Shadows of Fire Read Online Free Page A

there and where she might be.”
    “Mrs.
Linscott. She’s got Alzheimer’s. Back apartment. Second floor. I tried—”
    Sykes
turned to his men. “Burkett. Colton. Don’t wait for water. They’ll be right behind
you. Fire appears contained on the west side. Watch yourselves that it doesn’t
flash over.”
    Reese
didn’t need to look behind him to know McLeod was running a line from the
hydrant to the engine while Timmons pulled the hose from the rack on the truck.
The two men would work together to bring water into the building while he and
Josh began the search. Their platoon was a finely tuned instrument, each moving
as synchronized as a Swiss watch.
    It
went against Reese’s nature to run toward fire. And that’s exactly why they’d
taken the jobs. The tribunal believed no one would look for vampires working as
firefighters and their undercover investigations would be more fruitful. They’d
been accepted without question into the brotherhood. And though it appeared no
one suspected what they were, they weren’t any closer to discovering the motive
behind the unsolved fires than they were thirteen months ago when they’d
arrived.
    With
his bunker suit and the air tank strapped to his back, Reese had added no less
than sixty-five pounds of gear. He barely felt the added weight as he donned
his mask, flipped the switch at the bottom of his air tank and entered the
building, noting the lack of smoke in the foyer. He leaped up the six stairs to
the first landing in one bound, his gaze sweeping the darkness of the two lower
apartments. No one here. Rounding the corner, he could hear the pull of air
behind him as Josh followed. Both reached the second landing in two graceful
leaps.
    Reese
turned another corner, looking up the eight steps to the second floor. The
heart of the fire lay ahead of them and to the left. It pumped black smoke into
the hall like blood through arteries. The light on Reese’s shoulder barely cut
through the dense air. If there was someone up there, they needed to move
quickly. Fire. Smoke. A disoriented elderly woman. It was a sure recipe for
disaster.
    Neither
McLeod nor Timmons could see from this angle, so he and Josh jumped to the
second floor hallway.
    Fed
by furniture, carpeting and wood, the fiery animal to his left mushroomed.
Windows exploded in the burning apartment and instinct had them ducking away
from the noise and flying debris. The heat intensified and the fire hungered
for more nourishment. Tongues of flame licked across the apartment ceiling, but
the fire wasn’t Reese’s concern. He could see Timmons and McLeod pressing up
the stairs with the hose at the ready. He ignored the tempest and entered the
apartment on the right.
    No
lights were on, but with his keen sight Reese didn’t need them to see that only
smoke, not flames rolled along the ceiling in this apartment. It hadn’t yet
come down to eye level. For the benefit of anyone who might be watching the
monitor in the truck, Josh turned on the imaging camera and swept it around the
living room.
    “Clear.”
Josh’s voice was tinny and hollow through the side speakers of his mask.
    “Hello.
Anyone here?” Reese called into the apartment. Nothing.
    Josh
moved through the living room toward the kitchen while Reese split off to
search the rooms on the other side of the apartment.
    “Clear,”
he heard Josh shout again.
    Turning
the corner into the hall, he nearly ran into her. The frail woman appeared
unaffected by his presence. Veins glowed through the papery skin of her hands.
Her nervous fingers laced and rolled over each other as her eyes searched the
night. A cotton nightie ballooned on her frail frame. “Dark. It’s so dark.
Where’s Benjamin?” Her pale eyes turned to him. He watched the soft expression
of confusion harden to terror. “You’re not here to help me find Benjamin. You …
you …” Her finger shook at him as her shuffling feet moved her unsteadily
toward the refuge of the bathroom behind