AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Are you crazy?" he hissed. "We need to get the fuck out of here."
"Go ahead," I said between coughs. "Tell your boss I'm dead." I would be if we stood here for much longer. So would the guy whose fingers dug into my skin.
"Come on." He tried to drag me back towards the house. His companion caught up with us and grabbed me by my other arm.
We were all coughing now.
"You two can get out of here alive if you shift," I pointed out. "I can't shift, all I'll do is slow you down."
I was right and they knew it. I saw it on their faces. "I can't run any faster. You saw me." I turned my face and wiped tears on my sleeve. "Save your own asses. Dying in a fucking fire is above your pay grade."
They exchanged glances. They might also kill me, then run, but that would waste valuable seconds. Both knew that too.
One nodded. "I hope you die painfully, bitch." He shifted and loped back towards the house. His companion followed half a second later.
"Right back at you," I told them. I waited for a tree to explode and take them out, but instead they safely disappeared from view.
Shame. I was getting really, really tired of being called bitch.
I staggered back down the driveway, but my thoughts were foggy. Smoke inhalation, I knew, was worse than the flames themselves.
The smoke was so thick now it was getting more and more difficult to tell the difference between driveway and brush. It was also getting harder to fight the urge to sit down. I could just give up, let the smoke take me, but fuck that. This was nowhere near the hardest thing I had ever done. I wasn't going to let it beat me. Not with the guys so bloody close.
"Ivory?" Jake's voice was the single sweetest sound I've ever heard, even though it was laced with fear.
I tried to shout back, but got caught up in a coughing fit.
"Ivory?" That was Cooper. "Where are you?"
Ben asked the same question, but through the bond. Gods, he felt so close.
My head was swimming now and my lungs were burning. I wanted to rip off the collar, shift and run the last—it couldn't be more than a handful of metres.
All I could do was let the tears stream down my cheeks and run blindly towards their voices, to where the bond took me.
I staggered past burning bushes and the twisted remains of the front gate. That was the surest sign I had that Jake had done exactly as I'd asked. I only knew of one person powerful enough to do that, and set the bush on fire.
"Ivory!" Jake shouted again. "She's over here."
I took a handful more steps before I fell into a strong, tattooed pair of arms.
"She needs a healer. Where is that witch? Paxton?" Jake shouted loud enough to make me wince. "Oh gods, sorry." He wiped the tears of my cheeks with his thumbs. "Elodie, I was so fucking—" He shook his head. "I thought…"
I spoke although my voice was hoarse and my throat burned like hells. "I'm okay." That was a flat out lie and we both knew it. "I will be."
"Ivory!" Cooper bounded towards me like a puppy. He threw his arms around me and gave me a squeeze. "Ben said you were okay, but I needed to see you. How did he know?"
I squeezed him back. "That's an answer for later." I felt Ben before I saw him, and reached to lace my fingers into his.
We shared a look. The kind people share when they've been through something together only they would understand.
"I'm glad you're okay," he said softly.
"You too," I said.
Jake and Cooper looked surprised at this new intimacy between us, but neither seemed like they would question it. They were just relieved to see me and Ben alive.
Truthfully, I was pretty fucking relieved myself.
