Phoenix Rising

by Erica Stevens

  Beyond the glass she could feel the cold press of the snow as it began to melt. The Elders hadn't buried them in the house with the intention of killing them, but even so Cassie worried about the water beginning to drip around her feet. No, they didn't plan to suffocate them beneath this snow and water, but they were hoping to burn her powers out.

  Chris stepped back as more water seeped around the melting window and into the kitchen. Small flames sparked and flickered to life out of the tips of her fingers. She could feel the heat of it but it wasn't painful. In fact, she found the sensation almost pleasurable as it warmed her flesh and danced over her skin. Though Chris had been kidding, she was a little afraid she may set the house on fire.

  Devon rested his hand on her shoulder as he pressed closer to her side. "You can do this."

  Cassie swallowed heavily as the flames flickered higher and began to encircle her wrist. They seemed to be staying close to her body but a small ember leapt up to catch at the curtain. Devon yanked it off the door and stomped on the small flames. Annabelle pulled a fire extinguisher from underneath the kitchen sink.

  "Just in case," she muttered as she aimed the nozzle at Cassie.

  That would be the perfect topper, Cassie thought as she shifted her stance and pressed more firmly against the glass. Incandescent colors twirled and spread through the melding glass as it slid further into the massive snow bank outside. "Water drowns fire," Cassie murmured as water began to seep into her sneakers.

  "I'm going to drown Elspet," Julian muttered as he tapped a stake against his palm. "I never did like that girl."

  "She used to be so subdued," Devon commented.

  "That was a front. Believe me, there's more to that sea monster than meets the eye."

  Cassie grit her jaw and narrowed her eyes. She hoped Julian was right, as much as she hated the nickname she hoped she was like a solar panel and that she had enough energy stored to carry them through this battle. "It won't be me," she whispered.

  "What won't be you?" Dani inquired.

  "What Matthew saw, it won't be me."

  Devon pressed a kiss against her temple. "It won't be," he murmured before turning away. "Julian, come with me."

  "Where?"

  "They won't be able to get in through the windows but they can make it through the front door."

  ***

  Devon hoisted the crossbow against his shoulder as he pulled back the curtain to reveal the mound of snow piled against the front door. "They're trying to burn her out," Julian said.

  "I'm not sure they can," Devon told him. He dropped the crossbow to his side as he stared at the wall of white.

  "Devon..."

  "You were right Julian. She's going to get through this, she's stronger than all of us, and she's most certainly stronger than them. Even if she does burn out they won't be able to break her spirit. No matter what happens though, Robert is mine."

  Julian's mouth curved in a smile as he leaned back on his heels. "Are you ready for that?"

  "I'm more than ready for that. It should have been done years ago and after what he did to her... He's mine Julian."

  Julian spread his hands before him. "I won't object, though I wouldn't mind getting a few good blows in too."

  "Be my guest."

  "No matter what Zane plans, Robert will still try to kill her."

  "I'm counting on it," Devon assured him.

  "Devon!" Melissa's shout from the kitchen drew his attention back that way. "I think she's almost through!"

  Devon set the crossbow against his shoulder again. "I think it's time to play."

  "I've been waiting to play for awhile now." Julian cracked his knuckles as his lip curled back to reveal one of his gleaming fangs. "This is going to be better than cotton candy."

  "You are the strangest being I've ever met," Devon informed him.

  Julian was still smiling as he brushed past him and headed toward the kitchen. A puddle of water about a half an inch deep coated the floor and part of the hallway rug. The fire had spread to Cassie's elbows, though it wasn't burning her and the sweater she wore was untouched by the flames. It seemed that if the flames stayed against her they wouldn't burn anything, but the sparks that shot off burned whatever they hit. He'd never seen anything like it. He knew Adon never would have been able to create such a thing without setting everything on fire or being engulfed and consumed by the flames.

  He could only stand and stare as pride bloomed in his chest. She was so determined and focused. She wasn't the teenage girl who had shied away from him outside of B's and S's. She wasn't the frightened woman that had escaped the school with Julian; she was no longer the uncertain and terrified vampire that had risen from death. She was confident and proud, and there would be no stopping her.

  He stepped forward as the last of the glass melted beneath her hands and water poured in around her. A muscle twitched in her cheek as she took a step back. "Oh no," she whispered seconds before Elspet took control of the water and it rushed up from the floor.

  Devon lunged forward and grabbed hold of Cassie. He pulled her against his chest and covered her with his body as the droplets drove against them in ice cold shards that nearly pushed him to his knees. Screams filled the kitchen; he could barely lift his head against the stunning tumult. Cassie's fingers dug into his shirt, her hands still radiated heat as she clutched at him.

  Water splashed against the floor in a cascading echo that reminded him of hundreds of water balloons bursting. The ensuing silence echoed in his ears as he straightened up. "I must have that power," Cassie ground out between her chattering teeth.

  Devon brushed her tangled wet hair over her shoulders. "You're going to have to beat Julian to her."

  Julian looked like a drowned rat as he pushed the hair back from his forehead. "I'm going to rip that mermaid to shreds and flush her down a toilet. She's mine Buttercup, stay away from her."

  "Well at least one good thing came out of the ice bath." Chris wrapped his arms around himself as he shivered. His lips were already turning a shade of blue. "We can get outside."

  "Two good things came out of it, she's tired," fresh flames flickered from the tips of Cassie's fingers and circled back up around her hand to her wrist. "I'm not."

  CHAPTER 21

  The last place Luther felt like being was in the bowels of this building, in a place that still had Cassie's blood staining the floor, and two charred bodies in the middle of the aisle. It sure wasn't the place that he would like to have a bunch of kids. "Put the younger ones in there, I'm going to need help getting these bodies out of here though," he told the older boy.

  The teen herded the children into the first side room and closed the door. Luther stared at the still ajar steel door they'd entered through. He was half tempted to leave it open, but he knew The Elders could be in this room before he even heard them enter the basement. He took a steadying breath and slid the heavy door shut.

  The teen had reentered the hall when Luther turned around. His light brown eyes were suspicious as he eyed Luther. "I'm not one of them. I mean I was, I am a Guardian, but that duty means something entirely different to me than it did to these people. I'll die before I let anyone hurt you again," Luther said honestly.

  "You killed Anne."

  Luther straightened his shoulders as he met the teens unwavering gaze. He appeared fifteen at most but his eyes were those of an old man. "I did."

  "Thank you."

  Luther didn't know how to take that. He hoped that one day they would be able to offer these children some sort of a normal life, but he wondered if they'd ever be able to ease the damage that had been done to them. "Do you feel comfortable helping me with the bodies?"

  "Completely."

  Luther didn't know how to take that either. He found some discarded sheets on the floor, sheets he suspected contained Cassie's blood as he lifted them up and tossed one to the young man. He knew it was the young man that had been in the kitchen when he'd first arrived in the orphanage, but he
couldn't recall his name. "My name's Luther."

  "Lou."

  Luther wrapped the first body up in one of the sheets before nodding to Lou to grab his feet. Luther tried to ignore the feel of the charred remains as they carried him into the room that Lou indicated. If he hadn't just gotten a clean bill of health from his doctor he thought he might have had a heart attack when he spotted the hideous contents in the small bathroom.

  "What were they doing?"

  He hadn't realized he'd spoken aloud until Lou responded. "Nothing good."

  Luther didn't feel one bit of remorse about unceremoniously dropping the man on the floor. They hauled the woman into the room next and Luther slammed and locked the door. He dropped the remaining sheet over Cassie's puddle of blood on the floor. He found the vision of that far more disturbing than the charred marks on the floor.

  "Do you know where the exits are out of here?" Luther inquired.

  "I only knew that some of the children that came down here never came back."

  A shiver ran down Luther's spine, he thought he might become violently ill. "You never came down here?"

  "They only brought The Hunters here."

  "And you're not a Hunter."

  "No, the little ones are The Hunters. They're the only ones left," Lou couldn't meet his gaze as he focused on the floor.

  "It wasn't bad enough that the vampires hunted us to near extinction, but these madmen were helping them to destroy us too." Luther simply couldn't wrap his head around it, everything he'd always known had been a lie, and yet he still firmly believed in what he did and what he was. If they managed to make it out of this he would continue to do what he believed in, but this time there would be no madmen left to undo it all. "We'll start in that room and work our way through them. We have to find out how Anne escaped here."

  Lou nodded but he was paler than he'd been before as they entered the first room off the hall. Luther tossed the cot aside as the house above him seemed to shudder. He held his breath, his head tilted back as he waited to see if the crashing bang of the house collapsing would accompany the shudder.

  "It won't do us any good to find the tunnel if it all falls on top of us," Lou muttered.

  Luther was more concerned about the people up there, three of which he considered his own children. He should have stayed with them, but even as he thought it he knew that this had been the right choice. He loved the people above but these children needed him more.

  "They won't allow that to happen," Luther assured him as he went back to searching the walls. There was some way out of this place and he was going to find it.

  ***

  "Beautiful." Cassie hated the purred word that slid from Zane's mouth as they spread out across the snow covered yard. The snow she'd melted from the backdoor had already refrozen to create a sheet of ice on the porch steps. "Just beautiful princess."

  The fire licked across her fingertips and up to her elbows. It was the only source of heat she had against the cold enshrouding her. She didn't know how long the others would be able to keep moving before they turned into solid blocks of ice. She hadn't expected the, 'I'll freeze my enemies,' method of attack but she was frightened that it was going to turn into a rather effective one.

  The Elders seemed to almost float over the snow as they came steadily closer. They appeared unaffected by the cold, or the fact that they were outnumbered. Devon stood close by her side, his back rigid as his chest brushed protectively against her shoulder. She was half afraid she was going to catch him on fire, but he was able to avoid the flames licking over her.

  "Just remember, no matter what happens I love you," she told him. "I've never regretted one minute of our time together and I never will."

  She glanced briefly at him as his fingers caressed her cheek. "And I'll always love you." Tears burned her eyes as his lips brushed briefly against her temple. "There is nothing in this world, or my lengthy lifetime, that I have loved as much as you."

  Cassie had to tear her gaze away from him as The Elders stopped only twenty feet away from them. "They're too calm," Chris muttered.

  "There are others out there," Cassie told him.

  "Others?"

  "Not Elders, but there are other vampires in the woods," Cassie said. "Waiting for us."

  "Well let's get this party started before I turn into Frosty the Snowman." Chris took a step closer to her as he hefted a crossbow and aimed it at Robert. "I'd love to kill that son of a bitch."

  "Get in line," Devon informed him. "But I will take care of my brother."

  More shadows began to emerge from the woods; their eyes were the most vibrant thing about them as they drifted across the snow toward The Elders that had recruited them. Strands of Cassie's frozen hair blew behind her as the wind began to pick up. No matter what happened, she would make sure that none of them made it out of here alive. These monsters wouldn't be able to spread their misery around the earth anymore.

  She could feel the chill in her friends as they pressed closer against her side in an attempt to briefly defrost themselves before they were inundated by a wave of monsters. There was a thrumming sensation running up and down her spine, her fingers tingled from more than just the fire licking out of them. She didn't know what was keeping her charged, but she could feel her power level amping up as her body began to pulse with adrenaline and excitement. She welcomed the battle, welcomed the thrill of the fight as her fangs pressed against the inside of her lip.

  "Brace yourselves," she breathed.

  Before anyone could even blink, she knelt swiftly and slammed her hand upon the earth. Unlike the hall where she'd seen the electric charge slither across the floor like a snake toward her enemies, this shot out of her like a lightning bolt. She barely even saw it seconds before it sizzled into the creatures standing across from her and knocked them back. The younger vamps that emerged from the woods were thrown backwards. Some of them didn't rise again as the tops of their heads had been blown off by the electrical blast.

  She didn't give The Elders time to react but leapt back to her feet and raced across the snow at them. Elspet, she reminded herself as she veered off course from Zane and at the small girl with the startling ability to control water. Elspet sensed what she intended though as she dodged out of Cassie's way and straight into Julian's arms.

  Julian was grinning savagely as he overtook the smaller girl. His smile faded and he grimaced as his skin came into contact with Elspet's. She screamed and squirmed in his grasp but he held firmly to her as he sank his fangs into her neck. An inhuman howl ripped from Elspet and echoed across the landscape as Cassie lurched forward.

  Julian jerked back as he tore his fangs free of Elspet's neck. "No!" he shouted at her.

  But it was already too late as Cassie's hands came into contact with the eccentric vampire's chilly skin. She felt like she'd been kicked in the chest by a horse as horrific images exploded in her head. She'd touched Devon and Julian, she knew what they had done, knew what they could be capable of, but this woman, this woman was something entirely different. This woman had bathed in her evil, she'd relished in the blood of innocents, and there had been so many innocents. Elspet hadn't been drawn here to capture her, or as part of Zane's crazy mission. She had come here for the children.

  Cassie didn't realize she was on her knees until Chris grabbed hold of her and yanked her back. She didn't know she was screaming until snow fell into her open mouth and choked the sound from her. "Cassie!" Chris leaned over her as he pushed the hair back from her face. "Cassie!"

  She dazedly stared up at him as she grappled to get past the horrible images still careening around her brain. She was still struggling to rid herself of the images when Bernard loomed over them with a massive wooden pole.

  Snow shot up around them as Cassie threw her arms up and blasted it into his face. Bernard staggered backwards, but even though she now had the ability to control water, it hadn't been worth it. Seeing into Elspet, seeing what that thing had done over the years, had not
been worth the new power surging through her. Cassie managed to turn herself over and push herself onto her hands and knees. She was brought up short by a pair of legs she instinctively knew were attached to Zane, and not the right Zane.

  "What's the matter Princess can't handle a little insight?"

  Fury tore through her as she launched herself forward and tackled him around the waist. Heat flared through her arms and into her fingertips. It didn't matter if it was the right Zane or not, she was going to make him burn. His clothes lit on fire, she briefly smelt burning hair before he vanished beneath her.

  Staggering back to her feet she spun toward The Elders at the same time that Octavia used her telekinesis to throw her back a good ten feet. She barely had time to right herself before she spotted the massive tree branch coming at her like a missile. Cassie flung her hands up and sent the branch spiraling away seconds before it would have impaled her through the chest.

  Joey leapt in front of her and lifted the thing that looked like a flame thrower to his shoulder as Cassie regained her footing. Hundreds of arrows exploded from it in a puff of smoke that trailed above him. They shot through the air on a deadly trajectory with Octavia. One of the versions of Zane leapt forward to block some of them but the rest crashed into Octavia and a grouping of the newer vamps The Elders had brought with them. Octavia didn't receive a killing blow but a handful of other vampires kicked and squirmed in their death throes as they fell into the snow.

  "Thanks," Cassie muttered.

  Joey nodded as he tossed the weapon aside and broke out a crossbow. "I owe you more than that."

  Cassie wasn't going to argue with that statement, but she didn't have time to agree with him either. She plunged back into the fray, aiming for the weakened Octavia as she spotted Devon honing in on his brother.