Page 64 of Tasting Darkness

“But what if they attack?” another asks.

“Then run, run really fast, you might stand a chance,” Tobias tells him. Reluctantly the men step forward looking in each crate for a chick to look after. “Ah, they are kinda cute,” one man says wiggling his finger in front of his face. The phoenix jumps latching onto his finger and he shrieks, shaking his hand but it refuses to let go. Darius smacks the man up the back of the head. He freezes his finger bleeding and Darius pries its tiny little beak open and the man sucks his finger.

“I don’t want that one,” he says, scooping a sleeping one out and putting it in his hoodie pocket. He snatches up a bag of feed and walks out while I try not to laugh at him. By the time each one had picked a few phoenixes each we were left with only three which we could manage ourselves. Over a hundred was impossible.

I carry the three remaining phoenixes up stairs back to our room. And set them inside a smaller wooden crate while Darius and Kalen set out some straw for them, building a makeshift nest. We ended up keeping the biter, he wasn’t friendly with any of the men so he came back with us and Kalen declared he was naming him Chomp. But we still needed names for the other two. Ryze peers into the crate watching them as if they were her babies.

“How did you figure out she was a girl?” Darius asks, and I look over at him.

I shrug. “Just a feeling I got,” I tell him but he eyes me suspiciously. I know he can feel my deception. Glancing at Tobias, I notice he’s also watching me. I gulp. Shit.

“Aleera!” Tobias growls, able to read a lie effortlessly since it is one of his gifts. The room falls quiet, and I feel all their eyes watching me and I sigh knowing I wouldn’t be able to hide it from them.

“In town I saw my mother,” I tell them, chewing my lip. Now that seems to surprise them.

“And you didn’t think to tell us?” Darius snaps at me.

“There was nothing to tell, she didn’t hurt me, she wanted to talk to me.”

“About what?” Tobias demands.

“She told me Ryze was a girl, that she was Spark’s daughter.”

“Spark?” Lycus asks, coming to stand beside Tobias and looking confused.

“The biggest phoenix, the one that talks fluently, is Spark. He used to belong to my mother, she said he went missing a while ago and she thought he was dead. But she said he was mine now.”

“Anything else?” Tobias asks, and my eyes go to Darius. Darius sighs and presses his lips in a line.

“It doesn’t matter, she is safe, that is all that matters. You and I will discuss this later,” Darius says, looking at me. I nod once turning back to the chicks in the crate. Tobias, unhappy with that answer, tries to argue but Darius is quick to make him stop.

“What about the other two?” I ask, changing the subject.

Kalen comes over and peers inside the crate. “We have Chomp, and that one is Darius’ little buddy.”

Darius leans over looking in the crate and he huffs. “It is too,” he chuckles, reaching for it. It jumps into his hand and hobbles up his arm before burrowing beneath his shirt and I realize it was the one he was kissing the other night in his hoodie. Darius makes kissy faces at it while we all stare at him. This man is not affectionate, yet willingly kisses one of the deadliest birds in the world like it was a kitten despite the fact they hate Dark -Fae.

“So what are you going to name it?” Tobias asks him, leaning over to scratch its tiny head feather as it licks Darius' puckered lips as he smooches it. Darius seemingly shakes himself and looks around as if he forgot we were watching him. He clears his throat.

“Ah, bird?” Darius offers and the phoenix hisses clearly not liking that name.

“What about Ember?” Lycus says, the bird hisses at him. “Flame?” Lycus offers and the bird falls quiet.

“Flame it is, then” Darius tells the bird as it rubs its beak in his chest hair that was showing from the top button of his shirt that was unbuttoned.

“What about the other one?” Tobias asks. We all shrug out of names and he sighs. “Ashes?” Tobias says giving the bird an option but it was fast asleep on its back dreaming of something with the way his little pudgy legs were running in the air.

“Sleepy?” Lycus says and Tobias shoots him a look.

“Dopey?” Kalen chuckles.

“It isn’t a dwarf!” Tobias says.

“Fine, Ashes it is,” I tell him not wanting to listen to them fight over names. Tobias smiles smugly like he won something. “Fine, since you named it; you feed it,” Lycus laughs.

“Wait, but you’ll help?”

Lycus and Kalen shake their heads. “Nope, they are all yours, so don’t come crying to us when they pluck your eyeballs out,” Lycus says with a shudder falling onto the bed.

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