Blood of the Infinity War (Afterlife saga Book 8)

by Stephanie Hudson

  The end of my days.

  So, I picked up my long skirt and I raised my foot, closing my eyes ready for it. Not welcoming it like you always hoped you would when the time came. To find that strength. But just ready.

  However not everyone was.

  “You don’t want to do that.” I felt a hand at my shoulder holding me back and heard a familiar voice, one that had been with me since I first learned to speak. I turned around slowly and saw her.

  “Katie?” The complete double image of me was smiling back and she said,

  “Don’t you remember our warning. Don’t raise your skirt and walk up the steps.”

  “The girl on the plane!” I exclaimed as I thought back to when she had said it all that time ago. I had completely forgotten.

  “She foresaw all this?” I asked her, wondering how she knew.

  “I don’t think she knew exactly where those steps led to, only that you shouldn’t take them.” I looked back behind me as if the sight of battle would still be seen there, not the nothingness there was.

  “Then what now? Because I don’t think they are just going to let me go back there without…”

  “Sacrifice, no I don’t think so,” she finished for me and my shoulders slumped and I said,

  “Don’t they know by now how much I have already sacrificed?”

  “There is only one more thing to sacrifice,” she told me and I closed my eyes at the pain of it and held my hands to my stomach.

  “No, I couldn’t…I…” Katie took my hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.

  “That is not the sacrifice they would want.” I frowned and asked,

  “Then what, if not my…”

  “They want your soul,” she finished and I felt myself shudder. Then I nodded and was about to do what was needed when she stopped me with only seven words spoken.

  “And they will have it with…mine.”

  “What…what do you mean?” I asked her.

  “That day you were dragged through the mirror…did you ever ask yourself why?” I frowned not understanding.

  “It mirrored your soul and created me.” I sucked in a harsh ragged breath at this. Could it be possible?

  “But wait, so you…you are just another version of me?” I asked and she nodded grinning.

  “By why, it makes no sense, none of it…it…”

  “They needed a way to control you so that when the time came, they could use you to open the gates. To release the Horsemen, to open the gate to Tartarus…they needed the Power of the Seventh as was prophesied. So, they created a duplicate of a soul they could use.”

  “But how? How would they even do something like that?” And then she said the one name that nearly crushed me.

  “Ari.”

  Our sister.

  “What…no! She couldn’t have done that, she couldn’t have done that to me.”

  “She didn’t know. She was used just as you were. She doesn’t know the truth of what she is and that is her journey to discover, but I know this, the second you broke away from her was when your true self started to come back to you. She was the lock you had to break away from to get home. But don’t you see, it has all been written in the Fates, for now I can take your place,” she told me and I grabbed her hand.

  “What? No! How could you? I mean even if it’s possible why would you do that?”

  “I would do it for Draven. The first man you and I both fell in love with. I would die for him just as you would and now I know that this has been my fate all along.”

  “And mine, what is mine?” Katie looked behind me, away from the steps and gave me my answer.

  “Yours is to become what you were always fated to be.”

  “And what is that?” Her answer came to me as she let go of my hand and started to walk away from me. Then, before she took her first step, what she told me shocked me to my very core…

  “A God on Earth.”

  “Katie!” After that I saw her turn to face her own destiny and just as I called out her name, she turned to me one last time as she placed her foot on the first step. Her body started to float away and she smiled at me, her last words to me were of love.

  Our Love.

  “Take good care of them all.”

  “I promise,” I told her with tears I could feel but wasn’t sure were real. Then, the second her face was the last thing to fade away I was suddenly plunged back into my body with such force I couldn’t breathe from it!

  I blinked my eyes a few times and slowly my senses started to come back to me. First my sight and then sound. It was like a howling echo, almost as though I was listening to what was going on around me through water. Then it started to clear. Then I started to listen.

  Chaos surrounded my dead body.

  My vessel.

  Her name was Keira and I loved her. I needed to protect her. She was mine to care for but I needed more. I was a Vampire with the blood of both Heaven and Hell in me thanks to my mate, but I was also something else. I looked down at my hands and saw blackened fingertips coating my skin in something deep and dark. It travelled along my veins up my wrists and circled around my vessel’s scars.

  It was the Venom of God, but even this wasn’t enough. I needed to become more. The other mirrored half of my soul had told me I was to become a God. Then if that was true I needed the blood of one.

  I needed…I didn’t need to finish that sentence as when I looked down what I saw did it for me. The glass dagger still remained locked in my vessel’s heart, all I needed to do was unlock the key. I gripped the hilt with both hands and then I pushed. I pushed it further into my chest and I didn’t stop until I heard it crack, then I twisted. I felt the blood start to seep from its captured glass and I felt it surge up inside me the second that first drop of blood was absorbed into my heart. A few more seconds and it was pumping around this body.

  I knew that if I hadn’t been a Vampire with the added strength needed I would have been ripped apart from the force of it. I remembered a story once told of a beast so mighty it nearly killed its host if it hadn’t been for Lucius.

  Adam was his name.

  Abaddon is his beast.

  Keira is my name.

  Electus was my beast.

  And I had finally awoken.

  Oh, and I was pissed!

  I started to move, so slowly at first as if testing out my new power. I could feel it coursing around my body, like a current. It hummed and sizzled through me as if waiting, no, begging to be released. It wanted out and the strength of that alone had me grinning. Something dark and sinister wanted to play with those that had dared to hurt people I cared for. My vessel had wept. She had cried and people had hurt her. They made her love stab this knife into her heart…

  No, not they, him.

  The one called Cronus. He had called himself a God on Earth!

  Well, now it was time to show him what a real God on Earth looked like! For he didn’t have the combined blood of the three inside him. No, he just had the blood of the first but so did I, that…

  And more…so much, more.

  I started to stand up and the sight I took in around me made me react. It made me roar!

  “AAAAHHHH! ENOUGH!” I screamed out and the second I did, it caused a wave, crashing into my enemies as they were about to lash out at my friends. They looked back in shock but no one looked more shocked than the two still fighting against Cronus. He had been close to winning against them, with one bloody on his knees and the other behind, held by the throat against a wall. A burning chain wrapped firmly around his neck, trying to rid him of his immortal life.

  The one we call Draven. Our mate.

  His life was mine! And no one took that from me!

  I simply raised my hand up and the chain was gone, evaporated into dust. Cronus looked first at the chain and then back at me before Draven suddenly cracked his head forward, smashing it into Cronus’ face, so he had no choice but to drop him. The other I cared about, my Vampire master Lucius, a
lso had a chain around him and with a flick of my wrist that too was gone.

  Then they both tried desperately to get to me but found a horde of creatures in their way.

  I started to walk towards the cause of all this pain and suffering as Cronus roared back at me in anger. Then he issued a command for his minions of Hell to come after me. Good, let them come. I wanted a test to see if there were any limits to my power. But first, I needed to get those I cared for out of danger. So, I started taking them against their will. Their bravery and loyalty was strong, an unwillingness to crumble honourably…and they were about to be rewarded with a show.

  A show of death.

  A show of revenge.

  A show of blood.

  I started to pull back at the beasts, one by one they had no choice but to be dragged back behind me, no matter how much their claws dug in. I forced the change upon them, quickly becoming men again. I flicked a hand to the jester, I liked him. He was funny, entertaining as he was now trying to fight his way free of my control.

  “What the fuck!” The one named Caspian said as I forced him back to his human form. I smirked at him as he passed and when a memory hit me I said,

  “I told you it was in the family.” Then I smirked as I took with him his wife Liessa. Then I plucked a young looking boy from the air, and forced him back as well…Ruto, I knew his name to be. Takeshi, Hakan, Smidge, they too all went behind me. I had to secure them as I couldn’t let them get hurt in the crossfire.

  They were my people.

  My sister. I heard her voice calling out for me.

  “Keira! By the Gods you’re alive!” She sounded so happy but she had lost her concentration. A demon soldier behind her raised his weapon, one I would take from him. He had a massive axe above his head ready to bring down on hers. Then I took his arms, making them burst from their sockets. The axe quickly finished the job as I had intended and fell into his head, crushing it. Sophia looked around in shock at the sight of what I had just done.

  “Hello, my sister,” I said before forcing her along with her husband, Zagan back to the wall, quickly taking control of Zagan’s legions for my own use. They continued to battle back the army but now without their master leading the way. Next was the scarred bear and Ragnar, my giant protector.

  “Yield to your other form,” I told them both, after first cutting down those they fought with a sweep of my arm. They first fell to their knees as they were forced to relinquish their demons. They soon joined the rest.

  Next came the biggest threat…

  The Horsemen.

  But first I had to get my men away from Cronus also. In seconds, I put a knee to the ground and a single fingertip along the cool broken marble floor that had been damaged in the battle. I made the cracks widen, lengthen and then they shot out at speed towards Cronus. As soon as he saw it coming he had no choice but to try and run from it. But I was quicker. Soulweed grabbed him, the roots of Hell taking hold of him. It wrapped around him, keeping him busy for a moment, long enough for what I had planned.

  I walked towards the two warriors and when they saw me I raised a hand and clenched my fist. They were both pulled towards me and I only stopped them when they were close enough for me to touch.

  They were beautiful and my heart ached at the sight of them. Which was when I realised why.

  “Keira, you’re…you’re alive?! Oh, thank the Gods, my love! Keira…” Draven said in utter shock and the light in his eyes, the emotion was clear to see. I raised my hand up to stroke down his face, capturing his single tear still not letting him move.

  “Can it really be…can you…Keira?” Lucius spoke and I reached out to him and touched him. I had to touch them, as if drawing strength from them both.

  My mate and my master.

  I loved them both, one that was tied to my soul and the other that owned it. Draven. He was my everything. I remember now. I walked closer to him and his face fascinated me. I ran a fingertip across his lips and he closed his eyes against the intense feeling I knew it brought him. To know the woman he loved was no longer gone. Well I could feel it beating in his chest. His heart pounding in both love and concern. He cared deeply for me. They both did and now it was time to make them proud of what they had created.

  “Look at me,” I ordered them both and they did as I asked without question. I didn’t need to assert their will against them. But then Draven looked down at the dagger still in my heart and I followed his gaze. Then I reached up and pulled it from my chest. He had done this to me.

  “Cronus!” I snarled his name. He would pay for this.

  “Wait, no, where are you going?! You can’t do this alone!” Draven started to shout.

  “He’s right, you need us, all of us!” Lucius added in panic but I wasn’t listening. Because I didn’t need them in this. This was no longer their fight. It was mine and mine alone.

  “Now it’s my turn,” I said dropping the glass dagger beside them as I walked past them both towards my prey. Then I flicked out a hand making them join the others. The Horsemen were in my way next but first there were others I needed to save. Vincent, Seth, Jared and Sigurd were all currently fighting the demonic Lords and Watchers of the Apocalypse.

  And all were currently losing.

  But they were trying to keep them back as was their only aim. They knew that they couldn’t beat them. The Watcher Lords couldn’t be killed. They only existed so that when called upon they could cleanse the Earth when the time came. It was the Gods failsafe, created long before humans were ever created. But today was not the end of days. And today they weren’t needed.

  So, the four Kings battled on, their sole purpose in all this was simply to stop them reaching the top. To stop them reaching the mortal world. They protected my family and now it was time for me to do the same. And I would do so with only a simple command spoken.

  “KNEEL TO ME!” I barely recognised the demonic voice coming from my lips. But one by one the Horsemen stopped their attack and not only lowered their weapons, they lowered their horses.

  “Keira?!” Vincent said my name and I felt myself smile.

  “Angel,” I responded before I had him under my control, flying back with the others. Jared, I forced him to change along with Seth, the King of Death. He was the only one that took some energy to force back to himself but I did it after another command.

  “ENOUGH!” he stopped fighting then and as his demon retreated back into himself I decided I liked that one. He was defiant but he was also reckless and he fought for only one, not the many like we all did. He only fought for one mortal.

  RJ…his mate.

  I flicked my hand back with a smile and then walked slowly to the last one. His shadowed serpents snarled at me until I held out a hand, bringing them quickly to heel. They whined at me but before long I had them purring in my hand, stroking them gently.

  “Lille øjesten…is that really you?” Sigurd asked bringing my head up and away from his pets. I then reached up and cupped his cheek before telling him.

  “Your Chosen One helped save my life.” Hearing this he stumbled back a step and sucked in a startled breath.

  “One day I will get to thank her…but for now, I will keep you safe for her.” Then I clenched a fist making his shadows disappear before sending him back with the others.

  “Now for you four,” I said when all was clear and after I had looked back to see my army was safe. Held against their will at the Temple wall with no choice but to watch this play out. I looked at the Horsemen that responded now to me, not to Cronus.

  The white Horseman named Disease was a rotting figure of what represented man. His horse too looked to suffer from its curse of powers bestowed as infected flesh hung from black bone. The red Horseman of War was painted in blood, the blood of the masses he could bathe his body in with all the lives he butchered. His horse dripped crimson with eyes of Hell’s fire.

  The Black Horseman brought famine to the land sucked dry any goodness to be found deep within
the soil. His skin was wrinkled and worn, like leather left to bake in desert sand in need of water. And last of all was Death. The Grey Horseman. He was a ghostly figure of nothing but a cloak to his souls collected. His horse void of any flesh was nothing but bone and shadows.

  And now, they were mine.

  “NO!” Cronus roared behind me as he broke free of his Hellish bonds.

  “They are mine! Destroy her!” He commanded them but I started laughing. It was a cruel twisted sound, I knew that but it was one I relished hearing when aimed at him.

  “They are no longer your puppets Cronus, they belong to me now!” I said making them rise up behind me and follow me over to him.

  “It is no matter for I have had my use out of them!” he spat back at me and my head shot to a room I knew. The doorway to Tartarus was open, unlocked and Aurora was nowhere to be found. Cronus started laughing as if he had won or at least soon would if the Titans ever made it through that portal.

  “She is there now, with the blood of the first, the blood carried on a blade I struck across your son of Lucifer, the one that I know carries the stolen blood of my people, my Titans!” he told me and I looked back to see it was true, Lucius had a deep gash across his chest that had yet to heal. I snarled back at Cronus.

  Then I walked over to him, with my Horsemen following behind. I looked back over my shoulder and issued them one order,

  “Kill all that follow him, cleanse this place for their sins against us.” They nodded silently and each separated taking a hallway. The creatures saw them coming and knew what it meant...They had lost this part of the fight. So, they started to retreat and many did, but there were those that didn’t make it.

  “NO! Get back and fight! Fight for your God!” he demanded in vain.

  “Your army has forsaken you. The Gods’ Horsemen are no longer yours to control,” I told him as I cut the distance between us.

  “I still have my Titans, for they are coming!” he snarled at me and I grinned,

  “Then we take this fight back to Hell…back to Tartarus but first, you have something that belongs to me and I WANT IT BACK!” I bellowed in his face before I plunged my hand inside his body and took hold of the darkness I felt there. Once I had it firm in my grasp I yanked it out of him until I was left with a black soul without a vessel. I saw Jack slump to the floor as slowly his body became his own again. Then, still with my prisoner in my grasp, I walked his dripping oily form towards the massive portal.