The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga) (54 page)

I listened in silence and with a blank expression as I had never heard Draven not only sound so sorry but so sincere with it too.
I was a bit blown away by it all but it didn’t take me long to follow with my answer.

“Shut up and kiss me!” This he took as a good thing because the kiss was one of the most passionate I have ever received. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any more intense….well it did! The fact that we couldn’t follow it through with mind blowing sex was a bit disappointing but I didn’t know whether this played a factor to how great the kiss was.

Draven had always excelled in the field of kissing, touching, taking my breath away, well you get the picture. But this time his kiss made me feel like I was a teenager again. Heart pounding in chest, crazy new feelings you couldn’t understand and usually down below. His hands explored my face
, neck, back until he finished
b
y holding me so tight to his body
that I felt like we were one entity. Once it finished and he moved back to see my face, he was met by a very different Keira. I couldn’t keep the daft grin off my lips and the sparkle out of my eyes. I was
,
to say the least
,
very, very happy again.

He moved his head back
further
to take in my full expression and his features turned into confusion.

“What is it?” He asked me in a comical little tone and I guessed that I must have been staring at
him as if
we had only just met
. As though
this was a whole new side of Draven that I hadn’t yet encountered….that of course being the sorry side.

“Nothing…it’s nothing.” I tried to pass it off as what I
said it was and I decided to focus all my energy into rebuilding my mental wall. It didn’t take me as long as usual as something in me just seemed to click. I didn’t need to strain my hearing on other noises or concentrate on what they were. Maybe I was growing stronger? The more I was around Draven the more adaptable I became. Surly that crazy stuff I had witnessed last night should have sent me over the edge?

I could feel Draven waiting for me to speak but I was too busy running through all the important questions I needed to ask him. This morning did
n’t
change things just because his frowning face had been replaced by one of sorrow. I still needed to be in the know. He couldn’t shut this all
away as being his business as
he had done last night.

I moved a little further away from him and he shook his head slightly to show his disapproval. However I didn’t give in and neither did he make any attempt to pull me back. This time I was glad of it. I had to be stern. I had to get to the bottom of last night so that we could move on from it. I reached over the bed and grabbed
my zip up sweater to put on. O
k
,
so I was making a bit of a statement but it felt like the o
nly control I had, even if it was
the most insignificant. I could feel his eyes searching for reasons in my actions but I gave him none. Once comfortable and semi dressed, I pulled the covers around my naked bottom half and sat up to face him.

“Ok
,
let’s have it
!
” Was all I needed to say to make him release a sigh. This had been the conversation he had been dreading and it was written all over his face. A line formed on his forehead and it was the first sign of his
many
years older than me that I had seen. (This excluding the fact that he was
most probably
thousands of years old
er
) He hesitated and it was quite obvious that he didn’t know where to start.

“
O
k
,
I’m going to make this easier for you by telling you what I know and you can just fill in the gaps…Yes?” He nodded and showed his palm
by way of complying.

“So I gather that phone call
you got at my sisters, was what, s
ome kind of calling card to the Temple?”

“Of sorts
,
yes. But look Keira, I don’t know how many details your
expecting to get from all this.
” He was trying to be stern but I didn’t back down.

“Oh no you don’t, you’re not going to placate me with that! You’re going to tell me what I want to know and answer my question
s
whether you like it or not!” At this he raised his eyebrows to display his shock and I thought he was going to follow it by getting angry but when his brows smoothed, a smile played at the edge of his lips, displaying his amusement.

“Very well, but then can you promise you will try and understand my position, when I tell you things you are not goi
ng to like
hear
ing
?” This time I nodded
and he took
my answer for what it was, a re
served yes.

“When I received that call it wa
s indeed to tell me that the temple was awaiting me and the girl made ready
.
”

“You mean the dark haired girl…that was in the cell, that you ….?” I couldn’t finish the words and say killed because it just wasn’t the type of thing you would say to your boyfriend. Or at least any normal boyfriend but there was nothing normal about Draven or about me for that matter. Usually couples argued about money or jealously, who does the washing up and what TV channel the
y’
re going to watch but NO, with me and Draven it was all about Demons, Angels, visions, dreams and evil stalkers! What I wouldn’t give to just argue about something mundane, like him not
picking up his dirty underwear off the floor!

“That GIRL has been wanted for some time indeed
,
and trust me
,
when I say for good reasons!” At this his fa
ce hardened at the word “girl” a
nd I could hear him grind his teeth as he spoke of her.

“Tell me?” He shook his head at
first but he didn’t out
right
tell me no, so I knew I had leeway.

“Draven
, it’s time to
trust me”
This got him alright.

“Ok
,
but I warn you, it will play on your pure heart and I fear I cannot stand to see you so upset as you were last night
.
”

“You can’t protect me from the truth, no matter how bad it is
.
” He didn’t respond to this but instead he showed me jus
t how hard it was by rubbing his
forehead with his fingertips in frustration.

“What do you mean by wanted?” I asked after he had been silent for a while and the sound of
my voice brought him back to a
conversation that he really didn’t want to be having.

“Our legal system is not so different from yours. The only difference is that we are more likely to follow through with our punishments. These of course are very different. When one of my kind breaks the rules th
ere are different steps that have to be
taken. First comes the warning
,
where they are stripped of their powers for a time. This is depending on what rules have been broken of course. But if the defendant hasn’t been caught for this warning to be administered and they carry on their destructive ways
then
they become part of the ‘
W
anted’
.
”

He watch
ed
me shift my weight
to
get more comfortable and waited for me to finish. If anything he looked happy for this little distraction and seemed content on wa
iting for
me.

“What did she do?” This of course was the question he had feared. His face screamed out these feelings.

“She was a young soul, being that of only fifty odd years. She was ill taught and had little to no guidance
. These however are no excuses for her to not know the rules clearly. As I mentioned last
night, she was an Angel but as you know
,
this does not automatically spell out clean soul
.
” This I had remembered him telling me. The major misconception humans held was that Angels were always good and Demons always bad. This however was not t
he case and this story would no
doubt prove this
old ancient
fact to
destroy the stone in which it
was
thought to be set
.

“She was brought into her host
with the good intension
of
lying
low the first ten years
,
which is the first rule
of being reborn. For those who
are not used to the human world
they are given a series of gui
d
e
lines and
are assigned a possession
officer.”

“Is that like a parole officer?” I asked naively and when he smiled, I felt my embarrassed cheeks start to burn.

“Of
sorts, yes but they are more like guidance counsellors. They are there to guide them for the first years of their lives
.
”

“Why aren’t they called guidance counsellors then?” I know this question didn’t
really hit number ten on the “i
mportant things to know” scale but for him at least, it seemed to be nice little distraction. One side of his lips turned upwards, which he
tried to hide with one hand which
was resting over his chin. This is when I realised I must have sounded like a chil
d asking where babies come from.

“We call them possession officers
because they possess new souls
. They own them. It
’s
a bit like being a parent. They are in control until they reach the right age and are safe to make it in the world alone.”

“Did you have one?” At
this he let out a series of rauc
o
u
s
laughter that made the bed shake. When he finally composed himself he clocked my frowning face and for once
,
it was he that was biting his lip. He was trying very hard not to laugh again
and I would have been laughing with him if it weren’t at my expense.

“Sorry…it was actually a good question and as usual
,
unexpected. The answer is
no, I did not
have one
.
” He was now just managing to compose a straight face when I asked him why not?

“Let’s just say that Vincent, Sophia and I were kind of…umm…inbuilt with the
knowledge of how it all worked....
Anyway
,
where was I?” He pushed his thick black hair from his forehead, where it had rested thanks
to his uncontrollable laughter.  I instantly bit
my lip at the sight. This was one of the hardest thing
s
about having such an amazingly handsome boyfriend, every time he did things like that, you found yourself wishing he would just shut up and undress you! I knew he had asked me a question so I had to think back through the sexy haze that was Draven.

“Umm
…” I gulped before answering “Poss
essio
n O
fficer” I whispered and he shot me a look as if to say “What’s wrong with you
?
” but he didn’t ask and I was glad for it.
Instead he just gave me a
nother
half-smile
before continuing.

“Ok
,
so back to my point. Hers was not very attentive to her studies
and quit
her after only a year. She wasn’t even given a human name but after her escapades she was
rightly
dubbed Vetala. This was because her way
s
resembled that of the Demon from Hindu mythology. Vetala was believe
d to be an evil spirit that poss
essed the dead, made humans mad and killed children along with causing miscarriages. Of course
,
she was a
rogue
Demon that cause havoc in sm
all villages but the stories
most always outlive the souls that they have sprung from. In this case it looked like history was repeating itself and once again we intervened.” I didn’t k
now whether he was pretending
not
to
see the disgust in my face or
whether
he had just not
noticed.

“Wait a minute…so you
’
r
e
telling me that, that young tiny
,
girl down the
re was a …a child killer?” T
his had brought his full attention back to my face and his hands stroked my cheeks affectionately before catching some escaping tears. He tilted his head to one side
while giving me a wide eyed look
of concern. It reminded me of when my family looked a
t me after the incide
nt with Morgan. After I had been kidnapped
,
my family never seemed to be able to look at me the same way again, well who could blame them. I certainly couldn’t.