Page 7 of Rescued By the Cursed Phoenix

When said out loud, it felt like I was unworthy. Look at how bravely Ava, a true mortal, had faced the shifters that chasedher. She knew she’d die, and she hadn’t flinched, she’d stood tall instead. Defying her fate rather than hiding away from it.

“Oh, that’s awful, Lucius!” she said, full of empathy, and she turned in my arms so she could look me in the eye. “Is there nothing you can do to break the curse? How long have you been trapped in your home?”

She didn’t ask me why I had never left these walls. She understood it right away, the terror an immortal might feel when faced with true death. Or at least, the terror I’d felt at knowing I was now as any other death could take me at any opportunity. When you’d seen as much time pass as I had, you knew it could lie around every corner.

“A hundred and fifty years,” I said, as I contemplated that passage of time. I’d updated my home many times over those years, but I’d never left the safety of my lands. Until I’d become forgotten by the nearby town, just a myth of a strange house in the witch woods, and lately, the rich hermit on account of the deliveries.

“That is a very long time to be alone,” Ava murmured against my chest. The way she said it made me think she knew a thing or two about being lonely. My arms tightened around her in reaction, hugging her close against my chest as if that could take away those memories.

She didn’t say anything else, and I thought that maybe she was starting to fall asleep. After everything she’d been through, I should let her, she needed all the rest she could get. I knew that if I didn’t get my answers now, I’d linger over them in the morning, and then I wouldn’t be able to let her go. “Tell me whyyou were chased in the woods. Those shifters, why were they after you?”

My voice was rough with a growl that stuck in my throat, my body growing tense as a surge of adrenaline rushed through me. I was ready to fight for her when all I did wasthinkabout her foes. Her muscles also went tight, her back going stiff as a board, but I knew that was fear, not anger. I waited patiently for her to answer in the semi-darkness, not pushing this time, but not allowing distractions either.

“I saw something I shouldn’t have,” she said eventually, and after a short pause, she explained further. “I worked at a shelter in New Mexico where I focused on troubled youths, runaways, kids with no one to look out for them. The ones that fall through the cracks.” Her hands splayed against my chest, and I could tell she focused on the steady thud of my heartbeat to ease her mind.

“There was this guy, Calder,” she said. I didn’t like the sound of that, this guy? It was a loaded statement, and I instantly knew she’d dated him, even though she didn’t say that. “He’d come pick me up after my work or drop me off. Started making it a habit. I thought he was being nice…” She drew in a deep, shuddering breath that bordered on horror.

“He was using me to pick targets, kids he could then grab off the streets. I didn’t even realize it was him, but I started noticing the missing. Italkedabout it to him, I asked him for help even!” She sounded furious with herself now and I rushed to find words to reassure her, even if nothing I said would make this right. She was explaining something awful to me.

“You didn’t know. How could you know?” I said. “Ava, you tried to fix it, didn’t you?” That I knew without a shred of doubt, brave woman that she was, she would have tried to do the right thing, even at her own cost. I racked my brain trying to figure out why shifters would try to steal homeless kids off the streets. What use would they have for them?

“I did, but nobody believed me. Nobody cared,” she said bitterly. “And then last week I got out of work and Calder was waiting for me. He shifted, threatened me to stay out of it. But he let me go, and that was his mistake.” When she quietly outlined what she’d done the moment that bastard let her go, my admiration for her grew. Emptying her bank account to get every kid she knew a ticket out of town, only running in her car when she’d nearly been caught by Calder and his shifter friends.

Neither of us spoke after her story, and while she eventually sank into sleep, lying trustingly in my arms. My head kept spinning, filled with worry, with recriminations, and even shame. For the first time in a very long, I had no plan, and what I’d always been certain of, didn’t seem important any longer.

Chapter 10

Ava

When I woke, light was streaming through a stained glass window directly onto my face. I blinked sleepily and stretched, a yawn cracking my jaw. Parts of me ached with a delicious dull throb that made me want to squeeze my thighs together, it made me want to roll over and go back to sleep. Only, the bed was curiously cold next to me, and if there was one thing I knew, it was that Lucius ran hot. Very hot.

Blinking again, I rubbed at my lashes with a groan. Fine, I’d get up and figure out where he’d gone. I didn’t like discovering the bed was empty after what we’d shared last night. It hadn’t just been the mind-blowing sex; we’d talked, really talked afterward. He was now officially the only person in the world who knew of my issues with Calder.

The bed was definitely empty, his entire bedroom was, and no sound was coming from the bathroom. When I held my breath, it was deadly silent, like the house was abandoned. Had he left? I couldn’t imagine that. This place was his sanctuary, his fort, his way of protecting himself since he was cursed. He wouldn’t leave, but he was clearly making every attempt to avoid me.

I tried to ignore how that made my heart ache, a painful clenching in my chest that made it hard to breathe. So what? He had made no promises, and after he shared his story, I knew he was a troubled person. Not that he’d given me any details, he’d explained what his curse meant, but he hadn’t told mehowhe’d gotten cursed.

The shower felt awkward and cold, and I was starting to feel a hint of shame when I pulled on yesterday’s clothing. I’d known going in that this wasn’t some lifelong commitment, a one-night stand, but it felt different in the light of day when I wasn’t ruled by desire. It would have helped if he had been there to see me off. Hand me some breakfast, maybe before I went back into town to collect my car and things.

The prospect of more driving, more fleeing, made me feel positively gloomy. Where could I run to? Calder’s shifter friends had found me in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota, and I’d only driven in this direction by sheer random chance. It wasn’t like I had ties to any particular place. I’d just looked at the map and picked a destination with my eyes closed. How had he even found me?

Those thoughts took pride of place when I pushed open Lucius’ bedroom door to leave. My head was down as I worried about my future or possible lack thereof. If I hadn’t been hunched over in thought, I would have never seen it, but I was, so I did.

A little bouquet of feathers, tied together with a pretty ivory ribbon. They contained the feathers I’d been collecting last night. I recognized one with a little nick in the tip, but there were new ones, including one particularly bold orange and gold feather that Lucius could have only pulled from his wing by hand. Fine, he scored points for that, but I was still a little miffed he wasn’t personally there to say goodbye.

I wouldn’t have found the kitchen if not for Ziv. The black cat showed up after I’d taken a couple of hesitant steps in one direction. He led me there with a plaintive meow, and I spent far too much time searching for a bowl and the cat food onceI arrived. The kitchen was well stocked, with a huge pantry, that much was clear, and in the daylight, I could see that a vast vegetable garden lay just outside. Lucius wasn’t taking any chances, he clearly grew much of his own food.

Thankfully, he also had Pop-Tarts, bagels, and cream, so I wasn’t lost. The cat food I finally located was from a top brand, too—nothing but the best for Lucius’ only companion. The cat’s munching noises were the only sound in the kitchen as I ate. Now what? I didn’t even know where the front door was or how to get from this huge, beautiful home in the middle of the woods back to town.

I should have realized that Lucius had taken care of that part. By the time I’d polished the last crumb from my plate, I could hear a chime sounding delicately in the distance. The noise briefly made me think I’d get to see him, but when I followed Ziv through the hallways, I knew I wouldn’t. Lucius was gone. We had that one night, and I now had a bunch of feathers to remember him by, and that was it.

A man stood on the doorstep in a sleek gray uniform, and he was polite and professional as he led me to his sleek black sedan. Not a cab, nothing as mundane as that. No, this was a fancy chauffeur service that catered only to the rich. I was shocked to discover that they came all this way out into the woods, but money always talked.

“Where to, ma’am?” the driver asked as he held open my door and watched as I strapped my seat belt on. Ziv had followed me outside, and he meowed even more plaintively than when he’d had to wait for his kibble. At least Lucius’ cat didn’t like that I was leaving. “Is your pet coming too?” the driver asked after I’dgiven him the address to the motel where I’d been abducted the day before. To his credit, the man hadn’t batted an eye at the location.

I glanced at Ziv, his golden eyes blinking at me and the pretty white crescent on his chest glowing in the early morning light. If I could take the cat with me, I would. That way, I wouldn’t be alone for this next stretch of running. I’d never do that to Lucius though, Ziv was his only companion. Hell, the man had admitted in a rough voice to me that his cat was the only thing that kept him sane in his solitude. I couldn’t take that from him.

So I clutched the feathers in my hand more tightly and shook my head. “No, he belongs here. Thank you.” The door shutting gently sounded like the crack of a gunshot to me, I jumped in my seat, my nerves getting to me. That sound was like a chapter closing in a book like I’d just lost the most important opportunity of my life. Those fanciful thoughts were ridiculous, but no surprise after the last week. It wouldn’t help me to clutch to the one moment of calm in this craziness, not when I wasn’t welcome. I was no damsel, I’d figure this out one way or another.

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