Doomsday Can Wait (Phoenix Chronicles, #2)(31)

It was always the same. That burst of light, the chill followed by the scalding heat. The fall from a great height as my bones crackled and changed, as I became something else.

My attention was immediately drawn to the flickering television screen. Another deer pranced across, and I found myself fascinated. When the shot rang out, my heart jolted; adrenaline flared. When it jumped, I wanted to chase it. I knew it would go down; it was vulnerable; it was mine.

The screen went black with a muted thunk.



Phoenix.

I swung toward the bed, where Sawyer stood with his paw on the control. I shook my head to clear it of the bestial hunger, that burning need to kill—it always freaked me out.



Your wound will fade more quickly in this form.

I lifted my neck, stretching the skin of my chest. He was right. Already, it didn't ache or pull quite as much.



What happened? I asked.



Isaw you fall, then she disappeared.

And then?



I kept fighting.

I should be glad that he'd stayed on task. There'd been nothing Sawyer could do to help me anyway.

Except I wasn't glad. I was just a tad pissed.



With me lying dead on the ground, you just kept fighting?



I knew you weren't dead.



Would have been nice if I'd known it, I muttered.



You need to wear the turquoise. Always.

He wouldn't get any argument from me.



Speaking of that, you never explained why the sight of it made her go poof.



The stone marks you as mine.

A low growl rumbled from my throat. I wasn't anyone's, especially Sawyer's.

His nostrils flared, no doubt from the scent of fiery fury that must be rolling off me like a flame. Relax, Phoenix, it was the only way to keep you alive.



Let me get this straight—if I wear the turquoise, she can't kill me?



Exactly.



So I'm invincible.

He tossed his head disdainfully. Just because she can't kill you doesn't mean the rest of them can't.

Damn. Invincible had sounded so good right now.

I returned to my original question. What happened in Lake Vista?

Sawyer lay down, rested his nose on his paws and sighed. What you might expect.



What good is knowing they're coming if we can't stop them?



We would have stopped them if not for her.

I stilled. She planned it?



Either she followed the luceres or she sent them.



Sent them?

Controlling Nephilim was a power of the leader of the darkness, and the woman of smoke couldn't be that unless she killed me. Which she hadn't done until after the luceres arrived. Even so—

The hair on the back of my neck lifted. She killed me. Does that make her the new leader of the darkness?



She didn't really kill you.



Then how could she control the luceres?



She couldn't. Not in the true sense of control. But she's persuasive. Especially when what she's suggesting is what you want to do anyway.

His tone and choice of pronoun made me glance up sharply. Was he remembering his father—the medicine man who'd embraced his bear spirit, who'd lived as an animal all of the time and come to crave human flesh because of her?

Or was he speaking about himself? Sawyer had told me once that she could make anyone do anything that she wished.

Despite my fur, I shivered. What had she made him do? What might she still?



If the Naye'i is that powerful, she doesn't need to kill me. She can rule all the forces of darkness just by wanting to.



It doesn't work that way.



Seems like the way things were supposed to work aren't the way they're actually working.



Certain things will happen. The leader of the darkness will kill the leader of the light, resulting in Doomsday. Doomsday will lead to Armageddon.



Some people say Apocalypse, some Armageddon. Is that like potato, po-ta-toe?



What does a potato have to do with anything?

I wanted to rub my forehead, but I had no hands. He was so damn literal all the time.



What is the difference between Apocalypse and Armageddon?



The final battle between God and Satan is called Armageddon. Apocalypse is a general term for the end of the world.

I guess that made as much sense as anything else.



We need to go after the luceres.



I killed most of them.

Sawyer wasn't a seer or a DK, he was something else, something I'd never been quite sure of. I wondered if Ruthie was. She trusted him. I didn't. He was a killer. But then weren't we all?



We should round up the few you missed.



No point. They'll return to their hidden lives until they're called again. Luceres spread out, blend in. They could be anywhere.

I growled and scraped my claws across the carpet, reveling in the ripping and tearing shriek, wishing it were a lucere beneath my paws, or the woman of smoke.



How do we kill her?