Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7)

by Stephanie Hudson

  For starters I think that if an actual slasher baddie, serial killer came after me I would be like ‘whatever asshole, get back to me after you have had a trip to Hell and then see if you can take me’. I knew this was big headed of me but the way I felt after dealing with Demons all these years, well then humans were gonna be a piece of cake…unless of course, you had a Roman army stood in your way, then… not so much.

  “You can come out now.” Lucius said wiping the blood off his blade with one of the men’s turbans. Well from the looks of it, he certainly didn’t need it now, I thought once again gagging from the sight. Six men all lay around dead but it could have been more, given how many pieces there were now spread across the sand.

  “Were you trying to set a new record or something,” I asked feeling myself turning green. He chose to ignore my comment and instead ordered me to,

  “Get on.” I gave him a wide eyed, ‘Are you kidding’ look as I looked up at the massive horse.

  “Do you want to get there before nightfall?” he asked and I groaned knowing this was going to be a hard concept for him to grasp, but I felt I had little choice.

  “I don’t know how to ride a horse,” I told him trying not to look embarrassed.

  “There are no horses left in your time?” he asked and I inwardly groaned.

  “There are but they are only ridden as a hobby, nobody depends on them for travel anymore,” I told him knowing what question was coming next.

  “Then how do you travel?”

  “It’s complicated but trust me when I say…you will love it,” I said thinking back to the day I saw his own multi million-dollar collection of cars and knowing like Draven, what a speed freak he was. He raised an eyebrow at me and said,

  “Fine, but it will slow our horse.”

  “Trust me when I say, so will I when I keep getting kicked off it.” He rolled his eyes at me and then before he even gave me warning, I was being lifted next to the biggest horse of the lot and hoisted over its back. I was quickly starting to see another theme of the day and it included Lucius just doing what the hell he wanted with me. Well, not everything, I thought blushing.

  The horse started acting skittish by bobbing its head up and down a few times, which quickly made me uneasy.

  “Ahh…whoa, easy there,” I said thinking these were the sorts of things you hear people saying to horses to get them to steady. Luckily for me Lucius wasn’t far behind and pulled himself up, shifting closer to my back and fitting me snug in between his legs.

  “Uh…we could swap places if that would be better.” Please be better, please be better, I muttered in my head not knowing how long I could last with Lucius holding me this close.

  “We wouldn’t want you getting kicked off now, would we?” he whispered in my ear from behind and then reached around to grab the reins making me suck in a breath. The feeling of him being this close made me shut my eyes for a second trying to keep a cool head. What was it being around this guy that always had me all tied up in knots? Even like this where he was so different to how I was used to dealing with him. It was as if something in our own fates was also entwined as much as I was with Draven. Like some other forbidden side of me was meant to be with him as much as I was meant to be with Draven.

  Whatever it was, it obviously affected him the same as it affected me, even in this time, even if he would never want to admit it. Loyalty on both our sides would forever forbid anything more than what we were, even if I had never been able to fully define what we were. Nor did I think I would ever be able to. In fact, the only certainty I had was that crossing that final line was not ever going to be in our cards, no matter how much I sometimes found myself weak and wanting to.

  I would never be able to forgive myself, even though I had to admit it to myself that I loved Lucius, the brutal truth was always going to stand taller and that was…

  I loved Draven more.

  “So tell me more about this mud bath?” Lucius said bringing me out of my forbidden thoughts and I couldn’t help but laugh, feeling more comforted by the side of the Lucius I knew and…

  Loved.

  Chapter 69

  Raining Arrows

  During this time on horseback there wasn’t much conversation between Lucius and I, for which I was more than thankful being this close to him. I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking about all this? Did he believe that I was from the future now and was doing this to help me or was he just waiting for the point that he could dump me at Draven’s feet and say, ‘Hey I found this and thought you might want your crazy woman back.’

  Whatever it was, as long as he got me to the battle then I didn’t care. I kept watching the sun getting lower and lower in the sky, knowing that right now, time was against us. I thought back to Sophia’s story, when she told me that when the sun touched the mountains in the distance, that was when the three of them could take him down and defeat him, once and for all.

  I knew that Lucius had said that she would have a horse to ride back to the city, which gave Sophia a massive head start on us but I couldn’t help fear that something might have happened. It was a gut feeling that was gnawing at my insides the closer we got, telling me I was needed in this time. I don’t know what it was but it was as though this moment in time played a bigger part in the reasons I was here. And no matter how I tried to rationalise it to being nothing but simple paranoia, the feeling wouldn’t go away.

  “We have to go faster,” I told him over the sound of hooves racing across the sand. He didn’t respond but as if feeling the unease for himself he kicked in his heels and shouted,

  “OCIUS! YAA!” (Meaning ‘Faster’ in Latin)

  We continued to ride like Jared’s Hellhounds were yapping at our feet and if it hadn’t been for the fear of Draven’s life, I would have felt sorry for the horse. The only time we began to slow down was when we saw the smoke rising into the sky in the distance. We were approaching a nearby village that the Romans had obviously got to first as there was nothing left but utter carnage.

  “Close your eyes,” Lucius ordered me after I cried out in horror on seeing a dead man with his body speared to a tree in three places. When I didn’t do so quickly enough and saw the four heads on pikes he obviously didn’t want me to see, he placed a hand on my head and turned me into him so that my cheek was against his shoulder. I was thankful that I could no longer see it all, but the smell of the destruction and death lingered all around me. It acted as a brutal reminder of what I was trying to prevent back in my time only that would be on a much larger scale.

  I wasn’t naive to the sheer terror that humans themselves could cause and knew of the endless wars fought through greed and corruption. But on the face of it all, it was the unity of the human race that I had faith would one day rise above the pain and suffering that had been forced upon them, and they would unite to take a stand against any common enemy of peace.

  No matter the colour of skin or religious belief, whether you were gay or straight or battle scarred by life, we all had something in common. We all had a soul. We all had been given the chance to choose to walk the right path and not judge these differences but instead to embrace them. And not to allow something you don’t understand grow into the destructive nature of hatred but instead to learn the power gained by simple acceptance.

  This was what I was willing to give my life for. The hope that one day peace will be forever in our future and this…this life of innocent sacrifice will forever remain in our past, where it belongs. But this was my hope for my own kind and in order for that day to come, I needed to first battle against those who sought only for the destruction of a world they cared little for.

  “We are past,” Lucius said letting go of my head and I looked up to see he was right. The burning village was long gone and not just from view but from history as well, for no one would remember the sacrifices made by people with no names to pass on. Bodies buried in the ashes of their lives were forever gone and from the looks of things, with n
o one to even mourn them but the crops and livestock that would eventually perish alongside them.

  This was all that war got you…Death.

  The pointless death of others fighting for a power that would never be their own. And Pertinax wouldn’t stop with Draven, just as he wouldn’t stop at Persia. Men like him never stopped, so what of the Demons that lived behind their vessels like masks, hiding what they truly were from a world that would never have accepted them. Now stopping a Demon like Pertinax was a war worth fighting for and fighting for that war was a sacrifice worth dying for. But how many of the supernaturals living on earth can say that they would sacrifice themselves for the human race, for to give up that amount of power would be a powerful thing indeed.

  “It should be just over this hillside now and we should see the battle, for I can hear that it has already begun,” Lucius told me and I held my breath trying to ready myself for the sight. He pushed the horse even harder and soon Lucius was right, we could see for ourselves what had already begun.

  The Roman army were stood in a square formation and looked to outnumber the Persians by unbeatable odds. Draven’s city looked to be locked up tight and thankfully wasn’t on fire as I would have most feared. The walls still stood and the palace was still a beacon of hope that there was time yet for this war to be won.

  The Romans were all stood like one large structure, with their shields held in such a way that every side of the square looked to be protected by the massive metal rectangles. And this was all they had to fight with for the moment as Draven fought his wars very differently to the Romans. Instead of hiding away under cover Draven had ordered his men to circle the huge formation on horseback, riding around and around them at a distance.

  “What is he doing?” I asked having never seen anything like it before.

  “What the Persians do best. Rain down arrows from a far distance and wait for the Romans to fall,” Lucius told me and he was right. Now that I knew what I was looking for I could see that even though the numbers looked in the Roman’s favour, like this they were sitting ducks getting picked off one by one. It was incredible to witness and the skill involved at being able to fire arrows from the back of a horse in every direction was a sight to be seen.

  “Pertinax!” I hissed pointing to the centre of the square, where he was being protected until the last of his men fell, the coward. To him they were simply pawns and nothing more as he didn’t care about his people being massacred around him and that was exactly what this was.

  “Come on, I see riders approaching,” Lucius said steering the horse away and further down the hill to where I could see for myself what Lucius could. You could tell straight away that it was a legion of Persian soldiers headed this way from the way they were dressed. But most of all I was surprised by who was leading them.

  Suddenly I looked back at the battle and tried to spot Draven down there, almost frantic about his fate. Especially now that my worst fears had come true, for it was Vincent who was leading the small army of men this way.

  Lucius pulled back on the reins bringing our tired horse to a stop. Lucius dismounted just as Vincent approached and then he reached up to grip me by the waist so he could do the same for me.

  “Vardanis, my Prince, where is the King?” Lucius asked with an urgency that surprised me, letting me know now that he believed me when I spoke of the danger. Vincent dismounted his own horse and walked over to Lucius, who stood in front of me, his face looking grim.

  “My friend, Lucius Septimus. I am afraid my brother is insane with rage and lost to grief of the likes I have never thought possible in our kind. Pertinax killed the woman he loved and therefore he will allow no one to aid him in seeking revenge. I tried to stop him but…” The rest of what Vincent said was lost on me for I ran past Lucius before he could stop me and grabbed Vincent by his chest piece.

  “Where is he?! Where is he now?!” I shouted begging him to answer me.

  “You’re alive?!” he said as though I had struck him with my very own weapon named ‘the truth’ and now was my time to continue to do so because for the chance to save Draven, I would tell them everything!

  “Yes, now tell me!” I screamed getting close to becoming hysterical. I felt Lucius’ hand rest on my shoulder and drew in a deep breath knowing that his presence behind me was something I instantly found comfort in.

  “He is down there waiting for the Romans to fall before riding into the centre to kill Pertinax alone,” Vincent said looking grim.

  “And Sophia, where is she?!” I asked hoping at least she was down there with him. He looked at me as if he had no clue who I was referring to so I shouted,

  “Saphira! I mean Saphira!”

  “My sister came back to us but she had been hit by a poisoned arrow.” My hands flew to my mouth and I started shaking my head, taking a step back away from him and further into Lucius.

  “Is she…?” I couldn’t ask for it was too painful to say the actual words.

  “No, she is unconscious but lives, although for how long, I have no clue,” he said looking back at the battle, telling me what would eventually be the cause of all their deaths. I wanted to whisper up my thanks to the Gods that my friend still lived but all that came out was…

  “No…no, it’s all coming true…I am the cause.” I started muttering to myself and Lucius pushed me to one side gently and spoke to Vincent himself.

  “She fears he will not be able to take down Pertinax alone.”

  “And nor will he if I do not intercept the second army coming from the west and this army is not one fought by… mortal men.” Vincent told Lucius quietly, probably hoping I wouldn’t understand. I looked up to the men who stood waiting at Vincent’s back and now that he had said it, their helmets could no longer hide the truth…

  Supernatural Warriors.

  “They come from the mountains?” Lucius asked and Vincent nodded, telling him the same horde we faced were now coming for us. I had changed everything just by being here and now it was time for me to make it right.

  “I must go and give him the time he needs, for if they reach the city then Pertinax will be unstoppable. We must have hope that he will defeat him or all is lost and all of us will fall.” Lucius nodded understanding what was at stake.

  “Your sister is safe but I don’t know for how long,” Vincent told me closing his eyes briefly as though seeing their last goodbye as a memory he could almost touch and then he added,

  “She refused to leave the city so she hides in the Temple with my sister and your servant.” I nodded instantly feeling better that at least they were safe…for now.

  “Farewell my friend,” Vincent said putting a hand on Lucius’ shoulder before replacing his helmet and getting back on his horse.

  “Wait! But you have to go down there! You have to help him fight!” I shouted up at him, grabbing onto the reins of his horse. He reached down and touched my face softly,

  “Goodbye little sweet one, I wish my brother had known.” Then he yanked on the reins freeing them from my hand and was off.

  “NO! COME BACK!” I screamed as Lucius suddenly picked me up and moved me out of their way as his soldiers went off to battle the Demon side of Pertinax’s army. I sobbed and screamed for them to come back but it was no use. Without Sophia and Vincent by his side Draven would fall and this time would be forever changed. There was no way for the five of us to go back in time to prevent it happening and then maybe history would simply go back to how it was before we got here. It just wasn’t a chance I could take, for the Janus gate might not let me return to put things right again.

  No, if history was simply rewriting itself then it was time for me to give it one for the story books, one the world would never forget! For, it was now or never!

  “We have to get down there, Lucius!” I shouted after he finally let me go once the danger of being trampled on by hundreds of hooves was long gone in the distance.

  “I will go but you must stay here,” he said looking back
at the battle as if trying to weigh up how he would get down there in time. I followed his gaze and saw that the Roman army was now breaking away from formation. This was due to their great number of casualties that lay dead around what was once their only barricade against the onslaught of arrows. The sheer number of losses meant that they had eventually lost their advantage as the hollow square they had once formed around their ruler was now quickly closing in on him.

  In sight of this Draven was now rallying his men forward for what looked like the final attack, breaking apart their defences once and for all. If this had been the only battle, then I would have been rejoicing early for it looked like the Persians had an easy victory. But I knew that unless you cut the head off the snake then it would simply keep coming at you and Pertinax was a big snake to fight alone. For he had a demonic army at the ready for when Draven fell, which would quickly swoop on in and destroy everything else in Pertinax’s path.

  “I can’t stay here. Don’t you understand, it takes the power of three!” I told him and when he gave me a look as if to say, ‘what can you do?’, I started shaking him.

  “Look, you don’t know what I am capable of! I am the Electus and I know that I am the only one who can help you do this! But we have to hurry!” I said pointing to the sight of Draven driving his men forward and he himself riding into the centre to meet Pertinax head on. Lucius looked back at me and then to Draven, looking torn between what he knew was right and what he thought he should do to save me.

  “If I do this, then I will not be able to protect you,” he told me and I knew he was wavering.

  “Look at it this way, if we don’t try then we are both dead anyway, because when Pertinax takes over this world there will be no one left to stop him!” I told him, knowing that this was the point he would cave.

  “Well from the sounds of what Vardanis spoke of, I would say I am dead either way because if I take you into that battle and the King survives, then he will kill me for putting you at risk,” he said dryly, not actually sounding as though he fully believed this.