Vicken and I ran to the media building, next to Seeker. We hesitated as two Lovers Bay police officers patrolled the pathway ahead of us. I looked all the way up to the top floor to see my balcony. The balcony where I’d performed the ritual.
I tried to ignore the voice in my head, the one that had haunted me since she’d lifted her arm and pointed at me up the darkened beach.
Odette would be back.
CHAPTER 6
I studied the longsword on the wall. I rested my face in my hands and sat on the couch with my legs tucked under me. I analysed the slim reflection of my body in the sword’s metal. How many times had I stared into its silver and asked how I could possibly survive without my Rhode? How many times did I have to avert my eyes, because it was just too much?
And then I had met Justin, who brought me out of the depths of despair and back into the light.
Two days had passed since Vicken and I had discovered the vampires on the beach. We did not venture off campus after dark. No matter how hard I studied that longsword, looking into its infinite mirror for answers, I found nothing. Why had Rhode stayed away from me for so long after he’d survived that ritual? A ritual he performed so I could be human?
All I knew for certain was that our souls had linked us to earth.
For two days after Rhode left this time, I walked back and forth from the archery plateau to my apartment. I searched for answers where the Aeris had stood. But nothing came from sitting for hours on the grass. For two days, I wondered, Where is he? Where had he hidden for the year I’d believed him dead? I found no answers, and Rhode did not return.
Two days
became
two weeks
became
two months.
The summer passed in a blink. Up in my apartment I had whiled away the time reading and reflecting, but as we got closer to the start of school I found myself marking off the days on the calendar. On 31 August, I resolved to take a trip. Wickham students were set to return in a couple of days and I had not seen Justin or his brothers on campus all summer.
No letters. No emails.
I tried calling Justin but my phone calls went unanswered.
Three days before school was due to begin, I took a dawn drive to Rhode Island, to Justin’s parents’ house. I intended to give him an explanation. He deserved it. I practised my speech on the hour-long drive there. When I finally pulled on to his street, I rolled down the window. A cool breeze floated into the car, brushing against my cheeks. The big houses slept in the early summer morning. Not even the sprinklers were on yet.
I stood at the foot of Justin’s family’s driveway looking up at the house. The last time I had been there was Halloween. Now the trees were lush and heavy with leaves. Fresh-baked cookies, home-cooked meals, and soft hands touching my skin were associated with that house. At any moment, I expected to see a light click on in the kitchen window. Justin’s mother was an early riser. Did she know we hadn’t talked all summer? Would she welcome me inside?
How could I explain how sorry I was? OK, one more rehearsal.
‘Justin,’ I said aloud to myself, ‘you don’t understand. When I saw Rhode, I was . . . surprised.’
I heard the sound of a latch; the front door opened. I lifted my chin to see Justin, shirtless and in a pair of sweatpants with WICKHAM down the leg. He squinted.
This was it. I had to tell him.
‘Lenah?’ he said, and rose on to his toes to try to see me over the top of a hydrangea bush.
I shifted the weight from my left foot to my right foot. My heart was unable to find a comfortable rhythm. I couldn’t scream, I’m sorry, across the lawn. I started up the long driveway but there was no need.
He slammed the door.
‘Here’s what I don’t understand,’ Vicken said the next evening. Careful not to venture out after dark, we had a couple of hours left before sunset. We had planned our days that way the entire summer. It was just after six and we were at Lovers Bay Herb Shop, at the end of Main Street. ‘Why do we need to stay in this bloody place? Skulking about in daylight just in case we run into a vampire you might have made a hundred years ago. In case you forgot where that happened, we have a house in Hathersage. In fact, we murdered lots of people there.’
‘Yes, our house that is likely to be overrun with vampires in our absence,’ I replied.
‘We have money,’ Vicken reasoned. ‘Let’s go to Paris. Drink wine. Relax.’
‘You know why we can’t leave,’ I replied, and held up a jar of dried jasmine. Might be useful. I scooped some into the paper bag. ‘I’m not leaving now Kate’s been killed. Especially when I feel so responsible.’
‘Maybe it’s all a coincidence. It’s been ages since you performed the ritual. Those vampires probably came to town, ate your unfortunate friend and left. Let’s go. We can find Rhode on our own. He won’t be that hard to find,’ Vicken groaned. ‘Blue eyes, scowl, self-righteous attitude—’
‘We’re staying,’ I replied, and piled the items on the counter. I didn’t mention to Vicken that I didn’t want to leave Lovers Bay because I had put down roots here. It was my home now.
‘You know, just because you were queen for a few hundred years doesn’t mean you still are.’
The herb-shop owner had disappeared behind the curtain to get me some newt feet. I placed a twenty-dollar bill on the counter, waiting for her to return.
Vicken examined some chanting crystals on the bottom shelf of the case, but then he slid up slowly and whispered under his breath, ‘White skin, so delicate. As a human, she’s truly so small, easy to break her neck.’
A tingling feeling crept over me. I shot a glance at Vicken. He stared behind the counter, his eyes wide. ‘I’ll siphon her blood out, slowly,’ he said. His intonation was different, female and almost reptilian. He was speaking for someone else; this was what happened when using vampire extrasensory perception. ‘It’ll be easier to get Lenah alone,’ he hissed.
He took a step back. ‘Lenah,’ he said in his familiar voice. ‘Go. Now.’
The woman was back behind the counter. She had long, cascading ringlets of blonde hair that curled perfectly across her blouse. Her skin was abnormally polished and pale. Her eyes were glassy, their colour an unnatural jade.
Odette.
There was a screech against the glass. A white hand adorned with knife-like fingernails made a claw around the money. She ran her crimson nails along the glass of the shiny counter.
Odette wiped a tiny drop of blood from the corner of her mouth. ‘Getting comfortable, were you?’
She licked her lips and grimaced from the taste. ‘Blech. She was overweight. I’ll be full for days,’ she said, and with a sleek bend of her legs, jumped and landed on top of the counter. ‘My, my . . .’ she said, looking down at Vicken and me.
With my paper bag clutched in my hand, we backed towards the door.
‘Lenah Beaudonte. The queen. Backing away from me?’
Blood dripped down her chin like wine running down the side of a goblet.
Vicken whipped out a dagger and stepped in front of me. Odette jumped down to the floor just inches from Vicken’s dagger and her eyes slid back and forth between us.
‘Very good, Ms Beaudonte. I see your ritual works. He makes a very good human.’
My blood pounded in my ears and throat. Vicken held his arm outstretched, gripping the dagger in his hand.
From the floor behind the counter I heard a groan. The shopkeeper was still alive.
‘If you want to die, then by all means come closer,’ Vicken said to the vampire.
She cocked her head to the side and smiled eerily past him.
‘I have always admired your greatness, Lenah,’ she said, licking the blood from her chin. ‘And your evil . . .’
A lump in my throat made it hard to swallow.
‘Your friend Kate – was that her name? She crawled away from me. Cried and screamed. It was such fun,’ Odette hissed.
Vick
en lunged at Odette, thrusting out his hand to plunge the knife into her heart. She kicked up a leg and the dagger flew in an arc through the air and clattered on to the floor.
‘Damn it!’ Vicken spat, and scrambled across the floor for his weapon.
Chin dipped to her chest, the vampire’s eyes bored into mine. She opened her mouth, fangs bared.
When my coven came for me all those months ago, when I killed them in the gymnasium, I never understood. It was not until this moment, as the blood pumped through my heart, that I realized what humanity meant. I was filled with it. She needed blood. I would be next. She wanted to drain me of my life force; I knew that feeling too well. How I had hungered to suck the blood from two small holes, siphon it out in rhythmic swallows as life slowly drained from my prey.
I dropped the bag of herbs to the floor and raised my hands, ready to defend myself. I turned to my side to avoid giving her a larger target than necessary. She ran at me, extending one arm and thrusting outward, slamming me in the chest. I fell backwards against the wall behind me. Small brown and black vials clanked and clattered together. Some fell on me, spilling their contents, and others broke into pieces on the floor. My chest throbbed from the force of her hand.
Odette linked her arm around Vicken, pulling him from the floor and hooking him around the neck. Vicken’s eyes locked on to mine. He jerked against Odette’s strong grasp. His hands were balled into fists. The dagger lay on the floor, useless.
I jumped up and grabbed on to Odette’s fingers. I pulled back, jerking, but they were immovable. I was like a child pulling at a metal vice. I tried again. How was she so strong?
Odette smiled, her fangs still bared.
‘What is this?’ I growled.
‘Such questions,’ Odette mocked. She squeezed harder, and Vicken grimaced from the pain. Odette pushed me away with her right hand, but it felt like an anvil hitting me in my stomach. I fell back again into the shelves of bottles, so they popped and shattered around me. I hit the floor and shook my head to clear my vision.
The force of her hand had made my muscles tender. When I touched them with my fingertips, they seized, sending an ache through me.
‘Lenah, give me the ritual. Now,’ Odette ordered. Vicken’s face was turning red. My eyes darted to the knife. I pushed up from the floor just as Vicken lifted a knee.
He stamped down hard on Odette’s foot, and out of surprise Odette let go. Vicken jumped away and scrambled for the knife. Odette, instead of going after Vicken again, clawed through the air at me. I ducked, avoiding her knife-like nails, but slipped on the spilled oil from the aromatherapy bottles. I fell back to the floor with a smack.
Odette stepped down on my chest.
She pressed harder. Surely she would crack my ribs. My chest felt so tight. Behind her, Vicken was getting to his feet. She pressed down even harder, right below my neck. I coughed, unable to breath. I needed to breathe!
He picked up the dagger.
‘I’ll kill your friends one by one,’ she hissed through clenched teeth. ‘Kate was easy. The rest will be painful and slow.’
Vicken plunged the knife through the air but he was not as fast as the vampire.
She jumped off me and ran out of the door. Vicken scrambled after her, dagger in hand, but she was gone. I gasped for air, drawing in heaving hot breaths. I clutched my chest and rubbed at the skin where her boot had pushed against me.
Kate was easy, the rest will be painful and slow.
‘Vicken!’ I coughed, rolling on to my stomach and snatching my bag of herbs from the floor. I pushed up from the mess of bottles and inhaled a mix of scents such as fig and patchouli. Vicken had run as fast as he could, but he was no match for a vampire who needed no breath. By the time I stumbled out of the shop, Vicken stood in the middle of the street. All we could see was her blonde hair and lean form disappearing into the twilight over Main Street.
I walked slowly to join Vicken. He blinked, scanning the street to see if there were other vampires about. The only movement came from the fast-flying clouds sweeping by above our heads. He sniffed a couple of times and looked over at me.
‘You stink.’
‘Gathered that,’ I replied. My blouse was slick with essential oils.
‘We should go back and check on the shopkeeper,’ I said. ‘Though if someone comes in and catches us before she’s awake, we’ll be implicated.’
‘I’ll go,’ Vicken said. ‘I’m not afraid of human idiocy.’ He bent down and dropped his knife into his boot. ‘That vampire was quick. I couldn’t get a clear shot if I threw the dagger.’ He sounded like he was trying to justify it to me.
‘Mind you, she didn’t kill us,’ I said.
‘No, she didn’t,’ he said, and grabbed on to his shoulder. He winced. ‘But she tried to take me with her.’
‘She wants the ritual.’
‘Gathered that too,’ Vicken said, and sniffed in my direction. ‘Wait here, where I can see you.’ He hesitated. ‘And smell you.’
*
‘So, do the movement again,’ Vicken demanded, sucking on a cigarette. We stood on Wickham beach and I mimicked the motion Suleen had made earlier that summer. ‘He waved his hand and her body just appeared?’ Vicken asked.
‘Not really. It was an outline of it. Like a ghost.’
That moment seemed a thousand years ago now. Now the yellow tape and police officers had gone. Someone had combed through the sand. Combed it, cleaned it, taking away all evidence that someone had been killed there.
‘I told you,’ I continued, ‘we were indiscernible to the people around us. Invisible.’
Vicken stood up, dropping the cigarette on to the sand as a Wickham security vehicle pulled past the entrance to the beach. The car window slid down and a security officer called out to Vicken and me in the darkness.
‘Curfew in twenty minutes!’ he yelled.
‘Thank you!’ I called back.
After a moment, I said, ‘She had that look,’’ recalling Odette’s saunter on the beach. ‘That power-hungry look. The one where the madness has just begun to take over.’
I stopped pacing as Vicken lit another cigarette. He stood facing the ocean, his back to campus.
‘Hey, kids! Fifteen minutes to curfew!’
On the path a different security guard, this one portly with a beard, pointed down at us. ‘No one out past nine,’ he reminded us.
When the students came back to campus in the next few days, they would find it much altered. Vicken and I had walked off campus that morning to see a construction crew erecting a heavy steel gate. It was set to connect between the two gothic entrance towers.
By the time we returned that afternoon, a twenty-four-hour guard manned a booth at the entrance. A booth which had remained empty the entire previous year.
Now, on the beach, a guard was watching.
I joined Vicken at the water’s edge.
‘How are we going to protect ourselves if there’s five of them?’ I asked. ‘I’m not exactly a sunlight-wielding vampire any more.’
Vicken was quiet for a moment and then said, ‘That’s just it, isn’t it?’ He nodded to himself. ‘We need to rely on sunlight.’
‘That depends. She was strong enough to hold you, paralyse you. We don’t know what kind of strength she has. And she was out before sunset this evening.’
‘It was almost sunset. And she might just be very strong. We don’t know her powers. We’ll have to try to let it play out until we know what we’re dealing with. I’ll nose around for some more information.’
‘You be careful. You sure your ESP hasn’t waned at all?’ I asked, hoping that some of Vicken’s vampire traits had not yet faded following his transformation. He shook his head. Like Vicken, all I’d had left of my vampire powers after the ritual were my sight and my extrasensory perception. There was no telling when they would disappear for Vicken, but mine had weakened the longer I was human. The more time he had them, the more advantage we had. We walked away fr
om the beach and back towards Seeker.
When I returned to my room and Vicken to his dorm, I lit a white candle on my coffee table. I collapsed back on to the couch and watched the candle flame flicker and dance. The light became just a golden blur. I leaned my head back on the couch, and as I watched the flame its dancing rhythm lured me to sleep. As I drifted off, visions of Justin slamming doors, and screaming at me in front of an audience of people, lingered in my mind. More nightmarish images came: Justin racing his motorboat and driving it head on into Rhode, lying helpless on the shore.
Then the images changed.
I walk down a familiar pathway. I am at Wickham. There are brick buildings covered in dirty snow. No students. Windows are blackened, the union vacant. I walk the long path towards Wickham beach.
‘What is this place?’ I ask the empty campus, and suddenly I am not alone. Suleen is at my side. We walk in the snow towards the Wickham beach. As I look towards the shore, a discarded broken rowboat sits in burnt pieces on the sand.
Quartz dorm windows are dark, abandoned. No one walks in or out of the dorms or hurries with cups of coffee to their classes. Wickham is darkened, deadened. A ghost town.
‘Is this the future?’ I ask.
‘This is Wickham if Odette achieves the ritual,’ Suleen says. ‘No one that wicked can pour evil intentions into a ritual this powerful without repercussions. She will destroy . . . everything.’
I stop, gasping in the bitter winter air.
I shot upright on the couch, placed my hands on my thighs and tried to catch my breath. I froze a moment – the tip of my nose was ice cold. It was as if I had been walking around outside on a snowy day.
‘Suleen?’ I said aloud. ‘Suleen?’
I twisted about to look around the room, but it was just a dream. And I remained alone.
CHAPTER 7
A sea of black cloth. Black T-shirts. Black dresses. Black skirts. Black boots.
It was black for miles. I knew I wore everything in that closet last year but . . .