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

by Stephanie Hudson

  “What?!” I shouted knowing the depth of bad shit this would be for the world if this was to ever happen.

  “We must leave.” He said trying to take my hand but I pulled back.

  “Why and where?”

  “We need to find the King and tell him all I have learnt, as I fear Seth and his men are getting closer to making their move.” Ok so I liked the idea of finding Draven more than going somewhere without him and I thought it was best to let Draven decide what was best to do right now, so I agreed.

  “Alright, let’s go.”

  Draven

  After painfully leaving Keira I walked back into my office and knew it was Vincent that I had to thank for restoring the room back to the way it was before my temper had got the best of me.

  “I contacted Lucius as I knew this news would include him.” Vincent said as soon as I closed the door. I looked around the room and saw my brother was leant by my desk with his feet crossed at the ankles, whereas my sister was lounging on the red leather chesterfield chair looking at her nails. I had mentally sent them both a brief idea of what was happening on the way here, so I didn’t have to waste my time in explaining.

  “Where is he?” I asked, only my response came from the man himself.

  “He is on a plane.” Lucius said over the hidden speakers in my office. I frowned at hearing this until my brother elaborated.

  “He is following a new lead on this Seth character.”

  “Good. There has been a development as now Keira thinks he isn’t as he appears.” By the Gods but even saying her name had my gut twisting in need just to get back to her.

  “How so?” Sophia asked frowning in concern at the part that I had not yet explained.

  “She dreamt of him and believes he might be the one behind the massacred hikers in Evergreen Falls.” I informed her causing her to shake her head before she said,

  “But it was only a dream.”

  “Yes and I am not taking any chances, not again. Besides, how many times have we known Keira’s dreams to be wrong?” I repressed the urge to shudder at the thought knowing what she had been through.

  “I am already looking into that but found some useful information from an unlikely source.” Lucius said on the other end of the phone.

  “Explain.”

  “Well it seems your least favourite Viking investigated the slaughtered scene before the humans could get involved.” I growled low at just the mention of that big disrespectful bastard!

  “And what did he discover?” It was Vincent who asked this as one look at my face and he knew I wasn’t this minute up to the simple task.

  “Well that’s the interesting part…”

  “Trust you to find a massacre interesting.” Sophia said interrupting him and I shot her an irritable look making her hold up her hands in mock innocence as Lucius merely laughed.

  “Continue.” I snapped feeling my control slipping the longer I was kept from my girl.

  “We are looking at two separate events that happened within hours of each other.” Lucius said pausing to what sounded like speaking with the pilot.

  “Does that mean there are two working together and one tried to clear the scene?” Vincent asked.

  “Quite the opposite actually. Sigurd told me that he found evidence of two supernatural beings. The first was the one to cause the initial slayings and there seems to be very little reasoning other than maybe it was a diversion of some kind. However the second, well…”

  “Well what?!” I demanded stepping closer and I think if he had been in the room fists would have flown for how much he was dragging this out.

  “The bodies had all been dismembered and their limbs had been placed in a symbolic way, then used in a ritual. However, it was one even Sigurd had not seen before.” Upon hearing this news my eyes closed and I held the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger as if trying to ease the pressure that was building along with my mounting rage.

  “Needless to say he did his duty to our kind and rearranged the bodies in an attempt of hiding the truth and making it more believable that it could have been an animal attack.” Lucius added making Vincent nod at the importance of keeping our kind hidden from the mortal world. I, on the other hand, cared little for the matter considering this meant Keira could again still be a target.

  “Find out what you can, I gather we are to stay here for the time being?” Vincent said looking to me.

  “Indeed.” I answered no doubt sounding strained as I was closing in on my limit to hearing anything more before I fled to room to go in search of her. The compulsion to simply hold her was one I was fighting every second the longer I was having this meeting.

  “So what about the Nephilim scum?” Sophia asked raising a good point.

  “For the time being he has vanished.” Lucius informed me causing my spine to tighten.

  “What do you mean?!”

  “I do believe he went missing from the hotel in Milan a few hours before the Ball. I still have my men looking for him…” Lucius said but was cut off when Vincent also added his confession,

  “As do we but our men also have found nothing.” Then he turned guilty eyes to me.

  “You knew of this?” I accused but it was our sister that came to his aid,

  “You have been a little busy, Dom.” To which I knew I had no excuse.

  “I knew the importance that last night meant to you so took matters into my own hands in dealing with a situation to which you would have dealt with no differently.” Vincent said and I knew he was right.

  “As touching as all this sounds, can we please get back to the matter at hand. There is something you should all be aware of.” Lucius said sarcastically which was not surprising.

  “Which is?” I asked irritably.

  “When my men searched his room, they found the same ritual symbol under his bed in his hotel room.”

  “Damn it!” I roared wondering how this could get any worse…of course still being on the phone with my personal bearer of bad news I quickly learnt how in fact it could get so much worse.

  “There is more.” Lucius took a breath and sighed as we waited before finally putting us out of our misery just before I lost my temper completely.

  “I had my men check Keira’s room also, just to be sure what I already suspected.”

  “Tell me they didn’t find anything?” I growled and felt my brother’s arm rest against my shoulder as if holding me back.

  “They found the start of the same symbol but luckily it seems he must have been disturbed half way through completing it.”

  “By the wrath of Hell I will destroy him!” I bellowed until the windows rattled in their metal casing. Before Lucius had even finished I knew what he was going to say from looking back on that day we found him in her room. I should have known he was up to something even then but I just couldn’t get a read on him. It was as if he had been blocking me, hell blocking us all since the very beginning, as even one such as Lucius couldn’t get a read on him. It was almost like a part of him was being hidden from all of my kind but that type of power didn’t exist…unless… could it be…

  “What was the symbol at the massacre and under the beds?” My voice almost shook as I asked the most important question of all. However, I didn’t wait for the answer before I bolted out of the door, suddenly having the worst feeling of loss drop to the pit of my stomach.

  I was running down the hallway and the last thing I heard from Lucius was my worst fears confirmed…

  “A Pentagram.”

  Keira

  Chapter 39

  Eveleen.

  I looked around confused as to why we were even in this room as I doubted very much that Draven conducted his important business at the kitchen table over a cuppa. I watched as Alex walked over to a bolted door and started pulling them back one at a time. I wanted to ask outright what he was doing and why we were in this part of the house but if my suspicions were right then I needed to be clever. So instead of ask
ing the obvious, that being are you in fact a raving psychopath that kinda has a demonic side…I went with,

  “So you say the Fates sent you, does that mean you were visited by the Oracle?” And I asked this in such way that it sounded more excited than suspicious. He looked back at me and nodded. It was almost as if he didn’t trust himself to speak, so I carried on.

  “She’s lovely isn’t she? I remember when she first came to me, I thought she was the most beautiful and angelic looking creature. And with her golden hair, I remember wondering what she would think if I asked for tips on how to get mine so shiny.” I said on a laugh. He gave me a soft smile as he walked back over to me and I knew I had him when he said,

  “I remember thinking her hair beautiful myself.” That’s the moment I backed up and dropped the pretence.

  “The Oracle is a seven year old black girl with black curls.” The moment I informed him of this I started to see the change. His eyes turned darker, colder and more sinister and his grin cocked up to the side as if all of a sudden he liked this game.

  I laughed once and then knocked over a chair putting a barrier between us as I turned and ran. I didn’t get very far before I was wrenched backwards on a scream as he grabbed my hair from behind. He pulled me backwards and I had no place else to go but move with him as the pain increased on my head.

  “Ahh! GET OFF ME!” I shouted hoping someone would hear me. He brought me over to the kitchen island at the centre of the room and pulled me up in front of it. Then he yanked my head back and laughed once before snarling,

  “Oh, Keira…you really are one dumb bitch!” And then he slammed my head into the counter hard enough that everything went black.

  My last thought was…

  I hope Draven knows I was wrong.

  Draven

  It could not be believed. Less than twenty four hours back safe again in my arms and now I found that she had been taken right from under my nose and in my very house! I had made it back to the bedroom and had prayed to every God I knew that possessed enough power to aid me that she would be there safe. But I should have known better than anyone that the Gods would not interfere in such matters, not unless it conflicted with their fucking precious Prophecy!

  Once back in the room I had to be careful not to tear it apart as I shook with the beast raging inside me. I took in hers and my combined essence as I knew she had showered, then I followed it into the closet and saw the towel she had left there when changing. By the Gods but I had even been looking forward to the scolding I would have received upon me coming back here after she found I had yet again filled another side of the closet with clothes I knew she would like.

  “Dom!” Vincent shouted my name and a few angry steps took me back to the main room. I found Vincent looking down at the untouched tray of food on the low table. Sophia ran through the door and one look at that tray told us all we needed to know.

  “I’m on it!” Sophia said taking off once more. I don’t think at that moment I had ever been more thankful of the sibling link we shared. It was understandably needed at this point in time when my rage dare not let me speak, so having my brother and sister both know what was needed of them was a blessing I would later relish.

  Now however, I only wanted blood.

  “We will find her.” Vincent said as always so sure of himself and in what he believed.

  “Do you think it was the Nephilim?” He asked as I walked over to stand opposite the sofa we had shared last night. The same one where I had held her in my arms and told her the truth she had always deserved to know. And what had she done? What she always did. She accepted every word I told her and absorbed it with such strength it nearly brought this king to his knees just before begging her to become my wife. But then had not been the time and now time had been stolen from me.

  It was these thoughts that unleashed my demon’s rage.

  “I WILL DESTROY HIM!” I roared out and there wasn’t one shred of my angel there to calm him. I let him feel his pain and I let him lash out even if it was only at swiping the table free of the tray that held food I knew she would have enjoyed. Danish pastries flew across the room along with small ceramic jars filled with butter and jam. A one person tea set smashed, with its pieces bouncing across the floor like porcelain shrapnel.

  “Dom.” Vincent called my name but it was like someone shouting across a field during a storm. It was just a noise I could hear in the distance as I mentally and physically fell to the ground on my knees and roared up at the sky cursing the same Gods I had moments ago been praying to.

  “Dominic!” Vincent tried again but I was too consumed by fury to rein my demon back in. It was as though for the first time he was getting a small taste of what it felt like to be in control and like those nights he used to take us back to Keira, now he was trying to do the same.

  “Allow me.” This was all I heard before I felt just enough pain to bring me back with the shock of it. I shook my head and looked up dazed and when my focus finally did come back I found my sister was stood over me with a bronze statue of the Egyptian god Horus in her hand. I winced and put out a hand to brace myself as I got up.

  “Now cut out the demon shit and focus, Vincent found a note.” She snapped and dropped the statue with a crack as it landed on the tiled floor.

  “Well not a note as such, but a piece of parchment paper with nothing written on it.” Vincent said lifting it up for me to see. I stood up straight and patted my little sister on her head,

  “Thank you.” To which she replied,

  “Any time,” and smirked.

  “Did you find anything?” I asked her as I walked over to Vincent to take the note he handed me.

  “Uh…” I looked back at her and it didn’t take the fact that we were triplets to know there was something in their shared look they didn’t want to tell me. I growled when I saw Vincent nod at her but decided to let it go as there were more important matters at hand.

  “Well I tracked her down to the kitchen and I can believe that due to the lack of essence of another that it must be this Nephilim we are looking for who was with her.”

  “She couldn’t have gone down on her own?” I asked hoping that by some miracle we had it all wrong and she had in fact done something stupid instead and left in search of something she thought she needed.

  “Well at first that’s what I thought, that was until…”

  “Speak!” I demanded as she hesitated.

  “Well the service door had been unlocked and was left open.”

  “Well that could mean…” I started to say when the next words she interrupted me with were like being speared in the heart with an icy shard.

  “Blood. What I found was some of her blood.”

  “Where?” I asked shaking in an attempt not to let myself be taken by my demon again. I needed to be in control if I was to be any help to Keira. She needed me now and I was no good to her letting my demon make all the decisions. No, if anything I would have only succeeded in tearing down this old house and burying it beneath the water upon which it sat.

  “It was on the counter, as if she had hit her head or was knocked out. There was also a broken chair, so my guess is that she tried to run before he took her.” As Sophia gave me all this information I examined the note but only after being sure I wouldn’t damage it in my attempt at cooling my temper. The level of restraint felt almost like my greatest test and this was one I knew I needed to pass for Keira’s sake.

  “He obviously needs her alive and my guess is that he’s going to use her as bait.” Vincent said making me frown.

  “Bait for what though?” Sophia asked before I could voice the same question.

  “Well isn’t that just the right question?” Said a small voice I would have known anywhere that came through the door. And the reason I would know had to do with the fact that I had been searching for her for the last ten months!

  “Pythia.” I hissed her name as one I had come to loathe considering all she now represented. T
here had once been a time when I had felt protective over her and the need to keep her safe wasn’t only for duty’s sake. But now when I took in her childlike appearance all I felt was anger for the unforgivable pain she had caused.

  “Now, now, don’t take that tone with me.” She snapped with hands on her hips. I growled low feeling it building up and Vincent came to my aid by putting a restraining hand on my shoulder.

  “Not now brother.” He told me quietly and I nodded in agreement.

  “Much obliged to you Angel.” She replied smiling sweetly as if she wasn’t the cause of all that had happened.

  “Why are you here?!” I barked and she rolled her eyes before responding.

  “To read that…” She nodded to the parchment I held and then continued,

  “…and to help your stubborn ass save your girl.” I felt my lip curl at the distrust I now felt but walked over to her all the same. I looked down at her tiny frame and handed her the paper saying,

  “I only hand you my trust right now because I have little choice, so make no mistake it’s not because you have earned it.” This made her frown up at me and in turn I scowled down at her. If anyone who hadn’t know our past or who exactly the Oracle was had walked in right now to see a grown man having a showdown with a small child they would no doubt have found this comical. And for that reason alone it made me glad Lucius wasn’t here.

  “Whatever!” She said throwing up her hands in defeat, but I could tell her little act was hiding the hurt I had inflicted with my words.

  “Sophia.” Pythia said nodding to my sister and Sophia’s response was very much like my own, that of being unable to curb her tongue.

  “Home wrecker.”

  “Fine I get it! I had to tell you shit that you didn’t want to hear but I only did what was needed, from both sides. And one day you will all understand why because what do you think would happen to, not just you, but everything this Earth has ever known, and those you care for calling it home if the prophecy never happened…um? Oh you’ll all see and then I will just make you all buy me cake! Yes, the biggest darndest cake I ever saw, with the words ‘sorry, I guess you we’re right after all’ written all over the damn thing! Now can we all just stop pointing fingers and get back to saving the Chosen One!” She finished her little speech with a foot stomp making her black riot of curls bounce around her head. I simply folded my arms across my chest and said,