The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga) (67 page)

“Actually
I preferred her in Cruel Intent
ions
.
” He winked at me and just as she came up to the bar I whispered
,

“Yeah
,
but that
’s
only because she
kisses
a girl!”

“Argh, g
ross! Who kissed a girl?”
Cassie asked but
not without the disgusted look
my way. She probably thought I was a lesbian now and it would soon be around the club that I was cheating on Draven with some out of town Cyber chick.

The Dravens
’
prolonged stay was still generating an array of unusual tourists that travelled miles just for one night at Club Afterlife and maybe a glimpse at its famous Gothic millionaire.
Unfortunately
the drama and gossip of the town was still about me dating
Draven.
I think there was even one rumour the other day that I was pregnant and just saying it was
his because I wanted his money. I had laughed until tears developed when RJ had told me. But I wasn’t hurt by all these rumours. It came with the
territory when dating the town’s most influential man and besides
,
I knew the truth and that’s all that mattered.

Of course it caused a little friction at work to begin with
but soon they just seemed to ac
cept it was now a part of me and when I disappea
red upstairs, it was as if I was forgotten about. O
n the shifts when I worked in the VIP, I would walk past without a word spoken to me
,
but on the shifts when I wo
rked down here, then it was as though
not
hing had changed. I was now
two different people to everyone else but I was still the same person inside. It had bothered me in the beginning
,
that I couldn’t have it both ways but I soon realised there was no other way it would work…it was them that had changed
,
not me.

“Oh my
,
oh my
!
” Cassie was muttering
to me which was odd in its
elf. Her killer instincts had kicked in
to over
drive and she was now fixated on Justin who was walking this way.

“Move out of my way, my future husband just walked in and he’s looking this way
, oh and try not to speak, I don’t want him running off
.
”
She bud
g
ed me out of the way to stand
in front of me.
I wanted to laugh out loud but refrained. I didn’t want to crush her dreams as soon as they had been created.
Besides this was going to be far too entertaining to watch!

Justin sure did attract attention even if he did look like a fish out of water. He was trying to look around for me and I had to wave behind Cassie’s back. This was like giving a diabetic
,
keys to the sweet shop because Cassie thought he was coming for her. He was now stood in front of us both trying to
get to me.

“Hi, looking for someone
‘
cause my name
’
s Cassie and I’m someone
?
” She flashed her white teeth under murderous red lips that were closer to hooker than hottie. She then added a girly hair flick, which ending up hitting me in the
face with bleached blonde hair
that even smelt like peroxide. 

“Hey Cassie, I’m Justin and I’ve found who I’m looking for
thanks
.
” He was trying to be polite but she didn’t even flinch.

“Yeah
,
well why don’t you tell her you’ve found me and let me and you go party, I’m off in twenty minutes
.
” At this he lost his gentlemanly patience and held her by the shoulders and moved her to the side to reveal an amused me behind, which brought his smile back.

“Sorry kid, I play in the big leagues and I
’ve
found what I was looking for
.
” He finished it with a wink at me, which sent Cassie over the edge. She went scarlet to the dark roots and huffed off shouting “Dog” over her shoulder but Justin just replied with a “Woof, Woof”
, e
ven though I think it was mainly aimed at me.

“Well she was pleasant… Not!” he said
before ordering a rum and coke
.

“
You just me
t the slut of Afterlife
and survived, congrats
,
”
I said causing a warm smile to replace the cocky one.

We were only there a few minutes when a familiar pink head could be seen amongst the crowd.
Boy for such a little thing she couldn’t half push her way through a room full of dancing bodies
. She came bounding up to me so I met her half way, where she
gave me a huge hug, momentarily forgetting Justin.
She was wearing a ripped
black tank top with net sleeve
s. This was matched with a pink
tartan tutu skirt and tartan boots on top of fish net tights that had seen better days. Her hair had grown
out
a bit but the roots were now dyed red
,
so each
pink
spike now looked like it was bleeding into her skull.

“Nice hair
!
” I commented and her eyes lit up with the complement.

“You like
? And who said red and pink clash! You look cute as usual but wait…what is this, doth my eyes deceive me
?
” She said this in a posh, old fashion
ed
English accent (or at least tried to) before carrying on
,

“Are you
, Keira
our English rose,
wearing the tightest black jeans I have ever seen?”

“No! And don’t make me regret them…ok
?
” I said in a low voice and she just nodded, understanding my code.

“Mum
’
s the word
,
old chap
!
” She did it again and at this rate if she persisted to keep up the accent then
I would have to teach her a few things, like for one, not all English people sounded like Sherlock Homes!

“So what do we have here then, what did you bring me?” She motioned towards Justin with her netted hand and I turned to see
him
waiting for us.
She giggled at the sight and as we walked over there I heard her behind me saying “Yum, Yum”
.

“Justin
,
this is my very good friend RJ, RJ this is who I was telling you about
.
” I thou
ght I had introduced them proper
ly but I think Justin got the wrong idea.

“Keira
,
have you been telling people about me, you little minx
?
” He held a hand out to RJ like something from a period drama on the BBC. I don’t know why but Mr Wick
h
am sprang to mind. He was being the perfect gentleman as we all chatted at the bar about what Justin had been up to the past few years.

“But if
you’re
only a few years older than Keira, didn’t you finish college?” SHIT! I hadn’t thought about that, they all still thought I was twenty one not twenty three. Of course Justin knew what
had
happened to me, it would have been hard for Frank not to explain why he
had
to come over to England to console his wife.
His family had been great in not disclosing this bit of information to anyone else and although Justin didn’t know all the gruelling details
,
he still knew.

“Ah well
...
my parents didn’t mind me taking some time out on account of being a free spirit and all. I’ll go back but only when I’m finished with
travelling.
”
He
carried on but I was just thanking my lucky stars that Justin had been so cool with lying. If that had been me
,
I would have
been
busted Disney style and my big conk would have probably poked her eye out. But Justin was obviously a pro in this line of work.

By the end of his third story about helping out the
locals,
I think RJ was in love and ready to run away with him to become a world healing surfer, living in huts and mothering abandoned mon
k
eys while making vegan meals for hungry locals. 

“So do you like the band?” RJ was asking Justin as I saw one of the friendliest faces on the planet come towards us. Jack’s messy hair flopped about in the crowd and a couple of girls dressed like vampire dolls drooled as he went past. His smile lit up my face as he approached and I couldn’t help but laugh at his T-shirt that was black and the white lettering said “Guns don’t kill people,
Zombies
do” and the word Zombies was painted in fake dripping blood.

“Nice T-shirt
,
” I said as he gave me a big bear hug.

“I wore it for you, knew you’d like it considering you work in a Gothic nightclub. Cute top
,
by the way
.
” He gave me a great big grin that I expected most of the room could see. Meanwhile Justin had stopped listening to RJ and was staring at us. You could feel the heat from his glare and it made us both turn round at the same time.

“Oh sorry dude, you must be Justin
” Jack extended
his hand and Justin slapped his own into it with an edge of aggression.

“And you? Sorry Keira hasn’t spoken about
you
.
” I blushed and felt like pulling out on
e
of Justin’s ribs and hitting him with it for being so rude.

“Oh this is just my brother Jack
.
”

“Gee
z thanks sis, that’s real heart
felt
.
” Jack
hit a fist to his chest and
joked
about
being the more mature one
of the two. I quickly asked RJ about the band name, trying to disperse some of the tense atmosphere that was far too thick for me.

“So what’s the band’s name?”

“The Happy Yellow S
tains, the
y’
re ok but the next band is called
‘TCTF’
and they rock
.
” She then got Jack’s attention and drank from an imag
in
a
ry cup, her way of asking for a drink. He rolled his eyes at me and shouted for Mike who was trying to get away from Cassie at the time, so he seemed more than pleased about his reason for escape.

“What does ‘TCTF’
mean
?
” I asked
when I re
ally wanted to ask if it meant ‘
Ta
ctless conversations to
friends’
, b
ut I swallowed that one and waited for my answer which was in no way what I was expecting.

“This Clown T
aste
s F
unny
.
”

“Sorry?” I thought she had just randomly told me something from a dream but no
,
that had been the answer.
I hadn’t heard anymore because a vibrating in my bag told me that I had a message. I fumbled in the side pocket and half
answered Jack at the same time,

“Yes thanks
,” I said to the
offer
of a drink
but I noticed Justin had made it a point of ordering me one first and he slid the bottle my way. Jack just shrugged his shoulders and told Mike his order minus one Corona. I now had my phone in my palm and flipped it open to a message from an unknown number.

“Did you think it a wise
choice to dress so sexy when
surrounded by drooling boys, while your boyfriend looks on?”

OMG! Not only was he watching me but he was now texting me!

“Anyone I know…Or someone I wanna know?” RJ said trying to look at my phone which I was now clasping to my chest and turning rosy red.

“It’s no one, just Libby
.
” She wasn’t convinced and laughed saying “Yeah right”
,
then she carried on talking to Justin.
Next thing I knew my phone was vibrating in my sweaty hand making me nearly drop it.

“Nobody is it?  Well
,
why don’t you meet this nobody upstairs and we can discuss what co
lour your cheeks have blushed t
o
?
”