“God, you’re still here?” someone sneered. It was a girl who’d given me attitude the first day I’d moved into the dorms, only she was with two guys this time. I could practically smell the testosterone and it wasn’t coming off them. I nearly groaned out loud. I so wasn’t in the mood for this. And I’d watched enough 1980s John Hughes movies to know this wasn’t going to go well.
“I can’t believe they’d let a vampire spy in here,” she said. There were a lot of stakes on her belt. “You know you don’t belong here, right? I mean, you’re not stupid enough to think this is normal? Especially with all of the agents coming in to protect the town from all of your friends.”
The other students fell silent around us, openly eavesdropping.
“You know what? I’m a little tired from beating people up all night to deal with your issues.” I wondered how much detention I’d get for starting a brawl in the cafeteria.
“We’ll be watching you,” one of the guys warned, looming.
“I’ve been loomed over by the best,” I informed him. “You need to practice.”
“Oh yeah?” He stepped up closer, purposefully bumping me back.
I had a lovely daydream of breaking his nose.
In fact, I was making a fist before I’d even realized it.
“Whoa.” Hunter’s friend Jenna was suddenly beside me. “Ben’s an ass but he’s not worth scrubbing toilets for a month.”
I paused. “Detention is toilet duty?”
“For hitting another student, yeah.”
I lowered my fist reluctantly. “Gross.”
“She’s a traitor, Jenna,” Ben insisted, looking vaguely surprised that she wasn’t automatically on his side.
“And you’re being a Neanderthal.” She narrowed her eyes warningly at him. The freckles on her nose didn’t make her look any less intimidating. She turned to me, ignoring them. “Want to go for a run?”
“Yes.”
And that was scarier than any bully.
I was sweaty and panting painfully at the end of the track when one of the teachers pointed at me.
“Lucky Hamilton?”
“Close enough,” I sighed. Clearly, I was going to have to reeducate everyone on campus. I hadn’t gone by Lucky since my first day of regular school.
“The headmistress wants to see you.”
I winced. “I didn’t do it.”
He quirked a smile. “Her office is on the ground floor, the brick building there.”
Jenna wiped her face with a towel. “Tough luck, Hamilton.”
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Classes haven’t even started yet.”
“She probably just wants to warn you that Hunter and I are bad influences.” She grinned.
I snorted. “Please, Hunter gets straight As.”
“And she’s dating a vampire.”
“Details.”
“Just watch your back. School’s tense right now,” Jenna added.
I thought about Ben and his cronies. “I’m getting that.”
“Even Hunter’s getting crap from Ben and Jody,” Jenna said, reading my expression. At least I finally knew the girl’s name. “And after that doctor changed Spencer to save him, everyone’s been extra jumpy. She was fired.”
“But Spencer would have died.”
Jenna shrugged one shoulder. “Better dead than undead.” She smiled apologetically. “Old Helios-Ra motto.”
I ground my teeth. “Racist. Or specie-ist, whatever.”
She held up a hand in defense. “Hey, I like Spencer, fangs or not.”
“I know. Sorry. It makes me cranky.”
“Makes Hunter cranky too. Should’ve heard the mouth on her. I had no idea she knew words like that.” She grabbed a bottle of water from her gym bag. “Anyway, just be polite and Bellwood shouldn’t come down on you too hard. She’s kinda mean but she’s fair.” She nodded toward the office. “Don’t keep her waiting though.”
I glanced at my watch and forced my rubbery legs into a jog. I had to make this fast if I wanted enough time to meet Nicholas before campus curfew. I’d break it if I had to, but I’d rather not. I was already on the school radar as it was.
Bellwood’s office was at the end of a row of empty classrooms. It was ruthlessly organized and neat, almost as ruthlessly organized and neat as Bellwood herself. Sarita must just worship her. I waited in the doorway for her to acknowledge me. She didn’t glance from her computer screen. “Sit.”
I only barely resisted the urge to bark like a dog.
Instead I sat down, wondering which of my many infractions I was about to be busted over. She finally looked at me after a squirming moment of awkwardness. There were laugh lines at the corner of her mouth, implying she must at least know how to smile. You wouldn’t know it to look at her now. I reminded myself that I’d survived Lady Natasha and countless vampires, not to mention Solange’s mother. I could survive a high school principal.
“You did very well on your placement tests,” she began without preamble. “Which is why you were put in eleventh grade despite your admitted inexperience with the League. Your grasp of vampire customs is impressive, Lucky, but your knowledge of the Helios-Ra is considerably less impressive. You’ve been assigned a private tutor to help you catch up. You’ll have to work hard if you intend to graduate with the others.”
“Yes, Ms. Bellwood.” Should I have called her Headmistress Bellwood? It sounded like something out of a Victorian boarding school.
She looked at me finally, stern but not unkind. “I know this must be a big adjustment for you.”
“I guess so.” Understatement.
“It’s an adjustment for our students as well.” Had she already heard about my run-in with Jody and Ben? Impressive. “Which is part of the reason I agreed to this transfer when Hart requested it. He runs the League, Lucky, but he does not run this school.”
“Um, thanks?”
“If the events of the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that the world is clearly changing and we need to be strong enough to adapt if we want to endure. My sole purpose at this school is to train my students in the best way possible so they’ll survive. I don’t need to tell you a vampire hunter’s life can be abbreviated.”
I nodded.
“I understand you have special allowances because of your association with Hart, but that will only get you so far.”
I hadn’t even taken advantage of any special allowances yet. I wasn’t even sure what they were.
“I’m trying to say that taking out seasoned hunters who were technically doing their job by attacking a vampire nest is frowned upon,” she continued. “But since you also saved Hart’s nephew by bringing him to the infirmary last night, you’ve already managed to balance out your transgressions. Which is fairly impressive in itself. However,” she added sharply, “I would greatly prefer for your name not to come up with such frequency.”
Me too. It was hardly stealthy.
“We’ll be watching you.”
“’Cause that’s not ominous,” I muttered. “Yes, ma’am,” I added out loud.
I didn’t bother telling her she wasn’t the first person to say that to me today.
Chapter 5
Solange
Sunday, sunset
The first thing I heard when I woke up was my mother’s voice.
I hadn’t noticed her at first, waking with the fiery hunger that blurred my vision red and made all of my senses too sharp. I drained two bottles of blood before I could remember who I was. I wiped my mouth clean and felt better. Then I thought about Kieran and felt worse.
“Solange Rosamund Drake.”
Mom’s voice reverberated down the metal stairs into the underground safe house. Her tone could’ve been used as a rapier, and my head already hurt, but I couldn’t tell her that. She’d know I drank fresh human blood last night, to wake up with what I considered a blood hangover. Constantine assured me it was normal. It took some time for vampires to process so much blood, and
live blood from the vein was so much more potent than blood bottled and refrigerated. You needed less, but wanted more.
“Solange, get up here. Now.”
I sighed and climbed up the metal ladder reluctantly. The tents were guarded day and night, but they were still vulnerable. Sunlight couldn’t be staked; the wind might blow a ceiling off and we’d be weak as kittens. So we slept underground during the day, and gathered as a family in the evenings in the tent. The tunnels under the mountains and under the forest were currently crowded with vampire families.
The inside of our tent was lit with oil lamps, the grass was covered with thick Persian rugs, and Madame Veronique’s hand-embroidered tapestry of the Drake insignia hung on one wall. There were couches, wooden tables, carved benches, and a long medieval-style table.
I pushed my tangled hair off my face and tried not to look guilty. “Hi, Mom.”
“Don’t you ‘Hi, Mom’ me,” she returned sharply. “You were brought in unconscious at dawn.” She was wearing her black battle leathers. Queen or not, Blood Moon or not, Mom was Mom.
“I just lost my way in the woods.”
“Which is why you should have had a guard with you,” Dad interjected smoothly. His calm disappointment was every bit as bad as Mom’s temper. “I’m sure we talked about this.”
I swallowed a retort, which would’ve had me grounded, vampire princess or not.
“I’m a vampire,” I said. “It’s not like I’m defenseless.”
“You’re also sixteen years old, young lady,” Mom snapped. “And you have a curfew for a damn good reason.”
“I know,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry.” I needed to get out of here. I had to find out if Kieran was okay. I glanced at the door. Torches flickered on the other side of the painted canvas. I shifted toward it.
“Where do you think you’re going? We’re not done here.”
“Mom, I said I was sorry.” I was having flashbacks to this summer, when everyone hovered around me and worried. I literally itched under my skin. I wasn’t going to be the princess in the tower anymore. Not for anyone. “I have to go.”
“Where?”
“To see Kieran.”
She shook her head. “He can wait.”
But that was the thing. I didn’t know if he could.
“I’m going.”
“Solange.” Dad rose to his feet. He looked worried. “It’s not safe. For either of you.”
“And we’ll be going on lockdown in a couple of days,” Mom added.
“I know,” I said. “All the more reason you should let me go tonight before the Blood Moon starts. It’s not like I can call him from here.”
Dad looked briefly proud. He always preened a little when one of us won an argument using plain, calm logic. It was the same pride Mom felt when we could hit a moving target with a throwing knife. Mom saw the look and sighed. “Fine. Back by 3:00 a.m.,” she told me sternly. “And take someone with you.”
I grabbed my leather jacket off the coat tree. The inside pockets were heavy with stakes, daggers, and assorted weaponry. I stopped under the overhang, and I would’ve taken a deep breath of the cold mountain air if I still breathed. The weight of the past few months and the memory of Kieran’s blood on my lips made me shudder.
“Are you sick?” Nicholas asked, coming out of the shadows. “You look weird.”
“I’m fine.” I eyed him warningly. “I wish people would stop asking me that.”
“Okay.” He shrugged. “So long as you don’t throw up on my shoes.”
“Deal.” I half smiled. “I have to go to town.”
“Does Mom know?”
“Shut up.”
“Cranky.”
I wrinkled my nose. “A little. Will you come with me?”
“Sure.”
We stepped out into the bustle of the fields, the stars so crisp overhead you could see the Milky Way. There was a path already worn through the grass, torches flickering where it branched out. Guards stood at the front and back of every tent. The ones with royal crests on their shirts dipped their heads when they saw us.
“That’s still weird,” Nicholas muttered.
The one I’d lulled to sleep last week with my pheromones watched me warily. I tried an apologetic smile. Heads turned curiously when my extra fangs caught the light. I let my hair screen my face. “Damn it.” Constantine would’ve told me to flash them proudly. I couldn’t see him anywhere. Whispers rolled in our wake, like ripples behind a boat on a clear pond.
“It’s just a couple of teeth.” I hunched my shoulders. “What’s the big damn deal?” I asked, even though those same teeth had me in a panic a few days ago. The extra fangs weren’t normal; neither was the keen bloodlust or the fact that my pheromones worked on other vampires. We were still trying to keep that last part a secret.
“It’s not that,” Nicholas replied grimly.
“What then?” He was suddenly so close to my side, I stumbled when his elbow knocked me off balance. “What are you doing?”
“It’s the Furies.”
I blinked. “Who?”
“Sebastian told me about them. They used to serve Lady Natasha.”
I went cold at the mention of her name. She might be dead, on the tip of my mother’s stake to be exact, but she’d also tried to kill me and eat my heart. It wasn’t something you forgot.
And apparently I wasn’t the only one who remembered.
There were seven Furies: three vampires and four human bloodslaves, all women. They had dyed their hair the same white as Lady Natasha. They even wore it in the exact same style, bone straight with severe bangs. They wore elaborate white dresses, just like she had the night she tried to kill me. They looked exactly like her except that they each had the mark of her house tattooed on their faces: three black raven feathers. The feathers they wore in their hair were bleached white.
It was creepy.
“London’s not with them, is she?” We hadn’t seen our cousin since before my birthday. Even her parents couldn’t find her. She’d sent them an e-mail to let them know she was okay, but she’d essentially run away after I turned.
“No, she’s not.” Nicholas angled himself between me and the Furies when they began to hiss.
“Usurper,” one of them spat. “Murderer.”
Technically, Mom was the usurper, but I didn’t say it out loud. I had a feeling semantics weren’t exactly important right now. I was a figurehead to them, a scapegoat. That damn prophecy again.
The Furies approached, like the spores of a poisonous white mushroom drifting dangerously close. My neck prickled. Nicholas tensed, about to reach for a weapon. I grabbed his arm, remembering the Joiik woman weeping over the ashes of her loved one at her feet and the red-tipped arrows of the Chandramaa.
“Don’t,” I told him. “Just back up and keep your hands visible.” I held mine up as if we were at gunpoint.
“I don’t trust them.”
“Then trust the Chandramaa.” He hadn’t seen them in action yet, hadn’t seen Constantine’s cheeks go so pale they looked like bone knives. And I was sure he didn’t frighten easily. My fangs elongated, making my gums feel raw and itchy. My lips lifted of their own accord.
I tramped down the surge of adrenaline and the need to fight back. No wonder Mom was so cranky. This kind of thing was her worst nightmare.
I wasn’t loving it either.
“Let’s get out of here.”
We were being tailed.
It wasn’t surprising; our parents had put guards on us the minute the tribes starting arriving from around the world. I’d been compelling them to leave me alone. I’d also compelled them to wait for me and not tell anyone so that I always returned with them. I felt a little guilty about it but they were driving me nuts.
And tonight, I didn’t even feel guilty.
I just wanted them gone.
I pulled a U-turn, tires skidding and black marks burning into the street. The guards screeched to a halt, confusion p
lain on their faces even under their helmets. They lifted their visors.
“Is there trouble, my lady?”
I blinked, distracted. “Did you just ‘my lady’ me?”
It’s only proper.
I shook my head. “Never mind.” I slipped off my motorcycle and stood between them, close enough to see their pale eyes, close enough that I could affect them with my pheromones. I didn’t actually need the eye contact, but it helped.
“Go away, please.” I didn’t bother telling them to wait for us. I just wanted to get to Kieran.
They nodded in unison and then turned their bikes around and drove away. Nicholas yelled something at me, but I pretended not to hear him over the engine of the motorcycles. I kept going and he had no choice but to follow.
Lucy and I had driven by Kieran’s house once before, late at night when we were sure we wouldn’t be caught, but I’d never been inside. I stopped a few houses down and walked my bike to the maple tree in front of his house. I leaned it on its kickstand and stared at the tidy garden full of icicle pansies and at the warm light at the windows. It looked so normal.
Nicholas came up beside me. “Damn it, Sol. Ever heard of the speed limit?”
“Oh, right, coming from the guy who got three speeding tickets the first week he had his license.”
“That’s different.” At least he had the grace to look sheepish. “And what the hell was that with the guards?”
“I just asked them to give me a little privacy.”
“Uh-huh.” He didn’t sound the least bit convinced. After a moment he leaned against a low-hanging branch. “Sol?”
“Yeah?”
“Why are we lurking?”
“I’m not lurking,” I said a little defensively. “I was just waiting for you. Thought you got lost.”
I turned back to the house. I could see a leather couch through the living room window and the corner of a coffee table with a candle and a jar of roses. I should knock on the door. Or at least text Kieran to let him know I was standing in his garden. I knew he was all right; Lucy had left me a voice mail while Nicholas and I were on our way to town. But what if he didn’t want to see me? What if he hated me now? Or worse, what if he was scared of me?