Follow the Ashes: Book 1 of the Executioner Trilogy Page 2

  “Yes. I’m great, actually.” Of course I was being sarcastic. I wasn’t okay. Never was, and I had no idea why she would think I was okay when I had such a huge secret to keep from those around me.

  At least my secret wasn’t one I had to keep from my best friend, but that was only because she had a gift as well. This gift was the gift of foresight. Now wasn’t that a pain? So, because of that, she always knew how I’d feel on certain days before I even knew what made me feel that way. It was really annoying and I wished I could get away from it sometimes, especially when she could get so easily irritated by the slightest bump in the road. Those, according to her, we were currently experiencing since I wasn’t moving fast enough. “We really need to get headed out. You know how that club is. Don’t want that dreamy vision of mine to get away.”

  As I groaned I could feel her frustration coming at me in waves through the bathroom door, making me want to sink further into the clear water until I was completely submerged. I didn’t want to come out ever again. Damn! I hadn’t even gotten to wash my hair yet. It was still gross from my nightly trip and my rumble with that snarling woman. I submerged my head under the warm water and quickly returned to the surface, gulping in air and trying to get water out of my ears. Scrubbing shampoo through my hair and into my scalp I yelled, “Give me a second.” I let the impatience at her insistence to hurry along pierce every nook and cranny of my voice. I could tell it had annoyed her even more than her persistence to leave had annoyed me. Good. My goal had been accomplished.

  I could hear the heels of her pumps as she walked away from the door and down the hall. Agitation echoed with every step that she took. While it really made me wish she wouldn’t wear those things when she was annoyed, that sound took me back to when we first met, not even a month after the coffee shop incident.

  I was walking alone in downtown Los Angeles. This is something they tell all attractive young women never to do, but I was doing it anyway. Plus, who would want to mess with someone who could turn them into a pile of nothing? I noticed a muffled sound in the dark alley to my right. It was so obscured in shadows I almost couldn’t see anything at all. I knew that I should keep going and mind my own business. There was probably a creepy man down there with a lady of the evening and he was doing something to her she didn’t enjoy as much as he did. I couldn’t help myself. Damn human curiosity.

  I stopped dead in my tracks and turned my head, dreading what I’d see in the shadows. I was thinking it would be something I definitely didn’t want or need to see. I was betting I would be scarred for life. As soon as I saw a man with very long canine teeth about to sink them into the neck of a woman around my age, something took over. I had to stop that thing. At least, that’s what every fiber of my being was screaming. Why not give into it?

  It felt like a monster was inside of me. It was beating on my skull and my ribcage. It was trying to get out. I let it consume me with a fear I’d never felt before. I sensed a heat rippling through me that I knew I wouldn’t be able to contain. It started in my belly and worked its way throughout my body in thick waves that pulsed with the same rhythm as my own heartbeat. I knew my eyes had to have been radiant at this point because a fire was blazing inside me, and it was begging for sweet release. I decided I was going to give it what it wanted. No questions asked.

  I didn’t fight the instinct to put my hand out and yell to get the creature’s attention. The power in me was distorting my voice to a demonic, gravelly blast of sound. It would have scared me if I didn’t know where it was coming from. The power running through me was like nothing I had ever felt before. The creature turned so quickly that he looked like a slight blur, dropping his victim to the ground. He hissed a promise of death. My hand began developing a glare that could blind a whole city block without effort. I almost couldn’t look at it as that light began to grow even brighter.

  The creature hissed again and started to back away, holding its pasty white hand just in front of deep crimson eyes, trying to block the intense light. It wasn’t doing him any good, though. The light was causing his skin to smolder and blister like he had stuck it on the eye of a stove. That’s when it happened. As the light grew to a glow that rivaled the sun, flames burst from my palm and incinerated the creature in a matter of seconds. He fell into a pile of gray ash and the fire, in slow trickles, ceased to flow from my hand.

  When all remnants of the intense power were leaking away, I felt so weak I almost couldn’t stand. I fell against the wet brick of the alley as the woman ran up to me with hands out to keep me from falling to the ground. That, apparently, didn’t seem to work out so well. I was dead weight and so weak I almost couldn’t hold my own head up. Just like a newborn baby. The rush of heat that had run through my entire body produced a cold sweat that made me shiver. My teeth were chattering like I had been standing outside in a blizzard.

  Through a haze of fatigue and the sound of my chattering teeth I could somehow hear the woman thanking me for saving her life and telling what her name was. I hardly thought this was the time to be introducing herself. There was an edge of fear to her voice as she was unsteadily asking me if I was okay. What was her name? I could only hear muffled sounds and see her lips move like she was speaking. All I could hear could best be described as the sound from Charlie Brown. Elizabeth? Yeah, that was it. Elizabeth. She later became known to me as Beth. It was like my soul was calling out to her and there was a connection that was instant. I knew exactly who she was. She was my salvation and my companion in the fight that would soon tear the world apart. I would never be the same again.

  I let out another sigh and sunk deeper into the tub as that resonating heat licked up through my belly, causing the water to bubble a little around my entire body and then cease. Quickly rinsing the shampoo out of my hair, I rose from the tub, and the cool air around me caused my skin to develop goose bumps.

  I toweled myself off and blew my hair dry, barely even bothering to run a brush through it. Beth was going to be pissed that it even took me this long to get my ass out of the tub and into some clothes. This was going to be a night out that wasn’t really going to be a night out, which I hated. I never got just a night out without having to kill something. It was scouting. She had a vision of some dreamy guy who she apparently thought was put in her path just for her. Too bad it never seemed like I could find one just for me who I could tell my secret to, who wouldn’t go running for the hills thinking I was schizophrenic or something. Now wasn’t that just too bad?

  When I looked in the mirror I saw bright green eyes looking back at me, and my hair fell around my shoulders in a dark river. In my reflection I saw the long pink line of a scar - from one of my very first hunts - across the top of my right collarbone, and I couldn’t help but sigh.

  Chapter 3: Tension’s Beautiful Cousin

  As soon as we walked into the poorly and colorfully lit club I could feel all of the sexual tension in the room. It hit me like an invisible wall. When coming into a place like this, who wouldn’t expect it? It wasn’t just the feel of sex in the air that had me on edge. It was the feel of danger, pure and bitter. The grinding bodies in the club moving along to the pumping, sensual music. They were just itching to be touched and were openly inviting anyone to see what they had, to take it without remorse, and to never look back. No matter what.

  Red lasers were flashing everywhere, moving along every wall in linear traces that you couldn’t help but look at. There were too many of them for my taste. The strobe light flashed with a brilliance that almost rivaled my own power. I could easily see why it was able to take so much out of me. I could literally imagine the power it took to run those lights. It almost mirrored the amount of energy it took out of me to produce one dose of fire.

  The bar was overcrowded and there was no break in the flock as drinks were poured and bottles and cash were trading hands. Their hands were as greedy as their mouths as they hungrily gulped the spirits without thought.

  “I’m going to walk over
to the bar. You want anything?” Beth asked me as I was scanning the crowd, looking for anyone who met the description of who Beth was searching for. I found nothing. Nada. Not even one person looked remotely close to her account from where I was standing. No dark hair or angelic features. Absolutely nothing. Her question was a surprising one since she didn’t drink. Not even wine. But I was happy to oblige, especially if she was buying.

  “Sure! Tom Collins, please!” I yelled, trying to make sure she could hear me over the thundering music. It was almost loud enough to burst my eardrums. I was going to at least get my drink of choice out of this. She nodded and moved to the bar while I made my way into the pulsating crowd, all the while trying to keep an eye out for the man we were searching for, but it was so hard to see anything in the sea of bodies. The flashing lights didn’t help either.

  Every single body was surging with some form of energy. Each feeling and desire had a different rhythm and buzz that left my own body feeling it for hours on end. Sometimes, days. I quickly found the center of the throng of people and began to move to the rhythm of the music. I was going to get a little bit of fun out of this unwilling excursion. I tried with all I had to ignore the heat and pulsating energy coming off of the bodies thriving around me. I was still scanning the crowd for anyone fitting Beth’s description. The sweltering heat from the people surrounding me almost had the place feeling like a sauna. A sheen of sweat was running down my forehead, arms, and back, even though I had only been inside for a few minutes, if that.

  As soon as I had sufficiently drowned out all other emotion and desire, there was a change in the air around me that I couldn’t help but notice. This was a feeling I wasn’t going to be able to drown out no matter how hard I tried. I even found myself not wanting to ignore it. My body felt like it was moving through silk and the heat was electric. It caused my senses to tingle and my skin to break out in goose bumps. My breath was now coming out in small short gasps. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Every nerve ending in my body was singing with delight at this new feeling. I didn’t want it to end.

  I needed to know whoever this was. Needed to see. I needed to have him as an extension of myself. Someone to give everything I had to. I could save him, and he could save me. No doubt about it. This was the guy Beth was looking for, and I knew that without even having to look at him. Just the buzz of his energy was enough.

  I turned around and saw the face of an angel as I gazed up at him. I was completely stunned; my mind went blank. The muscles of his wide chest were screaming to be touched, and my hands were screaming in response to be the ones to caress them. His face was clean shaven and smooth, also begging to be stroked by a loving and gentle hand. His hair was clipped short and the set of his features demanded to be noticed for their beauty. His leather jacket framed his slender shoulders perfectly. Every muscle of his torso was rippling through the thin white t-shirt he wore underneath like it wasn’t there at all. I almost couldn’t keep my eyes off of his body enough to notice the sly grin he was sporting as if he knew exactly what my own body was crying in response. I knew his was screaming the same exact thing. I could feel it rolling off of him like swirling smoke and surrounding me with curling fingers.

  The color of his eyes was striking. They were a deep black that could see deep within you to your soul, and looking into them felt like you were falling through to forever. The slight sparkle in them kept them from appearing lifeless and empty. They took you in and held you there, refusing to let go until their own curiosity was satisfied, and there was nothing left of you but a drained and limp form.

  I couldn’t keep myself from looking into those eyes no matter how hard I tried. Looking into the eyes of someone when you couldn’t tell what they were was never a good idea, but I couldn’t help myself. They drew me in and held me with a grip that rejected the idea of letting me go. I didn’t mind drowning in them. They were like those of the vampire, but the energy coming from him didn’t say vampire. It screamed something else entirely.

  As his eyes made contact with mine, everything seemed to go into slow motion. It was like when people talk about love at first sight. I couldn’t even muster up a single word to say. I could look into those eyes forever without ever looking away. I realized I had even stopped dancing once I had seen him. It had felt like everyone around me had gotten a lot closer, almost closing me in so I couldn’t leave. I really didn’t want to, so I didn’t mind. This was the man Beth had mentioned from her vision, but from this meeting I knew he wasn’t the man she had envisioned for herself. He was here for me. His slightly musty scent flirted with my senses, and that was when I felt the instant connection from out of nowhere. Fate definitely had something in mind.

  As quickly as the moment came, it was gone. I could still feel the passion of his gaze and the hum of his body as if he still stood there in front of me. Both of us had been fighting the urge to touch one another. It was probably a lot harder to resist for me than it was for him, from what I could tell. I knew this was true because of the familiar hum of desire. His felt so much stronger than any of the other people in the crowd surrounding us in our perfect moment of recognition. At that moment I knew with absolute certainty I would be seeing him again, and very soon.

  Chapter 4: Bad Moon Rising

  Something big was coming. I could feel it in the air. As I walked through alleys and dark pathways searching for someone who may need my help, I found no one to answer my call. Creatures of the night never took time off, especially not on a night like this one. The full moon hung high overhead and glowed like it had been lit up by a million candles. The stars were out in full view, wanting to be seen by anyone who would look up at them. Wanting to be touched, just like everybody inside the club I had just left. This was very rare in the city.

  I had told Beth I was going to head home early to relax, but why not take a little detour first. The encounter with the mysterious man had taken all of my energy for the night, leaving me horribly exhausted. I had taken my drink from Beth with slight thanks and drowned myself in it until it was gone. I let the gin warm me from the inside out. I didn’t tell her I had found the man in her vision because it would only make her upset that we had made a connection that now couldn’t be severed. Much more upset than seeing him and realizing he wasn’t there for her like she had thought. My body refused to stop reacting to the vision of him in my mind as if he still stood there in front of me. He was all perfection and it made me want to cry. My heart pounded and my breath was still coming in short bursts.

  I normally had plenty of energy in reserve, but that chance meeting seemed to have stolen all of that from my body. I was powerful enough and had gifts no one else I knew possessed, but a gorgeous man with the body of a god had the ability to drain me of vitality without even touching me. This was a completely new feeling for me, and I would’ve said it was unwelcome, but it definitely wasn’t. I would welcome it over and over again. I loved the feeling and when the cool breeze hit me upon exiting the scorching club, all I could do was sigh at the relief. My body was like a hot coal.

  As I stalked the shadows and neared the cemetery, I began to feel a heavy weight on my shoulders. A light fog was in the air and covering the ground like a blanket. The moon had a glow around it that I had never seen before. It was almost as if the moon was emitting its own light somehow. A red ring had formed around it in the few minutes I hadn’t been looking. There was blood on the moon. That was never a good sign.

  I was nearing the epicenter of the cemetery when I began to feel a harsh buzzing in every cell of my body like I was vibrating. I felt it in my mind, my heart, and even my soul, which was shaking with fear. It was so much stronger than any I had ever felt before. It was like my body was suffering from internal tremors that you couldn’t see from the outside, but you could probably feel if you touched my skin.

  The fear was welling up inside of me and forming a solid pit in my stomach I knew I would feel for weeks. I felt its grip on me like the solid we
ight I had felt on my shoulders. It spread over my body like a very heavy blanket. It was almost as strong as the hold of the stranger’s eyes that had stopped me in my tracks. A very dense blanket that had been wrapped around me like a vise was almost smothering me. At that instant I heard a twig snap, and it had all of my attention. I turned to see a man walking up to me. He had a slight limp in his gait. It was almost as if he had been injured at some earlier point in time. His black trench was swaying with every step. I knew what he was as soon as I felt the energy pulsating off of every inch of him, and I glanced at his eyes. They were a bright, demonic red. Vampire.

  Then came laughing from behind me, and even more from three others as I kept my attention on the first to make its presence known. I knew he was the alpha of this pack. Vampire functioned a lot like werewolves and kept within packs. He was the one that needed to be taken out first. The others would soon retreat after their alpha was killed, but this looked like a very tight-knit group. I knew that these would be the ones who wouldn’t stop till I was also taking a dirt nap. Whichever was the one to kill me would then become the new alpha. Ending the life of an Executioner was a huge honor if you ever came across one. Fortunately for me, there were some packs that weren’t educated about who I was and what I was able to do. The leader was the first to make a move, as always. The alpha was always the first to make a move, and the subordinates would soon follow suit if they wanted to remain a part of their pack.