“We need one of those copper collars,” I blurted out. So much for suave political negotiation.
“Liam sends children to parley?” Saga asked.
“Liam isn’t asking,” I said. “I am.” He didn’t even know we were here. None of the brothers had suggested telling him. Though apparently, Logan was sure Sebastian would mention it so no one had told him either.
Logan’s girlfriend Isabeau thought she might be able to undo some of the magic that Solange had unleashed by taking the crown from Helena. But we needed a collar to keep her powerless long enough to try. I didn’t really know Solange. What little I’d seen of her, I sincerely hoped she was ill, like the Drakes thought. But in the end it didn’t matter. I was doing this for Lucy and for Connor. But Aidan and Saga couldn’t know about any of it. No one could. Even I knew that if word of that kind of vulnerability got out, it would be disastrous.
“And why should we help you?”
I narrowed my eyes at them both. “I seem to recall saving you from a stake to the chest. Not to mention a horde of rabid Hel-Blar and angry Helios-Ra hunters.” And then we’d blown up the town, which Saga and Aidan had made their home base. No one was perfect.
“She has fire.” Saga approved, though her eyes were silvery and cold. “I’ll give you that.”
“If I could have just one collar, I could bring it to Solange,” I said. “We might convince her to hold the council.”
“You don’t care about the council,” Aidan pointed out. “So why do you really want the collar, Christabel?”
“Proof,” Connor interjected. We’d already decided on the proper misdirection when they started asking too many questions about Solange.
“Proof of what, boy?”
Connor’s jaw clenched. I knew he hated it when they called him ‘boy’ like that. “Proof that you still have information to share with my uncle. You said so yourself, your scientist was eaten. What if something happens to you too?”
“Are you threatening me?” Saga’s movements were silky with menace. She could have been on a ship’s deck, light on her feet and quicker than wind in a sail. Connor barely had a chance to react. By the time I’d blinked, he was flat on his back in the dirt with the tip of Saga’s dagger scraping his Adam’s apple.
I jumped forward but Aidan held me back with an arm around my waist. It stopped me so abruptly I heard something in my neck crack. I struggled briefly but I’d have had better luck snapping steel cables in half with my bare hands when I was still human. “Stop it,” I yelled.
Connor swallowed, his blue eyes not leaving hers. “I only meant, what if one of your Hel-Blar gets loose? You don’t have the whistle to control them anymore. Anything could go wrong.”
She let him up as quickly as she’d taken him down. Adrenaline spiked through me, making me tremble as Aidan released me. Connor got to his feet warily. There was a tiny drop of blood on his throat.
“It doesn’t matter,” Aidan said. “We don’t have any to spare.”
“But . . .”
“You blew up our stash, remember?” Saga pointed out. “Along with my whistle.”
Oops.
“You have to have at least one. That’s all I want. I mean, you had two of the Hel-Blar with you at the coronation.” They’d strained on their leashes, held there by the collar and the threat of Saga’s fury. The next day I’d dreamed it was me on that leash.
“I’ve no intention of making us vulnerable so you can impress your boyfriend,” Saga said darkly. “We’ve few enough left in our army. And we still have need of them, clearly. The new queen is hardly living up to expectations.”
Connor clenched his fist, struggling with his temper. I stepped partially in front of him. “There must be something.”
“Max is guarding the last of our army, before you get any ideas. And he’s under orders to kill anyone who tries to get past him. You included,” Saga added. “But I reckon you could find a few of my escaped pets near the bogs east of here. Word has it mountain lion carcasses were found there, and a mess they’d made too. You could try your luck,” she shrugged. Aidan shot her a look. She just smiled.
“Christabel, let’s go,” Connor murmured, nudging me back toward the opening of the cave. “They’re not going to help.”
The climb down the rocks was easier, since I pretty much slid down on my butt the entire way. Connor caught me before I brained myself on a boulder.
“Christabel?” Aidan said from the top of the outcropping. I glanced up through the cedar needles. “Be careful.”
Connor tugged me out of the bushes onto the path before I could reply. He glanced over his shoulder a few times before feeling safe enough to pull out his phone to message his brother. “Plan B,” he said.
Quinn met us at the river ten minutes later. I was already lost. Being a vampire didn’t suddenly negate the fact that I’d been a city girl for eighteen years. I didn’t know my way around the forest. A tree was a tree was a tree.
Quinn pushed away from a boulder he’d been leaning against, tossing his hair off his forehead. He was so much like his brother, and yet it was like looking at a stranger who’d stolen Connor’s face. “So what’s plan B, exactly?”
“You heard Saga.” I glanced at Connor. “The bogs. Saga said there are some runaway Hel-Blar with collars living there. So I’ll be bait. They’ll chase me, thinking I’m weak. And then you’ll grab one.”
Quinn looked at Connor then groaned. “Oh my God, it’s like talking to Lucy.”
Connor jerked his hand through his hair. “Christa, you can’t fight.” He took a healthy step out of range while Quinn grinned. “You’re not trained.”
“I can run,” I argued. “Look, do we need this damn collar or not?” He nodded reluctantly. “Then let’s go already.” I took off, assuming they’d catch up. When I couldn’t hear them, I stopped, turning around with a glower. “What?”
Connor’s mouth quirked. “The bogs are that way,” he said, pointing in the other direction.
“Well, crap,” I muttered, doubling back.
It took us just over an hour to get to the bogs. Quinn scaled one of the trees and jumped from branch to branch, keeping an eye out. Connor grabbed my hand.
“Christa, are you sure about this?”
“I have drunken deep of joy, And I will taste no other wine tonight” I quoted Shelley.
“I’m not sure what that means about tonight,” he returned drily. “But watch your back.”
I kissed him hard. “You too.”
This was way more nerve-racking than walking downtown alone in the middle of the night. At least there were streetlights there and I knew the layout of the roads and subway stations. Here it was just murky, soft mud under my boots, making a sucking sound with every step. The deeper in I went, the more it smelled like rot and mildew. I shivered.
I was trying to fight my way out of a clump of thick bulrushes when I smelled blood.
The severed remains of a cougar lay in bloody clumps a few feet away. And a few more feet beyond that, a Hel-Blar crouched, sniffing the air. I froze. He wasn’t wearing a collar. It wouldn’t do us any good if I was caught by him. I searched the cattails and bare branches for another flash of blue, or the glint of copper.
He sniffed again, with a raw snorting sound. “I smell that rotter Aidan,” he said. Most of them didn’t speak, but the ones that did were even more terrifying. Another Hel-Blar shuffled forward, hunched over as if she was walking on all fours. She wore a copper collar and was clearly beyond speech. She howled and gnashed her teeth, saliva dripping off her bloodstained chin. I didn’t know if it was the collar or captivity that had made her like that, or if she’d always been savage. Two more Hel-Blar shuffled out of the weeds to join her. I backed up a step.
Predictably, I snapped a twig under my foot.
I’d once had to climb over a violent, passed-out drunk who hung out behind my favorite bookstore downtown and he’d never even paused in his snoring. Here in the country, I was
hopeless.
And about to get eaten.
“Shit!” I yelled, abandoning any pretense at dignity or stealth. I launched into a run, the twisted reeds grabbing at my feet. I slipped and fell, my knee hitting a rock. Pain shot up my leg, water soaking into my jeans. I flailed forward out of the bog. The branches poked and bit at me and I put my arms up to shield my face so I wouldn’t lose an eye.
The Hel-Blar closed in. The screeching and clacking of jaws behind me made me run faster, made me sweat.
The first Hel-Blar was the closest behind me. He snarled and spat, and was also the first to fall into dust at the end of one of Quinn’s crossbow bolts. He was perched up in a tree like a particularly vicious squirrel, laughing. Connor darted out to block the next Hel-Blar. He flung a stake, hurling the Hel-Blar off his feet and pinning him to a pine tree like an insect. It didn’t kill him, but at least it took him out of the fight temporarily.
The female curled her hands like claws, clacking her pointed needle teeth at me. She howled incoherently when I darted out of the way. My ankle hit the edge of a big rock and I stumbled, landing on my tailbone. The Hel-Blar laughed, stinking of pond scum. A crossbow bolt slammed between us, flinging mud and stones. I flung handfuls of dirt at her face until she blinked madly, covering her eyes.
Connor was fighting the other two and they circled him like hyenas with fresh meat. Their dusky blue skin and bloody teeth made them even more frightening. They widened their jaws, showing off their fangs. My own automatically extended in reaction.
Connor drove his heel into the stomach of the one nearest to him and ducked a wild swing from his howling companion. He came up, stake held against his forearm, the way he’d once taught me. The force drove the weapon into the Hel-Blar’s chest, sliding up under the skin, the muscles, and the ribs to pierce his heart. Ash clouded the cold air. Connor kicked the last one into the woman who was still trying to grab at my feet. They both sprawled in the dirt with the crack of bones and teeth.
But he’d forgotten about the one pinned to the tree.
We all had.
He’d pushed through the stake so that there was a ragged hole in his shoulder, bleeding sluggishly. “Connor!” I shouted, but I was too late.
Connor flew over me and hit a trunk, falling into the undergrowth. The tree shuddered, raining pine needles. Quinn dropped down off his branch, a stake in each hand. He jammed one of the stakes into the shoulder of the Hel-Blar who’d hurt Connor. The Hel-Blar shrieked, trying to yank the weapon out. Quinn shifted so he was shielding me.
Connor shook his head as if it was ringing, as he pushed himself back up. “Quinn, behind you!”
Quinn spun, his arm extended and stake out. He caught the Hel-Blar Connor had thrown at the woman. More ash and blood splattered and Quinn flipped out of its trajectory. Connor spun, jamming his stake into the woman’s chest as she leaped at me again. She snarled and then crumpled to ash.
Connor flipped his hand over, catching the collar before it hit the ground. He smirked, just like Quinn.
“Got it.”
Chapter 10
Lucy
I spent most of my classes reading the books Spencer recommended, which I hid under my desk. When Jody ratted me out and Ms. Kali demanded to see what I was reading, I wasn’t sure which one of them was most surprised to find that it was Ancient Magical Traditions and Secret Societies.
“Actually, the revised edition is much better,” Ms. Kali remarked with a dry smile, handing me back the book. “But you might try reading it during your free period.”
I read all through my lunch period, my free period, and even in the halls walking to class. I found out all sorts of weird things.
Scatter seeds in front of a particular family of Eastern European vampires and they will be compelled to count them instead of chasing you.
Vampire hunters wear wild roses to protect themselves.
I really wanted to see if I could convince Kieran to run around wearing pink roses in his hair.
In China, the vampire is known as jiang shi.
I was on my way to the gym, with the shadows long and purple over the fields, when I read a passage that made everything click in my head. It was so loud I was surprised no one else heard it.
Hunters in a sixteenth-century banished Black Lodge drank vampire blood, believing it would make them immune to the vampire’s power. This practice is merely superstition and not to be added to the modern hunter’s arsenal.
I remembered a night in my backyard when Solange and I were thirteen. We camped out in a tent, telling my parents we wanted to watch a meteor shower when really we just wanted to eat the chocolate bars Solange snuck over in her sleeping bag and giggle. Giddy with sugar, we’d decided to become blood sisters. We made little cuts on our smallest fingers and pinky swore an oath to be friends forever.
Our blood had mixed.
I wasn’t mostly immune to vampire pheromones just because I’d grown up with the Drakes.
I had Solange’s blood in my system.
Which is why she couldn’t compel me, even now that she was strong enough to compel other vampires, right down to members of her own family. And Nicholas was with her right now. However noble his intentions, could he stand against her compulsions?
Only if he had her blood in his veins.
But he was unreachable at the Blood Moon camp. The other Drakes were beyond exiled, they were condemned to be shot on sight. If they were going to have the slightest chance to undo whatever had been done to Solange, they’d need this information. They’d need to know what Nicholas was doing inside the camp.
I dialed Bruno’s number even as I broke into a run. I left him a message and then e-mailed Connor, just in case. Isabeau was unreachable in the caves and Christabel was far too new a vampire to be able to safely negotiate the current murky political undercurrents. Not to mention that she wasn’t answering her cell phone. Even Spencer, who I considered conscripting, was off somewhere, feeding. It wasn’t far past dusk, after all.
So there was no one else.
Except me.
And I couldn’t wait. Every moment lost was one more second which might get Nicholas killed.
I had to find Hunter. I had to get off campus. I was so distracted I crashed right into Tyson and we both went flying. He helped me gather up my books, brushing snow off a hardcover volume that fit in the palm of my hand.
He read the title. “You’re doing the homework I gave you.”
“Yes, and it’s the best homework ever,” I shouted, letting him help me up. “And you are the best tutor in the entire world.” I kissed him enthusiastically on the cheek. His dark skin flushed red. I was too busy hurtling off toward the gym to find Hunter to tease him about it. She wasn’t even there. I texted her, darting back to the dorm to get my stuff. She must have texted Jenna and Chloe because all three were waiting for me by the school van, armed to the teeth.
“You look like you’ve been mainlining espresso,” Jenna remarked. “Are your eyes supposed to be that big?”
I just grinned at her, proving her right. I felt a little manic, both thrilled and grim, as if I was going into battle. My hands shook slightly as Chloe shoved something under the back of my shirt. She climbed back into the van and started to mutter at her laptop.
Hunter checked all my weapons and the GPS Chloe had just clipped on me. “You know you’re dumb, right?” Hunter asked. “And so am I for helping you out. Got your Hypnos?”
“Of course.”
Chloe tapped away on the keyboard and tossed us a smug smile. “GPS is locked in. I’ve got your signal.”
“You guys don’t have to do this,” I said, as Hunter slid the door shut and Jenna started to drive. There was a miniature crossbow on the dashboard in front of her.
“I think Hunter already established that we’re all dumb. So yeah, we kinda do.”
I caught her eye in the rearview mirror. “The last time you helped me you got knocked out.”
She actually bared
her teeth. “Which is why I’ll wait in the damn van, instead of going in for a little payback.”
I checked my stakes, hanging snugly on the strap across my chest. I knew the guards would take them away. I was counting on it. If they were focused on the obvious weapons, they might not think to check the soles of the specially rigged boots Hunter lent me. They were only a little bit too big. And the retractable stakes and metal spikes were worth the blisters.
“Got your walkie-talkie?” Hunter asked as the van rattled down the country roads.
I patted my jacket pocket. “Yes, Mom.”
She ignored my sarcasm. Quinn probably inured her to all distractions. If she could resist his pretty face and his smart mouth, she could resist a nuclear bomb during exams and still pass with honors. “Got your whistle?”
“And my flare gun,” I assured her. “All in my bag and none of which they’ll let me keep.”
“You need to show more boob,” Chloe tossed over her shoulder.
“It’s freezing out there,” I complained, undoing another button on my blouse. “How is pneumonia sexy?” I frowned down at my cleavage. “Plus, I should have worn a push-up bra.”
“Bloodslaves are supposed to show a lot of skin,” Chloe insisted. “It was on the exam last year.”
I sighed, twisting my hair up into a scrunchie. It was barely long enough, but Chloe was right, I needed to show more skin if I was going to be convincing. And a bare neck would do wonders toward pleading my case. I pushed up the sleeves of my blouse, under my fake-fur vest to display Nicholas’s fang marks on the inside of my elbow. They were nearly healed now and barely visible. I rubbed them viciously, until they chafed and looked raw. It would have to be enough.
“Are you sure I can’t talk you out of this?” Hunter asked.
“If it were Quinn, would you go?” she muttered under her breath in response. “Exactly.”
“I’m a better fighter,” she pointed out, but I knew it was a last-ditch attempt.