Chapter 57
Heath clapped his hands together and addressed the room. “Well, those with assignments should get started. The rest of you, please stay back here for just a few more minutes.”
“I’m just going to make some calls to get an updated count on the patients who won’t be able to be moved,” Mac said. She gave Heath a kiss on the cheek and headed back to the kitchen.
Leah and Quinn teleported away to work on the evacuations. Piper and Jasper left as well; Piper to get started on her spell work and Jasper to help coordinate the SCB activities. All that remained in the living room were Iris, Deacon, Finn, Jamie, Aiden, May, Beau, and Heath.
“Heath?” Jamie asked.
“Yeah.”
“Where are Mac’s dogs? Are they OK?”
Heath smiled. “I had my parents take them when they left with Amber. I couldn’t have Mac worrying about them during all this.” He waved his hand around.
“Aw, you were worried too,” May teased. “You love those little guys.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Iris asked rhetorically. “They’re adorable.”
Heath’s cheeks reddened.
“Well, I’m relieved they’ll be safe,” Jamie said. “So, is the plan for us all to stay here until this is over?”
Heath’s gaze moved to Beau, and he sighed. “Well, I’d like for those willing to stay over to do so. We have two guest bedrooms and my parents’ room. There’s also the two sofas downstairs in the family room. Both convert to queen-sized beds. But I understand if people want to be in their own spaces.”
May hugged Beau’s giant arm with both of hers. “I’d love to have a sleepover, but this one is very attached to his den,” she said. She gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek.
“Both my sisters are at home right now, too,” Beau added, pulling May over onto his lap.
“You know they’d be welcome here, too, but I understand,” Heath said. “Just keep us informed of anything unusual. We should plan to meet up here tomorrow at nine sharp.”
“May?” Iris asked. She’d been quietly flipping through May’s sketch pads.
“Yes?”
“Were you going to mention these pictures?” She handed May one of the spiral sketch books.
May squinted at the sketch. “I wasn’t sure what to make of that.”
“What is it?” Jamie asked. “Can we see?”
May shrugged and waved the others over. May handed Jamie the notebook. He and Aiden stood shoulder to shoulder studying it.
Jamie’s stomach flipped. May had sketched a phoenix flying over a mountain in black ink. It could be Aiden, but without color, it was hard to tell. He and his father had the same mix of colors in their feathers. Both were primarily red and orange with some yellow, but the patterns were different. The shading May had done on the beast created a pattern that appeared more like Aiden to Jamie’s eyes. What was causing Jamie’s gut to clench was the person that was riding on the back of the phoenix. It looked like him. He felt queasy. “Is that me?” he asked May.
“Sure seems like it, but who knows if it’s going to happen? As we have discovered over these past few months, not all my predictions come true,” she said.
“I need to sit down,” Jamie said. He clenched the sketch pad in one hand.
Aiden gently guided him back to a seat on the sofa. He was trying but failing to hide a small grin. He then sat close to Jamie and held out a hand. “Here, hand it over.”
Jamie thrust the pad at him. Ugh. He hated heights. He always considered people who sky dived or did cliff jumping to have a death wish. He couldn’t even do indoor rock climbing without having a panic attack. His wolf was braver than his human side, thank goodness. His wolf could probably ride on a phoenix.
“Yes, I could,” his wolf agreed.
Aiden flipped through several black and white drawings of a phoenix soaring above different landscapes with a human passenger. “Well, it certainly does look like you are indeed riding me.” He glanced at Jamie and smirked. In a lower voice, he added, “This isn’t an entirely foreign concept now, is it?”
Teasing him at a time like this! He slapped Aiden’s shoulder. “You’re terrible! You know I hate heights. How am I going to be that high up without puking or passing out?”
“Psht. You’ll be fine. You’ll be holding on to me, and I’d never drop you.”
“Can I take a look?” Heath asked.
Aiden passed the sketch pad over. Heath paced across the room as he combed through the booklet. “Hmmm.”
“Hmmm, what?” Jamie asked.
“You guys should try that tomorrow,” Heath said.
“What?” Jamie croaked.
“This battle is going to be full bore in less than forty-eight hours. Wouldn’t you rather your first time flying on the back of an enormous, feathered creature to not be when another of said creatures is trying to kill you?”
Jamie gulped.
“You really think he’s going to try to kill Aiden?” Iris asked.
“I would think it’d be a last resort,” Heath said. “I bet he tries to appeal to his sense of familial duty.”
“Good old paternal guilt,” Finn agreed.
“But once he realizes I’m able to shift and I will never side with him, I bet the family ties’ll get broken real fast,” Aiden said.
Jamie made a grabby hands gesture at Heath. “Can you hand that back over?”
Heath tossed the book back to Jamie.
He held the book up close to his face and squinted. “I mean, how am I even holding on?”
Aiden laughed. “We’ll figure it out tomorrow first thing.” He turned to Heath. “Can someone give us a lift home? We’ll be back here tomorrow by nine. I just want to get this one to bed. I just want some alone time tonight with my mate.” He patted Jamie on the leg.
“I could drive you,” Iris said. “I have my Jeep.”
“I’ll come with,” Deacon said to his wife. “Then Iris and I can grab some clothes and head back here for the night.”
“Great,” Iris said, grinning.
Soon after, the four of them headed to Iris’s Jeep. Iris grabbed Jamie by the arm. “Why don’t you sit in the back with me? Deacon can drive, right?”
Deacon, who was walking ahead of them, threw an arm up in the air. “Sure thing.”
Once the doors were all closed and Deacon started the vehicle, Jamie was struck by a feeling of déjà vu. He hadn’t been in the back of Iris’s vehicle in a long time. He looked at the window next to him and saw something near the top of the glass. It marred an otherwise very clean vehicle. He peered closer and sucked in a breath. It was a nose print. It was from his wolf! He reached a hand out to touch it.
Iris held out a hand. “No, leave it,” she said. “Please.”
He turned to her. “Why? Why did you leave it there?”
Her eyes were wet with unshed tears. She wiped them. “It reminds me of a different time. It was just you and me against the world. When we first came to Grey Lake, I didn’t know anything about shifters. I wish I’d known who you really were then, but regardless, you made me feel safe and loved.”
Crap, now he felt like crying, too. “I feel the same. You protected me when I was left like trash in the street. You could have walked on by like others did, but you didn’t.”
She squeezed his hand and gave him a watery smile. “You would do the same.”
Jamie nodded and stared at his nose print once again. “I will protect you.” He added under his breath, “Even if it kills me.”