Into the Fire (29 page)

The flames burn a brilliant white, and Cara’s face disappears within them. “I love you, Logan.”

I don’t want to look away, but the heat and brightness are so intense I have to shield my eyes. My skin feels like it’s cracking and blistering. I back up and turn away before I end up nothing more than ashes, like Nick. Glass beakers shatter on the table next to me. I cover my head to avoid the shards flying everywhere.

Then everything gets quiet.

The light of the fire goes out, and I lower my arm. Ashes. That’s all that’s left of the girl I love. “Cara!” I break down and cry. Cry like I did in the bathroom at Mom’s funeral service. Cry like a guy who’s lost everything and everyone he loves in the world. I look at my jacket, destroyed by the fire, and at Cara’s ashes. They’re together now, Mom and Cara. I should be with them. I don’t want to live if they’re both dead. I bury my face in the cold floor and try not to puke my guts out. There’s nothing left inside me but a hollowness where my heart once was.

A stirring makes me lift my head. Are the police here? I wipe my eyes, not sure how I’m going to explain any of this to the cops. There’s no evidence that anyone but me has been here. Nick’s body is nothing but ashes. Cara’s body is nothing but ashes. I sit up and reach for the remains. Smoke rises up from the center of them. I stare, mesmerized by it.

“Come back. You said you’d come back.” They’re the words of a crazy person, but I’ve lost all sense of reason. “Damn it, Cara! I love you! Come back!” I pound my fist on the ground and cry on the ashes. Sirens blare and flashing lights shine through the windows. The police and the fire department are here, but they’re both too late. Much too late.

I don’t care if they find me like this. Let them take me away. Let them lock me up. I have nothing left, nothing but memories that will shatter what’s left of my heart. No! I pound my fists on the floor. This can’t be what my life has become. I have to hold onto something. Cara’s ashes. I’ll keep her ashes. I turn back to them, only they aren’t there. Cara is lying on the ground in their place.

“Cara!” I rush to her and carefully lift her head, cradling it in my arms. I’m afraid I’m imagining her, but she feels real. She’s warm, so warm. She must be alive. She wouldn’t be this warm if blood wasn’t pumping through her body. My hand shakes as I stroke her hair. “Can you hear me? Please, open your eyes.” I press my lips to hers. “You have to come back to me. I love you, Cara. Please. Don’t leave me again. I need you.”

Her eyes flutter open, and I choke back tears. “Cara, you’re alive. I don’t know how you did it, but you’re alive.”

The police and fire department are probably inside the building now. I still can’t explain any of this, but it doesn’t matter. Cara’s alive. Somehow she survived.

She coughs and looks around the room. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell them something. I have no idea what, but it doesn’t matter. Nick is gone, and you’re alive. We can get through anything after this. I promise.” I lean down and kiss her forehead. “Oh God, Cara, I thought I lost you for good.” I pull back, wanting to take in every inch of her face.

Her expression is one of fear and confusion. She sits up in my arms, and her movements are awkward.

“Easy. Don’t move around too much. Just wait until the paramedics check you out.”

Her eyes find the scorch marks on the ground around us. “It happened. I was reborn.”

“Yes, just like you said you’d be.” I take her face in my hands. “I believe you. I believe you’re a Phoenix, and it doesn’t change how I feel about you. I love you.” I lean forward to kiss her, but she pulls away.

“What’s wrong?”

She shakes her head, and the look on her face reminds me of the first time we met. She swallows hard. “Who are you?”

Chapter One

Logan

“Who are you?”

Her words hit me like knives to my heart. “Cara, it’s Logan.” This can’t happen. She can’t forget me. Not after all we’ve been through. “You have to remember me. I love you. Please… just try to remember.”

Her eyes narrow, and she shakes her head, like she’s fishing for memories that aren’t there. She backs away from me, taking what’s left of my pulverized heart with her.

Flashing lights flood the chem lab windows. Wonderful. The police and the fire department will be in here any minute. As if I’m not already in hell, let’s make this situation worse. “How am I going to explain this? You don’t remember anything.”

“Garret.”

What? Who the hell is Garret? “No. My name is Logan.” My entire body shakes, unable to process how any of this is real. Cara’s a Phoenix, a mythical bird-human hybrid. No one is going to believe this.

“Garret Monroe.” Cara’s voice is scratchy and dry, but considering she just burned to ashes and rose out of them, that’s about right.

“The police officer?”

She nods. “He knows me. He knows what I am.”

Him
she remembers? How the hell is that fair? But maybe that’s a good thing. If he knows what she is, then he’ll believe me. Believe me about Nick trying to hurt Cara with that knife and Cara bursting into flames. God, Cara died. This is all so insane.

Cara tries to stand and stumbles a little. I reach for her, taking her hands in mine. How can she not remember me? How can she not feel what I feel? Right from the start, we were attracted to each other. Things moved so fast. And now…

“I need to see Garret. He’ll know what to do.” She takes her hands from mine and walks toward the door, stepping over my burned leather jacket.

I bend to pick up what’s left of it, but stop. Do I want reminders of what I’ve lost? First Mom and now Cara. How am I supposed to deal with this? No, I can’t think about that now. I have to get out of this situation, get Cara to someone who can help her, and convince everyone I didn’t try to burn down the school. “We don’t know if Garret is here. We should wait for the police and fire department to come into the school.”

“And tell them what?” She whips around and stares at me. I can’t help thinking of the look she had the first time we met, when she thought I was some perv, gawking at her in her bikini. Yeah, I was gawking, but I’m not a perv. I’m the guy she’s in love with—or at least she
was
in love with me.

“I don’t know. Maybe you could call Garret.”

She rubs her forehead. “I don’t remember his number.”

I don’t know why I thought she’d remember the cop’s phone number, since she can’t even remember me.

Officer Monroe bursts into the chem lab, his eyes immediately going to Cara. He looks her over from head to toe and nods. “I’ll handle it from here.” His gaze quickly falls to the floor where Nick’s knife is. Officer Monroe bends down, studying it like it’s radioactive. He doesn’t say a word for a minute, and then he grabs the phone on his belt and starts dialing. “This is Officer Monroe. I’m at the high school. There was an explosion in the chemistry lab, but I have everything under control. Nothing toxic, so there’s no need to send backup. I’ll get this cleaned up and write a full report.” He hangs up without even waiting for a reply.

He pockets the knife and points to me, his eyes burning into me with such hatred. “Don’t move. Cara, come with me. We have to get the fire department out of here. Fast.”

Cara rushes to him, and I reach for her arm. “Cara, wait!”

Officer Monroe lunges at me, grabbing me by my shirt and slamming me against the cabinet on the wall. “Don’t touch her.” His hot breath smacks me in the face. “I’ll deal with you in a second,
Hunter
.”

“Hunter?” What is he talking about? I’ve never gone hunting in my life. I’m a frickin’ city boy. Or at least I used to be.

He pushes Cara out the door, but instead of following her, he pauses and grips the edge of the door. He must be squeezing the hell out of it because his entire hand turns bright red. He meets my gaze long enough to say, “Just shut up and stay put.” Finally, he lets go, walks out of the room, and closes the door behind him.

“Like hell I’ll shut up and stay put.” I reach for the hole where the doorknob used to be, but it’s scorching hot. “Damn!” I jerk my hand away, and stare at the blisters already forming on my palm.
What the hell?
I stare through the window in the door. Officer Monroe must be like Cara. It’s the only explanation for what he did to this door. I’m going to kill him for this. I’m about to yell a slew of curses at him, when I see the firemen.

“No need for hoses or anything like that,” Officer Monroe says. “I’ve already put out the fire. It seems Cara here was working on a project she needed to make up for summer school. She waited until the last minute and got a little hasty with the Bunsen burner. It’s all taken care of.”

The firemen nod to Officer Monroe and leave. I stay quiet, listening as he talks to Cara.

“What really happened here? Did Logan corner you? Attack you with the Phoenix dagger?”

Phoenix dagger?
Does he mean Nick’s knife?

Cara rubs her head again. “I don’t remember anything. I—”

“You went through your rebirth. Of course, you don’t remember.” He puts his arm around her shoulder, but she shies away. He clears his throat and steps back. “We should get you home. We’ll sort this out later.”

She nods and looks back toward me. Her eyes meet mine, but there’s no recognition in them. “What about him? Logan?”

My name is so foreign on her lips.

“My guess is
he’s
our Hunter. It makes sense. Everything started when he and his father moved into town. We’ll have to bring his dad in, too. I’m willing to bet he’s the one who taught Logan everything he knows about Phoenixes.”

“I don’t know squat.” I slam the door with the open palm of my good hand, but all it gets me is another burn. “If you’d listen to me, I’d tell you exactly what happened.”

Officer Monroe walks over, his eyes mere slits. He pushes the door open and gets close enough that I can smell his aftershave. “I’m sure you have a story all worked out already, Hunter.”

“Stop calling me that! I don’t even know what the hell that is. Cara called me because she was trapped here with Nick. He was trying to burn her.”

“Do you take me for an idiot? A Hunter wouldn’t try to burn a Phoenix, and Nick was no Hunter. I knew him well.”

“Not well enough, apparently. He was trying to kill Cara with that knife—what did you call it? A Phoenix dagger?”

“Playing dumb isn’t going to save your ass, so you might as well shut up.” Officer Monroe removes the handcuffs from his belt and comes at me.

I dodge him. “Like hell you’re cuffing me. I didn’t do anything.”

“Only because I got here in time to stop you.”

“Stop me from what? I’d never hurt Cara. I love her.”

“You had almost everyone here fooled. But not me.” He steps closer, getting in my face. “I suspected you from the start. The way you followed Cara around. The way all the killings coincided with you coming to Ashlan Falls. You made Cara fall for you. You even made her use her powers to heal you.”

The cuffs click around my wrists.
Damn it!
He distracted me long enough to cuff me. “I never made Cara do anything! Cara, tell him. Please.” My eyes plead with her, but she stares blankly back. She’s not my Cara anymore.

“Let’s go,” Officer Monroe says. “We need to figure out what to do with you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You don’t have anything to charge me with.”

“How about attempted murder? That should stick.” Officer Monroe grabs my shoulder and shoves me down the hall.

Normally, I would put up a fight, but Cara is staring at me like I’m a criminal. I don’t want to give her any reason to believe what this asshole is saying about me.

We get into the patrol car, but Officer Monroe puts Cara upfront with him. So it’s just me in the back. Still, I don’t complain. I’ll wait until we get to the station and call my dad. For once, having a lawyer for a father will come in handy. But when we pull onto the road, I notice we aren’t heading in the direction of the police station. We’re going to Cara’s house. Officer Monroe probably wants to get Cara home and far away from me. Only instead of dropping her off, he pulls into the driveway and cuts the engine.

“What’s going on?” I lean forward toward the metal cage confining me to the back seat like a hardened criminal.

Instead of answering, Officer Monroe gets out and walks around to Cara’s door. He opens it for her and escorts her inside. I guess he’s planning to leave me locked in the car while he talks to Cara’s mom. I lean back in the seat and try to reach my cell in my back pocket. Doing anything with handcuffs on is damn near impossible, and having burns on both hands makes it even worse. I finally get the phone out of my pocket, dropping it onto the seat in the process. I snatch it up, but then I change my mind about who to call. Dad doesn’t give me the time of day. He might not even answer my call, and if he did, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t believe a word I say. Anton knows Cara was in trouble and that I tried to help her. He’s the one I need to talk to. He can explain things to Dad. I press two on speed dial.

“Hey, man. Did the cops get there in time? Is Cara okay?” Anton’s words come rushing out.

Physically Cara seems to be fine, but I’m not sure beyond that. “She’s okay, I think, but I’m handcuffed in the back of a squad car.”

“You live in New York City all your life and never end up getting arrested, but a month in the country and you’re already handcuffed?”

“I don’t have time for this. The cop just took Cara inside her house. I don’t know when he’ll be back.”

“How did you manage to get you and Cara in trouble?” Anton laughs. “Don’t even tell me you two got out of that school and got caught going at it in public.”

“Damn it, Anton! Would you shut up and listen to me?” I don’t have time for his jokes. “I need you to call my dad. Tell him Officer Monroe is taking me in. He thinks I tried to hurt Cara, but I didn’t. It was her friend Nick. But now she doesn’t remember anything, and I have no way to prove it because Nick is dead.”

Anton is silent on the other end, and I’m really hoping he’s jotting this down.