Ashes (The Divided Kingdom) Read online

  Cade shrugged, acknowledging the point. He cleared his throat, bending to drop the bottle on the floor. Taking out a screwed-up packet of gum from the back pocket of his pants, he offered it to Vander before taking the last piece. He chewed on it as he continued. “So, who wins when you battle with the demon?” Faer had since left to check on their other gang member, one Alana was visiting. Sapphy.

  “Depends.” Trick wandered across, his hand trailing over multiple weapons hanging on the plastered walls. “Sometimes, brute strength wins over agility and cunning. Sometimes, skill overcomes all.”

  Cade thought back to Alana battling the FEDs that first night, the demon guards the night before. “I see that.”

  “Yeah, and cheating works too,” Vander put in.

  Cade laughed, warming to Vander. He was a man who knew not to take things seriously, with expertise at swords that made Alana’s skill at the bow appear amateurish. “This fae Alana’s visiting…she skilled or cunning?”

  She was the one other person who could possibly be Liberty. She was in the upper levels of the Hoods and inspired enough loyalty in Alana to leave him with her friends. She’d been in the Maze when Alana had been chained to his bed.

  Vander shrugged in answer to his question. “Sapphy’s a decent swordsperson, though her real specialty is with air.” He pursed his lips and made a whooshing sound. Hazel eyes glinted. “Woman’s like a ninja—she can do all sorts of crazy things with her element.”

  “Air?”

  When Vander nodded, Cade cursed inwardly. Strike Sapphy off his suspect list. She had to be a fae Elemental, rare, powerful, but with weaknesses that tended to lie with the other elements. Sapphy probably never stepped within a foot of conjured fire, in case of sparks catching her. She wouldn’t be killed, but her body would seriously weaken.

  Back to the beginning. “Liberty a good fighter?”

  A veil fell over Trick’s features, a blank canvas in need of paint. “Definitely.”

  “But she leaves her inner circle to fight solo?” He couldn’t believe a vampire, a creature so strong the humans had started a war to exterminate them, would follow anyone he wasn’t irrevocably loyal to.

  Trick’s fingers wandered over the carved wooden handle of a throwing axe. “Liberty’s always fought for the people, and will continue to fight, I’m sure, long after Edward’s dead. She’s never hidden, but has always charged toward danger. Even when advised otherwise.” An ironic note pulsed in there that Cade didn’t understand.

  “Not what I’ve heard.” Cade ran his tongue over his teeth. His hands curled into fists against his thighs. “If she’s so amazing, why haven’t I seen her? Met her, spoken to her?”

  “You think a merc should be allowed access to the rebellion leader?”

  “If she wants my loyalty, then she should take as much risk as I do.”

  Trick arched his eyebrows. “From what I can see, the risk is all hers.”

  “I’m willing to die.”

  “To get Edward off the throne. Do you care about the people in the Maze, the Outer Boundary, all the others?” Trick’s shoulders rose and fell in an elegant shrug. “Liberty cares about them. If she is to work, then she must move among them as a shadow.”

  “If I’m in, then—”

  “Maybe she’ll reveal herself. Until then, you have to go on faith.”

  “Faith? I can’t have faith in a shadow.”

  “That’s what faith is. It’s believing in something when there’s nothing concrete to support it. It’s going with the heart. If you can’t even do that…”

  Cade understood more than he liked. To do his job as a Blade, he’d had to masquerade as a vicious assassin.

  He wondered how it was any different, expecting Alana’s gang to have faith in him without proof, them expecting him to trust in this smoke-and-mirrors leader.

  Vander exhaled on a loud sigh. “We going to hurt him yet or what?”

  “Huh?” Cade’s head jerked up.

  The throwing axe sang as it pitched toward him.

  Ana bit her lip to keep from laughing. “Good training with the boys?” She channeled innocence as capably as Snow White from her seat in the lounging area.

  Cade collapsed into the deep-cushioned seat next to her. He’d staggered in, bruised, indignant and soak-her-panties gorgeous. She sighed, feeling female as his muscles flexed.

  “Yeah, laugh it up,” he dared. He sat forward, running a hand through black sweat-soaked hair. Her heart accelerated. “I thought swords with Vander was bad, but then Trick hurled a throwing axe at my head.”

  “When Vander joined, it was a crossbow arrow.”

  Bafflement marched across his features. “Mad. You’re all mad.”

  “Think of it as male bonding.” She gave in to the laugh when he twisted his lips. Moistening hers, Ana checked him over discreetly. “They didn’t open your wound, did they?”

  “Nah. It’s all healed; the stitches popped out a while back.” He scratched his chin, passing a hand over his shadowed jaw. “Your friends made sure of that before they started throwing punches.”

  “So whiny.” Ana smiled. “You had fun, didn’t you?”

  He barked out a bemused laugh. “Yeah. Maybe I’m as mad as the rest of you.”

  Ana’s smile broadened. Flames teased her with nipping bites underneath the skin. “Did you just act like cavemen for two hours?”

  A gleam danced in eyes glittering like midnight. His lean body shifted infinitesimally closer. “I could be a caveman and drag you off by your hair.”

  Ana’s breath shuddered. Her flames swirled in ever-increasing, sensual circles. “None left to drag me by, genius.”

  His expression was considering when he answered her original question. “We swapped war stories.”

  “Bragged about women too, I reckon.”

  “There might have been talk of all-nighters.”

  “Uh-huh. Who won that little competition?”

  Cade grinned. “Who do you think?”

  “You’re shameless.”

  “Unabashed.” His expression tilted into serious territory. He threaded his hands on his lap, squeezing his thumbs against each other. “We also talked about Liberty.” He watched her face.

  Hello, heartburn.

  Ana dug at her forehead with two stabbing fingers. “Not again, Cade.” She was weary of going over the same ground.

  “No, listen.” The arm he’d slung over the back of the couch retreated to his lap, linking hands into one unit. His hair fell out of the borrowed tie, framing his face like a dark aura. “Trick said Liberty has his loyalty. That I’d have to go on faith.”

  Ana wasn’t hearing anything different. “You can’t do that, I know. The whole fucking Maze knows. So—”

  He reached across to place his index finger over her lips. “Hush,” he ordered. “Man, when you get emotional, that gutter language really comes out.”

  Ana snapped at his finger.

  “Ah ah ah.” He frowned at her. “Let me finish. It’s not easy for me to go on faith. I’ve always thought that if I can see and touch it, then it exists. But I was thinking—as the axe was literally falling on me—I’m demanding your gang go on faith with me. I’m expecting them to trust that I won’t betray your HQ, your identities, the Hotel, to a man that I technically have a contract with. Allegiances should be equal.”

  Lost in confusing double-talk and the damnable masculine beauty of his face, Ana twisted her hands together. She pursed her lips. “Where’s this going, Cade?”

  “I don’t need to meet Liberty. If you think she’s a good leader, then that’s enough.” A small smile. “I have faith in you.”

  Ana’s breathing stalled long enough for her heart to give two exaggerated thumps in protest. Fire flared through her like a firework, bubbling in her blood, coupling with strong emoti
on the likes of which she hadn’t experienced since the first time she’d thrown herself at this man.

  Cade believes in me.

  Even knowing her past, what she’d done, or hadn’t…

  Ana put a hand to her throat, curled it around. She took a ragged breath in. “You wanna be that caveman now?”

  Chapter Twenty

  As they walked toward Ana’s old rooms, close enough you couldn’t slip a shoehorn between, his hand clasped hers, thumb stroking. A simple touch, but one that acted like a sonic wave through the core of her.

  Every pass of his roughened thumb against her skin made her thighs clench, every graze eliciting a shaky breath. Flames flared to dizzying heights, teasing her skin.

  She was practically quaking by the time she fumbled the door-catch to her old rooms open. Darkness beckoned them in.

  His mouth fell to her nape, lips tormenting the softness there with playful kisses. Her hand clenched on the wall immediate to the door, claws scraping as she lost her breath.

  “You sure?” he murmured, hands sliding down her arms. He intertwined their fingers, his so much larger.

  That he would even ask proved she was doing the right thing.

  Ana brought their joined hands toward her stomach. She kicked out blindly to close the door. It shut with a whisper.

  His hands were strong, gliding up and down as though feeling out the territory. Ana slumped against him, angling her head for a kiss.

  Deep, slow kisses drugged her, until she was rising on her tiptoes to reach a hand into his hair. The crisp strands fell through her fingers, reminding her of the kiss she’d once given him on her eighteenth birthday.

  Her thoughts scrambled before memories could invade, as he began to walk her forward. When they reached a plastered wall, he broke from their kiss. His voice was a rasp. “Hands on the wall, Princess.”

  Ana shimmied her hips, throbbing from her core when she felt steel push against her. Flames licked her skin. “I don’t answer to the likes of you.”

  Hot breath on her nape as he smoothed his hands over her. Ana wished them on bare skin.

  “Feisty, huh?” His teeth sank into her bared shoulder. She jerked, liquid pooling between her thighs, pleasure-pain bursting through her in a small ball of flame. “I like that.”

  Ana breathed faster when he turned her. Anticipation had darkened his eyes to midnight. They stripped her naked.

  An excellent idea.

  Her hands flew to the hem of her tank, drawing it up and off, leaving her in a plain black bra. Fancy lingerie was a dream in a rebel leader’s life, but she felt as sexy as though she were wearing stockings and red silk.

  Cade’s gaze devoured her. His hands smoothed upward, drawing designs on her skin with callused fingers. She shivered. Flames beat under her skin, desire pushing past her control.

  “I never got to see these morsels,” he murmured, plumping her breasts with his hands. He squeezed, seeming to relish her needy moan. Her legs parted in a sign as obvious as a doormat welcoming him. “Delicious. Missing only one thing.”

  Ana was finding it a challenge to concentrate. Cade’s hands manipulating her breasts. Cade’s cock pushing so deliciously hard against her.

  “What?” she managed, jolting when his claws sliced through the bra’s clasp like frosting.

  “My mouth.” He dipped his head and fastened his lips around one of her puckered nipples. And sucked.

  Ana mewed, claws scrabbling at the wall behind. Plaster fell like snow. As his cheeks sucked inward, her thighs clamped together. Dizzy with pleasure, she groaned. “Cade.”

  His answer was a growl, teeth nipping, lapping the hurts, as he made a detailed exploration of both right and left breast, leaving no patch of skin untouched. She was panting when he slid down, placing wet kisses across her stomach.

  He licked the navel jewel, trailing fingers over the fastening on her pants. “Off.”

  Yes. Ana fumbled at the catch. Her fire was demanding she shove Cade onto the bed and sink down, ride him until the ache inside her was satisfied. Until flames licked the ceiling.

  Kicking off her pants left her in a tiny triangle of black fabric that concealed nothing. His breath shuddered across her. She moaned, ready to drag him against her. “I’m going to kill you.”

  “Man, you’re good at sex talk.” He cupped the globes of her ass and nuzzled the thatch of hair through her panties. “You smell sweet.”

  Her claws sank into the plaster at the image of his rough tongue swirling in her core.

  His eyes were jackal. “I want those hot little claws all over me.”

  Ana’s flames burst onto her hands as she went to grab him, making her jerk away. Must not hurt him.

  It earned her a snarl. “Didn’t hurt last time. Do it.”

  Trusting him, Ana hauled him up and spun, slamming him against the wall. Plaster trickled onto his clothes as she plucked at the sweater he’d borrowed from Trick. She despised the mixed scent, wanting only his.

  “Off,” she complained, desperate enough that when his thigh jammed between her legs, a few sparklers crackled in her blood. Not fireworks. Not yet. Her fire tried again to smoke through her pores.

  His stomach and chest were pale, and ripped with delectable muscle. Ana purred, rubbing her hands all over. “I could bite.”

  His chest vibrated under her hands as the jackal snarled.

  Ana placed a hot kiss in the center of his chest, loving how he shuddered, how his hands moved to her head and gripped. She slid across, sprinkling kisses like chocolates as she went, until she nipped at a random part.

  He almost jumped out of his skin, a curse exploding like laser-fire. “Alana.”

  Humming in pleasure, she licked her way across to his flat brown nipple. She took it between her teeth, teasing until he begged, until the pressure on her head was almost painful. She sucked it into her mouth, glorying in the breaths panting from him. Her claws delicately traced his back.

  Her flames truly didn’t seem to bother him, actually making his arousal that much stiffer. At the thought of it thrusting into her, hard and fast, she cried out in need.

  He hauled her upward, lifting her in the air until his muscles bulged. Her panties were soaked, skin so sensitized she felt as though rubbing against him would set her off. Her fire was sparking from her, uncontrollable, flickers of red and gold and amber surrounding their bodies.

  Wrapping her legs around him, she gripped his head, feeding him a kiss that spoke of her longing to be invaded, taken by him.

  He shoved his cock against her. Even through his pants, he was hard as concrete, and so searing hot she was unable to contain the moan that spilled from her soul.

  So empty.

  She squirmed, rubbing, sliding, until she felt so frantic, so hot and turned on, so wet. His fingers were suddenly there, blunt and rough as he shoved them inside her, his thumb flicking her sweet spot, over and over, and, holy fire, over again…

  A scream ripped from her as she came, pleasure rocketing along her nerve endings. She sank her teeth into his shoulder. Flames erupted over her body, a literal blaze of glory, drawing a shout from him as the heat singed his skin.

  She felt him move, felt the mattress solid beneath her. Shudders continued to twang inside her, the heat of her fire drenching every part of her. Clothes rustled, then finally, blessedly finally, he was naked atop her.

  He was violent in the way he tore off her panties. His thumb played over her clit again, thrumming her roughly enough that her hips jerked.

  She writhed as he worked her, one finger dipping into the soaked entrance beneath, another joining it as he thrust them in and out. In and out. In and fucking out, until her eyes snapped open to glare at him. “Now,” she ordered. Begged. “Now, Cade.”

  As he prowled up her body, completely the animal, her skin prickled with near-unbea
rable sensitivity at the hard flesh slipping over hers. Skin to skin, she rubbed her breasts through the fine chest hair. The rigid brand of him burned as sweet as fire against her inner thigh.

  “You’re mine,” the jackal snarled. “My Ana.”

  Her hips lifted, seeking. “Yours.”

  With a roar, primal, desperate, Cade plunged into her.

  Her claws came out, scratching at his back as he began to work her, his hips slow and easy despite the sweat that dripped from his face. His eyes were drilling, more intimate than his body gliding in and out of hers.

  The rhythm killed her, the solid length of his cock rubbing every single sensitive place until Ana was one throbbing nerve end. The fire danced higher. She thrashed, her lips captured as he fed her kiss after kiss.

  “Cade,” she gasped. Her hair was soaked from sweat, a vivid red on the white sheets from the corner of her eye. Fire climbed her arms in swirling strokes.

  “You’re incredible.” He growled, the vibration echoing. He picked up the pace, pounding. “So hot, wet. So damn right, Ana.”

  His words washed over her while her head lashed from side to side.

  It was blistering, their hips moving in synch, his cock so firm inside her, so right, and she was coming again, fire spreading onto him as she cried out her release. Stars blanketed her vision as flames consumed them.

  His hips thrust twice more before he stiffened, head thrown back in a cross between a roar and a howl, pleasure suffusing his voice as he called her name.

  He collapsed onto her, heavy and sweaty and Cade.

  Ana tried to catch her breath, heart pounding like it did after a life-or-death fight. She smiled—one that could’ve put the cat that’d got the cream to shame. Small quivers continued to wreak havoc inside her, her flames banked.

  He lifted his head. The smile he aimed her way was both satisfied and brilliant. “I’m a Kindred, aren’t I?”

  There it was. The thing she’d dreaded and hoped for all her life, and now found in a man who presented risk in every category invented. Heart, soul, life.

  A Kindred. Un-fricking-believable.