by Evi Asher
Athera has gotten herself in trouble again.
This time her phoenix energy has awoken the long dormant death deity, Nexanthon.
She’s on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of the monster chasing her and find a weapon powerful enough to kill a death deity.
Grave has been given one last task in exchange for his freedom from the oracle—to protect and help the frustrating phoenix Athera.
The only problem is that she’s made it clear she wants him, and he has a vow to keep. She’s a danger to him on every level, because if he gives in... he will be the one who kills her.
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Buried In Denial
Copyright © 2016 Evi Asher
ISBN: 978-1-4874-0833-6
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by eXtasy Books Inc or
Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc
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www.eXtasybooks.comorwww.devinedestinies.com
Smashwords Edition
Buried In Denial
Eternals Book Seven
Buried Serial Part One
By
Evi Asher
Dedication
For my god-daughter Storm Wild (Yes that’s her real name). You are worth a million girls. I want you to always remember that, and know I love you more than life itself.
Chapter One
“Tell me again how I ended up getting stuck on stakeout duty with you?” Athera asked as she glanced over at Heath. He sat in the driver’s seat of the old beat up panel van they were using for a stakeout.
She was bored, and what made it worse was that the night had started with such promise. After she’d spent several months with nothing to do but sit around the offices of Outsiders Inc., Dimi, the chaos demon in charge of their merry band of misfits, had given her an assignment. Athera had been elated. She was new to the group, having only been at Outsiders for six months, and even though she was a kick-ass phoenix, she hadn’t seen much action.
Apparently Dimi, Archer, and the rest of the original Outsiders didn’t think she could handle a little danger. They had told her to her face that her life had been too sheltered and she needed to ease into it slowly. If the idea of easing into it wasn’t snort worthy, she didn’t know what was.
Now she was stuck in the van with none other than Heath, a pain in the butt who was boring her to no end.
The male in question looked over at her and raised an eyebrow, then took a sip through the straw of his soda.
She glared at him. “You too good to answer a question?”
The straw slid from his beautifully formed lips. “You got the duty Dimi wanted you to have, Ath, so be happy.”
“Humph.” She lifted her binoculars and glanced up at the roof of the old warehouse they were watching.
“This is too clichéd” she complained. “A decrepit warehouse, a stakeout, bait... Why couldn’t I be bait? I’m a better fighter than Dani.”
Athera was talking about one of her fellow phoenixes. Dani was sweet and a bit of a ditz, but a fighter she wasn’t.
“That’s why you are in the van and not playing bait. Chances are you’d try to be a hero and burn the necromancer up before we could catch him to deliver him for the bounty.”
Athera snorted. He had a point, but she wasn’t going to admit it. She was a bit trigger happy, had been since she’d gotten free of the phoenix realm with Scarlet, Kell, and Dani.
“I suppose you—psychic that you are—are going to tell me you know I’d do that and you’ve seen it in a vision?”
It was Heath’s turn to snort. “I’m precognitive, not psychic, and you’ll know if I have a vision.” He slid his drink into the cup holder and leaned forward, peering out the windshield. He’d seen something, and it was written all over his body language.
“What is it?” Athera leaned forward, her gaze finding Dani as the other phoenix got out of the car she was in and walked down the block in the front of the warehouse. There was a for-sale sign outside the building, so the ruse was that Dani was having a look to see if she could buy the place.
That they had already bought it was beside the point. The grapevine had it that the necromancer they were hunting had set up a hidey-hole in the basement of the building.
Necromancers, being as tricky and evil as they were, had their hideouts well-guarded, so rushing in to try to catch him would have been stupid and cost lives.
Dimi didn’t believe in stupid.
The operation had been set up to catch the necromancer with as little threat to the Outsiders as possible.
Plus, there was one thing the Outsiders had that no necromancer could resist.
A phoenix. No matter how careful he or she was, the power of life that flowed through a phoenix’s veins was something necromancers craved, making their own abilities increase exponentially.
“What is she doing?” Heath asked.
Dani had stopped. She was holding a clipboard and seemed to be writing on it.
“Nice touch, don’t you think?” Athera asked. “It was my idea. She’s taking notes about the outside of the building. I thought it would add to the believability factor.”
“She’s playing bait, not trying to win an Oscar.” Heath rolled his eyes. “You’ve got to spend less time in front of the television. Seriously.”
Static burst to life, causing Athera to jump in her seat before she realized it was from the two-way radio in her lap.
“Ath, come in.” Archer’s voice was soft, as if he was talking quietly into the device. Sometimes she despaired that Scarlet’s werewolf mate would never get the intricacies of how Athera liked to do things.
She pressed the button. “Code names, gees. I told you I’m Hot Mama on this assignment.”
Heath chuckled in the seat next to her and shook his head.
There was a pause before more static. “There is movement on the south quadrant. I think it’s our guy... ” He muttered something to Scarlet, who was with him.
“What was that last part, Wolf Boy?” Athera knew the muttering had been a complaint to Scarlet about the code names.
“Wolf boy!” His voice climbed an octave. “That would be Wolf Man.”
Heath laughed as Athera depressed the button to tell Archer he was a boy, not a man.
“Fuck!” Heath grabbed the handle of the driver’s side door and was out of the van before Athera could ask what was going on.
She looked up and saw that Dani was in trouble. A tall man wearing black from head to toe had Dani’s arm gripped in his and was dragging her toward the entrance of the building.
She pushed in the button on the two-way radio. “It’s a go! The phoenix is captured.” She reached for the door handle. “Screw this.” She pressed the button again as she flung herself out of the van, almost tripping as she hit the ground. “Haul as
s, Archer. The bad guy has Dani.”
“Copy that,” came the response in static, then Athera dropped the two-way and ran. No one manhandled her family, even if that family member was playing bait.
She felt her blood start to burn and tried to keep it in as she ran. If she burst into flame, she could kill the necromancer, and Dimi would be all kinds of upset with her. She didn’t need the boss getting his horns in a twist over something she’d done.
Heath was ahead of her and she could hear Archer’s pounding footsteps behind her. She even picked up Scarlet’s softer footfalls.
Athera sucked in a shocked breath as the whole world seemed to shiver around her.
Her body had stopped, frozen in place, and she couldn’t seem to move. Everyone else was battling the necromancer, and even Dani was getting in hits, but Athera’s body refused to move. It was as if she’d been planted in quick-drying cement. She felt a presence, something searching. Like a lighthouse light in the dark, the presence seemed to strobe around her, but never touched her.
Instinct made her stop fighting the lethargy her body was experiencing and slow her heart down. The burn in her veins stopped, and her breathing slowed right down. She pictured a field of white in her mind’s eye. Something told her that her continued survival depended on it.
Nothing but white. Bright sparkling white. No variation in color, no otherness, nothing else.
The words went through her head as she focused, her eyes closed so she wouldn’t be distracted by the fighting that she could hear.
The searching strobe passed over her and she held her breath.
White. More White.
It passed over her again, and fear crawled up her spine like a million invisible spiders. This was not right. What was searching her out?
The strobe she sensed vanished and her body reacted to stimulus again. The noise of the battle reached a crescendo with yells and punches and then settled down.
“Damn it, Athera. Why did you stand there like a lump?” Archer called to her.
She looked up to see Archer had the necromancer on the ground flat on his stomach, his hands tied behind his back. Archer had his knee planted in the center of the necromancer’s back.
“You got him. Good.” What was that bit of idiocy that had spilled out her mouth? She needed to find out what was happening and she needed to find out soon.
Archer hauled the necromancer to his feet by gripping his tied hands. “Did you get a case of stage fright or something?”
“No, I couldn’t move. I don’t know why, but I got frozen.” Athera nibbled at her lower lip, a habit she had when her emotions were high or she was nervous.
Archer turned his head to the side as he peered at Athera. Heath took the necromancer away from him and dragged the creature toward the panel van.
“What do you mean you got frozen?” Archer asked, taking a step closer.
“Yes, that’s not right.” Scarlet bent to dust some dirt from her pants and Dani stepped closer to Athera as well.
Athera tried to explain what had happened. “It was like I was being pinned into place, unable to move, and I knew I had to calm down or I would be found and in danger.” She felt a frown furrow her forehead. “Maybe I got over excited.”
“Maybe,” Scarlet said, but her expression was troubled.
“Are you coming?” Heath called from the van. He had deposited the necromancer in the back and was standing at the driver’s door with his hand on the lever.
“Take the necromancer in,” Archer called. “We need to make a stop before we head back.”
Heath nodded and pulled the door open, then slid into the driver’s seat. He started the van, did a U-turn and pulled away.
“Where are we stopping?” Dani asked.
“I think we need to go see Trinity.” Archer started walking toward his SUV.
“No I don’t think we have to go bother Trinity with this.” Athera shook her head. Although she loved Trinity, the witch who helped the Outsiders out—for a cost—she didn’t think it was such a big deal. Okay, she’d frozen. Probably a case of stage fright like Archer had suggested. It couldn’t be more than that, could it?
Ever since they’d come back from Alaska, she’d been a little down. Maybe that was why she’d frozen. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but she missed Grave.
The reaper they had met there had wanted nothing to do with Athera, even though she’d poured on the charm and thrown herself at him. She couldn’t seem to get him out of her head, and that was a bad thing, because he didn’t care about her in the least, wasn’t even attracted to her.
Why couldn’t she have gotten hot and crushy over Heath, or Erik, or one of the other Outsiders? She’d seen the looks the men gave her. She was sure she would have stood a chance with one of them. No—her stupid feelings had to go and settle on the unattainable Grave.
“Are you coming, Athera?” Scarlet asked. They’d started to walk toward the SUV while she stood there like a fool and drooled over a guy she couldn’t have.
“Yeah” she muttered as she followed Scarlet.
The trip to the building Trinity owned didn’t take too long. It was in the business district of Crossroads and stood pretty much in the center of town.
The doorman let them in and security didn’t stop them as they went toward the elevator. Both had been informed of the Outsiders’ come and go as they want status.
Archer’s cell phone started ringing as they entered the elevator.
He answered the call. “Talk.”
He was quiet a moment, then nodded his head. “Good. Tell Dimi we’ll be back as soon as we’ve visited with Trinity for a bit.” A moment of quiet, then Archer looked over at Athera. She gave him a small smile and thumbs up.
“She’s fine, so don’t worry. I want to check with Trin to be sure, but I don’t think it’s anything bad.” He listened. “Okay good. Talk to you later.” He ended the call and shoved the cell back in the pocked of his well-worn jeans.
“Heath?” Scarlet asked
“Yeah, he wanted to know how Ath’s doing.”
“Why are you all worrying? I’m fine.” Athera shook her head.
“No.” Scarlet looked over at Dani, then at Athera. “You really aren’t.”
“I froze, so no big deal.” Athera rolled her eyes. Wow! When had her friends become such worriers?
There was a ding as they reached their floor and the elevator doors opened.
“Yeah, it’s a big deal,” Archer said. “In the time I’ve known you, you have always been balls to the wall. You have never flinched or hesitated, and what you described, the search light feeling? I don’t like it. It stinks of magic, and when we need to know something about magic, we—”
“Go to Trinity.” Athera finished for him with a sigh. “I’m telling you I’m fine. It isn’t anything ominous.”
Just a case of missing the hotness I can never have.
They were already at Trinity’s door and Archer lifted his hand and knocked.
“On my way.” They heard Trinity through the wooden paneling of the door as she opened it.
“Don’t you even check the peephole?” Archer admonished her.
The beautiful witch shrugged. “Why? I can blow away anything or anyone who tries to do me harm.”
She stepped out of the way and waved her hand for them to enter.
“Coffee, tea, beer, coke?” she offered. “And by coke, I mean the liquid variety, not the nose candy type.”
It was typical Trinity to crack a joke almost instantly.
“We won’t be here that long.” Archer sat down in a chair and tugged Scarlet until his She landed in his lap.
“So why are you here? I thought you were coming for some game time.” Trinity put her hands on her hips. “Didn’t you get my text?”
She glared at Athera.
Athera reached for her purse and realized she had left it behind. She’d never thought to take it on a stake out with her, and her cell phone was in her
purse.
“Sorry.”
Laz chose that moment to come out of the kitchen, a bowl of popcorn in his hand and two bottles of soda gripped in his other.
He grinned a greeting. “Hey, you guys made it. Thank goodness. I thought I’d be bored because I keep beating Trin so easily.”
Laz was the only slightly evil necromancer that was a friend to the Outsiders. Without his help in Alaska, a ghost would have killed Angelica.
Now, he looked over at Athera with a strange expression on his face.
Laz stopped and carefully put down the popcorn bowl as he stalked over to Athera and grabbed her face in his palms.
“Hey!” She tried to jerk out of his reach, but his grip tightened.
“Laz you are hurting me,” Athera pointed out, her hands on his chest as she tried to push him away.
“Stay still, Ath,” he hissed through clenched teeth.
He started muttering in an ancient dead language, his voice rising and falling with a cadence that made the hairs on Athera’s arms stand up straight.
“What are you doing?” Archer asked. He’d bounded out of his chair, nearly dumping Scarlet on the floor so he could get in right next to Laz.
“Hush, Arch, this is serious stuff.” Trinity said from Laz’s other side. “He’s invoking some kind of protection spell, and it’s pretty bad ass.” Her voice was soft,, almost too quiet to hear above Laz’s chanting.
“Okay, but why is he doing that?” Dani asked, speaking for the first time since the other necromancer had been captured.
Athera had a moment of worry that maybe being grabbed by the bad guy earlier had upset Dani before Laz’s chanting went a notch louder.
He pushed his hands into her cheeks so hard she was sure she’d have finger-shaped bruises when he was done. He hissed out the last word, long and drawn out, and stepped away from her.