Ash: Love Me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance (7 page)

“What are you going to do?” Jaz was leaning back on the couch with her mouth open, staring at Brook.

“I don’t know. The caller said if I turned myself over to him he would allow me to live under his supervision.”

She spent her lifetime living under supervision. Go here, Brook, do this. No, her father would say young women should not be so forward or head strong. You must listen Brook, curb your tongue. When she asked how she would one day rule a country her father laughed. That will be your husband’s job. She understood supervision as well as Jaz did and she refused to live like that again, she’d rather be dead.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.” The words fell out of Jaz’s mouth like cement bricks.

“Is it bad for you, Jaz?”

She ducked her head and refused to look Brook in the eyes.

“Imagine how much worse it would be for me to be a prisoner of some stranger whose only interest in me is my wealth. I can’t, I won’t live like that.”

“What are your options?”

“I run and hide, change frequency’s and hope he can’t find me. I’ll hire bodyguards. Call Ash.” She touched her ear and thought his frequency.

“Ash.”

“Hi, it’s Brook.”

“I know,” she could hear the smile in his voice. “Are you ready for me to pick you up?”

“I have to tell you something first. Someone tried to kill me.”

“Tell me everything.” His voice was soft wrapping around her making her feel safe.

She told him about the shopping and what she bought. Then moved on to tell him how Jaz was mistreated in a store and what she did about it. Finally, as she ran out of steam, she told him about coming back to her body and reaching into her bag to be bitten by a snake. Then she admitted she was scared to open her other bags; what if they had snakes in them too. She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye glad he wasn’t there to see her cry.

“I’ll make sure the bags are safe to open when I get there, leave them sealed until then.”

“Ash, maybe you shouldn’t come for me. I’ve been thinking I could change my frequency, leave the city. How would he find me? I refuse to live under his supervision telling me what I can and can’t do. I don’t want to put you in jeopardy. This way you can go on with your life. Maybe in a couple of years we can meet back up…”

She let her words die. What was the use if she left? It meant she would have to hide forever. That meant she wouldn’t be able to see Ash again, but it would be for the best.

The knock on Jaz’s door took her by surprise.

“Who is it?” Jaz approached the door carefully looking back at Brook with fear in her eyes.

“Ash.”

“It can’t be Ash he’s talking to me,” Brook said.

“I’m talking to you and standing at the door.” His voice came from the ear piece and in front of the door at the same time.

Brook nodded when Jaz looked at her again. She opened the door to see a tall male with red hair and eyes standing before her.

“Hello, Jazlyn. I am Ash.” He extended his hand and took hold of hers gently pumping it up and down.

She moved to the side and he walked over to Brook pulling her into his arms for a hug.

“Are you all right?”

“I am. How did you get her so fast?”

“I was in the neighborhood.” He never left making sure his mate was safe was his first priority.

Brook stared at him for a minute then wrapped her arms around him again. He amazed her.

She nuzzled against his chest. What do you think I should do, Ash?”

“Come home.”

“Home?”

“Yes Brook, home. To the place where you slept in my arms last night and caused a bubble cascade this morning. Home.”

“You’ll be in danger.”

“Won’t be the first time or the last. Whatever is happening we will face it together.”

She nodded her head and took a peak at Jaz who was wiping a tear.

“What about my bags?”

Ash walked over to them pulling a small rectangular object out of his pants. He found two more snakes in her bags and one in Jaz’s. Taking out a thick bag and opening it, he was able to remove each snake and encapsulate them in the one bag.

“What will you do with them?” Jaz asked from the chair she sat in with her feet pulled up when she realized that she too could have died today.

“They will be taken to a place where they can’t hurt anyone and die in the process.” He walked over to Brook who was now sitting on the couch. His hand rubbed the back of her neck relaxing her. “Are you ready?”

She nodded and stood. Walking over to Jaz, she bent down hugging her. “Don’t worry about me, I will be fine. Take care of yourself.”

She turned to face Ash. “Ready.”

“It was nice to meet you, Jazlyn. I want to extend an invitation to my home anytime you wish to come. If you need a sanctuary, Jazlyn, you are always welcome.”

“You don’t know what I am.” Her shame filled her whispering voice.

“Not only do I know, Jazlyn, I don’t care.”

She flicked her eyes to his before lowering her head. A subtle nod was all she had to give.

He walked out the door with Brook following him. Her eyes were bright and she looked at Ash with pride. He was hers and he treated her friend like she was gold.

He led her through the corridor until they reached the lift. Once there they went to the main floor and out to his lone hover car.

“What if someone is tracking us?”

“I want to wish them good luck trying to break into Dante’s level.”

“Why are we going there?”

“Because he’s family and families help each other. Besides, Dante always knows more than he says. He will help.”

The trip was easy. He turned on music and she shook her head. How could anyone call this music? A bubble of laughter came to her lips and she clearly remembered her parents shaking their heads and asking how anyone could call what she was listening to music.

Somethings never changed, she just wondered if she would be able to tolerate how the world changed but she stayed the same. They moved up level by level. The lower levels always seemed to be the most congested. She called those levels the downtown areas. The places everyone seemed to need to be on a daily basis. The levels on top of that seemed to be the residential levels. Each level took you higher into a better neighborhood.

They had left all that behind. They were coming to the level she called the Dante level. Very few people seemed to be this far up. They passed that level and went to one above it.

“Dante and his brothers live up here. They have houses scattered about. We’re going to Dante’s house.”

It was pristine and peaceful. The levels below had a faint fog that seemed to cover them, but not up here. The sun shone as brightly on this level as it did on the ground. Being up here made her feel like she was on the ground except, it was as if the Earth had never been touched. As she looked around, she saw trees in the distance. Must be an illusion.

The roads looked like she should be able to walk on them without falling. She shook her head to dispel such silly thoughts. Logically, she knew walking on the streets up here was an impossibility, except the longer she stayed with Ash the more she began to think everything was possible.

“Ash, I know this is crazy but I have an urge to get out of the car and walk in the street.” He stopped the car.

In a blink of an eye, he was out and standing next to her door. He opened it giving her a hand. She stepped out the car still waiting to sink. They walked side by side away from the car.

“How’s this possible?”

“Dante and his brothers lived up here long before the war started. In fact, they were sky dwellers on our original planet. When they constructed their area, they made sure it did everything they wanted. If they invite a human up, they want them to be safe. If there was an area where you could not walk, it would be plainly marked.”

They walked back to the car. That’s when she saw the tires were down, they weren’t hovering they were driving. The highway seemed to extend for miles on either side. She sat back in the car and closed her eyes. New Pittsburgh was as different from old Pittsburgh as night was from day. Still in the end, it was where she wanted to be.

“Brook, open your eyes. You won’t want to miss this.”

Her eyes popped open. In front of her in the distance was a house stretched out like a mansion. Behind it was the most majestic waterfall she ever saw. The water cascaded down from a high mountain top and the sun sat right above the mountain bathing it all in a golden glow.

“It’s beautiful.” Her mouth hung with awe. “Who lives there?”

“Dante.”

He pulled closer allowing her to see the house was all on one level. It was both wide and deep. Ash pulled up the long driveway and parked in front of the main entrance.

She waited until he opened her door before climbing out. Her eyes were everywhere taking in the scene in front of her.

“Is that waterfall real? What about the mountains and the trees? Do they have seasons this far above the Earth?”

“Let’s go inside and ask.”

She took his hand wanting the feeling of security that came with every touch from him. They stood on the porch as he rang the doorbell. The door silently opened but no one was on the other side of it.

“They must be in the back.” He led her through the house, one she was sure she would need a map to find her way around, and out a back door.

They stepped into a large open area filled with comfortable chairs as well as several tables for eating, and a huge outdoor kitchen. Beyond that was a large grassy area followed by a pond that served as a pool. The waterfall fell into it. Off to the left was a small river that the overflow of water ran into. The beauty of what she was seeing overwhelmed her senses.

“It’s a natural wonderland up here,” Brook said.

“Thank you,” Dante replied.

“Can I ask how you did it?”

“We—my brothers and I, simply asked ourselves what did home look like to us and we set about creating it here,” Dante replied looking around his place.

She looked at Dante then his brother. “Thank you for allowing me to come and enjoy the beauty you’ve taken such care creating here.”

“You’re welcome,” a brother she didn’t know replied.

“Brook, let me introduce you to the brothers in birth order. Dante you already know.” He gave her a wink. “Mick is the one who just spoke.”

She looked at him he was gorgeous with his long brown hair and sky blue eyes. He gave her a formal bow.

“Julian you know from the restaurant.”

How could she ever forget his black hair and green eyes? He was mystery and humor all rolled up into one nice package.

“The next is Lucca.” He had an easy charm. His blonde hair paired with his blues eyes beckoning her closer.

“Then there is Damon.” He raised his hand so she would know who he was. His hair was red with streaks of black in it.

“The last born was Raphael.” He stood and took a bow. He had been swimming in the pond. His silver hair was plastered against his head and his muscular body was on display.

Brook looked at each brother. They were beyond attractive and then she looked at Ash. Her heart beat faster. No one could compare to him. She threw him a smile that said there’s only one you.

“Have a seat.” Dante motioned to Ash and Brook. “Tell us what’s happening.”

“Maybe we just came because I missed you.”

Dante lifted one long beautiful eyebrow and Ash put his hands up and laughed.

“That’s not why we came, but you guys are like brothers to me.”

They took on hard masculine faces, the kind where the friendship was real, but you didn’t show it to the world. Brook decided she was still considered the world but didn’t worry about it because she wasn’t going anywhere. Now all they needed to do was start bumping chests and this picture would be complete.

Dante looked at her and threw her another one of those mischievous winks and smiles. Once again, she wondered who he was. There was something about him that stuck out like a sore thumb, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. It would drive her crazy until she pegged it.

Ash’s smile dropped. He stood up, and grabbed a bottle of water. She smiled at him, he was part of the reason there was bottle water to grab.

“Someone’s trying to kill Brook. I got in touch with Aran and asked him to put the family on it but I am not sure what they can do from wherever they are.”

“Never underestimate Aran. We talked today and have come up with a potential person of interest.”

Ash shook his head. Of course, they talked. They always talked and somehow between the two of them they always seemed to know what to do. But who led whom? He was beginning to wonder that more and more. There was something between the two of them, some dynamic after all the centuries, that he still missed.

“What did you come up with?”

“Bear with me as I go over a little background. Brook’s parents were the king and queen of a small but very rich country. Their riches gave them a powerful seat in the government. Think of them as the unseen controller of several decisions that made the US people gasp because they couldn’t understand where it was coming from.

Then one day, out of the blue, Brook’s father decides to have her frozen. He tells no one, wipes every trace of his daughter from the face of the Earth and kills the few people who know where she is.” Dante stopped to watch the shock on Brook’s face.

“There was a coup coming and your father knew it. He only had one thing worth saving that he could actually save, and it was you, Brook. He couldn’t save his people, no one could. All he could do was force them into hiding until it was all over. He couldn’t save himself or his wife, their lives were already forfeited but he could save his only daughter and he would do it if it was the last thing he did. They searched for you everywhere until you were no more than a ghost. I know, I watched Ash search for you also, long after everyone stopped.”

The look on Ash’s face was pure agony that Dante knew where Brook was and never told him. The pain he suffered through was easily seen.

Her father saved her life. Her parents saved her life. They knew they would never see her again. The tears in her mother’s eyes and the repeated “I love you’ made more sense now. That wasn’t a parent who expected to be reunited with her child in a couple of years. They died knowing she would live. Tears flowed. She thought they betrayed her; instead they sacrificed themselves for her. The sound of Dante still speaking brought her out of her thoughts.

“Someone found you, we believe it was roughly twenty years ago and they found the enormous amount of money that you brought to the table. I am sure they thought they would be able to live off you forever without anyone knowing. In the end those things are hard to do especially when we have people who love to trace the money and have centuries of doing it just for the fun of it. Then the order came for you to be revived.”

“Who ordered me to be revived? I asked Jazlyn, my friend, and she didn’t know.”

Dante shrugged, paced a little and continued his story.

“Once you were revived your money became an issue. Every cent reverted to you and whoever was siphoning off of it got cut off. Now we believe this person no longer needs your money. He is extremely rich in his own right, but that doesn’t matter because he now believes both you and your money belong to him. We need to disabuse him of this notion.”

“Who do you think it is?” Ash’s eyes sparked bright. The pain still easy to see.

“He is known as the Patron.”

Brook felt a chill go through her. Jaz talked about him in hushed tones and only in places she didn’t believe she was being watched. He is hailed as the savior of New Pittsburgh, putting it back on the map. It is whispered he is the devil incarnate, taking what he wants when he wants and leaving a trail of bodies behind him.

People who spoke ill of him seemed to disappear. Now everyone praised him whether they wanted to or not.

“How will I ever be able to escape a man like that?”

“You can’t, but escape isn’t what you want. He respects one thing only and that’s power. He will have to see you and Ash as a unified front. Once he understands that Ash will tear him apart if a hair on your head is touched, he will turn his gaze toward other things. I am sure there is something he wants more than your wealth.”

Dante sat down and she watched his eyes swirled. The tilt of his head and the strength in his shoulders kicked loose the detail she was looking for. She sat straight up in her chair and opened her mouth to ask when Dante put a finger in front of his lips. He shook his head just enough for her to see and his eyes blazed. She sat back in her chair; his secrets were his own and she wouldn’t be bringing them out in the open.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“We let him know that touching you means death,” Ash replied.

Each brother agreed.

She looked around the room. She didn’t know them, she hardly knew Ash although she guessed that spending a few centuries thinking about him made her feel much closer to him.

Standing, she began to pace—it was all too much. In a matter of minutes, history rewrote itself and now she wasn’t the child of parents who didn’t really care. She was the lone survivor from a group of people who died to keep their princess safe. She wouldn’t give into tyranny, she was raised on the principles of truth and justice and she would live and die for them.

“I need a will.”

They looked at her with unblinking eyes.

“My last will and testament. It states if anything happens to me all my worldly possessions go to a certain person or persons. We will have to be careful because the people I choose will then have a target on their backs.”

“Who would you choose?” Ash asked her.

“You. All of you. Equal distribution between the seven of you.”

“Are you sure?” Dante asked her quietly.

“Yes, I would leave it to Jaz but she can’t protect herself.”

“No worries,” Ash spoke up, “we will all take care of her.”

She nodded her head. “Let’s get it done. Do you think he will stop coming after me then?”

“No,” Dante shook his head, “but we bought ourselves some time. Brook, I need you to understand that for three hundred years we stood by Ash’s side while he mourned you. Neither I nor my brothers need your money. By you making us your beneficiaries, you have made us your guardians along with your mate. We would die to keep you alive. None of us will watch Ash suffer again.”

It must be the day for tears because she couldn’t stifle them and she knew Dante and his brothers were good for every word Dante uttered. She once again had a family. Ash came over and tucked her into his body. She cried on his shirt. She’d have to take over the dry cleaning bill if she kept getting his clothes wet.

“Are we ready?” Dante stood with an easy smile. His body morphing back and forth between a slim build and a more muscular body builder.

Damon rolled his eyes. “Pick a shape big brother, and tell us where we are going.”

Dante settled somewhere in between, he was slim like a swimmer but packed with more muscle.

“We are going to meet Quintus; he will draw up the paperwork.”

“Shouldn’t we call and ask him first?”

“Let me take care of that,” was all Dante said.

Ash walked her back to the front of the house where they had parked the car. Dante and his brothers had piled into two hybrid jeeps. The jeep emblem was easy to see, but it was definitely futuristic. The fact that they had them meant jeep was still in the running for great SUV’s.  Ash took off.

“We’ll meet them there.”

“I hope he’s there.”

“Quin is there, don’t worry about it.”

She sat back and watched as the beautiful landscape of the brothers’ world disappeared as she entered the human zones which were beautiful in their own right, just not like what they had.

“Ash, are all the brother’s properties as great as Dante’s?”

“Yes. That’s one of the things about being Created, each set of brothers think alike in certain things. Housing is one of them. I have yet to meet a group of Created who live in radically different housing. Security is another. We encourage each other when it comes to security, constantly upgrading. Once the first brother finds a mate our senses heighten further. When Aran made the decision to leave, he upgraded every one’s security starting with mine because I would be staying behind. When he was done, I thought I was living in a fortress. I complained once to Dante after Aran was gone. He called his brothers because he wanted them all to be able to laugh at me at once. I got it. Family protects family no matter where they are.”

Brook nodded with a sad smile. Family protects family, like hers protected her. All these months of bitterness gone in a moment of time. She should have known but she was too busy kicking and screaming because she wanted to meet with Ash, but her dad knew there wasn’t time for it.  Her life or a visit to the man of her dreams. He cared about her life more.

Ash pulled into the ground level parking space.

“Ground level?”

“Quintus has a theory; if you’re too chicken to put your feet on the Earth then you’re too chicken to do what is necessary to take care of yourself. One day we will come and sit across the street. It is amusing to watch desperate people of power touch their feet to ground for the first time.”

Brook climbed out of the car and looked around. The landscape was immaculate; there was a beautiful park across the street. The street was clean with nothing but their car and the cars of Dante and his brother parked before them.

The building gleamed white with metal accents that threw color at the white making it shift colors as the sun rode across the sky. This portion of the city was beautiful.

She took a deep breath and turned to Ash. “Let’s do this.” They walked into the building.