“Unfortunately, not everyone agrees.”
I thought of my grandfather and what he would do if he could see me now. “I know. But it’s worth protecting.”
“Yes,” he said, and something about the way he was looking at me made me think he was talking specifically about me. “It is.”
That was crazy though, wasn’t it? I was just a hunter to him, one of the guys. But he hadn’t called me Buffy since the cafe. He’d actually used my real name. Did that mean anything? Get a grip, Wild, I told myself. He was also making out with at least two different girls not three hours ago.
He slowed the car before we reached the turnoff for the school. He pulled into the undergrowth and turned the engine off, killing the lights. We were well-hidden by the grass and low-hanging tree branches. Fireflies winked at us from the field across the street. There wasn’t a single other person, human or vampire, anywhere. Even the stars hid themselves behind thin clouds, as if to give us privacy.
“I got your text while I was waiting for you. You have a favor to ask me?” he said, turning to face me. Even in the darkness, his cheekbones were strong, his face pale. His teeth gleamed, looking slightly too sharp even with his fangs retracted.
“So you did get it?” I asked, suddenly babbling. “I wasn’t sure. I mean, sometimes we don’t get very good reception at school. But I guess you know that, living on a farm and all.” Shut up, shut up, shut up.
He smiled slowly. “Hunter, are you nervous?”
“Shut up.”
“Are you going to ask me to prom?” he teased.
“Shut up,” I repeated, choking on a horrified laugh.
He grinned. “I look pretty good in a tux.”
I rolled my eyes, suddenly comfortable again. “And you’re so refreshingly modest.”
“It’s a curse,” he agreed cheerfully. Then his eyes went from silver rain to stormy lake. “And you’re still wearing the coronation medallion.”
I felt like I’d been caught mooning over his photograph. I tucked the pendant back into my dress. I wiped my damp palms on my lap. “Can I trust you with school secrets?”
“Helios-Ra secrets? Cool.” He leaned back, satisfied.
I bit my lip. “Never mind. This was a bad idea.”
He touched my hand. “I’m kidding. What is it?”
I hoped I wasn’t about to make a really big mistake. He felt trustworthy though, even with the charming smirks and the fangs. I pulled the vitamin I’d stolen from Chloe’s bag out of my purse. It was in a little plastic bag, the kind you get when you buy jewelry. “I need to have this analyzed,” I explained quietly.
“You must have labs here at school.”
“We do. But I don’t know anyone well enough to trust them with it.”
“But you trust me.”
“Yes.” Even if it didn’t make any sense.
He took the pill, frowned at it. “Looks like a vitamin.”
“I’m really hoping that’s all it is.”
“But you think it’s something else?”
I nodded. “Chloe’s taking them and she’s been weird and moody.”
His eyebrows rose. “Steroids?”
“Maybe. She’s obsessed with taking them and working out and getting strong, so it’s possible. And that guy Will? The one we took to the infirmary? He said something about vitamins too, remember?”
“Huh. How is he anyway?”
“Nothing definitive yet. And no one will tell us anything about that Hel-Blar woman who disintegrated. There’s definitely some weird shit going on.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t normal,” Quinn agreed. “I’ll see if my brother Marcus can analyze this. He’s good with that sort of thing. I’d ask my uncle, the biology teacher, but he’d have way too many questions.” He slipped my only piece of evidence into his pocket.
“Can you analyze this too?” I asked, pulling the blood samples out of my purse. I was the kind of girl who carried blood in her purse and daggers in her boots.
Maybe I should see the school counselor.
I felt nervous but relieved at the same time as he pocketed the samples. A totally uncharacteristic giggle stuck in my throat. I might finally get some answers after all. I touched his wrist and it was cool under my fingertips. “Thank you.”
He paused, eyes narrowing. “You’re not taking this stuff too, are you?” he asked sharply.
“No way.” He leaned closer, sniffing along my collarbone and under my jaw. “What are you doing?” I whispered.
“Just checking,” he answered, somewhat hoarsely.
“Checking what?” My pulse fluttered.
“We can usually smell drugs in a human’s bloodstream. We can definitely taste it.”
“I told you I’m not on anything.”
“I know. You smell like … raspberries … and limes.”
“Is that … good?”
I felt him smile against my skin. “Yes.”
“Oh.” I swallowed. It was getting difficult to form a coherent sentence. “So, you could sniff Chloe? Or Will? And know if something was wrong.”
“Maybe. I’d rather breathe you in, though.”
Yup, he was really, really good at this.
I actually felt like I was melting, like I was on fire, like I’d swallowed those fireflies.
He pulled back just enough to look at me, as if I was a puzzle that needed solving, or a candy he wasn’t sure he was allowed to eat.
Bad analogy.
His fangs lengthened, but only a little. I wouldn’t even have noticed if I wasn’t used to watching for things like that. And it didn’t make me nervous for some reason. I wasn’t scared, and not just because I had a purse full of small sharp weapons. There was something between us suddenly, and it wasn’t merely a secret unraveling.
It was something else, something more forbidden, more mysterious, more delicious.
I closed the tiny gap between us, swaying toward him as if he was a magnet. Our eyes connected, held. His pupils dilated, irises lightened. I smiled.
“You’re not the only one who wants a taste,” I said.
And then he was kissing me, or I was kissing him. We were just suddenly in each other’s arms, like lightning—not there, then just suddenly there. Everywhere. His mouth was wicked, his tongue bold. I couldn’t get enough. I tingled all over. His hand dug into my hair, cradled the back of my neck. He pulled me closer. The muscles of his arms were sinewy under my palms.
I’d never felt like this before.
He was a vampire and I didn’t care.
I was a hunter and I didn’t care.
I could barely catch my breath and I didn’t care.
I just wanted more.
And then the car could barely contain us and his elbow accidentally hit the horn. The sudden noise cut through the warm summer night and we jumped, pulling apart. I was light-headed, disoriented. My lips felt warm, swollen.
He smiled ruefully, forcing himself to release me. “Guess that’s my cue to take you home.”
“I’d better walk from here,” I murmured. “Surveillance cameras.”
“Text me when you get in,” he said. “I’ll wait right here until you do.”
“Okay.” I was pretty dazed, surprised that I could stand up properly. I was really glad he looked just as bewildered.
“Good night, Hunter.”
Chapter 15
•
Quinn
I grinned all the way home.
I’d bailed on two hot girls, nearly been staked, and had to hide from a car full of vampire hunters in full battle gear.
Totally worth it.
Nicholas was on the front porch when I pulled the car up the driveway. He shielded his eyes from the glare of the headlights, fangs gleaming.
“How was your date?” he asked as I slammed the car door shut.
“Which one?”
“Show-off.”
“With great hotness comes great responsibility,” I answered. I was still grinning.<
br />
“Up for patrol, pretty boy?”
“Always.” I was still wired from the fight and the kiss. Kicking Hel-Blar ass sounded like the perfect way to end the evening.
“There’s a pack in the hall closet,” Nicholas told me. I went in and grabbed it along with a handheld crossbow, stuffed into the sleeve of an old coat no one ever wore. It was my favorite, and I had the worst time hiding it from Lucy. I slung the pack over my shoulder and went back outside.
There were still some scorch marks at the end of the porch and a soggy plank that would rot through if we didn’t replace it soon. Hope’s rogue Helios-Ra unit had done some serious damage when they’d tried to blast their way through the house. We hadn’t finished all the repairs yet but at least we’d patched up the big gaping hole in the wall.
I tied my hair back and loaded the crossbow. An unloaded crossbow would be about as useful as a spoon. Mom could have been an undead boy scout with all her “Be Prepared” speeches. “Let’s go.”
On the farm and in the thick woods around the mountains where we patrolled, we didn’t have to hold back. We could move as fast as we wanted and not worry that we might appear blurry to human eyes. There was freedom in that, and exhilaration.
I hadn’t been lying when I told Hunter I didn’t believe in hiding who and what I was. I also didn’t believe in moping about because I happened to be undead.
In my opinion, being a vampire kicked ass.
And undead was better than dead.
Okay, when I was human, the thought of drinking blood had me worried I was in for a lifetime of an eat-your- Brussels-sprouts-they’re-good-for-you diet. But once I’d changed, so had my taste buds. Why turn your nose up at what kept you alive? Or, not dead? Whatever.
The only drawback, as far as I could see, was that it was easier to score a cheeseburger than a pint of blood. And I missed the whole sunlight thing, but I got over that pretty quickly. It made me feel like crap now anyway. Duncan was the one who moaned about daylight and not being able to taste coffee anymore.
I just counted myself lucky that girls thought vamps were cool, even if they never actually realized I was a vampire. Pheromones had their uses.
The irony that I wasn’t crushing on one of those girls, but on the type that killed vampires, wasn’t lost on me.
But I wasn’t going to let it ruin my night. Or the taste of her, still on my lips.
“You’re actually strutting,” Nicholas muttered.
“Just a little. It’s good for the soul.” I ducked under a low-hanging branch. The smells of damp earth and cold wind and cedar was thick as smoke. “Finally got rid of that Matthew vampire and his gang.” We hadn’t had a lot of time to deal with him what with Solange dying at her own birthday party. And anyway, the Drakes weren’t vampire police. We just tried to take care of our own backyard. I wasn’t joking when I told Hunter not all bad vampires are easily recognizable.
“Are they dust?”
“Not all of them. Hunter and her friends were there. She called in some Helios-Ra cleanup crew to take them into custody.”
“And they just left you there?” he asked incredulously.
“Like I hung around to shake hands.”
The forest was dark and full of shifting shadows but we could see just fine. Another perk to vampirism: really great night vision. I saw the leaves shifting, the outline of tree branches and ferns and the path glowing as if the moon were full over head. Everything seemed to glitter, just a little, around the edges. An owl called from some pine bough, searching for unwary mice. The owl would have to find new hunting grounds or go hungry tonight. Vampires tend to scare small animals into hiding.
Nicholas paused, sniffed. His expression went flat. “Hel-Blar,” he mouthed.
I nodded, catching a whiff of boiled mushrooms and mildew. If the Hel-Blar ever got their shit together and figured out how to cover their stench, they’d really be a force to be reckoned with.
I took point, steadying the crossbow. Nicholas walked backward behind me, a stake in each hand. There was no one I trusted at my back more than one of my brothers.
The Hel-Blar came in a wave, three of them swinging down from a branch, bursting out of a thicket, and leaping out from behind a thick elm tree. A crossbow bolt hit the first one in the chest, piercing his rib cage and his heart. He screeched and crumbled into a gray dust. The next one crashed into me, knocking my crossbow into a patch of primroses. Nicholas was occupied shoving a stake, only half-stuck, into the last one.
“Drakes,” my Hel-Blar laughed at his companion. “Even better.”
His many fangs clicked at me hungrily and the sound was like bones breaking. I leaped back out of the way, avoiding the drip of his saliva. No one knew how contagious it really was. And this guy didn’t look like he was about to conveniently disintegrate, like the woman at the high school. Whatever sickness she’d had clearly wasn’t widespread through the Hel-Blar.
He followed my backward bend, clinging like a barnacle. I used momentum against him, falling into the undergrowth and flipping him over my head. He landed in a crouch, snarling over his shoulder. His veins were nearly black under his blue skin. There was fresh blood under his fingernails.
I didn’t bother scrambling to my feet; I just rolled toward my discarded crossbow. The first bolt missed, biting into a birch tree and sending papery bark into the air.
“Nick, you okay?” I yelled. He grunted what I thought was a “yes.” I loosed another bolt and it missed the heart again, but at least it sliced through his shoulder. He hissed in pain.
Good.
Except now he had an open bleeding wound that might contaminate Nicholas or me.
Bad.
And now my Hel-Blar was closing in and staying just in front of Nicholas so that if I used my crossbow I risked shooting my own brother. I was usually a pretty good shot but there were just too many variables. I exchanged my crossbow for the stake inside my coat and launched myself into the fray, hollering.
I don’t care what Mom says about the advantage of surprise; a good battle yell can sometimes make the difference between winning or losing.
The Hel-Blar yelled back and then we were grappling again, trying to see who could cause the most damage. He didn’t have a weapon. They mostly used their numerous fangs and the threat of their poisoned blood. I shoved the stake toward his chest and he blocked it, trying to shove it back. I held on with a viselike grip, my fangs burning through my gums, my fingers cramping around the stake. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a cloud of ash and heard Nicholas cough. Hel-Blar ashes were nasty.
I kneed the Hel-Blar in the groin and then used my free arm to drive my elbow into the back of his neck. Already doubled over, he staggered and folded further.
Right into my upraised stake.
The force of his flailing body drove me to my knees, and then I was alone with the ashes drifting into the grass and the bloodstained stake. I dropped it, scrubbing my palms clean in a pile of fallen leaves.
“Three down.” I pushed to my feet. “Not bad.” I dusted my shirt off, grimacing. “But I’m going to smell like soggy mushrooms for the rest of the night.”
“Did that seem kind of easy to you?” Nicholas wondered out loud.
“Easy? Are you smelling the smell?”
“Seriously. Didn’t they seem tired to you?”
I frowned. “I guess they could have fought harder. It’s not like they laid down and died for us like that chick at the school though.”
A flock of birds winged into the sky in the near distance, interrupting us with their excited squawking. We exchanged a knowing glance, breaking into a run. Nothing tired out the Hel-Blar like fighting or feasting. And both would disturb a flock of sleeping birds.
We ran harder. The wind pushed at my face with cool fingers. Our feet barely touched the ground, broke no twigs, made no sound to betray our presence.
What gave us away was the shocked sound both Nicholas and I made, abandoning all of our training in
two choked curses.
It was hard to stay stealthy when you stumbled across your baby sister, ankle-deep in a mountain stream, red-pupiled, fangs flashing, and stakes flying from her fingertips.
Hel-Blar clicked their jaws at her from both banks, blue-tinged as poison beetles. She looked our way. Either she didn’t have the time to recognize us or we’d really pissed her off.
One stake whistled toward us, then another.
“Solange, no!” I yelled.
Nicholas was too busy running forward, heedless of the stake aimed at his heart.
Because Lucy lay at Solange’s feet, sprawled over the black river pebbles, her blood leaking like red ribbons into the water.
Chapter 16
•
Hunter
Later Saturday night
I texted Quinn on my way to the infirmary to let him know I was safely on campus. Chloe was standing right inside the door, a bandage under her T-shirt and another one on her forearm. She was pale and her pupils were dilated but otherwise she seemed all right.
“I feel good,” she said, weaving on her feet. Her smile went decidedly goofy. “Theo’s nice.”
“Theo gave you painkillers.” I was relieved to see she was fine.
“Yup. Better than vitamins. Better than candy.” She sounded shocked. And she was slurring her speech.
“Sit down before you fall on your face.” I nudged her gently into a chair.
She poked her bandage. “Do I have a ghost arm now? Can’t feel it.”
“Stop that,” I told her. “Or it’ll hurt like hell tomorrow.”
“ ’Kay.”
“If you start drooling I’m taking pictures.”
“ ’Kay.”
I was grinning at her when the shouting started. I leaped forward just as the curtain to the back examination rooms swung open. Will thundered toward me. I was surprised enough just to stand there and stare at him. He was faintly blue, his eyes bloodshot. It didn’t really register at first. Theo and Jenna were behind him and so was Spencer, holding a cloth to his neck. The cloth was rapidly turning red, almost as rapidly as he was turning white.
“Stake him!” Theo shouted at me. There was a long hypodermic needle in his hand. “Stake him now, Hunter!”
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