There were three men on stage. The singer was tall, skinny and dark haired. He was dressed like everyone else on stage. Blue jeans, black jacket. He doubled as the guitar player. The bass player had white-blonde hair, except for the blue streak on one side. The drummer was light haired, but he couldn’t see much else. Phoenix could see he had no shirt. After the first song, he was sweating buckets. There was a lone guitar on a stand toward the back of the stage that reminded me of Kelly’s.
He watched Kelly during the show more than the show itself. She stood in front of their booth, never sitting. She hooped and hollered along with the other club goers, singing every word. She played air guitar along with the music. Phoenix thought she had never looked so beautiful.
During a break between songs, Kelly sat on Phoenix’s lap. She leaned in and kissed his mouth, briefly, asking him if he was having fun. He was. So was everyone else. Even Victor and Rachel, who had left their booth to dance. Jared was nodding his head in time with the music, smiling and nursing a beer. Jules ordered a margarita, and Nick shot her a look of warning that told Phoenix that he had to have been there. He was about to ask Kelly if she knew anything about it when the singer of the band interrupted.
“Guys, we have someone special in the house tonight,” he said. “As most of you remember, we have a fourth member, our lead guitar player. She has been in Europe for the last few months, and she is finally home. It is my distinct pleasure to welcome home Miss Kelly Martin!” The crowd erupted in cheers and the spotlight found their table. Kelly waved and blew kisses to the crowd, who were just eating it up. Phoenix hadn’t realized her music had touched so many people.
“What do you say if she joins us for a song or two?” the singer asked the crowd. Kelly blushed and feigned shyness. The crowd started chanting, “Play, play, play.” Kelly looked at Phoenix, and he nodded. How could he not give the crowd what they wanted? What she wanted?
Kelly smiled and headed for the stage. The masses parted like the red sea for her as she danced her way to the stage. She held her hands out to her sides, slapping the hands of fans as she went. Her band mates abandoned their instruments momentarily to meet her at the edge of the stage. The singer took her hand and pulled her on stage and she was engulfed by a group hug. The crowd went wild. The guys went back to their instruments and the singer handed Kelly the black guitar. Phoenix knew why he thought it looked familiar. It was her guitar! She planned this! Sneaky little squirt, he thought. He heard her answering laughter in her head.
“Thank you, Jerick,” she said into the microphone. “This is one of my favorites,” she continued. “It’s called The Flames.” She began picking out a tune. The drums joined her, then the others. Then she surprised Phoenix. She started singing. She had a wonderful soprano voice. He listened with all his attention. She looked directly at him while she sang. Phoenix rose from their booth and made his way through the horde of people until he was standing near the stage. He towered over all the heads and easily made it to the front of the stage. They moved away as soon as they got a look at his sheer size. The whole time, Kelly never took her eyes off of him.
“Weakness is our strength, and I’ll die searching for it...” she sang. “I believe that there’s hope, buried beneath it all...” The words of her chosen song seemed to fit their situation and it was as if she were singing about her family specifically. Phoenix watched as she strummed out the bridge that led to the chorus of the song. Kelly jumped and hit the strong notes and sang at the same time, her feet hitting the stage in time with the drums. The music exploded into the air and sparks shot out from the stage toward the sky. Kelly didn’t seem to even notice. She just continued to sing her voice rang over the crowd, even and strong. She sang beautifully and he found himself fighting the tears in his eyes. He didn’t know if it was from seeing her so happy, from the sound of her voice, the song, the fact that he was incredibly proud of her, or a combination of all of the above. The one thing he did know, what that the phoenix did not cry.
He saw Jules and Jared standing next to him. He had been so wrapped up in watching his mate that he hadn’t noticed them before, but there they were. Jules was crying happy tears and Jared was grinning ear to ear. Phoenix was happy for him. He needed an escape. After three songs, Kelly thanked her band and leapt off the stage. Phoenix opened his arms for her and she leapt with abandon into his waiting arms. The strange look from the other guitar player didn’t escape his notice. He raised an eyebrow in their direction. Kelly looked at Phoenix and then back at Jerick. She pushed out of his arms and jumped back on stage.
“I want to introduce y’all to someone.” She pointed directly at Phoenix. “This is Phoenix. The love of my life.” He could feel the stares of hundreds of people on him just then. “That’s right boys, I’m taken,” she laughed. Banter mixed with ‘awes’ and disappointed grumbles filled the air. She leapt back into his arms and kissed him with a complete abandon for everything else.
When the show was over and they were on their way home, Phoenix genuinely thanked Kelly for bringing them out for fun. He had not fully realized before just how important her music was to her before that night, and he promised her that when this was over, that she would go back to her band. She was giddy, for lack of a better word, on their flight back to their temporary home. Phoenix didn’t mind. He was energized as well and loved that she was so happy. Jules must not have realized how lucky she was, to have been so close to Kelly and her music for all those years. He sent up a silent thank you to her father for teaching her to play. In dragging everyone out, Kelly had given them the gift of rest and much needed distraction. He decided right then to find a way to repay her for this wonderful gift she had given to them all.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Do you really have to go?” Kelly asked Phoenix. Her eyes pleaded with him not to go and leave her behind. He was leaving her with Jules and Nick while he and everyone else went to New Mexico to do a little recon. She knew he had to go because he was the only one who could get really close without being seen. He was the only one who could get away quickly and safely if it needed to be. He was the only one who could actually die and make it back to them alive. He was the logical choice, but that didn’t stop the horrible feeling welling up in Kelly’s gut. She actually felt like she had the flu and she selfishly wanted him by her side so that she knew he was safe. She just knew something terrible was going to happen.
“You know I do,” he said. “I will be back. In two days. Don’t worry. And I will call you every chance I get.” Phoenix hated to leave her but it wasn’t safe for her. He knew that Jules would die before letting anything happen to her daughter. He especially hated to leave her knowing she was sick.
“You better,” Kelly said with a little pout. Phoenix smiled and kissed her lightly before rocketing away. Kelly watched until she could no longer see his fire in the sky.
“It’s ok,” Nick said to her. “He will be back.”
“I know,” she said. “I still don’t like it.” He just smiled at her, putting his arm around her shoulders and leading her back inside. She felt her anxiety melting away and was thankful for Nick’s gift at that moment.
Kelly trudged up the stairs into her room. She flung herself across the bed and did nothing. Nothing at all. She thought that if she tried to move any more she might lose control over her stomach. Her cell phone buzzed from the top of the dresser. At first, Kelly thought about just ignoring it, but the possibility that it was Phoenix forced her body to move. She got up and gingerly walked to her dresser. It was only a few feet away, but the trip seemed like miles.
She instantly recognized the number.
“I told you I would call when I could,” Phoenix said.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“Just about to the Arizona/Nevada border. I miss you.”
“You’ve only been gone thirty minutes!” she laughed. “Are you in the air?”
“Yes. Do you want me to hang up?”
“NO!” Kelly s
aid too loudly for her own ears. “I was just, surprised. I always want to talk to you.” They talked until he was nearly where he was going. When they disconnected, Kelly dropped her phone next to her and fell asleep.
She spent the next day wandering around the house like a zombie. She watched cartoons, she picked at her guitar. Mostly, she waited. She waited for Phoenix to call. She knew in her heart that he was alright, but she worried just the same. At about four in the afternoon, she decided the best way to make the time go by was to sleep it away and went to her room for a nap. Her stomach was upset again and she just wanted some peace and quiet. She was rarely sick, but when she did catch something, she was useless. She couldn’t be sure if she had contracted a bug or if she was just way too stressed out. She had read somewhere that stress could do marvelous things to a person physically. Maybe that was her problem and the reason she was having such a hard time kicking it.
She went in her room and closed the door behind her. She thought she caught a whiff of something familiar, a perfume, maybe. She couldn’t place it though. She sniffed the air again, looking for the scent. If she were a vampire like her mother, or even a shape-shifter she could have found it. But she was just a human. Her senses were weak compared to the rest of her family and that short coming was beginning to wear on her.
A wave of dizziness swept over her and she stumbled to the dresser, catching herself with her hands. She was sick and tired of being sick and tired. She had been feeling like a used dishrag for more than a week by that point. She felt a slight breeze on her skin and realized that the window was open. She was fairly certain she hadn’t left it that way and for a split second she thought maybe Phoenix had returned. No, that wasn’t the case and she walked over to shut it. She rested her arms on the sill and breathed in the cool air. She imagined what Phoenix was doing right at that moment. She imagined him flying over the desert, looking, and watching. She visualized the graceful flames covering his wings and trailing along behind him. He really was the most beautiful creature ever created by the hand of God, and he was hers. She never knew she was capable of so much love. She let out a long sigh and turned for her bed.
But then, it happened.
Someone grabbed her from behind, covering her mouth. Kelly tried to scream, but her breath caught against a fabric over her mouth. It had a weird taste and a strange smell. Sweet. Metallic. Her head got woozy and she tried to fight against her assailant, but it was no use. The room began to spin and she realized what the smell on the cloth was. Ether. She twisted and jerked against her attacker but she couldn’t gain an inch. She heard a soft chuckle right before everything went black.
Phoenix’s phone was buzzing persistently in his pocket. He was trying his best to ignore the damned thing, but it kept on vibrating. The warehouse where they had fought only a couple of months ago has deserted. There was no sign that anyone had returned after that bloody battle. There was still blood stains on the floor from Jules’s rampage. She tore that vampire to shreds, leaving nothing more than a bloody mess of flesh in her wake. They fought back to back that day, the perfect team. She saved Phoenix’s butt, and he knew it. He remembered it all too well and the memory made him shudder. He owed her his life. Not just for the fight, but for her daughter as well.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
Irritated, and satisfied that he was alone, Phoenix fished his phone out of his pocket. Six missed calls. All of them Jules. His heart skipped a beat and then pounded furiously against his ribs. Something was wrong. She wouldn’t have called like that if it wasn’t important.
He furiously dialed the number. She answered on the first ring. She didn’t say hello, she gave no greeting at all. All she said was, “Kelly’s gone.”
Phoenix’s blood turned to ice in his veins, and for the first time in his long life, he went cold. Goosebumps spread over his skin, every hair he had stood up on end. He stood frozen, his feet concreted to the spot where he stood for a short second. He didn’t breathe. His heart didn’t beat. And then, he was in the air. He dipped his head and shot forward faster than he had ever flown. Fire engulfed him, hotter than the sun and left a wake of flames behind him. Tears whipped form his eyes as the wind burned them but he hardly noticed nor did he care. Tree tops that he veered too close to ignited as he ripped passed them through the sky. He didn’t care that he set shit on fire and he didn’t care if anyone saw him. He made the trip home, across two states, in under thirty minutes. Which was far too long as far as he was concerned
He landed hard and had to run at a dead sprint to avoid crashing into anything. He slammed through the back door, breaking it off its hinges as he went. He went straight to Jules, who tried to hug him. She was crying. He knew he wanted to comfort her, but he just couldn’t. She looked into his face and then backed away. Phoenix lurched past her without saying a word and bolted up the stairs.
Kelly’s room was empty. There was no sign of a struggle. Her phone laid on the dresser, her bed was made. There was a slight indention in her pale yellow comforter, left over from where she had recently lain across it. Her guitar stood in the corner. Phoenix could almost hear her playing it. Suddenly, he missed the wail of her guitar. I really wanted to hear it now. Because if he heard her guitar, it would mean that she really wasn’t gone. That this was nothing more than a bad dream.
He sniffed the air, hoping to catch anything out of the ordinary. He could smell Kelly everywhere. Her delicious honey almond scent clung to every fiber in the room. “We didn’t hear anything,” Jules sobbed from the doorway. “I came up to check on her, because she wasn’t feeling well, and she was gone, just gone.”
“Did you move anything?” Phoenix asked.
“No, this is just like I found it an hour ago.”
His eyes searched the room for any clue. His nostrils flared as he sniffed again. There was a different scent. Faint. He couldn’t place it, but he knew he had smelled it before. There was a slight metallic scent present as well. “What is that smell?” he asked Jules.
She made a show of sniffing the air with her sharp vampire sense of smell. “Is that ether?” Damn it, he knew she was right. There was only one reason for that smell to be present.
Someone had been here.
Someone who wanted her unconscious so they could take her quietly.
“Did you search outside?” Phoenix demanded.
“Of course, we searched a twenty mile radius around the house. Couldn’t even get her scent. It’s like she just disappeared into thin air.” Nick was crying too, silent tears streaking down his cheeks.
Phoenix felt the anger inside him take over the pain and worry. How dare they touch what was his? How fucking dare they? He felt as if he might explode if he didn’t do something. “Son of a bitch!” he shouted out, throwing his fist into the wall. He only gave the gaping hole he left a passing glance as he charged through the house and back outside.
Phoenix flew over the entire town, looking for any signs. He knew deep in his chest that he wouldn’t find anything. It was just like the others. No trace. Again, for the first time in his life, he was truly scared. Another first. He had known better than to leave her. He hadn’t wanted to go in the first place, but they were right, he was the only one who could do it safely. He had left her with Nick and Jules. He tried to comfort himself by saying that if the person who took her got past both of them then there was nothing he could have done either. They could get to any of them.
They must have known he would go to check things out. No one would dare try to take her Phoenix round. That would be suicide. He thought no one could get past Jules. He had been wrong. He had made a terrible mistake by leaving, and now, they had Kelly. An ocean of pain washed over him. He was sick with guilt, anger, fear, and worry. He wanted to destroy something, anything.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
Damn phone. He started to just toss it into the trees, but he saw the number.
“Hello?” he barked into it. She better have some news that was useful. Phoenix wasn’t in
the mood for anything else.
“Phoenix,” Michelle said, “I’m here, in Arizona. I got a call. I have information we need.”
“They took Kelly,” he said flatly.
“I know. They called me with a specific message for you. They told me I would find you in Arizona. They said, and I quote, ‘if you want to see the girl again, come to the military base in New Mexico tomorrow at ten a.m.’ They gave me a set of coordinates. I don’t know what they mean. They said our family was alive and would be let free if we cooperate.”
Phoenix gave her their new address and told her to get there. When they were all together, or rather, what was left of them, they went over what we had to do. They would go. In the morning. Phoenix knew deep down that Kelly was right. They were walking into a trap, and he no longer cared. All he could focus on was getting her back.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Kelly came to only to realize that it was dark and her head felt like it was in a vice. The head ache was causing extreme pressure in her skull and she had to wonder if he had been hit. She did a quick assessment of her body. She was tied up, sitting against a wall. There were ropes around her wrists and ankles. Her mouth had a metallic taste and there was a gag shoved into her mouth. She gagged on the flavor and shook her head. The gag was shoved in there tight. She forced breath through her nostrils and listened to the sounds surrounding her.
She could hear someone talking in the next room. She strained her ears to hear the conversation. She only caught bits and pieces.
“Do you think they will come?” a woman’s voice asked.
“Of course they will,” a man answered.
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