“Shall we eat dinner downstairs?”
“What happened to lunch?” Rylee stretched surprised to realize she was lying comfortably on Phoenix. She cracked an eye to see that they were still on the living room floor.
“With all of today’s excitement, we missed it.”
“In that case, my stomach gives a loud round of approval for our dinner plans.” Regrettably, she sat up. She looked around to see they were alone; Elfin wasn’t here, and neither was Marc. Then there was Sela. She jumped up.
“We need a bed for Sela!”
“What’s wrong with the one in her bedroom?”
“Phoenix say what?”
He chuckled and stood. “Follow me.”
They walked into the bedroom next to Elfin’s. Phoenix opened the door. Inside was a set up worthy of a princess. Since there was a strong possibility that Sela was royalty this would do nicely.
“Why do we have a bedroom set up for someone we weren't anticipating? Marc!” There was silence. “I know you can hear me. Don’t make me rip your hard wires out.”
“That is cruel and unusual punishment.” He appeared in front of them. “You do realize you're naked, right?”
Rylee looked down. No, she hadn’t realized she was naked. She was so comfortable with Phoenix that clothes were optional.
“Don’t move.” She wanted to run to the bedroom, but the jiggle of her breast and her ass wasn’t something she wanted Marc with his perfect memory banks to have on record. “If there are any records of me naked get rid of them now!” She called over her shoulder.
“Of course, but I can’t forget what I have seen.”
Grr, she fumed. He’s an f-ing computer, not a person. She knew he could wipe this moment.
She walked back out wrapped in a robe. She handed Phoenix his.
“Marc why is there a room for Sela?”
“Sela, that charming young lady who will be staying with us?”
“How do you know she’s charming?”
“You do realize that I am not confined to these rooms.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Because it would be cruelty to trap me, and you’re not cruel?”
“Nope, survey says wrong answer. I’m not surprised because your ingenious and will find a way to travel.”
“There is that.”
“The room.” Rylee rolled her eyes to show her impatience.
“I was told she was coming and to prepare accordingly.”
“You were told? Phoenix can an A.I. program become unhinged?”
“He was right.”
She grunted a response to that. “I’m going to take a shower. No peeping, either of you.”
This was the perfect opportunity to freak out. Her life was spiraling out of control. She could be one of those divas she watched on television or at the grocery store. Or, she could understand that life didn’t follow a script. She gathered a few things then closed the bathroom door behind her. As much as she wanted to sink into a tub, her stomach was demanding a shower. The day had been too long, and the thought of food was motivating her to hurry.
She stepped under the hot water allowing it to soothe her tired muscles as she thought of Marc, Elfin, and Sela. How had she come from a woman with nothing to cherish to a woman with a family? Thoughts of the government and their pet scientists crossed her mind.
They would have killed her. Someone might be coming for her even as she washed. They would steal her happiness without a thought. It was time to start training again. She needed to be strong if they came for her. She would be ready. Turning off the water she climbed out her mind once again on food.
“Are you coming to eat?”
“I am baby cat. How is everyone?”
“I’m not a baby.” His disgruntled tone hit her ears.
Funny he never denied the cat part.
“We’re good. Slade wouldn’t let us come upstairs he said you, and Phoenix needed some time alone. What were you doing?”
“Sleeping.” There was sleep at the end, but still, it was sleep.
“Is that all?” His voice was suspicious.
“That’s all. See you in a few.”
She cut their communication; he didn’t need to know anything else.
“I bet you were kissing. Phoenix and Rylee sitting in a tree…”
She blocked him this time before she laughed so hard she cried. He reminded her of the brat she used to be with her mother.
“What’s so funny?” Phoenix asked as she walked back into the bedroom.
“Elfin may be a bit of a brat.”
“You think?” She laughed harder. “Are you ready?”
“I’m going upstairs to have a talk with Slade; I'll be down soon.”
“I’ll see you when you get downstairs.” She walked over to get her kiss before she left.
It felt strange, but right to walk out the door and down the steps without Phoenix. She could feel him like he was with her even though she knew he hadn’t left their rooms yet. Is this what being mates meant? Could he feel her, tell where she was?
The living room was filled with the youth watching something on television as they debated the pros and cons of it loudly. She stayed in the background and watched. This was part of what she had wished for as a child, siblings she could play and argue with. Without drawing attention to herself, she went into the kitchen.
Brandi and Piper were cooking.
“Hi.”
“Hey, you looked refreshed.” Piper snickered.
Brandi reached out and smacked her. “Be nice. I heard she was tired and needed a nice long… rest.” They both laughed.
Rylee reddened and laughed with them. After too many years of being alone, she had girlfriends.
“Where is everyone else?”
“They guys are upstairs, meeting in Slade’s rooms. Serenity is with them which may mean time is involved. Quinn’s outside. Dinner will be done soon.”
“Alright, I’m going to see what Quinn is up to.” She walked outside to find Quinn sitting near the waterfall she had built for them.
“Hi.” Quinn turned to look at Rylee showing her the bird in her hand.
“He let you pick him up?” She didn’t know why she assumed the bird was male. She did know she wasn’t going to go looking under his feathers to see if she was right.
“His wing is broken.”
“We need to take him to a vet.”
“Mekhi will heal him when their meeting is over. I’m just keeping him company.”
“He seems happy to be held by you.”
“He’s a cutie. Rylee, how are you feeling?”
She stopped waiting for the helpless feeling that used to plague her to kick in. It wasn’t there. She wasn’t helpless; Phoenix taught her that.
“Although I think it’s strange; I am okay. I may also need my head examined. So much has happened from that strange being in my apartment to aliens who were sent by hunters. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m in the right place. Does that make sense?”
“It does. That’s how I felt when I met Mekhi. Every day I know it could be our last, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“Yep, that’s the feeling.”
The bird in Quinn’s hand began to move around. When she opened her hand, he flapped his wings testing them. With a very bird-like thank you, he flew away.
“I thought his wing was broken?”
“It was.” Confusion laced her voice.
“Dinner time,” David called out.
“Let’s go, I need to wash my hands, anyway.”
The walk back to the house was short and silent. Quinn looked puzzled. Rylee was wondering if the bird's wing was broken, maybe it was just a little sore.
They smiled when they reached the house jumping in to help with dinner.
“We need to expand the kitchen, or start using the dining room,” Quinn said quietly. She was leaning into Mekhi.
“Dining room it is. Akron and I
have a small surprise for you.” At the back of the kitchen was a door when Serenity opened it the dining room was there. It was huge with a table and chairs that would seat them all comfortably.
“How did you do that?” Quinn asked.
“The beautiful thing about time is the ability to go backward. We made some design changes in the original plans.”
“You can just change anything in time?” Rylee asked.
“To a certain degree, the problem becomes when you change one thing other unanticipated events change. We were careful to make sure that the house stayed on schedule. Eliminating someone’s life or changing it because we needed a dining room attached to the kitchen wasn’t going to happen.”
The room was beautiful with floor to ceiling windows and a cherry wood table that was exquisite with matching chairs.
The children, she was going to call them children; it didn’t matter where they came from. They carried on different conversations as they ate. It sounded like one of them was a continuation from earlier in the living room. The adults ate in silence.
“I think we need a family gathering,” Slade said looking at the children. “Where should we go?”
“The zoo, I know I’ve lived here all my life, but I’ve never been there,” Lisa told them.
“I want to go to the zoo,” David said backing his sister.
“Looks like we’re going to the zoo tomorrow. I think we will all need a good night’s sleep.” Slade stood to help clear the table.
They cleaned the kitchen each family retreating for the night.
“Do you really think the zoo is a good idea?” Rylee asked once Elfin and Sela were in bed.
“I think what keeps us together, what has always kept us together from the moment we formed our unusual brotherhood was the fact that we stayed together. We fight together, eat together, go out as a family. Having the children we adopted go with us makes us a tighter family unit.”
“You believe in family.”
“It’s what kept me alive.”
She nodded and curled around Phoenix. Tomorrow wouldn’t be that bad, right?
Chapter Nineteen
“Rylee your falling behind.” Phoenix walked back to where she was standing panting.
She threw him a look that she was sure would kill him on the spot. Let’s go to the zoo they said. She was an idiot.
“Are you trying to kill me?” The zoo was situated on a hill. Who in their right mind placed a zoo on the top of a hill and then made you climb the hill to get to it? By the time she reached the top she was out of breath, even Quinn was panting so she didn’t feel bad.
When they got in the zoo, she realized the hills didn’t stop.
“I’ve been thinking.” Phoenix flinched, and she smiled. “Why was Pennsylvania placed in such a hilly environment? I say we move the state to Oklahoma and move Oklahoma here. I know it’s flat because I watched that movie once.” What was the name of that movie? Sheesh, it was Oklahoma!
“I think Pennsylvania and hills go hand in hand.”
“Do you think Akron and Serenity could go back in time and change that one little oversight?”
Phoenix’s deep laughter stopped the irritation she was feeling. She took his hand while humming Surrey with a fringe on top.
“Phoenix why are the peacocks wandering around, following us?”
“They are allowed to wander freely. Not much of a nature lover, are you?”
“I love nature from my screened in back porch.”
“That’s my female, no camping for us.”
“I like to be outside in the fall before it gets too cold after all the bugs are dead.”
“I’m making a list of planets not to take you to. Let’s catch up. There was a tie between the snake enclosure and the large cats. We’re going to see the snakes first and then come spend some time watching the cats.”
“Yippee snakes. I said to myself, I hope we go see slithering creatures. They will remind me of the coldhearted scientists who tried to take me apart.” She bumped into him with a wry grin.
“We can skip the snakes.”
“Don’t mind me, I feel off today like something is about to happen. My blood feels like it's tingling in my veins.”
“I want Mekhi to have a look at you when we get home.”
“Sounds good. They stopped to wait for us. Go ahead, I need a few minutes to myself.” The children were pointing out the elephants. She stopped to admire the baby elephants.
“Hi.” She turned around to look at the male with the voice sweeter than honey.
His eyes were shrewd with a sharpness that defied the ages before they became a flat blue. She didn’t believe it; he was camouflaged, and he wasn’t hiding it.
“Hi.” His dark hair was pulled up in the perfect man bun. There was an image, a tat, that came and went under his right eye. “Are you a model?”
“No that’s too public. I don’t like the spotlight.”
She understood that. There was no way she wanted to draw attention to herself.
“You stopped to talk to me.” He wasn’t there when she first stopped.
“I have a message for you. Most people forget that the two become one.”
She closed her eyes to try to decipher what he meant. When she opened them, he was gone. The two become one?
“Ready?” Phoenix’s voice drew her out of her thoughts. She’d share what happened with him later.
They walked down a hill then up a different one to reach the snakes. When they got there, she was sure that the zoo was a mid-evil torture device. The kids were talking excitedly looking for the biggest snake.
“I wonder what they keep in here?” Elfin asked.
He was standing in front of the largest habitat; it took up at least half of the floor space.
“It’s too big for a snake, unless they have thousands of them in there,” Piper said peering through the glass.
Rylee's skin crawled at the thought of thousands of snakes. “Maybe they are bringing in a new attraction.”
Rylee was staring at the clear glass when the head of the biggest snake she ever saw hit against it. She screamed and started climbing Phoenix. There was no stopping until she was on his back pulling at his hair for him to move away.
It was the laughter of the kids that made her come up from the dark place her mind dropped to. The look of shock on everyone else’s face made her a little self-conscious.
“I may not like snakes.” They laughed, but she knew it was with her, not at her. That allowed her to loosen up enough to slide down Phoenix’s back and laugh.
“I don’t care what you say. The size of that snake is not normal,” she told Phoenix. She took a few hesitant steps towards the window. The snake turned to look at her. It’s eye’s pulsed in its head. “I think it’s trying to hypnotize me.”
Phoenix reached out and pulled her head away. “Don’t look at it in the eyes.”
“The snake looks like a hybrid. I haven’t seen any type of DNA on earth that would make it grow that big.”
“You’re right. The question is what type of hybrid.” A man in a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved Henley approached them. “I’m doctor and scientist Walt Bickham.”
“Hi Walt, I’m doctor and scientist Mekhi Broken; this is my family.” He waved his hand to include everyone.
“Do you know about the snake?” Amani asked him.
“I do; I've been taking care of her for a long time.”
“It’s a girl snake?” David asked.
“She’s definitely a girl. I named her Queen. You just have to look at her to know why.”
“Is she an anaconda? I didn’t think they got that big,” Serenity asked.
“No. As far as I can figure out she’s part Titanoboa, a snake that was discovered not that long ago. That’s pretty prehistoric. If that’s all she was I wouldn’t be worried. There is something else in her DNA that no one can pinpoint. That makes her bigger than a Titanboa, which is called the monster sna
ke.”
“How big will she get?” Tee asked.
“She’s still growing. Soon she won’t fit in the enclosure.”
“Then what?” Rylee said making sure not to look the snake in the eyes.
“Then we do what we do with all animals that outlive their usefulness or we can’t take care of.”
“Can’t you just put her in the jungle?” Brandi turned to look at Walt.
“I wish. Queen will not eat anything dead. She loves the chase. I believe she has more intelligence than a normal animal.”
“There has to be someplace for her.” Rylee eyed Walt.
“Do you happen to have the coordinates to Jurassic island?”
“They were in my last phone; it fell into the ocean.” She told him.
“Yeah, that’s what happened to mine. Queen will eat anything with warm blood. That means an animal or man. If I let her out in the jungle or a desert, she will eventually find her way to a population of man. When she is finished killing and devouring them, she will look for the next population of man. She will have to be put down before she becomes a danger. It may already be too late.”
“She hasn’t eaten you,” Rylee pointed out.
“It makes no sense but I’m the only one safe from her.”
The snake hit the glass with her tail. It was pointed with a barb on the end of it.
“My Queen calls.” Walt left them with a puzzled look on their faces.
“We have to save the snake.”
“I thought you hate snakes, Rylee.” Phoenix pulled her close.
“I do. But no one or nothing should die because they’re different.”
“We agree, but she cannot be allowed to stay on the planet. She will rain destruction down on it.” Slade stared at the snake while he spoke.
“What’s the plan?” Phoenix said looking at Slade.
“We save a snake, save the enthralled Walt, and call in a favor.”
“Enthralled?” Piper repeated.
“Queen has enthralled Walt. He belongs to her; that is why he’s still alive. When we take her from this planet, he will die unless we intervene,” Mekhi told her. “I won’t let him die.”
“Mekhi, Quinn, Jabari, and Brandi will make sure the doctor stays sane. Akron and Serenity will try to find out where Queen came from. The rest of us will be on snake removal. We will take Elfin and Sela with us. My baby brother will watch the rest of the kids.”
Phoenix (The Broken Book 5) Page 11