From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4)

by Stacey Marie Brown

  “Seriously?” Croygen scoffed, throwing his arms out, and stared up at the ceiling in bewilderment. “I only endangered my life, my men’s lives, rescued you from Vadik, all because I didn’t care about you?”

  “And Croygen,” she added.

  “Turning against the two people who, I have no idea why, actually care about you, is the way you thank them?” I demanded.

  Her lids narrowed on me. “I’m not going to explain myself to you. I don’t care if you like me or not, but I’m not leaving. You are just going to have to deal with it.”

  My neck craned over to Ryker. “You are going to let her stay? After what she’s done?”

  “This is not going to be Ryker’s decision.” Amara’s face lightened with a smug smile. “You are going to want me to stay.”

  Laughter shot from my lips. “Are you kidding me?”

  “No,” she said. “You got this all wrong. It’s not what I want from you, it’s what you’ll need from me.” Amara peered down at me with superiority.

  My lips hitched up in a snarl. “What could I possibly want from you?”

  Her eyes glinted like she knew she had me. “I know where Vadik is keeping those girls.”

  “What girls?”

  Ryker groaned, reaching for his head.

  Amara glanced back and forth between the two of us, her expression elated. “He hasn’t told you.”

  “Hasn’t told me what?” I directed my question over to Ryker. He hadn’t revealed much yet. And the fact Amara knew information I was not privy to came with a gut punch.

  “That girl, Annabeth, you got all upset about…let’s say Vadik is enjoying her profits at night along with the rest of the girls who are either fighting or charming the men, both human and fae.”

  My stomach sank, twisting into a pile of sludge. “What is she talking about?” I searched Ryker’s face, hoping she was making stuff up. But his frown gave him away.

  “I’m sorry. I was going to tell you.” Ryker scratched his beard uneasily.

  “Tell me what exactly?”

  Ryker glanced at me warily. “Vadik may have lost you the night of the fight when you jumped back to Peru, but he came across something else instead. He realized there was profit to be made from Duc’s and Marcello’s old business. Fae were already there. Why not profit off them as well as the humans? He killed Duc and his men and took it over.”

  I struggled to take in air. A demon now ran the fight club, and the girls who couldn’t fight had become escorts to the fae? “Vadik? Vadik is in charge of the underground fighting ring?”

  “Yes.” Ryker nodded. “He’s made it an open arena for fae to pay and take advantage of humans. Feed off their sins. Drain them of their life and energy.”

  “Vadik moved them to a more secured place. Somewhere you would never look.” Amara’s smugness billowed off her.

  “How do I know you aren’t lying to me?”

  “Go check the old place if you want. It will be vacant. If you want to waste time, be my guest.” She shrugged.

  “How do you know where they are?”

  “I just happened to run across this information in Vadik’s office while stealing the keys to his boat.”

  “Boat?” Croygen perked up.

  “It’s how Ryker and I escaped Vadik. You know, when I saved his life.” Amara nodded at Ryker. “Not that he remembers much. He was out cold, bleeding all over the deck from a gunshot and a knife wound.”

  “What?” My mouth fell open.

  “Not important right now.” Ryker waved his hand. “What’s imminent is it’s not only those girls you need to worry about. Vadik wants you. He wanted me to find you so he could take you away from Rapava.”

  “What does he want me for?”

  “At the time, he thought if I didn’t kill you, you would make the perfect fighter and thief to add to his collection, especially with having some of my powers along with your reputation as a fighter.”

  I jerked my head from side to side. “But as far as he knew, if you didn’t kill me, you would die.”

  “Actually, he preferred it that way. You were more valuable to him.”

  “But he’s your father!”

  Ryker’s shoulders stiffened as he changed his footing and clenched his jaw. “That’s not important to him. Or me.”

  I wrapped my arms around my torso. Even with this new threat to me, I could sense Ryker’s pain. No matter what kind of relationship you had with your father, it had to hurt. Vadik would rather have Ryker dead so I could earn him a larger profit.

  “Whatever conditions the girls lived in before, their lives will be much worse under Vadik’s hold. They’ll be leeched off of by fae every week and die slowly. Then he’ll toss them away and get new girls.” Ryker confirmed the truth I knew inside.

  Annabeth’s face swam in my head. The thought of her being forced to submit to these men filled me with revulsion. Annabeth had a kind soul. She would never recover, especially if fae were feeding off her.

  Duc wouldn’t have done things much differently. Humans and fae could both be vile. But knowing Vadik, he would enjoy stealing her innocence and end up selling her to the top bidder. Vadik’s evil had no limits. Bile gagged my throat.

  “Look at you.” Amara wrinkled her nose. “You’re disgusted by Vadik, but you’re okay with what your own doctor is doing to fae?”

  My hand shot up, my fingers circling her throat. “Don’t. You. Dare,” I seethed. “Neither is all right. And I plan to take down both. I only hope somewhere along the way you’ll get in my way.” That dark, crazy, unbalanced part in me lit my skin with energy.

  “Zoey.” Ryker swiftly reached my side, and I shot him a deathly glare then turned back to Amara.

  “Why don’t you tell me where he is keeping them?” I squeezed down.

  “You want to end me? Go ahead. Do it.” She pushed against my hand, moving till I had to take a step back. “What are you waiting for, Zoey? Do it now.”

  She was baiting me. My hands shook with the need to squash her larynx.

  “Come on.” She heaved forward, leaning her weight on my arm. “Your threat of doing something to me before you know the location is bullshit. Plus, you won’t hurt me. Not really. Ryker still cares about me, and you wouldn’t do anything to hurt him. We both know it.”

  A growl clipped at my throat. She was right. And I hated her more for it. I dropped my hand.

  “That’s what I thought.” She snorted, reaching up and rubbing at the indentions my fingers left.

  “Don’t test me, Amara.”

  “Some friendly advice? Your bleeding heart for those humans makes you easy to control, Zoey.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “No. It’s a warning. I’m not the only person who will use it against you.”

  “I swear if you make one move I don’t like I will not hesitate.” I stared at her.

  “Fair enough,” she responded. “But know this, I won’t either.”

  I took a moment, my gaze drilling deeper into her before I gave her a curt nod.

  “Wow. This is so freakin’ hot.” Croygen had one hand up under his chin, the other across his stomach like he was watching a tennis match.

  I glowered at him.

  “Now talk, Amara.”

  “Oh, I’m not giving up my only leverage.”

  “What?” I bellowed. Ryker had retreated from me, rubbing his forehead. I was beginning to think anger from anyone, most likely me, spurred the killing oath into high gear.

  Amara spun around, looking over her shoulder at me. “I will show you were it is. I’m not stupid, Zoey. Don’t treat me as if I don’t know the game.” She glanced at Ryker. “I’m heading out now.”

  He nodded, an understanding passing between them.

  My lungs chugged air, trying to keep my rage from taking over again. I did have to hand it to her. She was excellent at this game of deceit, betrayal, and blackmail.

  I stomped off the opposite way, needing to be as far f
rom Amara as possible. I wandered into a smaller room, off to the side. It appeared empty except some racks left behind. Cobwebs caked the shelves and the small window at the top, shimmering in the last of the moonlight.

  I can do this…just breathe, I repeated to myself. I had twisted my soul into pieces to demonstrate loyalty to Rapava. I had hidden my true feelings from a psychotic man who had me cut up Ryker to protect my sister. Rapava used Ryker as a practice dummy to inject with mind-control serums, a freaky science experiment. Amara should be easy to handle, yet something about her provoked me past reasoning.

  And that something was not far behind me, following me into the dark, small space. The instant the door shut behind him, the air in the room exploded with heaviness, the oxygen so thick my teeth bit down, crunching the tension between them. The memory of the last time we were in a dark closet together convulsed my lungs and forced them to work harder for air.

  He didn’t make a sound, but his presence screamed through my bones. The magic we shared connected us by thousands of invisible strings. I kept my back to him, my hands strangling the frame of the racks.

  I took a deep breath. “Why did you give it to me? I mean really?”

  Like a GPS, I could feel him traveling to his destination. He stopped, his physique looming over mine. Heat seeped into the thin fabric of my scrubs. His breath knocked against my neck and traveled down my spine.

  “Zoey…” My name came out like a whisper in the wind.

  “What?” My lids squeezed shut.

  “Why do you think I gave it to you?” his voice rumbled.

  “I don’t know. Because I had the nearest boot?”

  “I gave it to you because you’re the only one in the world I trust.”

  Trust. The word exploded over me like a bomb. Trust to people like Ryker and me meant more than love. It was the ultimate compliment.

  His declaration crumbled my heart like a dried leaf. But no matter what he said, I could feel the barrier between us.

  “What do you want, Ryker?”

  He sighed, a groan gurgling in his chest.

  “I thought you wanted to stay away from me.”

  “I never said I wanted to.” The heat from his lips brushed my ear. He didn’t touch me, but his words slithered down my throat, warmth from his body pulsing against mine. My hands clasped tighter to the frame, holding me up. “It’s what I have to do.”

  “We don’t have a safe word, remember?” I whispered over my shoulder. “We take it all. Dangerous or destructive.”

  Ryker sucked in sharply through his nose. He reached above my head and grabbed the support beam of the shelf I was holding on to, his form rubbing roughly against mine. “Do you know how difficult this is?” The metal groaned under the pressure of his hand as he strangled the bar. “You can’t imagine the things I want to do to you right now.”

  “Then do them.” My heart thumped in my chest, my head feeling dizzy.

  Ryker pressed harder into my back, forcing me to feel every inch of him. “Because some of the brutal things I want to do to you are nowhere near pleasurable. My line is still really thin. I don’t have control. Until I know which way I will go, I can’t be left alone with you.”

  “Then why did you come in here? I didn’t ask you to.”

  “Because even against my better judgment, I can’t stop myself. Where you are, human, is where I want to be.”

  Tears pricked under my lashes. Pain lobbied for its voice to be heard, crippling my physical body and my heart. Why was it always so tough for us to be together? The feel of him against me made it even more difficult. It would be easy to tug away the two pieces of cotton between us, to let the fabric slide down my hips, feel him enter me.

  Physically, the partition was thin. But emotionally? The world had built a barricade between us. Prisoners to unseen chains.

  Ryker growled and stepped away from me. I stayed flattened against the shelf, letting it hold my weight.

  “It’s going to be day soon. We can’t leave here while it’s light. Amara is the only one who can glamour. I sent her to get water and something to eat for Lexie.” Ryker’s voice turned to ice. “But we need to plan to get proper provisions. Clothes, weapons, food.”

  I didn’t move or answer. My throat wouldn’t let me respond.

  “Zoey?”

  I nodded, keeping my burning eyes facing the wall. He exhaled. His boots made a squeak as they moved over the concrete. The door shut soon after.

  Hearing it close felt like a bullet straight to my heart. My vision blurred, and my face crunched with agony. If I could have cut out my heart, I would have. It wailed with pain. I had never let myself love like this before. Not even Daniel. Love made you vulnerable. I had steered away from it most of my life to survive.

  Daniel had been the first man I let those walls down for. I had loved him in my limited way, in the only way I thought I was capable of loving someone. But with him I always wanted to be a different person. Have a different life. Live in a fantasy where I didn’t do bad things, things I secretly enjoyed. Daniel would have protected me, kept me from the big bad world, never knowing the darkness lived inside me. I would have pretended, forced myself to believe that part of me didn’t exist. But nothing can stay hidden forever, and ignoring a part of myself would have eventually ended us.

  Not one bit of me remained hidden from Ryker.

  Without really noticing, somewhere along the way, Ryker had leaped beyond any boundary I erected. It was so subtle, like a frog slowly boiled to death. He devoured me whole. He did not shy away from the dark or light.

  I loved him. Completely. Demon. Good. Bad. But fate seemed to be out for us. Keeping us apart. Even in the same room. I gritted my teeth, inhaled through my nose, and pushed off the shelving. I could sequester my feelings like the best of them. To survive, I would have to.

  It took several more minutes, but I gathered my strength and walked out of the room, shoving my desires deep down. Time to focus on others—the people who needed me to be strong: Annabeth and Lexie.

  I would not fail them.

  SIX

  “Absolutely not.” Ryker threw out his arms in frustration. “What happened to focusing on food and weapons? Those are our priorities right now.”

  “They are, but I’m not going to sit back and let Vadik continue to harm Annabeth or any of those girls,” I challenged, mirroring his movements. When I had returned to the main room, Sprig was awake, sitting on the table, bantering with Croygen. Amara left on the Wanderer’s commands. And Ryker had again become the stoic, no-nonsense Viking. It should have helped me subdue my hormones when he turned into an ass, but sadly it didn’t.

  “Zoey, you’re a good fighter. Don’t let you emotions over this girl make you stupid.” His jaw twitched.

  “Do you guys need a timeout?” Croygen stood between Ryker and me, his hands pushing us away from each other.

  “Oh man. They’re at it again,” Sprig climbed up to my shoulder and patted my cheek. “This happens when she doesn’t get food or sex. I think it’s becoming a disorder.”

  “Ryker,” I said through clenched teeth. “I am getting Annabeth out of there. I’m not going to leave her.”

  “Yes, you are.” He bared his, getting into my face. “At least for the time being. We need to check it out first to know what we are getting into. It’s foolish. And suicidal. I have fought too hard to keep you alive for you to recklessly throw it away on a girl who might already be dead.”

  A hiss of air strained through my front teeth. The thought she might be dead had skated the edges of my thoughts, but I hadn’t let it settle. Ryker just pounded the idea into my gut like a cudgel.

  “I don’t even want you involved in this. But if we do, we do it smart.” He inched his face a little closer to mine, stressing his words.

  Sprig reached out and touched Ryker’s cheek, muttering to Croygen. “Poor guy. It appears he is suffering from the same syndrome as Bhean.”

  Ryker glowered at Sprig an
d drew away from me.

  “I have a brilliant idea! Food for everyone. Especially me... because, well… I. Will. Die. So let’s make it happen. I mean, before I die…kinda pointless after I die because I’d be dead and don’t need to eat. Not that I still wouldn’t want to. But I don’t think I’d be able to chew, being dead. Hey, if you poured it down my throat I won’t need to chew—”

  “Sprig.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.

  “Oh, your boobs don’t happen to be carrying the nectar of the gods? The deliverer of tasty goodness?”

  Ryker stopped, his head snapping to Sprig with confusion. “What?”

  “Those tiny packets of mind-blowing sweetness.” Sprig stood on his hind legs, his arms up. “Please, gods, supply her bra with the magic of sugar. I bow down to the honey tits.”

  I groaned, which morphed into a chuckle in my chest.

  “Honey tits!” Sprig sang out. “Do I get a hallelujah?”

  “Hallelujah!” Croygen lifted his hands in the air with Sprig.

  I looked over at him.

  “What?” He shrugged. “I sing hallelujah for tits every day.”

  I snorted, shaking my head.

  “Do I want to know why Sprig is praying to your boobs?” Ryker asked, an eyebrow angling up.

  “No. You probably don’t.”

  “Respect the honey tits, Viking.” Sprig pointed down at my sports bra.

  Ryker’s eyes glinted as he licked his bottom lip. “Believe me. I hold them in the highest regard.” Heat flushed through my body.

  “Then let me hear a hallelujah.”

  Ryker tipped his head to the side. “Halle-fucking-lujah.”

  Sprig sagged down, his arms folding.

  “What’s wrong?” I peered at my little buddy.

  “He’s intercoursing with my honey!”

  “Don’t judge. It’s been a while for him too.” Croygen smirked.

  I patted Sprig on the head.

  “I’d feel a lot better if I had churros or a honey croissant in my belly. Or maybe some of those french fries?”