Dark as the Grave

by Peter Dawes

  Robin sighed. “They’re capable of worse things than that. And when he realizes his abilities, his anger at our coven would be severe. He would collect our ashes as punishment if he suspects for one moment what our Mistress has planned.” He glanced away, folding his arms across his chest. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the girl already senses us. If she’s a witch worth her salt, then she must know something is amiss. This is all wrong.”

  “Then we must do away with the woman.”

  His eyes returned to Rose, an intense scowl surfacing on his face. “No, Rose. We must stop playing this game.”

  She chuckled. “Oh, Michael. You get so worked up over nothing. If we do away with the witch, he’ll be ours.”

  “I can’t believe I am listening to this.” Robin paced closer to Rose. “Turning a seer – a seer for the love of all things. We might as well sign our death warrants.”

  “Sabrina knows what she’s doing. She always has.” Rose stood, flashing a disarming smile at Robin. “I believe we should inform her of this news and see what she has to say about it.”

  “Rose!” Robin called out, as she turned for his door and opened it. Not to be deterred, Rose dashed from his room and left him to chase after her. I turned and motioned to follow them as well, but the room transformed again before I could, and one step forward only placed me back in the middle of Sabrina’s penthouse. I whipped around and regarded the sitting area, stopping my examination at once when I caught sight of Robin again.

  He laid on one of the couches, hollering in pain as a human familiar who served as our physician removed his shirt. Slashed to ribbons, the fabric fell away to reveal several deep gashes across Robin’s chest, as though he narrowly escaped being cut in half. “The wretched mortals attacked me,” he said, his breaths labored in the throes of agony and his fangs down. “Damn this plan of yours, Sabrina. You nearly had me murdered.”

  “You bloody idiot,” Sabrina said as regarded my wounded brother with annoyance. “The whole point of surveillance is not to be caught. Now, you’ve left us in a terrible position.” She scoffed. “If you expect sympathy from me, you’ve come to the wrong place. Perhaps you should seek it from that man you bedded last night when you were supposed to be minding our prodigy.”

  Robin sneered. “That was a one night encounter, Sabrina. And the mortals knew I was coming! How could I have been any more careful?”

  “Listen to me, Michael. I will say this only once before I lose my patience and have you killed.” Sabrina shoved the physician aside and dug her fingernails into Robin’s neck. “I am this close, do you hear me?! This close to having the seer in my pocket and now, not only does the witch know we’re stalking him, the other members of their Council will as well.”

  “And don’t you see what I am telling you?” Robin’s voice strained through the added insult of Sabrina’s grip. “They already knew. She’ll do what I warned you she would do and we’ll all be dead because of it.”

  “Then we must kill her. Before she has a chance to bring the seer into enlightenment.” Sabrina shoved Robin’s head back against the pillows of her couch and smoothed out the wrinkles in her form-fitting pants suit. “The girl is little more than a nuisance. My guards could do away with her.”

  The physician inched toward Robin again. Robin scoffed, closing his eyes. “Her people would expect us to strike right now. It would be a massacre.” Slowly, his lids lifted again. “Sabrina, it would take turning the seer against her for us to have a chance. That’s how long of a shot you have.”

  Sabrina turned to face Robin again. She furrowed her brow. “Turning the seer against her?” she asked.

  “Which I assure you is impossible,” Robin said, taking another labored breath, His gaze turned severe. “You’ve forced us into a difficult position. Our only recourse might be to move the coven out of Philadelphia before the Order sends someone after us.”

  “Never! I will not bend a knee to them and I refuse to cower on their account ever again. Never. I fought tooth and nail to establish this coven.”

  “You are going to have. us. slaughtered.”

  “I most certainly am not.” Sabrina relaxed enough for her emerging fangs to slip back into place. “Inside this mortal lies the will of a killer and the talent to execute. We will inspire him to use it against his lover.”

  “How do we go about doing that?” asked another female voice from the far corner of the room. I turned to find Rose standing against the wall.

  Sabrina tilted her head in Rose’s direction. “What better way to turn him against her than the illusion of betrayal? I will cloud his judgment and she will incite his anger. When he’s finished disposing of her, then we can turn him.”

  “And how do you suppose to accomplish this?” Robin asked, interrupting.

  Sabrina turned her focus back to my injured brother. “I have a plan.” She pointed at Robin. “Heal. Feed. Fuck. Do whatever you must to get back in top condition and we will strike before the Order has a chance. While I’m busy getting inside his mind, you’ll set his bitch up for the fall exactly as I tell you to. When the two events converge, we’ll have a new vampire in this coven.”

  I released a breath I did not know I was holding. Suddenly, it all made sense. I never doubted Lydia’s fidelity until I met Sabrina and everything I feared grew with exponential gravity almost overnight. “The illusion of betrayal,” I whispered, bringing a shaky hand to my head as my thoughts drifted to that fateful night again. Only this time, Robin’s memories helped me fill in the final, missing pieces.

  They transported me to Lydia’s living room while Robin stood outside, silently observing the events that unfolded. I glanced his way, seeing him stare through the parted curtains leading to Lydia’s balcony and read the resignation in his eyes clear as day. My brother might have been a participant, but he did so despite every instinct in him screaming for Sabrina to reconsider. I swallowed hard and whispered, “I forgive you, brother.”

  If only I could have asked him to do the same for me.

  Turning my focus back to the apartment’s interior, I found Lydia sitting at her dining room table and had to draw a shaky breath as I recognized the clothing she wore. Her glasses affixed in place, her eyes scanned the pages of an open book through their thin lenses while she raised a coffee mug to her mouth. I studied the spines of each tome piled around her and felt my stomach sink. They all had something to do with dark magic, the threat surrounding me that I neither saw, nor believed in. She had to try and save me from myself.

  I frowned. “Lydia,” I said, even though I knew she could not hear me. “I am sorry for not believing you. I should have known you were right, but I –”

  A knock interrupted me. Lydia and I both looked up. She removed her glasses and placed them atop one of the books before rising to answer the door. Walking closer to the other side of the apartment, I peered down at the tomes once more before regarding the entryway. As I did, Lydia gasped. “Liam,” she said, speaking a name which caused me to wince. “What happened?”

  The man hobbled into her house, looking as beaten as Robin had in the previous scene. Robin’s wounds were minor in comparison, though, because this man was mortal. Mortal and still existing in the realm of the living, yet only for a few minutes longer. The realization forced me to sit where Lydia had just been.

  Lydia examined the tall, middle-aged man, her eyes fraught with panic. “I was attacked,” he said, revealing a British accent as he spoke. “That vampire we found mucking around headquarters on Monday ambushed me on my way over.”

  “Oh no.” Lydia lifted one of Liam’s arms and draped it across her shoulders. “I’m going to lay you down on my bed so we can look at you. Can you make it?”

  “I’ve made it this far.” Liam winced, leaning part of his weight onto Lydia. “Bastard. I wish I knew why he just ripped into me. I should be dead.”

  “The vampires in that coven are all acting insane. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”

&n
bsp; “Well, they’ve managed to do the impossible, so they’re feeling bloody smug about it.” Liam walked into the bedroom with Lydia’s assistance. I stood, following right behind them and becoming all too aware of the mistake I was about to make.

  Lydia lowered him onto her bed and began taking a better look at his injuries. “Liam, I’m going to grab my first aid kit and a few washcloths. Take off your jeans and shirt, if you can.”

  “I’ll give it the old college try.” Liam winced as he started unbuttoning his shirt. “I don’t know if there’s much you can do. We might have to wait it out until sunrise before I can check into the hospital.”

  “I know.” Lydia walked into the bathroom and pulled out a first aid kit from beneath her sink. I recalled giving it to her in jest, an allusion to what we coined our ‘first date’ and could not suppress a frown at seeing her need to use it. “I’ll do what I can for you here,” Lydia said, placing the kit next to her sink and turning for the linen closet. “But then, I’m calling Peter.”

  “Would it be safe to pull him into this?”

  “I’ll tell him to come in the morning.” She pulled out a stack of washcloths and tossed them in the sink. “If we need to, we’ll call an ambulance and have him meet us at the hospital.”

  “Alright.” Liam grunted in pain as he pulled off his shirt and started on the button of his pants. “What are you going to tell him?”

  Lydia hesitated. She turned on the water and immersed the washcloths in silence. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “I haven’t heard from him in a few days and it has me worried, to be honest. He still doubts any of this is real.”

  “The High Council’s decision, I’m sure.” Liam gingerly slid his jeans down past his hips before giving up and settling against the bed again. “Fucking vampire. I’m afraid I’ve done all I can do.” He gazed toward the doorway to the bathroom. “Lydia, every seer I’ve ever met spends the first two decades of their life in blissful ignorance, and probably many of those just as skeptical as your Peter. He will believe one day.”

  “He might not have enough time.” Lydia walked back into the bedroom with her materials and placed them on her nightstand. Picking up one of the wet washcloths, she dabbed at one of Liam’s wounds. “I’m tempted to disobey the High Council and draw out his powers anyway. The vampires are going to keep this up if we wait for the High Council to send another seer.”

  “Your father’ll have a fit if you do.” He winced. “I know you mean well, but we have to be sensitive toward the natural order. Drawing out a seer’s powers before their time is a dangerous game. There are scales which need to stay balanced.”

  “But you said it yourself. They’re acting smug and we both know they’ve become dangerous.” She frowned, wiping at his chest. “Damn, he got you good.”

  “I still would like to know why the bloody hell he left me alive.”

  “Just be grateful they did.”

  “Maybe once this stops hurting.” Slowly he began to relax, his attention focusing more directly on Lydia as he either became accustomed to the pain or needed a mental distraction from it. “What has you worried about Peter?”

  She shrugged. “Besides him being quiet? Something’s been off about him for a while. He acts funny when I see him – a lot angrier and a lot more –” Pausing, she reconsidered what she was about to say with a shake of her head. “Anyway, if we don’t draw out his powers, they’ll not only kill us, they’ll do God only knows what with Peter. He doesn’t see it coming.”

  “You think the demons mean to turn him?”

  Lydia nodded. “I’ve caught him talking to this vampiress who looks at him like some trophy she wants to have and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. She would’ve killed me if she knew I was watching.”

  Liam frowned. “If you’ve known you have a seer on your hands, you shouldn’t have gotten romantically involved with him. The life of a seer isn’t an easy one. This won’t be the first time you’ll see him in the middle of danger, dear.”

  “This is different, though.” Lydia set down the washcloth and raised her hand to touch the pendant dangling from her neck. “He gave this to me for my birthday. Do you know how frightened I am? I put a protection spell on it. I keep seeing my death and I know it’s going to happen before I get to be his watcher.” She sighed. “The natural order’s flown out the window, Liam. Let me get Peter in tomorrow and let’s finally tell him the –”

  The front door slammed open, interrupting them. Both Lydia and Liam gazed past my invisible form into the other room. I could only shiver, knowing who this was. Far more than that, I found myself trapped in the surreal notion that I knew what he meant to do. And although the invader was me, I could not do a single thing to stop him. Lydia whispered, “Oh dear God, is it them?”

  Liam could only shake his head before my former self entered the room.

  Lydia froze when she saw him standing there, clutching a butcher knife with a white-knuckle grip. “Oh, no. No, Peter...” she said, but as my former self looked toward her I saw murder pouring from his gaze and recognized the part of me that would become Flynn. Every person I would go on to murder over the next five years would recognize the being standing there. Before I became an assassin, my dark side would become personified. This would be his maiden voyage.

  At first, I turned away in revulsion, but was compelled to look again when Liam shot to his feet and hobbled forward despite his injuries. He struggled to pull up his pants, tripping in the effort. “Peter, stop!” he said. “You don’t know what you’re doing.” He came to his feet, but my former self charged forward, looking to intercept the perceived interloper first.

  “No, Peter! This isn’t what you think!” Lydia yelled, her hands coming to her mouth when he thrust the knife forward, plunging it into Liam’s stomach. This wound alone would have been mortal, but my former self was not yet satisfied. He removed the blade only to slit Liam’s throat.

  Lydia stood as the mirror image of me trained his sights on her and all I could do was watch as he advanced toward her. She looked down at her mentor in shock. “Oh, God. Liam –” she began, but the would-be assassin thrust the knife deep into her chest, in a fit of rage. Her eyes returned to him, a single tear trickling down her cheek. “I’m so sorry, Peter,” she whispered.

  “Burn in hell,” he said with contempt while she fell to his feet.

  I could no longer watch in silence. “No!” I shouted, running forward and collapsing next to Lydia. Tears streamed down my face as I touched her dead body, trying to feel her skin and will her back to life. My inability to so much as stroke her hair only served to break my heart further. “Why did I do this to you?” I asked, raising both hands to my face. “Oh God, why did I not see it before?”

  “Peter the blind. Sight, but no vision.”

  I looked up when I heard the voice. My past self had vanished, leaving me alone in the room with the two corpses which were bleeding out on the carpet. I furrowed my brow when I saw neither body speaking, and then glanced around again. “Who is there?” I asked.

  A familiar voice emerged, entreating me back to the present.

  Chapter 24

  “I’m sorry I didn’t stop you, Peter, but this was the only way I could reach you. You were lost and I had to knock you out of it somehow.”

  Opening my eyes, I discovered belatedly that I had removed my glasses and immediately clenched then shut, groping around the floor for where they had landed. As I grumbled expletives under my breath, I reached and fumbled until my fingers found something hard and plastic. It was not until I had them affixed over my eyes again that I lifted my lids. When I did, though, I saw her standing in front of me, frowning at the state I was in.

  Monica folded her hands together in front of her stomach, an emerald-colored scarf tied around her neck which matched the color of her eyes. The color of my eyes, I mused, and Lydia’s as well, bringing me back to the memories which had been assailing me. As I peered down at the pile of ash an
d personal effects that had been my brother, I felt a wave of heart-wrenching guilt assail me again. Monica crouched beside me, as if she knew where my thoughts had strayed.

  “I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me right now,” she said, her voice soft and lacking its normal, sarcastic edge. “You needed to see the truth, though, and I knew you wouldn’t believe it coming from me. He was the only other person who had seen it.”

  “What have I done?” I asked, my voice sounding weak. As I looked at Monica again, I realized she no longer troubled me the same way she had. Far from it, I found the presence of one sympathetic soul comforting. As much as I could be comforted in the moment.

  “She got in your head.” Monica shifted her focus from me to the rest of the room. “Sadly, you got the whole kit-and-caboodle. Which is impressive, given the average age of the vampires in this room.”

  “You will forgive me if I fail to relish that achievement.”

  “No, I’m not saying you should.”

  When our eyes met again, she frowned and lifted a hand, settling it on my back. “This wasn’t totally your fault,” she said.

  “I will keep that in mind, when I am of the mind to forgive myself,” I said. “For the time being, I would prefer you not saying that. I know Sabrina was inside my head. My hands still accomplished this.”

  Monica fell silent, allowing me another moment to look around the room, fully processing what all had transpired. Something inside of me felt awake and alive, and at the same time, that vitality cut my heart and made it bleed. I tried to avoid looking at Robin’s remnant again, but my gaze settled on it as if compelled. As if the universe wanted me to look upon the most grievous of my recent sins and feel ashamed. I clenched my eyes shut, but regardless, more tears threatened to fall. “What do I do now?”

  “You take a deep breath and let me reason with you. We have a lot to discuss now that I feel like you’ll actually listen, but we aren’t safe here.”

  “Do you think she will return?”