Rise of a Phoenix

by Shannon Mayer

  I frowned, not taking the bait for his joke. “It’s all metal. Kind of a bad idea with the electricity floating around, don’t you think?”

  “Aye, it would be normally. But I have the seats wrapped in a thick rubber as well as the floorboards. It’s safer than anything else if my family wakes before we’re gone. With our timing, it’s going to be tight. They may not know where this is, but they’ll be looking hard and they’re good at digging up secrets when they know there’s one to be found. They’ll follow us to the bathroom and then . . . it will only be a matter of time.” He moved away from the Humvee to the part of the room that truly drew me.

  Weapons as far as I could see. “Dinah, I need to pick a partner for you.”

  She’d been remarkably quiet since Eleanor had been taken. I tapped my fingers against the left holster she sat in. “Dinah?”

  “Yeah, I know. Aren’t we even going to try and get Eleanor back?”

  Ah, so that’s what was going on. I kept a hand on her. “Yes. Tommy is going the same direction as us toward Romano and Bear, which means at some point we will cross paths and then I will get Eleanor back. Okay?”

  Her answer was quiet. “Okay. I just feel like we’ve lost her completely.”

  I didn’t tell her I felt the same way. It would only upset her.

  I went to where the weapons and body armor were stacked and started to go through it. I made my decisions fast, knowing I didn’t have time to be picky. I found a USP .45 with a nice sight on it. Good enough, seeing as it was only a backup gun.

  Killian paused with his hand over an AK-47 with an under-barrel grenade launcher.

  “Just in case,” I said as I grabbed the ammo for the .45 and stuffed it into one of the bags. For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t going into a fight with both Eleanor and Dinah at my back. Which meant I needed traditional ammo, and a lot of it.

  “What about the mini gun?” Killian asked.

  “Too bulky. Much as I’d love to take it.” I was in front of where the clothing was laid out. I grabbed a pair of army pants in dark green and a tank top that matched and looked close to my size. I stripped off the bits and pieces of clothing I had on, and put the fresh clean ones in their place. “Almost as good as a shower.”

  Killian grinned. “Almost as good as a show.”

  I didn’t give him a response. Knowing it would only push this connection further. Over the fresh clean clothes, I pulled on a thin vest of Kevlar.

  I might be a survivor, but part of that was not being stupid. I wasn’t going to take a chance that a stray bullet would take me out before I got Bear away from Romano. The Kevlar fit well, and had good movement to it. Within minutes, I’d adjusted to it and it felt like nothing more than a weighed-down coat.

  I threw my bag of gear into the back of the Humvee and went back to the table. “Nothing magical here. Why not?”

  “What do you mean?” Killian paused in his motions and I waved at all the guns.

  “No gag jam, fairy sprinkles, no myst at all. Why not?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t use it much; my own abilities are usually enough.”

  “Show-off.” I turned my back on him and went down the line of gear for one last look. At the end of the stash was a chest on the floor. I flipped it open with the toe of my boot.

  Inside was nothing but gold coins shimmering in the dim light. I reached in and pulled one up, holding it to get a better look at it. “What is this?” I didn’t recognize the stamps on it; the language was unfamiliar to me, which was saying something.

  “Druid coins,” Killian said. “My forbears were druids and this was the blood money they took from the Romans.”

  “Gaelic?” I flipped the coin to him and he caught it in the air as he nodded.

  “Yes.”

  I tipped my head to the side and stared into the chest. “Why keep it?”

  “The legend is that the one who takes it and uses it for their own gain will have their life end in nothing but misery.”

  “Lovely,” I said. “Can I have one?”

  He laughed. “You want a gold coin?”

  I shrugged and caught the coin as he flipped it back to me. “I don’t want to use it. I want to hang onto it.”

  “Why?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. Gut instinct.”

  He pointed a finger at me. “Survivor. Okay, you take it with my permission. Just don’t spend it.”

  I nodded and stuffed the coin in my front right pocket, doing my best not to blush because I was relying on an instinct that I wasn’t even sure was my own. Just my abnormal ability cropping up again telling me the coin would be important at some point.

  I closed the lid of the chest and turned toward the Humvee. Figures shifted through the shadows from the direction of the stairs.

  Not good, this was not good in a small tight space. “Abe, hier.”

  I yanked the .45 and Dinah from their holsters. “Killian, your family are quick to wake up.”

  He spun and lightning arced from his fingers in a flash of bright blue and white. The air around us snapped and crackled and the hair on the back of my neck and arms rose to the static, the smell of ozone covering any other scent I might have been picking up on.

  I ran forward, firing toward Killian’s family, Abe tucked in close to me, panting hard. This time I didn’t hold back. “Kill them, Dinah.”

  “On it,” she snarled as she bucked in my hand, bullet after bullet slamming into the Irish around us. The .45 gave a harder kick, but I steadied it and kept emptying the clip, counting the rounds.

  The last bullet discharged and I flicked the button to drop the clip and slammed the grip onto my hip where another full clip waited. An arc of lightning shot past my head and I spun on one foot, twisting around and down. I ended up on a knee.

  “Above you!” Killian yelled and I didn’t look, just pushed forward, pushing with all I had as the cavern ceiling above me collapsed. I jammed Dinah into her holster—I couldn’t lose her too—and kept the .45 in my right hand, firing into the abnormals tightening around us. By my count, Dinah and I had taken out six, and two with the .45, which meant they called in reinforcements. Just how many, though, was the question. With our backs to the wall—literally—we were pinned down. I didn’t know how long we would last facing this many powerful abnormals.

  I rolled and ended up against a wall as the stalactite crumbled and crashed into the place where I’d been. From what I could see, Killian was still on his feet and giving as good as he got. Abe had crawled under the Humvee.

  We could kill them all, but they weren’t who we were here for and the odds were not in our favor to finish this without injury.

  “Dinah, you still got a smoke bomb?”

  “Yes. But I want to kill the nasty shit fuckers.”

  I nodded. “Right, but we need to move if we are going to catch up to Tommy and Eleanor.”

  That shut her up. I yanked her from her holster, her inner workings clicking as they shifted from ammo to smoke. I fired once into the middle of the cavern and the smoke spread up and outward with a whoosh.

  I scrambled up and ran for the Humvee. “Time is ticking, Irish,” I yelled.

  He met me at the armored vehicle, out of breath, a nick above his eye. “You’re giving me a nickname?”

  “Fits.” I slid into the driver’s side and Abe leapt in and over me, scrambling into the backseat without being told. I held my hand out to Killian for the keys. He handed them over and ran to the passenger side.

  “Where are we going?” I jammed the key in the ignition and revved the engine. A spark of lightning danced over the Humvee and I braced myself, but to his credit, Killian was right. The lightning never reached us.

  “Back it up.”

  I slammed it into reverse and a camera came on in the dash. Good deal. I hit the gas pedal and we sped backwards until I cranked the wheel hard, spinning us around. I threw the Humvee into drive and hit the pedal again, leaving his family behind in t
he smoke as we raced through the cavern.

  “Just keep the speed up, don’t slow down no matter what you see. It’s all illusions,” Killian said as he reached across me and buckled me up. I wanted to frown at him, but I couldn’t look away. The cavern twisted and turned rapidly and I didn’t dare look anywhere but where we were going for fear of smashing right into a wall of rock.

  “Killian, how bad is this going to be?”

  “Not bad. Terrifying, but not bad. Trust me,” he said as he turned around and did some fancy work for Abe, lashing him into the backseat between two seatbelts. Strapping the dog in did not bode well for the end of this drive. Then he buckled himself in. “It’ll be fine.”

  I stared out the windshield. “Trust is not easily given in my world. Last guy I trusted killed Zee.”

  “Have I ever lied to you?” Done with the seatbelts, he reached across and put a hand on my upper thigh. “I won’t ever lie to you, Nix. You might not like what I have to say, but I will always tell you the truth.”

  “As you see it,” I said.

  “Sure. How else would I see it?”

  I couldn’t help laughing at him, but the laughter dried up as we turned what ended up being the final corner. A waterfall rushed down in front of us, but I could see through it. And through it was nothing but empty space.

  “Pedal down, Lass.” He pushed on my thigh, keeping my foot tightly to the gas.

  “Fuck me,” I whispered.

  “Soon enough.” He laughed and then we were in open space and I had to bite down on the scream that bubbled up my throat. Abe grunted as his straps tightened.

  For just a moment, we floated and I wondered if the Humvee was going to sprout wings like some sort of transformer. But no, gravity caught up with us and we fell from the sky, the Humvee tipping so I was looking down into a pool of water that had to be forty feet below. Abe yelped and began to pant so heavily, I could feel his breath on the back of my neck, his straps yanking as tight as my own seatbelt.

  I’d fallen further, with more metal around me, but never into a pool of water while my seatbelt was still on, never strapped in and unable to escape. I tried to relax into the straps holding me fast, knowing more damage would be done the more I tensed.

  The seconds ticked, silence in the cab of the armored vehicle a weird thing that I couldn’t help thinking was not unlike the silence of a tomb. Right when I thought I couldn’t stand it any longer, we hit the water with a thunderous crash, the front end of the vehicle dipping down as I was jerked forward in my straps, my head hitting the steering wheel.

  I didn’t let that stop or slow me. My hands went to the straps at the same time as Killian grabbed them, stopping me.

  “Lass, trust me. Just sit it out.” He grabbed my hands and held them tightly and I stared at him. Never in my life had I truly trusted anyone. Not my father, not Justin, not even Zee, if I were being honest. They’d all done things that left me wondering at their intentions.

  Being brutally honest, I’d never trusted my mother even, though I’d loved her fiercely. She’d died when I’d needed her most, but that was after years of not believing me when I told her how bad my life was. She’d left me to that life, whether she meant to or not.

  Now here was Killian, holding onto me like I was his lifeline, and he was asking for something I wasn’t sure I could give.

  “I’m trying,” I said softly. “It’s not easy.”

  “Not for me either, Lass.” His hold on me eased as we sunk under the water. “The weight of the Humvee will pull us down. There’s a latching system below.”

  Latching? There was a clunk as we hit the bottom of the pool and then the Humvee began to move. “Pretty fancy,” I said. “What happens to the engine? With water in it, we are not moving anywhere.”

  “There are sensors that seal off the compartment at the first touch of water above the skid plates. As soon as we are pulled out, they will slide open and we’ll be good to go.” He smiled and let my hands go. “I think of everything.”

  I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Sure, somehow I don’t believe you ever thought you’d be working with me going after Romano.”

  “True.” He nodded. “But I always knew that someday my life would be on the line and I’d have to fight for it. I prepared as best I could putting into place as many fail-safes as possible.”

  I could understand that. Though, in my case, I’d let my preparations slide because I’d believed we were safe and far from the life I’d run from all those years ago.

  What the hell had I been thinking? Looking back, I could see the moments I’d started to waver, to begin to think we were being watched. Justin had always soothed me, told me that it wasn’t real, that it was all in my head, leftovers of my past coming to haunt me. More than once I’d started to look into something that stirred my worry, and then he’d slow me down. He derailed me, told me he would handle anything that came up.

  I frowned as my thoughts whirled. It was like I’d been living in a dream, so easily manipulated. I didn’t like it, and the longer I looked back, the more I saw places where it was like I had not been myself.

  “Switch places with me,” Killian said. “Before we’re out of the water.”

  “I can drive,” I said.

  “I know, but we need to figure out where we be going next. Which means you need to tap into Genzo’s memories. He might have something we could use.”

  I had been trying to forget that bit, but Killian made a good point, to use what we had at hand. When we’d been in the jail doing all we could to save Bear and destroy the Ikimono myst, I’d found an unusual ally in Genzo, leader of the Yakuza abnormals. He knew he was dying and as the maker of Ikimono, he’d never meant for the drug to create monsters, but to cure them. In a last-ditch effort to help us, he’d shoved his memories into my head so I could connect with his Yakuza, but also so I would have information that might help me in my fight against Romano.

  I sighed and unstrapped my buckles and slid out of the seat, across the center divider and into Killian’s lap. “Get going.”

  His hands trailed over me, but he didn’t argue as we shimmied and he shifted over the middle and into the driver’s seat.

  I leaned back in my chair and then reached to touch Dinah’s grips. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Just . . . it’s weird without Eleanor. She’s always been with me, right from the beginning.” Her words were soft and nothing like the brassy bitch she normally was.

  “We’ll get her back.”

  Abe gave a woof from the backseat and I reached back to him, running a hand over his head, then undoing his seatbelts. My mind was on what Tommy had said before I’d pushed him out with the parachute. “Tommy was sent to the Middle East not that long ago to make a connection for Romano. He said that he didn’t want to deal with a guy named Shaitan, but Romano did.”

  Killian shot a look at me. “You get that from Genzo’s memories?”

  “No, that’s what Tommy and I were talking about when you went to check on Bobby.” I frowned and thought about Genzo’s memories, dragging them forward. They came up in bits and pieces as if they were fading even as I found them. “Shit, I don’t think the memories thing was a long-standing job.”

  “Look through them fast then,” he said. The Humvee emerged from the water as we spoke, pulled forward by the wrenching system. As soon as the front end was clear of the pool, he turned the key in the ignition and the engine rumbled to life.

  “We’ve got a couple hours before we’re clear of my family’s territory,” Killian said. “That should get us to Savannah.”

  “What’s in Savannah?”

  “One of the last private planes I own, and one that I kept secret from me family. We’ll use it to get wherever it is we need to go. Wherever we figure on Bear being.” He glanced at me and then back at the road.

  I nodded. It was a good plan, as good as anything we could come up with on the fly. I just needed to pin down where Romano took my boy. Bear was only ten ye
ars old, and while he was strong, a survivor like me, with an old soul and huge smarts, he was still a child. And I was terrified that he’d gotten some of the Ikimono cure in his system when we’d spread it around the facility. What would it do to him? Kill him? Maim, twist or make him a monster? I shook my head, stopping that direction of thoughts. There was nothing I could do about it right then. I had to keep moving forward. I had to find him, that was all there was to it.

  No, that wasn’t true. I had to find Bear, and I also needed to find just how I was going to bring my father down.

  My hand went to my pack and I pulled it open. Inside were two things that had more value than any money.

  The diary of my older sister Bianca. And the code I’d paid to have broken that should give me the key to my father’s death.

  The code was something I’d originally thought was a list of cities that my father operated in, and the plan was that I would use it to take down his world. But it had turned out to be even better than that. My father had made a deal with the devil years ago. I’d been there when it happened. He’d gotten power, influence, and a form of immortality—that last I’d only found out about recently.

  I’d shot him point blank and not even a drop of blood had flowed from the bullet holes.

  But the now-decoded papers had the information I needed to make him mortal once more. Mortal, so I could put his ass in the ground once and for all.

  I pulled the diary out first and flipped it open to a blank page. “You got a pen?”

  Killian opened the dash and fumbled around before handing me a pencil.

  That would do. I jotted down the bits and pieces of Genzo’s memories, the last of them fading after just a few words. And really, they weren’t even full memories, just words and flashes of places that I recognized even though I’d not been to them.

  “They’re gone, but I’ve got what I could. Not that it’s much.”

  “Read it to me,” Killian said.

  I stared at the words that were my own and not my own. “Dubai. Brikoff. Shaitan. Tokyo. Denver. Seattle. Vancouver. That’s it. Two names, five cities.”