Eternal Dawn (26 page)

I froze in my row at the top of the auditorium. The deluge caused by Tracy’s bracelet had been swift. The water rose in seconds and soon filled Justin’s house. This brown orb hung in
the air; everything fell still till it seemed even quieter than silence could be. Any minute now . . .

I searched again for Wickham students but couldn’t find any in the crowds of vampires. It looked as if they’d all got out.

With massive strength the earth fell to the floor, crushing the dozens of vampires in the auditorium. Cassius and Micah held on to Tony by the back of his shirt. The whole building shook and I
hoped the ceiling wouldn’t collapse in on us. A weight of that magnitude would have killed any human instantly, but it was also strong enough to break the necks of vampires.

The dirt lay in heaps as high as the base of the broken windows. The pungent odour of deep soil enveloped the room. What had been thirty or so vampires running at me had dropped to six.

‘Give it up!’ the vampire on my left cried and jumped at me.

I steadied myself, spun on my heel and cut my dagger through the air. I looked for skin, for flesh to disarm. I ducked but was kicked in the stomach. I fell back into the last row of seats. An
armrest jabbed into my back. I tried to sit up but my stomach muscles shook with pain. Another vampire jumped at me. Cassius flew into the air and sliced his sword across her neck. The
vampire’s head went flying into the heap of soil.

An army of vampires was climbing through the windows. They just kept coming! We couldn’t fight them all.

I placed both hands on the dagger again and winced at the soreness in my stomach. I braced myself for impact, for the clash of bodies, for the pain as they drew my limbs apart. I would fight.
The rotten smell of blood wafted to me. I drew breath, ready for –

The air around me crystallized.

Tiny crystals floated around me.

Every time I exhaled, my breath unfurled in white tendrils. I wiped sweat from my forehead and spun, trying to understand what was happening.

I was encased in a sphere of the lightest air.

The commotion on the hill of dirt stopped. The vampires looked at one another, then to where I stood. They twisted and turned.

‘Where did she go?’

‘What happened?’

My heart thudded and my dagger remained clenched in my hand.

I loosened my grip and my forearm released with an ache. I reached out, trying to find the limitations of where I stood. The very molecules around me were suspended in the air. My fingers
fluttered through the crystal dust motes but they sifted away like soft clouds.

The crystals
moved.
They travelled outwards, down the dirt that covered the rows and to the auditorium floor. They made a tunnel all the way down the grass and dirt to the stage behind
the podium. Laertes appeared, walking out of the darkness of the backstage area and up the hill of earth towards me.

‘Lenah?!’ Cassius yelled. He stood right before me. The terror in his voice made my gut clench.

‘Cassius!’ I cried. He did not acknowledge me.

I tried with my mind.
Can you see me, Cassius? Laertes is here!

Can you hear me?

But he did not answer. My thoughts couldn’t reach his mind from this place.

I could die in this sphere with the great vampire walking towards me. But I did not fear him. The last vampires scrambled out of the auditorium the way they had come in, some muttering
insistently that I had escaped by some powerful spell.

Laertes, the missing Hollow One, walked towards me, limping on his left leg. He wore his familiar black habit, though it was ripped to tatters. Despite his limp he had no problem marching up the
hill. In his eyes was not the fight I expected. He lifted the side of his mouth into a smile. He was a very old man, with a gaunt face, thinner than I remembered. He might have been fifty when made
a vampire, but he seemed much older to me now. When he finally stood across from me, he pointed at Fire’s dagger clenched in my hand and chuckled.

‘She does have
fantastic
taste, doesn’t she?’ He took the dagger. My calmness surprised me. Wouldn’t I have been better off frightened? Fighting him? What
overwhelmed me most was my need for answers.

‘Did you somehow get my blood because of the onyx ceilings? In your house?’ I demanded. ‘How is that possible?’

‘Good question,’ he said, admiring the stones on the hilt. ‘Onyx is very powerful.’

‘Great. Riddles,’ I replied, disgusted.

Laertes laughed again. A sea of shattered glass clung to the bottom of his robes. A thick fall wind came through the window, bringing with it the smell of Lovers Bay. The room was empty now.

‘I just saved your life, and I’d think you would offer me a thank-you,’ he said.

‘You’re late. And you’re holding my dagger. I don’t think I’m out of the woods yet.’

‘Oh, do trust me, Lenah Beaudonte. You could kill me with your bare hands.’

Laertes took slow steps to a chair. Through the broken glass windows people called my name. Laertes eased slowly into the chair. It was only then that I understood just how badly he was
hurt.

‘I used my last strength to come here. I escaped the one place I made nearly inescapable.’

‘You had to flee your own home?’

We remained in the sphere as we talked.

‘How do I know you weren’t sent here with a mission like the rest of those vampires?’ I asked while pacing. I didn’t feel comfortable enough to sit down.

‘What? As though I’m some kind of spy?’ he said with another chuckle. When his mouth opened, I gasped a little at the dark holes, although I knew the Hollow Ones had removed
their fangs as part of a commitment to knowledge and power.

‘Yes,’ I said finally. ‘You could be a spy.’

‘This attack was a foolish tactic on Justin’s part to drive you out. I knew this would kill you,’ he said. ‘So I had to come for a variety of reasons. I waited until your
situation was most dire.’

‘You could kill me.’

‘Do sit down,’ he said. ‘I have something to give you.’

He dug in his robes and unearthed a piece of paper.

‘You get this from Justin and you will serve your purpose, Lenah Beaudonte,’ Laertes said. ‘I could not get it from him myself. He is guarding it too closely and I, well . .
.’ he said, gazing at his wrinkled hands, ‘I don’t have the strength any more.’

I unfolded the piece of paper.

On it was one word: Vereselum.

‘That’s it!’ My voice jumped in pitch. ‘Vere-selum,’ I sounded it out slowly. ‘What does it mean?’

‘I will tell you only this. That this –’ he gestured to the paper – ‘is the best gift I can give you.’

I knew from old that the matter was now closed for discussion; he would not tell me more no matter how much I begged.

Something about Laertes’s demeanour shifted. I remembered all too keenly his desire to siphon out my blood in return for calling the Aeris. This time his expression was one of admiration.
He was more like a grandfather or a doting uncle, neither of which I had ever had, not even when I was a human.

‘Why are you giving me this?’ I asked.

‘Let’s just say, as of late, I’ve had a change of heart.’

‘Heart?’ I chuckled. ‘That’s rich, coming from you.’

‘That’s a nasty cut,’ Laertes said, referring to the jagged line running down my middle finger.

‘Why?’ I asked, ignoring him. ‘Why make the Demelucrea from my blood? How did you get my blood?’

‘You should clean that up.’ He pointed to the cut again and sighed. ‘If you must know, we never meant to lose ourselves,’ Laertes admitted. The strange air still hovered
around us. ‘At first our knowledge was a means to power. The most powerful vampires, standing as kings on the black wings of the vampire world. Then we removed our ability to love. But with
that we lost passion, compassion and joy.’

‘Justin has too,’ I said softly.

Laertes extended his right arm and I gulped hard. He splayed his fingers wide, showing that his index and middle fingers were cut off at the knuckle. The skin was brown and bruised where he had
lost the tops of his fingers.

‘He only had to cut off two before I revealed the secret of how to remove love. So much for inner strength. I was more powerful with my brothers.’

He meant Rayken and Levi.
Did I dare feel pity for this monster?

‘We thought that making hybrids was another example of our power. If we could make day
and
night wanderers, we could kill at any time. Rule the day as well as the
night.’

Laertes stood up, still holding my dagger. He turned it over in his hands.

‘We were nothing more than the lowest form of vampires. We wanted to siphon out our pain. We were cowards,’ he said, still admiring the rubies.

‘And now you’ve made a monster,’ I said quietly.

‘He does not love. And without me he will not be as . . . effective.’

‘But you tried – you tried to put back the love you removed.’

‘I spent hours, years, decades attempting to put it back into myself once it was gone.’

‘What about the onyx? Maybe if you destroyed the ceilings in your house, the love would come back?’

‘Love is not a spell. Love is beyond spells. Beyond power. It is a white light like your soul. Once removed, it can never come back. No destruction of onyx will help me. Why do you think
we had Rhode search it out? It’s impossible. All I feel now is pity. Guilt. Maybe a shred of compassion, perhaps, in some limited way. But not love. I cannot bring myself to feel love for
anything. So Justin made me take it out so he would no longer be a victim of his love for you.’ he paused. His mutilated hand still held the dagger.

I hated that word, ‘victim’. Some people were victims, yes. But we were here, survivors, and we could at least control the evil that seethed and spread over Wickham. I wanted to ask
where Justin took me when he tried to take my soul, but Laertes stood up straight and the dagger stiffened in his hand. I stood up slowly.

‘What are you going to do with that knife?’

‘I’m old. 1,795 years. I don’t love anyone or anything. I’ve hurt enough people.’

‘We can find a way to get you your love back,’ I said, readying to jump on him. ‘There is always a way out of the darkness,’ I said. ‘I found a way, didn’t I?
We’ll do it together.’

He lifted the dagger and aimed it at his chest.

‘Soulmates are rare. Rarer than you might think,’ he said. ‘But it might just be the
thing
.’ He shook his head. ‘Love. After all this.’

Before my hand shot out to stop him, Laertes plunged the dagger into his heart. He crumpled on to the glass-strewn floor. A pulse emanated from him, blowing my hair back from my face. A ripple
of energy shot from his body out through the room. A loud pop came from above and the panorama of windows that lined the ceiling exploded littering the auditorium with jagged shards of glass. I
fell backwards from the force of the energy and my head smacked the end of a chair.

A ring of black circled my sight and pain pulsed at the back of my head. I reached out, searching for my dagger, but lights flashed in my vision and my strength waned. I reached out again and my
fingers ran through the gritty familiar remains of a vampire, this time Laertes. My sight slid to black just as my head found the carpeted floor.

‘Where is your power now?’ I whispered. As my world fell to darkness, a phrase went through my mind.

Flame, flame, flame to live; only to scatter to dust when we die.

There is grass at my feet. It is bright green, surreally so, as if someone has painted it too green and too bright.

And the smell. I draw a deep breath
. . .
lavender. I blink – just once – and I am no longer in the auditorium. I stand alone in a field. Far in the distance, a familiar
stone manor overlooks huge hills of lavender. The sun is high in the sky but its rays don’t seem to touch this field.

Wait
. . .
I know this place. I turn, taking in the lavender swaying in the breeze.

I have been here before! When Vicken remade me a vampire. But Rhode was here too. I spin, looking for him, but the wind strokes the fields, bringing with it an earthy scent that I
love.

Something is moving out there.

I squint.

Someone is there. The figure is getting closer to me. Tall, wide shoulders. A man. The figure comes closer and closer. I bite down on my lip.

The figure is tall with cropped hair. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

I run towards him.

‘Rhode!’

The figure picks up speed.

‘Rhode!’ I cry again. Goose bumps sweep over me. This is our place. Ours.

‘Lenah!’ his voice carries back. It is Rhode. And he knows me. I can tell from his tone. ‘Lenah! I’m coming!’

This place, wherever it is, I could stay here forever. Hadn’t I said that before? I would. Forever.

The fuzzy figure running at me breaks through the ether and comes into full focus. Rhode’s arms pump at his sides as he runs towards me.

Rhode’s smile widens. He is healthy, human and his blue eyes sparkle.

I jump into his arms and wrap my legs around his waist. Rhode kisses me all over until my cheeks are wet with tears. He keeps kissing me. My nose. Lips. Forehead. I can’t get a word
in.

‘I love you, do you know that?’ he says softly, but the intensity in his tone nearly shatters me. ‘Do you know how much?’ He holds me up so we are eye to eye. I keep
my legs around him.

‘Don’t let go,’ I cry. We hold one another. He doesn’t have to let go, shouldn’t let go. But after a few moments he lowers me down to the grass.

‘I love you,’ I whisper. ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to save you.’

He crouches over me, running his hand over my hair.

‘I’m so worried about you,’ I say, and his mouth is on mine again. ‘What does Justin want?’ I ask when he pulls away. ‘How did this
happen?’

‘He believed if he made me a vampire I would remember everything and I could change him into your soulmate instead of me.’