The Forbidden Chapters Part 1: Afterlife Saga

  Once there, I looked to see that everything she had described was right in front of me. A large half-moon shaped balcony spread out like a marble fan in front of me. This was accessed by a large glass door that had no handle. I felt the soaked cloth by my neck and dropped it, letting it slap to the floor. Then I pulled the dry one from my pocket and placed it over my wound as I walked to the door.

  I could see his life spread out in front of me. His personal space as though some Lord of the Manor lived here and I guess…well I guess that he did. But the Lord of what exactly, I didn’t know. I looked across towards his bed, one that was situated opposite the doors so that no doubt he could wake to a perfect view of the sunrise over the national park. I could just imagine the sight. Being so close to it you felt as though you could almost touch it.

  I reached out to the glass as if seeing it all there reflected back at me. Waking next to him. Stretching out, my fingertips being met by the warm sun kissed skin of my lover…Draven. He would grab me from behind, wrap his arms around me and together we would bask in the beauty before us. I was so close, I could almost feel it. I could almost feel the first of the sun’s rays as it rose to signal the new day. I even closed my eyes as if it blinded me. His world merging with my own. I was so close now that something in my mind started to make sense of some of it. Could it be that I was…I was always meant to see?

  “NO!” I shouted banging my hand against the glass door in anger. What had come over me? I wasn’t part of his world! I wasn’t…and that’s when I felt it as the door whooshed past, opening up so close to my face I felt the cold air slap at my skin. One I had needed and it had been named reality.

  But it wasn’t just the door opening that I had felt, it had been what was coming.

  Or should I say…

  Who.

  I heard it first above me, as if some giant force was commanding the air, the wind, all the elements that the stormy night had brought. I turned around to face my fate and looked up at the night to see the demonic figure watching me from above. I tried to swallow but it felt like a lead ball was stuck there. I tried to move back but my legs wouldn’t work. It was as if my body was betraying me and my need to run.

  So instead I stayed where I was. Rooted to the spot as he let his massive wings fold so that he could drop down with speed. He landed on the marble floor with such force it cracked under the one knee he had to the floor. His other leg bent with foot to the floor aiding him as he slowly rose to full height.

  “Draven.” His name escaped me on a frightened breath and he looked as though he had heard it.

  “Going somewhere, Keira?” he asked me, the anger in his voice slipping through the cracks of control. I couldn’t speak and looking at me and where I was, it was obvious he didn’t need an answer. He took one step closer and again I cursed my legs and my inability to move. His movements were slow and precise, as if he didn’t want to move too quickly in case he frightened me into running. But looking at him now and I think that hope was out of the window or more like cast to the brutal wind that lashed out around me.

  As he walked closer he noticed something on the ground, a red, pinkish puddle around a black cloth. He frowned down at it and bent to pick it up, bringing it to his face as if to smell it. The second he knew what it was he crushed it in his hand and growled, my blood dripping down his bare arm, like crimson veins.

  “You’re hurt.” The demonic rumble sounded deadly and he scanned over my body as if trying to find the cause of my blood that was now dripping from his hand. I momentarily moved my hand that was held by my neck and he noticed the motion, now finding the source of my injury. He took a demanding step towards me and finally my legs started to work. I took a step back and into his room out of the storm of nature but welcoming a storm of a different kind indoors.

  Draven didn’t stop this time, nor did he slowdown in fear of frightening me. No, now he had new focus and he was intent on getting to me and my wound. I didn’t know where I was backing up to but I looked down for a second and found my back against a large post. Seeing that it was part of his bed, I tried to move to the side but a strong arm shot out and stopped me. His strong muscle pulsated with purple blood flowing in his veins and it held me in place like a demonic barricade.

  I took my time in looking from his arm to the demonic being it was attached too. Turning my head so slowly I followed it along from forearm, to elbow, to bicep and then to shoulder where I finally braved looking up at the man I had been falling in love with. Once there the purple flames in his eyes died down slightly, turning his irises a darker shade like I was more used to.

  He didn’t say anything at first, he just reached up and took my wrist in his hold. Gently then he started to pull my hand away from my blood-soaked neck and the sting made me suck air through my teeth. Hearing my pain affected him in a way I didn’t understand. His eyes flashed purple flames for a second and his grip tightened on my wrist as if it were an impulse. But he never hurt me and his actions weren’t screaming the murderous kind that I would have expected to see.

  “Who did this to you?” he asked me, the threat in his tone not easy to miss. But it wasn’t aimed at me, I knew that. It was aimed at the one who had inflicted the injury.

  “Keira answer me, answer me now.” His warning spoke of a man on the edge…no, make that a demon on the edge.

  “Layla.” I said the one name that he must have expected me to say. I jumped at the demonic sound that rumbled up from his chest, like some caged beast was trying to get free from the depths of where his soul had kept him locked away.

  “Calm yourself, for I will not harm you…do you understand?” he told me softly and for the first time since the bathroom I took my first easy breath. So, I might now be faced with this version of Draven but at the very least it didn’t seem like he was set out to kill me. Capture me and make me his prisoner, I wasn’t so sure but I couldn’t say that experiencing this tender side of a demon was the worst thing that had happened to me tonight.

  He let go of my hand and took hold of my chin instead so that he could gently turn it to the side for a better look. I hissed in pain and he gave me a sympathetic look.

  “I am sorry for the pain, but I need to see what that bitch has done to you,” he explained before going back to examining it with gentle fingertips.

  “She bit me,” I told him, speaking for only the second time.

  “As I can see. Where did this happen?” he asked, putting my head back straight before lifting it slightly so that I could look him back in the eyes.

  “In the bathroom,” I told him and my voice sounded so small that I felt weak when saying it. But then again, I had been bitten, drugged by some demonic spit and then bled all the way to the roof and down.

  “And now you see…” His question trailed off, looking back to his side where his wings remained folded at his back. I didn’t say anything, as I didn’t know what to say. For starters, I didn’t really know what he was, so I simply nodded, looking down.

  “Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you…alright? Tell me you understand, Keira,” he told me and it seemed very important to him that I comply. So, I nodded again. He must have known how difficult this was for me, so he let that be his answer and found it good enough.

  “You’re freezing. Come with me,” he said running the back of his fingers down my cold cheek. After this he took my hand and pulled me further into his room. I let myself go with him because really, what other option did I have.

  He led me over to one corner where a long tapestry hung. I didn’t have time to make out the design as Draven pushed it aside with his free hand in one sweeping motion. Behind it was a hidden door, one I couldn’t help but pull back from. He looked back at me, to see I wasn’t following like he expected and he gave me a questioning look before finding pity on my ragged nerves.

  “It is only my bathroom…see, no one, but us,” he told me, holding the door open and stepping back so that I could see inside and understanding my fears for
what they were…warranted mistrust. I nodded and followed him inside slowly, as if any minute I expected someone to jump out at us.

  “See, just a bathroom,” he told me gently as if scared I would bolt any second like the fearful doe I felt. But at the sight of Draven like this, then who could blame me. Even in here, a place that was none threatening, with its luxury walk in shower, beautiful gilded mirror and marble pillars framing a huge sunken bath… even then, he was intimidating. With his huge wings shadowing his every move like a dark frame cast around his large body. A wet t shirt was plastered to every muscle, and even the part of his torso that was covered, you could still see the power beating against his skin beneath it.

  My dark Angel of Hell stood looking down at me as I watched him with trepidation.

  “Don’t be frightened of me, not even as you see me now,” he asked and I closed my eyes as he confirmed my sanity was still intact and this was real. I felt his hand at my cheek and I opened my eyes up to him as we shared this silent moment of acceptance. I nodded and he seemed to relax his tensed shoulders, as if half of him had been expecting the worse…as I had done.

  “Good. Now let’s get you warm, starting with getting you out of those wet clothes,” he stated firmly and I jumped when I heard the sound of rushing water.

  “Calm yourself, it is only the bath.” I looked to see he was right, as water spilled over a flat piece of stone and down into the pool that was Draven’s bath.

  “How did you…” I started to ask how he had made the water come on like that but then he grinned at me and said,

  “I think it best not to test your limits too soon, not after all you have witnessed tonight.” I nodded thinking this was probably the wisest decision and I gladly let him take that responsibility from me.

  “Now let’s get this off you,” he said stepping up to me and gripping the material at the bottom of my top. I placed my hands on his to stop him and asked nervously…

  “Wh…what are you…?” He didn’t let me finish.

  “What I am doing sweet girl, is getting this wet, cold and bloody material off you before you freeze to death,” he told me softly but with enough force to know that I wouldn’t get far if I refused. I hadn’t even nodded my consent before he started to peel it from my cold pale skin and up over my head. My wet hair fell down in thick waves that had all joined together thanks to it being soaked. It was the only sound made as it hit the bare skin on my back and I shivered because of it.

  I covered myself, hugging my arms over my bra and the look he gave me wasn’t impressed. He raised an eyebrow in an expectant way and I bit my lip before lowering my arms down. This was what he wanted as his features smoothed and he praised me,

  “Good girl.” I only wished that hearing it didn’t affect me the way it did as my body gave an involutory shiver. One that wasn’t down to how cold I was. He acted as though it was his given right to see me this way and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was down to him being the one in charge or just down to it being me. Either way my answers would have to wait as what he did next had all thoughts flying from my mind, making enough room for the insecurities that came next.

  “I…I...can…” I was about to protest as he started to go for the button on my trousers but his actions stopped me mid-sentence. He gripped my waistband with his fingers dipping down against my underwear at the front. Then he gripped it tight and hauled me closer to him so that I had to arch my neck back to look up at him, placing my hands against his chest to steady myself. I ran a tongue over my dry lips at the feel of solid muscle beneath my palms. His eyes burned at the sight of what I was doing with my tongue and I heard before I felt the sound of my trousers tearing. He looked like a man on the edge, holding himself back from what he wanted to do to me and from the looks of things, that something was ravish me.

  “You are mine to take care of,” he told me, gritting out the statement and I simply nodded, telling him silently to continue. No matter how confused I was at hearing it. He thought of me as his? Maybe he meant ‘his’ as in ‘his responsibility’ because I worked for him? It was possible, well that was until he looked at me like a man starved of my touch.

  He slowly let go of his demanding hold and undid the button so that he could then slide my zipper down. I swear the sound of it echoed in the room as I felt every line of teeth it unlocked, swallowing hard when it was finished. Then he lowered himself before me, getting slowly down on one knee and it was a place I could imagine he rarely found himself before anyone. His wings curved slightly at his feet, started to evaporate as their room became limited in the space given. I looked on in awe as if this was done without even needing to think about it and I found myself wondering where half of them had gone to?

  Once knelt by my feet, there he looked up at me, put both hands to the side of my hips before gripping the waistband. Then as if the act itself was one to be savoured, he slowly pulled the material down, first over the soft triangle of my panties before the tops of my pale thighs came into view.

  He watched as though a gift was being unwrapped and I wanted to sink to the floor to hide from the intensity of it all. I had never been looked upon so closely, as if he were studying every inch of my skin and filing it away in some private memory bank.

  “You’re so pale, your skin looks as though it has been bathed in milk,” he told me in a tender tone and I blushed, proving it wasn’t all pale. He tapped each foot, telling me to step from the last of my wet trousers and once I had done so, he rose once more to his full height. I looked away, unable to challenge his gaze as he drank in his fill of me stood here in just my underwear and gloves. I flinched when I felt the back of his fingers run up the centre of my belly until he reached the curve of my heaving breasts.

  “Beautiful…you’re so beautiful, Keira,” he told me and I sucked in a startled breath…did he really think so?

  “Beautiful but still cold,” he said as my only warning before he picked me up in his arms and walked me towards the bath.

  “Wait, what about you.” I said in shock as he walked us both up the steps and down into the warm, comforting water that surrounded our bodies together. He was still dressed but he didn’t seem to care as his main aim seemed to be getting me warm. I watched, utterly fascinated at the sight of his wings being submerged under water and I had the greatest urge to reach out and touch them. Would they feel wet or would they have some kind of oil protecting them against such things.

  “When you look at me that way I find myself curious as to what you are thinking?” He told me tilting his head slightly as if trying to read me. He shifted me around so that I faced him and I almost shrieked out in surprise when he placed each of my knees by his thighs, either side of him. I was basically sat astride him as he gathered all my wet hair back from my face.

  “Well sat like this, I think you could probably guess.” I told him blurting out my first thoughts and regretting it instantly. My hands flew to cover my mouth and he laughed heartedly.

  “And there she is, that spirited little waitress of mine,” he said and I bit my lip at once again hearing him calling me his. But he didn’t give me much time to focus on it as he said,

  “Now let’s see what can be done about this neck of yours.” Then he reached a hand up into my hair at the back and gripped it slightly, using it to turn my head to where he wanted it. He arched my head to one side so that he could see my wound more clearly.

  “The bleeding has stopped at least,” he told me, softly running a finger around the crescent moon of teeth marks.

  “I do not like seeing another’s mark upon your body,” he said surprising me enough to ask,

  “Do you…do you bite people?” He looked taken aback for a moment as if trying to decide where the question had come from but then seeing his world from my point of view.

  “No, I do not but others of my kind, yes sometimes,” he answered truthfully and I couldn’t fully explain the relief I felt on hearing that he didn’t. The green snake of jealously definite
ly had something to do with it. I then braved asking my next question,

  “And what is your kind exactly?” He gave me a look as if assessing what he should and shouldn’t say next, probably seeing if I could accept it or not. The outcome was a disappointing one.

  “All in good time sweetheart, but for now, I think it best not to push the limits of your mind, now hold still,” he told me, smirking a little at the sight of my little pout I was unable to hold back.

  “Why…what are you going to do?” I asked timidly.

  “I am going to heal you,” he stated as if it should have been obvious. Then with no other warning he placed his lips over my bite and started to suck, as if trying to take the poison away. Well whatever he was doing it felt amazing and it was a good job he had hold of the back of my head because it felt as if it could roll off my neck at any minute! I couldn’t help the moan that escaped as I arched my neck further into him, an action he must have liked if his throaty growl was anything to go by. His hand gripped my hair in a more possessive hold as if he were afraid I would take his prize from him.

  Then something strange started to happen and it wasn’t a feeling that at my age, was something I didn’t recognise. Oh no, I recognised it alright, only too well but this, well it seemed to be amplified by a hundred. It started to rise up from that place deep inside you where you always wondered after your sexual high where had it really come from. It felt like every nerve in your body had synced and were working as one in perfect harmony with the sole purpose of building your pleasure until you just couldn’t contain it anymore.

  That was what this felt like, only instead of it bursting when it usually did, something was allowing it to build up until insanity felt like the only outcome.

  “Draven, Draven…Draven you have to stop…I can’t…” I told him desperately trying to hold on to the last thread of self-control I had left. I gripped onto his shoulder just for something to anchor myself to and he growled at my neck before releasing me enough to say,