Scattered Ashes Read online

  17

  You Could Have Asked

  RHYS

  I wake wrapped around a sleeping Aurelia. Her back is to me, and her hair is damp from a recent shower. I look out the window, realizing it has to be at least mid-day or later.

  She slept. Thank Christ. I breathe a sigh of relief.

  I kiss her shoulder and the tender skin of her neck. She smells different somehow, almost like aged parchment and baby powder and the faint smell tickles my nose.

  I don’t like it.

  I’ll have to ask her if she could switch body washes to what she was wearing when we first made love. I prefer that citrus smell on her skin much better.

  She stirs, but her presence feels different, controlled even in sleep. She feels so much more poised than my fiery woman usually is. She seems wrong, but I brush it off to the effects of the sleeping medication she took.

  She rouses, rubbing her ass against my morning erection. I wrap my arms around her middle to bring her closer. She turns in my arms and brushes her soft lips against mine.

  “Did you sleep much?”

  She nods, rubbing her nose against mine. She rolls me onto my back, kissing the skin of my chest as she moves with me, nipping at the scars at my ribs. She throws a leg over my lap, and I grab her hips to grind her bare pussy against my cock. She’s warm, and wet, and I’d give anything to have sex with my wife.

  She brushes her tits against my chest, stretching her arms out under the pillow as I rub against her heat. She kisses me full on the lips, and even her kiss is different, harder. Not urgent, but hard like she’s trying to hurt me.

  I don’t like this shit at all. I break from her lips with a jerk.

  When she sits up, she has a Morganite dagger in her hand, and I freeze.

  What. The. Fuck. Was it something I said?

  “If you wanted a divorce, you could have just asked. No need to get homicidal, Gorgeous,” I say nervously as she tosses the blade from one hand to the other.

  If I didn’t know that something was off before, the thick Irish accent coming from her mouth, as she speaks, would raise a fucking huge red flag.

  “What’s the matter, dear,” she says as her eyes grow cold, “Don’t like a little pain with your pleasure?”

  My whole body goes cold. I know that accent.

  I know that cadence.

  I know that sick fucking voice.

  That’s not my wife.

  “Iva? I gotta say, the body’s new. Wanna tell me what the fuck you’re doing?” I snarl as I buck her off me, getting off the bed as fast as I can. I’m positive I’ve never been less happy that I’m buck ass naked.

  “Mmm. I do so love seeing my handiwork on you,” she purrs on a smirk as her tongue runs over her upper lip. Bile rises in my throat. Her eyes roam my body, examining each thick scar she carved into my skin. Even though she has Aurelia’s face, I want to rip her fucking head off.

  “What do you want?” I demand, surreptitiously searching for something to secure her with before this gets really bad.

  So many things could go wrong. And knowing how fucking crazy Iva is…

  “I want to take your love from you. And I’m going to enjoy making you watch her die.”

  I save one little being, and it blows my whole life apart.

  “Why? Because I stopped you from murdering an innocent woman? That’s not our purpose. It’s not our job to judge or change. It is our job to send souls on. Period. The end. That is our job.”

  “And who are you to tell me what our purpose is, you impertinent little fledgling?” she snarls.

  “I became that person when I read the archives that told me what our real purpose is. The purpose the head families are keeping secret, so you don’t kill off their kin. That’s the real reason you spelled Lucien, isn’t it? He was digging a little too deep? Knew a little too much?”

  She looks almost pleased I’ve figured out her game. Like I’m a dog that fetched the ball and brought it back. If she weren’t wearing Aurelia’s face…

  “Yes, it was unfortunate Lucien had to die, but making you kill him was just a bonus. It was also a pleasant little perk, making Aurelia hate you. Taking away what you most wanted. Your girl sure can hold onto a grudge. I knew you loved her, and I enjoyed watching you suffer her hate. And now that you have her, I’m going to enjoy taking her away. I’m going to enjoy making you watch her slit her own throat. And I’m going to enjoy making sure your line is wiped from this Earth forever.”

  As she talks I notice my jeans at the foot of the bed, my black leather belt still threaded through the loops. Flicking my eyes back to her, I watch as she raises the dagger.

  Her movements change from the flowing grace Iva usually possesses, to an uncoordinated jerky shake. The knife trembles in her hand.

  My woman is in there, fighting back.

  Her face screws up in concentration sweat popping up on her brow as the battle wages inside my beautiful wife. The knife rises again slowly heading for her slender, perfect neck.

  I don’t wait. Wasting no time, I snatch the belt from the loops, roughly ripping the knife from her clenched fingers and binding her wrists with the belt. I shove her face in the duvet as she struggles against the bonds.

  I don’t wait to dress, I just yell for Evan.

  She pops in a second later fully phased and snarling. Well, until she sees me buck ass naked.

  “Oh my fucking God, Rhys. I do not need to see this shit. West is going to kick your ass.”

  “It’s Iva, Evan. She’s stowed away in Aurelia’s brain. You mind taking over here so I can put some fucking pants on?”

  “You got it,” she shudders. Mumbling under her breath that it’s like seeing her brother naked as she takes Iva’s bonds in her hands.

  I throw on my nearby jeans and rip the sheet off the bed and cover my woman.

  “Now what?” Evan asks.

  I have no fucking idea.

  AURELIA

  Opening my eyes and realizing I'm chained to my bed is not exactly on my list of top five favorite ways to wake up. I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t sign on for this particular kink. At least I have clothes on.

  What the hell happened last night?

  I pull on the chain and the links rattle against the wood of the bed frame, rousing Rhys from a fitful sleep on the armless slipper chair next to my bed. He’s barefoot and scruffy, wearing jeans and a t-shirt that exposes the Legion markings on his right arm and the scars on his left. The sluggish look on his face says he got about three seconds of sleep.

  “Umm. I think I was supposed to pick a safe word before the bonds came into play. Wanna tell me what the fuck is going on?” I say with a chuckle.

  “Sure, if you can answer one question. What is your favorite weapon?”

  “That depends,” I say on a half shrug and the links clack on the frame with the movement.

  “On?” he says warily.

  “The situation. If I’m going silent, then Kamas. If I don’t care about noise, a Glock 19. If I want to look pretty, a wakizashi because katanas are too long for me. If I need silence and distance, I prefer throwing knives and bo-shurikens.”

  He breathes out a sigh of relief and says, “Thank God. You’re you.” He rips a hand through his hair, tugging on the ends while he stares at my face. The hair-ripping thing is a common tick for him when he’s stressed. Something is definitely wrong.

  “Was I someone else?” I ask confused, but I know. I’ve been losing time. A few seconds at first, and then more. I thought I was just spacing out, but…

  “Yeah. You were. Iva must have done something to you, Gorgeous. She took over for a little while.”

  “What do you mean she took over? What did she do?” I say as I try unsuccessfully to sit up, whole body turning to ice.

  The chains are not too tight, but they aren’t loose either. I’m stuck flat on my back, and the longer he hesitates to tell me what happened, the more I figure just how bad it c
ould have been.

  “She attempted to slit your throat. While I watched,” he says, his voice gruff and choked. His face looks utterly tortured.

  Jesus. It’s worse than I thought.

  “You’ve woken a few times, but she…but she comes through pretty quick,” he rasps.

  My brain seems to be stuck on loop. I keep hearing his broken, hoarse voice say ‘slit your throat’ over and over and over. I yank on my bonds, knowing I’m not going anywhere, but my limbs are aching to take flight.

  “How long have I been like this?”

  “Three days.”

  Shock makes my limbs go numb and my mind blank. And then the tears come, great racking sobs that rip open my chest. I’ve been like this for three days.

  She has held me hostage for three days, invaded my mind, my body. And who knows how long she’s been squatting in my brain.

  Torturing my husband. Again. My friends.

  I feel helpless. Chained while a monster has taken me over.

  “I really want to hug you, Gorgeous. But the last time I did, she bit me in the neck and tore a sizable chunk out before Evan stopped her.”

  It takes several minutes for the tears to stop, and even longer for the shaking breaths to cease. In that time, I steel myself, shutting off my emotions, shutting my heart down. Turning myself to stone.

  My voice is hoarse still, but my words are steady. “You should find someone to remove the binding,” I say with a nod, “Remove it, and leave me here. A better plan would be to kill me, but I won’t ask that of you. You need to get as far away from me as you can. As fast as you can. She will never stop.”

  It doesn’t matter if I’m dead. Iva will hunt him to the ends of the earth. She will hunt him until she’s had her bloodthirsty fill.

  His face turns an unhealthy puce color before he starts yelling.

  “I’m not giving up on you, Goddammit! We are going to fight, and we are going to do it together. You’ve been fighting under the surface this whole time, and I’m not going to let you quit now.”

  But I’m exhausted. Mentally and physically. I don’t know if I can go on much longer.

  He continues to tell me other things, things I can’t understand, because the longer he talks, the more his voice starts to garble.

  I take one last look at him, knowing this may be the last time I get to see his beautiful face. Knowing that at any second, she could take me over. Knowing I could die at any moment.

  Forever without Lucien seemed so long, but I know now that the ache of losing Rhys will haunt me even in the next life.

  Losing Rhys will haunt me for eternity.

  RHYS

  I’m still yelling at my unconscious wife when West busts in the room, kicking in the door with his massive boot. The door has practically split in two and when, or if Aurelia wakes up, she’s going to rip him a new one.

  When. Not if. Never if.

  I wrack my brain for any solution that makes sense. We’ve exhausted all our witch contacts. None of them can protect her. It seems all these years when I was exhausting my favor from the King, making sure she was safe and hidden, she was hiding herself all along.

  We have to get her Aegis back somehow. She must be able to use her power to protect herself. There’s just no other way.

  “We’ve got a huge fucking problem,” West says as he readjusts his grip on the katana in his hand. He looks like John Rambo and Paul Bunyan had a tattooed baby. Two bandoliers crisscross his red flannel shirt like an old west gunslinger. He has a backup katana in a spine holster peeking over his shoulder, and a gun at both hips.

  I notice this, but it’s in the periphery. Scratching on my brain, but refusing to come in the door. All I can think of is the last words Aurelia said to me. She’s right. Iva won’t stop.

  But neither will I.

  “Yeah? Add it to the huge-as-shit list we have already. I’ve got bigger problems right now. She wants to dissolve the bond. She wants us to fucking leave her here. She wants to die to save us. What the fuck?” I yell as my hands rip through my hair. I’m ready to yank it the fuck out.

  I know she wants us safe. I know she wants the best for me and the rest of us, but Goddammit, I want our bond to stay. I want to have her. And I refuse to give up on her just because Iva has a grudge.

  Fuck that bitch. And fuck this shit. We are doing this together.

  “Well, she’s not going to have to save us. We’re going to have to save ourselves. We’re surrounded, man."

  Well, of course we are, I think. What else could go wrong?

  And then the power goes out.

  And so it begins.

  Fuck.

  18

  I’d Know Her Anywhere

  AURELIA

  The blackness fades to gray and then to white. When my eyes finally focus, I realize I’m looking at a white dress.

  I’d know those skinny ass hips anywhere.

  “Do you like your accommodations?” Iva’s Irish accent stabs through my brain. I hate that fucking brogue.

  Given I’m chained to another slab in another gray room, not so much. She smiles for a second, and suddenly, the bonds are gone. The room seems to melt like candle wax, and now I’m standing on my own two feet in a dimly lit ballroom. The ceiling is vaulted, with a delicate crystal chandelier casting an ethereal glow.

  Iva’s holding a glass of champagne, and gently swaying to a smooth Jazz number on the parquet floor. Her dress is backless and form fitting, and her hair is curled and arranged in a neat chignon. Her lips are painted a deep blood red, and the corners pull into a smug smile.

  “Neat trick. Wanna tell me how I got here?”

  “You aren’t anywhere. You and I are inside your precious little noggin,” she says with a shrug, still swaying to the music. I hate Jazz. I’d take Rock over Jazz any day.

  “In my head? I’ll buy that. How long have you been squatting inside my brain, you soulless little bitch?”

  Her eyebrows rise at the insult, but she lets it go. I guess she’s having too much fun.

  “Well, for the longest time it was impossible to find you. I’d thought I had eliminated all of your kind, but you slipped past me. Very tricky, my dear. I’d venture a guess Nicola was behind that coup. Don’t you worry. I’ll take care of her later. Then, I tried finding your Rhys, but he was hidden as well. I blame that infernal Wraith King for that. And then we used your blood. Well, you shed a bit of that for Javier, didn’t you? And after I suppressed your Aegis, it was simple to crack your head wide open.”

  She said suppressed not eliminated. Either she's lying, or she just fucked up.

  “Since you’re probably going to kill me, could you tell me why? Is it just to secure your throne? Or for revenge? Or are you just a psychotic tyrant with a God complex? Really, what exactly do you get out of all of this?”

  For the longest time, I don’t think she’s going to answer me. Then, she sips from her glass and gently rests the flute on a table that appears out of nowhere. Next to the glass is a sharp as sin Morganite knife. She lovingly caresses the blade before wrapping her slender fingers around the hilt, gently picking up the weapon.

  “It’s a bit of all three. But what I get? I get to kill you. I get to rip your mind apart bit by bit, thought by thought, inch by tiny inch,” she whispers menacingly as her red lips twist into a cruel smirk.

  RHYS

  I’m lucky I have friends who can focus in a crisis. While I’ve been ripping my hair out at Aurelia’s bedside, literally, my friends have been raiding the house for weapons.

  Aurelia has weapons tucked away in every nook and cranny in this house. There are knives and handguns inside cabinets disguised as floating shelves. She has a full gun safe hidden behind a wall mirror near the garage door. Every table and barstool has some kind of weapon affixed to the underside. And that doesn’t even include the huge weapons cache hidden in the dojo.

  Jesus.

  She’s like a survivalist or something. If I found a horde of foodstuf
fs down there, I wouldn’t be surprised. She was prepared, that’s for certain. I just wish we thought ahead once her mind started to deteriorate.

  We should have moved once we realized Aurelia’s mind wasn’t safe. I should have thought of that. I should have thought of many things. I should have anticipated the danger lurking just around the corner.

  I should never have left her alone to guard Aidan. Aidan feels it too. He feels the guilt that she was captured when she was watching over him. And that’s where it all went downhill, isn’t it? The house where I lived the best hours of my life is also a place I hate to the very depths of my blackened soul.

  I should have known Javier was a threat.

  We should have left that house as soon as I felt danger.

  Some Soldier I turned out to be.

  Evan and West drop weapons just inside the door, eyeing me warily. After West kicked the door in and the house went black, I went a might bit crazy.

  Okay, that’s an understatement. I turned into a feral, territorial mate and phased. Full wingspan and everything.

  Aurelia is going to need a few new lamps. And maybe a new mirror. And her rug is toast too.

  She’s going to kick my ass.

  I managed to tamp down the Fireskin, but the wings seem to be here to stay. Doesn’t matter. I fight better with them anyway.

  My wings are different from Aurelia’s. As a Soldier, they should match my Oracle’s, but because of the forced bond, mine are an entirely different color. Whereas Aurelia’s fade from blood red to orange, mine gradually fade from coal black to dark red. Though mine are clipped as well, they were cut while I was being tortured prior to the bonding. That was the only part of her pain I did not feel.

  Other than that…I remember every drop of blood spilled. Every cut. Every slice.

  Iva deserves to pay. She deserves our revenge.

  Not just because she tortured my mate and me. No. But for what she has done to our kind. And for waging this war within our own Legion. Our revenge deserves vengeance.