He waved his arms to try to dispel the smoke before running into the room. Evan was sprawled half on, half off the bed as if maybe he roused himself enough to know there was a problem, but couldn’t quite wake up. His leopard was probably roaring at him, desperate to break through the drug in his system. Lifting the man in a fireman’s carry over his shoulder, Drake took him out of the room and dumped him on the floor of the balcony.

Evan coughed a couple of times, enough that Drake could see he was waking.

“I have to get to the others, Evan. As soon as you can, help Saria. She’s working her way down the balconies on the right side. Understand?”

Evan nodded, drawing in a deep lungful of clean air. He signed that he was sick, bent over and expelled the contents of his stomach.

Drake glanced over to the balcony where Saria should have been. The French doors were wide open with smoke pouring through them, and Saria was nowhere to be seen. He cursed aloud, knowing she’d gone inside despite his orders to stay out. He hesitated between going to the next team member, or going after Saria. As he turned toward the right, stepping up onto the railing in preparation for a leap to the roof, she appeared in the doorway, dragging Jeremiah behind her.

Drake didn’t wait. He went up onto the roof, but ran to his left, to the next room where, once again, he found the door barred. Anger was slowly building, now that he was fully awake and the drug was wearing off in the clean air. He ripped open the door. Elijah crawled toward him, dragging a chair behind him. The smoke was particularly thick in the room, thick and black, as if he were much closer to the source than Drake’s room had been. Drake could see that Elijah had been violently ill in the room, which had probably allowed him to rid himself of the drug in his system and wake up enough to know they were in trouble.

The moment Drake flung open the doors, Elijah clawed his way onto the balcony, coughing and gasping, and mad as hell. “Someone tried to kill us, Drake. This was no fucking accident.”

Drake nodded his head. He’d already come to that conclusion. “You all right? I have to get to Joshua.”

Joshua was in the last room at the end of the hall, nearest the circular library at the top of the stairs. If the smoke was coming from there, that would make Joshua closest to the source and most likely to be in trouble. Drake remembered that he’d been particularly tired.

Elijah nodded and waved him away, even as he tried desperately to drag fresh air into his lungs.

Drake glanced to his right, looking for Saria. Evan and Saria were helping Jerico from his room. Jerico was on his feet, staggering between the two, but he was alive and well. Drake once more took to the roof. He was exhausted, but feeling better now that he could breathe and the drug was mostly gone from his system. He could feel the aftereffects—a pounding headache and his stomach still churning, but his strength was coming back and with it—rage. Pure rage.

Someone had gone into the house, someone who knew the security system and code. So a family member? Pauline? Amos? One of the Merciers? As he ran across the roof, he caught sight of two men in the trees, running toward the inn. He recognized Joshua Tregre’s uncles. The two men were streaked with black just as he and all of his men were from the smoke. He called out to Elijah, alerting him, as he dropped down to Joshua’s balcony. Through the French doors he could see black smoke had filled the room. His heart dropped. How could Joshua be alive when he couldn’t even see into the room?

He yanked away the bar of wood and, gulping air, rushed in. Joshua wasn’t on the bed or the floor. The door leading to the hall was open and he could see that the hall itself was black with thick smoke, yet there were no flames licking along the floor, ceiling or walls. Drake rushed back outside, took another lungful of fresh air and ran through Joshua’s bedroom out into the hall. Joshua’s room was nearest the large, circular library at the top of the stairs. Drake could see the stone fireplace had low flames burning around smoldering logs. Wet wood had been set on fire.

Coughing, he hurried to the fireplace. He could see that Joshua had been there before him, probably opening the vent someone had closed when they set th fire with wet wood. Drake looked over the railing. The fire in the sitting room had the same wet wood smoldering in it. Joshua had crawled down the stairs in order to try to open that vent as well. He had the front door open and was lying half in, half out of the house.

Drake leapt over the railing and ran to Joshua, his lungs burning for air. Dragging him the rest of the way out, he turned the man onto his back to make certain he was breathing. Joshua’s lashes fluttered and he looked up at Drake and gave him a weak thumbs-up.

“You’re insane,” Drake said. “You should have gotten out immediately.”

Joshua’s teeth looked very white against his blacksmeared face. “Figured it was best to get the smoke out.” He coughed and tried to sit. “I think I puked my way through the house. Miss Pauline isn’t going to be happy with me.”

“You’re a damn fool,” Drake said, sitting next to him. “You ever scare me like that again and I’ll kick your punk ass.”

“Got it, boss,” Joshua said, staring up at the overcast sky. “I wouldn’t mind if it rained right now. Did everyone get out?”

“Yeah. They’re all fine. They look like hell, same as you.”

Joshua tried to laugh and ended up coughing. “I think someone is really mad at you, boss. You kicked the wrong person’s ass.”

“I’d like the opportunity to kick it again and maybe do it right this time,” Drake said. He shoved his hand through his hair. His fingers were streaked with smoke. “I have to go back in there and open that vent. Smoke can damage a house pretty bad. I’ll get the doors and windows open and hopefully get it moving out of there.”