The Dark Rising

by Lacey Weatherford

  I saw Vance walk out into the yard. He visibly sighed in irritation, casting an ever-so-slight glance toward the window were I was. He folded his arms across his chest and turned back to Mayla who was standing in front of him speaking quite heatedly. The other demons present were slowly surrounding him while she spoke until the two of them were standing in the center of a circle.

  As far as I could tell, he wasn’t saying much back to her, just letting her rant on.

  “Go to bed,” I heard his voice whisper in my head. “Everything’s fine.”

  “I don’t want to leave you alone.”

  “Portia! Go to bed. End of discussion.” he stated sharply, and his mind was completely shut off to me again.

  I stood there watching him in frustration for a moment before finally deciding to do what he asked. I needed him to trust me.

  Going back into the bedroom, I crawled into the bed once again, pulling the covers loosely to drape at my waist before I snuggled back into my pillow.

  Several minutes passed before I heard Vance slip back into the bedroom. He went into the bathroom. I smiled slightly to myself when I could hear him brushing his teeth. It was such a normal thing for him to do. I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined all was well with the world.

  I must’ve dozed off slightly because the next thing I was aware of was him sliding into the bed. He reached out to tuck one of his arms under my neck while he scooted up against my back, wrapping his other arm around me and placing his hand on my stomach.

  “How’d your discussion go?” I asked him, curious about whether the demon coven had come to fists with him after I left the window.

  “It was fine,” he said not giving any more details.

  “Did you get everything squared away? Is sweet Mayla alright? You were out there for quite a while.”

  “Everything's okay.”

  I could see he wasn’t going to volunteer any information.

  “Did you get enough blood or do you need some of mine?” I asked him with a sigh, changing the subject.

  He snorted lightly. “I’ve had enough blood to feed an entire army,” he said. “Mayla was practically shoving it down my throat all night long.”

  “I saw you were drinking some out by your motorcycle before everything went down.”

  “Yeah, I was just topping things off before bed. The blood was fresh and I didn’t want it to go to waste.” He nuzzled against my neck slightly with his nose.

  “How fresh?” I asked, unable to resist.

  “Stop it, Portia,” he said, pulling back from me with apparent frustration.

  “Stop what?” I asked innocently.

  He rolled away from me then, placing and arm over his face. “You don’t need to know all of the gory details.”

  “Were they gory?” I questioned him, unable to stop pressing the issue.

  “Yes,” he said shortly.

  “Did someone die?” I asked him, fearing his answer.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you kill them?” I held my breath awaiting his response.

  “No.” I was sure he noticed the soft release that escaped my mouth.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  He laughed shortly. “Do you want me to kill someone, Portia?

  “No! Of course not.”

  “The deed was done before I arrived,” he explained. “But they’ll expect me to kill someone soon to prove my loyalty.”

  “Please don’t do it, Vance,” I pleaded with him, my heart feeling sick at the thought. “Once you cross that line there’s no going back.”

  “I’ve been trying to avoid it,” he said a bit hesitantly.

  Suddenly it all made sense. “Oh. They’re waiting for you to kill me—specifically. Aren’t they?”

  He didn’t answer me.

  I lay there in silence waiting for him to say something, anything. After a long while he rolled over and gathered me back into his arms, placing a light kiss against my hair.

  “Get some sleep, baby,” he said softly. “We’ll discuss things in the morning when we’re both rested. But we may need to move up the timetable of our agreement.”

  “What timetable?” I asked not following.

  “You're going to need to make the change much sooner than we thought,” he replied.

  I felt my heart sink to my toes. My time was up, and I knew it.

  Chapter 26

  A scream tore from my lips at the excruciating pain that ripped at my throat and I awoke to find myself pinned to the bed under Vance’s strong body. I realized with horror he was feeding heavily from me and I understood he’d finally lost the reins of his carefully controlled demeanor.

  “Stop it! Stop it!” I screamed out hoarsely, my natural instinct to fight him taking over and I began to thrash around beneath him, but he wasn’t deterred at all, taking great gulps from my body.

  I closed my eyes and tried to pull my thoughts together, concentrating on evaporating away. I dissolved, albeit seemed a bit slowly, and I was horrified when I reappeared right next to him, just a few inches over on the bed.

  He was on me again in an instant, and I screamed as he sank his sharpened teeth into me once more. I tried to push him away as he drew several more large gulps from me in his feeding frenzy, keeping me easily pinned to the bed.

  I struggled to concentrate, wishing for my body to rematerialize outside of the bed this time. I felt myself begin to fade away, but I reformed fully, solid, right back underneath him.

  With a sinking feeling, I realized he’d consumed too much blood already for my powers to be effective. He was going to kill me.

  Fighting against him, I called his name, trying to break through to him as he fed. I felt the familiar weakness as it began to settle through my limbs and I knew I was too far gone to hold up much longer.

  I suddenly remembered him saying how he liked it when his victims struggled against him and I instantly let my body go limp.

  “Vance, you're killing me,” I stated, my voice barely a whisper. I knew it worked when he suddenly stilled against me.

  He pulled away, from my neck looking down at me through his demon features, watching me for a moment, before he threw himself away from me as if I had burned him with a hot poker.

  “What happened … what have I done?” he whispered, the horror plain on his face.

  I couldn’t hold my eyelids open any longer and I let them close, the image of his frantic face burned into my mind.

  I had no idea how much time passed when I felt my body being jostled around, lifted from the bed and I slowly opened my eyelids, looking into a face I’d never seen before, a male demon face.

  “Vance?” I called out weakly.

  “He isn’t here,” a female voice said, and I recognized instantly it belonged to Mayla.

  This isn’t good, I thought and I struggled to maintain my conscious state.

  “Where is he?” I asked her while the demon holding me followed her out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

  I vaguely realized it was still night time since the windows were dark and the house lights were on. I wondered how long I’d been out of it.

  “He’s fine,” she replied. “He's out on the grounds somewhere blowing off some steam after harming you. Killing you has never been part of his plan.”

  “Well, I’m positive he didn’t bring you here to help me,” I said groggily.

  “No,” she answered. “Killing you has always been part of my plan. Vance is unaware I'm here.”

  I tried to center my thoughts so I could evaporate from this demon, but found I was still too weak, causing only a slight shimmer to ripple through my body.

  We entered the beautiful formal dining room with its long gleaming table that could seat fourteen. There were several unlit candles and trays of incense lining the table and even more were clustered in the corners.

  The frightening thing which held my attention was the entire demon coven, minus Vance, was there. They were standing, lined up and down each s
ide of the table, unmoving. I noticed they had already filled the space of the demon I'd killed.

  The demon holding me placed me in one of the dining chairs at the end of the table before sliding it back toward the wall. I was too weak to sit up straight though. An unseen magical force lifted me, restraining me to the back of the chair.

  Mayla stepped forward, placing three large white crystals around me. She touched each one with her finger while she muttered and they stared to glow.

  “These will prevent you from being able to use your jinn powers before we're finished with you,” she explained, walking away from me to the other end of the room.

  She stood at the opposite end of the table, and I noticed something I missed previously. Both glass jars containing the Awakening were swirling before her on the table top.

  “You'll never be able to control him,” I said quietly. “He doesn’t take orders very well, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  “I've already been controlling him.” She smiled at me with her blank stare. “You just didn’t know it.”

  “What do you mean?” The room began to spin slightly in front of me. I blinked my eyes trying to make it stop so I could focus.

  “I gave him a subtle command to find a way to bring you here, and he did. I told him to attack you, and he did that as well.”

  Had this all been a trick? Had Vance been playing me all along? It didn’t seem possible.

  “You’ve been drugging him, haven’t you?” I asked, my eyes narrowing accusingly. “Spiking his blood maybe?”

  “Just a little,” she said continuing to smile. “It wasn’t anything too drastic. He had to appear as much like himself as possible or you would have never believed him.”

  I felt sick. I didn’t know what was real anymore, but I was pretty sure my death was on the agenda for the evening.

  “Giving him the Awakening again will dampen his demon attributes you know. He'll be able to think more rationally. He’ll realize what you've done and destroy all of you without blinking an eye.” I grasped at any straw I could find to sway her in a different direction while I tried to buy myself some time.

  “Don’t you worry about that,” she replied with a smile. “As you’ll understand shortly, I’m firmly in control of him. I tried to tell you earlier, he belongs to me.”

  She was so self-assured; I was truly terrified. I didn’t know if Vance was my enemy or not. There were times I was sure he was being manipulated somehow. Clearly his attack on me earlier was the result of the blood he had been given by Mayla. He seemed truly remorseful though when he realized what he was doing.

  I made a decision in that moment. Relaxing my mind, I dropped all of the barriers Hex taught me and tried to call to Vance through our mental connection. I didn’t know if I could trust him, but he was the only hope I had in this situation.

  I was worried he didn’t hear me, because I couldn’t seem to even sense him. In fact, I felt like he wasn’t even near me if I listened to the ache in my body, yet hardly a minute passed before I heard him come crashing through the front door, appearing in the dining room a moment later. He paused a moment to take in the situation and I saw him go on full alert.

  He walked with apparent calmness to the end of the table directly in front of me, and turned to face the demon coven taking his place among them. When he did, all of the lights in the house went out and the candles and incense suddenly flared to life.

  “Let her go,” he said, and I could hear the barely controlled anger dripping through his voice. “Now.”

  My heart soared at his words. He was on my side.

  “No,” Mayla answered him calmly. “Vance, it's time for you to finish your mission.”

  “What mission?” he asked, lifting his hands up in a frustrated gesture. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Listen to my voice, Vance,” she commanded and a soft humming came from her throat.

  I noticed the change in him instantly, and his posture relaxed. It was then I realized what all of the candles and incense were for. She was placing him into a trance! She’d brainwashed him somehow to recognize her commands.

  “Don’t listen to her!” I called out to him weakly, but the humming continued and he appeared not to hear me. I tried again to reach him mentally, only to find no connection with him whatsoever.

  She continued to hum and the burning smells began to thickly fill the room. Even I was starting to feel the heady effects, my vision shifting again and the very air twisted until I could see images moving through it.

  I must be hallucinating, I thought, as the images became clearer.

  Mayla began to speak, even though I could still hear the humming sound of her voice. “You will kill the girl so the Awakening can revert fully to you. It must be you that sheds her blood for this to happen.”

  The pictures dancing in front of me swirled, I could see Vance moving in the vision as he picked up an athame and sliced at my throat. I watched in horror as my body crumpled to the floor beneath him. He picked up my limp body, drinking every drop of blood inside of me while my heart pumped its last beats. Mayla then opened the bottles containing the Awakening and it went inside him, filling him with even more strength. When all of the power reverted to him, she commanded him to join her at her side and he did so, without question or expression.

  The vision shifted, and I watched while the demon coven moved on to conquer one coven after another, until there was a massive widespread fear of them throughout all of the witches and warlocks of the world, demon covens included. They became a band of warriors together, bent on the total domination and submission of the magical inhabitants of the world—eventually exposing themselves to the mortal world as well—causing mass terror and mayhem to reign over the earth.

  I watched as Vance became a killing machine, one which no one could stand up against and all the while Mayla was manipulating him in his desires.

  The vision shifted slightly, and I saw brief flashes of images of Vance and Mayla tangled together in the throes of passion, drunk on the blood of those they had slain together.

  I gagged involuntarily as these images rushed in front of me, unable to stand the thought of him being with her in that way.

  New images flashed to the surface. I saw the demon coven, dancing around in some sort of palace with many, many others, like they were at a ball of some sort. Gold glitter rained from the ceilings, showering the occupants as they twirled to and fro in wild costumes and demon masks. It was like watching a perverted version of Marti Gras as the people cavorted together, laughing, drinking blood, kissing and fighting. These images increased in tempo until they were coming at a dizzying pace.

  Then the crowd parted and suddenly Vance and Mayla were standing there, dressed regally. People bowed and revered them as they made their way up to two thrones situated at one end of the room. They sat down together and their patrons began to worship them over and over.

  The vision faded slowly away, though the humming sound was still in the air.

  “You are one deluded witch,” I mumbled, still trying to stay coherent in the thick smell of the incense clouded room.

  “Vance, take the athame in front of you and kill Portia,” Mayla commanded him calmly.

  I saw him reach down to pick up the knife and he slowly turned toward me. I was truly fearful when I saw his eyes were completely blank, devoid of any emotion or understanding. He slowly moved toward me.

  “Vance, please don’t do this,” I begged him, not knowing if he could even hear me. “This isn’t you.” I continued trying to link with him mentally, to no avail. I couldn’t feel him at all. “It's a trick, a mind game Mayla is playing with you.”

  He reached my side and slowly lifted the sharp blade until it was biting into the flesh of my neck. I swallowed hard at the lump in my throat, the tears beginning to spill over from my eyes.

  My life with Vance passed before me. My mind quickly flitted over all the warnings my family and friends had given as
he slowly deteriorated to the point he was at now. They’d never trusted him, or any demon for that matter, once he completed the change. Over and over they tried to convince me not to trust him as well … that doing so would end in my own demise. I refused to listen, following my heart instead and now here I was at the defining moment they had all been so worried about—the love of my life was the killer at my throat.

  I only had enough time to speak to him once more. “I love you, Vance.” I thought I saw something, a crazed movement, a flicker briefly in his eyes, but then it was gone again.

  The humming in the room suddenly grew louder, and I felt him shove the edge of the blade harder into my throat. He cut through a couple of layers of flesh, and I cried out at the pain, feeling some of my warm blood trickling down my skin. His hand started shaking violently. I tried to reach out to him, but I still couldn’t make the connection. It was as if we'd never been able to communicate that way, like he wasn't even the same person.

  “Don’t do it, Vance,” I said as harshly as I could, desperately trying to make him hear me. “It’s all a trick!”

  “Finish her!” Mayla commanded loudly and Vance flinched, slicing hard into my throat. I screamed loudly at the assault, the blood gushing from me, my gaze drilling into his.

  I knew the second he snapped to reality. He turned and threw the athame across the room burying it in Mayla’s chest. She gasped and fell backward a couple of steps.

  Vance charged at the table, hitting the end of it and jolting it hard. The glass jars holding the Awakening went crashing up against the wall where they shattered into a million pieces.

  “No!” Mayla screamed as she ripped the knife from her chest.

  The Awakening shot across the space, diving into mine and Vance’s bodies.

  I could feel my body absorbing the white light into its cells once again, fixing the damage, but I was still too drained from my earlier blood loss to fight the magic restraining me. I watched in amazement as Vance was filled with the power. It seemed as if I could actually see it running, rippling through every muscle in him. It was magnificent to behold, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of complete joy that shattered through every pore.