Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “Bother me?”

  “You know, being here and having to wear a symbol that you don’t believe in? Rule an Empire you never asked to rule.” Oh yeah, asking this was a mistake, I could tell the second he started to shut down as his expression turned cold.

  “I make my own decisions, make no mistake of that. Now no more questions…lie back,” he told me sternly and added a hand to my chest so that he could slowly push me back, making my arms flatten to my sides.

  “I umm…” I started to mutter as he situated himself on the bed next to me before peeling back my cloak as he had done on the carriage. Then he stopped and leaned down closer to my face, making me think for a split second that he was going to kiss me.

  “Why not try and exercise the art of silence?” he whispered over me and I rolled my lips, holding onto them with my teeth so that I wouldn’t be tempted to say what I wanted to say…which would have been along the lines of, ‘Why not try and exercise the art of not being an overbearing asshole?’ For obvious reasons, I decided to go with silence. He only moved when he looked satisfied that I was taking his advice and the smirk was one this time, I wanted to wipe from his face with a swift kick to the balls.

  “Now hold still while I discover the extent of your injuries,” he ordered firmly. I wanted to roll my eyes and if I had been facing the Lucius I knew from my own time, then I knew I would have. However, this Lucius wasn’t yet my friend and now strangely he also seemed like a far cry away from the assassin who had helped me in the desert. Which had me asking myself, what had happened to him since to change him this way.

  Okay so asking myself this question was quickly followed by a mental slap to the forehead as I counted the things down. He had not only been forced to face off a Demonic God, hellbent on taking over the world, (Pun definitely intended) he had also nearly died because of it and had to have his life saved by a mortal girl. Something that had to sting considering he didn’t even like mortals, especially the female variety. Then after this he was ordered by Draven to take a position as Rome’s new Emperor and pretty much spend however many years surrounded by beings he didn’t like. So yeah, that was enough to put anyone in a shit mood for the next decade.

  Which then begged the question…did he blame me?

  It wasn’t surprising that the second his hands came in contact with my skin all thoughts fled from my mind. He was looking down at me as if he could see past my damaged flesh and fractured bone and straight into the darkest shadows of my fragile soul. It was as if he was plucking strands of secrets from my heart and laying them all out for his personal view. I shuddered at the thought and mentally put a lockdown on my mind, slamming closed any doors he had tried to open.

  It had been a long time since I had needed to think about doing that, after so long it was more like second nature to me. Almost as easy as breathing but then someone came along who suddenly has to remind you to breathe and you realise that you are not as immune as you once thought.

  I looked to Lucius with wide eyes and when I saw his own narrow in annoyance I knew he had been locked out and was less than happy about the fact. Although, it seemed he hadn’t walked away empty handed.

  “Tell me, for I am curious… do you usually hold your mortal life with such little regard?” he asked me as he reached out and started examining the damage to my head, causing me to frown in confusion.

  “What do you mean?” I asked quietly.

  “What I mean is this!” he snapped, snarling down at my injuries and losing his false cool exterior, one I had foolishly started to place trust in. I sank back as he suddenly produced a blade from his side.

  “Be still girl!” he demanded as he pulled me back and then after forcing my compliance, he grabbed a handful of the linen bandage and cut it in one swift move, slicing its length up my torso. Then just as quickly he had it back in its sheath freeing both hands to peel the binding from my ribs. I looked down and now saw what he saw… and it was a mess.

  The whole of one side was deep red surrounded by deep blue and purple bruising. It looked as though I had come off a motorcycle and folded my body around a damn tree! A nasty line of raw missing skin had me wincing. My mouth then dropped open making a little O shape and I looked up at him with shock. I hadn’t realised it had been that bad but looking at it now, well then, no wonder I was in such an amount of pain.

  Lucius obviously saw my shock for himself and released a deep sigh.

  “It wasn’t my fault!” I blurted out and in return he gave me a sceptical look.

  “It wasn’t, I mean it started when I fell down some kind of trapdoor and then down the stairs. And then I was…” Lucius stopped me mid flow by raising his hand in what looked like exasperation.

  “I know what happened after that, which is why I ask you again, you thought it best to jump out of a fucking window whilst inflicted with such an injury?” He all but growled the question at me, which had me asking myself…why did he care? I felt the anger bubbling up inside me and before I could think about what his actions might be, once faced with my attitude, I unleashed it.

  “I am sorry, next time I have a small army outside looking for me I will just stick my freakin’ head out the window and ask them if they plan on killing me first, before I decide to run for my life!” I snapped back sarcastically after pushing his hand away from touching me. He snarled back at me and said,

  “And it didn’t then occur to you upon finding yourself in Rome that I was now ruler here and would have sent my men to come and retrieve you?!” he argued making me frown and I tried to shift my body up as I was getting sick of fighting this battle on my back.

  “I swear to the Gods, if you move before I heal you, I will tie you to my bed!” he warned, stopping me with a firm hand back at my throat.

  “Fine!” I shouted up at him and then it started to register what he’d just said.

  “Uh, wait, what do you mean? You’re going to heal me?”

  “Learning of such disregard for your own life, then I am sure you’re now accustomed with the act, as I doubt this is your first time,” he said sneering. Jeez, what was his problem?! He seemed so pissed off with me and for the life of me I couldn’t understand why?

  “I already have the King’s blood, so I don’t need you to do that,” I told him making him bare his teeth at me. This was when I hit my limit,

  “What the fuck is your problem!?” I shouted, lifting my head against the hold at my neck. He looked taken aback for a moment as if surprised I would challenge him this way. To be honest, maybe he was right, as I did seem to keep putting myself in danger and screaming at an obviously angry Vampire King probably wasn’t the best of ideas right now.

  “You are my problem!” he shouted back at me, his chest heaving as if he was holding himself back from something I couldn’t see.

  “Then here’s an idea, let me go and I will get my ass back to Persia…there, problem solved!” Okay, so this was definitely the wrong thing to say and I knew it the second I saw his eyes flash crimson and his fangs extend past his bottom lip.

  “Mine!” he snarled and this was my only warning before he was at my neck threatening my life with nature’s weapons. His teeth held me immobile and ice filled my veins as I froze. My heart beat wildly in my chest, a fact he could probably feel with his lips against my pulse point. I felt the sparks of pain as his fangs nicked at the skin but didn’t fully pierce my flesh. He could have quite easily ripped into my neck but yet he hadn’t and again I was asking myself why?

  I don’t know how long it was before he decided to let me go but I found it must have been long enough for my lungs to hit their limit as the second he did, I dragged in ragged breaths so as that I didn’t pass out. I felt him licking my neck, sucking away at the tender flesh before pulling back and issuing me some advice.

  “I suggest not pushing me again little Keira girl, for I find myself on edge around you and trust me when I say, you do not want to see what happens when I step from it…am I understood?” he told m
e and when his eyes nearly turned to black blood, I nodded my head in frantic little nods.

  “Good, now do as you’re told and don’t fight against me again,” he added, now satisfied to see I was compliant once again. Well, no wonder as I might have had a few screws loose but I wasn’t damn suicidal! And one look at the beast above me screamed only one answer and that was submission equalled survival.

  I wanted to reach out to him and explain of our connection back in my own time. I wanted to tell him of how we cared for each other and that it didn’t have to be like this. Not after all we had been through together but this man, this handsome, misunderstood Vampire King, well how could I reach him the way I did back in Germany? How could I make him see me the way he did back then?

  I was so confused as one moment it was almost as though he seemed to hate me and then in the next moment he seemed almost possessive over me. I just didn’t get it?

  Meanwhile, in the midst of my musings, Lucius had risen from the bed and started to shed himself of his armour. He had walked towards a large chest as he undid the straps at his sides, after first pulling his weapons free. He kicked open the lid and dropped his chest plate inside with a clatter, one I jumped at. He continued to take each item off until it left him in just his burgundy tunic. He then grabbed a pair of loose fitting trousers from a drawer and started yanking them up his legs. He pulled at the cord and tied it before making his way back to me. Then when he was closer to the bed, he reached up over his shoulder and pulled his tunic off, baring his wide muscular chest to me. He threw the material casually to the bed and I tried not to look like I was drinking in my fill of him.

  It couldn’t be denied that seeing Lucius half naked was a thing of beauty. Ripples of muscles along his ribs joined those mouth-watering, deeper indents of his six-pack abs. It was true that he didn’t have the same intimidating muscle mass as Draven but he was still just as ripped and looked made for stealth and speed. Of course, his wide shoulders and large biceps looked more useful for wielding heavy weapons with great precision and not delicately lifting damsels in distress into his arms.

  “Now I am going to move you, try not to tense or it will only cause greater pain. Ready?” And there it was again, a slither of kindness breaking through the dark clouds and blinding me with tender words. I nodded for him to do as he wished and was surprised when he first brushed back a few strands of my hair, tucking them gently behind my ear. Then he hovered over me and started to sit me up with a hand at my back. I sucked in a startled breath, one that caused pain like he said it would. I tried to relax but then he pulled me the rest of the way and completely upright creating space behind me for him to slip in between my back and the headboard. Once he was where he wanted to be, he gently pulled me back against him, so I was now sat in between his outstretched legs.

  Sat like this with him felt so intimate I could barely breathe without it hitching in my chest. How was it possible that with my back nestled against his chest and now that I couldn’t see his face, it still seemed more sexual than when he had been holding himself above me? Of course, this was made even more so when he wrapped one arm around me as if first securing me to him.

  He then lifted his other hand to his lips and I looked back enough to see him biting down hard at his wrist, tearing through the thin veil of skin there like it was paper. I watched as blood seemed to almost burst to the surface as if it had been waiting all this time for the chance to escape. All the while he didn’t take his steely gaze from mine and it felt as though he did this so that he could judge my reactions. What he found would have been concern for the pain he could have been inflicting on himself and I knew he saw it. He raised a brow in question but he didn’t ask me why I cared, he only showed me how deeply he did, when he placed his bleeding wrist in front of me and told me softly,

  “Please drink.” I reached up, watching it drip to the bed like tiny red bombs hitting the material covering my legs, inking my trousers and soaking them with crimson stars. I took hold of his thick wrist in both hands and brought his offering to my lips, knowing the depth of the gift he bestowed upon me. Then I did as he asked and drank from him, straight from the vein.

  The second the first drop of blood touched my lips his essence burst across my tongue. I wished I could have said it tasted awful and the metallic bitterness made me want to gag, but I would have been lying. No, it tasted like it usually did, like liquid sin and life combined. It was hard to describe it as anything but, as the taste was too addictive to give familiarity to. To compare it to anything else just didn’t seem right, so it could only be described as a feeling and that was like…

  A warmth to my heart.

  A comfort to my body.

  And a blanket for the soul.

  I shuddered in his hold and felt him react by holding me tighter to him as if he never wanted to let me go. And then came the side effects to such a gift and he too felt it as he started to growl against my sensitive neck.

  “Just let it go,” he told me as I felt the heat invade my belly as it started to coil and tighten. My inner thighs tensed and the base of my spine tingled, waiting for that euphoric moment of release. I swallowed him down over and over again, feeling the pulsating effects tug at my feminine core as if invisible fingers spread me open before plunging deep.

  I finally tore my bloody lips from his wrist and I cried out from mind blowing pleasure, feeling as though it was powerful enough to consume me whole. Somewhere in the midst ofit all I could hear Lucius roar before I felt the pain of teeth invading my own flesh. The agony only lasted a single second before it quickly morphed into another crashing wave of pleasure. This time I heard more than my simple cries of release, no this time I hear screams of ecstasy ripped from a place so deep, I barely recognised them as belonging to me. Almost as if I was experiencing an outer body experience without once ever opening my eyes. I felt as though I was floating on the wings of rapture and delirium. I could have simply drifted to another world and I wouldn’t have known it but then I felt that strength envelope me, anchoring me to the world I didn’t know…

  His world.

  “Ssshh, calm for me now, Keira girl,” he cooed and only then I realised he must have finished making his own meal out of me. I was still quivering against him and I felt the heat of embarrassment invade my face as I thought about what had just happened. Oh god! What had I just done! I had just come in Lucius’ arms after feeding from him, that’s what!

  I felt Lucius looking down at me over my shoulder and when I tried to hide my shame he reached up with the hand that he had been holding flat against my belly. He then tipped my chin up, so I had no choice but to face him.

  “You blush for me?” he questioned as if surprised. Well, what type of girl did he take me for? After all, I wasn’t some blood sucking hussy! I would have told him this but his sweetness knocked it clean out of me. He then reached up with both hands and swept my hair back before kissing my forehead and whispering,

  “Fucking addictive.” I sucked in a sharp breath at the intensity of his words and this time, I marvelled at how it no longer hurt. I looked down to see that my bruising was long gone and I reached up, feeling that the bumps on my head had also disappeared.

  “I feel strong,” I admitted, making him chuckle behind me, a sound I had yet to hear coming from this ancient version of Lucius.

  “I am glad to hear it, along with the fact I no longer have to play witness to your pain,” he informed me and now I had to ask myself if that had been part of the reason for his foul mood. Had he cared that much for my wellbeing? Maybe he felt responsible after I had saved his life and to him, this was simply him returning the favour?

  “Now explain that look to me.” The sound of his voice quickly brought me out of my inner turmoil and alerted me to the fact that he had been watching all these silent questions playing out in my mind.

  “I am confused,” I told him and once again, I had him chuckling behind me.

  “As I can see, for this line tells me a
s much,” he said with mirth, running a thumb in between my frowning eyebrows and smoothing the line he spoke of. He seemed so at ease now and I wondered if tasting my blood had released some of his tension.

  “Why am I here, Lucius?” I just came out and said it, turning around in the small space I had so that I could face him. He bent up one knee quickly and it was almost as if he had done it without thinking. Like he was scared I had been about to try and escape off the bed and he did this to stop me, as it was now a solid support at my back.

  He looked thoughtful for a moment, almost as if he was contemplating whether or not to tell me. He went with the latter when he said,

  “That is enough for tonight, your body needs rest and I am not in the mood for another battle with you on the matter.” Well that shot me down, I thought with another frown, one he laughed at. He then ran the back of his fingers down my cheek and shocked me when he said,

  “I am glad you are here.” I didn’t know what to say but I guess my blush spoke for me again. His hand travelled from my now heated cheeks to the crusted blood at my hair.

  “However, you do need a bath,” he teased and this time I couldn’t help but grant him a smile, one that made his eyes brighten at the sight. He liked to see me smile?

  “A bath would be good,” I agreed on a breathy whisper, too afraid of my own voice right now and what this tender side of him would reveal in the emotions it provoked.

  “Very well, I will have one brought to you,” he told me shifting me to the side so that he could remove himself from the bed. I found that I could finally breathe easy once he put the much-needed space between us. He was just making his way across the room when something stopped him. A thought must have tugged at his now clear mind for he froze mid step before looking back at me over his shoulder.

  “You are not to leave this room, understood?” And just like that the other side of Lucius was back to full commanding Keira mode. So, I replied,

  “That’s not really a way to treat a guest.”