Phoenix: The Rising (20 page)

“Cousin?” Eli Sullivan looked most definitely confused, and wary. She decided to tread lightly and play the sympathy card. Eli could be of great use to her. Besides, he was drop-dead gorgeous.

Lucy grabbed the robe Liana had loaned her earlier in the evening and put it on over the towel. She tugged and let the towel drop to the floor. All the while, Eli’s eyes never left hers.
Sapphire
. His father must have married outside the Nation. He was definitely not full-blooded Paiute. Then again, neither was she. Yes, she inherited her mother’s eyes and dark skin, but her hair and her stature were definitely ... her father’s.

“We were all going to sit down and talk to you in the morning, but it looks like neither of us can sleep, so here goes.” She pulled two tissues out of a box on the counter, just in case the human side of her could work up a few tears, then sat on the edge of the tub. Eli leaned against the frame of the doorway and crossed his arms, his biceps bulging under the pressure. The sight made her weak in the knees. Good thing she was sitting. She inhaled to clear her thoughts, then checked out his arms. Nice. Chiseled, just like the rest of his body. But no tattoo.

“I’m Lucy Temeluch. Liana and Simon are my grandparents.”

Eli
shot
upright and took two steps closer. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost. “You’re Adrienne’s daughter? How is she? Where is she?”

Lucy crumpled the tissue into her fist. Tears ... real tears threatened the moment he uttered her mother’s name. She took a deep breath.
Not another tear. She’s not worth it
. Lucy reminded herself of her earlier oath. It seemed to help. She looked up at Eli. “So, you’ve heard of her? I’m surprised. I would think they would have tried to keep the whole scandalous thing secret. She sure as hell kept them a secret from me.” Before she knew it, a tear escaped. She whisked it away with a brush of the tissue she now had balled up in her hand and stood. “At any rate, I came here because my mother killed herself on Saturday. I have nowhere else to go. So, you’re stuck sharing a bathroom with me.”

Eli shut his eyes and took a breath. “I’m so sorry. Liana and Simon must be devastated. They loved Adrienne very much.”

Lucy had heard enough.
How can you love someone and then give them up?
She brushed past him and headed down the hall to her room, turning just as she got to her door.

“I’m tired. Liana’s enrolling me in school tomorrow, so I better try and get some sleep.” 

Eli reached around her and opened the door. “Sure. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

Lucy stepped into the room. “At least at the end of the day. Looks like you’ll be giving me a ride home, unless I can make some friends of my own.”

Eli’s brow furrowed with real concern. “Be careful of the friends you make. There are some real winners around here.”

Lucy laughed as she thought of the Penemue brothers. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be careful. I don’t want to end up fraternizing with the wrong crowd. I have the good Temeluch-Sullivan name to uphold.”

****

Eli stared at the closed door. Lucy Temeluch was something he didn’t expect. This would make things much more complicated. He turned and saw the door to Liana’s bedroom ajar. As he took a few steps towards it, the door opened and Liana stepped out.

“She’s the one, isn’t she?” Eli knew he didn’t have to explain his question.

“I always thought it would be Adrienne.” Liana’s voice cracked with emotion. “This one is so young for the responsibility.”

Eli cradled Liana’s face in his hands. “You were young, too. You gave up everything for me.”

“It was my destiny, Eli.” She smiled as a tear slipped down her cheek. “Just as it is hers. We just won’t say a word until we have to. Let her live a normal, carefree life until it’s time. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Eli had a feeling Lucy Temeluch’s normal, carefree life would be short-lived. He stared at the waning gibbous moon through the hall window and felt a slight tickle just inside both shoulder blades.
Very short-lived.
The swallows were already on their way to Capistrano.

Lucy Temeluch wasn’t surprised when she saw Eli Sullivan sitting in the far corner of her first class. This was going to work out quite nicely! She headed towards the seat open next to him.

“No, Miss Temeluch. You need to sit up here.” The teacher pointed to a seat in front, located between two girls who were obviously the class misfits; one, a pale, skinny girl with stringy blonde hair and the other, a fat, Paiute girl who could barely fit into her desk. Reminded her of a female version of Laurel and Hardy.

“Mr. Fredricks?” The big girl made an attempt to clear her voice, but it still squeaked when she spoke. “Sir, I’m sorry, but that’s Julie Mason’s seat.”

Mr. Fredricks took a quick sip of his Pepsi, placed it on the closet shelf, and turned around. “Julie Mason will no longer be in this class. The seat is vacant, Tina.”

Lucy was as surprised by this announcement as the two girls on either side of her.

“What?” The emaciated-looking blonde sneered at Lucy. “Why?”

Mr. Fredricks leaned against his desk. “All I know is that she’s being home-schooled until further notice.”

Lucy’s heart took a nose-dive into her intestines. Shit. She enrolled for nothing.

“Mr. Sullivan might know a little more, since I do believe they attended Homecoming together. Isn’t that right, Mr. Sullivan?”

No way
! The Penemues didn’t mention a word about Eli Sullivan’s relationship with the Fire-Child. Of course, she also didn’t mention her relationship to the Sullivans. Lucy turned to see Eli cross his arms and nod.

“She just told me she was going to live with her mother for a while. Wouldn’t even tell me where. After all, her best friend was murdered. Can you blame the girl for leaving?”

The skinny one shook her head. “I never did understand why she was friends with that tramp.”

A boy sitting behind her chimed in. “Now, now, Grace. It’s not nice to speak unkindly of the dead. You should know better than that.” The sarcastic tone in this kid’s voice was unmistakable. Lucy had to keep herself from smiling. Mr. Fredricks, who hadn’t moved from his spot, seemed to be enjoying this just as much as she was.

The girl placed both hands on a tattered white Bible sitting on her desk and closed her eyes, as if she were praying. “Charsey Winters is rotting in Hell right now for her sins. The Nephilim just delivered her there a little sooner.”

Lucy decided to seize this opportunity. “Whoa! Dead girl? What kind of a place did I move to? And what in the heck is a Nephilim?” She stood beside her seat. “Mr. Fredricks, I really don’t want to cause a problem here. Can’t I just sit in back?”

Before the teacher had a chance to answer, Tina added in her two cents. “Grace is right. They thought she was the Fire-Child. I heard that she’s been wearing blue contacts for the past two years to hide her green eyes. My uncle—he works in the coroner’s office—
he told me her eyes were green.
”

At this point, Mr. Fredricks decided to play teacher. “Okay. Enough.” He pointed to Lucy. “You. You may sit in the back. And you two,” he glared at Laurel and Hardy, “Mr. Sloan is right. You may not speak of Miss Winters again unless you have something nice to say.”

As Lucy walked by the Sloan boy, he crooked his finger at her, beckoning her to his side. 

“Thumper and Tiny,”
h
e whispered as he pointed at Grace and Tina. “They’re the cheapest entertainment in town!”

Lucy looked at the two pitiful examples of humanity sitting up front, then bent over and whispered back to the young man, “They look more like Laurel and Hardy to me.” He flashed her a smile.
Hmmm
. Either this kid was a kindred spirit, or he had the hots for the new girl in town. Judging from the way he was wriggling in his seat, she figured it was the latter. Poor kid. He didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell with her.

****

“So, I see you survived your first day at
White Mountain
. Still need a ride?”

The sight of Eli Sullivan straddling the supple, black leather seat of his pearl blue vintage Harley was enough to set Lucy Temeluch’s blood racing through her veins. It was going to be hard to keep her mind focused on the task at hand with this delicious hunk of humanity sleeping under the same roof. Of course, she supposed she could force herself to take advantage of the diversion. God knows she’d waited long enough. Up until the morning of her birthday, she had spent her life keeping to herself, guarding her virginity as if it were the Holy Grail. Everything changed the morning of her birthday, and it wasn’t just seeing her mother hanging from the end of a rope that did it. She knew she was different the moment she woke. It was like she’d been reborn. The old, human Lucy was dead and gone. The new Lucy, first-generation Nephilim, daughter of a Fallen One, was getting stronger and bolder with every day that passed. Her first experience with Dan had been hurried and rough, falling short from fulfilling the primal urge that came upon her so unexpectedly that first night.  He had been merely a physical outlet for her, and a pretty distasteful one at that. But looking at Eli, she knew it would be different. She wanted him.

“Afraid so. I need time to feel out the natives, as it were.” Lucy smiled at her joke. Being half-Paiute, she felt she had the right. Eli, however, seemed to give an obligatory smile.
A man with morals. This should prove to be interesting
.

“Just climb on and hold on to the seat handles.” He shifted forward on his seat as she climbed on, her knee brushing the back of his jacket. Seemed almost as if he didn’t want to be touched.
Hmmm
. Lucy decided it would be best to play along. Coming off as a demure neophyte might be more effective than jumping his bones the first chance she got. He didn’t seem like the type who would appreciate her being overly aggressive. He revved the engine. “I’m afraid you’ll need to find another way home on Monday. There’s an early out, and I have to go buy flowers for a funeral I’m attending.”

Lucy’s mind immediately shot to body of the naked redhead Dan had dumped on the side of the road. “Is it for that Winters girl? What was her name?”

“Charsey, and yes, it’s for her.”

Lucy settled in on the seat. Everything in her screamed for her to scoot forward and wrap her arms around him, drawing his delicious body close to hers, but she held back and wrapped her hands around the seat handles instead. She blew out a slow, calming stream of air.
Lamaze. It does a libido good
. 

“I’m sure I’ll be able to convince someone to give me a ride home. Maybe that Sloan boy will help me out. He seemed pretty friendly.”

Eli adjusted the mirror until she saw her reflection, along with his eyes, settle on her. “As I said, be careful of who you associate with. Sloan’s just a blowhard, but if you set your limits, I don’t think you’ll have any problem.”

“I tend to adhere to Michael Corleone’s quote: ‘Keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer’. It’s a great war tactic.” This statement actually elicited a real smile.

“Actually, it’s a quote from Sun Tzu’s
The Art of War
back around 500 B.C. Then, Machiavelli borrowed it for
The Prince
about 2000 years later.”

“Wow, a history buff! I may have to use your services. Moen’s World History class is going to be a killer.” Lucy rolled her eyes. 
Now playing-A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS
!

Eli turned his head to the side and glanced back. “All you have to do is ask.”

With that, the motorcycle shot out into traffic. Lucy squeezed her thighs against the sides of the seat to keep from tumbling backwards. Regaining her balance, she leaned forward, almost brushing her lips across his ear.

“Oh, don’t worry, Eli. I will.”

Julie had never felt closer to death than she did Monday morning. Too weak to even talk from the chemo that destroyed her bone marrow and wreaked havoc on the rest of her body, she simply watched the display light up on her phone time after time over the last twenty-four hours as Eli tried to call. She knew he’d be worried that she wasn’t answering, so she cajoled her nurse into sending one simple text Sunday evening:
I’m fine. Just resting. Talk tomorrow.
Then, she hoped for tomorrow to come ... and it did.

The infusion had been simple and painless. A central venous catheter had been placed right above the scar she had carried the last five years from her first round of chemo, and the marrow was put directly into her bloodstream. Now, all she had to do was wait. Her body had to do the rest. The marrow would migrate to her bones immediately and hopefully engraft within the next ten days or so. Only time would tell.

That evening, Julie lay silently in the dark, thinking about her future. Would she even have one? Would the transplant be a success? If it was, how could she face the future without Eli? He’d be born again as a child and whisked away to live his life out in some far-away place. Without her. Maybe it was better if she just died. Dying would be less painful than living without him.