Endless (23 page)

Phoenix slid his hands into his pockets. His confidence was coming off him in waves. I’d never seen him like this. So detached and yet… composed, with a rigid determination that frightened me even more than his usual arrogance and manipulative game-playing.

He looked Olivier up and down without even casting an eye in the direction of the still-unconscious boy.

He’s so cold.

Even after everything that had happened, I never would’ve believed Phoenix would be so devoid of emotion for a beaten child.

I was furious at
his behaviour but it made me sad more than anything else. A tear formed in the corner of my eye.

Phoenix’s jaw seemed to tense and he tilted his head to the side as if he’d heard something.

I held my breath, realising my mistake. Time stood still.

Idiot!

Desperately, I tried to lock down my thoughts. But it was too late. I’d just sent him my own personal emo-signature. Phoenix knew I was there.

I braced for the attack… But it didn’t come. He simply turned his attention back to Olivier.

‘Any problems?’ Phoenix asked in a controlled tone.

Olivier grinned wickedly. ‘None. Left the kid’s place on fire. No one will track him.’

Phoenix nodded.

Why isn’t he telling Olivier I’m here?

Phoenix paced the platform, his steps crisp against the concrete. ‘I thought I told you not to beat the prisoners,’ he said calmly, still not even glancing towards the boy. Or me.

Olivier shrugged. ‘What do you care? We’re just going to execute them once she’s had her fun, anyway. She said she doesn’t care what we do to them as long as they’re still breathing. He’s still breathing.’

In a flash, Phoenix grabbed Olivier by the neck, single-handedly hoisting him up against a wall.

‘You answer to me!’ he growled.

‘I answer to the one who is going to cut down every human at the knees so they will forever know their place. That means, I answer to
her
,’ Olivier choked. Phoenix loosened his hold. ‘For now, anyway,’ Olivier continued. ‘This is all simply a means to an end. You forget, I am of the light.’

He might have once been
an angel of light, but there was nothing but a deluded insanity about Olivier now.

Exiles still held onto their origins even after they had abandoned their rightful place. The war between light and dark was eternal, despite the current truce. If not for the Scripture’s promise of Grigori destruction, there would be no way the two sides would tolerate each other.

Phoenix’s grip tightened again around Olivier’s neck. Distracted by this task, his defences slipped away and some of his emotion leaked into me.

I slapped a hand over my mouth, falling back into Spence with the intensity of Phoenix’s… hatred. It seeped into me like poison – so strong my eyes watered and my lungs constricted.

It was hatred for Olivier. For himself. For what they were doing. And impossible control. It was taking everything he had not to kill Olivier right there.

I trembled, experiencing just a taste of what Phoenix carried with him. Spence steadied me.

Oh, Phoenix. What have you done?

Sill holding Olivier, he looked down the platform, as if he could see me. I inhaled sharply and watched his eyes close. An outpour of sorrow flooded through me, as if somehow he was answering my unspoken question. And in that moment, I wanted to cry for him.

Oh, God help us.

Olivier laughed. ‘You really thought Lilith was going to be grateful to you, didn’t you? You were a fool not to realise she’d be so disgusted to find you had the Grigori list all this time and hadn’t even used it!’

‘Be very
careful – I can rip out your heart with barely a thought,’ responded Phoenix.

‘Yes, but everyone would know it was you and after having Gressil killed, killing me …’ He shook his head, smiling maniacally. ‘She’ll kill you. I’m too useful to her and you know it.’

Phoenix tightened his hold again but then, as if realising there was nothing more he could do released Olivier, pushing him to the ground.

‘Once this is done, I am going to pull every organ from your body before I start on your eyes and heart, just so you can watch.’

Something flashed in Olivier’s eyes and for the first time he backed away from Phoenix and stayed on the ground.

‘I have work to do,’ Olivier growled.

Phoenix turned to the child, his face emotionless, but I felt the trickle of concern he’d been working so hard to hide as he lifted the limp body from the ground. ‘I’ll take this one back to the estate. Lilith wants you to collect another one tonight. She’s moved up the schedule.’ He handed Olivier a piece of paper, glancing in my direction before continuing. ‘The building is on East 79th, between Lexington and Park. I suggest you don’t delay.’

‘What?’ Olivier scoffed. ‘You’re not waiting for me?’

Phoenix smirked. ‘I’m sure you can manage to get back to the highlands on your own.’ With that he walked towards our end of the platform, his back to Olivier and, before he took off with the wind, he nodded right at me.

Is Phoenix giving us information? Can we trust it?

Olivier went off in the other direction and Spence and I didn’t wait around either. As soon as the coast was clear we ran back the way we’d come, racing along the tunnel and up the ladder leading back out into the park at City Hall. As soon as we were above ground I called Lincoln.

‘Where are you?’ was his answer.

I kept pace with Spence.

‘City Hall.’

‘I’m on the way,’ he said, I could hear him running too.

‘No! Wait! Where are you?’

‘Southeast corner of Central Park.’

Shit. I didn’t know this city well enough.

I shoved the phone towards Spence. ‘Talk to Lincoln. He’s at the southeast corner of Central Park.’

Spence grabbed the phone. ‘You’re closest,’ he told Lincoln and then told him the address of where Olivier was headed before tossing the phone back to me.

‘He said he’ll go there with Griffin and that we should go back to the Academy and wait for them,’ Spence explained.

But Olivier is going after another child.

We couldn’t take any chances. I’d already stood by and watched one little boy be taken.

‘Not going to happen. We’ll meet them there just in case,’ I said, throwing my arm out to hail a taxi. I shoved the phone in my pocket. ‘What the hell, right? It’s not like we can get in any more trouble tonight.’

‘So true,’ Spence said, clapping a hand on my back as I jumped in the car. ‘It’s an outlook I often take in life.’

When the taxi pulled up
we saw Lincoln and Griffin standing outside a building. They were talking to a young woman, who held a little girl, wrapped in a blanket, asleep in her arms. The woman was crying.

We headed towards them, Lincoln spotting me straight away. I could almost see him relax as I felt myself do the same. In that instant I knew that whatever my concerns had been earlier tonight, they were meaningless. He might be mad at me for not doing what he said, but it was more important that we were both okay.

Spence and I stopped a discreet distance away, not wanting to interrupt, but close enough to hear what they were saying.

The girl must have been the one Olivier was after. Griffin and Lincoln had already fought him off – I could see their fresh bruises – but neither of them seemed satisfied.

They were telling the mother that she and her daughter were at risk in their apartment and would be taken somewhere secure tonight. Tomorrow they would be moved to a safe-house. Griffin was pushing a lot of truth into his words to get past her disbelief and uncertainty about not contacting the police.

Another car arrived and Rainer stepped out, holding the door open for the woman and her daughter. She glanced at me briefly and then away again as she followed them into the back seat wordlessly. I couldn’t read whether she was pissed with me or not but my next training session was only a few hours away. I’d find out soon enough.

Griffin and Lincoln joined us. Griffin gave me a disapproving up-and-down. ‘Fun night?’

I put my hands on my
hips to cover my flush of guilt and focused on the problem at hand. ‘We discovered a maze of glamoured tunnels connected to the subway under the city. And we found Phoenix in them, too.’

‘Are you okay?’ Lincoln asked, his face blank, despite the tension in his stance.

I nodded.

Griffin looked from me to Spence.

‘What she said, boss,’ Spence said.

I didn’t need to look at him to know he was smiling.

‘You get him?’ Spence asked.

Griffin rubbed a tired hand over his face in typical Griff fashion. ‘No. He actually ran. First time for everything, I suppose.’

‘He’d already been shaken up by Phoenix,’ I said. No wonder Griffin was keen to get the young family to a safe place. Olivier would be back.

‘Did you get the kid?’ Lincoln asked.

I shook my head. ‘It was too risky. Phoenix took him, but he’s still alive. I think Evelyn was right – they’re collecting the children for some sort of mass execution.’

We stood for a few beats, all of us speechless. Things went to another level entirely when you were talking about innocent kids being slaughtered.

Griffin spoke up first. ‘You three really landed yourselves in it tonight. Josephine’s probably allocated a cell for the two of you down with your parents by now.’

‘Griff, you might want to hold off on the lecture until we’ve told you everything,’ Spence said, oh so casual, milking the fact that we’d come away from our night with some of the best intel in months.

It really
did help, having a pro rule-breaker on one’s side.

Griffin nodded, looking around. He was a leader but he wasn’t averse to rule-breaking either. ‘We can’t talk here. A team’s on the way to watch the building in case Olivier or any other exiles come back.’ He passed what looked like a black credit card to Lincoln. ‘Take them back to Ascension. I’ll meet you there once I’ve handed over.’

Lincoln was already hailing a taxi.

‘Why Ascension?’ I asked Lincoln when we were in the car.

‘You’ll see.’ His body was tense as he focused on the window.

‘We had to follow him, Linc,’ I said, assuming he was about to launch a verbal attack at me.

‘I know,’ he said, and then, as if he couldn’t fight it any longer, he grabbed my hand and pulled it into his lap. He exhaled, his tension seeming to ease.

When I looked up, confused by his response, he shook his head and gave me a knowing smile. ‘I wasn’t keen on you tracking Olivier. I thought it could be a trap, Phoenix or Lilith luring you in. But when you told me he had a kid …’ he shrugged. ‘You did the right thing.’

I scrolled through my phone and selected the unopened text message I’d ignored after I’d told him Olivier had a kid.

Be careful.

There was no stopping the flutter in my heart or my hand that was squeezing his back, and not letting go.

Later that night,
or rather
morning
, I discovered that Ascension was one of the only Grigori places over which the Assembly
didn’t
have control and exactly why Lincoln had hidden behind a mask in one of the club’s exclusive private rooms.