Page 92 of Lord of Passion

Caroline…

It's lucky my office is-was, I guess, on the second floor. A fireman was lifted up in the bucket and took Isaak and Rafail down, both horrendously bloody and with too many scorch marks. Nikandr and I got down via their very shaky little rope ladder.

We’re pushed across the street to the ambulances, where an EMT wraps a blanket around my shoulders. When she tries to look at my injuries, I step back. "Isaak and Rafail, check them first. Oh, and get one of your biggest, burliest paramedics to check my husband'sbulletwounds, please."

Nikandr glares at me, but takes off his jacket for a burly, bearded EMT to check him. "Two bullet wounds?" I snap. "One in your thigh and one in your arm and you were going to let them check onmefirst?"

To be honest, the burn mark on my arm is throbbing violently in time with my heartbeat and it's making me nauseous. Nobody shot me, though, and their three poor bodies look like they took half a dozen bullets between them.

"Nik! Caroline!" Alexsey pushes through the crowd, who are still staring like sheep as they film the collapse of my beautiful hotel. "We couldn't find you, and then the body of a certain piece of shit flew over the second-floor railing and landed face down in the lobby. The impact drove the knife in his chest through hisspine."

"Maybe wait to share all the details, Alexsey." Dmitri is right behind him and then, most startling, Andrey. His usual impeccable suit is as filthy as the others. His hair is sticking up in spikes and he draws in a deep, shuddering breath when he sees Nikandr.

"Brother." Andrey shoves the poor paramedic out of the way, grabbing Nik's shoulders and looking him over. "We couldn't find you." His voice has a bit of a croak in it. His brown eyes are almost black, reflecting the flames like he's a dark lord from Hell. "Caroline. You are uninjured?"

"I'm fine," I lie. "But Nik's got two bullet holes and a bunch of other injuries."

Holy shit.Spooky Andrey almost looks human right now. Like he cares.

Andrey steps back, pushing the paramedic back at Nikandr. "Where did you go when you disappeared?"

My husband leans around his distraught twin and smiles at me, tenderly. "I went for Caroline, of course."

Okay, that one breaks me and I burst into tears, clutching my sooty blanket.

"Andrey dear, let your brother and Caroline get patched up." A warm arm goes around my waist, it's Tania, hugging me with a relieved smile. "We can talk then." She keeps her arm aroundme, protectively. "Are you okay? Are these 'I'm in shock' tears, or 'I'm so glad that bullshit is over' tears?"

A hiccupping laugh breaks through my sobs as my husband watches me, concerned. "Probably both. I was so terrified that they'd kill Nikandr. There were so many of them." Tania squeezes me carefully. She must have seen the burn mark on my arm.

Yuri, of course, is here as well, crouching in front of Nik, holding his shoulders. They're speaking softly, urgently and then Yuri lightly touches his forehead to his son's.

Alexsey sits next to me on a street bench with an excellent view of what's left of the Lyric. "How many people died?" I grip his arm, terrified all over again. He shakes his head with a smile, gingerly patting my unburned arm. "Wait- did you get everyone out?"

"Everyone is accounted for."

"There were two people on the eighth floor - by the swimming pool - what about them?" I clutch the bottle of water in my hand, and it drips down my chest.

"The firefighters got a ladder up there in time." Alexsey's being patient with me, thank god. "There were six people trapped on that floor, they got them all. It helped that Kolya figured out where Johann had blocked the sensors on the water suppression system. The spray didn't kill the flames, but it kept them down enough that the firefighters and our people could get through the hotel to find everyone."

"Kakogo chorta zdes' proiskhodit?What thehellis happening here?" The Dragon is striding down the sidewalk to us, perfectly clean and groomed, so she must have been out power-shoppingand draining the souls of the innocent with her unpleasant little dog.

"We had a fire." I can't think of anything else to say. My customer service face must have gotten burned up with everything else.

"I can see that," she says crossly, glaring at the burning building like it owed her money. "Tell that nice Trevor to get me a new suite in another Morozov hotel immediately."

I am so attuned to leaping into action that I'm standing up before Tania pulls me down again. "The Lady Balabonov, I presume?" She's smooth, it must come with years of dealing with Yuri's shit when he was theSovietnik."I'm not sure if anyone has located Trevor yet, the poor man. Allow me to escort you over to our concierge, she's arranging new accommodations for everyone as quickly as possible."

Tania kisses my cheek. "You stay here. I know you need to be with Nikandr." Hugging her again, I rest my cheek on her shoulder for a moment. It's been so long since I had a hug from my mother.

As the Dragon is led away, I check on Isaak and Rafail who are both conscious and lucid, before beelining it to my husband. The EMT is stitching up his right arm, and he holds out his left hand. "Come, sit." He pulls me closer until we're touching, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, his thigh pressing along mine.

"It's all gone." I'm not crying, exactly. Just a little, shuddered breath.

"Dmitri told me that it is considered a total loss." He kisses my temple and then, one of the hotel's floors disintegrates and falls to the one below. "My darling, look at me." Oh, he sounds sotender."We're going to go to the Morozov Clinic, but let-"he looks around and finds one of the female paramedics, "-uh, Mallory check your injuries first."

Dmitri is already hustling poor Mallory over to us. "Why don't you let your paramedic do it?" I ask. "I mean, he's right here."

He kisses me tenderly as Mallory takes away my blanket, checking my burn. "Because if any man touched you, I'd have to kill him."