The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga) (51 page)

Marcus stepped further into the centre and just as two demons came running at him from both sides he pulled a long thin blade from the holder hanging low by his thigh, hidden by his long jacket. He raised that blade to his lips, kissed it and ran it slowly through one closed hand. The blade came out the other side engulfed in red flames.

Just as the demons attacked, Marcus side stepped one way and arched his blade up, cutting up the torso of one demon and then one step back had him slicing down into the next. Both fell to the floor in less than three seconds and only two steps.

“Man, he’s good
.” I said looking on in awe. Jared just scoffed,

“Damn show off
.”

Jared
’s comment had me wondering why he hadn’t yet changed himself. Was it to protect me better?

“I see dickhead showed up
.” Orthrus said now back in his human form, slick with sweat from his full body workout. Tight black muscles were still tensed and at the ready under his wet shirt. He looked like a tank ready to roll over someone.

“You
gotta give it to him Bro, he’s certainly got finesse.” Jared commented at the sight of Marcus slicing apart his foe in a blaze of strokes.

“I don’t
gotta give him shit, unless it’s mine to eat.” Orthrus replied, rolling his shoulders. Jared laughed at his brother and smacked him on the back in some sacred brotherly code for love and respect.

All of Jared’s men fell back to the line as all the demons in the courtyard had been forced to rest…and with no chance at getting back up again.

“So what now, ‘cause I gotta say, that seemed a bit too easy.” Marcus said coming back last. He ran his hand over his blade and the flames died down to nothing before he sheathed it. However, a moment after that statement, another line of demons came from around the sides and collected together in front of us.

I turned to see Orthrus smack Marcus upside the head making the little bells in his red hair jingle.

“You just had to say it didn’t you!” Orthrus scolded at Marcus.

“Just for you I did sugar lips, anyway quit your Conan belly
a’rumblin, you know you live for this shit.” Marcus counteracted.

“I also live for p
ounding on cocky little jester runts such as yourself.”

“Cut it off
, you two and save it for the damn horde!” Jared snarled at them both and when his back was turned Orthrus rubbed his middle finger down his face and Marcus blew him a kiss in return. 

“You have one more chance Cerberus, hand over the girl and walk away
.” The suited man’s voice rang out as a clear threat to my life and Jared started laughing.

“Well
, at least the asshole knows who we are now.” Orthrus said smiling.

“What’s wrong Gastian, running out of death dealers and think you’re pretty voice will scare me
?” This got him a reaction as the mysterious Gastian bellowed a demonic rumble.

“Now that’s what you call a comeback
, pet.” He said running a finger down my cheek with his lips twitching for a smile. I rolled my eyes at him and he broke out into a full laugh when I said,

“Men
!”

“Bring the rage
, my Brothers…bring the rage!” Jared shouted making his beasts snarl and snap their jaws with excitement.

“Alright bitches, you heard the man
.” Orthrus said nodding to his men to spread out as the next set of demons came closer. One of the largest ones didn’t seem to be carrying a weapon so he moved quicker than the rest. Just as I was wondering what he was planning on using against these guys, he opened his mouth so wide, he dislocated his own jaw. Then he started to regurgitate something and soon the start of a thick chain could be seen coming up. I heaved a few times in the sight of him puking up metal, never being very good watching someone else being sick.

I was at least pleased to know I wasn’t the only one that thought this was gross…but then it got worse. He bent over at the waist just as the chain was long enough to curl along the floor and then we all noticed
another bit coming out from…oh God!...the other end!

“Oh
Hell no… That is just sick…man that is wrong!” Orthrus said along with Marcus saying stuff along the same lines. Then Orthrus stepped up to Marcus, slapped him on the back and said,

“This dudes all yours
, my man.” The look Marcus shot Orthrus was enough to have me slap my hand to my mouth to try and squash down the laughter. Orthrus saw my attempt and gave me a friendly head nod that said he appreciated I was on his side.

“The
Hell it is! You’re the bastard that can lick his own balls, you go at him!” Orthrus dropped his amused face and growled.

“For that, both of you are gonna deal with him, now go
.” Jared ordered, turning serious all of a sudden.

“Fine, come on pencil dick, let’s go kill this metal sucking
fu…” I didn’t hear the rest of his comment as Jared grabbed me and pulled me close.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, but it feels different this time, like he is waiting for something bigger to come. Promise me that when I give the word, you will go to Marcus, he will get you out of here, somewhere safe, then I will come find you…understand?” I bit my lip at the thought of any of these guys getting hurt but didn’t say anything, I just nodded.

“Good girl” He let me go and just before he turned back to the fight I grabbed his forearm.

“Jared…just, play it safe…yeah?” He gave me that handsome grin of his and said,

“You worried about me
, little pet?”

“I
’ve got a vow to keep, remember?” I said smiling up at him. He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and whispered,

“That you do
, darling.” Then we both took in the scene. The demon with the chains still had them dangling from both ends of his body but now had enough to swing around as weapons in each hand. I saw that neither beast particularly wanted to get within touching distance of the chains and I found this to be a bit funny, considering why. Here were all these mighty Hell beasts, and some of the most frightening creatures I had ever seen and they were worried about touching something as gross as where those chains had been…well minus the heinous situation we faced…that part was something I couldn’t find humour in.

In the end though, they had no choice as Orthrus grabbed one bit of the chain in one head
’s mouth and the other bit in his second set of jaws. Then he jumped, twisting his body and in the process managing to loop the chain around the demon’s neck. Then with both mouthfuls of metal he nodded to Marcus. The same evil grin sparked something devious in his eyes as he produced a ball of flames in his hand. Then he dodged his way passed a lunging demon and grasped the chain closest to demon’s mouth. This caused the metal to glow poker hot and that heat travelled along each link, not only on the outside but on the inside of his body also.

“Now!” Marcus
shouted to Orthrus and the two-headed beast started to pull down on the ends of the chain just as that heat made its way around the demon’s neck. One more pull like a pair of dogs with a bone and the massive demon’s head singed right off his body. The rest of the demon, minus his head, fell to the ground just as the scorching chain burnt the rest of his body from the inside out.

“
My Lord!” Marcus’s shout shocked my head round in time to see a demon, that’s torso was riddled with throwing knifes, coming at us. Then, before I could shout out Jared’s name, he had me wrapped in his arms and turned so that his back was to the demon. I felt his body vibrate before he jolted as though being struck over and over again. I heard him groan but more in discomfort than pain.

“Are you alright?” I whispered up at him, muffled in the warm cocoon his arms held me in.

“Peachy.” He replied dryly, before looking over his shoulder. He must have seen the threat was over so he released me. I gasped as he turned round presenting a back that was full of embedded knifes. But unbelievably this wasn’t the reason for my reaction. It was less what was in his back and more what his back had become.

Instead of the back of a leather jacket moulded to a muscular back, now the leather had been shredded by the triangular shaped raised points that covered his back like scales. Only instead of them resembling the skin from a lizard, they looked more like a mixture of something Jurassic and hardened clumps of cemented fur.

Each one was ridged on top like a shell and the further down his back they went, the larger they were. They started off black closer to the skin and got lighter, being grey in the middle until the ends shone like metal tips. 

Then he shook and the scales rippled, fanning out until all the blade
s dislodged and tinkled to the cobbled stone. It was incredible and I couldn’t help myself from reaching out and trying to touch him. Just before my shaky fingers made contact, I found my wrist shackled and I looked up to see Marcus looking stern.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you
.” His warning was enough for me to take a step back, taking that threat seriously. Jared then took large angry strides to the demon who was about to discover the wrath of unleashed Hell’s beast’s fury. He lashed out and grabbed the demon by his neck, brought his face an inch from his and said,

“I liked that jacket
.” Then he twisted his wrist and snapped the demon’s neck like it had been attached to his body with a toothpick.

“RRRRAAAAHHHH!” An
ear shattering roar erupted, causing everyone to stop and look to the cause. Just near the entrance four of the demons were walking in what looked like a chained giant and struggling to do just that. 

“Time to go
.” Marcus said, but before he could grab me, a demon caught him from behind, momentarily taking him off guard. This gave me enough time to watch Jared drop the demon like trash and step up into the middle of the courtyard. Along the way he casually kicked another dead demon out of his way and then nodded to Orthrus. His brother’s heads both nodded back and then his eyes found mine.

Orthrus then let go of his other side and his beast peeled away, sliding from his body, once again looking like black sand. Once he was again in his human form, he slowly turned
, looking for Marcus and rolled his eyes when he found him fighting off one of the demons. I saw him mouth the word ‘asshole’ before he started to fight his way over to us.

Meanwhile
, my gaze turned back to Jared just in time to see two things happen simultaneously. The first had me suck in a frightened breath as the demons all let go of the chained giant at the same time, falling back to get away quick enough. The second had my mouth dropping as Jared shrugged off what remained of his ruined jacket. Then just as the giant man was about to reach him and I mean the very last second,

Jared changed.

His body rippled and unlike the others that had received their beasts through the ground, Jared was his own beast. His clothes tore, and then his skin split like a knife cutting through thick rubber until his host was no more. In its place was a beautifully terrifying creature to behold. He was by far the biggest out of his fellow beasts but he managed to look more graceful. He was a similar shape to a large cat, like a lion or a tiger rather than a wolf or large dog. The way he moved was so precise and calculating rather than brute strength attacking.

He had tall legs with massive clawed paws the same as his brother’s beast had. However
, his claws were longer and curled like polished talons. All of his body was covered in the same scales that I had seen on his back, only they were smaller and more tightly knitted together on his legs, giving the appearance of being smooth to touch. However, the ones near his back and around his neck were more pronounced. Kind of like a deadly mane as they looked sharp at the tips as if being dipped in silver.

But it was the lethal beauty in his face that really got to me. The adrenaline pounding through my veins for the upcoming fight had my pulse rate rocketing and he turned his face to me as though he could hear it.

A low forehead that connected to a thick muzzle and a wide nose at the end that was flat. Lines flared out from his nose that I imagined became more prominent when angry and snarling, which he didn’t do when looking at me. His eyes were slanted and almond shaped which had lines running from the corners to his ears that gave him a cunning grace. They were the only thing left on him that remained like Jared, being piercing silver, only now with his black pupils in slits.

He was now all Cerberus and he was going in for the kill. The new demon was at least eight feet high and was huge. Not so much with defined muscles but more like just body mass as everything seemed to be ove
rly large. His chest looked as though a stood up barrel had been sliced down the centre and then strapped together. His arms were longer than they should have been, which gave him a demonic primate vibe, made worse when he started swinging them around in an attempt to get to Cerberus.

The sheer speed in which Cerberus moved was incredibly fast and it was hard to keep up
with his movements, unless he slowed to a calculating prowl. I could now understand where all the myths came from, because when Cerberus moved his head, there looked to be at least three of him due to the blurring speed.