The Arrival (Children of the Morning Star Book 1)

by Kastie Pavlik

  Another bout of nausea bent her over a tree. Lurching, she lost her balance and collapsed into a crying heap. She tried to prop herself up with her right hand, but her body suddenly felt heavier than concrete and, lacking the strength to support it, she crumbled back down. In her weakened state, she had stopped healing.

  The tall vampire stood directly behind her, out of her line of sight, and reiterated his command, “Run, Paresh.” She thought his low voice contained a note of concern, as if tormenting her distressed him. But then he sinisterly added, “You will run or you will die, right here.”

  The whispers started again, sailing through the air like fine wisps of spider thread. “Eric.” One soft voice after another echoed his name again and again, growing in tempo until it became a steady chant intermixed with, “Run, Paresh. Run.”

  “Stop it!” she screamed, crying her tears into the dirt as she tried to rise again.

  “Run, Paresh. Run! Run to Eric,” the disharmonized voices chanted.

  She struggled to her feet and leaned against the tree, lightheaded with stars shooting across her eyes. She chanced a glance at the tall vampire and briefly saw worry in his eyes before they met hers with a look that shot sharp pains into her chest. He took a step toward her. She pushed off the tree into a slow, lopsided trot.

  Her broken body made her move like a live, leaden statue. Unlike before, the tall man did not lag behind her. The hem of his cloak swept the back of her legs and his breath brushed her neck.

  “Run for me, Paresh,” he whispered in her ear.

  Crying and gasping, she pushed her body as hard as possible to flee. The harsh, forceful motions jarred her knee and ankle. She tripped and scrambled to get up as the last sliver of blue light faded and her eyes returned to normal, plunging her back into charcoal nothingness.

  Orange flickering ahead indicated a break in the tree line. It was the second clearing.

  The area to her side seemed more open than the rest of the immediate surroundings. The vampires had chased her around the clearing’s perimeter in a giant circle. Although she had crossed over the path long ago, it was back on her right side. They had run her ragged, as though that had been their sole purpose.

  She reached the edge of the forest just as her legs refused to carry her any farther. Looking over her shoulder, she fell from the shadows and landed in the clearing. The vampire broke his pursuit, lingering unseen and silent in the darkness. Paresh collapsed in the grass, her chest heaving, her lungs desperate for air, her body screaming for rest. She was barely aware of other voices—her pulse was drumming so loudly and so hard the pressure pulsed throughout her entire head.

  Even with heavy tears obscuring her vision, she saw the freshly polished black leather shoes that appeared in front of her. A crimson hem hung above the laces. Fear clutched at her heart as she choked on her tears and started hyperventilating.

  “My dear,” said a smooth, familiar voice. “You look absolutely dreadful.”

  Chapter Fifteen: Prophecy

  I

  T wo roaring bonfires chased the darkness, sending sinister shadows dancing high into Grandfather Wisdom’s waiting arms. Relentless flames nipped at the twisted creations, keeping them afloat like demons trying to save their feet from the fires of Hell.

  She closed her eyes. Her mind screamed not to give up, but every part of her body ached and throbbed. She dropped her nose to the ground and tried to push herself up. The effort was futile. One arm was completely out of commission and the other refused to obey her brain. Defeated, she stared out over the grass and waited for her uncle to speak again.

  She heard a static-laden buzz hovering over low, broken grunting, and her heart lurched. David’s robe blocked her from seeing the source, but Nicole stood farther back to his right, and looked wickedly content with a trace of impatience. The two men from earlier were at her side and were staring at what Paresh couldn’t see. All three wore blood red cloaks.

  “Da... vid!” came a pained, unearthly growl from somewhere behind David.

  Paresh instantly recognized the voice and fell to the lowest point in the valley of hopelessness. Perhaps that vampire had truly been the shadow of Death, escorting her to the end of her life. “Eric,” she whispered. Too exhausted to weep, tears simply slid from her eyes.

  “May I help you up?” David asked in a smooth voice. “We’ve been waiting so long for you to join us. You missed quite the exciting family reunion, I must say. I don’t think our friend was too happy to see me again, although I suppose that feeling was mutual.”

  Unable, and unwilling, to accept his outstretched hand, she stared helplessly at his fingers. Unlike in her nightmare, he did not wear the large, obsidian ring. He knelt and drew her into his cloak, leaning her spent frame against his chest, uncaring of the dirt and blood staining his white shirt.

  “Why?” she choked into his shoulder length hair. His over abundantly used aftershave turned her already queasy stomach and his quiet smile did nothing to soothe it.

  The pounding in her head worsened as each agonizing second crawled by. Her body began to slide from his grasp, forcing David to hoist her up until her head and arms hung limply over his shoulder. The hidden area was visible now, but she didn’t have the strength needed to raise her face. She stared at the ground without really seeing it as he turned and walked toward Nicole.

  When he had almost reached the tree, he loosened his grip and her angle shifted, giving her a clear view. Two men lay on the ground: one motionless on his side, contorted into an unnatural position as though flung across the clearing like a doll, and the other pinned against the ground by what appeared to be a pulsing, neon blue blanket of electricity.

  “Eric!” Despite wanting to scream it out, her weak and scratchy voice failed to travel any farther than her lips. Eric was in such agony. It broke her heart. “Please, don’t hurt him.” It was a faint whisper.

  Raising his head, Eric peered at her with darkened and engorged eyes, enduring massive amounts of pain from the jolts holding him down. As he fought against the forceful net, he wore a mask of desperation and rage that venomously twisted his handsome features. His lips curled over his teeth in a vicious snarl as he growled and focused his bloodthirsty stare on David’s back.

  “Let... her... go!” he seethed, his voice broken and raspy. He didn’t even sound human.

  Invisible, icy veins snaked through the air encircling Paresh and David. The unseen force made her skin crawl and prickled the hair on her neck. She shivered from renewed terror. The thick air scraped her exposed skin like fingernails clawing at her face, arms, and shoulders. It drained what little energy she had left, giving lethargy the edge.

  David swung around to face Eric. His voice, laced heavily with hatred, lent the image of a cruel sneer to her mind.

  “This superb material provided by your dear brother blocks your preternatural attacks, demon. You’re only affecting one of us. Care to guess, which one? Go ahead and make it that much easier on me. Her death is on you, anyway. Then again, aren’t they all?”

  The savage, cold air withdrew its attack.

  “Please don’t hurt him,” she repeated sadly, resigned to her fate. The High Council had obviously rescinded their order restricting Jonathan’s involvement and the only man capable of saving her had already been subdued. The presences of the vampires watching them from the shadows made sense now—even if Eric could escape his containment, they would not permit him to intervene.

  David patted her shoulder with his free hand and resumed his advance to the massive tree.

  “You two, watch him!” Nicole commanded. “And take those damn rings off. You’re not trying to hide from him any longer. Let’s get this over with, David.”

  Paresh envisioned Nicole’s green eyes flashing angrily. Long ago, Paresh had seen through her attractive facade to the ugliness lurking in her heart. Until now, she had never known of the evil there as well.

  As the men grunted at Eric, Paresh heard the sound of metal b
eing unsheathed. Eric frantically shouted at David to stop, but soon the desperation in his voice and all other noise fell faint and faded away, replaced by a church choir’s somber euphony echoing throughout her mind.

  “Ahs” and “ohs” carried high over sad violins that sang in tune with a woeful pipe organ as baritones dipped low into separate underlying chants.

  Deafened by her delusion, Paresh opened her eyes and emptily met Nicole’s devilish smile. She looked away from the malevolent woman to Eric. Her heart ached for him, powerless in his endeavor to protect her. His mouth angrily moved at David, but the chorus in her head sang over his voice. The instrumental music faded into the background and the male voices grew in prominence to forceful a cappella chanting.

  David leaned her against Grandfather Wisdom, placing her arms over wooden stakes driven into it to support her weight. She flopped loosely between them, making him hold her in place while Nicole barked more orders at the two men, who then came running with a wide leather restraint. The belt dug painfully into her abdomen below her rib cage and restricted her lungs to shallow breaths. They wrapped additional belts across her chest and legs and then maneuvered two urns beneath her dangling arms.

  The chanting quieted and the choir resumed its sorrowful refrain. The organ and violins returned to their former glory as she watched her tears fall to the ground.

  David had his back to her now. He turned and approached her, pulling his hood over his head. Fear clutched her stomach at the sight of the silver dagger in his hand.

  Without looking at her, he pressed the blade into the underside of her left forearm and ran it vertically down the length, slicing deeply into her skin and connective tissues. Blood oozed to the surface, streaming out and over her arm, and an electric shock sensation radiated down into her hand, stinging her palms and fingertips. The wound burned with a fiery pressure that worsened until it felt like something had clamped down to gnaw her arm off.

  Her fingers were numb. She was barely aware that he was holding her hand. He yanked her arm straight and stabbed the dagger into her wrist. The immense pain stole her breath. With the hilt buried in her skin, he plunged the dagger’s tip into the tree so that the blade held her arm away from the bark and allowed her blood to stream into the urn below.

  He retrieved a second dagger from Nicole and brought it against Paresh’s right forearm without breaking the skin. A weak whimper rattled her throat. David stopped—briefly—as if in thought. Methodically, he repeated the motions and hesitated again, his hand lingering on the handle, after running the blade through her wrist.

  Short, rapid breaths labored to supply Paresh’s constricted lungs as the chorus in her head reached a feverish pitch. She whimpered and watched her glistening tears splash onto the grass. Her eyes didn’t want to focus or stay open, but David suddenly wasn’t moving. She fought to lift her gaze. He was staring at her as if seeing her for the first time.

  Despair filled his eyes.

  The choir clipped their notes short and fell silent. Compared to the doleful music in her head, the crackling of the fires seemed far away, Eric’s yells echoed distantly, and David’s voice sounded flat and dull.

  “Why did you do it?” he asked quietly, in a sickening, soft voice. “It didn’t have to turn out this way.”

  He lifted her chin and wiped away her tears with his thumb. His sorrow filled eyes wandered all over her face and he sighed. For several long seconds, he pulled twigs and leaves from her hair, and smoothed her wild strands in silence. Then he began to stroke the back of her neck. The look in his eyes and slight smile on his lips turned her stomach.

  “Your hair is such a mess, but you’re still so beautiful to me. I’ve always thought so. You know, all those years ago, I meant it when I told you I loved you. I was such an angry young fool. I didn’t really care that you didn’t feel the same way. You would have, in time. I know it... that is... if Andrew hadn’t stolen you away.” He spat his brother’s name as his tender words twisted and became bitter. “But oh no! Everybody loved him—perfect as a peach Andrew. Our parents. Their friends. Their colleagues. Acquaintances. The staff. That creature over there. Even you.”

  He clenched his jaw and dropped her head. She struggled against heavy eyelids and blurry vision to watch him pace in front of her. Nicole’s eyes darkened and narrowed as she watched him, as well. Oblivious to her, David continued with angry sarcasm, “What was so damn special about Andrew? I should have killed him that night. Then none of this would have happened. I had my hands around his perfect little throat, but his ‘protector,’ his ‘guardian’ was there—”

  He turned his glare on Eric. “Always there. Always watching over my perfect brother, Andrew. Well you failed, didn’t you? Your time will come. You will see—karmic retribution for the sins against our family, for innocent blood spilled because of your own selfishness. Andrew met his end, his punishment, and I’ll gladly send you to join him. You liked him so damn much, it’s only fitting.”

  “David!” Eric growled. “You won’t... get what... you want. Jonathan’s... a liar! Let... Paresh... go!” A pained cry followed as he thrust his head back against the ground in agonized frustration.

  David, no longer in tune with reality’s harsh melody, didn’t acknowledge Eric’s words and whipped around to face Paresh with wildly flashing eyes. “Andrew wasn’t happy enough being perfect and having everything that he wanted. He found something he couldn’t have and took it anyway. He stole my love. He ripped out my heart and tore you away from me. He—no! They! Destroyed my life!” He yelled the last word with a spray of spittle in Eric’s direction before turning to face her with sinister, narrowed eyes.

  “But you weren’t so innocent,” he seethed. “Oh no. You shattered my heart. Did you think that would go unpunished? I took away what you loved most. Oh, so sad. You didn’t have any family left, did you? You should have stayed with me. I would have given you everything and more. You were all I ever wanted.”

  He took a deep breath and rolled his head back. “Yet you stayed with him. Then you married him. Then you had a child with him. That was supposed to be my life. Mine!”

  He turned away and muttered, “That child. That spawn of my brother’s seed, a stain upon the Earth, evidence of the love my brother stole, the love that should have been mine.”

  He looked up at her without seeing her. His hands shot angrily into the air as he shook his head. “Ha! I couldn’t sit by and watch him enjoy you any longer. I saw what he was doing to you, how broken and weak you were, how sick you had become. I never would have caused you such pain.”

  Coming close and stroking her face, he continued in a quiet, pleading voice, “I had to kill you. It was the only way to spare your misery and mine. But then, seeing you lying there, bloody and lifeless in that wreckage... you crushed my heart. How could you do that to me, again? Were you put here only to torment me?”

  Tears swelled in his eyes. “Then you came back to me. You haunted my existence, my dreams, but you were real. You were there—really there—and you were strong, like you used to be. I wanted to go to you. I wanted to be with you, but...” He glanced at Nicole and recognition briefly flickered. “Our time had passed. No... no! I don’t believe that! I’d never give up on us! It’s never too late. You came back for me. You knew you had made a mistake.”

  He whispered in her ear, “I always loved you. I only wanted you back. You should have come to me. I would have taken you back!” He screamed the last portion in her face, sneering and glaring with madness in his eyes.

  “Uncle David, please, don’t do this,” she whispered, barely holding onto consciousness.

  “David!” he mocked in a high-pitched voice. He thrust a fist toward her head. It landed to the side, scattering fragments of bark into the air. Huffing and gritting his teeth, he stared at her in frustration until his expression slowly relaxed and softened. “It’s not too late,” he said in a quiet, affectionate voice. “I’ll forgive you and we can be together, at last. I
do love you. I never stopped.”

  With a light tug, he removed the dagger from her right wrist. Leaning forward to reach for her left hand, he paused and lifted her chin instead. His eyes bore into hers and slowly closed as he advanced to kiss her. Tears fell down her cheeks and bile burned her throat. Just as his lips touched hers, his face contorted with pain and he gasped, falling limply against her. He clutched at her body and breasts as he slid to the ground, whispering, “I... only wanted your love... Felicia.”

  He collapsed into a heap of red fabric, the glint of another silver hilt sticking from his back. Nicole stood over him with a look of disgust on her face. She had stabbed him through the heart. Placing her foot against his back, she yanked the dagger from his body and kicked him so that he rolled to the side, where she recovered the other bloodied weapon from his hand.

  “Sick bastard. I’ll never understand why He insists on loving you people,” she muttered, scowling at his lifeless form. She motioned for her goons to drag David’s corpse to the edge of the circle. She then looked up at Paresh with a wicked twinkle in her green eyes and a mischievous smile on her face. “As much as I love to watch y’all torment each other, I really must move this along. Time’s awastin’ and I can’t have him undoing all our progress, now can I?”

  Nicole roughly grabbed Paresh’s face and peered into her eyes. Licking her lips, she taunted, “He’d lay awake at night fantasizing about you. Jonathan regretted his decision to have you live with us pretty quickly. You have no idea how many times he had to convince him that you weren’t her.”

  Nicole slid her hand beneath Paresh’s chin and cracked her head back forcefully against the tree as she inspected her throat. Lowering her hand to meet Paresh’s eyes once more, she flashed an evil grin. “Of course, I never believed any of Jonathan’s bullshit, but he had quite a hold on David. He believed every line that came from that rotten vampire’s mouth. But me? Well, I have always just wanted you dead. From the moment I learned of your existence.”