Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2)

by A. D. Koboah

I thought I knew what beauty was, but every woman I had ever considered beautiful seemed to melt into insignificance beside the one before me. Her skin was a dark, rich mahogany, her face heart shaped and her piercing, deep set eyes almost feline in quality. She had high cheekbones and full, sensuous plum-coloured lips that seemed to invite a caress. It was the kind of beauty that cut deep, leaving me gasping and unable to ever forget it. Her ebony hair, which was the woolly texture that most Negroes possessed, was pulled back, a scarf hastily tied over it. I was not aware of the fact that I had started moving again until I was standing directly before her. She merely gazed at me, a sad, soft smile on her lips as I knelt before her, drinking in her beauty. She had an innate gracefulness in the turn of her long, slender neck and I sensed a quiet strength in her. Staring into those bewitching eyes, I had the strong sense that she was much older than she appeared to be, although her face was youthful.

  I could not take my eyes off of her and I reached out to touch her, wanting to feel her skin which looked like dark velvet. I stopped myself in time, surprised by my boldness, but she seemed to lean in slightly, her eyes fluttering shut, long, sooty lashes resting on her cheekbone, as if she longed to feel my touch.

  All too soon the image before me began to waver and I felt a tug of anguish in my heart. Distress flared across her features and it seemed as if she was about to speak. Her lips did not move but I heard words spoken directly into my mind.

  Wait for me.

  Those three simple words changed everything for me.

  I wanted to speak, ask a million questions, but I could not utter a word. Her gaze was one of compassion, sorrow gathered behind it.

  Wait for me.

  It was all she said and then the noise of the woodland surged all around me and the ripe stench of the cadavers filled my nostrils. Moonlight beat away the fading sunlight in the chapel and the clearing came flooding back in a swirl of emerald green and smoky blacks.

  A hand with sharp nails dug into my shoulder and I was wrenched fully back into the clearing. I was thrown back against one of the trees and Auria’s snarling face filled my vision.

  “What was that?” she hissed.

  “You saw her?”

  “Yes! What did you do?”

  “You were there with me?” A tentative joy filled me at the knowledge that the woman had not been some kind of delusion.

  “No, you idiot! I saw what you saw.”

  “What now?” Onyx had sauntered over to us, Emory not far behind her. She appeared bored, but her expression quickly changed to one of anxiety, as did Emory’s.

  “There was something here,” Auria said, releasing me and facing the other two.

  “What was it?” Emory asked.

  “I don’t know. Search the area, find whatever that was and bring it to me.”

  “But there can’t be anything here,” Onyx replied, although she was looking into the trees. “We would know if—”

  “I said search the area!”

  Emory stared at Auria for a few moments and then vanished. After a long, malicious stare directed at me, Onyx did the same, leaving me with Auria.

  When Auria faced me, I began to understand why the other two had appeared to be so anxious. It was because whatever I had seen had scared Auria. I could see it now, a paralysing fear casting shadows of self-doubt through her mind. It was the first time either of them had seen her afraid of anyone or anything. She reached over and grasped me by the shirtfront.

  “Whatever she is, we’ll find her. And if you did anything to—”

  “I did not do anything, you know that. I do not know where the vision, or whatever she was, came from.”

  She stared at me for a long, bleak moment, searching my thoughts and seeing the truth of my words. She let go of my shirt.

  “Get inside the chapel and stay there!”

  Not daring to argue, I walked away. As I reached the chapel, I turned back to see her staring at me, fear and uncertainty clear in her eyes. I disappeared into the chapel.

  Chapter 7

  I spent the last few hours of that night sitting on my own in the chapel. And as those hours dwindled toward dawn, I began to feel an ache in my bones that seemed to radiate to every single part of me. And I welcomed that pain, for it appeared to be penance for letting Julia die.

  Onyx entered as the first few rays of sunlight pushed against the gloom in the chapel. With only a snort in my direction, she disappeared into the underground chamber. Emory’s voice reached me in the chapel. He was talking to Auria.

  “Why send me?” he asked. There was a decidedly whiny tone in his voice. “You know he despises everything to do with you—especially me. He will kill me if—”

  “It will be a mercy compared to what I will do to you if you come back without having spoken to him,” she snapped.

  She was talking about her son, whom she had turned into a vampire when he was a mere child. I gathered from her thoughts that he had never forgiven her for it.

  She let the silence gather for a few moments. “He will know what it was that came to him, or at least know how to find out.” Her tone softened. “Emory, I would prefer to have you here, but Onyx is the strongest among us now. I need her here in case it comes again, but in the flesh this time.” It seemed as if he was about to depart, but she stopped him. “Hurry back. We will not start the ceremony without you.”

  I sat there as the gloom in the chapel was farther pushed back by the weak light of dawn, wallowing in my misery. I did not realise immediately that Auria was standing behind me.

  When I turned around, she was watching me, her gaze similar to that of a slaveholder assessing a slave they had just purchased.

  She smiled then, not the cold, glacial smiles I had seen so far, but one that held a hint of tenderness. A low chuckle escaped her, a deep, velvety rumble.

  “Yes, perhaps my gaze is detached and a little bit cold. But I see your suffering, guilt and inner turmoil and I cannot empathise. It has been so long since I was troubled with trivial emotions such as those. But slaveholder?” She laughed again. “No. We are beyond them, far beyond any human. We are celestial beings in comparison. I see you do not agree with that. But we no longer exist within society. And the boundaries they have created for their race do not exist for us.” She sighed, her gaze growing more intense and her smile almost completely tender as she reached out a hand to brush back my hair. “Such beauty,” she mused, seemingly lost in her thoughts.

  But she was brought sharply back when I cringed from her touch, almost like a dog fearing a kick from a violent master.

  The smile lost all tenderness and hardened so it was as brittle as a chunk of ice. Her eyes were like the surface of a frozen lake. Then she was kneeling before me, her hand clasping my chin, her sharp nails digging into my flesh. Her face reflected all her inner viciousness so that there was hardly any hint of the beautiful woman.

  “Your beauty may be mesmerising, Avery, but be careful. For it will not be enough to save you if you displease me.”

  She was on her feet again, her gaze merciless as it bore down on me.

  “Stay here if you wish and suffer the effects of the sun. But get that girl...” She sneered at the word “girl,” but I was beginning to get used to reading her thoughts and I saw fear and unease flicker through her mind as well as her eyes. “...or whatever it is you saw, out of your head.” Again that heartless smile slowly curled around her mouth. “You belong to me now. No one and nothing can save you. Not that creature you saw and not your God!”

  The air around her puckered and shimmered, and then I was alone. But the sound of her laughter reached me from the depths of the chapel. It seemed as if it was a long time before it died away.

  Alone as the sun wreaked its revenge on my unnatural body, the anger lurking at the edge of my grief slunk out of the shadows like a vengeful wraith. I replayed the events of the last couple of nights, letting the rage uncurl and grow until it was all I saw. I hated them—not just the beasts below in
the underground room, I hated the Fosters and every single slave on that plantation who had watched Julia and me being led to our destruction like lambs to the slaughter.

  I remained there as the hours wore on and the pain made my limbs feel heavy, my thoughts sluggish, but I couldn’t bear the thought of being closeted in that dark, dank space with them. So I knelt by the altar, allowing myself some respite from the soul-destroying anger by letting my thoughts return to the vision of the girl kneeling alone in the ghostly, skeletal remains of this chapel.

  As I sat there thinking about her, an idea, a glimmer of hope, began to form. For the woman to appear to me like that, it had to mean that there was hope, especially since she had engendered such a fierce anxiety in Auria. It was something for me to focus on in this valley I had been cast into. And it was what gave me the idea to start the fire. She had been in this chapel, but the chapel had been a burnt ruin and it didn’t look as if it had been a recent fire, either. Was what I had seen a vision of the past? Perhaps the chapel had suffered a fire and been restored. But I remembered Auria’s shock and consternation, not only at the vision of the girl, but at the ruins of the chapel. Auria was the one who’d had this chapel built, and she would have known if what I had seen was of the past. So perhaps it was a glimpse of the future.

  Or maybe I had lost my sanity along with my soul.

  I crouched by the altar in the exact spot where she had been kneeling, offering up a prayer. Oh, how I would have given anything to have had a few more seconds with her.

  Then I grew angry at myself. My wife, my loyal, devoted wife’s carcass was lying outside, and yet my thoughts were suffused with images of the darky girl I had seen. Even as I reprimanded myself, my thoughts kept returning to those beautiful eyes and the way they had filled with compassion as they gazed up into mine. Compassion and...and...

  I rose to my feet, not allowing myself to believe what I thought I had seen in her eyes. I was a fiend, a devil. Even if what I thought was possible, I didn’t deserve it.

  Clearing my mind, I listened. I could hear birds twittering in the woods and the slaves singing a mournful hymn as they toiled in the field. If I listened deeply I could hear as far away as the mansion. Alden and his father were arguing. Even the sound of their voices made my stomach curl in rage. But from the underground chamber, I heard only the flickering of the torches hung on the walls, nothing of life, not even a stray breath, from the two animals slumbering below. The day had already lengthened and afternoon would give way to twilight in less than an hour. The idea to burn the chapel had taken root; all I had to do was act on it.

  The barrels of whisky were still outside.

  I retrieved one of the barrels, being careful to make as little noise as possible, and brought it into the chapel. I proceeded to pour it along the floor and the pews. I lit a piece of linen cloth with a flint and steel, worried the sound would wake them. But all was quiet in the underground chamber. Then I ignited the whisky, watching the flames leap into life with a whoosh and curl its way down the aisle to the pews. I did not have much time left.

  I gathered the dark power to me and shimmered into the underground chamber. I was unsure of what to do until I saw the gold staff. With it held tightly in my hand, I approached the coffin and opened the one nearest to me. Auria lay as still as a corpse, her dark hair wound around her, her sluggish incoherent dreams reaching me. The sconces lit her in a hellish, fiery light as I raised the staff.

  I faltered for a moment and my courage almost deserted me when her eyelids began to flicker. Picturing Julia as helpless as a lamb in Onyx’s grasp, I drove the staff into Auria’s stomach.

  She awoke with a screech that sent fear thrilling through me and I froze for a few precious seconds. The lid of the second coffin was flung off with a crash as Onyx awoke and sat up. Her features contorted into a mask of rage when she took in the scene of the staff in Auria’s stomach as Auria screamed and screamed, seemingly paralysed by pain. I pulled out the staff and was about to strike Onyx with it, but she was already half out of the coffin when she vanished. The staff was wrenched out of my hand from behind and I was lifted off my feet and thrown across the room. I hit the wall with enough force to make the whole building shudder, and for the first time since the making of this new body, I felt excruciating pain along my back and head. The pain was already starting to recede as I opened my eyes.

  Auria was still screaming. Onyx stood a few feet away from her, anguish lining her face as she listened to those screams. She appeared to be torn between going to Auria and attacking me. But then she fixed that hateful glare on me, fangs bared, and I knew she had made her choice. Looking like something that resided in the deepest depths of hell, she rushed toward me.

  I do not think I ever believed I would come away from this alive, so I couldn’t move as she descended. She was just moments from me when the flames from the sconces on either side of me flared violently. Onyx stopped short, looking at the ground in bewilderment when the earth by my feet erupted into flames. She squealed as those flames reared up like a fiery cobra and rushed toward her. Her skirt caught alight first, and then the rest of her was lit in an orange fireball. Her screams drowned out Auria’s as she whirled fruitlessly, trying to extinguish the flames whilst I looked on in shock. And I could have sworn I heard another less distinct scream join those of Onyx and Auria’s.

  That third scream had the queerest effect on me, like a hook in my gut. Wrenched out of my trance by it, I leapt past the screaming fireball Onyx had become, and ran for the stairs, gathering the dark force to me until the underground chamber disappeared and I was outside the chapel. I could still hear their screams amidst the roar of the fire that raged within the chapel as the sun began to set and the first few drops of rain splattered against my face.

  I had no way of knowing whether or not Auria or Onyx would be able to survive the blaze, but if they did, it would not give me much time for what I planned to do next.

  Gathering Julia’s corpse in my arms, I disappeared into the trees.

  Chapter 8

  The one I wanted the most was the first to see me. Alden. He was standing in the cotton field talking, or I should say shouting, at the man I had seen carry out the whipping two days ago: The plantation foreman. Although the sun had already begun to set and rain was falling, the slaves were still bent double, working methodically with a fearful urgency, as if the devil himself was indeed at their heels. Alden glanced toward the trees and then halted in mid-flow as the colour completely drained from his face. I imagined that this is how Lot’s wife might have looked as he stared past the rows of cotton and the dark figures working between them, to me. After a few moments he staggered back, his eyes never leaving mine as I stood at the edge of the field by the trees with Julia in my arms. By that time, the foreman and a few others had noticed his odd behaviour and followed his gaze. Fear and horror quickly spread through the field like a tsunami and a few screams pierced the warm summer evening.

  Alden turned and fled. The main house was at least a twenty minute walk away. At a run he could perhaps reach it in five. I would save him for last.

  I gently laid Julia’s body—no, her corpse—on the soft grass as more screams joined the others in a pitiful chorus of horror as the acrid stench of their fear drifted to me. It almost overwhelmed the scent of their blood which sweetened the twilight air. The sound of their feet hitting the earth as they began to run away was like a multitude of heartbeats beating frantically. To me, it appeared as if they were moving in slow motion, the sluggish flight that characterised nightmares, and for a few seconds, I almost felt remorse because they all knew that most, if not all of them, would be dead before they could reach the edge of the field. But the rage, along with the cold, sharp thorns of bloodlust, had pulled me in too deep to allow me to feel anything for them. I tore my gaze away from them to look down at Julia’s hard, bloated face. Her skin was purple under the light of the setting sun and her eyes were milky white. The corpse now looked nothing a
t all like my dear, sweet wife, but I knelt and stroked her hair, kissing her gently on the forehead.

  “I know your kind heart would never approve of what I am about to do, especially in your name. But I hope you will forgive me this one last thing.”

  The sightless eyes of the corpse stared past me, neither seeing the darkening sky or the setting sun.

  I straightened and surveyed the fleeing figures, welcoming the pressure in my gums as my incisors lengthened and the red veil descended. Then I drew that dark power to me and became weightless as I transported myself into the field.

  I caught the first slave by the front of his shirt. I didn’t give him time to scream but brought my mouth down savagely on his neck and tore his throat out. Hot, sweet blood spurted from the wound, but as enticing as it was, I let him go and he slowly sank to his knees with his hand to his throat, his gaze on mine, his expression a strange mixture of confusion and awe. He was slowly tilting to the right when I moved on to the next slave, a female.

  She merely stood frozen to the spot screaming in terror as I advanced. This time I took a few moments to savour the warm crimson nectar before I broke her neck and threw her body away from me. I went from one to the next, snapping necks, ripping into and tearing flesh, crushing bone. I was utterly merciless and felt no remorse for the lives I took. These people had all conspired against me and Julia. They had all known the danger we were in but had merely averted their gazes, their silence lining the trap into which we were being led. It seemed I was caught in a frenzy, a tornado of blood which swept me through the field, their screams and cries of pain a deafening roar that spurred me on from one to the next until silence descended around me.

  I came to as if waking from a feverish dream, glancing around at a field full of dead bodies, their blood soaking into the earth along with the rain. Only a few minutes had passed.

  Pausing for only long enough to glance at Julia’s corpse, I dove into the woods, following my prey as he raced through the trees, his heavy frantic footsteps disrupting the stillness all around. Hatred blurred my vision to the point where I almost couldn’t see anymore as I chased him.