Get What You Wanted Ch 25
"Do you want anything while I'm up, Issa?"
Akasha was pulling her hair aside her bare shoulders as she sat on the edge of her mate's bed, looking around with nostalgia and weathered melancholy. For a moment, she soaked it all in, capturing the image in the back of her mind to remembered later fondly and often.
"We need to get ready to leave for Mikogami's realm. Bath, clothes, breakfast all need to be prepared. We only have a few hours." Issa stretched languidly, his naked body rippling with chiseled muscles and pale gashed scars marked him in haphazard crosses.
Bloodriver Akasha could not look at him without hunger or child like adoration. However, through the years her feelings had been tempered down to a flutter of her heart and physical longing that she masked with a calm facade.
She still loved him and likely always would, but his betrayals had hurt her too often for her feelings to be as pure and strong as they once had been.
Issa Shuzen turned his head enough to drink in the graceful curves and near godlike beauty that was his mate and mother to his child. Pink lustrous hair like bubblegum candy, the taste and feel of her skin was just as sweet, the way she responded to him when they had vigorous sex was always something he delighted in even after their intimate romp had ended. It had been well over a decade since he had the pleasure of her company and while it left him sated and content, he still had the longing for some of his other more shameless and erotically experimental minded harem.
That did not mean he didn't love her above all his others, it was just that his sexual appetites were more than any one woman could ever satisfy. While she might out rank him in power and ability, skill and prowess, when it came to the art of lovemaking and sex she was always rather...modest about it.
This had always been one of their disagreements that had led to her leaving him...and their daughter. Looking at the perfect skin of her back with the cascading pink and mauve highlighted hair, he suppressed a sigh of desire.
If only she would be reasonable about things. He kept this thought to himself though, knowing all to well how these disputes made her flee if they began to get heated.
"As you wish, My Lord," She looked over her shoulder at him, a long forgotten playful smile teasing the tips of her lips and shy demure cast of her eyes.
It would seem breakfast was going to serve itself and the other priorities were going to be postponed.
Issa curled himself forward off the pillows, grinning with the memories of how they often used to start many an interesting evening with her calling him by that title. This was definitely a better way to start the day then how he had expected after hearing that she had his entire staff fired.
Unfortunately, this was not going to be one of those mornings.
"Did you mean it, Issa?"
Akasha had left to use the bathroom with a naked sashay of hips and bottom, but her question made her pause just as she reached for the door handle.
"Mean what, Kasha-chan?" He fell back into the thick comforter of his bed, leaning on his elbow.
She peeked her head past the door frame to enjoy the view of his nude and very masculine frame. "Your apology to me."
Issa was silent, keeping his dark crimson eyes on her jade green, weighing his words carefully.
His response was politely measured. "I am a vampire and your mate, Kasha-chan. I always mean what I say to you."
"I see," She looked down at the thick, expensive red carpet in between her and her mate. "Then I think the fault I find is how you said it. You didn't sound sincere."
He said nothing and continued to glanced at her, patiently allowing her to continue.
"Is that how you wish for our daughter to give her apology to her mate? Insincerely?"
"That is an something Moka will have to decide for herself," Issa answered aloofly, obviously believing now that Moka and Tsukune were their own to govern with only a nudge and push here and there. Considering the matter solved, he swiveled on his seat and kicked his legs off the bed. "She is a grown woman and she will have to mend things between her and her mate in her own way. I have told her what she must do. What else is there?"
Akasha frowned slightly, not really pleased by the answer.
"Did you expect me to respond to your apology at all, Issa-kun? Did you even want me to tell you how I felt about it? Did you even want to know if I accepted it?"
He could tell there was a lot weighing on his response by the way she reflected her tone in her eyes.
"You don't accept my apology, do you?" He rested his elbows on his thighs and let his fingers fall between his knees, knowing the answer before she said it.
"No, I do not." She told him with veiled regret, but conviction never the less.
"What do you want? What else could I give you?" He stood up, unafraid of his nakedness, and with his face screwed in competent focus of her wishes. He was not surprised at her response.
"I want the same thing I've always wanted from you, Issa," she voiced defeatedly, looking out past the large window that let the dawning sun pierce the horizon. "I want you to be open with me, honest with me...don't play any games with me. If you are not sorry, then don't say you are. If you want to put on airs with our daughters to 'show' how we're supposed to act, that's your choice as their father, but don't be that way with me as your mate. Not me, Issa. I love you too much to want to guess what you are thinking behind those eyes of yours and it scares me."
"You don't have to be afraid of me, Kasha-chan. You never had to."
"No," The pink haired Dark Lord faced him boldly but with adoration, with hope, with love. "I never had to in a way that you think, Issa. We both know when it comes to power, I could beat you, crush you like a bug," She curled her fingers in front of her face and closed them. "Utterly...destroy you."
He cleared his throat, "There has never been any doubt of that, my love, but what are you saying then?"
"Just like I can beat you that way, Issa, you have done the same to me...here." She took his hand and placed it over her heart, between her breasts. "Utterly, completely, and without regret...you destroy me and I am almost defenseless against you. I've always known about your lovers. I know about your insatiable drive to attain the flesh..."
"Naturally," he didn't even blink or try to explain himself. It was just a fact that he loved his manhood as much as he loved power.
"But, do you even understand what you do to me when you use these other women like you have? Do you even feel for them as you feel for me? Are they just 'things' to be enjoyed? Do they even have faces or names to you? Do you see them as you see me?" She took his very large hand into both of her's, threading their fingers together.
"Of course I do," he answered easily, casually. The answer went through her like a knife through her soul, but she weathered it as best she could. "But you know as well as I do that you and I never had the same perceptions of love and sex when we were together. I never lied to you or hid things from you, Kasha-chan. These women are distractions and, yes, they fill a part of me that you try to but just can't. I never force them into my bed nor do I give to them anything they aren't willing to receive."
He placed his free hand on her cheek and spoke very clearly, very proudly to her, eye to eye, "We are eternal, Kasha-chan. We are power. We are not limited by time, by politics, by authorities of the mundane humans who have infected our world. We take what we want, Kasha-chan. With eternity, we take our privileges as we see fit to entertain ourselves. You can't tell me that I am the only man you've been with since our time together, can you?"
She watched his every move, his every breath...he was her world and nothing else mattered at that moment. With a small delicate step, Akasha cleared the space between them, pressing herself against him oh so intimately.
"I don't care about the power, the status, or even our standing among monsters, Issa," She touched his cheek to look at him with as much vulnerability and heartfelt sincerity. "I have always just wanted you to love me and need me as your one and only mate. Am I not worth it, Issa? Am I not enough for you?"
He kept his face as blank as he could, answering without answering. When he held it, it was also as much of a confirmation of his feelings towards her as if he had just spoke his words clearly.
No, she wasn't.
"I see," She traced her fingers along a thick scar on his chest. "Is it because you are so eternal and powerful that you're bored with me?"
"Kasha," he voiced deeply, in a mild exasperate warmth. "These other women mean very little to me. They are fun, moments of entertainment. I might even feel a slight affection for them, but they are nothing compared to how I feel for you. They are sex. You, I do love. You are my mate, my one and only partner through eternity. You, I respect above all others. I bow to you."
"Yet you have children with some of your lovers, Issa." Though her forehead touched his shoulder, she spoke with her lips at his chest. "Even after you've had me. Me, you still went out and found other lovers to fill with your seed. You married Kahlua's and Kokoa's mother in a human wedding. Is this how you show your love? Your respect? Did you think I would just sit idly by and watch you do this to me over and over again? I can't. I won't." Shuzen Issa felt his mates tears on his hands that were touching her breast. "I didn't."
If there were any two words that could have caught Issa's attention, those two were it.
"You found a lover?" He didn't seem too affected when he felt her nod. "Why are you so sad? You should be happy. I'm sure he's helped you during those times when I was not there with you. There is nothing to worry about, Kasha-chan. I know you love only me and no one else."
Her admission of finding another lover seem to punish her more then it did him. When he'd told her that the other women were mere distractions he'd meant it. To vampires sex was just another form of pleasure, like tasting a fine wine or slowly tearing apart an enemy. If she'd found a plaything to help her pass the time that was good. He had no objection at all.
Pale glowing shoulders shook when her pink hair rippled with the shake of her head. "I didn't find just a lover, Issa. I found someone else…to love instead of you."
Coolly, calmly, Lord Akashiya said nothing as he watched his mate go from the woman who would have done anything, literally anything, for him to announcing in one breath that she had not only shared her body with another person, but found someone to replace him.
Smoothing his face with his hand, he took the news icily.
"If that is so, Kasha-chan?" He put distance between himself and her, turning eyes that were once warm towards her. Now they held pride and dispassionate detachment. "Then what was last night?"
Looking as if a strong wind would shatter her, she could only watch as the distance between her and her mate increased and what little desire he had for her disappeared with each step he took backwards.
She shook her head as if to clear the dizziness that was fogging her in it.
"I…" She swallowed like a nervous school girl caught in the middle of a pubescent scandal. "I…was hoping you would see how much we belong together and you would realize how much you've missed me, how good I could be to you. He will be gone like this," She snapped her fingers, "and everything will be yours as it always has been, my love."
"Really." It wasn't a question, more of a note of confirmation of her demands. "Tell me, then, who is this man that is to take my place? Is he so worthy of you that he is my equal in power or ability? Does he have it in him to keep our status as vampires proud and respected, yet feared and dominating?"
Challenged by her words, he hands became fists at his sides as he faced her.
Licking her lips nervously, she announced the only other man in her life to touch her besides her mate. "His name is Bardiel Cour'Blanc. He is not a vampire, but a seraph."
A dark chuckle escaped the Elder Vampire's lips. "You went the other way, didn't you, my love? Did you choose such a creature just to try and hurt me?"
What offended Issa was not that her lover was a weak monster. Far from it. The seraph were one of the few races acknowledged as being equals to vampires, over S Class monsters. No, what made him look at her with ice cold disdain was the fact that seraphs were beings dedicated to guarding and protecting weaker creatures such as humans.
They saw themselves, literally, as angels.
She didn't know she could feel more naked then now. His words were exposing her most private places where he could read her, know her, break her. She could feel his steely gaze piercing her.
"It is always known that darkness and light are forbidden to one another. Now this? You are a Hades Lord and Queen of the vampires. Have you no pride in being seen with...that?"
Akasha's cheeks burned guiltily as his accusation. Her mate had always seen creatures as either weak or strong with various grays of in between, however there was still that line of good and evil, creatures of hunter and those of prey. To him, an angel of the heavens consorting with a vampire was as blasphemous as seeing a virgin priestess attending an orgy.
"You don't know him..."
"No, but what is there to know? A Seraph?" He clucked his tongue at her in amusement. "They are powerful, true, but you can't honestly tell me that he pleases you?"
Shaking her head, she could only look him in the eye and say with full confidence, "He loves me, Issa. I have started to feel things for him I have not felt since we were first together. He keeps his promises to me and treats me with respect and adoration. He's tender and kind, loving and careful with me. I am a woman of mind, personality, and soul. I am the only thing he can see and he absolutely treasures me."
Akasha's cheeks tinted a dusky rose just talking about him.
Lord Akashiya had not missed her slight smile. Catching him looking her way made her fidget under his scrutiny, "However, it is just like these women who throw themselves candidly at your feet, Issa. I care for him, feel an affection for him that IS blooming, but I want you. Can't you see I am here now? Last night when we were together, I did my best for you and only you. I need you. I care for him but I love you."
Her large green eyes were desperate and hopeful. No one could bring her to this level through force, through demand, through violence or threat. Issa did so with just a look, he had always been the one with the power in their relationship.
"Can't you just tell me that I am the one you love and need? Tell me I am all that will be satisfied with just me in your bed and I will come back without hesitation. If you can just give me that I'll return to you, my love, and never see Bardiel again."
He could see the hope in her eyes and hear the pleading in her voice. Those things weren't what mattered to him though. What struck home with him was the fact she had tried to replace him with an angel. An angel! The thought of her whispering sweet words to him, touching him with affection, giving herself over to him… it was loathsomely disgusting. That she would choose such a creature and dare suggest he might be his replacement was an unforgivable insult and wounded his pride deeply.
So when he spoke it was with deliberate and total viciousness.
"I have no doubt that you love me and that you have improved a bit when it comes to trying to make love, my mate." He said with mocking sweetness. "However having just had you again I can honestly say I have teenage maids that exceeded you even as virgins."
Wincing at his cold rebuff, she reached out for him but did not touch him. His shoulder was turned to her and she could feel his ire coming off him in waves.
"So be it, Akasha Bloodriver. You may need me, and I have always loved you, but I never needed you." Walking past her without another glace, he entered the bathroom and turned on the bath and tossed a bag of herbs in it to dilute it purity with her looking sadly at him as if part of her were being ripped from her.
"This is your home and your dimension. Since the gesture was given to me as a token of affection between you and I, it would be safe to assume that as the true Dark Lord, you will wish to take back the family fortunes, estates, along with everything that was created in Fairy Tale. Am I wrong?"
"No, Issa-kun. I don't want or need them, but I am responsible for them just as you would be of your children and your home." Akasha pleaded with her hands knotting themselves under her chin. "Please, just say you'll deny the other women except for those that have mothered your children and I'll be content to give you everything else, including me. Isn't that enough?"
"Hmph," He scoffed at her and her request. "I wish my staff was still here. At least they could do the simple duties like prepare my clothes and," Issa was just brushing past her, "know what to do with her body to keep me mildly interested."
Opening up his spacious closet with a hard shove, he picked out a doublet and trousers with a rich burgundy cloak. "I won't change who I am, Kasha-chan. Not for you or for anyone. I wish you the best for your new love and your new life. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get changed. Our daughter and my son need us and we're wasting time."
"Issa," She pleaded one last time, "Don't do this."
"It's done, Akasha." He looked over his shoulder at her, cold and dismissive. "You knew who I was and what I was when you we decided to be mates. I have always been the same man then as I am now. You will never change me no matter how I feel about you. Now if you'll excuse me."
The last thing he saw was Akasha looking at him with broken acceptance as tears fell down the front of her cheeks to her chin, her soft sobs only muffled by the sound of him smartly closing the door.