The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga) (50 page)

“You have this all wrong
, pet.”

“Don’t call me that!” H
e held up his hands as he tried using a softer tone, saying,

“Alright Keira, but you have to listen to me, it isn’t like that. I knew
, yes, that you wouldn’t be coming back with the King in tow, but I thought you would at least find some answers,
that’s
why I wanted to give you my coin. But then when I saw what you really had planned, where you were really trying to get to, then that’s when I tried to stop you.” I had nothing to say to his confession other than to hear it all out. He took a moment and when I didn’t speak he rubbed one hand at the back of his neck in frustration. It was surprisingly a very human thing to do.

“I don’t know where the King is
, Keira and I don’t know anyone who does. When you came into my club, I felt something… I wasn’t lying about that back there…I knew I needed to do this for you and what it would mean for me in return one day. It didn’t take me long to figure out who you were, but by then it was too late. The King’s rules had already been broken and I had to follow what the damn fates had set into place.” This news made me react. I lost sight of my hurt long enough to ask,

“What do you mean by the fates?” His reaction to this worried
me because his gaze lowered as though he couldn’t look me in the eyes any longer.

“Jared?” H
e closed his eyes briefly, inhaled a deep breath and finally looked at me to deliver his last emotional bomb.

“The Oracle
, Keira, she told me you would come and what would happen when you did.” I sucked in my own sharp breath and took a stunned step back, using the wall to stop me from crumbling.

“She…she told you to make a Vow and that I too would make one in return…didn’t she…DIDN’T SHE!?” I screamed this last part when he didn’t answer me. He took in my anger and nodded.

“All this time I have been played.”

“No, I don’t think that’s what this is
.” He tried to reason with me, but I was too far from the surface to claw out of my pit of betrayal that these people had plunged me into.

“Then what would you call it Jared, because from the very beginning I have been placed around this damn chessboard like a defenceless pawn, all for what, to give the big players a chance at something I couldn’t see before
, but now I see…now I see what this is!” I walked to push past him in this narrow tunnel but he grabbed my forearm to stop me.

“Then what is this
, Keira?” He asked gently looking down at me with sad eyes of concern.

“This is your fate
, Jared, this is everyone’s fate at the expense of my own happy one.”

“That’s not true and you know it. Look Keira
, I am not going to pretend that I know what will happen with you and the King, but I do know that I was meant to meet you, I was meant to feel this way about you and for what, so that I could get you into Hell for no real reason…?” I shrugged my shoulders, feeling deflated and hurt but then he shouted,

“Bullshit! Don’t you see, everything that happens now is for a reason, but it’s just a reason we can’t
see yet. Don’t stop believing Keira, don’t give up…
hold on Keira.”
Those words had me in a vice called faith and hope. They were the same words from Draven’s father and now they had come back to me when I needed them the most.

“I know you feel betrayed
, little pet, but I did all that was asked of me, I was told not to tell you what I knew and this I did on blind faith in the Oracle’s words. Knowledge, pet, is a weapon sometimes best left until the last possible moment.” I let myself absorb his words of wisdom and hated that he was right. If I had known any of this, would I still have gone through with it all? That I couldn’t answer, but it still made me understand the why.

“Fine
, but what about Sigurd, is he working with the Oracle as well? Is that who sent him to me and if that’s true then…wait a minute.” I said suddenly realising something that I had not thought of until now…something that chilled me to the core.

“Keira
, what is it?”

“Where is Sigurd?” Jared shook his head and said,

“I’m not following…should he be here?” My eyes widened and panic seized me.

“He wrote me a note
, but with everything that just went on I had forgotten…he… he was supposed to meet me, he is the reason I came here tonight.”

“Give me the note
.” Jared ordered, now stepping back into his masterful role. I fished around in my bag, knowing that every second I took, the more frustrated Jared was getting with me.

“Here it is
.” I said passing it to him. He picked up the lantern he had dropped in our argument and held it over the note. It was a few tense moments before he said,

“Time to go
,” in a harsh voice. He stuffed the note in his back pocket and grabbed my hand to pull me quickly through the last of the tunnel.

“What is it
…? Jared, just tell me!” I pleaded when he wouldn’t answer me. Then he stopped abruptly, making me walk into his back again. He looked as though he was trying to figure out how to word his next statement. Then he turned to me with the lantern raised, which put his serious expression in the spotlight. Then he told me the startling truth.

“I got a visit from your Ouroboros master last night. He told me he had to leave the country… som
eone he worked for in Italy who needed to hear all that had happened. But before he left, we made a blood pact to seal my word in looking out for you in his place.”

“What!?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! He left me…he really left me?

“Keira, listen to me now. This is the reason I had my brother follow you and when he found out you were coming here, I assembled my men and came for you. I knew you had the heart and thought you had taken it upon yourself to try and get into Hell alone.”

“So
, Sigurd didn’t tell you to meet me here?” Which was what I originally thought had happened.

“No, in fact he asked me to do the opposite, to wait and stall you if you became insistent, a task I found I could not withhold due to my own vow to you
.”  I was fast trying to make sense of all this, but then the most important question had to be asked.

“So if Sigurd didn’t write the note
, then who did?” At this his face hardened as if ready to lose that barely contained fury he wanted to unleash with his next breath.

“Let’s go
.” He didn’t answer me but I had a feeling he had an idea. 

We made it up the last tunnel with haste and em
erged from the entrance to find that the darkness could not hide what faced us. Jared’s brother and his men were all stood spaced out in a line which secured the entry way. I was quickly pulled behind Jared’s protective frame as we approached his brother.

“Nice of you to join us J, wouldn’t have wanted you to miss your welcome party
.” Orthrus said sarcastically, then cracked his knuckles in the face of our danger.

“Wouldn’t have missed it for all of
Hell, brother.” Jared replied dryly, looking from side to side, as if taking in each individual threat. Although now, looking at the small army of mutated demons that had us trapped in a corner, there looked to be too many threats to count.

“How many?” Jared asked one of the men at his brother’s side.

“Twenty five here, but there could be more.”

“That’s five each
boys, anyone that gets six picks a loser to buy a round…plus looking at these ugly bastards I’m thinking a lap dance too.” All heads nodded in agreement and I snorted my disbelief on hearing Jared’s brother making a bet at a time like this.

“You have got to be joking?”
I whispered at him from behind Jared’s back.

“Do I look like a fucking Jester
, little girl? This shit is ugly and I will need a drink and a sweet piece of ass after a night of ugly…you volunteering, sweetie?” He asked winking at me.

“Knock it off
, Orth!” Jared snapped without taking his eyes from the sea of uglies that Orthrus had named them…and rightly so, I thought shuddering.

“Speaking of Jesters, where is our buddy Marcus?”

“I sent him a text, so fingers crossed doing what he does best and coming up the rear.” I bit my lip as that was quite funny.

“Play nice
, brother” Jared said trying also not to laugh.

“Never gonna happen
,
Brother!
So what’s the plan here J, ‘cause I gotta tell ya, we have been staring at these fuckers for a while now and I am getting bored of the zombie dumb ass show.”

“No-
one has voiced their demands?” Jared asked, but before his brother could answer him, another voice took that liberty.

“Oh now, I wouldn’t say that
.” I looked to see the army part to let through a man wearing a suit, one who I couldn’t see properly thanks to the shadows that hid him.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about this asshole
.” Orthrus said as if he hardly mattered.

“Enough! Hand over the girl and I will consider letting you live
, mongrels.” Orthrus whistled low and said,

“Oh
Hell no, did he just say that, Bro?”

“You know
Orth, I think he did.” Jared said in a voice that screamed so close to the edge of ferocity, I felt it buzzing through his back.

“Oh shit man, now you gone and done it, do you not have any idea who my brother is
, you dumb fuck!?” Orthrus taunted making his men snarl at the wave of demons getting ready to attack.

“I don’t care what breed of dog he is, NOW GIVE ME THE GIRL!” He roared.

“You heard him brother, go give him your girls.” Jared said to Orthrus smiling.

“With pleasure
.” He replied kissing his fists, before walking ahead of the rest.

“What is he doing?” I whispered into Jared’s back.

“Just wait and see, pet.”

“Very well… my Death soldiers, tear these dogs apart!”

And just like that, a swarm of mutated men were released from their verbal control and attacked…

A war at the Hellfire had begun.

Chapter 46

Bring the Rage

Orthrus opened his arms wide in the centre of the courtyard and just as the first wave of demons came at him, something started to happen. The earth beneath him started to split but there was no rumble or evidenc
e of the earth quaking other than the sight of it.

“What is he…?” I started to ask when the sight of something emerging from the hole in the ground had me stopping. The tear in the earth span
ned the length of his legs and some sort of creature started to pull itself up, grabbing a foot first. Orthrus shuddered and then it all happened in a matter of seconds. The congealed black sand used his body to drag itself from the pit of what I could only imagine was Hell itself. It started to cover his legs first, wrapping itself around him then turning to thick liquid and seeping into his clothes. As it moved up his body with such speed, it then revealed something darker in place of the body that once was Orthrus.

I gasped as I got my first sight of the beast he was becoming. A pair of animal feet like no other stood holding the weight of the transformation taking place. They had four massive claws of thick bone that curled into the ground like spikes. His skin was black but looked like cooling molten rock that cracked, showing the glow of hot power beneath the surface. A larger back claw knifed out at the heel and I saw it pound into the ground before Orthrus fell forward as the last of  his other self over took him. He raised his upper body and roared into the night as the liquid sand disappeared into his open mouth
, as if trying to drown him in his own demon form.

What was left was a living, breathing nightmare of a demonic beast the size of a bull. All his body looked to be made from cooling lava as if he had merged with the volcano’s eruption instead of dying from it. But the sight of his hissing, cracking skin was nothing compared to his head…or should I say ‘heads’
, as he had two of them. They looked different and if I could compare them to anything, I would say it was like a Rottweiler on steroids one side and a rabid German Shepherd on the other, only these two were bigger, meaner, demonic and more deadly!

The demon horde that came after him looked like an army of men once upon a time
, but now they were nothing more than empty shells that only had death on their minds. There were no loved ones to fight for, there were no thoughts of country and honour and there was no fighting for protection. There was only death in their eyes and that death was their only need.

And Orthrus was in their sights. But from the looks of things that was just fine with him, as the first demon that got close enough found its head in a vice of jaws from two killers. In one second it was raising its arm in attack and the next it was missing its head.

It was as this small army came closer, that I realised I had seen them before and I gasped in my hands as that memory resurfaced. It had been the last time Sigurd’s darkness had transported me into the land of nightmares…only now it was starting to look more like into the land of things to come. The time in my prison when those creatures had come closer was like a replay in reality as they once again made their way towards me.

They each had their own weapons of choice embedded somewhere in their bodies and their tall flaky forms were disfigured because of the fact. Dark ash corroded the area, like the next one coming clos
er to Orthrus. This one had an axe cutting into the side of his neck, making his head favour his unaffected shoulder. The blackened skin around the metal licked out along the pealing skin and made half of his dead face look charred and burnt.

Just as before
, he got within distance of Orthrus’ snapping fangs that dripped with saliva, the demon reached up and pulled the axe from its fleshy holder. Then with more strength than I would have counted on, he swung it at Jared’s brother’s heads. It nicked one pointed ear as he didn’t move quickly enough, but that looked to be his last mistake. As his beast of a body twisted away, in the next move he was snaking back and ripping the arm that held the weapon, clean off.

As another came running at him, so he threw the arm out of his way, making the axe skid across the floor towards us.

“I think it’s time to join the fun, boys.” Jared said nodding each side at his men. They smiled as though he had just given them Christmas off and then they fell to the ground ready for their own change. I couldn’t help but grip onto Jared’s back as the earth split once more, only this time in three places. The one on our left, where Orthrus had been standing, changed the quickest. Only this time instead of black sand to cover him, it was thousands of tiny thin roots of grey snakes that slithered up from the hole.

In no time at all there was now a snarling beast that looked more like a giant wolf with spikes along its spine, although there was
no soft fur to speak of. It stretched out as if readying for the fight and it sounded like tension wire being pulled tight.

By the time I looked to my right, the other two had already transformed. One looked a lot sleeker than the others and this wasn’t just down to a more panther like body. No
, this one wasn’t like the others at all, as it was covered in a shiny thick red oil that was the colour of dark blood. I just hoped he didn’t feel like shaking his fur because I didn’t fancy a bloody shower!

The very last one was a similar size to Orthrus, who was the biggest one of the pack. His pale skin was pulled painfully taut over jagged bones that looked like they had inverted outwards. His own ribcage had fanned out and sharp bone became a weapon on his back, should anyone try and attempt to take him down. Even his skull had been morphed
into flat horns that looked as if they could be used as a battering ram. And from the sight of him with his head lowered ready, I didn’t think I was wrong.

They all looked towards Jared, their master and on his nod they all leapt into action. Each one of them mid leap landed on a demon and started tearing into him. Jared then turned to me and said,

“I need to get you safe.” I looked behind us back to the caves.

“No, that’s what he wants, that’s why he surrounds us here, to try and force us back. He wants me to lose you in the caves so he…”

“JARED, LOOK OUT!” I screamed just as one of the creatures slipped passed the chaos and came barrelling towards us. He was covered in hammered metal plates that had been fused to his skin and his head looked like it was half machine. The terminator came to mind just as he crashed into Jared, who had positioned himself in front of me.

Jared
, even in his human form, was still an unstoppable force. He flipped his body upright and grabbed the demon. He quickly did the same as me and zeroed in on the weak spot on his back as this was an area without plated armour. Then he delivered a series of kidney punches that came so quickly it was impossible to count them. The demon fell to his knees but not from pain. He used this motion as an escape from Jared’s pounding fists.

I saw another demon look towards us and decide to get in on the action. But with Jared still focused on destroying the plated one
, he didn’t see what I was seeing. I backed up and a pair of white eyes locked onto to me. I knew I had to do something and running off screaming like a little girl was going to be as practical as a chocolate gun, with candy bullets. I looked desperately round the space for any type of weapon and came across a severed arm with its hand still clutching an axe.

It couldn’t have just been an axe…oh no, not me, it had to come with an arm! I thought as I ran to it. I looked up to see the demon coming closer but he was slower than the rest
, as he was dragging his foot behind him. I thought at first that he was already injured but then saw the glint from the moon shining from the leg length blade attached to his hip bone. Well, he might not be quick but he sure was packing!

I looked down at the arm and noticed with disgust that its fingers were still twitching around the axe’s handle.

“Typical.” I said and then stamped my foot down on its wrist hoping this would release his grip. I then quickly reached down and snatched the axe before its hand could fist around the wood again. I picked it up, feeling its hefty weight, wishing I had some more of Draven’s mojo left in me. I looked up just in time to see the demon reach out and try to grab me. So, on a scream, I swung the axe round with all my puny strength. The demon reared back as I missed him but the momentum twisted my body more than I planned for and took me a few feet away from him.

I righted myself and dragged the axe back with me to be closer to Jared who looked to be finishing with the plated guy. He had just jumped up and delivered a downward punch to the top of the demon’s head, where now a fist sized dent had caved in part of his face.

“Uh…Jared…could use a… little help over here.” I said backing up further. Jared looked up from the guy on the floor to find me being stalked. He swiftly stomped down on the guy’s spine, breaking his back in a sickening crunch of bones shattering. I used every shred of my strength to raise the axe up, hoping to use the weight to drive it down when needed. I jumped as I felt the axe being taken from me and I looked up to find Jared smiling down at me.

“You’re just full of surprises
, pet.” Then he winked at me like we were on a date.

“And you’re crazy
.” I said on a laugh. He nodded as though what I just said was obvious and then he proved that statement true. He cracked his neck and swung the axe to rest over his shoulder like some demonic woodcutter. The muscles bunched under leather and he strolled up to the demon who was still dragging his weapon behind him. It was looking quite helpless until it lashed out with its weapon infused leg with blinding speed. Jared jumped up enough to miss the propelled blade that spun the demon round. Jared then smiled before swinging the axe like a mad man. Parts soon started to be chopped off left, right and centre, so I looked away from the grotesque butchering.

My eyes quickly caught a flash of something by my feet and I screamed again as it was the plated demon that had crawled my way. He grabbed my foot in a painful hold with metal bent fingers and I stamped down on his shoulder to get him to release me.

“Oh. Just. Die!” I said each word with another stomp of my foot but it was as if he couldn’t even feel it.

“DIE! You stupid tin can!” I shouted and then shrieked when I saw an axe blade take off most of the demon
’s head.

“Tin can…really, that’s the best you could do
?” Jared asked with his eyes aglow with dangerous excitement. I kicked out of the dead demon’s hold and said,

“I thought it would be degrading
, but next time I will try ‘little dick’ and see if that helps.” Jared burst out laughing as he pulled me to his chest and gave me a swift kiss. Then I was let go in breathless wonder, to see him back in serious killer mode.

“I need to get you safe
.” Then he looked around to assess the situation. There were piles of dead demons, most of which were missing vital parts of their bodies. I think if there had been lots of blood and gore I would have thrown up long ago. Thankfully though, this wasn’t the case, as it was more like black dust and bits of burnt paper that came from the broken bodies. They were like man-shaped, skin sacked dirt.

His beasts were making short work of killing
and I saw two trying to hold onto the one covered in oil but they couldn’t grasp him for his slick body. He gripped one by the leg and rolled quickly, ripping the demons limb away from the rest of its body. Then I saw the other two playing tug of war with one demon that had a mace for a head. He was trying to ram his face full of spikes into the bellies of the beasts that had him, but then he literally split in half from his crotch up to his chest. They left him with half his ribcage sticking out. Ok, so now I felt a bit ill!

“
Yo J, can I crash this party of yours or what?” The voice came from above us and we saw Marcus stood in between the empty flint window frames, taking in the scene of carnage with a smile.

“About fucking time Marcus, get your ass down here
.” I felt the whoosh of air and then there he was standing next to me.

“Hey spunky, you causing trouble again?” He asked me
, making Jared growl and Marcus grin.

“So what’s the plan here J, you want me to do some roasting?” Jared raised an eyebrow at the thought and I had no idea what he meant but from the sounds of it, I didn’t want to!

“When I give the signal I want you to get Keira out of here. Transport her to the Mausoleum and wait for me there.” Marcus crossed his arms and pouted before saying,

“Now that doesn’t sound very exciting J, surely you’re not going to make me miss out on all of the fun
.” Jared rolled his eyes and then stood back and raised his arm out at the fighting,

“Be my guest,
Marcus.” The evil smile that raised his sinister jester features made me shudder.

“Don’t mind if I do
, My Lord.” He bowed gracefully and then straightened in one fluid motion. He was dressed like a modern day pirate. With his long dark red leather jacket that had black metal buttons down its length and large cuffs folded back. With this he’d added a pair of skin tight jeans in light grey and a Beatles T-shirt with a loose thin scarf draped round multiple times.