I blinked, stirring in my sleep, blinking rapidly. There was a siren blaring—the fire alarm—and it took me a moment to realize it. I slipped out of bed quickly, wrapping a robe around my body and putting on my slippers as I hurried out of the apartment. I couldn’t see smoke, but I could smell it, and the alarms in the hallway were flashing red. I started down the stairs, feeling someone close behind me and turning to see that it was Tyler.

“Do you know what’s happening?” he asked. I shook my head, continuing down the stairs as the alarms blared. I paused on the second floor, remembering Esther, how she couldn’t get down the stairs by herself. The elevator wouldn’t work in a fire, I knew, so I turned around and darted back up one flight of stairs.

“Ali—” Tyler said, turning around to follow me. I ignored him, rushing onto the second floor and down the hallway to Esther’s apartment. I knocked on the door.

“Esther,” I called. There was no answer above the alarm. I yelled louder, but I knew that there was probably no way that the old woman would be able to hear me above the sirens.

“Move,” Tyler said, taking my arm and gently pulling me away. He backed up then and shoved himself against the door, throwing his shoulder into it once, then twice before the door burst open. He ran inside and I followed him, watching as he picked Esther up in his arms. She had been sleeping in her bed, unaware of the noise, and she looked around confusedly, coughing. I noticed then that the place had started to grow foggier, the smoke making its way up the stairs. We hurried out of the apartment then, relieved to see a fireman about to rush in the door.

“Here,” Tyler said, thrusting Esther into the man’s arms. The fireman hurried off without another word, making his way down the stairs. Tyler rushed forward, flying down the stairs, taking the corner on the first floor and throwing open the door.

“Tyler!” I shouted, flying after him through it. The door swept shut behind us, locking us in what was a tiny broom closet that was crowded with coats and pitch black, slightly smoky. My heart started to pound in the dark—I couldn’t see anything, not even Tyler, though our bodies were pressed together in the tiny closet.

“Ali,” he said, trying the doorknob. “What—?”

“Why did you go into the closet?” I asked him. He laughed.

“You think I came in here on purpose?” he asked. I didn’t say anything, trying to hold my breath. When I breathed, I could smell his scent, rich and masculine, as if he had just showered. His body pressed against mine was distracting, especially since I could feel his breath in my hair, breathing me in.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in a teasing voice. I was trembling against him, though I found increasingly that it wasn’t out of fear. “You? Scared? I thought you were tough.”

“Shut up,” I said to him, taking a deep breath. The sound of his voice was soothing, despite his teasing words.

“Poor thing,” he said. “Afraid of the dark.”

“Shut up,” I repeated, my breath catching in my throat when his hands found my waist and traced it up and down, holding me against him. In the dark, his mouth found mine, but he didn’t kiss me, instead simply brushed against my lips with his own. I felt my heart pounding in my chest, forgetting all about the fire, the fact that we were trapped.

“Don’t be scared,” he said in a soft voice, his lips tickling my own. “Don’t be afraid, Ali.”

“I—” I began, but he cut me off by sucking gently on my bottom lip. I exhaled, deflating, molding against him. I was about to respond to his kiss when the closet door opened and smoke started to pour in. A fireman gestured for us to hurry out and we did, out of the closet and out of the building, sucking in clean air as soon as we were outside. I noticed only then that he was holding my hand, having guided me out through the smoke. I pulled my hand away from him, catching my breath, meeting his eye. I felt suddenly shy, but no longer as irritated as I usually was in his presence. He had tried to soothe me when he knew I was afraid, and it made me start to wonder whether there was more to him than I had originally thought.

We waited for a long time outside, shivering in the cold. I stood next to Tyler, who hovered close to me, though he wasn’t touching me now that we were in public. It was comforting being next to him, though we didn’t talk for the entire time we waited to go back inside. The firemen gave the all-clear about an hour later, saying that someone on the first floor had fallen asleep with a candle lit and it had started the fire. It hadn’t done much damage, luckily, so we were all able to go back inside and go back to bed.

Once we were upstairs, I turned to glance shyly at Tyler.

“Thanks for uh—helping me,” I said to him. He gave me a half-grin that made something annoying flutter in my stomach.

“You’re welcome, Ali. Good night.”

“Goodnight,” I said to him, and went back into my apartment, biting my lip when I thought about how it felt to have his mouth so close to mine.