Embers (The Slayer Chronicles Book 2)

by Val St. Crowe

  * * *

  We stood in the rec room. It was empty except for all the dead bodies. Most of them were dead dragons, but there were some students there too, people whose name I didn’t know.

  I plucked an arrow out of the wall. “Get as many of these as you can.”

  “Okay,” said Tate.

  “Got it,” said Kinsie.

  “And stay where we can see you,” I said. “We can’t protect you otherwise.” I wasn’t real keen on having the two of them with us, but it was better to have four people gathering arrows than it was having two. This way, I’d be armed again as quickly as I possibly could.

  The four of us worked our way through the rec room, yanking arrows out of dragons, picking them up off the floor, and even taking a few out of the pool table.

  Once we’d gathered them all, I put them safely in my quiver and we checked the other rooms. As long as this floor was clear, we’d take the elevator upstairs. It was better to take the elevator since we were sure there were no dragons in it. There might be dragons on the stairs or in the tunnels.

  The gym was empty.

  The kitchen was too.

  The pool room smelled heavily of chlorine, and the light was off when we opened the door. Tate reached around and flicked on the switch.

  The room was bathed in bright light. There was a diving board at the end of the room. The pool water was sparkling and untouched. Placid.

  “Nothing here,” I said.

  I saw the movement as I backed out.

  Dragons. On the ceiling. At least ten of them. Coming for us.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “Run!” I screamed, yanking at Kinsie and pulling her out the door behind me. I reached back for three of my arrows. Notched one. Let it go. And then the other. And the other.

  Two of the arrows hit one of the dragons, who plummeted out of the air and fell into the pool.

  The other went wide.

  And there were still dragons coming for us.

  One opened its mouth and breathed fire at us.

  I ducked out of the pool room, pulling the door shut behind me, making it latch. It might not hold them forever, but it would buy us some time.

  However, when I got back into the hallway, I saw more dragons, snarling and charging us.

  So much for that theory that they weren’t on this floor, I guess. There were tons of them on this floor.

  “In here!” yelled Naelen, pointing.

  We all dove into the gym.

  We shut the door behind us and then started looking for things to push up against the door.

  The gym wasn’t a basketball-court-type gym, like you’d see in a high school, but rather a small room with mirrors on one wall, full of exercise equipment.

  We pushed the treadmill against the door. And the rowing machine.

  The dragons were just outside, and we could hear them, growling and scratching at the door.

  There was a blast of warmth, smoke curled under the door. They were breathing fire at us.

  We all backed away from the door.

  “Shit,” said Tate.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I should never have let you come.” What did it matter now if I had more arrows more quickly? These kids were in danger.

  I supposed I shouldn’t think of them as kids. After all, they were the same age as I was. But sometimes, considering the way my life had gone thus far, I felt old.

  “Is that door going to hold?” said Kinsie, her voice wavering a bit.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Is it flammable?”

  “I don’t think so,” said Tate.

  “God, why’d you volunteer me to come on this trip?” said Kinsie to Tate. “Do you really hate me that much?”

  He turned to look at her, brow furrowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t hate you at all.”

  “Sure,” she said.

  “I don’t,” he insisted.

  “No, I guess not,” she said. “But I don’t matter to you.” She shook her head.

  “Look, I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you,” I said, “but maybe now is not the best time to get into it.”

  They descended into sullen silence.

  And we waited.

  We stood and stared at the door and watched smoke curl around the edges, watched the treadmill tremble under the blows against the door.

  It went on and on.

  “Are they ever going to give up?” Naelen asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “Well, you’re the dragon expert,” he said.

  “I’m not an expert on being trapped in a room while dragons try to get inside,” I said.

  We were trapped. The gym offered protection, but it didn’t offer escape. The walls were smooth and white, except for the row of mirrors against the far wall.

  After a while, we all sat down. I sat on an exercise bike. Naelen settled in on a stair climber. And the two interns sat on the floor, on opposite sides of the room from each other.

  The dragons banged on the door. Outside the room, they snarled. They grunted.

  “We’re going to die,” said Tate.

  “We’re not,” I said.

  Tate snorted. “Those dragons are going to get through.”

  “Let them,” I said. “I’ll kill them all.”

  “If you could have killed them all, why didn’t you do it before we got inside this room?” he said.

  “There’s no point in being negative,” I said. “It’s better to psyche yourself up. Makes your chances better.” This was my philosophy anyway. I figured I had nothing to lose.

  “I’m not being negative,” he said. “I’m being realistic. I’m going to die. I’m stuck in here with you two, who are practically strangers, and Kinsie, who thinks I’m the devil incarnate. You are the last people who will ever see me alive.”

  Kinsie snorted from the other side of the room. “Oh, by all means, Tate, let’s make it about you.”

  He got up and went over to her. “Look, I know I made a mess of things. But it’s not because I didn’t care about you. I do care. Hell, I’m still in love with you.”

  She gaped at him. “What? If you were so in love with me, why did you sleep with other women?”

  He sighed. “We never said we were exclusive or anything.”

  She shook her head. “Oh, well, then, it’s all fine. It’s fine that you’ve been through every intern in the facility except Celia—”

  “Hey, that’s not true. It’s not everyone.”

  “Pretty much,” said Kinsie. “I mean, me, Annika, and Rose.”

  I eyed Tate. So, he was the Don Juan of the lab, huh? I turned to Naelen. “Seems like you and Tate have something in common.”

  Naelen arched an eyebrow at me. “What are you talking about? I’m not unfaithful to women. In fact, it’s been a very long time since I’ve even looked at a woman, and—”

  “I wasn’t unfaithful,” said Tate. “It wasn’t like that. Kinsie and I only spent one night together.”

  “After which, you spent one night with every single intern in the facility,” said Kinsie. “Each in succession.”

  “I already said it wasn’t everyone,” said Tate.

  “Whatever,” said Kinsie.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, Naelen. Starting to sound more and more like you after all. You’re the one-night-stand king.”

  Naelen glowered at me. “I really don’t know what the point of of this conversation is. We should be trying to escape. Maybe we could force our way through the door?”

  “Look,” said Tate, turning back to Kinsie. “We’re going to die in here. And I don’t see why our last moments together have to be ugly.”

  “Stop saying that we’re going to die,” I said. “You’re jinxing all of us.”

  “Besides,” Tate went on, ignoring me. “I love you, Kinsie.”

  “So, then why did you ditch me for other girls?”

  “I just… I couldn’t choose,�
�� he said.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” she said.

  “In some ways, I guess I loved all of you.”

  “Oh, stop with the bullshit.” She scooted away from him.

  “I’m trying my best to tell the truth here,” he said. “You don’t think someone can love more than one person at the same time?”

  “No,” she said.

  “My mother had three kids, and she loved us all equally,” he said.

  “Yeah, right,” said Kinsie. “Everyone knows parents have favorites. They always have favorites.”

  “No, they don’t,” said Tate.

  “When it comes to romantic love,” said Kinsie, “you have to choose. That’s the way it is. But don’t bother trying to choose now, because I doubt any of us would want you anymore.”

  At that moment, the mirror swung out, like a door.

  No, wait, it was a door. I could see the smooth surface of the tunnels on the other side. This room had tunnel access?

  A dragon was pushing the mirror door open with its snout.

  I reached for my arrows.

  The dragon tackled Tate from behind, sinking its teeth into the back of Tate’s neck.

  I let an arrow fly, and then another.

  They hit the dragon squarely in the head. One pierced the dragon through its ear. It stopped moving, falling down directly onto Tate.

  Tate’s head flopped forward—too far. The dragon had bit out the back of his neck. Tate was dead.

  Kinsie put shaking fingers to her lips. “Tate?”

  I shoved her at Naelen. “We gotta go.” I pulled both my arrows out of the dead dragon.

  Naelen dragged Kinsie after him, heading for the tunnels.

  “Oh, God, the last thing I said to him was horrible,” she said.

  “Go,” I said, pushing them forward.

  All three of us dove into the tunnels. We ran.

  * * *

  When we arrived back at the lab through the tunnels, I was exhausted. I could tell that Naelen was too, even though it was his turn to take over the watch.

  Luckily, Doyle could see this and told us both to try to get some sleep. He said he was too wired to sleep, anyway, and that he’d take over and wake us if anything happened.

  Kinsie was shaken up, and no one took the news about Tate well. They all seemed stunned and horrified. However, I could see that they were all also becoming numb to it. Too many deaths had happened in quick succession. They could hardly process it.

  I found a corner to sleep in, and I put my arrows and my bow right next to me, where I could reach them at a moment’s notice if I needed to. I kept the cleaver from the kitchen as well.

  I was tired, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to sleep or not.

  Naelen lay down near me, back against the wall, his head below my feet.

  I waited for him to say something to me, to proposition me, even though we weren’t alone in the room. I wouldn’t put it past him.

  But he was quiet. He closed his eyes. Within a few minutes, his breath was steady.

  Damn him for being able to fall asleep so easily.

  I closed my eyes, and all I could think about was Tate, going on about how he couldn’t choose between the three girls, and Kinsie telling him that he had to.

  I couldn’t help but think of my situation with Naelen and Logan. I had to choose. And I didn’t know how I was going to do it.

  Then I heard his voice, quiet. “Clarke?”

  “Yeah?” God damn it, why was my heart pounding?

  “We are going to live through this, right?”

  “Yes,” I said fiercely. “Yes.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  When I was sixteen years old, my sister Gina became a drake. I don’t know how it happened exactly, but one day, she came back from wherever it was she sneaked out to at night, and she was sporting scales. I knew she’d been messing around with drugs, but I hadn’t thought she was doing hard, magical stuff like dice. I had never thought she’d become a drake.

  Still, she was my sister, and I still loved her, no matter what.

  There was no way that I was going to let anything happen to her. I knew what happened to minors in the foster system who became drakes. They were sent to facilities to “help” them, but they were really not much better than juvenile prisons.

  I did wonder if it wouldn’t be better for her to go there. I knew they would get her clean, off the dice, at least temporarily.

  But Gina said that she’d run away before she went to one of the facilities.

  So, I ran away with her.

  We didn’t have an easy life. We made our way to Sea City, because we’d heard that it was a place friendly to magical creatures like drakes, but what I didn’t know was that it was also the dice capital of the world. I took Gina there to protect her. But maybe it hurt her too. Maybe having access to that drug made things too easy for her to stay hooked on it.

  Anyway, at first, it wasn’t so bad. We both got jobs—menial, low-wage stuff at fast food restaurants. And together, we managed to save enough money to get an apartment. Well, that was what I thought, anyway. Gina was the one who took care of it for us.

  We were there for only a week when the landlord came by for rent, and I found out what he wanted wasn’t money. He was a vampire. He wanted blood. Gina had bargained away hers, but she hadn’t counted on the vampire wanting mine too.

  It happened once, and I vowed not to let it happen again. I wanted to kill that vampire, but I didn’t know anything about vampires. I didn’t know how to kill them.

  The next time he came for us, I stabbed him in the stomach, and all he did was laugh.

  He took even more blood from me that time. I passed out and when I woke up, Gina was crying over me.

  I told her we needed to leave this apartment building.

  She said it wouldn’t matter. She said that she’d made a deal with him. He would pay our rent in exchange for blood. It wasn’t the building that mattered, it was the vampire. He would follow us if we tried to get a new place.

  So, I did the only thing that I knew to do at the time. I called Logan.

  And Logan killed the vampire.

  He beheaded him in our living room. Ruined our rug.

  Didn’t matter, though, because we used the rug to wrap up the body and take it out of the apartment. We left it in some alley. We didn’t make much of trying to hide the body, because no one seemed to care much about dead vampires. The police didn’t much care. Most human institutions didn’t make a thing about magical creatures one way or the other.

  Logan taught me and Gina about vampires. How to kill them. What their weaknesses were. And he warned us never to make deals with them ever again.

  Back then, I was sure he knew everything. He seemed so worldly and experienced.

  Then the sun came up, and he turned to stone.

  While he was out of it, Gina sat down with me. “When he wakes up, you need to thank him.”

  “I already said thank you,” I said. “But, sure, fine, I’ll say it again.”

  “Not just saying it,” said Gina. “You need to give him what he wants. If you string him along forever, he’ll get annoyed, and he won’t come back. And we need him. He protects us.”

  “What are you talking about? Logan will always come back. He cares about us.”

  “He cares about you,” said Gina. “Look, I’d do it, but I don’t think he wants me. Besides, I’m sure you’d never forgive me if I did.”

  “Do what?” I said.

  “Jesus Christ, Clarke, do I have to spell everything out for you? Put out. Spread your legs. Sleep with him.”

  I gulped.

  But as the day wore on, and I gazed at his statue self, I had to admit the idea wasn’t exactly unappealing. I did care about Logan. And I thought he was attractive. He was basically the prettiest boy I’d ever seen in my whole life. He was sort of perfect. I liked his wings too.

  I touched them while he was frozen like that.<
br />
  But that seemed wrong somehow, a violation of his privacy, so I didn’t touch them again.

  They were cold.

  When he moved around, he was warm, but now it was really as if he wasn’t alive.

  I wanted to touch him again. I knew I did. I didn’t think much about sex back then. Didn’t really have the luxury, since I was always worried about making ends meet, especially if Gina spent all our money on dice, which she sometimes did.

  The only time I thought about it was late at night, right before I went to sleep, and then it was only a vague sort of warm, purple kind of feeling that started somewhere in my thighs and traveled up higher and higher to the place where my legs met.

  But when Logan woke up that evening, I was there in the room with him. I put on what I thought was my sexiest outfit, which was a tight, low-cut t-shirt and pair of jeans. I sat on the bed, leaning forward so that he could see what cleavage I had, which wasn’t much.

  I wasn’t sure what to expect for his waking. I wasn’t sure if he’d be stone one minute and then moving the next. As it turned out, it was slow. It started with his extremities. His wings started to twitch. His fingers. His ears fluttered. His nose wriggled. Then the movement seemed to spread inward, to his core. He flexed his muscles, blinked hard.

  I watched, intrigued.

  Logan seemed to register that I was there. “Hey, Clarke. Uh, not that I mind exactly, but how long have you been in here watching me?” He stretched.

  “Not long,” I said, leaning even further forward, pushing my chest out.

  His gaze flitted over my body, and then his eyes met mine. “What’s up?”

  “Do you have to go to the bathroom or anything right after you wake up?” I said. “Because I always have to do that.”

  “Not really,” said Logan.

  “Oh,” I said. “Good.” I chewed on my lip.

  It was quiet.

  “So, we, uh, going to stay in here or something?” he said.

  I took a deep breath, and then I patted the spot on the bed next to me.

  Logan furrowed his brow, and then he sat down next to me, but not right next to me. He left a good foot of space between us.