Eternal Dawn (15 page)

‘These are weapons. Just like my pendant, they might seem like ordinary jewels, but they’re not. As you can see here –’ I showed them the burn on my chest again –
‘when they get warm, they are warning you a vampire is near. If they get hot enough to burn you, you are in mortal danger.’

Tracy raised her eyebrows and Tony lifted himself on his knees. Their eagerness sent a shot of panic through me. Maybe I was too quick with these weapons. I lowered the box into my lap.

‘What?’ Tracy asked.

‘Maybe I’m going about this all wrong. Maybe I’m being too rash. These aren’t typical human weapons. These were made in another realm by extremely powerful supernatural
creatures. I have to think this through some more,’ I said, and closed the lid on the gems. I couldn’t get anything else out about my doubts because Tracy shot up and snatched every
picture off her bureau mirror. She slid open a desk drawer and took out a photo album. When she sat back down, she threw the pictures of Justin and her friends into my lap and opened the album. She
flipped violently through the photos.

Justin and Tracy on a beach.

Justin and Kate water skiing.

Justin and his brothers on Justin’s father’s boat.

Wait . . . where
were
Justin’s brothers? Why were there only pictures of Kate and Claudia? Justin’s brothers Roy and Curtis also went to Wickham.

‘What happened to Roy and Curtis?’ I asked.

‘When Justin went missing, their mom took them out of school.’

Made sense. Why continue to send her children to a school from which her middle child had disappeared and where no one could find any answers? I had met Justin’s mother and she loved her
son like my mother loved me.

I flipped to the last page in the photo album.

It was of a snorkelling trip on a very familiar boat.
Justin’s
boat.

‘If you don’t let me help you get my friend back, Lenah, I’ll go to that chapel tomorrow night myself.’

‘That vampire could be worse than Justin,’ I said.

‘He could have killed you at the farm or in the club, but he didn’t,’ Tony countered.

I dipped my chin to my chest. ‘Look, I just can’t—’

‘Risk anything happening to us?’ Tracy asked.

‘I’ve seen what happened before. And when put to task, I failed. I failed Rhode tonight.’

‘Maybe you wouldn’t have if we had been there, Lenah. Justin was my friend. His brothers too. And you say he’s a monster who’s got Rhode, and that Tony’s at risk
too. I want to be a part of this. I need it.’ She shook her head, keeping her gaze on the photos. ‘I think maybe . . . maybe we’ve been waiting for you to come these last three
years. To help us.’

Justin smiled at me from the mess of pictures on the floor. He used to lift his chin and tilt his face to the sun. In warmer weather, a wash of freckles spread over his nose. We had walked the
pathways of this school together with his arm over my shoulder.

Without another word I handed the silver ring with the amber stone to Tony.

He opened his palm.

‘Knives will be useless against Justin. With these, you’re armed with real power that could help you. Save you. You don’t know what vampire might come around and add you to his
coven simply because you know me.’

I handed the bracelet cuff with a sapphire to Tracy. The colour of her eyes matched the stone.

‘Cast these into the air at your enemy,’ I instructed. ‘The moment each flies from your body, it will become the element it represents. Make sure nothing is in its way,
especially another element. That’s what happened to me tonight. Justin’s water shield blocked my fire. Yours,’ I said, turning to Tony, ‘is earth.’

‘How?’ he asked, but the question was directed at the seemingly innocuous silver ring in his palm.

I touched the sensitive spot where the gem had sat at the base of my neck. It had seemed so right. Rhode was taken – stolen away. That was the moment I needed it most.

‘Mine was fire, yours is earth and Tracy’s is water.’

Tracy twisted her wrist to get a better look. She lightly rested her fingertips on the stone.

‘What about air?’ she asked.

‘Once Rhode returns, that will be his.’

I didn’t look up from the ring sitting in the bottom of the box. Because Tony and Tracy’s faces would have told me they didn’t know whether Rhode was coming back. I closed the
lid and placed the box in the trunk. I had to make this right.

‘Remember,’ I said, ‘you can only use them one time. Then they’re gone.’ A sting of regret whipped through me. If I’d known it was there, I could have given
that ring to Rhode earlier. Tracy was right. Maybe together we could have stopped Justin.

Tomorrow night I would demand answers from that vampire with the Italian accent and strange eyes. I would tell him about that dead vampire wearing a necklace with the same symbol. The woman on
the beach, who at daybreak would transform to nothing but dust.

In the morning, after assembly, I walked to the union. Nobody mentioned Rhode’s disappearance yet. Ms Williams would have to say something and soon. People would notice
quickly.

When Rhode and I were vampires, we could sense one another’s thoughts and dreams. Even the last time we had been together at Wickham as humans, I could, at times, read his emotions and
sometimes even his thoughts! We were Anam Cara, soulmates, and this was not uncommon. But so far this time, even before he had been kidnapped, I could not reach Rhode’s mind.

I would find him – I would.

I passed trees dotted with ‘missing’ posters of Jackie Simms. Justin’s posters were curling at the edges. In search of comfort, I slipped my fingers around the little bracelet
I had made from my work dress. With my skin touching the stains of Suleen’s blood, I was able to keep the agony at bay enough to focus.

I could not go off campus and leave Tony and Tracy so vulnerable. It wasn’t enough that they now had weapons.

I stepped into the union to have some coffee and a good think. From there I would also have a good view of the chapel. The vampire had shown he could be out in the day and I wanted to keep
watch. He was possibly my only hope for getting Rhode back.

‘He’s probably in England,’ someone said at a table nearby. ‘He always said he wanted to go back.’ As I expected, people were talking about Rhode’s
disappearance already.

‘For a girl, I bet,’ someone else replied.

‘Ms Tate said he asked to leave.’

While I listened to the gossip, I spun a spoon in my coffee cup.

Before I could eavesdrop any more, Tony plopped down across from me. He checked behind him, and on either side of our table.

‘Good, we’re alone,’ he said.

‘Yes . . . very,’ I replied. ‘And you have paint on your nose.’ He didn’t even respond to that. Instead he slid a small leather-bound book towards me.

‘What’s this?’ I placed my hand on the soft cover.

‘I haven’t exactly studied it, but if it is what I think it is, you’ll be thanking me.’

I opened the book and my breath caught. I flipped a few pages. Rhode’s handwriting. This was some kind of journal.

‘You broke into his
room?’
I wondered how he decorated the walls and the kinds of books he had on the shelves.

‘Well, you said you wanted some answers. So I figured, why not go get some? Don’t look at me like that, Lenah. A security guard was stationed outside the door so I snuck in through
the window. This was on the desk.’

A guffaw of laughter erupted from the astronomy club at a table nearby.

‘We really shouldn’t read this,’ I said.

‘
I
shouldn’t read it,’ Tony said, taking a sip from my coffee without asking. ‘
You
should.’

I kept my hand on the closed book. Rhode could have remembered any number of things that he put in his journal. But he also recorded his private thoughts. I was sure he didn’t intend
anyone to read them, especially me.

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Tony said. He pointed at me with charcoal-smeared fingers. ‘That you shouldn’t be reading it. But let me tell you, if I was kidnapped
by Señor Crazy Pants and my soulmate had my journal, I’d want her to read it. Especially if I had no memory.’

It was true; he could have clues in this journal, memories of his life as a vampire. I wanted to know how much he remembered. Not only out of curiosity but to see if he could defend himself in
any way. One thing I was sure of, even though I did not know his plans, was that Justin would coerce Rhode for information.

‘What?’ Tony said, taking another sip. ‘What are you thinking about?’

‘Rhode’s options,’ I said. I still had my hand on the journal. Tony got up to fetch himself some lunch. I wasn’t alone more than a second when Tracy sat down next to me
holding a tray of soup and salad.

‘I see he gave you the journal.’

‘To torment me,’ I replied, and dropped it in my bag. I would read it when I was alone. For now I had to focus on tonight and the meeting with the vampire.

‘We should meet in Tony’s room. It’s the shortest distance to the chapel,’ I said.

When Tony sat back down, he had with him possibly the largest helping of hamburger and French fries in history.

‘You need help,’ Tracy said to him.

‘So you think Justin will be back?’ Tony asked through a mouthful of meat. He ignored Tracy. ‘Tonight?’

‘Hopefully not for a while,’ Tracy said but her attention was drawn across the union. Claudia was talking closely with other girls at her table. She wasn’t wearing make-up and
had pulled her hair into a messy ponytail. She wore Wickham pyjama bottoms.

‘Looks like Claudia found out Kate is dating her ex,’ Tracy said. ‘I told her to stay away from Alex.’ She shook her head.

I would have given anything to just be worried about school and the latest Wickham gossip.

‘Maybe he’ll wait for you to come to him?’ Tony said, still talking about Justin. Our attempts at optimism were pathetic.

I stood and gathered up my things. ‘Forget about Kate and Claudia, Tracy. They’re here and immersed in school stuff. It means they’re safe. Expect Justin tonight.’ I
hitched my bag over my shoulder. ‘Tony’s room, eleven thirty. Both of you be ready. And wear your weapons.’

At eleven fifteen Tracy and I signed in for the night with Tina and pretended to go to our room. As soon as the door closed, I tossed Tracy a dagger.

‘Night!’ we heard Tina call to a few other girls on our floor. Her room was only two doors down from ours.

‘Let’s just give it a minute,’ I whispered to Tracy.

After a moment of silence she asked, ‘How can someone use air to make themselves move faster? Like Justin does?’

‘If you maliciously kill a living being, you break the life cycle,’ I said. ‘You kill them before their life contract is complete, so to speak.’

I had killed so many. I had relished in the taste of their blood as it gushed into my mouth, coating my throat. Once it coursed through me, I was renewed, powerful.

I continued: ‘If you make someone a vampire, you unlatch the soul from the natural order. That’s just the gateway. After that, you can unlatch other natural orders, like the
elements. It gives the vampire a real rush to use an element they can no longer access with their bodies. Wield the wind, even though you can’t feel it on your face. It gives a vampire a
powerful advantage.

I had once stood in a field of lavender conjuring the wind so violently that it made the branches of nearby trees creak and strain. But I wasn’t interested in manipulating the
elements.

I loved Rhode.

But power had once been my master.

‘So the
only
way Justin can get his humanity back is the ritual?’

‘It is my best hope for him,’ I said.

Behind her, on the mirror above the dresser, Justin smiled at me from seven or eight photographs. Tracy had put them back in meticulous order. In another picture, Kate, Claudia and Tracy sat on
the sea wall smiling into the camera, the sun making them squint.

‘I promise – my ultimate goal for Justin is to bring him back. If I can,’ I said.

‘Good,’ Tracy said with a little nod. ‘Good,’ she added in a small whisper, which perhaps was not meant for me to hear.

‘Let’s see,’ I said, and pressed my ear to the door. I listened for any more noise in the hall. I heard some voices but they were muted; behind closed doors. I checked the
hallway.

‘It’s empty,’ I whispered.

Tracy checked the time on her cell phone. ‘Eleven thirty-eight.’

‘We’re late, let’s go,’ I replied.

We kept our backs to the wall and crept towards the boys’ dorm. We made it to the double-door entrance when I stopped.

‘I think my heart might explode,’ Tracy whispered.

I didn’t reply. I closed my eyes and tried to listen like I had as a vampire.

The hum of air systems.

More muted voices behind doors.

Light music but no footsteps.

‘I think we’re OK,’ I said. I motioned for Tracy to keep going. We tiptoed to Tony’s door, slid the key in the lock and entered.

‘What the hell are you wearing?’ Tracy asked once we had closed the door.

Tony wore camouflage pants and a black shirt. He flexed his biceps in front of the mirror.

‘What am I wearing?’ he replied. ‘Only the most expensive camo pants the Orleans Army Navy store had in stock. We need to blend in with the scenery,’ Tony said, and
scoffed when Tracy’s only reply was the raise of an eyebrow. ‘What am I wearing?’ He shook his head.

‘He thinks he’s Special Ops,’ Tracy said to me.

‘What’s Special Ops?’ I asked.

Tracy clapped a hand on my shoulder. ‘When this is all over, you’re getting a tutorial,’ she said. With that, we climbed out of Tony’s window and into the night.

Security, as I expected, was subtly heightened with Rhode’s disappearance. If I hadn’t been aware of it, I wasn’t sure I would have noticed the extra cars on
campus or the second guard at the gate.

Tony and Tracy had spent the better part of the morning marking where the surveillance cameras were so when we crossed over the quad and headed to the chapel, we would be able to sneak into the
building without being seen. Luckily for us, the chapel had no security cameras.