The motors slowed, so the puttering and electric roars became just a purr.
“We’re here,” Justin called. I heard him open the hatch and drop the anchor. I headed up to the deck.
We were back in the harbor, where we went on the snorkeling trip. With my vampire sight I looked at the intricacies of Wickham beach, the tiny glints of sand sparkling in the middle of the beige and the discarded soda bottles spilling over the trash can next to the pathway. I scanned the campus.
I just kept waiting and waiting for the moment the coven would emerge from wherever they were hiding. An hour or so passed, and nothing. I knew Vicken was pacing. I knew he was waiting for the right moment when the coven would begin their hunt for Justin and me. If I closed my eyes and attempted to connect with Vicken, the bond between us would allow me to see exactly where he was. Through the binding magic, he would be forced to show himself. But the connection could also be reversed, so I did not risk it.
Justin sat on the bow, and I searched the campus as far as I could one more time. I saw the empty entrance gates and security cars patrolling the campus. Most of the meadows and pathways were empty, though a few students walked here and there toward their dorms or the library. I decided a moment to sit with Justin was okay, as long as I sat facing the campus. I started after him and sat down. The water was still, barely moving the boat. I could smell the intricacies of Justin’s flesh.
“So we’re out here…?” he said.
“It’s nearly impossible for them to track us on the water,” I explained. “We need to surprise them. They’ll never expect us to come from the beach. Also, I need to prepare you for what must happen when we go to shore.”
Justin looked up. The moon cast wavering glows on the water. “What are you gonna do?” he asked.
I hesitated, then spoke. “We follow them and then lure them into an enclosed space. I was thinking the gymnasium. If we lead them on a chase, we’re more likely to get them where we want them to go.”
“But when we do that, what happens? To you?”
I looked down at the rolling water for a moment. “I don’t know what happens to me.”
I considered for a moment what this meant to Justin. I could feel his gaze on me. “You know,” I said, “I thought I would have a chance to come back here. But I see now that is not possible.”
“Come back? How?”
“The ritual,” I said. Justin’s eyes widened for an instant as the memory of the ritual came back to him. “He knows you have it?”
I nodded. “It doesn’t matter. I have to kill all of them,” I said. “Even Vicken.”
“But you said you were bound.”
“That binding has been broken on my side. Because Vicken is a vampire he is attached to that binding forever.”
“Lucky him,” Justin said. I smiled, just barely, and it faded with the moments of silence that followed. “So we’ll fight all of them at the same time?” Justin asked.
“We?”
Justin faced me directly. “Hell, yeah, you don’t think I’m just gonna stand around while you fight off those psychos.”
I smiled. “As you saw in your bedroom, I’m not exactly without a weapon.”
I ran my right index finger along the metal guardrail of the boat, sending a glow of light under my finger.
“The light?” Justin asked.
“One bright blast should do it.”
Justin reached toward me, and I could feel his body temperature radiating on the right side of my body. His fingers shook, and he hesitated for just a millisecond before he took my right hand from the bar and held it in his. “Warm,” he whispered, with a hint of surprise.
He brought my hands to his eyes and examined them. His gaze was easy and comforting. Then he did what I least expected him to do: He brought my middle and index finger to his lips and kissed my fingertips.
Agony coursed through my body. My muscles tensed, and my nerves contracted. Justin released my hand and held both of my cheeks in his hands. I closed my eyes. I could hardly bear him examining all of my vampire changes.
“You’re still you,” he whispered as though reading my thoughts. I finally opened my eyes and noticed that a line of tears poured from his eyes and onto his cheeks. Perhaps he wondered if tears would somehow make him less than a man, but he was the best human man I had ever known. His bottom lip quivered, and his nostrils flared a bit.
“I wanted you to come back,” he said, though his voice quivered. “I needed it.”
Then his hands were running through my hair.
Even though I couldn’t feel it, I was slipping back into the familiar touch that I loved so much. I did, even in this form, love Justin more than I could articulate. He gripped the back of my head and plunged his mouth onto mine. His tongue moved my lips open and we moved in perfect rhythm—that is, until a man’s scream echoed from the Wickham campus.
Once Justin was behind the wheel, we zipped toward Wickham beach.
Use your mind…, my thoughts raced. Where is the victim? My own plan was working against me. I knew it was bait. They were luring me to the victim only so I would be next. Once the boat slid next to the dock, I slung one boot over the edge and started to run. “Justin! You must stay with me! I can’t lose sight of you!” I called.
“Lenah!”
There was no time to respond. The battle had begun. Justin slung one more rope over a cleat to secure the boat. I looked behind me and was comforted for the moment to see Justin trailing in my wake. He would catch up with me. As a vampire, I had no need to worry about my beating heart or catching my breath. But I was running fast up the path, past the science buildings, past the greenhouse, up the meadow. Justin ran beside me, pace for pace. I ran as fast as I could. Heavy footprints trampled the grass. I threw my palm out, illuminating the grass. With my vampire sight I could see the shape of Song’s footprint.
I ran toward Hopper building. Because my gut told me to. When I reached the door of Hopper, I tugged at it once and we stepped inside. We let it close behind us with a deadening thud.
The foyer was black. Dim light came from the track lighting above us.
Justin panted, trying to catch his breath. “How,” he said between breaths, “how do you know it happened here?”
“I just do,” I whispered curtly. I scanned the long hallway on Hopper’s main floor. I knew with no doubt in my mind the coven was down that hallway. Then a feeling came creeping over me. Dread.
Oh, no…
No. No. No. No. Not upstairs. But the coven allowed me to see. They allowed, perhaps insisted, that I know they’d murdered someone in the art tower. Someone I loved.
I looked up to the top-most landing. I knew I had to go up there because with every ache of my being I knew Tony was at the top of those stairs.
Twenty minutes, or the boy dies.
Could I have been so stupid? Were they actually thinking of Tony? Not Justin?
Step by step we climbed. I reached back; Justin took my hand. Then the metallic smell came through my electrifying vampire soul. My fangs started to come down. I shook my head to rid the overpowering smell of fresh blood.
Oh, you stupid, stupid boy, I thought. Please let it be someone else.
“No!” I cried.
Tony stumbled across the room. He tripped over his own feet and slammed into the wall of cubbies. He was covered in blood. Head to toe. His blue button-down shirt was a sticky red. It was unbuttoned, showing his torso. His torso that was covered in holes.
“Lenah!” he cried, his eyes widened in relief at the sight of me. He coughed blood, and then collapsed on an easel, sending it to the floor. He fell to his knees.
I slid across the floor. Tony lay on his back like I had seen him do so many times while lying in the sun. Foolish boy held a crucifix in his hand. Why hadn’t I thought to warn him of that?
I rounded on Justin and pointed. “Stay back. Do not come into this room.”
“Lenah! Tony is my friend—”
“
I’ve been around now long enough to know that modern criminology will implicate you if your fingerprints are found. Stay away.”
I looked down. Tony was barely breathing. His chest came up and then shuddered as he attempted to exhale. He was covered with bite marks. Everywhere. Down his ribs, his arms, and his beautiful fingers. He choked so hard that more congealed globs of blood came out of his mouth and clung to his neck and chest. They had not made him into a vampire. The thought momentarily entered my mind. Being made into a vampire means a transformation—rituals—they would have taken him with them.
It was clear this was simply a murder—in my honor. The coven had descended upon Tony and destroyed him. They only stopped because I was coming. I lifted his head up and slipped my body underneath so his head rested in my lap.
“Len—”
“No.” I placed my fingers over his mouth.
“I—” Some blood trickled from his neck and onto my pants. “I thought I could help you fight them, but they found me first.”
“You were very brave,” I said.
I burrowed my hands under his back and lifted his dying body close to me. I heard sobbing from the doorway and I knew Justin was watching. Tony hiccupped, and more blood slid out of his mouth and down his chin. Trickles of blood oozed out from bite marks in his neck. This was it.
“I’m so cold, Lenah,” he whispered, and nuzzled his head closer to me. He was shaking badly now.
I placed my fingers over his eyes, and the warmth from within me projected outward and warmed his head. It was all I could do to comfort him in the last moments of his life. And then, in a last, shuddering breath, his eyes got large, wide; he looked up at me. He opened his mouth to say something and then…then he was gone.
I had spent so many months researching the ritual. To bring myself back. Really what I should have done was think of a way to protect those I loved when the coven, my coven, descended upon them. Why bother bringing myself back? Another selfish act. Another person I loved—dead.
I leaned over Tony and kissed his head. “Gratias ago vos, amicus,” I said, and rubbed his forehead with my thumb. In Latin I’d said, Thank you, friend.
I laid my head for one small moment onto Tony’s chest. There would be no heartbeat, I knew that. Yet I rested my cheek against the fullness of his muscles, which would soon harden, stiffen, and he wouldn’t feel like Tony anymore.
“Is he dead?” Justin whispered in shock. He stood in the doorway.
There, in the silence, in the drafty art tower, with the whirring of machines in the belly of the building, with the noises of Wickham and student life, a vampire named Vicken Clough laughed maniacally. It echoed up the hallway of Hopper and wound up the stairs so I could hear it loudly and most definitely clearly. Tony’s death would be a ripple of relief in the agony of Vicken’s pain.
The vampire inside me roared to life. I shot up, erect, my back tight. I laid Tony’s body on the floor and my head snapped up. And when the rage within me poured out, my fangs came down so fast that Justin’s eyes rounded and his hands pressed onto the wall.
“Let’s go,” I said, my sight clearer than ever. I noticed the tiny flecks of chalk on the floor near the chalkboard. Stray hairs on the ground. Justin’s pores and the shape of his skin across his bones. I was deadly.
“Lenah, we can’t just leave him here.”
“We have to,” I replied. I was already out the doorway and descending the winding staircase. I stepped off the stairs and started down the massive hallway, away from the art tower. The coven was close; I could feel it.
“What’s gonna happen? Lenah?” Justin asked.
I stopped walking in the middle of the stairs. “Shhh,” I said to Justin gently and then took a breath so I could project my voice. “Killing a teenage boy,” I called into the darkness of the hallway. “He was alone and unprepared. My, my, how we have lost our edge.” I taunted them on purpose. I could sense it, see their movements. They were on their way to me. I still couldn’t accurately sense if they were in Hopper building. The thoughts were abstract. I knew they wanted to find me, track me. And they would.
“Let’s go,” I said to Justin, gripping his hand, needing his warmth more than ever before.
“But what about an enclosed space?” Justin asked, reminding me of my plan. But I didn’t need reminding. The gymnasium was at the end of the hall and to my advantage; the gymnasium was the perfect place. I looked back behind us at the long hallway. It was empty, but they were close—or I was close to them. I opened the gym doors, looked inside, and pushed Justin in first.
“Go to the middle.” I pointed at the center of the gymnasium floor. The gym was dark except for a line of track lighting along the top of the ceiling. It cast the gym in a dull glow. The gymnasium was a large square room, with bleachers on opposite sides of a basketball court. A line of windows faced the Wickham beach. On the left and right side of the walls, behind the bleachers, were walls of mirrors. Whenever there wasn’t a game, the dance team used the mirrors for their practices. It was exactly what I needed.
“Place your back against mine,” I commanded.
We stood back to back, my hands on his waist, his on mine. Our eyes searched, waiting for the chase to ensue.
“Promise me: No matter what I do—you’ll listen to what I say,” I said, still scanning the gym.
“I promise,” Justin said, though I couldn’t help but notice the quiver in his voice. “Lenah,” Justin said, and we turned to face each other. “I have to say this. I love you more than anything in this world. If I don’t make it tonight. If one of us dies—”
Justin grabbed me into an embrace. Our mouths met, and his lips pressed against mine. Justin’s tongue eased into my mouth and our kiss was rhythmic and perfect. It tasted like tears and sweat and blood and all of it was a momentary relief from the grief. I would see Tony’s face in my eyes for the rest of my days on earth. Yet in that moment, there was just Justin and me and how he had saved me. How he had showed me how to live. Then there was a hushing sound, followed by silence, and I knew…
“Justin?” I whispered. Our lips still grazed each other’s.
“Yeah?” he answered, his eyes still closed. It was silent.
“They’re here.”
Justin whipped around, and we were back to back again.
Vicken, Gavin, Heath, and Song stood in the shape of a crescent moon. They had come in from the windows. How or why, I would never know. They were dressed in black, some leather, some button-down shirts. Yet there they were, my mighty coven. Gavin, with his black hair and green eyes; Song, with his stout body and massive muscular build; Heath, blond and beautiful, standing with his arms crossed. He hissed something at me in Latin. Vicken stood all the way to the left, by the gym rafters.
“Fool,” Gavin said, and threw a knife past my head. The blade had just been sharpened and I watched its pointed end come flying past my eyes. It was done so quickly that it stuck in the door behind Justin and wobbled in the wood.
“You knew this would happen,” Vicken said, leaning a hand on the rafters. “Bound to your fate, we had to come for you. You knew this. The magic of this coven is sacred.”
Song took a step forward, but this was it. The time had come. As I had taught them to do, they took very slow steps forward and soon before we knew it, we would be backed against a corner. I needed the mirrors on the right and left side of the wall. I couldn’t let them back me into a corner. I needed to stay in the center of the room.
“Malus sit ille qui maligne putet,” said Heath. What he said was “the tattoo on my back.”
Gavin cackled, and Song crouched in a spider position. This was it, the moment before the attack. Justin was panicking; I felt his fear.
“Give it up, Highness,” Gavin whispered.
“Give up all this?” I said sarcastically, though I was stoic in my resolve. I had to concentrate, bring the power from within. Bring on the light.
We were surrounded, and the moments were escapi
ng.
“Hook your arm around my waist,” I whispered, though I knew the coven heard every word.
“Oh, is she planning something?” Gavin teased.
“Quid consilium capis, domina?” Heath hissed.
Vicken took a step forward, and I stepped back, with Justin behind me. I held my palms up in front of me and sunlight emitted, beaming out from every pore. The rays reflected onto the coven’s faces; each one retracted, shielding their eyes and holding their arms close to their bodies.
Vicken’s eyes rounded. “What dark magic is this?” he spat. He shook one of his hands, seemingly burned.
“Sunlight,” I said. My eyes darted back and forth from Vicken to Gavin to Heath and Song and back again.
“How?” Vicken hissed.
Song propelled himself forward, jumping high into the air at Justin and me. His hands were like claws, and his fangs were bared. I raised my hands again and pressed the light out. The beam was so strong that Song was thrown back against the line of windows. But, unexpectedly, the beam dulled.
Heath and Gavin took another step forward; I pressed the heat through my hands. The sun beamed from my hands once more, causing them to back up, but again, it waned, like the wick of a candle at its end—flickering, then burning out.
“You can only keep that up so long, Lenah,” said Vicken.
Song cocked his head to the side. He was going to pounce again. Gavin reached his right hand ever so slightly into his pocket. A knife wouldn’t kill me, but his precision would murder Justin in an instant. I needed the sunlight to come in a blast. I closed my eyes and concentrated, just as I had done all those nights in Hathersage.
I took deep breaths, the white-hot heat building inside me. Images came to my mind in a flurry: the first day at Wickham, the deer grazing out in the fields. Tony’s smile when he scooped his ice cream. Then Vicken’s words came to me and I felt the heat start to make my palms shake.