Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2) (26 page)

Luna’s blood. Drink Luna’s
blood.

I recoiled from Mama Akosua’s voice
and the repulsive suggestion, but it came back louder, sounding
like a klaxon in my mind.

Do it!

She was right; there was no other
option if I wanted to save Luna. I twisted my head to the hand
covered in dust and chalk. Thankful she was unconscious, I bit into
it. The blood seeped into my mouth, but the usual bliss and the
overpowering pull that normally saw me sink until I completely lost
myself, was absent today, I could only think of Luna and of how
weak the flow of blood was, further evidence she was slipping
away.

What happened?
I said to the witch.
How
could you let her be put in harm’s way?

She remained silent. I pulled away
from Luna’s hand, feeling strengthened enough to be able to get us
out of the cave. I could hear voices outside now. I never thought I
would be glad to hear Master John’s nauseating voice, but if he was
there, it meant more blood, enough to give me back my strength and
heal Luna.

I clasped Luna’s hand and
concentrated. The rubble shifted and then she was in my arms. I had
to ignore the sharp pain that sliced through my gut when I saw her
face: the blood, the eye swollen shut, purple bruising and
puffiness around her jaw. The voices outside had grown silent at
the sound of the shifting rocks. Then I heard Peter Holbert, Master
John’s brother.

“
John, we have to go. It’s
awake.
We have to go
!”

I pictured myself outside and gathered
the familiar weightlessness to me.

The nothingness opened to me, but it
felt as if I were throwing myself through a wooden door as I moved
into it.

We were outside.

At first the sun took my breath away,
its rays like a thousand needles in my eyes and skin. But then my
surroundings came into view and I realised we were at the caves by
the Mississippi bluffs. I focused on Master John, who was a few
feet away from the entrance of the cave. He went completely white
and staggered back, his mind locked on his memory of walking into
Luna’s cabin and finding me waiting for him.

I laid Luna on the ground and was upon
him.

I snatched him off his feet by the
shirt as he began to scream. I tore into his neck, not bothering to
spare him pain. I was vaguely aware of Master Peter mounting his
horse and fleeing as I took savage gulps of his brother’s blood,
irritated by his screams. They were making it harder to hear Luna
and the heartbeat that was slowly weakening. He eventually
quietened and only low moans escaped him. I would have loved to
draw out the moment, torture him and make him pay for the countless
crimes he had committed against Luna, and others like her, but I
didn’t have the time.

I let him fall to the ground, alive
but incredibly weak. I would have to come back for him later, along
with the others he had been with, and amend their memories so Luna
would not face any reprisals for her daring rescue. I gathered her
in my arms and brought my blood to her lips, praying the entire
time. It seemed God hadn’t forsaken me, because her bruises slowly
disappeared and I heard multiple cracking sounds as her bones
knitted together. Her heartbeat quickened and her breathing grew
stronger.

As strength returned to her body, her
mind also quickened, and in my weakened state, I caught glimpses of
her surface thoughts.

I heard the words she had spoken to
Master John when I was on my knees trapped by the silver chains.
Then I heard the words she had spoken in her mind as she glared
down at me in contempt.

Don’t listen to my words,
Avery, listen to my thoughts. I loves you. Please, listen to my
thoughts and know I’s gonna find a way to get you out of
this.

Pain bit into me and for a few
moments, I could only stare at her beautiful face. I kissed her on
her forehead.

Somehow, she had done exactly as she
had promised to do and had almost died in the process.

Her eyes began to flutter open. I made
her lapse back into sleep because if she awoke, and I looked into
those raven eyes knowing she loved me, I would not be able to do
what I needed to do.

I took Luna back inside the cave where
she would be safe. Then I went back to Master John.

***

I did everything I could to tend to
the aftermath of Luna’s actions, often with not so gentle nudges
from the witch. I modified the memories of everyone involved so it
appeared as if I escaped on my own, taking Luna as a hostage. I
also made them believe I had been the one to fire at Luna’s
pursuers so there would be no consequences for Luna, or any of the
slaves in that area. When it was done, I returned to Luna.
Thankfully, her mother faded away completely.

The afternoon had died away and it
would be dusk soon. Luna was still sleeping when I returned to the
cave. I picked her up and walked to the little house I had built
for her by the Mississippi bluffs. When I got there the sun was
setting. I sat in the grass outside the house and watched the sun
sink beneath the trees. It was difficult not to be overwhelmed with
emotion and I wept softly.

In the distance I could hear two
horses heading in our direction. I already knew who they were and
that they were headed to the farmhouse. She was beginning to wake
up. I looked down at her beautiful face, the face that had kept me
in the wilderness, the Lodebar I thought I would never be free of.
How could I give up all I had waited so long for?

I pressed my tear-stained face against
hers and kissed her gently on the lips for the last time. Then I
disappeared inside the house. I removed her Bible from my coat
pocket along with the gold chain and placed it on a table in the
living room. I disappeared, leaving Luna to awaken outside her new
home.

I ran the rest of the way back to
Louisiana, but when I got there, I did not enter the mansion. There
was nothing there for me now.

I went instead to the plains and spent
the night there, thinking of the moment when I had come across her
at the chapel. A few hours before dawn, I ventured back to
Mississippi. She was in her new home. Jupiter and Father Geoffrey
had stayed at the house with her. Father Geoffrey was asleep in one
of the rooms upstairs. Luna was awake and sitting on the porch
searching the night. Jupiter was asleep beside her. I was only
there for a few seconds but, as if aware of my presence, she sprang
to her feet and stepped off the porch, stopping after taking a few
steps forward.

I retreated from the house and
returned to Louisiana, to the lake, haunted by Luna’s face, the
feel of her touch, her lips against mine and all I had
lost.

A month later she married Jupiter. It
should not have come as a surprise to me, but I was still
devastated by the news. Every day the loss seemed even greater and
I agonised over the thought of her with Jupiter. She loved me. I
should have been the one to watch her walk down the aisle and place
a ring on her finger.

Each night I considered
going to Luna and begging her to come away with me, but I only had
to recall the chapel entity, its proposition, and the chain of
human skulls around its neck. If Luna was mine, it would only be a
matter of time before I turned her into a vampire, and to do so
would mean giving her over to evil. So I lived with my loss and the
memories of that precious month we spent
together
.

I sought to bury my pain. I devoted my
energies to the mansion she loved and began the long process of
restoring it.

But she was always there.

Her memory walked the halls of the
grieving mansion as well as the empty desolate chambers of my
immortal heart. The moonlit field of flowers held a thousand images
of her and she remained in the long hours that passed in silence
each night. Although death would eventually claim her, the light
she brought into my world would never die.

Luna. My immortal beloved.

A few months after she married, I
found myself standing outside the house by the Mississippi bluffs.
They were both asleep. I did what I promised myself I would not do
when I set out for their home: I entered it, materialising in the
living room. I looked around me at their warm homely living room
and my loneliness overcame me. I moved to a chair near the
fireplace. A book had been left on the chair and a shawl discarded
casually over the back it. Tears filling my eyes, I picked up the
shawl and pressed it to my face, inhaling her scent.

I was startled by the sound of
movement upstairs in the bedroom. All too soon I heard bare feet on
a wooden floor moving toward the bedroom door and then out onto the
landing.

It was Luna. For a brief moment, I
considered remaining where I was so I could see her face again,
even for a second. But before she could reach the stairs, I let the
shawl slip out of my hands and moved into the nothingness and out
of the house. I reappeared in the trees and sped away, leaving the
house far behind me.

From then on, I took to watching her
through the eyes of those around her. I mostly chose her mother, as
she was the only one who saw Luna often, apart from Jupiter. And I
did not wish to see her through his eyes because I knew I would see
too much that would fan the flames of envy in my heart. So although
there was the risk of her sensing my presence, I took to journeying
to the Marshall plantation every week where I could observe Mama
Akosua’s thoughts, hoping for a glimpse of Luna. Shortly after Luna
married, I paid a visit to Mama Akosua’s master and placed the
thought in his mind to free her. When he approached her with this,
she refused her freedom and only asked for one day a week away from
the plantation to visit Luna. This was enough for me to know she
still considered me an enemy and would kill me given the
opportunity.

Thankfully, she was usually distracted
after a day spent with Luna and relatively happy, her mind solely
on her daughter and the time she spent with her that
day.

I stayed in the shadows, drinking in
Luna’s beauty through her mother’s memories, thankful I had that
connection to her, at least.

One night, the witch was recalling the
afternoon spent cooking with Luna when Jupiter entered her
memories, which seldom happened.

He walked into the kitchen
and leaned over Luna’s shoulder to see what she was making. She
turned to him and kissed him on the cheek before nudging him out of
the kitchen.

It was the first time I had seen him
since the day I let Luna go. At the sight of him, I immediately
felt the thorns of envy clutch at my heart.

I was about to draw away from Mama
Akosua’s mind when she did the strangest thing.

She recoiled from the memory and then
floundered for a few moments before skipping through a few other
events that occurred that day until she came to one that featured
only Luna. It was almost like someone saying the wrong thing to
another and then tripping over their words as they tried to
backtrack.

Was it possible she knew I was spying
on her? I couldn’t pretend to understand this tricky witch. I left
her mind and retreated, vowing to stay away.

But the following week, I was back at
the Marshall plantation.

As before, she behaved as if she was
unaware of my presence. I did not know what game she was playing,
but I played along, pretending to creep on the periphery of her
thoughts. Whatever she had in store for me would be revealed soon
enough.

And so I continued to live, and
although I had lost everything once more, I held on to grief,
loneliness, and despair. And for as long as Luna continued to draw
breath on this Earth, so would I.

***

A busy town. A cold, grey jail cell.
There were five people huddled together as if for warmth. Fear and
despair peered at me out from faces drawn with tension. The
youngest female, a mulatto with long, thick ebony hair worn in two
French plaits, kept looking at the chain around her ankle. It was
the first time she had ever been chained and the future suddenly
seemed completely dark outside that jail. The older female watched
her daughter in abject misery. An ex-slave, she was all too
familiar with the chain around her ankle and of much, much
worse.

I was awake beneath the
lake.

The dream drifted back to its gossamer
grave. Then I registered what had awakened me. A single
word.

Please
.

It could only have been uttered by one
person. Mama Akosua.

I recalled the details of the vision
she had sent me. The young female looked to be about ten years old
and her face was instantly recognisable, although there were subtle
differences between her face and her mother’s.

The baby. Luna’s baby.

I was immediately out of the water and
on the edge of the lake. The sun blazed its usual assault on my
mind and body.

Anxiety bound itself to me. The
daylight meant it was unlikely I would get to the child before
nightfall.