Once Upon a Shifter (53 page)

A slight wind picked up and the smell of burning wood wafted through the air as the door creaked open on its own.

"Remind me again why I agreed to come," Alex said as they all just stood there staring into the darkness beyond the door.

"Because you hope finding Katie's killer will get you to second base with Mena," Brad said.

Alex stared at Brad in disbelief, his eyes wide and his jaw nearly unhinged. He gave the others a brief look before responding. "Do all of you really think that I'm only doing this to get Mena to sleep with me?"

Heath shrugged. "Nobody blames you; she's hot, man."

Brad cleared his throat. "Uh, actually that would be a home run—"

"Do you asshats think maybe you can have this conversation later?" Phoenix said, his tone clipped. "We have more important matters to worry about than the cop getting to see what color Mena's panties are."

"That's third base, Phoenix," Roel whispered.

Phoenix's only response was to shake his head and take the first step inside the cabin.

Chapter 26

Alex

This night has to have broken some kind of record for being the weirdest,
Alex thought as he followed Roel into the house.

Even with as strange as it was, he didn't feel threatened… well, not entirely so anyway. Maybe he should say that he felt safe instead of not threatened, because there was definitely a threat lingering in the air. But he actually felt protected by his company, as if they had placed him in some sort of invisible, impenetrable bubble. What they could do that the piece at the small of his back couldn't, he didn't know, but he was almost positive that he was missing something huge and important where his new friends were concerned.

"I see you made it," a seductive voice said, and Alex's head whipped around to the source as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He fought to rub the goosebumps that had risen on his arms away. He had a bad feeling about all of this.

Long, sleek black hair was tied at the nape of the woman's slender neck. High cheek bones graced a perfectly symmetrical face, and her eyes… there was something almost haunting about them. She was stunning, but Alex found that he wasn't attracted to her visible qualities at all.

Phoenix cleared his throat. "Don't you mean that you hear I have made it? I doubt you can see anything with those blind eyes—"

A gust of something Alex would never be able to explain as long as he lived blew through the room and knocked Phoenix to the hardwood floor on his back. The guy grunted, and slowly got back to his feet.

"I see more than you do, Leech."

Rubbing the center of his chest, Phoenix glared up at the woman. "My apologies, Meridia. I forgot my manners for a moment. May I request a meeting with you in private? I'm sure you already know why."

Silence filled the room for a short time as Meridia considered Phoenix's invite, and then she glanced over her shoulder. "Magnalayna… Morgana… come and sit with our guests while I speak in private with the—"

Phoenix cleared his throat. "If we could keep the name-calling to a minimum, that would be great. This is detective Alex Rhodes of the Montgomery police department. We wouldn't want him to feel uncomfortable, now, would we?"

"I know very well who the detective is, Phoenix, but by your nervousness I gather you are still harboring secrets."

Phoenix sighed as he followed Meridia to another room. "He's not ready to know yet. Please keep your opinions to yourself."

Two other beautiful women, one with platinum blonde hair and the other with hair the color of crimson blood stepped from the shadows and sat in chairs by the fire. Their gazes immediately fell on Alex, causing him to stiffen, but he didn't look away; he didn't dare look away. They looked like they were undressing him with their eyes. It wasn't the first time a woman had done that, but this time it felt different, awkward… uncomfortable, like they could actually see everything God had blessed him with under the clothes. His eyes hardened when both their gazes settled on his junk.

The blonde made a light clapping noise then patted the cushion beside her, but Alex only ground his teeth together in response.

"Morgana would like for you to join us, Alex," the redhead said, and that meant, by process of elimination, that this one's name was Magnalayna. There was something different about her voice, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. Maybe English wasn't her first language.

"Don't do it," Jaxon whispered. "You'll regret it for centuries."

Centuries? Seriously? Could the women actually do something that will follow me into the afterlife?
Alex thought, and then glanced up to meet Jaxon's gaze. The corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk, revealing a pointy tooth. Alex blinked, and then it was gone.

He ran his hands over his face, wishing he could just return to the vehicle, his apartment, a normal life where he wasn't hallucinating all the time. How long had it been since he'd slept? Three, maybe four days, with only a few hours' shut eye here and there. That wasn't enough to keep a person sane. Of course he was seeing shit.

He needed a vacation. Knowing he wouldn't get one until he retired or died, he settled for promising himself eight hours of uninterrupted sleep as soon as he got back home. He didn't care what happened; sleep was going to happen in his near future.

He forced himself to look at the women. "I'm okay over here. I appreciate your hospitality, though."

Morgana smiled as she looked to her sister. They seemed to be somehow communicating without words.

Magnalayna nodded, then looked back to Alex. Her perfectly arched, red eyebrows drew down in disappointment. "That's too bad. We were prepared to make it worth your while—"

"Leave him alone," Jaxon said. "He's not interested in your games."

The sisters exchanged glances again, and then Magnalayna grinned mischievously. "You enjoyed playing our games at one time, Jaxon. Why are you so bitter? Are you jealous that we want to play with the detective instead of you?"

Jaxon chuffed. "Not hardly. I still have nightmares—"

The door to the room Phoenix had disappeared behind opened and he walked out, buttoning the cuffs on his shirt.

Alex's eyes popped wide as a satisfied-looking Meridia leaned against the jamb.

Had the guy screwed her? Surely not… not in five minutes, but it sure looked like that was what had happened.

"Roel?" Meridia drawled. "I'm ready for you now, handsome."

Roel swore under his breath as he walked toward the bedroom. "Promise to be gentle with me."

Meridia laughed. "I promise nothing."

After the door closed behind Roel, Alex's eyes narrowed on Phoenix. "What the hell is this place, a brothel?"

Phoenix chuckled, and shook his head. "You'll get your turn. Don't worry—"

His hand shot out and he pointed in the direction of the door. "I'm not going in that room with her."

Phoenix sighed. "Then you weren't really serious when you told Mena you would do anything to help her find the person who killed Katie and Marc, were you?"

"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."

Spell? They are witches? No. Magic isn't real. These bitches needed a shrink and straightjackets.

Phoenix nodded, and after realizing his mistake, he spoke aloud. "I'll bring her, but only if you promise we won't have to go through that horrid booby-trap of Magnalayna's again."

Alex jerked away when he felt someone touch his arm. He discovered it to be Magnalayna, but only after he'd bumped into Morgana on his other side. He froze as both women caressed his shoulders and back. "Uh, can we go now?"

Phoenix chuckled. "They won't hurt you—"

"Yes, they will," Jaxon said.

"Only because you wanted them to," Phoenix retorted. "Now, you, Heath and Brad go give your offering for the spell so we can get back before dawn."

Meridia glanced over her shoulder and appeared to be looking right at Phoenix when she spoke. "I thought about charging you double this time, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this is all going to play out between the four of you, so this one is on me."

Alex blinked in confusion.
The four of you?

Phoenix frowned. "You're so generous, Meridia."

She smiled, and then shut the door behind her.

Chapter 27

Mena

I opened my eyes to the smell of coffee and ham. My stomach growled as I rolled to my back and stared at the ceiling above Phoenix's bed.

"Sleep well, Lupacchiotto?"

I grimaced as I sat up and looked across the room. Phoenix was leaning back in a chair at the head of the dining table, a lone ankle rested comfortably on his left knee and the daily newspaper open in front of him, stealing from me what was sure to be a beautiful view.