He grinned and jumped down to the ground. I slid the window back into its original position, then changed form and followed him out. Once the knives and my stomach had again settled, I redressed and we headed to the car.
He dropped me off on the corner of Punt Road and Tanner Street, then zoomed off to begin his hunt for the warehouse owners. I walked down toward Lennox Street, half wishing I'd borrowed his sweater again. The bite in the air was getting stronger, and a dress, however pretty, wasn't enough to keep me warm.
I swung left into Lennox, then stopped dead. There were cops, firemen, and others everywhere.
And the old building that was our home was a half-burned-out shell.
Chapter 4
For several heartbeats, I couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't even breathe.
My home was destroyed. While there were no flames, smoke drifted lazily from several sections of the building and the air was thick with its acrid scent. Firemen were rolling up long lengths of white hoses, and there were both firemen and cops picking their way through the remains of the kitchen end of the building. The other end of the building, which housed both the garage and the bedrooms, showed some evidence of scorching on the bricks and on the half-open roller door, but otherwise, it seemed to have escaped any major damage – at least from the fire. Whether it had escaped water damage was another matter entirely.
Oh, god. Tao. He'd been home. He could be hurt, injured…
I pushed through the gathered crowd, then ducked under the police tape that fenced off a wide area around our warehouse building. A cop caught me before I got three steps.
"Miss, you can't go in there —"
"I fucking live there!" I yelled back, and brought my heel down on his foot as hard as I could. He cursed freely, but he didn't release me. "Damn it, let me go! I need to find —"
Hands gripped me, shook me. "Ris, it's okay. I'm okay."
I blinked, staring up almost owlishly at the figure that held my arms so tightly. Then it registered that it was Tao, that he was here and whole, even if a little singed. I threw my arms around him and hugged him fiercely. "Oh, thank god," I whispered. "For a moment I thought —"
"For a moment there, I almost was." His voice was grim. He glanced at the man behind me, and added, "She's my flatmate."
"She's damn lucky I don't press assault charges," the officer replied grimly. "Both of you, get back behind the tape and stay there until otherwise advised."
Tao slipped his hand under my elbow and guided me across the road, finding us both a perch on the old brick fence five houses down from our place. He didn't say anything, just sat beside me, a brooding figure that smelled of smoke and fire and fear. It was that last scent that had unease stirring through me.