Ash (Fire & Blood Book 2)

by Alexa B. James

  “Ash, please, just listen to me. Ravage has done all of this to get my Tempus powers, and if he gets that power, he’ll enslave all of vampire kind. That’s the prophecy. The entire year I lived in Nightendale, I didn’t see a single human outside of the high court. Even in court, there weren’t enough humans to feed the vampires there. Timothy foresaw that there were no humans in Portland either—that the streets were empty save for the vampires in the high court. Timothy’s theory is that he’s using humans like livestock somehow—bleeding them and finding some way to store the blood.”

  “Do you think it has something to do with that ivory tree?” Ruin asked.

  I blinked at him. “The Tree of Life?”

  Ruin scratched his chin as his blue eyes travelled far away. “Before Ravage abducted you and stole your memories, he pulled you into that garden and slammed the doors shut. When the doors reopened, Death followed your scent trail, only to find that you and your siblings had walked straight up to the tree before you all vanished. We were going to burn it down with Ignis fire before Ravage made it rain.” Ruin’s blue gaze snapped down to mine. “Then, when I was trying to understand your message to me more recently, I got one of the Nightendale warriors to buy me a drink. The bartender served me bottled brew while the vampires drank from a tap in the wall, and there were roots from that tree visible there.”

  My stomach flipped, and I felt like I should know more about this, but I didn’t. “My memories of what happened that day long ago are gone… but I’ve always felt that the Tree of Life was a malevolent being.” I sighed. “I had a dream that…” I shook my head. “I think the tree might have grown from someone who died.”

  “What?” Ruin asked.

  I wasn’t even sure myself. The memories were fragmented or missing. The image of ghosts circling Ravage shifted into the image of hundreds of ghostly hands pulling my brother Brendan into a cavern. The ghostly figures were leading my siblings back to the Tree of Life. The memory surfaced in my mind, vivid and terrible.

  When I raised my head, I found all of the men staring at me expectantly. For a second, I considered telling them that I was remembering something, but the memory was so strange and random, and it wasn’t one I wanted to share. Instead, I asked, “Did you say something?”

  “Yeah. We need to get moving,” Ash said.

  “I told you, I need to go after my brothers. Ravage can read surface thoughts, and he has Brendan. I’ve been able to keep secret that Timothy is a Tempus, but Ravage will be prying into Brendan’s thoughts with all of his power—and if he discovers that Timothy is a Tempus, he’ll stop hunting me and go after my little brother. I don’t think he’ll hesitate to drink every last drop of Timothy’s blood.”

  Ash glowered. “I told you that we’re not going after your brothers.”

  “Did you not listen to a word I just said—?”

  “You’d say anything to get us to go save your siblings for you, even if it meant that we would all die, including you.” Ash’s tone was so cold, my skin prickled. “Ravage has had Brendan for a week, Kori. If he just wanted to get information off him, he’d do it in the first day and kill him.”

  It seemed impossible that so much time had passed. I felt like the confrontation with Ravage was a few hours ago.

  “Brendan is alive.” I pressed a hand to my chest. “If he wasn’t, I’d know.”

  “All right. Let me ask you this…” Ash rocked back on his heels. “Your lover, does he like Brendan?”

  The words felt like a slap in the face, and I flinched. “My lover?”

  “Watch it, Ash,” Death growled.

  Ash lifted his brows. “Are you going to answer the question?”

  “If you’re talking about Ravage, I don’t think he likes anyone.”

  “I’m guessing you’re right, present company excluded.” Ash gestured to me. “Therefore, if Brendan is alive, Ravage would only be keeping him that way for one reason.”

  My gaze fell to the crackling fire. “To set a trap.”

  “And once Ravage traps you . . .” Ash trailed off and lifted a sandy brow.

  “He’ll kill Brendan.”

  “And, Ravage will catch up any time now, because we’ve been keeping a shit pace as we’ve all been so damn worried about you. But none of that matters anyway. If we stay, we die. And if Brendan is alive, he does too.”

  I sat up. “Ash, we have a history that I can’t remember. I don’t know what kind of person you think I am, but I wouldn’t trick you into sacrificing your lives. That being said, I personally can’t leave both of my brothers in danger.”

  The words seemed to make Ash even angrier. The lines of his jaw set and his brown eyes blazed. “Think about it… it has been a week since Ravage drank from you. His Tempus power is either gone or it will be soon. Handing yourself over to Ravage would be the worst thing for your brothers.”

  He was right. I hated that he was right, but it didn’t change the facts. If Ravage got ahold of me, Brendan and Timothy would be in immediate danger.

  “You want to know what we had between us in the short time we were together, Kori?” Ash scoffed. “Deception upon deception, and then we lost everything.” He punctuated that with a glare.

  “I’m warning you, Ash,” Death growled. “Only you view it that way. Don’t assume you can speak for either of us.”

  Ash pointed in Death’s face. “I didn’t.”

  A tear dropped onto my cheek. “So, you’re blaming me for what happened?”

  Ash threw his arms wide open. “You kept pushing us to take you back to Nightendale, and you walked straight into Ravage’s trap. And now he’s changed you into a vampire that’s not a vampire, and there’s something wrong with you, and we don’t know what. Did you even try to escape him?”

  “Kori, you don’t owe us any excuses or explanations. Everything that happened was Ravage’s fault,” Ruin said as his arm pulled me protectively against him. “You did your best to protect us and your family. Ash is lashing out because he’s worried about you—as we all are, but he’s also shamelessly taking advantage of the fact that you can’t defend yourself.”

  “I don’t have an explanation for how I ended up trapped in Nightendale, but there wasn’t a single day that passed where I wasn’t planning my escape. I sent you three that letter to let you go, and it hurt so much I could barely withstand it. I have intense feelings toward you, and that never died—but I don’t remember you. You might feel like I owe you some sort of debt or explanation, Ash, but I’m never going to have one. I had to let that period of time go, so I could keep surviving.” I pushed up to my feet, but my legs decided not to support me. All three of them lunged for me at once, but Ash got there first. His arms went around my back, and he held me against him.

  The world spun, blurring the cave around me into smears of grey. “I was going to say that while I don’t remember what happened…” I whispered, “I could never have predicted what would happen with Ravage.”

  “I know,” he said before sighing. Leaning down, he kissed the top of my head. “We still have to leave your brothers behind and head to the Deep so you don’t die, but you already know that.” He lifted me up and deposited me onto Ruin’s lap. “I’m going to take the first watch.” Ash turned on his heel and vanished into the darkness.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Kori

  Ruin held me in his arms while we dozed. After Ash unceremoniously dumped me in Ruin’s lap, I’d just stayed, cradled there as the heaviness of recent events threatened to crush my chest.

  Irma and her family killed each other, my brothers remained in grave danger, and I didn’t even have the coordination to stand on my own.

  Ruin shifted until we lay beside each other, and then he tucked my back against his front and squeezed me to him as consciousness slipped away.

  I woke fighting eyelids that felt like they were crusted shut. When I’d finally opened them, I saw Ruin’s sleeping face only a foot away from mine. I’d grabbed his hand som
etime in my sleep and he had it tucked under his cheek.

  As if sensing my attention, his eyes opened slowly to blink at me, lazily. “Good morning, goddess,” he said with a distinctly feline-like grin. “I forgot what waking up to such a sexy sight was like.”

  “You think dirty and stinky is sexy?” I whispered on a laugh.

  “On you, anything is sexy, especially dirty and stinky.”

  I grinned because it was just such a Ruin thing to say, but I didn’t get the chance to fully appreciate the level of vampire sexiness that I was cocooned in, because my head started pounding, and then throbbing.

  I yanked my hands away from Ruin and pressed both of my palms into my forehead, but it didn’t make a bit of difference.

  “Kori?” Ruin asked, surprised. The word drove a new spike of pain into my forehead, and a small whimper escaped my lips.

  “What’s going on?” In a flurry of movement, Death crouched over me while Ash fell to his knees beside us.

  Ruin’s hand pressed to my forehead then pulled away, abruptly. “Shit!”

  “Careful with her head,” Ash growled.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. It was just … she’s colder than ice.”

  Darkness crept in around my vision.

  “I’ll give her some more of my blood,” Death said, pulling up the sleeve of his tunic.

  “No, no . . .” Ash said, pulling up his sleeve, “You need to recover from earlier if you’re going to be able to fight.”

  Death leaned in. “I didn’t tell you something about the feedings. I’ll do it this time, and then we—”

  “We all know that I’m the least essential in a fight,” Ruin said as he offered me his bloody wrist.

  I pressed my lips to his skin, making a suction, and the most delicious taste teased my tongue. It was a familiar taste. My favorite taste. Opening my lips wider, I took more of Ruin’s arm into my mouth and sucked deeply. A warm sensation suffused through me as I drank. Tingling spread through my lips, down my neck, through my chest to pool down low in my belly.

  I gripped his arm with both of my hands.

  “Uh . . . whoa,” Ruin said, a little dazed sounding, directly into my ear. “You did not mention that this was going on, Death.”

  “What’s going on, are you going to pass out?” Ash asked, with obvious concern in his voice. “Here, I’ll take your place.”

  “No . . . I’m good. I’m good right here,” Ruin said, languidly.

  I pushed into him to get a better grip, and Ruin moaned as his hardness pressed through our clothing.

  Ash's concern fell away and he stood up and backed away, clearly understanding what was going on. “I’ll just be gathering our supplies.”

  “Kori...” Ruin trailed off in a gasp, and his cock throbbed between us.

  I pulled my lips away for a second to ask, “Do you want me to stop?”

  “Hell no,” he groaned into my hair.

  If he didn’t want me to, I wasn’t going to stop. I leaned into his cut and drank. Ruin’s warm, delicious blood made my whole body feel hypersensitive, and my clit was the most tender of all. I pressed into him, rocking my hips against his hardness.

  “Shit this is going to make me come,” he muttered. “Fuck, Kori… I can’t stop it.” Ruin moaned, and I felt his cock spasm between us as he came.

  I kept sucking until the wound on Ruin’s wrist knitted together, and then I licked it clean.

  His whole body relaxed against me, and he chuckled low. “Fuck… Kori, do you want me to reopen my wound?” Ruin asked, sounding sated and a little dazed. “Because I would have no complaints about starting that again when there were no clothes between us.”

  It was so tempting to drink more of Ruin’s blood while he was inside me. Vampire feedings had always pushed me over the edge during sex, and the knowledge that my blood drinking had even more of an effect on Ruin made my core clench with lust. I had wanted the vampire since the first time I saw him six years ago. But, Ruin looked like he was moments away from passing out. I wanted more blood, but I didn’t need it. “You need to recover your strength. I think I drank more than a vampire.”

  Ruin splayed out on the dirt and allowed his eyes to slide closed. “No, I am just perfect, my sexy goddess...” He rubbed his hands over his head, moving them back slowly to prop up his head in the dirt. “I’m with you, and you’re safe—meaning, everything in the world is right again. Though our roles are a little reversed this time around.” He held out his arms to me. “You want to come lay down with me again…” he said through a yawn, “And we can recover our strength together?”

  “Ruin, there is no way that I could lie down again,” I admitted, feeling a pang of guilt for how amazing I felt when he was laid out, exhausted. I felt like I’d just drank two gallons of coffee. “Thank you for taking care of me,” I whispered before kissing him on the forehead.

  He grinned, and his tired blue eyes twinkled. “That’s my favorite thing to do.”

  Damn, that man knew how to melt my heart.

  “What about you three… when’s the last time you drank blood?” I asked.

  “Just before we showed up at Nightendale… So, I guess a little over a week. We drank from a couple as they had sex with each other. That’s how we’ve been doing it. None of us want to be with anyone else than you.”

  Ruin’s words made me feel a little sad while at the same time, my heart tripped with happiness. It was a strange meld of emotions that I didn’t know how to untangle. I sent them that letter so they would move on, but they’d refused.

  Energy flowed through me, so I stood and bounced on my feet a little. Both Ash and Death crouched by the fire, studiously ignoring us. My boots crunched over small rocks as I approached, and I knew they were aware of me, but they didn’t look up until I stood just beside them. The moment I did, two pairs of eyes found mine.

  “Did my bite have the same effect on you, Death?” I asked. “Or is it just Ruin?”

  “It was the same,” Death said. “I was trying to warn you all before, but that time came and passed quickly. When I fed you, I was too worried about you to let myself be where Ruin is right now.”

  I breathed a laugh. “I’m not sure whether to apologize or what. I guess it’s better than it hurting you.”

  Death lifted his brows. “Never apologize for touching me, Kori. I’ll always want it.”

  I hoped that was true. I couldn’t help but remember the distraught look on Death’s face as Ravage bound him to the bed. I turned to stare into the flames, and Ash came to stand beside me. Every single time he solely fixed his intensity on me, I swore that it made an invisible mark on my skin.

  “Next time, I'm going to feed you,” Ash said.

  “Wha—?” I wasn’t even able to finish the word, I was that shocked. “You want me to drink your blood?”

  “You’re drinking a lot, Kori. If these feedings are going to be every morning and night, none of us can afford to lose that much blood in a day, especially as speed is essential to our survival. If we do this in a cycle, then each one of us will have about eight to twelve hours to recover.”

  My brows shot high up on my forehead. “You’re serious?”

  He looked serious. Ash appeared as he always did, intense and intent.

  Heat licked up my cheeks. “To be honest, it makes me feel like a chore to be divided between you. And you haven’t fed in over a week—isn’t that a problem?”

  “It’s not a chore, it’s a necessity. It won’t be a problem so long as we get to a place where we can feed in the next few days.”

  “If you can go that long without a feeding, maybe I can too,” I said.

  Ash shook his head. “No. If you needed to feed twice in a twelve-hour period, I’m pretty sure that this is going to be an ongoing thing until we figure out what your lover did to you.”

  I gritted my teeth. “Stop calling him that. He was my captor—and up until that day with Death and the harness, I only let Ravage dry bite me.”

&
nbsp; “So, that’s what was happening when you were screaming in pain and then moaning so loud in Nightendale the day we arrived?” Ash crossed his arms over his chest, a disbelieving look etched on his strong features. “You know what? I don’t give a fuck, and you don’t owe me details. I don’t want them. You broke it off with me a year ago, so whatever fucked up sex shit you and Ravage had between you, it isn’t my business.” From his tone, Ash definitely cared, and he was deeply hurt.

  “I don’t owe you an explanation, but I don’t want you to be agonizing over something that didn’t happen. I fed Ravage my blood and slept in his bed—without touching-- as per our consort contract. That was the extent of our contact.”

  “It’s none of my fucking business.” Ash held up a hand. “What I’m concerned with now is that we keep this arrangement until we figure out what fucked up shit your fiancé did to you.”

  Damn it.

  Until this conversation, I was feeling refreshed and energized for the first time in a very long time. Now it was like Ash’s words literally drained me of my energy. “I get it, Ash. You feel betrayed, and you’re angry. But … what happened with Ravage was different than what we had.”

  “I told you that I didn’t want to talk about…” He trailed off, and his jaw worked. “Kori, I thought that you couldn’t remember what we had. How can you say that what you had with us is any different?”

  “I can’t remember, but I know that it was. Ravage thought he was in love with me, but I was just treading water, trying to survive and escape every single day—”

  “See, Kori. You really must not remember a thing…” Ash scoffed. “That was exactly what you had with us. We thought we were falling for you, and you were just trying to survive some fucked up circumstances.”

  I shook my head. “No. You’re wrong. I cared about you three so much—that never went away. With him…” I pointed off, having no idea what direction Nightendale was in, “I never felt that way. It was different. It had to have been.”

  “Ash is right about this one thing,” Death said, making me jump because I’d been so fixated on Ash’s gaze, it was like nothing else existed. “Up until the day you were abducted, you thought we would kill you and your siblings for being rebels. You also believed that we had it in us to kill you for having Tempus blood, Kori. Maybe you had feelings for us, but you were in many ways our captive too—we just weren’t aware of it at the time.”