Sean’s face loomed over hers and she reached up to touch his skin, fell the heat of him.
“Hang on,” he said hoarsely, pulling off his mask to give her oxygen.
Sean wasn’t only her squad member, friend and lover.
He was her life.
Lana closed her eyes, and the clear, pure air entered her lungs and she let the darkness settle over her as gently as a blanket.
* * *
Sean donned the mask, his heart in his throat when he saw that Lana had passed out. Then Sean ran out of time. Fire surrounded them on all sides, ravenous, and crimson, unbelievably hot. He gathered Lana into a fireman’s carry as fire sped across the floor, consuming fuel and air like something alive.
Fear like he’d never known before sank rending claws into his stomach, tearing at his throat. They were trapped, fire writhing on either side of them. Determined, he fought through the fear.
Fire in a great wall of snapping, writhing flames blocked his exit to the stairs. If he didn’t act, the roaring heat that surged toward them would engulf them.
His SCBA started whistling, and he cursed it. He wasn’t going to die, and he wasn’t going to let Lana die. He took a deep breath, tightened his hold on Lana, and jumped into the jaws of the beast.
For a split second he was in the fire’s embrace, grasping flames, heat so intense, he could barely breathe.
They emerged on the other side into thick black smoke. Groping for the stair railing that would lead him down to safety, Sean knew it was blind luck when his gloved hand felt the wood.
Smoke was swelling up the stairwell, rising like a huge black balloon. Lana coughed hard against his back, the vibrations reaching even through his thick turnout coat.
He pulled her off his shoulders, leaning her against the wall while he stripped off his mask.
Overcome by smoke and sliding into shock, Lana’s knees buckled, and Sean had to catch her against him and hold her.
“Lana, hang on. Don’t give up,” he yelled at her as he heaved her back over his shoulder.
He jogged down the steps taking them two at a time, descending as fast as he could. He lost count of the flights. Lana was still unconscious, her head lolling, her arms limp. His eyes stung from the thick smoke. His lungs felt on fire, but he didn’t slow. All he knew was that he had to get her to safety.
She was still out as he passed firefighters rushing past him with hoses.
The smoke had thinned considerably by the time he got to the front doors and lurched through.
He heard the shouts. His vision blurred as Sienna rushed up to him along with Kate. Two paramedics were close behind.
“Oh, God, Sean,” Kate said.
“Oxygen.” Not relinquishing his hold on her, he shrugged off their hands and moved farther away from the flaming building and into the street.
He headed for the closest ambulance and grabbed the oxygen tank. “Oxygen,” he croaked. “Hurry.” His throat closed up and a spasm of coughing tore at his lungs as he gently set her down on a stretcher.
Her face was so still. He couldn’t tell if she was breathing. A burly paramedic muscled him aside and fitted an oxygen mask over her face.
“Is she all right?” Wiping away tears with the back of her hand, Kate grabbed Sean’s shoulder.
Sienna asked frantically, “Is she breathing?”
The tension left Sean’s body when he saw her chest rising and falling. He closed his eyes and sank to his knees beside the stretcher.
When the stretcher lifted, Sean rose.
“You can’t ride in here,” the paramedic insisted.
Sean pushed the man against the side of the ambulance. “Just try to keep me out.”