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

by Stephanie Hudson

  “No most definitely not.” After that he bid me goodnight, literally saying,

  “I will bid you goodnight,” and then kissed me on the cheek before walking out of my door. Of course he first looked down at my mountain of shoes and smirked at me as if he knew exactly the reason for them being there.

  “I uh…thought that was a better place for them.” I added sheepishly making him smile before saying,

  “I agree.” And then he left shaking his head to himself as if highly amused at stepping over my shoe collection.

  So I spent the rest of the night tossing and turning over what to do. In one corner I had an obviously failing relationship with Alex who still managed to have a point in some of the things he’d said. And then in the other corner there was the man I loved with everything that was in me but he had taken that love and crushed it to heart-breaking proportions. So in truth when someone you love like that could do that to you once then in theory they could also do it again. The only thing I knew for sure was that having it happen a second time I would not survive it or most certainly not come out of it the way I had again.

  I would have liked to have said that waking up after these chaotic thoughts rolling around in my head most of the night, I had now found my answers but that would have been a lie. I was still just as clueless as to what to do.

  In fact I had just finished getting ready for a day that I didn’t know what it had in store for me when my door was knocked. I almost wanted to roll my eyes at the idea of who it was going to be this time. Either way I had to rather ready myself for a fight if it was Alex or ready myself for the onslaught of feelings if it was Draven.

  In the end though this was a wasted effort as it was neither of them.

  “Uh…they’re lovely but I think you have the wrong room.” I said as I stared at the huge bouquet of flowers that was covering half the man dressed in a hotel uniform.

  “Your name is Catherine, is it not Signora?”

  “Oh, then I guess they are for me.” I said letting myself feel a bit of excitement at the prospect of who they could be from. Oh who was I kidding, I knew who I wanted them to be from and it wasn’t Alex, which unfortunately was exactly who it turned out to be.

  To my beautiful Catherine,

  I cannot express fully with words how

  Sorry I truly am, so I hope the colours in these flowers

  Show you the colours you bring to my heart.

  Yours faithfully

  Alex.

  I had the guy set them down on the table near the balcony and after trying to give him a tip, one he wouldn’t accept, he promptly left. So now here I was, staring at the massive arrangement of peach roses, pink carnations, yellow chrysanthemums, orange lilies and little purple flowers that I didn’t know the name of. This was all surrounded with palm leaves and ferns in a crystal vase. It was beautiful but along with the message written it just didn’t feel right somehow.

  In fact I was staring at them so long that when the phone rang I jumped and ended up answering it with my heart still racing.

  “Hello?”

  “Catherine, did you get the flowers?” Alex asked and I had to hold back my sigh, once again in disappointment that it wasn’t someone else on the other end.

  “Yes, thank you they were stunning.” I replied giving my voice the umph it needed right then.

  “Not as stunning as their new owner.” On hearing that I gave him a warm laugh and soon we were arranging to meet up for lunch.

  I was just on my way out to meet Alex, closing my door when I stopped and could do nothing but stare at Draven’s door. I wanted to knock, hell I even took two steps towards it to do just that but in the end I chickened out. For starters I still didn’t know what I was going to tell him. It wasn’t really a question of whether or not I wanted to go, because that would have made things easier. There was nothing I would want more than to be Draven’s date, especially after he told me it definitely wasn’t as friends. But was it right? I wasn’t so sure. I just knew one thing and that was I needed to guard my heart and protect myself above all other things.

  So I didn’t knock. No, instead I turned away from his door with a shake of my head and walked myself to the lifts without looking back. I even let my hand hover over the call button for a few seconds before pushing it angrily. It was just so damn frustrating!

  By the time I got down to the lobby and met Alex I was in a foul mood and it was one I had to hide. I couldn’t really understand it but tried to put it down to the argument last night that was still slightly stewing in the back of my brain. I knew that things with Alex should end because with me having these obvious feelings for Draven it wasn’t fair on Alex. But what held me back? Well in the back of my mind I knew that one as well and it was an ugly realisation because it made me a horrible person. But no matter how I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t. I was still with Alex because I was terrified that if I ended things with him then it would have been mission accomplished for Draven and therefore he would simply get up and leave again.

  I knew this logic was warped into the shape of something ugly, I really did but I couldn’t hide the truth from myself. What I really needed to do was be thinking more along the lines of…well if Draven could leave me a second time then surely I am better off without him? I wanted to believe this and put him to the test but the simple matter of it all was I was petrified.

  I didn’t want to lose Draven all over again…I just couldn’t.

  “Catherine, you’re looking radiant.” Alex said and I automatically looked down at myself to see what he was seeing. I had on a light blue, white and maroon coloured check skirt that kicked out just above my knees and to this I’d added a cute navy blue T-shirt that had all the same colours the skirt had, in the shape of a messy heart on my chest. It was a V-shape neck so for once I was showing a good amount of cleavage but I liked to think not too much. I’d also slipped on my light cotton zip up hoodie that was white and thankfully went with everything to hide my scars. To finish off my hair was simply plaited to the side.

  “Thank you,” was my shy reply making him smile.

  “I thought we could get an early lunch?” He said motioning to the hotel’s main entrance. I nodded and said,

  “Well I skipped breakfast, so I could eat.”

  We both walked out of the hotel and as I passed the bellhop I thought there was something funny about the way he looked at us both but I decided just to ignore it. For starters if it was Draven taking over someone’s body then there was nothing I could have done about it. However this thought still didn’t prevent me from looking back over my shoulder at him.

  Once we found somewhere to eat and a spare table to sit at outside Alex started talking.

  “I am so sorry about last night.”

  “Me too.” I said because I knew there were in fact things I was sorry for.

  “I guess I just let my jealously get the better of me.” This I could understand and the instant I thought it I was bombarded with painful images of Aurora. It left a bitter taste in my mouth and I started looking around for our waiter, now almost desperate for something to drink.

  “Catherine?”

  “Um...? Oh yeah, I can understand that.” I said trying to focus on our conversation.

  “Are you alright? You seem a bit distracted.” Alex asked and I whipped back round from trying to find the waiter too fast and knocked over one of our empty wine glasses at the same time as I said,

  “I’m fine reall…” The clatter quickly shut me up but thankfully our waiter finally made his appearance. We ordered drinks but because I was feeling agitated I picked up the menu and ordered the first thing I saw which happened to be wild mushroom risotto.

  “Oh, you want to order now?” Alex asked fumbling with his menu and trying to scan it quickly.

  “I really am hungry.” Was my answer and the waiter smiled down at me.

  Alex ordered some fish dish and I once again shocked him by ordering a large glass of white wine.
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br />   “Catherine!” Alex scolded after I downed half the glass.

  “What is wrong with you?” He hissed looking around like he was embarrassed to be seen with me.

  “Sorry, I guess I am a little jittery is all.”

  The rest of the meal was stilted but I managed to get through it faking I was tired whenever I would seem unresponsive.

  “So tonight? Do you want to go to that concert at the Castello Sforzesco?”

  “Uh, yeah I think so.” I said feeling like it was the wrong thing to say but honestly there was just something about Alex I couldn’t break away from. I wasn’t entirely sure I had come here today to break things off with him but I knew something inside me told me I wasn’t ready. Was it really the level I would go to keep Draven around? Was this the desperate person I had become?

  “You don’t sound so sure?” I laughed and for the tenth time told him I was just tired and didn’t sleep well from our argument. Well it was almost the truth I just missed out the bit where I obsessed over Draven most of the night after he popped up like some stalker.

  “So I will come to your door, do you want dinner before we go?” He asked pulling me to him at the waist and looking down at me.

  “I think I will still be full from today’s lunch.”

  “Well you did wolf it down.” At this I frowned making him laugh.

  “You know that’s not a very flattering thing to say to a woman, right?”

  “I like how you enjoy your food.” Again I gave him a disbelieving look but then let it go.

  “So maybe we should just grab something afterwards if we are hungry, there are plenty of places open till late.”

  “Then that sounds like a plan. I will see you later ma cherie.” Alex said before leaning down to kiss me gently on the lips. Then he walked away leaving me by the lifts. A part of me wanted to call him back and tell him I couldn’t do this anymore but something stopped me but I couldn’t fully explain what it was. It was like having your mind clouded to the truth. Almost like believing what you wanted to believe and ignoring the facts staring you in the face.

  I gave myself a mental shake thinking I had been doing that a lot lately. I waited for the lift and numbly got in wondering how on earth I was going to go through with what I needed to do next. I walked to my door and added on those few extra steps that took me to Draven’s suite. Then I stared at his door until I mustered up the guts to actually knock on it. It opened just as my hand was coming down and my fist ended up landing on Vincent’s chest.

  “Is that anyway to say hi to an old friend?” He teased before I shouted,

  “Vincent!” And then threw my arms around him causing him to go back a step.

  “Whoa! Happy to see me by any chance?” He said smirking and I was just about to reply when I heard a voice from behind me say,

  “I hope I get the same welcome.”

  “Sophia!?” I then left Vincent for his sister and ran into Sophia’s arms, making us both giggle.

  “I didn’t know you were both here as well?” I said pulling from Sophia to give her some breathing space.

  “Yes, well once again someone wasn’t prepared to share.” Sophia said making a growl come from one of the bedrooms behind her. I was only just now starting to notice that Draven’s suite was considerably bigger than mine but looked more like an apartment. It had a full sized living room, dining table that could seat at least ten people and even had a bloody piano! I mean why did hotels do this? Did they really think that was a priority when coming on holiday? And if they didn’t have one, did the hotel get complaints like…’well my little Rupert here wanted to play piano before being served his fois gras and caviar’.

  “I never felt inclined to share what belongs to me.” Draven said as he walked from the bedroom in a way that made me want to drool. In fact I think a little moan came from my lips at seeing him in nothing but a towel wrapped low around his hips. In fact I tried not to focus on his face as I could feel my cheeks hitting level nuclear meltdown. However this turned out to be a bad plan because I just ended up watching each droplet travel down the ridges in his eight pack with nothing short of envy.

  “I think we should leave them be, Sophia.” Vincent said grinning as though he knew exactly where my thoughts lay.

  “But this is going to be so entertaining.” Sophia complained as she was being ushered out of the room. I even heard the door close but still couldn’t force myself to look away.

  “Keira?” Draven asked on a laugh and my eyes shot to his as if he had snapped his fingers. I had to clear my throat before speaking, blurting out the first thing that came to mind…which was never a wise move for me.

  “I can’t be your date.” I watched his eyes smile and go soft before he walked closer to me. I automatically put up my hand to stop him.

  “Uh, no please…um…can you like, I don’t know…give a girl a break and put some clothes on or something…or a robe…surely you have one of those, here let me get it for you…” I said going to walk past him.

  “No!” He suddenly shouted in panic and I was stopped when he stepped in front of me.

  “Ooo…kay.” I said wondering what all that was about.

  “It’s a mess.” He said and I raised my eyebrow at him knowing this was a lie. I folded my arms across my chest which was all the look he needed to know he had been caught out.

  “Ok, so it’s not a mess but just trust me on this one okay?” I read the sincerity in his eyes and decided to drop it.

  “Alright, so back to me not coming…I appreciate the gesture in being asked but…”

  “The gesture?” He asked obviously amused at my choice of words.

  “Okay, whatever. I just came here to tell you I can’t go and…and…uh…” Suddenly I was cut off when Draven started walking me backwards. I made it all the way to one of the walls without bumping into anything, thanks to Draven’s hand at my hip, leading me. Then when I went to open my mouth again he placed a hand over it, silencing me in a very effective way.

  “Let me stop you right there, sweetheart. This is what is going to happen. You are going to give it some more thought as to what you want and I mean really think about what you want and I will be waiting in the lobby for you until 8 o’clock tonight. Then I will leave and hope with an intensity I only know when having you in mind that your hand will be in mine when I do. Now do you understand?” I could only stare into his deep eyes in amazement.

  “Keira, say yes to me and do it now.” I took note of the obvious need coating his words and gave him what he asked.

  “Yes.” As soon as my answer passed my lips he visibly relaxed and planted a soft kiss on my forehead. Then whispered,

  “Good girl”

  “Good girl…good girl…Good girl?” I kept repeating this back to myself over and over again once back in my room. I walked the length of the suite that much I was surprised there wasn’t track marks left in the carpet. I was so stupid!

  “Stupid, Keira!” I said smacking my forehead and remembering that kiss placed softly there. I obviously couldn’t be trusted to make these types of decisions on my own, not when a half-naked God stood before me…I mean he was dripping wet for Christ sake!

  “Oh come on!” I shouted up at the Fates, now remembering the sight. I looked at the clock on the wall that kept taunting me that time was getting on. I knew I needed to be ready for Alex by 8:30 but I cared little for getting ready. I was just trying to think about the ten minutes I had until Draven didn’t find my hand in his. What would it mean? What would it truly mean? Would that be it for us?

  “Oh God!” I said thinking if I asked hard enough in my head then someone would take this decision from me. I couldn’t do this, it was too much.

  “It’s too much.” I said repeating my mind out loud. Nine minutes…oh no, now eight minutes. After staring at the clock for nearly another minute I then jumped when the phone rang. Oh God, was it him?

  “Hello?” I said on a whisper too scared to know.

 
; “Catherine it’s me, I am so sorry to have to do this to you but…”

  “You’re cancelling?” I asked quickly interrupting.

  “Yes, I am sorry but work came up and…” He never got to finish. I looked up at the clock seeing I had seven minutes. This was it. This was my sign. So I dropped the phone mid Alex explaining, no longer caring about anything but those seven minutes.

  I just ran out of the door with nothing but my heart pounding.

  “At least it still beats.” I said to no-one but myself knowing this was the truest thing I had said out loud. Because that was my answer. My heart was still beating and it wasn’t for the man on the phone but for the man waiting for me.

  The man waiting for my hand.

  “Oh come on you stupid son of a bit…” I never finished because I saw the lift was stuck on 3 and I was running out of time.

  “Oh sod it!” I then saw the sign for the stairs and ran. I shot through the door as if I was being chased and jumped the last steps every time there was a landing. I used the railing to swing my body round quicker hoping I could get there in time.

  “Seven minutes.” I said as I saw the numbers to the floors going down but not quick enough.

  “Five”

  “Four”

  “Three”

  “Shit!”

  “One, finally!” I shouted as I burst through the door. I ran blindly around a corner until the lobby opened up in front of me. I was panting, I was a mess and I felt like crying because I couldn’t see Draven anywhere…

  “No.” I whispered feeling the pain of crushing disappointment start to invade my senses. Then I heard it, the most amazing name in all the world just because hearing it meant the beautiful flower of hope could now bloom.