What’s done is done. We can’t undo it. “I’m ready.” And I am. I’m ready to see them, to hug them, to laugh with them, to drink in every detail of their faces and their voices. To indulge in them, like I’ve never done before, to be honest. We take our loved ones for granted every single day and I’m just as guilty.
Fletcher faces the walls and chants some magic and then I feel a pang of the guilt he probably feels about having me turned into a vampire. When he turns – for me – he’ll lose his identity. He won’t be Fletcher the witch anymore. He’ll be a vampire instead. We’ll be a pair of vamps. Life is weird.
He nods at me. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I head around to the back door and push the door open. I’m scared. Will they remember that I’ve been gone for days? Will they remember that I’m on a college trip in Paris? Will they notice something vampire-ish about me? Will I get a thirst for them or the dead bodies we look after?
“Hey!” I call out because there’s nobody in the room, and then my mum comes in and asks me if I’ve emptied the bin in my room, and my dad comes in and asks me if I’m ready to do Miss Jenson’s makeup and then Isaac comes over to me, turns around and farts on me before laughing hysterically and I’m crying and none of them notices, because life goes on.
And then we’re sitting having food, and none of them notices that I’m just pushing the food around on my plate, because my mum is moaning that she can’t get an appointment to have her hair cut until next Thursday, and my dad is complaining that the price of latex gloves and formaldehyde have gone up, and Isaac is whingeing that some boy in his class gave him a dead arm in a fight and I let their words wash over me and I cannot stop smiling. Even though it’s the end, I cannot stop laughing. Even though I know that when I leave this house and shut the door behind me, I will never see them again – because it will be too hard if I do – I cannot stop the joy from filling my heart. These people are mine and I love them so much. I want to stop time. I want to stay here forever. But all good things must come to an end.
I take photos on my phone and I know I’ll look at them every day.
I take an age to work up the courage to tell them I’m going to go out for a walk. I kiss each of them and tell them I love them causing them to roll their eyes, ask me if I’m coming down with something, and in Isaac’s case, stick his finger down his throat and pretend to be sick.
I am blinded by my tears as I walk away from my family, my lovely, sweet, funny, aggravating, stifling, annoying, marvellous family, and when I shut the door behind me and lean on it, I dissolve. And Fletcher holds me up and doesn’t let go until I let him.
“I’m sorry.”
And I know he’s not just sorry that I’ve had to say goodbye to my family, but for everything. For the hurt, the fear, the near-death experiences, the actual death experiences. I laugh to myself – the Grim Reaper got me good.
“Do it.”
I walk away and leave him to it. I don’t feel so frightened walking alone to his house as I might have knowing that Ember and Vann are on the loose. If they bother me, I’ll bite them or turn into a bat and fly away.
I dawdle, and then Fletcher catches up to me.
There’s nothing to say, so he just takes my hand and kisses it.
18
“I’ll text my mum, see if they need us.”
“Marvellous idea.”
“No, they’re all done, and they are on their way back.”
Inside the house Fletcher makes himself a hot chocolate and they sit in companionable silence until the others return.
Elodie is smiling as she comes inside, for the first time in a long time, and lets out a tremendous groan as she sits at the table. The twins bustle about making drinks and finding biscuits and cakes in the cupboards.
Ellis reaches for one before putting it back. “I forgot. I forgot that I can’t eat.”
They all look at her with sympathetic looks on their faces and then Thea fetches two clean glasses from the cupboard and Talia does a quick magic spell. The two cups are magically filled with blood. Thea holds out the glass to Ellis, an apology expressed in her eyes. Ellis smiles and takes it. “Thank you.”
“Magical chicken blood,” Talia says, passing John his glass.
He lifts it to Ellis in a cheers motion and they clink glasses. “You can drink other things than blood, if you really want to. Eating might make you sick, so it’s not recommended...”
She gives him a double thumbs up, a sarcastic look on her face. John laughs. “I’ll enjoy teaching you, little one.”
“Will you enjoy teaching me too?” Fletcher asks.
“Not half as much. But I will. When you’re ready, I’ll turn you.”
Fletcher grins at Ellis and takes her hand in his. “Mum, what did the council say?”
“It was good. Better than I thought. I called them all, on short notice, but still. They all need to appoint new council leaders and their own head of species, but they are happy.”
“Did they believe that we’d undone the magic?”
“They knew. It’s why so many of them came.”
“How?”
“It seems like they just knew. Who knows? There are too many questions in this world and never enough answers. How did it go with you, Ellis?”
Ellis nods, then shakes her
