Dawn of Darkness (Daeva, #1) (14 page)

We had
the rest of the day off, but Ash was feeling tired so we said
goodbye to Katiya and retreated to the safety of our room. I hadn't
eaten since breakfast, but the thought of food made my stomach
churn. Ash took off his t-shirt and made himself comfortable on my
bed, inviting me to join him. It felt good to be up against a warm
body, after getting too close for comfort with a dead one. Ash was
asleep before long. Whether it was the long ride or the adrenaline
wearing off, my eyes started to feel heavy, and I followed him soon
after.

*****

I found
myself standing in the centre of a large room, with a burning torch
in one hand. There was no light, other than the crackling flames.
Darkness surrounded me. A rotten scent permeated through the air,
clinging to the back of my throat. I started to walk in no
particular direction.

I don't
know how long I walked for, but I never found any walls. The room
appeared to go on forever. I thought, perhaps, I had been going in
circles, which was entirely possible as there was no way of judging
what direction I was walking in. And then I thought that maybe it
wasn't a room at all. There was no ceiling that I could see, but
there was no moon or stars above either. There was no breeze, just
darkness, and that smell.

I began
to wander some more, wondering if I would ever find anything. The
smell was getting stronger, and it being the only thing I could
sense, I tried to track down the source. Then I heard footsteps. I
listened, trying to judge the direction of the noise. They were
straight ahead and I ran towards them, until I saw the outline of a
person in the flame's light. The figure turned to me as I
approached it.

My heart
stopped, and then began to race. Pounding. Its entire body was
skinned. I thought for a moment it was trying to say something, but
what came out was nothing more than blood-choked gargles. My knees
shook. I turned and ran, until the groaning was inaudible. I
struggled to catch my breath, blood thundering through past my
ears. The groaning and footsteps started again, slowly getting
louder. Closer. I started to run again, but it was gaining on
me.

No. I was
running towards it. Up ahead I could see the figure coming into
view. I turned and fled once more, but whichever way I ran, I found
myself running into one of the horrors. Surrounded. The footsteps
drew closer and closer, the padding and squishing a cacophony of
percussion, accompanied by their tormented cries. I spun on the
spot, watching as their net drew tighter around me. Trapped. They
were upon me.

I tried
to beat them back with the torch, but their skinless hands grabbed
at me, tearing away my clothes. The torch fell to the floor, its
light dancing across their hideous faces. Nails dug into my skin.
It was a dull pain. Then there a wet ripping sound, and my body was
engulfed in searing agony. I screamed.

"Mik," a
voice called to me.

My eyes
opened to see Ash leaning over me, shaking me. My chest rose and
fell to the same urgency that my heart pounded against my ribs. The
pain was gone, but the memory of it was still there. My whole body
felt cold and damp, drenched in sweat. I jumped up, wrapping my
arms around Ash. He let out a small grunt when I knocked his wound,
but said nothing. I buried my face into his uninjured shoulder, my
body still shaking.

"Hey,
it's okay," he whispered, his hand resting on the back of my head.
"It was just a dream."

"I know,"
I replied, still trying to slow my breathing. "But it felt so
real."

"Do you
wanna tell me about it?"

I shook
my head.

"Okay,
how about a nice hot shower then?"

I
nodded.

"You go
do that, and I'll make us something to eat. I was thinking sausage
pasta. Sound good?"

"No
meat," I replied.

"Veggie
pasta it is then." He planted a quick kiss on my lips as he stood.
"I'll give you a shout when it's ready. Now, go shower. You're
getting kinda sticky."

I
couldn't help but laugh. Ash left the room, and I picked myself up
off the bed. I went into the bathroom and peeled off my
sweat-drenched clothes, leaving them in a small pile in the corner.
The hot water from the shower was comforting. Inside the cubicle
there was nothing but warmth and the sound of running water. There
was no pain, no fear, and no skinless zombie creatures from Hell. I
let the hot water wash over me, as though it were burning away the
memory of my nightmare.

"Food's
almost ready," Ash called. I turned off the shower and let out a
weary sigh. I dried myself off, and pulled on some clean clothes.
By the time I got to the kitchen, Ash was dishing out of the pasta,
still naked from the waist up.

"Just in
time," he said, handing me my bowl and a fork. I got a glass of
water, and we ate in our room. Ash didn't once ask about my dream,
which I was thankful for. With food out of the way, we took our
dirty clothes to the laundry room, then stopped by the admin office
to pick up some copies of the mission report form.

We spent
at least an hour filling in our reports. Recalling the discovery of
the bodies that day was the last thing I wanted to be doing, but it
had to be done, whether I liked it or not. Ash finished first and
sat on my bed. He picked up my book from the bedside table and
began to flick through it. I joined him when I finished my report,
cuddling up to his bare chest as he read to me. He stopped every
few minutes to ask questions; Who is Smaug? What's a
hobbit?

As he
read, I let my hands wander over him. Every now and then I felt
Ash's body tense up, and he would pause briefly. At first, I
wondered why he kept stopping and looked up at him, urging him to
continue. Soon, I realised it was due to my hands wandering lower
on his body. It became a new game for me, teasing him. I let my
hand go lower, until I was brushing past the waistband of his
joggers. When I felt him tense, I moved my hand away. Each time I
did this, I noted that Ash was getting more and more
excited.

"If you
keep doing that, then I might not be able to hold back," he warned
me with a grin on his face. One of our agreements was that it would
be me who initiated any sex, at least to begin with. Knowing Ash, I
knew how hard he was trying to stick to that. I felt bad for
denying him, as though I was asking him to give up a part of
himself. And why? I wanted it too. The urge to slip my hand beneath
the waistband was overwhelming, but it also scared me, because I
had never felt anything like it before. Don't get me wrong, I had
always had a sex drive. Even I had times when I needed to relieve
myself, but this was the first time my drive had ever been directed
at another person.

Ash took
my silence as a sign to continue reading. Throwing caution to the
wind, I slid my hand down and took hold of him. Ash gasped as I
started to stroke him. He lowered himself down on the bed, pulled
the waist of his trousers down and laid back, with his hands behind
his head. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?
The nurse said I should relax and not exert myself."

I
laughed. I loved that he could make me laugh, even when I was
nervous. Focusing on the task at hand – no pun intended – I began
stroking again. I started slow, and then built up speed, trying
different things. I found that playing with the tip would make him
moan and writhe. Long, slow strokes made his hips rock. There was
an innocence to the whole thing, like playing with a new piece of
equipment and working out what each of the buttons does.

Remembering our drunken adventure two nights ago, I began to
kiss his chest, working my way towards a nipple. I flicked my
tongue across one, and when Ash let out a deep breath I took it
into my mouth and sucked. The moans grew louder, and Ash's back
arched. I felt his chest rise and fall beneath me, his breath
getting faster and shallower.

I
released the nipple, and moved up to the line between his neck and
shoulder. I bit down gently and Ash groaned, followed shortly after
by the sound of his release. He sighed and panted. His hand cupped
my face, guiding me up to his lips. We kissed long and hard, our
tongues dancing between us as he went limp in my hand.

When we
finally broke the kiss, Ash smiled at me. "What did I do to deserve
that?"

"N-nothing. I dunno," I stuttered.

"Well, it
was nice. Thank you." Ash gave me one last kiss before I rolled
onto my back. "So, biting, huh? I always figured you'd have some
kinda kink."

"It's
not... I just–"

Ash
laughed. "I'm kidding. And you know, I kinda like it. Maybe you
wanna try something else now?"

I glared
at him. "Don't push your luck."

"Worth a
try." Ash shrugged and went to the bathroom to clean himself up.
When he came back he asked, "So what do you wanna do for the rest
of the evening?"

"I dunno.
What do you wanna do?"

Ash lay
back down on the bed, resting his head on my chest. "Nothing
really.”

We lay in
silence for a while. My mind started to wander back to the vampire
and what he said to me.

"I still
think the vampire knew something about my power."

Ash
groaned. "You're not still thinking about that, are
you?"

"He had
the same ability as me. That has to mean something!"

"Look,
there's hundreds, maybe thousands of vampires out there. Don't you
think there's a chance that one of them could end up with the same
ability as you, without it being some big conspiracy?"

"I guess
so." It made sense. After all, there were only so many different
abilities a vampire could possess, so sooner or later, one of them
would coincide with ours. It was still a massive coincidence
though, and one I couldn't believe was just that.

We talked
a bit about the other events of the day, and Ash was starting to
yawn a lot. It was making me tired too, so we settled down into
bed. I tried to close my eyes, but found I didn't want to. The
memory of the nightmare was still too fresh.

"I don't
wanna sleep," I said.

"The
nightmare?"

I nodded
and began to tell Ash all about it. He lay silent, listening to
every word.

"Do you
trust me?" he asked.

"Yes," I
replied, confused as to where the question had come
from.

"Then
trust that I'll protect you." He snuggled even closer to me.
"Nothing is gonna hurt you as long as I'm here."

That
night, there were no more dreams of the grotesque creatures or the
darkness. I had a guardian angel there to watch over and protect
me. I was safe in his arms, his smile brighter than any sun,
beating back the darkness.

Wednesday
morning. Another six-thirty start. Ash was still out of action. Or
rather, he was ordered not to participate, because he was more than
ready to join in. Our squad was relegated to basic training drills
for the first half of the day, while Ash sat on the sidelines
looking like a kicked puppy. We started with the obstacle course,
and then moved onto laps around the compound. I hated drills. Lunch
break could not come soon enough.

I was
hunched over, my hands resting on my knees. Sweat covered my body,
despite the freezing cold wind.

"Here,"
Ash said, handing me a bottle of water.

"Thanks."
I took it, and must have drank half the bottle before I felt dizzy
from lack of air.

"So what
do you wanna do for lunch?"

"I was
gonna go to the library. I wanted to see if I could find anything
about my ability."

Ash shook
his head. "Not this again. Besides, I know you've already searched
for information on this last year and found nothing."

"But back
then I didn't think to check the stuff on vampire
abilities."

"You
thinking your power is related to that vamp's somehow?" Lucas
butted in. "Interesting theory."

Ash
groaned. "Don't encourage him. This kinda stuff never ends
well."

"I'm
doing it anyway."

"Okay,
fine. Let's go grab something from the cafeteria, and then we can
go get this nonsense out of your head."

"I'll tag
along if you don't mind," said Lucas.

"The more
the merrier," said Ash. "Hey Kat, you coming with us?"

Katiya
smiled and shook her head. "Actually, I've got plans. I'll see you
guys after lunch." She turned and jogged off to the locker
rooms.

The three
of us went to the cafeteria together, and bought some sandwiches to
take with us. Brad stayed behind to eat with some other friends,
saying that libraries weren't his thing. We set up at an empty
table, near the back of the library, and began looking through the
bookshelves. Ash went straight to one of the archives terminals and
browsed through some electronic articles.

Not surprisingly, there were a
lot of books on vampires, most printed in the last fifty years. I
scanned the titles, hoping to find something of use.
'101 Ways to Kill a
Vampire'.
Interesting, but not what I was looking for.
'Supernatural
Encyclopedia'.
Sounds promising, I thought, and picked it off the shelf. I
picked up another two books and took them back to our table, where
Lucas was already getting stuck into a rather hefty-looking
book.