The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

  And in true Keira style, this last statement became ever more true when I felt myself being grabbed from behind. A sweaty hand clamped around my mouth, while an arm banded my waist to pull me backwards. I started struggling as soon as the situation hit me and I heard the ‘Umff!’ sound when I connected with a leg behind me.

  “Keep hold of her and drag that bitch back here so I can get this shit injected!” Another voice said from further behind us. I looked frantically for another soul who had seen me getting dragged into a shadowed alleyway, but there was no such luck. The old fashioned lamp attached to the side of the building flickered like the one near the Cheshire Cheese and I saw a sign saying ‘Cliffords Inn Passage’.

  “I am trying but she’s strong for a short little shit.” Said the voice of the brute who was currently manhandling me backwards.

  “Just hurry up would you, those wards won’t hold forever and we can’t risk being seen…fucking human lemmings.” I felt the guy turn to the guy speaking and I used this to my advantage as his hand loosened. I quickly brought my head forward and then flipped it backwards as hard as I could, cracking the back of my head into the guys throat and then bit down quickly on the hand over my mouth.

  Numerous things happened at once, the first being the screaming bellow that came from my actions, the blood that I tasted in my mouth and the arm that left my waist making me drop suddenly to the ground. I fell hard on my knees but cursed through the pain and scrambled to my feet. It was amazing how much the F word can actually help in situations like this, I thought at the most inappropriate moment. I even spat out the blood to the side as I ran for the road that was still in view ahead.

  I was just starting to make headway with my escape when I felt my hair being grabbed and then I was spun round and thrown back deeper into the alleyway. I fell for the second time, only this time I felt my jeans rip along with my skin below my knee. I looked up and actually hissed at the looming shadow blocking my only exit. Well, I’d been practically begging for something like this to happen, what with all that Jack the Ripper crap swimming around my brain earlier, I thought bitterly.

  “Now that wasn’t nice, sugar.” That voice suddenly had me squinting my eyes and remembering someone else that called me that not long ago.

  “You were the taxi driver!” I snarled, but all I got in return was a dark laugh.

  “And first prize for the most ‘obvious dumb little bitch’ goes to little shit.” The voice said behind me and I jumped at it coming from too close to my ear.

  “Hi bitch, I think I owe you a knuckle kiss don’t you?” Before I could answer or deflect what was coming, I felt the side of my face explode from the downward punch he delivered. The burn broke out across my skin and I felt like I must have bit through my lip as I felt blood trickling down my chin and the coppery taste mixed with the saliva I had to swallow. Ok, so now I was really pissed!

  The taxi driver walked past me and joined his friend. I watched as he reached down to a darker shadow on the floor that was near a massive door at the end of the alleyway. I could just make out the old stone words that were carved from sandstone.

  ‘Clifford’s Inn’

  I got up and they both laughed when I staggered a bit, which I was counting on as I let the rage I didn’t know I could find engulf me. It was as if another person was possessing my body and it was actually true when people say they just see red. My vision actually blurred and my fingers started to tingle, so much so, I shook from it, but before they could see what was happening, I charged them both. I don’t know where it came from but I just ran and threw myself into the middle of the one that hit me. The power I didn’t know I still had inside impacted with his waist and I took him of his feet in an unconscious rugby tackle. I heard the ‘umf’ that came from us both but as soon as I was on the floor, I started attacking his face like a wild animal.

  “Get this bitch off me!” He screamed as he tried to protect his face from the nails I was raking down his skin, taking away with me sick bloody skin curls. I cried out briefly as I felt a piercing pain inflict my shoulder, making me twist out my arms, hitting someone behind me. Then I quickly went back to my mission and the asshole underneath me.

  I was just pounding at any part of him with the sides of my fists as I was still sprawled on top of him, but I quickly found myself being ripped away. It didn’t quite register at first when I struggled in the hold of gentle hands that gripped me.

  “LET ME GO!” I screamed trying to get back to the one who had hit me and it felt like my outer shell couldn’t contain the fire being pumped around my body. My lungs burned from breathing so hard and I was cutting into my own palm with my nails being fisted in the solid bends of my fingers.

  “Calm øjesten!” The same deep voice that I was getting used to hearing when in need of rescuing, ordered me. In my mind I was so utterly thankful that I was now safe, but the furious part of me wasn’t yet done with tearing these guys a new place for bathroom use. I was a wild cat in the arms of someone about to dunk them in the river and I fought stupidly every second I was caught in his arms.

  He made a grunting sound that sounded like it stemmed from frustration. I was so far gone in my frenzy, that I didn’t realise I was being lifted higher and walked over to the right of the door in the corner. I was then quickly dumped over the high iron gate and landed on the other side with a thud. I got up and ran back to the gate to watch what was happening.

  My massive shadowed saviour stood in front of the door ready and it was only now that my brain could process the pouring rain that drenched every scrap of clothing I wore. His large hood still covered his face but now the rain dripped down the front point in streaming rivulets. He looked up at the two men that were approaching him from both sides and that was when my mind started to get foggy.

  My vision was starting to blur and I kept blinking rapidly trying in vain to clear it. My grip started to loosen on the rusting iron spindles that locked me in like a cage. The flaking black paint broke off in places as I tried to hold on tighter. I shook my head, seeing the world spinning round like I was driving past it at a hundred miles an hour.

  “Look man, just give up the girl and we won’t kill you, just walk away.” I heard the taxi driver’s voice stretch out like it had become an instrument someone was playing. Then I heard a grunted laugh that was starting to become familiar. I was sure that I then saw my shadowed hero crack his neck to one side.

  “You two are already dead for touching the girl, so time to die…and quickly,” he said before he spun into action. I saw the glint of something being drawn from his back and I swear I could even hear the tapping of heavy water droplets dancing on steel. Then my world started to come to an end.

  “Wh..at…’s...happ…ing?” I slurred my words as finally my hands

  released their hold. I fell down as my legs crumbled underneath me and I tried to will my eyes to stay open. I caught the sight of a massive shadow moving at impossible speeds and then I heard a death cry before the echo of snapping bone and slicing flesh. Rain battered my body and I rolled over to my back with the last of my strength. The water came down at me in long lines as I looked up to the night sky and my last thought was of the first Quarter Moon and how the tingling in my wrist had finally stopped…

  Why had it stopped?

  Chapter 22

  Snow White Needs More Than a Kiss

  I didn’t know what was happening, but it felt like I had drunk my body weight in Absinthe. I wasn’t so much asleep as I was numb and paralysed with an unexplainable drunken fog. I kept having the past and present mixing up in my head. One minute I was on the ground pummelling into a face I hated and then I was being held upright against what felt like a worktop counter. It was too hard to figure out what was happening and it hurt too much to open my eyes right now.

  That was until I felt my clothes being removed. I fought through the sting and peeled my eyes open, only to slam them closed at the bright spotlights that flooded my retinas with pain. Ev
en without my sight, just the feel of someone touching my skin had me trying to fight. What if I had been wrong and the sound of death had in fact come from my protector, not from the two men that tried to take me.

  This thought thankfully didn’t last long as I felt the immense bulk of a muscle clad body loom closer and a soft baritone spoke in my ear.

  “Hush my lille øjesten, calm now for me as you are safe…I’ve got you now.” I instantly relaxed in his hold and my head drooped forward onto his chest. I then felt a large hand run up my neck and hold the back of my head to him. His fingertips did this slight gripping motion in my hair and I groaned at how nice and soothing it felt. It was definitely having its desired effect as I started to relax enough for him to continue whatever it was that he was doing before I reacted.

  It was as if I was being lulled into a false sense of security, until I felt his other hand slide down my side and then across my belly. I felt calloused fingers graze the skin there and then I felt him grip the bottom of my top before he started dragging it upwards. He shifted back from me so that he had room to manoeuvre his hand between our bodies. It was only when I felt the cold air hit my bare flesh just under my breasts that I woke clearly to the fear of what was happening.

  “No…plea…se.” I stammered as I tried to twist out of his hold.

  “Ssshh, calm now. Your body is shaking from cold and it will go into shutdown if I don’t get you warm. Your clothing is wet and is keeping your temperature too low, so I must first remove it…don’t fight me on this, øjesten.” I tried to process his words and in the end I found myself just giving in. I was too exhausted to fight even if I had wanted to. He waited until I relaxed once again before I felt the material being peeled off my skin like a thick film of glue. I grunted as my arms were forced up with the motion. The top’s neck quickly pinged off my head and hit the floor next to us with a slap, proving just how wet it was.

  I knew he said I was shaking with cold, but I was so numb I just couldn’t feel it. I did, however, hear a clicking noise my teeth were making as they rattled away as audible evidence. With my forehead still resting against the rock wall that stood as Biker dude’s chest, I felt him moving next to me. His actions seemed to get more urgent as I felt the sharp tug at my waistband and then I heard what sounded like the metal button from my jeans hitting the tiles.

  “Can you hold on behind you?” He asked as his hands stilled on my hips. I nodded my head that still rested on him and moved my arms behind me. There I felt for the counter’s edge and held on but as he started to pull down my jeans I was given more of my own weight to hold. I shamefully crumpled and would have hit the floor if massive hands hadn’t shot up and grabbed my waist.

  “Easy now.” He hummed softly.

  “Let’s try another way. No panicking now, I will not hurt you, lille øjesten.” The sincerity in his voice spoke volumes to the promise said in my ear. I nodded and then I was spun round quickly making me nearly lose my footing altogether. Instead of falling, I found the top part of my body being pushed forward until I had nowhere to go but over the counter. The hefty hand splayed out against my back was unyielding until I was fully over. I knew at this point that I must have been frozen half to death, as I couldn’t even feel the heat from an automatic blush that needed the spare blood to blossom in my cheeks.

  Soon my legs were rid of the soaked denim as they were quickly ripped away. I tried not to think about what this must look like, me bent over the bathroom counter, quivering in my underwear with a giant of a man at my back. In fact, I wasn’t given much time to think about it, as I felt the man in question taking my limp form in his arms.

  My head flopped backwards like a puppet missing the hand that brought them life. His bicep became an inflexible pillow beneath me and I found myself praying to feel the softness of a mattress soon. However, what I felt was far from that wish. I heard a door being opened and then a bellow of heat hit me. I groaned as the obvious steam worked its magic and then pressured water added to the sensations. He had walked us both into the shower.

  “This should help raise your temperature, hold onto me if you can, I am going to set you down.” His voice could barely be heard over the sounds of powerful jets coming at me from various angles.

  “I am going to adjust the heat slowly, so you don’t go into shock.” He said as he let my feet find the wet base of the shower. I suddenly had a feeling I was going to fall as there was no way I could hold myself up. I reached out and grabbed handfuls of his wet T shirt but I needn’t have bothered thanks to the iron girder that belted around my waist, securing my chest to his. His muscles flexed as his arm shifted me closer and then he bent forward to reach for something.

  The water grew warmer ever so slightly and he pushed me backwards so that all my body was under the biggest spray above. I felt his free arm reach up and gently start running his fingers into my hair, massaging my scalp.

  “You have some blood on you...no, no… don’t fret now, I am going to wash it from you, so don’t startle when I start to touch you…understand?” He waited for something and when I murmured against his T shirt, he took that for the ‘alright’ it was meant to be. It took only seconds before his hands began their journey along my skin. When he started by my neck, I was thankful he had left my underwear on as my nipples felt like rock pebbles rubbing against his rippled abs. I felt tiny in his hold and even more so when one of his hands engulfed my entire shoulder.

  I don’t know how long it took him to get me clean as I think I passed out a few times. My mind was finding it too damn hard to keep my body responsive, even when I felt his hand washing me, coming closer to each tender area. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but I found myself more than thankful at being looked after, even if it was utterly embarrassing.

  I was vaguely aware when I was being carried out of the shower and dried off with a soft towel. At one point, I kind of felt sorry for the big guy as he struggled in getting my body into the Savoy’s bathrobe. I gathered he was more used to getting women out of clothes rather than in them, much like any man. Lastly, I was hoisted up and heaved over his colossal shoulder in a fireman’s lift and taken into what I presumed was the bedroom.

  I felt myself being lowered down and as soon as the mattress I had earlier prayed for made contact, this time there was no stopping my mind from bailing out on me. Darkness followed.

  “It’s like I said before, they were waiting for her.” I heard the deep voice penetrate my senses through the shadows my mind had given itself to. I turned my head so that both ears were free in the hope that I would hear the one sided conversation.

  “What do you think I did, you sent me here to do a job and I am seeing it through, that included the death of the two low ranking Warlocks that were given the girl as a mark.” Hearing this made me shudder and I wondered why the strength in my body hadn’t yet returned.

  “And I said that she was fine, old man! I got there in time… barely in the end but not before she took on some damage.” His accent was coming out thicker as his emotions rose to the surface and it was easy to hear he was getting pissed. He was, however, still trying to control the level of his voice.

  “Do not take that tone with me Elder, I know what you told me and it didn’t include her being marked and hunted. It also didn’t include her running off half way around the damn planet!” He hissed into the phone I couldn’t see.

  “She got hit, that much is obvious, but I finally found her near The Devil’s Ring….Yeah well, no shit Elder, I would like to know the very same thing.” I really wanted to hear what was being said on the other side of this conversation and more importantly, who on earth was Elder?

  “I have no choice but to do just that. If it was only for the bruises I would let it go, but one of the bastards must have injected her with something.” I finally had the strength to open my eyes into little slits and I just caught the shadowed figure of a frustrated male. His free hand raked through his hair and it was almost painful to watch, know
ing Draven did the exact same thing.

  “The Hell if I know, but I can feel it swimming around in her system and I know only one way to get it out of her.” This time he growled low and when he spun round to check I was still asleep, worried no doubt that he had awakened me with his outburst, I shut my eyes. He must have been satisfied because he continued his rant.

  “By Odin, you think I don’t know that, old man! But by all means feel free to explain why the Chosen One can barely move, when your shit hits the fan! I am ruler of my own world Elder, thanks to the choices you made, but that does not mean I will bow down like you do to your frightened fates!” I watched on in amazement as he seemed to suck the shadows in the room, pulling them to his form until they cloaked him in writhing swirls of darkness.

  “I still have a job to do, so I suggest you let me get it done and quit wasting my time with your Royal ramblings. I care little for the ramifications of your actions, I only care for the debt of life you hold. Now, if you will retire your tongue and trust in my abilities, I will be getting back to the small task of keeping the small human alive. Contact me only when the situation unfolds and I will do the same.” He waited and listened to something on the other end before shaking his head.

  “Viðara.” He said sharply and then ended the call. He growled low before throwing the phone onto a chair, where I noticed his long black jacket was resting over the back. This was the first time I had seen this much of him and how much did it suck that it was a bloody time where I could barely focus!

  Even my eyelids didn’t have any strength and felt like they were holding up mini bricks. I managed to catch a glimpse of him turning round before they fell again. The next time I managed to get them all the way open I would have jumped if I had the energy, as now his masterful shadow was next to me on the bed. I think I at least managed a groan.