out it was Glenn’s place
lighting up the night. They stood by waiting to be called in to help. Despite
the number of firefighters ready to do battle, they would be hard pressed to
save any part of the structure, let alone the lives of any living creature
unfortunate enough to be in the belly of the fire.

Pulling
back on the lever on the hose, Reese let the water spew forth in a great plume
as he entered the barn. Josh leaned into him, his gloved hands holding tight.
Though either of them was strong enough to overpower the bucking hose, for
appearance’s sake, they followed protocol. With giant sweeping motions, Reese
fought back the tempest. Flames crept up the wooden walls, hissing as the men
aimed the water and reclaimed small portions of the building. The firefighters
pushed forward at a steady pace, their gaze cutting through the inky smoke,
searching for any signs of life.

In
the center of the barn, they found their first victim. The fire had consumed
the stalls along the walls and was working its way into the hayloft, but the
floor remained nearly unscathed. A quick glance confirmed the body, drained of
blood and lying before them, wasn’t Glenn. Josh bent to check for signs of
life, but they both knew the heart had stopped beating long before the man had
been staked spread eagle to the floor. His head was contorted to one side, the
bruised and swollen puncture marks at his neck further evidence of the gruesome
ending to his life. Even in the shimmering light, the pentagon painted on the
wooden planks was visible. Reese had no idea if the elaborate setup was a hoax
or a warning to other vampires.

He
detested leaving the body, but Timmons and McLeod had already broken through
the roof above them. Tampering with evidence of murder, even if it seemed to
point directly to a pagan ritual and a vampire slaying, was criminal.

Josh
lifted the mic off his shoulder, held it to the speaker of his face mask and
spoke to Sykes. “One body. Center barn floor. Dead. Send recovery team with
video. Burkett and Colton moving to back of barn to continue the search.”

Their
boss’s confirmation crackled in his ear. Reese took a quick glance at the light
display in his face mask. Three lights marching across his nose from left to
right indicated the air level of his tank. One red. One yellow. One green. Two
green lights had already dimmed. Depending on how shallow he kept his
breathing, Reese still had fifteen or twenty minutes of air left in this tank.
Plenty of time to battle their way to the back of the barn. Already another
team had hoses working on the blaze behind them. Until he and Josh finished
searching the barn, their hose would only clear their way. Battling the fire
would come later.

Josh
nodded and Reese pushed into the belly of the beast. Back here, where the fire
had most likely begun, it had eaten through the rafters. A portion of the
hayloft on the right side of the barn had already fallen victim to its heat. It
lay crumpled in on itself, the thick smoke and flames lifting in triumph toward
the night sky. The fire had burned its way across the ceiling and birthed
droplets of flame that rained down around them. But the water was slowing its
progress. The thunderous roar of the fire and the hissing sound of defeat ebbed
and flowed in Reese’s ears.

“Over
there.”

Reese
followed the direction of Josh’s finger. The last couple of stalls of the barn
in the back left corner had been walled off. Probably a tack room or an office.
Smoke poured from the closed door. Even if the fire hadn’t worked into the
space, there was little chance of a human surviving the heat and toxic smoke.
But Glenn wasn’t human.

They
aimed the hose at the door and pushed back the flames slithering down the
walls. Reese swept the water, allowing Josh access to the door. His partner shoved
it open and jumped back as fire leapt from the space. Reese didn’t need the
thermal imaging camera to see the burned body on the floor, its torso propped
against the wall. The stake protruding at an angle from the center of Glenn’s
chest would have only paralyzed him, but the ferocious heat had singed off his
hair, melted his clothes and blackened most of his skin. Even an ancient
vampire couldn’t recover from those wounds.

He
hated to think Alex had anything to do with hurting this man, but her presence
made it hard to deny. What the hell was happening in South Kenton?

“We’ve
got someone. We need more water.” Reese called into his mic.

Reese
shut off the water and knelt next to Josh. Reese was breathing hard and his
face mask began to vibrate as the green light dimmed, leaving the warning glow of
one yellow and one red light. His air was running out. He didn’t care. Glenn
was the unofficial head of vampires in the mountains of California. The
vampire’s death would be felt across the population. They needed to save him.
Splaying his gloved hand over Glenn’s chest, he looked at Josh who simply
nodded.
To hell with protocol.
No one needed to see Glenn broken this
way. Reese pulled the stake from the vampire’s heart.

Glenn
arched and the edges of the wound fluttered. The faint pulse of blood echoed in
Reese’s ears.

“We
need to get him out of here,” Josh’s alien voice filtered through the speakers
of his mask.

“Hold
on Glenn,” Reese shouted over the din of the fire. “You’re going to make it.
We’ve got you.”

Josh
hefted Glenn’s legs and Reese gingerly scooped his hands under the man’s
shoulders. Two guys arrived with water, pushing back the flames that had
continued to claim the walls. Josh and Reese left the others to battle the fire
and ran out the back door with Glenn’s still form. Laying him in the deep grass
under the pretense of doing CPR, they watched to see if his body could repair
the gaping hole in his chest.

Nothing
happened. The chasm remained. Glenn’s life hung by a thready pulse that was
barely audible to Reese’s acute senses. He didn’t want to think it was too late
to save the ancient vampire and he ripped off his mask and gloves and dug his
fangs deep into the tender flesh of his wrist. Reese didn’t care who saw him.
Bringing the life-giving liquid to Glenn’s mouth, he urged his mentor to drink,
but the blood spilled over Glenn’s blackened lips and down his chin.

“Fight,
Glenn. Damn it all! You can do this.” Reese could barely speak past the emotion
burning his throat. He squeezed his wrist harder, blood pouring forth. Hope
rose as the vampire’s mouth opened, the fluid flowing across Glenn’s tongue.

But
Glenn wasn’t drinking. He was trying to speak.

“Don’t
talk. Focus on repairing your body.”

Glenn
lifted his hand, his eyes imploring Reese to hear him.

Reese
pulled away his wrist and leaned in close to the death rattle bubbling from
Glenn’s lips.

“Hope
…”

“Of
course there’s hope. Just drink.”

Glenn
closed his eyes. “No … Hope … here.”

“What
the fuck is he saying?” Josh threw off his helmet, leaning in next to Reese.
“Glenn, do mean the reporter Hope?
My
Hope?”

“Vampire
attack … fire …”

Josh
replaced his helmet, calling frantically into his mic as he ran back into the
fire. “There may be another victim. Repeat. There may be another victim. Adult
female. Blonde.”

Reese
forced his wrist back to Glenn’s mouth, but his blood poured untouched over the
vampire’s slack lips. Emotion clogged his throat. “Glenn, you can do this. It’s
not too late.”

“No.”
The word gurgled out with the blood frothing from his mouth. “Don’t. Blame. Her.
Not … her … fault …”

“Who
Glenn?”

But
there would be no answer. Like a hammer to a gong, Glenn’s heart pumped for the
last time and their connection went silent. The eerie stillness echoed painfully
in Reese’s ears. His mentor’s clouded eyes rolled back in their sockets searching
for redemption, as Glenn’s taut muscles relaxed into the waiting arms of death.

Chapter Six

Emotional
exhaustion replaced the marrow in Reese’s bones, making his limbs unusually
stiff and heavy. The fingers of his left hand hung loosely over the bottom of
the steering wheel and his right was slung over the top. He drove like an old
man on a Sunday drive, his foot muscles too lethargic to exert more force on
the gas pedal. Reese just wanted to get back to the log cabin in the woods, lay
his weary body down and shut out the world—and the pain. The night had been
much too long. The devastation much too overwhelming. And its aftermath, a
weight he could barely shoulder.

He’d
left Josh at Hope’s empty apartment.

A
search of the fire scene last night and the surrounding woods in the pre-dawn
hours hadn’t turned up any evidence of the woman. Even her bright yellow VW was
nowhere to be found within the town limits of South Kenton. Reese wished he’d
understood more of what Glenn had been trying to communicate.

With
the John Sampson’s body staked to the floor, his throat slashed open by a
vampire, Hope and her car missing, and the fire burning up everything in its
path, Reese wasn’t sure who to blame or how to interpret Glenn’s final words.
He hadn’t really had much time to think about it all.

The
fire at the farmhouse had taken hours to extinguish. Reese had been on
auto-pilot since the lifeless body of his mentor had been spirited away by the
coroner the night before. The pieces of Reese’s shattered soul lay scattered in
the back field where Glenn’s life had tragically ended. There had been nothing
left in him to feel the sting of worry when Alex had accepted Ronan’s offer to
take her home.

Don’t
blame her.

In
Reese’s book, that could mean only one person. The stab of suspicion kicked him
full in the gut. The anger that had kept him going through the night rose fresh
and raw again. If Alex was responsible for Glenn’s death, Reese would hunt her
down and eliminate her himself. Fuck the tribunal. Fuck a fair hearing in front
of RISEN. Fuck his heart. There was no reason to murder an ancient vampire like
Glenn, who had saved so many from self-destruction. If she were the cause of
all his pain, Reese would kill her with his own hands. He made himself that
promise as Ronan’s taillights had receded into the night.

His
car steered itself down the rutted dirt road toward home. The wipers slapped
away the early morning drizzle and he was grateful for the heavy blanket of
clouds obscuring the sun. He wanted the world to feel the damp and deep gloom
clouding his spirit and permeating his muscles. Reese wasn’t sure anything could
penetrate the heavy coat of sorrow and guilt he currently wore. He should have
solved this case months ago. Glenn had died because he’d lost focus. Well, no
more. He’d follow the evidence, regardless of where—or to whom—it led.

The
pines opened to a small clearing. Morning fog hung heavy over the river running
placidly behind their log cabin. Normal men would have found tranquility and
sustenance fishing in its icy depths, but in the year they’d lived here, he and
Josh had barely spent time on its banks. That’s why it surprised Reese when his
eyes immediately fixated on the figure hunched on the boulder. He stared, not
sure she wasn’t a mirage.

He
shoved the car in park and shut off the engine.

Alex
had come to him. Was she here to confess or make excuses? Glenn loved her like
a daughter. Reese didn’t want to believe she’d have it in her to murder the man
so heartlessly, but the evidence was certainly stacking up to the contrary.

He’d
told Ronan she deserved the opportunity to defend herself. Didn’t he at least
owe her that much? He tamped down his anger, getting out of the car and
slogging through the thick grass to the rocky shore. A thin veil of smoky aroma
permeated the air. Reese wasn’t sure if it drifted through the trees from
Glenn’s farm up the road, clung to his clothes or simply filled his nose as it
did for days after an ugly fire. Reese wondered if he’d ever purge this one
from his senses.

The
woman folded in on herself sitting on the boulder didn’t look dangerous. Coming
up behind her, he squinted against the early morning light. The steady wash of
rain on his ball cap did little to ease the tingle of sun upon his face. Though
a vampire as young as Alex could withstand several hours of direct exposure, he
couldn’t help wondering if sitting in its rays was some form of penance. Even
in the rainy gloom, the dawn burned brightly.

“Did
Ronan bring you here?” he asked.

“I
walked over from the tavern.”

“He
let you leave?”

She
turned her head, the short strands of hair slashing darkly across her china
doll face. Her eyes, usually sparking with life, were red and raw with sadness.
“No, actually, I told him I had to go to the bathroom and left out the window.”
She spun her body around and he couldn’t help noticing how her wet clothes
molded to her shivering frame. “Were you afraid I’d fall apart after hearing
about Glenn’s death and thought I needed some support?”