Forged of Fire

by Stacy Von Haegert

  Castello Albornoz

  Ash recovered quickly once Christopher had arrived with Alaric and fed him with his blood source. Stefen’s Angelic blood now coursing through his veins was like a high. He rounded the long hall that led to his and Kielyn’s master suites and walked briskly to her room. He paused before knocking and looked from his chamber doors to hers. It was too great a divide. He would rectify the sleeping arrangements after he saw her. From now on his mate belonged with him, sharing a bedroom, not locked away across the hall like a guest he only enjoyed when the mood suited him. Jesus! He had been such a blind fool. No more!

  Ash rapped softly on Kielyn’s chamber doors. A soft shuffle was heard before the door was opened. Gilly, Kielyn’s Gilcolm, curtsied deeply and held the pose. “You may rise, Gilly.” The nervous girl stood, but kept her eyes cast down. “I owe you an apology.” He said just as Kielyn’s slender form came into view. His mate smiled warmly from the other side of the room. Ash had to mentally remind himself to stay focused. He looked back down to the blood slave. “Please look at me for this will be the only time you will ever hear me say these words as I intend to never again make an error to warrant an apology.” Slowly the Gilcolm did as asked. “I am sorry for scaring you and Christopher.”

  The timid Gilcolm smiled as she dropped her eyes back down to the floor. “Mistress Kielyn assured me that you would not harm us. Thank you, Your Grace.”

  “Did she now?” He looked over the top of the girl’s head, smirking at Kielyn.

  Gilly worried her hands together, clearly concerned she said too much. “She… She just said that you would not hurt us. I should not have…Oh…”

  “Do not be so nervous!” Ash said, more sternly than he intended. The girl froze in place and he mentally cursed. Just be polite. Say what I have to say and get her out the door. There was absolutely nothing that could change who he was, but Ash could at least attempt to curb his distaste for the things that made him roll his eyes. Like simpering females. There was something in him that could only respect others that matched his fire. Perhaps it was the Dragon which made him such a snob or maybe it was years of irreversible spite for the idiots that had clamored and fallen at Dante’s feet. Ash’s jaw tightened as he tried to school his voice. “Rather, try and not be overly frightened of my presence,” he corrected. Of course the poor woman was afraid of him. How could she not be, but, she would have to grow a thicker skin if she were to live in his home. Ash would not have his staff swooning on the floor every time he passed them in the hall.

  Gilly nodded her understanding. “Yes, Your Grace.”

  “Now in all fairness,” Ash felt the need to be clearer. “I can’t say I will never scare you again. But, you can trust me when I say I will not harm you.” Ash looked back to Kielyn, holding her gaze as he continued. She needed to understand this too. “You must follow the rules though. And, to be sure that everyone understands and agrees to the rules, detailed papers have been drawn up by my attorneys. Should you or Christopher falter in the agreement, your employment here will be terminated. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Your Grace.” The Gilcolm swept into another exaggerated curtsy and held it, suspended like a spider on its web.

  Ash did roll his eyes this time. Kielyn stifled a laugh from across the room, her fist quickly lifting to her mouth. His Queen was clearly enjoying this little exchange that was killing him. “You may stand,” he said when Gilly’s legs began to shake. “What century are we in?” The girl blanched, clearly confused. In Ash’s peripheral Kielyn tilted her head and pursed her lips. Ash bit his tongue. Be nice! “Never mind.” He smiled. “I will have Hamilton write up how and when to address me and by what title, and what protocol is expected for varying occasions.”

  Ash moved to the side, indicating that the Gilcolm was dismissed. Thankfully she took the cue without faltering and he shut the door behind her. “Good God, will loving you always be this hard?” He grinned.

  Kielyn’s smile broadened as she turned and walked towards the en suite door. “Consider me your personal trainer, for dealing with the masses.” She pulled her sweater off and looked back over her shoulder playfully. Ash watched as she unbuttoned her jeans, pushed the denim over her luscious hips and stepped out of them. His cock twitched painfully against his pants, instantly leading his thoughts. “I will be your public relations coach.”

  He was behind her in a flash, his hand pushing her hair off her neck as he breathed her in. “I will need all the help I can get.” He whispered into her ear as he nipped her earlobe, his hands reaching around to cup her perfect breasts. "I do have these rather animalistic tendencies, you see.”

  Kielyn turned as he walked her backwards, towards the walk-in shower. “Why don’t you let me feed your more primitive needs in private then?” She grinned. “So that the beast is well pleased and sated when needing to deal with the general public?”

  Ash felt his lips curling into a predatory grin. He reached behind her and flipped on the shower. Within seconds hot steam rose up from the open doored shower as Ash removed his shirt. Her eyes tracked his every movement with an eagerness that made a heaviness settle in his balls. Kielyn’s hands reached out to assist him by unbuttoning his pants. She pushed them over his hips as she rocked up on her toes to kiss his jaw. He groaned on contact. “Kielyn?”

  “Yes?” She stepped backwards into the cascading water. It ran like a lover over her hair, down her face, around her breasts and between her long legs. Ash had never been more jealous in his entire life.

  He stalked in after her, enjoying the soothing bite of the hot water that draped his flesh like a silk robe. The liquid fire fell around them like rain, pelting their bodies with a warmth that beckoned like an enticing mirage. Further into the clouds they were drawn until the only visible image around them was each other. Lost in the dense steam, Ash cradled the back of Kielyn’s neck in his hand and leaned in, taking her lips in his. She kissed him back with a passion that was unmeasurable. Raw, complete and honest. In one single kiss she laid her soul bare for him and as he drew back slowly, tugging her bottom lip gently between his teeth, Ash realized…He had offered the same.

  His hand caressed under her ear, memorizing the outline of her delicate skin like a poem as his touch traveled, coming to rest along the side of her face. She leaned into his open palm as he stared into her eyes of violet pools. She was everything to him. She was his destiny. She was what he had been waiting for his whole life. She alone had woken the Dragon and she alone could tame it. “I need you like no other, Kielyn.” Ash whispered against the drumming of the water, running the pad of his thumb across the surface of her cheek. “Like a wolf craves the moon. A river yearns for a course. As ink begs to bleed.” He swept his fingers over her lips. “I need you like a desert thirst. How a dream seeks out the night.” He leaned in, brushing his kiss across the flutter of her soft eyelashes. “I love you as a man saved.” Ash pulled back. “You, Kielyn LaGoryen, are my reason to breath, my motivation to rise, my never-ending challenge and my ever consuming desire. You are in one solitary word…my savior. ”

  Searing tears crested over her lashes and ran to collect amongst the water in his hand. “Oh Ash…” Her lip trembled. “I want to give you something, for you are my savior.”

  She pressed into his body, soft curves melting into hard, angular planes. Ash could feel her heat. She was fire. His cock jutted up, anxious to be bathed in her flames. “You have already given me everything.”

  A slow grin painted itself delicately across the contours of her rose colored lips. “What if I said you were wrong?”

  Ash tilted his head. “What more is there than everything, my love?”

  She pushed up and whispered against his ear. “A child...”

  Ash felt his heart flip on end in his chest. Surely not. Already? "Are you sure?” He stared, a million emotions assaulting him at once.

  She nodded eagerly. “How else could Angels enter Hell?” She ran her hand up his length, pulling a
hiss of pleasure from his mouth as she fitted him to her slick entrance. “You, Ashdon LaGoryen have planted your claiming seed deep within me and made me yours, body and soul.”

  The words combined with the sensation was more than any aphrodisiac and he nudged past her velvety barrier. The intrusion enticed a soft mew from her throat as her body clamped down around him. She wrapped her arms around him as her kiss sought his. “I love you, Ashdon LaGoryen,” she breathed into his mouth and let her weight relax, sliding further down his shaft. “My King.” She kneaded her nails into his tight muscles. “Take me. Take what belongs to you…”

  ****

  Stefen had been in and out of lucidity for the better part of twenty-four hours. But, he was very much awake now as he took in the concerned faces of his brother, Kielyn, Ash and of all beings, Pythia. He sat up, leaning back against a pillow on the bed. The bed, in the chambers Ash appointed him when he first arrived at the Italian estate. His eyes wandered from his brother’s, to Ash’s, to Kielyn’s, to the Oracle he had met a month ago. A month… In a months’ time his life altered more than it had in over two thousand years. His gaze stayed fixated on Pythia. She told him when he saved Kielyn weeks ago that he was somehow tied to her. Now he wondered if this was all part of what she meant. Her golden eyes remained somber as she looked back at him. She had aged. Correction, she was aging at a rapid rate, right before his new sensory enhanced eyes. Why?

  “Did you hear her brother?” Alaric jolted him from his stare. “Pythia asked if you had any questions.”

  No she hadn’t. Stefen was looking right at her. Her mouth never moved. “What happened after I died?” Stefen looked at his brother, pushing aside the strange feeling he was losing his mind. There would be no good to come from making them all think that Ash had created a crazy Fanger. “Rather, who is in control of Hell now?” He amended.

  “It is unknown still what happened to Katara and Zander. They seemed to have vanished after you were struck down,” Alaric said. “Kielyn, with an assist from your new maker, avenged your death on Bane and Ash took out Dante. For good.”

  “So now we just have to deal with Dante’s spawn. Assuming they survived,” Stefen mused out loud. “Thank you.” He looked to Ash before smiling warmly in Kielyn’s direction.

  “I can’t accept any thanks unfortunately.” Ash said as he looped his arm around Kielyn’s waist and drew her closer to his side. “I barely remember anything that occurred after I saw Kielyn enter the fighting pit.”

  “Still working on that possessive jealousy trait, Ash?” Stefen teased. Ash answered him with an aristocratic eye roll. Stefen wanted to chuckle, but held it in. He felt nothing but love, like a sister, for the young redheaded bender. But, after everything Ash had been through, Stefen could totally understand the Fire-King’s desire to keep her on a short leash. “And the others?”

  “We lost many under my watch,” Alaric said. “But Marsala, Dax. Kizer and Marcus made it out. Skyler is presumed dead.”

  “Any idea if she was part of Bane’s treason?” Stefen asked.

  “No,” Kielyn answered. “If she was, she received no praise for it. Either she was clueless or she was stabbed in the back by Bane like the rest of us after getting what he wanted.”

  Stefen nodded his understanding as he held out his hands to inspect them. It was so surreal, they looked the exact same only… Duller. He looked closer. There were tiny lines on them, like wrinkles and the natural weathering that would have occurred over time to a mortal. “Do I look older?”

  Ash laughed. “You look more real.”

  Stefen stared at Ash like he had grown a second head before moving to push the cover aside. He would see for himself. Kielyn halted him with her hand. “Here.” She walked over to a large vanity and brought him a mirror. “I think you look more handsome.” She smiled warmly as she held out the looking glass.

  Stefen lifted it. “Fucking A!” He reached up to touch his jaw, his fingers moving curiously over his newly grown stubble and up to the fine lines around his eyes. They were not deep, but definitely not an Angel’s skin. “I look like a human!”

  “Careful now or you will give me a complex.” Ash smirked.

  “I thought Vampires stayed in the exact form of which they were turned?” Stefen asked.

  “We do,” Ash answered. “However you died on your own before you were made a Vampire. When I turned you, you must have taken on the age of the Dragon that healed you. Or rather, the age in which I was made immortal. You will forever look my age. Twenty-five.” He grinned. “Hardly ancient.”

  Stefen set the mirror down on the bed beside him. It was more than his outward appearance that felt different. It was as if he were the same on the inside yet, totally changed. His skin seemed to wrap around his muscles differently, as if it had more of a compacted density than his Angel form. His senses were faster too, or, at least sound and sight seemed to be turned all the way up now. He would need to learn to adapt quickly to that or else the blasted cricket outside the castle, in the pond, a half-acre away, would drive him to madness. “It’s a very surreal thing being a Vampire.” He looked up after a moment. “It’s parallel in many ways to being as I was but more… organic.”

  His brother actually chuckled. The unusual sound seemed to draw everyone’s attention to him. Alaric quickly replaced his mirth with the stoic ruler demeanor he was known for. “Organic?”

  “Are you not curious Alaric?” Kielyn teased.

  “Are you not?” Alaric smirked. “He just compared your species to a natural substance.”

  Kielyn laughed. “Well, I must confess, I would love to know the difference.”

  “It’s hard to explain.” Stefen searched his vocabulary to put into words what he was feeling. “Emotions seem stronger now. Desire is tenfold what it used to be.”

  “Heaven help us!” Alaric chuckled.

  Stefen cut his eyes to his brother. “If I did not know better, I would think you are happy that I’m alive.”

  Alaric grew somber again and walked towards the bed. “I would not know what to do… If I had lost you.” He reached out and touched Stefen’s arm briefly before pulling his hand back to his side. The simple action was the first time Stefen could recall his brother ever being anything that resembled compassionate in public. He would not let on that he knew his older brother had not once left his side over the last twenty-four hours. Stefen definitely would not let it be known he had felt his sibling’s tears on his hand as he slept. No, his brother needed the mask he so carefully wore. Stefen would not be the one to try and remove it. “You should rest.” Alaric said.

  “I do seem to get tired easily,” Stefen concurred. “Will that side effect go away with time?”

  “It’s the process,” Ash stated. “Well, that and I’m sure being resurrected from the dead and thrust into a totally different species, an Angel-Vampire-Dragon no less,” he added. “Would add to the stress your body has undergone. Rest and nutrients is the best thing for you at this stage.”

  “What’s the next stage?” Alaric asked.

  “We will need to assess what skills he now possesses and get a better understanding of what the Dragon that lives inside him looks like,” Ash said. “He took my blood so we will start by seeing if he was passed down any fire abilities. The Dragon will be a waiting game, as you are aware. Mine did not appear for over twelve centuries. We also need to find out if any of his Angelic traits remain. We know he died, but clearly, his personality remained intact.” Ash shrugged. “There is much we must discover, but I will do my part to help him understand his new life.” He looked at Stefen. “You are welcome here for as long as you want to be. We are the only two living Dragons after all.”

  “For now.” Pythia finally spoke up.

  All the rooms’ occupants faced her. She was now a white haired, withered old lady, at least to Stefen’s eyes. “Pythia, why are you aging so fast?”

  “What do you mean, brother?” Alaric asked.

  “He can see
that I’m dying.” The Oracle answered for Stefen. “I interfered with a life and this is the sentence for doing so. Your brother is the only one that can see because he is the life I affected.”

  “Why did you do it?” Stefen sat up straighter in his bed. “Why condemn yourself to death for me?”

  The old woman smiled kindly. “I did not do it for you per se. I did it for the bigger picture.” She reached a gnarled and bony hand out, gesturing towards Kielyn and then to Ash. “Three will walk the earth someday that are tied by this blood. All will struggle and all will rise. Three will fly. Two will rule. One will be your greatest test.” She looked back to Stefen. “All of them will need your added strength, but one of them will require your protection.” Pythia’s eyes grew soft as she began to walk towards the door. “I must be going.”

  “Wait!” Ash rushed, a mild panic lacing his tone. “What do you mean, our greatest test?”

  “My time is near.” The Oracle stated calmly.

  Stefen reached out to stop her as she moved past him. “How will I…” She dissolved into a thin mist. He cursed and kicked the blankets off, rushing to the frosted window. Sure enough, trotting towards the woods was a lone black wolf. The animal looked back towards his window, it’s muzzle grey with age, but it’s gold eyes still keenly sharp.