Part 48 (1/2)

”You could have hurt Andy!”

”Martha, let's get back to you. I stopped you before you could pull the plug on Andy's oxygen supply.”

”I would never do such a thing!” she protested adamantly.

”But you would have come to the hospital and dressed in scrubs to sneak into his room at night?”

Martha, looking mortified, hurried to the exit. She pushed open the door to the outside, inhaling deeply as if the night air could clear her mind.She didn't look at Lucian, but gasped. ”I had a dream! I remember the dream. Andy was in it. He was some kind of a monster and he was calling to Megan. I could hear him, and his voice wasn't at all old and decrepit, it was compelling, commanding... even seductive. And I remember in my dream that I was trying to get to him, to stop him before he could hurt Megan!”

Her eyes turned to his, as if wondering if he could verify such a strange dream, but then she squared her shoulders again. ”This is ridiculous! Andy wouldn't hurt Megan, and I never usually have dreams-oh, it's all this stuff with Halloween, and the shenanigans of all our local Wiccans. Or the college pranksters. I'm going to see a doctor first thing in the morning. This is so dangerous. There's my car. I drove here. I might have killed someone!”

”I'll see you home,” Lucian said.

”You'll do no such thing. I don't know you-for all I do know, you could be a maniacal killer. You'll get yourself out of here, before I call the police.”

He arched a brow slowly. ”You're going to call the police and tell them that we were both in Andy's room?”

She blushed to the roots of her silver-white hair, then lowered her head. She met his eyes.

”You're going to go home, and back to bed,” he told her. ”And that's it, back home, and back to bed.”

Her eyes were locked with his. ”Back home, and back to bed. Of course.”

”And you're going to drive carefully.”

”I'm going to drive carefully.”

She stared at him a moment longer, then became determined. In no-nonsense fas.h.i.+on, she walked toward the parking lot with long strides.

At twelve-ten, the fire broke out.

Finn was on the acoustic guitar, Megan was singing.

The electric connector on the stage suddenly exploded, the noise as deafening as thunder, sparks flying to the ceiling and in every conceivable direction.

Screams rose in an instantly cacophony.

The electricity went as terrified workers and clientele alike dashed, pushed, prodded, and ran through the darkness.

Finn dropped his guitar.

”Megan!”

There was no answer.

Chapter 20.

Previous Top Next”Finn!”

Despite the bursts of sparks and the small fires instantly breaking out across the room, the darkness seemed overwhelming.

Then, as flames began to lap around in the velvet ebony of the room, the sprinkler system came on, creating more havoc.

People were being trampled.

Someone was yelling for calm; some people were shouting that others were being hurt. The words did nothing to stop the stampede.

Megan found herself being pushed and shoved, caught up in the crowd. She was shouting herself, but no avail. Panic was ensuing.

”Stop!” she insisted, feeling elbows gouge into her.

There was no help but to continue to be propelled forward.

She thought she heard Finn shout her name; she tried to reply, but there was so much noise, he couldn't possibly hear her trying to shout in return. Obviously, some of these people knew where the exits were, and she was being jostled along in that direction.

A surge of flame suddenly shot up from the area of the stage. Her heart seemed to catch in her throat for a moment, but she knew that Finn couldn't still be there. He, too, was somewhere in the crowd, being forced toward an exit. The emergency signs to guide them out should have been more prominent, but by now, smoke was filling the s.p.a.ce, obscuring even the glow of the signs.

Megan decided just to allow herself to go with the flow.

But then her foot fell upon something that was obviously a human limb. She yelled out in fury and gave a fierce shove back to the person trying to force her forward and bent down, groping blindly to help the fallen person up. She felt coa.r.s.e wool, limbs, and then a hand. Fingers curled into hers and she strained to pull upward. The person came.

But then, the grip on her hand became a vise. And a whisper sounded against her ear. ”Stay with me!”

Firmly guided, she made her way through the throng. By then, she was coughing and choking; her eyes stung terribly.

They burst out a door, smoke billowing out along with them. Frantic yells continued to sound; even outside, milling people were b.u.mping into one another, every one trying to get farther and farther away. Shouts sounded from everywhere.

”It's going to explode! The whole place is going to explode.”

”Get away, get away, get far away!”

”Someone planted a bomb.”

”It's just an electrical fire!”

”There's no bomb!”

”Calm down!”

Sirens blared through the night; the fire department was on the way.

Megan was still jostled forward, and still blinded, for the darkness, combined with the smoke, and the fog that curled low over the ground combined to create a thick pea soup of the night.