Dark Requiem (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 3)

by A. D. Koboah

  “I’ll be outside waiting for him.”

  She nodded. I darted out of the mansion as if I could outrun the hunger that was still threatening to overwhelm me.

  Outside in the warm air, I tried to still the trembling within and the ache in my bones. All my senses were painfully focussed on Mallory and I tracked the sound of her heels striking the floor as she hurried through the mansion. Moments later I heard the beep of a cell phone and then her voice speaking in a frightened whisper. The fangs pushing down on my bottom lip receded after a few moments. The dark mass I sensed had disappeared and now I wondered if I had imagined it.

  I thought of how soft and frail Mallory had felt in my arms and a shudder passed through me. Unease filled me for the first time since being made into a vampire. I pushed it away. Avery would be here soon. I tried to focus on that and not the dark mass I had sensed or the unease that was bitterly scrabbling at the edges of my mind.

  I was snapped out of my reverie by a gasp. I spun around and there was my Avery standing a few feet away from me, deep anguish in his eyes as he stared at me with his mouth open in shock. Joy shot through me and I felt my breath literally stop as I stared at him. His hair was longer than when I had seen him at the chapel and was swept back away from his face. The jeans and T-shirt he wore strained to keep his muscles contained. It seemed a person could simply drown in those vivid, blue eyes of his.

  “What have you done?” he said.

  “Avery.” A smile broke across my face and I ran toward him. I was so caught up in the joy and excitement of seeing him after so long that I didn’t take in his words or the disquiet in his eyes. “You don’t have to turn me away. I’m like you now. I’ve come to stay.”

  I went to throw my arms around him, but found myself hoisted off my feet and into the air, Avery’s hand around my neck.

  Fury had turned his eyes into a dark and stormy sea. His teeth were bared and smooth, white fangs curved to the sharpest tip pressed against his lower lip. Thorns of terror made it feel as if my insides had turned to mush.

  “Who did this?” he hissed.

  “Avery. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”

  Then the realisation hit me. I was a vampire. I no longer needed air to breathe. Before the knowledge could fully sink in, I found myself thrown away from Avery. I soared through the air and slammed into something solid. A loud crack filled my ears as pain shot through me. I tumbled to the ground where I lay for a few seconds.

  I was sure I was dying, the pain was so intense.

  As suddenly as it came, the pain began to ease, flowing out of my body like water rushing down a drain. I was able to scramble to my feet. I looked behind me and saw the oak tree Avery had thrown me into—although still standing—had a long split down the middle. Yet I felt...fine. There were no broken bones and no blood anywhere on me. Even the pain had completely disappeared.

  “Oh my God, Avery! What a rush! Did you see that? Did you see that?” I gestured excitedly at the split tree. “You threw me and I’m not hurt. There’s not even a scratch on me!”

  I ran up to him.

  “Do it again! But throw me farther, throw me into the other tree.”

  He looked down at me, and although his eyes still resembled a raging tempest, his face was as hard, cold and aloof as a statue’s. Then without uttering a word, he turned his back on me and walked back to the mansion.

  “Avery.” I ran after him. “Where are you going?”

  “I want you off my property!”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “I want nothing to do with you, so get off my property.”

  We were at the front door now and I saw Mallory standing in the doorway. She was still pale, her almond eyes dark with unease.

  “You can’t do that, Avery,” she said.

  “Get back inside, Mallory!” She stood uncertain for a few moments, looking from me to Avery. “Now!”

  With one last sympathetic glance in my direction, she stepped back inside and closed the door to the mansion.

  “She’s right, Avery. You can’t do that to me. Where am I supposed to go? I did this for you. I did this so I can be with you. I may not be Luna, but I love you and I know I can make you happy.”

  Curiously his expression mirrored Maryse’s when I said I was going to catch a plane. The anger that followed, however, was a lot more disconcerting than hers had been.

  “You would make a very poor substitute for Luna. If you come back here again I will kill you.”

  I stood open mouthed, gaping at his retreating back as he turned and entered the mansion, slamming the door shut behind him.

  I burst into tears as my heart broke into a million pieces.

  I cried, noisily and ardently, for the next few minutes.

  He hated me. He actually hated me. I had given up everyone and everything for him and he hated me.

  Mallory’s soft, anxious sounding voice floated out to where I stood although it was barely above a whisper.

  “Avery, at least let her come inside so she can explain what happened.”

  “Stay out of this, Mallory!” he said.

  There was silence for a few moments, then I heard her again as she tried to reason with him, her tone low but persistent, each word like flint striking steel.

  I drew my arm across my face to wipe away the tears and the snot dribbling from my nose. I looked down to see a dark smudge of mascara on my arm.

  I had spent hours getting ready to meet him. Now my clothes were torn and my make-up ruined. I glanced up at the door he had practically slammed in my face and my eyes narrowed.

  No one ever turned me down.

  No one—and I mean no one—had ever spoken to me like that, least of all some uptight two hundred year-old vampire who was too old and stubborn to see a good thing when it came knocking on his door.

  “Avery! Avery!” I screamed.

  The whispered voices inside came to an abrupt halt.

  “I know you can hear me! I’m not leaving. Do you hear that? I’m not leaving. You can’t do this to me, dammit! I won’t let you do this to me! You’re all I’ve got now. You’re all I’ve got, you...you...miserable, arrogant, idiotic, old fool! I’ve turned myself into this and given up everyone and everything I love for you, and now you’re going to turn your back on me? I won’t let you do this. You can’t do this to me. What am I supposed to do now, for God’s sake?

  “I love you, dammit! I don’t even know why I feel this way, but I love you. And love isn’t something you turn your back on. Do you know what I would give to have someone love me as much as I love you? You’re a fool if you give it up. Do you hear that? You’re a fool if you turn me away!”

  I faltered to a stop, spent and miserable. My heart was empty and breaking miserably. What was I going to do now? Go and find myself some hotel or a hovel like Shadrach’s and Maryse’s to while away my lonely days and nights? I could cope with a hovel, but only if he was with me. I couldn’t leave.

  “Avery! Avery! I might be in love with you, but I hate you! I hate you! And Luna would hate you, too. No matter what you think of me, her blood runs through my veins. I’m one of her descendants, and she would hate you for treating me this way. And you’re an ass—”

  “For God’s sake, would you stop making such an infernal racket! I’m sure the whole of Louisiana heard your nonsensical diatribe.”

  I spun around. He was standing at the steps of the mansion looking stern and harassed. He ran a hand through his hair. Against my will, my heart jumped at the sight of him even though he appeared so hard and unyielding. I tried to probe his thoughts, but they were as closed to me as his heart appeared to be.

  “You can stay here for one day. I will find somewhere else for you to stay after that. Do you understand?”

  “Yeah, whatever. Okay.”

  I walked past him up the steps to the mansion door. Then I stopped and turned to look at my suitcases and then at him.

  His mouth tightened, but he moved to
my suitcases and picked them up.

  It wasn’t exactly the way I expected to achieve victory with my hair in disarray, my clothes dirty and torn, my make-up smudged and snot running from my nose, but it was better than nothing. At least phase one of my plan—getting inside the mansion—was complete. I would worry about the rest tomorrow night.

  ***

  An hour later after a long, hot bath, I went to find Avery.

  I found him in his bedroom. It was a large room with magnolia-coloured walls and heavy dark wood furniture. There was an air of indifference about the room, as if it were a silent servant you relied on but barely acknowledged. A custom-built bookcase extended across the length of one of the walls and was cluttered with books and lots of little trinkets I imagined he had gathered over the centuries. A sea shell here, or what looked like an ancient African carving there. Like pretty much everything else in the room, there was a forlorn air about them as if they had been forgotten the moment they were purchased.

  The room spoke volumes about how Avery’s life had been after Luna’s death—the joy he used to find in the world had either been forgotten or ignored. That saddened me and for some reason I felt intense guilt whisper to me. Heavy shutters attached to the windows were open to the night, letting a sweet breeze into the room and the buoyant call of the night which sounded like the excited chatter of strident voices.

  Avery sat at a mahogany desk with his back to me. I was completely taken by surprise when I saw the sketch I had made of Luna mounted in a gold frame above his desk. I stared at it, at the heavy charcoal lines depicting her face hidden in shadow as she knelt at the stream.

  A shrinking despair touched my heart. He had kept it, but that was not because it was from me. How could I possibly win his heart when it would always be Luna’s whether she was dead or alive?

  I glanced from the sketch to Avery. He was bent over an old, heavy book and the desk was cluttered with other large, dusty-looking tomes. One appeared to be a bible written in some ancient language. The other was a book on the occult.

  Jesus, such serious reading.

  He spoke without turning.

  “Go downstairs, Dallas. I’ll come down and speak to you in a moment.”

  I ignored him and walked farther into the room, glancing around me. Then I moved to the wardrobe and threw it open, rifling through his clothes, most of which were safe, boring pieces, all in drab colours. Boring, boring, boring. The next thing on my to-do list was to take him shopping for a whole new wardrobe. I pulled out a couple of shirts.

  “No, no, no. These have got to go, Ave.”

  I walked over to the bin by the desk and tossed the offending shirts inside. He glanced up from his book and down at the shirts in the bin. His mouth set into a grim line. He looked up at me and noticed what I was wearing for the first time. A lacy bra and matching briefs over which I wore a sheer black wrap.

  His brow furrowed.

  “Aren’t you...cold?”

  “Thank you, Ave. I do look nice if I may say so myself.”

  I plumped myself on his lap and placed my arms around his neck.

  He sighed. “My name is not Ave.”

  He disentangled my arms from around his neck and gently pushed me off his lap onto my feet.

  “Let us get one thing straight here, Dallas. There is only one reason why I didn’t kill you the second I laid eyes on you, and that is because you are one of Luna’s descendants. But do not try my patience. You put yourself in danger by approaching a vampire and asking him to turn you into one of us—and don’t think you can keep his—or her—identity hidden from me for long. There is also the matter that you were able to enter this mansion although Mallory did not invite you in, something that deeply concerns me especially since Mallory was here on her own. And you put her in danger when you came here without having fed first.”

  A twinge of anxiety touched my heart at the mention of Mallory’s name. I thought of the moment I tightened my hold on her in the foyer, the alien feel of my fangs pushing against my bottom lip, and that overwhelming desire to tear into live, warm flesh and devour. I shuddered, especially when I heard her footsteps in the corridor heading toward Avery’s bedroom.

  “I never would have done anything to her, Avery. I swear.”

  “What you intend and what you are able to control are two separate things, Dallas. The sun will be coming up in a little while. You’re to stay in your room and away from Mallory throughout your stay here, do you understand? If I hear you take one step outside your bedroom door today...” He leaned closer, his eyes cold, sapphire fires. “I will kill you.”

  “Oh don’t be so melodramatic, Uncle Avery,” Mallory said from the doorway. “You said yourself Dallas showed extraordinary self-control earlier on, so it’s unlikely she’ll attack me.”

  He took a deep breath before turning to glare at Mallory. His gaze returned to mine moments later.

  “Thankfully it isn’t anything we’ll have to worry about as Dallas will be gone this evening.”

  I placed a hand on my hip and glared at him.

  “I’m not going anywhere!”

  Blind panic passed over his features. He quickly hid it, his voice low and controlled when he spoke.

  “Dallas, we agreed you would only—”

  “You agreed. I didn’t agree to anything. You can try and make me, but I’ll just materialise here every night and you won’t be able to stop me.”

  “You may as well let Dallas stay,” Mallory said, moving farther into the room. “She can enter the mansion whenever she wants, so sending her away won’t keep me safe. If she stays you can keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn’t kill anyone. Besides...” She looked up at him, her eyes now like chunks of jasper. “This is my home too, and I want Dallas to stay.”

  He stared at her, aghast, pleading with her with his eyes. She looked away, but her mouth was set in a determined line. He sighed, his lips tightening into a little pout that reminded me of a petulant schoolboy.

  “Fine,” he said.

  I smiled, sat back on his lap and kissed him on the cheek. I wanted to hug Mallory, but the reaction I’d had at the door of the mansion earlier on made me reach for her hand instead. I squeezed it briefly before I let it go.

  “Thank you, Mallory.”

  “It’s a pleasure. I’ll see you both this evening. ”

  She left the room and I was left staring at Avery, wondering why Luna used to find that expression of his so adorable. It was irritating to say the least, and was an expression one of my English friends would describe as having a face like a slapped arse. I suppose Luna could see it as adorable because it was likely she hardly saw it. Whereas every time he looked at me, his mouth was set that way.

  The slapped arse expression deepened in reaction to my thoughts.

  Aww. It is kinda cute.

  He sighed in exasperation.

  “You should go to bed, Dallas. I’ll wake you at dusk and take you out to feed. Drinking from someone for the first time—”

  “Eww! I am not drinking anyone’s blood. That is so gross!”

  “Don’t be silly, Dallas. You have to drink human blood to survive.”

  “No, I don’t. I’ll just be a vegetarian vampire like the Cullens.”

  “The Cullens?”

  “You know. From Twilight.”

  He gazed blankly at me.

  “The movie.”

  He stared at me for a long moment, fury of an intensity I had never seen before in his eyes. I found it so disconcerting I stood up off his lap and took a step back.

  Almost immediately the anger melted away and he just stared at me, something about that little step back I had taken making pain flit behind his eyes although I also saw yearning peering back at me. He quickly glanced away and it was a few moments before he spoke again.

  “I was sorry to hear about your Aunt’s...accident. I was away at the time or I would have at least tried to...to...”

  “There wasn’t anything you could h
ave done, Avery.”

  Although he was still looking away from me, he coloured at those words and his mouth turned down.

  “I was in a really bad way for a while,” I continued. “But I know being here with you will make everything all right again.”

  He glanced up at me then and I saw guilt along with that anguish in his eyes. He looked away again. “Goodnight, Dallas.”

  “Goodnight, Avery.”

  I turned to leave, but then caught sight of a flash of blue in a penholder on his desk. I reached for it and then faced him.

  “You kept this?” I said.

  “Kept what?”

  His gaze fell on the child’s hairband with blue baubles I held in my hand. It was the same one I had used to tie his hair back all those years ago in Central Park. He appeared embarrassed for a second and then stood, quickly assuming his aloof demeanour.

  “Go to bed, Dallas. I’ll speak to you this evening.”

  I was still staring at the hairband. I glanced at the sketch I had made of Luna kneeling by the stream and then faced Avery again.

  “Okay, but I’m keeping this.” I tied it around my wrist, then wrapped my arms around his neck, planting a kiss on his cheek. “You don’t need it to remember me by because I’m here to stay.”

  His arms remained at his sides as I embraced him, his body as unwelcoming as stone. I released him.

  I could feel his gaze on me as I walked out of the room, and although his thoughts were still tightly shielded, I sensed a deep flush of emotion from him that was too intense for me to accurately interpret.

  Outside in the corridor, I gazed down at the hairband around my wrist. Capturing Avery’s heart wasn’t going to be easy, but whenever I felt discouraged I would look down at this and remember he had kept it. So I must mean something to him no matter how he behaved toward me.

  Down the hall in one of the guest bedrooms, one with dusky, pink walls, dark wood flooring, beige furnishings and mahogany furniture, I stood at the window looking out on the field of flowers. Dawn would be here soon and I was still marvelling at the fact that I was at the mansion with Avery.

  Mallory poked her head around the door a few moments later.