Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust by Jessica Dalton (7 ebook reader txt) 📖

for a very long time - in that time I have acquired a very useful skill of reading body language.” he finished with a deep laugh, that seemed to shake my body.

At that moment the lift doors opened, Dimitri motioned for me to go first and then he followed me down the corridor to my front door.

My hand was shaking as I tried to put the key in the hole. I stopped trying to force the key in and focused on stilling my hand. This wasn’t me - granted not everyday did I learn that the world was not as it seemed - but I had always been the cool collected type. I was strong minded and stubborn when I wanted to be. I would swallow my fear and get on with life. I would even contemplate taking on the hard training that Demitri was offering me. My hand stilled and the key slipped into the keyhole easily and I smiled as I walked over the threshold, thinking about what Dimitri had asked me to do for him. It was comical really.

As soon as he had told me he was a vampire, he had continued to tell me that he had been looking for someone to work for him for years. He needed an Enforcer. I had asked him what an Enforcer was with only mild interest, I was still trying to get my head around the whole vampire revelation.

“an Enforcer is someone who keeps all of the vampires in line. The Enforcer kills any vampire who breaks our Laws. Only a human can be the Enforcer.”

It took me mere seconds to realise that he was talking about me. He wanted me to be this Enforcer. He had to be crazy.

“whoa there buddy, you can not mean me.”

“actually Phoenix you are perfect for the job. You‘re body is perfectly proportioned and with a lot of work we could have you in shape in no time. We‘ve never had a female Enforcer before but I think we could make that work to our advantage. There hasn‘t been a need of an enforcer in over a hundred years. It has only been in the last five years that we have had rogue vampires wondering the streets. Humans have been going missing and then found days later, dead and drained of blood. The humans are threatening to take matters into their own hands. But I can‘t let that happen. It would be a total disaster, they wouldn‘t know the difference between rogues and law abiding civilian vampires.”

“what laws do you have?” I had asked, this was all so serial. Was I dreaming?

A low laugh had erupted from Dimitri, “I‘ll explain everything when we get to your apartment.”

“my apartment? Why are we going to my apartment?”

“to talk, there is less chance that someone will over hear us there. Come now. My car is parked outside.”

I had frowned as I had followed Dimitri out of the shooting range - my apartment was only five blocks away - and I had been looking forward to stretching my legs.


(back to present time: apartment.)

I turned on all the lights as I walked through my apartment and into the living room. Dropping my house keys on the coffee table I turned around to focus on Dimitri as I took off my long winter coat, hat and scarf - I had thought that Ireland was cold at winter time, but Canada was one hundred times worse and it was still only Autumn here - I found my self watching Dimitri as he looked around my living room. It amazed me that this strong gorgeous man- sorry vampire- was standing in my apartment asking me to help him save….his? people from being mistakenly killed by my? people.

I shook my head slightly to clear it so I could focus on more important things such as asking questions. I unbuckled my shoulder holster and took my gun out of it as I slipped the straps off my shoulders, as I walked over the safe where I kept my guns I looked over my shoulder at Dimitri.

“umm….would you like something to eat or drink?” I asked him, my mum had always told me to be hospitable to anyone who came into my house - no matter who they were.

Dimitri, who had been studying a picture of me, Jaz, Kevin and Declan, turned around slowly to look at me.

“be careful what you offer a vampire Phoenix. they are not all as gentlemanly as me and would have taken you up on your offer without a second thought.”

I frowned at him, thinking over what I had asked him and then thinking about his response. “what do you…”

Before I could finish speaking he had crossed the room and was standing in front of me. Man! He could move fast. I felt his cool breath on the bare skin of my neck and then I felt a sharp graze along the delicate flesh there. Before he pulled away from my neck, Dimitri brushed his soft lips against the place where he had just grazed. It felt sort of like a caress. My legs felt slightly weak and I had to use all of my will power to lock my knees in place and not to swoon. God I was so pathetic - I hadn’t had a boyfriend in over a year so here I was now unable to keep my hormones in check.

Something flashed in Dimitri’s eyes and then he smiled, a smile that showed a lot of teeth, including two very pointy fangs. Right now, Dimitri was absolutely terrifying looking. I realised he would have read my emotions, damn my stupid hormones. Dimitri would have felt what I was feeling as his lips had touched my delicate skin, and then he would have felt my frustration with myself for behaving like a teenager.

“Don‘t worry Phoenix.” Dimitri laughed as he watched my expression. “it’s a vampire thing. When the vampire feels blood lust - the human will immediately feel just pure lust towards the vampire in front of them. It makes us the perfect predators and the humans the perfect prey. I must say though, I am happily surprised at how quickly you were able to pull yourself out of it. It means that your new job will be easier for you. I knew you were perfect for the job as soon as I saw you.”

“about that. How did you find me?” I asked him.

“oh, nobody enters the city without the King knowing about it. There’s something about you though that sparked my interest. And I am glad I found you. We will have to start your training straight away. I will give you tonight to pack up all of your belongings and then I will come with some of my men over here tomorrow night to pick you and your things up. I must say that it does help that you haven’t settled into this apartment yet…”

“whoa! Hold up and rewind.” I told him as I held up two hands as though they would stop my life from tipping upside down. “I haven‘t agreed to becoming your… your Enforcer yet and even if I did why do I need to move out?”

“you will agree, if you weren‘t going to then you would have told me already. As for moving out, well you can‘t live here while I train you, it would just be inconvenient and unnecessary - besides once your training is finished and you are out on the streets enforcing the law, it would be too dangerous for you to live here, alone, unprotected.”

“so where am I going to live?” I asked, trying to hide a wince. I had a bad feeling I knew what he was going to say.

“with me of course.” yep. I knew it.

I nodded my head, I had a strange feeling that fate had just caught up to me. I felt as though everything that I had ever done or had ever experienced had lead me to this point. So what I said next did not surprise me at all, even though it would have done yesterday.

“so tell me about your law. If I am going to Enforce it I think I should know all about it.”

Dimitri smiled at me. “it is simple really, firstly, it is against our law to kill a human. Secondly you can only bite a human who has given you permission to bite them, unless it is an emergency and the vampire doesn‘t have a choice, but then the vampire would have to clear the humans mind of the encounter - biting a human without their permission is the vampire equivalent of rape. Thirdly it is against the law to turn a human into a vampire without the Kings permission. Otherwise the world would be teaming with vampires and no humans for blood. These are the three main laws and the most important ones. Anyone who breaks the law is a rogue and is therefore sentenced to Death. That is where your job comes in. You will have to go out, find them and kill them before they kill anymore innocent defenceless humans.”

I knew I had grown pale. I liked his laws, I thought they were a really good idea, but Dimitri had just said that I had to kill vampires. Dimitri was a vampire and I couldn’t even comprehend the thought of ending his life. Could I really be cold enough to kill a living - well undead person?

As though reading my thoughts Dimitri said.” last week the police found a women a bit older than yourself drained of blood in her apartment. When they had found her she was on her stomach so they had had to roll her over to put her onto the gurney to take to the morgue. Beneath her was her three month old daughter, also dead and drained of blood.”

My face felt as though it had turned into stone as Dimitri told me about the young mother and her baby. I felt a hot liquid form in the pit of my stomach and then it slowly started to boil, my hands were shaking and I knew when Dimitri nodded in approval that my eyes had flashed to anger, pure and utter anger. I wanted to kill them, I wanted to kill them all. I would let Dimitri train me, I would do everything he told me to do, I would push myself until I was the most perfect Enforcer there had ever been and I would make sure that all rogues knew to fear my name. The image of a poor defenceless baby being killed so brutally made me burn all over.

“what you are feeling right now my dear, is bloodlust, and you are going to use that bloodlust to your advantage. Channel it into your training and then use it whenever you have second thoughts about what you are doing.”

I could only nod my head. If Dimitri thought I was good enough to be his Enforcer - if he believed that I was the one for the job then so be it. I couldn’t explain it I just somehow knew that trusting Dimitri and excepting this job as Enforcer was the right thing to do.

Dimitri turned back to the picture on the wall. He looked at it for a while before taking it down and bringing it over to me.