Home > Bloodrunner Bear (Harper's Mountains #2)

Bloodrunner Bear (Harper's Mountains #2)
Author: T.S. Joyce

Chapter One

“Fire department, call out!” Aaron Keller yelled as he ducked under a thick plume of smoke and frantically searched the tile floor of a large bathroom. There was still one woman unaccounted for according to the landlord, and this place was going up in flames fast.

The roar of the fire was only eclipsed by Aaron’s heavy breathing inside his mask. Flames licked at his turnout gear as he passed a coat closet that was actively burning. That could be trouble if this part of the wall collapsed when he was in the back of the small rental duplex.

“Aaron, fall back,” Chief said from the safety of the street outside.

Aaron’s partner, Mark, had been over the radio, updating the boss man on how bad it was in here and how much time they had left, because yeah, after a while firefighters got an instinct for that. They understood the behavior of fire on an intimate level. Aaron knew Chief was right, but he had one more room, and he’d be damned if a woman burned because he left too early. Not today. Losing people stuck with his inner bear. He was supposed to protect people, not let them die.

“Fire department, call out!” Aaron yelled louder as he shoved the final bedroom door open with his shoulder. The back of the room was a solid wall of yellow flames, roiling like waves up toward the ceiling, the fire searching for air, seeking oxygen. With the closed windows in here, there wasn’t much left.

There she was. A woman in a robe lay on the floor, motionless. Shit.

Mark was yelling into the radio for him to evacuate, his voice too damn loud for Aaron’s oversensitive ears. Ignoring his partner, he bolted for the woman. The ceiling was coming down, and while he had fire resistant clothing and shifter healing, if this woman was still alive, she wouldn’t survive a cave-in. Aaron skidded on his knees and threw himself on top of her.

The roar of the rafters hitting the floor around them was overwhelming, and something heavy struck him on the back. The pain was instant—too much weight, too much pressure—but Mark was right there, pulling away debris. Aaron could tell from the heat easing off his body. The instant he was able, Aaron sat back on his knees, yanking the woman with him, and then he and Mark bolted out of the blazing inferno. The ambulance was just pulling up, but the firefighters were trained paramedics, and Aaron knew what to do in the moments before the team reached them on the sidewalk out front. He set the woman down, stripped off his mask and gloves, and felt for a pulse. It was there, but faint. He put his cheek in front of her face but couldn’t feel a breath. He tilted her head back, plugged her nose, and prepared to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but Aric dropped down beside him, shoving him out of the way. “Back off, shithead. You’ll kill her.”

Kill her? Who had just pulled her out of the burning house? Fuckin’ vampire. Aaron hated Aric, but there wasn’t room for a brawl right here in the dark street as they lost this lady to smoke inhalation.

Aaron paced, a snarl in his throat as his instincts to protect her from Aric warred with his need to help with the hoses.

“Aaron, do work,” Chief demanded.

Chest heaving, he kept his eyes averted and nodded. His eyes would be bright green-gold right now, and Chief always told him and Aric to keep their “supernatural shit” to themselves. A month working for the Bryson City Fire Department, and Aaron was pretty sure Chief would never accept the bear side of him. It wasn’t like in his last firehouse in Breckenridge. There, half the crew had been bear shifters, and no one cared about him exposing his inner animal. They were accepting, but here, everything was different. He still felt off-balance.

Aric pushed the heel of his palm against her chest one last time, then stopped and set his ear over her mouth as if checking for breath. His lips moved like he was mumbling something, but Aric’s sandy brown hair had fallen in front of his face, covering his murmured words. The woman gasped for breath and coughed over and over. And though he might hate Aric for what he was, for the scars Aaron now bore on his neck, and for what his coven had tried to do to his alpha, he couldn’t deny the fact that Aric was good at raising humans from near death.

Aric slid an oxygen mask over her face, and the paramedics scattered toward a pair of coughing teens on their hands and knees in the yard of the connected house.

“Aaron!” Aric barked out, his eyes full of horror.

“What?”

“My baby,” the woman choked out through the mask, her eyes vacant. “Where’s my baby?”

Fuck! Aaron pulled on his mask and sprinted for the open doorway. The fire hadn’t reached the front of the house yet. A nursery. He must’ve missed a nursery.

“Aaron, I said fall back!” Chief yelled over the radio. “Get your ass outside now! That’s an order. Fuck. Mark! Bring him back!”

Living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, no nursery. The ceiling was raining burning sheetrock and embers. The smoke was too thick near the bedrooms. Maybe the baby had been sleeping in the woman’s room? Why the fuck didn’t she have the baby in her arms?

Hose water blasted through the living room window onto the flames against the back wall, and Aaron covered his mask from the spray. He had to keep a good visual, and the smoke was already making it hard. There was no crying.

Please be okay. Please be where I can reach you.

In the hallway, the rafters caved, and burning debris landed hard on his forearm, yanking him down. His arm was pinned under him, against the searing materials. So hot. Burning. Franticly, Aaron yanked his arm out from under the rubble and backed away. The way to the bedroom was blocked now. The baby.

   
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