“I have been attempting to keep him updated as to what is happening here, but I do not know if he is listening. He is unable to respond to me telepathically.” Mr. Ash considered him for a moment, his eyebrows drawing down a little. “Daniel, do you still have a pride-bond to Griffin?”
“Sort of. I think. I could feel him earlier, when he was talking to me on the phone, but he’s gone again now.” Something about that eerie silence at the back of his head made Danny’s stomach churn, like he needed to throw up. “Please, Mr. Ash. Something’s wrong.”
Mr. Ash leaned back, flagging down a passing firefighter. “Excuse me. I need to talk to the control room, please.”
“I’ll fetch the radio, but it won’t do you any good, sir.” The firefighter shook her head, looking annoyed under her helmet. “They’ve got absolutely no clue what’s going on down here. Or up there, for that matter.”
Mr. Ash frowned. “Is Griffin MacCormick not still handling this incident?”
“I wish. We can’t raise anybody at our control room. We’ve had to switch to backup control from the next area, and those muppets can’t tell their arses from their elbows.”
Mr. Ash went very still.
“Sir?” The firefighter waved her gloved hand in front of his face. “Do you still want the radio, sir?”
“No,” said Mr. Ash, as Dr. Hugh started frantically flinging things back into his doctor’s bag. “Thank you. Please ask the second-in-command to take over here. Alpha Team must attend to another emergency.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Hayley
According to the hospital floorplan, Ward S officially didn’t exist. According to the signs above the door to the small annex, it was the Highly Contagious Diseases Research Centre (Access Strictly Restricted).
What it actually was, past the triple-locked doors and hulking security guards, was the shifter ward.
After six hours curled up in an uncomfortable plastic chair in the tiny waiting room, Hayley was desperately hungry and longing for a coffee, but she didn’t dare leave to find a vending machine. She was scared that she’d never manage to get back in again. She’d only managed to enter in the first place because she’d been personally escorted by Fire Commander Ash.
The Phoenix had been allowed through to Griff’s private room, but Hayley had been firmly stopped at the door. Apparently Griff was still in critical condition. No matter how much she begged passing nurses and doctors for any more information, that was all anyone would tell her.
Why’s Ash allowed in, but not me? What’s taking them so long? Why won’t anyone tell me what’s happening?
All Hayley could
do was clutch her phone, exchanging comfortingly banal texts with Connie about when Danny was likely to wake up and what he was allowed for breakfast. She and Chase had agreed to stay over at Hayley’s house, so that she could head to the hospital to be with Griff. Hayley was deeply grateful to them both. There was no way in hell she was letting Reiner take Danny. Not ever again.
I’ll flee the country first. I’ll disappear. He is never, ever going to have sole responsibility for Danny. Not after this.
“Hayley?” She jumped, her dozing head jerking up at Hugh’s voice. The paramedic looked ten times as shattered as Hayley felt, his pale skin ashen in the harsh fluorescent lights. “You’re still here?”
“Of course I’m still here.” Hayley jumped to her feet. “How is he? Is he going to be okay?”
“He’s stable.” Hugh swayed on his feet. “For now.”
Hayley instinctively reached out to support him, but he recoiled from her hand so violently that his back slammed into the wall. She’d forgotten that the paramedic hated to be touched.
“Sorry,” he muttered, staying as far away from her as it was physically possible to get. “Too tired to keep my psychic walls up. Hayley, I’ve done everything I can for him. He’s conscious and lucid, and I don’t think he’s in immediate danger.”
The unspoken but…hung in the air between them.
Hayley swallowed. “But?”
Hugh sighed, raking a hand through his disheveled silver hair. “He’s half-shifted. His body is a horrendous mismatch of parts, and it’s putting extreme stress on his internal organs. His heart and lungs are barely functional, but his digestive system…well. You get the picture. It’s a bloody mess.”
“He was stuck halfway before.” Hayley remembered how she’d watched Griff’s twisted, half-beast form gradually ease back to human, during that long vigil weeks ago. “He came back then. He can come back now, can’t he?”
“I don’t think he can. I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Hugh scrubbed his hands over his face, rubbing at his bloodshot eyes. “Ash was trying to burn out one of Griff’s animals and get him unstuck that way…but Griff and his lion and eagle are too intertwined now. Even Ash can’t distinguish between the three of them.”
Hayley stared at him. “Ash has been trying to do what?”