21
Sweet Things, Things are Sweet
A little time later and one window fixed thanks to supernatural magic mumbo, we were back on our way heading towards I had no clue where. I tried to press for information, but he would just grin to himself and shake his head, telling me no.
So, I sat there getting both lost in the beautiful Scottish countryside and the not so beautiful minefield that was my mind. It was a strange mix to be silently drowning in, as it felt like oil and water, guilt and relief. On one hand, I hated that I had started off married life with a lie. Especially after having to also lie just before it, so that I could get away with disappearing on my own quest through time. And on the other hand, I was just glad that Lucius had covered for me, yet again, and in doing so, keeping something huge from Draven.
But no matter how much I tried to tell myself it was for the greater good, it still sat within my stomach like a lead weight, rocking inside me every time I moved. In fact, it felt like we both spent more time lying to each other than speaking the truth.
Was this really to be our future?
“That looks like a heavy mind,” Draven said shaking me from my dangerous and torturous thoughts. I wanted to reply with ‘you have no idea’ but thankfully refrained.
“I am just excited to see where you’re taking me.” At this he laughed and quickly informed me why.
“Keira, I have seen you excited, many times in fact, so trust me when I say that, Sweetheart, this doesn’t look like one of those times,” he said looking at me side on and he was right, I didn’t look excited. Because the truth was I was too nervous to be anything else. My mind was being plagued by questions like…what if he found out? What if it happened again? And more devastating still, what if I lost him to his demon side…forever?
But throughout all these collective questions, not one of them included the question of my safety. Because I still held on to the certainty that Draven’s demon wouldn’t hurt me, no matter what Lucius thought.
“I guess I am just processing everything that has happened these last few weeks, well weeks for me anyway,” I told him because for once this wasn’t exactly a lie. He gave me a nod and looked thoughtful for a moment whilst he followed the road with his gaze. It had started to rain but that wasn’t enough to take away from its natural essence. The raw beauty in the never-ending rolling hills of rusty browns, patches of heather and different shades of green. The jutting rock formations that looked like blue-black spires trying to penetrate the Earth’s crust.
The glassy lochs and rivers we drove around, with the dark grey roads framing the landscape, winding through it and following its natural flow.
“Do you miss it?” His question caught me off guard.
“Miss what?”
“Persia,” he stated softly without looking at me and it was almost as if he could still see it for himself. As though instead of the wet, green and lush landscape spread out in front of him, what he was actually seeing was years into the past. The majestic sandstone palace set amongst the endless desert, all topped off by the burning orange sun that kissed the domed rooftops.
So instead of answering him, I asked him the same,
“Do you?”
“Yes,” he answered without question and I felt the tug in my heart for how hard it must have been for him. To stand by and let humans take over what had been his home since the beginning, that had once been his palace, only to see it fall to ruins.
It had to be said, that being an immortal sounded pretty cool to most, but it definitely came with its downsides and for Draven, then this must have been a big one. But I had never once asked. I had never even thought of what it must be like for him. How hardy and thick skinned you must have to become to continue only to watch the world around you change and finding it a necessary evil to be forced to change with it. Which made me suddenly feel bad for teasing him about how old he was.
“I am sorry,” I told him, this time making him look at me in surprise.
“Why would you be sorry?” he asked, so I told him.
“Because I never stopped to think about how hard it must be for you.” He gave me a questioning look, so I carried on explaining.
“You know, being forced to make decisions based on what is best for other people, for humanity, for your own kind and having to leave what was your home…I can’t imagine how many times you have had to do it and what it must take out of you every time you do. All that time...” I let my sentence trail off as I shook my head, trying to force my thoughts around the concept.
“Sweetheart, look at me,” he said in a tender tone that told me with only three words that what I had said meant a great deal to him. But even if his tone hadn’t been enough, when I looked at him, his eyes certainly did.
“I must confess it has not always been easy. To live among humanity watching it close to destroying itself time and time again and most of that time, being forced to do nothing to aid in ending innocent people’s suffering.”
“You couldn’t help?” I asked to keep him talking.
“By the Gods I wanted to, a lot of my kind often does, but I was not put on Earth to help control the greed of man but only there to maintain control and order of my own people. It is freewill for people to choose which side to fall behind and even if they do not, they can sometimes be free to leave. It is the unfortunate times when choice is not their own…this is always the hardest to ignore.” I knew what he was saying. And to stand by and do nothing was often thought of as being just as bad as the act itself. But in this case, it was a law he could not defy and a line he could not cross. Not unless instructed otherwise and usually by the Fates.
Because in the end, Draven was governed just as we all were. It was just that his orders came from a higher power than everyone else’s. And boy must that have sucked.
“That must have been so hard to endure,” I said sympathising with him, if only understanding a drop in an ocean of memories. Memories he’d have to live with for eternity.
“It certainly wasn’t always easy, and I must confess that there were times when whispered secrets were spoken in the ears of the right men in power. But in the end, fate had the final say. For it was always in your destiny to learn from mistakes made. For land to be conquered again and again, until even its history becomes a blurred image of what it used to be. When fact and fiction started to merge and inevitably the truth becomes lost through years of being told,” he said, and I could imagine this to be true.
Because no matter how many artefacts or written pieces of evidence the world found and dug up, in the end, you could only really speculate where the breadcrumbs of time would lead us to. Oh, you could make educated guesses until the cows came home on what historical evidence showed you, but unless you were really there, then no one can be one hundred percent certain and call it fact.
After all, that important scroll you just found with what you think holds the hidden link to cracking some historical code, could in fact just have been an ancient version of the town’s crazy person, that spoke to cats, believed in fairies and thought smoking avocados was a good idea.
Yeah, so being with Draven certainly made you look differently at the world’s history, that was for damn sure.
“I regret many things during my time on Earth’s plane, Keira, but do you know what I regret the most?” he said once again bringing me out of my thoughts consumed by the past. I loved it when Draven shared parts of his past life with me, making me feel as though I could almost see it for myself, something I longed to do. But right now, with him talking about the bad times and with it his past regrets, I wasn’t sure I was ready for it.
As it turned out, I was more than ready for it.
For what he gave me next wasn’t just sweet, it was…
Well, it was perfect.
“I regret every second of it I spent living without you,” he told me lovingly, making my heart melt at his confession.
“Dominic.” I whispered his name, the one I hardly used and therefore reserved for the sweetest moments. He reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze when I told him,
“I have the same regrets…although my combined seconds are considerably less than yours.” I added this last part to lighten the mood and I know I achieved this when he joked,
“Yes, well that’s what happens when you’re practically a Caveman.” I giggled, and the rest of the journey was spent laughing and teasing one another now that the serious side of life had been filed away and unfortunately, saved for another day.
After driving for about two hours, I decided that I had to give into my bodily needs and tell Draven I needed a toilet break. I don’t know why he found this amusing, maybe it was because the words I used were,
“Can we stop somewhere, only I really need to go to the little girl’s room and tap a kidney.” A lip twitch later and we soon pulled off the main road and into a petrol station.
“I will fill up, whilst you…how did you put it, tap a kidney?” he teased after he had pulled up to one of the free pumps and had come around to my side to help me out of the ridiculously high car.
“Okay handsome.” I said making him grin as I reached up and kissed his cheek…well, after pulling on his neck first so he would get the hint and give in to me being a short ass. I then turned around and as I was making my way into the store, I couldn’t help but notice the other people that were staring at Draven.
One was a young guy about to get into his car who stared in open shock at both Draven and his car, probably knowing how much it cost. There was also a couple and it was obvious they weren’t here for a holiday like we were. For starters the girl who was filling up, what was obviously her car, on account of the pink racing stripes, was wearing what looked to be a supermarket uniform.
The guy who was sat in the passenger seat was staring down at his phone, completely oblivious to the fact his girlfriend was now freely staring at another guy with her mouth nearer to the floor than her forehead.
It was at that point that I turned around to see for myself the mouth-watering sight she was laying witness to and yep, it was mouth-watering all right. Draven was reaching for the pump after just pushing his sweater up his forearms, giving us both a little taste of what heaven lay beneath all those clothes.
But thankfully, I knew from experience all of the exotic sin that was concealed beneath. But for an outsider, well, all she had was the glimpse of tanned skin you wanted to lick, a pair of strong hands you wanted all over your body and the face of a God, with the body to match. Oh, that and her imagination, which I knew for a fact would never have hit the mark.
I swear watching Draven filling up the car at a petrol station should not have been as sexy as it was…it was verging on the ridiculous. Of course, it still didn’t mean it wasn’t true, I thought as I walked through the store looking for the toilets.
I had just finished and was washing my hands in the sink when the same girl walked in. She took notice of me, nodded once a silent hello and after I did the same, she stepped into a cubicle. I then checked myself in the mirror, seeing my hair was still half up into a messy knot, with the rest of its length resting down my back. My lips looked a darker pink thanks to being kissed most of the night and my pale skin was blushed from coming in from the cold. My eyes also looked a darker shade than they usually did, with the blue getting lost to the grey.
I shrugged my shoulders at myself, feeling as satisfied as I ever would, before stepping back into the store. I saw Draven walk in through the doors at the same time as he was slipping his phone into his back pocket, telling me he had no doubt just taken a call before coming in here.
He scanned the room and visibly relaxed when he saw me. We were about to meet in the middle when I spotted the sweet aisle and I winked at him before side stepping out of sight.
“Fancy something sweet?” I asked him when I felt him approach from behind and with a hand at my belly then pulling my body back a step into his own.
“Always,” he answered almost purring the word against my shoulder after he drew my hooded sweater to one side. I giggled and warned just as playfully,
“Draven behave, this is serious business here.”
“Yes, I can see that,” he said with a grin as I started picking up bags.
“Oh cool, Haribo Starmix, I love these! Oh, but wait if we get these then we have to get the sour ones too…ah but then if we do that, then which do we choose, jelly babies, wine gums or fruit pastels…Oh decisions, decisions,” I said tapping a finger on my lip.
“Why not just get them all?” Draven asked as if this was the most natural thing in the world. I shot him a glance, looking up over my shoulder.
“We can’t get them all!”
“Why not?”
“Because that would be greedy and…hey, Draven what are you…?” I let my question trail off as it became obvious what he was doing when he grabbed all five bags and made his way over to the till. Just then the girl was coming out of the bathroom and when she saw that her sexy petrol station, dream man was standing next to me, her face said it all, ‘Lucky Bitch’. It was in this moment when her asshole boyfriend started tapping his watch at her and throwing his hands up in the air through the store window, that I had to disagree with her…
I was the luckiest bitch alive.
Draven stepped up to the counter and this was when I got a craving for something else. Which was what happened when you have been out of your home country for a while and you suddenly have the urge to buy everything you knew you couldn’t get back home.
“Oh, and crisps!” I shouted.
“Crisps?” Draven enquired and the cashier, an older guy in his late fifties smirked.
“I mean chips, dear…” I patted him on the chest and said to the cashier,
“It’s alright, he’s American,” making him laugh and Draven shake his head in that amused way of his. Of course, I knew he wasn’t American, but I think the poor guy would have been a bit confused had I said he was Persian.
“Third aisle, opposite the drinks,” he told me making me realise that a drink would also be good. So, with a big grin I held up a finger to indicate one minute, which turned out to be three, because really, there was an awesome choice.
“They have Ribena!” I shouted enthusiastically the second I made it back to Draven, happy that there was no one else stuck behind us in a queue. The cashier smiled and said,
“I take it they don’t have that in the States either?”
“Nope, they don’t even have cordial and no cheese and onion Walkers in sight…it’s a crime really.” I joked referring to the bag of crisps I had added to my personal treasure trove, making the cashier laugh. I could feel Draven staring down at me as if he was seeing me for the first time, which was getting harder to ignore.
“So, you kid’s here for a holiday?” he asked in a friendly way and I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing when he referred to Draven as a kid. I mean, even if he wasn’t thousands of years old, he still looked like he was in his early thirties.
“We are actually on our honeymoon,” I said excitedly curling myself into Draven’s side and resting a hand on his chest, one I felt rumble slightly under my palm after I had said this.
“Oh, well congratulations!” The guy said beaming at us.
“Here, in that case, let me give you one of these flyers, I don’t know whereabouts you’re staying, but there’s a medieval banquet on the grounds at Balmoral Castle…full costumes mandatory mind you.” He added giving me a wink, because hey, I was a girl and what girl didn’t want to have the excuse to dress up as a fairy-tale princess.
“Wow, that sounds great, thanks!” I said taking the flyer from him. Draven gave him a silent nod in thanks and reached into his back pocket, getting out a dark brown leather wallet. I don’t know why but seeing something so simple like Draven owning a wallet had me suddenly itching to see what was inside. Did he have anything personal in there, like pictures? Did he carry ID, like a driving licence?
“Keira?” Draven said my name and I realised I had been staring at the wallet still in his hand long after he had paid the man. He was sliding a black and silver card back into the only free card sleeve of his wallet, when I finally snapped out of it.
“Well, I hope you two enjoy your honeymoon and all the best for the future,” he said smiling and after a thank you and good day, I was out the door with one hand in Draven’s and the other clutching on to the flyer the cashier had given us. I was also happy to see that my bag of treats was in Draven’s other hand.
“You have a very friendly nature towards others,” Draven mused aloud making me stop mid crunch, as it had taken me all of about five second to tear into my bag of crisps.
“You fink so?” I asked talking with my mouth full and saying screw the whole ladylike manners thanks to snacks that felt like they had been sent from the Gods. He smirked and said,
“I don’t think. I know. You definitely have a way with people, they seem openly relaxed when you’re around.” I thought on this as I swallowed and said,
“Draven, I am just polite as my mother taught me to be. Now here, stop saying silly things and try the best crisps…sorry, chips, you will ever have!” I said reaching across to hold the bag out to him.
“Sweetheart I don’t think…oh, okay…” Draven said after I gave him no choice because I had picked one out and was forcing the savoury snack in to his lips, so he had no choice in the matter. The second he tasted it, his eyes went wide, and I knew I had lost Draven to the junk food taste bud monster…better known as ‘The munchies’.
“You like?” I said feeling smug and sounding it too.
“Mm, actually, they’re not bad,” he admitted, and I was shocked.
“Are you seriously telling me that you have lived all this time without once trying junk food?” I asked stunned.
“Well the word ‘junk’ doesn’t exactly sell it to me, sweetheart.” I laughed at this because well yeah, he was kind of right. I mean who would want to try something called, ‘Crap Cuisine’ or ‘Shit Snacks’?
“Okay, so I will give you that one, but well lucky for you I am here to educate you in all things bad for you…well, to eat anyway,” I said, adding this last with a coy smile. He raised a brow at me and asked,
“Oh really? Then please tell me, what is next on the menu?” This was when I grinned at him, held up a finger to indicate a minute like I had in the store, as I then dipped a hand in the bag, making it rustle. He laughed at my behaviour, once again shaking his head like he had just married a loon and bloody loved the fact!
“Sugary drinks that will rot our teeth,” I said pulling out a cold bottle of my childhood favourite, blackcurrant flavoured drink and giving it a little shake at him. At this he faked a groan, making me chuckle as I could still see he was trying to fight off a grin.
After this we spent the next few hours chatting and eating the bounty of sweets Draven had bought me. Which included times like teasing Draven with jelly hearts, sugar-coated fruit pastels and sour cola bottles. I would reach over, offering them to his mouth and then pulling away just before he could bite them. This ended with him capturing my wrist, bringing the sweet to his mouth before taking both it and my finger inside for him to suck. Needless to say, after this I continued to tease.
It wasn’t a surprise to find that Draven had a sweet tooth, as I remembered what he had been like when we had bought Ella candy from the supermarket. Talk about the saying ‘kid in a candy store’ Draven gave it new meaning, if you swapped the word Kid for Sugar Demon that was.
Then the teasing carried on when I saw a sign I couldn’t pronounce and when I tried, Draven just chuckled at me and shook his head in amusement.
“Fesshy…bridge?”
“Feshiebridge,” Draven corrected, even doing so with a hint of an accent.
Then after a short while, he turned onto a dirt road that looked to be privately used. This was when my excitement started to mount.
“How is it you have never been to Scotland before, when it is so close to where you grew up?” Draven asked me, and I gasped.
“Close…Draven it must be over a five-hour drive!” Again, he laughed and said,
“And?”
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call that close, honey.” I replied but the second I watched him tense, I was left wondering what it was that I just said to warrant that reaction.
I didn’t have long to wait.
“What did you say?” he asked, his voice sounding gravelly as if he suddenly needed to clear his throat before speaking.
“I said it wasn’t close?” I told him in a questioning tone, shaking my head and by doing so silently asking him what he meant.
“You called me honey.” I felt my hands drop in my lap and again that fist around my heart was back.
“Oh…I…well I don’t have…”
“I liked it,” he said stopping me before I could take it back and vow not to call him it again.
“I have heard you call others by the endearment and wondered if I would hear the sweet word from your lips, only this time being directed at me,” he said surprising me.
“I’m sure I have called you honey before, Draven,” I said in my defence and suddenly feeling bad that I never had before. Then again, thinking about it, when did I ever really call him any other name but Draven and on occasion Dominic. I never even shortened it to Dom like others did. I never called him sweetheart, like he did with me…frequently… or love, darling, honey, not even a babe or baby in sight. And now with that tender look on his face I found myself questioning why not? It was clear he liked hearing it, this made abundantly obvious when he stunned me with his next words.
“You have called me honey only one other time and that was when we spoke our first vows together and you became my wife for the first time…however it was my understanding that you were a little inebriated at the time, so I am not sure it counts,” he teased granting me a grin.
“You remember that?” I asked in hushed tones, still deep in my shock.
“Of course, I remember everything when it comes to you,” he said like this should have been obvious. I blushed and looked down at my lap as I smiled to myself.
“I see my girl likes the sound of that,” he said and again, doing so with a sweet endearment calling me ‘his girl’. So, my grin grew bigger when I said,
“I see my man likes that I liked it.” And yep, holy cow but did he like the sound of that! I am not sure I had seen a grin so big on him before and was that…no, was that a slight blush I saw on him also? Okay so yeah, I was certainly onto something here with the loving pet names.
“Your man does…definitely,” he said almost purring the last word making my insides do that melty thing again.
“He is also looking forward to your reaction when seeing what lies ahead,” he added nodding back to the windscreen and now instead of giving Draven my full attention, my head snapped to the front. The second he rounded a corner I gasped at the majestic sight.
Because there, high up and tucked close to the hills and mountains, was something that had Draven written all over it. And that something was Gothic and grand and like something out of another world.
Which is why I said the first thing that popped into my head.
“You really do have a tower!” Then he gave me a bad ass and sexy grin and said,
“No baby, I have several.”