She swiftly dropped out of the sky to land beside him on the roof. Her red hair was tucked securely under her hard helmet, filtration mask clipped in place. Alexei stood up and turned his back to her. Annabelle wrapped her hands around the straps on his tactical vest at the shoulders and hauled him into the airwithher.
Becoming weightless through her anti-gravity power was normally a fun ride, but not tonight. Alexei kept his weapon held low across his body but ready to bring it up in an instant as Annabelle flew them through the sky. Wind rushed past Alexei’s ears, the toes of her boots bumping against his calves as she headed toward the dangerousconflagration.
She didn’t fly in a straight line, taking some hard turns here and there to hopefully keep clear of anyone targeting them. The closer they got, the more Alexei could feel the heat, even through hisuniform.
The ground rushed up to greet them as Annabelle descended to where Katie was barking out orders over comms and to the soldiers around her. Alexei saw Matthew guarding her six while Donovan kept a general eye out for her with his enhanced vision that could see in allspectrums.
“Special delivery!” Annabelle shouted before lettingAlexeigo.
He dropped the last few feet, running into the landing as his weight came back with a suddenness that made his knees ache. Annabelle shot back into the sky after picking up a load of grenades someone handed off to her. Alexei ran the last few meters to make it to Katie’s side, squinting at the fire roaring in thedistance.
“Wraith?” Alexei demanded as he hooked his weapon to his tactical vest to free up hishands.
Katie had one hand pressed to the side of her helmet, jaw clenched tight. “In the middle of that fucking firestorm. I’m trying to guide him out, but he’slosingair.”
“Hasfiltrationmask.”
“He gave it tothekid.”
Alexei stared at the fire, throattightening. “Kid?”
“Fuckers managed to make one metahuman, but Sean got her off Declan’s ship. They’re phased, but even he can’t breathe through firelikethat.”
A calm settled over Alexei, freezingly deep, sharpening his focus to a knife-like point. “Where?”
Donovan pointed to his left, 45 degrees from where they stood, his eyes better than anything their HUDs could come up with. “There.”
Alexei stepped forward and raised his arms, fingers reaching for the fire. Heat sparked through his skin, pushing outward into curling tongues of flame that wrapped around his hands and arms. Their steady flicker was nothing like the fire raging through the broken building—but he could feel the difference. The immense power burning around him was wild and vicious, incapable of being fullycontained.
But Alexei didn’t want to contain it—he wanted tomoveit.
Bringing his hands together, Alexei clawed at the air, watching in the distance as portions of the inferno danced to his control. The fire fought him, reluctantly giving ground as he pushed his arms apart, subsequently carving out a pathway through the raging inferno. The fire split nearly in two, burning walls of flame reaching up to the night sky as Alexei forced the conflagration to obey hiscontrol.
“With me!” Alexei shouted atDonovan.
Together they crossed the dangerous distance to the destroyed building. Donovan led the way, his eyesight capable of finding the safest path over the collapsed building without risking them taking a fall they wouldn’t survive. Sweat dripped down Alexei’s body beneath his combat uniform, half his concentration on the fire surrounding them, the rest of his focusonSean.
It was a couple of long, painful minutes before they came across the agent and the child he’d managed to save. Half phased through broken slabs of concrete, Sean was hunched over a young, dark-haired girl who looked barely conscious, the filtration mask bunched up around hersmallface.
“Wraith!” Alexei yelled.Viper, wake him up. We need him to revert back tosolidity.
They were almost to the pair when Sean’s entire body jerked, head snapping up, as if someone had shocked him. Alexei knew how a telepathic jolt felt, and while it hurt, Katie got Sean moving. He crawled out of the debris, getting himself and the girl free of everything. Alexei and Donovan hovered close by until the second Sean put his handonthe rubble, notthroughit.
Donovan pulled the child from Sean’s weakening grip, cradling her in his arms. Alexei knelt, grabbed Sean’s arm and got a good grip on his belt, hauling the shorter man over his shoulders in a fireman carry. The smoke in the area was thick, something Alexei couldn’t control. He could feel Sean struggling to breathe in short, sharpgasps.
Without a word, Alexei and Donovan turned around and began the dangerous journey back to solid ground. Alexei’s attention was split equally between his next step and the wall of fire raging on either side of them. Even with the filtration mask, his lungs were hurting by the time they cleared the collapsedbuilding.
A pair of Strike Force operatives with the distinctive red cross patch on their shoulders denoting their status as medics had joined Katie’s position. Donovan handed the child to the man carrying an oxygen tank, the combat jet it came from waiting mere meters away in a clear patch of grass. Alexei slipped Sean off his shoulders, biting back a snarl at the medic who helped him lay the agent out on the ground flat onhisback.
Sean was breathing, but just barely. Alexei unclipped his hard helmet and pulled off the tactical goggles, tossing them aside. The medic immediately placed an oxygen mask over Sean’s mouth and nose, securing it as she started the oxygen flow into his lungs. Alexei remained by Sean’s side as she performed a rudimentary body check on him, finding no apparent wounds other than the probable smoke inhalation and seared lungs. That didn’t mean he wasn’t suffering from any further internal injuries they couldn’t see, but Alexei highly doubted it if he had remainedphased.
Donovan scooped up the child once she was stabilized and hurried to the jet. Alexei would’ve done the same for Sean, but Katie grabbed his shoulder, holding him in place with tightfingers.
“They’re bringing a stretcher. I need you to stay here, Inferno,” she told himfirmly.
Alexei knew better than to disobey. While his mind knew he needed to stay and fight, his heart wanted to follow Sean into that jet. He forced himself to not reach for Sean as the medics lifted Sean onto the hovering field stretcher and hauled him to the safety of the jet. With a roar of engines, the combat jet launched straight up into the sky at high speed to escape anyenemyfire.
Alexei tracked it as long as he could, but the Night Stalker pilot was damned good at their job and disappeared into the night withinseconds.
