FOUR
The night was alive with supernatural activity. It crackled and hummed like waves of supercharged electricity, ricocheting off Phoenyx's skin. Most of the human world had no idea of the blood wars fought daily, that kept them out of harm's way. However, some unwittingly found themselves caught in the middle. Anxiety crept its way into Phoenyx's heart. This douchbag Vampire who placed such a very large target on my back not only threatened my life, but the lives of the people I was sworn to protect. Someone has to stop him, but I had to find him first.
***
Cortez had been about as helpful as an asshole on her elbow, but she knew one thing for certain, he hadn’t been lying. He really was as clueless as the rest of them. A lot of good it did. If Cortez was in the dark, she was shit out of luck.
Her phone began to hum against her hip as she walked briskly through a group of oncoming pedestrians. She looked down and grimaced, mumbling to herself. "Speak of the Sand Demon."
She brought the cell phone to her ear sharply and snapped a greeting. “Cortez, talk to me.”
"Are you sitting down?"
Her stride picked up speed. "Sure."
"Your middle name must be trouble, mama, because you're in it––and a lot of it," Cortez whispered into the phone.
"We've established this," she retorted. "Go on."
Phoenyx could hear him shuffling around some papers and rapidly chewing on his gum. He had better not be wasting my damn precious time, or I will skin him alive.
"My guy, you know, Morty?"
She was sure she’d broken some Olympic record for eye-rolling today as her eyes slid skyward. “Yeah, I’ve heard of the little slimeball.”
"Well,” Cortez began, the sound of his gum under his gnashing teeth telling her he was going for his own Olympic record. “Morty was partying with a couple of vamps last night who said they'd been hired to snuff out The Phoenyx."
"Bob and Curt?"
Cortez snorted. "Hell naw! These bloodsuckers run with a dangerous crowd, baby. Biker bloods. Spider's crew."
Phoenyx cursed under her breath, eyes darting to take in her surroundings. Suddenly, everyone was a threat. She had to make damn sure no one suspicious was following her.
It was certainly shaping up to be a bad night.
She and Spider went way back, and the history was gruesome. By vampire standards, he was pretty old, being in and around 200-years-old. He was strong, ruthless, and he’d been wanting her dead since she was sixteen. Now someone was paying him to do it? It was a dangerous combo.
That soulless bloodsucker must have chomped at the bit. Fuck.
"Who hired him?" She demanded.
Cortez paused. "That's just it––Morty doesn't know. Nobody knows. But one thing is for damn sure––whoever it is ain't pulling no stops. You're worth a cool million, baby."
Phoenyx ground her teeth. Motherfucker. "Where's Morty?"
"No, no, no," Cortez mumbled. "Hands off Morty. Morty's mine. If you need answers, I will get them for you. I swear. In the meantime, does The Nearing mean anything to you?"
"No," she murmured absentmindedly, as a shadow fumbled into a nearby alley, catching her eye.
"Well, Spider's boys kept harping about how you couldn’t be allowed to reach The Nearing. They had to bring you in before The Nearing." Cortez rushed on. "Are you sure you don’t know anything about…"
She only half-heard Cortez as she followed the source of the shadow into the alleyway. Something wasn’t right.
An overwhelming sense of dread and despair fell over her, seeping into her bones and coating her lungs. She could feel pain, confusion and fear, but the unmistakable recognition of vampire power held her stupefied.
Her head was spinning. It just didn’t make any sense at all.
Dead things aren't supposed to feel.
"I'm going to have to call you back," she said quietly before hanging up the phone on Cortez, mid-rant.
There was a faint moan, followed by a scuffle, and then a full-blown struggle coming from behind a dumpster. The cement floor of the alley glimmered beneath the streetlamp overhead as she eased closer. The lamp flickered and dimmed considerably, like something in a horror film, casting an eerie glow against the brick walls on either side.
Phoenyx crouched, a predatory gleam in her eye, and slid a silver stake out of her boot before advancing. Her heart was hammering wildly in her chest as the thrill of the hunt coursed through her, beginning to take over.
As she approached the dumpster, she was seized by an onslaught of emotion that nearly incapacitated her. The force of the sensations that hit her had her stumbling backward, her footing uneven. Immediately, her eyes fell on the vampire curled into a ball, clutching his head, his fingers woven tightly through the dark brown curls there. Moans of agony slipped from his lips, each one sending wave after wave of nausea coursing through her body.
"What fresh hell is this?" She hissed, clutching her stomach and fighting back the bile that rose at the back of her throat, burning her nasal passages.
The vampire raised weak, blood-rimmed eyes to meet her own, and extended a pleading hand. "Help. Me."
Phoenyx shook her head, trying to clear the fog that had permeated her brain. There was so much intense pain and misery coming off this vampire in violent waves, that it was making her physically ill.
Fumbling for her phone, she hit the speed dial for Hutton, but all it did was ring. Cursing, she flung the phone away from her and fell to her knees, praying for an end to the vortex of intensity that was absorbing into her at a cellular level.
"Please," the vampire groaned pathetically through blood-tinged tears. "Please. Help. Me."
Hypnotized, Phoenyx lengthened her fingertips toward his extended ones. As if some magical force was pulling them together, an electric blue haze passed between their fingers in what looked like currents. A wave shot through her arm like a lightning bolt, and she gasped.
The vampire’s grey-blue eyes widened, meeting Phoenyx's intensely. No words passed between them, but as their eyes locked, it felt as though Phoenyx knew everything there was to know about him, without knowing anything at all. A strange sense of kindredness encased her heart as their fingers clasped together tightly, and a powerful white light wrapped their bodies. She could feel his pain beginning to subside as it changed into something more akin to awe. Unexpectedly, the white light dissipated in an upward beam, a hot wind blowing between them as it dematerialized, leaving them both panting and shaken by what had happened.
Phoenyx felt parched, as if she’d been lost in the desert for weeks. She tried to rid her mind of the remaining fog by shaking it clear.
"Who," Phoenyx rasped. "Who are you?"
The vampire appeared just as confused, if not more shaken than her. He gazed down, exhausted. Looking at their joined hands, his eyes were turbulent and disoriented. Before holding her eyes captive one last time, he reached out to touch her face lightly, his hand trembling.
"I don't know." He whispered before passing out at her feet.
Releasing the breath she had been holding, Phoenyx fumbled around on the ground with shaky fingers until she found her phone. As her hand tightened around it, her eyes caught something glinting in the hollow of the vampire’s neck. She stilled as recognition flooded her.
The memory of burning, acrid smoke filled her senses. The heat of the flames, as they surrounded her body came to the forefront of her mind. She was right back in Warehouse B, crawling around in the sweltering heat, searching.
Slowly, she reached out and let her fingers trace the delicate, golden Phoenix in the shape of an ankh that lay nestled against his cold, pale skin in the hollow of this throat. It was her mother's necklace. The one that she thought she'd lost earlier tonight when she'd attacked that nest.
Her fingers quivered as she tried to dial a number.
"Phoenyx? Is that you, fresa? Are you all right?"
Phoenyx's breath rushed out quickly, the initial shock replaced with something new. Her heart was hammering a mile a minute, and the shaking in her body was reaching high levels of anxiety.
"Cortez, you need to get down here. Pronto. We've got a body to move."