Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “What is an Aeolus’ eye?” Lucius threw his head back and started laughing as if talking about such things was his idea of a rootin’, tootin’ barn dance for a cowboy.

  “Upon my word but I have never known so many questions to be asked by a female, and one with such dangerous curiosity.” I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him my best ‘I am not impressed’ look. He simply ended up laughing at this as well.

  “It is a simple but deadly vortex originally created by Aeolus, the God of wind and Perses, the God of destruction. They were both given the task by Zeus to create such a deadly force. There aren’t many that can wield such power as easily as Dariush can but it makes for a torturous weapon, along with an effective prison…or so I am told.” The second he said the word ‘prison’ a horrific memory hit me.

  I was locked in the centre of a storm, one raging around me and keeping me from escaping. I braved reaching out, testing my fingertips against it and not understanding the true nature of the destructive force that faced me. I was then left to watch on in horror as my skin and flesh were stripped from bone in mere seconds.

  “Tartarus.” The word slipped from my lips before I could stop it and Lucius hadn’t missed it.

  “Now I have to wonder what you would know of such a place.” My head shot up and I struggled on what to say next.

  “Only…uh… what I have been told,” I replied, hoping this was enough.

  “There are not many who venture to the deepest level of Hell and make it out again to tell the tale…something you’re not telling me perhaps?” he asked, obviously not trusting my blustered words. So, I told him a few facts, starting with the main truth of it all.

  “Look, there are a lot of things that have happened to me since I met you and Draven, most of which I really can’t tell you about since it could affect the future…I just don’t know. But I can tell you this, you have saved my life more times than I can count and you have helped me without question whenever I needed it. You are a good and loyal friend, who always has my back, no matter what and…” I never got chance to finish as he was looming over me in a pounding heartbeat. He placed a bent knee in between my legs and caged me in with his hands gripping onto either side of me on the couch.

  “Now listen to me and listen carefully, for I will not repeat these words again…understand?” I bit my lip and nodded, feeling out of depth in seconds and silently asking myself what had happened to set him off. I didn’t need to ask myself this for long.

  “I am not your friend,” he all but snarled at me.

  “You’re not?” I asked on a breathless whisper, one almost none existent from heartbreak.

  “No,” he stated firmly making me flinch back. It felt as if I had been slapped and for a moment I was contemplating pushing out of his hold and storming out of the room. Not that I would have got far of course. But then I found he wasn’t finished as I thought. No, he continued to speak and this time, he made sure that I listened…

  “I. Am. So. Much. More.” He enunciated each word with each inch he eliminated between us. I swallowed hard, forcing myself not to choke on the intensity he had ignited between us.

  “Lucius…don’t…don’t do this…please.” I pleaded with him, placing a hand on his chest to stop him from taking possession of my lips again. To be honest, I didn’t think I would survive it a second time.

  “Then I suggest you never speak of such things again, for if I hear you mention ‘friendship’ to me once more, then I will prove otherwise through very actionable means and little Keira girl…” he paused so that he could lean in closer, whispering his lips against my neck before drawing his nose up the length making me shudder. Once he reached my ear he nipped at it before finishing his threat…

  “…You will fucking love it!” I closed my eyes against the sexual urges building to near crescendo level and by the time I braved opening them again,

  He was gone.

  Shortly after this a servant knocked on the door and brought in plates of food. I nearly wept with joy. She was a young little thing, with a sweet face and chubby cheeks that made her eyes disappear when she smiled. I watched with curiosity when she walked behind a large screen in the corner of the room and walked out holding a large empty pot. As soon as I saw it, I raced over to her, took it out of her hands and held up one finger, indicating for her to give me one minute. She blushed and smiled, nodding. Then I took what felt like a gift from the Gods and released my pained bladder into what was commonly known as a ‘Piss pot’. It felt almost as satisfying as gorging myself on the food after she had left.

  There was every meat imaginable and everything was cut into small bite sized pieces as there wasn’t a fork or knife in sight. Which made eating the fish in a delicious sauce somewhat of a messy sight but seriously it was just so good, I couldn’t help myself. I was just about to pick up something that was dripping in honey and poppy seeds when Lucius stepped back into the room.

  I was just thankful to see that leaving the room and giving us both the space we needed hadn’t been in vain.

  I quickly looked down and licked my lips, in hopes I didn’t have sticky food around my mouth as Lucius stalked towards me, watching my actions like a hungry wolf.

  “I see you’re enjoying my hospitality,” he commented with a one-sided mischievous grin. Then he stopped right in front of me, lifted up my face with one hand and then gently wiped some honey that had dripped down my chin. He raised it to his lips and licked it clean off the pad of his thumb. I was almost panting from the sight and the cocky bastard knew it!

  “The food is delicious…I was just about to try these but I am still trying to figure out what meat it is,” I told him holding up the honey coated morsel and trying to keep my voice even and not as strained as it felt. Besides, it seemed like a good way to change the ‘you have a sticky sweet substance dripping down your body, here let me lick it off you’ vibe he had going on.

  “Ah, a Roman delicacy…”

  “Oh, okay,” I said lifting it to my lips and just as I was about to put it in my mouth he continued with,

  “A dormouse.” I dropped the dead skinned rodent back in the golden bowl with a splat of honey. My mouth hung open in horror before I swallowed down the bile I felt about to rise.

  “A…a what now?” I asked hoping that I had heard him wrong.

  “A dormouse. Here we catch them from the wild in autumn when they are at their fattest…here, try one for they are quite good,” Lucius said picking one up and holding it out to me to bite. I slammed my mouth shut and shook my head in little jerky motions. Then I swallowed again and again. Oh god, were those little feet I could see sticking out…Oh Christ no!

  Here it came…

  I was suddenly up and out of my seat like my ass was on fire. I dashed behind the privacy screen just in time to throw up in the now empty piss pot. I heaved and heaved until all my lovely meal was now wasted at the sight of one little honey covered mouse…oh jeez, here it came again.

  “No, no, really I will be…” I tried to say as I felt Lucius come up behind me and lower to his knees at my back. Then he gathered up all my hair and held it back for me as I continued to vomit. He started rubbing my back in big circles with his free hand and once he thought I had finished, he then picked up a goblet of water he had brought with him, passing it to me. I swallowed again, making sure nothing else was going to come up. Then I nodded my thanks before taking the cup and nearly downing the whole lot. It felt like heaven sliding down my burning throat.

  “Easy, or you will soon find yourself sick again,” he said taking it from me. I felt so embarrassed I lowered my head and wished I could have buried it somewhere.

  “Better?” he asked, tucking in his chin so he could catch sight of my eyes. I nodded and bit my lip, not trusting myself to speak. I usually blurted out random crap when feeling this way, so decided silence was definitely golden and not vomit coloured. Seriously, I hadn’t even eaten any bloody carrots!

  “Put your hands aro
und my neck,” he told me softly and when I didn’t do as I was told quickly enough, he reached out and grabbed my wrists in his hold. Then he lifted them up and once he felt me holding on, he tucked an arm under my legs and lifted me off the floor. It was done with so little effort, it was scary to think of the strength and power this man held in a single hand, let alone all of him. It was also a thought that had me shivering in his hold, an action he put down to me being ill and not the real reason of me shamefully being turned on.

  He walked back into the room and instead of walking us back to the seating area he turned away from it.

  Then I asked the dangerous question,

  “Where are you taking me?” receiving an even more dangerous answer in return…

  “I am taking you to my bed, Keira girl.”

  Chapter 30

  Third Time’s a Charm

  Standing in front of the mirror now and I barely recognised myself. My hair had been brushed so many times, I was surprised I had any left. But this, combined with the strange oil they had first rubbed on their palms and then smoothed through the strands, made it look like spun gold.

  And this had just been the start.

  But I am getting way ahead of myself, as it all started that morning when waking up in a Vampire’s arms. The room had been dark, with just the slightest cracks letting in the light around the windows. It then occurred to me that at some point in the night Lucius must have left my side to lower the reinforced shutters over the windows. It seemed as if he still had an aversion to the light after all.

  He had carried me to the bed last night and when he felt me tense in his hold he tenderly pushed back the hair from my forehead and whispered,

  “I will have you…you can be sure of that but that time is in our future, not our present. Now sleep, for you will need rest for tomorrow.” I had been about to ask him what he meant but with a small shake of his head I knew now was not the time. So, once he had rolled me to my side, he nestled me against him, tucking me into his strong body. I had to admit, it wasn’t the worst way to fall asleep.

  However, that night my mind didn’t sleep as easy as I would have hoped as it was filled with nothing but death and destruction. For I found myself stood imprisoned in my own nightmare of what I prayed would never come.

  A War.

  It raged all around me like a storm I could neither run from or control. It was like finding yourself trapped by your own doing. No one seemed to notice me but there I stood, in the middle of a demonic battlefield watching both sides dropping like flies. I didn’t even know which side I was on, for both looked just as monstrous. Winged demons, attacked from the dark sky. Some falling onto their prey as if fired from catapults and other swooping low and plucking soldiers from the battlefield like mice in the clutches of eagles.

  I didn’t know why but my knees gave out and I hit the floor just as the first sound of death reached my ears. The sound of death for us all. Those who had been imprisoned in Tartarus had been merely used as pawns, placed at the front line as a prelude to the main event. Their lives didn’t matter. No one’s did. We would all die and there would be nothing left to save.

  No Heaven, no Hell and no Earth to call home for any of us. A new start, a new birth…a cleansing…that’s what he called it. But first to cleanse the land, you had to destroy the weeds that infected it,

  And we were the weeds.

  Angels classed as the righteous wrongs and corruption in Heaven and Demons the vile filth coating the surface of each level of Hell. And then there were the humans…

  Humans he classed as the rot among the earth.

  This is what he had told me. Whispered in my ear like some promised secret he spoke of before all the rest. He wanted me to know first. He wanted to torture me with the future, a future that no matter what I did now, I couldn’t change. He laughed in the face of the prophecy and cursed out the Fates, taunting them to prove their worth. Challenging all who stood in his way…including me.

  I felt him approach through the blood and flesh of the fallen. He parted the field of death like a tangible wave he could control. Everything I now knew, all my thoughts of doubt, planted there by this being. This master of eradication…

  “Cronus!” I hissed his name, spitting the blood I felt pooling against my bitten lips, aiming by his feet as they approached me. All of these thoughts of powerless means, whispered to feed the doubts of my mind. I needed to breathe free air. I needed to hold on to the hope that not all was lost. But he made such a task nearly impossible to fight against.

  “You cannot win against a war that has already been won,” he told me calmly as though we were not standing at the mouth of a Hell he had created. But no, that wasn’t true. For when he knelt next to me I felt his talon under my chin, forcing my face up to meet the born cruelty in his eyes. He leant closer to my ear and whispered the sickening truth in my ear. This was his secret kept and now passed on, it soon became mine. A secret to torture my soul until my dying breath.

  I sucked in a sharp breath, feeling the tears fall with my back to the mountain, for I could not watch what I had done.

  I couldn’t watch the…

  War I had created.

  After this I had started screaming and thankfully found myself not alone. Lucius had me in his arms and for one moment my tears weren’t solely from my dream, but waking and finding the wrong arms around me. I didn’t remember what Cronus had told me in my nightmare but the effects of it stayed with me like a poisonous veil no-one but I could see. It felt as though it was dripping from me, sticking to the ground and trying to pull me under. I knew it was something important, those words he spoke. I knew they held the key to something but what, I didn’t know.

  “Ssshh, it will be alright, it was just a nightmare,” Lucius cooed, before kissing the top of my head. He had a hand to my cheek, cradling me to his chest. I absorbed his comfort like a child would to a security blanket, but deep down I knew it wouldn’t be enough.

  “I need to know,” I whispered in the dark and I felt him pull back slightly so that he could look at me.

  “What…what is it you need to know, Keira?” He asked me so tenderly, this too even felt as if it could have been a dream.

  “I need to know what was whispered in my ear…a man, a being…someone in my nightmare…I felt like, well like it could be something important,” I told him with a voice that was strained and close to pleading with him. I heard it myself and almost felt ashamed by how weak it sounded. But, however Lucius had heard it, it had been enough for him to say yes.

  “Lie back.” I did as he asked and feeling his presence looming over me in the dark didn’t make me feel half as uneasy as it should have done.

  “I need you to open your mind to me.” As soon as he said this I grabbed his arm and told him in panic induced words,

  “You can’t…I can’t.”

  “Relax, I promise only to look for the lost remains of your dream,” he told me but even then, my fingers gripped him tighter and I was now asking myself what was more important. There was so much he couldn’t be allowed to know but then on the other end of the scales was the fate of the world, hanging there like a promised doom. I knew I had to chance it. I knew if there was anything that could be learned from this, then now could be my one and only shot. Lucius could obviously see my inner turmoil of what I should and shouldn’t do, so knowing that I needed it, he eased my fears,

  “I give you my word. I will not pry into the vault of your mind, I will only reach out to the surface of thoughts, in hopes that fragments of the dream remain. If I find nothing, I will see nothing…trust me.” I nodded as after hearing this, then I knew he was right, I needed to trust him. So, I did as he asked. I tried to relax and nodded my thanks to him, when he lit some of the candles with his mind, so I was no longer doing it in the dark.

  Then it began and I tried to visualise allowing access to my once impenetrable fortress, one I had spent years building. I knew I wasn’t destroying it, I was merely cre
ating a door, one that I knew I could slam shut with but a single thought.

  I knew the second he was in as I felt a warmth surround me as though he was still trying to sooth my worries and ease my mind. He didn’t make it feel as though an intruder was trying to break in, but more like a friend was just casually having a look around. I know it sounded weird and a whole bucket load of crazy but there was no other way to describe it. Or was there?

  I guess the only other way I could think about it was like looking at someone you kept a secret from and seeing them give you a single look that had you questioning yourself. Could they hear your thoughts…? Did they see your guilt for themselves? Could they read the lies on your face or hear you soundlessly whispering of your desire? Well, that was what it was like having someone access your mind. As though someone could see what you never intended them to see.

  I didn’t feel it in my mind when Lucius finally found what he was searching for, no it was his eyes that told me. They bled into crimson fire and I flinched back out of reflex. The second I did he snapped his eyes shut and once he opened them again, they were back to grey stone with flecks of blue.

  Lucius shocked me when he explained he hadn’t seen anything of my dream or heard of the whispered promise spoken in my ear. My disappointment had been clear to see but he assured me that if I had another, then I must tell him straight away, for he may have another chance at seeing it for himself. I made him that promise and fell back asleep in his arms, clinging on to new hope.

  Which brought me back to now and after the team of girls, none of which I could understand, had all left. Of course, what they had left behind was a mere shell of what I usually looked like, for as I said, I could barely believe my eyes. My hair had been braided in such a way that it had become like a band over the top of my head, framing the gold crown that sat there, before it’s length coiled round to one side, where loose curls sat over my shoulder. The crown itself was a delicate and dainty piece that fanned out in a band of gold, inlayed with filigree rose gold and speckled with tiny jewels. It was beautiful and matched the dress was wearing.