It was slow and repetitious, but being thorough now could prevent a disaster later. Walking up twenty-eight floors would tire out a human, but shifters had paranormal stamina. As that thought drifted through his head, Kizzy’s face reappeared…thrown back in ecstasy.Not now, dammit. Pay attention, Fierro.
“What do you think you’re going to do about that girl?” O’Rourke asked as they reached the sixth floor and repeated their inspection.
Noah groaned. He was about to say he didn’t know, but then his hand met a spike in warmth. “Whoa. I think I have something.” He pounded on the door. “Boston Fire Department!” When there was no answer, he tried the knob. Locked. He used the halligan tool and pried open the door. Smoke drifted through the entry. “Radio the captain!”
O’Rourke reported they had found smoke in a residence on the sixth floor. The captain said he was standing by. They traced the source of the smoke to a small, unfinished room in the condo.
Noah came upon what looked like a bathroom renovation and flames in the pipe shaft. “Shit. Another amateur plumber.”
“Captain. We have fire in a bathroom. Looks like they were soldering pipes in here. Some insulation may have caught and spread up the shaft.”
The captain’s voice crackled over the radio. “Try and hold it until I can get you a line up there.”
Noah began hacking down the wall to expose what was burning. Flames licked up the wall to the ceiling and beyond.
O’Rourke had “the can” with him, a two-and-a-half-gallon water-filled fire extinguisher. He had to use his precious water sparingly, yet they blasted water up the pipe shaft as far as it could reach. More sirens screamed in the background. It wasn’t unusual to call in a second alarm if a high rise was involved. Noah was glad more help was on the way, even though he dearly hoped it wouldn’t be needed.
The small room was filled with steam and smoke. Even though the smog was dissipating, it was hard to see what might still need attention on the higher floors. Noah wished he could send O’Rourke on an errand, shift, and fly up the shaft. Not gonna happen. Ten guys were probably on their way up.
“Let’s take a look. There’s only a little water left in the can,” Noah said.
O’Rourke let up on the trigger. Getting as close to the pipe as he could, Noah faced upward and scanned the darkness for a telltale flickering yellow-orange flame. He saw nothing but black. “I think we got it,” he said triumphantly.
O’Rourke whooped. “Thank God. This could have been a mutha.”
“I know, right?” He patted O’Rourke on the back.
“It’s out, Captain,” Noah announced into the radio.
“No, it ain’t,” the captain answered bluntly. “I’m looking at the reflection of flickering light far above you. If it’s not an orange lava lamp, it’s fire.”
“Shit,” Noah muttered. He poked his head back into the shaft and looked skyward again. Way, way up, he saw a tiny flicker of yellow. “Fucker. I missed it.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Fierro,” O’Rourke said. “Captain? Where do you want us?”
“Wherever the fire is.” He didn’t say the worddumbass, but it was implied.
Noah rolled his eyes. “We’re on it.”
They charged up the next several flights of stairs, checking the area above the seat of the fire carefully. O’Rourke kept the captain updated over the radio until they finally felt a hot wall on the thirteenth floor.
“Give me the halligan,” O’Rourke said.
What? Am I incompetent now?Noah wondered, but ignored his friend and attacked the door instead. It splintered as he popped it open. Smoke poured out.
“Fire on thirteen,” O’Rourke reported.
The captain called loud enough for the guys on the ground to hear, “We’ll set up a command center on seven.”
Noah felt like shit for missing the fire that had spread up the shaft. It was his own inner paranormal being angry with himself. He had superior vision. That kind of mistake could happen to any firefighter, but not to his father, not to his brothers. And it shouldn’t have happened to him. “I feel like an idiot.”
“You can feel later. Right now, we have a fire to put out.”
Hours later, the blaze was extinguished. Noah, sooty and tired, trudged down the long stairwell to the street. The guys had to be rotated about every ten to fifteen minutes due to the heat and long upward climb taking its toll, but he insisted on staying put as long as the captain would let him.
Dante appeared at his side.
“Hey, Bro. You were in there a long time.”
