EIGHT
After calling Cortez to make sure everyone was still in one piece, Phoenyx geared up and drove down to the clubhouse, on the other end of town. The compound was bustling with enough noise that Phoenyx could hear it when she pulled up in front, on the opposite side of the street. Tonight’s impromptu council meeting still lingered with Phoenyx as she sat back in her seat, surveying the task at hand. Ian’s words had cut into her brain and left a scar on the surface she was having a tough time healing. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on the musings of an obvious madman. There were more important things at hand.
She shifted anxiously in the driver’s seat, gripping the steering wheel like a vice. Eyeing the clubhouse, she tried to recall the blueprints Hutton had given her, but couldn’t quite bring them to mind. There were plenty of entrances she could take to sneak in, but Phoenyx wasn’t one who did things on the sly.
Upon careful inspection, Phoenyx could see that there were only four vampires out front, and it wouldn’t be too hard to muscle through them if she had to. Throwing open the door of her black Hellcat, Phoenyx slid out of the driver’s seat and purposefully made her way to the clubhouse front door.
She had to admit, strolling onto vampire territory, with nothing but a silver stake in her boot and her crossbow, may not have been her most ingenious idea. Especially territory that was run by the one Supernatural in town who wanted her dead the most. Still, if she had snuck in, it would have proven to them that she had something to fear. And Phoenyx was anything but fearful.
The four vamps she’s surveyed earlier were loitering around as she approached. When the first one spotted her, he slapped the arm of the vamp next to him to get his attention, which prompted all of them to turn and face her. Hips swinging, and trigger finger on her crossbow, Phoenyx strolled on past the first three like she owned the place. As she closed the distance between her and the front door, a pair of curious hazel eyes connected with hers, their blatant appraisal leaving Phoenyx uncharacteristically uncomfortable. He held his hand up as the other three vampires made a move toward her, stopping them in their tracks.
Phoenyx cocked her hip and arched a brow at the vampire who was pulling rank with the others. He was obviously the one she needed to talk to, but there was something about him she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Something, very––different.
His hair fell over his forehead in what she would normally have called ‘the douchebag haircut’, only on him it made him look a little like James Dean. He leaned back against the wall and reached for a pack of cigarettes in his vest pocket. Slowly pulling one out with his teeth, he leaned forward to light it with a zippo. The flame caught the color of his eyes, lighting them up to burnished gold with green and brown flecks. He inhaled and half-smiled, his full lips lifting at the corner to expose surprisingly straight, white teeth.
Phoenyx lifted her chin. “I’m looking for Spider.”
A five o’clock shadow hugged his firm jaw as a muscle ticked there. Unlike his cavemen companions, who looked like they were growing lice farms in their beards, he simply looked like he’d forgotten to shave. She couldn’t help but wonder if he had shaved the day he’d been turned. Exhaling, he bent his knee and lifted a foot against the brick behind him, his shoulders coming forward slightly in a careless shrug.
“He’s busy.”
Scottish? French? Phoenyx narrowed her eyes at him, trying to place his accent, which was neither this nor that. She lowered her eyes momentarily before lifting her lashes to pin him where he stood.
She smiled coldly. “Tell him––it’s The Phoenyx.”
Vampire James Dean chuckled softly, pulling on his cigarette slowly, before licking his full lips. His eyes slowly traveled her body before meeting hers. He pointed at her with the fingers that encircled his cigarette. “I know who you are. He’s still busy.”
The other vampires snickered, causing Phoenyx’s ire to spike. She pursed her lips. “You’re going to want to tell him to not be busy.”
“What do you want?” he asked around a mouthful of smoke.
Bristling at this smoking hot jackass’s entirely too cavalier reaction to her strolling right up to his clubhouse front door, Phoenyx ground her teeth. “I want to know who hired him.”
“Fat chance,” he said in that strange accent, definitely more Scottish than French, before flicking the butt of his cigarette away. He nodded toward his men and they reluctantly retreated a distance until Phoenyx could no longer see them. They were alone now.
“Look,” Phoenyx said laughing, “you’re obviously new, so––”
She could feel his eyes trained on her like she was his prey, and he was hunting her. It wasn’t a foreign sensation to her. After all, that’s what vampires were––they were hunters, ruled by their baser instincts. It wasn’t new. What was new was the thrill that shot up her spine as he licked those incredible lips, devouring her with his eyes, like she was his last meal. She wasn’t easily thrilled, but the night was full of surprises it would seem.
“No,” the vampire said somewhat sternly, even though his brows were knitted together in amusement. “I’m not new, darling. You’re just behind on the times.”
“Is that so?” She asked, barely able to keep the astonishment out of her voice, or the shiver that rippled her skin so delightfully.
“Yeah,” he smirked, his eyes drawn to the goosebumps on her arms. “That’s so.”
Aggravation mixed with the strange allure she felt as the vampire came into the light of an overhead street lamp. Phoenyx had to fight the urge to hang her mouth open. There hadn’t even been a time in all her twenty-five years that she had been rendered speechless by someone’s looks. In her line of work there was no time to admire the opposite sex, nor had she ever had the urge to. However, this vampire was truly something to behold.
Heat pooled in her belly and her heart began to pump blood faster through her body. He stood far taller than most men, something she hadn’t noticed at first, when he’d been leaning casually against the building. Phoenyx found herself looking down at his feet to check for lifts.
“I’m Ash,” he said.
His voice brought her out of her thoughts and Phoenyx immediately bit the inside of her cheek with annoyance. Her eyes flashed defiance at the cocky bastard standing in front of her. Judging by the deep dimple popping in his cheek, he was very aware of her racing pulse. Straightening her shoulders, Phoenyx lifted her crossbow and aimed it at him furiously.
“Tell Spider to get his dead ass out here, or I’ll kill every one of his men. Starting with you.”
Ash let out a loud burst of laughter. “Darling, I’d like to see you try.”
Phoenyx felt incredibly drawn to this arrogant piece of work. She felt uncommonly attracted, dare she say, aroused by him, in every sense of the word. At least she was pretty sure it was arousal. There was something mysterious about him. From the moment she stepped foot on the complex, she’d felt the vampire power immediately, but there had been something more, something she wasn’t familiar with. At first she’d thought that maybe with some luck, the vampire power she was feeling was the Ancient she was looking for. But now that she was in close proximity, the more it seemed to be coming from Ash.
Her eyes followed him cautiously as he began to circle her. Those strange hazel eyes, more gold than green, burned a hole right through her.
“Should I be afraid of you, little girl?” He murmured, making her skin prick at his closeness.
“Excuse me?” Phoenyx asked indignantly, looking around. “I don’t see any little girls present.”
“My apologies,” Ash’s voice was low and warm, like honey straight from the hive. “Should I be afraid of you, little lady?”
Her eyes met his and something sparked, sending a lightning bolt straight into the pit of her stomach. “I don’t see any lady’s either.”
Am I flirting? she thought aghast.
Phoenyx was startled to realize that she had been playing a little cat and mouse with Ash. More than anything, that seemed to disturb her the most. The Phoenyx didn’t flirt, and certainly not with the enemy.
“Look,” Ash murmured, “Spider’s not here.”
There was a smell coming off him that was distracting her in the most captivating way. Phoenyx couldn’t quite wrap her nose around it though. For a moment she considered pressing her nose to his neck and sniffing him. The thought shocked her. What the hell is going on? Her body was out of control and her senses were on overload.
She eyed him suspiciously. “How old are you?” She demanded, aiming the crossbow at his heart.
Ash smirked. “Let’s just say, I’m no spring chicken––but I’m not the one you’re looking for.”
“That old, huh?”
Something about the way he was looking at her, the tone of his velvety voice, and the sense her body was giving off, told her that this vampire was no threat to her. At least not physically. Malice had dripped from the other vampires like gut rot. It was vile and sticky, coating her insides in their presence. The sensation had told her to take heed. The contradiction that came with Ash was that Phoenyx felt safe, almost comfortable. Ironically, that was where the true danger lay––in the smooth, lush awareness that he was either harmless, or a viper hiding in the brush. She instinctively pressed the crossbow to his chest, but he didn’t budge.
“Listen, darling––”
Phoenyx pressed harder against the impressively solid wall of muscle, just enough to pierce the skin lightly with the arrow in her crossbow, but Ash didn’t even flinch.
“Don’t call me that,” she breathed.
Ash’s hand moved down between them and gently eased the crossbow away, his incandescent eyes never leaving hers. “Well, I won’t call you Phoenyx. It’s not your true name, now is it?”
Her gaze flickered uncertainly. “How––”
Ash licked his lips softly. “A man has his ways––Jane.”
Stumbling back, she cocked her head in stunned silence, and quickly raised the crossbow again. “Don’t call me that either.”
“Relax,” Ash said calmly, his hands coming up. She could see he had a tattoo on the palm of his left hand, but couldn’t make it out in the darkness. It must have been incredibly painful.
He dipped his head so his eyes could capture hers. “You’re not the first supernatural assassin I’ve encountered in my time on this plane. I know how it works, the anonymity, and I won’t call you by anything other than your God-given name.”
“You’re going to bring God into this?” Phoenyx quipped.
“Why not?” Ash challenged, reaching for another smoke.
She waved her crossbow recklessly at the sky. “Didn’t he forsake you?”
A soft smile spread across his features as his eyes moved skyward, his face like a Roman statue, perfectly carved. He looked back down at her and shrugged. “He’s a very busy man. I don’t hold grudges. Besides, he and I go way back.”
Phoenyx sized him up, bewildered, intrigued and hungry to know more. “Ash, huh?”
He nodded, cocksure and smug, as though he could see the inner turmoil she was feeling around him. Phoenyx measured him slowly with her eyes. The tall, muscular lines of his body were all man, though he’d stopped being a man long ago to walk as a monster, among the living. There was a look of restrained power about him that ebbed and flowed through him like the ocean beneath the full moon. His eyes mesmerizing pools of heat.
What the hell is going on? First, Judas appears out of thin air, a vampire with emotions so intense they nearly knock me on my ass. And now, Ash, a vampire with a love for God, who smells like I want to eat him, and makes me feel, for lack of a better word––sinful.
Phoenyx opened her mouth to say something when her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. She cursed silently and lifted it to her ear.
“What?” She snapped.
“Fresa?” Cortez’s voice sounded riddled with nerves. He didn’t have to say another word.
Phoenyx glanced up at Ash. “I’ll be right there. Don’t move.”
Closing the phone, she stuffed it back into her pocket and began to back away toward the street. The night air was cool at her back, while Ash’s eyes burned hotly at her front, warming her wickedly.
“You tell Spider I’m coming for him. And I’m not done with you either––Ash.”
Lighting his cigarette, he inhaled gently before tipping his fingers at her and winking. “I’m counting on it, Jane.”