More than a Phoenix

by Ashlyn Chase

  They turned around, looked like they were saying “Aha!” and started laying out the boundary of a garden.

  “There! I think we’re done,” she said, relieved.

  The three of them popped back to the American men on the banks of the river. Kristine walked the others out of the ether and dropped their hands. “I’m going back for a bit. Jayce is keeping watch, and I’ll sit up in the trees with him. We’ll make sure they’re acting like farmers.”

  “Find the book, if you can,” Aaron begged. “It’s important they never find it again.”

  She saluted. “I’ll do what I can to snoop around without being seen. Jayce will watch my back.”

  “We all will,” Ryan said, stepping forward.

  “No. You boys have had your fun,” Antonio said. “Now it’s my turn.” He geared down quickly and shifted into his phoenix form. Flying slowly, more like gliding, he took off in the direction of the new farm.

  Epilogue

  Back in Boston, ten weeks after the little bang…

  Everyone had their champagne flutes filled, ready to toast Dante’s and Noah’s return from aviary life. Gabriella’s excitement was as palpable as the rest.

  “Are they going to be the same as we remember them?” Mallory whispered to Kizzy. The two women stood next to each other, holding hands.

  “I think so. From what I understand, they’ll look and act the same and have all their memories. One little oddity that shouldn’t even be noticeable is now they’ll be the same age.”

  “Oh my goodness! So, they’re twins now?”

  “Yeah. Fraternal twins, I guess.”

  “You guess right,” Antonio said. He’d overheard, of course.

  When would Kizzy and Mallory get used to that heightened audio ability? Gabriella smiled—she didn’t always remember they had it either.

  “If they stayed in bird form for another month, they’d come back a lot older. This is the right time for their ages to stay about the same,” Antonio explained. “They’re about twenty-five.”

  “Okay, so where are they?” Mallory asked.

  “Shifting and getting dressed in their old room,” Gabriella said. “They shared the largest room on the third floor for about twenty years. Noah moved up there when Luca was born.”

  “Yeah,” Luca said. “I kicked him out of the nursery.”

  Gabriella chuckled. “That’s pretty much how each of my boys got their own rooms. Each one kicked the next one upstairs.”

  “Then Dante moved to his own place a few months before Noah joined him,” Antonio said. “That was, what…about three years ago?”

  “So, they’ve almost always lived together,” Kizzy stated.

  “Pretty much,” Antonio confirmed. “Dante had a roommate from his firehouse for a while, until the guy got married. Then Noah moved in.”

  “Well, they’ve been best friends all their lives, so why not twins?” Mallory asked.

  Cheering started near the stairs.

  “That must be them.” Kizzy was shorter, so she tried to see around the crowd.

  Mallory stood on tiptoes, glancing over the shoulders of the rest of the family. Dante emerged first, wearing a sombrero. Mallory handed her champagne glass to Misty, giggled, and ran to him, jumping into his arms. The hat fell back, but neither one seemed to notice. They were too busy kissing.

  Then Noah walked out wearing a fez. “What a great trip! Remind me never to enter another world tour contest.”

  Kizzy handed her champagne off to Chloe, then ran to him and threw her arms around his waist, hugging him tight. He kissed the top of her head and hugged her back.

  After lots of handshakes and pats on the shoulder, Antonio cleared his throat, then lifted his glass. “Sons, daughters, and friends, we’re so glad all of you were able to be here today to welcome back Dante and Noah from their fake world tour.” He smirked at Gabriella. She simply threw up her hands.

  “But seriously,” he continued, “if you guys don’t stop this reincarnation nonsense, you’re going to have to put up with sillier and sillier excuses for a two-month disappearance!”

  Everyone chuckled or outright laughed.

  “I know what I tell you next is going to come as a surprise—probably as much to Dante and Noah as any of you. But here it is.” Antonio held up a round pellet, which glinted in the overhead light.

  Dante gasped. “Is that Noah’s musket ball?”

  Antonio grinned and announced, “I examined the rubble that used to be your apartment and found this. Gentlemen, your brothers are alchemists! They created gold out of lead.”

  Noah stumbled backward. “Seriously?”

  Gabriella let out a tinkling laugh. “If you ever do it again, I’ll refuse to take you out of the cage until you’re old men. Understand?”

  “Yeah, we understand,” Dante said. “But, shoot, that’ll come in handy when Noah has to find a new place to live. Me? I’ve decided to move in with Mallory, if she’ll still have me.”

  “Of course I will! We’re going to be living together? That’s my dream come true.”

  “We can be married, if you’d prefer.”

  She laughed. “I’d prefer that a whole lot!”

  The two of them kissed heartily, not coming up for air and apparently not caring if anyone else was in the room while it erupted with cheers and shouts of congratulations.

  When everyone had quieted down, Noah turned to Kizzy and took both of her hands in his. “Yeah. About that. I was hoping we could get a place together. Unless you’re still worried about your father’s disapproval.”

  Her jaw dropped, but she recovered quickly. “I don’t think he’ll disapprove at all, now that our family is out of danger, thanks to yours. And even if he did, I’d love to live with you, Noah! I love you dearly.”

  “I love you too. So that’s a yes?”

  “That’s a shut-the-front-door, heck yes!”

  They kissed more chastely, but to the same sounds of cheers, whistles, and catcalls. Kizzy’s olive skin turned a lovely shade of rose.

  “I baked a special treat to celebrate.” Gabriella gathered everyone in the dining room. She had made a large sheet cake, copying the old Risk board to approximate a world map on top. “Everyone have a seat,” she said.

  Most of the guys and the two remaining women sat down at the very long dining table.

  “Tony might have a mind of his own,” Gabe said. The little boy was just learning to walk and couldn’t be stopped from toddling everywhere.

  “I have a solution to that.” Gabriella remembered how to distract a child. She picked up her precious grandson and plopped him into a highchair. “Give him his favorite toy,” she said to Gabe.

  He pulled a plastic dinosaur out of a diaper bag and handed it to him. Tony chewed on it and seemed content.

  Now Gabriella had her hands free to cut the cake.

  Misty emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray of cups and saucers. Sandra followed with plates. Kristine was already placing napkins and silverware in front of each place.

  It was amazing how much Gabriella’s family had grown. As each son moved out, her heart had broken a bit. Then when they visited with a wife and even a child, her heart not only mended but grew larger to accommodate the new members. She and Antonio would have two new daughters very soon. And they were human. Capable of giving her more grandchildren!

  Antonio winked at her. After thirty-five years together, she knew exactly what he was thinking. “Six sons settled down. One to go. Almost there.”

  P.S.

  The third book was never found.

  Order Ashlyn Chase’s next book

  in the Phoenix Brothers series

  A Phoenix Is Forever

  On sale March 2019!

  Now for a special sneak peek at the next Phoenix Brothers book!

  A
PHOENIX IS FOREVER

  He was actually a cop. A real, bona fide police officer.

  Luca Fierro walked out of the precinct wearing his new BPD uniform as a Boston patrolman trainee. As the new guy, he would be on the graveyard shift for a while with his more experienced field training officer, Joe.

  “So, how does it feel to be a genuine cop—not a cadet?” Joe asked.

  “You don’t remember? How long have you been on the job?”

  Joe laughed. “Fifteen fun-filled years.” They paused a moment to get into their cruiser. Joe took the driver’s seat. He may have carried an extra twenty or thirty pounds, but he seemed agile enough.

  “Did you have a difficult adjustment?” Luca asked as he buckled his seat belt.

  “Not really. My dad was a cop, so that may have helped me ease into the job.”

  Luca really didn’t want to mention his legendary family. The Fierros were all firefighters. Some of the cops had real problems with firefighters. They called them “hose draggers” and didn’t like being accused of “pillow envy,” because firefighters were allowed to sleep on the night shift.

  Similarly, the firefighters weren’t always fond of cops. His own family called him the “blue sheep.”

  Instead, Luca just answered the original question. “I feel good about finally getting started on the job. I’ve trained long and hard for this.”

  Joe was quiet as he pulled out of the station’s parking lot, so Luca continued. “My folks weren’t in favor of my going into law enforcement, but they were okay with my studying criminal justice at Northeastern University. They thought I’d change my mind after learning what was involved. If anything, school made me want it even more.”

  “Oh, shit,” Joe said. “You know why it’s called a BS degree? You know too much to be clueless, but not enough to deal with those weird situations they didn’t prepare you for. ” He smirked.

  “In other words, you think I know just enough to be dangerous?”

  “Maybe. What did they teach you there?”

  “All kinds of things. Ethics, courtroom procedures, criminal law, corrections, crime scene management, computer investigation, domestic and international terrorism… I want to be a detective someday.”

  Joe nodded.

  Luca had to get used to one of the aspects of being a cop, and that was not giving too much away. Just answer the questions you’re asked, and no more. Sometimes volunteering information just gets you into hot water.

  He’d have to guard his family’s secrets even more carefully.

  Joe turned onto a busy street. Soon Luca would be allowed to take the wheel. Or maybe not. Different partners worked together for a while before they traded off.

  “So, fifteen years… You must’ve seen it all.”

  “You’ve never seen it all, kid. You might hear about some crazy stuff at the bar, though. If it doesn’t happen to you, it’s happened to someone else.”

  Patrolling the city was sometimes tedious and sometimes terrifying. It was that on-and-off pace and the fact of never knowing what was around the corner that both intrigued and made most “first years” anxious, to say the least.

  It wasn’t long before they came across a car speeding and driving erratically. “Shit,” Joe said. “I might chalk that up to a typical Boston driver, but the damn car almost sideswiped us.”

  Luca made a mental note of the vehicle’s description and their approximate location. They turned on the lights and took off after it. Spotting the car climbing the ramp onto the Southeast Expressway, Joe swore.

  “Dammit. I hate stopping drivers on the expressway.”

  “Can’t you get them to pull off at the next exit?”

  “We can hope.” Joe went in pursuit of the black Mercedes sedan. Instead of taking the next off-ramp, the driver pulled over and stopped right on the bridge.

  “Fuck. This is going to block traffic. Leave the lights on.”

  “Can I approach the driver?” Luca asked.

  Joe opened his door. “Be my guest.”

  Luca crossed in front of the cruiser, noting only one person in the vehicle ahead. He knocked on the driver’s window and she rolled it down. Yep, he smelled alcohol. And this woman looked almost clownlike with the amount of heavy makeup she was wearing, red hair in disarray.

  “License and registration, please.”

  The woman heaved a heavy, vodka-laced sigh, dug through the purse on the passenger seat, and produced a wallet. She removed and handed over a current Massachusetts driver’s license. Then she opened the glove compartment, found her registration, and handed that to him also.

  He scanned the information and said, “Do you know why we stopped you, ma’am?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “You’ve been driving erratically. Have you been drinking?”

  “I am not drunk.”

  “Step out of the car, please.”

  The woman sat right where she was and folded her arms.

  “You can prove you’re sober with a field sobriety test, ma’am. Please step out of the car.”

  “I don’t have to. I don’t have to take a Breathalyzer and I don’t have to walk a straight line. I know my rights.”

  “I’m sure you do, ma’am, but we’ll have to take you into the station if we suspect you’re drunk. I smell alcohol and you’ve been speeding and weaving all over the road, so you’re giving me no other choice. The public’s safety is at stake.”

  “You’ll have to drag me out of this car.”

  “Ma’am, at this point, you’re forcing me to place you under arrest. If you don’t exit the car, you’ll be adding a charge of resisting arrest. Is that really what you want to do?”

  She blew out another vodka-heavy huff. The door flew open and Luca stepped out of the way just in time. She sluggishly moved one long leg, and a four-inch blue stiletto hit the pavement. Another one joined it. Eventually she heaved herself out of the car and rose and rose and rose. Soon she was leaning over him.

  Luca was almost six feet tall. This woman had to be six feet two without the stilettos. That made her about six and a half feet…and wobbling.

  He took another peek at her license. Her voice didn’t sound deep and her name was Priscilla, but he didn’t think she was Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. She was just a very tall woman, looking more and more pissed off by the moment.

  “Turn around and put your hands on the car, please.”

  The woman placed her hands on her hips and looked at him defiantly.

  Luca raised his voice. “Turn around and place your hands on the roof of your car. Now.”

  “Why? Are you going to pat me down?”

  “At some point, yes. We need to know you’re not carrying any concealed weapons.”

  By this time Joe was rolling his eyes and came over to join him. “Lady, you’re going to be frisked, but that can happen later.” He gave Luca a pointed look. “Cuff her up.”

  “You’re not touching me!”

  “Jesus…” Luca muttered. He gazed at Joe, hoping he would have the right words to gain her cooperation, but it didn’t look like Joe had any such magic. Instead he reached out, grabbed her arm, and spun her so her torso was leaning against the car. Meanwhile he had her arm in a viselike grip behind her back.

  “Owww. You’re hurting me.”

  “Cuff her, Fierro,” Joe said.

  Luca took her other wrist and folded it behind her back. He had his cuffs out, but she struggled as soon as he tried to put them on her.

  “Don’t resist.”

  She struggled harder. “Leave me alone. You guys are brutalizing me. I’m going to file a complaint.”

  “Please do. Our dash cam will show you’ve been given several chances to cooperate.”

  At that point, she flipped around and ran across the highway, causing cars to slam
on their brakes and blow their horns. Luca gave chase. He eventually had to tackle her to keep her from crossing the line into oncoming traffic. Once he had her on the ground, he was able to cuff the other wrist.

  Shit. I have to learn to get the handcuffs out faster—but not too fast. There were a lot of things he could do quicker and better than a human, but he couldn’t give away his paranormal abilities. He had superhuman strength and speed, but a cop wouldn’t let it go if they witnessed something out of the ordinary. And he’d be in so much trouble with the paranormal community if he let humans know what he really was.

  Joe joined him and the two of them lifted her to her feet. She immediately started kicking and screaming. They had to half lead and half drag her across the road, back to their cruiser.

  “You see?” She was yelling at the cars that had stopped. “You see the brutality? I want witness statements. I want you all to call the Boston police commissioner and tell him what you’ve seen.”

  Luca and Joe were beyond reasoning with her at this point. Joe just opened the back door of the cruiser and told her to get in.

  “I don’t want to. Make me.”

  Luca shook his head. What the fuck do we do, now? Fold her in half and put her in there like a quesadilla?

  Apparently, pushing on her head and shoving her into the back seat, then grappling with those long legs and spiky heels was the only option.

  “Knock it off, lady. Kicking a police officer with shoes like that is a felony in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” Joe shouted.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “We can add it to the charges, if that will convince you.”

  As soon as she had been stuffed into the seat and seat-belted securely, Luca slammed the door shut.

  “Holy shit. That is one determined woman,” he muttered.

  “Yup. This one’s feisty.”

  Joe had turned on the Mercedes’s flashers so no one would accidentally plow into her car, then he jumped into the driver’s seat, and Luca jogged around the car to get in on the other side.