I wasn't so sure why I was so mad at my bike. It wasn't like it was her fault I hadn't checked to see how much gas was in the tank. It wasn't like she could tell me, or anything, that I was about to run out. And it was even sillier of me to be so upset about how heavy she was. But I finally figure out why so many people called my bike a Hog. She was definitely beastly. The slightest incline in the road had me panting and struggling to keep pushing. I almost tipped her over several times. I wasn't so sure I was going to make it all the way back to town.
But back to town was not where I wanted to go. I never wanted to go back there again. I thought about waiting on the side of the road until Addy came looking for me. I would act like a spoiled brat and demand that we never go back to Burling again. I'd even stomp my foot and everything. Maybe even pucker my bottom lip. What ever it took, I'd do it. Even if I had to run away from my mother. Sean was in Burling. And I absolutely refused to be anywhere near him. I could care less about the awful ache his absence generated inside me. Heck, I could learn to live with that. But I could never learn to live with an angel slayer demon like Sean. Never again. I didn't care that I was accustomed to that sort of violence. I did not want it in my life anymore. And I would not accept it in my life any more.
Done! I was done with all that.
I leaned my bike on the kick stand and decided to rest for a minute or two. I had to think. I spent days avoiding reality, and now it was time to face the truths.
Dammon was gone.
It took all I had to keep the image of his mangled body from rising to the surface of my mind. I could feel it constantly bobbing there, threatening to emerge.
Another truth was that I was the one who did that to him. I murdered Dammon. No, it was not my hand that drove the dagger into his body, but in a sense, it really was.
Another truth was that Sean Hylander was supernatural. He had abilities that went above and beyond what any normal man was capable of.
And he murdered my angel.
There was no doubt in my mind that what had happened to Dammon was Sean's doing. I wasn't sure how I could ever face him again. And since it was becoming quite clear that I was not going to be able to escape him, facing him again might have been inevitable.
Another truth, yet one far less important to me at the time, was the fact that I had punched Sean. Not just once, but twice. I was certain he had allowed me to do so, or it wouldn't have happened. And maybe it was because Addy was there. By him not doing anything, made me look like the bad guy and made him look like the victim.
But the last time I struck him, I found myself completely at his mercy in Moss river, threatened by the possibility of being drowned. I was more than eager to obey his command when he warned me not to ever do anything like that again. I promised him I wouldn't. Yes, my promise was made under duress. Yes, I was coerced into making it, but I broke that promise all the same. So, this very fact alone guaranteed that facing Sean again would be a very unpleasant experience.
I tried to tell him that I am un-teachable and that I have a serious issue with being bossed around, but he must not have understood that I wasn't joking. Sean was not going to be able to bend me to his will, because I was unbendable. The underlying truth, though, as much as I hated to admit it, was that I was in trouble. Big trouble. And seeing that Sean was capable of murder, made me even more aware of my dangerous situation.
But I wasn't afraid. Not at the moment, anyway.
No, I was pissed.
I took a deep breath of cool, crisp air and focused on the here and now. Here and now, I didn't give a damn about my life. Here and now, Sean could come and squeeze the air out of my throat, for all I cared. I didn't care, but I at least wanted to be given the chance to kick his evil butt before I died.
I laughed. There in the dark, alone, on a deserted road, I laughed. There, with the images of Dammon's corps bobbing on the surface of my mind, I laughed. And the laughter became contagious, like one of those coughing fits I get when I get sick.
I was sick, alright. Just like my father.
The thought of Barron was like a double dose of cough syrup. Abruptly, I stopped laughing and I forced myself to refocus on the here and now.
Off to my right, in the distance, I could see the twinkling lights of Burling. Other than that, the night was dark as sin. The night seemed to have swallowed everything within it. I wondered why it refused to take me. I felt a little offended by this
Stupid night!
I couldn't see the road very far ahead of me or the trees beyond the fields. I could barely see the ditches. It was kind of freaky. The night time had always been my favorite time, but not this night. Something was wrong with this night, and it had nothing to do with the fact that it offended me by refusing to drink me up.
I shook off the chill that was creeping down my spine, and told my self that I was simply recovering from the shock of Dammon's brutal murder, and that after all that had transpired in the last several days --no, scratch that. In the last seventeen years-- it was only natural to feel a little freaked out. And offended because I wasn't drunk up by the night.
But that only lasted the length of that thought. This was not silly. I couldn't fool myself into believing that the darkness around me was natural.
And that something wasn't moving within it.
Then I realized that this was the same form of darkness that had always surrounded Bane in my dreams. It was a darkness that had a life of its very own. It was the same kind of darkness that was jealous of Bane's love for me.
But, if it was really possible for the darkness to escape me, then was it possible that Bane could escape me too?
"Bane?" I whispered. While I held my breath and listened for a response, my irrational mind suggested that I had finally cracked, and that it was this cracking that enabled Bane to come out of my head. But that idea faded quickly, as the darkness pressed in on me, slithering closer.
This was not Bane.
Bane had the same potent, malevolent feel about him, but never in his presence did I feel as threatened as I did right now.
"Sean?" The name barely left my lips, when I sensed something behind me.
Before I could turn around, something swept down the back of my arm, something that felt like feathery-soft knuckles. I whirled around, expecting to find Sean, but there was nothing there but inky, gooey darkness. Paranoid, I spun back around.
And there he was. Sean was standing only inches away from me.
I screeched with surprise and jumped backward. Sean took my elbow in his firm grasp and gave me a jerk forward, putting me right back where I was, inches in front of him.
"Oh, what an arduous little creature you are, Luna Lanchester," he said, looking down at me with stunning, copper-colored eyes. There was no sapphire color left in them. "It is your warrior blood." He licked his bottom lip with a slow tongue. "Your delectable, nectarous blood is to blame, my Little One. The fight still stirs, that archaic feud between your family and mine." With a painful tug, Sean forced me to close the distance between us. One of his arms snaked around my lower back and crushed me against his boulder-like body.
"But the truth remains," he said. Then he lowered his lips to my ear. "We are always the victors," he whispered. The tip of his tongue traced the edge of my upper ear. Goose bumps rushed over my body. "And the Lanchesters are always the losers. Remember that, Little One. I am the victor. You are the loser."
"I hate you!" I yelled at him. I tried to shove away from him, but I couldn't escape the prison of his arms. "You are a murderer! Don't touch me. Don't talk to me. I don't ever want to see your ugly face again!" Even as a prisoner in his arms, unable to escape him, I was not afraid. I was too angry to be afraid. Too hell-bent on avenging my angel's death.
Sean's laughter came from his lips, but it moved through the gooey darkness around us like thunder through clouds, moving as if it was its very own entity. This eerie phenomenon silenced me, reminding me that this man was not normal, that he was powerful and
abominable. And that I was a prisoner of his embrace. Trapped against his body, with no way to run, no one to help me.
"It is time, My Little One. Of bloody grass you have made your bed. Now it is time you that you lie upon it," Sean said firmly, his lips trailed down my neck. "Beneath me, you shall lie upon it."
Then his teeth bit into my throat. Pain screamed through my body, a pain so excruciating that it filled me so entirely.
As Sean greedily, thirstily suckled blood from my neck, the night had finally drank me in, and I was swallowed by the gooey darkness.
****
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bane