Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust chpt 12

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If you see these *** around speech then that means that Dimitri and Phoenix are talking mind to mind***

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Chapter 12

“Ashes?” Dimitri’s voice broke my train of thought, “do you mind if I come in?” this time he raised the present up to me and smiled.

He was still dressed in his leather pants and midnight blue shirt, his pale skin looked even paler and more beautiful than ever.

I want him, I finally admitted to myself. I really want him. But can I mess up what we have now to be his fling, when we have to work so closely together for the rest of my life?

I couldn’t say yes, could I? I looked at the King in front of me and made up my mind. Stepping to the side I let him in. Well I didn’t say yes as such, at least I had bought myself some time.

I turned my back on Dimitri and walked over to the chase lounge in the far corner of my room - as far away from the huge queen sized bed as I could get.

Lifting my eyes to his I decided to play dumb and hope he didn’t push me into an admittance of my feelings tonight or any other night in the near future. I let a sly smile cover the trepidation that was surely showing on my face.

“is that for me?” I asked as I indicated the beautiful deep red cloth that was wrapped around what seemed to be a long rectangular box.

“when I have bought a female a gift in the past I have always bought them jewellery of some kind, but for you I found that would not simply do. For one, they would only get in the way while you fought and for another, I thought you would appreciate these instead.” his gorgeous eyes held mine as he held it out to me.

I took the proffered gift, and settled in on my lap. Tearing my gaze from his, I took in the stunning material, with both my hands and eyes. It felt so rich beneath my callous fingers that I was tempted to bury my face in it as I pulled it free from the hidden object beneath. Instead I slowly folded the wrap into a neat square.

The box that remained on my lap was breath taking. The intricate design was like nothing I had ever seen before, but was so appropriate and providential that a shiver started to creep from the base of my spine and up towards the small hairs at the nape of my neck and a gasp escaped my lips. The box was made of dark mahogany that had been carved into so that their was not one smooth fraction of the wood that was untouched. And on the lid was carved a magnificent phoenix with two swords crossed over as a sort of coat or arms. And the eerie thing about it was that the box was obviously hundreds - maybe even thousands of years old.

With shaking hands I opened the chest - as that was what it really was - and found it hard to breath as I reached with both hands for what lay on deep blue mounds of silk. Each of my hands came to rest on a hilt each and with the contact came a jolt as though the world was realigning itself just for me.

For indeed this was my true present, not the rich material, not the exquisite chest but the two daggers that lay beneath it all. The hilt’s were adorned with fine smooth jewels set into leather and a thin gold wire had been entwined all the way around the length. The daggers so highly polished, I could see my own startled yet awed face as I brought them up to eye level for better inspection.