Phoenix Child

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Cartazonon's skin buzzed with power. He loved the way he felt after a good feed. In the past he would have celebrated with such enthusiasm old Bacchus himself would get jealous. But now, in this modern era where information traveled the world in a single breath, he couldn't be seen for another week.

  Stolen energy glowed about him, this time blue-green wisps swirled in his own murky gray energy. His black eyes danced with light, and around him power sparked like static electricity.

  Closing his eyes, Cartazonon followed the energy as it spread out like a spiders’ web connecting all of his properties and people. He noticed a few places where the energy wasn't flowing well, and one place where the energy was being consumed at a very fast rate.

  Mentally he followed the trail and found one of the dark ones awake in the catacombs. Hunger gnawed its belly, and its teeth lengthened as it smelled the humans walking around above.

  "Hush," Cartazonon hissed, lulling the creature back to sleep. His hands shook as the beast fought him. Sweat beaded on his forehead and ran down his cheek. The beast roared, and Cartazonon drew on his power forcing it to bend to his will. "You will go back to sleep. It isn't time for you to wake yet." The creature’s growl turned into a snore as his yellow eyes closed.

  Cartazonon wiped his face with a silk handkerchief. Sometimes he wondered if keeping these dark beasts was worth the energy it took to control them.

  Groaning, he fell into a chair and allowed the soft leather to cradle his body. San Francisco popped back in his mind. He would have stayed and investigated, but meetings ruled his life and businessmen investing millions of dollars in a project wanted to talk to the man in charge.

  Grabbing a piece of paper, he wrote a letter to Yilmaz. He wasn't far from San Francisco. Cursing he sucked on his finger, damn paper cut! He would find a way to drag his pasha into the modern world. There had to be something the old Turk wanted more than he hated technology. Some of his generals adapted to changes better than others. Yilmaz, while faithful and good at his job, needed to be dragged into each new century.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  "If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down."