Forged of Fire (20 page)

“When? We have not had much time alone since our shotgun wedding…” She paused and looked away. “Are you disappointed? I am sure you have been with much more experienced lovers. I can try and learn…”

He reached out and took her cheek in his palm, turning it towards him. “Don’t.” Ash leaned in and kissed her softly. “I am honored that I was your first, your only and your last.” He sat back up. “As far as trying to learn better how to pleasure me,” He chuckled as he rose, grabbing his discarded jeans. “I would dare say you are a natural. Consider me well pleased.” Stepping in the denim and pulling them up Ash caught her eyes following along with the material as he tucked himself in. His cock twitched.
She would be his utter undoing!
“I am going to draw you a bath and get you cleaned up, nourished and tucked away to rest.”

“Will you stay with me?” She asked.

“Yes. I am not going anywhere except into that bathroom to start your bath.” He motioned with his eyes. “Promise me you won’t move a muscle?” She nodded, a small grin playing across her beautiful face.

After running the water and adding drops of rose oil Ash returned to the bedroom. Kielyn smiled up to him but it was a faint smile. She was fading quickly. He carefully scooped her into his arms and carried her into the other room. He lowered her into the warm water and hit two buttons on the wall. “What are those for?” She asked.

“The maid and the cook.” Ash walked back over and grabbed the sponge from a tray, dipping it into the water. “You will have fresh sheets and food when we are done in here.”

“Oh!” She blushed.

Ash lifted the heavy sponge and placed it on her shoulder. “We are married, there is nothing to be embarrassed of, kitten.” He trailed the soft loofa down her arm before pushing her thick wavy hair to the side and scrubbing her back. “Lean back.” He placed his hand under her neck, supporting it as his other lifted a pitcher of water and poured it over her long red hair. “There are three buttons in every room. One for the kitchen, press it and whatever you desire will be brought to you. The second is for the maid, push it and someone will arrive to attend to your room and the third is for Hamilton.” He poured shampoo onto his hands and began to work it into a lather. “Although, I suppose additional staff will be needed now that I am acquiring a compound.” He ran his hands through her hair, working the suds into the thick locks.

“I am sorry about that, by the way.” She closed her eyes as Ash began to pour fresh water over her hair. He could feel the weight of her muscles relaxing into his hold as her body succumbed to the water’s liquid spell. “I know this must be difficult for you.” She yawned. “First, saddled with me, being a King and all.”

Ash lowered the pitcher. She had it all wrong. He was the stubborn ass that made it all wrong. If he was being honest, his eyes scanned Kielyn’s perfect body, Ash wanted her from the first moment he laid eyes on her. The very first night he knew she was his. Having just made love to her, the way her body fit and welcomed his, proved even more that she was meant for him and him alone. She was smart, funny, beautiful and his! “Kielyn…” He needed her to know. He needed to tell her of his folly. How badly he had messed up and he planned on being more than just a mate on paper to her. She deserved so much more. “Kielyn?”

Her head rolled to the side.
Sound asleep
. Ash smiled. She was so brave. So strong in her trusting of him. He would fix this Ash mentally vowed. As soon as she woke, he would make sure she understood how much he valued her. She was his…

****

The tray collided with the opposite wall so hard a hanging portrait fell, glass flying across the floor to lay beside broken porcelain and silverware. “That’s my fucking right!” Zander bellowed from his bed. His father did not move a muscle from where he stood, back to Zander in the doorway, mere inches from where the serving tray now rested. “I found her! It’s my right to have her!”

A vein in Dante’s neck bulged and his knuckles whitened as he drew in a fist at his side. He turned. “Your right?” He stalked back towards the bed. “You? Who nearly got himself killed?” He spit. “You, that found her and more importantly, Ashdon! And, did not bring them to me?” His eyes narrowed into razor thin slits.

Zander felt his courage depleting as quickly as it had risen when his father had told him that Katara would be awarded the girl, once she was found
. Like fucking hell!
The redheaded temptress was his! Zander had done nothing but dream about all the fun ways he would fuck her into submission during his comatose state. It was the first words out of his mouth when he began to come to.
I want the chosen one!
Zander tried to push further up in his bed but the unbearable stabbing sensation in his ribs and legs halted that notion. He winced and tried to see through the onslaught of blurring pain. “I could have taken him alone. I just missed sensing the Angel,” he looked to his night stand for the pill bottle.

Dante snatched it up before Zander could reach for it. “These are making you stupid! No more of them!”

Zander stared at him in disbelief. “I almost died! My flesh is not even entirely back on my body and my bones have yet to completely mend!”

“Yet you have enough strength to hurl a serving tray at me.” His father tossed the pills to a servant that had just rushed in to tend to the mess. “I suggest you find a way to comfort your aching body with that unwarranted ego of yours.”

This was going from bad to worse Zander thought as his brain scrambled to find a loophole out of his father’s wrath. He had been given a taste of the redhead and he wanted more. Even more importantly, he would be damned if his father gave her to his sister. “I will get you Ash.”

Dante pinned him to the headboard with his icy stare. “You think to persuade me by reminding me of your failures!” The rise in his voice sent the servant scurrying out of the room. “Even without the Angel assist, you could not have taken him on alone.” His father leaned down so that he was nose to nose with him. “Ashdon LaGoryen is stronger than you will ever be! He is your better in every way!”

Zander felt the words as if they had been a knife skinning muscle from bone.
Finally, the truth
. His father really did place Ash above all others. Dante was not punishing Zander for failing to get the chosen one. He was punishing him for not getting the coveted one, Ash. The stark admittance fueled to life a past of jealousy, anger and hurt. Zander was fucking done trying to please. Done trying to prove himself to a father that would never care anyway. “He never had a weakness before.” He said. “Now he does.”

“What weakness?” Dante ground out. “If these words you speak or this web you are spinning, is just another futile attempt to redeem yourself… I will kill you myself!”

“Wow! You really do have a hard on for that fucking Fire-bending Vamp!” Zander bit out, a whole second before the blood and teeth spewed from his mouth. His vision went black from the force of the hit as the taste of copper filled his mouth. He blindly spat it out before it could choke him. Slowly the fog of his vision began to lift and he craned his neck back to look at his father.
Fuck you!
He should hold his tongue, but Zander now craved a physical pain to replace the mental one his father had just delivered.

“I mean, I get it. Who would not be attracted to that sort of strength?” Zander looked his father straight in the eye. “If my dick swung that way I would probably be in love with him myself.” The next punch wrenched his head to the left, slamming it backwards into the headboard. More blood filled his mouth
. Bring it! Fucking kill me!
Zander coughed it out over the edge of his bed and lifted his hand to wipe his lips.

“Are you done or do you wish for more?” Dante growled. “What is his weakness?”

Zander shifted his eyes back to his father. “He mated the girl.”

“How do you know this?”

“I cannot access her dreams anymore.” Zander confessed gladly. “I had been able to penetrate them but they have been blocked to me and the only thing that could do that is…”

“If she took a Vampire mate.” Dante finished for him. “Fuck!” He paced to the end of the bed. “How do you know it’s Ashdon?”

Zander resisted the urge to smile at his father’s displeasure. It was irony at its very best. Dante had wanted to possess only one being for Zander’s whole life and he couldn’t. Ashdon LaGoryen hated his father. Loathed him! Zander’s father, the fucking Devil himself was undone, all his power cast aside. All this damage done by what other than a mere mortal female.
Time to deliver the killing blow.
“The only image I can see when I try to access her mind is the crest of the Dragon. The house of Ushum.”

Dante froze in place, his eyes growing wide before he averted them. “I see.”

I bet you do see now you sick fuck!
Zander wanted to kiss the hand of fate. There was nothing much to taking a mate for their kind. If they were not an Original all you had to do was turn them and fuck them. But, something very unique happened if the joining was “Fated”, meaning there was more involved than merely affection, lust or even love. If a mating was fated, both parties were connected by the dominant family crest which could be seen in their auras. Forever sealed, like a tattoo, it could not be stripped or unbroken.

All these centuries.
All this time Zander had lived in the shadows. The shadows cast by a damned boy that had intruded on Zander’s life so many years ago. The only being his father ever loved. All this time Zander had taken a back seat to Ashdon LaGoryen. All for nothing.
Or was it…
Seemed the scales had finally tipped. Zander would now see his father suffer the way he had. Not being able to obtain the one thing he desired most in all the world.

Zander smiled. “Guess the party is over, huh?” A chuckle broke free of his busted lips. “You will never get you precious toy back. That must really suck!”

Dante did not react, instead he simply turned and walked to the door of Zander’s room. He paused at the entrance and called down the hall to a servant. Rushing footsteps were heard and then a male appeared at the door. “Get Rozo and tell him to announce a tournament to be held in two weeks’ time.” Dante looked back to Zander, his eyes void of emotion. “I expect to be hosting a special guest by that time and I want him to attend the activities.”

“Yes, your Highness.” The servant nodded and bowed. “Would you like me to include what sort of tournament and where it will be located?”

“Yes. It will be held in the arena. A fight to the death. To honor my…Very. Special. Guest.”His father continued to stare at Zander. “The two fighters will be… My very own daughter and my son.”

****

“It’s a gift, either you have it or you do not but trust me, it’s clear.” Stefen said.

“So you are telling me this crest,” Ash held up the pencil drawing the Angel sketched out. “Is visible around my aura?”

Stefen rolled his head along the back of the chair, clearly annoyed that he needed to explain it again. “Yes.”

“And this was not visible to you prior to me turning Kielyn?”

“Correct.” Stefen answered. “Again, it only shows up when a couple is fated to be together. The universe’s way of performing its own ceremony of sorts.” He rolled his wrist. “Destiny and shit you don’t believe in.”

He leaned back in his chair. Ash felt he had a strong connection to Kielyn but Stefen was right, he never believed in destiny. Words like fate and destiny were for romantics. The wordy poets that had enough free time on their hands to daydream about their futures. Ash was always more of a Shakespearian fan, everyone dies, the end. “Are you sure?”

Stefen rested his forehead in his palm. “I need another drink. Talking to you is akin to chatting with a wall," he lowered his hand. “Yes, I’m sure. I am not here for my own amusement and if you hadn’t noticed, Angels in general, do not lie. Code of ethics, bla, bla, bla and whatnot.” Stefen sat forward and picked up the drawing. “This, your family crest of the dragon is what I see intertwined in your aura. If you would let me in to see Kielyn I would see the same symbol on her aura too.”

“When she wakes.” Ash said.

“Can we at least transfer parlors?” The Angel motioned around the room with a wave of his arm. “This feminine stuff is giving me a headache. I had no idea you were so traditional. Still keeping with the old school customs of keeping separate bedrooms and sitting parlors.”

“I want to be close when she wakes.” Ash repeated for the second time in the last hour. Kielyn had been asleep for two days now. Only waking to feed from Ash when he woke her. He had stayed in her room and only ventured out periodically to update the annoying and overly concerned Angel.

“Your updated rooms are just across the hall…” Stefen made to argue but Ash halted his complaint with a hand. “Fine,” the Angel consented. “But you really do need a decorator in here and at least a television. It’s as if this room has not been used in a couple hundred years.”

“It has not been used since I acquired it. The furniture came with it as well as the wallpaper and curtains which I will agree, is atrocious. This room has been cleaned regularly, but it’s the only room in the castle that has not been modernized,” Ash said. “There was never a need before and I barely gave the staff time to update her bedroom.”

“Thank heavens for that! I would hate for the poor girl to have to wake up feeling like she was a time traveling Vampire.” Stefen chuckled.

“No, I assure you her room is to her liking as well as her new wardrobe.”

“Clothing?” Stefen canted his head. “You took the time to not only decorate her room but buy her clothes?”

Ash stood, irritated with the line of questioning. “I am not a complete Neanderthal. Of course I ordered her the things she would need.”

“Like socks, sweatpants and hoodies.”

Ash ran a hand through his hair. “Yes, Stefen. Along with casual wear, business casual attire, evening gowns, jewelry to match, twenty pairs of shoes, riding clothing should she like horses…” He felt Stefen’s judgmental eyes on him. “What? It’s all stuff she will require.”

The Angel studied him. “You’re right. All items a woman would want.” Stefen continued to survey him. “It’s very…thought out.”

Ash did not have time to respond for he could feel Kielyn stirring. “She is waking.” He headed to the door that divided the rooms. “Wait here.”

Ash entered the room. With the blackout shades on the windows drawn down tight, the bedroom’s only light source emitted from a small soft wattage lamp in the far corner. “Ash?”

He slid onto the bed. “Yes, I am here. Are you hungry? Are you ready for solid food?”

Kielyn grinned. “Now who asks twenty questions when he is nervous?” She sat up. “Yes, I believe I am ready for real food. Starving actually.”

“That’s great.” Ash stood and walked to the far wall. “Totally normal to be hungry when the transformation is complete.” He flicked on a few more lights and pushed the button for the kitchen. When Ash turned back to face Kielyn his words caught in his throat. The most luminous glow was surrounding her, it was if she had a soft blue and red light shining down on her. He walked towards her and sure enough, the closer he got, the clearer the ancient crest of his family showed within the hues. Just as Stefen had explained.

“Do you see it too?” She asked then smiled. “The colors?”

“It’s our auras. I have never been able to see them on others before.” Ash sat back down on the bed and reached his hand out to caress her cheek. “Guess our union did more than just bond us in marriage. It also unlocked another talent.” He paused. “Kielyn, there is something that needs to be said. I should have said it before I started this process, but in all honesty I did not understand it until the other night.”

A knock sounded. “Are you both decent?” Stefen called through the thick wooden door.

Ash rolled his eyes. “Give me five minutes, man.”

The door opened despite his remark and the Angel strolled in. “I don’t think you have five minutes. I just got a message from Alaric. He said it was urgent.”

Fucking Angels!
“Of course it is.” He sighed before leaning in and kissing Kielyn’s forehead. “I will be right back.”

****

An extra five hundred-K each had gotten both of Ash’s neighbors out of their homes five days early. Apparently Dante had also tried to hit Bane’s compound in Belize. Thanks to Skyler’s inside intelligence within Dante’s army the Water-benders had gotten out mere hours before the raid. Alaric insisted that everything be condensed since it was obvious there was a leak on their side as well. Stefen watched as Ash’s fingers flew over the keyboard of his tablet in the downstairs study. Part of the condensing meant getting the seventeen Fire-benders to Ash ASAP.

“You really need to give me something to do,” Stefen finally said after it was painfully clear that Ashdon LaGoryen had no clue how to take assistance.

Ash stopped typing and looked up. “Fine. There is a matter I have to attend to quickly in town. If you could go in my place and pick it up that would allow me to continue making the necessary arrangements I need to here.”

“Only if I get my choice of vehicles in your massive garage.” Stefen smiled.

“Take whichever you desire. The keys are mounted on the wall in alphabetical order.” Ash scribbled down an address on a piece of paper. “Most of the vehicles have navigation. All except the antiques.” He started to hand Stefen the paper but paused. “This is a very delicate matter. How good are you at reading the character of a human?”

“I am an Angel. It’s my job to read others.” Stefen was now curious at the oddity of the question. “Why? What is it you need me to pick up?”