Eve started to speak but the words died on her lips. She glanced sidelong at Machine.
“What do you mean?”
Phoe laughed. A hollow, hysterical laugh that went on and on. It was the laughter of a madwoman. “Every bit of this was for nothing. The amulet’s still on Earth.”
“She’s lying.”
“Am I? Are you sure, Eve? Maybe I left it in that hotel in Tulsa. Or maybe that sweet old lady in Meridian has it.” She was doubled over in laughter again, and Machine could see the gun waver in Eve’s grasp.
“She’s a fucking liar,” Eve screamed.
“You were supposed to kill her and take the amulet,” Machine snarled. “If you had done as you were told, none of this would be happening.”
As he said this, Eve began to shift. In seconds her skin burst and fell away in a pile of ash. She roared in anger and breathed a plume of blue and gold toward Phoe, who ducked, avoiding the fire with a graceful roll backward and into a shift.
Her arms spread outward and burst into flame as she became a phoenix. She screeched loudly and Machine went down on his knees, covering his ears. She flew directly at Eve’s dragon, clearly out for blood. The phoenix’s talons swiped at the dragon as it darted upward into the sky. The white dragon followed, roaring and spitting bits of fire, though it wouldn’t do any good. Phoe was made of it.
She circled the dragon’s body and Eve twisted and turned, trying to get at the bird, but her body was too awkward. The phoenix shrieked again, flying at the oversized, distorted serpent head, her talons poised for the attack. In an instant she was tearing at the dragon’s right eye. Eve roared with pain as the bright red blood began to splatter over her pristine white scales. She flapped her wings, trying desperately to free herself of the phoenix’s talons.
Finally, Eve was able to knock the phoenix free as her body began to shift back in the wake of the shock that had begun to take hold. Her wings stiffened and she plummeted back toward the hangar, landing in a heap at Machine’s feet. She was battered, but still alive. Her eye bled a profuse stream of crimson tears through her fingers.
“Derek,” she groaned, reaching out to him with her other hand. “Help me.”
Machine’s head snapped up at the phoenix call and saw it doubling back. She was coming back to finish the job, and this time he could see the silhouette of the red dragon coming with her. “St. John,” Machine snarled.
He looked around, searching for something, anything that he could use to fight them and finding nothing but Eve’s discarded autopistol. That would do nothing against a dragon.
“Eve. Get up.”
“Derek. I’m blind, I’m…”
“Get up. We have to get out of here now.” He bent down, trying to jerk Eve to her feet, but it was no use. Her leg was broken from the fall and she was dead weight against him.
“Sir. We have to leave now.”
Machine whipped around. Carson stood at the top of the stairs beckoning to him. “The disinfectant program has begun.” The oppressive whine of the alarms and the grinding of gears that would eventually bring down the gates was deafening.
Machine looked down at Eve. A broken liability. He knelt down and brushed a hand through her hair affectionately before placing a kiss at her temple. “Good-bye, Eve.”
24
The filtered water that flowed into the fake Thames sickened Cage as he splashed it against his face. So sanitary and fresh. A gross imitation of the diseased cesspool that flowed through the middle of the real London. He stood up and stretched his back, feeling each of the bones replace themselves after the shift. He looked back toward where Machine’s compound was burning in the distance. He wished he thought that Machine’s demise would be the end of it.
A small sound from several feet away brought him out of his reverie. Phoe lay on her belly in the grass. Her body was bruised and dotted with what appeared to be black soot. She rose up on her hands and knees and then fell down again with a sigh.
“Phoe,” Cage cried, running to her side. “Phoe. Are you okay?”
“Fine. Water,” she gasped, crawling to the river. He thought Phoe meant to drink it, but instead she tumbled over the bank and into the cool water.
“Phoe.” He ran into the water, diving under the surface looking for her. “Phoe. Are you all right?” he sputtered. Eventually she emerged at the surface and shook the water from her hair. He grabbed her around the waist, pulling her against him. “Why are you trying to drown yourself? Are you crazy?”
“I’m not trying to drown myself. Idiot.” She coughed, leaning against him and breathing heavily. “You should try being on fire sometime.”
Cage laughed and embraced her tightly. He knew he was squeezing her too hard but he didn’t care. He was so relieved she had survived. “I was coming back for you.”
“Well, thank you but I had it under control.”
He grinned and nodded. When he’d arrived on the scene, Phoe was plucking Eve’s eye from the socket. “You did. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
Phoe gave a half-hearted smile and pushed away from him. She rose from the water, scanning the horizon. “How the hell do we get out of here now? I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can shift again, and pretty soon Machine’s personal army of were-assholes are going to come rushing toward us. If the IU doesn’t get here first.”
“God, you’re starting to sound like me.”
Her comment died on her lips as a small bubble in the middle of the river gave way to a ripple and then a large wave as a shuttlecraft emerged from under the water. Sleek, shiny chrome rose out of the tempest and came to rest on the surface.
Cage’s arm went tight as he pushed Phoe behind him. A door slid open with a mechanical whir, and a dark figure stepped out on the platform. “I told you we should have gone back to make sure he was dead.”
“Just shut up and let me do the talking,” he hissed.
“Did someone order a car?” Cage nearly fainted with relief as he recognized Oliver Manning’s brogue.
“Ollie,” Cage shouted, sprinting over to where the wide ramp was slowly descending. “We thought, I mean we figured you were…”
“Dead? Hardly. You forget. I helped Machine build that lab. There are secrets not even he was privy to. For example, how to crack the code on his own personal shuttlecraft.”
Phoe ran to Oliver and threw herself against him, embracing him tightly. “I’m so sorry.” He was obviously taken aback as the girl wept against his shoulder. “I couldn’t help it.”
“Help what?” Oliver asked.
“She was going to kill me.” She looked up at Oliver, and then back at Cage. “I didn’t have any other choice.”
Oliver nodded. A sad smile painted his face with a mixture of sorrow and relief. “I know you didn’t,” he said, giving her arm a squeeze. “Eve made her choices. It’s time I stopped chasing after her.”
“Perhaps it’s not too late,” Cage said. “If I know Eve, she’s pretty crafty. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her.” Cage started toward his friend who stopped him with raised hands. “No, mate, please don’t hug me.” His eyes shifted down. “At least not until you’re dressed.” They laughed as he guided them on board the shuttlecraft. “Come, your chariot awaits. And Phoe, there’s someone here who wishes to speak with you.”
Jessica ducked around the corner of the craft and ran to her sister. They hesitated a moment and then embraced tightly. “I’m so sorry, Phoe. I’m so sorry for everything.”
Phoe shushed her sister. “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”
“God, yes there is. There is so much to be sorry for. I’ve been underestimating you since the day you were born.”
Phoe shook her head. “And I’ve been blaming you for everything my whole life. I think we’re even now.” She sniffled and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. “Let’s go home.”
“I never thought I’d be eager to get back to St. Francisville, but let’s get the hell out of he
re,” Jess said.
“Wait.” Cage pointed at Jess as the shuttlecraft doors closed. “What about the amulet?”
“Taken care of,” Phoe replied, a satisfied smile on her face.
“I’ve got it here,” Jess said, pulling out the tatty old book.
“What?” Cage and Oliver asked simultaneously.
Phoe grabbed the book and opened it up to the tiny compartment she’d made within the pages. “Back at the hotel I thought I heard someone coming and decided I’d better hide the medallion.”
“So you hid it in a book?” Cage asked.
Phoe looked at the puzzled expressions on their faces and shook her head. “God, it’s as if no one has ever read a book but me. I read this spy novel once and the hero hid the secret plans in the pages of a book. It just kind of came to me.” She pulled out the medallion and held it up to prove her savvy. “Easy peasy lemon squeezy.”
Cage laughed and pulled Phoe against him roughly. “You know, Phoe,” Cage sighed. “You’d make an excellent spy. I know some people at MI six.”
“No thank you,” she whispered, brushing a kiss over his lips. Turning to Oliver, she said, “I sincerely hope you brought us something to wear. It seems I’ve been trying to find clothes for most of this trip.”
“I thought you might say that,” Oliver replied, gesturing toward a small pack on the seats. “I grabbed what I could before the gates closed and the disinfectant sequence started. I didn’t think you’d want clothes that smelled of poison gas.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Jess engaged the thrusters and the shuttlecraft rose out of the water and into the skyway above.
Cage watched from the window as they left the burning remains of Machine’s compound behind. Thick smoke enveloped the former palace and Cage hoped the disinfectant sequence did its job.
25
Phoe lay on the grass looking up at the sky. She didn’t think she’d seen a sky so blue. The air was warm and everything was wearing a bright green cloak of springtime. It had been a long time since she’d even noticed. “I never thought I’d say that I missed this place. Seems like I’ve been trying to get away from here since the day I was born.”
Cage rolled over on his back and sat up with one graceful movement. She smiled. Everything about him was so out of keeping with St. Francisville. No wonder tongues had been wagging all over town.
Phoe had laughed out loud in the checkout line in the market the other night when she realized that the “prize-winning stallion in aisle three” was Cage. “I don’t know. I kind of like it here. The air is clean, it’s warm…”
“No wild creature has tried to kill us.”
“Mmm,” he hummed. Reaching beside him, he grabbed the cool bottle of sweetened iced tea that Phoe had packed for their picnic. He took a long sip and choked. “Though I don’t understand why you people insist on putting sugar and ice in your tea.”
“Why not? Everything’s better with sugar,” she said, propping herself up on one elbow. He leaned in and kissed her mouth gently. “Sugar.”
Cage tangled his fingers into the loose hair at her crown, deepening their kiss. She relaxed into his embrace as he rolled on top of her and brushed her hair away from her forehead. Their kiss became insistent and suggestive until they were rolling over and over in the grass. He landed on top of her, pinning her to the ground with his knees.
“I suppose I have no choice but to forgive you for your blatant bastardization of my culture,” he said, putting on the snobbish and superior tone that made her wild with aggravation and desire. Cage toyed with the pearly button in the center of her chest, exposing the curve of her breast.
“Shut up and kiss me, Teabag.” His hands slid under the soft cotton and he trilled his fingertips along her belly until she was giggling and squirming beneath him.
“No more jokes about how the Redcoats are coming,” he growled, biting her breast playfully through the layers of fabric.
“Well, I hope not yet,” she teased.
Soon they were so lost in each other that she didn’t notice her neighbor Miss Ava approaching the back of the house until she was standing over them. “Oh my. Right here in the middle of an open field. How scandalous.”
Phoe peeked around Cage’s shoulder and smiled. Her cheeks were aglow with a heat that had absolutely nothing to do with the warmth of the sun overhead.
“Oh, hello,” she said, pushing Cage aside and hastily re-buttoning her blouse. “We didn’t see you there.”
Ava chuckled. “Of course you didn’t. Young lovers can’t be expected to notice the infirmed.”
“You’re hardly infirmed,” Cage said, standing up and grabbing Ava around the waist to twirl her around until she was giggling like a schoolgirl. “In fact, if this thing with Phoe doesn’t work out—”
“Oh, put me down,” Ava laughed, giving him a playful smack on the shoulder. “Idiot. I was just bringing your mail. George stuck it all in my box for some reason.” She handed Cage a stack of envelopes and a newspaper. “It warms my heart to see that someone in the world still reads a paper newspaper. Anyway, I didn’t mean to interrupt your,” she paused, looking down at the crumpled blanket and empty basket. “Picnic.”
Phoe blushed again and waved as the old woman started back across the road.
“She’s a lovely old bird,” Cage commented. His eyes scanned the newspaper where the headline screamed, Manticore Technologies Announces Opening Date for Luxury Colony. “What a snake,” he grumbled. “After all that and Machine escapes smelling like a rose.”
“I still can’t believe the IU didn’t prosecute him,” Phoe said, flopping back down on the blanket.
“He incinerated all the evidence. Besides, the IU will never put Machine away. They need him. Thanks to you, he can’t cause enough trouble to be dangerous for the time being. And right now his colonies are the only escape plan they’ve got going.”
“Do you think he’ll come after us?”
Cage shook his head and sat down beside her on the blanket. “The amulet is far out of his reach for now. Now that your sister’s gone back to the IU, he’d be a fool to try to swipe it out from under them. I suppose he’ll probably lay low for a while. For now, we maintain the status quo. The wheel turns, nothing ever changes.”
Phoe snatched the newspaper from his grasp and threw it aside as she wrapped her arms around his neck, climbing astride his lap. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“I wish I could believe you,” he murmured, carding through the envelopes and handing them to her to toss over her shoulder.
“Yay, more past-due notices. Surprisingly they didn’t go away while I was gone.” She sighed heavily and threw the rest of them aside. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do. The library cut me loose when the government came sniffing around. There isn’t much job opportunity in St. Francisville for a shape-shifting, unemployed librarian. Not that your help with the house wasn’t appreciated.”
Cage didn’t seem as if he were listening. He was too busy examining a large, embossed envelope addressed to him and Phoe. His fingers traced the paper, as if he was looking for something.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” he replied, taking a small knife from his pocket and carefully slicing the envelope open. Inside was a tiny eSlate, much smaller than a mobile phone. As soon as it hit the sunlight, a blue light came on and a hologram of a heavyset man in an uncomfortable suit projected in front of them.
“Mr. St. John and Miss Addison,” the hologram said. “It’s lovely to see you both unharmed and back to normal. My name is Maurice Wilder and I work with a division of the Interplanetary Union known as B.E.A.S.T. The Bureau for Espionage And Strategic Tactics.”
Cage narrowed his eyes and shifted Phoe from her perch in his lap. “That tosser was bloody government all along. I should have known.”
“What are you talking about?”
“After your exploits on New London, the Bureau is interested in the two of
you and your talents,” the hologram continued. “We’ve been watching Macijah for some time, but I think that Miss Addison would prove most useful to us, too. This eSlate is your boarding pass for the next flight out of New Orleans to our headquarters in San Francisco. We’ll expect you both in two days’ time to discuss the particulars.”
“Who is this man? What is he talking about?” Phoe demanded.
Cage tossed the eSlate aside and leaned back on his elbows. “Before I met you, Wilder hired me to track down a vampire coven. Their leader, Dagger, had conspired with Wilder’s daughter to pretend to kidnap her so they could bilk the old man out of money. I got the girl, but Dagger got away.”
One of Phoe’s brows winged up.
“When I met you on the Maglev, I was heading to Vegas to hunt for Dagger because Wilder promised to administer an antidote to rid me of my monsters if I brought Dagger to him.”
“Ahhh,” Phoe purred. “Good thing you were distracted.” She nibbled his neck. “I like your monsters.”
“Minx.” He held her face in his hands then lay back on the grass.
From his expression it was obvious that he wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or amused. “I’m not sure, but it looks like I’m back in the good graces of the IU.”
“Well, it certainly sounds like he thinks we’re coming.” Phoe settled beside him and put her head on his chest over his heart. For a while they lay there in silence, listening to the quiet sounds of the country, and Phoe knew it would be a long time before they heard them again.
“When do we leave?” she asked.
Cage rolled to his side, cradling her cheek with his hand and pulling her in for another deep kiss. It took her breath and she could feel it all the way to her toes.
For now, she didn’t care what else was in store for her as long as she had Cage at her side.
“Not yet,” he whispered. “Not quite yet.”
Cage and Phoe continue their adventures in NeoGeisha
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexandra Christian is an author of mostly romance with a speculative slant. Her love of Stephen King and sweet tea has flavored her fiction with a Southern Gothic sensibility that reeks of Spanish moss and deep fried eccentricity. As one-half of the writing team at Little Red Hen Romance, she’s committed to bringing exciting stories and sapiosexual love monkeys to intelligent readers everywhere. Lexx also likes to keep her fingers in lots of different pies, having written everything from sci-fi and horror to Sherlock Holmes adventures. Her alter-ego, A.C. Thompson, is also the editor of the highly successful Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series of anthologies.
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