Descending Into Darkness (Moonlight Academy Book 2)

“Father, this isn’t a good time. We’ve discussed this before and I’m not interested. Jaymin is going to be my mate,” Lachlan announced, standing up and I wanted to hide under the table.

What the hell was wrong with him? This wasn’t the time or place to announce something like that. It seemed that he wanted to anger his own father. Something happened as soon as he said it. This odd energy started swirling around the room now and all the lights began flashing. I felt so embarrassed.

Moore and his guests noticed this strange occurrence too. I didn’t think that this magic had anything to do with me.

“What about Elizabeth? No disrespect, but Jaymin is a half breed and before Moonlight she lived on the streets–”

“Father, enough!” Lachlan shouted, his eyes were filled with fire and my own face heated up. I felt sick all of a sudden. Mating– this subject was too farfetched.

I had never been in a relationship before and Lachlan wanted to mate with me?

Maybe that’s why Lachlan dragged me here, because he wanted to mess up his father’s plans. I wasn’t going to be his mate. This notion was completely foreign to me.

“You’re insulting Jaymin. We have discussed this before. I’m not interested in Elizabeth,” Lachlan said, clenching his fists.

“She is perfectly suited to you son. Your mother and I agree on this. She’s an ancient vampire, pure blooded and she graduated from South American Academy that is the equivalent to Elite in Bucharest,” Moore was saying, completely ignoring the fact that I was even in the room.

We hadn’t even sat down properly and he was stabbing the knife right inside my gut. I felt worthless. It was all my fault. I should have seen this coming. Moore would want to embarrass me. It didn’t matter how smart or beautiful I was. Either way I could never be good enough for this Scottish God. Then, all of a sudden one of the light bulbs exploded. I flinched having a real headache now. Moore frowned and exhaled.

“Jonathan, I’m sure you and Lachlan can discuss this another time. We have guests and we would all like to enjoy this dinner,” Lachlan’s mother spoke, giving Moore a stern look. It seemed she didn’t really care about her son’s future mate or maybe she was just trying to be polite. Seconds later, Moore slammed his hand onto the table, spilling the blood from the glass all over the white table cloth.

“Silence! – or do I need to remind everyone their place in this household?” Moore shouted. The vein on his neck was throbbing, his piercing dark eyes made me nauseous. Another lamp bulb exploded then and a few vampires around the table flinched. I needed to get out of here. This was escalating way too fast and obviously Moore believed that he was the master of everyone.

I had a feeling that Lachlan was just about to lose his shit too. He must have been putting up with his sire for a very long time. Moore was obviously much more powerful and experienced than anyone here. Lachlan had to be careful. I heard once what could happen to a vampire that disobeyed his sire.

An awkward silence filled the room.

“Lachlan invited me here Mr. Moore and I don’t appreciate when someone insults me”

“Jaymin, let me deal with this,” Lachlan snapped.

I was regretting every second of being here. Moore had made me feel worthless from the moment I stepped inside his residence. “Father, Elizabeth is your choice. Jaymin and I are already connected and I chose her as my mate. Nothing is going to change my mind.”

More awkward silence filled the space and for a moment I thought that everyone was aware of my heavy breathing. At the same time, I was trying to deal with controlling my overwhelming magic. It felt like someone had switched me on to high power. My skin tingled and soared. The pressure around my temples grew and I didn’t know how to deal with it.

Moore was very pale and he looked seriously shut down by his anger. The dark, twisted energy felt suffocating. I started getting flashbacks from the past, bits and pieces of the memories that I had gained between my moments with Lachlan. This wasn’t right. I needed to ask the question, I had to know how were they all involved in my previous life.

Then Roger, the vampire that was sitting to my right started choking. He got up and touched his throat, stumbling to the back.

“Roger, are you all right?” Catherine asked. Roger’s eyes were big, bloodshot and he was pointing at his throat. Blood started dripping around his mouth. The other vampire stood up abruptly too. Jonathan and Lachlan went to him, everyone seemed disorientated. Roger collapsed and his body started convulsing.

My magic pounded through me while my heart was jackhammering inside my chest.

They were all surrounding him, trying to help. Moore started shouting something about spells, he called out for Jeremy. I had no idea what to do, but this anger kept accumulating inside me, spreading down my bones through my blood stream.

Shortly after, the warlock barged inside the room. He glanced at me briefly and then went to Roger. I was still breathing heavily, trying to control my magic. Roger sounded like he was choking, but that wasn’t possible for a vampire. The tingling around my arms intensified, the magic spread around the room. Jeremy was trying to use his own magic to help Roger, but he was struggling. Catherine was screaming hysterically.

The vampire was breathing again, the magic, the energy that I felt a split second ago, was gone. My body was shaking a little when I glanced at Roger.

He was breathing in and out, there was blood everywhere and the other two vampires were reassuring him that everything was all right.

“What the hell was that? I have never seen anything like that in my life!” Lachlan asked, then he walked up to me.

“No idea master Lachlan, but it seems that someone was trying to poison master Roger using a very strong spell,” Jeremy answered and his eyes shone, he gave me a long intense look. Damn it, was it even possible that I was responsible for this? Moore’s hands were covered in blood. For some reason I wasn’t craving any of it.

He disgusted me.

“Yeah, that’s very interesting,” Moore said, and his eyes narrowed at me then. The numbing pain around my forehead came back. “Call the maids, he needs to be taken care of.”

“Come on Jaymin, you look pale. I think you need to get out of here,” Lachlan muttered.

“And where do you think you’re going son?” Moore asked him.

“We are going back to Elite. You have your hands full here father,”

“Maybe, but this conversation isn’t over son,” Moore barked, but he was still looking at me.

It was best for us to leave. I had to get out of here. My hands were shaking a little as we were walking out. This normally happened after I cast a spell or used my abilities.

“Lachlan, I need to tell you something,” I said, feeling torn when we were finally out of that room. Oldman promised me that I would have more control. The night outside the club started moving in front of my eyes again.

“Not now and not here. Father has eyes and ears everywhere,” pretty boy muttered. I grabbed his arm.

“I don’t bloody care. It was me again. I’ve done this to Roger when your father said that I was not fucking good enough for you,” I said, louder than I intended. He finally stopped and looked at me, dragging his hand through his hair.

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know, I just felt this anger and maybe the magic was supposed to work as a distraction. I’m not sure, but this felt exactly like it did the night I killed everyone,” I explained, feeling drained all of a sudden.

“Come on,” Lachlan said, and then pointed upstairs. I followed him, although at this point I really wanted to get back to academy. I wasn’t really sure where he was taking me to now.

I did feel sorry for Lachlan. I thought my life was tough without a family, but his was even worse with one. His father had planned his entire future for him and he was just expected to obey. I wouldn’t want to be locked in a golden cage, even if I had everything that I could ever wish for.

Lachlan was dragging me upstairs to another section of the apartment. Soon we ended up on the third floor and went to the room at the end of the corridor.

We entered a bedroom set in dark tones. Lachlan’s clothes were on the chair. It was probably his room. I had no idea that he lived in Bucharest, but he never said much about himself.

“Hen, I think you might be wrong. What happened to Roger wasn’t your fault. You were angry–”

“Lachlan, you have no idea what happened with me that night. I’m like a ticking bomb, I can’t deal with this extra fae magic, plus I’m not your girlfriend. Why did you even introduce me like that?” I asked, feeling angry that he’d put me in that position. We needed to discuss this and now I realised that I shouldn’t have told him about my memories.

He gave me a lazy smile.

“Because we are fucking linked, so stop denying this. We are going to figure out your magic together. I’m here for you and I don’t care what my father says,” Lachlan said.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

“I don’t think you have any choice in that matter. He’s your sire,” I muttered, feeling overwhelmed with this whole thing.

“I have been distancing myself from the family over decades. Trust me I know how to handle my father,” he said. “Wait for me here. I’m going to check on Roger.”

The Scot was frustrating, but he made the right decision. Right now I didn’t want to be anywhere near Jonathan Moore. My fingertips were painfully sensitive and the air inside the room was charged with electricity. I sat down on the comfortable bed and started looking around.

I couldn’t fathom how, but I felt like I had been in this room before. There was nothing in the drawers in the bedside cabinets. Lachlan couldn’t have stayed here often. It was a very spooky and very creepy feeling.

I was bored, frustrated and still pretty angry about what happened earlier on. Even Catherine his mother, didn’t have much to say. Jonathan Moore ruled the whole family with an iron fist.

Moments later, some other energy pulled me towards the attic. The door was unlocked, the aroma of burning sage was enticing enough for me to follow it. I didn’t even remember leaving the room in the first place. Jonathan Moore was an ancient and very wealthy vampire, but like everyone in this world he had secrets.

The space was large, it doubled the size of mine and Karina’s room in Moonlight. I started walking around, telling myself that there was nothing here, just another dumping place for crap. Several paintings were packed in the corner in large boxes. There was a large table with a pile of books in the centre.

I kept having an odd feeling of déjà vu. I felt like I had definitely been there before, which was impossible – or was it?

Lachlan’s whole family must have been somehow linked to mine. This was the only logical explanation.

I didn’t want to waste too much time, so I started looking through the books, seeing my mother’s face from that latest memory. She was a fae, there was no doubt about it.

I moved to a box on the floor. The dust started itching my nose. Vampires had many photographs but I didn’t recognise any of them. Then some other photos on the bottom of the box caught my eye. The oldest ones were black and white; many were worn out. I started looking through them. The people in them looked like humans not vampires but I couldn’t be so sure as these photos weren’t preserved well. My heart started beating faster when I notice a woman in one photograph. And then it struck me. It was my aunt, the woman from my memory in the van. I remembered her clearly now.

I turned the picture around, but there was no description. My stomach tightened but I couldn’t find any more. My aunt was smiling and she looked happy.

“What the hell are you up to Moore?” I whispered to myself and then some papers dropped on the floor. I picked them up and was just about to put them away when I realised that I was holding some sort of file. I looked inside and my heart accelerated.

It was the file of Christopher Nolan, Marisa’s boyfriend and it looked like it had come directly from the academy. I opened it, my pulse skipping a beat, then raced triple time. Some of the pages, well everything what was important or useful was gone. There were just some bits of information about his grades and trials for the academy. Why would Moore have this?

We needed his address at least. He had vanished for a reason. I was confused, looking through the rest of the paperwork, but there was nothing relevant there.

Then someone cleared his throat and I dropped the file on the floor, spreading more dust everywhere.

“Is everything all right Miss?”

It was Jeremy and I was suddenly relieved that it wasn’t anyone else.

“Yes, I’m good,” I replied, turning around. Jeremy’s magic drifted around, calming me. He was a powerful warlock and I wondered why he worked for Oldman or Moore.

“Master Lachlan is looking for you, he’s ready to leave,” he said. I nodded and walked up to him, but he stopped me. “I think you’ll find this useful.”

Then he handed me a piece of paper. I looked at it wondering what he was talking about.

“What is this?”

“It’s the location of Christopher Nolan, it’s his parents address in the heart of Romania.”