FIFTEEN
The sound of movement came to her before she was even fully awake. With her eyes still closed, she could hear the faint, distant sound of a chuckle and footsteps, as someone entered her apartment. Phoenyx didn’t need to open her eyes to know it was Hutton and Cortez. She sighed inwardly, not quite ready for the confrontation she knew had to happen, but knowing there was no other choice. Throwing the blanket wrapped around her body off her legs, she swung upright and stretched her arms high above her head.
“Hola, fresa!” Cortez said jovially, as he unpacked a paper grocery bag on her kitchen table. He smiled genuinely. “Come––I’m going to cook up some empanada con carne.”
Phoenyx rolled her eyes at Hutton, who glanced up quickly at Cortez, but said nothing. She stood quietly and began folding the blanket. “No thanks, C. I don’t eat meat.”
Cortez dropped the package of ground beef that he had been holding and stared long and hard at her. She could feel his eyes boring into her from the other side of the room, so she simply looked up and met his incredulous stare.
“What do you mean, you don’t eat meat?” He snickered. When she didn’t say anything, his face turned serious as he floated his eyes quickly between Hutton and herself. “Seriously? Fine…well, what do you eat?”
“Nails,” she said with a pointed look at Hutton, before stuffing the blanket into a hutch beside the couch.
“Why didn’t you tell me, bro?” Cortez whispered at Hutton, who shook his head.
“Phoenyx is a vegan,” Hutton said, clearing his throat when she turned to glower at him. He continued cautiously. “You see, her empathic nature makes for an unpleasant dining experience when it comes to anything that previously had a face before it ended up on her plate.”
“So, we’re just going to tell everyone about my weaknesses now?” Phoenyx snapped, slamming the hutch lid closed with a bang.
Hutton sighed impatiently, hand on his hips, as he paused to collect himself before speaking. When he looked up, his eyes were fierce. “Cortez is a friend, Phoenyx. He’s proven himself enough, in my books, to get a little piece of the puzzle, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t think,” she spat, pushing past him, and moving to the bed to stand beside Judas. “I’m just the muscle, remember?”
“Those were your words, not mine,” he whispered.
Cortez cleared his throat awkwardly and they turned to stare at him. “I’m going to go back to the market and pick up something you can eat. Okay, fresa? I’m just going to leave you two alone.”
Once Cortez was gone, and it was just the two of them, Phoenyx spun and projected all her rage on Hutton. “Twenty goddamn years! Twenty years of my life, and not once did you care to mention that you’re my fucking uncle?!”
Judging by the look on his face, Phoenyx was sure that she was about to hear it all now.
***
The look on his niece’s face was formidable. He’d seen her angry, he’d even seen her in a complete fit of rage, but never, in their twenty years together, had he quite seen that look before. Swallowing thickly, he proceeded with caution. “I did it to protect you.”
“Protect me?” She spat.
Hutton nodded his head slowly, eyebrows raised, and mouth pressed together in a grim line. “Yes––to protect you. The less you knew about your lineage, your ancestry, the less likely it would be that he could find you.”
“Well, great plan!” Phoenyx hissed, throwing her hands in the air. “He found me anyway.”
Hutton knew when he’d decided to keep the fact that he was family from Phoenyx that there would be a chance she would eventually discover the truth. He knew there would be a chance that she would never forgive him for the betrayal.
Sighing, he sank into the cushions of the couch and dropped his head into his hands.
“I never meant to hurt you, Phoenyx,” he murmured, feeling a tugging in his heart he’d tried for two decades to keep at bay. “Do you even know how difficult it was to make the decision to not tell you who I was? Rebecca was my sister. My sister. She died, and I couldn’t even grieve.”
He could feel the fury in her beginning to subside. It wasn’t completely gone, she was still very cautious, but it was slightly diminished. He could hear the long, shaky sigh she took into her lungs before she sat down beside him slowly. Her eyes met his and he smiled. “Do you have any idea how much you look like her?”
Phoenyx bit her lip.
There was so much confusion and heartache coming off her that it was fogging Hutton’s ability to use words. She blew a long stream of air from her lungs and met his eyes.
“Uncle Hutton, huh?”
“I swore to your mother I would keep you safe,” he whispered, his hand reaching out for hers and squeezing it gently.
“Did he––did my father kill her?”
The question shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did. He shook his head slowly. “No.”
A look of panic sank deep into her eyes and he could see the spark beginning. Waving his hand at her, he looked deep into her eyes and willed her to breath with him. “Come on, you know how to do this.”
He gently began to breathe deeply, in and out, urging her to follow his lead as he’d taught her so many years ago. Following his instruction, Phoenyx began to breath slowly, in and out, until she was finally much calmer. Hutton patted her hand gently before placing it back into her lap. His head hung once more. “I’m sorry.”
Phoenyx sighed. “I know. I’m not ready to forgive you yet. I don’t know when I’ll be able to do that. But for now, I know you’re sorry. I’m still going to call you H, though. Uncle Hutton sounds too Adams Family for my taste. Cool?”
“Uncle H?” He attempted.
“Don’t push your luck,” she said, eyeing him dryly.
Hutton laughed. This young woman was a gem––his gem. The daughter he would never have. She would always be the most incredible person in his life.
With a smile, he nodded his head. “H is cool. Now, is there anything you want to know about your family?”
***
Where was she supposed to start? Phoenyx felt her eyes go wide and she swallowed with difficulty. She wrinkled her nose at Hutton. “Can I do that? Can I––ask you?”
Her uncle chuckled, and she found herself smiling with him. A genuine smile. He nodded his head slowly. “Yes, you can do that. Ask me anything!”
A thought occurred to her just then––something she had asked herself the night before, but came up empty. She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes at Hutton. “If Lazarus Morelock is a vampire…how did mom get pregnant?”
Hutton faltered. “It’s––complicated.”
Phoenyx threw up her hands. “That answer kinda throws your ‘ask me anything’ out the window, H.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t say I would have all the answers. The fact of the matter is, Rebecca fell in love with him, pure and simple, and then suddenly her belly was round and growing rounder by the day. Lazarus was very protective of her. He tried to shun me from my sister’s life, but Rebecca refused to turn me away. When you were born, Jane, you were perfect. All eyes and curiosity. You could read my mind before I even knew you could. You were so incredibly powerful, it radiated off you. It was a wonder you weren’t talking at birth.”
She listened, enraptured to what Hutton had to say about her as a baby. So many wonderful stories about her mother and the flat they lived in, in London. It turned out that her uncle was a huge part of her life before her mother decided to run from Lazarus and move to America, to protect her.
“She was so frightened for you in that first year,” he whispered, a glimmer of tears making his blue eyes shine. Eyes she now noticed were exactly like her mother’s. How had I not seen it before?
“When Lazarus started to become aware of your gifts, something changed in him. He made certain I was no longer welcome in their home, because you, my darling girl, share my gift. I am also an empath, and if you haven’t noticed, my ability to read your mind is the smidgen of clairvoyance that came with me. You have that too.”
Phoenyx’s mouth dropped open softly, her jaw going slack. Hutton smiled at her gently and she could tell he was proceeding cautiously because he didn’t want to upset her or frighten her.
“When I saw what happened in your apartment yesterday between you and Judas…I thought that perhaps, you might be exhibiting––familial traits.”
“Like heredity?”
“Yes,” Hutton murmured. “Particularly Quintessence Force and Electrokinesis.”
“What the what?” She blurted out, her expression changing from curious to confused.
“Quintessence Force,” Hutton began, “can generate whitish blue lightening that also contains pure life energy. Which would explain, as you put it, the ‘glowy, windy thing’ that happened in the alley. Whereas, Electrokenisis is the ability to generate, or absorb, electrical fields––and in some cases, even shoot lightning bolts.”
Phoenyx’s mind went instantly to the electrical currents that had passed between her fingertips and Judas’. Was that what I had been doing, passing on pure life energy when I had intended only to take his pain with emphatic healing? This was too much for her to wrap her brain around.
“So, you’re telling me my mother could control lightning?”
“Oh, no,” her uncle chuckled. “Rebecca was a Green Witch. She could draw power from the Earth, and always had the best garden. She grew all the herbs she worked with––lavender, rosemary, and sage. Whatever she needed for a potion or a spell, she grew herself. There wasn’t a Green Witch around more proficient than your mother. Her mother, on the other hand, was an Elemental Witch. She was the one who could control electricity and energy.”
“My grandmother,” Phoenyx breathed, her eyes lighting up with excitement.
“Yes,” he said with a small smile. “Aurora Grimshaw, your grandmother.”
“I wish you hadn’t kept all of this from me,” Phoenyx admitted, choking back tears. There was so much she didn’t know, but wanted to learn. I wish I could just download the information, but I know Hutton won’t let me into his mind long enough to get at it.
“Just ask me,” Hutton said quietly, having read her thoughts.
Sighing, Phoenyx exhaled a long breath and slapped her thighs. “What about my grandfather?”
It was interesting to watch the immediate change in Hutton’s demeanor after she’d asked about her grandfather. His back straightened considerably, and he began to pick at lint on his sweater, that wasn’t there.
He pursed his lips before answering. “He was also an Elemental Witch.”
She waited for him to say something more, but he’d locked himself down. She frowned and eased forward, knowing there was more. “Tell me more about him.”
Just then, Judas began to stir, and Cortez chose that moment to come flying through the door with another two grocery bags in hand. His teeth gleamed white against his tan skin as his smile split his face from ear to ear. “I got you something called a Daiya Pizza, and it better be fucking incredible because that shit was pricy.”
“Thank you,” Phoenyx said with a smile, before she stood up to go and see how Judas was doing.
Standing over the bed, staring down at his beautifully serene face, her stomach fluttered. It made her breath catch. Judas’ eyes flickered open, the sheer force of those stormy blue orbs hitting her like a hurricane. He smiled, and she instantly melted. Perhaps it was the way he was looking at her, or it could have been that kind of hypnotism most vampires had over people, even though she wasn’t quite like other people. Phoenyx knew she was grasping at straws. She was drawn to him unlike anyone she’d ever been drawn to before. Never had a man come close. Not any. Maybe Ash, but she wasn’t sure that counted as being drawn. It was almost as if Judas had been dropped into her life for a reason, though she didn’t know what it was yet.
“Hey,” Judas said hoarsely.
“Are you comfortable?” She asked quietly.
Judas nodded his head slowly and smiled. “Yeah, your Englishman has been taking excellent care of me. I’ve never felt so cared for.”
Phoenyx arched a brow and smirked. “I guess that’s not saying much.”
“Vampire’s don’t usually get cuddles,” Judas said with a laugh.
“Hutton’s been cuddling you?”
The laughter that left him was enough to warm the coldest parts of her heart, and she bit her lip. Caught off guard, she noticed that other parts of her were beginning to warm as well. Her body was confusing her with its betrayal, but the fact of the matter was, Phoenyx felt desire for him. There was no skirting the subject. If no one else was in the room, she probably would have unbound him and fucked him senseless.
Judas cocked his head to the side, his eyes travelling the planes of her face slowly, an expression of awe passing over his features. “Are you blushing?” He asked.
At that moment her cell phone began to buzz erratically in her pocket, and she quickly plunged her fingers into its depths to retrieve it, glad to have an excuse not to answer him. To her shock, Hutton’s phone began buzzing at the same time. She eyed him quizzically. Something was wrong.
“Hello?”
There was a long, dramatically drawn out pause on the other end.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes flew to Hutton, who was running a trembling hand through his hair, a look of anguish on his face. Behind her, Phoenyx could feel Judas’ eyes on her, but it felt different now. He was going into bloodlust again, she could feel it swirling inside of her. Quickly stepping away from the bed, she moved to the center of the room.
Everything was moving in slow motion. She could see Hutton’s lips moving, but couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. All the while, Cortez was saying something to her, a look of concern on his face.
She gripped the phone like a vice in her hand and waited.
“Do you know who this is?” The voice on the other end asked.
“Yes,” Phoenyx whispered, feeling her throat beginning to constrict. “How did you––”
“I have my ways,” Lazarus Morelock said softly, his voice making her skin crawl.
“What do you want?” She hissed.
Lazarus chuckled deeply. “Why, to meet my daughter after all these years. What else could I possibly want?”
Phoenyx swallowed hard, her hand reaching toward Cortez, who rushed forward to grasp her elbow. She found Hutton’s eyes on her, and could tell he knew who was on the phone. The look of complete and utter devastation on his face told her everything she needed to know in that very instant. Lazarus Morelock was no ordinary vampire. He could have very well been more than an Ancient. There was true fear in her uncle’s eyes and that was enough to tell her so.
“You tried to have me killed,” Phoenyx’s voice trembled.
“No,” Lazarus said slowly. “I tried to have you kidnapped. I would never try to kill you, Jane. You are my blood.”
“What. Do. You. Want,” she asked firmly, her eyes taking on a deadly sheen. She could feel the electricity lighting up her brain like a pinball machine.
“I want to see you,” Lazarus breathed. “I’ve been waiting twenty-four years for this.”
Hutton was shaking his head vehemently, trying to push his way into her thoughts, but she was holding him at bay. Phoenyx pinned him with eyes that she was sure were sparking like live wires. She relaxed her mind and let the words travel to her uncle. I have to do this.
“No!” Hutton shouted, stepping forward.
Phoenyx held up her hand and motioned for him to stay back. Closing her eyes, she drew her brows together and shifted her shoulders. “Where do you want to meet?”
She watched Hutton throw his hands up in failure, before running his fingers through his salt and pepper hair to twine them behind his neck. His eyes flew heavenward before sliding to hers. Defeat written across the plains of his face. When she’d gotten all the information she needed, Phoenyx closed the phone without saying goodbye and met Hutton’s eyes.
“Are you mad?” He said in a voice so low it made her skin crawl, his body very still.
Phoenyx could feel Judas’ bloodlust beating into her back as he thrashed and growled on the bed. Hutton was furious at her, and Cortez––Cortez was sitting on the couch, his eyes travelling back and forth between them like a five-year-old watching his parent’s marriage fall apart right before him.
“Who was on the phone?” Phoenyx asked Hutton delicately.
His arms fell like lead to his sides. “It’s John––he’s dead.”
“Ian,” she hissed.
“You cannot do what you’re recklessly thinking of doing,” Hutton snapped. “Jane, I forbid it.”
Her head snapped in his direction, her ponytail swinging, and she could hear that familiar crackling static from somewhere deep inside. “You forbid me?”
“Yes, I forbid you,” Hutton barked, his face going red and his eyes blazing. “Lazarus Morelock is a foe you are not prepared to contend with. He’s ancient, he’s––”
“Did you see how Judas reacted when my phone rang, and it was him on the other end of the line?” She said softly. Hutton’s face blanched. She slid a strand of hair that had caught on her lip away and sighed. “There’s a connection there.”
“You’d risk your life––for a vampire?” Hutton pressed weakly.
Phoenyx wasn’t sure why, but she was tied to Judas somehow. There was a long, thin string of fate connecting them together, and at times, it even felt like history––and she needed to know why. How after all these years, she could feel need and desire when she once thought she was a dry well of emotion.
Looking deeply into her uncle’s eyes, she gave him a small shrug and smiled. “I think I have no choice, H.”
She watched his eyes drift to Judas, who had quieted somewhat. He looked exhausted, and confused, even by his own reaction. Far be it from her to say any vampire was innocent in anything, but there was something about this one that made her believe it could be possible. He was blissfully unaware of his surroundings, or how he even came to exist. How could she not protect someone who so obviously needed protection?
“Do you think I have a choice?” She asked, her voice stronger now, bringing Hutton’s focus back to her.
***
This is it, Hutton thought, feeling the panic thrumming within his body. This is how I lose her.
He didn’t know how to answer her question. He didn’t know how to tell her that her entire existence had been written out for her since her birth. That for centuries, before she’d even taken her first breath, before her cries had split the air around her, her fate had been written. It had been studied by scholars, and questioned by anyone who’d had the guts to question it. No, she didn’t have a choice, and now, everything he’d ever done to keep her from figuring it out was falling apart around him.
“At least let me come with you,” he implored, a smile quivering his lips.
She stood cold, unmoving, and shook her head. “If one of us has to live, it should be you.”
Hutton reached out to her, but let his hand drop between them before he could touch her. “I can’t let you do this alone.”
“I’ve only ever done it alone,” she whispered. “Watch Judas while I’m gone. See if you can get him to remember anything, and calm Cortez down before he hyperventilates.”
“You’ll be back,” Hutton said, but the words were falsely confident. He wasn’t asking. He was willing it to be so.
Phoenyx slipped a cigarette between her lips and lit the tip, the glow from the burning tobacco catching in the vibrant green of her eyes. She smiled around a ring of smoke. “Of course I will.”