Fury of a Phoenix (The Nix Series Book 1)

by Shannon Mayer

  As soon as my cast was off, he started me back hard, running me the ten miles I’d been doing previously in the deep snow, setting me to weights and full-body workouts that pushed every limit I had. We worked on shooting, setting explosives under pressure, picking locks of every kind, rappelling, and knife throwing. All I had done before, and while some of it was rusty, every piece of it came back into clear focus. The skills were there, and unlike before when I used them for someone else, this time, they were for me. For my boys.

  Dinah kept up a running commentary most days. Eleanor helped fill in any gaps she missed.

  “You should be working at your reflexes more, you’re not as fast as the myst users.” That from Dinah.

  “She has a point,” Eleanor added. “Repetition is going to be key to your speed seeing as you are a normal.”

  Day in and day out, I worked until I was drained of everything and fell into bed every night.

  I could feel it in every breath and flex of my muscles as they grew leaner. Three months after Justin and Bear left me, I was faster than I had been as a younger version of myself.

  Valentines passed in a blur that I panned to ignore if not for the bouquet of flowers that had shown up on my doorstep. Shaking, I brought the two dozen red roses with a note stuck to them.

  Love to you always my beautiful wife. J.

  I leaned against the flowers, knowing that they were from Justin. This was something he would have done, pre-ordered flowers months in advance in case he was not home. In case he was on a trip. Or in this instance, dead. Tears dripped down my cheeks and into the velvet petals. No matter that he may have caused this loss in my life, he’d loved me like I’d never been loved before.

  And I missed him, I missed his strength and laughter. I missed his touch.

  “Son of a bitch, I hate crying you know that.” I whispered into the flowers before setting them on the table and walking away, Abe tight to my side.

  Abe healed nicely and ran with me every day as the snow melted and the temperatures rose. Zee added a backpack with twenty pounds of gear to my runs, added torture techniques, applying them to me and forcing me to the edge of my mental limits as he held me under the icy water of the creek. We fitted Abe for his own vest, adjusting it so he could carry extra ammo for me, as well as be safer with the bulletproof dog vest.

  Every day, all the familiar training techniques took me back to my childhood. My father had thought to make a perfect solider out of one of his children and I’d volunteered. I’d wanted to escape the torment of my older brothers. I’d wanted to be stronger. I’d wanted a way to protect myself.

  Born to his second wife, I’d started out life as a chubby, ugly duckling. My father already had a beautiful daughter, so when we sat at the dinner table that night and he’d asked which of his children would want to be his enforcer, trained by Zee himself, a legend in the family already, I’d stood.

  My father had been surprised at first, but eventually consented.

  “No one will suspect you of coming to collect, Phoenix. You will be amazing once Zee has trained you.” He’d touched my chin, lifting my eyes to his. I’d been twelve. Twelve years old and all I wanted was my father to love me. To protect me. But he wasn’t doing either and I knew it was up to me.

  “I won’t disappoint you, Father.” I’d stared up at him, adoring. He was handsome with his dark hair and eyes, identical to my own.

  I shook my head as I army-crawled through the thick mud under the electric wires Zee had set up. Abe was beside me, flat to the muck, his tongue hanging out as we worked through the obstacle course.

  Two miles of mud, water, walls, near drowning, ropes, nets, up and down. And at the end, I had to go hand to hand with Zee with nothing more than my fists and feet.

  This was my last test, the last piece that would show both him and me if I was ready to go back into the world I’d run from. That I thought I’d never have to go back to.

  From under the wires, I slid and ran at the fifteen-foot wall. Zee waited on the other side. I sprinted hard, forcing myself up until I could grab the top and hauled myself over, Abe still right beside me, his claws scrabbling as he clung to the top with a grunt. In the past months, he’d connected with me in a way I’d never had with a dog before.

  Almost like he knew what I was doing. Like he knew I was going after those people who’d killed Bear and he wanted in on the action, a shot at the assholes who had torn our boy from us.

  Zee waited for me at the end of the course, two army batons, one in each hand. I spit to the side. I hated the batons. They left bruises like nothing else, and Zee wielded them as an expert, aiming for my sore spots.

  I slowed as I approached him, enough to slow my heart a little, and then I stepped into the circle with him. I gestured for Abe to go to the left. Zee frowned.

  “Dog isn’t allowed.”

  I shrugged. “You have your weapons, I have mine.”

  Abe let out a low growl and crouched as he slunk around Zee, doing his best to get behind the big man.

  “So be it,” Zee said and promptly disappeared.

  “Son of a—” A baton slammed into my gut, cutting me off.

  Bent over, I struggled to breathe as I searched the mud in front of me. I dropped to my ass and swept my left leg out in a circle, connecting with Zee’s ankles, sending him down.

  I didn’t think it would hurt him so much as give me an edge. He stood, partially visible with the mud splattering him.

  Not perfect, but it would have to do.

  “Not enough, Nix,” Zee growled.

  I blinked and my vision disappeared. “Seriously?”

  “They have a Hider. Someone good enough to break my wards and leave no evidence. That means you will face him at some point.”

  I stayed where I was on the ground. If I could hit Zee hard enough, he’d lose his concentration and his hold on me would slip. Warding inanimate things was much easier than blocking the vision on a person.

  “Abe, fass.” Attack.

  There was a rush of Abe’s paws in the mud and then Zee howled. There was a cry as he thumped Abe with the baton, but from the sounds, Abe did not let go.

  My vision flickered. With only a portion of my sight given back, I leapt forward at the mud-covered Zee. He saw me coming and swept his batons at my head.

  I ducked the swing of the first baton, swept my right arm upward and caught Zee’s second swing on my forearm. The crack of skin and bone on the weapon rippled through the air, and I went to my knees, a howl on my lips. He wasn’t holding back.

  I let the blow push me down to help ease the impact. Pain ratcheted through me, but I couldn’t stop the fight now. His next blow was coming. From the mud, I kicked out and slammed my heel into his left leg while Abe continued to yank on the right, splitting him apart.

  Zee swept the batons both at Abe, aiming for his head. I flipped back onto my hands and kicked Zee under the chin with my heel, mud flying in every direction.

  The crack of boot on jaw echoed in the air.

  I continued over my flip into a crouch. Zee wobbled where he was, shook his head and slid to the ground.

  Moving as fast as I could, I climbed up his body, snagged a baton and pressed it against his throat. I straddled his upper body and Abe pinned his right leg. Blood trickled down my arm, and my vision still wobbled. But I had him. Something I’d never managed before.

  “You letting me win, old man?”

  He’d never been so slow, even his magic seemed . . . sluggish. He shook his head and I got off him as he coughed and put a hand to his throat. “No. Damn it.”

  I held out a hand to him and helped him to his feet. I rubbed my arm that had taken the baton blow. It was going to be swollen and aching for days. And I was sure Zee hadn’t given me his full force. But was that on purpose? He wasn’t helping me if he didn’t push me.

  He held up his hand. “One more test before you go to New York.”

  I stared at him. He flipped one hand over and a
piece of paper appeared in his palm. “A job. Simple, straightforward, but you need to see if you can still do it. If you can still pull the trigger.”

  I snorted, snot flying past my lips. “I can still pull the trigger.”

  “I’m going to insist you do this job. Or I will blind you and make it so you can’t go to New York.”

  My jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t.”

  “I would.”

  I snatched the paper and stared at the words printed in his hand. “What the hell kind of job is this? Have tea with Mary-Ellen? Is this a joke?”

  He shook his head. “She’s not what she seems.”

  “You mean she’s secretly Catholic?” I couldn’t help myself and the flippant attitude. Zee glared at me.

  “No. She’s not human.”

  “Oooh,” Dinah did a stage whisper from her spot on the table in the back yard, “How will we ever survive an abnormal?”

  I ignored her and kept my eyes on Zee. “Oh, well, I already knew that, so did you.” I waved at him and he grabbed my arm, dragging me close, his eyes locked on mine, seeing into me as only he could.

  “Be careful about listening to your guns, Nix. They make you cocky, and they are partly what made you hard before. You trusted them too much. You trusted them over the people in your life who cared for you.” His eyes bore into mine. “They are weapons, designed to kill and nothing else. You are not. You are not a weapon.”

  I swallowed hard, feeling the chastisement down to my toes. “Zee, I just . . . I just can’t be miserable all the time. I can’t. It’s killing me. Black humor is at least an attempt at surviving.”

  “I know. But watch yourself. I see their influence on you. Same as before. It took you a long time to break free of it.” Zee glanced at the house where Dinah and Eleanor sat on the table, waiting for me. He was right in a way. The two guns were . . . addictive in their own way. They represented safety and protection in ways I’d never had before them.

  “There is a reason your sister killed herself with your guns,” Zee said softly. “Remember that, too. We just don’t know what that reason was.”

  I nodded. “I will.”

  The thing was, I was not Bianca. My sister had magic of her own. Three of my four siblings did because they were born from our father’s first wife, Maggie. Gabe was the only one who seemed to have missed out on that perk. My mother was a normal, and so was I.

  Bianca had killed herself with Eleanor, and left a note that the guns were to be mine after her death.

  Eleanor would not talk about my sister.

  I made my way to the back of the house and the table where the two guns were and scooped them up. Within a half hour, I was showered, dressed and headed off to see Mary-Ellen.

  “She’s an abnormal? That’s what you said?” Eleanor asked the question, surprising me.

  “Apparently.”

  “And we’re going to kill her?” The hopeful note in Dinah’s voice was a little too strong.

  “I don’t know.” That much was true. I didn’t hate her. But generally speaking, abnormals were dangerous and only showed up when they were there to kill or hurt you. That being said, Mary-Ellen had been in the valley long before me. Maybe she was hiding too. But if that was the case . . . who was she hiding from?

  Chapter Eight

  Pulling up to Mary-Ellen’s home in town was surreal. The last time I’d been there was the ill-fated Christmas party. I shifted in my seat, thinking. How the hell was I going to go about this? The Hiding Zee had laid on me and Bear for so many years was gone which meant anyone who knew what the Phoenix looked like would recognize me.

  “Any ideas?” Dinah asked.

  I fingered the bottom hem of the loose shirt I wore. “Well, there’s one way to make sure she knows who I am.” The shirt cut down low in the back, showing off my impossible to miss tattoo. Bright wings spread across my back in gold, red, orange, and black, and the pinion feathers ran across the back of my arms. A testament to the only thing my mother gave me that I could truly say was my own.

  My name.

  “Ahh, the wings. Right.” Dinah wiggled in her holster. “So . . . you flash your back, she attacks you, and we can shoot her?”

  I pushed open the door and stepped into the spring air. “No. I pull the trigger, remember?”

  “Stop pestering her,” Eleanor snapped. The two of them bickered low enough against my back that I could only catch a word here and there. I did my best to ignore them as I walked up to the front door of the everyday house, of an everyday family, and lifted my hand to knock.

  The door opened before I could even put my knuckles to the hollow wood door.

  Mary-Ellen and her bouffant stood in the doorway. “I thought I heard a truck. What are you doing here, Bea?”

  “I came to talk to you.” I tried to see past the cover of human skin. Zee didn’t know what kind of abnormal she was. Which meant I was still going in more than a little blind to this situation.

  She blinked a few times. “Oh. Well, come in, please. The missionaries just left. I have some soup and sandwiches if you’re hungry?”

  “Poison,” Dinah whispered. I doubted that was the case, but I appreciated the reminder.

  “What was that?” Mary-Ellen glanced at me.

  “Didn’t say a thing.” I smiled at her, holding her eyes. “Here, let me get the door.” Her eyes were on me as I turned and shut the door, giving her full view of my back, and the rather distinctive tattoo.

  A strangled squawk escaped her and I spun around, Eleanor in my left hand. “I think we need to talk.”

  There was a violent burst of red myst and I squeezed the trigger, aiming for Mary-Ellen’s leg. Eleanor went off, and I was slammed to the floor. Bright colors erupted in my vision and I rolled, throwing Mary-Ellen off as she screeched and squawked. Like some sort of giant . . . bird?

  Oh shit.

  Her beak slammed into the floor, tearing up the wooden slats, missing me by inches. I rolled forward. “I want to talk to you, Mary-Ellen! Don’t make me kill you!”

  Another screech and a pair of talons the size of my head raked the front of my belly, opening the first few layers of skin.

  Mary-Ellen was obviously a shifter, her body mostly bird, but her tail lashed long and sinuous like a snake. I lifted my eyes to her head.

  A weird mishmash of bird and snake. Beaked with fangs, snake eyes, a crest of feathers on top. I had no name for her. I wasn’t sure there was any name for her. Unlike the library of mythical creatures the general populace believed was out there, what really existed was anything but categorized. Not in the least.

  Magic did weird shit.

  Like making guns talk.

  And slamming two animals’ DNA together and making it into a monster.

  I held my hands up, palms facing her. Eleanor hung from my one finger. “Mary-Ellen, stop flipping your shit.”

  She screeched at me and backed up a few steps, limping. There was a perfect hole in her left leg.

  Eleanor didn’t miss, and neither did I.

  “You . . .” She squawked and stuttered as she spoke, “you are the Phoenix. You’ll kill me. I have children. I have a life. I’m not his anymore.”

  I frowned. “I’m not here to kill you. I swear it on . . .” I was going to say I would swear it on my boy, but that wasn’t possible any longer. “I swear it, Mary-Ellen.”

  Her big avian eyes blinked several times, the eyelid transparent and freaky as shit. I didn’t move. “Whom did you belong to?”

  She trembled, her feathers fluttering. “I won’t go back to him.”

  “To whom?”

  She shook her head and took another limping step back, then her eyes narrowed at a speed that I could barely follow.

  “You’re out of shape,” she said. “If you knew who I was, you’d kill me.”

  I spun Eleanor so she was back in my hand. “Then you’d better talk fast so you don’t end up in bits in pieces.”

  Her body expanded with a big bre
ath.

  Her legs tensed and her wing tips fluttered.

  Fucking hellfire, we were doing this right now. I needed to deescalate this. “Mary-Ellen, you helped me bury my boy and as much as I would really love to blow your brains out every time you asked me to be your friend, I am doing my best not to kill you. Talk to me by the count of ten or I will let you make an up-close acquaintance with Eleanor.”

  On my back, Dinah groaned softly, “Spoiled brat.”

  Mary-Ellen slumped, defeated and ready to talk. Zee was wrong, I hadn’t lost my edge.

  Except right then, I did a damn stupid thing.

  I lowered Eleanor.

  Mary-Ellen blurred as she came at me, her feathers fluttering, blinding in the speed of her movement. Her fanged beak came straight for my head.

  I dove to the right, through the doorway and into the spare room. I hit the floor as I skidded and kicked the door shut. A split second later, she busted through and then the truly strange shit started.

  Her body multiplied so I was looking at not one, but four Mary-Ellen lizard birds. They darted around me and I fired as her four beaks shot at me in unison.

  The bullet went through the one image of her.

  “Damn big bird!” I snatched Dinah out of her holster, as I was hammered in the upper back. Mary-Ellen’s beak snapped something in my shoulder and Dinah flew across the room from my suddenly nerveless fingers.

  I dropped to the floor and did a wide sweep with one leg, going for her ankles. I swept through two images and then hit her on the third image. She went down with a screeching squawk and I grabbed hold of one of her legs above the talon. She yanked hard, putting pressure on the injured shoulder, forcing my hand to drop her.

  Enough of this shit. I swept Eleanor up and shot Mary-Ellen. I aimed for her wings, and her belly.

  From where she lay, I hit her evenly, all three bullets driving through her and into the floor. She cried out and her body shifted once more, sliding from a big-ass bird thing, down to a human with wild hair once more.

  “Please don’t kill me.” She gripped her stomach with one hand. Both her arms bled from the shoulder shots.