Follow the Ashes: Book 1 of the Executioner Trilogy

by Kindra Sowder

  I slowly sat up, wincing, and put my arm out, rolling up my sleeve so she could get to the veins at the bend of my elbow. She touched the very tip of the glass syringe to my skin, looked me in the eyes, and pushed it into the vein right at the surface. I cringed, but held still. I knew once she pushed the plunger down I wouldn’t be as retrained. The man grabbed my shoulders from behind.

  She pushed the plunger all the way down and at first everything was okay, but then I felt a sensation starting to build. My veins were on fire and as the burning grew, a glow began in the center of my chest and began to spread through those veins. The pain grew with it. I couldn’t hold it back. My head rolled back and I shrieked.

  The pain was unbearable. My body felt as if it was on fire and I went limp. My vision went black, but I was still aware of what was happening. The man picked me up and I could hear Beth directing him. As he laid me on what I could only assume was a bed, I felt the coolness of the sheets, which was more than welcome as far as I was concerned. I wandered off into unconsciousness again, and everything was gone.

  Chapter 6: The Pain of Losing

  I felt like I had been run over by a tank. More like it had run me over and backed up to do it again. At least ten times, if I had to guess. My head ached and I knew I had to get rid of the little man in there with his hammer and chisel somehow. If only I could just reach in and yank his tiny body out and smash him underneath my feet. If I could even stand, that is. When I opened my eyes, even the soft glow of light making its way around closed curtains was too much to bear. I groaned and closed my eyes, covering them with my hand for extra protection that was desperately needed.

  Moving my arm wasn’t a good idea at all, and it was a lesson I learned quickly. Pain seared through my ribs so I put it back down on the bed. I was defeated by the pain. The pain didn’t cease but wasn’t nearly as bad as it would’ve been if I had left it up. That intense pain spread from one side of my ribcage to the other, almost eliminating my need to breathe with its aggressiveness. There had to have been a tiny man in my ribs with a red hot poker as well as the one hammering away inside my skull.

  Where was I? I had completely forgotten where I was and how I had gotten here. It was like everything after the woman’s assault had been erased. I took a glance around to find I was in my bedroom. I was in my room? How in the world did I end up there? Everything that had happened flashed back into my memory in a flood of images that I couldn’t stop. The man with an angel’s face had somehow known exactly where to bring me. Now that I knew exactly where I was and how I got there I decided I was going to take a look and see exactly what the damage was. I was terrified to see it, though. I knew I had been hurt and hurt badly if the pain was any indication. For a split second, the feel of it was enough evidence for me, but I banished that from my thoughts. I needed to take inventory of my injuries so I would know how long I needed to recuperate.

  Getting out of the bed was so hard to do that I almost gave up right then and there. The pain from sitting alone was enough to make me want to lie back down immediately. As soon as I stood I had to ignore a barrage of what could be best described as agony within my torso. My entire body was on fire. I made my way to the mirror as quickly as I dared, which wasn’t very fast at all. A snail’s pace at best. I felt if I went any faster my ribs would shatter and I’d have nothing left to support me.

  Seeing myself in the mirror was astonishing. My right arm had a deep purple bruise around it and there was a lovely choker of purple and green bruising around my neck to match. The puncture mark from the needle was pronounced and deep purple as well as the vein running from it. The two puncture marks on my neck were also ringed in the same dark bruises from the savagery of the vampire’s bite. Nice. I was already partially outfitted for an extremely gothic party.

  That’s when I noticed I had been cleaned up. The blood had been washed from my neck and hair along with any grime I inherited from the ancient woman of darkness. I had even been changed into some clean clothes, which was a relief considering the mess my clothes would have been from last night. A white tank and black pajama pants were what they chose for me. It was something easy to get on and off without hurting myself. I didn’t care that he had possibly seen me naked while changing and cleaning me. I was just relieved I wasn’t still covered in filth. Now was not a time for modesty.

  I lifted the bottom of the white tank to expose my ribs, which were also covered in the same purple bruising that adorned my neck and arm. This was about one hundred times worse. Lifting the shirt was excruciating, so I had to do my best not to yell out, but a few tears did escape my eyes and land with soft thuds on my snow colored shirt. They left two little spots of grey wetness on the fabric.

  I heard the knob on the door jiggle, signaling it was about to be opened. I almost panicked at the thought of anyone seeing my battered flesh. I turned towards the door, fixing my shirt so I wasn’t exposing my badly broken body. This sent a pain through my entire torso that I dared someone to say wasn’t as bad as labor. The door seemed to open in slow motion like we were in a movie. The door swung open and the man with the face of an angel came through it, holding a glass of water and a bottle of what I assumed were painkillers of some kind. As soon as he looked up and saw me he smiled one of the most beautiful smiles I had ever seen. It was nothing like the smirk from the club. That smile would’ve had me weak at the knees if it weren’t for the pain that had already taken care of that.

  “Look who’s up.” He sounded surprised at the fact that I was awake at all, least of all standing. I forced a grin back, but pain can make that hard to do sometimes. I’m sure it looked more like a grimace than a smile. It was like he could sense my pain at the exact moment the smile crossed my face because he said, “Let’s get you back in bed. You need time to heal, which I’m sure won’t take you too much longer.” He led me to the bed by my shoulders and his hands were extremely warm and soothed on my aching body. That was apparently the only part of me that wasn’t in pain, since his warm and gentle touch didn’t seem to bring an assault of torture with it.

  As I lowered myself cautiously onto the bed with his helping hand I said, “The way it feels, it could be longer than usual.” I know my hand had to be clammy in his, but once I was on the bed he didn’t wipe it off on his pants like most people would. I did rub mine on the bedspread, which didn’t help in the least bit.

  He chuckled a little, his voice just as smooth and elegant as silk, except you didn’t feel it the same way on your skin. You felt this in your soul, and it sure was exquisite. I could listen to it forever. Then another question crossed my mind.

  “How did you know where I live?”

  Even more questions flooded my mind when he said, “I think that question would be best answered at a later time. What about you?” Another soft chuckle erupted from him when I couldn’t answer.

  That voice and laugh alone would’ve been enough to send me into frenzy if it weren’t for my abused and shattered body. It was going to be holding me back from a lot of things until I was healed. At this rate it would be a few days before I’d be able to allow myself to participate in that kind of activity. It seemed my body wanted that more than anything besides the painkillers he had set on my bedside table. As he helped me try to adjust a pillow behind my back so I could sit up without too much strain, our eyes met once again. That same electricity from before started to course through my body yet again. It completely drowned out all pain I was feeling. Well, almost all of it. The medication would take care of the leftovers.

  I could see the longing for a kiss in his eyes, but I could also see the resistance towards the compulsion. This is when I noticed that his eyes were so dark in color that you almost couldn’t tell there was a pupil there at all. Or maybe there wasn’t one. What in the world did that mean? Maybe he was something I hadn’t yet encountered until now, but that didn’t really matter much at the moment. I had bigger fish to fry, and he wasn’t a part of that. That I was sure of.

 
He was the first to back away, and as he sat down by my legs he cleared his throat as if to choke down his urge. I could tell he was struggling. Then he said, “Are you in any pain?”

  All I could do was sit there and stare at his face while trying not to laugh. Was I in any pain? Stay ahead of the pain, I was always told. My mother and her brilliant wisdom was something I could always count on. Being in his presence, I didn’t really see how I would be in any kind of pain. Either way, when he handed me the white capsule and the glass of water, I took it. I knew it would be back once the initial reactions from his presence wore off. I didn’t even know his name yet and I didn’t know the name of what he had just given me either, but I took it nevertheless. The high would be better than the pain when it decided to rear its ugly head again.

  “So, what am I supposed to call you? I’m sure you have a name.” I couldn’t call him angel-face forever. That was for sure. That wouldn’t make sense to many people, but if they couldn’t get it from looking at him that was their loss. Not mine.

  “Gordon,” he said with a smirk. I nodded and let that name roll around in my mind. To me it didn’t suit him, but if he said that was his name, that was his name. I wasn’t going to question it. “And I know you as Executioner, but I know you have a real name.”

  “Robin,” I stated. He knew me as Executioner? I wanted to ask why but I was scared of the answer I might get, so I let it go. I did have one question for him that had been burning a hole in my head since he came in holding two things I desperately needed.

  “Why are you helping me? I mean, you’re obviously not exactly human so why help someone whose job it is to kill you?” His swift answer sent chills down my spine, and I knew Beth had envisioned him for a reason.

  “Because…it’s my destiny.”

  If that was the case, what else did destiny have in store for me?

  Chapter 7: The Whole Truth?

  I was really expecting the pain killer he gave me to knock me out cold, but I remained awake through the high. It did take care of the pain though, which was a blessing as far as I was concerned. It was enough to keep a grown man in tears, but then again I wasn’t exactly human, or a man for that matter. Pain was just a reminder I was still alive and kicking. I hadn’t been killed off by a member of the undead just yet so I knew I was doing something right. Beth waltzed into the room with concern and intrigue wafting off of her skin like smoke, large book in hand. It was undoubtedly very old and very delicate, but she was hardly handling it with care which made me wince when she tossed it on my bed at my feet.

  “Do you mind me asking what did this to you?” All business, all the time was how she did things. My injured self wasn’t going to be getting a break anytime soon. Questions now filled her eyes, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to answer all of them just yet. I wasn’t even sure if I could. I could see the sheer number of questions filling them as she took a seat beside me in the large red chair that I hardly ever touched except when reading.

  “I wish I knew, but I’m not sure. Definite research needs to be done, though. And I think I’m healed up enough to be able to help. As long as all the books we have don’t look as heavy as that one.” And I really felt that way. I was definitely on the mend and feeling tons better. I’d just push myself through the residual pain. I was ready to take on the world and anything it had to throw at me. After we finished with this challenge, of course.

  “Do you have a description you can give me? It would really help.” She had only asked me a few questions at this point, but I felt a little like I was being interrogated. An explanation was the least I could do, right? So a description I would give her. Beth the detective to the rescue.

  “I sure do,” I said with absolute certainty. The tone to my answer was a little more chipper than I wanted it to be, but I was kind of mocking her enthusiasm. I knew she could tell because of the look she shot my way. That’s when I decided it would be best to get started.

  I explained the woman’s appearance in stark detail. Beth even seemed to be impressed by how much I remembered about this woman. Who wouldn’t remember a lot about the person who almost turned them into remains that looked like they had been run through a blender? Who could forget all of that evil, especially when it had touched you? As Beth sketched I watched her work. She was truly very talented and I wished I could do that kind of thing myself, but I was best at kicking things around. There was no place for me in the art world. Her sketch looked exactly like the woman by the time she finished. There was so much detail I could swear the woman was going to jump right off of the page to come back for round two. Beth was so talented I almost felt like this kind of life was wasting her talents.

  I mentioned the immense power emanating from her that had the vampires scared but worshipful. I recalled everything, down to the odd coloring of her eyes. Every fiber of the woman’s being screamed vampire, but the power seeping from her pointed to something a lot older and a lot more powerful. And a lot darker.

  Beth sighed and looked down at the floor, clearly trying to think of where to look for information first. Hell, I didn’t even know where to start. That was for sure.

  “We definitely need to figure out who she is so we can avoid the major beating she gave you. We don’t need you to be down and out again. At least not like that. She really could have killed you, not to mention how much damage she can do to the rest of us. I’m nowhere near as strong as you are.” Now wasn’t that the truth? And she wasn’t. Yes, she was a powerful witch and diviner, but what else did she have? Books and spells? Given the right spell you could do something, but not even magic could save you from everything.

  “Well, I at least slowed her down a lot. Burned her to a crisp, which will take some recovery time for her as well, so we can get this all figured out. We should have plenty of time to figure out how to kill her. If that’s even possible.” Was it even possible? How did you kill something like her? She was surely something older than anything I had ever faced. I was terrified of her. No, terrified wasn’t the word for it. I wasn’t even sure what the right word was for how scared she made me. I wasn’t even sure there was a word for it at all. She frightened me beyond words, which petrified me even more.

  I could still see her on the ground. Her body had been burned beyond recognition and yet still able to move. Her power hadn’t weakened at all. The only thing that was hurt was her physical body, and the power inside of her hadn’t seemed to have taken a blow. The power within her was just fine, and was ready to inflict some damage. It was unable to do much as I had incapacitated her body. At that moment I was so relieved to remember I wasn’t alone in this fight. I had help. Beth was there to help for sure. She always had been no matter what we came across. It had been this way since we met and if I didn’t have her I wouldn’t know what to do. She had even nursed me back to health after I had saved her life from the shady vampire who seemed to like to linger in alleys to attack defenseless women.

  Gordon was another story. He looked and acted as if he wanted to stick around, but I wasn’t sure he actually would. He didn’t really have a reason to. Not like we did. Only that it was his destiny. I felt he didn’t have to be anywhere near this fight so I kept expecting him to take off at any moment, never to return again. The vibes I did get from him pointed at him possibly joining our team. Why? I had no idea. Who would want to stay in a dangerous situation where they had no idea if they would survive it? Well, Beth and I did, but it was our destiny. Our fate. Our calling. And you can’t walk away from fate. But if fate pointed him in my direction, who was I to question it?

  Beth seemed to be okay with his presence, but I couldn’t help but wonder why. What did they talk about while I was unconscious? That got me even more curious.

  We were put into this world to rid it of absolute evil, and that was what I was going to do. This woman definitely was evil. Unquestionably of the absolute variety. We had to find out who she was and fast before she came banging on our door wanting to finish what she had star
ted. I knew, for certain, we were in her way.

  She knew about me but not about Beth as far as I could tell. This meant she knew about the Executioner lore, but not all of it. She did call me Executioner. Apparently she had no idea an Executioner had a partner, but as soon as she learned I had allies she would use them against me. I was sure of that, and I couldn’t let that happen. That was why we had to find the answers to the big questions as soon as possible to avoid some type of hostage situation. Evil like her tended to like to take prisoners if it served a purpose, and boy would it ever.

  Situations this bad always ended up that way. I have learned a lot from the movies, but even more from my own personal experiences. All I could say is Hollywood was dead on. When some big bad guy comes along, they find your weaknesses, usually cohorts, and hold them prisoner until you come to let them kill you or agree to step aside and let them take care of their business. In that instance, the bad guy normally just ends up killing them anyway. Well I wasn’t letting her take care of business, and I didn’t care what it was. She was going to be stopped and we were going to be the ones to stop her no matter what it took.

  I was almost completely healed at this point, so I needed to get started. The books were calling my name, as well as the internet. An Executioner had to use any tool that was at our disposal and most things can now be found more easily on the internet. I did prefer books, but there were some things that could be answered quickly and just as accurately on the internet. I was sure hoping we could find the answers soon. Who knew how long we had left?