Griff knew that Hayley had hidden Danny’s passport, but that wouldn’t delay Reiner for long. All he had to do was get a Valtyran passport for Danny, and he’d be able to take him out of the country any time he liked. There would be nothing standing in his way.
I have to stop him. I have to be able to shift.
If Ash burned away his eagle, leaving him a lion shifter, then he’d be able to challenge Reiner directly. If his eagle was the one to survive…well, the situation would be less straightforward, but at least he’d legally be a shifter. Hayley would have a strong case for retaining custody of Danny.
If neither of his animals survived…Griff refused to even contemplate that possibility. Which left him with nothing to do except watch the minutes crawl past, agonizingly slowly. If it hadn’t been for his bad leg, he would have been pacing like a caged lion.
His own lion was pacing, endlessly circling in his mind, its rage and humiliation boiling under his skin. His eagle’s accusing eyes tracked the lion’s every move. It blamed the lion for losing Danny to Reiner, and it took all of Griff’s control to keep its fury leashed. Its talons clenched on his bones, trying to twist them into its own shape. He could feel his body vibrating, ever so slightly, right on the edge of an uncontrolled shift.
Normally, he would have called in sick—he couldn’t risk having a seizure in the middle of the control room. But he was scheduled to cover the evening shift, which was always short-handed thanks to the unsociable hours required. If he didn’t turn up, he’d be leaving the fire department dangerously short-staffed. He couldn’t put the city at risk just for his own personal crisis.
Plus, of course, I’d probably get fired, Griff thought with bleak humor as he rode the elevator up to the control room. Pun intended.
He was already on probation, thanks to his frozen hand. Unfortunately, being a fire dispatcher involved a lot of typing. Another black mark on his record would cost him his job. And that would cost him his life insurance…which would in turn cost Hayley a lot of money.
At least there’s one advantage to having a terminal condition that doctors don’t believe in. The insurance industry doesn’t believe in it either.
At the moment, he was worth a lot more to Hayley dead than alive. He could only pray that after Ash finished with him tomorrow, that would no longer be true.
“You look like hammered shit,” Kevin greeted him as he entered the control room.
“Good to see you too,” Griff replied, stiffly folding himself into his chair. He looked around at the otherwise deserted office. “Where’s Claire? I thought she was on duty tonight with you.”
“Guess you weren’t the only one spending Halloween getting wasted. She called in sick.” Kevin scowled in irritation, pulling his headset off his ears. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you, even if you do look like dog vomit. I have been bursting to piss for bloody hours.”
“I’m logged in,” Griff said, slipping his own headset on. He cast a quick, practiced glance at the status of the department, noting that all the fire engines were already out attending to incidents. “Busy night, I see.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe. I’ve even been having to route calls to our backup control centers to handle.” Kevin was already heading for the door. “Hey, got a funny story about a prank call earlier, actually. I’ll tell you when I get back.”
Griff frowned at his screen as Kevin left. He didn’t like how backup control had been allocating resources, keeping nothing in reserve. Every single crew was stacked up already. If a new call came in-
&nbs
p; As if on cue, his headset beeped at him. With a practiced flick, he hit the answer button. “East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. Where is your emergency?”
“Mr. Griff!”
His heart stopped at the familiar voice. “Danny?”
“I tried to call earlier but you weren’t there. The other man told me not to call again unless there was a big fire.” Danny stopped, coughing. “I think the fire’s big enough now.”
GO! roared his lion. Griff lost valuable seconds to a full-body spasm, the lion’s frantic claws ripping across his mind. His eagle was a storm of wings and talons, beating against the inside of his skull. Our cub is in danger! GO!
“Danny, where are you?” he managed to gasp out through the pain.
“Daddy’s house. Daddy’s not here. I, um, yelled at him a lot, then he ran into the woods and I locked him out.” Danny coughed again, the sound of it like a saw blade across Griff’s own throat. “Mr. Griff, the fire’s getting really big now.”
“I’m sending help to you, Danny.” His good hand flew across the keyboard, steady despite the agony wracking his bones. He briefly muted Danny’s line, switching instead to the all-crew broadcast. “Code red, code red, all crews respond! I’ve got a kid trapped in a burning building! I need a team, now!”
Without waiting for a verbal response, he switched back to Danny. He kept his voice soft and calm, no matter how his inner beasts screamed at him. “Okay, Danny. I need you to tell me exactly where you are in the house.”
“Upstairs in the bedroom, where the phone is.”
“That’s good,” he said encouragingly, though it wasn’t. Upstairs was very, very bad indeed. “And where’s the fire?”
“Downstairs.” Danny’s voice went high and wobbly. “All downstairs. I’m sorry, Mr. Griff, I didn’t mean to!”
“It’s okay, Danny.” Griff snarled soundlessly at the ETAs popping up on his screen as crews responded to the alert. Too slow, too slow! “Is the bedroom door closed?”