The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

by Hudson, Stephanie

  “You know why.” Draven snapped making Vincent lean forward and respond in a scary quiet voice,

  “I think you gave up that right, Dominic, when you walked away and left the rest of us to pick up the pieces of a broken hearted girl we both love.” I sucked in a laboured breath when I heard the first words of love being spoken aloud. Vincent loved me...? He must have meant as a sister…but then I remembered that kiss and it was hard to think of it like that anymore. I didn’t know how to feel about this new piece of information, but the light that sparked in my heart couldn’t be ignored.

  Draven took a step back in shock and his hand dropped from his chest like it didn’t belong there.

  “It is not the time for this Vincent, so as your brother, not as your King, I will ask you to stand down and let me do what is best for her.” Draven sounded calmer than I would have expected at a time like this and if I was to guess, I would say Vincent’s confession had not come as so much of a shock as I would have thought it should have.

  “And why don’t you, for once in your fucking existence, ask her what she wants?!” Vincent snarled and it was only the second time I had ever heard him lose it.

  “This isn’t your fight brother, so I beg of you… don’t make me act on force.” Draven was now gearing himself up as he shifted his body, waiting for Vincent to make the next call.

  “That fight is long overdue, now get out of my way or give her what she needs and the only ‘Gods be damned thing’ she has asked of you!” Vincent’s voice had changed in the end and instead of sounding like a demon’s fury it sounded like a God’s!

  “Please…don’t do this…I…can’t let…come in between… you.” I cried and then hated what I had to do for this to stop the madness that was ripping these two apart and me right along with it!

  “I will go…take me.”

  “Keira?” Vincent said my name in question to my whispered ramblings.

  “Hospital.” I felt Draven kneel by my side and take one of my clammy hands in his.

  “You would go to hospital just to stop this fight with my own brother?” Draven’s voice sounded thick with emotion and I could only nod, knowing what I was giving up for two brothers I loved…

  The connection to Draven I craved.

  The connection I had come this far to find.

  The connection I had nearly given my life for…

  But one I wasn’t prepared to ruin theirs for.

  “Very well Keira, I will do as you ask…now leave us Vincent so that I can heal the woman we love.” He said standing and I cried out on a broken sob from such relief I could barely breathe.

  “You are making the right choice.”

  “By the Gods I hope so…for all our sakes.” Draven said clasping the hand his brother placed on his shoulder to show the strength in his support. Then he watched him leave before turning back to look down at me and the sadness I found there brought on more tears.

  “Why are you crying, Keira?” He whispered softly, leaning over me and smoothing back the hair from my damp forehead.

  “Be…because I’m…sor…sor…rry.” I said breaking down even more.

  “Hey, come on now, didn’t I tell you you’re not allowed to say that word again?” I nodded and I felt him wipe under my eyes, taking the tears away with his thumbs. He gave me the time I needed to get myself to calm down until there were no more tears. I opened my eyes to find him sat next to me on the bed, playing with some strands of my hair in his fingers, taking in the shorter length, seeing the black instead of the gold that once was there.

  “You did this?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why?” He asked with his dark eyes flashing from my hair to my eyes.

  “I guess… I thought it would help…looking different… finding you.” His eyes ringed purple at my broken admission.

  “So, you did this for me?” I couldn’t voice my answer this time, not unless he wanted me in tears again. I gave him a small nod which he mirrored back.

  “You don’t like it?” I was taken back by the question but answered him,

  “Not really, I don’t think I make a very cool Goth.” I said making him smile for the first time, even if it was slightly held back.

  “I must confess I miss the sight of my golden Goddess… but Keira, the beauty you possess starts from in here…” He placed two fingers at my heart and then continued,

  “…and flows out to here.” To then run the back of his knuckles down my cheek. I blushed at his tender words and hoped it was hidden under the fever that plagued my system.

  “Let’s begin shall we?” He said and I started to bite my lip in worry as I knew before we started what I really needed to ask him.

  “I…um, well…”

  “Just ask, sweetheart.” He said looking down at me as he ran his thumb from my chin, to the hollow of my throat, leaving sparks like lighting a match with the sensation. He smiled when I swallowed heavily under his touch and only stilled his actions when I didn’t continue.

  “What will happen when…?”

  “When I heal you?” He finished off for me and I nodded, hoping he would find the real meaning in that question.

  “Ah, I see.” He must have seen it in my face, what I was really asking. He took a deep breath and then said,

  “You know what will happen, Keira, which is why you need to be sure this is what you want?” This was when it finally hit home. The reason why Draven didn’t want to heal me. It was because we would end up crossing that line neither of us had the bravery to talk about. I found the realisation of it hurt too much to look at him, knowing he didn’t want me that way anymore, but was willing to do so just to save me. It was the cruellest of remedies for both of us, but for very different reasons.

  “Look at me.” He didn’t force me but just waited patiently for me to obey and when the strength of his gaze got too much to bear, I finally looked back at him, the reason for my shame written openly across my face.

  “If you think I don’t want this then you’re wrong.” He told me firmly, looking down at my body so that there was no mistaking what he meant.

  “Then why…?”

  “Let me explain something to you…” He said interrupting me. He sat up straighter and took one of my hands in his to play with my fingers as he spoke, which managed to take away some of my sickly symptoms. Did just his touch help start the healing?

  “Why do you think the stories speak of Adam and Eve being placed to live in a Paradise on earth, when really he filled that paradise with temptations of sin?” I smirked before offering my view.

  “Because the part of that story they left out was that God was just a big kid playing with an ant farm and the tree of knowledge was really a snickers bar?” I said feeling my heart soar when this time I got a full Draven smile. And other than seeing my niece being born, it was quite possibly one of the most beautiful sights I had seen in this year so far.

  “I missed your humour.” Draven told my hands before he raised the one he was still playing with to place a kiss on my palm. The sensation shot straight to the centre of me, making me shudder.

  “Free will, Keira. It’s what the story is really about. Every human has the chance to make the right choice or in this case, the wrong one…but either way they both have something in common.”

  “Which is?”

  “No matter what path people take, it will affect someone, whether it be immediate or further down the road. Eve was tempted by the apple and Adam tempted by Eve’s offering. They both knew it was wrong, but free will gave them that choice and they each took it despite the consequences.”

  “What are you trying to tell me here, Draven?” I asked frowning at what he was getting at.

  “That when the right temptation is around, the wrong choices are mostly likely to win, no matter who it hurts down the road.” He said this looking like a man at confession but still I had to ask,

  “And what is the right temptation for you, Draven?” I whispered knowing what hi
s answer would be but needing to hear it voiced all the same.

  “Temptations of my heart.” I felt a single tear roll down my heated cheek on hearing that Draven still loved me. So this was the reason I didn’t yet have the right details. He hadn’t wanted to heal me because he knew what it would do to us both after the act.

  Which meant only one thing…

  We would soon have to part ways.

  “It’s time for my sin, Keira.” He suddenly said looking up at me with his own heat, only his was one burning straight up from his controlled level of lust. I swallowed down a hard lump of doubt and before I was just about to voice the new feelings I had on ‘our sin’, he was touching me. As soon as those large hands spanned either side of my stomach and started moving my top up, I had lost all thoughts of right choices.

  I watched as the material bunched up and up until it left my stomach bare and left the reason this moment was happening on display. The cut was red and swollen with a clear path fanning outwards to where the damage had travelled. The infection had spread and we both knew that if left untreated it would start to attack my organs, if it wasn’t already.

  “You ready?” I put my head back, closed my eyes tight and nodded knowing that the first feeling to wave over me would be pain. I felt Draven move above me and when his hand held my side securely, I knew its only purpose would be to hold me down. I didn’t think you could hear the sound of skin being sliced open, but I seemed to know when Draven tore into his palm ready for the healing, as I flinched.

  “You have to breathe, Keira.” Draven said thoughtfully making me let go of the breath I was holding like it was my last. Only when I did this did he touch me or I should say…Ignited me!

  The second his bloody hand came into contact with my wound the room filled with a blinding light and the power of that single joining tried to lift my whole body from the bed. I cried out at the intensity of it as I felt the essence of him flow into me for the first time in months. It was as though my blood had been craving his and as soon as it found it again it latched on to it, not ever wanting to let it go again.

  Fire and ice duelled within the confines of my body, turning the network of veins and arteries into a playing field. I felt that part of Draven was travelling around inside me, taking the parts of me it wanted and giving me what I needed to bind me back to Draven. It even found its way to my scalp and the tingling continued like the wind was blowing in my hair.

  This wasn’t like the usual healing I had received from Draven before. The only way to describe it was like being given the chance to relive through our first joining, only speeding forward to our very last. It was like every time we made love. Every time Draven left a piece of himself behind and taking something in return. It was like all those times had combined into one single moment.

  This one perfect moment.

  My blood was humming beneath my skin and I opened my eyes to see myself glowing. It was as if my veins had been replaced by fibre optic lights, as you could literally see his own power being transferred into me. And my body was lapping it up like cream coated morphine. Then came the need.

  That sexual need so great I felt my body would set itself alight if it didn’t seek release. I looked up to see Draven above me with the same intensity I felt, staring back at me. My hand went to his that was still fuelling me, filling me to the brim with the essence of him.

  “Dra…Draven…have…to…to…stop.” I panted knowing any longer and I would come undone beneath him, losing the thread of myself as he pulled and pulled me deeper.

  “No!” He growled and the hand that held me down moved to pin my wrist to the bed. The liquid purple in his eyes swam round the iris like it would soon spin out of control and I knew when it did, it would ignite his body in the same supreme energy. I used my other hand to grip at the one he used, knowing he couldn’t restrain me without first moving it. Or so I thought.

  He leant down to my neck and without a second of warning he bit down into my flesh and started sucking the blood from me in desperate gulps in order to complete the connection. I came screaming his name and instead of clawing at his arm, I was now doing so by his neck. I felt the vibrations of his groan and of my release simultaneously thumping through me. But it wasn’t enough and soon I was clawing at his back, trying to get to his skin.

  “Draven…I need…I need…” He released my neck and with my blood still staining his lips he said over me,

  “I know what you need.” Then he licked the last of me from his lips in a slow sensual swipe, before crushing them to mine in a bruising kiss. As I opened up to him it felt as though my soul was reaching out to him and I couldn’t have been happier when he answered it. He took the kiss to a place I’d never known before, as I tasted my life’s blood on his tongue, making something so dark and sinister right to Heaven’s gates. He tasted every inch of me as if I was a new discovery that needed the time taken to do it right.

  I felt his body above me shaking from the strain it seemed to take in holding himself back enough not to just pound into me and one move from me would be all it took…so I took it! I snaked my free hand down in between our bodies and grabbed hold of his straining erection in a strong grip. He broke the kiss to snarl down at me like a wild animal being taunted by its keeper and I smiled back at him, not feeling the fear that maybe I should have.

  “That feels like you want me.” I said biting my lip, causing him to watch my action like I was stripping myself bare for him. Then he did something so out of character I was left with my mouth gaping. He did the same thing as I did, snaking his hand down and dipping his hand under my pants, bringing two fingers through the valley to gather the moisture there. He then brought his dripping fingers back up and staring me right in the eyes, he sucked both fingers into his mouth. It was slow, it was bad and Holy Mother of God, it was sexy!

  “That’s tastes like you want me.” He then said making me moan and arch my back, pressing myself into him. Thankfully, he took the hint when I heard the sound of my pants being torn away and I looked up to see him align himself with me. His hands came up to my neckline and he gripped the material with both hands. With a sudden jerk to my upper body he tore the material down the middle, freeing my breasts for his feast.

  After pulling the useless top from under me, throwing it to the ground in a bunched fist, he then cupped both my breasts making them fill his powerful hands. He groaned at the sight before bending his head to suck at each nipple in turn, turning this part of me into a meal. My heart hammered and I had to grip his shoulders just to hold onto something solid. I could feel the length of him branding my belly, it near pulsating with the wait it had to endure, moisture seeping from the end making me want to weep with the wait as well.

  I moaned and writhed under him as he kissed, sucked, nipped and even painfully bit at the two points that felt like instruments played in a master’s hands. All of which felt like he was making love to them, worshipping them as if they each had their own separate wants and needs.

  “Draven, please!” I begged after feeling this for so long I thought I might lose my mind.

  “Say it again.” He demanded still with lips around my beautifully abused flesh.

  “Draven, please.” I felt him smile around me before letting me go with each nipple receiving a last flick of his expert tongue.

  “Now, time to make you scream it.” His demon was the one to add the heat at the end of this promise and I shuddered beneath him. I felt him move down the bed, running his hands down my body in the slow torturous way only the man you want knows how. He raked his nails down my sides and I cried out at the blissful trails it left behind.

  “A feast for the fucking Gods!” He swore and it too managed to add to the heat he built inside me. Then his hands spread out on my inner thighs and before I could say a word of protest his hands applied the pressure needed to pry my legs apart, pinning me wide open for his pleasure. His head lowered and at the first touch of his tongue tasting me, I screamed. And I screamed.
And I screamed some more. And Draven was right, after he had made me come and then come again, he had me begging the only way he wanted me to…screaming it.

  “DRAVEN PLEASE!”

  I gripped his hair, feeling the silken strands through my fingers before I pulled at him, desperate in something I didn’t have the brain power to fully comprehend. Did I want him to carry on, did I want him to stop or would I die if he did?!

  “That’s my girl.” He said rising up above me and bringing my legs up over his arms, open and ready for the finale of the show. I tried to tear at his clothes, needing to feel his skin against mine but his eyes flashed a darker purple, before he said,

  “No, Keira.” I frowned not understanding why he didn’t want to show me his upper body, to complete his nakedness. I must have closed my eyes as I tried to figure it out because Draven’s voice was at me once more, commanding things of me in way that heated my insides.

  “Now show me those eyes, I want to see your soul light up as it reunites with mine.” I opened them, trying to keep them more than half lidded but after the orgasms he had given me it was hard to find the strength. He leant down to nip at my nose and said,

  “Oh my poor girl, don’t worry, I wouldn’t ask too much from you my love, just give me what I want to make your Master happy.” I opened my eyes a little wider and nearly sobbed the question,

  “What do you want of me, Draven?” The smile I received was all demon as he quickly plunged himself into me to the hilt, growling out and as I screamed in the perfect pitch to what he wanted, when he told me my answer,

  “I want to devour every reaction from you, as I consume what will always be mine!”

  And then he began to consume me, taking me whole as though he had become a man obsessed with only one action, only one goal and my God it felt painfully perfect in every way!

  He moved inside of me and all that was left for me to do was hold on and give him what he wanted. Every scream, every pant, every breathless word that came from my lips he ate up with his dark gaze, like it was feeding his very soul. He took it all in… my abused bitten lips, my little panicked cries every time he hit that spot inside of me and hands that had to curl around the metal headboard like I was holding on from fear of falling from this dangerous ride. I felt completely studied and every time my face showed a different reaction he would groan and moan, turning him on to impossible levels.