Ash appeared in the living room of the small guesthouse and sank gratefully into the couch just behind him. He pointed at the television, bringing on the episode of the Flintstones where ‘The Great Gazoo’ makes his appearance. One of the little perks about being a god… he watched what he wanted, when he wanted, regardless if it was on or not.
He yawned as he kicked his boots off, then brought his feet up to lie across the end of the couch, and settled back to watch. As usual, his time with Artemis had worn him out. He loathed going to see her, and it took every ounce of strength he could muster to not try to kill her each and every time.
He guessed that being extremely tired after dealing with her was better than flying into a homicidal rage. All things being considered, he’d rather sleep it off. He dissolved his jacket and shirt, leaving him only in his leather pants. He rubbed his eyes as Gazoo blurred, and before he knew it, his eye slid shut, and he was asleep.
~~~~~~~~
Not being able to sleep, Ava crawled out of bed around three in the morning, and got dressed. She left a note on the counter in the kitchen in case Stone came back early, then slipped out the back door. Ava started walking around the entire property, surprised at how large it was. She hadn’t really paid that much attention to anything past the house and back yard, but realized that the front stretch out further.
The front gate was about one hundred feet from the house, leading in to the curved driveway and about fifty feet of lawn on either side, walled in by large rows of trees. She walked to the gate and looked past the first tree on both sides, realizing that the property went on past the trees.
By walking through an archway in the tree line just past the guesthouse, she came upon a fair sized garden, complete with a rock bridge spanning a shallow pond. She looked around, noticing that the back of the guesthouse opened to the garden, and realized that the small building was a converted garage.
Walking along the lit path through the garden, she started to get a different feeling for Stone. He didn’t seem like the kind that would bother with something like this, but then again, it fit right in with him. The main house was always immaculate, and the back yard had plants everywhere.
Everything looked perfect, and she wondered how she could bring two rambunctious kids into this. They would have his house upside-down within a matter of hours.
“They’ll be fine.”
She spun at the voice behind her and stared at the man slouching in one of the wicker chairs. He hadn’t been there when she passed.
“You need a bell.”
Ash smiled slightly. “Your children will be fine here,” he said. “Besides, it’s about time Stone had a little chaos in his house. It’s not healthy for everything to be that clean.”
Ava had to smile at that. “What are you doing out here?”
“Could ask you the same thing.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“There you go,” Ash said casually.
“You’re very strange.”
“I’ve heard that from people.” He looked at the tree line. “Stone’s back.”
Ava turned in time to see Stone look through the arch in the trees. He smiled at her, and approached. They gave each other a brief kiss, missing the way Ash turned his head in mild annoyance.
“Good night?” Ash asked.
Stone shrugged. “Didn’t come across one Daimon,” he said slowly. “Which is kind of strange for this time of year.” He scratched his shoulder. “Spent the whole night drinking coffee and getting propositioned.”
“Really?” Ava asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah. Coffee sucked…and I didn’t.” Stone smiled evilly at the look that crossed her face. Even Ash had to smile at it.
“Keep that in mind,” Ava said as she turned and walked to the house.
Stone turned to Ash, who was now laughing. “Very funny,” Stone growled.
“Actually, yes, it was.” Ash sighed as he stopped laughing. It felt good to laugh once in a while, and he hadn’t done that much in the past few months.
Stone looked longingly at the garden, then the horizon. The sun would be rising soon, and the dew on the flower would most likely be beautiful. He would give anything to be able to sit here like Ash, watch the sun rise, and revel in the rays hitting the water droplets, making them shimmer like diamonds.
Ash studied the wistful expression on Stone’s face. It was the look of a man who longed to experience some of the simplest things in the universe, and who knew that they would forever be denied him.
“Sunrise,” Ash whispered.
Stone nodded as he tore his gaze away from the garden and looked at Ash. “There are times,” he said in a low voice that sounded close to breaking, “ that I completely envy you.”
Stone turned and walked to the house as Ash watched. He knew how Stone felt, since at this moment, he was filled with envy for the man who was about to crawl into bed with a woman that actually truly cared for him. Ash would give up everything to be able to find someone who loved him for him.
~~~~~~~~~
Ava pulled the sheets back, licking her lips at the sight of his tanned skin against the light brown sheets. He moved slightly, bringing one leg over as he rolled on to his back. Going to the bottom of the bed, she looked at him curiously, then walked over to the side he was closest to. She bent down, trailing her hair along his thigh, smiling at the reaction she could see out of the corner of her eye.
She replaced her hair with a tongue, barely touching him as she made her way up to his middle. She squealed as Stone grabbed her by the arms and gently pulled her over his body. His lips were immediately on hers as he brought one leg up to gently nudge hers apart.
She pulled back to look down at him. Tracing a finger over the scar on his chest, the only one that remained to remind him of his death, she smiled as he pushed against her.
“Close your eyes,” she whispered.
Stone froze at the words, so similar to the ones uttered that led to his death. Ava saw the fear flash through his eyes.
“Trust me.”
“It’s not about trust,” Stone said in a low voice as his body threatened to break into a cold sweat and start shivering. He put his hands on her hips and easily lifted her off, placing her on the bed and then sat up beside her. “Maybe…it is about trust. But not trust in you…that, I have. I just need to be able to trust myself.”
She ran a few fingers through his hair and over his forehead. “Why don’t you trust yourself?”
“Every time I think about it…it brings back the emotions, and the pain. I can’t trust myself to not react to those.”
Ava put her arms around his chest and pulled them both down to the bed. She rolled over so her back was against his front, and snuggled closer to him. Stone wrapped am arm around her, and nudged her legs apart so that one of his could rest between them.
He felt so warm and strong behind her that for an instant, she knew that everything was right with the world. Then she remembered that she might be a liability to his safety, and that her children were possible targets. He had been gracious enough to open his house for their safety, but she doubted that he would want to do so for long.
As nice, sexy and strong as he was, Stone was an immortal vampire hunter whose soul was currently in the possession of a supposedly mythical Goddess. Ava closed her eyes tight at that thought, knowing that thinking about it for too long would be a guarantee for a weekend visit to the Riverview Psychiatric Hospital.
She stared into the darkness as his warm breath against her shoulder spread desire through her. His hand twitched against hers, and she knew that he had fallen asleep. She smiled slightly at that. They hadn’t spent much time in his bed just holding each other…unless it was preceded by a heavy-duty-mind-numbing-toe-curling sex fest.
Lying like this, in the shelter of him, was nice.
~~~~~~~~~~
Miguel shifted the phone to a headset and slipped it on. “Okay,” he said as he keyed himself into the secured area of the dark-hunter.com web site. “Whose here?”
Four of the Lower Mainland squires were all in on the conference call with him, while the remaining one had a previous engagement. Miguel adjusted the headset, then started.
“I’m going to go through this fast, so keep up,” he told them. “I need each of you to plot and pin on a map the areas that have been the busiest in the past three weeks, then compare to the same areas for the past few nights. We need to see if there is a drop, increase or shift in the areas that the Daimons hunt.”
“Might I ask why?” Kai, who was Drake’s Squire, asked.
“Apparently there are Daimons coming from Seattle intent on doing some damage in Vancouver. No idea if they’re Spathi, or regular Daimons, but for now that doesn’t really matter.”
“Ah.” Kai fell silent.
Within minutes, Miguel was looking through maps of the large area that made up BC’s Lower Mainland. He dismissed the outer regions of the area, since, although they fell under the Lower Mainland geographically, they were in another area in his realm, and fell under another set of Squires. If needed, he would contact someone from their little group and request the same data.
“Interesting,” he whispered.
“What is?”
“Wha? Oh… forgot I was still on here.” Miguel checked through one certain part again, and then sighed. “In the past two nights, there has been a significant drop in Daimon activity. That’s rare for this time of the year.” Summer was usually their busiest time.
“That Sci-Fi convention a couple weeks back brought more in, and maybe the decrease is related to them leaving,” another squire suggested.
“Possible,” Miguel said. “Check with the authorities and see if there have been any unsolved’s from that time, and compare it with any from then until now.”
“On it.”
“I’m going,” Miguel said. “I’m going to work on this and see if anything makes sense.” He clicked a button, then took the headset off and placed it on his desk. He looked through the information again, plotting various areas that were hot spots, and checking them against the previous years.
He jumped as something vibrated in his pocket, and took out his ‘personal’ cell phone, the one he gave to people who thought he was just some rich brat protégé who lived in a penthouse condo with his obscenely wealthy recluse uncle.
He smiled at the call display and flipped the phone open. “Hey, baby.” He listened to his girlfriend as she went through the usual sweet talk before cutting her off. “Baby…I love talking to you, but I’m kind of really busy right now. Could I meet you for, say, lunch?” He smiled at her reply. “One o’clock it is, then. Bye.”
He closed the phone and realized that he was smiling. He tried to put her to the back of his brain as he returned to the work in front of him, although it was difficult.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Stone stared into the darkness of his bedroom as Ava slept in his arms. He had fallen asleep earlier, but something had woken him. He listened intently, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. He reached out with his senses, and could detect no presences that were not supposed to be on his property.
He could sense Ava as she slept, Miguel, who was being a little too happy as he worked, and a very faint presence that he recognized as Ash. The man’s presence either appeared two ways, as barely there, or brighter than the sun. Stone figured that Ash was sleeping, and reached out again to see if anyone else was around.
Finally assuring himself that there was no unauthorized persons around, he started to relax. After Ava and her friends had scaled his property wall, he had it reinforced and built up. He also added extra water protection, with the divider walls running out as a wave break and hidden electrical current generators if needed. He didn’t worry about neighbors not liking the extended walls, since he owned the property surrounding his on both sides.
He sighed at the idea of having to worry about protection. To his knowledge, no one knew where he lived, since the house was officially in Miguel’s father’s name. To all intent and purpose, Stone was referred to as Miguels’ obscenely wealthy recluse uncle. If anyone asked he was Uncle Geoff, although most people never asked…for which Stone was glad.
He was born Geoffry Stone-Mikels, but had not answered to Geoffry since his death. Stone clenched his eyes as his mind skimmed over the night of his demise, and he breathed deeply to banish the thoughts.
“Geoffry is dead,” he whispered. “His wife and brother killed him.” And he was a fucking idiot for letting them do it. He sighed at the ever-present hindsight. He should have seen it coming, and should have known that his wife didn’t love him. She married him for his money, and that was all. He wasn’t even sure that he had ever loved her. He had liked her, that much was true, but he didn’t think that love had really entered the picture at all.
“Love,” he whispered with a small laugh. “Love is for suckers and poets.” But, he knew that wasn’t true. Love was powerful and so damn scary that he tried to avoid it at all costs. He teased a few of the other Dark-Hunters who had found their true love, and had gotten their souls back. Although… inside he had been damn near insanely jealous that they had found someone to take away the loneliness of waking up alone century after century.
If he had been given the chance, he wasn’t sure if he could take it. He trusted someone with his life before, and she took everything from him. The though of having that absolute trust and love in someone to be able to put his actual soul in their hands scared the crap out of him.
He looked at the woman in his arms, wondering for about the hundredth time if he trusted her enough to not drop his soul if and when the time came. He wondered if she even felt for him what he was feeling for her.
“Ava? Baby?” he waited a few seconds. “Are you awake?” When there was no answer or even hint of her being awake, Stone clenched his eyes shut. “I’m scared,” he whispered to her. “I’m falling in love with you and I don’t want to leave you.”
There. He’d said it…. And managed to do it while she was sleeping. He’d never felt more like a coward in his entire existence.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Miguel smiled as he slipped into the seat across the table from his girlfriend. She smiled back, and leaned forward to give him a kiss.
“Hungry?” he asked.
She ran a finger over his cheek and to his lips. “I have a better idea,” she purred. “Let’s go back to your place and spend the afternoon naked.”
Miguel smiled. “I like that plan.” He paused. “But can’t make it my place.”
“Why not?”
“Uncle Geoff’s having a conference of some sorts,” he said smoothly, too used to lying about his home life. “Bunch of old guys going on about virtually nothing.” He smiled. “Which is why I’m so glad you called. You saved me from an afternoon of being a glorified gopher for them.”
His girlfriend looked disappointed, and something close to anger crossed her face. “Are you married?”
Miguel stared at her. “No. Why?”
“You never invite me to your place,” she pouted. “You live in that rich house on the beach, and…well…I’m starting to think that you’re either married or embarrassed to take me there.”
Miguel stared at her for a moment as three different warnings went off in his brain, then smiled as he took her hand in his. “Come on, baby. Let’s not fight, okay?” He brought her hand up to kiss at the same time his other hand pushed a button on the phone hooked to his belt. “Uncle Geoff is… eccentric.. and no one is allowed to visit unless he invites them.”
“Sounds like a complete kook.”
“You’re preaching to the choir, babe,” Miguel said with a laugh. He jumped as his phone rang, and grabbed for it. Scowling, he answered, then rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said as he closed the phone.
“Why?”
“Seems that glorified gophers are in demand, and if I don’t get my ass downtown to get some proposal, or something equally mundane, then I can forget about ever being in the will.” He rolled his eyes in annoyance.
“You have to go…”
He smiled slightly. “I’m sorry.” He stood with a sad sigh, then paused. “Uh… would you like to go to Whistler with me this weekend?”
She looked surprised. “Sure.”1
Pick you up tomorrow afternoon?”
“Perfect.” She smiled as he bent down to give her a kiss, then watched as he walked out of the restaurant before grabbing her phone and making a call.
Miguel walked to his car parked in the lot across the street, got in and drove to the office building in the city that also held a business that was a front for Squires in the area. Both Blood Rite and Theti Squires had offices here. He walked into the main reception area, placed his thumb on a security reader and entered through the door.
Once inside, he allowed himself to expel the breath he seemed to have been holding since he left the restaurant. He ran his hands over his face as he went through the conversation again, and shook his head.
“Santos?”
He looked up at the voice, and the woman who had spoke. “Just the person I want to see,” he said. 2
Author notes
spacing is messed up... I'll fix that later.
In a list
Please tell me what you think
Comments
-
very very nice...
i love the way that you make stone and ash interact. and ash can sometimes be so human, he experiences more than stone it almost seems. i think that is because he is more tuned to himself though. -
-
Thanks.
At times it's hard to write interaction between an astablished character like Ash, and someone you created.
If you're interested, I made a 'profile' of Stone sometime in May(I think) http://storywrite.com/images/ext/Image/0/457.jpg If you've ever been to the DH site, it's similar to those. The image isn't 100%, but it's the best I've found for what I had of him in my mind.
-
Adding your comment:
