“Actually, yes.” The red dragon shifter parked the fire truck outside a towering apartment block. The power seemed to be out—despite the late hour, all of the windows were dark. “This is it, according to Dispatch. Let’s go.”
Grabbing their gear, they piled out of the truck. The searing agony in Hugh’s head diminished to a dull throb as he trailed Dai and John into the building at a discreet distance. He easily ignored the familiar low-level pain, focusing on the job at hand.
“East Sussex Fire and Rescue,” Dai called, aiming his flashlight at a small knot of people clustered at one end of the lobby. “Which of you—hey!”
The group had taken one look at the approaching firefighters and scattered like startled rabbits. Hugh jumped back as a group of men barged past him, practically sprinting for the door.
“I don’t know who those were, but they were definitely shifters,” he said, wrinkling his nose at the unmistakable canine scent still hanging in the air. “And evidently ones with guilty consciences.”
“Songs of our deeds have spread wide,” John said, sounding rather satisfied about that fact. “Wrong-doers flee rather than face our wrath.”
“I suppose we’re not exactly hard to recognize,” Dai said, glancing wryly up at the towering, indigo-haired sea dragon. “But someone here called for the fire department.”
“That was me.”
As one, they all turned their flashlights in the direction of the voice. A tall teen girl wearing black motorbike leathers flinched under the beams of light, her shoulders hunching defensively. Her eyes flicked in the direction of the exit.
“It’s all right,” Dai said, his lilting Welsh voice gentle. “You aren’t in trouble. We just want to know how we can help.”
The girl shifted her weight from foot to foot, looking on the verge of flight. “There was, there was a fight. Up in the penthouse. The elevator broke—please, you have to rescue her!”
“Someone’s trapped in the elevator?” Hugh asked.
The gi
rl nodded. “On the tenth floor, I think, but Gaze wouldn’t let anyone go look. There was a big crash.”
Dai turned his flashlight, scanning the darkness. “Show us the way.”
The girl bit her lip, her face creasing in an agony of indecision. “I can’t, Gaze told us all to scatter—I gotta go before my pack notices I’m not with them. Please, hurry!”
“Wait-“ Dai started, but he was talking to her back. The dragon shifter blew out his breath in exasperation as she bolted out the door. “Well, at least we know why we’re here.”
Damsels in distress, Hugh’s inner unicorn whispered. Hurry!
John was looking worried. “This ‘elevator’…that is the unnatural box that defies gravity, is it not? Will any be alive to rescue, if it has plummeted from a great height?”
“Don’t worry, elevators are packed with safety features,” Dai said absently, still searching the lobby for a way up. “We’ll just be rescuing whoever’s trapped inside from boredom. I bet Hugh won’t even have anything to do.”
“How refreshing,” Hugh said. He picked out a door across the lobby with the beam of his flashlight. “There’s the stairs. Let’s go to work.”
Despite Dai’s confidence, a strange sense of urgency twisted Hugh’s gut. His unicorn was agitated, the silver glow of its horn bright as the moon in his mind’s eye. It was all he could do to hold it back, following Dai and John up the stairs rather than shoving past them and charging ahead at full speed.
“Hold a moment, my brothers.” John stopped, his head cocked to one side. “What is that sound?”
In the pause, they all heard it—the low, inhuman groan of metal subject to unbearable stress.
Metal on the verge of breaking.
Dai’s eyes met Hugh’s. “So much for safety features,” the red dragon said grimly. “Come on!”
They took the steps three at a time now, their work boots thumping on the treads. A few mundane humans were milling uncertainly around on the tenth floor, evidently drawn from their apartments by the power cut.
“Oh!” An elderly woman clutched her nightgown closer around her at their sudden appearance. “Is there a fire? Should we evacuate?”
“No, ma’am,” Dai said, politely touching the edge of his helmet. “But we need to make sure everyone’s safe. Can you tell us where the elevator is?”
“That way.” The old lady pointed down the corridor. “Is that what made that awful noise?”