Donners of the Dead (28 page)

“There is nothing wrong with him,” the man said from above. “He’s better now. He’s buried down below where he belongs.”

I looked up at the man, feeling his hateful eyes upon me. They shone like nickels in the shadows and my stomach steeled itself in protest. This man evoked nothing but primal fear in me.

“What did you do to him?” I whispered. My eyes flitted over to Dex again and I could only shake my head,
no
. This
was
Dex.

“The same thing I will do to you and your sister and your mother,” he said.

My breath caught in my throat and when I finally exhaled, it came out painfully cold. Glowing embers began to fall from the sky, turning to ash as soon as they hit my skin. It burned and the snow sizzled. A rainshower of fire.

“What?” I managed to ask, feeling myself slowly being drained of strength.

He grinned at me and his teeth glowed white. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Then he turned sharply and strode away along the beam, the metal creaking until he reached the walkway.

“Michael!” I screamed after him. “You can’t leave him like this. He’s your brother.”

He shook his head and for once I could see the glow of his skin from the light of the city. It looked burned and red. I blinked my eyes trying to see if some color was being reflected onto him.

“No,” he said. “He’s not my brother. And I haven’t been Michael for a very long time.”

He climbed onto the walkway and disappeared.

Suddenly the bridge quaked, jerking from side to side and throwing me off balance. I grabbed onto Dex to steady me and as I did so a terrific crash rang through the air. The bridge deck began to split from the end, a crack racing toward us in one dark, jagged line. Flames began to lick up through the split and the suspension cables along the bridge began to snap and fly out, whooshing through the air with a metallic noise.

Everything was still shaking, the bridge splitting right in two. It was heading right for us, right for Dex. The flames were higher now as they shot out of the crack and from the corner of my eyes the world was slowly starting to become lighter, the East River turning from inky black water to a living floor of fire.

“Dex!” I yelled trying to get him out of the way.

But he wouldn’t budge.

The damn man wouldn’t budge.

And the bridge continued to crack.

I had two choices and in that I had
no
choice. I was either going to go down with him and be swallowed whole by the inferno that was about to devour us or I could step aside, save myself, and let him die.

There really was only one choice.

I grabbed onto his stiff body, wrapping my arms around him from behind and buried my face into the back of his neck.

“I love you,” I whimpered. “Always. Beyond death.”

My legs started to wobble. The fire got hotter. The crack seemed to split my world.

But before I was sure the ground beneath us would fall, Dex suddenly moved.

He spun around to face me and kissed me, quick and searing on my lips, making my heart flutter and my body ache with need and love. When I opened my eyes, I saw his eyes brimming with intensity. Here he was, right before the end.

Then he pushed me backward. I stumbled and fell back on the deck just as the crack was seconds from taking him away from me.

“Don’t let him in, kiddo,” he said gravely, his gaze freezing me. “Don’t let him in.”

I screamed, “No!” and tried vainly to get to my feet. “Dex!”

But the split rocked under him, the ground opening up with a deafening crack.

Dex slipped away from view, swallowed by the flames.

He was gone into a fiery hell while the embers continued to fall from the sky.

Turning to ash.

Turning to dust.

Just like my heart.