Page 128 of You’re So Vein

For all our considerable differences, Komal and I are alike. We will sacrifice everything for those we love.

But I don’t want her to be like me. I want her to have everything.

Komal checks the windscreen wipers and defogging systems, then grips a rather suggestive-looking object. I’m so entranced by seeing her in her element. I can’t hear a thing over the whirring of the blades overhead as they tug at the flimsy contraption, threatening at any moment to pull us heavenwards.

“We could call this off, go back to the castle and cast a spell on Kael from afar?” Dante asks hopefully from the back seat, his voice tinny in my headphones. I start. I’d forgotten that they were there. I’d been talking freely about Hannah, and Irene and Callista must at least have suspicions about her. But I can’t worry about them now. All that matters is Hannah’s safety.

“Too late.” Komal flicks a switch. “Besides, I promised I’d show you the sights of Argleton.”

“Can’t you show them to me from the earth’s surface?”

She smirks. “Is Dante di Sangro afraid of heights?”

“I’m not afraid. I’m just extremely pro-ground.”

“Then you probably shouldn’t have agreed to come on a helicopter ride.” She grins as, with barely a jerk, we take off.

The ground falls away as we lift straight up.

It doesn’t feel like I expect. It feels like hanging, like floating. Komal tilts the double phallus, and we bank left, climbing up where we can view Sanctus Estate from above.

“We have lift-off.” Komal’s husky voice sounds in my ear. “Is everyone okay?”

“This is delightful,” Irene says from the back. “For once, I am jealous of our fictional kin who can transform into bats, for we are truly missing out.”

“I reserve all judgements for when we are safely back on the ground,” Callista says stiffly.

“Augustin?”

“I have never adequately expressed my love for the mossy embrace of the woods underfoot,” I answer, unable to tear my eyes away from her. Although the world below opening up before us is wonderful in a terrifying way, it’s Komal who enthrals me. I love the furrow in her brow as she concentrates, the ease with which she navigates the array of complex instruments, the way her shoulders relax and she sits up straighter, and she can’t help smiling. She loves flying. She loves it so much that she’s forgotten her fear.

“I have to admit, the view up here has an impact,” Dante says.

“I prefer my relationship with the earth to be non-impactful,” Callista shoots back.

When I look out the window again, I have to admit that Dante’s right. Far below, the Sanctus houses look like little toys. I can see the rows of townhouses and treehouses already complete, and the two new areas ready for the next building phase. The Midnight Garden, with its winding stream and odd statues, divides the vampiric village down the middle.

Maybe one day that could be our home.

Maybe I can be like Komal, and dare to hope.

We fly over the village. Komal gives a commentary about the history of Argleton that I absorb not one word of. I can see people in the streets, running to their cars, crowding the road towards Black Crag. I see Mrs Ellis wave at us from outside the yarn store, the neat rows of gravestones in a church cemetery and… and…

“Komal, the steeple,” I say.

“Yes, the steeple is one of the oldest in the country. It was built in 1705 by the bishop—”

“No, you’re going to hit the steeple!”

“Will you relax?” With the lightest tilt of the double phallus, we circle around the church, close enough that I can see the roof tiles that need to be replaced.

Once over the village, we fly up the valley, passing Black Crag Castle, and sweep over the formal gardens of Lachlan Hall. Komal’s voice falls silent as she focuses, rain driving into the windows. I dream of kissing the dirt. And kissing her.

Seven million years later, Komal hovers inches from a grassy slope. Wildflowers bend over from the force of the wind whipped up by the blades. She unlocks the doors. “Keep your heads down and jump out. The stone circle is just up there. I need to find somewhere flatter to set down. Go!”

“Thank fuck.” Dante grabs the bundle of swords while Callista leaps out.

“You didn’t tell us that we’d have to walk through nature.” Irene wrinkles her nose.