"This is utterly outrageous, how can you be so...so..."
"What?"
"So b.l.o.o.d.y childish!" This coming from the person that was close to stomping her foot in frustration. He didn"t say anything to this but just looked astonished at the accusation. It actually made me wonder if he had ever heard this being said to him before...I almost giggled at the thought. What must it be like? All five foot and three inches of me, telling all six foot four inches of pure muscle, off like a spoilt child.
"Look this is stupid and pointless! I am meeting Jack tomorrow" At this he was about to interrupt and erupt but I held my hand out to stop him.
"To tell him that I just want to be friends and that I am now dating YOU!" At this he softened slightly but not enough to get my blood down to its normal temperature.
"He deserves to know the truth and I ain"t the type of girl to lead men on or let them go on thinking there is something more when there isn"t. If you don"t like it then I"m sorry but tough s.h.i.t! This is who I am and I am not going to change what I believe in just because I am in love with you!" By the end of this little speech I was breathing heavy and Draven looked like he rather wanted to make mad pa.s.sionate love to me or knock my block off! I doubted anyone in his life had ever spoken like this to him and I couldn"t help but be afraid and excited at the same time. Like jumping from a plane and being terrified of heights.
He looked like he wanted to say something but instead he was in front of me before I took my next breath. His lips crushed against mine and the heat of the argument ended in my mouth. He pushed me back on to the kitchen table and was pressing his Sergeant, oops I mean Commander, up against me.
"You drive me insane, you know that!" He hissed over my mouth and before I had time to protest his tongue parted my mouth open for another pa.s.sion fuelled kiss. His entire being commanded the kiss to his erotic beat. My lips tried to keep up but it was as if he couldn"t get deep enough, couldn"t taste enough and in return I failed to breathe. He angled my head with one large hand at the base of my neck and his other hand travelled a private journey down the base of my spine. I could almost feel my toes curling, wizard of Oz style. Man this Demon knew how to kiss, I say Demon "cause there was nothing angelic about what this man was doing to my most intimate parts.
After the nicest make up kiss in history I finally got back my breath. He pulled me up off the table and smelled the air where the scent of burning pizza filled the room.
"Oh sodding h.e.l.l, the pizza!" I got up and opened the oven door to a cloud of smoke. The smoke alarm went off and I grabbed a tea towel to wave in front of it. This must have looked odd to Draven because he reached up and grabbed the alarm, crushing it in a single motion, until it made a pathetic dying sound before being replaced by silence. He made the window open, without even going near it and he pushed the smoke out towards it in gathered cloud. I stood staring like he was my own personal magician. I looked down at the plastic crumbs in his hand and his eyes followed.
"Too much?" He said sheepishly before making the pieces fuse back together and even the battery acid that had escaped onto his hands followed back into the casing. I couldn"t tear my eyes off the sight. It was like watching the destruction of it in reverse. Once it was back together he placed it back on the wall and fitted it into place. I looked at the tea towel in my hand thinking it could now retire. I laughed out loud at the thought of what Libby would have done if she had seen Draven doing this the next time she burnt something, which in her case was a daily occurrence.
"What"s funny?" He asked light heartedly.
"Just wondering if I will ever get used to seeing it?"
"Seeing what exactly?"
"The impossible." He grunted out a little laugh at my answer. I pulled out the black disc that once resembled something you could eat and broke it up to fit it in the bin.
"Well there goes my dinner, looks like cheese on toast."
"That was pizza right?"
"Hard to believe, I know." He looked so much happier now we had made up, smiling down at me.
"Then why don"t you order one to be delivered?" He said pa.s.sing me the phone and the take out menu that was stuck to the fridge by a Union Jack magnet.
"Ok, but only if you help me eat it, so far all I have seen you eat is an apple. If I didn"t know you were an Angel/ Demon then I would think you have an eating disorder." He roared with laughter at my little joke and I loved that I could make him laugh.
He let me pick the pizza and when it came, he wouldn"t let me pay or get up to get it. I wondered what the delivery person thought when Draven answered the door. Well at least Ragnar wasn"t here to frisk him!
"You didn"t have to pay for it." I said as he brought it in the living room.
"Keira please don"t say you have a problem with me buying you dinner, especially one that cost so little. It was, after all, my fault the first one burned." He said taking the blame, which brought me no satisfaction.
"Ok, but the next one is one me." I took the box and put it on the coffee table, ready to be devoured as I was starving.
"If you say so." He said in a mocking tone to add to his mocking smile.
"Do you ever get hungry?" I asked as I grabbed a piece and dangling the stringy cheese in my mouth before biting off the end. He watched me as if it was the first time he had seen me eat.
"Yes, but mainly for other things. I find watching you fascinating." I blushed like always.
"Why because I"m a pig when it comes to food?" I said smiling because I just didn"t care, I loved my food.
"NO, not at all, I find you fascinating because I never knew watching someone eat could turn me on." Oh... that I didn"t expect.
"Don"t be daft, how could you?" I said going the colour of the pepperoni on my slice.
"Quite simple... it makes me want to taste you." He said so matter of fact I was taken aback. Then he leaned over and grabbed a slice, so watching him eat it, I could actually see where he was coming from. This had never happened to me before, finding a guy s.e.xy while biting into a pizza slice was a weird thing to get turned on about....but it still happened. I was even more surprised when he ended up eating most of the pizza because after three slices I was full. I put the box in the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge.
I forgot to ask Draven if he wanted a drink, so I popped my head round to ask when I noticed he was looking at a picture of me and Libby when I was seventeen. It was one we had taken at Alton Towers, a theme park we went to for my birthday. I had shorter hair that looked way out of control and a little red vest with a short denim shirt. I looked so different to how I dress now and no doubt Draven was thinking the same thing. Well, it was summer and a very hot one at that. I got burnt on the shoulders that day and that night, when out with my friends, I was dancing like Michael Flatley, Lord of the river dance!
"I hate that picture." I said as I tried to take it from his hands but he just lifted it out of my reach, which wasn"t hard. I was so short next to him that I knew there was no point even trying.
"Why? You look happy, was it a special day?"
"It was my birthday, I was seventeen." I said feeling my skin blush at the way I was dressed.
"I didn"t think England had such good summers." So he did notice.
"We had a heat wave that year, plus I used to dress quite differently than I do now." I wasn"t sure which Keira he preferred, the carefree young blond that liked to show off her slim figure or the shy scared girl that stood next to him now, wearing black jogging bottoms and a grey long sleeved top with thumb holes.
"I like that you saved yourself for me, I do not think I would be happy for so many eyes to see your flawless skin in places that are for my eyes only. I like the way you dress now and that I am the only one that gets to unwrap you whenever I choose." He winked at me before placing the picture back.
"But I do have one question, why do you have metal teeth?" I laughed so hard tears formed.
"What, you do?" I couldn"t keep my face straight, he must have thought this looked more like a torture device. Then I stopped laughing as soon as I remembered what Sammael looked like when I had seen him in his Demon form. His lips had been sealed shut by thick metal pieces that looked like crude st.i.tches. This had been his punishment and done to him by the Draven brothers.
"It was my brace, I had crooked teeth when my wisdom teeth started to come through."
"It looks barbaric, did it not hurt you?" Bless him for thinking about my pain.
"It just ached mostly, but sometimes the metal would go into my gums. That I didn"t like so much. But it was worth it." I said smiling showing him the result.
"I think I would have preferred you to have crooked teeth than go through pain." He said sincerely. I kissed him on the cheek for saying something so sweet.
"Ok, back to our date. Argument - check... make up kiss - check...pizza - check... now moving swiftly on." He was smirking thinking I was talking about s.e.x.
"Draven! You"ve really never had a date before have you. You don"t fool around until the movie is on and the lights are off."
"Ok!" He clicked his fingers being c.o.c.ky and the lights went out and the TV came on, amazingly on a movie channel. I giggled like I was back to being seventeen. I plopped down on the couch next to him with my back against his chest and picked up the remote. His arms went round me and I snuggled closer to him, loving every minute of the best date of my life.
"So what will it be action, romance or horror?"
"Don"t like comedies?" When he spoke, he blew air down my neck and my mind filled with his scent making it harder to find words to his question, especially when his large hand was moving up and down my neck.
"Yeah sure I do, but I like being the one that makes you laugh...plus there is the whole snorting issue."
"Ah yes, I remember that adorable little noise you make." His hands then slid down to my weak spots and I started giggling. But I stopped him before I was in fits.
"Behave!" I warned.
"Never!... So what is customary for a first date?"
"Well it depends what the goal is. Horror usually gives the guy the chance to show how brave he is and protect the girl when she jumps at the scary bits but I think you have already proved yourself with that one, more than enough!"
"Protecting you is my job Keira." He leaned round to see my smile.
"Or there is action, this gives the girl chance to show she is cool with watching violence, which impresses the guy but in this case I have seen enough action in the last few days to last me till the end of the year!"
"I must agree with you there," he said with a controlled bitterness.
"So then there is romance that gets you in the mood, but considering you get h.o.r.n.y just watching me eat then I don"t think it"s needed." He moved my hair from my neck and licked my skin, proving my last statement. I was momentarily hushed to silence and my teeth found comfort in my bottom lip.
"Ok, then I will choose...mmm." I tried to sound unfazed but it wasn"t convincing as I moaned when his licking turned into sucking. I let the remote slide out of my hands but before it could crash to the floor his hand left my neck and caught it, before pa.s.sing it back to me.
"You were saying?" He said over my skin and I could feel his lips turn up into a confident smile. I swallowed down the breath caught in my throat and tried to continue.
"That"s not fair when you have such control over my functions like that!" I shook my head and closed my eyes as I tried to focus on finding a movie.
"And you don"t believe you have the same control over me? Why do you think I find it so hard keeping my hands off you?" He whispered this last part and I lowered my face to conceal a smile he could feel there.
"Ok, back to the movie...umm ah here"s one....Blade!" I thought I had chosen well until I heard the tut behind me.
"More Vampires, Keira please tell me you don"t have a thing for these vile creatures? I will never understand human obsession with the sc.u.m of the underworld!" I turned to face him and in the glow of the flickering TV, he looked serious.
"I like Blade because he fights them. Ok, so he is one but he still wants them destroyed. So what is your beef with them?"
"Beef?" It was obvious he hadn"t heard this expression.
"You know, like why don"t you like them or is hate a better word?"
"I don"t want to discuss it." He said stubbornly but I frowned at him.
"Come on, just tell me...I think all things considered, I can take it." Of course I was soon proven wrong with the next words to leave Draven"s lips.
"Lucius is the Vampire king."
Oh dear, this really didn"t look good!
Chapter 6.
Vampires I could now understand why Draven didn"t want to talk about this with me. First I had to accept that Vampires were real and now they had a King, oh yeah and that he was the one after me! This was really hitting my limit on the "crazyometer".
"Ok, you"re going to have to explain this all to me because otherwise I am left with all I know from movies and Bram Stokes." Draven made the TV go off and the lights come back on, making me wonder if we would ever just have a normal date that didn"t include conversations that scared the living s.h.i.t out of me. I sat facing him and folded my legs together ready for story time.
"I should never have said anything. Being with me is already taking its toll." He traced a finger down the side of my face, as if soothing out a suffering line around my eye.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" I was a little hurt at this comment.
"It means that we have been together only but a few days and already I am telling you things that will only make your nightmares worse." He was trying to tread carefully around the subject but I just guessed he was stalling for time.
"Draven! That is ridiculous. I have been going through this since I was seven years old and guess what...you weren"t around then and I coped! I"m stronger than you think, please give me a little credit!" This had him in the palm of my hand within seconds. I could tell my words had hit home.
"You are right. I forget how strong you are. I can"t imagine what it must have been like for you to go through that on your own. I wished I had known of you sooner, I could have helped you."
"Things happen for a reason and I wouldn"t change a thing....well ok being hunted by Demons might be one thing." I laughed but he frowned at my joke on the matter.
"Oh come on if I don"t laugh I will cry, so pick one." He didn"t pick, he just kissed me instead and obviously I complied.
"Anyway you are stalling for time." He smiled on my lips and I couldn"t contain my own.
"You know me well Keira." I liked it when he said this because he was proving to me on a daily basis just how well he knew me. This gave me some unneeded power.
"I have known Lucius since his beginning."
"Have you always been enemies?" I couldn"t help but ask questions but he grinned at me, which told me he had been expecting me to do as much.
"No we have not. For most of his years we were friends, we even fought side by side in battle but that is another story and one I am in no hurry to tell you." I gathered by his tone it was bad, with no doubt lots of blood shed.
"Is he as old as you?" He smirked at me. Draven had not yet told me how old he was and this was one way to find out. I think he must be a little sensitive about his age.
"No he is not. Why is it you are determined to know how old I am?"
"Because I find it fascinating and excuse me but weren"t you the one who did everything in your power to find out everything about me?" He just shrugged. HA! I had him there!
"Lucius has been around since the dawn of Christ and his rebirth was days after the crucifixion of Jesus." I was lost for words! So that would make Draven older than Christ! Holy s.h.i.t! I tried not to react but he was staring at me waiting for the slightest of reactions. He let out a low growl when he saw one.
"And when was that exactly?" I asked making one of his eyebrows rise but he just shook his head in submission.
"It was a Friday, April thirty three AD. I think, we didn"t doc.u.ment dates the same back then, as they do today."
"Were you there?" I felt kind of weird asking about it but I was near br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with questions and I didn"t want to be disrespectful.
"No, there was no need for us to witness his plans. And he was still a human then....well of sorts. Powerful for a human but as the son of one of the G.o.ds, then it was to be expected." He was talking about it with little emotion which surprised me.
"What do you mean there was no need, couldn"t you have prevented his death?"
"Yes but this was not his wish, nor the wish of the G.o.ds." He said this with such ease, I it found baffling.
"Ok, now I am confused, he wanted to die?" This was not the religious education I had learnt back in school. I think my teacher would have had one of her usual meltdowns listening to Draven talk about the crucifixion this way. Miss Brown used to keep a flask of coffee laced with whiskey in her top desk draw. She used to swig from it when being bombarded with questions like "Is there video games in Heaven?" or "Will I meet my dog there and will he still have the tire marks on him from where he got run over?" Needless to say she didn"t last the year.