The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “Well, here goes.” I said quietly to myself and started to walk down the road until the start of the property came into view. After my stake out hidden by the bushes, I’d noted how often the guards walked by and knew that anywhere near the gated entrance wasn’t going to be any way I could get in. The only parts of the property they didn’t seemed too bothered about were the lakeside walls, which couldn’t be accessed by anything but a boat. This they had covered by mounted camera’s I’d seen when I climbed a tree to get a better look. This was also what gave me the idea in the first place as there was one particular tree that overhung the wall, making it the easiest place to gain access.

  So that was where I was now headed, into the woods using my mobile phone screen as a small torch so I wouldn’t break my leg. I walked in a U shape which brought me closer to the lake and the side not as well monitored. I found my spot with only one small slip up where I had to back track and was soon looking at my first hard task.

  I took a deep breath and rubbed my hands together as I looked up at the tree I needed to climb. I just reached up for the first branch and then screamed when the first bolt of lightning lit the sky, followed quickly by the booming thunder. Thankfully, the noise hid my fright and I held my hands to my chest as a mental crutch to help slow my erratic breathing. I thought, as if what I was about to do wasn’t nerve racking enough!

  I let myself have a few minutes to rebuild up my courage and then I went for it. I jumped up, cursing my short height when it took me three attempts to grab hold of the branch. Once I did it I then used my legs, walking up the trunk to get to the next branch. I was surprised as I made short work of the climbing up to the wall’s height and found myself actually grinning when I could swing my leg over the other side.

  Once there, I reached out to grab hold of the next tree that was a little more difficult to climb due to its lack of branches. My foot slipped just as I reached out but thankfully I caught hold just before I could fall, which ended up just scraping my palm on the rough bark. I hissed at the sting but kept going, not helping the quiet sigh of relief when my feet finally touched the grass.

  I looked back up at the wall, just glad I didn’t have to go back that way as I knew I would’ve be completely screwed! I rubbed my hands down my jeans and looked around to make sure I was out of sight and that’s when I noticed all the weird stuff.

  All the statues that were dotted around the landscaped garden were destroyed. It looked as if it was something that had been done recently and definitely not through age. But on further inspection I also noticed that they weren’t the only evidence of someone’s rage. All the lights that should have been illuminating not just the garden art, but also for security reasons were also smashed. Of course, not that I was complaining, as this certainly made things easier for me and even more so when I walked around one corner to find broken pieces of what used to be the cameras.

  This had to make me wonder who did this and if it was in some way to benefit me…did Lucius get word to someone on the inside? Either way, this type of destruction was obviously seen as the norm considering they hadn’t yet been fixed. Either that or the people who held Draven didn’t fear for his possible escape. Which begged the question…was I enough to make it possible?

  Well, I was soon to find out as I neared the house. I kept in the shadows and tried not to jump whenever the sky lit up with lightning, hoping it wouldn’t give me away in case any guards veered off their normal route and saw me acting like a cat burglar. I walked further round, staying close to the walls of the house, until I could see the lake as it spread out in front of me. It was a startlingly beautiful sight as it produced the biggest natural mirror, reflecting the impressive storm above it. The show it put on was nothing short of masterful and dangerously magnificent, which went hand in hand with what I was about to do.

  I continued to stick to the wall as I moved further down the gardens, until I could see the last building that was right on the lake’s front. It was in a U shape and had a raised walkway all around its ground floor, and it too was decorated with broken statues. One Goddess’ head looked as though it had been punched through with an iron fist. If anything, it just added to the creepy vibe the storm produced for my fearful mission.

  The building was set into levels and looked half built down into the rocks below, the same ones I had seen when forming my getaway plans. I also found the front of it had a number of balconies and knew when I saw them from the rocks I climbed, that this would be my way in. The old ivy that clawed its way up the side of most of the building would act as a natural ladder similar to the one I had used once before back at Afterlife.

  Well, at least this one wasn’t as high up so that had to be a bonus. I was lucky that there were just enough lights from the windows above that I could see but not be seen. I made sure my bag strap was secure and started to first pull at the thick ivy to make sure it would hold. When I was happy, I looked up to the first balcony and just hoped the door was left unlocked. I climbed up to stand on the top of the balustrades that went round a patio area which meant I was already a third of the way there. Then I took a deep breath, grabbed a hold and started to pull myself up.

  Thankfully it didn’t take me too long and I soon found myself reaching out to grip the edge of the stone wall that wrapped around the large balcony above. I had a sudden thought of ‘Again with bloody balconies!’ when a noise had me freezing on the spot. I heard a woman’s voice but it got cut off when the thunder came quickly after the flash. I looked to see if there was some room for me to stand next to the glass doors so that I could remain hidden, but was surprised to see one of them was slightly open.

  I decided I couldn’t stay here all night hanging on like a stunned monkey, so as quietly as I could, I climbed over the ledge. I made sure my swinging bag didn’t make a noise and I held it back as I stepped a little closer to the glass doors. It looked as if the last person who closed them hadn’t done it properly, as the gap was just enough to hear voices though.

  The light coming from the room was low and flickering as though it came from a candle. Footsteps tapping on hard wooden floors walked by the door for a second and I held my breath, thinking I was about to get caught. That’s when I heard the female voice again, only this time, I recognised it.

  “I am here, as ever, to serve you, My Lord.” My hand flew to my mouth as I heard Aurora ask the question, but it became a true task of sheer willpower I didn’t realise I possessed, when I heard who answered her,

  “You know what I want from you, as I do every night Aurora, so close the door and approach my bed to do your promised duty to your King.” I sucked in a painful breath and tears clouded my sight, as for the first time, since the beginning of May, I heard the only voice I had longed for. The only voice I had awakened from sleep and cried out in my despair for. The only voice I would have bled for and the only voice I nearly died for.

  Would have died for…

  Draven’s voice.

  Chapter 58

  Shattered Hearts and Chasing Storms

  I felt the first of my tears fall just as the first of the storm’s rain fell from the sky. It was as if it knew my pain and shared in my devastation. I had to be wrong in what I heard. That couldn’t be my Draven asking his ex-girlfriend into his bed…it just couldn’t be…it was…impossible.

  But I had to be sure.

  So I gathered up the last of my strength and I did the unthinkable, only to catch the unthinkable.

  I took those very last steps in my quest to find the only man I’d ever loved and faced my window of truth. So now here I stood, directly in front of my dead boyfriend, watching as his ex-lover started to straddle her radiant body over his bare one, which was lay waiting. He raised his arms above his head and held them against a rock wall that acted as a massive headboard to an oversized bed.

  Aurora was wearing a shimmering nightgown that was not only see-through but also split up both her legs which she now had bent on either side of Draven. I felt l
ike a wide-eyed doe caught watching the truck coming closer and the longer I waited the more I knew it would end me…but like that innocent doe, I couldn’t look away from the killing blow.

  “Are you ready, My Lord?” She asked sweetly, making it even more difficult for me to breathe. Then, when it finally got too much to bear I closed my eyes to try and clear my vision through the tears that just wouldn’t stop flowing. When I opened them again, I looked at Draven’s face and saw his determination set in hard lines of this woman’s master. He closed his own eyes for a moment and then said through gritted teeth as though he was trying to hold something back,

  “Do it!” I saw the smile from Aurora that Draven didn’t and then felt sick as I let the pain start to drown me. I was hypnotized to watch as Aurora lent further over him and whisper some sweet endearment I couldn’t hear just over his closed lips. She then reached out to grip onto his arms and started to stretch out on the length of his body before pulling his arms up and holding them securely to the rock. I continued to torture myself as I watched as the energy started to build up under her hands, causing Draven’s own skin to start to glow with power.

  That’s when it all hit me. That conversation we’d had so long ago about Draven having to hold back when being intimate with me. Was this what this was? Was this Draven getting what he obviously needed, something he could never get with me? I sucked back a sob as I finally got it. Draven wasn’t dead, he…he…

  He was just dead to me!

  I watched the last I could before breaking beyond a point of not being able to get my shattered heart out of there. It was just as Draven’s back arched in a deep moan as Aurora raked her nails down his forearms that lit up under his veins. It looked like pure carnal pleasure and this caused more than just my heart to crack further but it also completely destroyed my mental barriers.

  This happened at the same time the lightning forked the sky, the rain battered down at my body and the thunder echoed my cry, screaming into the night. The glass doors blew inwards with the force of the gale behind me and shattered, mirroring my own soul that Draven had ripped out of me.

  Aurora’s head whipped round and I saw her whisper my name as she stared right at me. That’s when the Draven storm really hit as his head snapped up and now I had his purple eyes burning into mine. Then he roared, bellowing out like I had never heard Draven’s demon erupt before. Aurora fell backwards with the force of it and landed on the floor by the foot of the bed.

  I thought he would jump up but he seemed to be trapped by his arms that I could now see fused to the rock. He snarled at me and I took a step back which finally released me from this nightmare. I took another making him snarl louder this time.

  “Don’t you dare run!” His Demon warned in a frightening growl that made me shake in a fear I had never felt once before from Draven. So I did the only thing I could do…

  I ran.

  I turned and jumped the edge, grabbing the ivy letting it scrape down my hands as I tried to drop down from the balcony as quickly as I could. I heard Draven going crazy with rage and my feet hit the grass followed by my knees as I fell upon hearing Draven’s demand,

  “RELEASE ME… NOW!” I knew from this I had one chance to get out of here and I was going to take it if it was the last thing I was still able to do! I forced myself up and ran while Draven was obviously still trying to free himself. I didn’t know what kind of sex games they had been about to play, but right now I was just thankful Draven couldn’t get his hands on me!

  I ran down the bank, getting closer to the lake and turned when I got to the path that would lead me to where I needed to be. I heard masses of glass smashing all at once from behind me. I heard screams and didn’t release they were mine until the roaring stopped.

  “KEIRA!” Draven thundered out my name, making the storm mirror his rage with light and sound…but still I ran. The rain poured down soaking my hair, slapping it to my face as I looked behind me to see Draven emerge onto the balcony. He was looking for me and I quickly threw up a mental force so strong I knew no-one would ever be able to break it down, not even Draven.

  “KEIRA! COME BACK!” He screamed again making part of the balcony around him crumble as though from an earthquake…but I kept running. Even when I saw his wings erupt as his full Demon side burst forth, drowning the man I once loved in Hell’s power.

  Tears had now mixed with rain and travelled down my face in a never ending current, all fuelled by the greatest hurt one could ever imagine. But it was this raw pain I used to make myself go on…I forced myself to move, to get as far away from this loathsome place which had brought me nothing but the truth I unearthed…

  The truth of Draven’s deceit.

  “GET THEM NOW!” This was the last order I heard being followed by the thunder as the night now truly took on a murderous element. I tried not to look back just before I jumped down to the next level, but when I saw Draven drop down from the destroyed balcony, I knew my time had run out. I landed, thankfully this time on my feet and ignored the pain that shot up through my legs from the impact.

  I saw the place I was trying to find and ran to the side of the wall. From here I couldn’t see much, but just as that thought entered my mind, something unbelievable happened. I first saw it being reflected back at me from the water’s surface. It wavered with the movement of the water and I bit down on my lip to hold in the growing need to cry out. The last Quarter Moon had come out from behind the clouds, beaming through the raging storm that couldn’t seem to touch it.

  I looked up and nodded, knowing that this was the very last time it would help me, but just not in the way I would have thought or hoped…It no longer lit the way on my journey in getting to Draven but now in my only means of getting away from him.

  So, with that heart wrenching help, I looked down at the rocks behind the wall that led into the lapping water. I dropped my bag over the side so it landed without getting wet and then I pulled myself up and did the same. I let myself fall just as I heard the search party coming my way. I didn’t know if Draven had seen me, so I needed to move and get my ass in the water. I picked up my bag and scrambled over the rocks until I came to the area I had seen that would be perfect for hiding. I threw my bag into the bushes and then lowered myself into the water sucking in a sharp breath as the cold penetrated my clothes through to my skin.

  I started treading water but all the while holding onto the jagged rocks that kept me from view. At this point I could just see the shadows of people on the water, thanks to the freaky glow of moonlight and with the added wingspan it was easy to spot which one Draven was. They weren’t that far away as I could still hear them, so I remained as still as I could so as not to disturb the water, giving away my whereabouts.

  “You’re sure you saw her come this way?” I felt my body shudder as I could now add another to my list of people who had betrayed me. Vincent’s voice was easy to detect as he asked his brother this question and soon Sophia’s could be heard, making me want to bite my fist from crying out.

  “She must have turned back when she realised there was no escape for her here.” Draven’s hard voice cut through me deeper than the cold water that felt as if it was seeping past my skin and into my bones.

  “Can you feel her?” Sophia asked and for a moment there was silence but it was hard to ignore that strong pull of power that was Draven trying to find me. I closed my eyes and gripped onto the rock in a painful hold that kept me grounded enough to keep him from my mind.

  “No and she is nowhere near powerful enough to evade my reach.”

  “Are you sure, she could be in the water or what if she fell?” Vincent was clearly worried and out of them all thinking closer to the truth, but his idea was thankfully cut off by Draven’s arrogance.

  “NO...!” He snapped.

  “…I would have felt her.”

  “But you know after this time the bond has…” Vincent was silenced by first the growl and then the warning,

  “I suggest you
don’t say another word, Brother!” Draven’s demon warned, sounding too far on the edge that no wonder nothing more was said.

  “My Lord, there has been no signs of her yet, but a guard at the gate remembered seeing a girl late this afternoon, just before you arrived back.” This time it sounded like Zagan speaking, but again Draven shouted him down just as he did with his brother.

  “It wasn’t her.”

  “But My Lord, he described her as…”

  “IT WASN’T HER!” He roared and in doing so I heard a big splash which sounded like one of the statues had just crumbled off its plinth and into the water.

  “Now go and FIND HER!” Draven commanded which then just left two shadows remaining.

  “It wasn’t her, Vincent… I still would have felt her nearby, I know this.” Draven sounded determined to believe this and I shook my head at how little the great and mighty King really knew!

  “I hope you’re right brother…I really do.” I watched as one shadow left and knew Draven still remained when I heard a breaking voice speak to himself,

  “As do I, Brother…where are you Keira?”

  The trek back up the rocks and into the woods took so much longer than I thought it would, even when I stupidly, stupidly, stupidly imagined I might have an injured Draven in tow. I can definitely say the hardest part was getting out of the water. After I watched Draven’s shadow walk away from me, I bawled so hard I actually went under the water a few times. It was only when I was snorting out lake water that I knew I needed to pull myself together.

  So, by using the last of my strength, I managed to get my soggy ass out of the water, collect my bag and drag myself over the rocks until I found the small gap of wooded area that would take me to the empty Villa. By the time I got there it felt as though I had aged by another ten years. I was a shivering mess in wet clothes and a broken heart. I tried not to think about what was actually happening to my life or I don’t think I would have made it two steps. So, I took things one priority at a time which was ‘Getting the Hell out of there!’