Page 22 of Blood Bound (Blood Mafia 3)

“Fuck you, Daniel.” I twist the knife.

He gurgles and his face contorts in pain.

The flicker of life fades from his eyes a few seconds later.

I let go of the handle and run my arm across my forehead, sucking in a ragged breath. “Fuck you.”

Mateo roars in pain and my head snaps up. His hand is stuck straight into the barrel and he screams against the burn, digging for Tyra’s heart.

The fool is going to kill himself.

I scramble to my feet and race over, yanking him away from the fire and smacking at the flames covering his arms. “Damn it, Mateo, you’re going to get yourself killed.”

He pants and grimaces when I swat at the last flame. His arm is blistered and an angry red color.

He’ll live. His supe healing will kick in soon.

Glancing at the barrel, I cringe. The flames are bigger now, there’s no water in sight. “I can kick it over,” I whisper, starting forward, but Mateo pulls me back.

“Don’t.” He points to a trail of gasoline leading to the barrel. It’s coming from the direction of the gym.

My supe senses tingle and flare with recognition. The map in my mind pulls up and the globe spins, stopping and hyper zooming into our location. Blaze and the child are in there.

“We need to put the fire out.” I turn and search for something to smother the flames.

“Move!” Grayson shouts. He’s flashing from the direction of the lake, carrying two five-gallon buckets full of water. The lake is at least twenty miles away.

He tosses both buckets on the flames and they extinguish with a hiss. Steam replaces the black smoke, rippling up in cloudy gray waves.

Mateo lets go of my wrist and I go to the barrel, looking through the haze to try and find Tyra’s heart.

If it hasn’t burned, we can save her.

I think.

All I can see is charred logs.

Where’s her heart?

I take a log out, hissing when it burns me but continuing to move it out of the way. There’s too much smoke and too many random things in this bin to see. I grip the edge of the barrel and shove it over, hoping I don’t crush the heart beyond repair. I start to dig around in the wreckage.

“Demi,” Maria says from behind me.

Ignoring her, I continue to let the hot scraps from the barrel burn my hands, digging through the charred remains. It has to be here. It has to be.

I can save her.

“Demetria.” Maria uses my full name this time.

I whip my head in her direction. “What?” I shout the question, not caring how crazy I might sound.

“It’s too late, Demi. She didn’t have her powers yet.”

Slamming my eyes closed, I fight off a wave of nausea.

No.

Damn it.

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