Hearts At Stake

chapter 10

Lucy

The very second the door closed behind them, Nicholas started shouting. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“I can’t believe you did that!” he railed. “After the field party, the vamps in the garden. Didn’t you hear a single word I said?”

“No, why don’t you yell a little louder?”

“This isn’t funny, Lucy.”

“I never said it was.” I crossed my arms and watched him stomping furiously around the foyer. “We did what we had to do. It was worth a try.”

“He could have killed her. And you.” He slammed his hand down on a side table, dislodging a vase of roses. It fell to the floor, cracking on the marble. Water and rose petals clung to his boots.

“But he didn’t.” The truth was I was still feeling the adrenaline. I curled my hands into fists so he wouldn’t see the way they were trembling. Maybe I wasn’t made for this spy stuff after all. “And anyway, you went out there and fought a bunch of pheromone-crazed vamps and we didn’t lecture you.”

“It’s not the same.”

“Right.”

“For one thing, I’m a lot harder to kill than you two.”

It was hard to argue with that. “Well, whatever,” I mumbled lamely.

We glowered at each other for a while longer. For the first time, I could really see the worry etched around his eyes and the way his mouth tightened. He wasn’t just pale, he was faintly gray. We must have really scared him. I tried to imagine what he’d felt seeing his baby sister and her best friend in the woods at night with a Helios-Ra hunter. I sighed. “As much fun as it is to stand around here yelling at each other, do you think maybe we could do something else for now?”

He jerked his hand through his hair. “It’s pretty late. You could go to bed.”

“Are you kidding?” I stared at him. “Like I could sleep.”

“It’ll be hours before we hear anything.”

I bit my lower lip. “Is Veronique really that scary?”

He looked up, nodded once. “There’s just something about her.”

“She wouldn’t hurt Solange, would she?”

“No, she’s really big on family and tradition and all that. It’s the royal courts I’m worried about.”

“Did you reach your parents yet?”

“No.”

“Crap.”

“Yup.”

“Well, we can’t sit around here worrying all night. I have to do something. ”

“Why don’t you call up another vampire hunter for tea?” he suggested drily. He looked calmer though, less like he was clenching his jaw so hard he’d snap off a fang. “How did you manage that, anyway?”

“I called the operator. His number was listed.”

“Seriously?”

“And I picked his pocket.” I preened like a peacock.

Nicholas shook his head, grinning that rare crooked grin that made my stomach flutter. “You didn’t.”

“I totally did. And I found this Helios-Ra handbook guide to vampires. I guess all the recruits get a copy. I was even in it; I’m a Person of Interest. Go me.”

I thought he’d get a chuckle out of it, but his face went so cold I had to stop myself from shivering.

“What?” he asked with deadly calm. “Helios-Ra has targeted you?”

I shook my head enthusiastically. “No, nothing like that, don’t worry. It’s just a profile page. Solange had one too.” His jaw clenched again. Oops. Shouldn’t have mentioned that. God, maybe he was right. I do have a big mouth. I tried a soothing smile. “Really, it’s okay. Anyway, we made photocopies of everything on Sol’s printer. And we had Connor doing his computer geek thing before London dropped in to be her usual sunny self.” I tilted my head. “Your computer’s faster than Solange’s laptop. Think we could find something on the bounty or Helios-Ra? Anything?”

He looked thoughtful. “It beats sitting around here waiting. Connor’s the one with the Internet mojo though, not me.”

I shrugged. “Worth a try.” Anything to fill the time, because otherwise I was going to bounce between worrying about my best friend and wondering when her brother got so freaking hot. Neither of those appealed to me as a sane pastime.

We went up to the attic floor, which had been converted into seven bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a sitting room—all without a single window anywhere. Nicholas’s room was the smallest; there was space only for a bed, a dresser, and his desk. I had to sit on the edge of the bed since there was no other chair. It was only half-made, with a navy blue blanket. The last time I’d been up here there had been pirate sheets and wooden swords.

I looked around curiously. There was an iPod dock and stacks of music magazines and clothes in a pile in the corner. There was also a small photograph on his nightstand. It was of the two of us on my fifteenth birthday. I was laughing, the light glinting off my glasses and the sequins on my scarf, and Nicholas was turned toward me, with serious eyes and a half grin. I touched the frame.

“I’ve never seen this picture,” I said quietly. I kind of wanted to ask him if I could get a copy, but I didn’t want to sound sappy. He looked over his shoulder from where he was booting up his computer.

“It’s . . .” He grabbed it, stuffed it into the top drawer of his desk. “It’s nothing.”

Liar. Still, even though I knew it wasn’t nothing, I didn’t know what it actually meant, either. It was probably no big deal. I shouldn’t read into it. I couldn’t help smiling, though.

“Stop that,” he muttered, not even looking up from the keyboard. I smiled wider. “I mean it.”

“So how do we find and infiltrate the database of a secret society?” I asked.

“I have no idea.”

I scooted to the edge of the bed so I could see what he was typing. “Hey, you do have some mojo,” I said approvingly. The screen was a garble of HTML codes. “I can’t even read that.”

“Don’t get too excited,” he warned me. He typed for a bit, waited, typed some more. I watched, got bored, lay back on the bed, and stared at the ceiling. He put music on, choosing some of my favorite bands. He typed some more. I felt my eyes drifting shut despite myself.

“Think your boyfriend would mind the photo?” he finally asked quietly, so quietly I barely heard him.

That woke me up. “What boyfriend?” I sat up. “I have a boyfriend now?”

“Jett or Julius or whatever his name is.”

“Julian?” I blinked, confused. “You’re way out of the loop. Julian dumped me during exams. Well, actually, he didn’t even really dump me. I just found him with his tongue in Jennifer King’s mouth.”

“You don’t sound torn up about it.”

“Please, it was forever ago. I called him names, and then when I got home I realized I didn’t actually care. I didn’t even bother with the requisite breakup hot fudge sundae.”

“Oh.”

I didn’t know what to do with this Nicholas. It felt like we were about to have a moment. We’d never really had a moment. Okay, we’d had that kiss—make that two kisses. But they weren’t real, were they? The first was in the interest of subterfuge, the second a scientific test of my immunity to pheromones. I swallowed, suddenly nervous. I hadn’t been expecting a moment.

“Got something.”

Which was for the best because I clearly wasn’t going to get one. I tried not to feel disappointed.

“What did you find?” I asked, pretending my voice hadn’t squeaked.

“I’m not sure yet but it’s got more security than I’ve ever seen.” He frowned. “I can’t crack this. I’m not even sure Connor can.”

“But he has a place to start, right?”

“I guess. For what it’s worth.” He pushed away from the desk.

“We had to try.”

“Yeah.” He didn’t look pleased. I nudged his foot with my boot.

“Want to crank call Kieran?”

He sat next to me, smiling. “Maybe later. Nothing gets you down, does it?”

“Sure it does.” He was close enough that his knee brushed mine. “When this is all over I’ll have myself a good cry and a pity-party. Right now, I just don’t have the time.”

“You’re kind of amazing.”

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, flushing. It was odd to get a compliment like that from him. And really nice. “Solange says I’m kind of evil.”

“That too.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” he replied warily.

“Were you scared during your bloodchange?”

He stilled. “Yes.”

“Did it hurt?” I couldn’t stand the thought of Solange suffering. It wasn’t fair. She was too good a person to go through all of this.

“Some. Mostly I just felt weak and exhausted, like I had a really bad fever. By the time I lost consciousness I didn’t really care anymore. I was too tired.”

I was sorry now that I’d been locked out of the house, that I couldn’t have been there for him. I could easily picture him writhing in pain on this bed, soaked in sweat, delirious. “Geoffrey says it’s kind of like a battle.”

“It is. It feels like you’re hallucinating though and even now it’s hazy. I’m not sure what was real and what wasn’t.”

I touched his knee. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“Don’t be.”

“Solange is really strong,” I said it again. “Stronger than everyone thinks she is.”

“I know.”

“What got you through?” I whispered. “Do you remember?”

He nodded but wouldn’t look at me. When he didn’t elaborate, I turned to face him. “What? Is it a secret? Don’t I know all the deep dark Drake secrets by now?”

He shifted uncomfortably. “I guess.”

“What then?”

“You.”

I swallowed, stunned. “Me?”

“Yeah.” He stood up and went to the door, where he paused for the barest second. “You got me through.”