Lawked Flame (18 page)

“
You need to finish your rest.
When you awake, we can finish this conversation if you would like.”
He kissed her again before she could answer.

When he released her, she remained alone in her
dream.

Chapter 14

The next time Alayna opened her eyes, she saw
Khayden seated in the leather chair next to the bed, frowning at
the book in his hands. Bright sunlight surrounded his shoulders,
casting him in a golden light. He glanced in her direction and
blinked as though he no longer trusted his eyes.

“
Alayna?”

His voice carried a wealth of
relief, concern, and something else she could not name. Suddenly
bashful, she offered him a small smile before gazing around the
room, her eyes landing on a stack of books.

Dating books?

A small grin emerged at the
thought of him studying how to date...
her
.

Pivoting her head, she admired the large, heavy,
expensive pieces of furniture randomly placed about the room. Two
Baroque chairs were pushed against the wall and probably dated back
to the seventeenth century. Frowning, she remembered tidbits from
their conversation. It all seemed so real. He’d told her some wild
things.

Khayden interrupted her musings. “Would you like
something to drink?”

Afraid to speak, she nodded, watching him pour a
liquid from a silver pitcher into a clear glass. After adding a
straw, he offered it to her. With a slight hesitation, she took
what he offered, sighing in pleasure as the cold water slid down
her parched throat.

The look of uncertainty in his
dark green eyes sobered her.
Best to clear
the air right away
. This alien thing was
the elephant in the room. The sooner she debunked it, the sooner
she could put this all behind her. She latched onto the one thing
that had struck her as strange, or alien. “Show me the blue
fire.”

He locked eyes with her and opened his palm slowly.
She wasn’t sure what she'd expected with that particular challenge,
but blue fire shooting upward from his palm wasn’t on her list.
Scooting back in the bed, her heartbeat stopped for a second or two
as she locked onto the various shades of blue flames emanating from
the center of his palm.

Swallowing hard, she glanced at
his face. She was surprised to see he showed no stress or
discomfort while the smokeless fire burned brightly. In slow
degrees, the conversation from her dream settled on her. The best
lover she had ever had was an alien.
Figures
.

Of its own volition, her hand rose. “Give it to me.”
Shutting out the are-you-crazy shouts in the back of her mind, and
ignoring mental demands that she renege on her request, and the
what-the-hell-are-you-doing question, which sounded like her
mother, she stared at him. Ignoring all the warnings, she sat up
and waited for him to hand over the fire.

“
Are you sure?” Although his face
looked skeptical, his voice held a solid ring of pride. That tipped
the scales, she needed to try this.

No I’m not sure. Humans didn’t
handle fire in the palms of their hands.
“Yeah.” She stuck her hand out closer to his.

He leaned closer. “I can send it, but you have to
command it to rest in your hand.”

Her eyes leapt toward his. “Command it? How?”

He tapped his chest with two fingers from his other
hand. “From here. Talk to it like a friend with or without spoken
words. The important thing is that you mean it from here.”

Swallowing harder, she nodded.

Sweat beaded her brow.

Panic threatened.

There was no way she could handle fire. Staring at
the steady flame, she wanted to go through with it and hushed her
fear. “Okay, I’m ready.” Seconds later, the flame levitated toward
her outstretched palm, touched down, and flared high toward the
ceiling.

“
Awck!” she
shouted, ducking and closing her hand. Breath whooshed from her
chest as she scuttled back, hitting the solid headboard. She
breathed so hard and erratic, she began to
hyperventilate. A strong palm rubbed her arm and spoke low
murmuring sounds to calm her. Embarrassment, never too far away,
settled on her shoulder.

Flustered, she glared at him. “Why didn’t you tell
me it would explode like that?”

“
It has never happened before. I
had no way of knowing. Sit still, let me check your neck.” He
leaned over, his cool fingers probing her warmed skin. When he was
finished he returned to the chair and took her hand.

After a moment of mulling over his words, she
glanced at their joined hands. “What do you mean it never happened
before? Is it that hard to hold the fire?”

“
No one has ever held it but me.
And now you. As I said, you must control the flame and it will obey
you. You gave power to your fear and lost focus.”

Alayna studied his profile. An unfathomable yearning
rose from deep inside urging her to mesh with the flame. She had no
idea where it came from, but it prompted her to raise her palm
again. This time her eyes locked with his.

An awkward silence fell as he stared at her palm and
then her. “Again?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

He unfurled his fist and blue fire re-appeared. For
a moment she simply stared, admiring the beauty of the unwavering
flame. “Ready?” In the silence of the room his voice carried like a
whispery caress.

Excited, she swallowed hard.
“Yes.” The flame levitated toward her outstretched palm. “Come to
Mama,” she whispered, feverishly watching it journey to her and
then touchdown in her hand. Once again the flame blazed. “Stop,
behave,” she admonished, as though talking to a recalcitrant
toddler.

The flame eased down to a moderate
blaze, and then shrunk to palm size. Captivated, she stared as the
flames changed colors. Blues turned to purple, then red with
orange, then yellow, and back to blue. Spellbound by the beauty she
held in her palm, forgotten memories resurfaced. As a small child
she had been fascinated with fire. For hours, she would sit in
front of the fireplace and watch the dancing flames. A sense of
longing swamped her. It had been years since she had taken the time
to enjoy a blazing fire. Heat curled and popped in her stomach,
jolting her from her memory lane trip.

“
You jumped, is everything
okay?”

“
Yeah, my stomach jumped, that’s
all.”

“
Are you ready to send it
back?”

Surprised, she glanced at him. “I can make it move?
Like go to your hand?”

“
You own the flame. It will do as
you command. Tell it to return to my palm.” He opened his hand and
held it near hers.

“
Go to Khayden,” she whispered.
Nothing happened. She looked at him and then at the blue flame. “Go
on, go to his hand.” Her eyes widened when the flame remained
blazing in her palm.

Without thinking, she looked at him and closed her
hand loosely. The fire continued to blaze through her closed
fingers. Startled, she opened and closed her hand around the flame,
enjoying the tickling sensation. For several minutes she played
with the fire, transferring it from her right to left hand, holding
her hand upside down and on the side. The entire time the flame
remained connected.

“
That’s awesome,” she said
breathily, her eyes stinging when she looked at him.

He nodded. “It is indeed. No one other than my line
as Master Lawke and his Kee can manipulate the flame. It is good to
know that gift was not lost to us.”

“
Lost? Hold up, let me send this
to you.” Emboldened with confidence, mentally she instructed the
flame to return to Khayden. It brightened in her hand, but did not
leave.

He leaned forward. His hand
hovered over the flame just as it jumped between the two of them,
latching on to his palm. “Remember there is a responsibility that
comes with handling the fire. It can be a powerful weapon. Or a
warm companion on a cold night.” Within seconds, the blue flame
changed colors as they both held the fire between them. Once the
flame returned to a combination of white and blue, it split
returning into each of their palms and vanished.

“
Okay, now that was hot. Not hot,
fire hot, but like a Moses and the burning bush kind of thing,
hot.” She laughed, overtaken by the wild sense of euphoria swamping
her senses. A thought rushed through, dimming her elation. “How
come those men disappeared when the fire covered them? There was
nothing left. Why was that?”

“
It was a consuming fire. I sent
it to destroy them and not leave any traces. Remember what I said,
you must control the flame, give it a specific purpose. It is not a
toy.”

“
Consuming fire?” It was a
testament of how good she felt after holding the flame that she
didn’t ask any other questions. Swinging her legs to the floor, she
stood, shakily at first, then growing stronger as she moved to the
corner of the room.
After a few steps, she
passed a mirror and paused. Her hair had been braided and was
fashionably looped around her head.“Who braided my hair?” she
asked, surprised at the intricacy of the style.

“
I believe Clotho, my chief
Gramier, had the honor.”

After a few turns, she continued toward the table,
which she figured out was in another room. “She did a great job. I
hope to meet her so I can thank her personally.”

“
I am most sure you
will.”

Stretching forth her palm, with a
simple thought, the blue flame emerged. Another thought, and it
vanished. Striking a fighting pose, the flame appeared and
disappeared at her command.

Hand above her head, she danced to the beat of a
popular song that summed up her current feelings. “All the women,
throw your hands up at me…If I wanna make fire, I’ll do it. If I
wanna stop fire, I’ll do it. All the honeys, makin’ fire, throw
your hands up at me… oh yeah. How you like me now since I got it
like that...”She snapped her fingers as she circled, caught up in
the moment.

The sound of offbeat clapping
drowned out her mini-celebration. Khayden sat with his leg thrown
over the side of the chair, his keen eyes lit with a blue-green
fire as he watched her.

Feeling too good to be embarrassed, she strutted
toward him and took a bow. “Thank you. Thank you.” She sat in a
nearby chair, catching her breath and gazed up at the pitched
ceiling.

I made fire
. After the elation passed, the sobering realization slammed
home that she had done something amazingly…un-human.
Damn. I made fire
.

Her mind tangled around the fact
that she had done something no one else, other than the alien
sitting next to her, could do.
I’m human,
damn it.
She fought down the rising panic.
“What did you mean you thought the gift was lost?”

“
You are the first human Kee, we
have no idea what you can and cannot do. Things are different with
you.”

Uncertain how she felt about that comment while
breathing a sigh of relief at his proclamation of her humanity, she
continued her perusal of the ceiling before speaking again. “I’m
the test subject?” She waved away his explanation. It was what it
was.

She was grateful he didn’t
sugarcoat things. “Tell me how things are so different with
me.”
Am I going to morph into something
weird?
A myriad of thoughts rushed through
her, each more ridiculous than the other.

After a moment he spoke. “For one thing, humans are
very emotional with different needs.” She stiffened. Memories
buffeted her of arguments with her ex accusing her of being too
emotional.

He continued. “You like kissing and touching. You
require so many words. That is not common among our people.”

Slowly, she lifted her head and stared at him. The
man was a master at kissing and he couldn’t keep his hands off of
her. “You’re kidding, right?”

The stoic look on his face said he was anything but
joking. “No, I am not. There are no courtships where a Lawke must
prove anything to his Kee. Lawkes have never had to convince a Kee
of his sincerity or desire. Displays of affection in public are
limited to smiles and small touches on the arms. This courtship
thing is akin to learning a new and strange language.”

The anguish on his face and the pitiable dark timbre
of his voice spoke more of his discomfort than his words, and
touched her deeply. She pointed to the stack of dating manuals on
the floor. “Is that why you’re reading these books? To learn how to
behave in a relationship with a human?” Even as she spoke the
words, they had an unreal quality to them as though this was all a
dream.

He nodded and picked up one from the top. “Men are
not from Mars, this is ridiculous. I do not understand these
comparisons.” He picked up another and tossed it down.

“
You don’t like to kiss me?” She
tried to keep the pain from her voice. Everything they had done
together created an ache inside her for more. It hurt to think she
was the only one who had enjoyed their rumps.

Steamy blue-green eyes blazed as
he moved closer, a sexy grin curling his lip. “I like kissing you
very much. It is an unusual sensation, but very addictive. In fact,
I would like to kiss you right now.” He pulled her over to his lap
and took possession of her mouth.