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“N-nothing, sir!”
Kingston felt a spark of satisfaction when Meyers hunched his shoulders and cowered under the weight of his assessing gaze. Drawing out the moment, he waited several more beats of charged silence before he finally moved away and began pacing in front of the group.
“As I was saying, there is no better way to learn than from real experience. Expect the unexpected. Assess and adapt. Both teams will have the same goals. Control the fire and rescue your victims.” Kingston pointed toward a dummy lying on the ground. “And remember, the team with the fastest time will get the rest of the day off.”
A resounding cheer sounded from the group.
“Speed is key. When lives are on the line, every second counts. But always keep your safety in mind and that of your team. If you go down, you’ll be diverting resources and there will be no one to save the victims. Now, Team One, are you ready?”
“Yes, sir!”
He waited until he was sure they were ready and lined up before he gave the command to, “Go!”
Kingston started the timer in his hand and watched as the first group of firefighter trainees dressed in full gear ran into the building, dragging the heavy hose with them. He knew from experience just how difficult this particular drill was. Not only would they have to haul ass up the stairs carrying a load of heavy equipment, but they would also have to fight the flames as they made their way through a maze of rooms to find the three dummies that had been left inside.
All under the designated time limit.
While Kingston couldn’t watch their progress from outside the building, Captain Sevyn Strum and two more veteran firefighters were observing in a safe area inside the building where they could make sure everyone got out safely. Sevyn was a fae who was proficient in fire magic, while the other two were fairy hybrids.
As a fire demon, Kingston was also a powerful member of the crew, though he’d always considered his abilities more attack-based rather than defensive. He could still redirect the flames long enough to drag someone to safety if the need arose, but he had to admit that those with water magic were far more useful in a large blaze.
Station Five was located on its own small campus between Mystic’s main business district and Trifecta University. The firehouse was larger than most of the other stations in the city and had more firefighters on rotation. Since they handled more calls on average, it only made sense for them to have more trucks available.
Next to the firehouse was the fire department’s main administration building, and behind the station was a large track. There was also an obstacle course, a decent-sized field, and a few buildings that were used for training purposes located on the small campus. They didn’t run a Fire Academy, but a program that was focused on advanced training for certified firefighters.
Station Five was known for having the best firefighters in Mystic. Hell, they were some of the very best in the country. Part of that was due to the extensive and rigorous training they did, but mostly, it was because the entire station was comprised of supernaturals. Granted, a lot of them were hybrids, but some were like Kingston, full supes who used their strength and magic to help save people.
He hadn’t always been so altruistic, though.
As a full-blood fire demon from a powerful family that had accumulated wealth and prestige over centuries, Kingston had grown up as the pampered heir apparent of a prosperous empire. He freely admitted he’d once been one of those rich, entitled pricks coasting on his extensive pedigree. He’d taken everything he’d had for granted. Sure, he had put some effort into learning how the family business worked, but most of his time had been spent having fun and wasting a shit-ton of money on frivolous things.
But all of that had changed the day he had lost everything.
Kingston had grown up in the Hell Realm with his parents, two brothers, and the leaders of their family, his grandfather and grandmother, Harrison and Alicia Spencer. After his father, mother, and grandmother had died in a tragic incident, the boys continued to live with their grandfather. Harrison had raised them with the help of a full staff since he spent most of his time running their family’s business.
Spencer Financial was a private bank and money management firm for supernaturals that had originally been founded in the Hell Realm, but now had branches all over the Human Realm. Since the other realms mainly traded in precious gems and magical items, they needed somewhere to convert their goods to cash to spend in the human world. They also had secured deposit boxes and vaults that were guarded by some of the strongest magical wards within the six realms.
Or so they had thought.
It had been an honor for the Spencer family to be entrusted with people’s wealth and secrets, so when someone had managed to break into several of the vaults, it had caused quite an uproar. They weren’t able to install security cameras or any type of tech where the vaults were located, so they didn’t have proof of the actual crimes.
However, they did have several strong magical safeguards in place.
Whoever had committed the robberies had set Kingston up, making sure the magical alarms had been triggered when he had been visiting his own vault. Since he’d been the only one down in the lower levels at that time, he had been the obvious suspect. After his vault had been searched, the investigators had discovered a few items that weren’t his. He’d sworn he hadn’t put them there, nor did he know how they had gotten in his vault without his knowledge.
After they had launched a full investigation, several more artifacts had been declared missing from different vaults. When a few suspicious deposits had been found in one of Kingston’s private accounts that he hadn’t been able to explain, the Supernatural Council had immediately taken him into custody.
Some had claimed the deposits were proof that he had sold a few of the items that had been stolen, but he’d sworn he had no clue where the money had come from. Truthfully, he’d never paid much attention to what was in his accounts. He’d always had more than enough to buy anything he could ever desire, and that was before his parents had left him a sizable sum upon their untimely deaths.
Kingston had insisted he didn’t know what had happened and had even gone through truth testing to prove his innocence. Still, no one had believed him. The entire investigation had been a fucking joke. Once they had set their sights on him, they had never even considered another suspect. Not really. Without some other explanation of how it had been done and who had done it, no one cared that he was innocent.
The supernatural justice system didn’t work like the human world. In fact, it was quite the opposite. People were usually considered guilty until proven innocent, so the suspicious deposits into his account, his proximity to the robberies, and having a few of the missing items in his vault had been enough to convict him.
The Supernatural Council was made up of three representatives from each of the realms, and while their decision hadn’t been unanimous, they had still ended up sentencing him to seven years in the Supernatural Prison. Kingston had tried to appeal the ruling, but it had done no good since it had meant dealing with the same people who had convicted him in the first place.
He’d been lucky they hadn’t slapped him with a longer sentence since two of the council members were on the list of vault owners who had been missing artifacts. It had been clear that the council had been determined to punish someone, and it hadn’t mattered to them whether or not they’d convicted the actual perpetrator of the crime.
They’d wanted someone to blame, and Kingston had been the easy option.
