Drake Chronicles: 03 Out for Blood (24 page)

“Yes it is. Answer the question.” She looked horrified. “Shit. Unless this isn’t about protecting me but about not wanting to see me again. Am I just another girl to you?

Shit,” she said again, going red. “I have to get out of here.”

“Yes,” I final y said, so softly it was a wonder she heard me at al . “Yes, Hunter, I like you.” She released the breath she’d been holding. “I like you a lot.” I heard her heart lurch back into a proper rhythm.

And then she smacked me real y hard in the shoulder.

“Ouch, way to ruin the moment,” I muttered.

“You …,” she sputtered.

I tipped her chin up. “You didn’t real y doubt me, did you?”

“Hel o? You locked yourself in your room to get away from me.”

“Only to protect you,” I defended myself. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t you ever do that to me again.”

“It won’t be easy, you know. Despite how Solange and Kieran and Nicholas and Lucy make it look, this isn’t simple. It might even be dangerous.”

“You know I can look after myself.”

“I know.”

“And I’m way more terrified of my grandfather’s reaction than your puny fangs.”

“You’re hard on the ego,” I complained, but I was smiling again for the first time since I’d run out of her dorm room. “Your grandfather’s an old man.”

“Who could kick your ass.”

“I’ve got moves, Buffy.”

“I’ve seen your moves, Lestat,” she teased, kissing me. I gathered her closer, hands roaming down her back and over her hips.

“You’re not just a vampire, you know,” she whispered. “You’re the guy who let me cry al over you, when I never cry. Nothing makes sense right now—people at school are dying, my roommate’s on some kind of hunter steroid—but you make sense. Somehow, you make sense.”

Yup. I was total y, completely, and irrevocably into this girl.

A thump on the door had us both jumping.

“Hey, get off my sister,” Kieran barked from the other side.

“Get lost, Black,” I cal ed out. “And she’s not your sister.”

“May as wel be.”

“Wel , you stop kissing Solange and I’l stop kissing Hunter.” Silence. I smirked. Hunter pul ed away, rol ing her eyes.

“Hey, where are you going?” I murmured. “We’re not done making up.”

“We’re in crisis mode out there,” she answered, reluctantly taking another step back.

“It’s always crisis mode in this house,” I said with disgust.

“Stil . We should go help.”

I huffed a mock melodramatic sigh. “This is that Helios-Ra duty thing, isn’t it?”

“Afraid so.”

Chapter 25

•

Hunter

Monday night

In the room next door, Chloe looked exhausted. She’d pul ed her hair out of its ponytail and it was a mess of tangled curls. Solange and Kieran were sitting on the edge of Connor’s bed and Connor was at his desk, tapping away at another computer. It was amazing how much he and Quinn looked alike. Quinn nudged me as if he knew what I was thinking.

“I’m cuter,” he informed me loftily.

Connor shot me a knowing grin over his shoulder. Chloe scrubbed her face.

“Find anything?” I asked her.

She leaned back in her chair. “I don’t real y know. I mean, I got into my mom’s files. Her passwords have always been pathetic.”

“And?”

“And it’s definitely a steroid, but that’s it. There’s nothing else sinister about it.” She shook her head. “Except, why in the world would she slip me steroids? It’s just weird.”

“She didn’t make lab notes or anything?”

“Nothing remotely helpful. Although she referred to a ‘Trojan Horse’ a couple of times. Nearly gave Connor and me a heart attack. I so don’t need some hacker computer virus right now. But it’s not that—we scanned al the machines to check.

So it must be code for something else. I’l figure it out.” She grimaced. “Maybe not tonight, but I’l definitely figure it out.”

I glanced at my watch. “Yeah, we should head back. Just in case Kieran got busted. I real y can’t take any more demerits and detention this year. If York sneers at me one more time I might just lose it.”

“What about the second pil we found,” Quinn asked. “Did Marcus figure out what it is?”

“Should know by tomorrow night.” Connor shrugged. “The Academy is basical y a high school, you know. It could just be an upper or caffeine pil .”

“Maybe,” I said doubtful y. There were just too many coincidences and variables.

And secrets. Definitely too many secrets.

At the front door, Kieran kissed Solange good-bye. I cleared my throat at him obnoxiously until he glowered at me, but if I didn’t set a precedent right now, he’d be interrupting al of my makeout sessions.

“I’l cal you,” he whispered to her before heading out to the van. He pul ed my hair as he passed me. Chloe was already in the backseat, her knees pul ed up to her chest. Quinn grabbed my arm as I was reaching for the front door handle. He twirled me backward into his arms and dipped me, like they do in those old-fashioned black-and-white movies. And then he kissed me cross-eyed.

“See you soon.” Even his whisper felt like a kiss. I somehow managed to get into the van and buckle myself in. Quinn slapped the side of the van and Kieran pul ed away, spitting gravel.

“Wow,” Chloe murmured. “That was some kiss. I need a vampire boyfriend.” I grinned. “He has a lot of brothers.”

“And every single one of them is yummy,” Chloe agreed.

After that, we rode back mostly in silence, trying to process what we’d found out tonight. It wasn’t dawn yet but the sky looked more gray than black, like ashes covering a red ember. The memory of Quinn’s kiss kept interfering with my concentration.

Kieran groaned. “I don’t trust that smile.”

“Yup,” Chloe reiterated as Kieran pul ed up onto campus. “I definitely need a Drake brother of my very own.”

Chloe might be making jokes but I knew she was freaked out. I’d have been freaking out too, if I’d just confirmed my own mother was drugging me. But it was late and we were tired and we both just wanted to fal into bed.

Hard to do that when the mattresses were half off their frames and most of our stuff was strewn about as if a mini hurricane had come in through the window.

We both stood and stared.

“Someone tossed our room!” Chloe shouted, incensed. She ran straight to her computers, running her hands over the wires and checking the plugs like a mother checking a smal child for broken bones. “I’l kil them,” she muttered. “I’l kil them.” The closet doors were open, spil ing cargo pants and school sweatshirts and al my pretty dresses. A tube of toothpaste was on the floor by my foot. My books were everywhere, my organized stakes and daggers were scattered. My jewelry box was upside down and silver chains, turquoise pendants, and bracelets spil ed out in a tangle.

“Whoever did this wasn’t robbing us,” I said flatly, untangling a necklace from the nearby lampshade. “They were looking for something.” Chloe final y looked up from her computers, reassured that no one had tampered with them. She scowled.

“Who the hel would do that? And what the hel were they looking for?” She nearly choked on her own words, staring horrified at the open bottles of aspirin and cold tablets spil ing out like confetti. We looked at each other grimly. “Someone was looking for my vitamins,” she stated dul y, as if she couldn’t quite believe it. She held up her Xena action figure, arm bent and marked with a footprint. “Someone who is going to die horribly when I find them.”

I shoved my mattress back into position and then dropped on top of it. I was suddenly so tired I could barely stand up. “Who else knew you were taking vitamins?”

Chloe shrugged, wincing. “Anyone who heard us fighting or me bitching about it afterward. A few people asked me for some when they saw me final y do a good roundhouse kick at the gym. I guess they figured it was a magic pil . With the flu and
Hel-Blar
attacks and everything, everyone wants an edge.”

“Steroids don’t make you final y get a roundhouse,” I told her. “Practice does that.”

“Yeah, but the steroids made me stronger.” She rubbed her palms on her legs, as if they were sweating. “And I’m real y suddenly wanting another vitamin right now.” She swal owed. “Does that make me an addict?” She stared at me frantical y.

“No,” I assured her sternly. Chloe’s flare for dramatics could create a whole problem where there was none. Sometimes you had to cut her off at the pass. “It makes you a person who got used to taking vitamins, so try taking actual vitamins.”

“Huh. That actual y makes sense.”

“And you might want to go talk to Theo. He’d know what to do.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath, then another one. “Okay.” She picked one of her bras off the floor. “I’m stil kil ing whoever did this. And I’m doing it before the steroid strength wears off.”

“Deal. I’l help you.” My trunk poked out from under the bed, bursting with romance novels. I shoved it back under.

“Hunter?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for the whole steroid thing.” She picked up the compact mirror left on her pil ow and stared at her upper lip.

“You don’t have a mustache,” I assured her.

“I could kil my mom for that. She nearly gave me a beard and a bald spot.” I snorted a laugh, then tried to cover it up with a cough. She shot me a look but I could tel she was trying not to laugh too.

“It’s not funny,” she insisted.

“Of course not,” I squeaked, choking on a giggle.

“I could have looked like the wolfman!” she added. “Or my grandma!” We laughed until we were crying. Fatigue and relief and tension made us slightly hysterical. We final y wheezed ourselves out and calmed down.

“We should get some sleep,” I croaked. “We have class in a few hours.”

“God,” Chloe groaned. “I have to face York. How fast am I going to get al weak and puny, do you think?”

“You were never puny.” I yanked my blanket over me. I couldn’t be bothered to change into my pajamas or to clean up the clothes piled messily around me. One of my boots was stuck under my pil ow. I tossed it aside. “You’re just better with tech than with your fists. It’s no big deal.”

I was almost asleep when there was a timid scratching at the door.

“Are you kidding?” Chloe mumbled. “Do we have mice? I can’t deal with mice right now.” The scratch turned into a hesitant knock. I groaned and stumbled out of bed.

“What now?”

Lia stood on the other side in pajamas with pink lol ipops al over them. Her eyes were red and watery.

“Lia, what’s the matter?” I looked over her shoulder and down the hal , half expecting a
Hel-Blar
to jump out of the shadows. It was just that kind of night.

“It’s my roommate,” she sobbed. “She’s real y sick. I don’t know what to do.” I blinked blearily. “Did you tel Courtney?”

Lia shook her head, biting her lip.

“Why not? That’s her job. She’l get one of the nurses.”

“No,
you
have to come. You can’t tel anyone.”

“What? Why?”

Chloe pushed in behind me. “Do you know what time it is?” she barked.

I grabbed Lia’s arm because she looked like she was going to run away. “Lia, what’s real y going on?”

“Savannah’s sick.”

“And?”

She swal owed. I waited, refusing to let go. “Lia, if you want my help you have to be honest with me.”

Her lower lip quivered and I felt like a monster, but I stood my ground. When Lia final y spoke, it al came out in a rush of words that took a moment to sift through. “I don’t want to get in trouble and I promised her I wouldn’t tel but her lips are going blue and she’s breathing funny and I just don’t know what to do.”

“Okay, calm down,” I said softly, as if she were a wild bird and I had a handful of bread crumbs. “What’s the big secret?”

Lia reached into her pocket and took out three little white pil s. “She’s been taking these.”

It was the same white pil Quinn and I had found in the common room.

I plucked one from her hand, growing cold al over. It was like an arctic wind was pushing through me, fil ing my lungs and freezing the blood in my veins.

“Chloe,” I croaked. “Look.”

Two letters were stamped in the center of the pil .

“TH.”

Trojan Horse.

•

Chloe and I bolted up the stairs, Lia hurrying after us. I cal ed Theo from my cel and by the time we got up to Lia’s room, three of Savannah’s friends were hovering outside the door, worrying. Too many students had gotten sick already and too many of those had died for anyone to dismiss this as a simple flu, like the teachers were trying to tel us. The last thing we needed right now, though, was more attention and panic. Especial y if Chloe and I had just discovered some sort of conspiracy, like I thought we had. We’d need witnesses eventual y if we blew this thing wide open, but not right now.

“Is she going to die?” one of Niners asked bluntly.

“No,” I answered and pushed inside the room, shutting the door firmly.

Savannah lay in her bed, moaning. Her skin was clammy and damp with perspiration. She was hot to the touch and her eyes, when she pried them open, were bloodshot. Chloe hissed out a breath. We exchanged a bleak glance.

“Savannah.” I lowered my voice when she jerked at the sound. “It’s okay, we’re here to help. Savannah, this is very important. Can you tel me where you got those pil s?”

“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble,” Savannah mumbled through dry, cracked lips.

“You won’t,” I assured her. “We just need to know where you got them.”

“I bought them,” she coughed. “I was only supposed to take one a day but I took three. They were supposed to make me stronger.”

Chloe frowned. “Like steroids?”

Savannah nodded weakly. Chloe stared at me. “Hunter, these aren’t the pil s I was taking. Mine were yel ow and huge.”

“I know,” I answered, frowning back. “People don’t know there’s two different pil s, I guess. Who told you they’d make you stronger?” I asked Savannah.

She glanced away, coughed again. I handed her the glass of water on her nightstand. “You won’t get in trouble,” I told her.

“Some guy was sel ing them out of the eleventh-grade common room,” she answered final y. She swal owed the water but her throat constricted violently, as if she was sipping from a glass of razor blades. She whimpered. “I don’t feel good.”