Dark Corner (63 page)

It feels so good to laugh, David thought. It had been an
awful night. The laughter nourished his spirit just as the food
sustained his body.

The wind fluted again, a piercing cry, and the lighthearted
moment of camaraderie slipped away.

David looked around the table. "We have to talk about
our next move, guys"

"About the only move I can make is to the bed" Nia
yawned. "Honey, I'm exhausted"

"Me, too," Jahlil said. "As soon as I'm done grubbing, I'll
be out"

"I figured that getting a few hours' rest would be part of
the plan," David said. "We're in no shape to do anything else
tonight. There wouldn't be much point in trying, either. Like
I said earlier, the night belongs to the vampires."

"And the day is ours," Jahlil said.

"You've got it," David said. "I say, we get up early in the
morning. We find Diallo's lair. We find it and we do the same
thing to him that we did to his son"

"Torch him." Nia shivered at the memory of the gruesome incident.

"Yeah," David said. "We take care of Diallo, and the rest
of the vampires will be history. Remember what Pearl told
us? All of these vampires, together, are like a monster with a
hundred arms, and Diallo is the heart of the beast. Destroy
the heart, and the monster dies."

"Okay, but how do we find him?" Jahlil said. "He's not
gonna be at the Mason place anymore. He could hide anywhere that's dark and safe for him. We could waste all day
looking, and then night will come again. . He left the sentence unfinished, and the anxiety that flashed in his eyes
communicated what he feared would happen.

David pinched the bridge of his nose. He was so tired that
he was beginning to see double images.

"I honestly have no idea where he'll be resting," David
said. "We'll have to brainstorm a list of potential places, and
then visit each, one by one. That's the only plan that makes
sense to me."

"Yeah, me too," Nia said. Chewing on a fingernail, Jahlil
nodded tightly.

:, Then that's the plan," David said. "Tomorrow morning,
we'll get into the specifics."

Their meal and discussion complete, they pushed away
from the table. As David cleaned up the remains of their
meal, King shuffled to the door. The dog whined.

"You would want to go outside to potty after we've barricaded the door," David said. King wagged his tail.

"I'll take him out," Jahlil said. "But you better be quick,
doggie"

"Don't worry, he's a regular minuteman," David said.

They pushed the dresser aside. Jahlil escorted King outdoors.

Through the window, David and Nia watched the boy and
the dog walking around the moonlit yard.

"He's a good kid," Nia said. "A little stubborn sometimes,
but brave as hell."

"A natural leader, like his father," David said. He sat on
the king-size bed. The mattress was firm. He patted the
space next to him, and Nia sat there.

He curled his arms around her waist, drawing her closer.
He kissed her lips.

"I love you," he said.

She pressed her body into him and energetically reciprocated his kiss. "Love you, too"

Although he was wrung out, and dread of what tomorrow
would bring lay heavy on his heart, a powerful libidinous
urge surged through him. He ached to make love to Nia,
right now.

"I wish we could have one night, alone, with no worries,"
he said. "Just one"

"We'll have it, soon. We'll have more than one night like
that, too. You'll see"

She pulled him down onto the bed. They lay facing each
other. He traced his finger along her cheek.

She grasped his hand and took one of his fingers into her
moist mouth. She glided her tongue across the tip of his finger, suggestively.

"You are something else," he said. But he was getting
aroused. He moved closer to her, slid his hand across her
hip.

Jahlil and King came back inside.

"All right, y'all," Jahlil said. "Time to break it up. I'm not
into watching folks get their groove on"

Nia smiled, whispered to David, "Later, honey." They got
off the bed, put the dresser back in place in front of the door,
and David checked again that the three windows were fastened. Cool wind slipped through the gap of the last, partially opened window. He would leave it open while they
slept, to allow fresh air inside.

He thought he heard, faintly, the sound of barking dogs.
Frowning, he listened closer.

"What is it?" Nia asked.

"Nothing" He shook his head. "Just my imagination."

Sometimes, the memory of terror could be as vivid as the
real thing.

He only hoped that he slept without nightmares.

Like a storm cloud, Diallo traveled slowly through the
night.

He had left behind his army at the swamp, commanding
them to leave him and hunt on their own. For only the third
time in his life, he was too anguished to withstand the burden of leadership.

He had discovered his son tangled in the branches of a
water oak, high above the marsh. Kyle's flame-ravaged body
smouldered like a dying ember. He was little more than a brittle skeleton held together with tenuous strands of charred flesh.

"My son," Diallo had said. He could not say any more.

Carefully, he had extricated his son from the boughs.
Holding Kyle in his arms, he glided to the earth. He began to
walk.

"I have lost too much," Diallo whispered. "I will not lose
you"

As Diallo marched through the darkness, Kyle's limbs
swayed like branches in a breeze, clattering softly. The flesh
was seared away from his skull, making his once-handsome
face utterly unrecognizable. Most critically, fire had swallowed his vampire heart, too. He was, without question, dead.

"I will not lose you," Diallo vowed. "You are my only
son. You must live."

The wind rustled through the field in which he walked,
tall blades of grass hissing like serpents. The fat moon gazed
down on him, as distant and uncaring as ever.

Diallo looked deeply into the dark, eyeless sockets of his
son's skull.

"You will live," Diallo said.

The breeze threw a fistful of dead weeds over his head.

Resolute, Diallo journeyed through the darkness to bury
his son.

In spite of the terrifying day and night that he had endured, David slumbered deeply and dreamlessly, his exhaustion rewarding him a sound sleep.

He awoke to the pinkish-gray light of dawn slanting
through the thin gaps between the blinds. King, ears raised
alertly, stood at the half-open window across the room, staring through the glass with a peculiar intensity.

David raised into a sitting position, his tired bones creaking. Beside him, Nia slept quietly; Jahlil was asleep on the
far side of the bed, snoring softly.

The makeshift barricade in front of the door was undisturbed. The other windows were shut, too.

"What're you looking at, boy?" David asked the dog. "Is
a squirrel out there making fun of you?"

King glanced at David. The dog wagged his tail, once, but
did not move away from the window.

Wiping his eyes, David pushed off the mattress and
padded across the cool hardwood floor.

He rested his hand on the dog's back and knelt so that he
could peer out the blinds at the same eye level as King.

A maple tree grew in the yard outside, its leafy arms extending to within a few feet of the window. A huge black
bird had perched on a nearby branch: a raven.

The raven.

David's heartbeat accelerated.

The dream image of Lisha, the beautiful and ancient female vampire, shimmered through his mind's eye.

Feeling as though he were in yet another dream, he reached
forward and grasped the pull cord, raising the blinds. They
clicked upward.

The bird's liquid black eyes found David's. Its stare was
intense, and, David thought, expectant.

She's waiting for me, he thought. Waiting for me to do
something.

The bird ruffled its feathers, impatiently.

She's waiting for me to follow her.

The thought came to him so lucidly that he wondered
whether it had originated in his mind at all; perhaps the idea
had been implanted in his brain by the mysterious vampire
who communicated with him through the raven.

But follow her where? Why did she want to lead them
somewhere?

Pearl had said that the vampire who puppeteered the
bird might assist them in their mission, yet Pearl had also
cautioned them that Lisha had her own ulterior motives,
too.

The raven cawed, as if pushing him to reach a conclusion.

David made a decision based solely on gut instinct.

"Okay," he said. "We'll follow you. Wherever you want to
take us ""

He could have sworn that the bird smiled.

avid awoke Nia and Jahlil.

I"Everyone, up and out," he said. "We've got to leave, right
now."

"Huh?" Nia stretched, blinking. Her voice was scratchy.
"What's going on?"

"We've got a guide to help us," he said. "Remember the
raven? She's waiting for us outside."

Understanding flashed in Nia's eyes. She threw off the
blanket. Jahlil followed suit.

It took them less than five minutes to dress and grab their
bags. They moved the dresser that served as the barricade,
and opened the door.

The raven awaited them on the walkway. It watched them,
black eyes glinting with a sentience that was downright
creepy.

"I'll be damned," Jahlil said. "I remember you guys telling
me about this bird, but seeing it ... that's something else."

The raven cawed and strutted across the yard.

"Let's move," David said.

His watch read six-thirty. Rosy light glowed in the sky.
Dew dampened the grass.

Seen in the light of day, the Pathfinder was a mess; it
looked as if the vehicle had been competing in a mud race.
David made a mental note to get the truck washed, and then
almost laughed at himself for thinking about such a thing at
a time like this.

As they piled inside the SUV, the bird launched into the
air.

"Hey, it's flying away!" Jahlil said. "Don't lose it."

"We won't," David said. He made a U-turn in the driveway.

They rolled across the dirt lane. The raven circled above
the cabin, then descended until it was only a few feet above
the vehicle, and perhaps ten feet ahead.

The bird guided them along the winding path, through
the hilly woods.

"I wonder where it's leading us," Nia said.

"You've asked the million-dollar question," David said.
"I have no idea where it's going, but it has to be important."

Shafts of daylight pierced the overhanging trees. Ahead, a
squirrel that seemed about to venture into view vanished
into the roadside shrubbery when it spotted the raven, as
though identifying it as a bird of prey to be avoided.

They followed the bird out of the woods, and onto the
shaded country lane that intersected the mouth of the cabin's
driveway. The bird soared west, toward the town's residential
area. The raven rose higher into the air, but remained in clear
view.

"She's taking us to the vampire's lair," Jahlil said from the
back. "I betcha a thousand bucks. That's where she's leading
us"'

David looked at Nia, and she nodded. Jahlil had voiced
the thought that had entered David's mind, and he was sure
Nia had hoped for the same thing.

"Let's not get our hopes up," David said, probably more
to himself than to anyone. "We'll just have to see"

"You know that's where she's taking us," Jahlil said.
"Can't you feel it? I feel like I used to right before a big football game. Like something huge is about to happen"

"Whatever it is, we've gotta be ready," David said. He
flexed his fingers on the steering wheel. Nervous energy sang
through his blood.

The raven wheeled through the air like a toy glider.
Following, they turned onto Main Street.

In the morning light, the area looked worse than it did last
night. Debris was everywhere. Windows were shattered,
glass littering the pavement. The traffic lights continued to
stare like dead eyes.

But there was no pack of dogs blocking the street, no
human carcass lying on the ground. There were no signs of
life at all. It might have been a forgotten movie set at a bankrupt Hollywood studio.

"I hardly recognize this place," Nia said. Her voice teetered
on a sob. She covered her mouth.

David could not think of anything to say. No words of
comfort would reassure her. The worst was yet to come.

They left the business district. The raven began to descend.

A tall, wrought-iron fence that fronted the road indicated
their destination, and when David saw the bird swoop inside
the enclosure, he realized that he should not have been surprised. Where else could this nightmarish adventure have
concluded?

He drove through the open gates of Hillside Cemetery.