Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2) (44 page)

She disappeared once more and I
followed.

“
Run, Luna,” I hissed,
knowing she could hear me over the distance, the wind and the
clamour of life from the streets below. “Run. I will follow, and
when I catch you, one of us will not live to see another
sunrise.”

I sped on, slowly closing the distance
between us and death.

It seemed I chased Luna for millennia
across London’s labyrinthine rooftops, but in reality, only minutes
passed before the rooftops began to separate themselves from one
another until they disappeared altogether. Then I was chasing her
across fields turned a deep sea green by the night-time shadows. It
had started to rain by then and the rain beat down on me in thin,
silvery trails as I sped through it. We came to an abandoned field
and all at once, she sped up and I lost sight of her. Panicked, I
spurred myself onward and materialised at the edge of the field,
fearing I had lost her.

Miniscule sounds of raindrops against
metal alerted me to her presence. I ducked. The sword swept through
the air above my head. She kicked me. I stumbled back. The sword
came down toward me again. I parried the strike. I hit her. She
went hurtling across the wet grass. She leapt to her feet, fangs
bared. I lunged at her. She disappeared. She threw herself at me
from behind. We went hurtling to the ground.

We fought, our deathly dance conducted
in silence with only the rain and the moon to stand witness to our
anger and mutual hatred. Time lost all meaning and only my rage
spurred me on.

But I was no match for her, we both
knew this, and after what must have been hours, she landed a blow
on my arm. My sword was knocked out of my hand. I leapt back. She
threw her sword at me like a javelin. I ducked. It flew high over
my head. I made a dash for my sword and grabbed it. I dove into the
ether and materialised a few feet from her.

She made no move as I brought my sword
up. Clearly she thought I would not have the heart to inflict the
mortal blow.

I hesitated with the sword held above
my head as her gaze held mine, defiance and a slightly mocking air
in the curve of her lip.

I brought the sword down with all the
strength and speed I possessed.

She was gone before it could connect
and I found myself being whirled around from behind, the sword
wrested out of my hand as I was thrown to the ground.

I landed on my back and she was upon
me. My own blade was against my neck, and her face hovered over
mine, wounded anger darkening her eyes.

And then she was away, standing about
ten metres from me, her face impassive as she gazed at
me.

She threw the sword to the ground and
let the ether take her.

It was no use trying to follow her
because she would not let me catch her this time.

I sat in the grass in silence. The
rain eventually stopped and the night limped toward a cold, dreary
dawn. Then I did what I was dreading and went back to the house on
Germen Street. The corpse was waiting for me, most of the blood
washed away by the rain. She was completely cold and still, a
lifeless mannequin. I called the authorities and lied, using my
mental powers to control them so they believed she had accidentally
fallen from one of the windows upstairs.

They took her away. There was no
reason for me to stay at the house on Germen Street and I left that
day, taking only my father’s swords with me, knowing it was
unlikely I would ever return to it.

There wasn’t much for me to do but
return to France to Henriette’s mother. Of course, I was not going
to tell her she had outlived her daughter. Instead I sat with her
every night, spinning lie after lie, sculpting her mind to make her
believe she saw her daughter everyday and that she was radiant and
happy. I did not allow myself to think of Luna until it was over
and I was able to lay the woman’s body beside that of the daughter
she believed had been at her bedside smiling softly at her, holding
her hand as she quietly, and painlessly, slipped out of the net of
life.

I left France then, knowing I would
never set foot on those shores for the rest of my eternal life. I
returned to Louisiana, to loneliness and a mind-numbing hatred for
the woman I had spent fifty years waiting for in a wilderness of
despair. Hatred that had become the sum of the unconditional love I
had once felt for her.

The years rolled on and I remained
young, my wealth increased, and bitter hatred consumed me. I
retreated to the mansion and had a wall erected around my little
haven, metal black gates at the edge of the field of flowers
keeping the world at bay. But life went on and the world outside
the mansion continued to change.

Automobiles soon replaced carriages. I
swore I would never own one of those vile contraptions, cold,
soulless metal crawling the streets like sinister intruders
belching out sooty fumes. But I eventually fell in love with
automobiles, and soon many sleek, expensive cars filled the garage
I’d had built on the grounds of my home in Louisiana. Telephones,
televisions, electricity, and indoor plumbing brought ease and
convenience to the masses. But life was empty and nothing held any
joy for me.

I became an observer of life once
more. When I wasn’t keeping track of Luna’s descendants and my own
family, I spent a great deal of time watching the young, admiring
and despising their arrogance and boldness in equal measure. But it
was the elderly that fascinated me and I could spend hours at a
time watching them, the way they moved, their thoughts, the things
they regretted or the memories they cherished. I envied them and
the aches and pains they complained of as their bodies slowly broke
down and gave up on them. Most of them missed youth. They missed
being young, but not necessarily all of them wanted to live
indefinitely. There had to be a limit to the length of years one
spent on this Earth, a season to live, a season to die. You could
appreciate summer because it would end and make way for
autumn.

The fact that Mama still came to me
over the years to warn and guide me, told me death wasn’t the end.
But it was unlikely I would ever know, and so I watched those old,
feeble men and women around me and envied them. I envied their fear
and wished for the aches and pains of those broken old bodies and
to be able to give up on life as my body broke down and gave up on
me.

But my body was strong and powerful.
Time had no dominion over me. That knowledge tormented me so along
with those endless pages of a never-ending book that stretched
before me for all eternity.

We moved through the decades. I did
not know where Luna was or what she did. But every once in a while,
I would be walking along a crowded street, lost in my thoughts,
when an image would enter my mind: a view of myself as I walked
along the crowded streets.

The first few times this happened, I
came to an abrupt stop, the anger and hatred I felt for Luna rising
like acid. She was always gone by the time I turned around. After a
while, I simply ignored it whenever it happened. But I knew she was
there, watching me, echoes of her tumultuous emotions riding along
the image she sent like a dark swarm of bees.

One evening, I returned to the mansion
and stopped short at the edge of the field of flowers. To human
eyes, it would appear as if nothing was amiss. But the scent of
vampires was swirling in the sweet scent of the Queen Anne’s lace.
That and the scent of death. I moved into the field of flowers and
saw scorch marks, the remains of a belt buckle and a hank of hair.
Once more an image of myself standing with my back to the viewer,
the heavy iron gate between us, entered my mind. Again, her
emotions flooded my mind, a soul-searing anger, along with fear,
and flashes of the battle that had taken place.

I ignored her and entered the mansion.
I didn’t care who wanted me dead or why. I also had the sense it
had been some kind of revenge attack against her. She remained
nearby that day, watching over the mansion. It was, of course, a
pointless exercise as her psychic sense would have alerted her to
danger much faster than it would take the assailants to reach the
mansion. But she stayed nearby anyway, her fear reaching me in icy
waves. She left a few hours after the sun set, but remained close
by in the weeks that followed, her anger at the attack seeming to
swell like a dam rather than diminishing. I pretended not to be
aware of her and she eventually went away.

***

It was 1971 and the only thing that
had changed about me was my clothes. In order to blend in with
those around me, I finally gave up my beloved tailored suits and
succumbed to the fashions of that time. I wore high-waisted flared
trousers with a low slung vest top and black leather jacket,
clothes I felt looked simply ridiculous—even then. I was on my way
back to the mansion when an image came to me. It was of an old
beat-up car idling by the side of the road. I saw a tall, willowy
figure in an equally beaten-up tan leather jacket, a large bag
slung over her shoulder, her afro a large, dark cloud above her
shoulders. She moved away from the car. Her destination? The
mansion. Whether the image had come from Mama or Luna, was hard to
tell. All I knew was the woman was dangerous.

She was already at the mansion by the
time I got there, having walked all night to reach it. She waited
for me to enter it as the night sky began to lighten. As silent as
a cat, she climbed nimbly over the wall and entered the grounds,
sure I would be unaware of her presence, as her scent had been
hidden by either a spell or herbs. Her thoughts were also hidden.
She stopped halfway across the field of flowers to survey the
house, placing her bag down on the grass. I stepped out of the
ether, a few feet behind her.

Her sixth sense was incredibly strong.
She began to whirl around even before I completely re-materialised
behind her. I saw the glint of silver as two small knives flew
through the air toward me. I leapt back into the ether. I
materialised to her left, knocking her to the ground.

She hit the ground with a sharp intake
of breath. Fear, something that did not come easily to her,
brightened her dark brown eyes as I came to stand over
her.

I was looking at a slip of a girl,
really. She looked about fourteen, although I guessed she was older
than she appeared to be. She was skinny, her complexion the colour
of dark honey, her small face all eyes beneath that gigantic afro,
the only thing of substance on her entire body.

In her fear and confusion, the control
she had over her thoughts slackened and I saw why she was so
shocked. She was wearing an amulet, which drew on the natural magic
that prevented vampires from entering a home uninvited. It should
have repelled me, as well as slowed me down considerably, when I
got close enough to touch her. But she had no way of knowing
something like that would not work on me.

“
Hm, I don’t know how we
missed you for so long,” I mused to myself out loud.

I knew who all of Luna’s descendants
were and had provided for them all in some way or another. This one
was a complete mystery to me.

She stared at me, her hand slowly
inching toward her waist.

“
There is no point
reaching for whatever it is you have concealed there. As you have
gathered by now, that little amulet of yours will not work on me,
so I can easily disarm you. If you understand anything about magic,
you will know there is a reason for that. I am not your
enemy...Sutana.”

Her eyes narrowed at the mention of
her name, which I had plucked from her mind when her control had
slackened.

I offered my hand to her. She ignored
it and rose to her feet, her movements quick and fluid.

“
It don’t matter if you
ain’t my enemy, you’re still one of them!” Her hand was inching
toward her waist again.

“
Yes. But you’re not
strong enough to kill me without that amulet. If there was any
danger of that, Luna would not have let you get this
far.”

She bristled with anger. “That
mean-ass vamp ain’t got nothin’ on me! I’ll make sure I bury her
the next time we meet.”

“
Unlikely, as you clearly
have no idea how powerful she is, or that you are one of her
descendants.”

There was complete silence, her eyes
widening in mortification, her mouth hanging open. Then her hands
curled into fists and she stamped her foot.

“
What
?”

“
Perhaps you had better
come inside,” I said, trying to hide a small smile.

I turned my back on her and walked
toward the mansion. After a few moments, she followed.

In the kitchen, she glared at me.
“You’d better not tell nobody I’m related to a vamp. It’ll kill my
rep.”

“
I have no intention of
telling anyone. Would you like a drink, or perhaps something to
eat?”

“
You got food?” Her face
lit up and she appeared much younger for a few seconds. “I don’t
know of no vamp that eats.”

“
As you’ll come to see,
Luna and I are not...um... Help yourself,” I said as she rushed
past me to the fridge.