‘Rhode!’ I cried.
He was there.
Rhode picked me up and kissed me. His hand cupped the back of my head, and I swear the supernatural warmth we made as vampires rushed through my body.
Love did soar. It could fly.
As the Earth turned on its axis, the power of Rhode’s kiss told me that he loved me, and when I pulled back he ran a thumb across my cheek. The deep blue of his eyes was even more jewel-like than I remembered in the fading moonlight.
‘Well . . .’ he said, and sighed. In his gaze was an apology. ‘That was an adventure, wasn’t it?’ I was so aware of our love for one another, he didn’t even have to say the words. ‘I have my memory back.’ He lovingly touched my hair with the tips of his fingers.
‘I’d do it all over again,’ I said. ‘For you.’
He brought his mouth to mine. Our lips parted and I tasted Rhode as a human. We could do this now; we could kiss whenever we wanted. I matched the movement of his kiss. Next to us, Tony cleared his throat.
‘Hello, Tony,’ Rhode said, placing me gently on to the sand.
Tony had walked down the beach to join us. ‘Don’t mind me. Just watching the bay. It’s really riveting this time of night.’
Rhode kept one arm wrapped around my waist while he extended the other hand.
‘It’s an honour . . .’ Rhode said.
‘Any time, man. Any time.’
‘So what happened?’ I asked Rhode with a nudge.
‘It took twenty minutes. The antidote was so strange. It tasted like lavender, sunny days, and it flowed through me. For every inch that it spread through my body, I remembered more about you. You, me, the orchard, the Hathersage house, Lenah, all of it.’ He grinned.
Tracy and Esteban ran towards us from the pathway near the greenhouse.
‘Is that Rhode?!’ She cried and jumped up and down. ‘Esteban, I think it’s Rhode!’
‘Where’s Micah?’ I asked. ‘He was transforming next.’
Cassius ran towards us down the beach from the same direction Rhode had. Once Cassius reached me, he slapped both hands on my shoulders. The calculated and understated soldier was like a little boy. ‘It worked!’ We embraced and Cassius was positively mad from excitement. ‘It worked!’ He lifted me up and when he put me down, he spun to Tracy and Tony.
Micah walked right through our cheering and directly to the shore. We turned from our embraces and watched as he knelt down and placed both palms into the water.
‘It’s cold,’ he said while on his knees. ‘It’s cold.’ He broke into laughter. He laughed and laughed until all of us were laughing together again on that beach. ‘When this is over,’ Micah said pulling out of a hug with Cassius, ‘I’m going to my sister. She’ll be forty. She was eleven when . . . well, when I left.’
Rhode kept his arm around me.
‘Tracy, you’ll be next,’ Cassius said as Tony hugged her close. ‘Then Esteban, it’ll be your turn.’
‘Not yet,’ Esteban replied. ‘There’s nothing I want more. But, you need help, Cassius. You’ll need to get this message to vampires safely. I want to help you.’
‘All right. You can decide when you’re ready.’
‘And the house,’ Esteban said. ‘The Hollow Ones. I’m dying to get my hands on that library.’
Cassius slapped a hand on Esteban’s shoulder. ‘We’ll do it. We’ll go there and make it our new residence.’
‘Hey, what’s this?’ Tony asked and picked something up near my feet. A dirtied grey cloth dangled between his thumb and forefinger. It was blotted with crimson stains.
It was the bracelet that I’d made from my skirt so long ago, the one stained with Suleen’s blood. Tony handed it to me and I held it in my palm. Rhode’s and my eyes met and I knew I didn’t have to explain what happened to Suleen.
‘Send it out to the sunrise,’ Rhode said gently.
I placed the little bracelet in the water. I had half expected it to fall off after Justin had died, yet it had clung to my skin until now. As the fabric rolled over the small waves and out into the bay, I whispered, ‘Goodbye.’
My bloodied bracelet disintegrated, releasing the fibres into the salty bay.
The sky was no longer peppered with stars. It was now purple, would soon be pink, and then the yellow of sunrise. When I first asked Fire to send me back to the medieval world, she instructed me how to return home.
‘All cycles must complete. The sun that begins the day must set. The spark that lights the world must go out. Finish what you started.’
Rhode met my eyes.
‘What is it?’ he asked.
If I wanted to go home, I could. I just had to wait until the task I completed was over.
‘When it’s over, you must go to the archery field. When the new sun rises, you will be sent back.’
The pathway behind me was empty. The dorms mostly dark. The breeze now was light and warm. I inhaled the salty air and whispered to Wickham Boarding School, ‘In darkness and in light.’
I had done what Fire had asked me to do. I could go home.
‘What about you?’ Tracy asked Cassius, and I zoomed back in on the conversation.
‘I’ll be last to turn,’ Cassius said. ‘First I need to go to the Hollow Ones’ house and break down the ceiling and floors of onyx. Rip it apart and we can bring it back to the ordinary world. From what Lenah told me there is a lot to be uncovered and dismantled within that house.’
Micah crossed his arms. ‘And I’ll help you as much as I can too.’
‘No. At day break, Micah, you get on a train home to your sister,’ Cassius said. ‘That’s how you can help.’
‘There’s money in my trunk in my room,’ I said to Micah. ‘You should take it and go.’
Micah pressed his lips together and nodded.
‘Wait, won’t you need it?’ Tracy asked me.
The sun peeked over the horizon. Rhode squeezed his arm around me.
The sky was lavender and a fat line of orange sat at the base of the sky.
Rhode turned me to him.
‘I’ll go anywhere you want. Just say it.’
Behind the library was the hill that stretched up to the archery plateau. The campus was just touched with autumn, and the green trees dotted red and orange, a hint of a chill to come in the air. It had been summer in 1417 when I had left to come back to Wickham.
‘I want to go home,’ I said. ‘To my family.’ Rhode kissed my forehead in reply.
‘When are you doing that?’ Tony asked with an edge of panic to his voice. ‘When do you go?’
I could stay. I wanted to see the faces of the vampires we changed as day broke over Lovers Bay. I would have loved to see the joy as the sun rolled over their skin.
But it was sunrise when I had to leave.
The sun hovered just over the horizon line. ‘I need to go now,’ I said.
‘Now?’ Tony’s voice cracked.
I stepped away from Rhode and towards Micah, Esteban and Cassius. They bowed to me.
‘No, please. No more Renoiera. No more bows.’
Micah reached up to the pendant still hanging around his neck. ‘I think I’ll wear mine,’ he said. ‘To remember.’
‘How do you go home?’ Tony asked.
‘She has to go back. To her time,’ Tracy said, taking Tony’s hand into her own.
‘You have what you need?’ I asked Cassius.
He thought it over a moment but in his silver eyes, almost purple now from the changing sky was the word – ‘yes’. He would never deny me anything. That was his way and I would never forget his loyalty.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Everything we need to do is in order.’
‘Promise me one thing within that house.’
‘Anything.’
‘Destroy that door. The human-sculpture door. Into thousands of pieces.’
‘First thing,’ Cassius said. He turned to Tracy. ‘I need you one last time. Alert the vampires in the woods that the antidote
was a success. Tell them we’ll work out a schedule for administering it to all of them at the Hollow Ones’ home starting tomorrow. Meet me in the chapel; get out of the light.’
‘I’ll go with you,’ Esteban said to Tracy.
She nodded, ready for her last task as a vampire.
‘Wait,’ I said, stopping Esteban before he and Tracy could run off.
Thank you, I said to Micah and Esteban in my mind. Esteban smiled but Micah looked back and forth between us.
‘I said, thank you.’ Micah hugged me goodbye and I handed him the keys to my room and trunk. After, he would go to the chapel to collect his things. They each had long days ahead. Tracy and Esteban stood beside Cassius.
‘Good luck,’ Cassius said, extending an arm. Instead of shaking his hand goodbye as he intended, I slipped off the watch he loaned me and handed it back to him.
‘You’re coming to say goodbye, aren’t you?’ I asked.
A smile twitched on the edge of his mouth. ‘Of course.’
I faced Tracy. Her lips were closed though she was smiling.
She grabbed me into a cold vampire embrace. The chill of her skin would warm. Her heart would beat again.
‘I can feel your hopes for me,’ she said. ‘They’re stunning, thank you.’
‘Be brave.’
She backed away, ‘Like you.’
She kept her eyes on me until the moment grew stale. She turned, and she and Esteban ran across campus. Her frame got smaller and smaller as she ran and finally disappeared into the shadowed woods. A collection of silhouettes circled around her.
‘It’s time to go,’ I said, not needing to check the sunrise. The colour of the sky had changed to a bright pink.
Tony took my left hand, Rhode, my right. Cassius walked next to Rhode. We began the walk home. We headed past Quartz dorm, then the union, past the long windows where I had had meals with friends. I stepped on to the archery hill and only made it a few feet before I had to turn back to face the campus. There was my life.
The union. The library. The star tower too.
My eyes passed over the lacrosse field and farm and I paused when Tracy stepped out from the woods by the Wickham farm. At first I thought she was alone in that lavender morning.
Vampires from all walks of life – Asian, African, European, men and women – stepped out from the trees. Together they stood against the perimeter of the Wickham woods. My eyes swept from one end of campus to the other but a vampire took up every single space. In one graceful movement, all of the vampires extended a hand outwards before them and in unison, brought it over their hearts.
‘What are they doing?’ Tony asked.
‘I think . . .’ Rhode paused and with a pleasant lift to his voice said, ‘I think they’re saying thank you.’
Rhode squeezed my hand. I didn’t want to let go of Tony or Rhode’s hands so I hoped the sight of the tears spilling over my cheeks would be enough for the vampires watching. Hundreds of vampires stood en masse against the trees holding their hands over their hearts.
They would cry tears too. They would be free.
The sunrise dotted the top of the hill. The target. The way home.
We climbed. We walked together up that hill and every step I took I was leaving Wickham Boarding School behind me. I walked away from Tony and the life I could have had if I stayed in the modern world. I walked away from friends, modern dances, and mocha lattes. Music inside a stereo that could play so loudly it filled a whole room, pop music, and libraries with thousands of books. My list was so long. The sunrise grew brighter around my family of friends. My soulmate’s hand was tight in mine and we kept climbing.
‘Almost there,’ Rhode said with another squeeze. I looked back one more time at Wickham and the vampires watching me leave. I said one last goodbye with a glance at the greenhouse, Lovers Bay Main Street, and beyond.
‘Ready?’ Rhode asked. ‘This is it.’
I took the last few steps of the incline and as I stepped on to the archery plateau, the sunrise burst over the horizon.
And there – waiting far in the distance of the field was Fire.
She stood before an orange path of light that led to an infinite horizon.
I pulled my hand from Rhode’s and we started our goodbyes. Rhode shook Cassius’s hand and I threw myself at Tony. He held me tight and sobbed against me.
‘I love you,’ he said.
I pulled away and held him by placing my hands on his shoulders. His familiar and beautiful almond-shaped eyes met mine and in them was every history of our friendship. He didn’t have to remember everything we had done, or ever said, because he felt all of it. We had a very special kind of love. His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he searched for words to say in this very unique goodbye.
‘I want you to understand something,’ I said. ‘Something very important. You’ve given a meaning to this experience that I never fathomed was possible.’
‘Lenah . . .’ he said and his eyes filled with tears.
‘No, Tony,’ I said with a little shake. ‘I’ll never forget what you’ve given me and I will always miss you.’
‘But you’re leaving,’ he said. ‘You could stay.’
‘It’s time for me to go home. Where I always should have been.’
‘What am I gonna do?’ He asked with a little sob. ‘Without you?’
‘Something important,’ I said. And I knew it was true. ‘Don’t be surprised by your greatness, Tony Sasaki. Be surprised that no one expected it.’
I held my best friend to me and told myself never to forget his warmth.
Rhode tapped my shoulder and I pulled away from the strong grip of my best friend. Rhode took my place and embraced Tony. I turned behind me to Cassius.
We grasped each other’s forearms in true Demelucrea fashion.
‘Grazie,’ I said with a little laugh.
‘Prego,’ he replied in turn. My smile fell as I said, ‘Don’t wait too long to use the antidote on yourself. Promise me.’
‘I promise, Renoiera.’
A surge of something like nostalgia overcame me as he said the word. I reached up and touched the pendant he still wore around his neck.
‘Tell the story. My story. Tell it so every vampire everywhere knows.’
‘I will.’
I kissed his cheek.
Thank you, I said in my mind. For everything.
All will be done, Lenah.
I kissed his other cheek, thankful that he called me by my name. I backed away from Cassius towards the love of my life; Rhode now stood beside Fire.
Tears streamed down Tony’s face. Why should we fear the pain of goodbye? It is the natural course of life.
I wanted to remember Tony this way – in the sunrise.
No more fear. No more running from the daylight. Now I would walk into it and go home.
For good.
When I got to Rhode, he took my hand again and we turned to face the orange path.
‘He was right, you know,’ Fire said.
‘Who?’ Rhode and I asked in unison.
‘Suleen. About you. About what you could accomplish together. He would be proud.’
Even in his death, Suleen’s spirit touched me.
She motioned to the orange and yellow glittering pathway.
‘It’s time.’
Before Rhode and I stepped on to the pathway, I pulled him towards me. I needed one more kiss in the place he so desperately tried to give me. In a place to which we would never return. Our mouths met and his strong arms slipped around my back. Tremors flowed through me, up and down my legs. The sunlight shone on both of us, warming our kiss, our bodies, and the ground on which we stood. When Rhode and I pulled away . . . at the same time, our eyes met. Together – we took a step.
We made it a few paces before I needed one more look behind. My best friend cried an ugly cry. Tony lifted a hand in goodbye. I extended a hand and then held it over my heart as I walked backwards into the light. I would love h
im forever.
I couldn’t stop the tears. Why should I? I had worked so hard to finally say goodbye. With a last glance at Fire, Tony and Cassius, I turned back to Rhode.
‘I think I see apple trees,’ he said with a smile. Yes, I too could make out the familiar roundness of the trees of my father’s house. I was almost home.
Behind us, Tony, Cassius and Fire were just orange shadows now. Soon they would flicker and fade, and I would be back with my family and Rhode. As it always should have been.
The smell of apples overtook the air around us. The pathway at my feet turned from the orange of Fire’s light to brown dirt, then manicured soil. The path flickered away and we were met with a collection of trees and a wooden fence. Rhode looked behind him but was met with Hampstead Heath. Before us, in the distance, beyond the orchard trees, a chimney smoked into the sky.
We hesitated at the end of the orchard row where so long ago Rhode had made me a vampire, where we had started the bloody history that we had now undone.
Good girl, Vicken would have growled. I smiled at the ground, allowing pride to overwhelm me for the briefest of moments.
‘Do you have any regrets?’ Rhode asked.
‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m ready.’
‘For an adventure?’ he asked.
A light laugh escaped and it flittered away on the untouched medieval air.
‘With you.’
Hand in hand, we stepped out of the orchard lane and walked towards the house in the distance.
‘Lenah!’ My sister’s voice carried over the trees, echoing on the air.
‘Genevieve?’ I called.
My sister turned the corner, her curls bouncing. Her eyes brightened and she jumped up and down, pointing at me. The sight of her brought me to my knees. The ground cooled my skin.
‘Mama! Lenah is back and she has someone with her!’
‘Genevieve,’ I croaked. ‘Genevieve! Come to me!’ I opened my arms.
I swept her to my chest. My father and mother burst out of the house and ran towards Rhode and me. My father, with his beard and great belly, held open his arms. And I knew, as they shook Rhode’s hand and led us down the row, that I was no longer a night wanderer. That life was over. I even searched for the orange path but I didn’t see it.