Bound Guardian Angel (63 page)

She shook her head. “I’m too torqued. I
won’t risk it. Not with the kids.” Dematerializing could go very
wrong if she was too jacked up emotionally to keep herself separate
from the kids while she ghosted.

“Then give them to me. I’ll get them out.
You go.”

“No. I’m not leaving you in here.”

“Cordray, don’t argue with me! Get out of
here!”

“No! We go together, Trace! I will
not
go without you!”

He wanted her safe, but he could tell she
wouldn’t leave him and the kids behind to take herself to safety.
Her gaze penetrated his as if it were a dagger, her resolve
set.

“Fine.” He reached for her as the ceiling
groaned. The heat was almost unbearable. “Let’s move. We don’t have
much time.”

She lifted Null toward him. “Take him. I’ll
get Aiden.”

“Hold on, little man.” He tucked Null
against his body. “Hide your eyes, okay?”

Null flung his tiny arms around Trace’s neck
and thrust his face against his shoulder.

“You ready?” he said to Cordray, helping her
up.

She nodded as another beam broke through the
ceiling over Null’s bed and crashed down in a shower of sparks and
fire.

Aiden screamed and put Pooh in a choke hold
as she burrowed against Cordray’s body.

“Follow me and stay close.” He raised his
right arm in front of him, palm outward.

The smoke was getting thicker.

He sure hoped this worked.

* * *

Cordray coughed and tried to cover her mouth so she
could breathe, but that made it hard to hold on to Aiden. Screw it.
She would just have to deal with the smoke, because she couldn’t
let anything happen to Aiden. She hugged the little girl more
tightly. Hot tears stung her eyes. She blinked several times,
trying to clear her vision.

A beam crashed down behind her, and she
jumped forward. “Trace, hurry!”

“We’re moving. Now!” A blast of energy burst
from his hand. In an instant, anything blocking their path
vaporized into ash.

“Go!” Trace rushed forward, arm held out in
front of him.

Flames shot out from the bathroom, obscured
by smoke, which clouded the way.

For a moment, she couldn’t see.

“Trace!”

His hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled
her forward.

They reached the stairs, but they were
totally engulfed. Even if Trace could vapor the flames and embers
into ash, the stairs wouldn’t hold their weight.

“Back here!” She tugged Trace into the back
bedroom, where Riley slept. The flames weren’t quite as bad in
here, which meant the fire had probably been started on the other
end of the dorm.

Had Gavin been playing with matches again?
So help her, if he didn’t learn his lesson from this, she didn’t
know what she was going to do with that boy.

She opened the window. Probably not the best
thing to do for a fire, but what choice did they have?

She knelt and set Aiden on the floor. “I’m
going to jump down to the ground, and then you’re going to jump
down so I can catch you, okay?”

Aiden shrunk backward and shook her
head.

“Aiden, please. I promise I’ll catch you. I
won’t let you get hurt.”

She cringed, hugging her Pooh Bear close.
Tears streamed from her eyes. “I’m scared.”

“I’m scared, too, honey. But we don’t have
much time. We have to jump.”

Flames were already snaking into the
room.

Trace knelt and pulled her into his free arm
then stood and nodded toward the window. “You go first,” he said to
her. “I’ll take care of the kids.”

“But—”

“Go, baby. Jump. We’ll be right behind you.”
He nodded encouragement as the fire spread farther into the
room.

She placed her hand on the open windowsill,
her eyes locked on Trace’s.

A meaningful look passed between them for
what felt like an eternity. When a loud groan echoed through the
attic, she glanced to the ground then turned back toward Trace.

“Don’t you dare leave me, Trace. I’ve waited
too long to find you.”

* * *

He knew without her having to say it that her fear
was that he could die. And here they’d just found each other.
They’d been mated only twenty-four hours. What a bitch it would be
for either one of them not to make it out of this alive, because
the bond he had with her was already strong enough that if she
didn’t survive the fire, he wouldn’t survive losing her.

“I know the feeling, baby. Now jump.”

I love you
, she mouthed. The ends of
her hair were smoking as if they’d been singed.

I love you, too
, he mouthed back.

She turned and leaped. He peered down to see
her land on her feet then turn and raise her gaze to the
window.

“Okay,” he said to Null and Aiden, taking a
step forward, “our turn.”

They both cried out and grabbed on as
tightly as they could, hiding their faces against his chest. “No!
No! Don’t jump! I’m scared!”

“It’ll be okay. I promise. I’ll never drop
you.” As another groan rippled through the ceiling and down the
walls, he sensed they were quickly running out of time.

Jump, Trace. Now!

His mother’s voice burst into his mind. He
climbed onto the windowsill as best as he could with two squirming
bundles tucked inside his arms.

A split second before he leaped, he heard a
loud click, a fizzing sound, and then . . .

* * *

The blast threw Cordray back a good ten feet. She
landed on her ass and rolled feet-over-head once before spinning to
a dizzying stop just in time to see Trace and the two children
somersaulting away from the dorm. They landed several feet away,
Trace taking the worst of the fall as his knees slammed into the
earth. He tossed forward, but not before he ensured Null and Aiden
made a soft landing, which had to have taken a miraculous work of
physics, and then slammed face-first into the ground before
tumbling over himself.

Cordray heard a dull pop, like bone
breaking, and then Trace landed on his back and stopped moving.

“TRACE!” She was on her feet in an instant,
gobbling up the distance between them in a blink.

Falling to her knees, she pressed her
fingers to the side of his neck, searching for a pulse. She
couldn’t find one. Blood spilled out of his nose and over his
mouth

“TRACE! No! Don’t you leave me here alone,
you asshole!”

This couldn’t be happening. Not again. How
many times did she have to lose someone she loved before the
universe cut her a break?

Well, no more. She wouldn’t suffer through
this again. Either Trace lived or they both died.

“Don’t you fucking leave me!” She thumped
her joined fists on his chest hard enough to awaken the devil.

“Oomph!” Trace jackknifed off the ground
then fell back. “Jesus, baby!” He coughed and rubbed his chest,
wincing. “What’d you do that for?”

She gasped and froze, her mouth flapping
open. “I thought . . . you
weren’t . . . I thought you were dead.”

He coughed and rolled to his side. “I just
got Bruce Willis’d from an exploding building. Can’t I get a second
to get my bearings?”

He groaned and sat up, dabbing his fingers
against his nose. That’s when she realized it was broken. That had
been the pop she’d heard.

“Here, let me set that for you.” She pushed
him onto his back, grabbed his nose, and snapped it back in place
before he could stop her.

He let out a bloodcurdling cry and cupped
his hands over his face. “What the fuck?”

“That’ll teach you to play dead on me,
asshole.”

“I wasn’t playing dead! I was catching my
breath. Holy Christ, C.” He wiped the blood off his lips then
turned merciful, adoring eyes on her. “Do you really think I would
leave you?” He reached for her hand then gave her a weak smirk. “I
mean, wouldn’t you just hunt me down in hell and beat the shit out
of me if I did?”

She frowned, confused.
“I . . .”

“Baby . . .” He pushed
himself into a sitting position and cradled her face in his palm.
“I would never leave you. Now that I’ve found you, not even Satan
could keep me from you.”

Her heart shattered open as the weight of
all that had happened in the last ten minutes barreled down on her
and knocked her soul to its knees. Before she could stop them,
convulsive sobs ripped through her body, and tears gushed from her
eyes. She thought she’d lost him. She’d seen her life flash before
her eyes without him in it and thought it was all over.

“Damn you!” She slapped his shoulder. “Don’t
you ever scare me like that again!”

“I guess this means you’re keeping me, huh?”
He winked at her.

She let out what sounded like a half sob,
half laugh as relief washed through her. She wiped the tears from
her face and nodded. “Yeah, asshole, I’m keeping you.” Pushing
forward, she kissed him. Hard. Like her life depended on it.

And it did.

Because he
was
her life. From this
day forward, there was no her without him.

Chapter 41

Fire trucks filled the lawn.

Trace sat on the deck beside Brenna, who was
wrapping a bandage around a burn on his forearm. Bruises were
forming around his eyes from his broken nose, and he’d sprained his
right knee jumping out of the window, otherwise he was in good
spirits. Cordray had retrieved a set of crutches Leon had used last
year after twisting his ankle playing soccer, and they leaned
against the wall beside him. Trace would need them to get around
for a day or two, at least until he got in a few good feedings, the
first of which Cordray planned on giving him later when all the
excitement was finally over.

As for her, she’d escaped the fire
relatively unscathed. The ends of her hair had been burned, so
she’d need to get a haircut, and her right hand was bandaged from a
small burn she’d gotten during their retreat in the hall, but that
was about it.

She’d been lucky. Luckier than some of her
kids. Riley had suffered the worst. She’d tried to get to Aiden and
Null and had been badly burned. After applying as much first aid as
they had access to at the ranch, Mya rushed her to the AKM medical
center. That had been about forty-five minutes ago. Leon had gone
with them. That left Null, Aiden, Panya, Faith, and Gavin, who sat
by himself on the corner of the deck, his legs crossed, head
down.

She might as well get this conversation over
with.

Sighing, she joined Gavin and took a seat
beside him. “Gavin, honey, did you do this?”

He looked up. There were tears in his eyes.
“No.” His tone was defensive.

She pointed toward the pile of smoldering
rubble that had once been the dorm. “That’s what fire does, Gavin.
This is why I tell you over and over not to play with matches. Just
a tiny spark is enough to do this kind of damage.”

“I didn’t do it!” He slammed his hands on
the deck. “Just because I like playing with fire doesn’t mean I
burned down our home.” He crossed his arms and lowered his head in
a pout. It was obvious he didn’t think she believed him.

But he seemed so sincere.

“Then who did it, honey? Tell me.”

He hid his face, hunching forward as if he
feared saying anything further. “I can’t.”

Can’t? She frowned, growing worried. If
Gavin hadn’t done this, who had?

“Gavin, do you know who did this?” If he
didn’t tell her, she would have to go inside his mind and find out
for herself.

He looked away, rocking forward and back. A
moment later, he broke into tears. “Steffie did it! She set the
fire!”

“Steffie?” Cordray scanned the faces of the
others then turned her focus on the yard as if she might be able to
find Steffie hovering in the early morning shadows. “Are you
sure?”

“I saw her.” Gavin sniffled. “I got up to go
to the bathroom, and I heard something downstairs. I went down to
the living room and saw her. She said she would make it look like I
did it if I told on her. That no one would believe me if I told the
truth.”

Cordray shot into Gavin’s mind and saw the
truth of what he said. Steffie was hunched over in the front room
downstairs, lighting the curtains on fire.

Her blood boiled as she quickly pulled out
of his thoughts. When she got through with that bitch, there
wouldn’t be enough left of her for a DNA test.

“I believe you,” she said, trying her best
to keep her voice under control. “Did she tell you why?”

Gavin wiped his hands over his soot-covered
face, smearing streaks of black over his skin with his tears. “She
said we were evil. She said we were all freaks and deserved to
die.”

Oh, did she now? Well, Steffie didn’t know
evil. Cordray would be sure to give her a proper definition—with
examples—the next time she saw her.

She didn’t know what Steffie’s primary
malfunction was, or why she thought the kids at the ranch were
evil, but as soon as she recovered from the day’s events and got
her brain screwed back on straight, she was going to find out. Like
Ronan, Steffie wasn’t going anywhere Cordray couldn’t get to her.
Right now, she needed to tend to her family. In time, she would
deal with Steffie.

“You’re not evil or a freak, Gavin.” She
wrapped her arm around his shoulders and ruffled his hair. “You’re
special. A very special boy. You’re like Trace, and one day you’ll
grow up to be strong and powerful. The kind of male everyone looks
up to.”

He blinked away his tears then turned his
gaze toward Trace as if he looked up to him. “You think so?”

She kissed his smoke-scented hair. “No, I
know so.”

She turned toward Trace and met his gaze.
He’d been listening, and a tender smile touched his lips. She
smiled back, feeling the truth in her words. One day Gavin would
mature into his gifts, and everything would make sense. Until then,
she and the others needed to help him along and support him.