Page 51 of Promise & Artem

She was sure she’d seen something.

There was nothing outside of the window but darkness. The moonlight wasn’t bright enough to really show anything butshadows. The large bedroom was at the back of the cabin and overlooked the woods.

Wait…was that shadow moving?

She stared for a long moment, holding her breath, and didn’t see anything.

But she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something out there.

Someone.

As she turned to wake up Artem so he could share in her worrying, she saw a strange flame appear in the woods.

It was small and moving side to side. It suddenly arced in the air and grew larger as it came toward the house.

She screamed Artem’s name and raced for him, tackling him and rolling, taking the two of them off the other side of the bed where he landed on the floor and she landed on top of him.

“What?” he asked.

Something hit the floor on the other side of the bed and exploded, filling the room with bright flames.

Shit!

Artem was only sure of two things in that moment: someone had sent a Molotov cocktail through the bedroom window, and somehow, Promise had saved his life.

He scrambled into action and put her on the floor next to him, and they hurried through the bedroom door on their hands and knees as the room filled with flames and smoke. He shut the door to keep it as contained as he could.

As he stood to head toward the front door, Promise grabbed his hand.

“We have to go out another window or something.”

“Why?”

“Because the fire came from the back of the house, so they have to expect us to use the front or back doors. Not a side window.”

“Good point.” He covered his mouth to cough as the smoke billowed from under the closed door. Nothing like a house made entirely of wood to go up like kindling in a fire.

They moved to the laundry room and shut the door. He peered out the window, careful to keep out of sight.

“I don’t see anything,” he whispered.

“This has to be Nero doing this.”

“Yeah. And he’s probably got friends with him.” He stared into the darkness, his beast wanting to shift in case he needed to fight, but if he shifted inside the house, he’d never get out the window, so he’d wait.

He opened the window all the way and brought the screen inside.

Then he leaned out and looked both ways to ensure no one was watching them. When he was certain the coast was clear, he helped Promise out. She dropped to the ground with a soft grunt.

“Run to my parents.”

“I’m not leaving you!” she whispered harshly.

A branch broke in the woods and Promise froze with a whimper.

Artem dove out of the window and rolled to his feet, grabbing her hand and taking off for the front of the house. He had only a heartbeat to glance back and see the back of the cabin go up in flames when he heard someone running toward them.

Several males stepped around the corner of the house and Artem didn’t have to have good lighting to know the male in the middle was Nero.

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