Darkness Reigns (Darkness Trilogy)

by L. M. Justus

  I placed my hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. Their familiar hazel color was unchanged. In fact, Sarah looked the same as always, except with filthy, torn clothes and blood-caked hair.

  “The important thing,” I said, “is that we’re together. You’re not alone. I’m going to help you get through this, and I swear it’s not all bad, being a . . .”

  For some reason I couldn’t bring myself to say ‘vampire,’ as if it was the magic word that would make Sarah’s transition final.

  “C’mon,” I said, tugging her arm gently. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll head back to the first cabin and regroup with everyone else.”

  “I . . . I can’t,” Sarah said, pulling away from me, her eyes downcast. “I have to wait until nightfall before I can leave. That’s another thing the Queen stole from me: the sun. Now that she’s turned me, I’ll never be able to go outside during the day again.”

  A guilty lump formed in my stomach. She thought the Queen had been the one to turn her? “Um . . . maybe you’re like me. Maybe the immunity to sunlight is catching, like a virus.”

  “No, you’re still unique that way, Reed,” she said, her shoulders sagging as she stared at the concrete floor. “I reached out to that tiny beam of sunlight over there and my fingers caught on fire.” She rubbed her hands together, clearly remembering the pain.

  “Oh,” I said. So much for my blood giving her an immunity to sunlight.

  I took her hand in mine and feathered kisses over her fingers. “I’m so sorry,” I said. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight.

  We huddled together to wait out the day. The hours ticked by slowly while we were left wondering how we would pick up the pieces of our lives. I hoped to God nobody came to pay the homeowners a visit.

  Oh, what a horrible mess.

  Sarah

  The sun set on Sarah’s first day as a vampire–the first of countless days she would spend throughout her life waiting for the day to end so she could emerge from the darkness.

  Reed and Sarah left the basement and worked together to move the bodies up to the couple’s bedroom. After setting them down and laying the covers over them as though they were sleeping, Sarah broke down and cried. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed and Reed held her tight, massaging her arm with his thumb in a circular motion.

  When her tears dried up, her feelings of sadness and shame began to shift into anger. The Queen had caused them nothing but anguish, and a desire for vengeance lit a fire inside every cell of Sarah’s body.

  She clenched her fists and pictured herself tracking down the Queen and exacting her revenge. Sarah gasped when she felt a sting in her upper gums.

  “Are you okay?” Reed asked, spinning her around. “I guess that’s a stupid question, but–” he paused, reaching over to push up her lip. His eyes widened, and Sarah saw details in the depths of his blue eyes she’d never noticed before, even though they were standing in an unlit room.

  “I’m fine,” she stammered, running her tongue cautiously over the tips of her newly sprouted fangs.

  “We should get out of here,” he said.

  She nodded, suddenly feeling like she couldn’t get out of the place fast enough. Dashing down the stairs two at a time, Sarah sped through the house and exited into the cold winter night, with Reed close behind her.

  She clasped Reed’s hand. “Let’s go.”

  They ran through the forest in silence and Sarah marveled at how different she felt. The little sounds she picked up and the sensitivity of her keen night vision amazed her, but she didn’t want to enjoy it. She despised the Queen for stealing her humanity and she refused to revel in her newfound abilities.

  When she thought more logically about exacting her revenge on the Queen, she realized that scenario was only a fantasy; even if she did track her down, Sarah’s strength was no match for the Queen’s.

  Sarah slowed to a walk with Reed at her side. “Part of me feels like denying anything’s changed, but I can’t ignore it,” she said. “If I don’t accept it and learn how to control myself, I could hurt someone, or worse. So . . . if there’s anything you can share to prevent more tragedies, please tell me. It hasn’t been that long since you went through this yourself, so you know better than anyone how to help me.”

  He looked down at her and his lips twisted in a sympathetic half-smile. “Well . . . you have to make sure you drink blood once a day, even if it seems horrible and gross. I mean, the concept is disgusting, but the taste is actually amazing. I guess you already knew about the blood drinking though. Anyway, the other big thing is your new strength: it’s nothing compared to the old vampires, but you’re infinitely stronger than every human is, so you have to be careful you don’t break them. That sounds stupid, but even a hug could kill them.”

  “What if someone gets hurt and I smell their blood? Will I lose control?” she asked.

  “Not unless you’re starving. It’s more of a problem if you get hurt. Then your body needs blood to repair your wounds and the thirst takes over. I was lucky there weren’t any people around when I was first turned, otherwise I’m sure I would have killed them. Not that my record’s clean. Like I said, there was that man I drained back in New York. When the King siphoned all my blood I was desperate to replenish the supply–I barely remember drinking from that man until he died. They held me down and shoved his bleeding neck in my face, but I still feel guilty as hell about killing him.”

  Sarah was quiet for a minute. “I’m surprised vampires have kept their existence a secret for so long. How do they explain the bodies in their wake? What are the authorities going to think when they find that poor couple we left at the house? We should have burnt the house down, but I can’t stand to cause any more destruction.”

  “I think it’s safe to say that even if humans weren’t aware of the existence of vampires before, they definitely know about them now, thanks to the revenant problem in New York. Plus, there are vampire myths in cultures across the globe, which means vampires have obviously screwed up and exposed themselves before.”

  “I guess the vampires usually erase people’s memories or whatever it is they do to trick them into forgetting,” she said.

  “Yeah.” Reed squinted at her. “I wonder if you can do that trick. It really bugs me how I have to follow Nathaniel around and wait for him to mesmerize everyone for me.”

  As they cut across a snow-covered field, Sarah detected an odor she couldn’t identify. “What is that?” she asked.

  “It’s a vampire,” Reed answered, going still. “The Queen.”

  Sarah stiffened, grasping Reed’s hand tighter. Then she released her grip slightly, realizing if she’d squeezed a human’s hand that hard she would have crushed it.

  The Queen flowed into the clearing, her movements so smooth her feet hardly seemed to touch the ground. She had changed out of her bloodstained white outfit into a crimson-colored ensemble, complete with a hooded, velvet brocade cape.

  “Congratulations,” she called out as she drew nearer. “You made the transformation successfully. I knew you were the perfect candidate.”

  Sarah’s hands shook and she felt the sting in her gums again. “You bitch! How dare you walk over here all pompous-like as if you deserve a goddamn pat on the back. I could have died! And it hurt so much. I’ll never be able to go out during the day again. Not to mention, I killed two innocent people because of you. I’m sure you don’t care about pathetic human lives, but I do.”

  The Queen gave her a smug grin. “What an excellent expression of the negatives to the gift I have bestowed upon you. Have you considered any of the benefits? You and your vampire lover boy will have centuries together now, thanks to me. He will never have to worry about you growing old, withering up and dying while he remains forever young. In addition–”

  “Shut up!” Sarah screamed. “Stop. Talking.”

  The Queen’s mouth opened to continue speaking, but then she choked. Her eyes widened and her face contorted. It wa
s as if she were fighting against an invisible gag. Without making a sound, she continued to struggle, shaking her head and gritting her teeth until she finally stopped, glaring at Sarah.

  Reed stared at the Queen, open-mouthed, his brows drawn together in confusion.

  A bizarre sensation washed over Sarah, thrumming through her body like a surge of electric power. She had a strange suspicion, and she drew on her feelings of hatred for the Queen, ready to test her theory.

  She looked straight into the Queen’s icy blue eyes and said clearly, “Poke your eye out.”

  The Queen didn’t hesitate; she jammed her own finger into her left eye and ripped the eyeball out of its socket.

  “Holy shit!” Reed cried, covering his own eyes and turning away.

  The Queen fell into the snow, thrashing around madly, screaming without making any noise. Because Sarah had told her to shut up, just like she’d told her to poke out her own eye. Sarah could make the Queen do whatever she wanted.

  “Stay where you are,” she addressed the Queen.

  “Sarah!” Reed shouted. “What the hell?”

  “I think it’s my new ability,” she said woodenly. Sarah felt like she was having an out-of-body experience, as though she wasn’t in control and was watching herself say horrible things.

  The Queen had calmed down somewhat and had stopped flailing her arms long enough to press a hand over her missing eye. Her vampire body would be working to heal the injury, but what Sarah had done was awful. She hadn’t fully believed it would work, but even the possibility should have prevented her from commanding the Queen to do such a thing. She couldn’t allow herself to become a monster.

  “She’ll need to feed now, right? To heal herself?” she asked, looking at Reed.

  He was pacing in the snow and biting one of his knuckles, his gaze switching back and forth between her and the Queen. He looked at Sarah and nodded.

  “Okay. Go find her something–not a human–an animal to feed from,” she said.

  “But–” he started to protest before sprinting off into the forest.

  Belatedly, Sarah wished she hadn’t phrased her last sentence as a command. The power of her words appeared to be absolute. What if she were to tell someone to ‘break a leg’ for good luck? She would have to review everything she wanted to say from now on, to avoid inadvertently hurting someone.

  The Queen glared daggers at Sarah with her one good eye.

  Within minutes, Reed returned carrying a furry lump–a striped tail jutted out from the side. He threw the animal to the ground next to the Queen and she grabbed it, ripping into it and drinking ravenously.

  Reed’s nostrils flared and he wouldn’t meet Sarah’s gaze.

  “I’m sorry, Reed,” she said. “I didn’t mean to make you run off like that.”

  He continued staring at his feet. “That felt so wrong,” he said. “Like being a puppet, with no control over my own body. If you told me to poke my eye out, I would do it. I know I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. I almost feel sorry for her,” he added, pointing to the Queen, who lay dead after her feeding.

  “She’s taken a lot more from me than an eye, which will grow back,” Sarah said. Her own eyes stung and she thought she might start crying again. Reed couldn’t be angry with her for accidentally controlling him with a power she’d just discovered, could he?

  Reed turned to Sarah at last. “I know. I guess I’m kind of . . . scared.”

  “Of me?”

  Reed didn’t reply, but continued to stare with a lost look on his face.

  Sarah felt her inner core of strength begin to crumble. “Okay, listen,” she said, carefully considering her next few words. “If I order you not to harm yourself or anyone else, no matter what I say from now on, won’t you have to obey?”

  “I have no idea.” He glanced at the Queen’s still form in the snow; the discarded and bloody raccoon corpse lay off to the side. “What are we going to do with her?”

  Sarah tilted her head up to the sky where the stars continued to twinkle innocently. “I could force the Queen to stay here until the sun comes up. But . . . that doesn’t feel right somehow. What do vampires normally do with the old ones who’ve gone crazy?”

  “Nathaniel said they usually follow a ritual before they lose their minds. They’re supposed to meet the sun and end their lives voluntarily when the time is right.”

  “Let’s bring her to Nathaniel then; he can tell us what to do. We should do this the right way, because we’re not monsters.” Her voice quavered slightly.

  Reed sighed and walked over to Sarah. He held her cheeks in his warm hands and bent forward to place a kiss on her forehead. Then he pulled her closer and rubbed her back, as they leaned against each other.

  “I’m not scared of you, Sarah,” Reed said, his breath hot against her neck. “I’m afraid of having no control over the crazy stuff that keeps happening. I wanted to protect you, and look what happened. Every time I think things are calming down, we end up taking off to Crazy Town all over again.”

  “It’s true; as soon as we figure out how to deal with the crap that keeps getting thrown at us, something new comes along and turns our world upside down. It never seems to end,” Sarah said.

  She looked up into his eyes; the silver moonlight reflected from their depths.

  “Do my eyes glow like a cat’s at night too?” she asked.

  “Don’t worry, it’ll help you to see better in the dark,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. He sucked in his lower lip and looked at the ground uncomfortably.

  Sarah leaned forward and tried to catch his eye again. “What? What is it?”

  “Um . . . well, I don’t want you to panic, but your eye color is fading, which means you’re going to have to feed soon.”

  A hazy image of her attack on the elderly couple flashed across her mind. Instinct had driven her to do what was necessary that time, but now her thoughts were clear and she had no desire to repeat that experience ever again. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. “I don’t suppose vampires can feed from one another,” Sarah said.

  Reed’s eyebrows shot up. “Wouldn’t that be convenient?”

  “In other words, probably not,” she added.

  “Honestly, I don’t know, but I seriously doubt it. That would be too damn easy,” he said.

  “We can ask Nathaniel when we get back.”

  “Sure,” Reed said, gently pulling out of Sarah’s embrace.

  He lugged the Queen off the ground, and slung her over his shoulder. Sarah couldn’t help smiling at the Queen being treated like a sack of garbage.

  “Come on,” he said, holding out his hand.

  Sarah grabbed hold and they set out to take care of business.

  Reed

  The quiet stillness of the forest could easily trick someone into thinking it was devoid of animal life, but with my keen vampire senses, I could detect the subtle scents and whisper-soft sounds of the creatures around us. I hoped to find something large enough for Sarah to feed on without killing it–a deer-sized animal would be able to spare the amount of blood she needed.

  I still couldn’t believe what had happened; Sarah was a vampire, and there was no turning back. Like me, she would never eat a normal meal again. But she would also miss feeling the warmth of sunlight on her skin, and she would never watch the sun rise or set, except maybe on TV.

  “Do you smell that?” I asked, picking up the gamy odor I’d been searching for.

  “I smell a million different things,” Sarah said. “It’s overwhelming.”

  I snorted. “You’re lucky we’re not tromping around the sewer system of Montreal.”

  “That must have been awful for you,” she replied, her face crinkling at the memory. “It was bad enough for those of us with human noses.”

  I adjusted our route toward our prey, ducking under low-hanging branches while moving ahead, making as little sound as possible. When we’d closed the distance considerably between us and the
deer, I held up a hand.

  “There, now do you smell it?” I asked.

  Sarah sniffed the air. “Reminds me of wet dog.”

  I laughed, despite everything that was going on. “Yeah, that’s it. Appetizing or what?”

  Startled by a sudden movement at my shoulder, I tossed the Queen onto the ground. She was waking up. I looked at Sarah and her mouth pressed into a flat line.

  The Queen’s eyes popped open, her new eyeball peeking out of its blood-rimmed socket.

  “Don’t say a word,” Sarah said to the Queen. “If we ask you a question, you can answer, otherwise you will keep your mouth shut.”

  The Queen glared, but remained silent.

  “Also, you will not go anywhere and you will not hurt anyone. Do you understand?”

  “I do,” the Queen answered through gritted teeth.

  “All right, I think I can take care of this feeding process on my own,” Sarah said. “You two wait here for me until I get back.”

  “Sarah . . .” I began.

  “No, I’ve got it, Reed,” she said. “Don’t do anything to her while I’m gone.”

  I hated the idea of Sarah having to deal with this feeding on her own, but I wanted to let her deal with it in the way she felt most comfortable. Maybe she’d feel weird with me there as an audience, so I needed to give her some space. I couldn’t help feeling miffed that she’d ordered me not to touch the Queen while she was gone though.

  “You don’t trust me,” I said.

  Sarah pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Of course I do. I’m sorry. Your free will is your own. Do whatever you want, okay?”