Dance of Ashes and Smoke (Age of Monsters Book 1) (5 page)

A
t last Tashia left the club. She’d watched every single performance after ours, and I’d stayed locked up in our closet to study her through a crack in the door.

I waited a few minutes before I followed her to the exit, the lack of people or monsters out on the streets making it easy to spot her. I turned up my jacket against the cold, slipping my hands further into the sleeves. It’d been a bitter fall, snow already covering us several times before December had arrived.

Tashia and the chimera continued down the street to a hotel, where she disappeared inside. With no excuse for being in there, I crossed the street to a coffee shop and took a seat by the window with a clear view. I planned to stay until Alcott’s turn in case they were only there to change clothes or something quick.

I put my headphones in and stared out the window like I was waiting for someone. The shop brimmed with monsters and humans both, a strained neutrality keeping fights from breaking out. Vampires brought their bloodbags with them and laughed as the broken humans profusely thanked them for the gift of a cup of coffee or tea. The vampires only did it to make the humans beg and grovel. It was all a game to the monsters.

I held back vomit watching it.

Vampires and spell casters were the worst. And the hardest to kill. It didn’t stop me from fantasizing about it, though, and hoping and waiting for the slightest opening. The slightest chance.

Fighting a yawn, I turned away from the crowded shop and back to the window.

The scent of rotted flesh wafted into nose as the cushion beside me depressed. “Hello, lovely.”

I gulped and turned to see the biggest man I’d ever seen seated next to me. Vampire. “Can I help you?”

He leered and licked his lips, his sharp canines flashing from the lamp on the table. “I sure hope so.” Real vampires weren’t handsome and sparkling and charming. They were closer to zombies, gray and reeking of death.

Reaching into my jacket, I pulled out my ID card and slid it across the table. It declared me of use to the monsters and off limits for snacking or spells or any other horrors others felt like doling out.

He snarled and sent my card flying across the room. “You’re worth a slap on the wrist. You look delicious.”

My eyes darted around as I went through my options. Too much risk in pulling out my knife in here and there wasn’t anyone who’d bother to stop him. The humans would be too scared and the monsters wouldn’t care. I was screwed.

My only option was running.

I hated running.

Looking down at the table, I allowed myself to shake, forcing myself to show my fear. He’d love it. The jackass purred. I gripped tight to my coffee and breathed out. With a flick of my wrist, the scalding liquid splashed in his face. He screamed and grabbed himself while I ducked under the table, grabbed my ID, and flew from the shop, not stopping until I made it to our street. I leaned against a lamppost and caught my breath, not wanting to alarm Alcott. He needed to follow the sorceress, not head out for revenge on the blockhead vamp. I regretted not pouring it in the dick’s lap. Hopefully no one had recognized me. At least no one who’d denounce me. I looked a lot different on the street compared to onstage.

I stomped up the concrete stairs into the apartment, collapsing on the couch. “Your turn.”

Alcott smiled from the kitchen chair where he laced up his boots. “Tired?”

“Exhausted. And Tashia did nothing all morning. She watched our performance—and everyone else’s—and then went to her hotel. I’m sloshing full of coffee after hanging out in there keeping watch to see if she left.”

“Did she talk to anyone?”

“Just her creepy familiar.”

“I barely remember her having one when she came to our town. Were you able to figure out what it is?”

I turned to look straight at him. “Her familiar is a freaking chimera.” Unfortunately, I remembered the familiar quite well.

Alcott smashed the side of his fist against the table and cursed.

I smirked without any real humor. “Exactly. Did Liv tell you about the douche you sent to meet me?” I kicked off my boots, shoving them under the coffee table with my feet.

“Yes, and I’m so sorry. Marie and I talked, she’s going to handle it.” He stood and came around to perch on the coffee table in front of me.

I held out my arm for him to help me get my jacket off. “Was she pissed we went outside our quadrant?”

He yanked at the sleeve, and held out his hand for the other, relieving me of my jacket and tossing it beside me. “Yeah, but I lied and told her it was just information we were looking for. I didn’t tell her about the C-4.”

“Good. I’ll get a couple hours of sleep and then Liv and I will go get it. Enjoy spying on her, it’s quite boring.” Unless a monster tries to screw with you. “Maybe she’ll do something interesting before I have to go to work.”

“Good luck.”

He dropped a kiss on my forehead. “You should shower. You reek.”

I threw a pillow at his back as he left, laughing. I heaved myself from the couch, my nose wrinkling when I got a whiff of myself. Gross. The vamp smell had rubbed off on me.

After a shower I tossed around in bed. There was a stone in my stomach filing me with nervousness and dread. Giving up, I changed out of my pajamas and went to read on the couch, waiting for Olivia to wake up. I took mental notes as I poured over the spy novel, thinking they’d be useful in our plans against the sorceress. Most of the tactics had no use against someone with magic. I wondered if the idiot Al sent my way had read this one.

My eyes closed and popped back open over and over. Sleep was determined to stay away. Someone trying to knock the door down ruined my efforts. I cursed as I hurried to the door and opened it, falling back a few steps when I saw Jackson on our porch breathing hard, panic tensing his face.

“Who’s dead?”

His brows rose as he gasped. “What?”

“You aren’t here in this state just to check on my wounds.”

He came inside and closed the door behind him, but I wouldn’t let him in any farther. “It’s Alcott.”

No.

H
e grabbed my arms as I tried to run from the apartment and held me close as I thrashed and fought against him. “Let me go. I have to go help him.”

“You can’t.”

“I can. Let me go.” My words were a howl of fury and terror.

Olivia ran into the room, hair and eyes crazy from being ripped from sleep. “What’s going on?” My state made it impossible for Jackson to answer. Her voice whipped through the haze wrapped around me. “Monet. Enough. Let him tell us what’s going on and then we’ll ride to the rescue.”

I slumped so suddenly, he dropped me and I landed on my knees bent over, trying not to vomit. “Was he arrested? Did they catch him following the sorceress?”

“They caught him doing that, yes. But...he wasn’t arrested.” Jackson bit his lip and turned his face away.

“What do you mean? It’s not like they’d let him go.”

His eyes had never been so solemn. “Monet. I’m so, so sorry. They killed him. Executed him on the spot.”

“How do you know?” Olivia asked.

“I saw him. After.”

My head shook back and forth, refusing to believe him. Alcott was just there a couple hours before, poking fun at me and laughing. I reached up and touched the spot he’d kissed me.

My soul broke open and a silent scream ripped from me. My insides withered and shriveled to something warped and black. The sorceress had taken my parents—now they’d taken my last family member. My baby brother. I had nothing left except revenge.

This had to be a nightmare.

Wake up! You have to wake up. How the hell do I recover from this?
This would break me. Please be a nightmare. Or a sick joke.

Wake up.

If I was asleep why did my throat hurt so much? Fingers ran through my hair, but all I saw was his face. His precious face, ready to die so we could live. The idiot.

Wake up. Please.

I stumbled to my feet, face blank, numb. I left everything on the floor beneath me; I had to be empty for what I wanted to do next. “If you two will excuse me. I have something I need to do.”

I left Jackson staring after me and Olivia sobbing on the floor. I went into my room and moved the boxes covering the loose floorboards hiding some of our illegal goods. Down inside, I grabbed a few weapons. My insides tried to come back to life, but I squashed the emotions. I didn’t have the luxury. If I allowed myself to feel, I’d be useless.

Back inside the main house, Olivia still cried a little, but she ran through the house, grabbing things.

“What are you doing?”

She jerked to a stop. “I’m packing. Marie wants us in hiding until things calm down.”

I shook my head. “I’m not hiding while that bitch Tashia goes free. While she puts more of our people to death.”

Liv stood before me, eyes soaked with tears and grief. “Monet. Please. Please.”

A scream built up within me, clawed at my throat, desperate to escape. And it would not be silent. And I’d never be able to stop. “I can’t. I can’t just hide.” My voice was choked and barely audible as I fought for control.

“I know. I know. But they’ll be coming for us. And it won’t be one or two, it’ll be dozens. We’re good, but we’re not that good. Please, Monet. We have to hurry. Please.”

Her wet face begged me and I couldn’t say no to her, or deny her logic. I scrunched my eyes close tight until tiny pinpricks of color appeared in the black.

“Okay. We already have go-bags and I’ve got the weapons. What else do we need?”

“I don’t know when we can get back. I thought...you might want to bring something of...Alcott’s.”

I bobbed my head, not trusting myself to speak.

“I’m sorry, but three minutes at the most, guys.” Jackson’s voice made me jump; I’d forgotten he was still here.

We sprang into action, gathering things we thought we couldn’t live without. I focused on getting us out of the house alive, ignoring everything else.

One thing at a time.

M
arie and two other Uprising members from our cell burst in, out of breath and panicked. “You need to go. Now. Come back later for anything else. They’re right behind us.”

I cursed as my eyes took in every inch of the apartment, certain I was forgetting something. Liv and Jackson ushered me out, Marie and the others shoving us out the door.

“Go out the back. We’re right behind you.”

We ran for the trees behind the apartment, away from the road, packs slammed into our backs, weapons dug into our sides, Liv’s cello slapped the side of her leg, Jackson between us.

Under the cover of trees, we slowed, caught our breath, adjusted straps. We circled around towards the side of the apartment building, searching for signs of Marie and the others. I turned to take one last look at our home, no idea when I’d have the chance to return.

Tashia, her chimera, and a handful of vampires surrounded the front of the apartment. Marie and the others were still inside.

Olivia tackled me to the ground when I tried to run for the building. I choked on a mouthful of dirt and leaves with my face buried in the ground. As I spit, I tried to buck her off, but those lessons from her wrestler ex-boyfriend paid off, because I couldn’t move.

I hissed at Jackson to get her off me, but he shook his head and stepped back.

She straddled my back and had my arm twisted and pinned. “There’s nothing you can do except get taken with them.”

I watched in helplessness as Marie and the others flew from the building. The sorceress and her beautiful, terrifying familiar skipped out behind them, snarling smiles on their faces.

My mouth tasted like ashes as I sobbed in silence.

Marie screamed as Tashia dug the heel of her stiletto into her shoulder, grinding it down hard. Marie made it to her feet and tried the same move Liv used on me, but it was like she hit an invisible wall, her body flung back and crumpled to the ground, not moving.

The chimera toyed with the other two, not even bothering to shift to her monster shape. Her tail snapped and the snake head bit into them over and over and over again until they were covered in bites and screaming as the venom spread.

I had to help them. I struggled again, begging Olivia in whispers and whimpers to let me go. To let me save them. But she only held on harder, tears of apology falling onto my back.

Blood coated Marie’s face, and she was barely conscious, but she tried to crawl to her people. The sorceress smiled and let Marie make it an inch away before kicking her in the ribs, sending Marie flying into a tree.

My nails dug into the ground so hard a couple of them ripped out and broke to the quick. Snot and slobber soaked my face, creating mud on the ground under my mouth.

I pounded my head against the packed dirt, trying to wake myself up. This couldn’t be real. Even as they loaded the limp bodies into the bed of a pickup truck and drove away, I still lay there telling myself it was a dream.

Even as they set fire to the entire apartment complex, sending screaming people racing from the building, and I watched it burn so bright it scorched my eyes, I knew I’d wake up any minute, safe and cozy in my bed.

Liv’s hold weakened enough for me to break away and head alone deeper in the woods as I ignored the calls behind me. I ran until my lungs couldn’t take any more. As I fell to my knees on the forest floor, roots and rocks dug into my skin, and my eyes were on fire as they saw only the ashes swirl down around us like gray snow. My head bowed lower and lower until I was bent in half, my face pressed into my legs as I fought for breath. Flashes of Alcott flickered through my mind like a slide show. Him as a kid laughing and running through our backyard. Playing in the tree house. The time he and Liv kissed on a dare and collapsed against each other in laughter. Video games, laser tag, movies with him all melted into a single image of him pulling me away from our parents’ dead bodies. His eyes smiling at me from across a campfire. Him telling me that all we had left was hope. His face pale and determined as he left to follow Tashia. My body shook with repressed sobs, but I swallowed them. I wouldn’t cry over him. I wouldn’t. The idiot. And now, he was gone, and I didn’t deserve to cry over him until I’d avenged his death.

At some point, Liv had collapsed beside me, her own tears bathing the ground. Jackson stood guard over us, his back hunched, a silent sentry, allowing us a moment to grieve.

Olivia came to her senses first, yanking out her phone and sending off encrypted texts to the other Uprising members. I followed her lead and pulled out mine. We removed the batteries and Sim cards, smashing and stabbing everything under a couple heavy sticks. Monsters weren’t great with tech, but they’d learned more than made us comfortable after watching us for so many centuries.

We had several replacement phones in our go-bags.

Jackson dragged us away, and I followed him with a chasm widening in my chest, caring little for the filth coating me. Terror for Liv was the only thing keeping me from collapsing in the trees and staying there forever.

He led us back to the vet clinic. Thankfully, it was on the outer edge of our sector and people only came around there if they had a hurt animal or needed wood from the lumber yard next to it.

He took us to the back of the building. “I have an apartment above the clinic. No one will look for you here.”

One of my brows rose. “Are you sure? You were seen with us a couple times so they may come for you.”

“Trust me, no one notices me.”

I didn’t see how that was possible.

“And if they do, I have a place they’ll never find you with a warning system that will give us enough time to get you hidden.” He gestured for us to precede him up the stairs.

“A warning system?” Olivia asked.

His grin blinded me. “The animals in the clinic beneath my apartment. They raise quite a ruckus whenever anyone unfamiliar comes in.” He opened his door with a flourish, inviting us inside.

It’s a pretty barren home. A lone saggy couch in the middle of the living room, pointed at nothing—no TV, no other chairs, nothing. A long table ran along the back of it, covered with an assortment of bottles filled with herbs and flowers.

His kitchen was small and brown, a couple boxes of health-nut cereal on the counter. And a huge bowl of fruit. No photos of family or friends, nothing to explain what sort of guy he was other than either gluten-free or a vegan.

Which didn’t earn him any points from me.

He cleared his throat, flags of pink on his cheeks at our inspection. “Come on. I’m sure you’d like to get some rest.”

We followed him to his bedroom where a forest threw up. Everything was the same color as his eyes from the comforter on the bed, to the throw blanket and the sheets and pillows. The headboard was made from twisted wood and wrapped with ivy. The curtains were the same green, but with a sparkling gold sheen shining from the light of his bedside lamp. The soft emerald rug on the wood floor by the bed looked like moss. More bottles decorated the room on every available shelf and table space, and they gave off fresh scents of nature.

“It’s stunning.” I snapped my mouth closed when I realized it gaped open with awe.

“Thanks. You two sleep in here.”

“Where are you going to sleep?”

“My couch folds out into a bed.”

Liv shook her head. “We don’t want to kick you out of your own bed. We’ll be fine out there.”

“In case anyone comes, you’ll be closer to the hiding spot.” He waved his hand towards the closet. “Let me show you.”

He opened the door, revealing a huge walk-in closet filled with clothes and shoes. Lots of pinstripe and bright colored pants, button ups, multicolored shoes, fancy hats. I sucked my lips into my mouth to keep from commenting about it.

“I’m pretty sure they’ll check the closet.”

He tutted and pulled the floor-length mirror away from the wall, revealing a small alcove behind it. Big enough for Liv and I to sit in relative comfort. At least for a short time.

“You should keep your things in here until we get word on what’s going on.”

We set our weapons and packs and only remaining possessions in the world in the little hole. There’d still be room for Liv and I to fit.

“Did you install this yourself?”

He nodded. “I did it last week. It was originally going to be where I could hide some items I’d planned to procure. But that can wait.”

I opened my mouth to ask about the items, but Olivia’s elbow jabbed into my gut, cutting off my words. And air.

He shut the mirror back into the wall and we backed out of the closet into the bedroom. He pointed to the other door. “Bathroom’s in there. If we have any company tonight, you’ll know. Get your clothes and shoes and get in the hiding place as soon as you can.” He stopped before leaving. “Oh. There are clothes you can borrow in the top drawer of the dresser.” He closed the door behind him, left us alone to stare at each other, shock trembling through us.

Wanting out of my filthy clothes, I crossed to the large brown dresser and rummaged in his drawer. I unearthed a couple pairs of basketball shorts and soft vintage tees, coveting the one with The Clash on it for myself, leaving the unicorn one for Liv.

It brought the ghost of a smile to her face when she got a look at it. “You can have first shower. You’re always faster than I am.”

I hurried into the bathroom, not chancing a glance in the mirror, not wanting to see the lines of sorrow on my face, not wanting to see my eyes that were so much like Al’s. I rustled around under the sink for a trashcan liner to shove my stinky clothes into. Focus on one thing at a time. Shower, sleep, keep Olivia sane, keep an ear out for barking dogs. Tomorrow, we’d focus on taking down Tashia and the chimera.

They didn’t stand a chance.