Forgotten (9 page)

If I start to cry now I know I’ll never be able to stop,
Katrina thought angrily.

She looked over at her alarm clock. The green neon numbers told Katrina that it was now 3:24 a.m. Katrina yawned and, realizing that she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep straight away, pulled back her covers, stumbled out of bed, and over to her dressing table.

Katrina stared at her reflection hard. From her neck the pendant still hung, and she reached behind her neck to unclasp it.

“What the —” Katrina started to curse; the side of her neck was tender.

Taking off the sweater she had fallen asleep in, she leaned closer to the mirror to examine her neck. There were no marks. She sighed.

First
nightmares and now I’m imagining things
, Katrina thought bitterly.

Moving from her dressing table, Katrina changed into her nightshirt and climbed back into bed. She reached over to turn off the lamp that was on her nightstand, but stopped midway when she realized that the light wasn’t on. Puzzled, Katrina pushed herself into a sitting position. Her room was as dark as a tomb, but to Katrina’s surprise she could see everything like it was in the middle of the day. She rushed back to her mirror and saw that her emerald eyes had an unnatural glow to them.

“What’s happening to me?” Katrina mumbled to herself, frightened.

*

Suzanne Harvey looked out of her bedroom window at the Oregon night sky, noting a waning moon hanging high above. She could smell the promise of an approaching storm and a smile tugged at her lips by the thought of it; it had been too long since she had seen a good storm. She hoped that it would start soon so she could enjoy nature at its most dangerous and beautiful.

Two months previously, Suzanne had arrived in Sycamore Heights, Northern Oregon, along with her best and only friend, Emily Rhodes, with high hopes of finally finding and reuniting with her sister, Katrina. That had been the plan, but that was before Marcus Townsend and Jonathan Granger had arrived. In Suzanne’s opinion their arrival had spoilt things and, to make matters worse, she now had to sit through another lecture from Marcus.

Oh, here we go again
, Suzanne thought, noticing that Emily had the same blank expression as she, too, was being admonished.

Marcus chided the two girls on the dangers of running away and hitchhiking across America without his or Jonathan’s protection.

The girls shared a glance. Why was he lecturing them? They all knew that they weren’t like normal girls and that they didn’t need protecting. Suzanne had been a werewolf for the past two hundred years, her immortality granted by the small amount of vampire blood flowing through her veins that had been enough to give her everlasting life without transforming her completely, whereas Emily had been a full vampire since the late seventeenth century. Despite Marcus’ concerns, they both felt that they were more than capable of taking care of themselves.

Suzanne and Emily waited until he had finished speaking, nodded that they understood and smiled politely. Marcus was fully aware that they were just humoring him, but this wouldn’t be the last time that they would take it upon themselves to do something reckless. He also knew that he was one of the reasons that they had run away in the first place; Suzanne’s constant reminders made sure of that.

Suzanne tucked her legs underneath herself to get more comfortable on her window-seat as she watched the storm approaching and guessed that it was directly over Portland. Leaning back against the window frame, Suzanne’s mind drifted as she began to think about the day Marcus had told her that they were going to America. It had been the first week in April, 1912 and they had been staying in a London townhouse that Suzanne didn’t care for. Marcus had purchased four first class tickets for the cruise ship, the Titanic, although Suzanne had suspected he hadn’t been entirely honest about how he had acquired them. Suzanne closed her eyes, and moved forward so she could rest her forehead on the cool glass of her window, and let her memories come back to her …

April, 1912

“We’re going to America!” Marcus said suddenly, taking everyone by surprise.

Suzanne looked up at him, annoyed. “And when did this get decided?” she snapped.

“It got decided a few days ago when someone matching Katrina’s description was seen in New York.”

“And you forgot to tell me this because?” Suzanne accused, jumping up off the plush velvet sofa and coming face to face with Marcus.

“If you had let me finish I would have told you, Suzanne,” Marcus continued calmly, stepping away from her.

“Will you two please stop bickering?” Emily said quietly, rubbing her temples.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room and Suzanne looked at the other people surrounding her. Emily was at a walnut desk by the windows, writing in one of her many journals which she had kept since she had been turned into a vampire. She glanced up under Suzanne’s gaze and smiled at her, before returning to her writing.

Next Suzanne averted her eyes toward Jonathan, who was playing solitaire with a deck of playing cards at a small oak table in the corner of the room. Then she looked over to Marcus, who stood beside the fireplace, staring at the flickering flames. The fire cast eerie shadows over Marcus’ face which made Suzanne shiver; sometimes Suzanne forgot that Marcus wasn’t human but a vampire, and a powerful one at that.

Nervously touching her silver heart shaped pendant, a constant reminder of her sister, Suzanne took a deep breath and walked over to Marcus.

“What exactly do you know?” Suzanne asked desperately.

“I know that you’re putting yourself through hell for no reason!”

“No reason! My sister could be anywhere, or even
dead
, and you’re making out that I shouldn’t worry!”

“As I said, Katrina has been seen in America.”

“Okay then, how did they know that the person they saw was Katrina?” Suzanne asked sarcastically.

“They just did!”

“That’s not an answer, that’s an excuse. I want to know how.”

“I can’t tell you, Suzanne. I’d like to but I can’t.”

“You can’t or you won’t?”

“Marcus, why can’t you just tell her what’s going on?” Emily intervened, appearing at Marcus’ side.

“Emily, please keep out of this!” Marcus snarled, baring his fangs briefly at her.

“Why should I?” Emily demanded.

“Because it doesn’t concern you,” Marcus retorted.

Emily laughed and raised her arms in disbelief. “Marcus, I can’t believe you! Do you know what you’re saying? If there is any information on Katrina it concerns all of us, especially Suzanne!”

“Please tell me, Marcus,” Suzanne pleaded. Tears started to form in her eyes.

“Suzanne, you won’t like what I’ve got to say,” Marcus said, moving away from the girls to sit down on the sofa nearest the fire. “Katrina attacked a small child. In the struggle, the girl tore off Katrina’s silver pendant.” He glanced at the pendant’s twin, delicately hanging from Suzanne’s neck.

Suzanne recoiled at Marcus’ words, then sat stiffly in a stunned silence, staring blankly off into space. Emily sat down on the other side of Suzanne, looking equally shocked.

For a long time, the room was silent.

Finally, Marcus stood up to place a log on the fire and stroke the embers. “I don’t know about anyone else but I think it is really cold,” he said nervously.

“Should I tell you what I think,” Suzanne said as she stood up, her voice low and steely.

“What’s that?”

“I think,” Suzanne replied, her voice beginning to crack, “that you’re a liar! My sister is not a murderer!” On the last word she burst into tears, then bolted from the room.

“Suzanne!” Marcus called after her, but only heard the front door slam in reply.

“Marcus, you’re so insensitive!” Emily snapped. She stood up, straightening her dress and petticoats.

“Emily!”

“Yes?”

“Remember that we have to leave early tomorrow for the Southampton docks.”

At the door, Emily paused and glanced back at Marcus and Jonathan and did a quick mind sweep, an ability to read thoughts and emotions that both she and Marcus had perfected in the past hundred years. A feeling of disgust came over her.
I have got to stop doing that. Reading minds is a minefield and the only thing those two ever think of is blood. It’s disturbing.
Quickly closing the door behind her so Marcus couldn’t sense what she was feeling, Emily hurried downstairs and grabbed her cloak on the way out of the front door.

Once outside, Emily sniffed the air to see which direction Suzanne had taken. Finding a faint scent, Emily made her way through the deserted, mist shrouded streets of London, getting lost twice in the maze-like streets of the East End before hours later she finally reached the nearby countryside of Southern Buckinghamshire and onto the small cemetery in Greendale.

“Suzanne!” Emily called into the cemetery.

Silence.

“Suzanne!” Emily called again into the darkness.

“I’m over here, Emily,” a sad voice called back.

Emily made her way through the broken tombstones until she came across a grave marked ‘HARVEY’. In the moist soil lay a silver wolf, its hazel eyes tinted with gold. Around its neck it wore an instantly recognizable silver pendant.

“Suzanne, what are you doing?” Emily asked, taking a seat next to her.

“Nothing, I guess,” Suzanne replied, laying her head on her two front paws.

“You call sitting in a dark cemetery in the middle of the night nothing?” Emily said, rolling her eyes.

“I come here to be closer to them.”

“Who?” Emily asked, looking around.

“My family. I come to visit my parents’ grave most nights.”

“But alone!” Emily replied, concerned. This was so unlike Suzanne’s normal behavior. It made Emily worry.

“Yes, alone! I prefer it that way.”

Emily hesitated momentarily before venturing a reply. “Do you miss them? Your parents, I mean.”

Suzanne sighed, “The last time I saw them we argued, and I let them down. So, yes … I do miss them.” Suzanne cleared her throat. “Even more so now that Katrina is missing.”

“But, Suzanne, Marcus said that Katrina was in New York. She can’t be missing.”

“Marcus also said that my sister attacked a little girl,” Suzanne said, tears of fury stinging her eyes. “I know my sister wouldn’t do that.”

“But what about the evidence?”

“What evidence?” Suzanne growled, baring her fangs and letting her hackles raise on her arched back.

“The evidence that proves that your sister was in America!”

“It’s all circumstantial; there’s no real proof!” Suzanne insisted, lying back down.

“I’m sorry, Suzanne, but I must disagree. You get blind-sighted when anyone says anything remotely bad about your sister.”

“So you’re saying that Katrina is a murderer then?” Suzanne snapped.

“No!” Emily replied defensively.

“It doesn’t sound like it!”

“Please, let me explain!”

“No, Emily. I think you have said plenty already.” Suzanne jumped up and began to stalk away.

“Suzanne!”

Turning back momentarily, Suzanne growled, “Don’t follow me.”

Emily stood up, watched Suzanne disappear into the darkness, and began to cry.

I don’t like this,
Emily thought.

It had been too long since the last time she had cried. Emily closed her eyes and tried to remember. In her mind’s eye she saw herself, her mother, and her little sister walking to church one Sunday morning. Even after years of forgetting everything else, she still remembered what had happened that fateful day.

She squeezed her eyes shut and held her head in pain as the images from the past came back to haunt her then, collapsing to the ground, Emily screamed, “I don’t want to remember anymore!”

But the images wouldn’t leave her alone. The man who had killed her mother and sister but had spared her was going to pay for what he had done to her family. She would make him experience some of the pain that she had suffered over the years, then kill him just as coldly as he had done to her family.

Finally, the images began to recede back to the dark place in her mind where she kept them safely hidden.

“Are you alright?”

Emily opened her eyes, quickly jumped up, instinctively went into a fighting stance, and turned toward the voice. Instead of seeing a vampire or some other monster to pummel there was no one there but Suzanne, now back in her human form.

“Watch it!” Suzanne cried, ducking backward to avoid being hit.

“Sorry,” Emily replied, embarrassed. She mentally gave herself a shake. “You came back! But why?”

“Because I couldn’t leave you here alone. Besides, you’re my best friend.” Suzanne answered, straightening back up and wrapped the cloak that Emily had brought tighter around herself.

Emily smiled and embraced Suzanne tightly, then sighed, “I think it’s time we head back; you know how Marcus gets when he doesn’t get his own way.” Emily brushed away a strand of her ebony hair that had fallen into her eyes. “Plus Marcus asked me to remind you about us getting back to start packing for America because we all have to leave for Southampton early tomorrow morning.”