Damnation's Door: A Cursed Book (6 page)

I looked over the side of the car. The police were out of their vehicles. They were talking to the fire crews and gathering witnesses. I didn’t think anyone had seen us yet but it would just be a matter of time. News vans were probably on their way.

“Dro, I need you to heal me,” I said.

She’d done so a thousand times in the past without me ever asking. Usually she never even hesitated. Now she wasn’t even in arm’s length.

“Dro?”

“I don’t know what happened,” she half whispered. “I don’t... I didn’t mean it!”

She started gasping instead of breathing. I took a step closer to her. Dro cringed and jumped back a foot.

“No! No, don’t come near me!”

I didn’t know if anyone could hear us, and I didn’t bother to check. Dro’s hands began filling with white light, which was quickly turning to flame. She looked at her hands like they were covered in blood.

“Oh no,” she whimpered. “No, no, no!”

I took another careful step forward. “Dro, you need to calm down.”

I sounded calm myself. Miracles can happen. Not that Dro would believe that right now.

“Don’t come any closer, please,” she begged.

Tears were streaking her face and sobs cracked her voice. I hadn’t seen Dro this upset since our parents were murdered. It broke my heart to see her like this, so I kept moving closer.

“Connie,
please
,” she wept.

I stopped. When she sounded that wretched, it was impossible for me not to listen. The flames curled up to her elbows. She was still hyperventilating.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “You won’t hurt me.”

“Yes, I will,” she said.

I looked directly into her eyes. “No, little sister. You won’t.”

She tried to breathe normally. We needed to get out of here, but I couldn’t force Dro in this state.

“You can make it stop, just like you did at Owl Creek.”

Dro blanched when she heard the name of the camp where our parents had been killed. But the fire was starting to die down from her hands. She was a tiny bit calmer. The fire dwindled until it was gone. She shuddered once and gasped sharply. I walked toward her and put my arms around her. She tensed at first, then relaxed and hugged me tightly. The burns on my body were pulsing and tender, but Dro was more important.

“We’ll get through this, Dro,” I whispered. “I promise, we’ll figure it out.”

She stiffened before she pulled away from me. She wiped her eyes and quickly walked to the car. I watched her carefully, my eyes turning back toward the burning motel.

Dro didn’t believe me. After seeing what she had done, I could understand. I wouldn’t believe myself either. There are some things you just can’t forget...

The smell of smoke was strong when the dream ended. I didn’t know why, since in the dream we were leaving the motel...

Wait.

I shot upright from the floor, taking one deep breath.

Smoke.

That was enough to have me moving faster than lightning.

My sudden motion caused Warrick to stir. He was coming out of sleep, moving faster as he realized something was very wrong. I wasn’t waiting for him. I was yanking on my clothes, boots, and grabbing a backpack to throw over my shoulder.

It was reflex, but one I hadn’t needed to exercise in months. Dro’s nightmares had stopped a little while back. She’d had control.

I was stupid to think that luck would last.

I could hear more shouts, and Warrick was trying to tell me something. He was trying to keep up, but I wasn’t listening. The moment I had everything I could carry, I darted for the door. I stopped and looked over my shoulder. Warrick was behind me, looking confused yet ready for anything.

“Find Max and Sephiel. Make sure they get out.”

His lack of understanding was clear. “What about you and Dro?”

I held his eyes. “Dro’s the one causing this.”

Before he could reply, before I could even attempt to read his expression, I turned and yanked open the door.

A smothering wave of heat and light crashed into me. Dry smoke curled off the walls and ceiling, dancing away from the red and orange flames shivering on every surface. The fire was unforgiving, dredging sweat out of my pores and making my eyes water. I turned out of the room, coughing and choking as I tried to remember where the stairs were.

Over the crackling roar of angry flames and creaking wood, I caught the sound of screams.

Dro’s was only one of them.

Oh no.

I pushed myself harder, barely taking in how close the flames were getting to me. I could feel them peeling off the walls, teasing the edges of my hair and clothes. Through the haze of smoke and fire, I noticed Sephiel climbing the stairs. He held an arm over his mouth and he needed to squint, but I knew he saw us.

I was coming up to the spare bedroom when something tumbled out of it. A body, one arm covered in fire.

I skidded to a stop and fell beside it, automatically batting out the flames without seeing who I was hitting. Their voice was hoarse and filled with pain. They curled in on themselves, clearly never thinking they would be burned so severely. My eyes went to the person’s face, and my heart sank.

Max probably never expected Dro would burn him.

Warrick and Sephiel stood over me and the partially burned prophet, carefully lifting him to his feet. Max cried out again, unable to think past all the agony. I made sure Warrick and Sephiel were able to hold him. Between their sets of muscles, I didn’t think the men would have a problem carrying Max out.

“Run!” I shouted at them.

Sephiel slung Max’s unburned arm over his shoulder and turned for the stairs. It wouldn’t be long before the flames reached the bottom and trapped us inside.

Which made my temper flare when Warrick refused to move.

He looked at me desperately, thinking I would come with him.

“I’m getting Dro,” I shouted over the clamor.

He hesitated until I gave him a look that said,
Trust me. I can get us both out.

At least, that’s what I hoped my look said.

There wasn’t enough time for me to make sure Warrick took my expression seriously. Sephiel would make him move, and if it turned out that I couldn’t keep my promise... Well, at least there wouldn’t be a way for him to argue with me. Not unless he wanted to yell at a pile of dust.

The second I entered into the spare bedroom where the fire had begun, the temperature ratcheted up at least ten more degrees. It was so hot I could feel blisters starting to grow on my skin. My hair was clinging to the sweat on my face. The clothes and backpack weighed a thousand pounds. Every breath was a struggle, parching my throat and binding my lungs. Scorching light embedded into my retinas, forcing tears from my eyelids.

All three walls I could see were made of fire. It cased the room, growing inward and filling every space it could find. Tornadoes of smoke caught flakes of ash and spun them through the air. The floor was groaning and straining under the heat and pressure. I had to get Dro and leave the room before it collapsed.

She wasn’t hard to find.

Ten feet away from me was a silhouette of white flame. It burned like the sun, glowing so brightly I had to raise my hand to my eyes and squint through my fingertips. It was so bright I couldn’t even see her outline.

But I knew it was her. Just like I knew this wasn’t the way it usually happened. Dro usually had a nightmare and would be woken up from sleep.

This time she was standing, her screams mixing with the tumultuous blaze, as if they were mocking her.

Dro was causing the fire, and she was wide awake this time.

“Dro!” I screamed. It quickly turned into a ragged cough. “
Dro
!”

I wasn’t getting through to her. There was no way she could hear me through this storm. She might not have even seen me. That left me with one choice.

I took a step forward. I screamed her name. She didn’t hear me.

So I took another step and screamed again. Then again. And again.

With every stride, I felt the inferno crowding toward me. Tortured wood groaned under my boots. I was gagging each breath. My eyes were blurred with forced tears. Every inch of my body seemed to gain five pounds when I moved.

I only stopped when I looked down and saw the fire snaking its way toward my boots. If I kept walking, I would go up in flames.

“
Andromeda
!”

She was about four feet from me.  She should have seen me, should have heard me. But the glowing whiteness stretched and pushed outward, growing like a supernova about to burst. The floor under me began to shiver.

“
Andromeda, plea–
”

The floor couldn’t take any more pressure. It collapsed, and took me with it.

It wasn’t a far fall, but I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t bend my knees fast enough, so when I landed, I landed in the worst possible way. My ankle twisted and exploded with a pain so blinding I screamed. My back hit the floor, while splinters of wood clattered beside my head, burning pieces singeing the ends of my hair. My ankle throbbed mercilessly, but I opened my eyes and looked up.

To see the rest of the debris falling fast toward me.

I rolled away, yelping at the sharp torment it put my ankle through. I shifted onto my side and looked around. I was in the kitchen, I think. It was hard to tell from all the smoke. I used my good foot to push further back, whipping my head up to see where I’d fallen through.

The fire wound its way out of the shattered space, splitting off and consuming the walls. The kitchen began to fill with unwelcome light and heat.

I couldn’t see Dro, and with a broken ankle, there was no way I could get back up the stairs to her without being set on fire.

The flames wouldn’t hurt her, but I couldn’t leave her trapped in her nightmare. She wasn’t in danger, but she was trapped in a different kind of torture.

A trap that only Lucifer could create for someone like Dro.

I will destroy you.

No. No, he didn’t want to hurt Dro. Not after going through so much to find her. I had to believe that. I couldn’t imagine he would try to kill her.

But now the thought was there, and it wouldn’t fucking leave.

I tore my eyes away from the ceiling and pushed to my feet. My ankle fired up with pain the moment I put the slightest amount of pressure on it, but I concentrated on moving. Sitting on my ass and praying for a miracle would only end with me being torched.

I had just hobbled to the entryway when a huge
whoosh
fell behind me. Light flared at my back, like the fire had gasped in awe. I spun around too quickly, lost my balance and landed on my ass.

The column of white fire that circled my sister was in front of me.

For a moment, I didn’t so much as breathe. Not that I could, given the lack of oxygen in the air, but what little I had was locked in my lungs next to a heart ready to break from my chest.