My Love Lies Bleeding (12 page)

“Get lost, Black, this doesn’t concern you.” The agent in the lead tensed. His shoulders knotted and his hand strayed to the
hilt of his weapon. Sunlight glinted off his night-vision goggles, pushed up on his head. The others exchanged wary glances.
There was something in the air, some secret I didn’t know about.

“Like hell it doesn’t,” Kieran said.

“Look, we don’t need you, kid. Go home.”

“Go to hell,” Kieran shot back. “I’m a full agent and deserve a cut.”

What ever was sizzling around us seemed to relax slightly.

“What are you saying, Black?”

“I’m saying the bounty’s enough for all of us.”

Someone snorted. “Your uncle know you’re doing this? Or haven’t you heard? Helios called us off.”

“What?” I asked. “Then what the hell are you doing with me?”

Kieran ignored me. Black nose plugs hung around his neck and stakes lined the leather strap across his chest.

“Vampire queen’s still got a bounty on her, doesn’t she? I want in,” he repeated.

I hadn’t known that, either. I was starting to hate my sixteenth birthday. A poufy white dress and a cake with roses made
out of pink icing and awkward dancing with boys in awkward suits was starting to sound like a great alternative. Seriously.
Sign me up. I wouldn’t even complain.

“You’ll have to prove yourself.”

Kieran shoved up his sleeve, showing his sun tattoo. “I’ve proven myself, thanks.”

“We’re taking out more than one little girl, no matter how freaky she might be.”

“Whatever, look, I just want the money.” He pushed toward me. The woods seemed to glow so brightly, I shaded my face. My vision
was more sensitive than it had ever been. The trees might as well have been carved out of emeralds and filled with sunlight.
His eyes were soothingly dark.

And glaring at me pointedly.

I glared back.

He broke contact only long enough to glance to his right, brief as a lightning bug’s flash. My glare lost some of its oomph
as I tried to figure out what was going on. The agents were spread out slightly on his right. Not enough to make an escape,
but almost. Kieran tripped over a tree root, his elbow catching one of the guards in the sternum. He stumbled back. The gap
widened. Kieran grabbed my hand and tossed me through the brief opening. I could feel him at my back, pushing me on. Behind
us the agents hollered. A shot rang out, pinged bark off a pine tree not a foot from my head. Kieran shoved me. “Run faster.”

“Trying,” I gasped. Only adrenaline kept me going, and it was starting to make me feel sick. There was nothing quiet or vampiric
about the way I was crashing through the woods. A deaf and blind kitten could have followed my trail.

They were closing in.

We’d never be able to outrun them. Especially not since I was already wheezing and stumbling. I tripped over my own foot and
went sprawling in the dirt. Kieran reached down to haul me back up.

“Wait, don’t,” I said. I recognized the nick in the oak near my head, right near the root. At first glance it wouldn’t have
been noticeable, at second it would have looked like a deer or a coyote had rubbed up against it. But I knew what it was.

Safety notch.

And sure enough, when I clawed through the undergrowth, I found the wooden handle, carved to look like an exposed root covered
in moss. The actual door was just a chunk of wood and it was painstakingly covered with mud and leaves that camouflaged it
even after it had been opened.

“Are you nuts? Get up!”

Instead I pushed into a crouch and yanked at the handle. It opened to a deep hole with a rope secured to the side and dangling
down to the bottom.

“Let’s go,” I told him, sliding in feet first. The rope burned my hands. Kieran followed, the door shutting with a thunk above
our heads. Darkness swallowed us as my feet hit the ground. Kieran landed beside me. I reached out tentatively to run my hand
over the walls, feeling dirt and roots as thin as hair. The dirt gave way to Kieran’s shoulder.

“Um . . . sorry.”

I could hear his ragged breathing, and my own breath burned in my lungs. There wasn’t much space to maneuver. I shifted away,
hit the wall behind me. Shifted again and my hip bumped his. His hand closed over my arm.

“Wait.” His voice was husky. I heard him rummaging. I wondered if I should be worried about Hypnos powder. But it didn’t make
sense for him to drug me after he’d helped me get away.

Unless he wanted the bounty for himself.

I was close enough that I should be able to hit some vital organ with my foot or my fist. If he was unconscious while I was
under the effects of the Hypnos, he couldn’t take advantage of my hypnotized state. There was a click and I launched myself
at him. His arms closed around me, and we hit the wall with enough force to rattle my insides. My teeth cut into the inside
of my lip. I tasted blood.

A blue glow from the light stick he’d broken filled the cramped space.

He hadn’t been reaching for Hypnos after all—he’d only been trying to find us a light source in his belt.

“What the hell?” He grunted, rubbing his bruised knee. I was pressed against him, chest to ankle. I struggled, leaning back.
I didn’t have any strength left. My angry leap had sapped the very last of it. I sagged a little.

“I thought you were going for the Hypnos powder.”

His eyes were very dark in the weird blue light. His eyebrows nearly snapped together, he was glowering so deeply.

“Um. Thanks?” I tried a smile, then decided on just glowering back. “Look, it was an honest mistake.”

“If you say so.”

He still hadn’t let go of me. When he released his hold, I leaned against the wall, closing my eyes.

“What’s the matter with you?” he asked. I could hear the concern in his voice, under all that irritation. “Are you hurt?”

“Bloodchange.”

“What . . . right now?” He might have just possibly squeaked.

“In about two days, actually. Happy birthday to me.”

“Isn’t it supposed to make you get stronger?”

“Sure,” I said drily. “If it doesn’t kill me first.”

“We can’t stay here.”

“The tunnel leads to another safe room.”

“They won’t stop searching for us. They’ll comb the whole forest.”

“I can’t run anymore,” I said apologetically. “I just can’t. Pull that lever there, by your head.”

He pulled it down and then leaped back out of the way when a gate swung closed, blocking access to the tunnel.

“This way,” I told him, literally dragging my feet. He came up beside me, putting his arm around my waist to help me. “I’m
okay,” I muttered.

“You’re practically green. Except for the lovely bloodshot eyes, of course.”

“Oh.” My vanity twinged. I knew it was stupid; I had way bigger problems. But I still didn’t want to look like a haggard,
disgusting mess around him. He was warm against me, and I felt chilled and was trembling with it suddenly. The damp of being
underground didn’t help. My teeth chattered. I just needed to get to a corner where I could collapse. Kieran half carried
me down the passageway. It smelled like mud and green and water, dripping somewhere we couldn’t see. The tunnel widened and
then we were in a round chamber with flagstones on the ground and a narrow bed in the back corner. There was a chest I knew
was filled with blankets, matches, and various other supplies, including a thermos of blood. There was another gate, locked
with an alarm system. The red light blinked like an eye. Kieran helped me to the bed, then stared at the alarm as I leaned
over to pull blankets out of the metal chest.

“Can you get that open?”

I shook my head. “The grate you closed in the tunnel and that door there are both automatically wired to stay locked until
sunset.” I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure I don’t have to explain why.”

“I had no idea any of this was down here. It’s like an old-time war bunker.”

“It’s been here for at least a hundred years. It helps us get around and stay out of the sun.” I leaned back on the blankets,
yawning. “And since we’re constantly being attacked by snipers and warriors and idiots, I guess it kind of is like war.”

“Am I a sniper, a warrior, or an idiot?”

“Don’t know yet.”

“Well, thanks very much for that.” He frowned, glancing around. “If the Helios-Ra find the opening, we’ll be trapped in here.”

“They won’t find it— it’s really well camouflaged. And there are ways around the alarm if we really need them. But we don’t
yet.” I tried to call my parents but my cell phone wouldn’t work. “Low battery,” I muttered. “Figures.” I looked at him. “What
about your phone?”

“If I turn it on now, Helios will activate the GPS chip.” His voice softened. “So I guess we just wait.”

My eyelids were so heavy. I had to assume I could trust him not to stake me if I fell asleep, because I wasn’t going to be
able not to fall asleep for much longer. And he’d proven himself trustworthy enough for a nap. I heard him rummaging in the
chest and then the scratch and hiss of a match being lit and the wick of a fat candle catching. The artificial blue glow faded
to candlelight. The smell of melting wax crowded out the damp.

“Are you scared, Solange?”

My eyes popped open briefly. He was watching me carefully, seated on a folded blanket on top of the chest. The flickering
light glinted off the edge of the goggles loose around his neck and the snaps on his cargo pants and the metal under the scraped
leather of his combat boots.

“Scared of what?”

“Being a vampire.”

I glanced away, glanced back. He was still looking at me, as if there was nothing else worth contemplating in the world.

“Sometimes,” I whispered truthfully. “Not so much about being a vampire—that’s all I’ve ever known. More about the change.”
I shivered. “The last of my brothers to go through it nearly didn’t come out the other side.”

“I didn’t think it was that dangerous.”

“It’s why they confused it with consumption in the nineteenth century.”

“Consumption?”

“Tuberculosis.”

“Oh.” He paused. “Really?”

“They don’t teach you this at the academy?” I couldn’t help a very small sneer.

He didn’t sneer back. “No.”

Now I felt bad for being petty. He had saved my life, after all.

“We have the same symptoms as tuberculosis, especially in the eyes of the Romantic Poets. Pale, tired, coughing up blood.”

“That’s romantic?”

I had to smile. “Romantic with a capital ‘R.’ You know, like Byron and Coleridge.”

He gave a mock shudder. “Please, stop. I barely passed English Lit.”

I snorted. “I didn’t have that option. One of my aunts took Byron as a lover.”

“Get out.”

“Seriously. It makes Lucy insanely jealous.”

“That girl is . . .”

“My best friend,” I filled in sternly.

“I was only going to say she’s unique.”

“Okay, then.” The room was spinning slowly, the edges blurry. I wouldn’t be able to fight the lethargy much longer. “Just
so we’re clear.”

“She’s just as protective of you as you are of her, you know.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

“I know. I’m worried about her. I think this is going to get really ugly.”

“I think you’re right.”

“Is it true Helios called off the bounty?”

“Yes.”

I turned over onto my side so I could see him without having to hold up my head, which now weighed approximately as much as
a car. “Then why are they after me?”

His posture changed, as if something that had been holding him up wasn’t there any longer. “One of the units has gone rogue.
I got a call before, just as they found you and your brothers.”

I rested my cheek on my hands. “That really happens? Units going rogue, I mean?”

“It hasn’t in nearly two hundred years, but yes, it happens. It’s been a bad year for the league. My uncle’s in charge, and
he’s great, he really is, but since his partner was replaced, it hasn’t been the same.”

“Why not? Who was his partner?”

“My father.”

I had to ask. I didn’t know what to say. I remembered him saying his father was killed by a vampire. Which made me want to
apologize. Which was ridiculous. I hadn’t killed him and neither had anyone I knew, so why would I apologize? Would he apologize
to me for the Helios-Ra agent who’d killed one of my cousin’s girlfriends?

Still. He’d lost his father.

“I’m sorry your father died.”

His jaw clenched. “Thank you.” His voice was very husky.

“We didn’t do it.”

Something bloomed right then and there in the small dark space between us. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew enough to
know it was rare and delicate. And it felt so real I might have been able to reach out and touch it if I tried.

“You can go to sleep,” he told me softly. “I’ll look after you.”

“Nicholas,” I whispered.

Nothing.

I pushed his shoulder.

Still nothing.

None of those same novels had ever made any suggestions as to the extraction of one’s self from a superhuman embrace. There
were logistical issues. Such as the fact that I could break my own arm trying to squirm away and he’d sleep right through
it. I squirmed anyway, just in case.

“Damn it, Nicky, wake up, you undead slug.”

It wasn’t a good sign when I couldn’t even irritate him into a response. There was a narrow window beside Solange’s bed. I
might just be able to reach it with my toe. I stretched until the arch of my foot and the back of my calf began to cramp painfully.

“This is ridiculous,” I huffed, stretching farther. I could feel my face going red with the effort. With my luck, this would
be the exact moment he woke up— to find me inches from his head, straining and panting like I was passing a kidney stone.

I finally managed to hook the cord of the blinds with my toes. One yank and a quick release and the blinds snapped up. Late-afternoon
sunlight slanted over the bed and across his pale, still face. The glass was treated, of course, so it wasn’t dangerous, but
Nicholas’s young vampire instinct made him recoil from the sudden fall of light. He burrowed under the security of blankets,
shifting his arm and throwing it over his head for good measure.

The only problem was that he did it so fast, the momentum shoved me right off the bed and onto the floor. I landed with a
squeak and a particularly ungraceful display of flailing limbs, neither of which helped to make my landing any softer.

My elbow tingled and my tailbone throbbed, and I now had intimate knowledge of the dust bunnies under Solange’s bed. And the
patchwork skirt I thought I’d lost last year, twisted under a storage box covered in stickers. Yes, even little girls with
vampire lineage have a sticker phase. I shoved to my feet, grimacing. Nicholas slept on peacefully, looking exactly like a
marble carving of a sleeping angel. Hah.

There was nothing angelic about the way he kissed.

When I caught myself snickering, I realized I must be groggier than I thought. I hurried out of the room before I embarrassed
myself irrevocably. The house was quiet. Boudicca lay in front of Hope’s door. She wagged her tail when she saw me but otherwise
didn’t move. Liam must have sent her to guard the bedroom. I went to fetch Mrs. Brown and then let her out to terrorize the
wildlife in the backyard. One thing I’d learned in my family was that if you had an animal companion, never “pet,” who was
dependent on you, you lived up to your responsibilities. No excuses. Ever. When I was seven I’d begged my parents for a goldfish
because I loved feeding the ones at the Buddhist temple we went to every New Year’s Eve. Only I forgot to feed mine, and it
floated belly-up one sad Sunday morning. To say that my mother overreacted was to vastly underestimate my mother. We had a
funeral, complete with a papier-mâché Viking boat, which she set on fire, sending my goldfish’s spirit to Valhalla via Lake
Violet.

“Hurry up,” I called over to Mrs. Brown, who was wiggling her little pug bottom in joy at finding one of Byron’s abandoned
beef bones on the edge of the lawn. The sun was soft, like warm honey poured onto the treetops and the roses, glittering over
the windows of the farmhouse. It was one of those perfect long summer days just before school starts. Solange and I usually
wandered around town, complaining about how bored we were and how much it sucked that I had to go back to school and she had
to learn how to pour tea in the precise Victorian way. You know, in case Charlotte Brontë ever dropped by for tea cakes. I
would have given anything to be that bored right now.

If she wasn’t already dead.

“Can’t think like that,” I muttered, shredding the rose I hadn’t realized I’d picked. Torn petals drifted messily to the ground.
Mrs. Brown attacked them as if they offended her sense of order. I didn’t hear the window slide open over her fierce growls,
but I did hear Hope raise her voice.

“Lucky, isn’t it?”

“No one calls me that.” I looked up, shading my eyes. “There are alarms on the windows, and if you jump, Byron will chase
you.” I snapped my fingers at the shaggy dog, who slunk over from the porch, head lowered submissively as soon as he saw Mrs.
Brown. As a threat, he needed work.

“I’m not going to jump,” Hope assured me. “Anyway, I’d break my leg from this distance.”

“Good.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“I can get you away from here,” she added softly.

Now I knew exactly what to say.

“Not you, too,” I said impatiently. “I’m not a prisoner, and the Drakes aren’t monsters. They’re family.”

“You’re not a vampire.” Her expression darkened. I wouldn’t have thought such a cheerful face could look so angry. “Did they
change you?”

“No, of course not.” I scowled back. “Wait, how did you know my name?”

“You’re Solange’s closest friend. Of course we know who you are.”

“That stupid field guide, right? Do you also know how creepy you are? Stalking a fifteen-year- old girl in your commando
outfits?”

“But drinking blood isn’t creepy?”

“No creepier than eating a dead cow.”

She shook her head. “Kieran said you wouldn’t be interested in detox.”

“Detox? From what? My friends?”

“From vampires. From this lifestyle.” She waved a hand at the treated glass. “From alarm systems and night walkers and sword-fights.”

“Okay, first of all, I happen to love sword fighting. And second of all, what, your lifestyle of secret agent assassins is
somehow suburban white bread all of a sudden? Please.”

“Oh, Lucky, it’s not like that.”

“It’s Lucy,” I corrected her through my teeth. “And your people tried to kill my best friend, so you’ll forgive me if I’m
not overly keen on learning the secret handshake.”

She shook her head sadly. “You should be going on dates and hanging out at the mall. Not wearing stakes on your belt.”

I shrugged one shoulder. “The mall sucks.”

“I can help you.”

“Like you helped Solange? No thanks.”

“You can have a normal life. It’s not too late for you.”

I nearly laughed. “You’ve clearly never met my parents. Normal was never an option.” I folded my arms and smiled at her sarcastically.
“You could leave the Helios-Ra. We could help you stop trying to kill people just because they have a medical condition that
you don’t understand.”

She sucked in a breath. “It’s not like that.”

“You’re so young. You can’t see the bigger picture.”

“I’m sixteen, I’m not an idiot.”

“We could use you.” She made it sound like it was something I should be excited about. “There’s so much we could teach you.
You have the instinct for it, I can tell.”

The thought made me shiver. “No.”

“The offer stands. If you should change your mind.” She looked young, with her ponytail and her round cheeks. Still, her eyes
were old, knowing. I was spared further conversation when Bruno came striding out of the wooded area bordering the lawn.

“Are you daft, lass?” he asked, accent thickening with disgust. “It’s nearly dusk. Get your arse inside.” I hadn’t noticed
the sky had turned to lavender and pink, the edges burning like tissue paper set on fire. He glowered at Hope. “And you, get
inside and close that window. If you run, we have ways of fetching you back. You won’t like them.”

“I’m not a prisoner,” she reminded him gently. “I’m here as a gesture of good faith.”

He snorted but didn’t answer, preferring instead to nudge me back inside like a great big Scottish bully.

“All right, all right, I’m coming,” I muttered. “Someone had to let Mrs. Brown out.”

He shut the patio door behind me and locked it. His eyes were smudged with bruises of fatigue. Mrs. Brown chased Byron around
the living room until he hid under the library table, whimpering. That, at least, made the night feel more normal. It wasn’t
long before Liam and Helena came downstairs to join us, followed by Geoffrey, Sebastian, and a rumpled Nicholas. For some
reason when he looked at me, I felt myself blushing.

“Still no word from Hyacinth,” Helena said grimly and without preamble.

Bruno shook his head, confirming. “We can’t track her phone. It’s possible she’s out of range.”

Liam shook his head. “Not likely. I talked to Hart and he claims none of his people came into contact with her.”

“And we believe him?” Nicholas asked, leaning back against the mantel and yawning.

Liam’s phone rang from the depths of his leather jacket. He answered it, listened, and said only one word. “Good.” He looked
at his wife. Her shoulders lost some of their tension and then the front door burst open to the rest of the Drake brothers.
They rushed in, covered in mud, clothing torn, faces angry.

“Where is she?” Logan asked. “Where’s Solange?”

“We don’t know,” Liam answered him.

Logan closed his eyes briefly, his face pale as lily petals. Quinn swore viciously. Connor punched the wall, denting the plaster.

“Where’s your cousin?” Helena frowned, after giving each of her sons the once-over to be sure they were unhurt.

“London took off ,” Marcus sighed. “She locked one of the grates behind her and just took off.”

“What?” Nicholas pushed away from the wall. “You’re kidding. She got you into this mess in the first place.”

Logan dropped into a chair. “I think she was embarrassed. Or confused. She loves Lady Natasha, you know that.”

“And what about Solange?”

“The good news is that Veronique gave her a vial of blood to help her through the change. The bad news is the little idiot
gave herself up to the Helios-Ra to save us.”

“Not quite,” Liam told them starkly. “Your sister gave herself up to a rogue unit currently unrecognized by Helios.”

“Well that’s just freaking great.”

The Drake brothers put a rioting soccer stadium to shame when they got going. And there was nothing like the news that their
baby sister had sacrificed herself for them to someone worse than Helios-Ra. The language currently blistering the air would
have made the proverbial sailor blush. Helena had to whistle around her thumb and forefinger to make the yelling subside.
She was on her feet, her long black braid hanging behind her, her pale eyes like summer lightning.

The house emptied so fast the silence felt like a slap. I blinked at Nicholas and Logan.

“They don’t really think we’re going to sit around here and wait, do they?”

“Of course they do,” Nicholas replied.

“Look, I’m not sitting around here anymore. Solange needs our help.”

“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into,” Logan said. “You’re sixteen and human.”

“Shut up.”

“I mean it, Lucy. Solange would kill us if we let you put yourself in danger.”

“Logan, don’t be an ass.”

“I have been sleeping in mud. I’m covered in dirt and blood and these were my favorite pants before I landed in raccoon shit.”

I bit back a totally inappropriate chuckle. “Raccoon shit?”

“Lucy.”

I kissed his cheek, wrinkling my nose. “Why don’t you go up and take a shower. If you stop bitching, I’ll even wait for you
before I figure out what to do next.”

He pushed to his feet, groaning like an old man. “I don’t think I like you anymore.”

I patted his head. “Don’t be silly, you love me.”

“Try and stay out of trouble in the ten minutes it’s going to take me to get clean.”

“I can’t make any promises,” I replied primly.

He shot Nicholas a smirk. “Good luck, little brother.”

I scowled at his retreating back.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”