Fallen Ashes |✔️

Duet

Venus

"You should have let me stop him." I hissed at Ash, blind with despair as I feared every minute that animal kept Zoe.

"I wasn't going to let you go with him." Ash replied plainly, setting out the truth which somehow made me more enraged.

"Why not me instead? I can't run forever and let them torture my friends when someday him or Myra or whoever the fuck wants to come after me is going to succeed." I breathed heavily, holding back the tears that burnt my throat.

"I don't fucking care because I love you, you idiot. I don't give a fuck about what they try to do, I'd die a thousand fucking times to be with you."

"You're a fool for still loving me and I must be an idiot for loving you back." I sobbed through my tears, wanting to launch myself out of the nearest window as Ash awaited the remaining rogue agents to return, fighting over some internal power struggle to reclaim the drug trades Myra had hijacked.

I wanted to fall apart every time I listened to Domino throwing accusations at Ash or myself, and hated even more when he looked expectantly towards the world outside, as if part of him resided with Zoe.

"I'm going to find her." Domino announced for the fifth time, ignoring my protests this time as he stormed out of the door.

"You're going to get killed on your own." I hissed at him.

"I'd rather die fighting for her than sitting on my ass." He snapped back, his clothes creased from lying across the couch for hours in pain.

"That's not what I'm doing and you know it." I wanted to cry at him but perhaps he was right. I knew going after her would send me into the deathtrap Vero had set in place for me- but Zoe had almost died enough times for me. Some way or another I'd meet my father again- whether it were Vero or Myra or anyone else who had some sick reward to claim from me.

"Dom, please." I wanted to beg him to stay, to understand reason when I had nothing left to say to change the tugging at his heart.

"I'll see you when I bring her back." My mind couldn't process any sound other than the crunch of his footsteps against the gravel. As I watched my brother send himself to unknown danger to save the best friend I wasn't able to save.

I didn't hear the sound as I slumped to the ground, didn't notice the strong hands that held me with urgency and didn't feel the pathetic, defeated tears that made my vision blur.

I was broken.

"Venus." His voice whispered in my ear, a sound that made me want to salvage the broken pieces of myself that cut me like shards of glass.

"I'm broken, Ash." I sobbed into his arms as he carried me away, his arms giving me the security I didn't deserve. I hated the perfect smell of him that I didn't deserve, hated the mansion he kept me in to protect me whilst Zoe suffered because of me. I was selfish and stupid and didn't deserve the people who risked everything for me- how long would we survive against what felt like the entirety of the crime world?

"My Venus... we're all fucking broken. And I love you more for it." His voice was my blanket when I felt myself vulnerable and worthless.

"Don't let go of me." I almost choked on my own words, wondering If I'd drown if he loosened his grip on me.

"Never, mio amore."

My love

I couldn't tell if I loved or hated him for speaking more Italian to me.

"You're insufferable." I groaned, almost laughing through the silent sobs that made my body convulse in his arms.

We were back at his room already, his arms holding me close as he placed me on the edge of his bed with a tenderness that could have broken everything that held the red devil together.

"I know." He whispered back, his lips against mine feeling like the beginning and end of the life I'd dreamed of. Perhaps Venus Castellanos was destined for pain, failure and death. But here in his arms, it wasn't my own death that scared the shit out of me.

God, months ago the mere notion of another person seeing the red devil in a broken emotional state was enough to make me want to plan my own funeral. And here I was, my body open to his. A truth laid out before us both. There was no beginning or end to what I felt for him- I'd be the fire that kept burning for him through every lifetime.

"I fucking hated life. Dying once would be enough for me." I half-chuckled, sensing the tension in his body, as if he were holding a wounded animal. I watched his stomach rise and fall, remembering the features of his irresistibly handsome face as If I'd never see him again.

"But If I lived again, I'd choose you. And I wouldn't fear death if it meant you held me like this again." I hated soppy, poetic shit like what I was saying- and he knew I did too, giving him more reason for our laughs and tears becoming a dark duet. Our duet.

"I'd choose you too, Venus Castellanos. And I don't need a snazzy proposal or huge ring for you to carry around for me to prove my love for you. But when this shit is over, we'll do it all. And tell the story to our army of beautiful babies."

I didn't think it was possible for my heart to ache from desire more than it already was- it was painful to love him so fiercely. But I knew we shared this pain- a pain I'd never imagined sharing or ever experiencing. My salvation. My lover. 

"Ash Junior. You'd love that wouldn't you?" I grinned at him as his features lit up with wicked amusement.

"More than anything." He groaned against my lips as I moaned gently, savouring the warmth of our bodies together. We stopped moving, but I felt every movement of his chest as I lay on him, the thudding of his heartbeat driving me insane.

"Will you marry me, Venus Castellanos?" his voice was nearly a whisper, the solitary force keeping my heart together, the anchor grounding me before I plunged into insanity.

"What?" I huffed at him, turning to look at the fierce sureness in those perfect eyes.

"For real this time." He chuckled, biting his lip tentatively as I creased my brow in a mixture of shock and feigned contemplation.

"No chandeliers falling on us this time?" I said, taking pleasure in playing with the nervous expression etched across his face.

"No fucking chandeliers at all, I promise." he growled in my ear, whispering things he'd do to me that I couldn't possibly say aloud. I wanted to kiss him until our lips fused together, ignoring the throbbing between my legs begging for more contact with his body.

"I'll think about it." I laughed as his features contorted with disbelief.

"Yes, you idiot. It was always a yes from me." I added quickly, my heart feeling alive from laughter as his devilish body pulled me under the covers- this time for him to play with me.

If his words weren't enough to heal me, I'd never get enough of feeling his body against mine- a remedy powerful enough to bathe both of our bodies in what felt like a heavenly fire.

His touch was electric, making my body beg for more with every touch he dealt me and every moan that escaped my lips as he embraced my body, entering me with a delicacy that was enough to drive me mad. Our bodies were made for each other- and I knew soulmates must exist, for Venus Castellanos had found hers.

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