Fires in the Darkness Read online

  Fires in the Darkness

  Darkness Book Four

  Nora Ash

  Contents

  Copyright

  Get in Touch

  Summary

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Epilogue

  Bonus Epilogue

  Wicked Soul

  Also by Nora Ash

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2016 by Nora Ash

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any and all likeness to trademarks, corporations or persons, dead or alive, is purely coincidental.

  Get in Touch

  Sign up for Nora Ash’s newsletter to receive updates about new books You can also get in touch via Facebook, or drop by her website.

  Summary

  I am out of time.

  There is no more waiting, no more hiding in the shadows. No more pretending I don’t love the two men who have claimed me as theirs.

  But darkness has arrived.

  And if we don’t fight it… If it wins….

  I will lose my soul.

  * * *

  Fourth and final book in Nora Ash’s erotic Paranormal Romance menage, Darkness. Each installment is novella length and ends in a cliffhanger.

  One

  Lightning

  For once, Lightning remained under the duvet when his conscience snapped back from the heavy shroud of sleep, eyes closed against the pale sunlight filtering in through the windows. His limbs were heavy with the kind of exhaustion only phenomenal sex could inflict upon his preternatural body. Really, really phenomenal sex.

  Despite his relaxed state, his lips pulled up in a smile at the thought. It didn’t even matter that he’d had to share the experience with his least favorite person in the entire universe—fucking Kathryn blew his mind so thoroughly that the sight of The Shade balls-deep in her only made him want her more.

  Soulmate.

  Yeah, he wasn’t fooling anyone. It wasn’t just fucking Kathryn that blew his mind. It was everything about her.

  Lightning heaved a deep sigh as his thoughts turned decidedly mushy. The drugged-out sensation from last night’s sex took the edge off his usual fear that followed any exploration of Mirome’s word for her. The one starting with “soul” and ending in babies and happily ever after.

  Ah, and there was the rush of anxiety. Great.

  How the hell was he going to survive the intense ache in the core of his soul for everything a—a wife had to offer, when he knew better than most that there was no peace to be found in St. Anthony? Especially not for someone foolish enough to love another. Trust another.

  The sex-haze melted away, leaving gloomy depression in its wake. Lightning groaned. Since when did he allow himself to angst all the fucking time?

  Since Kathryn.

  He snorted at his mind’s immediate response. No wonder Bright wanted her so bad, seeing as she seemingly had the power to royally scramble two of the city’s strongest supes’ brains.

  Screw it. If he was going to spend this much time fretting about the girl, the least he could get was a good morning fuck first. It was pretty damn hard to be depressed while pounding into Kathryn’s wet little snatch.

  His cock was in firm agreement and already at full mast when he rolled over to persuade the blonde woman to spread her thighs for him again, perhaps by burying his tongue between her lower lips. Only, his arm, when he stretched it out to wrap her into his grasp, didn’t meet soft, pliable flesh.

  Lightning froze as his palm skimmed over solid muscle.

  “Keep your paws to yourself, or you’re losing a hand,” a deep, decidedly male voice grunted.

  Lightning cracked his eyelids, already knowing what he’d see. Sure enough, The Shade stared grumpily back at him, still with the remnants of sleep veiling his glowing eyes. Which was probably the only reason the villain hadn’t made good on his threat yet.

  Lightning removed his hand from The Shade’s chest and scowled back at him. Not exactly who he’d hoped to roll over and see first thing. And why wasn’t he more freaked out that he’d fallen asleep next to his enemy? The Shade could have unmasked him in his sleep. Even killed him. And here he was, only mildly annoyed that he couldn’t ease the tension in his cock. “Where’s Kathryn?”

  “Dunno,” The Shade grunted, stretching his bulging body. Apparently, the villain didn’t have any quarrels about having been asleep and vulnerable next to his enemy, either. “Probably in the bathroom. Kitten?” The last bit he shouted in the direction of the closed bathroom door.

  Silence met them as they both listened for any movement behind the only internal door in the apartment.

  Lightning frowned and sat up, straining his hearing until his preternatural abilities kicked in—the ones that would let him hear her heartbeat clear across a crowded room, if necessary.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  The Shade’s outburst underlined the complete lack of any sign of life, save their own and the muted sounds from the lower levels of the building. Kathryn was gone.

  His enemy was up and out of the bed in the blink of an eye, pulling on his pants.

  Lightning mirrored him, his heart pounding. If Bright had somehow managed to sneak in while they’d been asleep and kidnap Kathryn again, it should be possible to catch any lingering remnants of the distinct, sharp scent all supes shared. But all he picked up was his own and The Shade’s, mixed with Kathryn’s sweet essence. The whole apartment reeked of sex and stale sweat.

  “Where the fuck has she gone? And why is it so goddamn hard for her to just stay put?”

  It wasn’t until he heard The Shade’s frustrated growl that it dawned on him that Kathryn had walked out of there of her own will.

  That girl was going to be the death of him.

  “Maybe we fucked a few too many of her braincells loose last night,” Lightning said, as an unpleasant mix of worry and hot anger welled up in his chest.

  “How did she even sneak out of here without us noticing?” The Shade rubbed the back of his neck and sent Lightning a glance that perfectly reflected his own feelings: concern for her safety, anger at her idiocy, and just a sliver of uncertainty at how he’d allowed himself to rest so completely in his enemy’s presence that she’d been able to leave without alerting his otherwise impeccable senses.

  Lightning shrugged. He didn’t know, and he didn’t feel like dwelling on it right now. He’d much rather try to figure out where the fuck she’d gone off to so he could go get her back. And then perhaps teach her what happened to unruly soulmates who insisted on sneaking out and putting themselves in danger. Thoroughly and repeatedly.

  The Shade snarled, “Oh, for fuck’s sake!”

  Lightning spun around. The Shade was crumpling a note in his hand, and Lightning’s heart dropped to the pit of his stomach as a strange sense of déjà vu set in. Had Bright somehow snuck in? If he had her… if he hurt her…

  “The little idiot’s gone off to meet her friend. They got some big-shot reporter involved, but oh—she’s conveniently not said anything about where they’re meeting him. Why is she so incredibly stubborn? And she really expects us to just hang around and wait for her to traipse back home ‘sometime before lunch’? I swear, when I get my hands on her…”

&
nbsp; The frustration in his voice made Lightning’s heart crawl back up in his chest where it belonged. As annoying and plain stupid as it was of Kathryn to go out on her own, at least she hadn’t been kidnapped—again. He rolled his shoulders to ease some of the tension wreaking havoc on his muscles. Before Kathryn, he’d never entertained the idea of having a masseuse on speed dial. Damn her.

  “Who’s the reporter? Maybe we can track her down if we pop in and search his home. There might be a wife or a girlfriend who knows where he went, or at least a diary with his appointments.”

  The Shade scoffed and tossed the paper back on the desk where he’d found it. “Oh, I’m sure you’d love working with him. It’s Nick Coleman—almost as big of a fucking saint as you. But before you get any great ideas, may I remind you that involving humans in this is just going to end up getting them killed.”

  It was curious, really. Where his heart had dropped to the bottom of Lightning’s stomach before, this time, it stayed put. Only instead of beating steadily behind his ribs, it skipped several beats as ice-cold realization froze him to the spot.

  Oh, no. Oh, powers above, no. If Kathryn thought she was meeting Nick Coleman, then she was walking into a trap for sure.

  The instrumental part to a metal song penetrated through the sudden silence, making him jerk and whip his head around in search of the source of music.

  The Shade reached into a hidden pocket in his pants and produced a fancy-looking cell phone.

  “Now’s not the time to be taking phone calls,” Lightning snapped. “And really, ‘Testament’? Way to be a fucking stereotype.”

  The Shade ignored him and frowned at his phone’s display. “It’s Kathryn.”

  “Kathryn’s got your number?” Lightning asked in disbelief. “What the fuck, were you planning on taking her to dinner and a movie too?”

  The Shade sent him an admonishing glare before he pressed the button and lifted the phone to his ear. “Miss Smith?”

  Miss Smith? Awfully formal for someone who’d just spent the night banging the girl’s brains out.

  Lightning narrowed his eyes as the truth hit him with astonishing clarity. The Shade had found her in his human disguise—and that right there was his regular phone. But then the question was: why the hell was Kathryn calling a regular human while out on her investigative adventures?

  “…They can do that, with their pheromon—”

  The muffled voice on the other end of the phone sounded like it came from far away, as if the speaker wasn’t holding it up to their face, but the voice belonged to Kathryn without a doubt.

  A sharp smack interrupted her.

  “Shut. Up! You don’t get to speak about him like that! He loves me, and I love him. Not all of us are too thick to form real relationships. Just because no one will ever really love you doesn’t mean you get to disparage my relationship. He and I are one—and you are nothing, like you always were! Do you know why I’m the only one who still keeps in touch with you? It’s because I pity you! No one else could be bothered, because you’re so pathetic, Kat. You always were and you always will be. And it’s your own damn fault you’re going to die. If you hadn’t dropped your panties for the first supe who showed you any sort of interest, Bright wouldn’t care one whit about you.”

  Lightning bared his teeth in a silent snarl. The other speaker sounded a whole lot like Kathryn’s pushy friend—the one she was supposedly off talking to Nick Coleman with. The second he’d heard that name he knew something was terribly wrong, and from the sound of this conversation, he’d been right.

  “You are the pathetic one!” The sudden fierceness to Kathryn’s voice surprised him, but also made a flame of pride flicker in his chest, despite his intense worry. His Kittykat had claws. “And you’re a fake, a liar, and now an accomplice to murder. Well done, Trish. I hope you’ll remember this moment when you realize that you are nothing more than a toy to him. And you! They trusted you! You were their teacher. Their friend! That’s the only thing they agree on. How can you betray them like this?”

  Time seemed to pause as he and The Shade looked at each other across the room. There was only one person she could be speaking to like that, but… it made no sense. The complete shock and denial in The Shade’s gaze mirrored his own feelings. No. There was absolutely no way—

  “I am not betraying my old students, little dimwit. I am merely ensuring that I don’t get on Bright’s bad side. And if they’d had any sense, they would have heeded my warning and done the same. It’s either be on his side, or perish, and I have no intention of ending my existence for the sake of opposing a man who simply wants what is our race’s birthright. You humans—you are so inferior that you will never grasp it. Why should we live in the shadows? Cower at the thought of angering lesser beings than ourselves?

  “I am not too surprised that Lightning is trying to be noble and ‘save humankind’. Saddened, but not surprised. But that The Shade has chosen to follow him in his ridiculous hero complex? That is an unexpected loss—and one I will hold you fully responsible for, you worthless cunt.”

  “Mirome.” The Shade breathed his name, too low to disturb the conversation on the other end of the call, but the betrayal came through loud and clear.

  Lightning set his mouth in a grim line and met his enemy’s gaze. Now was not the time to deal with the monumental loss echoing through both of them. Mirome had been their teacher, their only father figure for most of their lives, but right now, he had their soulmate in his possession. If they wanted any chance at getting her back, they would need to stay focused. Mourning would have to wait.

  The Shade worked his jaw, but his darkened eyes stayed focused as he nodded. He was on board.

  Somewhere behind the turmoil of painful emotions ripping him apart from the inside, Lightning had the errant thought that they worked surprisingly well together when it came to Kathryn.

  “W-what do you mean?” Kathryn’s voice had lost its sharp note, her fear coming through the woolen connection loud and clear. Lightning fisted his hand at the thought of her scared face as she faced the man who had betrayed them all.

  “As if you didn’t already know. You are their mate—their ‘soulmate,’ as you humans so poetically call it, and neither would ever allow you to be unhappy. Your ridiculous attempt to expose Bright has brought them down with you, and they don’t even care that they are slaves to a simple, human cunt. And that, my dear, is why I am going to personally kill you, once Bright has used you to lure them into his trap.”

  A loud crack was followed by a pained grunt and the unmistakable thud of a body falling to the ground.

  Footsteps sounded next to phone, then the splintering sound of someone teleporting, followed by more static and more footsteps. A slamming sound, as if someone closed a heavy metal door, but no more voices.

  The Shade disconnected the call and looked at Lightning with a grim determination that almost blocked out the pain behind his eyes. “Ready to kill our race’s Secret Keeper and Bright’s human plaything? Or do you have any heroic feelings of mercy you think will get in the way of my revenge? Because I’m telling you right now—if you do, you need to stay out of my way.”

  Lightning returned his stare. “I assume you have an auto-tracer on that phone.”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?”

  Two

  Kathryn

  My head pounded from blinding pain once the darkness finally faded. I squinted up against the flickering light from a fluorescent tube and took in my surroundings. I was inside a small room made entirely from concrete, with only the single strip light and a heavy metal door to break up the monotony.

  Good thing I didn’t suffer from claustrophobia. I touched my head lightly where the throbbing originated from, and winced. Ow! Being knocked out hurt a hell of a lot more than what movies suggested.

  When I pulled my fingers back, a bit of red streaked them. Mirome clearly hadn’t held back.

  My stoma
ch roiled at the sight, and I had to swallow several times to settle it. The deep breathing also helped clear my head just enough that I could fully comprehend my shitty situation.

  I’d been kidnapped—again. And the girl I’d thought was my best friend had betrayed me so profoundly I couldn’t even fully wrap my mind around it, what with my brain throbbing with pain so intense it made my eyes water. My only consolation was that there at least was a chance that I’d alerted The Shade to my situation. Not that there was any guarantee he’d picked up, but maybe it’d have gone to voice mail and recorded enough of what happened to make them realize that Mirome had betrayed them. And intended to use me as bait.

  Hopefully, he and Lightning would work out a way to get me out of this mess, because I was all out of ideas.

  Just then, I spotted my purse lying on the floor by the wall, and my pulse sped up. My phone! Maybe they hadn’t taken the time to remove it, and I’d be able to call The Shade again.

  As swiftly as my aching skull would allow, I crawled over to it and shoved my hand inside to rummage for my lifeline. When my palm connected with the familiar shape of my cell phone, I nearly cried from relief.

  A relief that quickly died. As soon as I pulled my phone out, it became obvious why they hadn’t bothered to go through my stuff before leaving me in here. The concrete walls were blocking off the reception, leaving my phone as little more than a fancy paperweight.

  So much for not being a helpless damsel. I sank down against the wall and rested my head in my hands as the small burst of hope fizzled away. Not only did I keep getting freaking kidnapped, but my attempts at helping just seemed to make everything worse.