The Pentagram Child: Part 1 (Afterlife Saga Book 5)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “That’s enough!” This command came from my mind but through the lips of another. My Brother. The only remaining strength I had left since that day on the roof had become a constant reminder I was not alone in my suffering. I didn’t understand why the Gods and their fates had seen fit to cast the two Brothers with the same infliction of loving the same woman. But the fact that they had, had only encouraged more questions than there were answers to be found. But neither of us could have her and now, more than anyone, Vincent finally understood why. No amount of love could save her from her death if fate was to put my hands as the cause.

  “No, he needs to know Vincent, things have changed…she has…”

  “NO!” I shouted causing some more of the stone balcony to crumble away at the edges in my anger.

  “But…”

  “I made one demand, just one and in return I have allowed you to continue your bond the way it was, with only one condition asked of you…Now I must ask of you again that you respect that, Sophia.” I let my voice deepen with an authority that could not be denied.

  “But what if she could be in danger from it?” At this question I couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh, for the very idea had quickly become ridiculous.

  “As you know I don’t relish in pointing out the facts for you Sophia, but once again I will do so with the hope that this be the last time. Keira must now be one of the safest beings on this planet given the amount of loyal subjects she has gathered along the way. She not only has her life guarded from one side now but many.” She went to interrupt me but I quickly shut it down when taking a step with each name mentioned. And each one felt like acid on the tip of my tongue.

  “A Viking warrior King and his shadowed son. A Hellbeast ruler and his army. A Vampire overlord whose obsessions border my own, I think you see where I am going with this but if that still hasn’t hit home to the extremity of her wellbeing then let me add the last to the list. My own flesh and blood who have proved themselves time and time again in adding to that protection. The girl wants for nothing!” I couldn’t hold back the bite of my demonic tongue in this last sentence, feeling such resentment it felt like my lungs were drowning in a poison called truth.

  To give credit to my sister, she held her ground well. Arms folded and looking up at me with a mixture of disappointment and undiluted anger for what she no doubt classed as my stupidity.

  “And what of her heart?” She asked me causing me to take a step back as if I had been struck by Lucius’ second in command.

  “Who will protect that?” Only when this question forced another step back out of me could I see the anger seep from my sister’s eyes.

  “That’s quite enough, Sophia. You’ve said your piece and no doubt made your point.”

  “No, I don’t think I did, nor do I ever think I will but I can try.”

  “Sophia.” Another warning came from Vincent but not surprisingly was also one to be ignored.

  “Your respected wishes have been granted time and time again. You didn’t want to know of her life, a life she has been forcing herself to live, then that’s fine. But what will happen when she no longer chooses to live the right life…? What then, Brother? Are you telling me that just so long as she breathes that will be enough for you? What becomes of her when that air becomes too tainted by your decisions, by a past love that crushed her enough not to care for any love at all? Can you live with that? Can you really live how you lived without knowing if she was safe, knowing that death hunted her with or without you by her side?”

  “Sophia, that’s enough” Sophia whipped her head round at Vincent and shouted,

  “IT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH!” She then aimed her rage back at the rightful person who warranted it and said her final words.

  “I don’t know the reasons Dom, but I know fear is one of them and I also know that fear should never conquer over love. You’re choosing fear, she didn’t choose it for you. But you know the biggest disappointment in all this…” I couldn’t move waiting for the biggest hit yet to come and knowing that I deserved every word of it didn’t make it easier to swallow.

  “…she did something you never did…she conquered her fear for love and you…well… you gave your love away out of fear.” If I thought that preparing myself for her words was going to protect me against the blow, I was mistaken. My foot went back one last time until I found myself standing in the exact position Keira had that night she had found me. Sophia was where the bed once sat but now what was left, like the pieces of my broken soul, was in ruins pushed back around the edges of the room, mirroring the insides of my vessel.

  “Come Sophia, say goodbye.” I noted for the first time during her speech that tears were streaming down her porcelain cheeks and the sight made me want to plough my fist into something unshakable. She looked me in the eyes as if searching for something, anything to indicate that what she had said would make a difference. She found nothing. Because she simply didn’t understand.

  I saw one last tear fall to the floor where it had all began and then she turned away from me wrenching at my heart painfully. Vincent took note of my feelings and gave me what he considered as a ‘stay strong’ nod before escorting our sister out of the door. She was just walking through the broken frame when her hand shot out and gripped the splintered edges as if needing to hold on. It was as though she had just been shocked with information that had her locking down her vessel.

  “It’s just as he said it would be…selfless acts, the fates…Keira’s heart finding…”

  “What?!” I shouted and at the same time my back straightened in response to my veins igniting with raw power.

  “He told me…” Sophia was talking to herself and on hearing my growl of frustration finally looked up at me.

  “Who?” I demanded.

  “He said it would happen this way and that only when you started to seek the truth would you realise…”

  “Who, Sophia?” I asked again feeling something other than pain for the first time since I left her that day. Since I left her to go and die. Since I left her with nothing to do but mourn me.

  But with the next words out of Sophia’s mouth, I knew the balance in my future was about to shift once more and with it, Keira had no choice in following me down fate’s path, whether I liked it or not.

  “Who Sophia?” This time it was Vincent who asked the question but the answer that came was a shock to no one…

  “Our father.”

  Chapter 2

  Hell’s Lasting Footsteps

  As I took my first steps in a place I was long overdue in visiting, I did something I had never done here before and that was simply to stop and take a moment to think. I looked around the vast wastelands that bordered my father’s kingdom in the Second Circle of Hell, noting how little had changed.

  Whenever I travelled back through the portals I felt the Demon side of me sigh its relief in coming home. Being this close to one of the life forces that made my unique mix possible was difficult to deny, even if I was seriously pissed at the reasons I was even here in the first place. However, this didn’t mean I could stop myself from raising my head and taking in the constant storm that lashed around me, gifting me with an essence of power I could absorb.

  Of course this meant my father knew I was here. He always did. I circled my neck and inhaled the scent of the red sand dunes that went on for miles.

  What humans didn’t realise was that Hell was far greater in size than both the surface of the Earth and Heaven combined. This was due to the great depths in which it was forged. Layer upon layer and kingdom on top of kingdom lay in hiding, waiting for the unsuspecting souls to be cast down here from a lifetime of sins accumulated. Some layers even had their own atmospheres producing its own gases and storms like the one that endlessly raged overhead, whipping sand around in little twisters.

  But it was the endless sea of dead trees that howled like tortured souls from the wind travelling through their hollowed insides. Their tops were void of any
leaves or reaching branches, that earth boasted a beauty created throughout the seasons. No not here, not in this place. Instead there were twisted roots that held the remains of broken bodies and limbs that were no longer needed but had grown from the lower layers of Hell, like demonic seeds of the dead.

  At least some humans had some things right when describing Hell, I thought dryly. Although granted, these were always ones to have been under the influence of my kind at the time. I thought back to the English poet John Keats and his sonnet ‘On a Dream’. His version of the Second Circle was correct when he wrote of this place but for me, personally it was punishing in more ways than one.

  I closed my eyes as I walked, striding towards the large castle I knew was being hidden by the very sands that belonged to my father and with each step recited the passage…

  “But to that second circle of sad Hell,

  Where in the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw

  Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell

  Their sorrows—pale were the sweet lips I saw…”

  Then, just as the storm started to gravitate tighter around me I let loose my wings. The feeling of liberation stole the breath from my lungs when they surged from my confining vessel, giving birth to the very meaning of the words ‘to be free’. My body shot into the air through the funnel of sand until I burst from the torrent of power continually displayed in my father’s realm.

  It was once I was free of the storm’s reach that I could see the towering mass of imposing black stone that had been carved into my father’s giant sentinels. The whole castle had been built from the belly of one of Earth’s most volatile volcanoes Mount Merapi, situated in the centre of the island of Java, in Indonesia. I remember hearing the last time it had erupted there knowing this was down to my father’s famous rage upon hearing of my mother’s refusal to see him once again. It was easy to say that I definitely received my temper from the Demonic side of my parentage.

  Funny then that it would be my Angelic brother who also received his fair share of our father’s character, only in the form of his lustful ways. Not that many would have the chance to see this side of Vincent, but I knew of his inner struggles at calming his sexual urges of dominance. This being something any Angel would find difficult given that their natural tendencies were usually the opposite.

  But I made it my business to know my kin, even if they continually tried to hide aspects of their lives from me. For years even Sophia was naive enough to try and hide her involvement with a certain Albino from me, thankfully though, he knew better.

  It didn’t take me long to reach the highest battlements that were nestled nicely into the sentinel’s carved helmets of the centre tower. I let my wings level out and let the air carry me until my landing came into view below. Then with little thought, my wings folded and I dropped the remaining forty foot to land with one knee to the ground. I bit back a smile when all the sentinels guarding the roof scurried back a few steps. I then rose to my full height, briefly taking note of the broken stone my landing had caused before facing my father’s guards.

  I turned my head slightly letting my senses take in the amount of demons that now surrounded me and again had to hold in a smile. Good, I counted twenty. Now if I could just get the bastards to react aggressively towards me, then I was finally in for a chance at a good fight. I really needed a good fight. I cracked my neck to the side and waited for the bravest one to step forward first…

  He didn’t disappoint.

  This time I couldn’t hide my grin as I sidestepped his charging form and released my blades at the same time. I arched my torso backwards, slicing one flaming blade upwards and ripped through armour made from the carved bones of others. I allowed myself the pleasure in seeing the new jagged hole that was left down the spine of my opponent.

  The sound of my father’s foot soldiers all moving as one dragged my gaze back round to face what looked like their general barging through the centre. It was easy to tell the difference in ranks among my father’s army. There was really only one rule that applied in this place and that was the bigger you were, the higher up the food chain you became… and didn’t I just get a sick kick out of teaching these assholes a new lesson, one learnt by annihilating that rule in the form of broken limbs.

  The general was at least twice my size and that wasn’t including the added height gained by his helmet, one that was raised in the centre with a deadly shard of raw black metal. He positioned himself in front of me in such a way I knew he didn’t know my identity and I was glad for it.

  So my father had received some new recruits since the last time I was here. Well in that case it would be rude of me not to put them through their paces now wouldn’t it, I thought with another malicious grin curving my lips.

  “AMMENI ISU SALMAT QAQQADI ALKA ANNA ANNU ASRU” ( ‘Why have Mankind come unto this place’) The ancient Sumerian spoken was of a basic kind, which wasn’t surprising even for a general and I very much doubted the others even knew what was said.

  “EZEBU MA BALTU U LU TAHAZU MA ANA SIMTIM ALAKU” ( ‘leave and live or battle and meet one’s fate’) I replied, making my warning clear enough even for the likes of an uneducated demon pawn at my father’s hand. His reaction to this threat didn’t surprise me… if anything I was counting on it.

  A roar was released into the endless storm and there was a wave of growls that echoed around me, providing a dramatic effect. They were like the drums of war. They were never needed but fuck if the power in my blood didn’t hum and dance along my veins with the sound made. And right now I relished in the surge of power I could feel building.

  “ALAL DAKU! ALAL DAKU! ALAL DAKU!” The rest of the sentinels started chanting his name and with the surge of adrenaline flooding my senses I could only hope they didn’t stop. The word ‘Daku’ in Sumerian meant ‘Kill’ and as they asked so nicely, I didn’t want to disappoint.

  “Your name is Destroyer?” I asked in English, not expecting him to answer. Instead he slowly raised a heavily armoured hand to the visor on his helmet and slid it up. It made me wonder what I would have thought if I had been the weak and low ranking humankind he obviously mistook me for. Now no longer faced with row after row of jaw like bars that covered his face and provided protection, I could see what a lifetime of Hell could do to what was once the face of a man.

  Tortured souls never lasted long with their skin attached. It was always the first thing to go. Lips and noses would rot away and depending on how long your sentence was, extra demonic senses would form. From the looks of the general in front of me now, he had been here for quite a while, having too many extra teeth to count, no eyelids to speak of and more cracked bone than smooth. Most of which had been crudely stapled back together with claws of some long gone beast, whose decayed corpse no doubt now rested within the sands of souls.

  “I ALAL!” He thundered in response and my smile was the last sight he saw before my warning rang true.

  “Not anymore!” I said and swung up my sword quicker than any demon could boast. I watched with sickening satisfaction as only the tip of my blade now rested on top of his head, after being speared up through his neck. I watched the crimson spark in his eyes die before dislodging my blade with a slicing motion, causing what remained of his face to fall to the ground with a thud.

  All at once the soldiers took a step back.

  “Now come on, don’t be like that.” I said before pushing on my swords so that they formed a different shape. The grips folded inwards fitting my fists like liquid steel and the blades readjusted themselves so that they no longer pointed to the ground. Now they both curved up against the length of my arms, so that when they charged at me, the close proximity wouldn’t hinder the fight.

  I extended my arms and spun on one foot taking down the ones in closer range to then flick out the swords once more, taking down another line at the back. I was granted a moment to take in the carnage caused with the bodies lay lifelessly at my feet but considering my mood, it wasn
’t nearly enough. This wasn’t a fight, it was a slaughter and now where was the fun in that.

  “ALKA INA!” ( ‘Come on!’) I roared at the ones left that were no longer so brave and had started the retreat after witnessing so many fallen in just two moves with my blade.

  “FINE! I will just have to bring the fight to you then!” I could no longer hear my other self reasoning with my inner battle. All that was left was a rage that had been burning into me ever since I heard the Oracle speak those haunting words of death so long ago. I wanted to kill. I wanted to punish. And I wanted someone to blame. So when I lifted up my swords to strike I wasn’t surprised that a red river of death flowed steadily through my veins, with no heavenly essence in sight.

  I ran at the unprovoked beings that I centred this all on and propelled my body from the back of a slumped demon. I landed with my blades held with the sole purpose to maim, to detach limbs from torsos and heads from necks. I sliced my way through the crowd, kicking the ones near the edge from the battlements and taking in their descending cries until they were too far to be heard.

  “Enki, batiltu…Kataru…Kataru!” (‘Lord of Earth, stop…Alliance!... Alliance!’) I heard the voice break through the massacre and finally dragged enough air into my lungs to get my rage under control. At the sound of the title my father’s people had named me, what was left of the sentinels guarding this tower fell to their knees. Wrath or not, they knew their place.

  “Kataru.” The newcomer said sidestepping amongst those still breathing and those who weren’t. I took in the smaller demon and knew from his plain attire that he was a low ranking servant. Something they call a ‘Rakbu’ which means messenger in this ancient language.