Phoenix (4 page)

I frowned, taking it as a personal insult that Kors was damaging Beautiful Dead property in the line of duty. ‘Hunter should do something!’

‘Sssh!’ Iceman still wasn’t looking but he was listening hard. Superpower number two – they can hear a leaf fall from the distance of half a mile. He heard the door hinge creak then Kors’ heavy footfall inside the house.

I kept my face close to the new gap, watching Jardine follow his boss into the house, waiting another few seconds before I hissed at Iceman, asking for an update.

‘They’re searching the place, currently heading upstairs,’ he reported.

Up to the one small bedroom whose window overlooked the yard, disturbing the silence of decades, flinging back the faded quilt, poking into dusty corners.

‘Now they’re coming back down.’

I stared at the front door hanging crookedly from one hinge after the sheriff’s forced entry. I thought of Hunter, Phoenix and Dean keeping invisible watch.

‘Kors wants to move on to the barn,’ Iceman told me. ‘Jardine is saying what’s the point? Nobody’s set foot in the place in years.’

I saw the two men reappear in the doorway, Kors leading the way, stooping under the low door frame as he stepped down into the yard. He stopped to stare at the moose antlers above the barn door, then, deciding to ignore his deputy’s advice, he walked towards us.

Do something!
was my silent message to Hunter.

Below us, I heard Kors slide the big metal bolt. ‘Henry, come over here!’ he called.

‘What did you see?’

More footsteps followed across the packed dirt surface. Jardine joined his boss.

‘There – the axe leaning against the stall and the stack of split logs.’

‘Interesting.’ The deputy sheriff had evidently changed his mind.

We heard more footsteps, directly underneath. ‘And here – see the cell phone at the base of the steps.’

My hand flew to my jeans pocket – there was no phone. I sucked in air and felt my throat go dry. Iceman stood, watching me panic.

Down below I heard Kors place a foot on the bottom step.

My brain stopped working. I sprinted for the top of the stairs and, in my hurry to intercept the sheriff, I missed my footing and slid down the steps.

‘Hey, where did you come from?’ Kors grunted. He lunged for my phone but I scrabbled for it and grabbed it first.

Now, because of what I’d done, Hunter couldn’t hang back. Straight away he raised the winged barrier inside the barn, opened wide the door and sucked in a thousand death heads. Yellowing skulls with dark eye sockets whirled around us, pressed in, swerved away, whirled back again in the storm of wings to force Jardine and Kors back out into the yard.

I was fixed to the spot, holding my phone in the palm of my hand. Iceman stood at the top of the stairs, staring at me and shaking his head.

‘Darina, come out here!’ Hunter ordered.

Chapter 3

O
ut in the yard I cowered under the beating wings. Their sound filled my head and drove me crazy – beating, beating, battering me until I dropped the phone and raised my hands to protect my head as I sank to the ground. ‘Phoenix!’ I cried.

‘He can’t help you,’ Hunter warned, his voice ice cold.

I collapsed, still shielding my head, curling up, waiting for the sound to fade, for the wind to stop and the skulls to disappear. A few metres away, Kors struggled to his feet, dragging Jardine up with him.

‘I’m sorry!’ I told Hunter. ‘I shouldn’t have done that.’

‘What’s happening? Who are you talking to?’ Kors tried to deflect the death heads, using his forearm to shield his face and struggling against the beating wings, refusing to let the nightmare visions overwhelm him.

‘No one!’ I gasped. I’d never seen anyone fight back
against the Beautiful Dead this way.

‘You were planning to meet someone. Who was it?’ Kors advanced towards me, through the wings and the skulls.

‘No, I wasn’t – I swear. There’s no one here.’

‘What was that name you yelled out – Phoenix?’

I shook my head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dean take a silent order from Hunter then place himself between me and Kors. Invisible to the sheriff, Dean lashed out and upwards with the back of his hand, making contact with the underside of Kors’ chin and lifting him clean off his feet, flinging him backwards until he crashed into Jardine. The two men fell to the ground. I heard Dean mutter something that sounded like, ‘Sorry about this, Henry,’ and I remembered once again that Dean, the ex-cop, had once worked with my friend the deputy sheriff.

‘Get them out of here,’ Hunter ordered roughly, keeping his steely gaze fixed on me as Dean, still invisible to his victims, raised them out of the dirt as if they weighed no more than rag dolls. They struggled helplessly in his grasp.

‘Go ahead – you know what to do,’ the overlord muttered.

It was time for Dean to memory-zap the two guys. He threw them against the side of the house and sent some
weird, super-powerful electrical current surging through their brains to wipe out all recollection of what had happened since they first set foot on Foxton Ridge.

I saw it happen – watched their bodies absorb the charge and twist in pain, saw their faces contort, their heads fall back and mouths open in silent agony. I groaned for them as their knees buckled and they finally sagged back to the ground.

And now, for the first time since the crisis began, I saw Phoenix – a blurred figure through the wild storm of skulls and beating wings – watching silently. I tried to run to him, longed to feel his strong arms around me, sheltering me from the storm.

‘Phoenix, help me!’ I whispered, though I absolutely knew he was in thrall to his overlord.

Phoenix, his expression fixed in an agony of helplessness, stayed where he was, close to the house with Iceman. I was still on my knees just outside the barn. Dean straddled the two semi-conscious lawmen slumped in the dust.

Hunter, the puppet-master, let the skull barrier fade then gave the silent order for Iceman to help Dean carry Kors and Jardine back to their car.

As the two men were raised from the ground and dragged away, I struggled to my feet and managed to
look Hunter in the eye. Yes, I’d been stupid, I’d acted without thinking and caused a problem, but I wasn’t going to cave in. I would try to stand up to him.

‘When will you ever learn, Darina?’ Hunter sighed. He stood looking at the far horizon of jagged mountains then up at the clear blue sky, not expecting an answer.

‘I said I was sorry. Anyway, Kors saw my phone – he already knew someone was here.’ Even though the wings and skulls had faded, my knees trembled, my voice was hardly more than a whisper.

‘Not necessarily.’

‘He was about to climb the steps into the loft!’

‘And you wouldn’t have been there. I’d already told Iceman to get you out of there fast.’

I gasped. ‘You ordered him to dematerialize me? How was I supposed to know? I’m not like you – I don’t have telepathy.’

Hunter finally turned his head and levelled his gaze on me. ‘You’re
supposed
to take orders from me, end of story. You’re not meant to think for yourself and make bad decisions.’

Phoenix
, I thought.
Step in here, stand up for me!

‘I can’t do it – you know I can’t,’ he whispered. Instead of backing me up, he retreated into the porch and watched from the shadows.

I had to plead for myself in front of the coldest of judges. ‘If Dean does his job, Kors and Jardine won’t remember what happened out here. They’ll go back to town and make a report – all quiet, just miles of pine forest and empty scrub, maybe the odd mule deer.’

Hunter’s eyelids flickered. ‘Likewise, Darina. Remember I could send you back in the same condition as those two, with a sore head and a big blank in your memory.’

‘I know it. And I know I can’t stop you doing that. But last night you saw how messed up my head’s been lately and you offered me the chance to walk away. Being here today is the hardest thing I ever had to do – seeing Phoenix again, loving him the way I do, knowing that this time I have to say goodbye.’

Hunter’s head dipped slightly – a nod of acknowledgement.

For once I’d got through the outer armour and decided to take a big risk.

‘Think about what you told me last night. Imagine if you got the chance to be with Marie again – for one day, one hour, even a minute.’

I saw pain then anger flash in Hunter’s eyes. Phoenix saw it too and took a step down from the porch as if to protect me, before his overlord stopped him dead.

‘Picture it,’ I went on. ‘Would you be thinking straight?
No. One look at Marie and you’d fall apart. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t!’

‘I would,’ he murmured.

I looked right at Hunter, opened my own heart and put myself at his mercy.

‘And still I’m here today. I came to save Phoenix.’

A plane travelled like a slow, silver bullet across the vast blue sky. A wisp of white cloud tangled itself around Amos Peak. The mountains were bruise-blue in the late-afternoon sun. Phoenix stood with me by my red car under the aspens.

‘Hunter gave us thirty minutes,’ he said.

‘Then what?’

‘Then I have to go with Iceman to check out some kids over at Angel Rock.’

‘Kids,’ I echoed softly. Probably more far-siders made curious by the growing rumours about Foxton Ridge – it was a sunny afternoon and they had nothing better to do.

‘Darina, we need to talk,’ Phoenix began.

In my experience, that is never a good sentence. Guys usually follow with, ‘It’s been great dating you and I’d like for us to stay friends, but it’s time to move on.’ For a split-second I thought this was goodbye.

‘No,’ he said quickly, tenderly. ‘That’s not what I mean.’

‘What then? What’s to talk about?’

‘I want to explain to you what it’s like for
me
, coming back to the far side, seeing you – how hard that is.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ I breathed. I realized that all I ever thought of these past few weeks was how bad it was for me – missing Phoenix, fearing that he would never come back to Foxton.

‘Don’t be sorry.’ Drawing me close and tilting my face up towards his, his lips brushed mine. ‘All I want is for us to be together – you know that. It’s all I ever wanted. Every time I step over, away from the far side, I ache for you. I try to picture where you are every minute of the day – what you’re wearing, what you might be doing. I think of you and Zoey sitting together in class, of you and Hannah listening to Summer’s songs … you and Christian playing guitar.’

‘That’s pretty much how it is,’ I murmured, my lips against his cheek as I picked up another unspoken message behind his words. ‘You know you don’t need to worry about me with Christian or Lucas or any of the other guys.’

‘It’s not you I worry about. It’s them.’

‘Explain.’

‘OK, so right now Lucas has Jordan, but Christian doesn’t have a girlfriend. He’s a good guy. Maybe he looks at you and thinks, “It’s been tough for Darina. I could step in and be her rock.”’

‘Christian!’ We were talking Christian Oldman – the boxer, the car-fixer, the all-round guy’s guy.

‘It’s not impossible.’

‘Yes – it is!’ I smiled then kissed him again. ‘But thanks for being jealous!’

Phoenix closed his eyes for a while and seemed to relax. ‘I do know what I’m asking. Not even asking – just hoping.’

‘I don’t want anyone except you,’ I promised. ‘You can stop thinking about it. Now, do you want us to discuss what Hunter asked me to do?’

Phoenix opened his eyes then shrugged.

‘Hey, Mr Casual, do you want to know or not? I’ll tell you anyway. He said for me to drive back to town and talk to your mom.’

He stared steadily into my eyes. ‘I already know.’

‘Yeah, of course.’ I keep forgetting – you get yourself a Beautiful Dead boyfriend and telepathy is part of the package. They’re better at it than the brain scanners in any high-tech hospital, so you keep no secrets, whether you want to or not. ‘So Hunter said, talk to Sharon, ask her if
the cops gave her more details about the way you died.’

Phoenix was still gazing at me, tracking every minuscule neural connection in my brain.

‘I know – you’re thinking that’s not as easy as it might sound, since I’m not top of your mom’s list of favourite people.’

‘There’s that to face,’ he agreed. ‘How come it’s turned out that way?’

It was my turn to shrug. ‘It’s like she’s accusing me of something and I don’t exactly know what. She just doesn’t like me, period.’ I thought again of the times I’d tried to help Zak and been on the end of Sharon Rohr’s hard, ungrateful stare, of the dozen times she’d passed me by in the street.

Phoenix leaned against the side of my car, standing on one hip and kicking at loose stones with the free foot. ‘You have to understand, Mom never had things easy. She was young – just nineteen – when she married my dad. He promised a lot of stuff that he never delivered. Then he messed around with someone else, walked away, left her with three young kids.’

‘I understand. I really do. But I think it’s more personal than that, more aimed directly at me. Maybe it’s connected with Brandon giving me the car …’

A pause for breath gave Phoenix time to pull me
towards him and kiss me. ‘Listen,’ I went on, ‘Hunter’s right about this at least – if anyone knows more details, it’s your mom. Are you OK for me to try and talk to her?’

‘OK?’ He looked unsure.

‘What? Am I suddenly speaking a foreign language?’

This time Phoenix didn’t smile. ‘Did you stop to think, it hurts Mom big time whenever she sees you? You remind her …’

‘Of you?’

Phoenix nodded. ‘She knows I totally gave myself to you. She felt squeezed out of the picture.’

‘I didn’t aim to do that,’ I protested.

‘It doesn’t have to be planned. It’s just what happens – any mother wants to hold on to her son.’

‘I guess.’ Feeling that we’d headed down a cul de sac, I changed direction. ‘You know what I often dream?’ I asked.

He grinned. ‘You mean, the one where I didn’t die and we’re still together on the far side? Or the one where you believe we can cheat this twelve-month deadline and carry on the way we are for ever?’

‘That one,’ I nodded and twined my arms around him. ‘Why not? We could run away – right now. Why don’t we?’

‘You mean – drive in your red car, head west until we
reach the ocean, live on a beach in California where no one can ever find us?’ Phoenix put his arms around my waist and spoke softly into my ear, teasing and lulling me with the music of his voice.

‘I’m not kidding,’ I protested. ‘What’s to stop us from planning our escape?’

He pulled back and grew serious. ‘The world isn’t big enough, Darina. We’re in the you-can-run-but-you-can’t-hide scenario. Twelve months is all I get, no matter what.’

‘We can’t even try?’ I murmured. In my dream, Phoenix and I always found a place where the overlord couldn’t find us, where Phoenix cheated death and we were free.

He closed his eyes, drew a deep breath then opened them again. ‘Don’t tempt me. And don’t think I wouldn’t love to do it, because I would – more than anything, believe me.’

Then, abruptly, he pointed along the ridge to where Dean was walking through the aspens towards us. ‘Our thirty minutes are up,’ he said.

As I drove the interstate from Foxton to Ellerton, I rehearsed what I would say to Sharon Rohr.
I want you to
know that the new car was Brandon’s idea – I never asked him
for it. It’s his way of keeping his promise to Phoenix that he
would take care of me. And I hope you don’t think I ever wanted
to come between you and Phoenix when he was
… No, skip that.
Plus, I’ve heard there are a few issues with Zak lately –
maybe if I saw him, he would relate to me
. Nope, too cheesy. In fact, whatever I came up with, there were serious flaws, knowing as I did that Sharon would most likely answer the door, take one took at me and close it in my face.