Page 8 of Bound By Destiny

“It happens. As far as I know Thyra never became a phoenix, so I suppose she passed on the dormant gene to her offspring, until it awakened with you.”

Before I finish my sentence, Destiny is already shaking her head. I try not to notice the rousing sight of her ebony strands whipping around her, but damn it, I do.

“I don’t have…” Words fail her as she waves frantically at the vivid wings taking up most of her living room. “Things like that s-sprouting out of my back.”

With an impatient sigh, I close the gap between us and spin her around. The moment I make contact with her, even if it’s through the fabric of her clothes, something powerful rises within me.

Her warmth shoots straight from my fingers down to my groin, and I’m sporting the beginnings of a much unwanted hard-on in less than a second. Her scent envelops me. Warm and spicy like cinnamon, with a hint of something mysterious that makes my mind go cloudy. My preternaturally acute senses suddenly seem to multiply, and I’m painfully aware of the slightest details.

Like the small tendrils of hair tickling her nape. The glimpse of her breasts I catch from my higher vantage point. Her sizzling temperature, so perfectly attuned to my own.

I gulp and quickly knead her back for confirmation, before I scamper away like a bug escaping a Venus flytrap.

“Those two bumps are your wings forming,” I wheeze in a ridiculously tight voice. I clear my throat. “In about ten days, they should be fully grown.”

“B-but no!” She denies desperately. “I just havedodo…domo…”

“That’s only scientific jargon Aleixo–”

“Who’s that?”

“Aleixo Pyrrhos,” I say as recognition passes over her face. “He’s the founder of the Guild, and he passes as a doctor in the human world.Dorso…” I rack my mind, only to give up an instant after. “Well, whatever that dork came up with is just a medical term Aleixo invented so that we can identify new phoenixes without garnering any unwanted attention.”

“And so the ‘Phoenix’ in this organization of yours isn’t because of the city but… because you’re actual phoenixes?”

I nod slowly. “And so are you.”

I remain silent a few moments and watch Destiny connect the dots, take in the reality of this fantastical situation. As her violet eyes dart frenziedly across the length of my wings and she bites her lip with worry, an odd warmth courses through me. A strange urge to wrap my arms around her – not because of my raging lust, but something else. Something that intensifies when I see her fine fingers tremble, her shapely brows twitch in panic.

With an inward groan I cross my hands behind my back and shackle my wrists together before I do anything rash.

“Does this mean I’ll make it?”

No, I shouldn’t feel this blind horror when I realize that Destiny must’ve believed she was on her deathbed. Nor a twisting sense of guilt that I could’ve come sooner. At least it acts like a cold shower and my arousal dwindles.

“More than that,” I rasp, and even to my ears my tone has grown noticeably softer. “You’ll pretty much live forever.”

Destiny closes her eyes, and for a wild second I miss the brilliance of those lavender beams. Her delicate lids flutter frantically, her breath comes out in shallow pants.

And all I can do is stand there, torn between a choice I made over four hundred years ago and an impulse to pull her close and whisper that everything will be alright.

“When will it end?” She murmurs so low I almost miss it. “The pain… it’s excruciating.”

Her quiet confession fills me with unease. Up to now Destiny put up a brave front, but I can’t ignore the dark circles around her eyes nor the pallid sickliness of her lips.

I was nineteen when I transformed, and I remember it was a tortuous process. For all my reluctance to be here, I don’t wish such agony upon anyone, least of all this woman whose vulnerability pulls at strings I’d rather be left alone.

With unsteady fingers I zip open the front pocket of my suitcase and retrieve a small vial.

“My sister-in-law is an expert in toxicology.” When Destiny’s gaze goes slightly hazy, I speak faster. “The short of it is that Luciana made this draught that will speed up the process. To be blunt, it’s not going to hurt any less. But with this you’ll probably be through it all within twenty four hours, instead of one to two weeks.”

I’m somewhat relieved that Destiny takes the bottle from my hand, but I’m not reassured by the pasty hue of her skin.

“I’ll take it,” she says, and that’s when I realize how deep her desperation ran to accept unknown medicine from a stranger.

“I’ll be here the entire time,” I assure her huskily as she unscrews the vial.

Because even if there’s nothing I want more than toremaina stranger, there’s no way I can let Destiny go through this alone.

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