The Pentagram Child: Part 2 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) (32 page)

“A shop called Iceland!” Which she wouldn’t find out until she went there but it was in fact a shop that sold only frozen food. 

“Good call.”
Sophia whispered obviously knowing this and the wink I received from Adam also told me we weren’t the only ones.

It was clear everyone was ready to go as the cars were pulling up ready to pick us up just outside the house.

“There she is.” Draven said coming up behind me and whisking me off my feet. The feeling of being in Draven’s arms again had me sucking in a deep breath and praying for the next time we could be alone. His low growl in my ear told me he knew what I was thinking.

“Soon Love, soon.”

“Right peepshows, this is where I leave you… I know, I know, don’t cry for me Argentina!” Pip said coming over and pulling us all in for a hug one by one but me and Draven got one combined.

“Oh you guys! Congrats and shit…Toots I will catch you later for the Wedding planning/ Hen Do we will be having…don’t worry, I am planning the Hen Do…wink, wink, chin, chin, elbow, elbow.”

“Oh God.” I muttered making everyone laugh and Pip ignored me and shouted one last time as she descended the steps,

“Toodles Pips!” Which I gathered meant goodbye in Pip speak. She and Adam got into a chauffeur driven car but not after I heard her telling the driver in the van behind to be careful as he’s carrying important cargo, which I assumed was all of her birthday gifts.

Draven waited for the car to turn around until motioning for what must have been ours to come forward. I had to say after everything we had been through I was more than looking forward to going home. I had missed Afterlife, to what I considered as my second home and the people there my family. I needed to get that back, now that I’d had a taste of it in the past few weeks. But more than that, I needed my time with Draven to make up for what we had lost.

It almost felt like it had in the beginning, where we couldn’t stand to be apart from each other. Although I don’t think we ever managed to hit that point where that phase wore off, not considering we actually hadn’t been together long before…well, let’s just call it a breakup and be done with it. Thinking back on it all I could barely believe we were now at this point and it was only hours earlier when he had asked me to marry him.

Well one thing was for certain and that was my life definitely wasn’t boring. And neither now would RJ’s I thought with sadness. She had already left with Vincent not long ago. Everyone thought it best if Vincent was the one to explain things to her about their kind, as she woke this morning under the impression she had been given drugs at some kind of rave. I had explained things to her last night the best I could but I think half of it she hadn’t taken in on account of being hurt about the way Seth left her.

Hurt can do that to a person and make it difficult to be reasoned with and I knew this better than most. But I had to admit, hearing things from Vincent might not actually have been the best choice considering RJ was partial to a handsome man.  And facing facts, concentrating on important information wasn’t her strong suit if it came from a sexy man, no matter how calm and cool his demeanour. But saying this I had never seen her so devastated about a guy before, so maybe she had really fallen for Seth. I mean it wasn’t so hard to imagine, even after one day as my own obsession had started pretty damn quick after meeting Draven for the first time.

“Are you ready?” Draven asked me pulling me from my thoughts about my friend.

“Yeah, let’s go home.” I said making him smile at hearing it. He put his hand on the small of my back and walked me down the steps to the car. I was thankful to see it was a different car than I had arrived here the day before and I could barely believe all that had happen in such a small space of time.

Draven had explained how it wasn’t long after I left that everyone did what they needed, which included moving the unconscious Draven and following us here. Pip had been more than thrilled about having her Birthday party at the old Supernatural party house, shouting something about ‘it’s like bringing back the 80’s’ which no one other than her husband understood. Draven had actually woken up in the plane journey over and according to Vincent it had been lucky he had the letter to calm him before he destroyed the plane.

By the time they landed Aurora was already back and waiting to spin her lies but didn’t realise that Sigurd had already heard word from Jared that Bill had found me and I was safe. So Bill and I both became break out jail birds and he was now reinstated onto Jared’s council with the proviso that Jared would be taking responsibility for any other misdemeanours that involved the Cowboy. Of course we all kept quiet about the punks in the Range Rover putting that down more to a public service.

Once in the car I thought about when I had said goodbye to Jared and of course handing over the precious jacket of his that looked as if it had been to the Stone Age and back, it was that old.

“See ya around kitten, try and stay out of trouble won’t you but I guess if you don’t manage it then I will see you next time…you know my address.” He said winking and catching the jacket in one of those mega bad ass cool ways that just had you wishing you could be just as cool one day.

“Oh and I will let you off with the shades.” He shouted over his shoulder as he walked to all his people on bikes and I saw Wild Bill, my new saviour, tip his hat to me, before kicking his steampunk bike into action.

“You’re quiet?” Draven said as the car started to pull away and I looked back to see the house that was seconds ago full of splendour was now back to being a mere shell that I first saw it as. Draven’s laughter made me leave the house behind us and turn to him.

“If Pip was here now she would be calling you a space cadet.” This made me chuckle.

“I guess I was just having one of those ‘processing all that has happened’ moments. It feels like a dream, all of it.” Draven lifted up my left hand and kissed my ring then said,

“Considering the outcome I am glad it isn’t.” And I had to agree with him on that.

“What do you think your family are going to say?” He asked me and I sucked in a sharp breath.

“Oh no, I hadn’t even thought about that. I mean, for a start they don’t even know we are back together and only really know you now as the guy who broke my heart…sorry about that.” I added when I saw him wince.

“It is of my own doing Keira. As deep and regretful of a mistake it is, it is still one I own up to freely, no matter however shameful. I know now how wrong I was but the only saving grace I hold is that I did so out of love, not hurt.” I nodded and squeezed his hand before saying,

“I know…
I know.”
 

“Wake up love.” I heard Draven’s voice hum in my ear and I moaned at the lovely sound. It was actually his chuckle that followed my moan that brought me round to the land of the living. 

I must have fallen asleep at some point and after the night we’d had together I wasn’t surprised. In fact after what I had been through in that week I was surprised I hadn’t just keeled over into a month long coma. I was cuddled up to Draven with his arm around me and I was just thankful to see there wasn’t a drool mark… ‘cause nothing said cool like drool!

“Are we at the airport yet?” I said shifting my body so I was sitting up. I clenched my fist a few times to try and get the blood flowing again as it had gone numb.

“We’re not going to the airport.” He said and I frowned looking round and trying to figure out where we were going.

“Are we going for a meal first or did you want to stay at a hotel for the night?” I asked as we pulled up to a swanky hotel with a glass front. The car stopped and a doorman approached.

“Mr Draven Sir.” He said as he opened our door and Draven unfolded from his seat. I felt a little embarrassed considering I had been snoozing not long ago, so I smoothed back my hair only to feel most of it had come undone. I started unravelling it like a woman possessed as I scooted across after Draven. He offered me his hand but saw what I was doing, so grabbed my elbow instead to help steady me.

“You look lovely.” He said kissing my cheek and then taking over with my hair by running his fingers through it then called me,

“My Goddess” making me blush. I straightened my dress, glad I was now wearing one at the sight of this place. Draven walked us inside and the concierge asked us to follow him, informing Draven everything was ready as requested. We came to a set of double doors that had a gold plaque informing us it was a business suite of some kind. I turned to Draven just as he opened the doors and asked, 

“Are you going to tell me what we are doing here…Mum?!” I shouted and then took in the rest of the room, looked up at Draven and said,

“It’s all my family?” To which he laughed and said,

“Surprise Sweetheart.”

Chapter 75 

Family Fun

It turned out that Draven had arranged with all my family to have them picked up and brought to this hotel to celebrate our engagement. Draven had already received my father’s blessing in asking me to marry him and I had to wonder how in the dickens he had managed such a thing. I hadn’t told Draven as I didn’t particularly want to rub it in but after he had left me I wasn’t in a great place, so let’s just say he wasn’t exactly on their Christmas list anymore. 

“Libby?!” I shouted as she came running towards me and as we embraced I turned us both round so I could look at Draven over her shoulder. He just grinned at me and I watched my parents both welcome him into the family with a hug from my mother and a firm handshake from my father. I then looked over to Frank and found little Ella fast asleep in his arms, so he just gave us all head nods and a beaming grin. 

I found out Draven had had my family flown over in another of his private jets and as soon as we were alone I had to ask if he didn’t actually have his own bloody airline because how many private jets does one person need. He simply answered ‘for occasions like this, clearly.’

After everyone in my family hugged us and offered their heartfelt congratulations we all sat down to have a celebratory dinner in the private suite Draven had booked. I really didn’t know how he managed all this but when the rest of my family all walked in it was my time to cry again.

“Sophia, Vincent?!” I asked in utter shock considering I thought they were all on a plane heading back home. This had all been a tall tale told just to throw me off and when I asked after RJ, she too walked in to join the party. Zagan followed introducing himself as Sophia’s husband and I could see my family trying not to stare. In fact it was my grandmother who took a fancy to him and made the poor guy sit down next to her after pinching his bum once or twice.

He shot Sophia a panicked look of pleading for help but she just waved at him making him growl. One of the nicest parts about this was finally being able to properly introduce Sophia to my sister and Frank. They had met before but it was only under the pretence as just friends but there was no doubt we had been much more than that for a long time now.

But then my shock doubled and my world became complete when the last two walked through the door.

“Pip! Adam!” I screamed their names and launched myself at them both feeling overwhelmed with everything that was happening.

“I told you I would catch you later.”
Pip whispered to me as I hugged her close. I pulled back and looked her up and down shocked by what I found.

“What, you didn’t think I could finally meet the folks dressed as a damn droid did you?” I laughed and saw her white and red rockabilly style dress that matched her head scarf and I knew for Pip this was classed as tame. She walked past me and I laughed when I saw her tights had a sexy pin stripe up the back with the words ‘follow me’ going up the side.

“I have to thank you. I have never seen my wife so happy before…and she deserves to be happy, like no other I know. She loves you very much.” Adam said standing next to me as I watched the gorgeous girl embrace my family as if they were her own and I relished the sight.

“Thank you for sharing her love.” He looked down at me, pushed his glasses up his nose and said,

“My pleasure.” And then he went after his wife as she called him over ready to introduce him. I smiled at the sight of everyone chatting like old friends having no worries about my family accepting anyone I obviously held a lot of love for, no matter what they looked like. That was the wonderful thing about my family, they never judged you on how you looked but only on your actions and it looked like Draven’s actions had been forgiven. I was glad and more than a little relieved. The last thing I had wanted was the ‘Talk’ from all of my family members.  

I looked back to the door as I knew there were other people we were missing, which I found out later Draven thought it best not to overwhelm the humans. I still couldn’t help but look back at the door again and wished to see one more body step through those doors…one I knew had already said his goodbye.

And it dawned on me what he’d been talking about when he said ‘Let’s just say that I would rather miss what I suspect is to come and let’s leave it at that.’ He had known and he didn’t want to stick around to see it. I looked down at the plush carpet and shed a single tear for my friend and wiped it away quickly as Draven approached me from behind. He came over to me and whispered,

“Did you like your surprise?” My reply came in my actions as I turned quickly and threw my arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. Pip started wolf whistling and then everyone started cheering and clapping, getting up from their seats to celebrate our engagement.

It was wonderful.

The rest of the evening was filled with nothing but laughs and love. My family told embarrassing stories about me, like the time I got confused and thought my hamster laid eggs, when actually it had just tried to eat a beanie baby. Draven thought this was ‘endearing’ but no matter how cute he might have found it, he still laughed his ass off.

Whenever the three Dravens were asked about anything they all answered questions with perfect ease. Vincent was asked what he did and calmly said,

“I am in charge o
f
mergers and acquisitions for the family businesses.” To which my mum turned to me and said,

“Ooh fancy. And so handsome too, just like his brother…you must have your hands full with these two?” She asked Sophia and she just smiled and replied,

“I’m lucky to have mastered the art of keeping them in check.” This brought back the sight of Sophia punching Draven across the face after what happened at the cabin all that time ago and I smiled.

“She likes to think so, eh Brother?” Draven said and Vincent laughed.

“I must say you all look very different from each other.” My mother commented and my father said,

“Yes but look at the girls Joyce, they are very different.”

“Dad.”

“Dad.” We both said at the same time as if proving him wrong and everyone laughed.

“Vincent takes after our mother.” Draven said and I coughed nearly choking on my roll.

“Did it go down the wrong way?” Draven said patting my back and I just wheezed out a,

“Yes.” And then I looked over to Vincent who gave me a wink and turned back to continue talking to my father.

“Well this young fellow here is my idea of a dreamboat!”

“Nan!”

“Mum!”

“Edna!” All three of us shouted, including my father and I noticed Pip, Sophia and RJ just all start giggling. Zagan looked petrified and my granddad just nudged him and said,

“Don’t worry son, her bark is worse than her bite…plus she has false teeth, so you’re good.” Everyone burst out laughing including Zagan with only my Nan left saying,

“What did that old coot say about me Joyce?” 

“Nothing mum.” Again this got the whole table laughing and was pretty much how it stayed the rest of the meal. I don’t think I even really paid much attention to what food we were having but that I think was definitely the sign of a good time and this was one of the best times of my life so far. Having all those who I cared about finally coming together, something I never thought would have been possible, was like a dream come true. But to know the reason of why we were all together was for our engagement was more than a dream come true, it felt like miracles were something that could actually happen.  

Of course it got really fun when Ella woke up. She bounced from Frank’s lap and promptly decided everyone was there for her so she needed to entertain her adoring fans. I watched her make her way around the table and approach the none humans with glee. They on the other hand were in nothing short of awe and I could imagine why. Being a Supernatural who had little to do with the rest of the mortals they shared a planet with, meant their interaction with children was closer to nil.

I had witnessed this when seeing Draven with Ella for the first time, so this was going to be interesting. First up in her line of sight was Vincent and with no encouragement she toddled right over to him holding on to his leg for support.

“Ello.” She said looking up at him and batting her beautiful big eyes at him. His reaction to her was the same Draven’s had been when he first encountered my niece.

“Hello little girl.” Vincent said looking down at her and having no idea she wanted to be picked up. So because he wasn’t taking the hint she raised her hands up and said,

“Up, up.” He lifted his head and looked to Draven for help making him laugh.

“I think that is code for she wants to be picked up, Vince.”

“Uh…is it…?” It sounded like he was about to ask ‘Is it safe’ which would have been very funny but Libby saved him and said,

“Yeah you go right ahead and pick her up, she loves it.”

Vincent gave her a little smile and then looked down at Ella as if trying to weigh up the best way of achieving the task. When no one was looking I made a motion with my hands to pick her up under her armpits and this time he smiled fully. Then he did what I suggested and picked up the squirming Ella. He sat her on his lap where she instantly went for his face.                    
       

“Chummba cheeks!” She said pushing his cheeks together and everyone laughed.

“Why thank you.” He said down at her making his voice sound all funny and she started giggling.

“Bubble Guppies!” She shouted and he frowned saying,

“I’m not sure that’s a compliment.” Sophia was looking on adoringly and then said,

“Thank you Ella for my brother’s new nickname.” To which Frank burst out laughing,

“Well Ella’s nickname is Houdini given she can break out of anything. I swear the amount of times I have fixed that playpen is more times than I have had hot dinners…”

“And I can believe it with Libby’s cooking!” My father said making everyone laugh but the people who had experienced her cooking, oh and Libby herself of course.

“Oi!”

“Sorry darling, you know we love you but you could burn a cup of tea.” At this I burst out laughing, thankfully after I had swallowed the wine I had been sipping.

“Mummy carwot” she asked tugging on Vincent’s t-shirt.

“Uh…?” Vincent looked almost desperate to give her what she wanted but was clearly at a loss to what it was.

“Here, give her these.” Libby said passing over a Tupperware pot. Vincent opened them and she dived right in pulling out carrot sticks as if they were the best thing ever.

“Wanna Carwot?” She asked holding it out under Vincent’s nose and she wasn’t happy until he took a bite. She continued to feed him along with herself and every time I looked over to Vincent he looked like he had fallen in love.

“She has a thing about sharing food.” Libby informed him and Frank laughed, nudging my father and said,

“Yeah, just be thankful it’s not ice cream she’s eating…we learnt the hard way, didn’t we Libs?” I giggled as I remembered Frank using a whole packet of baby wipes to clean the mess up that day.  

“Ok, quit hogging the baby, we girls want a turn!” Pip shouted jumping out of her seat as it was clear she couldn’t contain her excitement anymore. Ever since Ella had woken up Pip had looked almost desperate to get to Ella and I heard Adam say quietly,

“Give everyone else a turn.”
But Pip looked ready to explode with excitement.

“If I’d known there was a baby I would have brought gifts!” She said coming over to Vincent who was still holding Ella. Everyone but my family held their breaths not knowing what Pip would do or how Ella would react but in the end we had nothing to worry about…well maybe how we would ever separate the two. Ella took one look at our Pip and went crazy trying to get to her open arms.

“Come to Auntie Pippy you cutie wutie you.” She said taking her in her arms and swinging her round so she giggled uncontrollably.

“Wow, you can tell she loves kids, do you guys have any?” Libby asked Adam and he looked longingly at his wife.

“We can’t have children.” He said softly as Pip was busy pretending they were aeroplanes.

“Oh…oh dear I am sorry.” Libby said and it was a real touching moment for everyone around the table. Adam held a smile for his wife and I felt like crying. She had so much love to give it was hard watching the scene in front of us and knowing she would never have that. More than anything in that moment I wanted to give that to my friend and I would have done anything to get it for her.

“Well you’re welcome to babysit ours whenever you want, she’s clearly found her soul mate.” Frank said thoughtfully and right at that moment being one of those guys who knew exactly what to say and Adam’s face said it all.

“That is very kind of you.”

“Ah it’s nothing really, just means we get back our date nights, eh Libs?” He said winking at my sister who was smiling at her husband like she was proud of him. Of course I knew they still had these date nights because I would make sure they went on them but Frank being the great guy he was wanted to make things better for people. He wanted to make people feel like they were the ones doing them the favour rather than the other way around, so it wouldn’t feel like charity. It was a beautiful trait of the human nature and one I was also proud to see coming from my family.