Phoenix Fallen (15 page)

Two nights later

There was a pounding inside her head.
Pound, pound, thunk, thunk.

It hurt.

Then it started to piss her off. Rissa sat up abruptly, clutching her poor head. For a moment she couldn't remember why she felt so miserable and sick. All too quickly, it came back.

Jules. Daimen.

Why, goddamnit?

And why wasn't that pounding going away?

"Rissa? I know you're in there, girl. Open up."

Fannie? Oh shit, that was right. They had a dinner date tonight. Saturday. It was Saturday, wasn't it?

Though even if Rissa had remembered she would've thought Jules' friend would never want to set eyes on her again. Just like Jules himself. Rissa's eyes started to sting.

The pounding started up again. It sounded like Fannie was using both fists now. With a sigh, Rissa got to her feet, shoving her feet in her marabou slippers and her arms in her robe. She stumbled to the door and opened it a few inches.

Fannie pursed her lips as she gave Rissa a long once over, then reached over and shoved the door open, stepping inside.

Even Fannie's hair quivered in indignation. "So you're giving up, is that it?"

"What? I…well, I—"

"Hello all. Sorry I'm late." A woman with a harried expression stood in the doorway.

She had sleek black hair, coiled high on her head, the deep color setting off a pair of striking light golden brown eyes. One foot was tapping nervously as she looked back over her shoulder, bringing Rissa's confused gaze to her exquisite silver Louboutin heels.

"I left Miles at Phoenix with Jules. It was a little…tense."

Fannie let out a snort. "They're big boys, they'll work it out."

The woman turned and gave her a thin smile. "Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Their version of 'working it out' might involve a lot of bloodshed…and we have a press conference tonight." With a long-suffering sigh, she extended an elegant but strong hand to Rissa.

"Hey, I'm Kelsey. I really wanted to come along and met you. Hope you don’t mine me crashing your dinner date with Fan. We just got in from the air—

The introduction was cut short by Fannie's squeal. "Oh my god! Oh my
gawd,
Kels. Is that your ring?"

Kelsey's hand was yanked out of Rissa's before she could do more than give it a perfunctory squeeze. The golden-eyed woman's face flushed with looked like both embarrassment and baffled pride. "Yeah. He kinda of went overboard, didn't he?

The ring on her finger was large, flirting with ostentatious. A sparkling marquis-cut canary diamond flanked by two smaller sapphires in a deep clear blue. Fleur-de-lis shapes were cut out of the wide, white-gold band that gleamed with a satiny finish.

"Overboard is good. Overboard is very,
very
good." Fannie breathed, turning Kelsey's hand this way and that. Rissa had to agree. It was probably the most gorgeous ring she'd ever seen, though it was no match for the smile on the brunette's face.

She gave a shrug. "He had it cut down from his family signet. Can you imagine? I am wearing something over 600 years old."

Fannie smirked and dropped her friend's hand with a pat. "You do a lot more than 'wear' something 600 years old, sweetheart."

Kelsey grinned. "Yes, I do. Especially when he gave me this on the plane ride over. Oh my god, Fannie. You and Scott are
not
flying commercial to the wedding. We have to—"

Fannie cleared her throat and Kelsey trailed off. "Oh yea… So, Rissa, you ready for our girl's night out?" Those golden eyes trailed over Rissa, obviously taking in the disheveled robe, the red-rimmed eyes, the hair…

Rissa lifted her hands to her head, trying to pat down some of the bushiness she could feel there. This was so not the way she had imagined meeting Jules' best friend.

"I…ah," She turned her head at the sound of rustling plastic and tinkling metal.

Fannie had already slipped away and was rummaging through the rack of clothes in the open hotel closet. She waved a hand. "Go on. Hop in the shower. I'll find you something."

Rissa turned back to Kelsey, who had folded her arms and was nodding encouragingly. There was a quiet weight in those gold eyes, measuring her but not giving anything back. Rissa forced a smile and dashed off.

Well, this was going to be interesting.

Less than forty-five minutes later she was nestled between the two women in a limo headed down West Randolph Street. Fannie had already had two Virgin Mary's and was pretending to be tipsy to Kelsey's obvious amusement.

"I can't believe your preggers again, Fan. You and Scott need to slow that shit down. What if you have twins again?"

Fannie burped and rolled her chocolate-brown eyes. "God save us." She munched on a hunk of leafy celery and gave Kelsey a considering look. "Vamps can't have kids, can they?"

"Nope." Kelsey sighed a little, looking at the window and Rissa felt her own stomach tighten. She knew well the pain that flickered over the other woman's face. The dream that she'd had to let slip away ages ago. "But it wasn't really in my plans, anyway, Fan."

Fannie nodded solemnly for a moment, squeezing Kelsey's knee, then grinned. "You could always semi-adopt the twins for a month or two. Get your baby fix in."

Kelsey laughed, turning away from the window. "Oh sure. Though they are hardly
babies
anymore. God, I can't wait to see them. I know it's only been a couple months, but they seem to shoot up so fast at this age. Does Toby still have that dimple in his chin—"

"Yes," Rissa spoke up without thinking. "Right here." Her finger brushed her own chin, then she flushed when both woman smiled at her.

"See what I mean." Fannie addressed this to Kelsey, tossing the half-eaten celery into her glass and setting it done on the wide console. "She actually
likes
the twins."

"Well, they're adorable." Rissa said, somewhat defensively, unsure where this was going.

"Yup, they sure are." Fannie agreed. "But they're also a pain in the backside. Not one of Jules' other girls could have told you where Toby's damn dimple was. Hell, they probably couldn't even remember his name. Last one streaked out of my house so fast I'm surprised she didn't leave a grease stain."

"Was that the 'dancer'?" Kesley lifted an eyebrow and reached for her own drink. Fannie let out a rude sound.

"Yea.
Dancer.
Spare me. She had tits that could put your eye out at twenty paces."

Rissa choked on her white wine. "Are you serious? That…doesn't seem like Jules' type."

Kelsey shrugged and took a swig of her own wine, red for her. "He doesn't know what his damn type is."

"Yet." Fannie said softly. "Though I think he's come around to it at last."

Rissa flushed as the limo eased to a stop. "Hey, no. Jules and I…" Her eyes welled up before she could stop it. "He hasn't told you yet, has he?"

"You mean, told me you two were through? Yeah, he did. But then the jackass closed down like Fort Knox. Couldn't get another word out of him. I could tell he was messed up, but I was hoping it was just a fight." Fannie blinked at the anguish in Rissa's expression. "It wasn't just a fight, was it?"

Rissa leaned forward, burying her face in her hands, a low whimper escaping from deep in her throat. She didn't see the two women exchange a worried look over her bowed back.

"Hey now." Fannie stroked her spine gently. "Hey. It can't be all that bad, Rissa—"

"Oh yes, it can." Rissa lifted her head. "Yes, it
can
."

They got her into the bathroom at the restaurant, a grungy-chic diner call Au Cheval.

Kelsey took a soft cloth from her purse and handed it to Rissa after she finished splashing cold water on her face. She looked in the mirror, grimacing at her blotchy face. A gold compact was waved under her red nose. "Come on, fix your face and let's sort this."

Rissa took the makeup with numb fingers. "Okay. But it's probably going to end up sorted by you two hating me just as much as Jules does now."

"Hate you?" Fannie made an impatient noise. "Girl, Jules is over the goddamn moon about you. He may be a lot of things, but our boy is
not
the fickle sort. No way he went from that to hating you over night. No matter what."

"That was before he found out my sire was the one who murdered his family."

"Oh." This was from Kelsey. A soft sound like someone had punched her firmly in the gut. Fannie's mouth hung open, then…

"Well.
Shit."

Yeah. Rissa thought as she took in their horrified eyes coming together behind her head in the mirror, that pretty much summed up everything.

Shit.

Nobody felt like eating, least of all Rissa. But Fannie insisted they order. After they did, they sat in the leatherbound booth in silence, all of them staring at the polished table.

Kelsey was the first one to speak up. "What's his name anyway? You know, your sire. Jules never knew…"

"Daimen. Daimen Cross."

Those golden eyes blinked. "Wait. That rings a bell.
Cross.
I've seen a file on him. Some government project…" Her fingers tapped on the table, that canary diamond flashing as her eyes narrowed. Rissa could practically see the wheels turning. "Got it. He's on a hit list of shade/para combos."

"Hit list?" Rissa started. "What do you mean?"

"It's kind of top secret. I wasn't really supposed to see it, since we refused their nasty little project, but well…I was curious. I had Sammy break in to see who was on it."  Kelsey's lips trembled for a second, then firmed. "I wonder if Jules and I are on there now..."

Fannie gave an impatient huff.
"Kels?"

"Oh, okay. There are parts of the government you know that still aren't all that…friendly towards paras. And you know how most people feel about shades." Rissa and Fannie both nodded dutifully. "Well, they approached us, this little faction, shall we say? They had concerns about certain 'hybrids' as they called it. I mean I can't say as I totally blamed them, at first. The ones they brought up in our meeting were mostly out of control psychos, but after I saw the list, I was even more glad we had said no. They had pretty much any high level para who is also a shade on there.  I think they approached Scott about this job, too, Fan. But he would have turned them down."

"Of course he would have."

"Are you talking assassination?" Rissa said slowly. "They wanted these 'hybrids' assassinated?"

Kelsey looked uncomfortable. "Well yeah, Rissa. I mean, we said no, obviously, but—"

"You should have done it. I don't know about the rest of them, but for Daimen….
You should have done it."
Rissa was holding on to the table top so hard her hands ached.

Fannie exchanged a worried look with Kelsey. "I take it you and he were not …close."

"Close?" Rissa made a strangled noise in the back of her throat. "Oh god, Fannie. We were never
close.
He's a monster, in the truest sense of the word. A psychopathic, sadistic killer. It's because of shades like him that everyone feels the way they do. He's sick."

Kelsey nodded. "Yeah. I read up on him. Jesus. A pathokinetic serial killer. It doesn't get much worse than that."

"Patho-kinetic? That's emotional control, isn't it?"

"Yes." Rissa whispered. "And he's strong. So goddamn strong. You can't imagine… He just slips inside you, you don't barely know what's going on. Unless he wants you to. Sometimes he enjoys that, letting you retain just enough of yourself that you can see what he's doing to you. And you know you don't want to give in, but you can't do anything to stop him, or yourself from doing whatever he wants.

"You can't help it.
He takes over."
She shuddered. When she looked up again, Fannie was regarding her with such horrified sympathy Rissa had to look away.

"I did awful things when I was with him. Things…you can't even imagine, that you don't even want to
ever
imagine—"

"Oh god. Rissa, you didn't…" Kelsey put a hand to her mouth. "Please tell me you weren't there when he killed Jules' family."

Rissa gave her a dull look. "I was there." She ignored the shocked intake of breath from both women. "I didn't have a hand in it. But I used them to escape. Daimen was so intent on going after them. We were waiting in the trees just off this little dirt track…I…." she took a deep breath. "I saw Jules…him and his little sister. Daimen was laughing about it. Saying he wanted Jules for himself."

Fannie made a gagging noise, but Kelsey just watched Rissa's face, her eyes bright. "I knew, right then I knew, he wanted to have fun with this kill. And when Daimen wanted his fun…well, it was the only time he was really distracted, you know? Ever. It was my only chance. So I took it.

"They went after that poor family and I ran. I ran and I ran and I ran. I don't think I stopped until I hit the Mississippi, honest I don't."