58
Waiting is Hell
I felt a pair of strong arms go around me, catching me when I fell as the power drained out of me like every single drop had been wasted on that one angry moment. But I had my answer and Lucius had saved me and everyone else from the Keira bomb going off and killing everyone. Because that scream I’d heard had been mine and that glass smashing had been caused by Lucius’ actions, not mine.
It turned out I wasn’t the only one with immense power and he proved this when he had taken my hand in his, bent it back and forced my hold on him to relax enough so that he could swap places with me. He had held me up against the glass, making it crack and shattered one of the panels further down the room from the impact.
Then he roared down at me like the Master of his domain and how dare I come there and treat him this way.
“Retract your fucking fangs and yield your demon to its Master, young one!” he snapped, snarling down at me, with his larger fangs and scarier face getting close to mine. I did as I was told instantly and the second he saw me submit to him, he too retracted his fangs and eased his hold on my neck. Then he stepped into my shaking frame and whispered down at me,
“Now this is like old times, Pet.” His voice like this as a gentle hum was the last thing I needed to let go, and he knew it when my body started to relax and sag in his hold.
“Lucius?” I uttered his name in question as it was like coming down from a major high or adrenaline rush, it felt as though my body had been zapped and I tried to hold on to the only strength I had left right now…Lucius.
“It’s alright love, I’ve got you.” Then I felt my body being lifted and when he turned to face the others, I gasped as the whole room had been frozen. It was as if the whole world had stopped…that was other than those who held all the power in the room. So, Pip, Adam, Sophia, Zagan and Lucius’ own council had been the only ones in the entire club to witness what had just happened. Then Lucius just snarled down at those we passed as he snapped out an order,
“I want an explanation and I want one fucking now!” Then he walked from the room with me in his arms, only allowing the club to have life back once he had walked us out of the room.
Which brought us to now and finding ourselves sat in a more private part of his club. I remembered being here once before when he had that asshole jailer Dimme killed. Lucius and I were alone for a moment, as I was situated in his lap whilst he was tucking my hair behind my ear. It seemed he was also giving me a moment to come back to earth, as it almost felt like being on drugs after having an operation. I looked around and he chuckled telling me,
“I had all the screens replaced if that’s what you’re wondering,” he said referring to when my powers first started to emerge, and I freaked out smashing every TV screen without even thinking about it.
“Did that really just happen?” I asked in what sounded like a croaky voice.
“Yeah, that it did, Pet,” he replied gently as if afraid of setting me off again.
“I am sorry, I don’t know what is wrong with me, I have just been so angry, and I guess I just…”
“Took it out on your Vampire hero?” Lucius offered making me laugh.
“Yeah, well I won’t be getting you a pair of tights and a cape anytime soon,” I told him making me laugh when he replied,
“Thank fuck for that, those assholes look like sissies.”
“Oh, I don’t know, Thor is pretty hot…I mean if you like that big, muscular blonde, manly look,” I said blushing when I realised who it sounded like I had just described.
“Don’t say a word, not if you value these new TV screens,” I warned, joking when I knew his smug ass wanted to comment.
“Mmm, it seems like you keep costing me money, sweetheart,” he said making me suddenly think of all that money he had paid out for me back at the auction.
“Yeah, well lucky for you I am immortal now, so at least I have a chance at paying you back for buying me that day. Okay, so we might all look like spacemen living on the moon by the time that payment plan is finished, but still they say it’s the thought that counts.” This was when Lucius started laughing and I got the sense it wasn’t just at my joke.
“What?”
“He never told you, did he?” Lucius asked making me frown.
“Tell me what?” I asked, wondering what had been kept from me.
“Dom gave me that money, Keira. Well, forced it upon me actually and I believe his exact words were, ‘No one but I owns Keira, now and forever’,” he told me making my mouth drop in shock.
“No way,” I whispered in disbelief.
“Wait, when was that?” I asked making him smirk.
“Shortly after you left Italy, he found out what happened to you during your kidnapping and yes, I believe you were still separated at the time,” Lucius said, knowing this would mean something to me and I couldn’t thank him enough for it. Which was why I threw my arms around him and hugged him, taking him off guard.
“Thank you, my friend.” His reply had been a simple one,
“As always, you’re welcome, my little Keira girl.”
After this sweet moment between us, Lucius had demanded to know what had happened to make my power come back the way it had and also what ‘I had been getting up to this time’. The whole story came out with the colourful help of Pipisms that yes, this did also include the whole Nessie story.
“Seriously, only you could manage to sink a fucking boat on the Loch Ness,” Lucius had said making me throw my hands up and say,
“Why do people keep saying that!? It wasn’t even me, it was the bloody Loch Ness Mon…!”
“Don’t say it!” Pip warned making me groan, one that quickly stopped the second I saw a familiar face walk through the door making me and Pip squeal,
“Percy!”
“So, I gotta ask, don’t you think they are going to kind of notice us gone?” I asked after a night of chatting and catching up with old friends, the main one being Percy, who was looking happier and happier every time I saw him. When I think back to the shy, stuttering little man who I met that day who used to hide his face, to now seeing him standing proud, dressed like a punk rocker and caring little for the burns on his face, it made me want to cry with happiness for him. Me and Pip had both attacked him with kisses when we saw him, making his scarred puckered skin blush and look adorable.
He still had his stutter, but it wasn’t as bad because now he had overcome most of his nervousness. The other surprising thing was not so much his connection to Lucius, who he seemed to adore as any loyal subject would. But more so Lucius’ connection with him, as he seemed to have taken him under his wing and treated him with an extreme amount of respect. And because of this show of respect, others in his council reacted the same. Even scary, always pissed off Caspian, teased him affectionately by messing up his now styled hair when he sat down near both him and Liessa.
Throughout the evening Lucius would catch me watching Percy and smiling, which prompted him to lean into me and whisper,
“Don’t be too happy for him, we have corrupted him to our level of debauchery, you can be sure of that.” I giggled at his teasing and said,
“Oh, I have no doubt, with you as their leader after all…so I take it he knows all the big swear words then and can growl and snarl really loud when he’s pissed at people?” Once finished with my teasing his eyes started to glow with amusement, but instead of laughing his lips twitched, along with a muscle in his jaw before he squeezed my shoulder and warned,
“Careful Pet, you are on the verge of being cute again.”
The rest of the time with Lucius was spent first asking questions and answering them. Which took us into the evening, during which I had received three phone calls, one from Jared confirming from Bill that the news of Draven’s return had lit ‘Hellish hens’ and they were clucking. Then he went on to explain that these were Bill’s words not ‘fucking his’ as he said, but I could take it as a yes.
Then Sigurd had rung and told me that from what they could tell, no doorways had been used in the Janus gate, so this was a bust. Third and final call had been from Pythia, who told me Takeshi was now awake and he saw a vision of Draven leaving through a summoned portal. She also told us that during this time he also held back the other image he saw and that was the three of us in Hell looking for him. I thanked her and knew more firmly in my mind now what we had to do. And what we had to do, didn’t include any overbearing protective men joining us.
Sophia knew this, Pip definitely knew this and taking one look at Lucius, I most certainly knew this. Because this would have been something that would never have worked had we had them with us.
For a start, Adam would have turned the second he made it through to the other side. Zagan’s armies finding him would have drawn too much attention to our situation, something they were life bound to automatically do on his arrival. And Lucius, well one look at him from Demon Draven and the saying ‘All Hell breaking loose’, would have shifted quickly to ‘All Hell being Broken’.
Not long after this we had all called it a night, after of course we had a bit of girl time in the toilets together so that we could finally have chance to make our plan in secret. And thus, talk about the fact that we had to do this alone. Which now prompted me to ask,
“What is going to happen to Adam when he finds you gone again, as it’s not exactly like stepping back in time before he even finds out you’re gone and therefore has no need to go King Demon Kong on them all.”
“But he’s here now, so it’s all gravy,” was her cryptic answer.
“What she means is that Lucius would control his mind, making him sleep before his anger could take hold…it’s how certain circumstances have been avoided before.”
“Yeah, like when I missed the bus that one time,” Pip said shaking her head and making me nearly ask, but in the end we had more important things to do. Which was why we were currently on the rooftop of Transfusion looking for whatever Pip had promised us was up here.
Unfortunately, I also remembered the last time I was up here and that hadn’t exactly ended well for me. I remembered waking up in a cell shortly before I found myself on a slab of marble about to be sacrificed by another unhinged megalomaniac that wanted to become a God. Jesus, but just how many of those guys were there in the world? I swear I could see the group catch line now, ‘ever fancied becoming a God and taking over the world, hate kittens and furry cute things, have no friends and look kinda creepy, then join us and we will show you how!’ I don’t know why but I was seeing group sessions like in the movie ‘Wreck it Ralph’ with them all sat round sharing ideas and brainstorming.
“So, what are we looking for here?” I asked getting impatient and looking to Sophia who just shrugged her shoulders next to me and continued to check out her nails. We were both sat on a stone bench in Lucius’ rooftop garden, with the amazing view of Munich city, lighting up the night sky all around us. Pip was, at this point in time, on all fours in front of us patting down the wooden decking. One that looked weathered and had turned a greyish shade that complimented the dark slate swirl in the middle of the round courtyard. I remembered thinking back then that it reminded me of a dark path to nowhere, because at the time that was how lost I had felt when seeing it.
“Mawhaa! Gotya!” Pip shouted pushing down on a hidden compartment and revealing what looked like a stone tablet underneath. It was filled with ancient text carved down in lines and it was framed in what looked like thick black tar, just floating there.
“Time for your blood, Missy,” Pip said holding out a hand for me to take, making me frown.
“Christ, why is it always my blood we need for this shit, I swear I am going to get blood drawn at the doctors and start carrying it around with me in a water bottle labelled ‘for the stupid time’ if this carries on,” I moaned as I dropped to my knees and scooted over to where she was leaning over the new discovery.
“Don’t be a pussy…Miss Dramatic Much?” Pip said giving me a wink making me laugh before slapping a hand in hers with a lot more force than was needed, making her giggle, saying,
“Touché Toots, now show us some fang,” I rolled my eyes knowing what was coming and concentrating on releasing my fangs like an obedient little Vampire puppy. Then she held my own palm out to me and said,
“Now chow down.” I gave her a look and she gave me one back and said,
“Do you wanna go be a hero in Hell or not?” I didn’t answer her with words but just released a sigh and bit down hard enough to say ‘oww’ around my hand with my mouth full, as like always, it bloody hurt.
“Good little Vampy baby,” Pip said patting my head as she took my hand and held it over the tablet, letting my blood coat the symbols. Then I watched as it started to lower down into the thick black liquid before one large symbol started to appear, only this time it sizzled like it was being scorched to the stone.
It started to appear red as if it had transformed part of the black liquid to lava. Its shape was an upside-down triangle with the point extending out to create two hooks turning back in on themselves. Then a V shape cut through the bottom of the triangle, making a diamond pattern at the centre.
“Right, well that should do it,” Pip said standing up and clapping her hands as if she had dirt on them and giving me a hand to help me up. So, I gave her my blood-free hand and looked back down at the symbol as it now started to fade.
“What was that?” I asked thinking it looked important to know and it turned out that it was.
“It’s the Sigil of Lucifer, the mark of the Devil.” Sophia stood up to join us and we all looked over to where the swirl of a path to nowhere had started to ooze and secrete the strange substance. This was before it bubbled up around the sides of the slabs and started to get overwhelmed by the black sticky liquid as if it was being pushed up beneath the stones.
“The sign of the Devil?” I asked following, as the two of them walked closer to the edge of the black substance, one that had now formed a circle covering the space with a black void.
“Yeah, Lucius is his son after all and now you, well technically speaking, are kind of like his daughter,” Pip told me with a shrug of her shoulders, making me shoot her a look of disbelief.
“Uh, come again?!” I asked as Sophia took my still bleeding hand and held it over the black stuff making blood drip down onto it. The second it landed, it hissed as if it was acid eating away at metal.
“Ewww does that mean that you and Lucius are now like brother and sister?” Pip asked, teasing me and she laughed when I gave her an unimpressed look. Then I looked back to what I assumed would soon be a portal and swallowed hard as the stone path started to glow red beneath the black. Suddenly light exploded, shooting upwards, and nearly blinding me at first, it was so bright.
“Lucius gave you the blood straight from his heart…who did you think gave it to him? Now you have it, which is why Lucius is the only one who can open this portal… well Lucius and now you.” Sophia was the one to answer me this time. And Pip joked,
“Yeah, so fancy a trip to meet your new daddy?” I groaned and said,
“Why the Hell not,” I said holding my hands up and taking each of theirs in turn so that we could all step through together. And we did this all to the sound of Pip saying,
“Ha, why the Hell not...good one!”
Then we stepped into Hell and I only hoped that it would be for the very last time.
Stepping into Hell wasn’t what I expected it to be as strangely, it started off in a room. I don’t know why, but I was expecting all fire and brimstone. Although what in Hell brimstone really looked like was anyone’s guess, as I always thought it was sulphur and if that was the case, then my reunion with Draven was certainly going to be a smelly one, that was for sure.
“Where are we?” I asked looking round and seeing what looked like a hotel lobby. Okay, so one that would have been run by the Adams family, owned by Tim Burton, and had a bell boy named Edward Scissorhands. Talk about having a Gothic unpleasant stay!
The floor was black and white swirls that looked like it went on forever, so that if you looked down it made you feel slightly sick, as if you were swaying. Sophia nudged me and shook her head telling me not to do that. The ceiling didn’t help as it was a mirror and even looking up made you feel the same way, as if you would fall over backwards without even moving. Sophia saw me looking and I stopped, shrugged my shoulders at her and muttered,
“Can I look at the walls, is that safe?” I asked hoping to be sarcastic, but she didn’t take it that way, as she wrinkled her nose and said,
“If you must, but I wouldn’t recommend it.” So of course, me being me, I did and at first, I couldn’t understand what she meant. But then I looked closer and saw what she warned me of. All of the walls were completely covered in what looked like millions of white and red strands of thin wire against a black background, one that disappeared into a walled border painted crimson inside. But then I realised as I started to look closer that the red on the wire was moving slowly, dripping down the wire to the little river of blood that framed the large room.
Sophia saw my look of disgust and smirked, mouthing the words,
‘Told you so.’
“So, is someone going to tell me where we are?” I asked wondering why we were just stood here waiting, which started to make sense when I was told,
“We are in a waiting room of sorts,” Sophia whispered.
“Yes, but a waiting room for what?” I asked looking around, seeing that it was completely empty and other than there being a few mirrored benches, a mirror covered desk and a mirror elevator door, there was nothing.
“Who do you think?” Sophia asked, as though it should have been obvious.
“Well, I don’t think it’s Father Christmas, obviously?” I said on a snort.
“I think the only jolly fat man you will find down here Toots, is King Henry VIII for killing so many of his wives, the horny bastard…damn, but you wouldn’t have been the last one to marry him would you, not unless you wanted a quick way to die…like moving to Coronation street, you’re just begging for something bad to happen to you there, hey speaking of which have you ever lived there…you know, on account of all your shitty luck and all?” Pip asked, leaving me with too much information to process and clinging on to the question, why Pip watched that show?
“I think that confused look means no, Pip…now can we please just wait for the Devil quietly, you know how he can get,” Sophia said making me ignore what she asked and instead shout out,
“The Devil!?” This turned out to be a mistake, I knew that much as even Pip winced. But then so did I when suddenly a ding sound alerted us to the elevator doors that were about to open and when they did, well wouldn’t you know, it was true what they said after all…
Speak of the Devil and he shall appear.