Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7)
Page 19
“Then I am satisfied,” he commented obviously worrying about who he was entrusting with my care.
“Now let's see if we can cool you down, shall we?” he said surprising me and making me squeal when he suddenly plucked me off the bed in one swift move.
“Wait, I…uh…what are you doing?” I asked as he yanked the sheet from my body, leaving it to float back onto the bed. He lifted me up to get a better grip and thought that giving me a cheeky grin was enough of an answer. I wanted to demand where he was taking me seeing as I was stark naked, but when he only went as far as the balcony I relaxed slightly.
He stepped outside and he was right, the night air did manage to cool my skin somewhat. But being naked in his arms I feared I would need an iceberg to cool me down fully, for the heat he gave off would more likely burn me long before the Persian sun would ever get a chance to.
He lowered me down, letting go of my legs first so that I could stand. I couldn’t help but frown in confusion as I had no clue what he was up to. I don’t know why but being naked both added to the excitement and to my nervousness, which I guess only ended up with one fueling the other.
“Wait here,” he ordered and even though it came as a whisper it was still commanding enough to make me do as I was told. I didn’t dare look round but instead closed my eyes and let my other senses take over. I could hear his footsteps behind me and the slight scraping sound of something on the floor before obviously being picked up. Then I felt his presence enter my personal space once more, making my skin hypersensitive ready for his touch. So much so that when he traced his fingertips up my spine I jumped before shuddering at the sensation.
“I thought the view of my city at night was one that I would treasure throughout my lifetime but by adding your beauty to the picture it will no doubt stay with me, not only in this life but also on to the next,” he told me softly and on hearing such a compliment I couldn’t help but close my eyes and bite my lip after swallowing hard. It was such a beautiful thing to say I could feel the emotions inside me rising beneath my eyes.
“You do me a great honour my Lord, for your city is the most beautiful city I have ever seen,” I told him remembering how I felt when first seeing it in my dreams.
Scalloped stone peaks decorated the tops of palace walls where guards could be seen manning their stations. Hundreds of tiny lights were dotted inside the outline of sandstone buildings like flickering candles defying gravity. The distant mountains created a dark vista all around us, the tips touching the sky as if trying to reach the full moon. And speaking of the moon,
“I love how your pale skin looks under the moonlight, but more so how it contrasts underneath my own,” he told me, coming up closer to my back and wrapping his arms around my torso. Then he entwined his fingers with mine and lifted our joined hands up so I could see the differences in our skin colour for myself.
“It is almost easy to believe you have been touched by the Goddess of Light and her power still lingers on your skin.”
“I…I…no, I just, uh…I’m just pale, my Lord,” I said not really knowing what to say or how to take such a compliment. He reached around and lifted my face up so that he could look down at me from behind. Of course, given our height difference it was easy for him to see whatever it was he was looking for.
“Tell me, how is it possible for such a beauty not yet to be accustomed to hearing such things?”
“You’re the only one who tells me I’m beautiful,” I said in a quiet voice wanting so much to add…‘that matters’ on to the end of that sentence. He gave me a disbelieving look and said,
“I doubt that.”
“It’s true. Plus I didn’t always look like this,” I told him thinking back to how I used to hide myself away under layers keeping my head down. How my life had changed since being taken by Morgan and then once again when meeting Draven. It was as if before I was a closed rose bud, unwilling to open itself up and making itself vulnerable to the elements. But then someone came along and took the time to gently coax it from its safe cocoon, giving it the strength to bloom and open itself up to whatever the world had to throw at it.
“Sweetest one, you are stood in front of my world naked, hidden by nothing and graced by the moon. You can hide yourself away under layers of silk but it is you that brings forth its beauty, not the other way around. You can hide nothing from me.” He whispered this last part making me shudder against him. It felt like the sweetest of threats but one I knew I could only push for so long. For the reality of my situation pierced my chest like a thunderbolt when I thought of all the parts of myself I was hiding from him.
“Now let’s see how good a servant I make,” he said teasing me and giving my chin a little shake before letting my face go. It was such a common Draven gesture to make, it was getting harder to distinguish between the two of them.
He started doing something behind me and I couldn’t help but take a peek over my shoulder. I watched as he untied a deep crimson coloured sash from around his waist, one that had tarnished gold disks attached to it. They were fastened like belt buckles and as he pulled the material through, he discarded them one by one as they clattered to the ground. I looked to see each held a different symbol of some sort and I wondered what each of them meant.
I looked back once more to see him winding the length of his soft belt around his wrist and then his hand before gathering the end to hold in his palm. Then he dunked his arm inside the water filled urn he had obviously carried over earlier.
It quickly became clear what he had in mind but even so, I still sucked in a startled breath when he started to cool my body with the cold water.
“Better?” he asked with his lips against the top of my shoulder before kissing and sucking away the droplets he had left there.
“Mmm.” I made a noise that sounded anything but ungrateful for what he was doing and he laughed once as he dipped down again to plunge his arm in the urn once more. This time when he pulled it out he brought it to the front of me by my neck so that when he squeezed his fist, the water ran down over my breasts and belly. The feel of the water trickling down my skin combined with the sensation of the night's air caressing it further was enough to have me moaning louder.
“Addicted.” Draven muttered to himself behind me and I wondered briefly if he was talking about how he felt about me or how he thought I obviously felt about him. It was certainly clear by my actions as I couldn’t help but squirm against him wanting…no, more like needing… to make more contact. For short insignificant seconds I thought about Pip’s warning but when his hand came up again to drip even more water on me, this time dripping down in between my thighs, my thoughts quickly became lost in only the man at my back.
I didn’t even realise what my body was doing as I arched my back and pushed my body forward whenever his hand would grace my skin with his touch. It was as though I had no control over myself and the next time he came close to my breasts I pushed them even further against his fist, wanting him to feel for himself how hard my nipples had turned.
“I adore how your body responds to my hand. Like a finely tuned instrument that only I can play.” I should have blushed at the comment but he was right and I was too lost in the erotic feelings he created. This, of course, increased tenfold when his hand dipped even lower and rung out the water right over my feminine core.
“Uh ahh mmm.” The noises I uttered made no sense but spoke volumes as to what he was making me feel.
“Is that what you want…?” he asked in that velvet voice of his humming at my ear. To make his point and to get me to respond quicker he gently caressed the folds of my labia before grazing his fingers along my clitoris, making me arch back even further against him.
“Please,” I moaned knowing there was no going back now, I needed the touch only he could give me.
“Your skin is getting hot again,” he said and pulled his hand away and I couldn’t help but release a small cry in regret.
“Don’t fret little o
ne, I am coming back,” he told me, his voice thick with lust but also obviously amused. I released a deep sigh when he kept his word and brought his dripping wet arm back around me. This time he put his hand back to my mound and tightened his fist so that the water all gushed at once through my folds and down my legs, joining the liquid his touch had already created.
I was so close it was maddening and he had barely even touched me. It was easy to see why though, given the romantic setting of his city lying at rest in the moon's shade. The warm glow of the flames dancing shadows along the walls from the lamps lit in the room behind us. The smell of incense burning somewhere below and the scent of cold water on hot skin combined with the sexual musk my own body emitted was enough to drive me wild. But added to all this the feel of his fingers touching my most intimate spot and a tight bundle of nerves that was just desperate to be played with, well then I had no chance at lasting long.
“I can’t wait to see you unravel beneath me just as you do now, only instead of my fingers…” At the exact time, he inserted two up inside of me making me cry out.
“It shall be my cock fitting tightly in your sheath,” he said in a harsher tone, telling me just how close to the edge he was. His fingers continued to pump inside of me, stroking all the delicate nerve endings in just the right way so that when I started screaming it was from coming this way instead of stimulation to my clit.
“Yes, yes, yes…YES!” I shouted reaching up behind me so that I could lock my hands around his neck just for something to hold onto as I felt as though I was falling. The feeling was so intense that he also had to hold up my body with his other arm banded around me so that I wouldn’t crumple to the floor. My legs had turned to liquid and my knees no longer wanted to lock and support my weight.
He rocked his fingers inside me a few more times so that he could feel my passage clamping around his fingers, trying to keep him there for longer.
“Calm that little heart of yours sweetness and take breath,” he said clearly worried about me and I did as I was told, inhaling deeply and feeling lightheaded in the process. As if sensing this for himself he removed his hand from the firm grip he had of me down there and before we moved from the balcony, he dipped his hand in the water once more so that he could clean the mess he made. I could feel my own juices dripping down my legs but at the feel of the cold water hitting my overheated core I couldn’t help but scream out once more.
“Easy now,” he said as he swept me up into his arms to carry me back inside the room. I felt exhausted, as if the last of my reserves had been quickly swallowed up and now all that was left was an empty shell zapped of all energy.
“I think I have pushed you quite enough for one night. Time for you to rest now,” he said laying me back on the bed gently as though I would easily break. I couldn’t even find the strength to argue, not that I would have, given that I was half asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
“Sleep easy Little Lamb, for I will stay with you and guard over what will soon be mine,” Draven whispered in my ear after he tucked me closer to him, resting my head in what was usually my little nook. He draped my arm over his chest and wrapped his own arm around my back, pulling me in as close as I could get. Once he was satisfied he released a contented sigh just before I fell into a deep sleep.
“Time to wake now, Keira.” I heard his voice but sleep still lingered on and wasn’t in any rush to give up power over my mind just yet.
“Just a few more minutes.” I moaned trying to roll over but something wouldn’t let me.
“But it is time,” he told me and after having more time to focus, I knew now that it was Draven’s voice.
“Time?” I questioned still unable to fully open my eyes. And then logic started to slowly seep its way into my consciousness. I had fallen asleep in the King’s arms but the man who spoke to me now wasn’t the Draven I had travelled back in time to find, it came from the Draven I had left behind.
“You said my name,” I whispered as it slowly dawned on me and upon opening my eyes I found I was right. I was back.
“Draven!” I shouted his name and threw my arms around him.
“Hush now,” he told me holding my head to his chest and it was only when he said this that I realised that I was sobbing. I just couldn’t help it. The emotions were overwhelming and without giving it a second thought as to how I had made it back, all I cared for in that moment was that I had.
“Say… it… again,” I told him in a broken sentence due to crying around my words.
“Keira.” He said my name again knowing exactly what I needed in that moment and it felt like I was breathing fresh air for the first time since making it back from Hell all that time ago. Why was it that I felt suddenly haunted as if none of this were real?
I lifted my head up and saw we were, as I suspected, in our bedroom, one that was more familiar to me than any other room I could call home…yet, it wasn’t the same. Yes, the furniture was the same, the bed, the tapestries and even the smell of antiques that followed you wherever you went in Afterlife but the truth remained…
This wasn’t Afterlife.
“What is this place?” I asked looking back at Draven to see him staring straight past me and out of the glass doors ahead.
“Much has changed since you left,” he told me and I followed his steady gaze around to see what he saw.
“Persia.” I could barely believe what I saw let alone what I spoke of. For there all ablaze was the city that not so long ago I had found such pleasure in beholding.
“But it can’t be…I…I must be dreaming?” I said shifting off the bottom of the bed to get closer, needing to see what trickery the glass must be portraying. I stepped up to the glass and tentatively touched it needing only my fingertips to open it. The glass slid open and the smell of smoke and fire burned my nostrils along with my lungs as I breathed in not only the scent of destruction but also the scent of death.
“What happened…what is this?” I asked taking in all around me as far as the eye could see the city of Ctesiphon and all it’s glory now lost to smoke and ruin. A battle in the distance raged on but within the city’s walls, there was nothing left after the brutal siege had penetrated the city gates after being long battered open.
I felt Draven come up behind me and his hands gripped the tops of my arms.
“Why didn’t you do something?” I implored knowing that he had the power to stop this.
“He doesn’t have the power to choose but he doesn’t have the will to lose…remember that Keira,” he whispered behind me cryptically and I turned round to look at him only to find my greatest fears come true.
“DRAVEN!” I screamed his name just as his body was turning to ash right before my eyes. I had never seen Draven die because Draven could never die…he could never die!
“Draven…come back to me…please.” Suddenly I was shaken awake as if someone out there was answering my prayers.
“Draven?” I spoke his name as I opened my eyes only it wasn’t the face of a man who loved me staring back at me like I expected. No, instead it was the face of a man who looked close to losing himself to a fury buried deep within him, one usually conquered by his demon.
Then the reality of the situation came back to me as I remembered where I had been when falling asleep. It wasn’t in the arms of my Draven, it was in the arms of a Persian King. I knew this when the first words spoken through gritted teeth were ones that filled me with dread, for this time, I didn’t know how I was going to get myself out of this one…
“Who is this Draven?”
Chapter 54
Master at Pissing Off a King
Dreams can be a funny thing when the life you are living is the dream and the nightmare part is being ripped away from the life you want to be living. Take now for example. I was currently staring into the eyes of the King of Persia thousands of years into the past and he was furious with me at the very mention of another man’s name…
His future name.
Or was it simply a painful way of telling me that I was running out of time…in both worlds?
“I asked you a question, girl.” He snapped out the reminder as to why my brain was suddenly plagued with this new heartache and I jolted at the harsh sound of his voice.
“I don’t remember,” I muttered softly as tears slowly clouded my vision. Draven grabbed my arm making me moan at his rough treatment and forced me to look back at him.
“You don’t remember yet you shed tears for such a man!” His disbelief was easy to hear and my heartbreak was easy to see, for I couldn’t hide it any longer.
“You may not like the answers you hear but that won’t change the answers I give you.” I told him keeping my voice steady and trying not to break down in the face of the man I loved.
“You love this man?” he asked me and I couldn’t help it, my hands flew to cover my mouth as a silent sob escaped me. My reaction to his question was obviously answer enough for him as he recoiled back from me as though I had stabbed him in the heart.
“This…I…” I don’t know what was harder, seeing Draven’s rage or witnessing him painfully trying to find the right words to speak of it. It seemed so wrong that I couldn’t just explain to him that my heartbreak was over him. That this man I loved, this Draven, was the same man I was looking at now. That they were one and the same. But I knew if I did all would be lost and the reasons for me coming here would then be pointless. I hated myself for doing this to him, in this time and my own, but what choices did I have?