Becoming Forever (Waking Forever Series) (26 page)

“Why?” Ash was confused.

“Something that happened to her shortly after she was turned. Coleen was vague, as Coleen is wont to be.” Rachel held the door open. “Please be careful, and Ashley – this stays with you, yes?”

That was the million dollar question wasn’t it
? Was Ash going to keep the revelations of the past few hours to herself, or was she going to blow the proverbial lid off the whole vampire, lycan, shifter and god knows what else, world? “Yes.” She didn’t lie exactly, but
maybe
didn’t seem like a very good answer either.

Chapter 13

Ash slipped the key in the front door of her apartment. The shock of what Rachel had told her, and the realization the world she had always understood was merely a fragment of a larger, darker place left her feeling restless and awake. She had been living a sheltered life. Her world was far more fragile than she had ever dared imagine.

Her already complicated feelings for Emma were further confused by the realization that she wasn’t what or who she had claimed to be.
In spite of this, Ash could not stop her feelings for Emma, even if she didn’t want them.

Entering her apartment, she struggled to lift her
trembling arm to turn on the light. Movement out of the corner of her eye brought her senses to full alert. The illumination she expected when flipping the light switch didn’t occur and the apartment remained cloaked in shadows.

“Who’s there?” Ash projected confidence when she spoke even though her heart was racing. Reaching down slowly, she unclipped her gun holster.

A deep baritone voice filled the space as two red orbs appeared in the corner. “You don’t fool me, detective. I can smell the fear.” Dorsey stepped out of the shadows, his eyes glowing red, and his jaw looked abnormally long.

Ash pulled her gun, and pointed it directly at the man. “Dorsey
, you stop or I’ll shoot!” She bit the inside of her cheek, focusing on the pain instead of the fear coursing through her.

The room suddenly reeked of
rancid meat and mildew. Ash nearly gagged as she used her free hand to cover her nose. Still focused on the large man in the corner, she watched in disbelief as he opened his mouth to reveal several rows of elongated, razor like teeth.

Dorsey’s
neck was extended, and muscle and tendon began to expand and fold in on itself seemingly at the same time. The apartment filled with a series of loud cracks and pops as bones fractured and realigned.

Ash backed against
the front door. “My God.” The man hunched his back forward and the outline of his spine became more pronounced against the t-shirt he wore. Reaching up with hands that now tapered to inch long nails, blackened at the beds, Dorsey ripped at the shirt, exposing his broadening chest that was rapidly becoming covered in long, coarse, black hair.

Ash aim
ed her gun, but before she could fire, the man lunged at her. His weight was immense, and the breath was knocked from Ash’s lungs as he landed on top of her. She fired the gun, the recoil sending a shock up her arm. The thing that had been Dorsey pulled back with a slight twitch. That was the only indication the bullet had struck it.

A
noise came from behind her, and the weight of the monster was suddenly off Ash. Rolling to her stomach, she quickly got to her knees. Her brain was struggling to process what her eyes were seeing.

Emma, clad in a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt
, stood in the middle of Ash’s living room with her hands wrapped around the throat of the monster that had been Dorsey. The beast towered over Emma, lurching and biting at her with its wolf like mouth.

Emma, in a single motion, leapt up and over the monster, sliding between the wolf like head and the ceiling. Now with both arms firmly around the animal’s throat
, Emma pulled backward, bringing Dorsey to his knees. Reaching behind him, the monster grabbed Emma by her long blonde hair, and attempted to unsuccessfully dislodge her.

T
he vampire opened her mouth to the point Ash thought her jaw must have dislocated, revealing sharpened incisors that extended well beyond her upper lip. Emma’s eyes glowed an iridescent blue, illuminating the veins that branched out across her neck and jaw like a disjointed spider web.

In a series of quick lunges, Emma’s head moved back
and forth around Dorsey’s neck, as she ripped pieces of the animal’s skin and muscle away. The beast yelped, and fell to its stomach. Emma lifted her head. Crouched on all fours over the dying wolflike thing, she stared at Ash. The animal’s blood dripped down her chin and onto Ash’s carpet.

Emma looked down at Dorsey
, who lay beneath her whimpering. In a fraction of a second, she grabbed the animal’s neck and twisting up and over, severed the head from the neck.

Dropping the dismembe
red head to the floor, Emma backed away from Ash and began wiping furiously at her mouth and neck. Ash was still kneeling, but managed to push herself up to her feet. Her knees felt like rocks and she thought they might buckle from the shock of what she had just witnessed. One thing she knew for certain was she had to get to Emma, who was moving further away from her by the second.

“
Stop.” Emma put her hand out. Her voice verged on a low growl, and Ash paused. “I need a minute.” Emma dropped to her knees, and tied her loose hair back in a knot. She bent over, stuck here middle finger down her throat, and gagged several times, a thin stream of blood running from her mouth.

“Are you okay?” Ash said the first thing that came to mind.
Regardless of what their issues were, the woman had just saved her life.

Emma, whose eyes still glowed a
n eerie blue, cocked her head to the right, revealing a web of fine blue veins running along her jaw and down her neck. “The lycan blood is foul.”

Emma turned her head to the side. “
It takes me a few minutes to get-” She hesitated, and shook her head. “It’s not important. I’ll get this cleaned up and leave.”

The misery in Emma’s voice caused
a stab of pain in Ash’s chest. She didn’t want for her and Emma to be like this. She remembered what she had said that morning in her kitchen about vampires being things, and she knew that must have hurt Emma. Ash walked toward her, and knelt in front of her. Emma inched backwards like a scared animal. “I just need to know you’re okay.”

From her knees, Emma stood straight up in a quick motion. “I am. Thank you.”

Seeing Emma move more akin to her natural speed, was amazing to Ash. Barely able to take her eyes off of Emma, she finally looked down at the dead animal on her living room floor. “How did you know?”

“I didn’t. Rachel called
and told me you knew about me; so I wanted to talk to you.” Emma pulled her shirt off, and used the cotton garment to wipe her face. Standing in her jeans and a rose colored bra, she nodded toward what was left of Dorsey. “I caught his scent, and the rest is – well, over.”

Ash steadied herself against the onslaught of desire that washed over her. She was shocked to find that Emma covered in blood, half naked, pale, eyes glowing and teeth still extended was incredibly erotic looking.
“I can help.”

Emma shook her head. “I’ve caused you enough grief at this point. I don’t want you party to the disposal of a body.” She was still not making eye contact with Ash.

“Why won’t you look at me?” Ash asked. She could handle a lot of things, but Emma being unwilling or unable to look at her was not one of them.

After a few seconds, Emma cautiously looked at Ash. Her eyes were nearly back to their normal blue. “I’m ashamed
.”

Hearing Emma say it, brought tears to Ash’s eyes. “Why?”

Emma exhaled. “I lied to you. By lying, I put you and people you care about at risk. As much as I want you, I don’t deserve you.”

This was one of those times when being right was absolutely no comfort to Ash. She knew she was right to be angry at Emma, she knew she should
be cautious in giving too much of herself to a woman who’s life she couldn’t even imagine. But she felt this unexpected, unpredictable, uncontrollable surge of compassion building in her.

She knew for
almost anyone else, it could not exist, but for Emma there was this wellspring Ash had not imagined herself capable of harboring.

“I don’t want us to
not
be in each other’s lives.” Ash took a deep breath, trying to clear the lump in her throat. “I’m not sure what that looks like, but I can’t hate you, and I don’t want you to hate me.”

Emma took a tentative step toward Ash. “I could never hate you.”

Ash frowned. “I haven’t been exactly mature the past eight hours. I called you a
thing
, Em, and when that wasn’t bad enough, I resorted to sarcasm and expletives.”

Emma bit her lower lip, her incisors havi
ng retracted. “I noticed that. But in your defense it was a lot to process.”

“I won’t lie, the whole vampire thing freaks me out.”
Ash needed to be honest with Emma. “Grant you, I don’t know exactly
what
the whole vampire thing is, but I’m willing to learn.” Emma grinned.

“In the meantime, what do you want to do about this-” Ash almost said thing and thought better of it. “
Ah?”

Emma
looked closely at Ash for a second before speaking. “Lycan.”

Ash shook her head. “Sorry?”

“Dorsey was a lycan. Werewolf.” Emma nodded toward the corpse.

The absurdity of her day was catching up to her, and Ash
couldn’t help but smile. “This is not what I thought you meant when you talked about lycans this morning. Is there some sort of primer, or a Cliffs Notes for the supernatural?”

Emma
laughed. “He wasn’t done shifting; otherwise, he would look more like - the movies.” Emma pursed her lips, clearly not happy making the comparison. She scanned the apartment. “Do you think anyone has called the police? Either because of the gunshot or the noise?”

Ash wanted desperately to pull Emma to her, but
there were still too many unknowns. The certainty of the night before had been eroded, and Ash was struggling to find her way back to the safety and intimacy she had experienced with Emma.

“First, I am the police. Second, t
he apartment below me is vacant and the shot was muffled.” Ash paused. “Third, you should have told me. That was a rotten trick you played on Rachel and Sara.” Ash didn’t know what else to do but continue to be as honest with Emma as possible.

Emma looked down, unable to make eye contact with Ash. “Eternity doesn’t necessarily give you courage.”

The pained expression on Emma’s face and the anguish in her voice tore at Ash’s heart. “Emma, you’re not a coward.” She remembered what Sara had said about impossible choices. “There weren’t really any good options.”

“I could have stayed away from you. I
could have left you out of it.” Emma’s voice cracked.

It was then that Ash knew she
would eventually forgive Emma. She didn’t know if she was going to be anything more than Emma’s friend, but thinking of her life without ever knowing her caused Ash’s stomach to turn and her mouth to go dry. “I don’t want that.”

Emma smiled
. “Thank you for saying that.” Emma tilted her head. “I don’t hear any sirens.”

Ash laughed. “Well neither do I, but that doesn’t mean -” Ash hesitated as what Emma said sunk in. “Right, you can hear much better than I can.”
Ash felt like an idiot.

Emma smiled, the blood around her mouth now drying and hardening. “It’s okay. Yes, I can hear at about a five mile radius in the city. Farther in the country
, when I don’t have to work so hard at filtering out the peripheral noise.”

Emma tilted her head again. “No police, and based on the heart rates of your nearest neighbors, they’re still asleep.” Emma looked at Ash, her eyes having returned to their natural, intense blue. “May I use your shower, and borrow some clothes?”

Ash stood in amazement and awe of Emma. She knew their relationship was going to be complicated, but she didn’t know what relationship wasn’t. They would just have to manage a more diverse range of issues. “Absolutely.” Ash looked down at what was left of Dorsey. “What about him? Is he the one that killed Cris?”

Emma chewed the inside of her lip nervously
and looked around the apartment. “I think that’s a safe conclusion. He has the same foul odor I smelled at the motel.” Emma wrinkled her nose. “Do you have a large sheet or rug?”

Ash shook her head. “We have to find a way to report this
, Emma. This animal killed six cops, including my partner.”

Emma looked at Ash and then back at Dorsey. “Of course.” The doctor crouched next to the corpse. “He will eventually shift back to his human form. It will take several hours, and not smell great while he does it.” Emma poked at
the man’s shoulder. “The roughness of his skin is already lessening; so maybe three hours.”

Ash frowned. “What are you suggesting?”