Phoenix

by Rhonda L. Print

  Ian’s voice whispered through my mind. “He thinks you are still unconscious, my love. I advise you let him.”

  Ignoring Phoenix’s ramblings, I shifted my eyes to look at Ian. He was covered in silver mesh, and angry red welts marred his exposed skin where it had embedded into him. His pale skin was nearly transparent and his eyes were swollen. What concerned me most, however, was the tube pumping some unknown substance into his veins.“Ian!”

  “Shh, my love. Do not concern yourself with me. I shall heal. Are you well?”

  Phoenix turned toward me abruptly and I snapped my eyes shut. Struggling to keep my breaths deep and even—as if in sleep—I remained still until I heard a rustling of fabric and he began to speak again. Basically he was condemning Ian and all the marquises for their refusal to take control over the human population. He turned his back to us again as he prepared what looked like an enormous syringe.

  “What the hell is Phoenix putting in you?”

  “I have become his test subject, my love. A guinea pig, so to speak. I do not intend to be here long enough for it to affect me”

  “Where the hell are the others?”

  “Dealing with the outside security. Now, please. Answer my question. Are you well?”

  “I have a bitch of a headache, Ian, but I’m fine.”

  “Can you run?”

  I tensed the muscles in my body slowly, testing their willingness to move without pain and reminding me of my restraints. “I could if I wasn’t chained. But I’m not leaving without you and the blood that Phoenix took from me! Don’t ask me to do that!”

  “We are both getting out of here and I will retrieve the blood.” The mere feel of his voice through my head calmed my erratic heartbeat.

  Phoenix turned. “Ah, the lovely Miss Wolfe awakens.” Phoenix gestured with the syringe in his hand. “And just in time to watch the show.”

  He moved closer to Ian and raised the needle above Ian’s chest. Both Ian and I strained against our chains but I couldn’t release myself and Ian was only managing to embed the mesh farther into his body.

  “With your marquis strength and the DNA of a shifter, you should be thanking me, Nightwalker.” Phoenix’s expression was a mixture of madness and evil.

  My mind searched frantically for some way that I could help Ian before Phoenix turned him into a science experiment.

  Necromancer! The thought slammed into me so hard it nearly took my breath away.

  Yes, I was a Necromancer and theoretically should be able to control the dead. And yes, vampires were technically dead but I couldn’t even control the human dead. How am I supposed to control Phoenix?

  I directed my stare at Phoenix and used every ounce of angry energy in me to will his arm to pull back before the needle made contact with Ian’s chest. Sweat beaded on my forehead and pain pierced my skull but I kept at it, allowing only one thought to occupy me.

  Step away from Ian. Move your arm back and step away from him!

  Time seemed to slow as the mantra went through my mind. I was afraid to watch and even more fearful to turn away. My body shook with effort.

  “Yes, my love. You are Necromancer. Use the power you have to control him!” Ian whispered through my mind.

  Phoenix gasped and glared at me, disbelief and shock warring on his face. “Not possible.” His voice was taut with strain.

  Finally, his arm jerked back and his feet shuffled backward. I could tell Phoenix was fighting me but I refused to let him out of my grasp. The control I felt was exhilarating.

  * * * *

  Raven appeared from the shadows. I blinked, thinking I must have been seeing things. He wasn’t there a moment ago, and then, he was. It was as if he’d stepped out of the shadows in the room. Then I remembered the first time I’d met Raven. In Ian’s house, he’d done something similar, walking out of the darkest corner of the room. A sizzle of electricity charged the air, raising the hairs on my arms, and a shower of sparks rained down upon the room before plunging us into complete darkness. I felt my restraints fall away, and in the moment before the light disappeared I saw the strobe light effect of Phoenix lunging for me. He caught me by my upper arm and swung me around. As his hand reached for my stomach, I stomped on his foot hard enough to put a hole in the floor. Phoenix howled and lost his grip on me. The binder flew from his hand and lay on the gurney near me. I didn’t have time to revel in his pain but I managed to elbow him in the chest then twisted and landed a knuckle punch to his throat. Breaking his windpipe wouldn’t kill him but it sure as hell would make talking a problem and right now, I didn’t want him calling for help from his exterior guards. He dropped to the ground.

  Another set of hands grabbed my shoulders and I spun around, already aiming a kick to where I assumed the groin would be.

  “Leah!” Raven’s voice didn’t stop me but I checked my aim enough so that I grazed his outer thigh and not his family jewels.

  “Ian?” I asked.

  “Help me get him up,” Raven ordered. “He drained himself of energy; he was too weak to try and spark out the lights.”

  I grabbed the mesh that was holding Ian to the gurney and yanked it off. Raven didn’t need my strength to do it, but the silver would have had the same effect on him that it did on Ian. At the moment, I didn’t need two weak vampires on my hands.

  As soon as the mesh was free Ian hoisted himself up, regaining some of his strength as his lips found mine in the dark.

  “Reunions later,” Raven barked. “Bear and Mouse are dealing with the exterior security. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  Something grasped my ankle and I went sailing to the floor. I turned and kicked with my other foot and while Phoenix cried out in pain, his grip on my leg never faltered until Ian dived over me and knocked me out of Phoenix’s grasp.

  “Get her out of here!” Ian ordered.

  “Not without you!” I shouted as Raven began to pull me away.

  “Now, Raven! Go!” Ian bellowed as he grappled with Phoenix.

  I felt two strong arms lift me off the ground. I struggled uselessly as Raven ran into the corridor.

  “Ian!”

  Raven ignored my pleas and kept running. The halls were still lit and I had to squint against the harsh light.

  “I am two steps behind you, my love.”

  The words were gently pushed into my mind but I could feel the amount of effort it took Ian to speak this way so I said only, “Hurry.”

  As the central room went by me in a rush, I heard Raven mutter, “Shit,” then slowed his pace. He set me on my feet but used his body as a shield between me and whatever lay in front of us.

  “Get out of the way, mutt.” Raven’s voice shuddered through me.

  I’d say I looked over Raven’s shoulder but the height difference made that impossible. It was his biceps that I peered around to see Hector and Ajax blocking our path. Both men were standing feet apart, shoulders tense with clenched fists. It was a battle stance, poised for a fight.

  “Leah, you know we’ve been waiting for this for a long time. We’re not here to hurt you,” Hector pleaded.

  “There’s an emergency exit tunnel down Quad B, just past the offices. I don’t know if your chip will set off the alarms, but we can get a good head start on external security,” Ajax added.

  “Do you trust them?” Raven’s deep voice was only a rumble.

  If I did, would my word be good enough for Raven? Better question, did I trust them? With my life? Raven and Ian’s lives? The life of my child? “I don’t know,” I whispered and heard the regret in my own voice.

  “Lead us to the tunnel.” Raven commanded then followed, keeping his body between me and them as we quickly moved into Quad B.

  Ajax punched in a code on an electronic keypad on the wall and a panel slid open. Raven glared at him and both men stepped aside, giving Raven a wide berth to peer into the absolute darkness of the tunnel. I don’t know what he saw because I couldn’t see a damn thing. Even with enhanced night
vision my Mark with Ian provides, I needed some light, albeit very little, to navigate in that dark a space.

  Seeming satisfied, Raven backed me against the door then asked, “Do you trust me, Leah?”

  Ian did or he wouldn’t have asked for Raven’s help. “Yes.” I nodded. “I trust you.”

  Without another word Raven struck with a kick to the center of Hector’s chest, knocking him to the floor. Ajax attacked but a short punch to his neck sent him crumbling to the floor. Before I could speak, Raven hoisted me into his arms and stepped into the darkness. I felt my entire body charge with what I can only describe as a low voltage of electricity. Every muscle in my body tensed, then, just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone and I found myself in the front hallway of our home.

  * * * *

  “Ian is still there,” I protested. Not caring how I’d gotten home, just needing Ian to get here too. There would be time for questions later.

  Raven set me on my feet. “My orders are to stay with you.”

  “No.” I stepped in front of him. “You’re going to go back and get the others. And I’m going with you!”

  Raven’s eyes softened for the barest of moments. “Leah, Ian did not risk his life to get you out of there to have you running back into harm’s way. We stay.”

  I wanted to argue but there was more than just my life on the line. Instinctively, I felt my hand go to my stomach. “Please. Go get them.” I put my hand on his chest when he started to argue. “I promise I’ll call Lucas myself. I won’t be alone.” I knew if I mentioned calling Dr. Lucas I’d get more cooperation.

  Raven started to protest and I held up my hand to stop him. “I’m fine.” I pushed back the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes. “Please.” I looked in his eyes. “Just bring Ian home.”

  Raven dipped his chin in one short nod.

  “When you get back,” I smiled weakly, “you’re going to explain how you got me here so quickly.”

  Within moments, I was alone.

  Emotions flooded my senses, causing tears to sting the backs of my eyes. Relief and fear assaulted me first. I was home and safe, yet others were not. They were risking their lives to save mine. A slight flutter in my abdomen reminded me that it was not only my life they’d saved. That thought brought disbelief and happiness and the tears broke through the dam and spilled down my cheeks.

  “They’ll bring Ian…” I sputtered a laugh. “They’ll get Daddy home safe,” I said to the child growing in my stomach.

  Ian as a daddy. I brushed the tears from my face as I made my way to the kitchen. Me? A mommy? I pulled open the refrigerator door, twisted the cap off a bottle of water and stood in the glow of the small appliance light while I chugged it down, feeling the chill of it flow all the way down to my stomach, steadying my nerves.

  “Well, well. What have we here?”

  I sputtered the water out, nearly choking. Kat’s voice was harsh in the silence of my kitchen.

  “Kat? How the hell did you…?”

  “Tell me I wasn’t this easy to track, Hector.” Kat’s teeth gleamed white and sharp as Hector stepped up beside her.

  “You weren’t quite so gullible.” Hector snaked an arm around Kat’s waist and kissed her ear.

  “Don’t look so shocked, Leah. A little of your blood, not to mention the fact that Raven isn’t the only one capable of slipping through the shadows, and you were pretty easy to find.

  Shit. I was standing in the refrigerator doorway and the only weapons on me were the knives in my boots. I needed a distraction or I’d never get to them in time.

  “You really thought I was on your side, didn’t you?” Kat crooned.

  “After what that monster did to you…” I began.

  “He gave both of us a new life!” Kat roared. “He saved us from a life of ordinary!”

  “That’s all he wanted for you too.” Hector’s voice was creepy calm, a sharp contrast to the violence seething from Kat.

  I moved my hand slowly, setting the water bottle on the shelf and letting my hand drift toward the wine bottle in the door shelf behind me. Kat kept talking, hailing the genius of Phoenix, while Hector paced behind her. His impatience to end this was almost as palpable as my own. I slid my other hand behind my back and grasped the bottle. Sweat beaded on my forehead as Kat rattled on and I silently tugged on the silver and crystal wine stopper atop the bottle. It broke free with a pop that brought Hector lurching toward me. Kat froze midsentence but I barely noticed as I broke the neck of the bottle on the door and flung it at her, slicing her neck. Her eyes grew wide with shock as her hands flew to the wound and blood sprayed from between her fingers.

  Hector grabbed the front of my shirt; his other fist rose but before he could land the punch I rammed the pointed end of the wine stopper into his temple. His eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped like a stone to the tiled floor.

  Kat dived for me and I bent for the knives in my boots, flinging them both at her as I ran into the main room.

  “You bitch!” she gurgled through the blood as she closed the distance behind me.

  I sprinted toward the door but she managed to grip my hair. I spun in a roundhouse kick that landed in her midsection, bringing her down. She did a backward flip that brought her back to her feet. With a bubbly scream she caught me by my throat. In one horrible split second I saw her free hand transform into claws.

  I struggled to breathe as she smiled at me, her blood spilling from her mouth. “It didn’t have to be this way, Leah.” She raised me off the ground one-armed and pressed my back to the wall as I fought for consciousness. “We could have been friends.” Her voice was calm and her eyes were dark and glazed over. Whatever humanity Kat had once possessed was gone now, lost in whatever Phoenix had done to her. She extended one razor-sharp claw toward my abdomen and her mouth twisted into something too sinister to call a smile.

  I called on every ounce of anger and strength that I possessed and raised my knee, landing it in the center of her chest. She sailed across the room, crashing over a table. I slumped onto the floor.

  Kat scrambled to her feet. She didn’t even notice Ian until he grasped her head, and in one fluid twist, removed it from her shoulders.

  Chapter 9

  “I’m fine,” Jess assured me once again. “And so is Oscar. He’s downstairs with Ozzie.” She smiled sheepishly.

  “Are you two—you know—okay?”

  Jess nodded. “We have a lot to work out but, yeah. Deep down I guess I always knew Oscar would have to meet his father someday.” She smiled. “I’m kind of glad to see him again too.” She gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “Now get some rest, doctor’s orders.” She stood and gave Ian a kiss on the cheek. “Take good care of her.” Jess walked out of the room while I gaped after her.

  “So the night I first met Raven, when he was hiding in the shadows…” I wasn’t about to let Ian evade this question.

  “Not hiding in the shadows, my love, traveling through them. Raven is a ShadowWalker. Just as I am destined to walk only in the night, he has the added ability to move through the shadows. They are but a veil to another dimension. I believe that is why many humans fear the dark. Instinct tells them that something lurks within it.”

  “Are there many ShadowWalkers?” I adjusted myself in the bed that Lucas had relegated me to for the next few days. And for once, I wasn’t about to argue with him. After all, I’d never been pregnant before and the days I’d been kept in captivity had left me hungry and exhausted.

  “Before today, I would have said there were not any other ShadowWalkers.”

  “And now?”

  “Phoenix kept a journal of his experiments. I found it near his body after I killed him. Ajax was already dead when I found him. He appeared to have been mauled.”

  “Hector.” It was a statement, not a question. “Ajax really had wanted to escape.”

  “We shall never truly know, my love.”

  “And the journal?”

  “Phoenix w
as not only testing formulas on various races of the Supernatural community, he was using humans as well. Children, my love.” Sorrow crept into his voice.

  My blood pressure spiked, setting off a small alarm next to the bed I was in at the clinic in the underground of our home. Lucas came in and flipped a switch, turning it off. “I do not advise upsetting her, Ian,” Lucas admonished.

  “She needs to hear this. However, if you think it unwise…”

  The alarm sounded again, interrupting Ian’s sentence.

  “It would be worse not to tell me,” I warned.

  Lucas nodded. “Agreed. But Leah, this isn’t just about you anymore.”

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, I’ll be good.” I smiled, showing all my teeth and the alarm silenced itself.

  “I’ll be right outside,” Lucas said before he left.

  “Tell me, Ian.” I turned my full attention back on him.

  “Before Phoenix began practicing on Supernaturals, he used humans.”

  “Arthur Walden and Gertrude Rothchild.”

  “According to his notes, they were the most recent, although he used a different formula on them. His goal was to control them, not turn them as he did with Kat, Hector, and Ajax. In the past, however, Phoenix experimented on children. Whether or not the results were successful,” he paused to brush a stray strand of hair off my face, “there are people out there who have no idea that their DNA has been tampered with.”

  “Or what they’re capable of.” I scrubbed my hands across my face. “Does the journal specify who he used?”

  “It does.”

  “Then we will have to find them.”

  “I already have Raven searching for one. She was a test subject for shadow walking. There is no indication that she is aware of her abilities.” Ian rested his forehead against mine. Smiling he said, “We will find them all, my love.”

  “And then?”

  “And then we will do what we must.”

  “Sam will need to alert Agent Stark,” I said woefully.

  “He has agreed to let us handle it. For now. Stark has been informed of the cause of Arthur Walden and Gertrude Rothchild’s insanity and has agreed to let things lie as they are. He does not want the general public starting a panic over something that he considers contained.”