“Keira?” He asked me and I got up on my tip toes, looked up under his hood and said,
“Can we have sex now?”
“Oh God, we’re doomed.” Pip said at the same time that Sophia groaned.
“Is she drunk?!” Draven demanded and I placed my fingers on his lips, missing the first time and hitting his cheek.
“Ssshh, don’t blame them. I drank too much because I’m nervous and they couldn’t calm me down. I was scared I wouldn’t be good enough for you and that you would think you were making a mistake and well then I drank too much snatching the bottle and downing it and…” I rambled on and on only stopping when Draven put his fingers to my lips this time.
“Ok, Ok, I understand love. Calm down. Let’s just get through this together.” After he said this I could practically hear Pip and Sophia sigh together in utter relief. I giggled and Draven smiled down at me obviously just glad to see me looking happy, even if it was from being a happy drunk. He then tipped my chin up and said,
“And don’t let me hear you saying you think you’re not good enough for me again.” He growled this and I felt like clawing at his robe and asking him to take me back to his place, which was hilarious considering we were at his place and about to get married.
“Dom, should I start?” Vincent asked over the altar and I looked to see it was actually Draven’s brother that was going to be marrying us.
“Oh cool! Hey Vinny boy, I didn’t know you were into the whole wedding gig...? Are we paying him a good rate?” I asked Draven who along with his brother threw his head back and their combined laughter echoed around the massive space.
“Yes love, we are.” He answered me and I couldn’t tell whether or not he was teasing me.
“Are you ready?” I gulped, looked all around me at everyone stood there waiting but then turned back to the only man that I needed to look at to know my answer,
“I am so very ready to be your wife.”
Chapter 78
Vows
“Under the Holy Moon and on the eve of your Electus’ sacred birth, the Gods deem her worthy of your love and blessed your joining when you asked for her hand. Do you Enki, Lord of the Earth, Dominic Draven take Catherine Keiran Williams to be your soul’s keeper long beyond your vessel is dust and lost to the sands of time?” Vincent asked loud enough so all could hear.
“Oh that’s lovely.” I commented making Vincent smirk.
“I do.” Draven said also loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Oh good.” I said looking up at him and then mouthed the words,
“Thanks honey.” Making him beam down at me before he mouthed back,
“You’re welcome.”
“Our King has accepted our sacred vows and gifted his soul to another!” Vincent said making all the people in the room shout out an ancient sounding word I had no clue to its meaning and it thundered around the temple.
“Are you ready Keira?” Vincent whispered to me.
“Yeah totally.” I whispered back and then shouted,
“I do!” Thinking this was my part of the question to accept. Vincent coughed over his laugh along with everyone else in the room and I looked back to smile at everyone. Draven chuckled and said,
“In a moment sweetheart.”
“Under the Holy Moon, you stand before our King that the Gods deem worthy of your love and blessed your joining when he asked for your hand. Do you Electus, the Gods’ Chosen One, Catherine Keiran Williams take Enki, Lord of the Earth and the God’s chosen King, Dominic Draven to be your soul’s keeper long beyond your body is dust and lost to the sands of time?” I smiled the biggest grin I ever felt in my life, to the point I could barely see with the tears in my eyes and said,
“I do. Most definitely!” I shouted this last part making everyone laugh and cheer, then continue shouting out this word I still didn’t know when Vincent said,
“Our new Queen has accepted our sacred vows and gifted her soul to another!”
“Can I kiss him yet?” I asked and I heard Pip mutter behind me,
“Oh, she’s going to be doing a lot more than that.”
“Keira, are you sure you’re ready for this?” Draven asked me and it took me back to our first conversation about this. Denial had been my first reaction and then flat out rejection my second. My last had been worry and that one had stayed with me until this point. Well until the point before Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had decided to drug my bath water before getting me wasted on some crazy cocktails…but hey, mission accomplished I was definitely relaxed. Which was why I answered Draven honestly,
“Isn’t it obvious, I’m your Electus…I was born ready.” He burst out laughing then pulled me to him, yanked back his hood and kissed me for the first time as my husband. The whole room cheered and stamped their feet like war drums were being sounded. But I didn’t care, I was already getting lost in Draven’s kiss and falling quickly under the night’s spell.
He snaked a hand in my hair and pulled me closer for a deeper kiss, one that made instinct take over. One of my legs lifted up, thanks to the split in my skirt and I hooked it over and around the back of his knee, not quite managing to get it any higher due to the height difference.
He growled low then lifted me up so I could hook both my legs around his waist. Then he walked me backwards and lowered me down onto the altar. It was strange, my reaction to seeing the Temple again, to seeing the altar. To seeing all of it after what had happened not long ago but none of it felt weird. If anything what was happening now was wiping all of that horror from existence as though it was rewriting history. All the bad things these grand walls had seen meant nothing in the sight of what was happening now and what was happening now was…
Magic.
Because as soon a Draven put his hands over my body everything else just disappeared, until we became the only two people there. I heard my clothes tear and for once cared little for the dress. He then pushed off his robe revealing his glorious naked body beneath and I gasped at the sight of such power. His wings unfolded and stretched out as the material fell to the floor. We became two naked lovers ready to consummate our marriage in not just the sight of the Gods but also in sight of all of these people.
He came back to me and I raised myself up and pushed myself against him, desperate to feel him inside me. The need was burning me up inside so quickly it was burning the drugs and the alcohol clean from my system and Draven knew this too.
“That’s it, come back to me.” He said leaning down and kissing my neck, working his lips up to my ear and then following the line of my chin. He ran his nose along the curves of my face, up my cheeks and down the side of my nose before placing his lips once more to mine. I opened my lips and drank him in, feeling the taste of him bursting on my tongue like ambrosia. It was like a battle to see who could get the most and when I moaned in his mouth he tore it from mine to find my neck to bite. Only instead he just held himself at my throat and I turned my head to show my King, my submission.
His wings shuddered as they cast our ready bodies in shadow and he ignited into purple flames.
Then my King roared out his own vow,
“I make you my Queen!” Then he thrust into me at the same time sinking his extended fangs into my neck and sucking the essence out of me. I came instantly and I was still screaming my release as the next one started to build. He pushed into me again and again, touching every nerve and even the ones I didn’t know I had. He grabbed both my hands in one hand and forced them back above my head. Then he pulled his lips that were covered in my blood from my neck and started kissing my breasts. His eyes were the deepest colour of purple I had seen on him yet and the hunger in them was almost frightening.
He took in the sight of my breasts covered in my own blood and the strengthening I felt from him inside me told me he very much liked what he saw. He thrust quicker and bent his head to lick up the bloody kisses he had left and then decided licking wasn’t enough. I cried out again as he bit into me for
a second time and I pushed myself firmer into his greedy mouth.
He lapped me up as if he couldn’t get enough of me and the pain of his bite was giving me such a rush I felt drunk from him alone this time. I pushed against his restraining hand trying in vain to rake my nails down his back, touch him, bite him, anything just so I could feel his skin on my fingertips.
“Draven, Draven, Draven.” I said his name over and over as a plea for more.
“Tell me my Queen, what do you want?” He growled out the question and I pushed against his hands again.
“You want to feel me.” He said rolling his hips and making me cry out as he touched that part inside me that felt like such a weakness it should have been criminal.
“Can you feel me?” He asked torturing me and I growled back, this time pushing against his length and clenching my core around him.
“Ahh!” He groaned and I smiled up at him doing it again.
“Behave or do you wish to unman me in front of my people?” He asked teasing making me try my luck and doing it again.
“Very well, my Queen, have it your way.” And then he really let me have it and he held nothing back. He hammered into me and made me come over and over again until I was begging him for his own release. It was as though I had two forces inside of me fighting against each other. The sensitive parts of my womanhood were crying out as they couldn’t take any more orgasms and the force and power it took away from me every time I came around his strength inside me. But then I never wanted this to stop as I became addicted to the euphoria like I needed it to live. Almost as if feeling that if he stopped I would fall and shatter into a million pieces…but that one death would have been the sweetest of all ends.
“I can’t…” He started to say and I looked up to see him getting lost in the high too.
“I need…By the Gods Woman! I need you to bite me quick, I need to complete the ritual, now…GODS NOW!” Draven said getting panicked as he couldn’t hold it off any longer and I loved that I could do that to him. So I said,
“As my King commands.” And then I rose up using the last of my strength and I bit into his neck. The second I felt his blood bathe my tongue every muscle in my body tensed and my senses soared the waves of ecstasy as we came together.
Draven collapsed on top of me and barely had enough strength to hold his weight from crushing me and I too had no energy to try and move him. We’d just completed the ritual in front of the Gods and now we were one.
Now we were married and I was…
Mrs Draven.
Chapter 79
Being A Whole New Woman
I woke up to find myself cuddled up tight to a warm hard body where obviously I had been placed. Draven had his muscled arm around me and was holding me against his side as if he was scared he would wake to find me gone.
I actually woke feeling different but in a good way. As I usually did after we had made love I felt as if my whole body had been rejuvenated, only this time the feeling didn’t fade. If anything it just kept getting stronger. I was actually surprised I didn’t have a hangover.
The last thing I remembered was Draven picking me up once his strength came back to him and walking out of the Temple with me in his arms. I was just glad he hadn’t walked through that part of the prison and the crypt beyond it, because I couldn’t have thought of a worse sight to see after just getting married.
I just remember smiling into his chest after he lifted me higher to kiss the top of my head and whisper,
“Finally my wife.”
I fell asleep smiling. Which was exactly how I woke up.
“Finally my husband.” I whispered back to him and kissed the soft sun kissed skin on his chest. I looked up to find Draven was awake and looking at me in awe. It was how I could imagine he sometimes found me looking at him. Questioning myself if he was real and I wasn’t in fact dreaming.
“Good morning, my handsome King.” I said acting flirtatious.
“No, say it again.” I frowned at first not knowing what he meant until it twigged.
“Good morning, my husband.” I said correcting my mistake and when he heard it his eyes seeped into purple sapphires the same colour as my ring.
“Good morning, my beautiful wife.” He said before placing his finger under my chin and bringing my lips up to his. It was the most glorious way to wake up but then last night’s vows sunk in and my cheeks flooded with colour. He started laughing even without me saying anything.
“Do not think of it my lovely wife, it is done.”
“Yeah but we had sex in front of everyone!” I shouted shifting up and hearing Draven expel a ‘Humf’ sound as I elbowed him by accident in my haste getting up.
“Yes we did but this is how it is done. We consummate our union in front of those we love, those we worship and those we respect above and below us. And I must say you did so perfectly and I was surprised to see without holding anything back…”
“Yes but…” I was about to tell him that being under the influence would do that to you when he blew the wind from my doubting sails with his next comment,
“I am very proud of you.” To which I melted.
“Oh and before anything else happens, like the day’s celebrations coming crashing through the door in the name of Sister and Pip, I have something I want you to have.” He shifted up and I made a sad face at not having him in the bed any longer. Then he laughed at me before grabbing the jeans left over the back of one of the chairs.
“I will be right back.” He said leaning over to kiss me then quickly put on a pair of jeans and nothing else. I was most happy about the nothing else part, which changed when he said,
“Why don’t you get changed so you will be ready by the time I am back?” He then nodded to the door of our dressing room.
“Why, I thought we could just stay in bed all day and celebrate …alone.” I said waggling my eyebrows at him making him laugh shaking his head. He came over to kiss me again and said,
“You are insatiable my darling wife.”
“Yes, yes I am.” I said only half joking. He walked over to the door and said,
“Oh and wear something warm.”
“Why, where are we going?” I asked raising an eyebrow at him.
“It’s your birthday, I am taking you out.” I smiled at him almost forgetting it was in fact my birthday. He was half way out of the door when I heard his voice again,
“Oh and Keira…”
“Yes?” I asked as he popped his head back round the frame,
“I told you I was giving you my wings.” And then he winked at me and was gone.
I had one of the quickest showers after smelling my armpits and knowing there was no way I could get away with it. So I jumped in and out in record time and wrapped a towel round me to go in search of warm clothes for the day. I looked outside the window as I walked past on my way to the dressing room and saw it did in fact look like it wasn’t going to be the nice hot summer’s day that I had hoped for. It in fact looked like there was another storm on its way.
“Oh well.” I said shrugging my shoulders as I walked through to the dressing room behind the tapestry. I was just debating where to go for a sweater or a top and hooded zip up when I walked straight into a giant present nearly knocking it over.
“Aww, Draven.” I said thinking it must be from him and that was the real reason he told me to change. I smiled thinking was this what was in store for me today, lots of surprise presents? I thought back to Pip’s party and started getting excited at the idea of what people might have bought me. At the time I had no idea mine and Pip’s birthdays had been so close but was so glad it was and I had been a part of it, even after the crazy time I had getting there.
The gift was taller than me and covered in velvet purple paper with a huge black bow at the centre, holding it all wrapped together with its longer lengths of ribbon. I felt like a child when I started to rip into it, tugging at the bow and letting it fall to my bare feet.
“Uh…
what is…?” I said as the last piece of paper fell and I was left staring at myself. It looked like a weird mirror that was never supposed to be a mirror. Its first purpose in life was obviously built into a place of worship… a church.
It was a tall stone arch that was once a window in a holy place and at one time held stained glass in its fixtures. It was divided into two smaller arches with a small pillar separating the two and at the top, nestled into the arch was a circle which was the only piece left to hold any coloured glass. In it was a symbol I had seen many times before but still had no clue as to what it meant…
My birthmark.
All around the frame’s edges were the jagged remains of the glass it once held that no doubt long ago held a picture telling people of some holy story. But none of these were what really interested me or for that matter…
Frightened me.
No it wasn’t that at all.
It was the face of a girl I knew staring back at me. It was the face of me from another life. Not the one I lived now. Not one I ever recognised living.
But it was me.
The mirror started to liquefy and took on a life of its own distorting my image, the one locked inside it that wasn’t the life I knew.
“No…No…NO!” I screamed as hands reached out and took me.
But it was too late.
I was lost and I was captured by…
My own hands.
The End.
Read on for excerpt
Of Book 6 in the Afterlife saga:
The Cult of the Hexad
The Cult of the Hexad
I woke up panting and trying to catch my breath like it seemed I did most mornings these days. Last night’s dream seemed to be the most real yet. For years I had been suffering from these nightmares and each one grew in intensity. I wasn’t naive to what happened between a man and woman in love inside the bedroom. But having not experienced it myself did mean that when these certain dreams occurred I was left with a torrent of mixed emotions. Confused, flustered, embarrassed, torn but most of all, unbelievably aroused.
The Pentagram Child: Part 2 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) Page 35