by Claire Davon
Kamal’s expression was shuttered. “We have never taken a side. This war does not concern us. It is far beyond our understanding. It is the same with most paranormals.” He nodded to Rachel, who stared at him without comprehension. “Win or lose, Elementals or Demonos, the paranormals survive.”
“We live in this world,” Rachel protested.
“You would survive even a full-scale human annihilation. All half-breeds are immune to the slaughter.”
“We live in this world!” Rachel couldn’t stop the dismay in her voice.
To Rachel’s surprise, Kamal smiled at her. “You take after your mother.”
“What happened to Farouk? Where is he?” Picking up a blank sheet of the paper that had been fluttering around the floor, Phoenix wrote the name Farouk on there with a question mark and flicked it down onto the floor in its own pile.
Kamal’s expression grew uneasy. “That is why I am here. He is on his way. We discovered he has been missing for a few days, and I came immediately.”
A strange feeling dug into her spine, like a spike making its slow way up her body. “Could he be part of this?”
Kamal made a motion with his hand like a seesaw, back and forth. “It is possible. He is very family-oriented, proud of being a pure Ifrit. His loyalty is to his family, himself, and then the Ifrit clan. He has already killed once.”
Twice, Rachel thought to herself.
Phoenix’s eyes clouded. He quickly scrawled Ifrit on another blank page and sent it down to the same pile.
Kamal’s wings quivered slightly, but she couldn’t tell if they were shaking in silent amusement or anger. Before she could say anything more, Kamal spoke again.
“It has always been understood that we do not interfere.”
“Why?” Her voice was as tight as her lips.
Kamal shook his head. “There are many things we don’t know, and many more we don’t need to know. It has worked for thousands of years—for all of us. We have a saying: ‘avoid that which requires an apology’. As long as we stay neutral, we need not apologize. We are not going to, what is the saying, rock the boat now.”
Rachel found her fury growing again. “Dammit, Grandfather, these are people we’re talking about.” Heat rose in her cheeks, reminding Rachel of the vampire’s lack of blood. Rachel shivered.
“Your Phoenix may have been human once, but he hasn’t been human for over a millennium.” Kamal’s gaze took in her thin lips, the high color in her cheeks, and her stiff body. He sighed. “Habibti, I will take care of you, but I should not interfere further. However, you are my granddaughter. I won’t let what happened to your mother happen to you.” He glanced over at the papers on the desk and floor and tipped his wing to them. “If Farouk comes, I will be waiting.” He shrugged in a way that she usually did. “I can tell you this. Your research, everything is meaningless.”
Phoenix stiffened, and if he had still had his wings, she thought they would have bristled.
“This is good stuff,” Rachel said indignantly.
“It is good research for your other Elementals. Their Challenges have also started, as you must be aware. The Sphynx left India a little while ago.”
“Some paranormals have tried to stop Rachel, but other than that, we haven’t found many signs of Challenge,” Phoenix said.
He turned the wing to Phoenix. “The signs started when you moved here. When Farouk killed Rachel’s parents. You were drawn here, to San Francisco, for Rachel, but also for something else.” Phoenix frowned at him. “You were summoned to your Challenge.”
“Of course.”
“The reason you can’t find a link to your Challenge, the reason you haven’t been able to determine where it is, is because it’s right here.”
Rachel nodded, realizing her instincts had been right before. She had known, somehow, that Challenge could only happen in one place. “Who? How?”
Kamal shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s coming, though, and soon. It’s human. That is why you can’t find it.” He turned to Rachel. “Habibti, you have great power in you. Use it wisely.” He gripped Rachel’s shoulders again and kissed her forehead before he stepped back. He paused and then held a hand out to Phoenix. Phoenix took the proffered hand and pumped it once. Kamal took another step back, toward the broken door. “I must go, but I will be watching. Phoenix, take care of her. Good luck.”
Rachel wanted to argue, but after a look at her grandfather, she let it drop. Feeling strange and uncertain, she went to him. The big man looked down at her from his superior height, his face gentle.
After a moment, he held out his arms. Rachel stepped into his embrace and hugged him. Her hands landed on his leathery wings. The heat of him against her skin and the cinnamon/clove scent permeated her nostrils as they hugged.
His large chest sighed out a breath. “I love you, habibti. You are my only living descendant.” He pulled back and Rachel tilted her head up to him. “I will protect you.” He gave Phoenix a stern look. “You will protect her as well, or you will have me to answer to.”
Phoenix smiled, but it was a ruthless smile. “She is mine to protect, Ifrit.” There was an undercurrent in his voice.
Kamal released Rachel and stepped back again. “I see how it is. I am glad.” He raised a hand in farewell and his wings followed. Phoenix’s wings were soft and feathered, and Kamal’s more like dragon wings. Rachel was mesmerized by the difference in their anatomy. “Farewell, Elemental. Farewell, granddaughter.”
After he left, Phoenix looked at Rachel thoughtfully. “I have underestimated you.”
She smiled wanly. “The good news is that they had a reason to warn me off. Even if we don’t understand it.” She moved to Phoenix. “The bad news is that I need to learn how to use my powers.”
She touched him, their skins still warm from the dance of the flames. The fire called to her, and she moved into his arms. They went around her in an instant, pulling her close.
His mind was barred deftly, with a durable wall. Emotions danced around the edges of the barrier. She touched it with her own and felt him yield, but his true mind was still shuttered. “Aleric?”
“Ah…” He pressed his lips to hers, his mind still closed. “I am glad you are with me. I am glad we are together.”
She blinked once, remembering JT giving her the “eyes” that cats did when they were happy. It wasn’t a declaration of love, but it would do. “I’m glad we are too.”
There was something beating in his mind, but she couldn’t pick it out.
“When all this is done, after Challenge, we will have a different conversation.”
“Aleric.” It would be enough. She would make it be enough. He was too much of a warrior to do anything else.
He kissed her again, a fierce warrior’s claiming, taking her tongue. She yielded in his arms, meeting his passion with her own fierce need, her body quickening.
“I haven’t had a companion since I became the Phoenix,” he murmured, cupping her face in his hands. Something lingered, a wisp of green scales, but that wasn’t the entire truth. She would find out, in time. For now, it didn’t seem to matter. “If we survive this, if we win this battle, there will be much to say. Will you be there?”
“Always.” As long as always was.
“Good.” He studied the shattered door regretfully. “I’d love tear your clothes off, but this house is a hazard. We need Elementals, Inc. to come in and deal with this.”
She winked at him. “There is always later.” She hoped there would be a lot of laters.
Chapter Eleven
Kamal’s words stayed with Phoenix throughout the day, even as the house was repaired by handymen, courtesy of the San Francisco branch of the company.
Your threat is right here.
Of course it was. There was always a purpose to the Challenges, a rhythm, a pattern to the test. T
hankfully he hadn’t followed any of the leads, which he realized now were nothing but empty roads. They weren’t entirely false. For some they rang true, but not for him. His Challenge was right here in San Francisco.
He’d been played by the Demonos, who was cleverer than he’d remembered. He’d been lured into looking outside the obvious, thinking it too apparent. He’d thought his starting point was San Francisco, not his ending point as well.
Phoenix eased out of bed, careful not to wake Rachel, and began to pace the living room. His wings had not manifested; danger was not imminent.
JT came out, blinking, and meowed at him. Phoenix scratched the cat’s ears and the feline purred before pulling away to go to his cat bed to curl up.
Phoenix flipped on a light, barely registering the repaired living room and the giant whiteboard standing in the corner. Efficiency was expected of the employees who worked for Elementals, Inc., and this house was no exception.
Sifting through the notes, he found the article he’d been half remembering in his dreams.
Chicago Mayor Visits San Francisco.
The Chicago mayor was of Croatian descent, a country with a longstanding distrust of Serbians. Perhaps there was an Eastern Europe connection after all. He wrote the mayor’s name and the date of the trip on the board with three lines under it for emphasis. As his mind cleared, he felt the rightness of this path.
It was an innocuous visit on its surface, just a mayor visiting another city. There was nothing special to tie it in to Challenge. Mayors made public appearances all the time. Even with the unrest in the region she was originally from, he had focused more on other areas such as the Ukraine. The Ukraine had had its own share of troubles with Russia, and Phoenix would have thought a threat could emanate from there. This didn’t seem big enough to register. It was a dignitary visiting an old friend. Nothing more.
Phoenix cursed under his breath. Rachel had mentioned this visit twice, and he had ignored it both times. Russia was unstable, its annexation of a portion of Ukraine still reverberating. Eastern Europe and the Turkic republics were always in unrest. If there was an incident during this visit, the outcome could be grave. All it would take was a push from the Demonos during the aftermath, the suggestion that America had done this on purpose, and it could inflame the region. In this day of modern warfare, splinter groups didn’t need more than a few nukes to wreak havoc. Suicide bombers had shown that when people were willing to sacrifice their lives, it was hard to stop them.
Phoenix had little faith in mankind’s ability to see through the falsehoods spun by the Demonos. He had little faith in humans, period. For that matter, he didn’t have much faith in anyone except his fellow Elementals.
Rachel stood in the doorway. Her eyes flicked to him, a question in them. They hadn’t started putting their notes on the board, and the mayor’s name stood out.
“This is it? This is what Grandfather meant?”
An oath formed on Phoenix’s lips but he did not verbalize it. He nodded. “I think so.”
“When?” She walked to him and stood beside him, gesturing to the crumpled newspaper headline in his hands.
Phoenix wrote the date from the article on the board.
“A week? Okay. That doesn’t give us much time.” She paused. “I knew a Croatian lady once. We were friends for a while. She hated Serbians. I remember when that other Chicago mayor was found guilty of corruption, she told me, and she was serious, ‘What do you expect from a Serb?’”
He tried to respond, but he failed. His Challenge had almost been lost before it began. The lines of Rachel’s face pulled into a frown. His silence had gone on too long.
She shook her head in a motion similar to that of a person shaking off water droplets. Finally she managed a smile that seemed as insincere as the one he’d turned on her. “We found it. It’s not too late.”
Phoenix pulled her to him. The printout fluttered to the floor.
“Hey,” she said. “This isn’t like you.” She tapped him gently with her fists against his back. “Why so glum?”
“I would have missed it.”
“You didn’t.” Her fists spread back into hands, her palms warm. The feel of her skin was a balm to his senses.
“We didn’t,” he corrected. “Your grandfather didn’t.”
Rachel smiled. “That’s why we have friends. Even Elementals need them.”
With a jolt, Phoenix grasped he was being manipulated. The wave of helplessness coated him, urging him to lose his Challenge. He was an Elemental. He would be better off without humans.
At a millennium old, having faced the Phoenix fire several times, sometimes Phoenix had been tempted to let life go. Sometimes he wanted to rest and see if there was anything after this. Mostly, though, just to finally put an end to the struggle.
That had all changed. He didn’t want to give up the fight. Not now. It wasn’t the time to tell her, but he had fallen in love. That it was her, this combination of untested fire power and human, was unexpected. He had always thought that if he ever gave his heart away, it would be to a goddess or another, more sophisticated paranormal. Instead love came in the form of this half-Ifrit, untried and unproven. It was proof that in the end, Elemental or no, he still had a human heart. He had given it to Rachel. He wouldn’t tell her, not until Challenge was over. That would be the proper time.
Phoenix shifted and straightened. Rachel’s posture was tense, her brow furrowed.
“You will not win.” Haures’s mental voice was harsh.
There was a laugh in his mind, and the Demonos retreated.
“We will see,” Phoenix said, sending an arrow of red-hot anger out.
* * * * *
“We will see, Aleric,” Rachel said, repeating his words out loud. “We will do more than see; we will win.”
Phoenix’s despair shot through Rachel, lodging hooks in her core. Icy tendrils of worry slipped through her veins. She needed him—not just physically, but to rise to his Challenge. Taking his shoulders, she shook him. “I need you, Aleric. The world needs you. Let me be scared while you are the big, tough guy saving the planet.”
He chuckled, and his face lit up, telling her it was real. “It’s not the planet I save, it’s humans.”
“Them too.”
“Rachel.” His voice was gentle. “If we don’t, if we fail…”
“You won’t fail.”
“If we do, you will still be safe. Only humans are affected.”
“I’m part human. You used to be human.” She busied herself with writing information on the whiteboard. She didn’t know how to fix Phoenix or the Challenge, other than with what she could offer. She hoped it was enough.
“I haven’t been human since Roman Europe marked the date in three numbers.”
She paused in her writing. She would never see the things he had seen. She would never experience the things he had experienced, except through his memories. He might look no more than thirty, but he was older than everything around her. “You were human once,” she said. “You are here to protect humans. You can’t give up now. You can’t.” She turned from the whiteboard, marker still in hand.
Finally, he sighed. “I’m not going to give up. I have thought recently that it would be fine if there were no humans. I get tired of protecting people who don’t know I exist and who would try to destroy me if they knew what I was. But that’s changed. I’m not going to give up. If all else fails, you are worth it.”
Rachel flushed. “You’ve known hundreds of women…”
He put a hand up and she stuttered to a halt. “I have had lovers, yes. I told you I contract with the Dhampirs when I want a bedmate.” He paused. “I was unmarried when I became an Elemental. In my centuries as the Phoenix, only once have I had what we would consider a true mate. It was early in my tenure. I made the mistake of thinking that all fire beings were comp
atible. After all, fire calls to fire.”
Her hand stilled. This was the piece that had been missing, the one he had concealed from her this entire time. The flush Rachel felt had nothing to do with desire. “Will you tell me?”
He came up behind her and slipped his arms around her, curling his fingers over her belly and rocking her gently. “I wanted, and had, many women when I was human. Warriors are like that. When I became the Phoenix, I was so absorbed in my new powers that I didn’t think about sex for a while. Until she came along.”
Rachel again had an impression of size, of something majestic and…scaly. She tilted her head, trying to capture the impression in her mind.
She couldn’t see Phoenix’s eyes, and she turned in his arms. They were clouded, the memories skittering in his mind like jagged shards, apparently still painful after many centuries.
Rachel waited, her hands on his forearms, at a loss for what to do. Wanting to move, she instead waited, forcing herself to keep still.
“As I said, it was early in my tenure as Phoenix. Elementals do not leave instructions behind for the ones who follow, which has been a problem with Ondine. We have to figure out the station as we go. I was fortunate in that I had almost a century from the time I became Phoenix to the time we faced Challenge.” He paused. “At the time it felt as if I was being Challenged. But it was not. Just the folly of a young man who should have known better. There were a different Griffin and Hippocampus at that time, and neither understood. Sphynx may have, but they did not interfere. Even back then, they were impossibly old.”
Rachel finally stroked his face, and Phoenix pressed his cheek into her touch. She sighed, glad that he had accepted her caress.
“You said fire calls to fire, and I feel that pull of kindred spirits. Is it like that for all fire beings?” If so, she hated them all. Phoenix was hers and nobody else’s.
His smile was grim with a hint of feral savagery.
“On the contrary, Rachel. Most fire beings come down on the other side. They tend to align with the Demonos. Even among your race, the Ifrits have been tales told to scare children rather than delight them.”
