If I had known it was possible to become so infatuated, so quickly – for a plucky little human teenager, of all things – I would have guarded myself better. But I didn’t, and now we both had to pay the price.

She deserves better than to be betrayed, Kaspar. Alex said.

I know, I moaned again, hopelessness becoming overwhelming. Whether I told her or not, she would end up hurt, but I knew what the right thing to do was. She shouldn’t have to endure prolonged suffering. Yet my own selfishness told me that I could wait a little longer, just until the end of the hunting trip. I only wanted to get close to her once more, like I had done in her room, so nearly revealing that I couldn’t face losing her, to death or to her father.

Tonight … when we set up camp. I won’t touch her. I just need to get close. Just once more.

Once more won’t hurt, my voice added, laced with encouragement.

Just until tomorrow, I reaffirmed.

Alex sighed heavily in defeat. I’ve known you since we were at school, Kaspar, and I have known all that time that you are a great man. But unless you sort this, you are never going to be a good one.

With that he severed our mental connection, disappearing into the midst of the consciences surrounding us. He left a sizzling trail of anger and disappointment behind which I did my best to ignore. I had enough on my mind without his disapproval troubling me. I closed my eyes briefly, letting my senses guide me as we descended further towards the estuary.

Fate is our enemy, but time is the danger.

FIFTY-THREE

Violet

If I had thought vampires were predators before, then my experience joining them on the hunt only convinced me that they were perfectly adapted killing machines.

‘See, look here, tracks,’ Kaspar whispered, pointing to the ground where there were several hoof marks. ‘What do you reckon made them?’

I scrunched up my face for a minute, pretending to think. ‘Feet?’

He groaned dejectedly, exasperated of my antics. For the last hour they had been slowly tracking their prey. Kaspar had attempted to teach me a few things, but I wasn’t interested after learning that once he had showed me it was possible not to kill when feeding, he was going to go ahead and kill anyway.

‘What animal, Girly, what animal?’

I rolled my eyes and took a guess. ‘Deer?’

‘Finally,’ he muttered. ‘And how old do you think the deer that made this print is?’

‘Just turned twenty-one. Celebrated with champagne.’

He buried his face in his hands, groaning even louder. ‘Lords of Earth, give me strength!’

I cocked my head. ‘Sorry, but I’m vegetarian and the thought of seeing dead deer just isn’t filling me with excitement. Can’t you just show me how you don’t kill the deer?’

He removed his hands from his face slowly, dragging them across his hollow cheeks rather dramatically. ‘Okay, but if I do, will you pretend to look interested?’

I put on my best interested face, at which he chuckled dryly. ‘Stick with the bored expression. Okay, it’s an adult doe – that’s female by the way,’ he added.

‘I know that. How do you know it’s an adult?’

He pointed to the track again, imprinted into the soft soil and pine needles. ‘The size of the track. It’s too large to be a yearling and it’s definitely a female because of the tracks here.’

I took a step forward, peering at the tiny impression of a hoof through the gloom that was fast descending as dusk approached. ‘Baby deer?’

He nodded. ‘They’re quite fresh too. I can smell the herd. Not far now.’ His voice descended to barely more than a whisper. ‘Girly, I’m not going to kill because you asked me too, but the others will, okay? So don’t freak.’ His voice became even lower. ‘And if you’re really considering turning, you will have to accept that at some point, you will have to kill your prey. It’s more merciful in some cases, okay?’ he justified before I could open my mouth to protest that that would not happen.

Without waiting for a reply, he edged forward; I stumbled. Every time I stepped on a twig he would cringe, waving his hand for me to be quiet.

‘Shut up!’ he hissed as I froze behind him.

‘I didn’t say anything!’ I protested, the force of the statement losing its power due to the fact I only mouthed it.

‘You were thinking, it’s distracting!’

I double-checked my mental barriers and made an outraged face, which he dismissed, pointing towards a small patch of grass about five metres away. A herd of maybe nine or ten deer were feeding, totally oblivious to our presence. Opposite, Cain, Alex, Declan, Lyla and Fabian were closing in, and, to my amusement, Felix and Charlie had taken to the trees.

I started as a voice sounded beside my ear. ‘We’re going to spring on them. I’ll catch the doe and show you how we feed. Come forward when you’re ready.’

With that he was gone. In an instant, eight figures had sprung from the shadows, sending panic rippling among the deer; they turned to flee, only to be blocked by one of the vampires. In perhaps a second or two half of them were lying on the floor, necks broken and blood pouring from the freshly punctured wounds.

It was worse than I had imagined. I had seen the cloaked figure feed in my dreams, but there was no way a dream could prepare me for the smell: metallic, like copper; like the butcher’s shop I was taken to as a girl of five. It was that butcher’s shop, and a school trip to a sheep farm, which had turned me vegetarian. And I’m choosing this life?

Slumping against a tree I took a few deep breaths, knowing that the quicker I got this over with, the less the doe would have to suffer. Hesitantly, I began to edge forward to where she lay struggling, legs flailing, making a sort of shrieking sound in sheer terror. Its fawn bleated back from the edge of the clearing, where it had been left alone by the vampires. Kaspar held her with one hand on her flank, his other stroking her neck in slow circles until gradually, she calmed.

‘They’re quite tame,’ he murmured without looking up. ‘When you treat them kindly.’

He removed his hand from her back to pat the ground and I dropped to my knees beside him, not looking up for fear of seeing the others feeding. He asked me to carry on stroking her and I mimicked his tender touch, feeling the slow rise and fall of her ribs below me, though I could feel a very prominent, strong, rapid heartbeat.

‘Watch her legs, she might kick,’ he warned, beginning to lower his mouth. With one swift bite he had created two puncture wounds. Unable to tear my gaze away I watched, wide-eyed, as he drank from a live deer who lay content beneath him. After a minute or so he drew away.

‘That’s enough; I don’t want to weaken her.’ Even as his mouth left her neck the skin stitched itself together at an incredible rate. He stepped away, not a drop spilled.

‘How come you’re not that neat when you bite me?’ I asked with a small, awed smile. The doe scrambled to her feet, shaken but alive, and scampered off in search of her fawn.

‘I enjoy making a mess with you. And I told you it was possible to feed—’

‘Kaspar!’ His eyes snapped up immediately. The night had descended quickly: whereas moments before I could see the others, now they were just outlines and tracings between the trees.

Alex appeared beside Kaspar, his eyes as white and pale as a ghost. His stuttered on his words, and for the first time since I had entered Varnley, I heard fear in a vampire’s voice.

‘Sage.’

Cain grabbed me, blood still on his hands and guided me behind him and Kaspar, who took two cautious steps forward. Alex stumbled to the right and the other five gathered around, forming a loose but clearly defensive circle, Kaspar at its head.

The trees above us creaked and swayed, groaning and filling the silent forest with the sound of protesting giants, basking beneath the moonlight. The wind, missing for the entire day whipped up, swirling into a gale that started to rage through the tiny clearing. The air was freezing, yet warmth began to creep up from my toes as a spark travelled up my leg and through my veins; it gushed in my blood and paused at my heart, beating at twice the normal rate, stopping then starting as the ember disappeared, only to be replaced with another, and another, and another …

‘H-how can they be here?’ Kaspar stammered, the confusion and terror in his voice far from hidden. ‘Their borders are closed!’

I tensed my muscles. The sensation was becoming unpleasant, painful even, as it worked its way between the layers of my skin, like some sort of fictional scarab beetle designed to disgust and my mind, usually so closely guarded, felt as though every wall had come crashing down; every lock was being turned by key after key …

‘What actually are the Sage?’ I cried, tripping over my own feet to try and get away. ‘What can they do?’

The very roots of the trees sounded as though they were being torn from the ground when the noise and the warmth and the wind abruptly ceased.

‘Rather a lot, Miss Violet Lee,’ a voice said.

FIFTY-FOUR

Violet

A Canadian voice. A voice I knew.

‘Fallon?’ Kaspar choked, utter disbelief in his voice, tinged with relief. ‘And Lady Sage,’ he added quickly, as though it was an afterthought.

Two figures stepped forward from the night. One a man; the other a young girl of perhaps sixteen.

There was silence. Kaspar was the first to break it. ‘Violet, this is His Royal Athenean Highness, Prince Fallon,’ he introduced shakily. ‘And forgive me, Lady Sage, for I do not know your name.’

The girl stepped forward to curtsey and for the first time I caught site of her face.

‘Autumn Rose, of the House of Al-Summers, Your Highness.’

Stillness fell upon the clearing. The girl, if she was a girl, stood bathed in the light from the moon, a cloak around her shoulders, the hood thrown back to reveal long, golden blonde tresses, tightly curled and streaked with warm honey and auburns. Her skin was ashen and pale, although a few fading freckles adorned her left cheek only, because her right cheek … no, her entire right side was coated in an intricate, waving, swirling pattern of scars. Strokes of colour, raised like ribbons of twine spun a web across her skin, twisting and spiralling as raised veins of yellow, orange, ochre and red, darker across her neck, lighter as they encircled her face, gold as they reached her forehead until they faded into nothingness on her left.

Her companion, Fallon, stepped forward and her eyes, liquid amber in colour flickered towards him for the briefest of moments, as though seeking reassurance. They quickly returned, where they surveyed the clearing with marked caution.

‘Autumn?’ Kaspar choked. ‘Wow, I didn’t recognize you. You’ve grown. And you’re Du—’

‘Forgive me, Your Highness,’ she cut in, near singing, her voice sweet and pleasing to the ear like music; entrancing. But even through that I could hear that she spoke with a very pronounced British accent; a posh one. ‘I have not had the pleasure of your company for nigh on three years. I have grown much in that time. And I would be obliged to you if you did not use that title.’

I sensed the tiniest hint of sarcasm, so subtle I might have imagined it. Her hand clenched and unclenched as she said it, and her lips, full and pink, twitched like she was irritated but trying to hide it. She was not entirely comfortable speaking of her body either – a light blush tinged her cheeks and she pulled her dark cloak a little tighter around her middle where it had fallen open. Beneath its folds I could see that her h*ps were rounded, her waist tiny and her chest … full, to say the least. Her legs were clad in a pair of dark tights, ripped and laddered, worn underneath a pair of loose shorts and a dark tank top. Her boots, lace-up and calf-high were coated in mud.

I stared openly at the curious marks upon her skin, feeling a tiny pang of jealousy as Kaspar gawped at her. Suddenly, her gaze met mine for a moment, questioning, before she averted her prominent almond eyes, slightly pinched so they slanted up at the outer corner, and looked timidly towards the ground. But I felt that in those seconds she had looked on me with as much curiosity as I did her.

‘Well, you never were much good at introductions, Kaspar,’ Fallon, said, stepping forward and grasping his hand in a hearty handshake. Kaspar returned it, meekly, still dazed and shocked by their appearance if my own emotions were anything to go by. For the first time I turned my eye towards him. Kaspar had introduced him as ‘His Highness’ and he was clearly on an equal footing with Kaspar – he had not bowed.

He was certainly handsome, despite the strange markings that he also bore. His skin was tanned; a total contrast with every other occupant of the clearing. His scars were a deep blood red, burgundy and russet, and creeped as much as they swirled, whilst his eyes … his eyes were the most electric shade of cobalt blue I had ever seen; brighter than Fabian’s even. His hair, flaxen and dark blond in colour flopped messily over his forehead, unkempt and untidy. Around his throat there hung a shark tooth on a leather thong, framed by the open collar of a dark grey shirt; and over that he wore a black V-necked jumper. He also had a cloak.

Neither was like anything I had ever seen. They were ethereal. And from both of them radiated tingling warmth: a dancing, shimmering heat encasing their figures in intense energy, so compelling I could see why the vampires feared these strange creatures.

The Sage.

His gaze glided towards me, where it settled as he slowly approached. Cain edged aside to let him through, eyeing him warily. The tight circle that had surrounded me broke and Fallon came to a halt in front of me.

‘We’ve met before I believe, Miss Lee.’ He stooped down to take my hand but I snatched it away, not wanting to touch his, particularly where it was marked. I remembered well when I had heard his voice before, just two weeks ago. It seemed far longer. It had been before we had left for London, just as the council had been gathering for a meeting about my fate – amongst other things.