53
Key to my Heart
Shortly after this and my bitchy meltdown, we found out that my worst fears hadn’t come true after all and that Takeshi wasn’t yet awake and ready to spill the demon beans. Which deep down had been what my freak out had really been about. But hey, I guess when you’re pregnant, then sometimes your real feelings decided to come out in irrational ways. Who knew?
No, instead it had been advised by Mack that it might be best for Takeshi’s recovery for him to be back in Afterlife, as being close to the Temple and that ‘weird dead tree thingy’ they had down there could help. But of course, they hadn’t call it the ‘weird dead tree thingy’ as that would have just been weirder. No, instead it had been called the ‘Etz Chaim’ which at the time I had no clue as to what they had been talking about. No, it had only been when back in our bedroom packing, that Draven had told me it meant ‘Tree of Life’ in Hebrew.
He also went on to explain that almost every major religion had its own version and when I asked what it really was, his answer was simple.
“It is the only living thing on Earth that links our three worlds together. Its roots draw power from Hell, its branches draw power from Heaven and its body remains locked to Earth, which traps both of these energies within its trunk,” he told me which had me utterly fascinated.
“But why, I mean what is its purpose?” I asked, stuffing t shirts into my bag, which would have probably made any frequent traveller weep at the thought of so many creases to come.
“We are its purpose,” he replied and then went on to explain that the tree is a source of energy for his kind, which was why by Alex (The bastard) gifting it my blood that day, it had ended up literally waking the dead. It was that powerful. Which was why its reason for being there was also to protect the temple, as it too was considered a place where harnessed power from the tree helps Draven do his job.
That night so long ago, when I saw him swapping one being’s soul for another, to then be transferred into a younger vessel, was both done to administer punishment in one and grant favour in the other. That was the part of the power of the tree of life…hence its name I guess.
Having this conversation with Draven just made me realise how much there was in his world that I still didn’t know. But the one thing that gave me comfort was that I now had an eternal lifetime to find out…well, that was if Cronus’ plan didn’t work and we could figure out a way to stop things before it was too late.
A few hours later and the honeymoon was over as we made our way back home. I can’t say I was sorry about this, as I was looking forward to getting back to Afterlife. Wondering now if it wasn’t that strange tree that had been pulling me to it all this time. Either way, I had missed the place, but I was also sad to say goodbye to our castle. Our castle, which I found had a lovely sound to it, I thought with a hidden smile. Oh, course it was also Mack, who I really would miss as well, and therefore made him promise to come out to Afterlife to stay for Christmas. He seemed extremely touched by the invitation and after an approving nod from his ‘Laird’ behind me, he agreed whole heartedly.
“Don’t worry Keira, we will visit it again soon.” Draven had told me when he saw me looking back at the place as we drove further and further away. I nodded and turned back round to face the road ahead of us, wondering just when that time would be and the next time we faced this journey, if we would be doing so with an extra addition to the family…
Our baby.
Before I knew it, we had all reached the airport in convoy, boarded a private jet, and was touching down in Portland in no time at all. Well, this was because I admit, I did sleep most of the way, as again being pregnant I was finding more and more ways that it was affecting my body.
I was just glad when Afterlife finally came into view. And as always, I smiled and released a big sigh of what sounded like relief, at least it must have to Draven who asked me about it.
“So now are you willing to tell me why you do that?” he asked nodding to my face and I guess the smile he had caught. He was sat next to me with his arm resting at the back of my seat and I was kind of nervous about it for most of the ride. At one point going as far as to take his hand and holding it, hoping he wouldn’t notice any strange reason for it. But this didn’t last as long as I had hoped, as he passed me a bottle of water. A thoughtful gesture after first hearing me complaining that I was thirsty, (another preggy thing) meaning I had to let go of his hand. A hand that went right back to behind my neck, resting there and making me flinch every time he touched it. Thankfully, he had believed my reason being that I was ticklish and hadn’t felt the need to comment any more.
“Why I…?”
“Why you smile every time you see Afterlife,” he asked and again I was struck with déjà vu, one I knew was from a real memory. It had been after our first meal in a restaurant and unfortunately one that happened under tense circumstances thanks to Alex standing me up. It didn’t exactly go smoothly and wasn’t really something I would class as being a top ten date.
One that ended just as badly as it started…
“Why do you always do that?” Draven’s question startled me.
“Do what?”
“Smile in sight of my home…you always did that, and I always wanted to know.” I gave him a small grin and hoped my response would mean he would drop the subject without me having to answer him.
“It’s not like you to wait so long till finding out something you wish to know.”
“Consider it me choosing the priorities of importance to me.” I gave him a little shake of my head and a raised eyebrow, silently asking him to explain the cryptic statement.
“My enjoyment at seeing your happiness outweighed my curiosity,” he said making me turn my head away, so he couldn’t see how much his words affected me.
“So, are you going to tell me?”
“Not today,” I replied softly to the night at my window.
“Why not?” he asked pushing the subject like I knew he would. So, I turned my body to face him and nodded to his arms before arguing my point.
“Are you gonna tell me about them and why you’re obviously hiding them from me?” For the first moment he looked taken aback and even shifted his body further back in his seat as if he was afraid I was going to reach out and touch them.
“That’s what I thought,” I said when I got no reply but a frown.
“Some things are meant to be left in the past.”
“Including us?” I asked quickly making him wince at the power of my question.
“I…Keira, you must understand...this…”
“Oh, I understand, Draven, you want all the answers but with no questions asked. Well, I am afraid it doesn’t work like that, it might have done at one time but let’s just say I learnt my lesson. You can’t go through life without ever explaining yourself, not to the people you’re supposed to care about…well, maybe that’s your lesson to learn for next time.” I added this part looking back out to the night in a whisper I knew he would still hear.
“Next time?” he asked as I reached for the handle of the door now the car had just come to a stop. I didn’t turn to face him, I couldn’t with what I was about to say…
“Yeah, the next time…” I took a deep shuddering breath, released it and pushed open the door…
“…you fall in love.”
The memory finished, and it had suddenly been as though I had been back there to that awful heart-breaking time. It may have been a different car, a different Draven and definitely a different me, but its memory lingered on as though I was seeing it back through the witness circle. Then I turned to face him and told him what I should have done that day.
“I smile because it always felt like I was coming home,” I said after turning to him and watching as his handsome features turned more boyish with the type of smile he gave me now.
“You know not the pleasure hearing that brings me,” he told me making me smile and it was one that mixed with a blush I didn’t mind this time. Well, that was until he added,
“I will never forget the mortal wound you delivered me that day.” Of course, after just having that unwelcome trip down memory lane I looked back to the window knowing what he was going to say.
“If it helps it wasn’t exactly easy to say,” I replied without looking at him.
“No, I can imagine it wasn’t, as imagining someone you love with another never is…but then seeing it, is quite another thing entirely,” he told me making me release a sigh, this time one that didn’t come from a happy place. But before I could respond he beat me to it.
“I don’t blame you, Gods I never could, as it was all my doing… I know this, but believe it or not, you did me a favour that night,” he said, surprising me enough to look back at him.
“What do you mean?” I asked as the car came to a stop.
“Come on, I have something to show you,” he told me cryptically and I was just about to ask, what on earth could he show me that would answer that question. But, as if knowing it, he placed a finger to my lips before I could speak and said the only words I needed to get me to go with him without question,
“Trust me.”
So, I let him help me from the car and into what I had considered home for a lot longer than it had been officially. I wasn’t surprised when we came to our bedchamber as whatever Draven wanted to show me it was the most logical guess that it would be in here. What I could never have guessed though, was what I would find inside.
“Welcome home, Keira,” he said as he opened the door and I gasped and I mean really gasped. I covered my mouth with my hands and looked back to Draven with wide eyes of surprise. He smiled at my reaction and nodded to the room and told me,
“Go ahead.” I turned back around and stepped inside what had now been transformed into what could officially be called ‘Our room’. Because what used to be filled with every inch of Draven, now held a perfect mixture of the both of us.
Old tapestries had been replaced with some of my paintings and framed pictures of friends and family, including a beautiful one at the centre of me and my girls…my bridesmaids. There were even things in here from my room at Libby’s that I had yet to move in…never thinking for one minute that Draven would want them in this room. Even some of the old furnishings had been taken out and replaced by a few comfy looking chairs, the type you just wanted to curl up in with a good book and stay a while. And the type that Draven knew I loved. One thing I did notice though was the couch Draven had first laid me down on was still there, small blood stain and all.
“I couldn’t get rid of that of course, for obvious reasons,” he said, clocking where my eyes had focused on. I gave him another shocked smile in return as some of my pillows from my room were even on the bed. Which was another part of the room that had taken on a slightly less masculine look and one more gender neutral. But then again, I couldn’t exactly see Draven sleeping amongst pink flowers, surrounded by hearts and quotes of love in swirls of calligraphy every night. And nor would I want him to, as I liked this so much more and it was my idea of heaven. It was still purple and black, but definitely had more of a comfort vibe going on, with its sometimes cold silk and satin now giving way to soft and lush Egyptian cotton sheets.
“You’re killing me here, sweetheart,” he said after I had obviously been silent for too long.
“You did all this for me?” I asked him in utter awe.
“No, I did this for us,” he told me, making his answer as sweet as the gesture itself.
“Do you like it?” he asked after I spun around again taking in even more of the room.
“Do I like it…Draven it’s…it’s perfect!” I said running back to him to launch myself at him. He caught me at the perfect height so that I could put my arms around his neck to lock him to my kiss.
“It’s only perfect now it has you in it,” he told me holding me close with our foreheads touching in a wonderful embrace.
“Us…now it has us in it,” I said before kissing him again.
A short time later he put me down so that I could continue to explore and the second I walked a little closer to the bed, I shouted in surprised.
“Oh my God! It’s my painting!” I shouted jumping up and down after seeing it now hanging over the bed in place of another that used to be there.
“But of course, I know how much you love it, so I had it shipped back here from Italy,” he told me grinning and obviously happy at seeing me so excited. It was the one he had bought for me, bidding on it and then hanging it in my hotel room for me to find, one with the most touching note.
Which was why I couldn’t help uttering,
“Seventy-seven reasons…”
“…To say I love you,” he finished off for me and I knew it wasn’t how the note finished but it was definitely one I preferred.
“I have a gift for you,” he told me and I swear I released a sound only dogs could hear as it wasn’t quite a squeal but was definitely on its way to becoming one if Draven continued to surprise me like this.
“What is it?” I asked after I watched him pull back the sheets on the bed to see what looked like another painting wrapped up. It was covered in thick black velvet paper and tied with a huge purple bow.
“Open it and find out,” he replied in a pleased tone. So, I did as he asked and pulled at the ribbon for tearing back the paper. And the second I saw it this time I squealed, and it was loud. I also started bouncing a little in excitement at seeing our first wedding photo of the night. It had been when we were having a moment alone to ourselves, sat on the edge of the fountain, me sat in his arms. We didn’t know the picture was being taken at the time, so we were still looking at each other, the love between us was simply breath-taking, but more than that, it was also…magical.
The picture was beautiful and one I would treasure forever. But I think he knew this would be my favourite as that’s why he’d had it printed onto a canvas for me.
“Wow, it’s…it’s…” I tried to find the right words when he said one of them for me.
“Perfect.”
“Us,” I added making him smile. And it was. It was perfectly us as the way we were both so captivated with each other, with our eyes smiling and catching the soft glow of lights from the fountain.
“I left this one for you to choose where you want it to hang,” he told me and this gesture I found the sweetest one yet. So, I kissed him on the cheek and whispered,
“Thank you, Dominic.” I watched as that name sank in and he closed his eyes as though he treasured the sound and it had all been worth it just for that.
A short time later and after looking around the room trying to decide where it could go, I realised that Draven didn’t look finished with the day’s surprises. So, I decided to ask him about what started all this and our conversation back in the car.
“So, are you going to tell me now?” The way he looked at me, I knew this was going to be something serious.
“Your words had been ‘my lesson to learn, for the next time I fall in love.’ Well…” he paused taking a breath before confessing,
“…You were my next time… and consider this last gift a lesson learnt, sweetheart,” he said pulling a small black box from his pocket wrapped in a purple ribbon, as was quickly becoming our tradition. I took the box off him and looked up at him with a question in my eyes.
“Open it,” he told me softly, nodding down to it. So, I did as he asked, pulling on the end and watching the bow unravel. I don’t know why but my hand shook a little as if what was in this box was something even more monumental than this new room.
Then I lifted the lid and it quickly fell from my fingers and landed on the floor by my feet, at the same time a silent gasp whispered from my lips. The first thing I saw was the keyring that we had bought together during that wonderful day we spent in Milan. The day we tried on silly wigs, ate ice cream and nearly kissed at the top of what felt like the entire world. The day I told him my fears, finally admitting it, not only to him but to my own heart…
‘I’m falling for you again.’
And his answer to this had been as simple as it had been beautiful…
‘Then let me catch you.’
So, you see, it may have been just a silly keyring to most people, one with Milan written in colourful writing across it. But for me it was the perfect symbol of love. The day my heart gave itself again to another…
The day I fell in love with Draven for the second time.
And now the perfect symbol to go with what was attached to an even bigger symbol of perfection. Draven lifted it out of its box, one he let fall to the floor so he could take my hand in his.
Then he placed it in my palm, closed my fingers around it and lifted it to his lips to kiss my hand, as he told me that monumental thing I spoke of. The one thing I had dreamed of owning since I first met him and first saw this place.
And, as if I needed to hear it confirmed for myself, he whispered over my hand, looking directly into my eyes, as he said,
“Your keys to your new home…” I sucked in a sharp breath as a single tear started to fall, landing only when he finished with the most perfect reality to years of dreaming.
My dream of one day owning not only the key to his heart but also the keys to…
“The keys to Afterlife.”