Phoenixash: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Rogue Witch Book 4)

by KT Strange

  “Wolfe’s sleeping already, but you’re good to go in and make yourself comfortable. He said it’s similar to what you had back at your space.” Frank got out onto the sleek grass that grew beside a low cabin, made out of hewn logs with a timber roof. Light burnt through curtains on the windows. It wasn’t that big, but we’d only be here for a few days while we sorted things out and figured out what happened next, right?

  Beside us, the creek rushed over rocks, filling the air with the soothing sound of water. My muscles were more relaxed than they had been in hours, and finally the tension was leaving me.

  “Thanks, Frank, did you want to stay for a bit?” Eli asked, his voice warm when he addressed the young wolf. Frank shook his head.

  “No, you guys get settled. There’s some food in the fridge if you’re hungry. Come up to the big house after you’ve slept.” He pointed up the hill, but I couldn’t see anything even in the dawn light. Wherever it was, it was hidden behind the pine trees.

  Frank gave Ace one more hard hug, and then ran off, waving as he went. He was fast, disappearing over the hill before I knew it. My guys exchanged looks, some more weary and pained than others.

  “Let’s unpack after we sleep,” Cash offered, knowing what we were all thinking. Eli nodded and opened up the door to the cabin, letting it swing in. I followed Finn up onto the covered porch, wet, long grass brushing against my legs as we walked. The inside was... rustic. A long, low rounded wood burning furnace sat in the middle of the room, painted black and throwing off heat in the chilly air. Light glowed around the grate. There were some old couches, thrown with patch work blankets, and a rough-hewn table for eating at. It was long too, with twelve stumps for seats positioned around it. The floor was wood, with rugs scattered in the living area. A door in the back made me think that was where the bedroom lay.

  “Dusty,” Charlie commented.

  “I’ll take dusty and safe over spotless and overrun with fucking hunters,” Finn commented, weariness in his voice. “That the bedroom?” He was headed toward it even without an answer. He must’ve been so tired.

  “Where’s the bathroom?” Cash mused as he surveyed the small kitchen area, with a fridge and a hotplate. It wasn’t much, but we’d made do with worse on tour. And like Finn said, the place was hunter-free.

  “Outside,” Eli was amused. “Au naturel, right?” I followed Finn as he opened the door to the bedroom. I peeked around him.

  “He did say it was similar to what we were used to.” Finn scratched the back of his head. Inside the room, two sets of bunk beds were pushed up against one side, and three queen beds lined the back wall, made up with a mountain of pillows and blankets. What kind of visitors did a vampire and a wolf pup get, out in the middle of nowhere like Wolfe and Frank were? Finn exchanged a significant look with me. “Want to help me push them together?” he asked.

  “Luxury, this is, we even get box springs,” I commented. “You shouldn’t be pushing anything. I’ll get Cash to help.” Finn grumbled, but leaned against the ladder of one of the bunk beds as we arranged the beds so they were touching. There was more than enough space for all of us to be comfortable that night. Finn pretty much fell into bed at one end in case he needed to get up, so he wouldn’t have to crawl over everyone. Without another thought, I shed most of my clothes, leaving my shirt on. It was cooler in the bedroom, without the big wood burning boiler to heat it. I curled up next to him, stealing a pillow. There was a soft scent in the room, underlying everything else. I inhaled it deeply, and it soothed me. I couldn’t quite place it. I took another deep breath—

  “Werewolf packs,” Finn commented softly as the other guys made noise in the front room, bringing in a few things that we might need as soon as we woke up. “There’s been werewolf packs here. Lots of them. I can smell it in the air, so can you. They were sleeping in here.”

  That was an oddly comforting thought.

  “What’s a vampire doing having wolves stay on his property?” I asked, even as sleep tugged at me.

  “Guess he lives up to his reputation,” Finn murmured, then rolled over. “C’mere.” His hand reached for me. I wriggled over to him and sighed, getting comfortable as I shared a bit of his pillow.

  “You think we’re safe here?”

  “Safe as anywhere, more so,” Finn’s voice was growing sleepier. He sounded heavy, like each word was a struggle to say. “But you got this, right? Hunters burst in that door, just fry ‘em and come back to bed. What do you say?”

  I wanted to answer him, really I did, but I was already falling asleep.

  The bed was empty all around me when I woke up next, the door to the bedroom flung in. Warm sun streaked across the floor, reaching through the door. It was still quite dark, and when I looked around I realized the bedroom had no windows. I wondered if that was for... safety? Or to let sleepy werewolves not be bothered by the sun? It was a vampire’s cottage. It made sense there’d be no windows in the bedroom, given how much Wolfe complained about the sun.

  Cash popped into the doorway, a cup of something steaming in his hand. He gave me a smile when he saw I was awake.

  “Thought I heard you,” he said. “Coffee?”

  “Oh god, yes, please.” I sat up, my mouth feeling like something had died in it. Fifty-fifty odds that the coffee would help the taste, but I was willing to try anything. He sat down on the edge of the bed and passed me the cup. Inhaling the vapors woke me up more and I stretched my legs under the blanket. “So what’s the good word?”

  “Wolfe’s got a lot of space here,” Cash said as he watched me drink my coffee. “Room to run around, if that’s what we wanted. Sounds like he’s had a lot of packs come shelter with him over the years until they’ve moved on to wherever they’re going. It was hard to believe that a vampire of all things would ever look out for us, but—” Cash shrugged and sighed. “Not a lot of good cell phone service up here, but Charlie already called the label and told them you weren’t feeling so hot. Willa says feel better.”

  I made a face and drank another slow gulp of coffee. It was perking me up, and the scent of fresh air curdling in from outside was helping.

  “I’m going to need to figure that out if we’re here for more than a few days.”

  Cash leaned over and kissed my cheek, his hand cupping the small of my back. His lips brushed over my ear and I sighed, relaxing further.

  “We’ll figure it out together,” he promised. “Your backpack is at the foot of the bed. Get dressed. This place is amazing, and you’re going to want to come see it.”

  Cash wasn’t a liar. The property, well, the cleared part of it anyway, overlooked a lake in the distance, with a velvety carpet of forest running from the lower cabin all the way to the water’s edge. The creek, Frank told me, would take us there if we walked along it. Up over the hill, the big cabin sat, another log house, but this one bigger, with high peaked windows that overlooked the valley it stood at the top of. The air was fresh, and even Finn looked completely rested when I joined the guys outside around a fire pit. They’d unloaded all the gear into the cabin while I’d been sleeping, so nothing would get wrecked as the temperature and weather changed, and Eli passed me half a sandwich left over from when they’d made lunch earlier.

  I took a big bite, and eyed our surroundings.

  “So camping is nice,” I commented, “but what’s the plan?”

  “Well, there’s no way that we can go back to the jam space now that we’ve been made,” Charlie said, not looking at me. He was slowly toasting a long stick in the fire, watching the end glow and crumble to ash. Eli gave a deep nod, frown on his face.

  “I’ll have to tell the landlord we’re breaking our lease,” he said. Charlie laughed, although it sounded empty.

  “The untold stories of being hunted, breaking leases and losing damage deposits. Nobody ever talks about that in werewolf movies.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. I took another bite of my sandwich and looked at each of my boys. Frank was sitting nea
r Ace, watching the discussion with a look on his face like he’d heard this kind of talk before.

  “You could be like Gryphon pack, and join a traveling circus,” he offered helpfully. “They said it was really nice. They’re in a new city every week, and the smell of food and the circus animals covers up their scent well enough that hunters haven’t ever figured them out.”

  Eli gave Frank a smile.

  “Good idea. We’re already on the road a lot so I’m thinking we might want to talk to the label and see if we can’t go on a longer, solo tour. No opening acts. No big headliner. Just book us in as far from Seattle as we can get. If we’re in a new city every night, they’ll never catch up with us.” Eli stretched his legs out in front of him, and closed his eyes. It looked like he was enjoying the crackle of the flames. I did miss being on the road, just us, in our small tour van, the scent of my loves all around me, and feeling like hunters would never catch up to us. The idea had more than a small amount of appeal.

  “Think that would work around your schooling?” Finn asked, turning to me. He was shifting his shoulders, seeming to be testing out how well he was healing up.

  “As long as Willa’s okay with it,” I said.

  “But that’s running,” Charlie spoke up, irritation on his face when I glanced at him. “Are we really going to let these fuckers make us run?”

  “Language,” Eli said, shooting a look at Frank whose eyes were wide in his face. Charlie snorted.

  “What like he hasn’t heard worse? How many packs have rolled through here, Frank?”

  Frank shrugged and poked Ace in the knee.

  “Wanna go to the lake?” he asked. Ace cast a worrying gaze over at Charlie and then nodded.

  “Yeah, race you?”

  Frank jumped up and bolted off with a laugh at Ace’s words. Ace gave Charlie a hard glare.

  “Don’t be an asshole,” he said, and then took off after Frank, yelling that he was going to pounce him if he caught up.

  “You need to watch your mouth around the kid,” Eli told Charlie off as soon as the two younger wolves were out of earshot. “Seems like Wolfe’s kept him sheltered, and that’s the best for him. He didn’t deserve the kind of upbringing Ace had, being dragged across the country, never knowing if he’d have enough to eat, or if his pack-mates weren’t going to come back at the end of a day’s work.”

  Charlie’s face was sullen, his shoulders tight. Something was really bothering him, and I think it had a lot to do with the whole ‘running’ thing.

  “Avoiding death isn’t running,” I said, looking right at him. “You wanna fill us in on what’s got you all worked up? Those guys tried to kill us. They nearly got Finn. I think a well-planned retreat is the wise decision in this case.” Charlie’s eyes narrowed and he stared at me, but said nothing.

  “Let’s take some time, see if Wolfe can’t help Darcy a bit more with her powers, and then start ramping up toward another tour,” Cash said. “What else are we going to do? We can’t go back, and I don’t want to stay in Seattle. The label isn’t going to drop us if we move somewhere else, and I think they’d be happier if we got back on the road and showed them we’re willing to work hard after the tour with Glory Rev blew up. The whole thing made us look like slackers in their eyes. We need to fix that.”

  Charlie looked like he was about to explode, a low rumble coming from him that was nothing like the soft purrs my guys usually made when they were content.

  “Fuck the label,” he said, getting to his feet. “We worked fucking hard, for so long, and they’re gonna throw one bad tour in our faces? Have you seen our social media lately? The fans are going crazy over us. They’re lucky to have us on their label.” Finn, Cash, and Eli all stared at Charlie like he’d grown an extra head. I swallowed hard. Charlie’s emotions were still running so hot that he wasn’t going to see reason.

  “I know you want to stay,” I said as gently as I could. “I do too. Max is in Seattle, and no matter what Wolfe says, I’m worried about her. I want to be here too. But we can’t. It’s too risky. I’m not willing to stay and see any of you get hurt.”

  Charlie looked at me, his lips parting for a moment, before he shook his head.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “You guys do what you want. But if you want to leave, I’m out. I’ll go my own way, without you.” He turned on his heel, after dropping that bombshell on us, and stormed off into the woods.

  Eighteen

  Darcy

  Chapter 18: Darcy

  Thank god we have Frank, was all I could keep thinking. The younger wolf either had no idea that we were all fighting, or he was very good at pretending. He dragged me around the property, showing me the sights, and then left me with Wolfe to continue my lessons.

  "Out here," Wolfe said with a wry smile, "there is no one to hear you scream. As in, screaming at me because you are frustrated. So we shall work on your lightning throws, until you are ready to drop. May as well put those strong werewolves to work and let them carry you back to bed, right?"

  He wasn't wrong about making me want to scream at him. It was infuriating to have him go from actively trying to make my powers come to the surface (something I was getting much better at resisting, but it still hurt), to demanding I throw streaks of lightning around. He had a sand pit outside the back of his house, which he said was safe enough for me to be in since I couldn't set any trees on fire there, and he put me to work.

  Over, and over, I drew out the well of lightning inside of me and pushed, that was the only really way I know how to describe it, shoving the crackling electricity from inside me and letting it fly. As I got better at it, sending lighting bolts arcing through the air wasn't the hard part; controlling where they landed was.

  "Are you new?" he asked me at one point, relaxing in a lounge chair, and sun-shading umbrella resting in the crook of his arm so he wouldn't have to be under the punishing rays which were making me sweat. "You are not one of those t-shirt cannons humans think are very clever at football games. Aim! Look at where you wish the lightning to go and will it there!"

  I gritted my teeth. Of course I was new, but saying that to him wouldn't make him back down. He expected better of me, and frequently remarked upon the absolute failings of my family to teach me.

  "Again!" Wolfe ordered from his chair. I bit back a growl and scuffed my feet in the sand, trying to get a handle on the slippery magic that lived inside of me. "Stop acting like a child. You sulk now, but you'll thank me when a hunter finds you in a dark alley and decides he'd like to cut your heart out of your chest."

  That visual was not something I needed and I glared at him.

  "Stop acting like it's so easy then. It's not!" Silence spread between us after my outburst. Wolfe surveyed me, his eyes dark under the shade of his umbrella. He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.

  "You are right, it is not simple. It's not easy." He set aside his umbrella and got to his feet. "But you must learn this. You must." He walked toward me and grabbed my hand, holding it up in front of my face. "What is this?"

  "Um, my hand, but I'm guessing you're going for something a little less literal, right?"

  "This is the only thing between you and death," he said, an urgent look in his eyes. My mouth went dry.

  Well, it wasn't like he was wrong.

  "Why do you care so much?" I said after a moment. "I'm not exactly a grateful student all the time."

  "If you were pleased with everything I made you do, and never complained, I would have doubts about your sanity," he said with a smile before dropping my wrist. "I do this because I owed that horn-head a favor." He cleared his throat. "And I keep teaching you because I believe that you have the power to do what I could not."

  I tried not to huff in irritation. From time to time, he really liked to get vague. It was like he got off on being mystical and all woo-woo-I-know-the-future.

  "The power to do what?"

  "The power to do what you like, without any constraints upon you
." Wolfe's eyes closed for a moment. "I think without the politics and obligations of a witching family to bind you, you will go on to do great things with your powers. I imagine you, standing upon a hilltop, calling up storms that answer to only your command. Lightning will beg for you to mold it, shape it."

  The image was pretty, but I had more practical, more immediate magical concerns. Like creating a heartstone. If I couldn’t even throw a bolt of lightning with any accuracy, how the hell was I going to do some intricate magic like willing a heartstone into existence without killing myself on the spot?

  “Well, you won’t learn if we stand around gawping like cows. Again.”

  I sighed and turned, lifting my hands, willing the lightning to this time, this time, go where it was told.

  The lower cabin was quiet when I dragged myself into it, feeling like I’d been pounded by those meat tenderizers that everyone seemed to have in their kitchen but never used. A low irritated noise drew my attention to one of the couches. Charlie sat there, staring at his phone in disgust. Honestly, I was done in and not in the mood to deal with him and his shitty attitude.

  “Oh, you decided to turn up again, huh?” I asked. “Not going to go sleep on the roof here? Maybe the woods would be better.” My words were cutting and I didn’t care. Charlie lifted his chin to stare at me. His eyes were dark, and he looked like he wanted to reply with something equally vicious. He shook his head and glanced away.

  “I can’t get any cell phone service up here,” he said. I raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah? Is that why you’ve been such a jerk? I mean, you were being a dick down in Seattle, so I don’t think that’s the reason, but hey, I’m open to hearing some excuses.” I stomped over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, popping the top off. Leaning back against the fridge door, I crossed one arm under my breasts and took a long sip of the cold liquid. Charlie was staring at his phone, his mouth a thin line in his face. “What, nothing to say now? You sure said a bunch of things before. Nothing that I could make any sense of, though.”