The Pentagram Child: Part 1 (Afterlife Saga Book 5)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “You are getting your sweet ass somewhere safe, whilst I deal with your boyfriend.”

  “What are you gonna do, break up with him for me?” I said finding the term boyfriend for such a man too disgusting to think about.

  “Oh I am going to break something alright.” He replied seriously giving me the unwanted visual that Alex had a lot of pain coming his way. I decided it was best not to know too much for what Lucius had planned so I decided silence was the best option as he opened the door.

  “After you.” He said bowing as he held open the door for me and I couldn’t tell if he was just being himself or if it was for my benefit at trying to ease my worried mind. Either way I stepped through the door and climbed the few of steps that led up as if we were coming out of a basement. I gave myself a mental shake for obvious reasons as I still had a few issues with basements.

  I then stepped into a room I hadn’t seen for a while and one I never really understood but to me it looked like something you would have expected to see in a supernatural museum. Only this museum had been clearly vandalised as there was now glass all over the floor.

  “Your handy work?” I asked tiptoeing around the shards.

  “Guilty.” He said waving his sword at me, one that I knew used to be in the hand of the statue that had now shifted to the side to allow for us to get up to this level.

  “Come on trouble, let’s get you out of here.” He said taking my arm and leading me out of the room when something hugely important smacked me in the face causing me shout out,

  “RJ!” And I wrenched my arm free and turned towards the opposite door.

  “Keira what are you…!?”

  “We have to go back! It’s my friend…he has my friend, it’s how he got me to open the door in the first place...! Please Lucius…please, we have to go back.” I felt his arms go around me from behind in order to calm me down.

  “Okay pet, calm yourself. Just let me get you to safety and…”

  “No! I can’t leave her, not again. She’s by that big tree.” I said interrupting him and when I heard the big sigh from behind me I knew he was reluctantly giving in.

  “Alright Keira girl, we’ll do it your way but you are to stay by my side no matter what.” I knew by the sound of his tone he meant business and I nodded my understanding as he came round to face me.

  “Then let’s go. The Crypt is this way.”

  We made our way to the crypt in silence and I could tell Lucius was thinking this was a bad idea. My only hope was that Alex hadn’t made it there before us, which I knew Lucius must have been thinking the same as I was practically running to keep up with his long strides. The sound of my feet echoing in the massive hallway was combined with the sound of the stone gargoyles turning their heads as we went past.

  “Nosy bastards.” Lucius grumbled after growling at them in warning.

  We came to the last door and Lucius pulled me in behind him. Then with one look that told me both to keep quiet and stay close to him, he opened the door. The frigid cold air that hit us made my hairs stand on end and the eeriness to the silent crypt wasn’t a comforting one. In fact there was no comfort to be found in this cavernous space, even if there had been a brass band playing some happy Disney tune. The only comfort I found was that I could see RJ’s pink hair against the dull pale grey of the ginormous tree at the centre.

  “Over there.” I whispered from behind him, pointing in her direction and Lucius shot me a look over his shoulder as if to say, ‘No shit Sherlock’. He then continued to look all around the room as if listening out for something important and I gathered it was probably for signs of Alex. He must have been satisfied because he nodded for us to move over to where RJ still remained unconscious. As soon as we got closer I made to go around Lucius, forgetting myself at the sight of my friend when he blocked me with the arm holding the sword.

  “What did I say?” Lucius growled scolding me.

  “Sorry.” I whispered shrugging my shoulders and making him roll his eyes at me. I watched as he placed his sword beside her before picking her up in his arms and to be helpful I picked up his weapon for him as he clearly had his hands full.

  “No! Don’t touch…” He started to say but it was too late. I picked up the heavy weight of the weapon and sucked in a sharp startled breath. I closed my eyes and my spine straightened from the shock of what was happening. I was quickly being transported back to a different time, one where the vision was ove taking my reality.

  It was dark, it was wet and it was foggy but it certainly wasn’t inside the ancient crypt I had been stood in moments ago. I could even smell the damp earth I was now looking down at and I could feel the cold penetrating my thin clothes. I then looked up at the night sky and saw the darker patches of thick cloud where the moon was trying to break through. I felt something dripping down my hand and lifted it to see dark blood running down it in rivulets but yet I felt no pain. What was going on here? And that didn’t even look like my hand?

  “Caliburnus.” I heard myself saying, feeling my lips move yet like my hand, it hadn’t been my voice either. No…

  It was Lucius’.

  I was now Lucius.

  This was when the fog started to lift from the ground in a wave towards me. It loomed like a living entity in between my legs and it looked so thick, it was almost as if I could reach out and scoop it up with my hands. But the nearer it got the clearer the sight before me became.

  I was stood at the edge of a lake and I lifted my bloody hands in front of me seeing the strong hands of the man I knew. It soon became clear what was happening and it wasn’t a surprise when something started to emerge out of the murky water. I now knew exactly what was happening after I touched that sword as it had formed some kind of physic kinetic link straight into Lucius’ memories. And now that very weapon was rising up out of the water, only instead of fingers of stone it was the hand of both the dead and the living, changing in and out between flesh, bone and decay.

  The sword gleamed like a beacon just as the moon finally escaped the shadows of the clouds and just as Lucius’ bloody hand reached out to grab it I was suddenly transported back.

  “Wh…what was that?” I asked shaking my head trying to regain my senses enough to focus.

  “Are you alright?” Lucius asked coming up to me and holding my face in his hands. I frowned down at the tingling in my own hand and then looked up at him to give him my uncertain answer,

  “I think so.”

  “Well that will teach you to touch another man’s equipment without asking.” He said on a forced laugh that I could tell was faked to mask his concern.

  “Thanks for the tip.” I said only now noticing that he had placed RJ back on the ground to come to my aid.

  “We need to leave.” He said looking up abruptly as if hearing something in the distance.

  “Good plan.” I said watching as he decided to sling the limp RJ over his shoulder so that he could reach down and this time, grab his own sword. We started walking towards the door when my foot caught on something.

  I tripped, falling to the floor and for the second time coming up close and personal with the mosaic tiles that painted the picture of a raging storm beneath me. Lucius had just made it to the door before he turned.

  “Keira!” He shouted making my name boom around the space but even hearing it repeated as it echoed off every surface wasn’t enough warning before I was grabbed.

  “Get her out of here!” I yelled nodding to RJ as I turned in time to see Alex yank my foot with one of the vines that had been lassoed around my ankle. I quickly found myself skidding along the floor as Alex both pulled the vine and ran towards me. I looked back at Lucius and saw him practically throw RJ down and slam the door behind her.

  “GET OFF ME!” I screamed up at him as he continued to drag me back and closer to the tree. I looked back to see an enraged Lucius storming our way with nothing but murder in his red eyes. Then I was brutally hauled up by my neck as I reached my destination and
was swiftly slammed up against the tree.

  “Let her go, Nephilim.” Lucius said with deadly calm.

  “How about I let her blood go instead?” Alex said holding my neck to the point I could barely breathe and my fingernails scratched at his hand squeezing my throat. He brought his face closer to mine and sneered saying,

  “Let’s see how fast you bleed.”

  I decided to take this opportunity to forget about the breath I needed to survive and used the last of my strength to hurt him. So I lashed out as black spots appeared in front of me and only just managed to press a thumb into his eye until I heard him crying out in pain. I tried not to think of the gross factor and let my adrenaline and need to defend completely take over. Thankfully it was enough for him to let me go but due to the lack of oxygen I didn’t make it far. My legs gave out and my blurring vision barely took in the sight of Lucius erupting into his demon side.

  “KEIRA!” I knew the moment my name started ringing in my ears that I needed to move but it was too late. I was now being forced backwards and my arm was being held outstretched to the side.

  “Too late, Vampire!” Alex said and then all I felt was a pain ripped from my past. Alex had sliced my wrist down to the vein and the searing agony had me screaming till my lungs burned.

  “Now let’s see if your screams can really wake the dead!” Alex spoke to the room, clearly lost in his madness. Then without another thought I felt him thrust my bloody arm into the vines that surrounded the tree and had encased the colossal trunk within its protective cover.

  “NO!” Lucius roared but it was too late. With my arm firmly embedded my life had already started to flow back into the dead tree forcing it to once again take on a new life. It held me locked there just like the door’s vines had done, feeding from me like a suckling child in need of nourishment. This was when I noticed that Alex had taken careful steps back to look around the room as if waiting for something. My fogged mind only took in parts of what was happening and the colour of evergreen was soon blurred tubes in front of me. What were those I wondered as I felt myself being drained of energy.

  It was only when the rumbling started that I was able to piece it all together. Feeding the door a drop of blood was like injecting a small amount of adrenaline into a dead heart and getting enough from one beat to gain access to the Temple. However what Alex had done was to fuel that heart with enough power to pump a constant beat, with my blood acting as the catalyst.

  The lush green life travelled along the veins as if chasing the dead away and pretty soon the whole tree was full of life once more, standing tall in all its superb glory. Although we soon found out this wasn’t the only dead thing to make its appearance to the land of the living once again.

  “Wh…what…haaave…you donnne?” I asked slurring as I was finally released and fell backwards being too weak to stand.

  “I invited some friends to the party.” He said laughing as the vast space shook like it was some aftershock from seismic waves that kept rolling through the levels of the earth beneath us. I saw the dust and debris raining down from the ceiling and I looked back to the walls when the thundering came from all around us.

  I saw Lucius stop and look around the room as if he already knew what was about to happen and only in my wildest of nightmares would I understand. Because this was the point when my life turned into some horrific zombie movie.

  I had to squint my eyes to begin with as the first shadows emerged from the crypt’s holes but soon it started to look more like a wall of black was closing in on us. Like a swarm of bees all moving around each other, it was hard to pinpoint just one. It didn’t make sense until the first line of bodies drew closer and Lucius raised his sword.

  “Oh God no! You…you raised dead!” I whispered as I managed to sit up and cradle my wounded hand to my chest, putting pressure on the bloody slice made there.

  “No… you raised the dead, dear Catherine.”

  “Is this best you can do before you die at my hands, Nephilim?!” Lucius shouted, taking a better stance and looking truly magnificent with his flaming phoenix wings stretched out behind him. He looked ready to take on an army and as the first bodies came into detailed focus I sucked in a worried breath, realising how true that statement was.

  Lucius was going in to battle and he was doing it alone.

  The living dead didn’t walk and stumble along like mindless drones as they did in most movies. No, they went at him with purpose as if he held the key to their resurrected survival. It was like a horde of bodies that looked like their dry flesh had been pulled downwards as it hung from the elongated bones like weighty material. Black holes for their eyes, mouth and nose held no features from their past lives and the most distinct body part was the lines of ribs that showed through the sheer stretched skin that looked as thin and as breakable as tissue paper.

  “LOOK OUT!” I screamed as the first wave attacked him from behind but I needn’t have feared as Lucius cut them down with one swipe, taking five in one go. I watched in pure amazement as he flung his sword around at such speeds it almost looked like the blades on a propeller going round. He spun, ducked and bent at the waist in a series of movements that was so efficient no one really even got close to him. But the more he cut down the more that steadily replaced them.

  I was just watching as he flipped his body around and out to one side arching his weapon downwards which took out another three with one move. Then I was grabbed from behind and with my dry blood still coating the wooden dagger it was held to my throat.

  “Time for us to get back to our own private party.” Alex said and in his excitement I felt the spray of spit hit my ear and neck.

  “Let me go!” I said trying to struggle but giving up quickly when I felt the bite of pain under my neck. I could see Lucius trying to make a path to get to me but each time he tried he was attacked from a different angle. I knew he needed help, just something to give him that small window so he could get to me but more importantly… to Alex.

  So with this new plan in mind I drew in a deep breath and tried to block out the throbbing pain in my arm. I knew I had but one chance at this and I had to make it count. So I tried to relax and blank my mind in order to draw in some energy. I had no idea how to do this so I tried the only idea I had and that was to concentrate on not only everything else around me but seeing it all differently. Not looking at what was in front of me as a person or an object but looking at it as an aura. Something that conducted an essence like the supernatural beings did in order to feed. I had to see the world in their eyes and feel out the different energies like Draven had told me about.

  It was only then that the world for me changed and for once instead of seeing a place of horror, it became a place of beauty. Colours lit up all around the tree of life and even each of the battling dead became a red glow that filled the room with crimson light. It was almost blinding and if I hadn’t had a blade to my neck I would have shielded my eyes. But in the end this became a means of drawing in this newly discovered energy as a way to protect myself. Like my mind took over and started to absorb the auras around me in long streams of colour now travelling towards me. The sole purpose of this was to make the world less bright but in doing so it made me feel strong…very, very strong.

  My body stiffened and I felt the blade start to cut into my skin but instantly, like my arm, it started to heal.

  “This can’t…you…you can’t do this!” Alex said in confusion behind me and just like that night at the ball, my body went stiff as if I was being injected with raw power of the likes I had never known. I felt it seep not only into my veins but also into my very pores as it was absorbed into my skin making me glow.

  My mind felt as though it was on a euphoric cloud, floating away to a better place and it was only when I heard the crashing of stone that I looked down. I was shocked to still see my feet on the ground and the thought sobered me enough to look to where the noise had come from. There I found Lucius pulling his body free of the w
all he had been thrown into and the sight made me angry.

  Actually not just angry but…furious.

  Very quickly all the energy that had once calmed my body and mind was now only focused on one thing. My fingertips started to tingle which I knew was a sign something was coming. But before I could think too much about it a mighty power shot from my hands and all those thin streams of colour I had drawn into me, blasted forth in a line. It blew me backwards with the force but the damage done in front of me was incredible. It had knocked a wide path in the mass of fighting dead bodies like Moses parting a sea of bone and old flesh.

  Lucius saw this and speared the last in his way, leaving his sword embedded in bodies and wasting no time in using the opportunity created for him. He flew over to us, now he no longer had bodies reaching for his wings and within seconds Lucius landed just as Alex was backing up. I fell down on one knee as the energy once consumed was now zapped out of me, leaving me feeling weak. I just had enough in me to raise my head and look up in time to see Lucius grab Alex by the neck, wrench it to the side and plunge his fangs viciously into his flesh.

  This was the animalistic side to Lucius I had never seen before and for someone who usually played their cool demeanour like a fine tuned instrument, it was a chilling sight to witness. One so disturbing I wanted to look away but in the end I forced myself to watch. My eyes took in the space around us and at the continued danger that was no doubt headed our way. Thankfully though it seemed they were now weary of me and gave us all a wide birth.

  Of course it’s always at the point when you think you have finally won when assumption does a round house kick to your gut, knocking you back on your ass! I knew this when something strange started to happen as Alex stopped struggling and his gurgled sounds of blood rushing up his throat started to turn into a sadistic laugh.

  Lucius unlatched his embedded fangs and stumbled backwards.

  “Lucius?” I said his name trying to get him to focus on me as it now looked like he was intoxicated. He held his neck with one hand and used the other to feel behind him as if he was about to bump into something.