From Ashes and Embers (Ceasefire Series Book 3)

by Claire Marta

  They’re due to leave tomorrow. They plan on spending the afternoon visiting Gabriel in Cease Fire with the baby, leaving the fortress and its inhabitants in my hands. I know they’ll be well guarded. The archangel has a herd of handpicked bodyguards to guard his granddaughter and great-granddaughter when they visit. Not that Mavi needs it.

  Huffing in frustration, Mavi dumps a bikini in her open suitcase. “Are you sure Juliana is going to be alright? This is the first time I’ve left her alone longer than a few hours…maybe we should wait a few more weeks.”

  “The nanny is more than proficient to watch her, and the fortress is secure.” Taking her hand, the Devil draws her into his waiting embrace, cradling her gently. “I know you desire this break away, my Flower. All your fantasies, dreams, and nightmares are mine to grant at my leisure, remember.”

  Mavi’s laughter is light and happy as he waltzes her slowly around the room, their bodies swaying to a soundless tune. “Yes, you’re right. Everything just seems to be business lately, making love, and I haven’t been able to sleep the night through for months.”

  “I’ll never tire of the intimacies we share. Making you beg and sating your body have become as essential as the air around us, but it’s not all I want, although I do enjoy it. You captivate me in ways no other soul ever has. Beautiful and brutal. Enticing the darkness within you out is something I’ve come to crave. Our relationship needs more than just sex.” Lucifer’s voice is deep, compelling and sincere. Bringing his hand up to her throat, he clenches it roughly, tilting her head. “You and I need this getaway, my Flower. Let me romance you in the way I know you secretly yearn for.”

  A light moan slips from Mavi’s lips, her eyes closing briefly. “Yes… I do want this time with you.”

  “Good. Because if you had said no, I would have had to kidnap you.” His mouth brushes hers in a light kiss that counters the dominance of his hold around her neck. “We will have no interruptions, and you will be mine completely for the duration as I will be yours.”

  I let out a throaty chuckle from my position by the door. “Well if you two have finally decided to go, I’ll make sure the fortress is still standing by the time you return. Stop procrastinating and go already.”

  Lucifer smirks.

  “You promise you’ll contact us if anything happens. If Juliana gets upset…” Rubbing her cheek into his palm as it moves up over the rim of her jaw, Mavi sighs. Her apprehension is clear. After losing her brother, she worries for us all. She feels too much, even though she’ll never admit it.

  “Mavi relax. We’ll be fine. You have nothing to worry about.” I assure her. “Go. Enjoy yourself. You deserve it.”

  “Increase the patrols around our borders and check on Cade’s progress,” Lucifer orders, his expression imperious. “If he needs an incentive to speed up his task, I’ll be more than happy to give one. I want the hellfire once more burning and this ice age banished.”

  Inclining away from his touch, the woman in his arms raises an eyebrow. “Cade’s a friend.”

  “To you perhaps. To me he’s an employee who’s not doing a very good job.”

  “You are not going to kill him.”

  The Devil’s expression goes from open to closed in the matter of a heartbeat, his green eyes narrowing. “If he doesn’t fix the seals as I’ve employed him to do, then he’s worthless and doesn’t deserve to continue breathing.”

  Moving stealthy out of the open door, I leave them to their argument. I need to speak to the commander of the guards, arrange the extra patrols, and get a messenger sent to Cade. Hopefully the werewolf will make some efforts in fixing our heating problem. If not, it looks like he might just lose his head.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jane

  Humming softly to myself, I finish off the final layer of frosting on a cupcake. I savor the aroma, lacing the air. It’s comforting and opulent. An escape I easily slip into. I have the kitchen to myself. Baking has a way of cheering me up. With Rosella sneering at me since breakfast, I’ve needed something to keep me occupied. Mavi, Lucifer, and the baby have gone to visit her grandfather. Things so far have not gone to plan. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Raziel since last night. His lips on mine. How he’d dominated every part of me with one single life shattering kiss. He said he rescued me because of my position here, but I don’t believe him. There’d been something in his brown eyes before he vanished. A fleeting emotion that had nothing to do with what he said and not just lust.

  I shouldn’t care about any of them. They’re a means to an end, but being entangled in their lives, I’m just not built that way. I can’t help but care, even though I’ve been taught not to. Smoothing blue icing onto the top of another cake, I recall the day that put an end to all my childish dreams.

  My tenth birthday and I shiver with the chill in the fog laden air. “Has he sent for me yet?”

  Arianna’s scorn-filled lavender colored eyes rise from the shrub where she’d been crouched, gathering herbs, her skirts bunched around her. “He sent the gift. I told you before he’s a busy man and has no time for a needy child.”

  The hairclip is clasped in my palm. It’s been hand carved from white gleaming bone. I should be grateful for the present, but I’m not. It’s my great-grandfather’s presence I long for. A man who’s a shadow in my life but always out of reach.

  “But it’s my birthday.” The whine in my voice is thick with unshed tears. Each year, something precious inside me dies a little more. I miss my parents. How they’d spoil me on this day every year. Their laughter and joy. The love they’d kept me wrapped in since the day I was born. I grieve their loss every day.

  Tossing her long red braid over her shoulder, my guardian spears me with a frightening scowl. “You should know by now you’re worthless to him. Lack the powers your mother and great-grandmother wielded. You’re nothing but a snivelling orphan. Now forage, if you want to eat tonight. If you don’t, you’ll go to bed with an empty belly. Then you really will have something to cry about.”

  Dragging the ragged coat more securely around my half-starved figure, I stuff the hairclip into my pocket. Joining her sadly, I pick through the plants among the barren wilderness. Dreams don’t come true. Happy ends are a lie.

  My thoughts shift forward a year to something more disturbing.

  “You’ve had your first bleed.” Arianna’s tone is full of approval at my embarrassment at finding blood on my threadbare sheets that morning. “You have a purpose now, Jane. The only family you have left might have abandoned you, but we will not. We have a plan. One where you can get revenge on the male who’s treated you so cruelly.”

  Standing in the dimly lit cavern, I watch her sisters scoop cooked vegetables and meat into bowls from the huge iron pot that hangs above the roaring fire. My thoughts are on my friend. The young boy I’d discovered a few days ago, stumbling through the mist. Alone, confused, he’d been hungry and frightened. Bringing him to the safety of the mountain, I’d hidden him from sight. I’d been spending all my spare time with him, learning of his home and promising to help him get back there. I’d planned to go with him. This morning, he’d been gone. Vanished as quickly as he’d appeared.

  “You said I wasn’t good for anything,” I point out, my will subdued and fractured from their mistreatment. Accepting the bowl I’m handed, I take my place at the table. The three redheads take their seats, setting out their own food. I want to finish quickly. Trek back down the mountainside to continue my search. It’s not safe to wander the heathlands. Quicksand is hidden and treacherous. Storms roll in fast and out of nowhere. He’ll get hurt or worse.

  Hunching my shoulders, I take a bite out of a chunk of meat. We don’t get it often. Rodents aren’t always plentiful, and nothing else lives here.

  Gathering a pile of small white bones from a pouch on her hip, Arianna shakes them in the delicate hand before letting them scatter on the surface. “The omens are favorable, and the signs never lie. Your calling is assured,
and we will help you achieve it.”

  I don’t want a destiny. All I want is a real home. A family who loves me and friends. The things that were stolen from me before I could realize how precious they were. I voice none of my longings. Know by now if I start to whine, I’ll be punished.

  My attention catches on some rags in a corner. The colorful threads are muted with dirt and blood stains. They look familiar. Freezing in the process of ladling more food into my mouth, the stomach-turning comprehension has nausea clawing up my throat. Dropping the spoon, it lands with a thud. In horror, I stare at the pot still bubbling away.

  No.

  She didn’t. Please don’t let it be true.

  He’s been tucked away. Safe. Out of their reach.

  Arianna chuckles, her stunning beauty edged with an evil smile. “He was plump and had plenty of meat. He would have gone to waste starving out there all alone.”

  I’ve never forgiven her for killing my friend. Stealing the last of my innocence. Even when I left to work, their presence was with me, oppressive and domineering. Enmeshing themselves in my illusion of freedom. Yanking at the invisible leash of obedience and submission. I’d learn to mask my emotions. Entomb my despair, knowing that there’d never be a true escape.

  Turning to the table, I practically jump out of my skin when I discover I’m not alone. Sitting silently, the pretty teenager watches me closely. Cassandra stares as if I’m an unwelcome problem she wants to dissect. “Does it still hurt?”

  “Hurt?” I repeat in bewilderment at her abrupt question. She’s never spoken to me before. Avoided any contact, yet now, here she sits. Carrying the tray of cupcakes, I lay it out on the table before her, the dark memories fading from my thoughts.

  “Losing you parents.”

  Soft panic swirls up in a vortex that threatens to expand. I’ve told no one of my past here. All my secrets are kept sealed and tight. “How do you know…”

  “So many tears. You wept for them every night. I can see the hole they left in your heart. You thought you were going to die too, and still wonder why you didn’t. Is that what aches most? The not knowing? The hunters never stood a chance against you even at that age.”

  I’m paralyzed for a beat, unsure how to answer.

  An old soul peers out from behind the girl’s blue eyes. Ocean deep and filled with so many secrets, it can’t hide the weight of them etched into her young face. The burden of what she must be feeling steals my breath away. The stories about her are true. She is an oracle. It must be absolutely terrifying and lonely. How much about me does she know? Fragments or everything? Does she know my real identity? Who I am? The knowledge makes me cautious and wary.

  My attention snags on to the red soaked into the material at the forearm of her long-sleeved top. The blood is fresh yet to darken.

  “Did you hurt yourself, Cassandra?” I question, shaking off the disquiet that’s shrouded me. Moving to a cupboard, I open it hurriedly, busying myself with the first aid box.

  “What do you dream about?”

  Taking the seat beside her, I frown. Her thoughts and questions seem to be as random as the wind. Maybe what she sees is the same.

  “Sometimes it can be beautiful or frightening. Other times, nothing can make any sense at all. What about you?” Clicking the box open, I gather bandages and a bottle of antiseptic. I’ve dealt with plenty of scratches and knocks in the past.

  Head cantered to the side, she watches curiously as I carefully roll up the sleeve of her yellow top. “I don’t. My brain doesn’t work the way yours does. It’s never my own.”

  Thin silver scars snake along her pale skin from her elbow to her wrist. A pattern of pain and misery that has me wanting to gently trace around the ridges and jagged edges. Fresh crimson slashes mark over the older ones in four long lacerations.

  “Did you do this to yourself?” I ask gently. “Or did someone do it to you?”

  Ducking her head, the thick, silky fall of her long black hair hide her face in a gesture of defensiveness.

  Does anyone else know that she’s hurting herself? From the evidence, it’s been happening for a very long time. Deciding it better not to push her too quickly for answers, I clean up the bleeding wounds and cover them with a bandage. “Your sister, Mavi, asked me to bake a cake for your birthday, coming up. Do you have a favorite flavor? I can make it anyway you like; you just have to tell me what you like.”

  Cassandra remains silent, the gleam of blue peeping through her locks the only sign she’s listening to me.

  “You know you can talk to me,” I tell her quietly, wishing I knew what was going on inside her head. I’ve bottled up my own mental anguish in the past. Seeing this girl’s obvious cry for help is something I can’t ignore. Her distress cries out to me. “Sometimes it’s easier to chat with someone you don’t know very well. An ear to listen to anything that might be troubling you.” Twisting the lid shut on the bottle of antiseptic, I tuck it away in its space in the first aid box. “I’ve heard that you’re an oracle. Is that how you knew about my parents? What else do you know?”

  “Only death.” Her words are foreboding, threaded with an anxiousness that strikes a chord within me. Primeval, hidden, an animal instinct of danger. The warmth of the large, open kitchen that had moments ago been a haven suddenly feels vacant of comfort and cheer.

  “We’re all pebbles on a beach,” she continues, tugging the material of her t-shirt down to conceal her scars and the bandage. “There are so many that seeing every detail is sometimes obscured by the rest. The waves crash in and more pebbles pile high, and the pretty ones are lost under the new.” Snagging a freshly frosted cupcake off the plate, she slides to her feet, holding it in one hand moving toward the door. “Eventually though, everything connects. Sometimes it just takes time to see it.”

  With that, she exits the room, leaving me in a whirlwind of unease.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Raziel

  Striding into the Devil’s library, I’m not alone like I expect to be. Sofas and arms chairs are positioned in the center of the room on the tiled chessboard floor. Fanning out, the bookshelves are numerous, over flowing with books.

  Tink is in among tombs of the dead and the damned. Sitting on one of the leather sofas, her lovely freckled nose in a book. What the hell could have her so absorbed?

  Unnoticed, I’m free to observe her. That’s all she seems to do. Care for Juliana and read romance novels. She never wears make-up apart from some kind of lip balm that smells of strawberries. Coated on her lips, it leaves them pink and kissable. In a skirt, the thin pale green cotton clings to her curvy hips. The tiny pearl buttons down the front of her matching shirt just beg to be unbuttoned. My cock certainly likes the idea. Awakening like a leviathan, it strains inside the confines of my jeans.

  All that rainbow hair makes me wonder what her natural color is? Glancing down at her lap my mind runs riot with the urge to take a peek at the curls that guard her womanhood. I’d know for sure then. Unless she’s shaved…

  A shudder rushes through me. Thoughts like those only lead to trouble. Then again, when have I ever been one to walk away from that?

  Teleporting, I reappear behind the sofa she’s comfortably sitting on. So engrossed in what she’s reading, she doesn’t notice me at all.

  Hand slowly raising, it hovers for a beat in front of her face before she distractedly tucks a loose strand of hair behind the delicate point of her elfin ear. The gesture makes me smile. She’s so oblivious. Unaware of the world around her.

  Plucking the book from her other hand, I scan the page that has her so fascinated. “What the fuck is this you’re reading?”

  “Hey! Give that back!” Scrambling ’round, Tink twists to face me. Golden eyes alight with surprise and anger.

  A juicy sentence catching my attention, I start to read aloud. “His throbbing manhood pulsed with each thrust of his body into my needy core. This is porn! You’re reading porn.”

  Her cheeks glow a
pretty shade of pink announcing her embarrassment at my discovery. “It’s a romance book not porn!”

  “It’s smut.” I laugh, grinning at her discomfort. The little fairy isn’t as innocent as I first thought. If she’s reading about sex maybe she isn’t averse to sampling the real thing.

  Jane squirms in mortification. “Just give me it back, please.”

  Tossing it to her, I drop down onto the cushions beside her. The smell of vanilla surrounds me, easing the tension in my shoulders from my conversation with Rosella. I haven’t realized before how much I like that scent.

  Cradling her book, Jane hugs it to her chest as if it’s the most precious item in the world. “Just because it contains sex scenes in no way makes it smut. They’re integral to the storyline.” She gives a huff. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand anyway. It’s not like I’ve ever seen you reading a book!”

  I’m done just eye-fucking her. I’ve been taught to indulge my desires. Take what I want without regret or remorse. Her scent is everywhere, delicious and tempting. Why shouldn’t I sample the delights of her body? We won’t have any interruptions this time.

  “By all that’s unholy, don’t you ever shut up?” Before she can chatter on, I silence her with a kiss.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jane

  My skin crawls with the need for Raziel to touch me. Softening into him, my clit throbs with an anticipation I don’t fully understand. We’re finally alone. Like grains of sand shifting through an hour glass, I’m running out of time. This need to happen now. No more waiting or putting it off. This is a sacrifice I’m willing to make for the greater good, surrounded by books, in the hushed reverence of the library.

  Cupping my jaw, he tilts my head to find a different position our tongues entwining. I follow where he leads. If he recognizes my inexperience, he doesn’t show it.