Dark Ascension Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Valafar

  Chapter 2

  Valafar

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Valafar

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Valafar

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Valafar

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Valafar

  Chapter 11

  Valafar

  Chapter 12

  Valafar

  Chapter 13

  Valafar

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Valafar

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Valafar

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Valafar

  Chapter 21

  Valafar

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Valafar

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Valafar

  Chapter 26

  Valafar

  Chapter 27

  Epilogue: Jalmari

  Thanks For Reading!

  Also By J.D. Brown

  About The Author

  Dark Ascension. Copyright © 2017 by J.D. Brown

  All rights reserved and preserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission of the author.

  Printed and produced in the United States of America.

  First Published in the United States of America by NightMare Publishing.

  First Edition, October 2017

  Cover Art Design Copyright © 2017 by Jennifer Brown

  Edited by: Carrie RO

  Layout and Interior Design by: NightMare Publishing

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, settings, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for the author or third-party content.

  NightMare Publishing logo is a trademark ™ of NightMare Publishing USA.

  For my niece and nephew.

  “We don’t stop playing when we get old.

  We get old when we stop playing.”

  I hope you play forever,

  And dream just as long.

  CHAPTER 1

  Doctor Gordon donned a pair of blue latex gloves, covering her immaculate French manicure, and squeezed a dollop of cold gel onto my exposed abdomen. I leaned back against the exam table, gripped both sides of the mat in my fists, and released a slow breath.

  Relax, damn it.

  Easier said than done. I half-expected Apollyon’s face to appear on the ultrasound monitor like a horror movie. I couldn’t look at the screen, so I focused on Dr. Gordon’s expression while she moved the transducer across my belly. Her sculpted eyebrows dipped toward the center.

  “Hmm.”

  My fingernails tore through the leather mat and bit into my palms. “Uh, doc? Was that a good hmm or a bad hmm?”

  Her million-dollar smile would’ve been billboard worthy if not for the fangs. “Well, you’re right. You’re having twins. Congratulations.”

  “But isn’t this...” I released the exam table and twirled one hand in the air as though to summon the right words. Failing, I settled for, “unusual?”

  “Having twins?” Dr. Gordon upped her brow. “Not at all. It’s perfectly normal to miss the second heartbeat during the early stages.”

  Maria had said something similar the first time we discovered my unborn child had an unborn sibling. Two for the price of one. Lucky me. Except Apollyon’s evil alchemy might be involved.

  “So both embryos are healthy?” I asked, still not looking at the screen.

  Dr. Gordon nodded. “Both heartbeats are very strong. No sign of complication. Would you like to hear them?”

  Before I could answer, she flipped a switch on the ultrasound machine and a rapid thump-thump filled the room. A knot welled in my throat as my gaze slid to the sonogram screen. My little raspberries had grown into two little peanuts. They had little heads and little bellies. Little arms and little legs. My heart swelled in my chest.

  Dr. Gordon lowered the volume. “Have you thought about what type of birth you want?”

  I blinked at her, caught off guard. “The normal kind?”

  She chuckled. “I mean do you want to do it naturally, without an epidural?”

  “Do vampyres need epidurals? With our tolerance for pain...”

  “If I only had a nickel.” Her kind smile lit her features. “It’s your first pregnancy and you’re expecting twins. Trust me, you’ll feel it.”

  I pulled my lower lip between my teeth and gnawed on the skin. I never thought much about procreation beyond using the proper preventatives, but now that labor stared at me from the not-so-distant future, the idea was terrifying.

  Dr. Gordon pressed a few buttons on the ultrasound machine then wiped the gel from my abdomen. “You have a while to decide. Talk it over with the father and let me know.”

  The father. Right.

  I sat upright and lowered the hem of my T-shirt over the sticky residue on my stomach. A printer atop the counter space, opposite the exam table, whirred to life and printed a photograph copy of the image from the sonogram screen. The doctor removed her gloves and then handed the photo to me. The whole thing still seemed so surreal.

  Me, pregnant? With actual real live babies?

  I looked at the picture. Their heads were as large as their bodies, like cartoon people. They had tiny fingers and toes like nubs on a doll.

  They’re perfect.

  My chest swelled and I rubbed my nose to hide a sniffle. “Um, Doc?” I shifted my weight and looked to the side, trying to find the correct words. Somehow, asking if it were medically possible for either of my offspring to be the reincarnation of evil didn’t seem like an acceptable question to ask one’s doctor. She could have me committed; my children taken away. Then again, she was a vampyre too. Maybe she’d understand. Maybe fetal possession was common.

  And maybe unicorns eat rainbows for breakfast.

  Dr. Gordon watched me expectantly. “Yes?”

  “I was just wondering...” I lowered my gaze to my lap and winced. “How soon could I do a paternity test?”

  She blinked and her porcelain cheeks turned rosy. “How unprofessional of me. I didn’t mean to assume—”

  “No, it’s okay, really.” I waved my hands to dismiss her apology, trying to downplay the situation as much as possible. “I’m ninety-nine percent sure I know who the father is, I’d just feel better with confirmation.” The back of my neck burned and I cleared my throat.

  “Well, we can get your blood drawn now if you’d like, but we’ll need the father’s too, of course. Is he available?”

  Gosh, how could I explain that one of the possible fathers was currently locked in a castle dungeon while the other was metaphysically imprisoned in a magical gem stone?

  “I can get a hair sample. Will that work?”

  Her mouth thinned as she leaned against the counter and tapped her fingernails. “Ema, do you have someone you can talk to about this? A parent, perhaps?”

  A scoff burst from my lungs before I could stop myself. My parents were the last people on earth I wanted to talk to, especially about the buns in my oven. I covered my mouth and gave the doctor an apologetic look. “Sorry.”

  She sighed and then turned to open a small drawer. “I’ll draw u
p the labs. Our phlebotomist, Tracie, is in the second room on the right.” She selected a pamphlet from the drawer and handed it to me. I glanced at the title and rolled my eyes.

  Parents without Partners.

  Great, she probably thought I was some kind of abuse victim. After all, she’d seen the ugly brand above my navel. It wasn’t the kind of scar one could get by accident. The geometric shapes were too exact and too deep. It looked like something a satanic cult would carve into their followers.

  “Thanks.” I stood, shoved the pamphlet into the back pocket of my denim shorts, and then went to see Tracie. She was a stocky woman with a gray bob and a chipped fang. She didn’t speak a word while taking my blood. I scheduled my next appointment with the receptionist then exited into the lobby where Maria and Jesu waited. They immediately stood.

  “Well?” Jesu kept his voice down, but the urgency was obvious. I handed him the sonogram photo and then fished my sunglasses out of my purse. Jesu’s jaw tensed as he scanned the image. Maria pushed onto her toes and leaned against his arm to see. She grinned, and her gaze sparkled—looking every bit like the proud grandmother even though we shared no relation. But her eyes were wary too. Guarded.

  “They’re healthy,” I said. “They’re normal.” I slid the sunglasses over my nose and pushed past the main exit to the parking lot. Jesu and Maria soon followed.

  The July sun shined bright despite the late evening hour. My bare arms and legs tingled under the excessive UV rays, and I hustled a little faster toward the sedan we’d borrowed from the der Wölfe family.

  “Did you show her the bracelet?” Jesu unlocked the car doors. “Did she see what it does?”

  “No.” I slid into the front passenger seat.

  “No?” He lowered into the driver’s side while Maria took the back seat. “Why not? That was the whole point of this appointment.”

  I yanked the visor down for added shade. Jesu wore his black wraparound ski glasses, but I could feel him staring at me. “She’s an obstetrician, Jesu, not an alchemist. What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey doc, while you’re down there could you do a quick douche with holy water, see what happens’?”

  Jesu frowned. “How can you joke about this?”

  Guilt poked at my chest and my throat tightened. “It’s not that simple, okay?”

  It wasn’t easy to admit I might be carrying something evil inside me. I already loved them. They had toes, and I already loved all twenty of them. How was that fair? In the hospital in Panama, I told Jesu and Maria about Jalmari’s warning. Jalmari had said the baby belonged to Apollyon; that his father had used us to conceive some sort of clone or reincarnation of himself. At the time, I thought Jalmari was just trying to weasel his way out of taking responsibility. But then my philosopher’s stone—the magical vessel I used to entrap Apollyon—started to glow bright red whenever it came in contact with my abdomen.

  I glanced at my shoes. The silver rose-link bracelet that held the ruby-colored stone was visible over my left sock. Jesu wanted to lock the stone in a safe, but I felt better keeping Apollyon where I could see him. Usually, the gem was hidden under my pant legs, but I wore shorts with the intention of showing the stone to Dr. Gordon.

  Like she wouldn’t have freaked out.

  “What’s important,” said Maria, “is that the babies are healthy and developing normally.” She leaned over the front arm rests and gave each of us a stern look.

  Jesu glanced at the photograph and sighed. He handed the picture to me then turned over the engine and pulled out of the parking space.

  I folded the image and shoved it into my purse. “I’m getting a DNA test. If Jalmari is the father, then we’ll know the glowing doesn’t mean anything; that it’s just a fluke. And if he’s not the father, then...”

  Then what? Jalmari’s words haunted me. You have to kill all of him, Ema.

  “I’m afraid that won’t work, darling.” Maria leaned back in her seat. “Paternity tests aren’t perfect. Father and son are too similar. Without Apollyon’s DNA for comparison, the test will come up positive even if Jalmari is not the father.”

  “Well, crap.” I slouched against the leather car seat and pouted. We were on the highway headed out of town to the country. Jesu kept his gaze on the road. His thin lips and hard jawline gave no hint to his thoughts. “I guess you haven’t had any luck finding an alchemist?”

  “No,” Maria grumbled. “Not yet.”

  She had been searching since we got back from Panama, but alchemists—real alchemists—were a rare and elusive bunch. Every lead ended with a con-artist, a role-player, or a theater magician. Not a single one knew a thing about transmutation.

  I was beginning to lose hope. The DNA test was my last good idea, and even that proved to be a dead end. The only other thing I could think of—the only other person who would know anything at all—was Lilith. She knew I was pregnant before I did. She was the reason I even bothered to take a pregnancy test. And she knew Apollyon was involved; that a part of his essence was inside me, tied to the lives growing in my womb.

  But I hadn’t told anyone about Lilith. No one mentioned her after the battle, and no one had any idea I had ever met her at all. Not that it mattered now. I missed my chance to get answers from her. The last time I spoke to Valafar, he promised to take Lilith far away, and as far as I could tell, he kept his word. I had no idea where either of them had disappeared to.

  Maria clapped her hands, and I jumped. Her chipper tone was a complete turnaround from the glumness of a moment ago. “So, does everyone know what they are wearing tonight?”

  I glanced at her reflection in the visor mirror and shrugged. “Black. It’s a funeral, right?”

  VALAFAR

  Helena’s slow, even breath feathered against mine, her pulse the only sound in the room. Her scent... She wore perfume, but it did nothing to mask the rot of her race. Ropes of dull grey hair in elegant tangles framed a withered face. Ema’s mum lay sound asleep. The posh blue comforter of the king-sized bed swallowed her emaciated frame.

  I hovered mere inches above her, horizontal in the stuffy castle air, and gathered my courage. A shudder rolled through me as I reached out. My fingertips touched only the fuzz on her frail cheek. I swallowed the lump welling in my throat and closed my eyes.

  Light brightened behind my closed lids. Images came into focus. Moving pictures. The colors and details dulled to that of an old film projection. A girl peddled a pink tricycle. A sense of pride filled my chest. The feeling was not mine. The memory was not mine.

  I sifted quickly past the dream to Helena’s more recent memory. I stopped at her recollection of waking this morning then moved more slowly through her day, watching every motion she made, hearing every word she uttered and all the thoughts she kept to herself, feeling her every emotion as though I had lived it. But Helena still did not have what I needed.

  Ema hid Apollyon’s ring when they returned from Panama, and the little minx had been crafty about it. She used Adders Tongue to smoke the entire guest wing, knowing the herb made it impossible for me to spy on her, unawares. Days passed before the lingering stench stopped affecting my ability to phase. When my initial search failed, I decided to use a second set of eyes; someone completely ignorant and easily dismissible. Helena merely needed to glimpse the jewel or overhear some small detail about it, but the dumb cow had nothing. She didn’t even know what her husband was.

  A dull ache throbbed at my temple and flashes of white hot light tore holes in my concentration. I squeezed my eyelids tight and shook my head, hoping to temper the headache.

  Watch it again. I might have missed something.

  I ran my tongue between my lips and drew a deep breath, prepared to re-wind Helena’s memories of the day, when a knock at the chamber door snapped my eyes open and severed the link to Helena’s psyche. I phased to nothingness and flew to the ceiling rails.

  The knock sounded again—a soft vibration that pushed through the air of my essence like a gentle tide agai
nst a buoyant leaf. Then a sharper ripple came. A voice. I deciphered the sound waves as one might decipher a code.

  “Hello? Mrs. Marx?”

  The door creaked open as Princess Sara peeked into the room. Though I could not physically see her while phased, millennia of practice made my oscillatory perception just as good as regular vision. Sometimes more so. The Princess embodied a soft, subdued essence, like the scent of a daisy amidst the pungent musk of the gypsy snoring in the center of the room.

  I watched, completely invisible to the Princess, as she peered at Ema’s mum. Helena would sleep a while longer, but there was nothing suspicious about that. Humans often slept during the day. They called it a nap.

  Sara came into the room, carrying a dinner tray, and set it gently on the nightstand. I already knew what she would do next. When the gypsy did not wake, Sara swiftly and silently closed the chamber door. She dashed into Ema’s dressing room and rummaged through the wardrobe. Yesterday, she had searched the loo. The day before that, she had checked the vanity, under the bed, and inside the hearth. All places I had already thought of. All of them empty.

  It amused me that Jalmari sent the Princess to do his bidding. The more shocking fact, however, was that she obeyed him. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised by the betrayal. Sara might have called Ema a friend, but royals were all the same in their loyalty and traditions. Jalmari’s request outranked Ema’s friendship. Simple as that. Although, Sara’s dishonesty to her brother... Well, that was rather like the pot calling the kettle black, wasn’t it? I should have told Brinnon about his sister’s actions, but Sara’s meddling helped me. If the docile Princess found the ring, I could easily overpower her and take it for myself. This knowledge was enough to placate the throbbing headache and calm my nerves. It was enough for me to leave Ema’s chambers and take in a few leisure activities.

  Warmth filled my core as thoughts of Brinnon entered my mind. I phased through the walls, navigated through wood and drywall, plumbing and stone, until I reached the Prince’s chamber. The scent of honey and cloves enveloped my essence. A shiver of excitement nearly dropped me into my three-dimensional form, but I remained invisible a moment longer. It would do no good to expose myself to an unwanted audience, however amusing it would be in the short term.