In the middle was Rayken, who seconds before had been standing in the hallway.
I swallowed, trying to remain calm.
‘Welcome, Lenah Beaudonte and Vicken Clough. It is with great pleasure that I see Rhode’s ritual has worked – twice,’ said Rayken.
‘You have impressive power. Your speed,’ I observed.
‘I do not aim to impress, Ms Beaudonte. My power is in my knowledge. Vampires cannot move any faster than the natural human being.’
He hasn’t met Odette, I thought. It was obvious Rayken had reached his seat long before Vicken and I had even stepped over the threshold. Either way, I didn’t believe him. I had seen what Suleen and Odette had been able to do.
‘You know our names. I believe we should know all of yours. It is only fair,’ I said.
Rayken looked his left.
‘Laertes,’ that vampire said with a nod of greeting.
‘Like in Hamlet,’ Vicken piped up from behind me, and for a moment he sounded pleased with himself. He cleared his throat. ‘If you read that kind of thing.’
Laertes the vampire smiled, and it was warm enough to make him seem human.
‘Fascinating,’ said the third vampire. He smiled as well, an open-mouthed smile, and it was then I saw he had no fangs. Just two gaping holes where fangs would normally be. Just like in my nightmare!
‘She sees we are different,’ Laertes said, and placed a hand on Rayken’s knee.
I saw they were different, but I also saw their power. I wanted them to help me fight Odette, but first I wanted answers.
‘Ms Beaudonte, you’ve already met Rayken,’ Laertes said. ‘And to our right is Levi. We are—’
‘The Hollow Ones,’ I said. The men from Rhode’s vision.
The three bowed their heads in unison.
‘The Hollow Ones?’ repeated Vicken.
‘I know very little of you,’ I admitted awkwardly, ‘but I have heard of you.’
‘Your friend Rhode has not told you of our expertise?’ Levi asked. He had great folds of skin and deep wrinkles around his eyes, indicating that he was likely to have been made a vampire very late in life.
‘He has come here, I know. I have seen it in my mind,’ I said, and dared to take a step towards them. ‘I had a vision in which you met with Rhode. He begged you to spare his life. He pleaded.’
‘Spare his life?’ Rayken said. ‘Rhode Lewin never asked us to spare his life.’
He didn’t?
‘Hmm. Hmm . . .’ The Hollow Ones exchanged glances and their tone was one of concern.
‘You say you saw it in your mind?’ Laertes asked.
I nodded.
‘Interesting. How was it you were privy to his thoughts?’ Rayken asked, folding his hands in his lap.
‘We are soulmates. Once the Aeris decreed we couldn’t be together, he refused to touch me. Yet I seemed to become connected to his thoughts. Sometimes his memories.’
Laertes, Rayken and Levi shared a glance and spoke in a strange hushed language. I heard the phrase Anam Cara. Then the name Suleen.
‘True soulmates, those whose essences of life are intertwined, will find a way to connect even when they cannot physically be together,’ Laertes explained.
These vampires knew me, they knew of my atrocities. I needed no summoning spell this time. I needed their strength to help me deal with Odette. I didn’t need to solve the mystery of Rhode just yet. I had to stay focused on the task at hand.
‘I have come to ask of you a different favour than Rhode,’ I said.
‘We do not partake in favours,’ Rayken replied.
‘It’s true,’ Laertes said with a sigh. ‘Knowledge, and knowledge only. Rhode sought our protection, which could only be achieved for a trade.’
I knew this trade, whatever it was, would be dangerous. Perhaps kill me.
‘What did Rhode bargain with?’ I asked.
‘Love,’ Laertes replied.
‘What?’ I whispered. This didn’t make sense.
‘That’s what Rhode was here for. If he gave us his capacity to love, for us to study, we would protect you for the rest of your mortal life.’
‘How can you do that?’ Vicken asked.
‘We can do many things,’ Rayken replied.
‘We cannot love, Ms Beaudonte,’ Laertes said.
‘Vampires can love,’ I countered.
‘We removed that ability from ourselves long ago – it diminished our power to learn,’ Laertes said.
‘So you would take away his love for me?’ My voice wavered as horror raced through me. ‘Did he do it?’ My voice cracked. I thought back on all the visions. Today in the Hall of Mirrors, Rhode had touched me. He had wept.
I tried to draw in breath as this realization rolled over me. I had been so foolish! I thought Rhode couldn’t handle his mortality. But it was so much more than that. He had considered giving up his love for me in exchange for keeping me safe? That was the source of his torment?
‘He failed,’ Rayken said. ‘He could not.’
‘What is it you desire, Ms Beaudonte?’
‘Rhode could not give up his love for me?’ I asked. I wanted this confirmed before I asked for protection from Odette.
‘No,’ Rayken said again. ‘He would not part with his ability to love you, despite your circumstances with the Aeris.’
It had to be true. How else would they know about the Aeris?
Rhode could not give up his love. He had said it in his vision: What you ask is too much. And in the Hall of Mirrors he had finally given in to the torment. No matter what, we would never be able to stay away from one another. We would keep coming back to this moment again and again. I could call it any number of names: Anam Cara, soulmates, the love of my life; he was my Rhode.
Forever.
But it wasn’t just about Rhode.
Images swam into my mind and a different understanding of love overwhelmed me. It wasn’t just my love for Rhode . . . it was something else.
Tracy telling me she would help me – no matter what.
Tony’s portrait in shreds.
Ms Tate’s closed eyes, almost sleeping. A note resting on her chest.
Claudia’s tear-streaked face moments before her death.
Was this life? Is this what I begged for during the days I spent in utter madness in Hathersage? My heart burned in my chest when I thought of myself scattering daises like a madwoman over the floor of the mansion.
I looked up at the Hollow Ones. I knew what I wanted and it wasn’t protection any more. What I had to do, I should have done months ago. It was the only way to finally let go of Odette and the life I had led in Hathersage. If I was truly no longer the monster I had been, the one capable of killing for no reason, then I had to let go of my human life at Wickham. I knew what I had to do and why all of the events of this year had brought me to this moment with the Hollow Ones.
‘I am willing to trade,’ I said. ‘I don’t know what you could possibly want from me. But I am willing to give it.’
‘Lenah!’ Vicken said, shocked.
I dipped my head. I had to get this out. ‘I came here to ask you to help me fight a vampire who is coming for me. But that’s not what I want any more. I want something far more important.’
The desire within me shifted as I spoke.
‘I want you to call the Aeris for me,’ I said. I wanted to go back to the medieval world, just as Fire had proposed all those months ago.
Laertes considered me for a moment. ‘You are a very curious creature, Ms Beaudonte . . .’
‘And foolish perhaps,’ I said. ‘I know I cannot give up my ability to love. Rhode and I are the same in that way.’
Laertes waited a moment and then said, ‘Your blood will suffice as a trade.’
‘My blood?’ I lifted my chin.
Vicken stepped to my side.
‘No,’ he said, and his tone was hard.
‘We will help you. Your ritual is very intriguing, as is the story of
your ability to wield sunlight. We have never seen the blood of anyone who has this capacity. Not even your Rhode.’
Agreement echoed from other two Hollow Ones.
‘No,’ Vicken said again. ‘This is some silly ploy to murder you.’
‘Your bodyguard must remain silent or he will have to wait outside,’ Laertes said as he rummaged in a small box. There was a clinking of metal and glass.
‘Lenah, no,’ Vicken said, putting his hands on my shoulders. ‘I beg you to see reason.’
As I looked into Vicken’s earnest gaze, I knew what I was doing was right. I looked at my old friend, knowing I never should have taken him from his father’s house. Just as Rhode would never give up his love for me, I knew I could never live a life where all the people I loved could die at the hands of vampires. Or be hurt. All so I could be human. It was clear to me now. For Rhode and me too. We would keep damaging each other, keep trying to find ways to be together without breaking the impossible decree.
That was no life.
I needed to go back to the medieval world, just as Fire had proposed to me all those weeks earlier.
Laertes took long strides towards me, his robe billowing behind him, sending waves of air that made the flames flicker. The other two Hollow Ones remained seated. Vicken backed away as the vampire came closer to me.
‘I am going to drain you of nearly all your blood, Ms Beaudonte. When you awake you will be in a small room. Just there.’ Laertes pointed to an archway that materialized next to the fireplace. A heavy door of dark brown wood was decorated with silver curling designs that looked like strange alien flowers. ‘You will be in a bare room. Do not come back in here until your meeting with the Aeris is over.’
‘You could kill me and I’ll never get to have my meeting,’ I said, feeling my heart thump in my throat.
Laertes held a small knife in his hand – a tiny blade. Now that I was close, I could see the gaping holes in his mouth where he had removed his fangs too.
‘She must go alone,’ Laertes said, looking at Vicken. I turned to look at him and our eyes lingered on one another’s. Vicken’s hands hung limp by his sides. He swallowed hard but said nothing. I did not know if I should leave him like this. But I had to take the risk.
‘I find it interesting, Ms Beaudonte, that at precisely ten o’ clock this evening, you will fight a coven of vampires. The newest vampire queen and her coven in fact. Yet you choose no protection. Instead, you call for a meeting with the Aeris. Why?’ Laertes cocked his head with an ever so slight smile.
‘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.
CHAPTER 23
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 w
ords 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.
Stolen Night Page 23
