Wildfire Griffin (Fire & Rescue Shifters: Wildfire Crew #1)(71)

But not more powerful than all of them.

He reached out mentally to his squad. *Everyone, lend me your strength. If Wystan’s right and it is a shifter, we should be able to communicate telepathically. Let’s see if we can get through to it.*

One by one, their minds linked with his. Wystan, gleaming and constant as the North Star. Joe, like sunlight on the surface of the sea, bright dazzle over dangerous depths. Callum, dark and silent, close to his back as his own shadow. Fenrir, all wordless emotion and fierce, snarling loyalty. Blaise’s frozen fire.

Lastly, he reached for Edith. Their souls closed together like interlinked hands, completing the circle. Her bright courage steadied him. Together, they united the disparate strengths of the squad into a single powerful voice, focused on the threatening storm.

WE ARE NOT YOUR ENEMIES. They spoke together as one mind, one will. BUT IF YOU DO NOT STOP, WE WILL STOP YOU.

The clouds recoiled from the force of their shout. Through the shredding veils, a vast shape loomed over them, wings blocking out the sky. For a moment, a pair of blank white eyes stared down at them like twin moons, cold and remote.

The great wings swept round. Rory dug his claws into the ground, nearly bowled over by the thunderclap of displaced air as the creature flapped away. Flames leaped up in its wake, fanned by its wing beats. He sheltered Edith again from a surge of storm-tossed debris.

One burning branch fell on the dead serpent’s tail. The corpse went up as though soaked in oil, spewing out thick plumes of acrid smoke.

Rory grabbed Edith, throwing her onto his back. Wystan, with me—Callum, take Joe and Blaise! Fenrir, go, go!

Fenrir phased out just as flame swept through where he’d been standing. Rory launched himself into the air, snatching Wystan up in his talons. Callum followed, wing beats labored as he struggled to gain height with his greater burden.

Fire engulfed the forest. He cupped his wings to catch the rising heat, soaring safely out of reach of the licking flames. Trees lit up like matches, the fire leaping from branch to branch in the blink of an eye.

Edith tugged on his feathers. “Rory. Look.”

She wasn’t staring down at the spreading devastation. From her posture, he could tell that her attention was fixed on something behind them. He banked, circling.

Trailing tattered veils of cloud, a vast shape soared away from the raging wildfire. It had a condor’s broad wings and a heavy, hooked beak. Odd, angular patterns marked the storm-grey feathers like tribal tattoos, seething with electric white light.

“I know what it is,” Edith whispered. Her voice shook with awe. “It’s a Thunderbird.”





Chapter 37





“I don’t care if it’s the motherloving Easter Bunny!” Rory had never seen Buck so furious. “You go after that monster and kill it! Right now!”

“Chief, it’s long gone.” Rory kept his own voice calm. “There was no way Callum and I could keep up with it while carrying everyone else.”

Buck’s fists were clenched so hard, Rory could see them shaking at his side. “Then you should have ditched the others. You took it on by yourself before.”

Rory shook his head. “If I try to fight it without support, I’ll just get myself killed. It’s stronger than me. I’m pretty sure it was holding back the previous times I’ve faced it. On some level, it didn’t really want to hurt me.”

“Well it damn well wants to hurt other people,” Buck snarled. “It’s killed people.”

“I know,” Rory said grimly. “And I promise we’ll work out a way to stop it. But right now, we have to stop this fire, before it claims any lives. It’s going to take all of us to get it under control.”

For a moment, Rory thought Buck might actually hit him. He braced himself, lifting his chin and meeting the chief’s eyes steadily.

With a muttered curse, Buck lowered his fist, turning away. He clapped his hands together, attracting the attention of the rest of the crew.

“Listen up, boys and girls!” Buck jumped up into a fallen trunk, where they could all see him. “Situation’s changed up top, and our lives are about to get a whole lot more interesting.”

Tanner frowned, looking around at the crew as they gathered around Buck. “Where’s Seth?”

“Didn’t make it,” Buck said curtly. “And if we’re all not going to go the same way, we’re going to have to move fast. So pay attention.”

Every eye fixed on him…except for Edith’s. She appeared to be totally focused on the pebble between her palms.

Buck scowled at her. “Am I boring you, Edith?”

“No, chief.” Edith didn’t raise her head. “I can either pay attention, or I can look at you and get distracted by every twitch of your face. I’m autistic.”

Buck hesitated fractionally. Then he grunted.

“Fair enough,” he said. “Okay, crew. Here’s what we’re going to do…”





*



“We have reached a new low,” Blaise announced out of the darkness. “This is awful.”

“I didn’t think anything could be worse than the brisket.” Joe’s voice drifted mournfully from further down the line. “I was mistaken. I just put peanut butter all over my so-called chicken noodles. I thought it was going to be hot sauce.”