“No, only Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sunday’s. Why?”
“I’m looking for someone who was here last Wednesday night,” she said. Without knowing if the bartender was aware of the supernatural world, she couldn’t just ask him about a girl who was a Phoenix.
“Tito and Enyowas over there.” He pointed across the room at a couple good looking guys in black leather. “They are here just about every day. I’m sure they could help.”
Hellfire stared at them and wrinkled her nose. Were-cats, great. Just who she wanted to converse and play nice with—not! Thanking the bartender, she headed over towards the pair. One had short hair, and was not too bad looking while the second guy sported a mullet—black with white stripes—just like a skunk. She wondered what kind of cats they were as she dropped into the chair between the two men. “You don’t mind if I sit, do you?”
They both looked her over. The one with short black hair shrugged and Hellfire caught a look of sadness in his eyes before he turned back to stare at one of the women stripping on stage. The other one, Mullet-skunk, gave her an appreciative grin.
“Not at all honey,” he said, leering at her.
Hellfire shuddered inwardly. Someone please shoot me now …
“I’m Tito, he’s Enyowas,” Mullet-skunk said, waiting for her name.
Hellfire didn’t give it. “I heard you’re both here every night. Did you see a young, really pretty Phoenix girl in here last Wednesday?”
“Enyowas was busy in the back that night,” Mullet-skunk said with a wink. “But I might have,” he said as he appraised her.
Hellfire raised her eyebrows. “Well, did you?”
Mullet-skunk smirked and indicated the so-called Dance rooms at the back. “Maybe. Why don’t we go talk about it back there, sweet-thang?”
Hellfire let out a short laugh. “How about we talk about it here.”
Tito smoothed his skunky hair back and shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“So, do you remember her?” Hellfire asked again.
“I don’t remember,” he said, suddenly cold but Hellfire got the feeling he knew something, and bit back a growl. Goddamn Weres.
“Fine, let’s go,” she said, and plastering on a smile, stood up. One way or another, she’d get the info needed, no matter what it took. It didn’t help that Sami’s eyes on her sent fire licking through her veins, or that she’d have to pass by his table to get to the rooms. Shit. Oh well, it will just show him that I’m not interested. Or so she thought. As she passed Sami, the hurt in his eyes stabbed straight to her heart. Fuck.
***
Four days later, Hellfire lay captive to a nightmare, reliving the torture Deacon had put her through when suddenly someone was shaking her.
“Helly, wake up.”
With a groan, Hellfire forced her eyes open. The room was blurry. She squinted trying to focus. “What is your problem asshole, can’t you see I’m sick?” Hellfire glared at Brimstone.
“We don’t get sick and you’ve been asleep since Tuesday night when you dragged your sorry ass home,” Brimstone said, worry and frustration in his voice.
Stunned, Hellfire stretched and winced instead. “Well obviously we do! Fuck!” She frowned as the wound in her side throbbed.
“What’s wrong, are you hurt?” Brimstone asked with real concern. Hellfire glanced up at him and suddenly felt bad for the way she was acting.
“What day is it?” Suddenly everything came back to her; looking for Nix and Brimstone, meeting Sami, the agony in his eyes when she told him to get lost … She felt like a baby killer at how she hurt him. If only … Gah, stop thinking about him. Sure, it had been great sex, big f-ing deal.
If only she hadn’t run into Sami in the club after. He looked so pissed, so hurt, which she couldn’t really blame him. She knew how it looked when she went to the fuck-em room with Mullet-skunk the Were-cat but that couldn’t be helped either. Not if she was to get the information that she needed. Although really, it should have just solidified her point with Sami that she wasn’t interested in him.
So then why did she feel so shitty about the whole blasted thing? Though her real purpose had been to try to extract information from the horny Were-cat, that plan had backfired spectacularly. When Mullet-skunk realized she only wanted answers, he became very cranky with her. Luckily, she was a much better fighter than the pretty alley cat who liked to strut his stuff. Even at that, mullet-skunk managed to get in a deep fucking claw swipe. She groaned at the pain throbbing in her side.
“It’s Saturday.” Brimstone shook his head at her.
Really? She’d been sleeping since Tuesday night. “Why didn’t you wake me sooner—” She stopped talking, threw the blanket away from her, and darted into the bathroom.
When she came out a few minutes later, she wiped her mouth.
“When did you dye part of your hair pink? And why?” Brimstone asked, gaping at her incredulously.
“What are you talking about?” Hellfire asked with a frown.
Brim waved at her hair and Hellfire blinked, not sure what he was talking about. Hurrying back to the bathroom, she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Sure enough, a huge chunk of her hair was pink.
What the fucking hell? How did that happen? And Pink? Really? I really must’ve been way out of it!
Pink was the last color in the world she’d dye her hair. She hated pink with a passion. In a daze, she wandered back into her room. She was sure she’d come straight home after grabbing a bite to eat, hadn’t she?
At Brim’s questioning look, she shook her head and climbed back into bed with a groan.
“What is wrong with you?” he asked again, worry lacing his voice.
“I beat the crap out of a stupid Were-cat the other night, and then went for an awful barf burger. I must’ve gotten food poisoning, I felt sick as soon as I ate it,” she said and even though she was sure her wound was infected, she didn’t want Brim to know the cat had slashed her. He’d freak. With the intention of taking care of the wound soon, she curled back up in bed on her other side and pulled the blankets back over her.
“Were you bit? Can we catch the Were-disease?” he asked as he stared at a scratch on her arm.
“I don’t fucking know. Anyway, we need to get the utilities turned back on if we’re going to stay here very long,” she said as she snuggled deeper in her old bed, trying not to inhale the dust of the room. “It’s cold in here.”
“Since when are you cold?” Brimstone asked.
“Since now, apparently,” Hellfire said snidely, though he was right to ask. As Phoenixes, they ran hot—all the time, and never got cold.
“Helly, I’ve been scouring the city for Nix. What did you find out at Purgatori?” Brim asked, beginning to grow impatient with her.
“Tito, the fucking Were-cat saw her and from his description, I’m sure it was Nix,” Hellfire said, lips pursed as she thought of her sweet little sister in that club. She still found it hard to believe Nix would even get up the nerve to set foot in the place. And why?
Brimstone swore. “Did you talk to Sin too?”
“No, when I attempted to I was told she had just left,” Hellfire said, pushing the nausea that was creeping up her throat back down.
“Fine, I’ll go see if I can talk to Sin tonight,” Brimstone said and stood up.
Hellfire sighed. “Let me sleep a few more hours, then wake me up. I want to go with you.”
Brimstone nodded and left her room.
Hellfire closed her eyes and sank back into fevered dreams.
Chapter Three
Secret Meeting
HELLFIRE FLEW THROUGH THE COLD, RAINY, night to her meeting. I didn’t ask for any of this. She didn’t need any more strange and fucked up in her life than she already had. She was fine the way she was and though her family relied on her, she herself didn’t need anyone.
If that’s so, why does he haunt your dreams? A voice whispered in her head.
“Yeah, he haunts my drea
ms, but not in a good way,” Hellfire murmured as she tilted her wings and began her descent through the frigid air. But the whisper in her head just laughed.
Those aren’t the dreams I mean …
Hellfire growled. She didn’t want to admit she had dreams of the sexy emerald-eyed man candy she’d tasted once, and who’d left her wanting more.
Hellfire circled the area where she was supposed to meet the one she hoped would help find her sister or at least give her some answers.
“Nix, when I find you, I’m going to wring your impulsive little neck for worrying me,” Hellfire muttered, wondering what her sister had been thinking to take off and go to a whole other world without telling anyone. At least that was what Sin told them when they finally got a meeting with the owner of Club Purgatori.
Stressed out and filled with the familiar unease that had been plaguing her since her life had flipped upside down, Hellfire landed in the small moonlit clearing. She shook the cold rain from her short dark hair and grimaced when a soggy chunk of pink fell over her eye. Shoving it out of the way, she pulled her damp black wings close around her. She stayed in her Phoenix form, ready to take off if needed, while searching the darkness.
“Samuels,” she growled, sensing the presence of others close.
With barely a whisper of sound, a shadow separated from the dark trees and swiftly closed in on her. Hellfire stepped away as a sword swung at where she’d been standing. Instead of stepping away again, Hellfire moved towards the black robed swordsman and swung her wing out, spinning with it. Blood welled up from a wound in the man’s neck where the razor-sharp edge of her wing caught him. Hellfire moved in and shoved him away. Down he went, gasping for breath with his hand on his neck. She caught the movement of another only a second before it was too late and spun back around then using her body as momentum and her wings as weapons, she easily disarmed the second swordsman.
While she held her attacker’s own sword against his throat, she fought not to wince at the sharp pain in her side. She could feel blood seeping down her leg. Shit! Bloody wound re-opened.
Without moving the sword and keeping an eye on her second attacker, she glanced down at the first man. “Thought they were just feathers, did you?” She grinned.
Many had mistaken the thin, razor-sharp obsidian blades in her wings for feathers. They usually didn’t live long enough to realize their mistake and it looked as if this one wouldn’t either.
“Enough.” A moment later, the shadows separated and a tall, eerie figure in a black-hooded robe stepped forward.
“Why Samuels, nice of you to join us,” Hellfire said, keeping one eye on her Ilyium captive.
“You’ve proven yourself, now let him go,” Samuels said, indicating her captive.
“They attacked me. I told you I just wanted to speak with you,” Hellfire said, feeling pissed. She didn’t need any of this shit, she already felt like crap, and now her side burned worse than when she was first hurt.
“Why did you call this meeting?” Samuels asked in a deep, yet deadly quiet voice.
Hellfire shivered not from the December chill, but rather from the feeling of danger that consumed her whenever she was around Samuels. “I’m calling in my favor.”
That caught his attention. He shot a quick glance at the Ilyium male she held at sword point, before the weight of his gaze settled on her. Hellfire stiffened up at the gleam of his eyes as he studied her, though she couldn’t see anything else of his features. “Not sure what you mean but let him go and we’ll talk.”
So, that was how he was going to play it? She’d saved his miserable ass. If she hadn’t been hiding up in the rafters that day a few years ago, Deacon’s kill squad would have finished him off. She still didn’t know why she had interfered. Samuels was still her enemy but she hated Deacon more, so maybe because the enemy of my enemy, and all that shit.
Obviously, he didn’t want his minions knowing he owed her a debt. “I’ll let him go, but I’m keeping his sword.”
“Fine.”
Hellfire stepped away from the hooded man and lowered the sword slightly.
“Go to the truck,” Samuels commanded the man.
“What about him?” The man nodded at his buddy who now lay dead on the ground.
“You can come back for his body later,” Samuels said and waited while his minion left the clearing before turning back to Hellfire. “What do you want?”
“See how easy that was. I just wanted to have a conversation. We didn’t need all this,” she said, waving disdainfully down at the dead Ilyium, although she never minded killing any of these bastards. What had once been hatred among all the supernatural races was now more of a vendetta against them for murdering her parents. She detested that she needed their help.
Hellfire wondered if there was going to be some unforeseen retaliation for this. What the hell, she thought with a mental shrug. She’d just add it to the list of those wanting to kill her. First, she had to eat crow, although she’d do that and worse for her family.
“I’m looking for my sister, Nix. I believe she’s in trouble. We just found out she’s gone to a place called Tartaria.” Hellfire could feel the Ilyium’s eyes drilling into her and had to resist the urge to squirm. Although she had no clue of Samuels ranking in the Ilyium, there was a presence about him that indicated that he was pretty powerful.
“You know why she went there, don’t you?” she asked with sudden insight.
It was a moment before he said anything. “I do. What do you want from me?”
Hellfire felt her frustration rise. “Why did the King of the Nightwalkers, Val Jean, send Were-wolves to capture my sister?” she asked, not answering his question.
Samuels glanced away for a moment. When he looked back at her, he said, “He wants to prevent her from her destiny.”
“Her destiny?”
“Yes. It is prophesied that a Dos-virgin Phoenix will save the Raizarch wolves by sacrificing herself.”
“Dos-virgin Phoenix? Sacrifice?” Hellfire repeated.
“Yes, Dos as in two or in this case, a twice virgin—”
“Enough. I get it,” Hellfire growled. She sucked in a breath as understanding dawned. “A Phoenix that has never had sex or gone through a fiery death.”
Hellfire also vaguely remembered Nix talking about a dream she used to have…something about saving wolves, but she didn’t remember her saying anything about a sacrifice. Had Nix always known?
“You’re telling me she dreamed of her destiny?” Hellfire asked, feeling the beginnings of panic trying to take hold.
“Yes. The Raizarch wolves were tricked into service by Val Dagan over five hundred years ago, and they need her sacrifice to escape Galias.”
“Val …? Wait. What kind of sacrifice are we talking?” she asked. Samuels didn’t answer and since she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know, she went back to the first question. “Val who?” She was trying not to think about the rest of what Samuels said, but had only ever heard of Val Jean.
“Val Dagan. He is the true Nightwalker King. He lives in the dark realm of Galias and is Val Jean’s oldest brother. He is a true tyrant.”
Hellfire looked at him in disbelief. “Val Jean has Supes experimented on, keeping the ones he fancies as pets. I think he’s taken after his brother very well actually.”
“You know nothing, little girl. Val Jean is kind compared to his brother. But if the wolves escape Galias, Val Dagan will flee Galias and we will all know what true terror is.”
“Why would he flee?” she asked.
“The wolves are all that keep his subjects in line. Without the wolves, his subjects will turn on him, and he will die.”
That didn’t sound so bad. “Couldn’t the portal just be closed after the wolves make it through, keeping Val Dagan in Galias?” she asked.
Samuels shook his hooded head slowly. “No, Val Dagan’s wizard, Arckell is the one who locked the portal thus keeping the wolves imprisoned inside Galias. It takes a
lot of magic to, shall we say, override Arckell’s magic, and open the portal. Though the blood of a Dos-virgin Phoenix during the Super-blood-moon eclipse will also do it.” Samuels paused and Hellfire suspected he was debating whether to say more.
“So?” she asked, prompting him to do just that.
Samuels sighed. “If your sister succeeds in freeing the wolves, then Val Dagan will have no reason to keep the portal locked. He will flee his world, and mark my words, he will cause death and destruction wherever he goes. Val Dagan believes anyone other than his Nightwalkers are mere cattle—food, to be eaten and left for dead.”
Great, yet another reason to stop Nix from fulfilling her destiny.
Samuels had slowly begun to circle her as if examining her. Hellfire turned with him, keeping him within her sight.
“I know what you are thinking, but you must also understand, these wolves are cursed into their wolf form when their true form is human. They are allowed to change into their human form once a week for six hours at night. It’s said this is so that any Nightwalker who wants to, can use them for sex,” he said.
Hellfire blinked, but she couldn’t let pity sway her. “Sucks to be them. How many wolves are we talking about?” she asked, once again not sure if she really wanted to know.
“Last I heard, about two-thousand.”
Huh, well, shit! “That many? Why don’t the wolves rebel?” Hellfire asked.
“Val Dagan always keeps one or two of the Raizarch king’s daughters as captives to ensure obedience.”
“Fantastic,” Hellfire muttered with a sigh. No matter what happened, others will suffer. “So, how does this prophecy work?”
“Once every hundred years, Tartaria’s two moons begin to align, eclipsing the three larger suns. It takes thirty days but once they are all aligned, they create a blood red ring around the smaller moons, an eclipse that lasts four hours. During that time, a Dos-virgin Phoenix can offer her blood and open the portal. The wolves will then be able to escape. The last time there was a Dos—” Samuels explained.
Dracones Boxset Books 1-5 Page 61
