Sweat plastered my shirt to my skin and ran down my forehead, stinging my eyes. The sight of James growing weaker by the second was like a knife to my heart.
If I could only reach him. I’d… I don’t know what I’d do. I was so weak, even blinking required effort.
I cast about for anything I could use as a weapon. Dani neared James, her crucifix held in front of her like a gun. I couldn’t watch, and I looked away. As I did, my eyes alighted on the liquor bottle next to my feet. I kept a careful eye on Dani as I slowly reached down to grab it. I was desperate to move faster, but I didn’t want to alert her. I hissed at the hot glass against mypalm, but gritted my teeth and pushed through. I stood, using the back of the chair for support. Whatever drugs Dani gave me—mixed with the concussion from the metal shelf—rendered me next to useless.
James cursed, and I snapped my head up—too fast. I swayed, but managed to remain standing.
Dani stabbed James’s chest with her crucifix. His face contorted in pain. I could almostseethe life draining out of him. He convulsed, but even those weakened to tremors as the fight went out of him.
She was killing him.
Ihadto do something.
I weighed the bottle in my hand. It was heavy enough to do some damage. I crossed the room as quickly and silently as I could. Dani had James’s chin in one hand, her other keeping the crucifix locked against his skin. He met my eyes.
“Ryder, no,” he croaked.
I cursed as Dani looked over her shoulder. I wasn’t close enough yet, damn it! In a panic, I did the only thing that came to mind: I threw the bottle. Dani yelped, dropping the cross from James’s skin to raise her hands against the incoming threat.
James collapsed. The bottle glanced off her arm, and rolled across the floor. She dove for it.
I stumbled to James’s side, kneeling to snatch the crucifix. I needed to get it as far away from him as possible. Next to me, Dani rose to her feet and brandished the bottle. Backlit by the roaring conflagration behind her, she seemed nothing more than a towering silhouette looming over us. She raised the bottle to strike.
Uh-oh.
I had a fraction of a second, maybe less. I didn’t think. I didn’t plan.
I reacted.
As she swung down, I surged forward with the last of my strength and struck with the only thing I had available. The sharpened end of the crucifix plunged into her chest, biting through skin and crunching sickeningly off bone. Nauseated from both the effort and the sticky blood gushing over my hand, I barely felt the weight of the bottle absorbed by my shoulder.
Dani’s mouth was open in shock. Her eyes rolled back into their sockets and she toppled to the ground.
Weakly, I held my hand out to James. My eyes watered from the smoke and heat. James, too, struggled to keep his eyes open, his movements slow and pained. “Ryder, get out.”
“Not without you.” I coughed as smoke filled my lungs, bile rising in the back of my throat. I swallowed it back down, determined. “I don’t have it in me to fight you on this.”
“I can’t,” he gasped.
“Take my damn hand,now!”
His eyes widened, albeit slightly, and he grasped my outstretched fingers. His grip was so weak. I hauled him to his feet—which I shouldn’t have been able to do. I threw his arm over my shoulder and we hobbled toward the front door.
I reached for the handle, but recoiled. The metal was practically steaming. In desperation, I shouldered the door, and like something out of an action movie, the glass shattered. We burst through the doorframe, glittering fragments crunching beneath our feet, smoke and embers swirling out around us and into the freezing air.
I was panting and wheezing, desperately trying to stave off nausea long enough to get James away from the burning bar. I led him to the parking lot where I finally let him go, helping him sit down. I could tell his strength was returning, though slowly.
James watched the building burn, tears standing out in his eyes. I followed his gaze, and only then realized how painful thiswas for him. It was the second time Liz had been consigned to the flames.
All I wanted was to collapse, but I wasn’t done yet.
“Stay here,” I instructed. I moved, only to be brought to a halt by his hand around my wrist.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“I have to save Dani.”
“Ryder, no. It’s too dangerous.”
