Beautiful Dead 04 - Phoenix

by Eden Maguire

  'Did Eve run out of time too?' 'No. She found her answer.'

  Eve with her baby, Kori, whose golden hair shone like a halo.

  Iceman read my mind. 'Actual y, Eve was here for Kori. She needed to learn why her baby died. It turns out the hospital missed a diagnosis.

  Meningitis.'

  'And Eve?' I didn't want to hear that she'd lost her baby and died soon

  after of a broken heart.

  'In childbirth,' Iceman explained. 'She stepped over six months before Kori. They're together now.'

  I let out a sigh then stood quietly while Iceman took up the axe again. I saw the shiny blade fal , heard the thud and crack as it split the log.

  'It feels different without them, I know.' Iceman paused again and spoke what I was thinking. 'And without Jonas, Arizona and Summer.'

  'They're al leaving and not coming back.' The barn was gloomy and cold, sad memories floated in the dust.

  'And soon Phoenix,' Iceman said, going back to his task.

  'Iceman, I want you to stay here with Darina.' Hunter strode into the

  barn while Dean and Phoenix waited in the yard. 'Keep her hidden. If intruders come too close, you know what to do.'

  Intruders! I flipped into panic mode. 'What happened? Did Michael Rohr fol ow me down here?'

  Hunter had already turned away but he paused to glance at me. 'Not thi, time, Darina. No - Dean just spotted cops heading along the dirt road.

  It's Jardine and the new sheriff, coming to check the place out.'

  Knowing this was nothing to do with me, I relaxed. Wel , not relaxed

  exactly. Let's just say Hunter wouldn't be able to blame me for the new

  county sheriff driving out to Foxton. It was part of his job to check out the squatter rumours, simple as that. And Hunter's job was to protect the Beautiful Dead from intruders.

  So I stayed in the barn with Iceman while the overlord took Dean and

  Phoenix up to the ridge.

  'What wil Hunter do?' I asked, climbing the crumbling wooden steps into the loft and finding a lookout spot between two warped planks. From there I could spy on the action up amongst the aspens.

  'You mean, which of his superpowers wil he bring into play?' Fol owing me up the steps, Iceman leaned back against the rough wal , arms folded, not bothering to keep watch with me. 'Don't hold your breath,' he advised. 'I reckon Hunter wil stand back and let the two visitors satisfy themselves that there's no cause for concern out here.'

  This seemed to be what was happening as I peered through my chink. I saw the three Beautiful Dead gather quietly in the shadow of the water tower. Hunter spoke a few words then surrounded them in a soft, shimmering light. I blinked and they were gone. Superpower number one -

  the ability to dematerialize at wil . But as far as I could tel from this distance, there was no cal ing up of the barrier of wings to stop the two cops in their tracks.

  I waited a while, long enough to take in the trees lining the ridge - their slender, silvery trunks and bright canopy of leaves - and to think how peaceful and perfect this place was. Then two uniformed figures appeared.

  They were two guys doing a job, probably enjoying the scenery like I was, with no clue what they might be walking into. One - the shorter, stockier one - I recognized as my buddy, Deputy Sheriff Henry Jardine,

  expert fly-fisher and al -round good guy, the one who decided not to arrest Zak Rohr on a charge of arson. He was with his new boss, Danny Kors, an(Ps they were chatting as they strol ed through the aspens, stopping after a while to direct their attention down into the val ey.

  'They've spotted the house!' I whispered to Iceman. 'They're heading this way!'

  Not strol ing now, but picking up their pace, they kept their gaze fixed on the abandoned house and the heap of rusting parts that had once been a truck parked next to it, thinking maybe that the rumour was right - there were squatters here who needed to be checked out. Soon they drew near enough for me to pick out their high-alert expressions.

  Right away I decided they fitted the good-cop/bad-cop formula; slightly overweight, kind uncle Jardine versus lean Mr Mean, Kors.

  The sheriff made a beeline for the old house while Henry hung back to take note of a recent repair to the razor-wire fence in an otherwise neglected yard.

  Inside the loft, I switched positions for a better view of Kors, who was stepping up onto the porch, testing the door into the kitchen then raising the sole of his boot to lash out and kick in the old lock. There was the sound of splintering wood then the door swung open.

  I frowned, taking it as a personal insult that Kors was damaging Beautiful Dead property in the line of duty. 'Hunter should do something!'

  'Sssh!' Iceman stil wasn't looking but he was listening hard. Superpower number two they can hear a leaf fal from the distance of half a mile. He heard the door hinge creak then Kors' heavy footfal inside the house.

  I kept my face close to the new gap, watching Jardine fol ow his boss

  into the house, waiting another few seconds before I hissed at Iceman,

  asking for an update.

  'They're searching the place, currently heading upstairs,' he reported.

  Up to the one smal bedroom whose window overlooked the yard, disturbing the silence of decades, flinging back the faded quilt, poking into dusty corners.

  'Now they're coming back down.'

  I stared at the front door hanging crookedly from one hinge after the sheriff's forced entry. I thought of Hunter, Phoenix and Dean keepinb 6

  invisible watch.

  'Kors wants to move on to the barn,' Iceman told me. 'Jardine is saying what's the point? Nobody's set foot in the place in years.'

  I saw the two men reappear in the doorway, Kors leading the way, stooping under the low door frame as he stepped down into the yard. He stopped to stare at the moose antlers above the barn door, then, deciding to ignore his deputy's advice, he walked towards us.

  Do something! was my silent message to Hunter.

  Below us, I heard Kors slide the big metal bolt. 'Henry, come over here!' he cal ed.

  'What did you see?'

  More footsteps fol owed across the packed dirt surface. Jardine joined his boss.

  'There - the axe leaning against the stal and the stack of split logs.' 'Interesting.' The deputy sheriff had evidently changed his mind.

  We heard more footsteps, directly underneath. 'And here - see the cel

  phone at the base of the steps.'

  My hand flew to my jeans pocket - there was no phone. I sucked in air

  and felt my throat go dry. Iceman stood, watching me panic.

  Down below I heard Kors place a foot on the bottom step.

  My brain stopped working. I sprinted for the top of the stairs and, in my hurry to intercept the sheriff, I missed my footing and slid down the steps.

  'Hey, where did you come from?' Kors grunted. He lunged for my phone but I scrabbled for it and grabbed it first.

  Now, because of what I'd done, Hunter couldn't hang back. Straight away he raised the winged barrier inside the barn, opened wide the door and

  sucked in a thousand death heads. Yel owing skul s with dark eye sockets

  whirled around us, pressed in, swerved away, whirled back again in the storm of wings to force Jardine and Kors back out into the yard.

  I was fixed to the spot, holding my phone in the palm of my hand. Iceman stood at the top of the stairs, staring at me and shaking his head.

  ' Darina, come out here!' Hunter ordered.

  37

  Out in the yard I cowered under the beating wings. Their sound fil ed my head and drove me crazy beating, beating, battering me until I dropped the phone and raised my hands to protect my head as I sank to the ground. 'Phoenix!' I cried.

  'He can't help you,' Hunter warned, his voice ice cold.

  I col apsed, stil shielding my head, curling up, waiting for the sound to fade, for the wind to stop and the skul s to disappear. A few metres away, Kors struggled
to his feet, dragging Jardine up with him.

  'I'm sorry!' I told Hunter. 'I shouldn't have done that.'

  'What's happening? Who are you talking to?' Kors tried to deflect the death heads, using his forearm to shield his face and struggling against the beating wings, refusing to let the nightmare visions overwhelm him.

  'No one!' I gasped. I'd never seen anyone fight back against the Beautiful Dead this way.

  'You were planning to meet someone. Who was it?' Kors advanced towards me, through the wings and the skul s.

  'No, I wasn't I swear. There's no one here.'

  'What was that name you yel ed out Phoenix?'

  I shook my head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dean take a silent

  order from Hunter then place himself between me and Kors. Invisible to the

  sheriff, Dean lashed out and upwards with the back of his hand, making contact with the underside of Kors' chin and lifting him clean off his feet, flinging him backwards until he crashed into Jardine. The two men fel to the ground. I heard Dean mutter something that sounded like, 'Sorry about this, Henry,' and I remembered once again that Dean, the ex-cop, had once worked with my friend the deputy sheriff.

  'Get them out of here,' Hunter ordered roughly, keeping his steely gaze fixed on me as Dean, stil invisible to his victims, raised them out of the dirt as if they weighed no more than rag dol s. They struggled helplessly in his grasp.

  'Go ahead you know what to do,' the overlord muttered.

  It was time for Dean to memory-zap the two guys. He threw them against the side of the house and sent some weird, super-powerful electrical current surging through their brains to wipe out al recol ection of what had happened since they first set foot on Foxton Ridge.

  I saw it happen - watched their bodies absorb the charge and twist in pain, saw their faces contort, their heads fal back and mouths open in silent agony. I groaned for them as their knees buckled and they final y sagged back to the ground.

  And now, for the first time since the crisis began, I saw Phoenix - a blurred figure through the wild storm of skul s and beating wings -

  watching silently. I tried to run to him, longed to feel his strong arms around me, sheltering me from the storm.

  'Phoenix, help me!' I whispered, though I absolutely knew he was in thral to his overlord.

  Phoenix, his expression fixed in an agony of helplessness, stayed where

  he was, close to the house with Iceman. I was stil on my knees just outside the barn. Dean straddled the two semi-conscious lawmen slumped in the dust.

  Hunter, the puppet-master, let the skul barrier fade then gave the silent

  order for Iceman to help Dean carry Kors and Jardine back to their car.

  As the two men were raised from the ground and dragged away, I struggled to my feet and managed to look Hunter in the eye. Yes, I'd been stupid, I'd acted without thinking and caused a problem, but I wasn't going to cave in. I would try to stand tip to him.

  'When wil you ever learn, Darina?' Hunter sighed. He stood looking at the far horizon of jagged mountains then up at the clear blue sky, not expecting an answer.

  'I said I was sorry. Anyway, Kors saw my phone - he already knew someone was here.' Even though the wings and skul s had faded, my knees trembled, my voice was hardly more than a whisper.

  'Not necessarily.'

  He was about to climb the steps into the loft!'

  'And you wouldn't have been there. I'd already told Iceman to get yoi 9 out of there fast.'

  I gasped. 'You ordered him to dematerialize me? How was I supposed to

  know? I'm not like you - I don't have telepathy.'

  Hunter final y turned his head and level ed his gaze on me. 'You're supposed to take orders from me, end of story. You're not meant to think for yourself and make bad decisions.'

  Phoenix, I thought. Step in here, stand up for me!

  'I can't do it - you know I can't,' he whispered. Instead of backing me up, he retreated into the porch and watched from the shadows.

  I had to plead for myself in front of the coldest of judges. if Dean does

  his job, Kors and Jardine won't remember what happened out here. They'l go back to town and make a report - al quiet, just miles of pine forest and empty scrub, maybe the odd mule deer.'

  Hunter's eyelids flickered. ' Likewise, Darina. Remember I could send

  you back in the same condition as those two, with a sore head and a big blank in your memory.'

  'I know it. And I know I can't stop you doing that. But last night you saw how messed up my head's been lately and you offered me the chance to walk away. Being here today is the hardest thing I ever had to do - seeing Phoenix again, loving him the way I do, knowing that this time I have to say goodbye.'

  Hunter's head dipped slightly a nod of acknowledgement.

  For once I'd got through the outer armour and decided to take a big risk.

  'Think about what you told me last night. Imagine if you got the chance to be with Marie again for one day, one hour, even a minute.'

  I saw pain then anger flash in Hunter's eyes. Phoenix saw it too and took a step down from the porch as if to protect me, before his overlord stopped him dead.

  'Picture it,' I went on. 'Would you be thinking straight? No. One look at Marie and you'd fal apart. Don't tel me you wouldn't!'

  ,I would,' he murmured.

  I looked right at Hunter, opened my own heart and put myself at his mercy.

  'And stil I'm here today. I came to save Phoenix.'

  A plane travel ed like a slow, silver bul et across the vast blue sky. A wisp of white cloud tangled itself around Amos Peak. The mountains were

  bruise-blue in the late-afternoon sun. Phoenix stood with me by my red car under the aspens.

  'Hunter gave us thirty minutes,' he said.

  'Then what?'

  'Then I have to go with Iceman to check out some kids over at Angel Rock.'

  'Kids,' I echoed softly. Probably more far-siders made curious by the growing rumours about Foxton Ridge - it was a sunny afternoon and they had nothing better to do.

  'Darina, we need to talk,' Phoenix began.

  In my experience, that is never a good sentence. Guys usual y fol ow with, 'It's been great dating you and I'd like for us to stay friends, but it's time to move on.' For a split-second I thought this was goodbye.

  'No,' he said quickly, tenderly. 'That's not what I mean.' 'What then? What's to talk about?'

  'I want to explain to you what it's like for me, coming back to the far side, seeing you how hard that is.'

  'I'm so sorry,' I breathed. I realized that al I ever thought of these past few weeks was how bad it was for me - missing Phoenix, fearing that he would never come back to Foxton.

  'Don't be sorry.' Drawing me close and tilting my face up towards his, his lips brushed mine. 'Al I want is for us to be together - you know that.

  It's al I ever wanted. Every time I step over, away from the far side, I ache for you. I try to picture where you are every minute of the day what you're wearing, what you might be doing. I think of you and Zoey sitting together in class, of you and Hannah listening to Summer's songs ... you and Christian playing guitar.'

  'That's pretty much how it is,' I murmured, my lips against his cheek as I picked up another unspoken message behind his words. 'You know yoiu1 don't need to worry about me with Christian or Lucas or any of the other guys.

  'It's not you I worry about. It's them.' 'Explain.'

  'OK, so right now Lucas has Jordan, but Christian doesn't have a girlfriend. He's a good guy. Maybe he looks at you and thinks, "It's been tough for Darina. I could step in and be her rock."'

  'Christian!' We were talking Christian Oldman the boxer, the car-fixer, the al -round guy's guy.

  'It's not impossible.'

  'Yes - it is!' I smiled then kissed him again. 'But thanks for being jealous!'

  Phoenix closed his eyes for a while and seemed to relax. 'I do know what I'm asking. Not even asking just hoping.
'

  'I don't want anyone except you,' I promised. 'You can stop thinking about it. Now, do you want us to discuss what Hunter asked me to do?'

  Phoenix opened his eyes then shrugged.

  'Hey, Mr Casual, do you want to know or not? I'l tel you anyway. He said for me to drive back to town and talk to your mom.'

  He stared steadily into my eyes. 'I already know.'

  'Yeah, of course.' I keep forgetting - you get yourself a Beautiful Dead boyfriend and telepathy is part of the package. They're better at it than the brain scanners in any high-tech hospital, so you keep no secrets, whether you want to or not. 'So Hunter said, talk to Sharon, ask her if the cops gave

  her more details about the way you died.'

  Phoenix was stil gazing at me, tracking every minuscule neural connection in my brain.

  'I know you're thinking that's not as easy as it might sound, since I'm not top of your mom's list of favourite people.'

  'There's that to face,' he agreed. 'How come it's turned out that way?'

  It was my turn to shrug. 'It's like she's accusing me of something and I don't exactly know what. She just doesn't like me, period.' I thought again of the times I'd tried to help Zak and been on the end of Sharon Rohr's harcl4;2

  ungrateful stare, of the dozen times she'd passed me by in the street.

  Phoenix leaned against the side of my car, standing on one hip and kicking at loose stones with the free foot. You have to understand, Mom never had things easy. She was young - just nineteen - when she married my dad. He promised a lot of stuff that he never delivered. Then he messed around with someone else, walked away, left her with three young kids.'

  'I understand. I real y do. But I think it's more personal than that, more aimed directly at me. Maybe it's connected with Brandon giving me the car

  A pause for breath gave Phoenix time to pul me towards him and kiss me. 'Listen,' I went on, 'Hunter's right about this at least if anyone knows more details, it's your mom. Are you OK for me to try and talk to her?'

  'OK?' He looked unsure.

  'What? Am I suddenly speaking a foreign language?'

  This time Phoenix didn't smile. 'Did you stop to think, it hurts Mom big time whenever she sees you? You remind her ...'