‘I’ll always love you,’ I said. ‘In some way.’
He dropped me, and my already scabbed knuckles scraped against the asphalt. I met Tony’s eyes; one of the vampires pressed a hand on his face, pushing him against the road. Tony didn’t dare speak a word, but his eyes were wide.
Justin sneered. ‘Do all women lie? Is this some kind of game? You loved me! Odette told me. She said that if I became a vampire, and you were in love with me, then you would be forced to love me forever.’
Suddenly I understood. He had been under the control of that mind rune when Odette had told him that. He didn’t know that I would only love him forever if we were both vampires and in love at the same time. I had loved Rhode when Justin was turned, and I was human. It would have been impossible.
He didn’t understand this distinct difference because he didn’t understand vampire law.
‘You believed I would come back and be in love with you? No one has bothered to tell you the truth of this vampire law for three years?’
Justin bent down, baring his fangs. I recoiled out of instinct. His fangs were long and thin, very sharp. A hot ache rippled down my hip from where he had dropped me, but I gritted my teeth and didn’t break eye contact.
‘What vampire law?’ he said.
He lifted me again, holding me close. His grip was so strong my lungs were constricted.
‘I can’t breathe,’ I coughed out.
‘Let-’er-go,’ Tony grunted, his voice muffled.
‘You won’t distract me with logistics, Lenah. Enough games. Out with it,’ Justin demanded with a shake.
He was desperate to believe that I loved him. He couldn’t accept that he had constructed these plans, perhaps even murdered Suleen to get me to come back, and it was all for nothing. I did not love him. Justin squeezed me to him again. I could only draw in little puffs of air.
‘Tell me!’ he screamed, shaking me. ‘Tell me you love me!’
‘I can’t,’ I barely choked out.
He stopped shaking me and in his eyes were a thousand phrases I understood: I’m sorry. I’m not done loving you. I’m frightened of this power. Oh yes, I understood this torture. He shook his head and took a few steps back as he released me. I stepped away, catching my breath. Vampire love was the respite from a sunny day that one cannot enjoy. It silenced the tick of the clock.
Love.
Love.
Love.
That was the freedom. And he could not have it from me. A vampire loves the one that has reached his heart unconditionally. He cannot stop it. It is forever. Love was a vampire’s one respite. The pain and grief can be overwhelming. If a vampire falls in love, that love will last until the end of time. It is the only freedom from the bloodlust, the only way to silence the endless tick of the clock.
And it had happened to Justin Enos.
He looked me over, head to toe. Suleen was right; Justin had to be controlled. He had extraordinary power and now his bitterness would know no limit. I didn’t know how to stop him, let alone kill him as Suleen and Fire had expressly told me to do. He closed in on me again, and I backed away, almost to the stone wall.
‘Enough of this,’ he said.
Justin grabbed me again. His bared fangs were razor sharp, as dangerous as mine had ever been.
‘Don’t,’ I whispered with a shudder. His nostrils flared, he drew back his shoulders . . . I knew what was coming. Vampires are made through a bite, followed by the sacrifice of life. The ritual under the moonlight was the final and most importance piece. Justin would bite me. He would attempt to drain me completely. Only in my death would the transformation begin.
He gripped my bicep so viciously that I winced. His rancid breath oozed on to the nape of my neck and his fangs grazed the skin. This was it. He brought his head back in preparation. His whole head jerked forward as he tried to bite, but Justin stumbled back, as though someone had pushed him on the forehead and away from me.
‘What the . . .’ Justin said.
I held my breath, ready for the pinch of his fangs and the puncture of my skin. He tried again and again, each time he boomeranged backward. For some reason, the razor points could not stab me.
‘What are you doing?’ he screamed, and threw me from him. I stumbled back and immediately ran my hand over my neck. There were no holes and no injury. ‘How are you stopping me?’
Justin slapped a hand around my neck and squeezed. Just as the rush of blood swept through my ears, he let me go with a hiss.
Justin stared at his palm.
‘Cold,’ he whispered, looking from my neck to his hand. ‘You’re ice cold.’
The vampire holding Tony walked to Justin’s side. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked him.
‘I’m fine. Get away from me,’ he spat.
Even though he was free, Tony remained immobile.
I touched my neck again. He had been going to bite my neck, not to feed, but to transform.
‘Why is she cold?’ Justin asked the vampire. ‘Why?’
The vampire sputtered in response, desperate to help his new leader.
But I knew.
‘He can’t tell you,’ I said. My glands hurt when I spoke; I would have bruises, and soon. ‘He can’t be older than, what, seventeen?’
‘Quiet!’ Justin yelled.
‘You can’t hurt me, Justin,’ I said. I knew I was taunting him, but I needed the upper hand and I wanted him to know it. His eyes snapped up to meet mine. ‘Maybe when you wore Odette’s rune necklace you could hurt me because the powerful rune gave you strength. But even that would have weakened over time. When you’re a vampire you can’t mortally hurt or kill those you love. It’s law. It’s why you can’t make me into a vampire. The rules even apply to you, Justin.’
Justin suddenly jerked back and cried out. At first I thought he was reacting to what I had said, until I saw an arrow protruding from his arm.
‘Damn it!’ He ripped it out and tossed it to the ground.
I searched for the archer in the darkness. Another arrow flew through the sky from the direction of Wickham campus. It landed in the chest of the vampire guarding Tony. He cried out, freeing Tony. Whoever shot him had missed the heart, maybe on purpose.
‘Go. Now,’ Justin said to the vampire closest to him.
I helped Tony up. He was trembling.
The vampires didn’t hesitate to obey Justin’s command, and the sound of their heels on the pavement echoed in the silent street.
Faster than any vampire I had ever seen, Justin turned and ran after his men. Odette had used runes and magic to make herself faster than the average vampire. Justin was quicker than that.
‘We should get inside,’ I said, picking up the discarded arrow at my feet. Its end was bright red and the tip was coated in Justin’s blood. It was hard to see in the dark, but it looked as if it was made from some sort of black stone. I would need to see in the daylight but it appeared to be . . . onyx? That would be a very foolish stone to use. Strange.
This was a second arrow with a red-feathered tail that I had seen in twelve hours. I ran my finger along the fletching. Arrows, at least when I used to shoot them, were made with real feathers. This was something modern and synthetic. Tony limped as we walked but said nothing. I found his baseball hat lying near my dagger on the sidewalk. He put his hat on backwards and we headed to campus. It took a little longer with Tony’s tender ankle, but we climbed over the stone wall and on to school ground undetected. He remained silent as we snuck to our dorms.
As I gripped the arrow, a wound throbbed on my middle finger. I lifted my hand – a jagged cut ran from the nail almost to the wrist. I shook it out and told myself to ignore the throb at my hip too. My knuckles were sore from the fall on Main Street and from burying Suleen the day before.
I couldn’t fall apart from flesh wounds. Too many important questions flooded my mind. Who shot that arrow? What did Justin think he was going to accomplish by bringing me back?
Tony kept his gaz
e to the ground and his mouth set in a firm line. When we met first time around, Tony had been relentless in seeking out the truth about my past. He was not the kind to let something slide once it became interesting. He was dogged to a fault; back then, my coven had killed him by biting him hundreds of times.
This time I owed him the truth from the beginning. This beginning.
I owed him respect.
And I owed him my life.
We walked to the back of Turner, where Tony packed up his telescope. He hobbled to his window and we snuck in as noiselessly as we could. Tony still hadn’t said anything when he shut the window behind us. Tonight’s answers would be hard for him to hear. Some of the questions he would ask, I wouldn’t be able to answer.
I knew only one fact – Justin Enos could not hurt me.
Because he still loved me.
CHAPTER 6
Vicken Clough had been able to clean wounds with just a pocketknife. He’d been able to redraw maps of entire buildings from memory. If he was here now, he would have helped me fight Justin; he would have helped me make a plan. Instead I sat down on Tony’s bed and cleaned my cut with alcohol and antiseptic.
I would have to find another time to perform my goodbye ritual for Vicken.
Tony paced and kept shaking his hands out as if he was prepping for a battle. The salty air licked through the cracked window, wafting away the sterile scent of the antiseptic. ‘First, did you know that would happen when we went out on to Main Street tonight?’ he asked.
‘No, road buddy,’ I said, making sure to emphasize the expression.
‘Right, yes, excursion was my idea. Moving on.’
‘I suspected something might happen, but I thought it worth the risk,’ I confessed.
‘Worth the risk?’
‘To spend time with you. To tell you the truth.’
‘About Justin?’ Tony asked.
‘One thing at a time,’ I said gently.
‘Do you know . . .’ Tony picked his word carefully, ‘what he is?’
After a few minutes, his limp had disappeared, but the scrape on Tony’s face still blossomed with fresh blood. He grabbed a paintbrush from his desk and held it in his hand like a dagger. ‘You have to tell me what the hell happened to Justin. And why he was so fast. And why he had fangs. People don’t have fangs.’
‘You should put that down,’ I said, gesturing to the paintbrush. ‘Let me clean the cut on your face.’
‘It makes me feel better to hold it,’ he said. He touched his fingers to the cut. I placed the arrow down on his desk, intending to wipe it clean and examine its construction when I had the chance. ‘Start talking, Lenah,’ Tony said. ‘Please.’
‘I’m not sure where to start,’ I said quietly.
‘How about you start with what you know?’ Tony collapsed on to his bed. ‘No – how you know.’
I cast my eyes to the floor, hoping to find the right way to recount this horrible tale. Did I start back in the 1400s when Rhode made me a vampire? Did Tony need to know about Rhode? Did I tell him about the first time I came to Wickham?
‘He had fangs,’ Tony breathed. ‘Like in the movies. Like a . . .’ He fished for the word. ‘Like a . . . vampire.’
‘Yes . . .’ was all I could say. I was happy that Tony was doing some of the work for me. ‘Yes, he is a vampire.’
He put his head in his hands, holding the paintbrush between his fingers.
‘There are no such things as vampires. But I saw it. I did see it, didn’t I?’ Tony said to the floor.
I nodded and began slowly. ‘What would you say if I told you that I have been here before? In another time, but like this one. An alternate version of this world.’
Tony’s head snapped up.
‘What would you say to that?’ I pressed.
‘Like a parallel universe? I would say, go to the infirmary. But keep talking.’
I told him my story. I told him I was once a powerful and vicious Vampire Queen who lived for more than five hundred years, ruling all vampires and killing thousands of humans. After my time as queen Rhode had given me the greatest gift possible – my life back, my soul. I’d been allowed to come to Wickham and live once more as a human.
‘Rhode!’ Tony cried. ‘Rhode too?’
‘Rhode can’t remember,’ I said softly. ‘It’s complicated.’
I paced while explaining the ritual that Rhode had performed for me. I was vague about telling Tony his original role in the story because I didn’t want him to know how he died. He didn’t need to know and that violent history had been erased.
I explained the rest: I had gone back to the medieval world because Fire had allowed me to change everything. Justin, who had been turned into a vampire by Odette, was supposed to change back into a human too, but for some mysterious reason . . . had not.
‘He somehow linked to this new reality from that old one.’
I finished by explaining that I had come back now because Suleen, my greatest protector besides Rhode, was dead.
I held up my wrist and pointed at the rag tied round it.
‘This is Suleen’s blood. In the vampire world we wear fabric bloodied by our fallen.’
Tony scooted over for me to sit down. He felt the fabric of my bracelet between his fingers.
‘Why?’
‘Until justice is done. For some vampires, that can be a long time.’
Tony dropped his hand from my bloodied bracelet and exhaled heavily through his nose.
‘This Fire woman – she wouldn’t tell you why Justin became King Psychopath?’ he said after a long silence.
I shook my head. ‘There are only a few things of which I am certain. There is a revolution of some sort in the vampire world, whatever Suleen meant by that. Justin is involved, though I’m not sure how. Either way, I have to stop him. Once I do that, I can go home.’
‘Home?’ Tony pulled back from me.
‘Yes.’
‘To the Middle Ages?’
I nodded.
Tony had his thinking face on again. He suddenly lifted his paintbrush into the air.
‘Lenah, this is a seriously intergalactic, Star Trek: The Next Generation kind of weird. You’re talking about parallel worlds!’
‘I know,’ I cried, even though I had no idea what he was talking about. I stood up. ‘This afternoon, approximately two hours after I stepped on campus, someone shot an arrow at my head. That man you saw today – the one who ran from me at the farm? – he is also a vampire.’
‘OK. So Justin couldn’t take you tonight because . . .’
‘Once a vampire is in love they are bound to that person, forever,’ I said. ‘Now that I’m back, Rhode is Justin’s number-one target. Second would be you. In fact, if Justin hadn’t been shot by that arrow, he probably would have taken you tonight.’
‘Me?’ Tony’s voice cracked.
‘You were my best friend once upon a time. Justin remembers that.’
Tony paced again, paintbrush clenched in his fist. ‘That explains the hugging when you met me.’
‘I know it’s a lot to take in,’ I replied.
There was a little click as he finally put down the paintbrush on top of his dresser. Maybe he didn’t believe me. Maybe he would kick me out and send me back to my room. No. He had seen Justin, and there was no denying what we had experienced on Main Street.
‘It also explains why I . . .’
‘What?’
‘Why I feel –’ his cheeks reddened – ‘close to you. Like we’re best friends.’
‘That’s because we are,’ I said. Tony raised his mouth in a little tight-lipped smile.
He cleared his throat. ‘Three years ago Rhode showed up here as a student, I remember because every girl went nuts. That same week, Justin went missing. If there really is a rip in time, which is what you seem to be saying, then the timing here makes sense.’ He nodded to himself. ‘It all fits.’ His tone was sombre, accepting. He sat down next to me on the bed. ‘So wha
t happens now?’
‘I don’t know. Justin killed Suleen to summon me to the modern world. Suleen summoned me to take down Justin. I have no idea how to do that.’ I leaned my back against the wall and crossed my legs at the ankles. ‘Now that he knows I’m not in love with him, his plans will change. To what, I do not know.’
‘Who do you think shot the arrow tonight?’ Tony asked.
‘I’m pretty sure it’s the same type of arrow as the one fired at me this morning. Clearly they don’t belong to Justin and his coven. But I don’t think they’re on my side either. Did I mention how close it was to my head?’
‘Oh good. Someone else wants you dead.’ He shook his head in disbelief.
‘Will you promise me something?’ I asked.
‘You mean besides not telling anyone of your secret identity or that Justin Enos is not missing but is in fact some freak vampire. Oh, and Rhode was a vampire too. Sure thing. What else should we add to the list?’
I nudged him with my shoulder.
‘Seriously,’ he said. ‘What?’
‘Promise me you won’t look for Justin.’
Tony pulled back, surprised.
‘But what if we can—’ he started.
‘No,’ I said sharply, standing up. ‘You stay far away from him until we know the facts. Just trust me. Trust me that I will do whatever I can to find out and I won’t leave you out of any of it. Please? Promise me you won’t seek him out.’
‘I promise. But . . . do you think he can be . . . like you? Turned human again?’
I wanted more than anything to bring Justin back, not kill him as Suleen had asked. But it would be virtually impossible to change him into a human. The ritual that Rhode and I had performed was older than any vampire I had ever known, and incredibly complex. And yet . . .
A thought nibbled at the back of my mind.
‘What? What are you thinking?’ Tony asked. ‘You have a look. Like you’re going to punch something.’
‘Justin wasn’t supposed to stay a vampire. Everything – including him – was supposed to change when I went back to my original life. Maybe there’s a way to make him human again other than the ritual or the power of the Aeris. Maybe there is some way to, you know, break the chains of vampirism.’ I slouched and threw my hands up. ‘I don’t know how, or if it’s even possible. I’m just thinking out loud.’