Phoenixburn: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Rogue Witch Book 3)

by KT Strange

  “I can explain.” My voice was weak. How could I explain? What could I even say to her?

  “Do you have baby wipes?” she asked, her voice steady. Why was she so calm? I pointed at the first aid kit on the ground. She unzipped it and pulled out a handful of wipes.

  “Is it just on your hands and legs?” She reached for my fingers, the wet cloth cold on my skin as she rubbed the drying blood off of it.

  Max got out of the front seat and walked around, her steps unsteady. She sat on the edge of the open door beside me, staring hazily at Chelsea.

  As Chelsea cleaned off my hands, a warm, fuzzy feeling started creeping up on me. I took a long, slow breath of the cool night air. Max held out her hands for Chelsea to wipe and we sat there in the quiet. Max’s clean, cold hand found mine as Chelsea leaned down to wash our legs off.

  “These socks are toast,” she said, “you should take them off.”

  “I should take them off,” I agreed, and leaned over to undo the laces on my shoes. “Good thing I wore shorts,” I said.

  “Mhmmm,” Chelsea agreed, helping me with my shoes. I wanted to sleep. Sleep sounded amazing. “You guys want to come on our bus for a bit? Rest up?”

  “I really like you,” Max said, her voice dreamy. “Like, you are just the best person in the world. You’re amazing.”

  Chelsea glanced at her, a weird expression crossing her face.

  “You too, Max,” she said gently. She pulled out some bandaging from the first-aid kit and leaned over Max. That was right. Max was hurt. I frowned as I watched Chelsea carefully apply the bandage to the cut on Max’s neck. “C’mon. Let’s go to the bus.”

  “I left the van on.” Max didn’t sound all that worried as she stood up. I followed her, bare feet on the ground. My socks were balled up in Chelsea’s hand.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Chelsea said, and I knew somehow that she would. Everything would be fine. I stuck close to Max as we walked toward the Glory Rev bus, waiting for Chelsea to unlock it for us. We followed her up the stairs.

  “You know where to go, right Darcy? Just go lay down in the bunks.”

  “We can share,” Max said, “don’t wanna take up too much space.”

  “The guys won’t mind,” Chelsea said after us as we walked through the living space of the van.

  My body felt disconnected from my brain, as the familiar, warm comforting scent of the tour bus washed over me. Max stopped in the small, narrow hallway lined with bunks.

  “I’ve got blood on my clothes,” she said.

  “I’ll get you clean things.” Chelsea was right behind us. She tugged on the privacy curtain for the hallway. “Get undressed. No one is going to bug you in here, okay? I’ll keep the guys away until you can get changed.”

  I felt myself nodding, and the overwhelming desire to sleep pressed down on me. Max tugged her shirt over her head and Chelsea shut the curtain for us.

  “Just leave your clothes on the floor, I’ll grab them later,” she said, her voice floating away.

  I stripped down too then curled up into a lower bunk. Sleep. I had to sleep. My eyelids were so heavy.

  The mattress shifted. Max was crawling in next to me.

  “We gotta share,” she murmured, her voice exhausted. “Safer that way.”

  “Mmhmmm,” I agreed as a pillow cradled my head, the world around me spinning. My eyes shut at last.

  Four

  Finn

  The applause had barely petered out when it hit us. My head jerked up, and I looked for my twin. Elias was at the back of the rest of the guys as they filtered off stage. The tang of blood was thick in the air just off-stage. Immediately all of my senses were on red-alert, and the pack picked up on the scent seconds after I did.

  Backstage was dark, lit up with dim, blue lights that cast splashes of color on the ground. A few crew members buzzed by us.

  “You smell that?” I muttered to Cash when he came close. He’d grabbed a towel off the pile by the stairs down from the stage.

  “Yup, smells like a fuckin' blood bath,” he said, eyes narrowed as he wiped himself off. “Where’s Darcy?”

  “She and Max were gonna watch from the back of the room.” Ace’s shoulders were tense. “I thought she’d meet us backstage at the end of our set.”

  “Her phone is ringing, but it’s going to voicemail,” Charlie said, pulling his cell away from his face, his expression a mix of irritation and concern. I was just grateful that he was already on top of calling her.

  A crew member in a black shirt paused at the curtains that led to the stage, and nodded at us.

  “Hey,” he said as he walked over. “Your tour manager has my phone, but I can’t find her. Can you get her to turn it in before you guys head out tonight? It’s a venue phone.”

  “Your phone?” Elias asked, pushing to the front of us. I stepped aside so he could.

  “Yeah, your label head called, needing to talk to her about one of the acts. He was pissed, so I found her for him.” He sighed. “Just tell her to turn it in to the door girls when you see her.” He turned to go.

  “Where was she when you gave her the phone?” Elias asked. The crew member pointed to his feet.

  “Here. I gotta go clear gear for Tupper." He walked off without another word. Elias shook his head and turned to us.

  "Ace, Charlie, go see merch. The girls might be there," he ordered. "Cash, green room. Finn?"

  "I'll go with you," I said, but before we could head out, Chelsea appeared at the edge of the curtains, shifting her weight and looking very uncomfortable.

  "Guys," she said, "we have a problem."

  I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong but she held up her hand.

  "Follow me." She turned on her heel. Elias swore under his breath.

  "Don't make the lady wait," Ace said, pushing past us to follow her. She'd ducked along the back wall of the staging area, the curtains and backdrops fluttering as she walked. We jogged to catch up to her; she walked fast for someone so short.

  The red glow of the exit sign lit the top of her silvery blonde hair as she turned to us, before pushing the door open to a hallway which horseshoed all the way around the back area of the venue and let out into the parking lot. The smell of blood was richer here, metallic, and the low, dusty scent of death clung to the air. The hair on the back of my neck stood, and Ace let out a low growl that was so uncharacteristic that I looked at him.

  "I've got the girls in our bus," she said, her voice hushed as we gathered in the hall. I cocked my head. Down the hall, around the bend, voices bounced on the painted brick walls. "There was an attack. A hunter. He's. . . "

  "Dead. Guessing that's what the blood is. Where's the rest of them? They don't hunt alone," Cash asked, turning to look down the hall, as if expecting a whole crew of murderous fucking thugs to race around it.

  "Gone, as far as I can tell," Chelsea said. "The guys have security at the bus, but we're pretty sure the hunters left with the body. They don't like to leave behind evidence. Something about 'exposing sleeping humans to atrocities they shouldn't witness' or whatever." Chelsea sounded weary, and irritated. For a second I wondered how old she was. Unicorns. . . didn't age. Or at least, not to our eyes, they wouldn't appear to. That was the lore, at any rate. "You're in the clear because you guys were on stage, obviously, but the cops got called because there's so much blood. We got questioned while you were on stage, but none of us heard anything. They think it was a fight or some sort of prank."

  "Some fuckin' prank." Elias's voice was barely a murmur, then he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "This shit is getting old. We can't even—”

  "Let's save this for the tour bus, okay boys?" Chelsea asked, and I felt the dull pressure of her presence wash over me. It wasn't an order or a command, not really, but when her lips turned into a thin line, I knew better than to argue with her.

  "If you're sure they're safe, and the hunters are gone."

  "I'm sure," Chelsea said, looking like she was
a moment away from stamping her foot. Charlie shoved past me and Chelsea sighed, continuing down the long hall. We followed, adrenaline pumping, with the scent of a dead hunter chasing after us. When Charlie opened the door to outside, the fresh air was a relief. Even far away from the scene of the crime, the scent of death and blood was almost overwhelming. I was anxious to see Darcy and check her all over to make sure she was fine. The desire was a holdover from my wolfish side, demanding I check on our mate and double check every inch of her.

  I imagined Darcy's expression when I demand her to strip so I could make sure she was okay. . . yeah, she'd probably think I had ulterior motives. As the door clicked shut behind us, Chelsea paused in the open parking lot. The security guards were by the Glory Rev bus, and my stomach relaxed with relief. Not that I didn't believe Chels, but still.

  "What is it?" Eli asked when Chelsea didn't move. She looked over her shoulder at us.

  "Don't freak out," she ordered, "but Max got hurt. The girls were covered in blood, mostly not theirs, when I found them—”

  "What!?" Ace was definitely freaking out, and I was a second behind him. Chelsea glared at us both.

  "Somebody died here tonight, and by everything that is good and holy in this world, you will be quiet," she ordered. Ace shut his mouth with a soft yipping noise, stepping back. My breath caught in my throat, my muscles twitching, telling me to surge forward and go find our mate, our Darcy, but a unicorn's order, delivered so firmly, couldn't be ignored either.

  Cash was rumbling, deep in his chest, a low growl. Chelsea glared at him and he went quiet as quickly as Ace. Only Charlie stood, seemingly unaffected, his arms crossed over his chest while Elias shifted his weight and looked like he wanted to punch something.

  "Go on," Charlie said, motioning with a jerk of his chin. Chelsea let out a breath and she seemed to lose an inch of height and. . . had she been glowing? Must've been a trick of the lamplight on her hair or something.

  "We all walk the line between the mundane and our world, every day. You more than us, because you've got people on your trail who think that species genocide is a new, fun hobby," Chelsea said, her throat thick with emotion before she cleared it. I realized she was angry, every inch of her practically vibrating with rage. I'd never really seen her mad before. "But just because we're magical doesn't mean we can't all get scooped up into a mundane trap, and that means cops, people in authority positions, and anyone who has no idea they're putting handcuffs on a mystical creature they think only exist in stories." She took another breath. "What I'm trying to say is control yourselves. Stop acting like wolves and start acting like people who aren't on the run, and haven't done anything together."

  She surveyed us with gimlet eyes, and none of us moved. I was almost afraid to.

  "Get your shit together. The girls are fine. I put them to sleep. Okay? So c'mon, and stop calling attention to yourselves by acting like a bunch of swollen, broody mother hens." She huffed and straightened her shoulders before turning to walk to the bus.

  Charlie waited a beat until she was a few paces away.

  "What did she mean, she put them to sleep?"

  Darcy was curled up against Max, a blanket pulled up over Max's shoulders, which meant it was almost up to Darcy's eyes. It was a relief to find them both okay, but something was bugging me.

  I ducked back into the main living area of the bus, and looked at Chelsea.

  "Why does Max smell like werewolf?" I asked. The thin thread of scent had wafted up to me the moment I'd pulled back the bunk curtain hiding the girls away from prying eyes. I was the only one of the pack that Chelsea would let back to see that they were fine, because she didn't want them 'waking up before it was time'.

  Seth cleared his throat where he was sitting, playing cards with Dean. Cash sat next to Dean, a hand in front of him, even though he hadn't picked it up.

  Chelsea exchanged a significant glance with Aaron. He was leaning up against the tall fridge in the kitchenette.

  "I thought I smelt something weird," Ace commented. "Werewolf?"

  "She didn't smell like that before the show, and it's definitely werewolf, and not us, so if you could explain—”

  "We don't know," Aaron said, cutting me off. I crossed my arms. "Chels noticed it when she was cleaning them off, but we think, somehow, she came in contact with a wolf at the show, but I have no idea."

  "So we have hunters, one of them dead, and a lone werewolf at our show," Elias broke into the conversation, his words slow and steady.

  "Not just that," Chelsea said, sounding even more uncomfortable than before. Aaron cleared his throat and she fell quiet. He looked at her for a long moment before glancing at the rest of us. Elias was glowering from near the front of the bus, Charlie's shoulder butting up against his. The big tour bus felt pretty small with all of us on it.

  "We think that Darcy had a hand in killing the hunter," Aaron said. Seth let out a low whistle, his cards still in his hand.

  "Won't be the first time our girl tangled with a hunter. That's the risk he took when he decided to take up skinning wolves as a profession," Cash drawled, then shuffled his cards. Glory Rev collectively glanced at him and he shrugged. Chelsea coughed, delicately.

  "Well, if that's the case, do you guys think it's really wise to keep her on tour with you?" she asked. Our reaction was instant. I growled, Cash sat up. Ace's fingers balled up into fists.

  "She belongs with us—”

  "She wouldn't go even if we told her to—”

  Chelsea held up a hand, even as Aaron got to his feet with a sigh, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

  "Alright, alright, I'm just saying maybe, maybe, we need to figure out some safety precautions," she said. She looked up at Aaron. He nodded and glanced at us. His fingers were rubbing up and down her arm. I wanted to be holding Darcy, and as I tracked the gaze of my pack I could tell they were all thinking the same thing.

  "We're gonna give you guys our bus," Aaron said. Seth and Dean kept playing, as if this was something they'd already discussed. Well, they were like, glorified ponies or whatever, and unicorn shifters had an ancient reputation for being terrible gossips. Chelsea looked at us like she expected us to protest. When we didn't, she sighed in relief.

  "My driver is coming up, and bringing my bus with him," she said. "You guys can crash on this one, and we'll drive overnight together to each show, instead of you guys driving yourselves and camping somewhere totally unsafe."

  "Camping is not unsafe." Ace looked annoyed. "Every time we get into trouble it's at a show." He fell quiet when he realized what he'd said. Chelsea looked weary.

  "And yeah, since you're not going to stop playing shows," she said with emphasis, "you need to be in safer quarters. We also need better security at the shows, which means more frisking, but. . ."

  Seth shrugged his shoulders, and set down his cards.

  "Troy can pony up for full-time security during show hours for them," he said, nodding to us. "He's bankrolling Tupper on this tour, even though that guy's an ass. Just lean on him, Chelsea. Troy can't resist anything you ask for since you're his in to get all of his little tween pop acts upstreamed to Universal or Sony, or whatever."

  There was a noise from the sleeping quarters, and the curtain pulled back. Darcy stood there, in a long t-shirt that fell to her mid-thigh and nothing else. Cash was out of his seat immediately, pushing past Aaron to get to her. My muscles tensed, ready to do the same thing, but not wanting to look like a lovesick idiot. The guys would never let me hear the end of it, but they wouldn't tease Cash. Much.

  "Darce, you okay?"

  She blinked up at him, frowning, and rasped out, "I need some water."

  Aaron reached for a bottle sticking out of an ice bucket and passed it to Cash, who twisted off the cap and gave it to her.

  "How long've I been asleep?" she asked after gulping down a third of the bottle, gasping for air.

  "Not long," Chelsea said as she stepped up next to Cash, putting her fingers o
n Darcy's wrist. "You need to sleep, okay?"

  Darcy stared at her for a long moment, her eyes half-lidding.

  "Mmhmmm," was all she said, and she slipped back behind the privacy curtain with her bottle of water.

  "Give me that, or she's going to spill everywhere with the state she's in," Chelsea said, grabbing the cap from Cash before he could argue, and following Darcy.

  We were all silent, and I swore the same thought came to the entire pack at the same time. Aaron met my eyes steadily as Ace spoke up,

  "Is that what Chelsea meant when she said that she 'put them to sleep'?" he asked, making finger quotes in the air. Aaron pressed his lips together.

  "Humans are susceptible to unicorns. We make them, well, chatty, more open to talking to us about what they really think, just by being around them, but if we have certain intentions. . ." He trailed off as Chelsea came out from the sleeping quarters, pulling the privacy curtain shut again.

  "They needed to sleep," she said, challenge in her eyes and voice. "There's too many questions, and Max nearly died, from what I gathered given that the hunter had opened up a gash in her neck."

  I glared at her and she rolled her eyes.

  "Please, don't even," she said before I could say anything. "It's just sleep. They'll have a nap, feel better when they wake up, and Max won't have clear memories of some guy trying to kill her until I talk to her about it. I had to do something to get them out of there without cops asking questions as to why they were covered in blood. You'd rather they be sitting down at the police station right now?" She narrowed her eyes at me until I looked away with a grunt. She was sorta right. I didn't like it, but then I didn't have to.

  "Unicorn magic, huh?" Elias asked.

  Dean ran a hand over his short-cropped hair. "Welcome to the glory of hanging with the herd," he said wryly.

  Five

  Darcy

  My mouth felt like it was a dry cavern in the middle of the desert. I rolled over in the dark, bumping into a firm, warm body. Max. She sighed and grumbled at me, turning over and burrowing her face into a pillow.