Shattered Ashes (Dying Ashes Book 3)

by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane

  The Mustang slowed, barely, before Tamara stomped the gas again. I wondered idly if we’d just run a stop sign or a red light. “I wouldn’t know,” she replied. “I make it a habit not to look my family in the eyes if I can help it. It’s kind of a bad idea.”

  “Oh.” That made sense. “And here I’d just been powering through it.”

  “That’s...kinda impressive, honestly.”

  The car slowed again, more substantially than before. I figured we’d just gotten stalled at a busy intersection, right up until Tamara’s door popped open.

  “We’re here? Already?” I asked as she came around and opened my door. “How’s that possible? It’s even morning rush hour.”

  “Car magic,” Tamara said dryly, hauling me out of the passenger seat as my stiff joints and tight, weakened muscles protested. “I do my best driving when no one’s watching. Or complaining. Or screaming.”

  I snorted, trying ineffectually to fight my way out of the blanket while Tamara led me up the familiar steps to my apartment. Even dazed by the impending dawn and covered by a blanket, I still knew the steps to her door like the back of my hand.

  “Tamara.” I heard the tired sound of my lover’s voice as the door cracked open. “What do you want? Where’s Ash?”

  “Right here,” Tamara replied, hauling me over as I struggled the blanket off of my head. Apparently, I’d stopped at the wrong door. So much for the back of my hand.

  “Shit!” Lori unhooked the heavy chain securing the door and dragged me inside. “Ash, are you okay? It’ll be dawn any minute now.” She paused and looked me over, her beautiful face creasing with worry as she bit her lip. “You look like hell.”

  “Then you should see me after a real fight,” I replied without thinking, before suddenly remembering I still had someone else’s blood all over me. “Uh, shove me toward the bathroom, please.”

  Lori did as I requested, frowning. Somewhere between the front door and the hall, dawn broke outside, hitting me like a sledgehammer despite the walls and layers of blackout curtains protecting me from it. I staggered, latching onto the doorway, right next to the spot where my sire had once hammered me into the wall.

  Darkness tried to descend on me, hovering and encroaching on the edges of my vision, but I stubbornly clung to the door frame until I shook it off. Not yet, dammit. “Fuck you, sunlight,” I grumbled as I stumbled down the hall, leaning on the wall the whole way. “Let’s do this.” I was home safe, and I wasn’t about to let the daylight take away what I’d been looking forward to all night.

  I could hear the raised voices from all the way down the hall, even if it took a moment to decipher what the words they were saying meant.

  “...I can’t believe you just let it happen. You promised me—”

  “She makes her own decisions. I’m not her handler, Lori. Which is more than I could—”

  “Don’t you even go there, Tamara.” That was possibly the sharpest tone I’d ever heard from my Lori, and it caught my attention. “You don’t—”

  “You’re right. It’s not my place.” Tamara’s voice softened to where I could barely hear it. “It’s just that—”

  On second thought… I flipped on the water, drowning out the conversation. I was entirely too exhausted to listen to two of my favorite people argue.

  To my surprise, I managed to hold out against the distant dawn until I could shed my clothes, sponge off, and crawl into someone’s discarded sleep tee I found in the floor. Now to make it to the bedroom—

  “Hey there.” With my senses blunted by both death and dawn, I almost fell down when Lori accidentally snuck up on me.

  “Hey, yourself,” I responded in a whisper like gravel on gravel. I held onto the bathroom sink, trying to keep the world from tilting without pulling it out of the wall.

  “You sound rough. Let’s get you to bed.” An arm encircled my waist, pulling me away from the sink and down the hall, Lori supporting my weight with little problem. “I hate seeing you like this.”

  “Sorry, Lor.” Maybe I shouldn’t have come home after all.

  “That’s not what I mean, Ash.” She sighed, then kissed me on the cheek. I couldn’t help perking up just a little, daylight be damned. “I just hate seeing you suffer.”

  “I’ve had worse.” The bed loomed closer in my vision, and I fell onto it.

  “That’s not very comforting, you know.” Lori slid into bed on the opposite side, then dragged me the rest of the way in as well. Logically, I knew I should be far more excited about actually getting to sleep next to my lover again, but instead, all I could feel was a pervasive exhaustion. “Please, please don’t cut it so close again, okay? Tamara’s told me how dangerous that is for you.”

  “I promise I’ll try, believe me,” I croaked sincerely. My eyelids slid closed of their own accord, and I gently flopped an arm across Lori as she huddled close and swaddled us in a thick comforter. I smiled. “Racing the dawn...wasn’t very fun…” I held her as close as I dared, but not too tightly, as my senses failed and darkness overcame me. It had been a long time since encroaching oblivion had scared me, but I still relished the long-absent chance to fall asleep to the comfort of my lover’s voice.

  “So how was your night? Exciting, I hope?” She whispered the words in my ear, her breath hot on my skin, her hand trailing gently through my hair.

  I thought back over the night’s events. In my muddled mind, everything since the party was pretty much one long montage of me getting punched in the face by people of far greater skill.

  “I need to watch more Jackie Chan movies,” I mumbled in reply and promptly blacked out, my willpower finally spent.

  Chapter Six

  Motives hazy try again later

  I awoke to absolute darkness with no idea where I was, my vision nothing but shades of gray.

  Then I smelled bacon and eggs and smiled.

  “Breakfast’s almost ready,” Lori called down the hall as I shuffled from the bedroom to the bathroom like the zombie I resembled. “I gotta say, at least your sleep schedule is predictable these days.”

  I grinned, grabbed a sponge, and cleaned up more thoroughly than I’d been able to before passing out. I eyed the shower, but thought better of the numbness and hour-plus struggle it entailed; I needed to be sharp for the evening.

  It was the right choice. “Breakfast” was barely done by the time Tamara came by to pick me up.

  “Take care.” Lori gave me a brief kiss before letting me go. “And don’t stay out so late this time.”

  We met up at the club again, but this time, we gathered in a private room in the back, the incessant beats locked away behind solid, soundproof walls. Shy of borrowing Charles’ sanctum, we probably weren’t going to get much better privacy or security.

  “Where’s Kitty?” I asked. Everyone else was accounted for, from shifters to grumpy Magisterium wizards.

  Tamara shrugged. “Out on the floor, organizing the night’s playlist.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t realize you were such a slave driver, Tam,” I rasped with a grin.

  The Moroi shook her head. “She insisted.”

  “Really,” said Kitty herself, opening the door and closing it again behind her, “It’s better this way. If I’m working, I’m not stressing. Speaking of which...” She glanced around, took a deep breath, and settled in one of the chairs on the other side of the room, near the door and Tamara.

  The woman looked better than I would have expected, all things considered. She was dressed a little more conservatively today, in a long, simple black dress that hung off one shoulder and sported a narrow keyhole slit from neck to navel. Her long legs were clad in impressively close-fitting galaxy-patterned tights, probably there to accentuate the night’s-sky-patterned scarf that barely matched the outfit—but covered the side of her neck rather nicely when combined with the length of her scarlet-dyed hair. A charcoal-black beret perched on her head, and she kept nervously adjusting it.

  I didn’
t need to actually look over to tell that Rain was staring. Someone needed to give the kid subtlety lessons, but I wasn’t the right person for the job, as first I’d need to possess the skill myself.

  Come to think of it, out of our whole group, I was pretty certain only Tamara had that particular talent.

  “I think we should start by talking about how your family is obviously working with the Sanguinarians,” Charles said immediately, crossing his arms.

  Tamara frowned, her expression darkening. “Dammit, Charles, we’ve been through this already. That’s not what’s going on here.”

  “Looks like it from where I’m sitting.”

  “You weren’t even up there in the damn loft,” Tamara’s sapphire eyes flashed, deep and liquid. “So how would you know?”

  The wizard raised an eyebrow. “Moroi holding a hostage with Sanguinarian help, on Sanguinarian land, with a Sanguinarian ambush,” he said flatly, as if daring her to prove otherwise.

  “Well,” Tamara was obviously irritated; it didn’t seem like her. “Except that she could have been controlling them and using the whole set-up to deflect blame to the Sangs. You weren’t up there; you didn’t see how crazy powerful she was.” Tamara looked to me. “You saw it. What do you think, Ashes?”

  “Um…” This wasn’t an argument I wanted to be drawn into, not when I wasn’t certain myself. I passed the buck to Kitty instead. “What did you hear? What did they want? If you’re up to delving into it, I mean. You were the one stuck there the longest.”

  “I don’t mind,” she said after a moment, rubbing at her neck with a faint shudder. “That’s why I’m here. I want those bastards to get what’s coming to them, before they go after someone else.” She frowned. “It’s only fair, I suppose,” she finished quietly.

  “It’ll be okay, Kitty. I promise,” Tamara said, her eyes and voice turning soft and comforting.

  The DJ shook her head. “Somehow, I doubt it. I mean, yesterday I was a normal girl, and now, I’m not even…human anymore.”

  I twitched. “What, what? I feel like I’m missing a puzzle piece, here.”

  “Kitty’s Fae,” Charles said simply.

  “Another changeling?” I frowned. “No. Fairy. Like Hershel.” I looked at Charles, and he confirmed with a nod. Where changelings like Rain and Jason could change shape due to Fae meddling, fairies had the actual blood of the Fae running through their veins and given the right circumstances, might become Fae themselves one day.

  Having only known Hershel, a content Fae-to-be, I’d never realized how terrifying that thought might be. Like taking steps toward the inevitable demise of everything you were.

  “I guess,” the DJ responded. “That’s what everyone’s saying. All I know is that those vampires took me and tied me down, asked me some questions, then started pressing that...metal...against me when they didn’t like the answers.” This time her shudder wasn’t easily overlooked. “And somewhere in all of that...everything changed.” She sounded sad, even forlorn, but I knew there was nothing I could do to help.

  “What did they want from you?” I rasped, trying to shift the subject a little.

  “They wanted to know about Tamara,” Kitty replied. “And my relationship to her, how much I knew about her and about her connection to you.” She met my eyes. “They had a lot of questions I couldn’t answer, and they...took their time about asking.” Her hand went to her throat again. “The…Moroi one, she seemed to enjoy it at points. But not all the time.” The DJ sighed and dropped her hand pointedly, seeming frustrated. “It seemed like they were trying to use my friendship with Tamara, and my involvement in her business, to get more answers about Tamara’s family politics, as well as about her relationship with you. She even asked about Charles.”

  “Fortunately, we didn’t give them enough time to really delve deep,” Charles said.

  I frowned. “Okay. I’m still confused. There was a Moroi and a Sanguinarian in the room. Why didn’t they just use their blood-venom to get answers or have Silvia just make Kitty give those answers? Why the torture at all?” I left it unsaid that being bitten by a Sanguinarian was probably the worst case scenario of the three. Sanguinarian venom might not affect the dead, but I knew I’d rather be tortured, if given the choice.

  “It’s not so simple,” Tamara said, shaking her head. “Like with torture, those methods aren’t foolproof. It’s just as likely that the victim will say whatever they think the questioner wants to hear, just to please them.”

  “So how was that different than the torture they actually did, then?” inserted Jason, giving Kitty an apologetic glance.

  “Because they used the iron to trigger Kitty’s Fae heritage,” Charles replied.

  “Making it so she couldn’t directly lie anymore,” I finished, putting it together. “But how did they know about her nature in the first place?”

  “I knew,” Tamara said, giving Kitty’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “But, knowing her like I do, I never said anything, because even telling her about it could trigger the transformation. In fact, I never told anyone, and I don’t think anyone else knew.”

  “Except,” Rain finally butted in timidly, “you used to work at The Forge?” He glanced around. “Could someone there have known?”

  “It’s CCOS-owned,” Charles snapped his fingers. “That’s the connection. They must have known.” He gave Rain an approving nod, and the boy blushed and beamed at the same time.

  “I feel like this is all ultimately my fault,” Tamara said, her shoulders drooping.

  “No way,” Kitty leaned over and gave Tamara a brief hug. “That’s not how this works. You don’t get to rescue me from those monsters and blame yourself too. Those weren’t your hands…” She shook her head firmly, despite losing the words. “And since you’re all here, I wanted to tell you all thank you. I’m not going to think about what would have happened if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”

  I didn’t tell her I already knew that answer, that Mama Flora had told me before I’d even left the Abyss. “You’re wel—”

  “It’s really no problem at all,” Rain said, not even seeming to notice I’d spoken. I couldn’t help grinning. “We’d do it for anybody.” He blinked. “Not that I’m saying that you’re just anybody, because you’re special.” He paused just long enough to catch up to what he’d said, and blushed a little. “Um, I mean that you’re really cool, not that you’re—”

  “Hey, no problema, chica.” Jason spoke up. “De nada.” He grinned. “But next time give us more warning before you get yourself kidnapped, eh?”

  “Okay,” I spoke up again. “Second question. Why would Silvia be asking for Moroi information? She kinda, you know, is one.”

  Tamara shook her head. “Because she wasn’t asking about Moroi habits. She was asking about Moroaică habits.”

  “You mean…”

  “She means we’ve stumbled into family feud territory,” Charles finished. “Inter-Moroi politics.”

  “Wait,” Rain said. “I know your family doesn't all get along, but I thought you had the same goals, right?”

  Tamara burst out laughing.

  “Everybody wants to be in charge, kid,” Charles said. “In that respect, they actually do have the same goals.”

  Tamara wiped at her eyes, stifling further chuckles. “What Charles said and then some.” She shook her head. “All that truly unites us are our powers, our familial ties, and the fact that there are other supernatural groups out there that oppose us…Or who could oppose us. Some of our stronger, non-Moroaică bloodlines despise the fact that Mother has always ruled.”

  “So now that you’re starting to make waves, they’re out to steal your thunder?” I guessed, looking at Tamara.

  “Hell if I know,” she replied. “I’m just a nobody who started one successful dance club.”

  “Hardly,” Charles frowned. “You’re one of the Succubus Queen’s direct descendants, a pure-bred Moroi of the strongest bloodline possible. No matter what
you want to believe, you’ll never be ‘nobody.’”

  From the look on Tamara’s face, she didn’t like that thought very much.

  “Is that where the whole ‘prodigy princess’ jab came in?” I queried.

  “I guess,” Tamara replied. “Silvia Blagojevic. Her lineage deals in anguish and despair, feeding on tragedy.”

  I shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, ran into one of those guys in Philly...Things didn’t go so well for him.” Not that I regretted it. Not for an instant. Not after what he’d done. “Could his death have something to do with all of this?”

  “As far as I know, there was nothing tying you to his death,” Tamara replied. “But I don’t know what reason Silvia would have for treason like this, either.” She frowned, her perfect brow furrowed in thought. “I knew her and her sister when we were little. She’s only a little older than I am. We didn’t quite get along, but she wasn’t like...what we saw yesterday.”

  “You mean, she wasn’t always Superman’s beefier sister?” I rubbed at my sternum.

  “Moroi aren't physically stronger than Strigoi,” Charles cut in. “It simply does not happen.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Tamara said quietly, then shook her head. “But you’re right in regards to Silvia. She’s a half-blood. She...shouldn’t be as strong as I am. She should be more on a level with…” The Moroi glanced at me and trailed off. I raised a curious eyebrow, but Tamara just shook her head, setting her feathery neon-purple to dancing around her pale face. “There’s no way she should be able to dominate me like that. At all.”

  “Half blood?” Rain asked curiously. He kept fidgeting and trying not to stare at Kitty, who had fallen silent and introspective.

  Tamara blinked. “That’s…actually a family secret. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  Charles pinned her with a knowing look in his cinnamon eyes. “Or it’ll be your ass. Though I doubt anyone here will say anything.”

  We all nodded; the silence that followed wasn’t a terribly comfortable one. Everyone seemed to be wrestling with their own thoughts, of one kind or another.