It didn’t burn.
Or make me feel weak.
I lifted my fingertips to my teeth. I still had the triple set of fangs but no desire to sink them into the nearest living thing. I wasn’t thirsty for blood; and lately I was always thirsty. I wanted to enjoy it, but I knew I couldn’t stay here. Mom would say get to high ground, or at the very least, don’t let yourself get cornered. I was definitely cornered in the stairwell, but if I went up to the roof, I’d be just as confined.
I hurried down the steps, listening carefully for the sounds of the castle’s inhabitants. I could hear the clang of a blacksmith’s hammer from somewhere outside and the whinny of a horse, but nothing closer. The walls were whitewashed and painted with a rose in the center of each stone. Tapestries hung in the rooms that opened up out of arched doorways. I smelled smoke and roasting meat, and dried lavender under my feet.
I made it to the great hall without being discovered. I peered around one of the tapestries and saw wooden tables and benches, a fire in the center of the room, smoke rising to the rafters and staying there. Women bustled back and forth, wearing dresses similar to mine. A young boy brought in an armful of firewood. I slipped away, into the sunny courtyard.
This made no sense. I should be in the Blood Moon encampment. I felt insubstantial, as if the precious sunlight were glittering right through me. Was I invisible? Insane? Was this time travel? Or another vision like the one Kala had given me? It didn’t feel the same but it was definitely some kind of magic.
It didn’t matter.
I needed to get back home. I needed to make sure my family was safe and that Lucy wasn’t bleeding to death in the woods. And that Kieran didn’t hate me, before he left for Scotland and I never saw him again.
I remembered the taste of his blood in my mouth. I’d bitten him long before that girl’s voice started to merge with my own. I couldn’t blame that on her, not entirely. She’d been there, in the background, but I’d been the one to bite him. Hadn’t I? And he still hadn’t turned me over to the hunters. He’d called Lucy instead of the Helios-Ra. He deserved an explanation. An apology. Everyone did.
When had I stopped being the girl with dried clay on her pants and a pathological need for solitude?
Guilt and worry would crush me if I let it. Right now, it didn’t matter why or who or what. It only mattered that I get myself back home to fix the mess I’d made.
I skirted the edge of the courtyard, staying in the shadows of the rosebushes and lilac trees. I passed stables and a dovecote. There was an orchard in the distance, and a gray stone wall beyond that. I stepped on the dirt path, uneven with ruts from carts and horseshoes, toward two round towers. I ducked between them, waiting for a guard to shout out my presence. Instead, there was only the wind and a stray chicken pecking for seeds. The sun was warm and pleasant on my face. It had only been a few months since my blood-change, but I still missed the daylight.
A longer path went downhill to a lower bailey and past a huge field full of armored men practicing with swords and lances and maces. Grizzled, scarred men fought with broadswords. A cluster of younger boys, around my age, loosed arrows at a haystack painted with red and white circles. Men on horseback charged at a heavy sack on a stick, and if they didn’t hit it just right, it swung back around to knock them off their saddles.
A shaft of sunlight fell on me, making my dress look like fire and my skin glow like pearls. The shadows around me darkened, as if my glowing skin were leeching the light from everything around me. I was a lantern on the longest, darkest moonless night.
Every knight stopped abruptly and turned to stare at me. And they didn’t look happy.
Guess I wasn’t invisible after all.
Crap.
I didn’t hesitate, didn’t wait to see if they were just curious, instead of outright malicious. I tore down the path toward the last two towers in the wall and the forest beyond it.
I already knew I wasn’t going to be fast enough.
The wind snarled in my hair as I pushed myself on. The pounding of hoofbeats behind me got closer and closer. Stones dug into the soles of my feet, cutting through my skin. I was running fast, but not vampire-fast. An arrow sliced past me, slamming into the ground. Daggers were sharp steel rain, just close enough to pin my hem to the ground. I tripped and tore free.
Hot horse breath echoed in my ears as a destrier caught up to me on my other side. The horse was massive, muscles bunching, sweat stinging the air, and clumps of dirt hitting my ankles. Light flashed off the length of a sword. No one spoke, which made it all that much more awful. They didn’t shout or laugh, only ran me to ground like a rabbit.
When I risked a glance over my shoulder, I actually stumbled to a stop, shock freezing my muscles so suddenly pain lanced through me.
It wasn’t just angry knights chasing me.
It was also a dragon.
I’d never seen anything like it. It was the dark, deep indigo blue of a summer evening, with curled silver talons and leathery wings that shimmered like the northern lights. Its scales gleamed like oil, like dark rainbows. When it opened its mouth, I saw teeth the size of my arm. I couldn’t help but remember the old woman in the cottage whispering the prophecy about the next Drake daughter.
Dragon by dragon defeated.
Flames hissed between giant teeth. Leaves caught fire and shriveled into ashes; grass burned around my toes. I covered my head and continued running. The knights stayed together, dispersing only when the flames got too close to them. The two knights at the end of the line turned to lift their lances at the dragon. Their horses struggled to bolt. No training in the world could make them ignore the giant-ass fire lizard in the sky.
Suddenly, being queen of the damned vampires seemed like a pretty great alternative.
The guard in the gatehouse was too busy taking cover to stop me. There was nothing between me and the forest except for a bridge over the moat ahead.
And the dead bodies.
The moat was full of bloated corpses, with bite marks all over them and bloodstains on their clothes. Blood floated in perfect ribbons in the water. I tried not to stare as I dashed down the bridge, which shook and trembled under the weight of the horses and knights still following me. The dragon followed us all, with no preference for whom he cooked to death with his breath.
Sweat clung to the back of my neck. One of the ribbons on my dress smoldered and I had to yank it off. The tip of a sword tore through my sleeve, piercing my skin. The dragon’s breath was like thunder overhead, and its shadow swallowed the light when it passed over me. I smelled burned hair and scorched earth. One of the knights fell screaming into the moat, the tunic under his armor on fire.
Flames ate through the grass. I kept my eyes on the forest. I needed to find trees that were too thick to let horses pass, where the leaves would conceal me from the dragon. The flap of leathery wings created whirlwinds of dirt and pine needles. My long skirt twisted around my knees. I stumbled, heat searing my back.
And then I was finally in the woods, running over the uncomfortable ground, heedless of my bare and bloody feet. It was cool and green, like the forest at home. The dragon blew more fire, scorching through the top branches. Birds fled, squawking. Fiery leaves fell over me, burning like paper. The knights stopped at the edge of the field, suddenly losing all interest. They turned as one and stalked back to the castle, as if they’d forgotten all about me. I found a sturdy tree and clambered up into the branches to get a better view. The knights had turned away even before the dragon lost sight of me and concentrated his fiery breath on them.
I clearly wasn’t a threat here in the dark green woods.
Which meant the castle was worth protecting.
Or at least something within it was worth protecting.
It wasn’t much to go on, but it was more than I’d known before. You know, when I was actually inside the castle, where the knowledge would have done me some good.
And then, dragons and dragon knights were
n’t the only thing to worry about.
Chapter 3
Lucy
Sunday afternoon
I spent most of Sunday dialing Nicholas’s cell phone even though I knew he wouldn’t answer. There was no reception at the camp, but I was secretly hoping he’d gone back to the farmhouse. It was early November and the sun had only set about an hour ago. It was too early for him to answer regardless of where he was. I called Bruno, just to feel as if I was accomplishing something. “Any news?” I asked.
“Afraid not, lass,” he replied, sounding tired. “We’ll be sending a message in a few hours. And waiting to get information from those still loyal to us at the camp.”
“And Nicholas?” I almost ached just to say his name. Everyone was always so worried about Solange being hurt because she was so unique, or about me because I was human. It had never seriously occurred to me just how hurt Nicholas could be. The Drake brothers just seemed to have the kind of luck that saw them through bad places. I never imagined that their luck could run out.
I couldn’t think like that. He wasn’t missing, he wasn’t dead. In fact, he might very well be Solange’s only hope. I had to hold on to that. “Madame Veronique hasn’t murdered anyone yet, has she?”
“No. You know the Drakes are harder to assassinate than that. So don’t make yourself sick.”
“Sheesh, one little breakdown and everyone fusses,” I teased. When Nicholas first went missing, I’d climbed onto the roof of the dormitory and screamed until Theo, the school nurse, threatened to sedate me. With the kind of year I’d had, I figured I was allowed a little primal scream therapy. “I’ll see you soon, Bruno.”
My homework was therapeutic: kickboxing, track, and practice at the gun range. My mom would be horrified at just how relaxing it was for me to watch those targets spin. I was heading back to the dorms when I spotted Jenna in the archery field with her crossbow. I made a detour. Archery was my favorite class and Jenna’s aim rivaled mine. I watched her arrows slam into the targets and itched to hold my miniature crossbow. Jenna turned when she heard my footsteps.
“Are you okay?” we asked in unison.
She lowered her crossbow. “Just a headache. I’m off classes for a few days, but I just couldn’t sit around anymore.” Her red hair was in its usual ponytail, a bandage on her temple. “You saved me. If you hadn’t sent Spencer to find me, I probably would’ve ended up as a vampire’s next meal.”
“I didn’t save you,” I said, flinching. “It’s my fault you were there in the first place.”
She shrugged. “Who knew civilian parties could be so dangerous?”
I snorted. “Now you know.” Since this was Violet Hill, that wasn’t even the scariest party I’d ever been to. “And I’m sorry.”
“Hey, you got me back home. We’re even.” She frowned. “Is it true you saw the Blood Moon camp?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Pretty cool. You know, if my best friend hadn’t dragged me out back with the intention to drain me dry.”
“Dude.”
“Yeah.”
Jenna shook her head, then winced, her hand touching her temple briefly. “I thought Solange was this delicate little thing.”
“She’s sick,” I said steadily. I thought of the bats that followed her around. “Does rabies make people crazy.?”
“I have no idea. You think Solange has rabies?”
“I guess not.” I wrinkled my nose. “But the bats are new. And weird. Everything’s weird.”
Kieran pulled up into the student parking lot behind us, distracting me from any other theories. There were so many Hel-Blar roaming the area that the school was now allowing third-year students to patrol, not just fourth years like Hunter. As a third year I needed to be with a fourth year or an alumnus, and I could only go during certain classes. Since Hunter and I both wanted to keep an eye on Kieran, we alternated forcing him to patrol with us. Plus, it got me off campus, which was a bonus. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with prejudice and bullies tonight. We both needed the distraction as we tried to figure out what to do about Solange and Nicholas.
Nicholas.
Nope, couldn’t think about that right now.
“See you later.” Jenna waved at Kieran and headed back to the dorm.
“You know that you and Hunter aren’t even remotely subtle,” Kieran told me through the open window.
I just grinned at him. “Wave to the top-floor corner window over there. Lia’s got a crush on you.”
Kieran’s ears went red. “How does she even know I’m here?”
“I told her you were coming,” I said, sliding into my seat. I dropped my knapsack full of weapons at my feet.
“You’re a menace.”
“I was twelve once.” I shrugged. “A little crush in a place like this can make a difference. She’s got to think about something other than vampires.”
“What, like you?” he remarked drily, reversing out of the parking spot.
“Come on, drive like you’re cool,” I urged him, ignoring his very valid point. “Pop a wheelie or something. It’ll give her something to swoon over.”
He laughed despite himself. “I can’t pop a wheelie in an SUV, you lunatic.”
We left the school behind, exchanging the security lights for dark fields and snow-choked orchards. We startled a cat, and a coyote darted across the road, but there were no fangs or pale eyes. I tried to twirl my stake through my fingers as if it were a magic-trick coin.
“Turn left here,” I said about fifteen minutes later.
“I know what you’re doing,” he told me, but he turned anyway. The road cut through thick bushes and red pine groves. The moon was bright enough to cast blue moonshadows over the snow. If I squinted I could just barely make out a house light through the trees, close to the mountains. We passed the familiar landmarks: the lightning-struck ash, the boulder shaped like a bull, the hill where wild daffodils grew in spring.
My phone rang the very second we crossed onto Drake land.
“Lucy Hamilton, you just keep on driving.”
I gulped at Helena’s stern voice. “Oops. Bye!” I wrinkled my nose at Kieran. “Busted. Keep driving.”
We headed into town on the only country highway in Violet Hill. The high beams glittered on frost and ice and the wet black pavement. House lights began to pierce the gloom.
“I’m on campus duty,” Kieran said as he turned in the direction of the arts college tucked in by the lake. It made sense, since he looked the part, even if he wasn’t covered in tattoos or paint like most of the other local students. Violet Hill had a small arts college, mostly catering to visual arts and literature students. You got to know the look of them after a while.
“Still going to the Helios-Ra college in Scotland?” I asked.
“Let’s just get through tonight,” he answered.
We walked through three dorm parties and two pubs, but they were clean. I peered into all the bushes, looking for Hel-Blar. Wherever they were feeding tonight, it wasn’t here.
It wasn’t until a couple of hours later, when we were heading back to the academy, that we saw something. A concert had ended in one of the bigger pubs, and the cold streets were crowded with students and taxis. There were girls in short skirts, guys holding one another up, and couples making out as they wandered home.
And a slender girl oblivious to the cold, standing in the snow in a thin dress. No, not just standing.
Feeding.
“Stop!” I yelled. “Stop, stop, stop! That’s Solange.”
Kieran practically wrapped the SUV around a mailbox in his hurry to pull over. Someone cheered, thinking it was funny. I flung myself out of my seat before the wheels had stopped moving. Kieran grabbed my arm as I darted past him. Momentum swung me around so I was facing him, spitting curses. “The hell, Black.”
“It’s called stealth,” he snapped back, jerking me down behind the cover of the SUV. The fumes from the running engine turned to fog in the cold air, obscuring us. Kieran passed me
a stake but I already had one in my hand. “And clearly, neither of you have it.”
He was right.
Solange stood near a circle of yellow light from a street lamp, clutching a girl in paint-splattered jeans, with short spiky hair and a nose ring. Her fangs gleamed as her red lips lifted in a delicate snarl. Seeing her wearing red lipstick and a long dress was nearly as weird as everything else. She hated dressing up.
“Shh,” Solange ordered when the girl struggled briefly. The girl went silent obediently. No one noticed them, but that was through sheer dumb luck. Any minute now someone would glance their way, someone would scream. Or the girl would die.
Because Solange was still drinking.
“Anyone could see her,” I whispered, horrified.
“And she doesn’t care,” Kieran agreed grimly. “If any other Helios-Ra saw her like this they’d shoot her on sight, no questions asked. And they’d be within treaty rights to do it.”
Solange seized the girl by the neck, tilting her head to a near-breakable angle. Her fangs sank deeper through skin and flesh, blood trickling slightly as if she were biting into a ripe peach. The girl made a fist just before her arm went limp. She struggled briefly, then just dangled. There was no pretending it was two drunk roommates holding up each other.
There was too much blood for that.
Solange looked enthralled, manic. Deadly. So I did the only thing I could think of.
I threw a snowball at her head.
It didn’t hurt her, of course, but at least it made her pause. She glanced up, lips curled. I scrounged around the ground until I found a rock at the edge of the flower bed behind me. I threw it as hard as I could and it hit her on the temple. She hissed, blood me welling on her pale skin. The girl in her arms slumped to the ground unconscious, moving so gradually, she could have been water freezing into an icicle.
Blood Prophecy Page 2
