Ashes (The Slayer Chronicles Book 3)

by Val St. Crowe

  “And it’s not because of Cunningham?”

  I sat up, extricating myself from him. “Hell, I feel like everything’s about Cunningham these days.”

  “Okay, I’ll agree to that.” He sat up in bed too. “Are you angry with Naelen? Did he do something you didn’t like?”

  “It was fine. It was…” I looked at my palm. “Do you really want to hear about Naelen and me together?”

  “No,” said Logan. He lay back down. “You shouldn’t be too hard on him.”

  “You’re defending him?”

  “He shouldn’t have… gone after you tonight. And he shouldn’t have told you that you had to sleep with me to make things fair. He was wrong. I’m not defending that.”

  “But?”

  “But he’s insecure about things. He doesn’t have the same kind of history together that you and I have. There’s more intimate history between the two of you with Cunningham than without, and he hates that.”

  I remembered overhearing something like that last night, but I couldn’t let on that I’d been spying on them.

  “He worries you don’t take him seriously,” said Logan.

  “What? Why?” I said.

  “He says that things between you two were light. That you flirted, but you made it clear you wouldn’t commit to him, that you didn’t want a relationship with him. You didn’t deem him worthy of you.”

  “That was before,” I said.

  “Well, you should tell him that,” said Logan. “And now, can we please stop talking about him?”

  I laughed a little. “I don’t understand the two of you. Not at all.” But I lay back down and snuggled close to him.

  He reached over and turned out the light, and we lay wrapped in darkness and each other.

  It was nice. I let myself drift, feeling safe in the circle of his arms. And I fell asleep.

  Later, I woke, and it was still dark outside. I pressed my body against his, and he responded to me. His lips sought mine, and I opened my mouth to him.

  I wasn’t sure who was initiating. I wanted it to be him, because I didn’t want to think that I was the kind of girl who would willingly sleep with two men in one night.

  But I think it might have been me.

  It was nice, making love to Logan, so nice. It was always nice. He was good at working my body up into a frenzy. He knew just how to play me, as if I was his own private instrument, and he was pulling my strings pleasantly tighter and tighter, until I burst with a twang of delight.

  I waited to see if I’d feel connected to him, the way I did with Naelen. If I’d merge with Logan as well.

  I didn’t.

  We were two bodies moving against each other in the night. It felt good, and I loved him, but…

  * * *

  Morning sunlight was pouring through the windows.

  “Wake up, both of you,” Naelen’s voice was saying.

  I sat up in bed, pulling the sheets tight against my body. I squinted at him. “Can you knock?”

  Naelen folded his arms over his chest. “I didn’t know he was going to be in here.”

  “You could still knock,” I said.

  Logan stretched his arms and his wings. He yawned. “Didn’t we have your blessing? You’re the one who suggested it.”

  “Whatever,” Naelen said. “Just meet me at the car.”

  “We’re going somewhere?” I said.

  “I’ve got a lead on the cup,” said Naelen.

  “I thought we were resting,” said Logan.

  “Yeah, isn’t that the point of a vacation house by the lake?” I said. “To rest?” I thought longingly of the hammock. I had hoped to spend the whole day there again.

  “Well, if Cunningham finds the damned cup before we do—”

  “I’m not ready to face him yet,” I said. “Cunningham, I mean. Besides, we can’t. We have no objects. We have no defenses.”

  Naelen dragged his hands over his face. “I can’t stay here, all right?”

  “Why not?” I said.

  “Just can’t,” he said. “Meet me at the car in fifteen minutes.” Then he eyed us. “Make it twenty-five. Shower first.” He started out of the room. “And not together,” he threw over his shoulder. Then he was gone.

  Logan got out of bed and headed for the door. “See you at the car.”

  “You’re going along with this?”

  Logan shrugged. “I get antsy being in one place for too long. You know this about me.”

  “We’ve been here two days,” I said. “Two days.”

  But Logan was disappearing through my doorway, undoubtedly heading to take a shower.

  Fine. Whatever. Maybe we weren’t good at resting anyway.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “So, we switch off,” Naelen was saying. He and Logan were sitting on two leather swivel chairs on the plane. I had told Naelen he needed a third swivel chair, because I didn’t like being relegated to the couch, but thus far, it hadn’t happened. The couch wasn’t even really a couch. It was kind of a long couch-like padded leather bench.

  I sat on it cross-legged, with my toes tucked under my knees. “How romantic.”

  “Don’t complain,” said Naelen. “You’re the one who gets to be with two men.”

  “I’m not engineering this thing,” I protested. “You two are.”

  “You don’t want to do it?” Logan asked. “You have an alternative scenario?”

  “It feels… weird,” I said.

  “Well, it is weird,” said Naelen. “But it’s the way things are for us now. We can make this work. I know it. But everyone needs to cooperate.”

  “Look,” I said, “I’m pretty sure this is not how Eden and Jocelyn and Brian do this stuff. Eden said we should talk it out, not that you two should put me in my place for feeling weird about it.”

  “She has a point,” said Logan.

  “You’re supposed to be on my side,” said Naelen.

  “I’m only saying,” said Logan, “that if she feels uncomfortable, we should try to make her feel better about it.”

  “What’s uncomfortable about living your fantasy, Clarke?” Naelen, and his voice had a nasty tinge.

  “This is not my fantasy,” I said.

  “Sure about that?” said Naelen.

  “In my fantasy,” I said, my nostrils flaring, “there are no schedules.”

  “Well, it has to be fair, Clarke,” said Naelen, “or else we’ll rip each other’s dicks off.”

  “Naelen,” said Logan, “calm down.”

  Naelen got up out of his chair and went over to the bar. “It’s bad to get drunk before we get to the job, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “How bad?” he said.

  “Look, fine,” I said. “Every other night. But… what if I have a headache or I’m not in the mood or something? I mean, is that even kosher, or do I owe you your night no matter what?”

  Naelen picked up a bottle of whiskey and glared at it.

  “Obviously, you don’t have an obligation,” said Logan. “It’s like any other relationship.”

  “It’s definitely not,” I said.

  Naelen set the whiskey down and surveyed me with something like his normal cockiness. “I doubt that’s going to be a problem, anyway. You want me all the time.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  Logan massaged the bridge of his nose. “I want to propose another rule.”

  “What?” Naelen sat back down in one of the swivel chairs.

  “No flirting in front of the other guy,” said Logan. “If that’s what you call whatever it is you do when you say shit like that to her.”

  Naelen laughed. “Oh, come on.”

  Logan turned to me. “What is it you see in him again?”

  “Stop it,” I said. I was getting a headache again. “I want to make a rule, too. You two try not to insult each other, please.”

  “I didn’t insult him,” Logan said, sounding a little sulky.

  “Fine,” said N
aelen. “We’ll play nice, right?” He gave Logan a fierce grin.

  Logan grimaced.

  “The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we never have to talk about any of it ever again,” said Naelen.

  “Right,” said Logan. “So, when does the night end?”

  “What do you mean?” I said.

  “I mean, last night, you were with both of us.”

  I flinched. I didn’t like being reminded of that. I felt like a big fat ho.

  “Does the night end when you’ve finished having sex with one of us?” said Logan.

  “No,” said Naelen. “No, last night…” He made a face. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

  “You shouldn’t have,” said Logan.

  Naelen studied his knuckles. “Sorry.”

  Logan hesitated. Then he squared his shoulders. “It’s fine. Let’s forget about it.”

  “Okay,” said Naelen, “so I think the night should end when you leave the room together in the morning. The minute that happens, it’s the other guy’s night, beginning right then.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “So, I’m going to get mauled by the other one of you the minute I get up in the morning?”

  Naelen glanced up at me, a wicked glint in his eye.

  I suddenly felt hot all over. I liked it. In that room, there had been a lot of arousal, but it had been forced and shameful. Feeling true arousal was nice. I smiled. “Okay, fine, it sounds okay to me.”

  Naelen turned to Logan. “What do you think?”

  “I’m all right with it, too,” he said.

  “Okay, good,” said Naelen. “We’re good. That’s it, I think. Everything’s settled.”

  “Wait,” I said. “When we first met Eden and her family, she told us that most polyamorous couples aren’t monogamous at all, remember? She said that they were different, because they’d decided to be monogamous to their triad. But she and Jocelyn are bisexual, and you guys… Well, it’s not fair to you guys.” I swallowed, thinking of Naelen whispering something in the ear of that girl at the party the night before. “Are you guys allowed to… be with other women?”

  Naelen’s eyebrows shot up. “You’d be okay with that?”

  “No,” I said, almost immediately.

  “So, why’d you bring it up?” said Naelen.

  “There was that girl at the party last night,” I said.

  “It was just a walk,” said Logan.

  “No, I know,” I said, looking at Logan. I turned back to Naelen. “The girl with the dark hair.”

  His features froze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Why was he denying that he’d talked to her? I’d seen it. That was almost worse than if he’d acted as if it was no big deal to whisper in her ear. “You were really cozy with her.”

  “You are in no position to be jealous,” Naelen snapped.

  I folded my arms over my chest.

  Logan furrowed his brow. “What girl?”

  “No one,” said Naelen, sounding defensive. “Listen, I think it’s fine the way it is. We both only sleep with you.”

  Logan cleared his throat. “I don’t know.”

  “What?” I gaped at him. “But you’ve never slept with anyone except me in your entire life.”

  Naelen turned to him. “Really?”

  Logan cringed, and his ears turned pink. “Thank you for announcing that, Clarke.”

  “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t realize it was a secret.”

  Naelen buried his head in his hands. “You have got to be kidding me. The guy is so devoted to you, it’s unhealthy.”

  Logan glowered at him.

  “Don’t insult each other,” I said.

  Naelen leaned back in his chair, shaking his head. “No wonder you can’t let him go.” He let out a disbelieving laugh.

  Logan got up and walked away from us. He stood in the doorway to the bedroom with his back to us. “It’s one thing to be faithful to you when there’s still a chance that you’re going to be faithful to me, Clarke. It’s another entirely when I’m watching you with another man. It’s… I think we should be allowed to have other women too.”

  My head was starting to pound.

  “No,” said Naelen. “No, I disagree.”

  I rubbed my temples again. “He’s right.”

  “Who is?” said Naelen.

  “Logan’s right,” I said. “You should be allowed. But if I can make some ground rules?”

  “What?” said Logan to the bedroom.

  “It would be better for me if you didn’t start, like, another relationship with another woman. If it’s just… a hookup, that would be easier for me.”

  “Fine,” said Logan, turning around.

  “And I don’t want to know about her if possible,” I said. “Don’t parade her around or invite her to breakfast. Go to her place instead of…” I furrowed my brow. “Where are we going to live?”

  “On the road,” said Naelen. “Like we have been.”

  “Okay,” I said. But we couldn’t live on the road forever, could we?

  “I’m okay with that stipulation too,” said Logan. “Naelen?”

  “I’m not sleeping with anyone besides you,” Naelen muttered.

  “Don’t make promises,” I said. “It might get hard one night. You’ll be alone every other night. It might… you might need…”

  Naelen got up and crossed to the bar again. “Screw it,” he said, and poured himself a glass. “Anyone else?”

  * * *

  I craned my neck up to look as we parked. We had pulled up to a house, which loomed over us, four stories high. There were gargoyles and turrets on the top of the building, and ivy was growing all over the front of the house. The house was surrounded by tall trees. A weeping willow’s fronds brushed the driveway, which wound around a fountain in front. The fountain was old and covered in green moss, but I could make out the dragon sculpture in the center. Water spewed from its mouth.

  We got out of the rental car that we’d taken from the airport. The air was muggy and hot, almost oppressive. I felt it go down my lungs, and I felt like my breathing grew heavy.

  We’d been so preoccupied with our love life on the plane that we hadn’t even talked about what this lead was that Naelen had found. The house looked like it belonged to a mage, though. Hundreds of years ago, old mage families like this one had created the gargoyle race through a mixture of dark magic and human and dragon sacrifice. They had created gargoyles to be their protectors. That was why gargoyles were impervious to flame, why they were so strong. They were created as magical bodyguards against dragons. But the price for magic so strong was that they were stone during the day. The fact that Cunningham had managed to help Logan circumvent that was only a testament to how powerful the vampire really was.

  Naelen took the lead, smoothing the lapels of his sports jacket.

  Logan and I fell in behind him.

  Stone steps, with stone gargoyles on either side, led up to the front doorway. We trooped up them together.

  Naelen lifted the big brass knocker, which depicted a snarling dragon, and let it fall with a reverberating boom.

  We waited.

  Naelen lifted the knocker again. Another boom.

  The door opened, groaning on its hinges. A man stood inside, wearing glasses and a Ramones t-shirt. He looked completely out of place in the house. “Hello?”

  “We’re looking for Riley,” said Naelen.

  “Oh, that’s me,” said the man, reaching out to shake hands with Naelen. “You must be Naelen Spencer, then. We spoke on the phone.”

  Naelen shook his hand. “That’s me. And this is Logan Gray and Clarke Gannon.”

  Riley shook hands with us too. “Come on in.” He eyed Logan. “You’re not stone.”

  “Yeah,” said Logan. “That’s a long story.”

  “We have probably thirty gargoyles living in the manor,” said Riley, ushering us inside. “They’d love to be able to walk aroun
d in the sun, I’m sure. If there’s anything you can do, let me know. I’d be willing to pay.”

  Logan spread his hands. “I don’t know if I…”

  “Why are there so many gargoyles here?” I said.

  “They worked for my dad,” said Riley. “When the emancipation order came through in the sixties, my father offered them all the opportunity of staying for pay. I’d say a third of them did.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  Logan looked uncomfortable.

  I wanted to comfort him. Coming smack face-to-face with the fact that his entire race had been created to be slaves couldn’t be easy for him. But I didn’t know how to do that. I felt like touching him would be unprofessional, and I didn’t want to create confusion in the eyes of Riley, considering we were here to…

  Actually, I had no idea why we were here, I realized.

  Inside the house, there was a huge set of steps ascending to the second level. There, the steps branched out to left and right, going up to a level even above that. Overhead was an enormous crystal chandelier, but it wasn’t lit. The only light came from tall windows above us. The ceiling here was several stories above us. Even though there was so much open space, the atmosphere was still gloomy. Everything seemed to be covered in a layer of dust. Honestly, it was a bit like stepping into Dracula’s castle or something.

  Riley started up the steps. “If you’ll just follow me to the second floor parlor, we’ll sit down and talk.”

  A parlor, huh?

  We all went up the steps behind Riley. He led us down a narrow, dark hallway and into a smallish room. The windows were open and a ceiling fan was chugging away overhead, but it was still hot in the room.

  “Sorry,” said Riley. “The air conditioning is only on the first floor, but that’s mostly bedrooms and the kitchen and things. Nowhere to properly, uh, have a seat together.” He gestured.

  There were several antique looking chairs arranged around an empty fireplace. The walls were lined with bookshelves, and there were cobwebs in the corners. Yeah, I was definitely getting the Dracula vibe.

  “So, go and sit down,” said Riley.

  We each found a chair and sat. I set down my bow and arrows and propped them against the chair.