Page 9 of Phoenix Chosen 2
I know that we won’t have much time before we’re split apart. I’ll have to make this count.
I slip my arms around his neck and kiss him with everything I have. Our tongues rock together and I suck his bottom lip into my mouth as I push against his bulge with my thigh.
“Alright, that’s enough,” a voice says over the intercom.
I’m not finished with him yet. I thrust my hand down and grab a handful of him through the jail uniform. He exhales against my lips and I feel him swell up in my palm.
The door buzzes and three officers burst into the room.
“Sir, get off of him,” one of them says, grabbing my arm.
“You jealous?” I say.
The other two men pin Kalistratos’s arms behind his back and cuff him. I take one more look back at him before they hustle me out of the room. His little smile and wink says it all.
See you soon.
I’m ushered out to the lobby of the building. As I’m standing there, I suddenly realize I have no idea what I’m waiting for. It was a good thing that Kalistratos hadn’t announced his plan for the cops to overhear, but now I can’t help but wonder how he could possibly know what to do. He doesn’t know how this world works at all.
If he gets caught, we’re done for.
I walk outside, sit on a bench nearby and stew in my intrusive thoughts. It’s not more than a few minutes before a window explodes from the police station behind me, throwing glass all across the lawn. An alarm bell clangs.
Oh, shit.
5
KALISTRATOS
From the very moment he leaps into my arms, I feel my powers begin to replenish, and his arousing goodbye should be more than enough to give me the energy I need to make my escape.
It should be.
There’s something about this world that has numbed my powers. Or, an even worse possibility—something about the journey to this world has crippled me permanently. I feel a weakened grasp on my phoenix abilities, and whether or not they’ve regenerated enough for me to navigate this labyrinth with a passenger in tow is questionable.
Not that I have much of a choice. I can’t do it alone. And I don’t have any time to think about it.
They open the keyless door that holds the cage. As I walk through it, I release the bindings on the phoenix fire burning within my heart and wrestle to take control of it. The sensation of time becomes apparent to me, like an anchor line flying by at unbelievable speed. I grasp it with invisible talons, andthe monumental force of its sudden arrest is like a whip crack through the cosmos. The strain on my very being is immense. I don’t have much time.
The guard behind me is frozen mid-blink, his eyes partially closed. I turn and grab the keys from his hand, then hurry to the cage. Inside, one of the men is sneezing, little droplets of saliva motionlessly cascading across one of the other men who has his arm up over his face, which is locked in an expression of angry surprise. Another is in the middle of picking his nose. Everyone is like statues held in time—except for one.
Nelly looks around, his eyes as wide as the moon. Then he looks at me and nearly falls off the bench. I’m fumbling with the keys, trying to get the damn lock open.
“I’ll be a son of a bitch,” he says.
I finally get the gate open. “It’s your lucky day, Nelly,” I say. “You’re helping me escape from this place.”
He stares up at me in shock and I have to grab his arm and haul him up from the bench to break him out of his trance.
“It’s real,” he stammers. “It’s all happening just like?—”
“Come on, let’sgo,” I grunt. “Show me how to get out of here.”
We make for the door, and Nelly stares in wonder at the guards frozen in place as we pass them. The next room has the table with the gem-likebahtunson it. I point at it.
“You said this will open the doors and release us.”
“Well, yeah. But I don’t know which one to press.”