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

by Stephanie Hudson

  “So what happened then?” This time it was Ari that was hooked.

  “He took the plane, flying it himself after knocking out the pilot first of course.”

  “Of course,” I said thinking this story included a lot of people getting hit by Adam, which I had to say surprised me as much as it didn’t. Pip was without doubt his Achilles heel as were most women to the men who loved them.

  “Then he crashed the plane after having nowhere to land it before jumping out of it mid Demon change. I remember those assholes’ faces when they first heard his battle cry…priceless,” Pip said chuckling away to herself.

  “Anyway, he not only killed every human waiting for him on the island, which thankfully didn’t include any innocents, but he also destroyed the actual island itself,” Sophia told us, helping Pip out with the story.

  “Well you say destroyed but he did leave us a nice bit of beach to have sex on until you guys turned up,” Pip said in her husband’s defence.

  “Holy shit.” I heard Ari mutter in astonishment before adding,

  “Jeez, you weren’t kidding.”

  “I will never forget Dom’s face when Adam walked on the boat carrying Pip straight past him stating calmly ‘I will never apologise for hitting you, for no one stops me from rescuing my wife, but I will thank you for bringing the boat’. Oh Gods it was priceless!” Sophia said laughing as my mouth dropped open.

  “What did Draven say to that?” I asked flabbergasted.

  “He took a step back and said, ‘Understood.’ Then I raised an eyebrow at him when he walked past me. I will never forget the way he just rubbed his sore jaw and said, ‘What? Would you take him, ‘cause I fucking wouldn’t!’ I think I saw Vincent near wet himself he was laughing that hard.” Sophia told us making us all laugh as this time I could just picture it for myself.

  “Trust us all to be locked up in a hopeless situation with a demonic banished megalomaniac, with an army of Romans waiting to destroy a city before taking over the world, and we are laughing about Pip’s husband hitting my husband because he tried to stop his mass carnage and destroying an entire island!” I said near to tears with what I suspected was closer to hysteria than anything else.

  “Forget about me, I think you lot need therapy!” Ari said before joining in.

  “So I am curious, how did the world react to finding a King Kong attack on a Pacific island?” I asked after the laughter had calmed down.

  “Oh now that’s the genius part. See lucky for us the King knows high powered people in high powered places and considering things were still a bit testy with the US and Soviet Union in the early sixties, good old President John F. Kennedy was only too happy to help Dom out and drop a few ‘test bombs’ in the area. Am I right in saying he even named it ‘Operation Dominic’?” she asked Sophia and I briefly heard her agree, however, I was still stuck on Draven asking the US President for a favour. And something as major as dropping a nuclear weapon on an island to cover up Adam’s raging murder shit storm no less.

  “You guys tell the best stories,” Ari said and I had to agree with her there.

  “Now if we could just figure out a way of making this a great escape story then we would have a real doozy to tell our grandkids one day,” I replied and Pip sounded like she was choking,

  “Seriously, did she just say the word doozy?!”

  “What?” I asked.

  “I am nearly nine hundred years old and even I don’t say doozy!” Pip said laughing at me and I was surprised because I didn’t know how old Pip was. Wow, nearly nine hundred years of causing trouble! I was surprised the world had survived her this long, I thought on a grin.

  “Oh yeah, and I am getting stick from the girl who has called me every form of Toots since she met me!” I said making Ari giggle.

  “Yeah but they’re almost always sweet versions of it,” she argued making me shrug my shoulders… mind you not that anyone could see me. Each of the cells were all on different levels with a slim cut staircase that interweaved in between each one and with us all being on the same side there was no way of seeing the one next to you.

  “Good point. So any ideas about how to bust out of this joint?” I asked and after there was nothing but silence I couldn’t help but say,

  “Wow, that many.”

  “Well these symbols mean we can’t touch them, so woman kick ass brute strength won’t cut it this time,” Pip answered and Sophia agreed,

  “She’s right, we would kind of just melt to the bone.”

  “And that’s never pretty to watch,” Pip added.

  “Ssshh, someone’s coming!” Ari hissed and she was right, from the sound of the footsteps above someone was coming, who though was yet to be seen.

  “Which one did Master want?” I heard one of the voices snarl, which quickly told us all we were dealing with more than one.

  “He wanted to play with the human bitch before she dies, the rest he wanted their heads mounting on pikes ready for the battle.”

  “Well I have to admit, that doesn’t sound like much fun,” Pip commented dryly and I couldn’t tell if she just wasn’t taking this new threat seriously or whether she just knew that she wouldn’t be going down without a fight.

  “Well, it’s been nice knowing you ladies,” Ari said in a wavering voice that told me how terrified she was but also how brave she was being by standing up to that fear.

  “Always,” I agreed.

  “It’s not over yet, just be ready to run,” Sophia told us seriously and we heard the demonic laughter of whoever was coming. A sound that grated along my skin like a fork scraping on a china plate.

  “Delusions of escape won’t make it so, little girls.” One said in a high pitched sneer.

  “Yeah and we will just see how little I am when I am crushing your skull between my thighs!” Pip growled back. I think at that point I would have high fived her if I could, as if I was going to die right now then I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way than standing tall with the girls I loved. I got to my feet, ready to take on the unknown enemy, as I refused to go down without a fight or still sit on my ass for that matter.

  “I love you girls.” I told them just before the first of the horrors stepped in front of my cell.

  “Just keep that love alive, honey,” Sophia said and I had to say that was going to be much harder said than done looking now at what we faced.

  It looked as though burnt red skin had been stretched across the typical face of a Devil. He even had a chin that curled upwards mimicking the shape of his horns, that grew straight up from his forehead. These were also covered in the same skin and it was pulled so taut across the nose and high cheek bones that it created lines and ripples, flattening the nose bone underneath.

  Its lips were none existent along his long slitted mouth, with only its teeth to be seen poking through the same reddish skin. Dotted glowing eyes grew brighter as they took in the sight of my fear.

  His body was also covered in the same skin that had been stretched across a bony frame and each part seemed to be pierced with metal rings that all pulled painfully in the direction of the weight from the weapons they carried hooked onto them.

  “This one has pretty flesh,” said the one looking at me, raising a skinless finger that reminded me of sharpened bone in the shape of a spider’s legs. The deadly long talon that had been carved at the end scraped along the length of the rock formation that was locking each of us in. The symbols all lit up one by one as he touched them.

  I thought back to what Sophia had said about melting to the bone and wondered if maybe they were the only ones that could open the cells as they had no flesh on their hands?

  Either way I knew we were all screwed if we didn’t think of something and fast. I tried not to see them as they looked but view them as something else of this world that could be killed. I just needed to find a weakness and home into it. Focus on drawing up my energy and blasting it their way the second he opened the door.

  Okay, so this
was easier said than done as realistically when was the last time I could do anything helpful with these so called powers I had. Since I had been here that side of me had all gone to shit. No, I needed to think this through or at least hope that the others had a plan to win this fight.

  My biggest worry had to be Ari who, along with the rest of us, still had no idea who she was. So as far as she was concerned, she was human and in this game that was not always a good thing. Power was the name in this game and without it, survival was the next on the list. I was surprised she had lasted as long as she had without falling to pieces. I sometimes forgot how hard this must have all been for her. After all I had been somewhat eased into this crazy life but for Ari, well she had been thrown in head first and then just expected to know how to swim upside down.

  But her bravery at every turn had astounded me and for someone who was still on her own mission to figure out who she really was, then this just managed to make my respect for her double in size. Now all I could wish for was to see her happy and settled into this world I felt responsible enough for dragging her into and if that was with Vincent then all the better. Of course, these thoughts kind of went out the window considering my first wish was to see us all survive these ugly bastards and get the hell out of here and back to our men, speaking of which,

  As I looked to the side to try and see how many Demons there were, that was when I first saw it…

  A hooded shadow.

  Chapter 66

  Flames that Fall

  I blinked a few times just to check that my eyes weren’t deceiving me. It had moved so swiftly I barely caught sight of it. But what I did see was one of the same demons fall silently to the floor behind the one that stood opposite me now. I only just managed to catch a glimpse of the blade sticking from its neck, glinting silver from the flaming torches as it went down.

  My eyes widened in surprise when the hooded figure suddenly appeared directly behind the demon near me and his laughter quickly faded as he must have felt his presence standing there too. He turned quickly trying to catch him off guard but the hooded shadow was quicker. He simply sidestepped just as the demon tried to spear him in the gut with his dirty knife and instead, he grabbed his arm as it stretched out mid thrust, and snapped it down against the joint.

  The demon howled in pain and held his dangling arm to his chest like a wounded dog tucking in his damaged limb.

  “You will pay for that!” he promised but it quickly became an empty threat as the hooded figure spun around, kicking him to the bars, where his back instantly started to sizzle at the contact. The smell of cooking meat started to make me feel sick and I heard Pip briefly ask,

  “Is someone cooking steak up there?”

  The hooded figure ignored her and grabbed the demon’s head towards him as he kicked out one of his legs so he fell to his knees. I heard the sickening snap of bone but had little chance to recover from it before another disgusting thing happened. He twisted the demon around and pressed his face against the stone bars making all the skin quickly melt off the bone and stick to the stalagmites. If I thought I was going to be sick before, then now I was actually having to turn around to be sick.

  Just as I continued to heave up an empty stomach I briefly looked back just in time to see the hooded man grab the demon by the horns, positioning his hands ready for something. Then with one quick twist, he snapped his neck, killing him instantly and from the looks of things putting him out of his torturous misery.

  The demon slumped forward still burning against the symbols, his flesh sliding away in great big chunks leaving nothing but bloody bone beneath. Then I watched as he placed a foot to the back of the demon’s neck, grab the horns again and this time when he jerked his body sideways, he did so with enough force that he ripped the demon’s head clean away from the rest of its body.

  Unsurprisingly this had me heaving again but nothing would come up.

  “Stand back!” The man growled an order and I did as I was told, placing my back flat against the far wall of my cell and wiping the spit away from my lips with my sleeve. The man stepped over the body and kicked back so that the headless demon rolled over the side of the steps and down to somewhere I couldn’t see. Then with the head still held by one horn in his hand, he swung it up, gripped it a certain way so that he could place the horns through the rock formations sideways.

  I had no clue what he was doing but noticed that the horns didn’t burn against the symbols the way the flesh had done. Which suddenly dawned on me, was he using the demon’s skull as some sort of key?

  My question was quickly answered when, in one quick motion, he twisted his body downwards and the action caused the horns to break apart the stalagmites and stalactites, making them crack all the way to the top until they all started to crumble to the floor. My natural instincts took over as I covered my head with both hands.

  “Get out!” he ordered in a stern voice before moving along with the skull still held firmly in his grasp. As soon as I heard the cracking sound of rock next to me, I knew that he was using this to open the rest and free us all.

  “Cool!” I heard Pip shout after her cell was next.

  “Hurry, this way,” he said once we were all free. I looked back to see the guy had taken out the four demons that were sent to get us, five including the headless body that looked to be at the bottom of some ravine.

  “Not exactly a man of many words,” Ari said to me after I gave her the once over checking she wasn’t hurt.

  “No, but of many deadly actions, which right now is better than being able to talk them to death.”

  “Good point,” she said agreeing with me, for it was true, I couldn’t have cared if he didn’t know more than the seven words he had spoken already. As long as he was good with the sword that hung from his waist, I was more than happy with that.

  “Let’s move,” he snapped back and Ari leaned into me and said,

  “Well, there’s two more,” before winking at me and walking on ahead. We followed the hooded man whose every step seemed to be with well thought out reason and purpose. His hood hid his face well enough for none of us to know who he was, but considering it was obvious that he could have killed us all before we blinked, then it wasn’t farfetched to assume he was here to help us.

  He was mainly wearing all black, with a long cloak that strapped across his chest. He also wore some sort of long tunic style jacket with thick metal clasps holding it shut. Leather straps crisscrossed around his chest and waist, each holding an array of different blades and weapons in place for easy reach. Black leather trousers were strapped tight around his legs with cord and he reminded me of some ancient looking highwayman, ready for a night’s ambush.

  We continued along a series of makeshift steps that had been chipped away in the stone to get us from one walkway to another. It was obvious we were inside a mountain or underground in some secret network of caves, because the only thing that lit our way were the burning torches that were anchored to the bare stone walls.

  “Not the best place for someone scared of heights,” I muttered as we got to a narrow part and had to hug the wall to fit along the jagged rock path that had a sheer drop on one side.

  “How much further?” Sophia asked looking around and sounding all businesslike.

  “Not…wait!” We never found out what he would have said as he raised a quick hand to stop us all from moving.

  “They know, hurry!” he said and just after this we heard a horn being blown that echoed through the honeycomb of tunnels using the walls to travel along. This was when we started to pick up pace and after turning a corner a space suddenly opened up in front of us. It brought us out into a gigantic opening that looked as though it had once been two mountains next to each other that had then fallen together from an earthquake and this was what space was left in between. Well, if I thought the drop before looked bad then this one was something else, for you couldn’t even see the bottom.

  There were natural bridges dotted a
long the cavernous space that joined the two sides but I think if asked to cross one I might have found myself the one at the back quickly wussing out. Some areas across them looked narrow enough that even a wheelbarrow would struggle getting across.

  “Brace yourselves for here they come!” Sophia said looking back and pointing at what looked like a demon army heading our way. Another horn blew and this time it was followed by an echoing dong sound.

  “A weapon! We need weapons!” Sophia cried as the first wave hit the stranger head on. He quickly made short work of them as he had done back in the cells. In three swift moves all three of them were down and falling off the side into the endless canyon. It seemed every move he made was a killing blow and it looked utterly flawless.

  Then came the clash of weapons as he slashed out sideways at the next set but this time as each of them fell he would catch their weapon and hand it back until we all had one. He was just kicking a body off the side to make room for us to run through, when he looked back over our heads.

  “Pip, you get at the back and I will get in between the girls!” Sophia shouted after following his line of vision, letting me pass her so that I was right behind our mystery saviour.

  “Get ready, for here they come again!” Pip shouted back before turning to face the demons. We continued to move but this way it was slower with us continually getting surrounded with each new wave. I looked back to see Pip was swinging her battle axe smiling the whole time. Forget clowns and strippers at her next birthday party, just give her a war to fight and she would have been as happy as a dog in a muddy puddle.

  “COME ON, YOU FUGGLIES!” she screamed, laughing as she mowed them down, flinging them off the side like they were nothing but cardboard cut outs. I looked down at my own short blade that was slightly curved and shaped like a Gurkha knife. I tried to ignore the fact that the handle looked as if it had been made out of part of a femur bone and fused together with some thick black tar-like substance that had hardened solid.