Ashes of Merciless Read online

  “The note said I disappointed him! It said I broke his heart by not accepting my inheritance, and that’s what drove him over the edge. But why kill her? She was so kind and loved him even in his abuse! Why wasn’t it me? I am the one who has always hated him! It should have been me!” he choked, his voice breaking off.

  “He is the kind of person Merciless swears to eliminate, yet he was leading us all along,” Lacey whispered through white lips. “Ashley, you were right about everything.”

  Aden’s voice gained strength. “I buried her, and then I managed to escape. After the adrenaline left me, I felt broken. Numb. My dad had hired some common thugs to finish me since he couldn’t do it himself—I guess he didn’t want anyone in Merciless to know of my supposed failure. I knew they were following me. . . . In that moment, I wanted to die.”

  Aden’s red eyes looked to me. “Until you came along. I wanted revenge, but I couldn’t bring myself to trust you. I’ve been on the run ever since you saved me.”

  “Why would he torture your mother, Aden?” Viola asked softly, smoothing his hair back.

  Aden seemed dazed at the touch, and he shrugged miserably.

  “Because he’s insane. Sadistic. She would scream in intervals, randomly fall into agony—”

  Vanessa appeared suddenly in the doorway, panting hard.

  “Come see this!”

  We all stared at her blankly.

  “Now!” she demanded.

  Gage took the gun from me and looked coldly at Aden.

  “One wrong move,” Gage warned.

  Aden nodded, looking drained. We followed Vanessa and crowded into Shane’s bedroom. Vanessa handed Sophia to the Evaluator and asked him to take her to the kitchen to make her a snack.

  “Come on, little one,” the Evaluator said as he went toward the door with her in his arms.

  “I always left out!” Sophia complained as the Evaluator kicked the door shut behind them.

  Vanessa turned the TV on the dresser to full volume.

  A woman was standing in front of a lake that seemed to hold more bodies than water. Yellow tape, cameramen, and police officers were everywhere. The bottom of the screen warned about the graphic content.

  “ . . . police have yet to name the body count, but it’s estimated to definitely be over one hundred. The victims have not been drowned, but poisoned, and then dumped into the lake. Most of the victims are families of three. The information on the victims indicates most of these adults worked from home, and all of the children were homeschooled. Police suspect the work of the dreaded assassination cult Merciless, although previously their targets were people who’ve committed crimes such as rape or murder. How these children and their parents are connected to Merciless, the cult who is infamous for taking the law into their own hands, is currently unknown. . . .”

  “There’s more,” Vanessa said through pale lips. “The mountain and beach resorts have been blown up. There were bombs inside obviously just waiting for the detonators to be pressed.”

  “They’re all dead. He’s killed them all. Everyone.” I wasn’t even sure who said this.

  Viola almost fell to the floor before Gage caught her. He held her as she sobbed in his arms, and he tucked the gun into the back of his jeans. He looked over her shoulder to me, his face twisted in pain and anger.

  Colbert leaned down and put his arms around his wife and son. Lacey turned and ran from the room, and I heard her vomiting through the wall. Shane picked up a nearby vase and threw it at the TV, cracking the glass and making the picture disappear in a flare of color. The TV fell back onto the dresser with a crash.

  I blindingly felt for the wall and slid down it, feeling very cold. Vanessa stared at her husband as he raked his fingers through his hair, gasping in rage. Aden did nothing but stare at the broken TV, his hands fists at his sides.

  My hands came up to cover my mouth, smothering the strangled sounds that came out. The background of the scene was burned into my brain, and I couldn’t erase it.

  So many bodies. People I knew. Children. So many lives destroyed. So many longings, dreams, hopes of something more. Gone.

  “It was the gas.”

  I looked through the black tunnel of my vision and tried to focus on the thin voice of Aden.

  “What do you mean, gas?” Gage asked, his voice a cross between disbelief, denial, and rage.

  “Father told me that all of Headquarters was rigged with poisonous gas. All he had to do was press a button, and those not wearing a gas mask would die in seconds. He must have called every single member to Headquarters, and of course they went, most likely out of fear. This isn’t happening . . . ,” Aden said, sliding down next to me.

  Shane’s face was dark red. He strode over to Aden and jerked him up by his collar.

  “And the resorts full of elderly people? My grandparents were at the beach resort! And it was not only Merciless members who resided there! Why them? Why now?”

  Aden’s head drooped to his chest. “The bombs in the resorts and the gas inside Headquarters were a means to eliminate rebellion within our ranks, or they were for emergency in case we were ever discovered. I’m sure you all are at least aware of the bomb inside Headquarters? The world would announce if Merciless had finally been found, so Headquarters must still be intact, and the gas was used instead of the bomb. There must have been a rebellion; he knew some of the members were growing suspicious. Maybe it was even your disappearance that was the final straw for everyone. So the Master must have called everyone together and demanded to do things his way. And when they refused . . . ,” Aden said, and then he sighed. “Or my father has finally just completely lost every bit of his humanity.”

  “His humanity was never there!” Viola screeched between sobs. “He’s killed all of them!”

  “You knew about this.” Shane’s voice was ice and razors. “You were in on it.”

  Aden paled, and he shook his head. “No. No!”

  Shane shook him, nearly snapping his neck. “You’re lying!” He raised a fist and punched Aden so hard he fell to the floor, and a light spray of blood painted the wall.

  “Shane, stop!” Vanessa yelled.

  Shane crouched down and was about to hit him again, but I threw myself onto his raised arm.

  “Shane, please! We need him!” I said.

  I pulled Shane away and fell to my knees as my muscles suddenly locked up. And then I felt it, that familiar trickling amidst all the sadness and anger.

  Not now. Not again.

  “Gage!” I sputtered as my back connected with the floor.

  Gage ran to my side while everyone turned to stare at my trembling figure. I arched up against him, the fire building, getting hotter and hotter.

  “Hold still, baby. You’ve got to hold still,” Gage said as he grasped a syringe with white knuckles.

  I tried to obey, but couldn’t. No longer able to hold back the agony, my mouth opened, and a horrible scream filled the room. A scream of someone being burned alive.

  “Dad, help me!” Gage cried over his shoulder.

  Colbert and Shane immediately flew to where I was and pinned me down. I writhed beneath their touch, involuntarily fighting them.

  There was a blissful prick on the inside of my elbow, an exquisite new pain.

  Lacey appeared in the doorway, panting. Her body looked hazy and wavered before my eyes.

  “Ashley,” she moaned. Her murky face paled, and she disappeared from my sight. I heard her throw up again as Sophia’s cries echoed my own from somewhere deep inside the house.

  “It’s in you. It’s there. Hold on, baby. Just breathe.” Gage covered my mouth with his own, smothering my cries with his lips as he breathed into me.

  The fire died.

  I gasped against Gage, greedily drinking the oxygen he fed into my useless lungs. Black dots swam around my vision. My eyelids fluttered.

  “Stay awake, Ashley! You’re not breathing right,” Colbert said into my ear. “Did you give her too mu
ch?”

  “No. It’s the same dose.”

  I fought against the weight of the morphine, the darkness of sleep. I felt myself go limp in Gage’s arms, but slowly, the world’s colors returned to their original hue. Gage sighed in relief against my lips as my breathing became my own again.

  “Stay awake. You can’t go to sleep this time,” Gage cautioned before pressing a kiss to my forehead. He sat me up carefully against him, and I stared through glassy eyes at the others.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “Crappy timing.” There was a different warmth coursing through me, a cocooning haven that I didn’t want to go away.

  “Are you ok now, honey?” Viola asked through tears. She was holding her chest, her hand covering her heart.

  “Yes. I’m sorry,” I replied.

  I hated depending on the drug. Being awake on it felt too good, and there were withdrawal symptoms to worry about if I kept using it this much. There was a heavy pressure in my chest, and every breath was difficult, but the drug dulled my fear.

  Aden was studying my arms. Gage saw where he was staring, and he gave Aden a cold look as he covered my needle marks protectively with his hands.

  “Got something you want to say?” Gage threatened icily.

  Aden shook his head, biting his bloody and swollen lips. “Flameblood,” he whispered.

  “What?” everyone said in unison.

  Lacey came back in at that moment, looking green and shaky. She sat down by Gage and me, threading her fingers through mine. I gave her hand a squeeze.

  “I’ve seen this before. It’s what he . . . used on my mother.”

  Gage moved like lightning, going to Aden and pulling him up by his arm. He spoke very slowly, almost eerily calm. “What do you know? Can it be stopped?”

  “Gage,” I mumbled, my mouth feeling thick. “Now’s not the time.”

  Ignoring me, he visibly tightened his grip on Aden’s arm. “Tell me. Now.”

  Aden gave Gage a hard stare before looking around to see that everyone’s eyes were on him. Viola, tear-stained and shaking. Colbert, hopeful and worried. Shane, unfocused and angry. Lacey, unbelieving and frightened. Vanessa, unreadable and nearly emotionless.

  I heard Aden swallow heavily. “There is no cure, but there is something else. My father used it on my mother, probably to keep her around longer for his own personal kicks. This substance is derived from the same flower the Flameblood comes from. It weakens the poison. It gives the person longer to live and reduces the number of attacks.”

  I sucked in a breath, growing dizzy. I didn’t want to hope, but hope was there, swelling in my chest. Lacey gripped my fingers harder as she cried softly on my shoulder.

  Gage looked like a blind man seeing for the first time. He almost shoved Aden away, his hands shaking.

  “How . . . long? How much time will it give her?” Gage asked.

  “It depends on how much is used. It could be a few years or even a decade,” Aden answered.

  Gage turned to me, blazing wonder on his face. His eyes were still struck with shock and pain, and I knew the previous tragedy wasn’t forgotten, but everyone in the room looked slightly lifted from this piece of information.

  “Can it be used more than once? Is it at the Master’s home?” I asked carefully.

  Aden looked lost. “More than once? I don’t know, but I don’t see why not. And I can’t tell you with one hundred percent assurance that there’s still some at the house, but unless you want to make a trip to the rainforests in South America, this is the best chance you’ve got. It’s not something even sold on the market down there. Plus, he told me the flower is so rare there may not even be any more in existence.”

  “We have to go now!” Gage shouted.

  My head shot up. “Gage? No.”

  Gage gave me an incredulous look. “Are you serious? Did you not hear what he just said? A decade, Ashley! Less relapses! Don’t you want that?”

  “Of course,” I whispered, wiping Lacey’s cheeks with numb fingertips. “But right now I think everyone needs to rest. I doubt Shane and Lacey have slept much since they’ve been gone. And . . .”

  I couldn’t bring myself to say the rest. I inclined my head to where Viola sat. She was quivering in her husband’s arms, rocking back and forth.

  “Someone needs to tell the Evaluator,” I said. “This is going to hit him the hardest. Those people were like his family.”

  Vanessa stepped forward, her cheeks flushing slightly. “I’ll do it.” She gave her husband a sympathetic glance, but he only stared at the floor with glassed eyes. Vanessa ghosted from the room, the door not even making a sound as it closed.

  “Oh, Ashley! I hope that the antidote is still there! And your party! We’ve all but just forgotten you, honey!” Viola wailed, sounding like she was on the verge of hysteria. Hiccups jumped from her throat. Colbert squeezed his arms tighter around her, trying to soothe as he murmured to her.

  I pulled Lacey with me as I went over to Viola’s side on the floor, and I kissed her freckled cheek.

  “Viola, the party is not important right now. We’re all still here. We have each other. Right now, I couldn’t be more grateful for anything than that,” I told her.

  She put her head against my shoulder, and Gage knelt down next to us. Shane looked up from the ground at me, as if he couldn’t really see who he was looking at. Aden shuffled his feet and murmured something inaudible, seeming out of place.

  We sat silently for a while, sharing our pain. Aden slumped miserably against the wall, his fingers wiping the blood from his mouth onto his white shirt. Finally, Vanessa came back into the room, her eyes downcast.

  “I’ve told him. He has shut himself up in the office and won’t come out,” she said softly.

  “Leave him be,” Shane said in a dead voice, momentarily flicking his eyes toward his wife. “He wants to be alone.”

  “Are you all right?” she asked Shane as she bent down next to him.

  Shane began to nod, but he stopped as a single tear dripped down his face. His glasses fogged up. He wiped the tear away furiously before rising from the floor.

  “I need to get out of here,” Shane hissed.

  “Where are you going?” Vanessa asked in a panicked voice.

  “The Evaluator’s not the only one who wants to be alone,” he replied before storming out the door.

  Lacey got to her feet. “I need to call my parents. Make sure that they haven’t been found. As for my Grandmamma . . .” Her face drained of color, and my heart lurched at the sight of her in pain. She pulled her untraceable cell out of her jeans pocket and dialed a number, going into a corner of the room.

  Viola’s voice was strained with misery when she spoke. “Lacey, they can come here. We’ll make room.”

  Lacey shook her head. “I’m not going to risk anything. They’re safer in Canada if they haven’t been found.” Lacey turned away and began muttering quickly into the phone.

  Aden looked to me. “The risks shouldn’t be as high if he’s killed everyone except for his followers.”

  “Then you don’t know your father,” Gage spat.

  Aden’s eyes flashed. “I know him better than you. All I’m saying is that the risk of discovery is much lower now.”

  “Not necessarily,” I disagreed, still feeling foggy and cocooned. “He’ll double his efforts trying to find us. If his true goal is to eliminate those opposing him, he’ll stop at nothing to kill us all.”

  Aden sighed heavily. “I need some air,” he muttered.

  Gage was suddenly at the door. “Going somewhere?”

  “What’s your problem?” Aden asked.

  “My problem is that you just got here. You’re the Master’s son, and I don’t trust you.”

  For a moment, the two only stared each other down. Aden smirked, his eyes going dark.

  “Then that is your problem, isn’t it?” Aden said. “I didn’t ask to come here, you do realize that? I was drugged and kidnapped. Regardless of that,
I’m still going to help you, aren’t I?”

  Gage leaned back against the door. “But you don’t really have a choice, do you?”

  A shadow seemed to pass over Aden’s face. “Doesn’t look that way. But I have more cause than any of you to want revenge on the Master.”

  Gage studied him silently.

  Aden shoved past him and opened the door. “I guess you don’t believe that saying.”

  “What saying?” Gage said through clenched teeth.

  Aden’s smirk grew wider. “That the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

  He slammed the door in Gage’s face.

  Gage turned around, his hands fists at his sides. He looked at me. “I don’t trust him.”

  “I don’t think Shane does either,” Colbert said quietly.

  “So this was a mistake?” Viola asked, tears still flowing steadily down her cheeks.

  Gage glanced at the closed door. “Maybe.”

  Lacey snapped the phone closed with a twist of her fingers. “My parents are fine. They’re probably even safer than we are. Who knew a third cousin would come in handy? Not to mention said cousin likes money.”

  “Your parents are going to spend your whole family fortune to keep his mouth shut,” I noted.

  “It doesn’t matter as long as they’re safe,” she said. Her face had lost most of its greenish tint, and relief was evident in her eyes. “What was all that about?”

  I sighed. “Gage and Shane both think it was a mistake to bring Aden here.”

  “Why? He’s given us a ton of information already,” she said.

  “Nothing that Ashley didn’t figure out herself. He’s told us about the gas. So what?” Gage said.

  “Are you forgetting already that he’s told us about the stuff that can prolong Ashley’s life? I thought that would be the go-ahead to trust him for you,” Vanessa said.

  Gage’s eyes could have cut glass. “I still don’t trust him.”

  “If this does go badly, then it’s my fault,” I whispered.

  Despair washed over me, cutting into the drug’s warm haze. Could I do nothing right?

  Lacey threw her hands up. “What else could we have done? He’s our only chance of finding the Master’s home! Anyway, it’s too late now.”