Phoenix Born

by Sean Stone

  I told him everything that had happened from beginning to end as I drove us back to Sangford. This was how it went every time. He insisted on knowing every detail. There was always something to be learned and he liked to make sure I hadn’t done anything to jeopardise us. In the early days I’d left my own blood at the scene and it had taken him weeks to clean up my mess. He’d never trusted me not to fuck up since.

  ‘Pyromancers aren’t powerful enough to overcome spells. Not ones cast by a wizard as strong as you,’ he said, his brow furrowed ponderously.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, smiling smugly at the compliment.

  ‘Don’t be cocky,’ he growled. ‘Cockiness…’

  ‘Will get me killed,’ I finished for him. He was a bit of a stickler.

  ‘Exactly. I’ve lost enough to cockiness.’ He was talking about his son. My cousin, Samuel Graves. Sam had always been too cocky for his own good, especially since he wasn’t that good a wizard. He’d walked into a duel with a much stronger wizard. Drew had brought him home in a box.

  ‘Kagen’s dead. It doesn’t matter how he overcame my spell,’ I said as I pulled up near Drew’s flat. I wrinkled my nose at the grottiness of the shabby old building. It looked like it was ready to collapse.

  ‘Everything matters,’ he said. He swung open the car door. ‘I’ll get this to the client,’ he said, waving the phone at me. And then he was gone.

  I sped off towards the good end of town as fast as was legal. I didn’t head home. I went to Alibi, my nightclub. It was one of the best clubs in the city. I’d only opened it to launder my money. I’d had no idea at the time that it would end up becoming so popular. I had Leah to thank for that. She was my business manager. I had no idea how to run a club so frankly, she was a godsend.

  I swung my car into my reserved parking space and jumped out. This is a strange thing to admit, but after completing a job I always get a little horny. I used to have a friend-with-benefits who helped me out, but that situation went pear-shaped, so I was just going to have to pick up a girl in the club. It meant a little more effort, but it would be worth it. After-killing sex is the best. You’ll just have to trust me on that.

  I entered the club through the back door but didn’t make it far before Leah found me. I have three nightclubs in the city and she manages all of them. She used to work for the City Hall revenue department. She came out to audit my books and apparently it was blindingly obvious that I was laundering money through my clubs. I remember the pit of despair filling my stomach as I realised I was going to have find a way to shut her up. Several ideas came to mind; bribery, some kind of spell to make her forget, murder… Luckily, she suggested a much better one. Working for City Hall was boring, so for a generous salary she would come to work for me and she’d hide the laundered money so that the next auditor didn’t find it as soon as they opened the books. I accepted. Obviously.

  I never told Leah where the dirty money came from and she had the good sense never to ask. She didn’t need to know that I killed people for a living. If she ever found out she’d probably pack up and bolt. That would be bad for me because she was a fantastic business manager. She’s the best investment I ever made.

  She came strolling down the corridor, her perfectly curved hips swaying with each step. Leah was without a doubt the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She wasn’t very tall, but she was shapely. Slim, with curves in all the right places. Her angelic face was framed by rich, flowing, dark locks that hung over her shoulders. Her eyes were sparkling blue, like sapphires that had captured the colour of the sea. Her face was her best feature. It was the sort of face that no camera, nor even the best artists the world has ever seen, would ever be able to capture. It was a beauty you could only experience in person. She was beauty personified.

  To say that I fancied her would be an understatement. But I have rules. You don’t dip your pen in the company ink. It’s a crude saying but it’s apt. Leah was off limits. Relationships are complications. Life is easier without them. That was why I found friends-with-benefits. In fact, they weren’t even friends. They were just people I knew. Acquaintances -with-benefits doesn’t have the same ring to it though.

  I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t have any attachments at all. Apart from Drew, but I’d known him my whole life. He was the only family I had. When he was gone I’d have nobody. And that was how I liked it. Attachments were liabilities. Better to find happiness in things than in people. My Maserati would never get fed up and leave me.

  ‘Jacob,’ she said, her irresistible face wrought with concern. That was unusual, Leah was the sort of person who could handle anything. Worry was not a word she was familiar with and yet she had it all over her face.

  ‘What’s up?’ I asked, a little of her worry rubbing off on me.

  ‘The police are here. They want to ask you some questions.’

  Chapter Three

  Leah led me to her office where two plain clothes police officers were waiting and then she left the three of us to it.

  ‘Mr. Graves, I’m Detective Constable Decker, and this is Detective Constable Mitchell,’ he said and thrust his hand out at me. I shook it as I appraised the two coppers. Decker was a squat bald bloke, and Mitchell was pretty much the same only with hair. From what I could gather they were both Nocults — that’s the term for a non-magical person. Magical police officers usually had a purple star on their uniform to distinguish them from Nocult coppers.

  ‘What can I help you with?’ I said, flashing my most charming smile. When the police came knocking, smile and oblige them. The second they start accusing you of anything, clamp your trap shut and wait for a lawyer. Those were the rules taught to me by Drew and those were the rules I stuck to. Despite the number of people I’ve killed, I’ve never actually caught the attention of the police. Drew taught me well. I was hoping that tonight was not going to be the night the law finally caught up with me.

  ‘We were hoping you could tell us the last time you saw Ruby Hassell?’ Decker asked. There was nothing accusing about his tone, simply inquisitive.

  ‘Ruby Hassell?’ I said in surprise and relief. She had absolutely nothing to do with my work. She was a former fuck buddy, but as I said before, things had gone south. I suddenly had a good idea what this was about.

  ‘Yes. The last time you saw her,’ Decker promoted.

  I walked around the desk and lowered myself gracefully into Leah’s chair indicating that the officers take a seat too.

  The last time I’d seen Ruby had been about three weeks ago. I’d just completed a job and was feeling the hormonal pull in my loins so I headed to her flat in the South End of town. It wasn’t the nicest of areas but I wasn’t planning on moving in. I’d met Ruby at a bar about a month before that. We’d got talking, one drink led to another, and… You know how these things go. We’d ended up back at hers and after half an hour of strenuous exercise, mainly on my part, we were both rather relieved. Since then she’d alway been available when I’d been in need. It was an arrangement we’d both liked. No strings, just sex.

  Three weeks ago I’d given her a call after I’d finished a job. She was available so I headed straight there. I was out of town so it took me an hour to get there but she was eagerly waiting when I arrived.

  She buzzed me in and I headed straight up to her flat. She was waiting in the doorway, dressed in nothing but a lacey red pair of bra and knickers, a playful smile on her face. Scarlet hair was curled over her shoulders and expensive makeup had been applied to her face expertly. Ruby had average looks which had never bothered me but she had a bit of a complex about it. She never let anyone see her without her makeup on. It was a bit sad really that she felt that way. I wanted to tell her she was pretty enough without it but once you start giving out compliments like that you’re on a slippery slope to something more than just physical. Besides, I’d never actually seen her without it so it might not be true. The truth was she could’ve been standing with her hair in a mess and dressed in a bin bag
and I’d still have taken her to the bedroom.

  ‘Evening, Mr. Graves,’ she said in a sultry tone.

  ‘Evening, Ruby.’ I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in for a deep, hungry kiss. She returned the gesture with force. I could taste the strawberry lip balm she was wearing. She pushed her groin against mine voraciously and plunged her tongue into my mouth like she was hunting for treasure. She wasn’t the best kisser but I wasn’t there for the kissing. Using my foot I kicked the door closed and continued the kiss, pushing her up against the wall with my body, pushing myself into her. She responded with a small moan.

  We made our way to the bedroom, stripping off each other’s clothing along the way. Mine took considerably longer than hers since I was wearing so much more of it.

  Some time later I rolled off her and fell in a sweaty mess onto the mattress. We both lay panting next to each other. I wasn’t entirely sure why she was panting so much, I’d done the main bulk of the work.

  ‘Wow,’ she said breathlessly. ‘If only I knew how to put all men in that mood.’

  I chuckled. If only she knew what put me in that mood. Maybe she’d be less eager to take me to bed. She’d want nothing to do with me.

  Ruby grabbed a hairband from the bedside table and pulled her now disheveled hair into a sloppy ponytail. She rolled onto her front and pushed her petite breasts against my stomach. Her fingers eased into my chest hair as she gently massaged me. I didn’t like this side of things. Once the main act was done there was no need for any more touching but it seemed a bit of a dick move to take only want I wanted and deprive her of… whatever this was. So I closed my eyes and let her massage my chest. It wasn’t a bad feeling after all.

  ‘So, I was thinking,’ she said. There was a familiar and unsettling characteristic to her tone. It was the kind of tone somebody took when they were going to ask something that made them nervous. Like when you have to ask for a raise. Not that I’ve ever had to ask for a raise, but you know what I mean.

  My eyes flicked open and I glanced down at her. She could see the apprehension in my expression and her own green eyes shifted to the side. I didn’t think her eyes were really green. The colour was too vibrant. Just like her hair wasn’t really red. It was all fake. I had no idea what she really looked like, without the contact lenses, the hair dye, and the layers upon layers of expensive makeup. She was a product tailored to what she thought men wanted to see. It was sad that she felt like she needed to do that. Anybody worth her attention would accept her for whatever she looked like underneath all the glamour. My hand moved instinctively to brush her hair from her face and I stopped myself just before I made contact. That was a gesture of intimacy and bonding. This was just a sexual thing.

  She watched my hand withdraw and I saw the disappointment as clear as day. And that’s when I knew things had gone too far. She’d grown feelings for me. I closed my eyes again and exhaled in frustration.

  ‘Jake…’

  ‘Jacob,’ I corrected. Nobody called me Jake.

  ‘Jacob,’ she said, the cheer now gone from her voice. ‘I’ve been thinking.’

  I groaned. Those three words never led to anything good.

  She chewed on her lower lip. It was obvious that she now knew this conversation was not going to go in her favour but she’d started it now and she was determined to finish it. ‘I’ve been thinking. We get on well enough. Maybe we could give things a go properly?’ She hurried the words out, eager to get over and done with.

  ‘Ruby…’ I started, not exactly sure how I was going to shut her down.

  We both tensed at the sound of the front door opening. Neither of us moved immediately. Both of us were waiting for a follow up noise. As far I was aware Ruby lived alone. Nobody had ever been here on my previous visits. I was pretty certain it was a one bedroom flat.

  ‘Fuck,’ Ruby said in terror as she flew to her feet. ‘Babe?’ she called out.

  Babe. Who the fuck was babe? As far as I’d known she was single.

  I leapt up and she mouthed for me to hide. That was not going to happen. It was pointless anyway. My clothes were strewn across her hallway. Babe would definitely see them on his way to the bedroom.

  ‘What. The. Fuck?’ An angry male voice asked from the hallway. I was thinking the same thing.

  ‘I can explain,’ Ruby said shrilly. She ran for the door, but the other man was already in the bedroom before she made it. He was stocky, a little shorter than me but a lot broader. He wasn’t exactly muscular, just broad.

  He froze when he saw me and stared lividly from the doorway, his brain stuck trying to find an appropriate reaction to seeing a naked man in his bedroom with his... girlfriend? I didn’t move. I stared back at him showing no emotion whatsoever. Honestly, I didn’t know how to feel. Confused was the winning emotion. I’d been in this flat several times over the last month and not once had I ever seen a scrap of evidence that a man was living here. My hands crept to cover my meat and two veg.

  ‘Who the fuck are you?’ he asked at last.

  ‘He’s my friend,’ Ruby answered before I could even open my mouth. The other man and I both looked at her incredulously. It was hands down the stupidest answer she could’ve given. She might as well have just told him I was the plumber.

  ‘Why is your friend naked in our bedroom? Why are you naked?’ he shouted, pointing furiously at her nudity.

  ‘To be fair, you’re the only one not naked so you’re kind of the oddity in this scenario,’ I said. I don’t know why I said it. Every now and then my mouth says something stupid before my brain can stop it. His head turned slowly my way, his eyes widened incredulously. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,’ I admitted.

  ‘Ethan no!’ Ruby screamed as he strode forward and swung his fist in a mean looking right hook. His fist connected with my cheek with more force than I’d expected and I staggered to the side, grabbing hold of the dresser to stop myself from falling down. The whole thing was made more awkward by the fact that I was naked. Trust me, getting punched is awkward enough but getting punched when your Crown Jewels are out on display was about a million times more awkward. You were stuck between trying to defend yourself from attack and trying to defend your modesty by covering up.

  ‘I deserved that. I think,’ I said. I still wasn’t quite sure what was happening. I really just wanted to put my boxers on.

  ‘You think? I find you in bed with my fiancée and only think you deserve a punch,’ he snarled.

  ‘Fiancée?’ I repeated stupidly. She’d been hiding a fiancé from me all this time.

  Ruby just stared at me in utter horror. Her brain seemed to have shut down, unable to comprehend the situation the three of us were now in.

  ‘Ethan—’ I started but his fist hit me in the face again, this time knocking me down back onto the bed. Pain radiated through my face. There was going to be a nasty bruise there in a few hours.

  Ethan was already drawing his fist back for another shot at me. Two seemed enough to me. After all, I hadn’t intentionally wronged him, I hadn’t even known he existed.

  ‘Rabole,’ I said quickly, drawing power from the electricity around me. In my haste to pull power I pulled too much and the bedside lamp fizzled angrily and exploded in a puff of smoke. My spell hit Ethan far harder than I’d intended and he was sent crashing into the wardrobe. The wooden doors cracked open as his bulky form went barrelling through them. One of the sides crashed down to the floor and the rest of the wardrobe landed on top of him. He didn’t deserve that but I’d acted instinctively.

  ‘Ethan!’ Ruby screamed and ran to him. She tried to help him up but he pushed her aside and she fell onto her bare backside with all the dignity of a three-wheeled car falling on its side.

  ‘Bloody wizard,’ Ethan muttered as he ambled to his feet, brushing splinters of wood off his sleeves. I climbed to my own feet and held my palm out to him in a placating gesture.

  ‘Listen, I didn’t know about you. I thought she was single. She nev
er mentioned you,’ I explained. He stood snarling at me like a rabid dog but made no move to come towards me. He didn’t like his chances against a wizard. ’I’m sorry. If I’d known I wouldn’t have done this,’ I said truthfully. I never got involved in complicated situations like this. Single ladies only.

  ‘Drop the magic. Let’s have this out. Man to man,’ he said.

  ‘That’s not going to happen.’ I turned to Ruby. ‘You’ve got a lot of explaining to do. But not to me. You make sure you delete my number.’

  ‘Jacob,’ she said sadly, as if she was hoping there was something I could do to smooth this situation over.

  I moved slowly towards the door, ready to defend myself again if I needed to.

  ‘This isn’t over,’ said Ethan.

  ‘Yes. It is,’ I answered. I closed the door behind me and then fled down the hallway, gathering my clothes as I went.

  I relayed all of this to the officers, missing out any mention of what I’d been doing prior to meeting Ruby. I really emphasised the part about me not knowing she was engaged. I didn’t want them to think I was a sleaze who bedded other men’s girlfriends.

  I’d had a few threatening phone calls from Ethan over the following week. He’d promised to ruin my life no matter what it took. Childish really. He’d obviously got my number from Ruby. True to his word he did make several attempts to try and cause me trouble but none of them panned out for him. I’d had several text messages from her too. She begged me to give me and her a go. I assumed that she’d come to the conclusion that her relationship with Ethan was irreparable.

  ‘Look, I don’t know what Ethan’s up to this time. He already called you guys and made a false report that I was dealing drugs from this club. He also said I was letting kids on the premises. He’s just a pathetic man with a vendetta. Whatever he’s said this time I guarantee he’s lying,’ I told them. I thought Ethan had finally moved on. Apparently not.