Hearts At Stake

chapter 19

Solange

Sunday, sunset

When I opened my eyes, Kieran was crouched next to me, his hand on my shoulder. I jerked back, reflexively. Startled, he did the same.

“Easy,” he said. “It’s just me.”

I blinked, pushing myself up into a sitting position. I felt less like a truck had run over me and then backed up to make sure the job was done properly. Now it felt as if the truck had hit me only once.

“What time is it?” I asked groggily.

“Almost dusk. I tried to wake you earlier but you didn’t respond. Scared the crap out of me,” he added, muttering as he got to his feet. “I’d rather be well out of here by sundown.”

I swung my feet over the edge of the cot.

“Okay, give me a minute.” I yawned.

“Whoa.” He was staring at me. I resisted the urge to wipe my face to see if there was drool on my cheek or something. “Your eyes.”

“What? What?” I scrubbed at them violently, horrified at the thought they might have those gross goopy things at the edges. Or were they even more bloodshot? I’d heard of that happening, where the whites ran with blood.

“I think . . . the color’s changing.” He paused. “Is that even possible?”

“Is that all? Now you’re the one scaring the crap out of me,” I muttered back. “Honestly.”

“I could have sworn they were darker before you went to sleep.”

“They were.”

“But they look really blue now.”

“They probably are,” I replied. “Our eyes get lighter. The really old ones go gray usually.”

“Oh.”

I shifted uncomfortably. I didn’t know how to analyze the way he was looking at me. It made me feel shy and kind of like giggling. And I so was not the giggling type.

“Didn’t you want to get out of here?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He handed me his jacket, which I slipped on over Lucy’s dress. It was torn and stiff with mud up one side. “Are you . . . hungry?”

I froze, looked up at him through my eyelashes. He wasn’t offering me blood . . . was he? I tried not to gag.

“I just meant . . .” His ears went red. “Protein bar?” he explained, pulling one out of his vest pocket.

“Oh.” I took it from him, my stomach suddenly rumbling. “Thanks.”

We chewed quietly while I tried to figure out what to say to the guy who had tried to kidnap me for money and then within the week saved me from a bunch of his armed brethren. I got that he was doing it for his precious Helios-Ra, to stop the rogue unit before it did serious damage to the league’s reputation, but still, I couldn’t help but feel as if he might care just a little bit about whether or not I lived through my birthday.

“Can you get us out of here?” he asked once we’d finished our mock chocolate bars. It had settled the hunger pangs but made me thirsty as well. My mouth felt chalky. “Or do we really have to wait until the sun sets?”

“It’s easier if we wait, but I think I can turn the alarm off.” I raised an eyebrow. “You’ll have to turn your back.”

He turned slowly. The view from the back was just as good as the view from the front. I could practically hear Lucy snickering in the back of my head. I might be the vampire daughter, but she was the one who was a bad influence. No question. I made sure Kieran wasn’t peeking and then cupped my hand over my fingertips as I punched in the code. The light went from flashing red to full red. It was bright enough to have me squinting, my eyes tearing.

“Shit.”

“‘Shit’? What do you mean, ‘shit’?”

“It’s okay,” I rushed to assure him. “I just used an old code. And, um, set the alarm on freak- out.”

He whirled. “Can you shut it off?”

“Of course.” I sounded confident for someone who really wasn’t. I raced to remember the codes. There was a rotation of a minimum of seven codes, which were changed randomly and continuously. I’d been taught them the way most children were taught their phone number. This should be easy.

The second code didn’t work either.

Or the third.

“We’re not going to get gassed out of here or something, are we?” Kieran asked nervously.

“Of course not.” I paused. “I don’t think.”

I punched the next code in but my fingers were slippery and slid off the last number. I tried again. The light held red, then went green and blinked off. My shoulders released some of their tension.

“See?” I said nonchalantly. “No problem.”

The gate unlocked with a resounding click and I pushed it open. Kieran was close at my back. The smell of damp intensified and then faded, tinged with sunlight and grass. The tunnel led us to a ladder. I paused on the lowest rung.

“Ready?”

“Maybe you should let me go first.”

“Forget it.” I climbed to the next rung. His hand closed around my ankle. I looked down at him. “Relax, Black. I can climb a ladder.”

“What happens when we get up there, Solange?”

“We run like hell until we’re home safe and sound? It’s a basic plan, but it works for me.”

“That rogue unit might still be up there.”

“Maybe. But we’re coming up pretty far away from where we vanished. And are you telling me they’d hang around for an entire day, just in case?”

“I wish I knew.”

“Well, we can’t stay here all night.”

After a moment, his hold on my ankle released. I could still feel the warm imprint of his palm on my skin as I continued to climb. The trapdoor wouldn’t open right away. Kieran had to wedge himself between me and the wall, and we both shoved until the door creaked open. A spear of sunlight landed between us. His eyes were the color of earth— the dark, rich kind you just know will grow the best flowers, the best vegetables. He was very close, close enough that I could see the faint stubble of a beard on his chin and the way his sideburns grew long, shaved to a straight line, the way the men in movies like Pride and Prejudice always seem to wear them. It gave him the air of a gentleman pirate. The weapons strapped to his chest didn’t hurt. He hauled himself up, never breaking eye contact, even as he snuck past me and managed to be the first one out of the tunnel after all.

“Clear,” he called down quietly.

He reached down to grip my upper arms and pulled me up and out, onto the forest floor. The sun filtered softly between the leaves, the shadows long and blue over the ferns and fallen pine needles. Birds sang, oblivious to our presence. There were no footprints in the loam. I stood up, brushing my hands on my dress. Kieran pulled a compass from his pocket, turned it this way and that way.

“There,” he said, nodding toward and across a valley of ferns and elder bushes. “Your house is that way. Northwest.”

“Thanks.” I glanced around awkwardly, glanced back. “I guess this is it, then?”

He frowned. “What are you talking about? I’m not leaving you here alone.”

I swallowed, tried to smile. “You have your own stuff to deal with.”

“Solange, your eyes are changing color.”

“So? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Let me put it this way.” He moved so fast, I was impressed despite myself. He shoved my shoulder. I stumbled, hit a nearby oak tree, then tumbled into the mud. My shoulder pulsed painfully.

“Ouch! What the hell was that for?”

“Just proving my point,” he told me grimly. “You think I don’t see how tired you are? How you’re getting weaker?”

I frowned, rubbing my arm. “You pushed me.”

“I barely touched you,” he pointed out. “And you fell over. I guarantee the rogue Helios-Ra unit will be a lot rougher. Not to mention Lady Natasha’s bounty hunters.”

I hated that he was right.

“I’m taking you home.” He looked stubbornly mutinous. I’d seen that particular expression on every single one of my brothers’ faces at one time or another. And there was no gracious way for me to turn him down. No logical, intelligent way, either. He had weapons. I didn’t. If someone came at me in the woods, the only thing I could do was yawn them to sleep. And this was the girl Lady Natasha, queen of the vampires, was afraid of.

“Are you coming?” Kieran asked impatiently but with half a smile, as if he knew what I was thinking.

“Okay, but if vamps attack, I want you to run away.”

“Sure, right after I pirouette in a pink tutu.” He stopped, waited for me to catch up. “Come on, already.”

The woods were peaceful and quiet, under the chatter of insects and hidden rabbits and porcupines. Frogs sang from some nearby pond, obscured by the green lace of summer leaves. It might have been romantic if I wasn’t convinced someone was waiting around the bend to kill us. He slanted me a glance out of the corner of his eye. And another.

“What?” I asked, without turning my head.

“You’re squinting. Do your eyes hurt?”

“A little.” I hadn’t realized how tightly the muscles around my eyes were scrunched until he mentioned it. My eyes did feel more sensitive, as if the sunlight, even faded the way it was, was hurling needles at my face. I used to love sitting out in the sun with Lucy. It made me a little sad to think we wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. Kieran handed me a pair of sunglasses. His fingers brushed mine. He really was kind of sweet for an agent of the cult dedicated to wiping out me and my entire family.

“Are you going to grow fangs too?”

I nearly stopped in my tracks. His hand was still holding mine.

“I guess so.” I ran my tongue over my teeth.

“Is your boyfriend worried?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” My smile was ironic. “Kind of hard to bring dates home to meet my parents—and my brothers.”

“Good point.” His palm pressed against mine. “Watch your step.”

We crawled over the exposed roots of a tree that must have fallen in the last storm. It wasn’t covered in moss yet or those weird ruffled mushrooms. We climbed down into the valley, as the sun set lower and lower behind the horizon, leaving us in thick, cool shadows. The ground under our feet was soft. There was a wide groove, as if something had slid down to the valley floor.

A scrap of lace trailed from a broken branch in the tangled undergrowth.

My heart stuttered. I felt my hands go clammy before I could even form a coherent sentence. I knew that kind of lace.

“No,” I gasped, plucking it like it was a tattered black rose. “No.”

I tore down the hillside, slipping in the dirt, skinning my shins and my palms. Pebbles flung up at my passing and pinged me in the legs. Branches scratched my bare arms.

“Solange!” Kieran called, hurrying to catch up. “Wait. Where are you going?”

I slipped and slid the last few feet.

“Be careful!” he hollered behind me.

I barely felt any pain, I was so entirely focused on following the body-wide scrape in the rotted leaves and pine needles.

“Oh my God,” I said, spotting a ruffle of lace and ribbon. I’d know those black petticoats anywhere, and the silk corset and jet beads. “Aunt Hyacinth,” I called out, crawling closer, tearing ferns out of my way. “Aunt Hyacinth, hold on, hold on.”

She was lying on her back, her arm thrown over her face. Her arm from elbow to wrist and the entire left side of her face were blistered and raw. Only her age and the thick shadows of the valley had saved her from the full impact of the sun. Even so, she wasn’t moving, wasn’t responding at all. I hovered over her, not wanting to touch her in case it caused her more pain.

“Is she . . .” Kieran’s question trailed off as he came up behind me, panting for breath.

“I think she’s still alive so to speak,” I said, swallowing the lump of fear and grief forming in my throat. “She’s my aunt.” I could practically see bone under the ruin of her cheek. Sunlight alone wouldn’t have done that kind of damage. I scowled.

“Holy water,” I said through my teeth. “Holy water” was what we called the water Helios-Ra used as a weapon. They charged it with UV rays and vitamin D because we were deathly allergic to it in such concentrated form. “Someone threw holy water on her and then pushed her down the hill. The Helios-Ra use holy water, don’t they?” I pressed.

“Solange,” he said softly, tightly.

“Don’t they?” I yelled.

He nodded once, jerkily. “Sometimes.”

“Still so sure your league is totally blameless in everything? Look at her!”

“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to lose family. My father was killed by vampires, remember?”

“I haven’t lost her yet,” I said grimly, pulling the thick chain out from under my dress. The liquid inside was deep, dark.

“What is that?” Kieran demanded.

“Blood,” I said, not looking away from Aunt Hyacinth. I’d never seen her look so frail, so still. It wasn’t fair. She’d been hunted because of me, because of the damn bounty on my head. She’d have been safely at home drinking Earl Grey tea or critiquing Lucy’s curtsy if it wasn’t for me.

“Ancient blood,” I explained. “From Veronique Dubois, our matriarch. It has healing properties for anyone of her lineage. I’d give her my blood, but it’s tainted right now because of the change.”

I didn’t mention that my vial held only a single dose, meant to give me an edge even if someone was there to help turn me on my birthday. And no one would be.

I’d see to that.

But first I had to save Aunt Hyacinth. I used my thumbnail to lift the lid, the hinge sticking slightly.

“Hold on, Aunt Hyacinth,” I pleaded. “Please hold on. Please, please hold on.”

I held the vial to her mouth and tipped it slowly. Blood welled over her lips, filling the crease until it trickled through her teeth and down her chin. She was so pale, nearly blue as her veins struggled to accept the only substance that could save her. Her throat moved slowly, spasmodically.

“She swallowed!” I nearly wept with relief. I held the vial over her mouth until she couldn’t swallow anymore. She still didn’t open her eyes, didn’t talk. But she looked less like she was about to turn to dust. “It’s all I can do,” I said, letting the chain fall from my fingers. “She needs more, but she’s too weak to finish the rest right now. I’ll leave the vial with her so that someone can use it to keep her alive if they find her soon enough to revive her.”

I rifled through her reticule until I found her cell phone. It had turned itself off when she’d fallen and the plastic was cracked, the screen flickering blue when I finally managed to turn it on. I pressed the code to activate the GPS chip. We weren’t that far from the farmhouse. Someone would find her in time.

But I couldn’t let them find me.

My brothers had nearly been captured and my aunt was hurt, all because of me. I couldn’t bear it if she died or my parents were killed fighting to save me. And Lucy would jump in over her head if she thought it would save me. Even Kieran was putting himself in danger for me and going against his training. I couldn’t let any of them sacrifice themselves for me. I just couldn’t.

They all wanted to save me, but I just wanted to save them.

And there was only one way to do that. I’d always known it, but I’d hoped I was wrong. Kneeling in the forest with my aunt’s burned body convinced me I’d been right all along.

I pulled out my own phone and didn’t turn it on, only placed it gently on the ground. And then I smashed it repeatedly with a stone until the case cracked open and the insides were dented beyond repair. I looked up at Kieran, knew my face had gone hard by the way he looked back at me.

“I need your help.”