Ashes (The Boys of Chapel Crest, #2)

by K.G. Reuss

I wanted to see her big, luminous eyes peering back at me from Church’s side. I wanted to hold her and taste her and tell her how fucking sorry I was for ruining everything.

And a single, solitary tear trailed from the corner of her eye. My heart caught in my chest. She was in there. She was fighting. She was trying. I swallowed thickly and backed away from her. “I’ll await your return,” I said softly. “I’ll await my punishment.”

“You’re gone, aren’t you?” I whispered, caressing her cheek. “You fucking left me, didn’t you?” I bit back a sob. “Everyone leaves me. But you know what, specter?” I leaned in and put my lips to her ear, my tears falling into her hair. “I’m never leaving you. You are my love. My fucking obsession. And the next time you leave me, we’ll go in body bags together. I fucking promise you.”

He was everything I knew to fear. An angel with the soul of a devil and the master of my terror. I knew him. Asylum.

“Remember us? Best friends. We were going to get married someday. You were my pirate princess. I rescued you. Don’t you remember?”

My poor, sweet angel. I had nothing without her. It was extreme, but ever since I’d met her, I couldn’t get her out of my damn head. I’d wanted her so much it had hurt, and when I’d had her. . .I was so fucking close to getting everything I’d ever wanted then she’d been torn from me.

If I had a way right now, I’d finish the fucking job. I didn’t want to be in a world where I couldn’t have Sirena. I’d lived a life without her before meeting her. There was no way I was going back to that cold, harsh existence. Sure, I had Dante and the watchers, but I didn’t have her. And I fucking wanted her more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life, including my mother to give a damn about me.

“So beautiful,” Sully continued in a soft voice. “The devil picks the best. Always has. It’s such a shame.” His fingers moved to my cock, where he stroked me. I let out a soft cry of protest before the feeling on my dick left.

“It’s either you or her. Take this nightmare and cradle it close or she will.” The medicine he’d given me washed through my body, choking my protests down. Another tear slid past my lashes as he touched me. As someone else came into the room. A voice I recognized. My brain couldn’t put the pieces together though. Darkness descended. And then silence.

We’re in this together. You know that. We’re not going anywhere. We love you, Sinclair. I know you think you’re not worthy of love, but you are. If we, by some miracle, get her back, that doesn’t change our group. We’re still in this together.” I studied him as he continued to look at the floor. “Let a little love in.” “Look where love got me last time.” “Right here,” I said gently. “Right on the cusp of falling in love with someone wonderful and perfect for us. It wasn’t a mistake to love Isabella, Sin. She was a light guiding you to these moments.”

She was a fucking specter. A ghost who wouldn’t stop haunting me because everywhere I went, she was there. In my head. My heart. In fucking conversations. Every-fucking-where.

You know I’ll even kill those I love if it means death is a better alternative.”

“You’re perfect for what we need. This is a place of healing. You can’t heal while demons infest your soul. You may be a lost cause in that respect, but your body is still useful.”

“It’s that you already wanted to die, so if you don’t make it through our little experiment, we’re covered. The suicidal, manic ones are really the best.”

“I’m inclined to give you a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder. Tell me, Seth. How many voices are in your head? Who am I speaking to right now?”

“I’ll give you a crown of daggers and slay anyone you want me to. Then I’ll make love to you over their remains. Whatever world my pirate princess wants, she will have. Just come out of hiding. I need you, Rinny. Fuck, I need you.”

so I was looking at the cocksucker in front of me. “You’re upset,” Sully said. “It’s understandable. You’re going through a big change right now.” “Fuck you,” I mumbled. “Yes, well, later.” He chuckled, the sound sending chills down my spine. A flash of a memory cracked through the wall, making me blink rapidly. Crying. Begging. A hot mouth against mine. Pain. So much fucking

Then there was the touching. My naked body. Hands on my groin. “Mama,” I choked out. “Please. Please, Mama!” Silence. “Malachi, look at me.” Sully’s face appeared. There were no masked people. No chanting. The room was bright white, not dark now. I wasn’t strapped down anymore. I let out a whimper. What the fuck was happening to me?

“What do I do?” I peered at him through bleary eyes. I wanted this ache to go away. I wanted the drug he’d given me. I wanted my freedom. I just wanted to be normal. “You cut away what burdens you,” he said in a soft voice that sent chills over me. “Make the first cut. To be free. Carve the sins from your body.” Something cold was pushed into the palm of my hand. “I’ll stay with you to make sure you’re safe from the demons.” I cried, my chest throbbing. “Freedom is only a slice away, Malachi.

He was asking me to cut parts of my skin off. To remove my tattoos as punishment for letting the demons in. My entire body was tatted. Even spots on my face. And he wanted me to cut them away?

“Asher, you’re so silly, but the flames are going to burn someone if you’re not careful. . .” My heart froze in my chest as his gaze bore into me, examining my tainted soul. He’d repeated words Abby had said to me the day before she died. I’d never told anyone her words before.

He’ll make love to her on a Thursday, and on Friday, the world will burn. Ashes.” I swallowed thickly as he stared at me. “You’ll burn the world with Mirage at your side.” “Who the fuck is Mirage?” Church demanded. I didn’t know anyone named Mirage. None of us did. “You know Mirage. Mirage is one thing outwardly but something else completely inwardly. Mirage wants revenge.”

“I know what you’re capable of, Sinclair. And I know the date and time of your fall. A Tuesday at one-oh-eight in the morning. Your name will be called, and you’ll fall. The ropes will hurt, my friend. And I’ll be there to set you free.”

Rinny, my firefly, is my entire world. She always has been. Since the day she waved to me while I stood in my attic window. Whatever is set to meet her will meet me too because I won’t leave her side while she’s in the hospital. Tonight, she rests peacefully. Alone. Her room is next to mine. I can hear her heartbeat. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.” He pounded his chest in time. “It calls to me. She always calls to me. Fucking trust our process.”

“Do you want us to trust the process. . . or you?” Sin called out. Asylum’s blue gaze snapped to Sin, and a frightening grin carved his lips upward. “Trust the process. Don’t trust me. I’m crazy.”

I couldn’t take any more of his riddles. I felt like I’d fallen into Wonderland whenever I had to speak to him. He’d already pissed me off enough for one night. Getting out of there before I lost my mind to him was important. He was good at getting into people’s heads. I’d give him that one. I felt like I needed a psych evaluation after spending the last thirty minutes with him. “Asher needs air. I’m making him a little. . . mad,” Asylum said with a laugh, offering me a wink.

“Love me,” I choked out, fucking deep into her. “Please, fucking love me.” She whimpered, tears streaming down her face. She squeezed her eyelids tightly together as her body clenched around my dick, her release blanketing me as she shook beneath the pleasure. “I hate you. I fucking hate you, siren. You’re ruining my fucking life.”

Fuck, I was a monster. A villain. A demon. And she was a perfect angel I knew I didn’t deserve, but fuck me, because I wanted her. I wanted her so badly I was willing to come clean with the guys if it meant it brought her back to us. Us. Like she’d ever want me.

“I’ll make it right,” I whispered into the spray. “I swear I will. And then I’ll take my punishment. I’ll kill myself if it’ll stop the pain I created for my family. For siren.”

Everyone I loved left me. Now, I knew why. It was because I wasn’t worth staying for. But this time. . . I’d fix everything. Then I’d say my goodbyes. Forever.

For as long as I could remember, all my father had wanted me to do was join the family business. I’d been forced to carve and hack on people. Sometimes they’d still been alive. Sometimes they’d been dead. And then my mother. . .

“Do you. . . see the future or some shit?” He looked to his right, his gaze darting around. I wasn’t even sure he was going to answer until he snapped his attention back on me. “No.” “No?” I raised my brows at him. “Then what is it? You really just get lucky?” His forehead crinkled. “No.” I sighed. He was difficult to talk to. “I’m really not,” he said, studying me. “Not what?” “Difficult to talk to.” I gaped at him for a moment. “You’re in my head right now, aren’t you?” I wanted to get to the bottom of whatever the fuck he was. “No. You’re in mine,”

I could kill him out here and bury his body. No one would know. No one would miss him. I watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed, and his bottom lip wobbled. “That’s the hardest part,” he finally said. “What’s that?” I took the rabbit off the spit and tore a chunk of meat off, popping it into my mouth. “Not the killing. Not me being dead. It’s that no one would miss me. That’s sad, isn’t it, Dante? That no one has ever cared enough about me to miss me?” I swallowed the meat, trying to hide my surprise and discomfort. What the fuck else could he see inside my head?

I felt her. She was scared.

How dees he know????

She could pay me back in small increments if that was what it took. Bite by bite. I’d offer my flesh at will to my Rinny. She could devour me whole if it meant she was fighting.

A look of pure, heart-wrenching sadness was on his face, a bandage covering the side of his head yet. He appeared thinner. Gaunt. Sick. His eyes were bloodshot, and his dark hair hung limply. He mouthed my name, a tear snaking down his cheek. And a sentence I could make out plain as day. I’m sorry. “Stitches,” Sin murmured, looking into the window with us. “Fuck, man.”

Stitches wept on the other side of the glass as Church continued to hold his hand against Stitches’s through the clear pane. “Keep holding on. We’ll be back. We’ll get this sorted.” It was almost like Stitches could hear Church. He nodded, his face damp with tears. “Soon,” I said, resting my hand over Church’s. “Soon, man. We’ll figure it out.”

I’m here to save the damn day,” she sassed back, crossing her arms over her chest. “What does that mean?” I narrowed my eyes at her nervously, praying she wasn’t here to take Sirena away from us. “It means, Asher Valentine, that you have a new roommate.” “What?” I crinkled my nose at her. “You’re not staying with us,” Sin said immediately. I followed Church’s gaze to Cady’s suitcases near the couch. She shot us a mega-watt smile. “I’d like to see you make me leave.” She pulled out a knife and did some fancy little twirl with it. “Really, I would. Fucking try me, dickheads.”

“What did you do to get thrown in here?” “Set Jerry’s car on fire.” She smirked widely at me. “You gave me the idea with all your talk of flames.” Church scoffed. “That’s hardly enough to get someone thrown in here.” Her grin widened. “I guess I forgot to mention he was in it at the time.”

“And I rescued you just like I promised,” he proclaimed, his smile turning into a full-on grin. “Do you know what that means?” “No.” He gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “It means now we have to get married. You can be my pirate princess, and we can fight off all the bad guys.” “Aren’t pirates bad though?” I wrinkled my nose at him. “I don’t want to be a bad guy.” “You won’t be, Rinny. We’ll only hurt the ones who hurt us. I’ll be the bad guy, so you won’t have to, OK?” “Promise?” “I swear it.”

When you’re with me, stay. When Sully comes and it scares you, hide. I’ll protect you from him. You can shimmer in and out and be whoever you need to be to stay safe. My sweet pirate princess or. . .” He cocked his head at me. Your vicious little monster. “My monster,” he murmured. “Yes, you’re the monster we created, aren’t you?”

I needed to get out of here. I needed to be away from it all so I could breathe. So I could think. So I could. . . “Live,” he finished. “Good. Because I don’t plan on doing it alone.”

I literally do not understand how he’s reading their minds, knowing things no one should know

I stared at the boy I’d once loved with every ounce of my being. “Love,” he whispered. “Still love. There is no past tense with us, Rinny.” No past tense. So the fates seemed to have decided. I squeezed his hand. He’d rescued me. He was inside my head somehow. Just. . .how? “Magic.”

In those hazy days, I’d been shot up with drugs again, had hallucinated that I’d gotten on my knees and begged for freedom, and I was really fucking certain I’d been sucked off.

You want her stronger, don’t you? The pretty girl with the colorful eyes and long, black hair? She’s truly a beauty. Her stepfather has said he’s willing to sell her to me should she become too damaged here. I’m sure you know what sort of use for her I’d find. Right. . . Son?”

“She’ll get to leave here too? And so will I? Together?” “Yes.” His lips lingered on my jaw. “Promise, Father? Swear it to me.” He chuckled softly and trailed his lips to mine where he placed a soft kiss on the edge of my mouth. “I promise. You have my word. But if you fail, I’ll take her from you and Dante. There’s a debt that needs to be paid. For now, if you abide by the rules, she’ll remain yours. If you fail. . . well, then I’ll take her flesh. That’s my vow to you.”

I was prepared to go to war for this girl. I had been before, but there was more here. Her eyes. Her lips. The way the light cast around her beauty as I saw her in my mind’s eye.

What was happening to me? “Nothing. Yet.” Seth reached for my hands and took them in his. “You don’t pretend when you’re with me, Sirena.” Sirena. Not Rinny? “Do you want me to call you Rinny? I was under the impression. . .” his voice trailed off.

Seriously the mind reading is freaking me out

“I remember one night when the fireflies were all over the lawn. They lit it up like a tiny city,” he continued softly. “Your hair was loose and whipped around you as you ran through them, disturbing their peace. My little bit of chaos.” He smiled sadly. I remembered that night. It was right before I was hurt. Before he’d left me. Before. . . we’d changed.

“To us,” he whispered as he slowed us to a stop. Without hesitation, he leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. “Forever my girl.” I stared up at him with parted lips, my heart racing. “Mine,” he murmured, running his nose along my jaw. “Ours.” He inhaled deeply and dragged me tightly against his hard body. “And I will fuck you in the blood of our enemies, my little firefly. That’s a promise.”