by S. E. Smith
“Please tell me that he didn’t take Mike’s truck,” she growled.
She hurried over to the garage door, pressed the keypad to open it, and muttered a savage curse when she saw the empty spot where Mike’s truck should have been. Closing the door, she turned and looked down the long driveway.
“So much for being honest with each other,” she hissed in frustration.
Ashure pulled the vehicle into the garage and switched off the ignition. Tonight had been frustrating. He could sense that he had been close to the missing soul, but it had eluded him. Concerned that Tonya would return home before he did, he had instructed Hannibal to keep an eye on the young men he suspected of harboring the malevolent entity.
He got out of the vehicle, quietly closed the door, and was just about to turn around when the light in the garage came on, and he saw Tonya standing in the doorway with her arms folded across her chest. She shook her head at him, turned on her heel, and disappeared back into the house.
Guilt swept through him when he saw the disappointed look in her eyes. He walked over to the steps leading into the house and followed Tonya into the kitchen. She didn’t say anything as she prepared a cup of hot tea.
“I can explain,” he said.
She nodded. He felt an unexpected pressure in his chest when she didn’t turn around. He returned the keys to the cabinet and closed it as she carried two cups to the table and sat down.
He followed her, sliding into the seat across from her. She stared down at her steaming cup. He looked at the steam in their cups and absently transformed it to reflect his thoughts. Wispy images of a boy, a girl, and a unicorn formed between them.
He bit his lip. “The one thing I pride myself on is keeping my word… like I did then,” he nodded at the steam figures, “when lives depended on me to keep my promise, not break it.”
He sighed. “I needed to go out tonight to look for the lost soul. I kept it from you, despite promising to be honest with you, because I knew you would think it too dangerous to split up, and it was too important to wait.”
“I figured that was the reason. Did you find anything?” she asked.
“Yes and no. There was someone at the pub that I suspect, but I lost him in the crowd. His companions may provide some useful information given time.”
They were silent a moment. Then Tonya asked, “Whose lives depended on you keeping your word in that time you were thinking of?” She indicated the steam from her cup and gave him a shy, hopeful look. He smiled and allowed his memory to flow and replay in the steam.
“The unicorns depended on me, and so did Nali, for she would have given everything she had to fight whoever I might have told about their secret. Nali was young when she became the Empress of the Monsters, yet she had an air about her that was much older and wiser than you would expect—at least that was what I thought. I had been hopping from one merchant ship to the next and soon found myself on the Isle of the Monsters. I loved it! The Isle was filled with all kinds of wonderful, unique creatures—Cyclops, Sea Stags, Centaurs, Gnomes, Hippogriffs, and many more. It was also the home of my mother. She never spoke of it, and I never understood why because I found everything there enchanting. My explorations took me farther and farther afield until I felt like I had ventured to the very edge of the world. I was close to death when I found something so rare, so precious, so magical, even for the Seven Kingdoms, that it needed to be protected—unicorns. The Elder unicorn saved my life, and in exchange, I made a promise to her and to a very skeptical Nali that I would never reveal where I had come across the herd,” he murmured.
He looked up and stared at her with regret. “I never broke that promise—even when Simon Black asked me. I would have sacrificed my soul to keep my oath. Now, I made a promise to you, and I feel like I have shattered it into a million pieces,” he said.
Tonya gave him a quivering smile and blinked away the tears that glittered in her eyes but did not fall. She shook her head and looked down again at the steam image of the young Ashure collecting a few strands of hair from the unicorn’s mane. Ashure saw her expression soften when the boy leaned in and hugged the unicorn before he turned to the young girl and held out his hand.
“Well, technically you didn’t lie. You never said that you would stay home, and I never made you promise not to take Mike’s truck out—or hit my car,” she added with a sniff.
“I can fix that,” he promised.
She laughed and reached out a finger to touch the unicorn made of steam. “I imagine you can,” she softly agreed.
He reached across the table and placed his hand over hers. After a moment, Tonya asked, “Who is the lost soul? What did he do to deserve imprisonment in the first place?”
He released her hand and sighed. “He is my former second-in-command, Bleu LaBluff,” he said.
“Oh,” she breathed out.
“As for what he did, that is another long story, and I fear you will think me a boring old man if I keep droning on,” Ashure replied, taking a sip of his now lukewarm tea.
Tonya stepped back and critically examined her handiwork. She had found some red electrical tape in the pantry this morning and decided she’d better seal the crack in the turn signal casing. Satisfied that water wouldn’t get into it any more than it already had, she opened the driver’s door and tossed the tape onto the floorboard of the back seat.
“Here’s your travel coffee cup,” Ashure said, walking toward the car.
“Thank you! I can’t believe I almost forgot it,” she said.
“It was on the counter in the bathroom,” he chuckled.
She grimaced. “Right where I left it,” she ruefully replied.
He looked up at the sky. She followed his gaze and then retreated to the warm interior of her car. He slid into the passenger seat and buckled up while she shifted into reverse. Turning around and looking out the rear window, she backed out of the driveway.
“The skies will clear in a few hours,” he forecasted, looking up through the window at the sky again.
She chuckled and shook her head. “I love it that you are a walking barometer,” she said with a sigh.
He reached over and held her hand. “You are nervous about Max meeting me, aren’t you?” he inquired.
She nodded. “Yes,” she confessed.
“If you do not want him to know who I really am, I can make that happen,” he reassured her.
Tonya sighed and shook her head. “You can’t. I can’t. I promised Max when he and Angela took me in that I would never lie to either of them. We probably couldn’t, even if we wanted to. Max has this, like, super lie detector Spidey-sense. He would suspect something, and then shit would hit the fan,” she said with a glum expression.
“Ah, yes, I know a thing or two about promises, as I shared last night. So we will tell him the truth—if he asks,” he responded.
She looked at him with amusement. “I like the way you think,” she chuckled as she pulled out onto the highway, shifted the car into drive, and accelerated.
Her stomach felt like it had butterflies in it when he reached over and tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. The back of his fingers caressed her cheek. She swallowed, afraid to take her eyes off the narrow, winding road in front of them.
“You are an extraordinary woman, Tonya,” he murmured.
She rubbed her cheek against his fingers before he pulled away. Last night had been an eye-opener for her. Her date with Dan had shown her that not all men were created equal. Every time Dan had touched her, her skin crawled, and all she could think about was getting away from him. Ashure’s touch, on the other hand, made her want to rip the clothes off of both of them.
Great, here come the images of messing up the sheets again! she thought with a dismal sigh.
Those thoughts had kept her tossing and turning the last few nights, and last night had proved especially challenging. His story of the promise he had made to Nali and the unicorn had made her want to wrap her arms around him and
never let him go.
She wondered if there was anything about Ashure that turned her off. The fact that he was a pirate didn’t. She was a bit of a bad-girl herself, so being with someone who was timid would never work. She needed someone who lived life fully, wasn’t afraid of an adventure, and might have a slight issue with authority. Ashure definitely checked all of those boxes.
She thought about the fact that he was a King. That was a lot of responsibility and power; and yet, it didn’t appear that he’d let it go to his head. He also didn’t allow the responsibility to drag him down. He had a great sense of humor. She also witnessed his compassion and his curiosity.
Two more boxes checked, she thought.
That left his ability with magic and the fact that he was the Keeper of Lost Souls. The magic was pretty neat, and so far, she had never seen him use it for anything bad or hurtful.
Well, except for the pooping seagull event, her good side reminded her bad one.
But it did keep Dan from touching me, her bad side reminded her.
She decided that the magic could be a non-issue, so she mentally checked the okay box.
It saved him from having dishpan hands, as well, her bad side reminded her with a snicker.
Her body heated up with desire at the idea of where he could put those non-dishpan hands. She wiggled in her seat as the heat moved downward and barely bit back a moan as her restlessness increased when the scenes forming in her mind got steamier. Her evil self was having way too much fun with her discomfort.
“Tell me more about Max,” Ashure asked, pulling her thoughts back to a safer topic.
“Besides being a pain in my backside when he thinks I’m about to get myself killed, he’s a pretty cool guy,” she said with a sigh.
They talked a little about everything over the next two hours. She laughed when he told her that his favorite color was purple—it was hers as well. He delighted in minor pranks that usually got him in trouble, and he was forever owing Nali cases of brandy because of them.
“I know she does not drink all of it. If she did, she would never be able to function. Which is why I delight in stealing the cases back again,” he shared with a wicked smile.
“You really care about Nali a lot, don’t you?” she curiously asked, more than a little surprised that she didn’t feel jealous about that fact.
He nodded and looked a little melancholy. “She is the closest thing to family that I have ever had,” he admitted.
At that precise moment, Tonya knew that she was falling in love with Ashure. The revelation hit her like a ton of bricks and scared the hell out of her. How had she let him under her guard?
Forget my guard! How in the hell can I fall in love with someone I only met a few days ago? she wondered with a growing sense of panic.
“Is everything alright?” he asked.
She glanced at him with a confused frown. “What?” she asked.
“I commented that your world is vastly different from mine in many ways, and yet, eerily familiar in others. You didn’t reply,” he said.
“Oh. Yes, they are—at least from the little I saw of your world. I—we’re here—and Max is coming out to greet us,” she muttered.
She slowed and pulled up along the curb of the tree-lined street in front of Max and Angela’s two-story house. For the hundredth time, she had the urge to check her car to see if Max had installed a GPS tracker on it. Of course, with today’s technology, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to check Google Map to see how long it would take her to arrive after she texted Max to let him know that she was on her way and that she was bringing a friend.
Max walked down to the end of the driveway, smiled at her, and raised a questioning eyebrow when he saw Ashure. She grimaced at his curious expression. Ashure must have noticed their silent exchange because he turned to look at her with a questioning expression.
“I told Max that I was bringing a friend. I might have left out that it was a guy,” she admitted, unbuckling her seat belt.
“I take it that you do not customarily bring your male companions home to meet him,” Ashure asked with barely concealed amusement.
She glared at him and rolled her eyes without answering. Turning off the ignition, she checked to make sure there were no cars coming before she opened her door and got out. She pasted a wary smile on her lips.
“Hey, Max,” she greeted.
“Well, this is a first. Hi, I’m Max Bennett. Tonya’s never brought a guy home before. You must be pretty special,” Max said in greeting to Ashure.
“Smooth, Max. Real smooth,” she murmured.
Max gave her a broad grin. “Angela is going to love this,” he replied.
Tonya groaned loudly and gently banged her head against the side of the doorframe of her car. Where was a sinkhole when she needed one? Looking up, she glared at Max.
“Ashure Waves, King of the Pirates and the ruler of the wayward lot of misfits on the Isle of the Pirates,” Ashure introduced with a grin that rivaled the one on Max’s face.
Max’s mouth dropped open, and he looked at her with wide-eyed disbelief. She opened the back door of her car, pulled out her small bag, and slammed the door shut. Walking around the front of the car, she ignored Ashure.
“Tonya—” Max started to say.
“You wanted to know,” she retorted as she walked by him.
Max turned to look at Ashure. “Pirate King?” he repeated with a raised eyebrow.
“Tonya says that you have an uncanny knack for sensing the truth,” Ashure responded.
“Damn, girl, you’ve got some serious explaining to do,” Max called out behind her.
“Language, Max. You don’t want Angela to hear you,” Tonya retorted over her shoulder.
17
Later that night, Max stood deep in thought on the covered back patio. He absently lifted the beer bottle in his hand and took a deep swig. He partially turned when he heard the sliding glass door open behind him. When he saw that it was Ashure stepping through the door holding a beer, he turned around and faced the man.
“Ashure,” Max murmured in greeting.
Ashure nodded and closed the door behind him. Max turned toward the railing again when Ashure came to stand beside him. They both stared out across the backyard toward the dark woods and starry sky. Max’s mind wasn’t on the scenery; it was on Ashure, as it had been since this morning.
“Tell me the truth about yourself, Ashure,” Max quietly requested.
Ashure looked at him with a calm expression. Tonya’s cryptic responses and short, evasive answers had given him little relevant information. While Ashure had been charming and witty, and he had told fantastic tales that were both entertaining and strangely believable, there had been something else beneath the sophisticated facade. Max knew danger when he was near it, and Ashure had danger written all over him.
“I can assure you that I have not lied about anything I have told you since we met,” Ashure replied, as if sensing where he was going with this.
“So you are saying you really are the King of the Pirates?” Max asked with a skeptical expression as he rested his hip against the railing so that he was facing Ashure.
“A position that was given to me, much to my disbelief at the time, I can assure you,” Ashure acknowledged.
“And the stories about the Thunderbirds and the other creatures…?” Max asked.
“All true. The Thunderbirds really are marvelous creatures—very moody, though. Nali is the only one who can truly control them. They produce an amazing amount of electricity,” Ashure said.
“Do you really think that telling me these bullshit tales is going to make me feel confident that you are good enough for Tonya? I know she cares about you; otherwise, she would never have brought you here. I won’t stand by while you tear her heart apart,” Max snapped with growing aggravation.
He glared at Ashure, unable to believe that the man would continue with his blatant lies as if he truly believed what he was saying. As far
as he was concerned, Ashure was either a gifted liar, a brilliant actor, or in need of some serious mental health intervention. Max gave Ashure a steely-eyed stare when the man turned, leaned against the railing, and returned his intense focus. Irritation flared inside him, and he took another sip of his beer before he pointed the bottle at Ashure.
“Are you sleeping with her?” he growled.
Ashure pursed his lips into a firm line, and the amused look that had been in his eyes most of the day vanished. Gone, as well, was the relaxed, sophisticated countenance that Ashure had maintained all day. Now, a man who seethed with raw power and danger stood in his place. Max took a wary step back.
“Be careful what questions you ask, Max. I promised Tonya that I would tell you the truth out of respect for her. I will not allow you or anyone else to insult her. What is between us is just that—between us,” Ashure bit out in a low voice.
Max was quiet for a moment, considering his next interrogation tactic, and came to the conclusion that as much as he might dislike it, what was needed was a few moments of unguarded connection, which meant he needed to open up. The way Ashure responded would tell him more about what was really going on here.
“When I saw Tonya’s name….” Max’s throat tightened and he turned to look out over the backyard again. “I love that girl as much as I love my own daughter. I knew from her first smart-ass remark that she was special. She was an adult trapped in a kid’s body—smart as hell, mouthy, defiant, and determined to show the world what she could do. When Mr. Rollings had a heart attack, I knew that Tonya wouldn’t be placed again. Angela and I were married eight months when Tonya appeared on our doorstep in the middle of the night, her throat still ravaged from Morris Decker’s blade. She knew what would happen to her, and she ran to us. Foster care can be brutal, but the wrong group home could break a person. Tonya would have withered in one. She is too much of a free spirit. We pulled a few strings, asked for some favors, and haven’t looked back since. When I saw her name on the Missing Person’s bulletin, I was afraid that our worst nightmare had come true. We just want to protect her, and now she’s bringing home someone like you…. What am I supposed to think? Because I really don’t know what to make of you,” he confessed with a deep sigh.