Phoenixrise: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Rogue Witch Book 5)

by KT Strange

  "Looks like you're rubbing off on him,” he commented. Eli grunted and went to Finn, saying something quietly to his twin before staking his claim on the couch, legs spread wide. He stared at me.

  “So, what happened with your ex-boyfriend?” he asked, dragging over the last word as if it hurt him to say it. Finn tensed and shot his brother a look.

  “I already gave these idiots hell for letting you go off on your own,” Finn said, "but —"

  “I had to face him down,” I said, "and I knew what I was doing. Sort of. He's gone, isn't he?"

  “I thought you were going to end it. I should’ve figured that bastard wouldn’t go down. Why’d you let him escape?” Eli growled. Cash closed in on my side, wrapping an arm around my waist. His quiet, steady presence grounded me.

  “Something came up,” I said, trying to keep my panic at a dull roar. I felt filthy. I'd touched the guys with my tainted skin, carrying around Creston's whispers all over me without even knowing. “I couldn't off him when he showed his hand and finally told me what was going on.” I swallowed hard. "Creston cursed me."

  The expressions across my guys' faces ranged from somewhat curious to surly ($5 if you can guess who that was) to confused (Ace) to surlier (everyone else). Cash's hand tightened on my hip.

  Wolfe eyed me, realization dawning in his eyes.

  “You said that the witch caused the fires,” Cash said beside me, his voice a rumble I could feel right into my bones. “You didn't mean Darcy."

  “No, I did not. She is powerful in her own right, but unlikely to set light to an entire forest without some matches and quite a bit of gasoline.” Wolfe's lips quirked up. "Perhaps now I was wrong in my assumptions, though. No, Darcy, wipe that look from your face, I'm not blaming you. He cursed you? How curious. How do you know?"

  “He told me, and he — he lit me up like a Christmas tree,” I blurted the words out. It was so painful, and I had to swallow hard around a lump that was forming in my throat. “It was all over my skin, everywhere."

  One of Wolfe's eyebrows popped up, and he marched over to me.

  “Shoo,” he said to Cash, waving at him. Cash grumbled but let go of me, stepping a foot away. "Give me your hand, Darcy, my sweet,” Wolfe said, holding his hand out.

  "Are you going to make me glow?” I asked. I almost didn't want the guys to see me like that. It was too horrible. Still, I laid my fingers lightly in his palm.

  “I should have checked you when I first came to you, but I am not perfect by any means."

  “No shit,” Eli rasped from the couch. Wolfe rolled his eyes but smiled at me.

  “This will hurt..."

  The pain lit up my insides just as my skin burst into glowing sigils and burnt out lines. A raw howl escaped my mouth and my knees buckled. Wolfe went down with me, not letting me break contact. I fought to stare at him, find some way of begging him to stop. His eyes were glowing, red embers, just like Creston's.

  Panic gripped me, and I wrenched away, the pain growing too much. It was as if a thousand shallow knife cuts were ripping at my skin from the inside.

  Wolfe grabbed me again, wrapping his fingers around my wrist.

  “You must not,” he demanded. The sigils on my body lit up brighter, blinding me as they turned searing white. A high wail filled my ears, echoing through my chest. It was me. I was making that horrible noise, like I was dying, like the life was being dragged out of me.

  A snarl came from out of nowhere, and Wolfe toppled backward, Finn a blur as he tackled the vampire to the ground.

  I flopped over, muscles twitching and breath caught in my throat. My skin ached, the sharp pain still pricking at me, my eyes watering. Cash was there in a second, helping me to sit up.

  “Sweetheart,” he said, fear evident in his eyes.

  "Fuck,” I whispered. "Finn, stop.” Finn was growling, holding Wolfe down. The vampire did nothing to fight him, going llimp. "Finn, stop it, you're hurt!"

  I glanced around the room. The rest of the pack were on their feet, only a few paces away from us, looking tense and like they wanted to rip Wolfe's face off. I gulped for air and looked down at my skin. It was smooth and unmarred. That didn't mean anything though. The curses could still be there, lingering underneath, invisible and waiting to ruin my life some more.

  “Is it done? Are you done torturing her?” Finn's voice was raw, almost shaking. Wolfe cleared his throat.

  “It is no mean feat to release such curses. These sorts of attachments have a nasty tendency to linger, but some are at the end of their useful life. A bit like soured milk, they go off, you see,” he said conversationally, as if Finn weren't pinning him to the ground.

  I screwed up my face.

  “So what does that mean?” I sounded so breathless. Was that really me? Cash supported me with a solid arm at my back.

  Wolfe closed his eyes, a smug grin plastering his face.

  “It means that I am a very good witch,” he said. “I have removed the attachments, although I wouldn't go near any campfires for a few days, there are always residual energies around these kinds of things. Kindly get off me. You are rumpling my shirt.” He delivered those last two sentences to Finn, who pulled away unsteadily, still weak from Creston torturing him.

  “What's to stop him from doing it again? How did he do it in the first place?” I asked.

  “That's the curious thing,” Wolfe said as he sat up and dusted himself off, getting to his knees. He offered Finn a hand, but the wolf ignored it, choosing to get up on his own. “There was some sort of injury you suffered, linked to every spell. I could not trace it beyond the vehicle that allowed him entry into your body. It was some sort of plant, which I thought was quite odd. You never appeared to me to be the kind to have a green thumb. Have you been playing among enchanted blackberry brambles or something like that?” he asked.

  “You mean I touched a cursed plant and it let him do all that to me?"

  “It would have been something small. A scratch even."

  I sat there blankly and then shook my head. The weight of the guys' eyes on me was heavy, but nothing was coming to mind.

  “I can't think of anything, sorry."

  “Well no matter. It won't allow him in again. I removed every hook he set in you,” he said, a tired shadow crossing over his eyes. “He is truly a danger to you, I think, but perhaps he will consider what a formidable witch you've become before he comes after you again."

  Yeah. Maybe.

  Cash's hands rubbed over my shoulders.

  “You okay, doll?” he asked.

  “I'm... I'm okay.” I nodded and gave him a brave smile. I didn't feel any different from before, other than a small ache in my muscles that was fading by the minute. If Wolfe hadn't removed all of the curses on me, would I even know? I pushed that thought away. I needed to trust.

  The guys were uneasy, fidgeting, negative emotions hanging like clouds over their heads. It felt like more questions had been asked than answered over the last few hours, but for now I had them all together, and we were safe.

  “So, now that Darcy doesn't have these... curses, or whatever, on her anymore,” Eli said, turning to Wolfe, “you wanna explain what made you tear outta here so fast and not come back when we needed you? Finn nearly died ‘cause of you. Frank would've been next."

  A tired, sad look darkened Wolfe's features.

  “I did not mean to be gone for so long. I honestly thought a pack of wolves would be enough to handle that little toe rag —” he paused when he realized he'd badly misstepped.Eli growled. "Rather, I did not think that he would be so strong. It is unnatural. He was not what I expected. If I had not gone, there would have been another death on my hands, one far more innocent. I needed to see to her safety before I came back. Darcy would never have forgiven me, or herself."

  “What?” I asked. Wolfe turned his head to look at me, and sighed.

  “Those I had warding your friend, Max, they were ambushed, and she was nearly taken. She's alright, but I can't
tell you what horrors await a young phoenix in the hands of dark-intentioned forces."

  My mouth went dry at his words.

  “Sweetheart, he said she's fine,” Finn reminded me gently.

  "Creston said that you'd left your belly exposed,” I said, “that he knew you'd run to her. He sent people after her?"

  Maybe Creston didn't need to curse me.

  Maybe I was cursed long before I'd ever set foot into the bedroom I'd shared with Max.

  Maybe just my existence was a curse.

  Guilt bit at me.

  “Darcy?” Cash ran his fingers along my arm.

  “I'm good,” I lied, giving him a brief smile as pain ate away at my stomach. “As long as everyone's okay, I'm okay.”

  I would never be okay. How could I be? My crossing paths with the band and Max had ruined so much. Finn had been tortured because of me. Wolfe had lost half of his outbuildings and a chunk of his forest because of me. There was a shadow in Frank's face that hadn't been there before, an innocence ripped from him. My brain was more than happy to tally up a list of every horrible thing that had happened because of me and present me with a dissertation on my failures as a human being.

  I let Cash help me up as Wolfe started talking about plans to return to the city, since he felt my training could take a break for the time being. Hunters wouldn’t be able to locate us either, with the attachments gone.

  The guys spoke over me, making plans, and I let them.

  The less input I had, the better. Maybe I wouldn't unintentionally corrupt things that way.

  Eleven

  Darcy

  We’d lost everything in the fire. Now that I was back, the weight of what happened settled fully over my guys. Their instruments, the things that made up the center of their lives for so many years , had burnt up in the blaze, along with our van and trailer. We had to look at what resources the band had left and figure out if there would be enough money to rent a new place to live that could double as a jam space and replace all their equipment. It was a sobering reality.

  That was, until Wolfe stepped in.

  “No,” Eli said, arms crossed, leaning against the fridge in the kitchen.

  “It’s a perfectly serviceable penthouse. It even has a hot tub, I believe, although it’s been some time since it was installed and tested…” Wolfe looked at him beseechingly, as the unofficial alpha wolf of the pack, Eli seemed prepared to use his unofficial alpha wolf status to steamroll anyone who got his way in this matter.

  “We’re not taking your charitable castoffs,” Eli said. Wolfe sputtered.

  “You are infuriating.”

  “And you’ve done enough for us, teaching Darcy. We won’t owe you.” Eli's shut his eyes and sighed. “Phoenix pack never owes.”

  “Yes, because you're always born anew, leaving your creditors to stand around your ashes and gawk,” Wolfe said with a wave of his hand. Eli shifted his weight like he was about to push off the fridge when I cut in.

  “We need a place to live,” I said. “Homeless wolves can't be choosers here.”

  “Uh huh,” Ace was sitting next to me on a bar stool, his arm slung around my waist. “And did you see this place?” He grabbed the smartphone out of Wolfe’s hands and flipped through photos of the rental listing. The place looked amazing. Three bedrooms, a ridiculous master bath, a walk-in closet, and definitely room for the guys to put two king beds together, and a sunken living room with a two-sided fireplace in its center. I may have only been a college student, but I knew rockstar party pad when I saw it.

  And I had to admit, a tiny part of me wanted to hang out in a bougie penthouse with all the high-end furnishings. Wolfe said he'd bought it fifty years back and forgotten about it until last year, when he'd had it renovated and furnished as a high-priced rental. He was offering it to us free of charge, for as long as we needed a place to stay and get back on our feet. The cherry on the cake? It wasn't that far from the label for the guys, and it had a soundproof room that would be good for band practice. The only nagging question I had was why Wolfe, a vampire, would have a soundproof room in a penthouse. But as the saying goes, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, and you really don't look at a free penthouse in the murder-room.

  “I saw the place,” Eli grumbled, meeting eyes with the rest of the pack one by one. Frank was still sulking in the back of the house, but I could tell Eli was outnumbered and was going to lose.

  “I don't give a fuck where we sleep as long as Darcy's with us.” Finn leaned over to peer at the phone's photos, shooting me a sly look as he did.

  “Wait, what?” I sat up, knocking Ace's arm from around my waist.

  “Smooth, Finn,” Charlie huffed. “We want you close by. As close as possible.”

  “Um, I have a dorm room to get back to, and an internship to take more seriously,” I said, but my words weren't that firm. The situation with Max and our dorm was going to be a big argument, I knew, because the guys didn't think it was safe for me to stay there with Creston knowing so much about my personal and school life.

  Abandoning Max wasn't an option though. As much as Wolfe insisted she was fine, I'd been letting her down for way too long. Some best friend I was. The only way to make up for the fact I'd wrecked her life was to be more dedicated when I got back. That meant not leaving her to go live with my werewolf guys. At least not until the end of the school year.

  Speaking of my guys, they were exchanging measured looks.

  "Alright,” Finn said casually, too casually. I narrowed my eyes.

  "Okay?"

  “Whatever you want, Darce,” Ace said, hugging me close and planting a kiss on my cheek. They were giving up way too fast.

  “Well that's that then. You'll take possession of the apartment as soon as you return to the city,” Wolfe said with a pleased clap of his hands, before I could question the guys any more.

  “Uh —” I said

  “Wait —” Eli growled.

  “I'm hungry,” Cash said. “Wasn't there that ice cream stand down the highway or something? Can we hit up on the way?” He pushed away from the wall, pinching my butt as he walked by with a playful wink. I yipped and glared at him.

  “You can borrow Frank's shoes until you go shopping for new ones, Darcy. We'll be down in Seattle in the next few weeks. Just leave them with your pretty wolf boys,” Wolfe said. I swung my feet back and forth. Frank's feet were bigger than mine, and his sneakers were soft and roomy, but I'd need to get my own and fast if I was going to be remotely comfortable walking around. Wolfe glanced at the clock. “The van should be here shortly to take you back.”

  He'd ordered us a car service, which to me was kind of insane, because who could order a damn car service in the middle of nowhere? Apparently Wolfe could. If our lives were being written into a billionaire romance novel, he'd have swept us off our feet with shopping excursions and trips to Paris. He was kind of extra like that.

  As it was, he seemed more concerned with ingratiating himself with the pack, determined to keep close connections with them for Frank's sake. Frank, who was barely talking to any of us, and especially not to Wolfe, was the very picture of a moody teenager. He'd come around, Wolfe assured us, and when he did, Wolfe wanted his pack to be waiting for him. Frank may have been a lot younger, but he was still an original member of the Phoenix pack, and the last remaining wolf outside of our small mate-pack. Keeping him close was important if we ever intended on rebuilding.

  If they ever can without a heartstone.

  I needed to talk to Wolfe about that before we left. I found him a few minutes later, outside, squinting as he stood on the ridge. He was surveying the damage that the earlier fires, and my spat with Creston, had caused. His lips were pressed into a thin line.

  “Go back inside, Darcy, I think Finn has a heart attack every time you leave his sight,” he said before I could even pull up beside him.

  I wanted to ask him how he knew I was there, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing
that he'd startled me when I'd been sneaking up on him.

  “I need to make a heartstone.”

  “I thought we'd talked about this.”

  “I don't like the answers you keep giving me.”

  He turned, and I stopped dead in my tracks. There was something so pained in his expression that it almost hurt me.

  “You will know how to make one when the time is right,” he said, “and I will not be the one held to account by your pack when you figure it out.”

  My jaw dropped.

  “You mean you're not telling me because you're afraid of them —"

  He reached over and pressed his fingers over my lips to silence me. I glared, but listened.

  “The pain of loss is sometimes worse than the pain of never having had something at all. What would they be without you? What would you become, if you were to be like me? The transformation from witch to vampire is not for the faint of heart, I assure you most heartily. It is a lie when they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.” His hand dropped away. “I won't bother telling you not to ask again, because I know you will. Just consider my words, please, Darcy.”

  It wasn't a time to press the issue, especially as the sound of wheels crunching over gravel came up the drive.

  I turned in time to see the guys spilling out of the house, Finn a pace behind the rest.

  “Go,” Wolfe said. “I will see you in a few weeks. You've learned enough to keep yourself, and your men, safe, for now.”

  And like that, the baby bird was shoved out of the nest. Then again, if that nest had been filled with fire and several fights for my life, I guess I could handle anything the rest of the world was going to throw at me.

  True to his promise, Cash made us stop for ice cream on the way down to Seattle.Even our driver, a stoic-faced woman with pale blonde hair slicked back into a ponytail, had some. I did notice though, when she lifted her arm to grab her cone that she was packing a handgun under her black tailored jacket.

  Armed car-service then. Wolfe was really an international undead man of mystery. I wondered what his parents would think of him if they were still alive, compared to my own and what they thought of me?