Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “Keira, how could I ever hate you when all I want to do is spend an eternity worshipping at your feet and laying down my life as payment to every God out there, if that is what it takes to keep you.” I swallowed hard and then said,

  “So just to be clear…” I never finished as Draven had his mouth on mine in a mind consuming kiss. It felt raw and beautiful all at the same time, like he was branding me to him, chaining my soul to his in just one loving action.

  Then he told me…

  “Just to be clear, I fucking adore you! And always will.”

  After this I found out from Draven that Sophia and he had had a little chat where she went into more depth of our time away than she had done in the car. However, the parts she had kept out were me facing off a demonic god, me being pregnant, me being shot with a poisonous arrow and lastly, me being turned into a Vampire. Everything in between, she had told him.

  But now he knew it all…and he, in his own words, ‘Fucking adored me’. So, all was good in the world, well other than the impending doom and world destruction that was going to hit at any point, thanks to a megalomaniac, Cronus and his band of imprisoned pissed off Titan buddies.

  Oh, and not forgetting how Draven didn’t yet know that he had knocked me up… ‘cause that was kind of a big deal too. I knew that I should have told him and even as we made our way back to the Janus Temple, I was regretting my decision, as I should have just got it all out in one big hit.

  But I couldn’t.

  I couldn’t because I was a coward and I wanted to give my husband hope that not all was lost. Because I knew the second he thought that I was pregnant then that would mean the prophecy was coming true…and that my death would swiftly follow.

  Because according to the Fates our child would be the next powerful being that could put a stop to the end of days. I didn’t know how but I did know one thing, that no doubt I would not be around to see the fight. As it was obvious that it wasn’t by Draven’s hand that I would die but by his actions…his actions by giving me a child. Something he had refused to give me in our own time and something he knew nothing about him giving me in the past.

  We were back in the library and I was just trying to put my shoes back on when I saw Draven opening the door. We were back to being dressed for the wedding as it might have looked odd had we turned up in different clothes.

  “Have you always had that door?” I asked wondering why I never knew about it.

  “No, I had it created after Pip’s party, after you were taken.,” he informed me, sounding grim at the reminder.

  “You wanted to be sure you could get to the Janus Temple quickly, didn’t you?” I asked, getting it confirmed.

  “As you can see, it came in handy, as I always intended to consummate our vows in our own bed,” he told me making me grin at the sentiment.

  “That’s why it’s Jane Eyre that opens the portal, because it’s my favourite book…” I mused to myself making him nod.

  “I too have fond memories of that book, after I borrowed it from you shortly after you arrived,” he reminded me of when it went missing.

  “You stole it!”

  “Borrowed it…after all I did bring it back, with an added message.” I remembered him attaching my lost hairclip to it.

  “It was about being home. About Jane admitting to Mr Rochester that wherever he was, was where she called home,” I said making Draven grin.

  “I thought it was fitting considering I had just found you,” he told me, holding out his hand for me to take, so that we could walk back through the door together.

  “You will always be my home,” I told him in the dark, thinking back to how even as Katie, I had been drawn to finding this place.

  My Afterlife.

  “As you are my home also, little wife,” he replied making me growl as we got through to the other side.

  “Please don’t tell me that’s to be my new nickname,” I asked making him chuckle,

  “I think it has a nice ring to it.”

  “You think anything with the word little put before it, has a nice ring to it,” I said making my point with an added little growl. I felt my hand being snagged and pulled back so I had no choice but to follow. He loomed over me and said,

  “Sweetheart, I hate to point this out but I am a whole foot taller than you, so to me, you will always be my little wife.” I tried to hide my smirk as to be honest, it was a sweet picture he painted. He was bigger than me by quite a lot, but it didn’t mean the endearment was demeaning in anyway. And besides, I thought it was hot how much bigger he was…especially when he was pinning me to the bed and I was writhing beneath him, something we had managed to do again before we came back here.

  Oh, and sort out my hair and makeup as after two rounds of sex and a soberthon, well let’s just say that neither hair or face had survived.

  I reached up and kissed him quickly and told him,

  “It’s lucky you’re hot, that’s all I am saying.” He started laughing as we walked back down the massive hallway towards the main Temple when suddenly something happened. I didn’t even know it was coming but Draven stopped dead as he knew.

  He felt it before I did.

  But it was too late. We couldn’t stop it.

  We couldn’t stop it as…

  Our world was torn apart.

  Draven screamed my name before pushing me out of the way just in time before one whole side of the hallway’s wall of doors exploded. I was tossed aside just in time, so that the explosion didn’t harm me but hitting into one of the glass doors certainly did. I was momentarily stunned and I started to move each limb slowly until my mind focused on what had just happened. Then my head shot up as I looked at the destruction and screamed,

  “DRAVEN!” I couldn’t see him and my panic started to set in. I got up after needing to hold onto the wall in between doors just to steady myself. There was now a massive gaping hole on the wall that looked like one massive black gateway. It was like a swirling void, an abyss of nothingness…a place of oblivion.

  I stumbled around over the mass of rubble trying to find him as that was all I could focus on.

  “Draven!” I shouted his name again but there was nothing. Had he been sucked inside that thing? Jesus Christ, I hoped not, in fact I was convincing myself of that very fact and I stepped closer readying myself for stepping inside. I would do anything to find him. But then a hand grabbed me from behind and I screamed.

  “Draven!” I shouted and flung myself into his arms.

  “Oh, thank God,” I muttered into his chest as he held me tight with one arm banded around me.

  “Are you alright?” I nodded into his chest and then looked behind me at the giant portal, one that looked big enough to fit an entire army through it.

  “What is that thing?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but I must inform the others,” he told me which brought me back to what was above us.

  “Oh God, my family, Draven they can’t…we can’t.” I started to panic and now my worry had shifted to all the people above us that had no idea what was happening below.

  “I know Keira, don’t worry, we will protect…”

  “Oh, how touching!” We both stilled in each other’s arms and Draven emitted a low demonic growl.

  “I hear congratulations are in order,” said a voice from within the swirling mass of hollowness.

  “No, oh God please no,” I uttered on a cry as it felt like someone had pumped my veins with ice. I turned around to face what was now coming through the portal and Draven shifted me so that I was behind him. But there was no getting away from it.

  Getting away from him.

  “Jack.”

  “Not anymore, my dear,” Cronus said using Jack’s body, the one I hadn’t recognised until now but had seen in my dreams. But he had changed him into something dark, something terrifying. It wasn’t Jack anymore. Not the happy go lucky guy that always had a smile for everyone. Not the same guy that had given me rides home. Or w
ho I had sat in the crummy diner with laughing at his jokes about macaroni that looked toxic enough to get up and walk out the door. Not the same guy that had taken me to the Halloween dance or had sat with me on my porch steps telling me about how he loved a woman.

  Celina. I fucking cursed the name, along with that of Aurora!

  The ones who had betrayed us all just so that they could get to me, get to Jack, get to every single puzzle piece needed for this one and only moment. Where had my friend gone, because this one, this Jack looked as though he had just stepped through the gates of Hell and not a single shred of him had survived the journey.

  His once honey coloured hair was now as black as night. His once hazel eyes had turned milky white with a tiny black dot at their centre with a red ring of blood. He had a thick layer of what looked like infected skin crusted around his hairline, cheeks and neck, in a sickly yellow colour. If I didn’t know better I would have said that his host was fighting against him. Turning itself into something that would soon be useless to him. Was it possible he was running out of time? Was Jack in there somewhere, fighting him?

  Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I had to hold onto hope, if only for RJ alone. Draven suddenly pulled me aside as Cronus seemed distracted, looking behind him ready for something else to appear.

  “Keira, you need to listen to me, you need to get back through the door. I can’t fight with you here...” Draven started to say but I cut him off.

  “No Draven, I am not leaving you!” I told him making him growl.

  “Do you trust me?!” he hissed and I took a deep breath and looked back at Cronus.

  “Yes, but I am not…”

  “Now Keira, do it! Go or we will lose this fight! Use the door and don’t look back. Close it and run, run as far away from Afterlife as you can…do you understand?!” I shook my head as tears started to fall.

  “I...please Draven I…can’t…”

  “Go Keira and don’t look back…go and live, my love...live for me,” Draven said both breaking my heart and his as he pushed me aside before he erupted into his other side, transforming his once suited body into something truly demonic. He looked magnificent. Like some dark warrior from Hell dressed in armour forged in the deepest flaming pits by demon hands. I don’t know what material had been used that now covered his body in interlocking plates but he looked indestructible. His chest plate was far from the fancy ones I had become used to seeing on him in the past. No, this was made for one purpose and one purpose only, to aid in killing.

  But he wanted me to run. He wanted me to run from the fight because to him I was still a mortal. I could still get hurt. But most of all, I could still die. After all, that was the prophecy, one he was trying desperately to avoid. So, I did as he asked letting my feet take me towards the door.

  The door back to Afterlife.

  But Afterlife wasn’t just bricks and mortar. It wasn’t just fancy furnishings and expensive fabrics. And it wasn’t just its grand hallways and ancient artefacts and priceless antiques.

  It was family.

  And Draven wanted me to run from it as fast and as far as I could.

  But I couldn’t run from my family.

  And I couldn’t run from my heart.

  So, I stopped running. Instead I looked behind me to see Cronus stepping further into the room and a mass of shadows wasn’t far behind. I didn’t know what it was but I knew it didn’t look good. We needed to get word to the others but how.

  Wait, Lucius?!

  I was connected with him now! So, I did the only thing I could do, I got his attention. I thought back to what Katie had told me and I channelled all my energy into casting out in just one direction.

  “Lucius! HELP US! We are in the Janus Temple, Cronus is here! It’s just me and Draven and I…” The sound of Lucius’ voice didn’t reply in my head as I thought it would. No, it replied in person.

  “I know, Pet.” I looked down the hallway to see our own army had arrived…and everyone was here ready to fight.

  So, instead of running away from it, I ran towards it.

  I ran towards my destiny…

  And it was time for battle.

  Chapter 45

  Image of Death

  I raced back to Draven’s side, jumping and hopping over the rubble. He was approaching his army and when he saw Lucius nod behind him, Draven looked over his shoulder to see me coming. But when his eyes grew wide I knew it wasn’t out of shock at seeing me, no it was out of concern. That’s when I felt it. Like something shifting in the air around me. It was like being in the dark and knowing someone was behind you because you used your other senses to guide you. We relied too much on our eyes to see, so that we sometimes ignored the importance of what our feelings saw for us.

  It was like watching all their faces in slow motion. Shock, horror, worry, care, love…it was all there in each of them, and each one was already taking their first motions in saving me. But I didn’t need saving, not yet. Because it didn’t end like this for me. No, I knew that because I had a baby to protect and family above and below to fight for.

  And fight I may not know how to do as well as the others. But I knew one thing that was just as important and that was I knew how to get angry…

  Very, very angry.

  So, I closed my eyes for not even a second but what felt like minutes. I felt the familiar tingling in my fingertips and it was like reuniting with an old friend…but with it something new. My fangs emerged and this time, I welcomed them. I felt power in my eyes, in my cheeks, rolling down my neck to join with that already in my hands and then when it reached its peak, I simply turned around and lashed out at everything in my path.

  And it was a glorious chaos!

  A invisible wave of such destruction crashed into those behind me that by the time I turned to take in what damage I had caused, I could barely believe at what I had done with a mere thought. That great looming shadow behind Cronus had been his own army coming through the portal, only now the first wave had been laid to waste by a flick of my arm. Cronus himself had seen it coming and had unfortunately managed to get out of its path in time before he too found his vessel in pieces like the others. But he didn’t come out of it unscathed either.

  All those broken limbs, twisted, now burnt flesh, should have sickened me but it didn’t. No, it was like something deep inside me was trying to claw itself to the surface and it was rejoicing at the sight.

  “Impossible!” Cronus hissed and in return I felt my lips curl back over my fangs as I snarled at him. Then I calmly turned to face the others and walked slowly towards them, back to my mate.

  I don’t know where that thought had come from but that was what it felt like. This sort of possessive need I had to claim him that way. Was this what it was like for them? The Alpha in them? The tugging need to claim what they knew was theirs?

  Draven watched me with his jaw clenched, but then his eyes scanned for any potential threat behind me, only easing when I curled myself next to his body. He snaked an arm out, seizing my waist and yanking me hard to him.

  “Do you ever do as your told?” he asked me and I winked and said,

  “No, but you should be used to it by now…besides, we fight together, side by side as one, now and always.”

  “Well, I think it’s clear she can handle herself,” Lucius commented with a smirk and I looked to him to see that he too was now dressed for the fight. In fact, everyone here was ready for battle. Out of all of them I was the only one that didn’t exactly look dressed for the occasion, as I wouldn’t have exactly said a wedding dress was practical fighting gear.

  “What’s the plan? What about all the people above, my family?” I asked trying not to sound as shaky as I felt when voicing that question.

  “Don’t worry, we have Adam standing guard at the entrance, anything comes through and Pip will know what to do,” Draven informed me. Okay, so big scary unstoppable beast sounded like a good plan as much as it didn’t.

  “Is that saf
e?” I felt I had to ask.

  “Rue is protecting the humans. We have them inside the mansion, Rue isn’t to let anything in or out of there until she knows it’s safe…we planned for this Keira,” Draven told me and my mouth dropped,

  “You planned for this…on our wedding day!?” Draven shrugged his shoulders and said,

  “Well, they didn’t exactly get a welcome invitation if that’s what you mean. It was done just as precaution…of course, I also planned for you to do as you’re told and get through that damn portal and stay there!” he snapped and that’s when it all started to make sense.

  “You always knew it would be here and that’s why you had the doorway made…in case you had to get me out.” Well it looked as though I hadn’t been the only one planning things behind my partner’s back.

  “Uh…guys, I hate to interrupt the first marriage tiff here, but can it wait, only we have a demonic army to kill,” Marcus said, and Sigurd and Orthrus both clashed their massive swords together and said,

  “Fuck, yeah!” Orthrus’ idea of battle gear was biker leathers and Sigurd’s was a long black jacket and a chest strapped with weapons. Although to be fair, most of Jared’s men did turn into hounds of Hell so you couldn’t really blame them for not suiting up.

  I looked to where Marcus had nodded and saw what everyone else was now seeing. Cronus was heading this way and the first wave of the army I had knocked out, well it was nothing compared to these guys!

  Chained faceless beasts with hammered metal skulls were being dragged in snarling through the portal by tall skeletal demons that wore leather masks. When they started to come closer I realised that everything they wore was made from the skin of humans and I soon wanted to vomit. The tops of their masks had been covered in sewn eyeballs and the lower part covered in dead dry lips. It was a mask made only to mock what lay beneath it, for they couldn’t see or speak. In fact, I wasn’t even sure that they could smell but then the only holes in the masks were for their nose bones that were void of flesh.