Dance of Ashes and Smoke (Age of Monsters Book 1) (4 page)

E
very bit of color was bleached from the sky, making everything harsh and ugly and bright. I shoved the sunglasses higher on my face as I sat with a sigh on the rocker on our balcony. I gazed out at the tall buildings and abandoned cars. My head throbbed from lack of sleep, but my body was too tightly strung for me to go to bed.

I sipped my coffee as I remembered the day the monsters showed themselves.

The day the nightmare began.

The day the world ended.

The day I watched this city burn.

It’s Friday and Liv’s staying the night. We cuddle on the couch, sharing earphones, as we listen to the awesome cellists she introduces me to. My hands are still stained with grease from Alcott and I putting the finishing touches on our motorcycles. My body still vibrates from our first ride in the fading sunset. It had been glorious and freeing and I hadn’t wanted it to end.

Mom and Dad watch the news from the dining room as they go over bills, their voices quiet and filled with tipsy giggles from sipping at a bottle of wine. Alcott sits on the other side of Liv, reading a vampire novel.

Not one of us suspects it’s our last night of peace and comfort.

Screams from the TV catch all our attention and we stare at the screen in disbelief and horror. The field reporter runs from the scene of the rescued kitten, the shaky camera following. Chaos reigns in Philly as the city screams, dies, flees. The camera blacks out after getting footage of a snarling huge wolf leaping for it. After a few silent seconds of fuzz, the newscasters from the station appear on-screen, tears streaming down their stricken faces.

“We come to you now with a warning. One that defies belief. Monsters are real. They’re overrunning the cities as we speak, killing everyone in their paths. We’ve got reports from DC, New York, Chicago, LA, and numerous others of the same horrors happening there. Paris, London, Berlin as well. The President and his cabinet members have taken refuge. If you are inside, lock and barricade your doors and windows, turn off your lights, and hide. We hope to ride out the storm. The military is being mobilized and should be able to get everything under control by morning. Godspeed, everyone.”

Before the camera clicks off so the reporters can follow their own advice, they scream, eyes widening in terror.

And vampires rip out their throats with their teeth.

The TV goes dead, leaving a breathless silence, one oppressive and heavy.

Liv’s hand finds mine and we grip tight to each other, Alcott joining from her other side, chaining himself to us. Mom and Dad come to stand behind the couch, gripping our shoulders from behind.

After a few moments, Olivia stands, ripping a hole in our circle. “I have to go home. I have to go home to my parents.”

Our door flies open and her parents rush in. Liv slams herself into their arms, sobbing into their necks. It puts the rest of us into motion, Alcott and I standing and going to our own parents’ arms. Over Mom’s shoulder I see where one of them dropped a glass of wine.

Bits of the shimmering glass rest in a puddle of the crimson liquid.

I try to ignore how much it resembles the blood that flowed down the newscasters’ necks.

Alcott walked up the steps of the balcony and sat beside me, his presence washing away the memory. “Bad night?”

I snorted. “You could say that.” I brought my legs up and clasped them to my chest. “Liv and I might have taken out another monster. An enchanter.”

He groaned and closed his eyes. “That’s going to make things worse around here.”

“I couldn’t just leave the guy to die.”

He wrapped his arm around me. “I know. I’d have done the same thing. I hate that we’re supposed to stand down and wait for the sorceress to leave. She’s the reason so many from our town died. She’ll continue on to kill more, but no one wants to chance it.”

“They’re afraid of her. I talked to Marie about it and I saw the terror in her eyes. But she didn’t lose anyone to that bitch. We did. And I want her dead.”

“She needs to be stopped before she brings any more suffering to this world.”

“Then we should do something about it.”

Alcott and I jumped at Liv’s voice.

She leaned her arms on the railing, her back to us. “What’s the Uprising going to do? Arrest us? Kick us out?”

“You want to assassinate her?” Alcott asked, brows drawn together.

“I do. Very much so.” My hands clenched tighter around my legs.

Olivia’s lips quirked as she glanced at us over her shoulder. “I was going to suggest we follow her around and gather any and all intel for now. Search for weaknesses and take note of her schedule and favorite places. Then we plan her death.”

My stomach knotted with disappointment. I wanted to do something more proactive. Something soon.

“We’ll get her.” Liv’s words were a promise, a vow, a declaration.

A
n hour before work, I slipped through shadows on back streets to a sleek, abandoned black Acura nestled between two trash cans. It wasn’t far from where Alcott and I had hidden our motorcycles and bags. Once we took down the witch, we’d need them.

The car was empty, and after ensuring no one loitered around, I slid into the backseat, keeping low to stay out of sight. My knee bounced as I waited. My contact was late.

Paranoia quick to set in, I popped my knuckles, biting back the desire to check the area. If someone found me, I’d say I was taking a nap before work. Not the best excuse, but the best I could think of with the creepy worry invading me. The night was foggy and dark and filled with restless spirits. With the street lamps flickering on the corners, it was like something from a noir film.

I jumped, muffling a squeak when the passenger door wrenched open and a guy in a wet trench coat tumbled in. “You’re late.”

“I was followed.”

“Then why the hell did you show up?” The jackass had led them straight to me and it was no wonder they’d followed him in his ridiculous getup. I arched my neck to peer through the back window, heart thudding.

“I shook them off, it’s fine.” He puffed up in offense at a girl young enough to be his daughter telling him how to be a spy.

The Uprising brimmed with idiots like him who thought it would be like a Jack Higgins novel. Newsflash: you aren’t Sean Dillon. My throat closed off. Mom had adored Sean Dillon so much Dad used to get a little jealous even though he was fictional.

I bit off my words to make them easy for him to understand. “Do you have what I need?”

He tossed me a packet and a box. “I don’t know if it’ll help, but it’s all I had.”

“Great. Wait five minutes and head the opposite way.”

“I know. I’m not a moron.”

Sure. “Just being careful.” Liv would be so proud of my self-control. I wanted to slam his face into the dash of the car. Where had Alcott found this guy?

Shoving the packet inside my jacket and the box under my arm, I rushed from the car, wanting far, far away from him. I hunched my shoulders against the wet air and almost ran down the alley. I checked my phone and groaned. There wasn’t time for me to take the intel back to the house and I couldn’t take it to work.

Turning left instead of right, I glanced back down the alley and shook my head. He was already scurrying the other way instead of waiting. I looked forward to tearing into Al over his choice of contacts.

It only took me two minutes to make it to the parking garage. Our bikes were on the second floor at the back and a little tension released at the sight of them. Giving mine a loving stroke, I passed them to the vent on the wall and used my knife to unscrew it. Our go-bags and illegal goods were still there under a tarp and I slipped the packet and box between them. I wanted nothing more than to see what was inside, but there was no time. I’d send Olivia to get them on her way home.

As soon as I closed the vent back up, a clattering echoed through the garage. I stayed crouched low, putting distance between me and the vent and bikes. I clutched my necklace as I huddled behind a jeep, praying it was only an animal desperate for any scrap of food.

Whispering voices hissed through the cars. “How did we lose him? We’ve searched this whole area, and he disappeared.”

“I’m more interested in what he was carrying in that trench coat of his.”

“Well, we won’t know unless we find him.”

“Do you really think he’s in here?”

“Probably not. His scent ended back the other way, but I can’t smell anything over the rusty contraptions in here. We should set fire to this place.”

“Take it up with Angus.”

“Let’s go. We’ll let everyone know to be on the lookout for a wannabe in a trench coat. He’ll turn up.”

I waited with bloody lips and bated breath for a full ten minutes after the sounds of them faded away. I’d gnawed two layers of skin from my lips and the ribbons covering my bandages were in tangles. The idiot would die if I ever saw him again. The douchelord.

And if they found him, he’d spill everything.

I pulled out my phone and sent texts to Al and Marie, hoping they could take care of it. I was going to be late for work.

Giving up all pretense of hiding, I ran and somehow, no one stopped me.

Liv threw her arms around me when I entered the closet. “You scared me.”

“Sorry. I’ll tell you later.” I stripped off everything but my dress, trying to fix my ribbons one-handed. “What happened with you?”

She took over fixing my arms. “Nothing. Tashia’s rather boring to follow. She interviewed some of the bloodbags and shopkeepers and that was about it. She’s being treated like royalty, though.”

I snarled. “Of course she is.”

“She’s here.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Angus invited her to watch the humans dance.”

“Great.” Damn vampire needed to die along with the sorceress.

“We have to be perfect, Monet. I overheard her say she looked forward to seeing what happened to those who failed.”

In the rare event a performance didn’t live up to expectations, they were either drained and eaten immediately or sold as a bloodbag. We tried not to think about it.

“Shit.” Then, I shrugged. “We’re always perfect. It’s us.”

She nodded, fierce determination shining from her. “Hell yeah.”

We checked each other and, satisfied we looked hot, we nodded and headed for the stage. I’d give the performance of a lifetime, screaming out my defiance with each movement.

And I did.

Every brise, every jete, every pirouette was aimed at them, speaking of our unbending will, our strength, our never-forgotten vengeance.

The response from the crowd was almost worshipful which pissed me off. I wanted to burn the place down around them while they screamed and begged for mercy. Faking it and performing for them like little puppets wore me down more and more each day. They stole my future and warped the thing I loved most in the world. Music and dance. We were lucky to have these jobs, but I worried at the cost to my soul.

I slumped against the wall as Liv put away her cello and yanked on her outer layers. “I was going to ask you to go by the garage and grab something for me, but I almost got caught there so we should wait a day or so.”

“What happened?”

In a hurried whisper, I told her everything.

She shook her head. “Al’s gonna be pissed.”

“He better be.”

“I’ll talk to him when I get back home and we’ll go get it.”

“Wait for full day. Less monsters about. You and I can go when I get back.”

She nodded. “Okay. Be careful.”

“You too.”

After smacking a kiss on my cheek, she left me in the closet where I watched the singer through the door. Freddie was good, a crooner with a smoky voice. He needed a trombone along with the piano as a backup to make him truly shine though.

I searched the crowd until I spotted Tashia, her familiar curled up next to her, allowing Angus to taste her. Interesting. We needed to know what sort of monster the familiar was.

Angus pulled away and the bite on her neck disappeared.

Definitely not human.

A server approached them, and the familiar selected a glass of green stuff swirling with a sparkling purple, her tail slithering down her leg, a snake’s head snapping at the end, terrifying the server.

My mouth fell open so far it almost unhinged my jaw. The bitch familiar was a chimera shifter.

I’d only seen them in pictures and had prayed I’d never see one in real life. She’d be almost as hard to take out as the sorceress. The only info we had on taking them out was liquid lead which wasn’t easily available.

Shit.