Blood Moon

  It was the best sound in the world.

  Motorcycles.

  My brother Duncan screeched into view, circling my tree and sliding sideways as the bike dipped. He lifted one hand and shot a miniature crossbow, catching one of the Hel-Blar in the chest. She hissed, grasped at the bolt, and then drifted into ashes, like snow. The Hel-Blar on the branch beside me was momentarily distracted. I didn’t have the energy to grapple with him so I just leaned over and shoved him right out of the tree. He fell, screaming, and by the time he hit the ground, Duncan’s backup had arrived and dispatched him.

  Duncan stopped the motorcycle, glancing up at me, his jeans smeared with engine grease as usual. “Okay, little brother?”

  I lowered into a crouch. “Connor, Quinn, and Christabel are still back there.” I pointed and the guards behind him took off in that direction. I slid to the ground, wiping ash and dirt off my face. “Thanks.”

  Duncan took a plastic water bottle filled with blood out of his bike satchel and tossed it to me. “Don’t thank me yet. Mom and Dad got your message about the ghost town and Saga. They sent me to get you.”

  I winced and took a long pull off the bottle. “How mad are they?”

  Duncan snorted. “Dad broke a chair.”

  “Crap.” Mom broke furniture all the time, but Dad prided himself on his control and even temper. I felt a kind of fear that not even a feral Hel-Blar trying to kill me could engender. I drained the bottle and felt like I could at least make it to the camp on my own two feet, even if what I actually wanted to do was hunker down in a safe house until my parents cooled off.

  Duncan and I waited until our brothers and Christabel came toward us through the trees, looking pale but grateful.

  Quinn slapped me on the shoulder affectionately, then scowled. “Don’t ever do that again.”

  I just snorted. We martyred ourselves for each other all the time. It was genetic.

  Duncan gave another bottle to Christabel.

  She grimaced. “No way.”

  “You’re a vampire, kid,” Duncan told her. “Drink up.”

  She looked at the blood through the thin plastic and gagged.

  Connor slipped his arm around her shoulder, holding her up. “Uncle G. will come hook you up in the morning,” he said encouragingly. Christabel still couldn’t stomach the idea of drinking blood, even though her body not only craved it but required it for survival. Uncle Geoffrey had to give her a transfusion every time she woke up. Connor took the bottle from her and drained it himself, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

  One of the handful of guards Duncan had brought with him nodded a greeting. He wore the mark of the royal house on his shirt. He was old enough that the dawn wasn’t even fazing him. His two companions were human, lean and lethal as swords. “We’ll take rear guard,” he said. “And we’ll leave you two of the bikes.”

  “Thanks.” Quinn took the keys from him before I could and climbed on the bike. He glanced at me. “Get on.”

  I hopped on behind him, grumbling but too tired to argue who got to drive. Connor helped Christabel up on the bike in front of him and she sat backward, looping her arms around his neck. If she passed out before we got there, he’d have a better chance of catching her so she didn’t fall off completely. We passed another unit of royal guards before we reached the camp.

  We left the motorcycles in the narrow field beside Duncan’s minigarage tent. He spent most of his time there with the tools, equipment, and jerricans. The encampment was too crowded for him, and he only joined us at dawn or for family meetings. While Connor might not like crowds, Duncan was downright antisocial. We walked into the torch-lit encampment.

  Right into a cluster of belly dancers.

  They shimmied around us, wearing tarnished silver coins and tribal tassels. Musicians stood in a half-moon to the side playing drums. All of a sudden it felt as if we were in some kind of ancient desert caravan. I half expected to see a camel.

  “Pirates, Huron warriors, and belly dancers in one night,” I muttered. “My head hurts.”

  Christabel blinked, her words slurring. “Is that real?”

  One of the dancers shimmied her hips.

  “Hell, yeah,” Quinn answered reverently.

  Vampires gathered along the tents, watching the show. The dancers’ bare feet whispered over the grass-flattened ground. One of them began to whirl, her braided hair falls lifting in the air. She spun and spun until she was a blur of colors and textures. The drumbeat struggled to keep up. The other dancers shimmied on the spot until their coins scattered like shooting stars.

  “Um, what the hell?” Connor wondered.

  “Compliments of one of the Egyptian tribes,” a girl answered. She wore paint-splattered overalls and looked more like a university art student than a vampire. Her hair was a cloud of dark brown curls, her skin like milk chocolate. “This place is like an arts and culture expo. Totally awesome.”

  Christabel was weaving on her feet. “‘Sometimes a troop of damsels glad …,’” she quoted.

  The girl beamed at her. “The Lady of Shalott! That’s my favorite painting by Waterhouse.”

  Christabel was momentarily distracted from her faint. “You know ‘The Lady of Shalott’?”

  “I’m Sky.” The girl introduced herself, grinning. “And we should definitely hang out.”

  “Totally. Anyone who—” Christabel passed out midsentence. Connor caught her.

  Sky shook her head sympathetically. “Newly turned?”

  “Very new,” Connor said, carrying Christabel through the crowd toward the Drake tent.

  The drums reached a peak, and the belly dancers circled us in their embroidered choli blouses and beaded skirts, smelling like sandalwood incense and amber perfume. One of them flashed her fangs at me before the drums stopped suddenly and the girls dispersed into the appreciative audience.

  “She was flirting with you, little brother.” Duncan grinned at me.

  “She was not,” I muttered. “Give me a break.”

  Sky laughed. “She totally was. She has a thing for Drake boys.”

  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

  Girls are weird.

  “Ready?” Quinn asked when Sky wandered off and we couldn’t avoid the family tent anymore.

  “Hell, no.”

  “Me neither.”

  Mom and Dad waited just inside the tent flap. The light from the oil lamps glinted off fangs, narrowed eyes, and Mom’s weapon collection.

  “Congratulations.” Dad spoke first, his voice soft as smoke before it fills your lungs. “I honestly don’t know which of my children I’m angriest with right now.”

  Chapter 4

  Lucy

  “What, are all the crazies out tonight? Moon’s not even full yet.”

  Theo, the head nurse in the school infirmary, looked competent, calm, and thoroughly disgusted. Since he was still dealing with the fallout of the ghost town I helped blow up just a few hours ago, I couldn’t blame him. He eyed me sternly. “Didn’t you already blow up a bunch of people tonight?”

  I nodded sheepishly. Kieran was already sprawled on a gurney. I helped Theo push him inside. He was even paler in the bright infirmary lights. There was no one in the waiting room, only empty coffee cups. The green curtains were drawn around all of the emergency beds. My nose burned with the sharp smell of antiseptic.

  Kieran moaned, blood soaking through the makeshift bandage. Theo cursed. “What the hell happened to him?”

  “Vampire.”

  “I can see that.” He lifted Kieran’s eyelids and made a sound in the back of his throat that I couldn’t interpret.

  My palms started to sweat all over again. “He’s going to be okay, right?”

  Another nurse rushed over from one of the back rooms, her uniform askew, muttering. “That old hunter they brought in from the ghost town? The one who thinks he’s all tough?” She shook her head. “Big baby.” Her eyes widened when she saw Kieran. “Isn’t that
Hart’s nephew?” Hart was the leader of the Helios-Ra and everyone’s boss. Technically, I guess he was my boss now too. Hah. The only person I’d take orders from was Helena Drake.

  “Hel-Blar?” Theo asked me.

  I shook my head quickly. “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Kieran coughed weakly. “Not Hel-Blar,” he confirmed.

  Theo nodded to the other nurse. “Get him on saline, and have the doctor check him out.”

  “Right away.” She pushed Kieran behind one of the curtains.

  I went to follow but Theo stopped me. “We got him,” he said. “He might not even need a transfusion, just rest. Like you.”

  I blinked because there were two of him. Relief made my muscles weak, and the fatigue I’d been holding off rushed in. I wobbled. Theo frowned. “Go to bed, Lucy. Now.”

  “I’ll just nap in the chair until the doctor’s checked Kieran out.”

  He pushed me toward the door. “Go to bed,” he repeated. “I promise I’ll call if anything changes.”

  “But …”

  He closed the glass door in my face and locked it.

  Rude.

  I went back to the dorm because I was too tired to do anything else. Birds sang from the rooftops. Hanging out with vampires was hell on a girl’s sleeping patterns.

  I dragged my feet along the path as the sun rose just enough to light the mist off the pond and snaking between the trees. I was glad campus was deserted so no one saw my pathetic shuffle-walk. I yawned so widely a bear could’ve mistaken my mouth for a cave and crawled in to hibernate for the winter. The grass glittered with dew and made the metal handle of the dormitory door slick and cold. There’d be frost in the mountains, settling over the embers and ashes of the ghost town where my cousin had been imprisoned.

  I hauled myself up the stairs and down the hall to my new room. My roommate, Sarita, didn’t even stir when I came in, sleeping with her blankets tucked perfectly around her. She even slept neatly. I fell into bed still wearing my soot- and blood-stained clothes and muddy shoes. I should call Hunter and tell her Kieran was in the infir—

  I fell asleep reaching for the phone.

  I would have slept straight through dinner if Sarita hadn’t kept waking me up.

  Clearly no one had told her it’s not smart to wake up a sleeping girl covered in weapons and mud. Seems basic to me, but then, I’d grown up with the Drakes.

  “What?” I grumbled when I opened one eye to find her just standing by my bed. I slept better in a house full of vampires. This whole roommate thing wasn’t off to a great start.

  “Are you sick?”

  “Yes,” I mumbled, hoping it would make her go away. I pulled the pillow over my head.

  “It’s not that flu, is it? Students died from that, you know.”

  “That wasn’t a flu,” I said through my pillow. “That was some weird pill one of your teachers was slipping students.” Students with ties to vampires, to be precise. So, said vampires would drink from them, get sick, and die. Hunter discovered the secret plot and saved the school. And then Quinn saved her, so it all worked out in the end. I was still getting a kick out of seeing him so into a girl. Just one girl. He’d even erased the other numbers on his phone. In Quinn’s world that was cataclysmic. He may as well have serenaded her on the front lawn of the school for all to see.

  “How do you know that?” Sarita asked.

  The explanation would make her head hurt.

  “And do you always sleep this late? It’s five thirty.”

  I groaned. “Sarita?”

  “Yes?”

  Everything I wanted to say was rude or violent.

  I bit my tongue. See, I was learning stuff already at this school. “Never mind.” I got up and went down the hall to the bathroom. I wasn’t awake enough to remember the events of last night until I was back in my room. I got dressed quickly so I could get to the infirmary to check on Kieran. The sun was already fading. It would be dusk soon. I texted Solange and then Nicholas.

  “We studied the historic vampire clans of the Raktapa Council last year,” Sarita interrupted me, peering closer at the cameo I always wore. “Isn’t that the Drake family insignia?”

  I touched the pendant protectively. “Yes.” Nicholas gave it to me over the summer. I’d switched out the velvet ribbon for a more durable chain when it became obvious that velvet was too delicate for my present circumstances.

  “I don’t think you’re allowed to wear vampire crests at school.” She was aghast.

  I stared at her for a full ten seconds before answering, “Om Namah Shivaya.”

  She blinked. “Huh?”

  How to explain that my mother taught me Vedic mantras as a way to deal with stress and the imminent loss of my temper. Especially when punching someone in the nose was inappropriate. I speared her with my best Helena Drake glare instead. We were saved by a sharp knock on the door.

  Hunter was on the other side, eyes wide. “Kieran’s in the infirmary.” Her blond ponytail swung anxiously.

  “I know. I brought him there.”

  Seeing Hunter, Sarita stood at attention as if this were a military school and Hunter a general. “Hi, Hunter.”

  Hunter threw her a distracted smile then frowned at me. “I’d ask you why you didn’t come tell me, but you look like shit.”

  “Gee, thanks,” I said drily. I grabbed my sweater. “Let’s go check on him.”

  We hurried out of the dorm and into the cold late-autumn evening. My breath misted in the air. Winter was definitely on its way. The trees shivered, scattering the last of their leaves. Students hurried to the dining hall and down from the gym, bundled in thick sweaters.

  “What happened?” Hunter asked. “And can I tell you how sick I am of this place?” she added as we neared the infirmary. The fluorescent lights made squares of white on the grass.

  I didn’t know what Quinn had told her about Solange and her struggle. Or if Kieran had mentioned it. “It was a vampire,” I said. “I went to meet Solange last night and we found him like that.” Lie. Big fat lie.

  Hunter paled. “Hel-Blar?”

  I shook my head. “No, he was lucid. It was just a vampire bite. He lost some blood. Theo didn’t look freaked out or anything.”

  “Theo never looks freaked out.”

  “Did he call you? What did he say?”

  “Kieran’s mom called,” Hunter replied as we stepped into the bright, medicinal cleaner–scented room. “She won’t come to campus. She’s not … Well, she’s fragile.”

  “She is?” Kieran never mentioned his family, beyond his dad, whom he’d once thought the Drakes had murdered. It had been Hope actually, the Helios-Ra agent who’d taken over the society along with Kieran’s uncle. She’d tried to kill Solange too.

  Even dead, I did not like her.

  Theo came around one of the curtains and eyed me critically. “Better. But you need more sleep. And protein.”

  “How’s Kieran?” Hunter and I asked together.

  “He’s got a few stitches, lost some blood. Probably have a scar. Could have been worse.”

  “Can we see him?” Hunter asked. “And the answer to that question is ‘yes,’ Theo. He’s my best friend.”

  Theo just snorted. “You need more sleep too, Hunter. You lost more blood than he did, and it wasn’t that long ago.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Where is he?”

  “He went home.”

  “He did?” She sounded surprised. “His mom didn’t …”

  “No, his friend Eric picked him up.”

  “Kieran has friends?” It was a stupid question. Of course he had friends. I was just used to seeing him as Solange’s boyfriend, or before that, as the annoying agent from the annoying secret society. Which I was now a member of. When, exactly, had life become so ridiculously complicated?

  Oh yeah, when I’d had to Taser my best friend.

  “Lucy, are you coming?” Hunter was waiting for me by t
he door. “Theo’s right, you need dinner. Cafeteria’s that way.”

  “Aren’t you eating?”

  She shook her head. “I want to call Kieran, then I need to put in some time at the gym.”

  “I hate you.”

  “Why does everyone say that when I mention going to the gym?” she muttered as she walked away.

  When I got to the cafeteria I felt lost in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time. I’d gone to the same school and had the same friends and driven down the same country road to see them nearly every day for years. I never really noticed that until now. But recent events had kicked me out of my safe cocoon. In the past few months alone I’d been captured by hostile vampires, been held in a dungeon, gotten stitches in the back of my head, and electrocuted my best friend. None of those things made me feel as awkward or helpless as this tidy cafeteria with its antique floors and stained glass windows and the pause in the hum of conversations as everyone stopped to watch me in the doorway.

  I wasn’t used to being the one who hesitated uncertainly.

  No way in hell I was going to be that girl now.

  I forced myself to step forward, trying to smile with a breezy nonchalance I was nowhere near feeling. I struggled to ignore the itchy weight of so many eyeballs tracking my every move. The Helios-Ra student body wasn’t exactly large—there were only about thirty students per grade—but most of them were here right now, whispering about me between mouthfuls of meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

  Even though I was starving, I suddenly couldn’t stand the thought of bringing my plastic tray to an empty table and pretending I didn’t notice all the staring. Ordinarily, I would have just introduced myself to the first friendly looking group, but I didn’t have it in me yet. Tomorrow. After I talked to Solange and Nicholas and Kieran.

  I grabbed a protein bar and a banana for later and decided to text Solange again. I knew she must be fine, since no one had called to tell me otherwise. But I should probably apologize for the Taser thing. And let her apologize for trying to bite me.