Protector Page 2

  The wind shifted toward the Huey, sparks flying. Embers hit the grass, igniting it, and Josh’s gut clenched. A firefighter broke from the line to smother the flames.

  No need to use magic, then. Not yet. Come on—

  At the tree line, yellow shirts appeared in the smoke, Edie and seven guys carrying the injured firefighter in the Stokes basket. Josh squinted into the dirty, gray air. Lines of strain marked Edie’s face, but eight litter bearers should’ve managed easily enough.

  She looked pale, too, probably breathing hard through her bandana. Was she sick?

  Clenching his fist around the control stick, he forced himself to sit still. He couldn’t jump out to help without shutting off the rotors, and doing that would mean a dangerous hot-engine restart and possibly a fatal delay for the patient.

  More embers drifted toward them, only to strike an invisible buffer and fall. Edie’d erected a magical shield. As she came closer, Josh felt it. But why would that make her look so stressed?

  Smoke dimmed the sunlight, the easiest energy to use for a recharge, but she should be drawing power from the surrounding swamp, siphoning energy from the plants and creatures to recharge her magic. Now her effort to do that prickled over his skin, but for some reason, it didn’t seem to be working.

  Subtly, he added his magic to hers, firming the invisible barrier. Edie didn’t seem to notice. In the mingling of their power, he felt the weariness that dogged her.

  She’d been fine half an hour ago. What the hell had happened?

  Thirty yards from the Huey, she stumbled but caught herself without dropping her end of the litter.

  Fuck. Without a copilot, he couldn’t leave the bird, and that was that.

  Edie looked even worse at close range, pale, sweating even more than the norm for these hot conditions, stumbling. She climbed into the back, and the firefighters slid the stretcher in behind her, where seats had been removed to make space for just this eventuality. Edie started strapping it in.

  The guys helped her tighten the tie-downs to the aircraft floor. Then, exchanging nods of congratulation, they drew back, but Josh noticed Edie’s hands shake as she cinched the last straps.

  She told a lanky, blond guy who leaned in with a worried frown on his face, “I’ll radio back when we know more.”

  The guy took a last look at his buddy, shut the door, then ran to help the crew on the fire line.

  When he’d gone, Edie switched her hard hat for the headset. She worked on her patient while informing Josh, “It’s blunt force trauma to the chest, and his breathing isn’t good. His blood pressure’s dropping, and his saturated oxygen is ninety. That’s low. It looks like a collapsed lung, maybe with internal bleeding.” Her direct look told him she’d confirmed those problems magically, but she couldn’t say so in front of the Mundane patient. Except in rare circumstances, mages kept their existence secret from Mundanes rather than risk a repeat of the seventeenth-century hysteria and witch hunts known as the Burning Times. “We need the nearest hospital.”

  “That’d be Wayfarer County.” Josh turned back to the instrument panel, but something plopped between the seats. He glanced down. Edie’s pack had fallen, bandages and tape spilling out. Josh grabbed and righted it, stuffing the gear inside.

  Was that a rock?

  Pushing her supplies down, he brushed the odd, dark stone with his fingertips. A weird magical vibe tingled through his gloves. The edges of his vision went black.

  What the hell?

  Scowling, he shook the blackness off. Edie continued talking to her patient in soothing tones as she connected his oxygen mask to the tank on the cabin wall, but Josh had never seen her so pale. Maybe she was catching some kind of bug. If so, Ms. Tough Chick would work straight through it.

  “Is the patient secure?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Go.”

  Josh lifted off. At least her voice was holding up. If she didn’t look better by the time they reached the hospital, he would strong-arm her into letting a doctor look her over.

  A few minutes into the flight, Josh shook his head, blinking against black spots. Fatigue seeped into his bones. He’d been in the air only a few minutes, but he had to fight to keep his head up.

  The Huey listed to the left. He jerked it back up. His hold on the stick had relaxed, though he hadn’t meant to let it.

  “Josh?” Edie’s head snapped up as her patient groaned.

  “Sorry.” Josh set his teeth and forced his shoulders square. Compared to the hours of combat he’d flown in a single day, this little medevac run was a cakewalk. No way he should feel so tired.

  He risked another glance backward. The tiny slice of Edie’s profile visible between the seats was still pale, with beads of sweat on her forehead.

  “You okay, Edie?”

  “Fine.” She grabbed the water bottle off her pack and chugged it, then tore open an IV kit. Reaching to hang the bag of Ringer’s Lactate on a wall hook, she missed the hook the first time.

  Fine, his ass.

  “He’s fighting me,” Edie snapped. “Oxygen saturation is 87, BP 152 by palp. Can you push this bird any faster?”

  “A bit.” He adjusted the controls to gain airspeed as he relayed the info she’d given him to the ER in Wayfarer.

  The brief adrenaline rush had banished Josh’s fatigue, but as the minutes ticked by, it crept up on him again. He opened his senses, reaching for the sunlight streaming in through the windshield. The power flowing in strengthened him.

  A few seconds later, it faded.

  Damn, what was this? He glanced back at Edie. Judging by her slumped shoulders and pale lips, she was feeling the same weariness. She had the IV going, though.

  “Not much farther,” Josh said. “How’s our patient?”

  “Hanging in.”

  You hang in, too, he thought. And so will I.

  * * *

  “Where did you go when you left our helitack crew?” Josh’s voice crackled over Edie’s headset. She blinked in surprise and tried to muster enough energy to answer.

  “Edie?” Shifting in his seat, he threw her a worried look. “You with me? I asked where—”

  “Yeah.” Edie watched Phil’s chest rise and fall as she chugged more water. Drawing power from the woodlands flashing by outside gained her enough strength to talk.

  She pumped air into the blood pressure cuff on Phil’s arm, feeling for the radial pulse again and waiting for the needle’s waver at the top of the systole. “I joined Three Pines IHC, out of Fort Collins.”

  “Helitack wasn’t good enough? You had to go be a hotshot?” The multiskilled crews ranked among the elite of wildland firefighters.

  “I want to be a smokejumper. I figure hotshot experience is a step in the right direction.”

  “A smokejumper,” he repeated, his voice flat. Dismay vibrated in the magic between them.

  Edie shrugged. If he’d bothered to ask three years ago, she would’ve told him. He probably didn’t think women were any better suited to that than they were to digging line. Jumping out of airplanes to fight wildfires that were otherwise inaccessible likely fell under his heading of men’s work.

  His opinion shouldn’t matter, but it stung.

  She focused on Phil, whose shallow gasps didn’t seem to improve but also didn’t worsen. A collapsed lung would make the poor guy feel as though he were suffocating. His brown eyes opened, anxious and dark with pain, and flicked to her.

  Her depleted power made such simple tasks as easing his pain and minimizing the bleeding difficult. At least she’d been able to dull the pain when she’d drained the excess air from his chest cavity. Too bad that was only a temporary fix. A mage doctor could’ve repaired the lung.

  Leaning in so he could see her, Edie patted his shoulder. “Not much farther, Phil.”

  Finally, Josh asked, “Why smokejumping?”

  “Why not?” she snapped.

  He said nothing, but the silence between them carried a hint of reproof. Edie sighed. After al
l, she’d been the one who wanted to talk earlier.

  “It’s a challenge,” she said. “I like challenges.”

  That was probably why she couldn’t forget Mr. Hot-and-Sexy-Almost-One-Night-Stand. The emotions between them had been intense, urgent. Until he’d been called away. Morning had brought the disappointment of waking up alone and then meeting his cool stare in the breakfast line. “The work matters, too, protecting forests there’s no other way to save.”

  “Sure.” He hesitated. “It’s rough on a family, though, you being in danger.”

  “My parents are okay with it, and there’s no one else affected.” Was that why he seemed so disapproving of the women firefighters, some kind of ideal wife image he wanted women to meet?

  Edie glanced at Phil. His eyes were closed. Was he asleep? Even in shock, he might overhear, so she chose her words carefully. “Besides, that’s an odd sentiment from a former combat pilot who doesn’t have the calmest life now.”

  Ferrying mages into battle against their deadly ghoul enemies was by no means a safe or uneventful job.

  “Somebody’s gotta do it.” Josh’s brusque tone implied she’d nettled him.

  “Rough on a family, though,” she quoted, and earned his scowl as a reward.

  * * *

  Josh’s vision slowly went wonkier. He hadn’t been so happy to see a helipad ahead since his Blackhawk had been shot up in Afghanistan, leaving him with a dead copilot in a bird that needed two to fly it and a twelve-man Spec Ops team to bring home safely.

  Drawing on his reserves of power, recharging from the trees and sunlight again, he forced the weariness away and concentrated on bringing the bird down softly.

  Not a perfect landing but good enough. He cut the engines. Edie was already untying the litter as the medical personnel moved in from the nearby ER entrance.

  The orderlies had the patient strapped on a gurney in moments. Edie grabbed her gear and ran beside it, relaying information.

  Josh watched her. He had no clearance to go into the working area of the ER, but Edie still didn’t look good. Better to follow her unnecessarily than to be sitting out here if she needed his help. Besides, he could use a break.

  When he jumped out of the chopper, black polka-dotted his sight. He ignored it and ran after Edie. Blinking, he stared at the tall, dark-haired doctor hurrying beside the gurney. Stefan Harper? What was the Collegium’s top doctor doing here?

  Whatever the reason, Josh and Edie could speak frankly to him about a magical problem like recharge difficulties. Maybe the fire had somehow caused their symptoms.

  Josh squeezed between the ER doors as they closed. Edie gave him a puzzled look.

  “I need to grab a soda,” he explained, and she shrugged.

  They hurried past a crowded waiting room and into the treatment area. No one questioned Josh, maybe because they were all so busy and he was with a doctor.

  Harper nodded a greeting, his lean face intent as he and Edie helped a nurse cut Phil’s shirt and undershirt off. “I knew he was in good hands with you flying, Josh.”

  “Thanks, Doc.”

  “You two know each other?” Edie’s voice sounded rough. Tired. And her pallor was worse. Damn.

  “I’m on the medical staff where Josh works, at the Georgia Institute for Paranormal Research,” Harper said.

  “He’s the chief physician,” Josh added.

  The lightbulb went on in Edie’s eyes, and he knew she’d realized Harper was a mage. But why hadn’t she sensed his power?

  Watching her, Josh finished, “Stefan Harper, Edie Lang.”

  They nodded at each other across the gurney. Harper’s gaze sharpened, running over Edie in keen, professional assessment.

  “We’ll check you out, too, Ms. Lang, as soon as I have our patient stabilized.”

  Recharging when surrounded by sick or injured people was dangerous. Neither Josh nor Edie would risk that, and he felt her fatigue in the magic. If he did, Harper also must.

  “I’m fine,” she insisted.

  The doctor directed a stern glance her way. “White lips tend to get my attention. Wait here.”

  Harper followed Phil’s gurney into an ER booth and pulled the curtains.

  A chair stood between two of the curtained booths. Josh steered Edie to it, and she plopped down. Her failure to argue over which of them should sit was a bad sign.

  A few minutes later, Harper reappeared, ordered stat x-rays, and started the process to send Phil into emergency surgery.

  The spots in front of Josh’s eyes returned. Again, shaking his head cleared his vision, but more slowly.

  Harper raised an eyebrow. “Hard day, Josh?”

  “I could use a short break.”

  He couldn’t fly like this, but maybe he’d be okay if he sat down and recharged properly. If not, the Collegium could send another pilot to take the Huey home, and there was an excellent mage doctor handy.

  But no one else in the Collegium could fly helitack.

  Harried staffers in scrubs came to wheel Phil away. Harper nodded to a petite, strawberry-blond nurse and then at Edie. “Take her to triage, Ms. Casey.”

  The nurse nodded. “Come with me, miss.”

  “Well, maybe.” Edie cast a doubtful look at the exit.

  Josh stepped close. Lowering his voice, he said, “The recharge isn’t working. Harper knows what he’s doing, Edie. He’s the best.”

  She looked up at him. The trust in her shadowed, exhausted blue eyes brought memories crashing back. With them came desire and a fierce, possessive protectiveness that momentarily cut through Josh’s weariness.

  “Edie…”

  Her eyes rolled back in her head. Josh whipped an arm around her waist, but the effort to hold her upright brought blackness crashing across his sight.

  2

  The fog around Edie slowly cleared, as though something raked its heavy vapors aside. Warm fingers touched her wrist.

  “Waking up,” a deep, smooth voice murmured. “Good.”

  Had she heard that voice before? Maybe in the ER?

  Josh had been there. She’d felt so tired, so worried about not being able to recharge. He’d said her name, had looked so concerned, and then…nothing.

  Had she fallen against him? Or was that memory of leaning on his warm, solid frame, of having his arm around her, from before?

  Edie struggled to open her eyes. The fingers on her wrist shifted to a firm, reassuring grip on her hand. She couldn’t muster enough power to tap the magic, to know if she should recognize that touch.

  “Josh?” she managed, fighting the mind blur.

  “No, sorry.” The man released her hand.

  At last, Edie forced her eyes open. A doctor—Harper, that was his name—smiled down at her, but his brown eyes were grave.

  “I passed out.” And didn’t she feel like an idiot over it? Now she was lying in a hospital room when her crew needed her.

  “Afraid so. You were unconscious for almost an hour.”

  Edie swallowed hard. “What’s wrong with me?”

  “We don’t know yet. Emphasis on yet.” The determination in Harper’s face provided a small measure of comfort as he added, “We’ll figure this out, Edie.”

  “Josh says you’re the best.” A high accolade from a man not given to casual praise.

  “I try. How do you feel now?”

  “Not bad, actually. How’s Phil, the guy we brought in?”

  “Doing all right for someone with six broken ribs and a collapsed lung. It will take a while, but he’ll be fine.”

  “That’s good.”

  “I want to move you to the Collegium infirmary. Whatever’s going on is magical, not physical. I don’t need a battery of expensive tests to know that, but if you stay here, we’ll have to do them.”

  “Okay, but…couldn’t I go back to my unit? Come in tonight, maybe? The fire—?”

  His decisive head shake cut her off. “The fire has several hundred trained, fit personnel on it. You, o
n the other hand, needed two power infusions before you would wake up. That’s serious, Edie.”

  Fear speared her heart like ice. Edie drew a shaky breath. “Someone gave me power?” She’d occasionally shared with other mages but not often, since she lived mostly among Mundanes. Better to think about that than why she’d needed the help at all. “Who?”

  “I did.” Harper rubbed his jaw. “Do you remember anything strange happening at the fire, anything at all?”

  When Edie shook her head, he said, “Take me through the medevac run, step by step.”

  “I was digging line when I got the call. Josh came to pick me up from the west side of the swamp, and we flew to a clearing between the black and the active burn, near where the fire started. I jumped out of the chopper, grabbed the litter, and…”

  Her next memory was of talking to Dawson, Phil’s buddy. How had she gotten from the chopper to him?

  “What is it?” Harper asked.

  “I’m not sure.” She explained the memory gap. “Maybe it’s nothing. I was thinking about the patient, focusing on what I needed to do. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention.” Though the adrenaline of a man-down call usually impressed everything vividly into her memory.

  “Or maybe something did happen.” The doctor frowned. “Ghouls have become active around the swamp lately, and there are some indications they’ve taken a particular interest in it.”

  Ghoul activity was never a good thing, but probably not the issue here. “I think I’d remember if I’d seen a ghoul, considering that I never actually have.”

  “Good point.” Harper smiled, but his eyes seemed distant, preoccupied. “I’ll ask Josh if he noticed anything.”

  “He’s here?” Had he been worried about her?

  As Harper’s brows rose in surprise, Edie bit her lip. Again with the stupid reactions. She’d sounded like a teenybopper with a crush on a TV star. Idiot! Of course Josh hadn’t waited around. Harper could radio him with any questions.

  “He was the one who caught you,” the doctor said, watching her, “and then he blacked out, too.”

  Edie’s heart clutched. Josh. “Did touching me…?”

  “I don’t think so, but I honestly don’t know what this is. He woke up a few minutes ago.” Harper paused. “His first question was how you were.”