Dark Requiem (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 3) by A D Koboah Page B

identify as he stared at me, his body tensed as if ready to
launch into an attack.
    “ What happened?” I asked,
taking a step back to look around me. “Why—?”
    I stopped for I had almost
tripped over something. I looked down to see the girl lying on the
ground, her eyes open in a blind stare, blood oozing from the bite
mark on her wrist. The pretty bracelet I had been admiring was
splattered with it. Her head lay in what would have been an
excruciating angle had she still been alive.
    I screamed.
    “ Jessica!” I sank to my
knees and shook her. “Jessica! Avery, do something. Help
her!”
    I looked up to see him
staring at the dead girl, his face devoid of emotion. I brought my
hand to my mouth, felt blood on my lips and gasped in
horror.
    I remembered what happened
now.
    By the pond beneath the
bleak light of the moon, I disappeared into the crimson vortex and
that cold malice seized control. Whilst my consciousness looked on
helplessly as if from a distant place, my body drank from the girl
only to pull away, keeping hold of her wrist. I peered at Avery to
see pleasure and relief breaking across his face.
    I smiled.
    Then I dove into the void,
taking the placid girl with me. I materialised deep in the woods.
By that time, I was beginning to try and re-exert control, but too
late. I snapped Jessica’s neck, letting her fall to the ground. And
then it was gone and I was in control again.
    “ Avery,” I said
again.
    He tore his gaze away from
Jessica and stared at me, his expression blank, but I caught a hint
of his thoughts before he shielded them.
    Intense hatred. That’s
what saturated his mind. Hatred toward me?
    I stared at him and lunged
for his thoughts, pushing aggressively against the mental wall he
put up.
    He went rigid and his eyes
widened almost imperceptibly.
    A sudden burst of knowing
told me his mental barrier had never really been a defence against
me and I could have broken through at any time.
    “ She’s dead, Dallas,”
Avery said abruptly, his alarm rising even as he forced his
expression into one of scorn. “Now you can have the bracelet you
liked so much.”
    His words pummelled into
me and I immediately broke off from trying to grasp for his
thoughts.
    I got to my feet and just
stared at him. His expression softened, but he was still tense. He
ran his hand through his hair.
    “ Dallas, I—”
    I turned and ran away from
him.
    “ Dallas!”
    I leapt into the void, not
caring where I went as long as I was far away from the dead girl
and Avery.
     

Chapter 10

    I found myself miles away
from those woods, alone in a bayou, the hum of nocturnal life
around me the background noise to my tortured thoughts. Watery
shadows cast by the tupelo trees shimmered on the bayou’s surface
beneath a distant moon. I pulled out my cell phone and called
Mallory.
    I poured out all that had
happened and the dead girl I had left lying in the dirt amidst the
trees.
    She let me talk, only
interrupting to tell me Avery had just called Shadrach and was
searching for me.
    “ Go on back to the
mansion,” Mallory said. “I’ll be back home—”
    “ No, Mallory!” I fought
back tears. It seemed all I had done since I got to the mansion was
cry. Tears were not going to bring the girl I had murdered back to
life. “You can’t. I can’t trust myself around you. I can’t trust
myself around any human. I’m scared, Mallory. I’ve never been
scared like this before.”
    When she spoke again, she
sounded on the verge of tears herself.
    “ I’ll be back home
tomorrow. We’ll talk more then, okay?”
    “ Okay,” I said and hung
up.
    I remained sitting by the
bayou for a while longer thinking about everything that had
happened, especially Avery’s cruel words as he stared down at me,
the dead girl lying just inches away.
    I also thought about his
reaction when I arrived at the mansion. I had seen more than horror
and surprise at the fact I was a vampire. I had seen intense fear
and an almost paralysing