Fire and Ash (Immortal Touch) (45 page)

“If you really want to play the knight in shining armor, then I’ll give you a good sporting chance. Come and get her. She’ll be here waiting for you. Now if you’ll excuse my rudeness, I have to say goodbye now. We’re about to take off.
So
nice chatting with you. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon.”

Snatching the nearest thing within reach, Julian flung the lamp against the wall to shatter into a million pieces as he shouted curses
to an empty room. That loathsome bastard…he would pay for this no matter the outcome. Elder or not, his hours were numbered.

Storming upstairs, he
quickly entered the combination to open the wall safe in the master bedroom with shaking hands, carefully removing what was necessary from within. The surefire bringer of death…the cursed piece of metal that he and Eva had unearthed in Scotland. It delivered not only corrupt life but death as well, and he had hoped he would never have need of it again.

Pulling it from the leather sheath that Lainie had provided for it, he gazed once more upon the iron dagger.
And very softly he promised, “Eva, my love…have no fear. I’m coming for you. This time I won’t be too late.”

~*~*~*~

“I’m telling you for the last time - he isn’t gay!”

Seated at the outdoor bar, Sami and Tristan were arguing good-naturedly over their
peach daiquiris. She’d introduced Laiken when he brought the drinks over, but the blond mixologist didn’t seem to catch on very quickly, a situation she was finding more hysterical by the minute.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun.”

“Why…what are you gonna do?”

“Watch this.” Catching the eye of the handsome
bartender, Tristan winked seductively at him.

Laiken lost his grip on the drink in his hand and spilled someone’s Rum Runner all over the bar
, causing Sami to laugh so hard she almost fell off her stool. She couldn’t catch her breath and promptly got the hiccups.

“Hm…you may be right,” Tristan acknowledged with a broad grin.

“Oh God…that was
priceless!
” She wiped the tears from her eyes. “You do realize he’s probably going to -
hic
- avoid us for the rest of the night.”

“Totally worth it.”

“You are
warped!
I can only imagine what he’s gonna say to -
hic
- say to me later.”

“He’ll probably say
something like, ‘Hey Sami, who was that piece of fine-looking ass you were with and can I have his number?’”

Her giggles returned
to replace the hiccups. “Stop! I can’t take it…you’re making my stomach hurt!”

“Want to see me mess with him some more?”

“No! Leave the poor guy alone before he drops someone else’s drink.”

“Let’s find out once and for all. Call him over here.”

“What the heck are you up to?”

“Just
indulge me. You’ll see.”

With a shrug, Sami called out, “Hey, Laiken! Could you come over here a sec?”

Sending a suspicious look in their direction, he reluctantly made his way over. “You guys ready for another?” he asked Sami, deliberately avoiding eye contact with his admirer.

“Um…well…”

“Excuse me,” Tristan interjected. “May I ask you a question?”

Laiken glanced his way, and oddly enough continued to stare directly into the pale gray eyes. “Sure.”

“Wouldn’t you like to come back to my room with me?”

Sami covered her mouth with a hand to hide her smile. She waited to see what would happen next, but it wasn’t quite what she’d expected. Poor Laiken had the strangest expression on his face, sort of a mask of confusion. His mouth opened
to speak, but nothing came out.

“Never mind, dear,” Tristan said. “Forget I asked.”

The blond seemed to immediately snap out of his stupor. “You guys ready for another?” he repeated, much to Sami’s amazement.

“Yeah…okay,” she told him. Once he’d walked off, she turned to Tristan. “What just happened here?”

“Well, you were right - he’s definitely not gay.”

“
I could have told you that, but I still don’t get what happened.”

“Power of suggestion. If there had been any repressed part of him that wanted to come back to my room with me, he’d have agreed. Since he in no way wanted to, he became confused. I can persuade people to do what I want to a certain degree, but not if it’s something they strongly
oppose.”

“Whoa…that is impressive.”

“Not really…any immortal can do it.”

“They can?”

“Sure.”

“You mean, Asher can do that?”

“Like I said, we all can. You’ll be able to do it as well.”

“I wonder if he’s ever used that trick on me,” she mused.

“More than likely.”

“How would I know?”

“You wouldn’t. Don’t worry about it though - once you’re one of us he won’t be able to use that power on you anymore. Unless, of course, you’re under the influence.”

“You mean drinking?”

“No…alcohol won’t have any effect on you. I’m talking about the nightshade. It’s the only thing that can get us high.”

She recalled the night she’d discovered
Ash tripping in his room. “I’ve seen him on that stuff. Must be pretty potent. I wonder why he took so much of it with him?”

“He took some with him?” Tristan looked as if this news troubled him. “How much did he take, do you know?”

“Looked like maybe eight or ten syringes.” Feeling her phone vibrate in her pocket, Sami pulled it out to identify the caller. Seeing that it was Kelly, she excused herself to answer it. She felt guilty about not having returned her friend’s last two phone calls.

“Kelly! Hey girl…whatcha know?”

“Hey...” The normally perky voice sounded unenthusiastic.

“Sorry I haven’t called you back
- it’s just been kinda crazy around here. A lot going on.”

“It’s okay. Sam…”

“When are you gonna come down and visit? I got a hottie here with your name written all over him.”

“Sam.”

“What?”

“It’s Rick.”

“What about him? Oh, and by the way, thanks a lot for running your mouth to Marcie. She told him where I was. Did you know that lunatic showed up here last weekend…”

“
Sam!
”

“What?”

“Rick’s dead.”

She heard the words. She heard them loud and clear, but even after they filtered their way through her shock she couldn’t believe her ears. Rick…
dead?
He was perfectly healthy - she’d just seen him - how could he possibly be dead?

“What happened?” she managed to
whisper.

“Apparently he killed himself last night.
”

Sami couldn’t speak. Her hand began to shake. Tristan shot her a worried look.

“I just found out. I don’t think too many people know about it yet.”

“Uh…uh-huh…” Her voice sounded
shrill.

“I don’t have all the details. All I know is, he was found with a bottle of
oxycodone in his hand and there were only two left in it. They don’t even know yet if they were prescribed to him - there was no label on the bottle.”

“Uh-huh…”

“Sweetie, are you okay? You want me to come down? I’ll drive down there right now if you want me to.”

“
No.
” Sami cleared her throat. “No…I’m fine. I just…this is kind of a shock.”

“I know.
I couldn’t believe it either.”

“Did he…leave a note or anything?”
Please God, please don’t let this be my fault. Please tell me he didn’t do this because of me.

“Not that I’m aware of. I only know what I do because Marcie’s boyfriend is an EMT.
It hasn’t been released to the public yet.”

“Oh.”

“Now don’t you go blaming yourself. You know as well as I do he’s been acting weird for a while now. He’d been drinking too - that probably had a lot to do with it.”

“He told me he quit drinking.”

“Well, if he told you that, then he lied. If anything, he was drinking even more.”

Sami’s head began to swim. “I can’t…I can’t deal with this right now, Kelly, I have to go…”

“You sure you don’t want me to come stay with you for a while?”

“No. Not right now. I’ll just…I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“All right. I’m sorry, Sam.”

“Yeah…so am I.” Returning the phone to her pocket, she reached for Tristan’s arm.

“What was that about?” he asked.

“He’s dead. Rick’s dead.” In spite of the humid evening, she felt cold.

“Who’s Rick?”

“My…he was my boyfriend. Actually, we were engaged but I
broke it off with him not long before I moved here.”

Tristan
immediately put his arm around her. “Come on…let’s get you back to your room.”

She allowed him to escort her to the quiet seclusion of
122. Once inside, he settled beside her on the sofa with his arm still encircling her comfortingly. In spite of the warmth from his body, she couldn’t stop herself from shaking. “It’s my fault,” she stammered. “It’s my fault.”

“Tell me what happened,” he urged gently.

“He killed himself!”

“And what makes you think it was your fault, honey?”

“He was here. He was here just a few days ago, trying to convince me to go back to Alabama with him…I told him I didn’t love him anymore…”

Tristan frowned. “Does Asher know he was here?”

“Yes. He basically told him to get lost, except he wasn’t quite that nice about it.” She looked up at him. “Why do you ask?”

He took a deep breath and released it slowly before answering. “You say it was suicide?”

“Yes. He swallowed a bottle of pills.”

“It couldn’t have been him, then…not unless he was already suicidal…”

“What are you talking about? Are you saying Ash had something to do with it?”

“
You can bet your
life
he had something to do with it. Indirectly, though. Do you happen to know if the drug he took was oxycodone?”

“Yeah…it was.”

“Let me guess. An unlabeled bottle.”

“Yes! How’d you know that?”

“I’ve seen it before. It’s Marco’s MO. He’s the only one of us who’s able to force his will onto someone. You know how we were just talking about me not being able to persuade Laiken to do something he was unwilling to do? Well, Marco
does
have that ability. And Ash has used that to his advantage more than once. If there’s someone he wants taken out quietly, suicide is the cleanest method.”

“I don’t know…what would be the point? He knew
we were through. Rick was no threat to him.”

“Rick being a threat wasn’t the issue. Ash laid claim to you, and someone invaded his territory and
that pissed him off. It doesn’t take much to get on his bad side. And believe me, once you’re there, you’re screwed.”

“I can’t believe he would do that.” But recalling the cold look in Asher’s eyes when he found Rick in her room
, maybe it wasn’t so hard to imagine after all.
It was me but it wasn’t me
…Jesus, had he killed Paisley as well? Was he the doppelganger Rick had been raving about all this time? Shivering, she snuggled closer to Tristan.

“Listen to me,” he said. “If there’s any grieving to be done, you better do it now and purge yourself of it. You do
not
want him seeing you display any kind of emotion over this man’s death. That would infuriate him.”

“Any grieving done would only be out of guilt and pity
. I didn’t love Rick.”

“Do you think that would matter to
Ash?”

So he wanted to own her emotions, as well. Was she willing to give those up along with everything else? Was there to be nothing left of her at all?
Why did this have to be so complicated?

“Leave,” he said suddenly. He said it so softly she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly.

“What did you say?”

“I said, you should leave. Right now. Take what you need and get the hell out of here before he gets back. Go someplace and start over
, change your name, whatever it takes. Just
go.
”

“
But wouldn’t he…”

“I’ll lie to him. I’ll
come up with some excuse as to why I can’t determine your location. I don’t know what I’ll tell him, but I’ll think of something.”

“Tristan…”

“This is no kind of life for you. I’m giving you an out, Sami. Please take it. Leave.”