The Pentagram Child: Part 2 (Afterlife Saga Book 5)

by Stephanie Hudson

  Alex sneered down at me and you could see him revelling in the state I was in. I wanted to say something cocky and smart assed at that moment, I really did but the sight of what Sammael was doing in the background drew my attention. Alex looked back over his shoulder, obviously to see what I was so engrossed in.

  “Ah, the summoning begins. I am so looking forward to you meeting the Titans, as I may not be allowed to kill you yet but they certainly will!” I wanted to both cry in frustration and scream the worst of profanities at his taunting words. It had now been confirmed, not only had Draven released Sammael but he had also released the Titans with him. It suddenly all became clear as to why Sammael had prevented Alex from harming me in anyway and was now ordering him to lift the curse…

  Draven had made a deal.

  Alex stepped in front of me so I could no longer see what Sammael was doing and proceeded to dump the contents of the bottle around where I sat. I was slumped against the pillar and was completely drained of energy, to a point where I had to force to keep my eyes open and myself conscious.

  “Oh God what is that!” I said as the putrid stench started to make my nostrils burn and suddenly I wasn’t having any trouble staying awake.

  “The old sour blood of slaughtered mortals, that’s what. Now shut up while I do this, I need to concentrate.” Once more my gagging reflex kicked in as the smell of both old copper and rancid meat combined wafted under my nose.

  I didn’t quite understand what he was trying to achieve especially when he took out his wooden blade and sliced his fingertip with it but I can’t say I didn’t get pleasure from the sight of him self harming. Now if he could just move a little further up, say to a main artery and that would be magic!

  He made a fist to get his blood flowing quicker and then let it drip down onto the disgusting puddle around me. It started to sizzle and boil, popping tiny crimson bubbles the hotter it got. Alex then took out a silver hip flask from his pocket and poured water all over the blistering mixture causing it to bellow with steam all around me.

  “Holy water can have its uses.” He said just as I started to cough, having no choice but to breathe in the vapour that clouded my body and it felt like it was even seeping into my pores.

  “Just let it happen you stupid Bitch!” Alex snapped and I could tell he was holding himself back from kicking me.

  “You know, I am really going to enjoy watching you die!” I spat back hoping I wouldn’t have to wait long for my wish to come true. Thankfully I didn’t hear his reply and I knew he was behaving himself when I didn’t feel one either.

  No, I had more important things to concentrate on, like relishing in the blissful feeling that had taken over me. The only way to describe it was like jumping into a cool, crystal clear lagoon on a scorching summer’s day. It was also sinking into the steaming bath on a freezing winter’s day after a hard and hectic day at work. The both feelings totally contradicted themselves I know, but the refreshing sensation you got from one mixed with the comforting sensation you got from the other, were the only way I could describe what was happening to me now.

  I found though it was gone far too soon as in what felt like a blink of an eye and I was back to feeling the pain and discomfort I was becoming accustomed to. Alex grunted something in a different language, no doubt an insult or two but seeing that he was now walking away I couldn’t give a shit what the dickhead had said.

  Besides, now with him out of the way I was free to watch whatever Sammael was up to…was is possible, could he really be bringing the Titans here?

  Well I think one brief glance was all that was needed to answer that daft question. I didn’t need to have a degree in witchcraft or a doctorate in demonology to know that the giant Pentagram that now filled the space on the Temple floor wasn’t there for decoration. And this was proven right when Sammael started chanting a lost language of the Gods, one that sounded like it hadn’t been heard in this world since the beginning of time. I don’t know how I knew this but I was sure enough that I would have bet my life on it.

  I mean obviously that bet would have meant shit right now all things considered, as let’s face it, who bets with a bag of torn up money and a Rolex bought from some dodgy New York street seller. Because right now, I certainly wasn’t worth the billion dollars some crazy ass Vampire king had once cashed up for me.

  This thought instantly brought tears to my eyes knowing all he had sacrificed for me and in the end it had even cost him his immortal life. It just wasn’t fair! He died trying to save me and now Draven had just signed everyone’s death sentence right along with him trying to do the very same thing.

  As now I had my deadly proof…

  The first Titan was here.

  Draven

  Chapter 51

  And One By One They Fall

  “What the Fuck are we waiting for?!” Sigurd shouted in his frustration and I can’t say that I blamed him. Unfortunately there had been little time to do much more in this grand plan of mine, let alone enough to explain to everyone what they were fighting for. They just knew that for a short time my father had managed to lift the ban on anyone entering Tartarus and that they were needed to aid in preventing the Titans from escaping this mountain.

  I had hoped to have many more to aid us but I hadn’t counted on that asshole bringing back an army of the dead to deal with. Half of my council and Lucius’ were still there fighting that losing battle of trying to kill what was already long ago laid to rest. They were mindless creatures that had awoken confused and given only one order…to kill the living.

  So this was where we found ourselves. Split defences battling it out for the greater good and a divine mortal life the Gods chose to fulfil a prophecy… one that they deemed was not this day. The fates were convinced Judgement Day was coming and by all rights to the word that day should have been now. But according to the Oracle, one that was no longer in my good graces, the fates knew far more than we did and we only had to trust that worse events were to follow.

  This was hard to believe in the face of Titans both trying to kill you and also disappearing to the mortal realm. I couldn’t think of anything more catastrophic for the planet we shared, other than nature’s own decision to destroy itself. Because I knew that as soon as that last Titan made it through the summoning that would be enough to alert Cronus from wherever he was hiding and then the power of the twelve would be entirely complete.

  Nothing short of Gods from above and below would be able to stop them and this would surely mean the end of the world as we knew it. For Earth would become the next battleground, lain to waste by the carnage that would follow…for there would be little choice than for mortal kind to stand by helpless and watch their world crumble around them.

  “I must concur with the Shadowed Soul my Maru, we have little to gain by continuing on this path but much to lose.” My father said after breaking one God near in half after lifting his body and slamming it’s back down on his solid bent knee. He pushed it aside knowing it would be back up in no time as if no injury had ever occurred.

  “NO! We wait, for it will come, we just need more time! It will come…it has to come…” I said looking up at the mountain and for the first time in all my years praying for an enemy.

  “Look! Dom another one is being summoned!” Sophia shouted pointing to the disappearing Titan Zagan had been fighting.

  “Oh great, at this rate there will be nothing left to fight.” Sigurd said sarcastically after fighting back two at once and the move enabled his father, Ragnar to butt one of them hard enough he went flying to the other side.

  “Don’t speak so soon…LOOK!” Zagan yelled out his warning as the first signs of power were coming back to them. The more of the Titans that were summoned to the mortal realm the more powerful the ones left here became. Even now I could see their attacks becoming more precise and their movements getting quicker. This became increasingly apparent when one managed to get in a blow to not only my sister but also Ragnar had been bro
ught down once, to which his son had aided him.

  One of the larger Titans stood back from the rest as if waiting for something…or in this case…lots of somethings.

  “It is Pallas, known as the Titan god of Warcraft…see there… he brings forth his legions…GET READY!” My father shouted to us all and as the fourth Titan was to disappear it generated enough power needed to call on his army.

  The floor beneath us started to shake and we all struggled for a moment to remain on our feet. The sides of the platform crumbled into the river of lava beneath us and a large section of the bridge fell into the molten rock below.

  I began to worry as pretty soon there wouldn’t be anything left to fight on, that or our six broken bodies would be all that remained on one tiny patch of rock surrounded by mountain fire.

  My father’s warning turned out to be for good reason as the Titan known as Pallas was doing some summoning of his own. I looked over the edge to the blazing depths below us to see the lava forming shapes beneath its scorching surface.

  “Oh you have got to be kidding me!” Sigurd said as soon what looked like hundreds of lava figures emerged and started climbing up the sides to get to us.

  “Oh that impurae matris prolapsus ab alvo!” Sophia shouted making my father nod in way of appreciation.

  “Ah very good my daughter. I believe it was Latin poet Ovid’s Ibis… His cursed poem written during his years in exile across the Black Sea for an offense against Augustus…See Dominic, I am not the only one ‘stuck in the times’…” He said pulling his hand free from the stone chest of a Titan before continuing…

  “…as you may think….It was a good insult indeed, my daughter.” I rolled my eyes, hit back at the Titan I was dealing with and then turned to her and said,

  “Slimy son of a bitch...! Really?” I said translating what she had said from Ovid’s poem, one to which she just shrugged her shoulders and said,

  “Well it made the old man happy.”

  “I heard that!” Our father said before kicking out and then swiping a Titan to the ground before slamming his fist into its head.

  “Suck up.” I whispered making her wink.

  “I hate to interrupt the family BBQ but I don’t think anyone of us invited these guys to the party!” Sigurd barked up when the first row of Pallas’ army were in sight.

  “What do you say old man, should we show them the door?” Ragnar roared his agreement with his son and they both charged at the glowing, skeletal bodies as they clawed their way over the rim. Sigurd was a black shadow, moving too fast to keep track of and hence forth created a confusing fog for the creatures to get lost in.

  Ragnar used this advantage to knock all the bodies off the edge and right back into the river of lava beneath us. This was an effective system, one that would have been more so if there wasn’t just another twenty bodies to replace them. Pretty soon we not only had Titans outnumbering us to contend with but also a horde of magma fuelled bodies closing in on us.

  The only thing in our favour was that finally we were fighting something that could die. One swipe of a blade and they burst into clouds of ash. The major factor not in our favour of course, was there were hundreds of them!

  “Sophia, Zagan and Ragnar, you deal with the horde! Keep them back as long as you can. Snake Eye, you’re with us.” I instructed knowing we had little choice but to work together. He nodded and for once he didn’t look like he was going to argue. Um…it looked like he really did pick his battles after all.

  “What’s the plan?” He asked once he fought his way towards where my father and I were taking out Titans back to back.

  “We do have a plan…right?” He continued when I didn’t reply and we all watched as yet another Titan was summoned to the mortal realm. In total, only eight remained now and what plan did I have to explain, how I was hoping for a miracle? Yeah that was a great plan but it was all hanging by a thread if what I was waiting for didn’t show up soon.

  Thankfully I was saved from having to explain my plans as the Titans started to fight as one. It was as if the longer they were free the more aware of their powers they became. And now, obviously more aware of each other as now they started to surround us, to the point where Sigurd had no choice but back up, making us a three sided stronghold.

  “Well, King, all I can say is I hope you know what you’re doing.” He said looking over his shoulder at me and if I wasn’t the fool in charge I would have responded with ‘me too’. However I just grunted,

  “Asshole” under my breath making him chuckle.

  “I hope this works my Maru.” My father added as he nodded to a fading Titan stood in the ring of angry Gods that were closing in on us.

  “As do I or we are…”

  “Royally fucked?” Sigurd finished for me and before I got a chance to respond all the Titans ran at us at once. We fought with all we had but by the time they fell we just had others waiting. It was a constant wave after wave of Titans that were growing more powerful with each of their brothers gone. So after fighting seven that dwindled down to three, it actually took more of our combined skills to hold them back.

  We barely managed the feat but it wasn’t without its consequences as each of us received our fair share of blows and blood spilt from our opponents. I just raised both my blades and twisted my body as I slashed my swords sideways across my opponent’s chest, landing on one knee. Then I spun back on myself slicing into the same Titan, taking out his stance with a blade to the legs. As he fell to the ground he left a clear view of the swarm that was closing in on the other three of my comrades.

  Ragnar was being overrun with scorching bodies crawling all over him and he spun round in his rage, trying in vain to get them off him. Just as Sigurd hit out at the Titan he was fighting, he ended up stumbling through him as he too received his summoning. I whistled to him to get his attention and motioned to his father. He nodded his acknowledgement and as he made it past me he muttered,

  “Not a word, King.” This was in regards to him tripping through the disappearing Titan and nearly falling on his ass, which I can’t say I would have been disappointed to see right now.

  “Time to help our kin.” I said to my father after he knocked back one of the two Titans left. The one I had been fighting was still healing so this gave us enough time to help with the horde.

  “Tell me father, are you acquainted with Ten Pin Bowling?”

  “Uh, no, I don’t believe I…” I smiled what I knew was a malicious grin before I grabbed his stone form, swung him around a few turns before letting him go in the direction of what was the bulk of their lava army. He flew at them like a battering ram and a cloud of ash bellowed behind him as he took out one soulless form after another.

  He went hurtling off the side of the platform and I waited as his own wings erupted from his back. He possessed some of the largest pair of wings and just at the right moment they burst free. I knew their size played a factor in not just status down here but also the monumental amount of power he held.

  They reminded me of the old realms, when Dragons were reality. These demonic princes that were once allowed to walk the mortal realm and prove their worth in the terror induced from others. And therefore not only feeding their egos but drawing in the powerful essence that was fear.

  My father was no different as he finally flaunted his true form. His wings spread out in a magnificent display of supremacy and minus the feathers I knew where my brother Vincent inherited the size of his own wings from. They were gigantic and still held a deadly beauty with every large dragon scale that interlocked over the stretched skin. As a whole they looked mainly black but each scale was tipped dark purple with a tinge of forest green the closer to the skin they got.

  Then there was the other side of him that I was happy to report no longer resembled an older version of myself. No now he portrayed the three sides to his personality that he was famous for in Hell. On one side of his shoulders were the twisted and curled horns of a ram and on the other
were the sleeker, straighter horns of a bull. Lastly his demonic face burned with a lethal determination and he swooped down over the horde and freed his famous temper, breathing fire as he knocked the ranks back into the lava below. He took out a large chunk of the army from above, whilst the rest of us broke away and dealt with the aftermath in the form of the two angry Titans that remained.

  It may not have seemed like much to an outsider, having six against two but the power they now held was a force of the likes we had never known. Not only was blow after blow now being defended against but we were now the ones needing the time to heal.

  “SOMETHING’S COMING!” My father’s demonic voice boomed as he picked up on what the Titan Pallas was cooking up next. His eyes rolled back in their sockets and turned from soulless black to bleached white, glaring out against his charred ash skin.

  “Can you stop him?!” I shouted back but it was too late. The mountain rumbled and this time I couldn’t be sure that this damn Titan hadn’t just triggered the volcano of Tartarus to erupt. We all shook where we stood and even some of the horde had slipped from the edge and fallen because of it.

  “BE READY!” Ragnar roared so loud you could hear it through his twisted bone helmet. It was as if he could feel what was coming before the rest of us could. So because of this he bent over as if drawing in the rest of his powers to grow bigger. Whatever it was because of his actions I knew one thing for certain…

  It was going to be big.

  As the world shook around us, all Pallas needed was the last of his brothers to leave Tartarus, giving him the power boost he had been waiting for…waiting…

  For all Hell to break loose!

  “CYCLOPES!” My sister screamed as the beasts from every supernatural beings’ nightmares erupted through the mountain wall. I looked up as everyone else did the same and saw our war quickly turning into an extermination! There was no creature in Hell, not even at this level that could beat back a Cyclopes, let alone the three brothers that came charging through the rock at us all.