Nightside

by Holly Hook

  Dad's words sound like they're a million miles away.

  "I know you're angry, but--"

  "Of course I am!" I shout, facing him again. "You could have given us some indication. Now the Beaumonts want to kill us all and they've probably killed my friend, too." My pulse roars in my ears. Dad didn't have a choice, but that doesn't reach my emotional mind.

  Silence drags out. I collapse into Riley's arms while Dad says nothing.

  "You, sir, have a lot of explaining to do," Riley tells Dad.

  "Yes. I know. It was unforgivable to leave the way I did. I should have warned the two of you not to follow."

  "I shouldn't have followed," Mom whispered, one level above a sob.

  Dad speaks. "I'm going to make this up to you, Olivia, but first we need to defeat the Beaumonts. There's a chance your friend is still alive."

  At last, I'm able to breathe again and I lift my face from Riley's chest. He releases me slowly as I gather my strength and face Dad. "How do we do that?" He's right. We have a bigger problem right now and that's not my emotions.

  Riley gulps beside me. "The Beaumonts' numbers are big, even though this town isn't. There are fifty remaining members of the coven. Some live out of town, and will be gathering once they hear about the Nightside threat. And Dominic Beaumont is the strongest of them all. He's centuries old, here since Moon's Peak began."

  Dad nods. "I know. He once forced me to work for them." Then he looks at me. "Do you want to meet our forces?"

  "Our forces?" Now I'm curious.

  "Yes. The other Nightsides. I've spent months finding them in the surrounding area, trying to keep to themselves. It was a feat to get them to fight together, but it turns out they're just as tired of the Beaumonts as we are. Come on."

  * * * * *

  Mom says she wants to be alone with her thoughts, so Riley and I walk through the woods, with the moon overhead, behind Dad as he leads us even farther away from Moon's Peak. We walk quickly, covering miles in what feels like just minutes. The night ages around us as the air cools and the buzzing insects die down.

  Dad stops near a large clearing, more of a space with a lot of tall weeds, and whirls to face me. He grins. "Will this be sufficient?"

  There are people in the field, about a dozen. All stand around, dark figures in the moonlight, but when I let my senses sharpen, I see an assortment of young men and women, all in plain clothes. As I enter the clearing, they turn away from their low conversations and face me.

  A man nearby has creepy gray eyes and an even creepier smile. Two of the Nightside women wear black, much like the Truebloods, and have grown their fingernails to impossible lengths. I see no one above middle age, as if time has forgotten the Nightsides, but a shudder passes over me. I can imagine the gray-eyed man as a killer. The women, too. And the people behind them carry that same predatory gleam in their eyes. I'm among predators. Killing machines. How many of these Nightsides have fed on people?

  I backpedal into Riley, who steps back. We both go back together while Dad grins at us both.

  "I've told them not to hurt the one Trueblood I don't hate," Dad says. "You're good here. My new friends have just gathered for the battle. We attack the Beaumont manor at dawn, when the Truebloods are at their weakest. They won't expect this."

  How many people have they killed before? But I can't ask that question. I don't want to know.

  Dad continues, unaware of my mental state. "The key to success will be to give the Beaumonts the last thing they expect from us. Nightsides don't normally work together, and believe me, the effort to make this happen was incredible."

  I look closer at the gathered Nightsides, all waiting so patiently. One of the women smiles at me. Many of the men have holey jeans. They're dusty, like they've spent their lives moving from place to place.

  Yeah. This was a feat.

  "I believe you," Riley says.

  Dad nods. "And now we have the chance to make a real home for ourselves."

  I hope. I really hope. But there are only a dozen of us against fifty Truebloods. We're still outnumbered. I look to Riley and see that his eyes are wide. Someone has to help us get Lily back. Are we both thinking the same thing?

  That we still need to find more help?

  I'll take it. But one thing nags at me. "We have hours before dawn," I say. "I need to tell Lily's parents what happened to her. They deserve the truth. And that will increase the chances of us getting help."

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Riley walks with me to the Rivera residence. I have to lead him, because despite living in Moon's Peak for the past several years, he's never visited the hunters' residence. That's one thing I can't blame him for.

  “Have you ever met the Riveras?” I ask him as we walk. We stick to the sidewalks now as no one's out, not even any of the other Beaumonts.

  “No,” Riley says. “Just Lily."

  “Then this is going to be fun,” I say. Our only shot at getting Lily out is to create an impossible alliance.

  The Rivera house is lit inside. Her parents are awake. A shadow moves past the closed curtains, pacing. They must be worried sick about her. My heart races as I walk up and knock on the door. Riley turns his gaze down at the porch, hiding his copper-rimmed eyes. Will they know what he is at first glance? If yes, we're not going to get far.

  The door opens and Mr. Rivera stands in the doorway, decked out in a leather coat that must be hiding weapons inside. Behind him, his wife holds a phone to her ear and paces away from us. “Lily...she's not there either. Where is she?” This strong woman is breaking down as her voice rises.

  “Olivia, right?” Mike asks. He flicks his gaze to Riley. “Who's this?”

  Okay, so they don't know who Riley is. The truce must have helped with that. We're going to have to break the truth.

  “My boyfriend, Riley,” I say. “We know where your daughter is and came to get help.”

  Mike's eyes widen as he steps aside. We walk into the old house, which is immaculate as usual, but Lily's not here. Everything feels wrong. “Where is our daughter? Were you with her?”

  In the other room, Ella ends the call and joins us. The two hunters stand side by side, eyes hungering for answers. She's decked out, too.

  I swallow. “Lily was captured by the Beaumonts. Riley and I barely escaped their mansion.”

  Her mother's jaw drops as she pales. “The Beaumont mansion? What were you kids doing there?”

  Riley lifts his gaze to them. He's daring. “I used to be one of them, but I've since left the coven. They're disgusting. Olivia and Lily helped to get me out.” I wait for him to mention Dad, but he doesn't. And I know why. We're both under the gun here. He doesn't want to endanger him, too.

  “You are a Beaumont,” Mike says, squinting at Riley.

  “I'm not against you,” Riley says, holding up both hands.

  But Mike stares out the door, reaching inside his coat.

  “He hasn't brought any backup,” I say, voice rising. “There are no other Beaumonts out there.”

  “How do you know? Why are you associating with him?” Ella asks. She furrows her brow. And I haven't even gotten to the scary part yet. “Two of his kind tried to kill you.”

  I have to get the suspicion off Riley. Mike draws a dagger with a wicked, jagged blade and Riley backs into the closed door, still holding up his hands in surrender.

  “I'm a Nightside. Riley's been helping me,” I blurt.

  Ella's expression hardens and she, too, pulls a knife from her leather coat. Its blade is wicked sharp. Capable of sliding through my ribs and going straight to my heart. “We have our killer, then.”

  Riley peels himself from the door and in a burst of motion, steps in front of me, spreading his arms.

  “Riley!” I shout.

  “She's not the killer. Olivia has never harmed a human and neither have I,” Riley shouts. “Kill us and you won't get your daughter back!”

  He's shaking. Willing to die for me. The Riveras point the
ir blades at him, and I grab his shoulders and pull Riley back into me. “Please,” I say. “I'd never hurt a human. Lily's my friend. There's a chance she's still alive. A gang of Nightsides are going to attack the mansion at dawn, but there aren't very many of us, and if you can get the other hunters to fight beside us, then we can drive the Beaumonts out of town.”

  “I can't believe this,” Mike says. He looks at his wife.

  “We don't want to fight you,” I say. “We really, really need your help.”

  Mrs. Rivera's chin quivers. “You could be lying. But I've never seen a Trueblood and a Nightside working together.”

  "Why could I lie about that?" I ask. "So you can kill me?"

  They both flinch. I've made a good point.

  Mike puts his hard mask back up. “But they're both still vampires. They have a mutual interest in preying upon those they consider food. We join the fight, we just replace one band of vampires with another.”

  “It doesn't have to be that way,” I say. I could be lying. The gray-eyed Nightside man comes back to mind.

  “But it is,” Mike says, eyes black with hate. “Our family has lost many to both your kinds.”

  “Then we leave Lily.” Riley turns away and heads for the door, turning his back to the knives. "Go ahead. Kill us."

  And that works.

  Lily's parents lower them in unison. “No,” Ella says. “Tell us what to do and we'll get her out. But if you're lying, you die.”

  * * * * *

  Even after I've returned to the shack and told Dad the news that the Riveras will join us outside the Beaumont mansion at dawn, and Riley goes out to hunt so he can withstand what's to come, I can't sleep on the bunk cot. Mom rests below me and Dad is out somewhere, directing the other Nightsides not far from the shed. The night crawls on. I check my phone. One in the morning. Then two.

  I get up, thoughts swirling around Lily, Dad's betrayal, and what's to come in the morning. Pushing open the door, I slip out into the woods. The night's very old at this point. But I'll go hungry for now. That seems to bring out my hunter senses.

  In the distance, Dad stands before the dozen Nightsides he's gathered, and he talks in a low voice. They ignore me. In fact, Dad waved me off to bed as soon as I delivered the news with no more than a disapproving glare. It's as if I'm just a child again and not capable of doing anything on my own.

  I walk down a small wildlife trail and make it about fifty feet when Riley pops out of the trees. He smells faintly of spicy blood. So he's found a meal.

  “Sorry I had to go off,” he says. “But I'll die in the morning if I don't drink now. Literally.” He forces a smile. “We'll get Lily back.”

  “You don't sound sure.”

  “Okay. I'm not sure. Olivia, if this all goes bad, we need a plan. You and me should go off together and start over somewhere else. There are a lot of towns where we could hide.”

  He's just giving up? “This is our home. And we should fight for it. Running isn't living.” Dad always said you had to live. “It's just surviving.” I wish he were here to say that right now.

  Riley swallows. “I agree. But we need to survive before we can live, if you know what I mean.” He draws close, grasping my upper arms and rubbing his thumbs along my flesh. “I can tell you don't want to sleep.”

  “How can I? My dad ditched us, Lily's hostage, and we all might suffer horrible deaths in the morning.”

  “We have to try to relax. If you want to stay here, I'm with you. We're together no matter what.” Riley kisses the top of my head as he leads me over to a nearby tree, one with a perfect spot for a couple. Tingles run over my scalp and chase away all the horror and stress building under my ribcage. And once we've settled into the tree, Riley lets me melt into his arms.

  * * * * *

  Riley and I don't leave our spot until the pink light of dawn peeks through the woods. Riley grimaces. Clearly he hates the sunlight even after he's fed, and pulls his jacket over his head. I lead him back to where Dad gathers with the Nightsides, and as we approach, Dad, who now stands beside Mom, shakes his head at me.

  “Olivia, you've done enough,” he says. “Please sit out for this.”

  “You fought beside me and now I'm supposed to sit out,” I say, anger pulsing through my limbs.

  Dad tightens his features. “Yes. I should have never let you go into the mansion. It was a mistake and much more dangerous than I expected. My goal was to teach you to protect yourself.”

  I know why he did it. It was a misguided attempt to feel less crappy about leaving in the first place. “I can fight. And now there will be more of us. The Riveras are going to meet us at the mansion,” I say. “I'm going.”

  “Olivia, please,” Mom says.

  “I can fight,” I tell her. If anyone has to stand aside, it's her. “And I will. I'm not leaving Lily. I got her into that mess and I owe it to her."

  Dad works his jaw, but says nothing. Is that a bit of pride sparkling in his eyes?

  “Sir, we need to move,” a Nightside woman says. “And we need all the numbers we can get.”

  “I agree,” says one of the men, a guy with a huge hole in the knee of his jeans. “The longer we stand around the more nerve-racking this gets, and frankly I didn't travel all this way to stand around.” He's a young man with greasy hair.

  It hurts, but I turn my back on Mom. She'll have to stay here and worry.

  “Move out,” Dad orders with the wave of a hand. “We have a narrow window. Dawn is when the Truebloods are settling down for the day, especially when the sun is out.”

  We walk through the woods, all fourteen of us, and Riley keeps his jacket over his head. It's a clear morning. Bad news for him. I wish there was something I could do to help him, but every time I frown at Riley, he just shrugs. There's nothing I can do.

  The walk seems to take forever and no time at all. Before I know it, the roof of the Beaumont mansion rises above the trees.

  "Stop," Dad orders.

  We do.

  And leather-clad figures, men and women, emerge from behind tree trunks a minute later, raising crossbows in our direction. Dad freezes, staring at the Rivera family. Lily's parents stand in the lead, glaring at Dad as he stares back. I tense and grab Riley's hand. There are twelve hunters here, seven men and five women.

  “Don't attack each other,” I say.

  “That's right. Don't attack,” Dad says. “If we wanted to kill any of you, we would have done so already.”

  “Could be a lie,” Mike says, squinting behind his crossbow. “Gus. Keep your weapon aimed on the leader at all times until we begin the attack.”

  “Roger that,” says a burly man who looks nothing like Lily.

  “Then it's a deal,” Dad says, eager to get this done. “We have a mutual goal today."

  All the hunters except for Gus lower their weapons and turn towards the Beaumont manor. It's clear they've staked the area out as Lily did last night. Dad looks back at the other Nightsides, pausing on me only for a second and drawing a new wave of pain into my chest. Has he become so engrossed in leading the rebellion against his former masters that he's forgotten about me already?

  “Quickly,” Dad says to all, waving us forward.

  And just like that, the battle for Moon's Peak begins.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I don't want to kill. All I've done so far is get Truebloods to attack other Truebloods. Distractions. I haven't killed anyone myself. That gives me a sense of humanity and if I cast that away, I don't know what will happen.

  But I fear I'll have to before the day ends.

  I charge forward beside Riley, into a thicker cluster of trees surrounding the mansion. I've forgotten how forested the area is.

  Dad runs in the lead, with a few Nightsides beside him. Riley's face molds into something fierce as he ducks under the trees and out of the daylight, letting his leather jacket fall back. His teeth have taken that dangerous, pointed look. Even the hunters have the kill in their eyes.
>
  Right now, I'm just Olivia and scared of the monster within.

  And once we close in on the wrought iron fence that surrounds the manor, the Beaumonts attack.

  War cries ring out as Truebloods in black leather scale the fence, a dozen of them, climbing over like gothic spiders. Addie leads them, black hatred widening her pupils. At the sight of her, my hunter senses kick in. The world snaps into more detail than I've ever seen. Addie's eyes hold no kindness. The monster whispers in my ear for me to kill her, even as bolts crack through the air and impale a Beaumont man climbing over the fence.

  "Addie!" Riley shouts at his cousin.

  Movement flashes to my left. I turn away from Riley, stopping as another Trueblood woman charges me, blond and dangerous, painted red fingernails ready to slice. I reach out with my mind, seizing her body easily and flinging her into a male Trueblood. The shocked look on her face makes a tingle of satisfaction rise in me.

  But then she lands next to Dad, pinning the other Trueblood by mistake. He looms over her, reaches out, and grabs her small neck.

  "Dad--" I start.

  Snap.

  Dad looks up at me with a sad glare. And I don't miss the revenge burning in his eyes.

  The man rises from under the now-dead Trueblood woman, only to take a bolt to the chest. Mike looms over him, pure hatred on his face, as the vampire gags, pulls at the bolt, and slowly goes still. The world seems to slow down.

  Dad and Mr. Rivera move on, running closer to the fence, opening fire. Riley and Addie circle, and Addie bares her fangs at Riley. "Traitor," she hisses.

  "The coven needs to change." Riley balls his fists. "We don't have to hate Nightsides. They could help us. And we don't have to turn people without their permission."

  "Well, look at how this worked out. We trusted one once."

  Another man shouts a war cry and charges Riley from the side. He whirls. I run to help, ramming into the suited Trueblood.