The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

by Hudson, Stephanie

  After about ten minutes of trying to convince myself I wasn’t going to die and I had in fact faced worse things than this in my life, I finally started to relax. I watched the world whiz by and soon I felt a type of liberation. It was like my fear was being replaced by pure adrenaline and it was almost like getting drunk on fun. I couldn’t believe I was actually enjoying this, even though the first corner we went round had me shrieking out in my helmet. But the way he controlled the bike was nothing short of beautiful…and oh, so Goddamn sexy.

  The time fell into a supercharged hole that shot us right to our destination in what seemed like only minutes. When I saw we were at the top of the mountain track, I actually felt disappointment that it had come to an end. It was only when I felt Vincent’s hand on mine and tap a few times that I knew that was my cue to release him. He had already cut the engine and once I let him go, he got off first. He didn’t say a word as he undid my helmet and lifted it off me.

  “Well, look at you smiling.”

  “Wow, that was….just wow!” I said knowing I was beaming up at him. His grin made my heart stammer but I tried pass it off as I told myself it was just from the ride, nothing more.

  “Umm…Another biker in the making I think.” He said and when I wrinkled up my nose he laughed.

  “Maybe not.”

  “I loved it, but I don’t think I would ever be brave enough to ride one myself.” At this he smoothed back some hair that had come loose from my plait and sweetly planted a kiss on my forehead. I didn’t know what prompted it and I didn’t ask.

  “Be careful when getting off, you might be a bit unsteady.” He said giving me more room to swing my leg round. I felt tiny on this massive machine and even more so with Vincent, who was at least six foot two. He wasn’t as bulky as his brother but he was still made from pure muscle on a sleeker level. His body was made for stealthier actions. His fighting skills more of a graceful dance that were the steps to a deadly song. Even his Angelic looks could be turned into a weapon with just one stare. He was like his brother in the way of the essence of leadership that just poured from him and it was easy to see the warrior commander beneath the cool countenance his eyes usually held.

  As soon as my feet touched the ground I did the pathetic girly thing and nearly toppled over. He caught me as if he had been ready and pulled me to him for the second time.

  “Easy.” He hummed and I wondered if he was aware that his arms had tensed around me. It was only when I placed my hands on his chest that he let me go.

  “Thanks.” I muttered shyly, still filled with the lush scent of male musk and leather.

  I brought my bag round to the side, happy that it had survived the journey and glad I had brought one with me that had a long strap that crossed over my body. There were things inside that I was going to need.

  “So, how did you know about this place?” I asked Vincent as I thought that no one but Draven and I were supposed to know about it. When I first told him my destination I had been surprised when he didn’t ask me where, not that I would have explained in full detail but getting to this point on the mountain was as close as a human like me would ever get to it. But Vincent hadn’t asked for directions or questioned why, he had just told me to hold on and off we went.

  “Dom told me about this place when he thought you might have been in danger.” He answered as he walked to the edge to look over at the sheer drop.

  “Why would he think that?”

  “Because Keira, he maybe King, but even Kings have enemies.” He said, again without looking at me.

  “He was King but now…?” I let the horrible question linger and it was only then that Vincent turned to me and the pain there was understandable.

  “Now…well that danger is over at least.” At this I shook my head making him raise an eyebrow at me but I didn’t comment. No, instead my mind just went back to that day in the warehouse and I wondered just how many more times on this journey were going to be filled with dangers just like that one.

  “So when was that?” I asked getting back to the subject.

  “Just before we left to look for the Oracle.” He said and he shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn’t a big deal. So I pushed further.

  “Did you at least find her?”

  “No.” Was the only answer I got and one I knew with absolute certainty was a lie. In a way the fact that it came from an Angel just made it all the worse and it was hard to hide the fact from my face. But nothing more was said and I walked past him further to the cliff’s edge.

  “This will be fine.” I said kneeling down and opening my bag but I jumped when I felt myself being picked up.

  “Hey! What are you doing?!” I said as I was being adjusted so that he had me in a more secure hold. He had taken his jacket and gloves off and I saw the way his biceps bunched when he had one arm under my knees and the other holding my back.

  “Hold on to me, put your arms around my neck.” He said ignoring my surprise at suddenly being picked up.

  “W…why?”

  “Because this isn’t the cave, Keira” He stated calmly as he walked us both to the very edge.

  “Vincent?” This time I was rewarded with an Angelic smile that was under laced with crazy intent.

  “Oh God, not again!” I said grabbing him around the neck and burying my head there.

  “Don’t worry sweetheart, I fly my wings better than I drive my bike.” Once he said this I looked up to see a pair of massive pure white wings erupt just as he took that last death step of the cliff. I screamed at our free fall and my plait fluttered past my head along with my stomach.

  “Vincent!!!!!” I shouted and I could feel him laughing as the air tunnelled around us as we plummeted to the bottom. Then I felt a great whoosh and his heavenly wings opened and took us straight up like a deploying parachute.

  “Come on, open those eyes for me, it’s beautiful up here and it would be a shame to miss it.” He spoke into my hair and I was surprised he could even manage words with the way I held on to his neck. Hell, it was a miracle he could still breathe!

  “I think I am good like this.” I said into his neck and being this close to him, the natural scent I inhaled was near intoxicating. He chuckled and I felt him tickle my back.

  “Ahhh! What are you doing! Don’t you dare do that again, you got me?” I said sternly and this time he laughed harder.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t dare me, not from up here…now come on, just open your eyes and take one peek and I promise not to tickle you again…or I could…”

  “Don’t you dare...! Ok, ok, I will look for heaven’s sake!” I snapped, not that he was bothered by it but at least it stopped him tickling my side.

  I lifted my head from the little nook I preferred to stay in and opened my eyes for longer than a few seconds. Once I did this I found he was hovering at the same level for me to see the sunset over the mountains. It cast the skies out like fire and the National Park was the perfect shadowed frame to such beauty. The clouds created patterns on the landscape and beams shone down in the distance. It was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen this earth create and if I wasn’t being held over the deepest ridge so many feet in the air, then I would have loved nothing more than to paint it’s splendour and magnificence.

  “See, I told you it was worth a look and as if I would ever drop you.” I looked up at him and he winked at me before we started to move again. I looked at the next beautiful sight behind us as his wings manipulated the air around them. They were so graceful and pure I wanted to smack him about lying to me earlier, knowing that nothing this heavenly should be allowed to sin.

  He looked ahead and we changed directions slightly making me slam my eyes shut again. Like this I was being held more directly over the immense drop and I was happy when I felt Vincent’s muscles pull me closer against him.

  “Keira, we are here.” He said after a minute and I peeled my eyes open to find the dark cave. He let my legs slid down him and he held me steady until he kn
ew I wouldn’t wobble all over the place like last time.

  “It…it looks so cold.” I said wrapping my arms around myself and feeling the familiar tugging at my heart. Vincent didn’t say anything but just turned from me, lit one of the torches on the wall and walked back to the edge.

  “I will give you the time you need.” He said in an emotionless tone and I watched as he launched himself up in the air with a little bend of his knees. I ran to the rock wall to grip on as I saw him fly off to where his bike was sat on the top of the mountain.

  “Oh Vincent.” I whispered as the whiplash of his playful mood disappearing stung. I knew he was hurting just as I was but there was something else I couldn’t place, almost as though he had felt betrayed by someone. Of course, he knew how Draven had died so maybe that was it. Was that the reason he cursed the fates, had he felt betrayed? ‘Cause if that was the case then didn’t we all? Or did it have something to do with the Oracle? Could she have betrayed them and if so, what was her plans for me…was this journey, I was so blindly throwing myself into, safe?

  There were just too many questions and never enough answers for someone like me. I was now out of the loop and that fact hurt a lot more than what I wanted to fully admit, but the main question was…should I be telling Vincent about my plans? Every gut instinct in me told me no, but what if all this was a trap? Oh God, this was just hopeless!

  I pushed away from the rock once I saw Vincent as a tiny speck walking over to his bike on the far side and he sat down as if to wait for me. Well I sure hope so, ‘cause otherwise the next people to find this cave would be in for a shock finding ‘cave dweller’ Keira’s remains curled up on a massive bed.

  I looked around the space and became consumed with the image of Draven and I. His hands holding me down as he found home inside my body. The endless kiss that had rooted his soul to mine every second that connection lasted. Every word uttered in that blissful sense of peace just being together created. Everything hit my chest like a tsunami of memories that made my knees give out. I landed on the bed and once again my body was overtaken with the depth of my loss. The very level of it was enough to render my body useless as the only thing it wanted to do now was weep, sob and cry out at the cruelty my life’s path had been thrown down.

  I couldn’t understand why? Why lay my body down for only one person to take, someone I was supposedly made for, my one true soul mate if such things exist, why then let us join together in a love so strong it could withstand all we had been through and still they decided to take him from me…it just didn’t make sense!

  “I just want him back! Please…please…oh Gods hear me now…I am on my knees begging!...BEGGING!...pl…ple…please.” At this point I lost it and fell forward into the bed and gripped the covers so tight I could hear them start to tear. I sobbed all I had left out into the one place I knew was so special to Draven and it just so happened to be the place I gave a dark Angel my virginity.

  But where was my dark Angel now?!

  After all the tears had broken the dam and all memories had seeped from my veins, I finally sat up. I took one last look around our special place and knew that there were only two possibilities that were going to happen. I was either going to be back here one day with Draven or if everything else failed, then I would never see this place again. Either option meant there was only one thing left for me to do.

  “Time to say goodbye.”

  I pulled my bag round and took out the two things I needed. One was a letter I had written to Draven and the other was a large pair of scissors.

  “I know there is no way for me to bury you or even attend a proper funeral, so this is the only way I know how to tell you one last time that I love you and that I will never stop believing that one day we will be together again. Whether in this life or the next, I will see you again but until then, I wanted you to have a part of my body along with that part of my soul you own. And well, I know how much you love this part so, now it can be yours forever. I love you Dominic Draven.” I said and then I held the blades to where I needed to cut and closed my eyes as I felt them cut through every strand of hair.

  I felt the weight lifted from my head and it felt strange without something I had carried around with me every day for years. But now it was done and I shook my now short hair around my face and looked down at the plait that lay by my side. I had cut all my hair off for Draven to have and I just hoped that one day, he would know what I had given him.

  I picked it up and placed it on top of the letter before covering both with the pillows. I didn’t want the weather getting to them, if it even could from this far in but just in case, I kept them hidden. I got up from the bed, stared down at it for what could be the last time before turning round to find an Angel stood watching me. With the sun now set, all that I could see was the shadow of a man with wings and my heart hammered in my chest for a second as I thought it was Draven. But then a voice cut through the illusion and I sucked in a breath.

  “Keira…what…what have you done?” Vincent asked as he stepped forward into the light. His eyes were framed by a frown but his voice was a soft lure.

  “I buried him and I said goodbye the only way I knew how.” I said walking past and the strange sensation of the ends of my hair brushing against my neck had me touching the tips with both hands. I looked out to the night and the moon that had graced the land with its full glow.

  “You didn’t need to do this…you…”

  “It is done Vincent, now please take me home.” I said knowing that by home I meant Afterlife, but also knowing that the place he took me would be far from there. I felt him come up behind me and he placed his hands on my shoulders then down my arms.

  “I wish…” He started to say something but then stopped and after a moment of hoping he would continue, he just cleared his throat and I could feel him shaking his head behind me.

  “It matters not what I wish and it is like you said, it is done now. Come, I will take you home.” Then he hoisted me up into his arms once again and this time I couldn’t help but hold him to me tighter than before. The comfort having him so close gave me, was something I needed right now and I was not in the right mind set to hold back the deep currents of my emotions.

  So I clung onto him like I never wanted him to leave me and when I felt the kiss planted to my temple, I knew he knew it too. He held me tight and we took off into the night.

  I didn’t know how he knew where he was going but soon we were descending and the moon could be seen glinting off the chrome on his bike. He set me down, put back on his jacket and gloves and lastly my helmet. All was done in silence, as there were no words for either of us to find after the great sadness that had infected us once more.

  We rode home but this time, I didn’t get the same thrill from the ride as I did earlier. I knew why, it was easy to gauge, as the bike took me closer to the time that we would have to part ways and the thought that I might never see Vincent again was too much to stand.

  I even tensed as my house came into view and Vincent knew it because he covered my hand with one of his and gave me a little squeeze.

  “It will be ok.” He said once he cut the engine, getting off his bike and turning back to face me. I really didn’t know who he was trying to convince with this statement because it wasn’t ever going to be me. However, I didn’t respond, instead I just nodded my helmeted head before fumbling with it to try and get it off.

  “Here, let me.” He said pulling my hands back down and going to the strap. He pulled it off me and then looked down at me all wide eyed. I bit my lower lip and he smiled. He reached out and rubbed a strand of my cut hair in between his leather covered thumb and forefinger.

  “You know it suits you, although it makes you look even more innocent and cute, something I never thought would be possible.” He started doing the same with his other hand and soon he was smoothing the hair behind my ears. His leather hands remained on either side of my face for the longest time but no words were said. There was
one moment when it looked as though he was going to even kiss me, but abruptly he shook his head, as if to clear his mind.

  I was left feeling breathless but once again he helped me off the bike to keep me steady. He even walked me to my door as if this had been a date. The thought made me blush.

  “Would you like to come in?” I asked and for a second I saw his eyes flash lighter before a darker shade overtook them too quickly.

  “You know I can’t, Keira.” He said quietly and I nodded in shame. Yes, I had known that but a girl could only hope couldn’t she.

  “I know, but since we were already breaking the rules I thought that by you staying a little longer wouldn’t hurt.” I said trying to justify something his look said I didn’t need to.

  “But it will hurt Keira, it will hurt both of us and even now, this should not have happened but…”

  “But?” I couldn’t keep the hope out of my voice.

  “I could not have turned you away for all the Gods’ commands, let alone my brother’s.” He closed his eyes for a second and his long dark lashes created shadows on his high cheek bones.

  “Thank you, Vincent.”

  “For what, Keira?” His eyes snapped open and he took a step closer to me.

  “For helping me today and for not turning me away like you should have.” At this his eyes seemed heavy lidded by my words.

  “You are welcome, my sweetheart.” His voice turned to warm honey and I felt myself take a step closer to him. Soon we were so close together you couldn’t have got anything between us, but we were just staring at each other like we were trying to take every single piece in, to store in our precious memory bank.

  “I should go.” He finally spoke but it was far from breaking the spell as despite his words, he didn’t take a step from me.

  “Me too.” I uttered but again it didn’t change things. My heart was pounding and he must have been able to hear it. I didn’t know what was happening between us but it not only felt electrically charged but also magically. What I wanted and what was right was being merged into something else and the need for him to place his lips to mine was confusing. I had never wanted anyone to kiss me as badly since Draven and that thought was sobering.