He drew in a breath, the heavy smoke passing easily through his lungs, guiltily savoring the tang of it like an ex-smoker sneaking just one puff from a friend's cigarette. The fire called to his dragon, beguiling in its beauty and power.
Pushing down the instinctive urge to luxuriate in the flames, Dai ducked to peer through the thinner smoke near the floor. “Fire and Rescue,” he shouted. “Can anyone hear me?”
*That woman is my rightful prey!* The other dragon shoved his head through the door, the burning wall disintegrating around him. *She's stolen from my hoard. I demand—*
“Get back before you bring the building down!” Dai yelled back as beams snapped and pop
ped warningly overhead. He couldn't burn or suffocate, but even a dragon could be hurt by a collapsing building. Not to mention the fact that there was a human trapped in here. “Or so help me God, I will find your hoard and personally melt it into slag!”
The other dragon narrowed his orange eyes, but grudgingly retreated. Fresh air sucked in through the hole it had made in the wall, making the flames roar greedily. Dai calculated he had barely a minute before the whole thing came down anyway.
Bits of falling debris clattered off his helmet as he searched through the swirling smoke. According to Griff—the dispatcher who'd taken the call—she'd taken refuge near the back of the building, away from the worst of the flames...
Just as he was giving up hope, he found her. She was unconscious, lying full-length on the floor with her face pressed against a crack in the wall. She must have been desperately trying to suck in fresh air from outside as the smoke overwhelmed the building. She wasn't a small woman, but Dai easily lifted her, cradling her limp form against his chest. He hunched over, trying to shield her from the falling embers as he ran for the door.
He burst out into clean air just as the central support beam in the roof gave way with a cataclysmic groan. There was no time to shift—Dai could only hurl himself to the ground, covering the woman's body completely under his own as burning debris sprayed in all directions. Pain pierced his shoulder as a foot-long splinter of wood hit him with enough force to get through his protective gear. Dai didn't flinch. He kept his body between the woman and the collapsing building until the last strut had crashed to the ground.
A sharp talon prodded him on his wounded shoulder. *As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted—*
Dai had never been so glad to hear the sing-song wail of the approaching fire engine. “If you have a legitimate grievance, you can either take it to the Parliament of Shifters, or have it out with my commander right now.” The post-adrenaline surge crash was starting to catch up with him. His shoulder throbbed, and a dozen lesser pains were clamoring for his attention. “If you're feeling very brave. He's not very sympathetic to arsonists.”
The dragon hesitated, glancing uncertainly in the direction of the siren. He backed up, opening his white wings. *Just remember, the treasure is mine. And I will be back to claim it.*
“Now there's something to look forward to,” Dai muttered as the dragon took to the air.
Dai pushed himself up, wincing as the wooden splinter dug deeper into his muscle. With a bitten-off curse, he reached over his shoulder and yanked it out, tossing the red-stained wood away. He could feel blood trickling down his back, but the wound clearly wasn't life-threatening so he dismissed it from his mind. He was far more worried about the woman he'd rescued from the blaze.
She was still sprawled bonelessly, her eyes closed and her rich brown skin flecked with pale ash. Dai crouched over her, checking to see if her airway was clear. To his relief, she stirred at his touch, coughing.
“It's all right,” Dai said, slipping an arm under her shoulders to support her in a more upright position as she fought to clear her lungs. “You're safe. Everything's all right now.”
The woman opened her eyes. Dai looked into their warm, dark amber depths, and suddenly, for the first time in his entire life, everything was all right.