‘Dead bodies don’t frighten me,’ I replied.
Rhode raised an eyebrow. ‘Why doesn’t this surprise me?’
‘Well, I don’t see you running for the hills,’ I said as I walked through the grass to the body.
I took a step back. It was the girl I had seen on my first day on campus when I was eating in the union. I was sure of it; the girl with long blonde hair, who wore a silver necklace. Now, I
could see that the pendant she wore was an encircled R. It was the same exact pendant that the vampire from the club wore. She was a vampire too; that much was clear by the translucent skin. A
dagger extended from her chest directly from her heart. Her curly blonde hair radiated out from her head, falling over the grass like ribbons. By her side was a quiver and bow. I slid out one of
the arrows. A tiny encircled R was carved into the wood. It had a red-fletched tail, the same as the arrows fired into the barn and on Main Street.
Rhode squatted down and his eyes travelled up and down the body. ‘Her skin is so strange.’ He exhaled sharply. ‘We should tell someone,’ he added.
‘That symbol,’ I said, pointing at a necklace. ‘Have you ever—’
Rhode hissed, rubbing at his arms. ‘It just got so cold,’ he interrupted. He rubbed at his arms. Now that he mentioned it, there
was
an unnatural chill in the air. I thought
it had been the shock of seeing the vampire before me. ‘You have goose bumps too,’ he said pointing at my arm.
‘Come,’ I said, pulling on his hand. ‘Quickly.’
My necklace suddenly felt hot on my chest. The warmth was shocking, given the chill in the air; the necklace made its own heat? I would have reached up to it if I hadn’t been holding
Rhode’s hand with both of my own. Yet the heat from the necklace was familiar; it had warmed my chest before.
‘We can’t leave this poor girl,’ he said, allowing me to pull him back on to the sand.
‘We won’t,’ I said, just to get Rhode to come with me. Behind us, the beach was empty. ‘Come on.’
We hurried down the main part of the beach. A distinct thumping came from the woods that ran parallel to the beach. I turned my ear towards the sound. Could it be feet tramping? I couldn’t
be sure.
Wickham. Get back to the path
. Where was that Italian vampire who loved to watch me? Ahead of us, not fifteen feet away, were the campus steps.
‘Lenah, someone’s chasing us!’ Rhode cried. He pointed to the low sea wall running along the beach.
Beyond it, deeper in the woods, silhouettes jumped from behind one tree to another.
The railing by the steps reflected the moonlight like a beacon.
Almost there.
Justin sprang out of the beach grass and cut us off. We dug our heels into the sand. Rhode threw his arm out, shielding me.
‘I thought you were smarter than this,’ Justin said.
Rhode stepped forward. ‘Aren’t you Justin? From the pictures on campus? Justin, come with us. It’s not safe out here – there’s a dead girl.’
‘Couldn’t have said it better myself,’ Justin replied.
Rhode had extended a hand to Justin but dropped it.
Justin’s white skin contrasted powerfully with the black of his crisp suit. Behind him, a Wickham guard van swooped through campus. Now that Justin was here, what was it exactly that I
thought one Wickham guard could do?
‘What’s wrong with your eyes?’ Rhode asked. ‘And your skin?’
‘He’s not himself, Rhode,’ I said. ‘Are you, Justin?’
Justin walked casually towards us. Rhode and I backed away until our boots sloshed in the water.
‘Lenah, get behind me,’ Rhode said. I had been about to order him to do the same.
‘Go any further and you’ll be swimming. And unlike you, I don’t need to hold my breath,’ Justin said.
‘What happened to you?’ Rhode asked. Like Tony had on Main Street, Rhode caught on quickly. ‘What . . . are you?’
Justin was not alone. Two more vampires came out from the woods and jumped from the storm wall to the sand. They were the same vampires from the other night with Tony. They came to
Justin’s side.
‘We can help you,’ Rhode said. ‘What do you want?’
‘Hmmm. What do I want? World peace. O-negative blood. A bed.’ Justin winked at me.
I shuddered in disgust.
‘You won’t get whatever sick thing you’re after,’ I said. ‘Especially if you kill us.’
‘Kill us?’ Rhode said with a lift of surprise in his voice.
I stepped ahead of Rhode, shielding him with my body. I reached into my boot and grabbed the dagger. It would be of no use against Justin; he was too powerful. ‘Rhode has no memory.
Whatever you want, you can take me.’ I tried to bargain.
Rhode turned to me in confusion.
‘I wanted to tell you,’ I said, looking into Rhode’s eyes. ‘That’s what I came out here to tell you tonight.’
‘I don’t understand . . .’ Rhode said, trailing off as Justin stepped forward and ran a cold finger from my cheekbone to my jaw. He was supposed to be caressing me, but the
chill of his fingers made me shiver.
‘Don’t touch her!’ Rhode yelled and launched himself at Justin. At the now familiar casual wave of his hand, a great gust of air came from Justin. It blasted Rhode six feet and
dropped him on to the sand, where he crumpled in on himself with a groan. He got up quickly, even though he had to stumble to his feet.
‘We were waiting for you in your dorm room.’
My stomach swooped.
Tracy.
‘But we saw you having a nice, romantic stroll so I came out to join you.’
‘What did you do to Tracy?’
‘Tracy?’ He snorted in condescension. ‘No. No. I require the assistance of your friend here,’ Justin said with a nod to Rhode. I didn’t believe him. I just prayed
that Tracy and Tony were still out walking on campus.
‘I’m not frightened of you,’ Rhode said. Justin’s men circled Rhode and closed in like vultures. Rhode braced himself for the impact by taking a few steps back and
widening his stance. He kept looking from Justin to the vampires and back again, and when they were within just a few feet of him, he took a swing. Justin’s men clamped down on Rhode’s
arms. As Tony had tried to do on Main Street, he attempted to wriggle out of their grip.
‘No!’ I cried. I moved to run to Rhode, but Justin stopped me with a tight grasp of his hand. I yanked away to get to Rhode, but it was no use. ‘What do you want? I don’t
understand. He doesn’t know anything!’
‘We’re going to fix some things, that’s all,’ Justin said.
‘All right, I do love you. I lied,’ I said, desperate. ‘You know I’ll go with you.’
We faced each other and for a second I thought Justin believed me.
‘You’re a terrible liar,’ he whispered. With a snap of his arm, Justin wrapped his cold fingers around the back of my head, drawing me to him. He brought his freezing mouth to
mine. His cold tongue entered my mouth, making my stomach lurch. He moved his head to try to deepen our kiss, but it was cold and rotten.
He tossed me aside into the shallow water and the salt stung the raw cut on my middle finger. It must have opened again. I licked the blood away before the smell would attract Justin or the
other vampires. That taste, which was once so welcome to me, was now metallic and bitter.
‘You don’t love me, but you are beautiful,’ he said. ‘Did you like the new decorations for your room? Frog-skin is really
in
these days.’ He was pleased
with himself.
Rhode wrested his body away from the vampires that held him back. Rhode stamped on one of the vampire’s feet, causing him to jump back, before using his free hand to punch the other in the
face. His body remembered how to defend itself even if his mind could not.
‘Go!’ I yelled to Rhode. ‘Run! Back to campus!’ I screamed so loud my voice cracked. I tried to leave the water, but Justin pushed me back down.
Rhode did not go. He continued to try to take on Justin’s two vampires. A
third
vampire sprang from the woods on to the beach. I pulled the knife out from under the cover of the
water and aimed at the vampire running from the woods. Hitting a moving target was hard, and this knife was no bow and arrow. Holding the dagger by the hilt, I aimed right for the approaching
vampire’s heart.
Please just get him, slow him down.
‘Didn’t I just tell you to get down!’ Justin spat, pushing me by my shoulder just as I released the knife.
With the force of Justin’s hand I missed my target, and the knife bounced miserably on the sand.
‘Damn it!’ I cried, as something stung at the base of my throat. The pendant around my neck was so hot that it scorched my skin. I lifted it from my chest, but the pendant burned my
fingertips. The salt water helped to cool it but not by much.
The third vampire held Rhode’s head between his oversized hands. He could easily snap Rhode’s neck.
I sloshed out of the water to help Rhode. Justin rolled his eyes and stuck out an arm in a pushing motion. A gust of air hit my stomach and shoved me backwards like an invisible hand. My heels
pushed against the current and only stopped when I was waist deep in the bay.
‘I didn’t want you to know about this particular talent just yet, but seeing as how you’re being a complete pain in my ass . . .’
There was a loud yet very familiar
pop.
A rotating disc of water hovered in the air and separated Rhode from me. I had only ever seen one other vampire able to create a water shield
– Suleen. My lips parted and I breathed slowly through my mouth. This meant that Justin could manipulate not only air but also water. How . . . ? How could he have this kind of power?
The water shield grew at Justin’s bidding. The vampires continued to bind Rhode. Through the ripping waves, Rhode gritted his teeth. But when his eyes met mine, the angry heat of his
expression softened.
‘I love you,’ I said. ‘I’ve always loved you.’
‘Forever,’ he said back. Though I could not hear him, I could read his lips. Justin’s fangs were still descended, nearly touching his lower lip. ‘I told you,’ I
said to Justin, ‘whatever you want from me, you can have it. Rhode won’t be able to remember, no matter what you do to him,’ I said again. ‘It’s a decree beyond your
power. I don’t know how many times I have to say it to convince you.’
‘My power,’ Justin said, squatting down to my level, ‘is beyond your wildest dreams.’
‘Killing Suleen doesn’t make you a master. You’re a murderer. And the mortality ritual is useless to you,’ I said. ‘Rhode doesn’t remember it, and you have to
be five hundred years old to even consider performing it. You’ll never be human again.’
Justin threw his head back and laughed and laughed. My pendant pulsed with heat and I clenched my jaw from both the burning singe and my rage.
‘You told me all about your precious ritual. You think I want to be human again?’ he asked with that derisive laugh. The water shield spun on its own behind Justin, like a whirlpool
in the air. It rotated in the moonlight again and again. I couldn’t see Rhode’s features any more, only distorted bodies rippling in the water.
‘All vampires want to be human,’ I said pulling my eyes away from the water shield.
‘Not all vampires have my power,’ Justin countered.
Justin pushed his hand out and the water shield rippled and spread even wider.
‘I don’t need an audience for this,’ he said.
Justin sniffed the air. The cut on my finger was a bit more jagged now, and longer. Blood streamed from it down my hand. He brought my hand to his nose and licked the blood from my finger. I
turned my face away; shivers ran through me.
‘Remember how you said I had to abide by some silly vampire laws? Want to see what I am capable of now?’
Justin’s hand travelled again to the back of my neck. I thought he was reaching for my necklace, but he tipped my head back and stared into my eyes. Was he going to kiss me again? I
shivered with horror.
‘What are you . . .’
Once our gaze locked, I couldn’t break it. I wanted to but I couldn’t. The moonlight highlighted his pinpoint pupils. A sensation of falling took over my mind. It was as though I was
watching a movie in fast forward.
The beach, the moon, the woods and sky fall into shadow. My whole body seems to fall through the sand, through the earth, down into the centre of the world, into darkness. I have no form. No
body. Just my mind. It’s quite cool here. Peaceful, in fact.
I want to float here in this darkness. Had I been on a beach? Oh, it doesn’t matter, does it? Beaches and the world, and life – it is all pointless when I can be here in this
place, with no doors, no walls and no body to call my own.
‘Damn it!’ Justin spat. I heaved a great breath of air and fell to the water with a splash. Salt. Blood. Muscles contracting in my legs and arms.
With a sneer, Justin lurched out of the bay and on to the sand. He turned and glared at me. A revelation passed over his face. I didn’t know what it meant, but Justin had clearly figured
something
out.
I wanted to move faster than my mind would allow. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I felt slower than I wanted to be.
‘What did you just do to me?’ I cried and ran my hands up my chest and over my arms. ‘What was that place?’
‘Take Rhode out of here,’ Justin ordered the other vampires as he wiped some sand from the front of his pants.
‘No!’ I screamed, and the word ripped through my throat. I stumbled; my head was so fuzzy and my coordination was off.
‘Lenah!’ Rhode’s scream carried over the beach. ‘Lenah! Run!’
They dragged Rhode to the grass. As I turned, so did the shield, to keep me from my Rhode.
‘Don’t hurt her!’ Rhode yelled.
A conflagration so great
, Fire had said. I could do it. I could throw the necklace.
I staggered to the soggy sand and ripped the chain from my neck. The metal pulled away from my skin and crunched under the force of my grip.
Justin laughed again. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
The tiny pendant was like fire in my hand, wanting to be set free. I opened my hand, and the necklace flew through the air towards Justin. He jumped out of the way as the pendant melted into a
fireball.