Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (19 page)

“It’s true. Plus I didn’t always look like this,” I told him thinking back to how I used to hide myself away under layers keeping my head down. How my life had changed since being taken by Morgan and then once again when meeting Draven. It was as if before I was a closed rose bud, unwilling to open itself up and making itself vulnerable to the elements. But then someone came along and took the time to gently coax it from its safe cocoon, giving it the strength to bloom and open itself up to whatever the world had to throw at it.

“Sweetest one, you are stood in front of my world naked, hidden by nothing and graced by the moon. You can hide yourself away under layers of silk but it is
you
that brings forth its beauty, not the other way around.
You can hide nothing from me
.” He whispered this last part making me shudder against him. It felt like the sweetest of threats but one I knew I could only push for so long. For the reality of my situation pierced my chest like a thunderbolt when I thought of all the parts of myself
I was hiding from him.

“Now let’s see how good a servant I make,” he said teasing me and giving my chin a little shake before letting my face go. It was such a common Draven gesture to make, it was getting harder to distinguish between the two of them.

He started doing something behind me and I couldn’t help but take a peek over my shoulder. I watched as he untied a deep crimson coloured sash from around his waist, one that had tarnished gold disks attached to it. They were fastened like belt buckles and as he pulled the material through, he discarded them one by one as they clattered to the ground. I looked to see each held a different symbol of some sort and I wondered what each of them meant.

I looked back once more to see him winding the length of his soft belt around his wrist and then his hand before gathering the end to hold in his palm. Then he dunked his arm inside the water filled urn he had obviously carried over earlier.

It quickly became clear what he had in mind but even so, I still sucked in a startled breath when he started to cool my body with the cold water.

“Better?” he asked with his lips against the top of my shoulder before kissing and sucking away the droplets he had left there.

“Mmm.” I made a noise that sounded anything but ungrateful for what he was doing and he laughed once as he dipped down again to plunge his arm in the urn once more. This time when he pulled it out he brought it to the front of me by my neck so that when he squeezed his fist, the water ran down over my breasts and belly. The feel of the water trickling down my skin combined with the sensation of the night's air caressing it further was enough to have me moaning louder.

“Addicted.”
Draven muttered to himself behind me and I wondered briefly if he was talking about how he felt about me or how he thought I obviously felt about him. It was certainly clear by my actions as I couldn’t help but squirm against him wanting…no, more like
needing…
to make more contact. For short insignificant seconds I thought about Pip’s warning but when his hand came up again to drip even more water on me, this time dripping down in between my thighs, my thoughts quickly became lost in only the man at my back.

I didn’t even realise what my body was doing as I arched my back and pushed my body forward whenever his hand would grace my skin with his touch. It was as though I had no control over myself and the next time he came close to my breasts I pushed them even further against his fist, wanting him to feel for himself how hard my nipples had turned.

“I adore how your body responds to my hand. Like a finely tuned instrument that only I can play.” I should have blushed at the comment but he was right and I was too lost in the erotic feelings he created. This, of course, increased tenfold when his hand dipped even lower and rung out the water right over my feminine core.

“Uh ahh mmm.” The noises I uttered made no sense but spoke volumes as to what he was making me feel.

“Is that what you want…?” he asked in that velvet voice of his humming at my ear. To make his point and to get me to respond quicker he gently caressed the folds of my labia before grazing his fingers along my clitoris, making me arch back even further against him.

“Please,” I moaned knowing there was no going back now, I needed the touch only he could give me.

“Your skin is getting hot again,” he said and pulled his hand away and I couldn’t help but release a small cry in regret.

“Don’t fret little one, I am coming back,” he told me, his voice thick with lust but also obviously amused. I released a deep sigh when he kept his word and brought his dripping wet arm back around me. This time he put his hand back to my mound and tightened his fist so that the water all gushed at once through my folds and down my legs, joining the liquid his touch had already created.

I was so close it was maddening and he had barely even touched me. It was easy to see why though, given the romantic setting of his city lying at rest in the moon's shade. The warm glow of the flames dancing shadows along the walls from the lamps lit in the room behind us. The smell of incense burning somewhere below and the scent of cold water on hot skin combined with the sexual musk my own body emitted was enough to drive me wild. But added to all this the feel of his fingers touching my most intimate spot and a tight bundle of nerves that was just desperate to be played with, well then I had no chance at lasting long.

“I can’t wait to see you unravel beneath me just as you do now, only instead of my fingers…” At the exact time, he inserted two up inside of me making me cry out.

“It shall be my cock fitting tightly in your sheath,” he said in a harsher tone, telling me just how close to the edge he was. His fingers continued to pump inside of me, stroking all the delicate nerve endings in just the right way so that when I started screaming it was from coming this way instead of stimulation to my clit.

“Yes, yes, yes…YES!” I shouted reaching up behind me so that I could lock my hands around his neck just for something to hold onto as I felt as though I was falling. The feeling was so intense that he also had to hold up my body with his other arm banded around me so that I wouldn’t crumple to the floor. My legs had turned to liquid and my knees no longer wanted to lock and support my weight.

He rocked his fingers inside me a few more times so that he could feel my passage clamping around his fingers, trying to keep him there for longer.

“Calm that little heart of yours sweetness and take breath,” he said clearly worried about me and I did as I was told, inhaling deeply and feeling lightheaded in the process. As if sensing this for himself he removed his hand from the firm grip he had of me down there and before we moved from the balcony, he dipped his hand in the water once more so that he could clean the mess he made. I could feel my own juices dripping down my legs but at the feel of the cold water hitting my overheated core I couldn’t help but scream out once more.

“Easy now,” he said as he swept me up into his arms to carry me back inside the room. I felt exhausted, as if the last of my reserves had been quickly swallowed up and now all that was left was an empty shell zapped of all energy.

“I think I have pushed you quite enough for one night. Time for you to rest now,” he said laying me back on the bed gently as though I would easily break. I couldn’t even find the strength to argue, not that I would have, given that I was half asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

“Sleep easy Little Lamb, for I will stay with you and guard over what will soon be mine,”
Draven whispered in my ear after he tucked me closer to him, resting my head in what was usually my little nook. He draped my arm over his chest and wrapped his own arm around my back, pulling me in as close as I could get. Once he was satisfied he released a contented sigh just before I fell into a deep sleep.

“Time to wake now, Keira.” I heard his voice but sleep still lingered on and wasn’t in any rush to give up power over my mind just yet.

“Just a few more minutes.” I moaned trying to roll over but something wouldn’t let me.

“But it is time,” he told me and after having more time to focus, I knew now that it was Draven’s voice.

“Time?” I questioned still unable to fully open my eyes. And then logic started to slowly seep its way into my consciousness. I had fallen asleep in the King’s arms but the man who spoke to me now wasn’t the Draven I had travelled back in time to find, it came from the Draven I had left behind.

“You said my name,”
I whispered as it slowly dawned on me and upon opening my eyes I found I was right. I was back.

“Draven!” I shouted his name and threw my arms around him.

“Hush now,” he told me holding my head to his chest and it was only when he said this that I realised that I was sobbing. I just couldn’t help it. The emotions were overwhelming and without giving it a second thought as to how I had made it back, all I cared for in that moment was that I had.

“Say… it… again,” I told him in a broken sentence due to crying around my words.

“Keira.”
He said my name again knowing exactly what I needed in that moment and it felt like I was breathing fresh air for the first time since making it back from Hell all that time ago. Why was it that I felt suddenly haunted as if none of this were real?

I lifted my head up and saw we were, as I suspected, in our bedroom, one that was more familiar to me than any other room I could call home…yet, it wasn’t the same. Yes, the furniture was the same, the bed, the tapestries and even the smell of antiques that followed you wherever you went in Afterlife but the truth remained…

This wasn’t
Afterlife.

“What is this place?” I asked looking back at Draven to see him staring straight past me and out of the glass doors ahead.

“Much has changed since you left,” he told me and I followed his steady gaze around to see what he saw.

“Persia.”
I could barely believe what I saw let alone what I spoke of. For there all ablaze was the city that not so long ago I had found such pleasure in beholding.

“But it can’t be…I…I must be dreaming?” I said shifting off the bottom of the bed to get closer, needing to see what trickery the glass must be portraying. I stepped up to the glass and tentatively touched it needing only my fingertips to open it. The glass slid open and the smell of smoke and fire burned my nostrils along with my lungs as I breathed in not only the scent of destruction but also the scent of death.

“What happened…what is this?” I asked taking in all around me as far as the eye could see the city of Ctesiphon and all it’s glory now lost to smoke and ruin. A battle in the distance raged on but within the city’s walls, there was nothing left after the brutal siege had penetrated the city gates after being long battered open.

I felt Draven come up behind me and his hands gripped the tops of my arms.

“Why didn’t you do something?” I implored knowing that he had the power to stop this. 

“He doesn’t have the power to choose but he doesn’t have the will to lose…remember that Keira,”
he whispered behind me cryptically and I turned round to look at him only to find my greatest fears come true.

“DRAVEN!” I screamed his name just as his body was turning to ash right before my eyes. I had never seen Draven die because Draven could never die…he could never die!

“Draven…come back to me…please.”
  Suddenly I was shaken awake as if someone out there was answering my prayers.

“Draven?” I spoke his name as I opened my eyes only it wasn’t the face of a man who loved me staring back at me like I expected. No, instead it was the face of a man who looked close to losing himself to a fury buried deep within him, one usually conquered by his demon.

Then the reality of the situation came back to me as I remembered where I had been when falling asleep. It wasn’t in the arms of my Draven, it was in the arms of a Persian King. I knew this when the first words spoken through gritted teeth were ones that filled me with dread, for this time, I didn’t know how I was going to get myself out of this one…

“Who is this Draven?”

Chapter 54

Master at Pissing Off a King

  Dreams can be a funny thing when the life you are living is the dream and the nightmare part is being ripped away from the life you want to be living. Take now for example. I was currently staring into the eyes of the King of Persia thousands of years into the past and he was furious with me at the very mention of another man’s name…

His future name.

I had once had this very dream before, only then I was waking up to my own time and the Draven I fell in love with had been there to comfort me. But now the dream had been the Draven I had left behind and this angry King I woke up with was my reality. It seemed like a cruel twist of fate or was it just the only way the Fates could prepare me for what was to come? Was that what all my dreams were, in one way or another? Well, seeing Draven turning to ashes as his past world burned to the ground all around him was a nightmare I knew I would do everything in my power to prevent.

Or was it simply a painful way of telling me that I was running out of time…in both worlds?

“I asked you a question, girl.” He snapped out the reminder as to why my brain was suddenly plagued with this new heartache and I jolted at the harsh sound of his voice.

“I don’t remember,” I muttered softly as tears slowly clouded my vision. Draven grabbed my arm making me moan at his rough treatment and forced me to look back at him.

“You don’t remember yet you shed tears for such a man!” His disbelief was easy to hear and my heartbreak was easy to see, for I couldn’t hide it any longer.

“You may not like the answers you hear but that won’t change the answers I give you.” I told him keeping my voice steady and trying not to break down in the face of the man I loved.

“You love this man?” he asked me and I couldn’t help it, my hands flew to cover my mouth as a silent sob escaped me. My reaction to his question was obviously answer enough for him as he recoiled back from me as though I had stabbed him in the heart.

“This…I…” I don’t know what was harder, seeing Draven’s rage or witnessing him painfully trying to find the right words to speak of it. It seemed so wrong that I couldn’t just explain to him that my heartbreak was over him. That this man I loved, this Draven, was the same man I was looking at now. That they were one and the same. But I knew if I did all would be lost and the reasons for me coming here would then be pointless. I hated myself for doing this to him, in this time and my own, but what choices did I have?

“I’m sorry.” I told him for so much more than he would ever know. As soon as I said this I knew it was a mistake for his features grew hard and his eyes flashed purple.

“Only the guilty speak in such a way,” he told me in a cold unfeeling voice that spoke volumes to the amount of hurt I had inflicted. I reached out to him, needing to comfort him but it was once again a mistake. He snarled down at my hand the second it landed on his arm and I watched in slow motion as my fingers lost their hold on him as he moved away from me and off the bed. It then landed on the cold covers and as the first tear fell, I fisted the material as my own pain doubled.

“It’s not what you think,” I told him looking up and finding only pain, one that mirrored my own but for different reasons. He thought I loved another and the reality was that
I loved him
too much. I loved him enough to lie and the weight of those lies were crushing my soul.

“No?! Then tell me, who cries out for a man they don’t remember?!” Well he had me with that one because he was right, who would shed tears for a memory they couldn’t find?

“You don’t understand,” I told him because it was the truth.

“Oh I think I understand all too well! Now it’s time for you to understand. You are never to see this man again. You are never to speak his name or even think of him, for if you do, then I vow to you that I will find him. I will hunt him down to the ends of the earth and make sure there is nothing left for you to love…now do you understand?!” he thundered at me and I knew that most of it was said out of anger and jealousy. I knew that no matter how brutal his threats sounded I couldn’t judge him too harshly as how did I feel when I found out about his Head Concubine? Well for starters I had tried to run away because it was eating me up inside, so yes, who was I to judge? And besides, it was an empty threat considering who Draven was as he wouldn’t exactly have to go far to find him now would he.

“Yes, my King,” I said looking down at the bed in defeat for there was no argument there for me to fight.

“Guards!” Draven shouted as he wrenched open the door, nearly pulling it from its hinges.

“See to it that no one but her servant is to enter this room, nor is she to leave it without my say so. Am I understood?” he ordered once four guards had appeared and I winced at how humiliating it sounded. As though he was dealing with some naughty child, or worse, some prisoner who no longer needed protecting but now needed a warden to keep me in my place.

“Yes, my King.” The one in charge spoke for the rest as they all bowed at the same time.

“You will remain here until Ranka comes to escort you to tonight’s Choosing. So if I were you, I would use this time wisely and figure out a way to have my favour in you restored, for after this, I now remain
undecided.”
  These became his parting words as after this cruel statement he slammed the door behind him and left me to my misery. I jumped as the door rattled in its frame and then finally let myself give in to despair.

All because of my dreams, I had gone from being the King’s favourite and had him declaring his love for me, to one frayed thread away from casting me aside and having done with me. I had come so far in the short time I had been here and now with one whispered name my goal was crumbling around me. And ironically, the worse part about all this was that it was his name that I had been calling out for.

“It’s alright, ssshh, I am here now.” Pip’s voice started to filter through the sounds of me sobbing as she took me in her arms to comfort me. I hadn’t even heard her come in, that’s how lost in my agony I had been. Because it wasn’t just his harsh treatment of me that was causing this now but it was a combination of everything.

It was being in this strange place where I didn’t belong. It was missing my life and not knowing for sure how much of that life I even had left to live when I made it back. It was feeling as though I was betraying not only this Draven but the one back in my time. But worst yet, it was doing all of this and facing it knowing that at some point I would have to say goodbye.

Because no one but me knew that there was only one destiny waiting for me. Only one outcome to it all, whether I succeeded or not. The only difference was choosing to do so where my life had meaning and that was always going to be enough to carry on. No matter the tears. No matter the pain. No matter the heartache. In the end I was simply a vessel as well, only I was the one who had the power to change the outcome of the future of not only humanity but also the Gods themselves and all they ruled over.

I got it now. I was starting to understand what it meant to be an Electus. I was the Chosen One not because the Gods and Fates deemed it so, but because I was choosing to save them all.

Just as they knew I always would.

After my emotional outburst to Pip I decided no more tears. I had finally accepted my fate and would now concentrate all my time in making it happen rather than crying over the things I couldn’t control. It was time to take a stand and show the world, this one and theirs, what I was made of but more than that, what I was capable of.

I thought more on what I had done over the years and found it incredible to realise that it had all come from a mortal girl who was once broken before she stepped into Draven’s world. I had fought Demons, Angels and all of those in between who called themselves my enemies. And up until now I had won, for I was still alive and what would that have all been for, if not this final mission? If not something as important as changing the course of history and making it better. Healing the wrongs that threatened to crack its foundations. I needed not only to be strong, but stronger than ever before.

Now if all that wasn’t riding on me having to know this bloody dance!

“I think you’re getting better,” Pip said and I sighed out the opposite,

“I think I am getting worse.”

“It’s just such a shame we can’t hit him over the head and tie him up…what? Adam always liked it,” she said with a hand on her hip like everyone should have a bed with a cage around it!

“Yes and you’re also married to the most dangerous Demon ever known who could destroy a city as though it was made of playdough.” Pip smiled one of those loved up smiles before her eyes turned sad. She plopped herself on the bed next to me and sighed,

“I miss my boo pants.” Then she looked down sadly at his name she had tattooed over her knuckles as she started tracing the letters surrounded by hearts and flowers. I hadn’t taken one second to think about how hard this must also be on her as I wasn’t the only one missing a husband.

“I’m sorry, Pip.” I told her taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.

“For what?”

“For getting you into all this,” I said letting my head hang with the added guilt.

“Hey, you didn’t get me into all this…I chose to get myself into all this and you know what?”

“What?” I asked looking at her and frowning in confusion when I saw her smirking.

“I might be missing Adam but right now, honestly…well there is nowhere I would rather be. Plus, I would have shit bricks and smashed in your windows with them if I had found out you had gone without me!” I looked at her a minute and then couldn’t help but burst out laughing at her comment.

“I love you, Pip.” I told her grabbing her to me and she chuckled a girly giggle before she said,

“I love you too sugar Toots, but you’re kinda squashing our boobies together…hey it’s not a problem, just thought you should know is all.” I laughed again before letting her go and said,

“Well we are the Boobeteers after all.” She gave me a wink and replied,

“And I wouldn’t want it any other way, Tittanian!” We were still laughing when the door opened to see a panicked looking Ranka on the other side of it.

“And watch out, here comes the Cardinal now,” Pip commented dryly referring back to the
Musketeers once again.

“Behave,” I warned as Ranka closed the door.

“What has happened?” she asked once she was a safe distance from the door and any would be eavesdroppers we had close by.

“What do you mean?” I asked, first wanting to be sure we were on the same page before I admitted to pissing off her King.

“I, of course, speak of the King who is out there now laying waste to my warriors’ efforts in fighting him.” she told me and I gasped.

“What she means to say is he is training with her men and beating the crap out of them but not killing them.” Pip said putting a hand on my shoulder, knowing I would have taken this bit of news the wrong way.

“Oh, well that’s alright then,” I muttered sarcastically.

“I have not seen him in this foul a mood since the Romans killed that Carpenter in the City of Jerusalem but that was nearly 200 years ago,” Ranka said making my mouth drop open.

“Uh...I wouldn’t go there,” Pip said shaking her head to me as I doubted Ranka would understand the importance of that single event until many years to come.

“So what did you do?” she asked and Pip and I gave each other a look as if to say ‘Where do we start?’.

“I had a dream and called out the King’s name.”

“Well that doesn’t sound too…”

“Or should I say, my husband’s name.” I interrupted before she got confused. I watched as she slowly realised what I was getting at but just to be sure I added,

“His name in my time is Draven… Dominic Draven.”

“But this can’t be true,” she argued looking at me in utter disbelief.

“Why not, because I assure you, that’s his name.” I told her.

“I do not know what this ‘Draven’ means but I do know that Dominic or Dominicus as it is more formally known, is Latin and my King would never choose a name from his enemies.” I laughed thinking a lot can happen in two thousand years.

“He may feel that way now, but time can do a lot to a person and to a country at war.” Ranka didn’t look convinced until it became obvious something started to fit into place for her, to the point where I couldn’t help but ask,

“What is it?”

“Well if what you say is true, then I wondered at its meaning and...” she paused which drove me nuts.

“What…what does it mean?”

“It means ‘Of our Lord, he is our Master and belonging to God.’”

“Yep, that fits!” Pip said clapping her hands.

“So what am I going to do now because it isn’t exactly as if I can say ‘Ooops, sorry but you’re the spitting image of my husband back home’ won’t you forgive me?” I said and Ranka’s response made Pip smack her forehead after giving us both a look of confusion,

“Why would you ever spit on the image of your husband?”