Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) (18 page)

Kingu
reached the ground floor, again, guiding her legs up to wrap around his waist. 
His mouth still sealed over hers, he backed her against the nearest wall,
trapping her.

Hope
gave another cry and he pressed into the junction of her thighs.  His arousal
felt huge.  The vulnerable feeling of being at the mercy of an unstoppable
primordial beast made her catch hold of his shoulders, again.  Pulling him
closer.

God,
it had pissed her off when Belle got stuck with that stupid, ordinary prince at
the end of the movie.  What girl would want blond banality over the monster?

“Faster.” 
If Kingu didn’t do something to quench this fire inside of her, she might
spontaneously combust.

Kingu
red gaze was intent.  He tore her skirt aside.  Just grabbed a handful of
material and destroyed in with his hands.  Her underwear quickly followed.  A
white scrap of cotton and lace that he held to his face, breathing in the scent
of her.  “Mine.”  He rasped.

Hope
had known it would be like this.  Warriors were pretty primal about their
mates.  Honestly, she was just surprised it had taken him so long get her
naked.  Most Fire Phases Phazed within minutes of finding their Match.  What
was the point in waiting when you knew you’d found your other half?

Speaking
of which, Kingu really should be warned who he belonged to, now.  “Mine.”  She
countered, thumping a hand against his chest, even as her mouth found the side
of his neck and latched on.  “If I’m yours, then your mine, Kingu.  Remember
it.”  She nipped his skin and then suckled at it, wanting to mark him.

Kingu
liked the sensation.  She could tell from his hiss of breath.  “I’m not likely
to forget you, Hope.  I’ve waited for you for so many years that the longing is
a part of me.”  His hand claimed the territory between her legs.

Hope
gasped as Kingu found the very core of her.  His huge palm settled against her
scorching, swollen flesh and she squeezed her eyes shut.  “Oh thank God.”

“You’re
welcome.”

Hope
wanted to chuckle at that, but she couldn’t manage quite it.  All of her
attention was centered on his fingers.  They were petting her.  Not pushing
deeper, but testing, like he wasn’t
really
convinced she wanted him. 
Like she might be playing a trick.

Kingu
stilled when he discovered she was soaking wet with need.  He stared down at
her, looking dazed.  “Wait.”  He swallowed convulsively as if he was trying to
break free of the sensual haze.  “Wait.  Why are you allowing this?”

Midnight
blue eyes fluttered up to meet his baffled expression.  “What?”  Darn it,
things were finally headed in the right direction.  Her fingernails dug into
his shoulders and she tried to rewind the discussion.  “I’m doing this because
I want you.  I want you so much.  Please don’t stop.”  Hope made an impatient
movement with her hips, trying to restart his caress.

“Wait.” 
Kingu gave his head a hard shake, still trying to reorganize his thoughts. 
“Something’s wrong.  It can’t possibly be this simple.”  He sounded
incredulous, but he still gave her what she wanted.  Maybe he couldn’t help
it.  His hand slid deeper, rubbing at just the right speed to make her see
stars.  “You’re really claiming this is because of me?”

“Oh
yes.”  Yes to
all
of it.  Her tongue touched her lower lip.  The heat
was better now.  Hotter and tighter than ever before, but with the glorious
promise of relief on the horizon.

“You
would willingly give yourself to me just because you
want
to?”

“Um-hmmmm.” 
It was a purr.

“Bullshit.” 
He pulled away and Hope nearly screamed in frustration.  Or decked him.  Kingu
lifted his hand from her and started to move back, but she caught hold of his
wrist.  Her fingers didn’t even go half way around the width of it, but he
still stopped moving and glowered down at her.

Hope
glowered back.  “Are you
fucking kidding me?
”  Swearing contest be
damned.  She wanted answers.  Actually, no she wanted him to finish what he
started, but, barring that, answers would be good.  He still supported all her
weight, so if he dropped her, she’d crash straight to the floor.  But that
didn’t stop Hope from shouting at him.  Kingu wasn’t going to let her get
hurt.  Even in her anger, she knew it.  “What exactly is ‘bullshit’ about
this?”

“There’s
no way you want me. 
That’s
what’s bullshit.  So, who are you really thinking
about?  Zakkery?”

“Zakkery?!” 
Hope didn’t even think about the “ewww” before she squealed it.  “Gaia, are you
insane?  I don’t want
him
.”  Her nose wrinkled.  “Ick.  He’s so… small.”

“Small? 
He is larger than most of your species.”  Kingu’s eyes narrowed.  “Or do you
mean he possesses a very small…?”

Hope
cut him off.  “No, I
don’t
mean small like that.  Lord, way to kill the
mood.”  She gave a “let me go” wiggled and Kingu set her down, the bastard. 
Luckily her sweater hadn’t gotten ripped from her body, because now it was a
very short dress.  “I’ve never seen Zakkery
naked
, for crying out loud. 
I’ve never been with a man, at all.  I told you that.”

“No,
you didn’t.”  His eyes burned hot.  “Trust me, I would remember that
conversation.”

“Well,
I told you I didn’t have much of a love life, didn’t I?”  What did she have to
do?  Skywrite it?  “I wouldn’t just fall into bed with some Smoke Phase.”

“And
yet you appeared willing to let me fuck you against a wall.”  Kingu bit off
cruelly.   “You think that I don’t see the truth?  That I am that far gone, I
would allow you to make a fool of me?  You are trying to manipulate me into
helping you stop the Banished Phases, or letting you go free, and I will
not
fall for your tricks.”

“Hey
wait a minute, I wasn’t going to fuck you.”  Hope was flat out insulted by the
insinuation.  Soul mates and Matches didn’t “fuck.”  Well, maybe they sometimes
did, but only for fun
after
their initial coming together.  What she and
Kingu shared was holy.  He should know that, being a god and all.

His
expression went even darker.  He loomed over her, his body was so aroused she
had no idea how he was holding back from her.  “If you doubt what was about to
happen, then you really are a virgin.”

“I
know I am.  If you’re trying to insult me with that revelation, it’s not gonna
work.  I’m well aware the fact I’ve waited.”

Her
virginity wasn’t something she was ashamed of or proud of, it was just a fact
of her life.  She’d been waiting for Kingu and now he was here.  It seemed very
simple, really, except Mr. Cold Shower wanted to complicate it.

“Waited?” 
His voice was dangerous.  “For who? 
Me?
”  He made a disgusted sound and
stepped farther away from her.  His face was set into stony lines of disbelief
and anger.  “You lie.  No one would wait so long and then give their virginity
to a monster.  Not without an ulterior motive.”

Alright,
now he was just upsetting her.  Hope’s mouth thinned.  It pissed her off that
Kingu had just basically called her a liar and whore.  That he refused to be
seduced like a good soul mate should.  That he’d pulled back after bringing her
so close to a shattering climax.  That he made the word “monster” sound like a
bad
thing.

Her
day had sucked enough already, she didn’t have to put up with his attitude on
top of it.  He’d left her achy and unfulfilled and now he was making it
her
fault?

Oh
hell no.

“I’ve
waited for my soul mate.”  She said very distinctly.  “He’s the one I will
make
love to
, when he
begs
me for forgiveness.  If you see him, tell him
I’ll be in my room, trying to figure out how to stop the Banished Phases.”  She
swept past Kingu and stalked up the stairs.  She got distinct impression he was
staring at her bare rear end as she stomped up the stairs.  Well, he’d better
enjoy the view, because she sooo wasn’t letting him see her half-naked again
until she heard some serious groveling.

“You
touch another man, Hope, and I will kill him.”  The threat was ice cold.  “Your
soul belongs to me.”

She
stopped at the top of the steps and glared back down at him.  “You won’t get
one damn thing from me that I don’t give freely.  If you want my soul, you’re
gonna have to find your own and give it to me return.”

I had
learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream,

on the
thought of the separation of these elements.

Robert
Louis Stevenson- “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”

The
problem with having no friends was that you sometimes had to turn to your
enemies for advice.  It pissed Kingu off, but he didn’t see another option.  He
wanted Hope badly enough to try anything and he only knew of one person who
could help him win her.

Zakkery
opened the door to his igloo shaped home and arched a brow.  He was still
dressed like a punk rock groupie, right down to the safety pin earring spearing
his left lope.  “I already gave the necklace to my client, if that’s what
you’re here for.”

“I
don’t care about that.  I want to talk about Hope.”

“Oh
man, this should be good.”  He stepped aside and gestured for Kingu to come
inside.

Kingu
had expected more of a battle before the Smoke Phase allowed him into his
home.  It wasn’t like he’d ever come visiting before.  Suspicious of a trap,
Kingu scowled and ducked through the doorway.  The curved ceiling brushed
against his head, but he was used to encountering that problem.

The
rest of Zakkery’s house surprised him.

The
Cloudland was full of circular buildings of various sizes and property values. 
Most of Banished Phases with Zakkery’s level of infamy had appropriated mansion
for themselves on the rounded hilltops outside the town.  The biggest and the
best the dead Cloud Phases had to offer was theirs for the taking.  Zakkery
could have had a luxurious home beside the rest of the worst of his kind.

Instead,
he’d chosen modest white bungalow on a nearly deserted street that bordered the
park.  There was a neat picket fence around the property and a whirligig in the
yard.  A carefully painted Cloud Phase endlessly spun a wooden cloud in an
asymmetrical circle so it created different shapes.

The
stupid decoration made Kingu sad for some reason.

Truthfully
though, the most shocking part of all was that Kingu understood
why
Zakkery chose to live in Cloud Kingdom suburbia and not in one of the extinct
Cloud Phases’ mini-palaces.

In
the more exclusive neighborhoods, there were more people.

Zakkery’s
home kept him separate from the other Phases, at the same time allowing him a strategic
position in the heart of town.  No one could spy on him, but he could still
watch all their daily moments.

It
was… smart.

“I’d
ask you to sit down, but I think you might crush my chairs.”  Zakkery closed
the door behind Kingu and led the way into the living room.  He must have kept
the furnishings as the previous owners left them, because everything was
decorated in soft shades of sunset.  Given his normal taste level, Zakkery
would surely prefer graffiti on the walls and naked hula girl lamps.

There
was a duffle bag open on one of sofas and Kingu realized that Zakkery was
packing.  No doubt he was planning to get out of Dodge now that he had what he
wanted.  Kingu understood the impulse.

“I
don’t require a seat.”  Kingu glanced out the window into the pastel park.  He
could see his own fortress on the other side of the puffy trees.  His eyes
unerringly went to the balcony of Hope’s room.

“I
take it you’re done being pissed at me for stopping by to get the necklace,
earlier?”

“No. 
I’m still pissed and will remain that way.  You handed my woman over to a
monster.”

“I
handed her over to
you.
”

“Exactly.” 
Kingu stared broodingly out at the landscape.  “What do you know of soul
mates?”

Zakkery
flopped down on his peach colored sofa and lit a cigarette.  A laptop computer
sat on the cushion beside him.  “Why?  Unless…”  He laid a dramatic palm
against his chest.  “Do you feel this connection between us, too?  Because, if
I’m not the only one who wants to just give into the passion…”

Kingu
slanted him an impatient look.  “Hope claims to have a soul mate.  What does it
mean to Phases?”

Zakkery
lost his taunting smile.  “Nothing.  Soul mates are a human deal.”  He
concentrated on propping his sneakers up on the coffee table.  The former
owner’s old magazines were still arranged in a neat stack.

“Well,
Hope says she will only
accept
her soul mate, so there must be something
Elemental about the bond.”

It
made Kingu wild to even think about it.  To imagine another man touching her,
as he had.  Tasting her heat and passion.  Feeling her arms come around him or
hear the whimpering sounds she made.  Someone she would no doubt smile at and
stay with willingly.

Someone
with a fucking soul to give her when she asked for it.

He
swore savagely and looked back at Zakkery.  “Well?”

Zakkery
stared at him without expression.  The son-of-a-bitch knew something.  Kingu
could tell.  Beating the information out of the Phase suddenly seemed like a
wonderful idea.  Gods knew, he was dying to punch the shit out of somebody.

Kingu
stalked closer to the couch, intent on taking his frustration out on Zakkery’s
annoyingly perfect face.  He got within striking distance, but then he spotted
the laptop screen.  The word “Hope” jumped out at him like neon and Kingu
stopped short, scanning the page.  It looked like some kind of census report or
family tree.

“What
the hell are you doing?”  The question was more astonished than angry, simply
because Kingu was completely baffled by what Zakkery could be up to.  “Are you
researching my woman’s lineage?”

“It’s
nothing.”  Zakkery slammed the computer shut.  “I thought I remembered seeing
Hope before and I was trying to place her.”

Kingu’s
jaw tightened, still not liking the idea of Zakkery within three kingdoms of
Hope.  “She thinks you are too small.”  He announced with a deal of pleasure.

“First
time I ever heard
that
complain.”  Typical Zakkery response, but there
was something serious in his eyes.

Kingu’s
head tilted.  What was this really about?  What had Zakkery found out about
Hope?  Kingu’s heart rate increased.  “Tell me.”  He ordered.  “If there’s a
problem with Hope, I need to know about.”

“Just
so
you
don’t become an even bigger problem for her.”  Zakkery expelled a
stream of smoke and shook his head.  “
You’re
the one who says you’re a
monster.”

Asshole.

“Tell
me what you know. 
Now
.”

Silence.

Was
Zakkery… worried about Hope?  Belated concern, perhaps, but at least
someone
else was troubled by the idea that a tiny girl had been taken prisoner by an
ancient god who wanted to ravish her.  Kingu had thought he was the only one
disturbed by it and that included his seductive little captive.

“There
is nothing that would make me turn against her, if that’s why you’re
hesitating.”  Kingu said grudgingly, wanting to speed up the process. 
“Although it’s somewhat late for you to consider her welfare, considering you
handed her over to me on a platter.”

Zakkery
glanced at him sharply.  “You can blame me for giving you the girl, but I had
nothing to do with it.”  He said after a moment.  “Not really. No matter what,
you would have taken Hope.  It was
obvious
you’d claimed her from the
first second you saw her.  I never worried about you mistreating a woman. 
Especially, not
that
woman.  Maybe you
are
a monster, but that
girl is still gonna wrap you around her finger in –like-- a day.”

It
had taken less than an hour, actually.

“So…
no.”  Zakkery continued.  “I don’t think you’re stupid enough to hurt Hope. 
When men like us are handed something that rare, we don’t throw it away.  We
protect it.”

For
once, Kingu didn’t complain about Zakkery saying they were in anyway alike. 
“The woman is my treasure.”  He said simply.

“I
know.”  Zakkery slowly nodded.  “Anyway, I knew Hope’s grandfather.  It took me
awhile to put it together, but that’s why I remembered her.  He’s the only one
on the Council who didn’t vote to Banish me.”

That
seemed to be a theme in Hope’s life.

“Hope
said she was abandoned by her parents and her grandfather raised her.  I take
it he was a saint.”

The
Color Phase grandfather had evidently forgiven sinners and spread nothing but
noble charity.  That must be where Hope got her gentle heart and desire to save
the world.

“
Oberon?
 
A… saint?”  Zakkery’s mouth twitched.  “Is that Hope’s take on him?”

“Yes. 
You disagree?”

“Not
when it comes to her, I guess.”  Zakkery allowed.  “He was fanatically
protective of her.  They all are.  You never saw a family so proud.  Like she
hung the stars.”  He studied the end of his cigarette.  “All of us should have
had that kind of home.”

Kingu
let out a relieved breath.  Hope had been alone in this world when he’d had no
idea she even existed.  If she’d been miserable, he never would have forgiven
himself for not finding her sooner.  Even knowing he’d been locked up by Kay at
the time, Kingu still felt the overriding need to make sure Hope’s childhood
had been full of color and joy.

If
only one of them could have had that kind of life, he would have wanted it for
Hope.

“She
was loved?”  He had to make sure.  “They took care of her?”

“They
would die for her.”  Zakkery met his eyes.  “I know they would.  She is the
baby of that House, Kingu.  They will do
anything
to get her back.”

“Hope’s
not going
anywhere
.”  It was a vow.

“Just
don’t harm her family when they come.”  Zakkery insisted.  “If you don’t listen
to another word I say, listen to that.  She won’t forgive you if you hurt
them.  She idolizes those nuts.  I saw her with Oberon when she was a kid.  The
guy was a vicious killer and the size of a sequoia, but she’d sit on his lap
like he was Santa Claus.”

Kingu
obviously needed to study Color Phase culture because he’d had no clue those
idiots were actually trained assassins.  “I have no intention of killing her
relatives.  Is that all you found out about her?  You don’t know who her soul
mate might be?”

Zakkery
shrugged like it was no big deal.  “No.  But, if Hope has a soul mate, then
she’s probably part human.”  The words were flat, but his eyes stayed
watchful.  “That’s the only explanation, I have for you.  And it fits with what
I know about her past.  Humans and Elementals can interbreed.  We didn’t know
that before this year, but it’s probably been happening forever.”

Kingu
blinked, his mind going back to Hope’s reaction about Tessie.

Do
you not like humans?  Or people who are maybe just –like-- part human?

Her
lack of powers…  The un-Phase-like curves of her body…  Her worried look when
he’d consigned the whole species to hell…

Fuck.

Elementals
and humans could mate, but he hadn’t thought that any of their offspring lived
in this realm.  Let alone that one of them would be
his
woman, with the
soul as pure as snow and the body of a fertility goddess.  He should have
expected the unexpected concerning that girl, though.  What had Hope told him? 
Weird things happened around her.

Fuck
.

Zakkery
reached over to stub out the cigarette, even though it wasn’t finished.  “When
she was born, it must have been quite the scandal.  I’ll bet you a dollar
that’s why her parents abandoned her and it’s probably why Hope’s family has
always kept her so quiet.  A lot of Phases are a
little
prejudice
against the humes.  I probably shouldn’t even have told
you
.”

Kingu’s
eyes narrowed, halfway between incredulous and insulted.  “You think I would
harm Hope over this?  Over
anything?
”

He’d
waited for this woman for more lifetimes than Zakkery could ever comprehend. 
His powers reached for her like she was heaven itself.  Hope was the one who
Kingu had searched for.  The only one he’d ever wanted.

His
only one.

Nothing
else mattered, at all.

“Well,
you’re kinda uppity about being a god, so it did occur to me you might think
that you can do better than a really young, half-breed, blonde with no powers
and psycho relatives.”

Hope
did have powers.  Kingu was sure of that, but he had no intention of informing
the Smoke Phase or anyone else until he figured out what they were.

“How
old is Hope?”  He asked as if that was the only part of Zakkery’s thinly veiled
warning that he cared about.  As if he didn’t almost roar that Hope could be a
gods damn mermaid for all he cared, so she stayed by his side.  He didn’t want
to reveal how quickly she was enslaving him, even though he had a feeling
Zakkery already knew.