Stolen Night (6 page)

It was done. She had a coven.

As I watched, she turned her head, highlighted faintly by the moonlight so that I could see her profile. She had a small upturned nose and a pronounced collarbone, as if she hadn’t eaten
enough as a human. Then she spun on her heel to face me, lifted an arm and pointed up the beach directly at me.

‘Run,’ I said, scrambling backwards. ‘Vicken, run!’

I pushed my body as hard as I could as we ran down Main Street back towards civilization. My legs, my poor legs, were shaking so badly that if it wasn’t for the mental
image of the vampire’s arm pointing right at me, I would have collapsed to the ground. That blonde hair and the familiar slope of her nose. How could she have known I was here? Here in Lovers
Bay?

Run, Lenah. Stop thinking and run.

If we could find a crowd, we would be safe. Vampires don’t expose themselves to humans en masse. But she wouldn’t give up. She had seen me, her maker.

Oh, what was her name?

‘Here, here!’ Vicken said, skidding to a halt at what seemed like a random part of the street. He started to climb over the stone wall, and only then did I realize he knew exactly
where we were thanks to his lingering vampire sight.

I checked around again. Luckily the long trees curved over the wide street and it remained empty.

He extended a hand to me and together we climbed over the wall. Once my feet hit the grass of Wickham, I felt a bit better. Vicken and I crept back towards the campus through the trees, but when
we were close to the pathway he stopped.

‘Wait,’ he said, holding out an arm.

A security car drove by, causing both Vicken and me to retreat deeper into the shadows. Once we were safe in the darkness, Vicken asked, ‘What did you run like hell for? Did they see
you?’

‘Yes! Of course,’ I said, still trying to catch my breath.

‘Let’s keep to the back of the buildings,’ Vicken said. ‘We have a better chance of staying hidden.’

We walked towards Seeker.

‘Her name was Odette,’ Vicken said. ‘She did not linger long after you took your hibernation.’

I could see the back of Curie Building and the greenhouse as we walked.

‘Odette?’ I said. Her name felt odd and foreign as I said it aloud. ‘I don’t remember that.’ I remembered her face though. I never forgot the faces of those I
killed.

‘If the power of the ritual called her to Lovers Bay, then she’s here to find that elemental magic,’ I said. ‘She’ll want it to use herself.’

I didn’t need to explain to Vicken that she desired power.

‘Well, we won’t be performing the ritual again any time soon, so maybe she’ll leave when the magic doesn’t present itself again.’

I hoped that was true, though I didn’t know Odette’s intentions. But as Vicken and I hesitated at the back of the infirmary I did know this: a vampire’s number-one priority is
blood. Second on that list would be power. If Odette wanted to find out the source of the magic of the ritual, she would have a plan. Vampires always have a plan.

Vicken and I ran to the media building, next to Seeker. We hesitated as two Lovers Bay police officers patrolled the pathway ahead of us. I looked all the way up to the top floor to see my
balcony. The balcony where I’d performed the ritual.

I tried to ignore the voice in my head, the one that had haunted me since she’d lifted her arm and pointed at me up the darkened beach.

Odette would be back.

I studied the longsword on the wall. I rested my face in my hands and sat on the couch with my legs tucked under me. I analysed the slim reflection of my body in the
sword’s metal. How many times had I stared into its silver and asked how I could possibly survive without my Rhode? How many times did I have to avert my eyes, because it was just too
much?

And then I had met Justin, who brought me out of the depths of despair and back into the light.

Two days had passed since Vicken and I had discovered the vampires on the beach. We did not venture off campus after dark. No matter how hard I studied that longsword, looking into its infinite
mirror for answers, I found nothing. Why had Rhode stayed away from me for so long after he’d survived that ritual? A ritual he performed so I could be human?

All I knew for certain was that our souls had linked us to earth.

For two days after Rhode left this time, I walked back and forth from the archery plateau to my apartment. I searched for answers where the Aeris had stood. But nothing came from sitting for
hours on the grass. For two days, I wondered,
Where is he?
Where had he hidden for the year I’d believed him dead? I found no answers, and Rhode did not return.

Two days

The summer passed in a blink. Up in my apartment I had whiled away the time reading and reflecting, but as we got closer to the start of school I found myself marking off the
days on the calendar. On 31 August, I resolved to take a trip. Wickham students were set to return in a couple of days and I had not seen Justin or his brothers on campus all summer.

No letters. No emails.

I tried calling Justin but my phone calls went unanswered.

Three days before school was due to begin, I took a dawn drive to Rhode Island, to Justin’s parents’ house. I intended to give him an explanation. He deserved it. I practised my
speech on the hour-long drive there. When I finally pulled on to his street, I rolled down the window. A cool breeze floated into the car, brushing against my cheeks. The big houses slept in the
early summer morning. Not even the sprinklers were on yet.

I stood at the foot of Justin’s family’s driveway looking up at the house. The last time I had been there was Halloween. Now the trees were lush and heavy with leaves. Fresh-baked
cookies, home-cooked meals, and soft hands touching my skin were associated with that house. At any moment, I expected to see a light click on in the kitchen window. Justin’s mother was an
early riser. Did she know we hadn’t talked all summer? Would she welcome me inside?

How could I explain how sorry I was? OK, one more rehearsal.

‘Justin,’ I said aloud to myself, ‘you don’t understand. When I saw Rhode, I was . . .
surprised
.’

I heard the sound of a latch; the front door opened. I lifted my chin to see Justin, shirtless and in a pair of sweatpants with WICKHAM down the leg. He squinted.

This was it. I had to tell him.

‘Lenah?’ he said, and rose on to his toes to try to see me over the top of a hydrangea bush.

I shifted the weight from my left foot to my right foot. My heart was unable to find a comfortable rhythm. I couldn’t scream,
I’m sorry
, across the lawn. I started up the long
driveway but there was no need.

He slammed the door.

‘Here’s what I don’t understand,’ Vicken said the next evening. Careful not to venture out after dark, we had a couple of hours left before sunset. We
had planned our days that way the entire summer. It was just after six and we were at Lovers Bay Herb Shop, at the end of Main Street. ‘Why do we need to stay in this bloody place? Skulking
about in daylight just in case we run into a vampire you might have made a hundred years ago. In case you forgot where that happened, we have a house in Hathersage. In fact, we murdered lots of
people there.’

‘Yes, our house that is likely to be overrun with vampires in our absence,’ I replied.

‘We have money,’ Vicken reasoned. ‘Let’s go to Paris. Drink wine. Relax.’

‘You know why we can’t leave,’ I replied, and held up a jar of dried jasmine.
Might be useful.
I scooped some into the paper bag. ‘I’m not leaving now
Kate’s been killed. Especially when I feel so responsible.’

‘Maybe it’s all a coincidence. It’s been ages since you performed the ritual. Those vampires probably came to town, ate your unfortunate friend and
left.
Let’s go.
We can find Rhode on our own. He won’t be that hard to find,’ Vicken groaned. ‘Blue eyes, scowl, self-righteous attitude—’

‘We’re staying,’ I replied, and piled the items on the counter. I didn’t mention to Vicken that I didn’t want to leave Lovers Bay because I had put down roots here.
It was my home now.

‘You know, just because you were queen for a few hundred years doesn’t mean you still are.’

The herb-shop owner had disappeared behind the curtain to get me some newt feet. I placed a twenty-dollar bill on the counter, waiting for her to return.

Vicken examined some chanting crystals on the bottom shelf of the case, but then he slid up slowly and whispered under his breath, ‘White skin, so delicate. As a human, she’s truly
so small, easy to break her neck.’

A tingling feeling crept over me. I shot a glance at Vicken. He stared behind the counter, his eyes wide. ‘I’ll siphon her blood out, slowly,’ he said. His intonation was
different, female and almost reptilian. He was speaking for someone else; this was what happened when using vampire extrasensory perception. ‘It’ll be easier to get Lenah alone,’
he hissed.

He took a step back. ‘Lenah,’ he said in his familiar voice. ‘Go. Now.’

The woman was back behind the counter. She had long, cascading ringlets of blonde hair that curled perfectly across her blouse. Her skin was abnormally polished and pale. Her eyes were glassy,
their colour an unnatural jade.

Odette.

There was a screech against the glass. A white hand adorned with knife-like fingernails made a claw around the money. She ran her crimson nails along the glass of the shiny counter.

Odette wiped a tiny drop of blood from the corner of her mouth. ‘Getting comfortable, were you?’

She licked her lips and grimaced from the taste. ‘Blech. She was overweight. I’ll be full for days,’ she said, and with a sleek bend of her legs, jumped and landed on top of
the counter. ‘My, my . . .’ she said, looking down at Vicken and me.

With my paper bag clutched in my hand, we backed towards the door.

‘Lenah Beaudonte. The queen. Backing away from me?’

Blood dripped down her chin like wine running down the side of a goblet.

Vicken whipped out a dagger and stepped in front of me. Odette jumped down to the floor just inches from Vicken’s dagger and her eyes slid back and forth between us.

‘Very good, Ms Beaudonte. I see your ritual works. He makes a very good human.’

My blood pounded in my ears and throat. Vicken held his arm outstretched, gripping the dagger in his hand.

From the floor behind the counter I heard a groan. The shopkeeper was still alive.

‘If you want to die, then by all means come closer,’ Vicken said to the vampire.

She cocked her head to the side and smiled eerily past him.

‘I have always admired your greatness, Lenah,’ she said, licking the blood from her chin. ‘And your evil . . .’

A lump in my throat made it hard to swallow.

‘Your friend Kate – was that her name? She crawled away from me. Cried and screamed. It was
such
fun,’ Odette hissed.

Vicken lunged at Odette, thrusting out his hand to plunge the knife into her heart. She kicked up a leg and the dagger flew in an arc through the air and clattered on to the floor.

‘Damn it!’ Vicken spat, and scrambled across the floor for his weapon.

Chin dipped to her chest, the vampire’s eyes bored into mine. She opened her mouth, fangs bared.

When my coven came for me all those months ago, when I killed them in the gymnasium, I never understood. It was not until this moment, as the blood pumped through my heart, that I realized what
humanity meant. I was filled with it. She needed blood. I would be next. She wanted to drain me of my life force; I knew that feeling too well. How I had hungered to suck the blood from two small
holes, siphon it out in rhythmic swallows as life slowly drained from my prey.

I dropped the bag of herbs to the floor and raised my hands, ready to defend myself. I turned to my side to avoid giving her a larger target than necessary. She ran at me, extending one arm and
thrusting outward, slamming me in the chest. I fell backwards against the wall behind me. Small brown and black vials clanked and clattered together. Some fell on me, spilling their contents, and
others broke into pieces on the floor. My chest throbbed from the force of her hand.

Odette linked her arm around Vicken, pulling him from the floor and hooking him around the neck. Vicken’s eyes locked on to mine. He jerked against Odette’s strong grasp. His hands
were balled into fists. The dagger lay on the floor, useless.

I jumped up and grabbed on to Odette’s fingers. I pulled back, jerking, but they were immovable. I was like a child pulling at a metal vice. I tried again. How was she so strong?

Odette smiled, her fangs still bared.

‘What is this?’ I growled.

‘Such questions,’ Odette mocked. She squeezed harder, and Vicken grimaced from the pain. Odette pushed me away with her right hand, but it felt like an anvil hitting me in my
stomach. I fell back again into the shelves of bottles, so they popped and shattered around me. I hit the floor and shook my head to clear my vision.

The force of her hand had made my muscles tender. When I touched them with my fingertips, they seized, sending an ache through me.

‘Lenah, give me the ritual. Now,’ Odette ordered. Vicken’s face was turning red. My eyes darted to the knife. I pushed up from the floor just as Vicken lifted a knee.

He stamped down hard on Odette’s foot, and out of surprise Odette let go. Vicken jumped away and scrambled for the knife. Odette, instead of going after Vicken again, clawed through the
air at me. I ducked, avoiding her knife-like nails, but slipped on the spilled oil from the aromatherapy bottles. I fell back to the floor with a smack.

Odette stepped down on my chest.

She pressed harder. Surely she would crack my ribs. My chest felt so tight. Behind her, Vicken was getting to his feet. She pressed down even harder, right below my neck. I coughed, unable to
breath. I needed to breathe!