Cult of the Hexad (Afterlife saga Book 6) (29 page)

He was endless and brutal and I loved every tortuous second of it!

“Please, oh god Draven please…I can’t have another…I…” I heard my pleas and he growled in my ear the same time he yanked me hard back against him. I whimpered back when the tip of his cock reached its limit inside of me.

“I am addicted to you…do you hear me…
fucking addicted!”
  He snarled the words again in my ear and the thrill I got was like no other.

“My need for you borders on insanity, that is what you do to me. I want to drown in your touch and take my last dying breath smelling your hair. I want to feel you coming around me every single day for the rest of our lives and I want to hold your body in my arms as you shudder through the euphoria…” He never stopped moving as he spoke, gently in and out, continuingly rocking into me from behind and I was quickly getting lost in not only what his body was doing to me but also his words.

“And do you know what I demand in return, little one?” He hummed the question in my ear and for a moment everything stopped. His movement, my breathing, our hearts and time all stood still, until he yanked my head to one side, and growled by my ear,

“To own you forever!” Then he bit into me and sucked deep at my essence, feeding the very need he spoke of. I came one last time relishing in the feel of him doing the same. He ripped his lips from my bloody neck and thundered up at the ceiling as he held me rooted to his body behind. I felt as though my body had fallen apart under the immensity of it all but then stitched back together again just as quick. I felt broken and reborn all at the same time and it was only the feel of him holding me tight that kept me in one piece.

“You leave me and I am a man without a soul, you come back to me and I want to imprint my soul to yours so that you can never leave me again. So never again…never will I let you go again.” I took in his words through a haze of ecstasy and knew I wouldn’t last long before giving into the fight of exhaustion.

I could feel myself falling backwards or sideways or simply moving without being in control. Either way I didn’t have the energy left to care because all that mattered was him and me and the raw beauty we shared.

So when I felt him lay me down, there was only one thing left to tell him…

“I love you Draven.”                                 

Chapter 27

Time for Running Scared

Waking up and finding Draven beside me was more like a perfect beginning rather than the perfect end that I never wanted it to be. But inevitably when meeting the man you fall in love with, one you know beyond all shadow of doubt is your soulmate, destined to be yours forever, well then you have fear looking over your shoulder laughing at you. Because no matter how much you try, you can’t help but be terrified that someone or something is going to come and take it from you! And even though I had not yet experienced this and hoped I never would, it still felt as if I had…many times before.

Was this to be the price for being with a man like Draven? Was I always to watch my back or was that hurt going to come from somewhere closer to home? I hated that I had to ask myself these things and even more so wondering now if Draven himself hadn’t at some point been the one that had kick started a series of events that had led to this point? Because for some reason now I couldn’t help but think back to when he told me he had lied to her and what type of lie would break someone’s heart or hurt them to their core?

But did any of this really matter unless I was going to let myself run scared. Because taking the risk was worth what the outcome could be every time I would ask myself that question and that outcome was a lifetime with Draven. And as much as I wanted to protect myself from getting hurt, as I felt in my bones I had been before, I knew what level of pain would be waiting for me if I ever decided to walk outside these Afterlife doors without him.

I slowly shifted under the heavy arm he had draped over me and took my time to look at him under the moonlight that came through the glass doors opposite. It was just enough to dance across his features, now softened by the serenity of sleep. I quietly reached out and brushed back some of his raven black hair, feeling the greatest urge to take care of this strong man any way I could, or more like any way that he would let me.

I had no idea what it meant to be Draven, holding the weight of the world on your shoulders and I wondered if I ever would. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t be the woman by his side that helped him through the difficult times. It didn’t mean I couldn’t be his Lucy to my Denis, his Sophia to my Zagan or even his Pip to my Adam. Because they were all the same…
we
were all the same if only we chose to be…if only we chose to embrace love with everything we had. No restraints, no what ifs, no what could have been. No, it was all or nothing and that was what Draven deserved…

My all and none of my nothing…And I knew right now I would rather die giving him that than live knowing that I hadn’t.

I don’t know the reason I awakened but decided to use the bathroom before trying to get back to sleep. I carefully wrestled myself free from Draven’s arm and set it back down where I had been lay. Then I turned round and looked down to find my footing as I remembered the bed was surrounded by steps it was that high.

“What the…?”
My muttered sentence trailed off as I saw long shadows start to grow and branch out around my side of the bed. It almost looked like some dark creature was under the bed trying to claw its way out. I looked back to Draven to see he hadn’t moved but by the time I moved back to view the shadows once more,
they
had moved.

They started to elongate and join in certain places that started to form letters. It was just like the blood had been when it had poured from my nose in Lucy’s house. I didn’t understand what was going on and just before I turned to wake Draven up, the letters finally formed into words.

‘Take a step towards your destiny,

Walk this line to find the key,

Answers await you beyond your sanity,

So take your freedom and follow me.’

I don’t know why I did it but I just couldn’t help myself. I was being lured into the unknown with the promise of answers something inside of me was desperate to find. Was it me…the other me that was controlling this now? I couldn’t say for sure but I had to find out, which was why I placed one foot on the floor, reaching out my toes so that I could be ready to pull myself back at any minute.

But as soon as my big toe made contact the stone beneath it started to waver and the words started to blur. I know what I should have done at that point but I was too captivated by the unknown to stop now. So I took a deep shuddering breath and plunged straight in…

Literally.

My foot hit the ground and sunk through the stone floor as if it was water. Half my leg was missing as black shadows swirled around it like black ink. I looked back to Draven and reached out but he kept getting farther and farther away from me. The bed was growing and stretching, taking him with it and out of my grasp. I knew now there was no going back, I had to continue…

So I jumped.

And instead of falling through the air like I had expected I was back in the freezing lake Vincent had taken me to earlier. I had plunged into my own icy grave and this time there was no angel to keep me linked to the world and there was no demon to drag me out. I was simply suspended in the water like time had no meaning down here. I looked around with the last of my breath and saw there was a world beneath me. I squinted in the dark water to see fire burning on torches and men in cloaks walking past with staffs taller than they were.

I looked up one last time to see the distorted night sky through the ice and knew my only hope lay beneath me. So with the last of my air quickly running out I made the decision to let myself sink to the bottom. I saw the vision getting clearer the lower down I got and just before I opened my mouth to seal my death by swallowing down freezing water I felt air touch my big toe.

I looked down and astonishingly saw that the surface of the water was beneath me! I reached out my hand feeling the air also hit my fingertips, so I did the only thing I could…I swam to the surface below me. I was just crying out for more air as my head breached the core and suddenly I fell, landing on stone and gasping for air. My lungs burned at how close I had come to succumbing to the deep.

I looked up, pushing my soaking hair back so I could see where I had travelled to. I managed to stagger to my feet, still taking in my strange surroundings of what looked like underneath a castle but it was so dark down here. With only a single torch mounted on the wall I could only make out certain details. Like the cobbled stone that looked like wet chipped flint knitted together creating the uneven floor on which I now stood. I looked up to see the water waving softly above me and I reached up, touching it like you would the sea when on a small boat. Not one drip escaped and the sight quickly started to play havoc with my equilibrium.

I bent over and had to breathe through my nose, trying to quell the urge to be sick because the ceiling above me was moving when it shouldn’t have been. The sound of a giant lever being moved made me look up quickly to find one of the robed figures I had seen when in the water. His black cloak hid most of him from sight and he reminded me of a demonic monk, with the large hood he wore being separate from the rest of the robe.

The lever protruded from the wall and the robed man needed two hands to push it down, causing the sound of grating metal to echo, bouncing around the bare stone walls. He didn’t look at me and it wasn’t like I was easy to miss. I was stood in a white floaty nightdress that clung to my skin as if someone had poured white paint all over me. Draven must have dressed me in it after I fell asleep in his arms.

“Hello?” I said, testing out my voice to see if he would respond. I can’t say I was surprised when he didn’t because if he wasn’t going to notice a dripping wet girl in her nightie, then he wasn’t going to hear one being polite.

“What is this place?” I murmured to myself, seeing as no one would be answering me anytime soon. It was still so dark in here and when the flaming torch began to flicker and crackle, I knew it wouldn’t be lasting much longer. This was proven shortly after the thought and I froze as I was suddenly plunged into darkness.

“No!” I gasped the second it died. I held my hand up and dread quickly started to be replaced by cold hard fear as I could see nothing.  

I spun around in the pitch black when I heard a crank turning, grinding against something that sounded like it was scorching stone, trying to ignite it. I followed the sounds around the room and screamed when flames travelled down the centre, making me jump out of the way, so that I wouldn’t get burnt. I hadn’t realised there was a long gully carved out of the centre that must have held something flammable for it catch fire like that. This lit up the room and I found that seeing where I was for the first time was no better than the dark.

“I’m in a prison!” I said looking down the long corridor at too many doors to count. Each crude iron door that I could see looked as if they had been hammered into shape by a giant with a mighty hammer. Dips, bumps and bowl shapes made all the doors uneven but the massive rivets kept everything in place. Each one had grated squares at head height and I could only hope none of them were occupied.

It was a medieval looking place, with chains and other devices I didn’t want to think about hanging from the walls. I wanted to ask why I was here and what had brought me to this place but there was no one to ask. Even as the robed figure walked towards me now, there was no acknowledgement of my existence.

“The blind don’t see and the deaf don’t hear.” Came a voice from farther down the row of doors. I had to take a minute to let my racing heart calm down from the fright…so I wasn’t alone. I watched as one of the figures walked right past me and as it did, I gasped as I finally saw his face under the hood.

Blood soaked bandages covered eyes that were no longer there and looked like they had been gouged out long ago by his own blood stained fingertips. I also couldn’t help but gag when seeing his ears had been sliced off and the hole that would have been left had been sewn shut, with the thick stitches in the shape of a star. Even what little I could see of his grey dead looking skin had symbols carved into it by what looked a thin blade.   

I finally could breathe again once he had passed me and continued to walk the length of the prison like some mindless drone.

“Who’s there?” I asked looking each way down the corridor, so nothing could creep up behind me.

“Many demons hide in plain view however it is the demons in your mind you should be afraid of.” I glared into the endless space now knowing which side the voice had come from. I followed the robed figure from much further back and wondered what he was doing when he raised his arm out to one of the doors. Elongated, bloody fingers stretched out from beneath the lengthened sleeve like a spider coming from behind his chosen home. They extended out one by one and one by one they folded back into a fist. As soon as the last finger curled there was snapping sound that resembled someone breaking a stick and then a vicious howl of pain followed quickly after.

“Jesus!” I shouted in fright however the robed figure didn’t even flinch as he continued down his path. 

“He won’t help you down here.” The voice sniggered.

“Who are they?” I asked as I continued to follow the voice.

“Death Wardens.”
I don’t know what surprised me more, the fact my question had been answered or the fact it had been answered by a girl.

“Why do they look like that?”

“They do it to themselves, it is part of a rite of passage if one wants to join the brotherhood.” She told me.

“That’s barbaric!” I said horrified that I had been right, he had gouged out his own eyes!

“It’s what makes them such a good choice for death wardens. No sneaky little spells to be cast if one doesn’t see it or hear it.” 

“So how do they do their job?” I asked wondering if I hadn’t already witnessed it.

“They can only feel the presence of evil, the intent to do harm, escape or just a whole magnitude of unlawful things.”

“But how would they stop such things?”

“Oh they have their powers and aren’t called Death Wardens for nothing…you can’t drown out your demons if they know how to swim.” She added cryptically and this made me look up at the water ceiling, still floating gently above me. I nervously then looked to the doors as I passed them and for the most part I was happy when I wasn’t tall enough to see inside...of course that was until the next door, when I realised I had spoken too soon.

As I approached the door I had seen the ‘Death Warden’ raise his hand to I tried to tell myself not to look and for the most part I achieved this. That was until I heard the voice…but surely it was a trick.

“Come here dearie…I have a treat for you, hold out your hand so I can give you some candy.” I looked to the door as soon as I heard the sweet voice of an old lady and quickly thought it must be a trick. Why would she be down here locked up in this dreadful place?

“The only treat she has in store is for herself if she ever got hold of you. Now come to me, Katie.” I was startled to hear the girl knew my name but for some reason I couldn’t help trust in what she was telling me.

“Don’t listen to her, she just wants your bones for herself…now come here and let me kiss you.” The old lady said and I took a panicked step back only to take a quick one forward again, as I felt the heat at my back from the flames I had forgotten about. I stumbled forward because of it and put my hand out to stop myself from falling and landed against the door.