More than a Phoenix

by Ashlyn Chase

  Grasping the precious spell book to her bosom, she rushed back the way she came but stopped before entering the living room. “Come on, Noah. Let’s get out of here through the kitchen. I have my phone, and we can call the fire department from outside.”

  “Yeah. I thought I could get it under control, but it’s too late for that.”

  He looked at her strangely when she glanced up at him, but he didn’t say anything until they were safely out of the house.

  It was more important to get the fire department there immediately than to hold up the pretense of blindness. She tucked the book under one arm and dialed 911 to report the fire.

  As soon as she hung up, she noticed Noah staring at the book. Then he looked up and stared at her eyes. “You can see…”

  “I—I must have recovered.”

  He looked at her skeptically, then pointed to the book. “Where did you get that? I have one just like it.”

  She gasped. “You have the other one?”

  “There are two of them?”

  “Three, actually. And we can’t let them fall into anyone else’s hands.”

  Two men came around the back corner of the house, both pointing guns at them.

  Oh no! The entity found us.

  “Give the book to me,” the older one said.

  Kizzy clasped it to her chest hard and backed up. “No.”

  Noah stepped in front of her. “Leave. Now.”

  The younger blond man looked at his partner and smirked. “Oh, he asked us to leave. I guess we should just go then.”

  The older man raked the salt-and-pepper hair out of his ice-blue eyes and chuckled. “We’re not going anywhere without that book. Hand it over.”

  Kizzy glanced between Noah and the two advancing men. She couldn’t let anything happen to him. “Noah, step aside.”

  “Yeah. Get out of the way, boy,” the older man said.

  “I’m not leaving.” Sirens interrupted the tense conversation. “The cops and fire department will be here any second.”

  “Then there’s no time to waste.” The younger one raised his pistol and aimed it right at Noah’s head.

  “No!” Kizzy swept the air and pushed Noah aside without touching him. Then she punched the air in front of her, and the two stunned criminals flew backward, landing on their butts. Their weapons flew out of their hands and landed a few feet away. They staggered to their feet, and as soon as they regained their equilibrium, the older man scrambled for his gun.

  Kizzy tossed the book to Noah, then held out her hands, and the guns jumped into them. Now she was armed, and her assailants were on the defensive.

  “Let’s get out of here,” the younger of the two men cried.

  “Not until we have that book!”

  As the first fire truck pulled up out front, so did the cops.

  Kizzy drew a circle in the air, enclosing Noah and the book in a translucent bubble.

  “Shit. We can’t afford to get arrested. Run!” The two perpetrators rushed through the hedges toward the next street.

  Kizzy drew the circle the opposite way, and the bubble dissipated.

  Noah put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  What could she say? She was definitely not okay. She had just used her powers in front of three people. All humans. She had broken one of the strictest rules of the paranormal world.

  In his best Ricky Ricardo accent, Noah said, “Lucy, you got some ’splainin’ to do, but it can wait. Let’s meet the firefighters and tell them what we know.”

  Her startled gaze snapped to his face.

  “About where the fire started and how. I have the feeling there’s a lot more to know than what you’ve told me, but I’ll let you take the lead on that.”

  “Please don’t say anything about me and what I can do.”

  “Don’t worry, babe. I have secrets too. At some point, we’ll share them. I trust you.”

  She smiled. “I trust you too.”

  * * *

  Kizzy was on the phone with her father. Or she would be if he hadn’t placed her on hold. The fire department was just finishing up, and they’d managed to save most of the home. The police had taken statements from both Noah and Kizzy. Nick Wolfensen had been delayed at home, and when he finally arrived, he said he felt terrible about leaving her alone for so long.

  That’s when Noah spoke up. “She wasn’t alone. I was here.”

  Kizzy slipped her arm around his waist. “I don’t know what I would have done without Noah. He really did save me—and more of the house than I could or would have by myself.”

  Kizzy’s father came on the line. “What happened?”

  “The house caught fire. Somebody threw something like a Molotov cocktail through the window.”

  “My God! Are you all right?”

  “Yes. Umm…my vision even came back.”

  Dr. Samuels said, “Put Nick Wolfensen on the phone.”

  If Noah didn’t have paranormal hearing, he wouldn’t have been able to follow the conversation. Nick grabbed the phone and moved a few paces away.

  “Where were you, Wolfensen? Is Kizzy really okay?”

  “Yes. Kizzy must have had to lift the blindness spell to get out. I’m sorry, Dr. Samuels. Truly, I am. My wife needed my help with something, and I thought Kizzy would be okay for a few minutes. Fortunately, the young man, Noah, was with her. He’s a firefighter and did contain the fire to a smaller area while Kizzy got out and called 911.”

  Nick glanced over at them. With one hand around Kizzy’s waist and the other in his pocket, Noah tried to look casual and supportive. Not possessive.

  “Why were they alone together? You were supposed to make sure they stayed apart.”

  Wolfensen turned away and growled into the phone. “She’s a grown-ass woman. If she wants to see him, there’s nothing you or I can do about it. I wouldn’t want to stop her from having a friend.”

  “Sure, having him as a friend and talking on the phone is fine. But now he’s saved her life, and she’ll probably think of him as some kind of hero. I had hoped by her being blind, she’d not be under the influence of the handsome firefighter’s looks. If she’d actually get to know the guy, who is probably just an average Joe Schmoe, she’d realize she can do better. I thought by letting her discover that on her own, she’d make the right decision.”

  Noah tried not to show his irritation. How dare this guy assume he was some kind of moron? He became a firefighter because he wanted to. He could’ve gone to college, but why? His destiny was to protect the city just as his father and his grandfather had, and he was the sixth brother to follow that path. He was proud to be one of the legendary Fierro firefighters.

  “Now she’ll be gazing up at him with adoration,” Dr. Samuels said, sounding dismayed.

  “Maybe she genuinely cares for him. He seems like a good guy,” Nick was saying. “Won’t you even give him a chance?”

  After a brief silence, the elder Samuels said, “I hadn’t realized I’d hired a relationships expert. I thought I’d hired a PI and bodyguard for my daughter.”

  Nick shrugged absently. “You did. And if that’s all you want, that’s all you’ll get.”

  Noah had hoped to invite Kizzy to his place, but he didn’t know what kind of luck he’d have now. She had already snuck in the back door and put the book back in its hiding place. It was probably time to find out where her loyalties lay.

  He bent and whispered in her ear. “Why don’t we go to my place? There’s nothing you can do here now, and I can show you the other book.”

  Her gaze snapped to his face. “You would do that? Show me the other book?”

  “Absolutely. It’s important to compare them, but it seems as if they’d be safer apart…for now.”

  “You’re right. Let me just speak to my father for a
minute.”

  Noah nodded and removed his arm. He watched as she strolled over to Nick’s side and waited her turn.

  “I think your daughter wants to speak to you.”

  “Put her on.”

  “Dad, I’m going to Noah’s apartment for a little while. I need to tell you something but not here with all these people around.”

  “Can you stay there until I get home?”

  “The place is a mess, and I don’t even know if we can live in it.”

  At last, her father sighed. “Wait until I get there. Then I want you back home as soon as things settle down. I can wait for the insurance inspector and the fire inspector, but the minute they deem the place safe to go in, we’ll grab some important things and relocate. I also want to ask you some specific questions about how close they came to the you-know-what.”

  “Very, but with Noah’s help, they didn’t get it.”

  “How did he help?”

  “I tossed him the book so I could have both hands free. He held it so I could use my powers to force the entity to retreat.”

  Dr. Samuels’s voice raised. “Did he see what you did?”

  “Yes. There was no way to avoid it. And he didn’t freak out. We haven’t had a chance to talk about it, but I think we need to do that and soon. There’s something else I want to check out at his place. Something he just told me about.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’ll tell you after I see it. It might be something important or nothing at all. I won’t know until I see for myself.”

  “Fine. Just don’t leave yet. Let me get there first. Can you hand the phone to the police? I’d like to talk to whomever is in charge.”

  Kizzy returned to Noah while her father spoke to the police and the fire chief. He must have asked to speak to Noah, because the chief walked over to the two of them and handed Noah the phone.

  “Hello, sir.”

  “I understand Kizzy wants to go to your apartment. For how long?”

  Noah looked at Kizzy. “I wasn’t planning on an overnight guest. I just thought…”

  “Yeah, I don’t need to stay overnight,” Kizzy said quickly. “I’m sure we’ll all go to a hotel, won’t we, Dad? I just wanted to get out of this place and…”

  “I understand,” he said. “Why don’t you both come out to dinner with me?”

  “No, Dad. I really need to see something at his place. I can meet you at a restaurant later.”

  “That’s fine. Can you come to Elephant Walk at seven?”

  “I should be able to be there by sevenish. I’ll call if I’m going to be late.”

  “Good. And, honey?”

  “Yes?”

  “Forget what I said about Noah. If he kept you safe, he’s all right with me.”

  * * *

  Kizzy couldn’t wait to see the book, but she wasn’t going to rudely interrupt Noah as he showed her around his makeshift chemistry lab. She was right. He was kind of geeky, but in a sexy way. Whenever he walked by her, he touched her in some gentle way, like running his warm hand across her back. His touch made her shiver.

  “So you thought the book was about alchemy?”

  “Yeah. I still do unless…”

  “Unless?”

  “Unless you see something in there that changes the interpretation. You know your book. Maybe we can figure out how it fits with mine.”

  “I won’t be able to draw any parallels…if I don’t see the book.”

  Noah laughed. “Yeah, I guess I should show it to you.” He opened the closet and took the leather-bound book off the top shelf.

  Once she had it in her hands, Kizzy knew this was indeed one of the companion books. She opened it and hoped it referred to certain pagan rituals. Then she might be able to piece together not only what this was, but also why the books were separated.

  “Noah, this is a breakthrough. You have the ingredients of each spell, and we have the words.”

  “It’s a spell book?”

  “Yes. One of three.”

  “And you know this because…you’re a witch?”

  “Um, yeah.”

  Noah laughed. “I just realized something. You’re a witch and a doctor. Does that make you a witch doctor?”

  “Hardy-har.” She had to get back to the book. There’d be time for teasing later—she hoped. “I don’t know what the entity has, but most spells consist of certain props and particular words and steps that go with them. Maybe theirs is choreography, or a code breaker, or something.”

  “So, you’re saying that my alchemy ingredients would probably never work without the wording that goes with it.”

  “That’s what I’m guessing. Can I sit down and study this for a while?”

  “Of course. Find a comfortable spot in the living room. Can I get you something to drink? About all we have is coffee and beer.” He laughed. “Ice water if you don’t like either of those.”

  “After the day I’ve had, I think I’d like a beer.” Kizzy wandered back to the living room, gazing at the book the whole way. She found a comfortable chair, plopped down on it, and pored over the book in more detail.

  What she saw was indeed some ingredients, but they were listed in an order she didn’t understand. She and her sister had been instructed to study their book backward and forward. She couldn’t make the ingredients go with the spells they had. For instance, the ingredients that would help turn lead to gold didn’t match up with their words for increased wealth in a different section of the book. That’s what made her think the third book might be an index. If she were creating this set of books, that’s how she would do it. Let each one contain only part of the information needed, but use a third one to decode everything, in case they fell into the wrong hands.

  When Noah returned with her glass of foamy ale, she sipped it gratefully.

  Noah gave her an intense look. “I think it’s time we had that talk about who we really are. Our hidden identities.”

  She set the beer glass on the table next to her and licked the foam off her top lip. “You’re right. You know my secret. I’m a witch, if you want to put a label on it. And you said you had some secret too, but I have no idea what it is.”

  “Should I tell you or show you?”

  “Oh, show and tell.” She smiled. “You decide which to do first.”

  “Okay. Sit tight.” He unbuttoned the top of his shirt.

  Noah’s body shrank and changed shape. Suddenly, a bird with colorful tail feathers flew out of his open collar. He made a couple of rounds of the large living room before he landed on the floor behind the coffee table. At last, he grew and changed back into his human form, in all its naked glory.

  The coffee table hid his private bits. He raised one hand. “Toss me my jeans, will you?”

  Kizzy plucked the pants off the floor, rolled them into a ball, and threw them to him. He snatched them out of the air and managed to get them on without exposing himself.

  “You don’t need to be shy around me. I’ve seen it all before.” She gave him a teasing grin.

  Noah smiled. “You’ve seen a phoenix before?”

  Kizzy knew he was purposely misunderstanding her. “Is that what you are? A phoenix?”

  “Yes. That’s why we make good firefighters. If fatally injured in a fire, we’ll reincarnate. We can take chances regular humans can’t and shouldn’t. At the same time, we have to be careful not to let anyone see our supernatural side. My brother Ryan died in a high-rise backdraft. There was a very public funeral for him.”

  “That’s right! I remember now. I thought I had heard the name Fierro—and not just because of the type of Pontiac. So, he’s actually alive? Just reincarnated?”

  “Yup. He lives in a castle in Ireland. And then, my brother Jayce died when… Well, it’s a long story. But he came back, and now he’s
a firehouse captain.”

  Kizzy could hardly believe what she was hearing, but she had seen it with her own eyes. Noah was a shape-shifter! She had heard of those, of course. Nick Wolfensen was a shape-shifter—a werewolf. But she had only heard of the phoenix as a legend…a myth.

  “I’m a little stunned. I have to admit, you handled seeing my powers better than I’m handling yours.”

  “Really?” He rose and strolled over to her. Sitting on the ottoman in front of her, he took her hands in his and leaned forward. “Are you upset about it? I’m not dangerous. I’d never hurt you.”

  “Upset? Heck no. I’m thrilled. If anything happened to you…”

  Noah smiled. “Can you finish that sentence?”

  She took a deep breath. “I’ll try. If you died in a fire, a piece of me would die with you. I’m falling in love with you, Noah.”

  He grinned, then lifted her hands to his lips and kissed each knuckle. When he had finished, he said, “I love you too,” then pulled her closer and kissed her lips, deepening the kiss when she opened her mouth and sought his tongue.

  The kiss grew hot. He scooped her under her buttocks and lifted her onto his lap easily. She was at the perfect height for them to devour each other’s mouths.

  When they finally broke apart, they were both panting. He cupped the back of her head and pulled her into a warm hug. She held him long and tight. When they finally pulled apart, they clasped hands.

  Kizzy suddenly realized something. “I’m glad we were friends first. I was attracted to you immediately, but if I had acted on attraction alone, I would wonder whether this was love or lust.”

  “I guess I know what you mean. It was the same for me, but with one exception.”

  “What was that?”

  “For me, it’s love and lust. I want you, Kizzy, but I don’t have a condom.”

  She rested her forehand against his and gazed down at their clasped hands. “I want you too. And I can create a magical condom.”

  Noah’s brows shot up in surprise. He rose and pulled Kizzy up with him. He led her to his bedroom, closing the door behind her. They gazed at each other for a moment and then began unbuttoning and unzipping each other’s clothing. Slowly and carefully, they removed each piece, folding and placing everything on top of the dresser.