“Come on, my Lady—this way!” he shouted.
Lexi threw off the bedclothes and stood on her tiptoes, reaching for the Light Twin. Just as the sheets and blankets began to ignite, he wrapped an arm around her waist and swept her free.
Moments later the entire bed went up in flames.
Gasping and sobbing, Lexi clung to him as Gaze pulled her close to his big body. Lifting his head, he shouted,
“Pull us up, Bound—I’ve got her.”
As the rope ladder ascended, Lexi looked down at the burning ruin of what had once been her home. It was gone—everything was gone.
Something told her that nothing was ever going to be the same again.
FORTY
“Is she all right? Let me look at her! Get the med kit, Gaze, she might have burns!” Bound was looking over his shoulder from the captain’s chair, shooting anxious glances at Lexi as Gaze cradled her close to his chest.
“I’m all right. I’m all right,” Lexi gasped, but her voice was hoarse and choked and she could hardly hear herself over the sound of the rushing wind. Then the hatch on the side of the ship slid smoothly closed and the air pressure in the cabin of the Kindred ship normalized.
“I think she’s all right,” Gaze answered his brother. He looked down at Lexi anxiously. “How do you feel?”
“I…I don’t know. Please—I think I need to sit down. Feel…dizzy.”
“Here!” Gaze got her to the co-captain’s chair and she sank down on it, feeling like the world was spinning around her.
“I’m tellin’ you, get the med kit,” Bound insisted. “We need to scan her and make sure she’s okay. She might have inhaled smoke, Gaze.”
“You’re right. Alexa, will you be all right if I leave you here for a moment?” the Light Twin asked her anxiously.
“I…I think so. Better…sitting down,” Lexi said faintly. Her eyes and throat still stung from the smoke and she was crying but she wasn’t sure if it was from trauma or relief at her narrow escape from the flames.
“You’ll be okay, Angel—you’re gonna be okay.” Sitting across from her in the captain’s chair, Bound reached out to pat her knee comfortingly.
“My…my house?” Lexi managed to ask, looking up at him.
“Sorry, baby—I’m afraid it’s gonna be a total loss,” he growled softly, nodding at the viewscreen.
Lexi looked and saw that the screen was displaying what looked to be a huge bonfire. Her little pink house was now a fireball, consumed entirely by flames that licked into the air, shooting sparks almost as high as the ship.
“Here’s the med kit. You didn’t have any pets that got left behind, did you?” Gaze asked anxiously, coming to kneel before her with a box full of medical supplies. He took out a scanner and began running it over her, paying careful attention to her lungs.
Lexi shook her head.
“No. Though I was just thinking of buying myself a felinus to keep…to keep me…company.”
And then suddenly she was weeping—not just crying a little but sobbing as though her heart would break.
“Oh sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” Gaze murmured softly. Putting the scanner back in the medical kit, he slipped an arm around her.
Bound must have put the ship on autopilot, because he came and put an arm around her on the other side.
Lexi leaned into them and found that she was surrounded by their warmth and comfort as both the Light Twin and the Dark held her close.
At last, she felt as though she had cried herself out. Sitting up, she sniffed and swiped at her face with the sleeve of her ragged robe. She’d been dressed for bed when she had heard the scratching in the closet and the singed robe and pink silk sleeping gown—which were now streaked with soot—were the only possessions she had left.
“Better now?” Gaze said softly. From somewhere he produced a cool, damp cloth and gave it to Lexi.
She took it gratefully and used it to wipe her face.
“Better,” she echoed. “I mean, except for my house going up in flames.”
“Better your house than you, Angel,” Bound growled. “What in the Seven Hells happened, anyway? What was that thing blocking your doorway?”
Lexi let out a long, shuddering breath.
“I’ll tell you but it’s a long story.”
“Brother, I think you’d better take us up into orbit,” Gaze said to the Dark Twin. “That way we can catch our breath and think what to do next. And maybe Alexa can tell us what happened.”
“Agreed.” Bound sat in the captain’s chair and a moment later, the silver Kindred ship was high above the world, in orbit around Zetta Prime.
“Come with us,” Gaze told Lexi. Helping her out of the co-captain’s chair, he led her back to the living area of the ship and sat her in the middle of a large, comfortable couch. He sat on one side of her and Bound settled on the other side.