Ash to Embers (Courting Shadows) by C.V. Larkin Read Free Book Online Page A

those impossibly wide eyes. She took the proffered pencil with a shaking hand.
    "Use charcoal for the outside edges," he said. He booked it without looking back because the exchange and the beating had left him feeling exposed.

Chapter 5
The Lion Tamers
     
    The Progeny's club was a small brick cottage nestled between two massive warehouses on Fisherman's Wharf. As Tian watched, the wooden slats on the shingled roof rippled with power, flexing and seething like the scales of a snake. The roof undulated, wrapping itself around the brick structure. She stood across the street in the shadow of a tree and observed the protective wards around the place rearranging themselves for the upcoming show. Blood magic from both human and other had made The Gates a fortress. Fear, rapture, lust, and excitement were palpable and screaming out of the sigils surrounding the heavy oak door. She took a deep breath, exhaled, and waded through the crushing energy currents.
    She was smothered in a dense layer of power by the time she made it to the door. No sooner had she set foot to the carved stone mat, a compartment opened up at eye level. Through the one inch by half inch gap, a blood red eye roamed over her, starting at her feet, working its way up until it hit a speed bump at her flat stare. The eyeball widened and recoiled. The door slammed shut and a larger compartment opened, revealing the red eye and a right nostril. The small dark hole flared as the creature on the other side took a pull. The red eye widened again, moved back, and the cutout slammed shut.
    "Piss on a pixie," Tian muttered.
    A larger opening drew back, revealing only half of the door keeper's golden face. Tian did her best not to roll her eyes. Out loud she said, "As an emissary of Swift Retribution, I wish to hold audience with The Progeny, Royal and Xavier."
    The eye flared a third time, but before the door could slam shut, Tian shoved her hand in it. "I appreciate the showmanship, Zulpey, but I'm on a time constraint. Would you mind doing me a solid and skipping to the part where you open the door that I'm going to fit through?"
    "Okay," came Zulpey's muffled reply.
    Zulpey's ready acquiescence was a relief. The energy from the sigils was setting Tian's teeth on edge and the threshold show usually took twenty minutes. The oak door opened, revealing an octagonal entryway circled in both fire and water. In the center of the foyer stood a voluptuous nude female with pale golden skin that matched her pale golden bob. Zulpey opened one of the small compartments drawn into her flesh and deposited a brass key into a rectangular slot in her left cheek.
    Tian looked from the female to the hundreds of locks on the inside of the door she'd come through. "Not sure I want to know where you keep the rest of those," she said.
    "The keys open the door," Zulpey told her with wide eyes and a pleased blank expression.
    "Yeah, they seem to. What's doing, Z? How've you been?"
    A master of small talk she was not.
    "I do the doors!"
    Right.
    "And a good job too."
    Zulpey tackled Tian in an enthusiastic bear hug. She may have been small, but she was steel crushing strong. Tian stood awkwardly, patting the other female on the head and searching for non-violent ways to extract herself because she didn't have the heart to shove the kid off. Whatever else she was, Zulpey was an innocent soul, a big, sweet puppy with a nice rack.
    "Okay, down girl," Tian said maxing out on unnecessary contact. She leveraged the other female's right shoulder joint and pried herself loose.
    "And I thought the show started later."
    Zulpey bounced around like a baby with a bladder problem. She smiled wide, showing off multiple rows of razor sharp teeth. "I like our Tian half-breed," she said with a bright eyed smile.
    The Progeny Xavier stepped away from the wall and through the fire/water boundary. The fluidity of his movement accentuated the fact that he was half naked. Razor-sharp hip bones framed wash board abs,