“Jade!” My senses came back to me all at once and I stumbled forward over more debris. What happened?
“Jade!” This time I could hear my name being called clearly. I choked on my breath again as I stumbled toward the voice. Was it Lucas calling me or Damian? I couldn’t differentiate with my hearing still coming back to me.
I knew it had to be Damian calling me as soon as I noticed Lucas laying on the ground unconscious under the pieces of picnic tables we had been sitting at. Blood rolled down his forehead and his eyes fluttered briefly before he went still again. Nothing else mattered as I fought my way through the throng of people trying to get away from the fire on the other side of the room. Someone was screaming as I fought my way across the rubble but I didn’t allow myself to get distracted. I fell into the dust and sheetrock beside my sweet friend.
“Lucas!” I tried to pull the table pieces off of him but my werewolf strength was gone.
“Let me help you,” a gentle voice said beside me.
I fell back away from Lucas’s still body and felt my insides crumble like the building. Tears fell from my face as I realized that Lucas could die from this. This was what I had been trying to prevent. He had predicted his own death but I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t let that happen.
Damian lifted the jagged pieces of the table with his magic, I assumed as they floated above his body without a tether or evidence otherwise. They crashed somewhere in the distance as I pulled Lucas into my arms and brushed his hair from his face. Damian leaned over to check for a pulse while I rocked back and forth.
Damian sat back on his heels. “He’s still alive. His pulse is strong. His wolf won’t be able to heal him though. Someone blew up the wolfsbane closet.”
It hit me like a ton of bricks. This was the distraction. This was what I had been left out of. I pulled Lucas from the rubble and into my arms. I stumbled over bodies and more pieces of the room before I got him to one of the hallways. I looked back at the damage to the cafeteria but the dust was still thick in the air and now smoke was starting to join it. Damian was nowhere to be seen and neither was Micah. I looked down at my friend and wondered if he would be safe here. I couldn’t sit out on the rescue efforts. The building was on fire and there was no telling how many people would die if I didn’t go in there to help.
I pressed a quick kiss to Lucas’s hairline before I jumped back into the madness. Damian was using his magic to lift pieces of wood and sheetrock from the victims. I was no use on that front but where the fire was, I knew I could help. I rushed through the wall that was on fire and right into the kitchen. I immediately spotted Micah. He held a syringe up before he put it in his pocket. Laying on the ground at his feet was Bee. Her head was at an odd angle and her limbs were sprawled out around her. I immediately sprang to action. She could be saved, right?
Micah grabbed me around my middle and stopped me from going down to her. Stopped me from feeling that she was already gone. I didn’t realize I was crying until a sob erupted from my lips. She was my friend. She had a daughter. A family. She was more than this place. She was more than this death. I fought his hold and fell to my knees beside her. I hardly knew her but she had been my friend. She didn’t deserve this. Her family didn’t deserve this. My hands fluttered over her peaceful face as another sob wracked through my body.
Micah pulled me into his arms and I felt myself break again. My entire body shuddered with it. Where was Nalia? She was the only one that could help me.
“We have a few minutes before Damian comes this way. The fire is superficial and can be put out easily. You can fall apart but know that she sacrificed herself for this cause. She sacrificed herself for her daughter.” Micah whispered into my hair. I would avenge her. I would avenge them all. I nodded my head against his shoulder and fell back to my knees beside her. “You have to get up, Jade. She was a traitor. She deserved this death.”
“No,” I whispered. I knew the moment Damian walked through the flames. It was like the air had been sucked from the room. “No!”
I fell forward and brushed her blonde hair from her face. The sobs only increased.
“You heard him, Jade,” Damian commanded. “She was a traitor. There is no use in these theatrics. “I understand your grief but you must let her go. Micah did what he had to do.”
My eyes turned up at the man that had guarded my room. Of course he was the one that had killed her. He would do it quickly so she felt no pain. She had sacrificed herself. I nodded once before I tried to wipe the tears from my face. “Will her body be brought to her family?”
“Traitors don’t deserve such honors.” Before I could reply her body was in flames at my feet. I jumped back in horror and dread. He was burning her body. What were we to do now? How would we get her blood to the pack? Her sacrifice had been for nothing. My face fell. “But Micah will be permitted to go to her family and tell them what he did. He will bring her ashes with him.”
Micah smiled gleefully and it caused nausea to fill my stomach. The cook that had befriended me busted through the wall of flames next. When she saw Bee’s body burning her face fell too. She understood what we had lost. She didn’t allow any tears as she looked down at the witch she had cared for. The witch we had all cared for.
Damian sighed. “This is all very unfortunate.” He twirled his fingers and her body stopped burning. He snapped his fingers and then the ashes collected in the air. Damian materialized a long thin glass beaker. The ashes collected into it before he put a cork on the top. He handed the remains of our friend to Micah before he wrapped his arm around me and led me from the room.
His voice echoed around the war zone we walked through. “We will have to find another home.”
