New Blood (The Blood Saga Book 2) (20 page)

I stood, backing away from the both
of them. Still yet close enough to be certain I could keep Damien from killing
Phoenix if need be. “He’s your brother, Damien! What are you doing?”

Damien ignored me. His eyes watched
Phoenix closely. “You saw Nekayla?” Phoenix let out a deep aching sigh and hung
his head down for a moment. His hand ran down over his face before he looked up
to Damien with a disgruntled expression, nodding.

Pulling himself up to sit, he leaned
back into the base of a fallen tree. “Yes. She has always confided in me. I
knew she would again,” Phoenix’s voice was ragged, but he was recovering. “She’s
just not usually quite so pissed off.”

“Damien, we need to get him home.
Look at him!” Damien glanced at me. His eyes narrow, not angrily but as if he
was hurt. Quickly his attention redirected to Phoenix.

Phoenix shook his head. “No, it’s
good he’s here. You both need to hear this. Before anyone else does.”

Other than with Paul and Liahm I
had never seen Damien so ready to kill for any reason other than to hunt. Never
had I seen so much rage and pain both in him. I was suddenly certain if Phoenix
hadn’t have looked so badly off, Damien would have killed him without
hesitation.

I was the cause of this. The demolition
machine of his life.

Phoenix’s eyes rolled back into his
head as another bone in his spine snapped back, forcefully healing itself.
After a moment of incoherent mumbled foreign cursing he looked up to Damien.

Phoenix’s skin was hallow and
translucent. Even the whites of his eyes were blood red. The irises were pale sky
blue, almost a pale blue-grey. His skin was loose and baggy under his eyes. He
looked like hell. “I do appreciate you not killing me, brother. But you don’t
have to worry… She’s yours. She always has been.”

Damien straightened as he eyed
Phoenix suspiciously. “Explain,” his voice was still almost feral as he snarled
every word.

“Well it’s not a positive answer to
your problem, but it’s closer than anything else you have found yet.” The back
of his hand rose to wipe fresh blood away from his lips. The poisonous magic
was lingering. He was still bleeding internally. He needed more blood.

“Nekayla said some pretty damned
interesting things that I thought you just may want to hear… Outside of her
murder plans for the majority of us, she said that Lianna should have stayed
dead the first time. Something to that effect that is.”

Phoenix’s chest rumbled with a low
growl from the pain as he tried to sit straighter. One hand was dug deep into
the dirt, half hidden by his thigh. Trying to keep a grip on his sanity and control
over the pain, he held onto whatever he could.

As I looked from Damien to Phoenix
my eyes widened. “What? What does that mean?” I asked, watching as Damien’s
eyes narrowed.

“It means she has killed you
before. And seeing as it was technically Demetrius this last time… I believe
she means Shayla. Which would mean Damien was right. You, little Sticks, are a
walking reincarnation. One that has
royally
pissed off a Vampire
comparable in strength to any mythological God.”
Shit
. He nodded.
Oh
shit.
His shoulders and eyebrows shrugged together. He seemed almost amused
if not for the tortured pain in his eyes.

Damien staggered a step closer to
me. As if a bucket of water had been thrown on him, the rage seemed to wash
away. After a long pause of silence between the three of us Damien looked back
to Phoenix. “You’re certain of this? Did she say anything else?”

“Nothing too interesting.” Phoenix’s
eyes narrowed as they slowly turned to a deep violet. “Oh, other than that you
belong to her. Have you been holding out on us,
brother
?”

Damien’s brow furrowed in confusion
shaking his head slowly.
Shit!
Phoenix almost chuckled about my over use
of the single explicative. “She turned him?” I dropped to my knees, literally
floored. Phoenix shrugged. “When she killed me… She turned him…”

“I don’t remember turning. Just
dying. It’s possible,” Damien answered uncertainly. Since I’d introduced the
idea, he’d readily believed it was Shayla’s magic that turned him. Brought him
back from the dead as a Vampire, so that he might find me decades later. He’d 
wanted it. We all fell silent again. This changed a lot of things. And also
told us just how dangerous things had become. I’d pissed off one hellaciously
powerful Vamp by coming back from the dead. Twice. Somehow that just seemed
kinda cool more than doom worthy. Didn’t that make me a badass by born
definition?

“How did you find us?” I had to
ask. Though in New York, we were pretty far outside the property still.

“Lara saw something. Hendrick
helped me track you. I sent him looking for unfriendlies when I head Lianna.” My
thoughts. On cue, Phoenix wiped his mouth with the back of his hand again. It
wasn’t my blood. It smelled like his. Nearly black blood stained his grey
placid flesh. Damien grumbled, his eyes locking on my bloody neck and the blood
stain on my arm. Both were healed. Didn’t matter to him though. “Anna… I need
you to leave me with Phoenix a moment.”

I shook my head in protest, but his
hand came up defensively. “I just need to talk to him. Please? We’ll be right
behind you, I promise.”

Uncertain, I looked to Phoenix who
nodded. Walking to Phoenix I knelt down, trying to ignore the daggers shooting
from Damien’s eyes. Reaching into my pocket I pulled out the sphere, tucking it
into his palm. It was cold and clear.

With nothing else said, I left them
both and began running to the house. A million thoughts raced through my mind
so rapidly I felt overwhelmed by it.

Phoenix and Damien watched Lianna
leave. Both stared after her until she was safely out of hearing range. Damien
looked down to Phoenix with a sigh as he walked over to him. His arms crossed
over his chest. “So, you gonna tell me just how it is you’re such good friends
with Nekayla?”

Phoenix sneered and chuckled
grimly. “Good friends… You better sit down for this, Damien.” Damien’s brow
lifted as he kneeled down beside Phoenix. His legs folded under him, weight
balanced on the balls of his feet.

“Does anyone else know?” Damien was
obviously having a hard time trusting Phoenix. After all, the betrayals’ just
seemed to be flying about at the moment it seemed.

“Jezabell’s the one that sent me,
Damien. Trust me when I say I had other plans
entirely
.” Phoenix shook
his head in thought.

“She’s just that hard to resist I
guess. It takes a real woman to ask you to walk to your death, and you do it
happily for her. Okay, I don’t know about happily. I still did it though.”

But it took an entirely different
kind of woman to have you not just willing, but planning to before you could
ever be asked. Phoenix didn’t say that though.

Damien’s eyes narrowed as Phoenix
spoke of Jezabell. All he could do was wait for Phoenix to continue. “Jez knew
about my ties to Nekayla obviously.”

Phoenix took a slow weary breath. “Maya…
Maya is my maker, Damien. Brother.” Phoenix looked up to the man he had called
brother with a hard painful laugh. It was not a laugh of amusement. Their bond
was beginning to shred. He could see it. They both could. And yet ironically as
it turned out, Damien and Phoenix actually were brothers of sorts.

Damien took in a deep slow breath
falling back to the floor of the forest to sit completely on the earth beside
Phoenix. “Damn.” What else did you say to that?

Phoenix chuckled again and gave a
nod. “Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know.” Shaking his head, he looked down to
his hand. The skin looked like white marble with grey lines of color where the
veins coursed beneath his flesh. Dark crimson, nearly black blood smeared the
back of his hand. “You know, I almost forgot how big of a bitch she is.” Damien
smirked a little. No he hadn’t.

Phoenix still hurt like hell but
the breaking had stopped at least. “I didn’t plan for it to happen this way. I
never planned for any of you to find out aside from Jez. But here we are. Now
you know Maya’s only blood child has been calling you brother for the past
however many years. And as it turns out, apparently it was a very literal term
for the two of us.”

Phoenix shook his head. “Nekayla
always…
enjoyed
my company.” Phoenix sneered, speaking that word with
utter disgust. A million thoughts and memories playing through his mind of his
sorted past.

“She’s confided in me many times.
Jezabell doesn’t know the quality of our relationship, just that there was one
in some aspect.” He paused in thought. “I knew she was right. So I went to her.”
His hand waived before them grandiosely. “And here we are.”

“I will leave you to your past.”
Damien nodded understandingly. No one liked all their skeletons laid out to be
seen.

“Thank you,” Phoenix didn’t sound
sincere but he was. It would be bad enough having everyone know the truth. The
details of that truth were another story entirely. He would kill Nekayla if
ever given the chance. But that wasn’t likely anyway.

“So… mind telling me about what’s
going on with you and Lianna?” Damien looked to the ground, not yet willing to
look at Phoenix regarding the subject of the only woman he could ever love or
ever had for that matter. No matter what body she inhabited. Damien had never
doubted Shayla’s rebirth into this life.

“You know damn well if you were
going to trust anyone to do that aside form you it would be me. Quit with the
defensive shit, Damien. She’s yours. I’m not ever going to try to change that.
And yes, you are one lucky son of a bitch to have her. So I am going to put
this out there while we’re being brutally honest.

“If you ever. And I do mean
ever
-
hurt her again. Then at this moment you know the outcome something like that
will have. Don’t you? Don’t ever make me choose between you and her.” Phoenix
watched him closely and Damien returned the challenging stare. A million things
passed in that silent moment between the two of them.

“A blood bond is not something so
easily dismissed,” Damien spoke through grit teeth.

“She hasn’t had my blood, and I’ve
no intention of giving it to her.” Phoenix looked down, unwilling to go into
the complexity he felt on the subject of Lianna at all. And of course as always
when anyone tried to read his mind, Phoenix was a blank slate.

“I don’t like it,” Damien finally
said with a sigh, looking up to Phoenix at last.

“Don’t worry, brother. I will leave
as soon as this mess with Nekayla is done with. In fact I’ll be glad to. Until
then, you may need me. Or hell maybe she’ll do us all a favor and kill me
quickly.” Phoenix laughed again in his dark demeanor.

Damien’s brow furrowed as he shook
his head, dismissing the comment instantly. “So I am not the only one she wants
then, am I?”

Phoenix shook his head. “Nope. But
I won’t submit to that life again. Maya released me,” he snarled. “My time with
them is over. If Nekayla tries to force it to be otherwise then I’m certain one
of us will die in the end. I doubt it would be her unfortunately.” He sneered
again.

Yes, it was rightfully said that
many people would revel in the end of Nekayla. Not that it was really possible.
No one knew the truth in that as much as Phoenix did however.

“So will you tell her?” Phoenix
looked up to Damien curiously. They both knew what he meant. The blood bond and
what it could mean for Lianna. “I tried to tell her, Damien. Honestly. I told
her she didn’t understand what she was giving to me. But when she bled, I was
too weak to resist. I’m sorry. Truly.”

“I have to now. Perhaps this is my
fault. Perhaps I should have told her from the beginning… I should have given
her the choice from the beginning.” He glanced to Phoenix before looking down
with a shake of his head. Both of them knew it wouldn’t have changed anything.
Lianna would have done it anyway, but that was hard for Damien to admit.

“Look at it this way- in the mean
time she just has another excellent body guard. And when the time comes, I will
vanish into the wood work.” His hand waived dismissively. “It has never been my
intention to come between you two. I do mean that,” and he did mean it as his
words were vehement.

“Yes. I know. She’s like a drug
that draws you in. Impossible to resist.” Damien chuckled slightly with a
painful sigh. He stood at last. His hand held down to Phoenix.

Hands locked around wrists, Damien
smoothly pulled Phoenix to his feet. Phoenix groaned and fought the urge to
double over as he staggered forward. With the other hand his brother steadied
him. “Easy… She certainly did a number on you, eh?”

“Yeah, and she likes me. Don’t be
quick to forget that.” Phoenix got his bearings and in moments they were
trailing after Lianna. Each of them knew now they would be bonded to Lianna in
every way, until their days would end. One way or the other. But neither
Lianna, nor Phoenix would have changed what had happened.