As Nadja drove through the streets of Brooklyn, she could hear everything that was transpiring between Cassidy and Tony through the cellphone connection. The sound of Cassidy’s struggles motivated her to drive faster. In contrast to normal Dacia Vampire practices, she began defying the traffic laws in her urgency. Several minutes had passed from the start of Cassidy’s struggle with Tony McGuire until Nadja turned down the street where the building was located. Nadja screeched to a stop in a no parking area across the street from the building that Jeremiah was renovating, jumped out of the car and ran to the building’s front entrance.
Nadja’s first attempt to enter the front doors failed. The chain refused to give way to a quick and violent pull on the door handles. Without giving it a second thought, Nadja grasped the chain, and with extreme effort, she pulled one of its links apart and flung the doors open before Tony could pounce on Cassidy.
“Get away from her,” Nadja roared with an angry scowl.
Nadja charged Tony with her claws and fangs bared. They fell to the floor and rolled several times like two cats fighting to the death. Seconds into their fight, the hydraulic doors closed shut, bringing some relief to Tony’s irritated eyes. They fought violently, scratching, clawing, biting and throwing each other across the floor. Inside of a minute, they were both scarred and bleeding. Moments later, they paused to catch their breaths and take each other’s measure.
“I take it that you're a Dacia Vampire like Razvan,” Tony questioned as he huffed for breath. “It's a pleasure to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all yours,” Nadja sneered back.
“You know, we don't have to be enemies,” Tony conveyed with a smug smile.
“Then stop what you're doing,” Nadja flatly instructed.
“I have a better idea,” Tony returned with the beginnings of grin. “Join me. We can take over this city. Hell, we can take over the country.”
“You're mad,” Nadja asserted.
“And you're in my way,” Tony growled back.
As the combatants exchanged words, Cassidy searched the floor for her gun. She chose to be secretive about her movements because she did not want Tony to know she was plotting to insert herself into his fight with Nadja. She did not expect to kill Tony by shooting him, but she was hoping to slow him down. Finding her gun was the first step, but the dark room filled with construction materials, equipment and debris, was hampering her efforts to locate the weapon.
After the pause, the fighting continued unabated, but it shortly became evident to Cassidy that Tony’s size was giving him an advantage. To match Tony’s strength, Nadja had to burn energy faster. The prolonged fight was sapping her fuel faster than his. After more than two minutes of fighting, Nadja’s deteriorating stamina was visibly more pronounced than Tony’s.
“Run!” Nadja yelled with a glance at Cassidy.
Cassidy ignored Nadja’s command and began searching for her gun in haste. Abandoning Nadja to fend for herself against an overmatched opponent was a thought she dreaded to consider—let alone do. Cassidy knew that with her gun in hand she could contribute something to the fight. Armed with the belief that she could help Nadja, Cassidy’s pride was making flight the more frightening option to fighting.
“Get out of here,” Nadja screamed after tumbling across the floor then looking up at Cassidy.
“You’re no match for me,” Tony asserted confidently. “And soon my vampires will outnumber you and yours. This is your last chance. Join us.”
“I’ll see you dead first,” Nadja hissed back in defiance.
Once again, Nadja and Tony collided with each other like a pair of feral cats. As the fight between them continued, Cassidy frantically pushed paper and boxes aside in a desperate search for her gun. Suddenly her attention became fixed on a can of paint thinner. She quickly took the container in hand, noting it was about two-thirds full. With an idea in mind, she raced over to a paint tray, opened the can of thinner and poured it into the tray. Then she reached into her jacket pocket and retrieved a cigarette lighter. Just as she was completing the preparations of her plan, Tony lifted Nadja off the floor and slammed her down, pinning her to the floor. Nadja struggled to keep his fangs away from her neck. Cassidy knew there was nothing she could do physically to help Nadja and watched in terror at what she feared was the final moments of Nadja’s life. Several seconds later, Nadja committed herself to one massive heave and threw Tony off, sending him sliding across the floor. But the effort sapped most of Nadja’s remaining strength and Tony knew it. He growled at Nadja in triumph, but in that moment, Cassidy saw her chance.
Cassidy hurried forward between Nadja and Tony with the tray full of paint thinner and flung the liquid onto Tony’s face and torso. At first, Tony was surprised by the act, then confused. The liquid was caustic and stung his eyes. By the time he realized that he had been doused with a half a can of a flammable liquid, Cassidy had already lit the paint thinner residue in the tray with her cigarette lighter and tossed the flaming tray at him. Tony’s upper torso went up in an instant blaze. He immediately began stumbling back toward the rear of the building, screaming as he went.
When Nadja saw Tony writhing in pain from the fire, she sat back on the floor to rest and recoup her strength. She paid little attention to Tony after noting his situation with a glance. She knew that the injuries the fire was inflicting on him would sap most of Tony’s energy and end his threat to her and Cassidy.
While Nadja was resting, Tony blindly stumbled onto a cloth painter's canvas hanging from the mezzanine balcony. The fire around Tony found fuel in the paint thinner stains in the cloth and began to slowly lick its way up the canvas. A few seconds later, Tony collapsed to the floor from exhaustion. The fire about his head and torso was all but out. By this time, Nadja was more than a minute into her rest from fighting when Cassidy’s activity caught her attention.
“What are you doing?” Nadja huffed with difficulty.
“I’m looking for my gun,” Cassidy exclaimed without stopping to return Nadja’s gaze.
Cassidy was in a hurry to find her sidearm. She could see that the fire consuming Tony was quickly dying out. The fact that Tony was now lying still on the floor did nothing to make Cassidy feel safe. She knew that vampires were hard to kill, and she feared that Tony would jump up and renew his assault when the fire was fully out and he was sufficiently rested.
“Over there,” Nadja called out after giving the room a quick visual scan.
Cassidy looked at Nadja and saw her pointing to an area on the other side of the room from her and even further away from Nadja. When she went to the location, she found the gun lying exactly where Nadja had pointed. She suspected that it was Nadja’s vampire eyes that made it possible for her to spot the gun so quickly in a room with next to no illumination, but she had no time to dwell on that. Cassidy’s first concern at that moment was keeping Tony in check. She quickly brought her gun up to the ready and started moving toward the now smoldering heap that was lying on the floor. Because she did not trust Tony to be dead, Cassidy’s movements were slow and careful.
“He’s not getting up,” Nadja stated in between deep breathes.
Cassidy stopped and looked down at Tony for several seconds before lowering her gun and turning her attention to Nadja.
“You okay?”
“I could eat if you're offering,” Nadja huffed as she positioned herself onto her knees.
“That's not going to happen,” Cassidy returned with a slight shake of her head and a smirk.
Nadja and Cassidy paused and looked at each other in relief. After a couple of breaths, Cassidy holstered her gun. At that moment, Cassidy and Nadja detected an uptake in the size of the secondary fire that started in the painter's drop cloth. Flooring paper, trace solvents and discarded packaging made for a trail of fuel that led the fire to a stack of packaged insulation pads. The packaging paper fueled the fire to a size and temperature that enabled it to latch on to the adjacent exposed wood framing. Cassidy intuitively knew the fire had to be put out now or it might continue to grow until it engulfed the entire building, and she began searching the room for something to douse the flames.
“What are you doing?” Nadja asked with a frown.
“I’m looking for a fire extinguisher,” Cassidy returned without a pause in her search.
By this time, the wooden mezzanine floor and balcony was beginning to feed the fire, and the drop cloth was reciprocating by being more receptive to the flame. Nadja and Cassidy were stunned by the sudden change in the situation. There was a noticeable heat emanating off the fire. Cassidy ran over to the drop cloth and made numerous attempts to yank it free of the balcony. Nadja was still too exhausted to do anything but stand up and back away from the growing heat. After several seconds of pulling, the drop cloth fell to the floor, but the fire was firmly established in the exposed wood in the mezzanine wall opposite the railing, and it was trying to work its way up to the level above. Cassidy raced into the storage room at the back of the building in search of a fire extinguisher and quickly discovered the fire was slowly licking its way up the paper backing of the insulation in the wall dividing the two rooms. Seconds after noticing this, some melting insulation and the burning paper backing fell off the wall and onto the drinks table with its collection of glasses and open bottles and their remaining alcoholic contents. The tabletop erupted into fire, and the adjacent wall quickly absorbed the flames. Within a few seconds, the fire was lapping at the wooden beams in the ceilings and the wooden floor above them. Cassidy sped up her search for a fire extinguisher. Minutes later, she gave up the search. It was clear to her that the fire had now grown beyond anything she alone could do to stop it.
Cassidy ran back into the front room of the building and found Nadja backing still further away from the heat of the fire. The mezzanine balcony was engulfed in fire and the tops of the flames were inches away from reaching the room’s high ceiling. Cassidy hurried over to Nadja’s side.
“Come on, you’ve got to get out of here,” Cassidy warned as she moved toward the front entrance.
“We need him,” Nadja returned with a point toward Tony’s body.
“He’s not dead?” Cassidy asked with surprise.
“No, he’s not,” Nadja answered with a shake of her head. “Immortals are only truly dead when our bodies are burnt or decomposed beyond repair. Until that happens, a vampire can survive any injury that does not destroy our brain and/or our hearts.”
Cassidy looked at the burnt head of Tony. The idea that he was still alive inside that charred mass gave her reason to wonder how much physical trauma a vampire could endure and live. Time was not on Cassidy’s side, and she quickly gave up on that thinking and hurried over to Tony. She dragged Tony’s unconscious body a few feet and then stopped. Smoke was beginning to fill the room and the exertion was causing her to breathe in too much of it. Nadja went to Cassidy’s aid, but she dropped down to one knee after her first tug. Cassidy could see that Nadja had no energy to do anything. The fire was now spreading across the high ceiling. Cassidy released Tony, lifted Nadja up onto her feet and began walking her toward the front exit. Moments later, she and Nadja stumbled out the building’s front entrance. Cassidy continued to walk Nadja to the sidewalk across the street from the building. Outside there were no overt signs of the fire raging within. Cassidy set Nadja down and then raced back across the street. Just as she reached the sidewalk in front of the burning building, a cab rolled to a stop just behind her. David (Cristiãn) and Petru jumped out of the cab. After a quick look to assess the situation, Petru went to Nadja's aid and David (Cristiãn) followed Cassidy into the building.
“What are you doing?” David (Cristiãn) yelled through the roar of the fire.
Cassidy turned about to see who was talking. The sight of David (Cristiãn) was a surprise, but she did not have time to express it.
“I have to get him out of here,” Cassidy yelled over the uproar of the fire and with a point.
Tony McGuire was still lying motionless on the floor twenty feet from Cassidy. The room felt like the interior of an oven set for roasting and the fire was now feeding on most of the ceiling. Cassidy's movement toward Tony was checked by the sound of the ceiling collapsing in the rear storage room, and her attention was fixed on the ceiling above when David (Cristiãn) called out his question. When Cassidy turned to take another step toward Tony, David (Cristiãn) yelled “no” and rushed over to her. In the time it took David (Cristiãn) to take three strides, a portion of the ceiling above Tony fell in and landed on top of him. Tony McGuire was covered in burning debris.
“Come on,” David (Cristiãn) insisted with a tug of Cassidy's arm.
Cassidy hesitated for a second, and then she followed David’s (Cristiãn) lead. Together, they hustled out of the building and into the street. Smoke and flames were now visibly spewing out of the building. A handful of spectators were standing outside the building at a distance. More spectators were coming from further down the block. Cassidy and David (Cristiãn) were a few seconds into examining the fire when the first sounds of sirens could be heard. David (Cristiãn) quickly looked at Petru and saw that he was moving Nadja toward the car that she arrived in. Petru returned his look with a nod that said he and Nadja were leaving. David (Cristiãn) returned his nod and quickly turned his attention to Cassidy.
“Where's your car?”
“We can't leave,” Cassidy stated with a mix of alarm and a question in her tone.
“Yes, we can,” David (Cristiãn) insisted. “We have to leave now.”
Cassidy gave the idea of leaving the scene a moment of thought before agreeing to leave. Protecting the secret of the existence of vampires swayed her to that decision. She and David (Cristiãn) began to inconspicuously back away from the scene. After several steps they turned and began a hurried walk down the block and around the corner to Cassidy's car. By the time they got themselves seated inside the vehicle, the first police patrol car rolled to a stop in front of the blazing inferno consuming the building. Seconds later, Cassidy steered her car out of its parking space and drove it away from the area at a leisurely pace. At the corner of the block, a fire truck raced by them.
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