Midnight Ash (A Blushing Death Novel)

by Sabol, Suzanne M.

  Ours, that other voice whispered through my mind.

  The wolf’s silver coat shimmered in the candlelight, his silken fur was long and shaggy as if made for the harsh winter of the Siberian tundra. His blue eyes almost twinkled under the soft light and I was caught for a moment in their depths. They were the same blue of the Caribbean Sea, bright, clear, warm. I wanted to reach out to stroke his fur, feel its thickness between my fingers. I reached out toward him and found my knife already snug in my hand.

  I’m dreaming. Oh, thank God. She can’t kill me in a dream. Right? I hadn’t moved to grab my knife. I knew that in my gut. Good thing my subconscious came prepared.

  The tiger plopped his large ass on the ground, swishing his tail back and forth as he sat next to the tiny woman, brushing his face against her hip. I thought for sure that he’d knock her over but she stood tall and firm, like a tree anchored in the ground. The tiger watched us, his eyes narrow slits of swirling orange, green, and black as he sniffed the air in front of him, sizing us up.

  “You will not be so easy to kill as they suspect.” She spoke in a surprising high-pitched, very feminine voice that seemed disjointed from the power that still prickled along my skin. Her accent was sharp and halting, Japanese maybe. She looked from me to the wolf beside me with what I could only assume was annoyance. Good! I didn’t want to make the big baddie too comfortable.

  “I’m sorry to disappoint everyone,” I said with a sarcastic bite to my words and a sardonic smile. One day that tone was going to get me killed when I pissed the wrong person off but for now, it worked.

  The werewolf beside me huffed as if he agreed with me.

  “Men underestimate us. I do not,” she said in an even, almost pleasant voice. She bowed again, the meet-and-greet over evidently. Her eyes never left mine. I took it as a sign of respect that she considered me dangerous enough to keep her gaze on me. I did the same.

  She stroked the tiger’s head, scratching behind its ears like a pet. We stared at each other for a moment or two, our gazes locked in a badass showdown. I had no idea who was winning; I just knew I couldn’t lose. The wolf growled low in his throat beside me, rippling the fur along his back and vibrating against my leg as his haunches rose. A small smile crested my lips. My wolf was done waiting and so was I. I sank my hands deep in his thick, coarse silver fur behind his ears and let the fullness of it slide between my fingers.

  Mine, that voice whispered in my mind and she was right. I knew it in my bones as they hummed with power, connection, and something else I couldn’t place.

  The ninja’s smile faded as my own eyes emptied into something peaceful, deadly.

  The sound of my name from somewhere off in the distance echoed through the hall, making the candles flicker. I knew that voice; it was familiar and warm.

  I was out of time.

  I tightened my grip on the blade in my hand and took a backhanded swing at her throat. The angle wasn’t right and she was too small a target. She leaned back at her waist, avoiding my blade.

  An antagonizing smile lit her dark blue eyes. She was having fun.

  I blinked, once. I swear, it was only the once.

  In a puff of midnight-blue smoke, she was gone. I turned, doing a complete 360 but she was gone. A high-pitched mocking cackle echoed from somewhere in the walls above my head, behind the curtains, and across my skin, filling the giant space with her bone-chilling laugh.

  The sound of my name got closer. The silver wolf beside me padded off in a dead sprint after the tiger until the cat bound off into nothingness. He didn’t look back.

  I was suddenly awake and very, very alert. My heart thundered in my ears and my breath was heavy in my chest.

  Danny hovered over me with concern furrowing his brow and lighting his hazel gray eyes. I sat with my head propped up on one hand and the remote still clutched in the other. My feet tingled with pins and needles as I stretched them out. My neck was stiff from sleeping with my head crooked in an awkward position for what seemed like hours.

  “I’ve been trying to wake you up for a few minutes but you were out. You all right?” he asked, his voice deep and assertive. Danny tried to be calm but I heard the fear around the edges of his words as his voice hitched. He sat down beside me on the couch and rested his hand on my back, never taking his eyes from me.

  I brushed my hair out of my face and rolled my head around in large circles to straighten out the kinks in my neck. It cracked in several places as I moved. Damn, that hurt.

  “I’m fine. Weird dream, is all.” I shook my head to try and shake away the foggy feeling in my brain but it wouldn’t seem to leave.

  It was dark outside. When the hell had it gotten dark?

  “What are you doing here?” I asked. Danny wasn’t on the schedule for tonight.

  “I volunteered to come and check up on you.” He slid his hand down the small of my back and over the curve of my butt. I shot him a mocking, reproach-filled glance and he moved his hand back up my spine.

  “Check up on me? Why?” After that dream, I was more spooked than I wanted to admit.

  “Nothing’s happened. We all got a little worried when you didn’t answer your phone,” he bit out. His lips were pressed in a thin line of agitation and his hand stopped moving on my back. His shoulders tensed, making the broad line of his back much more imposing. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as if regaining his composure. I could always count on Danny to take the high road, especially when I couldn’t. I’d offended him though . . . again. Damn it all to hell. Why couldn’t I get this right?

  He opened his eyes and glanced around, anywhere but at me. I followed his eyes as he scanned the room, finally taking in the rest of roomy living room. The front door was still open, barely hanging off the hinges and the doorjamb was cracked with wood shards covering my floor. He’d broken down my front door to get in.

  How long had he been trying?

  “I’m sorry to worry everyone,” I said, ignoring the fire of anger in my gut from getting out of control at the condition of my front door. What if something had happened to me? I wanted someone to care, right? I should be glad that he cared this much to BREAK DOWN MY FUCKING DOOR! I rolled my neck again and tried to look at this logically, to push the anger away. Would I have broken down the door? Yes. I can just replace it. It’s just a door. I hadn’t used all the locks so I could still secure my house but fuck me running, I didn’t want to deal with this kind of shit.

  “I guess I really needed some sleep.”

  “You should come hang out with us more,” he teased, finally looking at me. “We keep more human hours.” Danny ran his hand over my thigh with a smile curving the corners of his mouth. He was pleased with himself and that little dig.

  I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and stood up, stretching out my sore, stiff muscles. I ignored quite a few of those types of remarks from both Patrick and Danny but it was getting old. Quick.

  I wanted to freshen up, get out of my work clothes, and see if I could wash the smell of rotting flowers from my body. I couldn’t quite shake it from my nose.

  I ran upstairs and brushed my teeth, took a quick shower, and darted into my bedroom to change my clothes.

  “Hey,” Danny yelled up to me from the bottom of the stairs as I tugged a fitted T over my head.

  “Yeah?” I didn’t have to yell. He would’ve heard me even if I’d whispered but I yelled anyway. Habit.

  “Who was here?” he asked. “I don’t recognize ‘em,” His heavy footfalls echoed in the silent house as he moved through the living room, into the kitchen and finally the living room again. I froze with a blue fitted T-shirt half over my head. I finished situating my clothes and inched around the corner to the top of the stairs.

  “I haven’t had anyone in here but the usual and Amblan. But you know Am—”
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  “Then who’s that smell?” His nostrils flared and he took another deep breath.

  “You smell it, too?” I whispered, knowing that my voice shook with horror. He came back into view at the bottom of the stairs.

  His face crinkled in disgust and he scrunched his nose up as he decided the scent wasn’t a pleasant one. I was afraid I already knew who that smell belonged to.

  “What do you mean, do I smell it, too?” he asked with a dangerous edge to his voice. He took the first stair and then the second and the third, approaching me with purpose in the deep amber eyes of his wolf.

  “I don’t know what that smell is. It was in my car last night too,” I said.

  He kept climbing the stairs toward me with his eyes narrowed on me like I was caught in the crosshairs. I felt like prey and I didn’t like it. A low, fearsome growl permeated from his throat as each step brought him closer to me. My heart rate sped up in a primal, uncontrollable response.

  Danny reached the top of the stairs and strode by me, into my bedroom. He stalked on light feet, dodging the dirty clothes on the floor like they weren’t even there.

  “We have to go,” he snarled, taking me by the hand and dragging me down the stairs behind him. I stumbled down several stairs, slamming into his back before regaining my balance. We rounded the corner into the living room and he had my coat and hat in his hands before I could say a word, shoving me into them.

  I circled around him, out of the hold of his large hands and ignored his imposing wall of a body. I grabbed my scarf and bag, then followed him out into the brisk winter air. He lifted the door back into the threshold and I locked it from the top lock. The others were destroyed beyond repair.

  I sat in his Dodge Durango, silent and edgy. Something, no, someone, had been in my house, in my car, and now in my head. The woman in my dream was fast, frightening, and, most important, she didn’t seem at all phased by me.

  I didn’t notice we arrived at Damsel until Danny shut off the engine. I glared up to the bright lights of neon in my face and the chatter of cold women on the winter breeze.

  “Are you all right?” Danny asked, disturbing the awkward silence filling the SUV. I could lie to him and make him feel better but he wouldn’t want that. He’d smell the lie anyway. It wasn’t worth the effort to keep my heart rate under control.

  “No, I don’t think I am.” I stared out the passenger side window. A line of scantily clad women and quaffed guys stretched around the block to get into the club.

  Would all these people be safe? Would whatever had been in my house follow me here? Would the people I cared about be safe?

  I had to figure out what was going on first before I let my mind jump to horrible conclusions and worst-case scenarios. Once I knew, then I could jump all I wanted, rational or not.

  Nova opened my door from the outside with a bright, twinkling, movie-star caliber smile on his face. He was on door duty and the reason for the line around the block being composed of more women than men.

  Nova was stunning, almost blindingly beautiful. His dark, charcoal hair was tousled in perfect chaos, framing straight, perfect, symmetrical features and pale luminescent skin. He was striking like etched granite with soft baby blue eyes that could pierce a person’s soul. He was tall, over 6’2”, with broad shoulders toned to solid muscle. Nova was long and lean with the body of a swimmer. Anyone looking at him would be struck by his perfect twinkling smile, even if there were fangs in that gleaming white row of teeth.

  Nova, however, couldn’t find his way out of a box without help. He was brute strength, loyal to a fault but good for business. The line around the block of half-naked fawning women and their angry dates proved that much. I didn’t question Patrick’s rationale for keeping him around anymore.

  “Good evening, my little flower,” Nova chimed as he offered his hand to me like I was stepping down from a carriage a hundred years ago. I gave him my hand. His naiveté and devotion to Patrick made me want to protect him like a child. He could kill me three different ways before I could even take a breath but he couldn’t protect himself. He would be fodder for vampires who wanted to claim him, use him, and abuse him as he had been long before he’d found his way to Patrick’s colony. Nova didn’t talk about his past but from the things he’d let slip, I knew that someone had used him as a high-priced whore. They’d used him to get what they wanted, power, money, and position. When he thought no one was looking, he had a pained expression on his face and his eyes were vacant, as if he didn’t want to think too hard. I wouldn’t let anyone hurt him anymore. I’d make sure someone was there to protect him.

  “Good evening, Nova,” I said as I stepped from Danny’s SUV, plastering a smile on my face that I knew didn’t reach my eyes. Danny had tossed his keys to a waiting human valet and came around the back of the SUV to meet me. “Is the club busy?” The techno pop music pumped from the open door, making my heart thump in my chest in time with the beat of the bass. We weren’t even inside yet.

  “It’s really busy. Ladies’ night,” he said with a seductive shrug of his shoulders. He pulled the velvet rope back and allowed Danny and I to cut the line. The frozen slutty army waiting in line behind me started to revolt as we passed.

  “Ladies, ladies,” Nova called out with a wide seductive smile, a twinkle in his eyes and a soft lilt of seduction to his voice. “You wouldn’t want to leave me out here all by myself, would you?” His cockiness brought smiles to the faces of 90% of the women standing in line and frowns to the faces of 100% of the men standing next to them. I patted his forearm in thanks and stepped inside.

  Luckily, we weren’t going through the throngs of people clustered just beyond the coat check. We veered off to the right and passed through a narrow door with a plaque reading STAFF ONLY on the front and up a narrow set of stairs.

  Danny followed behind me as I climbed, silent, warm, and uncomfortable. The sound of the club faded into the background as the soundproofing became more pronounced with each step up to the second floor we took. By the time we got to the top, all that was left was the steady, quiet thump of heavy bass. I reached out but the door was yanked opened at the same time from the inside.

  Jackson was the last person I’d wanted to see staring back at me. He smirked like he knew what I tasted like beneath my clothing. My mind went quiet in warning and I gave him my best cold stare before I brushed by him.

  When Patrick rebuilt and refurbished the club, he’d had the office remodeled to be soundproofed and the floor as one-way glass. The office looked like someone had raided a 1930’s art deco movie set. Patrick’s desk, the nickel-plated wall scones with a sunburst motif, and several oversized black velvet couches were spread throughout the large space that covered the entire length of the club below.

  His prize piece was the sidebar. Six feet long, with the same high gloss cherry finishes and plated nickel fixtures as his desk. The cabinets on either side were accented with lounging Cleopatra handles. The drawers had nickel-plated scarab beetles as handles. He kept the bar stocked but very rarely drank.

  Patrick saw everything that went on beneath him but his office appeared as if furniture and people floated in midair. It gave me a queasy, unstable feeling to look at my feet and see people moving beneath me. I tried to walk on the metal beams that lined the floor. I didn’t want to fall through. I knew it was ridiculous but I wasn’t willing to take that chance. I also couldn’t step on the graves in a cemetery and went out of my way to avoid them. I never knew what would reach up and grab me, literally. Yeah, I had issues.

  I took off my coat and hung it up on the coat rack Patrick had put in specifically for me. Vampires didn’t get cold and werewolves had a super high body temperature. I was the only one who needed a coat.

  Jackson smirked at me from the door. Kurt stood guard behind the couch where Dean sat. Dean’s eyes darting from one perso
n to the next with a casual expression but I saw the quick glances he shot to everyone and his stiff posture. Alex perched her petite behind on the edge of Patrick’s desk facing the room, playing with her hair as her feet dangled from the edge of the desk. Patrick sat behind his desk, his back rigid and shoulders stiff, all business and impending doom. Shit!

  I turned and leaned my back against the wall, leaving myself with a clear exit as I propped my foot against the wall and my hand near the knife in my boot. If I needed to get out, I wanted to be near the exit. Nova, who had followed us up, closed the door and shut out the thump of bass from below. He sat down on the couch nearest Alex.

  Patrick watched me, his gaze like a laser from behind the desk as Roger Markov, his lawyer and the only other human in the room, pushed a pen and set of contracts in front of him.

  The corners of Patrick’s lips twitched, mocking me as he waited for me to step away from the wall. I wasn’t moving. I flipped him off with a sneer. Jackass!

  Danny walked to the middle of the room, standing before his Gaoh and cleared his throat. He looked like someone had brushed his fur the wrong way as he glanced at me. I’d done something to hurt him again. If I’d been Danny, I would’ve punched Patrick in the face a long time ago. Danny was a better person than I was though, probably better than all of us. I liked that about him.

  “Excuse me,” Danny said, both antagonistic and rude. He stood in the center of the room with his arms crossed over his broad muscular chest. Dean, Kurt, and Jackson all tensed up at his brisk, authoritative tone. “We have a problem,” Danny snapped at the vampire behind the desk.