“We should get you inside,” Victor said from across the lawn causing Kelly to jump in surprise. Jeesh, he appeared out of nowhere.
“What’s the matter?” Mom asked.
“Look at the sky,” he replied. “I think we are in for a surprise storm.” Kelly looked to the sky and saw what he meant. The early morning blue was quickly turning grey, the crisp air began feeling heavy and thick. A bolt of lightning raced across the sky as if to verify Victor’s assessment.
“Good idea,” Kelly said. She hated storms. Some deep seeded irrational fear. Sure, she could fly over the Atlantic with a giant firebird, but show her some lightning and thunder, and she goes and hides under the nearest rock.
Inside, they all gathered in the large family room. Everyone except for Phoenix, who was catching up on some much needed sleep. Kelly was talking mostly to Jared, as he was absolutely fascinating. “So, can you change into anything you want?” she asked.
“Not anything. It has to be a living creature that I have been in contact with. I can’t turn into a rock or a box. But yeah, most anything.”
“Can you turn into a horse?”
“Yes. Why?”
“I always wanted a horse,” she said playfully, flashing him her best innocent smile.
“You are so funny. What makes you think I would let you ride me?”
“Hey, who’s riding who?” Andrew broke into the conversation, perching himself on the arm of the couch.
“I was just saying,” Kelly offered and smiled at them both.
“Which reminds me, Kelly, I missed your birthday. I have a present for you,” Andrew said. Her nineteenth birthday had passed two months earlier. Andrew pulled an envelope out of his shirt pocket.
“I wonder what it could be,” she said with a smile. She knew it was a card, and from the looks of the envelope, it was the kind that held money. Who didn’t like money? She took the envelope from him and slid her finger under the seal. Inside was a card with some cartoon character on the front. Inside the card was two pieces of heavy paper. Not money. “Metallica tickets!” she squealed. “Thank you so much!” The concert tickets were for a month away.
“Jared picked it out, he said he thought you would like that better than a gift card.”
“He’s right. I do love them! But who’s going with me?” she asked. There were two tickets, but she didn’t have any friends in Boston.
“That’s up to you. Take anyone you want.” Andrew was the coolest.
“Are we doing this now, then?” Victor asked, appearing out of thin air again. Rachel appeared behind him carrying a large box. It seemed far too big for her slight frame to carry, but she held it without any problem. It was wrapped in black paper with a big black bow. Kelly smiled to herself. Her mother must have told them about her preference for the color black.
“This is from Victor and me,” Rachel said in her trilling voice. It was high pitched and sweet. Like wind chimes. “Well, open it,” she said, setting it in front of Kelly.
Kelly felt a little bit strange accepting gifts from people she just met, but she also knew better than to make a fuss about it. She couldn’t possibly offend the new family she just realized she had could she? No, that would be rude. So, while Jules and Nick watched from the loveseat, Kelly ripped the paper off and stared at the box inside. It was a sleek black hard-shell case. A guitar case. Kelly didn’t waste any time flipping the latches and opening it up. She looked down into the soft felt in the case and …
“An original Les Paul Black Beauty? Where did you get this? Oh my god! Are you serious! I can’t believe it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She knew she was blubbering but could do nothing to stop it. The floodgates had opened and there was no going back. She could even feel the happy moisture growing in her eyes. That guitar was so rare that she didn’t think she would ever get to see one in person, much less own one. A small part of her wanted to say that she couldn’t accept such a wonderful gift. A very small part that she had no problem squishing down and beating with a shoe.
“I think she likes it,” Victor said to Rachel. They were beaming. Kelly raced over and hugged them both at the same time in the best bear hug she could manage. Oh man was she ever gonna like having grandparents.
“Show off,” Andrew mumbled.
Kelly jumped over the coffee table and hugged Andrew. “I love your present too,” she told him. They continued with the presents. Jules led Kelly downstairs into the basement where a Marshall half stack amplifier was waiting for her. They had set up the basement to be a small studio just for Kelly and her music. She had no words for the love she felt coming from her wonderful family. Kelly wanted to say so many things, but instead, she walked over, picked up the cord that was already attached to the amp and shoved it into the guitar.
“Where are Michael and Jolice?” Jules asked. Kelly had been so excited that she had forgotten that there were supposed to be two other people that lived here.
“They left yesterday afternoon,” Jared replied. “I haven’t heard from them since. I was hoping they got in touch with you. You know how new love birds are though.” They were speaking very low while Kelly examined her new equipment. She pretended not to listen as she plugged in her new toys and began to strum the strings of the gorgeous guitar that was now hers.
CHAPTER NINE
What the fuck was that noise? Phoenix thought as he yanked himself out of his much needed nap. There was the sound of thunder, rain pouring against the side of the house, and wind whipping outside through the trees. But there was something else. It could only be described as the crunching and howling of an electric guitar. He wretched his eyelids open and sat straight up in bed. He immediately regretted that decision as lightning blasted through the window and reverberated through his head. It was dark outside and Phoenix couldn’t tell what time it was.
He stretched and stood up. His wings were stiff, his neck was sore, and his head was pounding furiously. He couldn’t have slept for long, he thought. The clock on the wall said it was eleven oh three. Was that a.m. or p.m.? He couldn’t be sure. He wandered down the stairs where the music screamed up to meet him.
“Hey!” he shouted above the music. No one answered. “Hey!” He tried again, louder.
“Mornin!” Jared shouted back. He appeared around the corner between the family room and the kitchen.
“What the hell is that noise?” Phoenix shouted.
“Um, I think she called it Muse,” Andrew said.
“Kelly really likes her birthday presents! Got some talent, huh?” Jared seemed to enjoy the assault on his ears. He was nodding his head in time with the music. Then it hit him. Kelly’s birthday. Crap! Phoenix had known about it before he left for his solo flight, but hadn’t thought another thing about it since. He knew the others had bought gifts for her, but he had not. He had been too wrapped up in his own head to think about anything else. His pity party had turned him into an ass. He knew he would have to make something exceptional happen to make up for his oversight. What an asshole he was, he thought. Already, things were starting to roll through his brain and not one of them seemed fitting for the young woman who had grabbed his attention like no other.
But right then, he was having trouble forming coherent thoughts while the “music” was wailing at deafening levels. He thought maybe he and Kelly had different ideas what constituted music. He walked down the basement stairs and turned to see the source of his rude awakening. Kelly had a sleek black guitar strapped across her shoulder, cords running to a large black speaker thing. She was hitting the strings with one hand while her left flew over the neck of her new toy. Phoenix had to admit, her speed was impressive. Her agile fingers moved at blinding speeds across the strings, never hitting a sour note. Her eyes were closed and she was jumping and shaking her head in time with the music. He almost decided not to interrupt her. Almost.
“Hey, Kelly!” he hollered, waving his hands out in front of himself in an attempt to get her attention. Nothing. No response. S
he was too engulfed in her playing to even notice. He considered just unplugging the source of the racket, but he wouldn’t have a clue how, and thought he might end up damaging her equipment. He was sure it had been expensive. So he sauntered over until he was directly in front of her. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. Surely she would eventually look up. Tapping his foot seemed like a good idea so he did that as well. He stood there, staring at her, for at least a full minute. It wasn’t easy to keep the irritated expression on his face with her beauty on display for his eyes. She finally did open her eyes and when she did, the music abruptly stopped. The last note still rang heavily in the air and the silence that followed was deafening.
“Hey Phoenix,” she said sheepishly.
“Is there some reason you are trying to wake the dead?” he asked her.
“I wasn’t trying to wake the dead, silly! I was trying out my new guitar. Check it out, it’s a Black Beauty! Can you believe it? Victor and Rachel got it for me!” She was bubbling. Her eyes alone could have lit the room. “Besides, it drowns out the storm, ya know?”
“I like the storm,” Phoenix grumbled. Gentle laughter and giggles floated down the stairs. He was aware of the audience in the kitchen above.
“Well I don’t.”
Phoenix almost laughed out loud. If not for the pounding in his head, he would have. “You mean to tell me that storms scare you? Miss all big and bad can fly at the speed of light with a giant bird with wings of fire across the Atlantic, but is afraid of a little thunderstorm?”
“And?” she said, raising her eyebrows. Clearly, she was not as amused as he was. Damn she was cute when she was irritated. “Have you even looked outside? It’s a hurricane out there!”
“I doubt that very seriously,” he grumbled. But he walked to the small window that looked out into the back yard. He could see nothing. It was covered by water pooling next to the house.
“Phoenix,” Jules said from upstairs, “maybe you should try from up here.”
So he did. He took the basement steps two at a time and stopped at the top. “Please turn it down, just a bit, okay? I really do have a headache,” he called down to Kelly. He figured he would hear the music blaring again, but only silence came from the basement.
Phoenix looked out the double glass doors in the kitchen toward the yard. He could barely make out the tree line. It was raining very hard. Big, heavy rain. The wind was blowing the torrential rain sideways, along with the tops of the trees. Lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the dark clouds that had settled overhead. Thunder shook the glass of the door. It was a good storm.
“I didn’t think it was even going to rain today,” he remarked more to himself than to anyone else.
“Neither did anyone else,” Nick answered. “The weather guy on TV said it just popped up out of nowhere. Not just here, either. All over the place. There are weird storms popping up from one coast to the other.” He shook his head. “It’s just like Michael said, strange weather patterns, the other stuff,”
“What are you talking about?” Phoenix asked.
“After you left, Michael had a theory. About all the strange things going on. He was going to explain it to you himself when we got home, but no one has heard from him or Jolice for two days. Andrew said they were just supposed to go shopping for Kelly, but they never came back. It’s not like Jolice to not keep in touch. We are all worried. Their cell phones don’t ring, no voice mail, nothing. I even tried text messaging and email, just in case. So far, no luck.”
“What do you think happened?” Phoenix asked. It wasn’t like Michael to go off the radar.
“We should all discuss this at the same time. I would like Father to be there to help me, and it concerns all of us.”
Okay, now he was really worried.
Rachel held her hand out to him and when Phoenix looked down, he saw two pills in her small hand. She held a glass of water in the other and she handed them both to Phoenix. “I’m not surprised you have a headache, you only slept a few hours. Take these, it will help.” So it must still be mid-morning. One mystery solved.
Phoenix took the aspirin and drank the water. Why must everything come with a catch? Phoenix could heal injuries and even the sick, but could he heal himself with a regular old headache? No.
It was time. They all gathered into the family room for the big talk. Phoenix lounged back on the loveseat with his long legs stretched out in front of him. Kelly was the last to join the party and she sat right next to Phoenix. Immediately he could feel the warmth coming from her body. He wanted to think that she sat there because she just wanted to sit near him. That wasn’t really the case. There was nowhere else to sit. Still, Phoenix loved having her near him and he would take it any way he could get it.
Just about the time her butt hit the cushion, a clap of thunder rattled the entire house. She jumped about a foot in the air. “I wish it would just stop,” she mumbled. Phoenix couldn’t help himself. A grin spread across his face, even though it hurt, and he put his long arm around Kelly’s small shoulders.
“Come here,” he said, “I’ll keep you safe from the big bad storm,” he told her, teasing. He pulled her closer to him and tucked her neatly against his side. He expected that she might pull away from him, but she didn’t. Instead, she nestled right up to him. She lined up perfectly with his larger body as if she belonged there. She does, his brain interjected. Whether it was because the storm terrified her or because she wanted to be near him, Phoenix didn’t care at that point. He was going to protect her, even if it was from her own silly fears. Humans had some strange phobias, he was thinking when he suddenly became very aware of Jules’s stare. A glare would be a more appropriate description. It bored into Phoenix’s skull making him all the more uncomfortable. He shifted his weight a little and gave Jules his best innocent look. She wasn’t buying what he was selling.
“Oh, get over it, Mom,” Kelly said. Phoenix could almost hear her eyes roll. His eyes shot to Jules who was pretending not to hear her daughter.
“Ok, everyone. Michael was going to discuss this when we returned home, and since he isn’t here, nor has anyone heard from him, I think it’s time we get it all out in the open.” Nick said to everyone. Phoenix realized, as Rachel was nodding, that Kelly and himself were the only ones who weren’t in on whatever was going on. “We don’t know where Michael and Jolice are. We can only speculate. Since no one has called or come to the door to tell us of an awful accident, we must assume they are alive and unharmed. I don’t know why they haven’t contacted us, but it seems we must go on without them,” Nick continued.
“Michael had a theory before we left for Paris. He said all the unusual happenings were signs. I won’t try to sugar-coat it, he thought they were signs of the Apocalypse. He thought Harwin was the Conqueror, the one the bible speaks of sent forth to do just that, conquer. We had some speculations of who may be the one who rides the red horse, the one sent to start war. There have been earthquakes, floods, famine, disease, basically all the worst parts of the Bible. If Michael is right, we have our work cut out for us.
“Kelly, this is why we insisted you come home with us. We couldn’t bear to have you half a world away when the shit hits the fan. I know that I am only your step-dad, and a new one at that. I have no idea how to be a parent. But I do know that your safety is top priority to all of us.” Everyone nodded in agreement. Kelly only stared wide-eyed at Nick.
If what Nick said was true, then the entire world was at risk, Phoenix thought. It went beyond a war against humans, but the total annihilation of the planet as we know it. This was big. Very big. He could feel the heat rising on Kelly’s skin. He could hear her heart pounding in her chest. He could hear the heartbeats of the other two humans in the room. His own heart picked up the pace a bit. He had seen a lot in his years, heat waves, cold waves, even the ice age. This was different. If this was the breaking of the seven seals, that meant four, maybe five seals were already broken. Phoenix tried to remem
ber his history. He could not remember a time when all the things Nick spoke of happened together.
He desperately tried to sort it out in his head. It went something like this: when the first seal is broken, the Conqueror arrives. Then the spirit on the red horse, to start war. The third seal breaking meant the spirit on the black horse would bring scarcity to the planet, the dying of crops, things like that. The fourth seal was Death. The senseless dying of thousands of people. The fifth seal was the Cry of the Martyrs. All those who died in the name of God would cry out at once. He wasn’t really sure how that would work. The sixth seal would be all those on the side of evil would bear the mark of the Beast. The seventh seal was the sounding of Trumpets. Fires, floods, poisoned waters, locusts, plagues, things like that. The seventh seal meant the kingdom would be given back to God. Phoenix was having a hard time remembering the details because it had been a very long time since the Bible had been written. In the Bible, it was all spelled out, but it was written by a mortal man, and heavy with speculation and his own interpretations.
The wind outside began howling. Kelly sank even closer to his side. He tightened his hold on her and whispered that it would be ok. “Kelly, if you sit any closer to Phoenix, you will be in his lap,” Jules said. “Give him some room please.”
“It’s okay, really, Jules. I understand she’s scared. Lots of people hate storms, and with this ominous conversation, I am sure it only makes it worse for her.” Phoenix said. What he didn’t say was how he rather enjoyed having her so close, how he liked the delicious honey and almond scent she emanated. How he savored the tingly electric sensations the simple contact provoked.
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