by S. E. Smith
Ashure walked into the room and shut the door. “Yes, do tell how you want them taken care of,” he said in a deceptively calm voice.
Decker spun around in the chair until it faced him. Ashure stepped forward into the light and gave the man a savage smile. He wanted blood—but more than anything, he craved the man’s soul for what he had done to Tonya tonight and all those years ago.
“Who the hell are you, and how did you get into my house?” Decker sputtered.
Ashure lifted his sword, pointed the tip at Decker, and waved it back and forth. Decker paled and sat back in the plush leather chair. The man pushed the chair back until it hit the desk behind him.
“Tsk-tsk, Mr. Decker. It is not you who will be asking the questions tonight. Didn’t you learn the first time that trying to kill Tonya and Max was a bad idea?” he asked in a voice filled with menace.
“What are you talking about?” Decker hoarsely demanded, his stare focused on the sword in Ashure’s hand.
A rage unlike anything Ashure had ever felt before rose inside him. The memory of the pain and fear in Tonya’s eyes—her hands covered in Max’s blood, the tears in Angela’s eyes—all of it swept through his mind. He stared at the sweating man across from him.
He lifted his left hand and hissed out a spell that slid the heavy desk across the room and out of his way. He pressed the tip of his sword into Decker’s neck. Decker gripped the arms of his chair until his fingers turned white and stared up at Ashure with a terrified expression.
“You should not have tried to kill Tonya and Max tonight,” he snarled.
“I didn’t. I didn’t try to have them killed. I just heard about the—the shooting. I knew I’d be blamed for it. I swear I didn’t do it,” Decker said in a trembling voice.
“DO NOT LIE TO ME!” Ashure roared with fury, leaning down to stare into the man’s eyes.
Decker began to cry. Fat tears ran down the man’s cheeks and snot trickled from his nose. Ashure could smell the pungent odor of urine waft between them as Decker pissed his pants. A man who would kill an innocent young girl had a great deal to fear regarding what would happen after his own death, Ashure knew, and it seemed Decker understood as well.
“I didn’t. I swear. I swear. I don’t know who tried,” Decker sobbed.
As much as Ashure didn’t want to believe the man, Decker was telling the truth. He straightened and stepped back. Lowering his sword, he held it at the ready. The desire to end the man’s life burned like a torch inside him.
“Why did you send Ramon DeSantis to follow Tonya?” he demanded.
Decker wiped his hand under his nose before he pulled a corner of his white T-shirt up to dry his eyes. Ashure impatiently waited as Decker tried to speak. When the man did, it was in a barely audible voice.
“I realized—I realized I needed to change my life before I got out of prison. I couldn’t go back to what I was. My Lucy—my wife—she made me promise. I’ve got kids. Lucy said that if—that if I didn’t do right when I got out, that was it. She wasn’t going to wait around no more. My little girl is the same age as Tonya was when I tried to kill her. I don’t want that happening to my baby. I—I wanted to tell Tonya I was sorry. That I’m a changed man. Losing over ten years of my kids’ lives—it’s taking them time to forgive me. I’m not going to mess that up again,” Decker babbled.
Ashure lifted his sword and pressed the tip to Decker’s cheek so that the man was forced to look at him again. As much as Decker tried to avoid it, there was no way he could resist the spell that compelled him to stare into Ashure’s eyes. He let Decker see the full breadth of the torture his souls felt.
“If you ever—ever—go near Tonya, Max, or any of her family, I will come back for you, and I promise you—you will wish that all I did was slit your throat,” he vowed.
“Please, please, no—no—no!” Decker begged.
Ashure lowered his blade and drew a thin line along Decker’s throat in the same way that Decker had scarred Tonya. It wasn’t deep enough to kill the man, but the magic embedded in the cut would leave a visible scar to remind Decker of his past deeds and his promise. Decker closed his eyes and began to rock in his chair as he sobbed.
The Pirate King stared down at the man before he turned on his heel and silently disappeared through the doorway. As he walked back down the hallway, the front door opened with a wave of his hand. A teenage girl froze on the stairs, staring at the glowing sword in his hand, and watched Ashure with anxious eyes as he strode through the doorway.
“Dad?” the girl called out as the stranger walked away.
Ashure strode down the front walkway. The passenger door opened for him when he waved his hand. He slid the sword back under his coat and stepped into the van.
Ramon silently studied him for a moment. “Did you kill him?” he asked.
“No. I have a code; I have to honor it,” Ashure replied as he pulled on his seat belt and sat back as Ramon pulled away from the curb.
21
Tonya looked up when Ashure quietly thanked the nurse who had brought him to Max’s room. She had been worried sick when he didn’t come back. She rose from her seat and gripped his arm.
“We’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said to Angela.
“Why don’t you go home? There’s nothing else you can do here tonight. Max will be sleeping—at least until the nurse comes back in to take his vitals and check his wound. You heard the doctor say that if everything looks good tomorrow morning, Max will be discharged,” Angela said.
“Are you sure? I hate leaving you alone,” Tonya worried.
Angela raised an eyebrow at her. “Have you seen the hallway? There has to be at least five on-duty officers and three off-duty standing guard. I think we’ll be safe,” she dryly replied.
She bit her lip, released Ashure’s arm, and hurried over to Angela, giving her a hug and a kiss. Angela held Tonya’s hand and squeezed her fingers before pulling away.
Angela looked up at Ashure and quietly requested, “Take care of our girl, Ashure.”
“With my life, Lady Angela,” he replied with a bow.
Angela laughed and fanned herself with her hand as if she were hot. “Oh my, girl, you are in deep trouble,” she replied.
Tonya rolled her eyes, then gripped Ashure’s arm and pulled him out of the room. She nodded at the two police officers standing outside the door and walked down the corridor to the elevators with Ashure beside her. She reached out, pressed the down button, and impatiently waited for the doors to open.
“Finally,” she muttered under her breath when she heard the ding, and the light at the top flashed.
She almost growled ‘hurry up’ under her breath at the people exiting. Ashure’s soft chuckle told her that she wasn’t doing a very good job of concealing her impatience. She pulled him into the elevator and pressed the close-door button. The moment they were alone, she turned and faced him.
The words on her lips died when he kissed her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him, holding her like he would never let her go. Her worry and fear had intensified throughout the night and then suddenly evaporated when she realized that Ashure was alive and well, leaving her feeling off-balance.
“I was worried about you when you took so long to come in and see Max,” she said between kisses.
“I had something I needed to do,” he muttered as he tangled his free hand in her hair.
“I—” she breathed before groaning when the elevator slowed. “We’re about to have company.”
Tonya and Ashure pulled apart a split second before the doors opened. An elderly woman stepped inside, followed by an orderly pushing an elderly man in a wheelchair. The woman smiled at her and did a double take when she saw Ashure. Tonya smiled back at the woman when she laid her hand on the elderly man’s shoulder.
“I remember when Herb and I were your age,” the woman sighed with a cloudy, distant look. “He is just as handsome to me today as he was then.”
“That’s wonderful,” Tonya murmured.
She breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the ground floor. They waited as the elderly couple and the orderly exited, then followed them. It was a long walk around the hospital to the emergency room entrance, but she needed the fresh air.
Tonya shivered when the doors opened, and the cold air from outside struck her heated skin. She paused outside the entrance to get her bearings, and Ashure put his arm around her. The heat of his skin helped to stop the shivering. They turned to the right, and she took deep, calming breaths as they walked along the sidewalk.
“I went to see Morris Decker,” he said.
She stopped, pulled away, and looked up at him in disbelief. “You what?” she hissed out.
He shrugged his coat off and wrapped it around her shoulders. She closed her eyes briefly when he brushed his fingers along her cheek and tucked her hair behind her ear. She opened her eyes and stared up at him when he pulled his hand away.
“I went to see Decker,” he repeated.
“Did you find him?” she asked.
“Yes, Ramon DeSantis took me. He heard of the attack on something called a police scanner, and he regretted his part in it, although he swore he knew nothing about it. However, he did find out Decker’s location, so he took me there,” he explained.
“You could have been killed! Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell the police?” she demanded.
He cupped her face between his warm hands. “Because there are some things I can do that humans here cannot—one of those is to pull the truth out of a person,” he said.
“What else can you do?” she asked, trying not to smile.
“Kill them and not leave a trace,” he said, releasing her and turning away.
“Ouch. I guess that might come in handy. You haven’t actually—really—killed anyone, have you? Oh my God, did you kill Decker?” she breathed.
“Yes, I have killed before, and no, Decker is still alive. He was not the one who shot you and Max,” he grudgingly admitted.
“You’ve actually killed—” She stopped and shook her head. She started walking again. “Are you certain that it wasn’t Decker? He was having me followed. Surely it wasn’t to tell me that he was sorry for trying to kill me ten years ago.”
He stared straight ahead. “I asked him—compelled him in a way that he wouldn’t be able to resist, and it literally scared the piss out of him. And actually, that is exactly why he was having you followed. He said he had come to realize how much he had lost or almost lost because of his behavior. He has a daughter now who is the same age you were when he tried to kill you. He doesn’t want to lose her,” he explained.
She stopped again and stared up at him. “And you believe him?” she insisted.
“Yes,” he replied.
She turned away from him and looked up at the sky as she absorbed what he was telling her. Another shiver ran through her. If it wasn’t Decker, then it meant someone else wanted Max dead—but who?
“I’ll tell Max. He’ll convince Conrad that Decker wasn’t involved,” she said.
“Let’s return to the house,” he said.
She nodded, lost in thought. Ashure had risked his own safety to remove the danger to her family. He had also admitted that he had killed someone before. She wasn’t sure how to handle that information yet.
What did that make him? He didn’t seem like a murderer to her—but she suspected that neither did a lot of other killers. She pulled his jacket tighter around her and peeked at him from beneath her eyelashes. As frustrating as it was to know the truth, she just couldn’t see him as someone who would hurt another.
Unless he did it in self-defense, she suddenly thought.
That was it. He may have killed someone, but it must have been in self-defense. In a do-or-die situation, she could understand that. Hell, Max had been in that situation more than once—all police officers have to be ready.
Soldiers as well, she thought.
The more she thought about it, the more it fit, thinking of Ashure as a soldier. He was a King in his world. Kings in the old medieval days were also soldiers who went into battle. Ashure had told her about a Great Battle in the Seven Kingdoms that had happened centuries ago and about the aliens attacking their world recently. In those situations it was understandable that he might have to kill someone.
“Tonya,” Ashure murmured.
She blinked when she realized they were at her car. She looked up at him. He bent his head and her lips parted in anticipation. A soft sigh slipped from her when he pressed a tender kiss against them.
“I would never hurt you or your family, only those who would try to harm you,” he vowed.
“I know,” she whispered.
Ashure opened the car door for her, and she slid onto the seat. She folded her hands in her lap as she watched him walk around the car. At that moment, she realized that she wasn’t falling in love with him—she was in love with him.
When he hadn’t come back, she had left Angela’s side to go look for him. The receptionist in the ER had told her that he had walked outside with another man and hadn’t returned, and the officer nearby told her that he had seen them talking outside. She had put two and two together, and assumed he had left with Ramon, but she never would have dreamed that he would go to Decker’s house.
Tonya’s heart had ached while she and Angela waited for Max to come out of surgery. As the minutes ticked by, her anxiety that something had happened to Ashure grew until she could barely put together a coherent sentence. When he had reappeared, all she could think about was touching him to make sure that he was alright.
“Ashure,” she said.
She reached out and touched his arm before he had a chance to start the ignition. He looked at her in silence, with an inquiring lift of his eyebrow. She tightly gripped his arm.
“What is it, love?” he asked.
She gave him a crooked smile. “I don’t want to be alone tonight,” she said in a soft voice.
“Then—you won’t be,” he promised.
She nodded, unable to say anything else. She released his arm and leaned back in the seat. The world outside the window of the car suddenly looked different, as if she was seeing it for the first time. It was strange, but there was a sense of disconnection inside her now, as if she didn’t belong here anymore. She hadn’t since her return from the Seven Kingdoms. No matter how hard she tried to tell herself it was all a dream, or that she hadn’t changed, she knew it was a lie.
“Everything is the same, yet it’s all different. It’s like there was a film over my eyes before, and now—now that it’s been removed and I know what is behind it— Sometimes I wonder if I’m going crazy,” her voice faded on the last word, and she grew quiet.
Ashure’s warm hand engulfed hers. She looked at him. He was focused on the road, but she sensed that he was paying attention to everything she said.
“It was the same way for me after Simon, the previous Pirate King, passed the Goddess’s gift to me. When we talked earlier on the beach, it reminded me of my feelings. I must confess that you have dealt with your new knowledge much better than I did,” he said with a laugh.
She squeezed his hand. “What did you do?” she murmured.
He pulled his hand free so that he could turn on the blinker. He slowed the car as they entered the residential area. A light rain had begun to fall, so she reached over and turned on the windshield wipers.
“The first few days, I drank—a lot,” he admitted with a chuckle. “I would have had great sex except it became a bit complicated when I could see a person’s soul. Greed and a thirst for power do not make for a rewarding encounter.”
“Oh, well, I didn’t do any of that,” she muttered.
“I was determined to distract myself until I realized that no matter how much I drank, I would never be able to pull the curtain closed again. I saw movements in the shadows. I could see the ghosts of those that were not quite good enough to find p
eace but still not bad enough to be sealed in the Cauldron of Spirits, which is a special place for malevolent, magical souls. The world, in some ways, had lost its wonder and yet gained even more,” he continued.
“I understand what you mean. It’s like you see things that you never noticed before,” she whispered.
“Yes. The petals of a flower that pulses with life, the reflection in a tear, the betrayal that you know will come one day in an old friend’s eyes—everything is in greater detail on a different plane,” he murmured.
“Did that day come—the one where your friend betrayed you?” she asked.
“Yes, unfortunately, it did,” he replied.
She blinked back the sudden tears that burned her eyes. He slowed the car in front of the house when a police officer stepped out of his vehicle and flagged them down. She lowered the window and looked up at the man.
“I’m Tonya Maitland. Max and Angela are my adoptive parents,” she said.
“No problem, Ms. Maitland. I recognize you. I’m Benny,” he said.
Tonya smiled. “You played Santa Claus at the Christmas party this past year,” she replied.
“Yep, the wife said it was time to go on a diet,” Benny chuckled, patting his rotund stomach. “How’s Max doing?”
“He was resting when we left the hospital. The doc says he should be able to come home tomorrow. He’ll be off work for a while, but the doc says he should make a full recovery,” she said.
“That’s great. Well, no need for you to worry. The Captain wants us to keep an eye on the place until we catch who did this,” he replied.
“Thank you, Benny. If you need anything, just knock on the door,” she responded.
“Will do,” Benny said, touching two fingers to his hat in salute.
Ashure pulled onto the driveway, shifted the car into park, and turned off the ignition. Tonya unbuckled her seat belt while Ashure walked around the car and opened her door. She smiled and took his hand when he held it out.
Together, they hurried up the walkway to the front door. She ducked under the yellow tape stretched across the entrance when Ashure held it up for her. He stood beside her as she punched in the key lock code to the front door.