Cult of the Hexad (Afterlife saga Book 6)

by Stephanie Hudson

  So I looked

  And what I found nearly killed me all over again…

  “Holy Shit…we’re in trouble now.”

  Chapter 29

  Oh Yeah, I Know the Bitch!

  I ran out of the door without shoes or socks on and my feet slapped against the stone floor but I didn’t care. I had to get to Draven! I had to tell him what I found as it could change everything. He was there now in that meeting making plans against an enemy that he didn’t know but I did.

  What I had found was the last nail hammered into the box that contained everything I thought I knew. Well now it was confirmed, everything they told me was true and everything I thought I knew was lies. Draven had been right, it was all done to control me, my whole life and that’s what Ari saw that night. She had tried to tell me our lives and everything we thought we knew about growing up was all…

  One. Big. Lie.

  “Lucius!” I shouted his name when I saw him round a corner and I thanked my lucky stars I found him in time before I got lost. I rounded the corner way too quickly not realising he would be stood there waiting for me. I ran straight into him and he caught me before I bowled him over.

  “Whoa! Where’s the fire?” He said and I shuddered at the thought of it. The fire, the man I killed, my prison, never a home! Jesus, but I thought it had been there most of my life! And Ari…what about Ari and I? What about…no! No, I couldn’t do this now, I had to focus!

  “Katie? What’s wrong?”

  “I have to find Draven! That bag…you don’t know what was in that bag!” Lucius frowned down at me and instead of coming up with a witty remark he grabbed my hand and we set off running together.

  “Sorry Honey but your little legs just won’t cut it! Hold on.” He said swinging me up into his arms so he could run at his own great speed. Carrying me didn’t seem to faze him or drain his stamina in any way. No, he simply ran at a dizzying speed and I was left with no other option than to do what he told me to, which was to hang on.

  We quickly came to the door I recognised and when Lucius set me down and opened the door I half expected to walk in and see it the way I had last time. But it was back to being perfect and I knew if I didn’t have this impending doom lurking over me then I would have asked how any of it was possible. But instead of running in there and enquiring about their quick decorating skills, I ran in there and blurted out,

  “It’s my mother!”

  “Well at least it’s not sperm this time.” The one name Sigurd said dryly… and cryptically I might add.

  “Katie?” Draven said, standing quickly at the sight of me. I ignored all the stares I got and walked down the length of the table passing everyone. It was as though I’d had something I should have done before being taken. Something important that might have changed everything if I had only chosen a different path. Was this part of me taking back time? Well there was only one way to find out and to do that I only needed to show Draven one thing. So I pulled out the piece of paper I had stuffed into my back pocket as I felt like I had done once before.

  Draven could see it was something serious as the worry was clear to see. But I continued to the top of the table as silence descended like a devastating wave. I felt my hands shaking as the anger of it all was bubbling over.

  “Easy now.” Draven said but I didn’t understand why or how you could have heard a pin drop in the vast marble room. I could hear the sound of my own heart beating and pounding undiluted fury around my body until I felt like I was pulsating with power.

  “Dom?”

  “It’s alright, I’ve got this…Katie, I don’t know what’s happened but you need to calm down.” I frowned and felt a spark snap at my fingers in my frustration with him.

  “Okay…okay, let’s just take a breath.” What was wrong with him, did he not understand how important this was?!

  “Lucius…give me something here.” Draven said without taking his eyes from mine.

  “Hey, I’ve got nothing, she was fine getting here.” What were they all talking about?! I had the proof in my hand, the proof that I had been lied to all this time! She wasn’t my mother! She never had been and now the horrifying truth I had to face was that Ari wasn’t…My Sister.

  Oh God! I could feel something coming. I could feel something building and I didn’t know what to do with it…what do I do with it?! I needed to do as Draven told me, I had to calm down. I had to but if Ari was here she would know…Ahhh! And there it was, the hate! The burning hate I had for the one responsible. She was to blame, for all of this! She put me through the pain!

  She…she…

  “She did this to me!” I shouted, slamming down the picture on the table and causing cracks to branch off all around my hand. I looked down at that face once again and that was it.

  “SHE TOOK MY LIFE FROM ME!” This time I screamed and I heard someone shout before I erupted,

  “HIT THE DECK EVERYONE!”

  “I WILL KILL HER!” This time I roared out over the picture and before Draven could reach me I released all that rage and fury and power all at once, feeling it come straight from my hands like a storm building until it became uncontrollable!

  Everything in the room was blown backwards with such a force that everything smashed into the stone walls like I was the bomb and I had just gone off. All that was left was a clear radius around me that I was stood in and I panted like a wild beast trying not to charge at any of the fearful beings around me.

  I couldn’t seem to get enough air and for the moment that’s all I concentrated on. I was looking down at the dip in the stone I stood in with my hair as a curtain around me.

  Then I started to remember what had just happened and horror started to replace the anger. And then quickly what followed was the sorrow as realisation seeped in at what I had not only done but what I had finally lost and looking around now at the faces I didn’t recognise, it looked as though I had lost…

  Everything.

  “Draven?” I called out his name looking around and seeing the destruction I had astonishingly caused. There was Adam shielding Pip, Zagan shielding Sophia, another man I didn’t know shielding someone I couldn’t see, and then the jester, Marcus shielding the girl with orange hair.

  The room was full of love and I let the proof of that destroy the last of my hate. Even the cocky one Sigurd looked to be trying to protect his father. It was everywhere to be seen as they helped each other up and stood together. They had all taken me into their lives and I was only now starting to realise what that meant. But through it all there stood Draven like a beacon in this dark time, waiting for the storm I had created to calm.

  Waiting for me like he had done for the last eight months. He hadn’t given up on me and looking around the room now, none of them had. So what did that tell me…? Had I really lost everything like I thought because looking at this unlikely family now, I didn’t feel as if I had.

  I felt like I had just gained everything.

  “Oh God! What have I done? I’m so, so, so sorry!” I said, finally crumbling to the floor only finding myself in Draven’s arms before I got there.

  “It’s okay, I’ve got you now…I’ve got you.” Draven cooed in my ear, holding me close like he wasn’t afraid of what I had just done.

  “I don’t understand…I…didn’t want to do that…I don’t even know how I did it…I…” I told him looking up at him and seeing nothing but loving concern looking back.

  “It’s okay Katie, we will figure it out.” I could tell that Draven didn’t really like calling me by the only name I knew but he did so now because he knew how much I needed it. I looked over his shoulder to see everyone was now on their feet and looking around at the destruction I had caused. I was just glad to see that everyone looked to have survived it in one piece.

  “I could have hurt people…I could have…”

  “Nah, we’re a lot tougher than we look, Pet.” Jared said giving the big black guy a hand up out of the stone wall that had crumbled around
him.

  “Speak for yourself Bro, I think I broke a nail.” Jared rolled his eyes and said,

  “Yeah well your pansy black ass will survive I think.”

  “Jesus, what is it about this room? If I were you lot, I would just give up and burn it. That or we start having our meetings in the training room.” Sigurd said throwing back his hood to shake the debris from it and I finally got to see his face for the first time. His hair was thick waves the colour of sand, not quite blonde yet not quite auburn but somewhere in between. He raked a hand roughly through it, pushing it back as if it annoyed him.

  I would have expected him to look…well not quite so handsome considering he hid his face most of the time. But with sculptured cheeks bones and a square jaw that was speckled with just enough tawny stubble that made his arrogant air seem sexy as he seemed to certainly have enough power behind him to back it up, well if the size of him was to go by anyway.

  But as handsome as he was it was all insignificant in sight of his incredible eyes. They were like fire flickering behind amber walls and one had something different about it. Not only was it brighter but it had something moving around the iris…It was a snake!

  As soon as he saw me looking he gave me a wink and I blushed, looking quickly away.

  “Still got it I see, Son.” The massive guy next to him said who I now knew was his father and also Draven’s head of security.

  “Yeah whatever, Pops.” He replied replacing his hood and his father chuckled with his arms crossed. He was certainly a colossal sight to see and I was shocked when Draven told me that he’d once been charged with being my personal body guard. Apparently in my other life Ragnar and I had quite the bond and it started all over hot chocolate. Having such a sweet tooth this hadn’t surprised me at all.

  “Am I a danger to everyone?” I asked Draven who was lifting me off the floor and after kicking one of the heavy sofas upright with just his foot, he sat me down on it.

  “No Love, you’re not. We just need to find a way to control any anger you may be feeling in the future.”

  “Well that’s one good reason not to piss her off!” Sophia said laughing as she came up next to me pulling plaster from her hair.

  “Aww what, no fair! Why can’t I have some of that, then you would let me do whatever I wanted in case I had a temper tantrum!” Pip said after showing us the less graceful way to get parts of the room out of her hair and that was bending over and shaking like a dog. Although I had to say, it was certainly effective. She did however have to side step before she walked over towards us as she lost her balance doing so.

  “You get away with quite enough, my little wife.” Adam said picking her up and swinging her round so she didn’t have to walk through the rubble. She wore rainbow tie dye shorts that had ripped pockets and some nautical themed tights in black. All the anchors, twisted ropes and captain’s wheels all looked to glow in the dark and this she matched with a T-shirt that had FBI written across her small breasts with smaller writing underneath that stated… ‘Funny Bitch In da house’! I had to agree with it, she was definitely the funniest person I knew.

  Adam set her down on her high heels that were designed to look like Nike running shoes, complete with laces and iconic tick up the side. She bounced her way over to the sofa and said,

  “Man alive and desperate for a soda, you pack a vodka loaded punch Toots…put it there…no like this…” She said showing me how to give her what she promptly told me was a ‘fist bump’, which consisted of me knocking my fist into hers.

  “So did we find out who was the cause of the…” Lucius was interrupted by Pip when he took a breath to try and find the right word on what to call what just happened.

  “Temper tantrum.” She said and I groaned making everyone laugh.

  “Can we please find a new name for it?” I asked and Pip clapped her hands, jumping up and down and said,

  “Oh I know…me, me, me, pick me!” I laughed and said,

  “Oh no you’ve done it.” Lucius moaned and Pip smacked him in the gut before saying,

  “Hulking out? Oh no wait, I’ve got it…The ultimate freak out…so, what does everyone think, we could call it the ‘TUFO’ for short…hey, tufo sounds cool! We could even get t-shirts that say, ‘It’s TUFO Time!’ I love it.” I looked up at Draven to realise he had left to walk back to the table. He must have got curious when Lucius had mentioned the picture and Lucius decided to follow. Draven was bending down and shifting through the mess I had made, only straightening again once he had found what he had been looking for. I watched as he brushed off the dust and then he reacted.

  “Tell me this person is not your mother…tell me now.” Draven said and the tone of his voice filled me with dread at how angry it sounded. He looked at me over his shoulder side on and I swallowed hard wishing I could tell him something different but I couldn’t.

  “She looks a lot younger in that drawing but yes, without a doubt it’s her…she did this to us.” I told him sitting up straighter so that he knew how serious I was.

  “No mistake?” I knew he felt he had to question it, not because he didn’t trust me but because he must have needed my absolute assurance on this.

  “I have never been more certain.” I told him and he nodded in acceptance.

  “Dom?” Sophia said and I only realised until now that Vincent had not said a word, which was unlike him. I looked to where he stood in the background and I nearly didn’t recognise him. He looked hard, fierce and unyielding but most of all, he looked ready to kill someone.

  “Katie was this the only picture you found?” He asked me ignoring his sister’s question.

  “No, I found loads of them, over a hundred at least.” I told him and Lucius held his hand out to take the paper from him. Draven handed it over without looking at him and Lucius’ eyes widened at the sight. It was beginning to look as if they all knew who my mother really was.

  “And was this woman, the one you say is a younger version of your mother, was she in all of them?” I shook my head and answered,

  “No but she was in a lot of them.”

  “How many is a lot?” He questioned further as these little facts seemed to be most important to him.

  “I would say over half.” As soon as I said it Draven growled in another language which I could only assume wasn’t something very nice. Lucius walked over to Vincent and handed him the paper. He took one look at it and shocked us all by reacting the worst. He roared and powered his fist into the stone wall. Sophia gasped beside me and the others looked at each other in a questioning way, hoping no doubt someone held the answer. It became very obvious that nobody was used to seeing Vincent react this way, including Draven who looked shocked.

  “Something must be done about this!” Vincent said storming up to his brother and Draven stated in a calmer tone,

  “Something will be done.”

  “Now Dominic.” Vincent growled at his brother and even I could tell this wasn’t the way things usually went between these two.

  “I understand your torment at the moment brother, as it has been my own…many times over. But in light of this new information, now is the time for caution.”

  “No, now is that time for action. You heard it yourself, your Chosen One has been targeted ever since she was a child and by someone in your own council!” Vincent said getting angrier but with this new information Sophia stood up and demanded,

  “Who is it damn it!?” Meanwhile Zagan had been handed the picture and came over to stand next to his wife to break the news.

  “It’s Celina, sweetheart.”

  “What!?” She screeched out in shock.

  “Who is Celina?” I decided now was a good time to ask.

  “She’s a fucking traitor, that’s who!” Sophia shouted and Pip who had joined me on the sofa whispered,

  “She’s a bit upset because they were kinda friends…not like BFFs like us three but still, bitch has gotta burn.” I frowned not understanding the last bit but this
seemed to be a common occurrence being around Pip, so I was quickly getting used to it.

  “Oh.” I said thinking my mother was sure pissing off the wrong people. But wait! Why did I still keep calling her mother? She was an imposter, plain and simple but most of all, she needed to be stopped.

  “We need time to think about this.” Draven said addressing the room but it was clear Vincent wasn’t happy.

  “No, what we need is to stop wasting time.” Draven sighed and turned back to his brother,

  “We don’t know who she is working with, so we don’t know what we are up against. We first thought this could be the work of one of our kind using the humans as pawns, but now we know that is not the case.”

  “And if it was Keira that was still in there, would you wait then!?” Vincent snapped, stepping up to him. I hated that he said her name but then what else could I expect. In the end I ignored it and could only hope there wasn’t going to be another fight. Draven folded his arms and said sternly,

  “You’re crossing the line, Brother.”

  “And your Chosen One isn’t the only one on that line anymore!” Vincent snarled back.

  “Okay, am I the only one that fancies some popcorn?” Pip said nudging me and Sophia shot her a look that told her best not to go there. Pip just held up her hands and then made a zipping motion across her lips.

  “I agree with Dom.” Lucius said speaking up and Vincent shot him a look.

  “Just hear me out. There was more than one reason none of us could find her until she left the Colony and now we know Celina is involved then it makes sense, as she would know the lengths we would go to and therefore know exactly what to do to stop us. This might be the case also if we just storm in there without a plan to guide us.” I could see that Vincent was finally starting to see sense as his shoulders started to relax and his tense muscles didn’t strain as much against the sleeves of his t shirt.