10. Ash
Chapter Ten
Ash
T hey’re here.
I woke up from a nap in my tree, aware of the forest all around me. The night was still thick—the sun was nothing but a silver line of promise on the horizon, and the darkness held menace. All around me, the trees trembled. Their leaves rustled in the wind, and whispers danced and curled around my trunk.
Let it be. This isn’t drus business.
I heard the warning, the others telling me to stay out of it. They were right—this had nothing to do with me. This wasn’t about us, and as long as we kept to ourselves, nothing would happen to our forest, to our people.
Except, this had everything to do with me now. Since the moment I’d reached out and grabbed Lorraine, dragging her off to safety from those men, the darkness and the menace that hung between the trees was every bit my problem, and I couldn’t help myself.
I slipped out of my tree, ignoring the warnings of the trees around me.
In human form, I couldn’t sense the darkness so strongly anymore. It helped me to block out the whispers and focus on what was real. The darkness, the menacing intent, was what drove these people, but that wasn’t what would hurt her.
It was the men themselves, their presence, who would do that.
I walked through the trees. My footfall was muffled on the mulch, and I moved almost soundlessly. They were here somewhere. Despite moving further and further away from my tree, I could still feel the forest pulsate around me, like a giant vein I was plugged into.
I took a deep breath and strained my ears for a sound.
“What the fuck are we supposed to do now?” A voice sliced through the trees, breaking the silence of the forest. “How does a woman just disappear?”
“The forest is big. It’s not that hard to hide out here.”
“Yeah, you would know, you fucking pussy. You’ve hidden out here before, huh?”
“I’m just saying, it’s not that hard to slip away if you really want to.”
I moved closer to the two men talking. The gruff voices were like sandpaper on my skin, and the air around them was polluted. I stopped before I ran right into them. There were only a few trees between me and them. They moved around noisily, twigs cracking, leaves crunching. I heard one sit down with a grunt.
“For the record, hiding out here doesn’t make me a pussy,” one said. “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
“Yeah? Well, we better find her, or the man is going to have a field day with us.”
“How were we supposed to know she was going to escape? We didn’t know she would be this much trouble.”
One moved into view. I shifted, putting a trunk between us. Not that either of them was paying attention—Lorraine could have walked right by them, and neither would have known.
Fucking idiots.
“It’s the trouble that’s the good part,” one said, and there was laughter in his voice. “When they’re feisty as fuck, that’s when it gets good.”
“I wouldn’t want to take on that wildcat,” the other said. “We had to bang her up twice just to get her in the truck.”
A low growl emanated from my throat. I swallowed it down and balled my fists. Anger was a live creature under my skin.
“Yeah? I told you, you’re a pussy.” The statement was followed by more grating laughter. “What I would give to pin her down and fuck her. It’s a pity we’re not allowed to sample the goods.”
“If you think we’re in trouble now, wait until you fuck the merchandise,” a grumbled response came. “Can’t you control yourself?”
“Why would I want to? Come on, it’s not like we have to turn her over in perfect condition. Who cares if she’s been ridden hard before we sell her? She’ll get more of the same. Consider it a primer. We’ll just be warming her up.” That same rasping laughter came.
I clenched my jaw, swallowing the growls that rose in my throat. I hadn’t thought they were going to be nice to Lorraine if they found her, but this was next level. They were talking about sex—sleeping with her and then selling her so others could do the same.
These guys weren’t just assholes who had made a girl’s life hell. They were miscreant pieces of shit who didn’t deserve to live and breathe. If they so much as touched a hair on her head…
I saw red. My anger rushed to the surface, my blood suddenly boiling hot.
Mine.
I took a step forward, my body moving on its own before I realized what I was doing. I wanted to rip their heads off. I wanted to slash their skin and make them bleed. I wanted to hurt them and hurt them for a long, long time before finally putting them out of their misery.
Men like that deserved to die a slow and painful death after they went through what they put others through.
They were fucking with the wrong woman. They were fucking with my?—
I pulled myself up short and stepped back, away from the men.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Lorraine wasn’t mine. She was just a human woman I’d plucked from the forest to save her from these animals.
The possessiveness that had flared up inside me caught me off guard. I wanted to kill them to save her. I was pissed off they wanted to take what was mine. And that worried me, because she wasn’t mine.
What did I care what happened to her?
But that was the problem—I cared very much. She was mine. I’d found her first, and if anyone else touched her…
I shook my head and turned away from the men, walking through the trees back to the vale where my tree stood. They were far enough that we didn’t have to worry about them finding us right now—and the cabin was hidden beyond the veil of magic.
Lorraine was nothing to me, and it had to stay that way. I had to stop thinking about her as mine. I had to stop letting my magic run rampant when I was around her. It was only going to get me in trouble. Something about her drew me in a way I’d never been drawn before, and if I gave in to that, I was going to do something that would complicate the hell out of my life.
And hers, too.
Not that what happened to her should matter to me at all, I reminded myself again. She wasn’t my problem.
You made it your problem.
I should have listened to the others and not gotten involved. The least I could do now was listen to Artemis and not let this go any further.
Dammit, I had to go see Hecate. I had to find a way to become something else, something that wasn’t so drawn to humans. I had a weakness—I’d been cursed with the gift of seduction, and all it had done was bring me sorrow.
I wanted to be something that didn’t know how to feel.
Later, when the sun was out and the night was a distant memory, I walked to the cabin. I wanted to check on Lorraine.
I’d waited until now because the night was filled with all kinds of magic and it was better to see her in the light of day. It lessened the temptation. It pushed the magic away.
During the day, I could be just a man.
I stepped onto the porch and put my hand on the doorknob. I took a deep breath, composing myself, steeling myself against her charms, and opened the door.
The first thing that hit me was the smell of food. I frowned and stepped into the cabin.
Lorraine came to the door, her eyes wide. Her face broke into a smile when she saw me, and it was like the sunrise, lighting her up. She was wearing the same huntress dress as yesterday, and she’d twisted her long blond hair into a knotted thing behind her head. Strands of hair had escaped, softening her features. She was a vision, with long legs and milky skin.
She was sexy as fuck, and I wanted to taste her.
I was in trouble. My cock twitched in my pants.
I was already under her spell.
I cleared my throat and tugged at my pants. “I came to see if you’re okay,” I said.
She nodded. “I’m okay. Going a little crazy being stuck here, but I’m okay. You don’t think I can leave soon?”
I shook my head. “They’re staking out the forest. Gods know how long they’ll be there for. They’re itching to get their hands on you.”
Lorraine’s expression changed from happy to fearful. “Will they find me here?”
“I won’t let them,” I growled.
“I wish this was all over,” Lorraine said softly.
We stood together in silence, her fear and uncertainty thick in the air.
“I won’t let them get you,” I said. “You’re safe here.”
She nodded.
I glanced around the cabin. It looked different. “You’ve done something in here.”
She nodded, her smile returning. “I cleaned up a bit. It was dusty.”
“Yeah,” I acknowledged.
I hadn’t been here in decades. The cabin was a lot homier than before. The fire in the fireplace had burned through the night, and it was starting to die down.
“I’ll get that fire back up,” I said.
“Thanks. I wasn’t sure what to do.” Her cheeks colored. “I’m used to central heating.”
I nodded.
“I wanted to say thank you for last night,” she said.
I stilled. “What?”
“Coming to me and helping me when I was so scared. I know tea isn’t a big deal, but I appreciate it.”
My mind spun. “You’re welcome,” I managed to say.
“I made food, so when you have the fire ready, we can eat something together.”
I nodded, still in a daze.
She offered me a bright smile before she turned to the kitchen. “You’ll be proud to know I made a fire in the oven, and I’m about to make us tea,” she said over her shoulder.
“Sounds good,” I said.
I stepped out the door, my mind reeling. I hadn’t been here last night, not physically. I’d sensed her distress. Her emotions had called out to me while I’d been in the forest last night, and I’d come to her using magic and trickery. I’d helped her calm down, invading her sleep so that she could rest easier.
I hadn’t been here at all.
She shouldn’t have known about it. She didn’t know magic, and she should have woken up this morning feeling better, thinking, What a nice dream.
Something was wrong if she could sense my magic like that, if she could live the dreams I gave her as if they were reality. Humans weren’t supposed to be able to do that. They were simple creatures, stuck in a drab, three-dimensional world where magic meant nothing.
I piled logs on top of each other, stacking them to carry inside. When I returned to the cabin, I walked to the fireplace and redid the fire I’d built for Lorraine yesterday. I mulled over her ability to feel my magic.
She moved around in the kitchen behind me. As usual, I was hyperaware of her presence.
“Here,” she said, suddenly behind me.
I jerked up and spun around. She held out a plate with slices of cold meat and cheese, cut-up fruit, and bread that she’d somehow toasted and browned.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I made a plan,” she said, and shrugged. “I know the cabin is all about living off the land or whatever… I mean, I like the rustic thing you have going here, but it’s very medieval.”
I watched her as she sat down on the floor, exactly like in the dream I’d given her. I sat down on the floor, too. She broke off a piece of bread and put it in her mouth, chewing.
“The lack of plumbing is a challenge,” she said. “But you don’t live here, do you?”
“No,” I said.
“I guess if it’s not a permanent arrangement, it changes things. My sister would die out here.” She giggled before her smile faded, and her face fell. Her sadness smelled like the forest after the rain.
“You must miss her,” I said.
Lorraine nodded. “I do. Cat and I are really close. But it’s not just that—I don’t know if she’s safe. I don’t know if they went back to get her after I escaped.” She glanced up at me, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “I keep thinking that since I got away, they might have gone back to get her, to make up for what they lost. I won’t be able to forgive myself if she got hurt because of me.”
“She’s safe,” I said.
Lorraine pinned me with a hard stare and narrowed her eyes. “How do you know?”
“Because they’re still out there, staking out the forest, hoping they’ll get their hands on you. If they’d gone back for her, they wouldn’t be here.”
Lorraine considered it and nodded slowly. “Okay, I guess that makes sense.” She let out a shuddering breath that was laced with relief. “That makes a lot of sense, actually. It will be good for her to just keep going. She can’t afford to miss any classes or tests. I’ll be fired by now, but I can get a new job.”
“Have you always taken care of her?” I asked.
“Since the accident, yeah,” she said. “Someone had to step up and be a parent. I had Oscar, too—” She cut herself off, and the shift in her emotions was erratic.
Oscar.
It didn’t take a genius to decipher her emotions and know he was the reason she was here.
Oscar. I didn’t know who he was, but I knew what he’d done to her. He must have delivered her into the hands of those men who wanted to use her as their personal fuck toy and then pass her on to be someone else’s.
Oscar.
A low growl bubbled up my throat. I was suddenly so pissed off I couldn’t think straight.
Mine.
He’d wanted to hurt her, and he would pay for that. I flashed on the pure terror that had riddled Lorraine when I’d first found her, the emotional torment she’d been going through. Someone had done that to her, knowing what it meant.
The anger inside me grew into a dangerous monster.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her gentle words pushing through the waves of hot rage that filled me.
I blinked at her. “I’m fine.” I stuffed the whole piece of bread into my mouth and chewed.
Lorraine nodded, and we ate in silence for a while.
What the hell was going on with me? Why did I want to protect her so badly? Why did the injustice in her life affect me like this?
I didn’t care about her. It didn’t matter what happened to her.
Yeah, right. Maybe if I kept telling myself that, I would end up believing it, too.