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Katana yanked open her bedroom door and rushed downstairs. Words and thoughts tumbled through her mind; she didn’t know what to announce first.
When an empty house stared back at her, dread settled in her stomach.
Oh no. Have they been fighting?
She rushed to the front door and pulled it open. Jacques padded lazily towards her with a dead bird hanging from his mouth. Ashley stood near the end of the paddock, on the phone, seemingly engaged in a rather animated conversation with someone judging from his erratic arm movements.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Katana narrowed her eyes on Jacques. “Have you calmed down since last night?”
Jacques dropped the bird onto the concrete area outside the front door. The clatter from its beak hitting the floor made Katana jump. He then laid down next to his kill, grabbed hold of it with his mouth, and dragged it back to him, settling it between his front paws.
He bit down on the bird’s head, the crunch of its skull being crushed sending a shiver down Katana’s spine. Pointedly ignoring her, Jacques continued to chomp and munch on his breakfast.
“I’ll take that as a no then, shall I?”
Turning on her heels and heading back inside, Katana slammed her way around the kitchen, looking for something to eat, of which, there was nothing.
Just as she picked up a heavy saucepan, intending to hurl it across the room to alleviate some stress, Ashley waltzed back indoors, his green eyes glittering and a big smile on his face.
“Good morning,” he said. “Did you sleep well?”
Katana lowered her stress relieving object and glared at him. “Fantastic. You?”
“Didn’t sleep a wink. Hungry?” He motioned towards the saucepan. “Hate to tell you this but there’s no food left in the cupboards.”
“I know.” Katana fixed him a deadpan stare. Her nostrils flared as her blue eyes oozed contempt. “I wonder why.”
“Alright, chill out. We’ll go and get some supplies now. Is that ok?”
“No,” she said, snorting. “The point is I shouldn’t have to get supplies because the supplies should bloody well be in here!”
“Whoa. Someone needs a chill pill.”
Katana couldn’t help herself. Before she knew what she was doing, the saucepan was flying through the air, aimed at Ashley.
For all his lab sufferings were worth, Ashley was blessed with quick reflexes. He dodged to the side and watched the saucepan sail straight through the space that would have been the middle of his face.
“Nice aim,” he said, chuckling.
“Shame it wasn’t a knife,” Katana replied. “You might not have dodged a lighter object.”
Ashley walked towards her, keeping his eyes locked on hers. “Now that’s not a nice thing to say to your soul-mate, is it? Do I need to kiss you again to calm you down?”
“Ha! Just you try it, matey. I dare you.”
Backed up against the small sink with a wall to her right and a very small gap to her left before the kitchen surface came around in its L shape, Katana found herself trapped as Ashley strode towards her.
He stopped one stride out and flashed her a smile. “You’re pretty when you’re angry. Anyone ever told you that?”
Katana knew he was provoking her, wanting a reaction. It was just a matter of ignoring it, not rising to the occasion. After a few seconds of chewing on some questionable words, she replied, “You should see me when I’m murderous then.”
Ashley laughed and held his hand out to her. “Come on,” he said, motioning towards the door with his head. “Let’s go get stocked up.”
“No. We’re going hunting for your freaky phoenix siblings. I’ll have the first target in the next few minutes.”
“Are you forgetting this one that we still have to kill?”
Katana frowned, not understanding. Then, her brain kicked into gear, reminding her that the werewolf she’d killed had come back to life. It seemed like a whole other lifetime ago. “But we don’t know what kills you freaks,” she said, flicking a hand towards Ashley. “Have you got any way of knowing when he’ll release the others?”
“Unfortunately, our shared werewolf DNA doesn’t provide a psychic link to one another.”
“All you had to say was no.”
“No, I have no way of knowing when he’ll release the others.”
“Any clues whatsoever as to how to kill you phoenix freaks?”
Ashley started laughing. “Do you really think with your current hostile attitude that I’m going to even give you so much as an inkling as to what could kill me?”
“You really do love yourself, don’t you?”
“I beg your pardon?”
Katana shrugged her shoulders. “Well, you seem to make everything about you. It’s really not attractive you know, a lack of modesty.”
Ashley narrowed his eyes. “Alright. Yes, I have a suspicion of one method. It involves water and a whole lot of it.”
“Ok. Care to explain?”
“Gregory tried drowning us in both human and werewolf form, but he never drowned us whilst we were in between. I think that’s the key.”
Katana frowned. “You mean when the flames start but before the phoenix rises?”
He nodded. “All you’d need to do is submerge us in water. I think.”
“Ok, it sounds plausible but at that point, there’s no body—you’re just a pile of ash.”
Ashley shrugged his shoulders. “Well that’s simple enough. We’d simply let them burn to a pile of ash and then dump the ash in the sea or a lake or a river. Job done.”
“Oh,” Katana said, her voice laced in sarcasm. “Simples. Just like that. Hell, we might even get the other eleven of you all in one day.” Struggling to keep a lid on her temper any longer, Katana exploded. “You’re a fucking idiot. Get out of my way.”
Ashley stepped to the side and allowed her to stomp past. He watched with a high degree of amusement as she marched outside, muttering and mumbling to herself. When he heard a scuffle followed by a loud thump a few seconds later, he dared to look out the door.
Katana was sprawled across the ground, face first, her laces from her long riding boots trailing in the dirt. She’d obviously forgotten to tie them up and had tripped over them. She stood up, glanced behind her at Ashley and said, “Not a fucking word.”