Forged of Fire

by Stacy Von Haegert

  Bloody hell! He had fucked up royally! Ash had to get to her now! “I have to go to her!”

  Ash bolted from the room without explanation. He was such a bastard! He had to explain to her that he was not himself, that it was the beast inside him! He had to allow her to talk, explain what she had tried to tell him and pray to everything that she would forgive him. God he was a fool! He raced up the stairs, his heart rate hammering from his own fear. Ash reached her chambers and threw open the doors to her room. It was empty… The only signs of life were the curtains dancing on the open windows breeze. No!

  ****

  Doubt… What a sharp and powerful pain. What you fear the most intertwines around your hope and suffocates it with the determination of a constrictor. Once the darkness snuffs out the light, the fight for balance within the heart retreats and festers. All that was good and bright becomes dingy and lost. All that once was love, becomes hate. You alone planted the seeds that grew the monster. Now you must free yourself from your doubt. You must allow yourself to see with clear eyes what your true nature really is. Unworthy... But fear not, there is only one that can take on the beast of mythical renown. Come with me where I can protect you from yourself, from your shame. It is time to come home. Time to meet the Dragon slayer...

  Zander had crossed over the threshold between earth and Hell with ease. He was not sure if he would be able to pass with the female, but apparently her fire blood made it so she could. He was almost giddy as he weaved through the sleeping castle’s lattice work of halls that led to his chambers. There was no way his father would make him fight his sister now that he had stolen the girl. Zander waved away the guard from his door with a curt nod of his head. He had paid off the Vampire earlier to keep any and every one away from his rooms. Zander closed the heavy wooden doors quietly behind himself with the toe of his boot then walked to his bed and laid Kielyn down.

  Zander watched her delicate breathing as she continued to sleep under the spell he had cast. A simple incantation, to keep her in the dreamlike state in which he had found her. He knew his father really wanted Ash, but Zander would need more than himself for that one. Especially now that Zander knew with solid confirmation Ash was indeed, the Dragon. Just like his mother. The old but familiar scent from Zander’s boyhood had practically led him straight to Kielyn’s chambers in the castle. It was the same smoky, hickory aroma that had risen out of the lava the night Ash’s mother was laid face down in the boiling pit. A distinctive smell akin to the fall ritual humans had of burning leaves and wood in large bonfires.

  Zander would never forget that haunting day for it was the day that sealed his fate. His father wanted a Dragon child and Ash’s mother was to give him one. Zander remembered everything leading up to that horrific memory. Ash and his brother Teakin had been separated from their mother so Dante could relentlessly question her in his attempts to see if she was indeed a Dragon. The stoic beauty had denied him at every angle, refusing to reveal her secret. It was then that his father devised the test. She would burn. If she were a real Dragon it was assumed she would survive, if she were not, she would just be another dead Fire-bender.

  There was just one small flaw in his father’s plan. Dante had assumed that the woman he placed in the fire would be the one either rising from, or perishing in it.

  Zander had been one of the fortunate few to take cover in time. He watched as the creature climbed from the lava pit, reaching for her child. Her wings unfolded, decapitating a dozen or more spectators too stupid to flee, as her blue and green scales glistened like glass against the fire’s dancing light. The beast stepped over and past Ash’s small form, her neck lowering to snake out and around as she protectively guarded her child. She roared a sound so disruptive that buildings began to break apart and crash to the ground. That was the only warning she gave before fire flew from her throat and across the arena, thick lassoing flames whipped and slashed, attaching like jagged hooks onto everything in their path. Hundreds of bodies screamed and flailed about as the inferno ate them alive.

  Her golden slit eyes, like that of a cat, then fixated upwards, to Dante’s throne perched high upon the mountain of skulls. It was the first time Zander had ever seen fear in his father’s eyes. Dante retreated and scrambled to grab hold of something as the beast’s neck lengthened, stretching with her spine. “I will kill him!” Dante shouted and pulled another’s form in front of him. Zander had squinted to see through the heavy smoke. His father held in his hand a shiny steel blade and standing under its deadly forged steel, the dragon’s eldest son.

  Zander watched in amazement as she retreated back, her head swiveling to look at the youngest, clear and honest pain in her golden orbs. It was the last thing Zander saw before he was yanked up and quickly carried off at a dead run by one of his father’s guards. The next day his father took Ash’s mother as his next mate. Zander never again saw the Dragon within her. The beautiful Queen was locked away like a caged pet and her two boys were encased in a sleeping spell, much like the one Zander had placed on Kielyn.

  A year later Dante got the child he desired off of his bride and Ash’s mother died alone without ever being permitted to hold her newborn. Zander learned two things that day. He learned his father was indeed a monster and that it was possible to kill a Dragon, if you slayed them in their heart.

  Zander looked down at Kielyn. She was his saving grace. He had worked too hard for this. Daily he tried to reclaim the beauty’s thoughts but the mating bond between her and Ash had been too strong. Whatever happened an hour ago must have changed something, for Zander made contact with hardly any effort. Doubt, he reminded himself. Her sudden unexplained doubt in either Ash or herself must have caused the riff. Zander had eased into her mind, fueled her tortured dreams with more fear and then flown straight through her chamber windows.

  Once inside, he immediately smelled the fresh human blood on her breath, along with Ash’s recent claiming. The thought made Zander sick as he eyed the female dressed only in a white tee-shirt and panties. When she woke he would show her what a real fuck was like. He kicked off his muddy boots and grabbed a clean pair. It had been so easy. All the variables had lined up just right for him. Kielyn must have fed for the first time for the sleep she was in was typical of a newly made vampire after feeding. Zander chuckled. He knew his persistence would pay off and it had. In spades! Once doubt with its beautiful slicing sickle had entered the beauty’s head, the bond between her and her new mate weakened, making an easy path for telepathy to travel. After Zander made it into her room, the rest was a cake walk. She was sleeping so soundly a simple casting spell had kept her that way as he transferred realms.

  Zander sat down on the bed and trailed his knuckles over Kielyn’s soft milky skin. “Wake up little dove,” he whispered. “It’s time to meet the Dragon slayer.” He grinned. “Yourself…”

  ****

  Ash descended slowly from the morning sky onto the tallest hill. They had searched for hours. It was as if she had vanished from this realm entirely. The sick probability that had been gnawing at his gut since they spread out earlier was now a roaring absolution welding a double edged sword. At first he feared his actions caused her to flee, but now as the sun began to crest the horizon, the terrifying reality was that she had been taken. He could not feel her energy whatsoever which meant the connection they shared had been disturbed. Badly…There was only one other place which could create a dissolution so completely. Hell…

  Anger and fear, like none he had ever felt, sliced at him from all directions. Ash ran a dampening palm through his hair. This is my fault! He threw back his head and yelled into the peaceful calm of the morning. A covey of doves took flight from the meadow as he turned to face the sun. He had done this. He had let Kielyn down. He had failed, yet again. Stretching both arms wide, Ash dropped the protective barrier that shielded his skin from the day. He hissed as the flames took hold and his flesh began to burn and peel back on his forearms. With a morbid resolve Ash invited the stin
g that only the sun’s artful pleasure could take, becoming entranced by its strength as the blaze greedily fanned out atop his skin. Light and truthful in its unquenchable fire, its brilliant colors licking and seducing themselves to life on the breeze, an all-consuming wrath with graceful determination. Exquisite in its torture, Ash thought as he watched, with captive splendor, the destruction crawling up his arms. It wants all of me. Ash closed his eyes, lost in the pain of his failure. For a second, he considered giving into the flame…

  “Not today.” He breathed out, his voice submitting the now raging inferno under his subtle command. Its power descended into a mist as quickly as it had risen and wafted away, into nothing. The ancient Latin words of his forefathers rolled off his tongue as he stared into the challenging sun. “I am the center of all energy. I hold power and glory in my sway. My will disperses dark clouds as easily as it creates them. I have been chosen to tame the fates. I am the undying fire. I am Draco…” And today, is not your day to destroy me. He mentally added as he turned back to face the presence that had moved behind him.

  “I sent the immortals back to the estate.” Stefen landed with unquestioning grace beside Ash. “The other benders are still combing the city, but I think it’s time to call them back.” His voice trailed off. “Where would they have taken her?”

  Ash stared past him over the dew kissed grass. “To the monster himself.”

  “Fuck!” Stefen cursed. “I can’t enter there. Only those with the element of fire or an Original can penetrate the gates.”

  “I need to go alone, anyway,” Ash said. “It is me he is after.” He turned. “I’m the one he wants to punish.”

  “You’re not going alone!” Stefen grabbed his arm. “That’s a suicide mission. Besides, even if he gets you back you know he won’t let Kielyn go.”

  “You don’t know him!” Ash jerked his arm free. “He will let her go if I give myself entirely over to him. If I promise to love him back.”

  “Look Ash, I know the sick fuck has this weird obsession with you but you can’t count on that, besides your acting skills suck.” Stefen said. “There is no way you could convince him of that and he most likely wants you because he can’t have you anyway.” He waved an agitated arm. “The asshole’s a sadist! He only wants you back to torture you because that tortures him!”

  “I don’t care to stand here and discuss the love-hate affinity Dante has with me,” Ash snapped. “I just want Kielyn safe and out of that place! If I pledge my life to him without the worry of me trying to escape again…” His hands balled into fist at his sides. Could he really go back there? He would rather die, but there was no way that he would allow Kielyn to suffer one second of what he had been forced to live through! “He can do whatever he wants to me as long as he sets her free.”

  “He is right.” Both males snapped their heads around to see Alaric standing behind him, bathed in the sun’s light. “But, it needs to be more thought out than you just showing up at his castle entrance and asking for a swap out.”

  Ash was honestly glad to see the Angel King. He was man enough to realize when he was in over his head. “What do you suggest?”

  “Brother, there is no way Ash can go in alone.” Stefen interrupted.

  “He won’t go in alone,” Alaric said flatly “He will go in with Marsala, Bane, Marcus, Skyler and Dax who are all presently awaiting your return at the estate.”

  “They are here?” Ash said in half disbelief before shaking his head no. “I won’t allow them to risk their own lives. They all know what a nightmare that place is. I won’t ask them to go back there just for me.”

  “While I respect your ego, it’s not just for you.” Alaric walked past them towards the castle. “It’s for your unborn child remember.”

  “What’s the plan?” Stefen asked as he walked to catch up with his brother.

  Ash had no choice but to join them. He needed their help to save Kielyn. Future heir aside, all that mattered to Ash was Kielyn. “Yes, please, share this grand plan for as best I can tell by your math, we are still about sixteen thousand immortals too few. And there is no way I am letting Marsala go in there!”

  “You will have to fight her over that Ash,” Alaric said. “She was the one who came up with the plan.”

  Of course she was! “Was her plan to just waltz in like we had never left? Because you know Dante has the entire perimeter locked down expecting us!”

  “According to Skyler’s informant on the inside, Dante does not even know of his new guest. Zander snuck into the castle in the middle of the night carrying a female.” Alaric never broke stride. “Guess where he took her?” Ash felt fire begin to heat in his palms just thinking of the fucker touching her. “It’s not at all where I would have guessed,” Alaric continued. “He did not take her to the dungeons, or to his father to show off his prize.” The Angel King paused. “Don’t panic for it is a good thing.” He looked at Ash. “He took her to his private chambers.”

  “How on bloody earth is that a good thing!” Ash snapped.

  “I said to not panic.” Alaric narrowed his eyes. “It means that the little whelp, Zander, is finally growing a pair and standing up to his father. You see, we were also informed Dante is making Zander and Katara fight to the death next week in honor of some special guest.” Alaric tilted his head. “Now, who do you suppose Dante cares enough about to kill one of his children in front of them?”

  “Are you telling me they had this planned out all along?” Ash felt sick to his stomach.

  “Dante must have thought to have captured you by then,” Stefen spoke up. “Zander must have taken Kielyn without orders in some attempt to sabotage his father’s plans. But what would he hope to accomplish by risking so much in going solo?”

  “I have studied this family for centuries,” Alaric said. “Dante originally took your mother because he wanted a Dragon offspring. Ultimate power in Hell. He got your half-sister, Katara, who is no Dragon, but without a doubt one of the most dangerous of them all. Zander will most likely lose in this fight and he is smart enough to know it. Which is why he took Kielyn, either to try or win back his father’s affection or to use her against him.”

  “How could he use Kielyn against Dante when it is Ash he wants…” Stefen started to pace and froze. “She is the bait.” He glanced at Ash. “To either lure you in to win over his father or…”

  “My guess is to kill you,” Alaric interjected. “To take away his father’s greatest wish.” He looked at them both. “Now we just have to decide which one we want to target before we go in, father or son.”

  “Neither.” Ash said after a long pause. “We target my sister…”

  ****

  Kielyn woke with a start as if someone had snapped their fingers and flipped on a light. Her focus zeroed in on the fingers that had quite literally, snapped her awake. Beyond the hand was a pleased and grinning face of a somewhat handsome man. The man that had attacked me at the cemetery. She leapt out of the bed and across the room. Her eyes searching for exits. “Before you try and escape I think you should know that I am the least dangerous of any problems you would run into outside of this room.” The male continued to watch her from the bed. “I think we got off to a bad start and for that I apologize. I am Zander.”

  Kielyn knew she needed to keep him talking as she did a mental check list of her body’s current state. She was sore but her senses only recalled one male making her that way and it was not the one currently in the room with her. Zander had not raped her. Yet… However, she was in the same article of clothing she had fallen asleep in at the castle, an oversized tee-shirt and panties. While not the best wardrobe option to be kidnapped in, at least she was unencumbered.

  She could sense the atmosphere was different too. The elevation was way off. “Why should I trust you?” She asked placing her hands behind her as if to rest on the walls. Warm. But not heated by an electrical force. The temp in the air was being cooled by a manufactured source and working hard to do so bas
ed on the moisture that beaded on her fingertips when she withdrew her hands from the surface. “You tried to beat me to death the last time we met.”

  He laughed. “Had I wanted you dead I would have killed you, Kielyn. I merely wanted to teach you a lesson for biting me.”

  “I’m about over lessons.” Kielyn breathed in the air, humid and heavy, but unlike even the worst New Orleans summer. Something with her equilibrium was off too. Yet, at the same time, she felt more grounded.