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

by Stephanie Hudson

  I let her go.

  At the distant sound of Vincent’s Dyna wide glide Harley Davidson purring down the road, I rose from the floor and launched myself up and twisted my wings to curl round me as I flew through the arches in the balcony and out into the desolate night. I let gravity take me as I free fell before then spreading my wings out to catch the air that pushed against each feather, taking me upwards. I tilted to one side to turn before using my strength to take me further up the building Keira had ran from.

  I pushed myself to rise higher. Beating my wings was definitely easier than beating back my anger. I quickly reached my intended perch at the highest point of Afterlife and landed not caring for the cracks I created with the force. With one knee to the floor I looked up in time to see the light of Vincent’s bike manoeuvring along the winding road with Keira gripping onto his body like she feared she would fall off with every turn.

  I stood up to my full height on the small stone platform and watched until they went out of sight, torturing myself. I was tempted to follow them but then I knew it would only serve as yet another mistake in a very long list of ones already committed. No, my time was best served deciding what my next move was in getting rid of one Alex Cain. In the very little time I knew of him I hadn’t been able to find anything about him, other than his human life. He was off the grid in my world and this was what worried me the most.

  Nephilim were created when the Fallen of Heaven would fall from grace even further, taking that extra step when sleeping with a human and producing a child from that forbidden union. This was the reason they were punished. Angels who passed on their powers and longevity through to humans who couldn’t be controlled. They were a dangerous breed for one reason and one reason only… they were exempt from my interference in regards to the law. The Gods believed they had enough human nature inside their veins that they were allowed to live in the world with the same free will granted to each human soul. They themselves walking as immortal Gods amongst mere mortals and having no one to answer to.

  This meant they held no loyalty to me and nor were they expected to. I could only get involved if they broke one of my laws that tipped the balance enough to be classed as interference with another human life. They could literally walk into a bank, break every person’s bones with their superior strength, killing them and then take every penny to then get away with it. But if they happened to kill an old lady by sucking the energy from what was left in her fragile body, only then could I bring them to justice. The reasoning behind this was that every human had the free will to do good granted to them in the hope that they would walk this path. But it worked the other way also, the ability to bring about destruction in the form of a knife, gun or bomb, killing without thought and no remorse. This was also their own free will and path to choose if they so wished.

  The world was filled with killers and dark tainted souls anyway, so what if half of the Nephilim were that way inclined? However, this reasoning never sat well with me and was a decision that I never happily accepted. But it was one that I had no choice but to abide with. That was my own law to adhere to.

  And now that Heavenly decision was made even harder to accept thanks to one of their kind, that for reasons unknown, had insinuated himself into Keira’s life. This caused me to think murderous thoughts indeed. If only I could get away with breaking my own rules and take this cretin out of the picture, oh what fun I would have ripping him apart with my bare hands!

  I don’t think I will ever forget that moment when seeing Keira again after all that time. The pictures I have of her are but a miniscule of the beauty she possesses and its shine equalled that of the sun, blinding me when gazing upon it after so very long. It was as though we were the only two people that existed at that moment, so much so I didn’t even give the parasite that stood next to her a second thought, hell even a first thought when seeing her.

  She, as always, was my only.

  I ran a frustrated hand through my hair, pushing it back like I was close to ripping each fucker out from my scalp if it would only bring me relief from this burning wrath. And by the Gods but what it had felt like when I finally touched her for the first time. I thought I would come out of my skin, that or embarrass myself like the unruly teenager I had accused her of acting.

  When she had mentioned about my temper getting the better of me, what she didn’t realise that up until that point I had still not managed to regain my control over that ‘famous Demon temper’ of mine. But one look at her sat in my chair was enough to heat my blood for very different reasons. I hadn’t lied when I told her that it suited her, however what I would have liked to have added was a whispered fantasy in her ear about how I had always felt a desperate need to make love to her on it.

  The sight of her blush again, one brought out even more in that delicious cherry red dress that clung to even tastier curves. But by the Gods she was sin and bliss combined, wrapped in the softest skin alive. It took me back to the days and the perfect hours spent tasting every inch of her.

  I huffed out loud, wondering what she would really think of me if she knew the level of my obsession… well, before she thought me a ruthless bastard who stomped all over her heart, with no explanation given. This was just yet another punishing thought that had plagued me for what felt like eternity.

  But once I started I couldn’t stop as I thought back to her sat in my modern day throne. It engulfed her in its size enough that I wanted to scoop her up and lay her over my lap before kissing the past behind us and effectively numbing the pain for us both. I wanted to hold her and keep her safe like I needed oxygen to travel my body to keep it living. I had almost groaned out loud when she rolled her lip nervously as I blatantly stared at her. It was almost laughable how much she wanted to bite it and I think I would have done if I hadn’t been more concerned about my growing erection at the time.

  But when she forgot herself and gulped back the Absinthe, then there was no way in Hell or out of it, that I wasn’t going to touch her. If Vincent hadn’t given me a look and shake of his head when I went to pick her up then I would have snatched her to my arms before she could get her next spluttering cough in. Instead I had to satisfy myself with rubbing her back and holding back every instinct that was ingrained in me since the day I first saw her.

  I shook my head, trying to steer my mind away from these thoughts when I noticed Ava flying towards me from a distance. She, like my other family members, had not been happy with my decisions in leaving Keira and had even been openly hostile towards me at times. But as usual she came to me when she felt my pain, offering me a comfort we both knew I didn’t deserve.

  She dipped her wings in a graceful swoop until she was close enough to land on my outstretched arm.

  “Ah my Rara Avis, how are you my precious one?” She ruffled her feathers like she always did when hearing her pet name of ‘Rare bird’ in Latin. She nudged my hand and squawked at me, with her head tilted. I knew this was her way of asking me what was wrong.

  “I saw my heart again tonight and she…she was not happy.” I never had any problems speaking so freely to my pet and I put this down to so many years of sharing her body when needed. Let’s just say it was certainly an ice breaker.

  She shifted on my arm getting closer to my neck, where she rubbed her satin feathers under my chin in an affectionate manner. I laughed, stroking her and basking in a moment of freedom from my worries.

  “I need you to keep an eye on her for me… can you do that, my girl?” She looked back at me and made a piercing call before she took off towards the direction Keira and my brother had taken. I instantly breathed a little easier for it but that was short lived when I felt I was no longer alone.

  “Feeling any better after your little chat with bitchy feathers there?”

  “This is not a good time, Sophia.” I said without looking at her but knowing she was sat on the wall of the roof garden behind me.

  “Has it ever been a good time over this last year, Brother?” I
didn’t reply but instead watched my bird until she flew out of sight.

  “Say what you came to say and have done with it.” I almost cringed at the sound of my harsh demand but not being able to help it feeling the way I did.

  “Something needs to be done about this Alex Cain.” This finally made me turn around and I noticed Zagan in the background keeping a watchful eye on his own heart. I nodded to my commander at arms and he nodded back respectfully before leaving us alone.

  “Something will be done, have no doubt in that, Sister.” I promised jumping down from my view point until I was at the same level as my small sibling.

  “You know most of what she says is because she doesn’t understand why…you realise that, right?” She said and I cracked my knuckles when they both flexed at my sides. This reaction couldn’t be helped when I thought back to all the hurt in her voice and the spite behind each and every word she lashed out at me like a weapon…Her greatest weapon against me.

  “And she never will know.”

  “Dominic…”

  “NO!” I barked at her and then took a deep breath to calm myself before continuing on with what I needed to say.

  “No, Sophia, for this she can never know.”

  “And why not?” I was walking past her when I stopped. I shook my head and then turned back to her to hit her with the truth just as the Oracle once did with me that day.

  “Because if she ever knew the truth, then she would never let me go.”

  “And that’s bad because…?” My reaction to these thoughts was always the same. My panic at it ever coming to pass was soul consuming and made me close my eyes tight to hold in the greatest fear I had ever known…my one and only true fear.

  “Because if she never let me go, then she would never let go of her destiny of death…”

  “But…” I held up my hand and my eyes snapped open to express the seriousness of my next words, the only words that mattered when it came to my future and preventing it with my last breath…

  “A death…Sophia,

  “…at my hands.”

  Keira

  Chapter 9

  Pity for Your Brother

  I can say there is nothing quite like escaping your past whilst holding on to an Angel taking your breath away on the back of his bike. I clung onto his hard body in front of me and as I lay my cheek to his back I let my tears run down his leather. I didn’t know if he knew as I silently sobbed at his back but I would feel his abs tighten each time I inhaled sharply. I would feel bad if he did but I knew it couldn’t be helped. The dam had broken. It had crumbled beneath the weight of a year’s worth of tears and I didn’t know how I was ever going to fix it again.

  That’s what Draven did to me. That’s what an immeasurable amount of love did to you. It was infinite, it was vast and it was endless. It was an ever burning flame that no matter what Draven did wasn’t ever going to extinguish, lighting his face even in the darkest of hours. And the painful truth was that I knew that I would grow old and blind well before I no longer saw him.

  So I cried. I cried for the man who held my heart in his hand and crushed it right in front of me. I cried for the man who still held it in his fist and even though broken, still wouldn’t let it go. I watched the world go by feeling as empty as the road we travelled down and could only muster up enough thanks that I wasn’t alone in this.

  I felt like I had been alone for so long now it was like standing at the mouth of a bottomless hollow in the earth looking down. Wondering all the time when a hand would come over the edge of darkness to grab me, pull me under and drag me into my own misery deep enough that I would never be able to claw myself out again.

  My mind kept up with these depressing thoughts all the way, up until a point I hadn’t even realised Vincent had killed the engine.

  “That’s quite a heavy mind you’ve got there, Beautiful” He said as he raised two gloved hands to my face and used his leather covered thumbs to wipe away my remaining tears. I swallowed what felt like a heartbroken lump and looked up at him as he twisted round to face me. I felt my bottom lip start to vibrate and quickly pulled it into my mouth to try and stop the next round of tears from falling.

  “Oh sweetheart, come here,” He said pulling me to his chest after shifting fully on his bike. I went to him willingly and let it all go. I cried until I shook and hiccupped every breath I needed to keep going, dragging it painfully into my lungs. I don’t know how long we stayed like this but he only allowed me to pull away from him after he was sure all my tears were spent.

  “Feel better?” I nodded at his question and wiped my eyes with my long sleeves.

  “Good because we need to talk.” He said letting go of me and getting off his bike to walk to the edge of the cliff face. I looked around and thanks to the full moon was able to make out where we were. I sucked in a startled breath as the last time I had come here I was also with Vincent but under very different circumstances. He turned to look at me over his shoulder and said,

  “I could not think of a better place to have this conversation that would prove my point more,” and then he looked back over towards the rugged mountains where I knew Draven’s cave was hidden away in the jagged rock.

  “I can’t go back there.” I even shuddered at the thought, hugging myself.

  “And I would not expect that you could but being here, as close as we are, will be enough I think.” I took in what he said and for long moments didn’t move. Thankfully he seemed to know that I needed the time, waiting for me silently with his back to my internal struggles. Finally I nodded to myself and got off the bike to walk slowly over to him. I saw him lift his head to the clear summer sky above as if basking in the moonlight that gave his perfect skin a divine quality. He had never looked more angelic than at this moment.

  “Vincent?”

  “Umm.” He made a noise almost like he was letting me know he was still with me but was also half consumed with absorbing some kind of energy from above. I placed my hand up on his shoulder as I asked,

  “Are you alright?” finally making him break his invisible connection to, I didn’t know what and look down at me stood at his side.

  “Truthfully?” I said and I nodded ready for whatever he had to say…or at least hoping that I was.

  “I don’t think I ever will be alright until my brother is also.” I winced at this.

  “Vincent I…”

  “Before I begin, I want you to know that you have not one thing to be sorry for… do you understand, Keira?” He asked interrupting what was going to be an apology on my part in what happened tonight.

  “Do you?” He pushed again making me nod, if only to make him feel better. He took in a deep breath and nodded back at me.

  “You and your sister are close, are you not?”

  “Yeah, we’re close.” I said quietly, having a very good idea where he was going with this.

  “And when you hurt, she hurts doesn’t she?” My breathing hitched and I felt the watery film over my eyes suspended there as I tried to gather my emotions back, willing them not to fall again. I thought back to being taken and seeing her for the first time at the hospital.

  Many times since I had shamefully thought how I would have handled it if our situations had been in reverse. How I would have felt seeing my sister in that hospital bed, the one broken and not only bleeding on the outside. How hopeless I would have felt for weeks after, seeing her close in on herself. Witnessing more and more with each passing day you lose the sister you once knew. The pain and the anger that flashed across her eyes, all as though she was trying to absorb the hurt right out of me and take it on herself.

  It was all there as plain as night watching it passing through Vincent’s eyes. The pain and the anger as though he wanted to take the same hurt from his brother just to ease his suffering…a suffering that by me being here was only adding to the weight of them all. Three close siblings who although so very different were also so very similar. If one of them hurt then all of th
em hurt and it was only now that I was discovering just how much that hurt had cost them.

  And now it was time for my brutal truth.

  I didn’t need to word my answer to him as he saw it all play out across my face as the realisation came to pass.

  “So now you know.”

  “Yes…now I know,” I whispered turning away from him, the view and the place where I knew his cave lay waiting, everything that held me hostage in this hopeless situation.

  “It was all his choosing, Vincent.” I said letting the agony transform my voice to one of torment.

  “But see, that’s where you’re wrong, Keira…this…this type of pain is never anyone’s choosing. You think he wanted to hurt you this way…? By the Gods, Keira even I didn’t understand it but now…”

  “And now…?” I snapped, swinging back round to face him again.

  “And now I know that he really had no choice at all.” I shook my head and said bitterly,

  “But let me guess, it’s not your place to tell me why.”

  “It is not my place, no. Just as it also isn’t Dom’s.” I let out a frustrated huff and raised my arms dramatically only to fall back again.

  “Right! How perfect! This is my life and the decisions made that affect it I not only don’t have a say in, but I don’t even get to bloody know what the reasons are! You can surely see where I would have a problem with that…right?!”

  “I do.” He agreed calmly in spite of my mounting rage.

  “As does Dom,” he added when I let out a sigh making my mouth nearly drop open in shock.

  “What?!”

  “Did you really imagine Dom was finding any of this easy? Did you really think making any of these decisions, decisions that he knew would break you both, came easy to him?” He asked his voice getting hard and I stuttered for a moment,