The Pentagram Child(64)

“Your necklace…the one I gave you.” He said this last part into his menu and I knew then he didn’t want to say anymore on the matter, which I was more than happy with. The whole comment had floored me and I decided to follow his lead and hide behind my menu. I mouthed the words ‘Oh my God’ and shook my head in vain but it did nothing to help my racing emotions. I had to wonder, like I had shamefully done many times before, if he still had it.

“So what would you like?” Draven’s voice sounded slightly strained and he had to clear his throat after asking me that question.

“Umm…to be honest I haven’t a clue what most of this stuff is.” I said on a laugh making him smile at me.

“I am sorry I never brought you to places like this.” I was a little taken back by Draven’s confession and I dropped my menu to look at him.

“Why...? I mean you shouldn’t be as they’re not exactly my thing.” I watched him take a deep breath and lower his own menu.

“Honestly…?” I nodded and couldn’t help but bite my lip as I waited.

“Because I always wanted to keep you to myself.” He said shrugging his shoulders like the weight of his words hadn’t just added to the rest of the conflicting emotions raging within me.

“Draven I can’t…” I started to say but was cut off when he raised his menu once again and I knew this was his way of telling me not to finish that sentence.

“Do you want me to order what I know you will like?” He asked after a few hopeless minutes of silence.

“I think that would be safer.” I said trying to lighten the mood when really all I wanted to do was excuse myself, lock myself away in the safety of a cubicle and cry like a little girl. I wasn’t exactly sure why he was doing this to me and I wanted…no, almost needed to find some anger in the cruelty of it all, but the simple fact was that I couldn’t. Because it suddenly occurred to me that although what Draven had done was in fact very cruel and very wrong, it didn’t mean he had done any of it with the sole purpose to hurt me.

Like now, he wasn’t sat there saying these things to rub it in my face, he was simply saying them because he needed to. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t stop the pain but it just meant absorbing it wasn’t quite as…



Painful.





Chapter 15

I See Fire in Your Scars





Thankfully the rest of the evening took a turn for the better and soon we both relaxed enough to fool ourselves into believing nothing had changed. It is amazing how you allow your mind to do this and find a comfortable balance when hiding the truth. I wondered half way through my meal if this was how people lived their turbulent lives, through a window of fogged glass. Did they just think if they thought hard enough then their problems would just go away or was it a case of if you couldn’t see them, then they couldn’t see you? And then blissfully you don’t have to acknowledge what you don’t see hidden in that part of your mind you call hope.

But I wasn’t naïve enough anymore to place things hidden there. That hope was no longer a blooming flower I watered daily. Because no matter what Draven did or said now, he had crushed that hope to its roots. And yet despite all this it still didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to take anything I could get and right now I wanted to pretend for just one night.

So that’s exactly what we did. We ordered our food and chatted the night away as if we were the only two people in the room. He asked about the minute details of my life, making me laugh when he asked if I’d still tried on all my Christmas presents this year, like I had done the year before. I told him how disappointed my grandmother had been not to have any ‘beef candy’ to prey on and he had threw his head back and roared with laughter when I added,

“Her words, not mine.”

All in all it was shaping up to be a lovely evening, minus the hiccups at the beginning. But now it was coming to an end and I found myself wishing I liked coffee just as an excuse to have that extra time.

“Shall we?” Draven said standing after paying a small fortune for the meal. I nodded and stood, reaching down to where I had stowed my purse. When I straightened again I almost cried out as I looked up to find Draven stood right next to me.

“You look truly magnificent tonight.” He said in a voice so deep I had to wonder how many levels to this man there really were. I started to smile up at him but was stopped abruptly when I saw that same mix of fire in his eyes as before. It was like looking into a different Draven and it scared me.

“Are you…okay?” I asked quietly trying to pull him from whatever emotions had him locked in place. I tentatively placed my hand on his forearm and it was like my touch was enough to douse the crimson flames that were battling against him. He flinched and looked down at my hand on his as though he too was trying to figure out what just happened. I slowly pulled back and tried to take a step away, suddenly needing that space between us but Draven had other ideas. His arm came around me and pulled me from my escape and up against him.