“How long do you think they’ll be out?” I motioned back the way we’d come.
“Thirty minutes, tops. Plenty of time for us to gather up the goods and get out.” We were at the back of the house now and Killian pulled the door open for me. I lowered Abe off my shoulders and he took a wobbling step and then another. A working dog at heart, he had his nose up and scenting the air immediately.
He trotted through the door, his nose lifted as he sucked in the smells around us. No growls, so that was good. I followed him through and dropped a hand to the top of his head. “Good to have you back, buddy.” I scratched his ears and he gave me a soft woof.
We’d almost lost him at the jail-turned-laboratory. He’d been injected with the Ikimono myst and had been turned into a true freak show of a monster. We’d managed to get the antidote into him and many of the other abnormals that had been injected, but there were some that were still out there roaming around, causing god only knew what kind of havoc. I’d leave that to the human police to manage. I had bigger fish to fry.
I shook my head at the size of the place. “Killian, where to?”
“Here.” He moved past me, his hand brushing against my hip to direct me to the right.
My jaw ticked, but I didn’t tell him to not touch me. Damn it, this was . . . I didn’t know if it was good or not. I just knew any distraction from getting Bear back into my arms wouldn’t be helpful and could potentially cost Bear his life.
I drew a breath to cool the sensations flickering through me. Later, I would deal with Killian and these feelings after Bear was home with me, safe and sound.
“This is a larger version of my stash at the pub, or it was last I was here,” Killian said. We were in a hallway that stretched the length of the house, by the looks of it. Dark polished hardwood floors clicked under our feet, echoing the length of the hall. Abe stuck close to my left side, pressing against me here and there for reassurance and stability.
He was a good boy, well trained, but seemed to be struggling with some of the aspects of what we were doing. Explosions, fire, and sudden bursts of fighting were hard on anyone, never mind a four-year-old dog who’d only recently been inducted into this world. Trained for it, yes, but living it was different. Having his heart restarted couldn’t have helped either.
“I need to find a place to drop him off,” I said. “He isn’t going to be much help if I have to carry him, and with his injuries he needs to heal.”
“Let’s get out of here first,” Killian said.
I gave a quick nod and kept a hand on Abe’s back, steadying him. I hoped we wouldn’t be in this world too much longer. This was not where I wanted Bear to grow up, to have him always wondering who was going to try to steal him, or wondering if he wouldn’t survive the day. I shook my head at myself. No, none of that was acceptable. There had to be a better way.
Killian opened a door on his left and I followed him through. The room blinked to life and for a minute, I just stared. It was a bathroom big enough that some houses would fit within it.
“The shitter is where you keep your weapons stash?” I arched an eyebrow at him. He reached past me, his face drawing close enough that I could smell the hint of something on his breath that made me want to taste it. Licorice, he smelled like licorice.
The click of the lock reverberated in the tiled room as he turned it.
“Yeah. Last place people look for guns is in the shitter.”
I couldn’t help the laugh and I pushed him away from me, moving until I was in the middle of the room with my back to him. My heart rate was up and the flush of desire tingling under my skin like the brush of his electricity was too much. Yes, this was getting much too intense, I was going to have to do something about it. “Killian.”
He was there at my back, his hands on my upper arms, his mouth near the side of my neck. “Phoenix.”
“Not now, Killian. I feel it between us, and I get it. Fuck, I do get it, but not now.” I turned to face him, but took a step back. “I cannot be distracted. And I can’t afford for you to be distracted either. We both need to be on our A game.”
His jaw ticked. “And if we both die before we finish this? What then?”
I frowned. “Well, if anyone dies it’ll be you. I’m the survivor, remember.”
He spluttered, his eyes popping wide and his jaw dropping.
I laughed at him. “Killian, I’m joking. But do you see? Even this banter between us? It’s not like me. I don’t joke with the men around me. You . . . you bring something out of me I thought was gone forever. I laugh with Bear. I tease him and he teases me and I love him with everything I am. He has my soul and I never wanted more. I didn’t expect or even want to find a partner who could do the same.” Well, shit, I’d just pretty much admitted he was a partner in more than a work sense. Damn it, I hoped he didn’t notice the slip-up.
“Was Justin not a partner to you?” He tipped his head and took a step toward me. I couldn’t move. Damn, I needed to move away from him, but I couldn’t because I wanted what he had to offer, all of it. The strength and power in him, the understanding of exactly who and what I was, and the fact that he didn’t judge me for it. He didn’t condemn me for my past, for what I’d done with my life, for my family. He didn’t shy from the dark in me any more than he shied from my hands that had killed so many.
“Justin was a good man, far too good for me. Even in his lies, he kept the dark from me, which is why he ended up dead,” I said softly as Killian’s hands slid down my arms to my fingers, lacing them together.
“Am I not a good man then?” He gave me a half smile and I struggled to breathe as those damn green eyes twinkled at me, secrets and desire filling them.
“You’re a very, very bad man,” I whispered.
He leaned closer. “I know. But you are a very bad girl. And I like it. I like all of you, Lass.”
Shit, shit, shit, this was not what I needed. Well, maybe it was, but not right then. “After, Killian. You can have all of me after, but if we start this now—”
He drew a slow breath and tightened his hold on my fingers. “After may never come, no matter how you look at this. And I don’t want to miss anything. I don’t live for tomorrow, Lass. I live for today.”
I bit the inside of my cheek and nodded. “I know. But Bear will always come first. Even after all this.”
He grinned and tugged me hard against his chest, still just holding my hands. “I’ll take second place to Bear.” The air between us danced on my skin and did rather bad things to my body, making me ache in ways I’m not sure I ever had before.
“One kiss,” he begged softly as he dipped his head.
One kiss would do me in, I knew it. I jerked away from him. “No.”
He laughed. “Ah, Lass, it does me body good to see you so affected. At least I know I’m not swinging for the fences for nothing.”
I twisted around and glared at him, then swept my hand toward his crotch and his obvious hard-on. “You aren’t exactly keeping things subtle either.”
He shrugged. “It’s been a long time since a woman has called to me like this. And never one who didn’t have Irish singing in her blood.”
I shook my head and went to the sink. I flicked on the cold water and splashed it on my face. “Where is the stash?” I had to get this back on the right path or we were going to end up fucking in the tub, in the shower, on the floor . . . I shook my head clear of those thoughts.
Later. We’d deal with this later.
“You weren’t far off when you said the stash was in the shitter.” Killian laughed as he walked to the toilet and lifted the lid on the back of the tank. I moved to see what he reached for. Inside the water tank was a handle that he gripped and twisted. A screeching groan rasped behind us and I spun around to see the tub slide to the side, revealing a set of stairs that disappeared into darkness.
“Fancy.”
“No one else here knows about it, at least, last I knew.” He put a hand to my back and
gave me a push. “Hurry, it’s on a timer to close after us.”
“Abe.” I snapped my fingers at him and he heeled slowly to my side. It was only then that I realized he’d not been upset about the back-and-forth between Killian and me at all. Not a single peep out of him.
“You’re supposed to be protecting me, Abe,” I said as we hurried down the dimly lit stairs.
Behind us Killian laughed. “Maybe he’s not much into protecting your virtue.”
I snorted and shook my head. I had to agree, there were better things to protect than what was left of my virtue, if I’d ever even had it. More likely Abe was just exhausted. His panting breath echoed in the chambered space. ’Round and around we went, the air cooling as we dropped what had to be close to fifty feet.
When we stepped off the stairs, I couldn’t stop my eyes from widening at the sight in front of me. A stash was one thing, but this?
“What the hell? Are you Batman?”
3
Bear
My vision was foggy as I was carried from the airplane to the waiting vehicle. The hot, humid air of Nashville still clung to my skin even though that was hours ago, maybe even days. I felt like the leftover humidity should have warmed me, but it didn’t. I couldn’t stop the shivering, as my body shook beyond my control to the point of spasms. Rooster carried me easily, and he glanced down at me as we made our way across the tarmac and a hot wind blew over my face.
“Kid, you going to puke again?”
I closed my eyes but didn’t dare shake my head. “No.” I managed to whisper the word without biting my tongue. I wasn’t sick, though I wished I was. No, it was worse than that; I was poisoned.
And now I was dying. I could feel it happening as my body shut down around me.
Soon enough, I would be with my dad in Heaven. At least I wouldn’t be afraid anymore, or alone. Rooster grunted, then lowered me into whatever vehicle was next. I didn’t care. I couldn’t think about what might happen. I was too trapped inside my own head with what I’d seen and just lived through.
I could still see my mom fighting creatures that looked as if they’d been raised from the depths of my darkest nightmares. I could still see a man get eaten alive by wolf-hybrid dogs, could still see the Shadow as he grappled with my mother as she fought to get to me. I groaned and curled tighter around my middle as the horrors stuck themselves to my inner eyelids.
To save my mother from the monsters, I’d set off the sprinkler system. Which had been full of an antidote for the Ikimono drug, which had made the monsters in the first place. Some of the antidote had gotten into my body—how could it not with the water spraying everywhere?
Having the antidote without having been first injected with Ikimono was what was killing me, and every part of my body knew it. At least I’d saved my mom.
Rooster cleared his throat beside me. “Romano, the kid is getting worse.”
Luca Romano was my grandfather, and he’d not only stolen me from my parents, he’d tried to have them both killed. While my father was dead, my mother was not. She would come for me. I knew she would. She was the Phoenix, after all. Which meant I just had to hang on a little while longer. Maybe she would be able to fix what was wrong with me. My hopes were dashed only a moment later.
“There is nothing I can do about it. And I still have his mother coming, so I will use her to bargain with Shaitan. Pity, the boy had promise,” Luca said. I forced my eyes open, something ticking at my brain.
“Do you have any Ikimono?” I blinked at him, though it was an effort as were the words.
He frowned down at me. “Yes. I plan to get production going elsewhere. Why?”
“Give me the injection.” I whispered the words, not sure why I said them. It was like a part of me had taken over that I didn’t know.
His eyebrows shot up. “Actually, that’s quite brilliant.” He flipped open his suit coat and reached inside to pull out a vial of something. “Rooster, pass me the kit there.”
There was the shuffling of something and then a medical kit was handed to Luca. He opened it and pulled out a needle. “A survivor, I like that about you, Bear. A good trait to have in our world.”
My teeth chattered and my heart began to slow, the beat of it erratic, which made me gulp for air. “Hurry.”
He didn’t speed up at all, just kept up his monologue. “In our world, the strong are the survivors. The brutal are the kings, the powerful mold the world. I’d like to think I can show you how to be all three. Since you come with one of the traits I most desire, this should make the rest of your teaching easier.”
The vehicle hit a bump, and I rolled to my back, gasping for air, my heart slowing further, the blood in my veins sluggish. I closed my eyes and waited. There would be no hurrying Luca; he would either inject me in time or he wouldn’t.
Rooster’s big hand wrapped around my wrist. “Shit, give him the needle, boss. His heart is slowing.”
“You like him now?”
“He’s a damn tough kid. A sight tougher than I would have thought. But even he isn’t indestructible, no matter who his mother is.”
That was more words than I think he’d ever spoken in all the time I’d known him. Pain rocked through my middle, my muscles spasming, and my legs and arms flung out wide without any instruction from me. I tried to suck in a breath, to get air into my lungs, but there was nothing. My chest had contracted and there was no opening it.
This was it. I was going to die and my mom . . . tears leaked out the corners of my closed eyes. My mother would think I was dead again, only this time, it would be real. I was dying and the man who was my grandfather sat over me with something that could save me and he was doing nothing. Nothing at all.
A tiny spurt of anger flickered deep in my belly, a flame that curled and heated its way through my nerve endings. With my eyes closed and my heart stuttering to a stop, the flame grew larger, the heat waking me.
Shouting erupted around me and then the sound of several guns going off, and then a weight slumped onto me and a warm, wet liquid trickled over my neck. Blood, I knew it was blood without seeing it. Rooster was dead. It had to be him because my grandfather was immortal.
Why they’d fought, I didn’t know. I only knew that my mind was fully aware even while my body slowed second by second, dying inch by inch.
In desperation, I reached for the flame I could see inside me. Purples and blues, it reached back and brushed down my arm to pool in the palm of my hand. I clenched my fist around it, dragging its heat deeper into me.
“Damn it,” Luca snapped. “Heart stopped.” His hand pressed against my neck and then was gone. My heart had stopped? “Too late, Bear. Again, pity. But I can’t be dragging bodies with me. It would look bad when I take over Shaitan’s home.” There was a rush of air against my skin and Rooster was pulled off me.
Then I was grabbed by the hand and tossed through the air, my body still shaking as it fought the antidote even though my heart had quit. I tumbled through the air and then hit something lumpy—Rooster again—and rolled off him.
The lack of oxygen, the lack of my heart beating, it swelled over me and I fought the darkness as it came.
And then the flames I’d grabbed raced around me, lighting every part of me on fire, stealing the last of the oxygen from my lungs and burning away everything.
My world was on fire and it felt as though the heat would never end, and yet . . . it felt like that was not a bad thing.
I tried so hard to open my eyes, and when I did, a figure walked toward me out of a bright shining light. I squinted my eyes and stared, because I had to be wrong, it could not be him. He was dead.
“Dad?”
And then the darkness swept over me again.
4
Phoenix
The underground room Killian took me to was a massive cave under the house. The edges of said cave were rough with stalactites hanging here and there just over our heads. I reached up and touched one, the stone cool and damp agains
t my fingertips as if plugged into a water source over our heads.
Somewhere in the distance was running water, either a stream or an underground creek, by the soft rushing sound of it. I didn’t like the idea of being underground with a big-ass mansion and possibly water over our heads. What if the water eroded the underpinnings of the mansion? That was not how I wanted to go out.
The footing was pavement, smooth and perfectly flat, and it stretched to the edges of the cave. Abe walked in front of me, his nose up and his tail wagging slowly as he scented the air. I almost wanted to do the same, something in the air tickled at the back of my head. Like something I’d smelled before.
“Not Batman, no. But I think he had the right idea.” Killian strode in front of me. “This is my backup. I knew the pub would get hit first, and my mother—being the bitch she is—would fight to the death for this house.”
I snorted. “You mean you bought her the house because you knew she would protect it? A built-in guard dog . . . very clever.”
“Thank you.” He half turned and winked at me. “I bought this house because of this cavern below it. I had the paperwork that had been filed regarding the dangers of such a structure below a house covered up and had everything fixed within a few months with contractors I trusted. Then I stockpiled everything I thought I would need given a variety of scenarios, and gave the deed to Ellen. She never knew this was here.” He looked around us with a smile. “And I can tell that no one has found it since I was last here. Nothing is moved, no footprints in the dust.”
It made sense, and I understood then why he tried to stay on good terms with her. Although, I suppose that was blown all to hell now courtesy of me. Funny enough, I didn’t feel bad for it.
Killian strode toward a sheet-covered vehicle and yanked the dusty material off. A big black Humvee stared back at us. “Not exactly inconspicuous,” I said.
“No, but it will get us where we need to go, and then we can switch out vehicles for a minivan if you’d like.”
Rise of a Phoenix Page 4
