Phoenix Fallen by Heather R. Blair Read Free Book Online Page A

“It’ll be the end of September, beginning of October, Kelsey thinks.
    "Goodie, I won't be too fat to wear a great dress by then." She patted her tummy and smiled. Scott's arm slung around her neck, her fingers laced in his as she gave Jules an expectant look.
    It took him a minute. "Say what?"
    "Ready to be a godfather again, Jules?" This from Scott, who had a knowing grin on his stupidly happy face.
    "Hell no. Jesus Christ, you two." How do you find the energy?, he wondered as Thing 1 and Thing 2 ran into the kitchen and seized his legs. "Congrats and all that." He knocked beers with Scott and kissed Fannie on the cheek. "Is this gonna be another excuse to have me babysit more often?"
    "Not everything is about you, dumbass." Fannie said so sternly he blinked at her. Only to have her bust out laughing at the look on his face. "But since you asked, next Thursday would be lovely."
    Jules rolled his eyes as Scott snorted and the twins started their deafening babysitting cheer involving his name and pizza. Fannie yelled for them to hush their mouths before she got the stick out. Then she pushed him and Scott outside to the lighted patio and told them to get cracking on the steaks.
    Five minutes later, Beyoncé was on the stereo and Scott was doing an alarmingly apt impression of her booty shimmy as he slapped raw beef on the hot grill and sang along.
    Scott was weird. He acted like some goofy kid with an artistic streak, but Jules knew better. Scott was the strongest elemental para Jules had ever met. Only Gordy, a water elemental who worked full-time for Phoenix came close to Scott’s strength. As an ex-Marine, he'd also been in both North Korea Conflicts and Jules suspected he'd spent some time in Russia. Possibly during the Dark Days, when shades had taken over Moscow for nearly a month and thousands had died.
    Scott Davidson had worked more than a few highly-sensitive jobs for Phoenix Inc. as a free-lancer after becoming a civilian. And he'd done them damn well. It may not sound like much, being able to control plants, but if you'd ever been in a forest at night, imagining that the trees were alive, alive and angry…well, Scott was capable of doing that for real.
    You didn't want to mess with a man who could set a forest on you.
    Scott was a bad-ass disguised behind a hippie, tree-hugger exterior. Jules watched the man sing Love On Top in a surprisingly smooth tenor and shook his head. You never could tell.
    Between the music, the sizzle of the steaks, the noise of the kids and Fannie singing along in the kitchen, Jules leaned back into the warm brick wall and smiled almost contentedly.
    It came as no surprise to him his near-constant headache and the tension in his shoulders had vanished. The Davidsons were his family now, the only ones he had left….
    Except Kelsey.
    Kelsey felt so distant lately. A distance that had nothing to do with the ocean between them. Jules sighed and rubbed his forehead. Nope. The gulf had everything to do with Miles. Her damn bloodsucking fiancé.
    Hell, he'd always known she'd loved Miles. Who better? He'd been Kelsey's best friend for more than half her life.
    He'd been there for her descent into agony after her mom had been killed, when Miles' lack of trust had shattered not only her heart, but her family. Of course, Jules put that death squarely on his own shoulders, not Miles'.
    He did, however, blame the French vamp for ripping Kelsey's heart out.
    Jules loved Kelsey. They were like twins of circumstance; gender didn't matter, background didn't matter, color didn't matter. They had been birthed in the blood and fire of their kidnapping as children by the Cleaners, the sick cult backed by the government at one time to eliminate shades using talented paras raised as assassins.
    The Cleaners were long gone. Kelsey had destroyed the last of them that night in Paris. Jules' loyalty to Kelsey and the bond between them was something that would never die. He didn't begrudge her and Miles their