Zakkery pushed back his overgrown bangs and went back to watching Kingu pace. “So, I take it you being here with me, instead of staple-gunned to your Match’s side, means you’re not settling into wedded bliss so easily, huh?”
Kingu saw no need to correct the idea that Hope was his Match. Phases respected Matches. Accepting the claim on her would keep Elemental males away and Kingu would take what he could get.
“I told you, the woman says she will have none but her soul mate.” The words were bleak. “I need to find that man and kill him.”
“Uh-huh.” Zakkery crossed his arms over his chest. “Good plan. You’ll absolutely win her over with that tactic.”
“You have a better idea?” Kingu shot back. “I cannot tolerate the thought of some human son-of-a-bitch claiming her heart and mind. I won’t have it!” The image of Hope wanting another man had Kingu’s powers screaming in denial.
“Where’d you get the hickey?”
“What?” Kingu glanced over at him in confusion.
Zakkery pointed to his own neck and arched a brow.
Kingu’s brows compressed and he backtracked to check his reflection in a hanging mirror shaped like a cumulus cloud. Normally he disliked seeing his own face, but now he barely noticed. He tilted his chin to the side and studied the spot Zakkery had indicated. A purplish bruise stood out against the side of his throat.
Hope.
She’d marked him.
A fresh wave of desire rushed through Kingu as he remembered her mouth on skin, her warm body rocking against him, the sweet moisture that had covered his hands. Dear gods, he wanted her. He would live forever and there could still never be enough time to satisfy his desire.
“I doubt she gave you that while fighting you off, Romeo.” Zakkery sounded amused. “Shit, I think I should be taking pointers if you got that girl to like you so much so fast.”
Kingu glanced back over at him. His first instinct was to tell the Smoke Phase to shut the hell up, but this was why he’d come. He took a deep breath and reminded himself he could always kill the man later. “How many women have you had?” He held up a hand before Zakkery could start rattling off the endless list. “Who mattered.”
Zakkery’s jaw tightened, his amusement fading. “Just one.”
Kingu hadn’t been expecting that answer or the gaping void that echoed behind it. “You lost her?”
“I lost her.” Zakkery’s smile was grim. “So what, you need some sex tips?”
Kingu ignored the defensive maneuver. If Zakkery had had a woman who mattered, then he must know something useful. That was the important thing. “What should you do if a woman who matters tries to use her… charms to influence you?”
“Weep with joy and get influenced?”
Kingu exhaled a frustrated breath at the blithe answer. “Be serious. Hope is trying to persuade me to do her bidding and it’s very fucking persuasive. I need to know how to resist.”
“Why the hell would you want to resist?”
Kingu didn’t know why he even bothered. He should have known the Smoke Phase would be useless. Had anyone told him a week ago that a woman would drive him to this, he would have laughed… and then slaughtered the idiot for daring to say something so ridiculous. Hope had a power over him that he didn’t completely understand.
She could make him do such stupid things.
No. It was worse than that. Hope didn’t make him do stupid things. All his life, Kingu had been forced to cater to his mother’s whims, so he knew what it was to have someone make him carry out their orders. With Hope, he found himself independently thinking of ways to ensure her happiness, regardless of the personal trauma it caused him. He wanted to do things for Hope. Within a matter of hours, he was even willing to endure the indignity of asking an Elemental for advice.
That did not bode well for the future.
He had to keep some distance or the woman would completely break him. Kay had never been able to bring him to his knees through force and he refused to let Hope do it with her big blue eyes. She was using her body to try and convince him to let her go.
He knew that and he wouldn’t be taken in.
“Hope does not actually want me. She was trying to manipulate me into releasing her.”
It would be better to try and avoid her until he figured out a plan to resist temptation. Her seduction attempts were sure to get even more unrelenting when she discovered who he really was. If Hope knew his beloved Aunt Tessie, she surely knew all the darkest parts of his past. When she figured out who really held her, Hope would do anything to escape him. Try anything. Do…
Anything.
Kingu had to close his eyes against the all the “anything” he could imagine doing to her lush little body.
“Hang on.” Zakkery’s slow-mo smile made Kingu want to rip his heart out and feed it to him. “Tell me you didn’t accuse a blunt-as-hell Fi… Color Phase of trying to trade her body for profit. I mean, not even you’re that dumb, right?”
Kingu slanted him a glare that should have incinerated Zakkery on the spot. “No, I’m sure Hope is just miraculously attracted to someone who looks like me because of my fucking charm.” He stalked back over to the window, so he could stare at his fortress.
Zakkery gave a chortle of unholy mirth. “Oh, shit, you did tell her that!” He clapped his hands together and bent over laughing. “Oh my God! That is classic.”
“I’m glad you’re amused. The woman is no longer speaking to me.”
“Well, you have no idea what her House is like, big guy. You just pissed that girl off, I guarantee it. Phases in her kingdom don’t lie about their intentions. They don’t bargain and seduce for what they want. They just take it and you stay the hell out of their way. Anything else would be seen as weakness. If she came on to you, it was because she wants you.”
“Hope does not want me. She was thinking of her soul mate the entire time!”
Zakkery shook his head. “Girls like that wait for their Matches, they sleep with their Matches, and they stay loyal to their Matches. Anyone else who touches them gets cut off at the knee. I mean, shit, man! I tried coming onto Hope in her jail cell and she wasn’t having it. If she was that desperate to escape…”
Kingu’s expression darkened, interrupting him at a roar. “You propositioned my woman?! What the hell were you…?” The rest of his angry tirade trailed off into nothing as a flash of blonde hair moved on the other side of the window. His head snapped back around, zeroing in on Hope.
How had she left the fortress? He’d locked her in. He knew he had.
He wasn’t worried about her escape. The plastic manacle on her ankle would make sure she couldn’t leave this kingdom and there was no way for her to contact the outside world. The Banished Phases were a backwards, paranoid lot, so not even the phones on the Cloudland worked. Kingu wasn’t even sure how Zakkery was able to run that computer.
But, Kingu had wanted Hope safe in his home, away from the other Phases who might harm her. How was she roaming around the Cloudland with a clipboard and ice cream cone?
She’d changed into one of the ordinary tan dresses he’d left in her closet, but it did absolutely nothing to dim her chaotic sparkle. Especially since she’s topped it off with a red and gold tasseled belt, which --Kingu was fairly sure-- started the day as a drapery chord. She also wore her sequined sneakers and a pair of mismatched earrings shaped like a strawberry and a purple cat. One of Kingu’s neckties was fashioned into a bow around her thick blonde curls. Hope must have broken into his room to steal it, but that was such a small detail compared to how adorable she looked. She wore something that belonged to him.
Kingu felt his heart melt.
He didn’t even glance around as Zakkery joined him by the window. The Smoke Phase’s head tiled in confusion. “What the hell is she doing out there?”
Planning to bring down the Banished Phases.
Kingu’s mouth curved at Hope’s intent expression as she studied her clipboard an
d then the numbers on Zakkery’s home. It didn’t even occur to him that she might have come here to see Zakkery because she was secretly attracted to the man and seeking him out. When Kingu had accused her of wanting the Smoke Phase, Hope had been genuinely creeped out by the mere thought.
Kingu believed that. Believed her.
Which probably just showed how brainless he was becoming, when it came to a certain blonde whirlwind. But, there still wasn’t a doubt in Kingu’s mind as to why Hope was standing outside the home of the gold medal winning sexual Olympian of the realm.
She was planning to kill Zakkery.
Well, maybe not the Smoke Phase personally, but all of the Banished Phases were on Hope’s hit list. She was positive they were up to something, so she was figuring out the layout of the Cloudland and mapping her enemies’ position. Kingu felt almost bad that she wouldn’t find much of an underground spy network to infiltrate. The Banished Phases weren’t out to destroy the universe. Hell, they weren’t smart enough to even figure out how to get unBanished.
Beneath it all, they were like everyone else, just struggling to survive.
As Kingu watched, Hope juggled the ice cream cone and clipboard in one hand, so she could fish a purple glitter pen from her pocket. Not surprisingly the scoop of strawberry toppled off the cone and hit the dirt as soon as she began making notes on her page.
Kingu could have happily watched the cheerful chaos forever.
Any final resistance he might have had to this woman vanished in a warm rush of tenderness and yearning. Clearly, he needed to have a quota system on the time he spent looking at her, because every additional second was ripping down another protective barrier. In one afternoon, Kingu already knew he would sooner die than go back into the darkness without her.
Hope frowned down at her ruined ice cream in resignation.
Kingu had no idea where she’d gotten the treat. He didn’t have any ice cream the fortress and strawberry ice cream must have cost a fortune in this kingdom. The Banished Phases stole most of their supplies, so it was all part of the black market.
Unless she hadn’t paid for it.
By now, everyone in the Cloudland knew she was Kingu’s woman. All Hope would have to do is walk into the shop, ask for something, and the Phases would know to hand it over, no questions asked. None of them would risk Kingu’s wrath. They probably wouldn’t even add it to his tab. Not that he ever paid the tab, because why should he? But, still, he liked the idea of Hope eating the food he provided, even if it was by reputation alone.
Kingu snapped his fingers and a new scoop of strawberry ice cream appeared on top of her sugar cone. With rainbow sprinkles. Hope seemed like a rainbow sprinkles kind of girl.
She blinked at it in surprise and then cast a suspicious glance towards Zakkery’s front windows. Kingu arched a brow at her through the glass.
She scowled at him and very deliberately slammed the ice cream down on top of Zakkery’s mailbox. It stuck to the roof of the curved silver box, upside down and dripping down the sides.
“Great.” Zakkery muttered. “Are you gonna clean that up?”
“No.”
Hope looked triumphant. She added an exuberant checkmark to her clipboard and marched off, ponytail bouncing.
Kingu sighed, his eyes trailing after her with undisguised longing. Obviously, he’d have no problem avoiding her for the rest of the evening. Given her mood, she wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him.
Damn it.
“Yeah, you definitely pissed her off.” Zakkery mused.
“Brilliant analysis.” Staying away from her for his own protection was already grating on Kingu. He wanted to go after her and offer her whatever she desired if she’d just forgive him for not falling for her seduction ruse.
What would make Hope happy, again? Ice cream clearly wasn’t going to work. She said she didn’t want a unicorn or a new realm. What could he get her that would make her want to stay with him?
“It must be hard, though.”
“What?”
“Well, you could hold that girl still with one finger. Your powers could crush her, without even trying.” Zakkery kept his eyes on Hope’s retreating back. “She’s your captive and you can do anything to her. Make her submit to any twisted, dirty picture in your mind. She is totally, utterly under your control.” He glanced up at him and smirked like he could read Kingu’s deepest thoughts. “But, you still can’t make her smile at you, can ya?”
“Fuck off.”
Zakkery chuckled. “Yep. That’s the thing about women. You can steal a lot from them, but the shit that matters --everything that would make them yours-- they have to give. No other way to get it.”
“The woman’s already mine.”
“Not yet, she’s not.” Zakkery corrected. “And you know it, don’t ya? That’s why you’re so worried about this soul mate. She’s tiny and you’re huge. You’re powerful and she’s weak. You can force her into your home and keep her there. Tie her up and take her body. But, in the end, it’ll mean nothing.” He leaned closer to Kingu. “The man she goes to willingly, stays with willingly, climbs into bed with because she wants to be there… That’s the one she belongs to.”
Kingu’s jaw clenched. “Fuck. Off.”
Zakkery pulled back, looking smug. “So, before I leave this God awful kingdom forever, let me offer you one last dating tip: You wanna know about women who matter? Forget Hope’s soul mate. Forget her dastardly schemes to get you naked. Forget her being human and all the rest of it. To get that girl to be yours, you’d better start thinking about how to get her to smile at you.”
Chapter Eleven
Creatures of the element,
That in the colours of the rainbow live,
And play i’ the plighted clouds.
John Milton- “Comus, a Mask”
Much to Hope’s disappointment, the Banished Phases weren’t plotting to take over the world. She’d spent the afternoon investigating their behavior and patterns, and found nothing but a bunch a people who were terrified by any mention of Job. And of the Council. And of Galen. And of Kingu.
And of her.
Hope wasn’t used to being feared. It was actually sort of flattering to see them duck for cover as she past. Finally she was being treated like a real Fire Phase. Her family would’ve been proud, even though she wouldn’t be heroically stopping an invasion any time soon. The Banished Phases really were kind of a letdown when it came to evilness.
Galen, of the Stone House was the man in charge of things and everyone seemed to hate him. Most of them were terrified that he’d have his soldiers arrest them and toss them in prison if they spoke their discontent too loudly, though. So, they mainly they just sat in bars and whined about how everybody was out to get them. Everyone with a backbone had already been locked up in that plastic jail.
Damn it, why was it always so hard to find worthy adversaries? Hope rolled her eyes as two Electricity Phases scampered across the street to avoid her.
Maybe Djinn was right and the Fire House should just start hiring enemies to fight.
In addition to the innumerable bars and gambling houses, the Banished Phases had also set up a general store, two places that she suspected were brothels and an ice cream shop. What kind of lame ass super-villains had an ice cream shop? She was going to have to think of a new way to pass the time here, because these nimrods were clearly not a threat to the galaxy.
Still, since she’d dropped her first cone and then impetuously ruined the strawberry one Kingu had created for her, Hope didn’t have much of a choice but to backtrack to the shop for third try. Since it was his fault she’d been so angry, she had no qualms about charging it to Kingu’s account, either. Served him right.
Hope heard several patrons whisper, “It’s the monster’s woman,” as she ordered her dessert, but no one came up to her. Heck, she didn’t even have to wait in line. The perks of infamy just went on and on.
The Cold Phase behind the counter handed her an
ice cream come without even a whisper of protest. His nametag read “Fort.” Unlike most of the Banished Phases, he didn’t seem terrified to the point of running. His ice blue eyes were wide and curious. “Is it true you killed five gladiators?” He asked in respectful awe.
“I only killed three, but I defeated five.” Precision on victories was always important.
“And now you belong to the monster?”
“The monster belongs to me.” Another topic where accuracy was key.
Fort swallowed, visibly gathering his nerve. “Is Job coming to help you kill us?” He blurted out.
“What? No!” Hope scoffed. “First of all, I wouldn’t need his help if I was going to kill you. I’m a warrior. And secondly, Job would never hurt anyone. He’s like the Elementals’ Papa Smurf.” She looked around the shop and found most of the customers eavesdropping on the conversation with various degrees of suspicion. “Job gave amnesty to the Air Phases.” She pointed out in a louder tone. “He’d certainly forgive any Banished Phase that came back to the Council, too. I guarantee it.”
“How can you be sure?” Someone called out.
“Because I’ve known him since I was a little girl. Since the Fall, all he cares about is rebuilding our world.” There wasn’t a doubt in Hope’s mind that Job would be thrilled to find more Phases, criminals or not. “We’re starting over. All the barriers are down. All the laws are changing. Phases are going to the human realm to look for Matches and Job is a hundred percent behind it!” She shook her head. “Whatever crimes you people committed, nobody cares anymore. When Job looks at you, all he’s going to see is another warm body between us and extinction. You don’t have to stay under Galen’s thumb. You can come home.”
She saw several Phases blink back tears at the very idea.
Hope looked out over the ice cream shop patrons and realized that her words were going to be spread around the Cloudland within minutes. Everyone was paying rapt attention. They all wanted to go back to their own Houses.
Treasure of the Fire Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 4) Page 17