The Phoenix Agency: Arctic Blaze (Kindle Worlds Novella) (62 Degrees North)

by Amy Ruttan

  “No. We’ve reached out to you.”

  Mason looked at her briefly. She was leaning with her back against the bar, looking out over the tavern, but she still kept her face turned away. Her long brown hair was hiding her face and he couldn’t make out her features.

  The Phoenix Agency can help.

  “No! I’m just taking you to Nash. That’s all. Your brother Parker has been brainwashed and Nash thinks the two of you together can save him, but Nash was injured before he could get to you. He’s in bad shape.”

  Mason’s stomach twisted as he thought of his older brother injured.

  Nash had been the one to look out for him and Parker. And he was worried that Nash didn’t want the Phoenix Agency’s help. Lexie hadn’t wanted the Phoenix Agency’s help either and looked how that almost turned out.

  “I’m going to have to look at you face to face before I trust you.”

  “Funny how you’re suddenly so concerned about trust,” she snarled.

  The voice sent a shiver of recognition down his spine and he whipped around and stared straight into the dark eyes of May Rebassa. The woman who haunted his dreams.

  The woman who left him, broke his heart, and hated his connection to the Phoenix Agency. He never knew why, but given her telepathic and projection abilities, he was beginning to understand her fears.

  “May?” he asked in disbelief.

  She rolled her eyes. “Don’t talk to me out loud.”

  “You’re the one who broke the connection.”

  May looked over her shoulder as if she was spooked. “We’re not safe here.”

  “No kidding,” he muttered.

  “Kiss me,” she whispered, suddenly getting into his personal space.

  “What?” he asked, stunned. As much as he wanted to he didn’t want it. He didn’t want to hurt her, but she ignored him.

  She pushed her body against his and locked lips with him in a hot, urgent kiss that caught him off guard. She shoved her tongue into his mouth and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her body flush with his.

  “I hope you’re ready to run. Things are about to get fucked up in here,” she spoke in his head.

  And before he had to time to process what was going on there were shouts, screams and gunfire.

  May broke off the kiss and pulled him down behind the bar. Mason looked back to see a polar bear, like the one that had come to him, standing in the middle of the bar, on its haunches, roaring like it was about to attack.

  It sent chills down his spine.

  It was a horrific sound.

  “Holy shit!” he shouted above the din, completely stunned.

  “It’s just a projection. Come on!” she grabbed his hand and led him outside through the back. “Do you have a car?”

  “My truck is over here.”

  “Let’s go then!”

  He took her hand and they ran to his truck, just as a group of men in black uniforms came pouring out of the tavern. Mason only needed a glimpse of those uniforms to know that they were General Knight’s Army.

  And if General Knight’s Army was after them, there was a good chance there was a party already surrounding his hangar and waiting for him to return. He couldn’t go back to Yellowknife. Thank god Bryant and Lexie would have already left for their honeymoon.

  May slid into the passenger seat and Mason fired the ignition, spinning his old truck around in the gravel, causing him to fishtail as he made like a bat out of hell toward the highway.

  He briefly glanced over to see May loading a gun that she’d been hiding and opening the back window of his truck.

  “Keep it steady,” she snapped, as she took aim and fired at the GKA vehicle the uniformed men were climbing into. It was a one in a million shot that hit the gas tank, causing the vehicle to explode in a ball of flames he could see in his rearview mirror.

  A smile tugged on the corner of those luscious lips that had been, only moments before, pressed against his. It had been a long time since he’d seen her smile like that. It had been a long time since he’d seen her at all.

  “That should slow them down a bit,” she said, as she holstered her gun at her side.

  “What’re you doing here?” he asked.

  “I told you. Nash sent me.”

  “Yeah, but how did you get a hold of Nash? You’re anti Phoenix Agency. Why are you involved with this?”

  “None of your business.”

  Chapter Two

  “What do you mean it’s none of my business?” Mason asked. He was annoyed. She could tell.

  May didn’t say anything else. Even though Nash had told her Mason could be trusted, she wasn’t completely sure. Mason had lied to her before, while they had a passionate affair.

  She’d wanted him the moment she saw him sitting in that bar six years ago. She thought he was just a bush pilot, a regular nobody, and then he turned out to be a member of the Phoenix Agency. He’d been an agent sent to find her, she knew it.

  It broke her heart and she had trouble trusting men. She had trouble trusting anyone.

  She’d spent so many years in foster homes, never really having anyone to depend on. Any time her powers were seen, she was shipped off to another home, forced to endure countless therapies and pills, supposedly to cure her.

  No, May didn’t trust anyone.

  Even if Nash and her sister Lesa told her she could trust Mason and that Mason wouldn’t hurt her.

  “That’s all you need to know right now,” she responded.

  “Look, I need to know about Nash and Parker and how you knew where to find me. Last time we were together was in Edmonton.”

  “Your brother told me. And he had to tell me certain things so I could come and find you.”

  “At Bart’s Tavern?” he questioned.

  “I was being followed. Places like that are easy to hide in. They’re dark, seedy and it’s easy to blend in.”

  What she failed to say was that she was used to places like that.

  Her deadbeat father dragged her from place to place like that. And then he just disappeared one day, leaving her in a bar near Whitehorse.

  “You okay?” Mason asked, as if sensing the melancholy she was feeling.

  “Fine.” It was a lie, but she didn’t care.

  “I don’t think it is, but if you’re fine, you’re fine.”

  May was impressed that he didn’t try to pry. That was a first. In the past he would’ve tried. She sat back and realized he wasn’t headed back to Yellowknife. They weren’t heading back to 62 Degrees North.

  “Where are we going?” she asked. “I thought we were going to your terminal in Yellowknife?”

  “I was,” Mason said. “And I’m sure the GKA thinks I am too. My place is probably surrounded by GKA agents. There’s no way I’m headed back there.”

  “You’re going to drive to Manitoba?” she asked dumbfounded. “You think driving is safer?”

  He shot a her a look. “No, but I have a plane somewhere else. Somewhere the GKA doesn’t know about.”

  “Where?” she asked, curious, because Nash hadn’t mentioned any other location his brother might be.

  “Somewhere, and that’s all you need to know.” He was smirking.

  May rolled her eyes, trying to fight the urge to smile at his smartass remark. She had to keep him at a distance. She didn’t want to be hurt by him again, but she forgot how much she’d missed Mason. Before it all went to hell, she’d never been happier in her life.

  For one brief moment, she thought she was falling in love, but she’d been so wrong.

  All she was supposed to do now was deliver him to Nash. Still, being so close to him again made it hard to ignore her feelings. She’d never really stopped caring for him.

  He was still handsome in that rugged way men from the north were. The beard was a change, but it suited him. He had the same ginger hair and the same blue eyes that just had more crinkles when he smiled. And his lazy smile still made her weak in the knees.

>   His kiss still made her body tremble with need.

  You’re just delivering Mason to Nash. That’s all.

  And she had to keep reminding herself of that.

  Once she did this job she could disappear again into the wilds.

  The GKA will find you.

  May tried not to think about that. How they invaded her home in Tuk last year. General Knight was looking for people with telekinetic abilities and he’d heard of her. He’d read about her in all the government files. General Knight had invaded her privacy and then her mind, but he hadn’t been counting on her protector.

  Auyuittuq was always on guard.

  Except for here, now, in this truck.

  Auyuittuq was back in York Factory with Lesa and Nash. He was doing his job protecting them from the GKA, but having him away from her made her feel completely alone and vulnerable for the first time in a long time.

  She wished Auyuittuq was here. She hated being so close to someone who worked for an organized government military agency. Even though Nash and Mason told her over and over that the Phoenix Agency wasn’t part of the military.

  They were all the same and she didn’t trust any of it. Not as far as she could throw them. Even though this was Mason and not some stranger. Only he was a stranger. He’d lied to her all those years ago.

  Yet, when he looked at her with those blue eyes, and smiled at her, she felt like she was the only woman in the room. Of course, maybe she was the only one feeling that way, after all these years. When she saw him walk into the tavern, it took her breath away.

  It was like being struck by lightning.

  And no other man had ever had that kind of effect on her. And when she kissed him, something shot through her, like electricity. It was a heady rush she’d only felt with him. It scared her that Mason had that kind of hold on her still. She should run, but she was here to do Nash a favor. Nash had saved Lesa and it was the least she could do.

  “How badly hurt is Nash, or is that something I don’t need to know?” he asked.

  “He broke his back, but my sister doesn’t think there will be paralysis. Every day he regains more movement.”

  “How did he break his back? Was it the plane crash?’

  “No.” She sighed sadly, not sure how to break it to him, because she knew how much it had broken Nash’s heart to learn who had injured him. “Your brother Parker did that to him. I’m really sorry.”

  Mason’s face fell and, being empathic as well as telepathic, she could sense the sadness and disbelief in him, though his thoughts weren’t clear. They were loud and full of sound distortion the likes of which she’d never heard before.

  “How?” Mason asked, breaking the silence.

  “Your brother pushed him off a cliff.” May just didn’t tell him it was because he was pushing Lesa and her out of the way, thus taking the full brunt of Parker’s telekinetic assault. She didn’t tell him that Parker had been brainwashed to lure Mason and capture him to free General Knight.

  She didn’t tell Mason that Parker wanted to hold Nash ransom to lure Mason out of the protective nest of the Phoenix Agency. Though what Parker thought Mason could do to release General Knight was beyond her. That’s all she’d been able to glean from Parker’s mind. Maybe Mason knew how to get into the prison. Nash didn’t know where it was. Perhaps Mason was higher up in the Phoenix Agency and knew how to access the security system.

  And, frankly, she needed to stop worrying about it. Once Mason and Nash were reunited her job was done. She could walk away.

  Can you?

  “The GKA have brainwashed my brother. He was not…he would never…” Mason trailed off and then cursed under his breath. “That is not my brother.”

  “Nash said the same thing,” she said, gently. “Your brother has been manipulated and brainwashed. And I’m really sorry for that.”

  “Tell me about General Knight’s second in command.”

  May squirmed in her seat, because she didn’t want her mind to retreat back to the night she encountered General Knight’s second in command, Commander Denham. How he probed into her mind and tried to break her, torturing her in front of Lesa and Nash.

  He’d been trying to sway Nash into telling him where the General was hidden and Parker was standing there, motionless. His eyes dark, cold and empty. It hadn’t worked because Nash didn’t know where General Knight was being kept, but the Commander had learned one thing. He learned she’d been involved with Mason and that Mason would be the key to releasing the General.

  Thankfully, they’d gotten away, thanks to Auyuittuq.

  “He’s not a nice man,” May said quietly.

  Mason glanced at her briefly. “I gathered that. Are you okay?”

  “Why would anything be the matter with me?” she snapped, defensive, as she felt him put out feelers, like he was trying to break into her mind.

  “I’m not trying to break into your mind.”

  “Get out of my head,” she growled.

  When did Mason learn about telepathy?

  “What really happened? I need to know a bit more information,” he demanded.

  “Didn’t the Phoenix Agency tell you everything you need to know?

  “No, it’s clear they’re not aware that you and your sister have Nash. They were sending me to go north. Who is your sister? You never told me about her before. You told me you were an only child.”

  May never told Mason about Lesa, who was not her biological sister, because Mason never gave her the chance, because he betrayed her before she could.

  She was going to respond when she saw a barricade blocking the highway and her stomach dropped to the soles of her feet. Mason began to brake and she craned her neck to look out the back. There were GKA vehicles in the distance. Great Slave Lake was on one side and wilderness the next.

  They wouldn’t get very far into the taiga.

  They were screwed.

  “Do you have any other weapons besides that little pistol you’re packing?” she asked as she pulled out her gun.

  “Not enough to fend off an army.” Mason stopped his truck and they stared at the blockade in front of them. “Shit.”

  “Indeed,” she responded and she began to panic. She didn’t want another run in with Commander Denham.

  Mason opened the door.

  “What’re you doing?” she asked nervously.

  What was he thinking?

  “Dealing with this,” he said, and she gasped in shock when she saw his hands were on fire.

  Holy Hell.

  Mason got out of the truck.

  Is he out of his mind?

  May froze in horror, expecting to see his demise. His hands were already flaming with a fire she’d never seen before. It was mesmerizing, but terrifying just the same. And before she had more time to process what was happening, the flames flared and the cars forming the barricade were tossed into the air, like they were toys being scattered.

  Then Mason whipped around to face the cars that were behind them and did the same. With a flick of his hand, they were tossed to the side.

  Holy shit.

  The flames subsided and he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before he returned to the truck and climbed back into the driver’s seat. Closing the door, he put the truck in gear.

  May didn’t know what to say; she just stared at his hands. They weren’t burned, or red, or anything. It was like nothing happened.

  He has telekinetic abilities with pyrokinesis. I’ve never seen someone with those abilities.

  She’d heard about flame manipulators before. They were people who were so overcharged with telekinetic energy that they burned the world around them as they tried to manipulate and control their powers.

  Nash never told her Mason could do that. Hell, Mason never told her he could do that!

  “Do what?” Mason asked gruffly reading her thoughts as they drove through the wreckage of what had been once the barricade.

  “You’re a telekinetic. When did you
…how…”

  “Recently. It happened recently,” Mason interrupted. His jaw tightened and he gripped the steering wheel. “Nash doesn’t know. Not many do.”

  There was a change in him, as if he was fighting a great pain. She’d heard the static in his head before she when communicating with him telepathically.

  “You’ve recently acquired this?” she asked.

  He nodded, but said nothing. His eyes were focused on the endless ribbon of tarmac and trees before them.

  “Who else knows about this?”

  “Besides you? The Phoenix Agency, incarcerated members of the GKA, including the General himself. My friend Bryant Quill and his wife, because she’s the one who gave me the powers.”

  “She gave you the powers?” May asked, stunned. “I’ve never heard of power transference before.”

  “Believe me, it exists. Put your hand on my temple.”

  “What?”

  Mason briefly touched the side of his head. “Right here. Touch.”

  She hesitated because she didn’t want to touch him, she was afraid to touch him again, but then she reached out and felt the slight scar under his ginger hair. One that hadn’t been there before.

  And then it hit her. Flashes of what happened. She could see General Knight, a woman with strong powers and Mason bloodied, broken and near death. There was something else there too. It was like a current of electricity, a rush of desire which made her body burn with a need she’d never experienced before.

  She closed her eyes and rode the feeling of ecstasy, but under that pleasure was something dark and unknown and she snatched her hand away, breaking the connection. Her pulse was racing. Mason still had that effect on her. He made her feel like no man had ever done before.

  Nothing had changed for her. She was still attracted to him.

  Men had been attracted to her before and she’d read their minds, but it had always been cheap, dirty and wrong, but with Mason it was always right. It felt right.

  “Now you know,” he said.

  “Right.” She cleared her throat and tried to regain control. “You do realize your little stunt back there probably alerted the GKA to your presence as a telekinetic.”

  Mason shrugged. “They’re after me anyway.”