Stolen Night (10 page)

Vicken exhaled angrily and stubbed his cigarette out on the brick of the building.

‘So will your friend Justin. This actually hurts,’ he said, and pointed at the yellow and purple bruise beneath his right eye. ‘I keep touching it to check. You know,
it’s easy to forget physical pain when you haven’t felt it for more than a hundred years. Glorious.’ He brought his cheek towards me. ‘You touch it. I wonder if it feels
different if someone else presses on it.’

‘You’re sick,’ I said, and ran my student ID through the scanner – just one of the many precautions introduced at Wickham Boarding School since Tony and Kate’s
deaths.

‘
I’m
sick?’ Vicken said, following me into the building. ‘Need I remind you of the time you killed an entire beach party by yourself?’ He paused and we
climbed the six flights up. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ he said between breaths. ‘It was brilliant.’

After an hour, the bright moon cast a milky light through the glass ceiling on to the observatory floor. We opened the roof windows, and instead of using the enormous
telescope, Vicken and I admired the passing constellations with our naked eyes, lying on our backs on the floor. Even though the sun had descended only a couple of hours earlier, with every moment
the sky darkened and more stars twinkled in the night sky.

‘You know, as a point of conversation, Rhode may have got into a fight here,’ Vicken said. ‘Not in Hathersage, like you think.’

‘All right,’ I replied. ‘Then why didn’t Odette mention Rhode at the herb shop. She clearly doesn’t know he survived.’

‘You’re speculating.’

‘How do you know she has anything to do with Rhode? Wouldn’t she have said something? Wouldn’t she have mentioned Rhode?’

A shooting star raced across the sky. I pointed straight up to the sky and so did Vicken. In unison, we counted in Latin . . .

‘
Unus, duo, tres . . .
’

Waiting . . . waiting . . . Another shooting star flew across the sky. The exhilaration of seeing that bright light streaking over our heads faded quickly and the Aeris’s words echoed in
my head.

You are soulmates
.
Your lives are destined to be intertwined.

‘Leave it with me,’ Vicken said. ‘I’ll figure out what happened. I was a soldier, for Pete’s sake. Snooping around won’t be too hard. Difficult to miss
Ol’ Bludgeoned Face these days.’

I laughed. ‘Old Bludgeoned Face?’

‘Spot on.’

‘You’re funnier as a human,’ I said.

Vicken waited a moment and then asked with a wide smile, ‘Do you want to touch my bruise?’

‘Still no.’

He turned on to his side and inched forward like a seal out of water.

‘Come on, Lenah. Touch my bruise.’

‘No!’ I cried. He was so close I could smell the tobacco on his skin.

‘Just do it. Are you afraid of it?’

I smacked him hard.

‘A little tiny blood mark!’ he exclaimed, and we were hysterical until I heard another kind of laughter echoing up the stairs. I froze. A squeal of girlish giggles followed by a
voice I recognized. We sat up and I twisted around to look to the doorway. Justin walked into the observatory with a junior I recognized: Andrea.

‘If it isn’t my escort,’ Vicken said with a devilish grin. Andrea smiled.

Justin’s eyes shifted from Vicken to me.

‘Let’s go, Andrea. This room is
occupied
,’ he said.

‘It’s not,’ I cried, and scrambled to my feet.

Vicken scooted back against the wall and lit another cigarette. ‘Oh, let them go. He’s a twit,’ he said from behind me, and crossed one ankle over the other. ‘By the way,
he came in here to take her clothes off.’

I glared at him.

‘ESP,’ he said with a shrug.

‘Put out that cigarette,’ I hissed.

I clambered down the stairwell after them. Justin already hated me, and now he thought I was with Vicken!

‘Wait!’ I called, and burst out on to the quad.

Andrea and Justin stood by the door; her expression was murderous.

‘This will just take a second,’ I said to her. ‘Will you excuse us?’

She looked to Justin, eyes wide, waiting for him to say no. When he didn’t, she scoffed.

‘You’re pathetic,’ she said with a dramatic turn, and stalked off.

‘Andrea!’ He called after her again, but she was already on the pathway joining other students. It would be curfew soon.

Justin moved to follow after her.

‘Can you please give me a moment?’ I asked. He turned back to me with a huge sigh.

‘I’m not with Vicken,’ I said emphatically.

‘Did I say that you were?’ Justin replied, his tone stinging me like a smack against my cheek.

‘No,’ I said quietly. ‘You didn’t.’

‘On the archery field you left me for Rhode,’ he said. ‘But I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if you were with Vicken now. It’s tough keeping up.’

I didn’t have the heart to tell him the actual order was: Rhode, Vicken and then him.

‘Vicken and I are really just friends,’ I said.

‘So you’re friends with a murderer. He helped your coven kill Tony!’

‘It’s more complicated than that,’ I said.

‘Yeah, well, it doesn’t seem too complicated to me,’ said Justin. ‘I have to go.’

That seemed to be a common phrase these days.

But Justin didn’t go. He looked down at the ground and then at me.

‘What do you want from me? What about Rhode?’ he asked. ‘Aren’t you guys soulmates? Ritual mates? Whatever.’

‘I’m not with Rhode,’ I said after a pause. ‘I’m not with Vicken. I’m with no one.’

His nostrils flared and his cheeks reddened. He blinked a few times and I struggled to read his expression. ‘Don’t you love him?’ he asked. ‘Rhode?’

‘Things just changed,’ I said with a shake of my head, and it was the truth. As much as Rhode consumed me, as much as I would love him forever, everything was different now. I had to
move on.

‘Kind of seems like a hard thing to change,’ Justin said.

We let the sounds of the campus resonate around us. People were talking and laughing. Cell phones chimed, and somewhere close cars whooshed by on a street.

‘Look,’ I said. ‘I don’t want you to hate me. I know I deserve it . . .’

‘I don’t hate you,’ he said, and shifted his gaze from the ground to my eyes. ‘I just don’t want to know you any more. I want to live my life without rituals, and
covens of murderous vampires killing my friends. I like dating girls who, you know, stay alive.’

His words cut though me. It seemed to me then that I’d never again feel the joy and comfort of lying in his arms. I remembered how powerful his warmth had felt after being cold for
hundreds of years. Warmth, touch, tenderness – that was Justin. He was a reminder that I could truly be alive and feel love. He had helped me move on last year; I wanted him to help me now.
Help me in the way only he could.

But he turned and walked down the pathway after Andrea.

‘Wait,’ I called. ‘Please.’

He stopped next to the pathway light. ‘What?’ He kept his back to me.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, then hesitated. I chose my words in my head, but none of them sounded right. ‘About all of it,’ I finished.

He shook his head but faced me again.

‘Sorry, Lenah, but it’s not enough.’

‘I just want you to know . . .’ I took a step to him and raised my palms to say
stay
. ‘No, let me rephrase. I want you to try to imagine someone in your life that
you’ve known forever. Let’s say, Roy, your younger brother.’

Justin frowned but nodded once.

‘And then, one day, he’s gone. How he held a cup of coffee, or laughed, or touched his face is left only in your memory. Gone forever. I want you to try and imagine that
grief.’

‘Tony died, Lenah. Kate died. I know what grief is like.’

I dared to take another step.

‘Humans can learn to live again after grieving, but for the vampire, that grief is constant. It’s what makes us so dangerous. And when Rhode died, or I thought he did, you were
there, at the moment when I was human for the first time. You brought me out of that curse. You healed me.’

Justin avoided my eyes by looking across the campus. I waited for him to respond, to say that he was touched, that he understood. But he just exhaled and put his hands in his pockets.

‘I know you heard me talking to Rhode that day, on the archery field. I was surprised to see him,’ I tried to explain.

‘I bet,’ he said, still looking away.

‘It’s not that I don’t love . . .’

Justin’s eyes snapped up.

‘. . . love you,’ I finished.

He kept my gaze but didn’t reply. Didn’t say
I still love you too
. I gave it a few more seconds.

‘Fine,’ I said, and turned on the spot. I hurried down the path.

‘Wait!’ Justin called from behind me. ‘Lenah, wait!’

But I did not wait. I kept walking down the path, embarrassment rolling over me in waves.
I can’t believe I told him how I felt and got no reaction. No reaction!
It was so unlike
him. I walked and walked until I found myself almost back at Seeker.

I stopped on the path, directly next to the library, when a desire to go inside swept over me. There was another hour until curfew. I wanted to go inside the listening room, where I could sit
and listen to music at the push of a button. Where I could be alone. Perhaps I would play Mozart. I saw him play in person several times, four to be exact.

I had walked away from Justin’s words. I hoped the listening room would help me forget the look in his eyes. I entered the library and walked down the main aisle and towards the tiny rooms
at the back. I had worked in that library the year before. I knew its contents well. I checked through the small rectangular window into the listening room. It was empty. I opened the door and
stepped inside.

There were no CDs any more. Instead a computer sat on top of a small desk. I had spent the last year learning to navigate computers. I sat down and clicked on a small icon that said: new songs.
Someone had classified them as well: Romance, Classical, New Age, Death Metal.
Death Metal?

I searched through the songs for a few moments, marvelling at the thousands of choices. A hand reached over my shoulder. I jumped a little as it then gently grazed the top of my fingers and
rested on the mouse. I hadn’t even heard the door click! The hand was warm and golden bronze.

‘Pick this one,’ said Justin quietly. He double-clicked and a ballad, a very soft song with a woman singing, echoed in the small room.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked quietly, as he pulled me up from the chair.

‘Dancing with you.’

The image of him shoving his hands in his pockets came to mind.

‘But I thought you were angry with me,’ I said.

His strong arms pulled me to him gently and his grasp was firm around my shoulders. His palm rested on the centre of my back and I lifted my chin to him. Underneath his shirt collar was a black
leather strap. A glint of a silver pendant peeked out from his shirt when he moved, but Justin drew me closer. I wondered what kind of pendant it was and what else could have changed over the
summer. The sound of a guitar filled the room and the melancholy piano swirled through me. Our eyes met and Justin’s gentle gaze compelled me to speak.

‘I really am sorry. About Rhode, about . . .’ I hesitated. It felt odd to apologize for almost dying when I performed the ritual. ‘Well, like I said, I’m sorry. About all
of it.’

He hushed me gently and nuzzled his nose to my shoulder. He grabbed on tighter and we started to revolve.

‘About Tony . . .’

‘Shhh,’ he said again, and this time I closed my eyes. I was back at winter prom with Justin, dancing under the sparkling lights. In this modern world, people danced so intimately.
Body to body, chest to chest. I could sense Justin’s desire in the heat between us. This close, the music made me aware of his wanting. The vampire in me longed to feel Justin’s
heartbeat. And when I closed my eyes and listened to the song . . . I did.

Imagine if this was Rhode. What would he say about modern dancing?
There were no choreographed steps like we had in the medieval era. Just two bodies, together, moving. If this was Rhode,
his hands would come up my back, landing at the base of my neck. Justin’s hands slipped under my arms. Goosebumps swept over me. Justin pulled me even closer so my lips kissed the crook of
his neck.

Yes, he’s here. Rhode’s here. This is not Justin, but Rhode.

Rhode squeezed me closer as the musical serenade echoed in the room. I swallowed nervously and let myself give in to my fantasy. Rhode and I spun in that room, his graceful hands flowing up and
down my body. His warmth, his human warmth, overwhelmed me. Rhode pulled me closer so there was no space between us. He kissed my neck, sending chills through me.

Love. What a strange word. How endless. How it had defined my beliefs for so long. Because we had run through decades of time, hands held, always, always waking with the moon. We revelled in
every colour of sunset.

‘I love you so much,’ I whispered.

‘I love you too,’ a strange voice replied.

The American accent startled me from my reverie. I blinked a few times, holding on to the wisps of the fantasy, but knowing as I lifted my chin that I would look into Justin’s eyes and not
Rhode’s.

We kept dancing even though my spell had broken into a thousand pieces.

‘I thought when you saw Rhode it would be over between us,’ Justin said.

I can’t have Rhode. I’ll never touch his hand again. It’s over.

I refocused on Justin.

‘I thought it would be easier to be mad at you,’ he continued.

‘I’m not used to the angry version of you,’ I replied.

‘I can’t stop loving you, Lenah. I can’t,’ he replied softly. ‘I keep trying. But I can’t.’

I looked into his eyes as the song slowed to its last bars.

I can make this happen. Can’t I? Justin and me?

This was so much easier than the endless rejection from Rhode. Nothing supernatural was telling us we couldn’t be together. Nothing was stopping us.