The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga)

by Stephanie Hudson

  In the end I just picked out a two, layered t shirt that had long sleeves. It was black and light grey, which made my eyes appear a shade darker. This I matched with a tight pair of faded jeans that flared at the bottom. I then started to search around for underwear and socks before getting dressed in my new outfit that had had all the tags removed. I smiled at the thought of Draven not wanting me to know how much everything had cost. Well at least he knew I wasn’t with him for money.

  I felt funny about going through his drawers but that was the only place left for them. I started at the top and almost screamed when I saw what was hidden there. It was completely filled with very expensive looking watches. One looked so full of diamonds that it would soon start bleeding them. I saw the name Piaget’s Emperador Temple and bit my lip. There were other names like Franck Muller Aeternitas that looked like it had more functions than a Swiss army knife! Another said Louis Moinet’s Meteoris and this one looked like it didn’t only tell the time but also the solar system! There were other makes, some I even recognised but you would have still needed to re-mortgage a house to purchased one. I gulped down the hard lump before moving on to the next drawer. Thankfully, this one just had men’s underwear and socks, so this one I closed quickly so that I couldn’t see any designer names. I dreaded to think how much he spent on his boxer briefs.

  Lucky number three it was and I hit the jackpot. I was a bit surprised when I saw it was very similar to the one I had at home. I half expected it to be full of red and black lace but when my favourite white cotton, short briefs filled the space, I smiled. Of course there were some other varieties but I grabbed the most comfortable ones as any of the others wouldn’t be seen anyway, not until I was off and ready again for the naughty. The next drawer down held bras and the last one, socks. I took out what I needed and changed.

  When I got back into ‘Our’ bedroom, as he kept calling it, there was food waiting for me. I sat down and helped myself to the plates full of sandwiches, cakes, fruit but most of all a pot of tea. I sighed with contentment as I filled my belly and sipped my warm mug of tea. It felt so good that it almost made me forget the last horrific twenty four hours. I snuggled deeper into his velvet covered couch and started to feel my eyes fall. I was still tired but I knew if I gave in and closed them I wouldn’t wake again until the next day. Luckily I heard the door open and this made me sit up, with my eyes wide open.

  Draven entered and by the smirk he had playing at his lips, I knew he had seen me nearly nodding off. He took note of the empty plate and mug that I must have dropped on the floor. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been empty and now there was a light, brown liquid seeping from the rim.

  “Sorry!” I said as I picked it up and removed a napkin from the tray to clean up the mess with.

  “Why are you sorry?” He asked me in earnest and came over to me to stop my hands from rubbing at the rug that looked older than my family tree!

  “Do you think you will ever get used to how clumsy I am?” I asked looking down feeling strangely nervous. He knelt down in front of me and gently removed the white napkin from my hands.

  “I find it endearing,” he said before lifting my face up so that he could get to my lips easily. After another very intense kiss he got up and joined me on the couch, pulling my body into his.

  “Now I would like you to tell me, why it is that a boy you classed as not having any interest in you, is coming here to stay and commandeering you for an evening?” This question soon had me in knots and making a face like I was sucking on a sour gobstopper. I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer but I really didn’t know what to say. He had heard everything that me and Libby had spoken about in the kitchen, so now all that was left for me was to do was explain why I felt compelled to entertain a boy, that I had once had a crush on, that now evidently had a crush on me, to my now new Demon boyfriend, who, let’s face it, had jealously issues. Boy...that was a toughie!

  Oh yes…

  This was going to be a long day…

  Chapter 25

  Finding a Balance.

  The next week turned out to be a complete contrast to last week’s events. That Sunday only needed for me to smooth things over with Draven about Justin’s stay and he found the silver lining that at least he could keep an eye on him with us having our ‘date’( as Draven had called it), at his night club. Of course I didn’t get this outcome without some extreme compromising. I had promised that I wouldn’t be alone with him and I would invite all my friends. I also agreed to spending the night with Draven after I had driven Justin home. And again, of course, these were all very reasonable requests but when Draven had made his last request which had sounded more like a demand, it was the one I was dreading the most.

  “And of course I must meet the boy!” I remember his words and the venom behind the word BOY. I gulped at the sight of his stern black eyes glaring into the distance of the forest floor. At that moment I was glad to have been on his balcony having this discussion because the heat generated from his look alone was enough to boil blood. Thankfully my skin was comforted by the early afternoon breeze and I could think as clearly as the cloudless sky above me. This was until Draven had let me continue with my endless questions about that night’s events, then my mind overloaded on supernatural laws. Draven had started to explain who the old woman in white had been when the clear skies changed to stormy grey.

  “Potnia is an old friend of mine and was waiting for the Blood Moon or Hunter’s Moon, as it is also known.” He explained as he took my hand and pulled me indoors away from the coming downpour.

  “Blood moon?” I asked remembering the full moon ringed red shining down through the dome right before Draven had dealt out his version of justice. The memory made me shudder.

  “It is when a crossing of souls is more likely to pass peacefully.” He smiled at my frown and decided to elaborate.

  “Potnia was over four hundred years old and needed a new vessel.” Ok, so instead of frowning he found me scowling.

  “Body, Keira, she needed a new body.”

  “What! So she is now walking around as that...girl, the child killer?!” I asked in disbelief.

  “Yes love, but don’t fret. Her essence, her light, it will change the vessel into something pure. We do not waste a good and young vessel.”

  “So what happened to the girl?” I asked in a whisper, like it would somehow get into trouble if someone overheard.

  “What do you think?” He whispered back with a wink, which slightly unnerved me, considering what he was teasing me about. I just shrugged my shoulders not wanting to speculate. He grinned an evil grin and thumbed towards the floor. The message rang loud and clear making me shiver. He laughed once before enveloping my body into his embrace. After that he wouldn’t answer any more questions I had and even got a little angry when I asked him about the room I had found with Lucius’s name etched into the walls. Instead he had picked me up and threw me over his shoulder before depositing me on the bed with a quick bounce before coving my body with his. There he made love to me like the night before, which left me struggling to get my breath for the next two hours.

  Thanks to Draven the nightmares the night before were already becoming a distant memory that I was filing away with all the other horrors that were lost there. It was soon becoming an abyss in my mind…. an endless pit of dark phantoms that only found their way back to my active thoughts when I was asleep. Of course the proverbial king of these nightmares had quickly stolen the black throne from Morgan and become the new jailer for this already scared mind. His name of course was once Judas, the universal name used for betrayal. Now his new name, Lucius, was received from the Devil himself… I was starting to think that I had no luck!

  I was now sat at my computer screen making my eyes water, I had been staring at it for so long without blinking. I rubbed my forehead as if by trying to find a genie in there to help me with my report. I had so much college work to do, I was feeling overwhelmed. I had caught up with English and h
ad finished my Spanish revision but it was history that was my problem and in more ways than one! The past had now replaced my fascination with millions of questions. These all based around one name…Dominic Draven. Every date, every major event and every catastrophe had me wondering where Draven was in the world when it was all going on and how much of the world changing events had really been down to rogue Demons and Angels. This was why I couldn’t concentrate on the French revolution.

  Half way between wanting to poke myself in the eyes for an excuse not to work anymore and writing about the absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsing in only three years, Libby thankfully walked into my room with a life line. A cup of tea.

  “Oh the Lord be praised, you’re a life saver!” Libby laughed at my outburst which had been a bit louder than I had intended.

  “That bad is it?”

  “You have no idea. Tell me again why I was persistent in going back to college?” I joked as I reached out to take the hot Simpsons mug off her. I looked down and blew on its perfect mix of brewed tea and milk.

  “Oh you know, Education, Job prospects, oh and don’t forget, throwing a square hat in the air when you’ve finished!”

  “Mmm, my favourite part.” Libby looked at me as if she still hadn’t got used to seeing me in such a good mood these days. I had overheard her one night talking to Frank about it. She ended up in tears and I was just glad that now people had exchanged tears of sadness for ones of happiness. I had spent too long feeling guilty about all the problems I had caused, well at least now I was making up for it. For now, I had never been happier!

  “You working tonight?” Libby asked as she pulled her coffee coloured sweater straight that was stretching thanks to the bump showing.

  “Yeah and I’m staying over so don’t expect me home,” I said with a wink as today was finally the day I had come off my period. She laughed and said,

  “These days I never do.” And although she had said it in a light hearted way, I heard an underlying hint of regret. Alright, so the guilt thing hadn’t left me completely. She had turned around and was making her way to leave when I had an idea.

  “Hey Libs, I was meaning to ask, do you have any free time next week? Cause you know, I could use some help shopping.” At this she whizzed round like someone had lit a rocket up her backside, only one that would make you smile, ‘cause she looked like a child did when they found out they were going to a theme park!

  “Yeah, I would love too but wait, you only went shopping last week.”

  “Yeah I know but it wasn’t the same, you remember me telling you about the designer shops right?” She laughed at the memory of my reconstruction of my famous shopping experience with Sophia.

  “I would have loved to have seen you in Gucci!” She laughed until tears glistened in her luscious, green eyes.

  “Never going to happen…. But hey, I wouldn’t say no to the Gap.”

  We arranged a day that I was lesson free in the afternoon and giggled a little more over my day with Sophia, when this made me remember something vital that had almost slipped my mind. It was a promise I had made to myself about the day when I was no longer held restricted to just heavy petting and intense kisses. I got up from my computer chair and walked over to my closet. I leaned down and reached at the back for a stripy pink Victoria Secret bag.

  I pulled out its contents and Libby wolf whistled. It was perfect and made me blush. She had always been able to do it since being taught by my dad when my mum wasn’t around. The last time I had heard her exercise this talent, was after a few too many at a family BBQ party. The flames had set the fence alight and when the Fire service was called, they met their match in Libby, fuelled on too much Pinot Grigio. My embarrassed father had to apologise for his daughter’s behaviour and send her to bed. She was twenty two at the time. I smirked at the thought, then quickly replaced it with hot cheeks as I looked down at the mixture of satin and lace in my hands.

  “Well… won’t somebody be having fun tonight?” She said before giggling her way out of my room. I sighed heavily, wondering how I was ever going to pull it off. My idea when buying it, was surprising Draven by wearing it under my uniform and going to bed early. There I would slip into the matching gloves and lay seductively on his bed waiting for my body to be discovered. Of course now that the actual day had arrived I was starting to get cold feet.

  I arranged the corset on my bed with the matching items and stood back. I was trying to imagine his reaction to finding me in this perfect example of sexy, seductive underwear. I bit my lip at the thought.

  I knew the last week had been particularly tough on him to keep his urges under control. A few times we had come close to crossing the messy line but the thought of my embarrassment later was what gave me the power to stop. I still found it hard to believe that Draven was as consumed with me as I was with him. He explained one night after an extreme kissing session how he felt.

  “The obsession I have over you can’t be explained in words and I fear there are no greater actions that can do my feelings justice. But when I say that I had never imagined happiness like this was obtainable for me, making this the one and only thing about human life that I envied, trust in these words. I had lost all hope believing that the Gods had created a soul mate to belong to me but now I have you here in my arms, I know it was worth all my lifetimes in wait.”

  At this point I had difficulty in holding back the tears that materialized in the corners of my eyes and was just thankful the only light had been the low glow from the moon, which cast a bluish tint to the furnishings. It had been the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me and I wished I could have responded with an equally beautiful response but in the end knowing I couldn’t find the word, I spoke with my lips. He smiled under my touch as he could feel my wet cheeks and there is where he found his feelings reciprocated.

  Even though we hadn’t made love that night it was still one of the most perfect nights of my life and one that will stay with me until the day the Gods decide to take me back. These thoughts were what changed my worried frown to an excited smile. I was going to go through with my plan and play the temptress for a night. After all that was the name of the outfit and tonight I would do it justice!

  I picked my mug back up and went back to the computer to try and retackle my own revolution. That was my rebellion with History. I looked down and saw even Homer Simpson was mocking me, with his speech bubble saying “Mmm… Donuts” making me think more about food than French royalists. Draven had offered to help me, of course, but I felt that asking him about dates that were past too many lifetimes to comprehend, does somewhat constitute as cheating. Not only that but I think his version of the past would contradict the written word, even though there was no doubt his account of events would be more reliable, however, there was no getting around the fact that I still couldn’t use any of it.

  History is made up of a collective narrative of the dictation of the men and women that lived through those times, whether it is through words or codes of pictures and symbols. I don’t think history would have been told in quite the same way if the world knew about how much Demons and Angels had to do with the outcome of how we live today. I could just imagine Mr Reed’s face when reading my report that stated how Demons and Angels were responsible for the fall of world leaders because it wasn’t beneficial to the Underworld’s balance on this fragile earth’s plane. It was almost worth doing to see his head spin 360 degrees.

  It took me a while to get my head round the fact that one can’t live without the other. We needed them as much as they needed us to survive. They feed from our emotions and we needed their protection from ourselves. Of course, this doesn’t mean that some of the world’s problems hadn’t slipped through the cracks. Bombs still exploded, wars still battled on and terrorists still held the upper hand in their fearless ambition to destroy the western world.

  If I thought the world had its problems before knowing Draven, then I was surely mistake
n. However I still couldn’t decide which was worse, being blissfully unaware and putting my sightings of the other kind down to an over active imagination or knowing the unbelievable truth had suddenly become believable. When I really thought about what I had learned and witnessed in just a few weeks, then any normal person would be in therapy for the rest of their days but no, not me, instead here I was thinking life had never been so sweet!

  It didn’t take me long to give up on history and concentrate on other things, getting ready for work being one of them…ok, ok, the only one! After spending enough time in the bath to make the tips of my toes wrinkly, I decided to get out of the deeply scented water and dry my newly scrubbed, shaved skin. I then smoothed over some of Libby’s fancy moisturizer until it felt fully soaked into every inch of my body’s surface. I did this feeling almost giddy at the thought of what was to come. I found myself wondering what his reaction would be. Would he be expecting it or would he first just stand there in shock, before taking me in those solid arms of his.

  We hadn’t talked about my period again after the weekend, so I gather he didn’t want me to think of him as impatient but considering when we were together, we couldn’t take our hands off each other, I think his impatience was a bit obvious. So tonight was a big deal. I wanted things to be perfect but as I had never done this type of thing before, I was still a bit nervous.

  Back in my room I found my seductive outfit screaming out at me like some sex fuelled beacon and I couldn’t help but blush. I knew I would need help tightening the corset and the thought of asking Libby didn’t help with my over sensitive reactions. After taking some time to put it all on and tying the ribbons to the thong, that was already starting to feel like cheese wire, I called down the stairs for my sister.