The Two Kings (Afterlife Saga)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “Get back!” He ordered me in a Demonic voice that was so guttural it was all throat and no mouth! I stepped back again and again, not wanting to make any sudden movements, like sprinting into a run. As the wave got closer I saw it wasn’t mist, or water. It was no element of the earth coming to claim us. No, this was made of the black souls that hadn’t walked the earth for only Carrick knew how many years. They were scrabbling towards us like insects clawing their way across the space. It was as though, after centuries of being trapped, they had forgotten how to walk, talk or what it was to be human. Twisted, broken bodies, barely made from anything but dust and fears, came closer to Ragnar. Black soulless eyes ringed with rather a crystal blue or a deadly blood red, shifted around, searching out their prey. Their long thin bodies were within arm’s reach when they sniffed the air surrounding Ragnar and then they suddenly began to change and shift into other forms.

  I screamed in vain, as I realised what forms they had chosen to torture my guard and friend. It was his greatest fear... his only fear and now it was here to claim him like his past had come back to once again finish the job!

  Every black soul had turned into twenty snakes each causing hundreds to go slithering up Ragnar’s body, infesting themselves over every inch of him. He threw his head back and roared to the sky in his pain before falling to his knees in defeat. He curled up after a few pointless attempts at getting free but soon the horrors of his past had him writhing around the ground in an unspeakable pain.

  We had lost the fight.

  I screamed over and over until I was out of breath. I ran over to him but as I got near, snakes lashed out at me in warning.

  “STOP THIS!” I shouted towards Death himself. I couldn’t even tell if he could hear me or even see me so I decided to put an end to my sight. It had only helped in seeing something I had absolutely no control over. I closed my eyes and listened to the chaos around me trying to find some last shred of my world to focus on. Then I heard her. She was calling in the night, flying around in the storm trying to find us.

  “AVA!” I screamed out her name and everything went back to normal when I heard her replying call over the wind. I looked at Ragnar who was now back to the Viking I knew, apart from still being on the ground groaning in pain. Carrick had returned into the man in the beige suit and I had run towards him to beg of Ragnar’s life.

  “Please stop this! You don’t have to kill him...Please! I will come with you!” I said sobbing but still managing to find the words. Carrick cocked his head to look at me with a strange expression.

  “You wish to give your life to save a... A Demon?” He was shocked and I gathered that didn’t happen very often in his line of work.

  “He’s my friend and I don’t want him to die!” I cried out again turning around to see him barely moving on the floor and a scream erupted at the thought that he might be dead. Meanwhile, Ava came into view, circling above us and she seemed to be mirroring my fears with her own cries.

  “How strange...A human girl, friends with the Viking.” He mused to himself while stroking the lower half of his face.

  “Very well, a deal is set, come now and save your friend, if you so wish it.” He replied and he held out his hand for me to take in his. I cringed at the thought but when I heard one last cry from Ragnar for me to run I placed my hand in his, knowing his fate was left with me. What choice did I have, I could not have him die, just to see me taken anyway. He grasped my shaky hand in his and gently pulled me back towards the plane.

  “Come my dear, he will live...ah but wait.” He stopped and let go of my hand to go over to his open briefcase.

  “Our deal!” He said before uttering words I couldn’t hear. Then Ragnar’s body went still and relaxed somewhat, almost like he was sleeping peacefully. His suitcase closed of its accord and he leaned down to pick it up. He casually brushed the dirt off the leather and said,

  “A true workman looks after his tools,” and smiled at me sending fear coursing down my back. He walked back over to me and picked up my hand without uttering another word to me. Some of the others had got into a white rusty van parked closer to the hanger and four others followed us into the plane.

  The next minutes went by in a horror struck blur. I was placed in a comfy, white leather seat next to a window and Carrick sat down opposite. He was quickly given a glass of water by a stewardess as if this was standard procedure. He then nodded towards me and then to the glass on the tray the girl held out to me. I just looked away without answering. The window shade was up and I saw Ragnar still hadn’t moved from his secure, curled foetal position.

  “He will be alright my dear, you saved his Demon soul through a selfless act. You should be happy at least about that.” He said like a true business man that had just received news on high stocks. The plane had began to move ready to take off on the runway, and I realised right up until this point I had been counting of Draven to come and save me. Even now, when my hope was useless and at the end of its thread...I still was expecting him to save me.

  “I am being kidnapped, I don’t really see the silver lining,” I said bitterly making him laugh.

  “But you saved another in doing so, this is a noble act and a rare one at that.”

  “Are you going to let me go because of it?” I asked devoid of all emotion but a deep fear I was hiding.

  “No my dear but I will praise you all the same. I am afraid my contract is life binding. No, I am sorry but it is off to Lucius you go.” At this I broke down! The mention of the very name I loathed struck in me like a dagger protruding from my heart. It wouldn’t let it pump my blood or beat my body into action, it had just stopped. I couldn’t breathe for the sobbing flood of raw emotion bubbling up and erupting from me. This was it!

  This was my end.....

  And Lucius’ beginning.

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  Read on for first chapter of Book 3

  The Triple Goddess coming soon in 2013.

  The Triple Goddess

  Book 3

  Afterlife Saga

  Chapter 1

  Flight of Fears

  My new life was born in the sky high above the world, riding along waves of a calm atmosphere where clouds were the only sight seen and now...well, it only seemed fitting that my death would begin the same way. It was a flight that had taken me to Draven and now it was one taking me away.

  It may seem a tad bit dramatic but when sat opposite death himself, it was hard to see any other outcome. I had been in the plane for hours now without any shining, heroic attempt of a rescue being made and my hopes for such had plummeted with all other ideas of surviving.

  The silvery head of hair that kept catching the sun's rays flashed in my peripheral vision and was becoming harder to ignore. Who would have thought that Death would have had kind and handsome features? He reminded me of some typical ageing businessman that had a big white house, complete with picket fence, golden Labrador and a loyal wife baking cookies in a country style kitchen. Someone that went fishing in a small boat on the lake at weekends with his son before coming home with the catch of the day to cook up on a grill for the family feast.

  “As quaint and perfectly idyllic that picture portrays I do however hate boats and get quite seasick.” My head whipped up to see the man himself staring at me with a soft expression and his head cocked to one side as though studying me for more visions on what I believed would have suited this man more than that of the gruesome truth.

  “How did you see that?” I asked, opening my mouth for the first time since the airstrip in Portland.

  “Ah well, although it is clear my dear, that you possess a most extraordinary mind, it is q
uite easily accessible when such turmoil and despair enters one’s state of thought. I find you like an open book, only one I wouldn't wish to read...no, no...far too depressing.” He closed his eyes and shook his head as if to emphasise this point.

  “Well, please excuse my manners, how terrible of me to be thinking things as depressing as my death and never seeing the man I love again when I should what?...be thinking of happy little unicorns racing over golden hills under rainbow covered blue skies...how inconsiderate of me.” I said, laced in sarcasm. I am sure somewhere deep down I should be cowering in fear from my plane journey with Death, but for some reason I just couldn't find the point, let alone the energy.

  “Oh my dear, please do call me by my name, Death sounds so very dreary.” At this my mouth actually fell open, cartoon style.

  “My name is Carrick, young one and I don't see where you get this notion of your end being so near?”

  “Are you joking?” I almost found myself screaming or laughing hysterically, either one I think would have been acceptable conduct for such a conversation.

  “Where I am taking you is not to your grave, but most likely your destiny.” At this I snorted.

  “I don't think so, you’re taking me to Lucius, right?” He nodded at my question.

  “Then you are escorting me to my end just like any other poor soul you encounter.”

  “And what makes you so sure?” I kept expecting Mr Death Carrick to keep losing his cool but for someone who was in charge of taking life, I was very surprised at how chilled out a guy he actually was.

  “Well, it’s just that the last time I saw Lucius we didn't exactly play checkers and sip iced tea.” At this he laughed heartily, throwing his head back, making the sun dance in silver streaks, almost like a halo.

  “Well, let me be the one to assure you, your life is not on my books and Lucius will need you quite alive for him to accomplish his plans.”

  “And that being?” I raised my hand and made little circles as if this might help to prompt him to elaborate.

  “Oh no my young one, it is not for me to say but I will go as far as to promise you this, for if the Gods will your safe return to their instrumental son Dominic Draven then no Vampire King and his growing army will prevent such actions from taking place.”

  “Then what on earth would he want with me? I mean, it's not like he can defeat Gods, then why even bother trying?” This conversation was draining my mental ability to stay calm. I mean here I was, just been ripped away from my life, with the only notion that my death is all that is left to follow, filling my every thought and the man in front of me tells me what?...that I'm not on his bloody books! Like life and death is just another number for an accountant to consider. I bet tax season was a riot for this guy.

  “These are questions beyond my pay grade so to speak. But have no fear, if Lucius wanted you dead, he would have commissioned me to.” I couldn't believe at this, he actually smiled at me like this was a comforting thought. I shook my head at him in disbelief.

  I took his silence for what it was, nothing more to be said on the matter but one thing was for sure, I was secretly shitting myself for what was to come next. If there was one man in this world that scared me more than my past, psycho stalker Morgan, then that was the Vampire King, Lucius. Weeks of endless nightmares mixed with a very gruesome crescendo, which I foolishly allowed myself to think was the end of my torment, was to be a constant reminder of Draven's arch nemesis.

  However, every attempt to get to me had been crushed by Draven's protective nature...that is, up until now. No, no, now I was on my way to become a puppet in the man's attempts at getting back at my boyfriend. Oh, of course, it would have helped my situation if I had been forewarned what it was exactly that the two had been feuding over all these years. All I knew was Lucius wasn't the King’s first name or life for that matter. He began his existence as one of Jesus’ disciples and his name is what the common world knew as the meaning of betrayal.

  Judas.

  The very mention of this name can be used to hurt or dismiss the one that has wronged us in some way. History has taught us many valuable lessons in life but not all are to be believed in the ways in which they are written. As a huge history buff, I was used to relying on the evidence, but after being thrown into the supernatural world of the Dravens, I soon learnt that everything has its place in the world and its importance for those that rule our lives yet couldn't be seen.

  Judas played such a part, that of being the important role of wrongly accused, guilty in Jesus’ death. Draven said it best once, in which the memory of a great man outlives that of a great man. Jesus asked one of his most faithful followers to help him accomplish his wishes and that of his Holy Father. Of course word of Judas’ compliance and not his betrayal never found its way to the other disciples as it should have done. Nothing could have prevented what came next in the way of his most brutal death, but the renouncing of his faith by dying, sun cracked lips was what altered his afterlife by the hands of a very different god.

  Bitterness carried into his next life for all things that were once his strength, his life and his worshipping faith, now lost in a hateful vengeance for the Gods themselves for what he believed was his betrayal. In a way, I felt sorry for him, although difficult to believe, all things considered. He started his life a man like any other, only to let the all-consuming hate twist and grow with the power within him. After all, he and Draven were once friends and coexisted, often working together but now, well that was another matter entirely and one I knew very little about. For some reason, Draven not only neglected to tell me any details on these events but outright refused. So here I was now, with only Death for company under the name of Carrick, and a stomach that felt like it had been pumped full of lead.

  Carrick kept noticing the way I would wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans but thankfully refrained from comment. I think if he would have told me not to worry again I would have pulled some hair out and thrown it at him in a full out hissy fit. He might think that no harm would come to me but he didn't remember in detail the last nightmare Lucius bestowed on me and the everlasting mark of the most painful experience of my life. Think flesh melting from bone and molten lava replacing the blood in my veins and you will have some small concept of why such an event remains firmly embedded in the darkest corner of my brain. And that was only a dream! Now of course, I was to meet the man and to think of what hell he could put me through, how much could my body endure and how far would he take his new instrument of revenge too? I wondered what the state of my body and my mind would be in if I was ever to make it back to the arms of my Dark Night.

  A shell of myself, was all my thoughts could conjure.

  “That is quite enough my dear.” Carrick spoke bringing my mind back to the now.

  “You will be a mere shell before I even get you to my employer if you carry on with this despair.” I merely shrugged my shoulders and said,

  “I already am, without Draven.”

  “Ah young, dramatic love, or for Draven, a lifetime in waiting. How sad it is to have lost you now after only a short time.” I couldn't believe he actually looked sad for my situation. His eyes met ones of disbelief and then turned cold in a heartbeat.

  “I am not without feelings, young one, and I can only sympathise to your future but if you think now is bad then you have very little idea on what is in store for one that is ‘Chosen’. He cannot save you from fate nor can he prevent it playing out, like the dawn brings the light and the dusk that brings the night, for a son of the Gods knows this. But you are not only young and human, but also ignorant of the ways of our world and that does you no favours.”

  “Then if you’re not without feelings and can sympathise then why not let me go?” Ok, it was a long shot but what did I have to lose?

  “I am afraid your safety on getting you to Lucius is all I can provide. Once my blood is given in bond, then my life also is in the hands of my employer. If I was to fail then my life would be giv
en in return for the life I am commissioned.” This was said so matter of fact I snorted.

  “But nice try!” He said laughing to himself.

  “So what you’re trying to say is that I should just give up, is that it! Just resign myself on the inevitable, is that what you would do Carrick, just lay down and give up?” I was getting angry now and worked up, to the point that my hands made their way into fists and my nails penetrated the skin on my palms.

  “But not at all dear one, my you are feisty indeed, much suited to a king such as Draven. I merely state that, given the inner strength you surely possess, you should rise above your fear and never lose faith in the extraordinary gifts you have been blessed with. After all, they will save your soul more than once, I am sure of it. Keep your mind locked firmly shut out to those who wish to control it and you will find you hold more power than even that of the man you so deeply love.” Again, another cartoon jaw dropping moment.

  “Heed my advice young one and take it with you, if nothing else of our time together.” At this I lost all my anger like a deflating balloon in the hands of a child. I had nothing else to lose but a lifetime of understanding to gain. It seemed to me that the advice of this man was the most important I was ever to receive in my life and I was not arrogant or stubborn enough not to see it for what it was....a warning.

  So with this in mind, I did what I knew was all that was in my power to do, I blocked my mind off to the world. I built not only walls keeping out any intruders but a mental fortress. I spent what felt like a great deal of time picturing my mind as some priceless artefact that needed castle walls ten feet thick and when that didn't feel enough I would place the most important emotions inside a locked vault made of pure titanium, this is where Draven would be safe and nothing else mattered.