Rise of a Phoenix

by Shannon Mayer

  I rolled away and came up in a crouch breathing hard, realizing as I stared at this man who he really was. Who he’d been. “You . . . were Justin. You were Simon?”

  His shoulders hunched as if I’d hit him. “I was.”

  I swept to my feet, anger and hurt propelling me. “Where is Bear, Justin?” I said as I drew close.

  He hunched further. “With Romano, at the Grotto.”

  My jaw ticked hard and I struggled with every shred of willpower not to blow his brains out right there. “I have . . . my . . . son to save. I will not deal with this emotional shit until that happens. Are you going to help? Can you help or are you too tied to Strike?”

  Justin turned and stepped toward me. I didn’t move, so he kept coming until he was right in front of me. I knew he wanted to touch me, but I didn’t make any sort of motion to indicate it would be a good idea.

  Dinah helped me out there. “Don’t you fucking touch her, you idiot. Dumb fucking idiot. You left her to grieve her boy, and you fucking well better believe she will never forget it. Because I’ll remind her if she ever for one second softens toward you.”

  His eyes never left mine. “You forgave Dinah for not telling you the truth about her. Because she wasn’t able to. I am bound by a similar spell. There were and still are things I cannot tell you, things I couldn’t do to help. When I re-spawn there are rules. Can you not do the same for me as you did for Dinah?”

  “Not now, not ever.” I stared him down. “You are not Justin. And I was never Bea. But you knew that, didn’t you?” I didn’t know how else to say it. “That was a fantasy we both let ourselves believe. But Bear’s life is not a fantasy. Help me save him, or fuck off and never come back.”

  He nodded again, slowly. “That’s why I’m leaving. Strike can find me anywhere, and he always knows who I’m with. And he isn’t done with you, Nix. Once you kill Romano, and I have no doubt you will,” his fingers brushed against mine, sending a sharp tingle through my skin, “Strike and his boss want you for your power. And if they can’t have you, then they will take Bear.”

  My heart clenched. “That will not happen.”

  He lifted his hand enough to touch his fingers to mine, a pain-filled goodbye I never thought I’d have. “Your love saved me, Nix. Even if it wasn’t all of your heart.” His eyes flicked to Killian. “I have always been a coward. I know that. But for Bear, I can be brave a little while longer. I’m going to get as far away as possible, so I won’t be used against you. If you see me again, kill me. I won’t come back of my own choice.” He stepped back as a single tear trickled down his face. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you the truth sooner. It’s why I left the note.”

  He took a few more steps and I shook my head, raising Dinah on him. “No. You’re coming with us. Being brave means facing this for Bear.”

  He sighed and I strode to him, shoved him ahead of us. “Lead the way, brave one.”

  “You can call me Rooster if that helps. That’s what this body goes by.”

  “Fine, Rooster. Get the fuck moving.” There was only so much I could take when it came to revelations. This shit was hitting my threshold.

  “How far?” Killian asked.

  “Five minutes,” Rooster said. “I heard gunfire and Romano laughing. I saw Strike leave, which told me he was going for you. So, I left.”

  I could not for the life of me understand how he could leave our son—willingly leave him with Romano. “Why is Strike helping us?”

  Rooster was quiet a moment before he answered. “He wants Romano dead. But it’s only so he and his master can get to you and Bear free and clear. I think that was always the end game.”

  “Free and clear?” I said.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Killian asked.

  “Means that the deal her daddy made ties her into things too. I don’t know exactly how.” Rooster shrugged and flinched as if something hurt him. “But it means they need Romano dead first. Which is where you come in. You kill him and then they have you.”

  I swayed in between steps, watching Rooster who’d been Simon, who’d been Justin, who’d been my husband and the father to my child, walk in front of me.

  There was a brush of cool air, and then Killian put his hand on my lower back. “Keep going. One step at a time.”

  He was right. I made myself pick up my feet again and put them one in front of the other. Rooster’s words wouldn’t have affected me so much if I hadn’t just heard what Bazixal had to say to me. That he wasn’t going to let me go that easily.

  Except there was no reason to why he would have me at all. I’d made no deal with him.

  “Here,” Rooster said and I blinked, so lost in my own thoughts that I’d let the wall of the Grotto sneak up on us. “I don’t know how you’ll get in. Tommy had an insider let him in.”

  “I’m going to start a fire,” I said softly. I walked up to the wall and placed my hands on it. Wooden, it would burn, and burn hot, in this dry desert air.

  I called the fire up through me and let it pour out of my hands. The blue and purple flames mixed and raced along the wood, eating at it like locusts on a field of grain. I stepped back ten paces and waited quietly.

  There was a calm in the moment I knew all too well. The calm before the death toll began to rise. I welcomed it.

  The crackle of the flames on the wood grew louder and the smoke drifted high and suddenly there was shouting on the inside of the wall. A door swung open and I let out a slow breath as I raised Dinah.

  There were no innocents here.

  I walked toward the door as men poured out, men with weapons. I shot them one by one, never slowing in my approach, nor speeding up.

  The report of the gun in my hands and the fly of the bullets was my world narrowed to just a small focus, one I understood. Rooster was to my left, and Killian was to my right. He had a gun and picked off men as they topped the wall with their sniper rifles.

  “We should be running!” Rooster yelled as a body went down right in front of us, a spray of blood splattering my face.

  “No. This is the end game. No more running.” I reached for the door and held it open, sweeping the inside tunnel. “Abe, find Bear.”

  The Malinois had his nose to the ground in a flash and he let out an excited bark. I followed him, trusting that the two men would follow me. My world had one thought now. The truth of who Rooster was, the words of Bazixal, the power flowing through my veins . . . none of it mattered. Bear was going to be back in my arms in a matter of minutes one way or another.

  Even if I had to burn the Grotto to the ground and kill every last soul within its walls, I would get Bear back.

  24

  Bear

  The bark of a dog snapped my head up and I twisted around, my knees grinding into the stone floor painfully. Romano shoved my head back down with a booted foot. “Stay there, boy.”

  He’d put me at the edge of his throne, so he could literally keep his foot on me. Tommy lay on his belly, flat out and unconscious. I could still hear his bones breaking, and his skin tearing open as Luca Romano’s men beat him into a bloody pulp. Eleanor dug into my belly and I reached for her.

  “Not yet,” she whispered.

  I stilled my hand, listening for another bark. How it could possibly be Abe, I didn’t know, but it was him. I was sure of it. And where Abe was, my mom wouldn’t be far behind. My throat tightened and my eyes prickled with tears. Eleanor was right, my mom would always come for me.

  There was a sudden onslaught of gunfire and then what sounded like crackle of electricity.

  My heart gave a funny thump. Killian had come with her then? My own father had left me behind, but Killian had come for me. The tears fell down my cheeks. I was not alone, no matter how awful this all had been.

  I drew a deep shaking breath and embraced my flames, ready to use them.

  Luca Romano grabbed me by the scruff of my neck, his fingers digging in as he lifted me off the floor.

  “Is this what y
ou came for?”

  *_*_*

  Phoenix

  The scene in front of me was nothing short of chaos. Bodies were strewn, fire caught at the edges of the dance floor and my father stood on what could only be called a throne, holding my son up high enough that his feet dangled.

  “Is this what you came for?” Romano roared the words at me.

  I tucked Dinah into her holster. “Switch it out, Dinah.”

  The metal inside of her made a grinding snarl as she shifted the golden bullet into place. “Ready,” she said.

  “I came for my son,” I called back. “And for your life.”

  His hands tightened on Bear’s neck and he cried out, reaching upward to stop him, digging his fingers into his grandfather’s skin to no avail.

  “I think it’s time for you to see your boy die. Perhaps then you’ll understand why you will never win. Why you are better off doing as you are told.”

  Abe had been slinking closer to the two of them. “Fass!” I gave the command knowing that it would cost Abe his life, but save Bear. This was his moment, the reason he’d been with me all along.

  To save my son.

  He shot forward, low to the ground like a streak of Killian’s lightning.

  Abe leapt and grabbed at the arm holding Bear up, hanging off Romano, twisting and fighting to make him let his boy go.

  Romano smiled and his hand shot around Abe . . . toward Bear’s shirt. He yanked a gun out—a gun I knew all too well—and pointed it at my dog.

  “Eleanor, no!” I screamed the words but it was too late. She howled as the bullet left her.

  The blow flipped Abe over, sending him sprawling backward, a wound deep in his side, dead before he hit the floor, the bullet taking him right in the heart. I knew it by the lack of blood—his heart had stopped before the bullet had finished passing through. Eleanor never missed. Never.

  Bear’s eyes were wide, and his whole body shook as he crawled toward his dog. “No, no, not Abe.”

  Romano laughed and kicked Bear, flipping him over. “What are you going to do about it?”

  I took a step, and then another and another until I was running, the same path as Abe.

  Bear got his hands on Abe and screamed. I slid to a stop as flame burst around him, blue and green and brilliant. Romano snarled and backed away from him. Bear grabbed Abe and dragged him back, away from Romano.

  My heart hurt for Abe, but he’d done what he’d been trained to do. Save his boy.

  Romano held Eleanor and pointed her at me as I sidled toward Bear. “You see, Phoenix. You cannot beat me.”

  I didn’t pull Dinah. I dropped to my knee beside my son. The flames on his body were gone, but even if they weren’t, I would not have changed course. I gathered him up into my arms into a hug. The weight of his body, the feel of his skin on mine was like having a piece of myself back. I let the flames glow around me, soft pink and suffused with warmth instead of the harsh heat of the flames that caused so much destruction.

  Bear looked up at me, his wounds healed, and I laid him back down. “Don’t move. Stay with Abe.”

  All the while I’d kept my eyes locked on Romano’s. His had turned thoughtful and calculating.

  “An abnormal? You lying little bitch, you hid it from me all these years?” Of course he’d be angry, thinking I’d kept power from him.

  I didn’t answer him. He deserved nothing from me.

  “I’m going to do more than beat you,” I said softly. “I’m going to break you into pieces, and then I’m going to kill you.”

  “I can’t be killed.” He waved a hand to encompass his body. “I am immortal.”

  I smiled at him and laughed in his face. “Your master, Bazixal. He was right, you are a mewling pawn. I told you not to make that deal with him, but you didn’t listen, did you?”

  Romano’s face drained of color. “What did you say?”

  “I have the bullet, Luca Stephan Romano,” I intoned his full name, echoing the night of the deal, “the bullet that will end your immortality and your life. I have it and I am going to use it. And you will be no more. The deal will be no more.”

  “Then he will use you if you are so stupid to do it, but I don’t think you have a bullet, or you would have used it by now,” Romano snarled, but I saw the fear on his face mixed with the uncertainty. “Maybe I’ve changed my mind. Perhaps I’ll kill you now and keep Bear.”

  Killian laughed from behind me. “No. The boy be coming with me if she dies. He won’t be used by you again.”

  “I took him from you once,” Romano shouted at Killian. “I’ll do it again.”

  “No, no!” Bear shouted. “Don’t hurt my mom!”

  I didn’t dare look back, but by the direction of Bear’s protests, I knew he was with Killian. That was the plan. Killian would take Bear and get the fuck out of here. I would catch up.

  If I could.

  Eleanor snarled in Romano’s hands. “You always were a fucking monster.”

  Romano flicked his eyes at her as he pointed her at my head. She never missed. Fuck, I was going to have to be fast.

  “Dodge to the left,” Dinah whispered. “She’s sloppy to the left.”

  “Shut your mouth and do your job.” His finger squeezed the trigger on Eleanor. I knew I should have dodged, or tried to, but I knew Eleanor.

  I knew her and I knew that if there was ever a time she would miss, it would be now.

  The report of the gun echoed through the room and the bullet slammed into the top of my left shoulder, spinning me around. I went to one knee, and grabbed at the wound.

  Eleanor was crying. “Phoenix, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry!”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “It’s okay.”

  “No, it’s not!” she screamed as he squeezed the trigger again. This time the bullet caught my left arm in the bicep. He was shooting for my heart and she was doing all she could to not hit me in a vital area.

  “Fucking shoot her!” he roared.

  Eleanor sobbed. “No, I won’t. I love her. It’s my job to protect her. I won’t hurt her again.”

  Dinah started to cry.

  I stared at the gun in my father’s hand, the gun that held my mother’s soul. “It’s okay, Eleanor. Don’t fight him.”

  “I can’t do this!” she screamed. “I can’t kill you!”

  Romano cut the distance between us and put Eleanor’s muzzle a foot away from my head. “You can’t miss now.”

  This was going to be close. He squeezed the trigger and I swept my right hand up. Eleanor roared and a boom sounded like a bomb had gone off, the concussive force of the explosion sending me back a half step even while shrapnel and heat ripped across my skin. Romano let out a howl and I took the moment to my advantage. I had my hands on him as he dropped Eleanor. I slammed a fist into his jaw, snapping his head back. My fists might not be able to kill him but it made me feel better.

  “Where is your guardian now?” I yelled as I drove a knee into his balls, sending him to the ground in a sprawling heap. “Where is your pet to protect you?” My eyes blurred from the kickback of Eleanor’s shot.

  “Strike.” He groaned the name. But there was no Strike coming to his rescue. I hammered at him, but there was no blood, and I wanted his blood, goddamn it. I wanted him to hurt for everything he’d done. For all he’d taken from me, for the damage to my life and all those lives he’d made me take.

  I was panting, out of breath with the anger and the rage, with the blows I rained down on his body.

  He began to laugh. “Here he is. My guardian will finish you now.”

  I spun to see Strike standing ten feet away, watching us.

  His eyes flicked from Romano back to me. “If you shoot him in the belly, the bullet will steal his immortality, then you can kill him however you like.”

  I spun back to Romano, drawing Dinah in a smooth motion. I had her an inch from his navel, right over his liver. That same instinct I’d followed my whole life whispered that I needed more
than just the bullet. I called up my own flames and the electricity that Killian had given me. The two powers writhed around one another as they shot down my arm and into Dinah as I pulled the trigger.

  The percussion of the shot echoed and spread like a shockwave had been released. I was blown backward from the force as Romano screamed, the boom going on and on, battering at my ears. Breaking glass, breaking bones, breaking walls, the world around us seemed to shatter on the force of the deal he’d made going to pieces.

  I hit the ground with a grunt, rolled and was back on my feet, my hands up against the wind that swept out and around us. Slowly, the pressure died and I lowered my hands.

  “Is he dead?” Dinah asked.

  I took a step toward him. “Not yet. But he’s dying.”

  Romano still lay on the floor panting, his hands cupped around the wound in his belly and the blood pouring out of him. Human, he was human and his life ran red as the dying sun.

  I walked to over to him and stared down at the man whose blood ran in my veins. The same blood that now coated the floor. “You are going to die, Romano. Any last words?”

  He stared up at me, his eyes glazing with pain and with death as it crept up over him. “You . . . are just like me. A killer. A monster.” He smiled, blood coating his teeth as he coughed.

  I bent down and whispered back, “No, I’m like my mother. A woman who would do anything to save her child.”

  I took my knife and pressed it against the side of his throat, nicking the jugular. Not enough that he would die fast, but enough that he would bleed out faster than the wound in his belly would cause. Seeing him bleed, seeing him dying at my feet removed the need to wound him further.

  I stepped back, watching him shiver and convulse, dying alone in a foreign land without a single person to grieve him. His body gave a last tremble, his chest rose and the final breath went out of him. Dead, without any fanfare, the way he deserved.

  “The deal is broken then.” I turned to face Strike.