Blood Ties Book Three: Ashes To Ashes

Numb and cold on the kitchen floor, I stared at the container of ice cream Max had left on the counter.

I don’t know how long I stayed there, watching condensation form on the cardboard. It was leaving trails and pooling around the softening bottom when I finally moved.

I had to pull myself together. It was bad enough I would have to face Nathan knowing he’d chosen Bella over me. I didn’t have to let him know how destroyed I was.

I headed downstairs to my bedroom. In the bathroom, I flipped the shower on, as scalding as I could make it, and stood under it until the water turned frigid and the steam dissipated. Outside, the sun would no doubt be coming up. They would be here any minute.

No sooner had I thought it than there was a soft knock at the door. “Carrie?”

Max peeked around it, eyes modestly shielded, and threw me a towel. “They’re here.”

“Thanks, I’ll be right up.”

“Okay.” He stepped out, then came back. “He looks like hell, Carrie.”

“Good.”

I meant it. Nathan had played me the entire time I’d known him, refusing to get into any kind of relationship with me, but oh, he could have sex with me. That was okay. I could live in the same house with him. He could beg me not to leave him, and tell me constantly how destroyed he would be if I did. But he wouldn’t give up the memory of his dead wife for me.

But he would for Bella. She possessed some magic key, some ingredient I didn’t have, that changed his mind and made him want to be in a relationship with someone.

In a relationship with her.

I dressed, not bothering to try and look good. It would be transparent if I spent another half hour blow drying my hair and putting on makeup.

At the top of the stairs I found Nathan and Bella sitting at opposite ends of the couch. Though I registered their distance, it wasn’t enough to stop my knees from going all watery.

Once we’re turned, vampires never age. Nathan had remained frozen in time at thirty-two years old. A very fit, very attractive thirty-two. Once, I’d jokingly mentioned he must have had a pretty tough exercise regimen in life to get such great arms. He’d chuckled and said, “No, it was from carrying Marianne. She couldn’t walk, toward the end.” His gray eyes had shone with sadness for a moment, then just as quickly changed back.

Now, his gaze snapped to me and he lifted his dark head as I ascended the last few steps.

Max turned as I came fully into the room, and he winked at me encouragingly.

Nathan rose as if expecting, I don’t know—a hug? For me to leap into his arms?

Whatever it was, it wasn’t something I wanted to give him. I waved him aside and flopped into the armchair near the kitchen door. “No need to get up on my account.”

His fingers clenched and worried against each other before he sat down again.

Bella looked from him to me, her eyes slightly narrowed and her mouth quirked in an amused smile, but she said nothing.

“Now that you’re both here, I guess I can break the bad news.” Nathan leaned forward and rubbed his hands on the knees of his jeans. It was a nervous habit, and the denim on his thighs was nearly white with wear. “I’m just going to say it.”

“Get it over with,” Bella practically snarled.

Trouble in paradise? I shot Max a look, but his gaze was fixed on Bella.

“I was trying to.” Nathan slid her a sideways glare. “Something happened at Movement headquarters. That’s why you haven’t had word from them. The Oracle got loose.”

“No.” Max’s exclamation came as a whisper. Not much scared Max, but I knew the Oracle did. An ancient vampire with powerful telekinesis, she had been held under strict supervision by the Movement. Max had actually been on a team assigned with moving her to the high-tech facilities she’d been kept in of late. Not all the team members had survived.

Nathan didn’t respond, but I’d seen that expression on his face many times. He was just as scared as Max. “She killed her handlers, most of the staff. Miguel is gone. So is Breton. She was located in the hospital wing, so most of the destruction is centered there.”

“Anne is dead,” Bella said dispassionately, never looking at Max. “The Oracle set fire to everyone in the hospital wing.”

“Like, with mind powers?” I asked quietly.

Bella frowned at me as though trying to comprehend my stupidity. “No. With the rubbing alcohol from the supply room and someone’s lighter.”

Max moved to the window, his jaw clenching as Nathan droned on about procedures during cessation of communication, and whether or not it was safe for me or himself to be involved.

I went to Max and laid my hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’m just… You know, I knew it. All those years ago, when we moved her to the new facility, it’s like I could feel that she was planning something.”

Bella snorted. “How could you know the mind of the Oracle?”

“I don’t believe the mind of the Oracle concerns you,” Max growled at her. “How many werewolves died at her hand?”

Her exotic face went pale, but Bella’s golden eyes narrowed. “I am sorry she could not be of better service to you in your campaign of hatred against my people.”

“Everyone just calm down.” Nathan stood, entirely too reasonable for the emotional climate of the room.

When I’d first seen him, I’d just been relieved to be in the same room with my sire. I hadn’t noticed how tired he appeared, hadn’t taken in the dark circles beneath his eyes or the grim set of his mouth.

His gaze flickered over me a moment, and his exhaustion seemed to intensify. “The Oracle didn’t break out on a whim. Like Max said, she must have been planning it. Let’s all turn it in for the day and discuss this like reasonable adults after sundown.”

“Great, I’ll show you guys to your rooms.” Max emphasized the plurality. It comforted me to know that though they would probably end up together Max was letting them know he disapproved of it.

Nathan seemed surprised. He looked at me, then back to Max with a shrug. “Sounds good.”

“Okay. Night, all.” I gave a noncommittal wave and turned to the stairs.

Look back.

The suggestion over the blood tie was so strong, I had to give in. When I glanced over my shoulder, Nathan’s gaze locked with mine. I couldn’t discern the emotion there, whether it was guilt or apology or a silent plea for me to come to him.

I shook my head, refusing them all.

Though I was tired, sleep did not come immediately. My brain swam with imagined horrors. I’d experienced firsthand just a taste of the Oracle’s power. I’d seen what she’d done to Anne, the cheerful, eternally teenaged receptionist of the Movement. The Oracle had tormented her with a vision of her spine being shattered, then, years later, she’d made it come true. What had she made those poor vampires in the hospital wing see? It must have been agony for them.

Despite the fact their agenda and my continued existence were mutually exclusive, the vampires I’d met at Movement headquarters had been nice to me, especially Anne, who’d taken me to see the Oracle despite the restrictions against it. That had ended with a skirmish in which the Oracle had tossed Anne around like a rag doll, and tried to rip my head off my shoulders. We’d been relieved, afterward, to learn that Anne had survived her injuries. But in hindsight it seemed she’d been doomed from the start. Because of the Movement’s strict policy against medical treatment for life-threatening injuries, Anne would have been slowly recuperating, with no help but her body’s own healing ability. She would have been completely defenseless when the Oracle torched the place. I think Nathan was right. The Oracle didn’t seem to do things willy-nilly.

I rolled onto my side. The bed seemed bigger and oddly empty, now that my sire had arrived. I ached to lie at his side, listening to his gentle snores and occasional nonsensical sleep babble. Now, that was for someone else.

It made me feel a bit better to review their icy behavior toward each other in the foyer. Maybe Max’s idea of deliberately putting them in separate rooms wasn’t so crazy, as neither seemed inclined to crawl into bed together today.

How could Nathan have kept this from me? Despite the distance that always remained between us, I’d been honest with him, hadn’t I? And I’d put my soul on the line in order to save him from the Soul Eater’s torturous spell. In my mind, he owed it to me to be honest, even if it inconvenienced him a little.