Ashes (The Divided Kingdom)

by Sophie H. Morgan

  Ana ran her tongue around her teeth, hoping that was all Faer could smell. When she glanced at Trick, his eyebrows inched up.

  Color burned her cheeks. She shrugged. “FED got me with his claws.”

  Faer pursed his lips in a soundless whistle. “Paralyzed? No shit?” He scratched at his right horn with claw-tipped fingers. “Ah, Trick says you know this guy. Shade. From before?”

  “And what else did Trick say?” Her fire spat in a fuming crackle. How dare Trick parrot what she’d told him in confidence? Dick. Her breath held steady as she chained flames beneath her skin.

  “You were MIA, Ana.” Unrepentant, Trick was a frozen shadow near the bed.

  Ana popped her jaw. A short, sharp exhalation as she perceptibly unclenched her hands. “Fine. Yeah. I knew him.” Do I still?

  “That why I can smell him on you?” Faer grinned.

  “Hmm.” Trick drifted closer, openly examining the bed. “No ropes. No bindings on the door. What looks like remains of food.” His lips twitched. He didn’t say any more. Didn’t have to.

  Ana’s embers glittered as they heated, humiliation waving over her like an aurora borealis. Pride made her speak before she thought it through. “Two words: iron chains.”

  Trick’s countenance darkened like a night sky. “He chained you in iron?”

  A growl from the doorway. “Bastard’s going down.”

  “Forget about it.” Ana berated herself for letting pride overcome her better sense. She so didn’t want Trick and Faer matched against Cade. She passed a hand through her tangled hair, smoothing down her clothes with the other. Her nose wrinkled as she caught the smell of old antibac from her stomach wound. Man, she could do with a shower.

  “I fuckin’ will not forget about it,” Faer argued, blustering. He closed his hand around his sword’s hilt.

  Trick said nothing, but a vivid gleam in his eyes suggested it’d be best to scram before Cade returned.

  The area around Ana’s heart pinched at the thought, prompting an automatic rub from her hand. When she left, that was it. No matter how much she needed Edward’s secret, she’d come to the conclusion that Cade was never going to tell her. He said he trusted her, but she’d bet the Hotel that he’d left her in bed to go and talk to Edward. Her old bodyguard couldn’t help but think of her as a silly woman swayed to lies, no matter how much evidence she showed him to the contrary. There’d be other ways to discover Edward’s secret. Cade was too hazardous to her mission and to her heart to consider pushing him again.

  “We’d better go before he gets back.” She rubbed harder at the stupid ache. Fire hummed to her in a soothing lullaby.

  Faer leaned heavily against the doorway. “What’s your hurry?” His sword swished through the empty air.

  Chilled at the idea of Cade fighting Faer and Trick, Ana forced a casual tone. “Call me a girl, but I want to go home. Get to HQ, grab some food. A shower.”

  Trick remained silent. Thinking.

  Ana challenged him, folding her arms around her middle. “Well?”

  He blinked. Then he was by the door with a speed only a vampire could achieve. “Let’s go.”

  “What?” Faer gaped at Trick, mouth as wide as an FED’s ass. “You shittin’ me? We’re not even gonna rough him up a little?”

  “Another time.”

  Ana joined Trick by the door, having retrieved her dagger from the armchair by the window. As for her bow, she had no idea where Cade had hidden it.

  That last link to her past gone, she exhaled and rolled her shoulders. All for the best. It was better that no identifying marks were found on her. “Let’s go.”

  Cade would freak when he returned to an empty room, but, again, it was for the best. What would she have done with a shifter on her crew? Not like he’d take orders from her. Not like he’d ever trust her, or think her above the silly girl he’d once known.

  As the trio moved from the bedroom to the outer room, Ana pushed the memory of the last few days out of her head, focusing on the future. Like she’d always had to.

  Except that once again Cade had left an imprint on her soul, and this one was deeper than ever.

  After her much-needed shower, Ana strolled into Trick’s vamp cave and plonked herself down into her chair. She stared at him.

  “Well?” she said. “I know you’re dying to lay into me about taking Shade to the Hotel.”

  She’d known, when she passed on her silent message to Adelaide to have Mikhel trail her and Cade, that Cade’s visit wouldn’t be kept under wraps.

  Trick swallowed the blood he’d poured into a fluted glass, his elegance a refined statement. His hair was tied back in a queue, reserve guarding his eyes.

  He rose from the chair he sat in, gliding to his drinks cabinet. He placed the glass on the side with deliberate care. He then gripped the edges. “Three days,” he muttered. “Three days of worry that you were being tortured. That you’d been handed over to Edward. Three.”

  Caught off guard, Ana blinked. “Yeah. I know. I was there.”

  He smacked his hand on the plas-wood so hard that his glass trembled. “Damn it, Ana, I was fucking terrified.”

  “I know.” Her hands felt useless. She folded them underneath her armpits.

  His eyes glowed as he turned to face her. “No, you don’t.” He exhaled a harsh breath. “Mikhel approached me with new intel not long after you were taken.”

  “Okay…”

  “Edward’s found a way to breathe new life into his formula. Resurrect it, you could say.”

  Ana stared at him. “I feel like you’re trying to lead me somewhere, Trick, but I’m not jumping on your thought train.”

  “Phoenixes, Ana. Phoenixes.” A muscle tightened in Trick’s jaw. “Human cells die when introduced to Other genes. The bastard is going to try to use phoenix DNA to resurrect them before they die off completely.”

  “Fuck.” Alarm, white-hot and blaring, sizzled in Ana’s stomach as flames circled in warning loops. “Could that work?”

  “It might.”

  “Well, does he have a phoenix?”

  Trick ran a hand across his hair, down his queue. “We’re not sure. The building we hit while you were AWOL had suspicious fires, but of the seventeen we recovered, none were phoenixes.”

  “Shit.” Ana tried to think past the white, looping flames, restrained them within her skin even as they longed to push through. “At least he doesn’t stand a chance of getting his hands on one. Not like they’re thick on the ground down here.”

  Trick leveled a look on her. “With Shade around, it could’ve been as easy as biting a sleeping human.”

  His meaning hit with the subtlety of a hammer. “Oh.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, visibly worked up again. “Oh. You’re like a sister to me, Ana. Not knowing if you were okay, if he’d got his hands on you, was like a bleeding wound that wouldn’t close. And I don’t care if you are fucking the enemy, you shouldn’t have taken him to the children.”

  The attack, like a knife flying from the darkness, pierced her heart, leaving her unable to breathe for a few vital seconds. When fire swirled in a flaming column of anger, pulsing beneath her skin, Ana breathed in deep. “I am a grown woman and will not resort to name-calling. You dick.” Her arms wrapped around her with edgy hurt. “I knew what I was doing. Shade would never hurt kids.”

  “You think.”

  “I know.” Ana passed a hand through her drying hair. She pushed to her feet. “For your information, I am not ‘fucking the enemy’.”

  “He’s an assassin, and you think he’s safe around kids?” He ignored her other statement.

  “I’m a Hood—you should trust my instincts.” She let hurt shimmer to the surface. “After everything, you should trust me.”

  Trick’s mouth pursed, the elegant vampire evaporating like so much smoke
. “Damn it, Ana.” Softer this time. A muscle near his eye ticked. “I do trust you.”

  Ana’s eyebrows drew together. “That’s a half-assed apology.”

  “It’s the best you’re going to get. You might know the man, but I don’t.”

  Ana made a face. “Special circumstances, Trick. Not like I could dial you up and say, ‘Hey, you mind if I give the guided tour to the merc?’ Besides he made me a deal: prove the ruler’s an evil dick, and he’d tell me how to kill Edward.” She expected that to knock him for six.

  Instead, a smile curled his lips upward. “You fell for that?”

  “It was the truth.” Ana’s tone was withering as she dropped into her chair. “He does know.”

  “Uh-huh.” Trick followed suit and sat. He linked his hands on his knee. “Did he tell you this miraculous secret?”

  Sometimes she hated the smug vampire. “No. Though he might have, when he believed the truth.”

  “The Hotel didn’t convince him?”

  Ana shrugged. “He was outraged about the kids. Gabriel shook him the most.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Ana.” Trick’s fangs lengthened. His hands unlinked, one thumping onto the arm of his chair. “You showed him Gabriel? Why not just give him the key to destroy us?”

  “He isn’t going to betray us!”

  “You think.”

  She angled her chin. “I know.”

  “Women.” Trick passed her a look, one inescapably masculine, before knocking his head against the chair’s back. “Did you tell him about Gabe?”

  “What am I, stupid?”

  “Well?”

  “Well, what?”

  A feral glimmer in his stare reminded her he wasn’t tame. He flowed out of the chair, twisting to pace. “You wouldn’t have taken him to see Gabriel without asking the boy his opinion of Shade.”

  Ana affected wide eyes and a high voice. “You mean, I’d have to actually do something other than look pretty?” She fluttered her eyelashes. Irritation itched like an insect bite, mingling with the frustrating love that stopped her from attacking the bastard. She’d already forgiven him for his words; Faer had been right when he said Trick didn’t know how to cope when he cared for somebody.

  “Ana…”

  She shrugged, slumping against the chair. Although she’d slept in Cade’s rooms, exhaustion was still riding her like an outlaw. She curled her legs up underneath her. “I asked.”

  “And?” Impatience dripped from Trick’s exaggerated question.

  Ana flashed back to the moment. Gabriel’s words had left an impact, on both her memory and her soul. “He said Shade was at war with himself, but that his intentions are for good. He can be trusted.”

  He’d also said that Cade was close to giving her his heart, a statement that had frankly terrified her more than the idea of Edward harvesting powers. She was no use to anybody, a tangled mess of guilt and determination to absolve herself. No time for weaknesses like love.

  Thrusting it away like the word was diseased, Ana waited to hear Trick’s verdict. He was leaning like a column of marble against the wall, as beautiful as any sculpture. One finger tapped in idle beats against his hip.

  “We’ll see,” was all he said.

  A statement Ana took to mean, I was wrong, you were right, let me grovel at your feet.

  Trick stilled his tapping fingers. “You get any sleep?”

  Uncomfortable at thoughts of Cade and how he made her feel—desperate, horny, guilty, terrified, ridiculously happy—Ana shrugged. “Enough. Why?”

  “A meet’s tonight.”

  Ana swore, a blue word that would have made Cade go squinty eyed at her. She chewed her bottom lip with freshly brushed teeth. “Tonight?”

  “You’ve been out of the loop.”

  “Yeah, this would be me ignoring you.” Ana glanced at the window. Night had well and truly settled outside, a perfect cover to expose secrets. “When?”

  Trick examined the mantel clock that sat on one of his bookshelves. “An hour.”

  Ana jumped to her feet, out of sorts and glad to have an outlet for her bad mood. “You’re only now getting around to telling me?” She huffed. “Who am I meeting?”

  “New informant. The request came through Joel.” Trick smiled, full of fangs. “He’ll only talk to Liberty.”

  “Where?”

  “Warehouse fifteen, down in the east quadrant. Faer and I will go with.”

  “No,” Ana disagreed. “If it’s a trap, I want one of you on watch. Sapphy can come with. I assume Joel’s coming to set up the contact. So that’s two.”

  Trick folded his arms, stern and disapproving. He relented with a hiss. “Fine. But I go with. Faer can watch.” His stare dared her to disagree.

  She’s been taken.

  A rumble that escalated into an enraged roar poured out of Cade at the sight of an empty room. Violent and powerful, it stripped away the veneer of rational human as he ripped through the small blocks of furniture as he retraced his steps. He needed to get to her.

  Bile shot up his throat at his intimate knowledge of torture. He knew his Ana was tough, but even she couldn’t hold up to knives and lasers. If they knew anything about phoenixes and packed her in ice or iron, the pain would be beyond excruciating. They could kill her and bring her back to life if they knew the basics about phoenixes.

  Another roar, this one of pain and panic. His jackal clawed at him, teeth snapping. He didn’t even need to glance in a mirror to know he was halfway to shifting. His jackal had made the decision about Alana long before the confirmation from Edward’s own mouth.

  Cade halted when the scent of something unfamiliar teased his nose. Not a flame demon, as he would’ve expected if Edward’s guard had come to capture Alana. Something colder. Copper scented. Then there was that tinge of death…

  Vampire.

  Her people had come for her.

  He didn’t know if he was relieved or furious. He clutched on to one of the walls as a dizzy wave of both swept over him. She was safe.

  And she’d left him.

  He growled, the sound slipping from his mouth to curl around rooms staggeringly empty without his phoenix.

  How dare she leave? He’d thought they’d gotten past all the bullshit of not trusting each other. Okay, he might not have been sold on the idea of Liberty, but that had nothing to do with trusting Alana.

  It didn’t.

  He knocked his head against the wall.

  Fuck. It did.

  No wonder she’d left. Even after everything she’d shown him, the trust she’d put in him, he’d still had to hear it from Edward himself before he’d believed.

  “Fucking idiot.” He passed a hand, still shaky from emotion, over his face to pinch the bridge of his nose. Exhaustion threatened like a distant storm cloud, but he had too much to do to even think about sleep.

  His eyes snapped open. He’d almost forgotten in his panic about the empty rooms, but the situation had just gone from frying pan to FUBAR. Now he couldn’t even relay the plan he’d overheard.

  Which meant Alana would be there when the trap was sprung.

  Defenseless.

  Okay. Not defenseless. Like a sitting duck, since she’d swanned off without even leaving him a fucking note. Again.

  Maybe anger was winning over relief at the moment.

  Cade fisted his hands and whirled in one decisive movement. He snagged his backpack from where he’d stashed it underneath a chair, flipping open the flap to check if it’d been picked by light fingers. Everything was there, from his assassin stars down to Alana’s bow. His eyebrows knit.

  Determined to hunt her down before Edward’s mole sprang their trap, Cade shrugged it off. Alana was in his system now; there’d be no escaping his jackal.

  He calmly reached into his pocket, withdrew
a stick of gum, unwrapping it and placing it inside his mouth.

  Chew.

  Chew.

  Chew.

  With a low breath, he let his jackal roam to the surface and inhaled the air. Taking in that sweet honey-and-blackberry scent, Cade went hunting.

  “Hey, you!”

  The info-merchant rolled over in his nest of old straw banked against a red brick wall. “Fuck you, man. Can’t you see I tryin’ to sleep?”

  With a scream, he found himself lifted off his feet and slammed against the wall. Pieces of brick crumbled around him.

  He simpered. “For you, I wake. What you want?”

  Cade towered over the five-foot merchant, eyes gleaming behind the silk mask. Jackal teeth poked out over his bottom lip as he growled, “Where are the Hoods based?”

  The man quivered, species undetermined. His shoulders jerked. “I know nothing.”

  He screamed again as his left shoulder was crushed.

  “Please, please,” he cried. “I have the memory! I know it, this is gang, yes? The gang that protects the Maze?”

  Protects?

  He should’ve guessed.

  Cade fingered the man’s other shoulder, the threat obvious. “Where?”

  “Hmm, yes, yes. Woman and vampire—the woman, she’s pretty, no? And a bird. She climbs high. Okay! Okay!” The man shrank against the wall as Cade exerted pressure. “They somewhere in the western field. A warehouse, maybe, yes?”

  Judging that the man had no more to tell him, Cade shoved him away with a growl that blistered the air. “If I find out you’ve lied…”

  “Serge, lie? Do you see this face, the face my mama spat on? It don’t tell lies!”

  Cade grunted, spinning around.

  “Wait. Mister…Shade, yes?”

  Cade paused.

  Serge sidled around, hands held high above his chest, though the left struggled because of his crushed shoulder. His eyes, beady and black, had a sly glint when he smiled. His teeth were sharp points. “I have information for you. Be very interested.”

  Cade raised his eyebrows, then remembered the merchant couldn’t see. He’d become so used to not hiding his face, he’d forgotten. “Talk.”

  “You pay?”