Chasing After Ashes

Chapter 14: Arriving at Bromsdale

told him to hours ago. Despite how annoying he was and all of his quirks, I thought he would at least listen to me on this. He had done so a couple of times now, especially when I asked him to spare Red, the red-haired woman. I couldn’t keep calling her that woman or something because it was too much of a hassle—like dealing with Tate and Rastor.

As soon as I had woken up from my sleep, which I thought had only been a few hours, I saw the two idiots were awake. There were two wide beds in the room, one near to the door and the other was near a window. A lone chair sat in front of the window where Rastor had situated himself. Tate on the other hand sat by the door, near the bed where I slept.

They both grunted at me when I asked them what time it was and when I finally learned they had stayed up all night. Annoyed at how they were acting, I immediately left the room and headed to the other room where Lowell was awake.

Their room had the same two beds as ours had, but they had moved the bed near the window closer to the center of the room. The woman slept there while Justin was sleeping on a chair by the bed, his back to the window in case the woman or anyone else used that as an entrance. “Let’s hit the road,” I growled at them. Lowell nodded his head, raising an eyebrow at the two idiots who had followed me like a shadow to this room.

Knowing they were going to be up and about within a few minutes, I turned around and pushed the idiots away from my path as I headed outside, planning to wait by the car. Rastor and Tate followed closely behind like two annoying shadows I couldn’t get rid of no matter what I did. Unable to hold myself back from saying anything as soon as I reached the monstrosity of Tate’s car, I turned towards them and snapped, “Why the hell do you guys keep following me?”

Rastor looked taken aback at my sudden burst of anger. Tate raised an eyebrow at me but only shrugged and said, “It’s still not safe out here, Eve.”

“Shut up,” I hissed at him, “I am not a weak little lamb who can’t take care of herself. Both of you don’t have to follow me around like I’d get lost without you two.”

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to hold myself back from socking them in their mouths if I looked at them longer, I turned away from them and waited for Lowell, Justin, and Red to come out. I didn’t have to wait long as they came out, looking warily at their surroundings as they trudged towards us. The sun had barely risen, casting shadows everywhere that could have been the perfect cover if someone was hiding. Something Justin and Lowell knew as they were alert despite the early morn.

As soon as the three were in front of me I said, “Lowell you’re driving. You are awake enough for it aren’t you?”

When he nodded his head, I glanced at Tate and irritably said, “Give him your keys.”

“No.”

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. Leave it to him to be this sleep-deprived and still wanting to be the one who will drive the few hours left to Bromsdale. “Just give it to him. Who knows how many accidents you’ll cause us if you drive in that condition.”

His dark blonde brows furrowed together in confusion as he stared at me. I slowly became uncomfortable as I asked him, “What?”

He shook his head, the corner of his lips lifting slightly as he said, “Nothing,” and tossed the car key toward Lowell. Ignoring how weird he was acting, I got in the right side of the backseat, determined to guard Red for today. Rastor followed me in the back as soon as she got in, while Tate sat in the front passenger seat.

Justin started his car the same time as Lowell did and seconds later, we were back on the road again. Like before, the only sound that could be heard in the car was its soft purring as we cruised down the road.

As I stared outside the window, I saw Tate was looking at me in the side mirror which I dutifully ignored. He was supposed to be sleeping in the first place. In the second, if he was having a hard time sleeping, I could knock him out as thanks for letting me sleep like an i***t all night. Maybe I should do it because I sure would not be able to get back at Rastor for now, I thought as I stared outside, liking the idea the more I thought about it.

“You’re pouting,” Tate suddenly spoke, breaking the silence in the car. He was still staring at me through the side mirror.

I glared at him as I said, “Who the hell is pouting?”

He chuckled, smiling at me from the side mirror outside. I narrowed my eyes at him because I sure as hell was not pouting. Who the hell would pout for something like this? I was angry. And annoyed because I was supposed to be part of the protection and escort detail here yet with the way they were acting, it felt more like I was another person they should protect. Like somebody who was helpless.

“Shut up and go to sleep you i***t,” I snapped at him, kicking the back of his seat hard, knowing he’d feel it.

“Yes, yes I’m going to sleep now.” From the way he said it, I could see him smiling as he talked, which only annoyed me further.

“Then shut up,” I growled at him as I leaned back in my seat, wondering if it would be too much if I kicked the back of his seat again. Seeing as I was still annoyed and with no way to vent out than just him, I kicked his seat again for good measure, satisfied as I heard him yelp in surprise. That will teach you to mess with me like this, I thought. Now if only I was able to get back at the guy beside me, it will definitely make me feel better.

I felt someone’s eyes on me as I started plotting what I was going to do to Rastor if everything became okay with us again. I had to get back at him somehow because I couldn’t let this stupidity of protecting me like I was helpless, just pass by. As I turned, I saw Rastor was looking at me with some kind of emotion in his eyes. Before I could decipher what it was, he turned away. What’s his problem?

As soon as he did, I noticed the woman was staring at me, with what seemed like a hint of curiosity in the freezing void of his eyes. It was the first time she had showed emotion in the past few days she had been with us. Even when hard measures to make her talk was being used on her by the others, she had only stared at them blankly. It was the one time I had watched her to be tortured, it was the only term for it, and I couldn’t get her eyes that were devoid of all emotions as she was whipped until her skin had welts, since then.

“What is it?” I asked her gently. However, with how silent it was in the car, my voice sounded like I had spoken with a microphone on.

She only stared at me as if she was memorizing my face and looking right through me. I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable at how she was looking at me as if she was able to read my thoughts and everything that made up of who I was. Eventually she stared back to the front and I quietly sighed back in my seat, glad she was done with whatever she was doing and thinking about.

Thankfully, the last few hours of drive towards Bromsdale were less problematic than yesterday. We had made two stops at gas stations to fill up the tanks and get food, highly alert with our surroundings in case something like what happened before occurred again. But we were safe and back on the road again with nothing to worry about.

Before I knew it, we were pulling up a long driveway in the backwoods of Bromsdale, and stopping in front of a three-story Western-style house. It had a dark brown roof and its walls were decorated with shades of warm yellow bricks up until the front landing. There was a thick white border around his dark maple door, where you could get to by walking up the short wooden staircase. A wide terrace made up the front of his house.

As soon as I laid my eyes on it, I knew it was Illia’s home. Who else could have made a house so welcoming and inviting other than him? It was perfect and represented him exactly that I couldn’t help but smile as I got out of the car. Admittedly, I had missed Illia’s warmth after all these months and I couldn’t quite wait to see him.

“Is that smile for me?” a familiar voice suddenly said, making me whip my head to the side to see if it really was him.

Phink stood to the side, in his all-blue glory against the nearly setting sun. He was wearing navy blue pants and a long-sleeved shirt which was a blue so pale it was almost white. He had pushed the sleeves back to his elbows as he opened his arms wide. Excited to be seeing him, I wanted to greet him as soon as I could but I suddenly remembered my duties. I glanced at Rastor who stood next to me with Red, wondering if it would be okay for him to handle protecting her alone for a second. He nodded his head at me saying, “Justin would be here soon.”

Needing nothing more than that confirmation it was okay, I ran towards Phink and hugged him tightly. He was chuckling as he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me just as tight, saying, “Easy there. I know you missed me baby girl, but I didn’t think you’d miss me this much.”

“Well, you left before even saying goodbye to me,” I muttered, simply happy to be hugging my friend who had gone missing for a while. I heard even while I was off where my mind had taken me to protect me from the reality, Phink had not even bothered to leave one call to ask how I was or to update people on where he was. Remembering this, I pulled away from him and hit him on his chest.

He yelped in pain, massaging his chest as he said, “What was that for? Have you become a barbarian in all these months I haven’t seen you girl?” He turned towards Tate, about to say something else when he stopped. There was a seriousness in his face, so unlike him that I couldn’t help but look back and see what he was staring at.

As I turned, I saw that his ever-changing eyes were staring fixedly at the fiery-red haired woman who was standing in between Rastor and Justin.

“Who is that?” he asked carefully, seemingly guarded as

“Why do you ask?”

“Nothing, nothing,” He waved his hand at me, losing the seriousness in his eyes and posture as he pouted, “I’m sorry I haven’t been right by your side all this time baby girl. You know if I had been, you would have been better in a snap because of how fabulous I am,” he winked at me, quickly dispersing my worries at how he was acting. For now.

My concern for him lingered, because the way he acted was odd, even for him. He was being his playful, eccentric self right now, but that moment where he was all serious as if he had seen something he knew he shouldn’t have, was not a fluke. Determined to find out why he acted that way, I answered his earlier question, watching his reaction carefully.

“She attacked Hans and Elizabeth a few days ago, successfully killing Hans. I couldn’t save him because there were not enough pieces of him to have saved the moment we arrived,” His eyes were changing colors so fast as he listened to what I said, from a bright feral orange, deep ocean blue, and obsidian dark.

I couldn’t determine exactly how he was feeling because his eyes were changing so much, however, I knew his eyes didn’t change in a dizzying array of colors within milliseconds of each other. So does what he heard mean something to him? And if it did, what exactly did it meant? Does he know her? There were various thoughts in my mind as I continued, watching him closely, “We brought her here to be interrogated, in the hopes that she will finally talk about why she attacked and who she was working for. Because after all the time she had been with us, she hadn’t spoken one word.”

Phink’s eyes flashed a bright red before it changed into warm yellow in a second as he nodded his head ruefully at me. “Now that is interesting, isn’t it?” He raised an eyebrow at me as I continued watching him, wondering what exactly it was that he was thinking.

He reached out and suddenly tousled my hair, laughing, “What are you all serious for? I wouldn’t be disappearing from your sight just yet baby girl.”

That wasn’t what I was worried about, but seeing as I couldn’t ask him directly why he looked at that woman as if he was familiar with her, I only nodded my head at him. Better he thought I was worried about him leaving again, rather than how mysterious he acted moments ago. “Wait, where’s Medea?” I asked, looking around and feeling her presence wasn’t here at all. “You didn’t ditch her, did you?”

He laughed again and shook his head at me, his perfectly combed hair moving as he did so. “No, she’s still out there chasing a new lead to where her brother could be. She’s hell bent on personally be the one to punish him, so when I said I’ll be dropping by to visit you, she said to give her regards to you and disappeared on me. Can you believe that? She disappeared on me!” He took my hands and raised it to him, his eyes turning the color of baby blue as he pouted at me. “Can you believe that? She abandoned me!”

I only shook my head at how silly he was acting, and asked, “So, where is she now?”

He grinned at me. “Off the coast of Calahista. Some of her contacts said they saw someone who looked like Damar was there so she’s checking it out. I’ll be meeting her in a few days after I’m finished here.”

Here? “Hold up,” I told him, wondering what he was doing here. It was nice seeing him but after he had been gone for months, and knowing they hadn’t even caught up to Damar yet, he had no reason to be here. “What are you doing here?”

“That’s because your wish is my command, baby girl. I’m here because I felt you calling for your one and only handsome and incredible friend, so voila,” he gestured to the whole of his body, grinning cheekily at me, “here I am.”

Ignoring what he said, I continued, “No, seriously. What are you doing here? Medea might need you at this very moment so you can’t just be doing your own thing and visiting someone just because you wanted to. If you don’t need to be here, just go back immediately.”

“He’s here to remove the shackles on Red,” interjected Tate before Phink could have answered me. He stepped towards me and I saw the others had walked closer towards us in the moments I was talking to Phink.

“Red?” quirked Phink’s eyebrow as he asked me.

I gestured to the fiery haired woman and shrugged. “It was what we’ve been calling her since she didn’t give us her name or much of anything else.”

Weirdly, he found that amusing as he started chuckling, shaking his head and muttering with a smile, “Yeah that fits her alright.”

Before I could have questioned him on what he meant by that, Rastor pulled the woman forward in a tight grip that made me wince in pain at just seeing it. Her pale skin reddened at Rastor’s grip as he said, “Just remove this from her now and let’s get this interrogation over with. I want to know what she knows, the sooner the better.” He was shaking the arm he held like Red was nothing but a puppet doll he was holding.

As if he had lost all sense of compassion he had in droves before. Annoyed at how he was acting and at how she was being treated, I snapped at him. “Will you stop manhandling her?” I asked, pulling her away from him. He wouldn’t let go of her no matter how pulled that I glared at him, unable to believe how much he had changed. “Let go of her. Now,” I growled at him, pushing power into my words so he wouldn’t have had a choice but to listen to me.

I wouldn’t have gone towards this way and used forced if it wasn’t necessary. But he had pushed me into doing this when no amount of talking nicely would have gotten to him. However, no matter how I may not have wanted to order him around, I wouldn’t have done this any other way just so Red would be safe. Even if the others were to be against it, I would protect her until I knew exactly who she was and what she was to me.

Rastor abruptly dropped her hand, his cobalt blue eyes sending chills down my spine as he glared at me. He stepped away from us, silent but I could feel his anger for me increasing because of what I just did. Can’t help it now, I thought because I wouldn’t risk her safety just so I could fix whatever sort of relationship I had with them. I certainly wasn’t going to explain myself just so his ego would be appeased because I had hurt it when I was doing what was necessary to protect Red.

“So, is she supposed to come with us until I meet my brother?” I turned to Phink. If he said yes, I was going to make sure she doesn’t go with us to meet Gabe because oddly, it didn’t sit right with me to let her anywhere near him. I didn’t know why I felt this way, but I trusted my instincts on this, especially since it was Gabe I was talking about here.

“Let me take her to her room,” Caden said as he appeared behind Phink.

My eyes narrowed at him as he took one glance at everyone in our loose circle before finally settling on me. I wasn’t able to sense him at all which completely irked at me. He was every inch of danger pack in a six-foot tall frame. He had lean muscles, but anybody could sense he could use every bit of his body as a weapon.

It was annoying how I couldn’t even sense the danger he posed. If he was anybody else, not someone who I knew was on our side because he followed Illia’s every command, I wouldn’t have known what would have happened to us. We would probably have been bleeding on the ground before we would have even known if he was here.

Trusting this beast of a man, although that was a bit of a pot calling the kettle black since we were all beasts, I let him take Red away from me. Caden nodded at me before he turned away, gently guiding Red towards the path to our right. There were lush forest grounds over there and trees as tall as I could see.

“Lowell go with them,” I said, eyeing Justin who turned to follow Caden and the woman immediately. Lowell nodded his head at me from my peripheral view and quickly followed them as they turned the corner of the house, probably heading to an outhouse I couldn’t trust Rastor and Justin as far as I could throw them when it came to Red’s sake. It just felt like they were here for more than just helping to escort us to Bromsdale with how they acted towards Red.

I couldn’t guarantee her safety with them, even if it was just Justin who was accompanying Caden. So, it was better Lowell was with them because I knew he would protect her when it was necessary. He had listened to my request back when I asked Tate, and although I didn’t want to rely on it, I knew he would protect her more because Tate had agreed to help me. And his word was law to his pack because he was the Alpha.

On the other hand, I wasn’t worried Caden was going to be torturing her unnecessarily before Illia had seen her and said something. So, my worries slowly lessened as I realized there would be two people against one if it ever came to the point of a fight.

“Let’s go,” I said to Phink. He smiled at before overly moving his elbow to the side, bowing, “My lady?”

Shaking my head at him, a small smile made its way to my lips as I realized I had missed this flamboyant, show-off more than I could have imagined, as I linked my arm with him.

He led us in the house, past the living room, and into a large room where bookshelves lined up the walls neatly. There were two people quietly talking inside as they stood in between two long beige couches, looking as if they were in a heated discussion.

One was Illia who was wearing a black shirt with the picture of Charles Manson, the cult leader on it, and faded blue jeans. He was facing the door so he saw us as soon as we entered. There was another person with him, someone with long pale brown hair that reached past the back of his knees, like the finest pale oak set against the fairness of his skin.

As Illia nodded his head at us, a small smile on his lips, the person who was with him turned around. I couldn’t help the small gasp that came out of me as I realized Illia hadn’t been talking to a woman all this time, but to a man. Someone who looked as beautiful as portraits of woodland nymphs with his strong jaw, sharp nose, and full pink lips. His eyes were a shade of when autumn was at its finest, a warm orange that seemed to stir the scent of fall in the air.

I sniffed and realized I did smell autumn in the air. But it couldn’t be because summer had only started. I blinked at the man in confusion, wondering how this came about and suddenly had the startling realization I was facing some of the hardly seen Fae. They were usually in their own dimension, in their own pocket of world, to usually be seen interacting with the rest of us. So, what was he doing here and what were they talking about that had made them that tense?

“Evangeline, it is nice to see you up and about again,” greeted Illia warmly at me, making me smile at him.

“I could also say the same to you,” I told him. “How are you fe—"

Before I could continue what I was saying, I was suddenly cut off by the beautiful man as he said, “Child, what are you?”

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Hey guys! This has been a long, long, loooooooong awaited update. And I am so, sorry this has taken too long. No amount of apologies can suffice for making you guys wait like this but I just hope you guys understand that I am having a hard time these days with eality/ & life in general.

Will be posting Chapter 15 as well tonight, although the chapters will be locked from 15 onwards so I hope you guys continue supporting me and the story.

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Have a nice day everyone! :)