Once Upon a Shifter (81 page)

A soft knock came at the door, and Phoenix looked up from the device in his hand.

"Enter."

The door slowly opened, and Mena walked into the room, followed by Ace, their hands joined. Phoenix's heart plummeted.

"Mena," he said, and went to her, stopping a few feet from where she was when he caught the warning in Ace's eyes.

He really wanted to punch that big son of a bitch in the mouth, but he'd heard how powerful the bonding could be, and he knew hitting the guy would only make Mena angry with him. It was killing him to see her, hand in hand with Ace, but he knew her being mad at him would only make things worse.

He stared into her beautiful, tear-filled eyes, and waited for her to end things, to say she couldn't be with him anymore because the bond had made her fall in love with Ace, to completely shatter his world.

Mena released Ace's hand and took a step forward. Phoenix waited, not daring to rush things that might cause her to bolt from the room, the house, his life forever.

"Mena," he whispered, again. The blood in his veins came to a screeching halt as he waited for her next move.

Her nervous smile spread as the tears brimmed over and fell down her cheeks. She took two steps, and then she was in his arms, sobbing.

"Oh, dear God," Phoenix breathed as he enveloped her in his embrace, squeezing her extra tightly. "I've been worried sick about you, Mena. Are you okay?" She shook her head against his chest, and he pushed her back enough to frame her face in his hands and look in her eyes. "We'll get through this," he said. "This is just a problem. We're good at problem solving, right?"

She nodded, but her face twisted in anguish as she sucked in a ragged breath, and more tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.

It gutted Phoenix seeing her like this. Ace had been right; she was miserable. Phoenix glanced over Mena's shoulder at Ace. The guy had his back turned to them, one hand rested on the wall above his head, the knuckles in his fist turned white with tension. He really was feeling everything she was, Phoenix thought, not that he had doubted it, but seeing the bond in action was more real.

"Andra," Ace said, his voice strained, "may I leave? This is fucking torture!"

Mena turned to look at him, worry immediately taking residence in her expression. She left Phoenix to go to him. She placed a hand in the center of Ace's back, and Phoenix watched as his rigid frame instantly relaxed under her touch. She wrapped both arms around his waist and molded the back of his body with hers. Ace sighed as their bodies relaxed even more.

"You can go," Mena said quietly, and Ace only waited half a second before grabbing the door handle and rushing from the room.

There was a loud thud a moment later as if the guy had punched a wall, followed by a strangled cry, like he was being tortured to death.

Mena's hands flew up to cover her nose and mouth, and then she took a step in the direction of the door.

"Mena," Phoenix said, "let him go. We have to start somewhere. It will only be harder later if you go to him now."

She clutched at her chest as a sob racked up her throat.

Phoenix was by her side and wrapping her back in his arms in an instant, but it didn't seem to help her, the way Ace's touch had. This was killing him inside, but he knew she was going through far worse agony than he could ever imagine.

Picking her up, he walked to the bed and laid her down gently, and, lying down beside her, he tugged the cover over them and pulled her in close to his body, feeling each and every tremor and tremble that raked and tore through her body.

Without saying a word, he just held onto her, brushing her hair back with his fingers, whispering soothing words and let her cry herself to sleep.

v''''v

Phoenix

Sometime later, Phoenix woke and sat up in alarm when he realized Mena wasn't in the bed with him. Even knowing it was a waste of time, he looked about the room and called out her name, hoping she was in the bathroom, but knowing she wasn't before her name even left his lips.

Her cell phone was missing from the nightstand, but there was a sheet of paper in its place. He snatched it greedily.

Phoenix,

I am sorry I had to leave, but I knew you would talk me into staying if I woke you up to say goodbye. This is so hard for me, but I will overcome this. I just need more time. The bond is so scary, and I don't have a clue how to explain it to you, but I promise I will be me again someday. I can fight it. Please bear with me. It would kill me if I lost you.

Love Always,

Mena

P.S. Daryn wants to meet tonight. It's time to find Jessica and put this behind us. I need my pack back. We leave at sundown.

Phoenix sighed, letting the paper fall to the comforter as he ran his hands through his hair and gripped the tresses in frustration. Glancing at the digital clock by his bed, he discovered that he had slept through the night with Mena and it was now a new day. He only had three nights left to figure out how to keep from breaking Mena's heart and shattering his own in the process.

Ace had told him how strong the bond between them was, but, after seeing the condition they were both in, Phoenix couldn't really argue the fact that he was only hurting her more by trying to stay in her life.

She would get over him. She had Ace. With as connected as the bond forced them to be, it was only a matter of time before they fell in love. She would be happy again someday, but not as long as she was still holding onto him.

An unnatural tightness filled his chest as his eyes burned. He looked back down at her words and watched as a tear stained and smeared the ink.

He stared at it for a moment, astonished by the single drop of liquid. He couldn't remember a time in his life when he'd cried about anything, but he'd never experienced this much emotion about any one thing, either. Mena was going to be the death of him. The amount of pain and suffering he was enduring could surely kill even an immortal at some point. Mena didn't have to go through this forever, though, and he knew she would if he didn't do as Ace had requested.

Two more tears hit the paper as he made up his mind about what he needed to do.

Chapter 59

Mena

There was a loud commotion coming from the front of the house as I was strapping the last of the weapons to my body. My head jerked over to see that Ace's eyes were focused intently on me, as they had been since I'd returned to him from seeing Phoenix.

"Is that your pride?" I said. "What are they shouting about?"

He shrugged as he walked to me, then helped me sheathe the last dagger, being careful not to touch the silver. "Who knows? Maybe they're just excited they get to go kill a few assholes. We don't have quite the drama in Las Vegas that you seem to have here."

I frowned at his mention of Las Vegas. I knew that was where he lived, but I was sort of hoping I could change that. His eyes focused on mine, waiting for me to say something. Panic started to rise in me at what his answer might be if I asked him to stay. I couldn't leave, and he couldn't leave without me. What were our options?

"Mena!" Roel's voice thundered from the hall, and I ran toward the door just as it burst open. He was near hysterics as I touched his arm, and then I quickly jerked it back and looked down at my red-stained fingers.

"Roel, what happened to—?"

"It's not me," he said, breathless. "Someone beat the hell out of Rhodes."

"What?" I shouted, and then flew by him and ran up the hall to the living room.

"He's not immortal until he accepts the moon in three nights. They ran him off the road. He managed to call me before he passed out, but he couldn't say anything except where he was. I found him thirty feet from his Jeep…" One of his hands shot out and he pointed down at a very beaten and bloodied Alex Rhodes. Well, at least I thought it was Alex. "…like this," Roel finished.

I knelt by Alex's side as Lea brought over some hot water and a cloth to clean him up. His face was barely recognizable it had been beaten so badly. Both his eyes were swollen shut, his nose was broken and his lips were split and bleeding in three places. An arm and one of his legs were mangled so aggressively that I was afraid to touch him. "Alex, can you hear me?"

He moaned a little. That was a good sign. I hoped.

"Move!" I heard Phoenix bark from the crowd of people behind me. He dropped to one knee beside me as he rolled his shirt sleeve above his wrist then his fangs elongated and he pierced the skin.

Just as he held his wrist to Alex's lips, I knocked his arm out of the way. "What are you doing? He's lycan. You'll kill him!"

"It won't kill him, Mena," Phoenix said, and positioned the dripping blood over Alex's lips again. "The venom kills. The blood heals," he said after Alex swallowed then licked his lips.

"It's true," Ace said. "Our blood will heal a vampire bitten by a shifter, too. I've seen it done."

Phoenix's body tensed for a moment then he turned his head to look at Ace. "What did you say?"

"Shifter blood will cure a vampire if it's bitten by one of us. The venom kills. The blood heals."

Phoenix shot to his feet and grabbed Ace's arm, pulling him with him toward the basement door.

I looked to Lea. "Stay with Alex, and let me know if anything changes," I said, and then ran to catch up with the crowd who had followed after Phoenix and Ace. Shoving my way to the front, I reached out and took Ace's other hand, instantly feeling our angst reside. "Where are you taking him, Phoenix?"

"I have a very sick vampire who should have been dead weeks ago from a bite by one of your rogues. For some reason, April is still holding on." He pushed through a door I had never seen and we all walked into a room that smelled of death and decay.

A petite ginger-haired girl with red-rimmed, green eyes looked up from where she was seated. In the bed beside her lay a girl with white hair and pale gray skin. The girl appeared too young to have that color hair. I supposed the lycan venom had pulled all the pigmentation out of it. She looked dead. If it wasn't for the shallow rise and fall of her chest, I would have bet money that she already was.

The girl beside the bed looked alarmed and concerned that twenty shifters had walked into the room with her master. She actually looked like she was about to bare her fangs and take on the whole room. She flew around to the other side of the bed, placing herself in between the shifters and her friend.

Phoenix held out his hands. "Relax, Alhana. They are here to help April. Hopefully."

"What are they going to do? Nobody is killing her! They will have to kill me first!"

"I swear nobody will hurt her, Alhana. You have my word. Please… step back."

"Tell me what they are going to do!" she screamed.

"Shifter blood heals a vampire bitten by a shifter. The longer you keep them from her, the longer it will be before you can hug her again."

Alhana's eyes shifted to each of the shifters then finally settled back on Phoenix. "Are you sure it will work? What if it kills her instead?"

"Then I will hold Ace down and let you tear him apart."

I blanched. "Phoenix!"

"If the Alpha Lion is telling the truth, he has nothing to worry about," Phoenix said as he turned his head to look at me. "If that bond is as strong as he says it is, you should be able to tell if he's lying or not, right? Shall he try it?"

Ace squeezed my hand. "It's okay, Andra. I've seen it done before. If she's not already too far gone, my blood will save her."

I knew, without a doubt, that he was telling the truth. He brought the memory of the vampire being saved to the forefront of his mind, so I could watch it replay for myself. My gaze shifted to Phoenix. "He's telling the truth, but if for some reason she dies anyway, you aren't touching him unless you go through me first. We both know you will never make it through me alive."

I figured he would back down, but he only nodded once, accepting my terms. I blinked a few times, unsure of what his intentions were. He knew we were linked, and that killing me would also kill him. Was this vampire girl worth that much to him or was he ready to die because I had bonded with Ace and couldn't be with him now, the way I used to be before Ace came into the picture? His sad eyes told me the latter was true.

"I'll do it," I said.

"Andra—" Ace started, but I cut him off before he could object.

"I'm doing it," I said, and released Ace's hand to walk up and stand before the vampire girl, challenging her to either get out of my way or fight me. She moved. Smart girl. I wrinkled my nose as April's scent offended my senses. "I need a knife that isn't silver-coated to pierce my wrist."

"Here," Phoenix said, and then he lifted my wrist to his mouth and struck me before I could think of a reason why he shouldn't. I jumped a little at the sting.

"Ouch." Ace's fear of my well-being slammed into me so hard that I wobbled a little on my feet and a chill skittered up my spine as my own apprehension set in. I glanced over my shoulder at Ace. "I'm okay. Will you think about something pleasant, please… eating ice cream or wrestling around with Chaos, maybe?"

He grinned mischievously, and then a mental video of him ravishing my naked body and me screaming out his name in ecstasy flashed through my mind. "Absolutely," he said as heat flushed my face. "That better?"

I swallowed as I turned back to the girl. The puncture wounds Phoenix had gifted me with were almost healed, the blood flow nearly stopped.
"Not really,"
I said through my mind, and he chuckled out loud in response.

Positioning my wrist over April's mouth, I watched as several drops of blood fell between her lips, onto her tongue. "Is that enough?" I asked.