Chapter 26 - From Ash

AMBROSE

I looked up in time to see Sequoia dropping the nurse the floor, as heard Covyn closing the door and hushed yelling, “what the fuck Sequoia!?”

Sequoia didn’t hesitate in pushing the man up against the wall with her foot. She barely even regarded him, like he was a paper cup she had dropped and was done with. I was grateful everyone else looked as confused as I did even as I felt a deepening pit of worry.

“What was that for?” Ellion demanded while I felt Evadiene grow more tense.

“He’s one of them, and he just killed her,” Sequoia muttered, speaking quickly so we couldn’t interupt. “This is the only chance you’ll get, what you see and learn cannot leave present company. By staying and watching you’ve agreed to the terms, and if you ever tell anyone you will live your life experiencing incredible pain whenever you remember your betrayal.” She turned to look at me. “I assume you’re staying, so you can move her, her scent is already on you anyway.”

She plucked the heart monitor off Evadiene’s finger and stuck it on her own before removing the other equipment monitoring her. No one moved to leave, and me and Sequoia growled in awkward tandem.

“What is going on?” Ellion demanded but I shot him a look.

“Do you need to go? Because if you break your promise, you won’t need some curse to cause you daily pain, I’ll kill you myself,” I growled.

Sequoia had a similar sentiment. “If you’re going to stay, someone go start a fire in the next room. Maybe stick this jackass in the middle of it and then cover those damn windows!”

Covyn smirked in a way I didn’t think he could as Alpha. “Allow me.”

He dragged the former, fake nurse out of the room, and while he was gone Ellion and Daley got to work closing the curtains. During all of this Evadiene’s heart rate spiked and the only thing keeping me from screaming for the doctor was Sequoia’s heart rate, that had replaced Evadiene’s in the room, that remained completely calm.

Covyn returned to the room, closing the door tightly behind himself, and a minute later the fire-alarm was ringing in the hall. I felt my chest clench and Evadiene’s tight expression relaxed. It felt like all my internal organs were nothing but a wet towel being rung out into nothing. The pain took me over- bringing tears to my eyes and I looked to my mate as her chest fell and didn’t rise again. I fell to my knee, begging for any answer to any of the questions burning inside me, but my mouth had gone too dry to speak.

Sequoia pushed me away from Evadiene but I wouldn’t go farther than our joint hands could reach. I had had gun shots wounds that hurt less than this. In one life I had literally been run through with a rusty sounds and the pain could not compare. The pain didn’t pulse or throb, but remained constant and as every second passed I found it increasingly difficult to breathe.

Sequoia’s words returned to me, ‘he just killed her’ My mate was dead.

Sequoia leaned down close to her and whispered. “I’m here, it’s safe now. I’ll protect you.”

Evadiene’s eyes opened for a moment, looked at her, at me, at Covyn, and closed. Sequoia pushed me back, breaking my grip on Evadiene, to sit between us before Evadiene burst into flame. All of us gasped but the sound of the alarms outside drowned most of it out. In minutes all that was left was a pile of ash that seemed to fold in on itself as the fire burned, keeping it in a small pile where her heart would have been.

There was a knock at the door, begging for us to leave while they dealt with the fire. Sequoia folded up the blanket around the ashes, and once it was off the bed it was like it had never happened. The fire had been completely contained to Evadiene, taking everything she had on her with her. There was no evidence apersonhad just burnt to nothing else; no clothes, no jewelry, no smoke.

She handed me the bundled blanket. “We can’t go to your room, it’s a wreck.”

“You can go to my room, it’s sound proof so no one can eavesdrop again,” Covyn offered.

She looked at him with so much appreciation, then wrapped herself in another sheet that smelt like Evadiene and directed Covyn to carry her in her place while I pretended to hold a cat. We left the medical bay, a small amount of guilt taking over about what we were leaving, but Ellion lagged behind briefly to give direction and distract from our departure.

The doctors knew immediately that the body was not one of theirs and suspected one of the training visitors was trying to get high off the laughing gas when he blew himself up with a stupid mistake. Ellion later told us that he had backed their story and had everyone hush about it under the Alpha’s word until a proper investigation could be done. For now they would just say a fire had occurred and damages were minimal, but it was being looked into.

We entered Covyn’s bedroom and when the door was locked and curtains closed, Sequoia took the bundle from me.

“Barely made it,” she muttered, carefully laying the bundle on the ground and folding out the corners.

The ache in my chest remained but I watched everything she was doing full of hope. She wasn’t worried, and probably knew everything about her. Evadienehadto be okay.

The ashes moved like kinetic sand, staying mostly clumped together even as they moved with the fabric being straightened out. Sequoia knelt in front of the cloth and it began to move on its own. I moved closer to it, watching closely as the ashes tumbled over themselves and stirred in the centre.

I watched intently, keeping my words to myself after my first attempt to speak resulted in Sequoia hissing at me. Another minute and I was sure the sand was turning by what looked like a finger beneath the ash. After another minute the ashes became red, like warm embers, and seemed to thrum like it had a pulse. The warmth grew and the fingers began to stretch outward into hands.As the wrists formed, they grew into arms, stretching further and further out of the ash, and as it did the pile of soot grew smaller.

I watched, inching closer and closer but Sequoia held my hands back from reaching out to the growing form. The arms stretched until there were shoulders, and the back of a head lifting up. As she ash fell off the forming head it tumbled to form strands of hair, now more of a red or auburn then the dark brown or pink I had come to know.

The form stretched and moved like she was waking up, until there was no ash left, just Evadiene, naked, and yawning. The colour slowly returned to her skin, and as it did so did the definition and the details that made her body real. The pores, the small hairs, the freckles, and the blue of her veins.

Sequoia stood and threw her arms around her, making loud purring sounds as Evadiene’s arms joined their embrace.

“I’m okay Coy,” Evadiene whispered, keeping her eyes closed and she held her tightly.

“She’s a phoenix!” Daley gasped.

Evadiene’s eye flew open and she looked slowly around the room. Her eyes glancing over everyone behind me before I stood slowly in front of her. Her gaze met mine and I knew she could see the tears welling in my eyes. I just opened my arms to either side, begging for her to be in them. She hesitated but, like seeing my tears was enough, she broke away from Sequoia and leapt into my arms. They wrapped around her like that was where she was always meant to be, and I felt in my heart that she was home.

I took off my shirt and pulled it over her, smoothing the fabric down her back and over her ass. She smirked as I touched her butt, and I pulled her up against me. The giggle she gave me was music to my ears and brought a smile to my lips, that move to kiss her head.

“My angel…”

She smothered my lips with hers before I could say another word. Evadiene had shown me love before, shown my passion, and shown me lust, but this was everything that remain. Her hands wove through my hair and held me to her until we both had to stop to breathe.

“What was that?” I asked, still breathless but keeping my arms around her.

“I’m facing this once more, head on, with everything I have,” she smiled, but glanced back at where Sequoia stood with her arms folded and groaned. “That wasn’t supposed to happen. Sequoia did you..”

“I did,” she interrupted, moving to stand behind Evadiene and wrap her arms around her and between us as the purring sound returned. “They saw everything.”

Evadiene made a face like a grimace. “She wasn’t exaggerating. You’ve seen me, and now you’re bound by the same magic I am. If you tell anyone, every time you remember breaking your word, you will be in unbelievable pain.” She turned and looked Covyn, Daley and Ellion. “There are no exceptions, and it gets worse over time, as the pain reminds you of what you did, you could be trapped in a never ending cycle of anguish.”

“You’re a phoenix?!” Daley gasped again. “The book doesn’t say anything about the Vesperous clan being phoenix…”

“It wouldn’t..” Evadiene returned.

“Why not?” Daley was close to demanding but Evadiene still seemed glad she asked as she glanced at Sequoia who nodded that the room was safe.

“Any written record of us, that isn’t written by our own hand or someone in our clowder,will cease to exist, by one means or another.”

“Clowder?” Sequoia asked. “I thought…”

Evadiene sighed reluctantly. “Technically we are more like crows in that we were often referred to as a murder… but I really hate that term. Honestly that they got away with my family surname is likely only because we’ve changed it so many times since. It’s just coincidence that it’s close to the original this time around, or maybe it’s Fate,-“ she shrugged, “-she is kinda a bitch like that.”

“I’m sure this is going to be… an unfortunately long conversation.” Sequoia exhaled loudly like she hoped someone would say to the contrary before she continued, then finally concluded, “but she needs to eat.”

“We’ll get it,” Ellion offered, pulled Daley reluctantly towards the door and out into the hall.

“They’re scared of me,” Evadiene said sadly. “Do you trust them?” A shivered rolled down her spine and she looked herself over.

All of her previous injuries were gone, her bandages burned away with her clothes, and I ran my hands over her smooth skin after Sequoia finally walked away. I vaguely saw her wander toward Covyn, who had gone to the small bar in his room and poured himself a heavy handed drink.

“I trust they won’t say anything,” Covyn returned, answering her question. “And I trust they aren’t head hunters, but I can’t say they’re not worried right now.”

She nodded but it was Sequoia who spoke next while pouring herself a glass and clinking it with Covyn’s. “Eva, why don’t you shower? I know you hate the smell and feel of the ash.”

“Please, use my bathroom,” Covyn offered. “We will get you both some fresh clothes.”

He was being… ridiculously accommodating and … gentle. I had known him growing up and even as kids, before he had to lead a pack, and he was never like this. I looked at Evadiene, who wasn’t looking at him even as he glanced at her over his drink.

“Thank you Covyn,” she replied softly, smelling her arm. “I do smell burnt.”

“No you don’t,” we all said at once.

“You smel like…” Covyn drifted off then chuckled, “like a fire cracker.”

She nodded back and forth. “I guess that beats a crematorium, but I’ve grown used to my usual forest fire and explosions smell.”

Sequoia spit a laugh back into her cup, holding her finger under her nose to keep from spewing her alcohol that way. “Evadiene, no,” she laughed again. “That’s Osric talking.”

Evadiene was leading me into the bathroom and laughed but it was pained. “Well, there’s a reason I made so many karotis deals.”