Page 8 of Rescued By the Cursed Phoenix

As the car purred to life and started to make a slow, steady departure from the large, sprawled-out mansion, it felt like I was making a huge mistake. I twisted in my seat, staring at the beautiful architecture of gabled roofs, gargoyles, and large glass-stained windows. Ziv sat on the steps in front of the large oak doors, his golden eyes glowing brightly at me like twin stars.

The metal gates opened silently and without any prompting, as we approached them, and then the dark woods surrounded us. I hadn’t seen so much as a glimpse of Lucius that entire time, only his cat had come to see me off. But as we traveled down a long,winding road through the forest, I kept imagining I saw a flash of light, a hint of fire. Was he flying above the car? Was that the phoenix? No, it couldn’t be. He never left his lands.

The open asphalt road took me by surprise when we came to it. It wasn’t far to town after that, not far at all, and the sight of the sad, dreary motel and its nearly empty lot made me want to cry. After the safety and shelter of Lucius’ home, I felt exposed and abandoned when I stepped out of the car and back into my real life. The life in which I was on the run from shifters who wanted to kill me or drag me back to Calder in New Mexico.

I stared after the departing driver, who’d said a polite goodbye, and that was it. Now I was truly alone, and I felt so weary that I almost decided to sit down on the curb and give up. Let Calder’s goons find me and finish this. How much more running did I have in me?

Maybe I should be mad at Lucius for more than not even having the guts to say goodbye this morning. He could die if mortally injured, but he was still a far better match against shifters than I was. It was cold to leave me to my own devices after what we shared. He didn’t think I would survive this, did he?

“Meow?” The sound nearly made me jump out of my skin. When I turned toward it, there he was, Ziv. Not the man I wanted to see, but it was such a welcome sight that tears rushed to my eyes. I wiped at them, readjusted my glasses, and stared when I realized Ziv was really there, sitting on the sidewalk next to me. “Meow?” he said again, and he cocked his head at an angle and blinked those big golden orbs slowly.

“What are you doing here, sweetie?” I asked him. At the sound of my voice, he rose to all four paws and approached, winding between my legs with a raised back. His tail trembled as it curled against my knee. The warmth of his body against my jeans made me feel less alone, and I ducked down to pick him up. Immediately, he purred loudly and started butting his head against my chin in rough caresses.

“How did you get here so fast?” I asked him, a fruitless question because he couldn’t talk. Still, it bothered me. I distinctly recalled seeing him at the top of the steps to the mansion as we drove away. The glow of his golden eyes had been so bright. Now he was here, but he couldn’t have hitched a ride in the car, so how had he done it?

Ziv didn’t answer, but his purr abruptly halted. His claws shot out where he clung with his front paws to my shoulders, a pinch of pain stinging me. When the fur on his back stood on end, my skin broke out in goosebumps, followed by a wash of trepidation. He saw something I hadn’t, and it wasn’t good news.

I turned around slowly while I searched the parking lot, the shadows around the side of the motel, and the quiet road. There was nobody there, not even the motel attendant was visible through the grimy window of the motel office. The ice machine hummed, and in the distance, I heard the sound of a car trundling along, but that was it. There wasn’t even so much as a breeze or the chirp of a bird. Something was definitelyverywrong.

Mouth dry, I clutched Ziv tighter to my chest while I contemplated my best course of action. Motel room or car? I didn’t think I’d make it to either. My keys made the decision forme, they’d fell from my hands when I was first abducted. I didn’t see them anywhere now, which meant I couldn’t evengetthe car to work.

My footsteps were loud on the concrete as I started walking toward the motel room, the number five blazing at me like a beacon. I knew I wouldn’t be safe behind a door, but it would feel better than standing out in the open. I could try the phone inside, maybe call the police. But would they respond to a call that went, 'Hey, I’m being attacked by shapeshifting monsters! Send help, please?' I doubted it.

Ziv was practically vibrating in my arms from the tension, his front paws on my shoulders as he peered around me at the lot as I had done. The sound coming from his throat was a warning, a mixture of a growl and a hiss. My fingers brushed the doorknob, but the illusion of safety it offered shattered the next moment.

The door swung open, and out he stepped. Calder. My worst nightmare.

Chapter 11

Lucius

I knew I’d made the worst mistake of my life the moment the car left the final perimeter of my property. That was the moment Ava left my lands and my protection. My instincts went haywire, my heart turned to stone in my chest, and it became a battle to stay aloft, high in the sky. Every part of me strained to go after her, to call her back, to keep her safe.

What had I done? Selfishly took from her what she offered for a night and then showed her the door. I’d thrown her back into the danger she was running from. This werewolf who was after her, Calder, was the lowest of sorts. A male so despicable, he stole the weak and the unmissed from the streets. A male like that would stop at nothing to end my precious Ava.

I deserved every minute of the curse that Elspeth the witch had cast on me. She was right. I was a terrible male for turning away those in need. Why did I deserve the endless nights of immortality when I turned my back on the helpless, and worse, when I turned my back on my mate?

At that moment when Ava left, my protection changed everything. I understood it now. What meaning did living forever have when I couldn’t have her? When it was a world that might not have her in it? My body shivered as a full change took hold of me, and my wings caught fire in the morning sunlight. I never flew at this time, not when dawn had passed and I could be seen from the ground by clever human eyes. Today I didn’t care.

My sharp gaze followed the car as it sped down the winding road into town. I followed, circling high to avoid detection. How was I going to convince her to stay with me? Nothing had changed for her: I was still the monster, the winged beast of the manor. Unworthy of her, because I’d acted horribly, shamefully. Turning her away in her hour of need.

The car stopped at the town’s motel, and I was shocked to see how much it had deteriorated since last I’d laid eyes on it. I rarely flew this far, even if the dawn light covered my presence. I watched as the car left her, a lonely, small figure in a concrete lot. There were only a handful of cars, and the one she gazed at was a sorry, small little thing that had seen better yearsverylong ago.

Of course, Ziv was there. She was holding him in her arms and the feline familiar was purring up a storm and butting his head against hers. It made me growl with a possessive anger. He was leaving scent marks onmyfemale. Not that I had any right to her, not yet.

How did I approach? That was the hard part. I couldn’t just land in broad daylight in a human town, even if we were right on the edge and the road was empty. I hadn’t even thought to bring the amulet that could provide a disguise when I ventured out into the human world. When I landed, everyone would be able to see the creature that I was, the phoenix, the monster.

Spinning in another wide circle, I appraised my options. The town was emptier than I remembered it, with many shopfronts boarded up. Houses looked shabby and unkempt, and the Sherrif’s office was closed, with no sign of a patrol car. I wasgoing to risk it, there were so few people about… Ava was more important.

When I swung my gaze back to my mate and the motel parking lot, cold fear shivered through my flesh. She wasn’t alone anymore. Backpedaling away from the flat-roofed building, a tall, black-haired male was following her. Several more slunk out from the open motel room door and fanned out behind their leader. I had no doubt about the identity of the male who was scaring Ava straight across the concrete lot to her car.

Calder, the werewolf. I dove, my body arrowing toward the ground in a rapid descent, silent but for the roar of the wind in my ears. I could hear their voices drifting up to me as I plummeted. Ava was defying her foe, as I knew she would, but I could hear her fear in the tight pinch of her tone. “Leave me alone, Calder! You’ve got what you want, I left. I’m not telling anyone.” A self-deprecating laugh, cold and harsh. “Who would believe me?”

I was almost on him when the male responded. “Nobody gets away from me, Ava. Especially not someone who gave me as much trouble as you did. You’re going to pay for what you did.” He started to shift, a half-form somewhere between human and wolf; a feat that required an immense amount of control. I would have been impressed if not for the rage that roared through my veins.

We clashed right as the male slashed a claw toward Ava. Fur and feathers, fire and rage, and the stench of burning flesh as we tangled. My claws hit him first, scoring grooves along his back. A shifter was dangerous to fight. While we were technically the same, able to change our form, I did not have the fast healingthat he had. A phoenix relied on his rebirth to heal in a single, explosive burst, but otherwise healed at the rate of a mortal. I had no rebirth to protect me, but there was no fear, none at all.

Ziv shot like a lightning bolt from Ava’s arms and leaped into several faces as a distraction. It was enough to disengage from the werewolf and rise protectively between him and my mate. My form shivered into two legs, the shape that Ava knew best. I was a tall male, and I towered protectively over her, wings spread as I blocked the way for the pack of angry shifters.

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