“No luck tracking her mate down?” Dai asked.
“No.” Lyla sighed. “And we’ve circulated Ms. Cat’s description through every shifter community in England. If her mate was still alive, he surely would have found her by now. We think he must have passed away, and the shock left poor Ms. Cat stuck in animal form. Losing a mate is a traumatic thing to happen to any shifter.”
“Yes,” Chase said, in an odd, tight voice that Dai had never heard him use before. He stared up into the tree, all traces of his usual smile gone. “It is.”
“Anyway, most of the time we’ve been able to keep her reasonably calm,” Lyla continued. “We assure her every day that we’re still looking for her mate—which is true, since if we could uncover his identity we’d find out hers as well—and usually she seems happy enough that we’re doing all that we can. But sometimes she seems to get it into her head that she should go look for him herself, and then, well…” She waved a hand at the lurking Ms. Cat. “This happens.”
“No wonder she won’t let anyone come near her.” Griff rubbed his chin. “She thinks we’re trying to stop her from finding her mate. There must be some way we can persuade her to come down.”
Shake her out, Dai’s dragon suggested, helpfully.
Dai massaged his forehead, feeling the start of a headache coming on. “Whenever we go up the ladder, she retreats higher. Maybe…maybe if you flew up there, Chase, she might go the other way, back toward the trunk, where we could catch her?”
“I am a winged horse,” Chase said, enunciating each syllable with exaggerated precision. “What exactly do you expect me to do? Hover up there like a hummingbird? I can’t perch daintily on a branch, you know.”
“No,” Griff said slowly. “But we know someone who can.”
5
“We just called in the most powerful shifter in Europe,” Dai muttered to Chase, “to fetch a cat out of a tree.”
Chase shrugged. “Well, he doesn’t seem to mind.”
Fire Commander Ash did indeed seemed unfazed. Then again, Dai had seen Ash respond to a five-crew apartment block inferno with equal equanimity. Sometimes he wondered if Ash even had emotions.
He was currently listening with grave attention as Lyla and Griff explained the situation. If he thought the request beneath him, not the faintest sign of it showed on his face.
To Dai’s relief, Ash’s arrival had somewhat subdued the watching crowd of cheerfully lewd senior ladies. The Fire Commander was not the sort of man to attract wolf-whistles.
At least, Dai hadn’t thought he was.
Someone heaved a wistful sigh. “Now that’s a man.”
From the general murmurs of agreement, this was an unanimous opinion.
Dai squinted at Ash, trying to see what the women apparently saw. Middle-aged, sandy hair streaked with gray, deep lines around his eyes—Ash wasn’t bad-looking, he supposed, but he was hardly eye-candy.
Yet ever since Ash had arrived, none of the women had so much as glanced at the rest of the crew. They were all watching Ash with a hushed, almost reverential air. It was a far cry from their earlier ‘hen party after five tequilas’ attitude.
With a final solemn nod, Ash stepped back from Lyla. Fiery wings unfurled from his back, wrapping him in eye-searing light. In an instant, the man was gone.
Dai had been braced for it, yet he still flinched. That incandescent form cast no heat—Ash was always exquisitely in control of his shift form—yet Dai’s instincts screamed to drop and cover his head. As a red dragon, he was immune to all natural fire…but not the all-consuming power of the Phoenix.
The great bird soared upward, seeming unburdened by gravity. Ms. Cat hissed and scrabbled away as the Phoenix landed on a branch nearby.
The Phoenix folded its wings, feathers dimming to orange-red embers. Wisps of smoke rose where its golden talons clasped the wood.
Dai had expected Ash to advance on Ms. Cat, shooing her back toward the trunk, where Griff waited with the ladder…but the Phoenix just sat there, quiet and still.
Ms. Cat hissed again…but the sound was less angry, more hesitant. The Phoenix didn’t react. It didn’t even look at her. Its light rippled on the leaves, warm and gentle.
The cat crept forward, one paw at a time, ears slowly rising. She sidled up to Ash, her movements becoming looser, more relaxed.
Ash opened one wing. With a little mrrr, the cat nestled against the Phoenix’s side, paws tucking in. Her eyes half-lidded in contentment. Even at this distance, Dai could hear her purring.
Light flared, and Ash was a man again, Ms. Cat curled in his lap. She blinked, once, then shut her eyes again. She didn’t object as Ash carefully lifted her, cradling her in his arms. He waved Griff back, and carried her down the ladder himself.
“She is unharmed,” Ash said, holding Ms. Cat out for Lyla to take. “But tired by her ordeal, I think.”