A Phoenix Never Dies (Afterlife Book 6) Read online

"I guess we just wait," Brittney said. "See if you can see Jeffrey from this distance."

  Harper nodded and closed her eyes. A few seconds later the rigidity had left her muscles and she slumped a little. Conner put an arm around her. Brittney could see her eyes moving beneath the lids as though she was watching something.

  Or someone.

  A few minutes later, Harper opened her eyes. "I can see him. He and Heather were walking along the road."

  Britteny nodded. "Good. Let's hope it continues to work. Check back every few minutes till they get to the compound. I want to know what they do with Jeffrey once they take him."

  "Sure," Harper said.

  They sat in silence for another fifteen minutes, with Harper checking on Heather and Jeffrey periodically. Finally, she opened her eyes after one of the checks. "They're taking him now."

  Brittney made a quick gesture with her hand. "What are you doing then? Get back there, watch him!"

  Harper closed her eyes again.

  Brittney and Conner looked at each other as Harper slumped down once again. "Please let this work," Conner said.

  "It will," Brittney said, a little too enthusiastically.

  Both of them went silent again as Harper continued to watch whatever was going on. After what seemed like forever, she opened her eyes. "They took him," she said.

  "And?"

  "They put him a cell," Harper said. "I mean, a room. But it looked more like a cell. There was a comfortable bed, but there were bars on the windows, and the door locked with deadlocks."

  Brittney cursed. "Those will be hard to get through. Anything else?"

  "Yes," Harper said. "There were four quarters of the building and a door at the end of one of the corridors. I couldn't see what was there because nobody was going inside. The quarters though, at least two of them are more rooms. I think one of the others is the barracks and I'm not sure about the fourth.

  "Probably conference rooms, and such," she said, as an after thought. "I didn't get a good look at it, but I saw a man heading down that way with an armful of paperwork. I tried to get in his head, but he turned the corner too quick, and I couldn't catch him in time."

  Brittney nodded. "Is there anything you saw that would help us storm the place?"

  Harper shook her head. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "I mean, we'd have to get a key to those deadbolts. And the place is literally crawling with soldiers. We're going to have a hard time taking them out without Sarah and Samuel."

  "But we'll have Heather and Conner," Brittney pointed out. "And I can get us guns."

  "I doubt the gun shops are open right now," Conner said. "I mean, the entire town is under the control of the military. They're not going to want the populace to be able to arm itself. Money isn't going to make a difference if the shops are closed."

  Brittney hadn't considered this and she let out a low curse. "Then what good will Harper and I do? We can't fight like you guys can."

  Conner shook his head. "I don't know."

  "What about criminals?" Harper asked.

  "What?"

  "I mean, we found the Trinity in Vegas. What if we can find the equivalent here? I'm sure they'd be willing to sell us a few guns."

  Brittney gave this careful consideration. "It's worth a shot," she said. "But we have no idea where gangs hang out."

  "Sure we do," Harper said. "Abandoned warehouses seems pretty popular. They're not watched all the time, and it gives them space to store things like guns and cars and drugs."

  "That's true," Brittney said.

  "You want to walk up to a gang in the middle of Phoenix and ask if they'll give us guns?" Conner asked. "They're going to think we're police or something."

  Brittney and Harper both frowned and gave this some thought.

  "Yeah," Harper said dejectedly. "They're probably laying low anyway, not wanting to draw the attention of the military. They might even wonder if the troops are here to shut them down. It's not worth the risk."

  "Yeah," Brittney said. "I guess that's true. I doubt we can get into the compound with our FBI badges either. They're going to wonder why we're so far away from home."

  Harper and Conner both sighed.

  Before they could come up with any more ideas, Heather entered the house. They all spun around, saw who it was, and relaxed.

  "They had no idea what I was," Heather said.

  "Good," Brittney said. "We can use that to our advantage when we go in." She paused, and then her eyes lit up. "I have an idea. It's going to be dangerous, and it's going to rely a lot on what they know about the supernatural. But if they didn't recognize Heather, I mean, it's worth a shot. If we can pull it off..."

  "What are you talking about?" Conner asked.

  Brittney gestured for them to come closer and then explained her plan in a quick, breathless hurry.

  "You're crazy," Harper said.

  "Completely," Conner said admiringly.

  "But?" Brittney said.

  "It's crazy enough that it might work," Conner said.

  Brittney grinned. "I guess we should get ready then, huh?"

  "Yeah," the others agreed. "I guess we should."

  EIGHTEEN

  When Alec opened his eyes again, he realized he was in excruciating pain. It had dimmed a little when he went to sleep, but now that he was awake, it was as strong as ever. He didn't know what they were giving him, but it hurt. Oh, God, did it hurt.

  It was time to start planning his escape. He wasn't going to stick around and let them continue to torture him with their experiments. He didn't care if it was meant to be for the greater good. He knew there was no cure for vampirism, and they were wasting their time.

  He thought he might be able to get out if he could surprise the guards, nurses, and doctors that came in, but what of the others? What of the other vampires who'd been taken, and were undergoing the same cruel experiments?

  Alec couldn't just leave them there.

  He was considering what he could do when the door to his prison cell opened. He sighed, and tried to brace himself to deal with Alice or the guards who'd brought AX2 the last time they'd come. He thought again about overpowering them and getting out of there, but he couldn't bring himself to leave the others. They deserved better than what they were getting.

  So he braced himself to deal with whatever was to come. He could take pain; he'd been in enough of it over his lifetime, a little more wouldn't hurt him. He would survive and end this endeavor.

  Then Chloe and Wren stepped into his room.

  Alec sat up straighter, blinking. "What?" The last he knew, Chloe was dead. She'd burned to death... so what was she doing here? He thought he was hallucinating. He closed his eyes for a long moment and then opened them. They were still there.

  "I told you he'd be here," Chloe said to Wren triumphantly. Alec saw that they were both wearing long lab coats and carrying clipboards. What kind of nightmare was this? What had they given him to induce such cruel illusions? He felt his anger rising.

  "Get out!" he screamed at them. He flailed in his bed, breaking the restraints holding him. "Get out of here! You're not real! You won't trick me -- you won't break me! This won't work. I swear it on my mother's name!"

  Chloe's eyes widened and she dashed up to the bed. "Alec, it's me," she said. "It's Chloe."

  Alec jumped out of the bed, wondering where this strength had come from. He hadn't been able to break the restraints before; he knew because he'd tried. Now they seemed like flimsy things that could never have held him to begin with.

  He grabbed the female nurse around the neck and shoved her into the wall. Wren ran forward, but Alec ignored him. He came to a stop near the two of them. He didn't want to approach in case Alec decided to hurt Chloe.

  He put pressure on her neck. "What did you give me?"

  "Alec," Chloe said. "It's me. It's Chloe. You know me."

  Alec shook his head, and pressed harder. "Chloe is dead," he said. "I saw her die. I saw it!"

  "No," Chloe said.
"No, I didn't die. Jeffrey saved me. He carried me out. I'm alright, Alec. It's me."

  For a moment, Alec thought about killing the nurse for her impersonation, and then he took a look at Chloe's face, into her eyes. He let her go.

  "Chloe?" he asked, his voice breaking a little. "Is it really you?"

  "It's me," Chloe said, and hugged him. They embraced for a long time. Then Chloe pushed him gently backwards. "It's me, Alec. What did they do to you in here?"

  "It doesn't matter," Alec said.

  "Of course it does," Chloe said.

  "They're experimenting on me and the others," Alec said. "There's more... sometimes I can hear faint screaming. They're giving us this chemical... this drug that causes pain, extreme pain. I'm sorry I attacked you. I just thought you were dead. I thought they'd finally broken my mind."

  He was aware that he was close to hysteria, and forced himself to take a deep breath. He sat down on the edge of his bed. "How are you alive?"

  "I told you, Jeffrey saved me," Chloe said. "I spent a couple weeks in the hospital before I got out. Conner found me."

  "Thank God," Alec said.

  "Why'd you leave us?" Chloe asked. "The others said that you just left, and disappeared."

  "I was going to leave," Alec said. "I was going to leave Phoenix, set out on my own somewhere, by myself, where I couldn't get people killed."

  Chloe shook her head. "You're not to blame," she said. "You should know that, Alec. Miriam burnt that house down, and started the army in the first place."

  "It's my fault too," Wren said, stepping forward, face flooding with color. "You have no idea how sorry I am that we listened to Miriam. It was a bad decision, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life making up for it."

  Alec stared at Wren for a moment. He thought about killing him; he was one of the ones who had started this chain of events. If anyone was to blame for the vampires who'd been taken, it was him. Him and the others.

  He saw something in the man's face though that stopped him. He saw remorse; genuine remorse. He abandoned the thought of killing him.

  "How'd you guys get in here?"

  "The fey have their ways," Chloe said. "I'd forgotten the talents of my ancestors."

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means that the fey have a way of convincing people to believe their lies," Wren said. "Our morals typically prevent us from doing so, because when we do lie, people believe us. They don't have much of a choice in that."

  Alec nodded. He'd heard of that particular talent before, but he'd never seen it in action. "What of the others? How are they? Conner, Brittney, Sarah... Harper?"

  "They were fine the last time we saw them," Chloe said. "They're working on their own way to get in here. Harper learned this new ability. She can see through other's eyes."

  Alec frowned. "Really?"

  That was a talent he'd heard of, but another one he'd never seen in practice. Ileana hadn't been able to do it. Harper must be getting strong with her powers, he thought. If she was able to do something like that then she was obviously growing. He felt a brief surge of pride; he'd been the one to insist that she learn more about her ancestral powers, and now here she was, learning all on her own.

  Chloe and Wren both nodded.

  "We have to get you out of here," Chloe said. "Come with us."

  "No," Alec said. "Not without the others."

  "We can come back for them," Wren said.

  "No," Alec said again. "After they discover I'm missing, security is going to go up. You won't trick them a second time. No, it has to be now."

  "But we're not prepared," Chloe said. "What are we supposed to do? We don't even have weapons."

  "Maybe we can help with that," a familiar sounding voice said. Alec turned his head and saw two guards entering the room. He immediately transformed into his vampiric self, and jumped in front of Chloe and Wren.

  "There's no need for that," the woman said. She closed her eyes briefly and then when she opened them, she looked like Sarah. He stared at her for a moment before realizing that she looked like Sarah because she was Sarah. The man transformed too, and he recognized him as Samuel.

  "What are you doing here?" Sarah asked Chloe.

  "I could ask you the same thing," Chloe said with a quick grin. "We took a leaf out of your book and came without the others."

  "That was extremely risky," Samuel said, glancing at Wren. "Are you guys alright?"

  "Close the door," Alec said quickly.

  Chloe darted over to it and quickly closed it. Then she joined Sarah and Samuel as they approached the bed, standing next to Wren.

  "How did you..." Alec said. "How did you make yourself look like guards?"

  "It turns out that we're more talented than I thought," Sarah said with a brief smile. "Samuel thought we might be able to transform into guards, and he was correct. Now, we want to break out of here, right? Take the others with us?"

  Alec nodded.

  "We took a good look around," Samuel said. "We couldn't get any weapons, but we can transform, and you can attack... are you well enough to attack? I know about the tests they've been running on you."

  "It'll take more than that to keep me down," Alec said. "Are we sure we want to do this without the others? Someone could get hurt... or killed." His eyes met Chloe's. "I don't think I could stand if you died a second time."

  "Nobody is going to die," Chloe said. "Wren and I can fight; not as good as you guys, but we can. We'll do our part. Once we free Jeffrey and some of the others, we'll have more of a chance of escaping."

  Alec considered this for a brief moment. "You're right. But we need a plan."

  The five of them gathered together around Alec's bed and began to discuss just how they were going to break out.

  NINETEEN

  Conner looked between Harper and Brittney. Both of them looked frightening. The makeup they'd done was good, he couldn't deny that. Of course, no makeup on earth would give them a harpy's power. He was glad at least they'd thought to pack their makeup and a change of clothes. The intimidation would have to work. It would have to, or they'd all be dead come morning.

  He'd already double checked that they wanted to go through with the plan. So instead of questioning it again, he drew Harper close. He didn't kiss her, not wanting to mess up the makeup and costume that her and Brittney had spent so much time designing and applying.

  They stared into each other's eyes for a long moment and Conner felt like telling her the truth: that he loved her, he loved her for a long time. The love had probably started when he'd first gotten her a drink at Afterlife and realized she was immune to his powers.

  In the end, though, he didn't say anything. If he lost her after he told her he loved her, he didn't know how he'd survive it. And there was a good chance that they wouldn't make it out of the compound alive.

  They had to try, though. It was part of who they were.

  Together, they drove to the base. They parked about a half mile out of the way, and got out of the car to walk the remaining distance. Conner transformed into an incubus, and Heather became a harpy.

  He looked between the three; both the girls had applied enough make up to be convincing. In fact, he was a little frightened of them. He knew he shouldn't be, but he was. He and harpies had a long history.

  "Come on," he said to the others. "What, don't you want to die young?"

  The girls all laughed, and they set off towards the compound. They had bags full of smoke bombs, pepper spray, and some knives that they hoped they wouldn't have to use. If it came down to a fight, though, he wanted Brittney and Harper armed.

  When they reached the gate to the compound, there were three men standing guard, all of them armed.

  "Who goes there?" one of them asked.

  Conner stepped forward. "Let us in," he said, letting his voice deepen and become rougher. His muscles glistened in the moonlight, and his tattoos seemed to glow eerily on his body. "Now."

  One of the guards laughed. "
You're kidding, right?"

  "Not a chance," Conner said. "You're going to let us in or we're going to kill you."

  The man shook his head. "No can do," he said. "We're armed, and you're not. We're not afraid of you."

  Conner leapt forward, covering the distance between him and the guard quickly. All of them raised their guns. "Shoot me," he dared.

  He didn't know what they'd do, but he hoped they would attempt to kill him, and his hope was right; the man he was close to fired his gun. It struck Conner in the chest, and he began to bleed green, demonic blood. It didn't stop him, though.

  He reached forward and grabbed the gun. The man was so shocked that it was like taking something from a young child. He just plucked it away and tossed it over to Brittney, who caught it deftly. She aimed at one of the guards who was about to shoot Conner again.

  "We're not human," Conner said. "And trust me, you don't want to tangle with us."

  With a quick hit to the man's pressure point in his neck, the guard had collapsed. Conner turned to the other two. "You want to try?"

  One of the men held his weapon steady, but the other man was looking at Heather, Brittney, and Harper. "I don't know about this, man," he said. "The pay is good, but it's not that good..."

  "Stand your ground, Watson," the man who had his gun raised said. "If they don't kill us, the men inside will."

  Watson raised his gun shakily, pointing it at Harper. Brittney fired, and the bullet struck Watson in the leg. He crumpled down, screaming in pain. In less than three seconds, Heather had his gun, and tossed it to Harper.

  The last man fired at Conner again. The bullet struck his leg, and did no more damage than the first. Harper shot at him, and missed, but this seemed to scare him, and he tossed his gun down, raising his hands.

  "Don't shoot me," he said. "I'm just doing my job. We're all just doing our jobs."

  "Your job includes kidnapping people and doing God knows what to them?" Heather demanded.

  "That's not my job," he said quickly. "I'm just a guard. I just keep people out, that's all."

  "Give us your ID card," Conner said. "And we'll let you live."

  Both Harper and Brittney fixed their guns on him, ready to shoot if he argued. He didn't, though. He just pulled his card out and tossed it to Conner.