Page 39 of Phoenix's Last Heist
Fobos swings a fist at me but it’s slow and clumsy—easy to dodge. I crouch low to kick his knee out, then hit him again in the temple as he falls. The brutal blow splits my knuckles openand finally renders him unconscious. I shake my fist out as Lyra comes to stand next to me.
“That could have gone better,” I say, eyeing her soon-to-be black eye, the small cut across her brow, and split lip. That foreign impulse to soothe and protect rises, but I quell it before I can reach for her.
“It could have gone worse, too,” she says with a shrug. “But you’re in big trouble now. Fobos will tell Brill you dropped his name. The Void Stalkers will be on us faster than flies on shit and they’ll have confirmation that we have the idol in our possession. We’re on a ticking clock right now, Ranger, so get your evidence and let’s get the fuck out of here.”
As if on cue, several angry shouts erupt from the hallway beyond, followed by aggressive banging and hammering on the door. I pull out the holocorder and start scanning the room, hurrying between the aisles of books and treasured artifacts. When I finish, Lyra is already standing by the door clutching Fobos’ plasma pistol, and I almost miss the flicker of anxiety on her face.
“I jammed the door lock on my way in, so I think it’ll be a few minutes before they can get in, but I don’t imagine it’ll hold for long. And who knows how long Fobos will be unconscious,” she says with a grimace.
“What’s your plan for getting out of here?” I ask, tucking the holocorder back into the inner pocket of my suit.
“I have an idea, but you’re not gonna like it…” she says, holding up the Velusian grenade.
“Oh no,” I groan. “Tell me there’s another way.”
The barrage of noise against the outer door ceases for a moment, only to be replaced by the soft crackle and bright light of a plasma torch cutting through the thick metal of the door.
“Nope,” Lyra says with an apologetic shrug. “Just…try to hold your breath.”
A hand appears through the hole the plasma torch had made, and Lyra fires once. As soon as the hand retreats, she presses a button on the grenade and lobs it through the hole. We duck with the flash and bang of the explosion, but she’s up in an instant, tugging me through the broken door. Several security goons are slumped in the hallway, blinking dazedly. A fine mist of pink particles hangs in the air, drifting lazily through the narrow passage. I lift my tie up to my nose to keep from inhaling the potentvelliachemicals, but the hallway seems to stretch impossibly before us.
“Let’s move!” Lyra shouts, pulling me through the chaos and confusion. We manage to clear the security guards, but something latches onto my ankle. I look down to see one of the guards sprawled out, holding onto me and staring up with a look of disoriented desire. In yanking my ankle free from his grip, I stumble—going down hard behind Lyra.
The fall knocks the wind out of me, and I reflexively suck in a breath when Lyra turns to drag me forward. Lyra’s scent fills my nostrils—that intoxicating fragrance of sun-warmed flowers and summer rain that I’ve come to crave. In an instant, I slam into a wall of lust that would bring me to my knees if I hadn’t already fallen. Suddenly, it’s impossible to focus on anything buther.Lyra.My Lyra.
Mine.
11
lyra
Temptation Always Leads to Damnation
“Shit,”I grunt, seeing Orion’s pupils dilate until they’re pools of black surrounded by a slim ring of emerald. He’s sucked in too much of the atomizedvelliaand while I know it’ll wear off eventually, it will make our escape decidedly more complicated.
Orion shakes off the security guard and crawls toward me, reaching for my outstretched hand.
“Let’s go, Ranger!” I shout. “I’d say we’ve more than worn out our welcome here.”
As he gets to his feet, we take off down the hallway, eager to get to the crowded mass of people on the casino floor. He grips my hand with desperate strength, as if letting go will untether us from the safety we can almost grasp.
The commotion behind us escalates again, and before I can turn around, the buzz of a plasma blast zings past my head. I duck into a crouch just as searing pain and blazing heat singes my right shoulder.
“Fuck!” I shout, stumbling to the floor. Pain explodes across my back and down my arm—I’ve been hit.
Fobos’s triumphant cry rises over the noise and I look back to see him standing in the vault’s doorway, his face a mass of darkening bruises and syrupy trickles of green blood. He grins cruelly at me and aims the pistol again. I wince, huddling into a ball on the floor as I prepare for the inevitability of death at the hands of one of the worst lays of my life.How humiliating.
But the pain of death doesn’t come. Instead, a shrill scream splits the air.
I crack one eye open and look up at Orion—vibrating with fury, pointing a glowing plasma pistol at Fobos. The other security guards blink in shock, still too dazed by the Velusian grenade to do much except stare.
Fobos clutches his shattered horn—still sizzling from the plasma blast. He screams obscenities at Orion, who glares at him with dark, toxic malice I wouldn’t have believed possible from the honorable Xylothian.
“Orion!” I call, but he doesn’t seem to hear me. With lithe, lethal grace, Orion sprints back down the hall toward Fobos’s cowering form. Before Fobos can realize the danger he’s in, Orion grabs him by the neck and lifts him off the ground. Fobos gasps and chokes beneath Orion’s iron grip, clawing at his arms and kicking his silly cowboy boots. Whoisthis ranger? Certainly not the Xylothian I brought on board with me—the long-suffering, do-the-right-thing, paragon of virtue I’ve begun to begrudgingly kindle some affection for.
The synesfores dotting Orion’s neck flicker black, matching the darkness of his eyes. I watch helplessly as Orion tilts his head—almost curiously—and he snarls in a low, deep growl.
“How dare youhurther. I should rip your head off.” He starts to squeeze and the wheezing, choking sound emanating from Fobos makes even me gag. Orion isn’t going to kill Fobos—is he? For the first time since we met, I taste the sharp bite of fear. If he kills Fobos in avellia-induced haze, he’ll never forgive me.With sickening dread, I realize I can’t stomach the thought of his disgust and hatred aimed at me.
