Bitten 2 (47 page)

To my utter amazement, it seemed to work, and I felt a surge of energy flow through me. Running full throttle towards the trees, the wind tugged at the torn collar of my shirt and ripped my hair from the tangled remnants of my ponytail to stream behind me like a banner. In my mind’s eye I envisioned myself galloping heroically across the meadow; in reality I probably more closely resembled a blind, three-legged dog navigating an obstacle course as I tripped and stumbled over half-buried rocks and debris. A particularly cruel taunt from the curmudgeonly old track coach came to mind when an unseen tree root almost caused me to take a nose-dive: “You have all the grace and skill of a mortally wounded gazelle.”

Yeah, that sounds about right.

The tree line, and my chance for escape, was a few feet away when I was brought up short by a vicious tug on my hair. Pain raced across my scalp, wrenching a shrill cry from my bruised throat, as I felt chunks of hair being torn free.

“Mother fucker!”

Stronger than I could ever hope to be, Metembe exhibited no signs of exertion as he lifted me by my hair until my feet dangled several inches above the ground. For a few seconds, I swung helplessly in his grip, clawing at the fingers curled in my hair, before resorting to lashing out at him with both feet. My feet landed with meaty thuds as they struck his thighs and shins, but earned little more than the occasional pained grunt. Meanwhile, his free hand sought to resume its earlier task of choking the life out of me.

Abandoning my futile attempt to remove his hand from my hair in favor of fending off the one reaching for my throat, I twisted and flailed in his grip like an enraged weasel in the midst of a seizure. Consumed with my frantic struggle to stay alive a while longer, it took several moments for me to realize there was an unfamiliar warmth growing between my breasts. During my wild flailing, the necklace Alyssa had given me slipped inside my shirt to rest against my bare skin, where it shifted from “oh, that’s a little warm” to “holy shit, it’s burning!”

Using one hand to fend off the infuriated were determined to send me to the afterlife, I reached into my shirt with the other to fish out the necklace melting itself into my skin. A jolt of recollection swept through me the instant my fingers wrapped around the feather shaped charm, Alyssa’s words echoing inside my head like the booming chime of a church bell. Gritting my teeth against the pain of the hot metal searing the tender flesh of my palm, I squeezed until I felt the metal bend and finally snap, all the while trying to reassure myself that the smell of barbeque was just a figment of my imagination.

I let go of the two halves of the charm as soon it broke, the center of my palm throbbing. Lacking confidence in the unknown powers of the charm, I was only mildly disappointed when nothing happened. In my moment of distraction Metembe got past my pathetic defenses to seal his fingers over my windpipe.

Well, that was a letdown,
I thought as my heart thumped, albeit at an ever slowing pace as adrenalin gave way to exhaustion. I’d drained my reserves dry and had no more fight left in me.

An impossibly close thunder crack rent the air, the concussive force of it beating against my skin. Reeling from the blow, Metembe’s grip slackened, leaving me to fall to the ground in a tangled heap. Feeling as if every inch of my body from head to toe was covered in bruises, I huddled against the ground, bracing myself for the strike of lightning I was sure would follow and incinerate us both. When no fiery death came from heaven, I dared to peek through the protection of the arms crossed over my head, and felt my mouth fall open in shock.

“Marvin?”

“Hello, Marvin!” the fearsome bird squawked in reply, the moonlight emphasizing the deep crags and wrinkles in his featherless face. His coal black beak gleamed as it parted to emit a shrill cry that made me cringe. Even Metembe appeared dumbstruck by the fae creature’s sudden arrival, his momentary distraction allowing me to clamber to my feet.

My knees wobbled when I gained my footing, whether from Metembe’s sound beating or surprise at the phoenix’s arrival, I didn’t know.

“What is that thing?”

“That’s Marvin,” I replied, trying to sound as cocky and sure of myself as possible, though inside I was panicking. I had no idea how the oversized, creepy parrot was supposed to help.

I sure hope this isn’t Alyssa’s idea of some weird joke.

“I’m going to tear you apart, then wring that turkey’s neck,” Metembe growled, gaining his feet and taking a lurching step towards me, ignoring the bird standing amidst the grass behind him.

The sound of Marvin’s feathers rustling was little more than a whisper after the boom of thunder that was still ringing in my ears. It took only a few beats of his large wings to lift him into the air, where he hovered with his head cocked to one side to study the were advancing towards me.

“If you’re here to save me, now would be a great time to do something!” I shouted, backing away from Metembe.

Rising higher into the air, Marvin appeared for a moment to be flying away and I cursed my naiveté for believing that the overgrown parrot could help.

“Stupid bird,” I muttered, feeling each precious second slipping through my fingers, carrying me closer to my impending doom.

As if Marvin’s abrupt arrival hadn’t been disturbing enough, he suddenly burst into flame. The roar of flames, a thousand times louder than the fireplace in my cabin, rose to fill my ears, drowning out my bitter curses. A wave of heat radiated out from him in ever increasing waves that caused the frozen grass around us to smoke and smolder. Several thin trails of steam rose from my clothes, and I wondered if I had escaped death at Metembe’s hands just to be burnt to a crisp by the phoenix going supernova.

Continuing to move back away from Metembe, I debated what to do. I couldn’t let Marvin burn up or I’d never be able to face Alyssa again. On the other hand, reaching into the flames would reduce me to ash faster than you could say “pass the marshmallows.”

My luck is the
worst
.

The only good thing going on was the fact that Metembe seemed to be momentarily stunned into inaction, leaving me free to circle around, tentatively reaching a hand out towards the fiery bird. As much as I wanted to help, I had to stop when another wave of heat buffeted me, forcing me to turn my face away for fear of losing my eyebrows along with the rest of my face.

There was no hope for it, I couldn’t do anything to help Marvin. Regret rose as a lump in the back of my throat while tears blurred my vision, turning the meadow to a blur of green and brown.

I was already backing away, putting as much space between me and Metembe as possible, when the air changed. It was a subtle shift; I doubt I would have noticed it if I hadn’t spent so much time around Holbrook and become attuned to the shifting energies in the air affected by his mood. I’d come to learn that magi could be temperamental creatures, and their oftentimes unpredictable magic could alter the very essence of the air around them.

As suddenly as they’d started, the flames stopped. Though the heat remained, making the air appear to quiver, it had subsided enough for me to turn back to where Marvin had been swallowed by fire. Above a patch of scorched earth as big around as my borrowed SUV hovered a creature crafted of fire, smoke, and fury, and I felt my mouth drop open.

The hundreds of renditions and descriptions of the mighty phoenix that had been passed down over the centuries didn’t come close to describing the majesty before me. Marvin’s previous incarnation had been a wrinkled and sparsely feathered creature little bigger than a Macaw; now he was something born of fire and light that easily stood taller than a bus. Crackles of yellow lightning flickered all around him, charging the air until it was alive with his energy.

“Blessed Cain,” Metembe whispered beside me, distracted from his desire to kill me by the apparition before us.

As if the dark were’s words had reminded him why he was here, Marvin turned his head to pin Metembe in place with a gaze lit by the fires of hell and filled with the condemnation of a thousand tortured souls. The brief glimpse I got of the horrors contained within the phoenix’s black stare echoed through me to the core of my soul, chilling me in a way that the cold winter air never could. Whatever history and myth said of them, in that moment I knew that the true purpose of Marvin’s ilk was to be the harbingers of celestial judgment and, if need be, the deliverer of punishment. I felt myself spiraling away, out of myself and into the bottomless black pit of his gaze, where all of my life’s transgressions could be laid bare and judged. I liked to think of myself as a good person, but that didn’t mean I was free of regret; there were plenty of things in my past I was ashamed of. My conscience had its fair share of blemishes, and I cringed at the thought of Marvin judging them and finding me wanting.

It took far more effort than I ever would have thought to tear my gaze away from the obsidian gleam of his eye, the chill in my soul persisting long after the link was severed. I almost felt sorry for Metembe, who was experiencing the full brunt of that penetrating stare, but then I remembered the atrocities he had committed and hoped that Marvin roasted his soul to ashes.

His judgment complete, Marvin emitted a piercing battle cry that drove me to clap my hands over my ears and squeeze my eyes shut as I cowered. I’d never heard a sound like it, and wouldn’t have been surprised if I felt the warm trickle of blood seeping from my ears. After a second, I cautiously lowered my hands and opened my eyes just in time to see Marvin swooping towards Metembe. Jerking as if awakened from a dream, my attacker came to the realization that he was in mortal danger and lurched into motion.

Even the roughest, toughest badass would be hard pressed to stand still when faced with that petrifying vision of death on wings of fire arrowing towards them, and Metembe was no exception. Even as he turned to run, Marvin closed the distance between them and extended talons of liquid gold to grasp the fleeing were.

A great
whoosh!
filled my ears at the same instant a wave of heat unlike anything I’d ever known smacked into me, blowing the hair back from my face as it knocked me down onto my ass. The biggest fireball I’d ever seen erupted on the spot where Metembe had been standing, and it took me several moments to realize that the high pitched keening I could just make out over the roar of the flames were his agonized screams. Lycanthrope healing powers or not, I didn’t think he was going to be healing that.

* * *

I’d never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, and even then, I wasn’t sure I hadn’t hallucinated the whole thing. The air was filled with the rich smoky scent of a wood fire and a hint of sizzling meat. Knowing it was Metembe’s charred remains I was smelling, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to eat barbecue again without envisioning his screaming face being consumed by flames.

Damn. I guess I won’t be eating pulled pork any time soon.

Staggering to my feet and brushing dirt off my jeans, I regarded the rough circle of still smoldering grass. The awe inspiring apparition of flame was gone, replaced by the bald-headed vulture-like creature I’d first met at Alyssa’s house. His red and gold feathers looked a tad sleeker than before, less bedraggled and sparse as if the transformation had reinvigorated him, but for the most part, he looked as much like an overgrown parrot with a severe case of mange as ever.

“Er... Marvin?” I ventured, my voice rough and shaky.

Pausing in the action of preening the feathers beneath one cocked wing, he turned a large, obsidian eye towards me, the emotion behind that chilling gaze impossible to guess.

“Umm... thanks.”

He continued to stare at me for a moment longer, just long enough for me to wonder if I was going to end up as a pile of ash like Metembe. Inclining his head in the smallest of nods he took to the sky with a couple of beats from his powerful wings.

I watched Marvin fly away until he was nothing more than a shimmering red speck against the black velvet of the sky, appearing as a glowing ember, and then I collapsed to the frozen ground in a heap of aching and exhausted limbs.

“Well, that was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.”

CHAPTER FORTY

I’M NOT SURE how long I sat there staring at the scorched earth, watching the wind whip away the trails of smoke. I was chilled all the way through, no longer even feeling the cold, when I roused myself and decided I needed to do something besides sit on my ass and freeze to death. Climbing to my feet with a series of groans and muttered curses, I gave Metembe’s ashes a final look and turned to make the trek back to the trailhead.

It was slow going moving through the trees, the exhaustion weighing me down making me clumsy. I was almost relieved that there was no one around to see me stumble and trip more than once, adding to my already considerable number of bumps and bruises. When I did finally emerge at the trailhead, picking twigs and leaves out of my hair, I stumbled to the SUV and fell into the front seat. Cranking up the heat, I pondered what to do next.

I knew I should call someone, but who?

My first instinct was to call Holbrook, but he wasn’t likely to answer, and even if he did, there was little he could do. Next was Hank, and I could only imagine how that conversation would go: “Hey, Hank, it’s Riley. I just had your second-in-command incinerated by a mythological creature because it turns out he’s a mass-murdering douchebag.” Besides, after Metembe’s little revelation, I wasn’t so sure that the handsome pack master was entirely blameless. Was it really possible that his lieutenant had been killing vamps without his knowledge?