In the Light of Darkness

by Delizhia Jenkins

  In the Light of Darkness

  The Grey Chronicles of Dawn

  Book 1

  Written by Delizhia D. Jenkins

  He was not supposed to love me. As a matter of fact he is not supposed to protect me. He was supposed to murder me as was ordered by the Queen years ago. I am supposed to be dead-a thousand times over and yet here I stand ready to fight another day. I have fought. I have died. I have killed. But, I have yet to be extinguished. He lives and therefore I am. And yet, we run. We will continue running until her entire line has been exterminated and I am finally free. I cannot help what I am nor did I ask to be born and still, she hates me.

  They say stay in the light!

  I say run from it.

  They say reject the darkness.

  I say embrace it.

  The Queen of light has tasted the bitter sweet nectar of vengeance and she loves it. She is the hunter and I am her prey. But in all stories, there is a beginning and an end; there is good, there is bad, there is wicked and there is kind…but there is a special brand of evil that deceives even its own self…an evil that has convinced itself that the light that it bears makes it inherently and unquestionably good.

  There is black. There is white. And then…

  There is me.

  She is coming for me. She is the blizzard that blots out all shades of color; destroying everything in its path, freezing it to its core and stripping away everything encoded in its DNA until there is no sight, no sound, no warmth…just the hum of the freezing cold and the soul of the barren.

  Beware the light. There is safety in the shadows…

  Prologue

  In the beginning there was oblivion: an absence of light, sound, and life. Darkness was the companion of the Infinity, the beginning and end, the creator and destroyer of worlds…The Supreme Being. And then, from the darkness, a small spark of light grew and The Infinity watched with amusement as this tiny form began to take shape, separating the darkness and separating itself from the oblivion until The Infinity found himself the center of opposing forms which vied for his attention. The two forces warred with each other, competing for the attention and approval of The Infinity until finally they were separated and each given a certain portion of time to hold the attention of The Infinity. The Infinity called one Day and the other, Night and bestowed upon each their own gifts so as to amuse themselves whenever one or the other were not in His presence. And then, one day The Infinity expanded the darkness further beyond the realms of oblivion, and decorated it with solid forms of varying circular and three dimensional shapes that could not be seen through such a thick blanket of darkness. And so, The Infinity took from the Light and scattered across the darkness countless numbers of dusts of white hot heat that shown brightly whenever Light disappeared to entertain The Infinity.

  And then, the Light became sentient as did the darkness, both sides peeling themselves from the backdrop of what no longer what they’d been. Both left their imprint in the skies and beyond while The Infinity watched with idle curiosity with full knowledge of all of the limitless possibilities that intertwined with the fates of The Light and The Dark and the next level of creation He had yet to call forth from His essence. And while the newly developed life forms of archaic knowledge evolved into powerful beings capable of their own creation, The Infinity created Man, sculpting them in His image and likeness and granting them dominion over the newly formed world-their own kingdom to rule while He would watch over them. He assigned the newly sentient beings a single responsibility: to watch and to protect these humans, for other beings formed as a byproduct of His creations and sought to destroy everything He created.

  For centuries, the Light and the Dark guarded the humans with vigilance until one fateful day, the strongest of the Darkness, a being by the name of Han violated the Law of the Higher Realm by appearing during the Day in the human world, causing a solar eclipse as he watched the barbaric atrocities that humans committed against the other. He frowned in disgust as he witnessed armies of mindless, human males seize a smaller village of peoples, one by one and decided that he would not act as a Watcher for mankind. His black eyes blazed with indignation and prideful fury of being subjected to a keeper of men who were not worthy to rule a kingdom of their own. He concluded humans did not deserved to rule; but to be ruled.

  The solar eclipse signaled the Light of the breach and therefore triggered a series of irrevocable events that lead to the separation and creation of the two houses: House of Light and the House of Dark. From the House of Light, the strongest of the beings was elected to rule as King and upon his election he selected his Queen-another powerful being of Light and the strongest of the female class. From the House of Dark, Han emerged as the sole ruler without the benefit of a Queen to rule by his side. The House of Light banished the House of Dark from entrance into the human world, prompting a millennia long war between the two houses. The House of Light claiming victory, and forgetting the values from which they originally stood and took form in the presence of humans across the globe and became “gods” in the eyes of men.

  Furious and not willing to succumb to defeat, the Han and his armies of darkness infiltrated the human realm, destroying everything in its wake. He ordered the capture and execution of beings of Light, and a bounty for the capture of the King of Light. Millions of humans died by the order of Han’s decree, and with their new found kingdom on the brink of extinction, the Queen of Light called forth a great flood washing away all traces of Darkness, but unfortunately nearly wiping out the entire human population.

  Angered by the ambitions of His creations, and disgusted by their constant warfare, The Infinity commanded that both houses cease their warfare and demanded that they form a truce. The House of Darkness scoffed at the idea of a truce with his greatest enemy, but even he understood there was no other choice to be made. And so, the House of Light and the House of Dark signed the first peace treaty in the history of the realms that would last for only but a few centuries.

  Peace could never be eternal when chaos remained king.

  The House of Light returned to their thrones high above the human realm, and the Queen of Light surprised her court the birth of the first heir to the kingdom, a son whom they named Orion and the first of a line of powerful Light Beings. The news of his birth reached the ears of Hans, who went into a jealous rage within the Dark realm of which he ruled. With no queen or any female counterpart to couple with, he could never replenish the ranks of the his armies. And besides the replenishing of fallen men, he suffered a loneliness and a yearning for the tender touch of a beauty that would carve her heart with his name. And despite his hatred for the House of Light, he could not deny that the Queen was a beauty that could not be explained in any language by any tongue. Fair and delicate features with eyes that blazed with valiance and golden truth, lips blushed with rose with a natural fullness that when pulled back even into a hateful grin could bring a man or being to his knees. Her hair cascaded in a river of gold to the center of her back. There’d been many a time when he considered kidnapping her for his own pleasure, and now that she’d blessed her king with a son was too much.

  Disguising himself as a mortal, he infiltrated the earth realm unguarded and fell into the heart and bed of a human woman, after enticing her with every charm at his disposal and within months she gave birth to the first of his many descendants. Unbeknownst to the House of Light, he courted hundreds of women, but only selecting 13 of what he considered to be the most desirable and it was not until the Legend of the 13 Concubines reached the ears of the House of Light that the treaty was broken and war continued. From these 13 Concubines came the 29 of his descendants: humans with all of the powers of darkness, combined wi
th the infallible human spirit who would later become known as The Greys. The Queen, horrified by the abominations that were plaguing her human subjects, conferred with her husband, who decided not to destroy the new race of humans that were being bred in their midst. Infuriated with her husband’s decree of diplomacy, she sought the skillset of a well-known and rogue assassin from the House of Dark, and with the promise of a seat in her kingdom, under the blinding secrecy of the light, the King of the House of Light was murdered, and the assassin forced to take the blame was executed by the now adult son of the Queen. Without a King, the House of Light became strictly matriarchal by her edict, and so began the call for the House of Light to seek and destroy any and every human reported with supernatural powers and abilities to preserve the kingdom that the Queen had grown to love.

  But the Greys fought back and they fought hard against the Warriors of Light to the delight of the King of Dark, Han. Next to his pure blood warriors the Greys proved to be formidable against the House of Light, equaling in their numbers of casualties. But then, The Infinity moved His Hand against the House of Dark and imprisoned Han and his armies in a hole of impenetrable darkness, leaving his children, The Greys alone and without his defense. With Han incapacitated, The House of Light swept through the human populations, eradicating the Greys by the thousands until they no longer bred and no longer thrived…with the exception of a small clan that learned to live in secrecy. They successfully hid from the Queen and her Warriors throughout the centuries until one fateful day when the first female Grey was born in decades. Having been born of a pure blood Dark father and a half blood mother from the House of Light, she is destined to reunite the Houses by freeing her ancestral father according to prophecy.

  The Queen watched and waited and once the news of her birth was sung across the dimensions she dispatched her warriors to locate the child and extinguish it. Han sat quietly in the surrounding and impenetrable darkness and smiled, “It has begun.”

  Chapter 1

  The dreams began when I was twelve. I am in a dark, dark room, alone with just myself and my thoughts. There is no light and the silence is deafening. I can feel the presence of someone much older than me…scratch that-not just older, but ancient. The power that surrounds me is overwhelming and I can barely stand. It taints what little air I breathe, wraps itself around my entire being…I can smell it, feel it, taste it. I am drowning in it, choking on it and in the dream I wonder how I am able to survive being in the presence of something so…powerful. I scream but no one can hear me. I kick and punch into the nothingness that gives way to a shade of black that is blacker than the darkest shade known to man. I am standing on a solid platform, but I still cannot see what is ahead of me, let alone what is beneath me. And just when I think I am about to lose my mind I hear a voice, a voice so completely foreign yet strangely familiar to me slices through the darkness with, “We are one.”

  And then I jerk out of my sleep, drenched with sweat with my heart beating so hard in my chest that I think it is going to explode. My mother told me the story of the Two Houses and how the House of Dark violated all types of supernatural laws by breeding with the 13 Concubines and creating the people that we are today: The Greys. The Queen of Light hates us. She sees us as an abomination and ordered our execution on sight.

  But we are strong; at least that is what my mother told me over breakfast each morning after the nightmare. She would then send me off to school as if nothing had ever happened. I was raised in a sheltered environment, and one that was filled with discipline. My parents were always on edge and during one of my grueling training sessions; my father would demand that I fight harder. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you: my parents are heroes among our people. They are fierce fighters who fought off the Warriors of Light and protected our community with a bloody vengeance until we were left unbothered. I was born a year or so after The Calm. Everyone looks at me with this expectation that I am going to be something great, and somehow I just don’t see how that is possible. The Warriors of Light are still hunting, separating the normal humans through fear and manipulation tactics hoping to encourage them to spill the beans on our whereabouts. But see, we blend in. No one in school knew I could level a building. No one knew that I was stronger, faster, more unique and much more dangerous than any weapon created on earth. No one. My parents taught me well.

  And no one knows how much I love the dark. But then again that is my secret.

  As I sit in my first class of the evening, I tap my pencil on my desk impatiently. I just barely sat down nearest the window way in the back and already I am bored. History in the Colonial World is not my favorite subject, but I need it before I can advance to the next class. Upon graduating high school, I got accepted into quite a few colleges. My parents were against it, claiming that my fate was a lot bigger than a degree in a field that would probably no longer exist in a few years. I happen to like school, and an education is my ticket to creating my own destiny. But after a long debate, I of course got my way-well not entirely. I ended up checking into the local junior college and if my grades are exemplary then they would permit me to register at one of the local universities.

  I wait impatiently as the class begins to fill up and I wonder if I am doing the right thing. I know…I’m second guessing myself. I tend to do that a lot when I am stressed. Just thinking about my parents and their claim that I am destined for something “bigger” than my own ambitions scares me. I sometimes wish I could be a “normal” young adult doing “normal” young adult things. But nothing in this world is normal. And I do mean nothing. Light beings disguise themselves as human all the time just to seek and destroy people like me: Greys. Religious zealots and people seeking redemption go to church of whatever denomination of their choosing when in reality the entity they are really worshipping is Her.

  My skin prickles at the thought of the Queen.

  After a few minutes of idle day dreaming, I snap back into reality. All thirty odd seats are occupied and the instructor for the semester is mousy in demeanor, and even mousier in dress. She wears her hair pulled back in a tight, professional bun-so tight that she has temporarily given herself her own face lift. I doubt she will be able to smile, frown or provide any facial expression whatsoever and I pray that no one does or says anything that could cause a strain on her taut porcelain face. She dumps a stack of paperwork on her desk before positioning herself in front of the class. All of the mindless chatter came to an immediate halt as all eyes focused on the 5’5” woman in the grey pencil skirt with a matching blazer. Tiny white pearls decorated her neck, an obvious attempt to cover the flap of skin that instantly made me want to go “gobble gobble.” Patches of grey crept along the edge of temples and as she adjusted her glasses and pointed her pixie nose in my direction, I knew it was destined that I hate this class.

  “You will address me as Mrs. Foreman. I like to run my class with a degree of formality,” she began as she surveyed the curious eyes that stared in her direction. “You will arrive on time. If you are late I will lock the door and then after class you can describe to me in detail in a five paged report of the circumstances that caused such a delay that you could not arrive in a timely manner. You are adults and I would like to treat you like so; but if you prefer to behave like children…well I can accommodate you with that as well. Class will be brief tonight due to a staff meeting but tomorrow and every other class in which we meet I expect you to come prepare…”

  She continued in a long detailed description of her background which included two Bachelor’s degrees: one in social studies and the other in American history. She went on to complete her masters in International Studies and as of last week she completed her thesis for her PHD in Ancient Civilizations with a focus on Egyptian studies. Why she is teaching a history class that focuses on colonial America I will never know, but I assume it may have been the only position open at the time. Forty minutes pass and she is lecturing us on days and times assignments are due, her ridiculously impossible
grading scale, and what she wants us to turn in by next week. Fifteen minutes later she dismisses us and I am on my way to my next class for the night which is something simple: college math.

  While the other students mix and mingle in the hallways in between class, I do not bother with the mundane task of socializing. That was another one of my parents’ rules: no human friends. During my earlier years life could not have been any more difficult, not to mention that being forced to only interact and mingle with other Greys was far from being a piece of cake. Other Grey children hated me because they were jealous of the prestige I was born into. They never once wanted to give me a shot at friendship because they had it in their puny little minds that I just knew I was the shit. No my parents are the shit. Not me. I do have one friend unbeknownst to my parents but she got accepted into University of Southern California Berkely. She has been gone since the summer and well…we just have not had time to catch up.

  I move along at a speed that is as close to human as possible, thinking that I will take my usual place in the classroom setting as the first one to arrive only to find myself beaten to the punch by Aiden. I’ve known Aiden for years, since I was a child and my parents have always trusted him. The last time I saw him was during my 6th grade year when my hormones were all over the place and I had the biggest crush on him. My parents don’t socialize much with outsiders, but he managed to enchant them under his spell so much so that they trusted him with my care. He acted as my own personal tutor in elementary and some of middle school when he disappeared out of the blue. My parents are going to flip when they hear about his return.

  Our eyes meet and for a second I see something else in those pools of chocolate that melted in his irises. His bronze skin seemed to shimmer underneath the low light lighting, and his dark features made me think of someone who was on the mercenary side of things. I heard he’d went off to join the military and the fact that he is back made me feel all sorts of things. I take seat near the front this time and unpack my notebook. He grins at me. I push a single braid behind my ear and smile back.