Forever Night (Darkness Falls Book 3)

Chapter Thirty-One

The next morning was grey and overcast, heavy bellies of clouds sagging so low in the sky they almost seemed to touch the rows of headstones. A cold wind cut through the air, urging the branches of trees to roughly dance and sway. The wind-chimes loudly jangled.

The old man who'd nodded to me and Ethan last time wasn't here today; the graveyard was empty but for the moan of the wind and the resting places of the dead.

"Is that it?" Clara asked.

I nodded.

The mausoleum squatted in front of us, a shabby grey block barred by an iron gate. The last time I'd been here, it was just an inanimate building housing the bones of the dead, separated only by from the silent gravestones by its sheer size. Today, it was almost like it was scowling at us, the rough texture of the stone seeming to take the shape of an angry face.

Even the nearby stone angel seemed forbidding rather than serene.

I told myself it was the bad weather lending a sullen air to everything, but the more fanciful part of my mind insisted that the graveyard itself knew something bad lurked at its core, tainting it with evil.

Ethan, Clara, and Riley stood behind me, waiting me for me to make the first move. Rachel had threatened all of us, but I was the one she had fixated on – the one she had made it her mission to destroy. If anyone was going to drive a dagger into the crazy bitch's heart, it would be me.

Luke had been gutted at being left behind yet again, but there was nothing any of us could do. It was broad daylight which meant he was confined to the house. That had never been much of a problem for him before, but he hated knowing that I was rushing off into potentially dangerous situations and there wasn't a thing he could to do to protect me. He couldn't even be with me.

But that couldn't be helped. If Rachel was here, we needed to catch her now, while she was vulnerable. This was an opportunity that couldn't be delayed for anything.

My hand slid to the knife at my belt, reassuring myself of its solid presence, and I reminded myself yet again that there was no guarantee Rachel was actually here. All I had to go on was the suggestion of a vampire I didn't even know, and he was basing that on nothing more than a smell. We had no concrete evidence of anything.

But it was the best lead we'd had in...well, ever. If Rachel was here, if fate had finally decided to smile on me for once, then I could take out my most terrible enemy here and now. The battle against her supporters would probably still go ahead, since no one believed the army she'd organised would simply lay down their arms if Rachel wasn't around anymore, but she herself would never be able to hurt me or anyone I loved again.

But that kind of optimism wasn't something I wanted to give in to. Fate hadn't been on my side much in the past, and I didn't trust it to be now.

"Are you ready for this?" Ethan asked in a low voice, eyeing the mausoleum.

If I was honest, I'd have preferred a few more minutes to bolster my courage, but the longer we lingered, the more chance we had of other people turning up in the graveyard. The angry sky and biting wind was actually a blessing since it meant fewer people were likely to be visiting deceased loved ones. Fewer people to witness us breaking into a mausoleum and potentially stabbing a woman in the chest. But we couldn't count on the graveyard staying empty all day, and I couldn't let nervousness cost us this chance.

"Let's get on with it," I said.

Clara produced a crowbar from beneath her jacket, and I idly wondered how she managed to pack so much weaponry under there and not look like she was packing anything at all. She handed it to me and I gripped it with both hands, the metal bar cold and reassuring against my palms. Maybe I'd use this to kill Rachel, and not grant her the mercy of a quick death on the blade of a knife.

"Stay back, Riley," I warned, wanting her, as the only untrained person here, to be as far away from this as possible.

All vampires were terribly vulnerable during the day, but Rachel was stronger than most. I didn't trust that she couldn't get past us and survive the sunlight just long enough to tear Riley to pieces.

No chances. No mistakes.

I approached the gate. A thick chain looped though the metal bars and an iron ring protruding from the stone walls, secured by a padlock. The padlock wasn't rusted and I took that to be a good sign - if it was rusty and disused, it would indicate that no one had been here in a while. A frown twisted my lip. If Rachel was inside, who was locking the padlock from the outside? I supposed it could be one of her minions, locking her in just before the sun came up, but that would require putting an awful lot of trust in another vampire. Rachel had never struck me as the trusting type.

Still, there was only one way to find out.

Wedging the end of the crowbar between the chain and the padlock, I pushed down with all my weight, muscles straining in my arms, until the padlock smashed open with a metallic claaang. The iron gate creaked open, and tension rose in my throat. Goosebumps that had nothing to do with the chill wind prickled along my skin.

I held out the crowbar and Ethan wordlessly took it. This occasion called for a sharper sort of metal. I pulled out my knife. Fantasising about bashing Rachel's head in was well and good, but maybe a quick death was safer for all involved. I'd allow her that mercy if it kept my friends safe.

The mausoleum door wasn't locked, and the only adornment was another thick iron ring that acted as a handle. There was something eerie about it, as if this was a doorway to the dead. Once someone was buried in a grave they couldn't come back up again, but this was somehow different. I wasn't stupid, I knew that zombies weren't real, but there was still something profoundly disturbing about being to visit the bodies of people you loved just by opening a door.

Or maybe I was just freaking myself out because the worst enemy I'd ever had could be on the other side of this door.

I grasped the heavy iron ring, the metal icy cold beneath my hand. One pull and this could all be over. One pull and we could all be free.

I tugged open the door.

Inside the mausoleum was darkness, thick and dusty. The stench of rot poured out and I gagged, automatically covering my nose and mouth before angrily reminding myself that I couldn't take Rachel one-handed.

Ethan and Clara crowded into the doorway behind me and I could practically smell the naked steel in their hands. If Rachel was in here, she wouldn't get past us. If she was in here, there was nowhere left to run.

Something skittered in the gloom, a large shape shying away from the paler light beyond the open door. It was too big to be anything other than a person, but the ungainly way it moved told me it wasn't Rachel. She was lithe and graceful, like a hunting lioness, not some shambling shadow.

Disappointment plunged into me, so strong and so real it was like being punched in the gut. Deep down I must have known it couldn't be this easy, but that hadn't stopped me from hoping. Fate had let me down yet again.

Keeping my knife held aloft, I advanced into the mausoleum. Rachel might not be here but something definitely was.

Clara nudged me aside, holding up a small torch. She flicked it on and the thin beam sliced through the darkness, illuminating the shape huddled in the corner of the small room.

My mouth dropped open. "Noah?"