“Will,” Hunter said. “Shit. Was he …?” She trailed off, wincing. His shoulder looked bad, his shirt torn.
“He wasn’t bitten,” Kieran went to stand beside her.
I stayed by the door, watching the shadows in the hall and trying not to be distracted by the scent of so many humans in one room. If my stomach growled they’d probably stake me before I could explain it was an involuntarily reaction. They craved donuts, I craved blood. It was just one of those things.
“The screaming came from the girl who found him. The blood’s from when he tripped and fell on his own knife.”
I snorted. They were shish kebabing themselves for us now. They may as well offer themselves up on silver platters. Hunter shot me a look, as if she knew what I was thinking. I just shot her back a crooked grin. She wasn’t likely to apologize for accessorizing with stakes and I wasn’t going to apologize for my fangs.
“Hel-Blar tried to drink from him,” Kieran continued tersely. “Apparently got a mouthful before Will got away.”
Her eyes widened. “Crap. Will he turn? Are there marks?”
“I don’t think so. But no one can tell me for sure if there was any saliva or blood exchange. It was just a convenience feeding.”
“So he needs the infirmary,” Hunter said.
“There are some teachers on campus,” Kieran assured us. “But they’ve got their hands full.”
“I’ll take him,” she offered right away.
Kieran frowned. “Hunter, campus is crawling with Hel-Blar.”
“Duh. And you have to stay here. You’re the one with the actual rank; the rest of us are just students. Plus, you’ve only got one good arm.”
“Shit,” he grumbled. He knew she was right. “I don’t like it. It’s dangerous.”
I didn’t like it either.
“Blah, blah, blah,” Hunter cut him off. “Are you going to hold my hand every time we’re out in the field?”
“There’s gratitude for you,” Kieran said.
She kissed his cheek. I was oddly glad it looked like the kind of kiss Solange might give me. Sister to brother. “I love you, stupid.”
“You too, idiot.”
“So get out of my way already.” She had to shove him. “Give him some space,” she told the others, trying to get through the clump of horrified students. “You’ll be fine, Will.”
“That’s a lot of blood,” someone said dubiously.
“Which is why I’m taking him to the infirmary.” She hooked her arm under his shoulder and helped him up. He was clammy and pale and looked surprisingly heavy for someone so lanky. And he was about a foot taller than she was, which didn’t help matters.
“I’ve got him,” I murmured, coming up to support his other side. Will jerked away wild-eyed, and then gagged on a sound of pain when his shoulder bled more profusely at the sudden movement.
“Easy,” Hunter said gently. “He’s just helping.”
I couldn’t stop my fangs from biting through my gums. I clamped my lips together. I was glad my eyes were hidden behind sunglasses. I knew they’d look too blue and too pale in this weird light.
“Vampire,” Will croaked.
“Want to lose your arm?” Hunter asked him sharply. He shook his head, gulping. “Then shut up and let him help you.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nearly saluted.
Kieran moved aside to let us out the door. “Watch her back,” he told me.
I snorted. “I let you grope my little sister and I haven’t broken your other arm for it yet. You can trust your little sister with me.”
Hunter paused. She skewered each of us with a stare. Someone in the room started to sweat, she was that good. I could have kissed her right then and there.
“First—ew. Second—I can look after myself. If you guys want to do the macho knight-in-shining-armor thing, do it on your own time. And find yourself another damsel in distress, because I’m not her.”
We exchanged a glance, then looked at her. Kieran sighed. “Just be careful, Hunter.”
“I’m always careful.”
“Uh-huh.”
She stumbled a little. “Look, Will’s leaving a puddle of blood on the floor and he’s not getting any lighter. Stop worrying and let’s do this already.”
At that moment the phone in the common room, all of the phones in the dorm, and every cell phone in every pocket rang.
The sound was sudden and shrill enough to make everyone jump. I jerked back slightly as it pierced my sensitive hearing. Hunter nearly dropped Will. I caught him and hefted him easily over my shoulder in a fireman’s hold.
“What the hell is that?” I snapped as Hunter checked her phone. The text and voice mail icons flashed.
“It’s the first all-clear,” Hunter explained as she read the message. “We’re still in lockdown but the immediate attack should be over.”
Kieran nodded. “Go on then. And try not to accidentally stake a prof making the rounds.”
She made a face. It was cute as hell. “How was I supposed to know she wasn’t a vampire? And that was four years ago. I’d barely been here a month,” she grumbled.
I carried Will down the stairs. Hunter went ahead. She pushed the front door open and slipped out first to make sure it was safe. I could have told her not to bother. I couldn’t smell a fresh waft of mildew and mushrooms so I knew there was no Hel-Blar in the immediate vicinity.
The lights outlined everything in pale yellow, like a movie special effect. Every leaf was delineated, every blade of grass. On the edge of the gardens there was a blackness soothing to my eyes. They were actually watering under the force of so many UV bulbs.
She led me down the path from the dorm to one of the main buildings. The lower floor was the infirmary—I could tell by the sheer blinding force of the white paint on the walls and the faint underlying odor of antiseptic.
Will moaned again.
“Nearly there,” Hunter promised. “Theo’ll fix you up in no time. You know he’s really good with stitches.”
“That Hel-Blar bitch stank. And she had white spiky hair. D-Don’t want to turn into that,” he stammered. “Gran would … kill … me.”
We exchanged a grim look over his head. It was hard to know if he’d been speaking metaphorically or not. You never could tell in hunter families. Or vampire families for that matter.
“You won’t,” Hunter said with a confidence I could tell she didn’t really feel. “They have meds now, to stop the change. If they catch it early enough, it has a pretty good success rate.”
“How good?” I asked softly.
“Fifty-six percent success rate, according to the files Chloe hacked into last year,” she replied, barely above a whisper. I wouldn’t have heard her at all if it wasn’t for my excellent hearing.
“More pills,” Will babbled, delirious with pain and fear. “Those new vitamins taste like ass.”
Hunter chuckled. “That’s what Chloe says. You must be taking the same kind.”
He didn’t answer, having passed out on us. Luckily we were on the walkway to the infirmary door. A nurse met us halfway. His black eyes were curious and concerned and they didn’t change, not even when they landed on my fangs. I was impressed.
“Uh … vampire?” he asked.
Hunter nodded. “He’s a Drake.”
“Well, I’m not going to bow to His Fangness, if that’s what you’re implying.” His scrubs were the color of seaweed and he wore them like armor.
“Like I’m that stupid, Theo,” Hunter shot back, half grinning. Theo was obviously someone she liked. I decided I wasn’t jealous. I didn’t do jealous, not with girls.
“Will here needs stitches and antibiotics or whatever,” she said as they wrestled Will through the door and onto the nearest cot. The fluorescent lights made me squint.
Theo took one look at Will and forgot about me entirely. He pried Will’s eyelids open and shone a light into them, frowning at the messy wound.
“Knife?” he asked.<
br />
“Yeah,” Hunter replied.
“You guys stab yourselves a lot?” I asked.
Theo’s mouth quirked. “You’d be surprised.”
“Hel-Blar got him too,” Hunter added.
Theo didn’t stop his ministrations, not even for a moment. But I heard his heart accelerate. “Explain.”
“He got the wound before a Hel-Blar found him but she apparently lapped at the blood.”
“Shit. Not good.” He called out for another nurse. “Bite too?” He looked for teeth marks.
Hunter shrugged apologetically. “No one’s sure.”
“All right, let us do our work,” he turned away, shouting orders at his assistants even as he cut through the rest of Will’s shirt. Needles slid under skin. Hunter looked away, swallowing.
“Don’t tell me blood makes you nauseous,” I said, amused. I moved closer, ready to catch her if she fainted.
“Not blood,” she shuddered. “Needles.”
“Then why don’t we get out of here?” I suggested. “You can’t do anything else for him but Kieran could probably use you. And I’m feeling a little exposed here with all these lights.”
She nodded, following me back outside. “I wonder how the others are doing in town.”
“Montmartre and Greyhaven sure left a mess behind,” I agreed. “Bastards.”
“Who’s Greyhaven?” Hunter asked.
“One of Montmartre’s lackeys. His first lieutenant, actually. He made his own Hel-Blar on the sly, trying to create his own personal army, like Montmartre’s Host.”
“Oh, great, ’cause that’s just what we need,” she said drily.
“One of the Hounds staked him,” I assured her. “One of Isabeau’s friends.”
The Hounds were a superstitious and solitary tribe of vampires, many of them having been turned by Montmartre but rescued from the grave before he could recruit them. They had old magic the rest of the world had forgotten about centuries ago.
We walked in an easy companionable silence, even though she still held a stake in her hand and I still had my fangs out. I was the first to hear the faint hiss. I stopped suddenly, turning my head slowly.
“There,” I murmured before vaulting into the lilac bushes bordering the dirt path. Hunter caught up to me just as I was snarling over a lump in the grass on the other side of the bushes. The Hel-Blar was female, lying on her back, hissing weakly. There was blood on her mouth, and her bloodshot eyes were wild. Her skin was mottled blue, nearly gray. Her hair was in short bleached-white spikes.
“She’s the one who attacked Will!” Hunter exclaimed. She stepped closer, stake raised.
The Hel-Blar started to convulse, blood and saliva frothing at the corner of her lips. She flailed and hissed. I stepped partly in front of Hunter. We both stared at her, speechless, when she screeched and then disintegrated.
We didn’t say anything for a long moment.
“What in the hell was that?” I finally broke the silence.
“I have no idea,” she answered. “I didn’t even touch her!”
“Vampires don’t just disintegrate like that—not without a pointy stick or lots of sunlight.” And we hadn’t been close enough to hurt her. If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn she’d been sick in some way, or poisoned.
But that was impossible.
Before we could decide what to do, flashlights sliced across us. Hunters and two professors ran at us from either direction.
“Stand down,” one of them ordered. “We’ll take it from here.”
“She’s gone.” Hunter blinked as one of them crouched to gather the ashes. “We didn’t touch her. She just … fell apart. Like she was sick or something.” She shook her head. “I know that sounds crazy.”
I didn’t say anything but I bent my knees slightly, in case I needed to leap out of the path of a crossbow bolt or a stake. You never could tell with hunters. Some of them were jumpy.
“Back to your room, Wild,” one of the profs snapped at Hunter. “And Agent Black is waiting to escort you off the premises, Mr. Drake,” she said to me, clearly not pleased to even acknowledge my presence. I could smell the fear on her skin, like a perfume.
“He helped us,” Hunter pointed out, frowning, “while the rest of you were elsewhere.”
I admit I got a charge out of watching her defend me. I hadn’t expected that. Kieran had told me enough about her family that it was frankly surprising she hadn’t tried to stake me yet, out of principle.
The professor stood to block our view of what they were doing. “Now, Miss Wild. That’s an order.”
Hunter looked like she wanted to argue but she just nodded sharply, turned on her heel, and walked away, tugging my hand so I’d follow.
“Something’s not right,” I said when we were out of earshot.
“I know,” she agreed grimly as we stepped onto a lawn bustling with students, teachers, and the occasional hunter in full gear. The predator in me rose to the surface. It was a struggle not to growl out loud. Kieran came to get me, nodding at Hunter to move toward the dorm before she could say anything else.
“What the hell, Kieran?” I barked.
“Not here,” he barked back.
Chapter 10
•
Hunter
Friday afternoon
No one would tell us anything, even the next day.
The most information I could get was out of Theo, and he would tell me only that Will was critical but hadn’t turned or died as of yet. It wasn’t much to go on.
It didn’t help that Chloe wouldn’t stop complaining.
“It’s so not fair,” she said again as I wiped the sweat off my face and began my cool-down stretches. We were in the gym, which was nearly full. The attacks last night had all the students eager to train again, even though those of us left behind at the school had seen the most action. Which was what had Chloe in a snit. Her face was nearly purple.
“Take it easy,” I told her. “You’re going to give yourself a heart attack if you keep pushing like that.”
She drained her water bottle and wiped her mouth. “I feel fine, and I had my checkup yesterday to prove it. So there.” Students had to get a physical exam at the beginning of each school year.
“Well, you’re the very flattering color of raw hamburger,” I corrected. “Not a good look for you.”
“I just need to take another vitamin,” she panted, shaking out what looked like a yellow horse pill from a bottle she pulled out of her bag. It had her mother’s name printed on it: Dr. Cheng.
“How do those not make you gag?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “You get used to it. Not that you’d need to.”
“Not this again.”
“Well, it’s true,” she insisted. “You’re a natural athlete. And you get straight As.”
“So do you!”
“I suck at the combat stuff.”
“You don’t suck,” I said, pulling the elastic out of my hair. I was getting tired of defending myself when I hadn’t done anything wrong. She was so prickly this year. I couldn’t imagine how stressed she was going to be when classes actually started. It was kind of making me wish we weren’t sharing a room. “But you are getting on my nerves.”
“Not all of us are getting commendations for saving lives,” she said. It sounded suspiciously like whining. “You kicked ass last night and all I saw was the back of a Hel-Blar head as it turned to ash. And I wasn’t even the one who staked him.”
“You’re pouting because you didn’t get to kill anything?” I asked her, astounded. “Seriously?”
“You don’t get it.”
“Got that right.”
She shoved her stuff into her bag. “Everything’s easy for you.”
I blinked at her. “Are you high? Have you not been paying attention the last couple of days?”
“You came out smelling like roses every time.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” I couldn’t believe her. “Shit, C
hloe. What’s wrong with you? You’re my friend. You should be glad I didn’t get slammed with all those demerits York tried to give me.”
“I am glad.”
“No, you’re not. You’re ragging on me because I got attacked by vampires and you didn’t.”
“I’m just tired. God.”
“Then get some sleep,” I shot back, annoyed. “And get a grip.”
“You’re not perfect, you know.”
I stared at her. “When did I ever say I was?”
She scowled. “You act it.”
“I do not.”
“Yes, you do. You’re good at everything.”
“You’re nuts.” I slung my gym bag over my shoulder and stalked away before I said something I might not be able to take back. I couldn’t believe the way she’d talked to me, the way she’d looked at me—like I was making her life miserable. I’d never seen her like that. She was still muttering to herself when I slammed the door behind me. I didn’t even bother changing, just went outside in my gym shorts and tank top. I didn’t want to be near her for a second longer than I had to right now. We never fought, not like this. We bickered over stupid stuff during exams, but so did everyone. This was something else. I knew her mother was being even harder on her than usual, but how was that my fault?
“Hunter! Did you want to—whoa.” Jenna raised her eyebrows when I swung around. She was coming from the cafeteria with a basket and Spencer and Jason behind her. “Scary face.”
“Sorry.” I sighed, trying to shake off my mood. It wasn’t fair to take it out on them, especially after getting mad at Chloe for doing the very same thing to me.
“You okay?” Spencer asked.
“I’m fine,” I grumbled. “Chloe needs therapy though.”
He snorted. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Jenna held up her basket. “Picnic time. You in?”
“Always,” I answered, following them off the path toward one of the back fields bordering the woods. We did this every time we needed a little privacy from possible surveillance cameras, bugged phones, and teachers in general. It wasn’t easy to hide in a school that trained you in spy maneuvers and combat. Campus was full of bugs and hidden cameras. Sitting in the middle of a field was our favorite way to trade information. The potato salad wasn’t a bad incentive either.
Drake Chronicles 03 - Out for Blood Page 7
