by Vivian Wood
Let them think you’re unconscious, she told herself. It’s the only advantage you can give yourself right now.
Forcing herself to relax, Sera focused on listening to everything around her, trying to take in as much detail about her surroundings as possible. In short order, the van stopped, and she was lifted and carried once more.
After a minute of bouncing around as she laid across someone’s shoulders like a sack of potatoes, Sera’s butt landed on a metal chair. Cold hands leaned her back, positioning her hands and attaching them to the chair with metal cuffs.
Then, silence. For a long time, Sera heard nothing but the sound of her own breathing. Her heart thrummed in her chest, and soon she felt a tear slip down her left cheek.
This was the bad thing Cassie had prophesied. On the very day she’d told her mates to quit worrying, to let her be independent, it was happening. What had Cassie said, exactly?
Ripped apart.
Sera shuddered, a quiet whimper escaping her lips.
“Ah, you’re awake,” came a deep bass voice. Thickly accented, exotic. French, but more than that. “Uncover her.”
The dark cloth bag was yanked off her head, leaving her to wince in the bright afternoon light. She sat in a big, abandoned warehouse of some sort, sunlight streaming in through patchy holes in the roof.
A tall, almost skeletal man stood before her, his ebony skin gleaming. His eyes were sunken to dark hollows, though the whites were shockingly light. His smile, too, was so white it nearly glowed. He wore an impeccably-tailored white suit, complete with a blood-red tie and pocket square and wing-tip shoes.
“There, that’s better,” he said, almost to himself.
“Who are you?” Sera blurted out, wincing at the volume of her own voice. Her head still throbbed, and everything sounded a little too loud.
“Who am I?” he asked with a grin. “Papa Aguiel, of course. Surely your friends the Guardians have told you about me, little bird.”
Now that she watched him speak, Sera was pretty sure that his accent was Haitian. From what little she knew of Papa Aguiel, gathered from the other Guardians’ mates and a few midnight research sessions, Haitian would make sense.
The man watched her for a few moments, as if assessing her. He walked around her in a wide circle, looking her up and down. Something about the way he walked suggested that he was hiding a limp; his sunken cheeks and glassy eyes made Sera think he was sick.
Could one such as Papa Aguiel, a Vodun Loa somehow come to life, be sick?
“Yes, you will do,” he said. Again, he seemed to be talking to himself as much as her. “I thought you’d hide through the full moon, and ruin it for me… When I heard you were in the Gray Market, flaunting your two Guardian mates… Surely, I thought, she is lost to me now.”
Sera didn’t reply. She only watched him with what she hoped was a stoic expression. He chuckled and ran his hands down the front of his suit.
“Yet here you are, little bird. A phoenix, the one creature who can keep me in the mortal realm forever. What a beautiful Vessel you are, Serafina.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Sera said, her curiosity overcoming her unwillingness to participate. Papa Aguiel continued as if she had not spoken.
“When I possess your body, you will fit me like a glove. While I conquer and rule the human realm, I think you will be there, too. Inside, somewhere.” He cocked his head as if listening to some secret sound. “Sometimes I can hear this Vessel, the one I possess now, deep down inside. Screaming, mostly. I hope you will not scream so much as this one, Serafina.”
Sera’s mouth dropped open, but she had no answer for that. Her whole body began to tremble as she worked out the meaning of his words. Possess… Vessel… screaming…
Gods, he meant to take over her body? Apparently it wouldn’t be the Loa’s first time, either.
“Truly, you will be luckier than you know,” he told her, his tone cool and conversational, like they were two strangers on the streetcar talking about weather. “You will see it all firsthand. The rivers running with blood, the skies weeping black. The human race falling to their knees, surrendering to their new master… Yes, it will be a sight to behold. And you, dear Serafina, you will make it all possible.”
“Me?” Sera asked, flinching. “Why me?”
“Because you are the last phoenix, and the only creature powerful enough to act as my Vessel and hold my shape forever. On this full moon, you will rise and burn, shed your form. In that moment, I will take your place, complete my final form.”
He paused, then looked directly in Sera’s eyes.
“It will be spectacular.”
With that, he spun on his heel and left her, bound and aghast.
Sera let her head hang down, unable to lift a finger to save her own life.
15
Chapter Fifteen
Kieran glanced up from the grimy cobblestones lining Pirate’s Alley in the French Quarter, giving Kellan a once-over. His brother was uncharacteristically silent as they wrapped up their night’s patrol a little early. It was nearly eleven p.m., and the whole Quarter was suspiciously still under the foggy, moonlit sky. Even the human tourists seemed restrained, almost sleepy. Usually when the first night of the full moon fell on a weekend night, as was the case tonight, all the loonies and drunks and were-creatures came out in full force and wreaked havoc.
“Even Pirate’s Alley is empty? I’ll be damned,” Kieran said, shaking his head. “I’ve never seen a full moon as tame as this one.”
“I don’t like it,” was Kellan’s only response.
Kieran nodded. He felt heavy, like he’d gone through a full-length battle… except they hadn’t so much as vanquished a demon. In the back of his mind, too, was the gnawing worry over Sera. She’d called him paranoid, but Kieran just felt like something was going to go wrong. That gut instinct had saved him a thousand times over by now, and he tried to listen to it as best he could.
If only he could pinpoint the issue, the exact thing that worried him. This general unease and dragging worry was unlike him.
When Kellan yawned and suggested grabbing coffee on the way back to the Manor, something clicked into place for Kieran.
“It’s a spell,” Kieran said, resisting the urge to smack himself in the forehead.
“What?” Kellan asked, smothering another yawn.
“That,” Kieran said, pointing straight up. “The fog. It’s a spell. That’s why we’re both tired and anxious, why there’s hardly anyone out in the streets tonight. Someone wants everyone to stay in tonight, mind their own business. Stay out of the way, more like.”
“Gods, you’re right,” Kellan said. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it.”
“I think that might be part of the spell, too.” Kieran squinted up at the thin, misty fog. “It’s very cleverly made. That’s what worries me most.”
“We need to get back to the Manor,” Kellan said. “There was a police car idling on the last block, let’s go back and hail a ride from the officer.”
Kieran nodded and followed Kellan’s lead. After flashing their Guardian IDs to the officer, they got the fastest of rides back home.
“Thank you, officer,” Kieran said when they hopped out in front of the Manor.
“Night, gentlemen,” the cop said, dipping his head. For the briefest moment, the officer’s irises blazed bright yellow, his subtle way of outing himself as Kith.
“Stay alert tonight,” Kieran said. “Something’s going down, though I don’t know what.”
The officer gave him a salute, then pulled off.
“Kieran!” Kellan stood in the front doorway, waiting for his twin to jog up to meet him. “Sera didn’t come home tonight.”
“Did you try calling her?” Kieran asked.
His twin nodded. “No response.”
“Fuck.”
“Hey, there you guys are,” Echo said from the foyer. “Come inside, I need to talk to you both.”
Kieran
and Kellan stepped inside, all ears to see what Rhys’s mate had up her sleeve.
“Mere Marie said you were looking for Sera,” Echo said. “Which is funny, because I just got a tip-off about her. I’ve been grooming this Gray Market security guy as an informant for a while now, and he just left me a message. He got hired for an outside job, working security on a private contract. Working for some creepy Haitian guy, he says. Sound familiar?”
“What about Sera?” Kellan asked, frustration heavy in his voice.
“Right, sorry. The guard said he met Sera a while ago, saw her hanging out with you guys in the Gray Market. Apparently the job he’s working involves holding a captive, and the lady they’re guarding looks a hell of a lot like Sera. Apparently the boss is shelling out big for this job, too.”
“We have to check it out, at least,” Kieran said.
“Did Echo fill you in?” Rhys asked, coming up to join them.
“Yeah. Why aren’t you all suited up and ready?” Kellan asked.
“We’ve fallen into this trap before, sending all the Guardians to one location and leaving the Manor and the rest of the city unprotected,” Rhys sighed. “Gabriel and I are going to stay here and hold down the fort. Asher and Aeric are going to go with you to check out the situation. The address Echo’s informant gave us is just up the road in the seventh ward, so we can reach you easily if needed. Or vice versa,” Rhys explained.
Asher strode into the foyer, Aeric close on his heels.
“We’re ready. Duverjay’s waiting in the parking deck for us,” Aeric said, nodding toward the back of the house. “We need to roll on this, right now. It’s only half an hour until midnight, and there’s a reason they call it the witching hour. That’s when shit goes down.”
“Agreed. We’ll grab some more ammo on the way out,” Kellan said.
The men rolled out, promising Rhys that they’d stay in constant contact. After a hair-raising drive into a half-abandoned neighborhood that Kieran had never visited, they pulled up and got out on a block of crumbling, abandoned warehouses.
“Right there, on the left,” Asher said, pointing. “467 Port.”
“Funny seeing reinforced steel doors on a place that looks like half the roof is caved in,” Kieran said.
“We should go around the side, breach through a window,” was Aeric’s suggestion.
They moved on silent feet down a dark, tight side alley. Kellan spotted a window that was already missing a pane of glass, and gestured to everyone to ready themselves. Kieran held up a hand, asking them to wait. He placed his bare palm against the remaining glass and froze it solid, which would make their entrance a little safer.
Asher boosted Kellan up and Kellan busted through the window as quietly as possible, then disappeared inside. Kieran followed next, with Asher and Aeric right behind him. When Kieran’s feet hit the scuffed cement floor of the huge empty space, he spotted Sera immediately.
In fact, she was impossible to miss.
At the far end of the warehouse, two figures stood. One was a dark-skinned man in a suit, which could only be Papa Aguiel. The other figure was standing on what looked like a stone altar, head thrown back and arms spread wide. Sera.
And she was glowing. Bright, blinding white, with vivid blue outlining her form. Her hair was a curtain of black flame, and she wore a thin white ceremonial robe that flowed over her curvy body like pristine, silken water.
Between the Guardians and Sera were at least two dozen black-robed Vodun priests, and they were already moving to attack.
Even from here, Kieran could feel the heat radiating off her.
“Phoenix,” he heard Aeric whisper. “I thought they were all extinct.”
“Let’s move,” Kellan said, surging forward.
“Wait! She’s going to burn, there’s no way we can stop that,” Aeric said. “She’s going to shed her form. I don’t know what Papa Aguiel has planned, but we have to focus on stopping him and keeping him from whatever he wants to do.”
“What about Sera?” Kieran asked.
“I’m sorry, I don’t… I don’t know,” Aeric said, drawing his sword.
The sound of steel rung out in the heavy, silent air as the Guardians pulled their weapons and faced off against Papa Aguiel’s henchmen. Though it only took a few minutes for Kieran and the other Guardians to fight their way through most of the assailants, it seemed they were out of time.
“Too late!” Papa Aguiel crowed, holding up a small black object. A remote? “It’s midnight. Time to watch the pretty little bird burn.”
He pressed a button and a panel in the ceiling slid back, pouring moonlight down onto the altar where Sera stood. She cried out as her whole body burst into fierce white flame, engulfing her in an orb of dazzling, burning white light. Just as Kieran got close, Papa Aguiel looked right at the Guardians, laughed, and stepped into the fire.
He vanished.
“Shit!” Kieran shouted. He could feel Kellan right beside him as they both rushed headlong into the fire. First, he felt a burst of scalding heat.
Then, nothingness.
16
Chapter Sixteen
Kellan held his breath as he fell through white nothingness for several heart-pounding moments. Then suddenly, he was plunged into near darkness, his feet almost going out from under him when he hit the soft, loamy ground. It was nearly pitch-dark, the only illumination coming from a creeping gray mist that swirled through the air, clinging to his limbs and sticking in his lungs. He could hear a strange sound, like the ticking of a clock, or a faint heartbeat; it reverberated through the whole plane, skittering across his skin.
The worst part of it all was the complete, utter silence, like being in a total vacuum.
When Kieran’s hand landed on his arm, Kellan jumped.
Look, his twin mouthed. The word sounded in his mind instead out loud, which was jarring. Kieran gave Kellan an impatient look and wrenched him around to face the opposite direction.
Kellan’s mouth fell open. There, a hundred yards away, was a massive column of gray-and-white flickering fire. Even as he watched, it grew and grew, burning higher and brighter. Inside the column was Sera, her mouth open in a silent scream of agony, black tears rolling down her cheeks as she burned.
Get her out of there, I’ll get the bad guy, Kieran said, moving toward Papa Aguiel, who was on the other side of Sera, staring at her with a strange expression of glee.
Kellan started moving toward Sera, then frowned. Moving was nearly impossible, like trying to walk through freshly poured concrete. It took all his strength just to make it close enough to get Sera’s attention. She pressed her hands against the wall of flame, looking as if she were trapped behind a wall of glass, a fresh bout of tears running down her face.
Her mouth moved, and her voice slithered through his mind.
You can’t be here. You will burn, she said. Though Sera was clearly panicked and in pain, her voice in his head was cool and calm. For some reason, that made Kellan furious. What the fuck was this horrible place?
The flames around her flared and jumped higher, higher. Kellan’s whole body broke into a fierce sweat. He pushed forward two more steps, and he could feel the heat licking his skin, feel the hair on his arms begin to curl.
“What do I do?” he shouted.
Sera clawed at the flames, shaking her head, anger in her eyes. Like she really expected her mates to just leave her, abandon her to… whatever the hell was going on here?
Fuck no.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kellan saw Papa Aguiel shove Kieran away, sending his sword spinning off into the mist. Papa Aguiel grinned and started dragging himself toward Sera with a single-minded sort of determination, and suddenly Kellan realized… the guy was going to try to get in the flames with her.
A long, keening scream echoed through Kellan’s mind, and he glanced back at Sera. He could see that she was beginning to fade, the lines of her body growing harder to distinguish from the rest of the flame.
/> She’s going to burn out, he thought. Maybe… maybe if I get inside? Or Kieran can use his magic to cool her off…
Something shifted into place into his brain. She was burning. She would fade, and die. Kieran had the power of icy death, Kellan the power of fresh life…
They could save her, but it would take both of them at once to do it.
There was a shout of pain from Papa Aguiel, and a victorious sound from Kieran. Kellan saw that his twin had plunged a long black dagger into the other man’s chest, and now Papa Aguiel staggered backward, trying to get away.
“Leave him!” Kellan shouted, seeing Kieran wince at the way Kellan’s words rang in his mind. “We have to go into the fire, together!”
You can’t save her, fools, Papa Aguiel’s voice hissed. You can’t tame the phoenix. She has risen, she burns. Now she must die and be reborn. It is their way.
When Kieran bared his teeth at Papa Aguiel, the villain only shook his head.
You will die. I will find another way, he promised, turning and vanishing from view.
“Now, Kieran!” Kellan cried.
They both waded toward each other, Kellan reaching out and grabbing his twin’s hand, gripping it like a lifeline. Somehow, having Kieran so close made it easier to move, easier to breathe. They walked right up to Sera, then glanced at one another.
“We have to keep her from burning. You use your magic first, cool and dark. Then I use mine, bright and warm. We can save her, brother,” Kellan told Kieran.
Kieran nodded, understanding dawning in his expression.
No! Sera screeched when they started to move into the flames. Turn back! Turn back!
Jaw set, Kellan summoned an orb of his magic into one hand, holding up a bright white ball before his eyes. Beside him, Kieran held an identical orb in pitch black.
Life. Death.
Salvation.
Nodding at one another, they both thrust their hands into the fire. It was everything he could do not to jerk his hand back. Kellan opened the font of power deep within himself, unleashing it and pushing it out through his hand. The fire caught and danced across his skin wildly, and he felt a tug low in his body. The fire pulled at his power, drawing it out of him, draining him of everything, inside and out.