Cult of the Hexad (Afterlife saga Book 6) (19 page)

“Ari.”
  There she was. I wanted to run over to her and pull her into my arms telling her how sorry I was for leaving her. I wanted to cry into her shoulder like I had done so many times before. But most of all I wanted her to tell me it was going to be okay because we were now free.

I stepped forward more than ready to do all of these things but a shadow watching her in the background stopped me. The room looked like it was inside a giant turret as it was a vast circular space and at its centre was a huge, round bed, very low to the floor. Stark white sheets covered the sleeping island complete with a wall of pillar church candles surrounding the space.

A grand arched window stood from floor to ceiling directly behind the bed flooding the room with light. Soft floating white material hung down from elaborate wrought iron rods that were curled at the ends. The whole room looked like one you would have found in Heaven and I don’t know why but I automatically thought of Zeus atop of Mount Olympus.

Grand marble pillars framed the room all around and it was behind one of these that the shadow stood hidden from Ari’s sight. She was sat, as I’d expected, at a grand piano. Only this one was made from what looked like etched glass, adorned with stunning delicate flowers and vines creeping up from the black glass clawed feet.

Ari started to play a different song and I stopped breathing at the sound. Where had I heard this song before?

“I know you’re watching.” Ari said after a time of playing and for a moment I almost thought she was speaking to me. I don’t know why I remained hidden but it was as if I knew that I had to if I was going to make any sense of what was happening now. I needed to know who was in the shadows stalking her and who it was she now spoke too.

“I know you do.” Said a soft male voice that held an underlying power to it.

“You play it beautifully.” He said stepping away from the shadows after the song had finished and there was a stretched moment of silence between them. The closer he came the more of him I could see and shock quickly replaced my confusion. He was breath-taking! Actually he looked like an Archangel just stepped from behind the pearly gates.

Tight golden curls were cut close to his head and startling crystal blue eyes were easy to see, even from where I remained hidden. But none of these features detracted from the masculine body of strength or the strong jawline that told me this was a man in charge of a great deal of power. He looked like someone very used to being in control and maintaining that control at all times. He didn’t need to be wearing a suit or a uniform to tell me of his ranking in life because even in the well-worn jeans and T-shirt he wore now I knew. As would everyone else around him.

“In this place you hear it playing enough.” Ari said lowering her head in sorrow. The man released a deep sigh before looking to the window above what I assumed was his bed.

“Yes and I am only left to hope that one day Palladio will no longer be heard amongst these walls.” He said still looking out to the view beyond the glass, one that not so long ago I saw consumed by the flames of Hell.

“You think she will make it home?” Ari asked turning to face him and he looked back at her over his shoulder and said,

“I think she is unstoppable.” Hearing this Ari allowed her tears to fall. The man watched as only one fell to the white marble floor before striding with purpose over to her. He took her face in both hands, tilted it up for his view and said,

“No tears…
I command it.”
  This last part was exactly what he said it was and the power behind it came across in his stern voice. She looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes that also held something deeper than fear, something more powerful…
Lust.
He growled down at her then used a hand in her hair to pull her lips to his own before devouring her in a primal kiss. She moaned in his mouth causing him to pull her even closer, banding arms around her so she couldn’t escape.

I knew I shouldn’t be watching this. I knew I should be running back to my own fantasy man, looking for him wherever he could be in this stone maze. But shamefully I knew I couldn’t look away. I was suspended between what was right and wrong, between sin and seclusion and my sinful decision was winning.

So I stayed hidden and allowed myself to dream within a dream of what it would feel like to have a man overpower my senses that way. I was transported back to my first kiss on the bus with Luc and I felt myself getting wet at the junction of my thighs. Again I knew this was wrong on so many levels but I seemed frozen by my own desperate need to be touched.

The man I suspected was Ari’s Angel pulled away from her mid kiss as if frustrated with himself for losing a shred of control. He frowned down at her and then commanded once more,

“Turn around and place your palms on the top of the piano.” She looked hesitant at first and he became impatient for her submission.

“Now Arianna.”
He ordered in a tone not to be defied. She lowered her head and turned around to do as he instructed placing her hands on top of the glass. He leaned into her and whispered,

“That’s my girl.”
Then he ran a hand down her spine across the silk strappy dress she wore and she arched her back into his touch. I knew in that moment that she wanted this and her submission was all part of the dance they equally stepped into.

He moved from her back to grasp her waist and yank her bottom further down into a position he wanted her in. She yelped in surprised to feel him step into her as he did this, forcing her back against the desire he still kept hidden in his jeans. The outline of such was easy to see as his length strained against the zipper, needing to be freed into her body.

I was no stranger to watching two people make love, not considering how many times I had seen the image of myself being taken time and time again by my Demon. But this was different as it felt like a violation. I turned away from my sister and knew I had to get out of here before it was too late and I had stepped too far.

“Are you ready for your punishment?” My head snapped back round when I heard him ask this. He was going to punish her?! No, this wasn’t the way it was supposed to go. He couldn’t hurt her, not him, not the man I knew my sister had quickly fallen in love with. Not the man of her dreams.

“Yes my…
My Master.”
Her reply was even more shocking and I closed my eyes against the confusion. Why after so long and so many years of being punished would she want this? I couldn’t understand it and I certainly couldn’t watch it. I felt disgusted, I felt ashamed…I felt, oh God no…but I felt
aroused.

I turned back just in time to see him raising her dress, taking a stance to the side and administering the first swing. The slap of skin against skin echoed along with the sound of the random keys on the piano sounding out her pain along with her.

“Do you know why you are getting punished this time?” He asked her in perfect calm. She nodded her head and received another hard slap to her buttocks for it.

“You know it gives me pleasure upon hearing my beautiful girl’s voice when answering me.”

“Yes.” She moaned arching back again as if waiting for his next hard touch.

“Yes?” He asked and then delivered three more slaps in quick succession. She cried out and I saw what she did not. It seemed the sound of her crying out in both pain and desire did great things to him. He had closed his eyes and looked up at the arched ceiling as if drawing in every ounce of pleasure the sound of her moans provided.

“Yes Master, I know why.” She corrected herself and this time received a comforting stroke to her red and heated skin. It was nothing short of a loving touch, no matter the reasons for giving it.

“Tell me why.” His smooth voice asked but I could see from behind her that he was bracing himself for her answer, one he knew he wouldn’t like.

“Because I left you.”
She whispered sounding ashamed by the confession.

“Then you shall know the same pain that my brother and I are forced to endure as our punishment.” He said like it actually gave him pain to even speak the words.

“No! Please, you can’t…please, not this time…don’t leave me, anything but that.” She pleaded, getting up and throwing her arms around his torso in desperation. She held on tight as if clinging on to him for dear life would change his mind. He didn’t give it long before he wrapped his arms around her and held her head to his shoulder but the pain in his eyes never left him.

Because he knew it would end. It always did. And because of this the bitterness wouldn’t leave him.

“She will find a way, I know she will…like you said, she is unstoppable.” Ari begged crying into his body as though he was all that mattered right now. Then suddenly the great windows blew open and a gust of wind blew out all the candles just at the same time Ari’s Angel looked directly at me, like he had known I had been there all along.

“Keira
was unstoppable.” He said to me and I felt my tears fall at the failure I felt. That name was back and it meant so much to me at the same time as it meant nothing. On hearing this, Ari looked up with tear filled eyes, grabbed his face as he had once done to her and made him look at her.

Then she spoke for me, 

“Then so can Katie. Have faith Angel…”

“…Palladio won’t play for much longer.” 

Chapter 17

Candy, Sodas and Blood

“Okay, time to wake up Honey Sue!” The combined voice and small tapping against my cheek started to bring me around.

“Where am I?” I asked opening my eyes only to shut them quickly against the blaring light.

“Alright Doc, I think she’s good now.” A man’s voice said and I felt the bright light disappear from behind my closed lids. I braved opening my eyes to find grinning pink and purple glossy lips along with a tiny skeleton hand curled round one side.

“Is that a lip ring?” I have no idea why I found this on my list of priorities to know, but I asked it all the same.

“It sure is Tootsie Pop a Doodle, awesomeness isn’t it!” I pushed myself into an upright position and tried to make sense of what she just said. Opening my eyes, I saw what looked like a dog’s squeaky toy in the shape of a police officer with a light coming out of his little bum.

“Who are you guys?” I asked looking from the strangest girl I had ever seen to the librarian that was now up front driving.

“Remember what we spoke about sweetheart, don’t get upset.” I shot the man driving a confused look before I realised he was talking to the colourful girl sat next to me on the back seat of the bus. She looked ready to burst into tears at the sight of me and I felt so bad for her but I didn’t know what I could do to make it better. For a start I didn’t know why she looked so upset and her cute round baby features stood out even more. Her big bright green eyes were watery with unshed tears and I couldn’t help but place a hand on top of hers and say,

“Hey, what do you call a teacher that’s always late?” I asked doing anything to wipe that look of devastation from her face. I saw a little dimple appear and knew it was working.

“I don’t know, what do you call a teacher that’s always late?”

“Mr Bus.” I told her making her burst out laughing.

“Missed the Bus! That’s a good one!” She said and then retold the joke to the man driving. I took this opportunity to look around and see that there was a definite Beano/school theme going on in the back and I gathered it went well with the bus they owned. Glued staplers acted as cupboard handles, kid’s comics were pasted on the doors and hundreds of post it note pads made up the roof. Even the material on the seat was a rainbow of colour with its colouring pencil print. And even more randomly a little Elvis was hanging from a sucker on the side window, looking like he was giving us the pelvic thrust as we drove along.

But stranger than all this was reading the black t-shirt she wore that said, ‘My cats ate a crazy cat lady’ on the front. On the back there were bloody paw prints as if one of the murdering kitties had walked the evidence of their crime right across her back. This was paired with a pair of leggings with a pattern that looked like a Unicorn on one leg, fighting a Robot under a rainbow on the other. On her feet I wasn’t surprised to see white skeleton’s feet painted on her black boots.

“Who’s Adam?” I asked referring to the tattoo of the name ADAM written across her knuckles, with hearts and flowers around the swirly writing in reds and pinks. Of course this wasn’t the only tattoo she had as you could see all the bright colours flowing down one arm. She smirked at me and then nodded up front to the man driving. 

“That’s Adam, my Hubby Boo Bot.” She said proudly and I coughed, choking on a swallow.

“Husband!?” I couldn’t help my reaction as I would never have put these two together in a million years.

“I know right, I am so out of his league but I thought, what the Hell, give the geek a chance.” She said winking at me.

“I could pull over little one.” He threatened softly and she started bouncing in her seat, saying,

“Please do.” I blushed thinking about my last dream and realising it obviously wasn’t only my sister that enjoyed a bit of male domination and punishment.

“Behave dumpling.” He warned and I giggled along with her.

“Nah I am only joking… it was totally love at first sight.” She said behind her hand in the same tone as she had been speaking, so confusingly I wondered why considering he could hear her.

“For me too, Love.” I thought it was cute seeing how these two were with each other, even with an obvious stranger hitching a ride. Which brought me back to more important questions.

“So I hate to ask again but…who are you guys?” Thankfully this time my question didn’t upset the girl like it had before.

“Okay, so you know that my Hubba Bubba there is Adam.” I smiled at him when he looked back and gave me a nod.

“Well you can call me your BFF or Pip, either one is true.”

“BFF?” I asked never hearing the term before. She bounced again in her seat and quickly enlightened me,

“Best Friends Forever.” I gave her a smirk and held out my hand for her to shake. I found her one of the most endearing people I had ever met and couldn’t help but fall in love with her instantly.

“BFF it is.” I said taking her dainty hand in mine and shaking on it. Her smile developed into a beaming one hearing this but disappeared just as quick when I introduced myself.

“I’m Katie by the way.”

“I think I will just call you Toots if you don’t mind.” She said folding her arms and Adam laughed from the front. She shot him an evil glare and I was left feeling confused once more.

“I don’t mind, it’s a fun nickname.” I said hoping this would diffuse whatever situation hearing my name had caused.

“Magic, that’s it then! You know my other BFF loved it also.” She told me and I heard Adam sigh in exasperation.

“What! I am allowed to talk about her.”

“Pipper, this is not wise.” He warned making her sulk.

“Did you guys have a falling out?” I asked curious to know why Adam didn’t think it wise.

“Not exactly but more like forced time apart… I miss my friend.” She added in a dejected tone that spoke of mourning.

“I’m sorry. But if it helps I know how it feels.” I said and her eyes got wide, making the little cat ears she had painted over her lids crack a bit.

“You do?”

“Sure.” She seemed very happy to hear this and stuck her tongue out at her husband when he looked in the mirror at her in warning. They were adorable.

“I bet your wondering Ke…Katie where we are going.” Adam said almost forgetting my name. Well, he had a good point but why had the important questions left me all of a sudden?

“Yeah, kind of. I’m sorry, it was great of you to pick me up when you did, it was as if you knew…
I was in trouble…”
  I trailed off as I thought about it all. Who were they really but more importantly who sent them?

“Don’t worry Toots, it’s all in hand now.”

“What do you mean? Where are we going?” I asked now not feeling so sure about these two. As soon as the thought entered my head I heard the automatic locks click into place. I can’t say this gave me the warm and fuzzies knowing these two thought I might jump out of a moving vehicle. But the main question was what did they think would warrant such an action on my part…? That was the most worrying question of all.

“Do you think we should give her alcohol?” Pip asked her husband and I shook my head the same time Adam said,

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Sweetheart.”

“I second that, but hey, what would be a good idea is if you guys tell me what’s going on here?” I said losing my patience real quick. Adam took a deep breath after shaking his head at Pip, probably thinking it best coming from him.

“A friend of ours saw that you were in trouble and called us as we were close by.” I frowned back at him and then at Pip, who just gave me a flat smile and shrugged her shoulders like someone getting busted.

“And this friend of yours, do I know their name?” I asked having a bad feeling about this. Neither of them would answer me, they just kept looking at each other, so I said the name I suspected,

“It was Luc, wasn’t it?”

“Okay, this is going to get confusing real soon.” Pip said to Adam and I asked why.

“Have you ever caught the end of a movie and then spend the whole time asking yourself what the Hell pants is going on?” She asked me and I thought about it for a second.

“No, I’m afraid I haven’t.”

“Well that’s my example up the shitter, your turn handsome.” She said throwing her hands up in the air.

“I think what my beautiful wife is trying to say, is that without knowing the whole story first you won’t understand the answers to your questions.”

“Alright, so in that case what is this story I need to hear?” I asked folding my arms and getting impatient with all the cryptic replies.

“I am afraid that isn’t our story to tell.”

“Then whose is it for crying out loud!?” I said snapping.

“It’s yours.”
Pip said softly placing a kind hand over mine and sapping all the frustration right out of me.

“I just don’t understand.” I muttered honestly as I deflated back against my seat.

“I know you don’t but you are going to have to trust me when I say, you soon will.” Adam said in that placating tone that you give someone who’s clearly on the edge.

“Can I at least know where we are going?” I asked half expecting them not to answer this question either. So I was shocked for both reasons when Pip shouted out,

“Afterlife, of course!”

As we reached Portland I had a few hours of quiet time to myself which I suspected I wouldn’t have had if Pip hadn’t fallen asleep back near Boston. We had driven through a place called Worcester and Pip had said something odd before falling asleep,

“I bet this one is a little different than the last one you saw.” I was just asking her what she meant when her snoring filled the silence.

“It’s the excitement, she often crashes like that.” Adam told me before looking back at the road. I grabbed a blanket I could see folded over the back and covered her up with it smiling at the picture of sheep counting humans jumping over a fence.

“Will whoever you’re taking me to help me?” I asked Adam cautiously as I scooted forward in my seat. I was almost afraid to hear the answer…well, if I got one that was.

“I know you must be so confused right now but would you believe me if I told you I was once in a similar position as you are now.” My face said it all and he laughed softly. His handsome face certainly was made to smile I thought secretly.

“It’s true. The people that you find bombarding into your life now did the very same thing to mine. And with them they brought along more strange and unbelievable questions for me to ask than answers.”

“So how did you cope with it all?” I asked trying to figure out if what he was saying was the truth and with one loving look toward Pip, I knew that he was.

“I met the love of my life. After that nothing else mattered. It was all simple formalities left for me to cast aside.” I looked at the beautiful picture of a green haired girl sleeping soundly knowing she had her man safely by her side and I knew nothing else mattered to her either.

“That’s what love does you know.” He added making me look back at him.

“What’s that?”

“It makes you do the uncontrollable, the unthinkable and in all these things it makes you unstoppable.” When hearing that last word spoken, I then heard it repeated by the Angel in Ari’s life. But where Ari had been referring to me he had been referring to this
‘Keira’.

After this I sat back, looked out the window and thought about everything that had happened. I wanted to ask so many things but where did I start? They knew who Luc was but if that was true then did they also know
what
Luc was? And more importantly to add to my list of worries was, if he was who I thought he was, then who were these two…
truly?

Could they have been the same…Vampires? One look at the cute bundle of colour that was Pip and I didn’t think so. Also I had to ask myself how they knew I wanted to get to Afterlife as I was pretty sure I hadn’t mentioned anything to Luc on our bus journey together.

Either way I had to trust them because let’s face it, what choice did I really have? It wasn’t like they had hurt me and other than locking the door for fear of my take flight instincts to kick in, they had been friendly and loving towards me. Especially Pip. In fact, it felt like I had known her most of my life we got on that well. She even broke out the board games shortly after I found out where we were going.

She was so much fun to be around it almost felt like a road trip with friends rather than running from Colony goons that could be chasing us. We stopped for gas a few times and I was looking cautiously over my shoulder half expecting to see them, as I had the strongest feeling that someone was watching us. Pip then drew my attention away from my paranoia by asking me a strange question,

“What do you call gas in England again?”

“Just petrol or diesel if…uh, wait I…” She gave me a cheeky wink like she had just caught me out and then to change the subject she asked,

“Do you want any candy or a soda…? I’m gonna get a Mountain Dew, I love the stuff only Adam says it makes me hyper, ha what does he know…! Did you know it was first invented for whiskey…? True story that!” She carried on like this as she entered the store and came back out buying what looked like one of everything. We then stuffed ourselves over a game of Kerplunk, which I had to say wasn’t easy in a moving vehicle and then a game of Operation which was near impossible. During both Pip never got hyper and I was left agreeing with her… what did Adam know?