“Hiya, I’m Lilith Sage. Dancer, lover of music, and retired spy goddess divine. I recently got married, but the guy didn’t remember me. So I’m going to keep on trying till he lets me in his sweatpants.” I winked at the end of my little introduction.
It was small, but there was a small smile on Leon’s face. There was my star.
“Leon Daniels. Stubborn ass, fisherman, freak with powers, anger issues, and a shitty memory problem after I drink too much.” He held his hand out and I gripped it. But instead of ending it there, I pulled him in, which he was not expecting, and laid a kiss on his lips.
He didn’t kiss me back, and that was somewhat disappointing. Didn’t the old fairytales say that true love’s kiss cures all? Guess it wasn’t true love on his side, yet.
I pulled back my lips, and my hand then went to the door.
“Nice to meet you, Leon.”
People were most likely wanting to talk to us about what happened, and we needed to see where we went from here on.
Leon followed me out, and Phillip was waiting by a door in the hall. He gestured for us to come in. The room was much like a large family room: big screen TV, comfy chairs, a couch, bookshelves, and everything else you could ask for to occupy your time with. Everyone that had been in the containment room with me earlier was now sitting cozy, waiting for us.
“I didn’t catch everyone’s names earlier. Enlighten me?” I plopped down on the couch next to the punk-looking kid. He waved shyly.
“AJ. Computer geek.” He was cute, and oddly familiar. I couldn’t put a finger on it right now, and other introductions directed my attention elsewhere.
“I’m Rose. Empath. And this is Draco, immortal-slash-leader of heroes.” The blonde smiled at her lover. He rolled his eyes, but kept her curled up in his lap. Very cuddly couple. It was cute. Phillip and Leon both took a seat in single chairs, and I grinned at them, ready to get this party started.
“Sorry I’ve been an ass.” Leon was the first to break the ice, which was nice. He had been a little testy earlier, but I could see how all this was hard on him. He liked the solitary life, excepting his one friend by choice. It wasn’t who he was, though. He used to be a social person, based on everything he told me and that I had found out about him.
Like with me, he made no promises to them. He wasn’t thrilled about joining the Society still, but he knew running was not an option anymore.
Progress, in my book!
Chapter Thirteen
Leon
Lilith and I ran over everything that had happened after I broke their door, which according to Phillip, would hopefully be fixed tomorrow. I’d felt bad about it, and his reassurance helped some.
“And then I tackled him to the water! For being an old football star, he went down pretty easily,” Lilith teased, but it was her bringing up me playing football that caught me off guard. Football was a sore subject with me. I couldn’t see myself talking to her about it, but I also married a stranger, and I never thought I’d do that either.
“Boat’s blown to shit,” I added, knowing now I truly needed a place to stay, and not to hide from my wife.
Lilith was still completely unknown to me. A crazy unknown. But I owed her, after she saved my life. I could talk to her, and start new, not be the asshole I’d been acting like to everyone who had been nothing but kind to me.
I tried not to let the feelings of self-pity win as everyone in the room started talking about Raven’s possible next move.
“Sounds like Leon needs some training, too,” Rose was saying to Draco, and he nodded. Training?
“Oh, this is going to be fun!” Lilith clapped her hands together in excitement.
“I missed something,” I muttered, looking around. AJ shook his head at me. Okay, I wasn’t paying attention in the last three minutes. Sue me.
“You need to learn to control your powers, and fight. From what you and Lilith said, you almost lost your battle against Emanuel today. He’s trained to fight; you are not. I also don’t think you’ve ever truly unleashed your powers. They will be raw. You’ll need to get to know them more.” He spoke so matter-of-factly, and I wanted to argue that I didn’t need help; it was second nature to me to not accept anyone’s assistance. But what he said was true: I almost died today, because I was too blind and tunnel-visioned to listen to anyone around me. I thought I could take him with my rage fueling me, and almost lost that wager.
“Okay.” Maybe it would help.
If going by the looks on their sort of shocked faces, I don’t think they expected me to agree so easily.
“Turns out almost dying changes your attitude.” I shrugged. Really it had a much deeper effect on me than I was letting on.
Out of all the stares coming my way, I felt Lilith’s the most. She was doing more than just looking at me on the outside, like everyone else. She was peering into my soul, like she was familiar with it, seeing through my calm change to the man that was freaked out that he almost died today. The man that got shot today. Shot!
She didn’t say anything, but the look in her eyes told me she was not done with me. Verdict was still out on how I felt about that.
“Great. Train Leon, start hero work in the city, and somehow hunt down Emanuel. We’ve got this.” Rose was very optimistic with her assessment of the plan I didn’t realize we had. Must have been talked about in the three minutes I was feeling sorry for breaking their door.
There was a silence, where everyone just sat there.
“Oldies are my favorite for dancing.” Lilith filled the quiet with a random fact about herself. I simply looked at her like she’d lost her mind, but then again, random was Lilith’s motto it seemed.
A minute passed after her announcement, then Rose joined Lilith in the random fact hour.
“My favorite meal is grilled cheese sandwiches.”
The moment became one to open up to each other, sharing little tidbits about us without going into deep topics.
“When I was born, I had a sixth finger on my right hand.” AJ waved at everyone and you could see the little scar on the side of his hand.
The thought of going around the circle and saying something about ourselves seemed dumb, but when in headquarters, I guess…What the hell, I’ll join.
“My mom almost named me Cleatus. After a singer from the seventies. Thankfully Grandma intervened.” It was something not many knew. Of course Charles did, and he loved to bring it up on many occasions. The thought reminded me that I needed to call Charles and tell him about the Lily Blue.
“I still don’t understand the big deal about Twitter,” shared Draco, and Rose giggled.
“Old man,” she teased him, and he bent down to give her a kiss that suggested he still had it, for an immortal.
“Even though I know what’s going to happen, I still don’t care to see my sister and her boyfriend making out,” Phillip added quickly, which made everyone bust out into a fit of laughter. That had to be awkward for him.
It had been a long time since I had hung around a group of people like this, and I felt slightly awkward about it. On the boat with the other crab fishermen, I usually kept to myself. They knew I had super strength, after witnessing an accident on the ship, and gave me a wide berth.
“I think a day like this requires pizza.” Rose sighed and tried to stretch in Draco’s lap.
“Oh, yes! I agree!” Lilith exclaimed.
So pizza was ordered, and Phillip went up to get it. He spoiled his sister like none other.
We chatted about inconsequential subjects while we ate, and then everyone went in their own directions, leaving Lilith and me alone in the room. Many things had been running through my mind when it came to her. I was an over thinker, a trait that had only gotten worse over time. It’d been over ten years, and I still wished for the old days, when I was more carefree. Maybe then I wouldn’t drag everyone down all the time.
“Why’d you become a spy?” I blurted out a question I’d been thinking over, and though th
at shouldn’t have been the first question out of my mouth to open up conversation with her, it was too late to change it.
She tilted her head and then crawled on the couch, catlike, toward me.
“I didn’t choose to,” she purred, and with those long legs of hers, she stretched out and crept in front of me. I listened with complete attention on her words, and not her seductive body, as she moved to my lap.
“My parents, however illegal it was, sold me as a child to their wealthy friend so they would be set for life. He had me trained, and then used me for anything he needed. Mostly doing the dirty work for his own illegal operations.” She rubbed against me and closed her eyes. She was a contradiction I couldn’t put my finger on. She was unhinged, but yet a precise killer. She had been abused, and although I didn’t know how far that abuse went, she had mentioned that first day that she’d had broken bones by the hands of men. Right now she sat here on my lap, emitting pure sexual vibes.
“You were just a child.” Her hips swayed across my own, and then her eyes met mine. I saw it then—the vulnerability that she covered up with sexuality.
My hands went to her hips, not to encourage the rhythm but to stop her movement.
“You didn’t deserve that,” I told her, and she looked at my face with a serious gaze.
“I didn’t, but I’m alive, and I am the queen of my universe. The past doesn’t drag me down, Leon, only the thought of not living every day of my freedom the way I want to.” She placed her hands on mine and went back to moving over me.
“I’ve missed your lips, Leon,” she whispered. Despite being unsure about her, and having run from her since I woke up in the boat, everything had changed. I could give her this moment, an escape from the past that was still locked inside her brain, causing chaos.
I thought back to that moment when I first saw her dancing in the cage at the club. I’d wondered what it would have been like to act upon my feelings to walk over and kiss her.
Those lips were waiting for me now, and I would give in. Just for this moment.
Chapter Fourteen
Lilith
Every eye was on me as I danced.
Dancing was my outlet—my place to just let all the warring emotions and memories out of my head.
Right now I was feeling a bit emotional, both happy and sad.
Leon was going to kiss me; I saw it in his eyes. But I couldn’t do it. Instead I kissed his nose, hopped off his lap and told him I needed to go to work, that I’d see him tomorrow.
He was going through a lot, with almost dying and all. Add in my emotional baggage, and he was willing to lay down his lips on mine so I would forget about my past. But it wasn’t the right time. He didn’t truly want to kiss me, and until then, my lips would be sealed. Hopefully, if all went according to plan, it wouldn’t be that long.
So to my place I went, to shower and change into proper dancing attire, and then walked to work.
The owner, Benny, let me do whatever I wanted at his club. I’d helped him get evidence on his cheating wife a year ago, so he let me come in and dance whenever, and paid me a healthy wage. I got to dance, and no one could touch me. Perfect scenario. If I stopped coming, he wouldn’t stress about it, since I came and went as I pleased. He hadn’t seen me since that night with Leon, and when I passed him at the bar he didn’t even blink. Cage dancers were not the main attraction of the club; they were the props that kept the vibe of dancing alive and well.
But as I danced, I realized things had changed for me since the last time. I no longer cared if men’s eyes were on me. I used to live for the thrill of owning them with the twists of my hips. Instead of feeling sad about that new attitude, I smiled up at the ceiling and laughed. My hands gripped the top of the cage, and I lifted myself up. All I wanted was to dance. Everyone else in this club could go fuck themselves. I had what I wanted, and it wasn’t their eyes. I was so caught up in the rhythm that I didn’t realize someone was standing next to my cage, waiting to chat.
When my eyes collided with his, I didn’t even stop moving. Not worth my time.
“Lilith.” His voice was like ink being poured over my insides. I should have killed him when I had the chance.
“I miss the sway of your body,” he purred, and instantly that made me want to stop moving, but that would only give him the satisfaction of getting to me. Which I wouldn’t let him see. He couldn’t touch me, and I couldn’t touch him.
“What do you want, Ezra?” I turned to look him in the eye while shifting my body from side to side slowly with the beat.
“Word is, you’ve caught the attention of somebody bad. I’ve come to check on you, Lilith. Despite our current situation, I’ve never stopped caring.”
His tall frame leaned against the cage. Age never seemed to faze him like it did others. Those emerald-green eyes, combined with the perfectly gelled salt-and-pepper hair, made Ezra a lethal silver fox. He was still in incredible shape, and I knew that shape with all its tattoos very well.
Despite our history, there was always a part of me that wanted his comfort. There were moments in all the chaos where that was the only thing I craved. Then I grew up, and saw him for the monster he truly was.
“Meow,” I purred and wiggled like a cat to the song, letting him know I was done talking to him without telling him to fuck off.
“That mouth.” His fingers reached past the bars to touch my lips with his poisonous hands.
“Such pleasure.”
Before his god-awful hand could reach me, I snapped at him with my teeth like a feral animal. I’d rip those fingers off and spit them back in his face, if I could.
“Such spirit. Goodnight, my little bird.” He smiled at me coldly, and then walked away in his expensive suit.
Night officially ruined.
God, I hated that man. Ezra Alistair was the devil, and I had been his little demon doll for too long.
I waited until I knew he was gone from the area before leaving my cage, grabbing my purse, and walking home. I needed a shower, and then who knew. But right now the zombies in my head were all clinging to the fence that held them in, threatening to knock it right down and rain hell over my brain.
As soon as I closed the door behind me to my home, I shucked my clothes off on the way to the shower. With the water as hot as I could handle, I jumped in and scrubbed every part of my skin that his eyes caressed.
The washcloth had done its job, but I still felt gross. Everything was coming back into the forefront of my head, and I couldn’t do anything but shrink to the ground and put my hands to my head, hoping to keep everything inside.
Hands. Blood. Screams. Bird.
I screamed and started thrashing around, as if it were happening all over again. Despite my eyes being open, it was like I wasn’t even in my own home anymore. I ran from the water’s spray and started destroying everything I could touch. I wouldn’t ever be used again.
“Fight back!” I screamed at my memories as I demolished everything I had.
“Fight back!” I cursed until I collapsed on the floor and let my lungs settle, allowing the memories to leak out of my head in the form of tears down my cheeks.
After a few minutes, I started murmuring my motto that slowly patched the wall to protect my sanity.
“Firebirds rise, firebirds fly.”
I repeated the words until I felt my mind calm and my body relax against the carpet.
“Firebirds rise, firebirds fly.” My eyes closed, and I let myself fall to the seduction of sleep.
Tomorrow I would rise, and bask in the daylight.
Chapter Fifteen
Leon
“Three point two seconds.” Draco hit the button on the timer. I’d run the mile he asked me to do, and I hadn’t even broken a sweat. We’d been testing my powers all morning out in the woods by his still-destroyed home.
“You gonna rebuild it?” I asked, pointing to the ruins.
“Yep,” he answered with one short word. Draco wasn’t a big talk
er, but I could imagine living all those years left him without a lot to say now. All been said.
“So you knew someone with my powers?” I grabbed the metal bars that he’d left here for me to practice bending.
“A woman. Louisa. She was too cocky with her power. Tried to stop a building from falling but lost control and wound up buried beneath it.” He looked me dead in the eyes, and I knew the story was both true and a warning to me. Don’t be cocky. Got it.
I watched as the metal bent slowly as I pulled the two ends together, but then before I knew it the bar snapped.
“Shit.” This was harder than it looked. I could bend the bars with no issue. The problem was controlling myself enough to just give them a horseshoe curve and not snap them apart.
“Your power wants to work with you, not against you. Breathe in and out. A calm mind is key.” He handed me another bar and I held both ends again in my hands. In and out I breathed, trying to remember to stay calm as I began to bend the metal.
Snap!
Instead of keeping the calm I was trying to maintaining, I chucked the metal piece that was in my right hand, cutting through a tree and causing it to fall on the fence to Draco’s cow pasture. Ah, shit.
My eyes went to his, to see if he was mad or not. He should be.
“Be glad my cows weren’t in there,” he murmured, but then bent down to grasp another bar and hand it over.
“You sure?” I honestly did not have the same belief in myself that he was clearly having.
“You’ve gotten it out of your system. You feel bad, so you won’t do it again. Bend the bar.” He took a step back and watched.
I broke fourteen more bars before I finally got one bent without breaking it. He was right about the outburst. I didn’t want to do something to break his property again, so I didn’t.
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