First and Only: Ember Lane (Book #1)

by Kelly Goode

  ‘Oh, really? Is he coming back?’

  ‘No.’

  That was odd. The chief had definitely told me to come here. My survival instincts kicked up a notch. I discarded my coffee and stood up. At the same time, Gerrard took a step closer to me.

  ‘Did the chief tell you about Mari and Sasha?’ I asked slowly.

  Gerrard nodded.

  ‘Yes, he did. He said the same thing that the voices said.’

  ‘Really?’

  It wasn’t a good sign when Gerrard heard voices and I hoped his handler was taking better care to keep the delusions under control.

  ‘Have you taken your medication today?’

  ‘Yes, Ember. The chief even gave me a little something extra. More pills, he said. More pills to make the voices clearer.’

  Gerrard’s face twisted into a dark grimace as he cocked his head as if listening to some invisible entity beside him.

  ‘It worked,’ he said. ‘The voices are so clear now. They’re glad the bitches are dead. Just like the chief said when he came here earlier. He said Mari and Sasha deserved what they got.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

  Gerrard was having another breakdown and I hoped Carter would keep his word about coming here this time. I could do with the support.

  I walked backwards towards the door, not taking my eyes from the giant man as he stalked towards me.

  ‘Gerrard, you’re having a psychotic episode,’ I tried to reason. ‘There are no voices. Why did the chief give you extra medication? Did you skip a dose?’

  ‘No. I need the extra medication for my mission.’

  ‘What mission?’ I asked, as I pressed my palm against the security panel and tugged at the door handle. I wasn’t surprised when the lock failed to disengage.

  I was trapped.

  Gerrard looked directly into my eyes, and my stomach twisted with the hate I could see reflected back at me.

  ‘I’ve been given a crucial mission, Ember. One the voices approve of. I’m going to kill you.’

  74

  ‘You took your time,’ Carter said as Doctor Alvis entered Sasha’s room. He was wearing a white lab coat over his black trousers and top.

  ‘I got here as soon as I could. What’s wrong?’

  ‘One of the recruits was strangled. Sasha, the succubus.’

  The doctor moved towards the bed and assessed the remains of the hag.

  ‘Is this the girl you thought I’d struggle to resist? I’ve got to say your standards are slipping.’

  Carter knew the vampire was making light of the situation for his benefit, and he was glad he didn’t know the true extent of the dream sex. The thought of having to admit the hag had been riding him rather than the beautiful Sasha made his stomach turn over.

  ‘She didn’t look like this when she was alive.’

  ‘Any witnesses to her death?’

  Carter shook his head.

  ‘No, and we wouldn’t have found her body until morning but she appeared to me in a dream. Told me one of the guys was hurting her. I came straight down here but the door was locked. Manual override wouldn’t work so eventually another recruit, a demon, teleported inside and let me in.’

  ‘Could the demon have killed her?’

  As much as Carter would have liked to pin a murder on Harvey, he had an alibi. He’d obviously been in Ember’s room.

  ‘No.’

  ‘So who does that leave?’

  ‘Far too many members of the team for my liking.’

  Doctor Alvis reached down and brushed aside the hag’s straw-like white hair so he could see her neck.

  ‘Let me examine the body and process the scene. I’ll let you know what evidence I manage to pick up from her.’

  Carter moved towards the door as the doctor began sniffing the body. A vampire made an excellent forensic analyst as they had enhanced senses so didn’t need microscopes or chemicals.

  ‘Just a friendly bit of advice, doc,’ Carter said, pausing in the doorway. ‘Next time the chief contacts you, I’d come straight away. I won’t tell him how long I was waiting for you because he gets prissy about things like that.’

  ‘What do you mean? The chief didn’t call me.’

  ‘What? That doesn’t make sense. Ember told me the chief contacted you and Marcus.’

  ‘Nope, I was on my way to a routine check-up when I heard the commotion and decided to swing by and offer my services.’

  ‘Why would Chief Andrews lie to Ember?’

  There were a few beats of silence while Carter mentally went over all those reasons.

  ‘Shit!’

  ‘Maybe Ember was mistaken,’ Doctor Alvis rationalised, but Carter knew better.

  ‘The chief admitted to me he wasn’t sleeping well which would tie in with Sasha visiting his dreams for sex. He would easily be able to disable the door codes and he didn’t call this incident in.’

  ‘Don’t jump to any conclusions. What possible motive does Chief Andrews have to murder Sasha?’

  ‘He’s cleaning up.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Think about it, doc. When have we ever finished a mission with four recruits alive and kicking? Most of them die on assignment like Mari, the rat shape-shifter. Our policy isn’t to send them back to the detainment unit if they fail. The consequences are more brutal than that.’

  Carter pulled his phone from his pocket and dialled his fellow handler.

  ‘Hey, Griff. Where’s your charge?’

  ‘Hey, Carter. I’m glad you called. I heard about the blonde. Is it true that she’s dead?’

  ‘Yes. Where’s Gerrard?’

  ‘The chief instructed me to take him to the briefing room and lock him inside until he got there. He wanted to speak to Gerrard alone. I didn’t like it. The ogre has been acting erratically ever since that mix-up with his medication, but an order is an order. What’s going on, mate?’

  Carter didn’t answer, just disconnected the call.

  ‘What’s happening in the briefing room?’ Doctor Alvis asked, having been able to hear both sides of the conversation with his enhanced hearing.

  ‘The end phase.’

  75

  ‘You don’t want to do this, Gerrard.’

  The gigantic man cracked his knuckles as he laughed.

  ‘Oh yes, I do, Ember. Killing you will make the voices happy. They were happy after I killed all those other women before S.P.T.F. locked me away. I kidnapped a new victim every month for a year until the police caught up with me. I bound them, tortured them and then finally released their souls.’

  ‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ I said, although after hearing his grisly declaration the thought of burning him to ash was becoming easier to justify.

  ‘You won’t hurt me. The voices will protect me.’

  I raised my hands and conjured a large ball of fire, which hovered above my palms. The flames danced as my entire body sizzled with heat.

  ‘Stay back,’ I warned but Gerrard lunged for me, knocking the table over as he grabbed me by the wrist. He grunted in pain as the fire burned his skin, but he didn’t let go. His grip was iron-tight as I tried to shake him off.

  ‘I told him I’d kill you. I told them I’d kill you. You have to die.’

  I remembered the last spell the coven had taught me before we’d been arrested and started chanting. The ancient words would manipulate the fire into something stronger, something bomb-like. I’d only ever come close to detonating once before, during The Kindler façade. Fortunately, Kari Stillwell had been able to talk sense into me. She’d told me I wasn’t a murderer, but she was wrong.

  I’d killed before and I would kill again.

  Gerrard’s arms were red and blistered. I could smell burning meat and singed hair, and yet he continued to cling to me, disregarding the fire as it charred his clothing.

  ‘If I kill you, Chief Andrews will set me free,’ the half-ogre roared, shaking me until my vision blurred and it felt as if my eyes were rattli
ng inside my skull.

  ‘I wouldn’t believe anything that man has told you, Gerrard. This has been his plan from the start. Pitting us against each other like this. You may be stronger than me, but I’m going to win this fight.’

  I had no choice. He’d made it clear that it was only going to be him or me that walked away. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t see his hideous spider web tattoo melting away as his face cracked and bubbled. I thought about all those women who had stared at that tattoo while he’d hurt them and channelled that anger until every part of me was on fire.

  My hands, my arms, my body, my hair all glowed. I released the energy building inside of me and the heat erupted from me like a pulse, throbbing in time with my heartbeat.

  Gerrard screamed and finally let go of me. He staggered backwards as the flames spread across his body, melting his clothes into his skin. I should have helped him. I should have found a way to smother the fire but I didn’t. His screams for help did not penetrate the rage that surrounded me. The fire consuming me was urging me to finish the job.

  To finish him.

  I could barely see the half-ogre through the blaze, but I could hear his dying pleas. For the pain to stop. For the voices to help him. He was thrashing around which only fed more oxygen to the flames, intensifying the fire. By screaming, he was inhaling the hot air, and scorching his lungs.

  I lifted my hands, ready to send another fireball his way when an alarm screeched above my head. I looked up, confused by the origin of the noise but more so by the cloud of black smoke that snaked it way across the ceiling.

  Gerrard must have sensed my distraction as he charged at me, swinging his arms, which had burned down to the muscle and bone in places.

  I braced myself for impact and was surprised when nothing came.

  76

  Harvey burst out from his smoke cloud and pulled Ember into his arms, before teleporting away from Gerrard’s final, desperate attack. A human man would already be dead from the injuries inflicted upon him, but the ogre-part of Gerard was strong and continued to flail around the room like an out of control firework.

  Harvey had raced from Chief Andrews’s office to the briefing room expecting the worse, that Gerrard had overpowered Ember and killed her. It had been both a relief and a surprise to witness her powers fully unleashed. The heat of the fire she’d conjured made it impossible for him to intervene sooner, but he’d felt no remorse watching Gerrard suffer. Harvey may have blood on his hands but he’d never harmed an innocent woman before.

  Harvey concentrated on putting a picture in his mind of where he wanted to reappear and seconds later, he emerged from his smoke cloud carrying Ember in his arms. He set her down on her feet outside the briefing room door.

  ‘Ember, you’re safe now. Calm down.’

  Ember’s skin was glowing as red as her hair. Her green eyes were like chips of emerald inside her face as she stared up at him.

  ‘Harvey? Is that really you?’

  ‘Of course it’s me, Red. I told you when we started this thing that I had your back.’

  ‘But you left….’

  Ember bit down on her lip, cutting off the rest of her sentence, which he was sure was going to contain the word “me”.

  He wanted to tell her right there and then that he was sorry for thinking he could walk away from her without it hurting them both, but the knowledge that their relationship was doomed to fail kept the words from forming.

  ‘Are you ok?’ Harvey asked instead. ‘Did Gerrard hurt you at all?’

  Ember shook her head. Her colouring was slowly starting to return to normal. Her skin was fading from blazing red to creamy white. The flames dancing around her hands were reducing in size until they eventually extinguished into small wisps of smoke.

  ‘Why did you come back?’ she asked.

  Harvey could have given several different answers to that question, but settled for the most pertinent one.

  ‘I forgot something,’ he replied, capturing her mouth with his. If this was going to be the end, then he wanted something to remember her by.

  Ember’s lips were soft and warm as she kissed him back. She threaded her fingers through the short hair at the back of his head, tugging gently to pull him closer. Harvey obliged and opened his mouth, deepening the kiss as he slid his tongue across hers, wrenching a groan from somewhere deep inside of him.

  He reached down and cupped her arse, pressing his hips forward, amplifying the friction between them. A small part of him knew that it was not the time to be making out in the corridor like horny teenagers but a larger part of him just didn’t care. Things didn’t matter when he was with Ember.

  At some point during their frenzied kisses, his priorities shifted from saving himself to ensuring she was the one that walked out of here alive.

  Harvey surged forward, taking Ember with him until her back hit against the wall. She tugged at his t-shirt, sliding her hands into his waistband and then up beneath the cotton, scraping his skin with her nails, which drove him crazy. The kind of crazy that made him want to rip her trousers down and bury himself inside her.

  The only thing stopping him indulging that wicked thought was the sound of footsteps closing in. Two sets. One heavy and frantic, but the other barely hitting the ground.

  A vampire!

  Harvey took the toothstone from his pocket and slipped it into Ember’s, covering his action by squeezing her arse so she wouldn’t feel what he’d done. He smiled as an unfamiliar thump resonated in his chest. The sensation was alien to him as his rotten heart took a solitary beat for the first time in years.

  Before Harvey could analyse it any further, he heard an unfamiliar voice say,

  ‘Err, correct me if I’m wrong, Carter, but she doesn’t look as if she’s in danger to me.’

  77

  My hands froze mid-exploration of Harvey’s muscular back. I’d lost all sense of time and place, meeting the demon’s passionate kisses full-force. Now shame flowed through my body at Carter catching me in the act. I removed my hands from beneath Harvey’s t-shirt and tried to push him away. He, however, did not want to accommodate my appeal and kept me pressed firmly against the wall.

  ‘Let me go,’ I said.

  ‘Let her go,’ Carter repeated, though his usually authoritative voice sounded slightly uncertain.

  ‘I’m not the one she needs protection from,’ Harvey replied, turning his head and eyeing Carter over his shoulder. I tried to peek out from behind him, but he was taller than I was, making it impossible for me to see.

  An idea came to mind.

  I channelled my energy and allowed my temperature to soar. It only took a few seconds before Harvey noticed and it became too hot for him to maintain body contact.

  ‘Ah hell, Ember,’ he cursed, pushing away from the wall, and giving me room to breathe again. ‘You could’ve just asked nicely.’

  ‘I did ask nicely.’

  Harvey’s t-shirt was singed but at least it remained in one piece as he paced the corridor to cool down.

  Now that the barrier between Carter and me had been removed, I could see the disappointment in his blue eyes.

  Deep down I knew I didn’t deserve a man like Carter. That’s why our kiss earlier hadn’t gone any further. He was too controlled. He lived his life according to a code. Harvey wouldn’t have let me walk out of his room. When the demon wanted something, he took it but Carter was decent and responsible. The perfect soldier. Qualities I couldn’t claim for myself.

  I was damaged.

  I was a murderer.

  ‘What happened in there?’ Carter finally asked, nodding towards the briefing room.

  ‘I was waiting for Chief Andrews to arrive, but Gerrard attacked me again.’

  ‘Do you want me to take a look at any injuries?’ Doctor Alvis asked, stepping towards me.

  There was a predatory gleam in his pale blue eyes and it reminded me exactly of how Darrick looked in that second before he’d crushed Mari.

  �
��Stay back, doc,’ I said, igniting the flames in my hands once again. I didn’t even need to chant a spell. The fire seemingly attuned to my emotions.

  ‘I’m not giving you the chance to sedate me again,’ I justified.

  The vampire blurred and reappeared at the other end of the corridor furthest away from my fire.

  ‘I’m not here to hurt you, Ember. Tell her, Carter.’

  I turned towards Carter. His hand was hovering over the gun on his belt as he scrutinised me, his emotions no longer visible on his face. He was back in soldier mode and I wondered whether this time if he were given the order to shoot me, he’d follow it.

  I studied the pattern of straight scars on his eyebrow, knowing that if provoked, I would defend myself to the death.

  Maybe I was more like Cassie than either one of us realised.

  ‘I trust you as much as I trust him,’ I said, nodding at Alvis. ‘This is all part of Chief Andrews’s plan. You’re only here to finish me off because Gerrard failed.’

  As if saying his name again brought him back to life, the door behind me rattled before exploding from its frame and Gerrard’s thunderous cry filled the corridor.

  Time seemed to elapse like one of those slow-motion scenes from an action movie. The wooden door splintered and flew through the air directly towards me. Harvey sprung forward, grabbing the door and teleporting them both into his cloud, the corner narrowly missing slicing my face.

  Gerrard’s bulky frame staggered into view. Whatever skin remained was covered in bubbled blisters. The rest of him was charred muscle and bone. His swollen head looked like a piece of burnt toast. His eyes were melted shut as he screamed, and lashed out in a blind rage.

  Carter reached for his gun and drew it, aiming directly at my head. Our eyes connected, and I took one last deep breath before raising a wall of flames around myself. I didn’t think it would stop a bullet but I had to try.

  ‘Ember, get down,’ he shouted, as Gerrard lurched towards me.

  At the crack of Carter’s gun firing, I fell to my knees. My flames receded and I saw Gerrard’s head jerk at the impact of the bullet piercing through his skull.