60
A Demon’s Way
“Uh okay, so what do we do now, ‘cause I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t think we can take them,” I said trying not to make any sudden moves as all three of us currently had our hands up in surrender.
“Oh, I don’t know, you are wearing killer heels,” Pip commented talking through one side of her mouth.
“Sophia, any ideas here?” I asked quietly without looking at her and trying not to take my eyes off the demon horde in front of us, all of which were holding out hellish long blades at us.
“Uh, nope, I have nothing here,” she replied but this was when something happened as one of them stepped forward and snarled at Sophia in a different language, which impressively she started speaking back.
“Well, this looks promising,” I said to Pip but then when I looked at her, she was frowning and told me,
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that, Tootie.” And when I glanced her way I saw Sophia stomping her foot and shouting back at the one that looked to be in charge. The only way I could really tell this was he had a bigger helmet, a bigger breastplate and a bigger sword…so all signs were pointing that way.
“What’s going on?” I asked Sophia when she looked like she had no choice but to give up.
“They want to take you,” she replied in a dire tone.
“Uh, come again?” I said hoping I had misheard her or at the very least, the ‘me’ part of that sentence.
“It is my brother’s army and he has sent them out in search of us.”
“Okay, so isn’t that a good thing?” I asked looking first to Sophia and then to Pip, but neither of them looked as though that answer was a yes.
“No, as they refuse to take us with you,” she told me making me want to cry out in frustration.
“But why?!”
“My brother’s orders are simply to find the girl, that being you, …and anyone else that is with her, have them removed,” she told me.
“Removed?” This time I did screech my question and the one that had been arguing with Sophia snarled something at her.
“Yes alright, alright, hang on, dumb ass!” Sophia growled back and then turned to me once more.
“Their orders are to take us to the nearest gateway and grant us our passage home,” she said as if hating this idea, which I had to say, I wasn’t exactly loving it either.
“And me?” I had to ask.
“You’re to stay here, so they can take you to their King…in other words, take you to Dom,” she told me, and I turned my panicked eyes to Pip, who pretended to wave a little flag and say,
“It’s as you wanted… Yay…so not yay?” she added after seeing my face drop.
“You mean to Draven’s demon, right?” I corrected making them both sigh in return.
“I am afraid we have no other choice.”
“Just so I know, what choices did they give us?” I asked in a hopeful tone that was quickly crushed when Sophia replied,
“You go with them freely and we get an escort home, or they take you against your will and we get put in chains and left to be eaten…either way, I think you can see where this is going to go.” The shrug of her shoulders looked like it carried a lot more weight to it than the casual gesture it was usually done for.
“Can I just say at this point that I know that as the horny one of the group, you’re all thinking I like chains, and many a time by Adam, to be eaten during these times. However, I do not like the idea of their version of events,” Pip told us after putting her hand up as if addressing the class.
“It’s okay Pip, no one is going to get eaten. I guess we have no other choice then,” I said, unable to prevent my voice from sounding as dejected as it did.
“I don’t think my brother will harm you or allow anyone else to do the same… the problem we do have is if he doesn’t let you go and you can’t get him to accept his Angel side back,” Sophia told me looking worried.
“Then what you’re saying is that I might not be able to get back…right?” I asked after swallowing down the fear in just saying it.
“We wouldn’t…no just wait! Damn it, I said wait!” Sophia started shouting as I turned in time to see the main guy in charge storming this way, obviously hitting his limit on waiting. Either way, he now clamped a heavy gauntleted hand around the top of my arm and started yanking me away from Pip and Sophia.
“NO! Let me go! Oww your hurting me!” I shouted, trying to reach back to them.
“Let her go, you big bastard!” Pip shouted but the second she ran to me she was caught, as was Sophia.
“It will be okay Keira, listen to me, it will be okay, we will figure this out, we will find Cronus and put an end to this...!” Sophia kept shouting trying to reach me through the guards that had now surrounded them, as now I was being pulled in the opposite direction.
“Try bringing him back! Try bringing my brother back, I know you can!”
“I will, I promise!” I shouted back but this was the last thing I heard as I was yanked hard and then just as I was swung round, the idiot let me go, then looked at me, probably wondering why I couldn’t keep my balance, as I fell to the side only to knock one of my cheeks against something hard, which strangely felt like the blunt end of a sword.
Then everything went black and to the echoing sound of my name being called in a desperate cry.
“You have trouble staying on your feet, don’t you?” I heard his voice penetrate the darkness as if reaching out to me. It was a memory, I was sure of it. I knew this because I remembered him saying these same words to me once. So, I opened my eyes and found myself back in my bedroom at Libby’s, wondering what had happened. Then I knew it was my turn to say something. I opened my eyes and found him there, my past Draven stood in my room where he shouldn’t be. Because this had all come and gone.
“Umm…I mean…what are you doing here?” I asked him, playing my part, only this time, I was in my bed, not half stumbled over the window seat as I had been. I looked up at him as he stood at the end of my bed watching me, as if he too were asking himself if I were real of not. Then I watched as a smirk played around the edge of his lips before he told me,
“Yes, well apart from it being my right to see you, I also wanted to bring you something. You dropped this.” He held out his hand to give me something, but like back then, I didn’t reach for it. This time making him frown before leaning down to whisper,
“As I told you that day… there is no need to fear me… I would never hurt you.” And then just like that, he snapped his fingers, and everything was gone.
I jolted as if something was carrying me under my arms and had just dropped me to the floor. Then I heard something being said to me before I felt a nudge of someone’s boot at my side, which I was glad to say didn’t hurt. I decided this was my cue to move and I shook the fog from my mind before opening my eyes to find the most incredible sight.
Draven’s palace in Hell.
It was as frightening as it was beautiful and seemingly half of it had been carved into a whole mountain, that’s how big it was. The entrance was framed by two huge statues of demonic warriors, each on their knees. They held above them each side of a plinth with a figure held above it…
A figure of my husband’s demon form.
The statue was of him stood with his legs slightly apart, his arms crossed to his front as if holding the two blades that came from his wrists, that reached down to the centre point between his feet. He was in full battle armour and the sight of him like this was glorious.
I shuddered at the sight, being that the whole entrance was at least the size of a twenty-story building. It was made up of staggered arches with turrets of jagged rock that had been carved in such a way that it looked half building, half fortress.
I looked up and up and then up some more and even when doing this I couldn’t see it all, it was that high. I had never seen anything so big in all my life and wondered how many Scottish castles you could have fit inside it? I think more than what my fingers could have counted that was for sure. Hell, even Lucius’ mountain home could have fit in here many times over.
Which had me wondering, if this was Draven’s palace in Hell, then what the Hell did the Lucifer’s look like? I wasn’t given long to ponder this as a snarled voice spoke to me from behind in a language I didn’t understand. I turned to face it knowing what I would find when I did and that was an army at my back. One with its general stood closest to me. They all looked the same except for this one. With black helmets that covered their entire faces, which was no doubt a good thing for me, as I can’t imagine they were hiding anything pretty under there.
Each of them was heavy with armour that looked made out a combination of stone and metal, with spikes being the main theme of design. It looked as if no matter where they would have been hit, the damage would have been swiftly made to the other, as even their armour looked to be used more as weapon than as protection.
This time when that word was snarled at me again I could only guess that it meant it wanted me to move, so I stood up, having to work at steadying myself before I looked up at the endless steps leading to the entrance where it wanted me to go. So, with no other choice, I tugged off my shoes, throwing them to one side, knowing that if I were to make it up them, then there was no way I was doing so in heels. Thankfully, the steps were smooth beneath my feet, like highly polished black marble and one that continued throughout the palace.
I looked up at the mighty structure as I walked underneath it, wondering if this had been what it had been like for sailors, seeing the Colossus of Rhodes for the first time when sailing through its legs. Half of me wanted to turn around, claim I couldn’t do this and run away taking my chances with an army chasing me. Seeing as I knew what was through the huge golden doors I could see up ahead.
But then, as if the whole purpose of my dream had been to ease my fear, I continued down the long imposing entrance hall we had now stepped into. Its arched ceilings were as high as those found in a church, but that’s where the similarities ended quickly. What framed the way was massive granite pillars of tortured slaves, naked and twisted holding up the ceiling in what looked like pain and suffering.
Well, if this sight was meant to intimidate, then it was most certainly doing the job, as it felt more like a warning than a welcome. The closer I got to the doors, the more my heart dropped as it was as if they knew I was coming. The massive doors started to open, being themselves as big as a building. Their gold coating was highly polished, enough that I could see the reflection of the army at my back, like a black wave following me from behind. Then, as the doors opened fully they overtook me, splitting in the middle so that they could march either side of me and slightly ahead. Now this felt more like being delivered to the King.
A King I could now see.
But it wasn’t the Draven I knew.
It was all his demon, the one he had shown me that night of the banquet, as if preparing me for the real thing…
It hadn’t.
Because there he was, sat on a throne that looked to be made of shards of black glass and silver, as if it had been an experiment gone wrong and through its explosion a throne was created from the centre. A smooth section had been cut out for a large body to sit there looking the epitome of masterful, surrounded by deadly spiked tips and jagged edges. But nothing looked more dangerous than the man who occupied that seat, looking as he had that night.
With demonic armour that seemed to be a part of him, seeping from his pores and curling around his limbs. Casting itself into the form of a warrior and forging itself to wherever he wanted it to be. This, in contrast with his pale skin and harsh features, was enough to get me to think twice on my decision to come here.
I think I managed all of ten more steps before my nerves broke and he knew it as he was watching my every move. His gauntleted hand was tapping on the edge of his throne’s armrest, with his talons hitting the metal, making for a haunting sound. The sound of impatience. A tapping that abruptly stopped the second I did. This action, although slight, was also a scary one as my heart started to pound in my chest even though I couldn’t breathe. I knew my mistake the second he did as I had stopped walking towards him and found my steps going backwards.
He started to shake his head at me, telling me not to do what he knew I would do, but it wasn’t enough of a warning. Because what sat ahead of me now was far scarier to face than what running from it could mean. So, I turned and started running down the centre of the army, most of which had become still like statues standing guard like a wall of black stone.
I heard the mighty roar of anger behind me and a whoosh of sound but as I looked back over my shoulder to see if he was making chase,
I found him gone.
I sucked in a needed breath at the sight of him missing, hoping that was going to last but unfortunately, this was far from the case. Because that giant whoosh sound I had heard, I now heard it again, only this time it was above me.
Then it stopped and the next sight I saw slammed another memory through me. It was on a rooftop and a storm raged around me, pelting my skin with heavy rain as a figure dropped from the sky.
“Draven.” I let the name slip through my lips as I saw his demon do the same as he had done that night. And just like then, now he was showing me his true form in all its terrifying and mighty glory. He landed hard enough to crack the floor around one knee and he looked down for a few seconds as if letting me take in the sight of him. Huge wings spanned out behind him and unlike the ones I had seen before on him, they didn’t hold a feather in sight. They reminded me a bit like Lucius’ wings used to be, before he became half Angel. Only whereas Lucius’ looked worn and torn in places, Draven’s were all intact.
Massive sections of reddish skin stretched out between what looked more like extra limbs than the thick fingers that Lucius’ wings had. And the ends were tipped with claws that looked as if they belonged on a dragon, they were that big…but then again, they were attached to wings that big. Black skin seemed to be closer to where they grew from his back and it looked like millions of tiny scales were rippling along them as they suddenly folded in on themselves, folding to the back of his body as he started to stand up, making me gulp.
“Arammu Shi, here at last,” he said as if the words were ripped from him in a throaty growl. I started to walk backwards when he came towards me, but I was going nowhere fast and he was at me in seconds. Then he looked down at me from his great height as he had definitely grown and in all areas, from the looks of things.
A ring of flames seemed to burn brighter in his eyes as he took in every inch of me, but then I knew something was wrong the second I saw those flames overtake the rest of his eyes in a second. I looked down at my arm to see what he was looking at and noticed a very distinct bruise in the shape of a large hand print from where the guy had grabbed me, yanking me from the girls.
“DALKHU!” he roared out making me flinch back in fear as I didn’t know what it meant. I then saw all of his army suddenly stand to attention. Then he looked back at me and asked a dangerous question,
“Who touched you?” It came from a deadly voice and I bit my lip to stop it from trembling. He watched as I did this and something in him started to calm. The flames in his eyes started to simmer down back to a ring and he stepped closer to me, this time in a none threatening way. I tried to remain as still as I could when he bent lower towards me and said,
“Don’t fear my wrath, for it is not aimed at you. Now tell me, which one touched you?” he asked, this time trying to make his words as soft as possible and like this I could almost see my Draven locked in there behind his demon skin. I took a few deep breaths before I nodded knowing that there was no way I couldn’t do as he asked, so I swallowed down the lump of fear and said,
“The bigger one, I think he is in charge.” Once I said this something strange happened as I watched him raise one brow at me and the gesture was so like Draven, I actually found myself relaxing next to him. He was in there, I knew it! And now, with this one slight expression, it gave me new hope that I could do this.
“There is only one in charge here, as you will soon learn, little one,” he told me before he looked back up and he suddenly snapped back in his anger, now his attention was no longer directed at me. He called out what I thought was a name and motioned with his scary clawed hand for the one to step forward, who did so now looking fearful. I couldn’t say I blamed him at that, as Draven towered above all of them in both size and authority.
I knew what was coming, but I didn’t want to see it and as if Draven knew it too, he bent lower again and told me,
“If you do not wish to see death, my Shi, then I suggest you look elsewhere.” The second he said this, adding to it a new unknown name for me, I quickly did as I was told and turned my head. Then I heard him swap his calm tone for one of death and wrath as he said,
“ANA SIMTIM ALAKU!” He roared this before I heard a sickening snapping sound and the fall of what I assumed was a body hitting the floor, but was then followed by a second thud, which left me to wonder about. Unfortunately, I wasn’t left wondering for long as I cried out in fright when my legs were suddenly pulled from beneath me.
“Ssshh my Shi, I have you,” he told me as he had picked me up and the height I now found myself at made me have no choice but to grip onto the horns at his shoulders. He had picked me up and flown upwards with me in his arms, and that second thud I had heard I could now see. Draven hadn’t just snapped his neck, but he had snapped his whole head off, as now the body lay in two pieces on the floor.
“I…oh shit…I, um…really don’t…DON’T like heights,” I said screaming out one word as he went higher.
“You think I would drop you?” he asked me as he moved further towards the throne at the end.
“Well, I know you don’t exactly like me but no, I don’t think you would drop me,” I replied making his lips twitch and again, it was such a Draven expression, that I almost wanted to reach out and touch his face to see for myself what it would feel like.
“Then you have nothing to fear in my arms, for my wings will not fail,” he told me, before hovering over where he wanted to be and without warning, letting us suddenly drop, making me scream. I gripped on tight and closed my eyes as if readying myself for impact. But it never came.
“You can open your eyes now,” he told me and I did so to see not only were his armoured boots back on the ground, but it also looked as though I had tried to climb up him. And I was clinging on to his neck like he would keep me safe from everything in this horrible world.
“Oh,” I said letting him go with a little muttered,
“Sorry.” He frowned as if he was silently wondering why I was sorry but, in the end, he never asked. No, instead he sat down and like the hundred times before, did so with me in his lap. It made me want to smile as it seemed that no matter which time we were in or which world, some things just never changed with Draven. Which was something I needed to realise before I could do what was necessary to bring him back. Because this was never about trying to drag him back from something I thought was wrong, without even giving it a chance. It was about understanding. About trying to understand what it was his demon wanted, and only then would I get the chance to reach him.
But it was also about getting him to understand me and why I was here. So, I decided to try a little humour and see where that got me.
“I thought you said your wings would never fail?” I said in a tone that was trying to be playful. He regarded me a moment as if trying to gauge this new tone, one that for once, didn’t sound terrified of him.
“Ah, but not unless I wish them to,” he told me, and I couldn’t tell if he was teasing me or not but hoping that he was, as this would have been another big sign of Draven breaking through.
“And why would you do that, if you don’t want to frighten me?” I asked now in more of a curious tone as I really wanted to know.
“Because sometimes fear is good,” was his cryptic reply.
“Why do you say that?” I asked and when he grinned at me, I couldn’t help but bite my lip as more of Draven came through. He seemed to study the habit, tilting his head slightly as if intrigued.
“It made you grip your body tighter to me, so why do you think?” he said shocking me, as that time there was no mistaking it, it was a definite tease. Then he seemed to notice something else on my face and before I could turn from him as my blush started to take hold, I felt a cold, smooth talon curl under my chin, forcing my face back to look up at him. Then he ran the back of his claw down my heated cheek before inquiring,
“And this, what is this?”
“Uh…knowing me, a bright red face from blushing,” I said obviously amusing him as he smirked down at me before informing me,
“I know of your blushes my Shi, for I have seen them many a time before now, but I ask not of your blush but the bruise beneath it?” he said making my mouth drop on an unattractive,
“Oh.” He raised a brow again, no doubt in question, the one I hadn’t answered yet.
“I fell, but then if you know I blush a lot, then you will also know this too is a common occurrence.” Hearing this he actually laughed, and it was a booming sound, one that made him hold me tighter in his lap so that I wouldn’t fall. But then, looking at the spiked knee plates that rose high up above his knees, when sat like this I didn’t think that was possible, as it was like a small wall preventing me from going anywhere.
“I do indeed, for I remembered the day you fell into our world,” he said giving me my first insight to how this worked. He considered himself a separate being to Draven…that much was obvious.
Which would mean that it was almost as though Draven was three men in a sense. You had his Angel side and his Demon, whose lap I sat in now and then Draven who was ingrained in humanity. The man that held it all together and controlled these sides of him, commanding that they merge and live within his vessel as one. It had been confusing to think of before, but like this, after that one comment it all started to make sense.
“And when all your trouble began,” I teased back making him scoff.
“He was weak!” he snapped making me flinch, but my action made him strangely want to comfort me in some way, as I felt his hand at my back rub circles there, being mindful of his claws.
“Why do you say that, because he fell in love with me?” I braved to ask. He snapped his intense gaze to me as if hearing the L word was one he was unfamiliar with.
“His weakness came from denying his desires and taking what is ours by right. And by denying them, he also denied me what is mine,” he growled, and I knew now, this was the time to back off this conversation before I pushed him too far too soon.
But this was when I knew the saying, ‘too little too late’ came into play because that too far had just come and gone. I knew this when he declared,
“I have waited too long and now I need not wait any longer.” I gulped when he suddenly stood with me in his arms. His army was still stationed where they were as they framed the huge throne room. It was only now I started to take in the room as I looked around in panic at what he could mean to do with me now. He dismounted the long stretch of large steps in front of him, one that put him at a higher level than the rest of the room as was Draven’s way. A King that could watch over his kingdom, whether that be from an ancient far away Persian Palace, a Gothic nightclub in quiet little Evergreen Falls or a demonic fortress in Hell, it was all the same.
And like those times, I ended up asking the question…
“Why, where are you taking me?” The panic was clear in my tone. A panic that only increased when he answered me…
“To have my way with you.”