by JL Madore
“Why are we here?” He helps me into the shirt and I’m thankful to feel at least slightly less exposed. I give it the sniff test. Though it’s used, at least it’s clean.
“I was hoping you’d know the answer to that question. After we completed the mating ritual, your phoenix goddess persona blew off the top of the bus and flew away. I followed you and this is where you landed to take a sleep.”
“Phoenix goddess persona?”
Hawk goes on to explain to me how I transitioned into a new evolution of myself and how they found me both stunningly sexy as well as slightly terrifying at the same time.
“I don’t remember that.”
“I’m not surprised,” he says, lounging back on a patch of grass. “When our wildling sides ascend fully the first couple of times, no one remembers much.”
“Where are the others?”
“Hopefully, on their way here to meet us. We left naked. I didn’t have money or any way to get in touch with them. Since we’re using brand-new burner phones, I don’t have their numbers even if I did have my phone.”
“So, what do we do?”
“I called Lukas. He has the burner numbers because he bought them. He’ll call them and tell them where to find us.”
“How long will that take?”
“Well, I called him a couple of hours ago and it’s likely a five-hour drive, so I’m guessing we have a few hours until they get here.”
“If there’s a town around here, I can teach you how to panhandle for a burger. I’m starving.”
Hawk flashes me with a look so beyond shocked I bust up laughing.
“Or I can show you the best places to dumpster dive but I figured you’d rather panhandle.”
“I’d rather turn into a hawk, capture, and eat a wild rabbit… which I detest, by the way.”
I stand up and wipe the bits of sticks and grass off my bare thighs. “Well, if I could turn into a phoenix and catch a bacon double-cheeseburger, I would, but I can’t and I’m starving. Besides, wearing only Farmer Joe’s shirt, it’ll be quick. Men love giving generous donations to pretty damsels in distress.”
“No, Calli.” Hawk stomps behind me as I wander through the trees. “No mate of mine, male or female, will ever beg for food. Not as long as blood still pumps through my cold, dark heart.”
I hear the genuine insult and worry in his voice and turn. “Hey, there. Don’t get yourself whipped into a tizzy. It’s not your job to keep me fed and clothed. That’s my job. I appreciate everything you do for me but when the chips are down, I’m a survivor, remember?”
The thwump, thwump, thwump sound of rotor blades cutting through the nearby sky ends our argument. The rigid stiffness in Hawk’s shoulders relaxes and he casts me a triumphant smile. “Thank the Powers. Lukas is here and this argument is moot. Come, Spitfire.”
“Don’t come, Spitfire me.” He reaches to grab me and I pull back, still pissed.
“Calm yourself. Let me get you a—” He tries again to grab me and I yank my arm back. The movement pulls him off balance he stumbles forward. The sudden shift in position puts him directly in front of me as the crack of gunfire echoes through the trees.
I scream as Hawk spins behind the force of impact and collapses to the forest floor.
My phoenix bursts forward and I shriek, blowing a stream of flame at the direction from which the shot came. Gunfire rents the air and I hold out my wings to shield Hawk. Do these assholes think they can take my mate from me?
Think again.
There’s no way I can navigate through the trees when I’m fifteen feet tall and have a wingspan of thirty feet. To do anything, I’ll have to fly straight up and out of the trees and leave Hawk.
Can I clear our path and get him to safety?
The scent of his blood in the air is testing my control. Do I grab him and run or protect him and fight? I don’t know.
Fight, girlfriend. Riley says in my head. Always fight.
Unsure if my bestie is here with me now or if my subconscious is burping up the answer she always gave me, I go with my gut. Pivoting on a slow turn, I spew fire and create a wall of flames around Hawk.
When the wall of fire is lit and rising twenty feet from the forest floor, I push off to face whatever these assholes think they have in store for us.
I push through the canopy of the thicket and launch straight up at the blazing sun. The heat of the fiery star feeds my power and I arch in the air and dive backward to loop back around to face whoever is stupid enough to come at me.
I spot the helicopter first and tuck my wings back, dropping into a full dive. Shrieking my fury, I bolster my heat and slam to the ground, stomping on their stupid metal bird.
The impact sends a shockwave into the ground and the fuel tanks explode around me. Nothing touches me. I’m living magma. Everything that comes near me melts before contact.
As their means of escape goes up in flames, men yell and scramble. They’re still trying to shoot me with their weapons. Puny idiots. I scream and scorch them where they stand.
I recognize the sound of the rocket launcher the moment it fires. I turn and bat away the incoming missile, sending it straight into the ground fifty feet away.
The guy holding the launcher goes from being all brash and ballsy to realizing he just pissed off the wrong fiery bitch in two seconds flat. I flap my wings and launch, gripping him with my talons and popping him like a bug.
Screaming with the fury of feeling Hawk’s pain through our bond, I lay waste to everyone still moving. The blaze is wild and burning hotter than mere flame.
It’s burning at phoenix flame temperature.
With the enemy taken care of, I push into the air, find the ring of flames protecting hawk, and land beside him.
He looks bad. The bullet hit his back and tore its way through his chest. I don’t have to call my tears, they flow freely seeing him in this state. I tip my head to the side and rest my beak down his legs. Blinking a couple of times, I deposit my tears directly into his wound.
With one final shriek, I pick up my mate and fly straight into the solid rays of the midday sun.
Jaxx
It’s close to four o’clock in the afternoon when I pull the bus to the side of the road where Lukas told us to meet Hawk and Calli. “Guys, you need to come up here and see this.”
Kotah and Brant have been pacing for hours but unlike when we have Hawk’s jet and helicopter handy, the bus doesn’t just sweep us up and take us where we want to go—no matter how badly we want it.
“What the fuck is all this.” Brant bends to scowl out the front windshield.
“I guess we need to go and find out.” I shut things down and swing open the door of the bus. There are a dozen state trooper cars, a couple of fire trucks, and a coroner van. “It can’t be good, whatever it is.”
My cat is prowling and growling inside me and I try to ease him back.
“There’s Lukas.” Kotah points into the sea of uniforms. As if alerted by the mention of his name, Lukas turns from the charred skeleton of a mangled helicopter and jogs over.
“Where are they?” Brant asks, the second Hawk’s right-hand man arrives. “Because we can feel when our mates are close and they aren’t.”
“But they’re not dead?” Lukas asks.
My cat growls. “Why is that your first question?”
He checks over his shoulder and we move away from the bustle of the scene. “When I spoke to Barron earlier, I told him I would give you the message about where they were and meet you all here. He suspected that since the final mating was complete and Calli’s powers were unlocked her phoenix was drawn to the site of the Portal Gate. He wanted me to arrange a team and join you five so we could all go in together.”
“But?”
“But when I got here, there was a blown-up helicopter, twelve men fried extra-crispy, and a blast zone the size of a football field.”
I turn to Kotah and Brant and tip my head toward the trees. “Circle the bac
k of the trees and see if your wolf can scent anythin’. Brant, you go with him and stop anyone from shootin’ the wolf if he gets spotted.”
The two of them nod and jog off.
I sigh, an uneasy tension building in my chest. “I don’t like this. What do the locals think happened?”
Lukas shrugs. “A couple of farmers said they saw a flaming bird and an explosion. The troopers are chalking that up to the helicopter being on fire as it crash-landed and exploded.”
“And the twelve men?”
“There are a couple of trucks further up the road that we think are connected. They’re thinking there was a gathering of men for some unknown purpose and the chopper came in hot. The explosion caused a brush fire and the men were trapped and perished.”
“That’s a stretch.”
Lukas shrugs. “Honestly, I don’t care. It’s plausible and the human authorities are buying it, so good for them.”
“And what’s your take on things?”
Lukas frowns. “I don’t think they’re far off. I think the two truckloads of men were scouts and confirmed that Calli and Hawk were here. They likely either spotted her flying in last night or saw some random social media post about a shooting comet flaming across the Missouri sky. Whatever their intel, they discovered Calli here, and sent a tactical team in to remove her from the equation.”
“And only Hawk to defend her.”
“Or not. When I spoke to him, he’d left her unconscious in a thicket of woods. He said she’d been out for hours and he needed to steal some clothes and rally us to join them. Maybe the Black Knight’s men found her when she was sleeping. Maybe they tried to take her by force.”
“I don’t think so.” Brant jogs back from the trees with Kotah. “Tell them, buddy.”
Kotah captures his hair and ties it back. “There’s a ring of scorched earth deeper in the trees and at the center of it, the ground is thick with the scent of Hawk’s blood.”
I curse, my stomach squirreling. “You’re sure?”
He nods. “Yeah. My wolf knows what each of your blood smells like after the past six weeks. I’m sure.”
“So, Hawk’s hurt and there are bad guy’s coming at them,” Brant says. “Our girl encases Hawk in a cone of flames and takes them out with her fiery phoenix fury.”
I nod. “That would be my guess.”
“Then where are they?” Lukas says, scanning the skyline. “And why is the top of the tour bus blown out like an exploded popcorn kernel?”
“It’s our new moon roof,” Brant says. “It’s right above the bed so we can see the stars. Very romantic.”
I roll my eyes. “Not the best if it rains though.”
Brant chuckles. “No. I suppose not.”
Lukas grabs a walkie off his belt and presses the long bar on the side. “Mackie, come to the bus by the road.” Then he looks at us. “Go inside, grab what you need, and meet me at the helicopter. I’ll have Mackie drive the bus to the next town for repair. I figure our best bet of catching up with to birds is to be airborne.”
Brant snorts. “Ha, catching two birds with one copter.”
I turn and point them toward the bus. “Clean up anything private. Grab our files and our go-bags. Oh, and Hawk’s fifty grand. No sense leaving it behind for the repairmen to find.”
Kotah nods and he and Brant head off to get us packed.
When it’s just the two of us, I turn to Lukas and frown. “He’s not dead. I feel him through our bond. And, if he’s hurt, there’s no one better for him to be stranded with than Calli. His best chance of survival is her cryin’ for him.”
Lukas nods. “That was my take on things too.”
“But logically, if they got away and she was able to heal him well enough to get to a phone… well, if everythin’ was hunky-dory, he would’ve contacted us by now.”
Lukas lets off a heavy sigh. “Agreed.”
“So that begs the question... where the hell are they?”
Hawk
Three things become clear to me from the moment I regain consciousness. One: Once Calli’s phoenix crushed the troops that came to kill her, she healed me with her tears and flew me somewhere her wildling side felt safe. Two: The place she felt safe is very high up on a rocky ledge about four hundred feet in the air. Three: With her now in human form, there’s no way for her to get down.
With neither of us eating or drinking in close to seventeen hours, she doesn’t have the strength to transform again without a solid night’s sleep and fueling up on another of Mama’s lasagna feasts.
“Calli?” I press a probing hand against my chest and finding nothing but the faintest ache. I’m naked again. The fire of Calli’s phoenix doesn’t burn any of us, but it’s hell on clothing. Oh well, I wasn’t keen on those overalls anyway. “Spitfire? Are you okay?”
She stirs beside me and I reach forward to protect her from rolling close to the edge of the jagged ledge. She’s naked and shivering and my heart lurches inside my ribs to see her so exhausted. “Oh, my love. We need to get us both some clothes and find help.”
When she doesn’t rouse more than stirring and a quiet groan, the hair on the nape of my neck stands on end. “Calli, wake up for me. Let me see those emerald green eyes.”
I shift on the rocky ledge, the jagged surface scratching my legs. The ledge itself is wide enough to hold Calli when she was in her full phoenix form, so it’s not tiny, but it’s too high up to feel comfortable moving around if she’s not fully alert. I scoop her off the stone, move her back to the rockface, and settle her into my lap.
“What’s wrong baby? Is it a lack of food and too much exertion? Are you hurt?”
I brush my hands over her body, rolling her forwards and back to check for injury. There are none.
“Good. That’s good.”
Her body trembles as a shiver racks her and I pull her closer, rubbing my hands over her flesh. “Did you use up all your heat? I guess I’ll have to keep you warm then, yeah?”
I look out at the land and wonder where the hell we are now. If I am right about her being drawn toward the gate, my guess is we’re somewhere between Peoria, Illinois, and Lebanon, Kansas.
When all the portals to StoneHaven were removed and destroyed, only the one at the continental center of the United States was preserved. Hidden in a crag in what is now considered one of the local bouldering sites for the state, the humans remain oblivious to the portal held within.
“Calli? If I lay you down away from the edge of the ledge, would you promise not to roll off if I take a very quick look around?”
The grumbling moan I get in return doesn’t comfort me. I don’t want to leave her, but I’m worried about her going into shock. In some cases, wildling transitioning for some of the larger, more dominant species can take too much out of the host side. Calli turning into a phoenix counts as being the largest and most dominant species of our race.
“You said you were starving earlier and that was hours ago. You must be famished now, eh?” Okay, that gives me an idea. I could hunt for a rabbit or a mouse or something for her to eat. If she could muster up a fire, we could cook it.
I take in her current condition and curse. She’s not mustering up any fire anytime soon. “Okay, not that then.”
The sun is still pretty high over the horizon, so I figure it’s maybe five or six o’clock. “Brant, Kotah, and Jaxx would’ve arrived at the thicket a couple of hours ago. They’ll be looking for us by now. They’ve assessed the carnage at the site and are working with Lukas to find us. How do we help them find us, Spitfire?”
Her head lolls to the side and I prop it against my shoulder and finger through her hair. “You rest. I don’t want you to slip into a coma due to system shutdown. I’ll get you fed and rested and warmed up somehow. I’ll think of something. I always do.”
I press a kiss to her forehead and will my strategic mind to come up with something brilliant. How do I let Jaxx and the others know where we are?
Brant
Jaxx nods, rubbing his chest. “I know. I feel it too.”
“Is it the Black Knight?” Lukas asks. “Have they been captured? Is she injured?”
“No,” Jaxx says, picking a different path than me to pace around the helicopter. “It’s not that. She’s just…”
“Fading,” Kotah says. Our wolf is sitting cross-legged in the field we landed in. “Her strength is waning and her fire is dim.”
Lukas runs a rough hand over his face. “Well, there’s a fuck-ton of space between that thicket of burnt trees and the Portal Gate in Kansas. If we keep flying, we’re just as likely to pass them and be too far out of the way. We need something to go on.”
“Don’t you think we fucking know that?” I snap, stomping forward. My claws extend past the nailbeds of my fingers and my bear growls with the need to lash out and shred someone. “Don’t you think we’ve run through every scenario to find a way to get to them? They’re our fucking mates.”
Jaxx steps between me and the military man and flashes me a look. “Take five, Bear. Lukas is worried and tryin’ to help. He wants Hawk and Calli safe too.”
“It’s too bad Hawk’s not still chipped,” Kotah says. “At least then we could’ve tracked him.”
Lukas chuffs. “In the future, maybe I should chip all of you again. It would make my job so much easier. The five of you never sit still.”
I stretch my neck from side to side. “Okay, we aren’t chipped, but we are bound. Kotah, are you getting anything we can use on the mating bond?”
“I can feel them, but no, the bond tells us the connectedness of our mates and that, in turn, tells us about the health and well-being of them. It doesn’t pinpoint where they are in any way.”
“What if they have sex?” Jaxx asks. “We can always feel it when two of us are goin’ at it. Do you think we’d be able to track them that way?”