Drake Chronicles: 03 Out for Blood (15 page)

“Why, is she mean or something?”

“No, just insane.” He said it nonchalantly, without judgment. It was just fact.

“Oh.”

“Hunters kil ed her family.”

“Vampires kil ed mine,” I pointed out defensively.

His voice softened. “I wasn’t accusing you, Hunter.” I winced. He had saved my life tonight. I shouldn’t be snapping at him. “Sorry.” He shrugged. “No big deal. It’s weird, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“Treaties and al that. It’s like we woke up one morning and we weren’t supposed to be enemies anymore. It’l take some getting used to.”

“True,” I said. “I think it’s real y cool though.”

“Unfortunately, not everyone agrees.”

I thought of my grandfather and what he would do if he could see me now. “I know.

But it’s worth protecting.”

“Yes,” he said, and something about the way he was looking at me made me think he was talking specifical y about me. “It is.”

That was crazy though, wasn’t it? I was just a hunter to him, one of the guys. But he hadn’t cal ed me Buffy since the cafe. He’d actual y used my real name. Did that mean anything?
Get a grip, Wild,
I told myself.
He was also making out with at
least two different girls not three hours ago.

He slowed the car before we reached the turnoff for the school. He pul ed into the undergrowth and turned the engine off, kil ing the lights. We were wel -hidden by the grass and low-hanging tree branches. Fireflies winked at us from the field across the street. There wasn’t a single other person, human or vampire, anywhere. Even the stars hid themselves behind thin clouds, as if to give us privacy.

“I got your text while I was waiting for you. You have a favor to ask me?” he said, turning to face me. Even in the darkness, his cheekbones were strong, his face pale. His teeth gleamed, looking slightly too sharp even with his fangs retracted.

“So you did get it?” I asked, suddenly babbling. “I wasn’t sure. I mean, sometimes we don’t get very good reception at school. But I guess you know that, living on a farm and al .”
Shut up, shut up, shut up
.

He smiled slowly. “Hunter, are you nervous?”

“Shut up.”

“Are you going to ask me to prom?” he teased.

“Shut up,” I repeated, choking on a horrified laugh.

He grinned. “I look pretty good in a tux.”

I rol ed my eyes, suddenly comfortable again. “And you’re so refreshingly modest.”

“It’s a curse,” he agreed cheerful y. Then his eyes went from silver rain to stormy lake. “And you’re stil wearing the coronation medal ion.” I felt like I’d been caught mooning over his photograph. I tucked the pendant back into my dress. I wiped my damp palms on my lap. “Can I trust you with school secrets?”

“Helios-Ra secrets? Cool.” He leaned back, satisfied.

I bit my lip. “Never mind. This was a bad idea.”

He touched my hand. “I’m kidding. What is it?”

I hoped I wasn’t about to make a real y big mistake. He felt trustworthy though, even with the charming smirks and the fangs. I pul ed the vitamin I’d stolen from Chloe’s bag out of my purse. It was in a little plastic bag, the kind you get when you buy jewelry. “I need to have this analyzed,” I explained quietly.

“You must have labs here at school.”

“We do. But I don’t know anyone wel enough to trust them with it.”

“But you trust me.”

“Yes.” Even if it didn’t make any sense.

He took the pil , frowned at it. “Looks like a vitamin.”

“I’m real y hoping that’s al it is.”

“But you think it’s something else?”

I nodded. “Chloe’s taking them and she’s been weird and moody.” His eyebrows rose. “Steroids?”

“Maybe. She’s obsessed with taking them and working out and getting strong, so it’s possible. And that guy Wil ? The one we took to the infirmary? He said something about vitamins too, remember?”

“Huh. How is he anyway?”

“Nothing definitive yet. And no one wil tel us anything about that
Hel-Blar
woman who disintegrated. There’s definitely some weird shit going on.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t normal,” Quinn agreed. “I’l see if my brother Marcus can analyze this. He’s good with that sort of thing. I’d ask my uncle, the biology teacher, but he’d have way too many questions.” He slipped my only piece of evidence into his pocket.

“Can you analyze this too?” I asked, pul ing the blood samples out of my purse. I was the kind of girl who carried blood in her purse and daggers in her boots.

Maybe I should see the school counselor.

I felt nervous but relieved at the same time as he pocketed the samples. A total y uncharacteristic giggle stuck in my throat. I might final y get some answers after al .

I touched his wrist and it was cool under my fingertips. “Thank you.” He paused, eyes narrowing. “You’re not taking this stuff too, are you?” he asked sharply.

“No way.” He leaned closer, sniffing along my col arbone and under my jaw. “What are you doing?” I whispered.

“Just checking,” he answered, somewhat hoarsely.

“Checking what?” My pulse fluttered.

“We can usual y smel drugs in a human’s bloodstream. We can definitely taste it.”

“I told you I’m not on anything.”

“I know. You smel like … raspberries … and limes.”

“Is that … good?”

I felt him smile against my skin. “Yes.”

“Oh.” I swal owed. It was getting difficult to form a coherent sentence. “So, you could sniff Chloe? Or Wil ? And know if something was wrong.”

“Maybe. I’d rather breathe
you
in, though.” Yup, he was real y,
really
good at this.

I actual y felt like I was melting, like I was on fire, like I’d swal owed those fireflies.

He pul ed back just enough to look at me, as if I was a puzzle that needed solving, or a candy he wasn’t sure he was al owed to eat.

Bad analogy.

His fangs lengthened, but only a little. I wouldn’t even have noticed if I wasn’t used to watching for things like that. And it didn’t make me nervous for some reason. I wasn’t scared, and not just because I had a purse ful of smal sharp weapons.

There was something between us suddenly, and it wasn’t merely a secret unraveling.

It was something else, something more forbidden, more mysterious, more delicious.

I closed the tiny gap between us, swaying toward him as if he was a magnet. Our eyes connected, held. His pupils dilated, irises lightened. I smiled.

“You’re not the only one who wants a taste,” I said.

And then he was kissing me, or I was kissing him. We were just suddenly in each other’s arms, like lightning—not there, then just suddenly there. Everywhere. His mouth was wicked, his tongue bold. I couldn’t get enough. I tingled al over. His hand dug into my hair, cradled the back of my neck. He pul ed me closer. The muscles of his arms were sinewy under my palms.

I’d never felt like this before.

He was a vampire and I didn’t care.

I was a hunter and I didn’t care.

I could barely catch my breath and I didn’t care.

I just wanted more.

And then the car could barely contain us and his elbow accidental y hit the horn.

The sudden noise cut through the warm summer night and we jumped, pul ing apart.

I was light-headed, disoriented. My lips felt warm, swol en.

He smiled rueful y, forcing himself to release me. “Guess that’s my cue to take you home.”

“I’d better walk from here,” I murmured. “Surveil ance cameras.”

“Text me when you get in,” he said. “I’l wait right here until you do.”

“Okay.” I was pretty dazed, surprised that I could stand up properly. I was real y glad he looked just as bewildered.

“Good night, Hunter.”

Chapter 15

•

Quinn

I grinned al the way home.

I’d bailed on two hot girls, nearly been staked, and had to hide from a car ful of vampire hunters in ful battle gear.

Total y worth it.

Nicholas was on the front porch when I pul ed the car up the driveway. He shielded his eyes from the glare of the headlights, fangs gleaming.

“How was your date?” he asked as I slammed the car door shut.

“Which one?”

“Show-off.”

“With great hotness comes great responsibility,” I answered. I was stil grinning.

“Up for patrol, pretty boy?”

“Always.” I was stil wired from the fight and the kiss. Kicking
Hel-Blar
ass sounded like the perfect way to end the evening.

“There’s a pack in the hal closet,” Nicholas told me. I went in and grabbed it along with a handheld crossbow, stuffed into the sleeve of an old coat no one ever wore.

It was my favorite, and I had the worst time hiding it from Lucy. I slung the pack over my shoulder and went back outside.

There were stil some scorch marks at the end of the porch and a soggy plank that would rot through if we didn’t replace it soon. Hope’s rogue Helios-Ra unit had done some serious damage when they’d tried to blast their way through the house.

We hadn’t finished al the repairs yet but at least we’d patched up the big gaping hole in the wal .

I tied my hair back and loaded the crossbow. An unloaded crossbow would be about as useful as a spoon. Mom could have been an undead boy scout with al her

“Be Prepared” speeches. “Let’s go.”

On the farm and in the thick woods around the mountains where we patrol ed, we didn’t have to hold back. We could move as fast as we wanted and not worry that we might appear blurry to human eyes. There was freedom in that, and exhilaration.

I hadn’t been lying when I told Hunter I didn’t believe in hiding who and what I was. I also didn’t believe in moping about because I happened to be undead.

In my opinion, being a vampire kicked ass.

And undead was better than dead.

Okay, when I was human, the thought of drinking blood had me worried I was in for a lifetime of an eat-your- Brussels-sprouts-they’re-good-for-you diet. But once I’d changed, so had my taste buds. Why turn your nose up at what kept you alive? Or, not dead? Whatever.

The only drawback, as far as I could see, was that it was easier to score a cheeseburger than a pint of blood. And I missed the whole sunlight thing, but I got over that pretty quickly. It made me feel like crap now anyway. Duncan was the one who moaned about daylight and not being able to taste coffee anymore.

I just counted myself lucky that girls thought vamps were cool, even if they never actual y realized I was a vampire. Pheromones had their uses.

The irony that I wasn’t crushing on one of those girls, but on the type that
killed
vampires, wasn’t lost on me.

But I wasn’t going to let it ruin my night. Or the taste of her, stil on my lips.

“You’re actual y strutting,” Nicholas muttered.

“Just a little. It’s good for the soul.” I ducked under a low-hanging branch. The smel s of damp earth and cold wind and cedar was thick as smoke. “Final y got rid of that Matthew vampire and his gang.” We hadn’t had a lot of time to deal with him what with Solange dying at her own birthday party. And anyway, the Drakes weren’t vampire police. We just tried to take care of our own backyard. I wasn’t joking when I told Hunter not al bad vampires are easily recognizable.

“Are they dust?”

“Not al of them. Hunter and her friends were there. She cal ed in some Helios-Ra cleanup crew to take them into custody.”

“And they just left you there?” he asked incredulously.

“Like I hung around to shake hands.”

The forest was dark and ful of shifting shadows but we could see just fine.

Another perk to vampirism: real y great night vision. I saw the leaves shifting, the outline of tree branches and ferns and the path glowing as if the moon were ful over head. Everything seemed to glitter, just a little, around the edges. An owl cal ed from some pine bough, searching for unwary mice. The owl would have to find new hunting grounds or go hungry tonight. Vampires tend to scare smal animals into hiding.

Nicholas paused, sniffed. His expression went flat. “
Hel-Blar
,” he mouthed.

I nodded, catching a whiff of boiled mushrooms and mildew. If the
Hel-Blar
ever got their shit together and figured out how to cover their stench, they’d real y be a force to be reckoned with.

I took point, steadying the crossbow. Nicholas walked backward behind me, a stake in each hand. There was no one I trusted at my back more than one of my brothers.

The
Hel-Blar
came in a wave, three of them swinging down from a branch, bursting out of a thicket, and leaping out from behind a thick elm tree. A crossbow bolt hit the first one in the chest, piercing his rib cage and his heart. He screeched and crumbled into a gray dust. The next one crashed into me, knocking my crossbow into a patch of primroses. Nicholas was occupied shoving a stake, only half-stuck, into the last one.

“Drakes,” my
Hel-Blar
laughed at his companion. “Even better.” His many fangs clicked at me hungrily and the sound was like bones breaking. I leaped back out of the way, avoiding the drip of his saliva. No one knew how contagious it real y was. And this guy didn’t look like he was about to conveniently disintegrate, like the woman at the high school. Whatever sickness she’d had clearly wasn’t widespread through the
Hel-Blar
.

He fol owed my backward bend, clinging like a barnacle. I used momentum against him, fal ing into the undergrowth and flipping him over my head. He landed in a crouch, snarling over his shoulder. His veins were nearly black under his blue skin.

There was fresh blood under his fingernails.

I didn’t bother scrambling to my feet; I just rol ed toward my discarded crossbow.

The first bolt missed, biting into a birch tree and sending papery bark into the air.

“Nick, you okay?” I yel ed. He grunted what I thought was a “yes.” I loosed another bolt and it missed the heart again, but at least it sliced through his shoulder. He hissed in pain.

Good.

Except now he had an open bleeding wound that might contaminate Nicholas or me.