***
At last Bliss heard voices on the other side of the attic door. A key rattled; the door opened; and four dusty, exhausted people tumbled into the room of a very surprised couple.
“What the heck…” the man began to say.
His wife or girlfriend asked, “Did you escape the fire through the attic?”
“Yeah,” Bliss said. “Thanks for letting us out.” She set her computer on the bedside table and rubbed her sore wrist.
Mr. Balog bowed formally. “We apologize for entering your home like this. I am afraid it couldn’t be avoided.”
Gee, ya think? Bliss almost laughed out loud. It sounded as if the Balogs had been invited to tea, not escaping a harrowing death.
Suddenly Bliss realized that perhaps this wasn’t the first time the Balogs had escaped something nasty. She could picture them hiding and running from communists or something. The strange language sounded Slavic. Honestly, the stupid things that run through my mind sometimes. I should be thanking them for saving my life.
Bliss embraced Mrs. Balog. The woman stiffened, but when Bliss murmured, “Thank you,” she relaxed and patted Bliss’s back.
In English she answered, “You are welcome.”
***
Drake soared through the window that led to Bliss’s bedroom and hovered over the parts of the floor that were still intact. She was nowhere to be seen. He could see his buddies below still battling the blaze. He had to go up in case Bliss and the Balogs were waiting for rescue on the third floor.
He sought a place out of sight of the firefighters if they were to look up. In the back bedroom, which would have been Angie’s, he scanned the area for some place to break through to the next floor. Grasping a heavy lamp in his talons, he smashed it against a spot in the ceiling that looked weak. Plaster rained down on him, which he didn’t care about. However, additional pieces fell below and his firefighter buddies jumped out of the way.
Shit. Seconds later, he heard the window above burst. A way in! He flew out the second-floor window and up to the third floor. Fire blasted out that window, so he sucked in a deep lungful of air and flew through it.
His eyes watered, but he could still see. He flew from room to room and found no one. Thank God. Maybe they’d made it out safely after all. He took one last look and spotted the attic door open. Oh, crap. Could they be hiding up there?
He flew up to the rafters and looked left, then right. No one was there. Suddenly another awful possibility occurred to him. What if Zina took her?
Dejected, Drake scanned the area for onlookers and found it was safe to descend to the ground and shift. As soon as he was dressed again, he took off for the side street at a flat run. He couldn’t lose hope yet. Maybe she was standing out front.
As he rounded the corner, he saw residents all along the block leaning out of their windows, trying to see what was going on.
“Drake!” someone yelled.
He slowed down, scanned the building up to the top floor, and saw Bliss leaning out the fourth-floor window. She appeared a little ragged but unharmed. To him she had never looked more beautiful.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes,” she called down. “Thanks to the Balogs.”
“Are they there with you?”
Adolf appeared in the window. “We are all here. All safe.”
“Thank God.”
Bliss held up something rectangular. “I even managed to save my computer this time!”
He would have laughed, but they were interrupted.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Cameron!”
Oh, shit. The chief was striding toward him and looked none too happy. Bliss ducked back inside, probably remembering the last time she got him into trouble.
“Nice of you to join us,” Chief Tate shouted. “Nobody knew where the hell you were.”
Drake checked his radio. “Sorry, chief. I think this thing might not be working.”
“Check it later. Right now we need to figure out if anyone’s still inside.”
“Everyone’s out,” Drake answered.
“And how do you know that?”
Drake pointed upward to the window where Adolf was still leaning out. “They’re all up there.”
The chief looked up. “Is that true, kid?”
“Yes,” Adolf called. “We’re all accounted for.”
“Thank God for small favors,” the chief mumbled.
One of the female residents Drake had helped to evacuate walked up to the chief and pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. “That man there helped us get down the fire escape. He deserves a medal.”
The chief shook his head at the ground and muttered, “Of course, he does.” Drake was probably the only one who knew the guy was being sarcastic.