Blood Moon (24 page)

Lucy.

“Solange! Let me go!” I heard her yell from the woods. “She’s my best friend!”

I leaped to my feet, dashing to the guards. “Lucy?”

“Yes, me. Ow!”

“Let her go,” I said quickly.

Lucy stumbled out of the tree, pushing her hair off her face. Her sweater was crooked and she looked furious. “What the hell, Solange?”

“Constantine posted a guard,” I said sheepishly.

“No shit.” She straightened her clothes. “Bruno says hi.”

“Bruno’s out there too?”

“Yeah.” She turned to peer into the shadows. “So’s Kieran. He’s waiting for the all-clear. Bruno seemed to think your guys would jump him for being a hunter.”

“Kieran’s here?” I sounded as freaked out as I felt. I wasn’t ready to see him, or for him to see me like this. I didn’t have sunglasses to cover my eyes. My fangs still wouldn’t retract. “You couldn’t have warned me?”

“I’ve been calling you for the past hour!” Lucy grumbled. “Not to mention the six thousand texts this week.”

“My phone’s back at the camp.”

“What the hell’s going on? Logan said you took off and nearly got them all killed.”

I scowled. “That’s not what happened. The Furies tried to kill me and Constantine saved me. And then I saved him back. Sorry, I didn’t stop to text you,” I added sarcastically.

“Oh, you are not pulling that crap on me, Solange Drake.”

“Back at you, Hamilton.” I wasn’t even sure why we were fighting. Lucy knew me better than I knew myself sometimes. I should have been asking for her help. Especially with Kieran lurking in the woods.

“Are you going to let him in, or what?” Lucy asked. “He came all this way with me to make sure you’re okay. You know, after you broke up and forgot to tell me about it.”

“Let him through,” I called out loudly, knowing they’d hear me.

Lucy stepped closer to me. “He misses you,” she said quietly as Kieran came out of the tree line. She glanced at me. “And I know you miss him too.”

“It’s better this way,” I said. She had no idea the thirst that screamed inside me, even just seeing his silhouette. Even when I looked at her, she was faintly edged with red, as if everything were soaked in blood. My gums hurt around my fangs. And there was that little thing about my going crazy. “You guys shouldn’t have come.”

“Too late now,” she said cheerfully.

Kieran looked good. He wore his usual cargos, his dark hair tousled from the wind, his shoulders hunched against the press of
the cold circle of vampires in the shadows. I knew he’d have already catalogued the glint of eyes in the dark, the pale skin, the movement of guards on the other side of the Bower.

He stopped in front of me. I couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

There was a long awkward pause during which I contemplated staking myself just to end it.

“Pathetic,” Lucy finally huffed to herself. “Whoa!” she added when she caught sight of the Bower. The lanterns swung gently. From here you couldn’t see the moth-eaten edges of the lace or the worn patches on the velvet sofas. “Okay, that’s cool.”

“It’s the Bower,” I said, smiling slightly. “Isn’t it great?” Kieran barely glanced at it. My smile died. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lucy said with dry nonchalance. “Kinda heard my best friend was going dark side.”

I scowled. “I was saving a life, actually.”

“And I’m grateful,” Constantine said, joining us. He was on my right, just behind me, and Kieran was in front. It was like a sandwich from hell. I shifted uncomfortably.

“Constantine,” I said. “This is Lucy and Kieran.”

“Ah,” he drawled. “The best friend who electrocuted you—”

“Hey!” Lucy interrupted.

“And the hunter ex-boyfriend,” Constantine continued smoothly.

“Constantine,” Lucy seethed, her hands curling into fists.

“Lucy,” I said. “Stop it. God, you’re as bad as my mom.” I shook
my head. “Look, it’s not safe in the forest for humans, especially hunter humans. You should go.”

Lucy flinched as if I’d punched her. “Did you just call me a hunter?”

“Aren’t you?”

She muttered one of her mantras under her breath. Constantine looked amused. Kieran looked grim.

Lucy exhaled slowly before speaking again. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

“Look, I’m sorry, but this is no place for you guys right now. Vampires are missing. Everyone’s high-strung.”

“So are humans,” Kieran said grimly.

“Then you get it. I’m trying to keep you safe.” I didn’t know why they couldn’t just leave it at that.

“Mm-hmm.” Lucy sounded just as annoyed as the time Nicholas had hidden her homework back when they picked on each other incessantly.

“Lucy, I’m fine.”

“Okay, well you know what? It’s not just about
you
anymore, princess.” I knew she was only calling me that to get back at me for calling her a hunter. “It’s also about the two vampires who tried to kill Kieran.”

Now that I didn’t know. Dread soured my stomach. “What? When?”

“Just now, at my mom’s house,” Kieran replied quietly.

“Is she okay?” I asked, wanting to hug him or touch him in some way just to be sure. “Are you okay?”

Constantine arched an eyebrow at him. “You look all right, lad.”

Lucy pinned him with her patented glare. She wasn’t the least bit intimidated. I missed her. “Did you have anything to do with it?”

He just smiled, amused. “Why would I? I’m not the big bad wolf, little girl.”

Lucy shifted her glare to me. “Solange, can we talk alone?”

I couldn’t afford to let her back in.

“I trust Constantine,” I said.

“Good for you. I don’t.” She tugged on my elbow, pulling me into the relative privacy of a spruce canopy. “Sol, you can’t be serious.”

“He saved my life tonight. What’s
wrong
with everybody?”

“Well, you ran away from home. It’s not like you.”

She doesn’t understand us. Forget about her. She’s weak. Human.

“You’ve been running away from home since you were six.” Usually to our house. “And now you’re at the Helios-Ra high school. And you never even mentioned it to me before you went!”

Her eyes narrowed to slits. If she’d been a vampire they would have gone clear and cold as ice. “I tried to tell you.”

“When?”

“When you compelled my boyfriend to kick me out of your house for talking about Constantine,” she pointed out. “Remember that?”

I bit my lip. “Sort of.”

She blinked, nonplussed. “What do you mean sort of?”

I sighed, wishing Kieran wasn’t standing right there listening.
“Look, sometimes things get a little fuzzy when the hunger’s on, okay?”

“Are you blacking out?” Kieran asked sharply.

“No. It’s not like that. It’s just …” I shrugged, unable to find the right words. “I don’t know.” I didn’t mention the female voice, or the things she whispered to me. It was probably stupid not to, but I didn’t want them to think I was insane on top of everything else. Then they’d
really
insist I couldn’t take care of myself.
I’m only here to protect you. You don’t have to be afraid.

“What does your family say?” Lucy asked.

“Uncle Geoffrey wants to run more tests.” I grimaced. “I’m his undead pincushion.”

Lucy half laughed. “I can just imagine. Still. Something big’s going on, Sol. Shouldn’t you stick with your family?”

“And sacrifice someone who saved me?”

“I guess not.” She sounded disgruntled.

“Why’s everyone so determined to think the worst of Constantine? He saved my life. When Kieran saved my life, everyone practically gave him a key to the house. And he’s a
hunter
. And after
Isabeau
saved my life, Logan went and fell in love with her. No one even blinked.”

“Are you in love with him?” Kieran asked quietly.

Lucy took a step back and pretended she wasn’t avidly eavesdropping. I honestly didn’t know whose side she was on, and I couldn’t blame her. I squirmed.

“Are you?” Kieran repeated.

“No,” I answered. “Of course not.” I wasn’t in
love
with him,
just … intrigued. And I missed Kieran. I missed that he didn’t play games, that he stood up for what he believed in, even when others tried to knock him down. He was like one of those knights in the medieval stories. And I was the dragon. “We just broke up,” I reminded him. “Are
you
in love with someone already?”

When the wind shifted, the query became less about retaliation and more of an actual question that needed an answer. Right now.

Because I could smell girls all over him.

And for some reason it made my gums ache around my fangs.

“Sol,” Lucy said. “Your eyes are … weird. Are they usually that red?”

My nose twitched. “I can smell them on you.”

Kieran looked confused. “Who? The vampires?”

“No, girls.”

“Girls? What are you talking about?”
He’s lying to us. He can’t be trusted.

A part of me recognized that he was truly mystified by the change of topic and that I was overreacting. But the rage inside me, always looking for a place to land, just didn’t care.

“At least three different girls on you,” I said, lips lifting off my teeth while I sorted through the scents. Kieran’s hand hovered over the stake in his belt. I grabbed the lapel of his jacket, keeping him still. “Didn’t waste any time, did you?”

I was close enough now that the perfume of my enraged pheromones made his jaw clench. His fingertips grazed the top of his stake, but he didn’t pull it loose. His other hand shot to my hip,
fighting the pull of my grip on his coat. We were frozen in a feral dance, with only the music of the blood pumping viciously in my veins. His breath was warm on my cheek.

“Who are they?” I demanded.

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Me, Hunter, and Chloe. We were fighting off vampires sent to kill him, remember? Get a grip already.”

We both ignored her.

He eased closer, the lines of his face harsh. “What about Constantine?”

“This isn’t about him.”

“Then what’s it about?”

We were so close and he felt so right, as if it were just the two of us in the safe house under the ground where we’d first really talked as a girl and a boy, not a vampire and a hunter, that I nearly kissed him. Or he nearly kissed me. I couldn’t be sure. I was all fire and sharp edges. I was still angry, and the bloodlust snaked through me like a drop of fiery poison in a glass of water.

He’s not worthy of us.

I leaned closer. For what, I wasn’t sure.

“Uh, guys?”

We were still locked together. The intensity of Kieran’s eyes went soft. I was leaning in toward his neck, which was still healing from our last encounter in the woods, when Lucy made a strange “
eep
” sound.

“Solange!” she added, trying to shove between us. “Don’t!”

I saw through a red veil, as if it were raining blood. I could already feel the give of Kieran’s skin under my bite, taste his blood in my
mouth. Lucy’s elbow dug into my sternum, but it didn’t stop me. She was like a tiny firefly trying to move a boulder. Her feet dragged on the ground as she tried to find purchase. “Stop, stop, stop!”

“Yes, do.” Constantine was suddenly there as well, his voice gentle and dark in my ear.

I didn’t let go, but I didn’t press forward either. He slipped a goblet of blood between us, waited until the scent had distracted me enough to break eye contact. Without the full force of my pheromones, Kieran pulled free so abruptly that Lucy stumbled back a step.

Kieran shook his head like a wet dog. Lucy had no idea what to do, and that never happened. I drained the cup with trembling hands.

And then the walkie-talkie in my pocket warbled, changing everything. Mom’s voice was sharp as nails in the soft bower.

“Nicholas is missing.”

Chapter 23
Lucy

Tuesday morning, before dawn

For a long frozen, broken moment, everything stopped.

The blood in my veins, my heart in my chest, my breath in my lungs. There was no space for anything inside me but shock and fear. I was watching myself from far away, standing in the woods by candlelight in torn jeans and a sweater my mom crocheted for me out of hand-dyed, multicolored wool. The smallest details stuck: the glint of tin lanterns, the frayed edge of the rug under a single chair under the tree, gilt paint peeling. The arms were carved to look like dragons. I was cold, too cold to move.

Solange was the first to break the tableau of shock. She grabbed for the walkie-talkie so fast it whipped out of her hand and crashed
into the trunk of a black maple and broke. Bats formed a cloud over our heads. Kieran stepped closer to her, and she looked up at him, eyes wide and impossibly blue.

I shook my head violently. “Let’s go,” I said finally, my voice grim as a rusted lock clicking shut.

“Where?”

I bared my teeth like a wounded badger. “To find Nicholas. To talk to your parents.”

“I could—”