by L. A. Boruff
Feline the Flames
The Firehouse Feline
Book 2
The Firehouse Feline: The Firehouse Cat
Copyright 2019 Lacey Carter Andersen, Laura Greenwood, & L.A. Boruff
Cover by Jacqueline Sweet Design
Formatting by L&L Author Services
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Lacey Carter Andersen
Laura Greenwood
L.A. Boruff
Dedication
To Lisa- we hope you enjoy sexy firefighters as much as we do!
Feline the Flames
The Firehouse Feline
Callie’s Check List:
1. Tell the hot firefighters I’m their cat.
2. Stop shifting at the worst possible moments.
3. Survive against the angry witches.
4. Discover the truth about my family.
5. Stay alive
Oh, and next time you wake up naked in a fireman’s bed, do something about it! Things are heating up, and it's not from the flames.
Prologue
Her Royal Highness, The Dowager Queen
I’m shaking. Around me I can sense the magic stretching out in all directions. I long to call it to me, to help me in this time of need. But even the world’s magic can’t give me what I need.
Not this time.
Turning around, I walk back to my home on the beach, far from town. I want to pursue the girl, but even I won’t be able to detect her. No one can.
That’s why I chose that spell, so many years ago. It's effective.
Even if it did go horribly wrong.
Long-buried events tumble into my mind, memories I've tried to forget each and every day of my life. Flashes of trying to reach my daughter, son-in-law, and my granddaughter in time to protect them. Of arriving only to see my daughter and son-in-law dead.
At the time, I'd thought there was no chance that she could be alive, but I moved through the house calling, "Moonbeam," my nickname for her. Tears had rolled down my face and choked my throat, but still, I had called for her.
A disturbance in her pile of stuffed animals had drawn my gaze, and I saw the spell that had been so carefully weaved around her, to conceal her from view. It was a temporary protection, one that required a great deal of power. And I knew, her parents had sacrificed a great deal of their magic to keep her safe.
Probably the last of their magic.
I knew my daughter. She was strong enough to avoid her enemies. But she wasn’t strong enough to escape them and protect her young child and human husband. She could've escaped with her child or her husband, but not both.
She had sacrificed herself for them. That’s just the kind of person she was.
At that moment, with the images of my dead child fresh in my mind, I promised her that I would do the same for my precious granddaughter. No matter what it cost me.
Sitting beside the stuffed animals, I’d waited. A bear in the pile had shifted, and then I saw the frightened girl, tucked under the pile of fluff. My Callie. As the spell wore off, her cries reached me first, but I couldn't touch her yet. The magic would kill me if I tried. Nothing could be done, but to wait as she wailed.
Hope had flowed through me. They hadn’t caught my Callie yet. But they would soon. Magic as strong as hers would be felt by all around her. And they'd be back to search my daughter's home for clues. My dead daughter's home. I sobbed quietly, as I waited on the spell to dissolve around the girl.
I have to find a way to keep her safe.
Trembling, in mourning over the loss of my child, I knew I had little time to conceal the daughter of my daughter from our enemies. I’d begun an ancient spell, one that required more power than even I contained, but that I was determined to bring to life. The power had flowed over my grandchild, hiding her magic. I’d thought she was safe. Hope had blossomed in my heart.
And then she'd shifted into an orange cat.
And ran.
I followed her, on legs that trembled, my magic sapped as I tried to figure out what the hell had gone wrong. The spell had been wrought to conceal her from her enemies, not shift her into a cat.
As I stumbled through the house, seeking the kitten that had bolted away, I realized I could no longer sense her.
Part of my spell had worked perfectly. She was invisible from our enemies. But unfortunately for her, she was also invisible to me. I searched for her all night and most of the next day, but she was gone.
I had lost everything.
And so had she.
Until now. It was the worst possible time for her to reappear in this dangerous world. She only had until the Summer Solstice to become what she was always meant to be. But, I feared, she wouldn’t make it that long. The second I opened up her powers, she’d be discovered.
But if I didn’t? All of witch and human-kind would pay the price.
I loved my granddaughter, but even I couldn’t selfishly allow her to continue with the relatively carefree life she’d been trapped in. She was needed.
Still, a tear ran down my cheek as I stepped onto the boardwalk, making my way to my cottage well down the beach.
I'd finally found her, and my first act as her grandmother would be to destroy her life as she knew it.
The balance of magic was against her—the dark overwhelmingly outweighing the light. But she was destined for this. Callie is the only person alive who can stop the Great Destruction from unleashing on the world.
More tears fell. I’m sorry, Callie.
I’m going to hurt you again.
Chapter One
Hank
Standing in front of the seemingly random house in the generic, nondescript neighborhood, the air still tinged with the power from the mother of the King, even though she walked away long ago. It lingered in the atmosphere like the pulsing energy after a lightning strike, and it was the reason my knees trembled and my head felt light.
But as I turn in the direction the orange cat had disappeared in and shake away the power of the old witch’s magic, I let the reality of what happened sink in. Callie had shifted into a cat. She is a shifter and none of us had sensed it all along, and now the mother of the King is charging us to find and protect her.
Lucky for us, that’s exactly what I want to do.
"Where the hell did Callie go?"
The Dowager Queen had ridden with us to the neighborhood, and I'd spoken to her at the fire, but watching Callie shift into a cat had been a fucking trip, and it had messed with my mind.
The old woman had been the Dowager Queen. Big-time power. Right beside me. And she’d been at the fire. In the heat of the moment, I’d accepted who and what she was without question, but now that she’s gone the enormity of her position has put me on edge. "I'm freaking out, guys. How did Callie
turn into a cat if she’s not a shifter?"
Will hasn't said a word since Her Royal Highness walked away, just stared in silence at Callie's clothes on the floor of the garage with his jaw hanging open. After Callie disappeared and Her Majesty commanded us to find her, he’d collapsed to his knees at the Dowager Queen's feet and stayed there in shock.
James repeats himself. "I'm sure she's not a shifter. I'm sure."
“And yet we just saw her shift,” Will says.
James shakes his head. “There’s got to be another answer.”
"It doesn’t matter,” I murmur. "We gotta find her. Pronto."
"Where?" Will finally shakes off his stupor and drags himself to his feet, then picks up her clothes. "Her clothes were in the cell. I woke up and she was gone, but her clothes were there."
He sniffs and buries his face in the material. "It doesn't smell like her. Where'd she get this?"
"Maybe someone did something to her in the castle," James suggests, his British accent thickening with his fear.
That could explain it. Some of my fear abates with this logical explanation.
I nod. "Most likely. Those people are vile. The King is a sociopath, at the least."
Cat or human, at least right now she’s alive. We just have to find her.
"If you were a woman, scared, suddenly a cat, where would you run?" James asks.
"Home," I say flatly.
In her animal form, that would be her instinctual destination. At home, she could shift back—assuming she was able to—and dress, maybe find a weapon. She might need to grab personal items.
Is that what a frightened human would do? I bite my lip. Hopefully, she wouldn’t call the cops. Most of the department was in the King’s pocket. She’d be in danger the instant she dialed the number.
“Then that’s where we need to go,” Will says, heading for our rig.
We follow him slowly, and I know their thoughts must be turning the same way mine are as we try to make sense of what had just happened.
"Isn’t anybody going to mention the fact that it was the same cat we've had in the firehouse?" James asks.
I freeze. It had been the same cat with orange fur at the station! A tabby. "That's why Callie woke up in my bed."
If I could find a chair, I would sink into it. My knees are ready to collapse under me anyway. Shit. I reach out and steady myself on the side of our car. Had it really been her all along?
Suddenly, we hear a banging sound from the garage and reality sets in. We’re fucking morons, standing around the front yard of our enemies. If we don’t start moving faster, we might be the ones in trouble.
"We have to get out of here," James says, speaking my thoughts aloud. "I think they're coming."
"Oh, we left them plenty to be pissed about," Will says, sounding a little too proud of himself. "You're right. We gotta go."
We run for the truck with James jumping into the driver's seat. We don't bother to buckle seat belts or bother with headphones, but grab a hand hold as James floors it, turning around in the cul-de-sac as fast as the bulky vehicle can handle it. As we pass by the house again, three men run out of the portal and point at the truck.
"We're in trouble!" I yell over the massive noise from the engine.
A lot of trouble.
The men don't chase after us, but they don't have to. They know who we are, where we live, and how to hurt us. We can't go back to the firehouse. Not for long, anyway. Maybe long enough to pop in and then out again.
"We gotta go somewhere safe and regroup," I yell.
"Yeah, but we can't do that in a firetruck," James responds. "Where should I go?"
"Do they know where Callie lives?" Will asked. "We could drop off the truck and sneak over there. See if she comes home."
It's not the best idea. We have no idea who she talked to at the castle, or what she told them. "I think we should keep moving, keep trying to find her."
"Is she going to be like a real cat?" Will turns around in the front seat to face me. "Could we open a can of tuna and see if she comes running?"
That’s stupid… or brilliant, but I’m not sure which.
I shrug. "We don't know if she's a shifter or if it's a curse. Or she could have a shared body thing going on. I've heard of that, too."
“So,” Will draws out the word. “Tuna? Yay? Nay?”
I roll my eyes. “Let’s just focus on getting home for now.”
It doesn’t take James long to pull in at the firehouse. We jump down, looking all around as Sugar runs out of the building.
"What happened?" She asks, her gaze moving between us as she wrings her hands in a nervous way.
"Long story," James said. "We gotta find that cat."
"What cat?" Sugar's face scrunches up totally bewildered.
"The one that's been hanging around here all the time," I reply for James. Then, hesitating only a second before deciding the hell with it, I tell her the truth. "It's Callie."
Sugar puts her hand on her hip. "You boys need to give me more of an explanation than that."
“Fine,” Will says, “but we’ll have to talk and walk at the same time. We’re in a bit of trouble.”
“What else is new?” Sugar mumbles under her breath, but follows after us anyway.
I hurry into the building, speaking to her over my shoulder. "Callie is the cat that's been sneaking in here. We don't know any more details, other than we saw her shift into the cat before she ran away."
James nods as he catches up to us after shutting down the rig. "And we have to find her."
"Well, why are you here? Why aren't you looking around the area where you saw her shift?" Sugar's facial expression makes me think she wants to slap me silly.
"Because she shifted at the entrance to the magical realm. Then she ran away like a bat out of hell," Will says. "More literally, like a cat out of hell. She could be anywhere."
Sugar rolls her eyes. "If only you were powerful beings capable of using magic to find her."
We stop mid-stride in the act of hurrying toward our rooms. I, for one, want to quickly throw on some clean clothes and go look at Callie's house before getting into complicated magic.
"A spell," James says, shaking his head. "I've been trying to pass for a human for so long I’ve forgotten the basics."
“What do you need to be able to do that?” Will asks with a frown.
James’s brows draw together. “It’s a basic tracking spell, so you guys get me something of hers. Clothes, a hair, anything. I’ll take care of the rest.”
"Maybe she left some fur on one of our beds," I say as I take off for my room to comb the bed for a stray cat hair.
"I've been thinking," Will says in a casual tone, following me into my room. He turns on the overhead light, as I throw back the blankets. "I don't think you and James are in any danger. All you did was drive me away from the neighborhood."
Looking away from the sheet, I nod. "Maybe. But they're not going to be happy with us, for sure."
"Not being happy with you and actively trying to punish you are two different things."
“Does it matter?” I ask.
Will has a strange look on his face when I turn away to continue searching my bed. “I was just thinking that, well, we don’t all need to—”
"Why are these sheets so pristine?" I interrupt. "A cat slept on them, there's bound to be a hair left behind."
Sugar pops her head in the room. "I'd check the dryer if I were you. The filter. I changed all the sheets today while I waited on you to come back."
My jaw drops. "Why?" I ask.
"I was nervous," she says defensively. "I clean when I'm nervous. It keeps me from eating instead."
Climbing off the bed, I head for the laundry room, but the dryer-lint trap is clean, too. I look at Sugar with my eyebrows raised.
"Oh yeah," she whispers. "I forgot I cleaned it out.”
Will shakes his head at her.
I turn to the small trash can beside the industri
al washing machine. A clump of dryer lint rests on top. And on top of the dryer lint was a perfect orange cat hair.
"Bingo!" I shout.
"Come in here." James's voice carries to me from the kitchen. "I found a map of the town."
When I enter the kitchen, I see James has spread a map out on the table. Even the weakest wizard can create a tracking spell, but it’s been so long since I’ve done one that I’m glad James is taking the lead.
The firehouse has technology to get the trucks from house to house, but in the event of a disaster, we have to have physical maps in case the GPS doesn't work.
I sit the hair in the middle of the map and stand, focusing on the little stripe of orange. Magic is strongly about intent. I focus on the little hair, willing it to tell us where Callie is. I’m sure James is doing the same beside me, because the hair soon jerks across the map, landing on the beach, then whips back to town. Then, back to the beach in rapid succession.
"Geez," Will whispers when it whips around to land on the firehouse. I focus harder, and the hair moves faster, round and round the map.
"Somebody's breathing on it," Sugar says suspiciously, staring us down.
"We’re not," I say as I try to focus harder. "It's going nuts." With a huff, I stop the spell, and the hair flutters to the center of the map again. I look at Will and Sugar. "Apparently, she can't be tracked with magic. Whatever spell they put on her at the castle to make her shift is strong, because this tracking block is seriously powerful. I don’t know if any one witch or wizard is capable of doing one.” As an elemental, I’m pretty sure that Will knows about tracking blocks, but Sugar’s a shifter. She won’t know much about spells.
James sighs. "Anybody know a good hound dog?"
We all chuckle, but Sugar moans. "If I could shift, I'd be able to find her in a hot minute, but in this form, my nose is just like a human's."
I raise my eyebrows at her. "Really? Dragons can track?"