by Unknown
“I’ve kept your secrets, Phoenix. You know this, surely.” He said nothing. They both knew she was lying.
“You’re the only one who even has a chance at speaking with her about this. I don’t want a war. I just want to be left in peace with my family. Certainly you understand that?” Again nothing. She was beginning to get frustrated with the silence and it showed in her tone.
“Besides what else could she want aside from you? You’re the only one that has a real history with her!” Jezabell folded her arms tightly. She was pouting now which she hated doing, but she just couldn’t help it.
“All the more reason for me to avoid her.” He stared at her intensely. Phoenix was well known for how vicious, uncaring and cold he could be. Though tonight it was an act. He cared. He was furious. She could feel it in the atmosphere his anger was so strong, and his eyes were so bright.
“I know you don’t like this. But this is about our family, Phoenix, or you know I would protect you with all that I have!” Jezabell pleaded but before she could continue he gave her a proverbial slap in the face.
“I have never needed nor have I ever asked for your protection,” his voice grew harder, cutting her to the bone with his words. “In fact I believe many a time over it has been the other way around. Hasn’t it, Jezabell? You think you control everything about this House, but you will do well to realize that you do not control me.”
“I don’t know what she wants with Damien and the girl. She’s just a New Blood. She’s worthless to one as ancient as Nekayla. Phoenix, you’re the only one who could possibly learn what this is about!”
Something pushed him to near breaking point. She couldn’t be sure of what had done it. “Never presume anything, Jezabell,” his tone grew sharper as his eyes narrowed.
Of course she couldn’t help but wonder what he had meant by that. What all did her brother know about this that he was refusing to tell her? “Please, Phoenix, I am only asking for your help. Consider this for me, Phoenix, please. I don’t want to lose my family.”
“Ahh. Sacrifice one to save the herd as they say.” That was painful to hear. Jezabell’s mouth dropped, but his hand came up to silence her. “Don’t, Jezabell.” He kept his hand up as he thought to himself. “Maya would be wiser to reach out to than Nekayla.” He sighed, turning his back to her and running his hand through his hair.
He was beginning to give in. The sisters were closely knit. What belonged to one on some scale belonged to them all. Maya was his maker, and strangely he was her only blood child. She would heed him well. She always had. Jezabell moved towards him but he quickly stepped back from her. “I said don’t. I’ll do it. Just leave me be.”
Turning his back on her, he stepped over to his stereo and turned up the music until she could only be heard in thought.
Phoenix was done with her. She had won, truly she had. But what had she lost in the battle, she wondered.
Swift and silent Jezabell left Phoenix to his own. Her mind wondered cautiously over the severity of their conversation as she hurried to return to Lara.
Lara was waiting of course. She always knew when anyone came looking for her, but their connection was well beyond simple precognition.
They were soul mates. Fated to one another.
“Hello, my love.” Lara smiled softly as she laid a book in her lap looking up to greet Jezabell. She felt blessed every time she looked upon Lara’s smile.
“Hello, my sweet. Is the book good?” Jezabell slid onto the large cherry blossom pink love seat curling up close to Lara automatically.
“It is. Dark Wood, it’s about a girl and her dragon. I’ll read it to you later.” She laid the book on the table next to the couch before turning back to Jezabell to wrap her slender arms around her warmly. “I take it she’s been sent your message?”
“Yes.” Jezabell sighed, laying her head on Lara’s shoulder. Laura leaned her head against Jezabell’s. An arm wrapped around her shoulders, holding her close. “Tell me he’ll be all right.”
“I can’t see. He doesn’t want me to anymore.”
“Phoenix, it truly has been too long.” Nekayla stood with her back to Phoenix, staring out the window over the city from the luxury penthouse suite at the Four Seasons hotel in New York City.
Pure, raw, ivory colored silk hung wrapped like a sheath, tied to hang precariously over her breasts, concealing skin as fine as cream. She could see his reflection in the window and watched as he admired her. Nekayla was far more than just beautiful. She could have been the embodiment of perfection in the female form. It’s been said that even a blind man could see her beauty.
Her full crimson lips pulled into a seductive smile as she turned to him. Gleaming copper hair curled to her waist in loose perfect spirals. “I’ve so missed your presence the last years over.”
Her influence was stronger than any other creature of darkness. No one could deny her directly. Those who tried quickly ceased to exist. “Come to me, Phoenix.” Her deep emerald eyes locked onto his as if he were already in her trance.
Slowly one foot drug in front of the other until he stood against her, breathing her in as if she were the air he needed to live. His blood was closely tied to Nekayla’s. It wasn’t possible for him to resist.
“It’s such a pity that after all this time-” her sing-song sweet seductive voice spoke soft in his ear as her fingers slid slowly up his chest, “you would try to defy me and go to Maya behind my back.”
“She’s my maker,” he defended. Nekayla’s hand slid up around his throat with a feather light touch, before she squeezed. Her lips curled into a cringe as she lift him high in the air. Phoenix’s features twisted with a grimace of pain.
He gurgled in response. Her fingers dug into his flesh slow and deep. “I bow to no one, Phoenix. Don’t you ever forget that.”
With the slightest flick of Nekayla’s wrist Phoenix flew into a marble column and slid to the floor. Wisely he stayed put for the time. It would take nothing for her to kill Phoenix of course. She just didn’t want to. Yet.
“Of course I know that, Nekayla. But you have to admit you’ve left me little choice in the matter. Besides, you must know I never spoke to Maya.” Her eyes narrowed as her arms crossed over her chest. Phoenix righted himself, though remained sitting. “I only wish to know your desires at this time that is all.”
“You come on behalf of Jezabell.” Her lips curled with grim amusement.
He ignored the comment. “Why is it that you hunt the New Blood and her mate?”
Nekayla turned back to the window, knowing Phoenix was watching her intently. Certainly her sister’s only blood child wouldn’t be foolish enough to attempt to harm her. Unlikely, but she was still wary of his visit. Phoenix was not a man to be underestimated, no matter how powerful she was herself.
Phoenix waited for her to respond. Nekayla had yet to answer his question. She moved at her own pace. It was Nekayla’s perspective that the world bent to her will. Not the other way around. “I only want what belongs to me. As for the New Blood…”
Nekayla turned back to Phoenix and in the grace of a single step stood over him. “I will not rest until I have drained her back to the corpse she rightfully is, and I am left holding her heart in my hands,” her voice echoed with power. Phoenix flinched at her words though not in fear. A painful pressure grew within him slowly at Nekayla’s every word.
“Just what is it that belongs to you might I ask?” Phoenix chose his words carefully as he looked up to her fighting back the pain.
Her hand slid down his cheek slowly. Ice cold fingers brushed his cool skin until she held under his chin. One nail dug into his flesh as she lift him up to stand before her. “Why, Phoenix my love, you belong to me. As does D’Tera. He is mine, as you are mine. And there for you both will be mine and mine alone.”
Her smile was sweet as honey, and stained in the blood of the dead man still lying on the four poster canopy bed draped in silks. Her lips, hard as stone, brushed the curve of
his chin as she spoke in an intimate whisper. Lush curves brushed close against him. “You remember well how I am quite generous to those I favor, Phoenix. I have always favored you.”
His hands slid over her hips. He remembered. “Perhaps even as a gift I would give the Descendant child to you after I turn her… If you come to me willingly of course. You must know how I have missed you.”
Very carefully, Phoenix pushed her away, pulling back so he could look down to her. Breaking the contact between them almost completely aside the hold on her hips. “Maya released me from her company, Nekayla. I belong to no one. You know well that is how I prefer things.”
His hands slid carefully to her arms to take her hands in his, holding them loosely in front of his lips. “Why is it that Damien belongs to you? What ties does he have to your blood?”
Nekayla’s head turned at an angle as she looked at Phoenix intently. His muscles began to tighten more. Soon the pressure on his body was so constricting it was paralyzing.
Nekayla pulled her hands from Phoenix’s grasp as a sinful smile spread over her lips. “D’Tera is no business of yours. And you, my dear, were never released from me.”
Phoenix groaned as she stepped back. The pain brought him to his knees. The sound of his bones fracturing was audible. The pain held him frozen in place.
“You’re a very smart man, Phoenix. You will see my light. You will come home to me. You will all succumb to me one way or the other. It’s much better if you cooperate peacefully, don’t you agree?”
“And if I don’t?” he questioned through clinched teeth as blood filled his eyes.
“Then my soldiers will kill every last one of them until I have what I want. One way or another.” Her eyes narrowed on him viciously. “And in the very end, when she’s watched the murder and corruption of those she loves, then I will rip the New Blood’s heart out!” her voice was no longer the soft purr of a devil’s angel. Nekayla was angry.
“Why is it that she interests you so? She’s a New Blood. She is nothing compared to you,” as he stole Jezabell’s words, his voice came out rough and cracked as blood seeped from his lips.
Phoenix’s skin rippled as his body tensed with the physical pressure that threatened to crush him from the inside out. His bones one by one began to fracture and would continue breaking until they were all in pieces.
“Of course she’s not!” Nekayla screamed much like an angry child.
After taking a moment to compose herself she took a deep breath, and looked back to Phoenix, recovering her calm exterior. “Let’s just say when I kill something, it had better stay dead.”
Phoenix’s eyes narrowed as he watched her closely. His voice was barely audible. Blood sprayed from his lips with each word from the internal bleeding, “Do your sisters know what it is you’re doing? Do they know of the girl? Where is Maya?”
Slowly his skin cracked, like fractured stone spider webbing out up his torso. Unable to bare it any longer he doubled over. Sucking in an agonized breath his eyes turned dark before he collapsed to the ground, seizing in pure anguish.
“Never question me, Phoenix… Not ever. You will see my light soon, my love. Go back to Jezabell. Tell her what you must. Sweet sleep, my darling child.”
Phoenix’s eyes rolled back and his eyes closed. The pain so overwhelming he’d lost consciousness. “Demetrius!” Nekayla screamed in frustration.
Doors to a closed off room to the suite opened. A man with skin black as midnight came to stand by Nekayla, bowing his head to her. “Get him out of my sight. Be sure to leave him alive.”
It had been two days since I had found the box left for me on the widows walk. Two days since I had moved from that very spot on the roof of the house because of it.
I had come to think of it as my private sanctuary on the property. Only one other person had ever come up here with me. Everyone else left me alone for meditation while I was here, which I was grateful for.
The moment I had scaled the side of the house I had known something was out of place.
Turning had brought about a whole new world of extra senses. Like warning sirens built into my brain when something was amiss. Something was wrong. But I never expected to find that box. Nor would I have guessed its contents.
Phoenix had been here. Sitting in my usual place was a small black wooden hinge-less box. Inside, a piece of folded crisp parchment. Wild script sprawled, Until we meet again.
Under the paper was Phoenix’s stone sphere.
The last time I had seen Phoenix, he had been trying to teach me how to block people out. Unfortunately I wasn’t very good at it.
Although in the process I had learned other things. Some things about Phoenix no one else here knew. And some things I wasn’t supposed to know. Things the others had kept from me. Like Nekayla…
I had stayed on the roof top for two days pondering the meaning of his message and the reason he would leave the stone with me of all people. It made no sense for him to leave it at all.
There was no way I could find out for myself what had happened without involving anyone else. A million times I had contemplated calling Neesa. All she would have to do is touch an object and she would get a read from it. But no, I couldn’t involve her any further in my new life. It was too dangerous first of all. I couldn’t be trusted with humans.
And second, if things were as bad as I believed they were getting, I didn’t want her pulled into anything dangerous. I was already quite upset that Damien had contacted her for help on the issue of my possible reincarnation.
There was always the possibility Phoenix left of his own free will. Simply ready to move on. If that were the case, could I stay in this house?
Still yet, I couldn’t believe Phoenix would have left so suddenly without dire reason. And certainly he wouldn’t have left the soul possession he had carried since the time of his humanity. A large part of me simply wanted to believe he wouldn’t have left without telling me. Not that I could prove that.
No matter how much I wanted to deny it I knew something was wrong without even touching that little black box. He would never leave anything for me like this unless he couldn’t give it to me himself. Of course he had never given me anything at all before now so technically I had no comparison.
I sat there until even my bones ached with stress and worry. Spinning the hard marble stone in my fingers, I watched the light dance off of it brilliantly.
Hunger burned the fringes of my sanity. Blood would clear my head and help me come to some form of understanding on the situation. Or at least help me deal with it, and figure out what to do.
Before leaving, I talked to Damien and Lara, asking to hunt further off the estate alone. Pathetic I had to ask, but I didn’t want anyone following me either. I needed some space. Plus my feeding habits were simply too hard on the woodland creatures of Jezabell’s fairytale forest.
Damien had asked that he accompany me on the trip. But I just wasn’t ready for the company. Nor was I ready to explain what Phoenix had left me. He’d left it there so no one else would find it after all.
Ultimately Lara promised to stay focused on any trouble I would encounter and convinced Damien to let me go alone.
I was getting better at hunting. I made a mess but it was mostly limited to my face and neck now. At least this time I hadn’t entirely destroyed my clothes that is. I fed on a cougar and a black bear both before I felt satisfied finally.
Canada was the best place to hunt. It never seemed short of bear, elk, or mountain lion depending on the area. The best part being there was nearly no human civilization for miles upon miles in the right places.
Even still, I hadn’t come to any better feeling about the situation. The sphere I had kept with me for safe keeping. It constantly seemed to radiate warmth even as it sat completely untouched in my pocket.
Silence overwhelmed me. Like one of those nature shows about predators and their prey, showing how quiet animals would become when they know they are being hunte
d. And was I not the greatest predator in these woods?
The further I walked the more I seemed to notice the warmth coming from the stone. By the time I reached the Canadian American border to return home the heat seemed to be steadily increasing.
Before long it was out right burning me. “Jeeze!” It was so uncomfortable I pulled the sphere from my pocket to see what was causing the increasing heat.
The usual diamond like radiance had changed to that of a dark ruby. Each glittering fragment was blood red.
As I focused on the stone I felt a tingle run down my spine. The smell of blood waft through the air, drifting to me from a few miles out. It was Vampire blood… A low snarling groan whispered through the wind.
Knowing perfectly well I could be running to meet my death I took off anyway as if I had no choice but to follow.
Phoenix lay on the ground at the base of a tree. His body contorted in pain. As soon as I saw him I was by his side kneeling close to him. “Phoenix?” my voice a frightened anxious whisper as I looked him over. “What happened?”
“Nekayla,” his voice was so strained I could barely hear him. “I need blood.”
Moving faster than I had ever before I found the closest animal I could. A fat well fed rabbit hiding in its burrow. In a second I had ripped him from the earth and snapped its neck to keep the animal from suffering more than its due. I was back by Phoenix’s side in mere moments. If I wouldn’t have been so worried about him, I would have stopped to appreciate the irony.
Phoenix drank deeply until there was nothing left. Groaning he fell back. Agonizingly slow, each bone began snapping back into place as he healed.
Phoenix’s skin rippled with the horrendous effect of powerful magic. As quickly as the bones healed, they were breaking again. Crying out his hands dug into the earth desperately. “It’s not strong enough.” He cringed through grit teeth.
“I’ll go find more.” Before I could stand, his hand clutched to my wrist.
