Page 12

ASH

I woke in the arms of a stone man. A literal stone man, without a heartbeat.

I slapped Dolion’s chest and earned myself a stinging hand for my troubles. “This is not comfortable,” I told the dead man beneath me,” and swore I heard a rumble within his solid chest in reply.

Between my legs ached, though not in a bad way. My thighs throbbed, and the scent of him, all spice and musk of an age gone long by was all over me. I didn’t object to any of it. Finally—freaking finally —I managed a lover who didn’t combust on impact. Or thrust, in my case.

Not only was Dolion apparently fireproofed, or fire repellent in any case, he also had a way of bringing me back from the edge of my worst panic attacks. The moment one came on last night, he kissed me and provided the perfect distraction from what made taking a lover so terrifying.

Instead of igniting the world, he only created a long, hot burn inside of me—and maybe, him. That, I didn't object to at all. And so I cuddled my stone stature of a man, twisted gargoyle features and pink toe nails and all, and fell back to sleep.

The sun had set when I woke to a frantic knocking on my door.

I sat up next to a human looking Dolion rather than the gargoyle stone version, and rubbed my eyes.

“It’s open,” I called groggily, wondering which of my neighbors had run through their weekly groceries or had enough juicy gossip that they simply had to share the good news right now.

Except it wasn’t a neighbor who strode through my house and right into my room. It was a vampire.

“Did I really just invite you in? Get out.” I flapped at Sebastian’s silhouette. “The two of you are turning me into a bat.”

He frowned. Okay, my eyes were closed and I couldn’t see it but I could feel him frowning. “You don’t look like a bat.”

“No, but now I have the nocturnal habits of one.”

“And you have strange sleeping arrangements. Didn’t you slap me last night?”

“I found a stone man with no heart beat in my bed,” I reminded Dolion as he sat up, apparently completely refreshed and right as rain.

“Stop it,” Sebastian snapped. “I didn’t come here to find you playing lovers with each other.”

“I thought that was the point you were trying to make when you dragged me out of my sleep,” Dolion said in a pointed voice.

I didn’t think he meant the few hours we managed wrapped in each other’s arms.

A feral sound escaped the vampire that might have been stuck somewhere between a snarl and a growl. “Anitta. I found her. And she’s impersonating your firebird.” Sebastian whirled and left my home in a flurry of mutters and suppressed curses even as Dolion’s fingers stiffened on my spine.

“I suppose our brief honeymoon period is over then,” I said ruefully, stretching along his body, and rested my fingers on his muscular stomach. How much muscle this man possessed blew my mind. Just like how much of…other things his body had.

Dolion didn't move for a long moment. So long that I thought he might have reverted to his other state.

“You should stay here,” he said finally, slipping out of my bed and grabbed his clothes without looking at me.

“What?” I lay in the bed alone, half covered by the sheet I’d pulled up out of habit, though my body heat didn’t really require it. “No. I'm coming with you.”

“Steorra.” Dolion, already half dressed, finished buttoning his pants.

He crouched before me, and clasped both hands around my face, staring into my eyes.

“The last time I faced this enemy, she took from me everything my heart desired.” His voice rasped on that last word and though no tears swap across his gaze, the pain that darkened his amber eyes was undeniable.

“I wouldn't repeat that occasion. Not with someone that I?—”

He broke off, and placed his mouth over mine in a gentle kiss that might have lasted a breath or an eon. I couldn’t tell which before he was gone and the door to my home swung gently shut behind him while I was still recovering.

But I had my own means of transportation, and Dolion wasn’t the only talented one around here who liked to get his own way with a kiss.

Even if it was a good kiss. A really damn good kiss.

My lips tingled as I pulled on a bright orange dress, hand embroidered with gold and turquoise threads.

Two of my favorite colors. One of my neighbors had embellished the gift for me years ago and I’d loved it so much the material had softened with wear.

That didn't prevent me from flashing my way to the highest point I knew—the convent—and then across the city d to the place where cross gathered in a fury.

Because that was where I would find her, the woman pretending to be me.

And she did a decent job. Kind of.

Anitta, terrifying demoness and sorcerer supreme—it sounded like yet another rip off superhero movie in the making—stood on top of my crypt in my graveyard, wielding flame from both hands.

I never did that, but it’s kind of impressive. Waste of energy though.

Her laugh cackled madly across the graves.

If she was going for an effect of madness and disrespect in front of the city’s populace in my name, she’d certainly achieved it from the disgruntled mutters that surrounded me.

Hate brewed faster than love and I’d spent the last years hidden away, my true nature a secret I kept to myself and more recently, one other.

Only those in my treetop street knew something about me was different, even if they didn’t know what exactly. I kept that part of myself secreted away, too.

Friendless. Alone.

The years and decades of accumulated nothingness filled the expanding void inside me as my own heat built, the panic overwhelming as always.

Dolion, I need your kisses now . But his attention was locked right where it needed to be: on the threat of the woman who was far more dangerous than I gave credit for initially.

Fake as fuck she might be, but this creature wielded my flames in a PR campaign I couldn’t match.

She had planned this night well and I didn't know how to fight, except with my own fire. And that, for this city, just like all others through my turbulent history, would be catastrophic.

“The hair is a bit off,” I said from my place right behind Dolion and Sebastian, managing to scare the shit out of both from the way the vampire and the gargoyle jerked.

Sebastian barely spared me a glance, his attention returning to his sire as Dolion spun about to face me, his expression twisted into his stone grotesque form for a moment, fury reflected in his citrine eyes. “I told you to?—”

“You don’t tell me to do anything,” I said flatly. “We aren’t there yet, stone man.”

His mouth thinned into a tight line before thick arms engulfed me. “You scared me.”

“I know,” I said, proud, though my words came out muffled against his chest. “I’m claiming it.”

He laughed into my hair, crushing me against his impossibly huge body. “You shouldn't be here. It’s not safe for you.”

Large hands petted my hair, sliding through the tangled mass I hadn't bothered to brush before I zipped across town to find out what all the fuss was about. Light flashed about us as the demoness continued her stage show.

“Nowhere is safe for me. But also, don’t leave me like that. It was rude.”

"You're right.” His words stopped me when I struggled against his chest and I looked up at him to find him staring straight down at me and ignoring the world and all that went on around us.

The crowd, the mad cackling creature. Everything.

He focused solely on us. “I was scared. Scared that I would lose the woman I loved the second time. To the same creature. Because of the same evil.”

My breath stalled. “That’s not going to happen,” I managed, squeezing my thighs together where the evidence of our midnight fantasies still dampened my skin.

“And you're just saying that because you have to, because you took my virginity last night, and I mean, who helps out a six thousand year old creature who couldn't get herself laid in six freaking millennia ?—”

Dolion’s mouth crushed mine in a kiss to end all kisses. The crowd’s muttering and hate disappeared as the scent of him enveloped me, midnight promises and eternity and peace in that touch. I sighed in his arms, letting go of everything that panicked me, letting him in. Letting him hold me.

“I love you, ma Steorra,” he whispered against my lips. “Not because of some outdated version of chivalry, or because you think I owe it to you. Because you are everything to me, and I will not live in this world with a beating heart without you.”

I smiled against his mouth. “What more can a girl want?”

“Eternity together.”

“Not going to happen if that bitch gets her hands on your woman.” Tifa materialized beside us in a flurry of shawls. She flapped her tassels at me. “You should not be here.”

I sighed in the circle of Dolion’s arms. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“You don’t know how powerful she is.” Sebastian backed into Dolion as a wave of heat blasted over our heads. Everyone else ducked. Dolion didn’t move as Sebastian cursed, tucking Tifa into his arms. “We should not be here.”

“And yet here we are. Should we not just get this showdown over and done with?” I waved a hand in Anitta’s direction, and frowned at the vampire. “Is there a rule about not killing the one who made you, or something?"

Sebastian’s gaze locked onto me. “Not for lack of trying," he grated. “She might look ridiculous up there, but don’t be fooled. This woman can turn a crowd against you in seconds.”

Dolion’s hands closed on my arms. “You shouldn't be here, Steorra,” he rumbled, the sound merging with something deeper inside him.

I glanced up at his face, frowning. “Alright, then we take this showdown on the road, to somewhere quieter, you all move away and, poof, ash. Simple. Okay?” I said brightly.

The vampire and the gargoyle sighed.

“Steorra…”

“Alright, what am I missing?” I searched their faces. “ Tell me. ”

Dolion tightened his hold on me. “We’re leaving.”

I looked up at him, placed my hand on his chest. His heart pounded strong, but fast. Fear. I could almost scent it rolling off him.

“Alright. We will fight her another day.”

Breath left him in a long whoosh. “Thank you, my star.” His lips brushed my temple and something around my ribs popped as he crushed me to him in a hard hug, moving us through the back of the crowd in long strides.

A fireball whisked over our heads, halting our path.

“That one had a really good aim,” I muttered, peeking around his shoulder, and paid proper attention to the demoness for the first time.

“Too good,” Dolion agreed, and sighed. “I guess we are doing this your way, Steorra.”

Another fireball zoomed over my head, close enough to singe hair. Ugh, I hate that smell.

“I guess so.”

I turned to face my foe, the woman who had dressed like me, and wore a facsimile of my face with terrible hair. The only difference was that hers wasn’t on fire.

And she stood less than five paces away, wearing a terrible, terrible smile on her face as she sank her blade deep into Sebastian’s side.

And the vampire dropped to the trampled grave dirt beneath our feet.