Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 1 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (34 page)

“I owe you a new office.”

“Draven!” I hissed much to his and everyone else’s amusement.

“Way to go, the Toot monster!” Pip shouted and I looked over to her, only just noticing that she was now sat in Adam’s lap with her hands tied in front of her with his tie. Well it looked as though she had been punished in other ways for not telling him that she was going to be here tonight. Which reminded me that I was yet to have that same conversation with Draven. I looked around trying to find Sophia but couldn’t see her or Ari for that matter. Pip gave me a little shake of her head and I frowned wondering what she meant by it.

Draven led me towards his large throne like chair, one similar to those Jared and Lucius sat in. Looking round, I also couldn’t help but notice that the only other King here wasn’t sitting in the same chair as the others. No, instead Sigurd had left it empty, choosing to sit like everyone else, totally ignoring the fact of who he was amongst their royal world.

“Yes that’s better and what I have been missing all night.” Draven said settling me down on his lap, looking every bit the masterful being that he was. He chuckled when I made sure all the ruffled folds of my dress were firmly tucked in between my legs so I wasn’t giving people the Keira peep show!

“So now is the time for you to tell me, my lovely little vixen clown, how it is you came to be here tonight?” Draven asked and I had to wonder if my face gave away my panic.

“It is fine love, I won’t be angry, not considering the gift you so graciously bestowed on me.” Well at least this confirmed that doing that little number in the ring had been a good idea, no matter how mortifying.

“I…uh…” I was trying to think of the right reason, not knowing what the other girls had said yet.

“You…uh…?” Draven teased mocking me.

“We had arranged it for her, after Keira confessed that she would love to have the opportunity to properly perform for you, seeing as it is human custom to have a stripper perform at these types of parties.” At this Draven growled low and Sophia, who had arrived in time to wonderfully come to my aid, just rolled her eyes at him.

“We didn’t get her one before you start with all your possessive manhandling.” She said nodding at the fact Draven had me locked to his chest as if someone was going to come along any minute and whisk me away from him.

“How did you know we were coming here?”

“Lucius!” I shouted forgetting that I should have really left the lying up to the pros. I think if Sophia could have got away with it, she would have rolled her eyes at me as well.

“Lucius?”

“Yes.” She stopped and I wondered why she didn’t go on and elaborate but when Draven started speaking once more I knew she did this to first discover what he knew.

“That makes sense given that he was the one who convinced us to come here in the first place.” I should have known I thought dryly.

“Therefore we had time to prepare.” Sophia said motioning with her hand down at my outfit and then smiling that gorgeous evil grin of hers.

“And I am very pleased that you did.” Draven said flicking my miniature top hat which amazingly had stayed on during our little romp, no doubt thanks to all the clips underneath.

“But what does confuse me brother, is your version of a quiet place,” she added with a hand on her hip and cocking it out to one side. This is when I wanted to high five her and say something like ‘you go, Girlfriend’, thankfully  stopping myself because I knew only cool people could get away this and I was far from owning the ability to act cool. So instead I just looked back at him, also waiting for an answer.

“I…well, it might have…and I…” I burst out laughing as it was the first time I had seen Draven struggling for words and soon Sophia followed me in teasing her brother.

“Where did Ari go?” I asked looking around once more also noticing that Vincent was missing.

“Ah, well our performance might have gone down well with certain members of the family…”

“I for one,” Zagan said giving me a cheeky smile and a wink.

“But unfortunately for our little ‘nun’ it didn’t go down too well with holy boy Vincent.”

“Oh dear, so where are they?” I asked feeling guilty as it had been us that had coerced her into coming in the first place.

“Shortly after you were whisked up into the arms of one brother, Ari was quickly thrown over the shoulder of the other. He told me to tell you that he hopes you enjoy the rest of your evening. Then he left with an angry girl cursing his name and pounding her fists against his back…which, if I do recall, would be a first for Vincent.” Draven laughed and agreed,

“It most certainly would. No, not very submissive at all.” I frowned wondering what they both meant by this and could only assume that Vincent never normally had to deal with unwilling women before. Sophia gave me a knowing smile and went to sit back down with her husband, leaving me to think about poor Ari.

“Don’t fret love, I am sure they will sort themselves out soon.” I nodded knowing he was most likely right. But this thought didn’t take away the guilt of me not being there for her right now, although from the sound of it, I don’t think my presence would be all that welcome.

“Well let’s just hope they don’t take as long as we did or for them to have as many obstacles as we have had to endure the last few years. 

“Indeed.”

After this, things relaxed, even if the shows that were put on weren’t just eye openers, they were also mouth droppers and cheek blushers. I think it was the human Hoopla game that had me really squirming to look away. The ring was filled with naked girls all lay on tables with their breasts tied, so they became more swollen and upright. They also all had a vibrating strap on penis with a little flags sticking out of the top. Their nipples also had the same flags attached to nipple clamps and each had a number on. From the look of things none of them looked unwilling, even when the men stepped up one by one all armed with their hoops which had been dipped in red paint…or what I at least hoped was red paint and not blood.

From what I understood of the game, depending on the number they got the hoop over was how many minutes they had won to do whatever they wished with the girl, in front of everyone of course. This was what really made me squirm and what didn’t help was Draven’s wandering hands taking great delight that I wore no underwear.

“Behave.”
I would warn but he would just bite my ear and whisper,

“I think we should play that game in private, I could easily see you all bound and trussed up like that. Spread out for my pleasure.” His words complete with the debauchery that was happening on the stage were getting me unbelievable wet and wanting him again.

“Then I hope your aim would be good enough to hit the twenty flag.” I told him seeing as the highest number was on the cock.

“I will show you just how good my aim can be little clown of mine when we get back into the hotel room and I demand another form of entertainment from you.” I leant back further against him and moaned at just hearing his erotic teasing, wishing his fingers were also in the action. This sexual tease continued until the act finished and luckily a less sinful one took its place. I was just thankful that the fights had stopped with Draven’s last one.

“You saw that?” Draven asked after we had cooled down our raging desire and I had time to mention it, causing him to sound horrified.

“Yes, we arrived just as it started.” He looked thoughtful for a moment and then ran a single fingertip down my cheek before saying,

“I am sorry that you had to see that.” This surprised me.

“Why?” He looked shocked that I didn’t know.

“Why? Because you should never have to see that side of me.”

“But I love all of you even your demon side and I understand that you need to let him come out to play every now and again.” I told him honestly and he looked almost dumbfounded…did he not know I felt this way?

“And this is truly the way you feel?”

“Of course, you can’t just love half a person, Draven, it doesn’t work like that.”

“By the Gods I love you woman!” He told me before kissing me passionately and we didn’t stop, not even when the whistling around us became too much.

Because with Draven…

I never wanted to stop.

Chapter 33

Loyal Royalty

The rest of the night consisted of me being glued to Draven whilst we celebrated what had quickly become our joint Hen and Stag party. The whole evening was so much fun that I almost forgot why we needed to come here in the first place. I also got the chance to speak to Sigurd, who I hadn’t seen in what felt like forever.

Of course I knew the part he had played in helping the Katie part of me when I needed to stop part of the ritual, saving RJ in the process. He wasn’t surprised I was back as he had obviously heard this from his father. But no doubt Ragnar thought it best to let some time pass before he came to see me, as Draven was still a bit raw when mentioning Sigurd, believing that the deception was unforgivable.

Sigurd on the other hand obviously couldn’t have given a rat’s ass about any of this and was no different towards me whether Draven was there or not. I even joked, saying,

“If I’d have known you were here I would have brought you a bacon sandwich or five.”

“Ha, laugh it up Lille øjesten but I will have you know it takes a lot of energy to look this good.” I laughed again and before I finished he said,

“It’s good to see you again, øjesten.” This quickly ceased my giggles and I said in earnest,

“I missed you too, big guy.”

After speaking with Sigurd I had just sat down when Pip and Sophia grabbed me up to dance. I finally had a chance to speak to them alone and even then Draven had complained about letting me go once I was in his lap again.

“Why are you still tied up?” I had to ask.

“Because my punishment for not telling Adam my plans is that I don’t get to touch him for the rest of the night.” Pip told us shrugging her shoulders in her hardship.

“But he obviously still gets to touch you right?” Sophia asked obviously concerned.

“Oh yeah, in fact, he can’t keep his hands off me in this outfit…he’s a big Joker fan…uh but not in a gay way.” I laughed and said,

“In a ‘you look hot dressed as my favourite character’ type way…got it!”

“Totally, Tootiemania.” I smiled at my latest nickname.

“Well, now we have Adam’s sexual fantasy outfit out the way let’s move on to more pressing matters should we…like how in Gods boring Heavens are we going to get Draven off you for more than five freakin minutes, I mean he looks like he is going to come over and do another caveman on your ass as it is!” Sophia said and I looked over my shoulder to see that he was downing shots and talking with Lucius, all without taking his eyes off me.

“Crickey mother Mary’s pants, but he looks like he wants to eat you, Toots.” I blushed as Pip was right, it really did.

“We are still making up for lost time…if you know what I mean.”

“Honey, I think half this place now knows what you mean, they even heard his roar back at the hotel.” Sophia said grinning when my blush turned a deeper shade of ruby.

“Moving on from Adam and now from Draven.”

“Oh yeah, I totally got some,” Sophia said totally missing my point.

“I kinda meant the plan.” I told her and Pip snorted a laugh, to which Sophia replied,

“I don’t know what you’re laughing at because out of the three of us you’re the only one who hasn’t had any yet, and you’re the horniest one of the lot of us.” This was very true and unfortunately from the look of misery on her face, she’d just realised this fact.

“Sophia!” I said nodding to Pip who had now lowered her head as if deep in thought and it didn’t look like her usual ‘happy rainbow bunnies bouncing along on skull shaped clouds’ kind of thought. Sophia looked guilty and rightly so. So before she was allowed enough time to concoct a plan of seduction or worse…revenge, I thought it best to intervene.

“Yeah but you know I think his plan is to try and make her squirm and get all needy for him just like he wants her, so then later when she really gets it, she will be bursting for him.” I had no idea where all this came from and it sounded as if I was reading from one of those novels which had half naked men on the front, but hell, women loved those books for a reason, so no wonder it worked.

“You really think so?” she asked looking hopeful.

“I do, in fact I think he is probably planning to keep you tied up all night so you can’t escape him.” Sophia looked at me as if to say, ‘who are you and what have you done with my friend?’ or just call me Katie again, as that was pretty much the same thing. I gave her a ‘don’t look at me, I have no idea where this shit is coming from’ look back as Pip turned to Sophia with the same hopeful eyes and said,

“Do you think so?”

“Definitely,” she replied without pause and when Pip looked back to me Sophia shook her head and mouthed an emphatic ‘No’ at me.

“Right, now that is all out of the way and sex is off the table…”

“But I thought that was the whole point, or how else are you going to get preggers?” Pip asked interrupting me and I wanted to groan out loud.

“I meant sex tonight.”

“But you said I am going to get some,” she argued and if there was ever a time I would ask the Gods to grant me strength it would have been then.

“So Lucius still has the Oracle?” Sophia asked ignoring Pip’s blonde moment.

“Shit, I hadn’t even thought about that. I just saw him and focused on what we needed to do here. I didn’t even think about where the Hell Pythia could be.” I told them honestly.

“No offense, but you kinda have a lot going on right now, besides doing a sexy dance in front of hundreds of people, one being your husband…I think we will let you off.” Sophia said and Pip agreed by bobbing her head up and down, causing a riot of green curls to bounce around. But whether they let me off or not, it still didn’t excuse the fact that seeing Lucius here hadn’t set off alarm bells in my head. I don’t know why I felt so responsible for Pythia, maybe it was something to do with me being the reason she was being hunted right now but either way, I couldn’t help adding a new worry to my ever growing list.

“For the moment let’s just assume that he still has her hidden and that she’s safe. More important is the problem of getting you and Jared speaking alone without anyone around and when I say anyone, I mainly mean my brother.”

“I think I have an idea.” Pip said shocking us into silence.

“What if instead of trying to get Toots to sneak off, it was Kingy boy who left. No one would think anything of seeing Toots having a little chinwag with Mr Howl at the Moon.”

“Does he actually do that?” I found myself asking.

“Not the time, Keira.” Sophia told me.

“Sorry you’re right, I promise I am totally focused right now.” I told her, still secretly dying to know.

“You’re still thinking about it aren’t you?”

“Yeah pretty much,” I told Sophia honestly and Pip giggled.

“So how do we lure Draven away?” I asked knowing that right now he didn’t even look as if he would last much longer with me being away from him, even being with his own sister and my best friend.

“I’ve got it!” Sophia said getting excited.

“Tell us.”

“The only thing that would lure him away was if he thought he was doing something for you.” Okay so she completely lost me on this one, which is what I told her.

“A wedding gift,” Sophia said and confused I repeated, 

“A wedding gift?”

“Aah, a wedding gift,” Pip said obviously getting the idea when I didn’t.

“Dom might not have thought of one or if he has he might need our help, either way it’s a good excuse to get him far enough away so you can have a conversation with wolf boy.”

“Are we seriously calling him that?” I asked making Pip giggle out a response, 

“We totally are.”

Surprisingly, a little more than ten minutes later, Draven was walking away from me with Pip and Sophia on each side of him no doubt trying everything in their power to keep him occupied. Well whatever they had said to him was most certainly working because they were soon out of sight. Of course Draven didn’t go anywhere without first issuing a warning to my giant protector to keep watch.

He even looked as though he was getting up out of his chair as soon as I stood.

“Chill big guy, I am just thanking the host.” I said, nodding to Jared and thankfully he quickly relaxed and grunted for me to go ahead. So I got up, trying to act casual and fighting the impulse to just run over to him, blurting out what I needed to ask. I couldn’t help but notice the way Lucius watched me do this and he raised an eyebrow at me as if to ask, ‘what are you up to this time?’

“Mrs Draven, pleasure as always.” Jared said smirking at me, his molten silver eyes flashing as though they were looking at the moon…okay I really needed to get the image of Jared howling at the moon out of my head. 

“Mr Cerberus,” I said in a mocking tone.

“Hey Candy girl, tasty little performance out there,” Marcus said winking at me with creepy eyes thanks to his clown makeup.

“Yes well I…uh.” I stumbled for words blushing at just the mention of it.

“It certainly filled up my wank bank that was for sure.” At this Jared snarled like a lion at him making Marcus jump.

“Have some fucking respect you half-witted cretin, you know who she is!” At this Marcus looked sheepish and lowered his head in way of an apology.

“Now move your ass, she needs a seat,” Jared ordered and Marcus didn’t complain. If anything he looked glad to be far away from his master right now.

“I apologise, he’s loyal but has no filter…please sit,” he told me and I gave him a smile letting him know that it hadn’t bothered me. I was so used to being around these guys that there was little that shocked me these days.   

“This time you really do look like a little bisque doll,” he told me and I blushed again, remembering what our first encounter had been like.

“I need your help, Jared.” I came right out and said it, not knowing how much time I had. I took in the knowing grin that sat nestled in that sexy trimmed black beard and I knew that he had been expecting this. 

“I know, doll.”

“But you can’t tell Draven.” He smiled as though he was rather amused at me calling him by his surname or amused that I had said this at all.

“Look sugar, it’s not Dominic Draven who I am loyal to.” I frowned and said,

“But you have helped us…you work with us at council meetings and…” He ran the back of his finger down my cheek, leaving a cold path from his skull ring.

“Little Doll, it is not ‘us’ it is only ‘you’.” He told me and I sucked in a sharp breath, barely believing that his words were true.

“Look around and see what it is you have accomplished. We Kings are all natural born enemies in one way or another. We all rule over our own domain and our own kind. But with your King at its core, it is his own balance he keeps, not ours.” I thought about what he said but had no time to comment as he continued feeding me this shocking information. 

“I would never have thought to see the day Dominic Draven even set foot into my palace, yet here he is celebrating. And who with but the King of Vampires he named as his greatest enemy long ago. Then there you have the rogue King who kept to the shadows and never came out unless for his own bidding, one that even now doesn’t feel worthy to take the throne that is his by his own birthright.” I didn’t know what to say. Could it be true, could they all be loyal to me, rather than Draven?

“So, do you still think we are all here for just another King or have you finally realised we are all actually here for our
first and only Queen?”

“Jared.”
I whispered his name for no other reason than needing to. I was so overwhelmed and touched that it was hard not to look around at the others and asked myself if he was right. I knew that none of them would be here now if it wasn’t for me, but to believe that I was the cause of them still wanting to be here, well that was a harder truth to swallow.

“So in answer to your question…no, I won’t tell your Draven anything as I am loyal to you, not him. So ask away.” I gave him a look that I hoped said it all, which was of course my complete gratitude. Then I asked him what I needed to know.
   

“Where he is…where’s Bill?”

“I sent him away on a mission.” Hearing this, my heart dropped and my face said it all. It had all been for nothing because without a coin from Bill we were going nowhere. Oh Sophia could have got one, even Pip might have done it at a stretch but in the time we had, there was only one man I knew who had a bag full of coins that could open gates into the other realms. And after all this, he wasn’t even here. I suddenly felt lost and with everyone unknowingly looking to me to fulfil the prophecy then I was at a loss to what I could now give them…my life was not enough if I didn’t have Draven’s child inside me to give it up for.

“Gates of Hell Doll, you look like you just watched me bite the head off a kitten.” I gave him a sideways glance and said,

“Please tell me that you don’t do that?”

“I may be a bastard and a beast sometimes but even I find kittens cute.” I snorted a laugh, no doubt giving him the response that he wanted in trying to cheer me up.