The Depths of Darkness

by Laurie Bowler

  The sudden snarl from the entrance of the alley and the force of someone else using unnatural strength slammed against us both. In anger, the unknown dropped me to the floor and turned to face the attacker.

  “I told you she’s mine, Tye!” Luke’s voice hissed his warning. “Leave her be!”

  The short burst of laughter from the unknown named Tye combined with the angered hissing and snarling, set the stage as bins soared through the air and bodies came clashing in one to one combat. Their own anger was rising with every angered punch or throw of each other’s body.

  “Your girlfriend,” Tye teased. “Very pretty; she’d make a delicious meal.”

  “I don’t think so,” Luke snarled and appeared again in the dim light spread from the moonlight, holding a gun. “Leave or I’ll shoot,” he warned pointing the gun at Tye.

  Tye’s roar of disbelieving anger echoed around us as did his sudden stomp of feet onto my head. He crushed my skull to the ground, the light swam around my eyes became misty as unconsciousness began to set in. In the distance, a loud banging rang through my ears as I tried to sit up in vain.

  “You’re safe,” Luke’s voice said above me. “Stay with me,” he urged.

  “You lied,” I whispered reaching out my hand to clutch onto him to make sure he was real and I wasn’t dead. “You lied.”

  “Plenty of time to discuss that later,” he muttered his eyes creasing with concern, “once you’ve been to hospital.”

  Luke picked me up off the floor and held me steadily and tightly in his arms; my fingers curled around his shirt clutching onto him as I slipped in and out of unconsciousness. My eyes drifted closed then uncertainty settled and I opened them to watch him.

  “You’re safe,” he said again. “Don’t slip away now.”

  “You lied,” I said again my voice fainter than before, “why did you lie?”

  “I had to, to keep you alive,” he answered looking straight ahead of us. “We can talk more later.”

  I felt the jerking of the car and Lilly’s voice wash over me; I could sense her anxiety and perplexity as to how I was found in the alley where Matace had been murdered. She summoned her best doctors to attend to me as I was driven to the hospital where only agency workers were allowed to receive medical treatment.

  Luke carried me out of the car, gently settling me into his arms, my fingers grasped his shirt unwilling to let go as I stared up at him blinking rapidly while my vision constantly blurred. My head pounded and I felt the blood trickle softly down my cheek, wondering how he could stand being in such close proximity of my blood.

  “How?” I wanted to know, “how, why, you lied.”

  It seemed that was all I was able to say; I was urging him to answer my questions that only I thought made sense. His cold hard eyes looked down at me and he smiled; gradually dimples appeared in the sides of his cheeks and I knew without a doubt where I’d seen this same image before. My dreams had cursed me for some weeks and all this time it had been Luke’s face appearing mysteriously as my lover, summoning heated moments between us.

  “You!” I said.

  My eyes fluttered as Luke’s mouth opened to reply and finally the darkness enveloped me and grabbed hold of me and I slipped into unconsciousness.

  I felt my body being laid gently down onto something soft, and I could hear the faint murmur of voices around me. Concerned and confused voices rising above others, one in particular I could make out with all the cotton wool type feelings happening to my brain.

  “How and why was she allowed to get anywhere near that alley?” Lilly demanded. “Luke, you were assigned to keep her safe and so far you’ve failed; today is a prime example of why vampires cannot help witches with watchers or otherwise.”

  “I doubt anything I could have done would have kept her safe.” Luke remained calm. “She has a mind of her own and does whatever she wants to do. I followed her but I was slightly too late; Tye had already gotten hold of her,”

  “Tye?” I heard her query. “One of yours?”

  “Hardly,” Luke defended. “He was banished years ago by Matace, so he should be on the top of the list to be found and questioned for the murder. I have no idea why he was there; I was too preoccupied by the fact that he hold of Patty and wanted to kill her...”

  That was all I managed to hear until silence prevailed around me and the darkness pulled me back under its claws; tranquillity and peace healed me faster than I anticipated it would. My body used up the powers being set by the spells from those around me; the other witches of our realm would have been called to heal me, to take my body through to the dimensions to a safe zone. They would make sure I was not disturbed and watched from a distance inside a protective bubble while others worked their potions and lotions containing magic into the areas of my body that demanded it the most.

  “Ouch,” I wriggled my toes in the bed and the pain that shot straight through me was unexplainable. “Luke…”

  “I’m here,” he whispered beside me, “how do you feel?”

  “Rough,” I smiled slightly and my eyes blinked open to find the familiar eyes looking back at me, “why?”

  “I knew you would ask that the minute you opened your eyes,” he threw his hands up in mock defeat. “I had to keep you safe. It was something Lilly employed me to do; there is someone out there targeting the entire agency, but only the witches.”

  “How do you know?” I asked struggling to sit up.

  Luke gently placed the pillow to ease my pain a little but remained a certain distance from me. Gone was the care free vampire that I had befriended only to be replaced by this person that I thought I knew.

  “I can’t tell you,” he said looking away briefly. “Lilly will be here in a few minutes. She wants answers, you know that don’t you?”

  I nodded and kept quiet; there was no way I’d be telling her any details from anything I was told last night. She would find out in due course when I was certain I knew who the murderer was.

  The wisps of the breeze as it caught through the room as Lilly made her entrance shook the blinds on the windows and the scent of flowers filled the room, signalling that Lilly had arrived. She travelled through the portal that was only available to the high witch; her scent was the only way to tell she was arriving.

  “Lilly,” I breathed into the silence of the room.

  Luke had remained beside me, his eyes stony and watching ahead at the whirling wind that appeared in the corner of the room. Lilly’s body slowly transformed into the room until she became a whole person.

  “Patty,” she smiled. “You’re awake. I’m glad. How do you feel?”

  Her hurried words and her searching gaze made me uncomfortable laying here on the bed with a bandage around my head and a tube exiting my wrist connected to a bag of saline. I wished I was anywhere else but here right now.

  “I’m fine,” I answered bravely. “What happened?”

  “You don’t remember?” she asked perplexed by my question. “It was Tye. A rather vicious vampire that had been exiled by Matace many years ago. Somehow he has had help to enter back and live on earth against the knowledge of the agency. What were you doing out there on your own? If Luke hadn’t have been following you, who knows what might have happened.”

  “I was trying to locate some details,” I defended. “It was nothing much, and I didn’t actually unearth anything other than everything that has already been recorded in the files.”

  “You took the files home too,” she shook her head, “against the agency’s rules and beyond the protective spell surrounding all documents such as those. Whatever has possessed you to do such things?”

  “I wanted to trace details,” I said. “There’s something not right about the whole thing. To me,” I said, “it seems like the murderer has had a lot of help from someone who has been privy to inside information.”

  My words echoed around the room as Lilly fell silent; her head slightly bowed with her hair falling forwards and framing her face ob
scuring my view of her.

  Luke extricated himself and left the room. His steady footsteps and the steady look he gave me told me not to push beyond the boundaries of being so outspoken with the high witch, which would inevitably cause trouble.

  “I see,” she said gently. “I can’t allow you to start wandering around on your own; it’s too dangerous especially now.”

  “What do you mean ‘especially now’?”

  “There’s been another murder,” she answered, “I didn’t want to have to tell you so soon, not until I was sure what it is we’re facing. It seems those close to Matace are being targeted. And so now,” she went quiet and struggled to compose herself, “you will have to be under protection at all times.”

  “Who’s been murdered?” I demanded to know, my voice coming out no more than a tiny whisper.

  “Clarette,” she answered, “she was Matace’s second in command during his reign over the realm.”

  “I know,” I slumped backwards against the pillows in shock, “I can’t believe it.”

  I felt crushed by the news, it did seem there was a killing spree happening around us all and it wouldn’t long until it headed my way. I was the one that was closest to Matace, but without actually knowing any details about anything dealing with the way he handled certain affairs within the realm.

  “I’ll speak to Luke and have him stay with you,” she said.

  “What do you mean?” I spluttered, “Luke can’t stay with me all the time.” I placed the emphasis on ‘all’ because that would mean overnight inside my small apartment, or worse whatever living arrangements he had, and I hoped it wasn’t the traditional crypt either but something a little more classy than that.

  “I mean all the time Patti,” she said gently but with the sure firmness evident in her tone, “it's not safe and I have a feeling you’ll be next or the one after. There are only two of you remaining that were close to Matace. Pepsi is under protection as well.”

  “Anyone else but Luke,” I groaned into my pillow after she’d left.

  I heard the curtly short conversation from outside my room between Luke and Lilly.

  “Stay with her and make sure she doesn’t do anything dangerous that might get herself killed, and this time,” Lilly stopped briefly, “do it properly.”

  “Properly,” he repeated menacingly softly. “Do you have any idea what it’s been like trying to keep up with her? Once she wants to do something there’s no stopping her.”

  “I’m aware of how stubborn she is,” Lilly reprimanded, “remember you’re under my control now, not Matace’s. Until his murderer and the one who is responsible for the murder of Clarette has been caught and brought to be judged for their crimes, then there is no other option but to make sure everyone is kept safe.”

  “Right,” he muttered quietly, “and how does Patty feel about me protecting her? I’m assuming you’ve told her that I’ve been her watcher for some time now?”

  My watcher? All this time he’d been watching me without my knowledge but since when? Surely Matace would have told me; he wouldn’t have kept such a secret.

  “Listen,” Lilly sighed, “you’ve been watching her for a while. I’ve checked and you’ve done well to keep her safe. All I’m asking on behalf of Matace is that you keep her safe for a little while longer.”

  “No problem,” he answered with a slight edge to his tone, “it's like watching a runaway squirrel though.”

  The conversation ended and Luke entered my room silently, his face watchful and carefully concealing how he felt.

  “I’m not asking you to watch me at all,” I said cautiously as he continued to advance towards me on the bed. “Actually,” I said, “I’ll ask for you to be re-assigned and I’ll get someone else.”

  “Now why would you do that?” he grinned suddenly, “who else is going to give me tips on how to handle human women?”

  “Well,” I huffed, “I think you can forget anything like that. You lied to me; I want to know why?”

  “Patty, Patty, Patty,” he said gently rolling my name off his tongue, “I had too. If I had told you I was your watcher, you would have told me to get lost,” he shrugged. “So I lied instead, my way of keeping close to you without actually telling you who I was or my capacity with the agency,”

  “Where’s your office?” I asked, suddenly trembling with a new idea.

  If I was right, then his office would be the one directly opposite mine, the one with the mysterious man inside of it who seemed to know exactly what I was thinking which could only mean one thing. It was a vampire because they were the only ones that possessed such a power, and ‘it’ could quite well be Luke.

  “Opposite yours,” he said, “I heard you just then,” he answered guiltily.

  “You still lied,” I folded my arms and sulked as I stared out of the window, “and you made me believe in some kind of erotic game you played all the time. Was that to amuse yourself?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said appearing harmless and the young mess around sort of person I’d met before. “How do you know it was all to amuse myself? Maybe I am serious about that part.”

  “You’re what?” I asked startled my voice raised quite a few octaves in the small room, “don’t ever say anything like that again. You know as well I do what will happen if anything like that happens between someone like me and someone like you,” my voice dipped to an urgent whisper. I was painfully aware that anyone could be listening in on this conversation.

  “And why not Patty?” he whispered quietly stepping closer until his face was a few inches from my own. “Don’t you think it might be fun to shake things up a little inside the agency? Don’t you think we would be good together?”

  “No,” I shifted towards the edge of the bed with my fingers clinging hold of the covers to prevent me from tumbling off the other side, “get away from me. I don’t want to ‘shake things up’ and I don’t want to be with someone that lies.”

  “I told you why I did that,” he backed away seeing he wasn’t winning this particular game and was only succeeding in raising my temper. “I had to so I could keep you as safe as possible. Matace gave me strict instructions to make sure nothing happened to you; you have no idea how special you are to him Patty. Every day he called me to ask how you were and what you’d been up to; he wanted to make sure you were happy above anything else that was all that mattered to him.”

  “So Matace told you to watch me?”

  “Yes,” he said as he sat down beside me and leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs.

  “I don’t get it,” I said, “I don’t understand why my safety would mean so much to Matace. Don’t you think that’s weird?”

  “A little,” he admitted, “but it’s not something we have to think about, is it?”

  “Depends on how you look at it I suppose,” I said. “There must be something in his house, some evidence that was missed that might link something together.”

  Luke sat back and watched me, amusement lit his eyes and some other expression that I couldn’t understand. My thoughts rambled aimlessly though my mind, and I knew he could hear them, word for word.

  “Don’t even consider it,” he said quietly, “you're not doing it and neither am I.”

  Chapter Three

  I grinned from my bed, although I had the beginnings of the headache that was gradually getting worse. It was understandable considering someone had stamped on my head.

  “I’m not considering anything at all,” I replied calmly, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yes you do,” he grinned from beside me, “you know that I can hear everything you’re thinking. And most of the time,” he said stretching his legs lazily in front of him, “it’s actually interesting to hear you, but today it’s slightly worrisome, well since you woke up anyway.”

  “And when I was unconscious?”

  “Peace and quiet.” he said laughing at the look on my face.

  I threw my pillow at him
which he dodged easily and we sat in silence.

  “I need the nurse,” I muttered as I lay back against the bed, “my head is killing me.”

  “I’m not surprised,” he commented, “Tye pretty much put everything he had into stamping on your head. If it hadn’t been for the witches that came here when you were sleeping,, you wouldn’t have survived.”

  “He was pretty terrifying,” I said remembering the scene well, “Why was he there though?”

  “Who knows,” he shrugged carelessly his ankles crossed, “I don’t even know how he managed to get back to earth. His exile caused a little rumble in the underworld but nothing that was unusual.”

  “I see,” I said thinking rapidly, “So do you think he could be connected to the murders?”

  “He had some motive for the murder of Matace but nothing to go on for Clarette which is the confusing part,” he said. “I still don’t get why someone would kill her; she was the second in command but that’s about it.”

  “I know,” I said, “her poor parents must be devastated.”

  The nurse promptly arrived, bustling through the door with a tray that held painkillers and fresh water; her face reddened when she glimpsed Luke who’d sat forwards and remained watching.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “And would your boyfriend like anything?” she asked politely causing me to choke on my drink.

  “No I don’t,” Luke cut in smoothly using his smile to disarm whatever she was going to say next.

  Once she’d left I turned to him, he must have heard her thoughts and knew exactly what she was going to ask.

  “Did you know what she was going to say?” I demanded.

  “Might have ,” he said teasing me, “does it matter?”

  “You could have corrected her,” I said yawning and stretching back against the pillow that Luke had replaced behind me.

  My eyes drifted closed and the most pleasant dreams stole around me, taking me to places I hadn’t seen before. I dreamed of relaxing gardens that stretched for miles and the sun shining down with no hint of any clouds to ruin the atmosphere. I sighed at the wonderful experience not understanding or even caring where it came from, only that for once I wasn’t dreaming of having any kind of romantic involvement with Luke.