From the Ashes (Force of Nature #1) Read online

  “And you're grumpy. Waitress!” I yelled, hoping one of the scantily clad girls that served the VIP section would come running.

  “Piper, what has gotten into you tonight?” Dean asked, a faint look of disgust in his expression.

  “A whole lot of tequila?” I replied before erupting into another drunken outburst of laughter.

  “I think it's time we get you home,” Jase said, rising from his seat. Suddenly, he paused and looked over at Merc, who hadn't moved an inch. “Yeah, I don't think so, bro. She's coming home with us. All of us. Now.” Merc still maintained his position, lounging back against his chair, his arms folded across his chest. When his hooded eyes fell upon mine, I sobered up, if only for a second. There was a palpable tension between us in that moment. He was concentrating on something, staring at me in a way that no one ever had before.

  After what seemed like an eternity, his pale eyes darted back to Jase, whose eyebrow cocked strangely.

  “You can't? That is rather interesting,” he muttered, looking to me. “But don't pull that shit, especially not on her. I mean it. No more fucking around. That's what landed you in trouble last time. Now, let's go.” Without awaiting a response from anyone, Jase walked over to me, scooped me up under my arms, and pulled me out of my chair to my feet.

  “But I wanted to hang out!” I objected with a pout.

  “The only thing you're going to do is pass out in the car on the way home, party girl. You won't be missing anything. I promise.”

  “What did Kat put in your drink anyway? Rubbing alcohol?” Dean asked, following Jase and me as his brother ushered me toward the exit.

  “Nope. It was way too yummy for that.”

  “Might as well have been for as much as you tasted it. You downed that thing.”

  I shrugged in response, tripping over my foot as I tried to look back at Dean. Jase caught me, mumbling something to himself about the lightweight queen. I decided (in all my drunken wisdom) that I would give him a quick jab in the arm as payback. Unfortunately, all that earned me was a near-faceplant in the crowd of clubbers.

  “Can you try to stay upright?” Jase admonished. When I bounced off the nearest wall in reply, he sighed heavily, then picked me up over his shoulder in a fireman carry. The position did little for the pressure in my head or the rolling sensation in my stomach.

  “Put me down!” I yelled, my words coming out a bit more slurred than I remembered sounding earlier. I tried to push against his back to lift myself up, but all that earned me was a close-up of Merc, who trailed directly behind us. Our faces were only inches apart. I stifled the squeal that threatened to escape and flopped back down, my head resting against Jase's back.

  The cool night air felt good against my overheated skin. I was starting to remember why I didn't drink much. The stuff never did jell well with my system.

  “Shall we try this again?” Jase asked, placing me down gently on my feet. I wavered for a second, but waved him off with floppy hands when he came to aid me.

  “I'm good. Nothing to see here,” I quipped, spreading my arms wide to catch my balance. I heard Dean snicker from my left and shot him the nastiest glare I could. “What's so funny?”

  “You,” he said, stating the rather obvious, “and him.” He jerked his thumb over to Merc, who stood between his brothers, staring at me intently.

  “What about him?” I demanded, pulling myself up as straight as I could.

  “Like there's any point in me telling you. You won't remember tomorrow anyway.”

  Before I could launch my rebuttal, Jase grabbed my hand and led me down the street. He was walking briskly, which meant he was mad. For a second I felt like shit, knowing that I was the reason behind that anger. Me and my drunk ass.

  I opened my mouth to tell him that I was sorry, but snapped it shut the second we rounded the corner leading into the alley. Shortcuts; I'd learned long ago that they just weren't worth it.

  “Fancy running into you here, Piper,” an unwelcome voice called out from the depths of the narrow way. I stopped dead in my tracks. “And look, you even have your goon squad babysitters with you, not that that's surprising. Maybe you're smarter than we thought.”

  “Kingston,” Jase drawled, covering his irritation with an ambivalent tone. “Always such a pleasure.”

  “Fuck you, Jase,” the warlock snapped, stepping out from the shadows. The very sight of him made my whole body shake with fear. To one who didn't know better, he looked like a model with a hint of goth flair: tall, wiry, with black hair and piercing dark eyes. But to me, he looked like the grim reaper.

  My eyes immediately went to his hands. They always had the subtlest hint of blue under that pale white skin. I doubted humans ever noticed. But I did. I knew what that thin veil of flesh withheld.

  “It seems we won't be doing any fucking tonight, thanks to Piper,” Dean said coolly. “But you're hardly our type anyway. Thanks, but no thanks.”

  “Is she your type?” Kingston fired back. “Because I have to warn you, she's hardly worth it. Pretty disappointing, if I'm being honest.”

  I cringed at the reference, my skin crawling at the memory of his hands on my body. My traitorous mind recalled the event Kingston was none-too-subtly referring to in vivid detail. A night I deeply regretted. I had fallen victim to temptation and given myself to him, all under the promise that it would help unlock my powers. Help free my gifts.

  The only thing it freed me of was my dignity.

  Not long after he cast me aside, disgusted by my inability to live up to the magical expectations he held. It was then that I knew I'd been played all along—that he'd used me to gain access to whatever power he thought I possessed. It was then that everything started to go wrong.

  Every nerve in my body was begging me to run as I stood in the alley, my focus now returned to his hands. The second they started glowing, all hell would break loose.

  “Watch your fucking mouth,” Jase ground out through gritted teeth, pulling me from my downward spiral. “Unless you want a war on your hands, warlock, I suggest you get the fuck out of our way.”

  “War, you say?” Kingston queried. “Well now, we wouldn't want that, would we?” His sarcasm was hard to miss. Right on cue, his warlock brethren poured from the darkness at the end of the alley as though it were a direct portal to all things corrupt and evil.

  I felt Dean brush past me, putting himself in the line of fire. Jase stood right beside him. Then I felt a body directly behind me. Merc and his brothers had me encased in a ring of vampire enforcers. I was as safe as I was ever going to be around Kingston.

  “You know better than that, Kingston,” Jase cautioned, reaching behind his back for the blade he kept holstered there. He never took it off. “You come after her, then you come after me. After us all.”

  “Why do you protect her? She's not one of you,” the warlock snarled.

  “And she sure as fuck ain't one of you either,” Dean countered.

  “She shouldn't be at all,” Kingston growled under his breath.

  “That's not your call,” Jase said, stepping forward. “So make your play for her or back the fuck down for good. Either way, this ends tonight. Now.”

  The two stood only paces away from one another, Kingston's hands a faint icy-blue glow. He was going to fight the boys, and they were terribly outnumbered. The enforcers were some of the most powerful warriors the supernatural world boasted. But they were not invincible. Not by a long shot.

  “Make your move, Kingston. It's now or never.”

  I peeked around the side of Dean to see the warlock staring me down. A smile tugged at his lips when he saw the fear in my eyes. I was in trouble. We all were.

  In a blur of motion, he blasted a blue flaming orb at Jase. From where I stood, it looked like it hit him, sending him flying backward. But before he crashed to the ground, he just disappeared altogether. While I screamed in horror, Dean and Merc charged the warlocks, weapons drawn.

  “Run, Piper!” Dean yelle
d. But I couldn't. My feet were glued to the ground with a thick film of fear. I was paralyzed by it. I watched as the two of them took out warlocks left and right, but there were still so many coming. They crashed upon the boys like waves on a pier.

  “When somebody tells you to run, you fucking do it!” Jase whispered in my ear, causing me to scream again.

  “Jase—”

  “GO!” he shouted, shoving me toward the alley's exit. Toward safety.

  I listened to him and took off in an uncoordinated sprint. Within seconds I rounded the corner in a stumbling run, trying hard not to fumble the keys Jase had put in my hand before he’d pushed me away and rejoined the fight. I managed to keep hold of them as I wove my way down the sidewalk to the SUV. When I finally reached it, I hit the alarm key instead of the unlock button. The screeching sound that echoed off the tall brick buildings surrounding me did little to settle my nerves.

  While I tried to shut it off and get in the car, I heard a tremendous roar that demanded my attention. I looked over my shoulder to see a blue inferno dancing in the sky above the alleyway where the boys were fighting.

  “Oh no...” I whispered to myself. Without thinking, I started running back toward them, fearing that somehow Kingston and his boys had found a way to take the enforcers out. Along the way, I felt the wind picking up, a magical storm brewing. There was nothing natural about the way it swirled in the road in front of me or the way it appeared sentient, pausing the moment I came into view.

  I instinctively stopped running toward it.

  I looked on as it grew in height and breadth, the debris it collected along the way making it gray in appearance. It was nearly as wide as the street I stood in by the time I realized what was happening. Kingston was too occupied with the enforcers to come for me himself, so he sent a minion of sorts. Death by tornado wasn't really his style, but he was a master of adaptation, a trait I could have benefited from a time or two.

  Turning back toward the car, I ran as fast as I could, but I could feel the pull of the vortex trailing me. I didn't have long before it would claim me; that much I knew. I needed to figure something out quickly.

  Not too far ahead of me, I saw a sewer drain. If I could get there with enough time to wiggle my way into it, I would be safe. But that was a big if. I looked over my shoulder to see the wall of doom only yards away, barreling down on me. There was no way I was going to make it.

  I choked back the tears that were threatening to escape.

  Don't give up, Piper. Never give up...

  With every ounce of strength and adrenaline I could muster, I poured on my speed, darting toward that drain. I was closing in on it: five yards. Four yards. Three yards…

  A massive body crashed into me from my left, driving me deep into the entrance of an old storefront. Heavily muscled arms encased my body, locking me tight against the door at my back. Then I felt the pull of the supernatural tornado, my hair and arms unwillingly sucked past the body holding me in place. I looked like a rag doll. His whole body tensed as the magical vacuum effect grew, his mass pressing against me so hard that I could barely breathe. The metal security bars behind me rattled with the force of the storm, shaking me while they bit into my back, but still I went nowhere.

  Then suddenly it stopped. Abruptly, inexplicably, the vortex disappeared. I tried to move but couldn't, the wall of male in front of me still very much in place. When he did finally pull away, I looked up to see Merc, his shadowed face hovering close to mine.

  I swallowed hard.

  “Thank you…” The words barely made it past my lips. Fear had its grip on my throat, closing it. The fearsome Merc had me cornered—exactly what the boys had warned me against. But as I looked up at him, that fear slowly abated, even if it shouldn’t have. Something in his stare eased my anxieties.

  “Piper!” Jase cried from somewhere down the street. There was definite fear in his voice.

  “In here,” I called, unable to pull my eyes away from the vampire staring at me. There was no malice in his gaze, but the warnings of his brothers and Kat still ran rampant in my mind. He was capable of terrible things, of that I was sure, and yet there he stood, still sheltering me from a threat that no longer existed. My mind couldn't reconcile the incongruities.

  “Holy shit,” Jase exhaled as he approached us. “Are you okay?” I watched him turn into the store entryway, his expression bleeding from concerned to frightened in a second. “Merc,” he said calmly, like a cop in hostage negotiation. “Back away from her. Everything is fine now. They're gone.” When his brother didn't move, I assumed he was relaying some telepathic message to Jase. Then I realized Jase's hand was slowly sliding up his back for his blade. Perhaps they weren't talking at all. “Let her go.” There was no mistaking that his words were an order, not a request. Even still, Merc paused. He looked down at my wild eyes and disheveled appearance as if he were taking stock of my well-being, not contemplating how he could harm me. My hair was stuck to my face in places with sweat and dirt, obscuring my vision slightly. As if he'd known it was making me crazy, he reached up and gently slid the unruly locks behind my ear, then turned and walked away from me and Jase like nothing interesting had happened that night.

  As soon as Merc was out of sight, Jase grabbed me and pulled me to him, hugging me fiercely.

  “Are you sure you're okay?”

  “Yes. I'm fine,” I replied absentmindedly, my thoughts occupied by the feel of Merc's body against mine and his finger grazing my cheek.

  “Piper,” Jase said, his tone warning. “This isn’t one of those times where you should hold out on me.”

  “Honestly. I’m fine. Merc saved me from death by tornado. That’s all.”

  Jase looked at me with doubt in his eyes. He thought I was lying. He didn’t seem to believe that Merc would have done what he had.

  “That’s all? You swear it?”

  “Yes. I swear it, Jase! He saved me. You showed up. He left. End of story.”

  He muttered something under his breath about cracking someone’s skull, then returned his focus to the matter at hand.

  “We need to get out of here, Piper. Now. I have to go report to the king...”

  “Oh my God! You guys are going to get in trouble, aren't you? And wait...where's Dean?”

  “I'm fine, Piper,” a disembodied voice called from the street. “I was cleaning up Jase's mess. As always.”

  I pulled myself from Jase to find Dean, hugging him the second I did. He was covered in blood and other questionable bits, but I didn't care. I was just happy he was alive. The boys had gotten off easily that night. Luck had been on their side for sure.

  Mine too, for that matter.

  “What happened to Kingston and the others?” I asked, my face still pressed tightly to Dean's chest.

  “Some met untimely ends. Others ducked through portals like the chicken shits they are.”

  “So I wasn't imagining that then? They really did come out of nowhere?”

  “Yep. Motherfuckers are sneaky like snakes. Never, ever trust a warlock.”

  “It was an ambush,” Jase called from behind me. “It had to be. What other reason did he have to be lurking where he was?”

  “Unless we stumbled upon something else,” I suggested, knowing full well that the warlocks were into some shady dealings with humans, though those particular humans had no knowledge of who and what they were actually dealing with.

  “Like what?” Jase probed, taking me by the shoulder to turn me around.

  “I don't know...you name it. Drugs. Guns. Prostitution. All of the above.”

  “With humans?” Dean asked incredulously.

  “Yep.”

  “That can't be right,” Jase said thoughtfully. “Reinhardt would never stand for that. He's no saint, but he's above that. And he sure as hell isn't careless. Interactions with humans that go beyond the occasional lay or casual work relationship are strictly forbidden by all factions of the supernatural. It's written in the treaty itself.
The exposure risk is too great. There's no way Kingston could be doing that shit without repercussions from his own kind, let alone all the others.”

  I shrugged, not knowing what to say. I'd seen it with my own eyes long before I'd ever come to live under the protection of the king and his enforcers. There was no doubt in my mind that what I’d told him was a viable reason for Kingston's appearance in the alley that night. And I wasn't nearly as convinced that Reinhardt, their leader, would have disapproved.

  “Something else to report, I guess,” Jase said with a sigh.

  “What will happen now?” I asked, concerned for what would happen to us all, knowing that carrying out supernatural business that publicly was also forbidden. Dean may have cleaned it up, but there was just no way to be sure that nobody had seen the battle, the raging blue inferno, or the bizarre tornado that had ripped through the business district before disappearing. The odds were not in our favor.

  “It'll be fine, Piper. Don't stress out about it,” Dean said casually. But when I looked up at him, there was nothing casual about his expression as he stared over the top of my head at Jase.

  “Do you think they got the message?” I asked, wondering if the warlocks might finally leave me alone now.

  A dangerous pair of smiles overtook the brothers' faces.

  “I think you'll find that Kingston isn't a problem anymore,” Jase finally offered.

  “Is he dead?”

  “Worse,” Dean said with a laugh.

  “What's worse than dead?” I pressed.

  “Useless,” Jase said callously. I knew he didn't mean anything by it, but his reply cut through me like a knife. He clearly saw my flinch at his words and came to stand directly before me, placing both hands on my shoulders. “Piper, you are far from useless. You are untrained. That isn't the same thing.” I tried to force a smile, but it was a weak attempt. One that he saw right through. “C'mon. Merc hates waiting. He's not especially patient. I'll let Dean detail the whole fight on the way home.” Jase looped his arm around my shoulder, ushering me toward the SUV down the road. “But I get to tell you the best part.”