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

by Stephanie Hudson

  I was just about to be pulled from this place through the door when the man nodded once and moved from in front of the painting. I had to put my fist to my mouth to bite down on to stop from crying out as I took in its horror for the second time…

  My Demon Alex.

  Chapter 22

  Seventy Seven Reasons

  I let Alex pull me from the room and as soon as the door closed behind us I let myself believe it was all in my head. Had that guy even really been there? And if so, then what was going on in my mind? Why was I dreaming about this guy and what was he talking about me really seeing? There were once again just too many questions and not enough answers to deal with.

  “You’re sure you were alone in there?” Alex asked again looking back at me and it was starting to look like he was a bit paranoid. Only was it still classed as paranoia if in fact he had been right in thinking I hadn’t been alone? Well whatever the answer, it still didn’t change mine.

  “I’m sure.” He looked at me as if assessing the truth for a second and then nodded once. I must have been getting better at this lying business I thought wryly as we made it to the end of the corridor.

  “I think I’m good now, Alex.” I said nodding down to where he still had his hand gripping the top of my arm.

  “Oh,” was his response and it was as if he hadn’t realised until then that he was still holding on to me.

  “I’m sorry, I guess finding you alone and frightened is just playing on my mind.” I smiled at him and peeled away his fingers hoping there wouldn’t be a bruise tomorrow as that was the last thing I needed a certain someone to see.

  “Its fine, I was silly wandering off.”

  “Yes you were, but I understand your frustrations…you weren’t expecting him were you?” Alex asked and I could tell he was trying not to let that question sound accusing.

  “Of course not,” I said and in turn trying not to let my answer sound like snapping.

  “Right.”

  “And what is that supposed to mean?” I asked folding my arms and unable to resist the urge to cock out my hip to one side.

  “Nothing…look, let’s just get out of here, I think this night has been ruined enough for us, don’t you?”

  “Fine!” This time I didn’t care about snapping and just walked past him knowing that he followed. I didn’t see Draven as I was making my way to the entrance and for once I was happy about it. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction that it was obvious Alex and I were fighting. After all, there would have been little doubt as to why or more like who we were arguing over.

  When we both reached the street I left it up to Alex to shout a taxi over and after a few tries we finally got one. I was just bending down to get in when I noticed a blacked out Rolls Royce that looked very similar to the Phantom we drove in that one time. It didn’t take a genius to know who that held inside and as I scooted over to the other side I watched as it went past slowly. I quickly sucked in a breath when the passenger window started coming down and Draven’s worried expression was all I could see. He then went out of sight and by the time Alex got in beside me I still had my eyes closed.

  “Still angry?” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and instead turned to look at him. What could I say? I mean the guy had tried everything tonight to give me something special and because of my past it had been one thing after another. He had bought me this dress, shoes and all what lay beneath it. He had taken me for a beautiful and romantic dinner and then to a gallery simply because he knew how much I loved art. In theory it should have been the perfect evening. So surely the guy could be forgiven for getting a little pissed off when my past shows up to bite us both in the ass…right?

  “Only with myself.” I found myself saying.

  “Why?”

  “Because it was the people from my past who turned up tonight that ruined it for you but for what it’s worth, I still had fun.” And that was the truth, however I just didn’t want to delve too deeply as to why. For starters I would then have to fully admit the pounding of my heart when seeing Draven again or what his words had meant to me, no matter how confusing.

  “Then that makes me happy to hear.”

  The rest of the journey back to our fancy new hotel was mainly taken in silence but at least now we had cleared the air it was comfortable. It didn’t take us that long and soon we were seeing one of the most beautiful sights I believed in all of Italy. The Duomo, Cathedral of Milan.

  “It’s stunning,” I said on a sigh and Alex chuckled next to me before saying,

  “It has a haunting beauty at night I think.” Of course he was right, it did have a haunting beauty. It dominated the open square and with its many spires looked as though it was reaching to the sky and trying to touch Heaven. The lights surrounding it illuminated it in such a way that it almost looked painted against the black canvas of the night.

  “Can we go see it tomorrow?” I asked as the car came to a stop not far past the centre.

  “We will have to see, I was supposed to being in a meeting tomorrow regarding this new account.”

  “Oh.” I said feeling dejected.

  “Maybe another time or you’re welcome to explore on your own.” Oh goodie I felt like saying but instead I said,

  “Yeah, I should do that.” Then I got out of the car hoping he missed my sarcasm.

  “What’s wrong?” Ok, so maybe he didn’t miss it.

  “Nothing,” I muttered and as we walked through the lavish reception I had an idea.

  “Come with me.” I whispered and pulled Alex along to the elevators.

  “But I am on this floor.”

  “I know, just trust me, I wanna have some fun.” I said giving him a playful wink. I dragged him in the lift and pressed the floor to go down.

  “Catherine, down there is the gym and spa.” Again I gave him a cheeky grin and said,

  “Yeah, I know.” And down we went.

  “You know it’s going to be closed at this time of night.” I ignored Alex’s worries and waited excitedly until the lift came to a stop. I then had to pull him out and I looked up to see the marble archway that had a metal sign in script writing,

  ‘Spa Sensuale’

  “Spa Sensual” Alex read the sign and my first thought was…perfect! So I pulled him through the arch with an exaggerated tug and looked round to find it empty.

  “See it is closed, let’s go.” I laughed and ran away from him, thanking the fact that there was at least some light still on. You couldn’t see much but enough to know the large open space held what I had been looking for. So I reached round and unzipped my dress, letting it fall to my feet.

  “Catherine! What are you doing?” Alex hissed as if I was committing the biggest crime this side of Italy.

  “What does it look like I’m doing?” I said hoping to sound seductive enough to get him to at least play along. After all, this was supposed to be a romantic trip away and so far all we had done was bicker.

  “It looks like you’re doing something stupid.” He reprimanded and this made me turn to see he was in fact scowling at me. I frowned pulling down my gloves and kicking off my shoes before thinking my new favourite saying, ‘oh to Hell with it!’ Then I said,

  “No, I am about to do something fun!” And then took a running jump and did a cannon ball into the pool. I couldn’t help but smile under the water at the fact it was heated but when I rose to the surface I soon lost my smile.

  “I refuse to deal with this!” Alex was saying as he walked away.

  “Alex! Where are you going?!” I shouted after him but he just continued on until he was out of sight.

  “Fine! You were a killjoy anyway!” I shouted knowing he couldn’t hear me but at least it made me feel better. I mean what was his problem? It wasn’t as if they would chuck us out of the hotel, the worst I would surely get would be someone coming in here telling me it’s closed. Jesus but it was sometimes like dating a choir boy!

  I just shrugged my shoulders and turned
my back on the lit entrance. It would have been nice to have seen all the room as the water looked quite eerie and black without enough lighting, but I was in here now, so I was going to make the most of it. Of course I was going to look a little obvious trying to get back to my room with ringing wet hair but thankfully I had spotted a large amount of towels as we came in so at least there was that.

  I had to say swimming in a corset was definitely a first for me and not the easiest feat at that. But there was also something very sexy about the way it clung even tighter to my skin when wet. I swam over to the side and decided to pull the pins from my head to free my hair from its confining side bun. I was just glad my feet could touch the bottom at this end as there were so many pins I would have probably have got cramp from treading water for that long.

  Once my hair was down I swam back into the middle and dived under the water. Then something bad happen. I had been busted! It was when I was still underwater that someone had suddenly flipped the lights on and I could now see the soft glow lit all around the pool. If I hadn’t needed to breathe I would have both said ‘Oh Shit’ and stayed under there hiding. But of course I was human so, I had little choice.

  “Hello Love.”

  “Draven!” I shouted in utter shock at seeing him here.

  “Keira.” He said my name with a grin he didn’t try and hide, unlike me when I couldn’t stop my arms from crossing over my breasts that were nearly spilling over my underwear.

  “What are you doing here?!” I screeched moving further away from where he stood casually against one of the marble pillars. He was still wearing his tux and the last time I had seen one on him was when he took my virginity, making me shudder with the intense memory.

  “I must say sweetheart that you have developed quite the knack for breaking and entering…tell me Love, is this a new hobby of yours?” He teased ignoring my question and pulling his bow tie free.

  “I hardly think this constitutes as breaking and entering, Draven, it’s an open archway not Fort Knox.” I said frowning.

  “That’s true… no warehouse fire escapes to pull down, no ivy ladders to scale, no fences to climb or villas to scope out… I think you see where I am going with this.” He said after taking off his suit jacket and now he was undoing the buttons of his shirt. I thought he was going to stop at the neck but oh no, he wanted to try and give me heart failure and carried on going.

  “Er…what are you doing?” I said as his cufflinks dropped to the floor without him touching them. His shirt quickly followed and I watched open mouthed as he threw it casually on top of his jacket. I tried not to notice all those lickable muscles but one thing I couldn’t ignore was the two bands of leather that I knew covered the scars that he always kept hidden.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He asked smirking and I snapped my mouth shut just so that I could swallow the pebble sized lump that went down like hot coal. I shook my head letting the wet strands part and one stuck to my cheek. This made his smirk deepen to a one sided grin as his hand went to the fastening on his trousers.

  “I’m becoming an accomplice.” He finished at the same time as unsnapping his pants.

  “Ohh my…oh dear…ok, ok…umm…” I started making all these noises in response to seeing him getting naked and I had to quickly turn round before I passed out and drowned. I heard his deep laughter behind me before I heard the splash. I needed to get out of here…like in a big friggin way!

  I started to make my way to the other side, wading through the water to get there quicker but was stopped when an arm quickly wrapped around me from behind.

  “Hey you, where do you think you’re trying to swim off too… um?” He said all this with his lips at my ear and the feel of his rippled muscles at my back had me close to drooling.

  “Uhh…” Was the only sound my brain could muster up my body into making. I looked around the room trying to focus on anything other than the desire blooming within me, pushing against the barriers I had put into place. Of course one look at the room and I knew I was in trouble. Let’s just say there was a reason it was called Spa Sensual!

  The large room was made to feel so intimate with its low ceilings and ambient lighting in blues and muted orange and pinks. All the lights were directed at the walls and some twisted iron art work that also doubled as a water feature. The sound of water trickling along different materials like metal and glass added that gentle sound in the background that was needed to cover the pounding of my heart. Then there was the marble loungers running along one wall and the whole place reminded me of some kind of harem, as I could just see naked beauties spread out seductively, trying everything to entice the King at my back. But wait…where did that vision just come from? It was so real, like a flash of the future.

  “Well at least breaking into here I didn’t have to worry about you breaking this pretty little neck.” He hummed as he tantalisingly ran his fingertips up and down the length of it. This was the point that a moan escaped and he growled behind me quickly making me forget any vision. Luckily it was also the moment that I came to my senses and tried to pull myself from him. Although this was Draven we were talking about, so it didn’t exactly go to plan, as in, not at all. No, instead of me getting my own way his arms tightened across me and the fingertips that were exploring became a full hand at my neck, holding me immobile.

  “Tut tut Keira, I think you know by now how I feel about you leaving my arms.” This made me frown and find my anger through the heavy weight of lust that was also infecting my mind.

  “Actually I know exactly how you feel about leaving me as you have done it often enough.”

  “Ah there she is.” He said ignoring my pissed off tone altogether.

  “Let me go, Draven.” I demanded and I felt him sigh behind me before he granted me my wish. I pushed away and turned to find both his arms outstretched as if making a show of letting me go.

  “You can’t just do this whenever you feel like it.”

  “Do what exactly?” He asked raising an eyebrow and folding his arms across his naked chest. The action caused his biceps to bulge and now there was no material hiding them I felt my mouth go dry at the sight. There was that delicious line from the rounded and defined muscle of his massive shoulders that cut into the powerful force of his arms. It shamefully made me want to lick the length of it.

  “You can’t just come flying back into my life when it suits you, then walk away, leaving me with nothing but a load of cryptic shit to deal with and a messed up hea…head afterwards.” I said and thankfully caught myself before I said the word heart instead of head.

  “I’m not going anywhere this time, Keira.” I couldn’t help but laugh at this.

  “Yeah right…whatever! Look you wanna be friends then that’s fine, it won’t be easy but I think I can do it but we will never be anything more, not again, do you understand?” I asked trying to sound firm but it was getting harder when he kept stalking closer to me. I hadn’t even really realised it until now but I had been moving backwards. So how I was shocked when my back hit the side of the pool I didn’t know.

  “Uh…so…do you…understand that is?” I asked as he came at me to the point where I had to tip my head right back to say this. Both his arms came to rest either side of me, gripping the edge of the pool and I knew this was Draven’s way of saying you’re not going anywhere and effectively caging me in.

  “You want to be friends then that’s what we will be.” He said this in a way that sounded far too friendly to be classed in the same realm of ‘Just friends’.

  “Well, alright then.” I said filling the void with something that didn’t need to be said but helped mask my nervousness anyway. Well ok, given the look Draven just gave me he knew I wasn’t masking diddly squat but thankfully he didn’t have to say anything other than with his cocky grin.

  “I must say friend, if I thought you looked exquisite in your dress earlier then now I think you look like Heavenly sin in the rain.” Draven said and I had to bite my lip to
stop myself from saying something stupid or more like… dangerous. However, Draven took this silence as an advantage to continue with whatever game he was playing with me as he first leant forward and said,

  “You’re blushing Keira, any reason for that?” So I did the only thing I could and that was escape. I quickly ducked under his arm going under the water and swam away to the deeper end. I was left trying to stand up on my tiptoes before I knew I would be treading water.

  “I don’t think you have had many girlfriends…I mean…girls that are friends that is…you know what I mean…like before.” I said stumbling around the words.

  “Are you suggesting that I don’t know how to behave?” He asked and I knew it was another tease.

  “Oh I know you don’t know how to behave, that’s my point.” I said in reply laughing and once again watching as he stalked me through the water.

  “Then educate me.”

  “Yeah right, isn’t that like teaching an old dog new tricks?” I said now teasing him back and not being able to help the compulsion.

  “Well this old dog responds well to petting if that helps.” At this I burst into a fit of giggles and threw my head back.

  “I’m starting to think you might have a behaviour disorder, Draven” I said but finished it with a little yelp when I saw how close he now was again.

  “What me?” He said and before I could register what he was doing by leaning to one side, I just felt a hand shackle my ankle and pull. I went under the water with a gasp and came back up immediately when he gripped my waist and lifted me back to the surface.

  “Oh no, now you have gone and done it!” I said after pushing the hair from my face and then launching myself at him trying to take him down. I wasn’t sure whether it was all my weight being thrown against him in my surprise attack or whether he in fact just let me take him down but we both went under, with me on top of him. I didn’t miss the way he kept his eyes open under the water as I did or the way he was smiling in a way that mirrored my own daft grin.