14
Hellish Husband Tantrum
“I’m sorry, come again?” I asked in utter shock on hearing what Lucius just said to me. I felt him release a sigh behind me as I was still currently trapped in his arms. It was as if he knew the second he let me go I would start flapping my arms around in a mixture of denial and blind panic. Of course, he was right.
“We will figure this out, love,” he told me softly, but I was no longer hearing him. No, instead I was just replaying those torturous three words over and over again. ‘It was Hell’…it was Hell’…I mean what the ‘Hell’ did that even mean!
“I think I should explain,” he said, and I snorted my snappy agreement,
“Yeah, I think that’s a damn good idea, don’t you?” Again, he took another deep breath before turning me back around to face him. I watched as a few different emotions flittered in his eyes as he looked at me and because of this I couldn’t have guessed what he would say next, only hoping it was something helpful…
It wasn’t.
“Seriously sweetheart, I am starting to think you are cursed.” At this I growled and would have followed through on my urge to punch him in the gut if there weren’t more important things to do than knock the wind from him. And with my new vamp strength I just might have achieved it.
“Oh yeah, ‘cause that’s what I need right now, your helpful theories on why it’s highly likely a bird would shit on me, whilst simultaneously stepping in dog shit as I walk down a road named Shit Street! So, unless you want to see me go batshit crazy, I would start talking and I warn you Luc, it had better start with the words, ‘what I meant when I said it was Hell is’…” I threatened a tad dramatically making his lips twitch in a failed attempt at containing his obvious amusement.
“Lucius.” I hissed his name in warning.
“Alright my little Keira Girl, I will ease your mind, although when I tell you, I am not sure how far that ease will stretch,” he said, warning me this time.
“Please Lucius, just…” I started to say when he cut me off with the reason for his earlier apprehension.
“When I touched your birthmark, it showed me Hell,” he said, and I gasped.
“Wh…what do you mean?” I asked unsure I had even voiced it at first. As if I needed to test my voice before committing it to words. Lucius looked as though he hated being the one to tell me this and when he rubbed the back of his neck in frustration I knew it was bad. Supernatural Kings and men high up on the power front, barely looked frustrated at the worst of times and on the rare occasion they did, it was…well annoyingly, it was usually because of me.
“I don’t know why but the second I made contact I felt something calling to my Vampire side, like it was trying to pull it out and drag it back down to Hell.” Hearing this I staggered back and covered my mouth with my hand, releasing a cry of shock behind it.
“Keira, listen now…” I started shaking my head telling him no, there was nothing he could say right now to ease the pain of what I had unknowingly done.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said but when I looked back at Draven’s still sleeping form I was only left asking myself why I did this, not the even more important question of how.
“And neither was that,” Lucius added when he knew where my thoughts we headed…Hell that’s where, as in my own personal kind!
“Keira listen to…” he started to say but I wasn’t listening. How could I in the face of what I had done? But then, as my mind started to race, suddenly I knew there was more for him to say and I knew this was no doubt my only opportunity to ask. So, with this firmly in my mind I pressed on through my guilt and inner turmoil in sight of gaining important information.
“What did you see?” I asked with my voice growing cold and hard, becoming a reflection of how I felt about myself. I watched him close his eyes a second and I didn’t know if it was in pain at seeing my own or if he was searching the memory so that, he could tell me.
“Keira, I…” Lucius started to say but the second he began to speak in that placating tone I could tell he didn’t want to tell me.
“Tell. Me. Now. Lucius,” I interrupted telling him with my own tone that I wasn’t taking any bullshit here. The second I saw his shoulders slump, I knew the next sentence out of his mouth would be my answer…or at least that’s what I thought.
He looked first to me and then to Draven before, at last, his gaze finally settled on me again. Then after muttering something under his breath, which was no doubt a foreign curse, he spoke.
“I saw…” he started to say but it was in that moment that Draven groaned behind us and I knew the effects of Lucius’ mind control had started to wear off.
“Draven!” I yelled his name and nearly forgot myself as I took a step closer to him. Thankfully, Lucius’ quick actions saved me as he quickly situated himself between us, holding me back with an arm cast behind him. I inched around his impressive torso a little, so I could see Draven, and Lucius was right, he was still not himself.
“What are we going to do?” I asked in a wary voice hoping, no more like praying, Lucius had the power to do something.
“We? Sorry sweetheart but this is a one man show. Now, I want you to do the sensible thing for once.”
“And that is?” I asked hands on hips waiting for what I knew was going to be something I would no doubt refuse him.
“I want you to walk back in there and…” I cut him off with an annoying buzzer sound, as if he had just got the wrong answer in some cheesy gameshow. His eyes widened before he started frowning, a look I was refusing to take seriously despite what had just happened.
“I do not cut and run, Lucius, you should know that by now,” I told him firmly.
“What I know is that you like to swap common sense for stubbornness and self-preservation for what I can only assume is suicidal tendencies!” he snapped clearly getting frustrated. So, instead of giving him any more attitude I decided to go down a different route of action…puppy wide eyes.
“He’s my husband, Luc,” I said in a quiet voice, stepping closer so that I could look up at him. However, instead of getting the reaction I was hoping for, he smirked and said,
“Nice try Pet, but that won’t work on this immortal, besides as much as I like the feel of your divine little body pressing up against my own, it is not enough to sway me into putting it in danger.” I groaned in frustration making him chuckle, the bastard!
“Well, we both know you can’t control my mind and I am not moving, so I think you will find you have another…Hey! What are you…!” I shouted, as I was being tipped over his shoulder after he bent to my stomach level before my eyes could follow his movements. Damn him but he was fast, faster than even my new Vamp senses could take in.
“Put me down!” I demanded, one that was quickly stepped on with a deep resonating growl directed my way.
‘Silence,’ he ordered and this time it was one that was sounded in my mind. Suddenly my lips slammed shut and I was unable to open them again. This was when I realised just how vulnerable I was as I had stupidly believed that Lucius couldn’t control me. And in any other circumstance this may be true, but I was forgetting one major factor now at play here and that was the loss of my barriers…ones, I myself had lain to waste.
I was in half a mind whether to fight him or just slump across his shoulder submissively until he had finished following through with whatever plan he had. In the end, I went with the latter.
Draven growled and snarled as we passed, and Lucius snapped down at him,
“Et tamen, Daemonium!” (‘Be still, Demon’ in Latin) This seemed to calm Draven enough to stop him trying to fight against Lucius’ power but it wasn’t enough to prevent the undiluted rage I could see darkening behind his demonic eyes. It was as if he was trapped behind an invisible barrier, pacing like a feral beast just waiting for the opportunity to strike. And it was obvious that Lucius didn’t want me around for when he did. This being another reason why I decided to listen and play the submissive little Vampire hybrid...Of course, not being allowed to talk also helped immensely with this decision.
Damn Vampire.
One I intended on kicking in the shins the second I got the chance, I thought on a silent growl.
“For fear of your wrath, I’d better let you speak now Pet, after all…I am quite partial to my shins,” he mocked after pausing and giving my legs a squeeze.
“Of course, you are,” I replied dryly making him chuckle, but as I pushed myself up from his back so that I wasn’t just faced with his black shirt, I looked back at Draven and my heart twisted.
“What if someone…” Lucius cut off my worries about someone walking in and finding Draven, with the sound of a lock being turned after briefly glancing at the door. Then he continued down the hallway until he found what he was looking for, carrying me as though I weighed nothing but a bag full of air. Unfortunately, as I was staring at the sight of his long powerful legs striding down the hall, it was as if he knew because he gave my body a jerk. This was powerful enough for my hands to slip on his waist and just as my head swung towards his back, he purposely lifted his hold on my legs, so I fell further down the back of his body.
I shrieked in panic as at first, I thought he was going to drop me but then that cry ended up being because my head ended up smacking into his ass as he had fully intended. Well, if his man chuckle was anything to go by that was.
I instantly pushed up to get my face off his ass having no choice of where to put my hands other than on each of his cheeks. I was moaning and swearing under my breath as I fumbled around, trying not to touch him there. Thankfully, in the end he felt pity on me and started to pull my legs back down, so I was now back to staring at his back once more.
“Asshole,” I called him making him laugh again, replying with,
“Yes, it was but what a shame you didn’t kiss it whilst you were there.” My response was a growl and once again something that made him laugh out loud.
I was still muttering my insults as he continued to find what he was looking for. Then he stopped at a door and my first reaction was to question it.
“Really?” I asked disapprovingly, after reading the door plaque.
“Sorry sweetheart, but we are under some tight time constraints here and I don’t think I have the time to whisk you up to your luxury suite for you to wait in comfort.”
“Yeah, I get that but really, you want to hide me in a stockroom…what do you want me to do, build a sofa out of toilet rolls?” I only half joked but as he lowered me down his front, I saw his half smile and knew he was fighting a laugh. Of course, he would have to do this painfully slow, so I was mere inches from his face for longer than I would have liked. By the time my feet came in contact with the floor again he gave me a smouldering look and told me,
“You’re a bright girl, you will figure something out,” he said then, with a grin, he flicked me under the nose.
“Besides, I think it’s safe to say you can’t get up to too much trouble in here.”
“Oh, I don’t know Lucius, are you sure? I think they’re flammables I spot down there on the shelf?” I said looking back over my shoulder at the metal shelving unit. Again, his lips twitched, which I had to say, Lucius fighting a grin was almost as sexy as Lucius sporting a grin.
“I think you will be fine, Pet.” At this I slapped him on his chest and said,
“Well lucky for you I failed my ‘How to make a bomb out of household products exam’, so I think it should be safe.” This time I did get the Lucius full on smile and like I said, the Lucius lip twitch definitely came in second place.
“Well in that case, make yourself comfortable, Doll face,” Lucius said making me giggle.
“Wait, what are you going to do?” I asked as he was about to close the door.
“What, besides waste time here talking to you…” he started but I put a hand on my hip and said,
“I need to know.” He finally took in my serious face and released a sigh before telling me.
“I am going to force his demon to release his control and then explain to Dominic what happened.” Oh no, this was bad.
“You can’t do that!” I yelled, and his gorgeous eyes widened a moment in shock.
“I think you must have misread the reasons for me now being in this predicament and hence why I am here right now…’cause as entertaining as I find all this, it isn’t my perfect idea of attending a dinner and a show.”
“What I mean is, that yes, I agree, please get his demon side to backdown but isn’t there anyway to do that and…oh I don’t know, like have him not remember or something?”
“Excuse me?” Lucius said clearly shocked.
“Look, you do get how possessive and protective Draven is…right?”
“Well, seeing as you could most likely write a book titled ‘how to survive ten kidnappings or more’ then yeah, I would say he has good enough reasons to be,” Lucius replied sarcastically making me roll my eyes. Yeah, okay so he was right, but that didn’t mean I was about to swap my paintbrush for a word document and a laptop. Besides, now was not the time for sarcasm…well, not unless it came from me anyway.
“Well seeing as I don’t fancy living eternal life in a pretty gilded prison and giving birth in some bloody tower in the middle of nowhere, then I suggest you make life easier for me by taking his memories away.” The frown he gave me said it all, but him crossing his arms across his muscular chest only reinforced it.
“Keira, as much I sometimes don’t see the logic in Dom’s decisions, being myself a victim of his past indiscretions, I have to say that keeping this from him is not what I would call a wise decision…for both parties.” I closed my eyes in frustration for a second before giving it one last shot.
“Look I am not saying that I am going to keep this from him indefinitely or anything, but just until I have looked into the reasons why touching my mark caused this and until then, doing everything I can do to prevent it,” I said and even though he gave me a ‘Yeah right, I would like to see you try’ look, I knew he was also starting to waiver in his decision. However, that didn’t stop him from trying one last time.
“Keira, I doubt wearing scarves for the foreseeable future is going to work in this instance and not to mention, look a little suspicious.” I frowned up at him before releasing a heavy and frustrated sigh.
“Please Lucius, all I am asking for here is a little bit of time…we just found out that the baby we made was in this time, not his past…which trust me when I say, means a great deal to him.” He raised an eyebrow at this and then said in a low voice,
“Yes, I can imagine.” I decided to ignore the inner meaning of that comment and decided to press forward with desperation as my last hope.
“Please. Please Lucius… do this for me,” I whispered completely unashamed and about to beg if need be. His eyes softened just before the point he nodded at my request.
“Fine, I will do as you wish, but be it on your head when this doesn’t go your way, pet,” he warned but all I heard was his acceptance, which was all I could focus on right now.
“Oh, thank G…” I was about to say God when he gave me a stern questioning look, making me change that thank you into…
“…Goodness for the almighty and powerful Lucius, ruler of all Vamps and so forth…better now?” He smirked and said,
“It’s a start.” I huffed as my reply but couldn’t keep up the pretence of my fake attitude when I started smiling.
“Right, enough time wasted, you stay here until I come back for you, whilst I go and deal with your husband’s demonic tantrum.” I laughed at that, thinking well that was one way to put it!
“Thank you,” I told him making him once again nod in acceptance.
Then just before leaving me to go off and complete his ‘mind altering’ chore, he stopped and looked beyond me to inside the room. At first, I wondered what he was looking at but then remembering our earlier conversation, I smirked, knowing what was coming.
“Oh, and Keira…” he said after first looking down at the bottom shelf of the shelving unit.
“Yeah?” I asked as he paused before tapping me under the chin and continuing,
“Don’t touch anything, you know…”
“Just in case.”