Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(45)

"Of course I was serious! There are other ways—"

"You mean your way, Cop, not ours. Our way is the only way to solve this case. I warned you this wasn't a normal case."

Alex looked around uneasily, and licked his lips nervously. "Who are these women, and why did you bring me here? Start talking or I'm going to walk. Nobody is worth dying for."

"Not even Mena?" Phoenix said, and those cool blue eyes stared into Alex's.

There was a lot he would do for just about anybody—he was a cop; putting his life on the line was in his job description— but would he die for someone not even knowing what he was fighting for? He liked Mena— he liked her a lot—but until someone told him what the hell was going on, he had no intentions of stepping in front of the firing squad. "Why would you ask me that?" Alex said. "Would you die for Mena?"

Phoenix smiled. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"But why are you here?" Alex said, his anger rising. "How am I supposed to trust any of you when you won't tell me any facts?"

"I'm here for Mena because I can't come up with one good reason not to be. It's not my place to tell you anything about our situation, and Mena would probably kill me if she knew I brought you along tonight. Whether you see it or not, we are letting you in on a really big part of the secret. You'll know everything soon enough. For some reason she wants you in the middle of this. If I didn't have any more reason than that, it would be enough." Phoenix bit his lip and quickly turned his head, as if he'd said too much.

That's when it clicked. There wasn't anything Phoenix wouldn't do for Mena, because he was in love with her.


Alex stared at him a moment, then looked over at Jaxon. When Jaxon grinned, he sighed as his gaze moved back to Phoenix. "Why did you let me believe you were gay?"

Brad snickered.

That was why they had all been laughing earlier. Embarrassment flooded up his neck and into his face, and he suddenly felt like moving to Switzerland and leaving everything behind, including Mena and this whole weird-ass case.

"Just checking to see how good a detective you are. Looks like you passed after all. What gave it away?" Phoenix chuckled. "Jaxon's irritation with me earlier? Or was I not being feminine enough? I've been meaning to work on my sensitive side."

"It was your eyes," Alex said.

Those eyes filled with false amusement. If Alex guessed right, Phoenix thought he was a pro at the poker face, but what Phoenix didn't know was that he was a pro at reading people who thought they were a pro at the poker face.

"And my eyes told you that I don't like men?" Phoenix chuckled lightly, but at the first mention of his eyes, he had looked at anything and everything except Alex.

"No, they tell me that you're in love with Mena."

Phoenix's head shot around and he glared at him, like he really hadn't expected that particular answer. After a few seconds he shook his head. "I thought you were on to something there for a minute, Cop, but I was wrong. You're not as good as you think you are. I don't love anyone."

Alex pressed his lips together as he studied Phoenix. Either he had read him wrong or he had all of a sudden mastered the poker face, because there was only truth in his eyes now, no twitches, no staring at the bridge of his nose or forehead; the guy was looking him dead in the eyes, and there was no sign that he was lying. But, if he wasn't in love with Mena, then why was he doing all this for her? Just to sleep with her? To be accepted into her secret society? He didn't know, but he would find out.

"We'll see about that," Alex said.

"Does that mean you're going to stick around long enough to test your theory on my love life?"

"For now," Alex said, and then they all looked toward Roel when the door opened. He was licking his wrist, and there appeared to be blood on his lip when he pulled his arm away, but after Alex blinked it was gone.

"Shit, I really need some sleep."

"Sleep?" Phoenix said as he glanced at his timepiece. "Dawn is in an hour. You can't sleep. You have to pick Mena up from my house after she wakes up. Thought you wanted the dayshift?"

What the hell were they trying to do? Kill him with exhaustion?

Alex nodded. "I need a few hours' sleep or I won't be able to function, much less protect her. Give me the address and I'll be there by nine."

Phoenix grinned, like he had a plan and it was working. "I'll make sure she is ready." His eyes flicked to Alex's side just as Meridia snipped off a lock of his hair.

Alex jumped back, his hand quickly coming up to his head as he stared at her in horror. "Why did you do that?"

Phoenix chuckled. "I thought she was going to nick you there for a second. It's a good thing you didn't flinch the other way or you would have had to give up what we did."

Blood. They had given her blood, not sex. And why does she need my hair? Alex scrambled to make sense of it all, but his brain was too foggy to concentrate on any one thing for too long.

"I told you that I see better than you, Phoenix," Meridia said. "The spell will be ready by sunset. I'll also have the answers you seek by then. Bring Mena with you. I'd like to meet her. I'm sure she has questions of her own that no one bothered to answer."