Stolen Night (17 page)

‘You could have died,’ I said.

‘What’s it to you? You thought I was dead for a whole year,’ he said.

‘And you think I could survive it again? That I don’t worry whether you are all right every day? Every minute?’ It took me a couple of tries but finally I got the words out.
‘Tell me. Did you watch me last year? Did you know what I was doing?’

Rhode dipped his chin to his chest. He seemed to think it over a moment, then said, ‘Yes, I saw you. After your friend Tony’s death, I could not come to you. At the time, it seemed .
. . fruitless.’

An explosion of relief flooded through me.
Finally
, something.

‘But you knew the coven were after me. Yet you did nothing?’

Rhode’s eyes were focused on my neck; he didn’t answer.

‘Rhode?’ I asked again.

He took a step to me and lifted his hand. Was he actually going to touch me? My stomach jumped. But no. He took the collar of my cold, wet T-shirt between his thumb and index finger and pulled
the fabric down a bit. The bandage had slipped in the rain, exposing the cut. He examined it for a few moments, then let go, all the while careful not to touch my skin.

‘That day when we discovered that I had had a sister, you swore we would always be together,’ I whispered.

I took a step towards him, intending to take his hand into mine.

Rhode jumped away from me and I saw fear, actual fear, pass over his eyes. I drew my hand back, hurt and embarrassed that he had rejected me yet again.

‘I can’t!’ he cried, and I froze. ‘I will never leave you, Lenah.’ He met my eyes but the look in them was pained, struggling. ‘But I cannot love you any
more. Not like this.’

After a moment of silence, when the only sound was the rain pelting on the grass, Rhode said, ‘Our circumstance is absolute.’

Our
circumstance.

‘
Our
house.
Our
portraits.
Our
library,’ I dared to reply, ‘are all gone. It’s like they’re erasing our history.’ I brought my hand to my
chest. The water drenched my shirt and slicked my fingers. ‘And all those beautiful books,’ I said.

‘You’re worried about
the books we left behind
?!’ he said, and his blue eyes cut through the misty grey air. ‘You should be worried about the skeletons we left
buried in the walls or the goblets of blood we left sitting on tables, forgotten. They’ll test the contents of old goblets. But we don’t have to care any more. It’s over, Lenah.
Aren’t you relieved? Glad you can leave it all behind?’

I pulled back from him. All my belongings. All the old photographs and jewellery. The great halls where we took life so willingly were now empty and ruined.

What Fire had said to Rhode and me on the archery field replayed in my mind.

Vampires are dead. Supernatural night wanderers. We cannot hold you responsible for the killings you performed in that world.

Rhode was right. I was glad the years of destruction and sadness were over.

And then . . . the rain came down even harder. It pummelled the grass and I had to wipe the water away from my eyes with both hands.

‘Everything was destroyed. It’s irrelevant now,’ he said, his words clipped. ‘We’re human.’ He picked up the duffel bag and took a few steps towards the
cemetery exit.

‘Isn’t this what you wanted?’ I asked.

‘For you,’ he said gently. But my wonderful Rhode was hiding something more. I could tell from the curve of his back and the gaze of his eyes to the ground.

‘If the Aeris had not interfered, would
you
be happy with mortality? Wherever you were?’ I asked, hoping this would lead to him to continue opening up about his whereabouts
the year before.

Rhode turned back to me, a black-clad figure in that drenching rainstorm. ‘I’m not really mortal. I may be flesh and blood but I’m something else. Stuck.’

‘What are you then?’

‘Something forgotten. Archaic. Put me in a glass case and shut the door.’

‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’ I asked.

‘I believe I met a girl in the rain. Who had lost her mother’s earrings. And I killed her. Now I stand here in a time I know nothing about. I watched the death of kings far greater
than any man living now. And I am
still here
,
’
Rhode said, his face soaked with rain and his blue eyes piercing me through the grey of the storm.

The image of a pair of ancient golden hoop earrings came to my mind.

Rhode held my gaze through the curtain of rain. I understood him – we understood each other completely.

‘My mother’s earrings,’ I said, ‘were in the house.’

Rhode considered his answer, then said, ‘And so were the ghosts of all our pasts.’ The rain pelted the bag housing the longsword. Rhode looked at me. ‘
Est-ce que tout
ça valait la peine?
’ he asked in French. ‘Was it all worth it? For the sense of touch?’

He turned from me then and left the cemetery. He did not need to say that I should follow; we both knew that neither of us should be alone.

When we got back on to campus, I stopped at Seeker. Rhode disappeared into the crowds of students. As I watched him go, I finally understood why the knight of Edward III had visited the grave of
my best friend, Tony Sasaki.

He felt responsible.

Later that afternoon I walked out of Seeker dorm. The sun broke through the grey clouds and I was barely able to focus my eyes when Vicken screeched, ‘I was just coming
upstairs to get you!’ He grabbed my hand. ‘Let’s go.’

‘What are you doing?’ I asked as his strong grip led me down the pathway. ‘What’s wrong with you?’

‘We need a lot of people. We’ll go to the union, that’s it. A lot of people are there usually.’

‘Have you gone mad?’

‘There!’ Vicken pointed at the lacrosse field behind Hopper. ‘Throngs of people.’ We had managed to walk into a crowd of middle- and upper-school students watching a
Wickham lacrosse scrimmage. Half the team wore white jerseys, the rest were in dark blue. Vicken didn’t care; he led me to the sides of the crowded bleachers where he finally let go of my
hand.

‘You! You there,’ he cried.

He pointed at a tiny ninth-grader who clutched a backpack to her chest. She quivered under his pointed index finger. ‘Look at me. Look in my eyes.’ He waited a moment then spat out,
‘Damn it!’

I grabbed him by the back of his T-shirt. ‘Stop it!’

The girl turned away. Her little feet seemed to explode with speed and she ran off towards Hopper. Vicken continued. Every few seconds he stopped people. ‘You! Hey, you! What are you
thinking! Get back here! Don’t you run from me!’

‘What are you doing? You’ve gone mad,’ I hissed at him.

‘Have I? I’ve lost my sodding ESP. Spend over a hundred years with something and then,
poof
, it’s gone.’

‘Gone?’ I parroted dumbly. This was not in our favour.

‘ESP – gone!’ he yelled, and slapped his hands against his thighs.

‘Shhh!’ I said, and motioned to the crowded bleachers behind us. Claudia and Tracy were sitting way up high watching the game. Claudia waved at me and I smiled back. I could feel
Tracy’s eyes on me even though they were hidden behind her sunglasses.

‘Oh, you think anyone knows what I’m talking about?’ He extended his arms. ‘ESP! ESP!!’ he yelled to the sky.

I slapped his arms down.

It was as though Vicken suddenly realized where he was. He turned to face the field, his back to the bleachers.

‘What the hell is this?’ he asked with disgust, raising both arms from his sides.

‘It’s a sporting event.’

‘I realize that. What the hell are they doing?’ he asked.

‘It’s called lacrosse.’

A pause, then, ‘Well, I’m not staying for this shite. Let’s go.’

As he turned to leave the field, cheers erupted around us and I could hear Tracy and Claudia’s voices chanting, ‘Justin! Justin!’

On the field Justin, in his full lacrosse gear, ripped off his helmet, threw it to the ground and marched up close to another player. He jabbed his finger to the other guy’s face and was
yelling something I couldn’t make out.

I placed my hand on Vicken’s arm. He stopped and we stood at the base of the bleachers looking out at the scrimmage. Vicken stepped close to me and said in a low tone, ‘You’re
a human for two minutes and already you’re a sports fan?’

‘No . . .’ I said. I couldn’t remove my eyes from Justin on the field. ‘Wait.’

Vicken sighed.

‘Cut it out, Enos!’ the referee yelled, and Justin picked up his helmet as the players reassembled.

I sat down on the bleachers. Vicken groaned, sat beside me and crossed one motorcycle-booted leg over the other. He leaned his elbows on the row behind.

On the field one of the players slapped his stick against Justin’s and the white ball flew in the air. Once Justin realized who had the ball, he smacked his stick against the other
player’s so hard that the player stumbled backwards. Then he whacked the player’s stick again and again, until the referee blew the whistle.

‘What?’ Justin yelled at the referee. He lifted his shoulders and arms out to the side. ‘What’s your problem?’

‘I’m not telling you again, Enos. One more and you’re out!’ the referee shouted back.

The whistle blew, signalling the scrimmage was beginning again. The players assembled and immediately Justin slapped his opponent’s stick, sending the ball into the air and down into his
own net.

Justin ran down the field so fast that no one could catch him. He slammed into other players so hard it was as though he wanted to throw them to the ground. When a defenceman from the other side
smacked the ball out of his net, Justin threw off his helmet again and punched the player in the stomach.

‘I’ve never seen him play like this,’ I said.

‘Like what?’ Vicken asked.

‘Like he’s out for revenge or something.’

Cheers and raucous rounds of ‘Justin! Justin!’ echoed about us again.

Another whistle.

The referee pointed to the bench. Justin bowed to the crowd walked off the field. When he passed by the defenceman who had got the ball out of his net, Justin lunged at him, pretending he was
going to punch him. When the other player recoiled, Justin threw back his head and laughed. He then plopped down on the bench and shook the sweat away from his face. As the crowd continued to call
his name, Justin turned back to the bleachers and laid eyes on me.

He licked his lips and the twinkle in his eye reminded me of the first time we met. It was right after Rhode had performed the ritual and I was human for the first time. I saw him on a beach
walking hand in hand with Tracy Sutton, long before he broke up with her and dated me. There on the lacrosse field, he broke our gaze and turned back to the game.

‘He’s the one who’s gone mad,’ Vicken said when the scrimmage was over. We walked with the rest of the students down the bleachers back on to the
field.

‘Hi, Vicken,’ a group of girls said, almost in complete unison, as we walked by. He nodded his head, his eyebrows creased and hands in his pockets. He had no time for girls at the
moment, apparently.

‘Even without my ESP I can tell you something is wrong with that nutter.’

Justin lingered on the field, surrounded by his teammates and also a few girls, including Andrea, the junior from the other night at the observatory. Most were wearing early fall attire entirely
too warm for a day like today. As I approached, I looked at the shorts I wore. My pale legs seemed long and too white compared with the unnaturally darkened tans of the girls surrounding Justin. I
stopped and anger burned my cheeks. I hated this. This mortal embarrassment. If only . . . No. I stopped myself. I would not wish it. I would not let myself even consider wanting my vampire powers
back.

‘What?’ Vicken asked. ‘You don’t want to go over and talk to Monsieur Aggressive?’

Not when he was acting like that I didn’t. Last night, he had been so tender. So open, as he used to be. Last night, as I lay next to him dreaming of Rhode, it could have been last year.
We had been together like we were then, lying next to one another, and Rhode, as always, was unavailable to me.

Justin caught my eye over someone’s shoulder and manoeuvred around people to get to me. He stopped before he reached me, his eyes shifting to Vicken.

Roy joined Justin at his side and squinted at Vicken. Soon another couple of lacrosse players, pads under their jerseys, stood on either side of Justin. Vicken placed a cigarette between his
lips. If Justin and his boys were coming over, it would probably not be cordial.

‘Did I mention he punched me in the eye?’ Vicken said. He overdramatized his blinking to highlight the slight yellow bruise still lingering there. Then he turned and headed out on to
the campus with the rest of the crowd, leaving a plume of smoke behind.

Justin broke from the group and I waited as he approached me.

A flurry of goosebumps ran over me.

I drew a small breath, swallowed and looked at the ground. Someone was watching me again. I knew it. The feeling mesmerized me. Where were they? I turned my head ever so slightly to the right,
following the feeling that was crawling all over me. Odette. Surely it was Odette. I kept turning until I faced the quad in front of Quartz dorm.

Students there walked together towards the union or the library. They passed security guards and maintenance crews erecting violently yellow emergency telephones at virtually every intersection
of the pathways on campus. My eyes were drawn to a shadow by Quartz Building and my breath caught in my chest.

Rhode stood in the shadows, watching me. I would love those blue eyes forever. How they had looked at me when I first awoke as a human the year before. I wanted to go to him, be with him. And I
knew, as all vampires know, when you are the watched, you are the wanted.

He could not love me any more
; that’s what he had said.
Not like this.
I didn’t know what
this
meant. It could have been many things: we couldn’t love
under the Aeris’s decree, we couldn’t love as humans. All I knew was that I couldn’t answer for him. It was done. Love for me would be Justin Enos and a lifetime of reminding
myself that I was human. Not a girl of the medieval world. Of stained-glass windows and candlelight.