"Okay, what gives?" I asked when Nate and Rick reappeared dressed in jeans and t-shirts. "We're fixing to go outside and you guys aren't dressed for the weather. Unless there was a heat wave someone forgot to mention."
"That, baby girl, is a benefit of being a phoenix who knows how to use all their abilities," Rick said as he walked to the front door.
"Don't tease her, Rick, or we'll never hear the end of it," Nate said, taking my hand and leading me after Rick. "What he means is, if we're cold, we can just turn our internal temperature up a little. That's something that I can probably teach you without any fear of side effects. And after that trick you did with heating up Katie's gun in Montana, I'm surprised you haven't figured it out by yourself."
"When have I ever had any side effects? I do things all the time without any issues," I said, whining because I wanted to be able to walk around without looking like an abominable snow person.
"You had that nose bleed when you were first getting your memories back," Rick pointed out, which shouldn't have been allowed since he wasn't there to witness it. "That's more than enough to keep Nate from allowing too much, too soon."
"Fine, but you're teaching me this heating trick. I want to get out of these layers, but at the same time, I don't want to boil my blood."
There was a big difference between heating an inanimate object and my own body. I didn't consider myself brilliant, but I had enough sense not to light myself on fire without supervision. We made our way over to the house we'd visited the night before. When we arrived, Rick knocked on the door.
Joseph answered and said, "Come on in, she just woke up and is getting a shower."
He led us into a small living room, where we took our seats to wait. I ended up sitting on Nate's lap because there wasn't a lot of room. That's at least what I told myself. Joseph hadn't openly stared like the berserkers had, but I knew Nate wanted to brand me as his.
"Could she possibly sit on the robots lap?" Joseph asked, staring at the ground as he spoke.
"I prefer that she sits with me." Nate answered.
"I know, and I'm sorry for asking, but ever since she walked in the room last night, she's been drawing me in. It's been mentioned, and I concur, that there's something about her. I know you guys are mates and I'm not trying to get in the way of that, but she makes a part of me feel extremely protective of her. And I'm sorry," he said, studying Nate, "I just don't know you well enough to trust her around you."
"You think you can trust her with the robot?" Rick asked, laughing.
"I guess it isn't so much trust, but I can feel Nate's emotions for her and hers don't jive with his and it's making me edgy. I can't pick up emotions from Vinnie, so I don't think it will be as bad," he explained.
"Where are you in the wolf hierarchy?" Nate asked, not making any move to let me up.
"My original name was Fenrir, if that's any indication," Joseph replied. It meant nothing to me, but I got the usual sense that everyone else in the room knew what the name signified.
"Fill me in, please." I said when no one rushed into details.
"Like Nate, we have another original to their species in the room," Rick said.
I looked at Nate to see how that news sat with him, but his game face was on, revealing nothing. I didn't mess around in his head to figure out if there was an issue. It was enough for me that he hadn't immediately issued a challenge to decide who the most powerful person in the room was.
"So, you were the first wolf shapeshifter?" I asked, making sure I'd heard correctly.
"Something like that," Joseph replied. "My father was actually worshipped as the God Loki. I'm the template for the wolves who came after me, but I have a little bit more leeway when it comes to shifting and such. You could say that even though I turn into a wolf, I'm more like you phoenixes in abilities."
"That's why you were here last night. Being an alpha dog, you could've been able to help Miranda shift," Nate said. He still showed no signs of letting me move.
"That's correct. She was too far gone for my abilities, though."
"Are there other originals living in this town?" Rick asked.
"We have Nanook, Crocotta, and Habrok also living here."
"You have not only the king of the wolves, but the polar bear, hyena and hawk kings all living in one small town. I'm surprised anyone is left standing." Rick was finding so much joy in the conversation that I thought we'd have trouble removing the grin from his face.
"We also have the phoenix king as a temporary resident. Do you think he's going to cause any issues?" Joseph asked Rick. He'd been very careful about looking at me, but had no problem looking at everyone else in the room.
"Doubtful. It's just odd to find such a bounty in one place," Rick replied.
"It is. Nanook, who is currently going by Ben, has been here with his mate the longest. Crocotta, also known as Harry, and Habrok, Jeremy, have been here about six years. I moved here three years ago just to get away from city life for a while. I've been thinking about returning to city life in recent months. There's only so much snow I can take," he said with a smile.
"Back to what originally started this conversation," Nate said interrupting the lighter conversation. "You said you were feeling protective over Avery, but it wasn't in a romantic way."
I didn't remember romance being brought up. I heard he wasn't going to get in the way of Nate's intentions for me, but that didn't mean his heart didn't flutter when he saw me. The thought of drawing another guy's interest made me want to find a dark room and lock myself in it, so I hoped Nate's statement proved correct.
"Last night, as you may have noticed, I stayed in the background. I was having issues seeing you two together and I was definitely feeling romantic notions. I believe I've swallowed those down enough that my interest can remain protective. I really don't want to come in between the two of you. Your relationship is legendary amongst the world of uniques. That being said, I will not deny that if you were not here, I would try to pursue a relationship."
"Yeah, good luck with that one. I think the line goes out the front door and down a block or two," Rick said. He must have put on his?"I am a comedian"?boxers.
"I think we should share with him the information we recently found out," I said, interjecting into the conversation. Rick was right that him trying to pursue me romantically would be futile on his part, but if he wanted to protect me, maybe I could start to build an army to fight whatever war was coming.
"I can see what you are thinking, Avery, and I think you might have something. I've been busy keeping up with you, so I haven't had a chance to really delve into the protection you probably need," Nate said, giving me a little kiss on the cheek.
"Shall I tell him?" I asked.
"It's probably best that it comes from the horse's mouth, so to speak," Nate replied.
"So here's the deal, Joseph. For some reason, I think I can trust you, but I don't want what I'm about to tell you leaving this room unless you're given my okay," I started off saying. I didn't know that I really did trust him, but people liked to hear crap like that.
"My lips will be sealed until you give me the authority to tell others," he replied, raising his left hand like some sort of oath.
"Good enough. Long story short, as far as I'm concerned I'm not really the phoenix queen everyone thinks I am." He looked at me in shock, so I hurriedly continued, "Don't get me wrong, I am her, I just don't have all her memories. During my last resurrection something went wrong and I was missing to the phoenix world for fifty years.
"I've just recently started getting memories back and I've been told who and what I really am. In this quest for self-rediscovery I found a letter that I'd written saying I would regain my memory soon and that there was some war on the horizon and if I didn't prepare, the people I loved would die." I took a break to catch my breath.
"Uniques don't have wars. It's stupid to try because of how hard it is to kill each other," Joseph said after taking everything in. "I mean, technically, if we d
id what was done to Miranda we could, but that's just cruel."
"We don't really know what the message means. Avery's previous incarnations were able to see the future, though, so we've been working to try to find out what could cause a war. We don't know if this war is amongst uniques, if it's just against the phoenixes or if it's against all species of uniques," Nate said.
"I understand. Do you mind if I have my researchers take a look in some of our texts and see if there are any prophecies or mentions of some super weapon that would actually cause you damage?" Joseph asked. "I understand that you might not want anyone to know about the memory thing, since it could be seen as a weakness, but I think I can request general information about phoenixes without raising suspicion."
"We've been looking through our texts, and so far have found nothing, so if there's anything to be found in yours, we'd greatly appreciate the information," Nate replied. "And I thank you for any discretion you can use."
"I'd like to take this moment to comment on something Joseph said," I said, trying to not show any aggression.
"Oh no," Rick and Vinnie said in unison.
"Avery, please don't do anything stupid," Nate implored.
Evidently they'd been living with me too long. It was bad when the robot in your life knew you were going to do something on the crazy side.
"I'll take requests if you prefer. My initial thought would ruin too many things," I replied.
"There's a fireplace. I'd go with that. It will get you the effect you want, without involving breakable objects or people," Rick said trying to appease me. "As cute as the tricks you do with sharp objects are, I forgot my spackle at home."
"Okay, just remember it was your choice," I said as I closed my eyes and concentrated on the logs in the fireplace that weren't lit. Since my little showdown with warming up Katie's gun, I'd been doing some exercises to better hone my heat projection ability.
I envisioned a huge roaring fire in the fireplace, wanting to be dramatic, instead of starting a slow fire; I engulfed the wood with flames immediately. There was a whooshing sound as the air in the room moved to feed the flames.
"Ta da!" I announced as I put the fire out with my mind. "I don't like being seen as a weakness. In fact, I believe Rick thinks I get just a tad grumpy when I'm called one. I may not have my memories and I'm currently restricted from changing forms, but I'm strong physically, and have very strong telekinetic and telepathic abilities. The telekinesis, as you can see, has expanded to me being able to do really neat things with fire."
"I'll do my best not to doubt you," Joseph said, looking at me with a smile across his face. At least he'd graduated to the point where he could look at me.
"What was that?" Miranda asked, standing in the doorway. "I felt the air pressure in the house totally change."
"That was just Avery showing off," Rick said. "You're lucky we were able to keep the house in one piece."
All eyes in the room turned to me and I didn't appreciate the eye roll I saw from Rick.
"Hey, it isn't my fault someone needed a demonstration. Let's try to focus on why we're here and our investigation into the other missing uniques."
I wasn't even sure whose house we were in. There weren't any photographs giving away any clues. Miranda moved into the room to join us, sitting in the seat we left open for her. I was hoping we could learn a great deal from her, but after what she'd been through, I wasn't sure how quickly we'd get the information.
CHAPTER 9
Today is going to be a good day, then I woke up