The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

by Hudson, Stephanie

  “Go get ‘em.” To this I received a small nod, as a gentleman would do, tipping their head to a lady-in-waiting, upon receiving a request.

  “Idő áttörni, és gyere haza srácok.” (Means ‘Time to break through and come on home lads’ in Hungarian) Sigurd spoke in another language, words which became the trigger to a silent bomb. The monster, Drekavac, had no choice other than to stop his advance as the shadows started to leak from beneath the roots in bursts. It rose up in a thick fog and then started to form back into Sigurd’s serpents.

  The Drekavac suddenly started to claw at itself as though it was trying to tear away the roots himself. I leant forward and squinted my eyes to take in the truth. It wasn’t the roots it was trying to free himself from, but the dozens of smoke serpents that were now writhing around his frame. Each one had a head and each head had rows and rows of lethal teeth and each deadly point was being embedded into the body they came from.

  The movements reminded me of the flickering of an old movie being projected. The pulsating flutter as though something was growing inside him with not enough room to move about in.

  “What’s the matter Deumus Drekavac, don’t you like my essence…?” Sigurd asked and then, taking a step forward, bent slightly at the twisting form of his struggling opponent, he continued,

  “…can’t you just taste it? The darkness that comes from stealing someone’s power, couldn’t you just DIE drowning on it...? What’s that…?” Sigurd put his hand to his ear in mock surprise.

  “…You don’t like it?” He said sarcastically, as the captured roar of pain behind a lipless face, thundered our ears.

  “Ah, I see…they just don’t like you...! Very well.” He said stepping back and he turned to look directly at me.

  “For you, my fated one.” He said softly, before running both his hands back, pushing his hair from his face. The last remaining Ouroboros in his eye seeped from the light of amber and slithered in a black line down his cheek. It was the smallest one, so tiny it was barely seen, as it travelled the length of his neck, over his shoulder and right down his muscle clad arm. For once I felt it was Jared’s body that was rigid at my back, as if readying himself for the end.

  “Here it comes.”

  “Here what comes?” I asked in response to the tense comment made.

  “The strongest Ouroboros of them all and one only mastered by its true Lord.” He whispered back. Ok, so now this was the mother of all shocks!

  “You mean that tiny little slithering thing?” I asked raising my voice and Jared’s reaction was to quickly clamp a hand over my mouth.

  “Be careful little girl, for we all know that the large may fall and the small may be mighty, nothing in our world is what it seems…even you.” At this, I decided to let it go, considering he was more than just a little right, he was absolutely right!

  By this time the little snake in question had made its way down to Sigurd’s hand and rested on the inside of his upturned palm. There it spun like the others had and soon all it took was a mere flick of his wrist for the black mist to emerge. This time though, it didn’t come in the form of a snake at all, but something far more terrifying. Four spiked tentacles circled out from within the centre, uncoiling like something from the dark depths of the ocean.

  Meanwhile, the other Ouroboros were making it their mission to punish the body that attempted to command them and steal the power from their rightful master. They were biting into the body quicker than the parts could be regenerated. The huge breast plate rose and fell in an unhealthy rhythm, that screamed panic was definitely setting in for the Drekavac and the serpents shrieked out as if more than ready for his end.

  Sigurd then took the last strong strides needed to reach the Drekavac which, amazingly, was still on his feet.

  “It ends and with it, your fucking soul-sucking buffet!” Sigurd shouted in anger and the tentacles took these last words as a sign to do what needed to be done. They lunged forward and each end grabbed hold of a horn on his head, entwining themselves so tightly you could hear the splintering of wood. Then one demonic roar released, that this time was a command by Sigurd, each tentacle pulled taut like metal rope.

  Then came the pull.

  It spun the Drekavac round and round, but with it tearing the four horns from one another. This caused the strongest roots to break apart and this unravelled down the beast’s face, then down the length of his chest, leaving behind the first body of the Drekavac we all saw in the beginning. It all happened in seconds as one minute there was a black rooted creature pulsating with too much demonic power and now there was nothing but the sad form of a beaten Deumus Drekavac. Now, it was his turn to fall to his knees and all around him was the proof of his coming end. The broken roots lay around the floor like confetti made by a demonic wood chipper.

  But there was one job left to be done and Sigurd took the last step to do precisely that. With one move, he had the Drekavac’s head in his hands. One more move, a turn of his whole body into an action that not only placed one knee to the floor but broke the Drekavac’s neck with a sickening crack. Then, a more violent twist severed his head from his body altogether and this time I didn’t shelter my eyes from the horror.

  I saw Sigurd take a deep breath from the end of the battle, before he rose to then throw the severed head to one side like trash. He then stood over him, held his palm out to the remains and closed his eyes.

  The tentacles were the first to retract back up his body and soon the power that had been stolen from him, if only for a short time, quickly started to find their way home. Dozens of serpents formed, coming from inside the dead shell of the Drekavac and they swam through the current of the air to re-join their master.

  My eyes felt like they were going to pop right out of my head as I saw each serpent take back the form of inked skin right where it used to be. After the biggest Aztec one was back in place, the lifeless body started to disintegrate on the floor, after seconds of beating trembles that caused it to seem alive for one last moment. Then, something incredible happened. One last serpent, this one bigger than the rest, came out and shot through Sigurd’s arm. I heard him cry out a deep guttural sound that gave you the feeling that whatever was happening to him, was hard for him to take.

  His own skin started to quake and ripple, as something beneath the surface was breaking through, something that hadn’t been there before. That’s when a new tattoo started to emerge. Black ink seeped up, bubbling at first and then, when the area was covered in a new strip next to the Aztec Ouroboros, it started to calm. The rising ink sucked back into his pores and left behind a crude form of a snake eating its own tail, situated around his upper body on a slant just like the others. This one was a huge brush stroke that left lines in places as if there wasn’t enough ink on the brush. Unlike the others, its head and body had no details other than an inkless dot for its eye and a single stroke for a tongue coming from its open mouth.

  Sigurd’s body shuddered as the last of his new tattoo took form, then he looked down at the eroding body and said,

  “Thanks for the upgrade, asshole!” He turned from the sight and I couldn’t stop the gasp as he then kicked the head into the crowd like a football.

  Finally, this was when the crowd went bat shit crazy. They erupted from their seats and drinks, food, money and some people got thrown up over their heads in excitement. Sigurd merely rolled his shoulders once, before nodding to a guy in the shadows. He snatched his jacket out of the air single-handedly, while not even looking at the guy and I never thought at that moment I had witnessed someone looking so friggin’ cool!

  “He won!” I stated and I heard the deep chuckle from my back.

  “He didn’t win.” I frowned and whipped my head round to stare at him.

  “Of course he did…which fight were you watching?” I asked folding my arms across my chest in a huff.

  “That wasn’t a fight, pet.” I pulled back and then shook my head a little, in confusion.

  “What?
Then what the Hell was it?” I snapped.

  And this was when Jared delivered the final shock of my night so far…

  “Simple…”

  “…it was an execution.”

  Chapter 31

  Convincing Cerberus

  “What!?” I shouted out, thanks to the bombshell Jared just delivered. This time when I twisted, I found myself able to move off his lap, which was both a relief and strangely… not. However, this was something I didn’t want to look too closely at, so I continued to stand.

  “How much clearer can I make it for you? Deumus Drekavac has been my prisoner for a long time and considering there was only one being walking this plane who could destroy him, let’s say he has been awaiting his execution for decades. So, if that man finally walks into my domain, then I am going to take advantage of that fact.”

  “And me?” This granted me a bad boy grin and a shrug of the shoulders before he said,

  “A soft and welcome company for such a momentous occasion.”

  “Soft?” I don’t know why I asked. I just did.

  “I liked having you in my lap love and you…” He leaned forward and whispered seductively,

  “…are most definitely soft.” I couldn’t help it, I blushed ten shades of red, transforming that bad boy grin into a full blown smirk. I looked away and noticed Sigurd talking with Marcus and taking a wad of bills from his hand. I looked back and asked,

  “So, this wasn’t just a fight and all that back there before, what was that?” I asked flinging my hand out, pointing to where Sigurd and I first stood when Jared approached us and was more than a little rude. Hell, he was downright bad ass scary!

  “That, my pet, was simply insurance. I had to make my point to Snake Eye so that he would follow through with his end of the bargain.” I frowned and emitted a little growl.

  “So, you used me?” I shouted, making him laugh.

  “Calm yourself kitten, we all got what we wanted and did I hurt you? Did your valiant knight die saving your virtue from the Beast…? No! You live, he lives and you have been granted what you came here to do, which was seek me out…a win, win wouldn’t you say?” I rolled my eyes because what could I say to that, he was right and considering our earlier circumstances, the outcome was what we wanted…or at least I hoped.

  “Alright then, can you answer me something that I probably won’t get from my friend?” His eyes got soft before nodding once.

  “What was that in there?” I asked looking over my shoulder to where the ‘execution’ took place.

  “You will have to elaborate on that question, love.”

  “What I mean is, how did you know he would win…? I mean…I…thought…” I shook my head trying to find the right words, but thankfully Jared decided to help me out.

  “You thought when his power was taken, that was his end?” Now it was my turn to simply nod.

  “Oh sweetheart, you really don’t know anything about your friend, do you.” It wasn’t a question, so therefore I didn’t answer.

  “Alright little dove, let me enlighten you whilst your friend is still busy. He is Master of the Ouroboros, this much you know?” Jared asked at the same time as raising his arm to flick a few fingers in order to get the attention of the waitress. A pretty brunette dwarf came over in a shy manner and handed Jared a beer, gaining herself a wink. She blushed scarlet and bit her lip. Well, I was happy to see I wasn’t the only one with this annoying habit!

  “This much I know.” I confirmed, watching him take a long pull from the bottle labelled ‘London Pride’.

  “What you don’t know is that he is the only one of our kind with this ability.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because long ago the fates threw him a question and instead of death, he chose…”

  “Life?” I butted in, just because, well I couldn’t help myself sometimes.

  “No pet, he chose revenge.”

  “But I don’t understand…how…?” I started to ask but he started shaking his head.

  “This is a man’s own story and I am not that man, but what I will tell you is this…” He leant forward again to lean a forearm on his knee.

  “….That friend of yours is powerful enough to become a King in his own right, but it is a right he refuses to take. I know not the reasons for this… perhaps they are similar to my own.” He said this last part more to himself than to me and before I could let my mouth run off without its filter he continued,

  “But I do know about the extreme power that is there and his for the taking. So, in cases like the show he just put on, that is all it was pet, a show. Never could he have been defeated, simply because no being alive could control the Ouroboros and for the Drekavac to try was its own death sentence.” Realisation was starting to seep in. Jesus, my protector was not just your everyday supernatural Joe! He was mega bad ass and with a royal title for the taking, one he didn’t want. I wondered why that was and more importantly, why had I never heard Draven speak about this guy?

  “So when that…uh…Dre…Drekvk…uh…tree dude took his power, he couldn’t control it so Sigurd took it back?” After Jared finished laughing at my bad attempt at saying the guy’s name and coming up with my new nickname for him, he answered me.

  “Yes love, that and more.”

  “More?”

  “The power gained from defeating others of similar power emerges as Ouroboros on his skin and as you no doubt saw for yourself, he now has new ink added to his brothers.” He was referring, of course, to the new strip of black across his chiselled torso.

  “And the one in his eye? What about that one, ‘cause I noticed it was the only one that didn’t leave him when that…uh…”

  “Tree Dude?” Jared finished, smirking once again.

  “Yeah him, so why couldn’t he suck that one from him?”

  “Upon Hell’s gates woman, you do ask a lot of questions!” He commented making me defend myself the only way I knew how in this situation. I folded my arms across my chest and made a piss poor show of defending myself!

  “Alright pet, but for future reference, pouting at me like that only makes you cute and adorable not pissed off and challenging, like you’re going for!” At this my frown deepened which only added laughter to his amusement.

  “He can’t ever lose that Ouroboros because it was his first and is fused to his very soul…or so I hear. This is the root of all his power and no-one could ever take that away from him, hence why this wasn’t a fight at all. He knew what would happen and he counted on it. He waited until the right time, like the skilled warrior he is and used his own power against him. Like I said, no other could have defeated Tree Dude but the Master of Ouroboros, which is why I used you.” The way he finished and said ‘You’ was on a guttural level that shouted danger, but being me, I ignored it.

  “And how did you know exactly that was going to work?”

  “Because Snake Eye has never had a weakness before and it was clear to see an opportunity was being handed to me on a platter.” He said mockingly, making my anger rise.

  “A platter!?”

  “A very pretty platter… now you’ve wiped all that shit off your face at least.” Ok, so this comment started to bump that anger up a few notches to furious!

  “Why you…you…!” Ok, so granted, it wasn’t the best come back of all time.

  “Watch it love, I like it when my pets have bite, but try and remember the reason you are here.” Jared said smoothly leaning back, looking casual.

  “And why is that?” I snapped losing my patience. I saw the quick flash of hot silver glow in his eyes as he took in my attitude and he leaned forward slowly. He rested one elbow on his knee and held his chin with his fist. This pose was nothing short of deadly and it made me take a step back. My action made him smile and only gleaming fangs could be seen.

  “It’s nice to see you do have some self-preservation after all.” He said, his smile growing. Then his eyes shifted behind me and I felt the presence of Sigu
rd, before I needed Jared’s reactions to confirm it. It was hard to describe but I guess the only way would be that it was like he was connected to my blood. I could literally feel it singing, having him near once again. He grabbed my shoulder gently and turned me to face him. I was met for the first time with a close up of his tattoos and I couldn’t help what I did next. I raised one hand, without looking him in the eye and ran a single fingertip over his new mark. I felt his slight tremble as though he had not been touched by a woman in a long time.

  “Lille øjesten.” He said as his fist raised my chin to meet his gaze. Then he bowed his head and asked seriously,

  “Are you well?” I bit my bottom lip and gave him a small nod to indicate my yes. He relaxed his bunched muscles, which could be seen easily, as he hadn’t yet changed from the fight. He then cupped the apple of my cheek and pulled me to his chest as if this eased some of his tension further.

  “How touching.” Jared commented before finishing the rest of his London Pride in one swig. My cheek was still plastered to Sigurd’s rumbling chest when he growled low at Jared’s remark. Of course, Jared ignored this entirely by slamming his empty bottle down on the arm of his throne and stood.

  “Right, let’s get this shit over with! The time has come for you to explain yourselves, so you’d better follow me…there are those in my realm that you don’t want overhearing what the Chosen One has to say.” Jared stated as though I had bloody gone up to him and introduced myself…my real self that is!

  “You knew?” I shouted pulling away from Sigurd’s chest.

  “Cathy…really?” That was all it took to get a groan of frustration from Sigurd.

  “What? How was I supposed to know he knew who I was…? I’m in disguise, remember?” I said back at my frowning protector.