Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) (19 page)

“A
hundred and fourteen.”

Kingu
literally had suits older than that hanging in his closet.

“Shit.” 
The word was resigned.  The woman was so new to the world, she’d never known a
time without telephones or electric light bulbs.  The humans had already been
making
films
when she was a child, for gods’ sake.  Kingu still jolted
when he saw the pictures moving on screen, but Hope was too young to know what
a revelation they’d once been.  To her, even black and white pictures probably
seem old.

What
would Hope think of
his
age?  Knowing that he’d seen worlds crumble to
dust and empires come and go like ripples in a pond?  Kingu must seem ancient
to a being with barely a century of living under her belt.  Gods knew he often
felt ancient.

He
pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.  “Given Hope’s talent for falling
into trouble, I
did
wonder how she survived past infancy.  Now I know: 
She hasn’t, yet.”

“Nope.” 
Zakkery’s eyes gleamed.  “So, this is where I go on instinct and trust that
you’re not gonna hurt her.  If I thought you’d try punishing Hope because of
her age, or family, or polluted DNA or whatever, I would seriously reconsider
handing her over to you.  I could have just kept her for myself.”

Kingu
seized the front of his Ramones shirt, moving so quickly Zakkery didn’t have a
chance to evade him.  “Hope is better than any of us, you fucking moron!  She’s
the only one in this whole universe
not
polluted and she’s
mine
.”

Zakkery
didn’t try to fight back.  “I know.”  He said, instead.  “Just so you know it,
too.” There was no jealousy or anger in his face, just uncharacteristic
sincerity.  “I’m not stupid.  I get that she’s your Match and I’m not going to
interfere in that.  But I’m not kidding.  I like the girl.  She’s… clean.”

Kingu
shoved him back with a curse, unable to work up any enthusiasm for slaughtering
a man simply because he saw the truth.  Hope
was
clean.  “Just don’t
touch her.”  He warned, again.

Unbelievable.

Zakkery
didn’t care about another being in the realm but he’d apparently taken a shine
to Hope.  How did the girl manage to attract all the monsters of the world?

Zakkery
pushed back his overgrown bangs and went back to watching Kingu pace.  “So, I
take it you being here with me, instead of staple-gunned to your Match’s side,
means you’re
not
settling into wedded bliss so easily, huh?”

Kingu
saw no need to correct the idea that Hope was his Match.  Phases respected
Matches.  Accepting the claim on her would keep Elemental males away and Kingu
would take what he could get.

“I
told you, the woman says she will have none but her soul mate.”  The words were
bleak.  “I need to find that man and kill him.”

“Uh-huh.” 
Zakkery crossed his arms over his chest.  “Good plan.  You’ll absolutely win
her over with
that
tactic.”

“You
have a better idea?”  Kingu shot back.  “I cannot tolerate the thought of some
human son-of-a-bitch claiming her heart and mind. 
I won’t have it!
” 
The image of Hope wanting another man had Kingu’s powers screaming in denial.

“Where’d
you get the hickey?”

“What?” 
Kingu glanced over at him in confusion.

Zakkery
pointed to his own neck and arched a brow.

Kingu’s
brows compressed and he backtracked to check his reflection in a hanging mirror
shaped like a cumulus cloud.  Normally he disliked seeing his own face, but now
he barely noticed.  He tilted his chin to the side and studied the spot Zakkery
had indicated.  A purplish bruise stood out against the side of his throat.

Hope
.

She’d
marked him.

A
fresh wave of desire rushed through Kingu as he remembered her mouth on skin,
her warm body rocking against him, the sweet moisture that had covered his
hands.  Dear gods, he wanted her.  He would live forever and there could still
never be enough time to satisfy his desire.

“I
doubt she gave you that while fighting you off, Romeo.”  Zakkery sounded
amused.  “Shit, I think I should be taking pointers if you got that girl to
like you
so
much
so
fast.”

Kingu
glanced back over at him.  His first instinct was to tell the Smoke Phase to
shut the hell up, but this
was
why he’d come.  He took a deep breath and
reminded himself he could always kill the man later.  “How many women have you
had?”  He held up a hand before Zakkery could start rattling off the endless
list.  “Who
mattered
.”

Zakkery’s
jaw tightened, his amusement fading.  “Just one.”

Kingu
hadn’t been expecting that answer or the gaping void that echoed behind it. 
“You lost her?”

“I
lost her.”  Zakkery’s smile was grim.  “So what, you need some sex tips?”

Kingu
ignored the defensive maneuver.  If Zakkery had had a woman who mattered, then
he must know
something
useful.  That was the important thing.  “What
should you do if a woman who matters tries to use her… charms to influence
you?”

“Weep
with joy and get influenced?”

Kingu
exhaled a frustrated breath at the blithe answer.  “Be serious.  Hope is trying
to persuade me to do her bidding and it’s
very fucking persuasive
.  I
need to know how to resist.”

“Why
the hell would you want to
resist?
”

Kingu
didn’t know why he even bothered.  He should have known the Smoke Phase would
be useless.  Had anyone told him a week ago that a woman would drive him to
this, he would have laughed… and then slaughtered the idiot for daring to say
something so ridiculous.  Hope had a power over him that he didn’t completely
understand.

She
could make him do such
stupid
things.

No. 
It was worse than that.  Hope didn’t
make
him do stupid things.  All his
life, Kingu had been forced to cater to his mother’s whims, so he knew what it
was to have someone
make
him carry out their orders.  With Hope, he
found himself independently thinking of ways to ensure her happiness,
regardless of the personal trauma it caused him.  He
wanted
to do things
for Hope.  Within a matter of hours, he was even willing to endure the
indignity of asking an Elemental for advice.

That
did not bode well for the future.

He
had to keep some distance or the woman would completely break him.  Kay had
never been able to bring him to his knees through force and he refused to let
Hope do it with her big blue eyes.  She was using her body to try and convince
him to let her go.

He
knew
that and he wouldn’t be taken in.

“Hope
does not actually want me.  She was trying to manipulate me into releasing
her.”

It
would be better to try and avoid her until he figured out a plan to resist
temptation.  Her seduction attempts were sure to get even more unrelenting when
she discovered who he really was.  If Hope knew his beloved Aunt Tessie, she
surely knew all the darkest parts of his past.  When she figured out who really
held her, Hope would do anything to escape him.  Try anything.  Do…

Anything.

Kingu
had to close his eyes against the all the “anything” he could imagine doing to
her lush little body.

“Hang
on.”  Zakkery’s slow-mo smile made Kingu want to rip his heart out and feed it
to him.  “Tell me you didn’t accuse a blunt-as-hell Fi…
Color
Phase of
trying to trade her body for profit.  I mean, not even you’re that dumb,
right?”

Kingu
slanted him a glare that should have incinerated Zakkery on the spot.  “No, I’m
sure Hope is just miraculously attracted to someone who looks like me because
of my fucking charm.”  He stalked back over to the window, so he could stare at
his fortress.

Zakkery
gave a chortle of unholy mirth.  “Oh, shit, you
did
tell her that!”  He
clapped his hands together and bent over laughing.  “Oh my God! 
That
is
classic.”

“I’m
glad you’re amused.  The woman is no longer speaking to me.”

“Well,
you have no idea what her House is like, big guy.  You just pissed that girl
off, I guarantee it.  Phases in her kingdom don’t lie about their intentions. 
They don’t bargain and seduce for what they want.  They just
take
it and
you stay the hell out of their way.  Anything else would be seen as weakness. 
If she came on to you, it was because she wants you.”

“Hope
does
not
want me.  She was thinking of her soul mate the entire time!”

Zakkery
shook his head.  “Girls like that wait for their Matches, they sleep with their
Matches, and they stay loyal to their Matches.  Anyone else who touches them
gets cut off at the knee.  I mean, shit, man!  I tried coming onto Hope in her
jail cell and she wasn’t having it.  If she was that desperate to escape…”

Kingu’s
expression darkened, interrupting him at a roar.  “You
propositioned
my
woman?!  What the hell were you…?”  The rest of his angry tirade trailed off
into nothing as a flash of blonde hair moved on the other side of the window. 
His head snapped back around, zeroing in on Hope.

How
had she left the fortress?  He’d locked her in.  He knew he had.

He
wasn’t worried about her escape.  The plastic manacle on her ankle would make
sure she couldn’t leave this kingdom and there was no way for her to contact
the outside world.  The Banished Phases were a backwards, paranoid lot, so not
even the phones on the Cloudland worked.  Kingu wasn’t even sure how Zakkery was
able to run that computer.

But,
Kingu had wanted Hope safe in his home, away from the other Phases who might
harm her.  How was she roaming around the Cloudland with a clipboard and ice
cream cone?

She’d
changed into one of the ordinary tan dresses he’d left in her closet, but it
did absolutely nothing to dim her chaotic sparkle.  Especially since she’s
topped it off with a red and gold tasseled belt, which --Kingu was fairly
sure-- started the day as a drapery chord.  She also wore her sequined sneakers
and a pair of mismatched earrings shaped like a strawberry and a purple cat. 
One of Kingu’s neckties was fashioned into a bow around her thick blonde curls.
Hope must have broken into his room to steal it, but that was such a small
detail compared to how adorable she looked.  She wore something that belonged
to him.

Kingu
felt his heart melt.

He
didn’t even glance around as Zakkery joined him by the window.  The Smoke
Phase’s head tiled in confusion.  “What the hell is she doing out there?”

Planning
to bring down the Banished Phases.

Kingu’s
mouth curved at Hope’s intent expression as she studied her clipboard and then
the numbers on Zakkery’s home.  It didn’t even occur to him that she might have
come here to see Zakkery because she was secretly attracted to the man and
seeking him out.  When Kingu had accused her of wanting the Smoke Phase, Hope
had been genuinely creeped out by the mere thought.

Kingu
believed that.  Believed
her
.

Which
probably just showed how brainless he was becoming, when it came to a certain
blonde whirlwind.  But, there still wasn’t a doubt in Kingu’s mind as to why
Hope was standing outside the home of the gold medal winning sexual Olympian of
the realm.

She
was planning to kill Zakkery.

Well,
maybe not the Smoke Phase
personally
, but all of the Banished Phases
were on Hope’s hit list.  She was positive they were up to something, so she
was figuring out the layout of the Cloudland and mapping her enemies’
position.  Kingu felt almost bad that she wouldn’t find much of an underground
spy network to infiltrate.  The Banished Phases weren’t out to destroy the
universe.  Hell, they weren’t smart enough to even figure out how to get
unBanished.

Beneath
it all, they were like everyone else, just struggling to survive.

As
Kingu watched, Hope juggled the ice cream cone and clipboard in one hand, so
she could fish a purple glitter pen from her pocket.  Not surprisingly the
scoop of strawberry toppled off the cone and hit the dirt as soon as she began
making notes on her page.

Kingu
could have happily watched the cheerful chaos forever.

Any
final resistance he might have had to this woman vanished in a warm rush of
tenderness and yearning.  Clearly, he needed to have a quota system on the time
he spent looking at her, because every additional second was ripping down
another protective barrier.  In one afternoon, Kingu already knew he would
sooner die than go back into the darkness without her.

Hope
frowned down at her ruined ice cream in resignation.

Kingu
had no idea where she’d gotten the treat.  He didn’t have any ice cream the fortress
and strawberry ice cream must have cost a fortune in this kingdom.  The
Banished Phases stole most of their supplies, so it was all part of the black
market.