Klutz: Phoenix Heat (But Did You Die?, #2)

by Sedona Ashe

I no longer felt crazy talking to my magic. She was an extension of me, and I was going to embrace her as my spirit animal.

Anzac big bug? I hesitated, knowing the answer I should give, but… Yes. Anzac’s a big pest. I zap.

My wings were much smaller than Trevor’s, but the flames added a whole other element of cool if you asked me.

“Calm down. I totally have this.” I mean, I was pretty sure I had it, but I didn’t think he would appreciate my complete honesty at that moment.

She ruffled her feathers in my mind, insulted I’d questioned our abilities. Well, excuse me for not having a clue what I could and could not do.

Xerxes, your mate and the man who has lived nearly every day of his long life hoping to meet you. You are mine, mi Reina, my Queen. Stay safe. I am coming for you. I snorted. And I should do what? Hide? Maybe paint my nails while waiting to be saved? No can do, buddy. I don’t have time to play the damsel in distress. How about you stay safe, and I’ll come for you?

“It’s going to be fine. Oh! And just a head’s up, I tend to die, frequently.” Unadulterated fear registered on Trevor’s face. “It’s okay! I’ll come right back!

“You are trying to tell me not to panic if my mate gets murdered in front of my eyes?”

We didn’t have time for this. I needed to focus on my magic and convince Imp to help me. “Exactly! I’ve already died ninety-seven times in the past month. It will be fine.”

It turns out, calling your magic without at least a vague notion of what you intended to do with it gives the magic free rein to play… And for the love of all things salty, did my magic love to play hard.

The force of the explosion had flung me back into Trevor, hard. He grunted in pain. “If you want to have children someday, you need to be more careful.”

“I’m sorry, next time, I’ll watch out for your nutmegs while I’m saving your life,” I choked out the retort, doing my best to sound confident.

He stared at his wrists, not in amazement at my awesomeness, though. No, he looked like he could chew nails and spit out a barbed wire fence. “You could have broken the chains earlier.” I couldn’t tell if it was a question or a statement, so I stayed quiet.

Dang! I had jumped from the frying pan straight into the fire when it came to mates. Mostly, the jaguars had left me alone without a thought for my survival. However, my Gryphon mate was the opposite and lacked any faith in my ability to protect myself.

I felt like I was in school and trying to cram for a quiz…in a subject I hadn’t even taken.

Yes, good plan. And Imp? She paused from fanning the flames, far past what was safe or normal. Absolutely. No. Confetti!

This was going to be a royal flustercluck…and I was looking forward to it.

The flames moved along my body. The heat must be getting to me, because the fire seemed…curious? I would swear that it slapped my butt, except that would be weird, wouldn’t it? This fire wasn’t natural.

There was a thundering boom in the building behind her, and the world around her turned to fire. It was like every cliche scene from an action movie. The one where the hero walks away, and a bomb explodes behind them. All she was missing was a pair of dark glasses. Although, when she snapped open her flaming gold wings of fire, it carried a far greater dramatic impact than sunglasses ever could.

Ryls’ snorted. “Too late, the party’s over.” Without stopping to greet us, she continued moving toward the woods, not bothering to check if we were following her.

“Yeah, the weak little human you left in the jungle did that.” She met his gaze, hers glittering with laughter and hurt. “How do you like me now?”

How our bond worked was still a mystery to me, one of the many mysteries I had yet to find answers to.

“Shh. Leave me alone, or I’ll put a curse on your butt.” I was never one to wake up cheerful and happy. “Little mate, you are a Phoenix, not a witch.

I looked down at my nails, feeling awkward sitting in bed next to the sexy man that was my mate and who might forever need to wear a jockstrap around me.

However, those suckers were as heavy as all hell. I needed to strengthen my back muscles if I planned to strut around like a lingerie model with my personal set of wings.

The knowledge that they wanted this—wanted me—messed with my resolve to singe the hair off their bodies until they looked like the jaguar versions of hairless mole rats.

How could I have the strength to die and come back to life but not be strong enough to keep myself away from five lickably hot men that looked like they fell out of a fireman’s charity calendar?

All seven men eyed me with concern. “Is she stable?” Dagger whispered to Lee. “She can still hear you.” I crossed my arms over my chest, banging my funny bone on the wooden armrest. My eyes watered as I tried to keep my face expressionless, but I knew I failed miserably when the guys chuckled. Oh yeah, that showed them how totally stable I was.

“Do you think there is anything we can do to avoid setting off another detonation?” Mace asked as the guys tried to discreetly move away from me. “Here’s an idea! How about not being such a douche canoe?” I growled in response to the red-haired giant.

The men were still chatting as they moved about the room, acting as though it were normal for Anzac to be out cold. I laughed, because it was kind of normal if he got near enough to Imp.

“Slap me with bread and call me a sandwich! I read his mind. Not perfectly, but did anyone ever read minds perfectly on their first try?” I shouted in excitement and ran to throw my arms around Dagger’s neck. I fell short of his arms when I tripped over Anzac’s sleeping form. Going down hard, my head cracked on the metal table leg. Pain lanced through my skull, and just as quickly, it disappeared—right along with my ability to move or breathe. What a dumb way to die...even for me. I guess I didn’t need to ask Lee who the cursed one was. I’d always known.

“I thought I handled my rescue just fine, thank you very much.” She tilted her chin in the air, teasing him.

“For a Phoenix, her mates are literally her life. That isn’t an exaggeration. They are her lifelines and her rock. Separation, or rejection from her mates, will drain the life from her. Heartbreak is the only thing that can kill a Phoenix.”

“Yes, no one wants to rush you, Amaryllis. As your guardian, I do need to warn you that you will be weakened until you complete the mate bond and claim each other. Until you do that, you will never be at your full strength or have full control. The physical contact should be enough to keep you or them from dying, but it is essentially just a bandage. As your friend, I would make these men grovel and butt-kiss for the next hundred years.” I hated to admit it, but I agreed wholeheartedly with Lee. We needed to grovel for the next several lifespans. I was also down for kissing her adorable derriere several times a day if she would let me.

“Idiot,” I whispered. “I am not afraid of physical pain or death. I didn’t even fully understand what a mate bond was at that time, but I would have died a thousand times if needed, just to have had your love. To have been loved by the shadow. You would have had my undying love… And for a Phoenix, undying is a very literal concept. Instead, you did everything in your power to push me away and break my heart, and you nearly succeeded in both.” I tried to sound strong, but I knew he heard my voice crack at the end.

Mace

Like they say, life is too short to hold a grudge… I will probably die a couple more times this week.”

“You should call me Ryls.” It was rare to hear my full given name, and it always reminded me of my childhood and my parents, and I wasn’t too fond of those memories at the moment. “And you are welcome to call me Lee,” he said with a smirk.

Lee leaned forward and patted my knee. “Because they would rather die than hurt you again.” My lip quivered, and my eyes filled with unshed tears. “But if they die, I will, too. So that is a stupid reason.”

It turned out a perk of being a Phoenix was being able to keep your bath water at the perfect temperature—which every woman knows is just one step down from hot lava. If your skin isn’t about ready to peel off, it isn’t hot enough.

Huh. I hadn’t regenerated. I’d apparently knocked myself out, but only long enough to partially drown myself. This must be my lucky day! I’d survived two accidents that would have normally taken me out.

His life would be so much easier if the fates had paired him with a jaguar shifter girl instead of a freaky Phoenix chick. Oh, well. Too late. He was mine, all mine.

I regenerated to find the men arguing over who had killed me.

Smiling, I spoke, doing my best impersonation of a ‘come hither’ tone, “How about you unchain me, send the wolf away, and show me how you handle bad girls like me?” I cringed inwardly. What was I going to do next? Ask him what he was wearing and call him daddy? I said a silent thank you that none of my mates had heard that… I was fairly sure they would tease me over it until the day I died, and considering I couldn’t die, that would have been a very long time.

“See? I already know the way to get you in line is to hurt those you love. Lucky for me, you seem to have a lot of love to share, so I have plenty of victims to rotate through. Which mate should I start with first?”

“Nope, I can’t do it.” I yanked my hands free of the chains, and they popped as easily as a candy necklace. “I thought maybe I could hang out here, glean a little information, and wait for the boys. But I’m out.” Gregg stood frozen in shock, watching me free myself as though it were child’s play. I wanted him to realize that he had never been the one in control. I held the power here.

“See, the problem is, I just did this whole imprisonment thing, and I wasn’t a fan. The food sucked, the bed was a cot, and the staff was plain rude.

My eyes bore into him, and I knew he could see the flaming inferno of crazy that burned there. Good. Sometimes a girl needed to let down her hair, relax, and let her crazy hang out, right?

I really needed to figure out how to keep a better handle on my magic. I was getting the distinct impression that it was just as clumsy and awkward as me… And that didn’t bode well for any of us.

Spinning around to my mates, I took in their dumbstruck faces. It was flattering to know my awesomeness amazed them. Or maybe it was my craziness that had them awestruck?

All my mates were here and safe.

uh no one rescued Trevor