The Pentagram Child: Part 1 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) (19 page)

“Keira, please calm and have some pity.” Draven said in an almost pained way and all of a sudden I felt bad. I didn’t want Draven to think I had become a bitch or anything, so I quickly spun on my heel back to face him.

“Oh, no, no…see, you’re getting this all wrong, I’m not being a bitch…well maybe just a little but that guy is horrible to us all, there was this one time when Jessica’s Nan got ill and she needed to leave but he…” I started talking so fast that I barely noticed the soft smile he gave me before placing both his hands intimately on either side of my face. He bent his knees and levelled his eyes with mine. This action shut me up pretty damn quick as I soon got lost in his beautiful deep eyes.

“I didn’t mean pity for the vile creature, Keira I meant pity for me.” He said gently making my jaw go slack.

“Uhh…Okaaay… what do you mean?” I asked thinking I was missing something here. He laughed once and then shook his head as if trying to find the strength for something.

“If I took my clothes off right now, would it be difficult for you to turn away, given our attraction to each other.” He said and if I thought my jaw went slack before then now it was about to hit the floor! Did he really just say that?

My eyes travelled the length of him and now all I could imagine was peeling off his long sleeved dark red T-shirt, flicking open that heavy belt buckle and popping open those dark denim jeans to reveal what I knew he was packing down there. But wait a minute…why did he always seem to be wearing long sleeves lately?

“I will take that heated look in your eyes as a yes.” He all but growled and when my eyes shot up they found the same heat staring back at me.

“Then you will understand when I ask you to please try and stop being so delectably cute all the time.” His voice had grown deeper, more hoarse with his obvious arousal. 

“Cute?”
I whispered feeling my breath quicken. His eyes erupted into purple fire and I stumbled back a step. He in turn took a step towards me in a predatory manner causing me to retreat until my back hit against one of the tall aisles of book shelves we were hiding along. Then his hands came up to cage me in and gripped o to the shelf either side of my head.

“Yeah…
cute,”
he said coming closer on the bloody word that had caused all this. But hold up, what was I saying? It wasn’t like I was doing something on purpose to end up in this position and as belly melting as it was I still had to find out what was really going on here. In fact, it sounded like a great plan. Only actually trying to put it into action was a little more difficult than just thinking about it. What with him looking down at me like that as though he wanted to devour every inch of me after first tasting me with that perfect mouth of his.

“I…uh, don’t know…what are we…Draven?” I said or at least tried to say anyway. Surely I got points for that…right?

“Keira, I…” He started, leaning down further and my heart started to run, even if it was in a race it couldn’t ever win. I felt the emotions build and tried desperately to keep them locked away but then lost the battle when I received a soft command from Draven.

“Look at me.”
I did as I was told and felt the tears coat my eyes without falling. His own eyes flashed a deeper purple as he took in my inner torment and one hand left the shelf to come to cup the side of my face. His thumb gradually started to move until it swiped across my lips causing me to suck in a shuddered breath. I closed my eyes for a second in a pointless attempt to escape the raw intensity I felt coming from him in devastating waves. Then I opened my eyes just in time to see him coming closer and I knew that this was it, this was the time I would finally feel his lips again after all this broken time.

I wanted this kiss. I knew I shouldn’t but I did. I knew I should tell him no and walk away to save the hurt that I knew would all but kill me later, but I couldn’t. Because it wasn’t just about walking away from a man like Draven, no it was about not being able to give up
on a man like Draven
. A man, I was still very much in love with. So even knowing what Vincent had said, about us never being able to be together again. I could only hope that he was wrong about some things because in the other thing he was dead right…

I would never stop fighting for Draven.

I just simply didn’t have it in me.

But with the next words out of Draven’s mouth, I now knew for certain that one of us did and that broken time…shattered…

“I can’t do this anymore.”  

Chapter 12

Awkward Much?

On hearing this I quickly ducked out of his hold. My heart pounded with both anger and humiliation, which was an ugly mix. I was just taking a minute to decide whether to storm off or give him a piece of my mind. Maybe it should have taken me longer, then to go with option two and not act on impulse. Either way I didn’t get very far.

“Draven, you can’t just do…!” I started but was cut off mid rant when his hand clamped over my mouth and an arm snaked around my body to pull me back to him.

“Ssshh, we are being watched,”
Draven whispered and I followed his eyes to the end of the long aisle to an extremely tall, hooded figure. I frowned at Draven’s paranoid tone and shook my head, managing to dislodge his hand in the process.

“Yeah and I would have thought by now you were used to it.” I retorted dryly but he wasn’t listening.

“Go back to the reception and stay there until I return.” He ordered quickly after he saw the man disappear out of sight and took a step to follow him.

“Draven it’s just a student…”

“Do as I say Keira, now!” Draven said, barking at me in a forceful tone, one that brooked no argument.

“Fine!” I snapped back, turning on my heel and leaving him to whatever freak out he was having. I looked back over my shoulder just in time to see Draven’s form rounding the corner in hot pursuit.

“Whatever,”
I muttered as I looked back and bumped straight into someone and that someone was my boyfriend!

“Alex!?” I said his name more in a panic than shock and I found myself trying to lock down the urge to look around for Draven.

“The one and only…but hey, are you alright? You look flushed?” Alex said holding onto the tops of my arms and rubbing them as if he thought I was cold.

“I’m fine!” I said in a high pitched squeal that sounded anything but. He raised one eyebrow at me like I was fooling no one.

“So, what are you doing here? Not that I am not happy to see you of course, I just thought that I would only be seeing you at the airport.” I was rambling and I knew this but when you are having a mini meltdown at the idea of your current boyfriend seeing that he wasn’t the only one to have ‘popped in’ to see me and that my ex had supposedly also had the same idea…well there was only one word for it…

Awkward!

“I wanted to surprise you.” Yeah and he wasn’t the only one, I thought on a wince I hopefully hid. Well given I was just nearly caught kissing my ex I thought I was doing ok so far. Now I just needed to get rid of him before Draven came back.

“Oh you certainly did.”
I muttered under my breath as I started pulling him closer to one of the aisles in case an angry Demonic/sometimes slightly Angelic lord came back. Oh who was I kidding, I hadn’t seen Draven’s Angel side in quite a while and there was definitely nothing remotely Angelic in that smouldering look he was giving me only minutes ago. That was right before he dumped a bucket of icy cold water over me and extinguished any flames he had ignited.

Alex laughed at my strange behaviour and luckily I had one of the best excuses considering who my boss was.

“Sorry but I just don’t want to get caught…you know, with my boyfriend…”

“Making out?”
He whispered leaning into me. Oh God but right now that was the last thing I wanted to be caught doing and not just by my pain in the ass boss! Not good Keira, so not good!

So what did I do to get out of this situation? What I usually did in all the rest of the awkward positions I managed to get myself into…I snorted and it wasn’t pretty.

“Sorry about that, I’m just, you know…uh…”

“Keira, it’s alright, I know.” At this I think my eyes bulged a bit when I blurted out in panic,

“You do!?” To which he laughed.

“Yeah ma chérie, and it’s alright, I find it cute.” Ok so we were totally not talking about the same thing, ‘cause I was pretty sure that no one would find nearly kissing their ex cute!

“I like that you are excited about our trip. I don’t know about you but what I look forward to the most is spending some quality time together. I feel between your college work and my hectic schedule that we hardly see each other lately.” He said wrapping his arms around me and pulling me into his embrace. I tried not to let my body go stiff and to relax but knowing Draven was only around the corner this wasn’t so easy to accomplish.

I would have asked myself what was wrong with me but I think it was a little more than obvious and I felt like a horrible person. Here I was with a loving, sweet and caring boyfriend who had surprised me and was whisking me away on a romantic getaway and how was I acting…? Like a love sick teenager with a crush on her ex! Ok, so granted it was a little more complicated than that but the outcome would be the same. Draven wouldn’t allow himself to have me but it seemed he wasn’t opposed to torturing me with those facts when almost kissing me and then kindly informing me that ‘he couldn’t do this anymore’!

“So that’s why I wanted to surprise you by taking you out to dinner and somewhere nice, not that vile diner you took me to once.” He made a face as though I had once made him eat Oliver Twist style gruel there. I just laughed and pinched him playfully on the sleeve of his expensive suit jacket.

“It wasn’t that bad!”

“Keira, I am pretty sure my burger had a face on it.” I rolled my eyes as I giggled, thinking it was funny watching his face as he lifted off the grease soaked bun and flicked it to the side. However this thought just brought me back to one even funnier and that was the sight of Draven in Burger King that time we went Christmas shopping in Liverpool. It was such a perfect day that it just made this last Christmas gone all the more harder to deal with.

“So dinner, what time do you finish today?” Alex asked shaking me from my depressing thoughts and also reminding me that the man I was once again obsessing over was also in the same building. And this was definitely one showdown I didn’t want to witness again, not after last night.

“I don’t know as Jessica said she might be running late and I have to wait for her to get in before I can leave.”

“That should be fine as I have someone to see here anyway, I can just pick you up from home later, about 7:30?” He said this and then automatically looked over my head, making me paranoid for a second thinking that Draven was stood directly behind me. Thankfully though he wasn’t but there was still something about that look that didn’t sit right.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” I said vaguely, still deep in thought.

“Great, oh and wear something nice, it will be expensive.” He added eyeing my outfit like I had on a prison jumpsuit and was rocking orange. I frowned down at myself and wondered briefly with comments like that what exactly it was he saw in me? Ok so I was dressed casually for work by wearing a faded blue T-shirt with an old fashioned typewriter printed on the front in black but I thought considering I worked in a library it would be quirky. This combined with slightly frayed jeans and my usual black long fingerless gloves I fit right in with everyone else. So what if some of the other girls looked a little more professional in their tight skirts and frilly shirts but management hadn’t said there was a dress code so I didn’t think it an issue…until now that was.

“I’m sure I have a dress somewhere.” I said trying not to sound too disheartened. Of course I wanted to smack myself upside the head when I thought about Draven liking my style…or lack of it apparently.

“Excellent.” He replied suddenly beaming at me making me feel bad for giving him a hard time in my head. So he wanted me to dress up, what was the big deal? I needed to relax and forget all about a certain dark haired, muscled God who wanted to torment me.

“Great, I look forward to it.” I said feeling a little more upbeat about the night ahead of me and then I remembered something.

“Oh, but I kind of promised Sophia this morning that I would have some girly time with her later.” And I had, simply because she had given me very little choice in the matter. This had happened over breakfast which strangely had been like a small family affair. It had been held in the stunning marble dining room and the spread laid out on the table looked like someone had robbed the whole bakery before then moving on to a diner for the meat and dairy products. There was enough to feed the army that I’d had Zagan send back to Hell for me!

Draven had sat at the head of the table and I still remember staring at that strange symbol just showing on the high back above his head. It was the same as my birth mark and to this day I still didn’t know what it meant. Sophia had interrupted my thoughts when she thrust a loaded plate in my hand with what looked like two of everything on it, before manhandling me until I was sat down on Draven’s left.

I think in all the time I had been in Draven’s life it was the first meal I had seen them all sit down together to eat. Vincent had given me a wink as he bit into his cinnamon roll and then made me laugh when moaning out loud and slowly rolling his eyes in obvious pleasure. Sophia just rolled her eyes for a different reason before throwing a sugar cube at him.

“You look like a pig.” She had chastised and I couldn’t help but burst out laughing as Zagan grabbed his own cinnamon roll and did the same as Vincent, only louder.