Hand In Ash

by Zoe Parker

  “Are you in danger right now?” Sora has had many conversations with Voss, but she’s never heard his voice sound quite so… mean.

  “There’s no one here but us. He generously gave her a respite until the morning. Then he said they’ll start hunting her,” Devil answers, pushing himself against her phone.

  “I’ll be there in ten minutes. Do not leave those wards, Sora. I don’t care who tries to convince you to.” He disconnects, and Sora weaves her way into the house. She’s cold and wet. Her dress is torn to shreds. She can’t continue to sit outside and cry, no matter how appealing the idea is.

  “What do you need, besides a shower?” Devil asks, pushing her towards the bathroom, and the shower beckoning her.

  “Honestly, I don’t know.” She gets in the bathroom and rips the dress the rest of the way off her. Standing in her strapless bra and plain cotton panties, she looks at herself in the mirror. There’s blood on her face, and even though it’s not hers, it reminds her of everything happening around her.

  “How did I not see it? Someone that evil so close to me?” Her legs are numb, but she manages to climb in the shower. After the steaming water is already pouring down her, she takes off the rest of her clothes as an afterthought. Devil pulls the shower curtain shut and floats on the other side, watching over her.

  “I can honestly say that it was a complete shock. None of us could’ve expected it to be him. He’s never once said or done anything to indicate he was the megalomaniac founder of a cult full of murderers that want to take over the world.”

  “If you’re trying to make me feel better, you suck at it.” She rests her forehead against the cool tile of the wall.

  “Take your shower, babe. I’ll go make some hot chocolate for when you get out. Voss will be here any minute, and the last thing in the world he needs to see is a vulnerable, naked woman that he wants to bang.” She smiles despite herself.

  “Devil, you really do suck at this.” But he doesn’t, not really. He’s not one to give platitudes or false hope. He gives it to her how it is, and she learns, grows from it.

  Once out of the shower, she stands in her robe and wipes the steam off her mirror. The woman looking back at her has aged a few years in the last couple of days. With a sigh, she tightens the belt on her robe and goes out into the kitchen, expecting to see the enigmatic alpha at her table. She finds Devil squirting whip cream in his mouth instead of the hot chocolate. When she sits down, and he smiles at her, with a ring of white around his mouth, she starts to feel a little more normal.

  He scoots the cup towards her, and she tries to give him a smile for being sweet, but it falls flat. “Thanks,” she says, sitting in the chair and sipping the chocolate. She doesn’t really want it, but he went through the effort, and that’s enough to make her at least drink half.

  “Why do you think he said the whole shit about morning?” It keeps sticking with her, popping into her head over and over. It’s a weird thing to do, even if he is her grandfather. The whole premise doesn’t make sense. She drops the cup on the table. Unless he wanted her put away while he did something else.

  She’s on her feet and running for the door before Devil even realizes what she’s doing. She’s still running, the belt of her robe flapping behind her when Voss pulls up on his bike. He’s right outside of the wards, smiling in greeting as he takes off his helmet. Three men appear behind him.

  Pulling out the knives she had tucked in the pockets of her robe, she throws one, nailing the man on the right in the shoulder. She runs straight at the second one, leaping into the air and taking him down with her body weight. Devil shows up out of nowhere beside her and latches onto the unfortunate sorcerer. She almost tells Devil to stop, not to let Voss see, but changes her mind.

  Let them all see. “Burn him, Devil!” she shouts.

  She’s on her feet again and facing Voss, where Cris stands across from him. His arm is the same fiery orange hers used to light up, marking him as more than another normal sin eater. Voss is moving like a snake, taking swipes with his claws when he can but avoiding Cris’s touch. Now that Voss knows what sin eater magic is really like, he’s smart enough to be wary of it. Her demonstration served two purposes.

  “Cris, I’m who you want, aren’t I?” she taunts. He turns his attention to her and smiles. Whether he wants to kill her or sleep with her, she’s not sure, but the look on his face can go either way.

  “We’ll dance soon enough, Sora Suen.” He turns his hand towards Voss, who was trying to sneak up on him. “She saved your life tonight, remember that.” He runs at the wounded sorcerer, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him to his feet. The man raises his hand, and a portal appears. Cris gives her one last enigmatic look before leaping through it.

  Her eyes skirt over the pile of ash near Devil and lock onto Voss. He looks riled up and ready to keep fighting.

  “I could’ve taken him,” he insists.

  Devil laughs. “Liar. We all know you suspected he might win. It’s why you kept your distance. I don’t doubt that you can take any shifter, human, mage, and probably even some sorcerers completely untouched, but that man had your death in his eyes.”

  “He left, didn’t he?” Voss argues.

  “I’m not trying to punch your man-card, but he left because of Sora.”

  Voss takes a deep breath, and calm falls over him. “Why?”

  “Because he isn’t sure whether he can take me or not and maybe is even a little intrigued by me.” It took that smile on his face to figure it out.

  “Let me break it down to caveman speak–he’s a psychopath, and she’s his new toy.” Sora frowns at them both. Is it that hard to understand?

  “Can you take him?” Voss turns to ask her. The doubt in his voice adds to the layers of hurt and anger that are already wrapped around her like a tight band. It takes genuine effort not to tell Voss to get the fuck out of her home.

  “Probably. I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.” Truthfully, her grandfather worries her more than Cris. He’s an original. He knows things about the magic she’s still learning. He’s the one that taught her, after all. She decides to continue to be honest with Voss. Their lives may very well depend on it. “My grandfather is a three-hundred-year-old original, Voss. He’s more dangerous, smarter, and incredibly patient. When it comes time to fight him, we’ll worry more then, okay?”

  “He genuinely worries you,” Voss muses, stepping closer to her.

  She starts towards the wards and pushes him in the side to get him moving. He goes easily, constantly looking at her face with a frown on his.

  “If we’re not careful, he’ll outsmart all of us, and we’ll die.” The thought of Eddie killing her makes her eyes burn.

  Voss’s phone beeps once they’re inside the wards, and he takes it out and reads the message. His jaw clenches several times, and when he meets her eyes, she can see he doesn’t want to tell her.

  “Spit it out, Voss!” she growls out at him.

  “They’re not there. The house is wrecked; it looks like they put up one hell of a fight. The only thing my men found was a note on the dining room table.”

  “What did it say?”

  “Two words, your move.” That’s her grandfather without a doubt. He’s the one that taught her how to play chess, and every time he asked her over to visit, he’d tell her those two words.

  She has no idea where he would stash them, or if he’ll even let them live. She no longer holds any hope that he’s going to be merciful. He’s never cared for her father, his son. Looking back on it, knowing what she knows now, she’s not sure he cared about anyone.

  “Are there any places you can think of to look for them or Mr. Suen? Shared properties, secret ones? Warehouses?” She shakes her head. She doesn’t know any of that stuff. “I had them check, but there isn’t much in his name. No shell companies, no other houses. He’s straight as an arrow on paper.” Voss sounds incredibly frustrated with this news.

  “You can ask t
he church he retired from, but I wouldn’t expect anything. You know how they are about sin eater identities.” That’s a dead-end for any search.

  “I’ll go through official channels. I can petition the council of every race and call for an emergency meeting. This threat isn’t just to us. It’s to the entire world; they need to know.”

  “I almost asked you why you waited this long, but knowing why you were looking for them gives me that answer. You hope to take care of it quietly, in your own way.” He shrugs, not admitting to anything. “Good luck with the sin eater council. They don’t like outside interference.”

  “Do you have any suggestions?” he asks in frustration.

  “I know where their chairwoman lives. I suggest we pay her a visit while she’s relaxing by the fancy indoor heated pool she has.” There’s a little bitterness in her words, but she doesn’t explain it. She and the chairwoman have a small history. Mostly because of her son.

  “How do you know where she lives?”

  “We used to toilet paper her house every year because she went out of her way to make high school hard on Sora.” Devil’s explanation isn’t the entire story, but it’s enough to explain their knowledge.

  Chairwoman Helene’s son fancied Sora, but she didn’t fancy him. He proposed to her expecting a yes and got the door shut in his face instead. His mother never forgave her for what she saw as slight.

  The sun is lighting the sky, and Sora yawns, not that she thinks she’ll sleep much, but she wants to lay down and bundle under some covers. “It’s safe to leave now.”

  Voss snorts. “I’m not going anywhere. You need someone watching your back besides Devil.”

  What the hell does he mean he’s not leaving?!

  “I’m sorry, what?” He’s crazy if he thinks he’s staying here. She doesn’t even have a place for him to sleep. The box holding her bed was on the porch, but she didn’t have time to think about it. Her bed is still in pieces in boxes, and she planned on sleeping on the mattress on the floor.

  “I’m staying here.” He starts to sit on the table and then sees the mess from the broken cup. Throwing her for a total loop, he starts to clean it up.

  “No!” she denies.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes.” he and Devil say at the same time and then look at each other in surprise. She gives Devil a dirty look. “Sora, he’s right. He’s the strongest shifter in the world. He can tear through people like butter. We need him here.”

  She makes a face at him and his betrayal. “But staying here?”

  “The house will get used to him. It’s already pushing at him less than it was.” Devil is trying to reassure her, and maybe she’s stubborn, but living with Voss is not good for her.

  “This isn’t his house, Devil.”

  “For now, it’s our house. After I make some calls and arrange a few things, we’ll make some coffee and start unpacking your things.” He walks into another room, and she hears him speaking on the phone.

  “Devil!” she says through clenched teeth. She turns on him prepared to yell, and he’s floating there, looking at her with kindness in his eyes. Her frustration melts away, leaving behind resignation.

  His eyes glow with mischief as he says, “I suggest you give him the back room. It’s big enough to put a kitty litter box in there too. Don’t want him spraying all over the furniture. Speaking of that, since he’s going to be an inside cat, maybe we should look into getting him neutered.”

  “Fuck you, Devil,” Voss yells from the other room.

  Devil moves closer, and his smile fades as his mouth brushes her ear. “This is the right thing for you, Sora. I’ll help you avoid getting naked with him and be the best cock block that’s ever existed.” When she doesn’t smile, doesn’t laugh, he sighs. “Tomorrow, you need to wake up with the acceptance that this is much more complicated than just you trying to find a murderer.”

  “What is it then, Devil?” she demands sarcastically.

  “This is war.”

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to my family, we’ve had a rough year but we’re still going!

  Thank you to my bookland family, my beta readers. You ladies are badass. Thank you for always having my back and encouraging me to keep going.

  Thank you, Lorie, you know how to work that… snark.

  Thank you, readers, for continuing to pick up my books. You are the reason I can keep dreaming!

  About the Author

  Zoe is the type of person that thinks that writing about herself in the third person is giggle worthy. She also laughs at those T-REX costumes that flap about when you run. Zoe has a hard time writing about normal things and has a soft spot for the antihero and the monster in the closet. For all we know they're lonely and trying to make friends. They're just doing it badly.

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  Also by Zoe Parker

  Facets of Feyrie Series - Urban Fantasy

  Elusion, Book One

  Ascension, Book Two

  Deception, Book Three

  Obliteration, Book Four - Currently under construction!

  A (RH), multiple-mayhem series, The Fate Caller Series:

  Cadence of Ciar, Book One

  Rhythm of Rime, Book Two

  Timing of Trick, Book Three

  Ballad of Bael, Book Four - Currently under construction!

  Unsylum Series

  Up with the Crows - Book One

  As the Crow Flies - Book Two

  Stone the Crows - Book Three - Currently under construction!