Eternal Dawn by Rebecca Maizel

admitted.
    ‘There has to be a way. We can’t leave him like that,’ Tracy said. ‘We have to change him back. You did it; you know how.’
    ‘It’s not that simple. No one had performed that ritual before Rhode and me.’
    She slapped her hands on the table. ‘Rhode!? What the hell, Lenah? He was a vampire too?’ She spat a little when she said it and her face deepened to a very bright red. Oops. I had
meant to reveal that more smoothly.
    Once I explained the situation to Tracy and got her sitting down calmly, I said, ‘Odette made Justin a vampire to hurt me.’
    ‘And hurt me,’ Tracy said, and wiped tears away with her fingertips. ‘He was my friend.’
    ‘So what now?’ Tony asked, and I could tell he was trying to diffuse the tension. ‘What do we do about the guy watching you?’
    I got up and rested my hands on the window ledge. The beach was still empty, and the wind had picked up.
    ‘The first time that the vampire at the farm spoke to me yesterday, he told me to arm myself. And now, after Justin pulls this prank, that same vampire is watching me from the woods.
It’s too coincidental.’
    ‘What I’d like to know is where he was last night when we were attacked on Main Street,’ Tony said.
    ‘You know, this seems oddly familiar,’ Tracy commented quietly.
    ‘Maybe it was him who shot the arrow at Justin?’ I offered.
    ‘Really familiar,’ Tracy added.
    Whitecaps curled again and again out on the water.
    ‘Either way,’ I said, ‘the only way we’ll really be able to tell is to draw the vampire to me. Find out who he is.’ I had a feeling he was connected to Suleen, but
I had no evidence for this.
    ‘You’re nuts,’ Tracy said. ‘Draw someone to you who is shooting arrows at your head?’ She dabbed at her eyes with a shredded tissue.
    ‘We don’t know who shot either of those arrows,’ I pointed out.
    ‘I think you need to find out what Justin wants,’ Tracy said.
    ‘We’re no match for him. He’s far too strong. Maybe this vampire can help,’ I said.
    I needed a public place. A place the vampire could get lost in the crowd. I couldn’t guarantee he would come but I had to take the chance.
    ‘What’s the popular club in town?’ I asked. ‘A place we could get in.’
    ‘We’re on the Cape,’ Tony said. ‘It’s slim pickings.’
    ‘Bolt in Orleans, I guess. It’s right outside Lovers Bay. It’s the biggest one. They have an all-ages night on a Friday,’ Tracy offered.
    ‘Perfect. Tomorrow. We’re going. Invite Rhode,’ I said to Tony. ‘I’ll bring it up with him tomorrow too. He’s teaching me about archery.’
    ‘Like a date?’ Tracy asked.
    I had no time for modern dating explanations. ‘I guess so,’ I said, but tried to be dismissive about it so we could stay focused. Even though Rhode couldn’t remember his old
self, perhaps being in the presence of vampires, at the club, would make him recall something.
    ‘Come on, Trace,’ Tony said, and hugged her shoulder. ‘Let’s go to the union. I’ll buy you a supreme nachos with extra sour cream.’
    ‘Why the extra sour cream?’ she asked.
    ‘It eases the whole “change in your entire universe” hangover.’
    ‘That sounds good,’ she said with another sniff.
    We piled up bedding in our arms and walked back to our cleaned and frog-free room.
    That night I dreamt of Justin:
    He walks to me through the waist-high water of Wickham bay. He is drenched when he steps on to the sand. He is himself as I first saw him, a young man with a beautiful future. The water
drips down his abdomen to the waistline of his board shorts. Where I would usually expect a drove of students, we are very much alone. Even in this dream world I can’t help but feel enamoured
by his spirit. He has such confidence and love for life.
    ‘Gorgeous day,’ Justin says and stands next to me. He smiles at the sun and I want to embrace him. ‘You have little time as always,’ he says, and the water drips down
the