Forever Burning

by Evi Asher

  “So, Scarlet has to contend with Jasmine, and if we get rid of Jasmine, she’ll have any necromancer who finds out about her after her?” Sophia asked in a hushed voice.

  “I have a feeling that there is already one after her. I know Jasmine has a necro in her pocket, and that’s why she’s in such a snit to get a phoenix.” Zane slammed the book he’d had opened, closing it with a resounding bang.

  “We are going to have to make sure that Jasmine doesn’t get a phoenix.”

  Sophia nodded. “Agreed.”

  “Let’s go find the others and tell them what we know.” Zane stood and led them out the door to the archives.

  “What do you mean you can’t find Archer?” Dimitri was bellowing again, sometimes making Zane’s ears ache to work for a chaos demon, but deep down, when he had his shit together, Dimi was a good monster.

  So, Zane took a deep breath, and spoke in a calm soothing manner. “He must have gone for a run. You know Archer. When something is upsetting him, he runs it off.”

  Dimi opened his mouth, then shut it, silently bowing to Zane’s logic.

  “He will have to be updated when he gets back.” Dimi sat down in the arm chair that he and Archer had almost demolished the day before. “Tell us what you’ve found out?”

  Zane, with Sophia and Trinity interrupting every so often, told the story that Trinity had told them.

  Poe was perched on the backrest of one of the settees, twisting one of his corn row braids in his fingers. “With no males to defend them, I can see why they chose to move their race to another plane.”

  “Their numbers must be severely diminished. That’s why they transition and take pyros, like they did with Scarlet,” Tate pointed out from where he stood with his back resting against the shuttered windows.

  “You’d think they’d take the local populace to breed with?” Heath asked, rubbing his chin.

  “It’s all beside the point.” Zane stood, and moved to the center of the room. “I think we know why Jasmine wants a pyro, or rather, a phoenix.”

  There were murmurs of agreement. “We’ll have to make sure she doesn’t get her hand on any phoenix. That means we have to keep her off the phoenix plane.” Erik, for once, wasn’t messing around, having a look of earnestness on his face.

  “I hate it when they pick on women.”

  Sophia snorted. “I’m a woman, and I could whip your ass, Erik.”

  “You are an exception to the rule...hell, I pick on you.”

  “Yeah, you and your imaginary army, and that’s why you always lose.”

  “Can we decide what we are going to do instead of arguing?” Heath asked.

  “I say...” Poe slipped off the backrest of the couch and stood, “Scarlet won’t be safe until we take Jasmine and her godly yearnings out of the equation completely.”

  “We’ll wait for Archer to get back before we decide, but I agree. He has to make the final choice. Scarlet is his mate,” Dimi said.

  “What about your feelings for Jasmine?” Heath asked.

  “I will admit I’ve been…” He couldn’t seem to find the right words. “I’ve had issues with Jasmine, but what she is doing is wrong on many levels, and since the enforcers aren’t doing their jobs, it’s going to be up to us to get it done. More so now that we know Scarlet will be in continuous danger from Jasmine.” Dimi sat forward and steepled his fingers under his chin, resting his elbows on his knees.

  “I’m sure Archer is going to be first in line with a blade.” Dimi sat back in the chair and waited. “Now, if he’d get his ass back here we can get the discussions out of the way.”

  * * * *

  Guards dragged Scarlet, Ath, Dani and Kell into a large room that looked more like a palace throne room, or a great hall, than a normal meeting place.

  The women each had a sentry holding on to the left and another to the right, so getting out of the guards’ grips would prove to be problematic. Scarlet and the other women had no choice but to allow themselves to be pulled through the room and forced to their knees at the dais. Their heads were pushed down, so Scarlet couldn’t see anything.

  A woman’s voice spoke from above Scarlet’s head somewhere. “Where is the last woman from this dormitory?”

  “She was not involved, Your Eminence. We left her behind in the room,” one of the guards stated.

  “So…” The woman paused and Scarlet heard the rustle of skirts, then saw the woman’s toes sticking out of the sandals as her robes were lifted so she could step down from the dais.

  “It appears our new phoenix is a trouble maker.”

  “We’ve had no problems with these others until this one came.”

  The guard punctuated the words with a kick to her ribs that had Scarlet’s eyes watering in pain, but she refused to give them the satisfaction of hearing her cry out.

  “Hmm.” The feet stopped directly in front of Scarlet. “What to do with the little pyro that we made a phoenix.”

  “Let me go home,” Scarlet muttered.

  “What was that?” the voice above her asked.

  Scarlet kept her mouth shut until the foot found her already bruised ribs again.

  “I said...” She snapped her head up to stare the phoenix above her in the eye. “You can let me go home.” Gritted teeth and watering eyes gave away the pain she felt.

  “Oh, no, that is not an option. However, I do believe we will punish you and your cohorts. Who stole the mirror?”

  Scarlet kept her mouth shut. She was not going to rat on Kell, but that damn foot hit her square in the ribs again. Scarlet collapsed to her side, tears now streaming from her face.

  “Tell me, or I will have you whipped.” This time the woman did her own kicking, not waiting for the guard to do it.

  Scarlet let out a scream of pain as she heard something in her side snap.

  “Stop, Your Eminence. I stole the mirror,” Kell screamed.

  “Shut up, Kell,” Scarlet hissed. “I can take whatever this bitch wants to throw at me.”

  Scarlet was prone on the floor, the pain incapacitating her. The guards had stepped back, so she didn’t see the lash coming, but she felt it as the first sweep bit into her back.

  Chapter Nine

  Archer paced around the gravestone, a sense of déjà vu making him even more restless than he would have been. He felt that he was starting at the beginning again. His She wasn’t in his care, and he had to start from scratch to get her, here in The Resting Peace Cemetery.

  He glanced down at his wristwatch and cursed. Fashionably late didn’t do anything for him. Where was that bitch. Archer smelled her, and turned to the weeping angel that she’d stepped out from behind last time.

  “What is with you and this frigging cemetery?”

  Jasmine shrugged. “It’s the one place I know Dimi would never come.”

  “What did you do to him?”

  Jasmine looked surprised. “You don’t know?”

  He shook his head in answer. “But you were working with Dimitri when we…parted ways.”

  “Yes, I remember him going completely berserk, but he never told me what you did, and I never asked him. I figured he needed his space.”

  Jasmine ran her hand along the marble of the weeping angel statue as she moved around it. “Perhaps I took true love from him?”

  She smiled at Archer, and he felt dirty just looking at the smile. It was the purest evil he’d ever encountered. If he had any other option to get Scarlet back, he wouldn’t be near this unclean thing.

  “I’m not here to talk about what you did.”

  “Ah, yes, you want your mate back, and you know I’m the only one who can get her for you.” She turned and traced the tear that fell from the statue’s face. She looked back over her shoulder to Archer. “Let us talk terms.”

  “What terms? You said you needed my help to get Scarlet, and that’s all you wanted, and you would take another phoenix for what you need.”

  “Oh, Archer, you disappoint, so eager to tos
s another to perdition to save your She.”

  “No one said anything about any hell.” His fists clenched, becoming white knuckled with tension at his sides.

  Jasmine chuckled. “You thought I would be kind to the phoenix I stole?”

  “Look, if you are trying to talk me out of this, you are doing a good job.”

  “No, Archer, I merely want you to understand that what you do is on your conscience. Just as my actions are my own to bear.”

  “Fine, it’s understood.”

  “And you are still prepared to offer up your bond to your mate, so we can get into the realm of the phoenix?”

  He was quiet for a moment. He was going to hate himself for an eternity, but perhaps he could get through to Scarlet and stop Jasmine at the same time. Hope sparked to life in his chest. He could try to trick this devil on her own playing field.

  “Yes, I agree to help you.”

  “Very good.”

  “When do we do it?”

  “Malan?” Jasmine yelled, and Archer was shocked when a tall bald man in black robes stepped out behind another head stone. Archer hadn’t even sensed his presence.

  The man had his hands folded into his robes as a monk would, and kept his head bowed. “Goddess?”

  “Oh, isn’t my pet sweet.” Jasmine beamed at her lackey, then turned to Archer. “Archer, this is Malan. He’s a necromancer, and he’s the one who is going to be stealing the powers from one of those phoenixes.”

  “So, he can turn you into a god.” Archer didn’t ask...he made a statement, his tone flat.

  “Archer goes to the front of the class.”

  More and more, he was regretting coming here, and he didn’t know if he could back out now. He would have to come up with a good plan to take get rid of Jasmine.

  “So, when do you want to do this? Don’t make me ask again, or I’ll walk.”

  The necromancer was the one who answered. “Tomorrow night, during the witching hour, of course.”

  Archer stopped himself from snorting in disgust at the necro’s slimy tone.

  “What exactly are you planning on doing to the phoenix we take?” he asked her, and she gave him a sweet smile.

  “Sucking all her power out, of course. Malan here, will keep her chained as his pet, and suck her power dry whenever he needs a boost.”

  Archer’s stomach turned at the thought. “I don’t think I can do this. You are going to have to leave me out of this.”

  “Even if your mate dies?”

  He glared at the fallen angel.

  “Oh, yes. I know all about the Bittan, and I know that Scarlet is feeling it more severely than you are. She has to be. She’s too new to her beast.”

  Archer turned his back on Jasmine to hide his stricken expression.

  “Be here before midnight, right here by this grave, or your mate will die. Oh, and don’t doubt that I will find a way through to the phoenix realm, so you can either help me and get your mate back, or have her die without you.”

  Jasmine turned, and with a curl of her finger calling her necromancer after her, she sauntered out of the cemetery.

  Inside Archer, a war was raging, between his conscience and his need for his She. He needed to think.

  He looked into the woods surrounding the forest. Maybe if he ran, he could think. Running always soothed the Lycan part of him, and he needed the creature quiet, so he could come up with a plan to accomplish both his goals. The first, get his mate back, and the second, rid the Earth of the evil that was Jasmine.

  “Archer.” The softest whisper floated on the air as someone called his name.

  Archer turned his head and tilted it to listen closer. He was about to write it off to his imagination, when he heard it again.

  Archer tracked the whisper as it elongated and faded out.

  The weeping angel headstone?

  Stepping up to it, he was shocked to see tears—not the stone tears carved into the headstone—but real tears falling from the face of the weeping angel.

  For the first time, he read the name on the plaque at the base of the stone.

  Jasmine the loved, one of our God’s chosen.

  “What the fuck—”

  “Archer.” The voice was stronger this time.

  “Jasmine?”

  “Yessssss,” the ess sound drawn out as a sigh of relief.

  “But if you are Jasmine, who is that other female?”

  “We are the same person. She split us in two and killed me to become what she is.”

  “This is weird, even for the world I live in. You are the reason Dimi won’t set foot in this cemetery?”

  “Dimitri.” The word was love-soaked anguish.

  “That’s why he hates Jasmine so much,” Archer muttered to himself.

  “Don’t do it. Don’t help her. Only evil comes from her.”

  Archer tore his hand through his hair in frustration.

  “I have to...I don’t have a choice.”

  All he heard in response was quiet weeping.

  * * * *

  The whip descended again, and Scarlet cried out in pain, but she could hear frantic whispering from Ath and the woman who held her arms behind her back.

  She was sure she heard, “You are my sister, help me for phoenix’s sake,” before the whip descended again and white hot pain exploded across her back.

  Scarlet felt the whip rise again, and then stop as the door to the meeting area opened violently with such force that it banged against the walls.

  “Stop this madness.” It was Angelica’s voice, strong and determined.

  Scarlet twisted her head to see the other woman run across the stone floor.

  It was all the distraction Ath needed. She dove forward and grabbed Scarlet’s arm.

  “Now, Desembara!” Ath screamed, and Scarlet felt reality rip around them as a slash was created.

  Kell and Dani helped Ath lift Scarlet and they dove through the rip. Scarlet landed on her ravaged back, hard, and the world grayed out for a moment, but when she could focus again, she saw Angelica standing in front of the tear, with one of the other Phoenix warriors, stopping anyone else from going through.

  “Close it, now!” Angelica was screaming.

  “What of you, Angelica?”

  “Close it. You won’t be able to hold them back without me.”

  Desembara looked through the tear, and blew a kiss at Ath, who caught it in her hand as the fissure between the planes closed, leaving them in total darkness.

  “Crap, I hate the dark,” Kell muttered next to Scarlet.

  “I’d rather be here than there, where ever here is. You can bet your ass there is an epic battle waging, and there will be until the tear destabilizes, and the others can’t come through to get us.”

  “Is that why Angelica stayed behind?” Scarlet’s voice was raw from screaming.

  “Yes, she stayed to help my sister keep them away.”

  “Desembara is your sister?”

  “Yes.”

  Scarlet could hear the smile in her voice. “And I’ve never been prouder of her than I am today.”

  “Where are we?” Dani asked as she allowed fire to dance on her finger tips, and Scarlet groaned anew.

  “We are in a sewer.”

  “Thanks, really. No wonder it stinks down here. You and Des couldn’t aim better with the tear?” Kell complained.

  “Oopsydoodle,” Ath said, with a lilt in her tone that had Scarlet laughing, then just about crying because she was in so much pain.

  “Come, we need to find a way out of here and up into whatever city you dropped us in.” She tried to stand and fell back down again.

  “We are in Crossroads. My aim may be shitty—excuse the pun—but it’s not that shitty.” Ath reached for Scarlet’s arm and helped her stand. Kell took the other side and Dani led the way with tiny flames on her fingers.

  “We better find an exit soon. Methane and heat are not a good combination.” Scarlet pointed out.

  “Nev
er mind that. I’m covered in feces,” Kell hissed. “I want to get clean now.”

  “Yes, Oh Mighty Princess.” Ath cocked an eyebrow. “The most important task before us is your cleanliness.”

  “Stuff a sock in it, Ath,” Kell grumped.

  They made slow progress through the sewers until they reached an intersection that had a much larger pipe running across the smaller pipe in which they were walking.

  “Go into that pipe. We must be getting near some type of manhole if the pipe is that big.”

  Something scurried to the left, and Kell screeched. “I hate rats.”

  Ath looked at Scarlet, then glanced heavenward, and Scarlet grinned in response. It still hadn’t sunk in that she was back on Earth, and that Archer was within reach.

  Her pain levels were too high for her to let it sink in.

  Hopefully, she’d start healing soon. “Can phoenix get infections?” she asked.

  “Nope, much like other Eternals from your plane, we are impervious to little microscopic bugs and diseases,” Ath replied.

  “Good, because landing in waste isn’t the best way to treat lash wounds.”

  “I see something up ahead.” Dani ran forward, too eager to find what she’d spotted to wait for the others.

  “It’s a metal ladder, leading up to a circular piece of metal,” Dani called back.

  “Manhole.” Scarlet was short of breath, each step painful, but less painful than before. “That’s our exit.”

  Dani scampered up the ladder and pushed the cover away without effort. She stuck her head out and looked around. “It’s a side street, all quiet up here, but hurry.”

  She climbed out, and Kell went next. “Go after Kell. I’ll come up behind you, and push if you need some help.”

  Scarlet nodded her thanks, and climbed up the ladder after Kell.

  The pain was easing up faster now where she could at least breathe better, and when she made it to the top, she moved to the side of the road where Dani and Kell were standing, Ath followed directly behind her.

  “You are moving easier.” Ath looked Scarlet up and down to judge her injuries, then went behind Scarlet. “Damn, you heal fast.”

  Scarlet gingerly felt her broken rib, and was surprised when it didn’t move under her fingers. The rib had healed.