Midnight Ash (A Blushing Death Novel)

by Sabol, Suzanne M.

  I tightened my grip on the knife in my right hand and brought it down straight into the vampire’s back. I didn’t even care where I plunged the tip in. I just wanted him to hurt as badly as I did and to let go of me.

  He unlatched his jaw from my shoulder as I stabbed him again and again, anywhere I could sink my knife in until he rolled off of me. The smell of burning flesh filled my nose from each and every stab wound I inflicted. A satisfied little smile pushed my lips up.

  He rocked back and forth, groaning as blood seeped from his back. I got to my knees, shaking and dizzy. I yanked the samurai sword strapped to his back from its sheath. He snapped back when he heard the sound of his own sword being drawn in a long, slow metallic whistle above his ear. He rolled onto his back, fear finally filling his eyes.

  I held the sword above my head for a breath. A smile brightened my face but my eyes felt empty and my body cold. It was finally quiet in my mind. I felt nothing. There was no fear anymore, no pain, no compassion, and no hesitation. There was just me. Just the kill.

  I brought the sword down with all my strength. The pull of the torn muscles and my broken collarbone screamed through my body, sending bolts of anguish through me as I slammed the sword through his neck, severing his head from the rest of his body. The sword smashed into the floor with a clink of steel on stone as his blood flew in a spray across my face.

  I took a deep breath but I wasn’t done. I grabbed my knife from the floor and drove it up into his chest, through his heart from underneath his sternum. In the blink of an eye, the vampire’s body erupted in a cloud of beautiful, sparkling midnight-blue ash that filled the air like a fine mist.

  I got to my feet with the vampire’s katana in one hand and my knife in the other. Dean held off two ninjas on his own. He had one by the long, silky black ponytail of her hair, swinging her about to keep her off her feet while he fought off the other one. Patrick struggled with a man who was more skilled than he but Patrick was fighting like a schoolyard bully and the ninja didn’t know how to counter. Danny was going toe-to-toe with Midnight Ash herself.

  She’s playing with him. What’s he waiting for? Danny was stronger in his werewolf form. His shift is liquid and quick. He could pull it off. He could.

  “Shift,” I screamed.

  Midnight Ash peered up at me with a smirk in her eyes as she turned the corners of her thin demented lips upward. Time slowed to a crawl as she twisted back to Danny and drew her arm back for the strike. At that moment, everything moved into fast-forward as the flash of her pale hand entered Danny’s chest.

  Danny stopped. Stopped moving, stopped breathing, and stopped blinking. He just . . . stopped.

  His face froze in horror and his breath caught in a gasp in his throat as she clutched his heart inside his chest.

  Midnight Ash laughed. Her shrill cackle filled the club and my ears with her delight. Adrenaline swept through me, flashing hot, then cold. Gooseflesh rose all over my body and a wave of nausea crawled into my stomach as her hand disappeared into his chest. The heavy thump of my heart pounding in my ears was the only sound as I remembered to breathe.

  She ripped Danny’s heart from his body in a violent seizure of blood, flesh, and gore. Blood oozed from Danny’s open chest and he collapsed to his knees in a thump of limp, dead flesh. He fell to the floor, smooth and boneless, crumpling in a heap at her feet.

  I stared openmouthed at Midnight Ash, covered in Danny’s blood up to her elbow as she held his heart in her hands.

  That didn’t just happen. I’m dreaming. That didn’t just FUCKING happen!

  Dean stopped moving even before he saw Danny crumpled on the floor like a dirty rag, covered in blood. Danny’s power dissipated then vanished, leaving a hole, a vacuum where his life had once been.

  I thought for one sick moment that I saw Danny’s heart beat one last time in her clutches. I couldn’t be sure.

  I tightened my grip on the sword, the tip of the katana dragging along the floor as I stumbled forward as if in a dream.

  Dead, Danny is dead.

  She killed ours, she howled in my mind.

  Dean still held a ninja by the hair as he focused on Danny’s body. She took advantage of his preoccupation, leaping onto his back. She clamped her arms and legs around him, pressing her body against his as she sank her fangs into his neck.

  Dean howled. A horrible sound filled with more sorrow than pain. His eyes flashed that crystal Caribbean blue and he flung the vampire from him. His skin shimmered, then morphed, replaced by sleek, shining, silver fur.

  I turned.

  Dean could handle himself.

  My focus was all for the vampire in front of me.

  Midnight Ash stalked toward me, slowly, with her sword in one hand and Danny’s heart in the other.

  “I told you they couldn’t protect you,” she said, sneering at me. Anticipation lit her dead eyes with delight.

  I was numb from the pain in my shoulder, my broken clavicle, and the shock of Danny in a heap on the ground. She couldn’t intimidate me anymore. I’d already lost.

  A deep, dangerous growl resonated around me in a vicious guttural threat, making the hair on my neck stand on end. A blood-curdling scream followed as Dean bit down, tearing through the flesh of the second vampire he’d been fighting.

  “I don’t need them to protect me,” I bit out. “I’ll kill you myself, you FUCKING BITCH.” I shoved my essence outward, letting her feel whatever power or magic or whatever the hell it was that I had. She didn’t flinch but the smile she gave me was less sure. That was something. I’d scared the big bad ninja vampire a little. A little was enough. I could work with a little.

  She came at me like a flash of blue lighting with her sword gleaming above her head, reflecting the light from the few still functioning fluorescents hanging around the edges of the ceiling. I struggled to get my sword up in time to block her stroke. I’d almost missed it.

  The blow came down on my arm like a sledgehammer; she was so strong that as our swords clashed, she almost broke my arm. Force from her blow reverberated through the bones in my arm and up my shoulder. The clink of meeting steel echoed in the vast space of the dance floor. In my mind, Midnight Ash and I were the only two in the room. Everything and everyone else disappeared. All I could see were her increasingly quick stokes. She inched me back step-by-step with each strike until I was up against the bar.

  My foot hit something on the floor and I stumbled into the hard edge of the bar, sinking to the floor. When my ass crashed down on the floor, the decapitated head of the vampire I’d killed rocked between my feet.

  Midnight Ash glared down at me with laughing eyes as her grip tightened around the handle of her katana.

  My pulse raced in my head as panic finally set it.

  She’s going to kill me.

  There wasn’t anything anyone could do about it.

  NO! she screamed through my mind. She wasn’t ready to give up yet. I wasn’t either.

  Midnight Ash snickered at me as she stared at the heart in her hand. “It’s a shame, really,” she said as she dug her fingernails into the flesh of Danny’s heart, squeezing the tissue as blood oozed between her small fingers.

  My chest tightened and I swallowed the wail building somewhere deep inside me. Danny’s blood.

  “None of them had to die,” she continued. “But you will all pay for Byron.”

  Midnight Ash focused her gaze on me, then shoved the tough, bloody muscle of Danny’s heart into my face.

  Horrified, I screamed as his still warm blood filled my mouth, my nose. I slammed my mouth shut as his blood coated my tongue and hacked off a chunk of his heart between my teeth. I gagged and tried to spit it out but she shoved her hand against my face, smearing the heart and blood across my mouth.

  I needed to breathe. I
instinctively swallowed.

  A bolt of energy hit my system, pulsing power through me in what sounded like a sonic boom.

  Midnight Ash stumbled backward. A distant howl rang out and I opened my eyes.

  I ran my fingers slowly down my cheek, smearing streaks in the blood on my face. This was Danny. Danny’s power poured over me like a warm, cleansing bath. The power of the pack mixed with my own. I turned my eyes up to Midnight Ash, vengeance making my blood hot and my mind calm. Not only could I feel her power, I could see it. A soft blue mist surrounding her body, moving with her like a fog.

  I stood on two shaky legs on uneven ground. I was energized by Danny’s power but I was losing blood, fast. I panted to keep from passing out.

  Something else, something deeper was wrong.

  I felt as if a part of me was lost.

  I didn’t feel whole anymore.

  Midnight Ash took a step back, putting some distance between us as I got to my feet. “What have you done?” she asked in an astonished whisper.

  I had absolutely no idea.

  She raised her sword but I was there first. Her eyes were wide with surprise as our swords met in a hard clink of metal. It was the first time since we’d all crashed through the ceiling that I felt like I could actually win.

  My strength doubled as I moved, making me feel invigorated, like nothing could touch me. She was quick but her strokes were telegraphed by her power before she made them. Danny’s strength pulsed through me, urging me forward. Each stroke I made was stronger than the one before it. She dropped what remained of Danny’s heart and grasped her sword with both hands to meet my sword strikes.

  I flipped my bowie knife in my other hand and made a quick backhanded slash across her throat while her attention was focused on my sword arm. My blade sliced across her flesh. Blood seeped from the wound in her neck, covering the front of her in a rich, thick liquid curtain. Shallow, but enough to stun her. My heart thundered in my chest as a sick sense of pleasure filled me. I drove the sword through her chest with a quick efficiency I wouldn’t have been capable of only moments before, thrusting the katana through bone and flesh until I felt the blade push out the other side of her body. Satisfaction turned the corners of my mouth up as the silver katana burned her from the inside out.

  Her eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open, showing the faint glimmer of fang.

  I ripped the katana from her hand and swung outward. With a war cry and the welcome peace of death filling me, I separated her head from her body in one clean stroke. Her life fled from her body in a rush of wind and magic as she blinked out of existence.

  Middonaitoshoo Asshu erupted in an explosion of glittering blue ash that filled the air like confetti at New Year’s Eve. I breathed for the very first time and felt my chest tighten as I chocked on the sob lodged in the back of my throat.

  One by one, the vampires of the Daimyo fell to Dean, to Patrick, and to Alex, leaving Damsel covered in, blood, debris, and midnight-blue ash, glittering in the white fluorescent lights.

  Patrick crawled over to Alex. She wasn’t moving.

  With his deep intelligent Caribbean blue eyes, Dean stood tall on four paws in his wolf form, his coat a beautiful shimmering silvery gray. His power was familiar. His eyes were familiar. I knew him the minute I laid eyes on him.

  Safe . . . warm . . . home, she whispered through my mind, but I couldn’t think about that now.

  Patrick glanced up at me from Alex’s side with a relieved expression and a quick, reassuring nod.

  “She’ll live,” he said with a slight, pain-filled smile. He was relieved and I felt empty. I couldn’t think about the possibility of losing Alex, too. I pushed that fear deep into the growing black box where I’d stored all my ugly emotions.

  I inched over to Danny’s body, so still on the floor. I dragged the sword along the floor behind me, creating a trail of sparks as I approached him. My hands shook when I let myself look at him and really see that he was gone.

  I’ll kill them all for this.

  Patrick stood on shaking legs but he was more stable with every second, healing.

  I didn’t move. I wasn’t sure that I could. I was covered from head to toe in blood and blue ash. A tingling in my muscles and bones prickled along my wounds. I was healing, too. Thanks to Danny, my muscles had started to knit back together like nothing had ever happened. It was an odd sensation, like my upper torso had fallen asleep and was tingling on pins and needles.

  Patrick limped to me. I needed him to set my collarbone before it healed wrong. I didn’t want to think about what that meant.

  “Set this please and do it quick,” I clipped in a strained voice that sounded distant and detached even to my ears.

  Patrick’s brow scrunched in confusion as he examined my face and then my shoulder. “Are you healing?”

  I nodded as my stomach turned. The healing process was incredibly painful and just felt weird. He reached two strong fingers into my open wound and pulled the bone together. I groaned and clasped onto his forearm for support as a sharp, agonizing pain shot through me, making my eyes water and my toes tingle. Once he released my bone and removed his fingers from the wound, the pain rescinded and the bone fused together.

  I took a deep breath and then another until the harsh pain was a memory and my stomach untwisted.

  “I will always be thankful to Daniel for that,” Patrick whispered as he stared at my newly re-knitted flesh.

  My hands shook when I let myself look at Danny and really see that he was gone. The light from his eyes was gone. My heart twisted in my chest and ached as the hazel gray eyes that had once held so much life stared back at me empty and cold.

  Patrick grasped my hand and squeezed. I looked up at him with a tear in my eye. I felt a tremor of unease pulse through him as he stared down at me. Something warm and thick dripped onto my hand. I glanced down to see the open wound on Patrick’s wrist.

  He’d fed Alex to help her heal faster. She would need human blood to completely heal but Patrick had given her his until she could feed properly. He’d weakened himself to save her.

  I looked up at him, brought his hand up to my lips, and pressed a gentle kiss to his cold skin. His blood, warm and alive, touched my lips. I licked them without thinking. I was already covered in blood. I’d consumed part of Danny’s heart for Christ’s sake. What else could go wrong?

  A cold wind of power consumed us, wrapping Patrick and me in an arctic breeze, blowing through my body, and covering my skin in gooseflesh. My shoulder stitched completely shut and my energy rebounded quick enough to cause whiplash.

  Patrick’s wounds were gone, too, and power radiated out from him like a cold sun, blinding and intense, slamming out like a shot as it engulfed the room and everyone in it with his endless pool of frigid power.

  Alex stood, tall and easy, as if she hadn’t been close to death a moment ago. Dean howled, a ferocious sound that filled the space like an echo through a deep canyon.

  “I don’t think Darshan would’ve attempted this on his own,” I said. I glanced down at Danny’s lifeless body, pulling my bottom lip between my teeth to keep from blubbering. All I wanted to do was curl up next to Danny, clutch him to me, and cry.

  “You may be right,” Patrick answered. “Who would allow Darshan to break protocol like this?” He still held my hand, but his tight squeeze didn’t hurt anymore.

  “Who is responsible for this?” I couldn’t keep my rage from my voice any longer. I was exhausted, angry, hurt, and on the verge of tears. I didn’t want to deal with this strategizing and political bullshit anymore. I wanted everything to go back to the way it was. I wanted Danny alive.

  “ARTHUR,” Patrick growled.

  I’ll kill them all.

  I peered down at Danny. He seemed alone. I found myself kneeling
on the ground beside him. I don’t remember how I got there. I slammed my hand down on the ground, willing my power to protect us, from what, I couldn’t say. A sheen of red curved over Danny and me as a bubble of blood encased us.

  I ran my hands through his thick, dull, russet hair drenched with sweat, dirt, and blood. Maybe if I put the pieces of his heart back in his chest he’d be all right. I shook that thought away. Dead was dead. I couldn’t change that.

  I stroked his face, brushing my fingertips over the soft laugh lines around his mouth. I leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, still warm with the last remnants of his life. My chest seized in torment as I thought about how I would never hear his laugh again.

  This can’t be happening. I’m dreaming. Wake up. Wake up, you stupid idiot! Wake UP!

  The first hot tear slid down my cheek and I collapsed on top of him in a weeping mess of pain, guilt, and regret.

  “What do we do with him?” Alex asked from the corner, her voice muffled through the blood boundary that beat with the frantic pulse of my heart. I gaped up through my tears to answer.

  Outside of my protective circle, Dean stood tall, naked, and imposing, covered in blood from his mouth down, staring down at me with an expression I didn’t understand. He didn’t seem scared or even horrified as I’d expected. I didn’t care enough about anything to decipher his expression.

  Patrick and Alex loomed over Simon Tacoma. He struggled to get free from the handcuffs that still bound him to the metal chair. He hadn’t been marked by Midnight Ash, not a true human servant. I’d seen what happened to real servants when their vampire masters died. It wasn’t pretty.