Chapter 63
“Shoot. He’s a lot larger than I pictured,” Aiden said.
“Size isn’t everything,” his phoenix countered.
The approaching phoenix was easily a third larger than Aiden’s. There were white feathers interspersed with his red-orange-yellow coloring. His eyes were pale yellow and beady. He swooped up and over Aiden and Mac.
They immediately gave chase.
“So, you aren’t an absolute disappointment, son,” his father screeched inside his head.
“Don’t listen to his posturing,” Aiden’s phoenix urged. “He’s trying to unsettle you, and by extension, me. He wants us to lose focus.”
“You’re a monster,” Aiden retorted. “Why bother with these people? Don’t you have enough?”
His father increased his speed and headed for the mountains on the other side of town.
“Where’s he going?” Aiden asked his beast.
“Not sure what he’s up to yet,” the phoenix answered.
“I need a new body. Mine is at the end of its usefulness,” his father said. “I was going to grab Tessa and force her to help me, but we know what happened to her. I wasn’t quick enough to get to her before her rebirth.”
“Stay calm,” Aiden’s beast implored.
His father flew in circles and big loops.
Aiden saw Mac still at his side. He wondered what she thought of all this. He didn’t even know if she could hear his father.
“Then, there is the child, but the spell to take her phoenix essence requires too much magic. I need a strong witch. I need much less power to take your essence. I think your witch will be able to handle that. Now, if my men kill her first, then of course, we’ll have to find another.”
“Keep him talking. I need to figure out where he’s trying to lead us,” his phoenix said.
“But why?” he asked his father. “Why the experiments? Why try to kidnap Iris? Why Grey Lake?”
His father’s phoenix swooped straight up in the air and spun so he was facing Aiden and Mac. His enormous wings flapped slowly, keeping him alight. His eyes narrowed. “The experiments were for you! It was all for you!”
“What?” Aiden choked.
“I started funding those experiments when you failed to shift almost twenty years ago. I recruited the brightest scientists. I paid for the best equipment. I ensured we had the subjects we needed to fix you!”
“No,” Aiden whispered.
“Don’t listen to him,” Aiden’s phoenix said.
“Your sister was my plan B, but when she failed to shift, I knew my best chance was you. You were so much like me. I knew you couldn’t be just a human. ”
“How?” Aiden felt sick. “How many people did you torture for nothing?”
“Those broken shifters came to me for a cure. My scientists were able to help some of them. They work for me now. They’re the men and women who are going to take over the town. They are loyal to me. The ones who didn’t survive; they weren’t missed.”
“Why did you want me to shift so badly?” Aiden asked.
“I knew if you were able to shift, we’d be an unstoppable force. You could use your power to restore my health and then we could take any land we wanted. Phoenix magic can do incredible things – we could find a witch to help transfer some of your life essence to me. There’d be no shifter able to resist two magnificent beings. Then, we could take on the humans.”
“What?” Aiden asked. He could see Mac out of the corner of his eye. She flew close to him, hovering. Aiden hoped she didn’t do anything rash.
“You were a good son. A stellar student. A good protégé in business. I knew the scientists would eventually figure out how to help you; they were making such progress. Everything was moving in the right direction, especially once I got rid of that parasite attached to you. You were too attached. He had to go. He was leading you to ruin!”
“Does he mean our mate?” Aiden’s phoenix asked.
Aiden saw red. He felt white, hot heat in his chest. No, no, no. He needed to keep his head.
“Stay focused,” Aiden told his phoenix.
“But then when your sister moved up here, you changed. I sensed it. I tried to bring her back home for you,” his father spat. “But not even that was good enough for you. My powers were getting weaker. I couldn’t just sit there and wait. That’s when I remembered how old dear Tessa was. That’s when I decided to force her hand by taking over her people. When she transitioned, the plan changed.”
“Why don’t you just go through the rebirth? You might even end up happy,” Aiden said.
“No, I don’t think so. I think you should just land. This can all be over. Think about it. You can’t have been flying very long. I can tell you’re unsure, unsteady, weak. I have over four hundred years of experience. There’s no way this will end well for you or your doctor friend here. Now, on the other hand, if you just give me what I want, your friend can go free. I’ll even spare most of the people in this town. Some will have to be taken of course, to feed my soldiers, but most can be saved if they agree to my terms of course. All you have to do is come willingly. We can be a team again.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Aiden’s phoenix said.
“The only other option is for me to take the child and destroy you, your sister and all of Tessa’s shifters.”
Screech!
That was Mac. Aiden looked to the side. He couldn’t understand her.
Ahh! Something sharp tore through the tip of one wing. What the hell was that? He headed down toward the ground in a mimic of a freefall, pulling up at the last minute. Mac was right at his side. He peered behind them to see about ten large shifter birds of prey. Where did they come from?
“We need to circle around them so we can cook them,” Aiden said.
“That’s my plan,” his phoenix said.
Aiden scanned the skies as his beast flew. Where the hell had his father gone?
Screech! Screech! Mac’s eagle screamed.
Aiden’s phoenix shot up nearly vertically just as a beam of pale orange fire tore through the sky. It just missed him. That was close. Mac had been trying to warn him, but he couldn’t understand her. He needed help.
“Jamie!”
A few seconds passed before he responded . “Aiden, I’m here.”
“I need your help. My father’s here. There’re so many other flight shifters, too. Mac’s trying to help, but I can’t understand her eagle.”
“OK, hold on.”
Just a few seconds later, Jamie’s voice returned. “Aiden, help’s on the way. I talked to Mac. When she screams once, go high. Two screams, go low. One caw, go right. Two caws, go left. You do the same if you need to communicate with her.”
“Got it?” Aiden asked his beast.
“Yes.”
“Thanks! Stay safe,” Aiden said to Jamie.
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
“I love me, too. Now focus,” his beast hissed. “Let’s turn the tables on these idiots.”
Aiden’s phoenix flew up and looped back around into the middle of the attack group of hawk and vulture shifters. Flames flew from his beak. Three shifters were hit and immediately disintegrated. Mac flew under him and impaled a condor shifter with her talons. She tore a chunk of flesh from the creature’s chest causing the beast to fall from the sky.
Aiden spied a huge hawk shifter heading right for Mac. He immediately shot it with his fire, catching its right wing. The appendage crumbled to dust and the shifter fell like a weight.
Caw! Caw!
Aiden’s phoenix banked left. A burst of white flames just missed him.
He accelerated, Mac on his right.
“What’re we going to do?” Aiden asked his phoenix. “We can’t keep running. I feel you tiring.”
“There’re five more of them, plus our father. We can do this.”
“Son, you should just land. Give up, and your friend will be spared,” his father urged. “Or my men could just concentrate on her.”
No!
His father’s flight shifters immediately turned their sights on Mac. She shot away from the group like a cannon. Aiden chased after her, putting himself between Mac and the others.
Aiden sensed his beast’s weariness. What could he do? Think! Think! He surveyed the area around them. The National Forest was off to their right. These shifters liked wide open spaces. Maybe they wouldn’t like the woods.
“We can do this,” Aiden encouraged his beast. “Let me get word to Mac. Then follow her into the forest.”
“Jamie?” Aiden called out to his mate.
“What do you need?” he immediately replied.
“Tell Mac to head into the National Forest.”
“Got it.”
“Thanks!”
Aiden knew when she received the message as she immediately changed directions and made a beeline for the trees. Aiden’s phoenix followed closely.
The five flight predators pursued them into the trees. Aiden heard squawks and screeches behind him as their hunters hit branches and leaves. Good, they were definitely less comfortable. Mac nimbly banked around the trees. Aiden’s beast’s smaller size gave him more agility than he imagined his father would have. He hadn’t seen his beast follow them. Probably waiting up overhead to incinerate them when they try to escape to safety.
“We need to take them out in here,” Aiden said.
“On it,” his phoenix replied. “Just setting the stage.”
Screech!
Mac flew high. He followed and pulled in front of her. He looped back behind the hawks.
Caw! Caw!
Mac pulled left.
When she was clear, Aiden’s phoenix shot yellow fire at two of the hawks. Their bodies desiccated before his eyes.
“Three left,” his beast said.
Oof! Screech!
Aiden peered to his left. Mac’s eagle was tussling with a pale hawk shifter. She had the creature pinned against the trunk of a large tree. She screamed and then lightning-quick ripped the beast’s throat out with her beak.
“Whoa,” Aiden said.
“Two left.”
Aiden’s phoenix looped around Mac as she tossed her kill to the forest floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a condor coming from below toward a distracted Mac. He turned and shot fire, aiming for the middle of his body. Direct hit!
“One left.”
Wait, why wasn’t Mac moving? She rested on a large tree branch holding her left wing. He flew closer to get a better look. Oh, no! There was a chunk of flesh torn from it. She’d need time to heal it before she could fly.
“She can’t fly. We need to protect her,” Aiden said to his phoenix. “Jamie?”
“Yes?”
“Tell Mac to heal herself. We’ll protect her,” Aiden said.
“Got it.”
He knew she received the message when the eagle locked eyes with his phoenix and nodded once.
“Where is that falcon?” Aiden asked. He was starting to panic. He felt his beast’s exhaustion, and they still needed to deal with his father.
“Quiet down so I can listen,” the phoenix hissed.
Aiden remained quiet. He felt his beast’s senses searching through the leaves, then the branches, then the trees and the rocks. There was just silence.
Snap!
The phoenix peered down to see the falcon speeding up at him. He opened his beak and erupted. White hot heat streamed from his beak in a thin beam, striking the flight shifter right in the center of its head. The headless creature fell lifelessly to the forest floor.
“Let me ask Jamie to call Leah. We need to get Mac to safety,” Aiden told his beast.
“Jamie?”
“Just my father’s left. I need you to teleport Leah to the National Forest to pick up Mac.”
“I need a more definitive location.”
Crap! He scanned around. He didn’t know where he was.
“OK, instead tell Mac to climb onto my back when I get close.”
“Got it.”
His phoenix flew up to Mac. The eagle shifter hopped over from the tree branch up onto his back, digging her talons into his feathers.
He drifted down to the ground, landing on his feet. They were in the middle of a large group of trees, but there was a rockface in the distance. Maybe Mac knew where she was. He slowly bent his neck closer to the grass, and the eagle hopped off. She peered around, her yellow eyes flashing.
“Jamie? Mac’s on the ground. Ask her if she knows where she is.”
“OK.” There was a short pause and then “She does. I’m sending Leah right over. Stand by.”