Suzanne looked up at him, annoyed. “And when did this get decided?” she snapped.
“It got decided a few days ago when someone matching Katrina’s description was seen in New York.”
“And you forgot to tell me this because?” Suzanne accused, jumping up off the plush velvet sofa and coming face to face with Marcus.
“If you had let me finish I would have told you, Suzanne,” Marcus continued calmly, stepping away from her.
“Will you two please stop bickering?” Emily said quietly, rubbing her temples.
An uncomfortable silence fell over the room and Suzanne looked at the other people surrounding her. Emily was at a walnut desk by the windows, writing in one of her many journals which she had kept since she had been turned into a vampire. She glanced up under Suzanne’s gaze and smiled at her, before returning to her writing.
Next Suzanne averted her eyes toward Jonathan, who was playing solitaire with a deck of playing cards at a small oak table in the corner of the room. Then she looked over to Marcus, who stood beside the fireplace, staring at the flickering flames. The fire cast eerie shadows over Marcus’ face which made Suzanne shiver; sometimes Suzanne forgot that Marcus wasn’t human but a vampire, and a powerful one at that.
Nervously touching her silver heart shaped pendant, a constant reminder of her sister, Suzanne took a deep breath and walked over to Marcus.
“What exactly do you know?” Suzanne asked desperately.
“I know that you’re putting yourself through hell for no reason!”
“No reason! My sister could be anywhere, or even dead, and you’re making out that I shouldn’t worry!”
“As I said, Katrina has been seen in America.”
“Okay then, how did they know that the person they saw was Katrina?” Suzanne asked sarcastically.
“They just did!”
“That’s not an answer, that’s an excuse. I want to know how.”
“I can’t tell you, Suzanne. I’d like to but I can’t.”
“You can’t or you won’t?”
“Marcus, why can’t you just tell her what’s going on?” Emily intervened, appearing at Marcus’ side.
“Emily, please keep out of this!” Marcus snarled, baring his fangs briefly at her.
“Why should I?” Emily demanded.
“Because it doesn’t concern you,” Marcus retorted.
Emily laughed and raised her arms in disbelief. “Marcus, I can’t believe you! Do you know what you’re saying? If there is any information on Katrina it concerns all of us, especially Suzanne!”
“Please tell me, Marcus,” Suzanne pleaded. Tears started to form in her eyes.
“Suzanne, you won’t like what I’ve got to say,” Marcus said, moving away from the girls to sit down on the sofa nearest the fire. “Katrina attacked a small child. In the struggle, the girl tore off Katrina’s silver pendant.” He glanced at the pendant’s twin, delicately hanging from Suzanne’s neck.
Suzanne recoiled at Marcus’ words, then sat stiffly in a stunned silence, staring blankly off into space. Emily sat down on the other side of Suzanne, looking equally shocked.
For a long time, the room was silent.
Finally, Marcus stood up to place a log on the fire and stroke the embers. “I don’t know about anyone else but I think it is really cold,” he said nervously.
“Should I tell you what I think,” Suzanne said as she stood up, her voice low and steely.
“What’s that?”
“I think,” Suzanne replied, her voice beginning to crack, “that you’re a liar! My sister is not a murderer!” On the last word she burst into tears, then bolted from the room.
“Suzanne!” Marcus called after her, but only heard the front door slam in reply.
“Marcus, you’re so insensitive!” Emily snapped. She stood up, straightening her dress and petticoats.
“Emily!”
“Yes?”
“Remember that we have to leave early tomorrow for the Southampton docks.”
At the door, Emily paused and glanced back at Marcus and Jonathan and did a quick mind sweep, an ability to read thoughts and emotions that both she and Marcus had perfected in the past hundred years. A feeling of disgust came over her. I have got to stop doing that. Reading minds is a minefield and the only thing those two ever think of is blood. It’s disturbing. Quickly closing the door behind her so Marcus couldn’t sense what she was feeling, Emily hurried downstairs and grabbed her cloak on the way out of the front door.
Once outside, Emily sniffed the air to see which direction Suzanne had taken. Finding a faint scent, Emily made her way through the deserted, mist shrouded streets of London, getting lost twice in the maze-like streets of the East End before hours later she finally reached the nearby countryside of Southern Buckinghamshire and onto the small cemetery in Greendale.
“Suzanne!” Emily called into the cemetery.
Silence.
“Suzanne!” Emily called again into the darkness.
“I’m over here, Emily,” a sad voice called back.
Emily made her way through the broken tombstones until she came across a grave marked ‘HARVEY’. In the moist soil lay a silver wolf, its hazel eyes tinted with gold. Around its neck it wore an instantly recognizable silver pendant.
“Suzanne, what are you doing?” Emily asked, taking a seat next to her.
“Nothing, I guess,” Suzanne replied, laying her head on her two front paws.
“You call sitting in a dark cemetery in the middle of the night nothing?” Emily said, rolling her eyes.
“I come here to be closer to them.”
“Who?” Emily asked, looking around.
“My family. I come to visit my parents’ grave most nights.”
“But alone!” Emily replied, concerned. This was so unlike Suzanne’s normal behavior. It made Emily worry.
“Yes, alone! I prefer it that way.”
Emily hesitated momentarily before venturing a reply. “Do you miss them? Your parents, I mean.”
Suzanne sighed, “The last time I saw them we argued, and I let them down. So, yes … I do miss them.” Suzanne cleared her throat. “Even more so now that Katrina is missing.”
“But, Suzanne, Marcus said that Katrina was in New York. She can’t be missing.”
“Marcus also said that my sister attacked a little girl,” Suzanne said, tears of fury stinging her eyes. “I know my sister wouldn’t do that.”
“But what about the evidence?”
“What evidence?” Suzanne growled, baring her fangs and letting her hackles raise on her arched back.
“The evidence that proves that your sister was in America!”
“It’s all circumstantial; there’s no real proof!” Suzanne insisted, lying back down.
“I’m sorry, Suzanne, but I must disagree. You get blind-sighted when anyone says anything remotely bad about your sister.”
“So you’re saying that Katrina is a murderer then?” Suzanne snapped.
“No!” Emily replied defensively.
“It doesn’t sound like it!”
“Please, let me explain!”
“No, Emily. I think you have said plenty already.” Suzanne jumped up and began to stalk away.
“Suzanne!”
Turning back momentarily, Suzanne growled, “Don’t follow me.”
Emily stood up, watched Suzanne disappear into the darkness, and began to cry.
I don’t like this, Emily thought.
It had been too long since the last time she had cried. Emily closed her eyes and tried to remember. In her mind’s eye she saw herself, her mother, and her little sister walking to church one Sunday morning. Even after years of forgetting everything else, she still remembered what had happened that fateful day.
She squeezed her eyes shut and held her head in pain as the images from the past came back to haunt her then, collapsing to the ground, Emily screamed, “I don’t want to remember anymore!”
But the images wouldn’t leave her alone. The man who had killed her mother and sister but had spared her was going to pay for what he had done to her family. She would make him experience some of the pain that she had suffered over the years, then kill him just as coldly as he had done to her family.
Finally, the images began to recede back to the dark place in her mind where she kept them safely hidden.
“Are you alright?”
Emily opened her eyes, quickly jumped up, instinctively went into a fighting stance, and turned toward the voice. Instead of seeing a vampire or some other monster to pummel there was no one there but Suzanne, now back in her human form.
“Watch it!” Suzanne cried, ducking backward to avoid being hit.
“Sorry,” Emily replied, embarrassed. She mentally gave herself a shake. “You came back! But why?”
“Because I couldn’t leave you here alone. Besides, you’re my best friend.” Suzanne answered, straightening back up and wrapped the cloak that Emily had brought tighter around herself.
Emily smiled and embraced Suzanne tightly, then sighed, “I think it’s time we head back; you know how Marcus gets when he doesn’t get his own way.” Emily brushed away a strand of her ebony hair that had fallen into her eyes. “Plus Marcus asked me to remind you about us getting back to start packing for America because we all have to leave for Southampton early tomorrow morning.”
“In a minute, but first I want to know what you don’t want to remember,” Suzanne said, concerned.
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
“Emily, I could smell your fear a mile away. I thought you were being attacked or something.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s … it’s too painful.”
“Emily, you have always been there for me. Why don’t you let me return the favor for once?”
Emily sighed and sat down on the moist ground. When Suzanne had lowered herself to the ground too, she started, “I’ve never told anyone this apart from Marcus. You’ve got to promise me that you won’t breathe a word of it to anyone else.”
“Of course I won’t tell anyone.”
Emily wet her lips nervously. “Has Marcus ever mentioned where I used to live before I came to England?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Emily paused and picked a flower off a nearby grave. “I’m French.”
“You can’t be! You don’t have any accent,” Suzanne said, shocked.
“It’s true. I used to live near Lyon.”
“But you have a perfect English accent!”
“Marcus taught me English when I came to England in 1713. By the time you and I met, I was fluent in English and my French accent had all but disappeared. I only revert back if I am really angry or stressed.”
“So why did you leave France?”
“I had to.”
“What kind of answer is that?”
“It’s difficult for me to explain!”
“Emily, do you want my help or not?” Suzanne asked, her voice soft but firm.
“Yes,” Emily replied, sighing.
Standing, Emily brushed the dirt from her dress. “Suzanne, do you know how I became a vampire?”
“I asked Marcus once but he didn’t tell me.”
“I got attacked when I was going to church with Elizabeth and my mother.”
“Who’s Elizabeth?”
“Elizabeth is – was – my little sister.” Tears rolled softly down Emily’s face.
Suzanne’s face softened. “If it’s too upsetting, I’ll understand …”
“No, I need to tell someone what happened.”
Suzanne sat silently and waited until Emily was ready to speak again.
“Around two hundred and fifty years ago, my mother and my sister were murdered when we were on our way to church. I was bitten, but somehow I managed to crawl to the church steps, where I collapsed. When I came to I found out two things: firstly, that I was a vampire. Secondly, that both my mother and sister were dead. My father tried to keep me safe but in the end I was run out of town and I came to England, where Marcus found me in London feeding on rats.”
Emily stopped. She looked to the lightening sky; dawn was approaching.
Suzanne followed Emily’s gaze and sighed at the view before her. Ever since she was a small girl, Suzanne had loved three things: thunderstorms, sunsets and sunrises. She had enjoyed watching the changing skies with Katrina, but ever since that night when Jonathan had bitten her and changed her into a werewolf, the sun had looked and felt different to her.
Giving herself a mental shake, she looked back at Emily.
“You like the sunrise as well?” Emily asked quietly.
“Yes, I used to watch them with Katrina.”
Emily nodded sympathetically. After a few minutes of silence she said, “Let’s head back. Whatever Katrina did or didn’t do, we won’t find out if Marcus heads to America without us!”
*
“Suzanne?”
Suzanne looked away from the window and saw Emily standing in their bedroom doorway.
“You okay?” Emily continued.
“Just reminiscing,” Suzanne replied sadly.
“What about?”
“This and that.”
“Oh, you were thinking of Katrina.”
“Have you been out?” Suzanne asked, changing the subject.
“Yes, just got back and came straight up here.”
Emily sat down on her bed and started to take off her knee-length boots, then looked at Suzanne.
“What?” Suzanne asked, noticing that Emily was looking at her. “Is there anything wrong?”
“No, I was wondering what this new school will be like.”
“Well, it can’t be any worse than any of the private tutors we have had, or the boring old schools in England.”
“True, but how are we going to cope? We haven’t been in school in years!”
Suzanne shrugged. “What I want to know is why is Marcus so adamant that we go to school anyway?”
“I guess because he wants us to blend in.”
“But I’m going to be a junior.”
“And what’s so wrong with being a junior? I’m going to be one too.”
“Well, it’s okay for you! You like stuff like that,” Suzanne said, getting up off the window-seat and walking over to her bed.
“Like what?” Emily inquired as she lay on top of her covers and stared up at the ceiling.
“Like studying, cheerleading, pep-rallies. Do you want me to go on?”
“No, I get it.” Emily turned her head toward Suzanne. “But when have I ever said I like cheerleading?”
“Never, it’s just that you look like the type!”
Dumbfounded, Emily’s jaw dropped. Then, recovering herself, she asked, “The type?”
“Yes, as in athletic! Vampires can be so touchy. Sometimes you suck, Emily,” Suzanne said, smiling at her own joke.
Suddenly Emily bolted upright on her bed and turned her head toward the bedroom door.
“What’s wrong, Em?” Suzanne asked, instantly wary.
“Um, nothing. Just Jonathan passing our door,” Emily replied, relaxing back down on her bed.
“You seem a little jumpy.”
“I just don’t want to deal with wolf-boy right now.”
“Wolf-boy? Did I hear that correctly?” Suzanne smiled. “I see that I am finally having a bad influence on you!”
Emily smiled to herself. Ever since she had met Jonathan she had teased him over his dislike for blood and gore. She often wondered how Jonathan would have coped being a vampire instead of a werewolf, but she had come to realize that Jonathan only had a weak stomach when he was in human form; when he was in his wolf form, it didn’t affect him. His primal need to hunt took over then – that or bloodlust. Whatever it was, Emily knew one thing: when Jonathan was in wolf form, he was dangerous. If she ever had to fight him, he as a wolf and she in vampire mode, it would be a dead heat: her only advantage would be her ability
to read Jonathan’s mind.
“I’m just been truthful!” Emily gave Suzanne an impish smile.
Suzanne rolled her eyes and sat on Emily’s bed. “I never thought I would see it. You actually picking up one of my bad habits. Anyway, I am going out for a quick bite.”
“I’ve being teasing him for centuries. It’s no worse than what you’ve said to him – and at least I haven’t tried to shoot him!”
“I had a good reason for that; he had just turned me into a werewolf and I was upset,” Suzanne said, getting up and walking over to her side of the bedroom to retrieve her sneakers.
“Don’t be out too long. We’ve got that cheerleading thing tomorrow,” Emily reminded Suzanne.
Suzanne grimaced, but spied Emily from the corner of her eye and gave her a smile. “I’ll remember.”
Eight
Katrina stood on the steps of Sycamore Heights High and stared up at the school plaque that hung above the main entrance. Etched into the stone were the words.
Scientia Est In Sanguinem.
“It’s Latin,” a voice commented from behind Katrina.
Katrina turned and came face to face with two girls her age, dressed in the school’s cheerleading uniforms.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself! I’m Ashley, and this is Skye,” said the girl, sticking out her hand for Katrina to shake.
Breaking off the handshake, Katrina asked, “Do you know what it means?”
“Something about knowledge and blood, but no one really knows, not even the Latin teachers,” Skye answered as she smiled warmly at Katrina.
“Anyway, we’d better be going or we’ll be late for try-outs,” Ashley said to Skye, pulling her up the school steps. “It was nice meeting you.”
“Yeah, same here,” Skye agreed. “Nice meeting you.”
The two girls hurried up the rest of the steps and disappeared through the glass doors of the school’s main entrance, leaving Katrina alone again.
Katrina sighed. It’s now or never!
“Katrina!” another voice called, followed swiftly by two blasts of a car horn.
Katrina turned and saw Jessica trying to park Billy’s blue Jeep Grand Cherokee, before heading to meet her.
“I’m glad I caught you before you went in,” Jessica said, getting out of the jeep and adjusting the skirt to her cheerleading uniform.
Forgotten (In The Shadows, Book One) Page 7