Stolen Night (24 page)

‘Thank you, Vicken,’ I said, hoping he’d caught the sarcasm in my tone.

‘Tell me what?’ Rhode asked.

I stood up from the couch and crossed my arms over my chest.

‘I tried to call Suleen. For help. But it was unsuccessful,’ I admitted.

‘What do you mean, you tried to call Suleen?’ Rhode asked quietly, leaning forward.

Vicken cleared his throat. ‘See, we did this summoning spell.’

‘You
what
?’ Rhode said, pushing off the wall and throwing his hands into the air. ‘Vicken – you didn’t think it necessary to tell me this?’

‘What, he’s your spy?’ I asked.

‘It seemed like it might be useful!’ Vicken replied, but he was talking to Rhode.

‘Have you no sense at all? It’s as if you two were never immortal. I’m surprised she didn’t find you while you were performing the bloody spell and stab you both through
the heart.’

‘Some things are worth trying,’ I replied. I kept my arms crossed but leaned against the closed door to my bedroom.

‘Like hurting your arm? That’s when it happened, isn’t it?’ Rhode asked. I didn’t reply. ‘You let her do this?’ Rhode said, turning to Vicken.

‘Like I could stop her, mate.’

‘Suleen can offer us protection,’ I explained.

‘Don’t discuss these things in front of him!’ Rhode said, motioning to Justin. ‘He doesn’t understand.’

Justin sneered. ‘I understand fine.’

Rhode ignored Justin and continued, ‘Don’t you think I tried myself? I called Suleen after you told me you saw Odette at the herb shop. He did not respond. You made that choice on
the archery . . .’ He stopped himself and considered what he would say next. He drew a shallow breath. ‘No one is coming to help us.’

I had always believed that, out of any of us, Rhode would be able to reach Suleen. After the memories I’d seen, I’d been sure he would come.

‘What does Odette want?’ Justin asked.

‘To be Lenah,’ Vicken replied.

‘The ritual,’ Rhode said to Justin.

‘Can’t we just give it to her?’ Justin asked. ‘To avoid any more deaths?’

Vicken laughed cruelly, the sound cutting the air.

‘What’s the big deal?’ Justin asked, looking back and forth from Vicken to me.

‘What’s the big deal?’ Vicken mocked.

Rhode sighed. ‘If supernatural creatures pour their intentions into a spell that powerful, it will backfire. The ritual could anoint Odette with unimaginable powers. Could release real
evil and draw entities to Lovers Bay that don’t drink blood – but drink souls,’ he explained.

My dream from earlier that month of an abandoned Wickham and a ruined Lovers Bay resurfaced in my mind.

There was a palpable silence, then Vicken said, ‘It’s not like we can barrier spell the entire campus.’

Rhode sighed. ‘What shall we do?’ he asked, but it was rhetorical. ‘Wear garlic in our hair? Crosses around our necks?’

‘We need Suleen,’ I said again. ‘Or we could call the Aeris. They’re more powerful than any vampire.’

‘We can’t call on them,’ Rhode growled. ‘You just failed to summon Suleen. Now you wish to call entities even more powerful?’

‘Why not? We have time. Nuit Rouge begins in just a few weeks. The barrier between our world and the supernatural world is weakening already.’

‘Lenah, you barely got out of that art tower alive,’ Rhode replied.

‘So, what, then?’ I said. ‘Stay locked in our rooms for the rest of eternity?’

‘We need to prepare ourselves,’ Rhode replied. ‘We know Odette’s weakened when she bleeds. We have to find the right moment to attack in the only way we have
left.’

The only way. Of course . . .

There was a pause, and then I said what I knew was on Vicken and Rhode’s minds. ‘Weapons.’ I met Justin’s eyes.

Rhode nodded once.

There it was – our last and only hope. For our human bodies were no match for Odette and her unnatural powers.

‘This is how it should go,’ Rhode offered. ‘We’re
never
alone.’ He looked at me. ‘We’re
never
unarmed. It’s very simple. We remain
at the ready at all times. Carry a dagger everywhere, stay in full public view.’ His eyes scanned the room, finally resting on Justin. ‘This is what it’s like to be the
hunted.’

Claudia Hawthorne’s funeral was held on the night of the harvest moon, the start of the month of Nuit Rouge, 1 October. The tide was higher than ever in recorded history,
with waves over twelve-feet high crashing on to Lovers Bay shore. It was a short service, one where I kept my eyes to the cemetery ground. When the students boarded the buses back to campus, Rhode
left a jasmine flower on Claudia’s coffin. If only they knew why. If only they realized why we felt so responsible.

When we returned to school, Tracy walked quickly away. She darted, with quick steps, her heels clicking on the pavement as she crossed the quad towards her dorm.

I watched her go. With Claudia’s and Kate’s deaths, all that remained of the Three Piece was Tracy Sutton. I expected her to leave this cursed place, to run home to the comfort of
her parents. About a dozen members of the sophomore and junior classes had now left the school permanently.

As the days went on, some students continued to wear black, but slowly colour came back into the mix, as well as enthusiasm for the upcoming Halloween dance. It seemed to be the only thing we
had to look forward to on campus. In between discussions of the various carnival booths and the costumes people were wearing for the dance, the school announced that a pine tree would be planted
near Hopper in Claudia’s memory. Didn’t these mortals know pines planted unnaturally would bring sadness to whoever sat beneath? Didn’t they know that oaks are the trees to bring
peace? Yet they wanted to plant a pine, and I couldn’t exactly make my objections openly.

I wondered if Claudia had already joined the white light of the Aeris. The thought of her there dead because of me, victim of a vampire made by me, killed because she was close to me, made me
drop my dagger into my boot every morning after brushing my teeth. Any time I thought to leave it at home, I remembered Claudia’s fine blonde hair fluttering around her lifeless body.

A few days after Claudia’s funeral, Vicken and I made our way to the union to have breakfast. We watched members of the senior class bring streamers and cardboard skeletons to decorate the
gymnasium where we were to have our Halloween dance at the end of the month, 31 October, the last and most powerful night of Nuit Rouge.

Across the green, behind Quartz, Tracy emerged from the small dorm for senior girls. I had to look twice to make sure it was actually her. She had dyed her hair a dark brown, and her cheekbones
were so pronounced she didn’t look like the same person. She was gaunt and sallow, so unlike the vibrant glowing girl from the year before. The girl who matched her outfits and paraded around
the campus. The girl who wore make-up even to exercise, and had matched her pyjamas with those of her friends. Friends who were now both gone. A strength emanated from her now, the steely hardness
of someone who has held the hand of death. I would not have wished that for her so soon in life. She had a backpack over one shoulder and was dressed as she had been for weeks, in all black. She
was heading towards the section of the woods that remained unguarded.

‘Where do you think she’s going?’ Vicken asked.

Tracy glanced back on to the campus to see if anyone was behind her and tugged the backpack more tightly to her shoulder.

‘I’m following her,’ I said.

‘No, Lenah.’ Vicken tried to hold me back by my arm. I wrenched it out of his grasp.

‘You know what will happen the moment she’s alone,’ I said.

Vicken considered my words, then said, ‘Well, you’re not going by yourself.’

‘Let me get a head start,’ I said, and jogged across the grass towards Tracy, who was just passing behind the library.

‘Tracy,’ I called, catching up with her. ‘Hey! Wait up.’

She turned, and I was expecting her to smile at me, but instead she pushed me away roughly.

‘No, Lenah. Stay away from me.’

I found myself blinking stupidly. The blue of her eyes really popped next to the contrast of her darkened hair.

‘Me?’ I asked. ‘You want me to stay away from you?’

Tracy adjusted her backpack and something in there jangled. A clinking metal sound. ‘Where are you going, Tracy?’ I asked.

‘Nowhere.’ She scowled and crossed her arms over her chest. Another clunk.

‘This is ridiculous,’ I replied. Behind Tracy, down the side of the library, Vicken inched towards us. He lit a cigarette and pretended, with a leg resting against the wall, that he
had simply popped out for a smoke.

‘I have to go now,’ Tracy said. She turned and took two steps away from me.

‘No, Tracy. It’s not safe,’ I said, and almost as it came out of my mouth I knew I had said too much.

But she didn’t listen to me. She ran.

After a few moments, Vicken joined me at my side.

‘She’s carrying weapons,’ I said.

‘What kind?’ he asked, and we started to jog along behind Tracy. She was already on Main Street.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Did she say where she was going?’ Vicken asked.

‘No, but I have a good idea.’

Vicken and I made sure, as always, to keep to the shadows. The late-afternoon sun shone through the bare branches, and my black boots crunched over the jewelled coloured leaves
that carpeted the ground.

‘I only have one dagger,’ I whispered as we turned into the cemetery.

‘I have two,’ Vicken replied.

‘How long until Odette arrives, do you think?’ I asked.

‘Minutes,’ he said gravely.

I kept having to remind myself it was Tracy as we followed behind. Her hair now fell in long waves of chocolate brown. She grasped the straps of her bag and turned, as I expected, down the row
containing Tony’s gravestone.

‘What the hell is she doing?’ Vicken asked.

‘Come on,’ I whispered, and we inched our way up the path to join her. I stopped, gasping a bit when we reached Tony’s row. Tracy had dropped her backpack and was kneeling on
the grass. She ran her fingers over the strange circle of turned earth Rhode’s sword had made around the grave.

I wrapped a hand around Vicken’s arm. We stepped back into the shadows of a nearby oak and I did what I had been trained to do for hundreds of years. I watched. She knelt down, lowered to
her hip and leaned on one hand with her other arm outstretched in front of her on the grave. She leaned her weight on that one arm and peered down at the even soil.

Tracy’s hand gripped the dirt tight, her head fell limp and she broke into cries. Her supporting arm gave way and she fell on to the grave, hiding her face in the crook of her arm. I
watched her back heave. Her sobs were uneven, the kind of crying a person does when she thinks she is alone.

Daylight clung to the sky but this was Nuit Rouge, so the light provided no protection. The attack could happen at any moment. I bent forward, eyes scouring the woods beyond the cemetery. The
birds chirped as they settled down for the evening. The wind was light, bringing with it the musky smell of soil. As a former hunter, I paused and took the time to listen. A hunter listens for
unnatural movement. Even air moves. It can leave an echo. For now, it seemed we were alone.

I walked down the row from the cemetery path, Vicken behind me. Tracy snapped her head up, her eyes streaked with tears. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a crucifix.

‘Stay away from me!’ she screamed.

Vicken jumped back and pulled out a dagger. His arm dropped when he realized she wasn’t holding something dangerous.

‘You’re kidding me, right?’ Vicken asked. ‘First of all, those don’t work and, second, we’re not vampires.’

‘You know who did this!’ Tracy shrieked at me.

‘Who?’ Vicken asked. ‘Did what?’

‘Who killed Claudia!’ she yelled, but looked at me. ‘Justin told me you were in there with her. In the art tower.’

‘I didn’t touch Claudia,’ I said.

‘Or is it you?’ she spat, now looking at Vicken. ‘We all know what you’re capable of. The art tower is your favourite place.’

Tracy stood atop Tony’s rounded grave. All I could see carved into the granite headstone was the word
Artist.
Her body blocked the rest of the epitaph.

‘Tracy, calm down. It wasn’t us,’ I said.

‘I
was the one who went into your room with Tony last year.
I
saw the picture of you and Rhode on your bureau from, like, a hundred years ago. You come to this school, and
guess who dies? Tony. Then both my best friends, Kate and Claudia. Am I next, Lenah? Am I?’ She finally broke down, her face collapsing, and she sobbed, dropping the crucifix on to the
grass.

Vicken and I shared a look. I went over to Tracy and wrapped my arms around her. She wept into my shoulder.

There was a clapping sound.

Someone was clapping.

Someone was clapping?

‘So, the mortal knows you’re ex-vampires?’ Odette said, appearing through the trees on the edge of the cemetery. ‘If only she knew how you used to murder children for
pleasure.’

This time I was ready.

‘Get behind me, Tracy,’ I ordered, and a memory of the art tower flashed through my mind.

I reached down into my boot and whipped out the dagger. I held it outstretched in front of me.

The heart. The heart. Aim for the heart.

Odette sneered, fangs bared. Tracy’s fingers gripped my shoulders. Odette came towards us and Vicken, my wonderful Vicken, ran at her, a dagger raised in the air. Odette got to him first.
She wrapped her fingers around his wrist and tossed him aside, as though he weighed nothing. Vicken’s body flew ten feet high through the air and crumpled at the base of a tree.

He lay unmoving. My gut clenched but I had to stay focused. I had to do this.

I would not fail Tracy as I had failed Claudia. Not this time.

I stood my ground and extended my dagger in front of me.

‘Have you learned nothing? Why would you leave campus without your precious Rhode?’ Odette said, and clawed through the air at me. Tracy and I jumped back; Odette only just missed my
chest.