Cult of the Hexad (Afterlife saga Book 6) (28 page)

“I may have a solution to that but again you would have to trust me.”

“I do.” I told him, squeezing his hand.

“You know not what it means to me to have your trust and I can only hope my brother is rewarded with the same.” I gave him a confused look and asked,

“Your brother? But what has he…?”

“He is my solution.”

“Oh” Was all I thought to say. Since the disastrous meeting I hadn’t seen anyone else as Draven thought it best not to until everything had been explained. I couldn’t say I was looking forward to seeing these people again but not for the reasons you would expect. It wasn’t through fear but through the utter shame I felt in my first reactions to seeing them in their ‘True form’ as Draven had called it.

The very first thing Draven had done since entering the room was to explain about his world and the people in it, most of whom had been in that room. He also explained how, before I lost my memories, that I had been used to his world long before he had ever come into it.

Then he continued to explain about my gift at seeing Demons and Angels in their natural forms, one I had been dealing with since the age of seven. He also had a theory that when I experienced Vincent’s touch when he was in ‘Angel protection mode’ which is what I named it, that this is what must have triggered it. I then in turn told him about the Gypsy and he in turn told me how she worked for Lucius.

It all quickly started to slot together and make sense, so the next job after that was to teach me how to control it. I was shocked to find out he wasn’t really an expert on this and when I asked him who was he told me,

“Well…you are.” When I questioned him he simply explained that I had learned how to control it by first drawing what I saw, which then managed to lock out the form until I chose to see it again. Then he told me how my gift continued to get stronger before pretty soon all I needed to do was,

“Well, switch it on or off.” He grinned at me and it took me a moment to decipher what that look was, until I realised it was pride. 

However, other times it would be the choice of the supernatural beingI was encountering at the time
.
Or in some instances in which the power gets too great for the supernatural to control both elements of sorcery and hiding what those around them can see. Sometimes what happens or what you see can’t be hidden from the world as it’s too important and the Gods take over. Fate intervenes and decides for you. It’s just the way of their world Draven told me.

If you asked me, it all sounded very hazy with the rules and confusing enough to make me realise that I just needed to focus first and then make sense of it later.

Either way, after about half an hour of trying various different tricks he advised, I found it was only when the clock struck the hour that Draven’s form went back to the one I was most used to. I gathered it had something to do with when I listened carefully to the number of chimes as my back was to the clock and I wanted to know the time.

“I did it!” I had shouted like an excited child finally finding the right answer to an equation and the praise I received from him came in the form of a kiss.

“As I knew you would.”

A little after midnight Vincent came in to find me yawning and half asleep on the couch. Draven had gone to fetch him and as soon as they both walked through the door I shot up.

“I’m awake!” I shouted automatically like I would sometimes do at the Colony when hearing my mother/bane of my life, banging on my bedroom door.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Vincent said chuckling. I sheepishly pushed my hair back behind my ears and said,

“I’m so sorry about what happened earlier, I told Draven to apologise to your sister for me and…” At this point Vincent raised up his hand to stop me and said,

“After what you have been through, your reactions were only natural. Everyone understands that there is a great difference between learning how to cope with a gift such as yours on a daily basis as opposed to having one thrust upon you in a room full of the world’s most powerful beings…
fighting.
” Vincent added this last word in reprimand aimed solely at his brother as he looked off to the side to where Draven stood. Draven cleared his throat and said,

“Yes, well let’s get on with it should we.” Then he walked towards me putting his back to Vincent who then winked at me, making me giggle. Draven and I hadn’t discussed what happened back there between him and Lucius and to be honest, I think it was obvious enough that we didn’t need to. I had kissed Luc back in the bus before Draven and I had even met, so even though I felt some guilt, it wasn’t solely for Draven. Lucius, as I needed to start calling him, was simply a man in love with another man’s woman, and from what I gathered, had been for a long time. I had to ask myself then, what had gone on between him and my other self?

My musings were quickly interrupted when Vincent came to sit down next to me.

“Are you staying this time?” I was about to ask what Vincent meant when I realised he wasn’t speaking to me.

“I will.”

“Very well but Dom, please try and…”

“I will control myself, just be gentle with her.” Draven replied and I shot him a quick look of panic.

“As always.” His brother replied in a smooth, hypnotic voice that could have one believing you would sit back happy while he tortured you with a smile on his face and be asking you to do the same.

“What are you going to do?” I asked him tentatively.

“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt. I am just going to access your memories to see if I can piece things together.” I nodded, thinking that didn’t sound so bad, so I gave him my hand.

“Oh wait, umm…well you might see something that I had no choice but to do and it was to save my sister, so you will…”

“She killed one of the bastards that hurt them.” Draven stated very matter of fact and I had to grant it to him, it sounded much better the way he said it. I looked up at him to see him standing next to me like a private guard with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Fair enough.” Vincent said and I coughed in surprise,

“No offense, but that’s not very holy of you.” I commented in jest.

“What can I say? I must get it from my father’s side.” Then he winked at me again and I instantly relaxed, which is what I think he was aiming for.

“You have done this before…right?”

“Yes, Katie, we have danced this tango before.” I laughed and said,

“Oh good, because for a second there I thought…” I never got to finish before he suddenly made the connection. At first it felt like being plunged into an icy lake and for some reason my memories started to show me just that. I was floating under water in the dead of night, trapped in an arctic cage. Then someone burst through the icy roof above me, shattering my prison and saving me from death…
it was Lucius.

I could feel my mouth opening and see in a fogged gaze the frozen breath escaping before being plummeted back through a series of memories I didn’t recognise. Flashes of ones appeared that I did know but they were few and far between the horrors my past life had been filled with. So many prisons, so many captors, so much blood lost. If I thought life at the Colony had been hard then this was something else. But amongst it all there was hope, there was strength and there was
love.
A tremendous amount of love that if I had been standing would have knocked me over.

Pretty soon all visions that were shared between us became about the Colony and how I escaped. I didn’t hear what Ari was saying to me by the wall that night but I could see her lips moving. I cried out her name silently, mimicking what I had done that night before falling back onto the other side of the wall.

This was the point I’d had enough and tried to pull away from him, knowing what he could possibly see if he hung on much longer.

“Vincent?” I heard Draven’s voice as it was clear he must have seen the start of my distress but Vincent wasn’t ready to let me go. He held on through, skipping passed Lucy’s house, the fair, the gypsy, all of it until he finally found what he needed to see. It was the memory of him and Ari together. It started with how it did in the dream, with me walking in on Ari playing a glass piano and Vincent watching from the shadows.

But then it suddenly changed.

“Vincent stop! What are you doing?!” Draven shouted as he took over my own memory and banned me from seeing it. He took my dream from me until all that was left was a blank void as I was left staring into an empty nothingness.

“I SAID STOP!” Draven’s command cut through his power over me and suddenly I was free.

“By the Gods Vin, what were you…?”

“My beautiful soul…
at last.”
Vincent whispered breaking into Draven’s outrage.

“Vince? What’s wrong?” Draven asked now replacing his anger with concern for his brother. Abruptly Vincent stood up and was at the door in seconds.

“Vincent, speak to me!” Draven said after making it to him in time to slam the door closed, not letting him leave before he gave him answers. I didn’t know Vincent very well but even I knew that this was not the man I had met earlier. All his muscles were tense and his black motorcycle t-shirt was tight to his body, as if he was ready to spring into action at any second. His face had become hard and his eyes were glowing with an unusual darkness. It was as though the Angel in him had been locked away for a short time and what he had seen in the vision had brought out the demon.

“I found her.” Vincent said determinedly and Draven jolted in astonishment.

“You’re sure she is the one…the one from your dreams?” He asked and Vincent nodded.

Then replied firmly with every emotion he had behind the next four words…

“She’s my Chosen One.”

Chapter 26

Raw Beauty

“I need time Dom…just give me time.” This was the last thing Vincent said before he left the room.

“Fuck!” Draven swore and banged his fist into the stone, making me jump. Then I don’t know what possessed me but I flew off the couch and stormed right up to him and snapped,

“Don’t do that! You could bloody well hurt yourself, you big Moose!” I took his hand in mine and brushed off th
e
debris from his knuckles.

“Uh…did I just hear that right, did you just call me a…
Moose?”
  I smirked and looked up at him saying,

“Maybe.” To which he burst out laughing. He then picked me up and kissed me as though this was what he needed most before dealing with the aftermath of what had just occurred.

“Are you alright?” He asked me, still holding me close with my feet dangling above the ground.

“Yeah. It was just intense.” I said giving him a half smile, trying to show him that I was okay. His brother on the other hand, I wasn’t so sure about. Draven’s head turned back to the door as if his thoughts ran parallel with mine.

“I think you need to tell me everything there is to know about Ari.” I nodded thinking this was a good idea. We sat back down and I told him everything I knew and loved about Ari, including the things that drove me nuts, as sisters often did. I also told him how we both seemed to start dreaming about them both around the same time and at this Draven raised an eyebrow.

“Not together! Geez, I would need therapy! Witnessing that one dream of her and Vincent together was enough, thank you very much.”

“I am sure it was. But I have to wonder if she shared any of your own dreams, when thinking of me.” I thought about it and blushed, which he took for another reason. It wasn’t so much the idea of what she would have seen but it was how did I tell him that it wasn’t really me I saw him with in my dreams…
it was her.

“What aren’t you telling me?” He asked obviously picking up the regret on my face.

“I think there is something you should know.”

“From the look of things, I agree.” He said and I knew it was now or never.

“When I started to dream of you, it was never with us…” I motioned between us with my hand,

“…together.”

“What do you mean?”

“Okay, I am just going to say it and hope you don’t hate me.” At this he laughed and said,

“I could never hate you.” I didn’t know if I believed this or not but I was about to find out.

“The first time I saw you it wasn’t with me, it was with her.”

“I’m sorry but I’m not following…who did you see me with if it wasn’t with you?” I really wished there was an easier way to put this so I didn’t sound quite so crazy but considering the whole thing was crazy then what options did I have.

“My other self.”

“Excuse me?” Okay so now he looked completely baffled. This is the point it all came spewing out,

“Whenever I saw you, I would be watching through glass. Like a two-way mirror or something. I would be stuck there, like she was and neither of us could break through. I couldn’t hear anything and neither could she but she would seem desperate to get to me and at first I always thought it was to escape…uh…”

“Ah…I see. You thought she was trying to escape from me.” He said finishing off what I hated saying.

“Yes. But I didn’t know you then. And what I saw of you confused me.”

“How so?” He asked frowning.

“It scared me but it also excited me in a way I have never known. You have to remember I was different then. I hadn’t experienced...umm, well, you know…what we experienced in the bathroom.” At this he chuckled and said,

“Katie, that wasn’t our first time.” I knew what he was saying and it hurt that I didn’t remember our actual first time together.

“Yes but to me it was. So before that I didn’t know what it could be like…what it
was
like being with you. I didn’t know at the time if you were using mind control on her…”

“Mind control?” I ignored his question and carried on,

“I didn’t know she was there by freewill and not because you weren’t her Demon captor…”

“Demon captor...? By the Gods, woman!” Again I didn’t give him chance to say more,

“And I didn’t know that when you made love to her and then bit into her neck you weren’t just keeping her there to feed from.”

“Ah, I think I am beginning to understand where this is going.” He said, so I continued,

“So naturally because of this, I assumed she was trying to get me to help save her but now I know what she really wanted…”

“She wanted to be free of you.” He finished sympathetically and I lowered my head in shame.

“I was her captor and I didn’t even know it. It must have been the only way for my subconscious to communicate with me, playing it out in my head like one of us was locked in a prison. I just stupidly always assumed it was her that was the prisoner but all this time, it was me.”

“Hey, come on now, you are not to be blamed in any of this. Listen…listen to me.” Draven repeated himself, raising my chin up so I had no choice but to look at him.

“Someone took you from me. They hid you away and so that I could no longer feel you in my world, they played with your mind. They took away your memories and made you believe you were someone else so they could control you.” I had no choice but to believe in him, but it was still so difficult and for one very important reason.

“But…” I tried to explain but he continued,

“I don’t know why yet but I promise you this, they will pay for the time they stole from us, and after they do, I will do everything in my power to get those memories back, if it’s the last thing I do.”

“But you don’t understand.” I said getting up from the seat as my emotions were bubbling too close to the surface.

“I understand enough Katie, to know that those who wronged us must suffer.” He said firmly.

“No and I get that, I really do but what I mean is you don’t understand what you’re asking of me…”

“What I am asking of you?” Once again he didn’t see it and I can’t say that I really blamed him, not considering he knew who I was and wanted that lost part of me back...no, I couldn’t blame him for that.

“What you’re asking me to give up!” I said throwing my arms up and this was when it finally clicked.

“You mean
who
I am asking you to give up.” His soft words made me close my eyes against the pain I had been running from ever since people started telling me I wasn’t me. If I was utterly alone in this world then I would have gladly thrown that life aside for this one that Draven offered me now, but the fact of the matter was…I wasn’t alone.

“Ari is my sister.
My twin
sister. And if what you are telling me, if what you are
all
telling me is true, then by my admitting it is like admitting that my love for Ari was never real. That our past together didn’t happen.
That she’s not my sister.”
Draven released a big sigh in defeat. Now he understood my reluctance in accepting who I really was.

“Come here.” He held out his two fingers and motioned for me to go to him. I felt the tingles zing in my belly at the sight as no matter what this man did, he did it looking sexy as Hell…no pun intended!

I went over to him and as soon as I was within reach he gripped me by the waist and shifted me in front of him. I didn’t need to look down much, even though he was sitting down because there was a big difference in my five foot three and his six foot four. Either way, he still manoeuvred me so that I was straddling his lap with my knees either side of his thighs.

“At some point we will figure this out but for now, let’s just concentrate on getting your sister back here safely…after all, if the looks of my brother are anything to go by, then pretty soon I am sure I will be calling her sister as well.” On hearing this, my eyes got wide and the thought of us all being here together was one I couldn’t wait to make a reality.

“Will he be alright?” I asked, concerned about the way he had run out of here and to be honest, he didn’t look too much like a man ready to settle down.

“It’s complicated.” Draven said looking thoughtful, no doubt going back and trying to gauge his brother’s reaction to the news as if it was a good thing or a bad thing, just as I was doing now.

“How so?”

“Well for one thing, other than her connection with you, we don’t know much about her.” Okay so I had to give him that because if it turned out she wasn’t my sister after all and she had simply had the same done to her as had been done to me…then I didn’t know her either.

“Did you know much about me before we got together?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking, however his answered stunned me.

“I knew everything.”

“What?! How is that possible?” I asked frowning at him in disbelief.

“Well, alright, I will rephrase that for you. I knew everything about you that a crazed, obsessed stalker could find out about a person.” I laughed and shook my head at the thought of anyone being obsessed by someone like me, especially because the person saying these things was Dominic Draven, sexiest man alive.

“So I didn’t have a chance then uh?” I asked teasing him.

“Nope, not one.” He said teasing back.

“So tell me, what particular powers of yours seemed to work on me then?” This time I found myself easily getting into this teasing game and his bad boy grin told me he knew it too.

“Let me show you.” His voice quickly turned very seductive and he hadn’t even done anything yet and I could already see a glimpse of what I was up against.

“For example, if I do this…” He started running a hand very gently up my spine and the sensations tingled all the way up to the base of my neck. I tried not to shudder against him, not wanting to lose the game we were playing but when you were playing against a pro, then what chance did I have?

“Then I can hear your lovely heart beating faster…and if I do this…” Quickly he pulled my hair so my head went back and my neck arched, baring my throat to him. I sucked in a surprised breath and instantly felt myself getting wet from being on the receiving end of his dominance.

“Then this little pulsating vein here starts to beg me to kiss it…” He kissed it softly and then he continued to speak against my skin,

“To suck it…” Then he sucked on the same spot and I moaned, arching further into him. I could feel his length pressing into me and I felt suddenly empowered knowing that he wanted me too.

“…and to bite it!” He growled and then took a mouthful of my flesh and held it with his teeth. The fear of pain and the anticipation of wanting that pain was sending me into a senseless fog with needing him inside me. He never bit me but I felt his knowing smile against my neck and around his teeth that still held me firmly in their grip. When he released me I moaned again only in disappointment making him chuckle.

“I do love how you react to me, little dove…like this…” Then he grasped my breast through my top and found my nipple with ease. He applied enough pressure to make me cry out and arch my back this time, forcing myself further into his hand.

“Ahhh!” I shouted a little louder as he wanted yet more of a reaction when he pinched harder.

“Oh how I have missed playing with you, touching certain parts of your beautiful body and getting you to obey without even knowing it. Like playing the finest instrument and making the sweetest sounds known to man.” As he said this he quickly tore my bra cup away on one side and bit at my nipple until this time I was screaming out and rolling my hips against his erection like a woman possessed.

“And now I think it’s time for the sound of you screaming my name as your body’s core quakes around my cock.” He said this after releasing my abused breast long enough to spin me around so my forehead was to the seat and he mounted me from behind. After ripping down my jeans and unbuckling his trouser pants, he thrust up hard into me and I cried out at the sting of pain that quickly forged itself into pleasure.

Now in this position it felt like I was truly owned. In fact, it felt like I was his submissive slave, there solely to give him the pleasure he felt he deserved. The idea warped my already turbulent mind, sending it into a spiral of desire and because of it I found myself screaming his name, coming after only a few deep thrusts.

One of his hands ran flat down my spine, whilst he reached round underneath me so that he could find what he was looking for.

“No! Ahh, too sensitive!” I told him as he started to drum his fingertip against my clit and as I tried to shift from him he pinched it hard, making me scream.

“Stay still for me, or I will do that again.” He said sternly, which again only added to the carnal aspect of it all. I did as I was told but as a result continue to moan against it.

“That’s my good girl, see how much fun having me play with you can be…now release another one for me, so I may feel you shuddering around me once more.” He said bending over me and dominating me with his intimidating size. It wasn’t surprising after only a minute more I was doing as he commanded, coming around him and once more screaming his name. If I thought the first time was intense then this was something else again. He was forcing my orgasms from me, one after another and all the while ploughing into me with such force, I felt if he hadn’t been holding me, I would have shot to the other side of the room!