Phoenix Fallen (23 page)

Rissa stumbled forward in shock at the sound of that voice, almost falling to the ground. It couldn't be…

But it
was.

Her baby sister stood right in front of her. And Laureen had Kelsey in a headlock, with one of those horrible syringes buried in her throat.

For several moments, Rissa could only stare, unable to process the danger Kelsey was in, her numbed eyes only able to see Laureen. Alive, whole. Not ash. Not
gone.

"How?"

Laureen smiled, tossing her waterfall of blonde hair over one shoulder.

"Hello, sissy. Surprised to see me, right?"

Kelsey's golden eyes had narrowed as she took in Laureen's words and the shock that must have shown on Rissa's face. She didn't struggle, didn't move at all. Rissa was well aware that it was likely that Kelsey was just as powerful a vamp as Jules since both had been turned by Miles. She was no weak newbie.

Kelsey wasn't fighting because she
couldn't
fight, she wasn't fighting because she didn't want that syringe full of agony dumped into her veins. And because she knew she didn't have to risk it anyway. Miles would be coming. Soon.

There was no time to question her sister as she wanted, to find out why Laureen was alive when Rissa thought she had walked into the sun over sixty years ago. They had to break Daimen's hold on her now. Laureen
had
to let Kelsey go before Miles saw her like this.

"Laureen, listen to me!
Let her go.
Please, sweetie, I know it's hard, but you have to fight him. Daimen’s put you in grave danger to to get to me, you don’t—"

“You, you, YOU! God, Rissa, not fucking
everything
is about you, big sister. Daimen was right, you're such an uppity bitch." Laureen spit the words. Her pretty blue eyes, so like Rissa’s own, were poisonous with a hatred that made Rissa’s stomach turn, even as she told herself that was Daimen. Not Laureen.

Daimen.

He was manipulating her, controlling Laureen from the inside out as he had done to Rissa herself so many times. Her heart bled for her sister even as Rissa cursed herself. Why hadn't she ever thought to look for Laureen, that maybe Daimen had been lying? She’d just collapsed with grief, weak and stupid and useless.

Had he really hidden her sister away, all these years? As if Laureen could read her thoughts, her lips quirked mockingly.

"All those years, Rissa.
Decades.
  And you never knew." She laughed as Rissa sucked in a breath. "I was always the one who was really there for him.
Me.
I was always his favorite. Not Docie May. Not
you
. "

"It was me that he choose to hide away, me he came to when he needed to get away from you and the others." Laureen’s smile was lavish and greedy through the tendrils of fog as she stared as Rissa, seeming to savor her pain. “I was so happy when you left him, Rissa. Honestly, he barely even noticed you were gone. It was just a man thing, keeping up on where you were. You know how they are. As soon as he’s had his fun playing with your new friend, he’ll forget you all over again.” Her words had gone brittle, her expression tightening along with her hold on Kelsey, who was looking at Rissa with sad, knowing eyes.

There was absolutely no fear in those golden eyes. Of course not. Kelsey knew she was in no real danger. But Laureen most definitely
was.
How long did they have before Miles came back?

A few minutes?
Seconds?

“It won’t be long and you’ll be nothing but a memory, big sister.” The sneer was back. “You really disgusted him this time. A black man
.
Seriously, Rissa? What would Daddy say?”

“Daddy’s dead, Laureen. And you will be if you don’t stop this!” Rissa refused believe a word of this. Daimen was using her sister; using her to wound Rissa.

He must have sent Laureen after Kelsey on purpose, knowing how big of a target that would put on her back. “Don't you have any idea who it is that you’re holding, Laureen?!”

Laureen laughed, a bubbling shriek that made the hairs on Rissa’s arms stand up. Her eyes scanning the night frantically for Miles, praying he hadn't heard them just yet.

“Who cares? Daimen told me to go for her. He said it would draw you out, that you’d protect her cause she’s just a baby vamp. She sure doesn't smell like one, though...” Laureen’s nose wrinkled as she sniffed curiously at Kelsey’s neck.

Then she shivered, darting a glance over her shoulder before facing Rissa again. Behind Laureen, there was a faint flash of electric blue. There. The movement was so fleeting it almost fooled even Rissa's keen vamp perceptions. But she didn't have to guess who was stalking her sister.

Miles.

Forming slowly out of the shifting mist. Tall, blonde and covered in blood. His eyes were glowing bright and deadly, burning through the night.

Terror stabbed through Rissa.

“He set you up, Laureen! Daimen wants you to die. Please, please, sweetie!
Listen to me.

"I know it's hard. I know what Daimen is like, how strong he is. But you have to fight his hold, baby, you can break free of—“

“Break free?!” The momentary flicker of fear on her sister’s face was gone, replaced by unadulterated malice. Her laughter became a cackle of glee.
“Fight
him? You still don’t get it, do you, Riss Riss?

"He isn’t controlling me, you stupid bitch. Daimen doesn’t need to use his gifts on me.
I am his.
I’ve always been his. He visited me for
months
before he turned me. Almost every week he came, telling me what I could be, promising me the most wonderful things." Her lips trembled, then firmed as she gave Rissa a malevolent look. "
Showing
me the most wonderful,
nasty
things.

"The night he ‘stole’ that picture for you, he was screwing me up against the wall while you were crying outside on the lawn. Stupid, stupid
bitch
. We laughed so hard.”

“What?"
Rissa whispered, one arm curling around herself as she swayed. None of this was possible. It just couldn't be, but her gut had started to churn. “What are you saying, Laureen? When he brought you to me, to the house with the others, after he turned you…. You were so….terrified, so hopeless…I…
You cried in my arms, Laureen.
Night after night. You told me you wanted to die!”

“I guess you're not the only one with a talent for showbiz, eh, big sister?” Laureen tossed her golden head.

It hit Rissa in a dizzying rush as she listened to that demented laughter once again.

Daimen was miles from here by now. This had been a planned distraction. He wasn't controlling Laureen, he was on his way to Phoenix with Fannie. Daimen's power, strong as it was, had never extended more than a few yards. Rissa had been lying to herself from the second she’d seen Laureen appear out of the fog. Her mind had known, but her heart had refused to see it.

This thing in front of her was all Laureen.
Her sweet baby sister.

The world was shifting under her feet, an earthquake, rolling, turning her past into unrecognizable rubble.

“You knew that he told me you walked into the sun?” Rissa words were dull. She already knew the answer, but she needed to hear it anyway.

“Knew?” Laureen smiled brightly, her fangs glinting. Her voice was low and breathless, her face eager as she watched Rissa. “We
planned
it together. He told me you cried for over a week straight. Did you blame yourself, sissy? How many times did you think of me over the years and shed a tear? Did you feel guilty, Rissa? Please tell me you felt guilty!" There was fiendish glee in that voice she knew so well. That voice that even after all this time called up visions of her childhood;  two girls playing hide and seek on the wide, rolling lawns of their Esplanade Ridge home. Laughing in the sunshine…

“Yes. Of course, I felt guilty, Laureen. Any sister would." Except hers, apparently. "When… When did you start hating me so?”

Her sister’s face was transformed by a guttural snarl that tore into Rissa with claws that felt tangible, capable of ripping into her very soul.

“Oh,
always.
Always. Perfect Rissa, 'Sweet and kind, such a perfect little lady.' Always rescuing everything. It was sickening the way they loved you so much. It was a lot of fun to kill your little wounded things whenever I could, to watch you cry when they died. When you disappeared the first thing I thought was,
finally.
At last somebody will notice me….and they did, Rissa. They did. But they didn’t like me. My own parents. They just wanted you back.

"But he liked me." Her face shown with demented adoration. "Daimen liked me just
fine."

Yes. Rissa thought, feeling sick and faint. Yes, he would.
How delighted he must have been.
Whatever urge had brought Daimen to seek out Rissa’s sister, he’d gotten more than he’d ever dreamed. A weapon to hurt her again and again. With perfect clarity she saw Daimen springing this trap now, gleefully sacrificing Laureen, knowing she'd almost surely die…or maybe he thought Rissa would save her somehow…save her and he'd get them both back to stage more of his sick little games.

But Rissa couldn't save her sister. No one could.

Miles' eyes met hers over Laureen's shoulder.

There was no mercy in there. Not for Laureen. He was only allowing Rissa to make her peace, giving her at least the illusion of acceptance before he did what she realized now must be done. Her sister was long gone. If her version of Laureen had ever existed at all…

With a sob, Rissa fell to her knees, giving the tiniest of nods to Miles.

"Good-bye, Laureen."

Her sister had enough time to gasp before even that small sound was cut off.

Rissa closed her eyes and curled her fingers into the wet grass. It was over in seconds and mercifully quiet.

When Rissa opened her eyes again the fog was stained faintly red. Laureen, or what was left of her, was on the ground at Miles’ feet. Kelsey was in his arms. Rissa bowed her head again and started shaking.

“Rissa, I’m so sorry,” Kelsey's anguished voice, not Miles.

Of course,
not
Miles.

He might feel for her, because somewhere in all that cool menace, he had a heart or Kelsey wouldn’t love him so much. But Rissa was damn certain the French vamp had zero regrets about ending her sister. And how could she blame him? You didn't threaten what Miles de Rousseau loved and live.

Her body bowed as she retched. Laureen turned into that…that monster. How?

Daimen. That's how. No matter what, Rissa had to believe her sister would’ve never turned into that vile creature without his influence.

She lifted her head. "We have to find him. Now."

Before he destroys anything else I love.

Jules pulled into the curved driveway of the Phoenix Inc. grounds, his eyes scanning every familiar shadow. He knew this place like he knew his own body, every sense he possessed told him something was off. Cross
was
here, even if he couldn't see him. And if Cross was here, Fannie was here.

She was alive. She had to be alive. The words repeated themselves over and over in his head.

She's here and we'll rescue her. Just like we got Rissa back.

But there was no 'we' at the moment. Jules was alone.

Fog teased out from the woods, stretching ghostly white fingers between the trees to tap at the dark expanse of lawn.

Jules stepped from the car, his muscles taut. He had no doubt Cross was here. Something oily in the damp, cool air that made his skin crawl. He'd waited for Miles at the turn off as they'd agreed, expecting them to show up in minutes, but no one had came.

A bad feeling had latched onto his gut when he couldn't reach Miles via cell after five minutes, but Jules knew he couldn’t wait any longer.
Fannie
couldn't wait any longer.

Walking fast now, he skirted around the main building, heading around to the back on pure instinct. He cursed as his dress shoes slipped in the wet grass. He kicked them off and stripped off his socks. Considering for one second, he also removed his suit jacket and tossed it after the shoes.

Running lightly, keeping close to the building, he could feel Cross hovering, watching him…

As if the man were breathing down his damn neck. Jules stopped short, goose bumps erupting down both arms. He could feel Cross watching him. Where was that bastard?
And where was Fannie?

Laughter trickled down on him from above, like the spray of cold water. Jules raised his head. Backlit in the security spotlights over the atrium, three stories above, Cross stood, looking down at him.

“Yes, yes, that’s it. Eyes up here, boy."

Jules didn’t need to see his face clearly to know the fucker was smiling. The vampire had Fannie pulled back against him, one hand wrapped tightly around her throat. The fear that had been clawing Jules from the inside out all night threated to rip him out of him in one fatal burst. It stole his breath, freezing him in place.