Doomsday Can Wait (Phoenix Chronicles, #2)(32)

If I could, I'd have done it already. We'll just have to keep searching, keep trying.



A little random, wouldn't you say?



What isn't?

I lifted my head, sniffed the air, caught again the distant drift of flames and ashes. Why do you smell of smoke?



I've told you before; she's part of me.

The Navajo are matriarchal. They believe the mother's side is strongest. No matter what I said, Sawyer wouldn't stop believing it, too. Sometimes I worried that she would bring him to the dark side. The thought scared me almost as much as Sawyer did. If he ever joined the Nephilim, we were finished.

The power that poured off him—morning, noon, and even in the dead of night—reminded me of the tornado Ruthie had spoken of. Inside Sawyer lay a storm of destruction just waiting to get out.



Is that why you conjured her all those years ago? Because she's part of you? Because, like all neglected children, you long for her approval?

His eyes flared. I'd never asked him about that night; I hadn't wanted him to know I'd been spying. But he must have known; otherwise why had he given me the magic turquoise that would keep her from killing me?



You think I'm secretly working for my mother?

Had I? Not really. But I couldn't be sure. Not with him.

I'd touched Sawyer, in the most intimate way a woman could touch a man, and I'd seen a lot, but I hadn't seen everything. Sawyer was capable of blocking me in a way that no one else could. I knew he was hiding something, but I didn't think he was hiding that.



Why did you call her that night? I pressed.

He rose to his feet, shaking his fur as if he'd just climbed out of a mountain lake. I half expected cool water to sprinkle over me like rain.



We had things to discuss.



Call her now, I ordered, I'd like to discuss a few things.



You've always had more guts than sense, he muttered. Did you learn nothing from getting your ass kicked the last time? You aren't ready to meet her again.



Make me ready.

His amusement fled, and he glanced away. I can't.

Who can?

He didn't answer.



So you aren't going to conjure her?



There was a time when I could bring her to me with fire and blood and magic, but that time ix gone.



Why?



She's stronger. She resists the spell. Maybe she always could, but now she knows there's no point in trying to seduce me.



Seduce you? I swallowed, tasting something rotten, something green and slimy and just plain wrong, at the back of my throat.

His eyes met mine. If it meant getting me on her side, she'd do anything.



You're her son.



She's an evil spirit, Phoenix. The only thing being her son means is that I've got magic, and she wants it.



Can she absorb power like ... I paused. Well, like I can?



No one absorbs power like you can.

I wasn't sure if I should be happy about that or even more freaked out.



She can't take on the talents of others. To get stronger, she either seduces them to her side—like she seduced my father—or she kills her enemies and removes their powers from this earth.



If you aren't with me, you're against me.



It's a philosophy that's kept her alive a long, long time.



Sooner or later she's going to get tired of waiting and just kill you.



You're probably right.

Another shiver passed over me, making my skin ripple beneath all the fur. The only thing more frightening than Sawyer being on the side of evil was Sawyer not being on any side at all. My feelings about him were complicated to say the least.



Can she kill you?

He gave a little sneeze—amusement and derision rode on the sound—then pawed at his snout as if that had tickled.



I might be very hard to kill, Phoenix, but that doesn't mean I'm immortal.



You could wear a turquoise, I suggested.



That wouldn't work for me.



Why not?



Magic. He took a deep breath. It's difficult to explain.

I'd have to take his word for it. Though I'd dealt with my share of magic lately—spells and witches and fairies, oh, my—I still didn't know much about it.



So what do we do?

Sawyer lifted his large, shaggy head, and his gray eyes, which were both bizarrely human and savagely wolf, peered into mine. We find a way to kill her first.





CHAPTER 13


Considering no one, including Sawyer, had a clue how to kill a Naye'i his words weren't as comforting as they should have been.



Let's get some sleep, Sawyer continued. By morning you'll be healed, and we can get back on the road. In order to kill her, we've got to find her.



We have to make a detour. He tilted his head. First Ruthie wants us to go to Detroit and meet with the benandanti who can remove the spell from the amulet.



What amulet? he asked.