“Mine.” This single word came from his demon side and I said the only thing he needed to hear right then, thinking hearing it would help calm him but like many times before, I was wrong.

  “I’m yours.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth he growled at me before yanking the dress hard down my arms but not pulling it off all the way. It ended up restraining my arms behind my back as the material caught tighter around my elbows, something from the looks of things he had been counting on.

  “Yes, you are and you are going nowhere, little lamb of mine.” This was nothing short of a promise, one backed up when he took one naked breast into his mouth to feast on. I arched my back, crying out and tugging at my arms, trying to free myself. I didn’t know what I would have done had I managed it, hold him to me or try to get away from the onslaught of beautiful pain his tongue, teeth and lips were creating.

  He would scrape a fang across the sensitive nipple before soothing the hurt by circling his tongue around the aching bud. Then he would suck me in and start the maddening combination all over again.

  “I can feel how wet you are for me, girl,” he said after letting the swollen nipple fall from his mouth. I nodded unable to find my voice as it felt that if I opened my lips I would have shamelessly begged for more.

  “You’re ready for my cock so soon?” he asked and hearing the crass word coming from him had even more of my juices flowing. He was so raw. Like the Draven from my time only without years on top of years of etiquette and manners to conform and adapt to at the time in which he lived. But here, he could do as he pleased and had no one in the world to answer to. However, in modern day, he knew that if you wanted power in a mortal world as well as that of the supernatural one you owned, then you had to converse with mortal men. And even without the aid of Heaven and Hell, for humans weren’t without their own powers…money usually at the very top of their list.

  So, instead of an expensive designer suit, that spoke money and authority the very second he stepped in the building, the Draven of this time fought to gain that power with a sword in hand and an army at his back. Which was why the hands that gripped me now were rough and hard and most of all, unforgiving. He was merciless as he told me,

  “Well, I am not finished with you yet for I don’t just want you wet, I want you fucking drenched.” He swore at me on a growl and I threw my head back as he started my delicious torture all over again, this time with my other nipple. One that I will admit, was starting to feel neglected.

  “Please, oh God please!” I said twisting and trying to get free so that I could get my hands on him.

  “And this God you speak of in my bed, prey do tell me his name?” he asked releasing my now matching abused, red nipple. When I didn’t answer him quickly enough he ran a finger gently around my rose-coloured flesh, making me shiver before crying out when he added his thumb so that he could apply enough pressure to sting.

  “It’s you! You are my God, Arsaces!” I shouted and he pulled my head forward and kissed me before praising me,

  “Good girl.” Then he gripped my hips, lifted me up to position himself at my core and I held my breath waiting for what I needed as if it was my next lung full of air.

  “And you are my Goddess, keeper of my heart and soul, for I finally make you mine, for all eternity,” he said as an absolute. Then, with a firm hand at my hip, his other moved to wrap around me to grab hold of the gathered material pinning my arms down. Once satisfied with his hold on me, he then thrust up into me at the same time pulling me down onto his solid length.

  “AHHH!” I screamed out at the intensity of it all and quickly found myself shuddering around him, my inner muscles quivering along his length as I came quickly.

  “By the Gods! My cock has found Heaven inside your tight little body!” he told me, gritting out the words in my ear as he gave me a moment to come down from the high he had launched me to with only the first feel of his glorious shaft.

  “I will have you over and over again, for I will never get enough of you…do you hear me? Tell me you understand my needs, my Electus,” he said sternly and all I needed in that moment was my hands free to touch him.

  “Let me go.”

  “Never!” he snarled the word right over my mouth and I smiled before nipping at his bottom lip and putting his mind to rest,

  “I want to touch you, for that is my right as you are mine also,” I reminded him and he growled once but his kiss told me that he liked this more than having me restrained. His grip left my side to finish his earlier task and he tore the rest of the material from my body in such a way, it was now in two pieces. The second my arms were free, I tore the remaining sleeves off before I threw my body into his.

  I don’t think he ever expected to receive the same desperation returned from me so at first it was as if he didn’t know what to do. I placed my hands down on his solid chest and rocked my hips, almost in the same motion as he had shown me when on his horse. I rode him with a frenzied need I had never known before.

  “Fuck woman, what is it you do to me?” he shouted, grabbing my hair covering his face and forcing his head back, so that the muscles in his neck looked strained. Suddenly something started happening, something unexplainable as it had never happened before. It started when I began to chase my next orgasm and with each roll of my hips, it took me a step closer to not only my release but also something more. I felt the tingly feeling start to grow from the centre of my chest and span outwards as if using my nerves to travel along like some organic highway.

  I felt a new strength tug at my muscles as if they needed to be stretched, to be used. I felt my heartbeat pound faster and faster as if it were my blood that couldn’t keep up with it. But it was looking down at him now, seeing his neck bared for me that made me lick my lips and I was surprised to find something sharp there…fangs had grown.

  Rapidly, I was catapulted back through time in my mind as I was staring at myself in the mirror. It had been the morning after I found Draven’s Temple and I remember first seeing myself with tired red eyes from crying. But then I had splashed water over my face and looked back to find a very different Keira looking back at me.

  Two eyes filled with crimson pools of death, as if frozen in time. Full bloody lips and the same purple fuelled veins of stolen power fanning out across my skin. And last of all a pair of gleaming white fangs, out and ready for the feast. This was what I had now become and I knew without looking, as I didn’t need a mirror this time…all I needed was blood.

  So, I took it.

  Before I even fully registered my movements as being my own, I placed my hands to his wrists and was holding him down as I latched onto his neck. I felt my new extended canines pierce his skin with such a force that blood overflowed into my mouth, making me slurp at him so as not to waste a drop. The first taste of him bursting over my tongue was like taking the first sip of life’s elixir and I felt my hold on him harden.

  “Fuck!” he hissed and I knew it wasn’t in pain. Oh no, he was getting off on this just as I was, which was why his Demon was the one to finish this curse off with a hellish snarl. I felt him trying to sit up and get from under my control. I don’t know how it happened but I quickly found myself growling around the flesh I had in my mouth, like a kill I wasn’t ready to let go of.

  It startled me so much that suddenly my fangs were gone and I jolted back from his neck as if worried I had hurt him. What had been happening to me? I suddenly let go of his wrists and pulled back to look down at him, ready to say how sorry I was. In the end, I never got the chance as I quickly found myself underneath him.

  “My turn,” his demon told me as his eyes sank into purple depths followed by a wave of power as he erupted into his other form. Great wings burst from his back just as he gripped my hair and yanked my head to one side. Then he sank his fangs into me just as he started to power into me. I cried out as the second I felt that first pull of blood leave my body I was lost. I came so hard my back bowed up and I screamed as I fel
t the strength of it heat my insides. It was as if someone was setting my nerves alight starting at the base of my spine.

  “You are mine!” he shouted pulling back and licking my blood off his lips.

  “Yes! Yes! YES!” I shouted back at him as once more he started to build up the delicious pleasure and I soon found myself again chasing the white rabbit down the endless tunnel named euphoria. Then he lay down over me and put both hands to either side of my face, making this moment one of the most intimate of my life. He started to move slower, less frenzied but no less powerful as the connection started to burn ever brighter. It was as if our souls were joining for the first time and the beauty of it nearly had me in tears. I felt that in that moment we were…

  Creating life.

  “I can feel you… I can feel you touching my soul,” he whispered over my lips and I nodded unable to speak the words as I knew they would only come out trembled.

  “Come with me, we shall find it together,” he told me and I placed a hand on his cheek and said,

  “Always.” And we did. We both continued to move as one, joined in the most beautiful way two people in love could be. His body framed by feathers and mine by a fated golden fleece, one whispered to him from the Gods. It was a single moment in time, one that only belonged to me and the man I loved. For it no longer mattered what time we were both in, what mattered was that our souls were being reunited and finally…

  We had the power to change the world.

  I came in an explosion of white light and so did Draven as though the force of our connection was trying to blind the world from seeing it. As though it was ours alone and not even the Gods had the right to witness it. Draven roared, something that managed to drown out my screams and we seemed to ride the wave of rapture for what felt like infinity.

  “I see you, soul of mine,” Draven said and I closed my eyes at how beautiful those words made me feel.

  It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I couldn’t help but pull his head down to mine so that I could place my forehead to his. Then my wonderland started to disappear in a dark storm of regret for I made a grave mistake when whispering what was in my heart, as though it was just bursting from me.

  I couldn’t stop it as it was out before I could take it back and it was the first time I was to ever call those four words spoken a mistake. For it wasn’t how it started that had him freezing above me, but it was how it ended that had him snarling down at me in anger…

  “I love you, Draven.”

  Chapter 19

  Wife

  For long moments, neither of us moved and it broke my heart to see all the painful thoughts flicking across Draven’s face. I swallowed hard and spoke first,

  “Let me explain,” I told him but it meant nothing to him as he was no doubt still playing another man’s name over and over in his mind. I knew this when he tore himself away from me and suddenly my perfect moment was over as I was left frozen from his icy treatment.

  “You dare speak of love for another man whilst my cock was still buried inside you and my release still dripping from your core!” he threw at me and I closed my eyes against the cutting sound. It was the first time I’d heard this tone from Draven and heartbreakingly it sounded like hatred. He grabbed a length of material from a nearby chest and tied it angrily around his waist. I couldn’t help but cover myself with shaky hands, trying in vain to regain control.

  “It wasn’t like that,” I said in a small voice knowing he wouldn’t understand but still, I had to defend myself.

  “IT WAS THAT!” he roared at me and I flinched back, feeling tears start to emerge. I looked up at him to see he looked purely murderous with his fists clenched and white knuckled by his sides. His chest rose and fell heavily as he panted through his rage. Then as if having a few moments longer to think and process what had happened he came to a decision when he snapped,

  “Get out!” This was when my heart sank and it felt as though my body had been plunged back into that icy German lake. I bit my quivering lip so as not to let out the crying sob I felt lingering there. So, instead of arguing against his decision, I simply nodded. I then looked around for something to cover myself with and was cruelly awarded an angry sigh before he walked over to another chest and grabbed something from it. Then he threw it at me and said,

  “Cover yourself!” Again, I wanted to get angry back but I had no right to, as in his mind I had whispered words of love to another man’s name after our first time making love. There was nothing worse and no greater betrayal as the sin committed was beyond measurable. I didn’t know what to do now. Would he just cast me out as if I meant nothing to him? Well, from the looks of him with his arms now crossed and waiting for me to leave his sight, then I had no choice but to see this as the end of my journey. I never wanted it to end this way, but what choice did I have? It was obvious he couldn’t see my soul as Pip had thought, so he still knew nothing of who I was.

  Even if I tried to explain, I very much doubted that he would believe me, not when in this amount of rage. So, I did the only thing I had left and that was to try and leave with what dignity I had left. I wasn’t going to beg him, as there was little point. No, instead I simply pulled the long kaftan over me and shifted slowly to the edge of the bed. Then I walked to the door but stopped knowing that this was it, the last time I would ever see him like this. Well then, I just had to say something. So, with tears now streaming down my face I looked back over my shoulder and took in his angry glare, one I knew was masking the devastation he felt. I wiped away some of my tears and told him,

  “I will never say sorry for loving you, Arsaces, in this world or my own. But I am sorry if my words hurt you. Thank you for the beauty you gave me, for I will treasure it always…Good…goodbye… My King.” I finished with my voice breaking along with what felt like my heart. Then I turned away and pulled up the latch, ready to walk away from him.

  Ready to go home.

  “NO!” he suddenly shouted from behind me and the next thing I knew the door slammed from my hand. I jumped at both the sound and from quickly being manhandled from behind. He grabbed my arms and spun me round so that he could press me back against the door.

  “You will never leave me! NEVER!” he shouted and then his lips were on mine, kissing me in a way he had never kissed me before. At first, I let him have his way, hoping to calm the beast but then it got too much to bear.

  “Stop! I said stop!” I shouted when he wouldn’t, so I pushed him back. This time he listened and for another moment we just stood breathing heavy as we were both at a loss on what to do next.

  “I should just go,” I told him and he growled at me before shouting,

  “NO!”

  “I think it’s…it’s for the best,” I said again trying to get him to see reason.

  “If you ever leave, I will hunt you down and lock you away from the world,” he threatened, one I knew was only said in anger.

  “You mean from a man who is impossible for me to get away from!” I snapped making his demon roar before punching his fist clean through the solid door. I just turned my head away from the sight and closed my eyes, feeling more tears fall.

  “Do you understand what I will do when I find him, for you belong to me?” he told me and then he gripped my chin and made me look at him. He didn’t hurt me but his soft touch became the polar opposite to his next words spoken.

  “I will kill him Nāzanin and there will be nothing left for you to love!” he promised looking at me with purple fire and that was when my will to keep quiet any longer snapped. I pushed myself away from him and laughed once without a single shred of humour to be found. Not when it was bred from bitterness as I told him,

  “Well, good luck with that for it is an impossible task!”

  “Then you really do underestimate my strength and power for I can guarantee you, Nāzanin it stretches out far beyond these city walls.” This was when I knew what he was saying and I asked incredulously,

 
“You have people out there looking for him?!”

  “You are mine and the world will know it, for no man touches what is mine and lives to speak of it,” he told me as his answer and this was when I lost it completely and started laughing. Oh, and boy this made him angry.

  “You dare to mock me!”

  “Yes!” I snapped back making him snarl.

  “Then you are not of right mind,” he told me and I released a sigh and told him,

  “Why, because I know you won’t hurt me, you never could?” I challenged, shocking him by my statement.

  “I may not have it in me to hurt you, but surely seeing this…this Draven dying by my hand would cause you pain, for surely so if the love in which you speak is true!”

  “I am not worried,” I said dryly, one he took for different reasons.

  “You foolishly believe I will never find him, don’t you?” His cocky response made me shake my head and I replied,

  “Finding him won’t be the hard part but killing him surely will.”

  “Then you truly are a fool and hold not the intelligence I thought you did, if you believe me incapable of killing one man!” he snapped back venomously.

  “The only foolish act I make is staying in this room with you when you are in this murderous mood!” I threw back at him, silently asking myself why I was taunting the beast. This was when his eyes narrowed before he asked in a dangerous tone,

  “You know where he is…don’t you?”

  “I…I…don’t…” I tried to think of my lie as his question took me off guard. However, I never got that far as faster than my eyes could trace he was at me and before I knew what was happening he had his hand shackled around my throat. His thumb tapped my pulse point, telling me silently that he was waiting for my lie. And like always, there wasn’t an ounce of pain from the aggressive act.