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support beams.
Abbie spun around and looked up. Aside from the fact that she was utterly
flabbergasted as to how he d managed to get up on the roof, to say nothing of tearing his
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way through the rafters and plaster walls, she had to admit that she d never been so glad
to see anyone in her whole life.
Smoke billowed out into the night sky behind him. The air was filled with it. Heat
roiled in past Michael and Abbie realized that the gym s roof was also on fire.
 Give Jessie to me! Michael knelt on the widest of the overhead rafters and reached
down as Abbie uncovered Jessie and extended her out at arm s reach.
 Mama, howd me! Jessie clung to her mother, her little face contorted into a look of
uncertain terror.
 Jessie, I m right behind you, okay? Mama s coming. Go with Michael now. We
have to get out of here!
Jessie looked into Abbie s eyes as if searching her face for a sign of reassurance.
Abbie smiled at her and nodded.  I promise, little one. I m right here. I m coming.
Michael gently took hold of Jessie s waist and Jessie let go of Abbie s sweater
sleeves. The toddler went still in Michael s grasp and he hauled her up through the hole
and set her down beside him.  Don t move, okay Jessie? Hold very still so that you don t
fall.
Jessie nodded. Abbie peered over their shoulders at the thickening night sky. More
big, black clouds of billowing smoke poured out of the gym s broken windows and from
cracks that had formed in the roof. The steam room was growing uncomfortably hot.
Crackling sounds and the roar of a building blaze could now be heard above the sounds
of the alarm sirens, along with the chinking of breaking glass as windows across the gym
exploded in the heat. Abbie was sure the steam room door would go in the same manner,
any second now.
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Heather Killough-Walden
 Grab hold! Michael laid down on one of the rafters and extended his arm down
toward Abbie. Wasim interlaced his fingers, holding them out to give her a boost up. She
took Michael s arm in her right hand, stepped onto Wasim s hands, and used her left hand
to heft herself up through the hole in the ceiling.
Once up, she knelt down beside Jessie and hugged her daughter.
Wasim was next. In a show of impressive agility, he jumped up and grabbed
Michael s outstretched hand with one hand and one of the metal rafters with his other
hand. Using the leverage of a strong upper body and Michael s help, he pulled himself up
through the hole and stood next to Michael.
 Now what? Abbie couldn t help but ask.
 Now this. Michael leaned down and yanked Abbie up by her arm. She was still
holding Jessie and she pulled the toddler up and into her arms as Michael lifted her.
 Hold on, he said and Abbie instinctively held on to Jessie with all of her might. With
that, he pulled her into a tight embrace and then leapt into the night sky.
Wasim watched him disappear behind the smoldering blanket and then he looked
down. Heat waves distorted his vision and the steam room below him appeared, for all
the world, to be filled with rising and falling water. Smoke stung his eyes. He closed
them and turned his face up to the sky. He heard the steam room door explode below him.
Angry heat rose around him, singeing his fingertips and rising through the thin soles of
his shoes. He wondered whether he was going to die. Fire and water& Burning and
drowning. Those were the sure ways to kill a vampire.
* * * * *
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Redeemer
Abbie suddenly found herself surrounded by smoke on all sides. She no longer felt
the steel of the rafter beam beneath her feet.
Her first thought was that she was flying. In any rational situation, she would have
been thrown on this realization, but at the moment, she found it inexplicably rational.
She remained silent; not that she d have been able to give her thoughts voice had she
tried, anyway. She glanced down at Jessie and found that the child was staring up at
Michael with big eyes.
The smoke thinned and then cleared around them and Abbie chanced a look down.
 Oh crap&  The ground loomed up toward her and Abbie was being set down on
unsteady legs in a patch of grass about thirty yards away from the East side of the gym
building. Even as she held onto Jessie for dear life, she gazed, wide-eyed, up at Michael
and then turned that gaze to the roiling, boiling inferno behind him.
The gym was entirely engulfed in flames. Abbie s heart hammered hard against her
rib cage. Wasim&
Michael did not wait. He once again took to flight and rushed head-long into the
billowing clouds of choking black smoke.
He heard a man coughing and zeroed in on the sound, following Wasim s voice to
his location and landing beside him. Already, the man s face and clothes were covered in
ash and soot. Michael could feel the heated metal of the rafter rising up through his shoes.
Wasim s eyes were closed. He d turned his face up toward the sky above, most likely
in the vain attempt at getting fresh air into his lungs.
 Take hold, Wasim.
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Heather Killough-Walden
Wasim opened his eyes to find Michael before him. He blinked. The scorching heat
and smoke were affecting his vision more than he thought because he could have sworn
that he saw wings at Michael s back. Not the ridiculous white wings of cherubs and
Christian angels. Black wings, raven and shimmering, stretching long into the warping,
distorting blackness around them as if they were a part of the smoke, itself.
Wasim blinked again and the wings shimmered in and out of his altered perception.
Numbly, however, he stretched out his arms. Michael s fingers wrapped around his
biceps, his touch cool on Wasim s heated skin. Disoriented in the extreme, Wasim closed
his eyes for good and fell into another coughing fit, his lungs simply overcome by too
much smoke. He choked, gagged and doubled over as he felt Michael lift him up out of
the heart of the invading inferno. They left the metal rafter just as it buckled beneath the
onslaught of the heat and caved inward.
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Redeemer
Chapter Fifteen
(Approximately 2,000 B.P.)
Michael sat in stillness and silence, listening to the crackling fire before him as it
sent dancing flames toward the heavens. He thought of all that had transpired in the last
few days.
He thought of Thomas and Yeshua and the ruse they had pulled on everyone around
them since they were very young.
Thomas was a vampire. This, now, Michael knew. He also looked positively
identical to his brother, in nearly every minute detail. Michael understood, at present,
why Yeshua insisted that his disciples and followers continuously hide their faces. Not
only was it safer, as no one could identify them if they could not see them. But, it was
practical for the purpose of hiding Thomas. And to switch places with him, free of
incident or suspicion, when the situation called for it.
Upon being formally introduced to Thomas, something inside of Michael had slid
into place. On impulse that struck him like lightning, Michael had jumped forward and
grabbed Thomas s hand in order to read all that he could from the man. When he did so,
he realized that it had been sheer dumb luck that every time he d touched Yeshua before
that, he d actually managed to read the real Yeshua and not his twin brother.
However, this time was different and, as Michael skimmed the man s mind with his
own, he came up against real and true power. Resistance. Thomas was the most potent
vampire Michael had ever met. An adept of great skill, with many gifts and the ability to
block Michael from learning most of them.
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Heather Killough-Walden
Thomas had pulled away from the contact, his gaze narrowing. Michael had stared at
him, the pieces to the puzzle finally falling into place. It all made sense now. Michael s
gaze slid from Thomas to Yeshua and back again. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]