Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2)

by A. D. Koboah

  As he was leaving, I did something I had never done before and spoke into his mind.

  You should have told me.

  He inhaled sharply and came to a stop by the door, his mind awhirl with thoughts. Questions, mainly. But he knew exactly what I was talking about. What surprised me was that he faced me again, his gaze calm and only mildly apologetic.

  “Is you able to protect us? Against her?”

  I was silent and would have been enraged at what his words signified about their perceptions of my weakness, if I couldn’t see his thoughts and the simple reasoning behind the words. When he first came to us for help, he had known I would not harm them, but he had never put much faith in Luna.

  “I ain’t gonna lie to you, Mr Avery. I’s happy she be killing them mens. I’s happy she be able to do what I’s wanting to do my whole life but too afraid to do. Why shouldn’t one of us be able to get even for once?” He was quiet for a few seconds. “You think that makes me evil?”

  I wanted to say yes, but there was a field of dead slaves that prevented me from uttering that word.

  “The difference is she isn’t one of you anymore. An evil man can easily be stopped with force. But Luna cannot be stopped easily. What she’s doing isn’t about the wrongs these men have done, it’s about the thrill of the kill, and it’s a disease, one that’s starting to swallow the goodness in her. Those moments of kindness and compassion she showed with your daughter will be swallowed up and there will be nothing left of the woman I love.”

  He didn’t move but stared at me, the gravity of my words weighing down on him. I rose then and went to the chest where we kept some of our valuables. They all knew there was a lot of money in that chest, but there had never been any need for us to keep it locked. I took out a wad of money and handed it to him.

  “Here. You’ll have to pack quickly, packing only the essentials. I will take you to the church in the next town. We are weaker during the day, but that does not mean we are any less formidable. Father Butler is a good man. He will either accompany you to New York, or find another white to do so in order to make sure no trouble comes your way. This money should be more than enough for you to establish yourselves. Father Butler knows many people who will be able to help you. Please, make sure Celesta continues her education; we would love to see her become a teacher.”

  He stared at the money in his hand in disbelief before he gazed at me, tears in his eyes.

  “But why? Is it ‘cause you’s mad at—”

  I shook my head, halting him in mid flow. “As you quite rightly indicated a few moments ago, Luna is much stronger than I will ever be and it is only out of love that I have been able to keep her darker side in check, or so I thought. That may all change over the next few weeks, or even days, so it is in your best interest to be as far away from this town as possible.”

  Again he looked down at the money in his hand. He was ashamed of himself now. He had gained so much pleasure in Luna’s exploits and all those white men she had killed. But here was a white man who had shown him nothing but compassion. He was wishing now that he’d given me the respect I deserved and told me of what he had known.

  I sighed and moved away to stand by the fireplace. I didn’t blame him. I couldn’t protect them, and to be honest, would I have believed him? Only Lina could have shown me what had happened and who was responsible.

  “I am not a man,” I said in response to his thoughts. “That’s why I have been able to show compassion. People are a product of their surroundings. Who’s to say that if I had been raised here and didn’t have the powers I have to see that Negroes are not animals, I wouldn’t be just like the Fortier brothers? Who’s to say you wouldn’t be like them if it was what society had taught you to be?”

  We stared at each other across the room. It was something he had never considered before.

  “Give me a week, Mr Avery. I can get them settled and then come back and stay for as long as you need me.”

  “Thank you,” I said, managing a small smile for the first time since Lina revealed the truth to me. “But you don’t owe me anything, Samuel. You should go and get ready, I don’t know when she will be back.”

  He nodded and lingered for only a second before he left the room. I heard him round them up, listening to the quiet urgency in his tone, the muffled panic from Alba and only silence from Celesta. I went out into the field of Queen Anne’s lace and waited. When I heard Luna’s footsteps in the drawing room and heard her settle down, I went out to the old slave quarters.

  It was the first time I had been there since they moved in and I was surprised at how homely it was. I didn’t take much note of the strained, frightened expressions that met me. I listened instead to make sure Luna was still in the drawing room, then I spirited them away to the church.

  The parting was awkward. Samuel merely stood before me and fiddled with his hat. He eventually held out his hand. I shook it warmly, and then Alba’s. She looked so tiny, her eyes large in her thin face. The third surprise that night was Celesta. I nodded in her direction, expecting little more than a mumbled goodbye. But she surprised me by hugging me. She didn’t move away from me straight away, but looked up at me intently, concentrating. I let her thoughts reach me.

  I ain’t able to write well yet, but I left Luna a letter. I hid it under a flower pot by the window so my mama wouldn’t find it.

  I nodded.

  Relieved, she scurried away into the church. But the surface thought was repeated over and over again. The note. Tell her ‘bout the note.

  I turned away from the church and the anxious voices within. I felt a profound loss. Since finding Luna, I had worked so hard to try and regain my humanity and attempt to atone for my past sins, even though I never truly would. But at moments like this, to see how these people had accepted me, especially Celesta, it was so precious and hard won. But my salvation had come at a cost: Luna’s soul.

  Reluctantly I left the church to do what I had been dreading since leaving Lina’s home.

  Luna was still in the drawing room writing in her journal. She paused when she became aware of me standing by the window, watching her. Her back was to me and I marvelled again at how fragile she always appeared to be even though she was such a powerful being. She caught a scent of my surface thoughts and a soft sigh escaped her. She resumed writing.

  “I should have known that meddlesome daughter of mine would find a way to reach you. So tell me, Avery, what tales has she been telling you?”

  “I saw everything she has seen and heard. I saw the bodies in her mind’s eye, Luna and the sadism in your killing sprees are truly extraordinary.”

  “No more than yours was that night you took your revenge on the Fosters and all their helpless slaves. The brutality I inflicted on those men was no worse than what they have inflicted on countless Negroes over the years. They had gone unpunished for far too long for their wickedness. They deserved to die.”

  “Did their children deserve to die? And the Negro slaveholder?”

  She at last put the pen down and swivelled in the chair to face me. The silence between us crackled with tension before she answered. And then I wished she had remained silent.

  “Why wait for those children to grow up and become monsters like their parents?”

  She saw my horror at her words and looked away.

  “I lost control, but even in the red mist of the kill, I saw reason enough to kill the children quickly and painlessly. They did not suffer.” She faced me again and a wry smile touched her lips. “Do you remember that one, Avery,” she added, sounding almost sad.

  I moved toward her. “Do you remember what you felt when I told you that, and the horror and repulsion those words wrote on you? Do you remember a time when you held human values of remorse and compassion—and most of all, respect for life—in high regard? Do you remember that, Luna?”

  She lowered her eyes and shrugged.

  “Vaguely. I am no longer a human being, Avery. And neither are you. A
ll we can do is mimic their limited existence in order to continue our lives. There is no use in denying what we are. We are killers. Those men deserved to die and I feel no remorse in killing them.”

  I knew this was not true. A part of her was ashamed, not necessarily at the deaths, but the fact she had lost control. It frightened her, the ease with which the chapel entity—which had always been the unspoken Other on the periphery of our world—had been able to creep in. Not wanting to believe Luna was solely responsible, I latched on to that, hope rising for the first time since leaving Lina’s home.

  “Answer this first. Is it the spirit from the chapel controlling you?”

  She laughed. “God no. I’m too strong for it. I told you that.”

  “Oh well, that makes it all better then. How much of a relief it is to know this evil is of your own will and volition.”

  She stayed silent as my own anger, which rarely surfaced throughout the course of our marriage, was barely contained.

  “It sickens me that you can be so calm about what you have done. They deserve to die? We are not gods, Luna. We are something else altogether. We do not have the right or the inherent good within us to be judge and executioner. If we do not shun the urge to kill, it makes way for the evil within us to rule and make us monsters. Look at what I was when I first came across you. I was no more than a mindless beast. And we are not invincible. You cannot continue on this path.”

  She stood up. “My safety is not more important than those who are beaten down from morning till dusk, Avery. It may be easy for you to watch my people suffer, but I won’t do it any longer. You must decide, you are either with us or against us.”

  “So you’re doing this for the benefit of your people?” I flung the image of the Negro slaveholder at her. She looked away. “And what of the others who were killed or tortured as punishment for the deaths of those whites? You are responsible. You tell me to decide which side I am on? Yours, Luna. Always by your side. Wasn’t I standing by your side that night as we battled furiously to protect your people? All those lives we could not save and you knew it was because of what you had done. And worst of all, you kept this from me.”

  She appeared agitated for the first time. But she quickly regained her composure.

  “I haven’t forgotten those men and women and...and I’ll avenge their deaths.”

  “Have you not heard a word I said? You will do no such thing! I forbid it!”

  Her anger flared and her face became like stone, her eyes dark, luminous jewels that blazed at me.

  “You forbid it,” she said slowly. “As a white man to a nigger wench?”

  “As man to wife!”

  Her smile was bitter and cruel. She didn’t need to say anything. The years of arguments about that very point said all that needed to be said. She turned and sauntered out of the room.

  I was left standing there knowing we had reached an impasse in our marriage that could prove impossible to breach. I remembered clearly Mama Akosua’s warning and wished with all my strength she was still alive to offer her wisdom, for it was sorely needed.

  Luna left the mansion shortly after and I sat and worried, thinking long and hard about what to do, if there was indeed something that could be done. A few hours before dawn, I made my way to Lina’s home. I waited outside.

  Unsurprisingly she wasn’t asleep. I heard her get out of bed a few moments later and make her way downstairs. I stared at the house I’d had built for Luna. How could I have known at that time what my presence in her life would do to her? I moved to the front door and Lina opened it a few moments later.

  “I have thought about what you have said. There may be a way to weaken Luna, but I need you to promise you will not kill her. Whether or not you will agree to my plan depends on one thing: if you trust in my judgement that she would never hurt you, or any of her descendants.”

  She stared at me for the longest time and I saw pity in her gaze. Then she pulled the door open to let me inside.

  Chapter 32

  I was outside in the field of flowers looking out toward the road as the sun sought to break free from the darkness. It was a moment before I realised Luna was standing behind me.

  “Where have you been?” I asked without turning.

  “Come now, Avery.” She moved to stand by my side. “You know you don’t want to know the answer to that question.”

  I let the sound of the birdcalls fill the silence for a moment before I allowed myself to look at her. I assumed she had changed out of bloodstained clothing before coming out to me, and she was breathtaking in ivory, her hair pulled away from her face. After a few moments, she met my gaze, a small smile lingering around her mouth.

  “I want you to come somewhere with me.” I held my hand out to her.

  “Where?”

  “There is something I need you to see.”

  She shrugged and placed her hand in mine. With only a lingering glance at the sun still struggling over the horizon, we were away.

  We made the journey deep into the woods in silence. We soon reached a grassy grove no more than two metres wide sheltered by deep emerald trees. I entered the grove with Luna, stepping into heavy peach sunlight. Surrounding us was an unseen circle of magic Lina had cast a few hours before. She could trap Luna and me in this circle simply by uttering a few words.

  Although she was well hidden, Luna became aware of Lina seconds after we entered the grove. She gave me an amused glance before she turned in the direction Lina was hiding. Lina moved out of the trees into view a few seconds later.

  “My dear child. My meddlesome little Lina. What do you really think you’ll be able to do here today?” She laughed.

  Lina was completely speechless. For a moment her carefully constructed armour came down and her thoughts were clear for us to see as she stared at Luna. It was the first time she had seen Luna since her mortal death. She had prepared herself for this moment, the moment when she might have to kill her mother. But she had not anticipated the effect it would have on her to see her mother again, looking exactly as she had the first time she laid eyes on her. She no longer saw the killer she had come here to maim or kill, but the mother she had dreamt of and gone in search of at sixteen.

  Luna smiled and took a few steps toward her, moving out of the circle of magic and I began to see all our careful plans unravel before my eyes.

  “Lina!” I cried.

  I gave her a mental push, hoping to snap her back into the present and the task at hand. Then I grabbed Luna and pulled her back into the circle. In the blink of an eye she had broken out of my grasp, her hand around my throat, anger blazing in her eyes.

  “What are you doing?” she hissed.

  Thankfully, she stayed within the circle.

  It seemed my action spurred Lina on because I saw movement out of the corner of my eye as she threw a ball of herbs at Luna. The herbs hit her, and she shuddered as the magic reverberated through her body. She froze, her limbs turning leaden in a way that was akin to watching running water rapidly turn to ice. The fury in her eyes turned to surprise and bewilderment.

  Lina moved behind me so she was facing Luna.

  “Step out of the circle, Avery,” Lina said.

  I moved Luna’s frozen hand away from my throat, watching her eyes widen with fear and anger as I did what her daughter commanded. I realised that up until that moment, I had believed Lina would trap and kill both of us. Indeed, it was difficult to move away, leaving Luna vulnerable.

  I moved to Lina’s side as she said an incantation that activated the magic and trapped Luna within the circle. The spell to make Luna immobile wore off much quicker than Lina had anticipated and we had no way of knowing if the magic circle would be able to contain her until Luna tried to shimmer out of the circle. Her image wavered and disappeared only for her to reappear immediately, stumbling backward violently. She fell to her knees.

  Lina breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Let me out of here,” Luna said calmly when she g
ot to her feet.

  Lina began the incantation.

  There is only one way a vampire can be weakened, and it is the reason why the world is not overrun with the undead.

  With all things natural, and supernatural, nature insists on a balance, a natural protection. If creating another vampire was an easy thing to do, the world would be overrun with our kind and the human race hunted to extinction. The bloodletting involved in creating another weakens a vampire considerably and it can take decades to recover. Some never do. But our skin is almost impenetrable and heals quickly. It would also be difficult to overcome Luna long enough to inflict a large enough wound for our purposes.

  Lina could use magic to create an opening in Luna’s skin that would stay open long enough for large amounts of blood to be shed. But for the magic to work, it had to be a part of Luna’s body that had been scarred when she was mortal, and which had deep emotional and psychological ties associated with it.

  That was our plan.

  Luna moved to the outer limits of the circle, attempting to push against it.

  “How dare you,” she hissed. “Stupid girl! Do you think your childish little spells can stop me?”

  She focused on a sachet of herbs Lina was holding. It disintegrated and fell through Lina’s fingers like grains of sand. Then she focused her mental power on Lina. I made a small movement toward the circle to enter it and try to stop whatever it was Luna was trying to do to her own child. But Lina’s hand came up to grip my arm. Her hold was surprisingly strong, much stronger than that of a woman her age, and I was kept from moving forward.

  The grains of herbs that had disintegrated a few moments before rose into the air, distracting Luna. Her eyes widened as the herbs flew through the air like a vengeful dark cloud and into the circle to surround her. She looked on in amazement as it rushed at her, either dissolving on her skin or passing through it completely.

  She made to launch herself against the circle once more, her fangs bared, but then went rigid and reeled backward as if she had been shoved back. She cried out as she was overcome by a spasm that rippled through her entire body, her eyes widening in shock and pain, almost rolling into the back of her head. She started shaking before us.