Oh, god. Tao. He’d been home. He could be hurt, injured…
I pushed through the gathered crowd, then ducked under the police tape that fenced off a wide area around our warehouse building. A cop caught me before I got three steps.
“Miss, you can’t go in there —”
“I fucking live there!” I yelled back, and brought my heel down on his foot as hard as I could. He cursed freely, but he didn’t release me. “Damn it, let me go! I need to find —”
Hands gripped me, shook me. “Ris, it’s okay. I’m okay.”
I blinked, staring up almost owlishly at the figure that held my arms so tightly. Then it registered that it was Tao, that he was here and whole, even if a little singed. I threw my arms around him and hugged him fiercely. “Oh, thank god,” I whispered. “For a moment I thought —”
“For a moment there, I almost was.” His voice was grim. He glanced at the man behind me, and added, “She’s my flatmate.”
“She’s damn lucky I don’t press assault charges,” the officer replied grimly. “Both of you, get back behind the tape and stay there until otherwise advised.”
Tao slipped his hand under my elbow and guided me across the road, finding us both a perch on the old brick fence five houses down from our place. He didn’t say anything, just sat beside me, a brooding figure that smelled of smoke and fire and fear. It was that last scent that had unease stirring through me.
I’m not sure how long we sat there, watching and not talking. Long enough that night came in, long enough for me to get colder than I’d ever thought possible, despite having a man of fire sitting beside me. Or maybe even because of it. Long enough for the fire marshals to finally declare the old building safe and the police to unwrap the tape and allow everyone back into their houses.
Even us.
Without comment, Tao rose and offered me his hand. I placed my fingers in his, and he tugged me upright. His flesh was hot, and it wasn’t the natural heat of a werewolf. It was the heat of a man who was barely controlling the fire elemental he’d consumed to save Ilianna’s life – an elemental he was now battling for control over his own body.
Of course, both he and Ilianna had been present at the sacred site where the elementals had been created only because I’d needed their help to uncover information from a book my father had left me. Which meant that the battle Tao faced now was very much my fault. I should have stopped them from coming… should have done a lot of things. But I couldn’t change the past. I could only change the future.
And hope like hell that Tao won his battle.
My gaze raked the black, broken end of our warehouse home. Was that what had happened here? Had the elemental tried to wrest control from him again?
I very much suspected it might be.
As we ducked under the scorched roller doors, I noted what looked suspiciously like a handprint melted into the side of his Ferrari. My motorbike was safely tucked away in the secure parking lot near RYT’s, our open-all-hours café, but my old SUV was here. Luckily, it appeared undamaged.
The security door at the top of the stairs was open but undamaged, and water trickled out, a steady stream that tumbled down the metal steps like a mini waterfall. I followed Tao through the door, then stopped. The main living room was a goddamn mess. The walls, floors, and furniture had all sustained both smoke and water damage. Even the industrial fans situated high in the vaulted ceiling were damaged, the big blades bent and twisted by the heat of the blaze. The ceiling itself, though scorched, appeared relatively intact overall. It was in the kitchen where the fire had obviously started, because even from where I stood, it was easy to see that there was very little left except a twisted and blackened mess of wood and metal.
Thankfully, the fire hadn’t gotten anywhere near the bedrooms, although I had no doubt that even with all the thick doors closed, everything inside would reek of smoke.
“What the hell happened, Tao?” I said softly.
He wearily scrubbed his eyes with a soot-grimed hand. “What do you think happened? I lost fucking control again.”
“How?”
I rubbed my arms in a vague attempt to warm up. The wind blustered through the broken windows, stirring the ash and making paper remnants pirouette across the floor. The room was cold, wet, and stunk to high heaven, but there was nothing more miserable in the room than the wolf who stood before me.
“I don’t really know.” He moved across to the kitchen; a long, angular figure that was far too skinny these days, even for a wolf. Even his warm brown hair looked lank and unhealthy. It was as if his body was using everything it could to fight the monster that resided within. “One minute I was getting a roast ready for our dinner, the next I was standing in the middle of an inferno.”
I picked my way through the puddles and stopped beside him. “You had no warning of any kind?”
“Not this time.” His gaze came to mine. The fear and desperation in his warm brown eyes had my stomach flip-flopping. He wasn’t only losing the battle, but very near giving up. “It’s stronger than before. Stronger than —”
“Don’t say it,” I said fiercely. “Because it’s not true. You’re the strongest man I know, and the mere fact that you’re still here, still fighting this thing, proves it.”
He snorted. “You’ve known a lot of people who’ve consumed a fire spirit, have you?”
“No, and that’s the fucking point.” I glared at him. “If it has happened before, then those people obviously haven’t survived the merger, because there’s no record of it anywhere. But you’ve not only survived, you’ve retained control. Most of the time, anyway.”
“Yeah, but it’s the times I don’t that worry me. They’re starting to happen more and more, Ris.” He waved a hand at the ruined kitchen. “I don’t want to do this to either you or Ilianna, or anyone else for that matter.”
“But even when the elemental has taken over, you’ve never hurt anyone —”
“I hurt you,” he cut in. “And if not for Azriel, you’d have lost use of your damn hand.”
“That happened because I grabbed you. My fault, not yours.” I squeezed his arm gently. “And the minute I did touch you, you regained control.” And I’d do it again in a heartbeat, even if Azriel wasn’t around to heal me. What was a ruined hand when it came to saving a friend’s life?
“Next time it may not make a difference.” He took a deep breath, then blew it out. It was a heavy, frustrated sound. “I guess I’d better ring Ilianna and tell her what happened.”
“Good idea.” I glanced around the sodden living area. “There doesn’t seem to be much in here worth salvaging.”
“No. But hopefully the bedrooms will be relatively untouched.”
Hopefully. The doors still being closed was a good sign, at least. “You planning to stay the night?”
“Yeah. The fire burned out the security system, so I’ll keep watch until we can get it fixed.” He studied me for a moment. “What about you?”
“I’ve got a key to hunt down, and a deadline to beat.”
He frowned. “What deadline?”
I briefly explained what my father had done, and he swore softly. “Shit, we can’t seem to catch a break, can we? Not from fucking anything.”