In the darkness of my closed eyes were blue hydrangeas, whose petals were the symbols of love and hope. Love and hope. Love and hope.
‘I love you,’ the deep voice said. As in the listening room, this voice had no British accent. Justin whispered my name again and again . . . until we slept.
CHAPTER 16
My head was filled with sand. What an odd sensation. I was aware it was on a pillow. I squinted an eye open – too bright. That hurt! Was this a demon light to cause so much pain? I’d heard that a demon hell was so bright it left a normal creature blinded.
Birds don’t chirp in demon hells.
I would just sleep; I was warm. Was I in my bed? I inhaled deeply: the woody ash of a campfire. Oh, right. I was at Lovers Bay camping ground. I dared to peep out.
The sun filtered through a blue vinyl ceiling, making the sleeping bag I lay in very warm.
I was in Justin’s tent.
He lay asleep next to me, on his back and his face angled towards me. I looked at his beautiful pouted lips and narrow nose. He had a slight stubble on his chin. He adjusted his position in his sleep, moving his arms above his head.
‘Lenah . . .’ he groaned.
The night’s events slammed back into place.
Oh, Lenah, you fool. Worse than a fool. Idiot girl. Foolish idiot girl. I had to figure out how to get out of the tent without waking him up. Oh no – what if Rhode had seen me with Justin? What if Rhode had never left the woods? He was bound to have been watching me, with those vampires milling about.
Calm down, Lenah. Get up slowly. Where is your shirt?
The weight of my blood made my head throb as I tried to get up. Slowly, I thought as my backside edged over the cloth of the sleeping bag. I grabbed my clothes that were lying next to the sleeping bag. A wave of nausea overwhelmed me. Not because I regretted spending the night in Justin’s tent.
Because a part of me didn’t regret it.
I watched him sleep for a moment. The silver rune necklace lay around his neck, shining in the early-morning light.
I don’t know, he had said about the necklace. I had to try to make sense of everything. Make sense of you.
He had sought out that knowledge rune so he could understand me and supernatural power. But what had happened last night was not supernatural. I needed him to touch me, to remind me what it felt like to be mortal. To know that even I could be forgiven. Forgiven by Justin, who had been so angry with me. Who had found a way to let me in.
I scooted out of the tent as quietly as I could. I peered around, but a large bush hid me from the rest of the camping ground. I quickly slipped into my clothes.
We were far back in the woods, but I could see Justin’s SUV near the remains of the campfire. Small silent tents dotted the campsite in a circle and remnants of marshmallow bags and party cups littered the ground.
I had to get back to Wickham campus, and it looked as if I would have to do it alone. Somehow I would have to explain to the security guards why I didn’t have a buddy to sign on to campus. I knew I shouldn’t be walking alone, but I would have to risk it.
Fully dressed, with a tip-tap of my toes on the crunchy grass, I headed for the woods, hesitating when I heard rustling in the tent. Justin must have been waking up.
I set off towards the pathway that led out of the camping ground, surveying my options. I did not dare walk across the camping ground, where Claudia and Tracy slept. I took a few steps towards the campsite exit but stopped.
A figure clad in black stepped out of the woods and on to the pathway in front of me. My heart stopped. I drew in a shallow breath. And another. The figure had dark hair and a tall frame, but he stood in the shadows of a large tree and I could not make out more. The morning light only touched the treetops. He took another step and my throat constricted at the sight. A vampire? I could run into the woods, perhaps lose him that way. I could make a ruckus in the camping ground, wake everyone up.
Wait.
This vampire was smoking a cigarette.
Vicken.
I stuck my hands deep into my pockets as I finally crossed out of the camping ground and into Main Street.
‘You are monstrously stupid. Do you know that?’ Vicken said. ‘I don’t need my ESP. I was told by that Claudia girl not to disturb you. I slept with my back against a bloody tree just to get away from her.’
‘Vicken . . .’ I said. My tone was an apology; as we walked back to school our strides matched.
In the warmth of the pocket of my jeans, my mother’s earrings, in their little black bag, bit at my fingertips. My peach-schnapps headache ebbed as I kept walking. The sunrise kissed the buildings on Main Street.
‘I was supposed to protect you,’ Vicken said in a low voice.
‘Spare me,’ I said as a tingle of guilt spread from the pit of my stomach to my face. We kept walking, faster and faster, in that early-morning light. Up Main Street, past the shops and market until we were at the campus gates.
‘Names?’ the security guard demanded.
Vicken and I showed our IDs and the pedestrian gate opened.
‘Vicken,’ I said as we walked back on to campus, ‘you have to promise me you won’t say anything to Rhode.’
‘Promise you? He was walking the perimeter too!’
I didn’t know what this meant, so I bit at the inside of my cheek. Vicken’s dark expression softened.
‘Why’d you do it?’ he asked.
I didn’t answer.
‘Never mind, let’s just get upstairs. I’m dying for a coffee,’ he said.
Step by step, we walked past the security guard of my building and up the staircase. We were almost at my floor when –
Apples again, coming up the stairwell in a nauseating stench. Apples rotting. Apples fermenting in a broken wooden barrel. I could see them in my mind. An image from my past: apples sitting out in the sun too long, brown and leathery.
‘No!’ I shouted, throwing a palm against the nautical-themed wallpaper of the hallway.
Rhode stands in the centre of his room. He lifts the sword from the floor. I see his chest – he breathes rapidly. He then hits the sword on the telescope, sending pieces of black metal into the air. He slams his lamp, and glass shards fly in all directions. His rage . . .
‘No!’ I yelled, and fell to my knees. Below me a few doors opened with metallic clicks.
‘Everything OK up there?’ someone yelled.
‘We’re fine. Fine!’ Vicken called back, and I opened my eyes, trying to focus on him. But his wild hair kept coming in and out of my vision of Rhode destroying his room.
I held back a scream of horror. Rhode’s anger pulsed through me in a series of heartbeats. I tried to recall the images of Rhode, close my eyes and see him. His anger rushed through me as tiny sparks exploded in my body.
He knew I had been with Justin in that tent.
‘What did you see?’ Vicken asked, and it was only then that I realized he was holding my hand. ‘That was another vision of Rhode, wasn’t it?’
‘He’s angry,’ I said. ‘He definitely saw me last night.’
Vicken pulled me up. I could smell pine on his clothes and tobacco on his skin and his breath. No apples . . . luckily.
Somehow, the last set of stairs seemed impossibly hard to climb. But I managed them. Once in my apartment, I would shut the door, go into my bedroom and crawl under the covers.
Do you forgive me? I had asked Justin. He had said yes. But now I realized I was asking the wrong person.
I’d hoped as Justin touched my salty tears that he hadn’t realized I was crying because I wished he had been Rhode. Shouldn’t I have been happy to be touching someone who cared so much for me? Exhilarated, just like last year, when we were together and I was overjoyed and happy to feel loved?
‘If you keep gasping without telling me what’s going on, I’ll lock you up until you do,’ said Vicken.
‘It’s just about last night,’ I replied, and reached out to grasp the doorknob. My fingers grippe
d the metal.
Searing pain radiated up and down my body. My gut wrenched in a knot so tight that I doubled over. My knees hit the cheap carpeting and the hard fabric raked my skin through my jeans. I placed a palm on the floor, saliva whooshing into my mouth.
The barrier spell worked!
‘You used to be able to drink pints and pints of blood. You were a powerful vampire queen. This is ridiculous,’ Vicken said.
He lifted a hand to open the door.
‘No! No!’ I cried, and raised my hand. It felt like a dead weight and I pressed it back on to the floor. ‘The barrier spell has ignited,’ I said. This sickness was the mortal reaction to powerful magic.
It meant that a vampire had tried to break into my room. If it was Odette, she would be a pile of ash on the floor. The spell would have killed any supernatural intruder instantly.
Vicken sat back on his heels and stared at the door, his eyes wide in shock. ‘Guess she found out the ritual you gave her’s a fake,’ he said.
The magic of the barrier spell meant all the herbs I scattered had ignited, sending energy about the room. That energy made us, now mere mortals, ill. I reached a palm up and hesitated in front of the door. I had to see if it was hot or cold. If it was hot, the spell was recent; cold and it had occurred some hours earlier.
Almost simultaneously, Vicken and placed our palms against the door. His knuckles whitened and then his hand dropped, hitting his thigh.
‘Hot,’ he said, and his tone was grave. ‘They must have just tried.’
My fingertips zinged as I also dropped my hand from the door. The energy of the spell sent shocks of electricity up my arms. Vicken clenched and unclenched his hands. I grabbed on to him to help me stand. He stood up too. I hesitated, holding the key before the door. Then I slid the key in the lock, turned it and the doorknob, and the latch clicked.
‘Hunc locum bonis ominibus prosequi,’ I said, Bless this space in Latin. My hands still tingled as though they had fallen asleep. I kept squeezing them into fists.
‘Let’s go in,’ Vicken said. The door creaked open slowly. We stood there a moment – waiting. A weird white noise echoed, as though hundreds of people were screaming from the end of a long tunnel. These were the reverberations of the vampire’s screams.
Tiny specks of grey ash now lined the perimeter of the living room where the herbs had been.
In the centre of the room was a collection of sooty grey ash.
I walked towards it but something caught my eye. The door to the balcony was open. Someone was moving out there. It took me a moment to recognize her. Odette rolled on to her side so her blonde curls fell over her face. She appeared to be struggling to her feet.
I jumped over the pile of ash to the balcony door, but Odette was already standing. Vicken pushed past me and shoved Odette so she fell. She sat down abruptly, and I saw she was hurt. Her arm was covered in blood, her fingers raw and nails cracked. Perfect – she was injured. Perhaps we could beat her while her guard was down. Vicken reached into his boot for a dagger, but Odette rocked on to her back and kicked out, sending him backwards.
Why, now of all times, had Rhode taken the sword?
Odette ran to the edge of my balcony.
‘Go!’ I yelled, and pushed Vicken towards her.
But she was much too fast. Like her strength, Odette’s speed outmatched that of any normal vampire. I made it to the stone ledge of the balcony, threw out my hands and tried to grasp on to a leg of her trousers. The fabric grazed my fingers as she shot into the air.
She landed on the roof of the building next to mine. I expected her to fall cat-like, on her feet, as I had seen her do every other time. But she stumbled, her arms windmilling to keep her balance until she dropped to her knees.
Vicken lifted a leg to step on to the ledge of the balcony. He was going to try to jump!
As a human, there was no way Vicken would make it without serious injury. I grasped on to his arm, heaving him back on to the balcony. We fell together on to the tiles.
‘No,’ I said breathlessly. Our eyes met. ‘I will not lose you again.’
He held my gaze for a moment, and the fight in his eyes softened. He sighed and pulled me up. We stood together by the ledge for a moment.
‘Let’s go down,’ I said, pulling Vicken by his shirtsleeve. I intended to meet Odette at ground level. Two against one, we maybe had a chance. If she didn’t outrun us first.
‘Wait . . .’ said Vicken darkly.
Odette pressed herself up from the roof, but her arms gave out and her elbows hit the ground.
‘What the . . . ?’ Vicken said. ‘Look!’
She heaved again and this time got upright. She went over to the edge of the building and raised her arms above her head. I gripped Vicken’s forearm in anticipation as Odette jumped off the roof and ran away into the darkness.
‘Wow! How the hell did she do that?’ asked Vicken.
‘And her arms,’ I whispered. ‘She healed instantly. Did you see them when she lifted them above her head? They weren’t bloody any more.’
‘I’m more concerned that she can get on campus,’ Vicken replied. ‘She did it before October too. The protection of the ritual is over.’
The ash of the vampire who did not make it out of my apartment sat in a small pile, directly in the centre of the room.
But, for Odette, her cracked and bloody wounds had healed in minutes. No vampire I had ever known could heal that quickly. But, then again, everything I knew about vampires was being tested by Odette.
We went back inside my apartment and Vicken bent over the ash of the dead vampire. He squatted down and pulled out a thick silver watch from the centre of the pile. It dangled on the end of his finger.
‘A man’s watch,’ Vicken said. ‘Odette’s ruthless,’ he continued. ‘She sacrificed a member of her coven. She knew you would raise a barrier.’
As I surveyed the charred herbs around the perimeter of the room, I could sense that the energy in that room had changed. Any supernatural creature who entered would know that the barrier spell had protected me. That was why Odette had been injured. The first vampire had probably been incinerated by walking into the space. Only Odette’s fingers and forearm had made it into my apartment before she’d realized what was happening.
Either way, it was now my space, sacred and holy. Just like Rhode always said . . . energy leaves an indelible mark. With the smell of the campfire in my hair, and the pulsating images of Rhode smashing his room, I knew what I must do. We needed help. We needed protection. I couldn’t let Odette and her minions dominate us any more.
I turned from the doorway.
‘I’m going to perform a summoning spell,’ I said to Vicken. ‘I’m not going to wait and let her control me.’
‘Oh, really,’ he said, his tone laced with sarcasm.
‘Despite what you may think, Rhode is losing his mind and I need your help. Especially now that Odette can come on campus.’
‘Do you want me to bow, or will an all right suffice?’ He lifted an eyebrow and leaned a shoulder on the wall.
‘We’re calling Suleen, and we’re doing it at sunrise.’
Vicken didn’t respond, but he kept looking at me with that same smug expression: one eyebrow raised and an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth.
‘You’re not going to fight me on this?’ I said, disbelieving.
‘I’m not going to win, am I? You did the barrier spell. I didn’t think that would work and it did.’
‘Let’s try it at sunrise. When the moon and the sun share the same sky. It’s the most spiritual time of the day.’
‘Should I call you ma’am?’
‘Stop it,’ I said.
‘How about mistress? Or goddess?’
‘She’s lost a member of her coven; there are only four now,’ I said. ‘And we know she heals quickly. At least we know those things.’
‘That’s not all we know, love,’ Vicken added, and lit the cigarette. He inhaled d
eeply then on his exhale said, ‘We uncovered something else of the utmost importance this morning.’
‘What’s that?’ I asked.
‘She fell when she hit that roof. She’s weakened when she bleeds.’
If Odette was weakened when she bled, then we would have to bleed her to fight her, eventually stabbing her in the heart. It would be the only way to kill her. In the meantime, we needed help.
We wasted no time.
Before dawn the next morning, I was resting my head against the passenger seat of my tiny blue car, my eyes closed, my hair whipping back and forth from the breeze. If it wasn’t for the sound of the motor, we could have been in a fast-moving carriage – but we weren’t. Vicken was driving, and with a sharp turn and another rev I was thrown against the door. I clutched on to the armrest and opened my eyes. When we pulled on to Lovers Bay beach, the moon hung over the harbour, creating wavy lines of grey-blue light. Soon the sun would rise. I could feel it in my heart, in my bones. Perhaps, like a sixth sense, I would always be able to perceive the sun and its power. Its danger.
We sat in the quiet and looked out at the water.
‘She’s getting her strength from somewhere,’ I said, staring out at the ocean. ‘A spell or something. That’s the only way her skin can regenerate so fast.’
‘Let’s not worry about that,’ Vicken said. ‘Just focus on the spell.’
‘We need all four elements represented.’ Even as I said it, the Aeris came to my mind. Especially Fire and her crackling hair.
I reached into the back seat for our supplies and the spell book, which were all in my special spell bag. We got out of the car, and when I stepped on to the small beach, my boots sunk into the soft sand. Stars twinkled above us in the hazy light. This time of the morning was called the Line. Vampires consider it holy. A time for spells, when the world is unsure of itself; no longer night, not quite morning . . .
I checked the area immediately in front of the parking lot.
‘Let’s go down there, out of sight,’ I said, wanting to be far away from any common human’s eye. ‘We need that driftwood over there. We can stack it by the shore.’ I pointed to a stand of three trees at whose base was stacked a pile old wood, weathered from the seasons.
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