The Story of Udonia

Chapter Sixteen: Things Go South

Five days passed. Nothing too exciting happened. We wondered around the city. I bought more things. We explored more of Central Park. We actually met Abi for lunch in Little Italy one day. We explored the Southern end of Manhattan. And we went to the Met (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for those who don't know, which is hopefully no one).

Easter had come and gone. I have decided to spare you all the steamy details. But let me just say, we spent the whole weekend, Saturday and Easter Sunday, without any clothing on. We had sex so many times, I thought I was going to explode with pleasure.
Anyway, it was the last night we were staying in the city.
I was standing in the bathroom brushing my teeth and Ashton was packing up some stuff. I had a flight out at noon. I was meeting my pilot at JFK at about 11:45 a.m. Ash came up behind me as I spit into the sink. He wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned in close to my body. He then retracted. My hair was still wet from my shower. I giggled.
"I'm going to shower." He smiled and kissed my minty mouth.
He grimaced at the taste and moved over to start the shower. I left the bathroom and shut the door.
I suddenly felt uneasy. I can't really describe the feeling. It was like a sort of intuition. I shook it off and curled up in bed.
As I was falling to sleep, I heard a strange noise.
It's probably just Ashton in the bathroom. I thought and tried to fall asleep.
Then I heard it again. It sounded like it was coming from the window. I sat up and stared at the window. Suddenly, the window bursted. It was hit in and a man dressed in all black jumped in.
I screamed and was so startled that I feel back off the bed. I struggled to stand up and run towards the small hallway where the bathroom door was. The man was then in front of me. He grabbed my wrists and pushed me down to the ground. I screamed again. Ashton broke out of the bathroom with only his underwear in after he heard my screams. His chest was still dripping wet. He lunged at the attacker. I watched in horror and terror as the man hit Ashton's face. Ash quickly retorted with a hit to his face and he kicked his knee out. The man screamed, but his voice sounded odd. The man fell and rolled. He then recovered and stood up. Ashton was doing anything possible to subdue the man. I was so stunned, I couldn't get my body to move. I didn't know what to do. Ashton hit the man a few more times, but then he was also hit too. The man finally pushed Ash to the floor and he jumped on top of Ash. He pulled out some rope that was hidden in his pocket and tied up Ashton. Ashton squirmed and tried to break free, but then stopped when he saw a gun pointed at my head. The door to our room was being banged on. The guard from the hall was furious trying to get in. The man moved closer to me with gun in hand. They reached their hand towards me.
"Don't touch her!" Ashton shouted.
"Shut up!" The man shouted, but his voice sounded odd again.
And that's when I realized.
She's a woman?!
"I have a message for you." Her vice hissed.
She reached her hand towards me once again. I raised my hand up in defense and watched as my purple magic force field surrounded me. The woman's hand slowed down in front of my face, but then continued towards me at normal speed. Astonished, I lowered my hands. The attacker's hand then wrapped around my neck. Their other hand joined it at my throat. My magic disappeared. I was now being choked. I gagged and gasped the at the room for breath. Then my eyes glanced over her shoulder to see Ashton charged towards her. His hands still tied behind his back, so he couldn't move them to the front of his body. He moved to the side of the woman and pushed her to the floor. Her hands let go of their grip that was slowly squeezing out my life. I coughed and sucked in air. I crawled away and watched the tussle that Ashton and the attacker were in. Without use of his hands, Ash was easily pushed to the floor. I picked up pace and headed for the door. Suddenly, the woman was behind me. She grabbed my waist and started to pull me back. I screamed as her nails scraped my stomach under my shirt. She was freakishly strong. I quickly noticed that Ashton wasn't moving.
He's unconscious! I told myself.
She resumed her old position with hands around my neck. This time I fought back more. I pushed at her shoulders with my hands and used my knees to kick her stomach. She didn't seem phased by any of this. My struggles slowly decreases as I was losing energy. My eyelids became heavy. I couldn't breath! It was one of the worse feelings in my life. My hearing was going too. I couldn't hear the street noise, the sound of her breathing over my head, and the banging at my door. I also missed the part when my guard completely broke down the door.
The police had sent up a barricade outside to prevent the attacker from leaving. A chopper was flying in too. I was supposed to be there about the time that my guard burst into the room, but it was late.
I made a mental note the personally thank that guard for all his hard work when he came in. The attacker immediately let go of me. She didn't want to fight him. She jumped back out the window she came in from. My guard raced to the window after her while I coughed on the floor.
"Dammit!" He cried out, then turned around to help me.
I saw his concerned face over my body.
"Princess Claire!" He was shouting but it sounded like a whisper. "Claire!" He said once again as I shut my eyes.
__________________________

When I woke up, I was in a stretcher. I looked around. For a moment and realized I was in a hospital. I could feel breeze though my hair as I saw people standing over me. They were rushing me into a room. I cocked my head up slightly and saw Ashton in a gurney. I suddenly realized that my neck hurt. Pain then hit me in my stomach. I started to remember the details of the night.
How did she bypass my magic?! Was I not strong enough in the heat of the moment?
I was taken into a room. They hooked me up to an IV. They asked me some questions and I answered them, but then I asked one of my own.
"Where is Ashton?" I asked. "Ashton Covington he was admitted with me."
"He is in a different room getting treated." The nurse answered.
"Okay, show me." I got up from my bed.
I felt a little dizzy and my neck hurt, but besides that I was fine. I was more concerned about Ashton.
He took a beating for me! I thought.
I couldn't believe he would do that.
"No, miss." The nurse argued.
I glared at her as I walked to the door. "No, I am going to see him. You can either lead the way or I can wander aimlessly through the halls bothering the people in every room I come upon." She crossed her arms at me.
These Americans don't take commands very well. I rolled my eyes. I guess they aren't my subjects so they don't have to listen to me, but they should at least be respectful of the fact that I have power in my own kingdom.
I walked out of the room and was about to turn the knob to open the door next to mine, but she stopped me.
"Wait." She sighed. "Follow me." She turned around and walked down the hall.
I followed her. She lead me down the hall, took a left, and then opened the second door on the right.
I walked in and she left. Ashton was sitting in his bed talking to someone on his phone. The conservation seemed intense. I sat across from him on the bed and listened.
"Yes, tonight." He replied to the person.
There was a pause as he listened. "Sure, whatever, but I'm more concerned about her."
There was another pause. "On the roof?" He pause again. "Yeah. Alright. Be there soon."
He hung up and looked at me. I must have looked confused, because he was quick to explain the call.
"That was your security detail in Udonia and at the airport. They are getting your jet ready for you to go home tonight." He said.
"What? What about you?" I asked.
"I'm going back to my dorm." He answered and grabbed my hand. "Someone went to get our stuff from the hotel and we're leaving in an hour when the chopper comes to get us."
The hotel. The attacker! I thought.
"What happened to the woman?" I asked.
"They didn't catch her. Francis chased her to the window and she disappeared. The police couldn't see where she went from their street view. They were thinking she somehow scaled the wall and was on the roof of the Plaza." I looked over his face while he talked.
He had scabs formed where he had been hit, one on the left corner of his mouth and one on the end of his left eyebrow, and he was bruised.
Ashton noticed I was looking at him and reached his hand up to my face.
"I'm okay." He assured me while stroking my cheek.
"Are you sure?" I asked. "You don't look okay, baby."
He chuckled. "Well if that woman were to show her face, I bet she looks worse."
I thought back to how her face was covered by a black ski mask.
I giggled. "Yeah, I'm sure. She was kicking your ass."
"Yeah, well, you didn't do too well either." He said this in a joking tone.
I rubbed my neck where her hand had grasped. His facial expression changed.
"I'm sorry. That was wrong." He pulled me close for a hug.
His embrace was comforting, but I was still thinking about my neck. I grabbed his phone and pulled away. I opened up the camera and looked at my neck. Their were black and red bruises in the shape of hands. I grimaced at the sight.
"At least your face is in tact." Ash joked.
How is he so calm?
I handed him his phone.
"Umm..." There was something he obviously wanted to say.
"What?"
"I was just thinking about when she went to choke you the first time..."
"How she went straight through my force field and didn't seem to be phased by the magic that had just come out of my body, yeah I know." I frowned.
"And then she was able to escape so easily and she got in so easily." He continued.
"She's a witch." I said.
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Could you tell if she was or not?"
"I couldn't tell, but it would make sense."
"And she said she had a message for you...what do you think she meant?"
"Well, the message was obviously that someone wanted me dead. My guess would be that a witch hired a witch assassin to kill me. I'm just not sure about the why..." I frowned.
"Maybe Jasmine can help you." Ashton suggested.
"Yeah." I snuggled in closer to him.
I wanted to feel his body heat and feel safe. I wasn't really that terrified. In the moment I was, but now, I wasn't. Part of me felt that maybe I didn't grasp how much danger I was in, but I would let Jasmine tell me that. She would probably lecture me about how dangerous it is to engage another witch in battle.
Then I thought about Ashton. He fought for me. He took a beating for me. He could have been killed for me.
"I love you." I blurted out.
I suddenly felt nervous.
What if he doesn't say it back?!
I felt a little and he took a deep breath.
"I love you too." He replied. 
I pulled away with excitement. "Well that's the first time we said that to each other." I smiled.
"Yeah." He replied with a smirk.
"Well, I'm going to kiss you now."
"Okay."
He leaned in and our lips met for a quick kiss.
We would have shared more affection, but my guard came to the door. He knocked and walked in.
"Time to go."
"The copter is early." Ashton said.
"I think they were a little intimidated by you, sir." He joked. "Your bags our up there wait for you both." He added.
Ashton hopped down and grabbed my hand. I came down next.
We went up to the roof. A chopper was standing by. Our bags were loaded in followed by us. We then flew to JFK.
My bags were loaded into plane and Ashton's were put into a car that would take him back to Princeton.
We hugged and said our goodbyes. The local police were giving him a police escort all the way to Jersey.
I was so upset to be leaving him.
"It's only another month, then I'll be back." He smiled and kissed me.
I hopped on the jet and was headed home. I slept the whole five hour flight.