Page 19 of Queen Takes Sunfires 1
I tried not to look as queasy as I felt. "Yes. How long did I sleep? Is it almost dusk?"
"Not even close. You only slept a few hours. It's almost noon."
I swallowed hard. "High noon. When they're most powerful."
For once, he seemed to believe me, or at least he reacted to my fear by reaching behind his back and pulling out a small gun.
I laughed grimly, shaking my head. "You think a gun is going to help against a sunfire? Then we're dead already."
Eyes narrowed, he let out a soft grunt. "We'll see. Most things will at least respect a gun, especially when it's loaded with silver bullets."
A boom had me on my feet, grabbing a mirror shard in each hand. The flimsy walls reverberated. Sirens shrilled.
"Fuck," he growled. "That was an explosion. I bet those meth heads blew up their room."
I had no idea what that meant, but a possible fire made me tremble. "They used the same tactic to get me out of the nest as a child. If the place burns down around us, we'll be exposed."
"Would you rather be trapped by smoke and burned alive? Come on. We have to get out of the building."
He headed for the door, but I stood there, frozen. Terrified. I couldn't go outside. In broad daylight. It was suicide.
Turning, he eyed me, as if trying to decide whether or not he should grab my arm and hustle me to the door despite the vicious shards of glass in my hands. "Karmen, come on. We have to get out. I smelled chemicals earlier. This whole place is going to go up in flames in a matter of minutes."
"I can't," I whispered faintly. "They'll be on me as soon as we step outside into the sun."
His jaw clenched. I braced for him to roll his eyes and snort with derision. "How fast do they run or fly or whatever the fuck they do?"
"Huh?" His question threw my mind into neutral. Did he actually believe me? Or was he merely humoring the crazy person? "Pretty fast, I guess. Like a horse."
He nodded, bending down to grab the largest piece of mirror I'd stashed by the door. "Then let's get to the car. I can drive faster than anything human or non-human can run. We'll be to my sister's in a few hours and even sun demons won't be able to cross into her nest."
Part of me was still sure he only wanted to be rid of me, but he did have a point. I couldn't stay here waiting to be trapped by fire or suffocated by smoke. Making a run for the car was probably our best bet.
I slipped on the coat he'd given me earlier. It’d have to be enough for now. There wasn't much I could do about clothing until we were away. Re-arming myself with mirror shards, I crowded close to Eivind as he prepared to open the door.
"We're going to go straight across the hall and down another hall, alright? There's a back entrance we can use. I parked just a few feet outside that door. Get into the car as quickly as you can, and we'll be on the road in a matter of minutes. They'll never catch us."
He pulled open the door and the piercing shriek of the fire alarm worsened. I didn't need his wolf senses to smell the smoke now. There was definitely a fire somewhere toward the front desk or the other side of the building. He shot across the hall and I followed him, though I wasn't as fast.
My nape prickled and I hunched my shoulders. I could feel something watching us. Watching me. Though I didn't see anyone. Wasn't that odd? No guests stuck their heads out of their rooms, wondering what was going on. The man at the desk had said this end of the building was quiet, but my gut insisted we were headed into a trap.
I glanced back over my shoulder and thick tendrils of smoke billowed down the hallway. The fire would drive us to the rear exit—exactly as they'd planned. The glass door loomed just a few feet away with blazing sunlight outside. Wide open spaces. No place to hide. No darkness. No shade.
Exactlyas they preferred. "Eivind! Wait!"
He slowed, looking back at me. "The car—"
A shape moved outside the door. Too bright, shining silver. For a moment, my eyes couldn't focus, blurring with tears. But I was all too familiar with that painful glare.
Highly polished silver armor gleamed in the sunlight. White bones glinted like fresh snow despite the heat of the noonday sun. I didn't see the flicker and spark of molten sunlight yet, but where the soldier went in daylight, so did his sunfire.
Eivind saw the dread on my face and turned back to the door. "What the fuck is that?"
I couldn't answer as the walking skeleton pushed the glass open and stepped into the hallway. The distinctive helmet and short sword marked him as one of the Roman Legion. If his commander was here...
Eivind raised the gun, firing off a shot. Another. One pinged off the metal shield. The other struck bone and ricocheted to the side, chipping a rib. But the skeleton didn’t pause. There weren't any organs to damage. No blood to shed.
As I'd told him earlier, a gun wasn't going to stop them. I lifted my left arm, tipping the mirror to reflect as much brightness back at the creature as possible.
