Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8)

by Stephanie Hudson

  The second it made it there the gate erupted into life and the shadowed abyss looked endless as it swirled inwards. The rest of the stone suddenly took on new life and became the stunning craftmanship it always should have been. It was like watching its destruction through time in reverse and what was once a crumbling archway was now one worthy of the Gods to step through. Stone filigree started to grow and branch out over the blocks, joining up until it grew into something that looked closer to living than dead dark, volcanic rock.

  “Your path awaits,” he told me nodding for me to step closer and I swallowed down the large lump labelled fear before nodding back. Then I straightened my shoulders and took the next step towards what was obviously my destiny. A place I would soon find out to be further away in the world than I would have ever thought.

  Stepping inside wasn’t like I expected, but then again, nothing with this gate ever was, including the new beauty I was looking up at as I passed through. It wasn’t like stepping into the shadows or even a vortex of power like it looked to be created from. It was more like walking into the centre of a twister and finding a calm piece of the world being protected by the most violent of nature’s forces. I looked up to see a night sky filled with a blanket of shooting stars as if I was looking at it from space not the earth I felt beneath my feet.

  “What is this place?” I dared to ask myself and the second I did, I felt myself falling as if the land had suddenly turned into water. I felt the cold liquid engulf my body and I opened my eyes to see the surface shimmering above me. I reached up for it just as I had done that night in the lake when I was searching for Lucius to rescue me. And just like that night a hand reached in and grabbed me.

  My body broke the surface as I was pulled up out of the water, coughing and spluttering the second I could start dragging air back into my burning lungs. Then there was pain, thanks to my damaged ribs.

  Arms grabbed me around the waist and thankfully not too hard as even the smallest amount of pressure there had me wincing again. I was being tugged towards what looked like a river bank and I could just make out Dariush swimming us both to the edge. Thankfully the current didn’t seem too strong, or I am not sure he would have managed to get us both there. At least I now knew what he had meant about the river getting too high, although the heads up that we would be bloody landing in one would have been nice!

  Once at the bank he gripped onto the grass and heaved me up before following me out. He didn’t even seem out of breath. On the other hand, I flung myself on the grass, lay on my back and panted for air, trying not to moan in pain.

  “That wasn’t what I expected,” I confessed sounding breathless.

  “And what did you expect exactly?” he asked sitting next to me and dragging his now ringing wet turban off his head and slapping it down on the grass next to him. His hair was black and shoulder length with the shorter bits now curling around his ears.

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe stepping gracefully through to the other side without falling on my ass or half drowning to death for once…yeah, that would have been nice,” I said making him chuckle.

  “Then next time, I suggest you don’t speak, that way it might be kinder on your fall,” he informed me and I groaned and replied,

  “And you think now is the time to tell me this…how did I know the damn thing was going to get pissy when hearing my voice!” He merely shrugged his shoulders and got up, holding out a hand for me to follow. To be honest I felt so tired that I could have stayed there all night but I knew the likelihood of being allowed to do so was lower than zero, if there was such a thing. So, with this in mind, I forced my tired aching limbs to work and got up from the grass after taking his offered hand, holding onto my side as I went.

  “Okay so the only question I have now is, where in the world are we?” I asked and he scoffed before commenting drily,

  “The only question…I sincerely doubt that.”

  “Ha, ha…I suppose you would be just fine not knowing where on earth you were,” I threw back at him and again he just shrugged his shoulders, which I was half tempted to explain to him how this wasn’t an answer.

  “Right well getting back to my question, where have you brought me?” I asked again and this time he turned me around from facing the river towards a gleaming white city of columns, that was bathed in the moonlight.

  Then he told me calmly,

  “We are in Rome.”

  Chapter 25

  Touchy Subject

  “Rome!” I screeched making him look at me as though I’d left some of my brain cells back in Persia and to be honest I might well have done considering the crack to the head I had received when I fell to the ground. Well, it had been that or getting sliced by Mr dagger happy gold digger.

  “Yes, Rome,” he responded in a deadpan tone. Then he started to make his way up the river bank, glancing behind him and giving me a ‘Why aren’t you following me’ look. In return gave him my best ‘I am not a dog, so don’t treat me like one’ glare but from the looks of it, it completely went over his head and was half way to the city by now. Oh well, maybe someone would get it there, I thought with a smirk at my own private silly joke.

  I followed him up the rolling green bank and just as I was about to reach the top something unexpected happened. Suddenly pain burst from behind my head before blackness overwhelmed me as I passed out to the sounds of weapons clashing and death echoing in my mind.

  I vaguely dreamed of reaching the top of a hill and seeing men in the shadows approaching my friend…no, wait not my friend, or was he? I felt confused and tried to recap on what had just happened. It felt as though it was only minutes ago but when I finally opened my eyes I saw daylight. I didn’t know where I was but I started by having the strangest form of déjà vu. I had done this before, I was certain of it. In both my own time, back in Germany and this one, only in Persia.

  “Persia!” I shouted bolting upright as my memories started to piece back together in the right order and then came the pain. Seriously, I was starting to think I wouldn’t survive another blow to the head. I fell back with a groan, which alerted someone to my presence. The fog in my mind had a hard time trying to get my eyes to work and I found myself trying to blink back the blur.

  “Nihil; maiori, mane in lectulo!” (‘No, young one, stay in bed.’) An old woman’s voice started speaking to me in what sounded like Latin. It also sounded like she wanted me to stay lying down as her frail hands started fussing over me.

  “I have to get up and find…find my friend…a man, did he bring me here?” I asked but she just kept shaking her head as if she didn’t understand me. This was when I realised, what Ranka had given me back in the desert must have been so that I could understand people in this time that only spoke Persian...Not Latin. Great, just great! That was all I needed. Not only was I now stuck in Rome, but I was here with no guide, no translator and absolutely no clue as to why I was here! As if things couldn’t get any worse. But in true Keira fashion, I spoke too soon as I felt the throbbing pain start pounding once more in my head. Jesus, but was it split open and currently leaking parts of my brain because that was what it felt like!

  I tried to look around the room only to feel my eyes start to roll back into my head and a heartbeat later I was falling once more.

  I must have passed out shortly after this, as the next time I woke it was still dark outside. Thankfully though I could now see without looking as though I had just tried on some old person’s glasses and was trying to read a newspaper with lenses that resembled jam jar bottoms.

  The room I was in had whitewashed walls and housed nothing but the bed I lay in and a small table to one side that held a bowl full of water. The window didn’t have glass in it and I could feel the cool night breeze wafting in scents of jasmine and sweet-smelling roses. I leaned across as the bed was close to the window and looked down over the ledge to see a small walled garden below and beyond that was what seemed to be the street.

  Looking back to the ro
om I noticed a cloak lay across the bottom of the bed. I recognised it as belonging to Dariush and all I could hope for was that it meant he was the one who brought me here. I then looked down at myself to see I was still wearing my skimpy harem outfit, which also offered a view of my wrapped ribs, sending me hurtling straight back to when I first arrived back in this time. I touched the tightly wrapped length of linen and sucked in a painful breath at how tender they felt. I reached back and felt the other throbbing pain, this time at the back of my head, only to find blood encrusted in my hair.

  “Fantastic, just what I needed, another bloody injury,” I complained aloud, shaking my head and wondering how I managed to get myself into so much shit.

  And speaking of shit, a commotion outside drew my attention back to the garden as I heard horses coming to a stop just on the other side of the wall. I peered over and saw I was right, as now there were at least ten armoured men that looked to be Roman soldiers dismounting horses. There was even a covered cart, one a lot nicer than the rickety old thing I had been forced into the first time. No, this one was painted gold and was tented with a deep red material that hid who or whatever was beneath it.

  I watched as whoever was in charge walked with two of his men to the side and I heard the banging on the door from up here. I also ended up hearing him order something in Latin,

  “Huic autem puella, in quo est?” (‘We’ve come for the girl, where is she?’) I didn’t understand the words but I knew enough to know that it was most likely about me, especially when I saw them being allowed into the house.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” I complained looking around the room and knowing there was no way of escape other than out of the window. I looked down and noticed that there was a tall stone trellis that didn’t look too far to reach but first I needed to make sure to slow them down. So, I grabbed the cloak as I gingerly got out of bed, groaning in pain as I did. I had to brace myself against the wall for a second as it felt like I would soon pass out again and that would have sucked the big one! Thankfully though, I must have had at least a smidgen of luck left on my side as the fog in my mind started to clear. After I felt steady enough, I pulled the bed from the wall, struggling against it as I started to push it across the door. Once there I heaved it up as much as I could with my ribs screaming at me to stop. I was nearly sick from pain and had to take a few deep breaths to get the nausea to pass.

  I was just happy that it wasn’t a big bed or very heavy so at least I managed to block the doorway with it. Now all I had to do was climb out of the window. Yeah piece of cake, I thought sarcastically before wrapping the cloak around my shoulders. I then went about trying to get out of the window and down to the gardens without being seen by the other guards. I nearly freaked out when I heard the sound of many feet bounding up the stairs, as I knew my time had quickly run out. I rushed to the window ignoring the pain in both my head and my side, then after making sure I had the top of the trellis lined up, I cocked a leg over the side and lowered myself down until my feet could feel the stone beam.

  I heard the banging on the door just as I popped my head under the sill and bent down trying to balance on the garden structure. I heard them above trying to force their way into the room and my panic started to double. I cried out in agony just as I launched myself off onto the grass, trying in vain to fall on my feet…of course unsurprisingly, I didn’t manage it.

  No instead I fell sideways and my screech of pain echoed through the night, alerting the soldiers on the other side of the wall to my position. I had no idea what they wanted with me but I knew it couldn’t have been good if someone was sending so many men to come and retrieve me.

  “Prohibere!” (‘Stop’) I heard shouted from the window and I looked up at them before getting to my feet and legging it out of there. I was just happy that the wall was high enough that the ones on the other side couldn’t manage to jump over it. I followed the path that was framed either side by the roses I could smell and just as someone was coming out of a side door I barged passed them, feeling bad that it was the old woman no doubt coming to see what the commotion was.

  “Sorry!” I shouted as I ran passed her through what looked like a cushioned living space. I slipped through the narrow hallway just as one of the soldiers was coming down the stairs, and the only place left for me to go was barrelling out the front door. I burst from it, knocking into one stunned guard and lucky for me it was the last thing he was expecting so he didn’t have time to grab me.

  “Prohibere!” There was that word again being shouted at me, just before they all started to make chase. I knew I had blown it the second I was seen coming out the front door. Not only was I a girl with shorter legs than these guys but I was also injured. A fact that was starting to become an ever-increasing problem. My will to survive finally crashed into my need to stop the excruciating pain in my side and chest, as it was obvious which one was going to win.

  Even breathing hurt and I fell forward placing my hands on my slightly bent knees as if I couldn’t even hold myself up anymore. I felt too weak and after only a few seconds of coming to a stop, the first guard caught up with me, wrestling me to the ground before he realised I had given up the chase. This time I screamed in my suffering and he was quickly yanked off me roughly by the one I had seen in control of this hunting party.

  He was literally dragged backwards and flung off to one side as if he weighed nothing at all. I watched him roll and then looked back at the man in charge with shock. I knew he was their leader, as he had been the one issuing all the orders and along with this, was the difference in their appearance. The rest all wore the same plain chest plates, with long red capes but this dude had his chest plate adorned with a winged beast either side at his ribs and a horse’s head at the centre. He also looked bigger than the rest and not exactly fresh out of Roman soldier school like the others.

  He tore off his helmet that was also highly decorated and higher than the rest. He looked down at where I lay curled on the floor, holding my tender ribs, no doubt looking more like a wounded animal.

  “Eice hanc a me et in raeda!” (‘Get this woman up and in the carriage!’) he barked an order at his men who quickly stepped forward to get me. I shouted at them to stay back and tried to shuffle away from them.

  “NO! Don’t touch me!”

  “Prohibere!” The one in charge said holding up his hand making the men stop, which was when it clicked that this must have been what it meant. The general then crouched lower and approached me slowly, so as not to frighten me. He was an older gentleman, one that had a greying beard, along with lines around his eyes and mouth that told me at least he smiled a lot. I don’t know why but I trusted this man when he started speaking softly to me.

  “Noli timere: exaudivit nos flamma non ardebit in te.” (‘Fear not, we will not hurt you’) He reached out a hand and gave my shoulder a small squeeze before nodding, as if silently asking if his men could approach. I shot a panicked gaze between them and him before weighing up my situation. It didn’t take me long to know that this could only go one of two ways. I could either be taken by force or go willingly but either way, I wasn’t getting out of this mess any time soon, so I went with the easy way.

  “Alright,” I muttered, nodding as well, just in case he didn’t understand. He gave me a warm smile and motioned for his men to come forward once more.

  “Custodite animas vestras ad deterioratus est.” (‘Be careful, for she is injured’) He told them sternly. I frowned and tried to sit up myself, when he shook his head at me as if he knew I was in pain. The soldiers all gave me easy smiles as, like their commander, they too knew I was fearful of them. They carefully lifted me up and carried me over to where the cart was, making me wonder how they knew they would need it in the first place. They gently laid me back down and one of them muttered what must have been an apology when I winced as my weight was transferred onto my injured side.

  But I couldn’t complain as the covered cart was more like a luxury carriage inside as
it was lined with furs and pillows. I made myself as comfortable as I could and had to ask myself, would they really treat a prisoner this way before they planned on killing one? Well the signs were looking good at least, now I just wished I had known that before jumping out the damn window.

  Not surprisingly it didn’t take me long before I had nodded off again thanks to the rocking motion, combined with one killer headache. I could have been sleeping like a baby by the time we arrived to wherever it was they were taking me. I put it down to the effects of banging my head twice in the space of thirty minutes as I remembered how I had felt when I had done it outside the cabin.

  It felt like an age ago, especially when it had been back before Draven and I had even got together. It was the first time he drove me home and I remembered how nervous I had been, convincing myself at one point that I was possibly still dreaming. Which just so happened to be exactly how I felt again now as the carriage came to an abrupt stop.

  The next thing I heard was the sound of many men moving as one, like a wave of soldiers all saluting.

  “Ubi puella?!” (‘Where is the girl?!’) I heard a voice growl out a foreign demand and the ferocity that laced those few words had me sucking in a frightened breath.

  “Imperator.” I heard the commander say, addressing the newcomer respectfully and telling me that I was about to face the man who had ordered my capture. I jumped when I heard the whoosh of the material above me being ripped back and the face that met me was one that I never expected to see.