Phoenix Contract: Part Five (Fallen Angel Watchers) Read Free

appearing to set aside his anger with a dismissive head shake. “No, of course not. You were just a baby, and Matthew was a grown man. He made his own decisions.”
    “Do you know why?” Aiden asked. She hated the timid note creeping into her tone.
    “Sarah was a member of Matthew’s parish. At the time she joined, she was the new bride of Jonathan McLachlan, the most powerful and influential member of House Armaros in the city. She was also pregnant with her second child when she and Matthew first met, but he was immediately taken with her beauty and intelligence,” Niall said.
    Jaw dropping, Aiden immediately sat forward. “Excuse me, did you say second?”
    Niall regarded her with irritation over the interruption. “She had a son born out of wedlock. I don’t remember the boy’s name, but it caused quite a scandal in the day. Almost as much as a black priest and a married white woman, but not quite.” He snorted and ran one finger over his furry eyebrows, stroking first one and then the other. Storytelling seemed to have mellowed his mood.
    “I have a brother?” Aiden repeated, mentally circling the idea, the latest revelation which was harder to wrap her mind around than the whole Phoenix thing had been. She was shocked to the core. How? Why? How could Matthew not have told her?!
    “I really don’t know anything about the boy, but I’m sure you can locate him if you wish. Just contact your real father. You’re of age now. He cannot deny such a request according to our laws,” Niall supplied brusquely. “And no need to worry. I’m confident the boy’s been taken care of. Shemyaza genes are far too valuable to waste because of minor matters like legitimacy. Like I said, talk to your father.”
    “I’ll do that,” Aiden responded softly.
    “Moving on,” Niall said, apparently eager to continue with his story. “Matthew fell instantly and deeply in love with Sarah. And even though he always insisted that their relationship was purely platonic, I always wondered.”
    Finally, something that didn’t leave Aiden shocked. She blinked but nodded, able to accept the idea that there had been something more going on between her mother and the priest than propriety permitted. After all, Matthew had always shown Aiden the love and devotion he’d have showered upon his own flesh-and-blood child.
    “Inevitably, Jonathan became suspicious and a confrontation occurred, the details of which I wasn’t privy to, but the end result led to Sarah entering premature labor.
    “At this point the story goes from pedestrian, and takes a turn for the strange. Matthew claims to have received a vision of an angel, one of the Grigori no less, who came to him in a dream. The Grigori told him that the child, you, would be the Phoenix reborn.”
    “You know all this?” Aiden said, gazing at him with a degree of suspicion. “I’ll admit, Matthew told me the exact same thing right before he died. That’s why I’m here. But you know about Shemyaza and the Phoenix thing, and you knew my mother and even about my older brother who I never knew existed until today. So I’m having trouble dealing with the fact that everyone seems to know everything there is to know about me, but me!”
    “How does that make you feel?” Niall asked, simulating the detached air of a psychologist, but beneath it Aiden detected an eager greed for her pain.
    “Betrayed,” she admitted grudgingly.
    “That’d fit Matthew’s profile,” Niall said with a faint smirk. “There’s a reason the man died without a single friend.”
    It was conjecture on the old man’s part, but he appeared confident in his conclusion. Aiden bit her tongue and held back a retaliatory retort. She settled for being inwardly smug that Niall Talcott was wrong. Matthew Bunson had died with one friend, the only person who accepted the priest’s lies and omissions, because he just didn’t care. Magnus dwelled in a darker place than Matthew had ever gone, and suddenly