Free Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2) by A D Koboah Page A

and open the door,” she
urged.
    I hung back, already remembering the
intoxicating desire I had felt when I drank the blood of the slave
girl. “Go on,” she said.
    Hearing a hint of impatience in her
tone, I did as she commanded, only to halt at the door.
    It felt as if there was something
surrounding the cabin, pushing against me, exerting a weight on my
mind that made it feel as if it were turning to lead. Intrigued, I
brought my hand to the door, and although I was able to touch the
door knob, I could not open it, the force gathering around the hand
on the door and preventing me from turning the doorknob. The
pressure on my mind increased, becoming more disconcerting the
longer I stayed at the door with my hand on the door knob. I
eventually stepped back.
    Auria was smiling when I faced
her.
    “ See. We cannot enter
without an invitation. But there are ways around that. We can call
them outside, like I showed you. Try and see.”
    I backed away from the cabin,
something which only made her laugh. “Tomorrow, when the hunger
takes you, you will not be so hesitant.”
    My only response was to move farther
away from the cabin door. But even as I did so, I felt that
arousal, that dark call. It was difficult to resist, especially
since anger flared whenever I thought of the Fosters and their
slaves—all of whom had known of the fate that awaited Julia and me
but had said nothing.
    “ We are nearly
indestructible,” Auria continued.
    The moonlight bathed her face in an
effluence that turned her face to porcelain, her eyes glittering
black jewels. “Only certain metals can pierce our flesh. Gold,
silver—pure metals. Other than that, only the teeth and nails of
another vampire.”
    I listened and learned
from her, but my thoughts remained on Julia and Onyx’s
words: Why did you let them kill
me?
    We headed back to the chapel in
silence. She spoke to me as we materialised in the
clearing.
    “ Stop all that moping. She
is dead. It cannot be undone. And there was no second heartbeat.”
She wouldn’t look at me. “Do not think of her around the other two.
They see it as a weakness and they will hound you for
it.”
    She moved toward the chapel. When she
realised I wasn’t behind her, she turned and glared at me for a few
moments. Then she sighed before disappearing into the chapel where
the other two awaited.
    I moved to where Julia lay beneath the
trees.
    I could hear the other three, not just
their words, but their thoughts, which were becoming clearer to me
as time wore on. I could not escape it. In that moment, the
enormity of the situation I was in gripped me with a cold, hard
hand. I was trapped. I would never be free of those
beasts.
    I looked down at Julia. She was almost
peaceful in comparison to the other one I had...eaten. Her gaze had
been locked on mine right up to the last moment of her life and, as
always, her trust and faith in me had shone through her eyes. Eyes
that now had flies clustered in a dark pool around them. I hung my
head and closed my eyes as bitter tears filled them.
    It was a few moments before I was able
to open them again, and when I did, I saw I was standing on
blackened floor boards bathed by daylight, instead of grass turned
a deep sea-green by darkness.
    I glanced up with a start.
    What new trick was this?
    I was standing at the back of the
chapel and it was dusk. But the chapel had changed and was scarred
by fire. Its walls were blackened and there was a large hole in the
roof at the back, exposing a sky tinted blood-red by a setting
sun.
    I spun around, expecting to see the
others and that they would have an explanation for this, but they
were gone. Instead I saw a Negro woman kneeling a few feet from me.
She wore a faded purple dress and had her head bowed. The
unexpected sight pushed all thought of Auria, Onyx and Emory from
my mind, and completely forgetting the odd circumstances I found
myself in, I took a step toward her, feeling unburdened for the
first time since I had