Scarlet burst from Jade’s guts. Trembling, I pressed my hands over the knife wound. When I pulled back my bloody hands, I sobbed.
Jade’s murder stained me, and it was my fault
Death swallowed me. Blood, bones, and feathers.
My sister was the sacrifice.
“You have two nights.” Drake skulked at my shoulder, whispering his pretty poison into my ear. “Call me and I am yours. We can’t all choose our path, but you’re fortunate. Is a human sister not worth more to you than a Fallen or an Addict?”
Then I startled awake. To a silent room, sheltered in the arms of a sleeping vampire.
A vampire Spike doll — complete with black coat and bleached blond hair — guarded the computer monitor opposite a pewter princess Leia. Ash had a sense of irony about his vampiric heritage.
He didn’t have a Buffy doll, but then I couldn’t blame Ash for not welcoming a vampire slayer into his home.
Yet I was here — a huntress — spinning on Ash’s leather computer chair.
I adjusted my earpiece and then snatched the Spike doll, stroking it like a stress toy as I peered at the monitor.
A marble lobby, with a silver and blue mural of the heavens on both floor and ceiling, leapt up and down in jerky movements at each step Ash took.
The camera and sound worked. Now it was time for Ash to put on one hell of a performance.
I grinned, bouncing in my seat.
“You’re gorgeous, Violet, but can I just say, one more time, you’re an evil bitch,” Ash murmured into the earpiece.
“You don’t like the escape plan?” I smirked. “Get in to Perfection hotel. Place the bugs, so we know what Eden is planning. Then rescue your mate. What’s the problem, Brigadier? Too hard for you?”
Ash snorted. “You’re hot when you’re all commanding. If I escape with my wings, let’s play dress ups.”
My grin died. “Just escape with your wings.”
The feathers carved out of Ash’s wings… Rebel’s bloody stumps... Scarlet seeping from Jade…
Blood on my hands.
Crack — Spike’s head hung backwards from his body; I’d decapitated him.
I always wondered what it’d be like when you met a guy who was as big a geek as you.
I didn’t meet a guy: I’m working with a Fang.
Keep telling yourself that Miss Vampire Lover. But seduction works in rainbow pretty ways, and you could end up seducing him.
Not listening…
But he’s no slave like Rebel. If you try to tame him, you’ll destroy him.
I huffed. J always knew me better than I knew myself, and I loved him for it, even if his truths hurt.
I shoved the broken doll behind the computer desk.
The camera, which we’d hidden in the button of Ash’s military coat, projected the curve of the counter in the hotel’s lobby. Ash’s strong fingers drummed on the counter top.
“I’d like to see Eden, please.” Ash sounded shy and awe-struck (we’d worked on that). “I…I don’t know if I’m in the right place but…this is so hard… The others…the way they treat me…I feel—”
“Dirty?” I jumped at the sound of Eden’s voice. Ash spun. Eden swanned towards Ash; his gaze was calculating. “Seducer, you were once a soldier up on a hill, but then down you came tumbling onto your knees.” When Eden kissed Ash’s lips softly, I growled. “Whore, whore, three in a bed, bad little boy, will soon be dead.”
Ash’s arms clasped around Eden’s neck. “Help me?”
Silence.
My nails sliced into my palm.
This was the hard part. Whether Eden would believe Ash a willing convert.
Sitting there — remote and helpless — was more difficult than I’d ever imagined.
Eden delicately pushed Ash away, before stroking down his cheek. “You want to be clean?”
“Yes.” Ash’s voice was tight with tears. Hell, even I could believe that he meant it.
“You need to be purified?”
“Yes, sir.”
Eden twirled around the lobby, his arms out in an elegant waltz, before gripping Ash around the neck, as he whispered, “I will train, save, and then free you of your wings.” I shuddered. “You will be my solider, whore, and toy.”
I pressed my nose to the monitor, as if that could transport me closer to Ash.
Eden hauled Ash by the arm through the lobby and into a plush lift. When the doors shut, with Eden’s sky-blue chest pushed against the camera, I snarled.
My plan…this was my plan…
A ping of the lift, grand hallway, and then mahogany door.
“The entrance to your new life. Walk the path of the pure.” Eden turned a key and thrust Ash into the room, before locking him in.
I squinted at the outline of the blue-and-white striped bedroom: silver bed, Victorian desk and…
Anarchy kneeling in the corner.
Anarchy’s head was bowed to the carpet, in the same way that Rebel’s had been in my vision from Drake. His back was blistered between the cauterized stumps of his wings.
He didn’t even look up.
“Are you seeing this?” Ash muttered furiously. He sank down next to his friend, running his hand through Anarchy’s curls. “Hey, menace, I should kick your arse for dragging me into trouble again.” Anarchy flinched but still didn’t raise his head. “But not until we’re safe in my place, with a tub of chocolate fudge ice-cream and…don’t tell me that only works on girls.”
For a moment, Anarchy’s gaze flickered to Ash’s, as his mouth curled into a smile, but then he quickly looked down again.
“Tell him that my blokes never give up,” I insisted into the earpiece.
“Violet, demanding so-and-so that she is, says that her blokes never give up.”
Anarchy’s head shot up. “You bloody wanker. The princess escaped. If you—”
When Ash hauled Anarchy to his feet by his neck, crushing him against the wall, Anarchy yelped. “You get yourself captured, and I risk everything to rescue your ungrateful arse, so don’t…”
They collapsed to the floor together, Anarchy clutching around Ash. “I’m sorry… I lost… I couldn’t stop them…”
“How adorable, my two darlings know each other.” Stephanie stood framed in the door, holding her short staff. “Training will be much more fun. Eden called and told me about your conversion, Seducer. He doesn’t believe that you need restraining. But boys who don’t behave are chained. So, be good.”
Violet snaked sickly in my stomach, as Stephanie prowled towards the two vampires on the screen. I growled, “Don’t touch my fam, bitch.”
“The Fallen are your fam now, princess? So, it was just my brother who wasn’t good enough?” Rebel leaned against the back wall of the bedroom, but his eyes sparked pure fire.
I startled, tumbling off the computer chair onto my arse. Only now I wasn’t transfixed by the danger on screen, I was flooded by the scent of sugary copper. I ripped out my earpiece. “How did you…?”
“Hunter.” Rebel shrugged, although he was shaking. “I tracked you, found you, and booted in the door. I may have made an arse of being your Custodian, but I won’t let these gits seduce you. Even if it hurts both of us.”
Rebel’s wings spread like a threat as he straightened. He was awe-inspiring in his righteousness. Then he stalked towards me, drawing Eclipse’s flaming blade.
24
A tweed blazer: that’s what I always remember. The way that it’d wrapped me safe in the scent of oranges, as two strong arms had carried me away from Jerusalem Children’s Home.
My first and only foster dad.
Six months later, I’d been carried back in the thin arms of his new wife. Her cold brown eyes had avoided mine, as she’d dumped me back in Jerusalem’s.
All I’d known was my foster dad hadn’t wanted me enough.
Fought for me.
Loved me.
Because bastard blokes always abandon you.
Rebel
circled me in Ash’s bedroom with his sword at my head. His arm shook.
The backs of my knees hit the bed, and I caught my hand in the blankets to stop myself falling. I caught a glimpse of Star on the bedside table. Then I booted an empty pizza box scuffing across the carpet at Rebel.
He dodged back.
Stephanie had both Anarchy and Ash. I’d sent Ash into Perfection Hotel. It was my plan. And instead of having their back, I was battling with their enemy.
I glanced sideways at the monitor.
Ash had been forced to strip off his coat with the hidden camera but he’d draped it over the desk, as if I didn’t want to miss the floorshow. When both vampires knelt at Stephanie’s feet, I shuddered.
Rebel noticed my distraction and roared as he swung. I ducked under Eclipse’s glowing arc. If we’d been in our training sessions, I’d have been certain that Rebel had been aiming to miss.
Rip — the sword slashed through the Lara Croft poster, embedding in the wall’s plaster.
As Rebel yanked, I booted him in the gut. He flailed away from the blade, before toppling over. Then he bottom shuffled across the carpet, clawing himself up when his back hit the wall.
Violet me up anytime now, J. I’m being hunted by the punk.
You’re in the bedroom of his enemy, Feathery-Judas. Where’s the righteousness if you burn him down?
And if he burns me?
Everybody burns. It’s just a matter of when and how.
I twirled, slamming my fist into the wall next to Rebel’s cheek. “You want to hurt me, wallad?”
Rebel flinched but didn’t pull away. “I just want you, princess. To protect you.” He bit his lip, resting his head against the wall and exposing his neck around his dark collar, as if tempting me to bite. “I know that I’m bad. But you said that you needed me.”
“And you abandoned me.”
We stared at each other, united in our hurt and confusion.
Then Rebel grinned, bouncing up on his toes. “Let’s put it down to six of one and half a dozen of the other. I came back, so I did.”
I looked away. “Right now, Ash is risking his wings for Anarchy because you wouldn’t.”
Rebel flushed, hugging his leathers closer around himself. He gave a curt nod and marched to Eclipse. He braced his foot against the wall, heaving the blade free in a sludge flurry of plaster. “I made a balls of teaching you to be a vampire hunter,” he muttered, wiping clean his sword, before sheathing it, “you’re the vampire savior.”
When I followed Rebel, turning him gently by the shoulders, he steeled himself, as if expecting to be clouted. Love is pain… Yet I wanted him to understand that it could be something different and that I needed Ash and Anarchy as well. “I sent the Brigadier into that Psycho Hotel like a soldier into battle. If he’s killed, it’s on me.”
Rebel’s smile was soft. He rubbed my shoulder. “Let’s rescue these dopes then.” He strode to the computer, before flopping into the chair. “Is this all part of the plan, Feathers?”
I pushed my earpiece back in and turned to the screen.
Three naked vampires lay in a tangle on the silver bed: curves and hardness writhing in the silk, moans, wet kisses, and slaps.
Stephanie stretched along the bed like a goddess being worshiped, whilst Anarchy sprawled on his side, directed by her hand at the back of his neck to snog her lips and neck. At each hiss of harder, soldier, Ash screwed her, as his wings beat up and down in time with his thrusts.
“Not part of the plan…?” Rebel ventured.
“Not my plan.” I snatched the Spike doll, twisting its head fully off, before hurling it across the bedroom.
Rebel lifted his eyebrow. “Toy murder aside, the muppets may not have had a choice.”
I was going to hurl.
Suddenly, Stephanie convulsed, clutching the sheets. Ash held her down, curling his wings around her, whilst she shrieked. Then her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed.
“Hell, Ash has screwed her to death,” I breathed, staring at the screen.
“She’s not dead, just blacked out,” I jumped at Ash’s whisper, “and either I heard the angels because being used as a dildo flew me to heaven — note the sarcasm — or your possessive boyfriend reached the end of his leash and came back.” When Rebel growled, Ash laughed. “That’s the sound of your kinky angel.”
Rebel tilted his head at me, but I shrugged helplessly. “No matter how much of a legend you are in bed, Ash, that bitch shouldn’t be comatose.”
Ash hurled Anarchy’s tattered jeans at him, before scrambling into his own clothes. “It’s a Seducer thing. A secret superpower. She wanted it.”
I bit my tongue, not expecting the scorching surge of jealousy. “Superpowers save people. How does…?”
“It’s how the Brigadier feeds.” Rebel glanced at me. “Take them to heaven and then…hell.”
Ash’s shoulders slumped, as he buttoned up his shirt. “Not hell. Just a quick nap in heaven, and I… They don’t die, and we don’t feed from the unwilling.”
“We don’t.” Anarchy slipped his arms around Ash’s neck just for a moment. “The Pure are the wankers who take by force.”
Rebel snorted. “See now why I didn’t… Why I can’t Fall?”
Ash grabbed his coat, and the camera jerked, whilst he pulled it on. Then he slunk around the room, sliding the bugs safely out of sight.
I licked my dry lips. “Just get your arses back here.”
“I can’t, princess.” Anarchy’s small hands clasped the front of Ash’s army coat, as if he could hold my hand. “I’m sorry that you wasted your time trying to rescue me. But I’m one of theirs now. They’d burn the world to find me.”
“I’d burn the world to keep you.” I didn’t know if I was talking about Anarchy or Jade, but I knew that I couldn’t lose them both. My fingers trembled, as I caressed the edges of the monitor. “If Ash escapes and you don’t, then they’ll punish—”
“It just gives them another excuse.” Anarchy peered at the camera. His face was pinched. “I’m Stephanie’s wankering pet; no one can change that. But I hear everything. How there’s some big project in Hackney. How the Pure are divided between Eden and Stephanie. I’ll be your secret agent behind enemy lines.”
Ash stroked Anarchy’s curls. “This isn’t a game, mate.”
“I know, but look what the wankers did to me.” Anarchy fell to his knees, bowing his wingless back. When he glanced back at Ash, his cheeks were streaked with tears. “I can’t return to the Fallen. You know what they’d do to me.”
“I’d hide you,” Ash pleaded, grasping Anarchy’s shoulders.
Anarchy shook his head. “You reckon I’d risk that? Give them a reason to hurt you, even worse than they already do?”
How did the Fallen hurt Ash? He was a Brigadier with a wealthy arsed apartment. Except, maybe there was a reason he didn’t live with the other vampires.
Maybe he was an outcast too.
Rebel was watching the exchange thoughtfully. To my surprise, he hooked our pinkies together.
“Please,” Ash ran his hands down from Anarchy’s shoulders to his arms, “don’t do this. We’ll figure something out.”
The sheets stirred, as Stephanie roused from her orgasm blood high. I wished that Ash had torn out her throat. “Darlings, that was…acceptable,” she purred, “but who gave you permission to dress? A cleansing session will remind you to be good little soldiers.”
Stephanie slid round on the bed.
“Out,” I hollered into the earpiece, “now.”
Ash slipped off his coat, before hugging Anarchy. “See you, mate.”
Smash — Ash booted the window in a shatter of glass.
Stephanie screeched. Then Ash dived out into the black, abandoning Anarchy to the Pure.
Ash crouched in the stone courtyard behind the apartment, his coat a scarlet pool spilling around him in the snow. There was no breeze, only the cutting freeze of the night air. A broken shed leaned agai
nst the corner of the courtyard; white shrouded it ghost-like. Ash stared up at the starless sky, which was blindfolded by cloud, as if he could fly back to Anarchy.
Save him.
If anyone understood what Ash had lost, it was me. Yet Drake had offered me a Judas choice, and I had one more night to make it.
I could still save my sister: her blood didn’t have to stain my hands.
Yet to do that, I had to sacrifice Rebel and Ash. Forget the danger to the Utopia Estate from the Pure. Go over to the side of Drake and the angels…and then I wouldn’t have to suffer this torment in the snow as well.
Did it make me a monster that if Drake appeared, I’d choose my sister?
I leaned in the frame of the back door, rubbing my arms against the cold, as I asked, “Would you trust Commander Drake?”
Ash slipped on the slushy snow; his coat was like a tail around him. Finally, he looked away from the stars, scrubbing his hand across his face. “As much as I’d trust Darth Vader.”
“So, the real question is, who’s the Emperor?”
Ash’s lips thinned, before he turned his head. “Why the need to know about Sexy Snake Drake?”
I crossed my arms. “Is the beautiful bastard true to his word?”
“Not the same as trust.” Ash wiped the tears in his eyes away with his sleeve, as if I hadn’t already seen them. After a moment, he nodded. “One soldier to another, in matters of war, he’s true to it.”
What wars, J? These angels and vampires have been fighting for centuries. It’s gang warfare.
Worse than you can imagine. Bones and feathers, carnage and genocide…
“But outside the battlefield…?” Ash twisted his hands together. “It depends how badly Drake wants something, or the Emperor does.” He sprang to his feet, straightening his shoulders. “None of us are free, Violet, light or dark.”
“And just how dark is Drake? Is he a human killer?”
Ash laughed. “I’m glad that you’re over the vampires being the Big Bads here, but save some of that for the angel boys. Humans are like heroin to angels. They’re addicted, or else they’re the preachers punishing the Addicts and flushing the heroin down the loo. One dead human is just one less Addict to Drake.”
Rebel Angels: The Complete Series Page 22
