Dark Requiem (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 3)

by A. D. Koboah

  Blood flooded my mouth and I was caught instantly in a crimson funnel dragging me mercilessly into its depths, sending me hurtling along a vortex of raw bliss.

  The girl, Avery, the pond, disappeared.

  Too late, I felt a warning, that truck bearing down on me, but the blood. The blood consumed me and I tumbled into darkness.

  ***

  I was wrenched out of the darkness to find myself standing elsewhere beneath an old, gnarled tree that appeared to be almost as ancient as the moon.

  “Dallas, Dallas!”

  It was Avery shouting my name. He sounded so far away.

  “Avery?” My voice sounded small and my head tingled.

  He materialised in mid-stride a few metres from me and came to a stop, fear marking his handsome face along with something else, something I couldn’t quite identify as he stared at me, his body tensed as if ready to launch into an attack.

  “What happened?” I asked, taking a step back to look around me. “Why—?”

  I stopped for I had almost tripped over something. I looked down to see the girl lying on the ground, her eyes open in a blind stare, blood oozing from the bite mark on her wrist. The pretty bracelet I had been admiring was splattered with it. Her head lay in what would have been an excruciating angle had she still been alive.

  I screamed.

  “Jessica!” I sank to my knees and shook her. “Jessica! Avery, do something. Help her!”

  I looked up to see him staring at the dead girl, his face devoid of emotion. I brought my hand to my mouth, felt blood on my lips and gasped in horror.

  I remembered what happened now.

  By the pond beneath the bleak light of the moon, I disappeared into the crimson vortex and that cold malice seized control. Whilst my consciousness looked on helplessly as if from a distant place, my body drank from the girl only to pull away, keeping hold of her wrist. I peered at Avery to see pleasure and relief breaking across his face.

  I smiled.

  Then I dove into the void, taking the placid girl with me. I materialised deep in the woods. By that time, I was beginning to try and re-exert control, but too late. I snapped Jessica’s neck, letting her fall to the ground. And then it was gone and I was in control again.

  “Avery,” I said again.

  He tore his gaze away from Jessica and stared at me, his expression blank, but I caught a hint of his thoughts before he shielded them.

  Intense hatred. That’s what saturated his mind. Hatred toward me?

  I stared at him and lunged for his thoughts, pushing aggressively against the mental wall he put up.

  He went rigid and his eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

  A sudden burst of knowing told me his mental barrier had never really been a defence against me and I could have broken through at any time.

  “She’s dead, Dallas,” Avery said abruptly, his alarm rising even as he forced his expression into one of scorn. “Now you can have the bracelet you liked so much.”

  His words pummelled into me and I immediately broke off from trying to grasp for his thoughts.

  I got to my feet and just stared at him. His expression softened, but he was still tense. He ran his hand through his hair.

  “Dallas, I—”

  I turned and ran away from him.

  “Dallas!”

  I leapt into the void, not caring where I went as long as I was far away from the dead girl and Avery.

  Chapter 10

  I found myself miles away from those woods, alone in a bayou, the hum of nocturnal life around me the background noise to my tortured thoughts. Watery shadows cast by the tupelo trees shimmered on the bayou’s surface beneath a distant moon. I pulled out my cell phone and called Mallory.

  I poured out all that had happened and the dead girl I had left lying in the dirt amidst the trees.

  She let me talk, only interrupting to tell me Avery had just called Shadrach and was searching for me.

  “Go on back to the mansion,” Mallory said. “I’ll be back home—”

  “No, Mallory!” I fought back tears. It seemed all I had done since I got to the mansion was cry. Tears were not going to bring the girl I had murdered back to life. “You can’t. I can’t trust myself around you. I can’t trust myself around any human. I’m scared, Mallory. I’ve never been scared like this before.”

  When she spoke again, she sounded on the verge of tears herself.

  “I’ll be back home tomorrow. We’ll talk more then, okay?”

  “Okay,” I said and hung up.

  I remained sitting by the bayou for a while longer thinking about everything that had happened, especially Avery’s cruel words as he stared down at me, the dead girl lying just inches away.

  I also thought about his reaction when I arrived at the mansion. I had seen more than horror and surprise at the fact I was a vampire. I had seen intense fear and an almost paralysing dread. I also thought about that hatred I had sensed. I knew I irritated and exasperated Avery, but even though it sure felt like it at times, I’m sure he didn’t hate me.

  The hatred I had seen in his mind hadn’t been directed at me, it had been directed at someone else.

  I had to go and talk to Avery, find out what he was keeping from me.

  I got to my feet, my body singing with the girl’s blood. Tears pricked my eyes, but I swallowed them back. There was plenty of time for me to mourn her—an eternity, in fact. I had to keep her out of my mind until I had spoken to Avery.

  When I returned to the mansion it was deserted, a dense silence permeating its empty rooms. I desperately missed the sound of Mallory’s heels echoing through the mansion and it was an effort not to call and ask her to come home. Instead I made my way to Avery’s bedroom and lay down on his bed. I could not get the image of the dead girl out of my mind, her empty eyes staring beyond me to the leaf-screened sky. Tears filled my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. I meant to close my eyes just for a few minutes to try and force the images out of my mind. But I found myself falling into a deep sleep where more dreams awaited.

  Chapter 11

  Akan

  In the gloomy temple, the child made an effort to try and listen to the proceedings, her gaze returning to Akan whenever she could tear her eyes away from the food. She kept staring at his scars, her mouth twisting as if in perceived pain whenever she looked at the deep gouges and the thick, puckered flesh along his arms and chest. Finally Mutata finished his speech and moved to stand between the rows of seated men.

  “Goddess,” Mutata said. “In celebration of your coming, and for choosing to honour the Enwa people by living your mortal life here among us, I would like to offer you a sacrifice of fifty maidens.”

  Akan looked away, his mouth setting in anger at the thought of such gratuitous slaughter.

  “No.” The child’s voice rang out clear and pure in the temple.

  Akan looked up at her, surprise in his eyes. She was staring at him.

  “No,” she said again, her gaze still on Akan. “No sacrifices.”

  “No?” Mutata’s fleshy lips curved into a condescending smile even as anger sharpened his tone.

  The child glanced at Mutata briefly before her gaze returned to Akan.

  “No sacrifice,” she repeated, her eyes beseeching Akan as if seeking approval. “I am happy with my people. No sacrifice.”

  Her lips turned upward in a small smile. Akan’s heart sank, and perhaps she gleaned his displeasure for her smile wavered. She turned her gaze to Mutata and her expression fell even further.

  Mutata glared at her for a few long moments, his face turning a deep crimson. Then he hid his anger behind a mask of acquiescence.

  He bowed. “Of course. Our beloved, benevolent goddess has decided to spare the lives of her devotees.”

  The smile crept back onto the child’s lips and her gaze returned to the food.

  “So I assume you will perform the ekniwa in place of the sacrifice?” Mutata added.

  A quiver of dread touched
Akan’s heart.

  “Yes,” she said without hesitation, a tinkling laugh escaping her, her eager gaze moving to another tray of food that had been brought into the temple.

  Mutata smiled. “The thirty day fast, along with the nightmarish visions the ekniwa brings, can of course kill a grown man and many have succumbed to it. But the ekniwa is of course mere child’s play to a goddess.”

  Her gaze was torn away from the food to Mutata, her eyes wide in her small face.

  “Fast?”

  “It begins now. The first stage of the ekniwa will be performed tonight.”

  She merely looked at Mutata for a few moments before she glanced at Akan, her words seemingly directed at him.

  “Of course, the ekniwa is nothing for a goddess if it spares the lives of fifty maidens.”

  Akan kept his face as still as the surface of a lake. Inwardly he cursed himself for having shown disapproval at the mention of sacrifices.

  There was barely concealed glee in Mutata’s voice when he spoke next, gesturing to one of the temple attendants.

  “Jow, take all the food away.”

  Mutata’s lips curled into a smile as the child hungrily watched the trays being carried away.

  “We will leave you to prepare yourself for the ritual tonight,” Mutata said.

  All the men gathered rose and made their way to the temple doors. Akan followed, his gaze lowered, his face devoid of expression. He could feel the eyes of the child on him. When he had almost reached the temple door, he came to a halt. The temple was almost empty save for the goddess and the attendants that were by her side twenty-four hours a day. He walked back to the altar.

  “I have something for the goddess, a small gift from my son.”

  Mutata had been lingering at the temple door. The smirk that had been on his lips since he announced the goddess would perform the ekniwa increased when he saw the small wooden toy in Akan’s hand. He clearly thought it was a pitiful gift to give someone who was surrounded by gold and every conceivable item of value the villagers had to give. Mutata exited the temple then.

  He did not see the big smile that fell across the child’s face at the gift.

  Akan moved within feet of her, much closer than was allowed, and knelt before her, his head bowed, his hand outstretched. She reached for the gift. Her fingers had closed around it when he clasped her tiny soft hand, his head still bowed.

  “Tonight, tell them that I, only I, must perform the ceremony, as a reward for winning so many battles in your name. Do you understand?”

  Her fingers tightened around his thumb briefly in assent. He released the gift, along with her hand, and stood. He moved to the temple doors. He glanced back at her just before he exited the temple to see her surrounded by gold, smiling softly at the small gift in her hand.

  Ever since Akan saw the real goddess of the moon many years ago, he had asked himself why she had appeared to him. Now he wondered if the child sitting in the gloomy temple was his answer. He had known Mutata had lied about finding the goddess, but he had not known Mutata would choose someone who was unaware of the deception. The child thought she was the earthly incarnation of the goddess the Enwa people believed could save them.

  Akan had awoken that day with a snake nestled around his heart, not knowing it was a two headed snake, one head filled with acidic anger, the other with the poison of electrifying fear. He also had not known the false goddess would be a child, or that he would have to save her life.

  Chapter 12

  I awoke a few hours later to find Avery sitting on the edge of the bed peering down at me, his eyes dark and anxious. He had lit a candle and soft, amber light danced with the shadows in the room. His voice was little more than a whisper when he spoke.

  “Dallas, where were you?” He ran a hand through his hair. “I searched everywhere for you.”

  He reached out to place a hand against my cheek, but I moved away from him and off the bed. He withdrew his hand, his expression deepening to distress. He quickly hid it and just stared at the ground. A tense silence hung in the room for a long moment before I broke it.

  “I want to know what you’re not telling me, Avery.” I placed a hand on my hip.

  He glanced up at me and was completely still for a few moments. Then his gaze turned as cool as a frozen lake.

  “It will be light soon, Dallas, so you may as well go to your room. I need to think. This isn’t the time for your—”

  “Don’t, Avery.” I strode up to stand before him. “Tell me what you know. Tell me what’s happening to me.”

  He stared at me intently for a few moments before he stood and moved to the window. Already I could feel the seductive call of the night retreating as dawn prepared to move into being in a dance of light. Avery was silent for the longest moment before he spoke, his back still to me.

  “What do you think happened to Rose, Emily, Clara and all the others? All those women from your family murdered over the years or who died in...accidents. What do you think happened to them, Dallas?”

  “How the hell would I know?” He’s starting to scare me. Why would he bring that up now? Did he have something to do with their—?

  “No, Dallas, I did not.” He faced me. Sadness along with weariness in his eyes, his shoulders slumped as if he felt defeated. “But you’ve read Luna’s journal now, so what do you think happened to all those women? And why do you think I let Luna, the love of my life—the woman I spent half a century waiting for—why do you think I let her go and marry someone else?”

  “I told you, I don’t know!”

  He grasped my arm in a hard grip. “You don’t know? What do you think happened to the spirit Luna’s mother woke up all those centuries ago? Do you think it just went away?”

  “That’s what’s been killing people in my family for this long? How could it and why?”

  “For the same reason it tried to take over Luna’s mother. It wants a way into this world. It couldn’t through Luna or Mama Akosua because they were too strong, but it didn’t go away. It’s been haunting your family all these years, preying on the most gifted witches among you. And whenever they try and fight it off it has used their own powers to kill them and I’ve never been able to do anything to save them.”

  “You think it’s trying to kill me?”

  He just stared at me.

  “You...you think it can find a way out...through me? But it won’t be able to. I’m stronger now. I’m a vampire.”

  “That is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say, Dallas. Do you really think you’re the one who killed that girl? And in the drawing room with Mallory? Was that you? It was controlling you, Dallas. Can’t you see that now? You think you’re invincible, but what do you think a vampire is? What do you think drives it and keeps it craving blood? Evil, that’s what. A part of you is evil now and you may be able to suppress it, but it will always be there and through that evil this thing that’s been haunting your family and killing them can find a way through. It will keep worming its way into you until it completely eats you away. And there’s nothing I’ll be able to do to stop it.”

  He was silent as the knowledge sank through. I took a few steps back in bewilderment and sat down on the bed. It was a long moment before I spoke.

  “I’ve always known there was something. I mean, I’ve felt it all my life. We all have. And that dream I had the day I got here—”

  “What dream?”

  Before I could shield my thoughts he caught an image of the dream I’d had of myself lying in a coffin, my face as empty as that of a discarded mannequin.

  He blanched.

  “Avery?” I got to my feet and took a few steps toward him.

  It was as if he hadn’t heard me. In his distress he had completely lost the control he kept over his mind. All he could see was the image of me lying in that coffin along with another image which made pain streak through him. The image was of me—no, it couldn’t be me he was seeing. It was Luna, a heavy silver chain
around her neck as she hung from the roof of the chapel. That was how she had died.

  “Avery!” I closed the space between us and placed my hands against his head, forcing him to look at me. It was a few moments before he focussed on me.

  “I’m right here, Avery. Not in some coffin. It was just a dream. That isn’t going to happen to me, okay?”

  He stared long and hard at me, his face still blank. Then he nodded. To my surprise he hugged me, lifting me off my feet so his head was resting against mine.

  He held me like that for a few moments, tremors racing through him. He held me so close his lips almost touched my cheek. I felt heat between us. I was sure he felt it, too, because rather than pulling away as I expected him to, his lips were moving closer to mine. The heat between us drawing them closer.

  Before our lips could meet, he froze and then pulled away, placing me back on my feet. He wouldn’t look at me, the emotion still playing across his face, his thoughts flitting between the image of me lying in a coffin and Luna dying slowly and painfully.

  I reached for him, but he immediately backed away and his thoughts were closed to me once more.

  “Just sit down a minute, Avery, and let me get you a drink or something. Some coffee?”

  He glanced at me briefly and then sat on his desk.

  “Yes. Thank you, Dallas.”

  His face flamed with that anguish again, and in his heightened emotional state the control he kept over his thoughts grew lax and I heard them once more.

  Dallas and her terrible coffee. What if I’m not able to save her?

  A soft smile touched my lips.

  He thought my coffee was terrible?

  I went to place a hand against his face, but remembering the way he had backed away from me, I let it hover around his shoulder instead.