Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “She is ready,” Draven confirmed with a nod.

  “Well she’d better be, because this is going to hurt!” Lucius said before tearing his hand from his chest and curled inside of his fist I saw a single talon. He shifted over to me the best he could with a gaping hole in his chest and brought his bloody hand to my mouth.

  “Ready to be a child of the Devil?” he asked me and I could barely believe he was smirking down at me. I blinked once, telling him ‘Hell yes’ and so he nodded before uncurling the talon and letting the blood it had cupped inside drip into my mouth. It was as if time stopped as we all watched that single large droplet fall from the end of his deadly claw. The second it landed on my tongue, I felt the power of it rip through my body as though it was trying to tear it apart.

  I heard screaming. Screaming so loud it felt as though my ears would burst. At first, I thought my body was still trapped as I couldn’t move but then I realised that I was being held down by my arms as the rest of my body fought to be freed. I thrashed and turned, trying to twist in their hold but it was useless.

  I couldn’t get free of this pain.

  “Calm! Keira, Calm down!” Draven shouted down at me before asking Lucius,

  “What’s happening?!”

  “This is how it is, it is how I remember it was. Just give it time,” Lucius responded and just as he said it, Sophia shouted,

  “Look! She has already started to heal!”

  “It’s working!” Draven shouted as if all his prayers had been answered at once. I had to agree with him, it was certainly working all right as it felt like my veins had been pumped with lava! Like my blood had been replaced by liquid Hellfire and my skin was melting from the bone because of it.

  “She’s burning up!”

  “It’s fighting off the remaining poison, trying to regain control back over its new host…just give it another minute and it will calm,” Lucius promised and I was only left hoping that he was right, because it felt as though I was being burned alive.

  “Here, this may help.” Draven said striping off his own armour before pulling off the rest, uncaring who may see. Then he lay down on the blood-soaked bed with little care and turned his body to ice, before encasing me with it. His skin felt as if I was being touched by Heaven and I moaned wanting more.

  “More…please more.” I begged.

  “Get on the other side,” Draven gritted out as if hating himself for asking. But looking at Lucius’ blood soaked skin, he now at least seemed fully healed as his chest no longer showed the marks of such brutality. I half expected him to say something cocky, as I knew the Lucius back in my time would have. But instead he got on the bed on the other side of me and wrapped an arm around me, tucking his front to mine.

  Now I had ice from both sides and I sighed as the pain started to subside.

  “Better?” Draven asked and I nodded snuggling closer to both of them, trying to drain from their ice-cold skin.

  “So, it is done. The change is complete.” I heard Lucius say somewhere in my fog filled mind. I felt my eyes rolling back in my skull as the dark pull once more started to take hold.

  “Now what…what does she need?” I heard Draven ask in the shadows of my mind.

  “Rest, plenty of rest and then when she wakes…” Lucius paused as if trying to think how best to word it. In the end, he just came right out and said it after Draven snapped,

  “What, what then?!”

  “Well then…”

  “…She feeds.”

  Chapter 37

  Follow the Blood Brick Road

  Waking up I felt a thirst of the likes I had never known. It felt as though baking hot sand had been poured down my throat followed by acid. The last thought I had was lava flowing down the mountain into that of an icy lake. An indestructible force, raging war against the body that contained it, only to find it tamed by the love of two men.

  “Th…th…thir…sty,” I said reaching out to see if anyone was there. My voice sounded raw and haggard, as if screaming for hours on end when you suffered from a cold. I felt someone taking my hand and the second they did I was assaulted by the pounding in my head. It was a beating drum, telling me that blood was near.

  To take it. It was mine.

  “She needs to feed and that…” Lucius’ words were cut off when, before I knew what I was doing, I had reached out and grabbed someone. With a speed I never thought possible I had the body half over my lap and had sunk my teeth into a warm neck. I felt my fangs growing as they had done that day I had been on top of Draven. The second his blood bathed my tongue, I felt as if I was drinking straight from the immortal well in Heaven. As though I had found the fountain of youth and drank from it using the Holy Grail as my cup.

  It was incredible.

  “Well, that would do it.” I heard Lucius chuckling.

  “Oh dear, should we stop her?” Sophia asked and I opened my eyes to see I was locked on to a familiar neck.

  “No! No, it’s alright, let her drink,” Draven said holding out a hand to stop anyone from trying to intervene. I gulped him down without much thought of anything else but quenching what felt like an eternal thirst.

  “When you feel the pull start to cease, that is when you must release,” Lucius told me stepping closer. I nodded around my prey and the second I felt sated, like Lucius said, the pull and need for blood started to fade. I pulled back feeling the flesh around my fangs do so with a pop. Draven slowly lifted his head and gave me a questioning look. I covered my mouth and shouted,

  “Oh my god, im’ ssso, sssorry!” I said stuttering and asking myself why. It felt like my mouth was too full. Sophia giggled and Lucius looked to be fighting a grin.

  “Whath wrong witttth me?” I slurred.

  Draven gave me a soft gentle look and reached up to tap on one of my new fangs. It felt strange and I couldn’t help but shudder at how sensitive it felt.

  “You will get used to it in time,” Lucius told me with a smirk.

  “Dith you?” I asked feeling myself getting annoyed with the way I sounded but he just shrugged his shoulders and said,

  “I suggest for now trying to practice retracting them, instead of speaking with them.” I felt like growling at him and then asked,

  “And how doth I doth ttthhat ethacly?” I felt like I had to keep swallowing just so I could speak without drooling. Talk about embarrassing.

  “Well, I am sure we all have our different techniques but for me I simply think of something I find distasteful,” Lucius replied with a grin playing at his lips.

  “Like wthat?!” I snapped folding my arms across my chest and giving Sophia an evil glare when she started laughing again.

  “I’m sorry…it’s just, oh by the Gods, it’s too funny!” Sophia said again bursting out into a fit of giggles before having to walk away.

  “If you really want to know, I think of vegetables.” Hearing this, like Sophia, I couldn’t help but burst into a fit of slurred giggles and thankfully, it relieved some of the worry I felt building up. I was way out of my depth and could barely believe what I now faced.

  I was no longer human.

  I was a freaking Vampire!

  Holy shit! I was a Vampire? Okay, so first things first, get rid of lisp creating fangs and then start freaking out. So, Lucius said to think of something distasteful, well after being here I didn’t have to think too long. I felt a tingling sensation in my mouth and I reached up to feel that they were gone.

  “Hey, I did it!” I shouted enthusiastically and Draven looked pleased for me.

  “What did you think of?” he asked but I wasn’t the one that answered him, Lucius did.

  “At a guess, I would bet on it being a dormouse dipped in honey.”

  “She doesn’t like this delicacy?” Draven asked sounding surprised. Seriously, was a dead mouse dripped in honey some kind of ancientversion of caviar or foie gras? Not that either of them were nice thinking about it, so maybe it was.

  “Let’s just say I had an
incident of illness on my hands,” Lucius replied and I blushed ten shades of scarlet and Draven’s reply didn’t help,

  “Ah, I see.”

  “How long before we can move her?” Sophia asked, now over her giggling fit and getting back to business…which was something I was now out of the loop on.

  “The blood will help her gain her strength. I would say she would be ready to leave shortly,” Lucius answered coolly.

  “Why, where are we going?” I asked looking from Lucius to Sophia and then back to Draven. He was still sat next to me on the bed and it was only now that I realised the bed was void of blood and so was I. Someone had obviously washed me and re-dressed me, something I was more than thankful for. He brushed some of the hair back from my forehead and said softly,

  “I am taking you home.”

  “But wait a minute, what about what happened between you guys?”

  “We have come to an agreement,” Lucius was the one to answer me.

  “What, that each of you get to share me? You will both have me every other weekend and alternate Christmases?” I asked, causing them both to give me the same confused look.

  “I don’t know what that means,” Draven said and Lucius agreed,

  “Me neither.”

  “It means that they have found a truce,” Sophia told me stepping forward and adding,

  “Lucius has forfeited his claim to you as he believes this was his destiny, the one the Oracle spoke of. Of course, now that you are also classed as one of his made, it also means…”

  “That you can’t kill him! Ha…well would you look at that, guess you two have to be friends again after all…um…I knew there was always another way,” I said feeling quite pleased with myself because I knew for a fact that if Lucius died then so would all of his ‘Children’.

  “I hardly call almost dying being ‘another way’!” Draven said angrily.

  “Yes, well I didn’t exactly fire the arrow, and speaking of which, is the bitch dead yet?” I asked pulling myself further up the bed and as I felt the deep-rooted ache in my bones, Draven helped me. As if he knew I was silently struggling.

  “Easy little lamb, your body is still adjusting.” I gave him a smile in thanks.

  “And Layla…I mean Lahash, what of her?” I asked again. Lucius emitted a low growl which was all the answer I needed. He spoke anyway.

  “Her time is coming to an end, have no worry of that.” So, I guess history was repeating itself then, I thought gritting my teeth. The bitch got away again!

  “Come, it is time you rest some more, for shortly we will leave and you will need all your strength for the journey,” Draven told me softly placing his hand at my cheek. I reached up and covered it with my own and asked,

  “Can I have a moment alone with Sophia?” He gave me a small smile and said,

  “But of course, Septimus and I need to speak with one another, but we will not be far.” Then he kissed me on the forehead before leaving with Lucius. Once the door was closed Sophia was by my side and in panicked tones we both said,

  “What are we going to do!?”

  “What the Hell are we going to do?!”

  “Okay, so we need to think about this…” I said after our initial freak out.

  “Yeah, I would say because once my brother has you back in Persia, well let’s just say I hope you like confined spaces.” I groaned and let my head fall back.

  “Surely it’s not that bad.”

  “Oh, you think?” Sophia argued.

  “Okay so what am I facing here, a pretty giant bird cage, a life in gold chains with matching gold bikini, or tallest tower type of gig?” I asked only half joking.

  “Knowing my brother, maybe all three but if you’re lucky, with maybe a walk around the courtyard for your birthday… with an armed guard of course,” she joked back.

  “So, the way I see it, is that we have one shot at this,” I said making her raise a brow at me.

  “And that is?”

  “We use the Black Gate from the Persian side.” Sophia started shaking her head and reminded me,

  “But it’s impossible, unless you magically have Pythia’s coin with you or managed to send a damn homing pigeon to tell the other two to meet us there, then we…wait, why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Because you’re a genius!” I exclaimed excitedly.

  “Well yes, but that’s beside the point when I have no clue what my genius has gotten me into this time,” she responded dryly.

  “Ye of little faith…Okay, so in theory, being changed into a Vamp now has increased whatever power I had…right? I mean that’s how it’s supposed to work…yes?” Sophia thought on it a moment and agreed,

  “Yes, in theory, why?”

  “Because we have work to do and not much time to do it.”

  “So, no rest for you then,” she commented and I winked at her before saying,

  “There is no resting…not until we are home.”

  After this Sophia and I made what little plans we could from this end as the main goal was to see how far I could stretch the powers I already had. This was our one and only shot as we both knew that when Draven got me back to his palace, he wasn’t going to let me out of his sight again. Sophia told me that Draven had no choice but to allow Lucius access to me as I would only weaken if I didn’t. As was the same with all of his kind. Although granted I was the first and only human to be turned, so it was anyone’s guess at what could happen. Either way Lucius had sworn a vow to do all in his power to help me through this.

  Something I was also hoping for once we made it back…which begged the question, what was he going to think about me returning only to find he had turned me into a Vampire in the past. But more importantly…

  What was Draven going to say?!

  This thought had me in near panic, one that Sophia had to deal with.

  “Now is not the time for a meltdown, now is the time to form a plan, so let’s deal with this current shit storm should we and deal with the other, commonly known as my brother, later.” This had been her advice and I had to agree with it, for I wasn’t going to get anywhere by freaking out now.

  So, instead I did what I had to. I reached out my mind further than I ever thought possible. At first it was pretty much the same thing, me shouting ‘Hello? Can anyone hear me?’ in my mind and feeling like a grade A idiot for doing it.

  “Try and focus on your memories of Pip and…” she started saying when suddenly something started to happen, someone started speaking back to me…

  “Katie?” I uttered her name and Sophia looked at me as though I had finally gone mad.

  “Oh Gods, not this again!”

  “Ssshh, she’s trying to speak to me…quick I need a mirror or something!” Sophia looked as if ready to shake me out of this craziness but instead went with it and grabbed me a mirror.

  “Alright but if you start asking who is the fairest of them all, I am so outta here.” I rolled my eyes and took the mirror from her, trying to keep a straight face, as to be honest, it was pretty funny.

  “Katie…are you…um, there?” I asked in unsure tones.

  “Oh brother,” Sophia muttered.

  “Keira, can you hear me?” Okay so I don’t know what was freakier, waking up with fangs and talking with a lisp or looking at myself in the mirror as someone else speaking back to me! Someone who looked exactly like me! Take about enough reasons for therapy! Can anyone scream mental asylum?

  “Holy shit, you weren’t going crazy,” Sophia said after sucking in a sharp breath. I rolled my eyes and muttered back,

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence there, Robin.”

  “Oh, we are so discussing this when we are done here,” Sophia threatened and I released a sigh. Yep, we so were.

  “Uh, hi Katie, how’s…um Keira’s head?” Sophia asked giving the mirror a little wave and wincing when I shot her an ‘Are you serious’ look.

  “Really? How’s Keira’s head? That’s what you went with
?” This time Sophia rolled her eyes and said,

  “Maybe we should leave the arguing until after this conversation with your sub-conscious is done.” Okay, so I had to give her that, my timing sucked.

  “You two are funny.” Katie said on a giggle.

  “Can you help us? I gather you know what I am trying to do?” I asked.

  “Well it’s kind of hard to miss the twenty minutes of screaming ‘hello, can anyone hear me’ gig. Besides, I think the furthest you got was some poor confused hand maiden in the next room, who now probably thinks God speaks to her and sounds like a woman,” she answered making me laugh.

  “What am I doing wrong?”

  “It’s not what, but who.” I frowned and shook my head a little.

  “What do you mean, who?”

  “You’re reaching out to everyone around you, hoping someone is open enough to hear, like casting a net blindly…. but what you should be doing is focusing on just one person, someone who is connected to you…like Ari.” I knew what she was saying. I was wasting all my energy on trying to reach out to everyone instead of trying to home in to someone I knew would listen.

  “Alright, focus on Ari…gotya!” I said and after saying goodbye to my other self, that being Katie, I tried again. This time though I doubled my efforts and when I did, I felt myself casting out in a straight line inside of throwing my powers over everything, like a blanket. It felt strange but it was the only way to describe it.

  “Okay so not to freak you out but your eyes are turning black and what’s that…?” Sophia said and I looked in the mirror to find she was right.

  My eyes had changed.

  But they weren’t blood red like Lucius’ were when using his powers. Or glowing like Draven’s. No, they were unlike any I had seen before. They were onyx black, with a white light spreading out around where my iris should be, but then in the centre of my pupil was something flaming. I couldn’t quite make it out as I had never seen it before.