Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8) Read online

  “You look like some wide eyed, frightened fawn insight of the arrow heading her way,” he told me, his voice thick and heavy with restraint. I didn’t know what he expected me to say to this but the last thing I expected him to say next was what he did,

  “Bare yourself to me.” I couldn’t help it but my bottom lip automatically found itself in between my teeth and he growled again, reminding me off that offense. I let it go and swallow hard when he crossed his massive arms across his chest causing them to grow in size, making his biceps looked as if they could crush skulls with little effort.

  “Answer me this Little Lamb, do you like making me wait or do you just enjoy defying a King by keeping a body that belongs to him from gaining his pleasure in seeing it bare?” he asked me in a hard tone and I didn’t know whether he was just having too much fun watching me squirm or he was being serious.

  “No!” I blurted out without thinking.

  “No?” he repeated, tilting his head so as to catch my eyes.

  “I meant no, as in… I’m not being mean or anything.” I said on a rush and it soon looked as if he was fighting a grin.

  “Mean? Surely not indeed, for my Electus could never be classed as…Mean?” he mocked and I think this was his way of finally taking pity on me again.

  “So, if you are not callous enough to deny me what is mine by right, then why do you make me wait?” he asked, more gently this time.

  “I am shy, okay.” I said finally giving him what he wanted to hear. He feigned surprise and raised his eyebrows at me.

  “Is that so?” I nodded and hugged my arms around myself, hating that my brave, brazen behaviour had left me.

  “I must say I am surprised.”

  “Why?” I asked quietly.

  “Because I do recall in great detail, how you granted me sight of your delectable body the first time,” he reminded me and I blushed again. Okay so he was right, the first time I had decided to turn the tables on the situation at the time and took back some small shred of power I had. Then I had pulled my torn tunic from my body and walked up to him as though I had all the confidence in the world.

  “I know…!” I said suddenly surprising him as he jerked his body back slightly. However, I ignored this and carried on,

  “…why don’t you get in the bath first and I will join you after…like minutes later not like hours or anything, ‘cause it will probably be cold then…is it warm in there because, wow its warm in here. I think I will just skip the bath.” I rambled on in my nervous way making him look at me once more as if he was seeing me for the first time. It was almost as if he didn’t know what to do with me and had never encountered such strange behaviour before. I decided to take his silence as acceptance that I didn’t need to bathe anymore so I nodded my head and turned around quickly. I started to walk away…but in true Draven style, I didn’t get far.

  I yelped when I was suddenly grabbed from behind and then lifted into his arms once more. Then, laughing heartily, he walked us both into the water and only let go of my legs once I was in up to my neck.

  “I…you…” I started to complain but he just looked as though he was having too much fun.

  “I must confess, I have not had this much enjoyment with a female in all of my many years upon this world. You are so different, I find you utterly fascinating,” he told me holding on to my shoulders so that I wouldn’t move. I couldn’t say that I particularly enjoyed hearing about his time with other females but at least in what he had said, it meant I was possibly his favourite so far.

  “Now hold still,” he said and I was just about to ask why when he suddenly gripped my long kaftan and whipped it up over my head, taking my arms up with it. As soon as it was out of sight and discarded over the edge with a wet, echoing slap on the marble, I ducked down lower, hiding myself under the water.

  “Hiding what’s mine, once again I see,” he said after tutting and shaking his head.

  “I told you that I was shy,” I repeated moving backwards now that he didn’t have hold of me. However, I soon realised the flaw in my plan as the depth of the pool was more fitting for someone of Draven’s height, as too soon I couldn’t feel the bottom with my feet. From the look of things, he knew it too and one side of his mouth rose into a bad boy grin.

  “Umm…My Lord…?” I said stopping myself from calling him by the only name I wanted to say aloud.

  “Time to play.” This turned out to be my only warning as he started to lower himself down slowly into the dark water. Watching me with those all-consuming eyes of his that matched the colour of the liquid that was quickly covering up his face… Then he was gone.

  The game began and I quickly started to move, treading water and slowly moving to the other side where I would hopefully be able to stand. I laughed nervously looking all around me for any signs of him.

  I would have liked to have said it reminded me of our playful chase back when I sneaked into the swimming pool in the hotel in Milan. The one where Draven surprised me by turning up and jumping in, quickly going in for the attack by dragging me under. It felt like an age ago and I couldn’t help but bite my lip, this time to stop from it trembling. I missed my husband.

  Now though, it felt more like I was being hunted and stalked by someone who didn’t need to breathe as often as I did…which meant he could take his time.

  “Ah!” I shouted feeling a hand run up my leg and then disappear. I spun round and then once more I screamed out, when feeling a gentle touch against the base of my spine. It was maddening in a sexual way to feel him touching me and not knowing when or where it would strike next. A feel of my foot, a little pull of my hand, a soft graze just below my right bum cheek and the one that made me scream the most, fingertips sliding across the junction of my thighs.

  “OH!” I yelled again turning fast from the hand that just caressed my breast. I decided to try and play him at his own game so I dived under the dark water and spun around, trying to see a body but there was nothing. My heart was pounding wildly in my chest from the thrill of the chase when suddenly I saw him. Two purple eyes glowing from the dark depths across from me, as though he was calmly sitting in wait for the right moment to strike.

  And strike he did.

  I saw him coming so I quickly pulled myself up to the surface and took a breath. Then I made one last dash to get to the other side when he finally grabbed me. I screamed before I burst out laughing, this time being the one to throw my head back and let it all out. I felt him lifting me up by the waist, which was making me laugh as it was tickling me. Finally, I stopped to see him looking down at me with a startled look. At first, I didn’t know what to make of it but then I realised…this was the first time he had seen me really laugh and the look he gave me, was one of wonder.

  Thinking about it now, I doubted that such a serious character and important royal figure had much opportunity to make people laugh. But here I was, giggling away like a crazy person three seconds away from snorting in his arms. Had he ever experienced such a thing? Well, judging by his expression I would have guessed that he hadn’t and boy didn’t the idea of being his first just fill me with utter joy.

  “Okay, okay you win!” I said holding up my hands in surrender.

  “You can’t be real,” he stunned me by saying, making me freeze in his hold. I looked up at him and saw that intense purple gaze once more as if it was trying to search for my very soul. As if one single sight of it would have given him all the answers he looked for.

  “My Lord?”I asked tentatively, knowing that what I was seeing was a man experiencing emotions like this for the first time and someone with great power on the edge because of it. I knew this, especially when his arm banded tightly around my torso and his other hand circled my throat, a gesture I was quickly getting used to. I really wanted to know why he did this, as it was something even my Draven did occasionally. Granted, not as much as this Draven but still, it was something I never understood. Was it a primal need to keep me compliant or submissive? A b
eing they owned and felt they could control at will, for the power of something like that must have been heady indeed for a dominant.

  He didn’t hurt me, but still managed to apply enough pressure for me to know to keep still as he wished.

  “You feel real, with your heart beating wildly in your chest, I can feel the life beneath my fingertips,” he told me, tapping my pulse point to prove his point.

  “But when I feel you in my arms, when I see the near blinding beauty in your smile and hear the warmth of your soul in merely a laugh, then I fear you are just a dream, one I never want to wake from, so I ask of you again…are you real to me?” At this I couldn’t help my reaction as a single tear formed and he seemed transfixed as he watched it fall from my lashes, down my cheek and soon lost forever into the water below…or so I thought.

  Instead the hand holding my neck left me and snapped out catching the tear in the palm of his hand. Then he lifted it to his lips, and tasted the salty drop. The second he did his eyes lost themselves to a deeper flame. Then he leaned closer and told me,

  “You can’t taste the tears of a Goddess in your dreams, so you must be real and therefore…” he paused to take a deep breath before whispering the last of his declaration across my lips…

  “…This must be what love feels like.”

  Chapter 4

  Taming the Demon

  I quickly realised this was the first time I had heard him say he loved me in this time and to say that it didn’t make my heart soar would have been a lie. I sucked in a sharp breath and the purple in his eyes intensified because of it.

  “You…you love me?” I asked him quietly and he pulled me that little bit closer because of it.

  “How could I not? I fear every being with a heart would fall under the spell of loving you,” he told me making me frown.

  “Hearing this displeases you why?” he asked me, looking amazed by my reaction.

  “You think that I have tricked you?” I asked trying to push myself out of his hold, feeling offended by his statement. However, he didn’t look too worried by my reaction, no instead he even seemed pleased with it.

  “This idea upsets you?” This time I didn’t just frown, I got angry and he knew it.

  “Of course, it does! Let me go, this bath has suddenly given me a chill,” I told him now doubling my efforts to get away from him. But his arms hardened further becoming a cage of flesh, bone and muscle.

  “Be still little bird and listen to my words,” he hummed against my hairline as he pulled my face closer to his.

  “NO, let me go now!” I snapped but his hand whipped out and quickly covered my mouth.

  “You will listen to me!” He warned first in a hard tone that brooked no argument, even if I was free to speak.

  “Upon the Gods woman, you fire my blood like no other! I know not of where you came from but your viper tongue lashing at me like that only makes me want you more. It makes me want to punish your beautiful body in ways that have never graced my thoughts before…” He gripped on to me, digging his fingers into my flesh and making me whimper behind his hand as the small bite of pain did confusing things to my insides. Then he continued and I nearly came undone.

  “…I want to chain to you my body, so that you will never leave my side. I wanted to bury myself inside you and sleep with my cock nestled in your warm, tight sheath, keeping you locked to me even in the solace of slumber you find. I want to demand you dream only of me and when you wake, you do so remembering who it is you belong to.,” he finished on a growl and I bit my lip under his hand, which seemed to be too much for him to take. He tore his hand away, gripped the back of my head and yanked me hard into his kiss…one I wanted as desperately as my next breath.

  I opened up to him on a moan and he took control of both my body and my mind. I was lost to the feel of this man, taking me to ancient new heights. I was no longer trying to get away from him, but instead trying to get as close as possible. I held onto him by his neck, running one hand up the back of his head and running my fingers through his hair. I felt the rumbling in his chest rise and I smiled over his lips.

  “You play a dangerous game with me, Little Lamb,” he warned on a throaty growl and I knew in that moment there was nothing more in this world I wanted to do other than let him play with me, the only way he knew how…beast and prey.

  So, I played the game and submitted. Without saying a word, I simply pulled back slightly and closed my eyes as I bent my head to one side, baring my neck to him. This time he didn’t just growl, no…

  His Demon roared.

  Then the strike came making me cry out in both shock and pleasure. He sunk his fangs into me and at the first pull of my blood, I unravelled. I came so hard I thought I would pass out from it, as it looked like a flash bomb had erupted behind my eyelids. I felt him holding me too tightly, giving me barely enough space to breathe. I felt imprisoned. I felt treasured. I felt fucking adored.

  And then I started to fall.

  The second he felt it, he quickly released his beautiful and brutal hold on my tender flesh and licked at the wound he had inflicted. Even the way he slowly dragged his tongue up over the punctured flesh had me shuddering against him. I felt drunk and I wondered why it felt different this time, until he spoke.

  “Goddess blood, you taste like the sweetest honey, the light of the sun and the forbidden fruit of Heaven,” he told me licking his lips as if her could still taste me there.

  “I think I have just found my first addiction,” he added making me smile before having to rest my head against his shoulder. I suddenly felt as though my limbs had turned into over-cooked noodles.

  “But I took too much. I will need to be more careful with you in future,” he told me and he had no idea the true meaning behind the little laugh I let escape. If only he knew I thought, thinking of my Draven in the future and how careful he was when drinking from me. Which was why I uttered a whispered,

  “You will in time.”

  After this I must have passed out for a few moments for when I finally opened my eyes again I was no longer clinging onto him.

  “What happened?” I asked, still feeling drowsy. I looked around and realised we were still in the pool so I couldn’t have been asleep for long. Draven was positioned behind me and had me in his arms, with my back flush with his chest. And what was that I felt…he was washing me?

  “I am sorry, for I took too much from you and it seems an important lesson learned,” he said cryptically and I tried to move so that I could look at him but his arm banded across my chest, keeping me where I was.

  “Be still now and let me care for you,” he said making me do as I was told thanks to the gentle way in which he said it. Then he continued to run a cloth over me that was soaped with an oily substance that smelled a lot like the roses I used to love smelling in my Grandmother’s garden. It was soft against my skin and not at all like the soap I had been used to using back in my own time. Or even what had been used on me in his harem, which had me wondering…was this something only reserved for royalty?

  In the end, this wasn’t the question I asked, as what he had said was also still lingering in my mind.

  “What do you mean lesson learned? I like it when you bite me.” I told him without thinking. I could practically hear his thoughts as one eyebrow rose at this, which was confirmed when he said,

  “Oh, you do, do you? I must confess to find it odd that you speak of such things, as if I have tasted you before.” Okay so in hindsight my reaction to this shouldn’t have been to tense up the way I did. For a single, damning second, I thought that he knew but then he softly whispered,

  “Easy little lamb, for I jest. I simply mean that I will have to learn the art of restraint around you, for it is now clear you are capable of rendering me without thought of little else than what I desire to take from you.”

  “You mean because you think I am a witch?” I snapped before I could stop myself.

  “A witch? I know not of this word whi
ch you speak with such venom,” he said shifting me around in his hold no doubt to look at my face so that he could judge my reactions. I thought for a moment and then tried a word that he might know instead.

  “A sorceress,” I told him and I knew he finally understood when he grinned.

  “Ah, upon my word, you do hold me to my words little one.”

  “And should I not?” I asked him, frowning and placing a fist to my hip, an action he seemed to find amusing as it was hidden under the water.

  “Not when my words are taken from the destination in which they were intended.” Wow and just when I thought that cryptic Draven couldn’t get any more confusing, then enter Draven from the past and yep, I was stumped once more. He laughed because I think I must have made my thoughts known without speaking them.

  “You twisted my words Sweetness and cast them into the shadows of something I did not mean. As for the sorcery of which I speak of, it is only of the heart you have stolen from me with an unknowing power you hold over it. I meant no offense, as I know no such trickery was involved in me falling in love with you, for I believe I did so the very first moment I saw you,” he told me sweetly and he ran a thumb across my blushing cheeks. Then I decided to tease him back by saying,

  “You mean when you held your blade to my neck and terrified me?” I told him, letting him know with my eyes that I was being playful with him.

  “Ah, there is that punishing grudge you hold over me once again,” he commented wryly and I laughed.

  “But of course, it is part of my sorcery after all.” This witty comeback was well worth it as now I had him laughing too.