Stolen Night (30 page)

‘Because I think I can win that fight.’

‘Then if you die from this blood removal, it is no matter.’

‘Oh yes, it is,’ I replied, and bared my wrist to him. ‘I have to take her down with me.’

Laertes replied only with a gummy, fangless smile.

Vicken had to be held back by two silent men in black who came in through the door from the hallway. I did not watch as my blood flowed into the large glass vessel. I tried to
ignore the pulsing of my heart through the cut on my wrist. Just when I felt woozy, just when my legs gave out, everything went black.

I tried to blink once or twice but my eyelids were sticky. I wanted to lift my arms
. So do it
.
Lift your arms, Lenah
. I tried, but could not. I tried again,
groaning, but my hands were too heavy. I tried to focus, but all was swimming blackness. Laertes’ face loomed over me. His eyes travelled over my features.

Oh God. He was going to kill me. He did it. He tricked me.

‘Can’t,’ I whispered, but it was all I could say.

The Hollow One produced a small vial from within the folds of his robes. A tiny glass tube with a blue liquid inside. He lifted my arm from the floor and it seemed to float there in the air in
his hand. A dark line of blood ran from my wrist and down my forearm. Laertes dropped two small spots of blue liquid on it. It sizzled as though on fire, but it did not hurt. The skin tightened as
though being sewn back together.

Within seconds, the blood on my arm seemed to melt into my skin, becoming part of the flesh tone of my arm. Soon after, my hands and fingers began to tingle with pins and needles.

‘Your blood will regenerate very quickly. Do not get up until you can move your toes. Good luck,’ he said, and with the sound of a few footsteps he was gone.

I lay paralysed on the floor. The temperature was cool against the back of my head. The weight of my body seemed to sink into the icy floor beneath me.

Wait . . .

I could sense temperature. I tried to press down on the floor with my palms. I could. My fingertips gripped at the floor as I tried to push up. I fell back to the ground with a smack of my head
against the floor. I groaned and tried again.
Push up!
My stomach muscles shook.
Keep pressing, Lenah!
I sat up, exhaling, and looked ahead of me. There was nothing but a stone wall.
No windows. I stared upward, my feet still numb. The ceiling here too was black onyx and there were no windows or candles, yet somehow I could see. With my legs extended straight out in front of
me, I surveyed the back of the room with a heavy twist of my neck. Behind me was a wooden door with a black dagger handle. Along the bottom was a piping of golden light. The only way out. But I
could not leave, Laertes had said. Not until I had finished speaking with the Aeris.

The door started to glow as if a spotlight was being shone on it. I used my hands, which were stronger with every moment that passed, to pull myself around to face the light. Like a fishtail, my
legs tingled.

As on the archery field, there was a tiny speck of white light, in the centre of the room. It grew and grew until the whole room was dazzling. Within that light were the outlines of hundreds of
bodies, including that one small childish shape.

The four figures of the Aeris materialized in front of the sea of bodies, stepping forward in unison just as they had up on the plateau. Fire stepped forward, ahead of the other three
elements.

She looked down at my legs. The pins and needles were travelling down my thighs. It wouldn’t be long now.

‘Forgive me,’ I said. ‘I would stand but I cannot.’

Fire bent low so that her dress hung over her knees and flowed out over the floor. The other three members of the Aeris joined her at my feet. Together, they stacked their hands one on top of
the other and placed them on top of my ankles. The pressure of their hands was like soft petals on me; they were so light even though they leaned their body weight on top of me.

They sent something through me, a surge of light, of love, or life – I didn’t know. I heaved in a great gust of air. I caught it quickly and clenched my hands. I ran my palms over my
thighs and could feel the smoothness of my skin beneath my clothes.

I got to my feet as the other elements retreated and stood behind Fire.

‘Thank you,’ I said. I looked at the Aeris, each one in turn, and said, ‘Thank you,’ again.

Each bowed her head.

‘You are very brave,’ Fire said.

I hesitated, then said, ‘I wish I could have worked it out sooner.’

‘Why have you called us?’ she asked gently.

‘I admit, part of me wishes to plead with you. To beg to break the decree that keeps Rhode and me apart. There’s nothing I want more.’

‘But . . . ?’ she said, leading me. She wore her red gown and her hair crackled, a curl of red flames that spat and sparked tangerine and gold light.

‘I’ve burned myself, thrown myself in harm’s way to fend off a vampire attack.’

I lifted my wrist to show Fire the gauze still protecting my burn, but it had disappeared when they’d healed me. I dropped my arm.

‘The Hollow Ones wanted to study my blood. They asked Rhode to give up love,’ I said, meeting the spooky red eyes of Fire.

She smiled at me with understanding, almost proud.

‘And after all that, do you know what I wish?’ I asked.

‘Tell me,’ Fire said, and her skin seemed to glow, as if tiny lightning storms flickered under the surface. I conjured the words from deep in my brain and deep within my human soul.
I whispered my truest confession, one that I had only uttered once before, to Tony before he died.

‘I wish I had never walked out into the orchard that night. I wish I had died in the fifteenth century as I was meant to.’ As I spoke, my voice cracked and my eyes burned from
tears.

Fire kept my gaze and nodded once, slowly. She then stepped aside and invited me to look into the white light behind her. One shape came forward from the indistinct mass. The form of a young man
stood next to Fire and took on substance. Focusing again, forming, until I could make out who he was. Gauges in his ears, a warm smile, and he held his hands in his pockets.

Tony. Tony in colour – unmistakable in colour and life. Warmth exploded in the centre of my chest, radiating down to my hands.

He met my eyes but did not speak.

‘I miss you,’ I whispered in a rush. He backed away with a smile on his lips and disappeared back into the light. The last clear, distinguishable feature I saw were the apples of his
cheeks as he smiled.

Fire bowed her head. ‘Sometimes, making the difficult decision is what sets us free,’ she said.

I tried to find Tony again but the shape of his shoulders and his artist’s hands were a wash of light now.

I drew a deep breath.

‘I want . . .’ I said, and looked into her eyes. I meant every word that came out of my mouth. ‘I want what you offered me on the archery field. To go back to the fifteenth
century. But alone.’ I took a breath. ‘I know Rhode is a vampire in the fifteenth century and the only way for us to be together is if I join him there. That is too tempting. So I ask
you that he will remain here in the present day.’

‘Remain?’ Fire asked.

‘He died for me, or at least he tried to. I want him to live. If he remembers his past, he’ll go mad. So I also ask that he retains no memory. That he is with a family,
free.’

‘And Vicken? If you go, if you return,’ Fire explained, ‘Vicken returns to the nineteenth century. He never becomes a vampire.’

A memory engulfed me momentarily.
Vicken in a blue soldier’s uniform
.
He dances on a table, kicking out his legs, smiling. He is sweating. He is human . . . and he is
happy.

‘This is a time in which he was never meant to live.’

Fire walked to me, out of the light and into the darkness of the room. She stood directly on the line separating us. The line that divided her world of white light and mine of darkness and
colour – the mortal world. She looked at me, cocked her head and smiled another tight-lipped smile.

‘All cycles must complete. The sun that begins the day must set. The spark that lights the world must go out. Finish what you started. Break the cycle of the ritual and it will be
done.’

‘I defeat Odette and you’ll send me back, as I wish?’

Fire nodded.

‘And my victims, they’ll be free? And those killed by the vampires I made?’

The white mass of souls behind the Aeris swayed and fluttered as though a light breeze had blown through the room.

‘They will all be free,’ Fire said.

‘But they will not be white souls?’ I asked.

‘They must make their own way, as it should always have been.’

As on the archery field, Fire started to fade; I could already make out the wall behind her.

‘When it’s over, you must go to the archery field. When the new sun rises, you will be sent back.’

‘And the battle?’ I asked, knowing she would understand. ‘If I die?’

Water, Earth and Air faded with the light, yet Fire was as bright as ever. She came to me and lifted my hand to hers. Her skin felt like satin on mine.

‘I have faith you can do this, Lenah.’

‘I keep none for myself,’ I replied.

In a grave whisper she said, ‘Knowledge is your key.’

‘Knowledge? What does . . . ?’ I stopped as she glanced back at the fading mass of people behind her.

Then with purpose she said, ‘The dead do not show themselves to the living. Not unless they deserve it, unless they have a white soul.’

‘My soul was not white. I saw it in the onyx ceiling. It was grey.’

She retreated towards the wispy strands of white light. She too began to fade away.

‘You do now.’ She looked up and my gaze followed hers. In my reflection I saw an orb as before, but this time it was white, clean, pure.

My mouth parted and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, I smiled.

‘Wait!’ I called, taking a step towards her. Fire flickered before me as a candle burning out. ‘Rhode – will he be happy?’

Fire smiled and disappeared into nothingness.

I turned back to the door and twisted the knob. I expected to step back into the library. Instead, I found myself on the front stoop, back out in the late-afternoon sun facing
the shelled driveway. I shielded my eyes from the light. Vicken shot up; he had been sitting on the bottom step facing the long drive and smoking a cigarette.

He spun around and grabbed me into an embrace. I held on to his lean frame. He smelt of tobacco. I lingered there for a moment, taking him in.

‘I actually feel sick,’ he said, and I felt his deep voice vibrate within his chest. ‘Now I know why bloody idiot mortals say they’re worried sick.’

‘I’m all right,’ I said, and pulled away.

‘Ten o’ clock is six hours from now, Lenah. We have to go,’ Vicken said. I dug in my pocket for the car keys and I handed them to him. But he didn’t run to the car.
Instead he asked, ‘Well? Do we fight?’

‘Fire said, no matter what, we must succeed in beating Odette. It breaks the cycle of the ritual.’

‘Breaks the cycle?’

‘The ritual will be gone from the world if we defeat her,’ I explained.

‘Excellent. Did Señor No Fangs or the Fiery Lady say what happens if we win?’

I couldn’t tell him what would happen if we won. He would try to convince me to stay in this world, stay together, because that’s all he had known for the last hundred and sixty
years. But I needed to send him back where he belonged.

I shook my head and managed to smile as a strange sense of calm washed over me. We got back into the car. As he drove, I leaned my head against the seat, listening to the sound of the engine. I
listened to the motor, to the radio and the gearshift. I watched the street lamps go by. I took in everything and anything. Anything that did not exist – that would not exist – in
1418.

The door creaked as I walked into my apartment. I expected to be alone, but someone was sitting on my couch: tall body, hunched posture, spiky black hair. Rhode held his head
in his hands. When I was first made human again and Rhode walked out on to that porch to die, he was so sure, so absolutely sure of his death. He looked up at the click of the door.

‘What have you done?’ he demanded. I sat down next to him. He looked at me, eyes wide.

‘For months, I thought you were trying to hurt yourself. That you thought you didn’t deserve your humanity or something,’ I admitted.

‘Why would you think that?’ he asked.

‘Since you came back from Hathersage, I have been connected with you. I could see your thoughts. Sometimes memories. And I misread your pain. That’s what happened in the Hall of
Mirrors.’

‘Connected?’ Rhode asked, not understanding.

‘What I thought was your mind unravelling was your struggle with the Hollow Ones. That you could not give up your love for me.’

Rhode frowned and stood up from the couch.

‘I see. So you’ve uncovered my relationship with the Hollow Ones,’ he said, and walked to the bureau. He placed his hands on it and dipped his chin to his chest. I watched his
strong back muscles contract through his thin T-shirt as he spoke.

‘When I awoke after the ritual, you lay on the couch, asleep. I just kept watching you. A human finally
, finally
, after you had wanted it so badly.’

He turned to me and leaned his back against the bureau. I was too afraid to speak. As if interrupting his thoughts would stop him telling me what I had waited so long to hear.

‘I could not help my reverence. I was proud,’ he said with a quick shake of his head. ‘Of what we had been able to accomplish with the ritual. It was unheard of. A simple
combination of spells and herbs. But the intention – the crucial, most variable ingredient – was the most difficult to find. For we both had to find it within ourselves.’

Now Rhode paced before me.

‘So, I had two choices. Either I could wake you and we could begin our human life together, or I could let you live a life without me. I had so many debts to pay. A large one to Suleen . .
. I owed him.’ He met my eyes, and although I didn’t understand all of it I felt we were there, on the verge of it, on the brink of truth.