‘All right!’ he cried. ‘Eyes are the windows to the soul. It’s not just a saying. Laertes taught me. I could take your soul and hide it away for a while. Until I needed it. But it turns out I couldn’t take it from your body without Rhode. it has to be done at the same time because it’s the same soul in two different bodies.’
I dropped the bottle into the cushioned satchel.
Before I could swing the sword, Justin grabbed me under my arm. The room went topsy-turvy as Justin threw me to the ground. The sword clattered out of my hand.
I kept one hand gripped on the satchel. Justin dug his knee into my chest. I was completely vulnerable but I didn’t care. I searched with my other hand for the sword. The grip brushed against my fingertips which curled around the hilt.
Justin, trying to understand what I was doing, turned to look. I lifted my arm and stabbed him in his side.
He immediately let go, falling backwards.
Justin grabbed at his wound. He would heal instantly so I had to be fast. I came to my knees.
‘Give me the bottle!’ Justin grimaced and pulled out the sword. He hurled it to the ground so it clattered far away. He yanked my hair and dragged me along the ground in the direction of Rhode. It burned at the roots. Don’t instinctively touch it, I told myself. Hold on to the bag! His hand was tight around my head, and when he stopped pulling me I flipped on to my back.
He stalked across the room to grab the sword.
‘Let’s just do this already’ he spat.
I had nothing. No way to protect myself. He could take the Vereselum with the satchel if I wasn’t armed.
I was just a girl. A human girl who wanted happiness. Who wanted to love Rhode, and go home and see her little sister.
Wait . . .
You have to use your heart, Justin had said. You have to use your heart.
I shoved my hand into my back pocket. The photo of Justin and his brothers was still there! I slid it out as Justin swung towards me, the sword high, poised to plunge. I pushed my hand out, clutching the photo. In the picture, his brothers smiled out at the camera: three blond boys under the summer sun. Below them were Kate, Claudia and Tracy.
Justin stopped, his sneer fell away and he lowered the sword. He reached out very slowly and knelt to the ground, taking the photo from my hand.
He stared at the photo, his eyes dancing over its contents.
‘Where did you get this?’ he whispered.
The ring stared straight at me. He held the photo between both hands.
‘Why did you bring this to me?’ he said, still mesmerized by the sight of it.
I slapped my hand around his left hand, crumpling the photo.
‘What are you doing?’
I drew him forward by the wrist and said through clenched teeth, ‘I believe you have something of mine.’
I gripped my fingers around that ring and only then did his lips part in understanding. I ripped it as hard as I could and it sliced through his skin as I pulled that ring off his finger and slid it on to my own.
A glint of red winked in the corner of my eye. My sword lay just beyond my fingers.
I was on the ground and Justin circled me, gripping the bloody, ruined photo. He bared his fangs and barrelled my focus on to his body movements. All I needed was the simple lift of his foot or the bend of his knees; any small clue that he was going to attack and I would slice the sword towards Justin’s body.
He raised his own sword and sprang at me.
For the briefest of seconds – time stalled.
Justin’s entire body was in the air, his arms out, legs spread, the point of his weapon angled down at me.
I snatched my sword.
There was no boy in the rain standing by my side. There was no boy waiting in his tuxedo at winter prom with a corsage in his hand, nervous as I approached in a dress.
I pulled back my elbow just as Justin fell towards me. With a scream that burned my throat nearly in two, I plunged the sword into his chest all the way to the hilt.
Justin’s eyes widened and he stared at me. I scooted out from under him as he fell forward, catching his hand.
Where was a dagger? The desk was empty, all the pens, papers and books now in a mess on the floor. Without the ring Justin would be weakened, though the ring’s power would still protect him for a little while longer. I had to destroy it.
A stone paperweight would have to do. I snatched it from the desk and placed the ring on the floor. In that ring was 592 years of vampire power. The onyx stone held on to the intentions of Rhode’s spells, the ritual and all that I had done in all the time I wore it on my finger. If I destroyed it, it would stop Justin’s power source and break the link between him and the world I was meant to change. It would also release the remainder of my vampire blood.
Justin screamed and arched his back in pain. He had somehow got the sword a little way out of his chest.
I clenched the polished heavy stone paperweight and brought it up over my head, so it hung over the small ring, which waited to be destroyed.
‘No!’ Justin howled.
I brought the paperweight down and smashed the ring. A white light exploded in the room. Words filled the space as though thousands of people were talking.
Go forth between darkness and in light.
A child, Lenah!
I love you. Love love love.
Believe and be free.
The whispers evened out and the silence of the house settled over the room.
I crawled to Justin, and when he looked up at me, I fell back.
His skin wasn’t waxy. His pores were open and sweat lined his brow. Vampires don’t sweat. Vampires don’t have pores either.
When the ring broke open – Justin became human again.
My hands shook and I reached out to touch his skin. Just to prove to myself that what I was seeing was real – he was warm.
‘Look what you’ve done,’ he spat. Even his freckles were back.
‘What I’ve done?’ I echoed, with a crack in my voice.
‘I removed it,’ he said. His eyes had returned to their soft evergreen colour. ‘I removed it so I wouldn’t have to love you.’ He drew a rattled breath. ‘Love is for cowards.’
There was no remorse in his eyes. The green was cold and the vampire strength he would have had against the sword waned. He still held the bloody photograph in his hand.
‘I used my heart to see,’ I said. ‘You told me to and I did.’
The photograph of all the people Justin loved had been his undoing. Laertes was right, love was the thing.
‘I wanted to help you,’ I added. ‘Bring you back.’
‘Stop,’ he yelled, screaming until it was a cough. ‘Stop lying!’
‘I’m sorry,’ I said, still kneeling next to him. ‘That I didn’t get to you before you removed your ability to love.’
I didn’t know what else to say. That the onyx made him a vampire? That Laertes said it was impossible to get it back once love was removed. Perhaps I should say: thank you for once trying to save me. But he was gone. That Justin didn’t exist any more.
‘I should have killed you the night of your birthday. The night in the tent. When Odette was still alive,’ he said. He sputtered, ‘I hate . . . I hate . . .’ He grimaced, and looked as if he was gathering all his strength.
‘I hate you,’ he pushed out. He gasped once more and his mouth finally slackened.
He stared up at the ceiling, motionless.
There was no long escape of air. No last heaving breaths. He didn’t soften or say I love you. He died angry. Defeated.
He was gone.
In a flash of memories:
Justin walks down his parents’ hallway towards me. It is night and the moon coming through the window illuminates his toned stomach muscles. He loves life. He wants to love . . . us.
His sweaty kiss after a game. His warm body under the sheets, and the tip of his chin to the air when he laughs at something I say.
&
nbsp; His eyes plead with me not to perform the ritual.
I blinked away the memories and focused on the vacant eyes instead. Jealousy. Hate. As a vampire, he had been motivated by all of his human insecurities. He would be one of the most horrific tragedies of my life.
I grabbed the hilt of the sword and pulled it all the way out. The blood on the end of the blade was the darkest red, almost black. And momentarily I thought of Fire and if this was what she truly wanted for me. To kill Justin. I couldn’t imagine anyone would have wanted this.
My eyes travelled from his cropped hair to his broad shoulders and down to the Italian leather shoes. The sneakers were gone. Frayed jeans, gone. Sports uniforms smelling of grass and sweat. Gone.
I took his hands and placed them across his chest. I tucked the longsword underneath his arms so he lay like a soldier. Wasn’t he a soldier? Hadn’t he in some way been fighting my war? Only recently had he switched to the opposing side. And even that could be said to be my fault.
Justin Enos was gone.
To where all souls go – wherever that might be.
CHAPTER 23
I reached inside the satchel; the bottle and book were safe. Next and most important on my list was Rhode.
This was clearly the beginning of my life. A life with a young man who would have no passion, no love, no excitement. Justin had removed his ability to love? Fine. Rhode was my Anam Cara and I would have enough love for both of us.
I turned to the doorway. Rhode had passed out again. He was weak and depleted of blood, as he had been in Justin’s house on Warwick Avenue.
I glanced back at Justin’s body. It was still. Through the immense window that faced the grounds, the sunrise made the sky a dark pink.
I would need to get Rhode somewhere safe, and as soon as possible. I walked into the room where he was being held and knelt in front of him. I reached out, my fingers shaking, and touched his hand. His eyelids flickered and his vampire eyes met mine. They were bluer than I ever remembered seeing them before. He looked at me like a scientist examining an insect.
Rhode reached out his hands, but they were restrained by the great chains that held him to the wall. I unhooked the chains and the metal fell to the ground. Rhode collapsed immediately. I met him on the floor and when I reached for his hand, his fingers trailed gently over my palm. I shuddered.
‘You . . .’ His voice cracked, weak from lack of use or from torture, I couldn’t tell. ‘You’re here,’ he said. ‘I dreamed of you.’
‘I’ll always find you.’
With a tug on my wrist, Rhode pulled me to him and kissed me so deeply that my body reacted before my mind. I kissed my Rhode back. Our mouths were hot and he kissed me deep. Rhode loved me. He did. I felt it in the touch of his hands over my body and the grip of his arms as he pulled me close. I let him.
I pulled away, my tears making both of our faces wet.
‘It didn’t work!’ I bowed my head for a split second. More tears dripped down my nose and cheeks and on to the floor. ‘He said he took your ability to love.’
‘He couldn’t,’ he said, and the morning sun broke through the doorway. ‘Every time he tried, it failed. He kept saying, “Not without your soulmate.”’
That was what Justin had meant in the hallway. To make the new Vereselum he needed us both.
Rhode kissed me again.
‘Come, we have to go,’ I said, throwing the metal to the ground. ‘Can you walk?’
Rhode shrugged and stretched out his arms to see how his body was feeling.
‘Actually . . .’ he said, and stood up from the floor on his own, ‘I’m weak but I’m OK.’ Just as he said it, his knees buckled. I took hold of his hand and squeezed. He stood back up using his own strength. ‘I’m better with you,’ he said.
Rhode was weak, but not nearly as bad as he had been during the eclipse. Justin had to have fed Rhode a little to keep him alive, but he needed my help as we walked. He could, for the most part, support his own weight. As we passed through the doorway and back into the library, Justin’s body lay unmoving. The sun had edged across the carpet and on to the Oriental rug.
‘Wait,’ Rhode said, touching my wrist. He pointed at the ground.
The sun pierced a cloud and a shaft of light ran over Justin’s foot, then his leg, his beautiful torso, and finally his face.
With a soft hush, he turned to ash.
‘But he was human when he died,’ I said. ‘I saw it.’
‘Some magic is beyond our comprehension,’ Rhode whispered. He almost sounded like the old Rhode.
‘But . . .’ I said.
Perhaps the body could not withstand sunlight after the soul had touched such darkness. With no love in our hearts, we might as well be ash.
You can’t hide from the sun for the rest of your life. Right? Justin’s ghost whispered to me. You gotta let go . . .
Justin died as he lived.
Fast and dangerous.
Someone would have to come back to this house and catalogue the Hollow Ones’ items. There was much in here that could be used for good. Spells, books, perhaps the house itself.
I pushed open the door to the darkened hallway. There were the same dark blue wallpaper and sconces, though the candles were now extinguished. But the problem was there were . . .
Endless wall sconces again. I sneered at the onyx ceiling.
I reached into my bag across my chest and drew out the amaranth sand. I threw it ahead of me and begged: Find the way out of this house. The amaranth illuminated a clear pink path that led through the first door to our right.
‘That’s convenient,’ Rhode said.
‘Not convenient, deliberate. And when we get out of here, the first thing we’re going to do is get you some blood. There is some at Cassius’s house.’
We walked through the door and found ourselves in the entrance hall. I exhaled, relieved to see that we were not in that same blasted bedroom.
‘Care to explain . . .’ Rhode leaned against the wall. He drew a deep breath to get the sentence out. ‘Care to explain this place?’ he said.
When I approached the front door, the doorknob materialized.
But there was one thing I had to check before we left.
In the onyx ceiling above Rhode and me, one white orb hovered between both of our chests, right near our hearts. It was larger than the little one I had seen before.
A single orb for a single soul.
‘Come on,’ I said.
We opened the door, finding ourselves not stepping down on to the driveway but into a large garage. There were a dozen luxury cars parked in it, different models, all with tinted windows. A corkboard held seven or eight sets of keys.
‘This one seems comfortable,’ Rhode said, and slipped into the nearest car, which was unlocked. It was some kind of SUV like Tracy had. Tracy.
I would make a call once we returned to Cassius’s house.
Justin once had a car like that too. In a different life.
I paused at a memory of all of us – Tracy, Kate, Claudia and me – driving in Justin’s car to a bungee jump. We sang at the top of our lungs and danced to songs on the radio. It was a lifetime ago. I looked for the right set of keys. My fingers set off tinkling sounds as I brushed over the metal.
Finding them, I got into the driver’s seat beside Rhode and started the car, and with a press of a garage clicker Rhode and I were out and back on the driveway. My hand rested on top of the gearshift and Rhode slid his hand over mine. I didn’t look back; there was no need.
The only way ahead now was out.
We went via Cassius’s house. There was no one in, but Rhode drank from a container of blood immediately. It was no shock to me, but he turned away to drink. Once sunset hit, and I knew Rhode would be safe from the sun, we were on the road again and parking in front of Wickham Boarding School.
Before getting out of the car I opened the satchel. I just wanted to make sure the book and antidote were still there and safe. I did see that
they were still together. But what kept them in place was Rhode’s journal.
‘Wait,’ I said, lightly touching Rhode’s cold skin, and pulled out the notebook. I handed it to him, and for a second it seemed we weren’t going through those gates and we didn’t have a powerful serum in our hands.
‘Ask yourself my love whether you are not very cruel to have so entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. I love those words,’ I said.
‘Keats,’ he said. ‘And it’s true. Your love has changed me. Forever.’
‘You dreamed of me?’ I asked.
‘For three years. And when you walked on to campus that day, I didn’t know what to do. I had no memory of you, yet I spoke to you in my dreams, held you, and even . . .’ He didn’t finish. ‘You were so familiar to me, and yet I felt so guilty whenever I was around you.’
‘I’ll tell you about your life once we get settled.’
‘Besides, if that antidote is going to work, maybe my memory will come with it.’
I had been assured in ten different ways that restoring Rhode’s memory was impossible. Fire had explained it first, and Justin had confirmed it.
‘I can feel your doubt,’ he said.
‘I’m too worried to dare to hope,’ I replied.
Rhode slipped on a baseball hat from Justin’s back seat. It must have been Justin’s at one time. Rhode’s warm hand reached for mine.
Even though the evening clouds shrouded the moon, the clear blue of his eyes shone out at me.
We walked through the gates.
The guard did a double take at Rhode and stepped out from the booth. On the campus, students were packing cars and moving big boxes out of the dorms. Even at night, the campus was continuing to empty out – no time to waste, apparently, after a massive vampire attack. No one wanted to stay at school after what had happened. Who could blame them? Across the campus, the smashed windows of the auditorium remained ruined.
The guard held on to the booth door frame.
‘Rhode?’ His mouth opened a little and he jumped back into the booth. He checked something off on a clipboard and called someone on a walkie-talkie. Rhode adjusted the baseball cap further down over his eyes.
‘Rhode, we need to call the police. I – yes, Lenny, yes, he’s here. Tell Ms Williams,’ He smiled into the radio. Perhaps we were the best bit of news he had received all year.