12. Alana

Iwake up to Karvex shaking me and yelling orders.

"Alana! Get up now. The hotel is on fire!"

The words register in my still-waking brain, and my eyes go wide. I sit up quickly, ignoring the sting of my injuries. And sure enough, there's smoke pouring into our room.

"Why isn't an alarm going off?" I ask, a little panicked as I scurry out of bed.

I try to go for my shoes, but Karvex pulls me along. "No time. We need to get out of here."

He presses a hand to the door and growls. "It"s warm, not burning though. We need to get out of here before the fire comes any closer."

For a moment, I think about going out the window. But then I remember that we're three stories up. Karvex might be able to survive the fall, but I most certainly will not.

"Cover your mouth and nose with your sleeve," he barks, doing the same.

I rush to obey as he opens the door. More smoke pours into the room. I'm glad I have my face covered. He grabs my hand, and we quickly walk out of the room.

The fire is nearly all around us, eating up the hall to the left and coming through the floor on the right.

Karvex yanks me to the right as we try to dodge the flames lighting the floor. I glance behind us and nearly scream. The fire is quickly catching up to us. He notices it, too, and we pick up the pace.

We make it to the emergency stairs which are thankfully not on fire. As we approach the ground floor, I can feel the heat of the flames from below.

I let myself be dragged onto the ground floor. When we do, it's worse than I imagined.

Fire has consumed almost everything, including the walls and ceiling. I look around desperately for some route of escape, my heart pounding wildly in my chest.

We're not going to make it. We're not going to make it!a voice inside my head screams.

I shake myself, trying to get it together.

Karvex tugs me forward. "This way!"

We start making our way to a side door not too far from us. Or it wouldn't be too far from us if the fire didn't stand in our way. We have to snake our way to the door, trying to avoid it.

There's a loud crashing sound from behind us, and I turn to see the ceiling has given way in one place.

"Hurry, before the whole thing collapses!" he yells.

We're almost to the door when the ceiling above us starts groaning.

Suddenly, Karvex throws me forward as the ceiling comes down behind me. I let out a scream.

"Karvex!"

"Go!" he yells back, trapped behind part of the collapsed ceiling and the raging fire.

The door is just a few feet away from me. But I won't leave him to die.

I look around me, frantically trying to find a solution. Then I spy a coat rack by the door that has miraculously not caught on fire. I run and grab it, then take it back and start clearing away the flaming debris.

With my mouth and nose uncovered, I begin coughing and my eyes water.

"Are you mad? Get out!"

"Either we get out together or not at all!" I yell back. The rack has caught fire, but I continue to clear away the rubble.

Finally, it's enough for him to jump over. I drop the rack before the fire reaches my hands, and I grab onto Karvex.

He swings me up in his arms and barrels for the door. Karvex slams into it, and we rush out into the night. I suck in the fresh air greedily, and Karvex does the same.

"How disappointing," a new voice drawls.

Karvex pulls me tighter to his chest. From out of the night, three figures emerge. Without them even having to say it, I know they're bounty hunters. And they already have their guns raised.

They effectively have us surrounded. Realization hits me. This was planned to lure us out.

"You're a wanted man," another one of the bounty hunters says snidely. "They said you would be a difficult one to catch, but I'm pretty disappointed. This was rather easy."

Karvex growls and slowly sets me down before shoving me behind him. "Don't think this is over just because you have me surrounded. I imagine whoever hired you wants me alive."

"Actually," the last bounty hunter chimes in. "The reward on you has gone up since that casino robbery you pulled. And they're willing to pay for you, dead or alive."

A shiver goes through me. Moments ago, I'd thought the fire would kill us. But here we are about to be shot down.

"And I imagine the oh-so-honorable leader of this rotten town let you know we were here," Karvex bites out.

One of the bounty hunters hums. "She did tell us which hotel you were in. But we had another contact tell us you were on this asteroid."

And then from the shadows appears another figure. I gasp, and Karvex tenses.

"Renari?" he asks.

The other Reaper's mouth is drawn in a grim line. "You brought this upon yourself, Karvex. Abandoning everything and everyone for a worthless human girl. So I thought I'd return the favor."

Karvex snarls. "I'll kill you for this!"

"Oh, I highly doubt you'll get very far at all," Renari retorts. "Even you can't dodge three guns at once. And even if you could, you'd have to take on me."

I glance up at Karvex for any indication of what he might do next. Of how we'll get out of this mess. He seems to be taking it all in, calculating. But I can tell that he doesn't seem hopeful.

Renari must see it, too, because a cocksure grin appears on his face. "Surrender, Karvex. You have no chance, so just accept your fate."

Karvex clenches his fists. I shake my head. "No, don't do it. We're in this together."

But Karvex seems to have already come to some conclusion. "You've been my second-in-command all these years. How low you've stooped, to betray me like is."

Renari snarls. "You betrayed me first for this human whore."

"Don't do it!" I protest again, grabbing at his arm when Karvex steps forward.

My mate looks at me and squeezes my hand. "It will be alright."

And then he's walking forward slowly, arms raised. One of the bounty hunters grins and lowers his gun to pull out a pair of cuffs.

And that is their first mistake.

In a flash, Karvex lunges at the bounty hunter and knocks the gun out of their hands. The others scramble to try and take him down, but he's too quick.

"Get to cover!" he yells at me as he fights off the bounty hunters.

I move to obey, looking for anywhere that might conceal me. But then I see Renari pulling at a gun, aiming for Karvex who's busy fighting off the other bounty hunters.

Before I realize what I'm doing, I'm running full speed at the other Reaper. I launch myself at him and my body hits him just as he pulls the trigger. The shot goes wide, and Karvex looks in our direction, eyes wide.

Meanwhile, I try to do everything I can to keep him from firing that gun again. I claw and kick and bite and punch. Renari roars and tries to knock me off.

Then there's another gunshot, and I gasp. For a moment, I don't even know what's happened to me. I just feel a searing pain in my gut and then I'm slipping off Renari and falling onto the ground.

There's an anguished cry, and suddenly Karvex is there with a knife he must have stolen from a bounty hunter. He slashes at Renari across the stomach. And then he's above me with pain in his eyes.

"Alana," he murmurs, and he sounds like he's dying. "Hang on, please hang on for me."

And that's when I realize that I'm dying. I try to articulate the words to tell him, but I can't.

"Please, my love. I'm right here and I'll never be anywhere else. They can try and rip me away from you a thousand times, but I'll always come back to you."

I give him a watery smile and hope it's enough to tell him I feel the same.

"So much for the human," one of the bounty hunters sneers.

Rage fills Karvex's face. He hurls the knife at the bounty hunter and then is on his feet, slaughtering them all.

When they all lay dead, he turns back and takes a step toward me.

Then another gunshot rings out. Blood seeps out of his chest and he looks to where Renari shakily holds a gun. His once-friend is wounded, obviously not long for this world. But just long enough to take Karvex with him.

Karvex stumbles. I try to call out his name. He falls down right next to me as his eyes glaze over.

A sob forms in my chest but blood comes up instead.

As I feel myself fade away, one thought remains.

If I ever get another chance, I will do everything to protect this man.

And then, I fall into oblivion.