As we walked, it was hard not to appreciate the efforts Wickham Boarding School had made to decorate for Halloween. Finally we were able to see it complete. Black streamers wrapped the trees that lined the pathways, orange twinkling lights blinked like lightning bugs from all imaginable scaffolding. Wickham was trying to bring its students together . . . Tony would have loved it.
Everyone was wrapped in their fall coats, so as they walked towards the gymnasium I could only see glimpses of costumes. I felt warm, but it could have been the adrenaline running through my body.
Vicken, Rhode and I walked together, like a team, like soldiers, carrying our weapons. We turned on to the pathway that led to Hopper, and next to it was the hill that led up to the archery plateau. It reminded me of Suleen, who had not shown himself in months. Even when I had really needed him, he had not come. The only remains of the carnival were the students’ booths. It seemed that the professional company had taken the House of Mirrors away with them.
With Rhode and Vicken by my side, we kept walking behind the other students. I took some deep breaths of fresh air; the smells of Wickham campus cleared my head. Wet grass, clean air, and the scent of the ocean somewhere close by. I tried not to say goodbye as I breathed out, but I knew that in some way I was already letting it go. Straight ahead of us was a good view of the campus including a stretch of woods beyond Hopper.
There were gasps and screams of happiness when the door to Hopper opened just ahead of us. Booming music from the gymnasium sent ripples of sound out into the night. I told myself to remember the way electricity lit up the darkness. That coffee could be brewed instantly into a cup. That music, the kind playing in the gymnasium, would have to hide deep within my heart, where I would always hear it.
‘Lenah!’ Tracy called from the pathway. I turned and saw her in a black overcoat and jeans. She jogged towards Vicken, Rhode and me. When she caught up with us, her eyes were red and she folded her arms across her chest.
‘I tried to find you earlier,’ she said.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
‘Justin,’ she replied.
‘Is there any news?’ I asked, the panic in my voice apparent.
‘He’s still missing. Officially now,’ Tracy said, ‘but they’re keeping it quiet because they don’t want people to panic.’
‘Are you all right?’ I asked Tracy.
‘I don’t know,’ she croaked. ‘Just hoping he’s OK.’ Her eyes told me that she hoped he was not already Odette’s next victim. ‘They sent Roy home,’ she added.
She was almost shaking as she went on. ‘The police have nothing. No note. No sign of distress,’ she said. ‘What about you guys?’ she asked, and finally looked at us properly. I couldn’t help but notice her eyes move from my sword to Rhode’s bow and arrows. She finished by looking at Vicken.
‘Are you . . . ? Are you dressed as a vampire?’ Tracy asked, taken aback.
I gulped nervously. Oh, Vicken, you nitwit.
A creeping smile inched its way across Tracy’s face. ‘You’re kinda sick.’
Vicken opened his mouth to reply but Ms Williams interrupted.
‘Hey! Come on, you guys,’ she said, appearing at the door to the gymnasium. She wore her mouse outfit again and had drawn whiskers on her face. Music echoed out over the campus once more. As we went inside, Ms Williams stopped and put a hand gently on my shoulder. She said quietly, ‘They’re looking, honey.’
I would have been more worried, but something deep within me told me what was going to happen. Perhaps it was a sixth sense, coming from the vampire inside me who once was so powerful she commanded not hundreds but thousands of the undead. That powerful part of me felt that Odette had Justin and that he was going to be part of her power play. I couldn’t say this aloud because it meant Justin wasn’t just off somewhere being his typical mischievous self. That he hadn’t gone back to being the boy who loved to race boats and was going to show up at the dance, brother Roy in tow, smiling and laughing. Somehow saying any of this would make it all too real and too much.
Saying it to Tracy would be too much.
‘Lenah,’ Tracy said, stopping in the gymnasium doorway. ‘I love him. Not like before. He’s my friend.’
I placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘I know,’ I replied. ‘I’ll do whatever I have to.’
Odette was going to use him as bait. Bait to bring us to her and make us fight. I was prepared for that. Even if I no longer loved Justin, I would save him.
As we walked, our boots joined the high heels and costume shoes. Tracy looked at me as we crossed into the gymnasium and I could see the strength beneath her worry. Only a very special human could run through a cemetery prepared to fight a vampire.
Rhode and I were silent as we joined the line of students.
Tracy turned to meet up with some of the other seniors who sat on the back ledge of the room.
I had plaited my hair so that it hung in a long braid down my back. I wanted it out of the way when I rammed the sword through Odette’s heart.
‘OK,’ Rhode said. ‘We have twenty minutes.’
‘Should we circle the perimeter?’ Vicken asked.
Rhode shook his head. ‘We should each go to a corner of the room and watch out for anyone or anything out of the ordinary.’
I agreed. By standing in different corners of the room, we would be able see if these vampires came into the gymnasium from any entrance. Next to where I stood were three tables of food, which made my stomach grumble.
If I was right that Odette had Justin as bait, there was no telling how she was intending to use him in this scenario. Lead me out alone into the hallway? Make a spectacle? I adjusted the baldric on my back, drawing Rhode’s sword closer to me.
Vicken and I stood against the back of the room in opposite corners, the bleachers stacked between us. His main blade was concealed in his boot, though I knew he had two more daggers hidden elsewhere on his body. We pretended to have a good time. When I’d first arrived at Wickham, I had hoped I would be able to be a normal girl, a girl who could forget the years she’d spent manipulating people and living off the joy of their pain. I had stood on the outside and Justin had made me feel like I could be on the inside.
I would never be on the inside again.
I tried to pay attention the best I could. Everyone’s costumes would have been entertaining had we actually been able to enjoy them: bunnies, superheroes, cats and Knights of the Round Table. There was plenty of skin showing, so I didn’t feel out of place in my skimpy Viking outfit.
The gymnasium was overrun with people dancing chest-to-chest, so close that their hips touched. Tiny drops of sweat collected on foreheads and slid off cheeks. Vicken and I were at either end of the bleachers, keeping watch. Rhode stood across from us, watching the entrance. Every once in a while I would see him talk to a teacher. He was always quick to make an excuse and go back to the shadows to keep watch again.
I glanced at the large clock on the wall. If Laertes was right, then Odette was two minutes behind schedule. Rhode stood against the wall, his arms across his chest. He met my eyes and kept my gaze. I would always be lost in that blue. Like the many thousands of night skies I had seen when I was a vampire.
With the scent of tobacco Vicken appeared next to me. His eyes stared unmoving across the room. He said simply and gravely, ’Well, this is an interesting twist.’
I followed his gaze to the front of the room. What I saw would shock me for the rest of my mortal days. I couldn’t move. I knew I was supposed to protect everyone in that room, but my feet and hands seemed not to be attached to the rest of my body. My breath caught and I blinked hard, trying to focus.
Then the screams began.
For Justin was here, and his costume was no costume. The youthful dew to his skin was gone, and the pores buffed away. The eyes that had softened for me, that had told me how much he loved me, were now glassy. Hardened. I could not mistake the madness.
Justin Enos was a vampire.
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CHAPTER 25
Two security guards lay lifeless on the floor, their necks held at odd disjointed angles. Dead. Immediate. Had they had time to call for back-up? Had they reached for their modern-day technology to save them? If so, it had failed them.
Justin stopped in the doorway, extended a hand into the hallway and pulled Odette into the gymnasium. He linked an arm around her waist, dipped her so her back arched and kissed her deeply. My lips parted in disbelief. Together they stalked into the room flanked by three other vampires. Justin wore the bright blue polo shirt that I had seen him in hundreds of times.
With a small bend of his knees, he jumped on top of a food table and kicked the chips and treats so they went flying into the air.
‘Welcome,’ Justin yelled, and pointed at the DJ, who lowered the music, ‘to the Halloween Ball. You know, I was looking forward to tonight.’ He squatted down on the table and extended a hand so Odette could climb up next to him.
Justin was a vampire. The horror rolled over me. She had won. Odette had won. She had stolen Justin away from humanity, taken all his beautiful warmth and life and made him into an icy, soulless vampire.
Odette and Justin stood on top of the table revelling in the terror they’d created. Most people stood in small huddles, while others leaned against the walls, frozen. A junior I recognized from my science class last year slowly inched a hand towards a knife on the cake table. Before he could reach it, Odette walked along the table to him, snatched the knife out of the cake, leaned down and stabbed the student in the side of the neck. More screams echoed throughout the gym, and a herd of people ran for the exit.
Blood spurted out of the young man’s neck in a wide arc and he grabbed at the knife, trying unsuccessfully to remove it. Odette stood back up as though she had simply brushed away a fly. I had to turn my eyes away. I did not want to watch his death; his cries made me sick to my stomach. The student fell, lifeless, to the floor.
‘The next person who even thinks of fighting me, dies.’ She turned to me with a sick smile. ‘Except for you, my dear.’
I couldn’t remove my eyes from Justin. How strange he looked as a vampire. How frighteningly regal and strong. How hard and statuesque. The morning I’d gone to his window, he was so soft. So gentle. So Justin. And now he was nothing. Just a shell harbouring anger and death.
I swallowed hard. I had to move – the rage inside me pulsed throughout my soul. I had to kill Odette. Then I could make things right. Justin wouldn’t be a vampire. My friends would be alive and safe. Everything would be reversed come morning.
‘We’ve come here tonight for a very special request,’ Odette announced.
Two vampires stood below Justin, standing guard. Another one was by the entrance. My stomach lurched as I remembered the vampire I had killed with the barrier spell. Justin was the fifth, the vampire that completed her coven.
Odette turned suddenly from Justin, jumped to the ground and walked quickly towards the gymnasium entrance. The sea of students parted before her, but Tracy stood firm against bleachers that were stacked by the wall. She sneered at Odette. She was planning something. She took a step forward, wielding something in her hand but I couldn’t see what.
Odette snatched at Tracy by grabbing and yanking her ponytail. A flash of silver, and I realized Tracy had been holding a knife. It clattered to the floor. I wouldn’t let her suffer. I had to get to her.
As I took a step, Justin jumped from the table in front of me, drawing my eyes away from Tracy.
‘I’ll take the two below Justin,’ Vicken yelled, and he ran past me. I could not watch because my gaze was locked on Justin’s unnatural marble-like eyes. I looked for any sign of the human boy I had loved.
There was a crash near the door. I glanced at the shadows where Rhode had been but I couldn’t see him. Odette had thrown a boy wearing a football-player costume against the bleachers, while still keeping a hand locked around Tracy’s hair. He lay in a crumpled heap on the floor.
‘The famous Rhode Lewin,’ I heard her say, and it ripped me in half. I wanted to run across the room but Justin was walking towards me in slow, long steps.
Instinct kept me backing away, despite the fact that only twenty-four hours earlier Justin had been holding my hand. I found my composure and comfort by pulling the baldric close to me. Ms Williams and the other teachers were opening windows at the back of the room.
Come on, Fire. I thought to myself. What is my knowledge? What’s the key?
Justin broke into a sneer and I took this as my cue.
I slid the sword out of the baldric and held it before me.
‘Lenah!’ Rhode yelled from somewhere.
‘I’m all right!’ I yelled back.
‘I always admired that sword,’ Justin said, stopping a few feet in front of me.
My body reacted but my mind still couldn’t believe it. A vampire behind Justin corralled a group of students into a corner. They huddled together, black make-up running down their cheeks in streaks.
‘You’re going to give me the ritual,’ he said as students ran for the open windows. He reached out and grabbed a girl from the group by the back of her costume. Justin held her in front of him and smiled at me through his cold dead eyes. His fangs slid down.
Maybe it was the connection between us, but I could feel Rhode’s presence. I could feel his power, his concentration. I didn’t need to look. All the times I had been unnaturally privy to his thoughts showed me now that he was lifting an elbow ready to fire an arrow into Justin’s heart. In my mind, I could see the sharp tip of the arrow pointed directly at Justin.
I could see Rhode’s face, spotted by specks of blood and sweat. No, I said in my mind. Rhode, you cannot kill Justin. I sidestepped so I stood directly before Justin, making it impossible for Rhode to kill him without first hitting me.
Rhode dropped the bow and arrow to his side.
‘Give me the ritual, Lenah,’ Justin said, and he adjusted his grip on the student even tighter. ‘Or I kill her. No, wait. Better yet, I’ll make her a vampire.’
I held my sword out in front of me. It only struck me then that the student he had ensnared was Andrea, the girl he had romanced earlier that year. Tears ran down her face.
‘Let her go,’ I said evenly.
I made myself forget the boy that had made me feel so warm and human. I concentrated on the hardness of his eyes.
‘Let. Her. Go,’ I said again.
I wasn’t sure what to do. Around us there was the sound of glass breaking, and an alarm wailing somewhere in Hopper. What had happened to Tracy? Justin threw Andrea forward so she fell to her knees. She scrambled away behind me.
‘Justin, I know this isn’t you. Sometimes the human within can remember.’
‘I remember your power, Lenah. From that day on the beach. I remember your power as a vampire. And I’ve always wanted it for myself.’
He was going to lunge forward, I knew that. His green eyes, now so alien, so strange, bored into mine.
I was smaller than Justin but I only had to choose one body part, one small body part, to disarm him. I could do any number of things to break his concentration, and then I would have to stab him directly in the heart or behead him.
The thought of that was impossible. He swiped, a dagger suddenly in his hand trying to stab me, but I jumped aside.
‘Go! Go!’ Vicken yelled, and the sound of his voice comforted me. He was still alive. But where was Odette? Where was Rhode?
Justin and I did not falter in our stare. I was ready, and as I raised my sword I lurched forward, lunging with all my body weight on to my left leg. I thrust the sword through the air but missed, and the blade arced through the air, the tip driving into the floor. A hard vibration rattled up the sword to my hand. I wanted to scream from the pressure on my fingers.
‘I could have just brought a gun,’ Justin said as he neatly sidestepped my attack. I kept my feet firmly planted on the ground, without moving from my fighting stance, and p
ulled the sword from the floor.
‘You wouldn’t miss the opportunity,’ I said. ‘You love being the centre of attention.’
‘Didn’t you once tell me I would have been a great vampire?’
I gasped. I had said that, hadn’t I? What was worse . . . I had been right.
‘You may be flesh and blood now but you’re still a murderer,’ Justin said. ‘You were responsible for Tony’s death.’
‘You loved Tony,’ I said, and I hated it but my voice broke. I looked at the gymnasium floor and the streamers trampled by our feet. Justin’s body was turned towards me. I lifted the sword above my head again and as he jumped forward to plunge his dagger into me I stepped left, dodging him.
Justin rounded on me quickly. ‘The whole vampire world knows about your ritual,’ he said, staring at me. ‘Give it to me. I can offer you protection.’
‘I’ll die first.’
‘I should have let Odette catch you long before that day in the art tower. I thought you might have figured it out by then.’
‘What are you talking about?’ I asked.
We circled each other, round and round, my sword held high, his dagger at the ready. For someone who had no experience of knife work, he was certainly agile. But then . . . his words crept into my mind.
‘You, the ritual. Rhode. Why you’re alive . . . so whatever you did with that ritual doesn’t matter to me. I want . . .’
He had been talking about the ritual all this time. From that night onward.
I clamped my jaw together, biting my words back, but I couldn’t help it. I had had no idea Justin had been in league with these vampires for weeks.
‘How long?’ I asked. ‘How long have you been under her control?’
‘I knew your true colours, Lenah, the night of your birthday. You think I didn’t set this up? I worked it all out. Planned it so you would trust me.’
He was with me that night for the ritual?
Behind Justin, one of the other vampires jumped at Vicken. Vicken’s back arched as the vampire hit him and he slammed into the ground. Vicken flipped over quickly, dagger still in his hand. I had to stay focused.