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My things! I limped down the hall, the rug I’d placed to hide the hole flipping in my haste. I couldn’t lose everything I worked so hard to collect. I gritted my teeth through the sharp pain in my limbs. Even the sway of my torso caused my arm to tighten uncomfortably. Tears welled in my eyes and upon my nextinhale, I sucked in thick smoke which sent me into a coughing fit.

I froze at the threshold of my bedroom. Wood creaked, and a beam splintered on the floor. Embers erupted from the rupture.

“Catalina,” a muffled shout reached through the fog in my brain. I took another step forward, gaze fastened on the opened luggage scattered across the ground. “Stop.” The order didn’t sway me from stepping into the room flickering with red flames. Smoke crawled up the walls, coating the ceiling as it snaked its way up in tendrils.

Fingers dug into my arm, and I fought against the stiff hold. My back slammed into a chest and arms banded around my waist.

“No,” I screamed. “Let me go.”

“Stop fighting me, Pet,” Asher grunted in my ear.

A vampire. My breath choked up in my lungs and my fight turned up a notch. Flames coated the ceiling and crept much too close.

Binx might be under my bed! He liked to hide . . .

“My cat!” I cried out and dug my good hand into the door frame.

“Let go, Catalina,” he hissed.

“No. You let me go,” I croaked, gripping on for dear life even though the tug flared pain throughout every inch on my body. Spots danced in my sight and my chest became excruciatingly tight.

If I passed out, it was over—my cat would go up in flames. My things. Everything I’d collected through the years would be incinerated. His arms banded around my stomach and I lost my grip on the door frame. A cry took the last of my oxygen and the world blurred into nothing.

FOUR

catalina

A burnt scentseared the insides of my nose. Everything was on fire!

Flames licked my arm . . . Gasping, I shot up. A nail hammered into my ankle and I screamed. Panting, I palmed my broken leg. Moving was agonizing. A drilling agony, deep and relentless.

The pain medication was for sure out of my system.

“Take care, little human,” a sinister voice echoed off the walls.

A chill traveled up my spine. I picked up and held a pillow to my chest with my good arm. Poor defense against vampires, but clutching it brought me comfort.

A lamp lit up the bedroom. Red silk bed sheets bunched under me, and gold glinted off the fixtures embedded into the wall. No, no, I couldn’t be back—a chestnut wardrobe loomed against the furthest wall near the door, confirming that it was Asher’s bedroom.

“Tell me about your dealings with Calliope.” Ren’s crossed arms bulged. His cool gaze flickered with avarice, and he pushed his shoulder off the wall. This creature walking toward me had burned my house to force me out.

Yet, all I wanted to do was rub my nose against his skin to breathe him in. He reached the end of the bed, and I helplessly looked around. The metal shutters were raised to expose the night. Before the fire, it’d been close to morning, so I clearly slept through the day.

He suddenly appeared next to the bed, looming over me with the corners of his mouth tilted up and his teeth showing. It was less a grin and more a baring of his teeth.

I flinched.

My gaze bounced to the door—to freedom.

“Running will land you another injury.”

I tore my gaze away from the exit. I could only see the corner of the doorframe since his wide, massive shoulders blocked most of it.

My heartbeat drummed in my ears. I was too high up and unless I wanted to snap my neck upon landing, I could see no way out—alive. I struggled to swallow, my rib cage aching with each inhale. Ren wobbled in my vision, his broad, strong features blurring. I gritted my teeth and focused. On his strong nose with a shorter bridge, the stiff set of his lips, and the tan hue of his skin, a shade lighter than mine—attractive and wild eyes. I fisted the silk sheets with my good hand, focusing on relaxing the tension wracking my limbs. It made everything feel worse than it was.

Unlike when I first arrived to this God forsaken town, I’d managed not to have an asthmatic attack from merely being in the presence of a vampire.

Some would say that was a positive that came out of all of it, but I was not ‘some’. I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough that I tasted blood.