Embrace of Darkness

by Bilinda Sheehan

  “We need to get these people inside,” I said, struggling to my feet. The scream from above came again and this time it sounded closer than it had ever been.

  I grabbed Harrison and Paolo by the shoulders and shoved them in the direction of the church doors and did the same Keith. Xander was on the ground curled into a ball, his glasses lying next to him, the lenses cracked. I tried to pick him up but teenage boys as it turns out are a lot heavier than they initially seem.

  “Let me help.” The Sheriff appeared as though out of nowhere at my elbow and scooped Xander up from the ground. There was blood on his face and I found myself hoping that it was all just superficial and not because the lenses shattering had done any real damage to him.

  Victoria was directing people in through the doors of the church as the Night-Wing landed in the middle of the road.

  She reminded me of an exhibition of dinosaurs I’d seen when I was a teenager. Her body was at least forty feet long. Spines extended from her back carried on all the way down to the tip of her tail, which she used as a sort of whip.

  It shot out, sending three of the parked cars on the street careening down the road. The scream of metal and glass breaking melding with the horrifying scream she released.

  The baby Night-Wing answered her and the mother’s huge head swivelled around in our direction.

  Turning to Alastor, I screamed at him. “We need to move it away from the church.” In my mind I could already see the mother stomping all over the building like some sort of Godzilla-like creature.

  He followed my lead, grabbing one end of the straps securing the baby. We dragged it across the ground and out onto the grass next to the church, the mother following our every movements with her huge red eyes.

  “Now what are you doing?” he said as I hastily began undoing the straps holding the baby down.

  “She wants him,” I said, “so I’m going to let her have him.”

  “You do know she’ll probably destroy the place anyway...”

  “It’s a risk I’ve got to take,” I said. “She’s going to destroy it now as it is.”

  Alastor released a long suffering sigh. “Nothing is easy with you, is it?”

  I didn’t answer him, choosing instead to concentrate on loosening the bindings enough for him to slide out.

  The Night-Wing didn’t waste any time. The moment he was free of the straps, he shook himself off like an overly-large dog and stretched his wings. Letting a small joyful chirp as he crossed the grass, running for his mother.

  Her response wasn’t so cute and I felt something warm and wet trickling down over my lips as her screech washed over me.

  “Do you always bleed this much?” Alastor asked, studying me.

  My heart caught in the back of my throat as I realised the baby had stopped running. It raised its head, lifting its huge snout into the air before drawing in several deep breaths.

  “What is it doing?” I asked, scanning the area.

  “It’s scenting the air,” Alastor said, “they do this when they catch the scent of their prey...”

  “Everyone is in the church,” I said, “there’s no one around too...” I trailed off as my eyes latched onto Rikerson’s car.

  At the same moment as I had, the baby’s head dropped, his large red eyes focusing on exactly the same spot as me. He screeched and Mommy’s answering call was enough create the taste of metal in my mouth.

  When this was all done, I’d be lucky if my eardrums weren’t ruptured.

  The smaller Night-Wing lowered its head further and started to flap its wings, the large leathery wingspan lifting its long heavy body into the air. The wind from its wing beats slapped me in the face as I crossed the grass back in the direction of Rikerson’s car.

  The larger Night-Wing spotted me and roared, the sound reverberating through my body. I hit the ground like a stone, the blood in my veins boiling as the pressure in my head built to an almost unbearable level. For one terrible moment I thought my brain was going to explode and simply leak out through my ears but her cry cut off as abruptly as it had begun, as though she had no real interest in killing me, she only wanted me to let her baby do his thing.

  The baby rose into the air above Rikerson’s car before violently diving toward the top of the SUV. Metal groaned and glass exploded as the Night-Wing’s body struck the car. Long gouge marks appeared in the roof and I watched as the smaller Night-Wing began to peel the top of the car back like it was nothing more than a tin can.

  Alastor crouched next to me. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” I croaked. “But if Rikerson is in that car he’s not going to be all right for very long.”

  “There’s nothing we can do,” Alastor said. “Night-Wing’s gotta eat.”

  The sound of gunshot ripped the air and I jumped. I turned to see Rikerson crawling around the side of his SUV, a shotgun gripped in his hands.

  He pumped the barrel, ejecting the spent cartridge before shooting again.

  The first shot had obviously only winged the Night-Wing. It had landed completely on the top of the car, one wing dragging down over the windscreen.

  The second shot however had a much more devastating effect, hitting the smaller Night-Wing square in the chest.

  The Night-Wing chirped a low pitiful sound as it fell from the top of the car and landed on the ground in front of Rikerson. He pumped the gun again and fired, repeating the action over and over until the Night-Wing in front of him stopped moving completely.

  He dropped the gun and ran for the church, leaving the Night-Wing dead on the ground.

  “Oh, god...” I said, watching as the mother crossed the street, her wings tearing into the shop fronts, ripping the buildings apart as though they weren’t made of bricks, wood, and glass but cardboard.

  She screeched, a short bark of sound that cut off abruptly. There was a moment of silence as she tipped her head to the side and studied the fallen body of her baby.

  “We need to get out of here,” Alastor said, and for the first time since I’d met him there was actual fear in his voice.

  “She’ll kill them all, “I whispered. Horror punching a hole in my chest.

  “We need to move now,” he said grabbing my arm and hoisting me to my feet.

  “I can’t leave them...”

  The mother nudged the body of the baby. A low whimpering growl that sent a vibration of sound through the ground under my feet. She nudged the body again, her long rough tongue curling from her lips to lick the body.

  She rose up onto her hind legs and screamed, the sound rocking the foundations of the buildings surrounding her. The glass fronts on the shops that weren’t already shattered exploded. The church window I had so admired earlier shattered, sending a flurry of coloured glass into the air.

  “Amber, there’s nothing you can do. You can’t stop her she’s going to—” Alastor’s voice cut off as the sound of the Night-Wing’s screech ripped the air apart.

  Light exploded behind my eyes and the next thing I knew, I was being carried across the grass, the ground moving at a sickening pace beneath my feet.

  “Put me down, “I moaned, fighting Alastor’s hold.

  “No, I...” I hit him. Not hard but enough to draw him up short.

  He dropped me and I hit the dirt with a grunt.

  “You’re going to get us both killed,” he said, “there’s nothing you can do for them.”

  “There’s always something,” I said, hopping to my feet.

  The sound of answering cries echoed in the skies and in the distance over the top of the church, I could see a black cloud rising from the forest.

  “There are others,” I said, feeling bile crawl up my throat.

  “Hundreds,” Alastor said. “Maybe thousands. Night-Wings live in colonies much like bats.”

  “There won’t be anything left of the town when they’re done,” I said, thinking of all the innocent people who would die.

  “That’s why we need to leave.�
��

  “You said if I agree to let you in, that I’ll get a power boost.”

  A dark light illuminated Alastor’s azure gaze.

  “You will,” he said. “Have you changed your mind then, little witch?” There was the echo of his demonic nature in his voice, sending a prickle of heat racing over my the mark on my shoulder.

  “Will it be enough to save these people,” I asked.

  “More than enough,” he said, “if you use it correctly...”

  The chittering screeches and howls of other Night-Wings flying through the air toward the town grew louder.

  “What do I need to do?”

  “A kiss,” he said gently, his azure gaze disappearing beneath the darkness of his demon half.

  “Seriously, can’t we just shake on it or—”

  He shook his head and glanced at the mother Night-Wing in the street. She screamed again, her cry slicing across the ground like a well directed missile hit. It struck the side of the church and the spire began to crumble.

  “She will kill them all, Amber, make your mind up...”

  I swallowed back my fear. There was nothing else I could do. I couldn’t leave them in there to die, not when there was something I could do to save them...

  “I agree,” I said, feeling the ache in my chest intensify.

  23

  Alastor’s hand cupped my face, his touch firm whilst remaining tender. His head dipped toward mine, his lips brushing against mine in a feather light touch.

  The demon mark on my shoulder started to burn, searing through my skin, but it was as though the pain didn’t matter anymore. It dug deeper, burrowing into me and I felt the mark sear itself onto my very bones.

  Pain so intense it bordered on bliss made my knees weak as Alastor’s mouth took mine. His tongue slipped between my lips and I opened to him as he plunged into me. An all consuming, devouring kiss.

  I clung to him, the hunger inside me suddenly insatiable. I kissed him back, moaning as his hands slipped around my waist and he jerked me against his hard body.

  What he offered me, I took. And then I demanded more.

  The chattering of the Night-Wings the demented orchestral backdrop to my willing submission to a demon.

  He bit my lip, his sharp teeth shearing the tender flesh. I bit him back, welcoming the warm flood of his sulphurous blood against mine.

  I’ve always believed I had a soul but until that moment I’d never felt it. Before now, it had been a nebulous concept, alien to me outside of theological discussion. But as Alastor’s kiss deepened, as he fed from my mouth and I from his, I felt his brand as it reached my soul. The brilliant blue hue suddenly tainted black. Tendrils stripped away the purity of what it had been, leaving behind an obsidian taint that brought tears to my eyes.

  The wall I’d built, constructed from my own guilt and grief over the loss of Graham, was suddenly gone. There one moment and gone the next as though it had never existed at all.

  Power so strong it pulsed in every cell of my being flooded through me.

  There was no beginning and no end to the things I could do. Bend the world to my will if I so wished it...

  “Amber!” Nic’s voice cut through the bliss of Alastor’s kiss, jerking me back from the edge of the precipice I’d so nearly willingly leaped into.

  The power was still there, so intense my skin felt like it might burst and pure light flow out.

  “Let me in, Amber,” Alastor whispered inside my mind.

  “Come in if you can,” I said. “Come in if you’re worthy.”

  He pushed against my defences and I held fast, the part of me that still clung to my humanity knew that if he broke through I wouldn’t care what happened to the townsfolk. There would be nothing of who I had been. Nothing of the daughter my mother had raised. Nothing of the woman Graham had mentored.

  I would cease to exist and in place of me would be this twisted thing, corrupted by the power that threatened to overwhelm me.

  Alastor pressed again, his fingers digging into my skin.

  “This is not what we agreed.” His furious words echoed inside my head, closer than they had been moments before.

  “Amber!” Nic again.

  I ripped free of Alastor’s kiss, meeting his blazing eyes, my breath coming in heaving gasps.

  “You lied,” Alastor said, managing to sound incredulous. “You lied to me...”

  “Then we’re both liars,” I said. Reaching into my core, I tugged at the power I found there. It unfurled beneath my touch and coursed through my veins. Without thinking, I threw my head back, basking in the warmth of the its heady intoxication.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Nic’s anger cut through my enjoyment and my head snapped up. I met his gaze head on and his eyes widened. “Jesus Christ what are you?” he whispered, his voice hoarse as whatever he saw in my eyes terrified him.

  “Amber, what have you done?”

  I turned from him, ignoring his question. Instead, I turned my attention to the gathering storm above the town.

  The mother Night-Wing had been busy and I could see one side of the church had caved in completely.

  Crossing the grass, I strode toward her, my power driving me on.

  Her red-eyed gaze washed over me and she opened her mouth. There was a moment where I knew if she hit me with her scream my brain would rush out of my nose, eyes, and ears, my body destroyed under the force of her grief. And in that moment I pitied her. She had only wanted to protect her young.

  Could I bring it back?

  “That’s not how this works,” Alastor said bitterly.

  My power crept across the ground and found the Night-Wing’s broken body. There was no spark, no nothing, just as there had been nothing with Graham. I could bring it back but it would not be the baby. It would be something wearing his body, something dark and twisted.

  The screeching cries of the Night-Wings above intensified and I glanced up as they began to funnel downwards, like a black tornado made of teeth and claws. It would rip the town and its inhabitants apart.

  “Dissere.” I spoke the words aloud, feeling the power channel through me and into the ground at my feet.

  The mother Night-Wing’s screech released just as the ground beneath her overly large body gave way and she disappeared into the black pit.

  I felt the gravitational pull of the gateway I had opened as it tugged at me, begging me to step within.

  But I had too much to do before I gave myself to Hell’s mercy.

  The Night-Wing’s who had started their descent tried toward the town tried to change direction but the pull of the portal I had opened was too great and I watched as they were sucked one by one inside.

  With the last one disappearing beneath the edge of the pit, I called the earth to close. The ground shook once more and the hole closed over, leaving the grass unscathed.

  I felt the lives of those injured in the Night-Wing attack as the hovered on the edge of passing over.

  The world began to slow down as I made my way over to what remained of the church ruins.

  The sobs of those inside tugging at me. I found the first dead body beneath a broken pillar. Brushing my hand over the woman’s still warm skin I felt her spark and placed it back where it belonged. The effort it took to push back to my feet left me light headed.

  “This is the price for betraying me,” Alastor said. “If you had let me in as you promised, there would be no weakness. These people would rise again.”

  “They would not live again,” I said, suddenly understanding the difference. “I could heal those on the edge. I could even give a life for a life but I was not a god... And as such could not give back the souls of those who had already passed over. “They would still be dead.”

  I reached out with my power and found those still on the brink, pulling their bodies back together easily.

  “Xander, come on man, wake up...” Keith’s voice filtered through the wreckage and I scrambled over the top of the ruins until I
reached the boys. Three of them were crouched over the body of their fallen comrade.

  “He couldn’t see and then it hit him and I tried to warn him but...” There was a dent on one side of Xander’s head and without needing to touch him with my magic, I knew he was dead. His ghost hovered near his body, looking bewildered and more than a little sad.

  “Isn’t there something you can do, you fixed those others and...” Harrison said, his voice getting higher with each word.

  “He’s gone,” I said, brushing my finger down over Xander’s arm.

  “But you could—”

  “She won’t help us,” Paolo said, “she has all this power and she won’t use it. She’s just like the others, pointless waste of space.”

  From the corner of my eye, I watched Rikerson stumble out of the rubble of the church and start to run. I’d felt him when my power had healed him. Known where he was...

  “Let me end him,” Alastor said.

  The words hovered on the tip of my tongue. I should refuse him. Forbid him from killing him but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Many people had died, many were injured and for what...

  Straightening up, I reached out with my hand. Rikerson’s headlong flight came to a juddering halt.

  My power squeezed around him, drawing his life out. I felt, as he hit the ground, the rough asphalt beneath his hands as he bent forward and coughed. I tasted his blood on his lips and still I pulled. It came like a thread, his whole future unravelling before me.

  Crouching next to Xander, I touched my hand over his heart and drew Rikerson’s life through me, letting it mingle with the power coiled in my core.

  It scalded my skin and I wanted to scream aloud but the sound wouldn’t leave my throat and still I pulled.

  “Time to come back,” I said, speaking to Xander’s ghost which had begun to fade.

  “Amber, don’t do this,” Nic’s voice, he sounded far away. I blocked him out, focusing only on exchanging one soul for another, a life for a life. The balance would be maintained.

  Xander jerked beneath my hand, his body twitching as his heart shuddered to life. Closing my eyes, I felt the bones in his body knit, the injuries to his tissues and heal.