* * * *
We didn’t dare leave Ozzie behind. Neither he nor Jess said a word to each other on the ride to her house. They simply sat in the back seat, vacantly staring out into the night.
Ozzie had something to say now that we’d left Jess and begun tracking Oscar.
“The kill is mine.” He positioned himself in front of both Ian and me, forcing us to stop or run him over. “The kill is mine,” he repeated.
Ian nodded, almost imperceptibly.
I wanted to argue. God knew I wanted to rant and rave and tell Ozzie to go to hell. But I just couldn’t. The man had just found out that he had a son at the same time he found out that he was missing. It was in his very nature to want the kill; he was a vampire. On the heels of that thought came another.
Oh shit! Ozzie was a vampire. That made Oscar half-vampire too.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it so I shoved that information into an overflowing box of shit-to-be-dealt-with-later in the back of my mind and followed Ian through the streets of town. He’d stop periodically, his nostrils flaring, and then continued. Once he even knelt to the ground and sniffed the pavement.
I didn’t know that Ian’s sense of smell was enhanced. Mine sure as hell wasn’t. We passed shabby buildings that had once been the heart of town, depicting a time when the railroad was still the main form of transportation and our small desert town was the most developed part of Arizona. The buildings that once proudly graced Main Street now lie in ruin and inhabited only by the ghosts of the past. I could see the potential in my mind’s eye and silently wished that the city council would be more concerned with preserving the heritage of my beloved town. Instead, they strove to become just another anonymous suburb in the cookie-cutter style that has plagued the southwest for the past forty years.
The paved streets gradually gave way to gravel roads then flattened to desert terrain as the bleak buildings faded into the shadows of the night. The thorns of cacti and other desert plants scraped by my legs, making me glad that I had thrown on a knee-length pair of leather boots. The sound of a night bird echoing through the darkness was the only thing that dared break the silence.
I felt both Ian and Ozzie move into position, one on each side of me. I could see Ozzie tense in the pale light the moon provided, giving his hard features a look so formidable that I found my own fear creeping through my pores.
This was not a man who had always walked on the side of good. In fact, his footsteps had probably left more impressions on the evil side of life than anywhere else. Now his child was missing, the captors so close his body pulsated with the need to annihilate whoever, or whatever, had dared to take what was his.
Ian’s fury was more controlled but was there just the same, rippling the air around me like a tangible entity. I didn’t block it; it wouldn’t have mattered. My own anger drank in theirs, reveling in the feel of the power it created and held it close until the moment we could unleash our fury on the bastard who had ripped a child from arms of his mother.
“It ends here.” Ian looked at Ozzie. “I am sorry.”
Ozzie dropped to the ground and spent the next few minutes searching for any sign of Oscar—of anyone. “They must have taken him by car from here,” he finally said, his voice small, yet fierce. “A lot of cars have passed this spot. It would be impossible to track him from here.”
“So? We just go back to Jess and tell her that Oscar is gone?” I looked at each man in turn. “That we can’t find him?” My voice was nearly a screech by time I’d finished the sentence. “And do what? Nothing!” I felt the tears flow down my cheeks and didn’t care. It didn’t matter, nothing did. Oscar was gone and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
* * * *
Jess was standing on her porch when we came back. Her gaze darted to each of us and then all around, looking for Oscar. When she didn’t see him she looked back at me, her eyes pleading. “You didn’t…” Her sobs cut off the rest of her words.
I shook my head and she crumbled. Ozzie was a blur of movement as he sped past us and caught Jess before she hit the porch.
He carried her inside and she clung to him. I’d never seen Jess melt into someone like that before and at that moment, I knew she must have loved him once. Whether she still did or not, I had no idea. But Oscar was conceived of love. Did she know Ozzie was a vampire? Did she care? Is that why she ran away with her unborn child? All of these questions would have to wait. Right now, we had to find Oscar.
“Do you know of anyone who would take Oscar?” I asked a short while later as Jess clutched a glass of water between her hands.
“No,” she rasped.
“Any case you were working on that might have pissed someone off enough to get back at you?”
She lifted her eyes to mine. “I’m a lawyer, Leah. I piss most people off.”
I put my hand on hers. “Anything stand out recently?”
My phone rang before she could answer and everyone jumped—even the vampires. I fumbled it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. “Unknown caller,” I said aloud and pressed the button.
“Leah Wolfe,” a voice said matter-of-factly into my ear.
“Who the hell is this?” I growled.
“It matters not who I am, only who I have.” His words slid down my body like slime.
I wanted to blurt out “give me back Oscar” but my cop brain kicked in and warned me not to give anything away that the bad guys might not know. In my line of work, I got a lot of calls from crazies. If this wasn’t really Oscar’s captor, I didn’t want to let him know of the problem.
“It is the boy that you seek, is it not? Oscar?”
I nodded frantically to Ian although I knew he could hear the conversation as clearly as I did.
“I am Phoenix,” he growled. “Ask your lover what that means.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what it means. Cut the shit and give Oscar back!”
“I will make you a bargain, Leah Wolfe. You, for the boy.”
“How do I know he is safe?” I shifted out of the way when Ian reached for the phone.
“I shall send you a video. You will see him with me right at this moment. He is watching television, channel twelve.”
Ozzie relayed the information to Jess and they both ran to the living room and turned on the television.
“Done,” I said a moment before the phone was ripped from my hand, disconnecting the call.
“What the fuck, Ian!” I yelled.
“You cannot trade yourself. I know what he is and what he is capable of.” A text message blinged on my cell phone and Jess ran back into the room. I pressed the accept button and held the phone so we could all see.
Oscar sat on a bare concrete floor in front of a television. Tears streamed down my face and Jess broke into another rash of sobs. “That’s on right now. It’s the train show, one of his favorites.” She took the phone and stared at it, as if willing her little boy to come home through it.
I sniffed away the tears and looked up at Ian. “I’m making the trade.”
Ian grabbed my arm and ushered me out the back door. “You cannot do this, my love.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
He shook his head.
“You do not know what Phoenix is capable of.” His eyes were sympathetic but determined.
“Then enlighten me, damn it!” I ripped my arm from his grasp, “Because I’m trading myself for Oscar whether you approve or not!”
He swept me up into his arms and started marching toward the front of the house.
“Put me down, Ian!” I tried to push myself away from him.
“I will put you down in the car.”
“I can’t just leave Jess.”
“Ozzie will look after her. I need you to understand what Phoenix is and I cannot tell you here.”
I stopped struggling and looked up at him.
“Cannot, or will not?”
He dropped his arms so I rested lower on his body and
kissed me fiercely. “I will answer your questions at home.”
“But Jess—”
“I assure you that Ozzie will look after her. Besides, I believe they have much to discuss.” He pulled a key fob from his pocket and pressed a button.
The car door was open by time we got to it. He dropped me into the seat, jammed the keys into the ignition and didn’t say another word until we were home.
Chapter 6
“Phoenix was once a Marquis, although he used the name William at that time. He was well-respected in the Supernatural community of old, ruling with a fair hand, and he was one of the first to settle in this country. There, he met a young widow who captivated his heart.” Ian squeezed my hand and smiled. “Her name was Alse Young.” The name rang a bell but I couldn’t quite place it. “Their affair was secret; vampires were completely discreet in that period of time. One late spring morning, the townspeople dragged Alse from her home while William was dead for the day in the cellar of their home and unable to help her.” Ian’s eyes grew distant as he spoke before suddenly snapping back to mine. “When William woke, he found Alse gone. He searched the town, knowing she would have never been out after dark alone.” Ian hesitated. “William found her hanged in the meeting house. It was the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials.”
We sat in silence for a moment while I processed what he’d told me. “Was she a witch?” I asked.
“Alse was a healer. She had helped many of the people who lived in the very colony where she was executed. Yes, she was a witch. But she did not practice black magic.”
“She helped those people and they murdered her for it?” My indignation rose.
“For a people who left England to escape religious persecution, they were quite intolerant.”
“Damn.”
“William was devastated and went on a rampage. Each of those who had hanged Alse were later found dead, one at a time, and completely exsanguinated. The townspeople took that as proof that Alse had been a witch. This further infuriated William. He had been a scientist in life and after her murder, began capturing and experimenting on both humans and Supernaturals. He began calling himself Phoenix.”
“The mythical bird that rises from the ashes,” I whispered almost to myself. “He wanted to bring Alse back to life.”
“Yes, and make himself impervious to daylight as well. He felt responsible for Alse’s death. If he had been alive and able to walk in the sunlight he thought he could have saved her.” Ian’s eyes grew distant again. “By the time I was called to this country to stop Phoenix, he had disappeared.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “The Salem Witch Trials? Ian, that was in…”
“…1651,” Ian supplied. “Alse was hanged in 1647. It had taken nearly five years for the other Marquises to decide that Phoenix had done enough to reveal our existence and it was time to eliminate him. I suspect that he was forewarned of my arrival and went into hiding.”
When I remained silent Ian added, “Are you doing the math in your head, my love?” There was just a tint of humor in his voice.
“How old exactly are you?” I whispered.
“It has been ages since I calculated it myself. Would you like the number in centuries, decades, or years?” Ian smiled wanly.
I knew Ian was old. Hell, I knew he was centuries old, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the numbers spinning in my head. I shrugged it off. It didn’t matter anyway. Oscar was missing and every minute we spent talking was another that he was in the hands of Phoenix. Ian watched me silently, an emotionless expression on his face that told me he was hiding whatever feelings he had going on in there. I smiled and kissed him. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just focus on getting Oscar back.”
A look of relief flashed through Ian’s eyes. Fleeting but there.
“You cannot trade yourself. Phoenix knows what his fate is and the warrant of execution has no expiration date.”
“Even more reason for me to trade myself for Oscar. I won’t leave him in the hands of a madman.”
“Phoenix knew I was sent to destroy him. He will not hurt Oscar. He only wants to cause me the pain he once suffered when he lost Alse. I won’t let him take his vengeance on you.”
“I can’t leave Oscar there,” I insisted.
“We will find another way to get little Oscar back, my love.” His eyes had turned as dark as a midnight sky and every emotion pouring from him said he spoke the truth. Ian would not let me do this. I had to let him find another way.
At least let him think I was letting him find another way. I threw up my shields, shutting Ian out of my head and emotions. “Okay, but I need to be with Jess right now, Ian.” I let my shoulders drop. “She needs me. I’ll see if she remembers anything unusual in the past few days. Someone had to have been keeping an eye on them to link Oscar to me.”
He planted a kiss on my forehead. “You should rest, my love. You will need your strength.”
“I’ll stay with Jess tonight.”
He raised his dark eyebrows skeptically at me.
I wrapped my arms around his waist and kissed him. “I will sleep, Ian.”
“Promise me that you will not do anything unwise,” he whispered into my hair.
“I promise.”
As soon as my car cleared the gates of the estate, I dragged my cell phone out of my pocket and pulled to the side of the road. I opened the text that showed Oscar and examined it closely. There was nothing to indicate a location, only the damn concrete floor and television. I didn’t see any scrapes or marks on his exposed skin and his eyes seemed clear, so I didn’t think he’d been drugged.
Swallowing back the bile that rose from my stomach at that thought, I called Jess. I told her that Ian and I had a plan to get Oscar back and she needed to meet us at my old adobe house. Since I was shielding like a son of a bitch to keep Ian out of my head and she was already so upset, I didn’t set off her bullshit meter. Jess could normally smell a lie a mile away; it made her one hell of an attorney.
I told her to bring Ozzie. One, because there was no way he’d let her leave alone, and two, if something went ass-backward it’d be nice to have a vampire around to cover my back.
Was I breaking my promise to Ian? No. I didn’t think getting Oscar back was “unwise” at all.
I didn’t have much time once I got to my place, but I managed to change into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and throw on my favorite boots. They were my favorite because they hid a silver knife in each heel. I kept a few things at the old place for emergencies, or, if I wanted to be honest with myself, in case everything between Ian and I went to shit and I needed a place to go.
I tucked my Glock in its holster and then slipped another smaller gun in a holster at the small of my back. I was sure I’d be frisked and my weapons taken, but if they were secured in the same location, I had a chance to retrieve them. Again, my stomach lurched but I swept the thought out of my mind. I would never be able to live with myself if something happened to Oscar and I could have prevented it.
I heard tires spitting gravel and knew they had arrived. Jess sprinted through the door with Ozzie right behind her.
“Ian’s not here.” Ozzie was clearly suspicious.
“No,” I replied evenly, “he’s not.”
* * * *
I told them I planned to trade myself for Oscar. I was better prepared to defend myself than Oscar and they could tell Ian and launch an escape plan for me once Oscar was safe.
Ozzie emphatically said no. Ian would never forgive him and would probably kill him if anything happened to me. Jess said there had to be another way, but none of us could come up with one.
So on it went. For the next few minutes we argued, mostly saying the same words; sometimes in a different order and with greater inflection, but still coming to the same conclusion. It was the only surefire way to get Oscar home safely.
I slid the phone to expose the tiny keyboard and typed in:
Meet me at my house in an hou
r. Bring the child. I will go calmly if we are all unharmed.
I pushed Send. It didn’t take long to get a response. A single word flashed on the screen.
Agreed.
We had waited on the porch, watching dark clouds build in the sky, rolling over one another as the wind whipped into a fury. I didn’t notice when the first raindrops began to fall. I was lost in my own thoughts. How exactly does one prepare for one’s own kidnapping? Damned if I knew. My thoughts were on Oscar and Ian. I’d written a quick note to Ian before we came outside.
So what do you say to the man you love before you trade yourself away? Again, how the hell should I know?
I kept it short. I told him that I loved him and not to blame Ozzie.
I planned to hand the note to Ozzie before I left with Phoenix.
A flash of lightning jolted me from my mental preparations. Jess jumped; a tiny shriek escaped her, and she swiped a tear from her eye. She was standing so close to me that we touched from shoulder to hip and her eyes kept flitting to me. “Leah…” she began.
“I know, Jess. It’s okay. I can take care of myself.” But Oscar can’t. The words hung unspoken around us.
She opened her mouth to say more then closed it again. What more was there to say?
Another flash of lightning revealed a brown wall of dust just yards from the house. We’d been too engrossed in our own world to see it coming.
“Monsoon,” I said just before the sky turned orange.
Jess began to speak when a squeal from behind her made my heart leap into my throat.
Oscar was home.
It didn’t take Phoenix an hour to get here . That was good. Wherever he’d been keeping Oscar, it wasn’t far. Ozzie would use that information to help Ian find me, provided Phoenix took me to the same location.
Jess started to move to Oscar. Ozzie stopped her with a hand on her arm.
Phoenix Page 4
