Not wanting to think too hard about that bit of information, I picked up a pebble and flung it against the opposite wall. As the two men spun around, I flicked out two ribbons of fire, wrapped one around each, and threw them headfirst into the walls. I didn’t bother checking them. The blood beginning to stain the concrete spoke volumes about their life expectancy. I ran up the steps and carefully opened the door. The room beyond was small and dark—some sort of office or receiving area.

I crept forward. There was a window next to the door, and I peered through it from one side. With dawn in full bloom outside, the shadows were lifting inside. The room beyond was vast and filled with printing presses and various other bits of machinery. I couldn’t see anyone, and there was no indication of a heat source anywhere in the room. Beyond the presses were several doors; one was open and led into a bathroom. The other was closed.

I carefully opened the door and walked out, keeping my back to the external wall in an effort to protect myself. I still wasn’t sensing anyone, but then, I hadn’t sensed the red-haired hulk and his companion until it was almost too late, either.

I should have drained the heat from them. It would have bolstered my strength and shored up my reserves, but it was too late for regrets now.

It didn’t take me long to reach the closed door, but I didn’t reach for the handle. Instead, I pressed a hand against the wood, then closed my eyes and called to whatever heat was inside—something every phoenix could do but rarely attempted, as it drained our strength even as it fed us. Which was why we generally touched people when we fed from them—it was easier and far less dangerous. Doing this now, when I was in an already depleted state, was doubly so.

There was heat inside.

It filtered quickly through my fingertips and fed the inner flames, but my head began to pound even more viciously and my form flickered, briefly becoming fire—a sure sign I was reaching my body’s limits.

Two soft thuds came from inside. I quickly shut down the feed but didn’t immediately move, waiting instead for the flickering between shapes to ease.

Once it had, I grabbed the handle and opened the door. The room beyond was an open office area; one guard lay to the right of the door, and another across the exit on the far side of the room. I knelt down beside the nearest guard—a vampire, and one I’d seen before. He was one of the vamps who’d attacked Sam and me in the cemetery.

Obviously, no lesson had been learned or warning heeded. Not then, not later.