Phoenix Contract: Part Five (Fallen Angel Watchers) (9 page)

“Mon dieu,” Guillaume whispered.

“I told you that you had underestimated her,” Magnus announced, his wonderful brogue saturated with smugness. The Celt’s voice came from behind Aiden, and she nearly collapsed from the weakness of relief which was far greater than she wanted to acknowledge.

Without warning, Magnus took advantage of the brief lull in everyone’s senses and exploded into action. Aiden caught a brief glimpse of the Celt through her peripheral vision as he charged forward, lightening swift. He held Acerbitas in a position for throwing instead of thrusting. The Celt’s hands and forearms were scorched black, red meat and white bone exposed. Aiden’s gut churned with nausea.

Magnus lunged and threw the slender spatha straight toward Guillaume. The mystic sword rotated on its axis, creating the distinctive whir-whir of a spinning blade. Time slowed to a surreal crawl, and every rune etched upon the blade’s surface could be clearly distinguished as it shimmered with the manifestation of Acerbitas’ magic.

Magnus’ aim was as true as his word. Acerbitas lodged deep in Guillaume’s torso and ran straight through his heart. Grasping at the sword impaling him, Guillaume staggered backward toward the edge of the rooftop.

A woman’s powerful voice filled their minds: “I am Acerbitas, embodiment of a mother’s bitterness and a mother’s grief for a beloved daughter, forged from the blood and tears of the Dark Mother. I am the implement of destruction of this wretched, murdering abomination.” Crimson light flashed, consuming Guillaume entirely so that he simply vanished, leaving behind not even a speck of bone or blood, not even ash. Acerbitas dropped to the Astroturf, making no sound but a sweet sigh.

“At last, I am finished,” Acerbitas whispered. “Those who murdered my lady’s daughter are dead. I may rest.” Then the sword fell silent. Her radiant aura dimmed and then went dead.

“What happened?” Aiden asked.

“She had to kill not only the monster who’d murdered Lilith’s daughter, but the monster’s master as well,” Magnus explained.

He looked down, curiously contemplating his charred, skeletal hands. “I really should stop playing with fire,” he said. Then he smiled, and his ruined features formed a hideous grinning mask. “But I can’t seem to help myself.”

“Don’t joke about this,” Aiden said, sickened with guilt and pity for him.

“
Don’t,
” Magnus said, forbidding with a look.
Don’t pity me, don’t feel sorry for me.
“
Don’t.
Let’s get down to business.” He walked past Aiden, heading toward the center of the monolith.

After a momentary hesitation, Aiden rushed to follow.

Shemyaza’s Heart resided within a box made of an unknown wood; the natural shade had long ago been replaced, stained dark red, almost black, the color of dried blood. The stone pedestal also shone with a glossy burgundy patina.

Trembling from head to toe, Aiden lifted the lid and stared down at the organ in horrified fascination. Nausea churned her gut. Her gore rose, pushing bile into the back of her throat. Yet for all her horrified disgust, she couldn’t bring herself to avert her gaze.

The Heart was larger than a normal human organ and the color fresh meat, and with each surging beat, the entire mass quivered like fleshy Jell-O. Blood spurted forth from the severed pulmonary and aortic arteries with each contraction, an eternal and endless fountain.

“He kept it in a box for five hundred years,” Aiden said, her mouth twisting in disgust.

“There wasn’t much else he could do with it,” Magnus said. “But no, he didn’t leave it in there the whole time. He liked to take it out at parties and show it off.”

Aiden’s eyes flew to Magnus. She tried to discern whether he was kidding or not, but the Celt’s ruined features made reading his expression an impossible task. However, she had a sickened certainty that he was absolutely serious.

“What am I supposed to do with it again?” Aiden asked, even though she damn well knew.

“Eat it,” Magnus obliged.

“Easy for you to say,” Aiden muttered, tentatively reaching into the box and hooking her fingers beneath the edges of the Heart. Remarkably, it was hot to the touch. Not just warm, but steamy.

Her expression twisted with an indefinable mix of emotion, Aiden lifted the Heart from its crucible. The throbbing organ was harder to hold onto than she’d imagined. Thrusting and surging in her grasp, soft flesh squished between her fingers as the determined Heart fought to gain freedom from any and all restraints. Within seconds of picking it up, her hands, arms, and shirt front were soaked with blood.

Aiden cast one final glance at Magnus and took in the Celt’s impervious demeanor. He stood with his arms crossed. Balancing on the balls of his feet, he wore an aura of expectation.

With a sigh, Aiden returned her attention to The Heart. Well, there was no getting out of it. “Here goes nothing,” she muttered.

Fighting disgust and nausea, Aiden curled back her lips so that they wouldn’t come into contact with flesh. She captured the edge of the Heart between her front teeth and chomped twice, her bites only hard enough to be called nibbling as she experimented with the texture of the muscle tissue. Extremely chewy.

Having determined that the task wasn’t going to be accomplished without effort, Aiden bit harder into the Heart. A strip of meat tore free, and she swallowed it whole, gagging on the piece of hot flesh as it slid down her throat. The sensation was slick and slimy, and she might as well have eaten a slug. Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked them away, fighting the urge to vomit with every ounce of her will.

Committed to the cannibalistic act, Aiden took another angry bite, chewing the next piece of meat hard several times before choking it down. Her dogged gnawing finally ripped through one of the Heart’s four chambers, and blood flowed from the perforation.

The salty fluid filled her mouth, scalding the sides and the back of her throat, and Aiden swallowed a deep draught that caused immediate burning in her gut. The heat spread outward from her abdomen to all parts of her body, drugging her senses with velvet lethargy. The effect was immediate and intoxicating, and Aiden slipped into the thrall of a powerful and potent magic.

Pleasure caressed her every nerve ending, slow and sensual, melting sin, sunlight vibrant, gliding across her skin and senses. It was dark chocolate rich and silken smooth, seductive and consuming. The rapture of ecstasy lifted her up, its music effusing her soul, allowing her to soar above and beyond all constraints.

Inhibitions and reservations vanished from her mind. She sank her teeth deeper and harder into the Heart, ripping free a larger chunk. Like an animal, she fed, tearing, biting, and gulping down her savage, angelic meal. Her face and fingers were slick with blood, and the fountain that once flowed from the organ had slowed to a trickle.

She found freedom and power, and Aiden
lived
for the first time in her life. She knew what it meant to be truly alive, and yet the knowledge accompanied the certainty of death. Every bite brought her hurling closer to the abyss, the cessation of self, and she rushed toward the final embrace with open arms.

Within the fire, she had found truth.

She
was the power and the glory of the Phoenix.

The last bite of angel Heart entered her mouth, and she swallowed one final time. Kneeling on the ground, Aiden slowly and thoroughly licked her fingers and wiped the blood from her face. Outwardly, she was calm, but within her chest a maelstrom raged. The Heart of Shemyaza had taken the place of her own.

Caught in the grips of an orgasmic death, Aiden summoned her remaining strength and began her final journey. The center of the pentagram was only three yards away, but it might as well have been three hundred. She barely had the energy or the will to crawl.

Strong hands seized Aiden’s shoulders and lifted her from the ground. “Walk, don’t crawl,” Magnus hissed into her ear. “Don’t enter immortality on your knees like Cassius.”

He shoved her toward the pentagram and the pyre of branches, and Aiden staggered the final distance under her own power. The branches crunched beneath her feet, and she looked down, staring blankly at the kindling for a long second.

It took the tiniest effort to set the pyre on fire. Aiden simply extended her awareness to the wood and sent her magic flickering amongst the kindling, causing it to burst into flames. The blaze quickly engulfed the pyre, rose to lick at Aiden’s legs, consumed her jeans and then stroked her skin. Aiden closed her eyes and spread her arms wide, basking in the heated caress of her elemental lover.

Oh, she wouldn’t just walk into immortality. She would fly! She would die, and her body would burn to ash, and then she’d be reborn within the fires of resurrection. Forged within fire, and risen from fire.

The pile of branches shifted beneath her feet with the addition of a man’s weight. Startled, Aiden’s eyes flew open, and she found herself staring up into Magnus’ ruined face. The unexpected action jarred Aiden out of her enraptured reverie.

“What are you doing? Are you mad?” Aiden gasped. Already, the eager flames were rising up to lick at the Celt’s legs. “You’ll die!”

“I’ve decided to go with you,” Magnus murmured, grinning like a madman. He wore that Devil-may-care aura exceedingly well, owning it.

Aiden seized his arms with her hands, intending to shove him out of harm’s way, but Magnus had other ideas. He seized hold of her forearms and locked them together.

“I’m tired of being trapped in this body, and I miss the sun,” he said. “I have one last mask to shed, and one last promise to keep.”

“What’s that?” Aiden asked.

“I promised Matthew I’d keep an eye on you.”

“How’s that going to work with us being immortal adversaries?” Aiden demanded.

“We’ll figure it out.”

The fire caught Magnus’ cloak and roared around the Celt in a fiery conflagration. His clothing incinerated, leaving behind pale flesh that quickly blackened and peeled away to expose blood and bone. Then began the final glorious combustion.

“What final mask?” Aiden shouted, but he was already gone. Before her eyes, Magnus dissolved into a rain of burning cinders. His masquerade was over, and his true form rose from the ashes.

Wraith swift and elusive, a creature of darkness swept up out of the flames, rising upon vast wings. Watching the emergence and flight with pure astonishment, Aiden gasped and threw back her head to follow him. To see him revealed caused her to laugh with delight. But the Heart thudded in her breast, powerful and provoked, roaring defiance to the ancient enemy of the Phoenix. A scream tore from her throat.

From above came an answering cry, a fierce bellow that resounded through the concrete cliffs and valleys of the city. It was joyous and defiant, and Aiden imagined that she could distinguish smug satisfaction in Magnus’ victory roar. It called to her conflicted soul, torn between what was old and new.

Then the fire rose high and bright around her, obscuring all else from sight. It was time to die. Aiden gathered the flames around her lovingly, holding them close like a beloved friend and lover. Her body transformed into fire, and the flames of the pyre grew taller and brighter, a flare luminous enough to be seen for miles in any direction. The pillar burned into the sky, rising higher and higher, coalescing in the form of a soaring raptor.

Upon wings of the fire, the Phoenix flew into the night, joining the stars in the sky, and a new constellation was born. Then the burning brightness winked out, and the magic departed the night. All was silent and all was still, and the constellation of the Reborn Phoenix shimmered above.

End.

Melissa Thomas breathes life into her dreams, bringing imaginary characters and fantasy worlds into our reality. She loves her characters so much they become her alter-egos, enacting the exciting adventures she envisions for them. She is a resident of San Francisco, California and adores the picturesque city by the bay. Her hobbies include surfing and scuba diving.

Phoenix Contract is her debut novel.

You can learn more about Melissa at
http://thephoenixascending.blogspot.com/