Love Is in the Air (27 page)

Sal hadn’t even realized that their course hadn’t been a straight line toward the City, but Lionel had been angling them around to the west side of the island. Angling them toward the closest point to the prison. That dark, hulking structure that had brought nothing but misery and suffering to the island.

Maybe she and Tyr could change its legacy.

CHAPTER 92

“This is, seriously, the most moronic idea I’ve ever heard,” Lionel commented. And the professor didn’t even know that Tyr hated her helping, or that each time she had overridden his objections, it had ended in disaster.

Sal jumped from the boat to the dock. “Just cross the bay and get help. I mean helicopters, armor-piercing rounds, SWAT, everything.”

“I’m telling you, I can help,” Lionel asserted.

Sal pushed the skiff away from the island. “We can’t risk your brain getting into the beast’s clutches.”

Lionel frowned as he fired up the engines and pointed the boat toward the City. “Thanks for the concern.”

After making sure the professor was headed toward safety, Sal turned to Alcatraz. The red glow in the distance confirmed that the beast was still on the far side of the compound. The side with the fireworks. Everyone might appreciate their beauty, but in reality, those sparkling displays were high-charge explosives.

The beast had recruited a man with an expertise in explosives. One didn’t need a PhD to figure out that that didn’t bode well for Tyr. Sal could remember those not-so-bestial eyes back at the museum. His simian speech.

The beast had once been a human who meddled in blood and descended into the foul creature that threatened all their lives. For all she complained that Tyr didn’t respect the beast’s intelligence enough, Sal had been just as guilty.

It had never occurred to her that he would turn a man into his servant. Or use explosives as a weapon. The situation had seemed hopeless. The beast was always five steps ahead of them. Manipulating the playing field. Turning their ignorance to his advantage.

Then back on the boat, in that moment when she realized that Tyr had sacrificed the last of his HeartsBlood to heal her, Sal knew she could give the hunter an even greater gift.

She could give Tyr that which the beast sought. Not the chemical composition of Lionel’s compound, but something even better. The gel itself. Sal had been so busy trying to save their lives that she had missed the opportunity to actually, literally, save their lives.

All this time, she had known where a small aliquot of gel was hidden. On this island. This very island.

The two geeks had been up on that third floor for a reason—to test Hing’s gel against the Crusader’s chemical engineering. Kind of like the old days, when they had races between the Pony Express and the railroads.

What neither the beast nor Tyr knew was that they never got the chance to test Lionel’s theory, since he’d injured his hand. The gel should still be smeared across the locking mechanism.

Tyr might nearly be out of blood, but if the gel had the properties they feared, Sal knew that he would finally have the upper hand.

CHAPTER 93

Sal snuck up the second flight of stairs, jumping at any little sound. The park rangers that lived on the island swore the place was haunted. A building built from concrete shouldn’t have had any boards to creak or groan underfoot, yet those were exactly the sounds that startled her.

She was certain at any moment that the beast would launch from above, or below, or the sides. The air had no red hue, but still she found her muscles locking up at each noise.

How brave she always felt when she was far from danger.

Finally, she reached the third floor. In the dim light she could see the corner where they’d found the scientists. Her feet hesitated, fear tensing her muscles to the tearing point.

This was ridiculous. You’d think she’d have gotten used to skulking around dark hallways.

Sal tiptoed down the passage. Surveying the cell door with its flaking yellow paint, she noticed a glistening. Sal kneeled to find a thin film of the gel smeared over the cell’s lock. Using a tongue depressor from the first- aid kit, she scraped the gel from the metal.

When the air around her became red-tinged, Sal didn’t even try to act surprised. The beast knew her scent, and knew that she was the softer target.

Unfortunately, Sal was collecting more chipped paint than gel.

Why did her plans always sound so good in her head yet seldom bore out well in reality?

The beast didn’t even bother to roar or growl as he stalked toward her.

He just guffed. A simple acknowledgment that she was in his sights.

“You shall be mine yet…” he slurred.

She refused to tumble into panic. Sal knew that Tyr couldn’t be far behind. He would come riding in, just like he had so many other times.

Rising, she backed slowly from the beast’s approach, expecting a quiet call in her mind, or a command to get of the way.

What could she do but wait for Tyr? The beast blocked the closest stairwell. The other stairwell was the entire length of the building behind her. Outrunning the beast simply wasn’t an option.

With each passing minute, the beast became less wary, yet Sal noted he didn’t charge. His human, rounded pupils kept darting to her hand. To the gel.

“Salista!” Tyr’s shout echoed off the cement walls.

Finally!

But when she searched around, Sal couldn’t find him. Then she looked down at the ground floor. Tyr was inside the prison, but two levels away.

He took off in a sprint toward the far stairwell. Sal glanced back at the beast. He didn’t seem in the mood for his prize to be snatched away, as he picked up the pace. Tyr would never be able to intercept in time.

“Run!” he yelled, but Sal knew that she couldn’t become the beast’s prey. She had to think.

Snatching a torch from the wall, Sal threatened the beast with it. The action made the beast pause long enough to cock his head to the side, snarl, and continue. He knew that she didn’t have the skill to use it like Tyr.

Then what did she have?

As the beast’s eyes darted to her hand again, Sal clutched the tongue depressor. She had the gel. She wasn’t quite sure how she could use it, but she had to figure it out fast.

Sal rewound Hing’s demonstration in her mind. Mika had held a red ball. She’s placed her hand in the green gel. The grad student had concentrated, and the gel turned red.

So you needed to be in physical contact with the essence and the gel to make the transference of intent. As the torch crackled in her hand, she knew how much the beast hated fire.

Before he could close the distance, Sal took the gel and smeared it in a line across the floor. The beast’s eyes dilated. Dropping the depressor, Sal pressed her fingers into the gel and clung tightly to the torch.

As she said the word, she poured every ounce of hatred and fear into the intent. Sal needed a fire so hot and so big that the beast could not cross.

“Ignite!” A thrill coursed through her veins as her intent transformed into reality.

CHAPTER 94

The beast charged, but the gel erupted in flame, gaining heat as it rose to form a wall of fire between them. An inhuman scream wailed as the beast’s body caught fire. The pained shriek brought gooseflesh to her skin, even though the temperature around her had risen forty degrees.

Tyr grabbed Sal from behind.

“What have you wrought?” he asked, horrified.

Sal didn’t understand his urgency as he tugged her backward until the fire billowed out, igniting anything in its path.

“It can’t be…”

The walls were cement. The bars metal. Non-combustible. Yet they burned, fueling the furnace she had created.

They ran, but how could you outrun wildfire? The guard station was at the far end of the hall. The fire crackled at their backs. She could feel the flame build. She could feel it sucking the oxygen from the air to feed itself.

The inferno wouldn’t be satisfied until everything, including them, burned.

Safety was only a few steps away, but still too many. Tyr pulled to a stop as he shoved her toward the door. As she stumbled forward, Sal turned to watch Tyr pull the vial of her blood from around his neck. He uncorked it, seeming at peace.

With a flick of his wrist, Tyr flung her blood before him, announcing,

“Extinguish!”

Instead of subduing the fire, the blood inflamed the blaze. Just as she jerked the door handle open, the conflagration burst outward. Tyr tried to turn away, but flame lashed up his side.

His scream was so much worse, because it was purely human.

Sal disregarded the blast of heat and snatched Tyr’s arm, dragging him into the guards’ room, then slamming the door closed on the furnace.

Instantly, the handle became super-heated. Sal jumped back from the door.

But her injured palm wasn’t her concern. Tyr was. She rushed to his side, but he shoved her back.

“You lied,” he hissed.

“What? I don’t—”

“The blood… it held no love.”

Sal didn’t understand what Tyr meant, then looked to the empty vial still clutched in his burnt hand. The blood she had donated while she thought of Richard. The man she was engaged to. The man whom it was now proven that she did not love.

The room took on a red glow, but this time it wasn’t from the beast. It was from something worse—a firestorm that she had created. They couldn’t stay here. With the fury of the fire, they’d die of heat exhaustion before the flames burnt through the door. And Tyr was injured. From the way he sagged against the wall, badly. She couldn’t attend to his burns until they were safe.

Tears threatened. This was all her fault. She’d misused the gel and lied about the blood. She had doomed them both.

Despair tried to take hold, but Sal refused. She couldn’t give up. They both still had a heartbeat. So what was her mantra? Keep trying.

If she’d doomed them, then it was up to her to save them.

“Could love’s blood get us past the flames to the ground floor?”

Tyr’s jaw muscles were doubled over on themselves as he snorted.

“Only the strongest, most potent of love could hope to shelter us so.”

Sal extended her arm. “Then take it now.”

CHAPTER 95

The sneer on Tyr’s lips cut nearly as deeply as the blow to her head earlier. “You have not that depth of emotion. Not for him.”

His words hurt, but Sal didn’t lower her exposed wrist. “No, not for Richard, but for another.”

Tyr’s features clouded as he searched her eyes. “We will die if you speak not the truth.”

“Ask me.”

Pulling his knife, Tyr brought the blade to her tender skin. “Speak the name of he whom you covet above all other.”

“Tyr DeadBlood.” She didn’t need to picture the man she loved, because he stood before her. She didn’t need to imagine what he meant to her as his eyes misted over.

The knife’s path across her skin didn’t even hurt this time. The tingle was nearly sensual. Too quickly, the blood dripped from her vein, filling the vial. Tyr fitted the stopper.

At first, Sal was surprised that he didn’t bind the wrist wound, then he brought her hand up to his lips. Tenderly, he kissed her flesh. She’d never felt such a rush of desire before. If it weren’t for his burns and the conflagration outside, she would have broken every vow to Richard that she’d ever spoken.

Just as quickly, his lips pulled away from the wound that was already healed. The effect on her pulse didn’t abate so quickly. It became hard to follow his words.

“Do you understand the fire’s font?” he said, then slumped.

Sal caught him. His weight pressed against her.

“I’m sorry?”

Tyr’s teeth were nearly clenched shut. “What intent did you infuse into your edict?”

She already knew where he was going with his inquiry. That rush when “ignite” came off her lips told her she’d stepped over some invisible line into descent. There had been hints of it before, but it had felt like the blaze had flowed first through her veins before it set fire to the gel.

“How much I feared and hated the beast,” Sal said in an almost girl-like tone. How could she have been so stupid? Pouring such negative emotion into such a volatile substance.

“But not even I hate him that much.” Sal indicated toward the small window, which showed a whipping wildfire.

His teeth were clenched. “Think to the place’s intent. What sort of men sweat against these walls?”

Oh, no. Alcatraz was a prison. A cruel, maximum-security prison, where the worst of the worst were housed. And if only a tenth of the stories were true, the worst guards. Her fear and hatred might have sparked the fire, but the prison itself, with its decades-worth of rape and torture was its fuel.

A nearly endless font of pain.

Knowing what fueled the fire didn’t help her fight the fire, though. They needed to get the hell out of there.

“Can you make it downstairs?” she asked.

The fire licked under the doorway, sweeping the floor, looking for a new victim. Tyr didn’t bother to waste energy on an answer. They either made it downstairs, or they were dead.

“You must purge your heart of the beast. You must—”

“I got it,” she said, helping him toward the door.

“No, you do not.” He found her eyes. “Not only must you feel no hatred or even fear, you must hold only that intent which filled the vial.”

She searched his features and found that he wasn’t exaggerating.

Tyr held the tiny crystal container in his hand. “To feel anything less will spell our end.”

CHAPTER 96

“But, hey, not too much pressure,” Sal commented.

Tyr’s eyebrow went up.

“Never mind. I can do it.”

“It is far, and—”

Sal put his arm over her shoulder, taking the bulk of his weight off his injured leg. “I
will
do it.”

He still didn’t look completely convinced, but let her open the door.

The fire roared into the room as they used the door as a screen. As the metal burnished orange, Tyr dashed the blood onto them.

“Protect!”

As if the inferno could sense their presence, flames licked around the door, tumbling over itself to claim them, then the blast hit their Praxis shield.