The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga) (56 page)

The first thing I did was to go to his huge gilded mirror to examine the damage of last night’s escapades. It was as bad as I had feared. My hair was lo
o
se but hung
down in messy knots. My eyes w
ere a dark blue,
ringed with red circles that gave evidence to a night
’
s crying.
I had blotchy skin on my pale cheeks and it looked like I was suffering from a bad hangover.

I cringed at the sight and after first doing my morning routine I decided to splash some cold wa
ter on my face to calm my hyper
sensitive skin that I had put through hell last night. I ducked my head and cupped my hands ready to capture the running wa
ter and when my hands were over
flowing I threw the contents over my face. I took
a few heavy breaths before re-
examining the tired face that belonged to me. I lifted my head expecting to see my stormy eyes judging my features but couldn’t help the scream that erupted at what my vision found there.

A pair of blood red eyes frozen in time. A
heart shaped pair
of plump
,
hungry
,
lips that over
flowed with blood. Purple fuelled veins that spread out fr
om my eyelashes over my cheeks, like an infection that was slowly being pumped through my blood stream. As my mouth opened to scream once more, a pair of large white teeth gleamed in the morning sun.

I was faced with not the Keira I knew….No…I was n
ow faced with the Vampire Keira...

The one
I
didn’t
ever
want to know!

Chapter 24

Changes

Was I dreaming?!
I closed my eyes so tight until they hurt and I was shaking my head but none of these actions h
elped get the image from my memory
. It was only when I felt the presenc
e of someone behind me that I tried to force out the
breath
that had
locked
in my chest. It couldn’t be him! Lucius may have dominated my dreams but this was
real wasn’t
it? This morning with Draven had happened?

I felt a hand come to my cheek and I let out a scream.

“Keira
,
what’s wrong
?
” Draven’s voice interrupted my fears and when I opened my eyes I saw that
it wasn’t
only my
demonic
ref
l
ection there in his mirror.
Draven’
s worried frown looked at me but he couldn’t see me the way I had seen myself. I had to try and find some words that would make sense but considering all I could see was my perfect
Draven behind me, as opposed
to my Vampire image that still remained.

Why couldn’t he see me? Why did he not turn his head away in disgust? My eyes held no normal stormy blue in a pearly white
frame
. They had been replaced by a black iris in a pool of blood. My skin looked that of a diseased dead girl and my lips looked hungry for flesh.
I looked further down to my bare
neck
which
held two bloody spots where my life had been feed on. I closed my eyes again and told myself to wake up.

“Keira
look at me
! What’s wrong with you?
” Draven
’
s voice was shouting at me now. It
was only when Draven started to shake me that I felt myself returning. I expected to
close my eyes and once opened again,
I would
find that I was still in bed but I wasn’t. I was still in his bathroom in front of the fairy tale mirror that held the source of my new nightmare….this one
star
ing
at me
and what I
had become.

Then something happen
ed
. It was like a black veil that had been lifted from my face and cleared my senses.
It took me a minute to realise that I was
finally
back! My face had returned to its usual mundane self and I let out
a gust of
air like I had not
been able to breathe
in hours. I turned round into his tall body and sunk my head into his chest. He was waiting for an explanation but he at least gave me a minute to think of one. His hand held the back of my head to him and I wrapped my arms around his waist, linking my fingers at the base of his back. He leaned down his head to talk into my hair.

“Tell me
little one
, what did you see?” He whispered in such a way that I would have been a fool not to tell him the truth. I wanted to tell him everything that I had been keeping from him but when I played it out in my mind it didn’t
go as well as I had planned.  I
kept
s
eeing
his rage again and
again like someone was showing it to me on a loop and although his anger
wasn’t focused on me, I would no doubt receive the brunt of it. He would hide me away from everything. I would never be able to live one minute of the day that wasn’t
completely
controlled by Draven.

This would give him the last reason to lock me away to keep
me
safe. I couldn’
t do it!
I had to
win this battle
myself. I had to make my own mistakes and follow them through.
I mean
,
it was only his mental control over me that I had to fight and let’s face it
,
if I could blank out Draven then how hard was Lucius going to be. I just needed to find his weakness. I needed to learn more about him to figure out the key to beating him.

Then something even stranger happened. My mind flipped suddenly and I found myself
wanting to tell Draven
everything, to open up and have it all spill out like a downpour. It was the strangest feeling to be so torn, like half of my mind wasn’t my
own....what was wrong with me?

Just as soon as these thoughts entered my mind and before my mouth could open I was once again flipped around and thinking the opposite. 
I couldn’t have Draven worrying even more than he should be. Deep down I knew I was making a huge mistake and knew I would pay for it at some point but for now
,
I set my mind at it curre
nt course and walked down its path.

“It was nothing…I just stubbed my toe and nea
rly fell but I’m good now
.
”
I
know I
wasn’t putting on the best show of mental health and when he grabbed my arms and pushed me back so he could see my face
,
his
however,
said it all….disbelief.

“Keira
,
you screamed out, like you were terrified
!
”

“I guess I’m still a bit nervy that’s all.” He looked like he wanted to say something more but he could see that if he pushed the matter then it wouldn’t have help
ed
the situation.
He would never k
now how thankful I was for this.

“Come, you need more sleep. You look exhausted
.
” This was Draven’s way of saying that I looked awful, I was sure. Actually he wasn’t wrong. It was like I needed to wake
up
for an explanation
of the night
’
s events
but now I knew it was all ok again, my body started to relax and the signs that it had been deprived of its usual eig
ht hours sleep were
starting to show. Of course the only problem I had now was that I was te
rrified of what I might dream
!

“No I shouldn’t….i
f I do then I might not wake up till tonight and then I would miss out on the day. I ha
ve too much to do as it is.
” This made the hand
,
that
he
had on my side, tighten slightly.

“And that is?”
This question I found a little insulting, considering I did have other things in my life that needed my attention. Ok
,
they weren’t much but I still wanted to do well in college and get myself
a degree, even if I
had messed it up the first time.
But still
,
better
late
than never…
right?

I decided to keep my thoughts to myself but it did make me turn my back to him and
I
walked back into the room without a word. Just the sight of his bed made me let
out a yawn that was big enough for bats to
have
flown
out of.

“That wouldn’t happen if you slept
.
” Draven
’
s voice was behind me at my ear making me jump. My reaction made him rub
the tops of my arms as though
try
ing
to
reassure me that I was safe.

“I will
have you know that I have lots of stuff
to do
!
” I said lamely but I could feel his smile before I could see it.

“Ah is that what this is…bruised pride.
Let me rephrase my question, what I meant to say is, what is more important than much needed sleep
for my beautiful vixen
?
”
His tone was so easy and confide
nt that I tried not to smile.

“Umm let me see…a ton
of college work, cooking a Sunday roast, my job, friends…”

“Preparing for the human
Justin
to take out
!
” Ok
,
this made me wince as I remembered we
hadn’t actually talked about Draven over
hearing my conversation with Libby in the kitchen.

“Ah
!
” Was all I could muster.

“Yes ‘Ah’
indeed
!
”
I turn
ed
to face him and
could tell that this was one conversation I wouldn’t be able to worm my way out of. I took a step back to look him in the face without straining my neck at his impressive height. It was only n
ow that I realised he was fully
clothed
, wea
ring a long sleeved, light blue
cotton
T
shirt that was V necked. This was added to dark indigo jeans and black boots. My eyes traced his fine-tuned indents of muscle that could be seen through the material and
when he folded his arms across that hard chest I couldn’t help the gulping noise I made.

“Look
,
could we at least hold off this drilling until I put some clothes on
?
” I nodded to him and then motioned back to me. Of course I was still only wearing a sweater that was barely covering my nether regions. This thankfully worked in my favour as it brought a devilish smirk to his lips.

“I happen to like this look
.
” He said as he tilted his head in order to get a better view. Then I saw a brief purple tinge flash in eyes that looked as though they wanted to devour me. I felt the heat invade my cheeks before turning away like a shy little girl.
I looked about the floor for my jeans but came up empty, which now had me wondering what he had done with my clothes last night?

“My side
!
” Was all he said and I suppressed a giggle at the idea of us already having our own sides in bed.

“You know
,
if you had let me grab some stuff last night then I would
be
searching through a bag right now, not to mention fresh clothes
.
” I said as
I walked around to his side
finding
my underwear and jeans
,
along with a pair of odd socks that I had put on yesterday. These weren’t the only things that I noticed. On his side of the bed there appeared to be more room than I had first thought.

From the other side of the room it looked like the bed
was at the very end of the space,
with his side v
ery close to a stone wall. But
now I was here I could see that there was even room for some
more furniture
. There was a bedside cabinet which was made from oak
with wrought iron studs all down the legs. The base held a burnt orange and red tiffany lamp that looked like a wilted flower that was melting down to the black metal base. I followed the stone wall along to find another tapestry hung there.