Stolen Night (26 page)

‘You OK?’ Justin asked me, placing a hand on my shoulder. His voice was close to my ear.

The door closed and I realized that Vicken and Rhode had left without saying goodbye. It meant that Justin and I were alone together for the first time since the night of my birthday.

I leaned my back against the glass balcony door and looked at the knowledge rune on Justin’s neck. I focused on it. He had put it on backwards and it hung in reverse.

I met Justin’s eyes. He kissed my forehead, and when he pulled back he smiled at me. His eyes lingered on mine. I thought of him that day, the day I turned Vicken human again with the
ritual. How Justin had fallen to his knees when I walked out on to my balcony. I had been so ready to leave it all behind.

‘That’s the most difficult part,’ I said. ‘The ingredients and the words are important, of course, but the sacrifice, the intent, it’s always the most important
part of any ritual.’

The intent . . .

Images from the summoning spell floated into my mind: the jump of the flames and the door glowing in the sand. Had I been channelling my intentions into the spell so that it would bring me what
I desired? Were my intentions pure?

‘Of course,’ I said aloud. ‘Of course.’ The spell backfired because my intentions hadn’t been pure. In order for the spell to work I needed to channel my intentions
in one direction only, but mine were split. I wanted protection from Odette, but really I was calling Suleen for Rhode’s benefit.

I knew what I had to do!

My spirits lifted considerably.

‘I need your help,’ I said to Justin.

‘OK . . .’ he said.

The bright spark in his eyes glowed at me. It reminded me why I had slept in his tent the night of my birthday. Why I let his touch take me back to last year when I thought that being a human
was going to be simple. That I could be a seventeen-year-old girl in love, with no repercussions from her past.

But there will always be payment for your past atrocities. That’s why the intent behind all spells matters.

‘Lenah?’ Justin said.

‘I’m going to perform it again,’ I said.

‘What? The summoning spell?’ Justin asked.

‘Yes.’ The fire in my belly was back.
Yes. Yes.
I would call Suleen again, and this time my intentions would be pure. This time he would come!

‘Let’s go.’

After grabbing Rhode’s spell book,
Incantato
, a jar for the water and all the ingredients I would need, I raced down the stairs of Seeker, ignoring the twinges of pain from the burn
on my arm. I ran past students sitting in the hallway putting together Halloween costumes.

‘Wait. Hey!’ Justin called.

‘Keep up!’ I said, and stepped outside the dorm. I found Vicken sitting on the bench in front of Seeker, a cigarette in his hand.

‘Hold on,’ Vicken said, when he realized I wasn’t going to stop. ‘Where are you going?’

‘I’m going to perform the summoning spell again.’

‘Oh, right,’ he said, following me. ‘So, you’ve officially gone mad.’

I kept going, not caring what he thought.

Justin joined us in the parking lot.

‘What’s he doing here? Where are we going?’ Justin asked.

‘We’re going back to Lovers Bay beach,’ I said, throwing a glance at Vicken as I unlocked the car.

‘You’re bloody mad, you know that? I can’t even smoke I’m so angry,’ Vicken said.

I opened the door and tossed the bag filled with the spell ingredients and the book into the car.

‘Then I consider this trip a success already,’ I said.

I was about to slide into the driver’s seat when Vicken stopped me again by grabbing my shoulder and forcing me to face him.

‘Lenah. You could die. You’re barely healed now.’ He glanced at my bandaged arm. ‘Didn’t we learn our lesson last time we left campus?’

‘If Lenah wants to do it, she’ll do it without you,’ Justin said, from the passenger side door.

‘Pretty boy, you’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. So get away from the car, and shut it.’

Justin came around the side of the car so fast that I stumbled to get between them.

‘You could die too,’ Vicken said to Justin through clenched teeth.

‘I’m doing this,’ I said, my hands pressed against Vicken’s heaving chest, ‘and we agreed not to leave campus
alone
. I’m not alone.’ I indicated
Justin.

‘Then I’m coming too. Three is stronger,’ Vicken sneered. He met my eyes and took a step back. ‘Triangles are symbols of infinity. It could work . . . better.’

‘Good,’ I said, and Justin also backed away. ‘If you promise me you won’t fight. I have to stay focused.’

‘I will,’ Justin replied, ‘if he promises not to get close to me. I’m not a fan of murderers.’

I spun round, anger swirling in my chest. ‘Then you’re not a fan of me.’

Justin’s expression was stunned. His jaw dropped. ‘I didn’t . . . I mean . . .’

‘Just get in the car,’ I said. ‘Both of you.’

As I drew the outline of a door, the sand was cool on my finger. The moon hung over the horizon. This time we were doing the spell at dusk.

‘You’re ready? You’re sure?’ Vicken asked.

Justin’s eyes were wide as he stared down at the door. And, strangely, he was almost smiling. When he caught my eye, he quickly dropped his expression, his mouth becoming a thin line.

‘Sorry, just – you know – never seen a ritual before,’ he said.

I unscrewed the jar with the harbour water and sprinkled it over the flames.

‘I summon you, Suleen, to this sacred place.’ My eyes lifted to the moon still hanging low in the sky. ‘I call you here to protect us from the impending danger.’ And I
meant it. I wanted to protect our souls, our lives.

The amber came next, and when the oily resin hit the flames, the door frame, just like last time, burned a bright gold. All three of us stared at the fiery outline.

‘I summon you,’ I repeated. The fire crackled again, the flames lower than the last time. Good! Yes! This time it seemed it would work!

A wind whipped through my hair and a great blast came up from the fire.

I jumped back. I expected a ten-foot flame to jump into the sky. But no. The fire was completely out, leaving behind charred and blackened wood.

A tiny blue ball of light sat in the centre of the wood where the flame had been. The blue orb hovered directly over the embers of the fire, glowing and expanding into a vertical oblong shape as
the seconds passed.

‘What . . . ?’ Justin said.

‘Shhh . . .’ I replied.

The blue orb grew to the size of the door I had drawn in the sand. It glowed for a few more moments and I expected Suleen, the man I had grown to love, to step through. I expected to see his
white clothing and familiar turban.

The door did not open. Like an old-fashioned film it flickered, playing a scene in a ballroom in a familiar mansion. The blue light from the orb grew brighter and larger.

‘Oh no,’ Vicken said.

Heartbeat – a pulse.

The blue orb took over almost the whole sky. So big – a portal to another world? No . . .

A blast of blue light and then . . .

1740, Hathersage

Vicken, Justin and I were part of the scene before us, standing on the edge of the ballroom.

‘We’re in Hathersage,’ Vicken said in awe.

‘Shhh,’ I said, waving a hand across myself as though to wipe away his voice.

Justin said nothing. He watched the scene play out before him, with his jaw dropping in either disbelief or fear, or both.

Glasses filled with blood clinked together. A small orchestra of vampires played in one corner of the room. Chatter from dozens of vampires echoed throughout my banquet hall.

‘Lenah, what is this?’ Vicken asked. ‘I don’t recognize these people.’

‘This was before your time.’

I knew what this was. This was the horrific night that secured my infamy throughout the world.

This was the night I killed a child.

We three mortals stood invisible to the partying vampires.

I gasped as I caught sight of my vampire self spinning around, a goblet in hand. My gown was black and corseted. The 1740s was a colourful era but I had worn black . . . on purpose. My silk
dress was encrusted with roses of jet and black pearls.

‘Did you know,’ my vampire self said, ‘that Nuit Rouge is the month in which you can access black magic?’ The corset pressed into her ribs as she laughed, leaping over
the body of a man in a white tunic and black breeches. A local farmer drained of all his blood. ‘Tonight is All Hallows’ Eve!’

The vampires around her lifted their goblets in the air and drank.

Bright torches threw the hall into an orange dreamy light.

A vampiric Rhode appeared at the doorway of the banquet hall in his finest silk. He too wore his traditional black, his hair slicked back so his turquoise eyes glowed out from the darkness of
the hallway behind him. He slid his palm over his mouth and ran across the room to the body of the child he’d buried only hours before. Now she lay in a corner of the room, where I had wanted
her placed. Just for the evening.

‘I unburied her! With my bare hands!’ my vampire self called to him, laughing and taking a deep swig from a goblet of her blood. The dancing intensified in the middle of the room,
the vampires jumping to a lively drum.

‘Isn’t she lovely?’ she called to Rhode, who was on his knees by the dead child. ‘She sort of looks like me, don’t you think? She could be my little
sister.’

The flowers bounced with the vibration from the dozens of feet striking the floor, up and down and up and down. Roses, lavender, daisies, orchids, all in fragrant abundance. Vampire Lenah picked
up some daisies and roses and brought them to Rhode, who still remained on his knees, staring down at the child.

My vampire self covered the child’s eyes with daisy heads. The petals reached her eyebrows.

‘I’m going to give her a proper burial,’ said my vampire self happily. ‘I’ve invited all our friends in Derbyshire,’ she continued, dancing a circle around
Rhode, holding her gown in so she could scoot around him and the dead girl. She scattered roses and daisies over the body. ‘And this young lady! Here’s a daisy! I would give you some
violets, but they all withered when my father died: they say he made a good end.’

Rhode stood up. As I watched, I knew what was coming next.

‘Oh, come now, don’t you enjoy Master Shakespeare?’ asked vampire Lenah.

He looked to the other bodies scattered about the floor. His eyes met vampire Lenah’s. She held his gaze for a few moments.

‘Why . . . ?’ he asked.

‘Why? Her blood is the purest!’ My vampire self walked to the feet of the body of the young girl, still in her white dress, and merrily scattered even more flowers over her.

‘No more!’ Rhode yelled. He gripped my shoulders, sending me back against the wall with a thud. ‘Lenah, what have you become?’

Lenah laughed at his earnest gaze. ‘Oh, come on, I’ll have someone bury her again when the party is over.’

He growled and it was almost a scream. His eyebrows furrowed together in a pinch. This was the pain of a vampire who wanted to cry. Rhode gripped vampire Lenah again and shook her so hard that
her shoulders vibrated and her teeth chattered. I hated watching myself like this.

‘Why can’t you just let me love you?’ Rhode said, his teeth clenched together.

‘Because I am unravelling,’ my vampire self said. ‘And only power can relieve the pain. Not love.’

He let go and swept away from her then, leaving down the darkened hallway. I watched my vampire self run after him into the distance. I followed, Justin and Vicken in my wake.

‘What are you doing?’ she cried. ‘Rhode!’

But he did not answer. He kept walking until he reached the hall in the front of the house. By the door was a small black leather bag; he grabbed the handle and whipped open the door. The
sunset, a burning orange, scorched my eyes. Vampire Lenah instinctively threw her hands across her face, but this was 1740, and after three hundred and twenty-two years she did not need to fear the
sun.

‘Rhode!’ she called.

‘You are reckless,’ Rhode hissed, whipping around. ‘Power will not save you. It will only further the deterioration of your mind.’ He walked out of the door and away from
the house towards the endless sweeping hills. Vampire Lenah took a few steps after him.

‘I know what I am doing,’ she said, bringing her feet together and raising her chin defiantly.

Vicken, Justin and I watched from the doorway. Rhode stopped and turned to face vampire Lenah again.

‘Do you?’ Rhode moved closer until he was an inch from her face. His fangs showed as he whispered, ‘Do you? You murdered a child. A child, Lenah.’

‘You always said that infant blood was the sweetest. The most pure.’

Rhode looked horror-stricken. He backed away from her.

‘I said it as a fact, not as an invitation to sample it. You have changed. You are no longer the girl in the white nightgown I loved in your father’s orchard.’

His eyes had a misty look and, even as a memory, I could tell he was formulating his thoughts. ‘I told you to concentrate on me tonight. That if you can focus on the love you feel for me .
. . you can break free. But you can’t do that; I see that now,’ he said. I watched myself try to speak, but Rhode continued before Lenah could find the words. ‘You’ve seen
it yourself. Vampires your age begin to lose their minds. Most choose fire or a stake through the heart to bring them to their deaths, to avoid a slow descent into insanity. The prospect of forever
is too much. And for you the life you lost has made you insane. Living on this earth for all eternity has brought your mind to a place where I can no longer reach you.’

‘I’m not insane, Rhode. I’m a vampire.’

‘You make me regret what I did in that orchard,’ he said sadly, turning back to the path to the hills.

‘You regret
me
?’

‘Find yourself, Lenah. When you do, I will return.’

My human self remembered this moment so clearly. Back then, I could have watched him leave. I could have followed his frame with my gaze until he was out of my sight, but this time the pain was
too much. I wanted out of that blue light, out of that memory. Instead, I watched my vampire self turn and walk back into the brightly lit hall. Music echoed from the ballroom but it was another
world to me. My vampire self placed a hand on the stone wall. I remembered that the stones had no temperature, nor could I feel the thick ridges beneath my fingers.