Eternal Dawn (7 page)

‘He had fangs,’ Tony breathed. ‘Like in the movies. Like a . . .’ He fished for the word. ‘Like a . . .
vampire
.’

‘Yes . . .’ was all I could say. I was happy that Tony was doing some of the work for me. ‘Yes, he is a vampire.’

He put his head in his hands, holding the paintbrush between his fingers.

‘There are no such things as vampires. But I saw it. I did see it, didn’t I?’ Tony said to the floor.

I nodded and began slowly. ‘What would you say if I told you that I have been here before? In another time, but like this one. An alternate version of this world.’

Tony’s head snapped up.

‘What would you say to that?’ I pressed.

‘Like a parallel universe? I would say, go to the infirmary. But keep talking.’

I told him my story. I told him I was once a powerful and vicious Vampire Queen who lived for more than five hundred years, ruling all vampires and killing thousands of humans. After my time as
queen Rhode had given me the greatest gift possible – my life back,
my soul
. I’d been allowed to come to Wickham and live once more as a human.

‘Rhode!’ Tony cried. ‘Rhode too?’

‘Rhode can’t remember,’ I said softly. ‘It’s complicated.’

I paced while explaining the ritual that Rhode had performed for me. I was vague about telling Tony his original role in the story because I didn’t want him to know how he died. He
didn’t need to know and that violent history had been erased.

I explained the rest: I had gone back to the medieval world because Fire had allowed me to change everything. Justin, who had been turned into a vampire by Odette, was
supposed
to
change back into a human too, but for some mysterious reason . . . had not.

‘He somehow linked to this new reality from that old one.’

I finished by explaining that I had come back now because Suleen, my greatest protector besides Rhode, was dead.

I held up my wrist and pointed at the rag tied round it.

‘This is Suleen’s blood. In the vampire world we wear fabric bloodied by our fallen.’

Tony scooted over for me to sit down. He felt the fabric of my bracelet between his fingers.

‘Why?’

‘Until justice is done. For some vampires, that can be a long time.’

Tony dropped his hand from my bloodied bracelet and exhaled heavily through his nose.

‘This Fire woman – she wouldn’t tell you why Justin became King Psychopath?’ he said after a long silence.

I shook my head. ‘There are only a few things of which I am certain. There is a revolution of some sort in the vampire world, whatever Suleen meant by that. Justin is involved, though
I’m not sure how. Either way, I have to stop him. Once I do that, I can go home.’

‘Home?’ Tony pulled back from me.

‘Yes.’

‘To the Middle Ages?’

I nodded.

Tony had his thinking face on again. He suddenly lifted his paintbrush into the air.

‘Lenah, this is a seriously intergalactic,
Star Trek: The Next Generation
kind of weird. You’re talking about parallel worlds!’

‘I know,’ I cried, even though I had no idea what he was talking about. I stood up. ‘This afternoon, approximately two hours after I stepped on campus, someone shot an arrow at
my head. That man you saw today – the one who ran from me at the farm? – he is also a vampire.’

‘OK. So Justin couldn’t take you tonight because . . .’

‘Once a vampire is in love they are bound to that person, forever,’ I said. ‘Now that I’m back, Rhode is Justin’s number-one target. Second would be you. In fact,
if Justin hadn’t been shot by that arrow, he probably would have taken you tonight.’

‘Me?’ Tony’s voice cracked.

‘You were my best friend once upon a time. Justin remembers that.’

Tony paced again, paintbrush clenched in his fist. ‘That explains the hugging when you met me.’

‘I know it’s a lot to take in,’ I replied.

There was a little click as he finally put down the paintbrush on top of his dresser. Maybe he didn’t believe me. Maybe he would kick me out and send me back to my room. No. He had seen
Justin, and there was no denying what we had experienced on Main Street.

‘It also explains why I . . .’

‘What?’

‘Why I feel –’ his cheeks reddened – ‘close to you. Like we’re best friends.’

‘That’s because we are,’ I said. Tony raised his mouth in a little tight-lipped smile.

He cleared his throat. ‘Three years ago Rhode showed up here as a student, I remember because every girl went nuts. That same week, Justin went missing. If there really is a rip in time,
which is what you seem to be saying, then the timing here makes sense.’ He nodded to himself. ‘It all fits.’ His tone was sombre, accepting. He sat down next to me on the bed.
‘So what happens now?’

‘I don’t know. Justin killed Suleen to summon me to the modern world. Suleen summoned
me
to take down Justin. I have no idea how to do that.’ I leaned my back against
the wall and crossed my legs at the ankles. ‘Now that he knows I’m not in love with him, his plans will change. To what, I do not know.’

‘Who do you think shot the arrow tonight?’ Tony asked.

‘I’m pretty sure it’s the same type of arrow as the one fired at me this morning. Clearly they don’t belong to Justin and his coven. But I don’t think they’re
on my side either. Did I mention how close it was to my head?’

‘Oh good. Someone
else
wants you dead.’ He shook his head in disbelief.

‘Will you promise me something?’ I asked.

‘You mean besides not telling anyone of your secret identity or that Justin Enos is
not
missing but is in fact some freak vampire. Oh, and Rhode was a vampire too. Sure thing.
What else should we add to the list?’

I nudged him with my shoulder.

‘Seriously,’ he said. ‘What?’

‘Promise me you won’t look for Justin.’

Tony pulled back, surprised.

‘But what if we can—’ he started.

‘No,’ I said sharply, standing up. ‘You stay far away from him until we know the facts. Just trust me. Trust me that I will do whatever I can to find out and I won’t
leave you out of any of it. Please? Promise me you won’t seek him out.’

‘I promise. But . . . do you think he can be . . . like you? Turned human again?’

I wanted more than anything to bring Justin back, not kill him as Suleen had asked. But it would be virtually impossible to change him into a human. The ritual that Rhode and I had performed was
older than any vampire I had ever known, and incredibly complex. And yet . . .

A thought nibbled at the back of my mind.

‘What? What are you thinking?’ Tony asked. ‘You have a look. Like you’re going to punch something.’

‘Justin wasn’t supposed to stay a vampire. Everything – including him – was supposed to change when I went back to my original life. Maybe there’s a way to make him
human again
other
than the ritual or the power of the Aeris. Maybe there is some way to, you know, break the chains of vampirism.’ I slouched and threw my hands up. ‘I
don’t know how, or if it’s even possible. I’m just thinking out loud.’

‘I like this. Positive, optimistic. No doom or gloom.’

I hoped I was right. I also hoped it would be enough to keep Tony from searching for Justin so that he’d remain on campus where I could see him.

‘I can keep an eye on Rhode,’ he said. ‘You know, see if Justin is tailing him.’

‘I have to admit that’s exactly what I hoped.’

‘So let’s clarify. You’re sure Justin can’t hurt you?’ Tony checked. I sat down on the floor across from his bed.

‘No. He can’t. Not mortally anyway.’

It was vampire law: Justin could not hurt me because he loved me. But I did not love him, and bitter vampires were unpredictable and angry. They liked to destroy for fun; it eased their agony.
My life as a ruler of vampires had educated me on this very fact.

Tony finally cleaned the cut on his face with an antiseptic wipe.

‘Here, let me help you,’ I said. As I dabbed at Tony’s skin, a certainty settled over me. Even though Justin’s love for me protected my person, he would do everything in
his power to destroy those I cared for most.

I awoke with the glimmer of dawn, long before the rest of the campus was awake. While under the warmth of the covers in my dorm room, I held my palm out and trailed my
fingertips along the calluses that ran over my palm. Working in the orchard had hardened my body. Even though I was travelling between times, my body carried the weight of my choices.
Calluses
are good. In case I need to wield those swords sooner than I’d like.

The memory of Suleen’s dying eyes, wide with fear, came to me. I sighed and got up, walking to the bay window. The campus trees swayed in the breeze, but unlike the trees at home they were
not top-heavy with apples. I missed my sister and hoped that Fire was right, that when this was all over she could bring me back to the exact moment I had left. It sent goose bumps over me
imagining Genevieve calling my name over and over in an empty orchard lane.
Remember why you are here. You are here to protect your friends. Protect Rhode.
I reached up to the tender spots
on my neck where Justin had almost bitten me.

Various memories of Justin as a human boy came to me unbidden.

We stand outside Quartz dorm; the rain pelts the grass.

‘You look really sad,’ he says.

‘Do I?’

Justin lifts his chin up so the rain smacks his face even more directly. ‘Are you?’ he asks, still looking up.

I nod once. ‘A little.’

Justin had cared. He had been so gentle. He wasn’t bothered by the complexity of my vampire life, he had just wanted to get to know me.

‘You’re up early,’ Tracy said, interrupting the memory. She got up from her bed, shook her hair out and swept it back into a long ponytail.

‘Couldn’t sleep,’ I said.

She walked towards the bathroom with her shower kit.

‘No reason to be nervous. It’s just school.’

‘No,’ I said with a small smile. ‘No reason at all.’ Before morning assembly, I walked the long length of the Wickham farm to the barn. I had hidden the arrow from last
night in my book bag. I followed the path, past the oversized pumpkins, past the tomatoes, and stopped at the spot where Rhode had pushed me to the ground. I just hoped no one was aiming an arrow
at me today.

A maintenance Jeep pulled down to the last plot of the farm but otherwise it was empty. I reached up to the hole yesterday’s arrow had made in the barn. I untucked the arrow from last
night and stuck the end into the hole. It fit exactly. Removing it, I examined the black stone tip. It was unmistakable – onyx.

I knew from previous experience that I could bury onyx in the ground but it would curse the place it touched. Onyx was dangerous that way. It sucked in the lifeblood, retained the power of the
magic of any blood it touched. All the spells that Justin had ever performed would be stored in this stone now, because his blood had seeped into it. Whoever shot that arrow understood this. This
stone would give whoever had it a blueprint of the magic Justin was performing.

I would have to burn the stone; it was the only way to release the spells and negative energy trapped inside.
Later
, I thought.
Not out in the open like this
. I packed it up
and headed to the union for coffee. I would ask Rhode in assembly, first thing, about his arrow.

‘You have that look again,’ Tony said, sitting down beside me at assembly.

‘What?’

‘Like you might bite somebody.’

‘Interesting choice of words.’

I made sure to soften my face and tried to smile as the headmistress corralled the teachers together at the front of the auditorium. Yesterday Rhode had distinctly said the arrow wasn’t a
Wickham one, which begged the question that had bothered me all night – who was that damned archer?

Even as a vampire, Justin was smart. He had learned or had found someone to teach him how to manipulate the elements. That was clear by his ease handling those black clouds. Justin’s
confidence, which had once attracted me, had become exaggerated with his transformation. Charisma comes with a dark side, and in the vampire state that dark side becomes the
only
side.

You . . . don’t love me, do you?

I pushed Justin’s words out of my head. I didn’t want
that
Justin lingering in my mind; I would have to deal with him directly soon enough. Where the
hell
was
Rhode?

He did me a favour – and walked in.

He sat in the front row next to some guys in the upper school that I did not recognize. He gestured with his hands and smiled brightly. I settled into my seat. He almost fell out of his chair
laughing at someone. Wow. None of the grimacing unhappiness or furrowed eyebrows of old. A carefree young man with his whole future ahead of him.

A future that now was in danger.

‘There’s Rhode,’ Tracy whispered. She had sat down on the other side of me. ‘Ridiculous, right?’

‘I’m hotter than him,’ Tony said, leaning towards me on the other side. Tracy patted him on the hand.

‘Sure you are, Paint-Boy.’ Catching sight of his face, she did a double take. ‘Hey . . .’ she said, leaning across me and taking Tony’s chin by her fingers. She
turned his head from side to side. ‘Where did you get that scratch?’

‘I fell,’ he said with a shrug. ‘Holding my portfolio. I tripped.’

Good lie
.

Tracy shook her head with a bemused smile. Tony’s clumsiness was clearly endearing.

‘Typical,’ she said.

Headmistress Williams stood behind the podium and began her ‘first day of school’ speech. Rhode kept his back straight, listening to her words, without once looking around for me.
How strange to be living in a universe where my soulmate did not remember me.

Once assembly ended, the mass exodus of students leaving the hall allowed Tony and me to speak privately. Ahead, by the door, a couple of girls talked to Rhode, toying flirtatiously with their
hair. I wouldn’t have minded ripping it from their heads.