Page 65 of Ashes to Ash’s

“Now.”

He heaved a huge sigh, and struggled up from the floor, flopping on the bed beside me, dragging me down with him until we were cuddled together on the bedding.

“You uh… seemed quite at home down there,” I said quietly, wondering if I should be voicing it at all, but I didn’t fully understand what it meant. He liked being in control, but that seemed like a total swap, with me taking the lead.

Ash sighed, pressing his face against my chest.

“I don’t mind going down, Cal. I actually like it, probably just because it’s you. You taste good.”

“I mean, down on your knees. You seemed, I dunno, peaceful.”

Ash groaned this time.

“Do we have to dissect everything right now? I’m all sleepy.”

I guess not. It was a conversation we could have anytime, right?

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Ash

Killing Cal’s parents was our next priority, because as more time passed, they’d get a chance to figure out who might have a reason to end the sick fucker, so it was the next morning when we decided to deal with them. The original plan had been to go to their home and fuck them up right there, but my sister Em was the one who had a better idea.

She and Ethan had popped over to visit, because apparently we were a fucking open house and welcomed visitors.

“Ren seems nice,” she said, watching him head up to his room after a few minutes of chatting with them.

“He’s a bit shy still, but you know… rescued from psychos or whatever.”

“Ash, don’t say it like that.”

“They were psychos, baby.”

Cal rolled his eyes. “I’m saying Ren’s more than what happened to him, as you well know.”

“Whatever, are we killing more people with you or what?” Ethan asked, idly checking his newly tattooed fingers, which now had permanent blood spatter across them.

“That’s really cool,” I said, leaning over to check them out, and Cal sighed, dragging me back into my seat.

“If we could have one conversation at once, that’d really fucking help.”

“Yes, we’re killing his folks,” I said, gesturing to Cal with my thumb, while still wondering if I could get Em to tattoo some blood on me too. I’d helped with the killing, so I should get inked like my family are.

I knew for a fact that my brother Blaze had a literal kill list tattooed on his skin, and my dad Gray had fire all over his.

“We’re heading over there today,” Cal said, not even bothering to argue with me, or the way I’d just declared it, like it was something normal.

Ethan rubbed his hands together with glee. “Great. I’m really getting into this whole blood thing. I see the attraction, even though I always thought you guys were all fucked in the head.”

Em threaded her fingers through his and held his hand in her lap, maybe trying to calm down that frenetic energy of his, now that he had more kills in his sights.

“Isn’t it really risky to go there to kill them? You could be seen.”

We all fell silent, because she was right, but since when did we worry about stuff like that? We always found a way, because we’re the fucking Cross family.

She looked at each of us in turn. “You’re all idiots, you know that, right? Get them here, then you have as much time as you want, and nobody to see or hear anything.”

“Perfect kill room downstairs too,” Ethan added, probably casting his nutty mind back to the bloodstains from last time. I felt Cal shudder beside me, because let’s be honest, he’d been put in there to die, and had only survived because he killed first. I regretted it now, but that’s what life is. Regretting things once you can’t undo them. Well, that and great sex. It’s a balancing act, I guess.