Firestorm (Smoke & Ashes Book 1)

by D. N. Hoxa

  “And that begs the question—why tell us anything at all?” I wouldn’t have even suspected what he was if he hadn’t told me.

  Abraham didn’t hesitate. “Because I needed to. I need your help to find the witch.”

  “Because your visions said so,” Lexar double-checked, and the Nephilim nodded.

  “Just so we’re clear, you want to kill the bitch, too, right?”

  “The witch, yes.”

  “And you’re not going to get in my way with some bullshit about murder or proper ways to die or some shit like that? Because when I kill that bitch, it’s going to be painful. There’s going to be blood and screams and broken bones—the whole package.”

  “Ugh, you’re evil,” Chelsea mumbled.

  I shrugged. “I’m going to Hell anyway. Might as well reserve a prime spot while I can.”

  “I’ll save you one,” Feather Girl said with a wink. “If you kill the bitch.”

  “Deal.”

  “Okay, time-out,” Chelsea said. “My head is buzzing. I want pizza. Who wants pizza?”

  “Thank God. I’m starving,” Feather Girl said, and now that we had mentioned food, I realized I was starving, too. When had I even eaten?

  When Lexar leaned closer to me, I almost didn’t see it. “A word?” he said, but he didn’t wait for an answer. He stood up and walked out of the apartment.

  I looked at Chelsea, and at Abraham. I didn’t want to leave them alone, but I’d be right outside. No way was I leaving the building. “I’ll be right back.”

  Lexar was waiting for me at the end of the hallway. He leaned against the wall next to the window with the glass cracked in several places. The warm orange glow of the setting sun fell on his side, making him look like a painting rather than real. I hated that I still had to take a split second to gather myself. I hated that he still had that effect on me. There was nothing I’d have liked more than to keep my eyes on the floor all the way to him, but doing that would be showing weakness, and I didn’t want to do that. Not with him, not with anyone.

  “What’s up?” I asked, standing on the other side of the window, facing the hallway. If he asked, I’d say I wanted to keep an eye on the door to his apartment, just in case.

  “Why do you smell of flowers?”

  It definitely took me off guard. Figures that the scent of Joleen’s flowers had stuck to me.

  “I was at a flower shop.”

  “I thought you were coming back here when we separated.” Okay, so maybe I lied to him. So what? “Why were you at a flower shop?”

  I shrugged. “To look at flowers.”

  “And what exactly did you find at the flower shop?”

  “That there’s a chance I might die soon. Just a weird dream.” I waved my hand off. “And also, there’s a thing that the angels stole from Heaven, gave it to mankind, and then got imprisoned in a special hell because of it. Nobody knows what the thing is, though. It’s apparently just a myth.”

  Lexar thought about it for a second, then took half a step closer to me. Moving away would show weakness, too, so I held my ground and met his eyes. They almost looked completely orange because of the light. He was standing right in front of the window now.

  “What was the dream?”

  “It was just a stupid dream. Remember, I told you about the thing that Abraham is talking about?” About the angels that were imprisoned because of it? That was a lot more interesting.

  “Okay, so tell me what it was,” he insisted.

  “I don’t know. Some angels were surrounding me, doing something to me that I apparently didn’t like. I was screaming, too. It wasn’t a nice dream, but it was still just a dream.”

  “Who dreamed it?” he said without missing a beat.

  “Nobody. Why are the Fallen dealing with a demon problem? Isn’t that why they have champions?”

  Lexar kept looking at me like he was trying to materialize inside my head, but he finally answered. “I don’t know. It makes no sense. Nobody could tell me.”

  He turned to the hallway for a second. I could breathe a bit easier.

  “But it’s not normal, is it?”

  “Not at all. I’m pretty sure it’s a distraction by whoever is working with the nocturnal witch.”

  “I’m betting it’s Tobias. He’s a dick.” I’d wanted to kill him since I first met him.

  But Lexar shook his head. “Tobias doesn’t have the power or the brains for something like this.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Whoever it is, he’s already dead.” And I couldn’t wait to do the killing. “For now, we need to follow the only trail we have. We need to go talk to the were-cheetahs.”

  “The master alpha is a better option,” he said.

  He was talking about Michael Alifair, the alpha of the lion pack—and all the other shifter packs in Philadelphia.

  “Yes, except harder to bargain with. You can’t exactly go to the master alpha and threaten him into telling you all his secrets.”

  For a second, Lexar looked confused. “Why not?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Because he’s the alpha of all shifters. A war with him means a war with all of them. You don’t live here, but they have the power to make life difficult for me. The cheetahs, on the other hand, are a handful, and we can scare them a lot easier into telling us something.”

  “What if they don’t know? I doubt the entire pack is working for the nocturnal witch.”

  “Somebody always knows something. Remember the were-dogs?” They’d kept their mouths shut at the bar until the very end, but then they’d caved. Everybody caved eventually.

  “But Michael Alifair is better connected. And he doesn’t want a war with you and me. Nobody wants that,” Lexar insisted.

  But he didn’t really know Michael Alifair. I didn’t, either. I’d only met him a couple times before, but I’d heard plenty of things about him. Still, I thought about it for a second. Shifters had the biggest numbers in Philly, and they really could make my life difficult if they wanted to. And I still thought that the cheetahs would know more about this than Alifair.

  “If we don’t find anything with the cheetahs, we’ll go pay the master alpha a visit. How about that?”

  Lexar didn’t like it, but he nodded. “What about Abrah?”

  I flinched. My instincts didn’t warn me against him, but there was something about him that I didn’t like. Nobody was as calm as that guy. “I don’t know, but if we’re really dealing with angel gifts here, we’re going to need all the help we can get. And, also, if he’s really healing Chelsea, I want him here for a little longer, just until she wraps her head around things.”

  Which would probably never happen, but if I could give her more time by keeping Abraham here, I would.

  “I want to know who he answers to. It’s no coincidence that neither you nor I have heard about Nephilim before, don’t you think?”

  When he looked at me now, his guard was down. He wasn’t trying to keep an attitude. He was actually genuinely curious.

  “Exactly. He said it himself, they’re a big secret. The Fallen will know about it, though.”

  “I can’t speak to them until tomorrow,” Lexar mumbled.

  “What? You wanna go in there and torture the information out of him?” I said it as a joke with a grin and all, but Lexar was suddenly deep in thought.

  Slowly, he leaned toward the window, resting his shoulder against it. I was surprised it didn’t break all the way. “Tempting,” he whispered to himself.

  “Well, you know what they say about that.”

  “I don’t, actually. What do they say?”

  “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, for what monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful,” I quoted.

  The smile that broke his face made you wonder if it were maybe made in Heaven by mistake.

  “You’re quoting Wilde to me again.” He said again, like I did it al
l the time. Pfft. I only ever did it twice.

  Three times, max.

  Still, I feigned surprise. “That’s not Wilde.” It was totally Oscar Wilde.

  “Yes, it is.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “It is. I know it is.”

  “And how would you know that?”

  “For fuck’s sake, I read it. I remember it.” I could have sworn that his cheeks turned slightly pink. Just slightly, but it was enough for me to see.

  I put a hand to my chest and gasped dramatically. “You read Dorian Grey.” His cheeks turned even pinker. By God. I stepped away, unable to hold back a smile. “Wait, wait, hold on. I need a second to process this information. What was it that you said? That ‘you wouldn’t be caught reading that pile of shit if the fate of mankind depended on it?’ Was that what you said?”

  That was exactly what he said a year ago when I told him what the book was about. He hadn’t been impressed in the least, the asshole.

  With a sigh, he lowered his head, but I could still see his smile. “Go ahead, get it out.”

  “Why? Why did you read it?”

  “Because it’s your favorite book.”

  My poor heart squeezed all the way.

  “You read a book because it’s my favorite book?” I stepped closer to him, determined to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime situation. “Are you in love with me, Lexar? Are your palms sweaty? Is your heart beating a thousand miles a minute? Do you have butterflies in your stomach?” I whispered. “Tell me all the juicy details. We’ll be like a couple of schoolgirls whispering under the blanket past our bedtime.”

  He laughed the sexiest sound my ears had ever heard. It was like a touch against my skin, like an invitation for my heart to triple its beating within a second. Danger, my mind warned. Lexar Dagon’an was trouble, and I had more than enough of that already.

  Forcing the smile off my face when he was still chuckling, looking at me with his eyes all glossy, was torture, but I managed. For a moment there, it had been like the first time we met. A year hadn’t passed. We’d talked and laughed all day, and it was perfect.

  For just a moment.

  And then I snapped back to reality.

  “I’ll say this only once, even though you’re definitely going to use it against me, but the book was good.”

  Damn it, I couldn’t hold back a stupid smile again. “Your brain’s too small for that story, anyway.”

  “I said it was good,” he complained.

  “Exactly. The book is not good—it’s brilliant, but you wouldn’t think so because you probably haven’t even used all of your brain yet.”

  He laughed once more, sending shivers down my back. “You wanna know a secret? I don’t even want to. Have you seen how much happier ignorant people are?” he joked.

  “Yeah, I did notice that you’re much happier than me.”

  “Exactly. I’m trying to live past my hundredth birthday here. Worrying weakens the soul.”

  “Except you don’t have one. And you are going to live past your hundredth birthday. If I don’t kill you first, that is.”

  “Of course, I have a soul. Everybody has a soul.”

  “Not us.” We were forged in Hell. Well, in our dads’ balls, technically, but their balls have been in Hell since the beginning of time, so…

  “You’ve got a soul, Sassy Pants. One that’s impossible to miss, too.”

  Ugh. I hated it when he said things like that. Only because I loved it. I looked at him, at the shade over his eyes, at the small smile touching his lips, and I wondered what the hell had happened to us.

  Then it all came back to me.

  “You really haven’t used all of your brain yet.” I pushed myself off the wall, intending to get back inside the apartment. This hurt just as much as I was enjoying it.

  Except before I could take the second step, Lexar grabbed my hand in his and stopped me.

  “Sassy, hold on a minute,” he said, and my skin on his just made sense, you know? It was comfortable. It was right.

  So, I pulled mine away and only half turned to look at him.

  “What?”

  “Last year, when you—”

  My ears instantly began to whistle. “Don’t.” He clamped his mouth shut. He’d already rejected me once. I didn’t want to hear him say the words out loud, too. What was he going to say, that he just hadn’t felt the same way or that he was sorry? I didn’t want his fucking pity. “Let it go, Lexar. Last year was last year. Let’s just focus on the now.” And with that, I walked down the hallway and into his apartment.

  17

  Sleeping wasn’t a pleasant experience, but I did eat. A pizza for four, all by myself—and I regret nothing.

  I was so full, there was no room in my stomach for even a cup of coffee in the morning. Good thing, too, because I was riding on Lexar’s bike, and there wasn’t much room for a coffee cup.

  We were on our way to see the cheetah pack, which was in Point Breeze, only because the cheetah pack was small. I wasn’t sure of the exact number of shifters, but it was less than fifty. That’s a really small number for a shifter pack.

  On the way, I focused all my attention on my surroundings. I’d been to Point Breeze with Chelsea before. It was a nice place, full of locals and cheap dive bars that served the best craft beer I’d ever drunk. The music was phenomenal, too, in summertime. I remembered it all in detail—just so I didn’t let myself think about the fact that I was hugging Lexar from behind, arms wrapped tightly around his waist, my body flat against his. And it felt…nice. Really, really nice.

  The helmet barely let me breathe, but I welcomed that distraction, too. We passed the We the Youth mural, and a minute later, Lexar slowed down his bike. Eventually, he stopped it by the sidewalk. I let go of him and jumped off so fast, you’d think my ass was on fire with flames that could actually burn my skin. Thank God it was over, and for now, I was choosing not to think about the fact that we were going to go back the same way, too. I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.

  The reason why we’d taken his motorcycle was because Abraham didn’t have a car, so I had to leave mine behind, just in case. Feather Girl didn’t like it that she had to stay behind with them, but there was no way the three of us could fit on that bike. So, the three of them stayed back at the apartment, confident that they could take anyone who wanted to attack them while I wasn’t there. And if they couldn’t, they had my car to get the hell out of there fast.

  I was a nervous mess by the time I took off the helmet and tried to fix my tangled hair. I’d showered so it was still a bit damp. I could dry it with just a bit of heat on my skin, but I was too lazy. It didn’t bother me, anyway.

  “You smell nice,” Lexar mumbled, looking at the ground like he wanted to pretend he hadn’t said anything at all. I did the same and kept my mouth shut. The shampoo did smell nice, but it was his. He already knew how it smelled.

  The cheetah pack members lived on St. Heimar Street, and the alpha, a guy I’d never had the chance to meet before, lived at the end of it. Normally, alphas didn’t live so close to all their subjects. The risk of someone sneaking up and killing them, and claiming leadership was too great, but cheetahs had rules of their own. I didn’t even want to understand them. I just wanted to talk to the alpha and beat him until he told me why one of his people bit my best friend in my fucking apartment.

  “It’s ten a.m.,” Lexar said, looking ahead at the street in front of us. And I knew exactly what he meant. There were a few people behind us, going about their business, but nobody was outside in St. Heimar Street.

  “Maybe they sleep in?” I wondered and started walking again. “Come on.” Lexar followed me, his footsteps perfectly silent, like he wasn’t there at all. “What do you know about the alpha?”

  “William York, about forty, became alpha two years ago when he challenged the old one to a fight and won. That’s about it,” Lexar said. “Everything is so…”

  “Quiet.” I
stopped walking and so did he. We looked around the mostly two-story houses at our sides, and something was definitely off about them. It was just too quiet, like nobody was here at all.

  I turned to the nearest door on my right and slammed my fist on it. If these shifters really slept in, I didn’t mind waking one of them up. They could be mad all they wanted, but I needed to see at least one of them.

  On the other side of the street, Lexar knocked on another door.

  And we waited.

  No answer.

  We knocked on five more doors between the two of us, before we reached the middle of the street.

  “Nobody’s here,” Lexar said, then proceeded to curse under his breath.

  I clenched my fists tightly, afraid I’d let fire slip out of my skin as I tried to see through the windows of a house. Did they know who we were and were refusing to talk to us, or were they really not there?

  The latter made a lot more sense, especially since we couldn’t see a single soul, even through the windows. When we stopped in front of the last house in the street, the biggest of all—four stories tall and painted a bright red like it was calling for attention—there was no doubt in my mind. No were-cheetahs were anywhere near us.

  “So, they’re all working with the bitch?” I asked. Because I couldn’t think of another reason why nobody would be here. Nobody at all. Where the hell had they all gone? Where had they taken their children? Their elderly?

  “It makes sense. She must need manpower for whatever she’s doing. Only vampires are stronger than shifters, and vampires are not very cooperative,” Lexar offered.

  “But there was a werewolf there, too. I killed him.” I thought for sure that the cheetah who’d bitten Chelsea would be a rogue, someone who’d been banished from the pack or left voluntarily. “You don’t see cheetahs and wolves working together every day.”

  “Michael Alifair,” he said. “He’s the only one who can tell us what the hell is going on here.”

  “If he’d known this was happening here”—I pointed my finger around the street and the empty houses—“don’t you think he’d have tried to figure it out already?”

  The master alpha was responsible for all shifters, and I’d think that if an entire pack went missing for whatever reason, he’d be interested enough to check.