Nathan wished he could feel the heat from the flames, just so that he could know what she was feeling. Memory tickled in the back of his mind from times when he could actually feel, and the smell of burning flesh came to him. He almost gagged as the stench filled his nose but he tried to tell himself that it was all in his mind. She wasn't burning. Not yet.

Long legs ate up the ground in front of him, trees flashing past in a green and brown haze. Heavy breathing sounded beside him and he was slightly aware of Duke on his heels, just half a heartbeat behind him. Whatever their differences, on this they could agree - Audrey had to be protected. No matter what.

She was calling his name. He could hear the fear underscoring her words, but there was no panic. His mouth quirked up in a proud half-smile - his partner never panicked. The situation was what it was and that was what she had to deal with.

The smoke found them before they found the flames, but as they crested the hill, the roar of orange and red surged at them, hungry for whatever it could sink its teeth into. It raced through the forest with a ravenous zeal and Nathan vaguely wondered if there was any way they were going to keep it all from burning to the ground.

"Nathan!"

She was standing there in the middle of it all, with no way to get out. The fire danced around her as thought it was taunting her, dragging the whole thing out. A small circle of untouched ground surrounded her, but it was quickly disappearing and her voice was hoarse through the heavy smoke.

He never even slowed. A tree to his left had a branch extending over the flames and he jumped up, climbing it with ease. He slid out along the branch carefully, knowing that getting himself killed wouldn't help her. The tree wasn't entirely sure it wanted to hold his weight and he stopped three quarters of the way out, dropping his arm just inside the circle of flames.

"Audrey, jump!"

Her eyes locked with his and then she was moving. He caught her swiftly, the branch groaning under their combined burden. But he lifted her until she could get her other hand wrapped it and then he slid his arm down, grabbing her waist and pulling. The flames shot up like they knew she was getting away and she cried out as they caught a hold of her boot.

But then she was on top of him and he was shouting at her to move, to go, and she crawled back to the safety of the trunk. Nathan sat up and turned himself around, following her as quickly as he could. By the time his feet hit the ground, Duke had wrapped her in his jacket and was holding her tightly.

He stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do. The only thing he wanted was to pull her against him, but he couldn't do that. He didn't initiate their contact. It didn't matter that she was the only thing he could feel or even that she had said it didn't weird her out. He wouldn't make her feel obligated - even if every inch of him was screaming to hold her and never let her go again.

He didn't have to say a thing, though. Audrey gently extricated herself from Duke's grasp and made her way over to him, hands ghosting over his shoulders and arms as though she were making sure that no part of him had caught on fire. And then her arms were wrapped around his torso, burying her head in his shirt. He embraced her automatically, dropping his face into her hair as he let himself kiss the top of her head.

"You came," she whispered.

"Did you really think I wouldn't?"

"He said he'd killed you."

There was a pain in her voice that he recognized - when he thought the shapeshifter had killed her, each word had been an effort. And when he had found her again, safe and relatively unharmed, the relief that had flooded through him had been staggering, threatening to drown him. He tightened his grip on her because he knew, and the only way she was going to feel better was if he did everything he could to reassure her that he was really there.

"Look," Duke said quietly.

Nathan wanted to curse at him for breaking the moment, but Audrey didn't pull away. She simply maneuvered them so they could both see what Duke was pointing at, her head still resting on his chest.

He stared first at her and then at the flames. Now that they weren't surrounding her, they were dying down, as though they were defeated by their victim's escape. They grew smaller and smaller until there was nothing left but smoke and ash, the quiet of the forest finally returning.

"Did you get him?" Audrey asked.

Nathan shook his head. "No."

"We need to find him."

"Yeah."

She sniffled and her hands clutched at the back of his shirt. "In a minute," she whispered.

Nathan held her tighter. "Yeah."