Blood Brother Cursed (Sexton Blood Brothers #2)

Chapter 13

Avenging Angel

The feel of the wind against Astrid’s body was terrifying, mostly because she had no control over what was happening. That had never happened before. Closing her eyes, she leaned forward on the broad back of the most splendid creature she’d ever seen and focused on the feel of him under her. His movements were smooth, and he didn’t do anything that caused her discomfort, but Astrid couldn’t ignore the fact that she was moving through the air with nothing between Phoenix and a long fall to her death.

When she felt him touch down on the ground, she was more than ready to get her feet back on land.

She wobbled a little, and Phoenix gripped her shoulders. “Are you ok? Are you having a bad reaction because of the electrical currents?”

“No, not at all. I’m feeling rather thankful to be on the ground.”

He looked at her. “I wish I could offer to let you stay here and—"

“Oh no,” she stood up straight. I’ve no desire to stay put and let you go running into danger. I’m ready.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. What do you want to do?”

“Ok, I haven’t thought too much about it. I don’t want to kill people, so a mass hallucination would clear the place out.”

“What about any women they have taken for experiments?”

“They don’t have any.”

Astrid looked over at him. “How do you know?”

“They just started it up over the last year, and I’ve been monitoring them. I also regularly tap into the thoughts of the people in charge—I have to meet with them regularly for work —and no, they don’t know what I really do. Elliott’s been monitoring the comms I planted on them during the meetings. We heard when they found you without realizing it was you.”

Astrid thought back for a moment. “Is that why he responded immediately to me calling Cooper?”

“Probably, but I can’t get into his mind, so I couldn’t tell you what he’s thinking.”

“Your ability is really weird but incredibly useful.”

Phoenix was looking at the building when he said, “It always creeped my father out. My mom could do it, too, which was probably why he married her. She couldn’t read his mind; otherwise, she wouldn’t have married him.” He turned to face her, his cool blue eyes like a calm day before a storm. “Can you make it rain?”

“I… I can do more than that with an entire ocean nearby.”

“I’m not looking to flood the place.”

She smiled. “It could be a controlled flood.”

“What’s that?”

“Kind of like a controlled burn, but the point is to push out the people instead of culling the undergrowth.”

A wicked smile spread across his face, exposing his beautiful white teeth. “How does a tsunami sound?”

“Oh, no, I can’t bring that kind of water this far inland.”

“You don’t have to—I’ll take care of getting their attention with it, and you start flooding the building.”

“I knew there was something I really liked about you.” She bumped him with her shoulder, then turned to face the structure some ways in the distance. “We’ll need to move closer for me to keep from killing anyone.”

Phoenix whisked her off her feet and ran toward the facility. “Tell me when.”

She laughed, this time enjoying the feel of the wind on her face. “Here, here!” she cried when they were about a half mile from the place. A bit of disappointment filled her when he put her down. Astrid looked at him for a moment out of the corner of her eye before turning her attention to the facility. “You said that they were on the move. Have they left the facility?”

“No, they are still in there preparing. It sounds like they’ve located someone else, so intercepting them before they leave would be ideal.”

“You can’t trace them?”

He looked over at her. “I couldn’t. I was only able to get the big fish, and they don’t do anything that would get their hands dirty.” He folded his arms over his chest. “They’ll send in guys like the men you saw.”

“Ah, well, then we had best get moving.” Astrid inhaled and exhaled through her mouth as she focused on the facility. “You have ten minutes until the storm arrives.”

“That should be enough.” Phoenix stepped up beside Astrid.

For a second, she looked up at him, and then she slipped her hand into his. He turned to look at her, then squeezed her hand.

Allowing something in her to open, Astrid began to draw the water toward them. She could feel it churning and roiling as she made sure not to drag any living creatures along with what she was collecting. In the distance, the sounds of sirens began to fill the air with a horrific noise that she imagined had to be horrifying to the people who had no clue what was coming.

Phoenix leaned over. “It’s got two underground levels, and they are starting to evac now. If you can flood them when everyone’s out, I can make sure the facility can’t be brought back to life again.”

She gave a simple nod but couldn’t speak without losing some of the collected water. Clearly, he had something in mind, and whatever it was, she wanted to see it instead of knowing beforehand.

People began racing out of the facility, their eyes going to the sky as if they expected to see something immediately. They were much too far away to hear what was being said, but from the postures, the growing crowd was restless.

A smile spread over her face as Astrid turned the water into what would look like a large wave on the ground. The people saw it a few seconds later, and that’s when they started pointing, and she heard their screams.

Phoenix whispered in her ear, “Now that’s quite impressive.”

She wanted to say something, but she couldn’t without causing a massive problem to the area underwater. Raising her hand, she made the water rise farther in the air, and even to her, it looked like a massive wave rolling over the land. People were scrambling away from the place as she brought the wave down hard. That’s where the similarities to a tsunami ended. The water should have washed people away, wiping out everything in its path. Instead, she directed it into every door, crack, and crevice, washing through the facility. The people outside were all on the ground, knocked over by the force. Some were injured, others were fine, but they were all scrambling into their cars. She smiled—that amount of water would do serious damage to their vehicles.

The water rolled through the facility unchecked, destroying instruments and electronics. Astrid had never tried to hack the place, and now she wouldn’t need to since she had a much more cathartic way of destroying the place. The image of her brother sneaking into the place passed through her mind. Seconds later, Phoenix squeezed her hand. “They are fleeing. Now it’s time to really put on a show.”

Astrid snapped back to the present; her mind no longer focused on controlling the water. “What did you have in mind?” Her voice was a little breathless, something that had never happened. Then again, she had never controlled that much water, so she was starting to learn just how far her boundaries reached.

The image of her brother again flitted through her mind, and she felt anger starting to well up in her. Her abilities were far from exhausted and people were standing around in the water she had brought forth.

Phoenix released her hand and put his hand on her hip. “No, Astrid. We aren’t going to kill them.”

She turned to look at him. As soon as she saw those cool blue eyes, the anger dissipated. “He died here.”

“Yes, but he wouldn’t want you to kill for him. That’s not how you honor him.”

“Then how are we going to make them pay? I thought we were going to destroy this place. Water damage isn’t going to do that.”

“No, but this will.” He let go of her and walked away. Seconds later, he shifted into his gorgeous dragon form. Lowering his body, she could hear him breathing in.

That’s when she realized what he was doing. She smiled as he exhaled a small blue orb. It flew toward the facility, striking the middle of the roof.

The place imploded. Astrid stood there watching the beauty of the roaring fire as it consumed the place.

“Are you sure no one died?”

Phoenix turned his long neck toward her and let out a huff. Then he shifted again. “Yeah, I’m sure. And they are all going to find it hard to justify what they were doing here when the government comes to question them.”

“Why would the government care?”

“They only have the one contract with the military, and it was not easily won. They’ll never get another contract again, especially since that facility was built by the military decades ago, and it was only on loan to them this time. The government took it back after Evander was killed. Now, well, let’s just say word is going to spread.”

“Do I want to know how you plan to do that?”

“No, keep your plausible deniability.”

She laughed, then wrapped her arms around him. “Yeah, I don’t want to know what kind of scary mind tricks you can do.”

“Are you finally starting to fear me?”

She looked up at him, and she felt a comfortable warmth spread through her. “No, I don’t need you giving me ideas because I might start asking you to do things for me. And I don’t think you would turn me down.” She stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss.

Phoenix wrapped his arms around her and rested his cheek on the top of her head. “I’m sorry you are stuck with me.”

Astrid slid a hand down and pinched his butt. “I think you got the raw end of the deal. Being stuck with me has got to be far more trying. Besides,” she slipped a hand down his pants and rested it on the top of his muscular butt, “I am looking forward to not being alone.”

He slid both of his hands down the back of her pants, pulling her into his body. “Me, too.”

For a few minutes, they remained like that, just enjoying a sense of peace.

Finally, Astrid pulled away a little and looked up at him. “I guess I should start returning the water.”

“It’ll find its way back to the ocean, and I don’t think the Pacific is going to miss it too much.”

She giggled. “I guess there’s plenty more where that came from.” She rubbed her face against his muscular chest, enjoying the feel of his body against hers. “But I should probably get it out of the facility and clean out the debris.”

“Will that take long because I kind of want to get you home.”

She giggled into him again. “Think of everything you want to do to me when we get there. By the time you finish coming up with a few fantasies, I’ll be done.”

He groaned. “I’ve been fantasizing about you for months now, Astrid. It’s torture.”

“Months?” She put her chin on the top of his chest, “You’ve been interested for months?”

He nodded, then leaned down and kissed her. “It was really difficult to keep away from you because I’ve felt a pull to you that is entirely new. When you wouldn’t leave me alone, it became impossible.”

She kissed his chin. “I’m all done.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Ironically, cleaning up the water is the easy part. I mostly let it do what it would but speed it along.”

“You are fascinating.” He nuzzled into her hair. “How do you want to get home?”

She sighed and gritted her teeth. “I guess flying is best, right?”

“Will you be ok?”

“Well, it’ll be my second time flying, so it should be easier, right?”

“I promise you will be safe. Just keep your eyes closed and consider what you want to do with me when we get back.”

“I’m thinking a blindfold.”

He reached down and pinched her butt. Astrid laughed as she felt his body shift. The next things she knew, they were in the air. This time, she kept her eyes shut and enjoyed the feel of his body under hers.