Ashes to Ashes Book Two

By Odette C. Bell

Oh dear. Millie just kissed Sebastian. There’ll be no going back now.
Millie might have just survived a demon, but she’s not safe yet. Quite the opposite. Luxor is circling, and with Alicia in the police working for him, Millie’s world starts to crumble. Soon there’s nothing to stand on, but curiously there’s still one man to stand with. Sebastian hasn’t and won’t leave her side. For a man she’s spent a decade promising herself she hates, things change. Fast.
Ashes to Ashes Book Two pits Millie and Sebastian against a rapidly deteriorating city, the voracious press, and Alicia in all her fury. Only two things will save them – Millie’s power and, well, staying close, then closer still.
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A light-romance urban fantasy, Ashes to Ashes follows a ditzy detective and her true vampire fighting a corrupt city. If you love your fiction with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Ashes to Ashes Book Two today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Nov 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005602864

Book preview

Chapter 1

I kissed Sebastian, and he kissed me back. Until all of a sudden, in one red hot damn rush, I realized what I was doing. I jerked away.

A slice of moonlight framed the side of his face. It glittered along his eyes, sliced along his jaw, and made his usually prominent features all the starker.

He leaned back in to kiss me. That’s when I appreciated this was real. This wasn’t part of my imagination. I certainly wasn’t dreaming here. This. Was. Real.

The better side of my brain suddenly came smashing back. It hit me like a two-ton rock.

Something else did, too. There was an alarm. It split the air, and I couldn’t tell where it came from.

At least it stopped that look in Sebastian’s eyes. He jerked his head around. My heart pounded. In my head, the alarm meant Luxor was after me again.

Sebastian grabbed my arm, holding me steady. Don’t be afraid. It’s my yacht detecting that an unauthorized spell just occurred. Stay here. Right here. He locked me in his stare.

I… my heart fluttered, and I realized it was exactly the same look he’d locked me with as soon as I’d locked my lips on his.

My chest continued to shake. Only half of it was because of the blaring alarm. The rest was because…. I secured a hand on my sternum. I really ground my palm in. I pushed this way and that. It was almost as if I was trying to find my heart. But you know what? I didn’t need to find it. I could feel it, all right, as it continued to hammer, hammer, and hammer away in my chest.

Sebastian wasn’t gone that long. He hadn’t headed that far away, either. He was just down the stairs. He was talking to somebody. I think on the way up here during the investigation into Samantha, I’d noticed a phone on the wall. Clearly it could be used to call the ship’s captain. I heard Sebastian having a muttered conversation. Something about raising the defenses.

All that served to do one thing – calm me the hell down. So did the cold night breeze on the back of my neck. Because you know what? I wasn’t dressed in normal clothes. I was still in my pajamas.

I looked down at them. My pajama pants were completely covered in rust and water. As for the rest of me? It was worse.

I locked my arms around my middle. It was just in time as Sebastian came back. Realizing what I was wearing, what I’d just done, and how much of it had been adrenaline and not me, I turned away from him quickly.

I was still standing on the stairs. Sebastian placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. Let’s get you somewhere warm.

I’m fine, I lied. I took that exact moment to shiver.

Indeed, he muttered.

With every single second, I reinforced what was happening here. The facts drilled into my head, almost as if they were trying to undermine its stability so it would crumble in on itself.

I had come to Sebastian’s yacht. I was only in my pajamas. And I’d just… I’d kissed him. Or had I really? Had that been the adrenaline talking? I could just… smooth this over, couldn’t I? I had to. I desperately had to.

I reached the base of the stairs. It was only then that Sebastian broke his grip on my shoulder. Clearly he’d assumed that I was too unsteady to walk on my own. I took several steps away from him. They were wary. He frowned over at me. Is—

I made a show of shaking my hands out. It looked as if I was a cat and someone had just put water on my paws. Before, I said, pointing up the stairs, incapable of actually saying it, that wasn’t anything. That didn’t happen. You shouldn’t take it seriously.

The quality of his piercing gaze changed somewhat. You just appeared on my yacht through a transport spell I thought had been destroyed. You don’t think I should take that seriously?

He knew exactly what I was talking about. But to be fair, in the grand scheme of things, the kiss was unimportant. I’d just appeared out of nowhere through a spell that should not be there anymore.

But my heart wouldn’t let me pay attention to that problem. Not yet. Because my heart well and truly knew that I was safe now here with Sebastian. So I had to deal with our kiss before it was too late.

I actually tapped my lips. God, I’d look like a complete idiot. But I had to get this done. Before when I… put my lips on yours, I said, sounding like a complete innocent idiot, it didn’t mean anything. I slipped, I said with a gulp.

I would’ve sounded beyond idiotic. I couldn’t even string together the word kiss.

I expected Sebastian to say something. In my head, he would continue to play with me. But he didn’t. He just watched me. Then he turned his head over his shoulder. We should get you somewhere warm. Somewhere safe, too. Though I would like to believe that my entire yacht is protected, I can’t guarantee that until the defenses are increased. I did not believe that spell was still there, but you proved it is. The whole deck will have to be scrubbed.

… He wasn’t even going to mention the kiss?

I didn’t know whether to be thankful for that or a little disappointed, to be honest. Then my real brain kicked into gear. Sorry, I had to be thankful. Super frigging thankful. If that hadn’t meant anything to Sebastian, then we could both forget it had ever happened.

… Which meant it was time to admit to absolutely everything that had happened. My shoulders started to wobble a little. It was clear that Sebastian understood what was about to occur. So he reached in once more, and he gently grabbed my arm. He pulled me down another set of stairs into the middle of the yacht. It was huge. I knew I’d said that before, but actually walking through the majority of it made me feel as if I was in a small city. It didn’t take much longer until we reached a door. It was seriously fancy. It looked like it should belong in some kind of palace, not a boat.

He settled a hand on the wood, tapped his fingers several times, and concentrated. I could see as his brow compressed. I could also feel the magic crackling under his skin. He opened his eyes, and the door opened too. Then we walked into… a bedroom. Considering how large and fancy it was, it had to be his bedroom.

It had a large circular bed up against one wall and a whole wall of windows. The view was insane.

There were various antique cabinets and dressers around the walls. They didn’t clash with the modern style of the rest of the room and the bed. They just accented it. There were vases and paintings… in other words, it was tasteful. Miles away from my crappy basement with moldy toast in the bed.

… Because it was Sebastian St Vern’s bedroom. And I was currently in it.

God.

My cheeks started to go red. Really? To be fair, I had just kissed him passionately, but I had a lot of other things to tell him, a lot of important, possibly world-ending things. And this was no time to act like I had a crush on him.

Sebastian went over to a display cabinet. He didn’t pay attention to me for a while, which gave me a chance to surreptitiously slap my cheeks and have a good firm talk with my nervous system. This was not the time to show how much of an idiot I was. I had to hold it together, because Alicia—

I whirled quickly, and it was just as Sebastian reached me. I knocked into him, but he had vampire skills, and it didn’t disrupt the tumbler he was holding. He pushed it toward me. Drink this first.

I don’t want any alcohol. Alicia came to my house. She stole your phone. She activated some kind of transport spell – and I was taken to the demon.

So Alicia is in on it? I can’t say I’m surprised. But drink this. It’s not alcohol. It helps you calm your nerves. It’s an old vampire potion.

If a vampire had given me something they’d simply termed an old vampire potion in the past, I would not have drunk it. And to be fair, I probably still wouldn’t – if that vampire had been anyone other than Sebastian. Now I downed it in one gulp. I didn’t even test it with my tongue. I knew how potions worked. But currently that understanding had taken a backseat. Fortunately the potion didn’t burn my mouth. It didn’t even strip the lining from my throat. It just sloshed down my gullet in a smooth, pleasantly warm wave.

As I took a breath, I had to admit my nerves were calming. It made me tilt my head back. It allowed me to close my eyes. I unloaded everything – every single detail. For the whole story, Sebastian just stood there. When I finally opened my eyes, his jaw was stiff, his cheeks looked as if they were about to crack, and the rest of him was as rigid as a steel pole. You did good to get away. I’m proud of you. And thank you, he said, and damn him, because he sounded pretty honest. You know what had been honest as well? That damn kiss….

I couldn’t think of it again. I turned from him. I walked over to the window. I placed a hand on it. Then I quickly pulled it off and rubbed my handprint away. This was still a super fancy yacht.

Sebastian stopped beside me. You don’t need to bother about marking or damaging anything. What’s mine is yours.

My gut kicked. Once upon a time whenever he’d said that, I’d just snarled in his face. Now I really didn’t know what it meant. I didn’t know what anything meant.

I knew what I had to do, though. I’m wasting time. We need to call the station. We need to—

Tell them Alicia stole your phone? Tell them that she attacked you?

Yes, I said emphatically. I couldn’t believe that I’d made it up to now and I hadn’t called the police. Once upon a time, notifying the authorities had been in my blood. Something about finding Sebastian had dulled my senses though.

He did not hand me over his phone. He simply shook his head. There was a great deal of disappointment in the move.

I frowned. What does that mean?

We are not in a position to be able to take Alicia on yet. Especially not while Luxor is helping her.

We need to warn the police station.

Alicia has her claws in the station. Haven’t you noticed? Your boss was unwilling to even comment earlier today when she demanded that you have some time off.

This is different. She attacked me. There’s—

If you’re about to say that there’s going to be evidence, think it through. I had the top deck of my yacht scrubbed. I used proper vampire potion masters. They didn’t find any indication of that spell, even though it was still there. If you think that the police will be able to find evidence at your house, they won’t.

But this is my witness report. There was a real tender edge to my voice. Because I knew what he was going to say even without him saying it.

What exactly would my words be worth? Most of my colleagues had already turned on me. Everyone in the police would choose to believe Alicia over me.

But….

Sebastian continued to look at me. His shoulders were slouched, and a pronounced frown tugged his lips down. He stayed by my side, though, and that meant everything.

I grabbed my face. There’s got to be something we can do. There’s a damn demon flying around the city. It’s gonna… it will come for me again. But even if it doesn’t, it will wreak havoc on the city. We have to warn someone. We have to do something.

We have to accept that from now on, Alicia will play hardball. So we must play hardball back.

I got stuck on one word. It was we.

I opened my mouth. I closed my lips. They turned down into a deep frown. But what’s this got to do with you? I’m gonna be dragged through the mud, but—

He didn’t reply, with words at least. His gaze simply became more intense. It was the kind of stare that invited somebody to see between it, to recognize what had always been there.

My gut kicked again. I turned to place another hand back on the window. It was only slightly cold. That either meant the rest of me was warm, or I just didn’t have the capacity to tell the difference between different termperatures anymore.

Go back to the potions you mentioned. You said that when you came here, you detected others.

Yeah. I palmed my head, pushing my fingernails into my hairline. I pulled my fringe out of my face. Then I put it right back in front of my eyes. I started to curl it around a stiff finger. I think I even remember some of them, too.

His cheeks slackened. Even if you can give us one location other than here and your house, it could be worth a lot.

I remember a bank. I think… I think it was National Bank. I knew I was right. It was such a beautiful old building that I couldn’t be wrong.

Sebastian nodded. We’ll head there in the morning.

I blinked. Shouldn’t I—

Were you about to say that you should go back to work? You’ve been put on forced leave – don’t you recall?

My heart sank a little. I guess… I’ll head home, then.

He stepped in front of me. Have you forgotten what happened tonight?

I don’t have anywhere else to stay.

He tilted his head to the side, clearly inviting me to challenge that thought. It was true, though. I wasn’t about to share my chaos with anyone else. I wanted to check on my family, too.

From the description you gave, Alicia knew that she would not be able to access you while you were in your house, Sebastian said. That explains why she became reluctant to come in.

I’d shared pretty much every single detail with him. I’d been the good policewoman, recounting every fact as they occurred.

So your family will be fine, he concluded. But I don’t want you going back there. Not yet. I don’t want Alicia figuring out that you’re okay. I want her to squirm.

So where am I going to stay?

He gestured to the side. It just so happened that it was his bed.

My cheeks became so red, I wanted to slap myself. I mean, really? When everything was going to hell, the only thing my nervous system cared about was flushing at Sebastian’s every lewd offer?

But it turned out he wasn’t offering for me to stay in his bed. "There are over 20 rooms in this yacht. And there is one that should be