‘Don’t get distracted.Could you hand me a spill?’
I held out the vase so he could pick one himself.‘Do you mean you were turned by the vampire queen?’
Raleigh froze with the spill dipped into the candle.It sputtered to life, the flame creeping down the wood towards his fingers, but his mind was somewhere else entirely.
‘Raleigh?’
He jolted, nearly knocking the candle over as the flame reached his fingers.With one quick motion he lit the gas lamp and flicked the remains of the spill into the furnace to die.
‘Yes,’ he said at last.‘I suppose that’s what she is.’
I suddenly realised where I recognised the word ‘sire’.Not from French, but English.He had given me a piece I had been searching for.With the aid of my new dictionary I’d spent the last few weeks ploughing through the English texts that had been impenetrable before, but I’d all but forgotten the book I’d abandoned on the day I returned to Orlfen.Sire.It was the same word.With Raleigh’s comment, I realised why the translation wasn’t working.
I tried to contain my excitement while Raleigh and I worked.Our aim was to recreate the sugar experiment on his blood to potentially separate and identify any particular essence unique to his kind.I had been itching for this opportunity, but I couldn’t keep my mind on the task at hand, not even when the evaporated liquid re-formed above the lamp and mixed itself back in with the rest of the blood the moment Raleigh turned off the heat.My mind latched on to the new information Raleigh had given me.Sire.I needed to go to the library.I needed to know if my theory was correct.
‘Are you all right?’Raleigh asked, ‘You seem distracted.’
‘Just tired,’ I said, then forced a yawn.I knew I ought to tell him what I suspected, but I hated the thought of dashing his hopes if we re-read the passage and found I was wrong.‘I’m not used to all these late nights.’
Was I imagining the flash of disappointment on Raleigh’s face?He turned his attention to the beaker, holding it up to the candlelight to scrutinise the restored blood.‘Take yourself to bed, then,’ he said without emotion.‘I’ll share my notes with you in the morning.’
I lingered, unsure how to interpret his tone.
When he noticed, his lips hooked.‘Hoping for an escort?’
My cheeks turned pink.‘No, it’s all right,’ I said quickly.‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Goodnight, Clara.’
The corridor lit up as I left the lab.I walked slowly at first, and when I could be sure Raleigh was well out of earshot, I broke into a run, not stopping until I reached the library.Ever since I’d returned from Orlfen I hadn’t had any difficulty navigating the corridors.Raleigh would have told me it was because I no longer plotted his demise but, navigation aside, I hadn’t seen a single cobweb in weeks, and even Moira seemed surprised by the lack of dust.Even so, when I reached the library I thought nothing of the single fresh web stretched across the corner of the doorway.
The book I needed remained where I’d abandoned it weeks ago, now buried under other volumes I’d discarded in equal disgust.I tugged it out, rifling through the pages at almost-vampiric speed until I found the right one.Heart in my throat, I scrambled for my quill and began to write out a new translation.
I read it over.Checked the dictionary again.Translated the whole thing once more, until I was so confident I could swear the accuracy on my mother’s soul.My pulse rang in my ears as I read it a final time.
It was a cure.
I stared at the page, waiting for the happiness to pour over me.That was it, then.The ordeal was over.I wouldn’t marry Raleigh after all.It was unsatisfying in its simplicity, disappointing even, especially when I’d only just started to experiment with him.Such an anticlimax that the answer had been sitting right here in front of me this whole time.
‘So youdidcome here.’
I started at the sound of Raleigh’s voice, scrambling to shut the book, but he was by my side in an instant, slamming his hand down on the page to stop me.
‘What are you hiding?’
‘Nothing.’
‘If that were true you’d be in bed.’
He scooped up my original patchy translation and read.‘There’s an awful lot of information here about how to kill a vampire.’When he turned to face me he was smiling, but his eyes betrayed a deeper emotion I suspect I was never supposed to see.‘Right when I thought we were starting to get along.’
His mistake cut into me so sharply I forgot all about my previous hesitation.‘That’s the wrong translation,’ I said.‘Here.’I shoved the new version into his hands.‘What you said before, about your sire, it made me realise I was translating this wrong.And I realised that—’ My shoulders sagged.‘Well.Read it.’
He looked as though that was the last thing he wanted to do, but he took the page regardless.I watched closely, excited to see his smile.This was what he had been longing for.I expected him to clutch my notes to his chest, eyes shining in delight.He’d scoop me into his arms and we would— No.No, I banished the fantasy before it could progress, appalled that my mind would conjure such an image, and more appalled by how breathless it left me.Besides, that would never happen.He would let me go, and I’d ride down to Salzburg to start a new life on my allowance.Alone.
But the smile never came.Raleigh’s frown only deepened the further he read.When he finished he was far from giddy.He looked furious.‘What is this?’
‘It’s your cure,’ I said, searching in vain for some trace of relief on his features.Maybe he hadn’t read it properly.‘When a vampire dies, the curse is lifted for all of their spawn.Other writers thought that this killed the spawn too, but this author says they met a woman who claimed she used to be a vampire.That her creator’s creator had been killed, and when her creator had lived out his mortallife span, it had turned her mortal too.’I gulped in a breath, still waiting for Raleigh’s expression to change.‘If we kill your sire, you’ll be human again.That’s the Queen you mentioned, isn’t it?We kill her, we save you.’I spread my hands, forcing a smile in hopes he would follow suit.
