Best friend or not, Flint didn’t like the way Daphne was talking about Emma.

Mia looked down and up again. “Yes, one of them is,” she told Flint. She obviously hadn’t wanted to tell him, which he took as a good sign. He wouldn’t want someone telling on him. Mia went up in his opinion.

“I think she’s drained all her power.” Flint’s tone was low. He was one second from taking the phone away from Mia and hanging up on Emma’s so-called friend.

“Who are you talking to, Mia? The fireman? What does he know about magical power? Good Goddess, everyone’s an expert now.”

“Daphne.” Mia held Flint’s gaze. “Emma’s going to be okay. Her arm is burned.”

Mia held the phone away from her ear. This Daphne was talking loud enough for people in downtown Pittsburgh to hear her. “I need to keep a better eye on her. I can’t leave her alone at all.”

That might have been Emma's best friend, but she sounded more like her keeper. Flint frowned at the phone in Mia’s hand and shut the truck door with care, going back to Emma.

Geir, another EMT, had brought the gurney over to her. “Help me with the lift.” They already had the backboard slid under her. Her arms were out of her coat. A blanket kept the falling snow off her. The chief and the crew were finishing up with the building.

Mia had come out of the truck. “How is she?”

Flint nodded at Mia. “Vitals are good. But we’re going to take her to Palmer hospital on the hill. They have a special paranormal unit.”

“Oh, okay. Can I go with her?” Mia looked between Hudson and Flint.

Hudson shook his head. “Sorry, only humans mated to a paranormal can enter the unit.”

“Oh.” Her shoulders sank. “You’re sure? It’s just I don’t want her waking up by herself.” Mia’s lips pursed. She was barely hanging on.

“Yeah, I’m sorry.” Geir jumped in the front of the ambulance.

“I’ll ride with her,” said Flint.

Mia nodded. “Thank you.”

They were lifting Emma into the ambulance when a helicopter circled above the building and landed on the far side of the parking lot. Snow and water vibrated with the chopper blades around the parking lot.

“Who the hell is that?” Chief Ledger growled. “I’m glad we don’t have a flame going, or they would have kicked it into high gear.”

A tall man in expensive shoes and a suit held his hand over his head, protecting himself as he jogged out. He waved at Mia, then saw Emma being loaded up and ran toward the ambulance. “Is she okay?”

“She’s stable but unconscious.” Hudson motioned at Flint to keep loading her into the vehicle.

“We can put her in the helicopter to move her faster,” the male barked.

“We’re taking her to the special unit at Palmer. They won’t let you in.” Flint had no idea who the asshole was, but he pulled the doors shut, locking himself and Hudson in the back of the ambulance with Emma. The jerk was the chief’s problem now, and he heard his boss pulling the man away from the ambulance with his calm clipped tone.

Flint stayed off to the side, sitting on the double chair next to the stretcher.

Hudson soon had an IV going. “Let’s get moving,” he called up to the driver.

Flint had ridden in the back of the ambulance more than once. But usually it was to keep a violent patient from interfering with the medic helping them. Not this time. With them pulling away from the school, the possibility that Emma might have died or could still die slammed him in the chest. He held her hand. A wisp of his magic slowly encircled her bare hand, but no more transferred to her.

“Whoa, you got it bad. I’ve never seen you like this.” Hudson kept moving around Emma.

Flint’s paleness reflected back at him in the ambulance window. “What, pale as shit?”

“Nope, concerned for a female who isn’t one of your sisters.” He looked up from recording Emma’s vitals again.

“Well, I only have so much time.” Flint rubbed his thumb over Emma’s hand, and her eyes moved under her eyelids like Mia had said she’d seen before. “Emma.”

The trip up to Palmer didn’t take long, but whether it was the snow or his sense of perception, Flint was starting to second-guess not using the helicopter.

“Pulling in now,” the driver called back.

“Thanks.” The back doors opened, and Flint hoped to a higher power that any of the numerous nurses he’d dated weren’t on call.

The driver helped the hospital orderly unload Emma, and Hudson and Flint followed them through the bay doors.

“Larsen,” called a voice he knew all too well.

He clenched his hands at his sides. Damn.

Palmer hospital had two wings, and most of the calls the Hundsburg fire department brought in ended up on the shifter side, being that most of the population were wolf shifters.

“What ya got for us, Hudson?” Mirabel asked. Flint liked Mirabel, but the dalliance back in high school had been a mistake.

“Fireball blew her across a parking lot.”

“Whoa. Room three.” Mirabel pointed at two different coworkers. “Get a burn cart.” She turned. “And page Dr. Swan.”

Flint grabbed Emma’s hand, and the PA system announcement was the last thing he heard before he hit the ground.

17

She blinked, her eyes opened, and the memory came back to her. Oh, she’d had lots and lots of visions while she was asleep, but they all faded away when her eyes stayed open. The room wasn’t her bedroom, and it wasn’t a dinky little hospital room like when she’d had her tonsils out a million years ago. No, there was oak paneling on the wall and a picture window beyond her blanketed toes. Snow was falling again, but from the top of the mountain looking down into the valley, it was a little less irritating.

A machine beeped next to her. Well, two machines beeped next to her. Emma turned her head to the twin echoes and found Flint’s sister dozing in a chair. Her eyes flew open at Emma’s movement.

“You’re awake.” Vivianne stood and took her hand.

When Emma leaned to the side, she could see the second bed hidden mostly behind a curtain. Manly feet tented the blanket.

Something wasn’t adding up. A lot of somethings. Why was she sharing a room with a man, and why was Flint’s sister here?

“Mia,” Emma tried to say, but it came out, “me-ee-a.” Her throat was dryer than a camel who’d lost her hump in a windstorm.

“Do you want some water?” Vivianne motioned to a pitcher and a glass on the nightstand next to the bed.

Emma nodded.

“Mia’s good. She was here last watch. Your boss Carter got her into the waiting room. Everyone’s here. I’ve met all your friends and family.” Vivianne poured Emma some water. She stood close to the bed, blocking Emma’s view of the other side of the room.