Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (29 page)

“He has many names
,
Angra Mainyu in Zoroastrianism but right now, in this time’s history, he is better known as Ahriman…
the Persian Devil,”
she added delicately, knowing this was the part I would understand the most.

“The Devil! Draven is going to fight a Devil, as in a Satan, and Master of Hell!?” I shouted getting worked up.

“Easy there. Yes, he is fighting one of the former presidents of Hell but he was banished to Earth for even Hell didn’t want him. And Satan and Lucifer are not the same being.”

“They’re not?” I asked feeling strangely betrayed by the mythology. Pip shook her head and I looked to Ari who shrugged her shoulders and said,

“Don’t look to me, you know more about this shit than I do…I’m the supernatural novice in the room, remember.” Pip looked about to say something but I quickly noticed the way Sophia shook her head at her telling her not to go there. 

“Ahriman was like a brother to Lucifer and when Lucifer fell from the Heavens in disgrace he followed him there. But pretty soon he slowly became more bitter and enraged that
he
wasn’t ruler of Hell. In the end Lucifer had no choice but to cast him out to Earth, just as his God had done to him.”

“Hence one uber pissed off Demon Under Lord,” Pip added being helpful and saying it in plain English.

“So he ruled Earth?” I asked hearing as much from Pip last night.

“Yes, but only because he had no domain anywhere else. I think the Gods were simply expecting him to just go away quietly and fade into exile.”

“Man, but they were so wrong!” Pip said shaking her head and continuing to add commentary to Sophia’s story.

“For a long time the world just seemed to be at chaos with itself and with no balance of power, the Gods knew something needed to be done.”

“Enter you three.” I said this time jumping in before Pip could.

“Yes, we seemed to be just the answer they were looking for and even though placing us down there was a risk in itself, it was one they were willing to chance.”

“Why was it a risk?” I looked back, surprised to hear this coming from Ari.

“Because they didn’t know if by adding even more power to the situation it would cause more damage than good. They didn’t know our temperaments or know of our loyalty to the cause in which we first had to battle it out in order to win control.” Hearing this kind of made sense because the second they were reborn into their vessels then there were no assurances that they would be better off than havin
g
this Ahriman.

“So what happened?”

“The supernatural world didn’t revolt against our rule like the Gods first thought they would. But instead they seemed to be drawn to us, my brother especially because to them being connected to that type of power was to gain power themselves.”

“But thi
s
Ahriman was the most powerful…” I was about to ask when Sophia interrupted me knowing where I was going with it.

“Ah yes, but even he didn’t have what my brother had and that was the power of both Heaven and Hell running through his veins.” I suppose this made sense but then if Draven was so powerful then why couldn’t he fight him alone?

“You must remember that Ahriman was still a God walking on Earth and my brother is not. But with our birth it was also prophesied that the power of three combined could defeat him in battle and that day…”

This is where I finished off for her…

“Is today.”                 

Chapter 64

Snakes and Stone

After this Sophia went on to tell me the story of how they defeated him the first time. Pertinax had gained his new army after taking his position as emperor only three months before and this was by suspicious means.

The previous emperor Commodus was a great fighter and proved this everyday as he fought as a gladiator, winning all rounds but on the 31st December year 192 AD there was a conspiracy to murder him. First one of the conspirators named Marcia poisoned his food but Commodus vomited up the poison, so the conspirators sent his wrestling partner Narcissus to strangle him in his bath.

After this Pertinax was declared the new emperor and that was only three months ago. This was when he decided to take his army and march them straight to the King of Kings who sat upon his throne in th
e
Parthian capital, Ctesiphon. But really he was taking this fight to the King of the Supernatural world using a seven hundred year feud to mask his real intentions.

And the time of that final battle was today as the sun caressed the mountains before setting on the day’s bloodshed. With carnage lay wasted all around them all but three had fallen. The three heroes had fought against an evil King and finally brought him to his knees in the last hour. I, of course, asked how they did this and it was time for Pip to take over as it must have been her favourite part of the story.  

Just as Pertinax was about to plunge his spear into Sophia, Draven took the hit, sacrificing himself. It pierced his flesh and in his rage Draven snapped off the end of his enemy’s weapon that he still grasped in his hand. Then he ripped it from his shoulder just as Vincent came up behind him to hold Pertinax down, before launching himself up into the air and slamming back down, driving the bloody blade into his cold dead heart.

I had to admit it was dramatic stuff and I could only hope that it happened the same way as it did that day. Well one thing was for sure and that was that Sophia certainly looked ready to do it all over again.

Ranka, true to her word, came to get us and we all walked down the corridor together, Ari included as she too was being kept in the safe place, which had been Vincent’s command.

Ari hadn’t said much about him, which wasn’t a big surprise considering she never did. But all she did say was that he visited with her last night wanting to check she was alright and being well cared for. I said this was sweet of him which was obviously the wrong thing to say and her reaction to it just made Sophia frown but not surprisingly, she kept quiet on the subject.

So here we all were, five women all making our way to someplace only Ranka knew where and three of us looked like warrior women. I didn’t know about Ari but I for one was kind of jealous I wasn’t dressed the same, as they all looked kick ass!

“So what will happen now?” I asked Sophia, still keeping an eye on Ranka in front leading the way.

“After I have escorted you guys to…” Sophia started to say but stopped abruptly when Pip placed a hand on her shoulder. Pip had come to a standstill and the look on her face was almost frightening but not as frightening as what she said next,

“You didn’t do this last time.” It wasn’t a question but more of a statement. Sophia looked confused and quickly said,

“Well, no I was with my brothers when…” Sophia’s face suddenly dropped as what Pip was saying must have suddenly dawned on her. I looked around just as she did trying to piece together what they were obviously so worried about.

“What? What is it?” I asked as Sophia looked to Pip and Pip looked to me.

“None of this is right,” Sophia said.

“Agreed,” Pip added and when she put a hand to her blade I knew to really worry.

“Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” I snapped getting panicky.

“Be on your guard, for it was about this time,” Sophia said cryptically to Pip and ignoring me.

“Ari, come back to stand with us,” Pip muttered quietly after she too had stopped up ahead.

“Sophia?” I whispered looking at her, finding a serious face that brought me no comfort. 

“The last time I lived through all of this they tried to split us up but were unsuccessful as I was with my brothers. I had completely forgotten until Pip…”

“What do you mean? Sophia I don’t understand,” I asked interrupting her.

“Pertinax. He tried to separate us. But I wasn’t here back then, I was…”

“What…you were what?!” I hissed out the question grabbing her shoulders to get her to tell me and stop pausing before finishing her answer. 

“She wasn’t with you,” Pip answered for her and my heart dropped.
I
was what was different in this time and that meant everything had changed. History was rewriting itself and right now, with Pertinax as the biggest threat the three of them had ever known until nearly two thousand years later, then this had just become a lot more complicated than I first thought.

“Oh God,”
I whispered before covering my mouth with both hands. I looked back to Ranka down the long hallway who had only just now stopped up ahead. She cocked her head to the side as if trying to understand what we were all waiting for. Then she flung aside her long black jacket and released her blades, spinning them up in her hands before running at us.

I looked behind just in time to see armed guards running for us and knew these must have been the men sent by Pertinax to capture us. Sophia pushed me back and Pip did the same to Ari on the other side as Ranka charged through and killed four men in seconds. She spun with such speed and grace it was more like watching a dance than a fight as the guards didn’t stand a chance.

I took a deep breath when I saw them all sprawled out on the floor, knowing the threat was over so we could get Sophia to Draven as quickly as possible. That was the most important thing right now. To hell with safety for what might happen, it was more about what
could
happen if we didn’t follow history to the letter. Me being here had already changed things enough but we couldn’t risk it getting too far. Sophia needed to be with her brothers charging into battle at all cost, for the costs were far too great to chance.

“Weren’t they the King’s guard?” Pip questioned, frowning down at the bodies on the ground and then before I knew it she’d pulled a dagger from her side and a curved blade from her back, pointing it now at Ranka.

“Fuck, I knew not to trust you!” she snarled and I shook my head before shouting,

“Pip what are you doing?!”

“We have been betrayed by Mohawk here.” Pip answered and I looked to Sophia to find she was looking down at the guards trying to work it all out for herself. Then she pushed me back against the wall again and pulled her own long blade from her back before pointing it at Ranka’s other side.

“You’re right. Why would you kill the guards who were on their way here to…”

“To protect us.”
Ari spoke up and finished off her sentence finally getting it as well.

“Because the Bitch is working for Pertinax that’s why!” Pip growled out through gritted teeth.

“That’s why you wouldn’t tell me where you were taking us.” Sophia added looking down at the floor for a second and then bringing her blade back up to Ranka’s throat.

“Why?! Why would you betray my brother this way?!” Sophia shouted, losing her cool. I watched as Ranka merely smirked back at her refusing to answer but in the end she didn’t need to because I answered for her.

“Because he is in love with me that’s why. She witnessed it earlier, when he called me his Queen. I saw her face and the hurt it inflicted.” Ranka’s eyes grew wide when I said this and I knew I had hit my mark with her.

“You are working for him, aren’t you!? Answer me!” Sophia shouted backhanding her across the face so hard that her head snapped to one side. However, the last sound I expected to hear coming out of her mouth was that creepy laugh of hers, one that quickly started to warp into something much deeper
… and deadlier.

“I am not working for him.”
Ranka snarled in a strange voice that didn’t seem to belong to her but instead someone else…someone…

“Oh God, she’s right.” I said figuring it out now and the others looked to me just as the rumbling on the ground started.

“SHE IS HIM!” I screamed just before I stumbled back. He threw his head back and started laughing up at the ceiling and just as Pip and Sophia both moved in to attack him, he raised up his hands. I screamed along with Ari as the walls all around started to explode in great pockets, throwing debris and large chunks of stone at us. I felt one piece slice across my forehead and another hit the top of one arm as I tried to lift it to protect my face better.

“Ari get down!” I shouted doing the same but that’s when I noticed the movement coming out of the holes in the walls. They looked like stone snakes slithering their way towards us and suddenly Pip and Sophia found themselves surrounded as they slashed out over and over at the floor to stop themselves from being overrun.

“KEIRA GO, FIND DOM!” Sophia screamed at me and I didn’t need telling twice. I scrambled through the broken stone to get to my feet just before the snakes could reach me and make a run for it. I saw the untouched hallway in front of me and knew I had to get there!

“LOOK OUT!” I heard Ari’s warning but it was too late as I felt something tighten on my ankle. It started pulling and I looked down to see the stone snake had coiled itself around me and was moving up my leg, anchoring me to the ground. The bottom part of the snake merged into the floor so it acted like chains locking me in place. I looked up to see the same had been done to Pip and Sophia only they had so many snakes covering their bodies, that you could only see their heads from their shoulders upwards.

“Stay away from her!” Sophia shouted as Ranka slowly walked towards me, but with every step she took she started to change. She would shake her head at a blurring speed that looked as though she was morphing into something else. It was as though she was fighting some invisible force. She threw her head back and screamed out, her jaw opening up like it was being dislocated and pulling away from the rest of her skull. It was a sickening sight and one that made me want to gag.

Thankfully it didn’t last long and when she looked back at me it was no longer a she, but now a he…
it was Pertinax.

“So you are what all the fuss is about,” he said looking at me and tilting his head to the side. I was surprised to see a man who looked to be in his sixties wearing what was obviously a Roman military uniform, dressed like a general. His hair was cut short in a certain style that you would have expected to see and added to this was a dark thick beard that lengthened into a V shape by his chin.

I had to admit that he didn’t look particularly terrifying but his eyes certainly gave you reason to be wary. They were piercing through me as though reading my soul before deciding how to pull it apart. They were so light in shade I couldn’t actually tell you what colour they were but the dark ring that circled them was what set them apart from others. This gave them an eerie chill, matching the pin points he had as pupils. In fact, just having him look at you made you want to wince back and hide.

“I am a nobody, just his Concubine,” I told him making him raise an eyebrow at me.

“And I would have believed this if it had not been for the new information you had just given me.” I swallowed hard, silently cursing myself for being so stupid and basically telling him how much I meant to Draven.

“I think we have more than enough to use against him,” he said and at first I thought he was speaking to himself. However, soon the rumbling grew back up again and I watched in fascination as all the snakes started to slither into one big pile.

In total six mounds grew in size as it looked as though all the snakes were fighting each other to get to the top. I looked to Sophia, Pip and Ari who all were still held in place within their stone prisons and I wondered why none of these had joined the piles.

Pertinax started laughing and I looked back to him just as he clicked his fingers. This was when the giant mounds all started to merge together as one before forming what started to look like winged rock demons, made up with thick stone skeletons. Their faces were twisted features, with wide thin mouths, stone fangs and slitted eyes attached to elongated noses. Now these things were truly terrifying as they looked like demon drones which had once been gargoyles on top of buildings and had just flown down to fight because they had no choice.

Pertinax nodded towards the other prisoners and just as the snakes released them one by one, a stone demon each stepped forward ready to grab them. Sophia and Pip started to fight which was when I was quickly yanked forward and I cried out when Pertinax grabbed hold of my neck.

“One snap is all it takes. Now lower your weapons,” he ordered using me as bait.

“NO! Let her go!” Ari screamed and Sophia and Pip both stopped dead, turning around to see for themselves that unless they lowered their weapons, I was one dead and broken Keira. I closed my eyes in defeat once I heard the clatter of their blades, knowing now we had failed.

“Take them,” he ordered his minions who each grabbed hold of my friends and started marching them down the hall.