The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga)

by Hudson, Stephanie

  “Ok, let’s have it!” Was all I needed to say to make him release a sigh. This had been the conversation he had been dreading and it was written all over his face. A line formed on his forehead and it was the first sign of his many years older than me that I had seen. (This excluding the fact that he was most probably thousands of years older) He hesitated and it was quite obvious that he didn’t know where to start.

  “Ok, I’m going to make this easier for you by telling you what I know and you can just fill in the gaps…Yes?” He nodded and showed his palm by way of complying.

  “So I gather that phone call you got at my sisters, was what, some kind of calling card to the Temple?”

  “Of sorts, yes. But look Keira, I don’t know how many details your expecting to get from all this.” He was trying to be stern but I didn’t back down.

  “Oh no you don’t, you’re not going to placate me with that! You’re going to tell me what I want to know and answer my questions whether you like it or not!” At this he raised his eyebrows to display his shock and I thought he was going to follow it by getting angry but when his brows smoothed, a smile played at the edge of his lips, displaying his amusement.

  “Very well, but then can you promise you will try and understand my position, when I tell you things you are not going to like hearing?” This time I nodded and he took my answer for what it was, a reserved yes.

  “When I received that call it was indeed to tell me that the temple was awaiting me and the girl made ready.”

  “You mean the dark haired girl…that was in the cell, that you ….?” I couldn’t finish the words and say killed because it just wasn’t the type of thing you would say to your boyfriend. Or at least any normal boyfriend but there was nothing normal about Draven or about me for that matter. Usually couples argued about money or jealously, who does the washing up and what TV channel they’re going to watch but NO, with me and Draven it was all about Demons, Angels, visions, dreams and evil stalkers! What I wouldn’t give to just argue about something mundane, like him not picking up his dirty underwear off the floor!

  “That GIRL has been wanted for some time indeed, and trust me, when I say for good reasons!” At this his face hardened at the word “girl” and I could hear him grind his teeth as he spoke of her.

  “Tell me?” He shook his head at first but he didn’t outright tell me no, so I knew I had leeway.

  “Draven, it’s time to trust me” This got him alright.

  “Ok, but I warn you, it will play on your pure heart and I fear I cannot stand to see you so upset as you were last night.”

  “You can’t protect me from the truth, no matter how bad it is.” He didn’t respond to this but instead he showed me just how hard it was by rubbing his forehead with his fingertips in frustration.

  “What do you mean by wanted?” I asked after he had been silent for a while and the sound of my voice brought him back to a conversation that he really didn’t want to be having.

  “Our legal system is not so different from yours. The only difference is that we are more likely to follow through with our punishments. These of course are very different. When one of my kind breaks the rules there are different steps that have to be taken. First comes the warning, where they are stripped of their powers for a time. This is depending on what rules have been broken of course. But if the defendant hasn’t been caught for this warning to be administered and they carry on their destructive ways then they become part of the ‘Wanted’.”

  He watched me shift my weight to get more comfortable and waited for me to finish. If anything he looked happy for this little distraction and seemed content on waiting for me.

  “What did she do?” This of course was the question he had feared. His face screamed out these feelings.

  “She was a young soul, being that of only fifty odd years. She was ill taught and had little to no guidance. These however are no excuses for her to not know the rules clearly. As I mentioned last night, she was an Angel but as you know, this does not automatically spell out clean soul.” This I had remembered him telling me. The major misconception humans held was that Angels were always good and Demons always bad. This however was not the case and this story would no doubt prove this old ancient fact to destroy the stone in which it was thought to be set.

  “She was brought into her host with the good intension of lying low the first ten years, which is the first rule of being reborn. For those who are not used to the human world they are given a series of guide lines and are assigned a possession officer.”

  “Is that like a parole officer?” I asked naively and when he smiled, I felt my embarrassed cheeks start to burn.

  “Of sorts, yes but they are more like guidance counsellors. They are there to guide them for the first years of their lives.”

  “Why aren’t they called guidance counsellors then?” I know this question didn’t really hit number ten on the “important things to know” scale but for him at least, it seemed to be nice little distraction. One side of his lips turned upwards, which he tried to hide with one hand which was resting over his chin. This is when I realised I must have sounded like a child asking where babies come from.

  “We call them possession officers because they possess new souls. They own them. It’s a bit like being a parent. They are in control until they reach the right age and are safe to make it in the world alone.”

  “Did you have one?” At this he let out a series of raucous laughter that made the bed shake. When he finally composed himself he clocked my frowning face and for once, it was he that was biting his lip. He was trying very hard not to laugh again and I would have been laughing with him if it weren’t at my expense.

  “Sorry…it was actually a good question and as usual, unexpected. The answer is no, I did not have one.” He was now just managing to compose a straight face when I asked him why not?

  “Let’s just say that Vincent, Sophia and I were kind of…umm…inbuilt with the knowledge of how it all worked....Anyway, where was I?” He pushed his thick black hair from his forehead, where it had rested thanks to his uncontrollable laughter. I instantly bit my lip at the sight. This was one of the hardest things about having such an amazingly handsome boyfriend, every time he did things like that, you found yourself wishing he would just shut up and undress you! I knew he had asked me a question so I had to think back through the sexy haze that was Draven.

  “Umm…” I gulped before answering “Possession Officer” I whispered and he shot me a look as if to say “What’s wrong with you?” but he didn’t ask and I was glad for it. Instead he just gave me another half-smile before continuing.

  “Ok, so back to my point. Hers was not very attentive to her studies and quit her after only a year. She wasn’t even given a human name but after her escapades she was rightly dubbed Vetala. This was because her ways resembled that of the Demon from Hindu mythology. Vetala was believed to be an evil spirit that possessed the dead, made humans mad and killed children along with causing miscarriages. Of course, she was a rogue Demon that cause havoc in small villages but the stories most always outlive the souls that they have sprung from. In this case it looked like history was repeating itself and once again we intervened.” I didn’t know whether he was pretending not to see the disgust in my face or whether he had just not noticed.

  “Wait a minute…so you’re telling me that, that young tiny, girl down there was a …a child killer?” This had brought his full attention back to my face and his hands stroked my cheeks affectionately before catching some escaping tears. He tilted his head to one side while giving me a wide eyed look of concern. It reminded me of when my family looked at me after the incident with Morgan. After I had been kidnapped, my family never seemed to be able to look at me the same way again, well who could blame them. I certainly couldn’t.

  “Yes she was, along with other things. She became an artist in the art of manipulation. She liked to feed from the pain and suffering that would flow from the hopeless families
that had lost loved ones. Parents who had lost the dearest beings to their hearts. She was a monster and to the bitter end she tried to control you and make you set her free. First she tried pity and when that failed, she showed you something that angers me to my very core. Keira, I’m sorry you had to be reminded of the pain you went through.” Of course he was referring to the vision she had made me see. She had played on my own living nightmare that Morgan had put me through. She knew my weaknesses and used them to her advantage.

  “Wait, how did you know what she showed me?”

  “When I finished her off, I saw through her eyes and scanned through her memories of her last encounters. When you screamed out I knew what you had seen in the Temple but I didn’t know what you had seen before you got there. I hoped that you hadn’t found her or more like she hadn’t found you. But then when I saw her re-enactment of what you had gone through at the hands of that…THAT SICK F…!” He paused before he could scream out his feelings for Morgan and closed his eyes tight as if trying to lock out a memory.

  “Sorry, but as you can imagine, it affected me in a way you can’t believe.” At this I saw the pain replace his anger fill his eyes and his eyes flashed from purple to two deep, black lagoons in the dead of night.

  “How did she even know about my past?” I asked this more because I wanted to get him talking again, to try and get him past that image that no longer only haunted myself. He answered with just a name, one that I would have never expected to pass his sweet kissable lips.

  “Layla!”

  “WHAT! Are you serious? What the hell has she got to do with this?”

  “Try to calm yourself, I will tell you but you have to trust me, she can’t get to you.” This wasn’t as reassuring as it was supposed to be, I will tell you! I remained silent as a sign that he could carry on but now I knew why this had been such a hard story for him to tell me.

  “You remember me telling you that Layla escaped?”

  “Well no actually, you didn’t tell me, I found out, remember?” I said giving one of those, “See why you shouldn’t lie” looks but he ignored it.

  “Well after she stabbed you, she went into hiding…or at least she tried. My men found her and I imprisoned her until she could face a trial. I needed to get to the bottom of her hate but before I could …umm question her…..” at this I butted in,

  “You mean torture… right?” He rolled his eyes at me but seeing as I was so used to this by now I let it go.

  “Alright, yes I do, but the bitch deserved to die! So I will continue now that I haven’t the need to spare you on the dark details. Yes, I was going to torture her and I would have enjoyed doing so, given what she tried to take from me and Keira, be warned, that if anyone else was to try again, then I would do what I feel is necessary, for my vengeance is black and deadly!” From the bulging vein that pulsated through his tensed forearm and eyes that could have you begging for mercy in seconds of just once glance, I would be going against everything I ever believed in, to deny this to be true. He was terrifying! I gently placed my hand on his stone like shoulder and the feel of my skin on his, seemed to bring him back to my level of calm.

  “I believe it,” I whispered and he just nodded in response. I however made a mental note never to mention Layla’s name ever again.

  “I will continue!” When I gave him my concerned look it was he, for the first time, was to say “I’m fine” before continuing with the facts.

  “I need to explain what the connection is between the two. See Layla, before working for me as a waitress, was a possession officer. The position didn’t suit her and after a string of bad judgments and poor excuses for educated prodigies she was renounced from her position and stripped of the powers she had been granted. This made her resentful but she appealed to me for a softer sentence giving her the chance to rehabilitate. I gave her an opportunity by working for me in the club but with the chance of getting her old role back. She became impatient and frustrated but I still don’t know the full reasons behind her hate towards you.” I shifted uncomfortably and played with the bottom of my sleeves as I usually did when hearing things that were hard to take.

  “I soon learned last night, why it was Vetala who broke her out from the prison and when I saw it all through her eyes it started to make sense. See Layla was Vetala’s possession officer and although she left her, she considered her a mother figure and that she didn’t leave her but freed her. Layla had formed a bond so strong that she must have called to Vetala for help before getting caught. How Vetala got her out I don’t yet know but I do know that Layla betrayed her and pushed her into her own cell so that it would give her longer for the head start. By the time Vetala was discovered Layla was long gone.” Once again he was tense at recalling all the events at Layla’s deception.

  “She played her prodigy like a fine tuned instrument and let her play out your own dark symphony to you. Layla knew what she was doing when she told her about your past and I believe her last command was to get to you if she could.” I was shaking my head by the time he had finished but it got to a point where I was losing my not so cool persona and my cheeks were on fire with my own hate.

  The name Layla stuck in my throat like a piece of gum I knew I shouldn’t swallow and the seven year myth of it remaining in your gut became a good analogy for this sick reality. Would I ever get past this? The list of people that wanted me rather dead or hurting was mounting at an impeccable rate.

  “Wow! I mean, really, wow…Why, I just don’t get it! Why does everyone want to hurt me? See in my world I’m a nobody! I just go by unnoticed and stay quiet. I keep my business to myself and my past firmly locked behind closed doors. But in your world I’m like this hunted possession that people want to hurt and hate! Why can’t I have both…Why can’t I have you and be happy without having to sacrifice my sanity?” Ok, so I knew I was ranting on and being all self- pitying but come on…what else did I have to face? What was going to be next? And was I ever going to be ready for it?!

  “I’m sorry Keira but this is my fault. This is why I wanted to keep you from me and why I should still be trying to.”

  “NO! Don’t you dare say that! I am in more danger without you and you know it. Besides, could you really just walk away from it all now…after what we have been through?” My glazed eyes looked up to search for the same feeling as I had.

  “No, I simply couldn’t do that…not now. Not after experiencing you first hand. This skin to touch.” He traced a thumb down my neck and it vibrated as my breathing got more intense.

  “These lips to kiss.” This short sentence ended over my appendage in question and it did anything but calm my breathing. My heart rate went through the roof as he pulled my leg making my body follow to the underneath of him. He held all his weight over me as his kiss intensified. The feeling that coursed through my every nerve made every horror I had witnessed worth it ten times over. Being hunted meant nothing anymore as long as I had this feeling to hold on to.

  His hands started to push up my sweater and the tingles shot up my side like he was communicating with every hair follicle on my skin. I wasn’t the only one breathing heavy and when I felt Draven’s impressive erection rise, I knew I would have to find the senses to stop this bliss. I was still on and not that he would have minded a bit of mess, I certainly wasn’t ready for that undignified step to be taken.

  His tongue was creating magic in my mouth as it moved in its skilful dance. I waited for him to move to kissing my neck as he usually did but when he got there I found myself arching into him and my head rolled back to give him greater access. I was losing control and knew if I didn’t stop it all now I never would. Thankfully, when his hand found the inside of my thigh and the thought of the piece of string he would soon find there, it made me find my much needed sense and I sat bolt upright.

  “Hey!” He said in disapproval, and then his hands tried to reach out to pull me back down into the same position. When I shifted out of his grabbing hands he let out a l
ow growl that rippled deep in his throat.

  “Whoa, cool down there cowboy. Painters and decorators are in, remember?” He let out an easy going laugh at the analogy I’d used, before calming down his libido. He gave me a bad boy grin as he shifted back to the side of me and seeing him behave himself I relaxed my tensed muscles.

  “See what you do to me?” He rubbed the back of his neck with his large palm and shook his head like he was remembering what the feel of my lips on his, did to his manhood. I thought this the reason because I too was still trying to control the commotion he caused to my nether regions. Raging river came to mind!

  “Well, when I’m off then I can do that to you!”

  “When will that be again?” He asked in a hoarse voice that curled my toes.

  “Friday...maybe Thursday, if we’re lucky.”

  “If only I possessed the power to change time.” At this I think he was only half joking as when I looked over to him I couldn’t help but see the covers had created a tent near his loins. I knew I had to get up as now I was dying for the bathroom but seeing as I didn’t have anything on underneath, this was going to be like dangling the carrot. I pulled my sweater down as far as it would go but before I got up, I couldn’t help but pat his member and say “down boy!” before jumping up quickly before he could react.

  “HA! With you showing off those perfect little pink cheeks peeking out…not a chance!” I was glad I wasn’t facing him as I went as red as rare steak and the feel of heat coming off my cheeks could have quite easily have cooked one! I giggled as I walked into the bathroom and the change in my heart was so different to how I felt now, it was hard to keep up. One minute life was throwing a curve ball at me in the form of Lucius and then I was getting a homerun when waking up next to Draven every morning. I felt almost giddy at the sound of Draven’s voice that not only entered my ears but also my soul but now I knew I was that way where I could no longer be able to live without it.

  The first thing I did was to go to his huge gilded mirror to examine the damage of last night’s escapades. It was as bad as I had feared. My hair was loose but hung down in messy knots. My eyes were a dark blue, ringed with red circles that gave evidence to a night’s crying. I had blotchy skin on my pale cheeks and it looked like I was suffering from a bad hangover.