Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (10 page)

“Who said it was my mother’s teachings and not my father’s?” His eyes grew wide for a moment before he threw his head back and burst out into laughter, one that unmistakably belonged to
my
Draven. I had to reach up and grip onto his shoulders to keep myself steady as his laughter was causing the shackles to pull at my wrists.

“But of course. It is only a father’s teachings on such things that can spark such a brazen fire in a daughter’s belly…I bet if someone put a dagger in your hand then you would rather fight to the death than see yourself beaten by a man…am I not correct?” he said with a spark in his eyes that told me he was both serious and pleased. I couldn’t help but blush which he took as his answer.

“Ranka told me of your bravery in fighting back against the man who did this to you, with nothing but what the Gods gave you,” he said raising his arms up to his neck so that he could cover my fisted hands with his own.

“But take heed little one, I may like seeing such a fire glow behind those beautiful eyes of yours. However, I will not accept that fire being hissed my way again when I am your King,” he warned and my natural instinct was to argue back but in the end I decided against it, asking him a question instead.

“Then tell me… who are you to me when we are in this room?” I could tell my question had caught him off guard by the look he gave me. It seemed I was quickly making a habit out of surprising him.

“Who am I in this room?” he asked, repeating part of my question and stepping further into me so that he was pressed up against me. I looked up as far as I could, which forced the back of my head to brush up against the pillar. His lips came down to mine and I held my breath in hopes that they would meet my own. 

“I am the man who owns you, Little Lamb,”
he informed me on a firm whisper and the effect was strong enough to render me under his control if he but asked me to surrender. And this was all down to the feel of his lips that finally met my own in what was our first kiss in this time. The second we came into that delicious contact with each other it was as if all that time between us started to just crumble away into nothing but a cavernous black abyss.

I opened myself freely to him and in doing so he tasted me for the first time making him groan the way I loved. I had never fit this way to any other man before in my life and I didn’t want to with anyone but Draven. But I wanted him to feel the same way and if his reactions were anything to go by, then I would say that it was mission accomplished. He held me locked to him with one arm banded around my torso and I didn’t care about the pain I felt twinge in my ribcage as nothing else mattered but the feel of no barrier between our bodies.

His other hand gripped the back of my hair using it to keep my head back and my position as open to his erotic assault as I had first made it. It felt as though he was not only fanning the flames he spoke of in my belly but he was creating an inferno deeper down that not only touched my soul but also my sexual core. I wanted to give him everything right then and there and by the desperate way his hands held me, I would say that he was as close as it gets to taking it.

He let go of my body and ripped the cloak from my shoulders startling me before pulling me back to him. I let my mind wander for a second into wondering if he growled when undressing the others in his harem but then quickly let that thought fade away before the jealousy became a sticky residue that I couldn’t get rid of.

He was devouring me in his kiss and if I didn’t know better it seemed as though he had never felt this way before or maybe that was just my hope talking. His hands were everywhere and neither one felt like it wanted to stop discovering my body. I moaned in his mouth as his tongue battled with mine in what seemed like a fight for greater passion. The taste of him was sweeter than usual, as if he had not long ago been eating fruit dipped in honey and this,along with hi
s
masculine scent of leather and steel, was utterly intoxicating. In fact, I was getting so lost in his touch and the power he had over me that I didn’t realise just how much of himself he too was getting lost in and the power I obviously held over him.

But there was one staggering difference between the way we lost control and only one of us had a Demon that wanted to break free. Of course I was used to Draven’s demon side coming out to play but right now, he just wasn’t used to me being there to play with.

I heard the first rip of material and saw that darkness in his eyes start to glow with purple fire and I knew he was close. I found myself with the unshakable need to push him further until he could no longer hide this side of him from me and I knew just how to do it…

So I pushed.

I moaned even louder and threw my head back, arching my neck and baring it to his Demon in the ultimate sign of submission. His hands pushed up my back either side of my spine so that I arched further against him, pressing myself into him. I wondered if he heard himself growl the way I did or if he just no longer cared. Did he want me to see this side of him?

Well I soon received my answer, even if it wasn’t the one I wanted. I had just barely closed my eyes when I first saw the signs of him losing himself to his other side. He threw his own head back and looking up I saw his fangs emerge ready to plunge them into my offered neck. The primal rumble that then emerged told me he was mere seconds away from taking that last step needed but that’s when something stopped him.

What happened next did so in seconds and in a wild, still lustful heartbeat he gripped my wrists and yanked hard enough to snap the chain between the shackles. By the time I opened my eyes I found my arms had dropped to my sides like heavy weights and I was left panting…
alone.

“No.”
I whispered to the now empty room. I let my legs slide out beneath me as I slowly slid to the cold hard floor. I pulled my knees up to my chest and lifted my sore chained wrists up so that I could hold myself in this protective ball. Then I let my head rest back against the pillar and let go of all the tears I had stored up.

I felt more lost now than I ever had before and it was all down to a love only one of us felt. Because no matter what we had endured over the years, we had done so knowing one simple truth…our love had carried us through it together. Sure there had been times we had fooled ourselves in thinking otherwise or times we had faced our battles alone but in the end it had been the love we had for each other that allowed us to conquer not only our fears but also our enemies.

Every action taken by both of us had been done out of love. Even now by taking this quest into an unknown past, one where I would never belong, I still held on to the shred of hope that Draven’s everlasting love was strong enough to travel through space and time.

But I was wrong because at the moment of truth…  

Draven had left me

Chapter 46

Journey’s End

I don’t know how I did it but I must have passed out from emotional exhaustion. I didn’t remember much after Draven left, not that there was much to remember other than my tears and looking out to the dark city wondering where it all went wrong. I had come so far only to fall at the first hurdle. I felt broken and worst of all, I’d finally allowed all my old fears to come flooding back. I felt like I did that day when seeing Draven on the balcony with Celina, when he pretended she was his fiancé. I knew now that it hadn’t been real but the feelings I felt at the time certainly were and it was the same as I felt now…

I wasn’t good enough.

At least not for the Draven of this time. And why should I be considering the pick of beauties he had lined up and waiting for just a look from their handsome king? I knew that somewhere in the back of my mind there was a part of me trying to break through with some shred of reasoning, but right now I wasn’t letting it in enough to take shape. I didn’t want to give him excuses, I just wanted to sit here and allow myself the time to wallow in self-pity like anyone else would. I was getting so tired of being strong and pushing through the hurt until it looked brighter on the other side. No, I just wanted to live out a few simple moments of my life thinking like most would. Sod being the Chosen One! I just wanted to play the heartbroken girl that felt crushed by rejection.

Was that really so much to ask?

Well I didn’t think so as I spent the rest of the night sitting there crying myself to sleep. Or even when I allowed my dreams to mirror my feelings into the subconscious. Because instead of just allowing him to leave me behind in my dreams, I chased him. I reached out and tried to grab onto the figure of him running away from me. But as it was in life it was in my dreams and he was too fast for me to catch.

I would run until my legs were close to crumbling. Racing first down the corridors of this sandstone palace before it started to merge into a better world I knew. But even being back in Afterlife brought me little comfort as I still chased Draven down the corridors of a place I considered home.

Why was he still running from me?

I felt like I would never reach him and even when I lost sight of him I didn’t give up. I spun around and around looking everywhere for just a glimpse of his shadow, casting shapes and pointing me in the right direction to go. I knew I was calling out for him as I could feel my lips moving but yet I heard no sound echoing along the walls. I even asked why he was running from me, hoping that the question would travel these old walls. But there was nothing but silence.

I asked myself what it was that I had done wrong or I would shout out what it was I could do to make it right but again the emptiness around me didn’t answer. So I did the only thing that my heart told me to do and I let it lead me into the Temple.

I was shocked to see what faced me there and even being surrounded by the smoky images of my past was the last thing I expected to see. I watched on in amazement as they acted out as if they were stuck to live out the misery in some morbid play like ghosts that couldn’t cross over. The mystical show started with scenes of my first steps into the sacred tomb. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the scared little girl who was so naive back then and who looked around in terrified wonder.   

Then I watched Lucius battling the skeletons of Supernaturals once laid to rest and my former self building up the strength to help him. I shuddered at seeing Alex again even if it wasn’t in the corporal sense. Just seeing that evil sneer through the floating vapour was enough to have me running away from the nightmares of my past. I didn’t want to see Lucius die for a second time, the first time still haunted me to this day. 

And even though I made it without witnessing it, I stepped through just as I heard my past screams of pain behind me. Of course, I didn’t need to look to know what I would find. It made me wonder if ever given the opportunity to go back and warn those we love what would happen? Would it change the past enough to bring peace or would it backfire and only cause more pain? Well running into the next room had me thinking about what I would tell the foolish girl hiding from Draven’s temple guards as she waited for a demon girl to be dragged from her cell.

I thought back to that night and realised now how much I still had to learn. How much pain and heartache I would endure over the coming years and not just by the mistakes I made but also by the mistakes of others. Was that what I was doing now? Was I dreaming of all this as a way for the Fates to try and tell me something. It did often feel like history was repeating itself and chasing Draven as I was now felt like life on replay. So much so I was almost too scared to find out what the Temple itself had in store for me. Thinking back on all that had happened within its elaborate walls was too much for anyone to deal with, let alone for a second time. 

So I wasn’t surprised when I walked through years of memories all bombarding me one after another. Life on fast forward and flashing through a smoke screen. A room full of hooded figures all fading into the next like dominos until reaching their master plunging a knife into a wasted vessel.

Lovers experiencing their first dance then replaced by the gruesome truth of Draven’s responsibilities as a misty crowd looked on and cheered. Then happiness too quickly evaporated into a great battle between good and evil fought with equal amounts of love and hate and ending by a brother’s blade forged from dangerous loathing and magic.

But last and most important to date was a wedding of the likes of no other, one consummated under a pair of wings belonging to the two sides of Heaven and Hell. A union of chosen hearts merging as one under Heaven itself to witness. It was painfully beautiful really and it made me grip my heart as if it was being pierced from behind. But as I watched that last image fade another pair of wings took its place, one belonging to the same man, only this time…

He was alone.

It was a haunting sight as the smoke cleared to reveal the broken shell of a man beneath. The figure of Draven on his knees and praying to the very Gods he was at the same time cursing to damnation. His wings outspread and shaking with both anger and utter anguish. I couldn’t stop the silent tears as they fell with each step I took closer and I dug my nails into my palm if only to keep the sobs at bay. I wanted to comfort him. To run to him and tell him all would be okay now, I was here. But for some reason I didn’t…

I couldn’t.

That’s when I finally realised why.

One by one the room started to fill with the last of my memories yet to come and each of them held the same shadowy grief on their faces. The room started to change too and looked just as broken as the people I loved who all looked on at the depressing and final scene that played out in front of them. However, I was the only one to brave stepping closer to see what it was that Draven now held in his arms.

I gasped into my hands as I took that last step as it all started to make sense now. The reasons Draven ran from me were not for the reasons I first thought. The life the Fates wanted to show me as I journeyed to where I knew I must go. For what was waiting for me when I got there was the cold slap of reality I never wanted to see. The horrific truth that faced my future no matter what paths I travelled down.

The destination was always to be the same place…

Dead in Draven’s arms.