Blaze - Part Four
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
I step into the cool darkness of the archives and stop still, an adoring smile slowly turning up my lips.
I never get tired of watching Aiden work.
His head is bowed over the table, his chestnut hair in a messy tumble, kissing the corner of his glasses. The sleeves of his shirt are rolled back to his elbows, two buttons undone at the neck. His eyes are full of concentration, his steady gaze intent on his work.
It’s quiet and dark as always in the archives, but Aiden is illuminated by the golden glow of the dim lamp, and he stands like a flame against the darkness.
He must be making no effort to keep the noise down, because he doesn’t hear me as I pad down the rest of the stairs, or as I draw to a stop behind him.
There’s an aged piece of paper on his worktable, the corners carefully pinned down with fabric weights.
Aiden has a soft brush in his gloved hand, and he’s using it to very slowly dust the surface of the page, taking painstaking care as he works his way out from the corner and down over the ink of the handwritten script.
I watch the delicate, precise movements of his deft hands for a minute, then tug on the back of his shirt.
Aiden blinks and lifts his head, then stops when he catches sight of me.
I move to stand at his side, roll up onto my toes, and brush a kiss onto his mouth. “Hi, Sugar Maple.”
“Hi,” he rumbles, breaking into a warm, surprised smile. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the shop?”
“I’m on my break.” I want to take Aiden’s hands, but I know better than to do that while he’s wearing his gloves, so I push my nose against his bicep affectionately. The comforting scent of old paper is clinging to him, like it always does when he’s been working in the archives. “I - missed you. I don’t know.”
Aiden stares at me, then drops his head, his smile widening.
“Why did I only take a half-day off of work?” he groans.
“Why did I take a shift at the shop?” I give Aiden a look of pure regret. “The day after Noah, Raj, and Mel’s wedding? I should’ve known better.”
“True. You should have.” Aiden huffs out a little laugh, starts pulling off his gloves. “I couldn’t have known that you’d spend the whole wedding driving me crazy, then the morning after, too, and that we’d then fall asleep until we both had to go to work.”
“I know,” I groan helplessly, tipping my head back. “I’m seriously gonna fall the fuck apart if we don’t get some alone time soon.”
“You? You’re gonna fall apart?” Aiden closes his eyes in immense frustration, takes me by my jaw, and drops his forehead onto mine. “How do you think I feel, Linden? I can’t get you out of my head for more than five seconds at a time. Why do you think I’ve been trying so hard to focus on work?”
“Oh. And I - came here, and ruined that.”
“You did,” Aiden laughs, nuzzling his nose into mine. “Nice going, Keane.”
“Oh, god. Do you want me to leave?”
“Nope.” Aiden smiles, then brushes a kiss onto my mouth. “Not what I’m saying. I’m not being clear, if that’s the message you took away.”
I smile, too, pressing my forehead harder into Aiden’s. Being here with him makes me think of the first time he asked me to hang out after he came back to Ketterbridge. The night when he brought me into his office to show me all the treasures he cares for.
“Hey,” I say quietly, reaching up to smooth a strand of chestnut softness out of his face. “I actually did come here for a reason. I had something to tell you. I realized that I didn’t tell you this morning, so I wanted to come do it now.”
“Oh, yeah?” he asks playfully. “Tell me what?”
“How proud of you I am.”
Aiden draws back to look down at me, arching a puzzled eyebrow. I stare up at him, amazed that he hasn’t already figured out where I’m going with this.
“You got through that whole entire extremely boozy wedding experience,” I explain, when it becomes apparent he isn’t following. “You flew through it, really. I stopped even asking if you were okay after a while, because it was pretty obvious that you were.”
“Oh.” Aiden blinks at me, his eyes filling up with warm surprise. “Well - there were a lot of good distractions. You being the primary one.”
“So?” I drag my palms over the thick, dark stubble on his jaw, then lean up to kiss his nose. “I’m still proud of you. It would have been totally okay if we needed to leave, or anything like that. Then I would have been proud of you for saying something. But, just - honestly, Aiden, think how far you’ve come.”
Aiden goes very quiet for a very long moment, his blue eyes startled, then thoughtful.
I turn away, letting my gaze fall from his face. I know my Companion Plant. I know that when Aiden is proud of something he did, he instantly gets all shy about it. And I think he’s going to be proud of himself once this sinks in. I can already see a faint pink blush spreading across his cheeks.
I’ve turned to look at the document he was working on by the time he’s done working his way through his thoughts. So I’m caught by surprise when he suddenly wraps his arms around me from behind and presses a hungry kiss onto my neck.
“I wanna take you home so bad, right now,” he groans, dropping his forehead onto my shoulder, holding me tightly. “I can’t fucking believe we made plans for tonight. We’re stupid. I hate us.”
“Stop it,” I laugh, then bite my lip. “Also, um - Kasey is expecting us at the Ghost Office after work tomorrow. The manager has plans for us. The schedule continues to be packed.”
“Fuck!” Aiden says, so sharply that I let out a startled laugh. “Okay, then - tonight, once we’re alone? It’s either that or we’ve gotta cancel going to the Ghost Office.”
“Oh, cool. So long as you agree to be the one who has to explain to Kasey that the super important, urgent reason we need to cancel is… because we haven’t had an opportunity to have sex for two days.”
“Two days?” Aiden sputters, his eyes widening. “It’s only been two days?”
I nod at Aiden, who absorbs that for a moment, looking genuinely taken aback. I could almost laugh at the stunned look on his face, but I understand completely where he’s coming from.
We’ve gone longer than this without having each other before now, and I know that the desperate way we’re looking at each other would probably seem totally out of proportion to anyone else. But the past two days and nights of burning desire, passion, feeding the flames, teasing each other into oblivion - and then denial, over and over again…
Aiden huffs out a dazed laugh, then gently ruffles my hair.
“Fine. We’ll go to the Ghost Office tomorrow. But tonight, as soon as we’re alone…” He makes an anguished, pleading face at me. “Jesus Christ, Jamie, don’t make me beg - please-”
“Yep, mhm.” I wind my arms around his waist. “Yes. Yeah. Tonight.”
Aiden gives me a bright smile, his blue eyes lighting up with a warm glow. I return it, then glance down at the time on my phone. Make a sad face at Aiden when I realize that I need to get back to the shop. He breaks into an instant, tremendous pout, so dramatic that I let out a burst of laughter.
I go up on my tiptoes to give him a slow, lingering kiss.
“See you tonight,” I murmur softly.
Aiden smiles against my mouth, and I drop back down onto my feet. I feel his eyes following me as I weave through the archival cabinets towards the stairs.
I look down in surprise when two fireflies flutter into life around my ankles. They float alongside my feet as I walk, lighting my way in the darkness.
I glance over my shoulder at Aiden. I catch a glimpse of ice-blue light glittering through his eyes as he turns away, pulling his gloves back on.
I open my mouth to say something, but he’s already leaning over the ancient piece of paper again, carefully lowering his brush to the page.
I leave my archivist to his work, taking a little bit of his light with me as I go.
~~~~
“That was fun.” Roger casts a warm smile at me and Aiden as he shrugs on his jacket. “Thanks for having us over.”
“I don’t want to leave her,” Luca groans, snuggling Luna in his arms. “Cool if I take her? Come on, our names match up and everything.”
“That’s really not up to us.” I lean my shoulder against the wall by the door, then reach out to tap Luna’s furry nose. “Luna goes where she wants and does what she wants. Believe me, she and I had a full-on WWE wrestling match when I was trying to stop her from maiming the wedding flowers.”
Luca lets out an affectionate laugh as he sets Luna down on her feet. “I love her.”
“Well, you can come back and see her whenever.” Aiden slips his hands into the pockets of his jeans as Luna comes over to twine around his ankles. “Unless you want to do dinner at your place next time.”
“Yeah, we - we were planning on that.” Roger cringes deeply. “But now my cooking is gonna be compared to your cooking, Aiden. I didn’t realize how much better yours was gonna be.”
Aiden smiles, surprised and pleased by the compliment. “Well - at least you two actually have a dining table.”
“It was nice eating on the sofreh,” Luca says brightly. “I’m more concerned about why you guys have a room with nothing but a tree stump in it, but I’m not going to ask any questions.”
Aiden and I both laugh, and Roger swats Aiden’s shoulder.
“See you guys later,” he says, weaving his fingers through Luca’s.
I watch them walk away through the front garden, warmth swimming in my chest. I’m finding that I really like spending time with Roger now that we’re friends, and I’m growing very fond of Luca, too. I like him so much for Roger. I finally got the chance tonight to ask Luca how the two of them got together, and the story made me smile.
“We’d been working together since I moved to Ketterbridge,” Luca told me, affectionate memories flickering behind his green eyes. “I kinda thought Roger was flirting with me, but I couldn’t tell for sure. I was crazy about him, but too nervous to say anything. Then one day, after I made him laugh, he suddenly asked me how I was still single.”
I looked at Luca over my shoulder, halfway through refilling my glass. “And you said?”
“I was trying to find a subtle way to let him know that I’m into guys, so I told him I was still looking for Mr. Right.” Luca laughed softly, folding his hands around his glass. “And Roger looked at me all confused. He was like - but that’s me.”
I stared at Luca, confused myself - then laughed when I suddenly understood. Roger Wright.
It makes me happy to see Roger so bright and smiling, so comfortable with Luca in the way that he and I never were together. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him so relaxed.
He and Luca walk in easy, close intimacy as they make for the round green gate. I lean against the door, watching them go, then turn around.
Aiden has gone over to the couch. He’s lounging back on his elbows, his knees parted. One long leg stretched out, the other gently bent. His burning blue eyes travel slowly down my body, then back up, then stop on my face.
We’re finally alone.
I bite my lip, electricity sparking to life in my chest as I stare at Aiden.
My body turns to pure heat when he looks at me like this. His alluring, fiery eyes set into instant full-force the magnetic current humming between us. The power in them has nothing to do with Guardian magic. It’s pure Aiden magic.
My blood rises and dances in response to it, draws me helplessly towards him like a grain of sand on an ocean current, like a leaf caught in the wind. I would follow those eyes to the farthest reaches of the universe.
In moments like this, everything about Aiden looks like it was designed for pleasure. Every nuance of him is an erotic, intoxicating dream. His bronze skin is softly luminous in the low light, which catches on the graceful, muscled curve of his neck as he very slightly tilts his head to the side, his eyes staring hard right into mine.
He looks like temptation itself, in human form, looking at me with bedroom eyes.
I nearly start to move for him, then decide to add one more tease onto the pile.
“We’ve finally got some free time, huh?” I ask Aiden, trying to keep an innocent expression on my face. “Think I might go do some work on the garden.”
I turn towards the open front door, then stop dead in my tracks when it swiftly but gently swings shut, letting up the soft sound of the latch catching.
I stare at it for a second, then turn slowly to look at Aiden.
He’s still sitting there silently, his gaze leveled on me. He hasn’t moved, but icy-blue magic is swirling and sparkling in his eyes.
“Oh,” I stammer, my heart stumbling over itself. “You - you got that trick from the Bratton Collection down pretty good, don’t you?”
Aiden gives me a small, intimate smile, looking straight into my eyes.
I look down sharply, sensing something happening in the air. Invisible temperature currents in movement, the same kind Aiden used to close the door. Only now they’re swirling around me, warm and caressing, like a heavy summer breeze.
They push me into movement.
I let out a little gasp as the currents gently draw me forward until I’m standing right in front of Aiden. He tips his head back to look up at me, leaning back into his elbows with a playful, sexy smile turning up the corners of his mouth. Magic is flowing slowly through his eyes like white-blue stardust.
I pin my lip between my teeth, let out a helpless laugh, and drop down to straddle Aiden’s lap. Aiden smiles brightly, sits up, and eagerly wraps his arms around me.
“Now you’re talking,” he rumbles, his deep voice growing husky, rolling through me like thunder.
I laugh again, pushing my fingers into Aiden’s luxuriant hair, ready to kiss him. Ready to let that desperate ache finally give way to ecstasy, to feel the fullness of his mouth against mine…
I start to tip forward, and Aiden suddenly flinches, his smile faltering.
A burst of concern rises in my chest, stops me still.
“Hey,” I say softly. “Is something wrong?”
“No, I…” Aiden sits back and stares off into space, his eyebrows furrowed. “Heard something, but I think it’s f…”
He trails off, listening in silence, a worried crease forming between his eyebrows. I quickly get off of his lap and sit down beside him on the couch, rest my hand on his knee.
“Aiden?” I say after a minute, my anxiety officially too much for me to keep quiet. “Is-?”
Aiden suddenly blinks hard, then sits up sharply. He lets out a soft little gasp, and magic bursts to life in his eyes.
The kind of swirling, pulsing, chaotic magic that only shows up when someone needs to be rescued.
Usually the sound of the soul in danger begins gradually and gets louder as we run out of time, so I feel a spike of serious panic when Aiden drops his head and grips the couch tightly, already reeling.
“What - Aiden?” I frantically take his face in my hands, make him look at me. “What’s-?”
“M-more,” he stammers, struggling to catch his breath, “More - than - one.”
“More than one-?” My heart plummets as I realize the only possible meaning of his words. “More than one person is in trouble?”
Aiden nods, breathing hard, wincing against the noise.
“Two,” he manages, his eyes huge with fear. “Maybe - three.”
I stare at him with wide, terrified eyes for a fraction of a second, then spring to my feet. I stumble into the first pair of shoes I can get my hands on by the door, grab my keys, and wrench the door open again.
Aiden follows right behind me as we sprint across the garden, stumbling into his Timbs as we go, settling his snapback over his hair. An icy chill is tearing through my veins, making my body tremble, but I force myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
“Roger!” I shout at the top of my voice, racing through the green passageway. “Luca! Please don’t have left yet, please please-!”
I nearly crash into Roger at the end of the passageway. Luca is right behind him, and I can tell from the expressions on their faces that they heard the panic in my voice. Roger steadies me out with a hand on my shoulder, looks into my eyes, and knows instantly what’s going on.
“Right now?” he asks, his voice filling up with alarm.
“Aiden says it’s probably two people,” I stammer, all out of breath. “Maybe three.”
Luca and Roger exchange a wide-eyed look, then both spin around at once.
“We’ll be right behind you,” Roger shouts over his shoulder, wrenching his car keys out of his pocket as he breaks into a run.
Aiden and I rush for my car. Aiden is breathing hard and fast by the time I drop into the driver’s seat beside him, his face as pale as it can get.
I don’t feel any calmer than he does, but I try to pretend that I do. I reach out and take his hand, grip his fingers tightly.
“Kasey!” I call out, my frantic heartbeat pounding in my ears. “Will!”
The two of them appear in the backseat, then sit up in instant concern.
Kasey leans forward sharply to look at me, her shiny dark hair swinging around her face. “Jamie?”
“Someone’s in trouble,” I explain, all in a rush. “We’ve gotta go right now. Kasey, can you watch from on top of the car and let me know if you see anything we can’t? And Will, can you go with Luca and Roger, let me know if we’ve lost them by accident? They’re gonna follow us.”
The ghosts don’t waste any time. Will vanishes, and Kasey hops up through the roof of the car. I stick the keys in the ignition, my fingers shaking, then take Aiden’s hand again.
“Hey.” I give Aiden’s fingers a hard squeeze. “Look at me.”
Aiden does, his blue eyes swimming with panic.
“It’s gonna be okay,” I tell him, trying to keep my voice from trembling. “We’ve got the team. We’ve got you. It’s gonna be okay.”
Aiden looks into my eyes. He lets out a heavy breath, nods slowly. Then suddenly, impulsively, he lifts my fingers to his mouth and kisses them. He sits up more in his seat, looking out through the windshield.
“Let’s go,” he says, determination blazing in his eyes.
I take a deep breath, then put the car in drive.
~~~~
This rescue feels different from all the ones Aiden and I have done before.
Normally Aiden and I are both in sheer, instant panic, fighting against the sense of being out of hope and out of time. There’s a terrible kind of slow asphyxiation that comes with the knowledge of the clock ticking down, a life getting away. I can usually barely breathe by the time we actually get where we’re going.
I thought it would always be like that. But this time Aiden is different. And his gravity is changing mine, too.
As my car flies down the street, sending up glittering bursts of rainwater from this morning’s storm, Aiden sits still. He stares straight ahead with unseeing eyes, listening. Breathing raggedly and clutching tightly to the door, definitely stressed out, deeply afraid, but - not panicking.
I can’t help myself, so I just ask. “Are you actually okay, right now?”
“No,” he says firmly. “No.”
“Right, obviously not, but - you seem, um - not the way you usually are when we need to rescue someone.”
Aiden takes a deep, shaky breath, his knee bouncing. “Honestly, Jamie… half of what I’m terrified of when we do this is that it’s gonna be the last straw for you.”
I twist to look at Aiden with wide, startled eyes, then quickly get them back on the road. “The last straw-? What?”
Aiden gives me a dejected, despairing look.
“I’ve seen some real sad shit, doing this. I don’t want you to see it, too. And I’m always scared that you having to see it, that might - might make you decide that I’m not the one for you. I’m always scared you’re gonna see something sad or horrible enough to make you walk away, so you don’t have to see any more.”
I tighten my fingers on the steering wheel, wishing with all my heart that I could look at him right now. “Aiden-”
“No, I know.” He lets out a trembling breath. “That’s why I’m feeling a tiny bit better than usual. I’m trying to believe what you’ve been telling me about that. You said that I’m worth it to you, and - it’s so against your nature to lie, I have to think…”
Aiden fades off and swallows hard. It’s like he’s terrified to even look at me.
“I’m trying to believe it,” he murmurs, very softly. “Think I’m getting there. It’s just hard for me. Some days I still can’t get my head around the fact that somehow you can love me around this.”
I reach out and take Aiden’s hand again, give his fingers a hard squeeze. “Not around it.”
The connection isn’t open, and I can’t look over to see the expression on Aiden’s face, but I can feel the warmth and tenderness flowing between us. Even in a moment like this.
It fills up my heart, makes it stronger. I’m startled to find myself drawing a full, deep breath. Determination to match Aiden’s flares up in my heart, too.
We can do this, I tell myself, holding onto him tightly.
“Turn here,” Aiden says suddenly, and I turn sharply onto a residential street, lined with quiet houses. “Slow down.”
I do, and Aiden closes his eyes, listening. I let mine rove over the houses. I don’t see anything unusual. Most of them still have the lights on, showing no signs of trouble. There’s no one out on the sidewalks.
“I think…” Aiden’s face screws up as he tries to focus. “Kasey!”
She drops down through the roof of the car and into the backseat. Aiden points to the street.
“Can you check those three houses, see if anything weird is going on? Take Will, it’ll be faster!”
Kasey vanishes without a word. I give Aiden a nod to let him know she’s gone. He can’t see the ghosts, because he doesn’t have the glasses.
I peer through the windshield at the houses. “That’s more specific than you can usually get it, Aiden.”
“Easier to track with multiple notes calling for me at once.” Aiden winces, the magic in his eyes surging. “Third one isn’t in life-threatening danger, I don’t think, but it’s going to get - just - destroyed by whatever’s about to happen to the other two.”
My heart does a frightened little flip, my whole body tensing up. I nearly leap out of my seat when Will appears in the backseat of the car, his leaf-green eyes deeply troubled.
“That first house,” he says, pointing to the one on the corner. “I think that something is amiss, there’s-”
I swerve my car over to the side of the road and put it in park. “Go check the other two, please! Just in case!”
Will nods, and disappears.
Luca and Roger rush from their car to join me and Aiden as we race up the path to the house. Luca slings his EMS bag onto his shoulder, and Aiden turns his snapback around, pulls it low over his glowing eyes.
We all stop in front of the door, realizing we don’t know what to do from here.
Roger hesitates, then rings the doorbell.
There’s a silence, followed by the scuffle of light, quick footsteps. I blink in confusion as the door opens and my eyes find no one.
I drop my gaze downwards.
A little girl in a blue dress is standing there. She stares up at us uncertainly, hugging a stuffed tiger toy to her chest.
We all stare at her in silent surprise for a moment.
Roger drops to one knee to be eye level with her, tossing his dark curls out of his eyes.
“Hi, sweetheart,” he says gently, then opens his jacket to show her the FIRE/RESCUE emblazoned on his station t-shirt. “We’re with the Fire Department-”
“I remember you,” the little girl interrupts, her cheeks picking up a pink blush as she looks at Roger. “My class went to the - um - um-”
“The Fire Department open house?” Roger asks, and she nods shyly, fidgeting with the stuffed tiger.
“I remember you,” she says again, then blurts out - “You’re tall.”
Roger smiles warmly at her. “What’s your name?”
“Maggie.”
“We’re here to check on you, Maggie. Is everything okay?”
Maggie hesitates, biting her lip nervously as she looks at Roger.
“I went to my best friend’s house after school,” she says in her halting, chirping little voice, pointing to the house next door. “I just got home.”
“Okay?”
“But mommy and daddy won’t wake up.”
There’s a horrible, horrible silence. My heart briefly stops beating.
Luca pushes his way forward and stops before Maggie.
“Where are they, honey?” he asks, gently but urgently. “Can you take me to them?”
Maggie turns and slips back into the house. We all follow after her. Roger and I both turn to Aiden as we go, our eyes wide with alarm.
“They’re still alive,” Aiden whispers, looking bewildered. He lifts his snapback slightly, lets us catch a flash of the blue light swirling in his eyes. “I hear them. They’re still in trouble, they’re - getting louder.”
Maggie steps out into the upstairs hallway, then scurries into the first bedroom. We all stop in the doorway behind her.
My heart freezes at the sight before us.
A man and a woman are curled up in the bed together, lying motionless. Neither of them reacts when we step into the room. The woman’s hand has slipped down over the side of the bed, hanging limp.
Maggie goes to it and tugs on her fingers.
“Mommy,” she tries, her little voice desperate, then turns back to us when she gets no response. “See?”
“Oh, god,” I murmur, very softly.
“You can go wait outside if you want to,” Aiden whispers in my ear, his voice begging. “You don’t have to see this.”
I shake my head very slightly at him, and he winces, but doesn’t argue with me.
I dart forward and pick Maggie up, so she won’t get in Luca’s way. He stops beside the bed, drops his EMS bag, then takes a radio from it and starts speaking into it quietly and urgently.
My heart is plummeting with each passing second. A slow sense of rising panic is starting to claw its way up my chest, awful possibilities flitting through my mind. We made good time getting to this rescue, and clearly we still have some time to save these people, because Aiden would let us know otherwise, but - what the fuck is going on? How do we save them, what’s even wrong with them? Aiden says they’re alive, but they - they don’t look like they are…
Aiden and I exchange a frantic look, then stare around the bedroom, searching for an explanation. Roger is doing the same thing, but it’s clear that none of us can see what would have caused this.
Kasey materializes at my side, out of breath.
“Jamie,” she says, all in a rush. “I think - the stove might be on? But there’s no flame.”
I turn that over in my mind for a second.
“Roger,” I whisper, tugging on his sleeve. “The stove is on downstairs.”
Roger stares at me, then turns and strides back out into the hallway. I follow him out, and Maggie loops her little arms around my neck, watching him. He’s looking around carefully, his eyes roving over everything.
“What are you doing?” I ask, right as Roger stops in front of something on the floor.
He bends down and picks it up, stares at it. Then he turns around and holds it up.
“Why is this unplugged, sweetheart?” he asks Maggie, showing it to her.
“It was loud,” she explains. “So I unplugged it.”
I take a better look at what Roger has in his hands, then draw back sharply. It’s a carbon monoxide detector.
Roger stares at Maggie for a second, then plugs it back into the wall. It instantly starts beeping loudly, flashing a little light.
Roger straightens up swiftly.
“Get her outside,” he says quietly to me. “Now.”
I turn and rush for the stairs, and Roger rushes back into the bedroom.
Maggie is clearly startled by the sudden burst of activity. “Where are we going?”
“Just outside, kiddo, it’s okay,” I answer, trying to sound much calmer than I am. “Just gonna get you some air, alright?”
She clings tightly to my flannel as I step out into the night air. I carry her to the edge of her front yard, then stop and set her down behind some rose bushes, hoping that they’ll block her view of the house.
Maggie starts to look back over her shoulder with concerned eyes.
“Who’s this?” I ask hastily, tapping the stuffed tiger in her arms. “Friend of yours?”
Maggie looks down at the tiger, then starts shyly and haltingly telling me about it. I force myself to keep my eyes on her, smiling and nodding.
Behind her, Aiden and Roger come rushing outside. Roger has Maggie’s mom slung over his shoulder, and Aiden has her dad. Luca is pulling an oxygen mask out of his EMS bag as he sprints outside after them.
I look around desperately for someplace else I can take Maggie. I know that she’s going to get scared if she sees her parents like this.
My eyes land on the next-door neighbor’s house, the one Maggie pointed to when she said she was with her best friend.
I hastily gather Maggie back up into my arms, then step over the hedge into the yard of the house next door, careful to keep her face averted from what’s happening at her own house.
“Where are we going?” Maggie looks up at me with wide, alarmed eyes. “I’m not supposed to go anywhere with strangers-”
“Just to your friend’s house, see? We’re gonna have you stay there while we take care of your mom and dad.” I stride swiftly up the path to the door and ring the bell. “You know the grown-ups in this house? You feel safe here?”
Maggie nods, and I let out a breath of relief, then set her down again right as the door opens.
A man stands in the doorway, a little boy hanging around his legs.
“Maggie’s back!” the boy yells happily, rushing forward to throw his arms around her. She giggles, dropping the tiger to hug him. “Can she stay, dad?”
The boy’s dad is looking at me with narrowed, suspicious eyes, which is - understandable.
“Hi,” I say anxiously. “Can I - speak with you for a second?”
“You two go play,” the man says to the kids, who scramble off into the house.
By the time I get back to the others, Luca has both of Maggie’s parents laid out on the lawn with some kind of oxygen mask over each of their faces.
Aiden, Roger, Kasey, and Will are hovering behind him, listening silently.
“-good news is, no one is in cardiac arrest,” Luca is saying, adjusting the mask on the woman’s face. “They should both be able to recover from this, assuming they’re out of danger now, but - you would know better than us, Aiden. Did we-?”
Luca breaks off, having turned to look at Aiden, who just sank down to sit on the lawn.
We all stare at him anxiously until he looks up at us.
The chaotic ice-blue magic that had been pulsing through his eyes is gone. They’re back to their natural blue color, and they’re overflowing with relief.
There’s a silence, and then we all nearly collapse into each other. Kasey falls back into Will’s arms, and he lets out a relieved laugh. I drop down to sit beside Aiden, finally taking a real, deep breath.
“God!” Roger groans, tipping his head back. “It was beeping, so she just unplugged it? Someone wasn’t listening at the Fire Department open house!”
“Think she was busy looking,” Luca laughs, zipping his EMS bag back up. “Someone’s got a crush on you, Roger.”
“Besides you, you mean?”
Luca and Roger are way more used to stuff like this than we are. Aiden and I are still staring at each other, weak with relief, overwhelmed with it.
There’s a distant red and blue glow gathering at the end of the street, the faint wail of sirens.
“You guys better get out of here,” Roger says, and Aiden nods tiredly, turning his snapback backwards again.
He gets to his feet, drawing me up with him.
“We’ll stay and keep an eye on things,” Kasey tells me quietly. “Fill you in later.”
I cast her a grateful look, then turn to give Luca and Roger the same thing.
I can barely find any words for the two of them, but I can see from the expressions on their faces that they understand.
~~~~
I drive us a few blocks away in silence, then pull over.
Without a word, Aiden and I both get out of my car and rush for each other. I throw my arms around him, and he closes his around me, too.
I know that hearing a soul in danger takes a lot out of Aiden. Every time someone screams into his head for help, it’s like breaking out of a fever for him when it’s over. That same kind of exhaustion. And this time it was three people.
I grasp the back of his neck in my hand and draw him down, let him rest his forehead on my shoulder. I take off his snapback and toss it onto the car, then stroke my fingers through his hair.
“Did that,” I whisper in his ear, and he huffs out a tired laugh. “That may have been our smoothest rescue yet, Guardian.”
Aiden breaks into an exhausted smile.
“How many has that been in a row?” he asks suddenly. “Successful rescues?”
“I’d - have to count,” I answer, realizing out loud. “There’s been enough that I don’t know off the top of my head.”
“Me, neither.” Aiden lets out a dazed laugh. “I don’t know, either.”
Silence falls over us. I hold Aiden close to me, but I know that he’s fading fast. I gently draw back and push him down into the car. He closes his eyes, lets out a tired sigh.
“You changed everything,” he murmurs, very softly. “Everything.”
I want to ask him more about that, but he’s firmly asleep by the time I’m back in the driver’s seat.
I sit there for a minute, staring at him with adoring eyes. I lean over and brush a kiss onto his nose, then gently open the connection through the point of contact.
Nice work, Guardian, I whisper.
Aiden lets out a soft sigh, smiling in his sleep.
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