First and Only: Ember Lane (Book #1)

by Kelly Goode

  ‘She’s in there,’ he said, placing his hand against the security panel.

  ACCESS DENIED.

  ‘Damn it,’ he cursed, pressing a small button bellow the panel. ‘This is Agent Liam Carter requesting immediate system override. Code 517a-22b.’

  ACCESS DENIED.

  ‘Did you hear me? This is an emergency. Override code 517a-22b. Open this fucking door.’

  ACCESS DENIED.

  Carter’s eyes were wild. His expression caught between anger and panic. He started ramming his shoulder against the door, which rattled in the frame but stayed locked.

  ‘Carter, please tell me what’s going on. I can’t help, if I don’t know what’s happened to Sasha.’

  ‘She’s being attacked.’

  ‘How could you possibly know that?’

  ‘She came to me in a dream.’

  Ah! They were back to having dream sex. I should have guessed.

  ‘Sasha told me she’d started visiting another member of the team in their dreams too,’ he continued. ‘Someone has tampered with the security codes and now I can’t get in.’

  ‘I’ll help her,’ Harvey said, stepping forward.

  ‘How?’ I asked.

  ‘I can teleport.’

  ‘Through a locked door?’

  ‘As long as I’ve been inside the room before, I can teleport.’

  The fact Harvey had already been inside Sasha’s room bothered me, but I tried not to let that show on my face.

  ‘Why haven’t you teleported away from HQ?’ I asked.

  Harvey shrugged. ‘I decided to earn my freedom rather than breakout.’

  ‘Plus there are safety measures in place,’ Carter added. ‘If he’d tried to teleport out, he’d have triggered our defences. Now all this talking is wasting time. Do what you have to do, Harvey, and save Sasha.’

  69

  Harvey took one last look at Ember before disappearing inside his smoke cloud. He could tell she wasn’t happy about his admission that he’d been inside Sasha’s room already. She probably thought he’d gone there for sex and the truth was she was right. He’d been so pissed off with her dancing on that damn podium that spending a night with Sasha had seemed like a good way to get over it.

  The succubus had been more than willing to provide him with revenge sex, but after kissing the beautiful blonde, he’d only felt worse. Sasha had gone ballistic when he changed his mind, even calling his ability to perform into question, but Harvey had still walked away.

  He’d realised at that moment that although he’d said to Ember that they weren’t exclusive, he didn’t want to sleep with anyone else. He was sure that once he left the unit, the feeling would pass.

  Or at least he hoped it would! Abstinence didn’t suit him.

  Harvey visualised the layout of the room and reformed beside the bed where Sasha lay. Or what was left of her. The succubus was in hag form. Her slender body was now nothing more than wrinkled skin over protruding bones. Her hair was white and falling out. Her face was twisted in death, her swollen tongue hanging out of her mouth.

  Harvey pressed his fingers to her saggy neck, searching for a pulse. He knew there would be none, but had to check all the same. She still felt warm so whoever hurt her couldn’t have left too long ago. Harvey pushed her eyelids down to cover her eyes, which were discoloured from burst blood vessels.

  ‘Rest in peace,’ he murmured, wondering what demons awaited her in the next life. Hell was no place for a succubus. No healthy human souls to feed upon for a start.

  Two short, sharp bangs on the door caused him to jump and he was glad no one could see him.

  ‘Open the fucking door, Harvey.’

  Harvey did as ordered, disengaging the locks. Carter barged his way inside, his gun was drawn as he swept the room.

  ‘Where is she?’

  He nodded towards the bed.

  ‘She’s already dead, Carter. Strangled.’

  The agent paid no attention to his words and ran across to check. Ember was right behind him, so Harvey hooked his arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet.

  ‘Stop! What are you doing?’

  ‘You don’t need to see this, Red.’

  ‘Yes, I do. I can help.’

  ‘No, you can’t. No one can. She’s gone.’

  Ember tried to wriggle away from him but he held firm, walking her back into the corridor before putting her down on her feet.

  ‘You’re not the boss of me,’ she said, her skin beginning to burn beneath his palms but he held tight. Harvey pushed her against the wall, holding her in place by her shoulders until she stopped struggling.

  ‘Trust me when I say you wouldn’t want to remember Sasha like this.’

  Ember looked up at him.

  ‘Why? What happened to her?’

  ‘She’s been strangled.’

  A small noise escaped her lips, somewhere between a whimper and a gasp. Her green eyes brimmed with tears.

  ‘I’m sorry, Ember.’

  She tried to push him off again.

  ‘You’re not sorry. You weren’t sorry about Mari, so why should I believe you give a shit about Sasha? Unless she meant more to you than anyone else in this team.’

  Harvey clenched his jaw.

  ‘You know that’s not true.’

  She shook her head. ‘I don’t know anything anymore. Five of us started this thing and now we’re down to three…’

  ‘Two actually, Ember.’

  The interruption surprised them both and Harvey stepped away from Ember as Chief Andrews voice echoed in the narrow corridor.

  70

  ‘What do you mean two of us?’

  Chief Andrews was immaculately dressed as always in another grey suit. I wondered if the unit supplied him with a wardrobe full of them, just as they did with my black t-shirts and trousers.

  ‘Harvey is leaving.’

  I chanced a look at the handsome demon’s face. He should have been happy at hearing that news but his face remained impassive.

  ‘When?’

  ‘As soon as he hands over the stone, he’s a free man. Where is it?’

  ‘Safe,’ was Harvey’s only reply and it seemed as if he trusted Chief Andrews as little as I did. It wouldn’t surprise me if the old man recanted on his promises once he got what he wanted.

  ‘Let’s discuss this further in my office,’ Chief Andrews said, gesturing Harvey towards the exit.

  ‘Wait. What about Sasha?’ I interrupted.

  ‘What about her?’

  ‘Don’t you think someone should start investigating her death?’

  An expression flittered across the chief’s face before he composed himself.

  ‘How would I have known she was dead? Where’s her body?’

  ‘In there,’ I said, nodding towards her room. ‘Carter’s with her.’

  Chief Andrews pulled a phone from his jacket pocket and entered something into the keypad.

  ‘I’ve alerted the doctor and her handler. They’ll take over,’ he said.

  ‘The manual override on her door was disabled. Someone needs to check it and find out what went wrong.’

  ‘And they will, Ember. Once I’ve concluded my business with Harvey, I’ll put my best men on the case.’

  ‘Your best men? What if one of them is the murderer?’

  Chief Andrews laughed sardonically.

  ‘Such naivety. All my best men are murderers. Even Carter has blood on his hands. It is part of the lifestyle we’ve chosen.’

  It wasn’t naivety. I believed in Carter. He was a good man underneath all the soldier bullshit.

  ‘He told me about Cassie. What happened wasn’t his fault.’

  The old man couldn’t hide his surprise at my statement.

  ‘He told you that he shot her?’

  I nodded. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well then, you above all people shouldn’t underestimate the level this team is prepared to go to in order to neutralise a threat.’

&nb
sp; As I stared into the chief’s steely eyes, I realised he was referring to me.

  ‘I’m not a threat,’ I said.

  ‘And be sure to keep it that way, Ms Lane.’

  I looked over at Harvey. Although he’d remained silent during the exchange, his hands were jammed into the pockets of his trousers. He was rocking on his heels seemingly ready to pounce. I shook my head at him. I didn’t want him doing anything that would terminate his contract.

  ‘Do you need to get the stone from somewhere, Harvey?’ Chief Andrews asked casually but I could tell he was itching to get his hand on the artefact.

  ‘No, I’ve got it with me,’ Harvey replied.

  ‘Good, let’s get the formalities out of the way then.’

  ‘What about me?’ I asked. ‘What should I do?’

  Chief Andrews checked his phone again. Whatever message he read, made him smile.

  ‘I need you to wait for me in the briefing room. If all goes well with Harvey, I could be signing release papers for you too.’

  71

  I hovered outside Sasha’s room after Harvey left with Chief Andrews. I wanted to speak with Carter before heading to the briefing room. Something didn’t feel right about the chief’s proposal and I wanted someone to know where I was going.

  ‘Carter,’ I called through the open door.

  ‘Stay outside, Ember. I don’t want the crime scene contaminated any more than it has been.’

  ‘Ok.’

  I waited a few seconds and then he appeared in the doorway. His face was ashen and the shadows under his eyes were as black as coal smudges.

  ‘You don’t look so good,’ I said as Carter rubbed his bristly chin.

  ‘I wasn’t quick enough,’ he replied gruffly. ‘I should have got here sooner.’

  ‘You didn’t hurt her. This isn’t your fault.’

  ‘Sasha needed help and I was the only one she could turn to. I failed her.’

  I took his large hand in mine.

  ‘No, you didn’t. She had a handler assigned to protect her. Where is he? How do you know she didn’t appear to him in a dream too? You did what you could for her.’

  He didn’t seem convinced by my words so I moved on with the conversation.

  ‘Chief Andrews wants me to meet him in the briefing room. Will you come with me?’

  That did get a reaction.

  ‘You saw the chief?’

  ‘Yeah, he was here a minute ago. I told him about Sasha and he said he’d alerted her handler and the doctor. He said he’d start an investigation into her death.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘What do you think happened?’ I asked,

  Carter rubbed his thumb absently over my knuckles causing a tingly feeling to shoot up my arm.

  ‘It was someone on the team,’ he said. ‘Someone she knew. Someone she’d been having dream sex with.’

  ‘Like who?’

  Carter shrugged his shoulders but I guessed it was more because he didn’t want to give me the names of his men that he suspected rather than him having no clue.

  ‘It had to be someone that knew how to disable the security override,’ I said. ‘Who has the skill and know-how to do that?’

  ‘Anyone from my rank upwards.’

  That didn’t help me, as I didn’t know anything about ranks or grades within the team.

  ‘How well do you know her handler?’

  ‘Marcus is a solid soldier. We’ve worked together for years. I couldn’t see him hurting her. Not like this. This was personal.’

  ‘I told her to be careful invading people’s dreams. It never felt right to me.’

  Carter released my hand.

  ‘I want you to know that I told her I wasn’t interested in having sex with her. Real or imagined. I don’t know why she thought I would be.’

  ‘She told me she couldn’t fuck her own handler so you were the next logical choice. She needed an alpha male to replenish her life-force.’

  Carter shuddered.

  ‘Did she hurt you? In your dream?’ I asked.

  ‘No, no. Nothing like that. It was just a little freaky when she turned into a hag.’

  ‘A hag?’

  I remembered Mari telling me Sasha was as ugly as a hag on the inside.

  ‘Forget I said anything,’ Carter said. ‘Look you better get going. If the chief wants a meeting with you, you’d better not keep him waiting.’

  An irrational fear settled in my stomach at the thought of meeting Chief Andrews alone.

  ‘Can you come with me?’ I asked again but Carter shook his head.

  ‘No, I’d better wait here for the doc. Explain what happened and ensure no one tries to come back and mess with any evidence.’

  ‘Oh, ok.’

  ‘You’ll be fine, Ember. I’ll come and find you as soon as I can.’

  72

  ‘Take a seat, Harvey.’

  ‘No thanks.’

  ‘That wasn’t a request, son. Sit down.’

  Harvey pulled the chair out opposite Chief Andrews’s desk and sat down.

  ‘You have something I want.’

  ‘And you have something I want,’ Harvey replied.

  The chief opened the drawer and pulled out a piece of paper.

  ‘Here you go.’

  He slid the sheet across the desk and Harvey picked it up. After skimming the contents, he was under no illusions that this pardon offered anything more than a safe passage from this unit. It absolved him of previous crimes, not future ones.

  And of those, there would be many.

  ‘It doesn’t have my name on it.’

  ‘I’m still waiting for you to uphold your end of the bargain.’

  Harvey removed the stone from his trouser pocket and placed it on the desk. The lighting in the room caused the fragments inside to glimmer, something he’d not noticed before. Chief Andrews’s eyes gleamed as he reached across and tentatively picked up the stone.

  ‘What’s so special about a lump of rock?’

  ‘It’s not the rock, son, but what’s inside. This here is a toothstone. There are only four in the world. Two are already locked away in a secure location, which is where this one will be going too, leaving only one remaining.’

  ‘Darrick’s stone.’

  The chief nodded.

  ‘It was a real shame Ember couldn’t secure that one, but it doesn’t matter now. We’ll select some new recruits and try again in a few months.’

  ‘Why is it called a toothstone?’ Harvey asked.

  ‘This stone dates back to the dawn of the planet. Back to when good and evil first took the form of man. The fragments you can see inside are real teeth and bone, fossilised in vivianite, preserving a great power.’

  ‘What kind of power?’

  ‘An evil power. One I’m surprised a creature such as you didn’t feel when you touched it.’

  Harvey lifted his shoulders. ‘I’ve been carrying that thing for hours and all I felt was the urge to skim it across the top of a pond.’

  Chief Andrews’s eyebrows came together sharply. He looked perplexed as he examined the stone.

  ‘That’s odd.’

  ‘Odd or not. I’m done. I delivered what you asked. Add my name to the pardon and I’ll be on my way.’

  ‘If this stone isn’t genuine then the deal is off.’

  Harvey felt his inner-demon slowly unfurl. If the old man went back on his promise, he wouldn’t be able to control the darkness from erupting or blood from spilling.

  ‘You asked for a stone and you have one,’ he said through gritted teeth.

  ‘A potentially useless one, damn it!’

  The usually controlled chief slammed the stone onto the desk in frustration.

  ‘I don’t see what the problem is. Even if it is a fake, just send Ember back to Darrick’s to retrieve the one he still has. Give her another chance. I believe in her.’

  Chief Andrews sighed.

  ‘Even if I thought she could do it, it’s too late f
or anything like that now.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Ember’s dead.’

  Harvey felt his breath catch in his throat.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Ember served her purpose, but it’s over….’

  ‘It’s never over,’ Harvey interrupted, grabbing the stone from the table and disappearing into his cloud of black smoke.

  73

  I entered the briefing room, surprised to find Gerrard and not Chief Andrews waiting for me but just assumed Harvey’s release paperwork had taken longer than expected. Thinking about the demon leaving the unit without me made my heart pinch, but I ignored the ache and headed towards the coffee machine.

  ‘Hey, have you seen the chief?’ I asked Gerrard, as I selected a strong, black coffee to settle my nerves.

  The half-ogre stood motionless in the far corner of the room. The top of his bulbous head almost touched the ceiling and his thick arms were folded across his chest so that the cotton of his t-shirt strained to cover his colossal biceps. He was so damn strong and I was reminded how lucky I was to come away with only a scar after him lashing out at me with that knife.

  My hands warmed up in response to the imagined fear and I settled my nerves by reminding myself I’d subdued him once with my powers and could easily do it again.

  ‘Are you ok, Gerrard?’

  He nodded slowly and grinned, making the web tattoo on his face dance as if a giant spider was moving across it.

  Why did I suddenly feel like the fly?

  ‘Yes, Ember, I feel great. The best I’ve felt since I arrived.’

  I returned his smile warily. His soft, Irish accent put me slightly more at ease. He wasn’t twitching which was a good sign. He seemed quite relaxed.

  Maybe a little too relaxed.

  ‘I’m glad to hear that,’ I said, picking up my coffee mug and moving towards one of the tables. ‘Are you waiting for Chief Andrews too?’

  I sat down and took a sip of my drink, trying to act casual although something about the man was putting me on edge.

  ‘I’ve already seen him.’