[Nix 03.0] Rise of a Phoenix

by Shannon Mayer

  Noah had gone to the doorway and reached through.

  My eyes had to be deceiving me. They had to be. Bear stood there, his dark eyes wide but defiant. Dinah was still in her holster attached to his body.

  “Your soul, or your son’s.”

  Noah shoved Bear toward me and I caught him with one arm. This was my worst fear come to life. That I would be forced to leave him. Death was one thing, I could accept that I might die, but to give up what was left of my soul, to live as Noah and Justin were living? No, that I could not abide.

  But there was no choice. There was no way I was going to let Bear’s soul go to this demon.

  “No,” I said. “No.”

  “No, what?” Bazixal tipped his head. “The blood on that piece of paper means you have an agreement with me. I am owed a soul.”

  Rooster stepped out of the shadows. He moved to the other side of me and took the skin paper from my hand. “Then take mine.”

  Before I could stop him, he cut his finger on the tip of a knife and smeared it under Romano’s signature.

  Bazixal laughed. “You think that will save them? You are a fool.”

  Rooster looked at me. “Blood of an abnormal.”

  The blood of an abnormal was an accelerant and burned like nothing else. It had burned through the Stick Man when no other fire could touch him. Justin had been with me then as Simon, he knew. Hell, Noah had been with me then too. I shot a look at him. He blinked slowly as if . . . he knew now.

  I grabbed the paper and called up my fire. It lit the blood on fire while Bazixal reached for Rooster.

  Justin looked back at me, eyes full of sorrow. There were no words. There didn’t need to be. We were fighting for our son together—finally.

  “What are you doing?” Bazixal stopped his grab for Rooster, as if he felt the skin curling away in my hands, the words disappearing in a bloom of fire that could eat through anything.

  “Ending this,” I said.

  “Strike, stop her!” he yelled.

  Noah came at us fast, and had his hands on my arms in a split second.

  Pain rocked through me, instantaneous and powerful, a crushing wave that hammered me to the ocean floor. Pain was not even a word for it, too mild, too nothing. My bones and skin were being peeled apart, I was going to be nothing but flopping limbs when he was done with me.

  I fought the agony as it coursed through me, fought it . . . and a voice whispered to me.

  Eleanor.

  Don’t fight the pain. Let it flow through you. Be the vessel, my girl. Let the pain pass. Stop fighting it, embrace it.

  I didn’t want to give in, to give up. But her words . . . they made me think of the day Bear was born. Of the immense pain, the thought that I was going to die in childbirth because he was breech, that he would be orphaned before he was even breathing on his own.

  This pain was far worse now, but . . . it was the same too. Filling me, pushing me to the brink of my control, to the brink of my conditioning.

  I drew a breath and stopped fighting the swells of agony that rolled through me. I let them pass over my body and let my mind pull away from its connection to my nerves.

  I opened my eyes. Noah’s hands were still on me, Rooster was still in the clutches of Bazixal and the skin paper had stopped burning. I called my fire up once more but this time there was no anger in it. No pain.

  Just light and healing. The flames dulled to a pink so pale that they nearly went out. Bear’s eyes went to mine and I smiled at him. “Call your fire, Bear.”

  His body flooded with greens and blue as his flames flickered over his skin. He picked up the deal at our feet and held it out to me.

  “Together.”

  Our combined flames raced over the deal and met in the middle with a flash of heat so intense it created a blast of air. Noah was thrown away from me, and Rooster was thrown away from Bazixal.

  The demon roared as the fireplace began to shift and widen, flames reaching up for him. “You cannot kill me!”

  “But we can banish you,” I said. “You have no hold on us, Bazixal.”

  He roared as he reached for us, scrambling at the table and chairs, flinging them out of the way even as he was dragged back.

  “Strike. Grab her!”

  I looked over my shoulder and reached for Dinah out of the holster still attached to Bear with my free hand. I brought her up and fired twice, right into his head. She did not cry out. She didn’t try to stop me.

  Noah’s head snapped back, but he didn’t go down. I sidestepped, pushing Bear ahead of me with my hip. The deal was still burning.

  “It needs to be ash,” Rooster yelled. “It needs to be ash!”

  His words were cut off and I spun Dinah back toward him. Bazixal held him over his head, one hand wrapped around his throat. “Will you save him too?”

  “No,” I said. “I won’t.”

  The demon clenched harder, cutting Rooster’s neck clean through with his bare hand. “Then he dies for the last time.”

  I didn’t dare say that was what Rooster wanted. Bear trembled at my side, but his fire never wavered.

  Behind us, Noah stumbled. “I can’t grab her. The flame is too hot.”

  “No such thing!” Bazixal screamed. “It’s not possible.”

  “You need a third Ascendant,” Noah said. “You need a third to make this happen.”

  Bazixal roared, rage twisting his features. “Traitor!”

  Eleanor shivered where I had her tucked against me. “Me.” She whispered the word.

  I pulled the gun out.

  “Tear it apart,” she said. “Finish the breaking so I can be whole again.”

  It was as if she and I were alone. “Mom.”

  “It’s okay, Nix. Let me go, this was why I did what I did. I always knew that it would take three Ascendants to burn the deal. I wanted to be here for you.”

  I let the fire in my hands consume the gun, melting it away until it dripped into a puddle of molten hot metal at my feet.

  A wavering image flowed beside me and then she was there. Her face was like mine in shape, but otherwise she was fair to my dark. My mother smiled at me and raised her hand.

  “There was never any bringing me back. This is the last I can stand with you,” she said.

  Tears streaked my face and they seemed to feed the flames. Her hand swept out and laid over mine and Bear’s. “Hello, grandson.”

  He stared up at her. “Hello.”

  “I told you she would come, didn’t I?”

  He smiled up at her. “You were right. Thank you.”

  She reached down and brushed a hand over his head, then her eyes came back to me.

  “I have always been with you.”

  “I know that now,” I whispered.

  Bazixal screamed, but it was distant. He would be banished, but I knew it would not be forever. This was a moment I wanted to hang onto for as long as I could.

  Her flames were orange and white and they danced in between mine and Bear’s and the world grew dark around us while our fire ate up the danger in our hands.

  “It’s ash now,” Bear said. “It’s all gone.”

  He put his hand in mine, the ash gritty between our palms. My mother stood there a moment longer, her smile sad, but . . . proud. She was proud of me.

  “Zee is waiting for me.”

  I choked on a sob. “Go then. Be happy.”

  She smiled at me as she faded away, her last look for Bear. She blew him a kiss and gave him a wink.

  He smiled back. “Goodbye, Eleanor.”

  28

  The old mansion on the bayou didn’t seem as deadly as it had only moments before, despite the fact that we were not alone. Noah shifted behind us and I spun around, Dinah raised once more. Dinah didn’t say a word, and for a moment, I thought she’d left me too.

  “You can’t kill me,” he said.

  “I don’t know that I can trust you enough to let you go without trying.” I pushed Bear behind me and start
ed to work our way out of the house.

  His eyes were hollow, the brows drawn. “I have done all I could to help you save your son.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my daughter is out there and I am forbidden from finding her,” he said. “Find her, Phoenix. Save her as I helped you save Bear. Keep Dinah. I release her from her promise.”

  He turned his back on me and walked toward the still-raging fire and stepped into it. He was engulfed and then he was gone. Just like that.

  “We won’t see him again, will we?” Bear asked.

  “No, I don’t think we will.” I gave him a gentle push and then paused. Rooster’s body lay on the floor. His chest was still.

  I bit the inside of my cheek. “I don’t want anyone to face this place again, Bear. Will you help me bring it down?”

  “Yes.” And then . . . “Dad?”

  “He’ll burn here, and no one will ever bring him back and hurt him again,” I said.

  “Good.”

  We raised our fire at the same time and as we walked through the house, set it ablaze.

  With an arm around Bear, I walked away from the place that had been the beginning of my fate to become the Phoenix in truth. To have a son. And to love him more than anything I’d ever had in my life.

  “I want to go home,” Bear said. “But I don’t think that means what it used to.”

  “I want to go home too. And home is wherever the people you love are,” I said.

  Bear looked up at me, a smile just whispering on the edge of his lips. “I guess we need to find Killian then, right?”

  I laughed as we walked down the hard-packed road, the sound of the bayou around us. “Yeah, I think it does.”

  I watched from a distance as Killian and Bear sparred in the fresh-fallen snow at the edge of the barn. Killian had been frantic by the time we’d tracked him down in Ireland. He’d managed to gather a number of his distant family to help him find us. They came along for the ride when we flew back to the States. They were the start of his second gang to get the abnormal world back under some semblance of control.

  Funny to think that winter was upon us, that Christmas was just around the corner. That a year had gone by and I was back in Jackson Hole with Bear. We’d managed to build a new house, different than our log home from before on a different part of the land we owned. Backed against a bit of the mountain, it was far more defensible and we liked it that way. Killian had settled into the life of a part-time rancher like it was second nature to him.

  Of course, he still ran his people, but it was different now. We knew we were targets and we took steps to protect ourselves and Bear. With my father and Mancini gone, there were whispers of other men who would take up their hold on the underworld. But for now, it was quiet.

  We’d heard nothing from the Arabian desert and Shaitan, but I didn’t think that quiet would last.

  Dinah . . . had mellowed some. Her anger and desire for blood had eased with all the fighting. And with the knowledge that I knew who she really was.

  “When are we going after Emerald?” she asked.

  I sat up from my spot at the desk. “Today, if all goes well.”

  She gasped. “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  In my study were a few things to remind me never to let my guard down again. The ruby ring Daniel had worn. The casing from the bullet that had killed my father—Bear had picked it up without me knowing. And the broken remains of Eleanor. I touched the melted puddle of metal that had been the gun that held my mother’s soul for so many years.

  Dinah sighed. “I don’t think you ever stop loving your mother.”

  “Or missing her,” I said. “I wish . . . I wish I’d had a chance to tell her all the things before she died.”

  “I know,” Dinah said.

  I turned at the sound of a motion detector going off, telling me someone had driven through the main gates of the ranch.

  A motorbike pulled up, and a woman all in black leathers slid off. I stood in the doorway to the house as she pulled her helmet off and a swath of red hair slithered out from underneath. I grinned at her. “Cold enough?”

  “Like a pair of witch’s tits,” she grumbled. “Tell me you have coffee going.”

  “Come on in.”

  Easter stomped her way up the stairs. There were parts of the house not yet done, but that was okay. We had time. And Killian and I wanted to do it right. Make it as safe as possible.

  I went to the kitchen and Easter followed. “What kind of a job are we talking about here, then?”

  Right to the point, as always. A cold breeze fluttered against me, as if Martin had brushed the skin of my belly. “I see Martin is still with you.”

  She frowned. “Who?”

  I started to laugh. “Martin, you’re a tease.”

  She’s not quite ready for me yet. Soon.

  I shrugged. “Never mind.” I took a sip of tea and set it on the counter. “Look, I have money, and I want you to find a kid for me. Her name is Emerald.”

  Dinah gasped again. “Nix, I want to go!”

  “You are going.” I pulled her from her holster and slid her across the table to Easter.

  Easter shook her head. “I don’t need your talking gun.”

  “You do,” I said. “And it’s my right as the person hiring you to determine any extra things I may require of you. This is one of them. Dinah doesn’t miss. She comes with smoke bombs, electrical charges, and unlimited rounds of traditional ammo.”

  Easter sighed. “I have no aim.”

  “That’s fine. I have perfect aim,” Dinah said. “Just point in the right direction and shoot.”

  A pair of red eyebrows climbed. “Fine. But I should warn you, you aren’t the only mouthy thing around.”

  It was my turn for eyebrows to climb. “Do I want to know?”

  She laughed and shook her head. “It’s a long story. Maybe another time.”

  “Deal. When you bring Emerald back, we’ll discuss it.” I stood and went to the kitchen sink. I hit a button and the false sink flipped up revealing stacks of cash and a few weapons. I pulled out three hundred thousand and hefted it to Easter.

  “To help in finding her. Anything you don’t use will go toward your fee.”

  “You don’t want to sign something?” Easter frowned. I leaned forward.

  “You think double-crossing me is a good idea?”

  Most people would have cringed, started sweating, looked down. Easter just laughed. “Yeah. I guess not.”

  I handed her a small stack of papers with the little bit of information I’d been able to gather on Emerald.

  “Here’s the intel, such as it is.”

  She took the papers and tucked them into her jacket. “You going to tell me why you aren’t going?”

  “No,” I said. “I’m not.”

  Dinah wriggled in her holster. “You didn’t tell me why either.”

  “No, because you might not go then.” I laughed at her. “And you need to do this with Easter. You’ll come back to me when the time is right. Now go.” I stripped off my single gun holster and handed it to Easter. She stripped off her jacket and put it on, then tucked Dinah inside.

  “All right then. See you in a few days.”

  She turned and strode through the house, out the door, to her bike. I stood in the doorway of the house and watched her go.

  From where I stood, I could see Bear and Killian starting their way back to the house. I went in to the back bedroom where I’d been keeping a surprise for Bear. I touched the winged necklace at my throat, the one Bear had given me the previous Christmas.

  I opened the back-bedroom door, bent and scooped up the dark-haired puppy. “What do you think? You want to be the next best dog ever?”

  The puppy whined and wormed toward me so he could lick my nose. I put him on the floor and he scampered out into the living room just as Bear stepped into the house.

  There was no squeal, not shout of joy from Bear. I walk
ed down the hall until I could just see Bear, kneeling on the floor, his face pressed against the fur of his new pup. My eyes filled with tears. Beside Bear was the ghost of Abe, and the minute he saw the puppy, he faded, his eyes closing as he sunk down. The puppy scampered through him, oblivious.

  Killian stepped around Bear and came to stand next to me. “I thought we were going to wait, Lass.”

  “I couldn’t,” I said.

  “What about me? Don’t I get something?” he whispered in my ear.

  I smiled to myself as I took his hand. “You want your present early?”

  He grinned at me, green eyes flashing. “I think I’ve deserved it, haven’t I?”

  I grinned back. “Okay, you can have it early too, but I want no complaints that I got you nothing under the tree.”

  I held his hand up, palm facing me, then slowly lowered it and pressed it to my belly.

  “I love you, Killian Fannin. Merry Christmas.”

  Afterword

  Thanks for reading all the way to the end! I hope I managed to surprise you with some of the twists. I’ll be honest . . .I didn’t know that Simon was Justin either until I hit that part of the story. But as you can see, my brain new better as it had given clues in the second book without tipping me off until this one. Sneaky!

  I hope you are looking forward to Easter’s storyline, its going to be a doozy! The first book is called (at the moment) “A Savage Spell” and I am planning on it releasing fall of 2018.

  Need something else to read until then? I’ve got a shit ton of books (no, seriously) I’m not going to list them all. Lots of strong, kick ass women wielding weapons and magic . . .

  You can find them all at:

  www.shannonmayer.com

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