Dark Requiem (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 3) (28 page)

“
I want you to promise me
something, Avery. I want you to promise me that if you do come
back, you’ll start to live again. Forget...forget Luna, leave this
mansion if you have to and live. Find someone and just be
happy.”

He was silent for a few
moments as a dark cloud settled over his features. His voice was
little more than a whisper when he spoke again.

“
Why would you say
something like that?” He got to his feet. “And why are you talking
as if you’re not coming back? Have you had more dreams? Tell me,
Dallas.”

“
No, it’s nothing like
that, I just...” Tears filled my eyes and I found I couldn’t
speak.

He pulled me to him and
held me tight. I buried myself against him, inhaling his scent. It
was just heaven to be this close to him, but all too soon he pulled
away again. He stared at me, anxiety in his eyes. He brought his
hand to cup my cheek.

“
Don’t worry about
anything, Dallas. This will work, okay?”

I nodded and without
thinking about it, I reached up on tiptoe and kissed
him.

It was just a peck on the
lips, something I used to do all the time in the past. The moment I
realised what I had done I stepped away from him.

He just stared at me, the
colour draining from his face.

“
Oh, God! I...I’m so
sorry, Avery. I didn’t mean to do that.”

His gaze softened at my
obvious distress. I went to move away and out of the study, but he
caught my arm. Before I knew what was happening, I was in his arms
and we were kissing.

I let myself melt against
him as his lips claimed mine, that heat engulfing us. I had waited
so long for this, but I couldn’t let this happen. This was so
unfair. I couldn’t do this to him when it was likely I wouldn’t be
coming back from the chapel. And also without telling him I was
Luna. I pulled away.

For a few moments we just
stood in silence staring at each other, that heat between us. His
mind was closed to mine and his expression unreadable. After a few
moments he spoke.

“
You should try and get
some sleep, Dallas.”

I nodded. He kissed me on
the forehead. My arms came around him and then his lips were on
mine once more.

I gave in, remembering
being in the dark, balancing on that gold wire and yearning for
Avery’s touch. I let myself melt into his sweet, hungry kiss,
butterflies fluttering in my stomach as the kiss grew more heated
until I felt I was drowning in him. His other hand was caressing my
neck, moving downward, his fingertips tracing delicious patterns of
fire across my skin. When his hand reached the top button of my
pyjama top, he plucked the top two buttons open and then his hand
was on my breast. I moaned against his kiss, my body straining
toward his touch.

He abruptly released me
and just stared at me. His lips were half open, his eyes aflame
with desire whilst deep confusion fluttered behind them like swirls
of snow threatening to extinguish the fire. He kissed me fiercely,
his tongue exploring my mouth hungrily. I almost cried out when he
pulled away again, but it was only so he could bring his lips to my
neck. He ripped away the pyjama top along with my bra, and then his
mouth was on my breasts. I gasped when his mouth closed around a
nipple and shivered in response. When he pulled away, I pushed him
down onto the floor, slipping out of my pyjama bottom. I kissed him
and then tore at his T-shirt, nipping his neck and then moving down
to his chest. I found the erect, tender nub of his nipple and
tweaked, drawing a moan from him. I continued nibbling his chest,
moving down to his stomach. I undid his belt and then his jeans,
pulling them down. His huge erection was already straining against
his underwear, but before I could touch it, he reached for my arm
and turned me over so I was on my back. I laughed when he climbed
on top of me, his hands at my wrists, keeping me pinned to the
floor.

He brought his lips down
to mine, grazing his lips against them only to move out of reach. I
strained against the hands at my wrists although I was enjoying
being held captive by him too much to want to break out of his
grasp. When he brought his lips down to mine again he let them
linger in a slow, sultry kiss. He released my wrists and brought
his hands to my breasts, causing me to moan against him. Then I
felt his hands against my thighs, pulling them open. His lips were
against my most tender place and I could only squeal in pleasure,
barely able to utter his name as he drove me toward the peak. But
just before I could reach it, he moved away. And then his lips were
on mine again.

When he entered me I cried
out, wrapping my arms around him, moving to meet and draw his
entire length into me. He began to thrust against me, long, slow
thrusts to begin with only to quicken the pace, leaving me gasping.
He brought me to just within reach of the peak again only to stop
and begin the slow, delicious fire his touch elicited until I was
aflame with ecstasy.

Although his lovemaking
was at times urgent, at some moments during those long daylight
hours, he simply stared at me as if the sight of me was a dream he
was scared he would wake from at any second. He trailed his fingers
against my skin as if he could not believe skin that soft could
exist. At times he buried his face in my neck, breasts or stomach,
a slight tremor running through him. There was one moment when he
kissed me and then pulled away to peer into my eyes. That confusion
had come upon him again like a single cloud in an otherwise clear
blue sky. He stared intently at me as if he was seeing through a
veil to something that had been hidden from him before now. Panic
seized me, and before it could be revealed to him, I grabbed him by
the head and kissed him, drawing his thoughts away from anything
but my lips against his.

It was many hours before I
finally climaxed, screaming his name. He lay against me for a few
moments, his head buried in my neck, his hands still trailing
against me.

Luxuriating in the feel of
my naked body entwined with his, I fell asleep in his arms as he
stroked my hair and rained kisses on my face. I was exactly where I
had longed to be ever since I walked out of this mansion over a
century ago and into the night, away from all I would ever want or
need in life.

I awoke at sunset to find
myself in Avery’s bed. He was not beside me. My skin was still
tingling from his touch and I felt exhilaration when I thought back
to those blissful daylight hours when our bodies had been as one. I
took a moment to try and steady my thoughts. Then I put on one of
Avery’s T-shirts and ventured downstairs to look for
him.

I found him standing
outside in the field of flowers wearing just his jeans. The sky was
a smoky violet and a thin strip of dark orange lay like thick mist
over the horizon. I wanted to walk up to him, wrap my arms around
him and rest my head against his bare back, but he knew I was there
watching him. And there was something so forbidding about his
posture I didn’t dare.

I bit my lip, fighting
back tears as I tried to decide how best to handle what had
happened between us. Should I pretend nothing had taken place? Or
perhaps this was a conversation that should be had once we returned
from the chapel—if either of us made it back alive.

It was a moment or two
before I noticed that Avery’s mind, which was always locked tight
to mine, bar the occasional stray thought, was open. He knew I was
there, but he was letting me hear his thoughts.

I grew as still as one of
the four pillars at the front of the mansion as his thoughts washed
over me, my heart a frantic stutter against my chest. Then a smile
spread across my lips.

Love. That’s what he was
thinking of. Love. Deep, all-encompassing, unconditional
love.

For me.

He had been in a dark,
silent place for so long since Luna’s death and I had forced myself
into his world and brought laughter, noise, light, more noise,
irritation, noise, warmth and finally... Love.

Just like Luna, I had
entered his world and banished his pain, drawing him back into the
land of the living. He loved me. Perhaps he always had.

I stood there for a few
moments, staring at his bare back as he watched the sunset. I
couldn’t believe I had won Avery’s love. The tears I had previously
been fighting slid down onto my cheeks, but they were tears of pure
joy. I considered reacting to what he had just shared with grace,
perhaps acknowledging it with only a simple kiss on his
cheek.

That just wasn’t my
style.

I leapt into the void and
materialised before him. I threw my arms around his neck, making a
smile break across his face.

“
Avery! You old dog. I
knew you were fronting all along. I mean, who can look at all of
this—” I used one hand to gesture from my head to my feet, “—and
not fall madly in love?”

“
You knew, did you? That
explains all the crying you’ve been doing since you got
here.”

He was staring down at me
tenderly, love—pure love as nurturing as the night—in his eyes as
he used a thumb to wipe away my tears.

“
Just kiss me,” I
whispered.

He obliged and I lost
myself in his sweet kiss.

“
Oh, Avery,” I said, when
he finally pulled away.

There were tears in his
eyes and he pulled me to him, his arms tight around my waist, and I
wished I never had to let him go. I eventually pulled out of his
embrace, my voice breathless when I spoke.

“
Let’s go and banish this
chapel thing and come back home. Then we have to have a talk about
Mallory. You cannot let her keep bullying you like that,
Avery!”

He laughed. “That, my
dear, is something much easier said than done.”

We entered the mansion
hand in hand as the night came in as tender as a lover in all its
dark beauty.

***

The sky was pitch black by
the time we reached the Holbert plantation, the moon a welcoming
beacon of hope above us. Rather than materialising in the clearing,
I asked Avery if we could walk through the woods instead. He didn’t
object, perhaps knowing that these moments together would be our
last. With the heavy bag of items he had brought with him to
perform the exorcism slung over his shoulder, and his other hand
tightly holding onto mine, we walked through the trees toward the
clearing. He brought my hand to his lips often during the walk and
placed a soft kiss against it. At one point he came to a stop and
just gazed at me, his expression grave in the cool, shimmering
moonlight filtering through the trees. He pulled me into a long
tender kiss, one that ended far too soon and which left me
trembling in his arms. We moved on, the arm he had around my waist
tightening.

As we got nearer to the
clearing, it was difficult not to remember many frightening days
running through these woods, trying to escape Master Henry, or of
those days I simply ran to the chapel to seek solitude. I also
remembered that exhilarating moment when I found Julia waiting here
for me and knew I would be able to save Avery from certain death.
Now I had to find a way to banish the chapel entity even if it
meant sacrificing my life and Avery’s.

We were almost at the
clearing when I became aware of him.

“
Shadrach?” Avery said,
catching it from my thoughts.

“
Yes. He’s waiting for us
in case he can help in any way.”

He smiled. “I really
underestimated him.”

“
So did I.”

We came out into the
moonlit clearing to find him sitting cross-legged on the sea green
grass. He smiled and rose to his feet.

A cold chill smashed into
me as I stepped into the clearing, my hand in Avery’s. The Other,
rather than being on the peripheries looking for a way in, was now
a silent colossus of dark energy and it was so strong. There was no
warning this time. It was just upon me and I sank as if I had
plunged into black, icy water.

“
Shadrach.” Avery
said.

He moved toward Shadrach
whilst I came to a standstill, my hand slipping out of
his.

Shadrach’s gaze was on me,
his face tightening in alarm, and I saw myself through his eyes. My
face had become unreadable and my eyes had hardened to black pearls
so I appeared to be a completely different woman from the one he
knew.

Avery faced me, his brow
furrowing. “Dallas—?”

I cut him off with a spike
of telekinetic energy. He went rigid as I ensnared him, keeping him
from moving. From the corner of my eye, I saw Shadrach make a move
toward me. I sent a blast of telekinetic energy out at him sending
him hurtling through the air to crash into the chapel with
devastating force. Then I wrenched him away from the chapel and
slammed him onto the ground. One of his legs lay at an odd angle—I
was sure that was not the only bone he had broken—and blood poured
from his head. Shadrach tried to get to his feet only to collapse
to the ground, his face twisted in pain.

The force of the collision
should have caused considerable damage to the chapel, but the evil
that had resided here for centuries, and now had control of me,
kept it standing.