Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “We knew what we were doing and we all had a choice,” she added making Pip say,

  “Yeah, I was wearing my big girl pants and everything, so it’s all good...Well, as long as no time has passed and we get back and my Adam hasn’t done anything silly like destroy the Earth looking for me or anything,” she added with a shrug of her shoulders and Ari’s face looked as if she had swallowed a bug!

  “Don’t ask,” I told her with a little shake of my head. Then she looked to Sophia and she did the same, telling her silently not to go there.

  “So, getting back to Draven?” I asked her.

  “Well it’s obvious he is pissed, which was kind of a big indicator you would be here alone upset.” Yeah, it usually was, I thought bitterly.

  “So, you two haven’t umm done…”

  “The R Kelly?” Pip added making me laugh.

  “The Bump and Grind, she means sex,” I told Ari, who was looking more lost by the minute.

  “No, we haven’t but we came close,” I told them.

  “Oh, so that explains the mess in the living room,” Sophia said making me blush.

  “Alright Tootiesextornator!” Pip shouted giving me a high five.

  “Yeah, well thanks to this big brute here, we kind of got interrupted. And then well, Draven has kind of got it into his head that he won’t…you know…”

  “Put in until you put out?” I laughed at Pip’s ‘nut shell’ statement.

  “Yeah. He wanted to know where I came from and I just knew that when he detected my lie, that would be it, game over. In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I told him that the truth would be dangerous for him.” Sophia’s eyes grew wide and then realisation dawned on her.

  “Well that explains all the messengers.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked her.

  “Well, he called forth all his messengers and had them spread word of a bounty for anyone who has information on the ‘fair haired girl called Keira from Britannia’. I believe forty men are currently leaving on horseback.” Hearing this I groaned aloud and buried my head in my hands.

  “Well then that’s no biggy, and all is good in the hood,” Pip said and Sophia shrugged her shoulders and added,

  “At least no one will come back with any proof and the only man who knew the truth about us has been sent off to Rome.”

  “Yeah to become a bloody Emperor! Pip did you know this?!” I screeched and she just shrugged her shoulders and said,

  “Yeah, of course.” Okay so it seemed to be common knowledge and I don’t know why but the thought that I didn’t know hurt a little.

  “Okay, so the question still remains, what the hell do we do now, because if your brother won’t ‘put in’ as Pip called it, without first getting to know the truth about me, a truth I can’t tell him I might add, then what’s our next move?”

  “Oh, I know!” Pip shouted, suddenly getting excited by raising her hand up like she was in school. That image alone gave me shivers as I couldn’t imagine the nightmare some poor teacher would have on their hands with Pip.

  “You can cook for him!” she shouted out and in true Pip fashion, it was the very last thing any of us ever expected. I think all our faces said exactly the same thing…

  ‘Uh, what now?’

  “Well, when Adam is in a grump with me I usually cook for him, I mean granted when I serve it to him I am usually naked but it always ends in food covered nookie, but still, my point being that if you show how much you love him, then he might just give up the goods without thinking about it…I mean you did say yourself that you nearly did it earlier over food…maybe that’s his weakness…what…it could be.” Pip whined this last part when I gave her a pointed look.

  “Pip, I appreciate the…” Sophia suddenly put a hand on my arm and stopped me,

  “You know, she may be on to something.”

  “What?!” I shouted in disbelief.

  “Look we know my brother’s weakness here…”

  “Prunes?” Pip asked making me and Ari both laugh.

  “No not prunes or any other dried fruit that makes you…”

  “Shit through the eye of a needle?!” Pip again added on a shout as if it was a guessing game and me and Ari were soon in stitches.

  “Focus Pip. No, I was going to say my brother’s weakness has and always will be his Chosen One. It’s you Keira and not just because the Fates deemed you the Electus but because of who you are in here,” she said pointing to her own heart.

  “He will always love you to the point that it will soon become unbearable for him not to take you to his bed and this notion of knowing your past, will soon become secondary to his obsession in joining his body with yours…all you have to do, is push.” I knew what she was saying and I found tears in my eyes once again at the thought of Draven’s love for me. But she was right, I needed to use that to my advantage and push him until his limits snapped.

  “Yes, well I tried that and he left, so how do I stop that from happening.” I asked thinking back to earlier and how I had opened my eyes after that amazing kiss only to find him gone.

  “Chain him to the bed…what, it works for me,” Pip said after receiving looks from us all.

  “I don’t think you will have to worry about that for long, as Dom will soon find his limits pushed to the point of no return. Now, all we have to do is make sure we have Ari in place…”

  “Umm…what now?” Ari said raising her hand and I had to say, I couldn’t help but feel bad for her.

  “Here, let me handle this one…so here’s the skinny, big booty, you have been sent back here with us for a reason and the only one we can think of is that you have some kind of baby making mojo that will help in getting the ‘Tootie no baker’ into a ‘bun in the oven Tootiebaker’… Capiche?” At hearing this, we all had our own reactions. Mine was to smack my forehead, Sophia’s was to ask the Gods for strength and Ari’s was to swear…loudly. Of course, just to add to our shit streak luck, it was now that the door burst open and an angry Draven sibling stormed in.

  “Vincent!” Ari shouted making him growl at her.

  “Brother, what are you doing here?!” Sophia shouted in surprise at the sight of her brother storming in like a man possessed.

  “I could ask this of you dear sister, for I remember not long past that our Brother forbade you to do the very same,” he snapped making her look indifferent and shrug her shoulders,

  “You know I do as I please.”

  “As do I. Now Ariana, come here,” he demanded and I couldn’t help it as my mouth dropped…was this really the same Vincent?!

  “No! I am not a damn dog!” she shouted back and folded her arms across her chest.

  “I warned you what would happen if I found you gone from my chambers,” he said this in such a way that it was the first time he looked related to his brother in such a way that I almost warned Ari what was about to happen. In the end Vincent’s actions were quicker than my lips.

  “Ahhh! Put me down, you big ape!” Ari shouted as soon as he had her up and hoisted over his shoulder. Yep, and there was the family resemblance I thought with a smirk.

  “Your unwillingness to follow my order is only adding to my enjoyment little peach, now keep still before I see you bound again.” Vincent warned playfully smacking her behind, making her shriek out in fury. Then he turned to face us and bent slightly to bid us good evening, as if there wasn’t a woman over his shoulder, desperately trying to hold on to him for fear that she would be dropped.

  “Sophia, your being here is but a passing memory.”

  “As was yours, brother,” she replied grinning knowing that this meant neither would be in a hurry to tell their brother.

  I had to say he left in much better spirits than when he first arrived as the mad panic and fury was now gone from his face the moment he felt Ari in his arms. Oh yeah, he had it bad.

  “Is it wrong that I was just glad it wasn’t my one that just burst in here?” I asked making the others la
ugh as soon as the door closed.

  “I fear both my brothers are experiencing things they never thought possible and obviously their way of dealing with it, is pretty much the same,” Sophia said in their defence.

  “You mean they both act like cavemen who all but drag their little women back to their caves?” I said making Pip snort a giggle.

  “Yeah, pretty much,” she replied.

  “I hate to be the baring peach bum of bad news here but if we are trying to plan mission, get rocket into Toot’s atmosphere, then how are we going to do that without our main astronaut here to press the launch button?” Pip asked and I complained,

  “Hey but wouldn’t that kinda be my job?”

  “No, Toots,” she said and I asked,

  “Why not?!” This was when she leaned over and patted me on the leg and said,

  “Because you’re the one flying the shuttle.”

  Chapter 11

  Operation ‘Woo Draven’

  Soon after hearing Pip make this very cryptic point, Sophia had simply said,

  “Leave it to me.” And I can honestly say I was more than happy to as I had enough of my own problems to deal with, the main one being how to destroy Draven’s willpower and have him give up the manly goods…or his ‘man rocket’ as Pip had put it.

  “So, what about Ranka, can she help us in…what?” I had asked as the way they both looked now, it obviously meant they knew something that I didn’t. I mean yes, I thought it weird how I hadn’t seen her, but considering I had spent most of the day naked in Draven’s arms, then I guess it wasn’t surprising.

  “Well you remember when we were taken?” Sophia asked softly.

  “Yeah by Uber dick Pertinax, I mean what kind of name is that anyway, sounds more like a laundry detergent!” Pip added making me laugh.

  “Yeah, but that wasn’t her…right?” I said remembering how he had took on the image of her vessel to trick us.

  “No, it wasn’t her, but the thing is…”

  “Warrior woman has gone incognito!” Pip shouted once again interrupting Sophia.

  “What do you mean? She has gone missing?” I asked making them both nod and I frowned wondering what had happened to her.

  “But Draven never said anything,” I argued and Sophia, bless her, patted my hand and said,

  “Well I hate to point out the obvious, but my brother hasn’t really been very forthcoming in the past when divulging important information to you, has he?” Okay so she had a very good point there as in Draven’s mind, it was just stuff that I didn’t need to worry about.

  “So, what do we do about that?”

  “Dom has some of his men looking for her and when I say men I mean…”

  “Your own kind,” I surmised and she nodded.

  “So, there is nothing we can do?” I asked and Pip shouted,

  “We are a little early in time for ‘WANTED’ posters but hey, I could always start off the trend, do you think you could draw a picture of her?” I smiled when Sophia sighed.

  “I don’t mean to talk to the press or anything…jeez, I am using the good side of my brain you know. I just mean to do a little recon, lay of the land, shake of the bush…that type of thing…ask around,” Pip added when we were both stumped on the ‘shake the bush’ comment.

  “That’s not a bad idea.” I said and after arranging for my new art supplies to be brought to me thanks to Pip, I felt better that we were at least formulating a plan. Of course, next on that list was a little trickier.

  “So how exactly am I going to sneak past the guards, down into the kitchen and cook him a meal surrounded by servants, without Draven going crazy mad, and pretty much giving us a repeat show of what Vincent just did?” I asked, to which this time Pip replied,

  “Leave it to me.” After this we pretty much tried to come up with every plan possible for me to bombard Draven with as many sexy, cute, loving gestures as possible in the hope that one of them would work enough in one night as Pip was worried.

  “Care to share with the time travelling class,” Sophia said as Pip looked deep in thought, chewing on her finger.

  “I just have a slight concern.” Oh dear, well I knew that if Pip was speaking normally, then it was definitely something to worry about.

  “And that is?”

  “Well, once they have done the disco dancing deed…” Okay, so back to feeling slightly better, well that was until…

  “…that he will be able to detect that her soul isn’t recognised in this time.”

  “Yeah but I thought you were masking that?” Sophia said and now I was completely lost as these two started to discuss something I had no clue about.

  “I am but it’s easy when her soul hasn’t been touched yet…now after they dance the mambo together, then who the frickknows!” she said banging a hand on the bed, making Colossus grunt and take notice.

  “Can someone please explain?” I asked and just as both of them pointed to the other at the same time, Pip won by getting there first. I had to say I was glad as I knew I had at least a chance at understanding this better from Sophia.

  “Alright, so one of our gifts as you know is seeing souls…you know, detecting a good, bad, or in your case a rare Pure Soul, so that when we feed, it’s like…”

  “Reading a label on your favourite brand of cereal,” Pip added, making Sophia hold back a groan.

  “Yeah, like that,” Sophia said and when Pip went back to fussing the dog, she looked to me and mouthed the words, ‘No, nothing like that,’ before continuing,

  “It just tells us a lot about a mortal and this gift is something we all possess as it’s how we feed or gain energy, if you will.”

  “Okay, so yeah, I remember Draven telling me that, but neither he nor anyone else could feed from me,” I said remembering back to all that time ago on his balcony.

  “And this is true, we can’t but that doesn’t mean that people can’t still see it,” she told me and I thought back to all those strange cryptic comments people in my past had made, about me being a ‘pure soul’ or about me having a ‘light’.

  “Well, as for my brothers and I, we can also detect other things,” she said as if trying to tread carefully.

  “Like what?”

  “Well, we can detect whether or not they intend to do harm or even lie and no, I know what you’re thinking, but you don’t need to worry, as you are not easily read like the others...it is because of your mind’s shields I think, as if you are casting the barrier far enough to cloak your soul as well,” Sophia added when I gave her a panicked look.

  “Yeah not like when you told me about what he did to that boy Justin when he knew...why are you doing that cut throat actiony thingy at me…ooooh…my bad.” Hearing this I snapped my head round to Sophia and shouted,

  “He didn’t!” Sophia sighed and said,

  “He might have detected his intent to try and kiss you, so he might have slipped a little something in his drink.” The way Sophia said this was as if it was a tiny little harmless bit of playfulness on her brother’s part…but for me and the way I remembered it, not so much on the playfulness!

  “Look anyway, take it up with lover boy when you get back but for now, focus,” she said after clapping her hands in front of my face.

  “The point is we may not be able to get a read on you but Pip is worried that once he connects to your soul, that he will be able to detect that it isn’t from this time. Pip can only mask so much but even she might struggle with that one.”

  “Hey!” she complained and Sophia shot her a look.

  “Your words, Pip!”

  “Oh…oh yeah, sorry I forgot,” Pip said looking sheepish.

  “So, what you’re saying is as soon as we have sex, then he might know that I am from a different time?”

  “Like we said, it’s a possibility.”

  Well hearing this didn’t exactly fill me with hippy happy thoughts that was for damn sure. In fact, shortly after this the girls left me, as Sophia had to
go and show her face in the throne room and I laughed as she made a ‘kill me now’ face. I gave them both a hug and gained strength through their comfort, which meant after they left I didn’t go right back to sobbing hopelessly. No instead I got up and decided to clean the mess we had made in the living space just for something to do.

  Thankfully the dog had cleared most of the remains, which even included the honey and spices. Man, I just hoped the dog didn’t start farting in the night, because after all that spice, I wasn’t sure I would survive it! I certainly didn’t envy his poor stomach tomorrow, or the poor souls that had to clean up after his mess, that was for damn sure. No, in the end all I had to do was pile up the dishes and place them back on the table. I had even been tempted to carry them all down into the bathing room and wash them clean. But considering this was where we washed, I didn’t think it wise.

  So, with nothing else to do, I lay on the bed and snuggled up to another new male in my life and he…well he snored. I must have slept, which was surprising with all the crap I had going on inside my head. But I knew I had, for I woke when I heard a noise and in my sleepy state I stroked across the dog’s head and said,

  “Ssshh easy Colossus…it’s just the wind,” as he had started to rumble as if not happy about something. He soon calmed and I put my arm around him to both comfort him and myself as Draven still hadn’t returned to me. I didn’t know how late it was but after waking twice and still finding myself alone, let’s just say I didn’t hold much hope for him coming back…or so I thought.

  “Colossus, down.” I suddenly froze at the sound of his voice in the dark as the only light was from the moon shining through the open arched windows. The dog released a deep ‘humpf’ sound before doing as it was told, begrudgingly. I turned to look up at him and the imposing shadow he made had me swallowing hard.

  “I see you have already replaced me,” he said and after releasing a sigh I smiled,

  “Well he usually does as he’s told and seems to understand the word stay best of all,” I said trying to make my point and I saw him grin in the moonlight.