Dark Requiem (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 3) (22 page)

Avery drifted into my
thoughts again along with the prospect of spending an eternity
apart from him.

I couldn’t give up on him.
I just couldn’t.

***

Mississippi
1975

I was standing in the
middle of deserted countryside with nothing in sight for miles
around but the car Simon had been trying to flee in. To my left the
road was a steel snake beneath a bleak, ash grey sky. Lush, green
fields met the horizon wherever I turned. Although the light the
dawn had brought into the world was still weak, pain moved
sluggishly through my body, my vision, as always during the day,
undulating from foggy shadow to vivid clarity. Anger rippled
through me. I managed to contain the anger so my face was
expressionless as I stared up at Simon, hanging in the air a few
feet away from me, trapped by an invisible hand.

I attempted to search his
mind but found myself up against an impenetrable wall.

How did he get this
strong?

I threw my telekinetic
power out towards his left leg. The calf bone snapped like a dry
twig. Hoarse screams escaped him. I again threw out my telekinetic
power, but at his throat this time. I applied pressure. The screams
became moans. I threw out more darts of power, aiming at his other
leg—the thigh bone this time—one of his arms and his ribs. I wanted
to do more, but I restrained myself, trying to still the anger
within.

“
Don’t try my patience,
Simon,” I said, having to squint against the dawn when I looked up
at him. “I should kill you for even trying to resurrect the chapel
entity. Do you know how many have been slaughtered in order to
resurrect it? Tens of thousands!”

His face was twisted in a
grimace of pain, but he still managed to croak out a
reply.

“
How many have you killed,
Luna?”

Although my expression
remained blank, cold fury settled in the pit of my stomach. It
almost seemed as if he was trying to goad me into inflicting more
injuries. I applied pressure on one of the bones I had broken. He
squealed in pain for a few moments before he spoke.

“
All right, all right. I
tried, but it didn’t want my body. Look and see. It didn’t want my
body.”

His thoughts were open and
I could see he spoke the truth.

“
Why won’t you just make
me into a vampire? I don’t want to grow old. Please, Luna. That’s
all I want.”

I released Simon and he
fell into a heap on the ground. He screamed in pain and then lay
there gasping. I stared at him for a long moment, surprised he was
still conscious and had been able to endure so much
pain.

I should have killed him
the moment I became aware of his visits to the chapel. But he was
one of my descendants. So what options did that leave me? I could
wipe his memory of me along with all he knew of vampires and the
chapel entity. But the same dreams which led him to me would
eventually lead him to the chapel entity once again.

I moved to stand over him,
deciding fear was my only option.

“
If you step foot in that
chapel again, I’ll make sure you’ll live for a very, very long time
to regret it. Do you understand me?”

He blinked once, clearly
in too much pain to move, his breathing laboured, his eyes
glassy.

I decided I wouldn’t heal
him. I’d let him lie there until he lost consciousness, and then
take him to a hospital where he would stay for a long time thinking
about what he had tried to do.

I turned from him and
moved toward his car.

“
Obeyifo! Mema wo anim agu
ase.
”

The words themselves would
have been enough to bring me to a halt, but I found myself unable
to move forward. Icy needles pierced my body from the inside out
and pinned me where I stood.

The words were similar to
those Lina uttered in the grove. Panic washed over me and I
struggled to move my arms, my head, but found myself as trapped as
I had been then.

I heard Simon laugh,
laughter which was choked away by pain.

“
It doesn’t want my weak,
human body, Luna, but it taught me everything Lina knew and so much
more.”

He uttered more words and
I gasped as a shock of hot white pain cut across my left leg and my
right thigh. Fire engulfed my chest and throat.

I sank to the ground,
although I still could not move voluntarily. I stared blankly at
the hazy blue sky swimming in and out of focus. My confusion and
fear became heightened when I heard Simon’s laughter and then,
miraculously, the sound of movement and his footsteps.

He was soon standing over
me. He was smiling and although his clothes were still bloodied, he
appeared otherwise uninjured. I could only stare up at him in
horror. My horror deepened when he pulled a knife from his
pocket.

He braced himself and then
ran the knife across the back of his left hand. It passed across
his hand as if he was running the knife along marble. But pain tore
across the back of my left hand. I did not need to look down at it
to see a gash had opened up along the site. A gash that was not
knitting itself closed.

Simon smiled.

“
I actually wasn’t so sure
this would work. But here we are. I’ve wanted to put you in your
place for so long. It finally showed me a way to. It doesn’t want
my body, Luna. Not as it is, anyway. That’s all you have to do.
Turn me into a vampire.”

You fool!

I lashed out with my
telekinetic power, but only succeeded in making the pain flare to
excruciating levels. Maybe if this had happened before the
bloodletting, or even at night, I would have been able to fight him
off. But I was so much weaker during the day now. The only thing I
could do was try and make Simon see sense.

Simon. It’s lied to you.
You won’t...

The pain crested and
Simon’s face wavered before my eyes. Blackness swallowed me
whole.

***

Mississippi
1975

The next thing I
remembered clearly was waking to find myself caught in a vice of
flame. I could barely see and it was many moments before I became
aware of my surroundings. I was in the chapel, hanging in the air
from a chain around my neck. Simon was standing beneath me,
screaming at me, panic in his voice. The chain around my neck
tightened of its own accord and I could feel the presence of the
chapel entity, its rage and cold bitterness pressing against me,
its glee sharp in my mind. Simon continued to scream at it, but we
both knew it was no use. It was in control, using his power to kill
me and in his panic and fear he had rendered himself
helpless.

Death opened up to me like
the arms of a lover, and in those moments everything stilled. The
sight of the chapel caressed by the sunlight flowing through the
hole in the roof and the man below shouting—all of it
stilled.

I had spent most of my
life like an eagle flying through turbulent skies. Even during
peaceful times I could feel violent currents beneath, ruffling my
feathers, and I always had to fight to stay in control. Now I could
be free of it. Free from my pain and anger.

Emptiness gathered to
welcome me, eliciting tears of relief. Beyond the emptiness was
something I could only get a glimpse of, something beyond anything
I could have ever conceived of. It was miraculous that after all I
had done, all the pain I had caused, I could have rest, and more—if
I chose. So much more. It was all there before me, an end and a
possible homecoming.

But Avery.
Avery.

As weak as I was, I now
tried to fight against the spirit and the hold it had on the chain
around my neck. But like Simon’s cries of panic, it was no
use.

The last thing I thought
of was Avery’s face hovering over mine, blood on his lips as he
prepared to kill me so I could be born again.

It was almost as if I was
there again, looking at the distress and fear in his eyes, hearing
the words he uttered to me.

“
Just...just make sure you
come back to me, Luna.”

I mumbled the words I had
spoken to him.

“
I will find a way back to
you. I will always find a way back to you.”

And then
emptiness.

***

Imagine a line, a sliver
of gold in the dark. Like a tightrope, a way to balance and move
onward. And on either side of and behind me, was nothing. I’m not
talking about a fall. I’m talking about emptiness. Only that gold
tightrope leading me forward. I was running along the tightrope,
and had been for a very long time. Except I wasn’t actually running
as I no longer had a body, but that is the only way to describe the
effort, the pain, the exhaustion of keeping myself in limbo. I was
so weary. I wanted to give up. I wanted this to end, but I couldn’t
let go. I had no idea how long I had been running in this state or
how much longer I would have to keep going until I found him. And
just when I felt I couldn’t continue, I saw him. My heart soared,
but with it came crushing despair.

He was so far ahead. I
could just make him out, alone, surrounded by people, but always
alone. I couldn’t let him be alone, I had to keep going. No matter
how long it took me, I had to keep on until I caught up to
him.

Then I saw an opening, a
splinter of light in the darkness. A woman. She was thin, had large
eyes, a smooth, caramel complexion and a high forehead. Her hair
was pulled back from her face. Her eyes were filling with tears,
the smallest of tremors troubling her bottom lip. Her name was
Vanessa. The source of her distress? The dark empty bowl which
would always be barren. Joy infused my being, giving me strength
and a burst of energy.

This was the moment I had
been waiting for. We would be together again. I pushed forward
toward that splinter of light that would bring life and unite me
with my beloved. I glanced one last time at Avery—alone—shrouded in
grief, darkness pressing in on him like malevolent
hands.

Wait for me, Avery, wait
for me.

I hope he heard me in some
way, and that he would not have to wait many more years before we
were reunited again. I pushed forward.

***

In the sea of memories I
swam in, I saw something unexpected. Something I could have no hope
of trying to understand.

At first I appeared to be
floating in thick, inky darkness. Although I had no form, I was in
motion, hurtling through the dark. Ahead of me, I saw a bead of
white light. I rushed toward it and came to a stop before an
extraordinary sight.

I was looking at myself,
but not as I was. The other me appeared to be floating in the
blackness with her eyes closed above a dry, flat, iridescent white
landscape. It looked as if she was floating in water, her arms held
out to the sides, one of her legs slightly bent at the knee. The
little clothing she wore appeared to be made of a substance which
looked like white gold, but was as malleable and fluid as liquid.
It clung to her breasts and groin. Swirls and strips of it wound
around her arms, legs, and lower stomach. Her ebony hair was drawn
away from her face in a thick braid that fell over her shoulder and
wound around her stomach, ending by her ankle. Surrounding this
version of myself was what must have been billions of pinpricks of
light swirling around her in an iridescent vortex.

She opened her eyes and
looked at me. Fear thrilled through me at that omniscient gaze. I
saw the universe in that gaze, a galaxy of stars and knowledge
beyond knowing. I saw the complexities of nature, the wild fire
that tears through a forest devouring all in its path, the
bottomless, dark depths of an ocean and all it nurtured in its
womb. I saw the beauty and cruelty inherent in nature. I saw the
gift of life and the cold kiss of death. She was the mother and the
devourer.

She regarded me for a few
seconds before the corners of her lips tugged into a barely
perceptible smile. Then she looked upward. Her face creased into a
mark of intense pain before the light swirling around her increased
to a blinding white. Light streamed from her hands and feet,
building to an unbearable intensity. And then there was only
darkness.

Love is not
love

Which alters when it
alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover
to remove:

O no; it is an ever-fixed
mark,

That looks on tempests,
and is never shaken;

–
Shakespeare,
Sonnet 116

I awoke to see Avery
sleeping in the chair by the bed. I got out of bed and moved to
stand over him, my heart bursting with all I felt for him. I loved
him so much, and of all the things I wished I could go back and
change, not saying those three precious words to him each day was
the thing I regretted the most. I trailed a light hand across his
cheek before I made my way to the window and opened the shutters to
watch the sun ease its way out of the sky so the moon could reign
for another night, the weakness within my body making me feel
lightheaded for a few moments.