Page 56 of Love Fire

“We’re getting you out,” she says.

She blasts the chains that are holding me captive. My body becomes loose. I take off the chains and disgusting rag from my face.

Erin takes my hand. “Let’s go.”

My heart speeds up. There’s a bubbly feeling in my stomach and chest. Is this what she feels like when I come to the rescue? It feels so nice for a change.

I’ll never tell her that though.

As we run out of the bunker, I pause. The guards mentioned having guns stocked inside. They might come in handy. I run back to grab a couple of automatic rifles.

I strap the guns behind me. They might be a little too heavy for Erin to run with them. If she trips there’s a chance they won’t have the safety pin. Don’t want any of that.

We run outside. Until the bunker’s no longer in sight, we take a break. I glance at Erin. There aren’t any obvious injuries on her. There’s no sight of blood or broken bones.

I look back at our escape path. Smoke’s going off and they sounded the alarms. I grit my teeth.

As much I hate to admit it: Nate's right. Just the two of us can’t handle this operation. I relied too much on my shifting abilities and Erin’s power.

“Brent? What’s wrong, are you hurt?” Erin asks.

“No, I’m fine. We have bigger problems here.”

She sighs. “Yeah, you’re telling me.”

“This is out of our hands. We need reinforcements.”

I take out my phone and dial a number.

“Who are you calling?” Erin asks.

46

ERIN

“Who are you calling?” I ask.

Before Brent can answer, more guards run up towards us. He throws a rifle at Nate, who takes a firm hold of it. Then, without hesitation, he shifts into his dragon form.

“Erin, get behind me!” Nate yells as he shields me.

Our side starts firing first. The guards can’t get any closer thanks to Brent. He’s breathing fire onto them, but it’s obvious the torturous interrogation left him weak. He can barely conjure up a fireball ball.

He resorted to using his tail as a whip. Still, he’s flying a little sloppy and disoriented. Nate’s taking the other standing guards like a champ. However, he’s going to quickly run out of bullets.

I find another rifle where Brent took off flying. My hand touched the handle, but out of nowhere, a hand covers my mouth. They pull my head back, almost stuffing the cloth inside my mouth. I try to pry off the person’s hand by digging my nails.

Then, a sudden and sharp sensation travels up my leg. They pierced my thigh with a needle! Once I realized this, I thrash around in my captor's hold. All in vain.

I black out.

Seconds, minutes, hours, maybe even days later, I wake up. Dazed and confused. With a throbbing pain in each corner of my body.

I shake my head to clear my vision. The first thing I notice is that I’m strapped in a chair. The same way Brent was. I try to move my legs and arms. Nothing budges.

The second, and most important, detail I notice is that I’m in a white room. There’s a glass window that overlooks another large room filled with barrels. It dawns on me that I’m in one of my father’s warehouses.

“Shit,” I mutter.

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