Page 16 of Echoes in the Void

The witch stared at her with two wide eyes. “There mustn’t be much room in that little cemetery you hide in. And yet you manage to appear well groomed for a grave rat.”

Ash offered a one shouldered shrug, much like the woman opposite her, sans the shawls. “I have other— a spare crypt.” She caught the slip before she gave her secret away in full, her spine stiffening.

I leaned back, keeping my face carefully blank. When we agreed to head off to the coffee house, Ash disappeared between the graves, leaving me in a brilliant flash only to appear literal moments later, clean and completely changed into the velvet dress she wore now. I held back my suspicions that she kept a house of some sort nearby, but that was her secret to keep.

Sebastian broke the heavy silence that descended over us, his gaze flickering between the two women. “Tifa, Ash. Ash, you know our local witch.”

“I know she wants to cage me. Or something.” Ash picked up a cinnamon stick encrusted with sugar crystals and nibbled on the end.

“Or something.” Tifa held out a bejeweled hand in a peace offering—at least, I thought that’s what it was—and raised an eyebrow when Ash didn’t move. “Manners,” she tutted.

“I have them. You are full of shit,” Ash said with clarity.

My laugh boomed around the coffeehouse, halting conversation for a moment before the white noise around us resumed.

I swore my fallen star looked pleased, if only for a fraction of a moment. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.” I wound the material of her skirt around my fingers, tugging a little. A flush that I was sure had nothing to do with an oncoming crisis stained her skin, though Sebastian sent me a warning look, and I desisted.

Perhaps we can return to this later.

“Tifa, why don’t you tell Ste–Ash,” I chose my words carefully. “What you think she’s done? We can start from there.”

Ash studied the witch with the same detached curiosity that spoke of the centuries she well outweighed us in age, I was certain. Sebastian, on the other hand, looked distinctly put out that he wasn’t included in the conversation at all.

Tifa shrugged, and her shawls dropped from one shoulder in a practiced move that drew my friend’s attention well away from the tempting morsel at my side.

I suppressed a smile of my own, and resumed tangling my fingers in Ash’s skirt. My distraction was short lived, however, with the witch’s next words.

“I don’t accuse you of anything, and neither should Sebastian. We know who is setting the fires, and setting up your not-phoenix for the fall,” she said sweetly, settling into Sebastian’s side. He slipped an arm around her waist.

The movement that might have bothered me yesterday didn’t hurt my heart half as much as it did tonight.

“Well, don’t keep us waiting,” Ash muttered, the first bit of impatience entering her tone. “Please let me know who I need to incinerate to be able to live free for this generation?”

“Something about manners.” I tapped her leg and found my fingers contacting bare thigh beneath her skirt. Sensationzipped through my hand. Her head snapped to me, and I knew the sharp contact didn’t travel in one direction. “Sorry,” I murmured.

“You’re not.” Her hand covered mine.

“We found her. Anitta.” Sebastian’s good humor dropped, and he pulled Tifa onto his lap.

My head swiveled back toward them and I swore the stone inside my heart cracked right down the middle. “What name did you say?”

“Anitta.” Sebastian looked up at me with red rimmed eyes that told me either he hadn’t drank enough, or had too much, though the witch didn't bear the marks on her neck I’d habitually noticed on Sebastian’s previous wife. “We didn’t end her that night, my friend. She has haunted my dreams for months now.”

“And you thought not to wake me? The woman who ended—” My voice rose to a bellow, and only the gentle hand, half the size of mine that covered my knuckles, brought my volume down. “The– the fucking demoness who ended Minette’s life still exists?” I hissed.

The scones and tea arrived. I sat back contemplating everything that whirled around my head.

“Who is Anitta?” Ash asked.

I leaned back on my pillow, breathing hard. My mouth opened, and I snapped it shut again, glaring at Sebastian. I hadn’t told her in the street, and he could answer her now.

“My sire.” The vampire fixed his heavy gaze on Ash, who watched him with a detached sense of curiosity, as though he was a puzzle she needed to solve. “The creature who created me, just as Dolion told you outside." He tapped his ear to indicate his superior skills.

Ash nodded politely. I suspected she had plenty of her own, and that we needed to constantly not underestimate this woman in all things, but that wouldn’t happen while ever we thought weknew more than she did, or our combined egos—and wallets—got in the way.

“Anitta was not a kind mistress,” Sebastian said baldly. “She took a mere human, stripped me down to nothing more than a blood crazed demon baby and let me rampage for two hundred years. Then, she tried to train me to be like her.”

Ash nodded again. “Did it work?"

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