Phoenix Broken (40 page)

"But you're not
just
a vamp, are you, sweetling?" Mags crooned in Cross's ear, the venom in her voice giving Scott chills, hatred twisting her beautiful face. "Say bye-bye to your
para
powers, you sick fuck." Her eyes lifted to Scott's. "I'll keep his side-kick off you. Destroy this son of a bitch, Davidson."

Valencio put the phone away at last, having made a second call after the first, keeping his voice too low for her to hear. Guido hadn't said a word the entire time, no matter how many times she'd pleaded with him, his hands tight on her arms, holding her still, his eyes never leaving his father. Valencio turned now, a smile playing over those lips as he regarded Des at his son's feet.

"Finally.
Tell me, half breed filth, did you really expect my son to keep up his championship of you after you turned him over for a
human?"

Des twisted to look up at Guido again, but that black stare never wavered from Valencio's smug face. She cursed, turning back to the demon she loathed. Unable to make sense of this madness. "I don't know what you're talking about, Valencio. Guido has never cared about me like that. You won't kill me like you did my mother. He won't let you."

Valencio hissed in a breath. "Figured that out, did you?"

"How could I not?" She screamed it at him. "You left her in the same place you killed my dog, you twisted filth."

"You dare call me 'filth'?
You?"
Valencio reached for her, but the hands on her shoulders tightened, pulling her back. The demon's eyes flicked to his son's face and he stepped back. "I never understood what you saw in this chit, son."

"I know."

She looked over her shoulder again to see a flicker of pain pass over Guido's face. It vanished almost immediately, leaving his handsome face to settle into lines so harsh he looked carved from stone. Her racing heart stilled as a tendril of fear traced her spine.

The demon snorted. "She didn't even realize what she had, did she, my son? Forgive yourself for becoming twisted by a pretty face. It happens to the best of us."

"The way it happened to you, with my
mother?"
Guido's voice, a low, cold rumble.

Silence fell over the groove, so complete and absolute Des shook under the weight of it. The two men stared at each other. Something subtle had changed. Subtle, but extremely important.

Only Des had no idea what it meant for her.

Finally she broke the awful quiet, unable to bear the tension. "What do you mean about Shae, Guido?"

"Shae was never my mother, Dee. Merely a temporary convenience. Wasn't she, father?"

Valencio looked stunned, gaping at his son, but obviously unable to speak.

"My real mother was Valencio's
true
mate, Dee, the one he spurned for her poor blood."

"The dream eater? The metus who killed herself? But…how is that possible, Guido?"

Guido laughed softly. "You want to tell her, father, or should I?"

"Hold your tongue!"

"Why? You mean us to end her, surely she can hear the truth."

Valencio's eyes sharpened, looking from Des to Guido and back again. "Why are you playing these games, my son? Just end the half-blood filth and let us go. I know how much you have suffered over her dalliance with this human, but this one has been too hard to kill for too long. I want it over."

"Oh, so do I, father."

Des sucked in a breath.

Guido smiled, his eyes flicking down to her for the briefest second before returning to his father. "It is true I have had…shall we say,
women
issues this past year. Ones that I misled you to think involved Dee here. But she's absolutely right, father. I've never been in love with her.
Omno
, if I was—did you truly believe I would kill her, as you killed your beloved?"

What the fuck is going on here?

Des felt like she'd taken Psych Out again, only this time, instead of her senses, it was the very world oscillating in and out. Her reality was no longer constant, but in terrifying and confusing flux.

"You deceived me?" Valencio was incredulous. Guido seemed amused at his father's surprise.

"Very handily it appears. Is it really such a surprise, father? After all, I learned from the master of deception.
And all his mistakes."

Valencio shook his head, his smile cruel. "You can't go back on the vow, Guido. You must wed her, or kill her. There is no other way around it."

"What vow?" Her voice sounded very small, but the two words carried. Both men turned to her.

"Why, the blood vow to Augustine, Dee. Promising that we would wed, the very day you come of age."

Her birthday.
Omno.
Just weeks away.

Des could see how alarmingly pinched Valencio's face had become, but right now she was far more worried about Guido. A blood vow. She shuddered. Breaking it would make Guido a golem; a fate worse than death. She couldn't marry him, she wouldn't, but—

"He's right. You can't break the vow, Guido. And I can't marry you, but we'll find a way …
there must be a way.
You don't have to do this!"

"Easy,
polteriitae saed.
There will be no need. Will there, father? Because
I
never made a vow to Augustine. It was you. The night I was born, you killed my mother and came begging him for an alibi. You swore to give him a blood vow at a time and place of his choosing, if he would help you cover it up. Augustine inferred you were with him that night, though no one really asked, did they? Who cared about a poor metus anyway? You took me, got Shae to agree to your scheme, eloped with her and came back to the Saandon after a year's vacation. Our little happy family. Of course, you killed Shae, too. And Des' mother. Augustine knew, you know. He didn't believe he could touch you—now the Convenīre leader—before he died, but Augustine knew. So he told me everything when I returned for Marie's funeral, believing that I
could.

"I didn't really believe him, you know. Not at first. I knew what Augustine was. He's a better manipulator than you ever were. If he hadn't wed a human, he would have headed the Convenīre—not you.
The games he liked to play.
But I did come and ask you for a favor after the funeral. Remember, father? You made me believe then that the attacks on Desdemona would stop. I asked you for that
personally.
" Valencio's eyes were wide, unblinking. "Maybe if you'd let her be, we wouldn't be standing here. But you
had
to push. I started to wonder if Augustine's whole mad story were true. And it is true, isn't it, father? That's why you're so desperate to murder her."

The silence in the clearing built again, seeming to scream in Des' ears, until she couldn't bear it anymore. All this time, she'd been trying to protect Guido from knowing the truth about his father, but she'd never known the half of it.

Valencio spoke up at last.

"This proves nothing of importance.

Guido glanced at Des. "Doesn't it? Augustine called in the vow when Dee was born. Thinking to protect her from ridicule by tying her to me, your oh-so pure blood son. He'd didn't think it would drive you to try and murder her. You won't be tried, of course, not for the murder of a human and the attempted one of a half-blood, but for the metus and for Shae, who was one of the Luuisdon," Guido smiled. "For them, you may burn."

Valencio stared at his son as if he'd never seen him before. "I gave you my name, hid the fact that you were a bastard, with low blood polluting your veins.
This
is how you reward me?"

"Oh your reward isn't here yet, father, but it's coming."

Valencio went white. "You never intended to kill the little bitch, did you?"

Guido spat on the ground in disgust. "If you knew me in the least, you would've have known that I would never lift a hand to Desdemona. But," he reached down, wrapping his fingers around Des' wrist. His hand started to bubble and transform, his nails growing into claws that stabbed into her skin, drawing blood instantly. Before she could blink, he'd sliced his own palm, squeezing their wounds together, his grip painfully tight as Valencio stood frozen in horror.

"Listen closely to
my
vow, father—listen loud and clear," his voice deepened, rolling through the clearing and out over the water, "I, Guido Cesare Calimente, do swear I will
never
wed the half blood, Desdemona Baptiste Chaput, true born daughter of Augustine. Forsaking forever the oath my father made to the demon of that same name—"

"Kill them, kill them both!" Valencio screamed frantically. The clearing filled with dark shapes, swarming with demons Desdemona hadn’t even known were there.

It was too late. Valencio had already begun to change, his refined face going lifeless and hard, his eyes panicked as his skin turned ashen and grey. Behind her, Guido shuddered as bullets ripped into him. Then he roared, leaping forward to push her face down in the muck before he whirled on his father's men.

The warrior madness had descended. Guido's entire body rippling and distorting into something monstrous, sending wild, maddening shadows over the snow.

The demons tried to scatter, but it was too late for them, too. Des closed her eyes and put her hands over her head as the screaming began.

Daimen swiped at her, but Mags rolled off the bed at the same time Scott leapt, his hands reaching for Cross's throat.

She ducked under Scott's arm to the vamp behind him as promised, leaving his way to Cross clear. Scott stepped forward as the vampire's eyes narrowed. "I am still a vamp. And you are still a human."

"Then why do you look so scared, asshole?" Scott leapt.

The boat lurched under his feet, as if some giant hand had side-swiped at it. Everyone was tossed sideways, crashing into the left wall of the boat, which had suddenly become the floor. Scott slammed into Cross. Mags fell against his back as he tried to gain his feet, throwing him to his knees. Outside something was roaring. There was a shattering crack, so loud everyone slapped their hands over their ears.

Water so cold it burned flowed out of nowhere, soaking Scott to the thighs.

Mags gasped. Scott assumed from the shock of the water, but then he saw Cross behind her, yanking her back against him. Her hands scrambled at Scott, trying to hold on to him.

He reached for her as Mags' fingers fumbled, finding the scabbard on Scott's belt. She yanked his knife free just as Cross pulled her back, lifting it up in both hands. Twisting to the side, Mags sank it into Cross's throat, ripping the blade to one side, nearly taking off his head, before he flung her away from him, with a scream that turned quickly to a gurgle.

The vampire reeled back and forth as blood spurted through the nearly upside down cabin that was rapidly flooding. The boat appeared to be breaking apart.

Scott ignored this, rushing Cross, slamming him into the wall, both hands around the vampire's ruined throat. Mags scrambled for the door as his grip tightened. Her blood-drenched naked body was covered in the water rushing down the steps and washed clean. It churned like a black waterfall, obscuring both Mags and the opening.

The lights flickered and went out, just as she went to her knees in the icy foam, screaming for help.

A faint red glow came from somewhere as Scott concentrated on taking off the vampire's head. Followed by a sinister whispering that turned into a crackling roar just before Scott identified the sound.

Fire.

The explosion shook the already battered boat, throwingggg Scott and Cross back across the room. Dark water closed over both their heads. Scott never took his fingers from the vampire's throat, even as the cold enveloped them both.

It seemed like hours before silence descended over the clearing. There was only the water slapping with increasing irritation against the frozen shore, and the harsh sound of one man breathing. One man? No. One demon.

"Open your eyes, Dee. Look at me."

Shakily, she pushed up on her hands and knees. She was cold and wet, covered in ice and muck, but Guido looked far worse. His clothing was torn, hanging off him in rags that looked like they'd been shredded by some massive beast. Which wasn't far from the truth. Bodies littered the ground around him. None moved. His eyes were black and glittering dangerously as he regarded her.

"You fucking believed him, you little
shit."
His tone was vicious, but she could hear the pain in it. He slid to the ground with a grunt. For the first time she noticed the wound in his side, a gaping, dark hole that sucked the air from her lungs. She crawled forward, kneeling next to him.

"No, I didn't."

Guido's disbelieving scowl made Des choke back a terrified laugh. She pressed frantically at his injury, the heat of his flesh burning her numb fingers as the blood poured down his side, turning the dirty dusting of snow bright red. She gulped as he continued to glare at her. "Okay!
Omno.
Maybe I got nervous…for like half a second. But if I'd really believed him, you idiot, I would've used my powers on you."

The demon blinked. "Oh. Well. Still… I consider our friendship shaken by these events,
polteriitae saed.
Very shaken. Now stop poking at me. I am not going to die. I refuse.
"
To prove his point Guido pushed her hands away and sat up.

He groaned, slipping back to recline on the frozen ground. "On second thought, I shall lie here. Just for a bit. I feel the need to get my breath back."

She could only look at him, still trying to take everything in. His mother. His
real
mother. His father, the vow. Valencio as a golem. Guido had betrayed the Convenīre. He was a bastard, his bloodlines in question. "You'll be banished after this," she whispered it, horrified.

"Ahh, only if they find out, Dee. And look," He waved a hand at the bodies on the ground. "No one to carry the tale…save us." He gave her a wicked, weary smile.

"You also made a vow. One of your own this time. So who's the idiot?"

"A vow I am absolutely certain I shall never break. Especially if your
bestia
has anything to say about it."

Scott.
Omno!

She jumped up, leaving Guido to stare out at the water, shading her hands…was that smoke? A sinister flicker of rose in all that mind-fuddling grey made her heart seize up.
Fire?

Behind the flames rose a wall of black clouds, rolling over a lake whipped white by a wind that was beginning to scream.

When Scott came to, Jules was standing over him, his figure blurred into watery lines.

He'd somehow maintained his death grip on what remained of Cross's throat. Scott choked as Jules yanked him out of the water with one huge hand.

"Mags?" His lungs burned as he spit out the words along with about a gallon of lake water.

"On what's left of the deck. Things went to shit, Scott, but there's no time to explain. There's a storm coming down from Canada. Gordy's holding back as best he can, but he's losing control." Jules looked down at Cross, who resembled a drowned corpse. They both knew better. Vampires couldn't die from drowning.

Cross smiled under the dark water as their eyes fell on him. Scott pulled him up by the hair. The vampire didn't struggle, he knew death was imminent. "It won't bring them back," he said, his ruined throat making a bubbling mockery of that once smooth accent, "nothing can do that."

"No, it won't, but you won't be coming back either, bloodsucker.
Not ever again."

Jules' eyes came back to Scott's. "Together?"

Scott nodded. He shifted to lock his arms round Cross's neck in a sleeper hold. Cross fought now, kicking in a wild frenzy, his struggles making the water froth and boil. Jules grabbed his legs and immobilized him.

Scott ignored the creaks and snaps of the boat breaking apart around them. He looked into the vampire's eyes, his heart empty and quiet and still. Cross had done awful things once again tonight—but for the last fucking time. He would never claim another victim.

Fannie's smile shown in his head for a bright moment. The toss of Des' hair. Tears filled his eyes, but he blinked them back. Nothing was for sure yet. He had to hold on to that.

Jules was silent, too. Scott knew he was thinking of Fan, and his own dead. Then with a growl, the huge man started to pull with all his strength. Scott gritted his teeth, and countered Jules' weight, even when it felt like his arms were going to be torn from their sockets. Cross couldn't scream, but his mouth opened and closed soundlessly as his body was stretched taut over the surface of the rising water.

Sinews snapping, gore and blood alike washing away in waves, Daimen's head tore free with a sickening squelch. Jules dropped the now lifeless legs at once and kicked the headless body aside. "Move! We have to go. I, for one, don't want to be buried with that piece of shit."

Jules grabbed Scott and threw him bodily toward the opening that had been the stairs. It was completely flooded now, and black as pitch. Scott swam up and up and up.

His lungs started to burn. Just before his legs gave out, his face broke the surface. He gulped at sweet air that froze his teeth, stumbling to his knees on a deck slippery with ice, canted at nearly a 45 degree angle.

The boat was unrecognizable from the sleek craft they'd boarded only hours ago. Gordy was straddling what had once been the starboard railing. Looking like some demented sea god, his hands were spread out, ice crusting his hair and arms as he held back the waters that threated to tear the already battered craft to pieces.

"In the fucking copter, old man." From out of nowhere, Alcide was beside him, pulling him to a ladder that whipped back and forth, five full feet in the air. "I'll take your bags." He yanked Cross's head from Scott's stiff, half-frozen fingers.

The first thing that met Scott's eyes after the harrowing climb into the bird, was Mags. She was huddled in what had to be Jules' jacket, her legs drawn up to her chin, nothing visible but her eyes and a long tangle of black hair. She nodded at him, but didn't speak. Neither did Scott.

There was nothing to say.

It was only when everyone was finally in, Gordy hauled through across Jules' shoulders as the vampire was pulled through the open door, that Scott found his voice. "We have to get to Des.
Now."
             

Fear had settled into his body long ago. Bonding with blood and bone.

Please don't let her be gone.

Please.

The mindless thump of the helicopter's blades seemed to slice into his skull as the minutes passed with excruciating slowness.

Please.

The shore came into sight, a white, broken ribbon against the iron-grey storm that was descending fast.

When Scott saw her there, wading out through the black, rolling water dotted with bright chunks of ice the second she saw the helicopter, the weight of sheer relief almost had him falling out in mid-air. As it was, Scott jumped as soon as he could be reasonably sure of not breaking both his legs, getting half drowned for the second or third time that night.

It was worth it when his arms wrapped around her, her laughing sobs ringing in his ear.

They were still wrapped together an hour later. Now in the back of Guido's limo, the heat on full blast, covered in blankets and sipping wine as the demon steadfastly ignored them both, barking orders into a phone as they headed back into the city. He'd refused to allow Des into an ambulance and since she wouldn't leave Scott once Mags had gently but firmly declined Des' presence in her ambulance, they were both headed to Calimente's private physician.

"I'm yours? Your mate?" he said the words slowly, frowning, studying their intertwined hands, both filthy and flecked with blood and worse. He didn't know where Cross's head was. He thought the werewolf still had it, but Scott no longer cared about the vampire. It was enough the man was dead at last.

"Yes. I've been sure of it for awhile now." Her voice thickened. "And I've been thinking, I …I may've used my powers on you, that very first night. The connection I felt to you… Scott, you may've been right all—"

"No. Shhh, Des," he pulled her close, his lips curving into her hair. "Maybe you did that first time.
Maybe
. But I don't care. I needed it and I needed you. I needed you so fucking bad, not just the damn sex, but
all
of you. I said I loved you before and I meant it. All of you, even your demon. Forget all the sex mojo bullshit."

"So, you don't need the sex bullshit, huh?" she teased, pulling back, her eyes trying to laugh but wet as she looked up at him. "I'll keep that in mind."

Scott chuckled as across from him Calimente narrowed his eyes, hanging up his phone at last. He ignored the demon's glare, knowing it was mostly for show. "The day you want to go celibate, I will. Deal?"

"I can live with that." She sank back against his chest, snuggling in. "Say it again."

"Say what?'

She sank a small fist into his gut.

He grunted. "Oh
that.
I love you, Desdemona Baptiste."

And wasn't that just a goddamn miracle. No, the broken pieces inside him hadn't magically been made whole. He would never be the man that Fannie had loved again—Scott knew that. He had cracks now. Jagged places, missing pieces. Even more after what he'd been through with Mags last night. Maybe he always would.

His soul wasn't pretty, but thanks to Des, Scott had realized he still had one worth saving.

Between her and his kids, it was enough. Way more than enough to live for, and so much sweeter than revenge. Scott held her as Chicago loomed on a horizon growing pink in the rising sun.

Three weeks later

Des stood in front of the office door, looking at the words on the plaque next to it. Magdalena Foley. There was no title. She frowned, and knocked again. It was Mags' first day back at work. Far too early everyone had insisted, but Mags listened to none of them. Des had overheard her roomie on the phone with Kelsey last night;
"Accept me back at work or accept my resignation, goddamn it."

Since Mags had left for work today, Des assumed the telepath had gotten her way. She'd come to check on her since she was headed to Phoenix Inc. anyway.

Everyone danced around Mags, something Des was well aware her friend had to be hating, but since Mags wouldn't talk to anyone, there was nothing else to be done. Alcide had called non-stop at first, but eventually the werewolf stopped calling. Just as eventually, Des had to stop knocking.

She walked away, her heart heavy. Turning she went looking for the men. Well, one in particular.

She found them in the gym. Of course. Stopping at the door, Des listened a minute.

“So, Preshea hasn't replaced Cross?"

Scott's voice answered Gordy's low drawl. "Calimente says no, but the Convenīre isn't real thrilled with him at the moment. Seems they're nervous since his father disappeared. We're keeping our distance as not to cast more suspicion his way. He hasn't even been calling Des."

"But you still trust him?" This from Alcide who sounded tired, the vitality seemed to have been sucked from him these last few weeks. Sucked from them all.

Des leaned her head against the doorframe, waiting.

"I do," Scott said. "About most things. But he's a demon, never forget he'll serve his own interests first, and he isn't always willing to share what they may be."

"He agreed to talk to Miles though?"

"He did. After I insisted." Des thought it was time to make her presence known. Three heads turned her way, black, brown and blonde. Scott got to his feet with a smile, stunning her breathless. The man was not wearing gym clothes, but a dark suit cut to showcase every inch of his powerful body to perfection. His lips twitched as her mouth fell open. "Sneaking around corners, Des?"

"Got to live up to my demon half, don't I?"

His forehead creased. "Hey, what I said about Guido—"

She waved a hand. "—is true." Planting a quick kiss on his lips, she turned to the other two men. "It is. But he is also very serious about preventing war. Do not doubt that. His methods, though, aren't going to be like yours. And you may not approve of them." Gordy frowned, but as Alcide met her eyes, something dark and wounded darting out for just a second, but something that hit her so hard, she gasped. The werewolf turned away as Scott pulled her close.

"What the hell, Des?"

She took a breath, seeking Alcide over his shoulder, but the werewolf was headed to the locker room, his back stiff. Placing her palms on Scott's worried face, she smiled. "I'm fine. Now, why did you want me to meet you here, and all dressed up, too?" She rocked her hips, making the long full red skirt cut in panels that flashed her legs swish.