Excerpt: Grace Under Fire

Chapter One
Smoke. Everywhere. It was thick, acrid, suffocating. Grace couldn’t see. Muffled voices taunted her, turned her around. She was desperate to escape. She began to feel the heat though she couldn’t see the flames. Her heart raced. She thought she knew the way out, but with each turn she became more confused. The smoke was now so thick it felt like she was trying to run underwater. She gasped for air. She feared any moment the flames would leap up and take her. She heard the sirens, but now was sure they’d be too late for her. Now there was an odd keening sound that filtered in and blended with the sirens. Rising and falling it echoed off the walls. Grace knew her time was now down to mere moments. This was her last chance. She had to try. She leapt forward, praying it was toward fresh air. With a lurch, Grace sat up in bed panting. As her heart continued to pound in her chest, she realized she’d only been dreaming. So why, then, did she still hear the sirens and that eerie keening?
Grace slid her feet to the floor. “Bannon? Chloe? It’s okay,” Grace called as she moved to the doorway and looked across the hall.
Both greyhounds stood stiffly in their crates. Bannon wailed mournfully along with the siren that Grace still heard in the distance. The hackles stood up on Chloe’s neck, but she was silent. Grace quickly unlatched each crate and allowed the dogs to move gracefully out. They stood protectively on either side of her and she softly rubbed their ears.
“We’re okay,” she reassured them. “We’ll try to see what’s going on.”
As she moved back into her bedroom the hounds padded silently beside her. It had been a beautiful spring evening and Grace had left her bedroom windows open. As she stood beside the window that faced out onto Cyrus Drive Grace could smell smoke. She couldn’t see fire anywhere, but the sound of the sirens drifted through the still air and could have been as much as several miles away.
She reached for the phone.