Stolen Nights

  ‘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. Break the cycle of the ritual and it will be done.’

  ‘I defeat Odette and you’ll send me back, as I wish?’

  Fire nodded.

  ‘And my victims, they’ll be free? And those killed by the vampires I made?’

  The white mass of souls behind the Aeris swayed and fluttered as though a light breeze had blown through the room.

  ‘They will all be free,’ Fire said.

  ‘But they will not be white souls?’ I asked.

  ‘They must make their own way, as it should always have been.’

  As on the archery field, Fire started to fade; I could already make out the wall behind her.

  ‘When it’s over, you must go to the archery field. When the new sun rises, you will be sent back.’

  ‘And the battle?’ I asked, knowing she would understand. ‘If I die?’

  Water, Earth and Air faded with the light, yet Fire was as bright as ever. She came to me and lifted my hand to hers. Her skin felt like satin on mine.

  ‘I have faith you can do this, Lenah.’

  ‘I keep none for myself,’ I replied.

  In a grave whisper she said, ‘Knowledge is your key.’

  ‘Knowledge? What does . . . ?’ I stopped as she glanced back at the fading mass of people behind her.

  Then with purpose she said, ‘The dead do not show themselves to the living. Not unless they deserve it, unless they have a white soul.’

  ‘My soul was not white. I saw it in the onyx ceiling. It was grey.’

  She retreated towards the wispy strands of white light. She too began to fade away.

  ‘You do now.’ She looked up and my gaze followed hers. In my reflection I saw an orb as before, but this time it was white, clean, pure.

  My mouth parted and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, I smiled.

  ‘Wait!’ I called, taking a step towards her. Fire flickered before me as a candle burning out. ‘Rhode – will he be happy?’

  Fire smiled and disappeared into nothingness.

  I turned back to the door and twisted the knob. I expected to step back into the library. Instead, I found myself on the front stoop, back out in the late-afternoon sun facing the shelled driveway. I shielded my eyes from the light. Vicken shot up; he had been sitting on the bottom step facing the long drive and smoking a cigarette.

  He spun around and grabbed me into an embrace. I held on to his lean frame. He smelt of tobacco. I lingered there for a moment, taking him in.

  ‘I actually feel sick,’ he said, and I felt his deep voice vibrate within his chest. ‘Now I know why bloody idiot mortals say they’re worried sick.’

  ‘I’m all right,’ I said, and pulled away.

  ‘Ten o’ clock is six hours from now, Lenah. We have to go,’ Vicken said. I dug in my pocket for the car keys and I handed them to him. But he didn’t run to the car. Instead he asked, ‘Well? Do we fight?’

  ‘Fire said, no matter what, we must succeed in beating Odette. It breaks the cycle of the ritual.’

  ‘Breaks the cycle?’

  ‘The ritual will be gone from the world if we defeat her,’ I explained.

  ‘Excellent. Did Señor No Fangs or the Fiery Lady say what happens if we win?’

  I couldn’t tell him what would happen if we won. He would try to convince me to stay in this world, stay together, because that’s all he had known for the last hundred and sixty years. But I needed to send him back where he belonged.

  I shook my head and managed to smile as a strange sense of calm washed over me. We got back into the car. As he drove, I leaned my head against the seat, listening to the sound of the engine. I listened to the motor, to the radio and the gearshift. I watched the street lamps go by. I took in everything and anything. Anything that did not exist – that would not exist – in 1418.

  The door creaked as I walked into my apartment. I expected to be alone, but someone was sitting on my couch: tall body, hunched posture, spiky black hair. Rhode held his head in his hands. When I was first made human again and Rhode walked out on to that porch to die, he was so sure, so absolutely sure of his death. He looked up at the click of the door.

  ‘What have you done?’ he demanded. I sat down next to him. He looked at me, eyes wide.

  ‘For months, I thought you were trying to hurt yourself. That you thought you didn’t deserve your humanity or something,’ I admitted.

  ‘Why would you think that?’ he asked.

  ‘Since you came back from Hathersage, I have been connected with you. I could see your thoughts. Sometimes memories. And I misread your pain. That’s what happened in the Hall of Mirrors.’

  ‘Connected?’ Rhode asked, not understanding.

  ‘What I thought was your mind unravelling was your struggle with the Hollow Ones. That you could not give up your love for me.’

  Rhode frowned and stood up from the couch.

  ‘I see. So you’ve uncovered my relationship with the Hollow Ones,’ he said, and walked to the bureau. He placed his hands on it and dipped his chin to his chest. I watched his strong back muscles contract through his thin T-shirt as he spoke.

  ‘When I awoke after the ritual, you lay on the couch, asleep. I just kept watching you. A human finally, finally, after you had wanted it so badly.’

  He turned to me and leaned his back against the bureau. I was too afraid to speak. As if interrupting his thoughts would stop him telling me what I had waited so long to hear.

  ‘I could not help my reverence. I was proud,’ he said with a quick shake of his head. ‘Of what we had been able to accomplish with the ritual. It was unheard of. A simple combination of spells and herbs. But the intention – the crucial, most variable ingredient – was the most difficult to find. For we both had to find it within ourselves.’

  Now Rhode paced before me.

  ‘So, I had two choices. Either I could wake you and we could begin our human life together, or I could let you live a life without me. I had so many debts to pay. A large one to Suleen . . . I owed him.’ He met my eyes, and although I didn’t understand all of it I felt we were there, on the verge of it, on the brink of truth.

  ‘I owed you,’ he continued, ‘the chance to be human without me interfering. So I chose to pay off my debts, believing you could acclimatize to your human life and, if you and I were going to come back together, surely I could explain it to you over time. So I went to the Hollow Ones. They pledged your protection for the entirety of your mortal life if I could . . .’ He hesitated and I listened rapt. ‘They sent me on an impossible task, Lenah. They expected me to deliver love. Actual love. If I could capture it, if I could find incantations or spells that might steal love away so that I could give it to the Hollow Ones, they would protect you. You would be free from the darkness that had engulfed you for centuries.’

  Rhode picked up a photo of me from the bureau and I wondered momentarily if he would throw it across the room. ‘I failed,’ he said, and his voice was barely audible. ‘And then I found myself in the debt of the Hollow Ones. The protection for you was lifted. Vicken arrived and I was too late to get you out of Lovers Bay.’

  I was silent and looked down at my hands. I couldn’t imagine Rhode failing at anything.

  ‘Where did you go?’ I asked hoarsely.

  ‘Back out to search. To the furthest corners of the earth. I failed again.’ He dropped to his knees in front of me and placed his hands on my thighs. ‘Once you take love from someone through magic, they can never love again. They are not evil, they are not angry; they are hollow and empty, which is almost worse. I couldn’t siphon life away from anyone else. I had done that for hundreds of years by taking their blood.’

  The thought of Rhode doing this sent goose-bumps over me.

  ‘I could not and do not understand that kind of evil. When I returned . . .’ He gulped and took a moment to finish. ‘W
hen I came back to Lovers Bay to tell the Hollow Ones, I heard that you were a vampire again.’

  He gripped my knees and I wanted to hold him to me. I wanted to say it was all right.

  ‘I saw your life as a golden orb hanging before me. Drawing me like the brightest of suns. I did not fear your light.’

  ‘You couldn’t give up your love for me,’ I said.

  ‘I could not,’ Rhode replied quietly. ‘Would not.’

  It was time for me to tell the truth in return.

  ‘I bargained with the Hollow Ones, Rhode. I asked them to call the Aeris.’

  Rhode’s eyes snapped up to meet mine. He dropped his hands from my legs and the mood in the room changed considerably.

  ‘They never do anything willingly – what did . . . ?’

  ‘In exchange for my blood, the blood of a vampire who could wield sunlight and who had survived the ritual twice, they called the Aeris for me.’ I swallowed hard, trying to stay in control of my emotions.

  Rhode stood up and kicked at the coffee table, sending books and pens flying into the air. I flinched and looked away from the falling debris.

  ‘How could you? They can’t be trusted, Lenah. You don’t know what that transaction could mean for you years from now. They’ll have that blood. Have that magic.’ He ran his hand through his hair. ‘You could have died.’

  ‘I did not die, Rhode.’ Exhaustion laced my tone.

  I stared at the curve of his neck, the line of flesh between his hair and his black T-shirt. I wanted to touch his skin while I still could.

  ‘And what did you ask the Aeris for? For protection tonight from Odette? Lenah, there will always be more vampires. Did you ask to break the decree?’

  ‘No!’ I yelled, and Rhode sighed. His silence was his response. ‘You expect so little of me, always the selfish girl. Do you remember what the Aeris said? That we were soulmates and there was nothing they could do about that?’

  Rhode nodded.

  ‘All this time I’ve been thinking about myself. About you, about me, about what we can’t have. I was never worried about the people who really deserved justice.’

  ‘Lenah—’

  ‘No,’ I said, and cut him off. ‘No more formalities. We have to beat Odette. Fire said so specifically. Once we do, once we kill Odette, the following morning, at sunrise, I will return to the fifteenth century and Fire will undo all of our atrocities. Erase our murders, and the ones committeed by the vampires we created.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Why weren’t we worried about the people in the white light behind the Aeris? About Tony or Kate, or Chloe? Even Justin? Who knows where he is now, if he’s even alive.’

  ‘The medieval world . . .’ Rhode started to say with a shake of his head.

  ‘My life will be short. I’ll marry young, die young. But I’ll get to live, Rhode. And we’ll spare the lives of everyone we killed.’

  He seemed to consider something, and then he spoke.

  ‘But I can’t live not being able to love you,’ Rhode said, and my heart ached at his words. ‘I’ll be a vampire in the fifteenth century, watching you. Waiting for you.’

  I swallowed. Gathering strength. I couldn’t look at him when I said it. ‘I worked that bit out too. When I go back to the fifteenth century, you will remain here with no memory of your past. You will be seventeen-year-old Rhode, with a family. A young man with your whole life ahead of you.’

  ‘No, Lenah. This isn’t fair. I’ve had no choice in this.’

  I lunged at him, pointing my finger into his chest so he stumbled back against the bureau.

  ‘No!’ I said with a shout. ‘No. I never had a choice. You walked into my orchard and made me a vampire. Everything that has transpired since that event will be undone by this choice of mine.’

  I caught my breath in the silent moment that passed between us.

  ‘Did you ever forgive me?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘Did you?’ I asked. ‘I saw you. You told Suleen you were unsure if you could ever forgive me. That perhaps I was unlovable after . . .’ I hesitated, ‘after what I had done.’ My voice cracked. I was unable to help it.

  Rhode and I were only a foot apart. I watched the realization of this pass over his face. ‘That was a thought I had a few months ago. It never happened, and I regretted it ’

  ‘So your memory was . . . ?’

  ‘Just a thought I was having in the moment. You were connected to my thoughts.’

  I allowed this to settle over me.

  ‘You forgave me?’ I said quietly.

  I leaned to him and brought my lips within millimetres of his. He looked down at me, and we could so easily have kissed. His breath was so soft on my mouth.

  ‘Didn’t I always tell you, Lenah? You’re my only hope.’

  He bent forward just a hair, our lips grazed each other’s. I was about to kiss Rhode as a mortal for the first time.

  ‘I love you, Lenah,’ he whispered.

  I was lost in the possibility of Rhode’s lips caressing mine. My heart sang, and every pore in my body craved his touch. I wanted to be one with his soul.

  Bam!

  Someone pounded on the door to my room.

  We jumped apart.

  ‘I’ll get it,’ Rhode said, and when he backed away the air between us felt strange and spoiled.

  Vicken stood in the hallway dressed all in black, his hair slicked back so his features were more prominent. He smiled with his lips closed as though he was hiding something. Then his grin widened and two very fine and very white pointed fangs gleamed.

  ‘Wow!’ Rhode said, stepping back, and my spirits lifted when he chuckled.

  ‘You’re dressed as a vampire?’ I asked.

  Rhode shook his head in disbelief and chuckled again.

  ‘What?’ Vicken said with a shrug, as though it was the most normal thing in the world. ‘It’th ironic,’ he said with a lisp. The fake fangs made it difficult for him to close his mouth. He came in and shut the door behind him.

  ‘Lovely . . .’ Rhode said. He unzipped his duffel bag and pulled out his longsword. The silver blade caught the light and reflected tiny beams over the floor.

  ‘Vicken took a couple of steps into the room. ‘Look at the two of you. Pathetic,’ he said. ‘Where are you cothtumes? You can’t juth walk into a danthe with a thord on your back.’

  Rhode motioned at the bag lying open on the floor. ‘I took care of that.’ He turned over the duffel bag and five daggers spilled out. ‘Now, help.’

  CHAPTER 24

  White ruffles hanging off cheap fabric . . . faces painted to look like demons or angels . . . These were the snippets of costumes that I could see around me on Wickham campus the night of the Halloween dance, the final night of Nuit Rouge.

  The decorations were coupled with orange flashing lights. Security vehicles lit up the pathways.

  This was a new Wickham.

  A frightened Wickham.

  A Wickham tainted by vampire bloodlust.

  I scanned the crowds for Justin’s tall frame but I did not see him.

  Rhode, Vicken and I stood in the alleyway next to Seeker and watched our classmates cross the green towards Hopper and go into the gymnasium. I tightened the baldric on my back, a leather strap that held the sword close to my body. It pulled on my back whenever I moved.

  ‘So tell me what Fire said,’ Vicken asked for the tenth time.

  ‘She said knowledge was the key.’

  ‘We can’t worry about cryptic messages from the Aeris. We have to stay focused,’ Rhode commented, keeping his gaze on the dark campus.

  ‘Laertes said ten,’ I reminded Rhode.

  ‘Well, that’s easy then,’ Vicken said. ‘We wait here until ten, then we strike.’

  ‘We can’t leave those people in there,’ Rhode said. ‘We go to the dance. The first intimation that something’s out of the ordinary, we fight. Remember, we need to get Odette away from her coven so Lenah can pierce her heart. It’s cr
ucial she succeeds.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Vicken said, trying to push his fake fangs tighter into his mouth. ‘But you’re forgetting one important thing about this fight.’

  ‘Yes?’ Rhode said.

  ‘There will be hundreds of people in the room. We’re going to have to reveal ourselves in front of them.’

  Rhode shot me a meaningful look. We both knew the changes coming at dawn. We had to succeed. Succeed, or we would both be stuck here – with the Aeris’s decree and vampires seeking the ritual.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Rhode said, and we stepped out from the alley on to the pathway. I hadn’t told Vicken about my choice to go back to the medieval world. He deserved to know, yes, but I didn’t know how to explain to him the choice I had made.

  ‘Did I mention this is a smashing look for you?’ Vicken said, looking Rhode and me up and down.

  ‘They were the only costumes that would make sense with Lenah’s sword and my arrows,’ Rhode replied.

  We were dressed as Vikings. I would have laughed or perhaps suggested we took photographs, but in the situation that was not appropriate. The only costume events we had ever attended were masked balls in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This was different. My costume was a tank top, a pair of shorts, and boots with fake fur trim, good for concealing a spare dagger. Rhode’s was a kilt and a black tank top. I tried not to notice the curve of his biceps or the ripped muscles of his back.

  Matching my baldric, attached to Rhode’s back was a quiver holding arrows. All anyone could see were the feathers poking out of the top. Rhode held on to his bow, a sleek black modern-looking weapon.

  ‘You carry it,’ Rhode had said, when he fastened the sword behind me at the apartment earlier that night.

  ‘But it’s your sword,’ I had said, feeling the weight of the metal as the straps tightened over my chest.

  ‘I only borrowed it,’ he’d said, referring to the afternoon he visited Tony’s grave. ‘I left it in your possession for a reason.’ Our eyes met and he raised one side of his mouth, giving me a sad, uneven smile. I had never asked him about the ceremony at Tony’s grave.