The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga) (44 page)

“He’s your brother! My scary stalker dude is you brother?!” I almost screeched with the force of emotion behind that question.

“I thought that would have been obvious.” I couldn’t help what I blurted out,

“But he’s black!” Jared thought this was hilarious and actually doubled over to rest his hand
s on his knees, he laughed with that much power.

“Wow is he, I never noticed…Shit, just what is my mamma gonna say?” He laughed again at his own mocking question
, making me put my hands on my hips.

“Have you finished?” He laughed again and then held up one hand saying,

“Just another minute…ok…ok, I think I’m good, Sherlock.”

“Ha
ha, very funny… you know what I meant Jared, it’s not like you guys look like twins!” I snapped losing my patience.

“That was my brother Orthrus and yes, as you so ac
curately discovered, he is in fact a black man.” I rolled my hand around at the wrist as if to prompt him,

“And?”

“And…Keira, his host is black, didn’t have a mother remember…well at least not in the sense that you would understand anyway.” I shook my head as I tried to make sense of all this.

“So
, you guys were brothers in…” I looked down so he would know where I meant without me saying it. He gave me a cocky smile and said

“You mean…i
n Hell, Keira?”, behind his hand in a dramatic whisper, that once again had me rolling my eyes as he took the piss out of me.

“And now he’s here…working for you?”

“Working
with me
, pet. Now should we continue with why we’re here or would you like to know our favourite colour and how we like our steak?”

“I can imagine, given
your true nature, the answer to those questions is the same.” I said walking past him to go back over to the ledge where I had left my bag in my attempt to run.

“What black and well-toned…
but of course I mean…well done?” He said cocking an eyebrow and then motioning to his tight black leather gear that moulded to his very toned body. I couldn’t help the smirk break out when my back was to him. I lifted the strap over my head and walked back up to him. I patted him on the chest and said,

“Try red and bloody, come on fatty, time to get me into
Hell.” He burst out laughing, after getting over the initial shock of me calling him ‘fatty’ as though I was the first one in his entire existence. Well, just looking at him I knew that was a true statement considering there wasn’t one ounce of fat on the guy…but still, it was fun teasing him for a change.

“You’re lucky I find you cute
, pet” I smiled at him over my shoulder,

“Oh yeah, why
’s that?”

“Cause you really don’t wanna know how I like my meat or…” He stalked right up to me with his eyes scanning my body as he c
ame closer until he was right by my ear,

“…what I do with it
.”

Ok
, so this comment left me panting for a very different reason, since being down here!

It was a lot easier getting around the caves now that I had Jared with me
, as all I needed to do was follow him. It was also a lot more helpful seeing as he had a lantern with him that one of the men must have brought down with them. This, as Jared had demonstrated, was for my benefit only. Well, I can’t say I wasn’t grateful for it as if there was one thing I was utterly sick of and that was the darkness.

I followed Jared back up the caves until we came closer to the beginning and
I couldn’t say I was surprised when I saw the plaque we were now stood in front of.

“Twenty Two
.” I said looking up at the Roman Numerals etched in stone.

“Twenty Two
.” Jared repeated. I was about to ask what it meant when Jared passed me the lantern to hold.

“Oh, ok
.” I muttered before I watched him reach out and trace his fingertip along the carved ‘XXII’. At this point I had to almost bite my lip so as not to ask him what he was doing. As soon as his fingertip left the last numeral line, I shuddered as a chill passed through my body like someone just blasted us with air con on full.

“O
kay, so…what now?” I asked hugging myself, letting the handle from the lantern dangle from my side.

“Just wait
.” Right after he said this something started to happen. The poem beneath the Roman numerals started to blur and the white words started to evaporate like acid had been poured over them. It was only when the last of the poem had been destroyed that something else appeared. The whole plaque started to become weathered and old in seconds. The plastic cracked at the edges and it bubbled in places like it had been in exposed to extreme heat from the rock behind.

Then came the new words.

Dripping red lacquer seeped from the Roman numerals and dripped down in lines that connected together to form letters.

“The blood of the innocent souls taken here will open the door to where they rest
.” Ok, so it wasn’t red paint…no, no, of course it was blood. Always with bloody letters! What was wrong with these guys, hadn’t they ever heard of a marker pen?

“Oh lovely
.” I said not bothering to mask my sarcasm, which prized me with a frown from Jared. He was just about to speak, when he must have caught on that something was wrong. He turned his full attention back to the plaque that had new words forming. Now, instead of reading the original poem, it had twisted parts of it into something opposite and I don’t know why but Jared looked utterly pissed!

Wait twenty steps and forget the mile,

Pick up where you left off and smile,

For one long lost love is now on trial,

So taking twenty two is not your time,

Now open the cell and leave the climb,

And wait for love lay in peace and prime.

“What the fuck?!” He shouted at the plaque after using his upper body as an aggressive cage with his fists on either side on the rock.

“I’m gonna take a wild stab in the dark here and say that wasn’t supp
osed to happen?” If I had been smart I would have taken Jared’s tensed body for a cue for quiet time, but seeing as I was going to Hell tonight, I think that killed the whole smart thing for me. He snarled at the plaque and pushed away from it with such force he made two fist shaped marks in the stone…yep definitely not smart, Keira!

“Come on
.” He snapped moving away from the plaque in anger.

“Wait, where are we going now, can we still get in?” He seemed to be counting his steps but stopped to face me abruptly.

“Don’t worry pet, I have too much riding on that promise of yours to let you leave here tonight without visiting sweet home Underworld.”

“Umm…isn’t it sweet home Alabama?” I asked his back as he continued. He looked over his shoulder and said,

“Not tonight, sweetheart.” I couldn’t help the nervous laugh that escaped on hearing him answer in a Southern American accent…I thought shamefully, it might have even done funny things to my naughty parts!

He still looked like he was concentrating on his steps and after no more than half a minute he stopped. He turned to the wall and started to feel around for something on the rock. I lifted the light at the same time saying,

“Do you want me to…?” His sharp gaze sliced to me and I was faced with glowing eyes like liquid silver.

“Guess not
.” I answered myself and he went right back to work…whatever that work was exactly. He looked to the other side muttering to himself in another language, one I couldn’t make out. He then looked up briefly and must have decided something because he started to shrug out of his biker jacket. He passed it to me and said a short,

“Hold this
.”

I did as I was told and watched as he leapt straight up and grabbed hold of something on the ceiling I couldn’t see, so I made the mistake of raising the lantern. I screamed for like the millionth time tonight and
dropped his jacket to scrabble back at the sight of freaky skeletons hanging there with their arms crossed.

“That’s an expensive jacket
, pet.” I looked down and without taking my eyes from the skeletons that I quickly realised weren’t real, I picked back up his jacket.

“Good girl, now stand back
.” He said and quickly I forgot about the stupid plastic scare props in sight of beautiful muscle. Jared was hanging on a metal grating stuck to the ceiling by one arm, making the t-shirt he wore ride up, exposing the edge of a tight six pack. I swallowed hard as I also took in the bulging bicep that strained the material around the top of his arm.

The whole length was covered in an intricate pattern of some kind of tribal tattoo
, the likes of which I had never seen before. It was like ink cogs in a machine joined with puzzle pieces that were forged together in swirls of some lost tribe. What little I could see in this low light was incredible and I just wanted to get him under a sunny day to trace each line gently with my fingertips. There was something about it that just pulled you in, like the pieces were actually moving.

His
other arm went up and started to wrench down the creepy dummies to drop on the floor like actual dead bodies. That’s when I noticed the unusual bands of metal and leather that covered his other wrist and half way up his forearm. Combined with his roguish charm, rough good looks, tattoos and biker style, this guy was one of the most kick ass guys I had ever met...! Ok, so given he was a Hell Beast King, this wasn’t a surprising revelation, but he was still a good Supernatural being to have at your back.

Another body dropped and it snapped me out of my tingly girly bits…I mean shit, I was only human and everyone can appreciate the candy wrapper without biting into the bar! And the only bar I would be biting into had a capital D on the front.

“Ah, here you are you little bastard” I heard Jared say as he pulled on something I couldn’t see. He used his whole body weight as he dropped to the floor pulling what looked like wire set into the ceiling above. The force of his fall caused a chain reaction as part of the tunnel started to crumble in a small line as the wire was pulled taut. He then wrapped the excess wire around in his fist a few times before using those big muscles to yank it one last time.

I turned to see a large chunk of the rock come away
revealing an older looking wall behind it. It was as if the other stuff had just been plastered on to cover what was beneath. Jared let the wire go and started pulling bigger chunks off until there was about a metre square exposed.

In the centre of the wall was another one of those skulls I had seen earlier, the one that looked to h
ave been made by fingers gouged into wet clay. This one was slightly more realistic looking and was rougher, whereas the other one had been smooth, like chalk.

This one was a dark grey and speckled with black droplets that made me wonder what made those marks. There were also four claw marks that went down the length of the face like an animal had gone at it. I couldn’t help but look at the only animal in the room and raise
d my eyebrow in question. He looked sideways at me and just shrugged his shoulders, not confirming my silent assumption…though not denying it either.

“You ready for this
, pet?”

“Not really
.” I said truthfully.

“Good answer
.” He replied and then went ahead and opened the doorway or more like…

A Gateway to Hell.        

Chapter 41

The Silver Lining in Cells

It turned out that just opening a door to
Hell wasn’t as easy as just turning a handle or knocking three times. But really…living the life I did, could I just expect something easy for once? Well, it would be a nice change that’s for sure, but when Jared raised a hand to his mouth, I knew that a simple secret knock was just a pipedream.

“
Oww.” I hissed as I saw his fangs grow before he slashed the top of all his fingertips across one of them. Blood oozed from the torn skin and he fisted his hand a few times to get more blood pumping to the surface. Without a sound of pain or even discomfort from having nearly taken off the top of his fingers, he slapped his hand over the skull that was a perfect fit in his large palm. He ran his bloody fingertips down the four claw marks and then placed two of his fingers in the eye holes.

“
פתו
ח,
אני מלך הדם הז
ה
” (means ‘Open, I am this blood King’ in Hebrew) He spoke the foreign words perfectly and I was just about to ask what they meant when he spoke another word,

“
Neshamah.” This time I couldn’t help but ask,

“What does that mean?” Just as I sounded the question, I flinched as the skull disappeared in
to the stone and the sound of rock grinding against rock filled the passageway. I took a step back when Jared’s arm straightened out to his side across my torso and moved me behind him. I looked around his bulky size to see bigger pieces of wall crumbling away like wet sand. It was like when the sea destroys the sandcastle and drags it back to become part of the shore. There was no longer any hard stone but now, in its place, was an opening the size of a small man.

“It can mean many things, but
Neshamah in Hebrew means mainly the call of the soul… ‘The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul’… That’s a bit of Genesis 2:7 for you.” He said shocking me enough to gape at him. He bent his frame to fit through the space and when I didn’t automatically follow he stuck his head back round the space and said,

“You coming or what?” I shook out the part where I had just heard a
Hell’s beast giving me a religious sermon and cleared my throat to say,

“Uh…yeah, I’m right with ya
.”

“So Hebrew?” I asked as we stepped into yet another tunnel.

“Hebrew has 22 letters in its alphabet and, considering Dashwood’s entrance was 22 steps away from my own entrance, I decided it was apt when choosing the right containment words, sealing it back up is much more simple though.”

“Ok, so you will need to explain a few things here,
‘cause my head is going a million miles.” He looked at me over his shoulder and said,

“Shocking”, in a sarcastic tone.

“Oh come on, give me a break, I find all this fascinating.”

“You need a hobby
, pet.”

“Yeah, so I have been told but you know, in between solving cryptic messages, trying not to be taken hostage, visiting freak
y ass fight clubs, finding deadhouses, and being chased around in some bloody caves all night, in the hopes of getting into Hell to save my boyfriend, has kind of not given me much time for water sports, so if you don’t mind just answering some of my question that would be swell.” I added after counting all these points of on my fingers and not pausing to take a breath.

“Tell me all that was in a life time
?”

“Uh…Try a few weeks, now is it so much to ask to appease my curiosity?”

“Jesus, you really are dangerous to be around.” I gave him my ‘ha, ha, so funny’ fake smile, when he stopped to face me.

“Fine, here’s how the story goes, Dashwood and his jumped up rich boy clan was made up of…

“The 12 apostles, I know.”

“You know?” He said clearly shocked.

“Yeah, I mean…well, there’s dummies and a plaque and everything.”

“Dummies?” Now he looked very confused.

“Near the Inner Temple is the plaque explaining about Dashwood’s apostles and dummies dressed up having a jolly old time in the Temple…and I gather from your face this is new to you?”

“Uh yeah, I don’t exactly come back here for a vacation spot or just for shits and giggles…I hate this fucking place for a reason
.” I exhaled a large sigh, ‘cause let’s face it, what do you say to that?! 

“Shit, they really have all that stuff as public knowledge?” I nodded but then added,

“They kind of put a softer spin on the ‘Devil worshiping club’ but yeah, it’s all there, although I very much doubt all they did in the Temple was get dressed up, rip roaring drunk and discover what was under a girl’s skirt.”

“Yeah, no shit
.” We kept on walking when I decided to remind him that he hadn’t actually finished what he was going to say, so naturally I helped him out by say,

“
Sooo…Dashwood’s jumped up rich boy clan…?”

“The entrance we came through was different back in Dashwood’s time. It was
masked by a fake stone wall where, if you knew where to look, an open doorway could easily be found behind. When I first came back to this world I found my own exit from a cell they kept me in, only now it seems powers above my own have taken back control of it.” He looked less than happy about that and even in the lantern’s low light, I could still see his eyebrows knitted together in an angry scowl.

“Why is that do you think?”

“I don’t know, but I can guarantee you one thing, pet…I won’t stop until I find out.” Given the determination in his voice I had little doubt in that promise.

“So
, you didn’t know what the poem meant?” He gave me a look that made me feel like I was acting like a dog with a bone. I couldn’t say I blamed him.

“That would be a firm no, now end of conversation
.”

“But…” He whipped his head round and all he had to do was give me that warning look, shake his head and silently mouth the word ‘NO’ at me. I finally got the hint.

We walked in silence around all the twisted tunnels that, if believable, were a lot creepier than the original caves. This I put down to two things. The first being not only the lack of life but the lack of any evidence there ever was any. At least in the other caves there was always something to remind you that you lived in the modern world. Wires, light fittings, maps, plaques and even exit signs could be seen, but in here…there was nothing but cold hard stone.

Although I guess that wasn’t strictly true, which brought on my second point. There definitely wasn’t any lack of pain and suffering down here. That same cold hard stone was scarred with evidence that whatever went on down here couldn’t be further from a tourist attraction. Claw marks ran metres in length at different angles and old dark spots of something I didn’t want to think about were sprayed in varies areas.

“You?” I asked in a small voice that didn’t have one ounce of humour. He saw me looking at the marks and just before I reached out to trace one of the deeper claw marks, he snatched my hand, pulling it away.

“Let’s just say you would
n’t want to see me angry.” This was his only explanation as he pulled me further down into the unknown.

After we had turned this way and that, right and left into so many junctions, I knew that without a map to this place it would have been near impossible to find your way out. I didn’t know how Jared knew it so well, and could only assume he had spent way too much time down here to know it from memory the way he did. This thought brought on a fresh wave of anger at what he had been through.

Instead of voicing my opinions, I followed silently as Jared navigated us around what looked like a stone version of a garden maze and the movie ‘Labyrinth’ came to mind.

“I swear if David Bowie pops out now singing
about babes with power, I am so outta here.” I said needing to break the tension of being in such a horrible place. Jared stopped dead but didn’t turn round to face me. I was about to ask but he just shook his head and grunted his amusement rather than laughed.

“You are nuts, anyone ever tell you that?” I let a cheeky smile form.

“I’m nuts?”

“That’s what I’m saying
.” this time I grunted.

“Yeah well
, I’m not the one with a freak show circus for a fight club.” This time he did laugh.

“What can I say, the revenue in breaking Demon flesh is good” I rolled my eyes and muttered,

“And you think I’m nuts.”

We went round yet another corner just before the banter could continue
, because soon I was faced with something that looked like it belonged in the Tower of London! A large open dome that looked to be the same size as the banqueting hall was the space we walked into now but with a very distinct difference. Whereas the banqueting hall had little alcoves, which according to the plaques, had been where lustful men could enjoy a masked woman of their choosing, this had something more horrific!

The sight of all those tall, iron bars tur
ned this large cave into a makeshift prison, using the bare rock as an impenetrable means of escape. On the walls that there weren’t doors of rusted iron, there were things that were considered far worse than a cell. Hanging manacles dangled from chains, some with strained links no doubt from years of abusive use. There were also metal contraptions that hung on hooks as if waiting to be taken down once again for their only means in torture. These looked like they were meant to hold a person in a contorted ball or others in the reverse. Large iron holes for a head bent forward and then in the opposite direction, smaller holes at the end of iron branches that came out to hold the limbs behind their back.

It looked sick!

I made sure when walking to keep in the middle and after being silent for so long I think Jared must have wondered what was wrong with me. He looked behind him and with one look at my face, his eyes softened with what I gathered was sympathy.

“Come here
, little pet.” He held his hand out for me to take and I practically ran to him, needing his comfort right now. As soon as his fingers could curl around mine he yanked me to him, making me fall into his embrace.

“I didn’t think… I’m sorry
, pet.” Confused at his words I pulled back as much as he would allow and looked up at him with wide eyes.

“About what?”

“This…” He spread his arms out to motion to the room before continuing,

“…all of it, ever
ything you see is nothing to me. It never was…not where I come from, but looking in your eyes, the portal and viewing glass into your very soul and seeing there just how pure that soul really is…well, that is not a thing that even one such as I would want to see tarnished by the pain and suffering that went on in this room or what truly lies waiting for you.” He turned his head to one of the largest cell doors that was partially hidden.

“Jared
, look at me.” When he did I couldn’t help but raise my hand to his cheek, feeling the heat there even through the material of my glove.

“I passed Go and continued playing the game a long time ago when I could have just called it quits…I didn’t. I stayed and even through all the horrors of your world, I still knew I had made the right choice. I don’t know what exactly happened to Jared Weller to turn him from the world
, but I think I get the impression you know what it’s like to deal with loss and for loss to hold the power it does, you also have to have known love.” At this he closed his eyes as if my words were actually causing his heart to hurt and he was working through the pain. I swallowed down my sadness for his discomfort and whispered words of love in this dreadful place,

“That’s why I think you also know that what I do now is something I must and given the chance…something you yourself would do too
, to stay in the game, because I promise you this Jared, the only thing that will get me off that board is going to be nothing short of death!” I vowed this with so much passion I felt a few tears fall, sealing that promise with raw emotion. He opened his eyes, flashed me his own silver emotion and nodded his head once.

“Then all I can do is keep you safe in the game
, the best I can.” I smiled up at him and said,

“That would be appreciated
.”

“Then in that case, let me show you the evidence of something happy that did happen in this shithole
.” At this I crinkled my nose, thinking that that surely would be impossible and I told him as much,

“Happy? What could possibly have been happy down here?”

“My escape.” He said giving me an evil smirk and I could have sworn I saw his pupils elongate, turning briefly into thin slits from that of an animal. Then he winked at me, grabbed my hand and led me to the last cell hidden in the dark.

The rusted door to this one
looked to be double the size of the others. It had a massive contraption that looked to be the lock and the closer I got, the thicker the bars looked. I couldn’t help but look at Jared and then stupidly wonder what he looked like in beast form. However the sound of Jared effortlessly kicking the door open and busting the lock like it had been made of tinfoil, made me shudder those thoughts away. I quickly decided I had no great urge to witness Jared as a beast, considering the man himself was scary enough!