I was still crying out into my palms, when I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder. It was Draven’s hand. I knew that, as soon as he made contact with me. Like our blood was somehow connected causing a reaction in me whenever he was near. He tried to pull me round to him but I was resisting.
“Keira, please don’t be frightened of me, I won’t hurt you my love.” He spoke so softly as though anything above a whisper would have me cringing away like a frightened fawn. I pulled back with such force that it shocked him.
“I’m not frightened of you hurting me! I’m frightened of the hurt I cause you! Don’t you see? Don’t you see that it’s me that causes this! All of this destruction is because of ME! I...can’t...I can’t....do this.” That was all I could manage until I lost all control. I was sobbing until I couldn’t breathe. Somehow I was in Draven’s arms and he was holding me so tight as though he would never let me go. He was smoothing back my hair and whispering words in another language that were having a strange effect over me. It was these words that were seeping through my mind and making it cloudy. I tried to hold onto what little control I had left but it was exhausting.
“Let go, just let go.” Draven whispered directly into my ear and it was hard not to obey. I wanted to get up and run away just for the space to think but when I started to struggle Draven increased the pressure around me.
“Stop fighting me Keira, just let it all go.” I lay my head into his shoulder and could feel the wet leather jacket slide on my cheek. I wanted to be free of all the guilty feelings I had weighing me down but what right did I have when others suffered. One of his hands was moving up and down my back making it harder not to close my eyes and let myself drift to another state of mind. He knew I was losing the battle and started speaking to me softly in that other language that he’d been using.
“That’s it, good girl. You’re safe now, you’re safe....” And this was the last thing I heard before the warmth of his words consumed me. I felt my body go limp and the feeling of being lifted before blackness filled my vision and sleep overwhelmed my senses.
I woke to the sound of voices that were irate. It was like when my parents used to argue but do it quietly so as that ‘the kids’ wouldn’t hear...of course we always did. They tried to keep it low but every now and again a word said sharply could be made out. My mind was still groggy but those overwhelmed senses were slowly returning back to me. I didn’t open my eyes but I turned my head slowly to free my ear to hear better.
“You are wrong Sophia, what the girl needs is my protection and mine only!” That was most definitely Draven’s voice and the added authoritative tone made it clear that he so wasn’t happy.
“Yes, but keeping her locked away isn’t the answer... She isn’t some princess you can hide away in a tower, she needs to live her life Dom!” Sophia spoke carefully but not carefully enough. Draven’s growl could be heard even if it came out deep and low.
“Dominic, Sophia is right, don’t let your love for the girl blind you into rash decisions. You can’t just take her away against her will and we all know Keira enough by now to know that it will be against her will! She is almost as stubborn as you brother...but you know this.” Vincent was trying to make Draven see sense and for a moment I took his silence as confirmation that it had sunk in. But I was wrong.
“She will do what is good for her. She may fight me on it but she will come around. I will take her somewhere safe so that no bounty hunter will find her. I will NOT allow what happened today to happen again! She was so close to breaking, so fragile that I fear the damage done is beyond repair. I am going to lose her if she keeps seeing this side of me...the fear in her eyes, brother...” At this I did open my eyes only to see Draven sat down with his head in his hands. I wanted to shout out to him but I knew there was more for me to hear.
“Dom, the girl loves you and that fear, you mistake for fear of loss. She will not leave you, if anything I think she fears you leaving her.” Vincent must have gained a great deal of information from my mind, more than Draven had, rather that or he was a hell of a guesser!
“ I never would, not unless it was to save her life! I tried to leave her alone in the beginning and look where that got me! I became a shell of myself and only when I have her do I become whole! I can’t let her go, I won’t!” He was working himself up and it was almost unbearable to hear.
I couldn’t stand to have Draven feeling so desperate, so lost in feelings that he wasn’t alone in. I, too, felt like I would lose him if my situation didn’t get better. I almost wished that he could have taken me away...away from anyone that wanted to hurt me, anyone that wanted to separate us. But I couldn’t do it...his siblings were right, I still had a life of my own to live. I couldn’t just walk away from it all...not again. I had Libby and Frank, I had a little niece or nephew on the way that I didn’t want to miss out on. NO, I would have to stay and fight! I would have to rise up above it all and take each knock as it came...I would get back up and stand up for what I believed in. And hopefully I would have Draven by my side to catch me.
“What am I to do if I can’t even protect her here in my home? They were so close to taking her...too close. If Leivic hadn’t seen her leaving, then she might have been lost. It would have been too late!”
“What was she thinking, going outside by herself? Was she being controlled?” Sophia asked, but Vincent was the one to answer her.
“Why don’t you ask her yourself...I believe she has been awake now for some time?” His voice held amusement and when I knew I had been busted I opened my eyes fully to see everyone staring at me. I was on Draven’s bed wrapped up in a warm blanket with my wet clothes now missing. They had been replaced by soft cotton pyjamas in navy blue. I had never seen them before. My hair had been plaited to one side, I guess thanks to Sophia’s nimble hands, and her smile told me I had guessed right.
Draven stood up and pushed the hair back that had fallen forward from looking down at his hands. Vincent was standing amused, with arms folded and Sophia stood in between them making her tiny frame look even smaller next to her brother’s larger ones. The staring silence was starting to make me feel uncomfortable, so I shifted in the bed into a sitting up position. This was Draven’s cue to step towards me.
“I think Keira and I need some time alone.” I don’t know why, but the way he said this made me gulp. The other two left without saying a word. Draven came to the bedside very slowly, almost like he was expecting me to scream at any sudden movements.
“It’s alright, I’m not going to freak out.” I tried to give him a genuine smile but I’m not sure it fully made it.
“I would not blame you if you did.” He sounded like his voice would crack, being pushed to breaking point. He knelt down on one of the steps next to the bed and leaned forward so that our faces were level. It reminded me of how you would usually approach a child.
“Well, I’m not going to, I think I did enough of that earlier.” Draven didn’t look convinced with my brave little act and was still waiting for me to crumble next to him.
“Keira.” He said my name edged with doubt and riddled with worry.
“I’m fine,” I said looking away from his intense glare that was trying to pry secrets from my soul.
“You are anything but. What you have seen...all you have witnessed...It is more than any of your kind can endure. So to say that you are fine is not only doubtful but also unbelievable!” He placed his palm round my cheek to bring my face back around to his view, but upon his touching me he found my damp skin there.
“Is this what you call fine?” I didn’t answer his question but bit my lip instead. What did he want me to say? NO I wasn’t bloody fine! I was just nearly kidnapped and then watched my boyfriend rip a van to pieces before turning on the people behind it all. Then to find that it was all down to a bounty on my head that wasn’t just going to get old and make people forget about the whole thing!....Umm no, I don’t think I was fine, but it’s not like I was about to give up on life fo
r it all either!
“That’s more like it! For a minute there you had me worried!” Draven said, shocking me enough that my mouth opened to say,
“Excuse me?” I mean he had obviously just read my mind but was all of what I just thought a good thing?
“Keira, understand me. If you hadn’t been affected, then that would have made you numb and that worries me more than having you ‘Freak out’ as you put it. You know more than most, that to bury deep feelings, no matter how horrific, is not the way to deal with them. You first have to face them before you can truly let them go or they will remain with you and eat away at you until they’ve consumed every ounce of you!”
“You sound like a man of experience from this type of thing?” I asked finding it hard to believe.
“Keira, I have many regrets in my long everlasting life. I have sent soul after soul back to where they will most certainly be condemned, over and over again until it soon became second nature to me but that does not mean I do not feel remorse. Of course some deserve it more than most but if I felt nothing then who would I be? Where would be my balance? Good does not exist without the evil and right does not hold weight without knowing the wrong.”
“So what you’re saying is to feel something, even pain, is better than to feel nothing, even if the pain is spared?” I knew what he said made sense and I was taken back to the sight of Draven saying a prayer after sending Agnomen to face his eternal judgement.
“For a being to feel nothing and live in this world with no emotions, well that would be a frightening thing indeed. Do you not agree?” I nodded in agreement.
“Keira, I want you to do something for me.” Draven said this without any tones of authority but it did not lack a certainty that he would get his way.
“What is it?” I asked nervously.
“I want you to come away with me. Somewhere I am sure to keep you safe.” He asked me so seductively it was hard not to give in to him for anything he asked of me. But luckily I knew Draven well and all of his tactics. I pulled away from him putting space between us.
“NO, I am not running away!” He grabbed out to me to pull me back to him but I moved quicker for once. This made him get on the bed to my level. Here, in one quick motion, he pulled me under him and held me trapped.
“You would not be running away, do not view it like that.”
“Then how should I view it? It is what it is!” I said stubbornly.
“It would be both of us going somewhere together where we could be alone, alone from everything and everyone who wants to take you away from me.” He looked like he was close to begging me but I remained firm.
“So we will both be running away?”
“Keira, I will not allow my pride to be my undoing! If that is what you want to see it as, then I will not stop you, but my love for you runs far deeper than my pride ever will!” He was getting angry but I think it was mainly aimed at himself.
“I won’t leave Draven, I did that once before and although it caused me to find you, I don’t want me leaving here to be for the same reason.”
“And that reason is?”
“Fear!” I said the answer as simple as that. It was always for fear, it always had been. It can be labelled as a new start, starting fresh, finding myself but all the while it was just down to a simple fear. A fear so strong it can change the course of your life. The first time it turned out to be for the better but next time? What the outcome could be wasn’t worth exploring. As far as I was concerned, life with Draven couldn’t get any better.
Ok, so maybe being with him and not being hunted would be good, but what was the guarantee that evil wouldn’t just find us again. I couldn’t just leave Libby and the life growing inside of her. Frank and my new friends who accepted me even though they all knew something about me wasn’t quite right. That un-blinding faith in me that the ones I loved had in me was something I couldn’t walk away from. I had to stay...I just hoped Draven would stay with me.
“Then let it be for love not fear.” He tried one last time and held my face still when I started to shake my head.
“Are you saying that if I loved you I would go with you?” This he didn’t answer but he didn’t need to.
“I could say the same. I could say “If you loved me, then you would stay with me here, because you know how much it means to me.” But I don’t need to do that because I know you love me and I know you will stay with me...here.” He lowered his head in defeat. He let out a breath showing signs of his lost battle and his exhaustion from it.
“And if I took you by force...I take it you would never forgive me for that?” He asked bitterly.
“Draven!”
“I thought as much. Right, then an even more paranoid boyfriend it is then!” He said while rolling off me and I knew he was acting spoilt from not getting his own way.
“There is no reason to over react Draven.”
“You know, it’s a shame, I think you would have made such a sexy little prisoner.” He teased and then before I could make a comeback he shut me up by kissing me so passionately I forgot everything we were talking about. We were starting to get carried away, which was fine by me, but Draven was starting to fight with himself. He kept stopping and shaking his head but then he would allow himself one more kiss and his resolve would go out of the window. His hands were searching out for my skin and as soon as he got there we both moaned.
It was like a happy haze that enveloped my mind whenever Draven’s skin came into contact with mine. He remained on top of me but felt his way down to hook one of my legs round his waist, causing his want to press tightly against my need. We were now locked together and we both knew how to seal the union, but Draven kept hesitating, taking little stops to calm his breathing.
“Are you alright?” I asked after the third time this happened. He looked down at me with half shock and half guilt.
“Yes... no...I shouldn’t be pushing you after all you’ve been through today, but Keira, I feel that if I don’t take you now, then I will explode!” This confession had the added effect of rippled muscles that tensed as his last shreds of control were fading away.
“Draven, I’m not as fragile as you think and if you don’t make love to me right now, I will just have to continue without you, and we both know how much you like to watch.” With that firmly planted in his mind he let out an almighty roar and was soon kissing my neck as his answer. He kissed the skin at the base of my throat gently but when his hand came up from my side and turned my face, side onto the pillow, I knew what was coming. He held me still with one hand and the other hand caressed an area up from my shoulder.
“Such beautiful skin, like honey and milk.” Draven’s voice purred in my ear before leaning down to taste me.
“I like honey and milk.” His mouth sucked in my skin and he held it there with his teeth. I could feel his canines extending but he was holding them back. I had never felt this all the other times he had bitten me but I put that down to the throws of passion. However, it seemed this time he was taking his sweet time. The hand that had been holding my face to the side was now venturing downwards. My top was pushed upwards to reveal my stomach and he seemed to take great pleasure in feeling his way down the length of my body until he reached the waist band of my cotton pyjama bottoms.
He still had my neck in his mouth, teasing and sucking it without actually biting it. I was so desperate for him to rather touch me or bite me I was close to screaming for it. And boy did he know it, as soon as the thoughts entered my mind I could feel him smiling. Then his fingers found the honey pot and spread my folds back to dip in further. I cried out at the contact and could feel my body soaking his fingers. Then he found my opening and applied a little pressure until his fingers teased just outside the entrance.
“Speak!” He commanded and in true Draven style he wanted me to tell him what I wanted. I think he got off big time to hear me asking for it.
“It does, so be a good girl and give me what I want.” His fin
gers teased even more travelling to my clitoris making me squirm under his hands.
“Pll..eeeaaa...ssseee,” I sighed out and this was his green light. He plunged his fingers inside me and bit into me at the same time making me find my orgasm instantly. I was still riding the waves of pleasure as he sucked the life source out from me. This caused those waves to quickly turn tidal and I was screaming underneath him. I bit into the pillow to try and contain myself but with his free hand he quickly tugged the pillow from beneath me, causing the screams to come to his ears again.
He seemed to love the sound as his sucking intensified and his manhood grew stronger, pressing into me until my leg ached. Then I started to feel a little light headed and my body replaced the tensed muscles with sagging limbs. Draven let me go instantly and placed his hand over the two puncture marks in my neck which started to tingle. He remained there for longer than usual and when I was about to ask what he was doing he shook his head and said,
“Ssshhh... relax,” in his velvet voice. I did as I was told, closing my eyes and was soon finding my energy returning back to me, like Draven had just re-charged my batteries.
“I took too much from you, and I need you strong for what I want to do to you.” He said, once he had finished at my neck and I opened my eyes to find him staring intensely into my eyes. I started to feel my cheeks burn as his eyes took in every curve and line of my face. He was studying me, that much was clear and I wanted to turn away in my shyness, which is strange considering what he just did to me. He ran his fingers across my cheek and down to where his teeth had just had hold of me. I could still smell my sex on his hands and I don’t know why but it turned me on even more to know that part of me still remained on his skin.