Ravens Deep (one) (35 page)

             
“You dare to betray me?” he said with savage vehemence. “Did you think that I wouldn’t know?”  He spat the words at me, my fear grew in its intensity, it was consuming my whole being and I was trembling.

             
“No, I haven’t.” Darius’s full brutal force emanated from him and his next words struck even more fear into my heart.

             
“Where is the phone?” he demanded in an icy voice that cut through the air with shocking clarity. If I had thought about refusing him I knew this was not the time, I needed my phone, but I couldn’t bring myself to argue with him and with shaking hands I reached down and pulled it from my bag.  Darius snatched it away and dropped it onto the hearthstone, and then he stamped heavily upon it, shattering it into a hundred fragments. I was horrified, and terrified of what he would do next.

             
“Darius, I couldn’t let you hurt him, you must understand. He was no threat to us.” Darius stared straight at me, his gaze un-nerving me entirely.             

             
“He is not a threat to us now,” he corrected coldly with a cruel smile playing around his mouth and I shuddered, as the meaning of his words sank in.

             
“No! You didn’t?” I jumped up facing him. “Tell me you didn’t.” I said sharply as my heart pounded faster.  Darius didn’t answer. He just stood observing my reaction and he actually seemed to be enjoying my distress. The realization hit me, he didn’t need to say any words, and the satisfaction and contemptuous smile on his face told me the truth. I stared at him horrified, initially too shocked to move, then I felt myself losing control.

             
“How could you?” I cried as the tears starting to stream down my face.  Some inner impulse made me raise my hand to strike him, but he caught my wrist in his hand, laughing.

             
“You cannot hurt me,” he said before his lips pressed together in a bitter smile.

             
“You killed him?” I asked again, not wanting to comprehend the fact. “How could you do that Darius?” I asked, nearly choking on the words.

             
“But I didn’t, you did!”  His voice was chilled and calculating, allowing his words to have the maximum impact upon me.

             
“What?”  I was stunned.

             
“I may have performed the physical deed, but it was you who killed them both.  Him and Samuel Dunklin, it was you who sealed their fate.” His voice was cruel and sadistic. “And they died because of your involvement!” he said, making his meaning very clear.  The venom in his words sounded incredible to me and I stared at him full of loathing.

             
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, his eyes narrowing.

             
“Why?” I snapped. “Because I might upset you, because you might get angry and you might do something you regret,” I said provoking him.  “I hate you,” I added, and in that instant I did. I pushed past him and ran into the garden.  I heard his voice behind me.

             
“Leave me alone,” I cried, as my legs felt that they were unable to support my weight any longer and I sank down to the stone steps. The endless tears I cried were for Charlie and for Samuel and as my tears began to falter I sensed I was not alone.  I looked up to find Darius leaning against the door post watching me.

             
“When you have finished crying over
him,
perhaps you will learn not to defy me again,” he remarked coldly.

             
“Go away,” I said just as coldly, but he remained. Very soon the cold winds had started to chill my skin and I shivered.  Darius voice broke the silence of the night.

             
“Madeline, I do not have the tolerance for this ridiculous emotion,” he remarked

impatiently
and I stared up at him in amazement.

             
Ridiculous emotion, how dare he!

             
“You can go to hell,” I stated viciously. He approached me silently and swiftly and snatching my arm he pulled me up from the stone step.

             
“I am already there,” he said bitterly and I looked at him with disdain.

             
“You murdered someone I once cared for and you expect me not to be upset?” I asked in amazement. 

             
“It is clear I cannot trust you, you will not leave here again on your own,” he stated avoiding my question. 

             
“Or what?” I challenged.

             
“Madeline, do not make me continue this conversation, I have made my decision.”

             
“I do not make you do anything, that is clear. You have no concern for my feelings only your own,” I snapped at him.

             
“You wanted this life,” he reminded me bluntly.

             
“No, I wanted a life with you. I opened my mind to accept what you are and as distasteful as it all is, I accepted it all . . . I even accepted what you have to do, but at no point did I expect you to kill everyone I have ever known or spoken to.”

             
“Then you are naive,” he said. “The boyfriend wouldn’t’t have given up.  I could

hear
his thoughts and they were only of you. I will not share you with anyone,” he said, as he pulled me to him.  I tried to push him away, but he was too strong and held me tight. His kiss was fierce as if he was daring me to doubt his total possession over me, then after a few minutes he relinquished his tight hold.

             
“Don’t ever doubt my determination to destroy anyone that comes near you.” he stated icily. My head hurt, my eyes hurt and I felt sick knowing Charlie had been thinking only of me when he had died. With Darius’s overwhelming possessiveness I felt suffocated, and I couldn’t’t stop shaking.  I tried to turn away from him, but he would not allow it and instead he pulled me firmly to him again, refusing to let go, until I had no choice but to submit to him.

             
Although despite my rage and emotional state of mind, I needed to be held. I needed someone to tell me that this was a bad dream, a nightmare that I was going to wake up from and everything would be all right; even if the one to do it was the monster whose arms now surrounded me. Eventually my anguish subsided and my rapid breathing eased and when Darius spoke to me his voice was calm, but commanding.

             
“Madeline, look at me.”  Reluctantly I looked into his eyes and once again I was

mesmerized
by him, his voice and his words eased my pain, he made me believe in him again and I found him irresistible once more. I stood there listening to him and watching his cool steady gaze and after a while, what had happened this evening seemed less horrific.

             
He was hypnotizing me, enchanting me again. Only he knew how to speak to my

very
soul.  This power he possessed over me made my anguish less and his reasoning chased away all the sanity within me.  He truly was my enchanter and now there was no longer a mortal person alive that I cared about, for me there was only the immortal.

Chapter Twenty Seven - Ashes to Ashes

             
Exhausted after the night’s events, the morning slipped un-noticed into the afternoon. The shock and numbness I felt throughout my entire body very slowly began to dissipate and eventually I must have fallen asleep, for I was aware of my mind succumbing to the blissful release of falling into a deep dreamless state of being. 

             
When I opened my eyes some time later, I felt peaceful and calm until the memories of only a few hours before came flooding through my head.  Then I wished it was all some horrific nightmare, and now back in the reality of wakefulness I could forget it all. But I couldn’t for long -- it was real, and now I had to face the torment again. 

             
Darius did not appear after sunset and I was extremely ill at ease. I felt unable to do anything, but wait with an awful sense of foreboding.  It was almost ten o’clock when he finally walked through the door, his clothes were dishevelled and a faint smell of smoke entered the room with him.

             
I tried not to speculate what he had been doing and I dared not ask -- I dreaded his

answer
. We regarded each other coolly for several moments; Darius was determining the state of  my emotions, before he spoke.

             
“Are you feeling better?” I watched him coldly, really wanting to say:

             
Actually no, I feel awful and terrorized because you just killed Charlie!

             
But I masked my thoughts as best as I
could, and just nodded in response. He crossed the room and sat down beside me. He took my hand in his and the smell of smoke increased at his nearness to me.

             
“What have you been doing?  Have you been near a fire?”  In spite of myself I was concerned, I knew how dangerous that was for him. He smiled briefly, sensing my worry.

             
“I’m fine, I just had to take care of a few details.” My thoughts flew to Charlie.

             
“What details?” I asked in a whisper, not wanting to hear the words, but needing

to
know.  Darius studied me for a few moments.

             
“You do not need to know, Madeline,” he said simply.

             
“Yes I do,” I whispered fearfully, as I looked into his eyes. “I need to know.  It’s Charlie isn’t’t it?” I was feeling sick to my stomach, but I did not wait for his response. “I have to be able to lay his ghost to rest, I need to know where his body is,” I concluded, feeling daunted by my own words.  Darius observed me for a few minutes further then he calmly explained.

             
“Last night I moved the car and the body into the woods out of sight.  I returned tonight and disposed of them properly.”

             
“Where?” I asked in barely an audible whisper, “where is it?”

             
“I burnt the car and now its shell lies in a deep ravine.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “The body was burnt separately in the woods.” Indifferent to my look of utter horror he added, “It was best Madeline, I buried the ashes and no trace will be found.”  I looked at him in anguish.

             
“Does it matter to you?  Does it ever play on your conscience?  Do you even feel the horror of it?”  I asked bitterly. I felt his grip tighten on my hand, not in a threatening way, but more as a way of reassurance.

             
“You make me aware of the horror of it,” he said wistfully, and I felt my bitterness fading. “In the end it’s a matter of survival and that instinct is great in us all, even you,” he observed.  I remained silent, thinking about his words.

             
So it is done, Charlie’s body burnt to ashes
in some unmarked grave in the woods.
 
His car, now a burnt out shell in some remote ravine.

             
I turned to Darius.

             
“Someone will come looking you know, people will look for him.”

             
“I know,” he said gently.  “But what will they find?  They will find nothing,” he said in answer to his own question. “He checked out of the hotel of his own accord -- thanks to you,” he added, somewhat amused. I on the other hand had the words:
Accomplice to Murder,
racing through my mind. Darius interrupted my thoughts.  “At least you saved me the trouble of having to dispose of anyone else last night,” he said, displaying a sinister smile on his face. 

             
“This is not amusing Darius,” I said coldly.

             
“No it isn’t’t, but you must see the irony,” he remarked.  I ignored his comment as I did see, only too well, the truth in his words, I had lured Charlie right into Darius’s path, and I shuddered at the very thought.  “People go missing all the time, en route to and from places. People will look, but in time they will forget -- they always do. It will be recorded as unsolved on the police report, along with the hundreds of others that are still unaccounted for.” A shiver ran down my spine as I stared at him. He looked at me in amazement as he observed my reaction to his words. “You must know this?” he insisted, staring at me. I shook my head.

             
“Maybe I have just led a sheltered life.” I remarked dryly. “What happens to them all?”  He paused, thinking for a few moments.

             
“Many people, seemingly happy people just up and leave one day. They go and start a new life, change their identity and leave behind anything they once knew.  Unable to cope with their current life they choose to find another. Others are just taken.”