Out for Blood

  “I do!” Kieran sounded offended. “You should be proud of her. Hart requested her presence personally at the Drake coronation.”

  I closed my eyes briefly. We were doomed.

  “You went to a vampire ceremony?” Grandpa asked evenly.

  “He didn’t know?” Kieran asked.

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “Sorry.”

  Grandpa vibrated with rage. “I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in my family!”

  “It’s different now,” Kieran tried to assuage him. “I’m dating Solange Drake. They’re a good family.”

  Grandpa went red, then purple. Kieran took a step back. I whacked Grandpa between the shoulder blades.

  “Grandpa, breathe!”

  His breath was strangled but at least he didn’t keel over. Before he could shout the rafters down, the door swung open and York eyed us all with the barest politeness. Grandpa glared at him.

  “What?” he barked.

  “We’re waiting for your demonstration,” York barked back.

  Grandpa jerked his thumb at Kieran, ordering him inside. I winced sympathetically. Helping Grandpa with fight scenarios when he was in a temper never ended well. I followed, because skipping it would have started another lecture on family responsibility. The Niners looked eager and nervous, chattering among themselves. Lia waved at me.

  Grandpa threw a ninja egg at a short boy with glasses before York even blew his whistle.

  A pepper cloud had everyone in the immediate vicinity coughing and sneezing.

  “First lesson,” Grandpa growled. “Be aware of your surroundings.”

  The boy’s face was bright red as he wiped his streaming eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. Everyone else stood at immediate attention, silently cowed. York looked reluctantly impressed.

  “This is Caleb Wild,” he introduced belatedly. “Mr. Wild has been a hunter for decades. This is his assistant Kieran Black, nephew of Hart Black.” Excited glances were exchanged when Kieran’s last name was recognized, but the only sound was the pepper victim choking on a cough. Grandpa cut an impressive figure, pacing in front of the cadets, his white hair cut short, his muscled arms scarred. His boots clomped, ringing like an iron bell. Students trembled.

  “You’ve all been given a sacred duty to protect the world against vampires. And every single one of you is capable of winning that fight. You!” The girl next to Lia staggered back a step.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “What’s your skill?”

  “I … can throw.”

  “Good. You!”

  “Um …”

  “Figure it out. You!”

  “I’m fast.”

  The students were still terrified, but they started to stand with more pride in themselves as hunters. Grandpa was good at that.

  “It doesn’t matter how small you are,” he continued. “Or whether you’re a boy or a girl, or what your last name is. What matters is the League and the amount of fight in you. Even if you’re wounded, you can still make a difference. To demonstrate this, Kieran and I are going to spar.”

  “And I’m going to die,” Kieran muttered so only I could hear.

  Students broke from their stiff rows and circled the mat in the center of the room. The mirrors surrounding the walls showed their eager faces; the windows showed nothing but shadows.

  “The first point I’ll make is that if you’re wounded, you stay out of the fight. You run the hell away if you can, so you don’t endanger the mission or your team. If you can’t run away, you damn well win. Understand me?”

  “Yes, sir!” The chorus reverberated with enthusiasm.

  “And you follow orders, hear me?”

  I knew that was for me.

  “Yes, sir!”

  I didn’t say anything. I had no intention of obeying.

  “How would you fight me?” he demanded of Kieran.

  Kieran already had a stake in his hand.

  “Good. But you missed and I have you by the throat. Now what?”

  Kieran gurgled since now Grandpa really did have him by the throat. “Another stake.”

  “And?”

  Kieran swept out with his foot, hitting Grandpa’s ankles. Grandpa staggered, stumbled. I hissed out a breath when he nearly fell over. Kieran didn’t react and I didn’t move. If we betrayed a single ounce of concern, Grandpa’s pride would be wounded. In fact, he was grinning for the first time that night.

  “That’s my boy.”

  Kieran turned his back, glancing at the students. “And then I run,” he said, to illustrate the earlier point.

  Grandpa leaped to his feet. The floor shook. He grabbed Kieran’s ponytail, jerking him to a stop. In his other hand, he held one of the daggers from his belt. I didn’t have time to say a word, only to squeak.

  The blade cut through Kieran’s ponytail.

  His hair drifted to the floor and he whirled, bug-eyed with shock. Everyone else gasped. Grandpa looked smug.

  “If you have a weakness like a broken arm, you rid yourself of all other weaknesses,” he said, sliding his knife back into his scabbard. “If you don’t learn anything else, learn this. Weakness is not allowed.”

  His faded eyes pinned me where I stood.

  •

  Grandpa left without saying another word to me. Kieran paused only long enough to squeeze my arm.

  “I’ll talk to him,” he promised severely, holding his ponytail in his fist.

  I nodded mutely and stalked back to the dorm, boiling with anger and hurt and guilt. Chloe was sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bed. She looked up when I stormed in.

  “Let’s figure out this TH thing,” I said before she could ask me about my mood. I just didn’t want to talk about it. I wouldn’t know where to start. “So we know someone’s selling the stuff at school and we know it’s a recognized Helios-Ra drug. Well, sort of recognized,” I amended. “It must be secret or it wouldn’t have been hidden so deeply in the files, right?”

  “Definitely. We could get your number-one fan Lia to try to score some. See if we flush out the dealer?”

  I wrinkled my nose. “I guess. But I’d rather not endanger her like that. And anyway, I’m thinking since the dealer’s a student he or she is just a small fish in a big pond.”

  “Probably.”

  “Okay, so then let’s make a list of the students who have gotten sick. There was that first guy—I don’t know his name.”

  “And then Will. Or was that just a Hel-Blar thing?”

  “He mentioned he was taking vitamins, so let’s add him to the list. Speaking of vitamins, have you talked to your mom yet?”

  She grimaced. “No. She’s been at the lab and I know she won’t talk to me until she’s at home. Jeanine after Will,” she added. I added her to the list.

  “Spencer,” I said quietly. “Though I don’t actually think he’s part of it.”

  “Me neither. Jonas and James. Those ninth-grade twins, the really short ones?”

  “Right. And then Savannah.”

  “She was short too.”

  “What, so the drug is for short people?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I guess not.”

  I paused, frowning. “Actually …”

  She blinked. “What do you mean, actually? You think the school’s taking out short people? That’s just weird.”

  “No, listen. What do they all have in common?”

  “They’re mostly Niners? And short.”

  “Will was in eleventh grade and tall,” I argued. “But gentle.” I raised my eyebrows. “All these students would have been considered weaker. Short, skinny, not into fighting.” I leaned forward while details fell into place. “And who picks on those kinds of people on a regular basis?”

  “Bullies?” Chloe’s mouth dropped open. “York.” She slapped her bedspread. “That must be why my mom’s been feeding me steroids all summer. I would have been one of the weak ones without it! I found the info buried in her files just before you go
t here. She knew about it. She reads all the lab notes, but she didn’t want to pull a society-wide alarm before proper tests were conducted. You know how she is about research. Damn it, Mom.”

  “So York’s been making sure the weaker students get the TH?”

  “Looks like.”

  I met her shocked eyes grimly. “So how do we take him down?”

  Chapter 27

  •

  Quinn

  Later Tuesday night

  I got a text just before dawn. Marcus finally had results from the blood samples Hunter had given me.

  He also had Solange sitting on a bench, looking shell-shocked.

  Her eyes were red but it was the kind of red you get from too much crying. When I burst through the door of the barn Uncle Geoffrey used for his scientific experiments, she looked away, lower lip wobbling.

  Solange’s lower lip never wobbled.

  Marcus looked like he was about to start running. Crying girls made him nervous, even when it was his little sister. Or maybe especially when it was his little sister.

  “Hey, Sol,” I said quietly, crouching down in front of her. There were acres of Bunsen burners and glass beakers on the counter behind her. Light sparkled on scrupulously clean equipment that looked like it belonged in a science-fiction movie. If Uncle Geoffrey ever wanted a gig as a mad scientist, he was well on his way.

  “Quinn, go away,” she said miserably, picking at the dried clay on her pants. She’d probably made a hundred pots on her pottery wheel in the short couple of weeks since she’d turned.

  “Not a chance,” I said gently. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. I just came to talk to Uncle Geoffrey.”

  “Okay, so what’s the problem?”

  She shrugged, keeping her head down and refusing to look at me. I glanced at Marcus. He shrugged too, then patted her shoulder.

  “Solange, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” he said. I got the impression he’d said that a few hundred times in the last hour. “It’s biological. Like acne.”

  She made a weird sound in the back of her throat. I closed my eyes briefly. “Nice,” I said. “Tell a sixteen-year-old girl everything’s fine because it’s like pimples. And by the way? What the hell’s going on?” I stared at her. “Where’s Uncle Geoffrey?”

  “He’s gone to talk to Mom and Dad.”

  “Why? Are you sick?” Dread was heavy and metallic in my stomach, like iron.

  “Yes!” she exclaimed at the same time Marcus muttered, “No.”

  Solange pursed her lips. “It’s …” She finally huffed a sigh and then squared her shoulders. She tilted her chin up. “It’s this.” She lifted her lips off her teeth. Her fangs were out.

  All six of them.

  I blinked and counted again. Her regular canine teeth fangs were out, with two more on either side. The second pair were like the original and the third were very small, barely noticeable. Her gums were inflamed and raw.

  Drakes didn’t grow more than one set of fangs. It was a mark of our ancient blood, of our more civilized form of vampirism. There was some snobbery in the courts—the more fangs you had, the more feral you were. Isabeau had two sets and she flashed them proudly, but she was unique, even among vampires. The Hel-Blar had nothing but fangs. No wonder Solange was freaked out.

  She thought she was turning into a monster.

  She swallowed hard, trying not to cry. Marcus patted her shoulder harder.

  “Don’t cry.” He was begging.

  “What did Uncle Geoffrey say?” I asked softly.

  “That I was special,” she snorted, a flash of her regular self. “Special,” she repeated. “God.”

  “Ouch.” I winced sympathetically.

  She hugged herself, as if she were cold. “Quinn, what if this means I’m not finished with the bloodchange? What … what if I turn into a Hel-Blar or something?”

  I stood up, glowering. “You are not turning into a Hel-Blar.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I do too. For one thing, you’re not blue. And you don’t smell like moldy dirt.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “So am I.”

  “Uncle Geoffrey said you’d be fine,” Marcus reminded her.

  “He said he thought I’d be fine. He also said he’s never heard of this happening in our family. In any of the old families.”

  “It’s just because you’re a girl. You know, the first in hundreds of years and all that. Your change is a little different. That’s all.”

  She poked at her new fangs. “The royal courts are going to have a field day with this, especially at the Blood Moon. The feral princess.” She groaned. “Someone’s going to write a song.”

  “Probably. But think of how much harder you can bite them when they do.”

  Her laugh was watery, but it was a laugh. “True.” She stood up. “I’m tired. I’m going home.”

  “Wait for me,” Marcus and I both said together.

  Marcus pulled folded computer printouts from his pocket. “Your sample analysis.”

  I grabbed it, skimming the charts and graphs. I’d skipped the majority of Uncle Geoffrey’s science lectures. That was the summer most of the girls my age in town miraculously grew boobs. I had fond memories of that summer. None of them involved anything that might help me decipher the blood analysis. I looked up, disgusted. “What the hell does this say? I don’t speak geek.”

  Marcus snorted. “Careful, little brother, or I won’t translate.”

  “Just tell me what it says.”

  “That your girlfriend was right.” He paused, clearly waiting for me to react to the term “girlfriend.” I didn’t. I’d take Hunter any way I could get her. If I had to start using words like “girlfriend” and turning down other dates, I’d do it. “It’s not vitamins in the blood,” Marcus continued. “Those pills are a steroid.”

  “Yeah, we knew that. Her friend’s already off those.”

  “They’re not the real problem,” Marcus said.

  “This just gets better and better. Hit me.”

  “The second sample, from that kid who died?”

  “Yeah?”

  He looked grim. “He was poisoned.”

  I went cold. Hunter said people at her school were falling sick all over the place.

  “And the poison wasn’t just meant for him.” Marcus’s fangs flashed. “It was meant for us.”

  Chapter 28

  •

  Hunter

  Wednesday night

  “Got something!” When Chloe’s computer beeped the next night, she dove across the room, elbowing Jason in the gut.

  He rubbed his sternum. “The hell, Chloe?”

  “I hooked it up to beep when it cracked the TH file password,” she said excitedly.

  “I thought you didn’t want to do that on campus, where they might tamper with the connection?” Jenna asked as we crowded around the back of her chair.

  Chloe waved that off. “I put in a few more security shields and a red herring or two. We should be fine. Besides, we’re running out of time and I’ve mostly been concentrating on my mom’s files.”

  “So what’ve you got?” I pressed, bewildered by the gibberish on the screen. “What did you find?”

  “Another file hidden in my mom’s notes—labeled TH.” Chloe bounced in her chair. I knew that bounce. She was onto something. “I want it.” She chewed on her lower lip as the screen flashed. “Different password.” She hit a few more keys. “This would be easier if I had my mom’s actual computer. I could dust her keyboard.” She tapped her foot impatiently. “Come on. Come on, I said!” It took a few more minutes but she finally grinned. “Gotcha, you sneaky bastard.”

  We all leaned in to read.

  “That’s some kind of chemical breakdown, isn’t it?” Jason frowned. “For medications, or something.”

  I skimmed the page, nodding. “Looks like. Here’s a list of side effects.”

  “The steroid?” Ch
loe asked in a small voice.

  I shook my head. “No. Just the TH. And … holy shit. Holy shit, we were right. It is meant for poor fighters. It says right here that it should only be given to weak hunters who aren’t expected to survive vampire attacks.” I felt sick to my stomach. “It goes through their bloodstream and makes it poisonous to Hel-Blar, to any vampires.” I remembered the blond Hel-Blar who’d disintegrated right in front of me after biting Will. “The League is sabotaging its own hunters to poison Hel-Blar.” My head was spinning.

  No one said anything for a long moment.

  “That’s just …” Jenna shook her head, unable to find a word heinous enough to describe what we’d just discovered.

  “There has to be some mistake,” Jason said doubtfully.

  I marched over to my supplies and started shoving stakes in my pockets and checking microphones and night goggles. They turned slowly, staring at me.

  “Hunter?” Chloe asked, as if she was afraid I was about to lose it. “What are you doing?”

  “We’re taking York down,” I said forcefully. “Right now.”

  “Um, we’re going to beat up a teacher? That seems like a really bad idea.”

  “We’re not going to beat him up. Give me a break. We’re just going to nail him for passing out that disgusting pill, and then we’re going to dismantle the entire League if it comes to it.”

  Because sometimes you had to betray the League in order to safeguard it. Sometimes you had to break the rules. Sometimes duty was hard and uncomfortable and burned inside your chest. Grandpa taught me that last part well enough.

  “How exactly are we going to do that?” Jenna asked. She held up her hands, palms out. “I’m all for a little payback, but I’m hunter enough to know better than to fight a battle I can’t win.”

  “I have every intention of winning.”

  “I get that, I really do.”

  I tied my hair back in a braid, tucking it under my collar. “We use the same plan we had before,” I explained. “For now. Jason is going to nose around and see if he can’t get someone to sell him drugs.”

  Jason winced. “I feel like I’m in one of those after-school specials. If I get branded a narc, I’m blaming you.”

  I ignored him. “I’m going to e-mail this file to Kieran and have him give it to Hart. And then Jenna and I are going to switch off shifts staking out York when he’s not in class.”