Hearts At Stake

chapter 17

Solange

“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.”

Whatever 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.

“I’ve been trying to save your life.”

“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.”