Stolen Nights

  Rhode, Vicken and I exchanged glances. My heart gave a little twinge. I wouldn’t panic. Not yet. It wasn’t completely unlike Justin to wander off with friends or his brother for a bit.

  ‘When was the last time you saw him?’ Tracy asked me.

  ‘Yesterday afternoon,’ I said.

  ‘Did anything happen? Anything where he could have been hurt?’ she asked, and I could tell from her tone she was talking about Odette.

  ‘No, we were in the greenhouse. Safely on campus.’

  ‘What time?’ Her eyes lit up. It seemed I had given her a new piece of information.

  ‘Evening. Six? Seven?’ I guessed.

  ‘OK, thanks,’ she said, backing away, a smile appearing on her face. ‘That’s something. That’s great.’ She turned and ran off down the lane of booths back out into the campus.

  ‘Justin? Missing?’ I said. I hadn’t seen him at all that day. It also explained why he hadn’t answered when I knocked on his door after breakfast.

  ‘If Justin was truly missing, wouldn’t they have called an assembly? Cancelled the carnival?’ Vicken asked. We both avoided the obvious. We both knew Odette could be to blame. ‘I’ll have a look around,’ he said. ‘Let you know what I find.’ He dumped his half-eaten candy apple and disappeared back into the crowd.

  ‘We should look for him too,’ Rhode said.

  I didn’t get it. Why would Justin have gone off? After everything that had happened? Had he had second thoughts after what he had seen during the summoning spell?

  Rhode and I passed a shooting game and a ring toss. Interspersed between the student carnival tents were professional ones belonging to a company that the school had hired. A large rented white tent read House of Mirrors in white light.

  ‘Shall we check in here?’ Rhode said.

  Without replying, I walked inside.

  I knew Justin wouldn’t be in there, but I wanted to go in the tent anyway. I wanted to keep pushing away the thought that Justin could be in real trouble. Or, worse, dead.

  No, Lenah. Stop.

  I turned around the first corner. Trick mirrors had been hung from screens. Some of them made me look long and stringy. Another brought my face together in a squish.

  Rhode followed behind me, his strides matching mine.

  ‘I thought you would want to search with Vicken,’ I said.

  Rhode shook his head. ‘I just want this battle over.’

  We stopped and stood before the same mirror, which made our reflections bleed into one another. My arm was Rhode’s arm. His chest, my chest.

  ‘Your lies are overwhelming,’ I said, turning to Rhode. ‘Odette told me that she was the one who attacked the Hathersage house.’

  He stood, appearing to ponder for a moment.

  ‘Yes, Odette arrived at the house first,’ he admitted eventually. ‘To begin with, I didn’t know what she was looking for. She seemed generally cordial, but things quickly turned ugly. I tried to fight her, but as you saw she is extremely skilled. Though she was not unnaturally fast at the time, so I was able to get away. That particular gift is a recent one,’ he said.

  ‘Why wouldn’t you just tell me?’ I asked. ‘You don’t have to hide everything from me.’

  He leaned towards me. ‘Because I thought I could protect you – that I could call Suleen or take care of it myself.’

  ‘And did you?’ I asked.

  ‘I could not do it alone,’ he said eventually. ‘As always, I am better with you. Stronger.’

  And we were close again, standing side by side, only inches apart. No longer battered and bruised, his skin was smooth again, like that of a young man with his whole life before him.

  ‘Why do you fear my touch?’ I whispered.

  ‘I don’t fear your touch,’ he said with a deep sigh. ‘It’s never been about that.’

  I wasn’t sure how to respond except to say, ‘You haven’t let me near you for months.’

  ‘Lenah,’ he said gently, ‘I only fear what I am capable of with a beating heart. What the Aeris warned of. I can’t promise to stay away from you.’

  ‘By touching me?’

  Please, I begged silently, don’t let anyone disturb us now. He raised his hand so I could see his palm. He looked at me, his eyes twinkling but his mouth a thin line, serious. He reached forward, palm out, and placed it on the centre of my chest, right below my neck, right where Odette had stepped on me in the herb shop.

  His skin, the smoothness of it, I never wanted anything more in my life than his touch in that second. Our world had been thronged by hunger for blood. We had been perpetrators of pain and here we were touching properly for the first time, as humans. I reached up to his cheek and could feel my heart thumping against his skin. I wanted to breathe him, the way he smelt, to see every pore of his skin, to feel his heart beating.

  I shivered. Rhode continued staring down at his hand pressing against my flesh.

  ‘You . . .’ I whispered, ‘are worth every moment I have left on this earth. Even if I have to love you from afar for the rest of my days.’

  Rhode’s bottom lip trembled and mine did too. I swallowed hard.

  Tears spilled over his cheeks as he watched his hand rising and falling as I breathed. I couldn’t look into his eyes while he cried tears for me.

  Apples! No! Not now. Apples. Everywhere. The scent overwhelmed me. A white light blinded me.

  Rhode stands in the centre of a great library. I have never seen a room like this in my life. Huge wooden bookcases stretch to a ceiling decorated with an Italian-style fresco. But I cannot focus on the cherubs or the white billowing clouds of the painting.

  Rhode has short hair. He stands with his hands behind his back and wears a black three-piece suit. It must be 1910 or close to it.

  ‘She is in hibernation,’ Rhode explains to people I cannot see. ‘Below the ground in Hathersage.’

  ‘You wish to bring her here?’ a deep voice asks from across the room.

  ‘I wish to make a bargain,’ Rhode says.

  ‘Lenah Beaudonte in Lovers Bay?’ the voice says with a hoarse laughter. ‘The vampire queen herself.’

  ‘She will live as a mortal, sir,’ Rhode says.

  ‘Fascinating! Let us discuss this bargain,’ the deep voice says again.

  A white wash of light wipes over my sight and the library disappears. Where did Rhode go? Rhode? Now I am back in that foyer I have been seeing for months. Even though it is dark, he comes into focus . . . slowly. A modern-day Rhode, a human Rhode, falls to his knees.

  ‘I can’t do it!’ Rhode yells. ‘I understand the consequences. I know the risk.’

  Images come in bullets.

  A beach road lined by tall cliffs.

  The ocean, stretching far into the distance.

  A large house, a Gothic mansion, set far back from the ocean.

  Number forty-two chiselled in a stone plaque outside the mansion.

  I knew instantly that this house was a terrible place. A place of dark power. I had to find it.

  Back in the House of Mirrors Rhode touched me. I drew in great heaving breaths and stumbled back into the mirror behind me. It swung on its hinges. I blinked hard, trying to recall the images.

  ‘What? What was that?’ I asked. ‘That house.’

  Rhode wiped his eyes quickly and looked down at the floor. My skin still pulsed where his hand had been.

  ‘That house. What did you do?’ I hissed.

  ‘Did you have a vision?’ Rhode asked, and stepped forward, his arm outstretched.

  Rhode had bargained with someone at that mansion. Someone powerful who knew me and exactly what I had done in my past. And I was going to find them.

  I stalked quickly out of the Hall of Mirrors back into the sunlight.

  ‘Lenah,’ Rhode said, coming after me.

  Students all around us were talking about their costumes for the dance that night.

  ‘I have to go,’ I said, matter-of-factly.

  ‘Lenah!’ Rh
ode ran after me but I was quick down the lane, past the many booths until I stopped short. Roy Enos and some lacrosse players held a very close and intimate court. Roy’s expression was dark, his posture hunched, crumpled.

  Nothing is wrong, I told myself. Nothing is wrong with Justin. I am going to fix this. Something within me told me that house was of critical importance. I had to go there. It would help us to fight Odette.

  ‘Lenah!’ Rhode’s voice echoed. ‘Lenah!’ He was right behind me.

  I spun around. ‘No, Rhode. Whatever it is – I know that road. That house. And I am going.’

  ‘Don’t,’ he said, and we stood at the edge of the field. ‘For once don’t follow your impulses.’

  ‘You can’t stop me,’ I said. Rhode lifted a foot to take a step towards me when . . .

  With a crash of cymbals, the band happily charged on to the field for the fifth time that afternoon. The white wool outfits and silly hats separated us. I watched Rhode try to duck through an open spot but the band was relentless. I took that as my opportunity to turn and run.

  CHAPTER 22

  That house was the key. I knew it. Someone would help me. Help us. We could fight Odette and we could win. I found Vicken by the boat house watching Roy and his buddies in their huddle.

  ‘I need you to come somewhere with me,’ I said. ‘While there’s still daylight.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I had another vision. I saw a place in Rhode’s mind.’

  ‘What place? What are you doing trusting his visions?’

  ‘I can’t explain it now. I need you to come with me. To a house.’

  ‘I seem to recall already saying no. No more spells, no more summonings.’

  He tossed his cigarette into the grass and sighed, meeting my eyes again.

  ‘What will it cost, going to this house? More burns? Your skin? Your soul?’ Vicken asked.

  ‘Fine,’ I said, and crossed over the grass towards the pathway, leaving the Halloween carnival behind me. I would just get in my car and go alone. I knew that road. It went past the town beach and led to Nickerson Summit, where I had bungee jumped the year before.

  I had to be quick, before Rhode could find me and stop me.

  ‘Damn it, Lenah!’ sighed Vicken. ‘You know I’m going to help you. But this house, this vision, it could be any house.’

  ‘No, it can’t. It was a stone house and I’ve been on the road that leads there – I recognized it,’ I said as we approached the car.

  ‘It’s not good for us to go alone,’ Vicken said.

  I opened the car door and slid inside. ‘Where we’re going, we’re not going to be alone. We’re going there to get help.’

  I knew we were close. The road grew steeper and steeper, rising higher and higher. Just as in Rhode’s memory, to the east there was a drop of hundreds of feet of cliffs and sand dunes to the water below.

  ‘We have to get back in time for the dance, Lenah,’ Vicken said. ‘She’s going to start wreaking havoc.’

  ‘We will. We’re going to get help.’

  ‘So you keep saying.’

  ‘There it is!’ I cried. I slammed on the brakes, making the tyres squeal. On a small stone plaque on a tree next to a long driveway leading deep into the woods, away from the ocean, was the number forty-two.

  We turned off the road and followed the curves and bends of the driveway. We must have driven a mile, maybe more. When we finally came upon the house, we had to stop because a mechanically controlled gate protected the entrance to the grounds of an enormous grey stone building. There were tall towers on the left and back of the house. There were only two windows on the front of the house; they were utterly black.

  Vicken exhaled heavily then said, ‘I don’t know about you, but this house says to me: Come inside if you want to die.’

  I rolled down my window. On an intercom on the gatepost a sign read: Press for entry.

  As my finger hovered over the button, a deep voice with an indistinguishable accent said through the receiver, ‘You are welcome here, Lenah Beaudonte.’

  ‘Well, that’s comforting,’ Vicken said.

  I gulped away fear. We had to keep going.

  I backed into a space just next to the front door. The front of the car faced the woods, but in my wing mirror I could see the stone monstrosity. Just like my house in Hathersage, this mansion had barely any windows.

  Vicken sat beside me. I loved his mane-like hair and pensive eyes. He looked at me from the passenger seat, waiting for me to say what we would be doing and why we had come.

  ‘I’m glad you’re here,’ I said.

  ‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ he replied as he undid his seatbelt. He stopped me as I motioned to get out of the car. ‘We really might die in there,’ he said, his brown eyes serious.

  I considered him again, his wild hair and the strong point of his chin. He was the soldier of my life.

  ‘I won’t hold it against you if you decide to stay in the car. This is for me to do,’ I said.

  He got out without another word.

  Our feet crunched over the tiny shells of the drive. Once I was out of the car, I realized just how well cared for these grounds were. Stone statues hid among flowers. At the end of the long length of the house was the glass of a greenhouse. This was not just a house. This was a compound.

  We walked to the front door and stood together before the thick black oak. Hand poised over the door knocker, for a moment I imagined that Vicken and I were going to a dinner party at a friend’s house. We were normal people, not former vampires. Just people. Teenagers who wanted to live their lives. I was about to knock, when the door opened.

  With a little skip of my heart I recognized the man behind the door. He was the man from my vision, but he did not wear a robe as he did in my dreams. He wore a cotton sweater and conservative brown slacks. He could have been a professor, from the looks of his spectacles and outfit. His eyes moved back and forth from Vicken to me.

  ‘Oh, good,’ he said with a relieved sigh. ‘You’re both unforsaken.’

  With a swipe of his hands, his entire outfit morphed into a mist of colour as though it was made of nothing but coloured dust. The man was suddenly clad in black dress trousers and a set of black academic robes. This was the ensemble I had seen before.

  ‘Unforsaken?’ Vicken asked.

  ‘You are both the damned. Once vampires. You are welcome here,’ he said, and opened the door wide. As our feet stepped over the threshold into a foyer, I snuck a last glance behind me out of the door. With a heavy thud it closed – leaving us momentarily in complete darkness.

  Vicken held his breath. He was primed to defend me.

  ‘No need to consider tactics of speed and strength, Vicken Clough. They would be quite useless here,’ the man said.

  With a snap of his fingers, candles flickered and their brightness bloomed. There were glass wall sconces in the four corners of the room. Above us was a small chandelier. Five sconces, five candles – a pentacle star. This room held power.

  ‘I am Rayken, Lenah Beaudonte,’ he said, and extended a hand. When I took it in mine, my suspicion that he was most definitely a vampire was confirmed, for his hands were icy cold and the pupils of his brown eyes were wide and black. Rayken held my gaze and a small smile played on the edges of his pressed lips. ‘You are warm,’ he said, letting go of my hand. ‘Fascinating.’ He took a step back. ‘You may wait here and I will alert my brothers to your arrival.’

  He walked down the long hallway and turned to the right. Vicken and I stood alone in the foyer. Vicken turned around and placed his hand on the door. There was no doorknob.

  ‘We’re locked in . . .’ he whispered, looking around and up. ‘Whoa! The ceiling is onyx!’ he marvelled.

  The blackness of onyx will show the original soul. And there, glowing above me, was the true reflection of mine. In my reflection, hanging above my heart was a smoky orb. When I moved about the foyer, it followed. I looked down, trying to reac
h out in front of my chest to touch it, but I could not see it except in the onyx ceiling, where it hung just in front of the place where my heart beat inside my chest. Vicken had one too.

  ‘What is that?’ Vicken asked, pointing.

  ‘I . . .’ I stuttered. ‘I think they’re our souls. I’ve never seen myself in onyx before so I can’t be sure.’ I was in awe of this strange orb, a silvery grey cloud hanging over my heart.

  ‘We couldn’t,’ Vicken replied, ‘as vampires.’

  Now we were both mortals we could see ourselves in the onyx ceiling; vampires cannot see themselves because there is no soul to reflect. Onyx, as a stone, harbours enormous power. Dark power. The darker the soul, the darker onyx will appear. It sucks up the negative energy.

  ‘This way, please,’ a voice said from the darkness of the hallway. Vicken and I stole one more glance at ourselves in the onyx ceiling and went down the hall behind Rayken. We twisted and turned through a labyrinth of passageways until we reached a wooden archway. Two doors were decorated with sculptures of hundreds of twisted and pained bodies with long serpentine tongues and bulging eyes. I looked away. The grotesqueness made me uncomfortable.

  The vampire reached for a doorknob shaped like a dagger. I had had similar ones in my own house in Hathersage. Crafted by the Linaldi vampires in Italy. Master craftsmen – I remembered as I had killed many of them in 1500.

  ‘Good luck,’ the vampire said, and opened the door.

  I glanced back at Vicken, who took my hand in his. We entered a huge library. The one from Rhode’s vision! As my eyes scanned the circumference of the room I saw that every wall was lined from floor to ceiling with books. Above me, the familiar fresco recreated the brightest sky of the loveliest summer day.

  A crackle of flames drew my eyes from the ceiling. An enormous fireplace was set at the back of the room, taking up half the length of one wall. The fire flickered, casting an orange light about the room. Before it sat three vampires in comfortable chairs, each with a book in their hands.

  In the middle was Rayken, who seconds before had been standing in the hallway.

  I swallowed, trying to remain calm.

  ‘Welcome, Lenah Beaudonte and Vicken Clough. It is with great pleasure that I see Rhode’s ritual has worked – twice,’ said Rayken.