VEE

I sit beside the bed where Xander sleeps beneath a light blue sheet. Soot smudges his face still, but the burns on his hands are gone from where I held them for the last five minutes. Heath stands nearby, arms crossed, as he watches his brother.

"What do you think he’ll say when he discovers a hellhound saved him?" he says with an amused quirk to his mouth.

"Demonic dog, please," I say, imitating Syv.

Heath shakes his head, and despite the smile, he can’t hide the dark rings below his eyes where he worked with me to help Xander survive.

Help Xander survive. The words were used over and over, and tears pricked my eyes as we tried to rouse him, the muttered ‘stupid bastard’ lessening as his scorched lungs took him towards death.

He survived. Barely. Xander didn’t regain consciousness until after we reached the Collector’s, as if something in the flames was stronger than a normal fire and the acrid smoke filling our now-uninhabitable home held a magic poison.

"I can’t believe he was so stupid." I’ve spoken the words so many times that they’re worn out, and Heath doesn’t reply.

Now we face homelessness as well as the unknown future held in the books. I left Joss staring at the stone and book, with the Collector beside him, but the consternation on his face told me they haven’t managed to decipher anything yet. With this many magical beings in one house, I’ve no idea if anything can get through to attack us.

Breanna contacted Ripley earlier and is working her way back from wherever she went. I understand everybody’s suspicions about her and sense Joss’s wariness around her the most.

Xander stirs and opens his eyes, sleepy face immediately switching to alert. He outstretches an arm, patting the bed beside him, and when he doesn’t find what he wants he springs upright and looks around.

"Where the fuck am I? Where’s my knife?"

Something flickers across his face as his memories catch up and he looks at his bare arms. His smooth chest is unscathed too, despite the scorch marks from earlier. How much fire hit him and how much did he breathe in?

Xander coughs and rubs his arms. "I need a shower."

I balk. "Is that all you have to say?"

He pulls back the sheet and stands in his briefs, which is bloody distracting when I’m trying to be angry with him.

"Where are my clothes?" he snaps.

His clothes were torn and scorched, needed removing, and I point to the pile on the floor.

"Pulling my clothes off again, huh, Vee?" he asks.

That’s it. My boiling anger bubbles over. "You almost died!" I shout.

"Heath was nearby."

"You almost burned to death!" I continue. "I don’t think Heath can reconstruct your body from ash."

"Whoa. Calm down, Vee."

"You have to agree you were bloody stupid, dude," puts in Heath.

I stand and walk to the edge of the room, teeth clenched as I attempt not to lose my temper completely. Or worse, break down in relieved tears. The guys wouldn’t let me follow Xander, and Heath held me back. They’re right, I don’t know how far my powers go, and I could’ve burned too.

But what if Xander really had been reduced to dust?

"I’ll leave you to chat." Heath says quietly, and I hear the door click closed.

I can’t hear much above my stressed breathing, so I hold my breath and listen. The bed creaks as Xander sits down, and I turn.

"I thought the elemental was you, Vee."

"Elemental?"

"I saw someone run upstairs and thought it was you following me into the house and checking the bedrooms. Until I came face to face with it." He leans forward and swipes his hand across his hair, then wipes the soot on his trousers. "Then it was too late to use the stairs to get back down."

"Is an elemental a demon?" I ask.

"No. Not quite. There’s an elemental plane held behind the portals—a world where everything that lives there can manipulate the elements. This one was obviously a fire elemental. Well, that’s what Joss read in one of his books in the past. We’ve no idea what their world is like."

"A creature from behind a closed portal?" I ask.

Xander’s troubled eyes meet mine. "Well, that’s the million-dollar question."

"Seth has started opening them?" I whisper. "No. Surely he’d like to make a big deal out of everything and show us."

Xander arches a brow.

"Fuck." I sink onto the bed next to him. "You shouldn’t have followed."

He side-eyes me. "I have to look after you, Vee."

"You should know I wouldn’t be stupid enough to walk upstairs in a burning building."

"I dunno. Maybe you had something up there you wanted to save."

"More than my life?" I shake my head and shove him in the chest. "I’m fucking furious with you."

Xander holds his hands out and shuffles across the bed, palms outwards. "Okay. Let’s leave the ‘what Vee does to Xander when she’s angry’ thing for today. Please."

I open my mouth to retort that I have zero interest in sex, despite the honed magnificence in front of me offering reminders of how bloody good it feels to indulge in him. Then I notice his amused expression. He leans closer and moves hair from my ear, and I shiver as his fingertips brush my chin.

"But I’ll be more than happy to oblige later, once I’ve more energy. We have some unfinished business from the other night, sleepyhead." He finishes his words with a soft kiss, holding the back of my head.

I fight away the immediate response to kiss him back harder, aware what he’s doing. I shove Xander in the chest again. "Don’t try and get around me like that. I’m pissed off!"

"I want you to understand why I did this, though, Vee. I will always put you first. Always." The earnestness in his green eyes is a million miles from the hardened-eyed expression he’d give me in the early days we knew each other.

"But not by doing idiotic things and almost killing yourself."

He bites his lip and smooths my face with the back of his hand. "It was instinctive, Vee. I was walking up the stairs before I had a chance to think about what I was doing."

I sigh. "Shit. Risking your life isn’t a great instinct."

"Yeah. You’re telling me."

I’d ask if he regretted what he did, but despite whatever drove him to his insane actions, inside my heart I know Xander would’ve done this anyway.

He straightens, blinking out of our moment. "The stone. Did someone take it after I threw it down?"

"Yes. Joss and the Collector have them both now."

Xander stands and looks around. "I need some spare clothes. Now. I’m going nuts trying to guess what’s happening here. If Seth is sending people after us and threatening the world if we don’t bring him the book, everybody is running out of time."

"Yeah. We’re all a bit stuck when it comes to clothes," I admit. "The house…it’s pretty much destroyed."

Xander’s face contorts with anger—and maybe more. His home. His place he always returns. Safe. His anxiety radiates, and I reach out to him. Earlier, I took away his physical pain, and this time I want to give him love and comfort.

I touch his cheek with my fingertips and his expression softens. Our lips touch and he gently holds the back of my head, mouth moving against mine. Soft. Restrained. I rest my forehead on his and we stay like that for a moment in silent understanding. Together, we can all deal with the confusion and hurt surrounding us. We won’t be beaten.

Ewan waited around when the fire brigade arrived and tried to save the house. He says there’s little left, and the thought sickens me. The guys didn’t have much in the world, but what they had was there.

Our world has already burned.