Asher: Dragon's Savior (11 page)

The first body in the topmost tomb moved as she said some words over it. She poured a potion on his head and then uttered more words. Essie told this to the people with her, taking comfort in the fact that she really wasn’t in the room with her. As her mother did this to the next body, the first one began to pull himself free of his resting place.

“She’s waking them up.” Essie had no idea why she knew this to be true, but she watched as her mother woke each of the bodies up until all of them were awake but one. “The tenth one isn’t moving. I mean…it looks like his place has been caved in or something. Helena is very pissed.”

“What do you mean? Is he dead?” It was a strange question, she supposed, since they were in a tomb to begin with, but it somehow fit. She told Simeon that she thought that was what had happened.

“She’s saying how she’s going to have to find a new coven member. The first man she woke is nodding, but I can’t see his face. I’m thinking I might not want to. But he’s mumbling something back to her and she…wait. It’s another language. He’s speaking to her in something other than English.” Essie listened to the man, hoping something would come to her, but there wasn’t anything. “I don’t know, but Helena told him to go to the next town and find a fresh one. I don’t…I think she means a fresh body.”

The mountain seemed to need a rest, and she pulled from his place. Thanking him for his help, she told him that the next time she was there, she’d bring him something special. He told her that if she were to remove the blemish within his belly, he’d be happy with that.

“What do we do now?” No one said anything, but they did look strangely at her. When she turned to Asher, he smiled. “What’s going on?”

“They’re in awe of you.” She looked at the other men standing there, and then back at Asher. “They are, love. You just not only spoke to a mountain about five miles from here, but peeked inside of his body and looked around with me hanging on.”

Flushing, feeling her face heat up to almost too hot, she looked at Jacob. He was grinning like an idiot. She started to ask him what was so funny when he touched his hand to her arm. The connection was profound, and she was shoved back from it. Rolling over once and landing on her ass, Asher came to help her and she looked at his dad.

Jacob stood there for several seconds, then put out his hand to help her up. She didn’t know if she wanted to be hit with that again, but took his hand. She felt him, not just the power but the man himself. When she was standing, Jacob went to Asher and put his hand on his shoulder. Then he pulled him into his arms and hugged his son.

“Oh Dad. How I have missed doing this with you.” Asher sobbed as he held his dad to him. The hug turned into another, then another as they pulled back a little only to grab each other again. When Asher let him go finally, Jacob turned to the man standing next to him. Jed didn’t look like he was thrilled about this.

“I’m going to be sorely pissed if I can’t hug you as well.” Jacob nodded, then put his hand on his son’s chest. Then before she could say it was working, Jed pulled his dad to him and lifted him off the ground in a big bear hug. They were all sobbing when he sat him back to the ground. “I don’t know what happened, but I have to tell you, I’ve never been happier in my entire life to have had you here.”

Each of them got their turn hugging and holding their dad. Even the dragons, all of them men, hugged the man like he was long lost to them. Essie supposed that he was in a sense. But to have that much love for your parent was foreign to her. When Jacob turned to her, she knew that he was going to hug her as well, but he didn’t. He looked like…she started crying when he did.

“I cannot tell you what you’ve done for me.” She shook her head. “Yes, you did. I don’t know how you did it, but you let me feel again.”

“I didn’t do anything. You just touched me and it happened.” He nodded, tears still streaming down his face. “Mr. Jacob, I’m going—”

“I’d be proud as a speckled pup under a little red wagon if you called me anything other than Mr. Jacob.” He touched her cheek and took away one of her tears. “I’d be happy to have you call me ‘Dad’ if you want. I know you got yourself one, but I’d very much like that too.”

Nodding, she was beyond words to express how she felt about the honor of calling him “Dad.” She’d never used the term before, not even for her own father. Yes, she did have Abraham, but he was too…she supposed distant would be the best way to describe their relationship. He was there, but more like a man who she knew than anything else.

Jacob hugged her then. Pulled her tightly to his big body and held her to him. She hugged him back, feeling the love pour from him to her as a gentle, yet loving father would his child. When he pulled back from her, he just stared at her. There was a twinkle there that wasn’t before. She supposed it was the knowledge that he could hold his own children whenever he wanted.

“We’re going to beat this, my girl. I just know it.” She nodded and he laughed. “Yes, sir, we are going to beat this thing and live a long and happy life right here on the farm.”

He walked away with Jed and Zak, the three of them talking a mile a minute. As the others dispersed, each of them saying they had to work on a plan to take care of the chamber, it left her and Asher alone in the field. Essie was suddenly embarrassed to be alone with him.

“Have I told you lately how much I love you?” She shook her head. “I do. Very much so. And I think you are the most amazing person I’ve ever met. And for me, that is a lot of people.”

“You’re very old.” He nodded. “I worry about you sometimes. You might fall and break a hip. Or worse, you might just keel over one day, and where will I be?”

“Where indeed.” He pulled her to him and kissed her. “I want you. Right now, out here in the grass.”

“I’d like that as well.” He lifted her up by her ass, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. “Where are we going?”

“Close. I don’t think I can wait long to have you.” He kissed her twice more as they moved, stopping only long enough for him to strip another article of clothing off one or both of them. By the time they were deep within the trees, she had nothing on but her panties, and they were badly torn and he was down to his socks. She nearly screamed when he took them in a deep body of water.

“I forgot about this until the other day. We used to come here as kids. Dad would fish upstream and we’d make enough racket down here to wake the dead.” He took them deeper until her breasts were just above the water. “I want to make love to you here, but I need to cool off a little first. Otherwise, I’m going to take you hard and quick, and it’s doubtful you’ll get much out of it.”

“Oh you don’t have to worry about that. I’m going to get my pleasure even if I have to give it to myself.” His eyes darkened. “Asher, would you like to see me masturbate?”

He pulled them to the edge of the water and laid her so that her body was just under it. She ran her fingers down her body while he watched her, never taking his eyes off her trailing hand. He fisted his cock in slow strong strokes, and she knew that when she came, he was going to come all over her.

Sliding her fingers under what was left of her panties, she moaned when she touched her clit. Asher went to his knees then, still holding his cock as he pulled her panties off her body. His hand was moving faster over his hard shaft even as precum started to stream from the tip.

“Tell me what you’re doing, how you’re feeling.” She nodded and touched her clit again. It was the most erotic thing she’d ever felt, having him watch her as she played with herself. “Tell me, Essie. Tell me what you’re doing.”

“My pussy is wet and hot.” She stroked her nether lips and moaned again. “My hard clit is sticking beyond my lips, just waiting for me to tease it. I love the way it feels under my fingers. Hard and ready; each time I touch it, shivers run through my body.”

“I want to come on you. Shoot my cum all over your pretty body, then eat you until you come down my throat.” She opened her legs, and he leaned forward. “Show me.”

Using her other hand, she spread her lips for him. He watched her, his hand moving over his cock faster and faster as she fingered herself. Sliding her finger into her slit, she nearly came up off the ground when she touched the spot. As she did it again and again, she pinched her clit hard enough to toss her over the edge.

Asher cried out. Leaning back on his knees, his cum shot out of his cock in a high arch and landed on her in hot jets of cream. She screamed then; another climax from just his cum on her touched off two more powerful and satisfying releases. But then he leaned down and sucked her clit into his mouth as he pressed his fingers into her, both her ass and her pussy.

“Come for me.” She told him she couldn’t. “You can. Come for me and let me drink from you.”

He lifted her body up so that only her shoulders were on the ground. He was eating her, watching her as he did it, and she begged him to give her what she needed. When he bit her, his teeth seemingly taking a piece out of her pussy, she cried out, her entire body coming for him to the point where she saw stars behind her lids.

He let her down then, only to pick her up and slide his cock into her as he sat on the edge of the water. Laying them down, her back on the shoreline, he fucked her hard, taking her over the edge twice more as he pounded her hard. When he came his body bowed back and stiffened, and she would swear that she felt each drop of his cum as he emptied in her.

Exhaustion took her then. Not like she lay down to nap, but like it was a freight train running her down and taking her under.

Chapter 10

“I serve only you.” If he said that once more Helena was going to kill him and have Robarts go and get her another body to use in the coven. She’d told him five times already that she was just his master in this, and that he would serve the whole not her alone. As it was, this was the fifth man he’d brought to her to see if he’d work.

“Robarts?” The man came running to her, his head bowed down. “Take him to the chambers and see if you can get him to clean up the mess. Dusting and stuff like that.”

“Yes, mistress.” He took the man with him and she sat down. She’d done a little trading in town and looked around at the things she’d been able to get. She knew that the dead were never going to tell that she’d robbed them, but hell, it did look really nice in her little house.

Frowning, she thought about the little town she’d been to. It had been decades since she’d been there. Had any reason to be there, she supposed. But things had changed a great deal in that time. The merchandise store was gone and replaced with a place that advertised that everything in it was a dollar. And even at that price it seemed like she was being robbed.

Then there was the bank. Four of them were there now when there had been only the one, and it wasn’t one that she’d ever been in. But the little shop that she’d wanted, the one that had always come through when she was down on her luck, was gone altogether. There wasn’t even a building there any longer. She knew this because she’d gone around the block several times to see if she’d been lost somehow. But in her search she had found the little shop in the alley off the main road. There she was able to get all her needs and then some. The Little Palace of Goods certainly lived up to its name. The only issue she’d had was the lack of cash or credit card, whatever that was.

So she’d come back to the house to see what she had to trade. The girl behind the counter, Mystic her name had been, never said she’d not trade her, so Helena was counting on the trade and not cash. But it had done her little good either way as she’d had nothing there of value. But she knew where there was gold.

It had taken Helena an hour to get the things she thought might bring her a penny. The chain around the king’s neck was something that she’d always coveted, and it was the first thing she put into her sack. Then there was the jewels, all of them scattered around the table for the guests to take when they left for their home. She had picked up all of those as she made her way back up the table to the lord, the man to the right of Ruben.

She knew the man to be a thief. Actually, most of the men and women at the table would steal the pennies from a dead man’s eyes if they thought no one was looking. But when she went through his pockets, she found not only a hand full of the gems but a necklace that she fell in love with. Helena had kept it for herself.

Mystic had been a little reluctant to take the gems, not that she blamed her much. Where would she sell them if there was no merchant to trade with in town? But after a bit she’d told her that she’d take one of the white diamonds for a hundred dollars’ worth of items. Eight of the fist-sized diamonds and a few other gems got her all that she wanted.

It had taken her two trips from her cart to the house to get all the things in the house. Then another hour to take the stuff that would be used for the ritual to the cave. There had been a cave in at some time since she’d been gone, and she had to have the coven remove the larger stones so that she was able to get through. By the time she’d finished setting up the chamber, she’d ended up sleeping on the dais for a few hours just to make it back home. Robarts had watched over her.

Helena got up and looked around at her new things. Some of them were as useless as a man for the most part, but they were pretty. The glass jars in the window, all in varying shades of blue, sparkled sunlight into the room, and it danced along the walls and floors. She admired the blue candles she’d gotten, all of them a different scent. She wanted to light one of them, burn it now to see if it smelled as good burning as it did just sitting on the pottery plate that she’d gotten, but didn’t want to have to use it up just yet. Helena decided that she was going to buy a lot of them once she had the funds.

“Not that I really need them, but I deserve them.” She was talking to herself again, a trait that she’d tried to break herself of a long time ago. The herbs now hanging from her ceiling weren’t the best of quality, but they would do for now. She had seeds too, things she was going to plant as soon as she got this business with the dragons over with.

“Perhaps I’ll hire someone to do it.” She’d have enough money, she knew that. Six dragons would bring a nice purse to her. Excitement coursed through her body until she had to dance a little just to dispel it. She was going to be so rich.

Money really didn’t mean that much to her. It was the things that she could get with it that really appealed to her. The little touches that she could add to her house. The new rocker on her porch, and she was very excited to see what she could do with the coffee beans that she’d purchased. The girl had been no help with that now that she’d remembered.

Helena had to ask her three times how she planted them. They smelled rich and full of a darkness that she could only think was from evil. But Mystic had only stared at her when she’d asked her the third time how to plant then, then she’d laughed so hard that Helena left the store without any knowledge to make them grow.

“Stupid chit.” Then there were the things that Helena had left alone. There were large jars of eye of newt and bat wings. She was still trying to figure out why anyone would pay for such items when they were free for the taking. And they smelled funny, like something had died on them before they’d actually died. Shaking her head, she didn’t understand a great many things in the new town, and decided that other than going back to the Palace, she would stay away from the little town.

Helena knew it was time to call the coven together and tell them of her plan. Robarts knew some of it; he’d had to go after the thirteenth man, so she’d had to tell him something. But she didn’t share that there were six dragons and not just the one. She was still working out where to store their bodies once she killed them.

It was a problem that was, compared to the other things she was working out, small. There was the food to feed the king and his court, someone to cook it, and how to bring the man with the dragons to her. That was the problem.

Helena thought about the woman. She would be the easiest to capture being a mere human and all, but she still had to get onto the property and get her. Then figure out how to contact the man so that he’d come to get the girl, and she’d capture him then. It made her head spin just thinking about it.

As she made her way to the mouth of the chamber, she watched as the floors were being scrubbed and the walls wiped down. A great many webs had made their way into this room, and she had spent the better part of yesterday after she’d returned just gathering them in her basket. She now had a near endless supply of them for her spells.

“Mistress, we have been cleaning the dishes in the dining area, but we have run into…there is something that you must see.” She asked him what it was, and he motioned for her to follow.

“I don’t have time for your games, Robarts. Just tell me.” He told her that he could not read, that she should see it. “Oh, all right.”

It was more than likely something that had been there for decades or more, and no one had noticed it before. She thought of the night that Anthony had come into the chamber, just appearing there as if he’d known about it the entire time. Ruben had been so pissed at her that he’d slapped her enough to bruise her head for a week after. But Anthony had said some things that had her pause in her steps as she remembered them.

“I will return one day and destroy all that you have built.” Ruben had laughed. He knew that the stone walls would never come down and that Anthony was full of himself. “Mark my words. Someday this will lay in ruin and your body will have its final resting place along with all your court.”

He’d been right about that, she supposed. The chamber had been the final resting place for them all, but Anthony’s walls had come down long before and her own chamber still stood. She was smiling when she entered the room, and froze when she saw what Robarts was talking about.

In large letters that were too big to ever be missed, it said, “I have returned.” The letters were in a fine script, one that made Helena believe that it had been done by an educated man rather than the idiots now standing and staring at it. She looked at Robarts when he cleared his throat, and she went to where he now pointed. Like a lifeless dummy, she went to area and staggered at the message there.

There was a dragon painted on the floor. It was a good rendition of the one she’d seen just recently, but this one had his claws digging into what looked like a lake of blood. When she stepped closer, looking at what he held there, she could see herself, her face staring right back at her as the dragon held her in his sharp claws. The words there were no less scary in that they said. “You will die soon
.
”

“Scrub it away. Both of them. I want them gone.” Robarts told her that he had tried. “Well, try harder. I don’t know which one of you did this, but I will find out.”

She left the dining room, vowing never to enter it again. Whoever had done this was going to pay dearly. She moved to the dais and held onto it as she tried to think what had happened, who had been down here and why. And she wasn’t sure, but she had a feeling that whatever it was written in, it would never be scrubbed away.

And she knew…just knew…who had put it there. It was the king, Anthony, and he was indeed returning for her. Something touched her on the arm. She had no idea what, but it caused her to turn and scream, her power tossing the person who had dared touch her across the room. When she was over her fright, she looked at the man who was dead, his head split open and his brain spilling out onto the floor. She had just killed Robarts.

~~~

Asher wanted to get things over with. It was putting a strain on all of them just wondering what they needed to do to get rid of the witch, her magic that she was hanging over the rest of their lives. He walked along the streets in the town looking for the disturbance that Essie had told him about today.

“I don’t see anything. Is she sure that it was around here?” Asher told Gideon she was positive. “Okay. But all that’s around here is a defunked pizza place and a shop that sells shit to wannabes.”

“Wanna be what?” Gideon told him it was some sort of candle shop. “We’d better look. That way we can tell her that we checked everything.”

As soon as he stood outside the shop, he knew that it was the place. It nearly vibrated with energy, and he was pretty sure that it wasn’t coming from all the neon that was flashing in the windows. He reached out to touch the door knob when he felt Essie touch his mind.

Don’t.
He pulled his hand back as if he’d been burned.
That’s it. I don’t know what you’re going to do, but don’t…whatever it was.

I was going to go inside and see what is there.
She didn’t answer him, so he continued.
Gideon is with me. He and I are going in together. And I have Kiaran with me.

Can he be a man there?
He told her he didn’t think so
. I wish that he could…have him ready if you go in. I’m not saying you have to, but be ready for anything.

He opened the door carefully and stepped inside the Little Palace of Goods. Asher felt Kiaran stir, but he didn’t move from his body. As soon as he was over the threshold, everything that had felt evil on the outside seemed to disappear. And the woman behind the counter looked like she might have felt something as well.

“You bring that bad vibe with you?” He shook his head at the large woman behind the cash register. “Coming from somewhere. I had me a spell out there, so I know you don’t mean me no harm, but something was there.”

“My wife…she felt something as well.” She stared at him, then nodded as he continued. “She said that she knew something had happened here, and she sent us to find out what it was. My brother and I.”

“She’s a white witch then?” Asher said she was more of a supernatural than a witch, and the woman nodded. “Gobi is my name. I’m a white witch myself. But I sell to whoever has the coin. You bringing me business or asking me questions? Cause I have a few of my own.”

“I was wondering about a woman who might have been in recently. She would have been completely out of place, and might have asked you for some odd items.” Gobi didn’t move, not even to shake her head. “She’s about five foot six or so, tiny little thing with dark hair. She has a sort of cracked voice.”

“All but the dark hair, she’s been here. I didn’t wait on her, but my assistant did. Who, I might as well tell you, is gone. She left me a few things that she said the woman paid with, then said she was taking the rest. Took me an hour to figure out it was all real.”

“What was it?” She didn’t answer him but went through the beaded curtain to the back. When she returned, she laid out a small money bag on the counter and told him to come see.

“She didn’t have any money, Melody told me. She don’t go by that here. She calls herself Mystic, of all things. Anyway, she left me this note telling me that this woman came in to buy some stuff, and she didn’t have any cash. Didn’t seem to know what a credit card was either. Then when she left, Melody thought she’d not be back. Then an hour or so later she comes in with these things.” She dumped the bag out, and there were four of the biggest diamonds Asher had ever seen, along with a few rubies and about a dozen smaller emeralds. “Don’t know how much she took with her when she left, but she said it was only a few of the pieces. I’m supposing she took the diamonds. When I looked over the surveillance tapes, I could see there were more than just this few of them.”