The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga) (89 page)

“You make my friend very happy, I have never seen him so
.
” This
turn in conversation made me smile
.

“How long have you known him?” He raised an eyebrow at me making the scar on his face rise.

“Would
you
like me to tell you some stories about Dominic?” At this I nearly yelled out “
Oh God y
es!” But thankfully I had the good sense not to. However he could
read the eagerness on
my face, so I explained.

“He doesn’t
tell me much about his past
.
” Leivic nodded.

“I
understand... perhaps he does
not wish to overwhelm you but I see that you are an intelligent girl, I think you can handle it
.
” He winked at me and I laughed. I was very much starting to like this friend of Draven’s.

“Then let me enlighten you my dear, but first let me get you a drink
to ease the shocking stories I have to tell
.
”

I was so excited I could have danced around giving the naked demons something
really strange to watch....I da
r
e
say I’m not a great dancer!

I sat there with my legs folded like a child waiting to hear the greatest stories of my life....

The stories of the man I love.

Chapter 39

Sacrifices.

Leivic took a seat next to me and made himself comfortable among the pillows. He cast me a curious look, like he was still trying to figure out if I was real or not. I wanted to ask him
what it was that he seem
ed
to find
so interesting but my thoughts were inte
rrupted by a waitress who
had arrived with a tray of drinks in one hand and a large, ornate smoking pipe in anothe
r. He noted my raised eye
brow turn to scepticism and quickly added
,

“It’s for me
.” To w
hich I responded with a nod.

“Thank you Winnie
,” h
e said kindly and reached out to take the tray from her before setting it down on a litt
le side table. All the while I was
thinking what an unusually tame name for a Demon
and
wondering if asking her where P
oo
h was,
wouldn’t get me a killer look. Needless to say I refrained.

Once Winnie left
,
Leivic
started to light the coal that was under the metal case on the
top of the pipe. It was a metre
high with a large glass vase at the bottom w
hic
h held some form of liquid. I had seen these before in bars in Spain where you would find groups of people all sharing one. They came with multiple tubes with the mouth pieces on the end where they were smoked through. This one however was only meant for the one smoker. Leivic had finished setting it up and started to suck on the end pulling the air through. He blew out a stream of smoke making the scent of the east cling to the surrounding air.

“I hope you don’t mind?” He asked politely.

“Not at all
.
” What was I going to say, “Hell yeah, don’t you care about your health!” I don’t think so somehow.

He passed me a drink of what looked like
re
d wine and only after a quick s
ip it was confirmed. I don’t know why but I let out a sigh of relief. What did I think it would be...blood?
He took another long suck from the pipe causi
ng a bubbling noise to emanate
from the liquid at the bottom before blowing it out from scarred lips. It seem
ed
to swim from his mouth and then took on a life of its own as it formed a smoke dragon in the air in front of me. It pranced along with its snaky tail following it, then opened its mouth. Leivic then blew out more smoke making little blue sparks in the shap
e of flames come from its
mouth.

“That was seriously cool!” I said with a massive grin planted on my face.  Leivic bowed his head to me and said
,

“I’m glad you liked it
.
”

“I fear such little effort deserved such an
adorable reward
.
” I turned to him shocked at his reply
,
not helping but ask what it was he meant.

“Your smile, I find it adorable. You are such an innocent soul yet you have witnessed so much horror in such a short life. However you still remain pure and untainted by the cruelty of human life, that is a rarity indeed.” I was both shaken and moved by his words. I must have shown my shock because he frowned.

“I have upset you...forgive me, I spend so little time around humans these days that I forget myself. My gift is reading souls and I find it hard when
I come
across such a rare beauty in one
, as to
not express my feelings so forth. You are strong though, unusually so for
a breather and for this Dom
is a lucky man. There are
not many that would be able to adapt so quickly with the blind faith like you have.
..
Oh please don’t
get me wrong but I say so in p
aying you a compliment. You are truly destined for my dear friend indeed and I could not
be more happy for him. He is
the
one
B
eing in the world that deserves it the most, I think.”

I still didn’t quite know
what
to say to this without brimming over with emotion. It h
ad touched me that this man whom
I had only just met thought so much of me. I felt blessed. I was about to speak but as if by knowing my thoughts he held up his hand to stop me.

“Pl
ease, there is no need to thank
me for words
that are true.
I speak them because it is fact and something you need to hear. Like my friend Dom
,
I never just speak to flatter
.
” This made me smile, to know Draven wasn’t the type of man to say what he didn’t not mean
,
just for the sake of provoking a response. Although saying things that would provoke a jealous response was a different matter!

“I would like to thank you all the same.” I said feeling better.

I took a long slip of my drink, which helped me to relax a little at my current situation. I wondered how long I would be with Draven before places like this became the norm to me? If I thought my life was complicated before
,
then now it was off the charts crazy! Leivic was silent during my thoughts but when I heard the bubbling of liquid once again it pulled me away from the hectic track of my mind.

“So...how do you know Draven?” I asked before thinking about the question in my head. Man I sounded dumb! However Leivic wore an amused smile that crept up on one side before he answered me.

“Well there
are
v
ery few of our kind who
have not heard of their
natural
Master but there are those foolish enough not to obey him. I am lucky enough to call him friend and I hold that title with great pride.” I couldn’t help but smile at the affection in his voice when talking about the man I loved.

“I owe my life to Dominic and would give it undeniably in return. He saved me from my fate which was
far
worse than
my
death
.
” He watched as my eyes widened in horror. What could be worse than death?

“Would like to hear my story?” I think he was checking that I was up to it and
when I nodded he look glad, as if
he had been wanting to tell someone for so long and now, finally
,
was his chance.

“I would
.
” I answered prompting another trademark bow from him and I found this all very endearing.

“First I feel that I should tell you it is not a happy tale that I speak of
,
but one of great meaning an
d
sacrifice. See in my Demon form, for I am a Demon, did you know that?” He asked shooting me a look making his colossal scar twitch. I coughed out my answer.

“Um..m...no I didn’t
,
” I said trying to hide the
shock of such a nice, polite man as a scary Demon. I know I was being naive again but it is hard to dismiss what
history has taught about who are
the goodies and the badies. I think Sunday school would have been quite a different lesson if the world knew the truth.

“
I am
, what you would call
....a Reaper
shifter
.
” At this I couldn’t help the sudden intake of air causing him to look hurt. I mean what else was I suppose to do, here I was having a very personal conversation with a....with a bloody Reaper! A Demonic merchant of death!

“Please do not be frightened, I did not just take souls at a whim. I had contracts just like anyone would
.
”

“You don’t do it anymore then?” I asked when he said the words “Did” instead of “do”.

“No, I gave up that right long ago. See
,
I worked for Hell, gathering souls that we
re on my list until one day there
was on
e
on
my list I didn’t want to take.”
His silver
blue eyes glazed over with the memory and I couldn’t help but put my hand on his arm. I wanted to comfort him as it was obvious that this was not an easy story to tell. He smile
d making the scar across face rise and fall. There were
lau
ghter lines around his eyes
that creased at my gesture and he looked touched by my concern.

“Have you ever heard of the Goths?” I narrowed my eyes trying to understand what he meant, then I looked around seeing many that were in this very club but he started to shake his head.

“Forgive m
e, not the Goths you see today
,
all those lost people that dress in black and like to believe in our kind. I’m talking about an
East Germanic tribe
who played an important role in the history of the
Roman Empire
.” When I was still at a loss,
he winked at me.

“It is of no matter, I guess the second century is little taught in education today. Let’s see...
the Goth war was in 375
, so that would put me in
The
Dniester about 365 AD.”
I could barely nod I was in that much shock...that would make the man I was speaking to now at over 1600 years old! Is that possible? How many life times is that?  Ok
, so now I had a head
ache.

“Where is Dni...umm what you said
?
”
He laughed at me giving up on trying to say the right name and then said it again only slower...like it would somehow help!

“Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe.
The Dniester rises in
Ukraine
, near the city of
Drohobych
, close to the border with
Poland
, and flows toward the
Black Sea
. That’s where the tribe was situated at the time and being how I looked
,
I was being hunted.”

“HUNTED! But why, did they know who you were?” I was horrified by the idea of Draven’s friend being hunted like an animal but I soon understood enough as th
e next words out of his mouth w
ere the last ones I could have ever expected.

“I didn’t look human then, see I was in my Demon form, which is a bear
.
” I coughed out my disbelief.

“I’m sorry did you say a...a bear?”

“Yes I did....I guess Draven hasn’t expla
ined much about our kind and our other forms has he?”

“I don’t think Dr
aven likes me knowing to
o
much
but I am interested, I think it helps the more I know
,
but Draven doesn’t see it like that
.
”