It was the Institute--the place Tristan had built for the wolves to live on the island next to the hotel--before it burned to the ground the day he'd saved Braden and destroyed his own life. By the looks of things, they were right in the middle of the fire.
"Faith, we have to get out of here. This building is about to burn to the ground." A sudden thought struck Theo and for a moment, he froze. Reaching up, he grabbed the side of his face. It was still scarred, so that meant he'd already rescued Braden and been through the trauma. How could that be if they were back in the middle of the event?
"Theo, I think we were brought here for a reason. Is this the building that burned when you rescued Braden?" Her voice sounded muffled as she spoke with her nightshirt covering her face to keep out the smoke.
Protect our mate.
He had no intention of doing otherwise. "Yes, but Faith we don't have time to go play observer or whatever is happening here. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I've already seen that, lived it in fact."
She nodded but pulled out of his hand. "That's true but I haven't and it can't be coincidence that I was able to come with you. Come on, I'll be safe. Which way was the event?"
"Down the hall." He had to admit, Faith was right, and if he was already injured it was not likely he would be again. Besides, the demons had protected them from the flames when they'd been with them. There was nowhere safer in the entire building than in that room with the evil creatures, as illogical as that seemed.
Taking Faith's arm again, he led them quickly down the hall as he tried to stay low and avoid falling debris. To his great relief, Faith didn't argue or pull out of his grasp as he found his way to the room in question.
He could already hear the shouting inside and he swallowed away the clenching in his gut, as it became less of a memory and more like reliving his personal nightmare.
As if reading his mind she answered. "Come on, you're with me this time."
Inside the room, the strange blue light that seemed to protect the room from the heat and the flames illuminated the scene. Two demons hovered over the floor. One of them held Braden in its grasp. Beneath them, Tristan and a less scarred, still somewhat innocent version of himself leapt into the air to try to reach him.
Tristan bellowed as only a father could and shouted orders at Theo.
"Hey there." Faith called out to the people in front of her but no one turned around. She swung her hands in the air and again nothing happened.
"Okay, they can't see us. We're just here to watch."
That made sense. "Then why do you suppose we had to choke on all that smoke out in the hall?"
"Just lucky, I guess."
Tristan's voice filled the room. "So help me, Theo, I will not let them leave with my son."
"Don't worry, brother, I will not let that happen."
Theo wished he could shake himself. "It won't be me rescuing him." His voice sounded harsh, even to his own ears. "In under five minutes, I'll be nearly dead on the floor after ignoring Cullen's warning about getting hit by the acid."
Faith looked around. "Cullen?"
As if on cue, the older wolf plowed through the door. This time, Theo was able to watch him. He hadn't registered the other man's fear the last time. He'd been too focused on Braden, too caught up in the horror of the demons, and the sound of Braden's wail to be rescued.
He closed his eyes. There was nothing for him to see here that bore remembering. He'd failed and he would suffer for it the rest of his life. What sick twist of fate thought his mate needed to witness his disgrace?
"No." He pulled on her arm. "We're leaving."
"Theo," Faith took a step backwards. "Would you do it again, knowing what you know now?"
He thought about it for a second. "You're asking if I would still try to rescue Braden even if I knew what would happen to me?"
She nodded.
"I would. He's my nephew. I would try even if I knew I would die from the effort."
Faith took his head in his hands. "And that's why you'll always be the most heroic man I've ever met."
Theo wished he could live in that moment forever as he stared at Faith, nothing but glowing admiration coming from her eyes but something caught his attention he had not seen before. Both of the demons stared straight at them. One of them seemed to narrow his eyes as if he considered them thoughtfully. Cullen shouted his instructions and in the next second, Theo saw himself hit the floor after being burned.
His own cheek stung but not with the same pain as the first time. Why did the demons watch them?
"Theo?"
He nodded. "I see them too and I have no answers." But now he knew he needed some.
Chapter Six
Faith hoped she did a good job of hiding her extraordinary distress at watching the 'other' Theo suffer so greatly. Even though the scene she observed was a terrible ordeal, she had been able to see the lightness in his eyes and the prevailing innocence of his demeanor. He'd been through trauma with the destruction of the pack and the deceit from his father and still it had been that one moment--when the acid had burned its way into his body and started destroying him from the inside out--that had made him the man he was today.
She held her Theo's hand tightly as they walked through the burning hall, close on the heels of Tristan, who carried Braden, and Cullen, holding Theo from the past on his back. Now that they were away from the demons, the heat and smoke were once again almost too intense to tolerate. Inexplicably, her wolf was nowhere to be found, so she had no choice but to endure the choking heat.
"Can you communicate with your wolf?"
He shook his head. "Not at all but I couldn't when I was with the demon earlier tonight either. I hate to say I'm getting used to being ignored."
"I hope they're okay." She'd hate to think that the poor thing was in pain or trouble and she didn't know.
"If you're okay, they're okay. Try not to worry."
Faith hacked as she inhaled a lungful of black smoke. When she could speak, she had to shout over the roar of the flames that was becoming increasingly loud. "Where are we going now?"
"No idea. I never saw this part. The next thing I remember is waking up several days later looking slightly worse than I do in our present time and feeling like I wished I had died. There was this sense I couldn't get rid of, the best I can call it is wrongness, and the idea that I was more alone than I'd ever been before."
She nodded. "I have to assume we'll be sent home once we've seen what we have to see."
Part of the ceiling crumbled in front of them and they both leapt to avoid tripping over it. "I have no idea when or if this will end. This has never happened to me before."
"When you visit with the demons, how do you get sent back?"
"It's not exactly a visit, Faith, they don't have me over for tea and then I leave after dinner. The thing is living inside of me and periodically it invades my human mind."
She rolled her eyes. "We are running through the middle of a burning building chasing your half-dead body and you want to discuss my word choice? Hell. Answer the damn question."
"First time as far as I can tell, I was away for an hour, around the same amount of time the second time, and very short the third time it happened because you brought me back but I don't think this is the same circumstance. I have no memory of any of this; it's not trapped in my mind. I think we're back in time."
As they reached the outside of the building, cold air assaulted her senses. She'd just gotten through her first winter in Maine but spring had found it's way onto the island and her blood had started to thin. Wearing nothing but her nightie, she did not feel equipped to handle the onslaught of nearly frozen air. Once again, she missed her furry coat.