Phoenixrise: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Rogue Witch Book 5) Read online

  The only good thing about any of it was Ethan. The guy had already been over to say hi, and had even brought Max and me a couple of the beers reserved for Jake and his band. I didn’t have the heart to tell Ethan I didn’t drink, so I pretended to sip it until he went away.

  “Can’t fucking take his shit,” Cash muttered again. Eli shot him a quelling look.

  “Phoenixcry? This is your ten minute warning,” a stage manager called out as he stuck his head in through the door.

  “We better head down,” I said. We were actually going to watch the show from the audience, since the merch booths were out in the lobby area of the venue. Finn smiled at me, and I ached to give him a kiss on the cheek to wish him luck. I couldn’t though. There were too many eyes on us. Charlie sighed as the guys got to their feet.

  “Let’s go kill it,” he said. Finn laughed and gave Ace a playful shove to move along when Ace lingered for a moment, glancing between us and Jake over on his couch.

  “They’re fine here, right girls?” Cash asked. I nodded. Jake honestly didn’t scare me. There were worse monsters out there. With one more worried look, Ace followed the guys out as they went to stand just off the entrance ramp to the stage.

  I let out a shaky breath. This was the biggest show they’d ever played, hands down. It was a good test to see how they did in advance of doing the Wrecked tour.

  “You okay?” Max asked.

  “Yeah, I’m… actually really good,” I said after thinking about it for a minute. Max smiled.

  “Everything’s gonna be just fine tonight. The guys will kill it, and then,” she smirked and her voice dropped so only I could hear her, “you’ll take them home and debauch them all. Except for Eli. He’s going to sit next to me on the couch and pretend like he’s not totally listening in and as hard as a rock.”

  “Max,” I hissed. She laughed and held up her hands, the picture of guilty innocence.

  “What, it’s hilarious. If he wants to cock-block himself, I have the right to mock him.”

  “What are you ladies laughing about?” Jake’s drummer strolled up to us, a beer in his hand. He eyed my drink. “Can I get you a fresh one?”

  I gave him a tight smile. Ethan was the only one of Jake’s band that I really could stand talking to for more than a few seconds.

  “No thanks. We’re heading down to merch. Have a good set if we don’t see you.” I grabbed Max by the hand and we got out of there as fast as possible.

  “It’s like him and his band all take skeeze-bag pills,” Max whispered as we made our way through the darkened backstage.

  “Ethan’s alright, but he’s not really part of the band.” We ducked past security and flashed our tickets to the pit guards. They nodded and let us slip into the area behind the front of house sound booth. From here we had a view of the entire stage, and the huge crowd in front of it. The audience was whistling, cheering, and talking. The sound was intense already, and my nerves were trembling.

  “You okay?” Max was right beside me. I gave her a tight smile.

  “This just feels so huge.”

  She nodded in understanding.

  “They’re amazing, your guys. This is just the beginning of something totally new, I can feel it,” she said.

  “I hope so,” I whispered. The house lights went down, darkness all around us, and the audience started cheering. My breath caught and I stood there, stock still.

  The first roar of the guitars lifted me up on my toes, the magnetic draw of the band nearly knocking me over. As the stage lights came up on the band, the audience went wild. A thousand hands shot into the air and Max had to grab me to hold me steady.

  I wanted to go to them. The music was shouting inside me, getting its hooks in me, demanding I run to them.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed. Eli stood near the front, his fingers racing over the neck of his guitar, the silver fittings flashing in the stage lights. The drums thundered underneath the instruments, Cash’s arms bare and fluid as they cut in and out of the lights at the back of the stage. Ace pressed right up against Charlie’s back as they played in tandem. A thrill of energy raced along my skin as the intro built, and built, and built and —

  Finn ran into center stage, his microphone up, stopping right at the edge of it, almost tipping into the audience. His lips parted, his head tilted back and —

  Time.

  Stood.

  Still.

  My eyes closed and I clung hard to Max, listening as the magic and music swirled all around me, an intoxicating drug that made me feel more alive than I ever had in my entire life. The song was a blur that never ended, assaulting every sense I had as the fog machines pumped hard out into the crowd, sending smoke floating up around our knees.

  Song after song, the guys sweated it out on stage, bending backward to play their instruments, the audience working up to a fever pitch of excitement that only broke when the lights cut and the music went dead silent.

  Only then could I breathe again, my mouth dry. Max was quiet beside me as we stood there, and the house lights came up on an empty stage. The guys had already cleared, and stage crew were striking their equipment and instruments.

  Just like that, it was done.

  “I need to see them,” I said, that shivery, nervous feeling still in my stomach. I needed to be close to them.

  “No shit. They must be good in bed if that’s what they’re like on stage,” she said. I blushed and she grinned. “Let’s go get your guys.”

  Backstage was a mess, the changeover cramped with the extra addition of Jake and his band, and we nearly were tripped or tripping other people as we weaved in and out of all the crew.

  “Hey ladies!” Jake’s voice was like a splash of cold water as he popped up out of what seemed like nowhere.

  “Sorry, Jake, I gotta-“

  He grabbed me by the arm, and Max let out an indignant squawk.

  “I just wanna talk to you,” Jake said, his eyes bright and intense. I stared up at him, leaning away.

  “Too fucking bad, I don’t want to talk to you,” I said, my gut clenching, and I tried to squirm my arm out of his grip. His eyes narrowed, and his lips parted.

  Whatever he was going to say next was lost when Eli barreled into him, knocking him flat on his ass. I stumbled back into Max and she caught me.

  It was a blur of movement, Eli falling on top of, no, pinning Jake to the ground. Eli’s arm moved, hauling back and letting fly. The crack of his fist connecting with Jake’s jaw reverberated in my head.

  “No —” I gasped, pushing off of Max. Eyes were on us, pressing down on us from all angles, as my body moved far too slow to stop what was happening, even as my throat closed up and I couldn’t scream for Finn, for Cash, Ace, or Charlie. Again, and again, Eli slammed Jake’s head into the ground, an inhuman snarl working out of his throat as Jake cried out, his noises choking off into a bloody gurgle.

  There was a streak, and Ace was there, wrestling a snarling Eli up and away. His booted foot came up, aimed at Jake’s face, but Ace yanked him back just in time for it to miss.

  The hush backstage was painful, broken only by the soft groaning coming from Jake as he lay, sprawled on the floor. Eli loomed over him, so still it was like he wasn’t breathing. Max clung to me, her fingernails biting into the skin of my arm.

  “Call an ambulance,” someone, a lighting tech, said.

  “Call the cops,” muttered someone else. Panic flared inside of me.

  “Stop!” the command burst out of me before I could stop it. Everyone near us froze, even Max, her breath catching in her throat. I needed to fix this.

  Untangling myself from Max, I walked toward Eli, my heartbeat thudding in my ears with each step. His face was a mask of anger. Curling my fingers around his hand I drew him away gently. Time seemed to slow down, nobody moving, or blinking.

  “Come on,” I whispered. He turned his head to me, moving painfully slowly. “We need to go.”

  His lips parted. My skin itched al
l over, like someone was about to come and stab me right in the back. We had to get out of there.

  His hands were covered in blood splatters. Vomit hovered in the back of my throat and we walked away, pushing through the crowd of unblinking people. Only when we broke through at the back, near the exit door, did the spell dissolve, the command losing its power. They started talking; someone yelled for an ambulance; sound bursting to life as someone else started sobbing hysterically.

  I yanked Eli through the fire exit door, out into a dimly lit stairwell that would lead us down to the ground floor. His head lifted and he seemed to snap back to himself, eyes narrowing at me.

  I couldn’t fix this. It was too big. He’d half-killed Jake; there were too many witnesses. In the back of my mind, something was screaming at me that Eli was a monster, that he’d finally shown himself for who he really was, that I shouldn’t be alone with him, that I needed to get out before he did the same thing to me. It was white noise, filling the space inside my skull until I wanted to vomit.

  “Darcy,” Eli said, his eyes dark. We stood there for seconds that felt like hours, staring at one another. “You should go back inside. Finn needs you.”

  “I —”

  The answer was roaring up inside me. God, I’d promised, no more running but —

  “No,” I said, my voice hushed. “C’mon.” I wrapped my hand hard around his and tugged. For a second he resisted and then, confusion crawling across his face, he took one hesitant step, then another. “C’mon,” I said again, more urgent this time. A muffled siren, first responders, cut through the air. “Come on!”

  His resistance broke, fear, and then panic in his eyes as he followed me. We clattered down the steps, around a corner, and down another set of stairs. The black door at the bottom had to lead out onto the street, please, please. The image of Eli in handcuffs, being shoved into a police cruiser, made me run faster.

  The door swung open as we both reached the lever at the same time. The noise of the city descended on us in a rush as we burst outside, our hands still clenched together.

  Close by, sirens were wailing. We were on the street, out back of the venue. A car roared by and I nearly jumped and stumbled into Eli.

  I looked around, gulping for air, trying to figure out our next step. We needed to run, to keep him safe, to protect him from the consequences of that day.

  “This way,” Eli said, his voice steady. There was a parking lot across the street, and we ducked behind an old camper-van that was parked there. “Hang on a sec.”

  Taking a deep breath, I scanned the road between us and the venue. I could still hear the sirens but they weren’t coming toward us. Small miracles.

  A metallic sound startled me and I jerked my head, looking back at Eli. He let go of the edge of the door with a sigh. It popped open, and I stared.

  The door was warped, the metal pressed in like he’d grabbed it and forced it open with raw, brute strength.

  “In,” he said. I didn’t think twice, scrambling over the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s. He followed me, the door barely closing and only staying shut because he locked it. Then he was ducking under the steering wheel. I stared blankly at the back of his head as he yanked a panel down, and pulled out a plastic-sleeved bundle of wires. He reached into his pocket and popped out a knife. A few moments later, he’d stripped the wires down. “Seatbelt,” he said. I let out a hysterical bubble of laughter before falling quiet again. This was really happening. He touched two wires together for just a second and the engine roared to life.

  My heart was beating almost in the back of my mouth, it was so far up my throat. My mind was spinning. We sat there for a moment, the engine chugging away.

  “Where to?” Eli asked, like our entire world hadn’t just come crashing down around us.

  “I don’t know,” I answered honestly.

  “Alright,” he said, and shifted the car into gear.

  FOLLOW DARCY AND THE GUYS OF PHOENIXCRY

  in BOOK 6:

  PHOENIXFLARE

  Available for Pre-Order on Amazon now!

  It’s not goodbye.

  My dad passed away early in the morning on September 3rd of this year. For a man who was always late, he hurried out of this realm and onto the next one before I could get there in time to say goodbye.

  The night before he passed, I sat with him and sang the song he always would sing to me when I was growing up, only to have him begin to hum along with me. He wasn’t able to open his eyes anymore, or part his lips, but he was still with me.

  One thing I wanted to share with you is how much you meant to my dad.

  He’d cry and tell me he was so happy for me, and how he was so excited that I had such amazing people to share these stories with.

  And he’s right.

  I am so lucky to have you. Thank you. I can’t wait to share more stories with you. This is my first book I’ve published without my dad being here with me, but I don’t feel so alone. I’ve got you. And you know what? You’ve got me too.

  All my everything,

  Kit

  (KT Strange)

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  About the Author

  KT Strange is a reverse harem romance author from the Great White North. After spending ten years in the music scene babysitting drunk rock-stars, she’s finally ready to settle down (sorta) and write a few good books inspired by her life on the road with bands and her love of everything paranormal.

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