13
“Pain in my royal ass, were you?” Draven asked obviously overhearing every word of mine and Ari’s conversation. I couldn’t help but grimace when I felt him grin against my skin. Cocky bastard!
After Ari was led back to the table by Vincent, Draven also decided to lead me away, only it was in the opposite direction to where everyone else was now re-taking their seats. As we passed one of the waitresses he waved a hand back to the table and said,
“There is no need to wait for us, you may serve the first course.” This told me two things, one was whatever Draven wanted to tell me couldn’t wait and it also wasn’t going to be of the quick variety.
He pulled me through a door that led to a hallway and I noticed signs for the reception and conference rooms. The second the door closed behind us I found myself being swung around and was soon in his arms, being totally captivated by the deep emotion in his eyes. Then he crushed me to his body and whispered fervently,
“My wish was granted.” The second the words were out I felt myself release a shuddering breath and soon I felt the tears rising up from emotions too great to control.
“As was mine,” I told him, barely making the sounds needed but nevertheless, he heard me…he would always hear me.
“I wanted to be the one so badly…by the Gods, you know not what I would have done to be the one to give you this in our time,” he told me after gently pulling me back, so he could tip my chin up to look into my eyes. I absorbed his words like a soothing balm to my soul and closed my eyes letting the heavy tears seep beneath my lids and roll down my cheeks. Like lightening he moved so fast I sucked in a startled breath as he caught one before it fell from my chin.
“My child, our child…I…” he started but then was lost for words. Something that rarely happened for Draven, but the handful of times it had ever happened made them moments to be remembered and non were more beautiful or profound than in this moment. So, I reached up and cupped his cheek in my palm, seeing for myself the same tears threatening to flow from his own beautiful and soulful eyes.
“I know sweetheart, I know,” I told him, easing his emotional struggles.
“It feels like a dream, not only to have you here in my arms after the danger has passed, but now to find that our love, our passion in this time has created life…” He paused to take a deep breath while holding me back at arm’s length to look down at my stomach, as if he could still sense that life growing inside me. He closed his eyes tight as if the feeling was overwhelming him.
“It is nothing short of a gift and not one from the Gods or the Fates, but solely from the keeper of my heart, a gift from you my love, my only and my everything… my Keira.” Hearing this I threw myself at him, secretly glad he took the hint and caught me before I just ungracefully slapped my face against his chest before slipping back down again. No, instead he grabbed me to him and lifted me, so that our lips could meet in a burning passion that couldn’t be contained.
His hand embedded itself in my hair as he dominated the kiss, battling his tongue with mine in a feverous war that was seconds away from getting out of control. I was near panting and it was only when I whispered his name across his lips that he finally registered my increasing need to breathe.
It was beautifully raw and exquisitely brutal. It was as though he was branding the memory of perfection to my soul for all eternity and it was such a profound moment that I felt my body shaking from it. He placed his forehead to mine and right then no words were needed, for there wouldn’t have been any to find strong enough to define how we felt. So, we let the solace of silence speak volumes for us both.
Then something happened.
Something that shook our connection to its core and unknowingly cracking the foundations of our combined souls.
And it all started with a simple touch.
Draven’s hand was still in my hair, but then as he let it fall through the loose strands, his fingertips traced the curve down my neck. This soft, gentle touch for Draven wasn’t something new. However, this time when he touched what I could only guess was my birthmark, I felt a pain unlike any other. His fingers seemed to press in of their own accord as if his fingertips were getting fused with the skin there. I suddenly cried out at the burning sensation that was quickly getting hot enough to scald and singe not only my flesh but also my hair.
“Oww argh! Draven!” I shouted trying to get him to pull himself away, but he couldn’t. It was only now that I realised I wasn’t the only one in pain or trapped by it.
“AHHRAHH!” Draven roared, and I watched as he threw his head back, neck strained and veins bulging from beneath the skin. And even through my own agony my mind still took in the sight and absorbed what was happening to him. The way red fire lit up under his skin and used his veins as a means of travelling around his body, using his human vessel against himself. I could barely believe what I was seeing for the first time witnessing Draven change into his supernatural self and this was new for me. For it now looked as though his demonic power was trying to rise up within him and overpower him in some way. But that couldn’t be right could it?
That wasn’t supposed to happen. He controlled his demon…didn’t he? But this was when something horrific suddenly occurred to me. What if what I was witnessing now wasn’t just Draven battling for control…
What if it was his Demon side…winning?
“Draven stop it! Fight it!” I shouted as I tried to pull myself free of his bruising hold. I was fighting with him to get away and I wanted to damn whoever was responsible for ripping our perfect moment from us. I wanted to kill whoever had done this to him and these violent thoughts shook me to the very centre of my human existence.
I even reached up and grabbed a handful of his hair, pulling his head down with what must have been a painful tug, as I felt some of the onyx silky black strands snap free from his scalp. Thanks to my added strength and the anger I now put behind the action, it worked enough to get him to see me but what I found there had me gasping.
“Draven?” I spoke his name like a secret plea for what I was seeing was wrong…wasn’t real. But in those endless Demonic eyes of hellfire, there was no mistaking that the Draven I had known was no more.
This was Hell and right now, he was lost to it.
It looked as if I was staring directly into the eternal pits of damnation and Draven was looking directly into the hellish sun and instead of getting burnt by its intensity and strength, he was instead consuming it. He was eating the flames whole and absorbing the power within.
I physically flinched back, and he cocked his head to the side as if this was a strange reaction he was encountering, one he couldn’t fully understand. Thankfully, the burning hold he had on me started to ease but the fear that was now replacing that pain was very much real and coursing through every cell in my body. I even shook from the force of it and he must have noticed because instinctively he held me tighter. I looked down in time to see his nails start to lengthen into terrifying demonic claws that were better suited to one of Jared’s Hellbeasts.
“No, please stop! Pleeease…” I begged as they continued to grow until they had nowhere else to go but into my knitted sweater, tearing into the tightly bound strands like hands running through grains of sand. Thankfully, they stopped when they felt my flesh at their mercy before cutting through me, tearing into my skin and veins like blood red ribbons.
“Draven, please let me go,” I pleaded with him, but again he just looked at me as if studying me for the first time. I didn’t know how to bring him back as even the sight of my pain and desperation wasn’t working. He looked too far gone in his possession that I felt there was only one option left for me, as I screamed the one name in my arsenal that I knew had a chance at taking him, at stopping him before it was too late, and he did something he would always regret.
So, I did something unthinkable.
I screamed in my mind out to the one other man I cared for most in the world…
My Master and…
My Vampire Sire.
“Lucius, help me!” I used everything left in me to shout out in my mind, calling to him so no one else had a chance to see Draven like this. Then Draven’s demon started to snarl down at me as if he too had heard me screaming another man’s name. His reaction was almost instinctive as his claws dug in and finally started to pierce my skin. I yelped out in pain and this time I was both amazed and thankful to see that the sound finally made it through to him, reaching beyond the demon. He instantly retracted his deadly weapons and just as his burning eyes started to die down to a smoulder, this was when I was saved and suddenly Draven was…
Gone.
I fell to the floor, cracking my knees as they landed hard and throwing out my hands to save myself from falling any further. Then I lifted my head up and the sight that met me was almost as frightening as Draven’s demon.
To the point that at first, I wasn’t sure that what I was seeing was real. It took me a moment to get my bearings and take in what was happening. This was when a gasp left me now for a different reason. I was now staring at Lucius holding Draven up by one hand at his neck and snarling inches from his face as if he was ready to rip his throat out any second. It was the first time I had seen Lucius overpower Draven in any way and the sight was utterly terrifying. Now my fear was for a very different reason and was all for what would happen to my husband in these next few moments. It was as though everything up until this moment was now hanging by a single thread, ready to snap and it was rightly named Lucius’ control.
So, without thinking about it I ran to Lucius, put a hand to his extended arm, the one currently holding all Draven’s body weight, pinning it to the wall. My touch was met with a solid rock beneath my palm that seemed to pulsate with unleashed power. One he was currently taming, unlike Draven had done moments before.
“Lucius, please…please don’t hurt him.” This time my plea was heard and thankfully acted upon the second my voice penetrated his mind. He released the snarling demon that was still my husband…somewhere deep within and I winced, looking away as the sight lanced through me as though his claws were still attached, only this time to my heart.
Draven was about to attack him, I knew this the second Lucius snarled down at him venomously and demanded in a harsh, demonic voice of his own,
“Stay down!” I was utterly astonished to see him not only obeying but doing so like an obedient dog that had just been whipped. It was a painful sight to witness. This was when a realisation so profound slammed into me that it knocked the air from my lungs, having me staggering backwards, placing a hand at the wall to steady myself.
“You…you always had the power to do that?!” I accused making Lucius’ gaze snap to mine. He seemed to absorb my words and after taking a moment to digest them, he decided to take in my appearance, seeing that now my arms showcased five bloody framed holes from where Draven had lost control.
“Come here, my little Keira Girl,” Lucius demanded and from the look of things I knew I would have been out of my mind to refuse him. I stepped into his large body, letting him pull me closer. Once there I let my body relax into his safety but one glance around his arm and I flinched when seeing Draven there on the floor looking like a wounded man.
“Don’t look at him, look at me, Pet.” When I didn’t straight away I felt his grip under my chin, forcing me to comply.
“Now, tell me what happened.” I bit my lip at his question and suddenly it started tumbling out of me like I was in confession. I told him of the baby, the way he thought…the way we both thought it was from the past but then our happiness at finding we were wrong. I then told him about him touching me and the second he made contact with my birthmark something happened. He started to change, and I couldn’t get through to him.
Whilst I relayed all this to Lucius, two things were happening. The first being Lucius rolling up my sleeve to access the damage and the second was he was doing this to the sound of Draven growling like a caged wild beast. This had me jumping in his arms and stuttering my words.
“He…I can’t…we…”
“Ignore him,” Lucius said sternly, and my mouth gaped open…was he freaking serious?!
“Are you joking, how can I ign…” He cut me off swiftly with his own anger.
“He hurt you, one of my own, and right now he is lucky to still be breathing, so for now I suggest you heed my words before I ignore your softly spoken pleas…understood?” he told me making me swallow hard and nodding quickly. He sounded so deadly I had no choice but to trust in his threatening words, seeing them as law.
“Good, now turn around,” he said his voice clearly still strained and clipped. I decided it was definitely not wise to push him whilst he was this close to the edge. And if my softly spoken pleas were all that was keeping Draven from being mauled by a crazy Vampire, then right now, I was happy to play submissive little Keira girl.
“Right choice Pet, now turn around,” Lucius said obviously hearing my thoughts, making me shout out the obvious,
“You can hear my thoughts?!”
“Yes, and right now they are as aloud as you are,” he said keeping his frown firmly in place. This was when I wanted to roll my eyes at myself and slap my head. My walls were still down, and I knew that right now they were remaining that way until I had the time and energy to build them back up. Because it was different when you had years to add to them, constructing them with impenetrable layer after layer as my strength grew.
“Of course, you can,” I moaned quietly to myself before telling him why, feeling as if I needed to explain why.
“I let them down, so we could see if I was still…well you know…”
“A knocked-up Vamp?” Lucius finished for me and I slapped his bicep, which I should mention was like hitting a metal lamp post!
“Don’t say it like that!” I scolded, making him finally crack the barest glimpse of a smile down at me. Then I rolled my eyes at him, but it seemed he’d had enough of waiting for me to do as I was told. Because the next thing I knew he gripped the top of my head and started making a turning motion with his hand as if there was an invisible crank wheel there. I got the hint and turned my back on him, letting him see for himself what had happened. I half expected him to say, ‘oh yes, here it is, the trigger on your neck is accidently set to evil demon, not angel boy or even better, the half way point like usual’.
Then I felt him raise a hand ready to touch me, and I sucked in a sharp breath in dangerous anticipation. All other sound seemed to be sucked out of the long corridor and other than the rapid pounding of my heart there was nothing between us but the outcome of what his next action would bring.
“Don’t look so scared sweetheart, I won’t bite…again.” He combined this last word with a playful bite to my ear lobe and I knew when I finally took a breath, it was said for that sole purpose…okay that or it simply amused him but really, who knew with Lucius.
So, I waited for the touch, my shoulders tensed and even though I was no longer holding my breath, I was still ready for it to escape me on a gasp. Something that happened, but for all the wrong reasons.
“Ah!” I shouted as the door to the hallway started to open and my mum of all people was trying to step through it.
“Mum!” I shouted stepping towards the door and holding it so that it wouldn’t open fully. That was the last thing I wanted to happen, my mum seeing me being gently touched by another shockingly handsome man, whilst my poor husband was slumped on the floor looking like he had just been dragged up from Hell.
“Kazzy dear? What are you doing behind the door?” she asked sounding surprised and agitated. I looked back at Lucius and gave him a look that said what on earth was I going to tell her!? Then I gawked at him when his answer was given to me in the form of a rude sign made with his hands. I think my eyes bulged when he joined the tip of his forefinger to the tip of his thumb before using two of his fingers from his other hand to penetrate the hole he just made. I think he could most likely have seen my tonsils for how wide my mouth had dropped open.
The simple sex enactment he made with his hands made me nearly forget our current predicament and shout, ‘What the Hell, are you effing crazy!’ Instead I simply went with a mouthed silent,
“What the Fu…?” I was halfway into mouthing my swear word when my mother said my name again only this time using the big guns…
“Catherine, Keiran Williams, I asked you a question!” I swear it was like she knew! Of course, Lucius’ bad ass smirk didn’t help, that was for damn sure and I felt like kicking him. The only saving grace in all this was that he was situated at my side, so my mother couldn’t see him but after that any other grace did a flying leap out the nearest damn window!
“Um…mum, this is embarrassing but…” I couldn’t believe I was about to say what Lucius wanted me to say, which was why I was stalling, desperately trying to find others to replace them.
“Umm…well you see I…we…uhhh…”
“Keira, I saw you come in here and we all heard a shout… what are you…?” My mum started to say, obviously getting impatient herself and this was when Lucius had hit his human limit. This along with Draven deciding now was a good time to growl. But Lucius simply slashed out a hand, cutting through the air and using his powerful mind control to silence Draven swiftly. Then he pulled me back out of sight and clamped a hand over my mouth before using my voice as his own! Then the bastard spoke as me and a very large (Titanic iceberg sized) piece of me died of shame!
“Unless you wish to see how I got pregnant in the first place I suggest staying on that side of the door… mum,” Lucius said adding the ‘mum’ bit, but in a really awkward way that sounded more like an afterthought. I couldn’t help but growl into his gloved hand feeling myself close to biting through the leather and tearing straight into the blood sucker! I didn’t care if his hand was still healing or not!
“Oh…oh my, yes of course, I mean no! I don’t…oh dear!” she muttered utterly stunned by her daughter’s behaviour that the pressure on the door quickly disappeared as she scurried away. Finally, Lucius let go of me and I turned quickly to hit him on the arm again shouting,
“Are you freaking insane! That was my bloody mother!”
“Exactly, so I think you will find she is fully aware that to conceive a child, her own daughter would not only have full knowledge of the act of copulation but also be actively engaged in it.” I gave him a frown so deep it probably gave me a monobrow! Then I snapped,
“Copulation? What are you, like a million years old!?” He gave me a wry look in return and stated,
“You know exactly how old I am.”
“Yes, I do which means you think you’d know better by now and have learnt something useful!” I argued back making him fling an arm out to my now quiet husband and say,
“I think you will find in this case, that is my something useful!” he bit back but I wasn’t listening. No, instead I was now panicking totally over my mum now making her way back to a table full of my family with God only knows what was in her head or worse…on the tip of her tongue!
“Oh God!” I moaned grabbing my hair with both hands and wrenching it back from my forehead in utter frustration. Then a thought popped into my head that I quickly latched onto and almost screamed my demand at him.
“You can control her mind, so fix it!”
“Excuse me?” he said as if this was an utter foreign concept for him.
“You can control minds, I mean jeez you’re supposed to be the freakin’ master at it…”
“Supposed to be?” he repeated as if this was a massive insult to his ego, one I didn’t give a shit about right now. Something I decided to make known by slapping him on the chest and saying,
“Look Uri Geller, I don’t care what level mastermind you are, just fix this!” I snapped making him growl.
“Fine! I will invade your mother’s mind and take away her memories, so she can continue to believe of your misconceived, virginal innocence. That way you can continue to think up a great excuse for the next nine months on how you fell victim to the sinless, immaculate conception that is sweeping the nation…mainly in Catholic schools or so I hear,” Lucius replied sarcastically.
“Ha, ha” was my come back and yes, I knew it was no doubt my lamest yet and damn him, but didn’t his look just say he knew it!
He opened the door a crack and quickly spied my mother just as she reached the table.
“There! There she is!” I shouted right next to him as I too peered around the door as I had now wedged myself in front of him, popping up like a Jack in the Box. I felt him look down at me before commenting dryly,
“Yes, thank you Sherlock.” I rolled my eyes but refrained from jabbing him in the ribs like I wanted to. Then he seemed to concentrate a moment and I watched my mum shake her head a little.
“Oh, and just so you know, Uri Geller bends spoons,” Lucius said this time making me bite my lip to suppress a giggle.
“Yeah, well if this works then I will upgrade you to Derren Brown, but in the meantime focus will you, ‘cause the last thing I want here is my mum breaking out into the funky chicken dance and telling everyone she just had afternoon tea with Tina Turner!”
“Who the fuck is Derren Brown?” Seriously, out of all I had just said that’s what he came away with?
“Okay so how is it you know who the bendy spoon guy is but not the world’s most famous mentalist and illusionist?”
“Is he English?” he weirdly asked,
“Uh, yeah.”
“Then that’s why,” he stated making me frown.
“Now what is that supposed to mean, Mister?!” I demanded with my hands on my hips, now I had slipped out from between him and the door, once he had obviously finished with my mother’s mind. He closed the door and said,
“I know, let’s have a long chat about something inconsequential, like the answer to that question, or here’s an idea, we could fix your husband before you start to become the next runner up for this year’s worst wife award…um?” Okay, so looking at my poor husband and I had to agree, he had a point.
“Can you help him?” I asked taking a step closer to him only to have my movements restricted now by a band of steel that was firmly across my chest.
“Oh no Pet, I think keeping your distance for now is the smart thing to do.” Seeing this Draven suddenly pulled from his mental restraints and lunged at Lucius, which meant because he was still holding me, he also lunged at me too.
“Draven no!” I shouted but by the time it took me to even finish saying his name in panic, I found myself being guarded behind a wall of muscle that was Lucius’ tall, imposing frame.
“Enough!” Lucius shouted, demanding that he was not only understood but also now obeyed. I had to say the sight of Draven falling to his knees in front of Lucius had me wincing painfully. I hated seeing him this way, as it seemed not only go against the grain, but more like against all that was the natural world.
Draven knelt to no man but his demon, well it was clear Lucius had the power easily enough to make him yield any time he wished it. Which was why I couldn’t help but look up at him and surprisingly found that the harsh look in his eyes and the hard tick in his jaw meant he wasn’t enjoying this one bit. Oh yeah, considering their past, then like I said, this surprised me alright…surprised the Hell out of me! (No tactless pun intended of course.)
“Please Lucius, can you do something for him…can you bring him back?” I asked in a pained way that told him of how much I hated seeing him like this. Lucius replied to my plea with an issued command, one I hoped would be his last.
“You will sleep, Demon.” And with that Draven suddenly passed out on the floor, meaning it was now safe for me to run to his side. I dropped to my knees and gently pushed his fallen hair back from his face.
“Is he...?” I barely made those two words sound audible as they came out on a broken breath.
“Don’t worry Pet, he is fine…they both are,” Lucius reassured me but even his words couldn’t keep the guilt at bay.
“It wasn’t your fault, Keira,” Lucius said obviously reading my thoughts.
‘Stop reading my mind, Lucius,’ I told him back in my head knowing he would hear me.
“Your expressive eyes tell me all I need to know and right now they are nearly drowning from the tears of your guilt, a guilt you need not feel, for you are not at fault,” he told me crouching behind me and placing his hands on my shoulders. Then I felt him try and pry me away from his side and after tensing, fighting against his pull, he informed me,
“If you want me to help you I first need to understand why this happened.” This was his only explanation as to why he wanted me to leave Draven’s side, which I decided right now was something I had to do. He was right, if we were to fix whatever this was, then first we needed to understand it. And for that to happen I needed Lucius to see whatever it was Draven had seen.
So, with this firmly in my mind I let him guide me up from the floor. Then keeping my back to him I felt him shift all my hair off to one side as he resumed his previous exploration before my mother had interrupted us. And once again, I braced myself and briefly had time to ask myself the biggest question of all…
What if when he touched my mark the same thing happened to him?
Oh god, what were we doing?
No, I couldn’t let that happen!
I had to stop this!
“Lucius stop… STOP!” I shouted this time with more force, but it was too late as his fingertips connected with what still felt like my burnt skin. I hissed at the sting but it was only after his body tensed behind me and his fingers stilled, did I suck in a terrified breath.
I was too late.
It was done.
The connection was made and there was no going back.
I quickly shuddered against him as his arms suddenly locked around me from behind and a deep guttural growl rippled up through his chest. It felt like my body had once again been plunged into the frozen depths of that lake and a thousand shards of ice were now attacking my nervous system.
Lucius must have sensed my desperation and fearful mind because inside I was screaming. I felt him take a deep, shaky breath as if I had just knocked the wind out of him and he was trying to recover from it.
Then he spoke.
“Well, that’s interesting,” he commented and even though I couldn’t see him I felt him shake his head as if he was trying to rid himself of the sticky remains of whatever feeling was still clinging to his mind.
“What?! Lucius tell me… what…what was it?” I asked frantically and in all the answers he could have given me, none would have floored me the way his next words did.
Just three little words.
Three dark, damning words…
“It was Hell.”