When had life become so freaking complicated?
For the part of this mess where I was essentially accusing higher-ups in the league and my friend’s mother besides, I was on my own. I wouldn’t even tell Kieran about that right now. He was already walking a thin line by dating Solange and allying himself with the Drakes. Not only would they have him under some kind of surveillance, but he didn’t need extra flack for my unproven theories.
And anyway, it was far more likely that if the vitamin was making Chloe act weird, it was because she was taking it too often. Maybe she was even allergic to it.
There were too many questions that didn’t make sense and not nearly enough answers.
So I was bugging the eleventh-grade common room.
Also, I was going to have to steal a sample of Will’s blood from the infirmary.
I had no idea if this sort of thing could get me expelled or if I could plead extra credit. I hoped I never had to find out. It was worth the risk, though. This is where Will would hang out when they finally released him from the infirmary.
I only had three reliable microphones and just one of them had a motion sensor. I hid one under the couch, tucked behind the ugly brown fringe and a gross lump of gum no one was likely to want to breach. Another one I slid inside the removable drawer handle on the bottom left of the dresser under the bulletin board. I figured those would be the two most likely places students would gather to talk. There was no point in tapping the communal phone; they only used it to call home when they were out of minutes on their cell phones.
I could hear the faint sounds of someone padding down the hall toward the bathrooms. I had just enough time to duck behind the coat tree, still thick with discarded and lost clothes from last year. The student ambled past, scratching parts of his anatomy I didn’t need to know about.
I unscrewed the knob on the top of the coat rack and dropped my last microphone into the pole. Luckily the microphone was an old-fashioned one from WWII and fit into a ballpoint pen–like casing. Unluckily, it dropped straight to the bottom, where I might never get to fish it out again. I couldn’t risk trying to shake it loose now either. Cursing, I ran all the way back to my room.
I slipped under the sheets, the muggy August morning already too humid for blankets. Chloe was still snoring. I rubbed the coronation medallion I wore around my neck and hoped I knew what the hell I was doing.
This had every indication of going horribly wrong.
Into the breach, then.
I lay there, staring at the ceiling, and wondered what exactly I was going to say to Quinn.
•
“You’re late,” Courtney snapped at me later that morning.
“I’m not late because I didn’t have an appointment,” I replied. And I was late because I’d been at the infirmary, stealing a test tube of blood. Theo wouldn’t let me in to visit Will, but he left me alone in the waiting room after wheeling the cart of blood samples into one of the examination rooms to await pick-up. All I’d had to do was reach around the curtain. The only difficult part was making sure I had the right sample. Apparently there were a lot of students with the weird flu that was going around because there were a lot of tubes in the tray. The thought of that many needles had me cringing.
So did the fact that I’d stolen a vial of Chloe’s blood as well. But at least they hadn’t reached the end of the alphabet yet for the yearly checkups, so I was off the hook with needles for another week at least.
“Just stand over here.” She actually snapped her fingers and pointed behind her.
I stared at her. “Woof.” I was glad I’d worn my favorite pair of pink cargos. She’d coveted them since we’d roomed together last year. Small, petty revenges were all I was likely to get.
And about a hundred demerits for poking her eyes out if she kept glaring at me like I was some disgusting substance she’d just stepped in.
She sniffed and ignored me. Fine by me.
The staircase was packed full of wide-eyed students and parents lugging suitcases. The dorm felt like a beehive, vibrating with sound and energy. There’d be stings by the end of the day, no doubt. Lia was hovering in the common room, trying to get a look at her roommate before having to introduce herself. Courtney smiled at all the parents and introduced herself politely and pretended I didn’t exist. She wiped her hands with alcohol sanitizer after every hand she shook. Another student had been carted off to the infirmary with a high fever this morning.
I slipped my cell phone out of my pocket and texted Kieran to get Quinn’s phone number. I texted him quickly and tried not to obsess over every word.
Need to ask you a favor. Can you come by the school Sunday
night? Meadow, midnight. Don’t tell Kieran. Hunter.
It wasn’t like I was asking him out or anything. I was only asking for a professional courtesy. I shouldn’t worry about whether or not I sounded too formal or curt or if he’d think I had a crush on him.
Because I didn’t.
Mostly.
It was only natural to be curious about Quinn. He was a vampire, for crying out loud, and a Drake. He was becoming a friend of Kieran’s too, so that made him a friend of mine.
And so what if he was gorgeous.
Lots of guys were gorgeous.
Of course, he was the first one to make me feel like blushing when I so much as thought his name. Like right now. Damn it.
“Oh, hello, Hunter.” One of Grandpa’s friends smiled at me, effectively distracting me from my mental freak-out.
“Mr. Sagasaki.” I smiled back. His hair had a lot more white in it than the last time I’d seen him. He hadn’t made it to our family barbecue this year, which is when I usually saw him and his son, who was standing beside him, a full foot taller than last year.
“Oh, call me Louis, honey. You’re practically family.” Mr. Sagasaki grinned. “I used to change your diapers, after all.”
At the sound of his name, several heads turned. Courtney’s eyes widened and she stood straighter, smoothing her hair back. Louis was a hunter with the kind of reputation it took decades to build. He had a record seventy-two vampire kills and had once taken out a Hel-Blar nest all by himself, two doors down from a grade-school ballet recital. I wasn’t sure about that part of the rumor but I knew he was good. He had the scars and the faded tattoo on his upper arm to prove it.
“Mr. Sagasaki. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Courtney held out her hand. “My name is Courtney and I’m the girls’ ninth-grade floor monitor.”
He shook her hand. “This here’s my son, Martin.”
“Hey, Hunter,” Martin said, trying to hide his relief at seeing a familiar face. It probably wasn’t cool for a fourteen-year-old boy to appear the least bit nervous about his first day at the academy. It hadn’t been cool for me as a thirteen-year-old girl either, but Grandpa got me into classes a year early out of sheer stubborn pride that I could do better than anyone else.
“Hey,” I said. “Still a mean shot with that crossbow?”
He nodded proudly. Over his head, his dad winked at me.
“Glad he’s in good hands, Hunter,” he said, urging his son forward so they could unclog the traffic jam of people trying to move around them. “You too, Kelly.”
“It’s Courtney,” she corrected, but he was already out of earshot. She glowered at me. “I’m the floor monitor. You shouldn’t hog people like that. It’s rude.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to ignore a family friend because you’re insecure.”
This was possibly part of the reason why she hated me so much. I just couldn’t let her weird bragging and overcompensating go by unremarked. I went back to checking my phone before I could say anything else.
No reply text from Quinn.
Maybe he wouldn’t answer. Maybe he was busy with his tongue in some girl’s mouth.
Maybe I was an idiot.
It was noon, the hottest, brightest part of the day. He was a vampire. Duh.
I slipped my phone back into
my pocket and vowed never to mention to anyone that a straight-A vampire-hunter student had momentarily forgotten that vampires didn’t waltz about in broad daylight.
Talk about being off my game.
I went back to standing at attention and tried to look like someone you’d trust your thirteen-year-old kid’s safety to, someone my grandfather would be proud of.
Not like someone daydreaming about a vampire.
Chapter 12
•
Quinn
Saturday evening
I couldn’t stop thinking about Hunter.
If I’d been any one of my brothers, I would have mocked myself mercilessly.
Because she wasn’t just human, she was a hunter. I suddenly had way more sympathy for what Solange was going through. Although, at least Hunter didn’t smell like food to me. Mostly.
But she did smell damn good regardless.
I wondered if she’d gotten into trouble for wandering around campus with a vampire. Or if that boy we’d taken to the infirmary had turned and now there was one more Hel-Blar that needed to be put down. If they kept attacking like this, it wouldn’t be long before the residents of Violet Hill began to wonder what kind of creatures lived in the mountains and the forests on the edge of town. Soon it wouldn’t be safe for anyone to go out at night—but try telling that to the college students and the wilderness freaks.
There were stories already, and stories were never good. We relied on secrecy, and the common belief that vampires don’t exist, to keep us safe. But the current pop culture obsession with all things vampire wasn’t helping us any. We really had to get a handle on this Hel-Blar infestation, and fast. Mom was sending out patrols, and Kieran said the Helios-Ra were scouting as well.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Hunter would be recruited for one of those patrols. She was good enough. I’d seen that for myself. And Hart had called her into the meeting at the caves last week and to the coronation. That said something.
I hadn’t quite been able to ask Kieran if she had a boyfriend.
The question throbbed like a broken tooth, impossible to ignore, impossible not to poke, just to see if it still hurt.
I never did this.
I liked girls—human or vampire. I liked them a lot, but I never wondered what they were doing or if I’d hear from them. Because I always heard from them, usually more than I liked. I treated them all well, don’t get me wrong. You couldn’t be raised by my mother and not treat girls with a hell of a lot of respect. But they knew up front that I wasn’t looking for strings, just a good time for everyone involved.
And none of the humans knew I was a vampire. I wasn’t stupid.
Well, except for that one time.
But that was a long time ago. It wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Besides, Hunter was different. She was strong and brave and sexy. I loved the way she looked at me, just slightly suspicious, as if she was thinking about kicking my ass. That shouldn’t be hot, but it was. And I was just itching to convince her to unbraid all that blonde hair. She’d look killer with it down.
Damn it, I was thinking about her again. About her hair.
“Shit,” I muttered. If I wasn’t careful I’d start writing sonnets too, like Karin had written for me. “I have to get out of here.”
•
The royal caves were a good distraction, because if you lowered your guard for a moment, you could get your head chopped off.
Right now that sounded perfect.
I nodded at the guards at the main entrance and strolled into the caverns. They were lit with torches, the tunnel opening into several larger chambers. The largest one was the Great Hall, which suited the Drake family’s very medieval tendencies. Just look at our only surviving matriarch, Veronique Dubois. She was even scarier than Mom was, and she could embroider your funeral shroud by hand. It was easy to accept Mom as a queen, or Veronique. Dad had that monarch thing going for him too. I had a harder time picturing the rest of us as royal princes. Connor didn’t like people, vampire or otherwise. He just wanted to be left alone with his computers. Logan dressed like a pirate. And I knew more about pick-up lines than I did vampire politics—and I didn’t have any great desire to learn more about it.
But I did have a great desire to stop vampire assassins from attacking my mom and my sister. So I’d man up and study vampire politics and show my face in court and pretend I knew what the hell was going on.
Anyway, it was better than mooning over Hunter Wild.
The Great Hall was drafty, the oil lamp lights flickering. It was saved from being damp and unwelcoming by the piles of thick rugs underfoot and the tapestries hanging from iron rods. Veronique had sent a huge banner embroidered with the Drake family crest and the royal vampire crest, which now hung behind a wooden table ringed with chairs. The chairs each had thick wooden backs, to protect against stakes, arrows, and daggers. Dad was all about treaties and diplomacy. Mom was all about the attack. Between the two of them they might actually be able to control the chaotic vampire tribes, at least for a little while.
Vampire tribes tended to be independent at best and belligerently autonomous at worst. Ruling them was mostly about making sure no one wiped each other out in such a public manner that we’d all be discovered. Prosaic but true.
“Quinn.” Sebastian raised his eyebrows. “You walked right by that girl. What’s wrong?”
“I did?” I looked over my shoulder. A vampire with short brown hair and beauty mark at the side of her mouth winked at me. I winked back. Then I turned back to Sebastian, horrified. “I didn’t even see her.”
“You’re off your game.”
“Shh, keep it down, will you?” I straightened my shirt. “I have a reputation. I’m going back. She’s cute.”
“Forget it. She flirts with everyone.”
“So?” I grinned.
“Just come on. Mom and Dad are in the back room. And we can’t handle any more disgruntled exes.”
“My exes are never disgruntled.” That was a point of pride actually. “Any more packages for Solange?” Solange’s bloodchange pheromones, coupled with the old prophecy, had sent more vampires than we could count into a frenzy. They sent her gifts, stalked her, and generally acted like asses.
“Twelve letters, three packages, and a box of puppies.”
I winced. “Puppies?”
“They’re fine. Isabeau took them all.”
“Good. Who eats puppies?” I shook my head.
“Yeah, Isabeau swore in French. A lot.”
“Hot.”
“Yeah, Logan nearly went cross-eyed.”
“So where are they now?”
“Isabeau’s gone back to the Hounds and Logan’s studying up.”
“He’s studying?” I shuddered. “For what? Girlfriends give exams now?”
“He’s an honorary Hound, remember,” Sebastian reminded me as we passed two more guards and entered the private family room. Logan had gone through the ritual initiation of the Hounds, something that was rarely offered to anyone not already connected to the reclusive tribe. “So he wants to know more about them. Connor downloaded stuff from some ancient library in Rome.”
“Do they know he hacked their system yet?”
“Hell no,” Connor replied from where he was trying to fix Mom’s laptop. “I’m just that good. Though even I can’t get wireless down here.”
“So what’s going on?” I asked. “Dad looks like he’s about to break into song. It’s kind of scary actually.” A grown man shouldn’t wear that kind of goofy grin. Especially when he was my father.
“We just got word that a Blood Moon is being called for November.”
“Seriously?” No wonder Dad looked so happy. Blood Moons were only very rarely called, and no one knew who exactly called them. It was essentially a week-long festival with the main night reserved for tribal leaders to talk treaties and various vampire issues. The last one had been nearly a hundred years ago. “Why now? ’Cause of Mom?”
/>
Sebastian nodded. “And the Hel-Blar. They’re becoming a real problem, and not just here in Violet Hill.”
“Any word on why they swarmed the Helios-Ra school?” I asked.
Connor shook his head. “Nothing yet.”
“Well, it sure as hell wasn’t an accident. And you didn’t see that Hel-Blar disintegrate. It was weird.”
“We’re looking into it,” Dad called over to us. “And I mentioned it to Hart.”
“Good. There are a lot of kids in that school.”
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Not every day I hear you worrying about hunters.”
I shrugged.
Connor snorted.
“Shut up,” I told him. Sometimes the twin connection was a pain in the ass. I hadn’t said a word to him about Hunter, but he already knew I was into her.
If the royal courts and all their melodrama weren’t enough to stop me from thinking about her, I’d just have to think of something else.
“I’ll check out the scene in town.”
“Hot date?”
“Working on it.”
Chapter 13
•
Hunter
Saturday night
I know it’s not very secret agent of me, but I really, really love dressing up.
Even if it’s just to flitter around like dumb horror-movie vampire bait.
I love choosing a dress, shaving my legs, and painting my toes. I love pretty sandals with little heels, though I couldn’t exactly wear them tonight. I’d never get a good kick in with those, and I wouldn’t be able to outrun a raccoon. So I wore a pair of low-top Converse sneakers with my sundress. It was blue, with lace at the hem and spaghetti straps, which Grandpa thought were trampy because my shoulders were bare. I added a matching chunky turquoise necklace and pink lipstick.
Chloe grinned at me from where she sat on the edge of her bed. Against all odds, she was ready before me. And she wasn’t wearing any jewelry or makeup. Just jeans and a tight T-shirt. Her hair was in a simple braid. I barely recognized her.
“You look great.”
I twirled once. “If a vampire muddies this dress, I’m kicking ass.”
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