Read From the Ashes (Force of Nature Book 1) Online
Authors: Amber Lynn Natusch
From the Ashes (Force of Nature Book 1)
From The Ashes
By
Amber Lynn Natusch
From The Ashes Version 1.0
Copyright © 2016 Amber Lynn Natusch
All rights reserved.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN-13: 978-0-9970765-2-3
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, businesses, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.
Published by Amber Lynn Natusch
Cover Design by Regina Wamba, at Mae I Design
Editing by Kristen Bronner
www.amberlynnnatusch.com
More by Amber Lynn Natusch
The Caged Series
CAGED
HAUNTED
FRAMED
SCARRED
FRACTURED
TARNISHED
STRAYED
CONCEALED
BETRAYED
The UNBORN Series
UNSEEN
Contemporary Romance
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To my husband,
Thanks for tolerating all of my fictional boyfriends
PROLOGUE
There are moments in life when you see things with perfect clarity—moments when you choose to define who and what you are. And then there are those that define things for you. Lying on the floor, bleeding to death, I realized that fate had interceded on my behalf. It was all very simple, really: stay and be the weakling I had always been told I was. Stay and let my life slowly drain from me, never bothering to fight—a natural born victim. Or, in a rare act of defiance and courage, I could force myself to get up and leave. Force myself to quiet the voices in my head telling me it would all be better tomorrow. But I was no fool.
If I stayed, tomorrow would never come.
Tick tock, Piper. Tick tock
.
It was then that I could hear the fighting in the distance. The voices. The others had returned home and come to my aid. I could hear the ruckus around me as they tried to restrain him. Now was my moment. This was my chance. With a surge of adrenaline, I pushed myself off the blood-soaked floor and staggered on barely functioning legs toward the doorway that led to the hall. I needed to get to my room. I needed provisions.
I would not be returning to the mansion again. Ever.
His angered roar chased me down the corridor, spurring me on. I did not know how long the others could subdue him. My failing body was sluggish and uncoordinated from blood loss and a concussion, but I managed to get to my bedroom with considerable speed—my will to live was stronger than I'd thought. I threw open the heavy wooden door and made my way inside. I took only seconds to throw what I could find into a duffel bag: clothes, shoes, a jacket. Then I grabbed my purse and fled.
I tripped just as I rounded the top of the staircase and rolled down the first few steps before I managed to stop myself and slide down the rest in a more controlled fashion. I was almost to the security door. Almost to safety.
“Piper!” he screamed after me. I shuddered instinctively. Hazarding a glance over my shoulder as I tried to punch in the code to unlock the front entrance, I found him looming at the top of the staircase. Four enforcers were trying hard to hold him back, but they were losing. Even against their combined power, he pushed forward after me.
There would be no stopping him.
My hands shook and my vision blurred from the blood dripping into my eyes, both interfering with my ability to type in the code. With his heavy footfalls echoing through the grand foyer, I tried repeatedly to press the proper buttons to no avail. My attempt to live was proving futile; he was closing in.
With only seconds to spare, I managed to unlock the main security door. I could hear his straining breaths approaching as I threw it open, turning to slam it closed behind me. Once I was through, I was free, if only for a moment. The sun would soon be rising. Once that happened, he couldn't follow, and he knew it. He'd have to wait for nightfall to come after me.
And by then I'd be long gone.
I leaned back against the solid metal door, my breath coming in ragged gasps. I needed to get outside, out of the tiny room that separated the vampires from the impending light. Outside, I could heal. Once healed, I could leave.
With ever-weakening steps, I schlepped my way to my final obstacle: the front door. Swinging it open with ease, I fell to the concrete and crawled away from the mansion. By that point, I could barely lift myself off the ground. But I needed nature—the elements—if I had any chance at repairing what had been damaged. And so I pressed on until I felt the familiar touch of newly cut grass beneath me. Face down, I collapsed to the lawn, my mind fading as I did.
“Help me,” I whispered to the Earth as darkness overtook me.
And help me, it did.
Part One:
BEFORE
1
It was all very unceremonious when the king of the vampires took me in. I knew he had his reasons at the time—vampires never do anything without a reason—but I happily accepted. I was homeless. I was naïve. And I was tired of watching my back.
My sob story isn't especially original; I was orphaned when I was about two and fell into the hands of the foster care system, where I stayed. The Department of Child and Family Services never could quite figure out why a perfectly healthy white toddler couldn't get adopted, but that seemed to be the case, leaving me with few options. They also had no idea where I'd spent those first two years or who had cared for me. I was no help. I was far too young to remember.
To make up for whatever shortcomings had landed me in the system, I worked my ass off in school, doing all that I could to succeed both academically and socially. Though I excelled scholastically, I failed miserably at fitting in. I wasn't like them, and it was as if they could sense that somehow.
I was forever an outsider.
Until I wasn't.
When it came to light that I was something more than human, and that there was an entire community—an entire world—out there that was too, I cried joyous tears. But that happiness soured quickly. The more supernaturals I encountered, the more I realized that, even in their world, I still lived on the fringe. I’d find no acceptance with them, though I didn’t know why. None of them showed any interest in me—unless you called being the target of their loathing interest. And they all had plenty of that. The witches all but officially shunned me. The fey wouldn't deign to have anything to do with me. The rest brought a mix of superiority and indifference to our encounters—except for the warlocks. Our relationship proved far more complicated than the others. And far more deadly.
For that reason alone, I accepted the vampire king's offer of protection.
Before that, I had been on my own for eight years after aging out of the system. I learned how to survive as a magical being in a mundane world, but not easily. I worked when odd jobs came my way, though it proved hard to find solid employment without a permanent address. Basically, I scraped by however I could. Sometimes it wasn't pretty.
What I found most frustrating was that I knew I had powers—being acknowledged by the other supernatural races at all told me as much—but I had no idea the depths of them or how to call upon them. In short, I knew little to nothing at all, and I wasn't sure anyone else did either. If they had, they might have thought twice about turning their backs on me.
That fact made me question early on the motives of the king.
* * *
“Hey Piper,” Jase called from the kitchen. I walked in to find him pilfering another twelve-pack from the fridge.
“You know it's only ten in the morning, right?”
“Ah, but you forget, my young Jedi. Your morning is my night. This is merely a nightcap before I pass out for the evening.”
I rolled my dark-blue eyes, irritated that he once again had a point. Jase loved to be right, a fact that was blatantly displayed in the grin he wore.
Living in the mansion was a strange life to adapt to in the beginning. Located in lower Manhattan, the property spanned multiple city blocks, cleverly shrouded by magic. While humans saw the standard multi-story buildings that predominated in New York City, what really existed was a lush, expansive estate surrounded by woods. Every time I crossed through the perimeter, the pull of that magic was impossible to deny. Then there was my perception of time, which was turned on its ass; day was night and night was day. My sense of self was somewhat lost as well, surrounded only by the strongest of the strong, the toughest of the tough—the most gifted. The enforcers were all total badasses in their own right, and that was a lot to live up to. At some point early on, I stopped trying.
Most of them had been welcoming to some degree, but they all seemed somewhat suspicious of me. All but two. The brothers of the crew—Jase and Dean—were massive and intimidating. Both were known for their incredible speed and ability to “ghost” from one place to another, which made them special and therefore highly prized by the king. The rest couldn't do what they could. From what I'd heard, it was a pretty impressive party trick.
Jase and Dean took me under their collective wing and showed me the way of things in the vampire world. Under their tutelage, it didn't take too long for me to get the hang of things. As much as a non-vampire ever could.