Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2) Read online

  The other thing making me uneasy was Kato. So far he had shown a degree of arrogance and a mild condescension whenever he was with us, almost as if we were the trapped slaves instead of him. But when Jothan Foster ordered him to take us to the chapel after dinner, his manner changed dramatically. Throughout the walk through the woods, I noted he became increasingly nervous, his green eyes darting among the trees as if he expected something to pounce on him at any second. For someone who appeared to be immune to the heat—apparently the Negroes had an innate tolerance to it—there were now rivulets of sweat running down his brow. His breathing was also quite shallow, although the walk wasn’t particularly taxing. I barely listened to Julia as a turgid knot of trepidation began to form in my stomach.

  We finally came out of the trees into a clearing. The chapel sat in the middle. It was a quaint white building made all the more appealing by the atmospheric setting of the trees as the sun set, turning the sky a deep, sultry azure with only the barest hint of gold lining the dark grey clouds. A small stream cut along the back of the clearing, disappearing into the trees. But looking at the chapel made chills race down my spine.

  I had spent most of my adult life in devoted service to the Almighty and I sought, and was rewarded, with His presence daily. From the moment I entered the clearing, I knew we had walked into the midst of evil and I found myself in darkness.

  “Oh my, Avery,” Julia said. “Isn’t it in the most beautiful setting? Oh, I cannot wait to see what it is like inside.”

  I barely heard her. I was staring at Kato. He hung back in the trees as if he would burst into flames if he stepped out of them, his gaze jumping from the chapel to the trees as if searching for some hidden danger. His eyes only met mine for a fraction of a second, and the most peculiar thing occurred. I saw pity in his eyes. Then, without uttering another word, he turned on his heels and fled.

  As I watched him run away, I knew I had gravely underestimated the danger we were in. I seized Julia by the arm in a punishing grip, ignoring her soft gasp, my gaze locked on Kato’s diminishing form.

  “Julia, you have to go. Quickly, follow him and run as fast as you can away from here.”

  “But...but—”

  “Do it now!”

  I pushed her away from me toward the trees. She stumbled but regained her footing, shock etched on her features, her lip quivering uncertainly. It was the first time I had ever raised my voice, let alone manhandled her. But, dutiful to the last, she began to move away, eventually turning and running into the woods.

  At that moment the sound of laughter, a woman’s cold, brittle laughter, rang through the clearing, sending spasms of unparalleled dread through my mind and soul. I spun toward the sound, turning around in a full circle. But I saw no one. I was alone in the clearing. As I faced the chapel once more, the most extraordinary sight greeted my eyes.

  There was someone standing on the roof.

  It was a woman, a mulatto of astonishing appearance. Her skin was so pale she would have passed for white, were it not for her features: the broad nose, full lips, and the shock of unruly, woolly ginger hair that had been placed in two bunches. She was dressed in men’s clothing, emerald green breeches, coat, and waistcoat, and wore lavish jewels.

  At first I was simply confused at how she had gotten to the top of the roof, when only a moment ago there had been no one in the clearing with me.

  My hands shook as I reached for the Bible I kept in my coat pocket. But I was struck dumb, unable to utter a word of prayer as I stared at what could only be an apparition. Her laughter became more shrill as she straightened and stepped off the edge of the roof to glide through the air to the ground. She landed lightly on her feet.

  Even more extraordinarily, there were now two others standing beside her. One was a tall, glacial-looking blond male, with a strong jaw and dark, heavy eyebrows. He was dressed in ivory breeches and coat. But it was the one standing between the two who held my gaze. It was the dark-haired woman I had seen by the graveyard the last time I had been at my church in England. Her gold gown glinted in the light of the setting sun along with the lavish jewels they were all draped in.

  Still laughing, the mulatto vanished right before my eyes. The sudden absence of that laughter was even more unsettling, but then it burst forth again and she was standing about four feet from me. She howled at my expression then walked toward me, assuming a coy, feminine pose and fanning an imaginary fan. She closed the space between us, grabbed me by the head and placed a kiss on my lips. She vanished again just inches from me.

  Horror washed over me and my heart slammed against my chest. I perhaps could have explained away everything else I had seen up until that point—the effortless leap from the roof of the chapel, the other two appearing out of thin air. But those cold lips against mine were proof that all of this was real. That I was somehow alone here with these three who could not be human. But then what did that leave me with? Devils? The gravity of my error in not listening to Minny hung heavily on me.

  The dark-haired one spoke then, revealing a Spanish accent.

  “Devils? No, my sweet one. And it would have made no difference if you had left the moment that stupid girl told you to. I would never have let you go.”

  The fact that she had responded to thoughts I had not uttered, and what this signified, was overshadowed by a scream from the direction of the woods.

  Julia.

  I had been so wrapped up in the extraordinary things I was witnessing that I had completely forgotten about Julia.

  I turned and ran toward the trees only to come to an abrupt stop. The mulatto was already back in the clearing and Julia was caught in her grasp. I watched, horrified, as the mulatto grasped one of Julia’s breasts, causing her to wince in pain. Julia struggled fruitlessly as the mulatto’s lips closed around her ear. The mulatto sucked on her ear and then glanced up at the dark-haired woman. I stumbled toward Julia.

  “L-Let her go!”

  But it was as if I hadn’t spoken and the mulatto pulled her lips away from Julia’s ear to address the dark-haired woman.

  “I like this one, Auria. Can we keep her for a few days?”

  “No!” Her voice was sharp and shrill with anger. “I have had to watch her fawn over what is mine for far too long. Kill her.”

  The mulatto shrugged. One moment Julia was struggling in the monster’s grip. The next moment, the mulatto grasped my darling wife by the hair and snapped her neck in a quick, merciless motion. I heard it snap from where I stood and then Julia sagged lifeless against the monster, her eyes open as if she were gazing at something only she could see in the twilight sky. The monster let her fall to the ground and stepped over her as if she were a log in her path.

  The Bible fell from my grasp, as ineffectual as the leaves it fell among. I wasn’t aware I had fallen to my knees until I felt the grass against my hands. I fought to control nausea as I stared at Julia’s body, not wanting to believe what I had just seen.

  “Julia,” I whispered, trying to crawl toward her.

  But the mulatto was before me. She moved past me, grasping the collar at the back of my neck. She dragged me backward with strength beyond that of any human being.

  The clearing wavered as the world seemed to cave in before my eyes, hurtling toward me. I closed my eyes against the sight, and when I opened them again, I was in a completely different place.

  Chapter 4

  The mulatto abruptly let me go and I sank to the ground. I lay there for a few minutes before I dragged myself to my knees and looked around me in confusion. I couldn’t be sure if I had lost consciousness for a few minutes, or if the mulatto had leapt from the clearing to an entirely different location by some supernatural means, dragging me with her. We were in some vast underground room that could have been some chamber in the deepest depths of hell. Several sconces lining the walls lit the room in a fiery light, making our shadows form large, grotesque shapes that leered at me from the walls. At the farthest end of the chamber was
a gold altar that took up the entire wall. There were pagan markings etched on the altar I could not make out. Clustered around it were hundreds of skulls, human skulls, painted black. A tall gold staff tapering to a sharp point lay against the altar.

  A few feet away from me were four black coffins inlaid with gold. They had been placed on stone slabs about half a metre high. I shuddered at the thought of human remains in those coffins, but the dirt floor was littered with human bones. And it appeared as if some of the bones had been there for decades, for they crumbled beneath me as I rose to my feet. My head reeled with images of Julia lying beneath the trees, her head at an odd angle. I closed my eyes, fighting the nausea that rose unbidden, weakening me.

  When I opened them again, Auria was gazing at me, a curious light in her eyes. She spoke to the mulatto without taking her eyes off me.

  “Onyx, help me take this off.” She began pulling on the clasps of her gown. “I want to experience him before I turn him.”

  Onyx moved to her and began undoing the clasps of her gown.

  “You intend to turn him?” the male said, his voice dropping to a whisper, the subtlest hint of anger riding behind his words. “You didn’t say anything about turning him.”

  Auria stopped and faced him as she pulled the gold gown away from her, letting it fall to her feet.

  “Do I have to ask your permission, Emory?” she said.

  He was silent. She gave him an icy smile and then moved toward him as if it was the most natural thing to be dressed only in her undergarments whilst in the company of others.

  She grasped Emory’s chin in a hard grip and kissed him. “Don’t worry, my dear. No one will ever take your place,” she purred.

  She released him and turned her gaze to me again. My thoughts were still swirling with images of what had taken place in the clearing.

  The savage twist of Onyx’s hand.

  Julia falling lifeless to the ground.

  Rage swelled within me along with abject misery. I lunged at Auria and wrapped my fingers around her neck.

  “You killed her!” I cried. “You killed her!”

  In my grief and rage, it did not immediately register that her skin was cool and hard to the touch, and that no matter how hard I squeezed, it did not scare the smile away from her lips. The other two did nothing to stop me, but seemed rather amused by my actions.

  Auria laughed and then did the damnedest thing. She carefully placed her hands over mine and pulled them away from her neck effortlessly as if I had the strength of a sick child rather than that of an adult male. Her hands felt like iron around my wrists. I stared at her in astonishment and tried to back away. But she locked her gaze on mine and I found I could not move.

  Malignant, alien images flooded my brain, images of her without the flimsy undergarment she wore, her ripe, naked flesh assaulting my senses.

  Knowing I was in the grip of some unholy power, I again tried to step away, but could not. She released my wrists at that moment, her smile ripening. As if I were a puppet under her control, my hands moved to her breasts.

  Horror burgeoned in my mind, but my hands pawed at her as if I were a schoolboy who was seeing such a sight for the first time. I watched my hands take hold of her chemise and tear it away from her, exposing her full, firm bosom.

  She released whatever control she had over me, and like someone whose head had been held underwater, I broke through to the surface, able to breathe again. I staggered backward as they laughed.

  In the feverish light of the underground room, they undressed. I felt an ice cold lump in the pit of my stomach as I began to question why they had kept me alive and what it was they planned to do.

  “What are you?” I eventually said.

  Auria was completely naked now. She had an unearthly beauty and her body was one that would have filled any warm-blooded male with longing. But I felt nothing but disgust when I looked at her.

  “I am a god,” she said, moving within inches of me. “So forget your Jesus, your old life, and that little runt you had for a wife. I am your life now.”

  In that moment, I realised Julia was the lucky one.

  They undressed me. Auria took great pleasure in ripping my white necktie from my neck, and with it I felt the last link I had to the comfort and safety of my old life torn in two. Naked before them, the golden altar like a malevolent fifth presence in the underground room, I could not help shivering although the room was hot and close, the air thick and stale.

  “Tell me he isn’t beautiful. Have you seen a man this beautiful?” Auria said.

  “He is one of a kind,” Emory said grudgingly. “You chose well.” The strangest smile touched his lips, one that spoke of tenderness, although it was seeped in bitterness. “You always choose well.”

  The bitterness deepened into angst because it was as though she hadn’t heard him. Her avaricious gaze was on me, and again my mind began to bend as she penetrated it with her supernatural power. My body was a slave to her whims once more and I moved to her and trailed my hands over her naked flesh.

  Hot bile rose to my throat as she began to caress me and my body yielded to her touch, my manhood hardening with desire even though I felt nothing but fear and loathing for the monster before me. I tried to speak but could not will my lips to move, and although I strained against my renegade body, it would not yield to me. My breath caught painfully when I felt Emory close at my side, his lean, cold body against mine, his erect manhood pressing against my hip. I was able to breathe again when he moved back, until another cold image crawled into my mind: An image of my hand on his male member.

  I thought my mind would break when my hand began to move toward it. More images wormed their way into my mind and the full horror of what it was they intended to do with my body bore down on me like a runaway horse.

  Thankfully, before I could touch him, Auria took hold of my hand.

  “No,” she said to Emory with a slight chuckle. “I can see he will never forgive me if I let you. An eternity is a long time to live with a grudge.”

  “Then I’ll have to wait.” He placed the softest of kisses on my cheek, lingering, letting his rough stubble graze my cheek. He moved to Onyx.

  His touch was anything but gentle when he took hold of her and pulled her against him. He yanked her hair back and ravaged her mouth with his. When he pulled away, there was blood on her lips and his, and, even more startling, excitement in her eyes. Onyx smiled as he threw her against a wall. She lunged at him and they both fell to the ground, their long, pale limbs entwined, making them look like a large, bleached arachnid as they grappled with each other amidst the broken bones all around. My mind screaming in protest, my mutinous body moved to Auria.

  Under whatever hold she placed on me, I ravaged Auria. I hit, bit and slapped her, taking her with a brutality that shocked me, often closing my eyes against her ruby lips spread in pleasure, her stygian eyes an abyss which was swallowing me whole.

  At one moment during that agonising night she had been astride me, gripped in the carnal sensations as she rode me. I moaned in pain as her wickedly long nails raked deep, fiery gashes down my chest. For a brief moment, whatever hold she had on me disappeared. Finding myself free, I pushed her away.

  Before I could even scramble to my knees, she was on me and knocked me back onto the ground with such force my teeth ground painfully together. White-hot pain lanced across the back of my head and back. My vision blurred for a few seconds, and when it cleared, I saw her looming over me, her face inches away from mine. Her teeth were bared in a snarl, long, wickedly sharp fangs glinting in the eerie light in the room. My blood turned to ice and I could not move beneath that soulless gaze.

  But what terrified me more was the sudden appearance of those fangs which were inches from my cheek. The fangs slowly receded as her anger cooled. Then she savaged my lips with hers and my body belonged to her once more.

  To add to the assault on my body, I saw levels of depravity from Onyx and Emory that sicken
s me even to this day. Whether it was so they could feel something—even if it was just pain or shame—or to numb mental pain, they brutally savaged each other’s bodies and there was nothing sensual or pleasurable about the many acrobatic and shocking positions they undertook. It wasn’t about desire. It was about pain, inflicting pain, receiving pain, and a lesson in endurance, of pushing the body beyond its limits. And beneath it all was a bitter, soulless desperation.

  At one point during their violent coupling, Onyx strapped a golden, phallic object about eleven inches long and three inches in diameter to her groin with leather straps. Evil looking spikes were imbedded along its shaft. She would have appeared less alien to me if she had turned into a Minotaur. She was utterly ruthless as she rammed it into Emory’s back passage, lashing him with a studded whip along his back. He groaned whilst I watched, unable to tear my gaze away from the horrifying spectacle.

  Then Emory glanced at me, and again I was unable to look away as images slithered into my mind, images of being caught in his embrace as he did to me as was done unto him. A smile passed over his lips before he grimaced in pain as Onyx lashed the whip across his back.

  Auria seemed to be done with me by then and moved to join them as I retreated to a corner as far away from them as I could get.

  Onyx and Emory paused long enough for Auria to lie beneath Emory. He proceeded to copulate with her whilst Onyx continued her assault on him from behind, their moans and cries a dark song in the glow of the underground room.

  Exhausted, dripping with perspiration, my body battered, bruised and bloodied, I curled into a ball and wept.

  Julia, Julia.

  Of course there was no answer, only the sound of their guttural groans.

  I wept uncontrollably for what seemed like hours, and for the first time in my life, I wanted death’s morbid embrace.

  But they had something much worse in store for me.