“I want you to be aware that my spells will only last for so long. The blocking spell can only shield one person at a time.”
“You have done your job well, my dear. You will be rewarded when this is through.”
“It was harder than I thought it would be to hide from the female.”
Kelly knew that voice. The man’s. It was so familiar. The accent. She fought the urge to throw up as she realized who it belonged to.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Phoenix waited as patiently as he could. He had flown there and of course he had been the first to arrive. He flew faster than he had meant to and was trying to wait on the others who had driven. Why did they have to be so damned slow? He was pacing on a desert cliff desperately watching the gates of Area 51. That was precisely where the coordinates Michelle had given them lead to. It was huge, at least six hangers and a large one story building. He was certain there were more floors buried underground. Pretty fucking impressive for a military base that didn’t used to exist. He wondered if the government knew it was being run by demons. Whatever, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting his woman back, and she was inside that base.
He snarled to himself yet again. He was going to kill the fucker who dared to put his hands on Kelly, and he was going to enjoy making it take a very long time.
He wanted to rush in, to grab Kelly and when she was safe, rip those bastards’ hearts out of their chests. His own chest was heavy with fear. Not for himself, but for Kelly. He knew this was a trap. Hell, they all did. He knew that once they were inside, the demons and whatever else was in there would kill his family and their prisoners. Jared had been willing to go alone, but Phoenix had no intentions of letting him go at all before they took Kelly. Now, he was walking into the fire with him. His vampire family was coming as well, along with Michelle, like lambs to the slaughter. If he could do nothing else, Phoenix would save Kelly. She was his whole world; he had no reason to be without her.
An hour took an eternity to drag by. When he finally heard the cars speeding up the dirt road, Phoenix flew down to meet them.
“Leave the cars here,” he commanded.
“Are you ready?” Nick asked.
“I’ve been ready.”
“I just want to say something before we go in,” Jared said. “You guys have all become family to me. I love you. All of you. No matter what happens in here today, I wanted you to know that. Michael, Jolice, and Kelly are my family as much as Andrew. Thank you for taking us into your home, your life, and into your family.”
“Yeah, yeah. No time to be all sappy now,” Phoenix snapped. “We are coming back, together. But just so you know, we love you too. Now, if we are finished with the hearts and flowers, let’s go get our family.”
The seven of them walked quickly to the gates. Phoenix was in front, Jules and Nick right behind him. Jared, Victor, Rachel, and Michelle flanked their sides. They approached quickly but with caution. There were no guards, but why would there be? The gates opened for them right on cue. Of course they did, they were expected. Phoenix felt the fire itching to explode from his wings. Everything that made him who he was begged to be set free. The instinct to protect and maim was gathering inside him something fierce. For the moment, he kept it at bay. He would call on it when needed. For now, he needed to appear to be calm and level headed. He knew it had to be that way, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. They walked together down a dirt pathway to the only visible door. Jared raised one fist to knock, but Phoenix grabbed his hand. As he expected, the door opened.
“Hello, glad you could make it,” a pretty petite red head announced. Phoenix wasn’t surprised to see her.
“Anita,” Jules growled.
“Anita,” Nick snarled. “Where is our family?”
“Come inside, we have much to discuss,” she said, moving to the side and motioning them in. Against their better judgment, they followed.
They followed her down a dark hallway with no doors, no windows. After about fifty feet, they took a sharp right. At the end of the hall, there was a dimly lit room. A row a high set windows let the sunlight in from three walls. Upon entering, Phoenix could see that it was an airplane hangar. But there were no planes. There were, however, plenty of armed guards. They lined the walls like robots, perfectly still at attention, waiting for orders.
“Humans,” Jared whispered. Why would humans be here right now? Unless they were on the side of evil. Phoenix wondered what Harwin had offered in return for their loyalty and he wondered if they knew the price was their soul.
“Anita,” a man called. Phoenix knew that voice too. It was Harwin. He strode to meet them in the center of the room, his smile of decayed teeth baring over his lips. Phoenix wrinkled his nose involuntarily. Be evil. Be nasty, but for God’s sake, see a freaking dentist.
“Our guests have arrived,” Anita told him.
“Harwin,” Phoenix growled, fighting the nearly overwhelming urge to incinerate him. He trampled it down and put a lock on it. “Where is Kelly?”
“Now, which one was that? Oh right, the little human. I can’t tell you for sure. But I know someone who can. Heidi?”
Heidi? What could she know? Wasn’t she being held captive as well?
“Yes Harwin?” she said in her heavy French accent, seeming to appear out of nowhere. She was dressed in her usual black leather pants and stiletto heels. Her sword was slung securely across her back. She tossed her dark curls over her shoulders nonchalantly. She sure as fuck didn’t look like a captive to Phoenix.
“Do you know what happened to the little one, Kelly? Phoenix would like to know,” he said with a smug little smile.
“Ah, Phoenix, what a lovely surprise. Have you come to rescue me?” she paused as if contemplating, then continued, “no, of course not. You came to rescue that little skank you’ve been sleeping with.”
“Heidi, I’ve missed you,” Michelle said to her sister, tripping lightly to her side and taking her hand.
All the pieces were falling together. Phoenix had been tricked. The sisters never intended to be their friends, they were on the wrong side for that. He had been played like a fool. The sisters had so many reasons to hate demons and so few to side with them. The only thing Phoenix could wrap his mind around was one question. “Why Heidi?” he asked.
“Because you have to pick a side. I chose the side that was going to win. I was hoping you would stay with me, stay with us. I wanted you to be on our side. That was the plan all along. Did you think our meeting was chance?” she asked, grinning. “It was only slightly difficult to get past the vampire’s lie detector,” she said, her eyes flicking in Jules’s direction momentarily. “I was supposed to seduce you, to make you want me. We knew you wouldn’t come here unless it was for someone you had very strong feelings for. You would make a great asset. So I pretended to have feelings for you. And in part, I did. I came to truly care for you on some level. I thought maybe I was succeeding in getting you to care for me. But no! You had to go and fall for that damn human girl! She’s not even a fighter.” She explained.
“What do I have to do to get her back? I’ll do anything,” he pleaded with her. Yes, he wasn’t above begging for his mate if it meant his family could walk away.
A shrill whistle like a sports coach would use sounded and at once the room was in motion. Phoenix and his family were quickly over powered by the soldiers. He had always trained himself not to kill humans, and it was deeply rooted. The same for the rest of his family. They were taken by sheer numbers. Even though they tried to fight off the attack, they found themselves chained to the stone wall in only a matter of minutes.
“What you have to do, my friends, is die. You will be taken apart and your parts will be scattered to the four corners of the earth. You made one mistake with me, Phoenix. You told me how your fireworks. You told me all about your little family. Now I have the knowledge to put you all down and keep you down.” Michelle hissed. It was true. When he had been preparing the si
sters to meet Nick and Jules, and everyone else, he had told them about their gifts, how they work, and about himself. He trusted them and in doing so, he gave them all the knowledge they needed to double cross him successfully. He had given them all the information they needed to win. He had been so very blind, so stupid, and now they were all about to pay for his mistake.
They could kill Phoenix, but as long as all his parts were together when they burned, he would be whole again. But if the pieces were scattered, he would stay dead. Phoenix jerked on his chains, but they were freakishly strong. He had no idea how these fuckers found something strong enough to not only hold him, but Jules as well. She was a thousand times stronger than Phoenix.
“I can’t do anything,” Jules said.
“I can’t bend their will,” Victor said.
“I can’t shift,” Jared added. It was like they were in some kind of bubble that kept them from using their gifts.
“Shall we bring out their friends?” Michelle asked Harwin.
“Yes, let’s get this party going,” he answered.
“Are you going to let them go?” Jules asked, only it came out like an accusation. “You don’t need them. You have us.”
“Absolutely not!” Harwin spat. “You are going to watch them die,” he said laughing.
“What use could they possibly be to you now?” Jules demanded. “They are just humans.”
A mass of snarls and growls came from their little family of hostages. Jared tried to phase again, but couldn’t. “Don’t bother,” Heidi said. “Those chains are magically enhanced.” Then she smiled. “What? Did you think you were the only ones who knew a witch?” Well, that explained why none of them could use their gifts. It was not a scenario they had prepared for. Another mistake on their part. They should have been prepared for anything. They should have expected that the Dark Alliance would find a witch. They seemed to make one mistake after another and this little plan they had was turning into one giant clusterfuck.
Phoenix jerked forward to try and get a swipe in on Heidi. His hands may have been bound, but his teeth weren’t. He would take a chunk out of her if he could gain any purchase at all with his teeth. He missed. Before he could try again a cage on wheels rolled into the center of the room, pushed by two human soldiers. Inside, were their missing family members. They were caged like animals. They looked tired, scared, and beaten. Jolice was crying. Her delicate face was contorted with fear, her brown curls trembling around her. She had a bruise on the side of her face and a scrape on her chin, dried blood on her lips.
Michael had two black eyes, a busted lip, and blood stained his face. Andrew was pale and bruised, fresh blood trickled down his temple. Kelly was nowhere to be seen. She wasn’t in the cage.
Phoenix couldn’t help the growl that erupted from his chest. Patience. He needed to be patient. But damn it was hard.
“Bring me the witch!” Harwin shouted. A soldier approached the cage and opened the door. He pulled Jolice out of the cage by her hair.
“Let me go, please,” she begged as they dragged her by her hair. She was kicking frivolously at the air, doing anything she could to get free, her feet scampering uselessly against the concrete floor. When the soldier stopped in front of Harwin, she tried to stand, but her legs faltered. The two soldiers held her up under her arms. Phoenix watched in horror when he saw Heidi reach over her shoulder for unsheathe her sword and then give it to Harwin.
“You should be proud, you are dying for a good cause,” Harwin crooned, lifting Jolice’s chin to meet her eyes.
“Go to hell!” she smirked, and spat in his face. Harwin didn’t reply. Instead, he wiped the bloody spit from his face. As he heaved the sword over his head, the soldiers let her go, and then, with a sadistic grin, brought it down. It sliced through Jolice’s torso as easily as a hot knife through butter. Her head and one shoulder fell away from her body. Her body stood for only a moment, then dropped limp to the concrete floor. Blood pooled around her broken body quickly.
“No!” they all shouted at the same time. Phoenix’s stomach wretched up into his throat and did a flip. Jules and Nick both looked away, squeezing their eyes closed as tightly as they could. Michael was sobbing and shouting obscenities for anyone who would listen. Then he slumped to the floor of the cage. From the look on Nick’s face, he could feel the anguish rolling off of Michael’s body.
“Now then, wasn’t that fun? Now, bring me the angel!” The same soldier dragged Michael’s weak body from the cage. He didn’t fight. He stumbled limply along with the soldier’s impatient yanking. Phoenix could see it in his eyes. He had no fight left. He was already dead inside. He had given up eternity for Jolice, and now she was gone. Forever. There was nothing any of them could do. There was no longer any reason for him to resist. Phoenix silently hoped for a miracle, and if not, for this to be over quickly.
Harwin snapped his fingers and another soldier pulled Jolice’s limp body away. Another brought out some kind of restraint device. Phoenix had seen one of those before, but not since the seventeen hundreds. It was a wooden square with shackles hanging from the top. Surely they weren’t planning to do what he thought they were but he knew without a doubt as soon as Michael’s wrists were secured to those shackles. Andrew whimpered from the cage and Jared watched on helplessly.
“Do not fear, I have a purpose for you, too.” Harwin said to Andrew. “I will need a sacrifice for the ceremony.” He turned to face me. “And your little girlfriend, she is safe. She has a much grander purpose than this. It will be very exciting.” Phoenix fought the urge to vomit.
When he looked up again, Harwin was armed with a leather whip. Oh, God no!
He jerked his arm back and released it, whacking Michael across the back. Michael only winced at the pain.
Crack, crack, crack, again and again. He beat the fallen angel mercilessly as fresh blood spilled from the welts in his back.
“Why do you not cry out, why are you trying to be brave? This is your destiny. You should be proud,” he said to Michael.
“Go back to hell,” Michael spat back.
Crack, crack, crack. He didn’t want to watch. He would have sliced open his own head and filled it with acid to fry his brain if he thought it would burn the things he was seeing from his mind. If he lived another thousand years he knew he could never forget the horror taking place right in front of him.
Michael would not cry out. “Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with?” he growled at Harwin.
“You know what you must do. Ask your God for help. Or do you believe he has forgotten you? He let you live as a human, only to allow me to take your love away from you. What kind of God would do that?”
“Fuck you,” Michael snarled.
“So be that way then,” Harwin said, his tone carried a false sense of pity, but his face said otherwise. He was enjoying this. None of the family could watch. Phoenix didn’t want to watch, but it was like passing a car accident on the highway. No matter how much you didn’t want to, you still slowed down to check out the damage. He heard Jared crying, and whispering to himself. Something like let it end now.
Harwin cracked the whip against Michael’s back over and over until his shirt was stained with fresh blood and it was pooling on the floor around him.
“Maybe you didn’t love the witch as much as you thought,” Harwin snarled.
That was what broke Michael’s resolve. He broke into wrenching sobs and cried out, “Father, help us, please ...Father why?” He was getting louder until he was shouting toward the Heavens. He broke into a prayer in an ancient Latin dialect. When that wasn’t sufficient, he raised his head again and cried out, “Why! Why Father?! Why have you forsaken me?”
“Michael, NO!” Jared shouted, lunging against his restraints.
A smile spread across Harwin’s face. He produced a knife and grabbing a fist full of Michael’s hair and yanking it his head back, raked it across Michael’s throat, spilling his blood in a new torrent down the front of
his body. When Michael opened his mouth to cry out, a shrill, sonic wail escaped. It was louder than anything Phoenix had ever heard. It reverberated deep in his chest and caused a stabbing pain in his head. The windows exploded above their heads, and many people covered their ears and ducked their heads as glass shards rained down on all of them. The scream broke all the windows. The earth was shaking violently.
“It’s the Cry of the Martyrs!” Jared shouted over the thunderous cacophony. Phoenix noticed that his shackles came loose with the earthquake. He had to hold still, though. He had to keep control. He had to find out who was the witch. She would be the first to die. When she was gone, his family would be able to get free.
When the shaking quieted, Jules whispered, “Look at their faces.” Instinctively, Phoenix did. Everyone outside of their family had a strange circular mark on their foreheads. Like a tattoo. It was a crest with a jackal on it.
“It’s the mark of the Beast,” he told her. All those who were loyal to the Beast would bear it. It was like watching Revelations, the movie; live and uncensored and right in front of their faces. Phoenix shuddered uncontrollably. Ice filled his veins and for the second time in his life, he felt cold.
A loud whistle blew again, and all the soldiers were at attention. “The Boss is coming!” Harwin announced. Phoenix was expecting a huge horned beast with the head of a man and the body of a serpent. Or something equally disgusting. Something that belonged in mythology books and horror stories. What they saw shocked them all. A man with dark hair and dark eyes and a tattoo on his neck appeared in the room from another hallway.
“YOU!” Jules snarled, jerking on her restraints. “I knew there was something about you the moment I laid eyes on you!”
“Hello, I am so glad you could join us for the festivities. I trust you have been well?” Stephan said to Jules calmly. She was growling deep in her chest, a low, menacing sound.
“The very least you can do is give us some answers,” Phoenix said, trying to keep Jules from speaking. She had a temper, and if they wanted to live, to even have a chance, they had to keep it under control. He gave her a quick look that said, be quiet. “Since you have made certain that we cannot escape, we would like to know exactly what we are dying for.” Phoenix was hoping he could play to his dramatic side.
Phoenix Page 16