Cult of the Hexad (Afterlife saga Book 6)

by Stephanie Hudson

  Every elongated and misshapen bone that stood waiting for the fight looked to be made from blackened stone. Eyes that had once been white had now changed to dark holes in the skull with now a tiny white dot lit in the centre. Pointed teeth and long fangs were rooted all the way from either side of the open nose bone and he snapped his jaws at Draven, goading him into making his move, so Draven didn’t disappoint him. He flew at him at great speed and then spun at the last second, using the force of the move to lash out at the monster with both his blades.

  A clashing that sounded like metal hitting metal vibrated around the room as sparks burst out from the contact. It was like underneath that rough surface lay uncut black diamonds that were impenetrable, even for Draven’s powers. The force of the hit made the Demonic beast stumble backwards a step as Draven was also forced back from the energy that was produced between them.

  I knew someone had to do something to stop this before one of them ended up dead or mortally wounded. I didn’t know enough about this world to just stand here and do nothing, hoping for the best. It sounded like this Seth was simply looking for someone dear to him and now this!

  They were just getting ready to go at it again when I shouted,

  “Someone stop this! Do something!”

  “To step in between them would be death as the challenge has been made.” Ragnar informed me in a gruff, hard voice.

  “Fine, then if none of you are going to do something then I will!” I said getting angry! Actually this time I welcomed the feeling that started building up inside me because I was getting sick of shit like this happening when we had far more important things to deal with right now! Oh yes, I had gone from scared to pissed in less than five seconds all because someone wouldn’t do something to stop this. I knew that everyone combined would have been able to take this beast down but no one had stepped forward.

  So now it was my turn.

  I tore myself from Ragnar’s side and ran into the middle of them both looking up at each of them.

  “Now stop this!” I said but Draven ignored me and ordered,

  “Get her out of here!” Again I could feel the blood coursing through me as my anger grew to new heights. That same tingling feeling started in my fingertips and I flexed them in and out as if trying to test what I knew was building. It felt like I had an investable ball in my hand as I squeezed down on the power I felt I had hold of.

  Seth, or what was left of him, roared down at me and Draven was just about to react by charging him but I got there first.

  “STOP THIS THE BOTH OF YOU! I screamed, closing my eyes tight and thrust my hands out in the direction of both of them. The whole room went silent and you could have heard a pin drop. I finally cracked open one eye hoping they were both still breathing and thankfully they were. But they had also been held behind an invisible barrier that I had created with my hands which had warped the air making it look like a door of waving vapour were in front of them both.

  Neither of them could move and neither looked too happy about it.

  “Katie.” Draven warned but there was no way I was letting these two go just to start tearing into each other again. For once I actually felt like I had some control over these powers of mine and I wanted to see how far they would reach. Seth’s demon snarled down at me so I thought I would teach him a lesson by showing him I wasn’t scared anymore. I reached out my fingers towards him and he howled as I slowly started to draw my fingers back in, starting from the tips. He howled again because he didn’t want to let go but I could actually see myself gradually pulling the demon, dragging him out of Seth. Soon after one last yank, I ripped him from his host, leaving the human part of Seth in his place. Then the shadowed figure of his demon fought me for a few more moments until I suddenly released my fingers in a snap of power, making my hand go flat again from the fist it had been in.

  This was enough that the shadow burst into black dust and Seth breathed deep, trying to recover from what had happened. As he did so, he sucked in the vapour of his Demon and the skeletal figure remerged over his skin, making him whole once more.

  The power in which it took to do this was exhausting and I fell down on one knee just as my shields fell.

  “Katie!” Draven cried out my name and was with me in an instant.

  “What were you thinking?! You could have been hurt, you could have…”

  “That was pretty cool though uh…?” I asked in a breathless tone and he took a deep breath, no doubt to calm his nerves and refrain from chastising me further.

  “You are seriously frustrating, you know that.” I gave him a small smile and said,

  “Yeah, I imagine I get that a lot.”

  Suddenly I heard feet land and Draven tensed next to me. He helped me to my feet as Seth now approached. Growls and snarls came from all corners the closer he got and Draven went to take a step towards him in a threatening way before I placed my hand on his arm to stop him.

  “No more fighting, please.” He looked down at me and that hard face that was set in stone started to lose some of its anger.

  “How did she do that?” Seth asked in awe.

  “She is the Chosen and with each moon drawing us closer to the Prophecy, she grows stronger.” Draven answered without looking at him and instead running a finger down my cheek affectionately.

  “She is incredible. No one has ever been able to control my Demon like that.” Seth said in a mixture of disbelief and wonder.

  “Okay guys, gonna give me a big head here.” I said getting a bit hot from blushing and feeling pretty happy with myself for kicking demon ass.

  “You need to leave.” Draven said as enough was enough.

  “I need to find her.” Seth replied twisting his words.

  “You came into my home, you threaten my Chosen and expect me to help you.” Oh yeah, Draven was getting pissed again.

  “I was angry and it had been building for a few days. It is no excuse and I know I was in the wrong but I am not the only one to lose his head when his Chosen is taken from him and nor do I have the feeling that I will be the last.” At this he looked around the room at all the big players in Draven’s world but there was only one I was looking at and that was Vincent.

  Because Seth was right. It seemed to be that if something threatened who they believed to be fated to be their ‘Chosen’ as everyone kept calling it, then they would stop at nothing to save them and keep them from harm. They were no different from what Draven was doing now, what he had always done.

  These men, these supernatural kings in their own right were all the same. Even if they hadn’t found their own Chosen yet, there was still one common ground they all stood by and it was called love.

  Or at the least the chance of it, I thought with a smile at the idea.

  “We will help you find who you’re looking for.” I said speaking up and Draven shot me a look.

  “Is that so?” Draven said crossing his arms and giving me his best frown.

  “Yes, call it my first royal decree.” I said smirking and I heard quite a few sniggers from behind me. Draven raised an eyebrow and if he hoped to stare me down in this one, he was in for a shock. I simply matched his raised eyebrow and crossed my own arms. Seth cleared his throat and said,

  “Should I just give you two a minute?” And it was the first light-hearted thing I had heard out of him yet.

  “Fine! But if you get out of line again then I will let her loose on you, do you understand?” Seth grinned and Draven walked back to the others behind us. I heard Vincent ask his brother,

  “And what does ‘letting Katie loose’ on him entail exactly?”

  “I have no fucking clue.” Draven replied dryly and I laughed once before holding my hand to Seth and saying,

  “Welcome to the team.”

  Chapter 35

  Convoy

  I was just shaking Seth’s hand when Pip suddenly bounced in and said,

  “Ahh shit sticks! Looks like we missed all the fun, steamy buns!” She said
over her shoulder at her husband Adam who was walking in behind her.

  “Blame him, he wanted a quickie before we left.” She added and Adam cleared his throat before walking over to her.

  “Excuse us a moment.” He said politely and then he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

  “Whoopdie whoop whoop! The second train is pullin’ in to the station!” She said as they walked right back through the door they’d appeared from. We could hear her singing,

  “I’m gonna get me some, gonna get me some, I’m gonna get me some… awhoahhh!”

  “Is that…?”

  “Normal? Yeah, I believe it is.” I said beating Seth to it.

  “So when did you notice she had gone missing?” Draven asked getting back to business and then throwing one of the bags of gear to his brother. At this Seth looked away for a moment as if it pained him to give an answer.

  “I don’t know exactly as I haven’t been able to watch over her as I should.”

  “You were hunting Aurora?” He asked and there was that name again.

  “Yes but so far nothing.” Draven thought a moment and informed him,

  “We have heard nothing from her for a while as she believed we weren’t doing enough to find her friend. She left here in anger but naturally we kept an eye on her for a few weeks, just to make sure she didn’t do anything foolish. After that we gave her space to mourn for her loss.” Seth looked thoughtful a moment and then asked,

  “And the authorities?”

  “Nothing and we would have picked up on a missing girl report. So it is either someone got to the mother or she just didn’t file one.” Draven answered and I was now burning to know who this girl was.

  “Either is a possibility as they do not see eye to eye.”

  “How about the boy?” Draven asked as though he wasn’t prepared to say his name.

  “He has gone also, so my only hope is that they are together.”

  “Maybe if we found who she was looking for then we would find her…who did she go searching for?” Seth frowned at me as if I had lost my mind and suddenly it clicked,

  “It was me wasn’t it?”

  “She has had her mind altered.”

  “Hey, don’t put it like that! People will think I eat checkers and wear a foil hat so the aliens don’t probe my brain or something!” I said hitting Draven lightly in his rock hard abs. Seth now looked at me even stranger but at least Draven found it funny.

  “I had my memories taken away so I am sorry but I don’t remember my friend, what was her name?”

  “Rachael, but her friends call her RJ.” I nodded and made a mental note in case we came across her.

  “Any distinctive features so I know if I see her?”

  “Yeah the chick is rocking some cool pink hair!” Pip said bouncing to our side.

  “Uhh…that was kinda quick.” I muttered and she just scrunched her little cute nose up at me,

  “Nah, I just got a spanking that’s all, the guy wouldn’t put out no matter how hard I tried…get it, hard!” I smirked, trying not to laugh.

  “So are we ready to rock up in this small hick town?!” She asked clapping her hands and making all her many rings clash together.

  “I can see why my Rachael likes her.” Seth told me looking her up and down. Well if she was described as having pink hair then I could see why also.

  Soon after this recent drama and with now one extra person in tow, we were on our way to Portland. My mind was on everything that had just happened and I found myself near bursting with questions. Draven put his hand on my thigh, one that couldn’t stop bouncing and said,

  “You wish to ask me something?”

  “Is it that obvious?” I said laughing.

  “Just a tad. Go ahead, ask.”

  “Well I was just wondering about Seth.”

  “What about him?” Draven asked looking straight ahead at the cars in front and without looking behind us I knew there was the same amount behind. We were sat in the back of a hugely expensive Rolls Royce being chauffeur driven to where the helicopter was waiting.

  “Well he seems like kind of a loner.”

  “That’s because he is.”

  “Oh come on, you have to give me more than that!” I complained and Draven turned to me slowly and gave me a handsome grin that told me he was amused.

  “There is a reason he remains in hiding and alone and that is because his demon is unpredictable and cannot be tamed by his human side. They both battle against each other and frustration breeds anger and anger feeds the demon.” Well that sounded like a rubbish deal for anyone.

  “But what about his Chosen?”

  “RJ?” I nodded.

  “Well he refuses to claim her and now she is, well…”

  “Pissed?” I finished for him and he laughed once.

  “Yeah, that’s one word for it. To be rejected when you are at the very foundations of falling in love is not something you get over lightly and let’s just say that your friend knows how to hold a grudge.” Umm, it sounded like the type of friend I really didn’t want to piss off.

  “So now she’s missing.”

  “That’s what he believes.”

  “But you don’t think so?” I asked hearing the uncertainty in his voice.

  “With RJ, well who knows? She might have taken her broken heart somewhere she believes he won’t find her, to simply wait for it to mend again.” He said shrugging his shoulders.

  “Well that’s not likely to happen, is it?” I said doubting very much the fates would pair two people together if it was possible for one to get over the other.

  “No, it’s not but she’s not the first to do something stupid in love and I dare say she won’t be the last.” Draven said re-using Seth’s words from earlier. Personally I think it was a simple case of getting them both in the same room and bashing their heads together! Well, that was after we found her of course.

  Draven and I continued to talk a little more but at some point I must have given up the fight because what felt like seconds later we were there and I was being woken up.

  “Katie, we’re here.” I murmured something unintelligent before rubbing my eyes and forcing them to open. I waited for my blurry vision to clear before waking to the best sight in the whole world, Draven smiling.

  “Hey you.” I said in my sleepy state and he laughed.

  “I shouldn’t have kept you up last night.” This time I laughed and as I stretched I said,

  “I have no regrets, stud muffin.” Now this really had him laughing but also shaking his head at me.

  “Come on then my little sex kitten, time to go.” This had me grinning as I liked the whole ‘sex kitten’ thing and I got out of the car hoping that it stuck enough to become my new nickname. I saw a few helicopters all with their rotors whipping round and ready to go. I saw Sigurd, Ragnar, Sophia and Zagan and Seth get into one and Draven, me, Lucius, Vincent and Pip and Adam all got into the other. The rest of the group, which consisted of Lucius’ council members, minus one named Percy, and Jared’s council members along with Takeshi and a girl call Rue, who was asked to join us in case a witch was needed. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was Vincent’s idea, so I tried not to react when Draven pointed her out to me.

  “You ready for this, Toots?!” Pip asked, clearly getting excited.

  “Hell yes! I have never been in a helicopter before!” I shouted over the noise.

  “Oh yes you…”

  “Pipper, please refrain.” Lucius warned in a dry tone. Pip looked thoughtful for a moment and then her eyes lit up and she started laughing hysterically like a memory just hit her.

  “Ignore her, thinking too hard tickles her brain.” Lucius teased speaking to me and Adam smirked only to receive an elbow to the gut for doing so.

  “Don’t make me tie you up, my little imp.” Her husband warned affectionately.

  “Oh please do darling, then it will take me back to 1978 and that thing we did with my hula skirt. Oh
man, that coconut bra was a killer and I had no clue that it would hit the pilot when I whipped it off like that!” Suddenly the man flying the helicopter looked back at us with panic written all over his face.

  “Oh it’s okay I’m not wearing a bra today, so you’re all good!” She said opening her little cropped denim jacket to show us her T-shirt and I burst out laughing.

  “Do you like it, I had it specially made for tonight.” She said winking at Draven making him groan. It was baby pink with white writing across the chest that said, ‘No Humans were hurt during this siege’.

  “You should see my back!” Then she turned her back to us all and pulled her jacket down further so we could read the writing on the back that said, ‘Unless you’re an asshole!’

  “I especially like that part, Mrs Ambrogetti.” Draven said and this made her do a fist bump in the air but as was the way of Pip it finished with her opening her little fist at the end and saying,

  “Boom Bitches!” And then she ended it with a little fizzle noise.

  The helicopters took off when they had the okay from the control tower and after Draven made sure I was strapped in of course. I was so excited for my first flight and was thankful I got the window seat, although at first Draven looked dubious. Did he think I was going to wuss out or something? Although if this had been Ari then we would have had a few screams by now.

  We had been in the air for about ten minutes when Lucius kept eyeing me in a funny way, as if he too kept expecting me to freak out or something.

  “Well it’s going a lot smoother than last time, Boss.” Pip said nodding to me and I saw Adam shoot her a look.

  “Oh yeah, my bad.”

  “What?” I asked looking at everyone but coming back to Lucius seeing as he was smirking.

  “Nothing little Katie girl, just good memories that’s all.” Pip giggled again but stopped when I looked at her.

  “Well think of it like this Toots, at least we can’t all hear your thoughts anymore…although that was sooo funny, when Luc walked in and …uh, I shouldn’t have said that should I?” Pip said as I was still processing what she had said. Unfortunately it soon clicked and if I had been allowed to choose when this happened, I would have said never as now knowing they could all hear my thoughts was utterly humiliating!