The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

by Hudson, Stephanie

  “You need to listen to me now. I want you to move on with your life. You deserve so much more and now you have a real chance at finding a happiness that was destined for you. The Gods want you Keira, but even they cannot make you do something you do not wish to do. Even our Chosen one gets a chance at free will, and this, it seems, is your chance and my advice for you…take it Keira. By the Gods take it!” I stared at him in disbelief.

  “How can you say that…how…?”

  “Because it is your only choice. Embrace this chance and regret nothing because I will warn you Keira, regret is not your friend and will do nothing to your soul but grind it down.” His eyes held me and I tried to pull back from his words. I didn’t need this and he could take his advice back to the heavenly place from which he was born! As he took in my actions I saw his grip tighten on my arm rests. He looked so desperate for me to hear his plea that he was slowly losing his grip of anger.

  “And you know this?” Again the colour in his eyes lashed out like an angry sea at my words.

  “Yes Keira, I know this and this is not something I want for someone I care for.” At this I bit my lip, a motion he followed with his heated stare.

  “Someone you care for?” I dared to ask.

  “Deeply,” was his only reply but the purr behind every letter pronounced caused a tingled wave to rack my body.

  “I don’t see what you are trying to protect me from Vincent, your brother is gone and you said it yourself that not even you can bring him back…what are you expecting me to do, just forget him and join lonely hearts online, post an ad in the paper and start dating again… ‘cause you know I can’t do that!” I snapped feeling hurt that he could even think I ever could. However, his eyes softened back to clearer blue skies and he cupped my cheek with his palm.

  “No, I don’t expect that of you Keira, but at some point I would like to know someone is taking care of something so precious. But more to the point, why are you here and why would you ever put yourself in danger by doing so?” He said taking my hands in his and turning them over as if seeing the healed scratches that were there but minutes ago. This had me blushing and pulling my hands from his, which he allowed me to do.

  “I needed comfort and this place…well it became a part of me too.” I said not enjoying the feeling explaining myself invoked.

  “You don’t understand!” I said getting up and pushing him away when he tried to stop me.

  “No, now you will listen to me!” I snapped as I walked away before turning on my heel abruptly and staring at him.

  “You think it is as easy to walk away from this, as easy as just giving up and carrying on?! I mean Christ Vincent, it was easier getting bloody kidnapped, tortured and having some whack job think I was possessed by demons!” I saw him flinch at this but I couldn’t stop what came next.

  “It was easier taking a mirrored shard to my own skin and slicing my life further away with every swipe, than living this life after Draven. The only reason I even take a breath every morning is for the lives I would hurt if I didn’t. Every damn day I think about joining him, I am that miserable, walking this earth without him! I know he is your brother, Vincent and I know you are hurting, but telling me to just move on is like asking you to do the very same!” Once I had finished tears streaked my eyes but not in sadness, but in pain and anger. I was panting and my actions had become stomped feet and fisted hands.

  “I under…”

  “Oh no, don’t you dare say you understand! How the Hell could you, Vincent?! You still live in a world where you can at least draw comfort from those around you. You still wake to a world surrounded by those comforts! Me...well, I was ripped from those comforts and why, because Draven had some warped idea that it would be better for me…well you know what, screw him and you and most of all your sick, warped ideas of me living a better life because I am living in Hell just like he is!”

  “I wake in my own version of it every damn day and every damn day I know it’s because he put me there! So, what do you say now Vincent, still think I should meet a nice guy and settle down?!” I know I was blaming others but I couldn’t help the pent up bitterness that had just been released. I had no other person that I could even talk to about this and now I had finally found one, I just wanted to erupt! And bless his Angelic heart, he just sat there and took it.

  Once he knew I had finished, he stood and I burst into another pitiless sob and ran to him. He caught me and held me to him as I mumbled my sorry into his chest, one still wet from my earlier tears.

  “Ssshh, it’s alright, I have you…I have you now.” He said smoothing back my hair and rubbing my back. After I really didn’t have anything left this time I looked up at him.

  “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean…”

  “Yes you did and you had every right. Dom’s reasons for sending you out in the world were not so you could feel alone, but to give you a new start, foolishly he could not be convinced otherwise. I thought…well…I thought this might happen but not as severely as it has. I didn’t realise…I” He paused and tore his gaze from me as if seeing the answers there.

  “What?” He locked his emotions with me then, with just one look and if his arms hadn’t been holding me up I would have buckled to the ground. I knew his next words would be confirmation to how I had felt since that day.

  “I didn’t realise your soul had become so entwined, so locked in to the beings we are that you would not make it out in the world alone. I should have known, but none of us expected this outcome to be true. We thought the longer without Draven’s essence, the easier it would become, not harder…I feel like we failed you.” He said lowering his forehead to mine and the zing of energy it gave me just confirmed his words to be even more powerful.

  “The fates failed me, no other. I cannot blame Draven for dying as much as I can blame you for going along with wanting the best for me, I just wish that this changes things, but I know you’ll still have to leave me…don’t…y…you?” My last word broke with just the thought and he couldn’t answer me with anything but a nod.

  “Then, you now know why I can never move on Vincent, not while there is breath in my body and blood pumping in my veins. I cannot and will not ever move on from Draven, what is left of my heart won’t let me. I thought he would have known this.” I said looking down, as seeing the pain in his eyes grow with every word heard from me was just mirrored pain.

  “I agree, he should have known and handled things very differently and I wish…”

  “What? What do you wish, Vincent?” I asked knowing his answer would only be driving the spear further through my heart.

  “Never mind, come, there is no place to hold you here anymore and no need to add to your torment, I will take you home.” He said taking my hand and pulling me in the direction of the bar. I really wanted to know what he was going to say, but his next move halted me. He turned to face the stage and with his outstretched arm he moved the table he threw. It lifted and shot back into place with a simple flick of his wrist. The up turned chairs its destructive path had caused righted themselves and soon the place looked as untouched as when we had entered it.

  I saw him swipe up a leather jacket from the bar where he had left it and he led me out through the very doors I had first tried. He pushed the door open and held it for me. Then he turned to the door and instead of moving away, I watched as he reprogrammed the code on the door in front of me. I smiled when I saw it was my birthday. I don’t know why he did this, knowing I would no doubt use it to get in, if ever I came back but when he looked over his shoulder at me he winked.

  “Let’s have no more climbing up the side of buildings, Keira.” He said as he came down the steps to my level and he gently brushed a loose strand of hair from my face. I gave him a cheeky little grin and said,

  “You know Spiderman is my favourite superhero?” This was the first beaming grin he gave me and it transformed his entire face into such beauty it was almost blinding. He grabbed my chin and shook it slig
htly, almost playfully and replied,

  “I thought as much.” He said then leaned down so close to my face that his next words were said over my lips,

  “But let’s leave the heroics to the professionals and the breaking and entering to the bad guys…yes?” I smiled at him and just shrugged my shoulders before walking past him laughing at my response. I could feel him following close behind and as we walked round the corner I could just see a lone motorcycle waiting there. I say motorcycle but what I really should have said was a black metal panther waiting like a predator for someone to ride on its back at death speeds.

  I must have stopped dead as I was staring at it because he passed me, walking right up to it like meeting an old friend, or in this case a new one as it looked like it had just been driven straight out of the factory. He had also put on his jacket when behind me and the sight of tight grey denim buttocks and fitted leather encasing his upper body was nothing short of mouth-watering. It wasn’t right for me to admit it or to even think it, but a girl was only human!

  He looked back at me and the grin he gave me was pure bad boy, one not expected on an Angel like Vincent.

  “Is there a problem, Keira?” He asked doing a lousy job at trying to hide the humour he found in my face.

  “Umm, no, no, not a problem. I will just wait for Frank to pick me up, that’s all.” I said thinking…actually scrap that…knowing, there was no way in Hell I was getting on that thing!

  “Then we both know you will be waiting a while, when are they back…in two weeks?” He said surprising me and when he saw my stunned face he walked back up to me and his expression turned serious for a moment.

  “Don’t ever lie to me again….we understood?” I bit my lip at the new tone from Vincent and I wondered in that minute if he had taken his brother’s shoes in the control department. He sounded very much the royalty that was in his blood in this moment.

  “How did you know?”

  “How and why is not important, but your safety is, so don’t ever lie to me about it again and we will be just fine. Now come on, time to get you home.” He said taking my hand and leading me numbly towards the mass of black steel and chrome.

  “Wait!” I shouted pulling back and I heard a sigh whisper from his lips.

  “It’s just…I don’t want to go home.” When he raised an eyebrow at me I quickly carried on.

  “I need to do something first and I need your help.” This time he crossed his arms across his chest making the leather of his jacket groan. That’s when I noticed he now also wore black leather gloves and a naughty image flashed into my mind of him running them down my bare skin. Jesus, what was wrong with me, I mean this was Draven’s brother for God’s sake! I just blamed it on my fragile, comforted and sexually starved brain. Yep, that was it!

  “Keira” He said my name and I blushed as I realised I had been eyeing him up like a candy stick, one I was almost panting to lick! Now this was embarrassing!

  “Umm…sorry, where was I?” He at least had the decency to laugh about my weak moment and if anything he looked quite pleased about the way my eyes wandered.

  “You need me to do something?” He purred and the way he lingered on that one word made me gulp. Oh I needed something alright, it was just a shame I would never let any other man give it to me but Draven…wait not a Draven, I mean Dominic…yeah that was better.

  “Yeah, sorry, I was going to ask if you could take me somewhere…you know…to say goodbye.” I added softly. He unfolded his arms and simply nodded.

  “Alright Keira. Come on then, your chariot awaits” He motioned towards the beast with two wheels and I shivered.

  “Don’t you have a car around here somewhere?” He laughed.

  “Didn’t you hear…I am more of a biker than a petrol head” Now I laughed as a thought popped in my head and I made the next comment without activating that handy little filter that was supposed to stop these things from happening.

  “Next you will tell me you are a lover not a fighter.” My cheeks nearly melted when I saw his heated look.

  “Now we both know you have been witness to both and I think it is easy to say which I prefer…given the right partner of course.”

  “Or partners?” I said letting it slip out again when I could have kicked myself. Where was the bloody filter anyway, on holiday?! Of course I was referring to the time I had opened the door to find Vincent being kept company by two beauties in his bed…very, very close company…as in naked company.

  I was glad when he laughed and was about to laugh with him until he quickly grabbed me round the waist and pulled me to him. My hands flattened on his chest and I shook as he continued to let out a rumbled laugh.

  “Flirting will not save you from a ride on my bike Keira, if anything it will only get you on there sooner, so stop stalling.” He pulled me over towards his ‘ride’ and I nearly bit through my lip at the thought of getting on that thing! I let him pull me to the bike that looked far too heavy to sit in between someone’s thighs and that thought wasn’t ever going to help with my red face that gave me away like a fire alarm.

  I felt him come up behind me so if I decided to back out of taking this ride, then he would be there blocking my only exit.

  “Umm…it’s a nice bike.” I said not knowing what else to say about something I could die on. I knew I was being a bit dramatic but for someone as cautious on the roads as I was, bikes I didn’t understand. I liked to feel nice and safe when travelling killing speeds…boring… yes, but to be boring you had to be alive.

  “This one I have been waiting for. She’s a Moto Guzzi California1400, custom of course.” He said with pride and I smiled at hearing the passion in his voice.

  “Of course,” I said playfully and I felt him poke at my side for my cocky comment. Then he leant down to softly speak in my ear like a lover’s whisper,

  “She is a handmade beauty, every single component a perfect combination of power and sleek grace and with 96 horse power, she is a forceful touring bike. That said, I will take her gently as a beauty should be for her first ride with an Angel.” As I sucked in a quick breath at his sexual words I could feel him smile at my neck. I didn’t realise I even closed my eyes until his next words snapped me from his promised words.

  “Time for something cute.” He said with a cockiness that was new on Vincent. I looked to see him lifting a black helmet to my head and I ducked out of the way.

  “Umm, actually I think I will pass on this, maybe I could just get a taxi or something?” At this he laughed.

  “You’re not scared are you, Keira?” He said making me frown. I knew his game and I didn’t like it, so I crossed my arms to show him so. Of course he just laughed.

  “I didn’t think so, not the brave beauty I know so well.” His complement momentarily distracted me and before I knew it, he had the helmet over my head.

  “Hey!” I moaned.

  “Hey yourself, now hold still while I adjust the strap.” He said first holding down my arms from trying to take it off and then his hands came back up to rest on my neck. My pulse pounded and it wasn’t just down to the ride he wanted me to take.

  “We don’t want this pretty little head of yours to get hurt now do we?” He said as his fingers first tapped against my pulse point before going to tighten the strap under my chin. He smiled as he felt my heavy swallow of doubt.

  “And is there much chance of that happening?” I asked unsurely.

  “Not a single one.” He said with a level of certainty that burnt away my fears.

  “Leg over sweetheart.” He said and before I could have blinked he was on the bike and patting the space behind him. I looked down at the Emblem of an Eagle pressed into the saddle and just hoped that these weren’t the only wings that would keep me safe.

  I took a deep breath, took the last few steps towards the bike and did as I was told. I felt awkward mounting the bike as if ready for it to start bucking or something but the knowledge of its heavenly rider was the only thing
forcing me to sit down. Once there, Vincent looked over his shoulder at me. The way the back part of the seat was raised put me at the same level as him.

  “Hold on to me and put your feet here.” He pointed to the foot rest further back from his own and that’s when I noticed his booted feet. I couldn’t help but shiver as I noted the heavy biker boots with steel caps. He must have taken this for worry about the ride, which could have easily been a factor.

  “Keira, don’t worry if you get scared or want me to slow down just tap my stomach and I will pull over…ok?” I nodded when he looked round and then when he seemed satisfied, he flipped my visor down and he kicked the stand back with one foot before taking the weight of the bike. I gripped on tighter and heard him chuckle.

  “So, where are we headed sweetheart?” He asked me before firing up the beast.

  There was only one answer to give and only one place I wanted to be for this next part, so I didn’t hesitate,

  “Draven’s cave.”

  Chapter 13

  Cutting off the Reasons

  He didn’t say a word about the choice of destination I had in mind and instead of a comment, he just put the key in the ignition and started the brute of steel that thundered beneath us. It was my first experience on a bike and I couldn’t help but grip onto Vincent like my life depended on it. I held on until my fingers ached and we hadn’t even moved yet. I didn’t want to be a wuss and tried to convince myself it was just a bike…just a bike. Yeah right! I mean the fact that it was one mean looking bike was one thing but the fact I was sat on a bloody engine was quite another. I was just about to tell Vincent that I couldn’t do this when the bike started to move and I was left with only the urge not to die.

  I tightened every muscle in my body to grip on with great force to the steel between my legs and the Angel in front as we started to pick up speed. I couldn’t help what came next as I found myself tapping madly on his stomach but when I felt it vibrating I just knew he was laughing at me…Not surprising, he didn’t stop.