"There you are...Keira?..What's wrong, what's happened?" He ran towards me and dropped to his knees opposite me. He grabbed my arms to shake me and I screamed causing him to freeze. I was sobbing now at the unrelenting throbbing that set every nerve in my arms alight. He was speaking but I couldn't make out the words because I could hear nothing over my cries. He didn't touch me on my body again but just smoothed back my hair that had plastered to my head from sweat. I had slumped forward and rested my head on his shoulders to finish my sobbing.

"Ssshhh, you're safe now, no one can hurt you here." This is what he had been telling me over and over, only now I could hear it as my breathing steadied and my tears ceased for the time being.

"Do you think you can tell me what happened...Keira?" When I didn't respond he called my name again.

"Keira...who did this to you?" He sounded so concerned and also controlled. He had anger bubbling up within him I could tell. He had fisted his hands and his lips were set in a firm line, mirroring his frown. I started shaking my head and was soon crying again.

"Alright...It's alright sweetheart, you're safe now, let's get you to Dominic."

"No...I will be alright, I just came here to see if you could heal me...you know, like before...?" He looked taken aback a moment, confused with my response.

"You still don't want to see Dom?"

"It's your brother that doesn't want to see me and I don't need to disturb him if you can heal me...he doesn't have to know about this." Vincent looked truly shocked.

"I know for a fact you're wrong and I have no idea where you would get an idea like that from. Dom's been a worried wreck since you left him, he was getting prepared to let you go, so I don't know why you would think this? And besides, I would never keep something like this from my brother" I looked down like I was a child being told off by a parent. But then my head shot up just as quick.

"He...wants to see me?" I couldn't understand how my sister would have got a message so wrong.

"But of course...I believe the word "desperate" would be a good way to describe it." He gave me a smile and when I lowered my head in disbelief he raised it back up with his finger.

"You don't believe me? Do you really think an Angel would lie to you" He laughed with his words and through the pain I managed a smile.

"Come." He said rising to his feet and offering me his hand. He noted the way my face creased as I lifted my arm through the torment.

We made our way through his home like ghosts creeping through the night. I half expected Vincent to stop at a wall and a.s.sume I would follow him through it. It didn't take any time at all before I was back to being on the familiar stone flooring I knew so well. We came to Draven's door from a different angle and Vincent knocked on the side door, instead of the main door to his room that was situated at the end of the great hallway leading directly from the VIP.

My pulse quickened in antic.i.p.ation of seeing Draven. Would he be angry I was here or pleased? Well given the circ.u.mstances he didn't have much choice in the matter and besides I really did have bigger problems at this current moment. Like the blinding torture that was inflicting every cell up my arms.

Vincent knocked strong and hard three times, all the while looking down at me. I held my breath until I heard the familiar voice echoing through the iron studded, wooden door.

"Enter!" I was surprised when it sounded so awake...didn't he sleep when I wasn't around? Vincent went in first while I decided to remain around the corner of the door frame out of sight. I wanted to judge his reactions first before committing myself to these actions, although I had little choice in anything else.

"Vin? What's wrong?" Draven sounded concerned for his brother and his voice was smooth velvet without one ounce of indifference towards his kin.

"Dom, I knew you would still be awake."

"Yes and I am surprised you are here and not entertaining in beautiful, twin angelic raptures...were they not to your liking brother or have you grown tired through old age...too much for you were they?" Draven laughed at his jesting and I was so surprised to hear this brotherly banter it made me smile through my dark situation.

"Not at all Dom, but trying to enjoy myself knowing you would be sat here, yet again, feeling sorry for yourself I felt it my brotherly duty to change that." Vincent sounded full of amus.e.m.e.nt as he knew something his brother didn't...I was his winning surprise soon to be revealed.

"Then if I were you I would go back to your chamber and enjoy their heavenly pleasures for you are wasting your time on me...Go and leave me to my figureless shadows." I had never heard Draven sound so small and fragile before and my breath caught in the back of my throat.

"Why would I do that when I have a gift for you?" Vincent sounded so smug I could hear the smile I couldn't see. Before Draven had time to ask he took two steps back and nodded for me to come in.

"Look what I found!" He said as he moved to the side allowing me to be seen by his brother. Draven was on his feet before I could see the actions taken.

"Keira!" He was beaming at the sight of me. How could I have ever thought he wouldn't have been happy? He was stood there dumbstruck for a few moments, staring at me like I was a dream or a cruel joke from his brother and if he took a step closer I would simply fade away. That thought took me back to my dream and I shuddered. Then someone broke the spell and he was at me in a blink of an eye. I looked up to smile but it didn't last long on my lips before extreme pain killed all happiness. Unknowingly caused by Draven.

He had grabbed me to him by the arms and I crumpled before him screaming out at the unbearable burn that ran to the bone. Draven instantly let me go and through the tears I could just make out the horror on his face.

"Keira, what happened? You are hurt?!" I couldn't answer him, that was soon made apparent by the sobbing noises that consumed my vocal abilities.

"I should have mentioned that first, it seems she has somehow injured her arms but she wouldn't tell me how." Vincent was adding as Draven scooped me up into his arms and was carrying me to his bed. He was so careful with every piece of me that I was amazed he could even hold enough of me to get me there without me merely slipping away from him. I felt him lay me down and he allowed me time to catch my breath and cease my erratic crying before asking me once again.

"Keira you need to tell me what happened? Did...someone...do...this...to...you?" This question came through gritted teeth and a strained anger desperate to be allowed to bubble to the surface. All I needed to do was nod and I heard something in the room smash.

"Dom! Focus! Now is not the time to lose it, fix her and then we will reap our justice." Vincent's voice of reason could just be heard over my weeping. I looked up to see Draven above me with eyes closed and two hands clasped behind his head as if trying to find the right actions in a mind clouded with rage, revenge and reprimand. He gripped on to himself like it would help pull the answer out from him but the pain in his face was clear...it was fear. This startled me to a point that made me shiver. Draven was never afraid, so something in my situation had snapped, something so bad even the impenetrable man I loved looked terrified. Suddenly my pain had a friend to join in my suffering...the very same fear.

"We need to see, take off her jacket" Vincent seemed to be taking charge where Draven was unable.

"DOM! Snap out of it! ta vajab sind" (Means "She needs you" In Estonian) He sounded angry which was unusual for Vincent but one look at his face told me it too was laced with worry. My situation wasn't looking as clear cut for the healing I was used to. Panic was slowly setting in but my brain was so overwhelmed by other sensations it was hard to focus for long. It was like being very, very drunk. Sometimes your mind would wander through the motions like autopilot, getting you here and there, like the journey here but now it was fogged by the burning throb that replaced alcohol. Through this mist I felt my zip being pulled down and two sets of hands, trying in vain to remove my sleeves painlessly. I screamed so loud I used every shred of air in my lungs. I thought the hands would stop but they couldn't...not now, I knew that. My mind still functioning at half its normal rate told me this. They had already caused the hurt, why stop now and prolong it. Like ripping off a band aid, like they say here in America. In the England we would have said plaster. I wondered which was right, I lived here should I accept the new terminology or remain true to my roots? It was a strange argument to be having with myself at the mouth of h.e.l.l, but no one ever said turning insane was logical.

"Tanrnn eliyle! Who did this!?" (Means "By the hand of G.o.d" In Turkish). Vincent spoke words I didn't know but it made me open my eyes. The first thing I saw was Draven's eyes glowing red like blood had been injected there and then lit by the devil himself. His face was a hard ma.s.s of lines and the utter rage that presented itself was just as painful as my arms to witness. I winced back into the soft bed wishing it could swallow me whole and put an end to all this misery. I looked away only to find Vincent staring down at my arms with a violent disgust painted on his perfect features. Then, my next mistake cleared the way for another onslaught of hysterics. I looked down at where their gaze was focused...my arms.

The red handprints were no longer but instead lay b.l.o.o.d.y flesh beyond all repair. It looked as though I had been butchered! I screamed again and again, shaking my head to try and get the horrific picture from my mind. Flesh that had bubbled and burnt down until it looked like stretched red plastic over bone. The edges black and scorched around where each finger had been. Deep lacerations spread along the inside where his palms lifeline would have been. My veins had turned black down the rest of my arms, all the way to my finger tips, like an infection was spreading. The skin by my elbow looked to have caved in on itself leaving me with misshapen arms and blood covered the sheets beneath me. I could no longer use my arms and I'm not sure at this point that I ever would again.

"We have to heal her...NOW! It has already started to spread and we need to reach it before it gets to her heart." Vincent's words seem to pull Draven from his punishment and his head whipped up and looked at him for what seemed the first time.

"But the pain!" Draven said in whispered panic.

"Dom, she is already in a great deal of pain as it is, we must act quickly!" I admitted to myself I was glad they were concerned but I did wish whatever they wanted to do about it they would decide b.l.o.o.d.y quickly!

"She needs something...think of the pain Vincent!...Morphine or..." Draven was abruptly cut off by his brother's stern tone.

"There is no time! The essence of the touch will not accept drugs, look how it spreads. You must get her to open her mind to you....that is the only way but we must hurry or it will be too late!"

"Keira...my sweetheart you have to listen to me." Draven was speaking so softly it was hard to picture the words coming from the same man whose eyes were consumed by such fury.

"It... hurts...ppplllease...make.iit...stop." I strangled out through screams, moans and cries. He smoothed back my hair from my forehead and kissed my salty skin.

"I will my love but you must be brave for me. I want you to do as I ask and let me in, open your mind as much as you can so that I can take that pain away...otherwise the pain will be too much." He tried so hard to keep his voice level and void of the panic rising in him. He wanted to remain strong for both of us, I could tell but the pain they talked about was terrifying me to a point where functioning beyond reactions was a difficult task. I just wanted my mind to open and let Draven in but it was firmly closed. It had shut down thanks to Lucius' influence. It was now on lock down not allowing any other intruder in. I tried to concentrate, to break down the walls I myself had put there but it was too hard. The mixture of pain and fear had made it near to impossible to think about anything else.

"Dominic NOW!" Vincent screamed out at his brother who was obviously hesitating.

"She isn't letting me in!" He shouted back.

"There is no time! Do it now or we all LOSE HER!" So this was my answer...the root of their fears. My life and death hung on the scales each side weighing the same. One tip, one wrong movement and my life would be no more. My life, only without pain, without worry, without the traumatic past... but then I stopped breathing as the worst thought seeped in like a purple coloured blur....

Without Dominic Draven....

Chapter 59.

Breaking Walls.

NO! I wanted to live! I wanted to feel the sun on my skin, hear the wind blowing in my hair and most of all, taste Draven's lips upon mine. I was NOT going to die! I would fight, I would not let fear take me over to the other side!

"Restrain her!" Draven snapped out at his brother. Through my mental torture they had turned me around so that my head was now at the bottom of the bed. Vincent was stood at the end and had grabbed my arms to spread them up above my head. He held onto my wrists like live shackles, his fingers circled around bone like he was ready for the fight in me. I looked up to see his face upside down, nod at his brother. My watery gaze travelled back to Draven to find his straddling me, keeping his weight from crushing me. He was on his knees at either side of my waist and was looking down at me with guilt riddled lines invading his stern face.

I took a deep breath as I waited for h.e.l.ls fire to touch me.

Draven gave no warning, which I guess was better for me, but at the moment he slashed open his own hands and placed them down on where Lucius had touched me, I felt like dying! I couldn't hear anything but my own ear piercing screams of pure and excruciating pain. Every type you could imagine! It was like a lifetime of pain, from stubbing your toe, to breaking your arm, all wrapped up into one moment. Years and years of accidents, illness, self inflicted and Morgan induced body mutilation could not compare to this single moment in time where my body was being pushed so far to the limit, it felt like I was dying over and over.

"She can't take much more! d.a.m.n it Keira, Let me in!" Draven shouted down at me. He was now using all his body weight to hold me down as I was using every last surge of energy to thrash around the bed. Draven's hands were tight around the area that was minus all skin and let his blood flow out from his body into me. I was trying to focus on his words, his actions but the room span around so fast I felt sick. Like being on a Waltzer ride at the fairground, while smacked up on the worst kind of drugs. I was trying to get a clear picture of what was happening, but the world was no longer the same. I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, only my hole was leading me through a pa.s.sageway to h.e.l.l!

"LET ME IN!" Draven screamed at me as though he could feel me falling. I just wanted it to end! I wanted peace after what felt like a life of suffering. I just wanted to be numb!

"G.o.ds Keira! Then let me help you! Open yourself to me! I WILL NOT LOSE YOU! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE ME, DO YOU HEAR!" Draven was screaming out at me, pleading with me and for the first time ever, he was crying. I felt his tears falling onto my face and the effect was like acid to my skin. The tears of a Demon and the tears of an Angel mixed made for a powerful antidote to my suffering. It was this feeling that made me really listen. I found my mind and the walls surrounding it. Walls that went up so high I could not see the top which was caked in cloud. I was a smaller version of myself in my mind. Stood at the bottom trying to claw it down with tiny hands. Draven's voice still boomed overhead for me to let him in...but how? I needed to think, to find a way of destroying what I myself had put there!

Then the most amazing thing happened. I started to feel Draven's tears roll down my skin and leave a burning path behind them. I lifted my hand to my face in my mind and caught a tear that was not my own in my hand. I looked down as it glistened like a pearl and diamond combined. Then it started to glow like the orb I had dreamt of my first night at my sisters. It got bigger and bigger until I could no longer carry it so I threw it at the wall with both hands. The wall cracked on impact and caused a split to run up until out of sight. I heard it thunder above me and the heavens opened up for the flood. The rain in my mind fell down in giant droplets that soaked on impact and as soon as the first one hit me I woke.

I looked up to see Draven smiling at me with hands still locked firmly in place. I had thought him finished as for the first time since Lucius had touched me I felt no pain. Nothing! I was just numb and my body felt like it weighed the earth and was sinking into the bed.

"Good girl. You did it Keira.... You let me in and now you will suffer no more. Now just sleep...sleep...slee...." His words flowed over me like a warm blanket coving me from head to toe. I felt my lids grow heavy and being pulled down by no doing of my own. Then the world of h.e.l.l and fire grew black and peaceful....

I was gone.

"It was Lucius!" Draven spoke in my lucid dream. He sounded angry although he was trying to keep his voice low and unheard.

"You are certain?" Now his brother was there and soon the image became as clear as their voices. They were both sat down in Draven's room on opposite couches. Draven had his head in his hands and Vincent was shaking his head causing his halo of blonde curls to dance around.

"I felt his pain. I don't know how but she beat him Vincent. She forced him back and denied him access to her mind and she wounded him. How is it possible she is so strong?" Draven voice ached through exhaustion and a ma.s.s of nightmare events.

"It is impossible, Lucius is the strongest we know for mind control...No human would stand a chance! You must be wrong brother."

"But that is the thing! I know I am not! Once she let me in I saw everything. First her dream...he showed her the past but changed it so that she became a part of it. It was when we first met Lucius, when we were comrades. She saw Lucius and called out to me, she tried to warn me of his intent but the dream ended before I could react. He took her away from me and it was a message. He wanted me to know." Draven was now standing tall and firm on his knowledge.

"But how do you know this?" Vincent asked innocently enough but his shock was clear.

"Because to beat him she accessed his mind. I saw for myself her dream was also to become mine, but I had not slept since she left me. He was waiting to send me this message."

"But what message?" Draven's voice replied in stone cold fear.

"He intends to take her from me."

"But that was before she beat him. Which I still don't understand how she did?" Vincent sounded thick with disbelief.

"She was so, so cleaver. Sometimes I think I underestimate her. I told you she accessed his mind but I didn't say what she did with it." Vincent didn't reply but just waited in silence as Draven once again took a seat.

"She showed him his fear, his only fear. She showed him the Sun!" Draven sounded so proud, if I could have seen his features better I believe he would be beaming.

"Yes. I told her some while back of his history and she used her knowledge against him. I doubt very much that Lucius was ever expecting such power from my girl, but power is what he found and one a great deal more than his." I even felt myself smile at this in my dream, thinking at least I wasn't as useless around the supernatural world as I once thought...I just hoped it to be true.

"But how?! How can it be true...she is human. Nothing on this earth has that kind of power!" Vincent didn't sound so willing to believe it and I couldn't blame him.

"Brother, no one is more shocked than I, but I can only say what I saw. The only way I can make sense of it is the more powerful the mind she gains access to, the more power she has to control. In our case, Lucius is the most powerful of our kind at manipulating the actions of others, then think of the supremacy she holds over all of us. She is after all, the 'Chosen'." I couldn't tell how Draven felt about this but I needed to know...I needed answers. What did that mean? The "Chosen" And what about this so called "Power" he was convinced I held....was it true?

"So what are we to do? What did Pythia say on the matter?" My mind hunted around to pull that word from my memory and found her to be the Oracle Draven had spoken of.

"Pythia told me of what I already knew the very first time I saw her. Keira is the Chosen, there is no doubt. She told me to protect her with my life and the G.o.ds will do the same. She is too important to the prophecy for anything to be allowed to happen to her. Pythia told me of her power and I didn't believe it until now. This is the way the G.o.ds have seen to her protection but she must be taught how to use it"

"I'd say she's not doing too badly on her own on that one!" Vincent said sarcastically.

"Yes, but look at the damage he was still able to inflict" Ok so Draven had a b.l.o.o.d.y good point there! And there wasn't a cat in h.e.l.l's chance I was going to go through that again!

"And how was he able to do that exactly...I mean if she is so powerful..."

"She is still in her infancy, Vincent. Like a child with a dangerous weapon. She doesn't know how to use it to its full advantage yet. Lucius knew this and used that power back against her, he had little choice, she could have killed that b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Next time I will teach her to do just that!" Draven both interrupted and erupted at this last statement.

"Sounds to me like she came very close!" Draven just grunted at his brother's statement then added his own views on the murder matter.

"Not close enough!"

My dream was starting to waver and quickly turned another corner. I was in a bed unlike this one. Made up from layer upon layer of furs and cushions spread on the floor. I felt like I was wrapped up in the softest silk and velvet combined. I stretched out and my hand grazed the rough sandstone floor in contrast to the covers I was entwined in. Then a voice broke through my sleepy state.

"My beauty awakes at last." Draven purred in my ear making me jump. I whipped my head back round from staring at the floor and was faced with the different Draven I knew from my dreams. I flinched back not knowing what else to do.

"Do not fear me, I will not hurt you child" His short cut beard tickled my arm as he lowered his head to kiss my bare shoulder.

"I am not a child!" I said in a huffy manner and after I said it I wondered why? He raised his eyebrows at my little outburst and he laughed once.

"Ah, your pride as been hurt, forgive me. I merely mean, compared to my many years, that is all. Your body is all woman and pleases me greatly." He was devouring me with his eyes over every inch of my skin which made me realize just how naked I was. I felt so exposed I grabbed the cover and pulled it up to my chin making him laugh again.

"Your blush only enhances your beauty and makes your creamy skin glow. You must have come from somewhere cold for you to be untouched by the sun, although your hair is the colour of pure gold...tell me, where are you from?" He leaned back to take me in better and wait for his answer. I bit my lip, not knowing what to say. I knew this was surely a dream but I didn't think in dreams you could experience such real sensations.

"Where am I?" I couldn't resist the urge to ask. Draven shifted his weight to lean on his arm that made his bicep bulge and the leather strap strained around it. He wore nothing on his torso and as the covers covered his lower half for all I knew he could be as naked as I. He was stunning and I was glad to be the one waiting for an answer because I couldn't speak for the beauty before me. It was like a Greek G.o.d had dropped down for a quickie. His skin was a sun kissed glow and his hair was the night. Longer than I was used to but tied down his back, braided in a leather thong, causing his features to be all the more striking. His bone structure looked to have been carved by a master of the arts, with a stone jaw and deep set eyes that pierced through me, making my insides turn to mush.

"How is it, you do not know or is it because Heaven dropped you at my feet for me to claim?" He was closing the s.p.a.ce between us and I automatically put my hand out to stop him. My palm remained positioned flush against his hard chest and it moved to the beat of his heart. He seemed to react to my touch and his breathing became heavy with his closed eyes.

"Please..." He interrupted my spoken thoughts by letting a low growl surface before grabbing my wrist from the hand that prevented him from coming closer. He pulled me roughly towards him and repositioned my arm around his shoulder as he shifted my weight backwards. He leaned down and I now found myself under his huge frame that was hovering above me.

"You were saying please?" He brushed his lips across my neck and down my collarbone. I shivered under him but it wasn't from a chill. I could smell the warm night air surround us from every angle. The room we were in didn't have walls as such but huge richly, ornate pillars arching up to the golden ceiling above. The room held carved wooden chests and seats the shape of half moons on their side. Everything smelled so rich, even the lacquer that painted the wood its rich red colour and the blossoms from the gardens that must be below his open balcony. I could see the blanket of stars in the clearest night's sky just beyond his impressive shoulders.

I could feel the covers moving down from me and I grabbed at them with my hands.

"Why do you keep such perfection from me? Are you selfish?" He teased making me swallow hard.

"I don't understand why I'm here...Is it Lucius doing this?" I asked this to both of us but when Draven expressed his displeasure in another growl I sunk back further.

"I will not allow you to speak another man's name in my bed! You are mine! No one else's. What is Lucius' hold over you, my G.o.ddess?" He was trying to regain his calm but I shook under him as he tensed his body above.

"He doesn't! I mean...well...I don't know...why am I here and not with the 'you' from my time?" My question confused him as he frowned down at me, looking even more severe than usual.