Cold Fire [SAMPLE]

[40]

CHAPTER FORTY

There’s glass flying everywhere.

I don’t know where to look: at Lauren’s body, falling to the ground; at the man who’s just jumped through a window on the other side of the room; or at the source of the screaming.

Before I know it, I’m running to Lauren with tears in my eyes, ignoring the man getting to his feet, ignoring the shouts behind me, ignoring the sound of smashing and screaming and grunting – ignoring everything.

It’s not until I reach her, my eyes landing on her still form, that I clamp my mouth shut and the screaming stops. I feel my body freeze up as shock takes over. I don’t know what’s happened to her, but there’s blood slowly spreading outwards from the centre of her chest like a stain and she’s not breathing.

Oh God, she’s not breathing.

I collapse to my knees and suddenly everything feels heavy and dull, like I’m breathing in murky water. Tears run in steady streams down my cheeks, blurring my vision. “Lauren,” I say quietly, my voice laced with pain. I’m wading through an infinite sea of water, trying to reach her, but she’s too far away – too far gone. And then the hysteria sets in. Shaking her by the shoulders. Screaming her name. Squeezing her wrist into extinction. I’m panicking and I know it, but I can’t stop. The tears fall faster, puddling on her neck, on the floor, seeping into her clothes and hair. “Don’t do this to me!” I’m shouting. “Don’t you dare!”

But her eyes are open, staring vacantly at a spot on the ceiling, and I know she’s gone. I can’t fathom how but she is and I cry harder, my heart feeling as though it’s being ripped from my chest.

“Melissa, she’s gone! You have to get up!” I don’t know where the shouting comes from – it seems to be everywhere at once – but I recognise the voice. Caden’s voice.

I feel a hand on my upper arm – feel someone’s nails sinking into my skin – and I react. A scream rips from my throat as I throw my arm backwards, sending the person shooting to the wall with a loud thwack. But I’m not me anymore – I’m someone else. Someone who is determined and enraged and merciless and entirely different. I get to my feet just as a muscular man with a face like a bulldog comes charging towards me and my arms shoot outwards as I force the air in his direction. He flies backwards before he even gets within a metre of me, smashing into a bookcase that collapses on top of him.

Then I notice my scarlet hands dangling in front of my eyes. They’re covered in blood – Lauren’s blood – and I can’t stop staring at them, my emotions smashing together like wild boars. I’m freaked and hysterical and petrified and miserable and fuming. The emotions are trapped within me and I don’t what to do with them.

But then I hear a noise behind me and I forget about it all, turning in time to see a woman with platinum-blonde hair throw a punch at my face. She’s fast, but I’m faster, and I grab her wrist before her fist meets my skin and throw my own punch into her stomach. Using a mixture of strength and telekinesis, I grab her waist and swing her over my head, slamming her down onto the floor on my other side. And I swear to God, I hear a floorboard snap beneath her.

I look up to see Caden wrestling with a man on the floor and, fuelled by rage, I create an enormous gust of wind that throws the man to the side where he collides with a table.

Caden rushes to his feet, running over to me in next to no time. “How many do you think there are?” he asks, breathing hard. I forget about my hands.

“I don’t know. Three, maybe more. It’s–”

“Melissa, watch out!”

My instincts have me ducking and I swipe the person’s feet out from underneath them. They hit the ground hard.