Firefighter Phoenix (Fire & Rescue Shifters 7)

The first step down the darkened staircase nearly undid her—she stumbled, suddenly seeing another staircase, a descent into the unknown. She caught herself on the banister, clenching her fingers around smooth, worn wood.

Not cold metal. She wasn’t back there. Wasn’t searching through that terrible prison, feeling the pull of the mate bond with every beat of her heart…

“Tea,” she said again, her voice thin and panicky in the dark.

Her swan wrapped comforting wings around her. Holding onto her animal like a child clutching a teddy bear, Rose staggered to the kitchen.

Mug, kettle, teapot. The familiar ritual was soothing. This was something she could do without thought.

She couldn’t think. Didn’t want to.

She wrapped her hands around the hot mug—

His heated palm pressing against her own, fingers intertwining—

—and dropped it.

China smashed on the tiled floor. Scalding liquid splashed, only just missing her bare feet.

Her swan hissed at the crowding memories, driving them back. Rose drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Then she knelt to pick up the shattered pieces.

She was just wiping up the last of the spill when she heard the front door creak open. Her heart lurched—but then she caught a swirl of jumbled emotions from whoever had entered the pub. It couldn’t be Ash. She’d never been able to sense him.

Except, of course, she had. Twenty years ago, he’d been the only person she could sense. He’d changed that, changed everything. She’d gained her strange empathic power at the exact moment he’d scorched her soul. Ever since she’d lost the mate bond, her flailing mind had been desperately trying to connect with someone, anyone, everyone…

She shuddered away from the realization. She could have reached out with her empathic sense to identify her visitor, but she abruptly never wanted to use her twisted ability ever again. Hastily scrubbing her hands across her face to dash away the betraying tears, she rose.

“I’m sorry,” she began as she went into the main room of her pub. “But I’m closed tonight—Wayne?”

She wasn’t entirely sure for a second it was him. His back was curled in a painful-looking hunch, his stiff hands nearly at the same level as his knees. His shabby hat hid his eyes, but couldn’t conceal the distorted line of his jaw. Jagged, protruding teeth forced his mouth into a permanent, half-open snarl. Drool trickled down his matted, graying beard.

“Wayne, what’s happened?” Rose hurried round the bar, reaching out to him as he swayed. “Sit down. You need a doctor, a shifter doctor, right now. I’ll call Hugh.“

“No!” It came out as more like a bark than a human voice. “Rose…I’m sorry.”

He raised his head, and Rose gasped, recoiling. Wolf eyes shone yellow in his half-shifted face, filled with shame and agony.

“Run,” Wayne gritted out, his fangs cutting his lips. “Run!”

Too late, she saw his bared right arm…and the intricate tattoo twining around it.

Bristling black runes, edged with crimson where they cut into his skin…

She knew those marks. Now she knew them.

She tried to turn, to flee, but her feet were stuck to the floor. Scarlet ropes of light twisted around her ankles, holding her fast. Wayne moaned in pain as the glowing coils rapidly spread to bind her whole body.

Her swan beat inside her heart, but the magical cage held her trapped in her own skin. She couldn’t shift, couldn’t move so much as a muscle.

The front door of her pub creaked again.

A man stepped through. He was tall and lean and old, with thin white hair brushed back from a high forehead. Behind his scholarly spectacles, his gray eyes were cold as a winter sky. Blood-red light wove around his left hand, the runes running up his arm glowing with power.

She’d never seen him before…but she knew who he was.

“The Phoenix’s mate,” Corbin said. “We meet at last.”

Chapter 16