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Chapter One

Eddie finished handing off their rescued hiker to the staff at the helipad, then joined Lucy in returning to the helicopter. The rescue had been straightforward and easy for them and broke up the monotony of what had been a slow shift so far.

Just as he was close to joining Tommy and Mullens, a man standing near the door leading to the hospital caught his attention. He wasn’t sure why the man captured his notice, but he pulled hard at Eddie’s attention. The guy was just standing there…watching. Not moving a muscle.

He was tall. Maybe an inch or two taller than Eddie—about Tommy’s height. He had dark blond to light brown hair, cut very short. He was in cargo pants and a dark t-shirt. He was wearing sunglasses, but his focus seemed to be on Eddie.

Just as Eddie was thinking about diverting to ask a question, the guy made a note in a small journal he pulled from his pocket, then disappeared inside.

“Wonder who that was?” Lucy murmured as she stepped close to. “And why was he watching us?”

“Seemed to you like he was watching us, too, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“No idea who he was. Never seen him before.”

“He has to be with the hospital to get access to the helipad,” she said, almost as an afterthought.

“True. Not dressed as if he works here, though,” Eddie countered.

“Yeah.” Lucy frowned. “He makes me itchy.” Which was Lucy-speak for the guy was very magical.

“Doubly weird then.” Eddie didn’t have Lucy or Tommy’s magical sense. He’d never had much in the way of magical abilities.

“Hey!” Tommy called. “You two get a move on. We got another call.” Tommy sounded stressed, so Eddie shook off the weirdness of the guy on the hospital roof and jogged over to join his partner.

Tommy gave them all a serious look. “High-rise fire out of control. Some of the responders wound up having to evacuate with civilians to the roof, and they’re trapped. We’re the closest, and not sure anyone else will get there in time. We need as much space as possible, so it’s me and someone on the winch. Two of you are staying here. Mullens, you’re junior….”

“I get it.”

Tommy nodded shortly. “Lucy, Eddie, you two decide which one of you is staying behind with Mullens.”

“I’m staying,” Lucy said. “My shoulder took a bit of a yank on the last call, and Eddie’s experience is more relevant to this sort of operation.”

“Okay. You two get a ride back to Harbor, and we’ll see you there later.”

Eddie clapped Lucy on the shoulder, then hopped into the helicopter. It was good that she made the call. There was a time when she wouldn’t have backed down on taking the call herself, but she’d relaxed over the time they’d worked together and didn’t feel the need to prove herself all the time.

Captain Brooks let Tommy and Eddie work together if they kept it professional. If Tommy had chosen Eddie over Lucy, Brooks would have made him justify the decision, even if it was the right call, but with Lucy making the choice, it would be easier, and the report would be made to Brooks before they were ever back at the station for the question to be asked.

As soon as they were in the air with headsets on, Tommy added, “It’s the 118 up on that roof, Eddie.”

Eddie froze for a second, then nodded. “I got this.”

“I know.”

Eddie still had a soft spot for Bobby and his crew. He’d only been at the 118 for about six months before he’d met Tommy, and they’d become fast friends, then fairly quickly fell into a serious relationship. At the end of his probationary year, Eddie had the opportunity to transfer to Harbor to work with Tommy, so he jumped at the chance. Captain Brooks didn’t foster the family vibe the way Bobby did, but he was a good captain, and Eddie knew Brooks would have his back. In the end, Eddie felt Brooks’ professionalism was a better fit for him, even if it had been a difficult adjustment at first.

“Do we know how many are trapped?”

“Last report was eight.”

Eddie whistled lowly.

“Yeah, we’ll be pushing our capacity. Let’s hope several people are on the small side. Get ‘em up and in as fast as you can. From what I hear, fast is more important than elegant.”

“Got it. How many civilians?”

“If the report I got is correct, it’s five firefighters and three civilians.”

Eddie nodded, thinking through his plan for getting the civilians in. “Normally, I’d want to get the civilians in first, but I think it’s fastest to tandem harness the civilians with a firefighter each.”

“Sounds good.”

After a beat, Tommy asked, “Who was that guy on the roof?”

“No clue. Why?”

“Very magical, and there aren’t many people that magical in LA who I don’t recognize.”

“Yeah, Lucy said he made her itchy.” Tommy was every bit as magical as Eddie wasn’t. He had a great affinity with Earth magic. Particularly with growing things, which seemed odd considering how much he loved to fly, but Eddie enjoyed all of Tommy’s contradictions.

Only about ten percent of the population were profoundly magical to the degree Tommy was, even if Tommy’s magic was more invested in renewal, but about half had small magical talents. Lucy’s talents ran more toward the fifty percent, with her affinity being toward general magical awareness. It was always good to have Lucy on a job because she could tell if magic was at play in a fire.

The ten percent, however, could be elitist and lord it over others, but that was not Tommy’s way.  Eddie appreciated that Tommy never made him feel less than for not having magical aptitude. Christopher wasn’t showing signs of magic, but he was still young, and absolute certainty about magical development couldn’t be made until the end of puberty. Shannon had some magical talents with ritual magic, so Christopher had a shot of having some magical affinity. Eddie hoped so for Christopher’s sake because it made it easier to navigate the world.

When they were a couple of minutes out, Tommy was able to speak directly to the 118 instead of the IC. “118, this is Harbor 1.”

“Harbor 1, Captain Nash speaking. It’s good to hear your voice, Tommy.”

“I’d say you too, Bobby, but not sure why the captain is up on that roof,” Tommy snarked.

Bobby huffed a laugh, and it sounded a little strained. “Backing up my people.”

“Yeah. Diaz is on the winch. His plan is to bring you up in a tandem harness. One civilian and a firefighter for the first three trips, and then two firefighters for the last trip. You need to be quick, Captain. We’re going to be pushing our capacity here.”

There was a brief pause. “I hear you. I’m sending up my lead paramedic and a young teenager first, then our probationary firefighter Ravi Panikkar with the mother. Then, paramedic Han with the father. I’ll be up on the last trip with Firefighter Anders.”

“Sounds good. We’re less than thirty seconds out.”

“I know you’re coming from the north, but the smoke is heaviest. Your visibility will be zero. We’re on the south corner. The center of the roof is likely unstable.”

“Understood. Eddie’s taking over comms. We’ll be adding a few extra seconds for me to navigate around the smoke because I see it, and I definitely have to go around.” Tommy closed the connection.

“Dios,” Eddie whispered, not pressing the button to open his mic. The smoke was thick and black, pouring heavily from multiple floors of the high-rise building.

“Yeah.” Tommy deftly navigated the helicopter around the worst of the smoke-causing visibility issues, and Eddie could now easily see the rippling in the center of the roof. The building was huge, so he could only hope the south corner would stay stable long enough for them to pull this off.

He was already in position at the winch, and as soon as Tommy had the helicopter hovering, he opened the door and activated his radio. “You ready, Henrietta?” He dropped down two tandem harnesses.

“Call me Henrietta, Edmundo, and see how ready I am,” she shot back over the radio.

“Get in the bird, and you can decide what I call you, but as long as you’re stuck on a roof, I’ll decide on the names.” He watched intently as she was rapidly assisted into the harness by Chimney and Anders. The civilian family was doing their best to be calm, but the flames licking at the edge of the roof twenty feet away were causing everyone anxiety.

There was a firm tug on the line as she tested the connection. “We’re good, Eddie. Bring us up.”

Panikkar was already in the second harness, having been assisted by Bobby, and they were in the process of helping the mother so they could go as soon as Eddie could lower the winch line again. He’d also drop the first harness as soon as Hen was out of it. It wasn’t an ideal fit for a teen on the smaller side, but they were making do in a dire situation, and Hen was ideal to handle it.

“Good to see you, Eddie,” Hen murmured a few moments later as she patted his shoulder briefly after she got the kid buckled in, then moved to see how she could assist.

“Wish it were in better circumstances,” Eddie returned, all his focus on beginning to pull up the 118 probie and the mother they’d rescued from the fire.

“Truth. We need to have you and Tommy over again. It’s been too long, and Denny misses Christopher.”

Eddie nodded. “We’ll make it happen.” Navigating Shannon could be a pain, but they’d figure it out. She had primary physical custody, but it wasn’t uncommon for her to ask at the last minute on many—most—nights for Eddie and Tommy to keep Christopher. Eddie was always happy to have his son, and Tommy adored Chris, so it was never an issue, but if they pushed for more scheduled time, Shannon dug her heels in about the custody arrangement, and then they wouldn’t see Chris for days.

Their attorney had advised them to keep a careful track of all of Shannon’s rescheduled dates and how she actually had Chris less than twenty percent of the time, so they could petition for a change of custody. They were just about at the point of pushing forward with the legal challenge.

Shannon had even called this morning and asked him to keep Cristopher tonight, but he’d had to remind her that it was their shift day, and they wouldn’t be off until morning. She’d huffed dramatically like them working their scheduled days, which she had posted on her refrigerator, was a major inconvenience. She said she’d try calling Pepa before hanging up on him.

He got Panikkar and a violently coughing woman into the helicopter, grateful Hen was on board to take care of the medical issues. The probie was on the ball and had the line ready for Eddie to send back down. “Need my help?”

“As soon as you’re out of your harness, get it dropped down to Bobby, then stand by, ready to help Chim and the father on board. Looks like Hen is going to be busy.”

“Will do.”

Panikkar seemed calm and competent, so Eddie turned his full attention to getting his least-liked teammate from the 118 and his civilian passenger onto the helicopter. Howard Han had always rubbed Eddie the wrong way, but Eddie had never said anything to anyone about his misgivings. He’d just never allowed himself to get close to the guy who was nearly the same age as their captain but talked like he partied like a frat boy and treated women like commodities.

He’d never understand how Chimney and Hen could be such good friends when Chim was so trashy in his behavior towards women. It’s like Hen had a very deliberate blind spot on the subject, and it was apparent that Karen quietly couldn’t stand him. Though, to be fair, Eddie had no idea what had gone on in Chimney’s life for the last couple of years.

They saw Karen and Hen on a semi-regular basis, though somewhat less frequently over the last six months, as life had been busy juggling the Shannon shenanigans. He also occasionally had dinner with Bobby and his new family, Athena Grant and her children from her first marriage. Chris and Harry were pretty good friends, and Athena facilitated them spending time together by interfacing with Shannon directly, which seemed to work wonders. Eddie suspected that Shannon was intimidated as fuck by Athena. Who wouldn’t be?

But they had no reason to hang out with Chimney. They’d tried once, because Tommy was reconnecting with an old friend after meeting Eddie. Tommy was the one who realized how little he had in common with Chimney anymore, who kept trying to get Eddie to pick up girls with him, despite knowing Eddie was in a budding relationship with Tommy.

The night hadn’t ended well, and there hadn’t been a repeat.

“Diaz…” Panikkar said sharply. “Southeast wall.”

Eddie had to focus on too many things at once, and his primary job was to get people on the copter, so he’d missed the buckling of the southeast wall. Chimney and passenger were halfway up, and he wasn’t keeping a great hold on his charge.

He opened up the radio. “Bobby, the southeast wall is buckling. Your situation is—”

“I’ve been watching the flames. This was always a crapshoot,” Bobby replied calmly.

Tommy’s voice came over the line. “We were closest since we were doing a drop off, but they’d dispatched Harbor 2 at the same time. It’s still five minutes out.”

“It’s not going to take Eddie five minutes to get them in and drop the line to us, Tommy. It might take ninety seconds. But I think the roof could go in thirty.”

Eddie swore under his breath. He couldn’t safely winch any faster than he was, and he couldn’t winch more than two people at a time.

“Hen, my phone is tucked in my turnouts. There’s a letter for Athena and all my kids in the notes app.”

“Bobby—”

But Eddie could see the writing on the wall. Almost literally, since the buckling of the wall was more apparent and getting closer to compromising Bobby’s position. As it was, they’d have to move slightly to do their last pickup, assuming it was even possible.

Hen sucked in breath, but she didn’t argue. “I hear you.”

“Bobby, I’m dropping our auxiliary line,” Eddie said firmly. “You clip on. The minute the weight is off the winch, I’m going to switch over and start pulling you up. It could get dicey if the roof starts to go.”

“Only if you swear to release the line if the roof gives way and—”

“I swear I won’t let an attempt to rescue you bring the rest of us down.”

“All right.”

Eddie was grateful for Panikkar’s quiet competence as he had to split his attention between getting Chimney on board and getting the auxiliary line to Bobby. But he definitely noticed when, about ten seconds before Chimney would be on board, the probie went stiff as a board, and Tommy and Hen both swore loudly.

“Tommy?” Eddie barked out.

“Magic! A lot of it.”

“It almost hurts,” Panikkar muttered, beginning to pant like he was in physical pain.

Eddie shot him a sharp look, and the guy’s skin had lost some color as he was hunched over a bit, but still looking over the edge, focused on the job.

The line on the winch began to sway, and Chimney was yelling. Eddie looked out of the helicopter to find Chimney grappling with the father, who seemed to be reacting like the probie while swearing up a storm.

Unable to slow down, Eddie kept up on the winch until he could reach out, with assistance from Panikkar, and grab both men by the harness and force them onto the floor of the helicopter.

The father was wild-eyed and panting, but the probie was practically sitting on him so that he and Hen could unhook the main line from the winch.

Eddie didn’t even take time to be delicate about it; he switched over to the auxiliary line, “I’m bringing you up, Bobby, I hope you’re hooked in, because it got dicey up here, and I’m not even sure—”

“We’re hooked in.” Bobby sounded breathless. “Fire’s out. Structure is still messed up, and we were seconds from going through the roof, but we’d have hit debris, not flames.”

“How could the fire be out?” Tommy asked.

“Fire elemental. I can feel it,” Bobby said, wonder in his voice. Bobby had a deep fire affinity, so he’d know.

Many firemen had fire affinities, but an affinity for fire often meant higher tolerances for heat or some small control over flame. Some people could shape hot metal with their hands when their magic was in play, but it didn’t make them ultimately fireproof. Too many people with fire affinities had learned to their own detriment that fire could eventually overcome their magic. The exception was true elemental. People who seemed like they were born from fire, could command fire, walk through fire, and, historically, the greatest could walk through a river of lava. Bobby’s gift was enough that he was able to save his first family and a lot of other people from a bad structural fire in his hometown. Eddie didn’t know the whole story, but he knew that it somehow led to Bobby and Marcy divorcing and then moving to LA together to raise their kids. Marcy had remarried, and so had Bobby. The kids split their time between families.

“I’ve never felt anything like it,” Bobby continued as Eddie went through the careful work of bringing them up. The fire might be out, but the structure wasn’t safe, and there wasn’t a way to get them down other than the helicopter. “I can’t imagine there are more than a couple of elementals in the world who could accomplish this.”

“Do any of them live in LA?” Chimney asked, muscling in next to Eddie.

Eddie pushed him over towards the seat. “Sit. Buckle in. As soon as they’re on board, we’re leaving.”

“No,” Bobby answered Chimney’s question. “I didn’t even know that any lived in the US, but the deep elementals can be secretive about their power.”

A deep elemental was a fraction of a percent of the magically gifted. They were known to be secretive about their powers, but also known to not usually be amongst the elitist types about their magic.

“Twenty seconds, Tommy, and they’ll be on board.” The roof of the building caved in literally underneath them, sending up a cloud of choking dust.

“Hen,” Tommy barked, “get everyone masked up.”

“Got it. That timing sucked. Or it was great. I’ll decide later.”

Eddie couldn’t take his hands off the winch, but he surrendered to Hen directing Ravi to put Eddie’s SCBA mask on.

“Eddie, let me know the minute they’re on board so I can move us up out of this dust cloud.”

“Understood. Ten seconds.” Then he had his hands on Bobby’s harness as Panikkar helped pull in Bobby and Anders.

“They’re in Tommy. Keep it sane for the first ten seconds and we’ll have the door secure.”

Tommy moved straight up while Eddie worked swiftly to get everything secured, then began checking over everyone. “I know it’s a tight fit, but we’ve got landing clearance about four blocks from here, so we’ll have everyone out of this squeeze shortly.”

Bobby sat quietly at the edge of his seat and flashed Eddie a smile. “It’s good to see you, Eddie.”

“You too, Bobby. Very glad you’re not needing that note.”

“Truer words…” Bobby glanced out the window, a pensive expression on his face. “I’ve really never felt anything like that. I didn’t know that kind of power even existed.”

“What was it like?” Eddie asked curiously, as he worked on securing the equipment out of the way in their tight squeeze.

“Who cares?” Chimney snapped. “LA is better off for not having deep elementals running around. Whoever it is can go back where they came from.”

Hen shot him a reproving look. “Whoever it is might have just saved our captain and colleague’s life. Not to mention all the firefighters still righting this five-alarm nightmare.”

Bobby ignored them both. “For me, it was like a magical synergy. I think everyone with a fire affinity in LA had to feel something when that happened. Whatever it was that happened.”

~*~

Despite the desire to talk over what had happened, not to mention catch up, they were all on the job. The 118 had civilians to tend to, and Eddie and Tommy had to get back to Harbor. They were cleared to land at a helipad four blocks away. An ambulance and the ladder truck from the 118 were waiting on them, so Eddie didn’t feel bad making a quick goodbye and climbing back into the helicopter.

He glanced over at Tommy.

His lover took a deep breath. “Weird day?”

“Super weird day. Let’s hope it stops. None of the probies said the q-word, right?”

Tommy barked a laugh. “Try to remember you’re not superstitious.”

“I could be persuaded on a day like today.”

“Yeah. You were focused on the people, but I was watching the sky and the building, so I had the bird’s-eye view of a fifty-story building in flames, then the flames suddenly being sucked right out of it. Like sucking the air out of a Ziplock bag.” Tommy got the helicopter in the air.

“It was that dramatic?”

“Yeah. Shooting flames just disappeared into the windows. It was absurd.”

“Could a deep fire elemental have been in LA all this time and no one knew?”

“It’s always possible.” Tommy looked pensive. “People always get weird about certain affinities. If there are bad fires and they find out that deep magical gifts were around but didn’t do anything, they can get very hostile.”

“Yeah…I’ve heard some of the stories.” Eddie sighed. Power of that sort was extremely rare, but people could make assumptions without facts.

There was a woman in Texas whom people assumed to be deeply aligned with air. When there was a tornado, and she didn’t do anything to lessen the damage to her neighbors, people became hostile and took it out on her property and even her livestock. Only for it to be later revealed that she only had a middling connection with Earth. She used what magical aptitude she had to learn rituals to help her control air currents in her garden to bolster her earth-based gifts, but it wasn’t a true natural elemental gift for air.

The law and the courts had been on her side, but the damage to her trust in her community had already been done. She’d left Texas and never looked back. The community had hopefully learned not to assume. But either way, the law said she wasn’t obligated to do something regardless.

If a deep elemental was living in LA, especially through some of their fire seasons, and had never come forth, they would be within their rights, but people would take it poorly. There would be fallout from the day either way, but Eddie had no idea which way it would go.

“I like a busy shift as much as anyone,” Eddie pulled out his phone, wanting to check in on things, “but I wouldn’t mind some downtime to eat and relax. It’s been one call after the other today.”

“Food. I’m going to resort to those sawdust bars Mullens keeps in the med kit if I don’t get to eat soon.”

“You’re in luck,” he offered as he scanned his text messages. “Lucy grabbed a ton of food when they hitched a ride back to Harbor, so there’s going to be plenty to eat.” He checked his watch and the time she’d indicated on her text. “We might even get back close to when they arrive.”

“You’ve got your phone in your hand, but you still check your watch,” Tommy said, sounding amused. “Never change.”

Eddie huffed. “I can’t help it.”

“I know.” Tommy shot him a loving smile, which he rarely indulged in while they were working, then focused on getting back to Harbor. Captain Brooks wouldn’t have a problem with them eating first, and then Tommy could take care of prepping the helicopter for its next run. Tommy was at close to his max flight hours for the shift, so he’d have to work the rest of the shift as ground crew or as support crew for the next pilot in primary rotation.

They were soon landing back at their station, but Tommy almost immediately got tense as soon as they were out of the helicopter.

“What’s up?” Eddie moved close, but not too close to Tommy’s space.

“Big magical energy.” Tommy frowned at the building.

“You say that in the same tone you say big dick energy,” Eddie whispered.

Tommy choked.

Eddie smiled and began walking into the building, feeling successful for having broken the tension. He wasn’t sure what was up with all the magical presences around today, but there was nothing he could do about it, and he was hungry.

Tommy caught up to him just as he was clearing the bay doors. “It feels the same as—”

Eddie stopped in his tracks because standing with Captain Brooks was the same man who’d been on the roof of the helipad at the hospital. And he was definitely looking right at Eddie.

Brooks made a sharp gesture, indicating for Tommy and Eddie to join them.

Warily, Eddie and Tommy joined the two, aware of everyone else watching but staying way back. They’d clearly already been warned to give them space for whatever the hell this was.

“Tommy, Eddie, I’d like to introduce you to the Lieutenant Marshal with—”

“There’s only one agency with that rank,” Tommy cut in, crossing his arms. “You’re with the Magical Enforcement Agency.”

“Magical Crimes Investigations, to be specific,” the man who was every bit as tall as Tommy, though not as broad, replied with a smile that just made him stupidly more attractive.

“Lieutenant Marshal is their second-highest rank, I believe.”

“Highest field investigator rank. Obtaining the rank of Marshal takes one out of the field. But we all tend to go by Marshal for short. Rather than Corporal Marshal, Lieutenant Marshal… Just Marshal DiNozzo is fine.” He handed a business card to both Tommy and Eddie.

“And what did you need with us, Marshal…” Tommy glanced at the card. “Anthony DiNozzo.”

“Serve you with this magical writ and advise you, Mr. Diaz, that the Magical Enforcement Agency has taken custody of your son.”

The card slipped from Eddie’s fingers. “What?”

“And I also want to apologize in advance for this.”

“For what?”

DiNozzo nodded his head, and it felt like Eddie was blasted in the back with pure energy. He registered Tommy yelling, but the world went dark.