A Tithe of Blood and Ashes

  Out of all the answers he could have given me, that was the only one that made me pause. Still.

  “And why exactly have you been staring at me all day? Didn’t you parents teach you manners? Are you not even a little bit housebroken?”

  “They’re still on the rez on the other side of the mountains. It’s a little far for family dinners.”

  I stared at him, then sighed, thoroughly disgruntled. “Well, damn it.”

  “What?”

  “Now I have to invite you to my house for the next holiday so you’re not alone and I don’t even like you.”

  He just blinked. “You know, most people are scared of me.”

  “Oh please, have you met Helena Drake? You’re a puppy.”

  “A puppy.”

  “A creepy staring puppy. Cut it out, you’re going cross-eyed.”

  “I told you, something’s off. But I can’t put my finger on it. You haven’t done some sort of spell, have you? Some love magic thing?”

  “Because I’m a girl? And all I think about is getting boys to like me?” I rolled my eyes. “Get over yourself.” I’d been running for my life since last summer. Okay, sure, I’d made time for Nicholas. It was called multi-tasking. A well-balanced life. A Drake brother, for crying out loud.

  “Exam spell then?” Samuel pressed.

  I paused, distracted. “Is there such a thing?”

  “Yes, but they never work.”

  “Then stop teasing me with it and get in that office and redeem your sad self.” I shoved him again.

  “Jody will lose her shit when she finds out you ratted her out,” he said over his shoulder.

  “Ratted her out?” I crossed my arms. “Please. I told Bellwood, because like hell I’m keeping that shit secret. That would only serve Jody. If she doesn’t want people to know she’s an asshole, she should maybe stop being one.”

  Samuel looked like he might be trying to smile but he didn’t know how. “I guess what they say about you is true,” he said.

  “What? That I’m a blood-puppet? Vampire lover? Hippie? Whatever.”

  “No, that you’re insane.”

  I shrugged and patted his arm. “Takes one to know one.”

  And the bell for my final exam rang, signaling my impending doom.

  ***

  By shooting Samuel in the ass with a paintball pellet, my mother would say I was engaging in an unhealthy circle of violence. I considered it karmic justice. He shot me a glance but didn’t retaliate, proving my point. I wonder what Mom would have to say about Jody’s unyielding attempts to take out my left eyeball with yellow paint.

  The game was being held in an old barn, the cold snaking between the weathered planks. Fires burned in metal bowls between wooden towers, bridges, random walls, and ropes dangling from the rafters. The owner had graduated from the academy and though he had never actually become a hunter, he must have been fond of his school years because he’d donated the barn to the students.

  At the moment it was filled with adrenaline, exhaustion, and that special kind of rush of not having another exam for months. We wore the standard goggles and chest plates, and the paintball guns were ancient but survivable.

  My mother was even now chanting soothing mantras in mediation class. Me? I was swinging from a rope screaming with laughter and shooting hot pink paint at anything that moved. I landed and rolled behind a brick half-wall. It was multi-coloured mayhem. And I loved it.

  There was no over-thinking; no wondering if that vampire was a friend or a foe, if that hunter might try to stake someone I loved, if the Blood Moon treaty would hold, if Solange was safe on her travels, if I was going to pass my classes, and if so, what then? I was never going to truly be a hunter, not like the others. Nicholas’s dad, Liam, said that was a good thing. The fact that I was different meant I could be a bridge, not just a sword.

  But right now, none of that mattered. It was only the cold puff of my breath, the smoke and dust, and exploding paint. There was something meditative about being still amid the chaos.

  Until a capsule caught me in the shoulder, bruising on impact. White paint splattered in my hair.

  “Wake up, Hamilton,” Jenna barked “This isn’t the time to start Ohming on me.”

  I ducked further down behind the wall, tracking glimpses of movement. The bulbs were dim and mostly black lighting effect. It was disorienting and dark, but we were used to that. It was another hour of tactics and paint bombs and running and crouching until our legs hurt. By the time we pushed out into the cold field and clustered around a barrel fire, the exam stress was gone. We were left with starlight and cold and the snap of the flames.

  Jason handed me a bottle of water, sweat spiking his hair. Jenna and Hunter followed, grinning. “I didn’t see you in there,” I said to Hunter. She was Quinn’s girlfriend and about to graduate as valedictorian. Or whatever the equivalent was in a vampire hunter high school.

  “She was on one of the bridges,” Jenna said, sounding disgusted. “Not a shot on her, plus she’s the one who took me out.”

  “Me too,” Jason admitted.

  Hunter shrugged and went back to braiding her tangled blond hair. She tucked it under a wool cap. “You always leave your left side open,” she said to Jenna. “And you shot first.”

  Someone produced graham crackers and marshmallows. And even though it was so cold I could barely feel my ears, it was a nice quiet night for Violet Hill.

  It didn’t last, of course.

  We were heading back to one of the school vans when Hunter stopped, suddenly alert. I felt it too, a faint warning prickle on the back of my neck. Snow drifted down off the tree branches of the woods pressing in along the field. Laughter floated from the around the fire. I reached for the stake always tucked neatly in my boot. It was boring whittled oak. I’d long ago broken my favourite one with the rhinestones.

  “Hel-Blar?” I mouthed at Hunter, thinking of the nest Nicholas and his brother’s had routed yesterday. She climbed onto the roof of the van to check while I peered deeper between the trees. Again, I saw the same shadow, a woman in a grey cloak walking away from me. Before I could wonder at it, Hunter jumped back down to the ground.

  “I counted at least nine.”

  “Nine Hel-Blar?” I gaped. They usually travelled alone, or in pairs. I wondered if another nest had been found, but no convenient horde of Drake brothers stormed out of the forest this time.

  “And dozens of hunters,” Jenna said. “We’re fine.”

  “Or we’re screwed,” I muttered. I knew too well how basic common sense fell apart when humans met vampires. Hel-Blar were the worst. There would be casualties. After the Blood Moon battle, I hated that word even more.

  “Two more on the far left.” Hunter met my gaze. “We need to get everyone out of here before they lose their minds.”

  “Hel-Blar!” someone yelled just as the stench hit us.

  “Too late,” I sighed.”

  “Get in formation,” Hunter ordered, instantly reverting to her ancestral lineage of vampire hunting. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d taken off her winter coat to reveal a superhero costume. Something tasteful and practical and deadly.

  Students fanned out, waiting with stakes in hand. Jenna took Hunter’s place on the van, after claiming a crossbow from inside. The Hel-Blar hissed, scuttling between the dead stalks of last summer’s corn rattling like bones. Someone released a vial of Hypnos powder but the wind blew it away before it reached the Hel-Blar. There would be no easy hypnotism, no ordering them to stand down. There would be blood and teeth and the end of sharp stakes.

  I grabbed my own crossbow and climbed onto a red tractor crouching nearby like a metal beast. There were a few eager students pushing the front line and rushing in to cut off the advancing Hel-Blar. It was noble and all but it made my job harder. If I loosened a bolt now, I might take one of them out instead. “Get down,” Jenna hollered, having the same problem. “Asshats! Down!”

  Hunter had a bit
better luck. She commanded them like a conductor at the orchestra pit. There a strange kind of music to her orders, to the pounding of footsteps, the harsh rasp of breaths, the whistle of arrows when we could finally shoot them.

  The Hel-Blar were focused, so focused they didn’t bother attacking the students in their way. They just dodged around them, clawing and spitting. I’d never seen them so focused on anything. Many of them could barely even speak usually. But something had galvanized them. Or someone.

  Me.

  “Um,” I said, watching the Hel-Blar press closer, clacking their jaws. “I think they’re following me.” I hopped off the tractor onto the roof of the chicken coop to test my theory. They tracked me with their manic eyes, saliva dripping from their needle teeth. Gagging at the smell , I jumped back onto the tractor. They followed, shoving though the snow. “That can’t be good.”

  I shot another bolt, the tractor creaking under me. “I guess that makes me the bait,” I muttered.

  “Bad idea,” Jenna said, shooting another bolt. A Hel-Blar girl staggered back, crumbling into brittle ashes. Her tattered clothes fell in a heap.

  “Got a better one?” I texted Nicholas: Buffalo Rock. Bring back up. Hel-Blar.

  “No.”

  “Well, there you go.” I kicked down at mottled blue fingers when they reached for me. There was an unpleasant crack of brittle bones. There were too many hands though, and one of them managed to clasp my ankle. They couldn’t scratch me through my thick boot but I still felt a jagged stab of panic. I kicked, shouting. The Hel-Blar tugged viciously and I slipped. I landed hard on my tailbone, pain shooting up my spine and stealing my breath.

  Hunter slammed a stake down, pinning the same Hel-Blar to the tractor bucket. She twisted the stake until he fell apart into dust.

  “There’s too many of them!” She danced back out of reach.

  “I know!” I scrambled back up and stomped on more fingers. My tailbone was bruised and hot. “I need a car!” If I took the van I’d be leaving everyone else defenseless since it had all the weapons. But no one was likely to hand over the keys to their vehicle, especially not if I might get Hel-Blar bits all over it. I couldn’t exactly blame them. Well, I might actually, if one of those Hel-Blar ate my spleen.

  A car pelted me with snow from its tires as it slid near the tractor. Samuel leaned out of the window. “Get in!”

  I blinked, momentarily nonplussed. “Are you serious?”

  “Now, hippie. Before one of them bites you.”

  “Jenna,” Hunter shouted. “Cover Lucy!”

  Jenna spun on one foot and loosed a volley of bolts. Two of the three Hel-Blar blocking me in fell apart. I kicked the third in the face and then leapt over her body. I ran as fast as I could, the backs of my legs prickling with fear. Hot fetid breath was too close, too close.

  Hunter got there first and yanked open the back door. I slid in dragging her behind me. I knew she’d try and guard my back to her own detriment. Samuel pressed on the accelerator just as something landed on the roof. He cursed. “It’s Jenna,” I told him. “Drive!”

  The car fishtailed in the slippery field, finally gaining a little bit more traction on the road. Samuel rolled down the passenger window and Jenna slid inside onto the seat. I twisted to wipe condensation off the back window. Shadows trailed us, like beetles scuttling from under a rock.

  “They’re following.”

  Hunter frowned at me. “But why are they following?”

  “It’s some kind of magic,” Samuel replied, glancing at me in the rear-view mirror. “I can see it coming off her like glitter.” The car listed across the meridian.

  “Eyes on the road!” I told him. “And, that’s just great. First Isabeau tells me my aura is candy-pink and now I’m all over glitter. Next, I’ll be sneezing rainbows.”

  “Ew,” Jenna said. “Don’t get any on me.”

  I poked Samuel in the shoulder. “Turn left up past that big line of cedars.”

  “It’s just field,” he said.

  “Trust me,” I insisted. “Take the turn. Now!”

  Jenna yanked on the steering wheel when she decided Samuel wasn’t obeying fast enough. The car made some kind of strange sound. Samuel knocked her hands away. Tall grass slapped at the sides of the car.

  “I called for backup,” I told them. “And we keep this path clear all year round, just in case.”

  Samuel and Jenna exchanged a tight, tense glance. “Who’d you call for backup?” she asked.

  “Who do you think?” I tossed back, still watching the wave of Hel-Blar pushing through the snow and grass. Jenna wasn’t too keen on vampires and Samuel clearly felt the same way since he’d helped Jody push me around before the battle. “They’re closest and they’re our best bet,” I said. “So suck it up.”

  “Aren’t you the one trying to start a Vampire-Hunter relations club at school?” Jenna said drily. “Nice bedside manner.”

  Nicholas, Logan, Quinn, and Bruno, the human head of security for the Drake family, were waiting for us by the big rock shaped like a buffalo. The brothers wore the palm-sized shields over their hearts, and bloodthirsty smiles. Nicholas’ eyes were serious and fierce, searching for me.

  I slid out of the car. “I bring gross undead creatures of the night,” I said, by way of explanation. “A lot of them.”

  “What the hell?” Quinn asked, even as he winked a hello at Hunter. I was pretty sure that Quinn could be dismembered and still manage to flirt. And for Hunter, he’d find a way to flirt even if he was full on dead and not just plain old undead.

  “With Solange out of town, I’m the new undead Pied Piper,” I replied, limping closer. Her vampire pheromones had been so strong back when she was possessed that humans had trailed after her, begging to be bitten. So much more hygienic than Hel-Blar. I missed her desperately, even now, facing down danger. Especially now. Facing down danger was something we did together.

  “Why are you limping?” Nicholas demanded.

  “I broke my ass,” I replied. “Now focus.” I pointed at Quinn sternly, knowing very well he was about to make some remark about my ass. “Shut it.”

  “What?” He asked innocently.

  The rustle of the dead grass was horror-movie creepy as the Hel-Blar continued their advance. We could smell them, but we couldn’t see them yet. They fanned out around us. All the hairs on my arms prickled painfully. Bruno lifted his gun, which I knew was loaded with handmade pointed wooden bullets.

  The first Hel-Blar leapt out of the shadows, snarling. The others followed, descending like hyenas on a zebra carcass. I’d discovered long ago that fear and hunger had a very distinct smell: copper and vinegar. It did not compliment the regular Hel-Blar stench.

  The fight was a blur. It played out to a soundtrack of clacking needle teeth, Quinn’s crazy battle laugh, and the crunch of snow underfoot. I’d never seen so many Hel-Blar at once before and it made me colder than the winter winds. They were quick and vicious, fueled by feral appetites. Bruno took point, even though Hunter tried. He was older and accustomed to dealing with the Drakes. Hunter might be deadly, but she was polite and reasonable too, which probably made a nice change for Bruno. Samuel and Jenna were silent and steady. Samuel always put me in mind of a storybook assassin with this stoic, fierce, face. Now it was his abilities that brought to mind silent warriors, he as nearly as fast and efficient as Quinn and Nicholas, which was saying something.

  I had stakes and the crossbow I’d brought with me. There were only a few bolts left, though, and I had to wait for the Hel-Blar to get dangerously close before shooting. Ash floated in the air. Nicholas stayed close to me, moving so fast he was a whirl of pale skin and bright eyes. I shot a Hel-Blar woman in the foot, pinioning her so I could stake her. There was no consciousness in her eyes, just mad hunger.

  When it was finally over, the human half of us were panting. My fingers cramped around my last stake so tightly splinters dug into my thumb. Jenna bent over to catch her breath, her red hair l
ike a war banner. I had several interesting bruises starting on my legs and there was one purpling on Hunter’s jaw from where a Hel-Blar elbow had cracked into her.

  “Anyone hurt?” Bruno barked. We all shook our heads. “Check for scrapes, or cuts.” There were contamination procedures, both from the Drakes and the Helios-Ra. Neither were pleasant. Fortunately, neither were required.

  Quinn slung his arm over Hunter’s shoulders, grinning. He kicked ashes off his boots. “You sure know how to romance a guy.” His fingertips were gentle on her jaw though, as he investigated her wound.

  “I’m fine,” she whispered.

  “That was a lot of Hel-Blar,” Bruno muttered. “Even for us.”

  “I’m the belle of the undead ball,” I agreed, smacking my fist on my chest as if it would stop my lungs from imploding. Adrenaline made me feel weak and fluttery. “By the way? Go us!” Nicholas’ arm slipped around my waist and we leaned slightly into each other. His eyes were very pale, like silver coins. “Oh, by the way, Nic, Quinn, Bruno, this is Jenna and Samuel,” I introduced them.

  “Samuel?” Nicholas’s fangs elongated with a snap like a butterfly knife. “The same Samuel who let them manhandle you at school?”

  I moved in front of him, using my shoulder to block him. He advanced another step, pushing me before him like the small, irreverent figurehead of a vampire ship. “Easy, Fangy” I said. “We have bigger problems.”

  Nicholas paused. “Do you know how often you say that to me?”

  “Never a dull moment,” I agreed.

  Jenna stood back stiffly. Samuel was so fiercely expressionless beside her that I knew he must be feeling everything all at once. I’d seen Solange wear that face too many times. I imagined a mass of snakes all tangled in knots. Still, those two I could handle.

  It was the rest of them that might make things really, really messy.

  Jason pulled up in the school van, the transmission wheezing as it clogged with various bits of winter. “We have a problem,” he announced, leaping out of the van. The frigid wind yanked at his hair and scarf.

  “More Hel-Blar?” Hunter asked.