From the Ashes (Force of Nature #1)

by Amber Lynn Natusch

With that, Jase disappeared into the night.

  “Piperrrrr,” Kingston taunted from below, impatience tainting his tone.

  “Looks like it's now or never,” I breathed, glancing over to Kat. “Showtime.”

  Kat took my hand and gave it a squeeze. I gave her a look of understanding, then she scooped me up in her arms and jumped off the roof. Dean's swearing was quickly muffled by the wind in my ear. Before I knew it, Kat and I hit the ground, rolling wildly across the yard.

  Trying to push myself up, I fell back down again, my arm screaming in protestation. It was broken for sure. But not for long.

  “Help me,” I whispered.

  I felt the warm rush of energy course through me, healing me almost instantly. Now able to move, I looked over at Kat, who seemed no worse for the wear. She'd clearly transferred her momentum from the fall better than I.

  Dean appeared out of nowhere, helping me to my feet as Kingston approached us, his confident swagger fully intact. Kat came to flank my other side, the three of us united against the army before us. A magical David versus Goliath.

  Once again, Kingston smiled at me, amused by our bravado. He knew that he had the upper hand. I could only hope that his sense of security would make him careless. The second Dean saw an opportunity, he would undoubtedly take it. But he only had one shot at the warlock. He had to make sure it was the right moment.

  The warlock's gaze fell upon Kat. He flicked his arm toward her, launching her far back into the wall that divided the pack from us. But instead of crashing against it as the others had on the other side, she flew right through it into Jagger, knocking him over. When she regained her footing, she too was locked out with the rest of the pack.

  “And then there were two,” Kingston mocked, staring Dean and me down. “What to do with the big bad enforcer...” He tapped his chin as if in deep contemplation. “I'd hate to have to kill him so early on and have him miss the big finale. Perhaps I can find a way to keep him out of the mix for the duration.”

  As if on cue, a wall of twisted blue flame shot up from the earth, encircling Dean. The cylinder of fire was narrow, and I feared that there was no way that Dean wasn't being burned alive (so to speak).

  “Dean!” I screamed, lunging toward the flames.

  “I'm all right, Piper,” he replied through the roaring fire. “Remember what Jase said!”

  As I swallowed back my fear and anger, Kingston came closer, leaning into me in a conspiratorial fashion.

  “I think that's a better place for your little friend, don't you?” he asked, his breath on my ear. He was far closer to me than I was comfortable with. “Don't worry. I'm not done with him just yet.” He leaned toward me, lifting his hand to shelter his mouth from the others as though he were about to tell me a secret. “Would you like to see my big surprise?”

  He pulled away so that the light of the moon could illuminate the insanity in his eyes. He was drunk with power in a way I'd never seen before. He was going to succeed with whatever maniacal machination he'd concocted.

  And it most certainly involved my death.

  While I contemplated that, a swirling vortex of black opened up behind him. A portal to somewhere or something. I had zero desire to see what he was inviting to join our showdown, though I doubted it could make things any worse than they already were. But once I sensed who was about to step through the magical door, our connection as strong as it had been the night we’d exchanged blood oaths, I realized I was wrong.

  “Why is he here?” I whispered, staring at Merc as he came to stand next to Kingston. His empty blue eyes eventually found mine, but they gave nothing away. It was like I was seeing him for the first time, like that night outside the mansion. Almost as if he didn't know who I was.

  But once his hatred of me boiled to the surface, I knew he really did.

  “Him?” Kingston asked, as if he hadn't just brought the enforcer through the portal. “He's here for the main event.” At that moment, Kingston extinguished the cage of fire entrapping Dean, who rushed to my side, pushing me behind him. “Ready for your part in this?” Kingston asked him. “I was rather excited when I saw that you and your Neanderthal brother had found Piper. That you'd be here to witness her death, but then something dawned on me.” He lifted one of his arms up before his face, turning it back and forth as if he were inspecting his hand—the hand that Jase had cut off. “It's unfortunate that Jase isn't here for this, given that it was he that did this to me, but you'll suffice.”

  “You'll be missing more than that when I'm done with you,” Dean shouted before charging the warlock. In the blink of an eye, Dean was on his back with Merc lying on top of him. The two were struggling with one another, an evenly matched pair. Or so it seemed.

  Dean seemed as though he were fighting to get free. Merc, however, was trying to kill his brother. I screamed at the sight.

  “Stop! Merc! You'll kill him!”

  My words didn't faze him at all.

  “This is going to be so good,” Kingston said in my ear. “I'll try to drag it out a bit, but I can't make any promises. That mate of yours has crazy on his side, and there's just no accounting for crazy in a fight.” I lunged toward the pair still wrestling for control on the ground, but Kingston's iron grip pulled me back against him. No matter how hard I struggled, I could not escape him. “It won't be long,” he whispered, licking the lobe of my ear.

  I was crying now, desperate to do something—anything—to stop the madness playing out before me. Merc had never shown violence toward his siblings. Why was he now? What had gone so wrong between them that he would attack Dean without provocation? And most baffling still: why wasn't he trying to kill Kingston? Or me?

  My window of opportunity to stall was now clear.

  “How are you doing this?” I growled at him, still wiggling violently to escape his grasp.

  “I thought you'd never ask,” he said, tightening his grip on me. “There's a funny story behind that, if you're interested in hearing it.”

  “I'm listening.”

  “A long time ago I heard a rumor about your boy there—a story about his instability and his gifts—and why he was put away.” I listened to him as I watched Merc pummel Dean until he was nearing unconsciousness. His body lay on the ground, barely moving. With every blow Merc delivered, I knew Dean was closer and closer to fading. Once Merc deemed it time, Dean would have no means to defend himself against a stake to the heart. “I tucked that information away at the time, hoping that one day I'd be able to discern whether or not it was true.”

  “Your point?”

  “Now, now. No need to rush,” he chastised. “When Merc returned, that little rumor came back to me and I wondered...” His grip loosened on me slightly, allowing him to spin me around in his arms to face him. “I wondered if the reason you and your friends succeeded in the alley that night had less to do with their prowess and more to do with his rumored ability, because I know that I wanted you dead one minute, and the next, the spell I'd sent after you had disappeared and I stood still while Jase took my hands.” My heart stopped for a beat while my mind processed what he was saying. Merc had made him stop his attack on us that night, but only once he’d thought I would perish because of it. Once he’d thought he would lose me. “And then, of course, I learned of your bonding—the interesting change of heart the king had that evening—and everything became clear to me.”

  “Who told you about that?” I asked, unable to hide the contempt in my voice.

  “A little birdie,” he replied with a smile. “But that's hardly important. What's important is what I did with that information.”

  “What did you do, Kingston?” I breathed, fearing what he was going to say.

  His smile widened.

  “Merc!” he shouted. “Enough.”

  I wrenched my head to an uncomfortable angle, turning to see Merc stand like a puppet on a string, leaving Dean limp on the ground at his feet.

  Oh my God...

  “You see, P
iper,” he continued, grabbing me by the chin to force my head back around to face him. “Nature—magic—it works within a system of checks and balances. For each and every force, there is an equal and opposing force. It made me wonder if the gifts that made him powerful enough to influence the minds of all the supernaturals around him would in turn make him susceptible to the same, providing one was capable of such magic.”

  “But you're not strong enough for that,” I argued weakly. The fight I'd just witnessed between Dean and Merc said otherwise.

  “Fair point, Piper. The truth is that I wasn't in the beginning. The spell I'd cast was enough to create feelings of resentment toward you in your mate, but not enough to make him do what he did in the end.”

  “What did you do, Kingston?” I repeated, fear building within me as everything Kat and the boys had told me started to fall into place. Things were definitely far worse in New York than I ever could have imagined.

  He sighed heavily, feigning exhaustion.

  “Reinhardt has grown soft in his old age. He has no vision. No sense of self-preservation for our kind. He valued the treaty amongst the supernaturals far more than he should have,” he explained, his eyes narrowing as he spoke. “So I stole from him what he no longer deserved.” The light that I had seen emanating from under his jacket flared, forcing me to close my eyes. “I now control the warlocks, Piper. They answer to me. And the first order of business is to see you dead.”

  “The king will know you did this. He'll never stand for it!”

  “The king...” Kingston sighed, looking put-upon. “There's so much you don't understand, Piper, and I haven't the time nor the inclination to explain it all to you.”

  “Like what, Kingston? What don't I understand?”

  “More than you could ever imagine,” he replied, his maniacal smile spreading wide. “I know things...things about you. About your parents. Things that nobody else knows. But they don't matter, none of it does, because you'll never know the truth. The only truth you need to know is that you're weak—an abomination that should never have been suffered to live—and I am going to right that wrong. I am going to restore the magical balance.”

  He shoved me away from him, putting distance between us.

  “But first, I think I should finish what has been started here tonight,” he said, stepping back toward his minions. He shrugged off his jacket as he did, exposing an ancient medallion—an amulet of sorts—that hung around his neck. The closer Kingston got to his army, the brighter it glowed. “Kill him!”

  I turned, panicking, to see Merc pull a stake out from the back of his pants.

  “No!” I screamed, darting toward him. I jumped on his back, trying to pull the weapon from his hands. “Don't do this. This isn't you. I knew it wasn't you before. Now I know why. Please. Stop. He's your brother!”

  My pleas fell upon deaf ears.

  “Piper!” I heard Jase call from behind me. “It's the amulet!”

  At that moment, Merc flung me off of him, tossing me back toward Kingston like a rag doll. A fiery blue ball whizzed over me. I thought I'd narrowly missed the warlock's attack until I heard Jase cry out.

  I'd never been the intended target.

  I rolled on the ground and looked up to find my friend, once again, burning.

  Fire was everywhere around us. The house. Jase. Even the magical barrier to the wolves was now a wall of fire.

  So much burning.

  It roared like my growing anger. Jase. Dean. How many would fall that night? How much collateral damage was I willing to accept?

  “Make it stop!” I shrieked, turning my rage to Kingston.

  The second the words left my mouth, thunder rolled and the skies poured down upon us, extinguishing everything. Then, as quickly as it had come, it disappeared. Kingston stood still, his expression faltering for a moment.

  And that moment was all I had.

  “Help Jase and Dean!” I commanded, praying that somehow those words would be enough to save Dean from Merc.

  The wet ground began to rumble, shaking everyone standing upon it. I turned to see Merc stumble back away from his brother, the stake falling from his grip.

  “It cannot be,” Kingston exhaled, a look of disbelief flashing through his eyes. Then they turned murderous, his longtime hatred of me coming to the surface. “It matters not. This ends tonight.”

  A growing fireball—one larger than he'd thrown at Jase—developed in front of him. I knew in a matter of seconds it would be headed for me. I closed my eyes, focusing on everything around me, steadying myself for the attack. When I opened them, the fiery mass flew toward me.

  I threw my arms up to deflect it, but I failed. Instead, it hovered right in front of me like a dog awaiting a command. I reached out, mesmerized by the ball of energy. The second I touched it, it faded into nothing.

  “Fire Bender!” Kingston yelled, frustration overtaking his calm. He stormed toward me, resorting to a hands-on approach to killing me, which would undoubtedly succeed. I was no match for him in combat.

  As he closed the distance between us, a familiar growl erupted from my right. In a flash of fur, Grizz appeared, unhindered by the magical barrier, and barreled into the unsuspecting warlock. While Kingston threw a ball of fire at the bear from his position on the ground, I sprang forward, landing on top of him. I snatched the amulet from around his neck and attempted to run, but he caught my foot, bringing me crashing to the ground.

  I used the momentum generated by the fall to smash the amulet against a nearby rock. The glowing stone at the center of it shattered. The second that happened, all hell broke loose.

  The invisible wall that had served to keep the werewolves out failed, unleashing the extremely pissed-off pack on the warlocks. Without the source of their collective magic, and unable to repair or replace it, they were left to fight with only their individual powers. And they were not holding up well in such close proximity to the wolves.

  It was a melee.

  I ran to Jase's side, hoping that he had not fallen to Kingston's attack. He was hurt badly, burned from head to toe, but he was moving. I got up, wanting to find Dean, only to see Merc carrying him toward me. A look of guilt, the depths of which I cannot begin to explain, pained his expression.

  “You bitch!” Kingston snarled from behind me, his ball of fire already primed and ready to be thrown. I didn't have time to react. Just before it crashed into my body, the body of another passed in front of me, absorbing the deadly blow on my behalf.

  Knox lay on the ground at my feet, unmoving.

  The fury that swelled in me came flying out. And the power it unleashed was something none of us could have expected.

  “Noooooo!” I screamed, slamming to the ground beside the alpha. But my eyes were all for Kingston. The ground that had quaked earlier shook with the force of a ten on the Richter scale. Cracks shot through the earth, extending out in all directions from me, creating vast crevices.

  Crevices that started to swallow the warlocks whole.

  “What are you?” Kingston asked, the shock in both his expression and words unmistakable.

  “I am a Storm Caller. An Earth Shaker. A Wind Walker,” I said, stalking toward him like my body was possessed by a foreign power, my voice no longer my own. “And, as you said, a Fire Bender. But I'm so much more than that.” With a flick of my wrist, a gust of wind lifted him far off the ground, suspending him there. “I'm the one that will put an end to you once and for all.”

  I felt the flow of foreign energy coursing through me as the growing crevice below Kingston spread wide across the yard. His minions were gone, already taken by my wrath. He, too, would soon feel its sting.

  “You cannot defeat me!” he shouted, though it lacked conviction.

  “I just did,” I whispered, dropping my arm to my side. As if I'd cut his invisible strings, Kingston plummeted into the gap in the earth, careening toward its core, where he would be forever entombed in a molten inferno. It seemed befitting, given hi
s love of fire.

  I watched as the ground molded itself back together, leaving no trace of the disturbance that had just occurred. But there were still signs of the battle just waged upon it. Too many to count.

  Knox, my mind shouted, bringing me back to myself. My attention fell to the wounded werewolf. I'd half expected to see him sitting up, grinning at me in the most mischievous way, a reminder that he was tougher than I gave him credit for.

  But that was not the case.

  Instead, I found him lying motionless, just as he had been when he’d taken the magical blow meant for me. I ran to him, skidding to my knees at his side. I lifted his head into my lap and cradled it, tears stinging the backs of my eyes.

  “Help me help him,” I begged whatever power I was connected to. Whatever power had been there for me that night. But she never came. Panicked, I surveyed my surroundings, looking for anyone who could help me. All I found were bodies strewn about the ground—fallen wolves equally wounded—Kat staggering toward me, and the brothers, Merc still holding Dean in his arms and Jase, now sitting up, but terribly burned. “I don't know what to do,” I whimpered, rocking Knox in my lap. I felt a weak nudge from a muzzle on my shoulder. Grizz flopped to the ground beside me. He too was wounded, but not mortally so.

  I tried again, asking for the help I had received countless times that night. This time I felt the now-familiar warmth flow through me into Knox, but it dissipated long before he ever roused. I didn't know what I was doing wrong.

  “He sustains his pack,” a voice called from behind me. Kat crouched down at my side, resting her hand gently on my arm. “It takes all he has to not lose many of his wolves right now, Piper. He and they both are in a precarious situation. If he dies because their demand on him is too great, they all do.” She squeezed my arm lightly. “Keep trying. You're his only hope.” I nodded tightly, dragging my sleeve across my face to dry my tear-stained cheeks. “I'm going to help them,” she said, getting up to make her way toward the boys. I prayed she had enough in her to bring them back. Vampires were hard to kill, but the strength of Kingston's magic that night combined with the sheer amount of it left room for doubt in my mind.