Phoenixcry: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Rogue Witch Book 1) Read online

  “Back off,” I ordered, and he took a shaking step back, nearly tripping as my command forced him to do what I said.

  “Darce—” Ace came in through the doorway. “The guys are almost—” He stopped dead in his tracks, taking in the sight before him and snarled, turning from sweet marshmallow Ace into something dark and dangerous right in front of my eyes. He was across the room in a single breath, his hand up around Jake’s throat, and a low, powerful grumble emanating from him.

  Jake gulped and coughed, his hand going up to Ace’s, scratching uselessly at Ace’s skin.

  “Let go,” he struggled to breathe the word in. “F-freak, let go!"

  “Ace,” I said.

  “No, Darcy,” Ace defied me, glaring up at the taller man. He gave Jake a shake by the neck like Jake wasn’t anything more than a rag doll. “You touch her?” he demanded. “What’d you do to her!?”

  I walked up to Ace.

  “Ace,” I snapped. “Let him down.” Ace looked over his shoulder at me and growled but pulled away from Jake.

  “Fucking... fucking freak,” Jake gasped, rubbing his neck and stepping away, bending over and coughing.

  “I should—” Ace started, the threat clear in his voice, but I grabbed his hand hard and yanked him back. He went with me, as the rest of the guys arrived, looking at our little encounter for a moment before they all stalked into the room, ready to do battle. I whirled and stared down Eli. He stopped short from me and Ace, and glared at me and looked past me to Jake who was still coughing and making a dramatic show of rubbing his neck.

  “Oh grow up,” I spat at him. “He didn’t hurt you.”

  “You guys wouldn’t even be on this tour if not for me.” Jake breathed heavily around his words and I rolled my eyes.

  “I’m gonna get Aaron,” Charlie muttered, and vanished. Eli was still switching from glaring at me to glaring at Jake. Finally, finally, Eli settled his shoulders and crossed his arm, apparently content to follow my lead. Good. I didn’t have the energy to fight him and deal with Jake. I turned and stepped in front of Ace, ignoring his noise of strangled protest.

  “Bitch,” Jake wheezed, and I felt the guys behind me tense up again, ready for a fight. They weren’t going to get one. It was one thing to manhandle Jake a little bit, that could be explained away, but a full four-on-one asskicking? They’d get kicked off the tour and off the label if that happened. And then arrested, probably. It was up to me to stop it. I put my hand on Ace’s stomach behind me, and fisted my hand in his shirt.

  “You’re gonna leave this room,” I said to Jake coldly. “You’re gonna leave this room right the fuck now, and go back to the tour bus.”

  Jake’s face twisted up in to a nasty snarl.

  “You can’t tell me what to do.”

  “Yeah, but I can,” Aaron’s voice rang out behind us all and I felt a tremor of relief go through me. Jake’s eyes went wide as he looked past me. I didn’t turn my back to look too; I didn’t want to be vulnerable in front of Jake.

  “Daddy’s here,” Charlie muttered as he came up beside me, flanking me. I’d need to talk to him later about appropriate jokes about the headliners, and calling Aaron ‘Daddy’ wasn’t one of them. I still kept my grip on Ace in case he decided it was worth the kamikaze career move to deck Jake.

  “We need to talk, Jake,” Aaron said, sounding resigned. “Come to the tour bus. Now.” Jake eyed me then Ace beside me, refusing to look at any of my other guys in the eyes. He hesitated when he walked by me and for a moment I thought he was going to spit in my face.

  He passed me though, and the rest of the guys, and we turned to watch him go. When he disappeared after Aaron, Ace wrapped me up in a big wolf-hug, holding me tight.

  “What’d he do?” Eli asked. I shook my head.

  “Later. Tonight,” I said.

  “You should’ve reported him ages ago,” Cash spoke up. “He’s been dogging your shadow like a freak since the beginning of tour.” Something in his voice set me off.

  “As if it would have been that easy,” I snapped. “As if I could have just reported him.” Cash squared his shoulders, not giving an inch.

  “Yeah. Yeah, it was that easy.”

  “That’s crap,” I spat, the adrenaline finally getting to me. I was shaking, my fingers trembling. Jake had seen my powers. He’d seen my powers. That thought ran over and over through my mind on loop, even as I argued with Cash.

  “If you’d said something, it wouldn’t have gotten to this point!” Cash took a step toward me, and Finn grabbed him by the shoulder.

  “What, and get kicked off the tour? I’m an intern, Cash, an intern! I’m replaceable, in a heartbeat, there’s hundreds of other applicants out there dying for this kind of opportunity. Just cause you guys have fully accepted me doesn’t mean that the label wouldn’t get rid of me if I was a pain in the ass. He’s Jake Tupper!” I was shouting. I was shouting and there was a crowd of kids in the hallway, staring in at us. I felt my cheeks flush hard, and the nausea rose higher in my throat.

  “Let’s take this outside, guys,” Charlie’s voice cut through the frantic energy rolling around in my gut. I whirled and stalked off toward the exit, not caring if the guys were following me. I was done. I was maybe done for if Jake talked.

  Cash was hot on my heels when we got into the cool night air. I took a deep breath of it, trying to calm down.

  “Why were you so worried about getting kicked off tour? The only reason we were on it to begin with was because of you.” Cash asked. “And besides, you know we wouldn’t let that happen. We need you.” There was something in Cash’s voice that set me on edge again and I tried to fight it. Getting mad wouldn’t fix the situation we were in. Being sensible, calming down, would.

  His next words blew all my good intentions out of the water.

  “We need you Darcy. You’re our only chance at survival.”

  My stomach dropped like a rock. Of course. The heartstone. He had a one track mind, coming back to it, demanding I figure out an answer for the key to all their problems. Anger, hurt, and betrayal flashed through me.

  “Right, I forgot, you need me around so I can save your pack and make you a heartstone. Never mind that I can’t. Never mind that I’ve told you that I can’t, that it’s not possible. Were you not listening?!” My hands jerked up in the air, gesturing wildly, as the last, tenuous strings holding my temper back snapped. “I can’t do it!” My voice echoed off the outside of the venue, and for a moment, I heard my power coming back at me like he would hear it, the raw force of command as it echoed off the stucco.

  Cash looked like he’d been slapped.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” he muttered. “I just wanted—”

  “Well, maybe what about what I want?” I demanded, tears welling up in my eyes although I didn’t feel sad. I felt violated. I felt enraged. “I don’t want to die, Cash, and guess what, that’s what’s gonna happen if I try to make one. I know, I called my friend.” My words died in my mouth when I realized what I’d said. He frowned.

  “You did what?”

  “I- I called a friend,” I repeated myself. He squinted at me.

  “As in a witch friend,” he stated. I swallowed.

  “Yeah.”

  He inhaled deeply, his jaw flexing so hard I thought his teeth might crack.

  “A witch friend who knows you’re looking to create a heartstone and knows where you are.”

  “No, she has no idea where I am.”

  “But she knows you want to make one, and if she’s friends with you, she’s not an idiot, so she’s figured out why you want to make one,” he grit out each word, as if they burnt him.

  “It’s not like that,” I insisted, my anger deflating and running away from me.

  “All I asked was for you to think about it, to try,” he said, “That’s all I wanted. And you went ahead, and made a stupid decision and ended up endangering all of us!”

  “I was trying to help,” I shot back, stung. �
�You made me feel so damn bad, saying stuff like how you guys were pretty much going to die without it, so what did you expect me to do? Nothing?”

  “Don’t you blame this on me.” He took one menacing step toward me, and I flinched.

  “Shut the fuck up, both of you,” Eli interrupted us, walking out of the venue. “Do you want everyone to hear this shit?”

  It was too much, all of it. I took a shuddering breath.

  “I have to go,” I blurted out. “Don’t you dare follow me.”

  And I ran, my heart splitting into pieces with every step.

  Thirty-One

  You know when you see an accident just before it happens? Time slows down. You can feel the hum of energy in the world shifting, warping, all around you. Your mind screams at your body to move, do something, hold out your hand, warn somebody.

  But you don’t.

  You continue on, plodding forward, looking up too late to see the car bearing down on you. Then you’re airborne, flying through the sky, the world passing beneath you, the universe above you.

  If you’re lucky, you fall, you get hurt, you survive.

  If you’re not lucky, well...

  I felt like a car had hit me. That I could see it coming from far off, and I didn’t do a damn thing to stop myself from walking out in front of it. Getting involved, intimately, inescapably involved, with werewolves had been me walking out into the street without looking. They’d barreled down toward me, and all my instincts screamed at my deafened ears. I’d ignored a lifetime of fear and good judgement.

  Cash’s anger at my calling Daria was still stinging, my realization that the whole thing, Finn, all of them treating me like I belonged with the pack, was a joke and a lie. They’d only done it for the chance at a heartstone. I could see that now that I was apart from them.

  My feet took me away down an alley, and I let them, until my head caught up with my body and I realized I was in a strange town with nothing on me but my cellphone. Even my wallet was in my backpack, with the merch. I turned a corner, the thick scent of garbage around me. I wrinkled my nose and looked back. Cash wasn’t following me. Small miracles. Maybe the power in my voice had actually gotten him to back off.

  Max would know what to do. I pulled out my phone and called her.

  “Hey Darce,” her voice was like coming home. I closed my eyes and willed myself not to cry. I’d been doing enough of that lately.

  “Max,” I whispered.

  “Oh shit, what’s wrong?” There was a rustle of fabric in the background of the call.

  “Are you in bed?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Kinda sulking.”

  “Why?” I pushed aside my problems for a moment.

  “Oh, I uh... I failed my last photo assignment and—”

  “You what?”

  “You heard me, don’t make me repeat it.”

  “But your professor loves you. He said you were top of his class.”

  “Yeah well, he isn’t too thrilled with the fact I’ve missed every other day for the last few weeks.”

  “Oh Max,” I said softly. “I’m so sorry. I should be there.”

  “No, you need to be where you are, being a smarty-pants intern and rocking it hardcore with your sexy guys. I’ve seen the Insta, they’re hot. So it’s the tall smiley blond rocking your socks, huh? I’d had gone for his twin. Nice and scowly does it for me.”

  I let out a long, painful breath.

  “I’m coming home,” I said. “I, things—things aren’t working out with the band, and I need to come home.” There was another rustle and then a crunching noise. Was she eating?! “Max, I’m serious!”

  “Yeah, I know, and it sounds pretty shitty, whatever happened. So I needed some chocolate to handle the drama. What happened?”

  “Darcy?” The call of my voice made me lift up my head. Aaron stood at the end of the alley, his hands shoved in his pockets. He looked at me quizzically and jerked his head to motion behind him. “Can we talk?”

  “Yeah, one second,” I said, my heart beating faster.

  “What’s that? What’s going on?” Max’s voice was tinny where I’d pulled the phone away from my ear.

  “Max, I gotta call you back. I think I’m about to get my ass canned from the tour. Um, I’m just gonna bus back. Do you think you could pick me up from the station in a few days? That’s how long I think it’ll take before I get there.”

  “You’re what?! Uh, sure of course,” Max sounded confused. “Please call me back as soon as you can, I’m really worried about you.”

  “Yup,” I said, and hung up on her, trudging toward Aaron. Here it was. The end of everything. Why did I need to steel my heart against it? I’d already made up my mind about the guys—they were using me. Getting fired for how I’d talked to Jake was only for the best.

  Aaron gave me a brief smile.

  “Wanna walk with me? Smells like shit back here.”

  “How’d you find me?”

  “Watched you bail on Cash. He looked pretty upset.”

  “That’s nice,” I interrupted him. If this was happening, I wanted it to happen right away. Aaron gave me a look and cleared his throat as he started walking.

  “Let’s go to the bus,” he said.

  “I’d rather you do it here, honestly,” I said. “I don’t, you have, like, people on the bus. I don’t really want to...” He frowned at me.

  “What do you think is going on here?” he asked, his tone turning gentle.

  “Um, what I said to Jake, and stuff.” I squirmed, shrugging one shoulder.

  “I wanted to talk to you about that,” he said. “The guys and I made a decision. We’re kicking him from the tour. He’s been a creep the entire time, and I don’t know what happened to the cool dude I knew, but Jake’s—yeah, Jake’s changed. I wanted to let you know that you don’t have to feel uncomfortable about him being around anymore, cause he’s gone.”

  “Gone?” Shock filled me and I felt a certain bitter sadness. Of course the one person making my life miserable would get kicked from tour just as I was also leaving. “Oh. well, I mean. so I’m not?”

  He snorted.

  “Oh, y’know, five years ago? I would have taken his side. But I grew up, and got myself a woman who set me straight. She’s on the bus. You want to come meet her?” He must have seen the hesitation on my face. “You okay?”

  “I’m just feeling mixed up, I guess.” There was something about him that made me want to tell him everything, even though I barely knew him. Discretion was the better part of valor, but I’d have to be up front at some point. “I think I’m leaving the tour anyway, honestly.”

  Aaron was sharp, and I saw that he’d caught on by the way he narrowed his eyes.

  “Things not going well with the guys?”

  “No,” I said abruptly.

  “Weeeeell,” he drew out the word and shrugged. “Tour is hard. You want to kill each other sometimes. If things are that bad, why don’t you crash on our bus for the night, think about it and make a decision in the morning. There’s extra bunks now that Jake and his crew are gone.”

  “Shara?” I asked, suddenly feeling guilty. Aaron shook his head.

  “Yeah, she left with him, but I think she was sick of his shit too. She’s hopping on another tour with some friends of ours.”

  “Well that’s good, I guess.” I should have been running far away from the tour entirely, but maybe Aaron wasn’t totally losing it when he suggested that I sleep on it before bailing.

  “Okay, I’ll crash with you guys. Thanks. I really, really appreciate it.”

  “Look, I don’t know what happened, and you probably don’t want to bend my ear over it, but whatever it is, you guys can work through it.” He looked weary for a moment. “If you care enough about each other, you can work through anything.” Watching him, I had a suspicion that he wasn’t talking about me and my fight with Cash and the guys anymore. We walked the rest of the way back to Glory Rev’s bus in quiet.

&nbs
p; “I’ve got a set to play,” he said with a wry smile. “Chelsea will take care of you.” The door to the larger tour bus opened, and he hollered inside. “Chels! I got you a stray.”

  A silvery laugh echoed down the bus, and Aaron motioned for me to step in.

  “I’ll see you in an hour and a bit,” he said with a grin. He turned and started walking quickly toward the venue. I walked up the steps into the bus, the door hissing shut behind me. The difference between the Glory Rev bus and ours was hard to put into words. The phrase ‘I am Gucci, you are Crocs’ came to mind. Lacquered wood paneling was everywhere, bringing out the deep tones in the wood grain. White leather couches formed a seating area just behind the driver’s seat, and I saw a curtain that could be drawn to give privacy for the inhabitants of the main living area of the coach while the driver was up front.

  On the couch, sat a long legged, thin blonde woman. She was wrapped up in an knitted blanket, and she untangled herself from it, shaking out a sheet of waist-length hair. My eyes trailed up to her face and I froze.

  I’d seen her face on the side of busses, flashing on billboards, and on more than one ad spot before my favorite Youtube videos.

  “Hi,” she said, getting to her feet with a smile. She held out her hand. “I’m Chelsea.”

  “Sawyer, I know,” I breathed, sounding like a total idiot and not caring. “Oh my god, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize, when he’d said Chelsea he’d meant Chelsea Sawyer, XOhX recording alum, and top-charting billboard artist.”

  “That’s my guy for you, complete idiot. Doesn’t think he should warn you. You’re,” She squinted at me. “Darcy?”

  I felt my cheeks go hot. She knew who I was? I felt like I was going to disgrace myself and vom everywhere. She was just so inhumanly beautiful, it took my breath away. I’d thought it was all photoshopping when I’d seen her photos. But no. She had sparkling eyes, so blue they looked violet although that was probably a trick of the light, and her blond hair was the sandy-white that made some people looked washed out but seemed to just perfectly fit her pale complexion. Even her eyebrows were white. She had to have one hell of a stylist to do that good a job bleaching out her eyebrows without burning them right off.