Cold Blood

by Heather Hildenbrand

  *

  I raced down the hall, my shoes squeaking on the linoleum floor, my wet hair flung out behind me. I was twenty minutes late to meet Logan. I’d raced through a shower and back upstairs for dinner. By then, the dining hall was basically empty. I’d had just enough time to grab a pop tart and a soda before the lunch ladies chased me off and closed the door behind me with a thud.

  I slowed my pace to a walk a few steps outside the library doorway. Even so, my heavy breathing and mussed hair had the librarian glaring at me and shushing me, even though I hadn’t said anything. I hurried past her and disappeared into the row labeled ‘Combat’, cutting through to what had already become our ‘usual spot’ in the back of the stacks.

  Logan was there with his nose in some thick volume with numbers in weird formulas written all over the front. I didn’t bother reading the title. I was surprised to find Cambria there, though. She hadn’t joined us since her tragic ending with Phillipe.

  “What’s up?” I slumped into the chair beside Cambria. “What are you doing here?” I asked, breaking off a bite of pastry. I froze with it halfway to my open mouth.

  She ignored me, or didn’t see my reaction, because her face was stuffed inside a book.

  “Are you reading?” I gaped at her.

  “Hang on,” she mumbled, still scanning the page.

  I looked from her to Logan, who smirked. “Has hell frozen over? Because I missed that memo,” I said.

  Logan grunted and went back to his book.

  Cambria looked up at me, stuck out her tongue, and went back to reading. A minute passed. I munched the pop tart, waiting.

  “Okay, got it,” she said, looking up and pushing the book away. Her eyes were bright and her fingers tapped the open pages to a beat only she could hear.

  “Got what?” I asked.

  She held the book up and read a passage. “A bypass phrase can be used to breach a protective ward only if spoken exactly as it was programmed into the wards by the original maker. If the words are spoken precisely, the maker will not feel the presence of whoever crosses the threshold.”

  “You’re doing research?” I asked.

  “It’s a one-time deal, trust me. Logan said he’d do my math homework if I helped find out more about this bypass phrase thing.”

  “No, you said I could do your math homework since you were doing research on our pest problem. I never agreed,” said Logan.

  “Same difference,” Cambria mumbled.

  “That’s great, but I’m afraid it’s a waste of time,” I said, leaning back against my chair and staring down at my soda can.

  “Don’t say that. We’ll figure this out.”

  “Guys. I don’t think the bypass phrase is the answer.” They looked at me, waiting for me to go on. “Vera’s sick,” I said, finally.

  “What do you mean ‘sick’?” Cambria asked.

  “It’s serious. I don’t know exactly what but it’s bad. Her senses aren’t working properly which is why she didn’t feel the Werewolf come through last weekend.”

  “How do you know?” Logan asked.

  “Alex told me.”

  “He’s sharing information now?” Cambria’s brow went up. “Huh. Well, that doesn’t get him off the hook for being an idiot,” she said. Then she looked at me with something resembling pity. “Are you okay? I mean, is she going to be okay?”

  “I don’t know what she is. And I’m fine. I barely know her.” My tone sounded more defensive than I’d intended but what did she expect? I felt bad, but just because we were related on paper didn’t make me connected to her any more than a stranger off the street. I looked at Logan. He hadn’t said much. “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  He cleared his throat. “Does anyone else know Vera’s sick?”

  “I don’t know. Alex made it sound like a pretty big secret. Why?”

  “Even if the Werewolf that came through last weekend doesn’t know about the reason for her weakness, it won’t take them long to figure out that they have a free pass inside, either. It’s only a matter of time.”

  We all exchanged a look. Logan was right.

  “What should we do? We can’t exactly go to Vera,” Cambria said.

  “No, we can’t,” I agreed.

  “We need to patrol,” said Cambria. “The seniors only go out so far. They don’t go all the way to the wards, and they stick mostly to the front entrance perimeter.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  She smiled. “It’s probably best if I don’t tell you his name. Protect the innocent, and all that.”

  “Cambria,” I said. “Please tell me you haven’t been out compelling senior patrols to give you secret information.”

  “It’s not secret. I asked. He told me.”

  “Willingly?” I narrowed my eyes. “Or under duress?”

  She shrugged and looked at me with wide eyes.

  I sighed, long and loud. “I don’t want to know.”

  “You’re probably right,” she agreed. “The point is, the eastern and western boundaries are wide open. No patrols there unless there’s a student event–like the bonfire–to supervise. Anyone could come through.”

  “We need to be ready,” said Logan. “I’m going to see if I can find us some stakes to carry. We need to be armed.”

  “They have weapons here?” I asked.

  “They keep them locked up. Only seniors can check them out for training and stuff,” he said.

  “So how are you going to get a hold of any of it?” I asked. “Do you want me to ask Alex?” They both gave me a look. “Yeah, okay, good point.” Alex might believe me when I said there’d been a breach, but he was still way too much of a rule follower to condone something like this.

  “I’ll do it,” said Cambria.

  Logan and I exchanged a look and finally, against my better judgment, I nodded. “Okay. But be careful.”

  “Of course,” she agreed, in a voice that I knew meant she wasn’t concerned nearly enough.

  “We’ll start tomorrow,” Logan said.

  “It’ll have to be in the afternoon. I have training in the morning,” I said.

  “Fine. We’ll meet at the back doors after lunch. Cambria can you have the weapons by then?” She nodded. “It’s set, then.”

  We worked on my lineage paper after that. Cambria got bored and left, saying something about rather being poked in the eye with a stick. I knew how she felt. Family tree stuff wasn’t the most exciting, even for someone who was seeing the names for the first time.

  “So, this lady was my great-great-grandmother? And she was on something called the high council?” I stared down at a black and white photo of a woman in a high-necked dress. Her expression was solemn and her eyes were sad. She had my mother’s cheekbones.

  “Looks like it. Back then, they called it the High Council. It disbanded after a bunch of the members were killed in an attack, and when it reformed it became what we know as CHAS.”

  “So, my family, at least my mother’s side, has always been on the council?”

  He shrugged. “You come from a political background.”

  “Yippee.”

  Logan looked at me. “You know, it could be a good thing. The chance to make a difference and all that.”

  “I’ve thought of that, but how many of them do you think will listen to me? Especially knowing I’m a–”

  “Hybrid?”

  “What?”

  “It’s easier to say hybrid than dirty blood.”

  “Isn’t that a car with good gas mileage?”

  Logan rolled his eyes. “Or it’s a mix of two completely different elements. Like you. Anyway, you were saying?”

  “Huh?” I tried to remember what we’d been talking about. “Oh yeah, the council thing. I don’t know. I don’t think people will want me to be a part of something like that if they know I’m a hybrid,” I said, putting emphasis on the new term. “It wouldn’t win me any votes, that’s for sure.”

  “
It’s not about votes with them. It’s a lineage thing. Your family has a spot and since your mom doesn’t want it, your grandma will probably hand it off to you.”

  “So, I don’t have a choice?”

  “It’s not a democracy if that’s what you mean.”

  “Well, it should be. That’s part of the problem with this culture. Probably one of the reasons everyone’s so cold. Nobody gets a say in anything.”

  Logan leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. “So, change it.”

  I tilted my head and looked at him. “You’d make a great council member.”

  “Nah. I’m going to close myself off in a lab somewhere and not come out until I’m rich enough to date supermodels.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Seriously. You’re diplomatic and patient and good with people. Cambria wouldn’t be bad either.”

  Logan laughed. “Good one.”

  “Well, she can be convincing anyway.”

  “But will she use her powers for good or evil?” He made a face as he said it and changed his voice to a creepy tone.

  I laughed. “When she picks a side, we’ll decide whether to add her to our council list.”

  “Deal.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Hook this around your ear.” Alex handed me what looked like a blue-tooth device. I took it and hooked it on while he adjusted his.

  It was Sunday. Time to test my tracker skills; I’d already hunted Alex, with zero success, earlier that morning. Now, Alex was going to hunt me. I watched while he pressed a button on the earpiece.

  “Testing.” His words echoed in my headphone.

  I nodded and tested back.

  “I’m going to give you thirty minutes and then I’m coming in full speed. You know where the wards are, right?” I nodded. “Make sure you stay inside them.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You think I like breaking rules, just for fun, don’t you?”

  “That’s not what I–” He broke off, ending the argument before it could begin. Then his expression changed. He looked concerned. “Did you have a chance to think about… what I said the other night?”

  My jaw hardened. I’d done everything I could not to think about what he0" wd said about Vera. At least not directly. Mainly, I’d focused on how to compensate for the weak wards without actually letting her–or anyone else–know that I knew about her condition. I didn’t know why, but the whole thing made me feel weird and self-conscious about my reaction.

  “I’m good,” I said.

  His concern only deepened. “Look, I’m really sorry. I guess I shouldn’t have said anything. I just thought you should know.”

  “We aren’t close. Her and I.” I watched him, waiting for the look of sympathy to go away. Needing it to. I really didn’t want his pity.

  “I know that. I mean, well, I’ve heard her make comments about your future with The Cause. I’m sure that complicates things for your role in CHAS. It’s a lot of pressure, that’s all.”

  He shrugged, and finally, the look of concern eased into a sort of ‘whatever, I tried to help’ look. Unfortunately, I wasn’t relieved. Not after that.

  “How do you know about that? Vera told you about her vision?”

  “I may have heard her talking about it.” His eyes shifted. “In passing.”

  I stared at him. It took a minute to pinpoint what was going on. “You eavesdropped?” My jaw slid open. I pictured Alex peeking down from the roof of Griffin Hall, like I had. The image was almost funny.

  “You of all people should know how something like that can accidentally happen,” he said.

  His cheeks were pink, and he looked defensive. I’d never seen him embarrassed and the vulnerable look he was trying to cover up made it impossible not to laugh. I snickered and he glared at me. For some reason, the whole thing was adorable; the way he wouldn’t quite meet my eyes and seemed so unsure of himself when normally he had such control. Geez, since when was blushing hot? I shook my head. Alex was mean. Alex was not hot. I repeated it until my head felt clearer.

  I cleared my throat. “What exactly did you hear?”

  “She was telling Kane about a vision she’d had. Something to do with abilities manifesting inside you. I didn’t hear exactly what it was.”

  “What else?”

  He shrugged. “That’s basically it. After that they weren’t so much talking anymore as… never mind.”

  “Oh. Eww.” I squeezed my eyes shut against the mental picture left over from the night I’d seen them for myself. “Are they a couple?”

  “It’s not a shock if you’ve been around. They were engaged once. A long time ago.”

  “Seriously? What happened?”

  “Werewolves happened. At least to Kane.”

  “So, his scar is really from–”

  “Werewolves? Yeah. He and Vera were in The Cause together.”

  “I thought The Cause was formed by my parents and their friends.”

  “It was. The one we know today. Back then it was a different version. A true peace-keeping group.”

  “Different how?”

  “A lot less fighting, for one. It was more about protests and peace marches and lobbying to CHAS for changes. Paperwork and speeches, mostly. The Werewolves took advantage of that and became violent. They launched night attacks, stalked the group and picked them off one by one when they were alone. It wasn’t pretty.”

  Even though there was no way he’d been there–or even born yet, for that matter–there was disgust in his voice. I tried to ignore it for once and focus on the story.

  “They were on a peace mission together, the two of them,” he went on. “Vera was attacked and knocked from behind before she saw it coming. I think she passed out. Kane stepped in to save her. He took on four by himself. That’s how he got the scars. After that, all he wanted was vengeance against the Werewolves. For her and for him. Vera didn’t want any part of it. She said she was more convinced than ever that peace was the way to go, to end things like that from happening. They couldn’t agree so they split. Kane went back to CHAS and offered his services as a team leader for special ops and Vera left.”

  “Wow, so they walked away from each other over that?”

  “Politics are a major part of our lives, like it or not. Even without a leading role on either side, you’ll end up caught in it somewhere.”

  Alex moved away, checking his earpiece again, but I stayed where I was, lost in thought. I didn’t know why, but there was something completely ominous about those words. I couldn’t escape the feeling that someday I’d have to choose, and that choice would draw a line between friends that couldn’t, or wouldn’t, be crossed. It made me sad to think about.

  I wondered if Vera and Kane had truly worked things out and found a middle ground or if her sickness had been enough to push everything else to the side. Would being sick be enough for me to be with someone who thought so little of my morals and values?

  “You ready?” Alex asked.

  I adjusted my mouth piece and nodded. “Where should we meet after?”

  “After what?”

  “After the exercise is over,” I said, with a look that said ‘duh’.

  He smiled, nice and wide. “That’s cute. You think you’ll evade me.” He shook his head and went back to the magazine he’d already pulled out to pass the time.

  I crossed my arms. “It could happen.”

  Alex’s response was nothing more than a grunt and I could feel my defenses go up automatically; even though I knew he was right, evading him was a long shot. He was made for this kind of thing. He was probably an Indian in another life or something.

  I slugged off into the woods and tried to pick a direction. I should’ve thought this out ahead of time, made a plan. Maybe it would’ve given me a better shot at beating him. I headed for the only place I thought Alex might not know about. The cave Cambria had taken me to. I could at least hide there for a while until enough time had passed that I could lose wit
h dignity.

  It was still early enough to be cool in the woods, so I had my jacket zipped up. I tried remembering some of the things Alex had told me about not leaving a trail and went slowly so I could watch my steps. At the thirty minute mark, I shed my jacket and sped up. I was still a few minutes away from the cave, and I decided hiding would be better at this point, with my sad skills of invisibility.

  Out of curiosity, I pulled my phone out of my bag and checked the signal strength. Zero. I sighed and put it away, unsurprised but still disappointed. I hadn’t talked to Wes in days and I was quickly passing anxious and heading towards paranoid. What if he wasn’t answering his phone because he didn’t want to talk to me anymore? Or something was happening back home. Something dangerous. What if Miles had shown up? His messages had been ominously vague when it came to clearing the way for us to be together.

  I was distracted. I knew the moment something moved out of the corner of my eye that I had no one to blame but myself for Alex finding me so quickly. So when a hand closed over my mouth and yanked me backwards against a chest, my first reaction was confusion. Alex hadn’t been specific about the terms of being found, but I was pretty sure assault hadn’t been the plan. I inhaled sharply through my nose, struggling for air with a hand pressed so tightly against my lips – and caught a whiff of a familiar scent. Hair products and crazy.

  My eyes went wide, but any noise I would’ve made was silenced by the hand that gripped my jaw.

  “Hello, darling. Nice to see you again. I missed you.” Miles’ tone was completely relaxed, as if we’d run into each other at a dinner party and were both equally charmed by the other.

  “Mrrmph,” was all I could manage.

  I struggled against him, but his arm had mine twisted up behind me at an odd angle, and every time I moved, it sent a sharp pain up my elbow and shoulder. There was nothing else to do but wait this out. I stopped struggling. He wasn’t here to kill me. No, his plan would be so much more twisted than that.

  “Good,” he said, his breath blowing hot against my ear as he spoke. “Now, I’m going to take my hand away and you’re going to behave. We need to have a quick chat and then I’ll let you get back.”