‘It’s not?’
‘No. I was thinking I get it. It would be terrifying, to have that power handed to you.’ She glances my way. ‘I couldn’t do it.’
‘I’m sure you could.’
Sophie shakes her head, looking down, her mouth curving. After a pause she speaks. ‘I know what you’re trying to do. Iheard about it, on the news. How you want to help humans.’
‘You do?’ I don’t know why I’m surprised. It’s a regular story on vampire news rounds, always with a faint undertone of derision. My mother made a statement, saying that she and my father fully supported my desire to improve human conditions, but it hasn’t changed much.
‘Why do you want to do that?’
‘What?’
‘You heard me.’ She grins, then her expression becomes serious. ‘It’s a huge job, Emelia.’
I stare across the wide plain, the grass rippling like a green sea. ‘I lived in the Safe Zone for a while. And I saw how things were.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah. I was … things were happy there, for me. But it was an illusion. My world is one of darkness, true. But it’s one where I get to travel, learn about whatever I like, have every material thing I could wish for. I get to live a life. Make a difference. And it seems remarkably unfair that other humans don’t. That they’re just?—’
‘—cattle.’ At my glance, Sophie shrugs. ‘We all know that’s what we are. Useful in some ways, but in the end we’re all just food.’
Like it or not, we are the meat.Words spoken in a human dining room come back to me, as I gaze into the undulating green.
‘I can’t change that,’ I say. ‘I wish I could. But there has to be a better way of doing things. Of living together.’
We sink into silence, listening to the rush of wind between the stones.
‘Speaking of food…’
I brace myself, wondering what Sophie’s going to say.
‘I still can’t believe you offered Varin a toasted sandwich the other day.’ She giggles.
My mouth drops open. ‘What?’
‘I don’t blame you. His hotness is very distracting.’
I start giggling as well. I’m still blushing about it, to be honest. Sophie hadn’t been able to stop laughing when I returned to the cabin, red-faced.
‘I mean, it’s not like he could eat it or anything,’ Sophie splutters. ‘Though I’d like to watch him try. Licking that melted cheese off his lips, brushing crumbs off his muscular chest. Might have to offer to help him with that.’
‘Stop, stop.’ I can barely breathe from laughing.
‘As if he doesn’t know how hot he is, walking around in those silks with his arms out.’
We both fall about laughing again, the sound echoing off the huge uprights. Something about laughing here feels right, as though it’s a place of joy. I’ll remember this for ever, I think, as I watch the sky change colour, light chasing shadows across the grass. As I laugh and breathe in the wild beauty of the stones, of this once sacred place. Things feel possible here, like the light of a new day. Maybe it’s a good sign that my Raven rollout tour begins here, even if there’s no one to see me.
‘We should go back,’ Sophie says, once we’ve both calmed down. ‘The next stop tonight isn’t far, but I need to check the route and radio ahead, so they’re ready for us.’
‘Okay.’ Neither of us moves, though. We sit in silence for a while longer, the stones like grey guardians around us.
We’re still quiet when we get back on the coach, as though the place cast a spell on us.
‘I’ve never seen anything like that,’ Sophie says eventually, as she guides the coach along a curving road. ‘It reminded me…
‘Of what we once were?’
