Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(11)

Someone cleared their throat. I hadn't checked the time and, as I looked to the top of the grand staircase, I found Phoenix standing tall and beautiful and glaring down at me. Crap! Maybe I wasn't crazy.

"Five minutes was over three minutes ago. They are lucky I could hear every word they said—"

"Phoenix, let's just go," I said as I reached him. "It's been a long night, and I have a lot to tell you."

I was sure he was fighting it, but his lip twitched at the corner, in what I had come to know as amusement. The wicked man drove me crazy.

"Will there be kissing afterward… or during?"

I shook my head as my own lips betrayed me. "Maybe we should talk in the living room."

"I'll be good." His expression became serious as a single finger came up to touch my chin, tilting my head up so I had a direct line of sight from my eyes to his. "I promise, Mena."

I shrugged away and walked by him, hearing the soles of his boots clearly as they stepped on the plush carpet behind me. It was amazing how well my senses had heightened since the change, and it was confusing me how those eyes of his seemed to make me weaker every time I looked at them. I wanted to growl, and my wolf actually did. She didn't like the idea of us being in my bedroom together—alone.

After walking through the open door of my bedroom and flipping on the light, Phoenix stopped dead in the doorway and stared straight at the bed, like walking any closer would put him in jeopardy of breaking his promise to me.

"Mena—" His voice sounded panicked as he glanced to me.

"It's all right, Phoenix. I'm not going to eat you," I said, and deliberately let the corner of my lip twitch.

He gave me a stern look from under his eyebrows, and I laughed. It felt good to laugh, maybe even more so because I knew from the way he had acted upon my arrival home, that he had bad news to tell me. I prayed it wasn't worse than what I had to tell him.

He moved into the room, leaving the door wide open, obviously thinking maybe that would help him behave himself. That was doubtful. I had seen that look in his eyes before.

A low growl erupted from my chest and, with wide eyes, I slapped a hand over my mouth in shock.

The grin slid from his face and he came to a halt three feet from me, and then took a big step back toward the door, holding his unarmed palms out to me. "Mena… your eyes are silver."

I shouted through my mind, desperately trying to control my wolf before she took control of me. "No! What are you doing? He's not going to hurt us! He's on our side! Stop! Please!"

The image of Alex flashed through my mind, and I knew it was her who had put it there. I covered my face with my hands and fell to my knees, desperately trying to fight my way back in control to no avail. I had no solution. I couldn't let her have him.

"Mena—"

I shook my head, and sensed that he had stopped moving toward me.

This was a mistake. It had all been a mistake. My wolf wasn't going to let us be allies, much less have a relationship. "Stop this! This is my body, and you don't get to decide what I do with my life!" I shouted at her through my mind as my fury continued to build.

She growled again when Phoenix placed his hand lightly on my shoulder. The palm of my hand thrust forward and connected square on with the center of his chest, knocking him to his back on the carpeted floor ten feet away.

"Mena!" Phoenix shouted, worry evident in his voice.

The wolf jerked my head up, so I could see his shocked eyes. "Get… out… vampire."

Phoenix scrambled to his feet and backed toward the door slowly, his palms facing me. I watched him go, scared for his well being and for mine, but I had no voice, no bodily movements, no control of my own.

"Daryn!" Phoenix shouted over his shoulder as he neared the door. "Daryn! Get in here!"

I could hear footsteps pounding up the stairs, but all I could think was they would be too late; Phoenix wouldn't get out before my wolf killed him.

"No. Please…" I pleaded with her.

She forced my eyes closed, and hazel eyes stared back at me. I shook my head, but then the image changed to Phoenix lying on the ground, open eyes staring up at nothing, because he couldn't see anymore; he was dead.

I gasped and fell to the floor as I tried desperately to rid the picture from my mind.

"Mena!" Daryn's voice was unsure as he moved closer. "Mena, it's Daryn." He touched my hair, but my wolf didn't seem to mind him touching me; maybe it was because she knew I wasn't attracted to him in the same way I was to Phoenix. He helped me sit up and I clung to him like a drowning person would to a life preserver.

"Tell me what to do, Mena," Phoenix whispered, and he didn't try to hide the anxiety in his voice. I knew he was scared. I was scared, too. Why was my wolf doing this? Phoenix was trying to help us.


I shook my head; it was all my wolf would let me do.

A low growl reverberated from my chest and the hair on the back of my neck went on end when I sensed Phoenix move closer.

"No!" I shouted at my wolf. "Leave him alone!" Goosebumps rose all over my body and an energy I had never felt before ignited in my soul. My arms thrust forward violently, nearly jerking my body out of Daryn's arms.

"Holy shit!" one of the other pack members said as he arrived in the doorway.