by Lacy LeRoch
The kiss grows heated, teeth and lips becoming involved. Lucy twists in my arms trying to get closer to me. I move my left arm from her lower back and slide it up her torso to cup her perfect breast. Lucy gasps against my lips... Fuck! I grow hard for this girl. Nipping her bottom lip in approval, I love how she doesn’t hold back from me.
My thumb brushes slowly over the tightened tip of her nipple. Lucy has nice firm mounds that I’m sure would look spectacular if I could get her stripped naked. Lucy shudders and pulls back slightly. That one small act was enough to drown me with a bucket of cold water. I won’t push this on her as she isn’t ready yet.
The mating can’t happen unless it happens in my home in Devilice. Shit! She makes me forget my own name. I need to calm down. Closing my eyes, I slowly count backward from ten needing to gain control over my raging boner. When I think I have enough control over myself again, I open my eyes, take her face in my hands, lower my head, and quickly kiss her on the lips.
“Baby girl, I want this more than anything. But this can’t happen just yet. It kills me to say this, baby, but we can’t do this.”
I feel my heart breaking when I see the hurt in her eyes. Lucy turns her head and looks over to the other side of the room. Her eyes start to blink rapidly as she tries to wiggle off my lap. She’s hurt, and I know I’m responsible for it. I won’t have her running from me, so I tighten my arms around her waist.
“Baby, stop! It’s not like that. I do want you.”
I gently take hold of Lucy’s right hand slowly so as to not frighten her. I lower it down to my erection, making her wrap her hand around my hard length. Lucy gasps in surprise. I watch her eyes darken with desire. Well, I’ll be damned, my girl is turned on.
Her pink tongue darts out of her mouth, licking her bottom lip. Her hand tightens over my cock with the slightest indecision. And great Goddess Lylian, but it takes everything in me not to cum in my pants.
“As you can feel little one, I need you.” I moan, when she moves her hand up and down over the top of my jeans. “You are mine. You belong to me. But it can’t happen here. I can’t believe I’m about to say this… but we need to talk.”
I loosen the grip I have on her wrist making sure she’s able to move her hand away if she wishes. Keeping my eyes locked on hers, I wait for her to make up her mind on where this is going. I will never push myself onto her, but for the love of the Goddess Lylian, I want this girl so bad.
“You really do want me? Don’t you?” Lucy asks doubtfully.
Has this girl completely lost her mind? She’s running her hand up and down my hard cock, and she asks me that.
“Of course, I want you. Can’t you feel the effect you have on me? Can’t you feel the effect you have on my body? I have never wanted anything more in my life. You are made for me. You are mine.”
Lucy turns a pleasing shade of red. “Oh.” She smiles letting go of my erection and cuddling back into my lap again.
“Okay, so we talk. How about we start by you telling me what’s going on? I don’t understand any of this, all I know is how much I want you. And that to me is crazy. I don’t even know you. The only thing that I do know is that I crave you in ways that almost feels unnatural and undeniable.”
“Lucy, look at me.” She raises her blue eyes to meet my green ones. “I’m not sure how much you know, but all you need to know right now is that the Phoenix is very strong in you. She wants out. For the first time in centuries, we need to break our laws. We need to take you to Devilice to make the shift happen safely. No one has tried to complete a mating here in this realm.”
“Wait, hang on a minute, did you say Phoenix?” she asks shocked.
I’m going to kill her father when I see him next. Didn’t he explain anything to these girls? Do they know anything about us, or our ways?
I look down at Lucy and run my hand up and down her back in a soothing motion. Every time my hand leaves her back, she stretches like a kitten for me to touch her again. Oh, I could have so much fun with this little one. Anticipation is the key. That’s what I tell myself anyway.
“Yes love, a Phoenix. You’re a shifter, your primary form will be what you are now… you will always be you. But the Phoenix wants to come out and play as well. All Phoenix shifters are powerful, but rare. I only know of two.” I pause for a minute allowing her to piece it together. As soon as she does, her head snaps up.
“Holy hell, if I’m one that means Lacy is one as well? And rare, why don’t I like the sound of that?”
Chapter Seven
Just when I think my life can’t confuse me anymore, I find out that I belong to a Watcher, I’m a Phoenix shifter, and that I need to go to an Island called Devilice within the next five days. I spent the night talking with Rafe. We discussed what I was and what I needed to do to control it until I could get to Devilice Island.
He told me it was crucial to stop this from happening. Apparently, there are some sort of rules that need to be followed before I’m allowed to travel. It’s been two days since I’ve seen Rafe, and I feel as if I’ve lost a part of me—empty and lost if you will. I sit on my bed pulling on the loose lint on the blanket.
“Why do you have to go?” I ask Lacy, the tears pricking at my eyes.
Lacy stuffs another T-shirt into her overnight bag, shrugging her shoulders. “I dunno, Mom said I needed to spend some time with Bevan. I wasn’t going to turn that down.”
“No, I wouldn’t expect you to. But… I…” I stop, afraid I’ll start crying. The thought of her leaving is almost unbearable, we’re inseparable and without one another we’re lost.
She climbs into my bed and wraps her arms around my shoulders. “I know it’s hard right now, Luce, but it will get easier.”
“I can’t lose you as well...” I sniffle, un-lady-like in her shirt. Her smell is almost a comfort.
“Silly girl, you aren’t losing me. I’m going to spend a few days with Bevan that’s all.” She pulls me back gently by the shoulders.
“Mom has been—”
Knock. Knock.
Lacy and I turn to face the bedroom door. “Come in.” Our voices tangle together and join as one.
Mom opens the door and walks in, stopping at the edge of the bed. She looks around and then back to us and scowls. “Haven’t you left already, Lacy?”
Lacy shuffles off the bed, zips up her bag and looks over at the alarm clock on the bedside. “Bevan should be here shortly.”
“Good, good,” Mom huffs out, as she walks back out of the room. I hear her mumble under her breath, “One less problem for me to take care of.”
I turn to ask Lacy if she heard the same thing, but she’s smiling from ear to ear gazing out the bedroom window. I walk over and look outside to see what has her attention. Bevan stands down on the lawn with a large bunch of roses in his hand.
“Go on, sis, have fun.” I push her shoulder gently and guide her out of the room.
“Will you be okay?” she asks concerned.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine, go enjoy yourself and I’ll see you soon, or whenever you get back.”
I watch her walk out of the room and out of the cottage. I’m really happy for my sister, but something isn’t sitting right with me. I have the strangest feeling of unease as if a bunch of butterflies flutter around my body, the feeling creeps up my back and holds on to my senses.
Dad wasn’t happy about Bevan and Lacy being together, he said he didn’t feel it the same way that he did with Rafe and me. But after they spoke, and Dad found out that Bevan was one of the Watchers who helped Lacy, he was all right with it. I thought that he’d go bananas about it. But if you ask me and nobody ever does, I think Dad realized that he really had no choice in the matter. He was trying to fight a losing battle with both Bevan and Rafe.
My stomach growls reminding me that I haven’t eaten today. Being apart from Rafe is playing on me in more ways than one. I couldn’t pull myself out of bed this morning, and that’s not me at all. I’
m usually the first one to rise. I would have gone for a run, had a shower and eaten, all before Lacy can drag her butt out of bed.
Walking out of my room and down to the kitchen, I open the fridge and cheer with delight when I notice a couple of chicken salad rolls wrapped up on the top shelf. Dad always prepares our lunches first thing in the morning and leaves them until we want them. I never expected him to do it today. He left at five a.m. to head to Devilice. He said he had a meeting with the council, in regards to gaining my safe passage and permission into their realm. I still don’t understand what he means, but I have faith in my father and in Rafe.
I grab my sandwiches, a bottle of pop and head back toward my room. Maybe I can find a good book on Lacy’s Kindle to keep my mind off everything. Low whispering flitters out of the back room, the smell of smoke is strong in the air. The closer I get the more intense it becomes. My curiosity is peaked, as I sneak a look into the slightly ajar door. The fireplace crackles and pops with red and orange flames. Shadows and silhouettes dance and twirl over the walls of the darkened room, and seep out of the door like rays of sunlight.
“I won’t fail you, Master.” Mom stares into the fire, and whispers into the glowering red coals, her voice carrying throughout the room. “Yes, Master. I understand, Master.”
God, this is all the crazy I can take at the moment. Why would she be talking to herself? Mom has been acting weird since we first got out here to the lake. She couldn’t wait to get Dad out of the house. Now it’s just her and me, fantastic.
I don’t want to get busted snooping, so I take a quiet step back and make a quick dash to my room, getting that same feeling you get when you turn the lights off, and suddenly feel there’s something in the room with you. Dad should be home in a few hours, so I just have to stay in here until then.
I walk over to the bed and pick up the Kindle, after flipping through the books for what feels like forever I drop it onto the bed beside me and eat my sandwiches. I look at the Kindle in disgust, why can’t I find anything that I want to read?
“God Lace, you have an eclectic taste.” I chuckle.
I want to run into her room and give her a hard time, but then I remember that she isn’t here. I miss my sister already. My heart is heavy from the loss of her. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t let me have at least one of them. Either Lacy or Rafe, I wouldn’t have minded. But this being alone, in the cottage with a nutcase mother, hurts. I feel abandoned, forgotten and unwanted.
I’m bored, so I look around my room and sigh. I can’t even take pleasure in the small things that I used to. My room is sparse but kept with the basics. A queen size bed with a baby blue duvet, a couch against the wall, a small television, and baby blue curtains that hang in the windows. I don’t see the pleasure in any of this anymore. This is used to be my favorite out of the three homes my father owns. But when I look at it all now, all I feel is empty—the room reflecting how I feel.
I wish I had someone I could talk to about how I’m feeling. I could call Lacy, but I don’t want to be the needy twin. And besides, I don’t think she’d forgive me if I rang and she was getting some loving from Bevan. I blush at the thought.
“Oh my God,” I pant out under my breath.
I just realized that I’ll have that myself soon enough. What if I don’t live up to what he expects? Oh my God, I need someone to talk to, now more than ever. The last thing I want to do is talk to Dad or Mom about it. That’s wrong on so many levels. Besides, they seem to be avoiding me like the plague.
When Dad talks to me, he won’t look me in the eyes. Rafe told me he doesn’t want to look into them, because when he does, he sees the Phoenix, and this scares him. Rafe hasn’t bothered to hide the fact, he’s afraid the Phoenix is going force the shift on me. The council told him, they have never had a case where the Phoenix has shifted for the first time in this realm. So everyone is on edge. They don’t know what to expect.
What I didn’t tell Lacy or Rafe was that I can hear her—my Phoenix. I must say, I like her. She won’t take no for an answer and she’s helping me to become a stronger person. My Phoenix started to talk to me within hours of Rafe leaving. At first, I panicked and tried to tune her out. But then I learned that I need to deal with her, as she was just as stubborn as I am, in every single way.
“We need to be on guard,” she growls in my head.
Speak of the devil, or should I say Phoenix?
“I know, Phoenix, but what are we on guard from? I feel the unease in the air. Rafe said we’re safe for now. Do you not trust him?”
Great, now I’m going insane talking to myself out loud just like Sarah. I can’t get the hang of speaking to her in my mind. Every time I’ve tried, I’ve ended up exhausted, and she can’t hear me. I don’t mind that I have to speak aloud, at least it gives me someone to talk with.
“You’re not talking to yourself, you’re talking to all that is amazing and cool.” Phoenix chuckles.
“You’re funny, you know that Phoenix? Now, answer my question. What are we on guard from?”
I get up from the bed and walk over to the lounge, leaning my back on the armrest and staring out the window.
“Quiet, be very quiet,” Phoenix snaps.
The warning in her voice puts me on edge. I feel the flush of heat run throughout my veins. She isn’t happy, something has her fight or flight mode activated. Which in turn has the same effect on me. I notice that when she’s unhappy or mad, she tries to push to the surface. It’s a shield, an act of protection. She pushes up, and it makes my body heat up and my eyes turn red. Trying to control her is impossible, she never really listens to me. Rafe said it will get easier with practice. But honestly, I don’t think I want her completely under heel. I like her spirit and her free will.
“Nix, please calm down. We can’t shift here, Rafe told us it’s unsafe,” I try to reason with her. If I can just get her to calm down enough, I might be able to avoid the shift.
“That man is lucky he’s good looking and ours or I’d kick his ass. Now quiet, I smell danger. It’s close, very close.”
The knocking on the door stops the banter between us. I rise from my sofa and walk over to the bedroom door. Nix pulls and twists on my limbs, trying to stall my movements. She sends vibrations through my body, making my muscles tense up. The short walk to the door becomes agonizingly slow. Someone knocks again.
“I’m coming,” I call out.
While managing to fight the hold Nix has over my muscles I pull the door open. I didn’t know she could control my body that way. I’ll have to keep that in mind for the next time. Nix said she could smell danger, but when I open the door, all I see is Mom.
“Don’t underestimate my gifts, Lu,” Nix growls in my head.
With a sigh, I try to get Nix to quieten down. That Phoenix is always talking. Half the time, I don’t know what people are saying to me because Nix will talk over the top of them.
Mom’s emotions are all over the place, and I can’t get a good read on her. My gifts have been pretty clear since I hit puberty. I can read people’s emotions, and I’ve always considered it a curse. Rafe said I’d be able to feel a person’s intentions now that my Phoenix is coming to the surface, but something is really off here. I’ve never been able to get a read on Mom. It is almost as if she’s a blank canvas, nothing to see or read.
“Is everything all right, Mom?” I ask her carefully.
“Lucy, how are you feeling today? Has your Watcher turned up yet?” Mom says, looking at me with narrowing eyes. The look she’s sporting is almost angry, bitter even. She looks over my shoulder in the room just like she did earlier today then pushes me to the side and steps inside my room.
“Mom, what’s wrong? You can see that I’m fine. You know I won’t see Rafe for a few days, and Dad will be home soon.”
I step in front of Mom, blocking her from coming in any further. Something’s seriously wrong here. I get the sudden intense smell of copper and feel like I want to be sick. Am I
being warned about something to come?
“Something’s wrong here, Lu, step back. Let me come to the surface. Let me out,” Nix starts begging me.
I feel her trying to push forward, she’s in full protection mode. I need to get her to calm down, and try to work out what in the world is going on? Trying as hard as I can to bring Nix back under control, I know it might not work, but I attempt to speak to her telepathically, “Nix, this is my stepmother. Please calm down. I feel the difference as well.”
I almost want to jump for joy when Nix answers me right away. “Something’s not right here, Lu. I can feel the danger in the air. I don’t like it one bit. Let me out, let me out!”
This time, Nix doesn’t stop the burn from hitting my body as she pushes as hard as she can to break free. I start to sweat from the heat, my hands clench at my sides and I begin panting, like my body can’t get enough air to breathe.
Mom either doesn’t see it or doesn’t care, as she reaches out and pushes me further into the bedroom. She steps past me, shutting the door behind her. I need to get out. Nothing feels right with any of this. I attempt to walk past her again, but she blocks my way, smirking.
“Mom, what’s going on? Where’s Dad?”
I’m hoping that by mentioning Dad, she’ll snap out of her weird mood. Mom screws her face up in disgust. She looks me up and down and pushes my body against the wall roughly, like a rag doll. Her hand comes flying out from her side, grabbing my throat. Gasping for air as she tightens her grip around my neck, I start to panic thrashing my hands around in vain to try to have her let me go.
“Do you know how hard it’s been for me, to pretend that I actually care for you and your stuck up sister?” Mom sneers, contempt written all over her face. She enunciates every word with a hard squeeze around my throat.
I can’t catch my breath, I’m wheezing, twisting and turning trying to get free. I reach up and dig my nails into the fleshy part of her arm. The tip of her tongue comes out of her mouth as she tightens her hold on my throat. She brings her spare hand up and backhands me across the chest continuing to hit me, over and over, laughing with every connected smack. My knees start to buckle from the pain, so I open my mouth to scream for help, but nothing comes out.