The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

by Hudson, Stephanie

  Thinking back to everything that had happened, it suddenly felt so obvious now, I felt like smacking myself. The attempts of my kidnapping, no-one knowing where Draven was or having any concrete answers for any of my questions. The reality of it was that no-one really knew!

  But I think I did.

  Could it be that Draven wasn’t dead after all and just being kept prisoner by some kind of power he needed love’s help to overcome. Was that what his father had implied when talking about Draven’s restrained power within? Was I now a target simply because I was trying to find Draven, because thinking back, it had all started when I received my first letter from the Oracle. So did that mean that Draven’s jailor could be this Gastian person?

  Well, Draven’s dad was right about one thing and that was I needed to be asking the right people and right now there was only one person I could think of who could help me.

  “Lucius, I hope your ass is still in Germany.” I muttered to myself before looking up to catch the look of relief on Jared’s face. He stopped pacing and stormed to the end of the dock with a determined stride. I was about to take the offered hand from Charon when Jared snarled inches from his face.

  “Well, alright then.” Charon said pulling back comically. I had to say I felt a bit sorry for the guy now, after the day of being shouted at and turned into a nasty Lust Demon. Jared didn’t bother holding out his hand for me to take…no, no, instead he just took me. He was still giving a warning glare to Charon as he lifted me clean out of the boat and popped me down by his side. Then, without another word, he took my hand and pulled me abruptly back towards the mountain.

  “Um…thanks Charon.” I said waving behind me, wondering what had gotten into Jared.

  “No worries…I would say laters but you know…not what people wanna hear, so…” He just nodded his head as he gave me a salute in place of a wave.

  “Hey, where’s the fire?” I asked trying to get Jared to communicate with me using actual words instead of growly pissed animal noises.

  “The fire? Seriously, you wanna play this bullshit with me?!” He snapped at me and I pulled from him, holding up my hands in surrender.

  “What is your problem?” Ok, so this was totally the wrong thing to ask a beast on the edge. His eyes turned into black slits in a pool of hot silver, oh and of course he snarled at me.

  “My problem?!” Even his voice had changed, crossing those fine lines between, man, beast and Demon.

  “My fucking problem started when you decided it would be good for a laugh to go off to a circle in Hell and right up to the fucking doorstep of the one who runs that shit! Do you have…” He cut his arm through the air in his anger before carrying on,

  “…have, any fucking clue how dangerous that was…? DO YOU?” He roared this last part out at me and I could briefly see his fangs grow and his jaw elongate. Then I decided to do something stupid. I pushed him.

  “How dare you! What right do you have to go ape shit at me for anyway? What do you care!? What would it have mattered to you if…oh wait…now I get it…you weren’t worried about me, oh no...!” Oh, now he backed away. I stepped closer and poked him in the chest as I carried on delivering the truth of the matter,

  “You were worried about your precious vow and what would have happened if I wasn’t around to keep my side of the bargain!” I swear I saw him flinch and I felt some satisfaction in that, given the reasons why he seemed to be so worried about me or more like, what I could do for him!

  “Well, what did you expect Pet, me here gushing over a piece of pretty ass?!” I gritted my teeth at his come back and then let rip. Before he saw what was coming I slapped him shouting,

  “You jerk!” And then stormed off in my anger, only I had no idea to where, seeing as I was in the Underworld! But at that minute I just didn’t care, I was fuming angry!

  “And where do you think you’re going?” The words grumbled out of him as he wrapped both his arms around me from behind.

  “Let me go!” I screamed but he just held on tighter.

  “NO!” After that shout I decided to let my anger come off the boil and simmer. He must have decided to do the same because we just stayed like this and panted until our breathing calmed. Then he released a big sigh.

  “Look, I…well damn it, I was worried about you alright!”

  “You mean the bargain don’t you?” I reminded him bitterly then heard him try for patience in the form of another sigh.

  “It should be just about that but it… wasn’t. I was worried about what would happen to you and what I could have done to get you back safely.”

  “You would have come for me?” I asked a bit dumbfounded.

  “Yes.” On that one word my breath caught before I asked,

  “But why?”

  “I don’t know why and that’s why I am so angry. It’s like as soon as I met you something deeply ingrained inside of me was connected to you. As if someone flipped a switch that said I must protect you, even against my own kind and even with my own life.” On hearing his declaration, I relaxed back into him, all fight flying right out of me.

  “Maybe it’s just the vow.” I said looking for the simplest answer.

  “Fuck the vow! All I know is these feelings are opening a big fucking hole, one I closed and buried a long time ago and nothing scares me in this world other than one thing and that is seeing that hole open up again…hear me now pet, I don’t let anyone in…ever!” I bit my lip and nodded, not trusting myself to say anything right now.

  “Now do me a favour… take my hand, follow me from here and forget this damn day, leaving it where it belongs.”

  “And where is that?” I asked on a whisper. He released me and we both turned but even now with his back to me I didn’t miss what he said next,

  “…Dead and buried.”

  We soon found ourselves back in the caves and making our way back through the complicated maze of bare rock. And for once, I was silent. I was still trying process all I had learnt but mostly trying to make sense of Jared’s words. I didn’t quite know what was going on with him but I knew being around me was messing with his head. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to be anyone’s painful reminder of a past long buried. But most importantly, where did that leave us now?

  These thoughts plagued me and when I lost my footing and fell into his back I felt him tense.

  “Sorry.” I muttered feeling embarrassed where once I wouldn’t have.

  “What are you planning, Keira?” I frowned at the unexpected question at first, not understanding where it had come from.

  “What do you…?”

  “Well, knowing what I’ve come to learn about you, I know that by me putting your ass on a plane home is going to be a wasted effort in keeping you safe... so I will ask again, what are you planning?” He asked turning to me, having stopped not far from the top, back near the Roman numerals ‘22’.

  “I need to get to Germany.” I stated firmly.

  “And what’s in Germany?”

  “Lucius.” At this I could see him raise an eyebrow.

  “Please tell me you’re joking.” I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him my best ‘I got attitude’ look.

  “And why would I be?” My answer got me an eye roll and him throwing his arms up dramatically.

  “Jesus girl! What is it with you… you got the fucking yellow pages of bad ass Demons on speed dial?! Is there even one powerful killing machine out there you don’t know!? Jesus! But of course…the fucking Vampire King!” His irate voice seemed to bounce from the damn stone surrounding us, making it even colder down here.

  “It’s not like that…you don’t …” He wouldn’t let me finish.

  “Oh no? So let’s see shall we, let’s recap…” He stormed back to me coming so close I had to look up. Then he began counting on his fingers,

  “First off, you come into my club with a bodyguard, who if he ever let’s his iron control snap, could have torn through every fucking Demon there and is a Ki
ng in his own right… then second comes me, another King who you fearlessly asked for help into getting into Hell…right am I getting through yet…no, then let me continue…” He stepped again further into me making me back up with his intensity.

  “…So, once in Hell comes the third guy, a God damn President in the circles that aids in ruling Hell itself! I mean do you have even the tiniest concept of how powerful someone like that is?... I judge from your wide kitten eyes that’s a no!”

  “Jared…” I reached out to him to get him to stop, but instead he grabbed my wrist and then twisted it painlessly behind my back. Once trapped, he then took the last steps pushing me back into the wall behind.

  “Then I find my little pet wants to take a trip off to see the fourth guy, a fucking Vampire King, who is known throughout my world as being one ruthless bastard and that’s coming from ‘it takes one to know one’, darling.”

  “But…” Again he wouldn’t let me speak. Instead he raised a finger to my lips to silence me before he continued his rant, which granted was making me out to be mentally incapable of making my own suicidal decisions.

  “But then to top it all off and the very last slice of your crazy mind, is who you belong to. A being who is more powerful than all of the above and I am not ashamed to admit to it. The very one who commands us all, apart from you it seems, considering you can’t just listen to him and fucking MOVE ON!” This was when it felt like he had slapped me! He knew…he knew!

  “You know?!” He shook his head as if surprised that I was focusing on this part of what he had just said.

  “I…” This was when I showed him a piece of that crazy!

  “You knew! All this time you knew what I was trying to do, yet answer me this Jared, why is it you didn’t seem very shocked that I came back to the dock without the one person I went there to save…? Answer me, why is that exactly?!” At this he let me go on a growl and walked away showing me his back.

  “You knew he wasn’t there…all this time and you still let me go to Hell and back and all for what…so you could get you’re fucking Vow from me! Oh, you were right about one thing, you’re a ruthless bastard alright! So where is he then, do you know who has him?!” I was so near to screaming at him instead of shouting, but this was breaking my bloody heart! I felt betrayed, so utterly betrayed.

  “You have this all wrong, pet.”

  “Don’t call me that!” He held up his hands as he tried using a softer tone, saying,

  “Alright Keira, but you have to listen to me, it isn’t like that. I knew, yes, that you wouldn’t be coming back with the King in tow, but I thought you would at least find some answers, that’s why I wanted to give you my coin. But then when I saw what you really had planned, where you were really trying to get to, then that’s when I tried to stop you.” I had nothing to say to his confession other than to hear it all out. He took a moment and when I didn’t speak he rubbed one hand at the back of his neck in frustration. It was surprisingly a very human thing to do.

  “I don’t know where the King is, Keira and I don’t know anyone who does. When you came into my club, I felt something… I wasn’t lying about that back there…I knew I needed to do this for you and what it would mean for me in return one day. It didn’t take me long to figure out who you were, but by then it was too late. The King’s rules had already been broken and I had to follow what the damn fates had set into place.” This news made me react. I lost sight of my hurt long enough to ask,

  “What do you mean by the fates?” His reaction to this worried me because his gaze lowered as though he couldn’t look me in the eyes any longer.

  “Jared?” He closed his eyes briefly, inhaled a deep breath and finally looked at me to deliver his last emotional bomb.

  “The Oracle, Keira, she told me you would come and what would happen when you did.” I sucked in my own sharp breath and took a stunned step back, using the wall to stop me from crumbling.

  “She…she told you to make a Vow and that I too would make one in return…didn’t she…DIDN’T SHE!?” I screamed this last part when he didn’t answer me. He took in my anger and nodded.

  “All this time I have been played.”

  “No, I don’t think that’s what this is.” He tried to reason with me, but I was too far from the surface to claw out of my pit of betrayal that these people had plunged me into.

  “Then what would you call it Jared, because from the very beginning I have been placed around this damn chessboard like a defenceless pawn, all for what, to give the big players a chance at something I couldn’t see before, but now I see…now I see what this is!” I walked to push past him in this narrow tunnel but he grabbed my forearm to stop me.

  “Then what is this, Keira?” He asked gently looking down at me with sad eyes of concern.

  “This is your fate, Jared, this is everyone’s fate at the expense of my own happy one.”

  “That’s not true and you know it. Look Keira, I am not going to pretend that I know what will happen with you and the King, but I do know that I was meant to meet you, I was meant to feel this way about you and for what, so that I could get you into Hell for no real reason…?” I shrugged my shoulders, feeling deflated and hurt but then he shouted,

  “Bullshit! Don’t you see, everything that happens now is for a reason, but it’s just a reason we can’t see yet. Don’t stop believing Keira, don’t give up…hold on Keira.” Those words had me in a vice called faith and hope. They were the same words from Draven’s father and now they had come back to me when I needed them the most.

  “I know you feel betrayed, little pet, but I did all that was asked of me, I was told not to tell you what I knew and this I did on blind faith in the Oracle’s words. Knowledge, pet, is a weapon sometimes best left until the last possible moment.” I let myself absorb his words of wisdom and hated that he was right. If I had known any of this, would I still have gone through with it all? That I couldn’t answer, but it still made me understand the why.

  “Fine, but what about Sigurd, is he working with the Oracle as well? Is that who sent him to me and if that’s true then…wait a minute.” I said suddenly realising something that I had not thought of until now…something that chilled me to the core.

  “Keira, what is it?”

  “Where is Sigurd?” Jared shook his head and said,

  “I’m not following…should he be here?” My eyes widened and panic seized me.

  “He wrote me a note, but with everything that just went on I had forgotten…he… he was supposed to meet me, he is the reason I came here tonight.”

  “Give me the note.” Jared ordered, now stepping back into his masterful role. I fished around in my bag, knowing that every second I took, the more frustrated Jared was getting with me.

  “Here it is.” I said passing it to him. He picked up the lantern he had dropped in our argument and held it over the note. It was a few tense moments before he said,

  “Time to go,” in a harsh voice. He stuffed the note in his back pocket and grabbed my hand to pull me quickly through the last of the tunnel.

  “What is it…? Jared, just tell me!” I pleaded when he wouldn’t answer me. Then he stopped abruptly, making me walk into his back again. He looked as though he was trying to figure out how to word his next statement. Then he turned to me with the lantern raised, which put his serious expression in the spotlight. Then he told me the startling truth.

  “I got a visit from your Ouroboros master last night. He told me he had to leave the country… someone he worked for in Italy who needed to hear all that had happened. But before he left, we made a blood pact to seal my word in looking out for you in his place.”

  “What!?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! He left me…he really left me?

  “Keira, listen to me now. This is the reason I had my brother follow you and when he found out you were coming here, I assembled my men and came for you. I knew you had the heart and thought you had taken it upon yourself to try and get into Hell
alone.”

  “So, Sigurd didn’t tell you to meet me here?” Which was what I originally thought had happened.

  “No, in fact he asked me to do the opposite, to wait and stall you if you became insistent, a task I found I could not withhold due to my own vow to you.” I was fast trying to make sense of all this, but then the most important question had to be asked.

  “So if Sigurd didn’t write the note, then who did?” At this his face hardened as if ready to lose that barely contained fury he wanted to unleash with his next breath.

  “Let’s go.” He didn’t answer me but I had a feeling he had an idea.

  We made it up the last tunnel with haste and emerged from the entrance to find that the darkness could not hide what faced us. Jared’s brother and his men were all stood spaced out in a line which secured the entry way. I was quickly pulled behind Jared’s protective frame as we approached his brother.

  “Nice of you to join us J, wouldn’t have wanted you to miss your welcome party.” Orthrus said sarcastically, then cracked his knuckles in the face of our danger.

  “Wouldn’t have missed it for all of Hell, brother.” Jared replied dryly, looking from side to side, as if taking in each individual threat. Although now, looking at the small army of mutated demons that had us trapped in a corner, there looked to be too many threats to count.

  “How many?” Jared asked one of the men at his brother’s side.

  “Twenty five here, but there could be more.”

  “That’s five each boys, anyone that gets six picks a loser to buy a round…plus looking at these ugly bastards I’m thinking a lap dance too.” All heads nodded in agreement and I snorted my disbelief on hearing Jared’s brother making a bet at a time like this.