A Phoenix Is Forever

by Ashlyn Chase

  “I know that, but this was my very first shift, and it makes me wonder if they’re all this rough. Do you want to hear about my bruises?”

  “Not particularly.”

  What the hell? She wasn’t usually so cranky. Well, she could be, but not when he was vulnerable. “What gives? Are you having a bad day already? It sounds like you just woke up.”

  “No. I’m not having a bad day. I’m having a bad several months. I thought you becoming a cop would be okay since you were aiming for detective someday. They make decent money—not the crap salary they’re paying you to get beat up now. But it’s not just the money. I’m afraid you’ll become hardened like my dad.”

  “I’m not your dad. Not even close.”

  “Did you meet him?”

  “Yeah. He was in on a practical joke that just topped off my night.”

  “Oh, come on. You had to expect them to prank the rookie.” After a long sigh, she said, “Okay. What did they do?”

  “Someone broke into my locker, stole my car keys, moved my car, and put the keys back. I thought my car had been stolen.”

  She laughed. “That’s a good one.”

  Good? Luca could barely believe what he was hearing. “Lisa. It wasn’t just that. They tried to make me think I’d forgotten where I’d parked it. That maybe I was crazy and didn’t even own a car. They were trying to humiliate me.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “I was about to put out a BOLO when they finally told me where they’d put it—and laughed like hyenas.”

  “In other words, you played right into their hands.”

  “Huh? No! What the hell is going on with you, hon? I called to get a little sympathy, and you’re being…well, very unsympathetic.” He would never call her a bitch—even though she was acting like one.

  “Look, Luca. I’ve been having second thoughts…about us. I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a while, and this might not be the best timing, but it’s got to be said. I don’t think you’re cut out for police work. Nobody knows you better than I do, right? By the time you make detective, they’ll have broken you. I don’t want to be shackled to a broken man.”

  After a shocked pause, he sputtered, “Why are you telling me this now? I’ve committed to being a cop. Hell, I’ve just had my first shift and it beat the crap out of me.”

  “That was your choice. I thought you were just trying to say ‘Up yours’ to your family. I still do.”

  “Why would I do that? I have a good relationship with my family, or I did before I said I wanted to be a cop.”

  “Okay, okay. Look, it doesn’t matter what your reasons were. I want to see other people.”

  And there it was. The bottom had just dropped out of his world.

  * * *

  Instead of going straight home, Luca parked nearby and started to walk off his hurt and frustration. He wasn’t in the best part of town, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t in the best mood either. How the heck had he gotten to this point in his life? Up until a short while ago, he had been hopeful about his future. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Still wearing his police uniform, he stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and walked aimlessly with his head down.

  Half an hour later, nearing the fountain of the Christian Science Center, a popular destination for tourists and locals alike, he barely noticed the regal elegance of the domed structure overlooking the calm reflecting pool. But in the quiet of the early morning, his ears perked up in sudden alert when he heard a woman’s strained gasp.

  He glanced up and saw a young woman standing near the fountain. She was about five six with short, spiky brown hair, wearing a black leather jacket. Neck tattoos and a lot of piercings gave her a bad-girl vibe, but what was even odder was that she was staring right at him, wide-eyed. Then she passed out.

  “Shit,” he muttered and ran over—faster than a human could. Worried she could wind up with a concussion, he cradled her head before she hit the pavement. He shook her shoulder and shouted, “Hey! Are you all right?”

  Eventually, she opened her eyes. Big gray-green eyes. Unusual. Supporting her back, he helped her sit up.

  “What’s the matter?” He was tempted to ask if she’d ever seen a cop before, but that was because he was in a crappy mood. Sarcasm aside, he was trained not to assume what was going on in a person’s brain. Asking open-ended questions would gain more information.

  “I…saw blood.” She paused and closed those big green eyes again, taking a deep breath. “I always faint at the sight of blood.”

  “What do you mean? You saw an accident or someone get hurt?” Luca gentled his voice in concern. Perhaps she’d witnessed a murder and had a delayed reaction.

  She shook her head and reached out to grasp his hand. “Look, this may sound crazy,” she said, “but I’m a psychic. I saw you walking this way, and I got a dreadful feeling. Did something just happen to you? I see auras and have premonitions. Your aura is just…well, terrible. Then I had a vision. I saw you covered in blood.”

  Blood? Luca helped her to stand. He believed in psychics—the genuine kind. After all, he was a shape-shifter, and he came from a family of shifters. But there were a lot of charlatans out there.

  Given where his head was at after just being dumped by Lisa, he could only imagine what kind of energy he was giving off, let alone his aura…but blood? This chick could just be some wacko.

  He folded his arms. “Do you want money to tell me more?”

  “No! I’m not like that. I help people. Maybe the accident I just saw is something you can prevent from happening.”

  He cocked his head. “You saw an accident? Where?”

  “On a side street. It looked like an older part of town. They were just kids. Maybe sixteen or seventeen at the most. It looked like they were drag racing. A little kid rode his bike into the street and he was struck by one of the cars.”

  “What does that have to do with me?”

  “I don’t know. Sometimes I see through other people’s eyes. I think I was looking through yours.”

  Luca wanted to stay open-minded in case she was the real deal.

  “Some more weird energy is clinging to you,” she went on, her expression seeming earnest. “I think it has to do with other people in your life. Your aura is red. Angry. But it feels justified—and not just that. I-I feel as if someone is out to get you.”

  Who could be out to get him? Was it just his fellow cops, taking advantage of the rookie? Doubtful. That was just for their own chuckles and part of the usual hazing. Something all newbies went through.

  No, his dark mood was due to getting dumped. Lisa had acted strange that morning, but he didn’t see her as a danger. Did she have someone else already, and maybe that someone considered him a threat?

  He was still mulling over the possibilities when the spiky-haired girl pulled out a card and wrote her name and number on the back.

  “I’m sorry if you think I’m trying to take advantage of you. I’m not. Knowing that cops are usually close-minded about psychics, I wouldn’t have even bothered, except I think you’re in danger. And those kids certainly are.”

  Glancing at the card, he saw the name she’d written. Dawn Forest. He flipped the card over. It read ScholarTech: Academic Software for Brilliant Minds.

  “Is that your real name?”

  “Yeah. If I were going to come up with a fake name, it would be better than that.”

  “You mean something exotic, like Zelda the Magnificent?”

  She laughed. “No. Something like Susan Jones. I don’t think my mom realized how many times people would ask me if my name was fake or if my middle name was ‘in-the.’”

  “So you work at this software company?” He wondered why someone who looked like her, with her tats and piercings, would be working for a company that created academic software.

  “
Yes, I just started there last month. Someday, I’ll get my own business cards instead of the generic ones.”

  “Your look doesn’t exactly scream ‘corporate head office.’”

  “Well, your assumption is outdated,” she retorted, hands firmly on her hips. “I have a college degree and was top in my class. Not to mention, I’m the only person at ScholarTech, including the engineers, who can recite the entire software manual by heart.”

  “Wow. And you’ve only been there a month? How did you learn everything in so short a time?”

  “I have a photographic memory.”

  “You’re a psychic and you have a photographic memory? Shouldn’t you be raking in the big bucks on Wall Street?” Luca flashed her his trademark grin. It usually got him out of hot water. She smiled back and visibly relaxed.

  He took a good look at her, past the tats and piercings and spiky hair, and noticed how pretty she was. Her nose was slightly turned up and covered with cute freckles. The tiny diamond stud in her left nostril almost got lost among them. Her hair made her look like a pixie. Maybe the badass tattoos and piercings were a way to counteract all that cuteness and be taken seriously.

  “So do you do anything with your psychic talent, professionally?”

  “Like working at a tea room? Or doing parties? No.”

  “Anything other than stopping strangers on the street?”

  She looked at her feet and kicked at the pavement with the end of her leather-booted toe. “Sometimes. If friends ask me for help, I do what I can for them.”

  There was something about her body language that had him questioning that statement.

  He tucked her business card into his jacket pocket. “It was nice to meet you, Dawn Forest. I should be getting home though. I worked the night shift, and I need to get some sleep.”

  “Okay. Watch your back,” she said and returned to her spot by the fountain to retrieve her backpack.

  When he finally reached his family’s brownstone, he jogged up the steps and tried to change his facial expression. His mother would pick up on any tension or anger he might still be feeling. He and his brothers teased their mom about being psychic, but she was just intuitive and knew her sons well.

  He wondered about what Dawn Forest had said to him. Had she seen something real in his future—some kind of danger to an unsuspecting child that he could actually prevent? Could she have a genuine gift? He certainly didn’t rule it out, based on his own abilities and the abilities of his family. Plus she seemed so earnest and not high or strung out, something his cop training had made him all too aware of when moving around the city streets.

  After taking a few deep breaths and straightening his posture, he opened the door and strode in confidently.

  Gabriella Fierro came out of the kitchen with a platter of scrambled eggs that she placed on the enormous dining table. “Luca! You’re just in time for breakfast. I want to hear all about your first day on the job.”

  “First night, you mean. I’m exhausted, Ma. I just want to fall into bed.” He warred with himself. He wanted those scrambled eggs almost as much as he wanted his pillow.

  “I’ll bet. But you’ll sleep better if you have something in your stomach.”

  “Unless you just ate a bunch of doughnuts.” His father, always the joker, came from the kitchen carrying a plate piled high with slices of toast in one hand and the butter dish in the other.

  Ah, the hell with it. “Would you mind if I just made a breakfast sandwich and took it to my room?”

  Gabriella was moving toward the silverware drawer but stopped and turned around. “Did something happen that you don’t want to talk about?”

  “Damn,” he muttered.

  “Please, Son. Sit,” Antonio Fierro said. As much as his father loved to joke around, he also knew when to be serious.

  Luca’s posture sagged, and he slumped into a dining chair.

  “So, tell us what happened.” Gabriella finished gathering the silverware and distributed it to the three of them.

  Luca let out a long sigh. “I don’t know what to say. I guess it was a normal shift, but I got the rookie treatment at the end. They hid my car. I thought it had been stolen.”

  “Oh, honey. That’s mean. I’m sorry to hear they did that.”

  “Cops.” His father practically spat the word and shook his head.

  “It’s okay. I figured they’d do something. I’m considering it a rite of passage.”

  Luca took two pieces of toast and scooped some scrambled eggs between them. His mother always seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a few hot spices. They were always delicious, and this morning, the comfort food hit the spot.

  He was suddenly glad he hadn’t moved in with Lisa. He could only imagine how he would have felt going home to his apartment after a bad first day at work, only to be dumped by his girlfriend in bed.

  They dug into their food and didn’t speak while they ate. Luca figured he’d dodged a bullet…figuratively, so far.

  “Did something else happen? You seemed to take the prank in stride.” Gabriella’s sharp mind picked up on the rest of his crap. What could he tell her that would satisfy her curiosity but not alarm her? He didn’t want to tell them he’d had a secret girlfriend since his junior year and all those trips to the library were a ruse. But Dawn wasn’t Lisa.

  “There was this weird girl. She stopped me and said something about being a psychic and picking up some strange energy. I doubt it was anything.”

  “Did she want money?” his father asked with eyes narrowed. His dad was shrewd, and his mind usually went to scammers.

  “No. If she had, I would’ve kept walking. But there was something real about her… I don’t know how to describe it. Her concern seemed genuine.”

  “Did you ask what she meant by strange energy?” Gabriella asked.

  “Yeah. We talked for a couple of minutes. I think it was just the long shift, my being tired, and maybe the prank on top of everything else.”

  “Everything else? What does that mean?”

  Damn. His mother had the instincts of a seasoned police detective. She picked up on the smallest things.

  “Forget it, Mom. Nothing much happened. Just a drunk driving arrest, a bar fight with a few mouthy spectators, and a lot of driving around.”

  “So you kept the public safe and had a successful shift?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I guess so.” He gulped down the rest of his sandwich, yawned, and said, “I really need to hit the sack. Thanks for breakfast. Just put the leftovers in the fridge and I’ll microwave them later.”

  Gabriella glanced at her husband.

  “Good night, Son. Or should I say good sleep?” Antonio smiled.

  “Thanks, Dad.” Luca escaped to his bedroom in the finished basement, determined to turn off his brain and indeed get some sleep—if he could.

  Chapter 2

  Dawn had worried so much about the cop that morning that she’d handed him her new work phone number at ScholarTech. What an idiotic thing to do! She knew better. Always keep a low profile, Dawn! With her past, she shouldn’t even be seen talking to a cop.

  At least she wasn’t in her neighborhood when she’d met him. She had stopped off at the Christian Science Center before work. It was something she’d started doing to help “center” herself. She loved the fountain and the massive pool. She would sit on a bench and gaze at it for a while before heading to her job.

  Unfortunately, Dawn had to be careful about how and when she moved around town because of the gang she’d gotten mixed up in from the age of fifteen. Dawn had been involved with the gang for three years until she had decided it was time to turn her life around. One of her girlfriends, who’d been with Mick, one of the leaders of Keene Street Gang, had overdosed. That was Dawn’s wake-up call to get out.

  They still managed to track Dawn down whenever
they needed her “advance warning system,” aka her psychic abilities. Especially when an illegal deal was about to go down. Dawn wasn’t happy about still being on their radar, but she had no choice. Once you were in, they felt like they owned you until you died or managed to go off the grid.

  The problem was that she couldn’t afford to go into hiding or even leave town, for that matter. She had her grandma to look after, and she needed to save up before they could even think of heading somewhere warm and cheap, where she could take care of the one person who had never given up on her. She’d been working at ScholarTech for the past month and had started to save toward a little nest egg, but she was a long way from making her dream come true.

  Stepping off the subway train two blocks from her house, Dawn made sure her “don’t mess with me” attitude was firmly in place. She carried her keys attached to a steel baton that she had made good use of when walking through the streets after dark. Her neighborhood wasn’t the best place to live and certainly not the safest. One day, she vowed, she and her grandma would get the hell out of Boston. The crime rate was high and the sense of security was low.

  Home not-so-sweet home.

  Dawn and her grandmother, Annette, lived in a small, two-story duplex house. It was spotless and uncluttered, unlike some of the other houses in the neighborhood where people tended to accumulate junk like it would magically turn into mountains of gold. Annette always said, “No sense buying something you don’t need or needing something you can’t buy.” Dawn didn’t mind that the house was small. What she did mind was the crime-filled location. Dawn threw a quick glance over her shoulder before taking her key out of her pocket. Just as she opened her front door, a male figure stepped out from the dark side yard of the old, battered colonial next door.