Blood Moon (16 page)

I met my tutor in the library, still planning the nefarious deeds I could do to Jody.

The library would have been soothing if I didn’t already feel like screaming. It took up the entire floor, with rooms that opened onto one another, hardwood underfoot, and decorative moldings on the ceilings from the original Victorian house it used to be. There were tall lamps in every corner and green-glassed ones on every
table. There was even a fireplace with two overstuffed armchairs. It was the only place on campus that didn’t have some sort of weaponry displayed on the walls. A bank of computers shed their blue glow between oak shelves piled with books of every size, style, and description. Christabel would love it. Some of the books even had peeling leather bindings. I was sure there was a basket of rolled-up scrolls behind the librarian’s desk. But the librarian himself was kind of scary, so I didn’t ask what they were.

I was willing to bet there wasn’t a single vampire romance anywhere.

I wondered if I’d get detention for sneaking a few in.

I plopped into a chair next to a lanky guy with a painfully shy smile. “Are you Tyson?” I asked, tossing my knapsack onto the table. The sound echoed, loud enough that the librarian speared me with a look. Tyson winced.

“Are you Lucky?”

“Lucy,” I corrected. “So what did you do to get stuck tutoring me?”

He swallowed. “Um …”

“No one tutors the freaky new girl without some serious motivation.”

“I need extracurriculars,” he admitted. “You need activities on your transcript that aren’t vampire-hunter related. Not that you’re not very nice,” he added awkwardly. “But it’s you or prom committee.”

I paused. “They have prom? Is it formal cargos? Can I decorate the stakes? You should see what I can do with a bit of glitter.”

He looked a little bewildered, as if he couldn’t quite keep up. I get that a lot. Well, here anyway. My old school friends totally understand me. I had a sudden urge to call Nathan just so he could yell at me some more. I sighed. “Never mind. So what’s on the agenda?”

He looked relieved to be back on topic. “Let’s start with the basics.” He pulled a worn Helios-Ra guidebook off the top of the pile of books next to his laptop. “You got one of these in your orientation packet, right?”

“I already had a copy,” I replied. I’d picked Kieran’s pocket this summer for it, to be precise. I had my own profile in the cream-colored pages.

Tyson flushed. “Oh. Right. I forgot you’re in it.”

“I’m famous,” I agreed blandly. “Just this morning someone locked me in a bathroom stall.”

He flushed ever redder.

“Are you blushing?”

He cleared his throat. “No.”

I grinned. “You are adorable.”

“Uh …”

“Relax, I’m dating the undead, remember.”

“Stop teasing poor Tyson,” Jenna said from behind me.

I tilted my head to look up at her. “But it’s fun.”

Jenna hiked her hip on the table and swung her sneaker-clad foot. “You’re going to give him a coronary.”

We both turned to grin at him, waiting for his retort. He just looked slightly nauseated. Jenna patted his knee. I didn’t think she
saw the way his ears burned at her touch. Interesting. “Sorry, Tyson. We’re just bugging you.”

He shrugged a shoulder. She swung her foot wider and nearly kicked him. “So what are you guys doing?”

“Tyson is tutoring me.”

Jenna burst out laughing. “Oh, Tyson. You’re screwed.”

“Hey!” I pinched her.

She just scooted across the table and dropped into an empty chair. “This I have to see.”

Tyson wiped his hands on his pants surreptitiously, as if he was sweating. It wasn’t just Jenna that made him nervous. It looked like any kind of group interaction might send him into fits. And while I didn’t consider three a group exactly, he clearly considered it a huge crowd, and the anxiety it produced might just crush his larynx.

“Sorry, Tyson,” I murmured gently. “Go ahead.”

Jenna propped her chin on her hands. “I got your back, man.”

I eyed her. “You know I hang out with vampires, right? You could be scared of me like the others.”

She scoffed. “You and your pretty boys don’t scare me.”

Jenna’s mocking tone was soothing. If it wasn’t for her and Hunter and Chloe, this whole transition thing would have been even worse. “Shush,” I scolded her primly. “I am learning about the weirdo League of hunters who think they’re in a comic book.”

“Your family now too.”

I drew back, horrified. “Excuse me, but after my parents, the Drakes are family. You lot are riffraff.”

“The riffiest.”

“That’s not a word.”

“Is so.”

“What’s it mean?”

Jenna glanced at Tyson. “Help me out here, Ty. You’re the smart one.”

He just shook his head. “Are you two always like this?”

Jenna and I exchanged mischievous smiles.

“We’re just getting started. But I think we might be,” I said.

“Alert the guards,” Jenna agreed cheerfully.

My eyes widened. “There are guards?” I’d need to know that the next time I snuck off campus. I thought about the Huntsmen currently lurking on the edges of school property.

“Figure of speech,” she said. “But actually, yeah. Sometimes.”

“We’re not really supposed to be off campus without written permission anyway,” Tyson said apologetically.

I wondered if the Drakes could ask Hart to write me a note. Speaking of which, “Does Hart ever come here?” I asked.

“He came to an assembly last year just after he was promoted,” Jenna said, sounding disgruntled. “I missed it.”

“He’s hot,” I told her. “Don’t skip next time.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

A small crowd of students clustered at one of the windows. Jenna and I stood on chairs to peek over their heads.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Looks like more agents are arriving,” Jenna replied. “They’re staying here during the Blood Moon.”

“That’s a lot of cargo pants,” I said drily, as I considered making “The Truth about Vampires” flyers to post all over campus.

Tyson cleared his throat. “Uh … I should be tutoring you …”

“Okay,” I agreed, pulling a chocolate bar out of my bag. “Tutor away.”

“Well, the Helios-Ra is named after two sun gods, Helios from Greek mythology and Ra from Egyptian mythology. The League was officially formed in 892 C.E. by Alric Skallagrim.”

“C.E.?” I asked. “What’s that?”

“It means Common Era. It’s the archaeologist’s version of a.d. And before Alric, hunters had their own tribal traditions, some of which were solidified and spread about by the armies of Rome. But they never all officially worked together until Alric.”

“Let me guess, there was a big bad?”

“Several actually. How did you know?”

“There’s always a big bad. Didn’t you ever watch
Buffy
?”

“Even so, the original tenet of the League was to hunt the undead.”

“They’re not really undead,” I interrupted. “You guys know that, right? I mean, the
Hel-Blar
are, and most of the others, but not the families of the Raktapa Council. Not entirely anyway. I mean, they get sick and die. Sort of. But not really. It’s complicated.”

“It’s never been complicated to the Helios-Ra,” Jenna said. “Vampire is as vampire does.”

“That’s specie-ist,” I grumbled, frustrated. “Why doesn’t anyone ever listen to me?”

“Vampires drink human blood,” Jenna pointed out. “And I kinda need mine.”

“They don’t have to drink enough to kill you. Just to live. Survive. Whatever.” I frowned. “Don’t be so greedy.”

“Don’t be so eager to give my blood away.”

“Would you donate blood at a blood drive?”

“I guess so.”

“Well, there you go!” I declared triumphantly.

“But that’s different.”

“Why?”

She frowned at Tyson. He frowned back at her. Then they both frowned at me.

“I don’t know,” she said finally. “It just is.”

“We know times are changing,” Tyson added, looking interested enough in the quandary that he forgot to be hand-shakingly shy. Instead he sounded as if he was quoting a professor in his head. “We have treaties with some vampire tribes. And we also have several more departments, at the academy and at the college. And in the League at large as well. Things like Tech and Supernatural Studies.”

“What about Vampire Relations?” I asked. Especially with the local newspapers now reporting on the increase in missing persons. Apparently the last time something like this happened was in the eighties. “We need that. I could totally do that.”

“Making out with your hot boyfriend doesn’t count toward your grade,” Jenna teased.

I shook my head. “I knew this place was all wrong.”

“Did Bellwood go through the rules with you?” Tyson asked.

“Probably,” I admitted. “But she talked a lot. And she’s surprisingly intimidating.”

Jenna just snorted.

“The basic rules are pretty self-explanatory,” I recited. “Don’t leave campus after hours, don’t tell outsiders about the school or the League, don’t get caught or tell secrets, and don’t fraternize with vampires. Which is a stupid rule, by the way.”

Tyson looked at Jenna helplessly. When she didn’t offer any advice, he just handed me a printout. “Here’s the homework.”

I groaned. “Homework? Really? On top of all my other classwork?”

“Bellwood gave me a list of essays and papers you have to do to prove you’re catching up.”

I lay my head on the table despondently. “Shouldn’t I be learning how to kill things?”

Jenna checked her watch. “Come on, there’s a kickboxing match in the gym in ten minutes. Afterward, I’ll teach you how to fall down.”

“I know how to fall down, thanks.”

“Trust me, falling down properly is harder than it looks. Learn the right way and you can get back up faster and keep fighting.”

I thought of being in Lady Natasha’s dungeons, of my cousin Christabel being kidnapped because they thought she was me, of stakes flying at my boyfriend, and of Hope taking out half the Drake farmhouse. I bared my teeth.

“I’m in.”

Chapter 14
Solange

Monday, sunset

I woke up missing Kieran.

By the time I’d drunk three bottles of blood and was sated enough to leave my own private corner of the family tunnels, I’d already talked myself out of writing him a letter or checking to see if he’d written me one, about five times. Maybe ten.

The last thing I wanted to do was deal with the aftermath of Sunday night. Mom lost her temper all the time; everyone was used to it. Even Lucy lost her temper enough to give Mom a run for her money. But I never lost my temper. Frankly, until recently you could have been forgiven for assuming I didn’t even have one. Now I just felt it there all the time, boiling and searing under my skin.

I knew I should apologize, and I meant to, but the minute I
came up from the safe house and felt everyone staring at me, the anger came back. I actually glanced down to make sure there wasn’t steam coming off me. I felt full of embers again, instead of blood.

Duncan was sprawled in a chair, looking wary. I should definitely tell him I was sorry, but I didn’t know if he wanted to be reminded that his baby sister had taken him down. Quinn, Connor, and Marcus sat at the table. Only Connor smiled at me. Mom and Dad turned to watch my progress up the last of the metal steps. A candle burned between them. Dad’s worry lines were so deeply etched between his eyes they looked painted on.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Fine.” I didn’t mean to snap the answer; it was just that somewhere between my brain and my tongue everything got jumbled up. “How’s London?” I asked before we could get into another painful discussion about my attitude.

“Better,” Dad replied. “Not at full strength, but she’ll get there. Your uncle’s keeping an eye on her.”

“Oh. Good.” I didn’t know what else to say. I took a step toward the door.

“You’re restricted to the grounds.” It was the first thing Mom had said to me since I’d compelled her. She wouldn’t look at me.

“I know.”
They want to keep you weak. They always have.

“That means you stay between the torches.”

“I
know.
”

“And watch your tone, young lady, or you’ll be restricted to this tent.”

I slipped outside before I said anything to make it worse. The cold night air helped, and the expanse of the star-thick sky made
me feel slightly less itchy and claustrophobic. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I wasn’t even sure who to trust anymore. I knew I didn’t trust Madame Veronique, but my parents did, so what was the use in warning them? They’d think I was overreacting. They’d think it was pheromones or regular hormones or whatever other thousands of excuses people had when anyone under twenty-one had something important to say. And it was even worse with vampires, whose life spans were so ridiculously long some would barely acknowledge anyone under two hundred.

A sixteen-year-old girl who’d tried to compel her mother and the oldest matriarch of her lineage?