Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 1 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (32 page)

“Why thank you, don’t mind if I doodle,” she replied skipping down the first lot of steps until she disappeared. I looked around and gasped when I saw people coming out of the Cheshire Cheese.

“Don’t worry they can’t see anything…you coming?” Sophia told us with a smirk and Ari and I took deep breaths and followed them down…although Ari’s deep breaths were taken a lot shakier than mine, no doubt due to her nerves. I knew how she felt, as I was also slightly nervous and I had done this once before so knew what to expect. Ari, on the other hand, hadn’t faced anything like it and this was a whole different world from the one she knew.

Thankfully as Pip had been going along she had only needed to touch the wall to get the iron torches to light and the flickering of fire gave the place a less creepy vibe. Pip tapped on her phone a few times and the music started.

“You have to be joking.” I muttered and Ari asked me what was funny. I looked back up just in time to see the entrance closing in on us now that we were all through, thus sealing our fate.

“This song is called ‘Deeper Underground’.”

“Ah, makes sense,” she said trying for a sarcastic tone only she failed due to her anxiety.

“ECHOOO echo…echo….” Pip’s voice carried through the tunnel of rock and Sophia shook her head in front of me.

“Every time,” she said to herself.

It didn’t take us long before reaching the bottom and by the end of it I was almost ready to buy a Stairmaster just in case I ever needed to come down here again. To be honest I half blamed the shoes as walking in heels wasn’t exactly my forte at the best of times, so with the addition of stairs it was never going to be a good recipe for healthy happy feet.

I remember the first time I came here expecting to hear the sounds of men fighting and crowds cheering them on and had been shocked to walk into the musical chimes of fairground music. Although it wasn’t exactly your typical happy sounds reminding you of yesteryears. No, it was more of an eerie horror movie soundtrack which didn’t really help matters getting Ari inside.

“I think I will just wait for you guys right here or better still back up there.”

“Oh no you don’t, look we’ve got you all this way, trust me you will be fine.” I said holding on to her shoulders to stop her from running off up the stairs and no doubt breaking her neck in those heels.

“Come on, this is going to be riot of fun just wait and I am sure they should have some wicked fighters tonight!” Pip said coming to my aid in trying to get Ari back on the freak train.

In front of us stood the entrance and it looked as though it belonged in a rundown theme park. Dark striped curtains in your typical fairground colours framed the doorway and as I expected to find, there was Puck.

“Is that a…a…dwarf demon?”
Ari hissed gripping tightly to me. 

“Don’t let the size fool you honey, I am still packing,” Puck said cocking his little bowler hat to one side as he leant an elbow to the striped box he stood behind. He was wearing the same crumpled, wide pinstriped suit of white and grey, making it look as though someone had made the thing from old fashioned prison clothes. His face was still painted in a crude sad style with a small black dot on the end of his nose. And as last time, he was smoking a cigarette that looked black and dirty.

“Hey it’s you again, but honey, you ain’t looking like no goth chick this evening…ummumm no surree. You looking sharp kid.”

“Uh…thanks.” I said feeling weird being chatted up by this strange little guy, especially when I remembered what horrors lay hidden under that hat of his.

“So no big bastard with you today then, just these fine looking ladies…seriously though, glad you dumped his cheap ass,” he said behind his hand making Pip giggle, which drew his attention to her.

“Wait, is that who I think it is?”

“In the creamy white flesh, Pucky my man,” she said obviously knowing him.

“Squeak, you horny little cream puff, come here and give me a grope!” he said and she skipped over to him to give him a hug, one he took advantage of by squeezing her ass.

“Big J in there?” she asked and he raised one of his painted eyebrows at her.

“The Boss, yeah he’s in tonight. There’s a big celebration or some shit but you know I don’t get off for another hour,” he told her not looking happy about this.

“You got any good acts on to get the juices flowing?” Pip asked rolling her hips provocatively.

“Oh shit yeah, some real special fighters in there tonight, damn pissed off I am gonna miss some of them, one just started now in fact, didn’t catch the name yet but I hear he is one brutal motherfucker!”

“Oooh goodie!” Pip said clapping her hands and looking back at us as if expecting that same excitement.

“Your friends don’t look impressed,” he said scratching his head just under the hat and my mind’s mantra quickly became, ‘don’t take it off, don’t take it off’. Luckily it must have worked because he didn’t take off his hat or I don’t think we would have been able to get Ari through the door.

“I’m not into blood sports.” Ari said wrinkling her little nose and I tried not to laugh.

“Well shit sweetheart, in that case you’re in the wrong joint because it’s a blood bath in there!”

“What?!”

“He’s joking, come on let’s just get on in there.” I said faking a laugh and putting my arm around her, walking her through.

“How much?” Sophia asked all very amused by this.

“For you bunch of sweet butts, you’re free as a flock of birds,” he said beaming up at her and when she gave him a wink, I thought he would pass out. Thankfully we didn’t seem to be given any of his gross egg yolk head marks like last time and I quickly ushered Ari in before he remembered. Ari looked back at him over her shoulder when he said,

“Enjoy yourselves now and remember no puking ringside.” He had lifted up his hat and Ari in a panicked voice said,

“Is that…? Is that…oh God, I think I am going to be sick.”

“Hey, less dropping the G bomb in a place like this, the whole point is to fit in.” Sophia said softly and Ari nodded quickly getting the idea. We walked further in and Ari gripped me even tighter as the freaks came into view. Th
e
demonic fairground Carnival was in full swing and the creepy decaying big top tent that we stood in hadn’t changed one bit. Well at least we fitted in as Pip and Sophia had been right, wearing what we had back in the hotel and we would have stood out like healthy people in a crowd of zombies. And talking about zombies, there was that girl who had half a dress as a cage in which she kept her flesh eating birds. But I had to give it to her, for a girl with no flesh on her legs, she was certainly good with a blade.

“Is this place for real?” Ari asked eyes wide and all over the place.

“Unfortunately yes.” I told her and then she shrieked when a huge fat man who looked as if he ate Pucks for breakfast ambled past burping, blowing out fire that strangely smelled of chilli con carne…or maybe that was just what the stains were on his grey striped vest.

“Ewww…You actually came here alone?”

“Uh, well I wasn’t exactly alone.” I told Ari thinking back to my big guardian and missing his commanding presence right now.

“Oooh lookie lookie, there’s the fighter but wait…who is that?” Pip said and we all walked closer to the main ring where some beast like creature was getting the beating of his life by a half-naked demon who looked as though he was having a world of fun.

“Oh shit.”

“Oh fuckadoodle.”

“Oh what?” Ari asked, after Sophia and Pip’s freak out but nothing was compared to mine…oh no, not when I screamed the name of the man who was up there currently fighting…

“DRAVEN!”            

Chapter 31

Last Fight

Luckily for me my impulsive shouting of his name ended behind Sophia’s hand and she pulled me back before we were discovered. We all turned around so that no-one would recognise us from the back, and besides it looked like Draven was far too busy at the moment.

“A quiet night…really Sophia!”
I hissed as soon as she moved her hand.

“I was just thinking the same thing,” she told me looking just as pissed off as I felt right now.

“Oh my feckin’ demonology! Look who else is here,” Pip said pulling us to one side so we were hidden behind what looked like a toffee apple cart. All four of us peeked around it which probably would have looked quite comical from an outsider’s point of view. But she was right it wasn’t just Draven who was here but the whole bloody male gang of misfits! I couldn’t believe it but it looked like some wild party in Draven’s honour!

“Luc! What is he doing here?” Pip asked, sounding hurt that she didn’t know he would be, but then it quickly turned to outrage when she saw her husband sat with them all.

“ADAM!” She shouted and this time it was my turn to put my hand over her mouth and pull her back behind the apple cart.

“Oh God, Vincent is here!” Ari said at the same time Sophia said,

“Zagan? Why that lying…!”

“Okay girls, listen up, it looks like shit just got more complicated but we can do this!” I told them after once more dragging them all back behind the apple cart out of view. 

“But they lied to us!” Pip said at the same time as Sophia. 

“Yes and we lied to them, so we are all kind of in the same lying ship here.” At this they looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders, because it was true, the only difference was that we knew they had lied, not the other way round.

“Yeah but how in the power of Grayskull are we gonna get close to Jared now, I mean you are seeing this freakin shit right?” she said pointing to them all sat around Jared and his men. Lucius, Adam, Ruto and Caspian on one side and Ragnar, Takeshi, Vincent and Zagan on the other all cheering on their King as he annihilated each opponent one after the other. However, there was still one person I didn’t see with them, which was more than a little disappointing considering I had come all this way to talk with him. But at least Jared was here, so I just had to hope he could tell me what I needed to know. 

“Jesus, is that Sigurd?” I asked just noticing the big guy in the hood swigging back a beer.

“Exactly! We are done for!” Pip said throwing her arms up and over her head, showing us a riot of green curls poking out everywhere.

“Unless we join them,” Sophia said smirking.

“What are you crazy?” I said followed by Ari’s,

“Uh uh, no way!”

“Umm, actually that’s not a bad idea.”

“What! No, that’s a terrible idea!” I said and Sophia and Pip looked at each other obviously forming a plan in their own little demonic heads.

“I thought we were going for incognito here, ‘Spy like’ I believe were the words that you used. So what’s next, putting on a damn show for them?” I said laughing in disbelief, which turned out to be my first mistake.

“That’s genius!” Sophia said and her partner in crime quickly followed, adding fuel to what would soon be my own damn bonfire!

“Uh come again?”

“Think about it, if we get announced as one of the acts you can simply claim it was all planned as a sexy surprise for your future husband, and that way we get off Scott free for being here and that will get you the alone time you need with Jared.” Sophia said all this so quickly my mind was reeling, however it instantly got stuck on the whole ‘sexy surprise’ thing and it suddenly dawned on me what they were thinking.

“Oh no, no freakin way! Not effing happening!”

“It’s just one song and you did say there is one you know really well.” Pip said and I looked to Ari for help.

“Hey don’t look at me, I wanted to go back and sleep with the others.” Great, well she was no help at all!

“I can’t do that guys, I am sorry but we need to think of a new plan here.” I told them, getting sweaty palms just thinking about it. 

“Hey have you seen all those skanky bitches sniffing around our men!” Pip shouted spying back on the guilty lot.

“What!” I said getting a look for myself to see one of those half naked bitches handing Draven a towel, bending low so he could get a good look. I was happy that at least he paid her no attention but still, they were hanging around like flies on man candy!

“Oh no, we can’t have that!” I told them and Sophia growled, obviously seeing one of them sniffing around Zagan. So I did something I would no doubt regret
immensely
and called Lucius.

“My little Keira Girl, what an unexpected delight, although I must say your timing is somewhat inappropriate right now.”

“What’s wrong Lucius, too busy getting a lap dance?” I watched as he sat up straighter and started looking around. I smirked and said,

“Get rid of little miss skanky tits and listen up.” I ordered him and I was surprised when he put a hand over the receiver and obviously ordered her to go someplace else. She flipped her baby pink hair and with an obvious huff she left.

“Alright pet you have my attention, now tell me what trouble you have got yourself into this time?”

“I want you to arrange for an act to be announced specially for the Groom and get him to sit in the middle of you guys, facing the ring.” I told him sounding a lot more confident saying this than I felt.

“And may I enquire as to what this act may be?” I took a deep breath and then one more before saying,

“It’s me.” I could see the shock on his face right along with his smirk.

“Oh something tells me I am going to enjoy this. Job done, Kitten.” I looked at the others and nodded, letting them know that he was going to do it.

“Thanks Lucius.” He laughed and said,

“Oh don’t thank me yet.” I was about to ask him why not when he finished the conversation with a warning,

“Oh and Kitten…”

“Yeah?” 

“Make it good, sweetheart.”

“Great advice, Luc!” I said staring angrily down at my phone after he had swiftly hung up. 

“I gather he is up for it?” I gave Sophia a raised eyebrow, telling her that was a daft question, as this was Lucius we were talking about, bad boy extraordinaire. If he could help me cause trouble then he wouldn’t just do it, but he would be there ringside watching it happen with drink in hand and a smile on his face, which was precisely what he was doing now.

“Okay, so how are we going to do this?” Sophia asked.

“Bollocks if I know.” I told her honestly making her roll her eyes.

Pip looked around saying she had an idea. Which coming from Pip was never classed as a good thing...often dangerous, yes…outrageous, most definitely and it looked as if this time was going to be no different.

“It’s times like this I wish I could sing.” I admitted and Ari gave me a small smile that was laced with pity.

“You’re not that bad you know…plus we are going to be with you.” Sophia told me sweetly.

“You are?” I asked which was quickly drowned out by Ari’s panicked voice,

“Uh when you say ‘we’ you don’t mean ‘me’ in that ‘we’ do you?” Sophia looked down at the pole she still held in her hand and said,

“No, I have an idea for you.”

“Why do I feel like that means I can’t just sit quietly and watch?” she told me when Sophia went to check on how Pip was getting along. I patted her arm and said,

“Trust your instincts around those two, because your gut is often right.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’re right, there will be no sitting this one out.” Her mouth dropped and she quickly paled.

“But hey look on the bright side, all in the name of saving the world, remember.” From the look on her face this wasn’t as encouraging as I had hoped. I looked back to the ring to find a topless Draven all sweaty and dripping. He was also getting ready for his next fight.

“I don’t think these are really toffee apples.” Ari muttered and I looked briefly to see what she meant, quickly wishing that I hadn’t. A small Chinese lady was dunking what looked to be shrunken heads into a vat of black toffee and then hanging them up to harden by pegging their hair on the string above.

“Just don’t buy one.” I muttered dryly and Ari faked a laugh next to me. Our attention quickly turned back to the ring trying to ignore the grossness next to us.  

“Oh bloody hell.”
I whispered in shock and Ari mumbled next to me,

“By God, is that…is that
thing
real?” I didn’t answer her but my look said it all as we both turned back around to watch as Draven’s next opponent stepped into the ring. Draven had to look up at him and that in itself wasn’t something I was used to seeing. Although I took the fact that he was smiling as a good sign, telling me Draven believed that he could take this beast down. The beast in question looked as if he had stepped straight out of a portal leading from a battlefield in Hell.

He was about seven feet tall and had two large horns curling out of his forehead which were surrounded by smaller ones that travelled down the length of his cheeks, all the way to his neck. He was naked other than wearing what looked like crude armour over one shoulder, his shins and a piece covering his dangly man bits as Pip liked to call them. But it wasn’t his size that worried me, no it was the four arms and hands that each held a heated, glowing blade.

“Oh this will be good! These are usually nasty bastards.” Pip told me coming back with a surprising amount of feathers in her hand, ones I didn’t ask about as I was too worried about Draven.

“Who is he?”

“He is a Hagen, one of the spawns o
f
Haagenti who is one of the great Presidents of Hell. It is said his teaching of his soldiers is what sets his legions apart from the rest. They are very skilled in battle and no doubt Haagenti sent one of his best to try and beat my brother.” Sophia enlightened me.

“I don’t think I can watch.” Ari said turning away and burying her head in my shoulder and I only wished I could do the same. However, I couldn’t take my eyes from him and I was ready to go running in there if need be, which granted would have been idiotic.

“How long do you think…three minutes?” Pip said to Sophia as she fished out a twenty pound note from her boots.

“Nah, I reckon five, I just recognised this guy and he is the famous ‘Hammer Hagen’, he’s a legend.” I shot them both a look of disbelief and said,

“Are you seriously having a bet right now?” They both shrugged their shoulders and I rolled my eyes at them before turning back to watch the fight.

“You’re on.”
Pip whispered to Sophia behind me and I groaned at the two of them. Marcus soon jumped into the ring, wearing his usual attire looking like a cross between a privateer pirate and a jester and quickly started to get the crowd going.

“Step up and gather round all you titty lickers and spotted dickers!” He shouted getting everyone’s attention.

“Right for all of you jacky asses that lost your money now’s the chance to win it back! For now we have a deathly doozer for you all as the King fights his last opponent of the evening and let me tell you, it’s going to be one HELL OF A SHOW!” He roared and the crowd got rowdy as expected.

“In the blood stained corne
r
weighing in a fuck load, we have THE HAMMER HAGEN!”  The crowd again cheered, with some booing at the back.

“And in this slightly less bloody corner, weighing in at slightly less than a fuck load, we have our famous KING OF KINGS!” Again the crowd went crazy and it was easy to judge who most people were rooting for. Draven didn’t react to any of this as he didn’t take his eyes of Hagen, taking in every detail and probably weighing up where his weak spots might be.

“Right lads, let’s keep this dirty…NOW FIGHT!” Marcus said drawing his sword across the floor in a line between them before jumping over the ropes to get out of the way.

Then I watched as Lucius got Marcus’ attention and started speaking with him, obviously about what we were trying to do. I saw Marcus look up and around as if he too was trying to spot us. Then he nodded a few times before walking back to where Jared was sat, obviously to pass on the message.

Jared in his usual bad ass hotness grinned and looked incredibly pleased with this new information. Of course when he looked up to spot us he only had to uses his heightened senses and he homed in on us in seconds. He nodded to me and when I bit my lip he started laughing. He said something more to Marcus but my attention was elsewhere because the fight was starting.

It was also when I stopped breathing for a short time. Hammer Hagen quickly showed us all how he got that name and he put his head down and charged Draven head on like the bull he resembled. Draven quickly skidded out of his way, sliding to the side and just under the beast who was trying to impale him. Then he thrust a hand up under his belly as he went past, extending one of his blades and embedding it into the side of beast who ended up at the other side of the ring howling in pain.