The Pentagram Child: Part 1 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) (13 page)

“You need to keep my family out of this.” He struck back causing me a second of pain at having it confirmed that I was no longer classed as family in his eyes anymore. Well that was just fine by me! I got up and stormed to the door ready to shake some hinges after slamming it on his arrogant ass!

“What do you think you’re doing?!” He snarled in his anger and stormed towards me.

“I am getting the Hell outta here, that’s what!”

“Oh no you’re not!” He grabbed me by the arm and whipped me back around to face him and I wish he hadn’t done it without hurting me so I had another thing to be pissed about. But wasn’t that just the kicker, I gave Draven my body and he would never harm it but I gave him my heart and he fucking destroyed it!

“Screw you!” I shouted trying to get free from his grip briefly wondering in my red haze how we managed to do a complete 360 in no time at all. He ignored my verbal lashing and instead threw me back over his shoulder. Before I could scream a single complaint he threw me back down so I landed hard enough on the couch to bounce. He then caged me in with his arms holding his body above me and his face was a breath away from mine, killing all notion of personal space.

We were both breathing heavy and staring at each other with a scary and potent mix of anger and lust clogging the air around us.

“Now, are you going to get control of your irrational anger…?”

“Irrational! Why you…!” I started to shout but his hand came out of nowhere and clamped tight over my mouth. He shook his head slowly and said more calmly,

“Now let’s try that again should we…I call it irrational because no matter what you think of me, I have left you alone all this time for what I believed to be for your own good. Now, however, after what I have learned it is no longer the case. So yes, although it may hurt your pride, I came here to rectify an issue I have with who you have unwisely chosen to…” He looked off to the side like he wanted to crush something but his hands were closer to a gentle caress in spite of his anger. Then through gritted teeth he continued with,

“…date”
in more of a snarl than an actual word. I narrowed my eyes up at him.

“Now if I let you go are we going to talk about this like adults or are you going to scream more abuse at me like some unruly teenager?” I growled beneath his hand making his eyes once again flash purple but like before I couldn’t tell you why.

He widened his eyes down at me as if asking if I would behave or not, making me just roll mine and nod in a silent and begrudging yes.

“Good girl.” He said and released me, allowing my first response to be,

“Don’t patronise me, Draven, after last year I stopped being a good girl after going to Hell and back!” I snapped and could only hope it hit him like a whiplash. Well at least he flinched. He inhaled a deep and frustrated breath before moving off me completely, finally giving me the space my traitorous body needed to calm down from having Draven nearly on top of me.

“Yes and you’d have thought that trip would have taught you a thing or two.” He threw back at me making me sit up and cross my arms across my chest.

“And just what is that supposed to mean exactly?!”

“Only that you should know by now who is your friend and who is your foe.”

“According to you everyone I meet outside of your family is the enemy, Draven…so tell me, who is it this time you have come all this way to warn me about?” I asked again unable to leave the sarcasm from turning my voice ugly.

“Alex Cain.” His voice sounded strained saying the name of my new boyfriend and for a second I couldn’t blame him as I too had problems saying a certain Goddess’ name on occasion.

“Oh wow, now I am so shocked to hear that.” I said rolling my eyes and shaking my head.

“I don’t think you’re getting what I am trying to tell you, Keira.”

“And what’s that exactly?”

“He’s not human, he’s…” He looked pained for a moment as though what he was about to tell me might crush me further than what his action had already done. I was tempted to put him out of his misery but then he beat me to it and continued with what he knew was the truth, 

“He’s a… Nephilim.” I closed my eyes as the weight of what I was about to say bore down on me like one of those cartoon anvils, only there was not one single thing funny about it!

I took a deep breath in the face of the locked cage I was about to open and said the words that would release the beast…

“Yes, I know.”

Chapter 8

Secrets Already Known

“WHAT?!!!” And there it was, Draven erupting from the cage I had opened with my last statement.

“You did not…”
He had to stop what he was saying, holding up his hand at me like he was trying to process it all over again before carrying on and in an attempt to rein in his fury.

“…did not just say what I think you said.” He finished with not much more restraint than before.

“Well, if you’re happy thinking that, then you go right ahead but in reality then this is how it goes…
yes
, I know about Alex. I know because he told me, unlike other people I thought I knew,
he
doesn’t lie to me!” I fired at him like venom hissing from my lips.

I then jumped back further into the chair as I witnessed for the first time in what felt like forever Draven explode into his demon side. His wings extended fully to the sides and I watched as though in slow motion as the purple veins under his skin started to glow and pulse in his exposed neck.

“The truth hurts doesn’t it, Draven?” I snapped making him snarl at me and I wondered if I didn’t have a few screws loose considering it wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do was add fuel to an already out of control blaze.

“You think you know his kind?! YOU DON’T!” Draven roared at me making me shoot to my feet in anger.

“No, that’s where you’re wrong because the only Demon I don’t know IS YOU!” I screamed back taking a step closer to him and clenching my fists by my sides, wanting nothing more than to lash out at him.

“He will hurt you!” He told me with pain and rage mixing, giving his eyes both a strong resolve one minute and then an erratic kind of panic, making them look everywhere at once.

“No, no he won’t.” I said a little calmer this time in the sight of how he clearly wasn’t coping with this news.

“HE WILL HURT YOU!” He roared at me and this time I flinched back with a shock of fear I very rarely felt around Draven but it was enough to get him to simmer slightly. He took a deep breath that he wouldn’t release until after he closed his eyes. I took another step back and with his eyes still closed he then cut me up inside with one order spoken,

“Leave!”

“What?”
I whispered in shock, never before hearing this demand from Draven before.

“LEAVE! NOW!” He bellowed igniting his body in a red flame making me almost fall over myself to get away. I scrambled to the door and was just about to fling it open when I heard a broken voice from behind me,

“Keira, I…please, please…just give me time…forgive me…I…” I stopped and looked down to watch a tear fall and land on the floor passing where my death grip pulled the handle down, ready for my escape. I sucked in a shuddered breath and turned to face him over my shoulder.

“He can’t hurt me, Draven…no one can… not…not after what you did to me…” I said before pulling down on the heavy iron and walking through the door right before I heard the destruction I now left in my wake.

After leaving Draven to his rage I leant back on the door to let the tears fall freely. I banged my head back on the wood and forced myself to listen to his pain rip the room apart behind me. I didn’t know if he even realised I was still out here but with each sound of devastation, with each thunder of pain I heard, I felt it like a blade to the chest. I couldn’t help but think that if he didn’t love me why would he be reacting this way. Would anyone who didn’t feel like their life was being ripped apart at the seams react this way? So why…?

I jumped when I heard the cracking of wood and moved away from the door to see it too was now being punished with the wrath of Draven and when an almighty demon roared into the night I started to run. I just let my legs take me somewhere, anywhere deeper into the fortress that was now closing in around me like the wall of souls down in the temple.

I was panting and trying in vain to take in great gulps of air that burned my throat as though I was breathing in thick black smoke. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare but when I slipped and landed painfully on my knees I knew then it wasn’t ever going to be the kind of pain I could just wake up from. I pulled my legs under me and cried like the child I felt as I let the combination of mine and Draven’s pain overwhelm me. It felt like I was drowning right here in this hallway and each end of it only held more heartache I wasn’t ready for. His room was right there. So damn close I could almost touch it and then pretend that the last year had never happened.

“Keira?” I didn’t even look up at the sound of Vincent’s voice but just managed to sob harder, rocking myself faster and holding myself tighter.

“Oh, Keira.” He said touching me and gently prying myself from my protective ball that wasn’t doing shit in protecting my already damaged heart. He pulled me into him and his hand held the back of my head to his chest. I felt him shaking and realised it was because I was trembling in his hold.

“I gather that didn’t go too well.” He said softly and I could no longer hold it back, saying the words I had denied myself in so long, it felt like fingernails were tearing at the words that were glued to my very soul,

“I still love him, Vincent!” I cried out, after looking him in the eyes and seeing the clear blue concern sparkling back down at me as if I was looking at the ocean under the moonlight. I saw pity just under the surface but there was something else there I couldn’t reach. He looked back over his shoulder at the door to Draven’s office as though listening to something. Then he closed his eyes and let his head hang, looking at the floor before allowing his gaze to find me once more. His eyes were filled with a mirrored pain and I wondered what he had heard coming from behind that age old oak?

“I know, Keira, as does he with you.” On hearing that I tore my watery gaze from his, not allowing myself to truly believe his claim.

“Take me away, Vincent…take me away from here…take me anywhere…
please.”
I pleaded and only felt myself breathe normally again when he nodded and pulled me to my feet. Then without warning he swept me off my feet and carried me away, saying the only thing I needed to hear right then…

“Let’s go for a ride babe.”

Draven

“DAMN HIM! DAMN THE FATES! DAMN THEM ALL!” I screamed out all my frustrations with the help of my Demon side that could not be tamed. My voice felt raw and ragged with the pain I felt coursing through my blood like a toxin that would surely eat away at my soul! I wanted to damn the world and every bastard in it until they all felt this agony but what use were any of these emotions? They got me nothing fast and they got me nowhere even faster.

“It has all been in vain.” I said out loud slumping back against the pillar, one of the only things in the room I had not destroyed in my uncontrollable rage. In that moment I wanted to lash out at her, but not physically…
never physically
, by the Gods but that thought brought me indescribable pain. No, I wanted to mentally shake her, take over her mind and let her see her stupidity for herself! Let her feel all the reasons why I had protected her in the most brutal way a person could protect someone. Yes, I had lied. I had lied in the worst possible way another soul could but why, for the very life I hold above my own, above any other life on this Gods forsaken planet!

If only she could see all that I had done, all I still do in order to keep her safe and not just from me. If only she could see the endless nights I had locked myself away in a prison only made for the Gods, just so that I could stay away from her. And all for what, so she could move on with her life with a fucking Nephilim! A half breed only allowed to continue life thanks to the punishment of the supernatural side, the punishment of my own kind, and one that I had to enforce with my own hands!

Oh yes, the Nephilim were a sore spot with me indeed and now I had to stand back and watch one date my woman, the other half of my soul and my intended Queen! My Electus.

I would rather roast another thousand years in Tartarus and cool my charred skin in the flaming river of Phlegethon that flows into its very depths of the prison. These thoughts caused me to bring my solid desk once carved with such skill and care to fly across the room and crash into the wall opposite. The action left me bent over double and panting into my hands. 

I was in half a mind to journey back to Hell and prompt another round from my father, or at least take on one of his many legions. But then I heard her in the distance crying out. She was down the hall after I had ruthlessly forced her from the room with my harsh demands. I didn’t want to but I had no choice. It was that or let her see the extent of what my rage reduces me to. I couldn’t let her see me this way…this broken shell of a man whose only useful emotion was the rage and bitterness that kept me moving my body every damn day. Any other emotion that I allowed to seep in would render me useless for days, even weeks on end.

No, right now I needed this anger to help me to act because the reality of my situation had being staring at me across the room when the bastard had kissed her. I had never wanted another being dead right there and then more in my entire life. I wanted to walk calmly up to him and take his head in my hand to crush his skull until his brain matter covered my arm as the only evidence that he could no longer touch her.

I heard another cry and any thoughts of death swiftly left me. I stumbled to the door ready to go to her. Ready to take her body in my arms where it belonged and comfort her. I couldn’t stand hearing her pain, hearing what
I
myself had inflicted. But what was worse, hearing her sadness at my cruel dismissal or seeing the fear in her eyes again. That was my personal Hell right there in that one look. That one flinch and step back she took as if I had struck her…when in reality she had struck me with the sight of her fear. I knew then I had to get her to leave me because tears I could deal with. Her fear of me I could not.