When Darkness Falls

[When Darkness Falls (Book 1, the Darkness Falls Series)]

If walls could talk these would be screaming. I shivered, a moan of

wind whisking my blonde hair into a scraggly mop.

Greylark Asylum loomed in the distance, a huge structure of

abandoned grey stone. The windows were like hundreds of unblinking

eyes glaring out, and the places where stone had worn away like

never-healing wounds, still weeping dust and mortar.

I swallowed past the cotton-wool dryness in my throat. I really

didn't want to go into the asylum.

Riley jabbed a sharp elbow into my ribs. "You can't chicken out

now, K-girl. Not with that cute guy watching."

I rolled my eyes and didn't bother turning to see who she was

talking about. As far as Riley was concerned, there was always a

cute guy watching.

"This is stupid," I said.

"A dare is a dare, Kiara."

"Yeah, but we're not kids anymore."

Riley nudged me again. "That's why we turned Truth or Dare into a

drinking game."

As if I needed reminding. I would never have agreed to a stupid

dare if it wasn't for the vodka. A whole bunch of us had come out

here, to the bare patch of English meadowland that surrounded

Greylark. Dalwick, the small town where we lived, was cut off from

the asylum by a swathe of woodland and that was usually how people

liked it. The asylum hadn't been used in years, an eerie relic of

the days when people with mental issues were treated like freaks or

monsters. Nowadays the only people you'd find out here were groups

of teenagers looking for somewhere to drink in peace. That was the

only reason I was here, for the booze and the bonfire. I hadn't

reckoned on being sucked into a silly drinking game and then being

presented with the challenge to actually go inside the asylum. No

one went inside Greylark. Even people who didn't believe in ghosts

stayed away from it.

"It's okay if you're scared," said a silky voice from behind me,

and I gritted my teeth.

"I'm not scared, Georgia," I said.

Riley deliberately placed herself between me and my rival. For some

reason she seemed to think I needed protecting from the other girl,

that I wasn't able to stand up to Georgia. I just let her get on

with it. Better than her knowing the truth.

"My girl wouldn't agree to anything she couldn't do," Riley

declared.

"Whatever," Georgia smirked, flipping dark hair over her shoulder.

I didn't say anything until Georgia had moved out of earshot. I'd

been having a great time until I'd been slapped with this dare, and

time spent in Georgia's poisonous presence was only going to ruin

my evening even more.

I snatched the plastic cup of vodka and coke from Riley's hand and

drained it in one gulp. "Okay, I'm going in."

Riley whooped and clapped her hands. "Guys, Kiara's doing it."

There were scattered claps and cheers from the teenaged throng

around the bonfire behind us.

I strode down the sloping meadow, away from the warmth of bonfire

and voices, and towards the grim presence of Greylark Asylum. The

vodka I'd just chugged sat uneasily in my stomach.

Greylark loomed over me, blackened windows like blind eyes. I

swallowed the anxious knot in my throat. Everyone in Dalwick told

stories about the ghosts that haunted Greylark, and in the shifting

night-time shadows it was easy to see why people thought it was

haunted. Lucky I didn't believe in ghosts. It was the other things

that went bump in the night that frightened me.

I paused at the door, my hand frozen a hairsbreadth away. It wasn't

too late to turn back. Glancing back, I could see the bright blob

of bonfire and hear the mixed voices and laughter drifting over

from the party. I could go back over there, admit I was too scared

and just cope with the mocking. But something stopped me and it

wasn't pride. Kids at college already thought I was weird and did

their best to avoid me, so it wasn't that I cared whether or not

they thought I was a coward. I had to go into Greylark because I

wasn't going to let my fear conquer me. Ghosts were hardly the

worst things to stalk the night.

The scars on my shoulder throbbed with phantom pain.

I pushed open the asylum door. The creak it made set my

teeth on edge. Something skittered across the floor,

probably a rat. When I stepped through the gaping doorway,

wisps of dusty cobwebs draped like a veil over my head. The

door opened into a vast lobby, grey with rot and ruin. The

windows were cracked, wallpaper peeling off in strips as if

the asylum interior had some degenerative skin disease. The

floor was spotted with bits of green where weeds had

stubbornly forced their way through the concrete, and

scattered with empty beer cans. So I wasn't the only one

who'd ventured in here.

The dare only stipulated that I go inside Greylark, it

hadn't said anything about having to explore it, yet I

found myself heading for the stairs at the far end of the

lobby. I was here to remind myself it wasn't abandoned

asylums I had to fear, and if that meant going right to the

top of the three-storied building, so be it.

I climbed the stairs slowly, the scraping of my feet

sounding unnaturally loud in the empty building. The thick

stone walls blocked off any sound of the party; it was as

if I had stepped into another world, one of grey bleakness,

where the screams of the past had bled into the foundations

and condemned this place for so many years.

I reached the top floor and deeply exhaled. My breath sent

cobwebs fluttering. I had climbed to the top of Greylark

and there wasn't a ghost in sight. Suddenly this felt like

a massive waste of time. There was nothing to be scared of

and -

Something moved at the far end of the corridor and my heart

skipped a beat. That couldn't have been a rat, it sounded

too . . . big. I squinted into the shadow-shrouded

corridor.

A shape, darker and more solid, broke away from the

shadows, moving towards me. I couldn't move, frozen where I

was. My heart slammed against my ribs like a hammer. I fell

back a step as the shape advanced, my mind racing back to

every ghost film I'd ever seen.

Then a tenuous shaft of moonlight slanted in from a window,

painting a slash of white across the shape. I saw a jaw-

line, a mouth, and the gleam of fangs like sharp daggers.

Vampire. The thought shrieked through my mind. Trained instinct took over my body.

I kicked the vampire, snapping my straightened leg up so my

heel smashed into its face. The vampire staggered back and

I kicked it again, this time in the stomach. Anger poured

through me, drowning my previous fear. I might not know

what to do if it turned out that ghosts were real, but

vampires I could handle.

My elbow found the vampire's face but it was already

rearing away from me. I should have broken its nose;

instead my elbow grazed its cheek. It was faster than I

expected and I was here alone, without a single weapon on

me. Normally I wouldn't go anywhere unarmed, especially at

night, but I hadn't thought the other kids at the party

would be very understanding if they discovered I was

carrying knives around. One of the reasons my family didn't

want me having a social life.

I aimed another kick at the vampire but it batted my leg

aside. An arm swept through the darkness at my head, and I

ducked, ramming my fists into the solid body in front of

me. The vampire grunted. I kicked out where I hoped its

kneecap was, and had the satisfaction of seeing it crumple

onto one knee.

I wanted to stay and finish it off but I've always been

taught it's important to recognise when it's time to fight

or time to run. This was a time to run. The vampire was

down - albeit temporarily - and I had no weapons. I might

be able to hold my own for a while, but without a knife or

a stake, this was a fight I probably wouldn't win.

I ran for the stairs. Feet scuffed behind me as the vampire

picked itself up, and I ran faster, willing my legs to work

overtime. Twice I came close to slipping on the curving

stairs, but I'd rather break my neck than let a filthy

vampire feed from it.

The asylum doors loomed in front of me, still ajar from

where I'd come in. My feet flew over the floor. At the last

second I couldn't help but glance over my shoulder, trying

to see how close the vampire was. But there was nothing

there. I faltered. The vampire wasn't chasing me. Confusion

swirled through my head before trained instinct took over

again and I carried on running, out of Greylark and into

the night.

I didn't stop until I was cresting the slope of meadowland

where the bonfire glowed. My heart was pounding but it was

adrenaline rather than exertion. I could have run twice

that distance and barely broken a sweat.

Georgia's laugh brayed louder than the multitude of conversation. "Looks like someone saw a ghost." She waggled her fingers at me and made oooh-noises.

"You okay?" Riley asked, studying me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just creepy in there." I forced a

smile on my face.

"Aww, did Casper come and frighten you?" Georgia sneered. I

should have known she'd find a way to mock me whether I

went into Greylark or not.

Riley pushed a drink into my hand. "Ignore her."

I was only half-listening, my mind still at Greylark. There

was a vampire in the asylum; I needed to tell my parents.

"Listen, Riley -"

"Oh no." She narrowed kohl-rimmed eyes at me. "You are not

going home, K-girl. I don't care how freaky it was in

Greylark."

I tried to protest but she put a finger to my lips.

"There's no way I'm letting you leave, Kiara Morrow, not

when you're being checked out."

"Let me guess, another cute guy?"

Riley grinned and moonlight glinted off her silver lip- ring. "Nope, this guy is about a thousand miles beyond cute."

She subtly steered me round until I was facing the bonfire.

"Dark hair, black t-shirt," she said in a conspiratorial

undertone.

I sighed and looked. Then looked again. Riley was right.

The guy in question wasn't cute - he was gorgeous. He

looked like he should be gazing soulfully out from the

front cover of a fitness magazine, not mooching around with

a bunch of drunken college kids. He was standing on the

other side of the bonfire, hands shoved in his pockets. His

hair was soot-black, longish so it almost touched his

shoulders. Even from where I was standing, I could see the

lines of muscle in his arms and the way his black t-shirt

pulled tight across a solid chest. The flames from the

bonfire danced between us, casting strange shadows across

his face. And his eyes - my heart skipped a beat as his

eyes met mine. I couldn't see what colour they were, but

there was a direct intensity to his stare that made me feel

like I was the only girl standing there. Maybe the only

girl in the world. Everything around me - the crackle of

flames, the hubbub of too many conversations happening all

at once, the odd cheer as someone did something drunk and

stupid - all faded out for a moment, becoming a muted hum

in the background of my consciousness.

I blinked a couple of times. This wasn't the reaction I was

used to getting around guys, even the unusually gorgeous

ones.

"Nice, huh?" Riley said.

I glanced at her and managed a sheepish smile. Obviously I

wasn't being very subtle. When I looked back, the boy was

gone. Disappointment flared through me.

"Who was he?"

Riley slurped her vodka and coke. "I keep forgetting you've

only been here four months. That gorgeous hunk of manhood

was Luke."

"Luke who?"

Riley blinked. "Just . . . Luke. No one knows his

surname."

"Not even his friends?"

"Luke doesn't have friends."

"What do you mean?"

"Kiara, Luke is Dalwick's original mystery man. He showed

up about six or seven months ago, just out of the blue.

Nobody knows who he is or where he came from. He doesn't go

to college and he doesn't have a job that anyone knows of.

He just . . . appears from time to time and makes us poor

girls weak at the knees." Her eyes sparkled mischievously.

"He did make your knees weak, right? Like your bones turned

to spaghetti?"

I shook my head a little too quickly and Riley laughed.

"Don't lie to me, girl. I saw the look on your face. You

should have talked to him."

"I don't think that would have been a good idea."

Riley rolled her eyes. "Come on, K-girl. I know your parents are super-strict but it's not like you're a nun."

No, I wasn't. But Riley had no idea what I was.

"How are you ever going to get a boyfriend if you won't

even talk to a guy?" Riley continued.

Her words hit me like a punch. A boyfriend was part of a

normal life and that was something I could never have, no

matter how much I wanted it. I could steal snippets of a

social life here and there - tonight's bonfire party being

a prime example - but it would never be more than snippets.

I would never be normal.

The scars on my shoulder throbbed again.

I took a long swig from my plastic cup and felt the vodka

burn the back of my throat. All around the bonfire kids

were laughing, drinking, kissing, some even dancing

although there was no music. I could join in with them but

I'd never be part of their world.

My eyes drifted back towards Greylark, and all thoughts of

Luke and normality fled my head. I had more immediate

problems to deal with. Once I told my parents what I'd

discovered that the vampire was as good as dead.

END OF CHAPTER ONE