House of Phoenyx: House of Phoenyx book 1

by T. John Greene

  Chapter 13

  Josephine

  Research was Josephine’s method of control. She didn’t like to make decisions about anything until she had reviewed all the facts. At the moment she was perusing the library’s archives for a book on possession. Josephine was impressed with the books the library held, including some that aboveground were rumored to be kept by the Vatican for safe keeping. The Book of the Dead, the Books of Enoch, and the original Guttenberg Bible were among this library’s collection. For a geek like her who had just recovered her eye sight, this was Heaven.

  The House had provided a librarian to hover over Josephine’s shoulder. Mary Anne had been a slender woman when she was alive and now that she was undead, she was extremely gaunt. “May I help you?” Mary Anne asked.

  Josephine wanted to know about possession so she was going to go directly to the source, “Yes, I’d like to look at The Book of the Dead please,” she answered, pointing to the glass cover case that held the book.

  “And do you know how to read hieratic or hieroglyphics?” Mary Anne asked as she escorted Josephine to a nearby table. They were on the second floor of the library on the balcony, overlooking the first floor where Don and the bodyguards still sat deep in conversation.

  Josephine thought for a second. “No, I guess not. Do you have a book that translates hieroglyphics into English?”

  Mary Anne walked back over and tapped the counter that held the Book of the Dead and a compartment popped out. Inside was a thick ream of paper. “How about the English version?” she asked. Mary Anne picked up the ream and placed it in front of Josephine. “This is your copy, so mark it as you want.” Then she disappeared. Josephine sat speechless for a moment before she regained her composure and opened the manuscript.

  The first page read, “Book of the Dead.” The second page listed the chapters. Josephine skimmed down the list of chapters looking for one on possession with no luck. She considered reading the whole book, but thought it would take too much time, so instead she started with chapter 64: The Afterlife.

  “Can I help you research anything?” Nathaniel asked. Josephine looked over the balcony. Don’s table was empty and the fireplace was lit. That usually meant it was nighttime, and a moon and stars would fill the Underworld sky. She verified her suspicions by looking at her watch. She had spent the last hour immersed in the Book of the Dead.

  “No,” she told him, getting up and stretching to relieve the ache that she now felt in her back. She hadn’t meant to sound dismissive, but she didn’t know how much she could concentrate on reading with Nathaniel staring at her. Since their first introduction, she had caught him staring at her off and on and it was unsettling. Nathaniel was good-looking, but Josephine didn’t get involved with people she worked with as a rule, and having Nathaniel as a bodyguard definitely qualified as working together. Nathaniel didn’t say anything else, just sat down in a chair next to her table, put on reading glasses, and started studying his own manuscript.

  In the last hour she had read about Osiris, who according to the English version of the book was the God in charge of Duat or Purgatory. It was a little difficult to understand, but Purgatory was a place below the Underworld where Osiris would weigh the hearts of those who fell, determining where they would go to next if he didn’t decide to keep them in Purgatory. Those who passed a series of gates, each protected by a supernatural creature, would graduate on to the ceremony room where Anubis, a God with the body of a man and the head of a jackal, would present them to Osiris. The dead would confess their sins and Osiris would place their heart on the scales of the goddess Maat. The truth of their sins would be revealed and Osiris would decide their fate. Nekheny, the transporter of souls, would then escort the soul to its destination. Nekheny was the only living entity that could travel between the Underworld, Tartarus, Heaven and Purgatory freely.

  If Osiris was the Hades of Purgatory, then Nekheny was the Percaline of Purgatory. He was depicted as human soldier of death, whereas, from what Josephine had read about the phoenix, Percaline was the human soldier of life or God.

  What Josephine understood from this was that when Azazel possessed someone from his prison cell in Tartarus he possessed their body but not their soul. He couldn’t possess their soul because the only entity who could transport a soul across the Tartarus border was Nekheny. That was a start.

  Josephine tried picking up where she’d left off but Nathaniel’s presence and her curiosity over what he was reading got the better of her. “What do you have there?” she asked him, motioning to his manuscript.

  Nathaniel peered at her from over his glasses. “Persuasion,” he said, straight-faced.

  Josephine erupted in laughter. Whatever she had expected him to say, it was not Jane Austen. He smiled. “Thanks, I needed that,” she told him when she finally stopped laughing. Nathaniel poured her a cup of tea from the tea set that Reaves had brought in earlier while she’d been reading. “Seriously, what are you reading?” she asked again.

  “I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” he said, nodding at her book and handing her a cup of tea. Josephine took the cup and sipped the tea. Nathaniel mirrored her movement. She stared at him for a minute. “I’m reading the Book of the Dead,” she began. They were on the same side after all, weren’t they? “I want to know all there is to know about possession so I know what to look for should one of my friends get possessed in the future.”

  Nathaniel looked impressed. “The Book of the Dead? Huh.”

  “Yes. Your turn,” she said. She wasn’t going to let him get out of telling her what he was reading.

  “Enoch 1,” Nathaniel said. “I find your family interesting.” He shrugged. “But I’ll see what other books I can find on possession.”

  “Please don’t on my account only,” Josephine said.

  “No, it’s okay. I’ve already read the Enoch books,” Nathaniel said, getting up.

  “Seriously, you’ve read the Enoch books?” Josephine asked. This was of interest to her. Most people aboveground didn’t even know who Enoch was, but in the Underworld everybody knew him. Landon must have been correct when he’d told her she was a celebrity down here.

  Nathaniel smiled. His expression was full of warmth. “I wasn’t lying when I said I find your family interesting.” Then he walked to a bookshelf, asking Mary Anne for assistance. Josephine watched him leave, then got back to The Book of the Dead.

  Savannah

  Savannah put the finishing touches on Percaline’s outfit, which meant making sure that the tongues of Percaline’s boots folded the right way and the front of the tank top she wore rode lower than she was comfortable with. Savannah thought that Percaline had great boobs and she needed to emphasize them.

  “Okay, how do I look?” Percaline asked her.

  “Amazing, smashing, incredible,” Mason said. He’d been nearly falling asleep after the meeting and Savannah wanted him to be comfortable, so they’d moved to Mason’s room. Savannah predicted that he would be in for the night. He was doing incredibly well, especially considering less than a day before she had thought he was going to bleed to death, but he wasn’t fully healed and he needed rest for his recovery.

  “It’s Lucas, sis. You could wear a brown paper bag over your head and he’d still worship the ground you walked on,” Savannah said, stating the obvious. She couldn’t understand how everyone else on the planet could see that Lucas was in love with Percaline but she couldn’t. That boy was going to have to spell it out for her, like literally with a skywriter in a plane or with rose petals on the floor or in sand on the beach. For being so bright she was unbelievably dumb about Lucas.

  Percaline smiled and said, “Okay, then I’ll see you guys later.” She left to meet Lucas.

  Savannah waited for a minute and then told Mason, “I’m going to go too.”

  “You don’t have to. We can watch a movie or something,” Mason said in a weak sleepy voice.

  Savannah laughed at his feeble atte
mpt. “You need to get your beauty rest because I don’t know if anyone’s told you, but you look like poop.”

  Mason poked her in her side. “Rude,” he said, but took her advice and closed his eyes.

  “If you need anything just call for Griselda,” she said, tucking the covers around him.

  “Griselda?” Mason asked.

  “Our maid. She told me that if we needed anything, anytime day or night, to call on her. Just say her name and she’ll appear.” Savannah walked quietly away from the bed and by the time she closed his door behind her he was snoring lightly. She couldn’t remember him ever snoring before, so maybe that was one of the side effects of becoming a werewolf. She would have to ask Landon.

  It was a little before seven and although she was tired she wasn’t ready to go to bed. She decided to wander around the House. After exploring the space under the front stairs, the conservatory, and the cellar she found Rainata and Isidora playing cards at a card table in an empty room on the third floor. “Hey guys,” she said.

  “Do you play rummy?” Rainata asked, analyzing the cards she was holding.

  Isidora drew a card and laid three aces on the table. “No cheating,” she warned Rainata.

  “Who said anything about cheating, Isidora? I was going to ask her to play.” Rainata smirked, then drew a card from the pile. She discarded, put her cards face down on the table, and pulled out a chair for Savannah. “We’ll deal you in on the next hand. Sit. I have so many things I want to ask you.”

  Isidora made no expression to suggest how she felt about it either way, but she handed Savannah a bottle of water as she sat down. Savannah wondered if her lack of emotions was a vampire thing, like vampire Botox.

  Isidora was a beautiful Latina. She had black hair with streaks of red and tattoos that sleeved her arm in brilliant pinks, blues, and greens. She had a Spanish accent that was hard to hear unless you paid close attention, like it had faded over time. She looked to be in her early twenties, but her being a vampire made Savannah think she was probably much older than that.

  Rainata continued, “So is that what it’s like to hang out with one of the big three?” she asked.

  “Big three?” Savannah asked before she figured it out. “Oh, you mean Don, Hades, and Zeus?”

  “Yeah. Is Don always so... ” Rainata waved her hand, trying to find the right word but Isidora finished her sentence for her. “Impressive?”

  Savannah laughed. She didn’t think Don was all that impressive anymore, he was just Don to her, but she knew what they were talking about. “If you think he’s impressive you should be there when all three are in the same room.”

  Rainata and Isidora both stopped playing and looked at her open-mouthed. “You’ve seen them in the same room before?” Isidora asked.

  “Yeah, why? Is that weird?” Savannah guessed she said something wrong.

  “It’s unheard of,” Rainata said. “Don and Zeus haven’t been in the same room together for at least two decades.”

  “Really? Why?” Savannah asked. She loved gossip, except when it was about her, and Underworld gossip was hopefully no different.

  “Don stole Zeus’s wife,” Rainata whispered. It was like someone saying cancer at the dinner table.

  Isidora nodded her head and elaborated, “And I heard Selena died a few years ago.”

  Savannah’s brain screamed in alarm. Selena was her mother’s name and her mother had died a couple of years ago. “What do you mean, Zeus’s wife Selena?” she asked.

  “I don’t think they were actually married,” Isidora said more to Rainata than to Savannah. “I think they just lived together.” She paused and looked up. “Aboveground.”

  “It was a big scandal because Selena was human,” Rainata said.

  Savannah felt sick to her stomach. Could they really be talking about her mother? Two decades ago would have been around the time Percaline was born and she did look exactly like Zeus. She needed to find Don. “I’m sorry, guys. I think I’m too tired to play,” she told them and left the room.

  Percaline

  It had taken sixteen hours for Percaline to go from excited to nervous to overwhelmed and back to excited again. It was seven and she was standing in her room waiting for Lucas to pick her up. Mason and Savannah had helped her pick out an all weather/all activities outfit that would accentuate her attributes but still be completely practical. Above all else, Percaline was practical and tonight practical meant something that she could wear over sexy underwear just in case. After all, once she made up her mind about something she jumped all in, and the subject of Lucas was no different.

  What she’d ended up wearing was a thin but baggy tank top with a pair of silver-seamed skinny jeans and multi-belted black boots over them. Underneath she wore a cute pair of hipsters and a bright pink bra. Normally she didn’t wear make-up because she didn’t need it, but tonight she added eyeliner to her eyes, which made their green color pop. She looked at herself one more time in the mirror and approved.

  Lucas knocked on the door. This was the most nerve-wracking part. She could answer the door and immediately kiss Lucas, getting the awkward kissing part over with, or she could not kiss him now and let the first kiss of the night sicken her nervous system all night. In the end she decided to let Lucas set the pace for their date. He was the guy and he had been the one to ask her out. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

  “Hi,” she said and joined Lucas in the hallway. She was glad to see him wearing jeans too.

  “I brought you this,” he said, holding out a single purple rose. It matched his Gargoyle eyes. He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “You look amazing.”

  Percaline concentrated on breathing normally. She was not going to pass out. “Thank you. You look great too.” She blushed. “Let me put this in water.” She went back into her room and found that the House had added a vase with water to the top of her dresser. She placed the flower in it and for a minute felt like a fairytale character. She returned to the hallway and closed the door behind her.

  “Are you ready?” Lucas asked. Was he giving her one last time to retreat? Percaline smiled at him with her whole body. “Are you?”

  Lucas could never resist that smile and Percaline knew it. It was her countermeasure to the smile he was giving her now. He gently pushed her back into the wall and kissed her long and hard. When he pulled away from her she grabbed his upper arms and braced herself to keep from falling over. “Mmm.”

  Lucas grabbed her hand and they started down the hallway. “I talked to Don about leaving the House tonight but he denied my request…” Lucas began but Percaline wasn’t really paying attention to him. She was trying hard to stay focused on the walking part of the night so it didn’t turn into the falling part of the night and it was difficult because she could only feel how perfectly her hand fit in his. She didn’t really care what they did as long as she was with him. “But I have something planned that you’re gonna love,” she heard him finish.

  “Hey,” she said and stopped walking, pulling him back to her. This time she was the one to push him back into the wall. She cupped his stomach with her hands and teased his sides with her thumbs. “I appreciate the thought, but I don’t care what we do as long as I’m allowed to keep kissing you,” she said and kissed him again. They eventually parted and resumed walking down the hallway with their hands locked together.

  Percaline thought of everything they had been through together and was amazed at how long it had taken her to realize that he was the one for her. Now that she had she was going to spend every minute she possibly could kissing him, touching him, and being with him.

  They stopped outside the entrance to the movie theater. “I feel cheap for not taking you to a fancy dinner, but I know how much you enjoy concessions so I’m taking a chance,” Lucas said as he opened the door for her. He was a true gentleman.

  “This is perfect!” Percaline said. She loved movies, maybe not as much as Savannah did, but she still loved
them. “What should I get?” she asked Lucas. He knew more than anyone how the movie made the concession choice for her.

  Before he could answer her, one of the House employees tending the concession stand called to them, “Hello again, I’m James. What can I get for you two?”

  “Popcorn, a caffeine-free diet cherry coke, and a sour candy of some kind for her,” Lucas replied. Percaline smiled. That meant that they were going to watch a dance movie and dance movies were her favorite. A dancer was like catnip for Percaline. Perhaps the most attractive skill Lucas had was his ability to dance. She was in trouble.

  “And a Dr. Pepper, pretzel bites, and red vines for me,” Lucas finished.

  “Ooo, so what are we going to see? Is it the newest Step Up?” Percaline asked, hanging on Lucas’s arm.

  “No, it’s less of a movie and more of an experience,” he said.

  James handed Lucas their food and he led her into the movie theater. They were the only two in there of course, so Percaline ran forward to choose a seat in the center. Lucas remained where he was. “Um,” he said, “we’re actually going in there.” He pointed to a door in the corner of the theater. She hadn’t been in there before so when she returned to him, she held onto one of his jean loops so that she wouldn’t get lost.

  The room they entered was what she imagined a Rubik’s cube looked like from the inside out. Every inch of the room was covered in large white frosted tiles. Lucas put their food, still on the serving tray, down one of the floor tiles, and sat down on a white padded bed that was carved into the floor. He pulled her down onto him so she was sitting on his lap and pushed the hair back from her face. “Have you figured it out yet?”

  She must have looked like an idiot because she couldn’t find her words and she just sat there staring into his eyes. She finally found the strength to shake her head ever so slightly.

  Lucas laughed and clapped his hands. The lighting went from mood lighting to pitch black and then a soft glow came from behind the tiles. He hugged her more tightly to him. “Are you ready?”

  She made a leap of faith. “Yes.”

  He clapped again and Michael Jackson’s Thriller began to play. She suddenly knew what they were doing and eagerness surged through her. “Are you kidding?” she asked, jumping to her feet and pulling Lucas up out of the bed with her. She stepped on a tile in the floor and it lit up under her. The tiles on the wall in front of them came to life with digital dancers. They were in a really big version of the Michael Jackson Experience game.

  They danced to every popular Michael Jackson song, some of them twice, before they both fell into the bed, exhausted from having so much fun. Percaline’s cheeks hurt from smiling, which was a first for her. Lucas held her to him. “Did I do good?” he asked.

  She couldn’t stop smiling. “Best date ever,” she said. “What’s next?”

  “What’s next?” Lucas’s voice broke. “Um, I didn’t plan anything else.”

  Percaline laughed. “Just kidding.”

  Lucas hopped up from the cushion. “I didn’t plan anything, but what if we go swimming? After the ass kicking I got from you earlier during training I could use a hot tub.”

  “Okay, what I heard just now was that you don’t think I kicked your ass at the Michael Jackson Experience and I so did,” she teased.

  “You wish,” Lucas said as he helped her up.

  Lucas was right; she had lost horribly to him. “Race you,” she said and ran out the door, leaving Lucas in her dust. Lucas chased her to the back stairs before he caught her. He picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder. This was definitely better than the last time he had man-handled her. Now it was kind of a turn on. He carried her down a half flight of stairs before she asked him to put her down, only because all of the blood was rushing to her head. She jumped on his back and he carried her down the rest of the stairs like that. She was reminded of the way they had always been. Together they were fun, spontaneous, and goofy. Apart they were miserable.

  Percaline would have jumped into the pool commando but the House was nice enough to provide swimsuits for them. She changed into a bikini in the woman’s locker room and wandered out to the pool. It was also the first time she’d been in this room. The pool had a high domed gold ceiling, not unlike something you’d see at the capitol, and a mosaic of the woman with the scarf set in the center of the pool. The pool was set down a couple of feet from a wall/turned balcony and ran in a long rectangular path. The hot tub was closest to the locker room.

  Lucas was already in the swimming pool. There wasn’t anything particularly sexy about her swimsuit, but it did show her stomach, which she was beginning to find out was one of Lucas’s favorite parts of her body. That was funny because his stomach was one of her favorites also; that, and his back. She ran to the edge of the pool and dove into the water. She swam up to Lucas, who met her halfway, not wanting to spend any more time away from him. She put her arms around his neck, pushed her body up against his, and kissed him passionately.

  “If you keep that up we’re not going to make it into the hot tub,” Lucas said, breathing deeply.

  Percaline drew her index finger down the center of his face stopping on his lips and outlining them. “I don’t want to waste any more time with you,” she said.

  Lucas

  Lucas took her hand and moved her index finger further down his neck until she reached his shoulder, which had a scar on it. “What’s this one from?” she asked.

  Lucas reached around to touch it, which was more a reason to bring her in closer to him than it was to recall the event that had invented that particular scar. He had several of them all over his body, mostly from his time as a SEAL.

  “I was stabbed by an assailant with a piece of glass,” he answered, suddenly not knowing if the words that were coming out of his mouth made sense since Percaline was straddling him and he was having a very difficult time thinking. This had been sixteen years in the making and he wanted it to be perfect. He didn’t want to ruin it with one wrong move or one wrong sentence.

  He smiled and lifted her up by her armpits before laughing and throwing her across the pool. “You’re going to regret that later,” Percaline shouted at him, laughing.

  This was the Percaline he knew; fun, endearing, and easy-going. This was the person he had been in love with for as long as he could remember. He watched her get out of the pool. She was beautiful, she was with him tonight and hopefully she would be with him for the rest of his life. She wiped herself off with a towel and then dropped it seductively on the floor. “Where are you going?” he asked, suddenly not in control of his voice. “We just got in.”

  “I’m going to take a cold shower to cool off.” She winked at him as she walked back into the locker room. Lucas watched her walk away. Her wing tattoo covered her small back, moving seamlessly as she moved. He took her lead and headed to the locker room for a cold shower.

  When he finished she was waiting for him. That was another thing he loved about her. She didn’t take long to get ready and she always looked good. He grabbed her hand and lifted it to his mouth for a kiss as they walked. He was going to be a gentleman and walk her back to her room.

  He didn’t know what to say. When you were twenty-three years old, did you still ask the girl to be your girlfriend? This question preoccupied him all the way to Percaline’s bedroom door.

  He leaned in to kiss her goodnight and she pulled away. “Can I meet you in your room? I don’t want to sleep alone tonight,” she asked.

  He was confused but answered, “Of course.”

  “Okay, see you soon.” She closed the door.

  Lucas didn’t know what to make out of any of that. The cold shower must have worked for her and he wished he could say the same. He walked the couple of feet to his door and pondered what had just happened as he unlocked it. The House was safe but he had a key and he liked using it.

  The lights were off in his room and a dozen candles had been lit. When his eyes adjus
ted he saw Percaline standing in front of him in just a bra, underwear, and heels. “If you say no to me looking like this, you’ll be buying me therapy sessions for the rest of your life,” she said, smirking.

  God, she was beautiful. He would have to buy himself therapy sessions for the rest of his life too if he said no to her, so he wouldn’t. He’d promised himself that.

  He closed the door behind him and in the same motion took off his shirt. He walked up to her and started sensually touching her shoulders and playing with her bra straps, taking one of them off her shoulder. He was only human after all.

  She lightly touched the hip muscle that showed above his jeans and teased the bottom of his stomach. “Are you sure?” he asked her. If they went any further than this he needed certainty.

  “Yes,” she whispered into his ear. He pushed her hair back from her face and kissed her long and passionately. She stroked the back of his arms as they kissed. After several minutes they parted, gasping for air. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around him, kissing him again. He walked her over to the bed and threw her on it. He took his jeans off.

  She looked vulnerable laying on the bed, which was a turn on for him. He didn’t want to be too aggressive, not yet, so he lowered himself on to her without putting his full weight down on her. He kissed her lips, her neck, and her collarbone. He was going to make love to her.