The Depths of Darkness

by Laurie Bowler

  “Heed my warning my girl,” she seethed, “never get involved with a vampire especially not Luke; he’s been marked as unavailable for years and I’ve tried to get him for myself. I was this close,” she moved faster than I could blink and stood before me. Her forefinger and her thumb pinched together, “This close,” she repeated. “I’m getting him to like me let alone develop feelings for me. So don’t, rain on my parade young child or I’ll be the one coming after you, not Lilly.”

  With that she turned on her heels and slammed the door behind her. I slithered to the floor in a small heap, knowing she was troubled by her own feelings for him just like I was troubled for mine. Only the ones I had, I didn’t actually want.

  “Don’t worry,” I muttered softly, “I won’t be raining on anyone’s parade. He’s all yours.”

  Standing and physically shaking myself, the thunder clapped loudly in the sky as the clouds rolled in darkening the room and the outside world, weird seeing as how it was sunny a moment ago. The storm could only have been conjured by a witch, and that same person being Lilly trying to intimidate me.

  “Oh well Lilly,” I laughed, “you can bring the storm but you will not be bringing a war to this world.”

  With a certainty I’d never felt before, I slipped into clean clothes after vigorously washing myself and leaving my skin sore and blistering in some sections. I sighed heavily with the tiny fractions of regret for how I had to treat Luke and keep him at a distance that was safe for both of us, which meant no more kissing me or holding my hand and especially picking me up and carrying me when I was hurt or weak.

  “Patty,” Luke’s voice bellowed through the house. Above, the lightning that suddenly crackled and struck across the sky, momentarily lit a pathway before sizzling and dying.

  “Coming,” I shouted back.

  Hurrying out of my room with one last look around, the darkness had created gigantic shadows across the walls and even the bed now seemed formidable.

  I fled the room as quickly as my feet would carry me, stamping down the stairs and swinging around the bended corners of the curvy stairway. The tiles made slapping noises when my feet touched them. Hence I would never make a good vampire; I am far too noisy to be one of them. Shaking away the thought that popped into my head, joining their race would be the very last resort and I’d have to be on my deathbed before I’d let that happen.

  Heading in the direction of his voice and finding him with Benjamin and Darcy, all three looked my way as I entered the dining room. The smell of freshly brewed coffee hit my taste buds causing my mouth to water and my stomach to grumble in protest from having to wait for breakfast.

  Darcy swiftly left the room and returned with freshly baked pancakes, her smile was soft, a little like the one I’d seen the other day. It was strange to think she acted like two completely different people whenever she chose to, but I guessed that was another thing about vampires that I didn’t know and wasn’t entirely different to being human.

  “You’re here,” Luke clapped his hands from his seat at the head of the table, his hands tightly holding a mug. “Good. I’m glad. I’d like you to meet Benjamin.”

  I stood inside the doorway; the feeling of butterflies began to flutter in my stomach from the nerves of meeting another vampire. How many more would I have to endure before I could get out of here and away from Luke?

  “Hi,” I croaked, “nice to meet you.”

  I made no move to shake hands or touch him in any way. Luke relaxed backwards in his chair, and wiped the tinge of redness from his lips. I suspected he was having his own breakfast. I was more than glad he’d decided to drink it before I arrived. Not that it particularly bothered me, but the less I saw of vampirism the easier it would be for me to slip away from them and this world they’d created for themselves and back into my rather boring in comparison life.

  “Nice to meet you properly,” he drawled from across the table. “Come closer I would like to see this girl that has the immortal world in such uproar.”

  Seeing how I didn’t have many options open to me, I stepped towards him and stood leaving the table as a barrier in front of him. I knew Luke wouldn’t let him hurt me and I knew that I was completely safe here among them.

  “I see you’re young,” he commented, “and you have an incredible power surrounding you.”

  “Benjamin,” Darcy laughed, “don’t start with all that again,” she rolled her eyes and turned to me. “Benjamin likes to think he can sense auras of people but in reality he’s just a blood sucking vampire like the rest of us.”

  Her smile seemed to dim slightly as if she couldn’t hold it in place, or was that my imagination?

  “Come and sit down,” Luke patted the seat beside him. “We have some information we need to share with you.”

  Luke seemed cheerful and the events that happened in my room appeared not to have affected him at all; his demeanour was disconcerting and more than a little strange to say the least.

  I straightened my shoulders and headed for the chair opposite him, completely ignoring the one he’d stood and pulled out ready for me. His eyes watched me, the anger sprang into them instantly and then he merely shrugged and released the chair to resume his own seat.

  Darcy and Benjamin sat beside each other, their own clouds hung around them. My magic had concluded and sprang open the feelings and emotions of those around me; it was one of the first things I’d learnt from Matace.

  “I’m going to teach you something today,” he’d said after our stroll around his grounds. “My young one,” he began, “I want to teach you as much as I can while my life is still on earth because once I cross the boundaries into the other realm belonging to souls, I cannot contact you at all. But I will be watching over you.

  “Please don’t talk like that,” I whispered back to him. “You're not dying are you?”

  “Oh no,” he chuckled, “Of course not, but you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow and you should never take a day for granted.”

  “I know,” I’d replied.

  Our stroll had been on a Sunday afternoon while the sun was the highest in the sky; the birds had been noisily whistling their tunes in the background as we’d strolled around his grounds. Taking in the unusual sunshine, (the one that I’d conjured to impress Matace), he’d acted rather fatherly towards me, taking me under his wing and advising me of whom I could trust and the creatures that were destined to be evil and failures to the realm. This I’d consumed like a sponge, and I’d listened attentively knowing this was vital for my rise in the realm to become as good as I could be.

  Once we’d entered the house, Matace had revealed the spellbook that he’d always used. It had been battered over time and the pocketsized book looked more than a little old. The binding had been taped back together while the pages, crispy and used often needed to be treated with the utmost care and attention.

  “This,” he’d coughed slightly, “is my most prized book. This is the one where all my homemade spells are documented. When I do die Patty,” he’d turned serious eyes to mine and placed the book into my hands, “this will be yours to keep and treasure as much as I have. Be warned some of the spells are homemade concoctions to prevent war and slaughters whereas others are for the power of goodness and nothing more.”

  Being overwhelmed with his speech, I could only nod in acceptance. Being in the presence of one of the greatest witches that the realm had ever seen or been humoured to have inside their circle was indeed overwhelming.

  “We need to discuss what we need to do about these demons coming after you Patty,” Luke cut through my thoughts, his voice clear and deep. “Are you listening?” he asked with restrained impatience.

  “What...?” I asked visibly shaking my head. “Yes, Sorry I was thinking about something,”

  “Care to share?” he asked smoothly mesmerised by the fact I was smothering delicious amounts of syrup on top of my pancakes.

  “Not really,” I answered my tone abrupt as I
covered the uncomfortable moment with my eating, “what’s this with demons?”

  “They’re coming here to speak to you,” Darcy answered. “They have a lot of issues with you and the information you have gathered so far. I don’t think you can hold them off either,” she added. “Especially not with magic,” her final sentence was a mere whisper inside the room. Her eyes glazed over with unconcealed anger as she watched Luke instantly become protective of me.

  “Now Darcy,” he said silkily, “don’t speak to her like that,” he reprimanded. “What do you think we should do Patty?”

  He turned to me and faced me, his back towards the other two who sat rigidly still. Their eyes didn’t blink and neither did their expressions change from solidly stony.

  “Do you think you two can at least try and pretend to act a little human around me please?” I complained. “It's a little off putting eating breakfast with walking talking statues.”

  “Now who’s being rude?” Darcy asked standing and reaching across the table, her fingers outstretched towards me as she grabbed a fistful of my shirt. She physically pulled me out of my seat without a minute’s hesitation and before I could react and plant a spell cleanly on her. Her eyes blazed red with anger as her pinched expression got so deep I thought her face was going to crack. “I should warn you Patty,” she spat, “Don’t...”

  She didn’t have another chance to speak as Luke stood with such a force his chair was sent crashing and splintered into many pieces. His eyes blazed with anger as he launched himself across the small gap and wrestled Darcy to the ground.

  Her cry of outrage and shock was loud. I had to clamp my hands over my ears in a child like fashion, and place my protective bubble around me. I walked slowly backwards towards the farthest wall as Luke continued to wrestle Darcy.

  He was whispering to her so I couldn't make out what he was saying, but it was followed by their launching at each other with their hands outstretched towards each other. Luke got there first and grabbed hold of her sending her into the wall and she slid gracefully to the floor landing in a heap.

  “I told you never to hurt her Darcy,” Luke seethed. “You made your promise to leave her be. What caused you to do that?” he hissed.

  The hissing and growling emanated through the room, vibrating and making the light fixtures and cutlery rattle and shake themselves. An unknown strong force caused the plates to crash the floor off of the table.

  My own currents flew around the room as I entered into the spell Matace had taught me to show their auras and emotions. I could see clearly Luke was furious and confused whereas Darcy was furious and her aura betrayed her quite clearly. She was as jealous of Luke’s feelings for me even as I was trying to force them backwards and ignore them. What a tangled web this was appearing to be. The only one of us that seemed to flow amusement was Benjamin who simply stepped out of the way and watched calmly refusing to get involved in their argument. His aura was clearly amused and more than a little calm.

  “Stop!” he shouted above the din. “Come on now. We are all old friends with a new friend. What’s this about?”

  My protection was up and in full force. Backing away before he could get to me, Luke saw my protective shield and rather than try to come near me, he simply retained another seat and mumbled something about Darcy paying for the damage.

  Darcy however stood and fumed stamping her feet like a child and sent me daggering furious looks that I had to endure while Luke sent her a silent message to leave me alone.

  I remained where I was with my protection around me; I wasn’t particularly scared. Fighting a vampire was easy enough once you knew their weakest points which differed in every vampire.

  “Patty,” Luke said softly disturbing my reverie, “please sit down and finish what’s left of your breakfast. Darcy, go outside and sort yourself out. This is no place for you to fight and neither is it the right time with demons heading this way.”

  I sat slowly, warily watching Darcy who was now flustered and at a complete loss of what to do. Luke remained calm and didn’t bat another eye even when Darcy went slamming out of the house, through the back door with Benjamin kindly removing himself from the table. His eyes were kind and gentle when they met mine, but the naughtiest grin stayed around his mouth even though it was hidden from Luke.

  “When will they arrive?” I asked, “I mean how long do we have?”

  Luke studied me for a few minutes, his eyes clearly assessing my every move; it was like he was trying to figure out whether I was nervous or just plain curious. After minutes ticked by on the clock above his head, I watched, fascinated as the minutes continued waiting for him to answer and intrigued by what he would say.

  “I believe they’re arriving sometime after six,” he replied forcefully. “I doubt you’ll be here though, will you?”

  “Will you stop me if I decide to leave?”

  “Depends,” he relaxed backwards in his chair, tipping it so the front legs no longer touched the floor but remained balanced, “on whether you’ll take me with you to whatever it is you’re trying to cook up this time.”

  “I’m not thinking of anything,” I answered which was true enough. My mind had remained deliberately clear, no words had entered and I tried desperately hard not to think about his kisses. “Anyway,” I sighed, “you don’t want to be around me as much as I don’t want to be around you.”

  His eyebrows rose, and his hands clasped the back of his head.

  “I seriously doubt you know anything that I’m thinking Patty,” he said. “Not even your magical powers stretch that far, do they?”

  He was the most exasperating man I’d ever met, always answering me with a question and resuming at a click of the fingers to the relaxed ultra composed vampire. It was like even the kisses didn’t exist and nothing touched him. His heart was truly frozen; there was nothing I could do to thaw him out, no matter how hard I tried.

  “Alright,” I said springing to my feet, “I’m going to follow Lilly. Now that she knows that we know what she’s up to, I know we have to be careful. There’s something missing in all of this Luke, don’t you get it as well?”

  “Get what?” he asked a small tight smile playing around his mouth. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

  I stamped my foot hard on the floor in frustration. For a while I’d had a notion that this case with Matace and Lilly wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. The Cerberus were alive and resurrected but they could be easily destroyed; it felt like there was something more to this than what we knew so far.

  The puzzle was still shady, the pieces slightly out of my grasp and only by following Lilly could I begin to understand what she was up to. We knew her future was destined for her to take over the world and destroy everything in this world that we knew to be true. But something didn’t quite fit no matter how hard I tried to put the piece of the puzzle into place, it simply didn’t fit.

  “I think she’s hiding something else,” I said finally after many deep breaths much to Luke’s amusement. “There’s something not right, and the pieces don’t fit together as sweetly as we originally thought.”

  Chapter Eight

  “What do you think she’s hiding?” he asked thoughtfully, “I mean,” he shrugged, “what else is there that she can possibly want to hide?”

  A long moment of silence passed between us; I mulled over his question.

  “I’m not sure,” I replied. “But we have to follow her so we can find out.”

  I didn’t wait for his answer and left the room. Moments later I heard his chair scrape across the floor as he too left the table. I didn’t hear any footsteps follow me and for once I was grateful, another confrontation with him was something that I didn’t need.

  “Patty,” I heard his voice as if he stood next to me. “Don’t go alone. Wait for me and I’ll come with you, if only so I can make sure you’re safe.”

  I supposed they were his words of warning, the softness of his voice but with the deep in
dents of concern and worry. He was warning me for my own good, against leaving on my own.

  How many more vampires thought like all men that they were the ones we had to follow and bow down to? I wondered to myself as I hurried up the many flights of stairs back to my room to change my shoes to sneakers, so I could be comfortable and run if I needed too.

  As soon as the thought entered my mind, it was quickly followed with the sound of laughter from Luke. He’d heard and found my thoughts fit his own specification for amusement..

  “You can keep on listening as well mister,” I mumbled under my breath but still clear enough for him to hear. “It's going to get much worse than that.”

  To my annoyance he chuckled and began to whistle another happy tune just to wind me up a little bit more. He seemed to get his kicks out of irritating me and bringing the worst out of me, which wasn’t the person that I was, since my decision still stood to blatantly ignore any feelings that were rapidly developing for him.

  “I’m ready,” I shouted, “hope that hurt your ears.”

  “On the contrary,” he said from behind me, I yelped and jumped away with sudden fright, “sorry I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said as his hands reached out to steady me but I maneuvered around his hands and dodged him expertly. He started to grin much like the old teasing Luke I always remembered so well before this happened.

  “I was about to say,” he grinned, “your shouting doesn’t affect me at all. Now, if you screamed let’s say in passion I’m sure it would be deafening.”

  I felt the embarrassment rapidly spread over my face, turning me beetroot red; my eyes felt like they’d bulged out of their sockets at his suggestion. It was so tempting and he was so close. Just one finger was all I had to reach out and I would be able to touch him, skin to skin contact.

  “I doubt your passionate encounters will do anything for me,” I replied tartly turning my back on him to re tie my shoe lace, “and besides,” I carried on rambling, “vampires and witches cannot mingle romantically together and we’ve already broken our share of the rules which won’t go unnoticed.”