Dark Requiem (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 3) (40 page)

***

There were some who argued
only a minority within this community allowed the abomination which
destroyed the future generation. If that were true, the majority
would have been queuing up at every law enforcement office around
the dome to ensure the seed poisoning their future would be stamped
out. Instead they came out in droves to nurture the seed with rays
of hatred. Some even saw the poison seeping into the fertile soil
of their community as some kind of game. The rest watered it with
their silence.

Every deviant word they
allowed to be uttered, every lie, every threat they indulged was a
seed they planted in their midst. Every theft they allowed to go
unpunished and every deviant act or thought they embraced in their
midst were more seeds. Every trespass, every invasion of privacy,
every second of sleep, quiet, clarity, and peace of mind they
allowed to be stolen were more seeds which would eventually grow to
choke every single thing of value, leaving them nothing but
weeds.

Luna had seen the future
of this dome when she had been a goddess. A war zone in which
wretches roamed its streets unchallenged.

I had come to the largest
crowd by now. Before I even saw the face of the vampire commanding
such large masses, I knew who it was. My lips turned down in
irritation even at the sight of him.

The many centuries since
my beloved returned to me had been ones of bliss. There was only
one thing that had marred my joy over the centuries, and his image
peered down at the large crowd that had massed around
it.

Arnaldo.

***

We returned to the mansion
after many years abroad. Luna was driving and she handled the car
as recklessly as she had handled a horse, tearing through the
trees, taking sharp turns often without looking at the road before
her and making every sentient wild animal scatter in
panic.

We were almost at the
mansion when she stomped on the brake, making the car screech to a
halt.

“
Oh. My. God.” A smile lit
up her face. “Can you tell who’s there? Oh, my God!”

Before I could reply the
air around her wavered and she was gone.

Puzzled, I jumped into the
driver’s seat and drove on, assuming whatever had made Luna react
that way would be found at the mansion.

When I drove up to the
mansion I saw Luna in the arms of a tall, dark-haired, slender male
I had never seen before. He appeared to be around seventeen or
eighteen years of age and were it not for his height and angular
physique I would have easily mistaken him for a girl, such was his
beauty.

“
Avery, can you tell who
it is now?” Luna said when I got out of the car. “It’s
Arnaldo.”

I felt ice gather upon my
flesh at the mention of that name and when I peered at him, at his
sinewy, virile physique, fresh, boyish face so beautiful it drew my
breath away, anxiety touched my heart.

“
Arnaldo.” I couldn’t be
sure whether it was the arm wrapped around Luna’s waist or his
smouldering, charcoal-coloured eyes, but I moved to them and tugged
Luna none too gently out of his arms and to me.

“
Arnaldo,” I said again,
and I meant to give him a friendly pat on the chest. It came out as
a shove. “What an earth are you doing here?”

He smiled, his gaze coming
to rest on Luna. He took her hand and he did not need to tug her
out of my arms, for she glided to him, pure joy on her
face.

“
Mother,” he said, the
slightest hint of an accent turning his words to a caress. “Yes,
Mother. For you gave me life by releasing me from the curse Auria
placed me under. It is as if I have lived two lives, for I remember
both. Of being a child vampire, but also everything since you came
to me on my deathbed when I was a child and stopped my birth mother
from committing an abomination. My life is yours, Goddess. Or I
should say—the lives of those I would have preyed upon. From this
moment on I shall never take another life.”

His gaze flickered briefly
in my direction before it returned to Luna.
Why not? That drivel seemed to work for you.

I was startled by the
words, especially as Luna had not heard them. She beamed at Arnaldo
before she faced me.

“
Oh, Avery, isn’t this
wonderful!”

Those were not quite the
words I had in mind, for this Arnaldo was not only as strong as
Auria, he still had his devilishly enhanced mental
powers.

Completely oblivious to
the stricken expression on my face, Luna hugged Arnaldo and placed
a kiss on his cheek.

We all turned to the sound
of heels striking marble coming from within the mansion. The door
to the mansion was thrown open moments later and Mallory
appeared.

“
Luna, Avery!” She smiled
and hurried down the front steps toward us.

Her feet had barely
touched the bottom step when she was swept off her feet and into
Arnaldo’s arms.

“
Mallory,” he
cried.

He didn’t seem to notice
her startled expression and proceeded to kiss her on both cheeks
and then on the lips. She blinked in surprise for a few moments
before she glanced at me.

Who on earth is
he?

“
Arnaldo,” I said through
gritted teeth.

“
The boy vampire?” she
said before she faced him again.

She reached for one of his
ears and twisted it.

“
Put me down right now,”
she said.

A smile spread across
Arnaldo’s lips and an excited gleam lit his eyes.

“
Of course.” He placed her
on her feet, but still held onto her hand. “Forgive me, Mallory,
but beauty such as yours can make a man behave in the most peculiar
of ways.”

He placed a kiss upon her
hand. To my annoyance I saw there was some amusement in her eyes as
she gazed at him.

Arnaldo eventually
released Mallory’s hand and picked up a large rucksack. “It will be
dawn soon. I should go and find a hotel—”

“
Yes,” I said cutting in.
“You’ll find some—”

“
Nonsense,” Luna said. “As
if I would put my
son
out on the street. You’ll stay here with us.”

I felt my throat tighten
at the words, especially when he hugged Luna, his cupid’s bow lips
spread into a smile that bode absolutely no good for me.

And so he
stayed.

For years.

He went away for short
periods only to return, much to my chagrin. He baited me constantly
during those years, baiting to which Luna remained oblivious. And
what infuriated me was not just the fact that Luna adored him, so
did everyone else.

I would venture downstairs
at dusk on some evenings to find Arnaldo had spent the daylight
hours with Mallory, shopping and then baking. He appeared demure
and oh-so-young in jeans and a T-shirt, his lips spread in a
guileless smile as Mallory reached up to pinch his rosy cheeks. I
could only roll my eyes as I left the room.

I often sought out
Shadrach and Maryse, who were still living in the shack Luna had
found them in. They had grown to like it as they said it had a
gothic kind of charm. We would share a bottle of whisky whilst they
listened to me complain about Arnaldo, their dark eyes heavy with
sympathy.

“
I’ve never met this guy,
but I hate him already,” Shadrach said when I finished.

Maryse nodded in
agreement.

One night I went to seek
the two of them out only to find Shadrach and Arnaldo sitting on
the porch of the weathered shack, sharing a bottle of
whisky.

When I approached them, my
heart and lips tight with Shadrach’s betrayal, he merely shrugged,
a sheepish smile on his lips.

“
What could I do, Avery?”
he said once Arnaldo departed. “The guy is all right.”

I could only glare at
him.

And when I ventured to the
shack one night and found Maryse in a passionate embrace with
Arnaldo, I decided I simply could not take Shadrach and Maryse
seriously ever again.

The resentment I felt
toward Arnaldo came to a head roughly two centuries later on a
bitter winter night.

After some blissful months
without Arnaldo, I returned at dawn to discover he had decided to
pay us yet another visit. I materialised in the drawing room to
find Luna lying on the sofa with a reading device in her hand,
Arnaldo asleep beside her. My lips curled in chagrin when I saw his
head was resting on her bosom.

When I glanced at Luna she
put a finger to her lips and looked down at Arnaldo, a soft smile
on her lips. She ran a tender hand through his hair.

Don’t wake him, the poor
thing is exhausted.

I managed a stiff nod and
strode to the armchair by the fireplace, my lips tightening in
anger.

How long was he was going
to stay this time? Months? Years?

I sighed and flopped down
into the armchair as Luna returned to her reading
device.

That was when I felt a
mild jolt. My gaze snapped back to Arnaldo—who appeared to shift in
his sleep—his eyes still closed, his hand moving to rest beneath
Luna’s bosom.

The little runt wasn’t
asleep.

His lips curled into a
barely perceptible smile as an image entered my mind of Luna’s
blouse open, Arnaldo’s lips and hands ravishing her bare breasts.
An image I knew Luna had not seen.

Heat pummelled into me.
After years of this kind of baiting, that was the final
straw.

I shot to my feet,
startling Luna who looked up at me in bewilderment.

Avery?

I ignored her and glared
at Arnaldo who was still feigning sleep.

The room disappeared in a
swirl of candlelight and shadows as I moved into the ether,
shrugging it away as I stepped into the bedroom. It took me a few
moments to find what I sought.

Luna appeared even more
bewildered when I materialised in the drawing room, my hand
clenched around something small, dark and soft.

“
Avery...”

I stalked over to them and
loomed over Arnaldo, who was still pretending to be asleep. I
waited. After a few moments he opened his eyes.

His lips curled into a
smile when he got to his feet.

“
Guys, what’s going on?”
Luna said.

I took the gloves I had
retrieved from the bedroom and slapped Arnaldo across both cheeks
with them.

Luna gasped and sprung to
her feet.

“
Guys, hold on just a
minute!”

Arnaldo’s eyes narrowed,
black sparks of malice sparking in their depths.

In a quicksilver move, he
grabbed me by the shirt front and dragged me into the ether to the
sound of Luna’s astonished cry.

Before the field of
flowers materialised around us, I broke out of his hold and lunged
at him only to feel his fist slam into my jaw, sending me tumbling
through the air.

I landed with a jolt on my
stomach. Before I could get to my knees, he was standing over me,
his boyish beauty replaced by a mask of fury. He brought both fists
down on my back. I heard the bones snap like dry twigs as hot pain
surged through me.

I gritted my teeth,
expecting the pain to peak and then flee. To my horror it
intensified, and it felt as if molten lava washed over me. I
gasped, unable to move. I could see Arnaldo standing before me, his
eyes alight with glee, a triumphant smile on his lips as he focused
on me. The pain rose to an agonising peak which made me
lightheaded, unconsciousness lurking just in reach. The pain
continued to ascend. Then I realised what Arnaldo was doing. He was
using his mental powers to keep the pain alive in my
mind.

I began to scream as his
laughter rang out into the night.

“
Arnaldo!”

The pain receded at the
same time Arnaldo’s laughter ground to an abrupt halt. I looked up
to see Luna standing a few metres away, staring at him with the
cold, hard anger I had seen many a time in the past. Two red spots
appeared on Arnaldo’s cheeks. His eyes widened and his cupid bow
lips turned into an 'O' of anxiety so he looked like the little boy
Luna still saw him as.

He vanished.

Luna’s form begun to
waver.

“
Luna,” I
cried.

She glanced at me and the
air around her smoothed. The hardness fell away from her like
autumn leaves. She was by my side moments later.

“
Oh my God,
Avery.”

Although the pain had gone
by then, I let her cradle me in her arms, content in the certainty
that it would be a long while before Arnaldo showed his face at the
mansion again.

Unfortunately, return he
did, a mere six weeks later.

I remained by the
fireplace in sullen silence as he sat on the sofa beside Luna, his
large, dark eyes glistening with unshed tears, his voice rising and
falling with the force of his emotions like unsettled
waters.