“It’s all right,” Betty whispered in her ear. “It’s the Phoenix.”
“Aye, he has it under control,” said a different voice, in a familiar, reassuring Scottish burr. “It’s safe now, lassies. You can look.”
“Griff?” Opening her eyes, Hope saw the griffin shifter smiling down at them both. “It is you! What are you doing here?”
“Thank your sister and this brave lass here.” Griff nodded at Betty, who’d shifted back into hellhound form in order to bite through the handcuffs. “They told us where to come. Afraid there wasn’t time to collect a wheelchair. I’ll have to carry you for a wee bit, if you don’t mind.”
Hope leaned on his broad shoulder, limp with relief. Behind Griff, the flames were dying down, revealing a struggling Gaze being forced to his knees by John Doe and Chase. The basilisk shifter was back in human form, a black bag over his head hiding his deadly eyes. Dai, in red dragon form, guarded the hole in the wall, growling.
No, Hope realized, the savage snarls filling the air weren’t coming from the red dragon outside. Ivy was still in wyvern form, her green eyes savage and empty of any human thought. Her snakelike body curled possessively around the wreckage of the steel cage, half-spread wings hiding the contents from view.
“Ivy.” Fire Commander Ash stood in front of the snarling wyvern, face calm despite the acid dripping from her jaws. The concrete floor behind him was scorched black in the shape of wide, feathered wings. “Ivy, you have to shift back. You have to let us see him.”
The Phoenix took a step toward the wyvern. Ivy’s growl increased, li
ke a chainsaw revving up. She drew her wings closer around the cage.
“Griff,” Hope said, tugging at his shirt. “Take me over there. I can talk to her.”
A little half-whine, half-yelp of protest burst from Betty’s fiery throat. The animal sound turned into words as the hellhound shimmered back into human form. “Hope, no! She’s lost to her animal at the moment, it’s too dangerous!“
“Ivy won’t ever hurt me. I’m her sister. Please, Griff. I’m the only one who can get through to her.”
The griffin shifter blew out his breath, but carried her over. Betty dogged his heels. When he stopped, the hellhound planted herself in between Hope and Ivy like a bodyguard. Despite everything, Hope couldn’t help feeling a warm glow in her chest as Betty squared off against the furious wyvern.
She came to save me. She’s worried about me. Maybe she really does like me…
But this was hardly the moment to think about such things. Hope looked past Betty to Ivy, focusing on her sister.
“Ivy,” she said. “Ivy, it’s okay. These are friends. They’re here to help.”
The wyvern’s snarls ground down into a low, uneasy whine. Her head still wove from side to side like a snake about to strike, but the bristling spines down her back flattened. Her spread wings quivered uncertainly.
“You have to let them help, Ivy,” Hope said, keeping her voice as low and calm as if she was trying to soothe a distressed dog. “I know you’re just trying to protect Hugh’s secret, but he needs their help now. You have to let them see.”
With a final agonized whimper, Ivy folded her wings at last.
Hope’s heart gave a great bound of relief. Hugh was still in unicorn form. He stood splay-legged, sides heaving, but at least he was alive. Livid marks striped his white coat where he’d flung himself against the bars.
Painfully, slowly, he raised his head.
Griff swore under his breath. The shocked exclamation was echoed by Chase and John, still restraining Gaze behind them. Outside, the red dragon hissed. Ash said nothing, but his fist clenched.
“Oh no,” Hope whispered.
Thick white light oozed like blood from a deep cut at the base of the unicorn’s darkened horn.
Chapter 22
“I’m all right,” Hugh said again. Even though he was as white as a ghost in the strobing lights of the emergency vehicles, he still mustered an impressive glare. “For the last time, will you all please stop fretting?”
Ivy tugged at his hand, trying to urge him forward. “Hugh, you have to go to the hospital. You’re hurt.”
“I don’t want to go to the hospital.” Hugh cast a withering look at his colleagues. “And yes, I’m fully aware of the irony. Shut up.”
Dai and John Doe, who hadn’t said anything, exchanged glances. Ivy was pretty sure the two hulking dragon shifters were conferring telepathically about whether to bodily pick Hugh up and stuff him into the waiting ambulance.
Hope had already left in another ambulance, Betty at her side. The hellhound had nearly bitten a paramedic who’d tried to tell her that she couldn’t ride along since she wasn’t a family member. Ivy had expected her wyvern to object, but her beast had been oddly calm about the arrangement.