Hell's Phoenix

by Gracen Miller

  Dark, hot tendrils of trepidation swirled in his belly like clawed fingers seeking purchase. Nix reached for Mads to confirm she lay safe at his side and found cold, empty sheets instead. Fear lanced a hot path through him.

  The burning ceiling dissipated and his face cooled as sweat trickled down his spine.

  Sitting up, he glanced at the windows to gauge the hour. The open drapes verified darkness still embraced the early morning hours like a sinister lover. The clock on the bedside table read four a.m. in bright red LED numbers. It’d been after two before they finished making love and settled down into the comforts of the bed. Entwined, Mads’s breath had struck his chest in a comfortable cadence. So how had she extracted her limbs from his without waking him?

  Kicking back the covers, he threw his legs over the side of the bed. He had to find Mads pronto! Had to warn her of his nightmare because he couldn’t shake the ominous feeling that someone had come for her.

  He leapt out of the bed and shuffled toward the footboard, where he hoped his jeans might’ve landed. Maybe the vision had been a lingering effect from the nightmare? He could hope. He prayed so, but he wouldn’t risk Mads’s safety on prayers or hope.

  His big toe caught the bedpost and he cursed, the offended digit throbbing in protest. Hopping to the foot of the bed, he located his jeans in a heap.

  A delightful shiver circuited his spine at the memory of Mads going down on him. She was a newbie to oral sex, but even so, the sight of his cock breaching her parted lips had nearly had him ejaculating down her throat.

  He wiggled his big toe to lessen the ache. He tugged on the jeans, quickly slid the buttons into their holes and went in search of Mads. She wasn’t hard to find. With everyone else asleep, the only light coming from beneath a shut door on the main floor was a dead giveaway.

  Nix opened the door and froze there, staring at the unexpected. Madison and Zen went at it as if they attempted to murder one another. The daggers in Mads’s hands confirmed that likelihood, but something about their body language—the lack of tension most likely—suggested their sparring was nothing more than dress rehearsal for whatever could come at her.

  Mads swiped and jabbed, missing her target by centimeters. Shit, she was fast. Fucking fast. Zen tangled fingers in her hair and jerked her against his body.

  “You fight like a mortal girl, Madison.”

  Mads smiled sweetly, tapped Zen’s face with the flat of the blade and kneed him in the groin. Zen collapsed to the floor, a hard gasp wheezed from his lungs.

  Ouch! What a low blow. The look in her eyes, vibrant and shining with victory…Jesus H. Christ, red alert for fucking sexy hot!

  Adjusting the blades with a dexterity that impressed him, she twirled them in her palms and dragged the hilts across Zen’s throat.

  “Dead, Zen.” Something dark and twisted lay coiled and tense, guiding her actions. Nix had to give Zen credit. He’d trained Mads well. A covert government assassin would be hard-pressed to defeat her.

  Zen massaged his balls and glared up at her. “That was excessive, don’t you think? A low blow?”

  Yeah, Nix agreed with that.

  “Low blow?” She sent a meaningful glance in the direction of his crotch. “You could say that. But excessive? No. If Micah isn’t dead, he won’t hesitate the way you did. And if Micah is dead, Elias will come for me as promised. He’ll come with a taste for justice, turning my dance with Micah into frolics on the beach.”

  Slow-footed, Zen rose to his feet and shuddered. Petty, but Nix liked knowing the immortal had some weaknesses.

  “I’m not Micah or Elias, Madison.” Zen glowered and Nix was surprised by the show of emotion from the normally stoic male.

  She shrugged. “And if you come for me, how differently will it go, Zen?”

  The immortal said nothing, just went after her, driving her backward, deflecting every block, and kick and swipe of her blade. Her back slammed into the wall and a breath oomphed from her lungs as she came up dead-footed. Somehow Zen ripped the blades out of her hands and rammed the tip of one into the wall not half an inch beside her head.

  Their gazes linked. Even with the combat, neither of them had broken a sweat or a pant.

  “Dead, Madison,” he snarled and handed her the other knife, hilt first.

  Zen turned and walked away as Mads yanked the knife out of the wall. Nix realized the furniture had been pushed against the walls, most of which were lined with books. An oversized desk buttressed a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. A library-slash-office of sorts had been transformed into a make-do dojo.

  Nix blinked in surprise when Mads kicked Zen in his lower back, catching the immortal unprepared. He stumbled forward and caught his footing with a hand to a coffee table. The lamp rocked, shadows swayed about the room, but it didn’t lose its perch.

  Vehemence varnished her face, her eyes squinted and her mouth traversed into a hard line. Only a fool would think she sparred for fun. The immortal rotated on the balls of his feet, slow and carefree, cocky of his ability to manage her.

  “All right,” Zen said in a mild tone. “You’re angry with me about something.” Understatement! But the immortal’s calmness confounded him. “Spit it out, Madison, and quit attempting to smash my head out.”

  “Bash your head in,” she corrected, rippling the blade Nix had given her across her knuckles. In silence, she watched it until it hit her pinkie and she started the rotation over again.

  Impressive. Her skills were better than last time he’d witnessed them. Her stance shifted, buoyant footing, and her expression was a perfected mien of aloofness. One hell of a poker face.

  “I pulled up the Internet and read about the earthquake.” Here it comes. Nix waited for her to speak. “You let me kill people and you could have stopped it!” She flung the knife. Unblinking, the immortal caught the weapon by the sharp edge. Moments later, blood oozed from his palm, dripped onto the rug, but his watchful pose remained centered on Mads.

  The man went for Mads, a blur of clothing as she attempted to deflect his attack. She didn’t stand a chance. Within seconds she fell into a chair, panting. She glared at him and he at her. Without taking aim, Zen tossed the blades over his shoulder, both embedding an inch into the opposite wall.

  “If I come for you, that is how it’ll go. Fast and easy,” he snarled, leaning forward and getting into her face. “I already explained I didn’t have time to react.”

  “You did have time!”

  He grabbed her hands, slammed them on the armrest, and glared at her. “Kick me and I’ll level you, Madison. And savor it.”

  Nix bristled at Zen’s threat, but Mads didn’t acknowledge it.

  “The reports said it took them twenty minutes before the southern tip sank. If you’d just killed me like you promised, the catastrophe would’ve been stopped.” She sniffled and tears tripped down her cheeks. Nix wanted to drag her into his arms and comfort her, but nothing could soothe the remorse she currently endured. “Thousands dead because of me,” she whispered, horror distorting her voice. Nix sympathized. Guilt for something like that was a difficult bedfellow. He’d killed many at Micah’s behest and lived with the shame now.

  “Are you accusing me of letting that many people die for one person?”

  Madison blinked, took a moment to think that question over. “Yes,” her voice wavered over the word so low it almost didn’t carry to Nix’s ears.

  The immortal flinched from her accusation as if she’d struck him. He stood tall, a slight twitch at his temple. “When did you lose your faith in me, Madison?”

  Mads dashed tears away, dragged in a long breath and shrugged. “Even if it’s as you say and you didn’t have time, then you should’ve killed me afterward. You didn’t, Zen, and you had no idea if more devastation would follow. I trusted you to make the right choice.”

  “Right choices aren’t as simple as ending your life. I wish everything were so simple.” Zen sent a curious glance in Nix’s direction, acknowledging his pr
esence for the first time. But Nix got the impression the immortal had known the moment he entered the room. “Your son—the one you left me to protect and take care of if you didn’t return—knew when that earthquake hit I could take you out of the equation. No one told him I had your soul, but still he knew. He begged me to give you a chance to make it right. Tell me, what should I have done, Madison? Kill you and then tiptoe around him as he tried to annihilate me? Because you know he would have. He’s too much like you. Too much like Micah not to.” Zen issued his own low blows now. Mads cringed. Nix joined her, the implications of Zen’s final sentence delivering the truth like a boulder crashing onto their heads. “We both know that would have resulted in one inevitable outcome.”

  “You killing Amos.” She whispered the sentence.

  Zen agreed with a nod. “I make choices for the good of humanity. Not for one woman or one child. Do not err in thinking you’re more important than you are.”

  That comment sent color high into her cheeks. She launched out of her chair, vaulted toward him, but halted a couple of feet away with her fingers white-knuckled into fists at her sides. “I get it. We’re not important to you! If I ever thought for one second Amos or I were important, you’ve always been quick to correct the error of my thinking.” Her eyes…did they shift briefly to demon? “All these years you were with me for one reason and one reason only. To protect goddamn Pandora’s Box, shifting me from one jailer to another…from Micah to you! If I had it to do all over again, I would have left your stuck-up ass frozen in that crystal. But with your guardianship at an end and Pandora dead, why are you still here? Better yet, why haven’t you killed me?”

  Ouch! They were both hitting below the belt now. Mads’s cheeks were flushed with temper. Zen…gah, by his bland expression he had no idea what the immortal felt. But his previous actions suggested he cared more than he admitted.

  Why’d she provoke a bigger fight with someone she truly cared about? He’d never seen her intentionally attempt to hurt another’s feelings.

  Now would be a good time to diffuse the escalating situation. “If either of you believe that bullshit you’re spewing, you’re both fooling yourselves.” Nix shut the door as he ventured into the room. “He hasn’t killed you because he actually cares about you. Shocker, I know.”

  Startled, Mads swung about to face him, obviously just now realizing his presence. Zen didn’t shift positions, but continued to ogle Mads.

  “Zen, you’ve done too many things to show you care. You chose to spare her life not because of Amos, but because you hesitated and second-guessed yourself. If you’d been committed to killing her, Amos would’ve never had a chance to utter a word in her defense.”

  Zen shoved his hands into his black pants. His expression grew haughty and a slight sneer curled his mouth. “Amusing. You pretend to know me, mortal.”

  Nix stopped in front of Mads. She stared at his mouth, a needy hunger in her over-bright gaze. A pink flush rosied her cheeks and Nix tripped his knuckles across her cheekbone. If they didn’t have company, he’d strip her right there and kiss every delectable inch of her blushing flesh.

  “Don’t pretend with me, immortal.” Nix spoke to Zen while studying Mads. “I received your phone call about her thirtieth birthday. You were genuinely eager to surprise her and you recognized she needed the outlet.” Mads cast a glance at Zen and Nix palmed her nape, massaged, and was overjoyed when she unconsciously relaxed against him. “You care, Zenny, or you wouldn’t have acknowledged her need for my messian.” The immortal growled at Nix’s nickname and Nix choked back a chuckle. “Whether you should or shouldn’t, you still care.”

  He wasn’t sure of Zen’s exact feelings, but the immortal’s snort of disagreement came loud and clear. Not fooled, Nix understood Zen tried to keep Mads in her place—to protect her or himself, he had no idea—but his actions contradicted his words.

  “Mads….” She flicked a glance at him and went back to staring at his mouth. Adorable that she had trouble meeting his gaze. She just didn’t do intimacy nearly as effortlessly as she did mortal combat. “I know you’re angry with Zen, but that’s no reason to hurt him.”

  Mads sent Zen a pointed glare. “He would need a heart before I could hurt him.”

  “You adore me and we all know it,” Zen said.

  “Bite me, Zen!” She glared at the immortal. “Right now I fucking hate you.”

  “Mads, baby, you don’t mean that.”

  Mads sent Nix a mutinous scowl. “I’ll apologize when he does.”

  Nix chuckled. “That’s mature.”

  “I’m tired of being the mature one in the group,” she said so sulkily, Nix barely resisted the temptation to drag her from the room.

  The door opened and closed behind them.

  “Great, an early morning party,” Zen drawled at the intruder. “Whoopee…or is it Whipee?”

  Nix leaned in and whispered against Mads’s ear, “FYI, I’ll bite you. Anywhere you want.” A sharp intake of breath was her only response. “Feeling a bit bashful after making love with me, Mads?”

  Blue eyes whacked him, but held. “A little,” she admitted, licking her bottom lip. “Remembering the things you did to me.” She ogled his mouth and he understood exactly what she meant. He’d make sure to repeat the oral seduction soon. “The way I reacted. It’s like I don’t know myself.”

  At times she was like two different women. She’d gone at Zen and tried to fend off his attack like a professional kick-boxer, with gusto and cockiness. Nothing shy about her then. But introduce intimacy and she was once again reduced to the unsure, self-conscious woman he’d first met. Strangely, Nix found the duality of her personality provocative. “How do you feel now after our lovemaking?”

  “Okay.”

  Nix ran his thumb across his bottom lip. Not anywhere close to the answer he expected or wanted, but when did she ever give him what he anticipated? “Just okay?”

  She met his gaze dead-on. “I’d be happy to repeat it anytime. Just say when.”

  Nix groaned and tugged her against him. “When.” He kissed her, letting his tongue show her how much he wanted her. “When,” he whispered against her mouth and she chuckled as her hands grappled at his chest. One flattened across his abdomen, the other gripped his shirt.

  “The bedrooms are upstairs.” Leather creaked. Zen sitting?

  Nix severed their union and dragged his thumb across her jaw.

  “Fuck off, Zen.” Mads’s Southern drawl was more pronounced, indicating her irritation with the immortal hadn’t subsided.

  “That’s what I was trying to help you do,” Zen teased.

  Nix turned toward the man, a shade startled by the male’s attempt at humor. He’d never known him to cut jokes.

  “Kur,” Mads acknowledged the intruder and disentangled from Nix’s embrace. He missed her lush heat against him. “Where’d you run off to? I came down looking for you and Zen to have our discussion.”

  Nix didn’t know what discussion she talked about, but unless she asked him to leave, he wouldn’t vacate the room.

  “Nix, no offense, but you smell a little like brimstone.”

  “That’s why I came looking for you. I had a dream that Hell came after you and when I woke, the ceiling smoldered.”

  A flick of fear boiled in her eyes. A long, heartfelt sigh shuddered through her body, hard enough it reverberated through his. “Y’all should leave immediately, Nix.”

  Anger surged so fast, it threatened to explode the top of his head off. She went on as if she didn’t notice the tensing in his body. “We gotta find somewhere safe to hide Alessa, too. Whether Micah or Elias, we gotta assume they’ll go after our friends and family first.”

  Nix yanked her around to face him and her mouth parted in a startled gasp. “You need to understand something very clearly, Mads. You made your stand against Micah without me in Hell. That was the only fucking shot you’re getting without me at your side. Don’t ask me to leave again. Not eve
r again! You looked me square in the eye and told me you were mywoman while I was fucking inside you. Told me you loved me.” Her gaze dropped to his mouth momentarily before flashing back up to hold his regard. “That means I’ll send my family packing, but the only bags I’ll be packing are ours for us to leave together.”

  If she wanted mutiny from him, she needed to continue this conversation. And if she tried, he swore he would drag her gorgeous ass back to the bedroom and fuck her until she didn’t have the energy to argue.

  A slow grin curved her lips.

  What the Hell? If his anger amused her, he would—what? Keep her locked up and naked in a room, until he brainwashed her into agreeing with him? Not a bad idea either way, but—

  “Beg your pardon, Nix.” Confused by her words, his anger fizzled. “I misspoke. By ‘y’all’ I meant your family—Gage, Zoe, Georgie, and James—not you specifically. I never had any intention of asking you to leave. Contrary to the evidence of my marriage, I do define a relationship as two people together, not apart.”

  Nix grinned and would’ve kissed her again if Kur hadn’t spoken.

  “Can you two have this conversation elsewhere? In private? Being forced to listen to the pleadings of the desperate mortal,” Kur notched his thumb at Nix to indicate which desperate mortal he referred, “is akin to cruel and unusual torture. And I thought you had some questions about the dragon stuff, Madison.”

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Madison squeezed Nix’s side and studied first the dragon, then Zen. She put some space between herself and Nix, so she could think with a clearer head. Something about Nix’s presence aroused her succubus like soft strokes of his thumb against her clitoris.

  A bad feeling churned in her gut. The notion Micah might live was very much a tangible possibility. If so, Micah or Elias, or maybe both, would be gunning for her in a united bid at claiming her. Their timeline was imminent. At any moment they could breach her fortifications. And she wasn’t referring to housing defenses, but her mental barriers.