Ash to Embers (Courting Shadows) (30 page)

Sio and Tian stepped in front of Ceyla. Avery replaced his coffee cup with a fat black forty-five. Xavier realized he was cursing a steady stream under his breath and shut it down.

-Hey asshole, she didn't do it on purpose.-

*One of these days that logic isn't going to be enough to save her from me.*

"Royal."

-Today it will though.-

*Today it's enough- barely.*

"Tian," Royal answered.

The relief that manifested in the set of her posture was almost comical. "Can you track the fucking marker or not?"

"That depends on how far I can clarify the spell with what remains on his body."

Without comment, Sio stripped off the t-shirt he'd been wearing and tossed it onto the counter. The physique the thin material had alluded to was exponentially better than the suggestion. Xavier didn't need to check Tian's aura for a reaction. Her skin flushed. She closed her eyes and grabbed onto the counter so hard she was seconds away from cracking marble.

"Where do you want me?" Sio asked.

In another country, motherfucker. Possibly on another planet.

*Temper, temper.*

-You're one to talk.-

"On the island. Unless Tian would prefer to have you elsewhere," Royal said.

"The island's fine," Tian answered, without bothering to open her eyes.

"I require lavender, sage, devils claw, sweetgrass, rosewood oil, and a non-stick metal baking tin." Royal cracked his neck and pulled the silver athame from his left boot.

"Hey," Sio said. He waited for Tian to look up at him. When she did, he leaned down and whispered something into her ear. She turned her face into him and both auras lit with the deep scarlet flush of desire.

"I'll get them," Tian said, struggling to back away from Sio's half-naked form. She left the room, but not without a lingering backward glance.

Xavier cursed himself for poking the gator with a stick, but he was overcome with the sudden masochistic impulse. "What did you say to her?"

Sio regarded him with a straight face and a slow negative shake of his head before settling himself on the top of the island. "That's personal."

"It's like that, huh?" Avery asked. He dug through the cabinets, pulling out a small rectangular baking tin and squat glass tub of dark crystals. He tossed the salt across the room and handed the tin to Sio who set it down on the island next to him.

"It's like that," Sio said.

Hard not to respect the guy.

Xavier reached out and caught the projectile on impulse and held it and an eyebrow up in silent inquiry.

"I don't want you boys carving up my kitchen," Avery said with a rose tinted grin.

"You know me, I love a good host," Royal drawled with a wink. He pulled a slender stub of ash chalk from his pocket and twirled it through the fingers of his right hand.

"Though I do always come prepared."

"Fuck you, gov."

Ceyla shook her head as she flicked her cigarette into her cup and slammed it onto the counter. "Sorry, Sio," she said as she hopped down and made for the door.

Royal grabbed her as she shoved past him. "Next time, stay away from me," he said. His aura snaked out and wound around her body like smoke.

"Then don't
touch
me, Royal," she snapped.

"You don't know what I'm capable of, and you don't know me."

"Yeah, ditto."

Sio's big paw clapped down on Royal's shoulder, pulling him in toward the island before he could do anything stupid. "Watch yourself. This isn't your house."

-He's right. You know she always fucks up your head.-

"And it's not your business, but I will happily guarantee you that I won't touch her again if I can avoid it."

Sio nodded once, let go, and looked at Ceyla who shook her head. Tian returned with an armload of elegantly labeled glass bottles and stopped halfway into the kitchen as she noted the emotional aftermath. "Are we going to do this or are we going to sit around watching you guys pull your dicks all night?" she asked.

Xavier grinned. Crass never sounded as good as when it came from her.

"You are, I'm done," Ceyla said.

Tian plunked the bottles on the edge of the island near Sio's left thigh as the other female made her exit. Royal leaned down and began to inscribe his circle onto the hardwood around the island, murmuring to himself as the smell of scorched earth wafted up from the floor.

-What, didn't think you'd be able to concentrate with the Draw in the room?-

*You know, I'm really going to enjoy this, Angel.*

Cause that wasn't ominous or anything.

"Tian, you need to be inside the circle with him when it closes," Royal told her. The sigils he was inscribing began to glow.

-Miserable prick. What are you planning?-

*I like to leave my options open...Worried?*

-Not in the mood.-

*Funny, I'm always in the mood.*

-Now who's the liar.-

"Hey boys, you mind saving those meaningful glances for a time your shit's not burning holes through the floor?" Avery asked. He was waving the gun in his hand as if it were a kitchen utensil.

Royal resumed his quiet incantation and dark energy rippled in the thin line of ash. It was difficult not to get lost in the intricacies of progeny sorcery. The light echoed like a beacon in Xavier's blood, infusing him with the usual sense of benevolent clarity and power. He eased it out of his body, pumping it through the psychic line connecting him to Royal.

The demi-demon's steel aura sparkled with the push as he slipped through the circle and drew it closed. A loud hiss like a lit fuse raced around the edges, sparking as each sigil flared counterclockwise. Xavier gritted his teeth as a searing line of pain lashed up the side of his torso, adding to the design already etched in his skin, bleeding him for his complicity. Man, that shit hurt. You'd think he would have learned or been used to it by now. Not that he would have chosen differently any of the times Tian had been involved.

Fucking sap.

Inside the circle Royal picked up the jars, emptying them one by one into the tin. He murmured in the old language as he upended the contents of a small vile he kept in his pocket into the now shimmering mixture. He turned towards Sio who had been watching the process intently.

"Spit."

Sio lifted the metal pan, bringing it towards his face where he acquiesced to the request, then set the tin down. It was the suavest expectoration in history. The contents of the tin bubbled, bleeding into the translucence of a dream state. The fumes coming off the mixture made Xavier's teeth ache. Royal used the silver athame to stir the spell, rolling the mist like pasta until it coated the blade and glittered with streaks of lazy iridescence against the slender point of metal.

"Lay flat," he commanded.

A muscle ticked in Tian's temple as she watched Sio comply. She folded her arms, hugging them to her body as if she were trying to avoid losing control and reaching for him. Xavier clenched his jaw to avoid making an ass of himself.

*Quit mooning over her. Right or left side?*

-You're one to talk. What happened to personal privacy?-

*Right or left side?*

-His left.-

Royal sniffed as if he wanted to say something else, but he didn't. He lifted the athame and slid the thing against Sio's chest as if he were buttering toast. The purple stain flared to life, twisting through the binding as the image began to resolve itself. The final product was less than impressive.

*Are you getting any more than we are?*

-It's still too much of a blur to work with.-

Xavier could feel Royal's irritation lurking beneath the placid exterior. To say that the demon was a perfectionist was a glaring understatement.

"We need a new plan," Royal said.

"Is this option two?" Xavier asked.

"What's option two?" Avery piped up from his position on the counter.

"Collect as much of the clarification as we can get so I can take it to Baba," said Tian.
Royal turned and looked at her, weighing his options.

-Not what you had in mind?-

*Not exactly, but I can work with it.*

Royal braced an arm against the island and leaned over to Tian's ear, "If you want to collect it, I need your breath on his chest."

A delicate tremor ran through her body. Sio swallowed hard and his aura flared to meet hers, spilling out in a sensual display unacceptable for third party viewing. The hits just kept on coming. Xavier was tempted to leave the room, if only to stop torturing himself with the sight of them together. He didn't though. His feet wouldn't comply with the desperate signals his brain was sending them.

Tian stood at the edge of the island and leaned across Sio's body, holding herself above his skin as if she were afraid to make contact. She gripped the edge of the butcher block top until her knuckles turned white and it looked like she was going to upend the thing.

Sio's aura was pulsing, crackling with radiant shards of white fire to meet Tian's glowing spill. He propped himself on one elbow and lifted the other hand, sliding it into her hair.

The way he cradled the back of her head in that big palm of his was intimate enough to elicit a reaction from every damn person in the room. An unwelcome emotion was banging around Xavier's chest like a trapped bird.

Tian let out a shaking exhalation. It was a soft sigh, barely audible under the buttery baritone of Royal's incantation, but it changed everything. The sexual tension in the room spiked to suffocating; the inside of the circle boiled with it. Only it wasn't just sex, there was a purity to it. Sections of the spell became opaque as they peeled away from Sio's skin like they'd lost gravitational pull. The violet baby food went berserk, writhing and twirling, desperate to escape Tian's breath.

"Tian, if you don't move back there will not be any proof left on him," Royal's voice was strangled as he picked up one of the empty jars and collected a few of the rabbiting tendrils from the petrified gelatinous purple anemone. Royal looked as stricken as Xavier had ever seen him.

-Hey...-

Nothing.

Fucker was locked down tighter than Fort Knox.

Royal shoved the jar at Sio and started shutting the circle down hard. The energy imploded, consuming itself until all was quiet and breathing was once again possible. Royal uttered a few more sharp syllables and hit the edge of the chalk outline of the circle to break it.

"We're leaving."

Avery's eyebrows levitated into his hairline. He cocked his head to the side. "You sure?"

Xavier nodded. "We're sure," he answered.

Royal didn't say another word as they left, but the longing quietly threading its way through his aura was unmistakable.

A big bag o'dicks.

That summed up how he'd felt the last time he'd been aware of coming to with his roll cage sandwiched between the colossal paws of some big ass Mexican with a skull trim and a soul patch. The guy'd been so up close and personal Loren had gotten the impression that he was having his spleen examined by way of his esophagus.

Whatever it was that had been exhaled into his open mouth had been salty, tasted like ocean and rainwater, young earth before the onslaught of pollution and global warming. It had congealed behind his teeth, swelling in his face like a mouthful of aerosol hair mousse. That breath had rolled on his tongue like liquid lightning, sliding through the waiting membranes of his skin and burrowing deep into paralyzed muddied synapses. The resulting emotional and sensory reactions had been...well, probably cathartic if he could recall anything after the initial onset of exhilaration. After the fireworks there had been nothing, fog maybe, or the muted darkness of dreamless stasis.

The first thing to catch on Loren's awareness as he sifted himself from the tatters of sleep was the surprising realization that he felt good. The world wasn't swimming. He wasn't about to blow chunks or die if he attempted to think too hard about what had happened to him. And he had no desire to analyze it, to ruminate in general lest he damage the glossy veneer of ignorance and moderate contentment. The things that had gone down after the T-Station were fragmented at best; surreal as if they'd been insulated or had happened to someone else.

He stretched out like a starfish, arms and legs all over the place, and enjoyed floating on a mattress cloud that was much too comfortable to be his own. He cautiously shifted his skull with his eyes closed, waiting for the telltale bright streamers of pain to flare up, declaring him an idiot for self-diagnosing and jostling the mud box.

The soft sounds of sobbing brought him to the brilliant conclusion that he wasn't alone. Loren peeled open his peepers, dropping his head to the right as he zeroed in on the source of the sound. There was a woman sitting in a high-backed ivory chair across the room. She had one knee pulled up to her chest and looked like a wet dream in lavender track pants and a gauzy wide necked gray cotton top that hung off the side of a mocha colored shoulder.

She was gorgeous. Scratch that, she was the most flawless woman he'd ever had the pleasure to ogle in person. He coughed, because he was at a loss for words and feeling like he was intruding on a private moment, an accidental idiot voyeur. He didn't know what else to do. Her head shot up. Pale green eyes still red rimmed from crying went wide in surprise. He felt his nerves bouncing around under her scrutiny.

Damn son.

"Bollocks."

He wished he knew what she'd meant by that. The fact that he didn't was the only thing that kept the hot ass accent from causing him to swoon like a hormonal teenage girl. Loren looked down at the flimsy layer of thread count that was migrating down his torso as he sat up and swallowed hard. He was naked. He eased himself back onto his elbows in a pathetic attempt to preserve modesty, knowing that the bourgeoning erection on his stomach was about as subtle as a neon sign.