Chapter Twelve

 

It was the out of place drift of petrol fumes in the mudroom that caught Ash’s attention just before the blast of dragon fire sent him flying. He’d barely stepped outside the back door to dump the trash. When he came to, shaking his head and wondering what the hell? in the small courtyard outside Bella’s back porch, flames licked up the rear wall of Colby’s childhood home. Long streaks of black smoke billowed skyward. Ah, clapboard paneling. Damn that stuff. It’ll burn like the Devil hisself.

Ash charged up the back steps, cursing his stupidity for leaving two women inside a burning building. The brass doorknob blistered his right hand, but not once did he consider letting loose of it, not with Bella and Tula in danger. Adding the force of his shoulder to the job, he forced the heavy oak door to yield. The jamb splintered on the second battering, the thing no doubt made of porous pine instead of dense oak, saints be praised. Shoving the door out of his way, Ash choked on his first breath of the oily black smoke coming from the kitchen.

“Tula!” he bellowed, storming past the breakfast nook where he’d only just been sketching his master plan for a new warehouse. ‘Twas a scary heartbreak seeing through the wretched smog between him and the hallway, but he plowed through. Throwing an arm to his forehead to ward off more smoke, he coughed and stumbled on, intent on making it to Bella’s room.

“Here! We’re here!” Tula screamed from the second story landing, Colby’s poor mother was on her feet and clinging to Tula’s arm.

Finally, a reprieve. The sooty cloud seemed content to stay at the rear of the grand home. Ash waved his way through the last of it and pounded up the curved staircase, watchful for flames and fear in his throat. “Did you call the fire brigade? Nine-one-one?”

“You bet I did,” Tula yelled back at him. “Now help me get Miss Bella out of here!”

Ash bent to scoop the older woman off her feet. Still in her nightgown and bed jacket, Bella circled his neck with both arms. The poor thing was breathing hard, her eyes wide with fear. “Did you start this fire in my home?” she asked in a trembling voice.

“No, ma’am,” he assured her as he made his way down the steps. “I would nah do such a despicable thing, not to anyone. Hold on tight. I don’t want to drop you.”

By then, sirens screeched outside. The wooden staircase vibrated under the assault of heavy truck engines. Smoke still billowed into the massive entry from the kitchen, but Ash had yet to spy any tongues of flame drawing close to the stairs.

His heart pounded at the awful danger they were in. The smoke was bad enough, but fire was a different kind of sinister beast. It crept inside walls and along two-by-four studs and joists like spiders and snakes did. It slithered, almost as if alive, along the many crawl spaces in older homes, winding its way to oxygen and explosive freedom. It purred as it made its nest in unseen pockets of air before it belched into life. They had to get out of there!

“Are you behind me, Lass?” he called over his shoulder to Tula.

Her hand on his tender neck confirmed her location. “Right behind you, Mister Callahan. Just keep moving and don’t drop my girl.”

Her steady touch on his neck felt as if his skin had just slid away from his scalp, but he didn’t care. Relief that Colby had gone into the city flooded him. Quickly, he led his charges to the front entry. Bella twisted in his arms. “Has anyone seen my cat?”

“You have a cat?” he nearly shrieked. Was she out of her mind? Why hadn’t she mentioned a pet until now? He turned on Tula. “Seriously? A cat?” Please tell me she’s wrong, maybe—God forgive me for thinking it—a little looney.

Tula lifted both shoulders. “I haven’t seen that beast in days. I was hoping he’d gotten out and run off.”

It was true then. Ash ducked low and pressed Bella’s face under his chin to protect her as they made their dash to freedom. “Suck in a deep breath before you open that door, Tula. You’ll nah be able to breathe if the fire follows us out.”

Her eyes went wild, but she nodded and did what he asked.

“You too, Mum,” he told Bella. “Take a deep breath and turn your pretty face to my chest. Don’t scream no matter what happens. I do nah want to be dropping you.”

She nodded, her nose flattened against him as… one… two… three… Tula threw the door open and ran for her life. “Good girl,” he muttered, the fire beast not at his back as he’d feared.

Two firemen grabbed onto him and Bella at the doorway, manhandling them off the front porch and down to several waiting medics on the walk. It took a full minute to shake the adrenaline off, but by every last one of his Catholic saints, he’d gotten Colby’s family out. Poor Tula stood weeping over the gurney Bella had been laid on. Thank God in heaven, they’re safe.

Ash locked his knees to keep from falling to the sidewalk. He blew out his fear and sucked in a mighty breath before he backtracked to the fireman at the door. “I’ve got to be going back in. There’s a cat.” A feckin’ cat that had better have nine bloody lives. But he couldn’t leave it to burn anymore than he’d left Bella and Tula.

“You’re not entering that house again,” the fireman, a muscular, barrel-chested boy, declared with iron in his voice. “What color? What’s its name?”

Bella’s face wrinkled in—delight? Was she out of her mind? “He’s black,” she spit out with a string of drool. “Black with a white goatee under his chin. His name is Pierre. You be nice to him.” Her fingers pinched her chin as if to make sure they knew where goatees grew.

Ash grabbed hold of the fireman’s rubberized sleeve. “I can help you look for it.”

“Stay put. If I can find it, I’ll be right back. If I can’t…” He left those word unsaid as he turned his back to Ash and stomped through the door.

Smoke billowed while neighbors gathered on the sidewalk and traffic came to a halt in the now engine filled street. Blimey, am I bad luck? Ash wondered. Two fires in as many days, and he’d been associated with both. Running a quick hand over his face, he waved off the medic approaching him with a small oxygen tank and mask. “I’m fine,” he declared. “See to the women.”

“Ash!” That demanding bellow could only be Colby. He barely had time to turn around and catch her before she barreled into him. Full force. Her arms snaked around his bloody neck, which for some reason hurt like a bugger. He didn’t understand why she was hugging him, but his heart warmed at her reaction. “I’m fine,” he muttered, his palms on her butt, holding her to him as tightly as she gripped him. She smelled so good. “’Tis your mum I’m worried about.”

“Where is she?” Colby’s hair brushed his lips when she spun toward to the medics.

He breathed her scent in, letting it restore his balance. Releasing his woman, he went with her to the back of the ambulance where Tula waited with Bella.

There was no cause for alarm. Both women were in good hands, and neither had suffered burns nor smoke inhalation. Still, the medics were thorough, paying extra attention to Bella. Despite the fine weather, they’d wrapped her in heated blankets up to her chin.

Her eyes sparkled at all the young men doting on her as they took her blood pressure and temp, recording everything in their digital tablets. One offered her a hard candy. Her shoulders scrunched as she opened her mouth and he popped it in. The look on her lovely face caught at Ash’s heart. So childlike. So pure. The truth slammed into him then. Her time in this world was very short. He tugged Colby backward and into his arms, frightened that he might be right.

Just then, the brave bloke who’d gone inside to rescue Bella’s cat, returned with a squirming, hissing mass of shiny black fur and claws. Another fireman offered an opened cat crate, and in Pierre went, whiskers first, to roam no more.

Ash blew out a bellyful of relief. The cat made three that were safe and sound. ‘Twas a Hail-Mary-save kind of day after all.

“Your neck. Oh, Ash, crap, you’re burned,” Colby said, her fingers tracing over the rounded collar of his shirt as she lifted it from his skin.

He flinched her stinging touch away. “Am I now?”

Stretching up on her toes to get a closer look, her pretty lips curved like Cupid’s best bow right before she bit them. Could a woman look any sweeter? Aye. Colby turned into a drill sergeant with attitude. Waving the medics over with a snap of her fingers, she ordered Ash to sit on the curb. To stay.

Too bloody tired to remind her that he was not a dog, he folded his long legs and took a seat. “’Tis a small thing,” he insisted to the woman kneeling at his side, fussing over him. Funny, he’d dreamed of a moment like this, but it didn’t feel—right. “Let me be, woman. Go take care of your mum. She needs you more right now than I.”

Like Colby would ever listen? In no time at all, Ash was bent forward while the two medics worried at him. Feeling a draft, he took a better look over his shoulder. They’d cut his shirt without so much as a by your leave. “Is it that bad, then?” he asked, noticing the blood for the first time.

“Your neck’s burned,” Colby explained. “You risked your life to save my mom.”

He pinched his itchy nose, but took a hard look at her. Colby’s amber eyes brimmed with tears. She kept biting her bottom lip. “There now,” he lifted a hand to her jaw, not wanting her to cry over him. “I’m nah hurt that bad. Hardly feel a—ouch—thing.” He glared at the medic who’d just poked him. “You’ll not be doing that again, will you?”

“Sorry, sir,” the young man said. “Could you tilt your head down a little farther, so I can put more of this gel on you? The pain should go away in a minute, but I need to be able to reach.”

“Am I really burned that bad?” Huh. Didn’t feel a thing until he’d gotten outside.

Colby shook her head, her eyes big and teary, and her blonde hair beautifully ruffled around her face like a halo. “You’re incredible,” she whispered. “Crazy, but incredible.”