Page 2 of Dark Desire
I lifted my head, my scarred face still half-masked under my hood and glared.
“You’re in the wrong place to be looking for a woman your age.”
I may only look in my thirties, but I was undoubtedly the oldest man in this pub. No. In this entire village.
“Badger, leave him be.” Big Nige, the bartender, smirked. “But ’ee’s right. Ain’t no young ladies round here for a ’andsome man like you. All the young, pretty birds fly the nest at the first chance they get and head up north to the big cities.”
“But what about Darcie?” another man added, their confidence growing around me as I stood silently listening to their bickering. My eyebrows furrowed at that name. “She’s young and pretty. I’m sure she’s single too, even though Oliver keeps trying his luck with her.”
“She isn’t a local. And I doubt she’ll be sticking around. They never do. Though she is a bit of a loner. She keeps to herself, that one. Still can’t believe she is renting the Vicar’s creepy church on the hill.” My eyes lifted to Big Nige to show him that he had my attention. My heart was beating a little faster. “She came here two months ago. Just appeared out of the blue, a bit like you. Not often do we get solo young folk looking for a place to livein our little corner of the world, so when we do, we take notice. After the Vicar died, no one wanted to live in that old, crumbling church. It has sat abandoned for years with that rent sign in the graveyard. And then, there she was, accepting it without even viewing it. Like I said, odd woman, that one.”
“We don’t mind odd around here, though. Not when she takes beautiful pictures for the gazette at half the price the last photographer did,” Badger explained. He nodded his head towards the paper, and I peered down.
I scanned the article about Bernie’s mechanic’s charity car wash until I reached the end, where it listed the writer and photographer of the piece. The photographer’s name was Darcelle Knightsbridge. My head snapped up, and I stared at the men as they studied me.
“What does she look like?”
“She’s a looker, alright. A black-haired beauty with eyes the colour of the horizon,” Badger said with a smile. “Probably around your age, too.”
My heart thrummed wildly. It had to be her. A witch aged slowly. Although if she were over three hundred years old, I’d expect her to look older than thirty.
“Shame, I like blondes,” I lied, disguising my interest with a shrug of my broad shoulders. “Thanks, anyway.”
I turned sharply and stormed out of the pub without saying another word. My main focus was on finding the church on the hill. As I left the village and headed towards the rolling moorlands, distant hills rose into view, and I spotted the looming shape of a church spire with a metal cross sitting on the top.
Checking the coast was clear, I sped up the hill with my vampire speed and hid behind a tree just outside a waist-high iron fence that curved around an overgrown graveyard. The area was choked with weeds and tall grass, and the long-forgotten headstones jutted out from the ground, some tilting dangerously close to the earth. A narrow, winding trail through the graveyard, barely noticeable, led to an ominous church. Only one light flickered in a semicircular stained-glass window on the upper floor. Heavy breathing made my chest rise and fall as a flood of emotions hit me all at once. This was it. After all this time, I had found her. There was no doubt in my mind.
Every cell in my body was alive, and my muscles twitched and tensed beneath my skin, begging me to move. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to steady myself enough to maintain some control and calmness. Luka had told me I needed answers. He believed that was the only way I'd find closure and move on from what had happened. But I wasn’t sure I had it in me to hold back my anger enough to listen when I first laid eyes on her. I'd waited too long for this moment. She was a slayer, one of the witches responsible for my father’s death, which also led to my mother's demise. Instead of letting me die with honour alongside my hero, she trapped me inside a raven and forced me to watch my siblings suffer. I helplessly watched as that coven tortured, assaulted, and killed my siblings, only to bring them back to life and control them. She left me to rot in a body that wasn’t my own. I knew Hana and Luka had some hope that what she did was for good reason, but I couldn’t see how it was forgivable. She abandoned me. When the Knowltons captured them, she made no attempt to help. In fact, I never saw her again after that night. She just vanished off the face of the Earth.
Until now.
With my hatred and fury driving every movement, I stalked towards the church gates like the predator I was. Fuck giving her the chance to explain herself. I didn’t care to hear it. I just wanted her screams. Her tears. Her begging for her life. And then I’d rip it away.
I paused outside the gate. Being this close, I could sense her magic like a magnet, partly repelling me while also drawing me closer. My eyes scanned the strange wooden objects that dangled from the porch and the protective salts sprinkled on the steps. Crystals lined the path through the graveyard. I smirked. She knew I was coming for her and had placed wards. But that wouldn’t deter me. My hand reached for the gate slowly and quietly. As soon as my skin touched the metal, a fierce electric charge sent red-hot currents through my veins and flung me back into the trees.
The shocks of her magic lingered in my bloodstream and left me breathless. Panting, I rolled over and forced myself back to my feet. In a blind rage of frustration, I grasped a slender tree trunk, ripping it from its roots and flung it down the hill.
Fuck!I should have expected that it wouldn’t be so easy. She was a powerful witch.
I turned back to face the church, my shoulders heaving with angry breaths as I glared up at the window. A silhouette of a woman stood behind the curtain, which twitched as she peered around it, searching the trees. She closed the curtains swiftly, and then the light went out.
Climbing a nearby tree, I sat on the highest branches, which gave me the best view of the church windows, and leaned back against the trunk, seething.
She might be safe inside her sanctuary, but she couldn’t stay there forever. Eventually, she’d have to leave, and I’d be waiting.
There is nowhere on Earth I wouldn’t follow you, witch. In this life and the next. I’ll be haunting you, Darcelle Knightsbridge. For all eternity.
Chapter Two
Three days. Three motherfucking days she'd been holed up in that church. Which meant I had spent the last three days and nights sitting in this uncomfortable tree. Hidden by the shadows of the night, I’d attempted to get past her wards many times, even in flight, but her magic was strong and she’d been meticulous. With each failed attempt and each passing day, I felt myself weakening.
It had been nearly five days since I last ate organs and four days since my last blood feed. As an ancient Demonski Upir, a firstborn from the original bloodline, I needed sustenance to perform at my full abilities. The longer I let the hunger grow, the more feral and uncontrollable my urges became. If the last three days had taught me anything about this witch, it was that she was clever. If I wanted to reach her, I would need to rethink my strategy, which could only be done with a rational mind and a full stomach.
Staring across at the church windows, especially the large, curved window I’d guessed was her bedroom, I searched for any sign of life. She’d opened the curtains for a few hours yesterdaybut never stayed by the window long enough for me to get a good look at her. It was nearly mid-morning, but she hadn’t appeared yet.
Huffing, I leapt from the tree and landed in a crouch on the ground, gazing back up at the window once more. I had to act quickly. She must be able to sense someone watching her, which was why she hadn’t left the safety of her enchanted church. If she sensed I had gone, she would make a move to leave.
Speeding over the hills, I didn’t stop until I came across some grazing cattle. Without a second thought, I tackled the largest cow there and drank it dry before eating most of its organs. Gorging on animal organs and blood was like putting a bandage on an infected wound. It would do for the time being, but eventually, I’d need to satisfy my hunger with human blood to gain more strength. Hopefully, a certain witch’s blood.
