Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (36 page)

“NO!” I screamed scrambling to my feet and racing to him as Lucius fought him back, slashing out at him over and over, no doubt praying to Lucifer that one blow would stick. That one hit would be enough of a…wait, was that it?

I ran over to the ledge to see that Draven was clung to the side climbing his way back up. I inhaled a thankful breath and looked back at Lucius knowing now what had to be done. It wasn’t about where we hit him, it was about what we could hit him with.

What his weakness would be.

Because it was like I first thought…

‘Stopping a demon like Pertinax was a war worth fighting for and fighting for that war was a sacrifice worth dying for. But how many of the supernatural lives living on earth can say that they would sacrifice themselves for the human race, for to give up that amount of power would be a powerful thing indeed.’

It was in that sacrifice where the power was held and it was also in the blood of both Heaven and Hell…
in Draven.
Those combined had been enough to pierce the heart of hatred. And now it was up to us to do the same. I was just moving back to allow Draven room to climb back over and I threw myself into his arms.

“I thought you were…!”

“I know,” he said touching my cheek gently but our moment was short lived.

“I know a way to kill him. But you need to sacrifice your…”

“LOOKOUT!” Lucius roared but it was too late as we had no time to move. I fell forward into Draven as the weight of a body fell on top of me. I watched wide eyed as Draven too fell backwards and for long agonising moments I couldn’t understand what had happened. I seemed to be sandwiched between the two men I loved and it was only when I saw the long wooden pole sticking from Draven’s shoulder that I knew what had happened.

Lucius had thrown himself in front of us both as Pertinax had being trying to kill us with his spear. I turned around to see him laughing and celebrating by raising up his hands at his own victory of killing us all with one blow.

But this was when it happened…The rage.

My rage.

It was back.  

Chapter 71

Hell Hath no Fury like a Woman Scorned

It was strange feeling.

The feeling of becoming lost in a grief so great that nothing left in the world made sense to you. The only action left for you was as simple as taking death into your own hands and calling it revenge. And that was what loving someone to death really meant to you. It was the force to conquer within yourself and turn it into a power so great, that even you had to become something different just so that you knew how to handle it.

That was what I was.

I was a vessel for myself.   

It was almost as though my body was being lifted and my limbs were being moved weightlessly through water. The tingling that usually came to me in my fingers was now all over my body, zinging around as though every single part of me was sparking back to life…a life that wasn’t solely my own. I didn’t feel fear or even really have an understanding about what I was about to do. All I allowed myself to feel was hate and mourning for those I thought I had lost. I let it fuel my blood as though changing it into something more.

I could see what I was doing as if watching from afar but yet not. I was lost somewhere between myself and what I needed to become. I saw my own hands snap down on the wooden pole that connected them, as though it was made from paper. I then lifted Lucius’ lifeless body up as if he weighed nothing at all.

I lay him down and saw the damage that had been done far too close to a heart that I knew didn’t belong to me, not in this lifetime or the one I should have been living. But nonetheless it was a heart that I cared for and would have given my life for if given the chance. I briefly heard him moan from pain so knew that at least he lived for now, my only hope was that when this was done, that I had my chance to say goodbye.

But it was far too late to think of this now, for the damage had been done, and this monster in front of me had already awakened the beast inside myself… one that I knew was more powerful than he.

So I stood looking down at Lucius’ body one more time before turning back to face the Demon that had planned on taking everything from me. Thoughts of being with both Draven and Lucius flickered through my mind like a time capsule exploding. Hundreds of images flashing there over and over until I felt I would burst from the love I had. A love that with one look at Pertinax, and I knew he had tried to take it all away from me. I looked down at my hands to see the angry sparks of power lick out against the skin, like electrical charges desperate to be freed.

“No-one takes them from me,”
I snarled in a voice that didn’t sound like my own. The Demon looked back at me and frowned for a moment before he smiled, happy he had one last obstacle to play with.

“OH GOOD, ONE MORE LEFT!” he snarled but this just managed to double the strength in my hands. I looked up feeling my eyes change along with the rest of my voice. Then I pushed out my hands and let the rage flow out of me and towards the cause of my pain. 

“NO-ONE TAKES THEM FROM ME!” I roared and hit him with so much force it flung his body back, like Zeus himself had hit him with a lightning bolt forged from Mount Olympus. He flipped over and over until managing to stop himself just before going off the edge. He looked utterly stunned as he stared back at me from the sandy floor.

“BUT YOU’RE HUMAN!” he thundered back shaking his head, but hearing this only managed to cause this demonic side of me to build once more, taking it as such an insult that I released a scream so powerful that it could destroy the earth below.

“I AM THE ELECTUS!” The force of this started to shatter the mountain he had made and, with one section at a time, the tower started to burst, like each floor on a building being blown one after the other. We started to fall but I kept my hands facing down to the ground knowing that this would steady the top enough to take us down without it toppling over.

Pertinax looked all around him as if he couldn’t believe that there was something facing him that was more powerful than he and worse still, it all came from a human girl.

The sound of the last part of the tower crashing to a stop was when I knew it was time to finish his life but something inside of me had waited because I wanted him to die closer to Hell than to Heaven. It was my gift to those waiting below and I smiled a sadistic smile thinking about what tortures awaited him there.

I walked back to Draven and knelt down on one knee, placing a hand to his cheek as he had done for me. I felt some part of my old self slipping back through so that I could look upon him with my own eyes and smile down at him with my own smile. 

“You…you’re…my…” He looked at me as if he couldn’t believe I was real and then stammered out the sentence I knew exactly how to finish.

“Electus.”
I confirmed then suddenly yanked the spear free from his shoulder making him wince before snapping off the end to make it into a dagger.

“I have to finish this,” I told him and he nodded to me, trusting me that I could. So I stood back up and turned to face the Demon for the last time.

“YOU CAN’T KILL ME, I AM A GOD!” he bellowed at me and before saying another word to him I started to run at him like Hell was powering me forward. He roared down at me just as he swung his sword but I knocked it back with the power that erupted from my hand causing the blade to shatter into thousands of pieces like glass. Then before he knew what to do, I leapt up at him and drove the bloody spear deep into his heart.

“Yes, but even Gods can die on Earth!” I told him as he looked down at the glass blade sticking from his chest as if this was the first time he saw that his body could bleed. The glass started to fill with his blood and the second it reached the top, something inside of me told me to take it as a trophy.

I pulled it out and jumped back from him just as he fell to his knees, exploding into a black cloud as he landed, one that was quickly  sucked back down into Hell where I knew Lucifer would be waiting for him. Then I looked down at the black charred sand that I knew would be there for centuries to come. That type of evil doesn’t leave the Earth without leaving its eternal scar.

The dust had barely settled when I heard Draven’s call behind me.

“Electus?” This acted like an off switch to the rage, cutting out my power in one single heartbeat. I dropped the blade into the black sand as I slammed back into myself, as if my vessel had been missing a soul. Then I turned and ran back over to him.

“I am here! I am here!” I told him, crying over his injured body.

“Ssshh, it’s alright now. You’re safe…you’re finally safe,” Draven said holding my head to him as I let my tears fall down his cheek and mine.

“I was so scared I had lost you,” I told him and he hushed my crying again by telling me, 

“You did it. You killed him.”

“Not without your help and…Lucius, I have to save Lucius!” I suddenly shouted getting up and running to the other body, one that this time was silent. I skidded over next to him and lifted his head from the sand and into my arms.

“He is gone. There was nothing you could have done. He gave his life in sacrifice,” Draven told me after getting up himself, holding a hand to his injured shoulder.

“No! I can save him!” I told him and Draven frowned down at me.

“It isn’t…”

“I can, now bite me, for he needs my blood,” I told him holding out my arm to him, making Draven frown before quickly trying to reason with me. 

“No, it is impossible, there is no blood on Earth that can save him now.” I looked back down at him and said,

“It’s not the blood on Earth I am using, but the Venom of God!” I said and picked up his sword to slice into my own wrist before Draven could stop me. I cried out in utter agony and so that it wasn’t all in vain, I quickly let it pour into his mouth as he had once done for me, gifting the power back that he had first given to me to restart his own heart.

“Come on! Drink damn it! DRINK!” I screamed down at him and the second I did I placed a hand over his heart, letting the small residue of power I had left spark from my fingers. His eyes suddenly opened and the blood red in his eyes started to turn black as he sucked back in the life I gave to him.

“ENOUGH!” Draven shouted ripping my arm away from Lucius’ mouth as he could see my own life was being slowly drained away. I collapsed in his arms just as the last of my energy was fading away.

“Nāzanin! Nāzanin! Don’t leave me!” Draven shouted down at me frantically and I just had enough strength to raise my head up to him and say…

“Call me Keira.”

Epilogue

I opened my eyes to see I was being blinded by the sun and I blinked back the dark spots in my eyes a few times before things started to become clear.

“Wakey, wakey sunshine.”

“Pip…is that you?” I asked in a groggy voice that grated on the back of my throat like I was trying to swallow sandpaper.

“The one and only,” she said in her usual happy tone.

“Where am I?” I asked trying to sit up but finding it too difficult to accomplish.

“Well, you’re not in Kansas anymore,” she said and my eyes widened.

“We’re home!? We finally made it back…back in time!?” I shouted no matter how painful it felt to the back of my throat.

“Uh, well about that…” she started to say as I lifted myself up to look for myself where we were. The first thing I saw was the desert sand outside of the stone arched window and my heart started to sink.

We were still in Persia.

But this wasn’t the worst part I now faced. Not when I saw the tall looming figure of Draven standing at the bottom of the bed with his arms folded.

Pip looked back over her shoulder and said,

“We have some explaining to do.”      

To be Continued…

Book 8

Coming Soon

2017

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