Ash: Love Me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance (15 page)

Ash’s eyes burned red. The calm brown color that he strived to keep was nowhere to be seen. Dante’s hand that was casually clapped against his back didn’t calm him down. His beast was raging, demanding blood.

Brook was lying in the hospital bed as unconscious as when he first entered the room two days ago. She was losing the battle. At least that’s what the sinister voice in his head told him It wanted him to change and rip the heads off of the staff trying to help her. He never realized he had such a dark side.

“Let’s go.” Dante’s voice was low and held the authority of the first Created in it. There was no way Ash could ignore the command.

He turned with a look that promised death and followed Dante out of Brook’s room. “Where are we going?”

“To satisfy your beast.”

They quickly hit the main level on the Earth without encountering anyone. Ash growled in his head, no one was stupid enough at this point to want to engage with him. He had to go to the other side of the room to sit with his eyes closed for the doctors to enter to check on his mate. Seems he scared them. None of that would have mattered if it weren’t for Brook.

He got into the hover car, not caring where Dante was taking him. All he knew was that it was away from his mate. His heart stuttered. Logically he knew there was nothing he could do in that room. The fact that there seemed to be a wall around her mind preventing him from talking to her mentally or even sharing the nightmares she was fighting alone, killed him.

With a sigh, he sank down in the seat fighting the mist of tears that shimmered in the corner of his eyes. The thought of being alone tore him up. Apart from when Amber said she was going to leave him to go on some trip that would keep her away for years there was no greater pain. Though watching Brook fight for her life put all those other emotions to shame.

Dante brought the hover car to a stop. They were parked in front of a place he had never seen before. Ash was sure Dante had more little spots unknown to the world than he could imagine.

“Why are we here?”

“Get out,” Dante replied opening his door.

Ash followed him into a building that seemed small on the outside, nothing but a barn actually. Once inside it was bigger than a gallery. Every place his eyes landed there was a weapon.

“Dante?” His mouth opened as his eyes grew larger. He hadn’t seen anything like this since the war.

“Someone had to keep all this safe. Suit up.”

No need to tell him twice. He walked over and pulled out a few of his favorite weapons from when he was fighting in his other life. It reminded him of the days they went to war for the scientist. He never thought those memories would be fond and he was right but the familiarity of them was comforting.

“Who are we fighting?”

“The Patron. We located one of his strongholds. There is a fifty-fifty chance of him being in there. Doesn’t matter either way, this is meant to send a message. Stop hunting Brook, or else.”

“What if it doesn’t work?”

“Then we’ll send another message, until he gets it. I think the next question is what happens if he stops hunting Brook.”

“What do you think will happen?”

“He will start hunting us.” Darkness shone in Dante’s eyes that made Ash stop for a minute as a shiver took him.

“Don’t you mean that he will start hunting me?”

“No Ash, he’s about to learn that the second deadliest thing on the Earth is a mated Created.

“What’s the deadliest thing?”

Dante gave him a smile laced with the innocence of the ages. “Me.”

Ash shook his head holding his ground against a need to hide in the presence of the aura Dante gave off.

The door opened, allowing Mick and the rest of his brothers to enter. The aura around Dante died down.

“Everyone ready?” Mick asked as he walked into the room already fitted with weapons.

“Ready,” Ash replied, putting thoughts of Dante out of his head.

Mick came over and pulled up a schematic of the place they would be invading. It was surrounded by walls that were monitored with both new and old technology. There were guards who walked the perimeter. There were even wild dogs, the kind that had been mutated in the war.

“It’s like the Patron laid out a welcome wagon just for us.” Mick’s voice was deadly.

Ash had forgotten how much Dante and his brothers had to dial their natural aggressiveness down when they made Earth their home. It had been bad for him and his brothers, but nothing like what Dante and his clan went through.

“I think you haven’t had a good fight since the war.” Ash gave him a knowing smile.

“Don’t remind me and thank you for bringing so much fun into our lives.” Mick gave him a smile before turning back to the schematics pointing out both the weakness and the strength of the Patron’s fortress.

“Are we ready?” Everyone nodded.

Mick turned to look at Dante. “Let’s go Patron hunting.”

They turned and left the building piling up in hovers, Dante in the lead.

“How’s Brook?” Mick asked.

“She’s still out cold. I can’t reach her mind,” Ash told him, his eyes on the road ahead of him.

“She’ll make it.”

Ash nodded, there really wasn’t any other possibility in his world. His mate, his Brook, had to survive this if she wanted him to survive.

“Thank you, thank you both.” He threw a look at Dante including him. They nodded to him in silence.

They ended up close to the barrier, in a spot no one would think to look for a fortress much less surviving humans. The Patron picked a spot that mankind would never stumble over.

Dante sat the hover down on the other side of a hill that made part of the Patron’s natural defense system. They gathered at the bottom going over the plan again. They were wearing an outfit that would read as an antilife sign when detected, all they needed to do was allow their alien biology to take over.

Their bodies changed shape becoming taller and thicker as they morphed into their beast form. No one looking at them would think they were human at this point. The weapons they still carried made them look like a person’s worse nightmare come to life. Ash smiled, seeing his family in their natural shape brought him comfort.

They climbed the hill, staying close to the ground. All movement stopped when a droid came over the hill. That was an upgrade, something they hadn’t planned for. It came close to Ash investigating him as he stayed still. It extended an arm trying to get a blood sample. With a sigh Ash’s hand snaked out catching the droid midair. He tore it in half.

The Created were on their feet as one storming the hill. The element of surprise had been lost. They roared over the side of the hill to encounter skilled bodyguards of several alien worlds.

Weapons raised, eyes blazing, they charged down the hill into the fight. A huge snake like creature came for Ash using its tail to fling him to the ground.

“Haven’t seen one of you since the war.”

“We’re around looking for you and your family.”

“Glad you found me, I wouldn’t want to disappoint.”

The snake came for him fangs dripping a poison that incapacitated the victim while he would swallow it whole and slowly allow his meal to burn alive in the acid in his stomach.

Ash laughed. “You don’t want me; I’d give you a stomach ache.”

He ran towards him. Springing up into the air, he pulled a deadly looking knife from his boot. Flipping in the air, he ran the knife across the snake’s neck causing him to spurt blood. The snake hissed trying to latch his fangs into him. Ash came down on his back, stuck the knife in, and held on tight as the snake began to convulse in its death.

Letting go of the knife, he roared as he used his claws along with the bulk of his body reminding everyone present of what he was. The guards turned and started running. A few of them held onto the weapons firing at him. He took the shots like he didn’t feel them. He tore through them, demanding to know where the Patron was. They died with screams on their lips but gave no information.

He met Dante and the others at the door to the fortress. The lawn in front of them was littered with bodies. If Brook were not lying in the hospital fighting for her life he may have found a different way, but today all his beast wanted was more of the Patron’s men and then the Patron himself.

They stalked into the facility that seemed to be cleared out.

“Did he escape?” Mick asked looking around.

They systematically worked through each room searching for the hidden cache where sensitive documents or computer files were stored while hacking into the central computer system for any data that had not been destroyed before they overtook the compound. This would never be a haven for the Patron again.

“He escaped.” Dante said in a voice of disgust.

“How can you be sure he was here?” Ash asked coming into the room.

Dante nodded to the wall with a slaughtered man underneath it. There was a message written in blood. ‘If the woman lives she is safe from me. I no longer desire her money.’

“Do you think he killed that one just to have blood to write the message?”

“Yes, he’s a sadistic bastard,” Mick replied.

“Take this place apart brick by brick. I never want him to be able to come back here again,” Ash said before he strode for the door. “Dante?”

“I’ll take care of the bodies.”

Ash nodded and left the room continuing his search for any information he could find on the Patron. The Patron had chosen the wrong victim this time.

“Ash?”

He fell to his knees as her soft voice whispered through his mind. “Brook! Are you awake? How do you feel?”

“Scared. Everything is so dark. Did I die?”

“No! You’re alive just lost in your mind. That’s ok I can help you with that.” He relaxed into the floor as he closed his eyes and reached into his mind for the fragile connection between them.

He saw her; she was sitting high on a mountain peak in a beautiful room. It was airy and feminine. There was a cage around the room not allowing her to walk out.

“This is the room I grew up in. The room of a princess. I loved and hated it at the same time. It was my prison. My dad could monitor me here, make sure no one was bothering me. Make sure I was acting proper at all times. I remember there were times I just wanted to drink soda, eat pizza, and look at hot guys on the web, but I couldn’t, too scared my dad would look and see me doing it.”

“You can do it now. We’ll make pizza or even go pick some up if you want. There’s no soda but we’ll get the next best thing then you can pick a room in the house, eat and drink, and look at whoever you want on the new net.”

She gave him a shaky smile. “It won’t be the same. I’ll be comparing them all to you.”

“Then you can eat pizza, drink, and I will pose any way you want.”

“I would have risked being caught as a teen for that. Why am I here?”

Ash shrugged. “We all deal with our past in different ways.”

“I think I had a chance to go back, maybe even escape the fate of my parents. It would have all been without you though; I turned it down. Maybe it was a dream. All I know is I made the choice to be here with you. I don’t want to leave you.”

“Let me in, Brook.” The door swung open and he came to sit by her side.

Ash sat down next to her finally able to see what she was watching on the screen of her mind. There was a woman on a table, her legs spread apart panting, pushing out a baby. A doctor’s hands reached down and caught the little bundle wiping the mouth and nose making sure the child was breathing.

She looked up with a smile. She’s a girl. There was a loud booming sound as the man standing by the mother’s head laughed in joy.

“That’s my dad. I didn’t know I had these memories. I guess almost dying made them available.”

He walked over and the doctor placed her in his hands. She was still a mess but her dad didn’t seem to care.

“Brook,” he breathed reverently as if the whole world suddenly revolved her around her. Carefully he cradled her in his arms.

“You did good, Baby.” He leaned down to kiss his wife. “Never worry, I would give my life for her.

The scene changed she was four years old lying on the floor between her parents; they were tickling her and blowing raspberries in her stomach.

Her mother’s voice was worried. “If we do this, what becomes of Brook?”

“She becomes the princess we already know her to be.”

“Turns out I wasn’t always a princess. My parents ascended to the throne because the country was in such turmoil. I researched it after I realized they died the night I was frozen, their sacrifice saved the lives of our people. The country still exists today. They have statues of them erected; there’s even one of me. Our family has a day of remembrance. How could I have not known my father?”

The memory changed to coronation day. She was in a pink dress that highlighted her skin. Her hair was in long braids that trailed down her back. The country had watched her walk with her parents up to the dais where they ascended the throne as king and queen. The people roared both their respect and honor of the new royal family. The look on her parents’ face was one of pride but they weren’t looking at the people or even the ones swearing them in. Their eyes were locked on her.

Her memories swam by her in a whirlwind; some she remembered, some she didn’t. The next was a memory taken a year before they froze her. She had walked into their room one-night head high, a defiant look in her eyes and sat down on the end of the bed.

She hadn’t wanted anything not really just a hug or a word of love. Her mother moved over in the bed creating a space between her and her father patting at it. Brook had crawled between them and closed her eyes. Her parents hugged her that night and each whispered in her ear that they loved her and were so proud of her. She always thought it was a desperate girl’s dream now she knew better. They loved her.

“I love you, Mom and Dad.” She had whispered it that night while they held her. Even though she escaped because she needed time to come to grips with what she thought of as her inadequacies, they knew she loved them.

Her last memory was the pain in their eyes as they had her dragged out the room. It wasn’t hatred. It was love, the kind that hurts, but you don’t want to escape it.

She threw herself in Ash’s arms and cried loud and long for her old life and the new revelation she had of it. When the tears quieted down and nothing but sniffles remained, she turned her head to look at him with a smile that lit the room.

“I’m ready to come home.” Together they stood. Ash took her hand and together they walked out of the place that would have kept her prisoner forever into the new freedom she found.

*~*~*~*

She opened her eyes to find Ash lying beside her. She reached over to brush his hair out of his face.

“Wake up, sleepy head.” Her voice was dry and raspy.

“Welcome back, mate.” Ash rolled off the bed and went to the small refrigerated section in the room to get her some water. He brought a glass to her before sitting beside her on the bed.

“How long was I out?”

“I think we are still on day two. We’ll have to ask someone. I remember we stormed one of the Patron’s fortresses looking for him. I was in the process of taking it all down when you reached out to me.”

“How did you get here?”

“Dante, Mick or one of the brothers picked me up and put me in the hover. I remember feeling my body moving but there was no sense of danger, so I knew one of them had me. They must have brought me here.”

“I’m glad they did. I feel lighter, free.” She faced her inner demons, the things both good and bad that were holding her back and now all she wanted to do was create a life and a family with the male she loved.

“I’m ready, Ash. I want to go wherever you go, even if it means leaving Earth to join your family.” The thought of that pricked her, it would mean leaving Jaz on Earth alone to face her upcoming events. Maybe she could bring her but that would make Jaz a wanted fugitive.

“Not yet.” He pulled her into his arms and stroked her hair. “We still have too many things to do. Besides there is still Jazlyn to consider, and I did swear to help protect her. The Patron is still alive, so he is still a threat although he has sworn to leave you alone.”

“Do you think he will go after Dante and his brothers?”

“Yes, but what he hopes to gain from it eludes me.”

There was a knock at the door before Jaz stuck her head in. “Can I come in? I thought I heard the murmur of voices in here.”

“Come in. How long was I out?”

Jaz walked over and pulled Brook into her arms allowing her tears to flow freely for a moment.

“You were out a total of three days.” She sniffed and turned her back over to Ash.

“Oh no, how are you?”

“Brook, stop it this instant. You’re the one in the bed, not me. I need to be asking you how you’re feeling.”

“I feel good, I’m ready to leave so the three of us can go back home.”

Jaz’s face fell. “It’s been suggested that maybe I should spend my last days here. They thought I was pretty aggressive when I came back.”

“What did you do?”

Jaz gave her a run down on how she took control of her regeneration and healing. Brook sat up and clapped her hands as well as laughed.

“Here’s the thing, Jaz. They have no idea what aggressive is, but they will if they try to keep you from leaving with me. You’re coming, so get used to it.”

“I’ll come only because I am almost out of this hard candy and I’m addicted to it.” She reached into her pocked and pulled one out popping it into her mouth.

“One of my handlers tried to get one so he could analyze it.” She did air quotes and twisted her mouth making Brook laugh. “I almost bit his finger off. Told him touch my stuff and die. He backed down but he wasn’t happy about it. Then I counted the pieces I had so I would know if someone touched them.”

Jaz walked around to the side of the bed and turned on a monitor before taking a small scanner out of her coat pocket.

“Let me examine you.”

She ran the scanner over her frowning as she looked at some of the numbers displayed on the monitor. After giving her a thorough check having her stand to walk as well as doing a hearing and a vision test on her, she let her go sit in the chair on the other side of the room.

“Brook you’re going to be fine. Actually your already better than fine. I was expecting certain numbers to be deficient but they weren’t. It’s almost like you received a boost that not only compensated for the lack of blood and your slow heartbeat, but also for what would happen in the regenerator.

“I think we can say my protectors were looking out for me.” She slid her hand into Ash’s

“How long before I can go home?”

“I can have you discharged in an hour.”

Brook laughed, “Nice to see somethings haven’t changed. Getting discharged always takes longer than you want it to. Do you need to grab anything while you’re here, Jaz?”

“No, everything I want is at your place. Be back shortly.”

Brook waited until Jaz shut the door behind her to move over to Ash. She sat in his lap wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Now what could we do to pass the time?” She lowered her head to kiss him when a knock sounded on her door. “Really, do they know I’m about to make love in the medical facility? Is that why they’re knocking?”

Ash pinched her rear before she called out a come in. Jazlyn’s two handlers, as she called them, walked into the room. It was obvious from the look on their faces they hadn’t really expected Ash to be there and they definitely didn’t expect to see her on his lap.

“How can we help you?” Ash changed her position on his lap in case he needed to spring up suddenly.

“We were hoping to speak with Brooklyn.” The taller of the two and the one who seemed to be in charge spoke.

“Speak on.” Brook gave that royal command with a haughty voice and a wave of her hand.

“In private.” The speaker cleared his throat trying to hide his anger at the way she commanded them.

“This is as private as it gets,” Ash spoke up.

The speaker straightened his shoulders. “We think it’s best that you break of all communications with Jazlyn. Being friends with you can only hurt her in these last days.”

Brook stood trembling in anger, Ash’s hand on her arm holding her in check.

“Who should be her friend? Did you pick out new ones for her or will she simply sit in her room and stare at the walls? You should be ashamed of yourself to condone such an atrocity.”

“There’s nothing we can do and you know it. You’ve studied the laws. I saw you looking them up after she told you what she was. Look, I like her, but I can’t do anything and neither can you.”

“These laws limit you. You grew up accepting them. I grew up making the laws, or knowing the people who made the laws that others accepted. So no, I won’t be accepting them or tolerating them. I will be changing them and the first change or exception will start with Jaz. You can be sure when I walk out of this hospital so will she. Hope that she will take pity on your raggedy organization and come back and help you in a couple of months. You may leave now.” She dismissed them with another wave of her hand.

When the door closed, she turned to look at Ash. “Now where were we?”