Darkness Rising

by Cate Farren

  But what about Saskia?

  She was still conflicted about Saskia. A part of her wanted the bitch to rot for what she did, but another still cared about her.

  I'll cross that Saskia bridge when I come to it.

  "Do you think Dracula would consent to a rescue mission?" Clover asked. She grabbed a chocolate croissant from a plate on the table and nibbled idly on it. It was dry. "I can't leave her with him a moment longer."

  "He'll listen to me," Jared stated.

  "And me," another voice announced.

  The regal woman smiled and sat down by the table. Clover thought she recognized her but couldn't quite place the face. She had a posh RP accent and dressed like a politician trying to be fashionable.

  "Prime Minister Stephanie Wilson," the woman announced. She poured herself a glass of blood. "It's fine if you don't recognize me. I'm hardly posting selfies on Instagram or whatever."

  Clover smiled politely. She might have seen her on television while in the rest home. She couldn't be sure. Most of her time in there, pre Loki turning up, was a blur. She vaguely remembered that she was from the Labour party. Was that the same as a democrat?

  "She's family," Jared said. "She's my aunt."

  Clover smiled. "Then you're my family too."

  They ate for a while, talking about trivial things like family, politics and TV shows before the prime minister turned the conversation back to Jessica.

  "I want to help you rescue your daughter," Stephanie said. She sounded confident and calm, which Clover liked. "And at the same time we can try and kill Loki once and for all."

  "Two birds with one stone," said Clover. "Good idea."

  "Convincing my father will be another matter entirely. He won't be eager to send anyone into the lion's den, particularly you two."

  Jared cleared his throat and asked, "Why does he care about me so much? Why do I have all his powers? I know you know.” He paused before adding, almost sinisterly, “I could use my cadou on you."

  "And I'd rip your throat out," Stephanie threatened.

  The tension at the table intensified before the prime minster sighed audibly and took another sip of her blood. She looked tired, which was rare for a vampire. Clover knew running a country must take its toll, even on immortals.

  Stephanie leaned forward. "My father never used to have all these powers you know. He started out as just an ordinary vampire with the same cadou as you; a powerful mesmer. These extra powers are a legacy, given to the vampire who must lead the rest during the next phase of the planet."

  "Who gives them these powers?" Clover asked.

  Stephanie shrugged. "Who knows? The universe itself? God? Some other deity? The fact is, Jared, you are destined to take over from Dracula. Sooner rather than later, considering how powerful you seem to be."

  "Does this mean Dracula is going to die soon?" Clover asked.

  The prime minister nodded sadly.

  "Going up against Loki this way will be dangerous," Jared stated. "We'd need a small army."

  "And that is precisely why we won't be doing it," said Dracula. He was standing at the door, watching over them. Clover shivered, realizing he'd been standing there for a long time. He must have slipped into the shadows to eavesdrop. "I won't risk anyone for some foolhardy mission."

  "Rescuing my daughter and killing Loki is a foolhardy mission?" Clover demanded. She shook her head and pushed away from the table. She stood up to the lord of vampires as an equal. He stared down at her from his towering height. "We have a chance here, a small chance, to kill him. We have to take it."

  "And how do you suggest we kill him?" Dracula asked smugly.

  She didn't know what to say to that.

  "Then we'll capture him," she suggested. She felt she was bordering on desperation now, but she had to push her point forward. "We just can't pass up on this. There's only five shapeshifters there with him. He's vulnerable. We might never have another chance."

  Dracula nodded. "Fine. You're right."

  Clover was speechless. She'd expected him to put up a much bigger fight.

  "That was easy," she mumbled.

  Dracula glared at her balefully. "You can be smug now, but capturing Loki will be an insurmountable task. I assume by the look on your face that you haven't thought that far ahead."

  Clover nodded, feeling embarrassed. She had no idea how to capture Loki. She just assumed they'd have a witch standing by who could help. Besides, Loki had been captured before. What was to stop them from claiming him this time?

  Dracula must think I'm an arrogant piece of shit.

  "Lucky for you that the very witch that's been training to capture him is here and just happens to be my wife," Dracula announced. He regarded Clover with suspicion before saying, "You have six hours to get a team ready and form a plan. Hop to it."

  He nodded towards his grandson and left.

  He wants me to think of a plan.

  This might be harder than I imagined.

  Chapter 39

  The house was a shell of its former self. There was no laughter, no arguing, not even the sound of footsteps. Saskia felt like she was living in a ghost house. Maybe there were ghosts. Maybe her mother and grandmother were haunting her right now, cackling at how lonely and tragic she was. She felt like a Dickens character. All she needed was a rotting wedding dress and she’d be set.

  “You can’t frighten me!” she screamed, raging. “You can’t frighten me!”

  She created a fireball and fired it at the ceiling. Flames exploded, lighting the living room up. Saskia laughed at the impressive display.

  I feel sick.

  She ran to the kitchen as quickly as she could and vomited in the sink. She hated morning sickness.

  “Are you ill?” Jessica inquired.

  Saskia sighed as she wiped her mouth with a paper towel. Jessica was starting to creep her out now. Ever since Clover had abandoned them all she did was inhabit the house like a specter, wandering the rooms, looking for her so-called mother. It was pathetic.

  “I’m pregnant,” snapped Saskia. “Now leave me alone.”

  I sound so waspish, so...like my mother.

  She tried to storm past Jessica but she grabbed her arm. The shapeshifter had a really strong grip. “When is Clover coming back?”

  “She’s left us for good,” said Saskia. “She’s not ever coming back.”

  Jessica looked confused. “But she must come back. I need her.”

  “The only person Clover needs is herself. She’s always been a selfish bitch.”

  Saskia pulled her arm away and stalked off. Jessica followed.

  “Are you sure she isn’t coming back?” Jessica asked.

  “Stop following me!” Saskia cried.

  She sat on the sofa and began reading her spell book again. She’d had nothing to do since Clover left but study. Maybe the bitch had done her a favor by leaving. She’d learned a lot the past week. With no distractions she could concentrate better.

  Loki entered, looking exhausted. He sat down opposite her, staring with a leering grin on his face. After a while she slammed her book closed.

  “What is it?” she demanded.

  “You’re glowing,” he said, grinning.

  Saskia couldn’t help but smirk. “I happen to be having a bad day, but thank you. It’s appreciated.”

  He surprised her by climbing on the floor and taking her legs. He started to massage the soles of her feet. It felt really good.

  “Why are you in such a good mood?” Saskia asked. She tried to concentrate on her book but Loki’s hands on her feet, kneading sensuously, was driving her wild. “Anything I should know about?”

  “I had a good day,” he explained, giving her direct eye contact. “I’ve sent more of my children to Whitby, and to...other places.”

  “What other places?”

  “You don’t need to know that just yet. Just concentrate on becoming the most powerful witch the world has ever seen.”

  “You were
talking to a Fey.”

  He smiled. “Very perceptive of you.”

  He continued to massage her feet until he crept up to her and pushed her back against the couch. They made love for three hours.

  SASKIA CLOSED HER BEDROOM door, unable to keep the grin from her face. Loki was an exceptionally gifted love maker. He knew when to make her happy, and he accepted gracefully when she wanted to pleasure him. They fit together. How had she ever thought Adrian was the epitome of manhood? He was nothing compared to Loki. Nothing.

  "All I felt for Adrian was a crush," she whispered, realization finally dawning.

  She bit her lip and giggled. She knew she felt something for Loki, more than simply a mere crush. She thought she might actually be in love with him.

  What does love feel like?

  Jessica was sat on her bed crying. Saskia sighed. She was sick of the sight of her. All her wailing was getting on her last nerve. Maybe forcing Clover to leave the shapeshifter behind was a bad move after all.

  "What are you doing here?" Saskia demanded. "You can't just come waltzing in here any time you feel like it! Get the fuck out!"

  "I miss her," Jessica wailed.

  Saskia sighed. She knew she'd never get the shapeshifter to leave if she didn't present her with some harsh facts.

  "Clover abandoned you," said Saskia. "She never cared for you."

  Jessica shook her head. "I could feel her inside my head. I know she cared."

  "Then why did she leave you? She could've taken you with her. Why would that be?"

  The shapeshifter shrugged her shoulders. Saskia grinned and went in for the kill. She suddenly realized she could get revenge on Clover and gain herself a new ally all at the same time.

  She sat on the bed and took Jessica’s hand. “You have to know the truth. It might hurt but you deserve to know.”

  “What is it?” Jessica asked.

  “It pains me to say this, but it’s the truth and you deserve to know. Clover is ashamed of you. I know she didn’t show it but it’s true. She despises shapeshifters and you took on the form of the child that she and Jared lost. She hated you for it. How could she not? You reminded her of things she’d lost, things she hated. Don’t get me wrong, she loved you, of course she did, but she hated you too. I think that one day she might even have tried to kill you.”

  Jessica looked away, pain and indecision written on her face. Saskia felt a little guilty at manipulating her, but she soon shook it off. This was Clover’s fault anyway. She should never have abandoned them and tried to turn Loki against her in the first place.

  As if he could love Clover, that pathetic wet blanket.

  “She’s the enemy now,” said Saskia, putting her arm around Jessica’s shoulders. The shapeshifter felt warm. “She’s going to be actively trying to kill all of us, Loki included.”

  “I still can’t believe it,” Jessica admitted.

  “Then why did she leave you? Why did she leave you behind?”

  Jessica turned to her. “She’d never try to kill me – right?”

  “She killed her own mother, remember? Clover is...Clover is not right in the head. One day soon she’s going to try and kill all of us, and I’m not just going to stand there and do nothing. I hope you’ll protect yourself too.”

  Jessica stood up and walked away. When she reached the door she turned back and tried to say something. She sighed instead and left. Saskia knew she had her.

  LOKI COULDN'T KEEP the proud smile off his face as he watched the last of his children enter the portal. At first he'd merely seduced Saskia out of sheer boredom. Then he'd seduced her because he couldn't have Clover and Saskia seemed vulnerable. Now he actually enjoyed being with her, not merely because she was incubating his child. She seemed to get him like nobody else had, not since Chorda. The witch wasn't fit to lick Chorda's boots, but she was a passionate lover and she would make an excellent warrior when the time came. He didn't love her. He couldn't love her. He thought he'd loved Clover for one simple, easy moment until he realized with shocking clarity that she reminded him of Chorda. His unending life was to be spent alone, thinking about his lost love, watching his shapeshifter empire expand beyond the stars.

  The valley was becoming quite barren now. Most of his shapeshifters were now gone, sent to various places with the blood magic addicted Fey to wait out their orders. There was only a small group of two here now. They would stay in this place permanently to guard Saskia and their unborn child. Maybe one day he would create more shapeshifters, but not for a long time. He knew that more than a quarter of his children would die in the war, and he wasn't sure he could bring more life into the world just to see them killed. For now, he was content to just see how his creations would flourish. They'd have children together, shapeshifter children. They'd live in peace. They'd have jobs and they'd go to the moon and Mars and further beyond. His progeny would colonize the heavens itself. They might even name a planet after him.

  An agonizing splinter of pain shot through his heart. Loki staggered sideways before righting himself., wondering what had happened. Was he having a heart attack?

  "Only those who die or near death can see us," a voice whispered.

  Loki looked around, seeing nothing. "Who said that?"

  The voice was like a thousand hell demons conspiring at once, chattering with malicious intent. Loki felt his insides scream, his skin feel dirty. His hands actually shook. He was terrified. It was the voice of true evil.

  "We welcome people like you," said the voice again. Loki looked around, his skin prickling. "Once upon a time you provided us with ample nourishment."

  "What are you?" he demanded.

  He saw something shift and slither out of the corner of his eye. He tried to catch what it was but it was gone. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and Loki knew for certain that something was standing behind him.

  "We are the End Shadows," said the voice. "We are the last thing you see before oblivion."

  "Again - what are you?" Loki asked.

  He tried to stifle his primal fear but it was impossible. Loki had never felt anything like this before. Were the End Shadows some type of evil celestial beings? Were they gods?

  And what do they want with me?

  "You can't comprehend what we are," they said, their tone condescending. "You are too young."

  Loki laughed. "I'm millions of years old. I think I can handle it."

  "You are a speck of dust compared to us."

  He whipped around again, hoping to catch sight of them, but only caught the tail end of a shadow as it slithered out of his peripheral vision.

  "We are not here to discuss us," said the voice. "We are here to discuss you."

  "This speck of dust has things to do, species to eradicate. Good bye."

  Loki gulped, fear making him feel sick. He had to keep up the charade that these things meant nothing to him, that they couldn't scare him. He thought he was doing a pretty good job, despite the fact that the presence of such malignant evil made him want to scream.

  The voice said, "We have a proposition for you."

  Something felt familiar about all this. Had he met them before? He thought he'd remember. Yet something about this meeting tugged at his sense of Deja vu. He'd had nightmares about shadows grabbing him and torturing him, making him bleed, their demonic laughter echoing in his head even after he woke up.

  Everyone has an innate fear of the dark. Is this the reason? Does every living thing in the universe know that these things are hiding in the shadows, waiting for them?

  "I've felt you before," said Loki. "I've dreamed of you."

  "We've reached out to you many times but you've repressed the memory," the voice explained. "Most people forget us when they have near death experiences. They remember us in dreams, though. They remember us vividly in dreams."

  Loki shuddered. He never wanted to sleep again.

  "Most people perceive us as a light at the end of a tunnel, but we're not light at all," said
the voice. It sounded smug. "We're the darkness."

  "There's no afterlife? When a living thing dies there's nothing afterwards?"

  There was a long pause before, "There is us."

  He couldn't believe that. "You...you..."

  "We eat souls."

  Loki screamed and thrashed his arms, trying to catch the shadows out. He heard them laughing, flicking his skin behind his back, tormenting him. When he tried to catch them they moved to the side. They were always out of sight, out of reach.

  "When my Chorda died you...you ate her soul?" he shouted. "There's nothing left of her?"

  "Quite the contrary." The voice was smug yet again. "Chorda's memories live on inside us. Everything that ever was lives on inside us."

  "You eat souls just to...to become the multiverse's biggest hard-drive?"

  "I suppose."

  "But Chorda is still gone. My beautiful Chorda is still gone."

  A bunch of shadows swept together in front of him, coalescing into the form that he'd wanted to see for so long.

  "I'm not gone," said Chorda gently. She smiled, and Loki's heart broke. "I'm remembered, here, forever."

  He took a step toward her and stopped.

  "It's not the same," he wailed. "I wanted there to be an afterlife. I wanted to be with you again one day."

  "You will."

  "You're not Chorda, you're just memories masquerading as her. Go!"

  Chorda vanished, her essence swallowed by the shadows. Loki felt his ire rising. He felt such contempt for these creatures, more so than he'd felt for the Fey and Gable Trent combined. He'd consigned himself to an immortal life of loneliness but he knew that one day down the line he'd tire of it and find some way to kill himself so he could be with his one true love again. The End Shadows had proven to him that his Chorda was truly gone and he'd never, ever be able to see her again.

  Chorda was gone.

  "Why are you here?" he demanded. He wanted to kill these creatures, but he knew they were probably immune to death, just like the wretched Prime Demons. "Are you here to torment me? If you are then I'll save you the trouble. I'm tormented enough already."