The Phoenix's Mark Book 1: Dogs of War

Chapter 1

Sarah groaned when the light flipped on. She lifted her head to see her mother peering through the door, grinning at her. "Mom," she groaned. "Its Saturday. No school." She threw the pillow over her head, blocking out the light.

"Its also the twenty-seventh. You do remember what that means, don't you?" Sarah shot out of bed. "That's what I thought. Get ready and I'm gonna go wake your brother up." She smiled brightly as she stalked down the hall. Sarah pulled open her dresser and threw on her favorite pants and t-shirt, ignoring the heavy metal music coming from her brother's room.

"What?" Emil shouted over his music when he heard a knock on his door.

His door opened as his mother peered in. She smiled to see him up, dressed, and his room clean for once. "Can you turn that down?" she yelled. He rolled his eyes before reaching his hand over and pausing his music. "That's better." she smiled. "That's not what your wearing, is it?" she asked, pushing her eyebrows together.

He looked down at his Metallica shirt and black jeans with chains. He then looked back at his mom. "Yep," he replied. He turned, pushed play, and dropped back onto his bed. His mom rolled her eyes before retreating from his room.

She pulled the front door open at the second knock. "Riley, hey," she beamed at the officer upon opening the door. "Is he here?"

"Jenna, you look great," he complimented as he hugged her. "No, I was on my way to pick him up."

Her smile faded a little bit. "Are you sure he's ready to come home?" Riley frowned at her.

"Of course I am. Are you?" he asked.

"What if they come back?" Sadness swept across her face.

"I don't think they will. The only reason they did last time was because he was scared to be alone," he said, offering her a warm smile.

She smiled back. "You're right," she exclaimed, shaking the worry from her head. "I'm sorry."

"Is he here?" Jenna turned to see Sarah smiling.

"Not yet," Riley replied. "On my way to get him, and I thought I would stop by first." Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she asked, trying to hurry him. He smiled.

"Well, I can see you're excited." He turned to Jenna before adding, "I'll be back in a little while." He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. With that, he turned and left.

"What the hell is there to eat around here?" Emil asked as he effortlessly slumped down the stairs.

"Don't use that kind of language," Jenna demanded. Emil rolled his eyes. "I was planning on waiting for your father to get back so we could all eat breakfast together. You guys haven't seen him since last Christmas. I tought you'd be more excited."

Emil rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, totally stoked. My homocidal father's getting out of the looney bin today to sleep two rooms over from me. It can't get any better than that," he said with as much sarcasm as he could summon.

"You're an asshole," Sarah barked at him, narrowing her eyes.

"Watch your mouths," Jenna ordered. "Both of you."

"I'm only saying what everyone's thinking," Emil conceded, retreating to the kitchen for an apple.

"You're such a hypocrit," Sarah yelled, following him. He didn't make eye contact as he rummaged through the fridge, finding something to drink to go with his apple. Get the hint that he wasn't going to respond, Sarah continued. "You always try beating anyone senseless that try talking bad about him, but you're always going on about how you hate him for what he did, when he didn't have any control over it."

Emil raised his eyebrow, as he stood up, looking over the top of the refridgerator door. "Try?"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean." Emil slammed the door, bringing the galon of milk to the table. "I just don't understand. If you hate him so much, then why are you always so quick to defend him?"

"Because it makes it easier to deal with having a murderer as a father without everyone up my ass about it," he snapped. "Because no matter what he does, he's still my father, and I'm not going to allow anyone to say anything bad about him." Emil clentched his fist tightly around the handle of the milk jug, calming himself down. He inhaled and exhaled deeply before continuing. "And because I have to convince myself that just because my father's a murderer, I won't-" He stopped, leaning over the table.

"Won't what?" Sarah asked, somewhat afraid of her brother's outburst.

He took in a deep breath before looking her in the eyes. "I won't follow in his footsteps." He returned his gaze to the table. After a few seconds of silence, he stood and poured the milk to the brim of the glass he had retrieved from the cupboard as they were talking. She hugged him from his back, comforting him. "Thank you," he said, forcing the tears to stay inside of his eyes.

"You're a real nice person, Emil," she said, smiling at him. "To nice to be a killer."

He smiled back at her. "Just don't tell anyone, okay. If you do, I'll have to kick your ass," he said, winking.

She laughed shortly. "Don't worry, you're secret's safe with me."

About a half hour later, the three of them stood in the foyer, as Riley's car pulled into the driveway. Sarah could barely stop herslef from runnig through the door and jumping into her father's arm.

"Look who's here, everyone," Riley exclaimed as he lead Cameron through the door.

"Dad," Sarah yelled, throwing her hands around his waist.

"Hey, baby girl, its been ages," he said, wrapping his arms around her.

"Hey, Cam," Jenna said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He pulled her close, pressing his lips hard against hers."Hey, Babe," he said, as she pulled away from him, to look him in the eyes. He looked over to Emil, who hadn't moved. "Hey, Emil, what's wrong?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Hey, dad. Nothing's wrong," Emil lied. He contimplating saying how 'awesome' it was to have a killer sleeping two doors down from his bedroom, but he decided that it would anger his mom, so he didn't say anything more.

"Shall we get some breakfast, then?" Jenna suggested, still holding her arms around Cameron's neck.

"Sure," Cameron agreed. He moved his hands from around her waist, to lock his fingers around her hand. They headed towards the car.

Outside, Riley opened the door to his police cruiser. "Are you coming with us, Riley?" Cameron asked him.

"I would, but I have to get back to work before I get fired," he explained.

"Aren't you retiring soon anyway?" Jenna countered.

"Soon," he agreed, "but not yet." He got into his car and took off down the street toward the police station.

Cameron, Jenna, Sarah, and Emil piled into the two-door, '96 Charger in the driveway, before taking off down the street.