Fury of a Phoenix (The Nix Series Book 1)

by Shannon Mayer

  I let go of Gabe, wiped my hand on the back of his shirt and stepped away, training my eyes and guns on the overgrown toothpick, but speaking to my brother. “I’m blowing this place up. This is the only warning you’ll get. It’s the last thing I will ever do for you.”

  Not watching him was a mistake.

  The click of the gun a split second before it went off was the only warning I had. I threw myself to the side, but it wasn’t enough to avoid the bullet completely. It caught the edge of my neck, slicing through the first layers of skin and muscle, and leaving a burning trail in its wake.

  I spun as I dove to the right, and brought up Dinah, because Eleanor was in some ways too good for my brother. He didn’t deserve to see the light. He deserved judgment.

  Gabriel’s dark eyes were all I saw as I pulled the trigger. Watched as the bullet slammed between them, and the eyes went wide and then blank, his body slumped and fell forward on the desk.

  I had no time to consider what happened, to register the pain in my own body.

  The Stick Man shot forward.

  “Dinah, switch!”

  I squeezed the trigger and the bullets slammed into the Stick Man, exploding on contact once more. I shot him four times. Torso, both legs, and his head. The branches shimmered all around my feet and several worked toward me. I stumbled back, shaking. I put a hand to my neck. Painful, shocking, but not deep. I pushed to my feet and hurried to the door.

  “Dinah, how many more you got?”

  “None for at least an hour,” she said. “You know I need time to recharge on those.”

  I did, I’d just been hoping my memory was wrong.

  Moving as quickly as I could, I headed to the mechanical room on this floor.

  I chose not to think about what had just happened. I forced Gabe’s dead eyes from my mind. He would become a nightmare to haunt me, of that much I was sure. And the Stick Man was still here, he’d respawn or whatever it was he did to pull himself together and I’d be fighting him without any big ammo.

  The mechanical room was at the end of the hall, the door jammed shut. I tried the key card I’d taken off Jim. The door clicked and opened.

  I placed the second of my C4 bombs in the room, next to a great deal of explosive things that did not belong there. Things like a propane tank. I ran a hand on the tank, noting three more.

  I shook my head and cranked the propane tanks open. Extra explosions were not a bad thing when trying to take down a monstrous factory, a guardian, and a whole lot of magical drugs.

  I should have been careful with what I wished for.

  Abe and I were off again, working our way back the way we came to the office that led into the ventilation shaft. It was time to go.

  I paused. Simon was still in here, and he’d apparently turned on me, along with someone else Gabe thought was with me.

  My heart chilled. Not Zee? Could they have grabbed Zee? I scrabbled at my cell phone and dialed Zee’s number.

  It rang and rang, over and over. My breath came in hitches. No, this was not happening. I tried his cell phone.

  Nothing.

  I slammed the phone shut.

  I flexed a hand, knowing I could leave Simon behind and feel nothing. But if Zee was down there, I was going after him without another thought.

  I pulled my backpack off and lifted out a pack of C4. Attaching it to the wall, I set the timer. If all went as planned, it would cover our retreat, and if the Stick Man was behind me, maybe the C4 would be enough to keep him down for good.

  “Come on, Abe. Let’s go get them.”

  We jogged through the office, the blood on my neck cooling, sticking, and pulling on my skin. Both shoulders on fire and my head throbbing. This was not the best time for me to pursue a rescue mission. But here I was.

  The next set of stairs going down had an open door. There were two floors below me. The only question was, which one was Simon and Zee on?

  There was no one between us and the second basement floor. Not a single person.

  The area held nothing but open tables and lab equipment. I searched until I found a collection of propane tanks and set the third of the C4 bombs against them, setting it for eight minutes. Sweat trickled down my body, the air not cooling the lower we got, but instead heating up.

  I paused at the far table and the vial droppers there. Killian’s words echoed through my mind. Diva gave the user speed and strength like an abnormal.

  I grabbed a vial, and tipped it into my mouth before I could second-guess myself.

  The effect was instantaneous. My heart began to race at a speed that should have scared me. But the pumping adrenaline washed away the pain in my body and the last vestiges of fear.

  I took off running, feeling the power in my muscles and the strength in every part of my body.

  At the top of the third set of stairs, I hesitated, listening. The lowest level was also the smallest at only a few thousand square feet. Built like a bunker, it had only one way in, and one way out. Which meant whoever I left down there was going to die a terrible death, trapped far below.

  I deepened my voice as much as I could. “Gabe is coming down.”

  “’Bout fucking time. This asshole is a mouthpiece. I want to shoot him.” There was the sound of flesh on flesh, a hard slap and then a clatter. I could see it in my head. Simon was tied to a chair, his guard had knocked him down. Good place for him when the guns started blazing. Zee would keep his mouth shut. There was no way he’d say one single word.

  “She isn’t coming,” Simon said, his voice tight. “I keep telling you she isn’t coming, you shitheads. She’s too damn smart for you.”

  A grunt, the sound of boots slamming into his body.

  I jogged down the stairs, heart picking up speed with each step. I had both guns out, a flash bang hooked into my right hand and I was as ready as I was going to be. From where I stood, I could see that they had some light at least, so I wouldn’t go in completely blind. That being said, I wanted them to be at a disadvantage.

  I hit the bottom stair and tossed the flash bang in.

  The hand bomb went off bursting into the room and stealing their vision for a precious few seconds.

  I fired off two rounds into the two guards. They slumped to their knees, their AK-47s clattering to the ground.

  “There’s a third!” Simon yelled. I dropped with a speed that shocked even me, turned sideways and a bullet ripped through the backpack. My breath hitched as I waited for the last C4 bomb to explode.

  Waited to die.

  There was the clunk of a bullet going through plastic and I closed my eyes.

  Above us, the two bombs I’d set went off, but not the one in my bag.

  The remote had been hit.

  From where I was, I shot the last guard in the chest. He fell backward. I scrambled to Simon as I searched the room for Zee. I pulled a long knife and held it up.

  “What happened and where is Zee?”

  “They jumped me at the rental place, dragged me here. No Zee. This guy over there says he’s FBI.” His eyes were steady, but I couldn’t be sure he was lying.

  FBI . . . I spun on my knees. There was Noah, tied to a chair, his eyes on me. “Hey, Bea.”

  “Don’t you ‘hey’ me, you asshole. I should leave you here. You burned down my house and helped get my husband and son killed.” I turned my attention back to Simon, doubly pissed. I’d only come because I thought Zee had been caught. I’d taken a magical drug to make it happen, and now here I was rescuing two men I would have gladly left behind.

  I suspected one had turned on me.

  The other burned down my house and shot my dog.

  Neither had any chances left as far as I was concerned.

  There were bruises all over Simon’s face and he’d obviously been at their mercy for the last day, maybe he hadn’t turned on me. Damn it, I did not want to feel bad for him. I slashed through his bindings, rope and zip tie, then stalked over to Noah and did the same. I didn’t hand eith
er of them a gun.

  I didn’t trust them not to shoot me in the back.

  “Let’s go.” I snapped my fingers and Abe was at my side first.

  “Did you get the money?” Simon asked and that made it easier to keep the anger flowing at him. Always the money with that one.

  “No.” I led the way up the stairs, and the two men followed slowly. Simon had not worked for the money, and other than helping me drive across country had done very little to help me. Which meant he got nothing.

  Simon grunted. “That’s what will piss your father off, so—”

  At the top of the stairs, I looked back at him. “This building is coming down around us. I don’t know if we can get out even now.”

  I helped him up the last few steps, ignoring the limping Noah, and together the four of us made it to the next level, the one that had the propane tanks. Had, definitely past tense when it came to the tanks. The massive cutting room was engulfed in flames. I couldn’t resist a look toward the vials.

  “Fuck, I’m a fool.” I reached over and grabbed two more, stuffing them down the front of my shirt.

  Abe whimpered and wormed at my side, fear lacing his vocals.

  “We’ve got to run through.” I put the leash on Abe and looked at Simon. He gave me a tight nod and then we were off, running. Noah had to work to keep up, but I didn’t care. The reality was, right now, I liked him even less than I liked Simon.

  That was the plan.

  The Stick Man changed it.

  He stepped through the flames, his limbs on fire but seemingly unbothered by it.

  We all stepped back.

  The buzz from Diva took that moment to tank and my body sagged worse than before. Noah caught me.

  I reached for the vials in my shirt and drank them both down at the same time.

  The world snapped into focus, my senses in overdrive. I spun away from Noah and it was if the Stick Man was stuck in mud as he moved to follow me, his arms flailing.

  I jumped at him, feet first, driving him back into the flames. At the same time, I pulled Dinah and Eleanor, firing hard and fast into the guardian.

  “Go, go!” I screamed at the two men in order to be heard over the crackling of the flames.

  Outrunning the Stick Man was a stall, but I knew he wouldn’t be killed by the flames. There was no choice here.

  I kept moving, kept running, herding the other three, as I guarded our rear.

  Twice we were forced to go through a wall of flame. Abe yelped but kept moving. Simon balked.

  I let him go.

  “No, wait!” He screamed for me, but Noah grabbed and dragged him.

  I kept moving. The bomb I’d set in the mechanical room had lots of time for the flames to reach it.

  There was no hope for this place if the C4 in the escape room had been set off. If so, we were royally fucked.

  At the set of stairs up to the second level, I paused and looked down.

  The Stick Man was at the bottom of the steps and coming fast.

  “Get my dog out,” I yelled at Noah. “Ropes and gear in office 419. Panel behind the wall is an escape hatch.”

  Noah reached for me and I shook him off. “Get the hell out of here, Noah.”

  He turned away, taking Simon and Abe. Abe was on the leash and Simon all but dragged him away. He kept turning his head to look at me.

  I could save all three of them.

  Damn, I was getting soft in my old age.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The Stick Man raced up the steps toward me, pulling himself along the railing. I turned in the opposite direction of where I’d sent the men.

  Rose’s words were the only clue I had to go on. Blood fire. The only blood that was good in a fire was abnormals’.

  Barco was an abnormal who had no need of his blood if I could get to him. I bolted down the hallways, finding my way back to Barco with an ease that surprised me. It was only when I stopped that I realized I’d been following the smell of his blood. Honey and cinnamon. I shuddered and spun as the Stick Man stumbled through the narrow passage. There were no words from him, no dire warning. Just the inexorable path to take me down before him, and that was where he stayed. He swung a clawed hand at me.

  The Diva in my system began to sag once more. Well, this was not good.

  I dropped to the floor, grabbed a knife from my boot and jammed it into Barco’s chest. I opened him up in a single cut—stronger than I’d ever been before.

  Blood and guts spilled out and I scooped at them, flinging them at the Stick Man. He was splattered with the viscera. The Stick Man shook his head once, shot toward me, and swiped me across the leg.

  I screamed as the splinters—twice the size as the first time he’d nailed me—drove high under my skin.

  I fell to one knee and scrambled forward, slipping in Barco’s blood and guts.

  The Stick Man reached for me again and I flung myself away from him so hard I slammed into the side wall. The wall was so weakened by the fire that I fell through and into a tiny office with one desk, and one chair.

  The Stick Man leapt through the hole I’d made and all I could do was get the desk between us. I picked up the chair and used it like a lion tamer, holding the creature at bay. “Burn, you asshole, just burn!”

  He slammed his arms into the chair’s legs, sending it flying out of my hands.

  “You better move!” Dinah yelled.

  “I agree with her,” Eleanor added in.

  I leapt for the door, and grabbed the handle. The knob was hot under my fingers, but I turned it and was out in a split second. I slammed the door behind me as the Stick Man slammed into it. He’d be out the hole in no time but I’d bought myself the seconds I needed.

  Barely, but I had done it.

  Moving as fast as I could, I raced back the way I’d come. But there was a problem that I’d been ignoring until that moment. The fire was licking along the sides of the wall and I was covered in accelerant.

  No choice now. I stripped my clothes off with the last of the speed from the Diva magic. Down to nothing but bra, underwear and holsters, I ran for the fire. The heat licked along my bare skin, feeling like each touch stole my energy from me.

  Behind me the Stick Man roared. I was clear of the flames, the last of my abnormal strength and energy faded and I struggled to breathe.

  The Stick Man flailed behind me, his body eaten by the flames cutting through him.

  Good enough for me.

  I could not move faster than walk, though I knew I needed to run.

  Other than the flames, the wounds over my body, and the threat of C4 going off at any moment, I faced no other challenges as I headed to the office with the escape hatch.

  I opened the door and the C4 was still there, not set off despite the heat that was rapidly growing.

  What surprised me, though, was that Noah, Abe and Simon were there, waiting for me.

  “What the hell? I told you to go!” Fury trickled through me.

  Noah stared at me. “You were gone like three minutes.”

  My jaw dropped.

  That Diva was a damn miracle.

  Both Simon and Noah were sweat-soaked and limping badly. “You can be a callous woman, you know that?” Noah said.

  “And you’re fucking lucky I don’t shoot you now and leave you behind. It’s a damned miracle I’m taking you out alive.” I motioned for him to shut the door, and I went to the paneling in the wall that was a whiteboard. A few seconds later I had the false door pried open, showing the real door behind it.

  Steel, and locked.

  “No lock pick, I suppose?” Simon asked.

  I took my backpack from Noah and dug around in the bottom. “Linx, lock pick.”

  The silver tool shifted and shimmied until he was a perfect pair of lock picks.

  “Thank you.”

  “Any time, sweet cheeks,” he said. If an inanimate tool could wink, he would have. “We’ll get those splinters out next.”

  �
�I’ll do it, you’re spent.” Simon held his hand out and I let him take Linx. He was right, I was fighting to stay on my feet.

  He bent to the door and I slumped against the table.

  Noah couldn’t look at me. I wanted to tell him to grow up, but I had no energy left. I was done in.

  “Got it,” Simon said and opened the door with a flourish.

  I took Linx and put him into my bag.

  I stepped through the door first, Abe followed, then the other two.

  The climb up the ladder was a bit of a bitch, and I resorted to slinging a rope around Abe’s back end to help him up. But he never hesitated, never looked back. Unlike Simon, who kept up a running litany of how hard it was, how tired he was, how much money he was out. At least Noah kept his mouth shut.

  Noah was smart enough to see that as badly as Simon might have been hurt, I was in far worse shape.

  Simon’s whining brought him close to being shot in the head, just for the blessed peace and quiet I wanted.

  At the top of the ladder there was a room—if you want to call it that. A four-foot ceiling narrowed to three-foot which had me on my back and the backpack on my belly. We crawled for at least a hundred yards before we came to a dead end. Above my head was the flat plate of the false sewer cap. I pushed on it and the thing was open. I flipped it up and Abe shot out first.

  I was out next with Dinah pointed and ready with only some difficulty. We were at the far back of the lot, the building right in front of me burning like a son of a bitch.

  The two men followed me all the way to the front gate where the guards were still laid out and Jim was just beginning to sit up. He had a hand to his head. “What the hell happened?” His eyes were semi-glazed when he looked at me. Widening as he took in my state of undress and the guns.

  I didn’t look anything like the woman he’d been prepared to go on a date with. I pulled an envelope from my bag and handed it to him.

  “For Romano.”

  He took it with trembling fingers and I walked away.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Killian’s house served as a stopping point for us. Simon hit the couch and I left him there as I cleaned up the wounds on my body as best I could. I locked the bathroom door behind me and pulled Linx out.