The woman switched the camera off. Liam approached Hope, pulling paper and a pen out of the inside pocket of his coat. We blinked at him. I, for one, had expected a sword or at the very least a Taser. I’d lend him mine. “Sign here.” He pointed at the document.
She struggled, sweat now rolling off the side of her neck. “What is that?”
“Signed confession.”
“No,” she moaned again. “What did you do to me?”
Liam leaned in very close. I didn’t see the change in his expression but I saw the fear suddenly shooting off Hope. “Sign here or I will remember in very great detail how it felt to know that you had my son kidnapped and tortured while trying to frame my daughter. Not to mention the innocent humans you’ve killed, and your treatment of Lucy Hamilton, who is under our protection.”
“You won’t kill me.” Hope swallowed. “Not the peaceful Liam Drake.”
“No, “ he admitted with a sudden smile that made her flinch. “But I will turn you into a vampire.”
She went gray, then green. She grabbed for the pen, awkwardly signing the confession with bound hands.
“Remember what I said, Hope,” Liam added silkily, before stepping away. “You’ll be tagged, just like my son was. I will always be able to find you. You’ll only be safe in prison. Am I clear?”
Fear made her gag on whatever else she’d been about to say.
Hart gestured for his men to take her away.
“Isabeau worked a truth spell on her,” Liam told us with a brief smile. “Now go home, all of you. Hart has a van waiting on the road, if you think you can walk that far. Or we can find a tent for you for a few hours.”
“I just want to go home.” Chloe shivered.
I glanced at the torn-up field and the burning ropes swinging from the trees.
“Me too.”
Chapter 45
Solange
Monday evening
The snow all around the decimated camp was clogged with ashes and blood. I barely had time to register the aftermath of broken tent poles, scorched trees, and discarded vampire clothing before my brothers and I were hurried away. Some of the surviving vampires were wandering out of the tents over the underground bunkers and the rest followed the tunnels out to safer ground. The caves would be full with the overflow tonight.
The stunned silence had a texture, like lace curtains muffling all sound. Hart had managed to keep the League occupied over the course of the day, but only barely. We had a couple of hours, at most, to abandon the Blood Moon before other Huntsmen and hunters came to finish the job. Not to mention the Hel-Blar, who’d return for the carrion feast.
It was two days before I had a chance to leave the farm. I spent the first night listening to my parents planning around the kitchen table as the dogs snored at their feet, only waking long enough to bark at the vampires Mom trusted enough to allow on the farm. Hart would drop by later when he’d dealt with his own League fallout. Dad suggested biannual council meetings until we figured out the best way to run the new political system. Even after Hope’s infiltration, most of us wanted to try to make the council work. Or maybe, because of her attack. It had reminded even solitary vampires that they couldn’t stand alone anymore. Not all the time.
The Raktapa Council families and a few others temporarily pitched their tents over one of the tunnel entrances at the edge of the property, under the shadow of the mountains. The Host were locked up in the dungeons Hope had created. Nicholas removed all the torture devices himself the very first night after the battle. He incinerated them and then refused to speak of it again. Hart was going to have the hunters who’d worked with Hope on the kidnappings brought up on aiding and abetting charges.
I called Lucy again, but her roommate said she was still sleeping. I wandered into the living room. The moon was waning, pouring faint light over the snow and glittering on the frost nibbling at the windows. Lalita, one of the many Amrita daughters, was curled up on the velvet couch while our parents talked. She looked up from fiddling with her phone and smiled at me, her fangs dimpling her lower lip. Her eyes were the green of the mint tea Aunt Hyacinth told me she drank once in Marrakesh.
“Hi,” I said politely. I’d been relegated to hostess duties, which I considered penance. And vaguely ironic, since people were still too scared to be rude to me in my parents’ house. “Can I get you anything?” I couldn’t remember if the Amrita family drank human blood or animal blood.
“I’m just hiding out from my little sisters. They giggle.” She tilted her head. “Where are all your famous brothers?”
“Around.”
She rolled her eyes. “Are they as insufferable as mine?”
I rolled my eyes back. “Worse.”
She looked unconvinced. “I only have the one,” she pointed out. “My family has daughters the way yours has sons. His rarity has made Haridas’s head roughly the size of a hot-air balloon.”
I had to grin. “I have seven of those.”
“Seven what?” Quinn interrupted, leaning in the doorway. “Seven heroically patient big brothers of which I am the obvious favorite?”
“Something like that,” I allowed. “You know, if you replace ‘brother’ with ‘baboon’?”
It felt so wonderful to banter normally with Quinn that my eyes burned. The forest was stained with blood, the smell of charred wood and smoke lingered on the wind, and too many were still unaccounted for, but these small simple moments were healing.
They were precious, emblematic of what we’d been protecting: family.
And talking to Lalita, even so briefly, was also emblematic of how sheltered I’d always been. Because of our exile, Madame Veronique’s secrets, and the prophecy, we’d kept to ourselves. There was so much about the vampire world outside of Violet Hill that I didn’t know about. An hour at the Blood Moon camp had been enough to show me that.
Others might still say I was barely sixteen years old, but there was no denying I wasn’t like other girls. I knew how to use a sword and a pottery kiln, how to plan for a war and a medieval siege. And I knew that my family loved me.
Now I needed to know so much more.
I needed to know everything, see everything, understand the world for myself, not just through the prism of prophecy or fear. “I don’t like the look on your face,” Quinn groaned.
“I’ve just had an idea.”
He groaned louder. “I’ll get protective headgear for everyone.”
Lalita laughed, winking at me sympathetically. “You’re right, seven brothers must be worse,” she said as she uncurled from the sofa. “But this one’s much cuter than mine.”
Quinn grinned. “I am the prettiest,” he agreed modestly.
I went to the shed to figure how to get my parents to agree to my plan. The shed was messier then it had ever been. I barely even remembered the temper tantrum I must have pitched to have left so much broken crockery behind. I reached for the broom and swept out the floor and tidied the shelves. It was soothing, rhythmic work, the kind Lucy’s mom would have called meditative.
I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t experienced the last few months. I couldn’t go back to being the girl fighting the weight of a prophecy, a spirit, and her own self.
I had a lot of planning to do.
First things first.
I texted Kieran, feeling butterflies in my belly. Then I went up to Connor’s room, and cornered Sebastian afterward in the library, as the last of the council members filed out of the house. I’d have to talk to my parents now, before they left for another round of talks at a secret location. The bloody end to the camp councils had cut short too many important and tricky discussions.
“I’d like to meet Kieran,” I said quietly. “I’ve already activated the GPS in my phone, sent Connor the coordinates, and asked Sebastian to come with me. And I’ll take Boudicca.” She lifted her head at the sound of her name and trotted over to stick her cold wet nose in my palm. “I’m only going as far as the tree by the bunker on the o
ther side of the creek.”
My parents looked at me for a long squirming moment. Mom finally stood up and hugged me. “Thank you,” she said simply. “Don’t forget your sword.”
Another mother might have said, “Don’t forget your mittens.”
It didn’t take long to reach the tree with its mossy roots under the snow. Sebastian melted politely into the night, quiet as just another shadow. Boudicca went to investigate interesting smells. The night was crisp and clean, the snow broken only by the footprints from the last time I’d met Kieran here. I had to force myself not to remember Viola and Constantine’s special tree, the one that bled like a flesh wound. They’d loved each other and they’d let it turn tragic and terrifying. Well, Viola more than Constantine.
I wasn’t going to let that happen to Kieran and me.
Even though he hadn’t arrived yet. And even if he’d changed his mind.
Boudicca’s ears perked up just as I heard the soft tread of boots approaching. The wind tossed the bare branches overhead, showing a thousand stars. Kieran stood under a pine tree, wearing jeans instead of cargos and a regular pea coat. He waited patiently, half smiling. I swallowed and walked toward him, feeling as nervous as if this was a first date.
“You came,” I said softly, stopping awkwardly in front of him. He reached out and took my hand, our cold fingers tangling. Snow fell lightly, catching in my eyelashes. I smelled the cedar-and-mint scent of him.
“Of course,” he said, as if it was a given. “Sorry, I’m late. I had to sneak out. League’s a mess.”
“How’s Hunter?”
“Rough,” he answered. “As expected. I made her move in with me for a few days. Mom will feed her tea and Quinn can visit. Campus is far from safe,” he added. “In case you or Nicholas are planning to see Lucy.”
“She’s still asleep.”
“I’m not surprised.”
He was close enough that I had to tilt my chin up to meet his eyes. There were butterfly stiches over his left eyebrow and bruises on his cheekbone. “Who would have thought, the day I snuck into your front yard to claim the bounty that we’d end up here,” he murmured.
“Do you regret it?”
He shook his head, tugging me closer. “Do you?”
“No,” I replied. “Only that I hurt you.”
“That was a hundred years ago.”
I quirked a smile. “It wasn’t even a week ago. I’ve made a decision,” I blurted out before I could lose myself in his nearness. He waited patiently for me to elaborate. “I’m going to convince my parents to let me travel.”
He lifted the eyebrow without the bandage. “Think they’ll let you?”
“If I plan it carefully enough. Maybe one of my brothers can come, or Aunt Hyacinth. Besides, it can’t be any less safe out there than it is here. We’re not exactly hidden away and reclusive anymore.” I lifted up on my tiptoes a little, then back down. I was filled with energy, with a sense of excitement I couldn’t contain. “It feels right. Part of the reason the battle went as far as it did is because none of us really know each other.”
He traced his thumb over the corner of my mouth, which was curved in a hopeful smile. “I think it’s brilliant.”
“I’ll be the first vampire anthropologist,” I said lightly.
“When will you leave?” he asked, tugging me closer to him.
“Not for a couple of months at least,” I replied. “My parents will take some convincing. You?”
“Same.” He brushed the snow off my cheek. “Classes start at the college in January.”
“So we have a little time,” I said, standing on the tip of my toes to kiss him. His arms went around me and he lifted me right off my feet, kissing me back. “If you’re still willing to give me another chance.”
“It’s just distance,” he murmured in my ear. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
I kissed him again, lingering and swimming in the stolen moment. It turned dark and sweet and I pulled back slightly. I blinked, feeling my eyes going red. I ducked my head.
“Don’t hide from me, Solange,” he said hoarsely. “Not now.”
It took courage to lift my chin and meet his calm gaze. I tried not to imagine how the veins must be blue as ink under my skin, how all three sets of my fangs were poking out of my gums.
He smiled. “Where are you going to go first?”
I smiled back at him, slowly. “I hear Scotland is lovely this time of year.”
Chapter 46
Lucy
Tuesday night
I slept for twenty-seven hours straight.
And then the only reason I woke up was because my parents couldn’t wait a second longer. My dad and mom had met me at the school after Hart had us brought to the infirmary to be checked out after the battle. I was too tired to even get to the car, so they let me collapse into my dorm bed and then they just stood there, teary eyed and staring creepily until I mumbled at them to go away. Mom called three times Monday, and Dad just drove over first thing Tuesday morning and waited in the parking lot. They weren’t pulling me out of school, mostly because I wouldn’t let them, but they wanted me home for recuperation. Bellwood had called off classes for the week anyway, while extra counselors were brought in for students and the extra agents were encouraged to leave campus as quickly as possible. There would be a memorial for the fallen, including Tyson, and a traditional Helios-Ra funeral for Hunter’s grandfather.
In the meantime, Dad was plying me with chamomile tea and mom kept baking me whole-wheat honey cookies. It was kind of nice to spend the day in bed with Gandhi and Van Helsing, even if they did have doggy breath. Just before midnight, after my parents had gone to sleep, Solange showed up at my bedroom window.
She grinned, pulling up the glass. “Hey, wanna have a sleepover?”
“Can we still do that? Since you don’t sleep at night?” I asked as she climbed inside.
“Then we’ll have a wake-over.”
I grabbed the knapsack she’d tossed onto my bed. “Please tell me you brought chocolate.”
“And licorice, sour gummy worms, and those gross marshmallow cookies you love so much.”
“And I don’t even have to share,” I teased, rifling through her stuff until I found the chocolate bars and sugar-coated worms. “There are definite perks to your being a vampire.”
We wiggled under my blanket, trying to squeeze into what little space the dogs had left us. I turned on music and we lay back and stared at the ceiling, the way we’d been doing since we were little.
“So.” I slid her a sidelong glance. “You’ve been kissing Kieran.”
She turned, blinking at me. Even with her pale eyes with their blood-ringed pupils and sharp fangs, she was still just Solange to me. “How did you know that?” she asked.
“I’m your best friend,” I returned, biting the head off a gummy worm. “I know these things.” I chewed the sticky candy and then swallowed. “Besides, you get this dreamy, goofy look on your face whenever you’ve been with Kieran.”
“You mean, like the one you get around Nicholas?”
“I do not look dreamy!”
She just grinned. “Sure you don’t, Hamilton.”
I smacked her in the face with my pillow. She returned the favor until I was gasping for breath and we were both laughing hysterically. The dogs lumbered off the bed with canine sighs. We laughed harder. I was flushed and exhausted by the time we collapsed, still giggling.
“I have another surprise for you,” Solange said, after glancing at the clock. “It’s in the back garden, where your mom grows all that mint.”
I sat up. “You left me a present out in the snow?”
“Yup. Go see.”
Bewildered, I stuffed my feet into moccasins and pulled a sweater over my flannel pajamas. I went out the back door instead of wriggling out of my window. I still hurt all over, covered in bruises, scratches, and aching muscles. And now my stomach was sore from all that laughing.
Standing in
the snow, with his hands in his pockets, was Nicholas. His eyes were like starlight, his smile crooked and quiet. “You two kind of sounded like hyenas.”
I just launched myself at him. He wrapped his arms around me and let himself fall back into the snow, shielding me from the force of the landing.
“Hi,” I said, grinning.
“Hi,” he returned. “I missed you.”
And then words were just a useless exercise, a waste of two perfectly good mouths. His kiss was dangerous and slow, building heat through my body until the snow felt like it was melting around us. It was everything we’d been fighting for, necessary and silent.
Perfect.
Epilogue
Solange
December 21
Every year Lucy’s parents held a bonfire a few days before Christmas, on the winter solstice. It burned through the night, meant to encourage the sun to return after the longest night of the year. Once my mom started having babies who would one day turn into vampires, Lucy’s mom turned part of the celebration into a Longest Night party for us. She’d been trying to find the joy in the things we might find scary, to find the beauty in the night we’d eventually have to claim almost exclusively. Just as she was doing again tonight, with the biggest bonfire I’d ever seen. My entire family was here and so were Lucy’s friends from school. Bruno fell asleep on the couch after dinner and none of us had the heart to wake him.
We sat on the garden wall, swinging our feet over a pumpkin patch. Lucy handed me a bottle of something alarmingly frothy and pink. “What is that?” I asked dubiously.
“Some raspberry thing Aunt Hyacinth told my mom would be festive. Mom added healing herbs.” She wrinkled her nose. “Looks nasty.”
“You have no idea. Aunt Hyacinth’s been so domestic since the battle.”
“That never ends well,” Lucy sympathized. “Personally, I’m sticking to chocolate as my therapy.” She dipped her hand into the giant bag of macaroons in her lap. “That and the twice-weekly mandatory school counselor visits.” They were helping. Her heartbeat was back to normal, without that stress-induced rapidity.
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