The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga) (70 page)

“That’s what I have been doing all this time
, my love.” 

I woke up feeling groggy and it took me a moment to look back and understand why I was now waking in a room I had never seen before. Although
, I must admit this was becoming a bad habit of mine. In the last four months just how many rooms I didn’t know had there been? How many different countries had I woken up in and how many views from an unknown bed had I seen?

And all for what, just to find myself alone in the very last bed of my journey
, before going home empty handed. This was when it all came thundering back to me making me groan in pain. 

“Here, take these, it should help
.” Vincent’s soft voice startled me as he threw an aspirin bottle at me, landing on the big bed. I looked to the door to find him standing there, arms folded as if he had readied himself for my rejection. I sat up hissing at the pain on my stomach from the cut and also the thumping in my head from being punched…as in a lot! I popped the pill cap with one hand and grabbed the unopened bottle of water with the other. After the pills were where they needed to be, I put both down and nodded to the Angel in the doorway. 

“You can come in Vincent, I promise not to be a bitch this time
.” I said shaking the sleepy fog from my head and rubbing my eyes, drawing a new hiss when I touched the bruise there.

“I guess being the Angel in this picture I should feel remorse on my brother
’s side for killing them, but one look at what they did and I can only find myself sorry I had not been there to help him.” I snorted a humourless laugh thinking back to the horrors that early morning held.

“Yeah well get in line, if I had found a weapon Draven would have found them in pieces
.” I said not knowing if this was strictly true but it sounded good at the time.

“From what he told me you didn’t do too badly without one… what is it with you and breaking noses
anyway?” He asked smiling as he came closer to sit on the bed facing me.

“Well
, Hilary was a bitch and deserved it at the time, as for the other guy…I didn’t really care for his idea of making friends.” On hearing this Vincent’s anger flashed through white, clouding the beautiful crystal blue that usually looked back at me. In sight of his growing rage I placed a hand over his tensed fist and said,

“Hey, I’m fine…Draven got to me in time so let’s not go there… alright
?” He looked down at my hand on top of his and before I could speak another word of comfort, he had me in his arms, holding me to him like he never wanted to let go.

“I’m so sorry
, Keira.”
He whispered over my head as he pulled me to the crook of his neck. I felt the emotions rise up but remembering all of yesterday, I found I no longer wanted to cry. I had nothing left in me and that was the truth. No more uncontrollable rage. No more tears from an ever flowing well of pain. And no more hate for those around me who had acted like puppets in a brutal play at the expense of my heart. I was left numb.

“What’s done is done Vincent, there is no taking it back
, there is only living on past it.” I said and after another moment he pulled back to look at me. He looked to be evaluating if what I said was truly what I meant, as I gathered anything said ruled by emotions was never a good place to start when looking for that new beginning.

“You think you can?” he asked me withholding nothing.

“If Draven can, why can’t I?” I replied with another question.

“Is that what you think,
that Dom has been ‘living past it’? No one lied to you when they said he was no longer living, Keira.” I shook my head in confusion at what he meant.

“I don’t…”

“Draven has been in Hell, Keira, just not the one you think.”

“I…what do you…”

“That’s quite enough, Brother.” Draven’s voice interrupted my questioning what he meant and for a moment Vincent’s eyes closed as if in discomfort. Then, without a word in parting to me, he stood and walked over to Draven who had been watching our exchange from the doorway. At the sight of him I felt my heart pinch before beating that little bit quicker. I didn’t know what it was in life that did this to us, but as soon as your soul connects on that level with another, it is then forevermore interlocked to it like no other soul on the planet.

I had seen this man in every way possible… naked, vulnerable, angry and cold, protective, fearful, loving, devoted and hopeful. And every other hundreds of emotions
out there and still it was as though I was seeing him for the first time, after being forced without his perfection in my life for too long.

Vincent walked up to him and said,

“You’re still not going to tell her, are you?” Draven didn’t answer him but just shook his head in a small motion to indicate what Vincent already knew. This didn’t shock me considering Draven hadn’t given me any answers so far, not even in the sight of both my anger and my heart wrenching grief. But what did shock me was what Vincent said next and shocking me even more was Draven’s reply to it. 

“Then you don’t deserve her
.”

“No, I don’t
.” Draven said as simply as if he had been told this by the very Gods themselves. I didn’t think my heart could break anymore but upon hearing this I know it did. Was this what his leaving me was about? Had I just heard my reasons voiced for the first time?

“How do you feel?” I had been so deep in my shock that I hadn’t noticed Vincent had now left and for t
he first time it was just Draven and I, alone and as we truly were.

“Confused
.” I said as all physical pain was now a thing of the past, overshadowed by the biggest question of all…why?

“That’s not surprising
.” He said and like his brother before him he wouldn’t come any closer until I said something.

“If you fear for my nails scratching out your eyes
, I think you’re safe, although I wouldn’t let me loose in your kitchen just yet…too many pointy ends.” I said dryly, trying to kill the tension being in his presence was bound to bring. He didn’t laugh but I at least noticed a light spark brought to his eyes.

“I will have to remember that
.” He replied stepping further into the room. I was expecting him to approach the bed like Vincent had done and I braced for it, knowing what being so close to him would do to me, but in the end I needn’t had worried. Instead of coming too close, he moved a chair with his mind until it was over a metre away from the bed. I had to say it hurt that he didn’t want to be close to me, but then I really couldn’t expect anything else could I…? I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t a reunion, this was an ending.

“I think you and I a
re overdue a chat, don’t you?” He said after a moment of silence had let me take in my surroundings. The room was a pretty girly room that screamed chintzy, but tastefully so. It was actually such a feminine room it was difficult to see Draven being comfortable in it.

The walls were white
washed stone and on the only flat wall that must have been the divider to an ensuite bathroom, there was a blue and white china pattern painted, one that you would normally have found on an old Chinese plate. I looked down at the bed I was in and saw there was a folded comforter at the end in the same design which also matched the cushions both on the bed and on the cute wing backed chairs. I could at least be glad I was no longer in the same room I had found Aurora in.

This thought brought on one of deep shame at my actions and Draven must have seen it written across my face.

“How is Aurora?” I felt disgusted with myself for asking but couldn’t help it.

“I hear she’s fine
.” He stated like he cared little on the matter and I couldn’t hold back the feeling of great relief I felt when I heard that he hadn’t seen her for himself.

“What happened?” I asked him
, looking down at my hands that were fiddling with the sheet still covering half of me.

“You don’t know?” He asked in a surprised voice that had me really looking at him more than my usual aching glance. He was wearing a pair of light denim jeans and a charcoal shaded long sleeve t-shirt moulded to the hard lines of his ever impressive upper body…it was
a painful sight to someone who, up until now, had been so used to touching such perfection.

“I…well since you…you know…” H
e nodded knowing what I was trying to say without words.

“I started to feel stuff happen when I get angry only…it never really seems to happen when I want it to…like when those guys…”

“I would advise you not finish that sentence.” His voice had turned hard and I saw the flash of purple lurking there around his beautifully angry eyes.

“Did you…?” He knew I was trying to ask about what happened to them all
, but he cut me down with a harsh,

“They got what they deserved and more! I will not have them mentioned again, do I make myself clear?” I frowned at him and then when I saw his hands ball into fists
, I decided to simply snap out,

“Crystal
!” and have done with it. He nodded once and after he must have thought the silence was long enough for me to calm, he said,

“Why don’t you continue by telling me when it happened the first time
.” I thought back to the first time as he suggested and was surprised to find when the first time was.

“I was on the balcony in Germany, it was just after Lucius had taken me. I was so angry
, that it just kind of happened.” I said wondering at the fact that I might have lost my mind, considering here I was having this relatively calm conversation with a man I had thought dead for months.

“What happened?” Draven asked leaning forward to rest a bent arm on his knee. His hand spread out over the lower half of his face that was dark with thick stubble
, making the muscle in his arm bulge and I forgot just how huge the man really was. 

“I threw a shot glass
across the lake at the mountain opposite and it not only hit it, but it caused some damage.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this be
fore?” He asked almost accusingly, which made me snap,

“Oh what,
do you mean before you left me to go and find an Oracle that didn’t need saving or after that, when you then decided not to come home and just play dead instead!?” I was at least thankful for the flash of pain I saw, no matter how brief it was.

“I understand…” I held up my hand to stop him and said,

“Unless you do fancy that eye scratching after all, then I would definitely not say that you understand anything when it comes to my feelings.” I said this in a way that spoke volumes to how hard I was trying not to lose it.

“If you think this has been in anyway easy for me Keira
, then you are decidedly mistaken.” His eyes bore into mine as if he was trying to will me to see something in that sentence he couldn’t say…but instead of giving him that hope, I hit him where I hoped it hurt the most.

“Oh really, well let’s put this to the test then Draven, how would you have felt that day if it had been Libby turn
ing up at your door and telling you
I
was the one who was dead!?” I saw the agony that thought brought him when it wasn’t red that circled his eyes…or Hell, it wasn’t even purple…no, it was all Heaven’s blue light, an emotion I hardly ever saw on Draven…I knew I had gotten through. 

“That’s what I thought, so don’t you dare say that you understand what you have put me through
, Draven…never again, you get me?” I said swinging my legs round and leaning forward to make him understand exactly what I was saying.

“Alright Keira, I think you
’ve made your point.”

“Agreed
.” I said, getting up from the bed, making Draven lean back in his chair.

“Where are you going?” He said as though I was about to bolt out the door any minute.

“To the bathroom, unless you want to come with me to carry on with this delightful conversation whilst I pee?” He gave me pointed look that said I was acting like a child without actually saying the words. I just shrugged and then said,

“Your loss
.” And stormed off to the bathroom, knowing relieving my bladder came second to needing to put some space between us. I didn’t know what was harder, us fighting with anger, standing in the aftermath of a battlefield filled with the evidence of our heartbroken fuelled power all around us…or this. Simple, calm and even reasonable to a degree that could be called civil. Either way it hurt just looking at what was no longer mine. The man I could no longer touch like I once had or the love I made no attempt to hide, as I had to do now. Because love was a weakness in this war and my heart couldn’t afford to lose again.

After using the toilet and peeing like I had needed to for days
, I came out of the room asking how long I had been asleep for, when a commotion stopped me dead.

“You can’t keep me from her! Where is she…
? I care not for your kingdom and I swear you this, I will tear everything apart to find her! Keira...! KEIRA!” I walked in just as Draven stepped in front of me as though to protect me. But the man looking for me was not one I would ever need protecting from, no matter what Draven thought he knew. I tried to side step only to see one mountain trying to stop another as Ragnar struggled to hold back the man trying to enter.