Dark Secrets (100 page)

Jason laughed against
my ribcage. “No. I’m going to bite you again.”

Before I could think
to react, the sear of venom barred my tears and the weight of his
body against mine forced the branch into my spine, as if it would
rip me in half. I opened my mouth to scream, but Jason pinched the
base of my throat, gagging me with my own tongue.

I let go of the branch
and dug my thumb into his wrist, merely making him hold
tighter—trapping my anguish inside of me.

Then, like holding
your breath for a second too long before finally inhaling, he
released my throat, leaning back to look down at me.

Tiny, rasping breaths
of agony lifted my chest in quick jolts. I ran my swollen tongue
over the roof of my mouth, trying to open the passage again. “I
can’t—” I stammered.
I can’t
breathe.

“
Okay, just calm down. I’ll fix it.” He rubbed his thumb
across the lump in my throat, and the tension eased, oozing past my
dry lips, as if the venom in my limbs had finally seeped into my
muscles. I could actually
feel
it assimilate, like a drop of food dye in a glass
of water, making the burn in my arm feel like hot sauce on raw
skin.

The predator wiped his
sleeve along his mouth, breathing heavily as if he’d just enjoyed a
swig of cola on a really hot day. “I knew you’d taste lovely,
Ara-Rose. After all, my brother always did like them...
sweet.”

I didn’t see how that
was relevant. I really didn’t care to know how he enjoyed my blood;
all I could focus on was the violent quiver of my jaw, making my
teeth clatter in my mouth, and the deepest, most binding cold I’d
ever suffered. “K…K…”

“
What?” He pressed
his ear to my lips.

“
Kill me.”

He sat back, a cruel
smile shining out under the blood. “Only if you beg me
nicely.”

“
P—” I shut my eyes,
moistening my throat. “Please.”

“
As you
wish.”

Nothing but a breath
of perfect silence passed me, a cool breeze parting my lips,
lifting my hair from my face as the ground rushed up to meet
me.

* * *

Sharp vibrations
rattled through my core, resonating with the sound of dry pasta
snapping between teeth. The impact of the fall struck me only as a
memory when my body came to rest in a dishevelled lump at the base
of the tree.

Jason appeared beside
me, crouching into a soft landing. Though I was weary and
suffocating under pain, I could see his face perfectly in the
darkness now. His tight lips broke into a malicious spread as our
eyes met, and he reached down to shift my body, curving my rag doll
limbs to the correct position. I could feel them move, but they
felt lank and hollow, like the empty sleeve of a coat.

“
Shh,” he said,
brushing my cheek. “Don't cry.”

I tried not to—tried
to breathe, but every time my lungs expanded, a sharp jab made me
stop. I just wanted to be dead.

“
You will be soon,
sweet girl. And it’s better this way—if you can't move.” He sat
taller, indulgently eyeing my half-naked form. “It won't take me as
long if I don't have to pin you down.”

My lip folded down
tightly, trembling. I held perfectly still, wiping an imaginary
cloth over my body to rid the creeping, icky feeling tingling up my
spine—branching out from where his hand rested against my leg. I
didn’t want this end. I didn’t want to lose my virginity like this.
I just wanted to be loved—to feel the touch of a person that wanted
me like I wanted them.
Please not this,
Jason, please—kill me, but don’t do this to me.

He studied my face for
a long moment, the crease in his brow slowly growing deeper, his
lips going tighter, his eyes narrowing.

Warm tears ran in
streams over the sides of my face, and the burning in my limbs
ceased, giving way to a dull, knife-like sear. But my mind focused
only on Jason towering over me—my legs apart beneath him, his body
free to enter mine, as I had no way to stop him. I just wanted to
bend my knee and kick him in the groin again, send his balls into
his throat.

“
Now, now, sweet Ara.
Be nice.” He rose up over my body to wipe the tears from my cheeks,
but stopped, his head cocked. “Look at you—so broken, so sad, but
still just so pretty.”

And he was just so
much like David. If I watched his face, ignoring the deeper, almost
timid tones of his voice, I could almost imagine he was
David—almost needed to imagine he was so my heart could survive the
fear. They say that fear paralyses, but that was the wrong word. It
felt more like running full speed, then stopping at a dead end with
no air.

Each breath I took
responded to my panic, rising inch for inch with Jason’s lips
moving down my body. He kissed me sweetly on my rib, running his
thumb over the bite, then moved down along my flesh, coming to a
halt at the very top of my inner thigh.

“
He wanted to bite
you here—that day he drank your blood.” He kissed me there. “He was
afraid you’d die if he bit you. But, luckily—” He looked over his
shoulder for a second, “I don’t have to worry about
that.”

No, please
stop—please don’t, Jason.

The familiarity of
leaves rustling above me with the garden-scented breeze made my
heart ache for normality. Even the stars, once so mysterious,
seemed only so recognisable to my weary eyes as I watched them,
wishing on each one for something,
anything
to come along and save me
from this.

“
I’ve already bitten
you, Ara. Only death can save you now,” he said, and like a
serrated clamp broke the flesh, he sank his teeth into my leg. A
surge of agony stole a squeal from my lips; it split the air like a
thousand knives through an eternity of silence and echoed off the
emptiness all around me. My thigh bone seemed to lengthen with the
ferocious burning, making the scream move deeper into my
soul—resounding from the back of my throat in the highest
save-me-God-save-me pitch I’d ever heard.

“
Jason. Stop,” I
pleaded, and finally, all life, all sound faded, my cry becoming
only a distant shriek, like a whistle blowing. But even when I
closed my mouth, panting as the pain blast through my hip, the
whistle continued.

Then, I heard a
holler: “She’s over here—over here.”

The whistle blew once
more, echoing in my mind as if I were spinning in a giant plastic
bin.

Jason sighed. “Why did
you have to go and scream? Now you’ve ruined all my
fun.”

The cold night air
burned my throat as it scraped into my lungs, dragging vestiges of
Jason’s sweet scent with it—a scent that once reminded me of love,
but now, only reeked of cold fear.

He landed on the
grass, his body stretched out alongside mine, a cheeky grin putting
the vampire to rest. “They’re coming for you.”

I tried to nod. I
knew this much, but I knew he wasn’t finished with me yet, either.
Vampires were fast—he had plenty of time.
Just promise me you won’t hurt any of them, Jason.

His immaculately green
eyes softened, turning bright as his body absorbed the life-force
of my blood. “I want you to know, Ara—” he leaned down, his deep
voice vibrating warmly against my brow, “—I’ve enjoyed our time
together, although it’s been cut short. And I will watch when they
come for you. I want to see what your replacement thinks when he
finds you like this—so broken, so demoralised, just a worthless,
unwanted little girl that nobody cared to fight for.”

I swallowed back the
lump in my throat. The venom had burned in my limbs for so long now
that they were numb to all he could think of to hurt me—except the
truth.

Jason was right. David
never came for me. Even until I hit the ground, I still, stupidly,
believed he would come. And now I would die alone—disgraced, and
all hope for an eternity of blood would only ever be a promise I
wished I’d made. I ruined my own life by loving a vampire. I should
never have loved David once I knew what he was—but I would love him
anyway, for all time.

A sharp, tight grip
capped my throat, and Jason’s cheek touched my jaw as he sank his
teeth into the curve of my shoulder. I laid perfectly still. My
body twitched, convulsing without the knowledge of my brain. But I
felt calm inside—unable to process what I was suffering.

“
Your blood is
running thin,” he said, his red, wet mouth right in front of
mine.

I studied it
carefully, seeing my David in the way he smiled, the way he closed
his lips for a second like he was considering kissing
me.

“
I was considering
it,” he said, and he looked up from my lips, his eyes cold again.
“I know how much it’ll hurt my brother to see our lips touch.” He
came down slowly and opened my mouth with his tongue, sinking it
inside with a mix of blood and venom or spit or something that
burned the back of my throat. I tried not to swallow, holding my
breath, but as I coughed from the burn, spitting back in his mouth,
I had no choice.

“
Don’t drown in it,”
he said, drawing back, then turned my head to the side so the blood
dribbled out the corner of my mouth.

It was nearly over
now. The nightmare was fading away with the stars in the sky. Only
second’s left, I could feel it. I’d miss life—miss David, but at
least the suffering would be over.

I felt the fear in my
eyes flood away with the serenity of near-death, and I was sure I
smiled as I looked up at Jason. “Tell David...I love...him,” I
muttered weakly—not a message for Jason to deliver, but a part of
the story before the end. David would hear it when Jason showed him
the memory, and he’d know that, even in death, it was
his
name on my
lips.

I exhaled and settled
back, looking up at the sky; the stars blurred into one thin silver
line, and the night sky surrounded me.

For a second, I saw
them; Mum and Harry—nothing more than a flash—just a flicker of a
memory, standing there behind Jason. They were waiting for me. I
wanted to run to them, call to them, ask them to help me—for anyone
to help me. But I knew they weren’t really there, and that even if
they were, they couldn’t help. There was no help. People died every
day. People suffered every day. No one came to save them, and no
one was coming for me.

I’m sorry,
Mum,
I whispered inside,
I know you wanted better for me.

“
It’s okay now.” The
memory of her nodded, reaching out. “Come on, it’s time to
go.”

But, I need to see
David again—tell him I’m sorry; tell him I want to be a vampire
now—be with him forever.

“
I know,” she said
with a sympathetic smile, like everything was okay. But it wasn’t.
Not at all. She wasn’t going to help me. She wanted me to come with
her—to end it all right now. Right here.

“
Death is only the
beginning, Ara.” She smiled. “There is so much more for you
now.”

No! I want to go
home!
“Please?” Cold air brushed out past
my lips—colder than it should be. I thought I felt my hands
shaking, but wasn’t sure. The only thing I knew I felt was the
warm, mucky feeling of something sticky under my head and all over
the side of my neck. I struggled to open my eyes—to remember where
it was I had fallen asleep, or how I got there. “Mum!” I screamed.
“Mum?”

But she was gone.
Everything was gone.

The strange blackness
of the world smothered me, tightening around my ribs, making the
air thin and humid. I felt myself being pulled down, like I was
swimming against a strong current and losing the fight. I tried to
kick my legs, to clutch at my throat and tear away the belt of
restraint, but my hands were gone; there was nothing to move,
nothing to free me from the sweltering wrap of my own
death.

And then, from deep in
the darkness, a warm grip pulled me back to the night. A hand.
Something waking me from the depths of my own fear. I held onto it
with my mind, focused on it with all of my strength until I heard a
voice: “Ara? Baby, oh baby.” It echoed like an old memory. “God,
what has he done to you—?”

“
Mike?” I think I
whispered.

“
Ara.” His golden
voice hit the walls of my subconscious and bounced off the empty
space around me. “You stay with me…with me…with me,” it echoed
again. “Ara, please—don’t let go…let go…let go—” I felt a hand
around the back of my head, and a heavy cold settled on my limbs,
making me wish I could sleep. Just fall asleep and everything would
be okay.

“
Mi-ke.”

“
Oh, God!” his
distraught voice cut out under grief. “Get help—please, she’s
losing too much blood. Get help!”

Chapter
Thirty-Five

Nothing. No stars. No
sound. I tried to open my eyes to see against the black, but as I
truly noticed the emptiness for the first time, I felt my heart
stop; my eyes were already open.

“
Mike?” I called, but
my own voice fell flat in front of me, as if I’d spoken into cupped
hands. I waited; waited past that moment you expect everything to
be okay, past the breath you held when you thought you heard
something, and finally realised what happened.