Dead Girl's Ashes (Dying Ashes Book 1)

by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane

  The Moroi blinked. “Look who’s talking.”

  Charles considered, then shrugged. “Fair enough.” He turned his attention back to his young apprentice. “That’s her, then? You’re sure?”

  Corey nodded. “Yeah,” he replied after a moment. “It’s her. But,” he hesitated again, finally looking up at Charles. “I thought you said not to tell anyone.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Why is it a secret, if you didn’t know about the Strigoi then?”

  “Because,” Tamara cut across Charles’ sigh, “like most mages with strong talent, they both fall under the governance of the Magisterium. Who happens to have very strict rules about how and when untrained magic users are allowed to cast spells.”

  Charles’ face was a study in resigned frustration. “This just had to get more complicated, didn’t it.” It didn’t sound like a question. He ran a large hand roughly over his face before looking back up at me. “In the truest sense of ‘power corrupting,’ using magic to solve your problems can be both addictive and self-destructive. Used unwisely or before you’re able to handle it, it can lead to harmful, reckless behavior.”

  Tamara nodded. “Things like using your magic in public, for combat, or with lethal force are all regulated by the Magisterium.”

  “At least until you’re considered trained,” he elaborated. “Those that don’t have the proper licenses for those acts are considered too great of a… liability.” Corey shifted uneasily, perhaps scared. Or nervous. His heart rate was up, either way. Charles dropped a hand protectively onto the boy’s shoulder again. “I’d appreciate if we could let the matter drop.”

  I cast around for a change of topic, but Tamara beat me to it. “So,” she nodded at the notebook, “how’s the investigation going?”

  “Not well.” He tossed the pad down on the table, as if angry or disgusted at it.

  “Hold on,” I rasped. “What are we talking about?”

  Tamara gave me a sad smile. “There’s been some trouble the last few weeks. Some disappearances in town.” She frowned, her concern obvious. “Mostly young, all women. And not just your normal Magic City crimes, but people disappearing all over town. Just poof, even gone in broad daylight, no witnesses. Usually, looking into this might fall on the Magisterium, but since around here, that’s just Charles,” she nodded toward the wizard, “the ladies that run Bookbinder’s got involved to try to help. And since they’re friends of mine, I got involved to see if I could use my connections to help.” The Moroi eyed Charles. “What happened?”

  Charles’ face was grim. “Over the last few days, the rate of disappearances has skyrocketed.” He pulled small reading glasses out of his coat, nudged them firmly onto his nose, and peered at the notebook. “I’ve got the three most recent victims right here, all taken in the last thirty-six hours at most. Emilie Colbert, Jennifer Reynolds, and Lori Harper.”

  My cold, dead blood turned to solid ice in my veins.

  10

  As fast as we can to stay where we are

  “Lori?” I snapped, jolting stiffly upright, sending my chair flipping forcefully to the ground. Charles leapt to his feet, Corey not far behind him, but I paid them no mind.

  “Ashley…” Tamara held out a soothing hand, but I didn’t want soothing; I wanted confirmation. Taking a ragged breath, I snatched the yellow, ruled notebook off of the table. It was covered in a neatly-printed laundry list of names, over two dozen in total.

  And down at the bottom, the final one engraved in fresh black ink, so intimately familiar, was my girlfriend’s. Lori Harper. My lover. Number twenty-six.

  Tossing the pad down on the dingy glass surface with a hard thump, I sat down abruptly, forgetting my chair had went its own merry way. I landed hard on the grass and earth instead, feeling neither embarrassment nor pain.

  “You know her.” Tamara nodded, reaching for the pad as realization dawned in her brilliant blue eyes. “She’s the girl you told me about. The one you tried to call.”

  “I’ve been with her for over two years, so yeah, you could say I know her.” Bitterness warred with fear in my tattered voice, and I paused to swallow both of them down. “She’s my girlfriend.” I glared up at the wizard and his apprentice from my seat in the dirt, anger simmering but lacking a target, daring them to make an issue of it. “I saw her just before my shift, yester… I mean, a couple days ago.”

  I’d spent the whole time since waking up in that damned alley with the persistent concerns of where Lori was, if she was safe, and was she stressing out over my disappearance. And then, how she was going to react to the…new me.

  But she’d been gone the whole time.

  Ignoring my creaking bones, I got back on my feet. “I’ve got to do something.” I didn’t care what, just something, and after my death and today’s revelations, I knew I could. I’d be double-damned if I was going to sit on my ass if Lori was in trouble. I looked to Tamara; she’d helped me so far. “There was some strange shit in my apartment. Maybe we could start there?”

  Nodding, the Moroi looked to Charles, who was still standing warily and protectively in front of a nervous Corey. “That’s more than we’ve had to go on so far.” She eyed the wizard. “Assuming you’re willing to help.”

  “I’ve always been willing to help them. Notice how the people next door are calling my house with updates? Just because I’m not out beating the streets doesn't mean I’m not helping. Those girls need saving.” He pursed his lips, casting me a spare glance. “Throwing vampires into the mix only complicates matters.”

  “Well, I’m doing something,” I said flatly, struggling to keep my voice from dropping to a growl. “So if you’re not going after them, just get out of my way.”

  Charles frowned, lowering his staff. “You don’t know what you’re getting into. It could be a hundred things, none of them pleasant, and none of them easy to do anything about.” He drew himself up to his full, intimidating height. “But make no mistake, if something supernatural is abducting these people in my town, there’s gonna be hell to pay.”

  Tamara slipped closer and took my arm as my rage started to calm, the hint of dark red dropping from my vision. “We need his help. He’s the only Magisterium-trained magician in the area we can turn to.”

  “Help is fine,” I growled, “As long as it’s actually help.”

  Charles’ bushy brows furrowed in irritation. “Fine, then. Tell us where to go, and we’ll be there. Let’s get this done.” He glanced at Corey. “Get my bag ready.” The boy nodded once and rushed off toward the house.

  I finished calming down as I gave him my address and how to find our apartment, along with an overview of what I’d found there before. He sketched it all down in neat print in the same notebook with Lori’s name, nodding all the while.

  When I finished with the basics, he flipped the little notebook shut with a snap and a puff of air, eyeing me critically. “I can’t believe I’m helping you,” Charles sighed.

  I gave him my best winning grin, but quickly sobered. “Uh, as a note of caution, the last time I went to my apartment, there were monsters there.”

  “Good.” Charles hefted his staff. “Then I won’t have to go looking for them.”

  “So,” Tamara looked over at me, breaking the silence as she took a sharp turn. Once, her driving would have had me on edge but not anymore. It wasn’t like she was going to get me killed. “I can tell you’re upset, you know. Is it what Charles said?”

  I shifted uncomfortably as her observations hit close to home. “Well, what if Charles is right?”

  “About which part?” She glanced back at the road.

  I cast my eyes down toward the floorboard. “It’s just… Since waking up only a couple of days ago as a...vampire...I’ve already hurt people. Maybe even killed someone.” I frowned, waving a hand preemptively. “And yeah, I know, they were trying to kill me first. But does that make it okay? This whole thing doesn't seem like the… old me, I guess.” I looked back up at Tamara’s profile
“It’s scary, okay?”

  “You’re not a monster.” She caught my eyes for a moment, peering deeply into them. “I don’t believe that’s you, Ashley. I know we just met, but I can tell you still feel that you’re doing what you think you have to.” She shook her head firmly. “You don’t know what you would have done before, if you had to, in order to survive or to protect those you care about. We never know for sure until we’re in those situations. It’s not the same world it was two days ago, you know? And sometimes survival makes you…” Sadness flickered across her fine alabaster features and was gone. “My point is, you still have a choice. We both do.”

  She made sure to catch my attention before finishing her thought. “You have to believe that. If you don’t or you stop, you let other people take that choice from you.”

  “Except now, I’m doomed to be a monster eventually. Right?” Was that vampire-brand existential dread creeping in?

  Tamara frowned, seeming bothered, maybe even aggravated. “Well, you’re still you. ‘Dying’ or whatever, it doesn't change that. At least, it doesn't have to.” She waved a hand dismissively. “Look, you survived all of that stuff that happened to you the last couple of days, right? If you can do that, I’m damn sure you can pick yourself back up and keep going now.”

  “Charles seems to feel differently about it.”

  “Yeah? Well, fuck Charles.” The pale vampire in the driver’s seat scoffed and tossed her violet hair in disgust. “Charles thinks that everything inhuman is some degree of monster. It’s a view the Magisterium encourages, because it suits the purposes of the wizards in charge. I don’t believe it’s ever so cut and dry. And neither should you.” I opened my mouth, but she cut me off. “Am I a monster? Is that what you think?”

  “I, um.” I floundered, my momentum stolen by her point. “No? No. Not so much… You seem pretty human to me, I mean, you’ve been nice, and I appreciate—”

  “I’m not fishing for gratitude. That’s not the point.” She sighed. “Look. I’m just as much of a monster as you. More, even. You do realize I was born this way?”

  I frowned. “Mortal vampire… I guess I’m still associating vampires with being turned.”

  “Well, every other kind of vampire is turned, but not us. Moroi have children. Our powers run through family bloodlines, bloodlines carefully cultivated by the Moroi powers-that-be. You’re born, and you become fully Moroi by the time you’re far into puberty. There’s no way out, not really. They don’t give you a choice.” She stared ahead at the road. “I never even had the chance to be simply human, like you did.”

  “I’m sorry. I mean, that sucks. I didn’t know.” I felt lame before the words even left my mouth, and my hopelessness died in the presence of my sympathy and embarrassment. I was also pretty certain she was right. She had to be. “I get what you’re trying to say. I guess it’s just…”

  “A lot to take in. Big changes.” She nodded, glancing at me again. “The supernatural world… It’s still been rough for me, even after being eased into it for years by my family. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you: everything you know being turned upside down in a few hours. And now, on top of that, your girlfriend going missing… I’m really sorry. I can feel how much you care about her.” Tamara shifted in the plush leather driver’s seat. Could she literally feel how I felt about Lori?

  I stared blankly out at the dark, bland segments of city, all of it blurring together into a nearly featureless morass. We were heading into more familiar territory, now. I recognized these roads. “You really think we can help her?” Determination and hope were great and all, but I would have preferred confidence.

  Tamara turned enough to give me a subdued, sober smile. “Honestly? I can’t promise you that. But I can promise you something else.” She looked into my eyes for a moment as she slowed the car, turning into my apartment’s parking lot, Charles’ large black truck left behind long ago in the night. “You and I, we’ll do everything we can to find Lori and get her out of this mess, whatever it may be.” She eased the sports car into an empty spot and killed the engine before glancing my way again. “Deal?”

  I didn’t know how to respond to that. Tamara had helped me so much already, and here she was offering to stick her neck out for me even more. I nodded once. “Yeah, I...Yeah.”

  The vampire squeezed my trembling hand once, gently, then climbed out of the car. Ready to face monsters by my side, just to help me, a girl she’d just met, save a girl she didn’t even know.

  And they called her a monster.

  11

  Longing to stay, needing to go

  “See anything out of place?” Charles queried me. He and his apprentice had shown up within a few minutes of us, just enough time for me to get inside and compose myself with a little comforting reassurance from Tamara. The thought of coming back to our home and knowing Lori wouldn’t be here, that maybe she was out there somewhere, hurt like I had been hurt earlier or worse… It wasn’t easy to swallow.

  At least, unlike some people, I didn’t have issues about inviting people inside.

  “Not really.” My response was half serious, half dripping sarcasm. Police tape barred the damaged door frame, the walls and floor near the bathroom were broken inward, and shattered shards of window littered the carpet from where my short battle and dramatic exit had broken the window. There was a lot I imagined didn’t come standard in a modern apartment.

  I’d come in expecting the place to be wrecked, trashed even. But aside from the damage I’d witnessed—or caused—during my last visit, everything was deceptively normal.

  “Let’s start at the beginning.” Tamara took center stage in the middle of the living room, holding Charles’ little yellow notebook in one hand and turning to slowly survey my living space. “Her car’s still out front. No one’s seen it move for at least a day. Your neighbors haven’t seen anyone come or go, right up until the disturbance earlier today.” She ticked the points off matter-of-factly, each one an invisible arrow to my heart. “And her work said she missed two days in a row with no returned calls.”

  As our desktop booted up, I closed the unseen note I’d left for Lori with a heavy breath, instead popping open her digital calendar. “Nothing on here’s changed since last I saw it,” I rasped. “And if she’d called in, work obviously would have known.” Lori’s workplace loved her; they’d have been eager to help find her if they could have.

  Well, with the exception of one person in particular, who seemed like he loved Lori a bit too much. I could feel the solid presence of my new fangs as I ground my teeth with barely-repressed animosity.

  “Which is strange,” Tamara frowned, finishing her quick examination of our place. “Because that means Lori’s been missing almost as long as you have.”

  I shook my head. It was hard to think through the anger, the fear. I did my best to push it away. “She should have been here. She should still be here. I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “That means there should be something here to find, then.” Charles stated in a reasonable tone. Behind him, Corey wandered around, picking up things and looking at them seemingly at random. I resisted the urge to tell him to stop. “If this really is supernatural, it’ll have left traces we can find. The hard part is just figuring out what they mean.”

  I nodded. That, I could help with. The first half, anyway. “Then let me show you the kitchen.” I took Charles into the next room over, and the others trickled in behind, slowly crowding around the island splitting our small kitchen in two. The blackened, heat-warped streak still marred the floor and stove like it had before, a garish burn scar deforming the tranquility of our home.

  “That’s…not normal,” Corey offered anxiously. “Did something melt the floor? And the stove?”

  “No normal heat would do this. Not in this manner.” Charles stepped over the fallen stool without disturbing it and knelt beside me, sweeping his fingertips over the sooty markings smeared across our hardwood just like I had, sever
al hours ago. Nothing came off on his fingers, either. “Something smells burnt, though.” I picked up the blackened pot of noodles and aimed them at the wizard. He frowned. “Maybe that. Maybe.”

  “It’s cold in here, too,” Corey added, sticking close to Charles and away from both vampires as much as possible.

  “Is it?” I asked. I honestly couldn’t tell, though I doubted dead girls got cold easily.

  Tamara nodded. “Yeah. There’s a chill in the air. In here and in the living room, too.”

  Charles rubbed his face thoughtfully, standing and leaning against the island. “When you got the apartment manager’s report,” he looked at Tamara, “did they mention the fire alarm going off recently or anything?”

  The Moroi glanced over the notepad, then shook her head. “Nope. Not that they mentioned.”

  “Hmmmm.” Charles stepped back into the living room, his dark eyes picking over everything. “I can’t put my finger on what I’m feeling, exactly.”

  “But you do feel something?” I asked, my voice hoarse and eager.

  He blinked at me flatly. “I hope I don’t have to tell you something supernatural happened here.” His voice turned thoughtful again. “But the devil’s in the details, as they say. Hopefully not literally.” The wizard mumbled the last bit. “Let’s split up and look. Keep an eye out for details that don’t make sense, strange feelings or thoughts, anything.”

  We spread out, overlapping each others’ searching. I made my way slowly through our apartment, looking over our familiar things, determined to find something, anything that helped. The two potential Strigoi that I’d encountered before had left the apartment as untouched as if they’d never been here in the first place—except, of course, for the signs of the conflict I’d initiated myself.

  I idly wondered what the police or landlord or neighbors had made of the damage done to the living room wall, what with the vaguely Ashley-shaped indention and snapped wall stud or the place in the hardwood where I’d literally stomped my killer into the floor. Past that, my attempts to find anything useful or helpful were frustrated. The bedroom and rest of the house was untouched, neither by a returning Lori nor anything else, and the only strange feelings that arose as I explored were my own. Hell, I couldn’t even locate my own pile of bloodied clothes where I’d kicked them off in the bathroom, just the smear and smudge from where I last remembered them.