Shadows of Fire Read Online Free

I’m a reporter. I smell
a story.”
    Alex
couldn’t tell Hope the truth. There were just too many things the woman wouldn’t
understand about how the exhaustion weighing down Alex’s limbs went against her
very nature. Bone-weary and barely able to pull herself through her days, Alex hoped
she would soon be on the road to feeling like the person she hadn’t been in
many decades. But there was no way to explain any of that to Hope without
exposing a world that existed only in the woman’s nightmares.
    Trying
to lighten the mood, Alex forced another laugh. “What you smell, Miss Hope, is
the alcohol stewing your brain.” She dried her hands on her apron, untied it
and threw it on the sideboard. “I’ll leave those to soak. We need to get you
home.”
    Hope
stood and hugged her tightly. “And you my dear friend need to get some sleep. I
don’t like seeing you this way.”
    “You’re
as bad as Glenn. You both worry too much. I’m fine.”
    Hope
held her at arm’s length, her gaze scouring her face, but Alex refused to
break. The woman could tell she was lying. Alex could see the disappointment in
the way she shrugged and headed out the kitchen door. Like Glenn, Hope had too
much respect for her privacy to call Alex on her obvious lies. Guilt knotted
hard in her gut, making her queasy, but Alex had no choice in the matter.
    No
one—least of all an honorable vampire like Glenn or an innocent human like Hope—needed
to know her whereabouts this night.

Chapter Two
     
    Though
everything around Reese hummed with nervous energy, including the humans pumped
up on adrenaline, his bunched muscles remained still. Sitting in the back seat
of Engine One as it screamed through the night, Reese was singularly focused on
the job ahead. When he’d accepted this assignment a year ago, he’d held little
hope being undercover as a firefighter would offer much in the way of excitement.
But the physical and mental demands of fighting fires were grueling and more of
a challenge than he’d expected—even for his physical superiority.
    The
air tank strapped to his back had been released from its storage area in the
back of his seat within minutes of closing the back door. Both the gloves and
mask in his hands would be pulled on at the scene. Even immortals couldn’t
survive the high heat and noxious fumes fires produced.
    Josh
sat beside him, working the thermal imaging camera out of its holding box and
powering it on. Reese leaned forward, making sure the images were feeding to
the monitor between them. If someone was trapped, they were assigned the rescue.
Even after thirteen months in the department, no mortal had discovered the
unique talents the two men possessed that made the job of pulling victims from
burning buildings a simpler task.
    The
engine turned into the parking lot of an apartment complex, everyone in the
truck evaluating the scene. Only one apartment on the second floor of the
structure was currently involved. An orange hue glowed from its windows, but no
flames had escaped into the night. Probably a kitchen stove fire or a cigarette
carelessly tossed into a bedroom wastebasket. The residents of the building
huddled in dazed confusion in the corner of the parking lot. Many clutched
clothing, photos or purses like prized possessions, knowing it may be all that
remained after the beast raging above them had been slain. A young couple comforted
each other and a crying infant. Reese assessed all this in the seconds it took
Timmons to pull the engine into place.
    The
firefighters jumped from the truck, each knowing the role they would play in
saving people and property. An older man broke from the crowd, running toward
the engine, frantically waving toward the building and shouting, “She’s still
up there.”
    Deputy
Chief Sykes laid a beefy hand on the man’s shoulder. Frantic victims didn’t
disseminate accurate information. Mere seconds meant the difference between
rescue and recovery. “Tell us who’s up