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

by KT Strange

  The bed cradled me, and I ached to fall asleep. I started drifting into that sweet darkness.

  A clatter at the door had us both sitting up, Finn grabbing the blanket on the bed and pulling up my bare body. Eli stormed in, fury on his face.

  “Darcy,” he snapped, “Why the fuck didn't you tell us that Jake Tupper got assigned to you at the label?!”

  My heart dropped out of the bottom of my stomach, and I froze.

  Twenty-One

  Darcy

  Eli’s anger was like a wave, crashing over me and dragging me under. Thankfully I had Finn, who curled his arms around me protectively and growled at his brother.

  “Don’t you have a damn sense of timing?” Finn asked. Eli’s furious eyes moved from Finn to me and back again. He seemed not to have thought his confrontation through, and he faltered. I sighed and pushed Finn out of the way, holding the blanket against my chest.

  If he wasn’t going to be half-decent to me on a daily basis, then he didn’t get to see me naked. That was my hard and fast rule. Super strict, I know, but it was hard to to totally shut out someone when having him close felt right. He was still pack, and I was tied inextricably to him whether he was being a complete jackhole or not.

  Behind him, Cash and Ace pressed into the room, Charlie a pace behind them. I felt Finn tense beside me, a low, protective growl emanating from his chest. I wrapped my fingers around his shoulder and squeezing gently.

  “We were having a moment,” I said, meeting Eli’s gaze steadily. “And I didn’t tell you because it didn’t matter.”

  “Didn’t matter —” Eli sputtered and then inhaled hard. “He hurt you.”

  “And so did you. So did Finn, and Cash, and Charlie, in fact I think pretty much the only one in this apartment who’s been a perfect person is Ace,” I said.

  Ace shot me a grin and then winced when Cash elbowed him. Ace elbowed him right back with a low snarl.

  “None of us hurt you like that,” Eli’s voice had dropped, “he attacked you —”

  “Yeah, and he doesn’t remember it. Chelsea scrambled his brains like eggs. And he’s still a creepy bastard, but it’s my job, and I barely spend any time with him and certainly not alone,” I sighed, trying to ignore the fact I still had stubble burn on my neck and I really, really, really needed to go to the bathroom to clean up. I edged closer to Finn so he’d know I wasn’t upset with him. His head hung low and he was staring at the blankets covering the bed. “Can we just, not have this conversation? Before you burst in here, I was having a pretty good bout of makeup sex.”

  Finn shot me a sly little look, and I kissed his cheek. His hand snuck around my waist under the blanket, and scooted me closer to him.

  “Dude,” Ace cut in, “c’mon. Let them be. Let’s go a few rounds. You can calm down trying to wreck my face.”

  Eli’s shoulders twitched and for a moment it looked like he was going to argue.“Fuck!” Max’s voice rang out from the kitchen, along with the clatter of a metal pan. All the guys tensed and Eli was out the door in a second, Cash just after him. It was sweet, but trust them to go running when Max hollered, although right then I was secretly grateful if it meant Eli was going to stop grilling me over stupid things. Charlie’s gaze melted over me for a moment, before he shot Finn a look.

  “We’re gonna give you the night,” he said. Finn frowned, leaning forward.

  “I don’t —”

  “Yeah you do need it,” Ace said, knowing what Finn was going to say before he said it. Ace’s smile was warm when he glanced at me. “You both do. You can make it up to us tomorrow.”

  “C’mon, kid, stop talking,” Charlie said, getting his arm around Ace’s face and hauling him to the door. Ace’s arms flailed around as he made muffled protests. A moment later they were gone, the door kicked shut behind them, the stress of the moment fading along with the noise.

  Finn turned his head, studying me.

  “I never wanted to hurt you,” he said.

  “You don’t need to say it, I know. I’m kinda figuring out that when we love people more than anything, sometimes they hurt us, and it’s probably a bad idea to flip out and run away.” I reached one hand up to trace a finger down his forehead, and along the bridge of his nose. When I caught the soft edge of his upper lip he closed his eyes and grabbed my hand.

  “That tickles,” he said, voice throaty, “stop it.” A shiver ran right through me, to parts of my body that really ought to have been satisfied and ready for sleep.

  “Make me,” I challenged him. His eyes snapped open and a wild, glorious smile spread across his face.

  “Oh, doll, you’re going to regret saying that.”

  ***

  “And that’s the low-down. It’s a last minute booking, so we don’t have a lot of promo time.” Willa looked up at the projected image on the wall. My pen scratched along my pad of paper as I wrote out a quick to do list. The guys had been put on the lineup for a a big show with a touring act that was hitting Seattle in a few of days. It was super last minute, but the show was already sold out, and considering it was in a ten thousand capacity venue, my heart was fluttering like a net full of butterflies. They’d never played anywhere that big before.

  Already I was all strung out after my night with Finn, him making love to me until the early morning sun spilled over the sheets, and this news was shoving me right over the edge.

  “I’ll call the guys. They’ve been rehearsing a revised setlist, so I think they’re ready,” I said as Willa pack from the meeting and the rest of the XOhX team filed out.

  “Good,” she said with a sigh. “Gem’s going to be there, and she’s bringing three competing booking agents. Christ, that woman makes my ass tired.” Her words started a surprised laugh out of me and she grinned. “Do not tell Troy I said that.”

  “Have you seen his face when he’s on the phone with her? I think he’d agree with you,” I said. Troy looked terrified whenever he got stuck on a call with Gem, because they usually ended up being three hours long and involved a lot of yelling, mostly by her.

  Willa just rolled her eyes and smiled as we went back to our respective desks. I had a lists of VIPs that needed invites to the show, special fans that had been with the band’s street-team from the very beginning, as well as some local press people.

  I was in the middle of sending off an email when my desk phone rang.

  “XOhX, Darcy speaking,” I said as I clicked send on the last few invites. Hopefully there would be some very excited fangirls opening up their inboxes later that day.

  “Darcy, hello. So glad I got you.”

  I froze as Gem’s voice echoed through the handset. Speak of the devil, and she’d appear. I wasn’t Troy and I didn’t have the power to tell her I needed to get off the phone after three hours. I glanced at the clock. I might be on the phone for six, if her marathon calls with Willa were anything to by.

  “Hiiii Gem,” I said, poking my head up above the edge of my cubicle, looking for Willa. Maybe she would be able to rescue me.

  “There’s this girl, Darcy, on the social media feed. Who is she? Red-head. Looks a bit plumpy,” Gem sounded like she was looking right at the Instagram feed. I gritted my teeth and tried not to reach through the phone to choke her.

  “That’s Max. She’s a friend of the band’s.”

  “She’s not hoping to date one of them, is she? Is that happening? Is she… dating one of them?”

  I swore that Gem’s interest in the band’s sex life was purely professional, but at times she behaved like she needed to protect their good reputation like they were unmarried women in the early 1800’s.

  “Nope, just a friend.” My search for Willa hadn’t turned anything up and I sat back down in my chair with a sigh. Maybe if I emailed her, she would swoop in to my rescue.

  “Hmmm. Well. I suppose she won’t hurt. The fans can relate to her. She does have a pretty face. Just please remind the band to post more photos of them and less of random girls.”

>   “I’ll let them know. Is there anything else I can help you with?” I cringed, hating to have to ask because she’d probably say yes.

  She paused, quiet for a moment.

  “How are you, sweetie?”

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up at the tone in her voice. I barely knew the woman, and we definitely weren’t on a pet-name basis.

  “Um, good, pretty busy, I have to call some of the VIP fans —”““Because I was thinking that maybe if I stopped by today I could take you out for lunch and we could discuss your future with the band,” her voice went from faux-sweet to icy in a moment.

  “Ahhhh,” I said, searching for an excuse, any excuse. “Well, that would be really awesome, but I’m already booked to do some press calls, so I can’t, I’m so sorry. Um, rain check after the show? I’ll be swamped until then.” I needed to talk to Willa. Gem had no power over my internship, as far as I knew, although she seemed to treat me like I was her intern given the avalanche of demanding emails she was sending me day and night.

  “Oh, that’s unfortunate. Yes. We’ll have to have a chat. Maybe we can talk at the show.”

  “Uh, that’d be great! Look I’m really sorry, Willa’s waving at me and I need to go? Okay I’ll talk to you later Gem, bye —” I hung up the phone before she could get another word in and I took a deep breath.

  Fuck. Fuckity fuck. Whatever, I could handle Gem. Hopefully. Maybe.

  ***

  “Alright, if you guys have one more spaghetti fight, I am going to murder you both and get Charlie to bury the bodies,” I threatened a few days later. Max and Cash looked at me from the other end of the kitchen, mirror images of innocence on their faces.

  “Us?” Cash asked, pointing at Max and then himself.

  “Yes,” I said, and gestured toward the sloped ceiling over the kitchen. A good fifty strands of spaghetti were dangling from the white paint, stuck to the ceiling where they’d been tossed.

  “We were just testing to see if it was ready,” Max said, her eyes wide.

  “Well could you not?” I asked.

  “Yeah, could you not?” Ace parroted from where he was laying on the couch, his head hanging off the cushions as he played MarioKart with Charlie. How Ace wasn’t getting sick from staring at the TV upside down, I had no idea. How he was winning was another question.

  “Stay out of this, it’s not your business,” Cash shot back. Ace’s middle finger came floating up from the couch and Cash snorted before lifting a long strand of spaghetti off of Max’s shoulder.

  “Thanks, fam,” she said brightly. It was hard to tell them off when seeing Max smile was such a rarity. Maybe that’s why Cash kept goofing around with her. The two of them were always getting into trouble. They’d even pissed Eli off by clipping all the blades out of his razors. How they had the patience to do that was beyond me.

  “Food is for eating, not throwing,” I reminded them even as Max pointed at some spaghetti in Cash’s hair and he pulled it out.

  “Hey darling,” Finn came up behind me and pulled me into a frustration-busting kiss. “Smells great. When do we eat?”

  “If Cash and Max stop throwing all the pasta at the ceiling, in twenty minutes,” I said, relaxing into him. He leaned over my shoulder, pecking me on the cheek before inhaling the thick scent of meat sauce.

  “I’m damn glad you’re not a vegetarian,” he commented.

  “Huh why?” I frowned at him and he chuckled.

  “One day you’re going to see us in full hunt, taking down elk, or deer.”

  “Ugh, why?” Max asked from where she was discreetly helping Cash stand on the kitchen counter to get the pasta off the ceiling, presumably. “Seriously? When you can just go to the grocery store? This isn’t the dark ages.”

  Finn laughed and hugged me tighter as I gave the sauce a good stir. The thought of them hunting in the woods wasn’t exactly disturbing or anything, but Max had a point.

  “It feels good,” Cash said, his hands full of cold spaghetti. I couldn’t help but smile at him.

  “It feels good?”

  “There’s nothing like a hunt,” Eli’s low voice interrupted us. He’d been hiding out the last few days, ghosting in the shadows of the apartment. I was surprised to see him out during daylight hours. “Makes your blood sing. Why the fuck are you standing on the kitchen counter with spaghetti in your hands?” He frowned up at Cash, one eyebrow cocked. The rest of us burst into laughter. The moment was perfect.

  Of course my phone would ring, interrupting it. I wrestled with Finn to fish my phone out of my pocket. It was a blocked number.

  “Hello?” I winced. Not answering when I was interning was the kiss of death. Gem sometimes called from a blocked number.

  “Did you miss me?” Wolfe’s voice filled my ear. Relief flooded through me and I pushed away from Finn, holding up my finger to tell him I’d just be a sec, and running to the bedroom.

  “Took you long enough to call me,. Did you get the photo of the cactus?” I asked as I opened one of the closet doors and rustled around at the back of my t-shirt shelf. There it was, still in it’s ribbon-wrapped box.

  “I’m not a dermatologist. You can’t just send me a photo and I tell you if it’s cancerous or not, Darcy,” Wolfe sounded annoyed. I huffed out a breath.

  “Well, what do I do? Because I don’t want to throw it out if it’s a cursed cactus.” I stared down at the innocent looking plant.

  That was Creston for you, perverting and twisting the most simple of things. Finn was one of the best things in my life, and Creston had darkened him, put shadows where light had been. Max, too. Creston had dampened her sparkle even though we were all working hard to bring it back.

  “Darcy Llewellyn and the cursed cacti. Sounds like the good name for one of those children’s books,” Wolfe mused. I coughed.

  “My life is hardly PG friendly,” I said before swallowing hard. “Creston did this finger snap thing when he lit me up… do you think that would work?”

  “Perhaps. Perhaps not. I think it is best if you dispose of it. Burn it. That should eliminate any trace of magic that might be attached to it.”

  “But I kinda need to know if it’s cursed just in case, I don’t know, he sends me a cursed cheeseburger next or something,” I said, feeling a rise of panic in the back of my throat. Wolfe was quiet for a moment before he sighed, and his next words chilled me right to the bone.

  “I know you want to prevent the possibility of him ever doing anything to you again, but if someone really wants to destroy your life, it’s very probably they will succeed. For now he’s been held at bay, and that will have to do until you are stronger and can take him with ease. Burn the cactus. Make love to your wolves. I hear they have a show tomorrow night. It will be good for them to be back on the stage — We were both silent for a moment.

  “So I just burn it.”

  “Was that a question?”

  “No… no. I’ll do it.” I stared down at the tiny plant. “As soon as this show is over though, we need to talk. Lightning stuff. Magic stuff. I need to keep learning.”

  My phone beeped, cutting him off and I pulled the it away from my ear. Gem’s number flashed across the screen. I groaned internally.

  “Wolfe I gotta go,” I said.

  “Burn the cactus! Don’t forget.”

  “Who do you think I am? You? I’m not the one who forgot I bought a two million dollar penthouse apartment,” I said. I pushed the cactus to the back of my t-shirt shelf. I’d take care of it later when all the guys and Max were asleep. “Talk soon, okay?”

  I switched over to Gem’s call.

  “Hi Gem,” I said, grateful I was in the bedroom. Just mentioning her name got all my guys’ backs up.

  “Darcy, darling, so pleased that you were available, I know it’s late. Are you free?”

  I closed my eyes. At least she couldn’t see my face.

  “What’s up?”

  “Well there’s been a small change of plans, for the s
how tomorrow. The lineup has one more addition…”

  TONIGHT ONLY!

  Hot off their international tour, LAST HERO STANDING are back in town,supported by local openers JAKE TUPPER and up and coming indie darlings PHOENIXCRY. Tickets are sold out, but you can win your way in with two VIP tickets for you and a friend by texting 555-555-5555 with the name of the band you most want to see tonight. Presented by Vinyl Villains Productions in partnership with XOhX Records and CenturyFive Group.

  Twenty-Two

  Darcy

  “Oh fuck no,” Cash muttered. I swallowed hard. Jake’s band, including his entourage, were crowding the green room to the point that there wasn’t sitting room for anyone but them. Jake had been a pain in our ass since we’d gotten to the venue. It was bad enough my guys had been tense since my phone call with Gem, which seemed to make everything ten times worse now that we were at the actual show.

  We weren’t opening directly for Last Hero Standing anymore. Somehow, for some reason, Jake had gotten his management to twist some arms and he had the middle slot. It meant the guys were playing right after the doors opened, and it was more likely they were going to miss having the booking agents come watch them. Music industry people were late to everything, always.

  The anger in the greenroom was simmering away, although Jake pretended like he was oblivious to it. I didn’t buy it. He knew what he’d done, but there was nothing we could do or say to change it. Thankfully Max was with us, and she deflected a lot of the stress by being loud and Max-like. I never appreciated her personality more than when we were waiting to get called up for our stage cues.

  "I'm white-girl-the bakery-fucked-up-my-baby’s-gender-reveal-cake-mad,” she whispered to me. Cash caught my eye and I knew he’d heard her. He tried not to smile and looked away quickly. “Seriously, these asshats can’t even give us a single couch.” Max glared over at where Jake was holding court across the room. Since we were the opening acts, we didn’t have the big green room. I was tempted to just get us a quiet spot somewhere else backstage, because being close to Jake was wearing thin on all of us.