Fire Danger Read Online Free

Don’t go outside.” It was the man’s voice, urgent, rushed and closer.
    Was this earthquake real? Or was it in her mind? JT was feeling it, so it was somehow physically manifesting, but how? Her skin continued to heat and her forearms developed red streaks. Something deep within her stirred, an animal clawing to get out.
    “Don’t open the door. Don’t open the window. Don’t go outside. I am almost there.” In the madness, the familiarity of the man’s voice reassured her.
    “Open the door. Open the window. Let us in.” Rachel struggled between the two, trying to focus on the former and ignore the latter.
    Rachel hung JT’s carrier around her shoulder and then clutched her hands to her ears, as if that could keep the voices out. She wanted to run, wanted to yank open the door and go outside, obeying the commands of the red eyes. It would be so much easier that way.
    Vampires needed to be invited in, didn’t they?
    Vampires? Really?
    She heard a whoosh and a rustle as if wings were settling. The birdman…she groped for the name, found it…Phoenix. She had no idea how she knew his name, but it was Phoenix.
    “Shadow people. Not vampires. I am here.”
    The voice inside her mind was different from the shadow people’s voices. Rachel’s body flooded with relief.
    As if on cue, the room stopped shaking. The heat in her body began to subside. She still felt its lingering presence and saw the air around her shimmer as if a fire had burned in front of her.
    “Get some things. You can’t stay here.”
    Keeping JT slung over her shoulder, she grabbed her purse and a toiletry bag she always kept packed, tossed them into a handy tote, and went for the door. JT yowled, moving from side to side in the carrier.
    Flinging the door open, Rachel gaped at the naked torso of the well-built man standing on her exterior landing. He seemed agitated, harried, his wing feathers askew. She squeaked but made no other sound when red eyes appeared behind him, several feet away but out of reach of his wingspan.
    He followed her gaze and growled. The beings pulled back but still remained visible.
    “Good thing you didn’t let them in.”
    There was a hiss behind him. “Let us have the woman.”
    “Not a chance.” There was steel in Phoenix’s tone, something she wouldn’t have thought was possible when speaking telepathically.
    “Come on, Rachel. We have to go. It’s not safe.”
    The world was turning upside down in a big hurry, but staying there meant death. The shadow people, or vampires or whatever they were would find a way in sooner or later. The wolves would get her. Something. Something would get her.
    Why?
    “JT comes.”
    His brows lowered, brown slashes against his forehead. “He’s your responsibility. We have to fly. Now. Are you ready?”
    Rachel gestured to the tote. “I always have a bag packed.”
    “Just walk away.” One of the red-eyed beings poked a finger at Phoenix, but its eyes were on Rachel.
    He motioned to her as if there hadn’t been a mental voice. Rachel decided that it hadn’t been meant for her to hear.
    “Let’s go,” Phoenix said, his voice urgent.
    She put her arms around him. Phoenix frowned at the touch of her body.
    “You’re hot,” he said, his voice a growl.
    “I know,” she said and that was all there was time for. With a swift motion, they were up and in the air. Behind them slight, wispy figures lingered by the apartment, their eyes glowing in the night.
    Phoenix and Rachel were flying near the clouds before he spoke again.
    “Why do they want you so badly?”

Chapter Two
    “Why do they want you so badly?”
    Phoenix’s words echoed in her mind as they flew. She had no answer to the question. The moon was in its crescent phase, its light dim. After a moment she identified their destination as the expensive San Francisco neighborhood known as Noe Valley, in the central part of the city. His trajectory took them closer to the ground, and one house started to resolve