Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “Oh look, Arsaces, it seems that you will have to share me and my attention with another intimidating beast,” I said going back to the cutie pie that was a drooling Colossus and start stroking him down his back and the many folds around his large neck. Then suddenly I squealed in shock as I was picked up and thrown over Draven’s shoulder. Colossus started barking in a deep throaty way that most big dogs do and Draven whipped round and snarled playfully,

  “Mine!” making the dog back down. Then he turned and started walking us both into the bedroom.

  “Aww…I still love you Colossus!” I shouted back at him, lifting myself up over Draven’s shoulder, making him huff and then go back to his happy place…that being hoovering up the leftovers.

  “I don’t share,” Draven said pulling my body forward and making me yelp as I landed with a ‘humpf’ on his bed.

  “But he’s so cute,” I told him, this time making him playfully nip at me making me giggle.

  “I suppose I should not be surprised at you being the first female he likes, considering the power you seem to hold over the opposite sex,” he said dryly making me giggle again. Seriously though, all I seemed to do around this man was laugh, giggle, snort or moan in sexual frustration, for I feared that if I didn’t come soon I would just self-combust after my next cheek caress.

  “And does that power extend to you, my King?” I asked seductively and he gave me a pointed look and said,

  “As you are well aware, my playful Lamb, for the proof is always easy to find,” then he looked down at himself and I followed his gaze to find that, yep there it was and it was mighty and glorious! Of course, it would have been made more glorious if it was currently freed from its material confines and finding new comfort in that of my body.

  “And I fear that because of such, you make me easily lose my mind and most of all, my focus.” At this I frowned at him as he sat back putting space between us.

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked folding my arms, knowing I would most likely not like the sound of what was to come next.

  “It is now indisputable that you are my Electus but this fact comes secondary to the heart I gave you willingly and did so knowingly at the time, that the decision made could mean forsaking the future of my own kind.” Okay, so far so good, as I couldn’t say that hearing this didn’t make me smile and one he reached out and caressed his thumb across.

  “However, at the time nothing else mattered to me for I want you as I have never wanted another. But you must know that when I take you, I want not to only to own your body but your mind also…I want everything you have to give,” he told me, letting his hand fall to my neck and gently pull me closer to him before he uttered the very reason for these words spoken. Ones that I shuddered against, knowing my time for answering difficult questions was near.

  “And I know nothing of you but the lies you told.”

  I hated that he was right but what I hated even more was the lies I would have to layer on top of the lies I had already cemented at the foundations of this relationship. But I knew that I had no other choice as I had made my time travelling bed already and there was no going back now…well, other than trying to get back to my own time that is, I thought inwardly cringing.

  So, with this shameful truth in mind, it was time to lie.

  “What is it you would like to know?”

  “How did you come to know of my kind and learn of your place within it?” Draven asked and I knew exactly what this was considering he had already had his account of how I came to be from his sister Sophia. No, this was nothing short of a test, one that I could pass thanks to Pip…or so I thought.

  Pip had told me that the story Draven had been given was that I was brought up by a secret society that believed in the prophecy and posed as priests in England. They groomed me from an early age after word reached them as to who I was. There I learnt all about his kind and the ways of the world. I supposed this was to explain all my worldly knowledge that Draven had been right, a simply merchant’s daughter wouldn’t know. Even when Draven had asked after my family, Sophia had told him that they had allowed me to remain in contact, so it at least explained where my passion lay when briefly mentioning my father to Draven.

  All I could say was thank the Gods for Sophia’s quick thinking and ability to hide her thoughts from her brother, something they all did with each other. Of course, having this same skill helped but not enough to defend myself from all of Draven’s powers and he still had one or two tricks up his sleeve in getting the answers he wanted.

  “Well I first learnt of…umm…” I started to tell him but soon stumbled on my words when he reached down and picked up my hand, so that he could hold my wrist, placing his fingers at my pulse point. He wanted to read my lies.

  “You were saying,” he said smoothly and I swallowed hard before thinking back to what Pip told me. She had said the trick was to believe in your own lies, morphing them into a warped version of the truth. Draven knew what he was doing and when he started stroking his thumb along the back of my hand it felt like he was trying to sooth my fears but also provide me comfort. I didn’t know why he would do this other than to lure me into a false sense of security.

  “I was…well, there were people and they taught…me…I…” I let my broken voice trail off and Draven frowned at me.

  “Nāzanin?” He called my name but I was lost. I had turned my head and was looking out to the night and something just didn’t feel right. It was as though something deep down inside of me was pulling at a thread I was desperately trying to hold onto but didn’t know why.

  “Just let go.”

  “Just let go.” Both sentences were said at the same time but only one belonged to the room as the other belonged to another side of myself…Katie.

  “I can’t do this!” I suddenly shouted and pulled my hand from his, as I shifted off the bed.

  “What, what can’t you do?” he asked me and suddenly I had tears falling from my eyes as I knew that what I was now going to do could have the power to ruin everything. The very reasons for us being here now depended on this one point and the simple question I had to ask my soul…could I lie once more to a man who had declared to have loved me enough that he was ready to forsake his own kind to be with me?

  Now the question remained, was I really about to reward that level of his love with the depth of my lies?

  So, I took a deep shuddering breath, let my tears overflow and I gave him my answer…

  “I can’t lie to you…anymore.”

  Chapter 10

  Ancient Lesson Learned

  Soon after speaking these freeing words, things soon went from bad to worse. The bad started with Draven demanding to know why I felt I couldn’t tell him the truth and then the worse ended with me just standing there with no more words to tell him. Then he had asked me the fatal question…

  “And what of my sister, did she too tell me of your lies believing the truth was spoken?” I took a deep breath and told him,

  “I lied to her also.” As soon as I said this his anger was easy to see and I couldn’t say that I blamed him. He stood from the bed and stormed over to me, making me back up and just as I was about to hit into a shield hanging on the wall, he got to me and steered me away from it. Well, at least even in his fury he cared enough about my wellbeing, so I guess that was something good to focus on.

  “Tell me why?!” he demanded taking that last step and caging me in with his hands held above me. I knew he was trying to intimidate me enough to tell him and I would have said that most of the time, it would have worked…but not this time.

  “I…I…” In truth, I had nothing.

  “Tell me why you lied!?” he asked again and I knew with that harsh tone he was close to losing it.

  “I can’t…I…”

  “TELL ME!” he roared at me making me flinch back. So, I gave him what I could.

  “Because the truth is dangerous!” I shouted back and he jolted as if shocked by my reason. />
  “You believe I will hurt you if I know the truth?” he asked in a hiss as if even thinking this was abhorrent and utterly foreign to him.

  “N…” I was about to speak when his hand shackled the column of my throat but not in a threatening way or a way to silence me but it was a gentle touch. One that meant to achieve only one thing…detecting for my possible deception.

  “No, not dangerous for me.” I told him, knowing that everything I said from this point would only be found as a truth. Because it would be dangerous for him and everyone else I loved if he knew the truth. If I failed to get back and complete my mission, what then?

  “For me? But that is impossible, no…I… you must surely mean for yourself,” he challenged and I hated where my current thoughts started to take me. Because if anything I was the only one in this whole thing that it wasn’t dangerous for, not considering my fate had already been determined and my life…well it wasn’t the one I was fighting for anymore. It was his.

  “You felt it for yourself, for what I say is true.” He narrowed his eyes at me and shook his head a little as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “So, of what you speak, you wish me to trust that the information you withhold from me is to keep me safe…is this what I am to believe, Nāzanin?” I bit my lip as it started to tremble, so I closed my eyes just as the first of my tears started to fall before opening them and telling him the truth once more,

  “I swear to you… on my very soul… that everything I do is solely to keep safe those that I love and top of that list is…is you, Arsaces.” The second he heard his name uttered from my lips he wrapped a strong arm around my waist and yanked me hard to him.

  “You wish to save my life?” he asked me fervently and I let another tear fall before raising my eyes to his and whispering my answer,

  “Always.” Suddenly he put his hand to the back of my neck and eliminated the rest of the space between us in a heartbeat, to once more give me a piece of his heart,

  “Then never leave it!” Then he took my lips in a bruising kiss. I gasped over his lips letting him glide his tongue in and taste me. The bitter sweet moment didn’t last long and the sweetest part was when he lit up my soul by kissing me and the bitter, well that was when he left me.

  I felt his lips leave mine and I opened my eyes, expecting him to be looking down at me but I was wrong…

  He was gone.

  It was at this realisation that I felt my legs buckle and I crumpled to the floor. I pulled my knees up and hugged myself as I cried, wondering how had I managed to mess things up this badly. In essence, it should have been simple. We all get here together, form a plan, get me in bed with the king and have Ari do her baby making mumbo jumbo, then get the hell out of Dodge! But from the very start it had felt like everything had been against us.

  Now the big question remained, was this still all part of the Fates’ plan, or was this simply what it felt like it was…me winging it and fumbling around in the dark? Because from the very second I woke up in that desert, all it felt like I was doing was making one mistake after another. All I wanted to do was tell Draven the truth and place my trust in him doing the right thing, something he refused to do back in my own time. But even thinking this, I knew it was something Draven just wasn’t able to give me.

  Because ever since we first met all he had done was make painful decisions based solely on my safety. I thought back to all the tears shed and I felt that I could have drowned in them for everything this relationship had put me through but at no point had I really said… enough.

  Even when it started with his stern and harsh treatment of me when being my boss. Why hadn’t I been repelled against him because of it? No, if anything it seemed to only add fuel to the fantasy and from this my obsession grew. And then he once against tried one last push, which was using that traitorous bitch Celina, to break my foolish heart. Oh, at the time I had tried to convince myself that I’d had enough but the reality was as it has always been, that no matter how I try I could never give up on Draven.

  And now all I had left was asking him to do the same, to not give up on me. A girl he knew nothing about other than what I was supposed to mean to him thanks to what the Gods deemed so. But I never wanted any of that because stripping this down to its most basic form…

  I was simply a girl, in love with a man.

  “Oh dear, Houston we have a problem with one of our astronauts,” Pip said to a concerned looking Sophia and Ari, who now stood at the bottom of the bed. I had at some point finally dragged my sobbing carcass off the floor and was currently huddled on the bed, hugging a massive dog. One that had just had to listen to all my problems for the last two hours. No wonder he looked depressed.

  “Oh, honey!” Ari said coming over to the bed and receiving a warning growl from my new guardian, Colossus.

  “Umm, he’s a bit…protective, aren’t you boy, good boy ssshh now, she’s my sister.” I told him making Ari smile at me as if she was touched that I still recognised her as such.

  “Meh, yes, I remember that hound,” Sophia said sounding unimpressed and I gave her a questioning look.

  “He used to eat my shoes,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. Um, well I guess dogs didn’t really change much, even after 2000 years, as they still went for what was usually most precious to a girl.

  “Shame you didn’t bring those ‘Gods holding their noses’ awful sneakers with you Toots, he would have had a field day with those bad boys!” Pip said laughing then walked over to me and plonked herself on the bed with a little jump. Strangely, Colossus didn’t make a sound of protest.

  “Hey, how come she gets the waggy tail treatment?!” Ari complained, as he started to sniff at Pip before rolling over on his belly for her to make a fuss, which of course she did, in her own Pip way.

  “Um Pip…what are you doing?” I asked as she pretended to be a dog herself and start poking his belly with her nose and making snuffling noses. I had to say whatever her reasons the dog loved it!

  “Communicating,” was her only cryptic response.

  “Oookay.” Ari said making me smile.

  “She’s an Imp, so don’t ask as this is her thing. But getting back to the reason we snuck in here and off the shoe eating mutt…what happened, Honey?” Sophia asked as she gently sat on the bed along with Ari, now that Colossus seemed to be relaxed enough. Well yeah, why not considering he was currently spooning a snuggling Pip. She looked like his new favourite toy as he kept licking her neck making her giggle.

  “I just couldn’t do it.” I told them and Pip’s eyes got wide and she said,

  “Tell me you have not gone off that delicious man king candy and I am not talking about the wreck it Ralph variety!” Pip asked making Sophia and Ari look at each other with comical matching ‘What the Hell’ looks. I, however, had a little niece and knew she loved the movie, although it was questionable who loved it more, her or her father Frank.

  “No, Pip, it’s not that.”

  “Then what?” Ari asked putting a hand on my arm in comfort.

  “I couldn’t lie,” I told her honestly and Sophia gave me a warm, soft look as though she was starting to see where this was going.

  “But why not, I told you the trick and…” Pip started when Sophia stopped her.

  “He wants you, body and mind, doesn’t he?” I nodded and let my shoulders slump.

  “I am confused” Ari said and Pip agreed,

  “Me too, sister big booty.” I had to laugh when Ari growled at her.

  “I have told you to stop calling me that! My ‘booty’ isn’t that big.” Ari complained and then shifted to the side so that she could pull her Kaftan down, making Pip giggle.

  “Don’t know what your big panties are in a twitch about, it’s not like Vinny boy isn’t a big booty man! And besides, your ass is fine girlfriendly big bum and it gives you that sexy swagger that skinny bitches like me can’t do without looking like we woke up one day and just forgot how to walk properly
…you got it going on, so it’s all good and peachy… hehe,” Pip said finishing with a giggle. Meanwhile I had to laugh as Ari looked as if her eyes were about to explode from her sockets. It was in that moment that the look she was sporting right now was the very same one that had been glued to my own face years ago when I first met Pip. Talking about history repeating itself, for that was a mind-boggling joke considering where we were all now sat.

  “Take it as a compliment,” I whispered next to her after Pip had gone back to snuggling the dog, one that was now snoring.

  “Oh, I am taking it as something, not sure I understand what though,” Ari replied making me laugh.

  “Well, if it makes you feel any better, she is like this about my breasts all the time and this may be hard to imagine, but one day, this will all just seem quite normal to you,” I said making Sophia laugh and say,

  “Yep, pretty much.” And Pip lifted her head from the dog’s belly and made a clicking noise at Ari along with a flick of two fingers like she was firing a gun. I took this as she agreed with my statement but really…who knew.

  “So, what are we going to do about my brooding brother, who I might add is currently making his kingdom’s life hell from his foul mood?” Now this peaked my interest. My back turned ramrod straight and I asked in desperate tones,

  “Why, where is he? What is he doing? Why is he making the...?”

  “Whoa, slow down there, Skippy!” Sophia said and I laughed,

  “You have spent way too much time around Pip.” I informed her, making Sophia blush, a colour that matched her beautiful red and gold dress. She looked like a sinful goddess and her ebony hair looked like glossy waves over one shoulder. I just knew that if Zagan was around in this time then he would have stopped at nothing to have her. The thought made me sad. And just as it did with Pip, I couldn’t even imagine what it must be like for them both, being without their husbands and here was me acting all sorry for myself.

  “Hey, come on now, I know that look,” Sophia said reaching out and taking hold of my hand.