Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7)

by Stephanie Hudson

  We looked at each other over Draven’s shoulder as we passed and I wanted to call out for her. The remorse I felt was like a weight crushing me from above and I could only hope that she wasn’t being implicated in my escape. At first I didn’t realise that Draven was looking down watching me and I wondered if he was trying to gauge my reaction at seeing her or not. It was obvious she had been found long before I was discovered, which was why the guards were already half way to finding me back in the marble maze.

  “What will happen to her?” I couldn’t help but ask in a small quiet voice that spoke volumes of my guilt.

  “That all depends on you,” he replied unsympathetically as he looked ahead and while he wasn’t looking down at me I freely bit my lip, only in worry this time. I remained silent as he walked to the back of the room where the wall was lined with small arched doors situated either side of a much larger, grander one. It was an elaborately carved door that was arched with beautifully painted pillars either side and above. Unlike the others it had a complicated locking system on it that looked to run the full height of the door, making me wonder if it was keeping people out or keeping something in.

  At first I thought Draven was going to turn and when I saw Parmida standing there as if appearing out of nowhere holding one of the smaller doors open I thought this was where we were headed.

  “All is ready for you, my King,” she said bowing but for some reason Draven was hanging back as if he was changing his mind about taking me. Doubt clouded my heart for a moment and that shadow of insecurity came haunting back. He looked down at me as if trying to find something he was desperately looking for. I had no clue what he was thinking but when something obviously clicked within him he spoke,

  “Not this time,” he said to me and I felt strangely crushed that he had decided that he no longer wanted to be alone with me. At first I had been fighting with myself as to what would happen the second we were alone together and if it would mean what I guessed it would mean. I had worried the time wasn’t yet right but that had been the self-doubt talking. Because I knew that the second I was back in his arms the truth would remain and that was that I wanted nothing more than what that door represented.

  Draven and I alone.

  “My King, have you changed your mind?” Parmida asked looking confused and surprisingly slightly disappointed for me.

  “I have,” he stated firmly and then turned back to the larger door once more. I didn’t understand what was happening, was he returning me to my little bedroom or not?

  “But my Lord, you have never…” Parmida seemed to know what was happening and the panic in her voice wasn’t at all comforting.

  “Leave!” he snapped abruptly, cutting her off and silencing her concerns. But I couldn’t get her face from my mind. That last look of terror as if she was preparing herself for never seeing me again. I had no clue what was behind the door as I had never been in there before or heard any of the others talk about it, but for some reason it transported me back through my own history. A flash of images played out like an old movie reel taken straight from my memories.

  It was when Layla had stabbed me that night in the VIP and Draven had picked me up to carry me through to his home for the first time. Back then I had been drawn to those doors like a moth to the flame but for unknown reasons. I had no clue back then what such an action represented just as I didn’t now but for some reason my brain had brought that replayed time back to the forefront of my mind. And when he walked me through the door I finally knew why it felt so familiar.

  It was Draven’s first act of love towards a human girl by breaking his own rules as he did now by stepping us through to his own ancient version of his true home…

  Afterlife.

  Chapter 45

  First Time

  I wasn’t scared, just as I wasn’t the first time I entered Draven’s domain, but instead it felt more like a piece of the world I knew. I don’t know exactly when it was that my own human world started to become the foreign one and the supernatural one felt more like home to me. But I just knew it had been a long enough time to take root and hold me there as if it never wanted to let me go.

  So when Draven walked inside this hidden part of his home, I didn’t want to do as I was told and close my eyes like he commanded.

  “You are not to look Little Lamb, for this world is not meant for your tender eyes…not yet,” he told me when we approached a gold door after he had walked deeper underground, deeper than even the Harem was. I knew what he was doing and what scenes he no doubt wanted to shield me from. I knew why he was trying to protect me but there was no hiding what my other senses were telling me.

  As soon as we walked through I could smell the burning incense that acted as a drug to the mind and I could hear the beat of drums and jingling sound of gold coins as they tapped against the skin of erotic dancers. But most of all I could smell the sweat dripping from heated bodies and hear the moans of where that heat was being generated from. There were very little sordid acts of sexual content that I hadn’t seen in the supernatural world and thanks to the likes of Lucius and Jared, well, let’s just say I was far from being a prude.

  But the King over it all who held me now knew nothing of this and must have thought me as innocent as I suppose I looked.

  “My King, will you not play with us tonight?” A woman’s voice purred, whilst another added,

  “Yes, come play Arsaces, you’re welcome to bring your new pet.” And once more a different voice spoke up and agreed with the others,

  “We promise not to bite…hard.” I shuddered against him, hating the green serpent of jealousy that coiled tighter in the pit of my stomach.

  “Silence your tongues, all of you!” Draven roared at them as we passed and I found myself gripping onto his breastplate as his body tensed in anger. I heard the little moans of disappointment from behind us as they knew they weren’t going to get what they wanted tonight. Which was when the dangerous cogs in my mind started turning. Suddenly the horrible truth hit me and no amount of being used to his world would prepare me for it. This right here, in this very room we walked through, this…

  Was his real Harem.

  It all made sense now but why then had he brought me here? He knew I was human and I was probably the only one he had carried through this room we were in. Why would he risk me seeing this hidden life of his? It made no sense, even if I had my eyes closed, I still had ears to hear but more importantly, I still had lips to speak with. He didn’t know me enough to trust I wouldn’t speak of this to others. That I wouldn’t gossip about the King of Kings’hidden rooms, vast depths below his city and one that was closer to the demonic side of him that I shouldn’t yet know about. Or did he believe he could simply wipe the experience from my mind? Which begged the next question…could he control my mind in this time?

  This was a frightening thought as I had been forced to endure a taste of this when we first met and I hadn’t cared much for it back then. I like to think that it wasn’t a possibility after everything we had been through but of course I was forgetting the worst part about all this and that was our time together hadn’t yet come to pass. And another fact that only seemed to back up my theory was that I had entered his world with no power of my own.

  It was a scary thought and one it would seem I was left to worry about for some time to come because he didn’t seem as concerned as I about any of this. Not considering he was carrying a human girl into the depths of his secret world as he continued through and there was no denying the screams of pleasure or the howls of the supernatural climax that was found by the males in the room.

  I had to ask myself, was this another test? To see how I would react to hearing all this? Was it to feel every jump or flinch my body made so close to his or was it just to test my willingness to comply with his order to keep my eyes closed against such tempting circumstances? I didn’t know it then or if I ever would but in the end it didn’t matter because soon we were through the room and silen
ce was all that greeted us…well, nearly all.

  “Just what do you think you are doing, Brother?!” Sophia’s voice turned out to be more of a temptation for me than anything else and before I could stop myself my eyes snapped open to find my dear friend looking back at me. However, it only took a second to realise that it wasn’t the Sophia I knew and like her brother, I was faced with a very different version of her. The look she gave me was only to be described as one of pure loathing or in the very best case, one of disgust.

  She even looked different and it wasn’t just down to her ancient Middle Eastern attire. Her hair was pinned back in a harsh bun at the back of her head, one with gold rope coiled around it. Even the thick black makeup around her eyes gave her a cold, unfeeling appearance and it was more like looking at an evil twin than the lovable Sophia who I had come to know like a sister.

  “Not now, Saphira.” Draven said calling his sister by what must have been her name in this time.

  “Not now? More like not ever! Brother you do realise what it is you have just brought into our…?”

  “Enough! Now do not question me or my reasons again,” he told her sternly, cutting her off from what she was about to say. Then he continued to walk and this time I could see where we were going. I was also left both dumbstruck and heartbroken at hearing my friend speak of me in such a way. I knew it wasn’t the Sophia that I knew and loved like a sister but still it was a hard bitter pill to swallow, even if I had an ocean to drink it down with.

  This reaction only ended up strengthening what I already knew and I couldn’t then for the life of me understand why no-one knew who I was to Draven in this time yet they did when Draven and I first met back in the forest. It didn’t seem to make any sense, for the only person to know of me was Ranka and I feared that without the Oracle I would never find out.

  I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t even realise which room I had been brought into until the sound of the door slamming shut behind us jarred me from my dark mind.

  “Where are we?” I couldn’t help asking, forgetting myself momentarily.

  “I would have thought that obvious,” he told me honestly and I guess looking around the room and seeing his bed, then yes, it was obvious. But he didn’t know that I had been here before, just not in the physical sense. This was the room I had not only dreamed about the last time but also the same one I had dreamed about all that time ago after first meeting Lucius in my room. It had been when he had retaliated against me after his mind control hadn’t worked and Draven had to heal me. Well I can certainly say that when dreaming of Draven back then I would never have thought I would ever be seeing it in real life, that was for sure.

  The way he spoke to me rendered me unable to look at him. It sounded like a combination of restrained anger and breaking point lust. That thick rasp in his voice told me to watch myself carefully as I didn’t know what he was liable to do next. It was a bit like approaching a wild animal for the first time and being unsure of what they would do, bite your hand off or nuzzle you affectionately.

  “I take it that was your sister?” I asked thinking this a safer route to take the conversation. However, his reaction told me I was dead wrong. He suddenly dropped my legs, gripped my waist with one hand which was enough to turn me roughly to face him. My hands were still shackled behind his head so I instantly went up on tiptoes so I wasn’t hanging with my feet off the floor.

  “I didn’t bring you here to talk about my sister,” he growled taking a step towards me with every word until he backed me up against a sandstone pillar. I could barely move quickly enough to catch up and would have tripped up many times had it not been for his hands spanning my ribs and holding me up.

  “Then why did you?” I braved asking, letting just the hint of annoyance spark in my voice. He raised an eyebrow down at me as if my bravery surprised him. I didn’t suppose he was used to being spoken to this way or having who he would consider a slave question his motives. Like he said, I knew why I was here as it was blindingly obvious but at least now he knew that I wanted to hear him say it out loud. And I had to confess, I was intrigued as to what his answer would be.

  His hand quickly snapped out and circled the column of my throat in a heartbeat.

  “Why do you think?” he growled applying pressure. My eyes widened in surprise and I wondered if he would let me breathe before I passed out. However, I wasn’t left wondering long because he must have been watching me for signs that I needed air. I felt his fingers loosen their grip just in time before I would have been coughing thanks to the burn in my lungs. Instead I simply sucked in little gulps of air which he quietly let me do whilst watching my every move. He seemed so angry that it had me questioning where the root of it lay?

  “Time to confess, Little Lamb,” he told me after I couldn’t answer him and it wasn’t the reason I had first thought as the obvious one. Looking at him now and getting lost in the same eyes I had all those years ago I wanted to confess, but much more than he knew. I wanted to confess it all like so many times before. All my sins against him starting with the very reason I was here.

  He was so dangerous to be around and not just in the physical sense. I couldn’t help but crave this man in a way that made me not want to think why. I didn’t want to question the reasons because there were no words that would describe the type of power he held over me, even like this, in this brutal time. I just didn’t care and I was fooling myself to believe otherwise. Oh yes, running from him had been just another form of running from myself.

  “Why did you run from me?” he asked me and I knew it was now or never.

  “I…I…I…” I stumbled out that one letter word and knew I had to tell him something because that one look alone told me my time for stalling was up.

  “Tell me why!” he ground out between gritted teeth.

  “Because being around you is dangerous.” I blurted out, telling him the truth and that look of lost patience soon became one of surprise.

  “You still believe I want to hurt you?!” he snapped. I pulled on my chained hands to make my point which in turn pulled against his neck.

  “I keep you where I want you, but make no mistake girl, if I wanted you punished then I would have whipped you myself!” he shouted down at me and I winced looking away from his angry stare.

  “Then why didn’t you?” I threw back at him, no longer acting cautious. I didn’t know why I was pushing him the way I was but I knew that the adrenaline I felt when doing so was almost addictive.

  “By the Gods girl, I am questioning you as either having a simple mind or a bravery that can only be explained as welcoming death to act in such a manner,” he told me and my mouth dropped open in shock.

  “I am not simple!” I told him angrily, letting my temper get the better of me.

  “No? Then tell me which is it to cause such stupidity in speaking to a King that has your life in the palm of his hand?” he asked squeezing his hand once more to emphasise his point.

  “Only if you tell me why a King who has such a simple life by the throat isn’t yet taking its last breath for speaking to you this way?” I asked knowing he felt every word force its way passed his palm. The look he gave me was one of both respect and confusion. He obviously had never met his match in a woman before, or at least other than his own sister.

  We seemed to remain in this silent stand off for I don’t know how long but I knew it was finally over when his eyes softened and his hand relaxed. He released my neck only to move it slowly to my exposed side before caressing my bruised ribs.

  “Because I think it is quite possible to endure enough pain by the hand of a man, even if that hand belongs to a King,” he said looking down at my injury before finishing his sentence locking his intense gaze with mine. I took a shuddering breath before giving him my own answer.

  “And I speak to you now not as my King but as a man, for where I am from, men and woman stand together as equals.” Saying this certainly piqued his interest as he raised a q
uestioning eyebrow at me.

  “So you do remember?” he asked me and I quickly bit my lip forgetting myself. That flash of purple was unmistakable and so was that hungry look at my lips which spoke of only one thought…

  Carnal lust.

  I let my lip slip from my teeth and swallowed hard before quickly thinking my way out of this one.

  “I haven’t forgotten what morals were ingrained in my upbringing, no.” At this he gave me a one sided smirk and I could tell he was finding the way I spoke amusing.

  “And what did your father think of your mother’s teachings on the subject?” he asked and I wanted to laugh myself at his question but more at the answer I was all ready to give him.

  “Who said it was my mother’s teachings and not my father’s?” His eyes grew wide for a moment before he threw his head back and burst out into laughter, one that unmistakably belonged to my Draven. I had to reach up and grip onto his shoulders to keep myself steady as his laughter was causing the shackles to pull at my wrists.

  “But of course. It is only a father’s teachings on such things that can spark such a brazen fire in a daughter’s belly…I bet if someone put a dagger in your hand then you would rather fight to the death than see yourself beaten by a man…am I not correct?” he said with a spark in his eyes that told me he was both serious and pleased. I couldn’t help but blush which he took as his answer.

  “Ranka told me of your bravery in fighting back against the man who did this to you, with nothing but what the Gods gave you,” he said raising his arms up to his neck so that he could cover my fisted hands with his own.