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She stopped short, her lovely face going completely blank for a moment. Then he saw the understanding dawn, and he had no doubt. Relief coursed through him.
She knew.
Anura looked at Lily again, more closely now. “Of course,” she murmured. “Of course. ” Then she looked back at him, and Ty could see that whatever Anura had just realized, it was deadly serious business.
“We still need to get her out of here,” she said. “Now. But I will help you. I swore I would, though I never thought I’d see the day. ” Her pupils, already huge, dilated until they turned her eyes black. “Blood of the goddess, Ty, what else have you brought down on me?”
That was when he smelled the smoke.
Chapter TWELVE
IN A SINGLE INSTANT, Mabon descended into pandemonium.
Lily found herself quickly released from her partner’s embrace, which would have been a lot more welcome if she hadn’t been surrounded by shrieks of “Fire!”
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll get you out of here. ”
Lily shook her head and took a step back, though a quick look for Ty had shown her nothing but a crowd of people all rushing to the door. He was there; he had to be in there somewhere. He wouldn’t leave her—not willingly anyway. Not after all this.
“No. ”
He didn’t look happy about it, but he didn’t reach for her either. “Suit yourself,” he said, and was gone.
Despite the grayish smoke that began to coil around her ankles and the unmistakable scent of burning, Lily focused on only one thing: finding Ty. She shoved past panicked patrons, all of whom were headed toward the single exit. There were no windows, and she worried that the air would quickly become difficult to breathe. The music played on over the escalating sounds of shouting and fighting.
She knew, without a single doubt, that this was happening because she was here. Somehow, Damien had caught up, and more quickly than she could have imagined. But then, Ty had warned her.
Suddenly he was there, one hand on her arm, shouting to be heard above the din. His quicksilver eyes reflected nothing but steely resolve, and it steadied Lily the way nothing else could have.
“Come with me,” he said. “This way. ”
He took her hand and pulled her through the crowd, heading in the opposite direction as everyone else. They headed to a large mirror that was taller than Ty and twice as wide, hanging on the wall opposite the bar. After he felt along the side of it, Lily heard a faint click, and the entire thing swung outward like a door. No one paid any attention as they rushed by.
Ty motioned for her to go in ahead of him, and so she stepped in, hearing him shut the door behind her. Lily coughed as she looked around her at an opulent office now hazy with smoke. Inside were two people: Anura and another man she didn’t remember seeing inside the club, though she supposed she could have missed him. She doubted it, though. He could have been Ty’s younger brother, with his chin-length black hair tucked behind his ears and the same guarded expression that she was already so used to seeing. Jet-black eyeliner rimmed bright blue eyes that warily watched the two of them enter, and on one of his forearms, a tribal black cat stretched.
Ty’s reaction surprised her, but she thought it surprised the other two even more.
“Jaden!” he cried, one of his rare smiles lighting up an otherwise serious countenance. He strode forward, grabbed the younger man, and pulled him into a quick, tight embrace. “I worried you were dead, brother. You should have tried to find me. ”
Jaden stiffened for a moment but then seemed to accept the spontaneous show of affection. One fist pounded Ty’s back a couple of times, and then he was released. He didn’t return Ty’s smile, but Ty seemed too preoccupied to really notice. Instead, he rounded on Anura, and Lily could see the confusion and anger in his expression.
“I expect you to explain this. You lied to me about it even when you knew I hadn’t come for him. ”
“I couldn’t be sure,” Anura replied, spreading her hands before her. “Much hangs in the balance, and your loyalties are divided. We couldn’t be sure which side you would come down on. I told you… you don’t know all of it. ”
“We?”
The pain in Ty’s eyes when he looked back at Jaden was so deep that Lily could feel it herself, a knife in the belly. She didn’t question why it hurt her so, didn’t have time. All she knew was that she didn’t ever want to be the source of such anguish for him.
“You’re blood, Jaden. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for my blood. I protected you when no one else would have. We are brothers. How do I not deserve your trust?”
“Weren’t you the one who told me to rely on no one, to trust no one, but myself?” Jaden asked, though Lily could see that Ty’s words had affected him. On his pale cheeks there was a faint pink bloom that looked like shame. Jaden glanced away, and his voice dropped so that she could barely hear.
“In truth, brother, it was safer for you not to see me. You risk enough. You always have. I worried you would risk more, once you knew the way of things. It would be better if you hadn’t come here. ”
Anura sighed. “As my club is on fire, I would have to agree. But what’s done is done. ”
“So… this is your brother?” Lily asked, glad for Ty that he at least had family that had followed him into his life as a vampire. She hoped to do something, anything, to distract him from whatever emotions had put such an expression on his face. Her effort didn’t amount to much, but he did, at least, answer her.
“Jaden is my blood brother,” Ty said, tearing his accusing eyes away from the other two. “He’s of the Cait Sith, like I am. And he and I have done plenty of running together for the Ptolemy over the years. ” There seemed to be a wealth of meaning in just that one sentence.
“Not anymore,” Jaden said, his voice soft and slightly rough.
“No, not anymore,” Ty replied, his tone hardening. “What the hell are you doing here, Jaden? You know what they’ll do to you if they find you. What’s happened?”
“That will have to wait,” Anura said tersely. “You three need to get out of here. Now. The entire damned stockroom is already in flames, and this place was never brought up to code because it isn’t even supposed to be here. This may all be gone by tomorrow. Someone is trying to smoke one or both of you out. Take my stairs. Jaden, you take Ty and Lily to the apartment. I’ll meet you when it’s safe for me to do so, but it could be a couple of nights. You can’t be seen leaving here. And I can’t be seen leaving with you. ” She glanced at Lily, and it seemed there was an ancient sadness that lingered in Anura’s eyes. “There is more at stake than you know. ”
Jaden looked sharply at Anura. “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
Anura smiled, though it was humorless. “I’ve always got a backup plan or three. I’ll manage. Be careful,” she said, looking first at Ty, then at Lily. It was the strangest sensation, looking into Anura’s dark eyes. Lily felt the room waver the moment their gazes connected, and the smell of smoke seemed to vanish in favor of the scents of incense and night-blooming jasmine. For just a moment, Lily could hear the wild song of flute and pipe, and a vision flashed before her eyes of white-robed women dancing, hand in hand, in a circle beneath a full summer moon.
She blinked, and reality roared back. Someone was banging on the mirror door, and the smoke was thickening.
“Anura! Are you in there? Anura, we need to get out of here. We can’t save it!”
Lily recognized the voice of the bouncer who’d given Ty a tough time at the door. She sucked in an acrid breath and immediately started coughing again. Ty, seemingly unaffected, looked at her worriedly, and Anura strode to open a door on the opposite wall. Beyond it were stairs leading up.
“Go!” she commanded. “As you can see, I’m not without protection. Not that I need it, but it’s nice just the same. ”
Jaden gave a quick nod, then h
eaded in. Ty put Lily in front of him and nudged her forward. She went, but paused at the threshold where Anura stood waiting for them to go. The pounding against the door intensified.
Without understanding why she did it, Lily reached out and clasped Anura’s forearm. Instantly, she felt the warmth of the connection, the truth of the bond. She just didn’t know what it meant. But she could see that Anura did, and her gaze was warm.
“Be safe,” Lily said, feeling like an idiot, wanting to say something. She had so much to ask, but the opportunity was being stolen. The disappointment of it was crushing.
Anura, who had clasped Lily’s forearm the same way, gave her a smile that was both sad and sweet. “Blessed be, little sister. You stay safe too. We have much to talk about. ”
Lily caught only a glimpse of Anura’s physical form vanishing, turning transparent before dissolving into a column of pure white smoke. Then they were gone, rushing up the pitch-black stairs as the world filled up with fire below them and sirens wailed above.
And not long after, the three of them emerged into a cold night dotted with indifferent stars.
Chapter THIRTEEN
IN HER DREAMS, she was back in the fire.
Lily stood in the empty club, watching the fire slowly consume Mabon. The only lights were those of the flames, but though the heat grew steadily more intense, the smoke didn’t fill her lungs. She drifted through the club, watching the fire lick its way up the walls and curl around the wood of the bar. The door to Anura’s office hung open, but all was blackness beyond.
It was there she was drawn, and though part of her knew she was dreaming, Lily still felt sick dread coiling in her stomach as she approached that blank space on the wall. It seemed to yawn as she drew closer, but she knew it was useless to resist its pull. This was where she needed to go.
“Look inside, daughter. See the past. Our past. ”
The voice was all around her like a sigh, warm and familiar. Lily knew she’d heard it before, perhaps in other dreams. So she stepped forward, hesitating only a moment before her foot crossed the threshold.