Burned In Shadows (Shadow Unit) (20 page)

Part II

The Phoenix

The Sacred Order of the Phoenix was founded by the Macedonian prince Alexander the Great. When his father Philip II died he became king, conquering most of western Asia and moving forward to Egypt where he approached the Oracle of Amun-Re. There was only one question he asked.

“Who is my father?”

To that the Oracle replied. “The end of your beginning.”

Some say the Oracle named Amun
, the supreme deity and most ancient of Egyptian Gods. Alexander went on to become an influential man, conquering his enemies and building the city of Alexandria.

The masses
believed he died in battle. That he was killed and buried in an undisclosed location. What they didn’t know was he was buried, but only slept for three days. On the third day, he rose from his funeral pyre a brilliant majestic Phoenix. When he returned to Alexandria he found his kingdom spilt and the neighboring countries strife with war. Instead of taking back what was rightfully his he travelled throughout the many countries and established the six houses of Ignis. There was House Benu founded in Egypt, House Simurgh of Persia, and House Ziz from Israel. The last land he visited was deep in the Carpathian Mountains and stretched as far as the Byzantine Empires, there he founded House Turul. The Order of the Phoenix were human in nature at first until Alexander bedded the human females. The females of the order began what would later be known as the nesting phase, resulting in offspring that were of his nature.

He
continued to spread his seed far and wide within his sacred order until a lone female became angry of his indiscretions and captured him. The lone female from House Benu who’d felt betrayed by his other women, came to him in the night and took from him a single feather, that lay at the base of his neck, rendering him mortal once more. She took him back to the oracle so that judgment would be past.

When he returned he asked another question.

“Why have I been forsaken?”

The
oracle’s answer was simple and to the point.

“What you were given is
sacred and has now been taken into more capable hands. Only a feather plucked can undo the deed. The men can no longer lead.

Understanding dawned as he realized his immortality was passed, to the female who took his
feather.

Alexander returned home with
the mistress of House Benu where she later died, but, not before giving birth to their daughter, Cleopatra the last ruler of Alexander and Matria to House Benu. As the years progressed he became old of age passing on to the in-between. He watched as his daughter rose to power when her adoptive father perished in a battle. He watched when the Romans came to take her and her lovers life but did not succeed. His punishment was to watch as his kind was hunted and persecuted for their feathers. The Order of the Phoenix perished under the tutelage of their female leader. Their kind to be whispered about and spoken as if they were a myth. To other immortals they were.

Cleopatra was later captured after the Romans infantry pillaged the lands killing her
people. Appearing dead she was brought in front of her lover, Antony to torment him for deserting his post. When he roared in pain throwing himself over her charred body, she rose from her ashes, taking out the Roman’s army in her wake, never to be heard from again.

Chapter 22

T
he drive back to the compound was tense. Enri wore a smug grin on his face that scared Zea to her core. There was something seriously fucked about him. She was back in her temporary body. And sitting in between both men once again. Black, who was no longer Draven was back to glaring daggers at her. She was sure he was planning her death.

Taking a deep breath she sat back in her
seat and calculated her next move. She had to convince him he wanted to go back to base with her. How, she wasn’t sure yet.

“What wa
s the purpose of today Black?” She asked.

“To weed out the bullshit
.”

Enri clicked his tongue and watched Black with
a curious eye.

“Don’t forget to tell her how you really feel boss man.”
Enri laughed.

Zea
watched as Blacks eyes seemed to get darker, blacker than they were before as he sat brooding in the car.

“Mind your business Enri.”

“Why do you want me dead?”

A year ago she would never have pictured herself in a situation where she had to come right out
blurt out the obvious. She was non-confrontational or had been. A year ago, she wasn’t with Draven. Her life hadn’t been the best. Now that she knew what she had, she wasn’t about to let it get away from her. Mission be damned. She was getting her man back. She was tired of this game and wanted off the fucked up express, like now.

“You bother me, and to be quite honest I don’t
think this gig is for you. You have issues with authority, and for some reason you think I should be interested in you.”

Ouch.

“Bother you? How?”

Black ignored h
er question and pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed a number. She could hear their conversation as if she was right there in the room. Ice with sharp glass punctured her veins at the sound of Melissa’s voice.

“I’m going to
need your services tonight.” Black said to Melissa’s voice on the other end of the phone.

Zea
lost what little control she had left. She allowed her claws to sharpen and knew Enri wouldn’t do anything to her as long as she held up her end of their bargain. Anger was nasty business to anyone who couldn’t control their temper
.
She noticed with her new found abilities, she could snap at the drop of a hat.

Black eyed
her closely as he put his cell away.

“I had no idea faeries could change their eye color. What
type did you say you were again?”

“I di
dn’t.” Zea said around a mouth full of teeth. Before she could rethink her actions, her hand grabbed Black by his throat. She was half-in-half-out of her seat as she released her anger on him.

“You do not require her services!”
She said quietly in his face. She was serious. Deathly serious, and the sad part about it all was she couldn’t seem to reign in her anger. That had bad news written all over it. “We’ve had this conversation Black, you touch her, you, lose me.”

“His black eyes
flared a moment and some of the green came through as he calmly narrowed his eyes on her.

“Remove your hand recruit.”

She didn’t let go but pressed harder against his throat. The contents of the car began to shake from her anger. She needed to get the hell out of here before she lost all control of her actions. The shit they were feeding the recruits at the compound was to easily getting inside her head. She was not going to be any ones puppet again.

“I said. Remove. Your. Hand.”

She did, and let out a frustrated sound. She was going about this all wrong. Violence was not the answer, but allowing him to touch Melissa was not going to happen either. 

“I never truly agreed to your terms, earlier today Zea. And I see that by allowing you to think you were going to get what you wanted was a poor decision on my part. I don’t want you, and I sure as hell don’t need Melissa. But a man has needs, and from what I can tell of you. She can handle what I aim to give her.”

She was about to attack his ass again when the car stopped in front of the gates to the compound. Enri stepped out whistling to himself, and she followed with Black fast on her tail. He didn’t even look at her as he passed her, headed off into the direction of his office.

“This is going to be harder than I thought.”
She said out loud.

“Things always are, especially when you want something. You didn’t think I’d given you the
deal of a lifetime? Did you cupcake?”

“Fuck you,”

She was getting sick and tired of people telling her things were not going to be easy. She wasn’t expecting to get a “get out of hell” free card, but she also hadn’t counted on Black being such a dick either. She needed to up her game.

The lights were off in her room, but she
felt Adam before he came to her.

“You okay?” He asked.
Zea knew Adam harbored misguided feelings for her, and on any other day she’d know how to hold him of, but today she was tired.

“Int
eresting outing if you ask me,”

Ronin trained her well, and she knew she could
handle the unexpected, she’d even prepped for it. Mentally and emotionally, a large part of her refused to acknowledge she might fail. She knew the entire effort to extricate Black to base wasn’t an easy in, easy out. She even knew things could end badly for everyone involved. But she had to take the risk. Had to give Faith her father back, and for purely selfish reasons, she needed him more than her next breath. It hurt that Adam would still think there was hope for them. They were friends, teammates. That was all. The only person she could ever see herself with was Draven, and it killed her every moment of every day she couldn’t hold the two most prominent people in the world to her. She wasn’t prepared for was the overwhelming anger and hurt she felt towards Draven. His betrayal ran deep, and she couldn’t even fault him because he didn’t know who she was. He’d been tampered with, just like she had. They both needed to find themselves, and somehow come out of it better, healed. Seeing him day in and day out for these past few weeks was doing a serious job on her mind and her emotions.

“I asked if you were okay, not whether or not you found the outing interesting.”

Adam walked up to her and slid a stray lock of hair off of her forehead. Which was unnecessary, considering she was sporting the pixie do.

“Adam.” She was losing her patience and knew Adam could hear it in her voice.

“Yeah,” he stepped closer and grabbed her tightly around the waist. There was nothing exceptional about his touch, and regardless of how he felt, he was dead wrong about them. She tried to pull back from him, and allow herself some space.

“You’re in my personal space, Adam.”

“It’s where I want to be,” he spoke softly into her face. She couldn’t mistake his intentions now, he’d plastered the hard length of his erection against her pant leg. Completely unacceptable. This didn’t feel right, only Draven could manhandle her this way. She could smell him and the desire he had for her blood. She knew from all the tests she’d undergone when she was still a mystery to even herself that she was compatible to Vampiri’s. She could even be turned, which went against everything she’d been told. It wasn’t something she was signing up for. Ever. Adams skin was cold a sure sign he needed to juice up and quickly.

“I’m not your juice box, and I’ll never volunteer.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing darling,” He said, bending into her neck. Zea pushed back, breaking away from him completely.

“Adam, I don’t want to know what I’m missing. Go get yourself
fed. You’re cold.”

He
stepped back and placed his hands at his sides and slowly walked out of the room. She followed so she could latch the door, but his hand shot out gripping hers on the side of the door frame as she tried to push it closed.

“When you need me, I’ll be here.” His whiskey brown eyes locked on her green ones

“You’ll be waiting more than twenty lifetimes, Adam.” Quickly, she moved his hand before closing the door.

Zea
jumped into the shower to wash off the day’s grime and sort her shit out. She needed a solid plan. Royce and Ronin would know what to do in this situation. They always seemed to know.

Royce you out there? I need some
advice.

She
waited for a response and tried to connect with Royce again. Nothing. He must have been caught up in something. She knew they were on their way to her Belinda’s home. She tried one more time to connect with Royce but failed. She was tired and needed to face tomorrow’s impending encounters with Black. Somehow she’d work on getting Draven back to the unit.

# # #

“What the fuck was that?” Ronin asked as Belinda’s body went limp in his arms? Royce had been flung to the other side of the car when the burst of fire exploded from Belinda’s body. She’d actually burst into flames. The heat was intense, but it didn’t mar his or his brother’s flesh. He’d heard of exhausting ones sexual energy, but never like this. He’d nailed a succubus once, and all she did was give a minor jolt of energy. What Belinda did was something different. He could still feel the concentrated energy course through his body.

“She okay?” Royce asked as he righted himself in the seat across from
them. She was limp in his arms. Her body flushed from her orgasm and hot to the touch. Carefully, he placed her long ways across the seat gathering her legs across his lap. He couldn’t feel anything, no pulse, no breath, but she was still burning hot. Ample amounts of heat radiated from her body. Ronin shook his head and carefully moved her legs to the side so he could dress.

“Get dressed.”

Royce immediately began pulling on his clothes, and as he did that Ronin dressed himself and dressed Belinda. He was trying to put the pieces together of their current situation. He wasn’t going to panic because each immortal was different. They hadn’t touched the primary at the base of her neck so it couldn’t be that. What he did know is that during their rebirth, a Phoenix would go into what they called a nesting phase. Some referred to this as the “Sleeping Beauty” effect. A phoenix would go into a deep sleep. Not dead, but sleep.

What he could
comprehend was the feeling just moments before she burst into flames. They’d all been connected, plugged in as one soul. There were no words spoken between the three of them, but right before she’d collapsed and blasted them both with her heat, Ronin swore he felt her feelings. Not just the feeling of pleasure, but the feeling of home.

He should be concerned
she’d gone into her nesting phase ahead of schedule, but the more he thought about it, the more something deep in his gut was telling him this was the beginning of something extraordinary.

“Did you feel what I felt when she burst open like that?”
His voice was filled with an unnamed emotion he didn’t want to analyze. The emotion swallowed his voice and filled his throat with words he’d never dare say out loud to a woman again.

“I felt
the force of her power through me, and again when she tossed me to the other side of the car.” Royce looked at the spot where he was tossed and grinned.

“Dude, that was fucking
impressive. Her power is off the charts.” Royce pulled his sweater over his head, and sat back rubbing his hands on his legs. He was feeling the effects of her residual energy. Belinda still hadn’t moved, and he knew it would be a while before she’d wake up.

“Wake her up now Ro, before her mother’s body guard comes back here
trippin.”

“Can’t, she got no
pulse. Have you not been listening to a thing I’ve said? True, he’d been thinking said thoughts, but his brother had a direct dial in at all times. “I think she’s gone into her nesting phase.”

Ronin placed a hand over her chest and the heat
still poured off her in waves. At least the heat wasn’t melting her dress. “I think we just sped up her rebirth.”

“What the fuck do you
mean Ro, speed up her rebirth? Are you saying she’s nesting? Not resting, but nesting?”

“That’s what I said.”

The back door opened, and Ryan was standing there with a look of awe on his face.

“She sleeps.” Ryan’s voice was
reverent, almost like a chant.

“
Duh, we knew this.” Royce said as he sat back in the seat. “The question I got for you, is why is she sleep now?”

“She
will wake when her consort wakes her.” Ryan kept talking, not answering the question. And what was with all this consort bullshit. She didn’t have a consort. Royce would have checked her attachments before actively pursuing her. Having a consort would fuck up all kinds of shit. She belonged to them. There was no denying that now. He knew it, and his brother knew it.

“Consort?”

“The Matria has already made preparations. If we hurry, we can get to the Enclave and make prepare for her rebirth.”