Chapter 26
“I don’t want to do this, Rory, but I have my orders.” The man with no face hovers over me. I struggle against my binds as his hands touch me.
I realize quickly that I’m naked, and my blood runs cold.
Struggling, I start to pull more, but the rope and the position I’m in is impossible to break from. I scream through the gag around my mouth.
“I know. So beautiful. And I wish I had more time to play with you, but I need to get you back. Don’t worry, though, I will see you again.”
A loud crash causes my eyes to shoot open, and a sudden burst of heat can be felt on my back. A crackling sound hits my ears, and the smell of gasoline and smoke fills my nostrils.
Turning over in my bed, I find that the room is on fire. Addy’s bed is up in flames.
“Addy? Addy?” I call out in desperation, but I get no answers. I shield my face from the heat as I try to look to see if she was in the bed, but the fire is too hot.
Why the hell are the fire sprinklers not kicking on?
The room is filling with smoke, and the door out of the room is blocked with flames. I can’t access the bathroom because that is too close to the entry where the fire is raging.
I pull my shirt up to my face as I try to find my phone. All I can find is my purse and wallet. What the actual fuck?
I need to get the fuck out of here. Fast.
Coughing, I look at the window that I heard shatter when it woke me from my sleep. I’m on the second floor, completely trapped. It dawns on me that this is going to be my only way out of this.
The fire alarm finally goes off, and I see students running out of the building.
Grabbing the nearest thing to me, which is one of my snow globes, I take the metal base and try to break the rest of the glass that was shattered. I look back at the growing flames and then turn to peer down at the ground.
There is a crowd staring to gather outside, pointing to me at my window.
But below the window, there’s nothing to break my fall, and panic starts to take hold of me. If I jump, I am for sure going to break my legs. Fuck.
My lungs are starting to burn, breathing swiftly becoming more difficult. Sirens start up in the distance, but I don’t think I will be able to wait for them to get here. I look over at my bed and grab the bed sheet. If I can get myself lowered enough, I can jump the rest of the way down without hopefully any injury.
Ripping the sheet off, I tie it to the edge of the bed, which is right next to the window. I climb up onto the ledge, holding it, and wonder if this was the dumbest idea ever.
Well, it’s either this, or die in that fire. I’d rather a few broken bones over burning to death any day.
With that in mind, I scramble to get good foot placement and find a place for me to start my decent. I grab hold of a pipe along the outside next to the windows with my other hand and steady my foot on it. The pipe wiggles under my touch, but I just need it to balance myself until I can ride the sheet down.
Looking down, I take a deep breath and pray I will not break anything. I grip the sheet tight and with a leap of faith, slide down the sheet and down the wall, until I get to the end of the stretch of fabric. Then I close my eyes and let go.
Landing on my feet somehow, a pain shoots through my legs and knees. I immediately drop to them as people come rushing over to help me.
“Are you okay?” a guy asks me as he tries to help me up.
“No. I just jumped out of a window from a burning building. I am definitely not okay.” I cough, my lungs still burning from the fire.
As I stand up and try to steady myself, firefighters and paramedics come rolling onto the scene. Sirens blare and fill the area with blue and red light. People around us point to me needing some help as the firefighters start to go to work and run into the building toward the blaze.
“Miss. Miss. Are you okay?” A paramedic comes running toward me. “Were you in that fire? Can you tell me your name?” She starts firing things out at me.
“I… I, uh, I was in there, yes.” I let out a series of coughs as I watch a stretcher being rolled toward me. Everything around me moves at a fast pace. I’m put onto the stretcher, vitals are being taken, and then I am being wheeled toward the back of an ambulance.
“Rory!” Addy screams as she comes barreling toward me through the growing crowd. A sense of relief comes over me when I see that she’s safe and was not in that bed. “Rory! Oh my God, what happened?”
I shake my head and pull down the oxygen mask to try and tell her that I don’t know, but the paramedic stops me.
“She needs to keep this on right now. You can meet us at the hospital.” The paramedic starts talking with another as I watch as her lips tremble and her eyes widen in fear. She looks up at the smoke coming from our room and then back down at me. Tears start to roll down her cheeks, as she lets out a gut wrenching sob.
I grab her hand and squeeze it. While I may not be able to say anything, I’m so fucking happy she wasn’t in her bed.
And I need her to know I’m okay.
By some miracle, I’m fucking alive.
“We tried to reach out to your mom and stepfather, but they haven’t answered our calls,” a nurse by the name of Betty tells me with a frown. She tucks her short blonde hair behind her ear. Her slender body is hidden behind her dark blue scrubs.
“Wait, what? What do you mean you can’t get a hold of them?” I sit up a bit more in the hospital bed, my heart starting to race. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m sorry. The doctor will be in shortly. Your stepbrother is waiting outside; would you like him to come in?” she offers as if that’s some sort of consolation prize.
“Yeah. Sure,” I respond, but my mind starts drifting to where my mother and Aaron could be that they are not answering such an important phone call.
I mean, your daughter is in the hospital after her room went up in flames and she was trapped inside. But yeah, whatever they’re doing could be more important.
My anger flares, and I get lost in my thoughts. My mind working out the words I need to have with my mother and whatever bullshit she’s pulling.
She’s never acted like this. So flakey, so absent. What the fuck is going on?
A knock on the door shakes me back to the present. I watch as Seven, Dekker, and my asshole of a stepbrother file into my room. The three of them circle my bed, and my eyes flit back and forth between all of them.
The silence creates a thickening tension in the room that I can’t stand.
“Are the three of you going to just sit there and stare at me? Take a picture, it will last longer.” I cross my arms over my chest and let out a sigh.
Seven takes out his phone and I see his flash go off. “You said I could.” He smiles and shrugs.
My middle finger instantly goes up. “Sit and spin.”
“Enough,” Xayden cuts in. He gives Seven a scolding look, and his eyes turn back towards me. “Are you okay?” he asks.
For a moment, I just sit there in silence, completely bewildered by his question.
Then I break out into a fit of laughter.
Xayden narrows his eyes at me. “I don’t understand what’s so funny about what I asked.”
“Oh, it’s actually hilarious. Truly. Like you give two shits about me. But then just throw out ‘Are you okay?’ like you actually do. That’s a great joke.” I chuckle.
“Do you have any idea what just almost happened, Aurora?” Xayden grits his teeth.
My laughing stops, and I fist my hands in my lap. “I’m very well aware of what happened, Xayden. I was in that room when it went up in flames. I almost died in there!”
“What happened?” Dekker cuts in, brows furrowed in worry.
My head snaps to him. “A fire. In my room.”
“Yeah, no, we got that part. But how did it start?” Seven asks.
“Well, let’s see. I was sleeping, and then a loud crash and shattering noise of the window woke me up. Then before I could even process what was happening, it was like a fucking back draft in my room. The room just exploded into flames.”
I look down at my blanket, and I can feel the panic start to set in a bit. Like I can still feel the heat against my skin.
“Addy’s side of the room… it was completely engulfed in flames. I have no idea how it started. But my window was broken, and I’m assuming what started it came through there.
“When I realized I had no way to get through the door, I looked back at the window and knew it was the only way I was going to get out of there alive. Possibly with broken bones, but alive.” I let out a long breath and tip my head back against the pillow. “So I did just that. Grabbed the sheet off my bed and tried to scale enough of the wall to safely jump down.”
“Why did you leave the house?” Dekker’s lips form a thin line.
“What?” I scrunch my face at his question.
“It’s a clear-cut question, Angel. Why did you leave the house?” he repeats.
I look over at Xayden, and I can feel my resolve break a bit. I left for so many reasons. Needing to get away, needing space, needing time to think.
But also because of Xayden.
“Because my stepbrother was accusing me of God only knows what. Apparently, he thinks I use my powers for evil and not good and that my mother married his dad for some insane reason that had nothing to do with them falling in love.”
I pause for dramatic effect and then look at the other two.
Then I add, “Oh, and because he fucked me on the kitchen counter and then just left me there like I was a dirty whore.”
“What the fuck?” I hear Seven say under his breath.
“You are out of your mind,” I hear Dekker mutter at the same time.
It’s silent for a moment, and I can feel Xayden’s eyes cutting through me. “Look at me.” My eyes snap to his on instinct. “You are not a dirty whore.”
I huff, “Yeah, exce?—”
“Shut your yapper for two seconds, Rory.”
My mouth instantly closes as I wait for his next words.
He goes on, “You are not a dirty whore, and I have never thought of you as one. I have no idea what the fuck is going on any more than you do, and all I was trying to get from you is maybe something that could help us understand where you disappeared to.
“And I fucked you on that counter because I need to be inside you. I have to keep myself from devouring you every single second of the day. The control I need to have just to not rip your clothes off you and bury myself deep inside you is abysmal. Which is harder now that I know how that pussy feels wrapped around my dick.
“So yeah, I fucked you on that counter. Because I needed my fucking fix. You’re a goddamn drug, Rory. The high I need to fucking chase.”
His hands move to cup my face, and he brings his lips close to mine.
He murmurs, “And I walked away after because I shouldn’t feel like this. But after hearing what happened today… Fuck, Rory. I believe you when you say your mom married my dad for love, but something else is going on. And I need to find a way to keep you all safe.”
“That’s not your responsibility.” My voice comes out soft, so only he can hear it.
“I’m making it my responsibility.” His forehead presses against mine, and our eyes lock.
A throat clears next to us, and we pull back from each other. “Loving this Hallmark moment, but we need to figure out what happened.” Seven smiles at us.
“Well, obviously, Rory is going to stay with us. And once I talk to my dad and June, they will see that’s the best course of action too,” Xayden says matter-of-factly.
“They haven’t responded,” I tell him with a grimace.
“What? What do you mean?” Dekker asks.
Shaking my head, I let out a sigh. “The hospital has been trying to get a hold of them for hours. No one answers any of their phones.”
Xayden’s face goes a bit pale. “I haven’t talked to my dad for a minute.” He picks up his phone. He puts it to his ear, but his face goes tight instantly. “To voicemail.” He dials a number on his phone, punching it so hard I am surprised the screen doesn’t crack.
“Who’s he calling?” I ask the other two quietly, but they both shrug.
“Hey, Mia.” He pauses for a second. “Yeah, I know. Sorry to bother you. Have you heard from my father at all?” He doesn’t say anything and then nods. “Okay, thank you. If you hear from him, please let me know as soon as possible.”
“Well?” I immediately ask.
He shakes his head. “It’s been a couple days. But he had told her he had business and that he would be back. So it’s possible they went somewhere together for whatever it was he had to do.”
“I can see if I can trace the last place their phones were,” Seven chimes in.
“What are we going to do with Angel in the meantime?” Dekker crosses his arms over his chest.
“Okay, first of all, I’m right here. Second, I’m not your angel,” I spit back.
Before I can even continue my thought, Dekker is in front of me, his hand gripping my chin and tipping it up to keep me looking at him. His lips come crashing down on mine, and he gives me a punishing kiss that will for sure leave my lips swollen.
“You’re my fucking angel. It’s best you remember that,” he grunts, leaving me completely speechless.
“You are staying with us. Non-negotiable.” Xayden gives me a look like he is daring me to argue with him. Honestly, if I wasn’t so tired, I just might. But after the last couple days I’ve had, I’m exhausted.
And this hospital bed is fucking uncomfortable.
I purse my lips. “Fine. But whose bed am I sleeping in? I’m exhausted, and I want to get out of here.”
“Mine.” Seven mouth breaks out in a grin as he waggles his eyebrows. “Well, she slept in both of yours, so it’s only fair she comes to mine.”
“Look, can we work out the logistics when we get back, please? I just want to get out of here,” I beg.
“Sure, Princess.” Xayden smirks and then heads out to what I assume is get me discharged.
Because the sooner I get back, the sooner we can look into what is going on. We can figure out where Aaron and my mother went. Maybe find out who started the fire and why.
And why someone seems hell-bent on either scaring me or killing me.
And I really hope it’s not the latter.