Phoenix Everlasting

  She had no hate in her heart. And as beautiful as she was at seven, she’d be even more so in twenty years.

  Was this the closest I would ever get to seeing her wedding?

  Tears streamed down my face, and I headed for the driveway. I would not embarrass her here. I’d get control of myself in the car. I’d…

  I stopped moving. Standing in front of me was Ava Sinclair, mommy extraordinaire and PTA president. She hated me, probably even before I’d exposed my gifts at her meeting while trying to get rid of a ghost. She’d thought I was drunk. In fact, I think it had been Ava herself who’d told Levi all about it before I’d even gotten home. She’d wanted to sleep with my ex-husband, and Levi being Levi, he didn’t have a clue. When I’d suggested her intentions had been anything but helpful, he’d accused me of being paranoid.

  I planted my feet. I couldn’t remember the end of my marriage every time I encountered one of these people.

  What was she doing leaning against my car?

  My heart rate kicked up. Why didn’t she have a light? I turned behind me; the house was so filled with brightness I could probably see it from the moon. Where was Ava’s light?

  I walked toward her slowly. “What are you?”

  She raised a dark eyebrow. “Lightbringer, I wondered when you’d see me. The white hair tipped me off to the changes. I reported it. They told me to watch you. And now you can see.”

  “You’re a Shadow in Ava’s body.” My nightmare in the flesh. “How long have you been in there?”

  Ava had a husband and five daughters. She had the body of a woman who had never been pregnant, and I’d resented the heck out of it in my less than stellar moments. Still, she lived at home with her family. Those children had to be protected. Unless … they’d already been taken over, too. No, her husband had a glow. I’d seen it when I was inside, and her youngest daughter remained Molly’s friend. They were still okay.

  Ava-who-was-not-Ava raised a dark eyebrow. “Someone had to watch you. For years I have been in this body preforming mundane activities, running the PTA, changing diapers.”

  Her daughter CeCe was seven years old. She’d likely been out of diapers for four to five years. Ava had been gone the whole time. “You did more than watch me. You ruined my life. At least it makes sense why you hated me on sight.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “I’m not in the mood to bicker. The quicker I deliver this message, the sooner I can be done. Then I will leave this body and get on with something more important than dealing with you. My master wants to duel with your Warrior. Friday night, under the Full Moon. If he wins, your Warrior will be dead—yet we will offer the rest of you the opportunity to disappear with your lives and loved ones intact. If we lose, and we will not, we will go dormant for another hundred years. The Old Ones won’t be able to resurrect you again after such a time. Our fight will be with others. You can move on.”

  “Why would I offer to deal with you ever? Why would I consider putting Malcolm in any dual with your so-called master? That’s ridiculous. The fact that you’re even presenting this offer means you’re worried about us. I have my vision now and …”

  She snapped her fingers in my face, which startled me so much I stopped talking. Who snapped in a person’s face? “You are done. This is the most you’ll ever be. You’re not that powerful. Congratulations. You know how we’ll make our bodies. We don’t care. When we find the phoenix again, we won’t lose it. We want Malcolm. Offering you a choice was a mistake. I can see that now. You’re stupid. You still think you have a chance.” She waved her hand, and all the shadows around us danced to life. They formed a large wave of darkness, and for a second I thought it meant to engulf me. Instead the dark wave turned, heading for the house. At that very second, the girls came running outside to take their limo ride.

  I gasped. “Stop.” I pointed to the light, but no amount of it was going to stop a shadow that big. “Stop. Don’t touch them. Don’t.”

  All eyes turned to me. Levi and the others stared while I flung my arms around in the air. Levi saw the wave, his eyes getting huge. He grabbed Molly by the arms and ran into the house as she screamed. My daughter couldn’t see the shadows either, but she knew we were scared. Ava snapped her fingers, and the shadows dropped, disappearing.

  I was out of breath, but I rounded on Ava. “I’ll take the message to Malcolm. I can’t guarantee he’ll do it.”

  She pointed at the house. “He’ll do it. Or that’ll be nothing. I told you not to invite them, Margot.” Ava walked toward the house. “You never can tell when Kendall is going to ruin everything.”

  This was officially the last time I played defense with these people. Enough was more than fucking enough.

  ***

  I had the kids, and I wasn’t going to miss another night with them. Molly had been freaked out and gone home in tears. I’d heard lots of mutterings on our way out. Poor Levi had been the most frequent thing said. Apparently they thought he’d grabbed Molly and run toward the house because he protected her from my kind of crazy. His protestations had gone unheard. Kendall Yates being crazy was too good a story to let go of.

  Since I wasn’t leaving my kids, the team had to come to me.

  The doorbell rang; Henry, Victoria, and baby, strapped to mama, walked through the door holding Chinese takeout bags. I loved them for thinking of it. My parents had fed the kids, but I hadn’t had any appetite for food earlier. My adrenaline was wearing off, and I needed to eat.

  Victoria kissed my cheek before Henry spoke. “Avengers assembled.” Henry winked at me, and I rolled my eyes. I wished we were superheroes. “And here I thought the most exciting part of the day was going to be Molly marrying Levi. Her father. I think we have to move to somewhere in the Alps. In a farmhouse in the Alps with no one around to warp my children.”

  I shook my head. “It was kind of sweet.”

  “If you say so.” He followed Victoria into the kitchen, and I heard them chatting with my parents. Block was next. They must have all had the same thought. He had pizza. I took a deep breath. When I’d been pregnant with Dex, I couldn’t tolerate the smell of tomato sauce and I’d cried over the lack of pizza for nine months. There was never a time I didn’t like to smell pizza, which consequently meant I wanted to eat it all the time, too.

  “Sorry about today.”

  I touched his arm. “Thanks, friend.”

  Chase came in on his cell phone carrying candy. Had a text gone out suggesting I needed to be fed? He shoved the bag at me and didn’t get off his phone. He covered the speaker with his hand. “I’m still working on finding the others. Seems kind of pressing.”

  “It’s fine. Just don’t do this if you’re ever on a date. Coming through the door on your phone would be a real turn off.”

  He snorted. “What’s a date?”

  I felt him before I saw him. Malcolm came out of the darkness, and my body warmed. His light was bright, and his eyes were all for me. He didn’t have food. My parents passed us, nodding to Malcolm before they made their way upstairs. For all their talent, they seemed to vanish whenever the shadow discussions came up. I didn’t blame them; I wished I could.

  Stopping at the door, Malcolm pulled me against him and kissed me hard. My muscles loosened at his embrace, and I sighed against his mouth. “Listen, killer. It absolutely sucks what happened today. That being said, when I was seven I was lucky if my foster parents remembered to feed me. I had ten ghosts attacking me nightly and nightmares about a demon at the foot of my bed, which frankly, I think was probably there. This was always bullshit to begin with, right?”

  “It’s difficult to explain to you how horrific it is to continuously be the reason my kids are humiliated. I’m not thrilled about the whole duel invite either.”

  He shrugged. “If I’ve got to fight him, I will.”

  “I know.”

  Chapter Eight

  “I think the idea of scrying is …”

  Victoria hissed at Chase. “I’ve
been doing this since I was three years old. I don’t need you to tell me what scrying is. Okay?”

  He held up his hands. “Down, tiger.”

  I looked between everyone. “Am I missing something?” There seemed to be a lot of tension in the room.

  Malcolm shook his head. “Victoria is blaming herself for what happened to you. Something went wrong in the summoning. Chase blames her, too. So they’re both snapping at each other. Henry wants to kill Chase for blaming the witch since he’s having enough trouble dealing with Victoria’s guilt. Block hasn’t weighed in on the subject, and I, personally, blame you for the debacle.”

  I elbowed Malcolm, and he laughed. “Seriously, it’s not anyone’s fault. The Others needed to do what they did. We made it easier for them. Learned some things we needed to know.”

  My phone rang, and I stared at the number. One of the room mom’s had phoned. I groaned. I hardly knew Naomi Johnson. She didn’t usually get involved in public bashings. For a second, I thought about ignoring the call. Instead, I picked up. If I was going to take some kind of punishment, I might as well get it over. What was she going to do? Throw me out of the bake sale?”

  “Hello?” I drummed my fingers on the table.

  “Hi, Kendall? Its Naomi.” She sniffed loudly. “Sorry to call late. We’re calling all the parents before tomorrow. Such a nightmare. Ava, CeCe’s mom, she died tonight.”

  My heart plummeted into my stomach. “What? How?”

  I was so stupid. Of course, she’d died. The shadow had told me she was going to leave the body. Ava had been dead for years, only I was the single person in the universe who knew. For her family, this was losing her.

  Those poor children … her husband …

  “She had a heart attack. Can you believe it? She was so healthy. How does a forty-year-old woman who runs marathons have a heart attack?” I listened for a few moments in silence as Naomi continued to cry. Somehow, despite being a shadow, Ava had made friends who loved her. People were going to miss her.

  And all of it was my fault. The only reason Ava Sinclair got caught in this drama was because of me. A silent, secondary person who’d died—left her four children and her husband—because Levi and I lived in this neighborhood.

  Eventually I got off the phone. All eyes in the room were on me, and I really had nothing to say. I rubbed my eyes. “Any luck?”

  Victoria shook her head. “I don’t think I can scry for shadows. It was a good idea. But it’s not working.”

  I tapped my foot on the ground. “Ava died; the shadow left her body. She seems to have had a heart attack. Someone is going to have to come by to see if Malcolm accepts the so-called invitation. I bet it’s someone else we know. Ava watched me. There are probably someone watching all of us. We figure out who they are, and then you can scry for them, Victoria.”

  “Another story where we wait and see.” Malcolm pushed his chair back. “Fine. Sure. Whatever. I’ll keep sending people out to clear too many ghosts. We’ll never make headway because of the Cascade. It’ll all be just awesome.”

  He stormed from the room, and I ran after him, which turned out to be up the stairs. I found him standing outside of Grayson’s room peeking in on my son. The room was dark; the kids had been asleep for hours.

  I could see Gray’s light from where I stood. It mixed with Malcolm’s, illuminating the dimly lit hallway like a beacon to me. He stepped back and whispered. “I’m sorry. I think about him. The demon in him last year. I like to see he’s okay.”

  “That’s okay.” I took his hand. “Got a question for you.”

  He groaned. “Can’t be good if you’re not just asking it. Go ahead. Annoy me with whatever you’re going to say.”

  “What do you do with the ghost? Our killer? He doesn’t come into the house, or I would feel him. Hell, my daughter would probably clear him.” I tugged him with me down the hall toward my room.

  “That’s your question?” He groaned. “I stick him somewhere, and I tell him to stay. I have control over these things. Our powers, yours and mine, they’re not exactly the same. Yours have gotten really weird. I can move objects sometimes. Not huge ones, but I dumped that woman on her ass at Dex’s soccer game last year. I told the ghost to stay in the car. He’s in the car.”

  I kissed his chin. “You told him to stay, so he stayed. Like a dog. Okay. Where’s the phoenix?”

  He sucked in his breath. “We’re in your bedroom. You’re kissing me. And asking me about ghosts and phoenixes?”

  I rubbed my hand over the bulge in his pants. He gasped, his eyes getting large. “Here’s what we’re going to do. After our friends go home, we’re going to have sex. Lots of it. Quietly. So my kids don’t wake up. That’s the disappointing part of having sex with kids around. You have to be quiet.”

  He sucked in his breath. “I can be quiet.”

  “Great. Then I’m going to be mean to you. Horribly rude. I’m going to throw you out. Make you mad and unhappy. Do you understand? We are having sex, and you are going to still be mad and unhappy.” I bit him under the ear, and felt his pulse jump under my fingertips on his arm.

  “I’m sure I’ll hate every second of it. Detest having sex with you. I’ll never be happy again.”

  His breath was warm on my skin. Maybe we didn’t have to wait until they left. Maybe we could … the doorbell rang. It took me a second to recognize the sound. Why was someone bothering us this late at night?

  I pulled out of Malcolm’s embrace and ran down the stairs. The last thing I needed was for whomever it was to wake the kids.

  Chase was already at the door when I got there. “Expecting a package?”

  “What?” My postman stood at my doorway, still in his uniform. And he didn’t have a light where his soul should be. “Oh, I see. Chase, meet the shadow man. Shadow man, I assume you know Chase.”

  Malcolm arrived, then pushed me behind him, which was ridiculous as much as it was also kind of hot. I’d been around the shadows—a lot more than I’d even known. I wasn’t any more at risk this second than any other.

  “Warrior. We’ve come for your answer.”

  I poked my head around. “How long have you been in that body?”

  The shadow man had no eyes for me; his attention stayed fully focused on Malcolm. I didn’t have to hear Malcolm’s response to know what he said. He’d never turned away from a fight, ever. I couldn’t have talked him out of it if I’d tried, and I didn’t really want to. We’d been trained to beat these bastards back.

  “Tell Top Hat I’ll be glad to see him on the battle field, if it’s him, and if it’s someone else, that’s fine, too. We’ll put this baby to bed.”

  “Friday night then. Expect another visitor to come with a time and place.”

  “You will receive three ghosts. It’s like the shadow version of the Christmas Carol.” Chase laughed.

  The postman looked at me. “Years and years,” he said, apparently answering my question from before. “And just like Ava, they’ll find me dead. Hurts, doesn’t it? To know these good people never had a chance once you came into their lives?”

  Chase slammed the door shut. “Fuckers.”

  “Why are they so preoccupied with seeing you?”

  I shook my head, moving past Malcolm. I squeezed his arm to tell him I hadn’t forgotten him. I cared that he was going to fight. I remembered what we had been doing when the doorbell rang. But I couldn’t let this moment pass.

  “Victoria.” I rushed over to her. “Did you pick up his energy?”

  She stood over her mirror, holding a white crystal. “I’ve already got it, babe. It’ll just be a question of what we see and if we can make out location.”

  Jack cried, and she kissed him on his head; the papoose he resided in pressed against her chest made for easy access for a snuggle. “Henry, could you?”

  He reached between them, unhooking his son and taking him in his arms. “Can’t cry when Mommy’s being amazing. Wait till she’s just being extraordinary
.”

  Chase joined me then whispered in my ear. “I worry about them. So much love between them. How will they make it if something happens?”

  I eyed him. “That’s why you keep all women at arm’s length? So they wouldn’t have to mourn you? We’re all very familiar with death.”

  “True that.” Chase shook his head. “Speaking of death. My sister. Could you really have brought her back?”

  “Yes. I still can if you want me to. I can see the lights. It would be a question of finding hers in the phoenix.”

  He groaned. “Don’t do that. Okay? We’re supposed to have one life. Then we move on to … whatever. Maybe nothing, right? Maybe the ghosts you clear are just gone. Maybe there’s heaven. Or another dimension. Or a planet somewhere else.”

  Malcolm joined our conversation. “Maybe we reincarnate.”

  “Yeah, okay. Whatever. The point is we do this once. They took us, intercepted our souls from whatever was going to happen next, and stuck us here. I’m not dragging Mary back into this world to fight this crap with us. She wasn’t good enough to do it before the Shadows started ringing doorbells.” He took a deep breath. “Let her alone. Let her be gone. Let her sleep.”

  When he would turn away, Malcolm grabbed his arm. “Are you okay? Do we need to be worried about you?”

  “We all have a job. Mine isn’t going so well right now. I can’t fix this; I can’t make you all forget. You need to remember. I have to find the others. I’ll do that. You can count on me.”

  It was sometimes hard for me to say the things that mattered. Still, I wouldn’t shy from this. “You’re more than our tool. You’re our family. Integral. Even if I didn’t know and neither did you for so long.”

  He blinked rapidly. “When Michael told me to take your memories and you agreed, I pretty much wanted to die. Each time I did it, the action killed me a little. I don’t want to be their tool in destroying what it was that made us human.”

  Malcolm spoke low. “You didn’t. Don’t carry the burden. Other things you can feel like shit about; doing what the Others asked of you? No one blames you for that.”