‘Rhode!’ I called, but he didn’t acknowledge me. I jogged after him and said, ‘Will you wait?’
He spun to me and said, ‘No. Talking to you is ridiculous. You run off the moment I touch you.’
I held out my hand to shake his. ‘I won’t run,’ I said. He sighed. After a moment he met my gaze and shook his head a little. Instead of taking my hand, he moved a few strands of hair out of my eyes. My stomach swooped.
We stepped off the path and walked on the quad.
‘Curfew is soon,’ he said as we passed the library.
‘Right. Of course.’ From a second-storey window, someone picked at an acoustic guitar and the delicate notes spread over the air.
Rhode took my hand. I expected him to hold it and keep walking, but instead he spun me like we were dancing in a ballroom. He pulled me to him, and as our unseen musician played, he dipped me. Out of instinct, I wanted to see if our touch would heat up like it did in our vampire bodies. Yet, it was not necessary as we were already so warm.
Rhode pressed his hand against my back and laughter erupted through me. His hand moved from my back to the base of my neck. His touch was so gentle. We stood on our campus, together. Wasn’t it ours? Hadn’t our youth been cut short? Didn’t we deserve just to be teenagers, even for one minute? He was fixated on my lips. I couldn’t kiss him while keeping the truth from him. It wasn’t right.
‘I have to tell you something,’ I whispered. Rhode, still focused on my lips, leaned closer just for the briefest of breaths. I froze, wanting his kiss so badly that I could barely stand it. Rhode pulled back and the expression in those blue eyes startled me – he really did love me.
‘So tell me,’ he said, but those three words sounded like I love you. That’s what they should have been.
As we walked, a symphony of conversations echoed out of dorm windows. The soundtrack of Wickham was the voices and laughter of students, our friends. Here we could be what we truly were, seventeen and eighteen years old, not generations old. But could we be who we truly were, I wondered? Fire, why did you have to put this on our shoulders?
‘If you do not kill Justin, someone will take my place who does not care for you as I do.’
‘You’re quiet,’ Rhode said, ‘for someone who tried to tell me something.’
‘I’m figuring out how to say it.’
We crossed the pathway towards the star tower. At least, I thought that he was leading me to the tower. Or perhaps the greenhouse. No, that’s what old Rhode would have done. Old Rhode would have shown me the plants, the herbs and flowers. He would have explained their medicinal uses as well as their symbolic meanings. Like lavender, the flower of freedom. This Rhode was leading me to . . . the beach?
I almost said, ‘I really don’t think we should leave main campus,’ when Rhode said, ‘You’re a good dancer.’
I laughed aloud at this.
‘That’s funny?’ he said.
‘It’s just, well, no, it’s not. Thank you.’
We started talking about the club and the ridiculousness of the people there. It was almost a normal conversation. We crossed the main path and Rhode stepped down the stairs to the Wickham beach. We wouldn’t venture off too far. Others are watching.
‘I only came tonight to dance with you,’ murmured Rhode.
‘I’m sorry I ran off. I saw an old friend,’ I said, trying to lead the conversation in the necessary direction.
‘An ex-boyfriend?’
‘No, just a friend. Before I tell you what I have to tell you . . . I want you to trust me. You said you couldn’t earlier.’
I stopped at the line of the private beach and Wickham school beach. I didn’t think it wise to go any further. Rhode still held on to my hand.
‘You said you loved me—’ I started to say, but he didn’t let me finish.
‘You know I do, and I don’t even know why,’ he said quickly. Rhode drew me against his body. Our chests touched. He said nothing, but my need for him coursed through me in heartbeats.
His lips met mine, sending chills all over me. The palms of his hands trailed up my back. I met his kiss by pressing myself against him harder. I relished his arm around me, and settled into that new heat between us. Just for a second it was OK if I enjoyed this.
Old words. Ancient words Rhode had once said in an opera house in the 1740s echoed back at me.
Anywhere you go, I will go.
He shook his head a little a second time.
‘Lenah, tell me – why this is so familiar . . .’
‘That’s the reason I wanted to talk to you. We know one another much better than I admitted. Quite well actually.’
Rhode kissed my nose and he tilted his head down to graze my lips with his own. Take me anywhere. Fly away with me. Be with me. Anywhere you will go, I will go. Yes, this is another reason why I came back, even if it wasn’t my original purpose. To protect Rhode, to love Rhode, to make sure nothing happened to him. It was delicious to see his tall frame, clad in black, so close to me.
‘I’ve loved you a long time,’ I said but my words trailed away. Rhode’s gaze latched on to something behind me. He walked towards the beach grass that ran up to the Wickham woods. ‘Rhode?’ I asked, following after.
I gasped. A hand extended from the grass and dangled lifeless against the sand. Rhode bent down next to the body. ‘Holy hell!’ he said, barely above a whisper. ‘She’s dead. Stay back,’ he ordered, and raised a hand, gesturing for me to stay away. ‘Someone stabbed her. There’s a knife.’ He pointed.
‘Dead bodies don’t frighten me,’ I replied.
Rhode raised an eyebrow. ‘Why doesn’t this surprise me?’
‘Well, I don’t see you running for the hills,’ I said as I walked through the grass to the body.
I took a step back. It was the girl I had seen on my first day on campus when I was eating in the union. I was sure of it; the girl with long blonde hair, who wore a silver necklace. Now, I could see that the pendant she wore was an encircled R. It was the same exact pendant that the vampire from the club wore. She was a vampire too; that much was clear by the translucent skin. A dagger extended from her chest directly from her heart. Her curly blonde hair radiated out from her head, falling over the grass like ribbons. By her side was a quiver and bow. I slid out one of the arrows. A tiny encircled R was carved into the wood. It had a red-fletched tail, the same as the arrows fired into the barn and on Main Street.
Rhode squatted down and his eyes travelled up and down the body. ‘Her skin is so strange.’ He exhaled sharply. ‘We should tell someone,’ he added.
‘That symbol,’ I said, pointing at a necklace. ‘Have you ever—’
Rhode hissed, rubbing at his arms. ‘It just got so cold,’ he interrupted. He rubbed at his arms. Now that he mentioned it, there was an unnatural chill in the air. I thought it had been the shock of seeing the vampire before me. ‘You have goose bumps too,’ he said pointing at my arm.
‘Come,’ I said, pulling on his hand. ‘Quickly.’
My necklace suddenly felt hot on my chest. The warmth was shocking, given the chill in the air; the necklace made its own heat? I would have reached up to it if I hadn’t been holding Rhode’s hand with both of my own. Yet the heat from the necklace was familiar; it had warmed my chest before.
‘We can’t leave this poor girl,’ he said, allowing me to pull him back on to the sand.
‘We won’t,’ I said, just to get Rhode to come with me. Behind us, the beach was empty. ‘Come on.’
We hurried down the main part of the beach. A distinct thumping came from the woods that ran parallel to the beach. I turned my ear towards the sound. Could it be feet tramping? I couldn’t be sure.
Wickham. Get back to the path. Where was that Italian vampire who loved to watch me? Ahead of us, not fifteen feet away, were the campus steps.
‘Lenah, someone’s chasing us!’ Rhode cried. He pointed to the low sea wall running along the beach.
Beyond it, deeper i
n the woods, silhouettes jumped from behind one tree to another.
The railing by the steps reflected the moonlight like a beacon.
Almost there.
Justin sprang out of the beach grass and cut us off. We dug our heels into the sand. Rhode threw his arm out, shielding me.
‘I thought you were smarter than this,’ Justin said.
Rhode stepped forward. ‘Aren’t you Justin? From the pictures on campus? Justin, come with us. It’s not safe out here – there’s a dead girl.’
‘Couldn’t have said it better myself,’ Justin replied.
Rhode had extended a hand to Justin but dropped it.
Justin’s white skin contrasted powerfully with the black of his crisp suit. Behind him, a Wickham guard van swooped through campus. Now that Justin was here, what was it exactly that I thought one Wickham guard could do?
‘What’s wrong with your eyes?’ Rhode asked. ‘And your skin?’
‘He’s not himself, Rhode,’ I said. ‘Are you, Justin?’
Justin walked casually towards us. Rhode and I backed away until our boots sloshed in the water.
‘Lenah, get behind me,’ Rhode said. I had been about to order him to do the same.
‘Go any further and you’ll be swimming. And unlike you, I don’t need to hold my breath,’ Justin said.
‘What happened to you?’ Rhode asked. Like Tony had on Main Street, Rhode caught on quickly. ‘What . . . are you?’
Justin was not alone. Two more vampires came out from the woods and jumped from the storm wall to the sand. They were the same vampires from the other night with Tony. They came to Justin’s side.
‘We can help you,’ Rhode said. ‘What do you want?’
‘Hmmm. What do I want? World peace. O-negative blood. A bed.’ Justin winked at me.
I shuddered in disgust.
‘You won’t get whatever sick thing you’re after,’ I said. ‘Especially if you kill us.’
‘Kill us?’ Rhode said with a lift of surprise in his voice.
I stepped ahead of Rhode, shielding him with my body. I reached into my boot and grabbed the dagger. It would be of no use against Justin; he was too powerful. ‘Rhode has no memory. Whatever you want, you can take me.’ I tried to bargain.
Rhode turned to me in confusion.
‘I wanted to tell you,’ I said, looking into Rhode’s eyes. ‘That’s what I came out here to tell you tonight.’
‘I don’t understand . . .’ Rhode said, trailing off as Justin stepped forward and ran a cold finger from my cheekbone to my jaw. He was supposed to be caressing me, but the chill of his fingers made me shiver.
‘Don’t touch her!’ Rhode yelled and launched himself at Justin. At the now familiar casual wave of his hand, a great gust of air came from Justin. It blasted Rhode six feet and dropped him on to the sand, where he crumpled in on himself with a groan. He got up quickly, even though he had to stumble to his feet.
‘We were waiting for you in your dorm room.’
My stomach swooped. Tracy.
‘But we saw you having a nice, romantic stroll so I came out to join you.’
‘What did you do to Tracy?’
‘Tracy?’ He snorted in condescension. ‘No. No. I require the assistance of your friend here,’ Justin said with a nod to Rhode. I didn’t believe him. I just prayed that Tracy and Tony were still out walking on campus.
‘I’m not frightened of you,’ Rhode said. Justin’s men circled Rhode and closed in like vultures. Rhode braced himself for the impact by taking a few steps back and widening his stance. He kept looking from Justin to the vampires and back again, and when they were within just a few feet of him, he took a swing. Justin’s men clamped down on Rhode’s arms. As Tony had tried to do on Main Street, he attempted to wriggle out of their grip.
‘No!’ I cried. I moved to run to Rhode, but Justin stopped me with a tight grasp of his hand. I yanked away to get to Rhode, but it was no use. ‘What do you want? I don’t understand. He doesn’t know anything!’
‘We’re going to fix some things, that’s all,’ Justin said.
‘All right, I do love you. I lied,’ I said, desperate. ‘You know I’ll go with you.’
We faced each other and for a second I thought Justin believed me.
‘You’re a terrible liar,’ he whispered. With a snap of his arm, Justin wrapped his cold fingers around the back of my head, drawing me to him. He brought his freezing mouth to mine. His cold tongue entered my mouth, making my stomach lurch. He moved his head to try to deepen our kiss, but it was cold and rotten.
He tossed me aside into the shallow water and the salt stung the raw cut on my middle finger. It must have opened again. I licked the blood away before the smell would attract Justin or the other vampires. That taste, which was once so welcome to me, was now metallic and bitter.
‘You don’t love me, but you are beautiful,’ he said. ‘Did you like the new decorations for your room? Frog-skin is really in these days.’ He was pleased with himself.
Rhode wrested his body away from the vampires that held him back. Rhode stamped on one of the vampire’s feet, causing him to jump back, before using his free hand to punch the other in the face. His body remembered how to defend itself even if his mind could not.
‘Go!’ I yelled to Rhode. ‘Run! Back to campus!’ I screamed so loud my voice cracked. I tried to leave the water, but Justin pushed me back down.
Rhode did not go. He continued to try to take on Justin’s two vampires. A third vampire sprang from the woods on to the beach. I pulled the knife out from under the cover of the water and aimed at the vampire running from the woods. Hitting a moving target was hard, and this knife was no bow and arrow. Holding the dagger by the hilt, I aimed right for the approaching vampire’s heart. Please just get him, slow him down.
‘Didn’t I just tell you to get down!’ Justin spat, pushing me by my shoulder just as I released the knife.
With the force of Justin’s hand I missed my target, and the knife bounced miserably on the sand.
‘Damn it!’ I cried, as something stung at the base of my throat. The pendant around my neck was so hot that it scorched my skin. I lifted it from my chest, but the pendant burned my fingertips. The salt water helped to cool it but not by much.
The third vampire held Rhode’s head between his oversized hands. He could easily snap Rhode’s neck.
I sloshed out of the water to help Rhode. Justin rolled his eyes and stuck out an arm in a pushing motion. A gust of air hit my stomach and shoved me backwards like an invisible hand. My heels pushed against the current and only stopped when I was waist deep in the bay.
‘I didn’t want you to know about this particular talent just yet, but seeing as how you’re being a complete pain in my ass . . .’
There was a loud yet very familiar pop. A rotating disc of water hovered in the air and separated Rhode from me. I had only ever seen one other vampire able to create a water shield – Suleen. My lips parted and I breathed slowly through my mouth. This meant that Justin could manipulate not only air but also water. How . . . ? How could he have this kind of power?
The water shield grew at Justin’s bidding. The vampires continued to bind Rhode. Through the ripping waves, Rhode gritted his teeth. But when his eyes met mine, the angry heat of his expression softened.
‘I love you,’ I said. ‘I’ve always loved you.’
‘Forever,’ he said back. Though I could not hear him, I could read his lips. Justin’s fangs were still descended, nearly touching his lower lip. ‘I told you,’ I said to Justin, ‘whatever you want from me, you can have it. Rhode won’t be able to remember, no matter what you do to him,’ I said again. ‘It’s a decree beyond your power. I don’t know how many times I have to say it to convince you.’
‘My power,’ Justin said, squatting down to my level, ‘is beyond your wildest dreams.’
‘Killing Suleen doesn’t make you a master. You’re a murderer. And the mortality ritual is useless to you
,’ I said. ‘Rhode doesn’t remember it, and you have to be five hundred years old to even consider performing it. You’ll never be human again.’
Justin threw his head back and laughed and laughed. My pendant pulsed with heat and I clenched my jaw from both the burning singe and my rage.
‘You told me all about your precious ritual. You think I want to be human again?’ he asked with that derisive laugh. The water shield spun on its own behind Justin, like a whirlpool in the air. It rotated in the moonlight again and again. I couldn’t see Rhode’s features any more, only distorted bodies rippling in the water.
‘All vampires want to be human,’ I said pulling my eyes away from the water shield.
‘Not all vampires have my power,’ Justin countered.
Justin pushed his hand out and the water shield rippled and spread even wider.
‘I don’t need an audience for this,’ he said.
Justin sniffed the air. The cut on my finger was a bit more jagged now, and longer. Blood streamed from it down my hand. He brought my hand to his nose and licked the blood from my finger. I turned my face away; shivers ran through me.
‘Remember how you said I had to abide by some silly vampire laws? Want to see what I am capable of now?’
Justin’s hand travelled again to the back of my neck. I thought he was reaching for my necklace, but he tipped my head back and stared into my eyes. Was he going to kiss me again? I shivered with horror.
‘What are you . . .’
Once our gaze locked, I couldn’t break it. I wanted to but I couldn’t. The moonlight highlighted his pinpoint pupils. A sensation of falling took over my mind. It was as though I was watching a movie in fast forward.
The beach, the moon, the woods and sky fall into shadow. My whole body seems to fall through the sand, through the earth, down into the centre of the world, into darkness. I have no form. No body. Just my mind. It’s quite cool here. Peaceful, in fact.
I want to float here in this darkness. Had I been on a beach? Oh, it doesn’t matter, does it? Beaches and the world, and life – it is all pointless when I can be here in this place, with no doors, no walls and no body to call my own.