Ash to Embers (Courting Shadows)

by C. V. Larkin

  Xavier refocused on cleaning the last vestiges of left over wizard from his blade, but was interrupted by the loud clattering of a brawl. A gigantic male barreled into Royal, slamming him back into a nearby wall. The brilliant pale aura that surrounded the stranger churned with fury under the sickly dark mesh that encased it.

  Not so strange after all. Xavier had seen that distinctive cocoon of energy before. His mouth went dry and his stomach shrank into his diaphragm. Royal took a merciless blow to the face and delivered a knee into the beast's torso. Xavier lunged across the center island, sword in hand, only to be grabbed and yanked back hard by the shifter. Tian dove across the space. Her aura burst like a solar flare the second she came into contact with the dark haired giant.

  Fuck, the guy was huge, at least Royal's height; with an additional sixty pounds of lean muscle he knew exactly how to throw around. Forget what the wizards were saying, there was no damn way that son of a bitch was human. Especially considering Tian's reaction to him. Xavier watched in abject horror as the female he'd been mooning over for longer than he was comfortable admitting, glowed like a goddess under the touch of the male she'd strangled and thrown into the barstool bench on the nearest side of the marble countertop. She climbed into the bastard's lap, straddling his hips as that mind bending little dress rode up exposing the tanned flesh of her perfect thighs.

  Xavier choked. He couldn't take anymore, and closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to blot out the visuals evoked by the way both auras had exploded under the passion of predestined true love. He'd known that they'd been sending her to her destiny when Royal had asked her to kill the succubus. Known somewhere in the back of his soul he'd been relinquishing claim, not that he'd had any right to it, but goddamn. He hadn't anticipated it would hurt like this.

  *You were right. She is beautiful.*

  Fucking asshole.

  -So this is what it feels like?-

  *This is what it feels like.*

  -Does it ever get better?-

  *No.*

  ****

  Sio wandered the hallways of the Victorian like a zombie, moving without purpose, the same way he'd managed to put his clothes back on. One hundred percent auto pilot. The static in his skull was deafening.

  He had no idea how long he'd sat in her workshop surrounded by all of her private belongings: by the thousands of books she obviously cared for, by her intricate gadgets, by the awe-inspiring sketches tossed haphazardly around, and by the vast collections of herbs and powders and pigments all labeled in their elegant glass vases. He'd sat there until he couldn't take looking at it a second longer. As incredible as it was, and it was extraordinary, every item in that room only served as a nagging reminder of her absence.

  Tian hadn't come back, and that was the thing...he'd waited. During the course of that agonizing decent into purgatory he'd watched his mood vacillate as if he were going through a twelve step program. He'd hit the escape button when his head had begun to sour, thoughts turning ugly, warring like caged dogs. At some point in his aimless travels voices began to filter through the white noise, voices boasting unfamiliar baritones.

  He rounded the corner and took in the glass laden, city chic kitchen and its five occupants. Tian stood, arms folded, leaning against the stove in a dress that defied comprehension. Ceyla was on the counter next to her, and Avery was draped over the island in the center next to a moderately familiar masculine form with its head buried, cleaning the blood off of a giant ass broad sword. The platinum blonde with the lip ring took a sip from his mug, and leveled an emerald green stare at the intrusion. Son of a bitch.

  Before he'd fully registered what was happening Sio had launched himself across the room. Visions of Tian's blood as it sprayed from her throat and soaked the gold shift she'd worn sprung up and smoldered in his memory. He balled a fist and connected to Lip Ring's full pout with a satisfying crack. A sharp burst of pain shot up his side from the knee that had been lodged in his floating ribs.

  "I remember what you did to her, cocksucker," Sio said as he pinned the son of a bitch to the wall. The fight may have kicked off in a heartbeat, but it was gonna get put down in one too.

  A stream of electric heat shot up his spine in response to the strong hands that wrapped part of the way around his neck. They cut off his air supply as he connected again, cracking a cheekbone on his elbow. Tian dug into his windpipe, leveraging the forward momentum from his NFL style tackle to turn him and pitch him into the bar bench at the counter. He didn't fight it. Didn't fight her even though he wasn't finished.

  Sio gave in to the pull, gave himself over to the surging force burning in his veins. He was half out of his mind, need screaming in every cell, by the time they hit the counter. The spine grinding force of impact was something he barely noticed. Tian was nose to nose with him as she climbed into his lap straddling his hips, invading his space, and flooding his senses until nothing else existed. She was talking to him, he could feel the velvet soft caress of that throaty rasp, but it wasn't tracking. He still couldn't breathe.

  He stared into her eyes and realized she was repeating his name. The scent of her was a dull roar in his head that sent chills through the inferno all the way down to his toes.

  "Sio," Tian said into his mouth. He wanted to drown in her.

  "Mmmm." He fought the pull toward surfacing.

  "Sio, they're friends. It was a favor. Ease down."

  He made a reluctant attempt to focus. She loosened the grip on his windpipe so he could drag in a strained breath. The air in the sliver of space between them was supercharged.

  "Sio."

  I love you.

  He responded with the only other lucid thought that managed to swim to the surface.

  "I really like this dress." It came out like gravel.

  Tian's eyes widened, nostrils flaring, as he ran his hands up the enticing current generated by the bare skin of her thighs until he hit the bottom hem of her skirt where it had ridden up. Her skin temperature spiked. The core of her, positioned just above his zipper, was practically burning through it.

  All he could think about was how much he wanted to kiss her. How close she was. Fuck, they were mouth to mouth anyway. And it felt good...so good his nervous system was doing back flips. They were having the sort of moment that could stretch all the way to completion.

  "Well," came a tragic rumble from the center of the room. "That certainly explains the why of things, doesn't it."

  Tian wrenched herself away. The energy between them stretched like taffy, bending and elongating, but still intact. It was a slow process that started with her forehead, peeling back until she'd managed a good handful of inches between them. The small physical distance did nothing to assuage the need, but it allowed the reality that they were in a room full of people to sink in.

  She disengaged her hands from around his throat. Sio'd almost forgotten what it was like to breathe unconstricted. After what had happened between them it was painfully anti-climactic.

  "One show like that and we would have booked solid for over a year," Lip Ring said.

  "You can shut the hell up any time now, Royal." There was a hollow undercurrent to the man's tone that caught Sio's attention and held it.

  The dirty blonde with the goatee and the sword looked like he'd been put through the ringer. His inexpensive plaid button down had been torn, singed, and covered in blood. The pattern didn't hide the signs of wear well. The shirt looked like hell, no getting around it, but the guy's eyes were decimated. Heartbroken. A flare of ice cold panic hit Sio's chest. If he hadn't been sitting down he would have needed to.

  "Don't feel too bad for him. He always looks wounded like that." Lip Ring spit a mouthful of his own blood into an actual linen handkerchief. The bastard grinned, split lip puffing in irritation. "Especially around Tian. I think you knocked a couple of teeth loose."

  Sio caught himself telegraphing his own anxiety and shut it down.

  "Unrequit
ed," the dirty blonde said, sounding as if he were verifying as much to himself as anyone else.

  Poor bastard.

  Sio couldn't fathom wanting her the way he did, knowing that she would never call him hers. He stood as gently as he could, one arm wrapped around Tian's waist, the other hand holding the hem of her skirt to ensure her modesty. She let him set her down. Once they were standing, he raised the hand at the hem of her dress and used it to smooth down the wild silken strands of her hair. It took some serious willpower to man up and let go of her.

  "Sio," he said, putting a hand out.

  Hamlet raised an eyebrow like the gesture had been unexpected and sighed.

  "Xavier," he said reluctantly, plunking down the sword and reaching out to accept the proffered handshake. "And don't look at me like that. It's been a rough night. This was just the fuck me frosting."

  "How touchingly saccharine," Royal said.

  "Seriously?" Xavier cut the guy off. "Stop. I already want to punch you."

  "I think you may have to get in line." A slow smile spread across Royal's face until he was beaming. His happy face came off as cruel.

  "Nah, I'm good," Sio said, folding his arms as he leaned back against the counter. "You can consider that beat down my way of saying how do."

  Avery chuckled under his breath as he went over and began filling mugs with coffee.

  "I do like it rough," Royal answered.

  Sio got another visual of the dagger Royal had used as it bit into the side of Tian's neck and had to talk himself out of a return trip across the room. He ground his teeth, took a deep breath, and worked like a son of a bitch to steady his raging temper. Tian gripped his arm hard enough to grind the bones and the resulting contact high reasserted itself with knee buckling force.

  "Macho posturing aside..." she said.

  "As if you don't," Royal interrupted.

  "That would be feminine posturing, fuckwad."

  Royal grinned. Sio grinned too, not that he wanted to per se, but it was difficult not to respond to her. Ceyla was the only one in the kitchen who looked put out. A curious and considerable amount of subterranean strain was expressing itself in the tense lines of her posture. She took a deep pull off the hand rolled draped between her index and middle fingers before speaking. "Last I checked, we had problems or you lot wouldn't be havin' a social call in our kitchen at two a.m."

  "True," Tian said. She turned to look at him and his heart rate increased. "Zulpey, the female that works the door at the Gates, has been taken as leverage to get to you."

  Shit.

  "How do we get her back?"

  "The Guardian have proposed a trade, your life for hers," Royal said.

  "So we fight." Tian cut the guy off with an eerie level calm.

  "Wait, what would happen if I went with them?"

  "They'd kill you," Xavier said. He went back to cleaning his sword with methodical even strokes as if he were half tempted to do it himself.

  "The Guardian were the ones that contracted the succubus," Tian told him.

  "What are Guardian, Tian?"

  It was Avery that answered, handing him a steaming mug in the shape of an elephant with a soft cap of foam. "Wizard cops, dude. They police the magic using masses and all that. Same as us, but different jurisdiction. Bigger sanctimonious assholes though."

  "Amen to that," Xavier said from his spot at the table.

  Sio set the mug on the counter behind him and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was suddenly dog tired. "You police the magic using masses?"

  Avery snorted in amusement. "We sure as fuck don't run Google. Besides, they police the magic using humans. We deal strictly in Fae indiscretions."

  "Beautiful. What is it they want with me then?"

  "Rumor has it that a council member's daughter went rogue and he had to put her down. They're calling you the catalyst, not that the label is entirely accurate, " Royal answered.

  "They're saying you bespelled her," Xavier clarified.

  "I would have thought that much was obvious," Royal said.

  "Define 'Went rogue'," Sio said.

  "In this particular case the rogue wizard attacked an urban sorcerer. Then, after she was pardoned by the Council, she proceeded to kidnap several humans from local nightclubs, torture them, and magically attempt to force their abject devotion and desire. An emotional rape and reboot if you will. Apparently," Royal continued, ignoring any reaction if he'd noticed it, "at some point you were inside her and the poor thing never got over it."

  No one said a damn word. In fact, Sio got the distinct impression that most of the room was avoiding eye contact with him. Well, everyone except for Royal, who seemed to enjoy breaking the news, and Tian who'd already seen and heard worse from his life. He felt sick.

  "There was a group of Warlocks siphoning Faerie magic a couple of months ago and using it to get laid," she said. "It's possible that the Guardian think you're one of them."

  "Possible, shit," Xavier said looking up. "They do think he's one of them. We all did up until we met the guy in person."

  "I don't know what I am."

  "It's called trouble, motherfucker," Xavier muttered.

  Royal stretched, flashing the platinum caps of his lower incisors. "Lucky for you, we love a good disaster."

  Chapter 21

  A Precarious Position

  "If he really is pureblood they won't be able to kill him, Tian. He could draw them out," Ceyla said. "They won't stop if the rogue was Sidhe Struck. Besides, you know as well as I do, they're not going to wait for the trade if they can find him early."

  "That statement sounds like you think it's possible that I started this," Sio said.

  "It is." Xavier was still struggling to wrangle his emotions under control. It wasn't working. And wasn't that about a bitch. He hadn't needed to bust in with his two cents, knew it was petty, entirely too human as emotions went, but that part of him needed the bastard to hurt.

  *And I'm the asshole?*

  -You are an asshole.-

  *Only because I hate to disappoint.*

  Xavier gritted his teeth as Tian shot him a cold look that burrowed under his traitorous skin. Her aura had condensed down on itself until it was almost opaque, a seamless cocoon of golden fire in the guise of armor. The look she gave Ceyla wasn't much better. It was hard as hell, but the potential for catastrophic levels of violence weren't as specifically directed. He would have happily paid to be pissed. Fuck understanding, it was the last thing he was in the mood to be right now and still he couldn't muster angry. Angelic devotion could suck a dick.

  "He's bound," Tian answered. "There's no telling what they could manage while working him towards undead."

  "Well, if anyone could speak from personal experience," Royal said.

  Xavier shook his head. With Royal's only internal censor weighing heavily in the demonic corner, the fact that he was acting so subdued meant that he was bottling destructive impulses like crazy. The thought was monumentally disconcerting, considering the wild card not four feet away.

  "Careful," Sio said.

  You have no idea.

  "She's right," Xavier said. The words left a bitter aftertaste. "Besides there's no telling how the binding affects what should make him immortal."

  He averted his gaze from Tian and focused on Sio. The cocksucker's aura churned with the fractured horror of a hardcore trauma. The male's face was closed down except for the muscle ticking steadily in the left hand side of his jaw. Xavier wanted to hate him, but that station wasn't an option anymore. Lord only knew what that meant, but he could hazard a guess and it wasn't pretty. Neither was Sio's aura. Xavier studied the heavily dimmed silver white maelstrom. The glittering threads of Tian's energy slid along the guy's skin, chasing away the dark cancers haunting his chakras. The binding around him was bent by the fury and fraying at the heart, hands, and groin.

  'Life makes survivors of us all.'

  Tian
had said it years ago in passing, but for some reason the once casual statement resonated. The wake of it brought an empty sense of peace.

  "Xavier." Avery's voice caused him to start.

  "What?"

  Royal smirked. "If you're done making eyes at Tian's lover..."

  -I will hurt you.-

  *Promises, promises.*

  "Our dear friend Avery asked you what the rogue wizard's name was," Royal said. He hadn't missed a beat. It was irritating as piss that he was able to do that.

  "Why didn't you tell him then?"

  Royal shrugged, and tossed out a beatific smile. "He didn't ask me."

  "Irritating prick," Ceyla said under her breath. She shook her head and tossed back another shot.

  "Is he serious?" Sio asked Tian.

  She snorted and shook her head, "Xavier?"

  That bedroom rasp of hers was killing him. "The rogue wizard's name was Eloise Parker."

  They all turned and looked at Sio expectantly.

  "What did you say her name was?" Sio asked.

  A bright purple stain spread through his aura, across the mesh of the binding, and over the wide flat planes of Sio's chest. It hadn't been there before, but it made the massive width of the guy's shoulders rival a goddamned muni bus.

  "Eloise Parker."

  The stain darkened until it made Sio's left pectoral look like the spectral version of a poorly cleaned dry erase board. Sio shook his head. He looked at Xavier. The bleached wheat color of his eyes was jarring.

  "You said it more than once and I haven't retained a syllable. How is that possible?"

  Tian shot a dark look towards the demon. "How is that possible, Royal?"

  *Has his aura changed?*

  "I'd need a picture of Parker to be sure," Royal said. He was appraising Sio with the kind of contemplation most men rolled out when buying a new toy of the motorcycle/entertainment center variety.

  -The Crayola mess on his chest is new.-

  *Does it look like a name?*

  -I just told you it looked like a mess.-

  *Christ, you're painfully useful aren't you? Could it have been a name?*