by Amy Cross
“I'm sorry to wake you in the middle of the night,” Jennifer replied, leading Anna into the house, “but it was either this, or take her up to the Le Compte mansion, and I don't think that's such a good idea right now. They're so busy trying to save Kate, and I'm not sure whether -”
“Save Kate?”
Estella put a hand on Jennifer's arm, as if to still her.
“What do you mean,” she asked, the shock in her voice having risen several pitches, “save Kate?”
“She's hurt,” Jennifer replied. “Badly hurt this time, and when her chest was opened -”
“Her chest?”
“She has two hearts.”
Estella opened her mouth, but no words came out.
“I don't know if she'll make it through the night,” Jennifer continued, “but... I know this might sound awful, I just need your help with Anna first, then I can worry about Kate.”
“I should go to her at once,” Estella replied, turning and heading toward the door before stopping after just a couple of paces. “Or should I?”
“Anna -”
“I'm talking about Kate,” Estella replied, her eyes wide with shock and wonder. “Should I go and try to help?” She looked down at her hands. “I might be able to help, you know. I helped you, remember? I -” She turned to Jennifer. “I brought you back from the dead.”
Jennifer swallowed hard. “I know.”
“I brought you back,” Estella continued, stepping toward her and raising her hands to the side of Jennifer's face, “from the dead! Somehow the full enormity of that has only just struck me!”
“Listen -”
“Like Jesus,” she added, her voice trembling with fear. “My God, I mean... Do you realize what power I possess? The ability to bring someone back from death... If I can do that, is there any limit to my abilities at all? Can I do anything?”
“I need you to help Anna.”
“Maybe I can help everyone,” Estella continued. “I'm sure I could help Kate. I could go up there and save her, and if I got there too late I could simply resurrect her.” She stepped back, staring once again at her hands. “Should I? If I do, perhaps Edgar will love me again, but then Kate will be around. And if I don't, Kate will be gone but Edgar will hate me.” With tears in her eyes, she looked toward the window. “I don't know what to do.”
“I need you to take my daughter's nightmares away,” Jennifer replied.
Estella turned to her.
“She spent so long at Ravens Briar, I don't know how she's going to deal with it. I know what you did to Doctor Lassiter, and I'm hoping you can do the same to her.”
“Doctor Lassiter?” Estella paused. “He might love me too.”
“Make your mind up,” Jennifer replied, rolling her eyes.
“Why should I settle for the love of one man?” Estella asked. “I could have them both!”
“Can you help Anna or not?”
Looking down at the scared, teary-eyed girl, Estella blinked a couple of times, as if she was suddenly remembering who and where she was.
“Help her?” she whispered. “Of course I can help her. I can do anything. Or nearly anything.”
“Everyone knows what happened to Doctor Lassiter,” Jennifer continued. “You wiped his mind somehow. You made it so he forgot all about you, and about everything that ever happened between the pair of you. I need you to do the same thing for Anna. Make her forget about Ms. Eversham, about Raven's Briar, about all of it. I don't want her to even remember that she ever went to Parios.” Crouching next to Anna, she kissed the side of her daughter's face. “Anna, show Ms. Graves your teeth.”
Cautiously, Anna opened her mouth, revealing the two sharp little fangs that she'd grown during her time at Raven's Briar.
“And I need you to get rid of these,” Jennifer added. “Please, Estella, you're my only hope.”
“But...” Staring at the fangs, Estella felt a shiver pass through her body. “Memories are like threads,” she said finally. “I can remove her memories of Raven's Briar, or at least I think I can, but too many reminders might bring them back.”
“What kind of reminders?”
“Anyone she sees here, who she also saw there.”
“Like me?” Jennifer asked. “I went there to rescue her.”
“Hopefully that won't be a sufficiently strong memory,” Estella replied, stepping closer to Anna, “but if there were others... You went to Parios with Kate Langley and Madeleine Le Compte, did you not?”
Jennifer nodded.
“Then once I'm finished,” Estella continued, “it might be wise to keep your daughter away from those two. To avoid the possibility of her memory being stirred, you understand.”
“Whatever it takes,” Jennifer replied.
“As for the teeth,” Estella added, “I believe I can remove them, provided they haven't been there for too long. I won't know until I get started, though. The teeth might prove to be more difficult, but I'll try my best. If I can't do it, though, you would need to ask James Nixon for assistance. Beneath everything else, he's a kind and decent man and I'm sure he'd know what to do.”
“Please help in any way you can,” Jennifer continued. “We'll be forever in your debt.”
Estella stared down at Anna for a moment. “It would be the right thing to do, would it not?” she asked finally, turning to Jennifer. “It might even prove to other people that I'm not entirely evil.” She paused. “Go to another room. I shall need time alone with your daughter, and I must prepare something for her to drink. You must not interfere or interrupt, and you must not come back through unless I give you strict instructions to do so, do you understand? If you go against my word in any manner, you might cause unalterable harm to the child.”
“Please don't go,” Anna whispered, pulling on Jennifer's arm.
“It's just for a few minutes,” Jennifer told her. “Be brave.”
“But -”
“I know you can do it.” She kissed the top of her daughter's head. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Anna replied, with tears running down her cheeks. “My head hurts.”
“It'll all be okay,” Estella told her with a smile. “Your mother will just go out of the room for a little while, won't you?”
“I trust you, Estella,” Jennifer replied, heading to the door. “Just... Please, let her be a little girl again. Let her be happy and normal.”
“I shall do my best,” Estella said as Jennifer made her way to the back of the house.
“Are you going to make my nightmares go away?” Anna asked, staring up at Estella.
“I am,” Estella replied, kneeling in front of her. “You're a very lucky little girl, you know. You've seen things that most people would never dream possible, but perhaps you've become a little too deeply involved in the whole thing. You have your whole life ahead of you, and trust me, a life spent in the company of the Le Compte family is not a good life.” Reaching out, she put a hand on the side of Anna's face. “In a few minutes' time, you'll be freed of that burden. Would you like that?”
Sniffing back tears, Anna nodded.
“Wonderful,” Estella replied, glancing over at the bottle on the desk. “Then we shall begin.”
III
“I was like a ninja,” Madeleine continued, with mounting excitement. “I mean, I don't want to get big-headed, but basically I took on this entire army of little vampire freaks and I got them out of the way without even breaking a sweat. And then old Eversham, she was pretty easy too. Without me, the whole thing would have gone horribly wrong, and in case I need to remind you...”
She stuck a finger into each of her empty eye sockets.
“Still blind as a bat, remember?” she added. “Well, not blind as a bat, exactly. That's a poor comparison, bats are able to see far more than humans, for example, but...”
She paused, watching as Benjamin remained in place at the window, looking out at the lawn.
“You don't seem as massively impressed
as I'd hoped,” she said finally.
“I'm sorry,” he replied, forcing a smile as he turned to her, “I just...” Pausing, he stared at her, as if something was troubling him a great deal. “I want to leave Thaxos,” he said after a moment.
“Are you joking?” she replied. “I just told you, there are ninjas and freaky vampire brats out there.” Heading over to him, she fumbled to find his shoulders, and then she leaned closer and kissed the side of his face. “I know Thaxos can seem like Freak Island sometimes, but trust me, there are way, way worse things out there in the world. Believe it or not, I think we're actually safer here.”
“In your brother's shadow.”
“Yeah, in my -” She stared at him for a moment. “What's wrong, Benjamin? You seem different since I got back.”
“Edgar pushes you to extremes.”
“Edgar doesn't push me to anything.”
“Yes,” he replied firmly, “he does. You keep trying to impress him, and in the process you end up acting like a maniac. That's not the same Madeleine Le Compte I first met, it's not the one I...” He caught himself just in time. “When you were bitter about Edgar, you were yourself, or at least I thought you were. Now that you're more or less on his side, you're turning yourself into some kind of carnival clown, like a hyper-manic version of your brother. You're over the top, Madeleine, and I'm worried about where it's leading.”
“I just saved a lot of lives,” she replied, “and I also had a little epiphany regarding cold-bloods. I didn't even slaughter the ones who were left at the end. I thought you'd be proud of me.”
“Where do you see yourself in ten years' time? In twenty? I'll be getting old by then, and you'll still be...” His voice trailed off.
“Beautiful and young and hot?”
He smiled, but with a hint of sadness in his eyes. “Exactly.”
“So you're worried about getting old,” she continued with a faint sigh. “You're worried about being a little old limp-dicked man, covered in wrinkles, walking with a stick, while I'm still the same as ever.” She waited for him to reply. “That's what you're really getting all bothered about, isn't it? You don't see how someone from your species and someone from my species could ever co-exist, not in the long-term. You humans are always so hung up on things like that.”
“I just think there are a lot of things we haven't worked out yet,” he replied.
“So do you want me to bite you?” she asked, opening her mouth to reveal her fangs. “Let me guess. You've read books about vampires, and you think maybe I could bite your neck and then you'd be like me?”
“Madeleine, no -”
“It doesn't work like that,” she added. “Humans becoming vampires... It's a much, much more complicated process, and it's not one that can really be controlled. I could ask Edgar -”
“I don't want you to ask Edgar anything. This is between you and me.”
“Or do you want me to become human?” she continued. “Do you want me to somehow relinquish my vampire life and be like you? Do you want me to age, to lose my fabulous looks, to wither on the vine and then turn to dust one day?”
He shook his head.
“I can live forever,” she told him. “Barring major cock-ups, I can walk this world until there's no world left to walk, until the ground beneath my feet breaks into dust. And after that, I don't know what happens to me, no vampire knows what'll happen to the species in the long-run. Sometimes I imagine that we'll be all that's left on some barren, post-apocalyptic world when every other species is gone, and then what?” She paused. “Eternal life brings its own fears, Benjamin. In ten millions years' time -”
“Would you even remember me?”
“I could never forget you.”
“But ten million years,” he continued, “is a long time. You can't be alone for ten million years. You'll have to take other lovers, other husbands maybe. When you get to that point and you look back at your life, will you even remember this moment? Because I know that for the rest of my paltry time on this planet, I will always, always remember you.”
She stared at him for a moment, as if she wasn't quite sure what to say. “You're right,” she told him finally, “I suppose I will have a long life after you're gone. Mating for life is difficult when you're immortal and your mate shrivels up and dies after half a century, but... No matter what happens to me in the future, you have to believe that you, Benjamin Wood, will always be the love of my life. And all these things you're worried about are things that I'm worried about too. I just...” She leaned closer and kissed his neck. “If I could find a way to change it, would you accept?” she whispered.
“Madeleine -”
“There might be ways,” she continued, keeping her voice low. “I'm willing to make that sacrifice for you.”
“I don't know if I want to be a vampire,” he replied.
“I don't know if you can be one,” she told him, “but...” She paused, as if there was a sudden sense of fear in her soul. “What if it went the other way? What if I could find a way to relinquish certain things and stay with you forever? Or at least, for the length of a natural lifespan.”
“You mean...” He looked down at her face for a moment. “No, Madeleine. I can't ask you to do that.”
“You're not. I'm saying it might be something that I want.”
“But if -”
“You were right about me and Edgar,” she continued. “I do act differently when I'm trying to impress him. Sometimes I feel like I'm just the annoying, loud female version of my brother. Maybe if I became more fragile, if I became human, I could be more myself.”
“You want to become more yourself by changing yourself?”
“I want to be more like you.”
“That's not what love is, Madeleine. You can't go from trying to be like Edgar, to trying to be like me.”
“Then what can I do?” she hissed, as frustration began to burst through her chest. “I feel like I have three choices, Benjamin. One, I can carry on acting like a clownish mirror of my brother. Two, I can become human and settle into a human life with you. Or three, I can leave Thaxos and travel the world as a kind of trouble-solving ninja warrior. The truth is...” She paused. “The truth is, I hate being so similar to Edgar. And I don't want to travel the world. But...”
“You can't change what you are,” he told her. “Don't even entertain that idea for a moment longer. You have to be true to yourself.”
“But you already said you find it hard to see how that can work.”
“I do.”
“Then what...” She stared at him for a moment. “Tell me what to do. Or let me tell you what to do. Either way, we have to find a solution.”
“Have you ever heard of a vampire and a human managing to make things work?” he asked.
“I've heard of them trying.”
“And?”
“And...” She paused. “And we can be the first who actually succeed.” She waited for him to reply. “We almost had a child together, Benjamin. Maybe if we cut through all the crap, maybe if we have another child, and another, and more after that, then it doesn't matter how long each of us lives, not if we have children who carry a little of each of us in their hearts. That's the kind of immortality that only comes from two people joining together. One person can't manage it alone.” She put her arms around his waist. “You need time to think about this, don't you?”
“So do you,” he replied.
“Then let's take that time,” she continued. “Go home, take as long as you need, and come back when you understand what to do. Or when you think you understand. You know what I want, but you have to want it too.”
“I want it,” he replied, kissing the side of her face, “I just have to see a way for it to work without there being constant fear and disruption.”
“You want an ordinary life,” she whispered.
“With you. I want an ordinary life with you.”
“Then I really think you're going to have to choose,” she
replied, “because I'm not sure those two things can ever go hand in hand.”
***
“Come on, Kate,” Nixon whispered as he placed another clamp close to her heart. “You can pull through this, I know you can. You have to.”
“I need a moment alone with her,” Edgar said suddenly.
Having not realized that he had company, Nixon turned and saw that Edgar was standing in the doorway.
“What's her condition now?” Edgar asked, stepping closer.
“She's still not out of the woods. She suffered three heart attacks in the past hour, but somehow I managed to get the damn thing restarted each time. She's resilient, I'll give her that, and I think she's a little more stable right now, but there's still a lot more work that I need to do. At least I have more hope than I had before.” He looked down at his blood-stained hands. “Do you remember when she broke her ankles recently, falling from the window? I should have noticed that they healed remarkably quickly.”
“The second heart was responsible?”
“Her metabolism is remarkable.”
“But she's still...” Staring down at Kate's open chest for a moment, Edgar watched the two hearts beating in time with one another. “She's still human, is she not?”
“Absolutely,” Nixon replied. “She's tough, she's able to withstand a little more punishment than the average human, but she's still one of them.” He paused. “She said something about being injured in the future, and about you having saved her life. From the sounds of it, it's almost like you put her back together. The thing is, Edgar, I don't see why you'd have put this second heart in her chest when instead you could have... Well, you know what you could have done.”
“I could have changed her,” he said quietly.
“You could have turned her into a vampire. Why didn't you?”
“I don't know,” he replied. “Obviously my future self felt that would be a mistake.” He stared down at Kate's sleeping face for a moment. “Can she hear us?”
“I gave her a sedative.”
“Leave me alone with her for a moment,” he continued. “I have something I must tell her.”