30 Nights

26

EDRIC

I watch Lily run towards the forest and I feel like a piece of me is disappearing and I have to fight every instinct not to run after her.

Sam is by my side, and I've asked him and his guards to physically restrain me if I try to do anything stupid like snap Max's neck or pull Lily out of the games and turn her so there are no weak fragments left of humanity. So there is no possibility of death and nothing to come between us.

But I'm not stupid and I watch her dart toward the forest, faster than the rest of them and going in the opposite direction to the rest of them. The other three aren't stupid, they know that Lily is with me, they couldn't guess what she means to me, they'll think she's just a pretty plaything for a fickle vampire. And they'd be right if she was with my brother or most of the vampires on our guard. I can remember what it was like to burn with desire for a woman as a human. The details of my memories fade, but the feelings, the raw physical need, a vampire remembers those feelings better than words or images. The lust for a woman has been drowned by blood since the moment I was turned. Yes, it was something to pass the time, to mentally please but blood, there was nothing as good as blood. Not until Lily, she brings back the feelings of being human with the exquisite and divine taste of her blood. And now she is nearly one of us, she is stronger, she can take my strength, she craves blood more than me.

I groan, how could I have let her go? She should be in my bed, we should be in bed for next decade.

"She will be fine, you've changed her, she's stronger now and she can last the 5 days," Sam says, patting my arm gently.

"She's only strong because she has drunk about one human's worth of blood. You saw what she was like on the plane, she could barely move or function."

"But she knows she needs blood now. You've told her and you've told her how to hunt. Alone in the wilderness, she won't need to be taught. It's the instinct of every human to hunt and to avoid being prey, she craves blood and she will find it. Animal or human," Sam says.

"I don't trust Claudius, I don't trust the contestants. There are too many things that could go wrong."

"I don't think Claudius wants her dead, if he really wanted that he could have made a move already. I see how he looks at you, it's you that he wants. He wants you to make a stupid move and be in his power."

"I'm not joining the Samil, not yet, maybe not ever."

"Why not? There are worse things. It's a great honour, you know it is. To be part of the most powerful pact in the world."

I look ahead and see Claudius standing there, staring into the black forest. I wonder how much of this conversation he can hear.

"Let's go back inside," I say to Sam and we turn to walk inside. I know that despite what anyone says, I will be out in these woods later, no-one knows them better than me and I will track my Lily, I have to make sure she is safe.

"Would you join them then, Sam? Would you leave me if Claudius asked you?" I stare steadier and watch the flicker of discomfort across his face.

"You know I would never be disloyal to you. And you know they would never ask me. But if they did, I would want to," he says.

"When you have lived another 500 years then they may ask you. You're a powerful fighter, it's only the experience of time that you lack. But I'm done with all this Sam. The rules, the games, my father's scheming. I was in a tribe once, living off the land, I lived alone for decades. When this is over, I'm taking Lily somewhere far away, where there is nothing but us."

"But the world is changed Edric. Where is the wild now? There are very few places on earth left, if any, that are untouched or is unseen by humans."

"There are still places, a few, where a human couldn't survive but we can."

We've reached the doorway of the castle now and the guards move to the side to let me in. I make my way into the study and sit by the fire, feeling it burn. But I can't relax, I can't settle, being here in the warm when Lily is out there in the cold. I won't have a moment's peace until she is back by my side.

The door creaks open and I see Claudius standing there.

"She's changing, your little one. Hard to know whether she is more human or vampire," he says.

"No rule is broken, Claudius. Her heart beats, I'm sure you've listened to it."

"That I have. Slow, very slow but steady. She cannot survive in that state for long, you realise that, don't you?"

"She has five days, she can kill anything in those woods and she will emerge the winner and I will take great delight in making her one of us and making her mine," I say.

Claudius gives me a small smile. "Lily is not the first albino vampire I have met. There was another, a woman too, young and beautiful."

"Why are you only telling me this now? What happened to her?"

"That's a long story. And one you're not ready for yet." I go to snap at him when I hear something. It's a sound I haven't heard for a very long time. Not spending so much time in London. It's a sound that belongs in this place, a sound that takes me back, that makes me feel like there is ice dripping down my spine.

I get up and push past Claudius and yell at the guards to move out of the way. I run a little way into the grounds. I have to be certain, yes, there it is. Unmistakable. The sounds of a wolf. Not one wolf, a whole pack of wolves.

I feel the air move as Claudius appears next to me.

"There haven't been wolves here for centuries," I say.

"There are always wolves if you know where to find them. Or maybe I brought my own with me. I trust you've not forgotten about wolves in all your cosy years in the undergrounds crypts of London."

"How could any vampire forget them?" I gasp at him. Sam has rushed outside and more and more of the guard are stepping outside listening to the sounds of wolves howling into the night.

"Why can we hear wolves?" He says.

"That's just what we were discussing, Sam," says Claudius. "I like balance in our games, I like there to be fairness. We have one contestant who is stronger than the rest, who craves blood and will hunt for it. Well, wolves love to hunt too. They love the taste of human blood. But let's not forget about the birth of our kind. How we once were on four legs instead of two. The wolves haven't forgotten the taste of vampire blood, they like it best of all. Let's see how our contestants fair against each other and a pack of wolves."