Page 12 of A Spark in the Ash

I give a frustrated huff as I click my phone off. As if I needed one more thing to stress over. Now the crime lord mama is anxious for her baby boy to return to work.

Only he’s in a tunnel underground, and he’s on fire.

I get up and get dressed. I pull on a pair of tight black pants and a v-cut t-shirt. I brush my fingers through my hair and call it good.

The passageway is quiet and empty when I walk out. It looks like half of our darklings moved out yesterday. Guess everyone else was feeling just as crowded. I’m simply relieved.

I walk up to the vault. Jaxon is pacing back and forth. He’s still on fire, but it’s literally half of what it was yesterday.

Excitement surges in my veins. Stars above, this is taking so long.

“We have a problem,” I say. I stop right in front of the glass, putting my hands on my hips. I’m sick of walking on eggshells lately. I don’t know who I’m walking on them for. I need to talk to Jaxon, and I need to talk to him now. “Your mother just called me.”

Jaxon instantly stops in his tracks, and for just a second, his light surges. His eyes are wide with dread.

“Yeah,” I say with a sigh. “She’s not exactly happy that she hasn’t been able to reach you since we left the casino. And she definitely wasn’t happy when I told her it will probably be a few weeks until we come back.”

“Shit.”

It’s literally only the second word he’s spoken since he manifested, and it’s a curse.

A laugh huffs out of me.

“Yeah,” I say again. “I made up a story, said that my parents needed our help and that I didn’t feel good about leaving them ‘cause they’re old.”

A laugh cracks a little bit of a smile in one corner of his beautiful mouth. Some of the barbs of anxiety that are wrapped around my heart loosen just a little bit at seeing it.

It’s funny, because my parentsareold. As in they have been dead for well over a hundred years.

“And I might have said some sharp things about how she’s not the only woman who can tell you to jump anymore. I told her you’re mine, and that you’ll go home when I say so.”

Therehe is. There is my Jaxon.

A smile pulls on the corner of his mouth. His eyes instantly grow hungry and possessive and mischievous.

He loves it when I get bossy and possessive.

He walks up to the glass and places his hands against it. “She’s going to make you pay for that.”

I smile. His voice comes out in a sonic ring. It’s a sound I’ve always hated and feared, but right now, it’s my absolute favorite. Because it was an entire sentence, the first one he’s been able to form since he manifested.

“I’m counting on it,” I say with a smile. I walk up to the glass and once more, align my hands with his. I imagine I can feel his warmth. “She did mention that she’s been planning our wedding party for weeks. I kind of forgot that we told her we’re eloping the second we got back to Vegas. You ready for some double acting when we get out of this joint? Pretending to just be human,andmy husband?” I arch an eyebrow at him, and smirk.

“Trust me, that second part will never be hard, Serena,” he says in that low, intimate way of his. It sends a shiver down to my lower belly.

I lean forward, wanting to be closer, trying not to let my imagination run wild. “Please hurry up,” I say, keeping up the sultry flirting. Just then, Ascelin walks out and walks up to us. “My bed is feeling empty, and this guy keeps thinking he’s going to be invited there.”

“Eventually you’ll get tired of waiting for him,” Ascelin says as he looks down at me with a weighted, heady look. “I’ll be here when you do.”

“Back the hell off, you undercutting scorpion,” Jaxon growls, and it’s truly terrifying. His flames surge and his gaze turns deadly.

Ascelin shrugs. “If you don’t like what I’m doing, why don’t you come out here and make me stop? Man to man.” I don’t know that he’s totally faking when Ascelin stares him down with a challenge in his eyes.

“Trust me, you’re going to regret every time you looked at her,” Jaxon seethes.

Ascelin just smirks in an arrogant way. He reaches forward and touches my lower back, and Jaxon’s body pulses so bright I have to look away. “We’ll see, little torch.”

Ascelin winks at me once before he turns and walks away to go back to work.

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