Cult of the Hexad (Afterlife saga Book 6) (27 page)

“Moving on.” Draven said curtly, sounding strangely unhappy and there were a few sniggers in the room. Zagan gave me a kind smile and nodded in what looked like appreciation and it was almost as though I had voiced my compliments to him aloud.

“Takeshi, My Qu…Dear.” The oriental one said graciously and as he bowed his head in respect I wondered what he had almost called me. Moving on to the next person and I would have said I was back at the fair as the only way to describe him was as a jester that was trying not to be one.

“Hello Cookie.” He said waving his hand and he was wearing red leather, fingerless gloves, so I could see that his nails were painted black. He also had long blood red hair that was slicked back and tied at the base of his neck, where his high collared, black tight top curled up. The outfit matched the strange, thin black lines painted through his eyes and also down the centre of his chin and neck. He looked like some attractive clown that held an air of arrogance about him, one you wouldn’t expect to find in someone whose sole purpose was to entertain.

“She’s got a point dickhead.” A massive black guy said and there was nothing funny about the way he looked.

“I’m Orthrus by the way…and pencil dick over there is Marcus.” The Jester, who I now knew was named Marcus merely flipped him the bird and said,

“And we all know how the real pencil dick belongs to Mr Walking Steroid.”

“What did you say to me?!” The black guy roared banging his fist on the table.  

“Fuckin idiots!
”
Muttered one of the biggest guys in the room as there was only one man bigger than him and he was most definitely the scariest of them all.

“Sucks to be you, old man.” He added chuckling after I thought this and meanwhile the other two were still bickering. I was left bewildered at half of this bunch that were actually acting like unruly teenagers.

“Well thought, Lille øjesten” The big guy said nodding making his hood move back slightly.

“She means you too, Snake Ass!” The black guy name Orthrus said and with that type of name I had to wonder where he was from.

“Ha, wouldn’t that be an interesting conversation between the two of you.” Marcus said laughing and I was quickly losing the plot.

“Cerberus, if you will please control your men.” I heard Draven say from behind me as if he was close to losing his temper.

“Gladly.”
The man Draven had aimed this at growled the word and it was a sound that really did terrify me. He was, like most sat around the table, a very handsome man but this being said, it was in a different way entirely. If there was one word I would use to describe this man, it would be…
raw.
Hard lines, and rough edges through and through and when he spoke, he was definitely used to being obeyed for it was clear he was in charge of the rowdy bunch.

“Speak your fucking names and be done with it!” He snapped and his silver eyes seemed to flash with something darker lurking behind them. I couldn’t help but shift closer to Draven at my back, needing to feel safe.

“Marcus.”

“Orthrus.”

“Hi I’m Smidge.” The girl with orange hair was the only one who didn’t snap this out like the other two.

“Chase…howdy” Said the stocky one with a nice smile.

“Otto.” The one sat next to him said.

“And I am Jared Cerberus. It’s good to see you, Kitten.” He said winking and making Draven growl low at my back. I whipped my head round and whispered,

“Did she know all of these people?”
He knew what I was asking him and after another sigh he said,

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“I thought Bill was to remain in your Council, Cerberus?” Draven said, once more back to his commanding tone.

“He is on a mission but will join us in a few days.” I looked back to Draven who had one eyebrow raised but whatever he wanted to say, another voice spoke.

“Can we move this shit along before I grow even older…Hey øjesten, I’m Sigurd, that big scarred guy over there is Leivic and this scary guy sat right next to me is Ragnar…good, now we all know each other again.” He said sarcastically making the ‘Scary guy’ next to him snarl.

“Show some respect boy! My Lord I apologise once more for my son’s lack of respect.”

“Seriously old man, doesn’t that ever get
old?”
The hooded one said and I was still stuck on all I was learning. Like for one, Draven was a Lord!?

“Well I knew it would be entertaining.” Sophia said wryly and Vincent responded with,

“Not now Sister.” Making her laugh.

“Silence!” Draven shouted, finding he had hit the end of his patience. Just then the door opened and I couldn’t believe there were even more people here ready to join…whatever
this
was.  

At the first sight of them I shouted,

“Pip, Adam! You’re alive, oh thank God!” I was so happy to see them and just before I could turn around and tell Draven who they were someone else walked in behind them.

“Uh…Luc?”

“Hello Little Katie Girl.” He said in that confident tone of his as he walked past Adam and his wife. It was at this moment that my mind started to go into overtime and as the pieces of the puzzle started to fit into place I knew this was going to get bad.

“Oh shit” I said, knowing I should have just kept my mouth shut. But as everything he told me about his friend’s wife came slamming back to me, it became one of the puzzle pieces, including the fact that he had feelings for her. But this wasn’t the worst part about any of it…or the fact that I now realised
I
was the bloody wife and Draven was his friend…

No, none of it was as bad as what had happened on the bus together. As bad as that amazing kiss we shared…

My first ever kiss.

Quickly Luc made a clicking noise with his tongue and said,

“Ah honey, you just had to do it, didn’t you?” Then directly after this there was an almighty roar as Draven erupted behind me and my hands flew to my ears to help with the demonic bellow that came from somewhere hellish inside of him.

Suddenly I was plucked out of Draven’s lap by Vincent and he spun me around, protecting me as I heard Draven’s threat that was more than clear…

“I will fucking kill you this time, Lucius!”

Chapter 25

The Scary Truth

“I will fucking kill you this time, Lucius!”
Draven’s roar of fury was followed by Vincent picking me up from his lap and spinning me around, but something unexpected happened. The second he touched me light exploded around us and I slammed my eyes shut against the blinding light. I moaned in his arms that were wrapped around me and when I finally opened my eyes, expecting to see the chaos around me, all I saw were feathers.

“What’s happening?” I whispered as I reached out a hand and ran my fingertips against the soft feel of pure white wings. Wings that were wrapped around me from behind and came straight from the Angel at my back. I could barely believe this was happening…had I passed out again and was now dreaming?

“Vincent?” I said his name and turned in his arms to stare at him. With one look at his face I knew,

“I’m not dreaming am I?”

“No darling, I am afraid you’re not.” He said gently as if breaking this news to me would cause me mental damage. And I suppose he was right, considering what I decided to do next turned out to be a very stupid thing.    

After this I can honestly say the next few moments were the scariest moments in my life so far. It wasn’t because I was about to see two grown men fighting over a woman, that woman being me. No, it was because even though Vincent tried to hide me from the truth, with one single turn of my head I realised I had fallen in love with a
Demon.

It started very quickly after Luc had entered the room and I had no clue how but Draven knew something had gone on between us and that was enough. All it took was for me to mutter an innocent ‘Oh shit’ and that was it. Draven had transformed into the demon I had seen from my dreams and he was at Luc in the time it took for me to gasp.

For Draven wasn’t the only one who had changed. He picked Luc up off the floor after I had no idea how he got there in the first place. Then he threw his body across the table, causing him slide towards us and Vincent only just managed to push me out of the way before he slammed into him.

“Come on Lille øjesten, let’s get you outta here.” I looked up from where I had fallen to see the colossal figure stood over me and I screamed! A black, shadowed serpent seemed to be circling him and snapping out, hissing like it was angry. I scrambled backwards getting away from him and he stepped forward saying,

“Lille øjesten? What is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me!?” I shouted nodding to his body and he looked down and asked in a horrified tone,

“What can you see, girl?” I shook my head frantically trying to get away.

“What have you done to her Sigurd!?” The one that was his father came over to ask him and as soon as he came into view I screamed yet again! Jesus Christ, this guy was a monster!

“GET AWAY!” I shouted frantically but just as I made it to my feet ready to run, Luc was back on his feet and had snatched one of the marble plinths to use as a weapon against Draven. I had to duck out of the way and when I looked back up, Draven wasn’t the only demon fighting. Luc too had grown wings that looked like he had ripped them straight from a mighty phoenix. His eyes looked as if they had been injected with blood and the length of his fangs was as I saw them when he was fighting the men in the bathroom.

Draven rolled, his own wings going with him as the plinth smashed into the floor, leaving destruction in its path. It was clear the two Demons were equally matched, either that or they could equally take a beating! Draven sprung back to his feet and kicked Luc squarely in his chest, sending him flying backwards. I sidestepped, yet again getting out the way.

“Let’s get you out of here.” Sophia said and I turned thinking this was a good plan that was until I saw her face.

“No! No, no, no…not you too!” I stammered at the terrifying sight that was cracked, caked skin and a mouth that had been slit up her cheeks. Black venom oozed from the cracks in her skin and around her eyes and mouth like blood overflowing.

“She can see you, Sophia!” Vincent shouted from across the room where he was now trying to contain his brother’s rage.

“Oh by the Gods!” She uttered in horror, covering her mouth and taking a step back. Then her hand flew out as the one name Ragnar stepped forward. He was utterly monstrous to look at with his horned face and beast like eyes that seemed to want to draw out my nightmares so that he may feast upon them.

“Calm yourself Kitten, no one is going to hurt you here.” The biker said trying to reach me slowly as I had started moving backwards trying to get away from them all! I looked to him and when I saw the face of many beasts trying to break free I shrieked in fear.

“Holy Shit! What the Hell are all you people?!” Luc was stood the other side of me and could see what was going on as everyone seemed to crowd around as if ready to pounce.

“Give her some fucking space!” He snarled out at them all before turning back to me, 

“Listen to me Katie, you need to concentrate, you need to fight this…focus on the sound of my voice and this will all go away…trust me, I will take care of yo…” Suddenly Draven broke free from his brother’s hold and charged.

“She’s mine!”
He roared at him before flying straight into him, knocking them both onto the floor and rolling in a heap. Draven came out on top and was currently pounding Luc’s head into the floor. Luc didn’t put up with this for long as he managed to crack a sideways punch across Draven’s jaw and it was enough for Luc to gain the upper hand.

“She can fucking see us, you Asshole!” Luc shouted at him but Draven was far too lost in his rage to listen. He charged at him once more and took him off his feet until he ran straight into the table. There he body slammed him onto the solid wooden top, only for it to split straight down the middle. Then he ripped one of the winged statues from the fireplace and with crumbling stone raining from its base he held it high above Luc, ready to kill him.

“Oh God!” I said putting my hands to my mouth just as Sophia had done and it was only when I uttered the question,

“What in God’s name are you?”
that he finally stopped, realising for the first time that I had witnessed everything. He was stood there panting in his torn clothes, wings out and still holding his weapon above his head.

“Are you still my Draven?”
I asked through the tears and this was enough to finally stop the madness. He lowered the statue and dropped it beside him, cracking the stone slabs underneath. The whole terrifying room was silent and the only sound made was coming from his heavy breathing and me trying to keep it together.

For long moments everything stopped. I just stood there as he did as if we were both too afraid what the other one would do if we moved. Then Draven looked around the room at both the destruction he had caused and the room full of Demons he had allowed me to see. I saw the very moment he realised what his actions had caused as pain sliced through his features. His eyes that were once purple simmered back down to black and he folded his wings back in a subdued, more relaxed position.

Then he did something that surprised me. He reached his hand out to Luc and with no hesitation, like I would have expected to see, he grasped the offered hand and let Draven pull him from the splintered wreckage.

“You are in love with my wife?” Draven asked him and Luc quickly looked to me, when I inhaled sharply. He straightened his stance, looked me right in my tear filled eyes and said,

“Yes.” I sucked in a shuddering breath and let even more tears fall, for somewhere deep inside of me knew what this meant. They knew the depth of this single word spoken and I cried for the loss of so many things.

Draven winced against the torrent of emotions hearing this must have flooded him with and instead of tearing into him again he seemed to just accept it.

“Yet you know she can never be yours.” He stated and it wasn’t done in an arrogant way but just in a way that told him I had sealed my fate long ago and there was no going back now…And not one single part of me would ever want to go back on that vow, not even after seeing him before me as he was now.

Luc turned to face Draven side on and said,

“I know, old friend.” Draven closed his eyes for a second, no doubt because of the pain he heard in Luc’s bitter acceptance and then after placing his hand on his shoulder he said,

“Then it is done.” Luc nodded. The moment quickly passed for him and everyone else but there were still two people that had explaining to do, so I wasn’t surprised when Luc, knowing this, shouted,

“Everyone out!”

Draven and I didn’t watch as Hell’s creatures walked from the room. All we saw was each other as the door closed and left behind the fractured mind of a terrified girl that was so close to breaking entirely.

“You didn’t answer my question.” I told him, finally finding my voice and I was shocked when it didn’t waver like I thought it would. He looked down at the floor for a moment as if trying to decide what he should do. I found something shocking in myself as I waited for what my answer would be and that was the longer I waited the more I started to panic. Not about what you would have expected after witnessing everything that just happened or finding out the truth about what these people were. It wasn’t what they could do to me, or what they would for that matter. No, it was nothing that questioned my survival or even my beliefs in this world. It was all centred around one thing…

Around one man.

Was he still
my Draven?

His answer first came in the actions he took as in only five long strides he was in front of me. He put both his hands on my face and told me the only thing I needed to hear,

“I will always be your Draven.”
And then he wrapped me in his wings and kissed me.

After this emotional turn of events, Draven simply picked me up and carried me back to his bedchamber without either of us saying another word. Once there I quickly realised the food had been cleared away and the bed had been remade. He set me down on the couch taking a seat opposite me and ran a hand through his hair before saying,

“Okay, so let’s start from the beginning.”

This turned out to be a long beginning, and even longer middle and the end, well that was taking us into the night. But by the time we were done, we both knew a lot more than what we started with. So much so in fact Draven was ready to storm into the Colony right now and massacre the whole lot of them just to be sure he punished anyone that had ever hurt me.

But even as I stated that we both knew a lot more, which was true, there was a lot that Draven held back and I could tell it wasn’t because he wanted to.  There was still the issue of this other life of mine looming over us and a lifetime of history I didn’t remember wasn’t what I needed right now. Sure, I was buzzing with questions, but as much as I wanted to know there was an equal amount that I didn’t.

So even though Draven explained it the best he could on how we met, this was a difficult task without delving too much into my past life. At one point he asked me how I got my scars and he seemed surprised when I simply held up my arms and said,

“What these? Oh they were from the car wreck when Ari pulled me out. She has some too on her back.” He gave me a kind and tender look and then raised them both up to kiss all the way down the various lines. After this I knew there was definitely more to the scars than I first thought as he seemed both saddened and strangely pleased by my answer.

So I continued on freely with my side of the story and he continued on restricted by his side. I managed to tell him most things about how Ari and I grew up and for a lot of it I could tell he struggled to hear all the pain we had suffered. I had only got as far as to tell him about my time at the Colony, not about when I escaped, which brought us to now and what I had to explain next. 

“I think they were Vampires, like Lucius.” I said his full name and this hadn’t been for the first time today, as during our talk, I had learnt all about the real ‘Luc’. I knew of the rocky past he and my other self had been through together but more importantly, what we had overcome. And in the end, what he had done for me. 

“You mean these men you call the ‘Fathers’?” He asked pulling both my legs up and draping them over him when he saw me stretching them out from being sat so long. I smiled at how natural the act was, still not used to that type of caring attentiveness that came from a lover who cared deeply for you.

“Yes. I mentioned about what we discovered they were doing to the girls every month…” I made a disgusted face at just thinking about it again. He nodded so I continued,

“Well, when Ari and I found the cabin, we knew what they had in store for one of us and how walking away from the Colony was never going to happen, so we knew we had to get away.”

“So that’s when you ran.”

“Yes but…” I didn’t know how to finish as I had tried to block most of the details from my mind.

“It’s okay, let’s just take a minute and continue…”

“But that’s just it. I can only remember bits of what she said to me. She started acting crazy, telling me things I didn’t understand at the time but now looking back, I think she was trying to tell me something important, something that could have helped us.” I said after interrupting him and feeling as though by not remembering every word she had said, I was not only letting him down but I was letting Ari down as well.