Phoenix Rising (7 page)

The strange, whirling lights illuminated the hulking mass of Notre Dame. Officers of the Gendarmerie were everywhere, but Miles ignored them as he pushed past Justin and closer to the stretcher being loaded into the ambulance. They had found Kelsey’s companions.

What was left of them.

"Monsieur," a young upstart with more balls than good sense tried to block his way. Miles hissed at him. The man's grey eyes widened and his lips trembled. Still, he stood firm until a voice from the body on the stretcher spoke into the cool night air.

"No, let the bastard closer." Jules choked, thin flecks of blood on his lips as his dark gaze fell on Miles. "This is all his fault, and by god, I want to tell him so if I'm gonna die."

The officer slumped in relief and Miles stepped past him.

"My fault?" He was beyond rage, and fear was a cold sick feeling clawing at him from the inside out.

They had just found what was left of Kelsey's little computer genius friend, and even for a vampire, the scene had hardly been a pleasant one. He'd seen slaughterhouses with less blood and gore.

But
his
fault?

He couldn't help the anger that suffused his eyes even as pity tugged at what was left of his soul. Jules, no matter that Miles had taken an instant disliking to the big, black man, was Kelsey's friend. In any case, it was hard to hate a man so clearly on his death bed.

"Your fault, you bloodsucking bastard. You pulled her into this crap again and now Reegan has her." Jules coughed again, but twisted away when Miles bent to lift his head.

"Reegan? The handler, you mean, did you see him?" Miles dropped his hand and grabbed the end of the stretcher as two medics tried to tug Jules away.

Jules glared at them so fiercely they backed off and left Miles and him alone.

The Seine lapped softly against its banks as Miles bent to catch the man's increasing cracked voice.

"I saw them. There were two of them, a man I didn’t recognize and Reegan. Kels was right, it was him all along. Goddamn it! The fucking bastard who slit Kel's mom’s throat.”

Miles reeled back, only his pride preventing him from losing his feet as he stared at Jules' ashy face. He couldn't breathe.

What the hell was this?

Jules’ face twisted into a smile at the dawning horror in Miles' eyes.

"Did you ever even
think
how powerful she is?  Jesus man, you didn’t suspect a thing. How goddamn easy do you think it would've been for her to take you out, countless times. It was never weakness, you stupid shit. They always had something to hold over our heads,
always
. Kelsey had to try and get her mom safe before she dared to tell you anything. She couldn’t take the chance otherwise. And she thought she had,
we both did
.

"Angelina was with me in a safe house that day. We'd been planning it for weeks. I gave Kelsey the all-clear. Turns out the Cleaners had gotten suspicious when Kelsey kept putting them off about finishing you, and then when her mom vanished, even though it was just a few hours, they knew.

"And, I….I fucked up. Jesus.” Jules took a deep breath that rattled ominously, but he continued on, pain shining in his dark eyes as he stared up at Miles.

“They got through me and snagged Angelina when Kelsey was on her way to you, to confess everything. I got a call to her and she ran for you, to tell you…

"But even though the Cleaners were sick shits, they were damn smart, weren’t they? They bet big that you wouldn’t listen to her. And they were
right
. You believed
every fucking word!
You had her thrown into the street like a bag of trash without even questioning."

Miles was reeling, unable to keep up with the words that were unraveling his existence.

Jules choked again and this time allowed Miles' hand on the back of his neck as his dark eyes burned. "I thought we'd gotten
him—
not all of them—though we made a damn good try of it. But
him
, at least. We blew those fuckers sky high. I thought we got Reegan. But I was wrong and now," he coughed and his blood sprayed Miles' face, but the vampire hardly noticed as he held Jules up and willed him to continue.

Jules' eyes rolled back once and Miles cursed, but then heard a faint whisper.

"Reegan injected her with something... a psyche suppressant of some kind. She went down. He grabbed her and ran, while his… bastard friend got me… and Sammy from behind with more darts—" Jules’ head fell back and his huge body shook. The Gendarmerie man immediately stepped forward again, his face pale but determined. Miles reached out to stop him…

And Jules’ dark eyes cleared suddenly and he came down focusing on the glimmering edge of the necklace Miles still clutched in his fingers. His head came up on his own this time.

"Goddamn it, give me that!"

The wavering voice held so much desperate hope Miles pressed the trinket into the huge man's hand, watching his fingers curl around it, the delicate balloons crushed in his grip, dripping from his hand like silver blood.

Kelsey woke again to pain. Harsh, hot and pulsing. She was seeing double, the dark world topsy-turvy in black and white and grey as she tried to clear her vision. She blinked to see Reegan above her, his pasty face inches from her own.

He smiled when he met her gaze and pirouetted backward, his steps mincing and macabre in a dance of death as he whirled to his companion, who was picking his teeth now as he reclined in the dull wash of moonlight.

“Felix, she wakes. Sure you don’t want a turn?”

The man in the fedora shrugged. “This is your party, Reegan. Knock yourself out, but ease up on the blood, if you truly don’t want to kill her yet. I still think you should just get it fucking over with. You can’t know he will come for her anyway.”

“Oh. he will. Won’t he, child?” Reegan sounded amused as he turned back to Kelsey who was staring up at the stars, trying to take slow, shallow breaths.

Her ribs were screaming, at least four were broken, many more cracked. Reegan prodded them now with the shattered end of the staff he had apparently broken against her body while she was unconscious, digging into her skin with the splintered wood as she twisted away, unable to fight the screams that ripped out of her.

“That was a question, child. Answer it!”

“No.” She whispered it, then fought to strengthen her voice. “No, Reegan. Miles won’t kill for me, he won’t look for me.
He won’t come
. You’re wasting your time.”

Reegan’s laugh spilled over the nightmarish stone garden. “Just as you want me to think, the vampire has but the heart of stone where you are concerned, yes? Or perhaps you truly believe that?” He laughed delightedly.

“But either way, it is hardly a waste of my time,” he lifted his staff again and smiled down at her, “as I am enjoying myself so much....”

Kels heard the whine of the staff through the air and tightened her body on the cold stones, bracing helplessly for the impact.

It never came. Instead there was a curiously wet, crunching sound and a half-broken scream.

Reegan whirled above her and she was yanked from the bench so fast the crushing wave of agony took her breath away.

“Stay back, Rousseau!”

Reegan’s arm was locked around her neck, the bleach and lavender scent of him spiked now with fear, but excitement, too.

His soft, heavy body trembled with it.

Kelsey’s focused her blurry eyes to see Miles halt in the archway to the garden, a fedora streaked and dripping blood twirling in his hands as he stared across the courtyard at Reegan.

His eyes were a shocking blaze of lightning blue in the darkness.

“Let her go.”

“Certainly.” Reegan’s voice was shaking, but only with breathless laughter that made Kelsey very afraid. He had something planned. What?

“If you will just put these on first.” He set his staff to lean against the bench and tossed Miles something from his pocket that jangled. Kelsey thought it sounded and looked like a pair of handcuffs.

It was.

Miles dropped the blood-soaked fedora and caught them. He raised an eyebrow as he contemplated Reegan.

“C’est nul?!”

Reegan tittered. “Not stupid, at all, Rousseau. They are made of lead.”

Kelsey sucked in a breath that made her lungs ache. Lead. Shit. The whole silver thing was bullshit—as was holy water, wood and most of the vampire crap Hollywood movies had made so famous. Except for sunlight, there was simply
nothing
that worked against vampires.

Simple lead, however, was a defense against
all
shades. Not lethal, but a kind of barrier to their power. Just as science accepted lead lined vaults could dampen radiation, magikal practioners had known lead’s buffering properties for centuries.

Like the drug running through her own veins right now, lead would render Miles, not powerless, not exactly, but restrained in a way regular handcuffs would have never managed. That, combined with Reegan's own powers might give the ex-Cleaner a dangerous edge.

Miles sighed, looking down at the dark cuffs in his hands. “And I will do this, why?”

Reegan smiled widely. “Oh, please. For the same reason you came here tonight. I was right when I sent you that message so long ago, and I am still right. You are twice a fool,
my Lord
.”

Kelsey had no idea what Reegan meant by that, but whatever it was the look those words put on Miles’ face made her knees give way.

Reegan cursed and stumbled as he took the extra weight and shook her hard in reprimand. The pain nearly made her pass out, but she got her feet under her again with a monumental effort.

“Don’t, Miles,” she couldn’t manage more than a whisper, but her words were drowned out by the click of the cuffs.

Reegan released her at once, letting her body crumple to the ground without a thought as he strode triumphantly toward Miles.

Kelsey gasped as her fractured ribs crunched again into stone, but forced herself to her hands and knees, flashing white spots dancing across her vision like evil fairies in this garden of death.

Those fairy lights led her burning eyes away from the sight of Reegan circling Miles to the shattered half of Reegan’s staff. It leaned against the stone bench splattered with dark splotches of her blood, it’s lethal shadow eerie in the moon’s light.

She grabbed it with one shaking hand, then another. Pulling herself up inch by inch, even as her broken body screamed in agonized protest, fractured bones grinding against each other, battered organs threatening to burst in a symphony of pain that she willed her mind and lips to close against. Kelsey was careful not to make a sound as she eyed Reegan’s broad fleshy back when he finally came to halt facing Miles, a cautious arm’s length away.

“She will watch me rip out your heart and then….
Then
we will wait for sunrise. I want to kill her as she watches your body catch fire in the light of the dawn. You can see each other die. So quaint. Did you really think giving yourself up to me would save her?”

Miles gave a wide, slow smile that showed the glint of his fangs, his eyes never leaving Reegan’s face even as Kelsey moved into his line of sight.

“Not at all. I merely thought it would give her time to save herself, you deluded piece of shit.”

Reegan whirled just in time to catch the wickedly splintered end of his staff right in the chest. Kelsey threw the last of her pain and fury into one long primal scream as she drove the weapon he'd handed her though Reegan’s entire body.

His mouth opened in a round ‘o’ of shock as she let go and he toppled backward into the stones, Miles stepping out of the way with a look of vicious satisfaction, before his eyes lifted to hers.

Kelsey swayed. Miles moved forward so fast her vision blurred, but instead of the now almost familiar crack of stone against her skin, she fell against Miles’ chest, his bound hands between them.

“The key,” She murmured, her lips moving in the crisp cotton of his shirt. “I need to get the key.”

“I’ll do it.” Miles eased her to the walkway as gently as he could and then, then….

Kelsey thought she must have blacked out for a minute or two, but a cool brush of a hand on her cheek brought her back. “Kelsey?”

“Mmm,” she turned into his touch, even as the pain had her biting her lips.

“Hold still, damnit.”

Kelsey lifted her hand to his jaw, ignoring him, unable to articulate all she needed so desperately to know, but having to try. “How...”

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, the dark blonde waves glinting silver in the moonlight.

“Jules tracked your necklace, before I
—
Oh, Kels, not that. Not right now. I have been so stupid, and wasted so much time. I need…
mon dieu
!
Please
, Kels…can you forgive me?”

Kels felt the fear squeeze her heart, but refused to mull over that ‘before’ and what it might mean for Jules. Instead, she whispered the only question worth living for.