During the meal the subject of a date came up and before I could say in about a year, due to what I remember of Libby’s wedding planning, Draven surprised everyone. He said very casually,
“In a few weeks.” I was just glad I wasn’t eating at the time as I might have choked on a mini Thai fish cake. I think my sister and mother simultaneously dropped their cutlery. My father and Frank just smiled nudging each other as though Draven was some kind of ancient war lord that didn’t mess around and therefore was to be admired by anything with a penis.
“Excuse me?” I said after finally finding my wits and putting them to good use.
“I am not waiting.” He said firmly and that was that. I had moved closer to him and said we would talk about it later. But when I tried to do this I found myself thrown on the bed and talking about weddings was the last thing I had on my mind. He claimed afterwards it was to prepare me for the wedding night and I had just laughed before promptly falling asleep from exhaustion.
I yawned now thinking about the three other times I had been woken up throughout the night to find Draven entering me. I was now deliciously sore in all the best places and was getting wet again just thinking about it. Although before we had this wild night of sex, which clearly was both of us trying to make up for lost time, we did have one little ‘chat’ about things to come.
As soon as he said the words ‘marriage ritual’ in the lift I just knew this was going to be one of those conversations where I was going to be left feeling out of my depth. I had prepared myself for bad and received the worst. I would have loved to have found out it was something similar to throwing the bouquet or having the groom pull off the garter with his teeth but this was something else alright, and it was happening tonight!
I was trying not to think about it. I really was but so far the longest time I had gone without thinking about it was about 15 minutes and that was when I was changing Ella’s nappy, then having to chase her around the downstairs half naked just to get another nappy on her really helped.
Tomorrow was my birthday and what needed to happen for the ritual was at one minute past midnight. It was this or we would have to wait until their New Year’s Eve party but Draven didn’t want to wait that long, as he was a tad impatient. Another thing Draven was impatient for, which was why I was here now, was me moving into Afterlife for good. He had kindly sprung this on me the first night home and I was just commenting on how much I had missed his bed.
He informed me it wasn’t his bed but our bed as I was moving in as soon as I was packed. I had asked the obvious question, ‘isn’t it too soon?’ to which he just laughed and said,
“We are getting married.” And this was the end of that conversation as again it was obvious he had more pressing issues on his mind, like the need to take me again pressing against my pyjama bottoms. I asked him if we should discuss this a bit more and he agreed, only his agreement came with his hand dipping into my waistband. Once there he gathered up the evidence of my arousal and used it to rub my sweet spot over and over. I only managed to say how unfair this was until I was moaning and begging for my release.
After it finished I just managed enough energy to say,
“I will pack tomorrow.” The last thing I heard was,
“Good girl,” before I fell asleep.
Which brought me back to what I was doing now…packing.
To be honest I really didn’t have that much to pack so it wasn’t this part that I had been dreading doing, no it had been telling Libby. I had expected her to try and talk me out of it or at least say that she thought I needed more time. But in actual fact as soon as I sat her and Frank down to talk about it they started laughing.
“Well no offense Kaz but we weren’t expecting you to still live here and not with your husband.” And I guess when Libby put it like that it did sound pretty stupid. And it’s like she said, it wasn’t as if I lived far away and besides, this way she got to go behind the scenes of the famous Afterlife.
I had to say I actually got excited about the idea of showing her around, although I think there were certain places I would be leaving off the tour. Can you imagine… ‘And to your left is Draven’s weapon collection but I assure you he’s not an arm’s dealer. Then in this next room is Afterlife’s very own crypt that leads onto a prison for Heaven and Hell’s worst criminals on earth… oh and then on from here is the Temple, where we hold our death sentences, host sacrifices, some annual fights with bad guys, New Year’s Eve parties and tonight our very own Supernatural Marriage ritual’. Oh yeah I could see this going down well with my mortal family.
“Do you need a hand?” Libby asked popping her head round the door and seeing me on the floor pulling things from my bottom two drawers to stuff into the suitcases I had when I first arrived here. Wow that time felt like an age ago.
“Wow, it only feels like yesterday that Frank was lugging those bad boys up to your room.” Libby said coming in to sit on the bed and watch me. It was strange how similar our minds worked.
“I was just thinking that.”
“I bet you never thought you would be packing to move into Afterlife with your future husband when you were on your first day of work there.” I laughed at the thought.
“Definitely not.”
“I was surprised to see RJ looking a bit glum the other night, considering Dominic had her flown all the way over to England for your surprise engagement.” I let my hands drop to my lap and sighed. It was true that RJ had been quiet during the dinner and especially from how Libby was used to seeing her, so the only thing I could say was the truth,
“She’s kind of going through a tough time at the moment.” And really that was all I could say. I had spoken to her and she had seemed distant but I could tell it wasn’t directed at me, just distant in general. I managed to get a moment alone with her and she explained,
“It’s weird, like I know I should be all freaking out about everything that happened and then to have Mr Cool Blonde Hottie out there explain even more to me, you would think I would be screaming in a mental institute by now, but it’s like, that’s the part I am cool with, ya know?” I nodded agreeing with her that yes this was weird.
“But do you wanna know the part I am not cool with, the part that I am so not cool with! It’s having that asshole just leave me like that after showing me what it was like having someone all protective over me! Having someone nice to me and sweet and caring and then BAM! He turns into every other asshole I have ever met or been interested in!” And this was the root of it. RJ had accepted this other hidden world around her like she was just moving house but one guy she started to really like turns out to be not so great and it was as if the world was ending…and I could certainly relate!
In fact I didn’t feel so crazy now knowing I’d had pretty much the same reaction about Draven. That night on the rooftop when I saw Draven’s true form for the first time and the part I lost it over was when he told me he was engaged the next day! It was maddening what men could do to you but when I mentioned this to Draven, he just assured me that woman could do the very same thing.
This then brought on a whole new conversation about how hard he found it when he used to torture himself watching me but knowing he couldn’t touch me. This was another one of what I like to call ‘Draven dense’ times when he got it into his head I would be better off without him. Talk about conflicted! The man could win medals, awards and shiny gold naked statues for being conflicted! Which was precisely what I told RJ making her laugh for the first time that day.
I had called her once we got home but I got her voice mail. I tried again and again until Draven told me to just give her time. They had been assured enough that she wouldn’t be telling anyone what she knew and her exact words were,
“Uh duh, as if I want to live out my days known as a Wacker Jack, never find a boyfriend, get laid and then have no choice but to be the town’s crazy cat lady…no, no, I think we’re good.” Later, Draven explained that he didn’t know why, no
r did he trust the fates but they obviously knew of the reason that RJ couldn’t be controlled into believing it had all been a dream. Therefore Draven knew better than most not to meddle in these things so had little choice than to have his men watch her from afar just to be safe. I agreed to this, reluctantly but when Draven said it was more for her protection there was little I could argue against.
“So you’re definitely getting married that soon then because that mad friend of yours assured me that I would receive the invite soon in the post as she was helping you plan it.” This made me laugh as Pip had threatened the same thing to me before we left the Hotel. I also found out that she and Adam would be staying at the mansion as Pip didn’t want to miss a thing, including the Hen Do.
The word ‘Hen do’ and it coming from Pip’s mouth made me shiver as I dreaded to think what it would be like and had to remind her there would be mortals present.
Her reply made me cringe,
“No biggy, we will just cross off the warehouse nightclub that big bear bugger Leivic runs.”
“It looks like it.” I said to Libby and then continued filling up the last bits in the cram packed suitcase.
“Hey, do you remember this?” Libby said finding my old Halloween costume, the one I wore to Afterlife for the battle of the bands.
“Yeah I do.”
“No wonder that man snatched you up, especially after seeing how hot you looked in this! Ha, I remember now, you went with Jack didn’t you?” I groaned making her laugh.
“That poor guy didn’t stand a chance against Draven, bless him. He was nice, is he dating yet?” Her question went unanswered as thoughts and memories assaulted me. A story of how he fell in love with a girl who suddenly disappeared. Then it hit me. A strange thought coming to me out of the blue…
Where had Celina gone?
There had been no mention of her and considering she was on Draven’s council I had not seen or heard about her since Draven came back. Actually thinking back the last time I remembered seeing her was at Draven’s Villa at Lake Como. I found this so odd that I got up off the floor, leaving my suitcase and told Libby,
“I just remembered something, I will be right back…”
“Look out!” Libby shouted as I backed into a side table and the box I had packed there came crashing down. It was one I had emptied from my desk so only had art supplies in it and a few note pads from college work.
“What’s that?” Libby asked as I looked down to one sketch pad that had opened up and pencil drawings littered the floor from where they had been stuffed in there.
“Oh, I remember these.” Libby said sadly, going back to a time when she knew I had issues growing up and started seeing things. I blushed and went to take them from her hands as she started to help me pick them up when something caught my eye. About four months ago I had started having nightmares of recurring demons I used to see. It wasn’t that many, and at a guess about one a month. But I would wake up calling out for Draven and wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, so picked up the habit of sketching what I saw again.
I hadn’t thought about it at the time I was doing it, as when I was in the zone I just kind of let my hands do the talking in the form of pictures. But now, in my hand it all started to make sense…
“Oh my God.” I whispered as chills wracked my body and I landed on my knees and turned the picture round before picking it up and seeing the real horror there in black and white.
“What? What is it?”
I was looking at my last dream, the one I had just before Draven had re-entered my life. It was the one I had just before going back to Afterlife at the end of June, so little over a week ago now. I woke up and did what it felt like I had been trained to do. I grabbed my pencils and a pad of paper and started to draw what happened that day back in school.
I had been like a woman possessed, trying to get out every detail before it faded away into that forbidden place in my memory bank, the one that stored stuff away until you were least expecting it. The one that lured you into a false sense of security until unleashing all its power of fear back on to you when your defences were down. But now I knew that it hadn’t been doing this that night just to be cruel, no, it had been trying to give me a warning…
One I ignored.
“Son of a Bitch!” I said running over to the bedside light and turning it on to check what I was seeing was real.
“What? Tell me?” Libby pleaded but instead of explaining the impossible I let my mind lead me back to the probable. I let it take me back to poor Benny Rodgers whose terrified face I had captured on the page. I let it take me back to the gruesome sight that was a sadistic chalk white face and black vertical lines cut through evil eyes, ones ready for torture. But it wasn’t the obvious horror that shook me to my core and had me struggling to keep hold of the page.
“Kaz! Kazzy! Christ, you’re pale as a ghost! Talk to me!”
“It’s her!” I said holding up the page and Libby winced at the sight of what I had drawn from my nightmares.
“Jesus, Keira, what on earth?” At this I laughed without humour as things like this weren’t produced on earth, no, they just lived here ready and waiting for the right moment to strike, and that moment was now!
“I have to go!” I said folding up the page and stuffing it into my jeans. I stuffed my feet into my converse and hopped around trying to put them on without sitting down. I looked around frantically for my keys and hated that I had no choice but to rush over to Draven and tell him this terrible news on what was going to be classed as our real wedding. But it couldn’t be helped. However I did wonder how nobody had noticed but then again with everything that had happened I was sure something like this was easy to hide.
Because the truth was that sometimes you could rarely see what is right in front of you.
“It had been smoke and mirrors this whole time” I said muttering to myself as I scanned the room for my jacket.
“Wait, you’re not making any sense! Just tell me why...? What has you so freaked out?” Libby asked as I grabbed a light jacket from where it was hiding, knowing I would need it as there was summer rain outside. I looked at my sister and felt bad that I couldn’t tell her the truth. I don’t think I had ever wanted to tell someone my secret so badly before than I did right then looking into my sisters worried eyes…but I couldn’t.
Because what could I say…That it wasn’t the sight of a poor boy wetting himself that had me freaked. Or even the hideous demon that had terrorised him. No, it was none of those things.
Because it was not the obvious I was looking at, it was the unobvious…
It was the teacher.
And that teacher was none other than,
Celina.
Chapter 77
7 Is The Magic Number
All the way over to Afterlife all I could think about was how this had happened. How had I seen that face so many times before and not recognised it when being face to face with her for the first time?
Before I had left I’d had an idea and I had gathered all my drawings up in a pile and stuffed them into a canvas bag I used for college after dumping all the unwanted stuff on the bed. I had made up some story about the picture reminding me that someone might be stealing at the club and needed to tell Draven. It was a lame and farfetched excuse but what else would Libby think it could be?
I was now thankful I had brought a lot of my old sketches over with me from England when I moved, feeling that I couldn’t throw them away but not wanting to leave them at my parents’ house either. I had to hunt around for these and go into the desk in my old room to find them, as they had been stuffed under a drawer to hide them. I was just glad Libby hadn’t followed me up there to watch me acting crazy and like someone out of a lame detective show.
After I found them I added them to the bag and realised I was running late now as I had promised I would be back at Afterlife half an hour ago to get ready for the ‘Marriage Ritual’. I hadn’t allowed myself to think too
much about tonight as it was easier that way. For me, personally I was just glad we were having a mortal version of a wedding which was the one I was looking forward to the most. This one for me was more like a technicality and Draven knew why. I was just thankful he didn’t blame me for thinking that way as he agreed he wasn’t looking forward to a certain aspect of it…and that was the one bit I was again trying not to think about.
Even though I was running late I still had to pull over and check for myself if I was going crazy or not. As soon as I stopped I flicked the overhead light on, undid my seatbelt and raised up my bum to dig the drawing out. I unfolded it and checked it again.
Yes it was now as clear as day that it was Celina.
I placed that one on the seat and dived right in to all the other sketches, hunting through everyone I had on me. There were ones from when I was a kid and my drawing skills weren’t as hot. But even in those, I still found some with a lady in the background that could have been her.
Some I had used crayons or coloured pencils to shade her hair red. Others, the ones more detailed as my skills developed, it was clear by her eyes or the shape of her face. Even her style of clothing changed throughout the years but there was no doubt, in the ones I found with a woman in, it was her every time.
There were 77 in total and I counted all of them as just over 140 sketches, which meant she was in just over half of them.
“How have I missed this?” I said out loud shaking my head in disbelief. I picked up one I remembered when I was about 13 and it was one of those times when it had eased off for a while, which made this one particularly bad.
It was whilst riding my bike around the block one day when I saw a guy delivering a package to some old man who lived on our estate. He walked to his door, knocked and as soon as the man answered the poor unsuspecting delivery driver dropped the parcel and was frozen in some kind of weird trance. Anybody else looking on wouldn’t have thought much about it, as for those passing by it just looked like the two were simply chatting.
The Pentagram Child: Part 2 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) Page 33