Phoenix Aflame (Alpha Phoenix Book 2)

by Isadora Montrose

  “Swallow the egg of immortality.”

  “I hear it is a piece of live lava.”

  “It is. And yet it won’t harm you. It will transform you into a golden bird.”

  “I do not want to live forever, Harrison. A normal lifespan is quite enough.” She snuggled closer to soften her refusal.

  He chuckled. “Both my phoenix grandparents are dead,” he replied. “Phoenixes are not true immortals. We can regenerate – but not rise from the dead. And when you do, you are remade as a perfect version of your existing self. Pierce regenerated just before he married Diana. He didn’t become a youth again.”

  “Oh.”

  “You won’t believe the closeness. Or the feeling of power. There is nothing like it in the world. And even if that wasn’t true, just being able to fly would be worth it.”

  “Fly?”

  “Soaring over the earth. A bird’s-eye view is a wonderful thing. Never gets old.” His voice was calm, but his body wasn’t. This mattered to him.

  “Will it make you love me more?”

  “Nope. That would not be possible. I love you so much already. At least think about it.”

  “Becky might feel left out.”

  “Maybe. But Quincy is going to be a phoenix anyway. That will be harder for her to live with, and yet I’m sure she’ll cope. She’s got your backbone.”

  “What do we have to do?”

  “We take off our clothes.”

  “See, I like that part already.”

  “And then I put blood on the egg and transform it. You swallow the egg before the sun goes down again.”

  “And I turn into a bird?”

  “Yup. It might take you a few tries to figure out how to do it quickly and I warn you it’s a drain to shift, energy being energy, but it is worth it.”

  “Sounds a bit woo-woo.”

  “And shifting doesn’t?”

  There was that. “Where is this rock?”

  He pushed his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out a leather sack. The rock was just a black stone chip. But when she put a cautious forefinger on it, it flared. She yanked her hand back and peered at her fingertip in the dim firelight.

  “Are you burned?”

  “No. It was scorching hot. But no, I’m not.” The stone continued to flame on Harrison’s bare palm.

  “Will you accept my gift, beloved?”

  “Yes, Harrison, I will.” She matched his solemnity.

  He turned her around. Pulled his car keys out of his pocket. “We’ll go out to the desert.”

  He had to have planned it. He drove unerringly to a cliff and parked. Stars spangled the sky. With the headlights off, it was pitch black out here. She could not see even Harrison properly.

  He took a tiny flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on. “Here, hold this.”

  His hard features were visible in the narrow beam, but it did not penetrate the night very far. He pulled his clasp knife out and opened it. A short, narrow blade glittered. He nicked his finger and let blood drip onto the stone. The lava bubbled and subsided. Tasha stared as its ragged edges smoothed into a perfect oval. It now looked like an egg.

  Harrison set the egg on a rock and located a water bottle. He began to strip. She watched him, playing the flashlight over his smooth and rippling muscles. “I like this part,” she teased.

  “Take your clothes off, sweetheart.” His voice was gravelly.

  The desert air was chilly on her naked flesh. The breeze raised goosebumps all over her body. Probably she looked about as attractive as a plucked chicken. Harrison reached for the flashlight which she had placed on her clothes. He turned it off and took her hand.

  “I’ve got you.” He led her close to the edge of the cliff. “Hold out your hand.” He placed the egg on her palm and handed the water bottle to her. Her tongue and throat protested the flaming egg. The water soothed but did not quench the fire scorching her gullet. Then her entire body was engulfed in inner flame. It hurt. And then it didn’t.

  Suddenly she could see Harrison. And the world was lit up as if by strobe lighting. He was changing before her eyes. She had seen him take phoenix in Yorba. There he had been an indistinct blur. Now he was ablaze with colors she had no names for.

  A plumed crest towered above his head. His forked tail extended far behind him like a comet. His great bronze-colored beak was as hooked as an eagle’s and his bronze feet ended in massive and terrible talons. He threw his head back and began to sing as sweetly as a songbird.

  Involuntarily she began to move in time to his melody. Of their own volition, her wings spread. She matched his notes with desirous ones of her own. She had transformed without knowing. And she had the gift of song.

  She had no time to think of this before her mate was bowing before her and then baring his breast to her. He lowered that great beak and plucked a tiny feather from his breast. He laid it on the ground before her. Without being told, she knew he wanted her to do the same.

  His tiny plume was a flame that did not spread. Hers looked the same. The spot on her breast where she plucked hers throbbed. He bent low and pecked at the ground. Her feather vanished into his vast gape. His throat moved as he swallowed it and he began to sing once more. Now it seemed as if she knew the meaning of his serenade. She ate his feather. It burned less than the egg had.

  ‘Let’s fly.’ Words that were not words, but only thoughts, filled her mind.

  Her mate launched himself out over the valley. Uncertainly she watched him, but again his thoughts told her what to do. She spread her wings and followed him out. She dropped like a stone. He was right beside her. ‘Let your body tell you.’

  She flapped her wings and rose into the fragrant air. Far below her, myriad creatures were stirring in the nighttime coolness. She could see every tiny rodent and the owls that pursued them as if they were sprayed with luminescent paint. The spines of the cactuses, and the bats drinking nectar from their fluorescent blossoms, were all illuminated. Wow. Phoenix vision was a trip.

  Harrison’s wings swept the air and he flipped sideways in a series of joyful barrel rolls. She copied him. His thoughts encouraged her to emulate him. His song praised her courage and her gracefulness. Her own joyful song emerged from her throat and mingled with his in perfect harmony.

  Together they flew toward the moon and raced back to toward the cliff, their wings beating the air in perfect accord. She was at last the bride of the phoenix bonded forever to her destined mate.

  * * *

  One month later,

  Harrison stood in the bathroom sniffing the air. Tasha had just showered and her scent filled the room. It had altered subtly while he had been training in Florida with Omega Team. Could it be?

  She poked her head in the bathroom door. “What’s keeping you?”

  “We haven’t been using birth control,” he said.

  She looked puzzled. As well she might.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Fine.”

  “I think you’re pregnant.” Now why had he blurted that out like that? They had not discussed children.

  She frowned. “You’re the one with the vasectomy, D’Angelo.”

  “I know. Sometimes they reverse themselves. I haven’t been tested in years. We’ve been doing a lot of flying.” And making love. He shrugged. His phoenix could have restored his human body. “Would you mind?”

  She untied her robe and looked at herself in the mirror. Her gently swelling belly and breasts looked the same to him. Perfect. Beautiful. His. Were her nipples rosier? He cleared his throat. “You smell pregnant.”

  “Oh.”

  “Would you mind?” He repeated his question.

  Her face was full of joy. “It would be a gift beyond my dreams. Just so you don’t think I’ve been using a sperm donor!”

  He spun her into his arms. Kissed her ravenously. “Never. You wouldn’t,” he said simply after a long and satisfying soul kiss. “Yours, mine, ours,” he sang.

  She ra
ised her voice with his in a song of love and happiness. They were going to have a baby! Their love would be complete.

  <<<<>>>>

  Keep reading for a preview chapter of Phoenix Ablaze, Book 1 in the Alpha Phoenix series, in which Harrison’s younger brother Pierce has his love story with Diana.

  New Release: Preview

  Phoenix Ablaze

  How will Phoenix Shifter Pierce D’Angelo get BBW Diana wooed and won, and persuade his reluctant fated mate to swallow the Egg of Immortality?

  Pierce D’Angelo is one of the fabulously rich, much-decorated Texas D’Angelos. This Air Force hero is proud of his posting to Special Forces. But the shape shifter was wounded in action and diagnosed with PTSD. He’s doomed to fly a desk. He heads to his family retreat in the high Arizona desert to lick his wounds.

  BBW nurse Diana Lowry has made a fresh start in Arizona after an unhappy teenage marriage to a domestic bully. She’s got her dream job, a nice apartment, good friends. She is not looking for a man – especially not a handsome, take-charge guy like Alpha Male Pierce.

  Pierce has his work cut out for him to keep his buxom Diana safe from a vicious snake-shifting creep. Diana has little choice but to accept Pierce’s fierce protection. But when the dust settles and Curvy Diana discovers her heart has been given to a giant, fiery phoenix shifter – Pierce’s troubles will have just begun.

  Laugh a little, cry a little, as these two fated mates discover the power of love to heal and the intimate joys of their phoenix bond.

  Sizzle rating: Spicy. Phoenix Ablaze contains graphic episodes of hot, shameless, passionate Phoenix lovemaking between ravenous bedmates.

  Phoenix Ablaze is Book 1 in Isadora Montrose’s brand new Alpha Phoenix series. It is a standalone novel with no cliffhangers and an HEA.

  Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

  * * *

  CHAPTER ONE

  Missiles roared out of an apparently featureless gray landscape. Two screeched past the fighter jet. The third scored a direct hit to the fuselage. The plane lurched sideways. Despite the tight webbing of the seat belts, the pilot and the co-pilot were tossed around in their seats like crash test dummies. The controls went slack in the pilot’s hands. Maj. Pierce D’Angelo wrestled futilely with his joystick. A split second later he accepted that his aircraft was in a nosedive from which he could not divert it.

  “Take over,” Maj. D’Angelo ordered his co-pilot.

  Lt. Edwin Hatcher was still flipping switches as per standing orders, one hand on his stick. He engaged and attempted to level the plane. His controls were as slack as D’Angelo’s. The plane began to spin as it maintained its downward trajectory.

  “Eject,” D’Angelo ordered.

  Despite the damage done to the aircraft, the mechanisms that released Pierce’s seat responded smoothly. He was in freefall at the count of three. His parachute deployed precisely fifteen seconds after he pulled the cord. Automatically, he checked for Hatch. The other officer shot past him, chute still unopened, orange ripcord handle gripped in one fist, the attached cord flailing wildly.

  Pierce knew Hatch was in freefall. Neither of them had been issued auxiliary packs with backup parachutes. The uprush of air into Pierce’s parachute yanked him away from his subordinate. He saw rather than heard Hatch’s scream. Without a parachute, his teammate was doomed.

  Pierce was unbuckling his own parachute before he realized he had made a decision. The canopy floated away as he shifted into phoenix. His buff-colored G-suit became confetti whisked away on the hot winds. A blazing bird spread his enormous wings to catch the fierce updraft.

  Only the radiant glow of phoenix plumage could be seen by human eyes. The dazzling, paranormal rainbow colors of their feathers were virtually impossible for ordinary mortals to see — particularly at high speed. Pierce might appear as an iridescent blur too bright to focus on, but that was all. If anyone was observing his descent, he was now as good as invisible.

  Far below him, Hatch’s body splayed out and spiraled helplessly towards the ground. Pierce could see that Hatch was unconscious. That was one blessing of freefalling. You passed out before you hit the ground. Before you died.

  Pierce was strong. Impossibly strong. In greater phoenix, he was as large as a small plane and just as fast. His eyesight was more acute than an eagle’s. At will, with the touch of a single feather, he could set anything afire. But to save his brother officer, speed was what he needed.

  Pierce folded his immense wings against his torso and prepared to dive. Like a blast from a suddenly opened furnace, a rush of hot wind battered him from the side, reminding him that this was the Arabian Desert. He fought for control. Despite the urgency and terror of the moment, he had to fight the dizzying excitement that accompanied flying faster than the speed of sound. As always, acceleration was itself an intoxicant.

  Like the streamlined raptor he was, Pierce dropped headfirst, aiming for Hatch. Below him, his buddy grew bigger as the phoenix got closer. Twenty feet above the ground, he extended his wings, thrust his mighty legs forward, and snatched Hatch’s torso in his talons. His wings decelerated them both.

  Pierce had pulled his buddy back from the brink of death. But he had not calculated for the extra weight and momentum of Hatch’s burly body. His balance altered. He destabilized. There was no time to correct his error. Pierce juddered and cartwheeled in the air on wings that had lost their lift. The ground rose up to meet him.

  The landing knocked the air from Pierce’s lungs. His eyes opened. The dust had settled. He had a worrying sense of being newly awakened. How long had he been out? Pain overwhelmed him. Each breath was crippling agony. Hatch’s body was a dead weight, pinning him to the rocky ground. Had he killed himself attempting to save a dead man?

  The hot wind roared down through the gray and rocky mountains, flinging a storm cloud of gritty dust around. As if this was a signal, guns blazed from the stunted shrubs a hundred yards to the north of them. Pierce did the only thing he could do. He became fire.

  Crap. Despite Hatch’s flameproof suit, Pierce had set his buddy ablaze. If his co-pilot wasn’t already dead, he would be soon. But the fire roused the other man, who immediately began to roll in the dust, smothering the flames that enveloped him. Hatch had extinguished his G-suit and was pulling out his pistol, before the fire-that-was-Pierce had reached the clump of bushes that was his goal. Those dusty, desiccated shrubs ignited even faster than Hatch’s G-suit.

  The enemy guns went silent. Hatch emptied his pistol into the clump of bushes where the muzzle flashes had come from. Pierce desperately tried to decide on his best course of action. When a phoenix became fire, he could regenerate. But the risk was great. It was always your last option. And he had never done it before. Other members of his clan had told him about regeneration. It hurt. A lot. And there were other drawbacks too.

  But his phoenix form had been dying before he took fire. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he returned to human now. Probably nothing good. The pathway to rejuvenation was fire, phoenix, human. In that order. Excruciating agony clouded his thinking, but he struggled to reason out his options. The vegetation was too sparse to sustain him as fire for long. If he continued to blaze, he would burn away to ash. He had to take phoenix soon. And yet, remaining fire was tempting beyond his imaginings. Just as he had always been warned.

  As if trying to extinguish him, the wind blew harder. But the fresh oxygen only made him burn hotter. Blue flames jumped from the flaming bushes that Pierce was now a part of, and blazed a path across the desert scrub setting it on fire. Smoke rose in towering clouds. The dusty, spiny shrubs screening the guerrillas became a bonfire. Pierce followed willy-nilly. He was the fire, but he had lost control of his talent, and the brush fire had taken on a life of its own.

  In the face of certain immolation, the guerrillas leapt up, abandoning their hidden emplacement. Bent double, they scurried away, beating at their clothing with panicky hands. An engine started. Their dust-colored armor
ed vehicle roared out of a pile of rocks, heading away from the fire which stood between them and their prey. A black haze effectively screened them even from Pierce’s paranormal vision.

  He gathered his remaining strength. He and the scrubby bushes had become one mighty conflagration. He would die if he did not abandon this form. He ignored the searing agony, and the desire to remain a flame, and thrust upward. His phoenix emerged from the embers as perfect as if he had never fallen. Never burned. More than perfect. Improved.

  He felt larger and more muscular than before. Wider. Longer. Stronger. His forked tailfeathers streamed far behind him as he glided over the smoke. This was fantastic. Abruptly he lost altitude. This too was something he had been warned about. After regeneration, initially you were as clumsy as a raw-boned adolescent after first-change.

  All around him the winds calmed. The dust storm died down as precipitously as it had begun. The smoke lightened. Pierce tried to level out, but his newly made wings were sluggish. It took all his concentration to get his flight feathers to work.

  Like all birds, a phoenix’s feathers were individually under full control. But like any fledgling, Pierce had had to learn to fly when he came into his talent in his teens. It now felt as if he had to relearn the whole process. And this inhospitable place was no ideal training arena.

  To his relief, he caught a thermal and soared, regaining altitude. He peered through the lingering smoke and dust. Lightning split the sky. Before the noise of the thunderclap had reached him, torrential rain soaked the parched earth. The heavy drops also extinguished Pierce’s flaming feathers and beat fiercely at his wings. Worse, it saturated his plumage. He plunged for a second time to the ground.

  The violent downpour stopped as quickly as it had begun. But by then it was too late. Pierce made a clumsy landing a long way from Hatch. Probably at least a mile. The brief violent rain had washed the air clean. Pierce could see the other officer clearly now, even though Hatch had camouflaged himself with mud.

  He took stock. He was hurt. Not as badly as he had been when Hatch brought him down. But badly. For sure his left wing was broken. And he was in bird form. Rule one was never stay in phoenix when mortals were around. He would heal quickly in this form, but not as quickly as a search team would reach him. Shit.