The Mephisto Mark: The Redemption of Phoenix by Trinity Faegen Page B

tracking her every move, and when he realized she was in Bucharest, he texted one of his locals and told him to follow her and see what she did. The guy texted back with a photo of Mariah and Jordan and, since they look so much alike, Eryx told him to see if the other one had an Anabo birthmark, which he did before Jordan beaned him. When he came to, he went through Mariah’s things, and before he left the apartment, he sent Eryx her name.”
    This was bad. Really bad. Cataclysm bad. I got out of bed and went to take a piss, thoughts racing around my head while I tried to think of some way, any way I could fix this. Back in the bedroom, I opened the drapes, realized it was nighttime in London, and closed them again. Jax followed me into the sitting room and we sat by the fireplace. I said, “She’ll have to move and change her name. If he doesn’t know where she goes, or who she is, he can’t touch her. She can live a normal life and he’ll never find her.”
    Jax slowly shook his head. “The instant Jordan goes to see her, and she will, no matter how risky it is or how much Key insists she can’t, Eryx will know.” He saw me open my mouth to speak, and held up a hand. “Jordan will be marked within a month, Phoenix. I’m not sure she and Key will even make it that long. And once she’s marked, Eryx won’t need GPS to find her.”
    “Yeah, no shit.” Had he really said that to me, of all people?
    As if I hadn’t spoken, Jax continued. “He’s so obsessed with her, it’ll be forever before he’ll leave her alone. A hundred years from now, she and Key will have an entire family and there will be Eryx whenever Jordan leaves the mountain, still trying to talk her into staying with him.”
    “ Since when are you a fan of hyperbole?”
    Jax shot me a look. “My point is, I don’t think Eryx will give up on Jordan for a very long time.”
    I shook my head. “ Jordan’s immortal, so Key’s mark will be permanent, and she can never give Eryx what he wants.”
    “She can never give him children, but he’s gone over the edge with this obsession. I think he wants her to be with him, regardless.”
    Assigning normal human emotions to Eryx was dangerous, but I wondered if there was still something in him that needed a tie to another soul. Chasing Jordan, even though he had to know she was ultimately unattainable, was a sign of desperation, and it had nothing to do with keeping her from Key. It certainly wasn’t to keep her from becoming Mephisto. He was way too late for that. No, his obsession was all about his need for her to be with him.
    Which meant Jax was dead on the money. Eryx wouldn’t give up, even after Jordan was marked. Mariah would be at risk for a very long time.
    I sat back and looked at the cut roses on the mantel. “So Mariah has two choices – leave the mountain and be murdered by Eryx, or stay and become a Lumina.”
    “That’s the way I see it. And for the short-term, until Jordan has Key’s mark, Eryx could use Mariah as leverage to coerce Jordan, so it’s not only Mariah who’s at risk. There’s no way Key’s letting her leave.”
    My list could now be made into a paper airplane and flown into oblivion. “Did Jordan tell her she’s Anabo?”
    “No. She and Key want to keep it from her at least until the end of the week so she can get to know everyone and let it all soak in at a distance. If she doesn’t know, she has no investment, no decision to make.”
    “So she’ll spend the week thinking she’s going home on Sunday, and when the time comes for her to leave, Jordan and Key will say, oh, by the way, this is Hotel California. You can never leave. And she’s supposed to be okay with this. She’s not going to be upset or angry that she was lied to all along. It won’t bother her that everyone knew and she didn’t. Is that how it’ll be, Jax?”
    My brother slumped back in his chair and glowered at me. “You got a better idea?”
    I didn’t. Yet.
    “It’d be