Darkest Knight (10 page)

“Is there something you need to talk about?” Aurora asked. “I’m a good listener and I’m always here for you girls. I promise whatever you say will stay between us.”

“What’s the drama this time?” asked a tired voice from the hallway.

I jerked around to see Rusty standing there, her red hair a matted mess, her eyes puffy from either lack of sleep or crying. What had Harachel done to her? “Rusty, are you okay?”

She yawned. “I’m fine. Just sleepy.”

She didn’t act hostile toward me or anyone else and I hoped she wasn’t carrying a grudge.

“Welcome home,” Xenia said, her tone not a bit welcoming.

“Thanks, normie,” Rusty said in a voice equally chilly. “Hey, Aurora. How’s Natalie?”

“No change,” Aurora said. “Not for a couple more hours, anyway.”

“Oh? What happens in a couple hours?” Rusty asked.

Aurora looked at me, then back at Rusty. She stood up from her chair and said, “Come help me in the kitchen and I’ll tell you what we have planned.”

“Sure,” Rusty said, her eyes a little dazed. I wondered if hypnosis was part of Harachel’s method for calming her down. Her reaction time was slow and her movements appeared sluggish. From the look my grandmother gave me, she was thinking the same thing. I hoped that meant Harachel had a reprimand coming, and not just for his treatment of Rusty. He also had some explaining to do about his role in Xenia’s recruitment.

I was about to ask Xenia for her thoughts when I noticed she was gone. I rushed out into the hall to see her emerge from the bathroom. I hadn’t even seen her leave.

I must have looked panicked because she said, “Chill out, Chalice. I had to use the bathroom. Sheesh.”

“After the stunt you pulled today, can you blame me for being cautious?”

“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I can.”

I had really hoped to develop a rapport with Xenia, but it hadn’t happened yet. I thought that because our backgrounds were similar—growing up without family and struggling to survive under adverse conditions—we’d have a lot in common. We did, but it wasn’t enough. Her heart was more callused than mine. Even so, I had no intention of giving up.

eleven

I’D GET TO SEE AYDIN TONIGHT, AND I
wouldn’t have to sneak around to do it. My heart did a little flip against my ribs at the thought. He’d be welcome at Halo Home with a chance to become a real hero. He already was a hero as far as I was concerned, but a few others still needed convincing. I doubted Rafe would ever be won over. Aydin could save a bus full of children from a raging fire while rescuing a litter of kittens from a tree and Rafe would still call him a winged devil.

Quin passed out the ghost-repellent charms after dinner. The squires were ecstatic with their new treasures, as well they should be. The pendants were gorgeous, but their ability to ward off questionable specters was even better. I just wished one would work on me.

“Look at the center of this crystal,” a squire said, her face lit with wonder. “It’s like tiny stars are floating around inside.”

“Don’t look too closely,” I warned. “Unless you want to go into a trance.”

She quickly released the Celestine to let it dangle against her chest. The others did the same.

“So what happens next?” Dale asked.

“We wait a few minutes for the wards to be switched,” my grandmother said. “That will allow the ghost form of the gargoyle Aydin to get through and help Natalie escape the mental fog that’s holding her prisoner.”

“Aren’t gargoyles evil?” Xenia asked.

I rolled my eyes. “As a general rule, yes. But remember the story I told you? Aydin saved my life by letting his curse change him into a gargoyle like the kind he and I were bonded to. He’s a good man.”

“So what?” Xenia’s brows knitted in confusion. “It doesn’t change the fact that he’s a monster now.”

Holy crap, was everyone’s head as thick as Rafe’s? “Yeah, it does, Xenia, because Aydin pledged his allegiance to the knighthood nearly a thousand years ago. His physical appearance doesn’t change the man he is. He’s devoted to us and our cause.”

“And what exactly is our cause?” Xenia asked.

She should know the answer by now. “To protect humanity from evil, supernatural and otherwise.”

She shrugged. “How about saving hungry kids who live on the streets?”

“That goes without saying,” I said, shocked she would ask such a thing.

“I used to be one of those kids.” She crossed her arms with such force I heard her shirt rip at the seam.

I knew what Xenia’s problem was: she was scared. Scared of Ayden, scared of ghosts and demons and intimidating angels that could kill you as easily as look at you. I’d felt that way once, but I had to suck it up to survive. Xenia would have to do the same.

The squires, Rusty, Xenia, Quin, my grandparents and myself stood facing the window in Natalie’s bedroom. Natalie slept so deeply we often had to check to make sure she was breathing. We had a clear view of the road and the perimeter of Halo Home’s property, so when the angels gathered there it was easy to see who was in attendance. I recognized Rafe, of course, so I assumed the others must be knight guardians as well. Harachel swaggered while pacing back and forth like a caged animal and I wondered if he didn’t feel comfortable in the human realm. I had a fair idea what he would become after fathering Rusty’s child.

The angels spread out along the property’s boundaries and extended their wings until the tips of their feathers touched to create an unbroken circle. I counted at least a dozen angels, yet there had to be more I couldn’t see. The Arelim had a natural glow to begin with, but now they pulsed with such brilliance it turned night into day within a ring of linked suns.

I glanced at the Celestine charms worn around the necks of everyone in the room, including Natalie. They started glowing with pale blue light and tiny sparks flew out from the crystals. The ghost-repellent spell must be reacting to the new wards.

The luminous circle dialed down a few watts and I blinked. Bright light would normally hurt my eyes, but angel light didn’t affect me in the slightest. I could even see through it to the road beyond, where a handful of misty figures gathered.

“Oh, shit,” I said to no one in particular, but my grandmother responded with a nod.

“I see them, too,” she said.

They were ghosts looking for a new haunt and had probably been hanging around for a while. We’d never noticed them before due to the wards that kept them out. There was nothing stopping them now. Or so they thought.

“You see who, too?” one of the squires asked as she narrowed her eyes while gazing out the window. “The angels? They’re beautiful and they’re everywhere.”

“Mmm-hmm, yes, the angels, that’s exactly it,” I told her, not wanting her to panic. There was no sense getting the girls worked up over something that couldn’t bother them. As long as they wore their charms, they’d be fine.

“Can you ladies do me a favor?” Aurora asked. “Keep your ghost-repellent charms on at all times, even when you go to bed at night.”

“Why?” Xenia asked, her tone wary. “What’s out there?”

“Nothing for you to worry about,” Aurora said.

Xenia stared down at her charm. “If you say so.”

I saw one extra large, winged ghost in the middle of the others and it was all I could do to stop myself from hopping around like a lovesick teenager. Aydin was on his way here.

“Okay, here he comes,” Aurora said as she followed my gaze.

His presence didn’t go unnoticed by the angels, who stepped back to create more distance between them. They knew who he was and
what
he was. For them not to react would be like asking a lion to ignore a tiger. They were natural enemies with an instinct to fight if provoked.

I ran out of the room and down the stairs as fast as my short legs would take me, which was pretty fast. I sprinted out the door and practically ran right through Aydin, whose transparent gargoyle body stood waiting. He expected me to come. I doubt he expected what I was about to ask.

I nodded and said, “It’s okay. They want you here. We have an important favor to ask.”

Aydin hesitated and turned to look at the ghosts wandering onto the property. The angels had seen them, too, and didn’t appear to care. Aydin did. He spread his wings as if preparing to attack any specter that came too close.

I waved them off. “Ignore them, Aydin. They’re not important, but the woman inside is. We need your help.”

Aydin had witnessed the attack on me, but he hadn’t seen the episode with Natalie. I quickly explained what had happened and that she had been in a coma for almost a week.

“I know you can reach her, Aydin. You’re the only one who can bring her back. Plus she’s our key to learning who’s murdering the knights.”

Though he couldn’t speak in his current state, his body language let me know he was eager to help. He waved a beastly paw toward the house. I preceded him inside and he followed me up the stairs.

The others were waiting for us and when they saw me, their eyes jerked in their sockets as they looked around for what they couldn’t see. But my grandmother saw him. She blinked and placed her hand flat against her chest.

“Is it here?” Xenia asked, appearing more eager than fearful. So she wasn’t as repulsed as she’d led us to believe.

“Aydin is with us, yes,” I said in a strained voice.

She retreated toward the window and pressed her back against the wall, feigning disgust.

I rolled my eyes at Xenia, then looked at my grandmother. “Can he try now?” I asked her, and she nodded, eyes closed as if in prayer, which she might have been.

Aydin’s misty bulk lowered to Natalie’s bed and seemed to melt inside her. Her body shifted and her closed eyelids twitched. Something was happening but it was impossible to know exactly what. Her lips moved and I leaned in to hear her if she spoke. I opened my auditory senses and tuned out the breathing and heartbeats of everyone else in the room so I could focus just on her.

“She… But that’s impossible,” Natalie muttered.

Her head moved side to side and she moaned.

“Maybe he should stop,” Aurora said. “Natalie is behaving like she’s in pain.”

“She probably is if her conscious mind is buried somewhere. It won’t stop hurting until she comes out.” I leaned in closer. “She’s trying to talk.”

“What’s she saying?” Aurora asked.

“That it’s impossible.”

“What is?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

Natalie’s eyelids squeezed so tight it looked like it hurt. She muttered, “One of us.”

I repeated to my grandmother what she said.

“She lives on the blood of the dark ones.” Natalie gasped. “She’s so old. How did she live so long?”

Again I repeated Natalie’s muttered words and watched my grandmother go pale.

“What is it?” I asked her. “What’s wrong?”

Aurora fanned herself with her hand. “Hot flash.”

I doubted menopause was her problem. Something Natalie just said upset her. “Who do you think she’s talking about?”

“Let’s wait until Natalie is out of the woods, okay?” Aurora began wringing her hands, something I’d never seen her do before.

Though her eyes were still closed, a small smile formed on Natalie’s lips as she whispered, “I don’t know how to thank you. I can’t believe I made it back.”

I heaved a lung-collapsing sigh. “She’ll be okay,” I said to everyone in the room. They all murmured to one another and I made a down motion with my hands to lower their voices.

“She’s back, but I don’t know if she’s fully recovered. We’ll know more after we talk,” I said.

Natalie rolled onto her side and fluttered her eyelids, but didn’t open them. She hugged the blanket close around her shoulders and seemed to nestle deeper into the pillow. And then she was asleep again. I prayed she could wake up on her own.

I watched Aydin’s ghost lift from Natalie’s body. He pointed to himself and then to me before clasping his hands together. He wanted us to merge so he could explain what had happened with Natalie.

Still standing, I closed my eyes and welcomed Aydin in. I felt a rush of warmth and a wave of calmness that made me feel safe, protected. This intimate connection caused my yearning for him to grow even stronger. I struggled not to collapse in a whimpering puddle right in front of everyone in the room.

Her mind is back, but she needs rest,
he told me.
She’s been through a severe trauma
.

So you knocked her out?
I asked.

I saw Aydin’s face in my mind and he looked just as handsome as he had before he changed.

In a sense, yes, I knocked her out. She didn’t know what hit her. She’s sleeping normally now and without dreams.

What a relief.
So what did she mean about the woman being one of us?

His image appeared troubled. He rubbed his chin and stared as if deep in thought.
She didn’t give me a name, which was probably kept from her on purpose. But she managed to see how this creature survived for so long.

How long?
I asked.

He paused.
Close to a millennium.

And it being one of us means that it, or she, is a Hatchet knight?

He nodded.

Are there many knights left who are that old?

None that I’m aware of,
he said.
Unless you count Saint Geraldine.

Oh, yes, Geraldine, the one with enchanted remains. But I didn’t really count that as living. Quin and I had rescued her disembodied head from the Vyantara and it was now with the Arelim. Once her body parts were reunited she could become a whole woman again. Finding them was another item on my to-do list.

The old one responsible for the murders was alive and completely whole. I’d seen her standing on two legs, but I supposed anything could have been under the cloak she was wearing.

Did Natalie see her?

Aydin shook his head.
If she did, she’s blocked the image from her mind, because all I picked up from her was a dark crystal cave shrouded in fog. That must be the woman’s lair. And I saw the dark ones she shared it with.

I imagined some horrible kind of monster, possibly even the gargoyle assassins the Vyantara used for their dirty work. Or maybe Maågan demons. Natalie had said the woman drank their blood so that gave me a better of idea of what these dark ones could be. The only creatures I knew of that drank blood and lived forever were vampires.

Is she a vampire?
I asked Aydin.

He tilted his chin down and gazed at me, eyebrows raised.
The blood she drinks doesn’t come from humans. She survives on the blood of the Fallen.

Oh, my God. A good knight turned bad with the help of the Arelim’s estranged dark brothers.
Why? And why did she wait until now to reveal herself?

Both good questions, Chalice. I only wish I had the answers. Natalie doesn’t know, either.

A hand shook me gently by the shoulder. I wasn’t ready to leave Aydin. Who knew when I’d get to see him again? He’d done what my grandparents and the Arelim wanted, so now they could shun him. I wouldn’t let that happen.