Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust by Jessica Dalton (book series for 10 year olds txt) 📕

I could have been finished already if only I had kept my mouth shut.

Exactly. Dimitri said in my head. I hope you have learnt a lesson, now speed up, I want you to really push yourself.

Yes, Daddy. I sarcastically replied in my head.

He only chuckled in response as I pushed myself even harder to go faster. As I past the finish line I turned my sprint into a run and then into a jog until I was finally walking towards Dimitri and Quinn who were standing were I had left them.

I was holding my side, where I had a huge stitch and I was breathing hard. My whole body was covered in a shiny layer of sweat and my chest was straining against the confines of my sports bra as it heaved up and down trying to accommodate my wildly beating heart.

“wow,” Quinn said as he looked me up and down. “and I thought you were edible before you had your run. Now I think I actually need to leave the room.”

“what?” I breathed.

“I think I need to leave the room.” Quinn repeated.

“why?” I laughed

“Dimitri can tell you why.” Quinn said as he flitted from the room.

I turned to Dimitri who was also now starring at me. Standing oddly still.

“what? What did I do?” I asked.

Dimitri blinked a couple of times and then he viably relaxed.

“I thought for a minute there that I would have to leave the room as well.” he told me.

“whats going on?” I asked not even thinking to look into his head for the answers.

“you are a female and you‘re mostly human, at the moment you are wearing a minimal of clothing…”

“but you told me….”

“…let me finish - you are wearing a minimal of clothing that I told you to wear, that’s not the problem, you add the fact that right now you are covered in sweat, your heart is beating rapidly, so your blood is being pumped around your body faster, you have color in your cheeks, - basically right now you are every vampires fantasy. And Quinn seems to be attracted to you already so it was harder for him to resist you then it was for me to resist you. ”

“So Quinn left the room because he’s attracted to me, not because I smell terribly of sweat?” I asked trying to lighten the mood.

“both, except you don’t smell terribly of sweat you smell mouth watering”

“and are you okay to finish with my training without trying to bite my head off?” I asked him

“of course I am.” he told me. “remember what I told you in the elevator yesterday?” he asked

“yep, if you wanted me dead, I‘d be dead.”

“that still applies. Now for the weights, I‘ll spot you as we find out what you can take in the weights department.”


With Dimitir spotting for me we realised I could lift the dumb bells with a weight of over 200kg over my head and keep it there for a minute before Dimitri had to take it off me.

“you‘ll be able to lift more than that and for longer than that with each passing day as your body gets used to the new blood in your body and then you will be able to do even more that that after each blood exchange that we have.”

I could only nod my head as I lay on the weight bench my chest moving up and down rapidly - trying to catch up with my heart.

“now you can try to bench press that same weight.”

I stiffed a groan and the complaint that was ready to spill from my lips when I remembered what had happened last time I had complained.

“I see you‘ve learnt your lesson.” Dimitri said as he tried to swallow his own laugher.

I was able to do twenty bench presses, but I could feel the strain in my arms after ten, the sweat was pouring off me and my heart was ready to explode from my chest.

“come on you can do it Ashes just keep going. Think past the pain and concentrate on pushing yourself past what your head is telling you.”

“does that mean I can ignore you as well, when you‘re in my head?” I bit out between puffs of breaths.

Before Dimitri could answer though, there was a huge roar of laughter, as in a lot of people laughing at once.

Dimitri grabbed the dumb bell off me and set it in the stand and turned toward the sound just as I did. Surprising my self at how fast I could move even though I was ready to collapse in exhaustion.

“it’s the adrenaline.” Dimitri told me after hearing my thoughts.

When I looked in the direction where the laughter was coming from I was slightly shocked to see all the Vamps in the house - except for the two in the cells- leaning against the wall starring right back at me and Dimitri.

“I didn‘t hear you guys come in,” Dimitri admitted. “what are you all doing here and how long have you been standing there.”

I looked at all the vamps and saw the amusement dancing across each of there faces. Even Quinn was back and Ari was standing right beside him, also looking entertained.

But it was someone’s whose name I didn’t know yet who answered Dimitri.

“well you wouldn‘t hear us come in would you? Especially not when you are standing right beside Phoenix.” he said trying to conceal the huge grin on his face. “that answers your other question as well, we could hear her from everywhere in the house, we decided we might as well come down here and watch the training. And we have been standing here since shortly after Quinn left you guys.”

“okay whats going on? What does that dude mean Dimitri?” I turned to look at Dimitri but he looked as though he was biting the inside of his mouth, you know the way you do when you try not to laugh
“What?!” I asked now clearly annoyed. And tired. And hungry.

“its your heart.” Dimitri said finally letting the smile spread across his face. “they can hear it beating all over the house.”

“so? my heart was beating when I first came into the house as well you know.”

“yes,” Dimitri said patiently. “but now its beating very fast and very loudly, just like when Quinn had to leave the room.”

I looked at Quinn who mearly shrugged. “so how come you can stand in the room with me now?” I asked him huffily.

“I had a snack before I came back, we all did. So we aren‘t tempted to ravage you.”

I took a step back and bumped right into Dimirti’s chest. Right then I didn’t care that they might think I was weak or not. I didn’t want to think of the kind of snack they were talking about.

I felt Dimitri’s body shake as he let out a chuckle.

“Don’t worry I wouldn‘t let them touch you if they tried.” he told me as he put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

I knew my heart was still beating rapidly from lifting the weights and my body was once again covered in sweat but it wasn’t until Dimitri’s hand started to move from my shoulder and down my arm and then back up again, and I felt myself relaxing and letting my back fully rest against his chest did I remember that Dimitri was also a vamp, a vamp who hadn’t been able to have a snack like the others because he had been here the whole time with me.

I jumped away and turned to face him. His eyes were dancing with amusement again.

“sorry,” I said. “I forgot you‘d be feeling the same way as the others. If you want to go and get a snack before we continue then I won‘t mind waiting for you.”

“nice try Ashes, but you are not getting a break that easily. Besides,” he said with a low chuckle, “I think I can handle you my dear.” he told me in a low voice.

I gulped and watched as he laughed at my reaction to his words.

I felt my cheeks flame and I ducked my head and cleared my mind of all thoughts, especially the fact that I loved the way he had just touched me, and the way I had reacted to his touch, I even cleared my head of the image of his mesmerising eyes before he could look into my head and see and hear it all for himself.

Instead I strated to count in my head, to help me to think of nothing in particular.

“why are you counting?” he asked me as he led me over to the flat matted area.
“I‘m trying to concentrate on steadying my heart rate.” I only partly lied.

“don‘t bother.” he smiled, “it’s only going to get worse.”

“haven‘t we finished with the physical training yet?” I asked, trying to hide the whine in my voice.

Dimitri’s lips twitched as he noticed this.

“no we haven‘t.” he positioned me in the centre of all the mats. And stood opposite me leaving a couple of paces between us. “now we fight.”

“Dimitri, you know everything about me, including the fact that apart from a couple of self defence classes I have never been in a fight before. Should you not teach me some…..”

But before I could finish my sentence he had already threw the first punch, which came flying towards me with such speed that I was surprised that I saw the whir of his fist. I was even more surprised to find that I had dodged it and was now standing behind him, kicking the back of one of his knee’s causing him to buckle and fall towards the mats. But before I could even blink he was up on his feet again and had me spun around so that now I was once again standing with my back against his chest, one of his arms resting on my sweat clad breasts, holding me against him while his other hand griped my chin tightly and had my head tilted back, exposing my neck.

Knowing that he was going to try and get his lips on my exposed flesh there to prove that he could really kill me if he wanted me dead, I decided I would get out of his grip in the few seconds before he could do that.

I had hardly had the thought and I was stepping hard on his foot, elbowing him hard in the side and once his grip on me had slightly loosened I used my free hands to pull his restraining arms off me, spinning around to face him i used the force I had used to follow through by sweeping my leg around the back of his and pulling them out from below him causing him to go crashing down to the floor. This time I wouldn’t let him jump straight back up because I followed him down to the floor and I flung one leg over his waist so