Forbidden Love (IronStrange)

2.1

Summer, The Year Of Our Lord 1628
Border of Stark Lordship, Isle Of Stone, a province of King Edward I
Tony

I am riding my horse, Azalea, through the woods after visiting a nearby village to deal with some anti-werewolf riots.

In the years since my mother's death, I have become much more relaxed about non-humans. I don't even try to hunt any vampire I see these days. It's a great improvement, according to the werewolf community. I haven't heard anything from any vampires, I may actually have killed all the ones in my lordship. I still haven't found the one who killed my mother, he is the only one I'll probably ever kill again. Either way, I am quite friendly.

I hear crunching of leaves nearby as I ride. I spin Azalea to check on it. A vampire is laying on the ground, several wooden darts lodged in his skin. He isn't the one that killed my mother, I don't think.

He looks so hurt, so small, although he is at least four inches taller than me. He's so hurt, I have to help him. I dismount and walk over to bend over him, checking to see that none of the darts are in the area of his heart. He isn't fully unconscious, he scoots away when I try to touch him.

"It's alright. I won't hurt you. Can you get up? Or do I need to carry you?" I scoop him up without waiting for an answer.

He squirms weakly in my arms as I set him on the front of my saddle, making sure not to hurt him further. I mount behind him and put one arm around him, holding the reins with the other. He whimpers softly at every jolt of the horse, and I can feel him shaking.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Breathe—oh wait no, you don't have working lungs. Sorry. Umm, do something with your body that calms you and doesn't involve you falling off the saddle. Okay? Hey, hey, chill. I'm not going to hurt you. You're going to be safe. It's alright."

Back at the castle, I lead Azalea into the stable, then dismount and pick up the vampire. I lay him down in the straw on the floor of the stall while I take all Azalea's tack off.

"Who's a beautiful horse? Is it you? Huh? Stand still so I can comb out your mane, okay? Okay?" I talk to Azalea as I brush him.

The vampire stirs weakly as I finish stabling Azalea. I quickly throw him over one shoulder and go up my private staircase at the back of the stable, ignoring the stable girls curled up together in the straw at one end.

In my room, I lay the vampire down on my bed. He's actually quite handsome, with high cheekbones and narrow brows. I look over the darts and try to see which need to be removed first. One in his left shoulder seems to be the closest to his heart, so I carefully grab it with one hand, setting the other on his chest for leverage, and pull it out. I set it down next to him and reach for another one, this one in his stomach. This continues with ones stuck all over his body. Finally I'm done. He fell fully unconscious while I was removing the darts.

He looks peaceful now, unaware that he is laying on the bed of one of his people's worst enemies. I carefully move a strand of hair away from his face and look him over. His clothes are all ripped up, I realize. I stand and walk to my dresser to see if I have any clothes he could wear. I find a black tunic and a pair of longer pants that might fight him.

I want to let him sleep, he is very hurt, but I'm not changing him like he's a toddler, so I shake his shoulder until he jolts awake. His red eyes meet mine and widen in recognition. He jumps away quickly, then realizes where he is.

"Oh, Lai. Oh, Lai. Lai, help me, how did I wind up in the royal bedroom of Stark Castle with the Iron Man with a reputation for killing vampires leaning over me?" He looks at me again, defiant this time. "If you kill any members of my clan, I'll kill you before you can kill me." I hold out a hand, stopping him from getting up.

"Nobody is killing anybody. Careful, you're very injured. I need you to change clothes, okay? Here's some clean ones, the bathing room is over there. Tell me if you need anything. Take as long as you need." He looks at me distrustfully, but takes the clothes with a murmur of thanks and walks into the bathing room. I sit down on the bed and glance over some papers Pepper had sent in.

The letters are mostly the typical diplomatic sort—invitations to dinners, congratulations for wins in battles, notes from peasants about which neighbor stole which animal, and tax bills. At the bottom, however, I find one from that rude woman, Lady Cadence James. Why Lord James ever married her is a mystery to me. She is so rude I cannot stand it, still pestering me to get married. This time she attacks the fact that soon I'll be thirty and 'past my prime', a stupid thing to say.

Girls positively chase after me, but I don't care about girls. There's never been a lord on the Isle before who was a homosexual. I don't know, and really don't want to know, what people would think of me having a male partner. I probably wouldn't be very popular. But perhaps it would go down quietly.

I sigh, mentally drafting a note to Lady Cadence explaining I can run things perfectly fine on my own. I don't care about her opinions on how my last ball could have been more elegant, nobody else sent me crap about it.

The vampire comes out of the bathing room. He looks absolutely ravishing in the clothes I gave him.

What am I thinking?

I am not seriously thinking a vampire attractive.

Did Mother's death teach me nothing about feelings?

No, no, no. This is all wrong.

Pretending I'm not having a crisis, I address the vampire calmly. "What are you called?"

"Stephen. Stephen Strange."

"What clan?"

"A lesser one. We are called Sky Clan. There are only nine of us, but I would die for them again and again."

"You are the clan leader, then?" I ask it like I would never guess, with the air of confidence and defiance that surrounds him like a smoke cloud.

"Yes." He shifts his weight. I look him over as I stand up. Really, very handsome, captivating stare; no, wrong, don't. Just finish this quickly.

"Well, Stephen Strange, you are sleeping on the bed tonight." He looks incredibly confused.

"What? Aren't you going to use me as practice for that famous blade of yours?"

"No. I like the clothes I lent you, I'm not getting blood on them. You're hurt and you're alone, so I'm taking care of you. You can sleep now. Find me and tell me if you need anything. I'll be next door." I wait until he gets on the bed to walk out of the room, shutting the door behind me. I sit down in my study and begin drafting my reply to Lady Cadence.