Forged of Fire (16 page)

“Go ahead.” Ash stopped abruptly and closed his hands, sniffing out the fire. “She belongs to another anyway.” He shrugged. “I have only two goals: A, to kill you. B, to kill your father. I can sleep happily knowing I achieved one of them this morning and I won’t even need fire to do it.” He looked up to the pink hue lifting over the cemetery’s mausoleums. “Speaking of morning.” A grin showed on his lips when he looked back to Zander. “You’re out past your curfew, are you not?”

“You’re bluffing.” Zander inhaled deeply into Kielyn’s hair. "I can smell your scent all over this one. Tell me, does she fuck as well as she…”

A sharp stabbing pain locked on to his shoulders like talons and he was catapulted off the ground. Zander thrashed out, kicking and whipping his arms for anything to grab hold of as the ground grew further and further away. Panic set in when the pink of the sun’s warning began to change to bright yellow. “Unhand me!” He looked down in alarm. Ash and the girl were no longer on the ground. “Let me go!” Further up, he ripped at the back of his head, trying to connect with whatever had a hold of him. Faster still he rose until the cemetery was a speck. The yellow hue blazed to a fiery red just as his skin burst into flames. “No!!!” Zander’s bellow of excruciating torture, soul-racking hate and barbaric death ripped from his lungs, slicing at the new morning sky like blades down a canvas. His own screams were the last thing he heard. Then he was dropped…

****

Ash could barely make out her words as he dragged her behind him down the house’s many halls. How he had contained his anger all the way from the cemetery to the interior of Bane’s residence was a marvel. Now that she was safe inside the walls of the Water-benders home, all Ash’s hard fought control was unraveling at a rapid pace. He had to find calmness somehow or he would hurt her. He wanted very much to hurt her right now. Ash needed to release the emotions that were boiling just under the surface of his skin. She had put herself at risk. He had almost lost her! Lost her to a monster!

He flung open the door to her room and shoved her inside. “Sit on that bed.” She quickly did as ordered then started to open her mouth. “No! Do not utter a Goddamn word! To anyone! Until I get back. Nod if you understand.” Tears sprung up in her eyes but she managed the nod. “I will be back when I have calmed down, in twenty minutes. You will sit in that exact spot, legs crossed, and hands in your lap, spine straight, not moving a muscle. Until I return for you!”

With that he slammed the door, locked it and turned to the newly appointed guard. “No one is to enter!”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Ash set off towards the gym. He yanked his tee-shirt over his head as he entered. What on earth was she thinking? Running away from him! Agreeing to marry him and then fleeing just before dawn. Did she think him beneath her? These were all the questions that had run through his head twenty minutes ago when he sensed she was gone. Ash was headed to the back exit of Bane’s house when Stefen joined him. Turned out feathers had a keen tracker for Kielyn as well.

Ash did not bother with the gloves, just began to slam his fist into the punching bag over and over, his hatred relentless with its need for release. He wanted to kill Zander! Rip the fucker limb from bloody limb when he kissed Kielyn. Then he had hit her and it took every last bit of measured control to not decapitate him where he stood. To be that close to finally getting his revenge on Dante and to not do it. To not do it for fear of another getting hurt.

He punched the bag so hard it fell from the mounting bracket. He yelled and kicked the bag across the room. He feared for her! He cared more about keeping that wisp of a human safe than he cared about avenging his parents, his brother and himself. Ash reached over and yanked down a free weight stand sending hundreds of pounds crashing down onto the mats. “Fuck!!!” He cared about her! Breathing hard he turned to the door. Now, Ash snagged up his shirt and wiped sweat from his brow, he was going to make sure she understood exactly who was in control.

The guard moved aside as Ash approached. Kielyn sat in the exact place he had told her to stay. Ash looked at her legs. But…the wrong leg was crossed. “Do you remember me telling you not to move?”

“I stayed right here.” She protested.

“I told you to not move a muscle.” Ash stared down at her legs. “How many do you think it took to replace the left one with the right?”

She looked down at her lap. “I did not think you meant literally.”

“You did not think I meant what I said or rather, you lack the ability to think?”

Her eyes snapped up, a mixture of shock and anger residing in them. “I am not sure why you feel the need to be so hateful. I am the one that almost died!”

“You’re the one?” Ash stalked towards her. “You still think of yourself as an independent? Like your life is entirely yours to control? As if no one else would be affected by your careless actions?” She swallowed hard. “Tell me Kielyn, where is Stefen right now?”

She blanched. “Was he not right behind us?”

She began to rise to her feet nervously. “Sit down!” She did. “The last time I saw your guardian Angel he was hoisting one of the sickest mother fuckers ever to walk the universe up to his death. Do you think he succeeded?” Ash leaned in. “Or do you think Zander managed to bury a blade in his heart?”

Kielyn gasped. “No! Stefen can’t…”

Ash leaned down looked her dead in the eyes. “Yes, we can all die, sweetheart! Every one of us. That’s why we don’t run off halfcocked with frivolous notions guided by selfish desires.”

“I just wanted a moment of silence. Out of this house.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “A chance to say goodbye. A neutral place for me reflect on who I was up until two nights ago and a moment to accept who I was going to become.”

Ash stood. “Did you get your moment? To say your goodbyes?”

“Yes.”

Ash walked over to a chair and sat down. “Come here.” Kielyn stood and walked tentatively to him. “Pull your jeans down to your ankles and lay over my lap.”

“What” She stepped back quickly.

“We are going to set a few ground rules moving forward Kielyn. The first one is that when I ask you to sit still and not move while I leave to tear down the house, you will be as I left you when I return.”

“Like a timeout?” She asked.

“Precisely. Should you chose to anger me to the point of madness I demand you stay rooted, by your own free will, until I return.”

“It’s not exactly my free will if you are making me.” She folded her arms.

“It’s entirely your free will.” Ash narrowed his eyes. “If you choose to not do as asked, you will be choosing to be dealt with how I see fit upon my return.”

“That’s not fair!” She took another step back.

“Was it fair to me or Stefen to have to track you down and save you before Zander could kill you or worse? Was it fair that we were made to risk our own lives because you needed a moment of silence? No dear, it was not. Life is not fair and we must all take responsibility when we are the cause for fucking it up.”

“I…”

“Take down your jeans.”

“What?” Her eyes grew to the size of saucers. “I will not!” She shook her head. “I have morals and I will not compromise them for you!”

“Morals?” If he were not still pissed he would laugh. “Kielyn, I have morals too and I will never take you against your will. Come here!” She nervously looked to the door as if considering how quickly she could reach it. Ash sighed. “Don’t even think about it.”

Kielyn looked back to him and bit her lip. “You scare me.”

“Good! I should.”

“Why would I willingly walk to someone who thinks that is ok?” She protested. “I am not an idiot!”

“Good, I would have zero respect for you if you did not fear me,” he corrected. “But, your fear is misguided. I will never hurt you any more than you can stand and I am about to be the only protection you have in this world so I would suggest you try and trust me.”

“Look, I am sorry.” She wrung her hands together. “I will never leave on my own again. I promise.”

“And I forgive you but this is not about you leaving. This is about you not respecting my wishes when I simply asked one thing of you. This is about you showing me you are truly sorry for the pain you put me through.”

“What are you going to do to me?” Kielyn inquired as she swallowed nervously.

“I am going to spank you,” he said evenly. “Now, you can either take down your jeans or I will do it for you but I warn you Kielyn, if I have to, you won’t be able to sit for a week.”

****

It was no more than five steps to where he sat, but it felt like it took her three hours to reach him. When Kielyn was in arm’s reach, she stopped. His eyes moved down her body to land on the button of her jeans, a clear indication of what he expected next. “Must I remove them? It’s humiliating enough.”

“Yes.”

Kielyn began to unbutton her jeans. This was easily the most mortifying thing she had ever experienced. She recounted the events of the last week in her mind. She was nearly raped.
I survived
. A crazed Vampire had attempted to beat her to death
. I survived
. Yet, standing in front of this man, right now, so that he could punish her like some sort of errant child was without a doubt the most terrifying scenario of all.
Why?
Kielyn had no answer but she sincerely questioned her ability to survive what this dark King was asking of her now.

She pushed the denim over her hips. The jeans hit the floor and she stepped out of them. “What do you want me to do?”

“Bend over my lap.” His voice offered no quarter. “Put your palms on the floor.”

“Can I not just turn around?”

“I am going to add an extra smack to every question you ask that goes against my instruction.”

Kielyn tried to muster up all of the self-respect she had left as she knelt forward and laid her abdomen across his thighs. She could feel the blush of embarrassment rushing up her spine. The cool air of the room was anything but her friend, she thought as goosebumps lifted the hairs on her arms.
Palms on the floor.
She placed them down and closed her eyes in anticipation. The first smack came down so fast and hard that her eyes flew open and her hands flew backwards to shield her flesh.

“Put them back on the floor.” He said calmly.

She did as told and waited for the next expected sting to come. It was worse than the first and tears sprung to her eyes. The moment passed and a third strike landed hard on her bottom. Kielyn bit her tongue to not cry out, more from humiliation than from the pain. The fourth, fifth and sixth landed with rapid fire fury causing her ass cheeks to burn as if on fire and then… nothing.

Kielyn could hear her heart pounding in her chest, or was it his? She dared not move a muscle. The silence stretched on, seemingly forever, while she waited for another pelting. Instead she felt a warming heat, like a balm being placed on her throbbing bottom.
It was his palm!
He slowly began to rub the sting away as his long fingers spanned out over the expanse of her backside. They drew weighted circles over her punished skin and then she felt him bend down. “Are you sorry?” He whispered huskily into her ear.

She nodded frantically. “Yes.”

His hand continued to massage her and then, all of a sudden, her cheeks were cool again with the absence of his heat. She had no time to mourn the loss for his hand landed with a resolving smack hard across her bottom. She gasped and her thighs clenched tightly together. The sting seemed to jolt something in her core and a need like none she had ever experienced pinched at her sex.

“Good girl.” He rubbed away the burn and then lifted her, in one fluid movement onto his lap. The rough material of his sweatpants chafed her raw, hot bottom but the sensation only made the pulsing of her clit ache more. What was happening to her? Why was her body betraying her so? “Kielyn?” Ash’s voice drew her eyes up to his. “Was that so bad?” Ashamed, she shook her head no. “Do you understand my reasons for doing it?”