Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

TANNER

S he started to slip on the black ice that was scattered around the scene. Tanner rushed to steady and catch her, wrapping his hands around her nipped-in waist.

"I'm fine," she said, looking up into his eyes. She was a shifter, which made things somewhat easier, but she was no hellhound. He tried to sniff her aura to try and ascertain her species but didn't recognize it.

"Well, let's just get you over here to the paramedics' bus," he said trying to help her over to the medics.

"I don't need a paramedic," she snarled.

"Why don't we let them be the judge of that?" he said in his deep, melodic voice. He tried to lace his voice with both command and concern. She should learn from the get-go that he would lead and she would follow.

She jerked away from him and backed directly into the chief. "Because I don't need your or anyone else's opinion of whether or not I'm fine. I am."

"Problem?" the chief asked

"No, sir. I was just trying to help…" said the woman. "I'm sorry; I didn't realize there would still be civilians here, or that your people wouldn't know the AIU had been called in."

Whoa! She was AIU? "You're AIU?" Tanner asked aloud before adding, "Do you think this fire is connected to something else?"

"Unknown," said the chief. "That's why I called in the AIU." The chief extended his hand. "I take it you're Melisandre Blaze?"

Melisandre gripped the chief's hand and nodded. "Guilty as charged. If you wouldn't mind clearing the scene, I'd like to get started."

"Tanner, can you take care of that? Let the others know that we believe we might have a serial arsonist so if Melisandre needs anything, including all of us staying out of her way, I will expect people to listen to her as if they were listening to me. And Tanner, tell everyone this is need-to-know only."

"That kind of thing might be received better if it came from one of our own," said Tanner.

"That was my thought as well," said the chief, "which is why I'm assigning you as her official liaison."

Tanner had to suppress a laugh. Melisandre looked as though she'd been punched in the gut; she'd have to get over that. As far as Tanner was concerned, the day had just gotten a whole lot better.

The chief left them alone. He turned to Melisandre with the brightest smile, "Melisandre? I'm Tanner North."

Her eyes widened in surprise for the briefest moment in time. "North as in Hayden North? Alpha to the hellhounds?"

Hmm. This might not be quite as easy as he thought. "Hayden is my brother, yes."

"How did the banished younger brother to one of the Resistance's greatest warriors end up working as a fireman?"

"Hayden has the hellhounds and the Resistance covered; Caye is an integral part of the Shadow Sisters, or at least she was. I'm not sure what she'll be doing now that she and Andreas are together. I needed to find something of my own."

"So you chose fire?"

"Not all that hard to understand. After all, who better to understand fire than a hellhound?"

"A drakaina leaps to mind," she said dismissively before turning her back and going back to examining the scene. He walked up to join her. She looked at him. "How about I call you if I need you?"

"Do you know how to get in touch with me?"

"No, and that would be my point. I work alone, and I like it that way."

Once again, she turned and left him standing on his own. He'd always heard drakaina could be prickly, and the fact that they could breathe fire meant they could pretty much back that up. The problem she was going to have with him was that hellhounds weren't susceptible to fire. He watched her as she walked away, admiring the way her fetching backside swayed from side to side.

The firehouse kitchen was quiet in the early morning hours of the day following the fire. Tanner made himself a cup of strong, dark roast coffee, lifting it to his lips and smiling as he took a sip. Whoever had invented the single-cup coffee brewers should be given a medal. He lounged at the head of the kitchen table, steaming mug in his hand as he mulled the two things that had kept him awake: Melisandre and the number of fires that had been plaguing the city recently. Most were in his engine company's designated area, but not all; some had been residential, but again not all, and there was no common denominator as far as he knew in ownership or zoning.

He smiled and tapped his fingers on the table. Maybe, just maybe, the two were linked. He didn't think for a second that Melisandre had anything to do with setting the fires, but working closely with her to figure out what was behind them and to put a halt to them might give him time to bring her around. Tanner chuckled at the irony that he had once believed females—although in his case hellhounds—should be made to submit and forced into pair bondings not necessarily of their choice and drakaina were notorious for not allowing their sex to be subjugated. He had given up that notion when he'd been forced to rely on female firefighters and had seen the way they were often treated as second-rate. It wasn't true, and he now went out of his way to stand with them as their equal.

His dark, almost black eyes watched as Jimmy, the team's rookie, entered the kitchen and began nervously fidgeting with the coffee brewer. Jimmy, fresh out of the academy and still finding his footing, had just experienced his first major fire the previous day.

"You need me to show you how to use that thing again or do you want to tell me what it is that's got you up in the middle of the night?" asked Tanner with a smile, knowing full-well it wasn't the coffee machine.

Jimmy approached the table cautiously, clutching his own cup of coffee. "I might ask you the same."

"I know how to use the coffee brewer. I'm trying to figure out a couple of things, one of them being a woman."

"Good luck with that," said Jimmy. "I always thought women kind of dug firefighters, but when I got accepted into the academy, my girl dumped me."

"Okay, so we now know you can't help me with my problem, how about if we see if I can't help you with yours."

Jimmy sat down, taking a tentative sip of his coffee. "I... I wanted to talk about yesterday. The fire at the house."

Tanner raised an eyebrow and set his mug down. "What about it?"

Jimmy took a deep breath, seeming to struggle with finding the right words. "I froze for a moment. You and the rest of the team jumped right in. You went up the ladder and into that house so fast. I got the ladder ready to use, but when I got to the top and there was all that smoke billowing out and the fire was blazing, well, I just... I couldn't move. I froze. If it wasn't for Billy yelling at me to get my attention, I don't know what would have happened."

Tanner studied Jimmy for a long moment before speaking. "You did all right, Jimmy. Everyone has that moment when they face a fire that just gets to them."

"But I've already been on several calls."

"And always had someone standing right there. This was your first fire as a real firefighter. It's normal to feel a bit overwhelmed."

Jimmy's shoulders slumped with relief, but the doubt lingered in his eyes. "But what if it happens again? What if I freeze when it really counts?"

Tanner leaned forward, his expression serious but kind. "Listen, kid, firefighting isn't just about physical strength or knowing how to handle equipment. It's about heart, grit, and learning to control your fear. We all have fear. The key is not letting it control you."

Jimmy shook his head slowly. "Not you. You're fucking fearless."

"Am I? How do you know that? I'm telling you, any firefighter who says he's never been afraid is either lying to you or himself—neither of which makes for a reliable team member."

"How do you do it, Tanner? How do you keep calm in those situations?"

Tanner smiled faintly, memories of countless fires flickering in his mind. "Experience helps, but it's more than that. You have to trust your training, trust your team, and trust yourself. Over time, you'll learn to read the fire, understand its behavior. You'll learn to rely on your instincts and those of your team who are more experienced."

He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in before continuing. "And remember, you're not alone out there. We're a team. We watch each other's backs. You saw how Billy had yours. He probably figured the fire had gotten to you, but you came right out of it and did a great job. That mother and those kids will never forget you. Never. They won't care that for a split moment you hesitated. Even when you were afraid, you chose to risk your life for theirs."

Jimmy's smile showed relief and a surge of grit and determination. Billy had mentioned the kid's momentary freeze. Both had agreed if Jimmy talked to one or the other of them, they would write it off as normal, but if he'd tried to bottle it up or deny it, they'd keep a closer eye on him and note it for his evaluation.

"Thanks, Tanner. I won't let you down."

Tanner clapped a hand on Jimmy's shoulder in a reassuring gesture. "Never doubted it for a minute. Just keep showing up, keep learning, and you'll do just fine. Now go get some sleep."

"If you want to talk about whoever the woman was…"

Tanner laughed. "Kid, if you don't know who I got fixated on after the fire, that just tells me you were focused on what was important and know less about women than I do."

Jimmy headed up to the sleeping quarters and Tanner turned his musings back to the prickly drakaina, Melisandre Blaze. Maybe he could kill two birds with one stone—confiding in Melisandre about his own concerns regarding the rash of fires while he worked on getting past that armor-like thick skin that drakaina were known for. It might not be much of a plan, but at least it was a start.