Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 1 (Afterlife saga Book 7)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “Uh is not a word in any language.” I would have said I beg to differ on that considering I used it quite a lot around the Dravens…thankfully though I had the good sense this time around to keep my mouth shut. Now if there had been a magic word I could have said to get me out of here then I would have shouted it to the Heavens, but unfortunately I was a little low on time travelling handbooks.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, thinking my only option left was to try sweet, innocent grovelling and it always worked for the other Draven, so really…how different could they be? His hand circled my throat once more, quickly answering my question,

  Make that…very different.

  “Please.” I begged, really hoping he didn’t think of me as disposable.

  “Does this… Draven mean anything to you?” he asked me, hissing his own name. I shook my head and he released some of the pressure once more.

  “Good. For if I hear of him again I shall have him hunted down and brought to me to meet his death at the end of my blade…am I understood?” Once more I was tempted to say, ‘you would have a job love, unless you like stabbing mirrors,’ but again I just nodded.

  “You belong to me now and if I find out any other’s hands have touched what is mine, then it will be the very last thing they touch before seeing them severed on the ground…am I also understood, Bahrreh?” This time before I gave him my head nod, I swallowed hard and he felt it go down past his grip. The grin he gave me was as handsome as it was frightening and suddenly I didn’t know, if when the time came, I could do this.

  I didn’t know this Draven, so how was I ever meant to control the situation like the Fates wanted me to? For starters it was clear he had no clue who I was to him other than a plaything he didn’t want to share. I guess that wasn’t the worst thing to know, as I wasn’t ever going to be the Orgy type…but a toy to the man I loved and who I only knew as my equal…my husband. Well that was another thing entirely.

  This time I couldn’t help the words that slipped out,

  “I’m scared of this part of you…I want to go home…back to Afterlife.” I confessed and that’s when everything started to change. The room around us started to spin and blur, but only the Persian King in front of me stayed the same. He frowned down at me, pulled himself from my body and the connection was suddenly lost. I spun out of control as if he had been my anchor in the storms of time and now I was lost. My hands tried to grip back onto anything that would secure me, but it was no good.

  I barely saw his hands trying to grab me to him but our fingers were an inch too far apart. I couldn’t see his face but I heard him calling my name, one he had given me,

  “Nāzanin! Nāzanin! Come back to me!” I kept shaking my head as another name merged with the plea,

  “Nāzanin, Keira! NazKeira! Keira come back to me!” I opened my eyes and gasped for air as if I had been held under water all this time. I found myself lying flat and looking up at a ceiling I finally knew or should I say the canopy to a bed I cherished. But even better than this was the face which invaded the view.

  “Dra…Draven?” At first I was scared to say the name, knowing now of the King’s wrath, but I wasn’t looking at a King anymore,

  I was looking at my…

  “Husband”

  Chapter 15

  Dirty

  When I awoke in bed after my time travel tripping out, I found out from Draven that I had simply passed out on him after my release. It was the perfect explanation, as the intensity had done this to me before in the past. What I couldn’t explain however was my dream, one that looked to him more like a nightmare. He had asked me about it and I was left looking baffled, hoping it was enough to make him believe that I didn’t remember anything. Finally, he gave me the comfort I craved from the gentle Draven I knew and loved, only to then fall asleep in his arms.

  No matter how I tried, I couldn’t help dreaming of another version of him.

  I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t seem to help it. I was still in shock and the only way to deal with it was to overanalyse what I had experienced. I think I had woken up numerous times during the night, but thankfully none of them had disturbed Draven. I had stared down at him sleeping and the sight would bring me solace in the whirlwind of my turbulent mind. I just couldn’t get over how different they were, but I guess that’s what thousands of years could do to a man. When I thought of it from his side, back to all of the times he must have lived through and how humanity had changed in all those years, well then it was understandable.

  But this taste of what I was getting myself into hadn’t helped. No in fact quite the opposite. Because if the Fates had intended to show me this glimpse of what was to come to aid me in anyway, then for once they had been dead wrong in doing so. Even Lucius had got it somewhat right when he had infected my mind with images of Draven’s old life and even though still intimidating as the vision had been, Draven of that time hadn’t been as terrifying…and I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head!

  So I woke up early just as the sun was rising and tried not to disturb Draven as I slipped out of bed and into my pyjamas. I knew my windows of opportunity were only ever going to be a handful with Draven keeping an eye on me and I had a feeling that after last night, that was only going to increase. So I had no choice and I told myself this as I sneaked out of the room and padded down the hallway in my socks.

  I had been to Sophia’s room a few times before, so I crept along the empty corridors and up and down staircases until I recognised the door to Sophia’s playroom. I remembered back to the first time I had seen this room and its door being opened by Zagan. I remembered the wink he had given Sophia and back then I had no clue that they were together. Looking back now though I thought it had been sweet, knowing how he obviously felt about her.

  And like before, I walked through the doorway and took in the large open space that didn’t look like a room but more like the floor of a department store and I was in soft furnishings…that or a pool side cabana without the pool. Of course, I now knew what all the scattered beds and cushions were for and it wasn’t just kicking back and relaxing. Back then I had been somewhat naive to the sexual appetites of Supernaturals and a world I hadn’t fully understood. To be honest, I still felt like a learner sometimes and maybe that was the point. I wasn’t corrupted by the politics of Draven’s world and with that type of innocence comes acceptance, which was necessary for a ruler taking a queen. Or so I told myself anyway.

  I walked further into the Moroccan style space knowing that her private bedroom was at the other end of the room and hidden by a wall of floaty material. Beautiful fabrics all hung overlapping each other from a high arched ceiling and instead of going fabric diving I did as Sophia did that day. I held my hand up to it and at first I didn’t think anything was going to happen but then they started to sway and eventually part, allowing me access.

  I ducked under, half expecting them to fall back on me. When that didn’t happen I gave a little knock on the door facing me. I quickly heard Sophia voicing a regal sounding ‘Enter’ and I walked into Sophia’s gothic princess room. It hadn’t changed much since the last time I had been in here, other than a few added pieces here and there. The bed was still a huge wrought iron arched design covered in flowing fabrics, covering her from sight.

  “Hello?” I said letting her know it was me and the curtains of fabric opened to show me she was still in bed.

  “Oh good, you’re alone, I was worried you were with…” I stopped when Sophia started giggling and then Zagan emerged from under the covers and… also in between her legs.

  “Oh god! I’m so sorry!” I said turning around quickly, feeling my cheeks glow from embarrassment. I heard the two of them laughing behind me and I knew it was better for them to find amusement out of my shame than being annoyed at the fun I had obviously interrupted. So I stood there staring at one of the giant pink roses surrounded by black velvet that decorated Sophia’s walls, until I heard Zagan clear his throat behind me.
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  “It’s all good Kaz, you can turn around now.” Sophia informed me on a laugh. So I turned to find a pale skinned Zagan standing there in just a pair of black trousers and nothing else, other than his extensive tattoos covering half his body. They were a mix between black charred tree roots and demonic symbols that I had never seen before. If I had to guess they looked like names in symbol form that had been added to each branch, and this stretched right down where I couldn’t see and back up over the side of his head, down through the scar on his face.

  Something had to be said for Sophia’s husband, he was certainly ripped and the startling white skin on show didn’t detract from the amount of muscle he had been hiding behind his many layers of clothes.

  Also his white hair was shaved at the sides and the longer hair on top was sectioned and tied back in black rings that continued down the length of his back. Where did all that hair come from as I knew it was long, but looking at him now and it was as if I was seeing him for the first time. He looked like a tattooed angel, not the Demon and commander of Hell’s Legions that I knew him to be.

  “Again I am so sorry, I didn’t realise…” Zagan smiled and said,

  “No harm done, little queen.” Then he patted me on my head before turning back to his wife and saying,

  “I will be back to finish you off later, sweet cheeks.” And with a handsome wink, he was gone. Still as red as a nun in a porn shop, I looked at Sophia and she simply grinned and stretched out like a cat.

  “I…”

  “If you’re going to say sorry again then I will order him back in here to finish me off and give you something to get really red-cheeked about,” she said stopping me.

  “Shame,” she then muttered after she had given me enough time to follow through with her threat. She whipped back the covers revealing her very naked body, before bouncing out of bed. I automatically turned around to give her some privacy and she giggled saying,

  “I’m going to start thinking that you would like me to redecorate your own bedchamber, given how much you like staring at that wall.”

  “I think Draven would burst a blood vessel if you did that.” I informed her.

  “I see you took my comment about only getting up at lunch time to heart,” she said looking at the clock.

  “I needed to speak to you.”

  “I gathered. Does Dom know you’re gone?” She asked and I peeked over my shoulder to see her picking up a long silk kimono style robe and pulling it up over her naked shoulders.

  “No, which means I have no idea how long I have got.” I watched as Sophia clipped up her hair, tied the belt on her robe and then came to sit back gracefully on the bed looking like some 1950’s iconic beauty.

  “Why did you lie for me last night?” I asked and her mischievous grin told me she knew more than she was letting on.

  “Because I knew how important it was, but we can’t discuss this here or now. Go back to your room and leave it to me, but do me a favour.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Try and act with slightly more skill this time.” I rolled my eyes at her and said,

  “I can’t help that I suck at lying.”

  “Yeah well if my gut is right then I have a feeling there is going to be a lot more lying for you in the not so distant future.” I was about to ask what she knew when she hurried me out of the room. I did as I was told, along with following the corridor three doors down to Pip’s room to tell her to get ready… Sophia’s orders of course.

  Knowing that Sophia was right and time was of the essence, I jogged down and stopped at Pip’s door. I took a deep breath and knocked, having no clue what I would be walking into. After all, this was Pip we were talking about!

  “Come alongy inny” she shouted which I took as Pip speak for ‘you may enter’.

  “You can do this…just in and out.” I whispered, psyching myself up to what I was dreading would soon be a scene that would no doubt burn itself into my retinas. I walked inside and I was surprised to see that most of it just looked like any other luxurious, stately room that was in Afterlife, but as I walked further round it gradually became more Pip. There were open canvas travel wardrobes positioned everywhere and all of them were bursting with colour. This made sense considering their main home was in Germany, back in Transfusion. Which begged the thought on how Lucius felt about being without his right hand man these days?

  I moved further inside stepping over action figures, Lego buildings that strangely looked as though they had been melted and of course what else in Pip’s world went with kid’s toys…dildos. Lots and lots of them. Some of the largest ones were even positioned like castle towers around the melting Lego fort. Naturally I side stepped those and carried on pretending I hadn’t seen that combination of plastic, instead focusing my attention on finding Pip. When I finally did of course, I was left dumbstruck and not for the reasons you might expect.

  “Pip!” I couldn’t help shouting her name as I took in the mundane (for Pip) scene ahead of me. In fact, the only odd thing I was looking at was the bed, the design of which looked to be sculptured around a rainbow wave. If you could think of a U shape on its side with the mattress on the bottom and a massive flat screen TV nestled in the curve, then you have the image I was seeing. The whole thing looked to be made out of different coloured strips of Perspex melted together giving it that rainbow effect. Little fairy lights embedded in there lit up the inside making the whole thing glow. It was stunning and so Pip that I couldn’t help but shout,

  “Wicked bed!”

  “Toots!” She shouted back, bouncing in Adam’s lap. This sounded a lot ruder than it was, as in actual fact there was no rampant sexy business going on at all. That was not, unless you called knitting what looked like the longest scarf in history, an X rated affair. Weirdly, the whole scene was so tame I wondered for a few seconds if there was something wrong with Pip?

  Did Imps get ill?

  “What’s up, Tootalicious?”

  “Hey guys, sorry to interrupt.” I said but Pip just waved it off with knitting needles still in hand. She had her back to a bare chested Adam, who had his muscle bound arms around her and at first it looked as though he was locking her in his embrace. But as I got closer I realised he actually had no choice as he was currently being used to hold her wool that had been woven around his spread fingers to make it easier for her while knitting.

  “Good Morning, Keira,” Adam said being his usual polite self, despite the fact that I was intruding on their morning ritual.

  “Morning guys.”

  “You’re not interrupting.” Pip said then nodded to the TV and added,

  “We’re just watching cartoons. This is the one where someone steals all the Gummiberry juice.” I looked to the TV to see a load of bouncing bears all dressed like something out of Robin Hood talking about berries.

  “So, important stuff then,” I said joking and Adam chuckled, making him lose a few loops of yarn from his hands.

  “Sorry Love,” he told her when she started growling at him before nibbling at his fingers like a cute critter…one in pigtails, I might add.

  “Anyway, I just wanted to pop in to tell you that Sophia and I need to talk about…uh…” I looked to Adam and thought it best to keep this just between us girls, so continued with something else I knew Pip would get ready for.

  “…wedding and Hen do stuff.”

  “Oh shit pink bricks and make me candy floss! I will be there in a jiffy bag!” She said bouncing, thus losing the rest of the wool Adam had tried in vain to hold onto.

  “Okay, well Sophia will be along shortly, I will leave you to get back to your scarf and to get ready.” I told them, smiling at Adam’s crooked glasses but then Pip burst out laughing.

  “It’s not a scarf, silly! It’s a new sex swing. See, the legs go through here,” she said, holding it up so I could now see the holes she was talking about. I closed my eyes, shook my head trying in vain to get rid of the image and said,

  “B
ut of course, how silly of me,” making her laugh.

  “You mortals are so funny! Aren’t they funny, petal pants?” I heard her asking Adam as I left, holding up my arm behind me, waving goodbye. I thought to myself it was too normal to be true, as I walked back to my room.

  I was hoping to find Draven still asleep when I got there and if I could stretch my luck enough, hoping it wouldn’t be too much to ask for Pip to not give the game away with their ‘surprise’ visit.

  It didn’t seem to take me as long to get back as it did going to Sophia’s room, but I must confess, I had made a wrong turn a few times. But it wasn’t exactly surprising considering how huge this place was. When I got back to our room, I winced as I saw Ragnar now situated outside our door and without the time to think of a good excuse, I had no idea what I was going to say.

  “He’s still asleep and if I may, I suggest going straight into the bathroom so as not to wake him.”

  “Uh…come again?” I said wondering if I had heard him right. He gave me a wink and said,

  “I can’t see any harm done as you look all in one piece to me.” I gave my giant friend a beaming smile before reaching up and hugging him. He tensed and kind of patted me on the back whilst clearing his throat, obviously feeling uncomfortable with what to do in this situation. I decided to give my friend a break and whispered,

  “Thanks, big guy,” before opening the door as quietly as I could. Ragnar was right, Draven was still asleep. I decided to take his advice and slip into the bathroom, so if he woke up, it looked as if I had only got up to use the toilet. However, once I was in there I decided against this plan as the shower was calling my name.

  I peeled off my t shirt and kicked off my bottoms before getting in the shower, basking in the heat of the water as it rained down on me. It felt heavenly but it was nothing compared to the feel of the strong hands that came up behind me and started washing my hair.