A Kiss of Ashen Twilight (Ashen Twilight Series #1)

by Lori, Rae

  Jace tried to calm himself down though nothing would stop the fire erupting within his chest. He yanked the ring off his finger and hauled off throwing it against the wall, thankful for the loud clank it made upon impact though he knew nothing would calm his nerves.

  He tried to reason to himself that everything would be okay. In fact, now he could resume his work and continue trying to face his duties at the Ashen Twilight house. He could freely feed from whomever he chose and not feel guilty that every woman thereafter would die upon his feed. There were no strings attached now. She had returned to her world and he could now return to his. The fantasy life was over.

  Deep down he knew it wasn’t that easy. He wanted her to come back, he mostly hoped it. The question was, would she?

  A shudder rippled throughout his body with the open air crashing against his bare chest. He rushed past the hallway and to his kitchen to grab a quick drink. His blood was depleting and his skin was cold from the lack of feeding before his slumber. He poured a drink from the fridge and took a quick gulp but it didn’t cool his burning desire. Bottled blood rarely did on most occasions. He closed his eyes as he felt the effects of the blood flowing through his system. His heart began to beat in slow weak pumps. For a moment he felt like he had when he was a mortal. His body warmed in that moment and the sound of his own heart beat ignited him, until it slowly died down to silence before it stilled again.

  Jace slipped his shirt off and tossed it to the side, not caring where it landed. He grabbed his glass again and stepped into the living room. With another gulp, he dropped to the floor to do pushups; anything to distract his body from feeling as if his own heart was ripped out from his chest. His muscles contracted and pulsed with each breath he pushed out. The sweat was already growing at his temples. His heart was nearly bursting out of his chest, spreading the blood he had consumed. He had to get rid of this emptiness—this desire. He never felt connected to anyone before. To feel that would be a weakness, an almost intangible vulnerability, and the extension of this was best described by Julian’s situation.

  Jace gritted his teeth as he pushed his body off the floor. Before he pushed her out of his mind, there was one thing left he had to do. He tried to slow down his breathing as he retrieved his paint brushes and canvas from inside the living room coat closet. With every passion that cornered his body, he painted through the early hours of the night.

  Chapter 8

  Ariya walked across the green lands of the forest allowing herself to take in the ruins surrounding her. It felt different now. The forest where she used to play as a child when she took breaks from her studies had now become a distant fantasy land. The bright shining sun sitting amidst the azure blue sky was a mockery of the night that had become her new home. Through the dark brown towering stalks of trees she saw the aftermath of the fire that tore down her home. Broken shards of crystal and crushed stone formed a soaring pile in the middle of the open meadow. She spotted a few of her guards and ladies-and-waiting but no where was any of her friends and family.

  “Lady Ariya.” Cidra’s voice invaded her mind just as she laid eyes on the tall woman across the way. Her voice captured the attention of the Aziza standing behind her amidst the armed female Amazon guards holding their spears high. Right away they all fell to their knees with a sea of murmurs and bowed their heads down to her.

  Ariya remained frozen as she looked upon them. Cidra raced over to her with her sphere gripped at her side. “The plan. It worked! What happened in the other realm? Did the hunters see you? Oh, by the servants of Mawu-Lisa, I’m so glad you made it out safely.”

  Ariya couldn’t muster the strength to move as she felt Cidra pull her close in a tight hug. Her gaze still remained on the bowing crowd before her.

  “Cidra, what is this?”

  The tall warrior woman followed Ariya’s gaze.

  “Don’t you understand, Ariya? You passed the test. You lived to evade and fight this elemental being. Your mother and father were right about your birthright. You—are the rightful Queen of the Aziza.” Cidra swallowed deeply. Her eyes grew watery. “They would have been so proud and relieved to see you.”

  Ariya nearly lost her breath as her gaze fell over the people of her town. Her people. There were many more cities out there; some much bigger than this one she had lived in her whole life. And they would all look up to her as their Queen. Her heart swelled with thoughts of her parents.

  A woman stepped forward cradling a small newborn baby in her arms. She smiled widely, offering the girl to Ariya. “My Queen,” she bowed gracefully, “this child was borne to me days after the death of your mother. A baby girl.”

  “And this baby boy was borne to me,” another woman stepped forward, holding her baby toward Ariya.

  Ariya knew the customs of their people and what the gestures meant within the Aziza culture. Her father and mother didn’t make it but their spirits had returned and were reborn in the children before her.

  Feeling her knees weakened, she reached out to hold onto Cidra at her side.

  Cidra reached out to catch her before she fell. “Be careful, m’lady.”

  Her dark heart-shaped face drained as she slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

  Ariya felt the tears welling up in her throat. She couldn’t break now. Not after all she had been through. Not when the very direction of her people was within her hands. Instead, she leaned over and placed a soft kiss on each of the baby’s foreheads. Gently they cooed and smiled as if recognizing her with their small, dark eyes. Ariya allowed Cidra to help her toward the broken palace.

  “We left it for you,” Cidra said, her eyes on the crushed structure. “We didn’t want to move anything until we were sure you were coming back. The other structures have already been rebuilt months ago.”

  “Months ago,” Ariya repeated as if in a trance. In the mortal realm, days had passed since she showed up near that alleyway. In the Aziza Fairy realm, months had zoomed by as it does. She would stay here and rebuild from across the Aziza lands.

  “Cidra, I’d like to rebuild our home to stand in my family’s honor.”

  “Shall I seek assistance for the task?”

  She turned toward the crumbled entrance and began toward it. “Please do. And send word to the other provinces that I will personally see to the reconstruction of any other lands that were destroyed in the elemental’s path.”

  “Right away, m’lady.” Cidra rushed off behind her as Ariya stopped near the front of the large debris in the midst of her people. Slowly she raised her hand, gesturing for them to stand.

  In one swift movement the shuffle broke into the calm air as the crowd stood before her. Ariya looked at each of them, their proud mahogany faces reached across generations, young and old. People she had known since she was young and those she had watched as they were welcomed to the world by elders all looked to her for guidance now. A sense of pride and honor coursed through her body and she couldn’t help shedding a tear.

  “All of you helped my mother and father when they were alive,” she said, extending her voice across the land. “When we were in danger, you were there to protect me from the vicious elemental creature. For that, I am forever in debt to you.”

  Slowly she bowed her head and descended to her knees. Murmurs fell throughout the air followed by a sea of claps and cheers with her name on their lips. Immediately they surrounded her with hugs, warmth and promises to help rebuild the broken palace.

  Once they broke to their respective duties, Ariya lifted her hand and opened her palm toward the heap of debris. Slowly she lifted the pile of broken shards from the ground. Just as she hoped, a large chasm stood a few feet away from her with stairs that lead down into the elegant library. Shards of glass and stone decorated the bottom floor and steps as she started downward. A rain of the debris descended upward around her to clear the way for her entrance. She walked down the spiral staircase and looked around the wide open space. Books still aligned the walls untouched in t
he past few months. One particular book stood out to her on the table at the opposite end of the room. Aged brown leather with a gold braided emblem drew her near. As she walked closer toward it, she remembered this was the same book her mother was reading one evening. Ariya scooped the thick leather bound text in her hands and ran her hands over the gold paper lined edges then turned it around in her hand. Out of her peripheral vision she saw a paper that had fallen onto the ground. It was textured in her hand, soft like rice paper. Setting the book down, she opened the paper and right away she recognized the small image of her family tree rendered in ink. She was at the bottom, the last remaining branch and the only one circled. Next to her name was a sentence; the last Aziza with the gift of magic.

  Her body shuddered as she read the sentence over and over again in her mind. The gift of magic. She heard stories of how their ancestors used magic along the grounds to call upon the elements to move and do their bidding. Never had there been an elemental moving with its own will like the one she fought. Like her parents, she could already fly and held the gift of second sight. The mortals called the Aziza to assist with their hunts to calm their prey toward the afterlife. Also for the Aziza’s gift of practical and spiritual knowledge. Everything happens for a reason, her father had once said. What if this elemental had come for a reason?

  Shya, Rhea and herself had played with this magic at times thinking it was a fluke of nature, but now all her parent’s teachings had come together. They brought her up to hone her craft and now was the perfect time to start working it. Still, there was something different about her. Although her parents never said it outright they hinted toward it and she could feel there was always something more to her powers than her sisters. Maybe they knew she would be the last Aziza with this gift. Perhaps they knew more than they ever told her.

  Remembering the book she left on the table, Ariya picked it up. Right away she decoded the symbols in her mind from the ancient Aziza language she had been taught growing up. The Book of Elder. She flipped to the section where a red marker ribbon was folded down the page. “Elementals of Nature” read the title of the section. A relief of wind, fire, water and Earth was illustrated over the opening heading that described what an elemental was.

  Ariya’s heart pounded in her chest as her eyes rapidly brushed across the page. Someone had indeed summoned the elemental which could integrate itself into anything it was ordered. Most important of all, it had the ability to absorb the energy, lifeforce and powers of those it consumed.

  She looked up, keeping her place in the text where she left off reading. If this was true, who summoned the elemental? Who wanted her family and friends killed just to absorb their power?

  * * * *

  “It was like a ginormous rush of wind. Like a freakin’ tornado shot through town but it wasn’t even up and down, you know what I’m sayin’? Like side to side and wavy. This thing had a mind of its own.”

  “Would you call it a UFO, sir?”

  “Nah, it was a wind, man.”

  “And there you have it. Breaking news tonight of a violent windstorm—”

  “No man! I said ‘wind’! Like whoosh Dorothy, Wizard of Oz. Crap like that.”

  “Breaking news tonight of a wind last seen over the skies of Phoenix tonight near Tatum and the 101 Freeway according to residents in the area. No sign on satellite or local radars to confirm. We’ll keep a close eye on this news story for you. Back to you Reg.”

  “And speaking of winds, clear skies tonight in the Valley—”

  Jace flipped off the television, silencing the room except for Rich’s snorting. “What?”

  Rich pushed off the conference table, unfolding his arms as he walked over to the large plasma flat screen television embedded in the wall. “A wind.”

  “Well, if that’s all they can say about it, then I’m glad. Thankfully no one caught it on camera or else we’d have a lot more tracks to cover.”

  Rich waved his hand. “Aw come on Jace, you and I both know cameras do nothing. So called paranormal phenomena has always been caught on tape from UFOs, to Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.”

  “Hey don’t even joke about Loch Ness, man. That thing used to freak me out as a kid.”

  “Oh, I forgot laddie,” Rich said in a perfectly flawless Scottish accent. “Ye were taint’d by the Loch as a wee bairn.”

  “And I’ll never forget how that head popped out of the water and looked right at me.” Jace shuddered and shook his head.

  “Yeah, right. Well, I stand by my point. Mortals have been claiming phenomena for ages. As long as the media and keeps everyone thinking these types are psychos then I’m a happy Lycan. Complete with disproving their blurred alleged pictorial evidences, of course.”

  Jace crossed the room to light the fireplace. “An ignorant world is a happy world, I guess. I’m just glad to see that infection has died. They’re trying to say some bogus cure helped rid them of it. From what Julian noticed, it died with the elemental.”

  “Don’t tell any of the mortal docs or the companies that or else their magic pills’ll stop selling like crazy. Hopefully the side effects are limited.”

  Jace chuckled. “Any other word on the situation?” He flicked the knob on the side mantle and watched the fire roar to life.

  Rich shook his head. “Just the usual. Uncle Michael noticed the news media is trying to keep it all quiet and make like the mortals got away and beat an almost incurable disease.”

  “Just as well. Better than they know the truth anyway.”

  Rich shook his head toward the piles of logs. “Man, I miss the forest.”

  “You know vampires are actually getting popular again.”

  Rich rolled his eyes and went back to the conference hall. “Ah, here we go again.”

  “What?”

  “The elegant angst of the immortal Nightwalkers and how they mix the pleasure of blood, death and sex. Please. Answering the call of the wild and being in touch with the beast within, now that’s what is always overlooked.”

  Jace chuckled. “Well, you have to admit it’s better than being chased across the forest, tortured, castrated and ripped apart, I’ll tell you that.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Rich said, shaking his head. He looked up at Jace who was leaning over the table in deep thought. He couldn’t help smiling. “You miss her, don’t you?”

  Jace’s gaze shot up at Rich. “I’m sorry I must have missed the correlation between torture and—the Fairy.”

  “Ah, the emotions and the feeling of missing someone is a torture within itself, my friend. ‘Fess up. I can tell for the past few days you’ve been trying harder than usual to go gung ho at your lifestyle.”

  Jace stood up and stuffed his hands in his pants pockets. “I think about her, yes, but that was in the past.”

  “And you don’t think she’s coming back?”

  Jace shook his head. “I don’t think she’ll be back anytime soon. No.”

  Rich raised an eyebrow. “And how do you feel about that?”

  “I—” Jace took a breath, choosing his words carefully. “What’s in the past is in the past.”

  “Oh, I’ve heard that one before.” A deep voice entered the room moments before Gael stepped in straightening out his dark navy silk. The men greeted each other.

  “Julian and the others are on their way up, you’d be happy to know.” Gael turned to Jace then to Rich. “And I, for one, can tell you this man is lying.”

  Rich threw his head back with laughter. “Didn’t have to be a psychic to know that one, my friend.”

  “It’s not like there’s any way to get in contact with her,” Jace said holding his arms out. “Besides, how in the world can it be? An Aziza Fairy and a Nightwalker. How freakin’ ridiculous does that sound?”

  Gael and Rich looked at him with stone faced expressions. Jace shifted under their gaze, unsure if he had something hanging out his nose, or if his pants zipper was down. “What?”

  “After all you�
�ve seen, you’re seriously asking that question?” Gael walked to Jace and patted his shoulder, before leaning in to make his case. “There are always ways to a woman, Jace. If you want her bad enough.”

  “Yeah, well I’m beginning to think that Julian was right.”

  “Well, I’m glad someone is finally coming to his senses.” Julian stepped into the conference room with Daoine and Michael behind him. Jace, Rich and Gael all stood with their postures erect as the elders walked toward the table.

  “Words I thought Jace would never say,” Michael snickered. He gestured for Rich to sit near him and Rich promptly walked over to his seat.

  Julian walked over to Jace who stood tall with his hands folded in front of him. “Does this mean that you are ready to take your place at this table?”

  Jace looked around at all the men aligning the houses, both regents and Patriarchs from one generation to the next. Something had changed in him since Ariya came into his life. He had put his existence on the line more times than he could imagine and although the idea of enjoying himself under the moonlit sky still appealed to him, the allure was not the same. Now he had a bigger responsibility to uphold. He nodded and took a seat next to Julian who smiled with pride.

  “Gentleman,” Julian began as he opened his jacket. “Let this meeting of the Ashen Twilight leaders come to order.”

  II

  Blessed Union of Souls

  Chapter 9

  Ariya slammed her palms against the silk bedspread and bolted upright. Her chest heaved as she stared into the darkness. It was the second time she’d had this dream in the same month. The night air enclosed all around her, she ran into endless shadows. She couldn’t see in front, nor at her sides, nor behind her but still she kept running and running. He was near. She could feel him despite not quite understanding how, where or why. Suddenly she was lifted out of the air by an unseen creature. She felt it wrapping around her, digging into her skin and ripping into her wings. She opened her mouth to scream though nothing came out as she was hauled into the night air. The sky was quickly brightening with the sun. A gunshot rang out somewhere and she was freed in midair. Her body sailed down toward the bright green forest. The air slammed against her face and body as she sailed down to her impending death.