Awakened Abyss (Firebird Uncaged Book 2) Read online

  Awakened Abyss

  Firebird Uncaged Book 2

  Erin Embly

  Copyright © 2020 by Erin Embly

  Copyright © 2020 by Poppythorne Publications

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First edition July 2020

  Cover design by Ravenborn Covers

  Published by Poppythorne Publications

  www.erinembly.com

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  1

  The metro tunnel had its eyes on me, even as the train sped along so fast all I could see through the window was a blur.

  Or at least it felt like that.

  I glanced down at the six-year-old boy fully immersed in his schoolbook beside me and tried to ignore the oppressive weight of the world’s expectations on us. With a sigh, I squeezed his hand a little tighter as the train raced through the tunnel.

  He didn’t look up at me, just wriggled his tiny fingers out of my grasp and turned the page of his book. He had a quiz today of some sort and had been obsessively studying all morning. Seemed a little intense for his age, but what did I know?

  When it came to kids, the answer was next to nothing. I’d taken custody of my dead roommate’s son two months ago only because I’d been in the right place at the right time. My legal claim on Noah was tenuous at best, and there was a whole line of very distant relatives just waiting for me to fuck something up. Considering the fact that Noah was just as likely to eat human souls as he was ice cream on any given day, I had a hunch that the distant relatives wouldn’t have to wait long.

  But I didn’t want to fuck this one up. In part because that would mean letting my friend’s son become a monster, but also because I just liked having him around. You know, when we were at home—far away from anyone he might accidentally kill.

  He’s fine. This is fine, I thought. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched.

  The walls had ears and eyes pretty much everywhere, sure. But not the metro tunnels outside of a moving train. My paranoia was getting to be problematic.

  I ran my eyes over the other passengers in the car, wondering why my instincts hadn’t suspected one of them of watching us instead of the speeding blur outside. That would be more rational, although they weren’t a suspicious bunch.

  An elderly woman met my eyes, a few seats down. She was sitting by herself, her spine rigid. That alone meant she couldn’t be stalking me; no one doing so would be this obvious. She gave me a crooked smile and then let her eyes drift to Noah, her face softening. Yeah, everyone loved looking at that cute kid. If he did turn into a monster one day, he’d have a damn easy time catching his prey.

  The lights flickered in the train, and I grumbled under my breath at the shoddy upkeep. People began to shift in their seats and look away from their phones and books and whatnot. The train slowed to a stop.

  Noah smacked his textbook shut with a loud crack. He was already on his feet before he looked around and realized we weren’t at any station. His eyes narrowed on me. “Why did it stop if we’re not there?”

  I put on my calmest face, the one I used to give everyone as a Guardian even when I was losing my mind with worry or frustration. Half my job as a bodyguard had been keeping other people from freaking out, and it felt like that was half my job as this tiny monster’s pseudo-parent as well.

  “Probably just waiting for another train to go through,” I said. “It means you get extra time to study.”

  Noah sulked. “But I already closed the book.”

  “Want me to help you open it again?” I couldn’t help but chuckle.

  He narrowed his eyes at me and plopped back down on the seat, and I didn’t know whether to count it as a parenting win or fail that he’d clearly understood the sarcasm in my question.

  “I don’t need help to open a book,” he said, but he didn’t open it. Just sat there with his little fists clenched around the corners of the cover and his head tilted down.

  “Okay, what’s up?” I asked. “I know a kid with a problem when I see one.”

  “I’m not a kid,” he said, but the usual playfulness in his tone wasn’t there. “That’s a goat . . .”

  “And you’re a fairy,” I finished for him.

  He looked up at me with only a weak smile, and I wondered how much longer that little exchange would work to brighten his mood. Not much longer, by the looks of it.

  “It’s Carina,” Noah said, his face scrunching back into a frown. “She says she won’t take me flying because I’m too dumb and don’t know how to not fall off.”

  Yeah, that sounded like Carina. My demon goddaughter who’d turned out to be my dragon niece was quite the piece of work. And for some crazy reason, Noah loved her. It must start early, the whole thing where men see long eyelashes and lose all sense of reason.

  “Okay,” I said. “But what does that have to do with . . .” I tipped my head down to peer at his book cover. “History?”

  “If I can get an A on the quiz, it’ll prove I’m not dumb.”

  “Ah. And then Carina will let you ride her?” Bats, that sounded wrong. “She’ll take you flying, I mean?” I corrected myself even though Noah probably had no idea what I’d just implied.

  “She—”

  The train jolted into motion again, and Noah reached for the metal bar to avoid slamming into me.

  I was about to ask him what he was going to say when the train lurched back to a stop and I slammed into him.

  Something screeched loudly, metal on metal, in a high-pitched wail that lasted too long and felt too violent to be normal braking sounds.

  The lights flickered again, and when I peeled myself off Noah I could see other passengers getting restless. The elderly lady who’d met my eyes before was shaking her head almost frantically as she opened and closed her hands.

  “Sorry,” I said to Noah, but I didn’t hear it if he responded.

  I was too busy gaping at the old woman, who’d just grown claws so suddenly they’d pierced through the skin on the palms of her hands.

  Blood dripped on the ground and blended in with the dark speckled pattern on the laminate flooring. The close air in the car filled with shouts as bodies migrated away from her, and I let out a sound of disgust.

  Really, no one was going to ask the bleeding old lady if she was okay?

  I stood up and made my way over to her. My healing magic hadn’t been playing nice lately, but I at least knew basic first aid. And surprise claws didn’t scare me. Although maybe they should.

  The woman clutched the sides of her head with her bloody hands and let out a moan as she leaned over. When she lifted her head back up, blood dripped down her face from where the claws had dug into her hair.

  This couldn’t be good.

  I crouched next to her and gently touched her wrist, trying
to ignore the jeers and gasps from the panicked crowd around us. “Hey,” I said as I tried to get a good look at her wounds. “I like your nails. Where’d you get them done?”

  I gave her a smile, hoping to break her out of her frantic state. The holes in the palms of her hands began to close even without my help as she looked up at me, but something felt wrong.

  Despite the fact that she was clearly living and breathing and moving and healing, she felt . . . dead. Empty. And when she looked into my eyes, her stare was eerily familiar.

  My heart racing, I gripped her wrist tighter and put out magic feelers for her soul. It felt like I was trying to drink from an empty glass—only it was one of those glasses with liquid in the sides, designed to confuse your senses.

  A pit formed in my gut. I let go of the woman and glanced back at Noah, who was watching me innocently with round eyes. He looked concerned, the sweet kid. But could he have done this?

  Was it really a coincidence that someone nearby seemed to be having soul issues? Could Noah even eat people’s souls from a distance?

  I had no idea what he was capable of. And I could be imagining things. This woman’s soul could be perfectly intact; it might just be a combination of my own fears and my newly wonky magic making me feel something off.

  When I turned back to the woman, she had begun to grow fur.

  Okay, so the claws at least made sense now. She was a shifter who had lost control. She still hadn’t said anything to me, but now she was moving her mouth like she wanted words to come out. For all her effort, I heard nothing but gasping silence.

  She jumped out of her seat with more force than I would expect from anyone her age, and the bones shifted beneath her skin as she opened her mouth to let out an inhuman roar. I was about to tackle her, to keep her from hurting anyone, when she ran.

  I ran after her, then hesitated when I saw her going for the door to the next car. If I weren’t on this train with a six-year-old kid I was supposed to be taking care of, it would be a no-brainer. Follow her, restrain her, help her any way I could while keeping her from hurting anyone.

  But I couldn’t be save-everyone Darcy when I was parent Darcy—the latter couldn’t just leave the kid alone on a train, especially when something so screwy was going on.

  I growled in frustration and marched back to Noah as quickly as I could. Screams filtered over from the car next to us, where the woman had run.

  I grasped Noah’s textbook and forced it open in front of him. “Keep studying. You remember what to do if I lose you?”

  He nodded.

  “Good. Don’t fuck it up, and I’ll tell Carina how smart you are.” I touched his cheek gently as I spun around, then ran down the aisle after the wacked-out shifter.

  With the crowd of people all watching intently, I could only hope Noah would be fine. All these spectators now knew he was with me, so someone would intervene if anyone tried anything funny. And more importantly, he knew I hadn’t abandoned him. He knew I was trusting him to look out for himself.

  I sped down the aisle without looking back. I knew I would regret it if I did.

  A gory mess greeted me when I made it over to the next car. A piercing wail, a woman clutching her bleeding gut, and a gurgling man trying to hold himself up by the railing while blood gushed out of his torn-out throat.

  Yum, I thought with a grimace.

  The old woman was gone entirely, a gigantic cat in her place. The kind of cat that prowled in the wilderness and had no business anywhere near people. Her paws and muzzle were drenched in gore as she pounced haphazardly from seat to seat. She wanted out—she just no longer knew where that was.

  Eerie laughter rang in my ears as the wailing died down, and I fought the urge to find and kill whoever thought this was funny.

  I clenched my teeth. This woman would be much more difficult to restrain now that she was fully shifted. I didn’t have any rope on me, or even any non-lethal weapons. Just the couple knives I always kept handy in my jacket. In these closed quarters, with all these people around and such a lithe creature with such pointy claws . . . attacking her here with my knives would be a recipe for disaster.

  I ran past her instead. “Come and get me, Miss Kitty!” I yelled. Her predatory instincts should push her to chase me. I hoped I could outrun her long enough to get us off the train.

  I had to stop to open the door to the next car over, and the cat-woman might have caught up with me had she not stopped to maul a large man who’d gotten in front of her.

  “Hey! Cat-lady!” I called out to her from the next car, holding the door open.

  The man grunted and stumbled back as too much blood ran down his leg, and the cat set her eyes on me, leaning back slightly as her tail moved slowly from side to side.

  I cringed. That made at least two people already with fatal wounds in this car. But if I had my way, there wouldn’t be any more.

  Spinning around without closing the door, I yelled, “Everyone get the fuck out of the aisle!”

  The cat pounced after me, the door slamming behind her. I kept on running. I probably should have yelled for someone to open the door I was currently running towards, at the other end of the car—the door that led off the train and away from the people in it—but it was too late now. I would be there before I could take a breath to say anything.

  The people around me were a blur, bless their obedient souls, but someone came into focus just as I slowed to grab the door handle myself. Someone standing in my way.

  His bright vest marked him as a Metro worker, and I had just enough time to be annoyed at how seriously he was taking the one job I needed him not to do before he opened his mouth.

  “You can’t—”

  He might have said more, but at that point the snarling cat pounced on my back, claws tearing through my jacket sleeves and jaws snapping at the back of my neck.

  I ducked my head and fell forward as soon as I felt her, letting her momentum guide me in a roll until she was flung forward off me—right into the metro worker.

  He screeched and jerked away from her, his vest catching on the door handle as he did.

  While she scrambled to her feet, all claws and snarls and twitching muscles, he nearly tore his vest getting the door open.

  Grabbing on to the metal bar overhead with both hands, I braced myself and swung my feet up to kick the cat through the door.

  My boots connected with her side before she could turn to face me. With a yowling hiss, she flopped through the open door into the dark tunnel beyond. I let out a breath and then jumped out after her.

  Cool air filled my nostrils as the darkness washed over me, calming my racing heart. Clicks of cat claws on the concrete and metal echoed all around me, intensified by the tunnel walls just as the magic flowing through me was magnified by the dark.

  The cat walked towards me slowly, limping just a little. A low growl came from her throat as drips of blood fell from her muzzle. She licked her lips and swished her tail, and I reached into my jacket for a knife.

  I didn’t want to kill her, not after seeing her unwilling transformation. The old woman under all that fur hadn’t gotten on that train with the intention of going on a murder spree. I had no idea what had set her off or whether she could be brought back, but I wanted to keep her alive to find out.

  If she was dead set on attacking me, that might be an impossible task. I should start carrying tranquilizers or something, I thought, and the walls around me seemed to laugh at the idea.

  I narrowed my eyes and fought the urge to look away from the cat in front of me. Who the fuck was laughing now? Had some asshole with a death wish followed us off the train?

  I gritted my teeth as the laughter echoed through the tunnel endlessly, sounding less and less human as it went. It was almost like a child’s giggle, both innocent and cruel at the same time, mocking me and the cat both in our seriousness.

  She moved before I did—but not towards me. Instead, she lifted her head and let out a high-pitched roar
, then spun in a circle. Chasing her tail? Screw the tranquilizer, maybe I would have been fine with just a ball of yarn.

  I pulled out my phone, eager to take the opportunity to call for help. The longer I was left alone with this deadly cat, the more likely I would have to kill her.

  But before I could get a message sent, the cat stopped running in circles and dashed away from me. I sighed. Nothing I could do but run after her. There was no one she could hurt in the tunnel, but it wouldn’t be long before she made it to the previous station—and there would be plenty more people for her to maul there.

  So I slipped my phone back into my pocket and ran. Taking a deep breath, I filled my lungs as my feet pounded the tracks and life flowed into my leg muscles. It felt fantastic. It had been too long since I’d had a reason to run like this.

  I focused on the cat in front of me, pleased to be gaining on her. She was faster than me, no doubt, but not nearly as determined. She wasn’t even running in a straight line—more like bouncing off the walls, snapping at invisible nuisances in the air around her.

  That might be worrying if I had the space in my brain to worry about anything right now. All I could think about was how I was just a few moments away from being able to pounce on top of her—the only way I had any chance of taking her out without killing her. It would be easier if her movements weren’t so erratic.

  When I was as close as I was ever going to get, I had to act before she turned to me. This wasn’t the kind of creature you leapt at while the pointy end was facing you.

  I let the knife in my hand fall as I launched myself forward onto the cat. She yowled as I knocked her to the ground, my left arm wrapping around her throat while my right locked itself around her chest. I squeezed her hind quarters between my thighs as I rolled over, keeping her back pressed tightly to my body and her paws sticking up uselessly in the air.