Burning to Ashes (11 page)

Geo wagged a finger at her. “Ah, ah, uh. Let’s not be raising our pretty voice in alarm now.”

He looked over his shoulder at the cabin, then back at Scarlet. “I’d hate to have to kill all the Eternals that are currently in residence, but Scarlet, be assured that I will, if you force my hand. Will you be good?”

Scarlet nodded, and Luke removed his hand from her mouth.

“You are insane,” she gasped.

Geo let out a warm chuckle. “Hardly, dear girl. What I am is an Eternal that gets the job done, and you…” He stepped closer to her, lifting her chin with a thumb and forefinger “Are a job.”

“How did you find me?” Scarlet had to know.

“I never lost you. Your guardians…” He looked back over his shoulder again as if making sure that no one had spotted them. “…got sloppy in all the excitement. I’ve been following discreetly from our last meeting, even though you chose to hide in the building for that one.” His tone suggested that she’d been a coward for hiding.

“Kill me, and get it over with, then.”

Geo rolled his eyes as if she’d just uttered something stupid. “I can’t do that. There are rules, you know. This has to be done in a certain way.”

Scarlet gasped in surprise as large white wings unfurled from Geo’s back and hooked an arm around her waist.

“Going up,” was all the warning he gave before his massive wings stroked the air once—twice—and they took flight.

Scarlet grabbed on to him and held on, her stomach choosing to ride in her throat for the whole trip, which—thank any deity listening—was short.

Within three minutes—that felt more like five hours to Scarlet—they landed in a clearing in the woods.

Scarlet swallowed as her feet touched terra firma and she could let go of Geo and step back. As unsteady as she was, she nearly stumbled, but caught herself at the last instant.

Grateful to be on solid ground or not, Scarlet knew she had to focus, and she had to do it now. Geo and Luke were intent on killing her.

“Alright, now that we are all here.” Geo reached into the pocket of the trench coat he wore, and Scarlet fought the urge to ask him where he’d stashed his wings.

“The Enforcers may step forward now.” His voice rang out, carrying across the clearing into the trees.

Scarlet backed up as men and women began to step out of the trees. They all wore cloaks with hoods pulled up that shrouded their faces in shadow. She thought she had a handle on those in front of her, but then her beast set off an alarm in her mind, its senses saying there were more. Scarlet spun around and saw Enforcers who had stepped out of the trees in a neat circle around her.

“Get on with it, we have places to be,” a dark bass voice spoke from Geo’s right.

“Put a sock in it, Nathaniel. I’m getting to it.”

Geo looked down at his hand, and the parchment he held in it. “Scarlet of the Pyros, you are hereby accused and convicted. Your crime: The betrayal of the covenant of the Eternal, whether witting or unwitting.” He paused for dramatic effect, and in that moment, Scarlet detested the angel with everything that was in her.

“Your sentence is death.” The hand holding the parchment began to glow white, matching his eyes.

Small wisps of smoke curled from the parchment, drawing Scarlet’s eyes back down to it.

In a puff of vapor, the parchment disintegrated in Geo’s hands, and he smiled—A cold deadly smile that made Scarlet’s spine run with chills.

Geo extended his hands to his sides away from his body, and the white flames climbed up his forearms. “I truly am sorry,” he said with a sad smile. “But now, I have to carry out your sentence.”

Scarlet took a step back to give herself a little space. She threw her arms out, away from her sides. Mimicking Geo’s motion, she focused, and red flames burst from her hands and forearms.

She glared at Geo, lifted her chin and spoke two words. “Bring it!”

Chapter Eleven

The creature that had spoken earlier stepped forward and put its arm in front of Geo, restraining the angel. “Oh, my, this kitten has teeth, how…delightful.”

“We don’t have time for you to be delighted, Nathaniel. I have an execution to perform.” Geo shoved the other male’s arm down and tried to step forward.

Scarlet watched with her heart pounding in her throat as Nathaniel’s cowled head snapped towards Geo. “You will wait for me to be done, Geonevel, or suffer the consequences.”

Scarlet had no idea what those might be, but Geo paled and took a step back. She would have laughed at the irony of big bad Geo backing off for a bigger badass, but her hands were on fire, and the burn was getting to the stage where she had her jaw clamped because if she relaxed it, a scream would escape and never end.

She knew tonight was her night to die. If Geo didn’t get her, her own flames would, but she’d be damned if she was going out alone. She decided she was going to take that arrogant prick of an angel with her.

“I see we have an understanding.” Nathaniel raised his hands.

Scarlet watched his long, fingered pale hands as he pulled the cowl of his robe back and turned to face her.

She forgot to breathe. She forgot the pain. She forgot the ring of Enforcers waiting for her death.

Nathaniel was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. Hell, no one could imagine such beauty. Not even Narcissi could have been so beautiful. If there was a perfect being in the universe, then Nathaniel was better looking.

Scarlet heard Geo snort at her reaction. “Why did she never look at me like that?”

Nathaniel turned his head to Geo, causing the fall of his long midnight hair to caress his sculpted cheek and fall over his chest down to his waist. His long hair should have made his beauty feminine, but it was the opposite. The long hair only made him manlier.

“Really, you should be used to how women react to me by now. Something you could never compete with.”

“Arrogant, much?” Scarlet was astounded when she realized that she’d spoken.

Nathaniel pinned her with eyes so green that spring grass was a pale imitation. His strong lips bowed in a smile that made her knees feel like they needed to give in, so that she could bow in supplication to his beauty.

He tilted his chin toward her arms. “You know I’m right. Look, even your flames extinguish because you find me so attractive, and I would wager that you are all wet and wanting, too.”

Anger flared and Scarlet forced her flames back, climbing her forearms, burning her upper arms, climbing to her shoulders.

“Oh, come now, Kitten, retract your claws.”

“They aren’t claws, douche bag, they are flames, and I’m not your frigging kitten.”

Go me, for listening and learning from Sophia.

Scarlet let her lips curl in a smile. “I don’t care if you are prettier than I am. I’ll still burn your ass if you get near me.”

He laughed, and damn if she didn’t get all moist when the sound invaded her ears and worked a path down her body.

“Asshole.” She gritted her teeth and made her flame hotter. The burn was getting excruciating again.

Nathaniel extended his arms away from his sides and smiled at Scarlet again.

“Geo, you don’t mind if I steal the pleasure of this execution from you, do you old man?”

Geo looked like he was all kinds of pissed, but he didn’t argue. “Of course, be my guest.”

Oh, shit, oh shit, oh shit

Scarlet felt panic tighten its grip on her body. She knew Geo

Well, kinda
.

She could anticipate the way he’d behave, but as she watched Nathaniel’s arms flame up in that white fire and his green eyes turn white, Scarlet felt real terror.
I’m so screwed.

“Oh, the kitten is fluffing her fur up at me?” Nathaniel was looking at Scarlet’s feet.

Scarlet looked down and screamed in fright. The ground around her feet was on fire. She was standing in molten sand. She had the absurd thought that she was making glass when her jeans caught fire, burning to ash instantaneously. She watched as her legs started to burn next, and she screamed long and loud.

Nathaniel took a step back. “The pyro is burning in her own flame.”

“Yes, you pushed her over the edge.” Geo’s voice held a note of censure. He was angry, and he let it bleed through his tone. “You can go! I will let the council know when she is dead.”

Nathaniel looked at Geo as if he was evaluating the angel.

“Very well.” Nathaniel held up a forefinger and made a circular motion with his hand. Scarlet saw all the creatures that surrounded the clearing melt away, vanishing into nothing. Nathaniel was the last one to leave. “It’s a pity, kitten. Had I been sent after you, we could have had so much fun.”

He didn’t give her a chance to respond, but simply vanished like the others.

Scarlet caught movement in her peripheral vision and turned her head to look.

A woman stepped forward out of the trees and dropped her cowl.

It was the female—the one she’d seen in the mirror, the one whose hair was the color of living flame. Geo didn’t seem to notice her, making Scarlet wonder if she was hallucinating.

“Don’t fight it.” His voice was gentle as if he was sad this was happening, “Let the flame take you, and it will be over quicker. I didn’t want it to be this way. My way would have been instantaneous, and you would not have suffered this pain.”

Scarlet pinned him with a look. Her vision had changed, so she could only see shades of red. “Go. To. Hell.”

As if her last words to the angel had broken the damn, Scarlet’s head dropped back and the flames climbed her legs. She screamed and screamed, and the sound became a word. In the greatest pain of her life, Scarlet screamed for the person she wanted with her at her end.

“Archer!”

* * * *

“We are going to have to do something about Jasmine.” Tate slammed his hand down on the coffee table to emphasize his point.

“So… I musta missed it on the news. Who died and made us Enforcers again?”

“Shut up, Erik.” The sentence was said in unison from the Eternals around the table.

He shrugged and muttered. “I’m just sayin’.”

Archer sighed with eloquence. Erik had a point. Jasmine and her run at godhood shouldn’t be their problem, but it was.

He looked at the Eternals sitting around the coffee table on couches and chairs that had been pulled up.

“You are all with me when it comes to protecting Scarlet, right?”

“Of course, even though she’s really sweet, and I personally would do it for free, we are on a job, and keeping Scarlet alive is part of that job,” Heath pointed out.

Archer resisted the urge to bare his fangs at the precog, and nodded. “Jasmine is after Scarlet, so taking Jasmine out is our problem.” Archer looked directly at Erik. “Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah, you can stow the melodrama. I’m with you if it means keeping Scarlet safe.”

Archer was on the verge of telling Erik that his smart mouth was detrimental to his health when Archer felt a wave of terror sweep over him. The fine hairs on his body stood straight and he could have sworn he heard Scarlet faintly, and she was screaming his name.

He stood and bounded up the stairs.

The others watched him until he yelled from the top. “Sophia!” He came slamming back around the corner of the landing. “I thought you said Scarlet had gone to take a nap.”

“That’s what she said she was going to do.” Sophia looked confused. “Isn’t she up there?”

“If she were, would I be asking you?” Archer asked through clenched teeth, and took the stairs down four at a time.

He yanked open the front door of the cabin and heard her screaming his name again. It was still a faint sound, but Scarlet was screaming for him.

Night had fallen and Archer’s throat constricted with the déjà vu that overwhelmed him.

“Gods no, please no.”

“What is it?” Tate asked behind him.

“I smell something burning.” Heath pushed past Archer.

“It’s Scarlet.” Archer started running, his breath coming in ragged puffs of vapor in the cold night air.

He was reliving his vision, and his senses took him on a direct path through the forest.

There was no way the others could keep up with him because Archer was a melding of beast and man, and he was powerful, beyond even Eternal standards.

The two halves of his being ran in sync, an overwhelming need to find and save her filling their blood. Their mate was in danger, and they needed her safe.

Archer could hear the screams getting louder. He was getting close. He dodged a tree and vaulted protruding roots, not seeing them, but knowing they were there.

Archer burst through the last trees, and bolted headlong into the clearing, skidding to a stop.

“No!” he screamed rushing forward. What he saw was his vision, but this time, it was no vision—it was reality. She stood engulfed in flames, his name a prayer on her lips.

Scarlet saw him, and reached out her hand. “Archer. I’m sorry.”

The effort it must have cost her to say that, the effort it took not to scream, and the pain she was experiencing—Archer brushed something wet off his cheek. He looked at the tip of his fingers and found tears and soot mixed.

She spoke again and reached her hand toward him. “Archer.”

He nearly froze, knowing what was coming next, but he stepped forward anyway, and reached for her hand through the flames that engulfed her.

Their fingertips touched and Scarlet’s fingers crumbled to ash. Archer kept his eyes on her as she disintegrated.

“I’m sorry, Scarlet.” The words were ragged. It was all he could do to get them past the bolder that seemed to fill his throat.

He didn’t get to say any more before her form collapsed and the flames vanished, leaving behind a smoldering pile of ash.

To be Continued…

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