Chapter 5
FIVE
Everything burned.
His eyes, his skin, his breath, his insides.
And it burned even worse every time someone sneaked into the shell of a building he’d woken up in, every time he had to send a blast of heat in their direction to keep them back—the only defense mechanism he had with all his gear burned or buried beneath rubble.
The only relief was the wind and rain that whipped around him, the storm that called to him. He would close his burning eyes and turn his face up to the rain, to the cool water that reminded him of the blue-green of Kai’s eyes behind his contacts.
Kai.
He would be frantic by now. Jason had tried half a dozen times to stand, to crawl, to move somewhere else—anywhere else—where he might be able to get his hands on a phone and call his friend, but he was so weak.
His head spun, his insides boiled, and his outsides glowed.
With no clothes or other coverings in sight, he would be exposed.
He’d tried to call out to one of the earlier intruders and make a trade for a phone, but when the intruder had flashed his fangs, Jason hadn’t had any choice but to crisp him like he’d done the other vampires who’d tried to attack.
Fucking Moira. What had she gotten him into?
Another gust of wind blew through the cavernous ruin, and Jason closed his eyes, savoring the cool blanket that surrounded him, imagining it was Kai’s arms. Or the wings Kai had only ever told him about. White and cold like the snow he’d never seen before either.
Was Kai up there somewhere now? Sailing and scouting to find him? Putting himself in danger because he’d fallen for another bad idea? Fuck, Jason would never forgive himself if Kai got hurt or captured because of him. But at the rate he was going—burning—he didn’t think there’d be much time left.
A crack to his left.
He righted his head and opened his eyes, peering into the darkness. He was disoriented, the distance and sharpness still new.
A glint of white, a hiss, a flash of movement.
Fuck, another one.
He shifted back behind the rubble he’d leaned against and balled his fists, willing the fire inside him to gather inside them.
He peeked over the pile of cement, metal, and wood, searching for this target.
The vampire was closer, stalking with its fangs and claws out.
He raised one fist, preparing to fire, when a cacophony of caws and kraas cut through the silence, and in the next blink, the crows and ravens were there, sailing through the gaps in the building where walls and windows used to be, creating a barrier between him and the vampire.
And on the other side of the wall of black birds, growls.
There was a scuffle, more growls, then the vampire’s scream and an unfamiliar voice calling, “First vamp down.”
First? There was more than one? Fuck!
And were these rescuers, or was someone else after him?
Was Kai with them? The birds were corvids, after all, but he didn’t see any white feathers among the black. Still, hope swelled—until gunfire popped off. Jason readied the fireballs again. “Second vamp down,” called a voice he did vaguely recognize but couldn’t place.
A chorus of “Clears” followed, and then so did the birds, flying up to perch on the various outcrops and rebar from the decimated building. All except one, the largest raven with purple eyes, that lighted on the top of the rubble pile Jason was crouched behind.
His voice wobbled as he asked, “Are you here for me?” He’d heard about certain raven shifters in these parts—the reapers.
The big black bird let out a loud Kraa, and Jason’s heart tumbled.
“Jason!”
Then soared. He whipped his gaze back in the direction of the previous scuffle and saw Kai running in his direction. Jason struggled to try to stand, wanting—needing—to wrap his arms around his world.
But someone wrapped theirs around Kai first, halting him from falling to Jason’s side at the last minute. Someone Jason recognized from Club Sutro and dealings with Paris.
Icarus. A vampire.
He fisted another fireball.
“Stop!” shouted a deep voice, an older white man running between them. “He’s not a vampire anymore.”
Not a—
“They’re friendlies, Jason,” Kai said. “Friends of Paris’s.” Then to Icarus, “Let me go!”
“Let her assess things first.”
“Her?” Jason croaked.
“Me.” From behind the group appeared a shorter woman. Her nose was pierced, her ears too, and her hazel eyes were kind as she kneeled beside him. She laid a hand on his arm and didn’t recoil or react to the heat at all. “I’m here to help you.”
The thing inside him flapped its wings, and Mother rattled around in his head, though this person was definitely not the woman who had abandoned him as a kid.
“Is he about to flame out?” the older man asked, now guarded by a mountain lion on one side and a coyote on the other.
“No, he’s in recovery,” the woman answered.
Recovery? “But it hurts,” Jason blew out on a breath of hot air.
“I know. The phoenix is still digging in, healing you. There was a fire?”
He nodded. “The building came down on top of us.”
The older man inhaled sharply and turned away, but not before Jason caught the terror and heartache in his blue-gray eyes. Icarus went to his side, releasing Kai to slide in beside the woman. “Can I touch him?”
“I think so.”
He reached out a hand, cupping Jason’s cheek, and the cool relief that swept through him was a million times better than the rain. Kai slumped toward him, giving him more relief, and wrapped his arms around him. “I’m here,” Kai muttered into his hair. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
The watchful raven hopped down on their level, and the stranger with Icarus joined them. “We need to get him out of here,” he said.
“Adam,” Icarus said, “give her a minute.”
“We don’t have a minute. There’ll be more, and now she’s exposed too.”
She, whatever her name, paid them no mind, her hazel gaze still on him. “You have a choice, but you need to make it now.” She glanced at Kai. “Both of you.”
“What choice?” Jason asked from where he was nestled under Kai’s chin.
“One day,” she said to Kai, “if you stay by his side, you will have to wrap your wings around him and deliver the fire back to me. And on that day, he will be human again, and you will become a raven like him.” She nodded toward the black one by their side.
“A reaper?”
She nodded. “That day can be today. The phoenix and your magic will heal him, and you will save him from flaming out without you by his side in the future.”
Jason glanced between the black raven and Kai. “You don’t want to be a reaper?”
“My tribe . . . We turned away from it generations ago because . . .”
“Because your kind brought down the first phoenix for me,” the woman said.
“And burned an entire village in the process.”
“What happens if we don’t do it today?” Jason said.
“Adam trains you to live with the phoenix and harness it for us.”
“I thought you needed them back,” Icarus said to her.
“The ones who are about to flame out,” she said. “But we caught Jason at the beginning. You could use the firepower and a smuggler.”
“For the phoenixes you do need,” Adam said.
“Exactly, and I can use Kai’s magic to channel those back.”
“Without him turning to a reaper?” Jason said.
She turned her gaze back to them. “Yes, because it’s your soul, your phoenix that his raven is connected with. Your souls will travel together. Your choice. Make it now.”
Kai shifted and opened his mouth to speak, to no doubt try to save Jason more pain, but Jason spoke first. “I want to do good. I want to be good for you. I can do this. We can do this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Sure that I want more time with you? That I don’t want you to become something you aren’t just for my sake?”
“But I would. I would do anything to save you.”
“I know, baby, but I can finally make this life good for us.” He smiled. “So long as you promise to be there by my side.”
Kai lowered his forehead to his, his cool breath a balm to fiery storm inside him. “Always,” he promised.