Chapter 18

D ays passed. The feeling of lethargy and a semipermanent cold proved impossible to shake off no matter what he did. Gregori tried to ignore it and push through. He was finally at a good stage with Salem and didn't want to admit to something being wrong. Especially when he didn't know what was wrong.

Going about day-to-day life, he could feel Salem watching him. The doctor was watching, at least, and he'd caught Salem frowning a few times. Like he knew something was wrong even if Gregori wouldn't own up to it. But he didn't say anything. Neither did Gregori, too afraid to figure out what it might mean.

It brought a weird mood into the house, but there was little he could do to dispel it.

Fortunately for him, a call from the fire department came through. Gregori could sorely use some action, so he eagerly responded. Once he was on scene, he was glad he had because this was chaotic madness.

Black smoke poured from every window of the five-story apartment building, filling the sky and turning the afternoon to twilight. Gregori's heart clenched at all the lives being destroyed, the families who were now going to be homeless. He stood beside the fire chief as she shouted orders at her team. The street was filled with trucks and hoses pumping gallons of water into the building with little evidence of it making any difference. The smoke burned his nose and the mist of water hanging in the air kissed his cheeks.

She had called him to the blaze not more than five minutes ago.

"What's the situation?" he demanded when the fire chief took a breath.

"Chemical fire at the start of things. Landlord had a construction company in doing renovations on the third floor. Possibly a stray spark set things off. We've gotten everyone out from the first and second floors. Third was empty. I've got firefighters still checking the top two floors. We're also struggling to bring this fire under control."

Gregori nodded. That meant the entire structure was in danger of collapsing. There was no way it could hold his weight as a dragon. He would need to remain in his human form to tackle this.

"Where do you want me? Putting out fires or focusing on saving people?" he asked. This was her specialty. He was more than willing to follow her command to make sure the firefighters and the residents got out safely.

"Put out as much of the fire as possible. Then my people can focus on getting out the tenants."

As they spoke, another firefighter ran over and handed him a helmet and a jacket. "We've got a spare respirator we can loan you. It's gonna be hard as hell to breathe in there."

Gregori shook his head as he slipped on the jacket and helmet. "Nah. I'll be fine. My magic allows me to breathe."

With a smirk and a little salute to the fire chief, Gregori jogged toward the building and up the short set of four stairs to the front door. Even before he stepped inside, heat blasted his face, melting away the chill he'd experienced in the winter air. Part of him wished he had a mage with him. They had plenty of fire control spells at their disposal. Any one of them could have put this inferno out with little effort.

The linoleum tile curled from the intense heat and crackled under his feet as he quickly passed through the first floor. There were eight apartments, along with a small lobby area, and the doors to each place had been kicked in. He peeked into each apartment to check for fire, his eyes skimming over places in various states of disarray from the tenants' daily lives. Grey smoke hung close to the ceiling, but there was no sign of flames licking away at the walls.

He circled back—moving faster after clearing the first floor—to a set of stairs at the back of the building. The smoke grew thicker, making the narrow passage almost as black as night. He pressed his hand to his face, trying to block it as much as possible until he reached the door to the second floor.

The hot metal scalded his fingers as he ripped the door open to reveal dancing orange and yellow flames. He backed up a step, shielding his face with his arms. Fire nearly consumed the second floor.

But it was nothing in the face of his ice magic.

Gregori thrust out his right hand, calling on all his powers to freeze everything in front of him.

Nothing happened.

Not even a fucking snowflake.

Oh no. This was not the time for this bullshit. It was bad enough his magic had gone wonky in front of the kids, but not now when lives were depending on him.

With a growl, he reached deeper, trying to drudge up every speck of power inside of him, but when he tried again, nothing happened.

He mentally poked his dragon. What the fuck is going on with you ? There are lives at stake .

Silence was his only reply. His dragon didn't even stir or acknowledge his words. If not for the fact he could feel his dragon, he would have almost said the creature wasn't there at all.

Panic seized his chest, tightening muscles and sending a chill down his spine despite the insane heat. What was going on?

" Gregori ?"

He heard the voice directly in his ear and jerked around. There was someone coming up the stairs behind him in full gear.

" Is there a problem ?"

The voice was coming from the man approaching but sounded closer. It took him far too long to realize the helmet he was wearing was set up with a walkie-talkie system so the firefighters could speak to each other while still wearing the mask and respirator.

Gregori forced a smile and gave the man a thumbs-up, even though he wasn't feeling it.

" Chief asked me to back you up ," the firefighter explained. The name Calhoun was painted on the side of his helmet.

All right, now we have a life clearly depending on us. Care to get in the game ? Gregori snarled at his dragon.

This time when he called on his magic, ice blasted from his palm and fingertips, suppressing the fire in a heartbeat and coating the walls in thick ice. Much better. Calhoun cheered in his ear and Gregori breathed a small sigh of relief.

They worked their way slowly through the second floor, extinguishing every fire. Where the walls and other supports appeared weak, he added a wall of ice to provide temporary support. The air wasn't as hot as it had been, but the ice wasn't going to last long.

Calhoun remained on his heels every step of the way, offering his advice on where to head next and warnings when the floor looked too weak to support either of them. Gregori was grateful for the company. It seemed to stir his seemingly apathetic dragon enough to give him the magic he needed to put out the fires.

Yet, he could also feel the firefighter's watchful eyes when the magic failed to come on the first and second tries on occasion. Frustration and fear mounted in Gregori's chest. He was hundreds of years old, and he'd never had a problem like this.

Finally, they cleared the second floor and hurried to the third. The more Gregori used his magic, the better it responded. By the time he finished with the third floor, it was acting exactly as it should. Calhoun spoke with some of his fellow firefighters to get an update on how many people were in the building. The fifth floor had been completely evacuated, but there were two firefighters left on the fourth floor and they still had apartments to check.

Gregori and Calhoun moved up to the fourth floor after some firefighters helped a young woman down from the fifth. She was covered in soot and sweat, but there were no visible burns on her. Gregori prayed she suffered from nothing more than a little smoke inhalation.

On the fourth floor, the other team had beaten back the flames on one half of the building, so Gregori moved to the other half, working to extinguish the fire and shore up the support beams for a little bit longer. They didn't get more than a few feet before they heard a frantic bark from what sounded like a small dog.

Gregori rushed forward, spreading ice everywhere, snuffing out the fire with a sharp sizzle and hiss of ice covering hot surfaces. White steam replaced black smoke with every step. Halfway down the hall, he reached a closed door, and using his right foot, he kicked it in with a massive bang. Fire rushed out to greet him, but he fought back with wave after wave of ice until even the fallen beams and black walls were crusted with frost.

He charged inside with Calhoun on his heels. A tiny Yorkie met him in the living room, but when he tried to grab for it, the dog darted away, leading him down the hall to a single bedroom, where a young man lay unconscious next to his bed.

Without missing a step, Gregori scooped up the dog and handed it over to Calhoun, then picked up the young man. His eyelids fluttered and he coughed, each breath a harsh wheeze. They took the survivors out to the hall, where they were met by the other team. Gregori and Calhoun handed over the tenants before Gregori charged back into the apartment to make one last sweep, making sure no one else lived there.

A hand grabbed his arm and jerked him around so that he faced his companion. " Time to get out !"

"We need to check the rest of the floor!" Gregori shouted back, only to fall into a harsh fit of coughing. He swayed slightly on his feet. Was the heat finally getting to him? Or the smoke? Why wasn't his magic filtering the air for him?

" Other team confirmed this was the last one. We need to clear out now !"

Gregori hesitated, looking around the apartment. His eyes skimmed over simple furniture and a TV with a gaming system. There was a basket of laundry beside the couch. Had the guy been meaning to wash it? His brain locked up. What if they missed someone?

" We leave now !" Calhoun repeated. This time, his hand tightened around Gregori's arm and gave him a hard pull toward the door.

Gregori stumbled and was forced to follow the firefighter out. Of course. He wasn't in charge here. He was following their lead.

As if rising out of his own mental fog, Gregori followed Calhoun down the stairs and out of the building without further incident. He glimpsed people in a rough semicircle several yards away, watching the fire. Some were wrapped in blankets and streaked with soot. Others seemed to be gawkers curious about the fire. He glanced over his shoulder to find the black smoke had significantly reduced and the only flames visible were now on the fourth and fifth floors.

Even after reaching the safety of the street, Calhoun didn't release him. He dragged Gregori over to one of the ambulances and covered his mouth with an oxygen mask. As much as he wanted to say he didn't need it, he couldn't deny that first deep breath was amazing. The last of the fog cleared from his brain.

The firefighter next to him pushed off his helmet and removed his respirator, so Gregori could see the smiling face of a middle-aged man with dark hair and bright brown eyes. "You doin' okay now?"

"Yeah, better. Thanks." It was hard to be convincing when Gregori had to stop twice to cough up some black crap from his lungs. "Calhoun?"

"Yep, but you can call me Derek."

"Thanks for your help, Derek. Gregori Valerii," he said, sticking his hand out to shake Derek's.

"No problem, man. Dragons are a national treasure for all of us. Someone needed to watch your back."

Gregori huffed out a weak laugh before placing the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose again. He didn't feel like much of a treasure right now, but it was fine. At least he got some of the fire out and helped to save the guy and his dog.

Derek cocked his head to the side so he was in Gregori's line of sight. "But are you sure you're okay? I know the docs probably can't help a dragon much, but you seemed…a little off."

Gregori flashed his new friend a weak smile. "Yeah, I'm not feeling quite myself recently."

"Do dragons get colds?"

He laughed a little easier this time. "Not ice dragons."

Fuck that. He'd never heard of any dragon catching a cold. It just didn't happen.

But deep down, he knew this wasn't a cold. He also knew it was getting worse, not better. It wasn't about adjusting to his new scenery or his new life here with Salem. This was about being away from his clan—exactly what Rodrigo had been worried about from the very beginning.

And while he was being painfully honest with himself, there was also a chance Salem's continual denial about them being mates was having a negative impact. But what the hell was he supposed to do about it?

Leave Salem?

Fat fucking chance. No dragon left his mate. He wasn't worthy of having a mate if he was willing to leave him unprotected. He didn't deserve to have a mate if he wasn't willing to put up with a little magical inconvenience.

No, he would just have to find another way to get his magic working and stir his dragon from its lethargy. Because if he didn't, he could die the next time he tried to use his magic to save people.