Lucy
I left a little early just to avoid more of my mom’s well-meaning lectures and fretting. She knew I’d be safe on the Drake compound; it was nearly a thousand acres of protected lands and I’d been going there since I was a kid. I’d driven by two guards already. But everything was different now.
No one knew that better than me.
I assumed I’d be there first and would have to wait for Solange. She sometimes needed an hour or two after sunset to fill up on blood so the thirst didn’t hurt so much. I had my iPod, homework I had no intention of doing, and Gandhi in the passenger seat—smearing the window with his big wet nose. I’d climb into the old oak tree and enjoy a rare, safe moment to myself at night, able to count the stars and make up my own constellations.
The main trunk of the tree was gnarled and thick enough to support three main branches. It looked as if the oak had split in three. One of those branches dipped all the way down to the ground, like a swing made of bark and green leaves and littering acorns all around. If you painted it with glitter, it wouldn’t look out of place in a Tim Burton movie.
Solange was already perched in it like an exhausted cheetah. She was on a higher branch we’d never yet managed to climb, lying on her stomach, her long hair drifting down like a crow’s broken wing. She was pale enough to look like starlight. And she was wearing sunglasses.
“What, are you a rock star now?” I teased, trying to keep the conversation light. “Wearing sunglasses at night?” I felt a new tension between us and I didn’t like it. It was unrecognizable and hung oddly, like a dress that didn’t fit.
She didn’t move and didn’t take them off. “My eyes hurt.”
I knew she was lying. I hated that most of all. I dropped my bag and leaned back against the branch, looking up at her. I didn’t smile. “Wow, you’re a really bad liar.”
She sighed, looking faintly pained and more like herself, before the cool mask settled back onto her features. “I’m fine.”
“I didn’t ask,” I shot back drily.
She half smiled. “You’re the only one not to ask me that every five minutes.”
I folded my arms, feeling slightly vindicated. “Remember that.”
“I’m sorry, Luce,” she whispered, so softly I almost didn’t hear her over the dry rattle of leaves and the tall grass as a light rain pattered around us. We stayed dry in our oak throne.
“I just don’t get why you’re shutting me out.” I sounded hurt even to my own ears.
“Because I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Hello? You already have,” I snapped. “So get over it and tell me what’s going on.”
She looked at me for a long, weird moment before rolling off the branch, dangling from her fingertips, and landing gracefully next to me. The branch barely swayed. She’d always been graceful, but since she’d turned into a vampire, it was like she was made of porcelain, hard and perfect. She’d have hated that comparison, but it was apt.
At least until she slipped off her glasses.
Even Nicholas didn’t look that bad after we’d made out a little too long.
Her eyes were the same pale blue, but the whites were traced with red, like the veins of a leaf before it falls off the tree in autumn. It was strangely beautiful, in a menacing way. Christabel would have turned it into poetry. I just winced. “Oh, Sol. Does it hurt?”
“Not really. Not anymore.”
“Do your teeth hurt?”
“A little.”
She had three sets of fangs now, more than when I’d last seen her. Only the Hel-Blar were feral enough to have multiple sets of fangs; even most of the Hounds had only two pairs. Certainly none of the Drakes I knew of had any more than the usual single pair—including Solange’s cousin London, and she was really beastly.
“Oh!” I exclaimed suddenly. “Did Kieran talk to you?” Because that was way more important than extra teeth.
“The Scotland thing, right?”
“Yeah, that.” She didn’t sound nearly as upset as I’d thought she would. “I mean, that’s really far. For, like, two years.”
Not that I wanted her to cry or anything, but some kind of reaction would have been nice.
She lifted her chin. Her eyes glinted like an animal’s, like a wolf’s. “I could make him stay.”
Not that reaction.
I went cold in a way I’d never felt before. “Sol?”
She shrugged one shoulder and slipped her sunglasses on. “I’m just saying.”
“Yeah, and it’s kind of creepy.”
“I can’t help my pheromones. And I’m kind of tired of trying.”
“Dude, if you start wearing a tiara and make everyone call you Your Highness, I will mock you.”
She snorted out a surprised and entirely unprincesslike chuckle.
“Thank God,” I said fervently. “You’re back.”
“Oh, Luce.” Her shoulders slumped. “It’s all so messed up.”
“I know.” I poked her, hard. “And you’re not making it any better by being all secretive and emo. It’s pissing me off.”
“You know, there are some people who are afraid of me,” she pointed out loftily, but she was smiling.
“Yeah, well, they never saw you laugh so hard spaghetti came out of your nose.” I grinned back. “I own you, Drake.”
We leaned against the trunk, watching a couple of bats weave and drop as they caught mosquitoes. The rain felt far away.
Solange made a face. “I hate those things.”
“What, bats?”
“They’re everywhere. It’s like they’re following me.”
“Ew.”
“Yeah.” She was as pale as an opal, with thin, translucent veins like blue fire inside her wrists. She rubbed at them. “I don’t want to turn blue,” she said. “And I don’t want Uncle Geoffrey taking more blood from me or running experiments and frowning the way he does when he’s puzzled. I don’t want to be a puzzle,” she said hotly. “And I really don’t want to smell like mushrooms.”
I sniffed. “You smell like wood smoke and roses,” I assured her. “Same as always.”
“Promise you’ll tell me if that changes.”
“I will if you stop avoiding me. And I think the gagging would probably give me away.”
“You’re such a comfort to me, yakbreath.”
“Right back at you, snotface.”
We grinned at each other the way we had since we were four years old. Another bat dipped into view, a little closer than I liked. I leaned farther into the tree.
“Okay, one’s cute. But that’s my limit.” The sound of leathery wings surrounded us. I pulled the collar of my shirt up. Even Gandhi looked disconcerted.
“Um, Solange?”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” I ran, ducking my head down. The tall grass feathered around my knees and the rain rattled in the dry oak leaves. The bats were like a dark thundercloud, about to release teeth and rabies and God only knew what else.
“If one of those things gets in my hair, I’m going to freak right the hell out.” Gandhi was at my heels. Solange was a blur behind me, trying to keep pace, slowing down and speeding back up. She would have been waiting for me at the car already if she let herself go. And her lungs weren’t burning like mine.
She stopped so fast, the grass flattened around her. I was on the other side of the car, my hand on the door. Solange turned so that she was facing the approaching bats, the way she’d have faced an opponent with a rapier. She was slender and standing sideways, to make a smaller target. I paused.
“What are you doing?” I asked frantically. “Get in the car!” I opened the back door for Gandhi. He at least, was smart enough to jump in.
“Wait,” she murmured softly. The moon was a pearl behind the clouds, the light faintly blue and glinting off the embroidery on Solange’s black tank top. The rain was cold in my hair.
And the bats were still coming straight for us.
I had no idea if bats attacked and I really, really didn’t want to wait around and find out.
“I kind of hate you right now,” I muttered at her. I couldn’t just get in the car and leave her to fend for herself. I had to stand there and wait for my face to be gnawed on by tiny bats. Standard BFF rules.
Solange lifted her hand, palm out. She looked like a ballerina directing traffic.
The bats paused, hovered. The sound of so many wings made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The bats were still aloft but they didn’t come any closer.
“How are you doing that?”
“I have no idea,” she answered between her teeth.
She flicked her wrist and the bats whirled as one and flew away in the direction she’d pointed, toward the mountain. When she finally turned around to look at me, her eyes were huge. “Okay, that was weird.”
I stared. “We could totally hire you to do special effects on Halloween.” I shuddered. “Can we get in the car now?”
I didn’t wait for an answer and launched myself into the front seat. I ducked down to look at her through the window. “Are you getting in or what?”
She looked uncertain. She bit her lower lip, the way she used to when she was nervous, forgetting she had fangs now. One of them nicked through her skin. Blood smeared like ghoulish lipstick. She licked it away.
“I don’t think I should, Lucy.”
“I have nose plugs.” I kept a stash of them in my glove compartment for Nicholas. I reached over and flipped it open. I stopped. “In my car,” I amended. “I forgot I’m driving Mom’s. And—oh my God,” I muttered when a condom fell out onto the floor mat. “My mother is out of control.”
“Is that a condom?”
“Don’t even ask.” I slammed the glove compartment shut again. “And watch your stuff the next time you come over. She’ll totally sneak them into your coat and your bag.”
She blinked. “She’s doing with condoms what my mom does with stakes?”
“Definitely. Okay, back to the matter at hand.” I grinned. “You could stick your head out the window like the dog.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Come on, Sol. Don’t wimp out on me now—it’s still early. And you owe me.”
“Okay, okay.” She climbed onto the roof of the car and smirked at me through the sunroof. “But I’ll ride up here.”
I shrugged. “You’ll get wet.”
“Better that than bugs up my nose.”
“I doubt the cops will think so. And you’re so paying any reckless driving ticket I get.”
“We’ll stay on the property. Head to the end of the lane by the marshes. We can walk from there. It’s only half an hour or so.”
I started the engine. “Cool. Who are we spying on?”
“What makes you think we’re spying?”
“Please, all of our good slumber parties involve spying of some kind.”
“True.”
“So?”
“You’ll see.”
Gandhi wasn’t too proud to hang his head out the window and try to bite the wind as we rumbled down the dirt road. After about fifteen minutes it narrowed into a lane and then stopped altogether. There was a wall of pine trees in front of us and marshy wetlands on our left. I hopped out, pulling on my jacket and putting up the hood. Solange landed lightly and rose out of her crouch, smiling. She was totally showing off now.
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled at her good-naturedly. “Let’s go already.”
Pine needles crunched under my feet. The rain made everything sparkle but it was relatively dry under all the branches. The night glowed green and ferns swayed all around us. Gandhi trotted happily in front, stopping once to stick his entire head in a blackberry bush. Solange sniffed once, then frowned. She could probably smell moss growing now. An owl sang a soft, haunting song above us, brief and as old as the stars. It was a perfect autumn night.
You know, without the rotting severed blue hands dangling from the pines like deranged Christmas tree ornaments.
I gagged on the sudden waft of slimy mushrooms and stagnant pond water. I swallowed. “Okay, gross.”
Solange turned on her heel slowly, peering into the shadows. “I think we’re alone.” She sniffed once. “They don’t smell fresh.”
I tried not to throw up. “Seriously, who does that?” Hel-Blar were nasty, no question about it. They were even nastier dismembered. I backed away a few steps. “Helios-Ra?” I should reconsider my new self-defense classes.
Solange shook her head, decoding whatever it was she could see in the mud and the dried pine needles. “I don’t think so. There are virtually no tracks. Only vampires can move so fast they practically float.”
“Well, crap. Aren’t we on Drake land?”
“Not here, no. I’ll call it in.” She sighed at her phone. “No signal out here. I forgot. They chose the most secluded glade they could for the Blood Moon.”
“The Blood Moon?” I perked up, despite the macabre decorations around us. Humans were rare at a Blood Moon festival, and even then only when approved by a vampire tribe’s ruler. I’d already been told there was no way the Drakes were bringing me. “Are you serious? I didn’t think it was for another week at least.”
“They’ve been prepping since the date was set,” Solange said. “And some of the dignitaries have already begun to arrive from all over the world.”
“Okay, that’s freaking cool,” I confirmed. “You’re definitely forgiven. You can emo all you want.” I grimaced at the hands. “You might want new decorations, though. These aren’t exactly classy.”
“Someone’s killing Hel-Blar. They chop off their hands before they dust them so that everyone else knows about it,” Solange said. “Mom would say they’re a war trophy. And war trophies are a warning, especially when they’re displayed so obviously like this.”
“Also? Not very hygienic.” I couldn’t help but imagine them grabbing at me. “Can we get out of here?”
We hurried away while I tried to figure out how I was going to avoid nightmares tonight. I was really glad Christabel was safe at home, reading some boring book written two hundred years ago and hadn’t gone out on one of her hikes. I did that shudder-dance you do when you think there’s a spider crawling on you. I felt like there were about a hundred of them. Talk about having your Spidey sense tingle.
The rest of the walk was decidedly less picturesque. I couldn’t get my shoulders to untense, and I kept expecting to find more Hel-Blar body parts.
“Lucy, I can hear you grinding your teeth from here,” Solange whispered.
“I can’t help it. That was totally disgusting.”
“I know, but you’ll alert the—” She stopped as a vampire dropped out of a tree in front of us. “Guards,” she finished drily.
“Princess.” He nodded smartly. There was a row of stakes on his belt and on a strap across his chest. “No humans,” he said kindly to me.
I frowned. “That’s racist. Or species-ist, whatever.”
“No, just safer, little girl.”
His hair was long and white and there were crinkles around his eyes. He looked like somebody’s grandfather out of Braveheart.
Solange stepped close to him, closer than she usually stood near anyone.
“It’s all right,” Solange murmured. “You can rest for a while.”
He suddenly looked sleepy. He struggled not to close his eyes. Even though I was mostly immune to vampire pheromones, I found myself yawning. I plugged my nose. Gandhi whined.
Solange hadn’t been kidding when she said her pheromones were getting stronger. They weren’t supposed to work on other vampires. That was why the new Helios-Ra Hypnos drug was in such hot demand—it offered a temporary hypnotic effect on vampires.
But Solange clearly didn’t need any.
The guard sagged and Solange dragged him into a clump of cedars.
“Sol, doesn’t he work for your family?” I asked, noticing the royal crest on his shirt before the brush swallowed him. My voice came out nasally because I was still pinching my nose closed.
“Yeah, but he never would have let us sneak in. And you wanted to spy, didn’t you?” Solange shrugged. “Now we can.”
I knew he wasn’t hurt, but the way Solange was so cavalier about vamping him made my stomach feel like it were full of acid and insects.
“Let’s go,” she said impatiently.
I followed, trying to ignore the flutter of fear inside my chest.
But I knew she could hear it.