Page 77 of Phoenix Rise

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Talakai

Anna slid down. Silken softness and heat wrapped around me, robbing me of breath.

Then she began to move, gripping and squeezing with every give and take, making me groan and thrust. Swollen with need, rigid as steel, I was carried to the very edge—

But I couldn’t go beyond.

I awoke aching and rigid, hovering in agony. Until my hand snapped around to sink talons into my shoulder.

And the pain took me there.

I erupted into the tangled sheets. Shaking and gasping as pulse after pulse shot from me, while my shoulder dripped blood.

Only after the throbbing subsided did my brain re-engage. I’d been there, with Anna, in a dream. It had felt soreal.

As real as the holes in my flesh. And now, the faces surfaced, freed by my link to her.

I pushed them away behind new, fragile walls, and my heart slowed. I’d dreamed of Anna before, but this one had felt different.I’dfelt different.

Because I hadn’t been myself in the dream.

Matt.I’d been Matt. How was that possible?

There was only one explanation, and much as I wished the memory away, it wouldn’t go. The blasted bite. It must have formed a link, of sorts, between us.

I’d been attracted to Anna from day one, but bonding to Matt was a surprise. I’d found him annoying, nothing else. Yet if the Dire was correct, we were meant to be together, all three of us.

Four, I corrected. The Bellati was in this too.

Thoughts of Sebastian got me out of bed. The punctures in my shoulder had already stopped bleeding, but the sheets were a gory mess.

Nothing this hotel hadn’t seen before, judging by the stains. Visible despite the dim streetlights filtering through the single window’s thin curtain.

Night had fallen while I slept. It was time to prowl.

The hotel was cheap, but reasonably clean, and it had good locks on the doors. Which had given me sufficient peace of mind to actually rest. Tyrez had granted me enough currency to afford better, but I needed to blend among those who might have the information I required.

And blending was something I did very well.

The tiny table was strewn with paper from my research. I checked them over before organizing and filing the whole works into my new pack. I glanced at my chronometer—time to go if I planned to stop at the local market before my meeting.

I lifted my tailspike and inserted it through the specially shaped scale at my waist. I missed my sword. But I’d meant what I’d said to Anna.

I left the room unlocked. I wouldn’t be back. I slipped out the rear entrance to the alley, and from there to the street.

With my cloak hood up, I merged with the night crowd. It was still early enough that the streets were busy—the best time to blend. I moved through them like a ghost, changing directions frequently while observing those around me.

Like many underworld cities, this place had always been sharding dangerous, but it had only grown worse since the Dragon Legion had been forced to pull back their operatives. Every person here was armed to the gills—there were so many murders after dark that the local enforcers scraped the bodies up from the alleys in the mornings and dumped them in a mass grave outside the city.

Innocence and ignorance did not survive long in a place like this. But every step I took was a balm to my soul. I understood the underworld on a visceral level. Moving among these ruthless residents was as natural to me as breathing. And while I did so, I could forget Xumi, and what she’d done to me. And the faces, sometimes.

And Anna, almost.

I stalked through this vicious place with a sense of relief. Only once I was certain I wasn’t being watched did I head for the city market.

I had an extensive network of informants. Sartoriouk was an old one. To the locals, he was a metalsmith, and a good one. But to those of us in search of information, he had his fingers in many pies across the realms.

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