Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2) by A D Koboah Read Free Book Online Page B

slits in time
to see Auria grasp Emory by the hair, yanking his head away from my
wrist. He bit down hard as she wrenched him away, and a burst of
pain radiated along my wrist as he tore the flesh. I only uttered a
low moan.
    Auria struck him, sending him flying
roughly three metres through the air before he was able to right
himself, springing into a crouch like some sinewy feline. His fangs
were bared and his mouth covered in blood as he snarled at
me.
    “ What are you trying to
do? Kill him?” she asked.
    He didn’t answer, merely slunk away to
the corner where he sat and glowered at me.
    She loomed over me for a few seconds,
her face drawn, her brow creased. Using a small gold knife, she cut
herself on the upper part of her breast. Then she knelt down and
forced my lips against her breast and the weeping cut she had
made.
    I lay against her breast, too weak to
resist, and it was a moment or two before I realised she was using
her unnatural power to make me drink her blood. But at that moment,
my will was broken and I didn’t even try to resist.
    Noxious, hot blood
saturated my mouth and I spluttered. But as more of it entered my
mouth, it began to taste sweet .
    “ Yes, drink, my prince. I
am your mother, your god. Drink from me and join us for all
eternity.”
    As I drank, a curious sensation began
to course through me, as if my veins were being lit from within,
gently warming me from the inside out. It tugged on my wounds, and,
to my hazy astonishment, the pain ceased and my wounds began to
heal.
    “ Stop now, Auria,” Onyx
said behind her. “You’re giving him too much.”
    Auria ignored her as acute pain seized
me. My flesh was on fire and my internal organs were being squeezed
and tightened. I wanted to scream, but she was still forcing me to
drink her blood although she was straining now to keep her control
over me. Abruptly she let me go and I slumped to the ground where I
writhed in pain.
    Onyx grasped me by the foot and
dragged me over to the coffins. She opened one of the coffins and
then hoisted me off the ground with one hand.
    “ No !” I screamed.
    She threw me inside the coffin, which
was much deeper than the average coffin. She slammed a hand against
my chest and held me down as Emory appeared by her side and poured
what looked like earth into the coffin from a wooden bucket. Auria
did the same whilst I screamed and fought as the coffin began to
fill with earth. I eventually stopped screaming when the earth was
poured over my face, obscuring my vision, earth filling my nostrils
and mouth. I coughed and grunted in desperation, merely succeeding
in drawing more earth into my mouth. My chest was on fire as my
body fought against the suffocation.
    I don’t know how long I struggled, but
I was dimly aware of the sound of the coffin being closed over me,
shutting out the faint sounds of their laughter. Eventually I began
to weaken, my mind clouded over, and the world, along with life,
melted away from me.
    I succumbed to the
superior darkness .

Chapter 5
     
     
    Roaring filled my ears, like a
cascading waterfall. Within the clamour were individual sounds:
slow, easy breathing, birdcalls, scratching noises, and the
insistent drone of crickets. My nostrils were also suffused with a
multitude of rich scents. I could smell earth, thick, musty earth
that was polluted with another dry, papery scent of some mineral I
could not identify. But the strongest scent to assault my senses
was that of violet cologne.
    I opened my eyes. I was lying naked on
the floor, the underground chamber awash with light despite the
fact that the same number of torches hung on the walls as before. I
blinked against the fierce light as a whirling, fluttering noise
rose up above the din, like a mammoth bird flying overhead, just
before a set of male clothes landed on me. I pulled a shirt off of
my face and pulled myself into a sitting position.
    Emory sat on one of the coffins
peering down at me, his expression calm, amusement