"What time is it that you speak of?" He was now holding all his weight up on his arms and any normal man would have crumpled under the strain for so long. I couldn't think here...I needed to move, to create some distance from this muscle cage he held me under. I decided quickly and turned using all my weight to one side until I knocked his arm out and rolled off the bed. My sudden movements caught him off guard and he fell back on his side as I made my escape. I still had the sheet around me and I got to my feet quickly pulling it tighter around my chest like I would have a towel.

"That was cruel, princess" He said full of humour.

"Don't call me that, I am just a girl." I said backing away from the bed where he still lay. He rolled on his back and laughed heartily.

"Oh No! You are so much more than that! I am a King...did you know that? That will make you my Queen soon enough but for now you will be known as my Princess. No other man will lay eyes on you, no other man will touch you and no other man will speak your name on their lips...but wait, for what is your name?" This question surged movement from him and before I knew what had happened he was stood up and before me. He wasn't as naked as I thought, he had material draped around him like a long skirt tied to his waist by a thick leather belt studded in gold. His wide chest heaved, making his muscled six pack tense as he took his last few steps towards me. He was backing me up against one of the pillars and I soon felt its carvings pressing into the curvature of my spine.

"This is just a dream," I said aloud to myself, making him c.o.c.k his head to one side. He placed his arms either side of me and leaned down to my ear.

"Then why not enjoy it?" He whispered seductively before kissing my neck. I moaned at the sensations it caused and when he felt my succ.u.mbing need he wrapped an arm around my waist to pull me roughly into him. I bent to him and molded myself into his raptures. His lips searched out mine and he crushed against me forcing my mouth to open to him. It did...willingly. One strong hand worked its way up my neck, holding it there for a second in a demanding primal way, before travelling upwards to grasp a handful of my hair. There he steered my head to the side to gain better access to my lips. It was like being devoured by a pa.s.sionate beast, his lips moving, grinding, sucking my own until my legs turned to liquid. He was holding me up to him and I gripped onto his back, digging my nails down his skin under the erotic onslaught I was enduring.

He only released me when he knew my need for air. I was panting in his arms as he kissed my hair line.

"Such pa.s.sion that flows through your veins, how responsive you are to my touch...like you have felt it before?" He was looking back at me, taking in my face for his answers. It didn't take him long to find them.

"You are mine from a different time aren't you?" I simply nodded.

"Then I do not have long to keep you." He said to himself. He nodded once before making up his mind and then took my hand in his.

"Then come, come and see the reason you are here." He turned towards the open walls that were so symbolic to my current situation. Was this why I was here? My open walls to Draven's mind. Was this still my sleep...my dream being controlled by another?

I let myself be walked to the edge of the balcony and I breathed in the warm air that made me feel so alive, like it was pure energy. He pulled me to stand before him and held my shoulders from behind. I gasped at the sight before me.

"It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," I said in a gasp. My hands were at my face holding in my utter overwhelmed surprise. A golden city stretched out before me as the night sky slowly gave way to the coming dawn. The sand coloured structures rolled down the hill from where we stood at all different shapes and sizes. A large turquoise dome was in the centre surrounded by high walls of ornate stone carved into petal points at the tops of arches. It took me back to Draven's home and the Temple that lay at its core...its heart. It was rimmed with gold guild and smaller domes were dotted around within its walls. These must have been the smaller buildings where ancient priests lived.

"You like your new home princess?" He murmured in my ear before tilting my neck to one side to kiss the skin more easily.

"Is this....?" I didn't finish as his mouth released the words, harder to believe from my own.

"This is Persia!" He ceased kissing me when I gasped.

"What is wrong?" My mouth hung open and no power could make me close it and take all of this in. How was I seeing this as though from a perfect, flawless memory. He held me tighter waiting for my answer, one I couldn't find in this madness.

"I think I had better go home now," I said as though being able to stop a video that was playing.

"Then you have found enough peace in my time?" The question made me close my hanging mouth and turn to face him. He ran a finger the length of my jaw and lifted my face up when he reached my chin.

"Then grant me with a kiss before he takes you back." I closed my eyes as I let confusion seep over me. I felt his lips graze mine before lingering there long enough to allow a surge of l.u.s.t to build. He crushed himself to me and kissed me until I felt as though floating in air. The smell of his skin's musk changed and the air around me grew a few degrees cooler. His touch grew less firm and more like soothing fingertips trailing along my skin.

"Keira...Keira...Time to wake, my Princess." Draven's voice echoed in the dark and I realized I was still living in the shadows of my mind. I called out his name as I opened my eyes to find I was lying down in bed. This time it was one I was familiar with.

"I'm here Keira, no one will harm you." I felt like saying "You said that before," but didn't. After all it wasn't his fault Lucius had come for me. If I hadn't been so stubborn then he would have never had the chance.

I saw Draven looking down at me, his face trying to mask the worry that lay there. I tried to sit up but Draven held me still.

"You need to rest more, your body is still weak from regenerating itself."

"But the dream! I dreamt of you...but it wasn't you now...it...it was..." I was babbling and sitting up despite his warnings. I had to tell him but he was making it difficult.

"Hush now, calm yourself. I know what you dreamt Keira." He admitted, as though he was responsible, which hit me...

"You put it there!" I accused shifting to see him better.

"I did." Was all he gave as an answer.

"But why...how?"

"Because you needed peace. I wanted to give that to you the only way I knew how. I took you back to that time with me and gave you something further than what Lucius showed you. A time when you would have been mine, before his interference. I saw how you worried about me in your dream and I wanted to make it as if you had never disappeared from my arms. I wanted to share with you my home....my first home." Now I understood, where Lucius had used the past to take hold of me, to gain control...Draven had used it to ease my pain, to show me a part of his life before mine had begun. He wanted to share a part of himself with me to help me find the peace I had so desperately been searching for.

"Thank you." I said before throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him like it had been an age since we had been together. He was certainly taken back but soon his surprise was replaced by eagerness.

"But wait!" I shouted half in his mouth, making him groan. I pulled back and whipped off the plain black top I had been dressed in. I even had a white cotton bra on but I wasn't looking at that. No, I was searching my arms for new scars or pieces missing from my elbows. All I found were the old ones.

"They're fine!" I said as if it was another dream.

"Of course, I healed you Keira. The flesh and skin regenerated as though it never happened but the infection was harder to remove." He looked away briefly as though remembering the sight of me screaming in agony beneath him.

"What infection?"

"The Demon presence he left behind, but Keira I do not want you to think about it anymore. It is finished and I won't let anyone come that close again...it is over." I couldn't help it, I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at him.

"And how will you do that exactly, are you going to hide me away like Rapunzel?" Well I certainly had the hair for it.

"Rapunzel?" He questioned not looking at all offended.

"Yeah you know, long haired gal, lives in a tower, sings a lot." he laughed at my description.

"Ah you mean '', the beauty." He said the ancient words so swiftly like he spoke this language all the time.

"Excuse me?" I said causing him to smile at my understandable ignorance.

"It means Rdba, She is or was, where the brothers Grimm got their idea from I believe." He started to help me with my top as I was trying to pull it down over the ma.s.s of hair that went in every direction. I knew one thing...I wasn't looking forward to trying to brush out all the knots I had created.

"Rapunzel was real?" I asked, fascinated.

"She was...of sorts anyhow. Let's see if I remember The Shahnameh's description correctly" He paused and looked up as though it was written on the beds canopy.

"About her silvern shoulders two musky black tresses curl, encircling them with their ends as though they were links in a chair.

Her mouth resembles a pomegranate blossom, her lips are cherries and her silver bosom curves out into b.r.e.a.s.t.s like pomegranates.

Her eyes are like the narcissus in the garden and her lashes draw their blackness from the raven's wing.

Her eyebrows are modeled on the bows of Teraz powdered with fine bark and elegantly musk tinted.

If you seek a brilliant moon, it is her face; if you long for the perfume of musk, it lingers in her tresses From top to toe she is Paradise gilded; all radiance, harmony and delectation"

Of course he recited the poetry perfectly as though the one himself to have written it.

"What was that? It was beautiful" I said lowering my lashes, wishing for such beauty. Anyone would next to such a man as Draven.

"It was from The Shahnameh, the book of Kings. It was written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around one thousand AD." He said proudly and it seemed this was the day for learning a great deal more about Draven's history.

"Yes and I will tell you one day who it is really about, but for now you must sleep."

"No way! You can't tell me something like that and expect me to sleep!" I moved out of his hold as he was trying to get me to lie back down.

"Keira you are being stubborn" He informed me but I didn't care, I wanted to hear more.

"Alright, I will make you a deal, if you lie back down I will tell you the story until you fall asleep." I suddenly felt about six years old! It had been too many years to remember since I had been told stories before bedtime. I nodded my agreement and shifted further down to get comfy. I knew I was still fully clothed but Draven pulled the covers around me anyway, which felt nice and safe.

"There was a great Persian warrior named Zl who was born with white hair. He was Albino. Zl was the son of Sm and the grandson of Nariman, both great heroes of ancient Persia but because of his defect, Zl was rejected by his father. And therefore cast out as a child. He roamed Persia but it was when he was upon the mountain Damavand where the G.o.ds heard his cries. They sent down a bird so large it would block the sun and darken the skies when flying. Some say it was the holy Phoenix named Simurgh sent to guard the child blessed by G.o.d." I was nodding at him when he paused to take in my expression. He chuckled once at my enthusiasm and continued.

"The bird took him in until time past and he grew into a man, living on the land but never leaving the bird. Rumors of the silver man living in the mountains reached the ears of Sam, his father and he was soon found by the guilty man. But he could not reach him, so he prayed to the G.o.d's that had taken in his son and begged for forgiveness. Simurgh knew at once when the man's father would come for him that their time together was at an end. She plucked three plumes from her breast and the heavenly voice spoke in her place. "Burn this if ever you have need of me, and may your heart never forget your nurse, whose heart breaks for love of you." She said adding that when in trouble. She would appear as soon as the feathers were lit."

"So he left with his father? Poor Sim...ugh...you know what's her name" I said lamely causing Draven to take my face in his hands and kiss me gently on the lips.

"He did indeed return with his father but his misfortunes were no longer. His father made every effort to redress his past wrongs and when he went off to wage war he was given his father's Kingdom."

"So what about Rapunzel, well I guess I mean...you know..." I still wasn't down yet with all the names and there was no way I was going to be able to say them with my accent!

"You mean Rdba. Well she was the princess of Kabul, daughter of Mehrab Kaboli. Zl had heard of her immense beauty and went in search of her to bed. But he became enraptured and fell deeply in love with her. The story says, Zal came to the walls of Rudaba's palace where Rudaba let down her tresses to Zal as a rope for him to climb. Rudaba seated Zal on the roof and they both talked to each other for hours, which was unacceptable in accordance to Persian tradition. In the legend that followed, after being accepted by each father they married and when Rudaba was giving birth to the unusually large baby, he soon realized his love was going to die. Near to giving up, Zal remembered the feather of the Simurgh, and followed the instructions which he'd been given that day. He placed the feather on the sacred fire causing the Simurgh to appear and instructed him upon how to perform a caesarean section, thus saving Rudaba and the child." He finished the story like he'd been telling it for years and I almost clapped at the ending. What a nice story, better even that the Brothers Grimm version. I was about to tell him so when he carried on.

"Of course, this is where the story that is written differs from the truth." He looked as though still not sure whether or not to tell me.

"How so?"

"What is written is not what happened. Zl fell in love with Rdba, yes but she was a Demon that had possessed Rdba as a willing sacrifice. Don't look so horrified Keira." He smirked at my scrunched up face before continuing, "See, her past love and betrothed had been murdered in battle and she was so fraught with grief she gave herself to the G.o.ds to be reborn. Of course by the time Zl came to find her she was not what she appeared." I placed my hands at my mouth and covered my shock.

"Oh no, what happened?" He smiled and pulled my hands away from my face and brushed the back of his hand down my cheek.

"When Zl found out the truth, there was no other choice but to kill himself to be with her but it worked, as to this day they are still together, it was the only way for her to have him. She appealed to have his soul re-used once sold to Lucifer and he could see no reason against it." Draven was talking about this part like any business man would about politics.

"They are still around? Like living together... after so long?" I could barely get my head around it.

"Yes Keira...and, well...you know them." Ok, this was a bombsh.e.l.l! I was still shaking my head, thinking that I'm sure I would remember something like that, then it hit me like thunder clapped over head. I even jumped like it had actually happened. I knew who they were...My G.o.d... could it be?

"Sophia and Zagan!" I shouted making the bed vibrate.

"You are such a clever girl." Was Draven's only response before without warning my head hit the pillow and I fell into a misty sleep hearing the last words from Draven's lips drift through my mind....

"Time for sleep my princess..."

Chapter 60.

Making Plans.

I woke up to hear Draven's voice and when I heard no reply I knew he was on the phone. I was in his bed as I was before and it felt like groundhog day. I seemed to have had an entire night of waking from dreams and I didn't know what to expect from one wake to the other. I remembered my first dream and quickly shook it away. Then the next one came and I savoured it for a while, even recalling the smell of the Persian sun on Draven's skin. His kiss, his strong desperate touch. It made my insides go gooey. I rolled over and smiled into the pillow as I stretched out like a lazy cat. It was strange, like all the pain I had endured was like it had happened to somebody else and I had a clouded memory of it all. I mean, I knew what had happened but the pain...I'm sure it had been intense but it's hard to even compare it to anything...I just didn't remember the feeling and I knew this was a d.a.m.n good thing! Something like that could leave more than just visible scars.

"Yes, I will tell her, no she's waking up now...alright Libby, Not to worry.... Goodbye." I rolled around and was surprised to find Draven stood next to the bed staring down at me. From his voice it had sounded as though he was on the other side of the room. Well not anymore!

"Good morning." I said smiling and stretching once again until my toes curled.

"Well technically, it's the afternoon." He said smiling back.

"Draven! You let me sleep too late, I missed cla.s.ses!" I sat up and realized I was now naked, as the covers rolled off me and rested around my waist. Draven's eyes flash purple once and then simmered down.

"Keira my dear, I hardly think today was going to be one of those days when you went to cla.s.s!" He sounded exasperated at the idea.

"Why not?"

"You need rest, not history cla.s.s." He lifted the covers to my shoulders like a mother hen and I rolled my eyes.

"You gave me a history cla.s.s this morning if I remember," I said teasing him making him now the one to roll his eyes.

"That was to help you sleep so don't make me regret it. Besides all you have been through lately, you need taking care of with some peace and quiet. Therefore, that is what you shall receive." He sounded happy on the matter, which had me worried. Dear G.o.d, what did he have planned...knitting and sounds of the ocean on repeat?

"I'm fi..." I stopped when he tilted his head and frowned at the word I was about to use.

"I'm all good. I don't feel tired and I feel all fit and healthy." He wasn't looking convinced so I tried a different route.

"I gather Lib's rang and wanted to know where I was?"

"No, I rang her." He said before leaving the bedside to get me some water.

"Why?" I asked without leaving the concern out of my voice.

"Drink!" He ordered and I gave up trying, so did as I was told. He wouldn't even let me hold the b.l.o.o.d.y gla.s.s!

"I rang her to explain why you left." He saw my face drop and hurried out the next bit.

"Don't worry, obviously I didn't tell her the truth. No, I merely said how you came to me in the night to give me what for and we quickly made up after that. I think she got the message because she didn't ask me any more after that. I also told her how we needed to spend some quality time together and that I was taking you away to make up for my behaviour." This was said very offhand, like the fact he was telling people I was going on a trip, when I clearly wasn't, was something normal...well I guess to him it was.

"Umm...why did you do that? We both know I'm not going anywhere, well apart from home in a week's time but..." he cut me off by banging the gla.s.s down on the side table.

"Keira! Of course I'm taking you away!" He was angry now and if this was his idea of peace and quiet then h.e.l.l must be a quiet place to live!

"Draven listen to me...I am not leaving!" I said folding my arms across my chest like a child. He huffed and raised his arms above his head in a dramatic fashion.

"Stubborn like a mule!" He said angrily. Of course I laughed which really didn't help the situation.

"Are you calling me an a.r.s.e?" He stopped and looked at me to find humour in that question.