Kai only turned his head away from her, focusing on his attacker.
“Thomas! The lamp! Get the lamp, you have to destroy it!” James tried to back up, but his feet seemed to be rooted into the ground.
Thomas looked at his nephew, towering like a giant beside him, then he lurched for the building. He had just enough time to register that the preacher was on his feet before a powerful impact landed on his back and he was flying.
Kai watched his traitorous uncle slam into the side of the building, then paused just long enough to marvel at his surge of strength. He was filling now with anger and rage, and it felt so much better than the doubt and misery he’d felt only moments ago. He should thank the old man for that, he thought, but it wasn’t a thank you he had planned. He watched as the clumsy oaf groped in the water for the pistol he’d dropped, and ignoring Sophie’s screams, he stepped forward to deal with the fool.
Just as the man cried out in victory and brought the gun up out of the water, Kai grabbed him by the face with his left hand and lifted him into the air. The fingers of his right hand splayed out wide and curled into a claw, then he thrust the hand into the man’s chest, feeling his fingers bury themselves deeply into his flesh. Muffled screams vibrated through the hand covering the man’s face, but they were only whimpers compared to what they would be seconds from now.
His right hand squeezed. The sounds of snapping sticks filled the air. James legs kicked madly but found no purchase where they danced in the air nearly two feet off the ground. Once Kai felt his hand close into a fist full of bone shards and mushed flesh, he ripped his hand away, flinging gore out over the creek, then let go of the body.
James dropped down to the ground in a silent, crumpled heap.
“God, that felt good.” He tilted his head toward the sky and was overcome with the urge to howl up at the moon like a wild beast. It seemed so natural, but before he could issue a sound, he was interrupted.
“You killed her! You killed my Jenny!”
Kai turned toward the man’s voice. The preacher was on the other side of the creek, both hands placed on either side of Sophie’s head, forcing her down to her knees in front of him.
“I knew you were evil. I told her so, I told Jenny you were tainted. She should have been with me! Now look at her, my sweet Jenny.” He sobbed then, staring down at his daughter’s cold, pale body lying in the dirt, but his hands never relaxed their grip on Sophie’s head. “I saw the man shoot you. I can’t kill you, but I can cause you the same rotten misery you’ve caused me!”
Kai leapt forward through the air, clearing the creek in the flash of a second, but it was too late. The preacher’s hands twisted violently around and to the side, leaving Sophie’s head to face nearly backward up and over her shoulder, as if she were looking at him. The sound of her neck breaking sounded like a pistol shot, then her body slumped to the side where it came to rest next to Jenny.
Kai stared down in shock at the lifeless forms of the two woman he’d loved. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. He was in control. He was a god!
The preacher stood before him laughing with a glint of madness in his eyes. Another voice shouted out to his right, sounding full of misery and desperation. He turned his head to see his uncle crawling across the ground toward them, blood cascading down over the side of his face. Then he stopped and pushed his way up unsteadily to his feet. It was then Kai noticed his uncle had managed to pick up a rock from the ground, roughly the size of a softball.
Does he mean to thrash me, or the preacher?
When Thomas staggered forward and raised the rock up high over his head, it was toward Kai that he was directing his blow. The preacher stood laughing, unaware or uncaring that he was about to be bludgeoned.
Before the strike could land, Kai moved forward and placed a hand on his uncle’s chest. The black rage and greed of the Other working within him was only a whisper of what is was moments before. Now he was mostly just Kai, shocked, confused, and unbelieving. That’s why it hurt so bad when his uncle Tommy turned toward him and stared accusingly into his eyes.
“This is your fault. This is all your fault! He should die, and you should follow him into whatever Hell he goes to!” With that said, the anger seemed to leave him, and he dropped to his knees next to his sister and bent over to lay his head upon her chest.
Kai stared down at his uncle, bent, and sobbing over his Sophie’s body. He stared at Jenny, so lovely and innocent. Tommy was right about everything. It was his fault. He could feel hot, salty tears running down over his lips.
“I’m sorry, uncle Tommy. I thought I could control it, but it overwhelmed me. I thought I could control the vision, but I didn’t understand it!” His words seemed to have no effect. Tommy never budged, never replied. He simply lay over his sister, sobbing.
Kai looked back at the preacher, whose eyes were fixed down now at the cold still form of his daughter. His thoughts went to the vision, when everything truly had gone out of control. Then he remembered the questions. He’d wanted to remain in that vision for a while, to enter the house, to see what all he could accomplish with his power. What would have happened, he now wondered? Could he have gone in to look at a young, peaceful, sleeping Jenny? Could he have changed anything? Instead of giving into the feelings of lust and control, could he have stopped Dennis from entering the pool with Jenny’s mother?
Kai looked down again at his uncle, then to the face of his mother, whose expression was frozen in a grimace of pain and surprise. Then to Jenny, who had a heart so sweet and pure despite the senseless loss of her mother at such an early age.
The rage returned, boiling back up from inside him, but this time it wasn’t a rage born of the need to dominate and destroy. This time he raged in grief and injustice.
He stepped in front of the preacher, who stopped his maniacal laughter immediately and looked at him in fear. Kai’s hands shot out to take both sides of the man’s head in his grasp. Pulling his head forward, he focused yet again on that tragic scene at the pool.
The lantern once again burst forth with its power.
“Good bye, uncle.”
Then Kai was awash in light.
37
“Guide me in,” he tells her.
The last thing in the world she wants is this man inside her. What she really wants is for him to disappear. To be able to run upstairs to her daughter’s bedroom and crawl in next her. To wake up in the morning without the sense of dread that her husband fills the home with. But she can’t do that. She can’t even move with the weight of him pushing her back against the hard, concrete wall of the pool. So what choice does she have, other than to appease him?
As she reaches down to do as he’s told her, he suddenly yanks himself away from her. Her surprise is matched only by the look of shock he expresses in his own eyes. But they weren’t his eyes at all, not the stormy grey eyes that had judged her so relentlessly over the years. Just then they looked black and twisting, like dark waters being sucked down a drain.
“What the—” That’s all he gets out before he thrusts himself down below the water and to the bottom of the pool.
Julia screams and scrambles out over the side of the pool edge, then stands and turns to look back down at her husband. Dennis is pinned flat on his back, thrashing against the bottom of the pool as if he’s struggling against some force that’s holding him in place. His hands grasp at his throat, then reach out to flail in front of him.
“Dennis, what’s happening?” she screams out again, then looks around the pool, searching for something to help him with. She doesn’t dare jump in the pool after him.
Behind her is the pool skimmer. She grabs it and thrusts the handle down through the water at him. Miraculously, despite his frantic struggling, he realizes what she’s done, and grabs hold of the handle. Even though she’s grown to fear and despise her husband over the years, she can’t let him die. She pulls at the handle with all her strength, intending to bring him up out of the water
.
But he doesn’t budge. She tries harder, giving a second and stronger effort, and she can see him straining to keep his grip on the metal handle. He should come out of the water easily, but somehow, he remains firmly on the bottom of the pool. It’s as if some unseen forces hold him in place.
Then, as she prepares for a third and final effort, he lets go. His arms cease their struggle and float out to the sides of his body. Suddenly, everything is quiet.
Julia stares down at her husband. She feels strange, as if the air itself is charged with energy, then it’s gone. “Dennis?”
As soon as she says the words, Dennis’s body, as if relieved of some great weight, floats up to the surface of the pool. She watches as his body makes the short journey, turning itself over to bob facedown at the surface. The moonlight shines down over his pasty white back, where she can see the deep imprint of the concrete floor of the pool.
“Dennis?” There’s fear in her voice, but also curiosity. And a hint of something else. Relief? She can’t explain it, but somehow, she feels as if it could have just as easily been her that ended up floating in that pool tonight.
Slipping into her dress, she looks back toward the house and sees the soft glow of a light emanating through the upstairs windows. Her screams must have woken Jenny and the sitter. She can’t let Jenny come out and see her father like this. With one last look back at her husband, she steps through the gate and jogs across the lawn to the house.
Entering the back door, she sees the sitter standing at the edge of the kitchen looking frightened. In front of her, her head no taller than the girl’s waist, is her sweet little angel.
Julia kneels and holds out her arms. Jenny rushes forward and flings herself at her. “Mama, I heard yells. I was so scared!”
Julia buries her face in the soft, red hair of daughter, then kisses her on the forehead.
“Mama’s OK now, Jenny. Everything is OK. Everything is going to be just fine.”
Acknowledgments
Many thanks must once again go out to all my friends and family who offered support and many wonderful words of encouragement.
I’m enormously grateful to all the fans that took their time to read the opening book - The Torchbearer - the second volume - Cave of Bones - and this final installment - Darkly Rising. I hope all you wonderful readers found the series thought-provoking and were left with an ending that satisfied.
Thanks also to Aero Gallerie Book Cover Studio for creating a book cover I could be excited about and to Fading Street Publishing for copy editing and proofreading.
Coming Soon
Look for the first book of my next series, currently scheduled for release in Spring 2018
Origins - Book One - The Harbinger:
The origins of mankind is a mystery. Our existence is a gift. But what is given can be taken back.
In Washington State, Dean Connors will shut his family away in their home to keep them safe from a pandemic sweeping the globe. An affliction that leaves corpses frozen in a state of eternal ecstasy. But with society crumbling, the illness isn’t the only thing for Dean to fear. When an act of violence rips his family from his grasp, he’ll travel thousands of miles through an increasingly dangerous landscape on the slim hope that they are still alive.
In California, a thirteen year old orphan named Evie will hope to find safety with fellow survivors in a community called Sanctuary. But where man goes, cruelty always follows. She’ll discover that maybe she’s better off on her own. Another will discover that maybe Evie isn’t what she seems to be. Another who has watched. Who has waited.
Now he’s decided our time is up.
A post-apocalyptic thriller with the seeds of fantasy. Follow the story of Ira, Dean, and Evie in this first book of a thought provoking and action filled series that explores one theory about the unknown origins of mankind.
About the Author
J.D.Matheny was born in the Pacific Northwest and moved around in his youth until he was settled down in a small logging town in Washington State. There, he lived in a ghost town through his time in high school. During his senior year, a trip to Europe would ignite a passion for travel. He would gravitate toward tropical environments, including Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Colombia, Curacao, Honduras, Mexico and Fiji. It was in Fiji that he was inspired to finally fulfill a lifelong dream of penning a full-length novel. The result was the Dark Island series, consisting of the Torchbearer, Cave of Bones, and Darkly Rising.
jdmatheny.com
[email protected]
Darkly Rising Page 25
