It could not be happening. Not when Andreas hadn't yet come out to safety. "Get back, get back!" Rio's rolling accent sounded from somewhere close. The big warrior came crashing through the trees with Renata, Hunter, and a couple of others from the mission. Rio reached for Claire, tried to pull her along with them, but she dodged his grasp and kept on running. There were more shouted warnings, more urgent movement in the night-dark woods, as the shudder deep within the earth rumbled louder. There was a violent jolt, then a deep, thunderous boom! Strong arms and a warm, hard body wrapped itself around Claire, twisting her around to cushion her fall as the percussion blasted her backward, off her feet. She screamed but could hardly hear her own voice as the forest shook and roared with the force of a seemingly endless, ungodly explosion. "Stay down, Claire." Tegan's voice blew hot against her ear. "I promised him I'd get you out of here in one piece." "Noo!" she cried, beyond caring if she lived or died, watching in horror as the derelict barn blasted skyward in a blinding mass of flames and heat and thick, roiling smoke. The plumes of fire shot out in all directions, showering large chunks of splintered wood and burning embers down onto the forest.
More heat erupted from out of the hole bored into the earth beneath the barn, the entrance to the bunker from which Andreas had yet to escape. "Oh, my God... no! He's still down there! Andreas, no!" She vaulted to her feet. Tegan's hold was firm on her arm, but she shook him off with a desperate cry. "Let me go, damn you!" Adrenaline and despair sent her flying over the debris-strewn ground, through the thick growth of trees that was illuminated with unearthly orange light from the fire that seethed where the old barn had stood not a minute ago. She felt Tegan following behind her. The other warriors were moving in, too, silent and cautious. One of the Breedmates murmured a soft prayer for Andreas, tender words that Claire could hardly bear to hear. She walked closer to the roaring heat. It was overwhelming, hitting her like a furnace thrown open in her face. Still, she kept moving toward it, transfixed by the earthen crater of rubble and smoldering ash that had collapsed inward with the blast. "Andreas," she called softly.
Then louder, hoping he could hear her. Hoping for a miracle. "Andreas!" When she would have gone even closer, close enough that the flames would have touched her, Tegan's hands came down gently on her shoulders. "Come on, Claire. Don't do this to yourself." "Andre!" she cried, stubbornly refusing to give up. A new plume of sparks belched upward from within the molten core of the crater, making the rubble shift and groan. She felt the warrior's grasp on her tighten, and she knew he was prepared to carry her out of there if she delayed another second. But Claire didn't budge. She called to Andreas again, her voice hitching on a sob as another deep rumble sounded from belowground. Then she noticed something odd about the smoldering pit of cinders and churning flames ... Deep within its core, something was moving.
"Holy hell," Tegan said, obviously spotting the same thing she had. "Holy f**king hell. It can't be--" "Andreas," Claire gasped, awestruck and incredulous, and so very, very relieved. She watched the rubble give way and melt around him as he climbed out of the center of the inferno and rose to stand on the edge of the crater, his body aglow with the white-hot power of his extraordinary, terrifying gift. Smoke billowed above him in great black clouds. Flames roared and undulated from behind him like a seething volcano, yet he stood there unscathed. "Thank God," she whispered, her heart soaring. But then she realized something about him was terribly wrong.
The heat that enveloped him--the same heat that had proven impervious to bullets that first night she'd seen him like this--might have been the only thing that spared him from the killing force of the explosion, but the glow that surrounded him was brighter than ever. Hotter than the fires that roared all around him from the blast. His gaze was vacant as it traveled from Claire to the others gathered there. Light poured out of his eye sockets, searing and inhuman. Merciless. Claire took a step toward him, hesitant now. "Andreas? Andre...can you hear me?" That flat, burning gaze swung back to her now. Heat blasted her, pushing her several paces in retreat. He wasn't looking at her, she realized, but through her. He didn't see her there, no more than he saw the rest of the warriors--his friends--standing before him in stunned silence. Claire recognized the danger he posed like this, even if he was too far gone to recognize it for himself now. She had to break through to him. "Andre, it's me, Claire. Talk to me. Tell me you know me. That you're all right." He snarled, low and deadly, in the back of his throat. She didn't let it scare her. Keeping her eyes locked on his, she took a step toward him.
"Jesus Christ," Tegan hissed from nearby. He moved to block her path. "Claire, I don't think you should--" A fireball sailed through the air, crashing into the ground at Tegan's feet. "Andre, no!" Tegan leapt out of the way of the assault, taking Claire with him. Andreas roared then, and let fly a sudden hail of flaming orbs. Chunks of dark earth ripped loose as the baseball-size blasts hit the ground, driving everyone back. Claire screamed for him to stop, and for a moment she thought he would. He looked at her, then suddenly lifted his hands to the sides of his head and staggered unsteadily on his feet. The glow around him dimmed as he pressed his palms hard against his temples, his face contorting in a grimace of pain. When Claire glanced beside her, she saw the reason why. Renata held him in a fixed, unblinking stare.
As the Breedmate had done to the Gen One assassins a short time ago, now she blasted Andreas with the power of her mind. He went down on one knee, the rippling heat that traveled his body flickering like a strobe. When she let up, Andreas was panting and shuddering. But the glow still enveloped him. And as he lifted his head, the roar that ripped out of his mouth shook the entire forest with feral, deadly fury.