I tensed. “You don’t know me or my son.”
“I know that you are an abnormal of great hidden abilities.”
“According to Vivian,” I said. Vivian and her big fucking mouth. I was going to have to kill her to shut her up about this.
Talia held up both hands. “She will speak no more of it. She is discreet when she must be, as I have found.”
I held out the coded papers, wrinkled, salt water-stained and yet still flickering with the glyphs my husband had engraved on them. Magical codes that shifted and danced no matter how you stared at them. The runes, words, symbols and numbers flickered and sparkled with a faint blue light. I held them out to her. “My husband was working on this before he died. His partner burned my house down to make them disappear.”
Talia took the papers and laid them on the small table. “The fire would not have burned them. They have been protected by a heavy spell that will last a thousand years.” She ran her fingers over the papers and the images followed her fingertips like well-trained pets. “Interesting.”
“I need the names of the cities. I think that Genzo is in one of them and I need to stop him and the new myst he’s got.” I leaned over the table, drawn to the symbols I knew by heart after months of staring at them. Now there was more of a pattern to them, but it looked like a fucking recipe, not a list of cities as I’d believed. My heart squeezed hard as if I already knew what she was going to say.
“Not cities,” Talia let out a slow breath as she shook her head. “My God, this is . . .”
“What?” I put my hand on the table and she lifted her head so our eyes met.
“It is everything you need to do it.”
I blinked at her, frustration rising. “Do what?”
“This list . . . it is everything you need to strip your father of his power, and kill him.”
Chapter Twenty
I stood there, staring at the code breaker like she had suddenly healed all the burns on her face and stood before me in her former glory. Because the words she spoke were like a fucking dinner bell set off in my head. “The coded papers . . . they aren’t a list of cities?”
She shook her head. “No. This is how to call up the demon who gave him his power, and have him take it away, making him mortal once more.”
“Wait, my father is immortal?” I could not be hearing this right. My heart seemed to triple in speed, as if by going faster I could somehow outrun the information. This news, if it was true, changed things. It changed . . . everything.
Talia nodded, still looking at the paper. “According to this.”
I struggled for a split second to get my priorities back in line. No matter how bad this development was, I had to be on my A game. I had a job to do.
I needed Genzo and I needed to kill him and his drug production to get Bear back. “That is . . . not what I thought would be on there.”
“I have no doubt.” She ran her fingers over it. “And it’s not complete. There are two lines missing. No papers you forgot, perhaps?”
I counted them quickly. “No, there were only ever five sheets.”
“Then you have an incomplete spell of destruction.” She sighed. “But it’s a start, and probably took years to develop even this far.”
“What will it cost me to get you to decode it, and how long will it take?”
She touched the papers and frowned lightly. “An hour, tops, and what are you willing to pay for it?”
“Do it in thirty minutes and I’ll give you forty five grand.”
Her jaw dropped. “Done.”
I walked away from her. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes with the money.”
True to her word, Talia’s head was already down, a piece of paper and pen beside her as she worked, translating the papers at speed.
“Barron had something sent to me for you. It’s in that side cupboard next to the stove.” She did not lift her head but waved in the general direction of where I needed to go.
I went to the cupboard and put my hand on the knob. There was no thrum of magic under my fingers; even so, Eleanor whispered to me.
“Be careful.”
I opened the door slowly, with my body turned to the side to avoid any outpouring of magic or myst I couldn’t pick up on. What was inside the cupboard was a simple brown paper package with my name on it.
I pulled it out and went to the front porch. Barron had been my friend, and at one time, my lover. I still had fond memories of him, even though his lackadaisical attitude pissed me off, and in the end, was what had caused his death. He’d lost his edge, let himself get soft, and forgotten that the men he worked for were not his friends. He thought he could work for all the mob bosses and get away with it, the greedy bastard. Though, if Mancini was right, Killian had done Barron in. But that made little sense. I put that question on my list for Killian.
I sighed, put Eleanor in her holster and pulled a knife from my boot. With one quick slice, I opened the brown paper package.
What slithered out was material like I’d never seen before, and yet I knew immediately what it was. The spider silk body suit Barron had ordered for me the last time I’d seen him. Matte black; I held it up and it seemed to absorb the growing light around us, making it even darker. A note fluttered out of the package. The body suit was stronger than Kevlar, and nearly indestructible. It had also cost a pretty penny, one that I hadn’t paid Barron for. A last gift from him then?
I picked it up and flipped it open, the untidy scrawl across it unmistakably his.
Nix,
I’m sorry about everything. I should have gone with you when you asked me to leave years ago. I wonder what our life would have been like if I’d had the balls to do it then. If we would have been happy.
Killian isn’t so bad and he likes you. No matter what people say, he would never hurt me. Keep on his good side. I think he’ll help you. If you get stuck, another good contact of mine is Nash. He lives in the village, building 10, apartment AC. He’s who to ask for if you need information or goods, especially if you need info on the Yakuza. Just mind his hands, they’ve played way too many solos.
I smiled at that, Barron still looking out for me. And then frowned. Why would he think I was looking for the Yakuza? And what village?
I’m sorry, Phoenix. For so many things. I hope you’ll remember me fondly when you think of me. You were the only one I loved. I’ve tried to leave things for you to make right what I’ve done wrong.
Barron.
I folded the paper and tucked it inside the material of the body suit.
“Love notes?” Simon had snuck up on me.
I turned and shook my head. “One-way love notes aren’t love notes, especially when they are hiding something within them.”
“Ah, another broken heart. You’re quite the charmer, aren’t you?” He smiled and sidled up next to me. I pulled the note back out and handed it to him.
“I’m the charmer, not her,” Dinah barked. “You remember, I let you touch me.”
I blinked and shook my head. “Here, tell me what you think.”
He read the note quickly. “Yeah, he is totally gone on you, but that isn’t really what it’s about, is it? The thing is there is no Nash that I know of in the field of information, and who lives in the village?”
Simon would know. I checked the level of the moon. Fifteen minutes before I took Talia her money. “I need to get the money from the truck.”
His eyebrows raised. “All of it?”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “You know you didn’t have to pay her that much to break a few coded papers. Shit, it probably would be less than a grand.”
I shrugged, not wanting to tell him why I’d offered her so much. For her children, to make penance for what my father had done to her, maybe even if it was her fault for trying to control him. I held my hand out to him. “Dinah.”
He sighed and handed her back to me and I set her into her holster on my right thigh. “This is where I belong. Doe
sn’t matter that he has nice hands that feel good on my grips.”
Simon frowned and shook his head. “I don’t even want to know.”
We walked to the truck and I leaned over the back for the bag.
A soft cry from the house caught my ear and I spun, running back top speed before a single beat of my heart echoed. Another cry sped me faster.
I leapt up the three steps and was through the door and into the house, guns drawn.
Talia was held by the throat, her feet dangling far above the floor as the Shadow’s minion squeezed the life out of her. I took in the scene in a split second.
“Switch out!” I yelled, but Dinah and Eleanor were already making the change. I fired into the minion’s back, the incendiary rounds lighting up the back of his cloak. He dropped Talia and twisted around to me.
“You think fire will work on me?”
“Can’t hurt to try.” There wasn’t a lot of room to circle around, but I took a step to the right, nearer to the window where the morning light spilled in. Simon slid to a stop in the doorway.
“Stay there,” I said.
The Shadow’s minion chuckled. “You think you can kill me?”
I kept the guns leveled at him. “You think you can kill me?”
I had the impression he frowned and that made me smile. “Bingo, big boy. You aren’t the only badass here.” Mind you, I had no idea how to deal with him, but I was going to do my damnedest to send him back to Hell in a wee tiny handbasket.
Simon nodded and pulled up his sleeves. “I think we could take him. I’ll hold him down and make his skin peel off, you jam Dinah up his asshole and burn a path all the way through.”
Dinah groaned. “I don’t want to get jammed up his asshole.”
The minion looked from Simon to me and back again. “You are far too believing in your own abilities. And far too stupid to live.”
“I think you’ve never faced anyone who actually thought they could kill you,” I said.
Talia groaned from her spot on the floor. “Nothing burns hotter than the Phoenix. She will turn you to ash and dust, minion. Run away while you still can.”
He jerked once and then his cloak spun around, wrapping him in darkness and he was gone. But not before a final word. “This is not done.”
There was a rush, like the sound of wings in the air, and a breeze brushed past me in my tiny spot of sun.
I lowered the guns and went to Talia, dropping to a knee. “You okay?”
“He would have killed me. He took the coded papers.” She looked up at me, her gray eyes full of determination. “But not before I finished the translation. He was not the true Shadow, was he? That’s why he fled?”
“That was a minion of the Shadow. We’ve run into him before.” But he’d left awfully fast. I didn’t for one second think we scared him. So, where the fuck had he gone?
Her lips quivered with a pain-filled smile as she pulled five crisp new sheets of paper out from under her cloak. I took them and tucked them into my own shirt. This was not the time to look them over.
I held a hand out and she took it. “Simon,” I glanced over my shoulder, “go get the money.”
He left without a word, and I let out a sigh. “Talia, did Barron leave anything else for me?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. That package was it.” There was no lie in her words.
I shook my head. “Why did the minion leave, do you think?”
“Daylight is the Shadow and his minions’ kryptonite,” she said softly. “For one of them to come here in broad daylight would have meant that they’d been pushed hard. But how did he know we were here? I am well hidden, and my Hiding is intact on this place.”
I stood and my eyes drifted to the hallway that led to the back of the house. “You got a phone in that back room of yours?” Vivian was a Magelore, and that meant she was about as manipulative and dangerous as they came. “You piss her off lately?”
“I turned her down when she offered to heal me if I would become her pet,” Talia said softly. “Twice.”
I grimaced. “She had reason to kill all three of us, and get a prize in the bargain.” I was already moving down the hall, then I paused. “We light the house up. It won’t kill her, but she’ll have nowhere to go and the sunlight will make her weak.”
“Nor will I have a place to go if you burn my home,” Talia said.
“You’ll have forty five grand.”
“And nowhere to hide,” she threw out at me, showing some spunk.
“Get your shit and get outside. I’m burning this place down.” I locked eyes with her. “Unless you want to wait until dark when Vivian will be wide awake, healed, and ready to kill you?”
Talia’s shoulders slumped. “Damn it.” She moved around the room, grabbed a bag from one of the cupboards and filled it quickly. I saw a few pictures of two young children with sun-kissed skin and the same gray eyes as their mother, in school uniforms.
Talia stepped toward the door as Simon returned. “Out,” I said to them both.
They hurried out and I went to the small stove and ran a hand over the elements. I flicked all four on, and then ripped down the curtains from around the tiny windows, laying them across the counter, leading the flames to the wooden cupboards.
Daylight was a few hours away, but that wouldn’t matter. There was nothing near here for Vivian to hide in.
I turned and pulled Dinah from her holster and aimed her at the hallway, then just waited.
“Um, maybe I’m mistaken,” Dinah said, “but did you not just tell the others to go?”
“Yes.” I breathed in and out through my nose, letting the smell of the burning curtains settle in my lungs.
“Well, try not to get us burned to a crisp,” Dinah grumbled. “I like my matte black.”
I dropped my other hand to Eleanor. Just in case. “How many incendiary rounds have you two got left?”
“Not enough,” Eleanor said. “We need a recharge.”
A recharge, which was something I hadn’t done in years. Fuck. That, I did not need. Everyday bullets were unlimited in the two guns, but those driven by flame and fire, there was a definite limit and I’d been using them a lot lately.
I sighed, and put them back into their holsters. “Improvising now.”
I grabbed the back of the only chair in the room, picked it up and smashed it on the floor, shattering it. I came away with a wooden leg, perfect for what I wanted. Torches and pitchforks had been used in the past when dealing with Magelores, so why change now? I pulled my knife out of my left boot, and dunked the tip of the chair into the climbing flames.
“You aren’t really going in there, are you?” Simon’s voice turned me around.
I stared at him. “She tattled on us, which means she has a stronger connection to my father than anyone else we know, right now.” I didn’t need to spell it out for him. Vivian could very well know where Genzo was.
He stepped into the room, picked up another leg from the broken chair and dipped it into the flames. “Better have backup then.”
I didn’t argue, mostly because the flames were spreading and we were running out of time. “Stay to my right.”
“Got it.” He moved, and for just a second, I saw the danger in him, the killer he was. Our eyes met and I gave him a nod. Into the lion’s den we were going. Though I doubted we were protected by any god I knew.
Down the narrow hall we crept, the flames from the torch leading the way. There was a bathroom to my left and then two other doors, one in front and one to the right, both shut.
I leaned to the left and kicked the door open on my right. Weak moonlight poured in through the open window.
“She won’t be sleeping,” Simon said. “Which means she’s already heard us.”
“Good. I want her to be very aware that if she does not give me what I want, I will let the flames roast her alive. She’ll survive the flames. But she won’t survive once she is out in the sun and I find a set of electr
ical lines to wrap her in.”
We were talking loud enough that indeed, Vivian should have heard us. I frowned, a whiff of blood catching my nose. I strode to the door and booted it open.
Vivian’s body was laid out on the floor, shriveled and pale within her voluminous dress as if every drop of blood had been drained from her.
I stared at the body. “Well, fuck, did the Shadow’s minion do this?”
“No, I don’t think he did or he would have done it to us.” Simon tossed his torch in and it landed on her body. I added mine and we jogged out of the house as it went up around us. Questions swirled through my mind. What had killed Vivian? If not the Shadow’s minion . . . was it possible he’d brought the third and last guardian with him? Fuck, that was not something I needed, right now. Bad enough to deal with one guardian at a time.
My eyes watered and my lungs let me know they were not happy with what I’d put them through with the heat and the smoke of the burning house. Two things I’d completely ignored while fighting. I scooped up the spider silk body suit off the porch, then hurried out of the range of heat from the flames.
Twenty feet away from the raging house, I coughed and bent over at the waist, and spit to the side. “Damn, that smoke is thick and nasty.”
Simon started to laugh. “Oh, shit, you aren’t going to believe this.”
I stood up straight and looked in the direction he pointed. Where our truck had been only a short time before. Talia had taken it and left us to the mercy of Vivian and whatever other monsters waited.
I shook my head. “Abnormals never change. Always out for themselves.”
“Ouch, I’m in that category. And if you remember, so are you.” He slapped me on the back and I arched an eyebrow at him and snorted.
Something vibrated in my pocket and I scooped my phone out. The number on the screen was not Zee’s. It was Killian’s.
I hit the button and before I could say anything, screaming and gunshots ripped from the small speaker, freezing me in place.
“Killian, where is Bear?” I yelled into the phone, hardly able to breathe. The sounds, I knew them. Sounds of a takeover.
Blood of a Phoenix (The Nix Series Book 2) Page 21
