House of Phoenyx: House of Phoenyx book 1

by T. John Greene

  Chapter 17

  Savannah

  When Savannah woke up in the morning she felt fat. She knew that she wasn’t because of her kickass Siren genes, but because she and Mason had overindulged in super pretzels, nachos, and Icees. The movie had been awesome, though, so it was totally worth it. Today was going to be Mason’s first day back at school after his accident. His claw marks were completely healed and the only scar he had left was from where the werewolf had bitten him in the leg, but that was easily covered up with clothing.

  She was trying to act calm for the both of them because she knew that Mason would be feeling a lot of anxiety about going aboveground again. Nearly dying would probably do that to you. She packed two bottles of holy water, one for each of them, and a small pocket knife Lucas had given her before he’d left for basic years ago. It had belonged to him when he was in the Boy Scouts. She dressed for comfort and also in case she had to fight. Not another person was going to try to kill her best friend, and if she saw Mischelle, Blake and Rainata were going to have a hard time pulling Savannah off of her.

  She knocked on the door to his bedroom and Mason answered. He still looked a bit pale but it was nothing a little bronzer couldn’t help. “Are you ready for school?” she asked.

  “Let’s go get bound,” Mason said, talking about the blood ritual they still had to perform before class.

  They went to the library to meet Josephine. She was waiting for them at Don’s table. Don wasn’t there.

  “Reaves brought you guys each a coffee,” Josephine said, gesturing to the two reusable to-go cups sitting on the table. The House of Phoenyx was apparently environmentally conscious.

  “Thanks!” Mason said.

  “So what do you need us to do?” Savannah asked, cutting to the chase. They had a long day ahead of them and Josephine looked like she could use a few more minutes of sleep. Savannah thought that she had probably been up late again watching Vanderpump Rules.

  “Do either of you have a knife?” Josephine asked, looking around the room for something they could use.

  Nathaniel walked out of the shadows. “I have one,” he said, handing her the knife he kept in his boot.

  “Do you two ever do anything separately?” Savannah asked. She had forgotten that her filter wasn’t quite awake either.

  “She is mine to protect, so no,” Nathaniel said flatly.

  Savannah looked around the room for her bodyguard. No Rainata in sight. Nathaniel must have read her mind. “She’ll be right down. She told me to tell you that she needed to finish her math homework.” He laughed.

  “She knows she’s not a real student, right?” Mason asked, laughing too.

  “Rainata doesn’t do anything halfway,” Nathaniel replied.

  Josephine approached Savannah, knife in hand. “Where would you like it?” she asked and Savannah held out her finger. Josephine cut her and then quickly moved on to Mason, but not before Savannah felt like passing out. She hated the sight of blood, especially hers.

  “You saw me torn to pieces, you can handle a cut on your finger,” Mason said, calmly donating his blood to the cause.

  “Now just rub your fingers together and say something about your blood being his blood and that you are bound,” Josephine said. She started towards the exit.

  “That’s all?” Mason asked.

  “That’s all,” Josephine replied. “I’m going back to bed now. Have fun at school.” Nathaniel followed her.

  Savannah and Mason rubbed their fingers together. “My blood is your blood.” Savannah said. “From here on out we are bound by blood.”

  Rainata came around the corner, book bag in tow. “Oh man. Did I miss it?”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t miss much,” Mason said, bandaging his finger. Savannah put one on hers as well.

  “Let’s get going. We’re supposed to pick Blake up from your house soon,” Savannah said. Mason still didn’t look one hundred percent, but he looked well enough to make it through the next eight hours.

  They were sitting outside in the quad for lunch. Mason was going on about how creepy Blake was when he was wearing his Mason skin, and Savannah and Rainata were playing a new game Savannah had just come up with. She would shout out the name of a movie or book character and Rainata would tell her what kind of monster they were and if they were based on a real person. She had begun the game with Nathaniel the day before and was all too excited to have her own real-life bodyguard Saint to ask.

  “Dexter?” Savannah asked.

  “Possessed human. Yes,” Rainata answered.

  “Carrie?” Savannah asked.

  “Demi God. Yes,” Rainata said.

  “Ted?” Savannah asked.

  “Possessed stuff animal. No,” Rainata said.

  “Damn. I was hoping he was real. Seems like he’d be fun to hang out with,” Savannah replied.

  “Where is he now?” Mason asked.

  Savannah shook her head trying to figure out who he was talking about. “Who?” she asked.

  “Blake? Where is he now?” Mason asked. Taking the real Mason this morning to pick up the fake Mason from his house was a mistake. Savannah saw that now.

  “He’s across the street on the roof of the red brick bungalow with the lion pillars,” Rainata said, nodding towards the house almost imperceptibly.

  “Can he hear us?” Mason asked. Rainata shook her head. She was busy eating a frozen vending machine burrito and every once in a while she would try to steal Savannah’s pudding cup.

  “You should ask your mom to start packing me a lunch, too. This is cruel and unusual,” she said as Savannah again slapped her hand away.

  “What is your tattoo of?” Savannah asked, noting the oddly shaped tattoo in the corner of Rainata’s hand. “And how come not all Saints have one?”

  Rainata swallowed the last of her burrito. “I’ll tell you for your fruit roll-up,” she said. Savannah smiled and threw her the fruit roll-up. “I haven’t had one of these in ten years,” Rainata said. She opened the packaging and tore off a piece. “It’s Saint Beaumont. He’s the patron Saint of Saints, and only known in the Underworld.

  “Saints are an independent group of people, so getting a tattoo that symbolizes that they’re part of a bigger group or having the same tattoo in the same place as another person is too mainstream for many of them.”

  “But not for you?” Savannah asked her.

  “No, I like belonging to something bigger than myself. It gives me a sense of purpose,” she said.

  “William Thatcher from A Knight’s Tale?” Savannah asked, returning to their previous conversation.

  “Saint and a total hottie! His real name is William Chaucer,” Rainata said, wiggling her eyebrows.

  “Don’t you guys think he’s creepy?” Mason asked, still in the middle of his rant about Blake. “He feels creepy.”

  “Give him a break, Mason. He’s the one who’s making it possible for you to hang out with us in the Underworld, not to mention the fact that he’s watching over you as we speak,” Savannah said. She knew he was under a lot of stress, but focusing all of his anxiety on Blake was getting old.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry,” Mason said and changed the subject. “So Brie and Tiffany have been throwing dirty looks your way for almost the whole lunch period.”

  “Good,” Rainata said. “They should be intimidated by Savannah.”

  “And notice that Thomas is sitting at the other table next to Elena again,” Savannah said. “I guess he got what he wanted from Brie and it wasn’t very good.” They all laughed.

  “They’re probably plotting how they’re going to steal Nathaniel from you as we speak,” Mason said, gesturing to Brie and Tiffany again. “Rainata, do you think that after this whole life and death business you could persuade Nathaniel into picking Savannah up from school one day?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure he’ll play along,” Rainata answered.

  “And then Josephine will try to stab me while I sleep,” Sa
vannah responded. “She could do it. She’s a witch.”

  Rainata and Mason both smiled at her over-exaggeration. “She wouldn’t kill you. Nathaniel says she wants nothing to do with him,” Rainata countered.

  “Uh-huh,” Savannah said in disbelief.

  The bell rang.

  Percaline

  By three o’clock Percaline was exhausted. She and Lucas had worked out hard the night before with Reaves and then with Nyx and they had just finished target training with Josephine, Landon, Nathaniel, and Isidora in the hay area. Isidora had dominated them there. Isidora’s hand-to-hand skills were remarkable and her sword fighting skills were top notch, but both of those had nothing on her ability to use a bow and arrow. Isidora taught the class and afterwards helped both Percaline and Lucas with their natural archery abilities.

  “I think I just need a nap. I’m so tired,” Percaline said to Lucas. Usually she had copious amounts of energy but today for whatever reason she was having trouble staying upright. She was fighting off sleep but she knew that it was going to win eventually.

  “You’ve had a busy couple of days,” Lucas said. “I’ll wake you when Savannah gets home.”

  Now in her room, Percaline kicked off her shoes, fell on the bed, and closed her eyes. She was out.

  They were at the sanatorium again, but this time they were right outside of the gate that separated it from the rest of the Underworld. Jon crouched down and pulled Percaline down with him.

  “What are we doing?” Percaline asked him.

  “We’re waiting,” Jon replied.

  They were both cloaked in shadow, looking through a chain link fence at a street just outside of the sanatorium. Percaline watched as a horse with red eyes pulled a carriage up in front of the building. The driver held up a lantern that cut through the fog. The horse halted and the driver got out of his seat. He was wearing black clothing so she couldn’t make out any personal details about him except for his eyes. He had yellow demon eyes like the ones they had seen when they first entered the Underworld.

  The man walked behind the carriage to open the main door. He held a lady’s hand as he helped her out. Unlike the man, the woman was very recognizable. It was Mischelle.

  “Mischelle,” Percaline said and grabbed for the sword that should have been on her back but wasn’t because she was still sleeping.

  “Stop. She’ll see you,” Jon whispered as he pulled her back down into a crouching position.

  Percaline nodded and watched, not understanding how Mischelle would see her if she wasn’t really there.

  Mischelle was in the middle of a conversation on her phone. “They should be arriving any minute,” she said, walking briskly towards the gate. “As soon as they get here we’ll begin,” she said as the driver opened the gate for her. She listened for a moment.

  “Yes, the spell will work and the gate will open.”

  “What is she doing here?” Percaline asked Jon.

  Jon put his finger to his mouth. “Listen, this is important.”

  “Yes, we know it will work because the girl is the biological sister of the phoenix,” Mischelle said. The massive doors to the sanatorium seemed to open by themselves to let her in. She passed through and with a thud the doors closed.

  Percaline’s heart jumped a beat. “Is she talking about Savannah?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Jon said simply. “You’ve got to hurry. Wake up Percaline! Wake up!”

  Savannah

  Savannah kept watching the window in the door to see if Rainata was coming back to class. She’d excused herself from class after she received an important text from Blake and she still hadn’t come back. She had told Savannah and Mason to remain in class until she returned. It was the period before last which was History and one of the only classes Savannah had with Mason. Mason hadn’t even noticed because at the moment he was drooling on his desk in the middle of a nap. Ms. Fields, the professor, kept walking by but even she could tell that he wasn’t feeling well and needed the rest.

  Rainata’s head finally appeared in the window as the bell sounded to signify the end of the class. Mason sat up with a start, his eyes still baggy and his skin paler than it had been. Only one more class to go before he could leave.

  “I feel like poop,” he said as they met Rainata in the hallway. Rainata turned from them and started hurriedly leading them down the hallway towards their lockers.

  “Where have you been? What was the text about?” Savannah asked her once they passed the lockers without stopping, apparently destined for the side exit.

  “Blake said he spotted some people outside of the school and followed them to your house. They’re waiting to ambush us there,” Rainata said as she bumped into Brie, who was removing something from her bag.

  “Excuse me!” Brie screamed after Rainata. “Watch where you’re going!”

  Rainata didn’t stop walking and she didn’t apologize, hiding something from view. “Hurry, we need to get going. We’ll use the entrance at Mason’s house.”

  Once they were out the door, Rainata revealed what she’d been carrying in her hand. She’d taken the keys to Brie’s BMW away from her. Mason perked up. “Yes! I’ll drive,” he said, standing by the driver’s side door. Rainata threw him the keys.

  They slowly approached Mason’s house looking for any sign of trouble, but all appeared to be quiet on the street.

  “What about my mom?” Mason asked. “Will she be okay? Maybe I should stay here with her.”

  “For the moment your mom’s fine. She’s working at the Children’s Hospital,” Rainata replied.

  Mason’s mom, now that she was retired, volunteered her time at hospital in the burn unit. She was a brave and generous lady. His dad also volunteered his time, but he worked in the gift shop where his social quirks were less noticeable and mostly only seen by adults and not children.

  “Do you think it’s a good idea to use this entrance? Maybe we should call Percaline or use the Truthaven entrance?” Savannah asked. Her heart was pounding a thousand miles a minute.

  “I was told by your sister to bring you guys through this entrance,” Rainata said as Mason parked the car on the street. “She said she and Lucas would be waiting for us on the other side.”

  Everyone exited the car and ran to the house. Mason fumbled with his keys, finally removing them from his backpack. As soon as they were in the house they ran to the bedroom, leaving everything in the living room and hallway exactly as it had been so there wasn’t any sign left that they had been there.

  Savannah watched as Rainata approached the door to the Underworld. She first felt around for the boundary. Something wasn’t right. Why hadn’t Percaline texted or called Savannah directly? Then Savannah saw what was wrong, or rather, she didn’t see it. Rainata’s right hand didn’t have the Saint Beaumont insignia on it. She caught the eye of Mason, who still looked rather hesitant about leaving his mother. Savannah pointed to her right hand and nodded to Rainata’s right hand. It took a couple of seconds but Mason caught on. Rainata moved away from the door, seeming like she was letting them go in first. Savannah moved slowly, trying not to not make any unusual motions, and removed a water bottle from her bag and handed it to Mason. She pulled out another one for herself and sneakily slipped a pocket knife from out of her sweatshirt pocket and held it between her fingers.

  “Okay, Savannah why don’t you go first?” Rainata said, pushing her towards the door. Savannah looked behind her as Mason sprayed Rainata in the face with water. Rainata didn’t flinch but it made her mad enough to pick him up and throw him through the doorway. Savannah had pulled her pocket knife out, ready to fight, but she jumped through the door to follow Mason. She didn’t know what was on the other side but she knew it wasn’t good.

  She fell weightlessly like she had on her first time going to the Underworld from Truthaven. It was enough time to assess the situation. She needed to get Mason to the House. A few seconds later she plummeted through a hole, falling on to
a cobblestone alley. She still had a hold of her knife and she hid it in her hand as she stood up, ready to use it on anyone who came her way.

  “Behind you,” Mason yelled. He was only a couple feet away from her but had two big men holding him. Rainata fell through the tube and hit the ground, immediately getting up and grabbing Savannah. She gripped Savannah’s throat and held her up, walking her over to men holding Mason. “What gave it away?” she asked as she transformed from Rainata into Blake.

  “You forgot her tattoo,” Savannah said, keeping the tips of her toes on the ground as they backed up keep him from choking her. One of the goons holding Mason was on the phone. “Yeah, we have them,” he said and hung up.

  “Who was that? Mischelle?” Savannah asked.

  Blake spoke so close to her ear she could feel his spit. “It is, and we have a very special treat for you today.”

  “How were you able to get past the defenses of the House?” Savannah asked, trying to free buy some time and free her knife hand from under his weight.

  “The House protects against intruders wanting to harm the phoenix. I don’t want to harm the phoenix. It’s all in the way you think about things. It’s like passing a lie detector test. If you believe it, the House believes it. It was difficult having to spend all that time in there with you all and then trying to sneak out at night. I was happy I only had to stay there two nights before I got to stay with Mason’s mom,” Blake spat. He livened up as he talked about Nancy.

  “If you did anything to her I’ll kill you!” Mason yelled.

  “Your mom’s fine. She’s at the hospital like I said she was. I didn’t want to blow my cover in case this…” he gestured with one hand, freeing up Savannah’s knife hand, “didn’t work out.”

  “And what about Rainata?” Savannah asked. She slid the knife over her palm so she could wrap her hand around the hilt.

  “I’d imagine she’s still unconscious in the bathroom,” Blake laughed. “Stupid girl.”

  That was the moment Savannah needed. She plunged the knife into Blake’s thigh and twisted it, a move she’d seem in the movie Face/Off and remembered. Blake screamed in pain and let go of her throat long enough for her to push down on his hand and push out with her butt then flip him over her back. He was still screaming in pain when Savannah covered his throat with her foot. One of the goons that held Mason let go of him and changed shape. Savannah should have recognized him from the bite marks that still covered his face, but she didn’t put in together until she saw him as a wolf. He was the reason Mason was now a werewolf. Mason noticed this too. Apparently the beating he took from Josephine throwing him into a brick wall didn’t kill him.

  “Stay where you’re at or I smash his larynx,” Savannah said, giving the werewolf a direct order. She hoped that he needed Blake alive, otherwise her plan wouldn’t work. The werewolf stopped moving. Blake was going to bleed out from the wound in his leg anyway, so it wasn’t like he was going to walk away from this.

  The other goon still holding Mason tightened his grip. “Let her kill him. He means nothing,” he said.

  The werewolf stepped closer to Savannah. She held onto her knife, hoping that it was long enough to stab into his brain or his heart. He snarled, but Savannah was saved as Rainata, the real Rainata, suddenly dropped out of the tube.

  She landed cat-like on her feet, not stopping to assess the situation but just running head first towards the bad guys. She went after the werewolf who was poised to attack Savannah. This afforded Mason enough time to step on his captor’s foot, elbow him in the chest, and turn and kick him in the balls.

  Mason ran towards Savannah while Rainata fought the werewolf, yelling at the both of them to run home. Mason’s captor followed them so Savannah moved to stab him in the chest. She missed. Blake, who was still bleeding out on the cobblestones, grabbed for Mason’s foot and seized it. Savannah danced around Mason’s attacker. She stabbed at him again, missing his heart but sinking the knife into his sternum. She let go of the knife and it stayed in his body. He smiled at her and slapped her across the face.

  Mason kicked Blake in the face, then moved to help Savannah. “No, run. Get help. Get Percaline!” she cried out to him. The man who had slapped her pulled her up off the ground by her hair. Rainata continued to fight with the werewolf. “Call Griselda!” Savannah said as the man’s hand came down on her face again and everything went black.