“One of us will get the pleasure of killing you, Simon. I do hope it will be me.” Eleanor was softer, but her words were chilling and the way she said his name told me she truly was looking forward to putting a bullet through him.
“Well, we’ll see about that. Mancini can be very convincing, and I think you should talk to him,” Simon said.
I slammed my hand against the door, testing the strength of it. Straight steel, meant to stop bullets for sure. How then could I hear everything so well? There was only one reason I could think of, and that was there had to be a vent or vents. I started to search as I spoke to him, my hands running over the edges of the door and then farther out.
“I’ve taken a great deal of money from him. I doubt very much he wants to talk to me. More likely he told you that to get you to bring me in, so he could kill me himself,” I said.
“He isn’t all about money,” Simon said.
“Says the guy who’s taking me in for the money.”
Bingo, this was what I was looking for. I found the vent near the bottom of the door to the right in the shadows of the storage for the steward. Small, not even big enough to get my fingers through, and barely long enough to even get a knife through. I didn’t even have Linx to make a lock pick.
If only I had something that would explode in the cockpit . . . I whipped around. My bag and all that abnormal magical shit Simon had insisted on. Sure, I’d never used it and so he probably hadn’t even considered it an issue to leave it near me.
“I don’t like when you’re quiet, Nix. I can almost hear you thinking,” he said.
“Doubt that very much,” I said. “My thoughts are far too complicated for your pea brain.”
“Insults,” he chuckled, “that’s much better. I like when you’re sassy. You’re a spitfire. Don’t let anyone steal that from you.” And now he was on to giving me advice?
“Where is Noah?”
I hurried back to my bag and pulled out the two items left in them. One was a container of gag jam. I wasn’t entirely sure what it would do if I didn’t shove it right in his face, but it was worth trying.
“Noah had things to do.”
“He left me with you then. Willingly?”
“I explained what was happening. He agreed it was best for you to meet with Mancini.”
Men thinking they could make decisions for my life, thinking they knew what I needed? Fuck that shit. I had been done with that from the second I’d run from my father’s hold on me.
The plane dipped, and for a moment, my feet lifted off the ground and I stumbled, gripping at the closest chair with the shift in gravity.
Shit, we were landing.
Which no doubt meant Mancini would be waiting for me the second the doors opened. No doubt Simon had already radioed ahead to tell them I was loose.
I pulled out the other item in my bag. Blinding was written on the container. Again, a small jar, and this one I could guess at. If it worked at all like a flashbang then I was in for a win.
I smiled and took the containers with me to the door. I slammed the flat of my hand against the steel. “Mancini is waiting for me, isn’t he?”
“That’s the plan,” Simon said. “I wouldn’t have brought you here if I thought he’d kill you, Phoenix. I promise you.”
“You think he wouldn’t lie to you? Fuck, you are stupid.” I snorted and held the container of blinding in my hand while I steadied myself with the other. The plane dipped and bucked as we slid through the air in a rapid descent that even I knew from my minimal time in the air was unusual.
“Something ugly chasing us?” I asked. “Is there a reason why we’re dropping so fast?”
“You could say that. You are drawing lots of attention, Nix. Let’s hope we can land and get to Mancini before the abnormal following us catches up,” Simon said.
Abe leaned against my legs, his head down and his tongue lolling out. From down the aisle came a groan as Simon’s friend slowly came to. I tucked the container of blinding against my side so he wouldn’t see what I had.
No such luck, as his eyes were on me in a second. “Simon, she’s got something in her hand.”
“What is it?” Simon asked.
I strode toward the man handcuffed to the chair and snapped a kick into the side of his head, knocking him out again before he could say another word.
“Ah, Freddy is a good guy,” Simon said. “I hope you didn’t kill him.”
“Why don’t you come out here and see?”
The wheels of the plane dropped down with a whine and then a steady thump. Seconds later, we were on the runway, bouncing and jumping along as the pilot wrestled to keep the chunk of metal on the ground. I gripped the container of blinding in one hand, and went back to the bag and grabbed the gag jam. Here’s to hoping they both had explosive properties. I tucked the gag jam against the vent near the door and kicked it hard, doing all I could to drive it through the vent and into the cockpit.
“What the hell is that shit?” someone cried out, and then there was nothing but muffled screams.
The gag jam leaked around my boot, and crept back into the cabin with me. That wasn’t going to go over well. I grabbed a couple of towels from the storage behind me and jammed them under my foot, blocking the gag jam from spilling back.
“Abe, voraus!” I sent him to the back of the plane, away from what was about to go down. Nothing he could do to help, anyway. If the gag jam worked well enough, they’d be scrambling to get the door open in three, two, one . . .
“No, don’t open the door!” Simon yelled.
The door cracked open and I smashed the blinding jar against the edge, knowing there would be kickback but they would get the worst of it.
I was used to flashbangs, to the smell and the sensation of light against closed eyeballs, the thump of an explosion. This was ten times brighter, like a welding arc gone wild. Three voices from inside the cockpit cried out and I stepped sideways, my eyes still shut.
“Goddamn it, Phoenix! You can’t fight your way out of this! You need to talk to him!” Simon sounded close. I opened my eyes and saw . . . nothing.
The blinding had worked a little too well.
“Girls, talk to me!” I called out.
“Here. To your left. Linx is right next to me,” Dinah called out. I moved into the cockpit as the plane spun out sideways. We may have been on the ground but we were still moving at a good speed.
“Someone hit the brake!”
“I’m trying. I can’t see worth shit!”
Two pilots and Simon then. I made my way past the one pilot and held my hand out, searching like the currently blind woman I was.
“Lower,” Dinah said.
I dropped my hand and felt her cold stock under my fingers, then felt the cold steel of Linx next to her. I grabbed them both, stuffing Linx into my back pocket. “Eleanor, where are you?”
“To your left,” she said. “You still can’t see?”
“No. You two are going to have to help me out here.”
I grabbed Eleanor as a fist slammed into the center of my back, throwing me forward and into the control panel. The plane’s engines revved, whining and angry.
This was not fucking happening. I spun on my back across the panel and made a sweep out with my legs, looking for a body. Nothing.
“Phoenix!” Simon yelled my name from the right.
I kept my mouth shut now that I had my guns and Linx.
I swung my right leg out hard toward Simon’s voice, caught him in the arm by the feel of it, and shoved him away from where I knew the door was. He snarled and there was a clatter of bodies and equipment. The engines began to slow again as the pilots worked by feel to keep us on the ground.
I lurched up and off the control panel toward the door. I tucked Dinah in her holster and then held that hand outstretched; the other held Eleanor out in front of me.
“Straight ahead, I can see Abe,” she said. I hurried through the door while the three men cursed a blu
e streak behind me.
“Abe, hier,” I said.
I felt him press against me, giving me his strength and warmth. “Eleanor, where is the escape hatch?”
“To your right, two sets of chairs down. And watch out for the man on the ground.”
I felt forward with the toes of my boots until I hit the still-unconscious man’s body. I stepped over him.
“There, turn to your right. I see a handle. You pull it and a slide pops out,” Eleanor said.
I reached out and put my hands on the latch, pulled and twisted, and the door pushed outward. There was a pop and hiss of something expanding rapidly.
“Slide out?” I asked.
“Yes, but we’re still moving so be careful,” Eleanor said. I tucked her back into her holster.
Dinah grumbled, “This is going to be ugly.”
I ignored her. “Where’s Simon?”
“Behind us, not trying to stop you,” Dinah said.
That should have made me happy, but it only made me nervous.
“Abe.” I snapped my fingers and tapped my chest. He lifted his paws and set them against me. I grabbed him around the waist and turned him so his back was to my front. “Hang on, we’re going for a ride.”
He shook and shivered, but didn’t fight me as I sat my ass down on the edge of the slide and pushed off, the momentum of the still-moving plane adding to the speed of the initial drop. The slide gave way too much at first and I tensed, ready to hit the ground hard before the device seemed to remember that it was supposed to be saving us and began to slow our descent. At the bottom, I rolled and had both Eleanor and Dinah out as soon as I let Abe go.
“Oh, this is going to be a bit tougher than just walking away,” Dinah said. My ears strained for something to guide me. On my left, the plane continued to pull away, at least.
Abe snarled, easily heard as the engines of the plane shut off.
“Ladies, what’s going on?” I asked softly.
Eleanor sighed. “As good as we are, we still need your sight to some degree for this many men, Phoenix. You are going to have to talk your way out of this, I think.”
A shuffle of bodies, the click of weapons being taken off their safeties, and more than that, the overwhelming smell of abnormals. If I could smell them, then there were a lot more than just one or two.
“How many are there?” I asked as I did a slow turn.
A new voice entered the fray. “Over a hundred of my best men, Ms. Phoenix.” Cultured and cool, I knew who it was without seeing him.
“Mancini.” I turned toward him without putting either gun down. “Simon says you only want to talk, but forgive me for believing he’s lying through his teeth so he gets his money.”
Mancini laughed. “Yes, I can believe that of Simon. But in this case, he told you the truth. You see, you and I have a common enemy, and I believe we could do wonderful things together if you are willing to work with me.”
I didn’t lower the guns. My eyes watered, and bit by bit, my sight trickled back to me. The edges of my vision were blurred, but light filtered through instead of just the blackness of the blinding.
I knew he expected an answer, and I suspected if it wasn’t the one he wanted, I would die there on the tarmac. “Which enemy?”
He gave a long low laugh. “True, we could have multiple enemies in common. Like Killian, though I heard a rumor he helped you on that last job of yours. Very . . . explosive how you dealt with the studio. And costly to not only me but others as well.”
I kept my mouth shut. He would fill in the silence for me. I was sure of it.
A sigh slid from him. “I do believe it is your father you want to wipe off the face of the earth? For killing your husband and son.”
I gave him the barest of nods. Agreeing to work with or for Mancini was as good as working with the devil himself. Shit, for all I knew, he was the devil.
He took a step toward me and I brushed my fingers down the triggers of both Eleanor and Dinah, making them shiver. “Not a step closer. I may die, Mancini, if I throw down on you, but you will not survive these guns.”
Dinah laughed. “Oh, I’ve been wanting a piece of him. Please, please, let me shoot him in the dick.”
I had to school my features from reacting to her words. The way she spoke made me think she knew Mancini. But we’d never dealt with him before. Which meant that Bianca, my half-sister and only other owner of Dinah and Eleanor, had.
Mancini didn’t move any closer, but the other abnormals tightened ranks on me.
There were stumbling footsteps hurrying behind me that could only be Simon. “Don’t shoot him, Nix.”
I spun Eleanor back so my arms were spread-eagled and I had a gun on Mancini and one on Simon. “Shut the fuck up, you asshole.”
He skidded to a stop. As if he could see. Damn him and his abnormal healing.
“Phoenix, a discussion will not kill you,” Mancini said. “In fact, I think you might warm to the idea of working for me when you see the possible . . . rewards. I swear to you that if you choose to go your own way, I will not kill you. I cannot speak for any other abnormal, but I think . . . I think we could make an excellent team.”
The abnormals around me pressed in closer, their smell flooding my nose with the myst that had created them at some point. It killed a part of me to back down. But I knew when I was out-gunned.
I lowered Eleanor and Dinah. “You have five minutes. Convince me, or I’ll do as Dinah suggested and blow your dick off right before I put a bullet through your head.”
Chapter Five
Standing on the tarmac of what I now suspected was a private airstrip somewhere close to New York City, surrounded by abnormals and the head of the Collective, I wasn’t sure that my day could get any more difficult to survive.
“Five minutes, then,” Mancini said. “Let’s get out of this sun.”
His shoes rasped against the tarmac and I dropped a hand to Abe’s head. I followed Mancini easily, and felt the ranks of his men part as we drew closer.
The click of a car door as it was opened and the rush of air conditioning that flowed out around my face drew me forward. I motioned for Abe to go ahead of me and Mancini grunted. “I did not say anything about the dog.”
“He goes where I go.” I slid into the car and sat. “Four minutes.”
“A woman who keeps her goals in sight,” Mancini said. “Your father hates you because you have outsmarted him, and he’s going to send his guardians after you if you are not careful. But he wants you still, Phoenix. He wants to control you.”
“I’ve killed one of his guardians. Let the others come.” I relaxed into the seat, let the air conditioning cool my face. “No one is invincible, Mancini. Not even you. Not even a guardian of Hell.”
“You killed the Stick Man?” There was no incredulity in his tone, more curiosity.
I closed my eyes. The edges hurt as the light came in more through my retinas. That was what I got for playing with magic. “Burned him to a toasty crisp.”
“Fire doesn’t hurt him,” Mancini said. “Believe me, I’ve tried—”
“Blood fire.” I cut him off. “I took the blood of an abnormal and spread that shit all over him and lit him up like an oversized roman candle.”
Mancini adjusted his seat. “You . . . how did you know to even try that?”
I tapped a finger against my lips. “I have my secrets, and you have yours.”
He changed gears, most likely to throw me off balance. “Your father has ties to the Yakuza, you know that?”
“Yes, and he’s going to use them against you,” I threw back at him. “I’ve got paperwork from Romano and Gabe.” A bit of a stretch. What I had was a conversation I’d personally overheard from Romano and my now-dead brother. But men like Mancini like paperwork to prove something really happened.
But Mancini was anything but thrown off. “Romano is playing many sides of the field. He wants to try and use you for his own advances, even though he hates you
. If you don’t bend to his will, he will try and break you.”
“Already done,” I said. “He’s got nothing left to—”
“Romano has your son.”
All the air in the car might as well have been swept outward in a single whoosh as if I’d been tossed into a vacuum. I couldn’t breathe, my ears were ringing with his words over and over. Romano has your son. Impossible, impossible. The picture that had been sent to Zee. He’d said the boy looked like Bear. Impossible. It had to be impossible.
Hope and fear lanced me. Because if I had hope, it could be snatched from me and I would crash with nothing to keep me going. I opened my eyes, and in the dim interior of the car, the world came into sharp focus. I had to pull my shit and emotions together or I would break down right here in front of Mancini. And I think that was what he wanted, he wanted to see me cry, to believe he could manipulate me. Not going to fucking happen. I closed off all the emotions behind the walls I’d built while killing abnormals for a living.
“That’s what he told you?” My words were clean, crisp and to the point.
Mancini’s eyes were a sight to behold as he leaned toward me. The irises bobbed and moved as if swaying to their own music, blending in with one another and then sliding out again. “I met the boy he called his grandson.”
“That means nothing,” I said. “He could have an illusionist playing a part.”
He tipped his head in agreement. “True. You understand I am a man of many talents?”
I stared hard at him, trying to see the lies, while at the same time, wanting desperately to believe he was telling me the truth. “You’ve never met him before. No matter what your talents are, you wouldn’t know my boy from any other.”
“I would. Because his blood sings with the same power as yours. Blood does not lie, Phoenix, and your Bear is going to be a powerful man one day.” There was no kindness in his face, no compassion or pity, and yet . . . I could see he meant every word.
“Don’t trust him!” Dinah screamed, and I jerked her out of her holster before I could think better of it, and pointed her at him.
Blood of a Phoenix (The Nix Series Book 2) Page 5
