The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga) (112 page)

“Forget it!
I’m so out of here Draven!” I stomped toward the other door but I heard it lock without him moving.

“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what I want to know
.
”

“The
Hell
I’m not! You can’t do this Draven! You can’t just act like this! I’m your girlfriend Draven not some bloody little girl you can control into doing what you order. You can’t hold me captive with this bullshit, macho, I’m the man King, so you will do what I say crap!” I was panting like a wild animal and digging my nails into my fisted palms
,
just to stop from hitting out.

“Are you finished?” He asked calmly but this just made it worse and with a growl I turned to punch the door. I didn’t make contact with wood or stone or anything but flesh. Draven had caught my fist in his hand and prevented a few broken knuckles, maybe even a wrist and some fingers.

“I’m really going to have to teach you how to punch without hurting yourself, that was all wrong
.
” He said without humour. I yanked my hand out from his and he let me.

“Arrgg!” I made this noise as I walked back away from him towards the glass doors.

“You’re not leaving Keira, so deal with it!” He was losing his patience but I no longer cared.

“I need air
,
Draven
,
or do you think me capable of jumping off, sprouting wings and escaping!” I snapped back. The doors opened letting in the cold night air that licked at the thin material of my shirt. I wished I still had my jacket on but my anger wouldn’t let me say “Umm scrap that, I think arguing inside is better
.
”

I walked to the edge and took in deep breaths trying to calm myself down. I was so tired of coming back to this type of problem with Draven
. I
t was like being on a constant rollercoaster of never-ending ups and downs. I didn’t know from one day to the next what was going to happen to shift me and Draven back to this destructive path we were walking down.

I wanted to scream out...Why! What’s wrong with me that I don’t get to have happy ever after! Why don’t I deserve good old fashioned normal for once. Just one evening when I don’t almost die, get kidnapped or see monsters every corner I turn. Why don’t I get to hold on to the Draven I love without seeing the Demon in him at any bump in the road. I answered my own question...

Because he was a Demon. Is a Demon.

I shook myself and added onto that distinction. He was also an Angel, a bright star in my life that I couldn’t live without even if I tried
. L
ike living without the only light in the darkness of my past. He was my reason for breathing and now I knew I had to take the good with the bad just like everyone else in the world did. Perfect didn’t exist and if it did, without the bad you wouldn’t recognise the good. It would make it irrelevant. It would be nothing but dust and sand mixed in a desert. Could you separate the two? Tell them apart...the answer was no, and you wouldn’t even try.

I loved Draven and there was no force great enough to get me to change that, not even the Gods themselves could get me to say otherwise. So this...this right now mea
nt nothing but another glitch. A
thorn in my side that Draven himself would no doubt remove. So I decided that I would tell him about how stupid this all was.

I would tell him about a man that I had some teenage infatuation with that ended in me shamefully kissing an older man at sixteen and near throwing myself at his mercy. How I had ended broken hearted as he stopped things before they became a crime and him declaring his love for his wife. How my teenage dream of
me
being his wife was crushed leaving me with only the memory of one stolen kiss. How I had run away from home believing I would never find another love like it and how I would remain alone until he was with me. I was sixteen and the next time I learnt about what love really was
,
is when I was twenty three. It was when I found my home, my heart’s home...

When I met my Draven.

I jumped at the feel of something being put over me. It was a thick, lush and warm blanket that Draven had put around my shivering body. He wrapped it around me like I needed protecting against the elements. It was only then that I realised it had been snowing and I was wet along with cold. I wondered why he had waited this long, normally Draven would have...

“I had to wait...I had to let you...finish
.
” He spoke in my ear causing a warm sensation on my neck. I shuddered when his fingers started to trace the skin there and his fingertips circled in my hair.

“I had to hear the rest of it, I needed to see for myself. To see if this...this
man
had hurt you in anyway. You understand how that I could never allow such a man to live if he had. I needed to know from your own thoughts that he hadn’t touched you in that way...in my way. I would have killed him if that
was
the case and my reason would have been final and just.” He spoke so softly, it was hard to think clearly, to really comprehend he was talking about murder.

“No
!
” I protested but he moved a hand to the back of my head and smoothed down my wet hair. He remained
out of sight but his other arm
wrapped across my front pulling
me
back to him tightly.

“Yes Keira
!” I shuddered as his possessive voice that spoke of how I was his and never would belong to another.

“
No one that has hurt you will live in the same world you do, I would never allow it. But seeing as there was very little harm done, only for a sensitive teenage mind to have suffered, then no harm will come to him. I can imagine turning you away...even at the tender age of sixteen was punishment enough. A strong character he must have been.” I tried to turn around to look at him but he held me still so that I couldn’t move from him. I knew now why he needed me upset. He wanted access to a fragile mind. He wanted to see the truth and only my thoughts would have portrayed such. But he had seen lots more, he had received a direct window into my soul, into my heart and every feeling it held there.

“Yes and I dare say it was very...enlightening
!
” His voice almost shook with barrelling over emotion. He kissed my head and then moved down to my neck. I could feel the drops of snow that had melted on his heated skin roll down onto my own. I closed my eyes and felt myself being turned round to face him.

“Keira
,
open your eyes
.
” He whispered as a plea, no longer an order left in his body. I looked up slowly to find his face painted with so many emotions. Pain, focus, guilt, relief but most of all...love. He cupped my face in his hands and pulled our faces closer together.

“Can you ever forgive me?” He whispered above my lips.

“Ye...” I didn’t get to finish the word above his lips but insid
e his kiss. He moulded our bodies
together and kissed me with every passion lit fibre in his body. I felt a whoosh of air as his other form burst from his outer self all the while never leaving my lips. He gripped onto me so tightly, like he would die if he ever let me go. Like both our lives hung in the balance and the only thing stopping the end was this kiss. This perfect act of love that stopped time...our time, no one else’s, just ours.

His wings came out and rushed forward covering us in a dark feathery
cocoon
making the only light the warm purple glow that both our skins wore. Mine reflecting from the raw supernatural energy that pumped around him. I s
huddered again making him hold
me closer to him. His hands spread out on both the top and bottom of my spine. He needed me as I needed him and in both our minds we were one.

“Forever
!
” He breathed freeing me to take my own breath.

“Forever
.
” I repeated not only his word but also the same feeling that was bursting out from me like his Demon side. And then it dawned on me, like a knife had sliced into my heart and started cutting me down like the wound I was left with in my dream. Is that what it all meant? The light at the end, my heart missing because Draven still had hold of it? Still had hold of what I was leaving behind. My end. My death.

Because of course
,
I didn’t have forever...

But h
e did. 

Chapter 49

Fearing  F
orever.

“Kaz, come on, be reasonable, mum and dad will be crushed
.
” My sister was stood cradling her growing bump in her hands and with the mothering glow lighting her features it was hard to tell her no... again.

“I can’t Lib’s, I’m sorry but it’s only one Christmas
.
” I repeated again feeling like a broken record.

“You’re wrong, look Kaz, I don’t want to upset you but think about it
.
”  She tilted her head like I was missing something major important. I rolled my eyes as a natural reaction to a conversation we had been having for days.

“I know you
’
r
e
pregnant but it’s not like I’m missing the kid
’
s first Christmas
.
” When she started shaking her head I knew that wasn’t what she meant.

“Keira, come on now, it’s not like I’m expecting that to be the reason. This has to do with you.” I had wondered how long it would take her to drop my nickname and go in for a more serious tone.

“I don’t...”

“Keira
,
I really don’t want to say it but I
see I
have no other choice. It will be our first Christmas when were altogether...you know, like really there...” She was finding it so hard not to push me but I finally got to the inner core of why this was so important for everyone. It was the first time in years my parents would see me...the old me, that they thought they had lost...well more like
…
taken from them. She was right, this was important. After all,
I don’t think I
really remember the last Christmas where I wasn’t faking smiles and making comments I didn’t feel. Back then I had been numb, I had been a s
hell
and a broken soul left bleeding.

“You mean not like the zombie Keira Christmas
?
” I said trying to lift her worried frown. Thankfully she laughed and I wasn’t left feeling as guilty.

“Ok, I get it, but Lib’s this is going to be really hard. I mean Dra, Dominic is very over protective.” I winced as I said this. Like
my mind was mocking me,
saying “Yeah right and the rest!”

“Well he could come as well, I mean it’s not like he couldn’t afford the air fare.” Well she was right t
here, he did have his own private
jet for starters. I decided not to tell her that part. The fact of the matter was that Draven would be fine in small one dinner circumstances but spending a week with my family wasn’t something I could imagine happening. Not only that but I wasn’t raving about the idea of putting my family in danger. After all, I was still being...hunted.

“Look
,
I will speak to him, but I can’t make any promises...
o
k
?
” She nodded but her smile told me that she thought this was so a done deal!

I left the kitchen to find Hilary behind the door. I could tell by her smirk that she had heard every word. I decided not to stick around and ran up the stairs to my new room. I only tripped once, which was unusual for me these days. I don’t know why but ever since I had
been with Draven I had become a
little less clumsy and more co-ordinated. I wondered why that was?

The week after the VIP incident went by thankfully
,
without a hitch. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t allowed to bring the matter up with Hilary about her behaviour at the club, because thanks to Draven’s mind control, she was left thinking it was a quiet night. The fact that I had to swallow my hate for that heinous act was easier said than done. I couldn’t even pretend anymore.

Libby had noticed the change but I couldn’t even tell her about it. So as far as she was concerned she was left thinking I had just lost all will when it came to my cousin. The fact that she had decided to stay until the beginning of December didn’t help matters. As it turned out, me and my sister had both been deceived and deluded thinking it was only ever going to be just a week.

Once in my room
,
I had time to think about the whole Christmas problem. Either way I looked at it I was going to be hurting someone. If I didn’t go then I know my mum would be crushed. My dad, I think would understand but he would feel disappointment for my mother’s sensitive disposition. Libby wouldn’t let me get away with not going lightly. And no doubt there would be waterworks to contend with thanks to a
bunch of baby hormones that mad
e crying at anything, her new sport. But all of these options seemed better than the alternative. Telling Draven was not a thing I would look forward too, that was for sure. I can imagine the
‘
NO
’
word would get used a lot.