Before she set foot in this place, she would never have believed it. But after her memories had returned to her, she was certainly more open to the possibility. Time, she remembered, was not linear. She was very proof that people could move through time on completely different trajectories than others. There was no hard and fast law that said tomorrow must follow today. In fact, Caitlin had spent many years experiencing yesterday after yesterday after yesterday. It was possible, it truly was, for her to be the author of her own destiny.
She settled down and turned the first page. The book was blank. Her heart began to thud painfully. It couldn’t be. Why would there be no words?
Caitlin ran her fingers along the blank pages, one after the other, turning the pages furiously. There was nothing here, nothing for her to rely on, no advice or truths to turn to. Just nothing.
Tears flooded her eyes. How could it be that after everything she had gone through, she was still without the answer she so desperately sought?
Then, something strange began to happen. A light started to glow from the pages of the open book. The light filled the space before Caitlin, just like the memories of her life as a vampire had appeared before her eyes the moment she’d been transported here. Words began to dance in front of her. At first in a jumble, but then arranging themselves into something she could read:
Time is short. Heed my warning. Every move you make from this moment on will determine your future. Listen. Accept. Scarlet needs her mother.
The words floated before Caitlin for a moment before burning up and dropping to the open pages of the book like ash.
She looked on, frowning, needing more.
Vampire blood holds the key. Heed my warning. Prepare for war. I beg you. Ready yourself. Every move you make from this moment on will determine your future.
Again, the words aligned for a moment before setting fire, burning up, and dropping to the blank page of the book spread before Caitlin. She desperately tried to decipher their meaning, as more words began to formulate before her.
I beg you. Scarlet needs her mother. You are the key. Only you. Ubi amor, ibi dolor.
The last phrase, the words written in Latin, Caitlin knew to mean: where there is love, there is pain. But what did it all mean?
Caitlin watched the final words burn up and disappear.
She sat back, her mind reeling. She wanted more time with the words, to spend longer trying to understand them. It seemed to suggest that everything she did from this moment forth would be crucial to whether Scarlet could be saved.
Just then, Caitlin realized that some of the ash from the words had collected on the page before her. It had retained the shape of letters.
Then Caitlin gasped. Each letter that had fallen spelled a word. Contained within the code was everything she needed to understand what to do. The letters spelled out:
YOU ARE THE LAST VAMPIRE
In that moment, everything clicked into place for Caitlin. The key to saving Scarlet’s life was to sacrifice herself. In order to save Scarlet, Caitlin had to die.
No sooner had she come to the conclusion than the world began to swirl around her. Like a vortex, the colors of the library merged and faded away. Caitlin felt sick and tried to hold onto the floor, feeling as though the world were spinning so fast she would surely fly off.
Then the spinning stopped.
Caitlin found herself sitting cross-legged in her grandmother’s attic, in the exact point in time where she had left it. The sound of a scream filled her ears and she looked up to see Caleb battling an Immortalist.
She had no time to think.
“Caleb!”
He looked up and she grabbed him, pulling him away from the vicious Immortalist who’d been attacking him. The leather box lay on the floor, having fallen to the ground when Caitlin was transported and she snatched it up and flipped open the lid.
Before she could blink, she and Caleb were sucked into the box, and the attic disappeared from sight.
*
Caleb stood in the darkness, dazed, too stunned to speak. A second earlier he’d been battling for his life and now he was somewhere entirely different, somewhere that felt ancient and forgotten, even forbidden.
“Caitlin?” he whispered.
He couldn’t see his own hands in front of his face, let alone hers, but he could sense her presence, the warmth radiating from her body, the sound of her breathing.
“Just wait,” Caitlin said.
“Wait for what?” Caleb replied.
“The memories,” came Caitlin’s cryptic answer.
Caleb waited. Soon, a strange flickering white light appeared before Caleb’s eyes, like an old silent movie from the 1920s. The same images began playing, showing him in Italy, Paris, London and Jerusalem. His own movie reel showed the decadence, the beauty, and the danger. He saw Caitlin, his young love, evolve from his fiancee to his bride, to his wife, and finally to the mother of his precious daughter. The memories hit him like an avalanche, filling him with so many conflicting emotions he could hardly breathe.
In the soft glow of his memories, he turned to face Caitlin, and in the pale light she was more beautiful than ever.
“It’s all real,” he gasped.
Tears glistened in Caitlin’s eyes.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Caleb turned back to the reel of memories as they danced across his vision. How had he lost all of this? How had these amazing, important, incredible memories been replaced in his mind? And why?
“Caitlin,” he said, taking his wife’s hands. “What is happening?”
Caitlin squeezed his hands.
“We’ve lived another life before. A life where we were vampires, where we journeyed through time, across the globe.”
“But how?” he asked. “How does that make any sense?”
Caitlin shook her head.
“It’s too much for us to comprehend. But time isn’t a straight thing that goes in one direction. Our lives as vampires prove that much. We travelled, once before, in the direction of time that is supposed to be impossible. And yet here we are, in a completely different era, with memories of a different life returning to us. Time isn’t straight. It is everywhere, happening all at once, in a million different combinations.”
Caitlin had always had a brilliant mind, had always been able to grasp philosophies far beyond Caleb’s reach, but this was more than anything he could comprehend.
“What does that mean for us?” he said, bringing the abstract back to the here and now, to the real and physical.
Caitlin glanced at the floor and Caleb knew in that instant that whatever she was about to tell him he would not like.
“Right now, on this path of life that we are living, I have to sacrifice myself for Scarlet.”
Caleb stood there, winded by her words, unable and unwilling to believe them.
“Why?” he demanded.
Caitlin held her arm up and traced along the line of her blue vein with her finger.
“I’m a vampire, Caleb. The last vampire. The circle of history begins and ends with me. I can determine whether we exist or whether we don’t, whether Scarlet is human or whether she’s a vampire. The secret of the vampires runs through my veins.”
Caleb shook his head, flooded with grief.
“I don’t want to lose you,” he spluttered.
“Only in this time and place,” she replied. “Elsewhere, I will be alive.”
“That’s not good enough for me!” Caleb cried. “I only have this time and place to be with you. It doesn’t matter if you are alive in another world, or another plain of existence. This is it for me. And I want you by my side.”
But Caleb could tell by his wife’s expression that she was determined. Nothing was going to change her mind. Saving Scarlet had always been her goal, and nothing was going to stop that, not even her love for him.
“This is bigger than us, Caleb,” she said. “This is about the world and everyone in it.”
Caleb sighed, defeated.
“What do we have to do?” he asked.
Caitlin wiped the tears from her eyes and gazed back adoringly.
“We need to go to Sage’s estate,” she said. “It’s on the Hudson river. Scarlet will be there. Once I am with her, I will be able to cure her.”
Caleb nodded.
“I suppose now is the time you conjure up an airplane for me to fly?” he joked, trying to lighten the dark mood.
Caitlin smiled.
“I have one better,” she said. She held up the box from her grandmother’s attic. “It will take us to where we need to be. Whatever time and whatever place.”
Caleb reached out and held her hand. It broke his heart to think these were among the last moments he would share with her. He wanted to savour them, to remain in the lost vampire city forever. But it was not to be. They had to save Scarlet.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Caitlin flipped open the lid of the box, and together they were sucked inside.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Vivian soared through the sky, her veins on fire with exhilaration. Thanks to Scarlet’s idiot of an uncle, she was within a hair’s breadth of ending her nemesis’s life. As she flew, she could feel the stake in her back pocket, urging her to kill again, reminding her of just how powerful and addictive that sensation was.
As Vivian flew she wondered whether Blake would have turned yet. Nothing would be sweeter for her than having him by her side as she ended Scarlet’s life.
She decided then to take a quick detour past his house. If he had indeed turned, she could bring him along for the ride. That way she’d witness his all his firsts—his first feed, his first flight—just like a good sire should.
When she reached Blake’s house, the first thing she noticed was the sprays of blood on the window. She leapt onto his porch roof and peered in through his bedroom window. Her heart dropped. Blake wasn’t there. His bed was messy, as though he’d thrown off the covers she’d placed over him in haste.
So he had turned, she thought. But where had all that blood come from?
Vivian pulled open the window and climbed inside. She stood in Blake’s empty bedroom and listened for sounds of life. She could hear a slurping sound coming from downstairs.
She paced over to Blake’s bedroom door, which was ajar, then stopped dead when she saw a pair of women’s feet through the crack in the door. As she maneouvered her sightline into the open gap, the rest of the woman’s body was revealed to her. She was dead on the floor, her eyes open and staring upwards, a stream of blood coming from a wound in her neck. Vivian recognized her. It was Patrice. Blake’s live-in housekeeper. She was young and strikingly attractive. And now, dead.
Vivian smiled to herself. She had never liked Patrice, always viewing her as competition. What’s more, she and Blake were evidently soul mates. That Blake had awoken as a vicious killer caused her no end of delight. She imagined the two of them on a rampage together, prowling the streets, killing whomever they so desired. Nothing made her heart swell more than the thought of a life with Blake, flying across the world, inflicting suffering and pain on the weak and vulnerable.
Vivian stepped over the dead body and went down stairs hurriedly. She followed the drops of blood and each step made her more excited to see Blake as a fully turned vampire.
Vivian pushed open the door and there was Blake, standing there in a daze.
“Vivian,” he said breathlessly.
Then, quicker than the blink of an eye, he strode forwards and swept her up in his arms. He pressed his hungry mouth against hers, tasting her, smelling her sweet scent. He wrapped his arms around her body, pulling her closer and closer into him. The kiss was a thousand times more powerful than the ones they’d shared as humans and Vivian sunk into him, reveling in the new sensations. She never wanted this moment to end. Blake had never been so passionate with her before.
Finally they pulled apart. Blake’s eyes were wide with astonishment, as if he were experiencing the epitome of pleasure.
“You’re amazing,” he gushed, tucking some of Vivian’s hair behind her ears. “How can I ever repay you for the gift you’ve given me?”
Vivian was overwhelmed with emotion. She’d dreamed so often of being with Blake, of being loved, truly loved by him, but the experience of it was more than she could ever have hoped for. The look in his eyes when he gazed at her was so powerful, exciting and enthralling. Blake was hers, and hers forever. She knew in that moment he would do anything she asked of him. She’d won.
“There is one thing,” she said.
Blake’s gaze burned into her, his eyes roving over her body and setting every single one of her nerves on fire.
“What is it?” he said. “I’ll do anything.”
Vivian licked her fangs.
“Come with me. We’re going to kill Scarlet Paine.”
Without hesitation, Blake followed her out the door, and as they leapt together into the sky, it was then that Vivian realized that the human Blake was truly gone.
*
Vivian was delighted to see the town below her in utter chaos. Teenage vampires from their high school roamed the streets, causing destruction everywhere they went. Cars were tipped over and set alight. Houses were broken into, the families living in them rushing into the street in blind panic.
She looked over at Blake and smiled. He returned the gesture, and Vivian thought that nothing in the world would make her happier than she was in that moment. Nothing but killing Scarlet Paine.
The first house on their tour was Maria’s. Vivian had hated Maria, not quite as much as Scarlet, but certainly because of her best friend status with the freak she so despised.
“Follow my lead,” Vivian said to Blake as they touched down on the garden path.
Together they strolled up to the front door. Vivian knocked loudly.
After a moment, it was answered by a bleary eyed woman. She was clearly Maria’s mother, with the same colorings—dark hair, dark eyes.
“What?” the woman said, peering through the crack in the door suspiciously.
“Is Maria here?” Vivian asked.
“Who are you?” came the blunt reply.
“I’m Vivian.” She touched her chest then gestured to Blake beside her. “This is Blake. We’re friends of Maria’s from school.”
The woman scoffed.
“If you were friends, you’d know that Maria’s been committed. She’s in the institute and she’s not coming out any time soon. Now get the hell off my property.”
She slammed the door in their faces. Vivian turned to Blake, too excited to even hide her grin.
“This day is literally getting better and better,” she said with glee. “Maria’s gone mad!”
Blake tried to share in his sire’s enthusiasm but something about the situation didn’t sit right with him.
“Oh come on,” Vivian snapped, admonishing him. “Scarlet’s best friend has lost it. Isn’t it hilarious?”
Blake managed to muster a smile.
Vivian rolled her eyes, frustrated by his lack of enthusiasm.
“Come on,” she said, grabbing the front of his t-shirt and pulling him after her. “Let’s try Jasmine’s house next.”
The couple took to the sky. Vivian was still on a high from the news of Maria’s mental breakdown. When she finally got to Scarlet and had the opportunity to torture her, she was definitely going to goad her with that nugget of information.
Jasmine’s house was farther out of town. Here, the effects of vampirism had not yet taken hold. Everything seemed pretty normal, quiet because of the time of day. A dog barked in a garden. A broken gate clanged in the wind. All the lights were off as everyone was tucked up safely in bed, unaware of the chaos that was going down just a few blocks away.
Vivian indicated to Blake where they were headed and they set down on the ground in unison. Vivian was buoyant, enjoying herself so much.
Blake reached up and touched his f
angs, looking almost shocked by their presence and she remembered how it had felt when she’d first been turned. Her initial feelings were anger and fear. She’d been confused, disorientated, and her memories had been patchy. Maybe Blake was still transitioning, or finding the whole transformation uncomfortable? Maybe she just needed to give him a bit of time, and soon enough he’d be filled with murderous intent, her equal in all measures.
“Okay, time to pay a visit to Jasmine,” Vivian said, getting back on task.
She strolled up to Jasmine’s front door and knocked. The house was in darkness, people in the neighborhood sleeping, oblivious to the danger that was about to be unleashed on them.
After a long moment, the door swung open and a man stood there in his boxers, holding a baseball bat above his head.
“What is it?” he said, lowering the bat when he realized that it was just two kids standing on his doorstep. He glanced over their shoulders at the quiet street. “Why aren’t you at home?”
Vivian looked at Blake, then back at the man.
“We’re friends with Jasmine,” Vivian said. “From school. Is she here?”
The man looked suspicious.
“Of course she’s here. It’s the dead of night. Can’t whatever it is you have to talk about wait until the morning?” He went to close the door, muttering to himself about teenagers and hormones and drama.
Vivian shoved her arm forward, stopping the door from being closed. The man looked stunned.
“Sorry, sir,” she said, in her sweet, innocent voice. “This is really important. Jasmine’s been hanging out with an older guy. I’m really worried about her.”
Beside her, Vivian felt Blake stiffen. He didn’t seem to be deriving any pleasure out of Vivian going round trying to wreck Scarlet’s friend’s lives. But Vivian didn’t care about that—she was having way too much fun taking in the sight of Jasmine’s dad’s horrified expression.