Lucy
I was reaching for a stake before I recognized him.
I knew that dark hair, the pale skin, and the very fine muscles as he bent over farther into my bedroom.
Nicholas.
“Lucy,” he whispered. “Lucy, wake up!”
I would probably never get another chance to surprise him again. He normally had all the advantages: speed, strength, and a preternatural nose. But right now I was downwind, and he wasn’t expecting me. I smiled, taking out my cell phone.
“Boo!”
He jumped so fast and so hard, the window rattled. He also made a weird sound, like a choked scream, followed by a stream of curses. Then he whirled, stake in hand. It all happened in the space of a single heartbeat. I hit the camera button and took a photo of his shocked face, gray eyes wide as plates.
Then I laughed so hard I doubled over, gasping for breath.
“You know, some people are scared of vampires,” he informed me drily, sauntering over to my side. I just snorted, still laughing. It wasn’t very attractive to snort like a pig in front of your boyfriend, but I couldn’t help it. I dropped onto the cold grass, chortling. He looked down at me. “Are you done?”
I wiped my eyes, shaking my head. I might just laugh until the sun came up. It felt good, normal—if I ignored the faint edge of hysteria to my wheezing. My stomach muscles ached. He sat next to me, smelling like wood smoke and rain.
And between one chuckle and the next, he pressed me back into the grass, his mouth closing over mine.
He swallowed my laughter and kissed me fiercely, deeply, as if I were delicious. I kissed him back, feeling powerful and yet weak in all the right places. My knees went soft, my belly was as warm as if I’d drunk a pot of hot chocolate. I didn’t care that the ground was cold and there was a rock digging into my left ankle. He covered me and, though he should have felt heavy, he just felt right. His hand traveled lightly along my side, tickling, until his fingers closed tightly over my hipbone. He kissed my collarbone, the side of my neck, under my ear. He nipped at my lower lip and I nipped back, touching the tip of his tongue with mine. I could have stayed there for hours, but he pulled back slightly, his eyes the translucent gray of a seashell.
I couldn’t remember why I’d been laughing so hard, or why he was here.
“Hey,” he said softly.
“Hey,” I said back. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to show you something,” he rolled over, sitting up.
I wrinkled my nose and sat up as well, pretending I was interested in the bag he was dragging from under my window. I just wanted to keep kissing.
He pulled out a blanket.
I blinked at him. “You brought me a blanket?”
“Just wait.” He spread it out and then nudged me onto it. The thick wool cut the damp cold of the grass. He pulled out a second blanket and a pillow. “Okay, now lie back.”
I shot him a look.
He rolled his eyes. “Just do it. God, you’re stubborn.”
I grudgingly lay back and turned my head to look at him as he did the same. “Now what?”
“Look up.”
I glanced up, expecting stars and tree branches. It wasn’t just the stars, though there were millions of them, thick as spilled salt, or that the Milky Way looked close enough to touch, pouring out across the sky. It was the clear crystal of the light, the velvet of the sky arching over us in a way that made me feel tiny. I exhaled. “Whoa.”
He pointed to the left. “There.”
The sky was washed with colors—green, red, and blue—all wavering and dancing. They flickered like torchlight, moved like water. It was beautiful.
“The northern lights,” I whispered.
He nodded. “Isabeau said it’s a sign.”
“Uh-oh. Good sign or bad sign?”
“She didn’t say. She rushed out to do some kind of magic thing. Solange and Logan went with her.”
“Oh.”
He slanted me a glance. “But I wanted to come here instead.”
“Oh,” I said again, more cheerfully. I shifted and hugged his arm. “You’re a good boyfriend.”
“You have no idea,” he teased. I kissed the side of his mouth, hugging him tighter. I was an idiot if I let the weirdness with Solange interfere with the most romantic night ever. And since I was so determined to prove to everyone that I wasn’t an idiot, I should start now. I kissed him again and tilted my head back to watch the northern lights dancing. It was like a kaleidoscope of smoke and crystals, forming and reforming into different shapes.
“Does that look like a two-headed cow to you?” I asked.
“I see a phoenix.”
“How is that a phoenix?”
“The red part there.”
“Oh, I meant the green.” The green shifted into a dragon and then a rowboat. “That blue part looks like a cat sitting on Bruno’s head.”
Nicholas chuckled. “I’m sure he’d be thrilled. There, lion on top of a pyramid.”
I snuggled closer. “This is nice.”
“Wait, I forgot the best part.” He shifted and I heard rustling. He triumphantly held up a bag.
“Chocolate!” I grinned, popping one in my mouth. “Real chocolate, not carob. I totally love you right now.”
I paused as the words echoed around us. I swallowed chocolate and nougat and tried not to blush. We’d known each other forever. We made out on a regular basis. I shouldn’t feel embarrassed to be the first one to say “I love you.” Even if he didn’t say it back. We’d saved each other’s lives a bunch of times. Words were just words. Right? I ate another chocolate before I said something really stupid.
He turned over onto his elbow, his gaze intense. I looked away. His finger touched my chin gently, lifted it so I had to look at him.
“If you make fun of me, I’ll stake you,” I muttered.
He raised an eyebrow. “Way to ruin the moment there, Lucky.”
Oops.
The way he was looking at me made me feel suddenly shy. That was definitely new for me. I never felt shy. And now I actually had to stop myself from squirming awkwardly. It was probably just the sugar. Or an allergy to nougat.
He leaned in, his lips stopping just short of touching mine. He was so close, if I took a deep breath we’d be kissing. Something warm tingled through me. He didn’t even need vampire pheromones, he was that hot.
“I love you, too,” he whispered, one corner of his mouth lifting into a smile. I grinned back, then kissed him until I felt light-headed and breathless.
My phone vibrated in my pocket just as things were starting to get interesting. Nicholas pulled away. I sighed. Stupid phone.
“What?” I answered it crossly. I frowned. “Kieran? Is that you?” I checked the call display, then nodded at Nicholas. We both sat up. “What’s going on?” I held the phone away from my ear slightly so Nicholas could hear.
“It’s Solange,” Kieran said.
“Is she okay? What happened?”
“She’s okay,” he assured me. Nicholas stood up, hauling me by my elbow so fast I got a little dizzy. “I think.”
“What’s happening?”
“We were supposed to meet up in the woods, near the swamp before you get to the Blood Moon fields we’re not supposed to know about.” Nicholas’s mouth thinned at that. “By the time I got here, she was already … um …”
“What?” I nearly shouted, then lowered my voice, glancing up at my parents’ bedroom window.
“She’s feeding.” His voice went even tighter. “On a bloodslave.”
Nicholas and I stared at each other.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I’m looking at her, aren’t I?” He sounded freaked out and definitely not like the usual arrogant vampire hunter with all the answers.
Nicholas took the phone from me. “I’m coming. Stay there. Don’t call my parents!”
He tossed the phone back to me and took off across the lawn toward the lilac bushes. I chased after him.
“Like hell you’re going without me, Drake,” I called after him. I shoved through the lilac branches. Nicholas was already tossing a motorcycle helmet at me. It nearly hit me in the nose. I pulled it onto my head, fiddling with the straps as Nicholas walked the bike out onto the road, away from the house so the noise wouldn’t wake my parents.
“Get on,” he said, already straddling the bike.
The fact that he wasn’t trying to leave me behind made me want to kiss him even more. I climbed on and wrapped my arms around his waist, holding on as tightly as I could. He’d barely notice anyway; it’s not like he needed to breathe. We hurtled down the street, past the pumpkin patches and the apple orchards and the struggling vineyard, toward the mountains and the forest. Violet Hill was a small collection of lights behind us.
I couldn’t believe Solange was drinking from a human. It was one thing to drink from blood banks and willing donors, but feasting in the woods off some bloodslave was … disconcerting.
“Can you go faster?” I shouted over the roaring wind.
“Hang on,” he shouted back.
The night was a blur of shadows and asphalt and cold wind. I was losing feeling in my fingers and my arms were cramping. We finally turned off the road and cut through a field. Purple loosestrife brushed my knees.
In the woods, the ground was even more treacherous. Nicholas did his best to maneuver around tree branches and rocks and fallen birch trunks bursting with moss and lichen. A pine bough slapped him in the face. It smelled like Christmas all of a sudden. He went over a bump and my helmet bounced off the back of his. The next bump made my teeth rattle. The next two made him stop altogether.
“We’ll have to go on foot from here,” he said, tossing his helmet aside. I clambered off, legs stiff. I hung mine on the backseat and jogged after him. We soon passed Kieran’s motorcycle under a hemlock. The trees this far into the forest grew taller, so tall I wouldn’t have been able to see their tops even in the daylight. Ferns feathered at our feet.
By the time we reached Solange, I was sweating and panting. She looked worse than me, sitting in a nest of mossy roots and leaning against an aspen, its yellowing leaves quivering above her. There was blood on her face and her shirt was torn. Nicholas swore and blurred, reaching her side in one blink. He crouched next to her and she smiled wearily at him.
“I’m good,” she said, sounding drunk.
Kieran was standing in the path, over the prone body of the bloodslave woman Solange and I had seen in the Blood Moon camp. She was nearly as pale as Solange but smiling. There was blood and teeth marks on the inside of her elbow. They weren’t as elegant as the scars on her neck.
“Is she sleeping?” I asked.
Kieran nodded. “Solange told her to go to sleep. So she did.” We exchanged a grim glance. I stepped over her hand, flung out like a fallen calla lily.
Solange had blood on the side of her mouth. Her tongue darted out to lick it. There was a deep gash on her arm and scratches on her face. Her sunglasses were broken, lying in a clump of primrose.
“Oh, Sol.” I reached out to brush her hair off her face where it was stuck to a cut already scabbing over. She jerked back, moaning.
“No! Get away!”
I snatched my hand back, stunned. “What? Sol, it’s me.”
Her eyes went wild, veined with red all around irises the delicate blue of Wedgwood china. All three sets of her fangs were extended, but that wasn’t a shock anymore. The way she was looking at me was—as if I was hurting her, as if I was food. I could have been naked, with blood pouring out of my wrists, and Nicholas still wouldn’t have looked at me like that. I froze, confused.
Nicholas swore and tilted Solange’s head back so he could see into her eyes. “How much did you drink?”
She smiled lazily. “Don’t know. She was nice.” She ran her tongue over her teeth. “Like chocolate-covered strawberries.”
“Great,” I muttered. “I’ll never be able to eat those again now.”
Nicholas glanced at me. He hadn’t looked this worried since Solange’s bloodchange, when we weren’t even sure if she’d survive. His gaze shifted to Kieran. “What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know. I just found her like this. She was wounded.”
“I got ambushed,” she told us, closing her eyes. “I got him, though.”
“Hel-Blar?”
She nodded. “Nasty one, all stinky. I really hate mushrooms,” she added, suddenly serious before bursting into laughter for no apparent reason.
I rubbed a hand over my face. “At least she’s a cheerful drunk,” I said.
“Is Constantine here?” she asked suddenly.
Kieran’s eyes narrowed.
So did mine. “Why?” I asked.
“And who the hell’s Constantine?” Kieran added.
“He told me Penelope was nice. He was right.”
“Okay, I’m so punching Constantine in the nose,” I said brightly. “And who’s Penelope?” I pointed to the woman curled in the ferns. “Her?”
“She’s used to it,” Solange informed us, slightly slurring. She was acting like Penelope had veins full of wine. I hoped she’d have a hell of a hangover in the morning. She clearly needed something to wake her up. “Kieran’s just mad because I wasn’t drinking from him.” She sat up, tilting her head. She smiled at him. “Come here.”
Kieran took a bewildered step forward. I knocked him back with a hard shove, then whirled on Solange. “What the hell are you doing?”
She shrugged. “I was just asking,” she said, pouting.
“That’s not asking,” I told her through my teeth. “That’s force. What’s wrong with you?”
“Penelope doesn’t judge. She said so.” Solange eyed me. “But you’re judging.”
“You’re damn right I am.”
Nicholas hoisted Solange to her feet. “I need to get her home.”
I went to help him but she snarled at me. Nicholas’s jaw clenched, then he held up a hand. “I have her.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
“She’ll be fine,” he assured me, but I could tell he wasn’t sure. And the fact that he didn’t want his parents to know didn’t bode well. “I’ll take her home, and Kieran, you take Lucy back.”
“What do we do with her?” Kieran asked, standing over Penelope.
“We need to wake her up and send her back to the camp,” Nicholas said. “I can call someone to meet her once she’s on her feet.”
I crouched next to her and shook her shoulder. Her cleavage was impressive, even lying on her back. “Hey, wake up!” There were scars along her collarbone, too, like tiny stars. I couldn’t stop staring at them. “Penelope!” I slapped her cheek lightly. Nothing happened. I jerked back suddenly, landing on my butt. My tailbone hit a rock and pain tingled up my spine. “She’s not dead, is she?”
“No.” Solange sighed dramatically. “You’re overreacting.”
“Solange’s pheromones should wake her up.” Nicholas turned Solange, nudging her toward Penelope. I got out of the way. “We can’t wait for her to do it on her own.”
“But she needs to rest,” Solange said, sounding almost like her old self.
“She needs to rest in her own bed.”
“Oh.” She sat down next to Penelope, leaning in close. With her black hair she looked lethal and beautiful, like an obsidian blade some ancient tribes used for human sacrifices. “Penelope? You have to wake up now.”
Penelope stirred.
“Wake up right now!” Solange commanded.
Penelope’s eyes opened abruptly. She blinked, then smiled.
“There,” Solange said, pleased. Nicholas pulled her back up. “See? No problem.”
Penelope sat up slowly.
“Send her back home,” Nicholas bit out.
Penelope smiled. “There’s no need,” she said, perfectly at ease. As if she wasn’t wearing bite marks like jewelry. “I can find my way without a blood command.”
We stared at her. Kieran was the first to speak. “Someone will meet you.”
She nodded, then curtsied to Solange. “Thank you, Your Highness.”
“Your Highness?” I echoed, disgusted. I was even more disgusted when Solange didn’t look uncomfortable being curtsied to. “Seriously?”
Solange shrugged as Penelope turned and made her way between the tall pines. Nicholas texted one of the guards to collect her.
“Constantine said I shouldn’t fight being a princess. It’s not like it’s a crime.”
“I hate Constantine,” I muttered. “He’s an ass.”
Solange turned on me so fast, her hair actually lifted in the breeze. Her eyes went even more red, her lips lifting off her teeth.
“Don’t say that about him!” Her voice felt like a thousand needles bristling in my skin, like a sunburn, like broken glass.
I was too shocked even to make a fist. If one of the Drake brothers pulled that on me, I would have punched them.
Nicholas yanked Solange away from me. “Shit, Lucy. Get out of here,” he told me, struggling to hold Solange back. She was furious.
Kieran grabbed my arm. “Come on.”
“Kieran, that’s not her,” I said through the tears in the back of my throat.
“I know.”
I thought of Penelope’s scars. “You thought I was like her,” I said quietly, remembering the first time I’d met Kieran. I hadn’t heard the term “bloodslave” before. The Drakes were more interested in seclusion than power. And they had other methods of feeding. It hadn’t really occurred to me that other vampires might not have the same scruples. It wasn’t the blood I minded so much. I mean, if Nicholas or Solange or any of the Drakes needed a mouthful of my blood to survive, I wouldn’t begrudge them. And even Kieran had given Solange his blood on the night of her sixteenth birthday to save her. It was the slightly cultlike joy on Penelope’s face that made me queasy.
“But I guess it’s her choice,” I said, mostly to myself.
“Maybe,” Kieran replied. “Maybe not.”
I glanced over my shoulder, watching Nicholas lead Solange away. Everything felt wrong. I should be going with them, not back home with a vampire hunter. And I shouldn’t be trusting that vampire hunter more than my best friend. I didn’t know how to help her.
She looked back at me once, then drooped, as if she were wilting.