Blood Prophecy

CHAPTER 16



Lucy


Wednesday night


The next night, I went straight to the Drake farm.

“You’re smiling weirdly,” Kieran said, shooting me a sidelong glance as we drove away from the school. “What’s up, Hamilton?”

“Nicholas is okay,” I replied happily. “Well, mostly. And I’m finally allowed back at the farm.”

“Yeah, to get stabbed with needles. Is that any reason to look so deranged?”

I grinned, propping my feet up on the dash of his truck. “Don’t worry,” I told him. “We’ll save Solange soon and then you can be as deranged as me.”

He snorted. “I don’t think anyone can be as deranged as you.”

“Ha ha. It’ll work, Kieran. Don’t worry.”

“You can’t know that.”

I chose to ignore him and went back to skimming the book open across my knees. “What about the Sanguines?”

“Sisters of the Sanguine Heart?” he asked. “Twelfth-century vampire-hunter nuns? I can’t see what they’d have to do with anything.”

“I guess.” I flipped the page. “And after all this research, what do you want to bet none of it’s any use for the twenty-seven essays I still have to write for Tyson? Maybe my thesis sentence should be ‘I was chained to a post because of some ass-backward twelfth-century custom.’ ” My cell phone interrupted me, vibrating in my bag. I answered but didn’t even have a chance to say hello before my mom yelled in my ear.

“Lucky Hamilton, you’re skipping school.”

“Um.” How did she know that? I looked at the display, half expecting her face to be staring back at me. I added a wary glance out the window to the rapidly blurring trees.

“I got a call from your headmistress,” she added.

“Oh,” I said, covering a sigh of relief with a cough. “Right. That. Sorry.”

“You snuck off campus? Now? With everything that’s been going on?”

“Sorry, Mom.” I winced. Kieran winced back silently in solidarity. “But it’s not as bad as it sounds. I was still technically on campus.” She didn’t need to know I’d spent last night roaming through the forest and chained to a post at the Blood Moon camp.

“Are you actively trying to give your father a heart attack?”

“No, Mom. Sorry, Mom.” Kieran smirked. I punched his shoulder. “Yes, Mom. I know. I know. I won’t get out of the car until I’m surrounded by Drake brothers. And Helena. I promise. I love you too. Bye.” I didn’t even look at Kieran. “Shut up.”

“I thought your mom was all peace and love.”

“Don’t let that fool you,” I said. “She can still hand you your ass, just like Helena, only she’ll make you feel really guilty about it. And then she’ll feed you tofu.” He grimaced in response. “Exactly. Any wonder why watching my friends drink a cup of blood doesn’t faze me?” I skimmed a few more pages, then paused at a drawing of a castle painted red. “What’s the Bornebow massacre?”

Kieran shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road. “Wasn’t on the exam so I don’t remember.”

“Some hotshot agent you are.”

He just shook his head. “I didn’t memorize medieval massacres, sorry.”

I frowned. “Castle full of dead bodies drained of blood. Doesn’t that scream vampire to you?”

“Sure.”

“Do you know anything about the Vale family? Like maybe they liked to chain people to posts or something?”

“No, why?”

“It was their castle.”

“Guess they pissed someone off.”

“Guess so.” I shut the book, frustrated. But watching the road speed by through the partially opened window wasn’t any better, so I reached for another text. I drummed my fingers on the cover, the cold air slipping under my collar.

“I thought you weren’t nervous,” Kieran said softly.

“Are you kidding? If I get any more wired I’ll break into a thousand pieces,” I said. “But the brothers need me to act calm. You know how they get.”

He threw me a glance. “You’re wiser than people give you credit for, Hamilton.”

“About time someone realized that.” I snorted as we drove down the lane to the barn. We’d decided it was the best place to meet since Madame Veronique wouldn’t deign to visit it. The fields, the forest, and the Drake farmhouse and cabins secured privately in the woods felt just as much like home as my parents’ house. I’d missed it here.

“Okay, now you really look deranged,” Kieran said at my grin. I jumped out of the car and raced up to the barn.

“Lucy!” Quinn darted out of the door, followed by Connor and Logan. “Your mom will kill us.” They surrounded me like bodyguards. Pale elbows poked into me. I didn’t even make fun of them. Though I did roll my eyes until Helena came up behind us.

“Your mother told you to wait for me,” she said.

I peeked between two well-muscled arms. “Sorry.” She looked weary and sad and smaller than I remembered. All of my manic good cheer that we might finally get Solange and Nicholas back tonight fled. I didn’t think I’d ever seen Helena look so . . . frail. I gulped and followed her meekly inside.

Connor went to sit by Christabel, who was curled up on one of the couches reading. Marcus puttered behind one of the lab counters, helping Uncle Geoffrey. I could smell the disinfectant from here. Duncan leaned against a wall, scowling, and Sebastian was talking to Liam and Bruno. I missed Nicholas fiercely. It was just wrong to see his brothers looking so much like him. Even so, surrounded by my favorite undead boys and Kieran, I felt better than I had in a long time.

Christabel folded the corner of her page down and sat up. “Lucy.”

“Hey.” I tossed her a pair of nose plugs I’d fished out of my pocket. “Put those on so you can hug me without vamping out.”

She hugged me gingerly. “Hey, cuz.”

I hugged her back. “Mom said to tell you to chant your mantra or some shit. Oh, and do your homework.”

Christabel grinned. “I love your mom. But it’s not like I’m in school anymore.”

“Like that’s an excuse.” I looked around. “Where’s London?”

“Don’t know,” Quinn replied, tossing his hair off his pretty face. “She doesn’t exactly check in. Never has.”

I glanced at Logan. He was wearing a Steampunk-esque jacket with silver buttons, lace poking through the cuffs. “Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah,” he replied tightly. “My girlfriend is about to face off against my psychotic baby sister. I’m just great.”

I held his hand, squeezing it tightly. “Isabeau has Magda with her and that girl is easily as psychotic as Solange’s hijacker.” When my phone rang, I jumped a foot in the air. It didn’t help that Quinn pulled a stake on me and Logan knocked me protectively to the ground. I shoved him, catching my breath. “You weigh a ton.” I reached for my phone. “Hello?” I croaked.

“Lucky, are you there yet? Are you safe?” It was my mom again. “You tell those boys I’m holding them responsible if anything happens to you.”

“Mom, I’m in a barn. The only current danger is choking on Logan’s lace cuff. Go have some of Dad’s chamomile tea. Mom?” I blinked at my phone. “She hung up on me.”

Logan helped me back up. I rubbed my elbow, which was tingling painfully.

“Lucy, if you could come and sit down over here?” Uncle Geoffrey asked. “We don’t have much time.”

“Nicholas told our contact he’d get Solange to the waterfalls,” Liam explained as I sat in one of those chairs they had at blood donor clinics and dentists’ offices. He shifted aside to let his brother by with the equipment. I shrugged out of my sweater. Liam’s face went carefully blank when he saw the teeth marks on my arm.

“It’s no big deal,” I assured him. “Anyway, it was worth it. It gives him protection. And it will help the rest of you too.” I swallowed when Marcus tied a piece of rubber above my elbow and told me to make a fist. I knew it was the right thing to do. I would give them all an advantage tonight; they wouldn’t succumb to Solange’s pheromones this way.

Didn’t mean I had to like the pinch and slide of the needle as it went under my skin. I winced. The brothers looked politely away from my blood and I looked politely away from their fangs. Kieran just looked like his head was going to explode from whatever inner struggle he was fighting. This went against all of his training, whatever it might mean for him and Solange. He shifted between the brothers and me, even though there was no need.

“Good girl,” Uncle Geoffrey murmured, taking the vials away. Marcus pressed a cotton ball on the tiny pinprick and put a Wonder Woman Band-Aid over it. I had to grin. He winked and took the medical supplies away.

“Is it enough?” Helena asked, her black leather outfit bristling with stakes and daggers. Even her braid looked like it could double as a weapon.

“There’s enough for the three of us, with some for Isabeau when we see her,” Uncle Geoffrey replied, carefully capping the vials. “We’ll need to take them at the last minute, so it doesn’t lose potency.”

I frowned, sitting up. “If you need more, take more. Give it to everyone.”

He shook his head. “I can’t take too much at once. It’s not good for you.”

“I don’t care!”

“We’ll make do,” Liam assured me gently. “You’ve been more than generous, Lucy.”

“But I feel fine,” I said, going to sit on the couch, mostly because he’d nudged me over there. I pulled books out of my knapsack, making a pile on the table in front of me. “I’m sure you can—”

“Here.” Marcus cut me off, shoving a glass of orange juice and a pile of cookies at me.

Duncan snorted. “Like cookies are going to stop The Mouth.” He hadn’t called me that in years.

“I met your girlfriend,” I said, just to bug him. It was better than giving in to the nerves and anxiety threatening to burn a hole in my stomach. “She’s nicer than you.”

Duncan just leaned over and shoved a cookie in my mouth. I flicked cookie crumbs at him. Christabel slid closer to the books. She never could resist them. I was pretty sure being undead wouldn’t change that. “Research,” I explained. “On twelfth-century vampires. And also, anything on this Dawn bitch who kidnapped Nicholas.” It was hard to concentrate with Liam, Helena, Uncle Geoffrey, and Bruno sorting weapons nearby.

“That’s not a grenade, is it?” Christabel whispered.

“Probably,” I whispered back. “They have this awesome storage room full of cool stuff like that.”

“Grenades are cool?” She looked dubious.

“Cooler than dead poets,” I teased.

“Hey,” both she and Logan said at the same time.

There was a pile of local newspapers on the side table beside me. Most of the headlines still screamed warnings about the Dracula Killer and blood cults. I picked one up, grimacing. “Who the hell was the genius behind Dracula Killer? And these are getting worse.”

“You have no idea,” Quinn agreed. “It’s making the tribes bitchy.” He shook his head. “It’s just not safe out there with all those Huntsmen and Helios-Ra.”

“It’s not safe anywhere,” Kieran said quietly.

“It’s time,” Liam confirmed finally, checking his watch. Marcus handed them the vials of blood, carefully packed in a traveling case. “You boys stay put.”

They filed out of the barn. Helena paused. “Lucy?”

“Yes?”

She ran a hand over my hair and kissed my cheek, just like she kissed Solange’s cheek when Solange was little. “We love you very much. But your mother and I will both lock you in a basement for the rest of your life if you try to follow us.” She speared Kieran with the kind of look that made us all squirm even though it wasn’t even aimed at us. “We’re trusting you to take her back to school where it’s safe.”

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Kiss-ass,” I muttered.

“Hell, yeah,” he muttered back. “Like you’re any braver.”

Sebastian was the first to slip out the door as soon as his parents were gone. Marcus and Duncan exchanged a look, then followed immediately.

“Stay out of pheromone range,” Quinn yelled after them.

“Teach Grandma to suck eggs,” Duncan yelled back.

The rest of us stared at one another. There was nothing left to distract me. I deflated, feeling hollow and cold. I tried not to look as freaked out as I felt.

“Why don’t they wear nose plugs too?” Christabel asked.

“It would make them vulnerable out there,” Quinn answered. “Scenting an attacker before we see them gives us an advantage.”

“Oh.”

We stared at one another some more.

“It’ll work,” I blurted out, mostly because the silence was making me itchy. “Nicholas and Solange will be home by dawn.”

“We should get back before campus curfew,” Kieran said.

“Like I care about that,” I grumbled, but I got my things together since I was already on bathroom detention duty for sneaking out.

“Okay, then I should get you back to school before Helena pulls my spleen out my nose.”

“She wouldn’t do that,” Quinn drawled. “Too messy.” He paused. “Probably.”

The remaining brothers walked us back out to Kieran’s car. We drove back to school in silence. I rolled down the window and watched the trees and fields fly by. “Be safe,” I whispered. “Be safe.” I was interrupted by the strangest sound I’d ever heard. “Was that a . . . cow?”

“Not unless . . . Crap!” Kieran swerved to avoid the person who had run out in the middle of the road, blood dripping off his jaws. When Kieran realized it was a Hel-Blar, he swerved back toward it, tires squealing.

“They’re eating cows now? Oh man, Mom’s going to be pissed,” I said, trying to hold onto the dash and grab a stake at the same time. I almost put my own eye out when Kieran skidded on a patch of black ice. The front of the SUV hit the Hel-Blar with a thud. He flew backward, landing in the snow at an awkward angle. Kieran was out of the car and staking him before I’d unbuckled my seatbelt. By the time I slipped out, ashes clogged the snow. There was the crack of a twig behind me, and then something worse.

The clacking of jaws.

The stink of wet mushrooms hit me just as Kieran yelled, running toward me. I yelled back when another Hel-Blar came out of the woods behind him, skin mottled and bruised looking. She shoved Kieran so hard he flew into the air and landed on the hood. He lay there looking dazed, one of his arms twisted behind him.

I darted around the car, using it as a shield. I slid through the snow, using the momentum to shove the stake in the Hel-Blar’s back, feeling it bite through cotton and flesh before lodging against a rib. I swore. She screeched, jerking back. Her elbow caught me in the sternum. Pain flared through my chest and I stumbled, landing on my butt. Kieran took advantage of the distraction and added his stake to mine. He had just enough space now to stab it hard through her heart. She snarled and spat, before crumbling to ashes.

Kieran and I stared at each other, gasping. I rubbed my chest, wincing. “Ow.”

“Are you hurt?” he asked immediately, hauling me to my feet.

“I’m fine. You? Your arm?”

“Not broken,” he answered as we turned to face the third Hel-Blar.

He ignored us completely.

We paused, confused.

“That’s weird, right?” I whispered. Hel-Blar never ignored a kill, especially not when there were two of us all sweaty and panting from a fight. Our blood probably smelled like the vampire equivalent of a candy factory.

Kieran jerked his head and I followed him gingerly, picking my way around the icy patches. The Hel-Blar came out of the woods entirely, passed through the undergrowth on the side of the road and kept walking.

“He’s tracking,” I murmured.

It wasn’t long before we started to see blood in the snow. We followed the vampire who was following the blood until Kieran shook his head. “We’re too far from the car. We might need it.”

He was right. “I’ll get it,” I said, racing back down the hill to where it was still running in a pool of light and exhaust fumes. I turned it around and drove back to Kieran, who hopped into the passenger seat. He kept his door open so he could leap out. The Hel-Blar was clacking his jaws now, saliva dripping. The blood on the snow was getting thicker.

And now we knew why.

There were three people stumbling up the center of the road. There was a farmer in his pajamas, a woman in a business suit and heels, and a guy who looked vaguely familiar. I thought he might have been a student at my old high school, a grade behind me. They all looked drugged, walking aimlessly through the cold night. Only the woman wore a winter coat. Blood dripped from their wrists and necks as they stumbled through the snow, leaving droplets like pomegranate seeds scattered by a careless hand.

A pale, perfect hand.

They weren’t aimless, after all.

“Is that . . . Solange?” I choked, slamming on the brakes. She drifted gracefully along like the undead Pied Piper. “It’s the pheromones,” I added, stunned. “That’s why they’re trailing after her like that.”

Kieran looked vaguely green. “Pheromones,” he agreed, tightly, fumbling for his nose plugs.

Then it hit me.

I whirled on him, eyes widening until the cold air made them tear. “Solange! She’s here!”

He frowned. “Yeah, I got that, Lucy.”

“If she’s here, then she can’t be there. At the waterfalls.”

“With the others,” he realized. “With Isabeau.”

“And Nicholas.” Who I couldn’t see anywhere nearby. He could be anywhere. Anything could have happened to him. “Shit.” I hit the accelerator so hard Kieran cracked his head on the windshield. I aimed for the Hel-Blar. He flew into the nearest tree. The three bleeding humans nearby didn’t even glance back.

Solange froze, outlined in snow and light.

“Get out,” I warned Kieran grimly as I backed up into the road. “Take care of that Hel-Blar and then call Hunter for pickup and I’ll call the farm for backup. We’re still pretty close.”

“What are you going to do?” he asked, but he slid out obediently.

“I’m going to keep her here,” I said.

“How?”

“You don’t want to know.”

I waited until he was out of the way before stepping hard on the accelerator. The tires hissed in protest but I didn’t let up. I pulled the lever to put it into four-wheel drive. Kieran loved Solange and I knew he’d do anything to save her. But I was her best friend and I didn’t have his rules about not hitting girls. So I’d do what I had to.

Including hitting her with my car.

I swerved around the humans, honking. They barely blinked. Solange snarled, her lips lifting delicately off savage fangs. I searched the tree line for Constantine but I couldn’t see him anywhere. It didn’t mean he wasn’t there.

I was kind of looking forward to hitting him with the car, actually.

I dialed Connor’s number, knowing he’d have his phone on. I hit the speakerphone button before tossing mine onto the seat. “Solange!” I yelled, my teeth rattling as I sped over the uneven ground. “On Highfield, by Eighth Line! Call Isabeau while I stall her!”

Solange lifted her hand to block the high beams from blinding her. Her sensitive eyes flared red. I’d just taken away one of her advantages. A glance in the rearview mirror showed Kieran fighting the Hel-Blar. The boy slumped to the ground beside them. I turned back to Solange, who was stumbling in the snow, snarling. The wheels spun out in the slush. I gripped the steering wheel tightly, refusing to let go. I kept my eyes on Solange. She flailed, half-blind.

“Ha!” I was practically standing on the gas pedal.

I hit her just before she could dart into the safety of the forest.

She rolled over the hood and hit the windshield. I eased off the accelerator and the car spun out madly. My stomach pressed against my spine. I slid down the hill backward, narrowly avoiding the farmer, Solange still clinging to the window. Her white dress fluttered against the glass, blocking my view. I slammed into a fence post and the sound of metal crushing in on itself made my teeth hurt. The car stopped with a violent jolt. Solange flew into the snow, rolled to the edge of the road, and lay there motionless. For a long time all I could hear was the hammer of my pulse in my ears. The seatbelt was digging into my stomach and my cheek hurt from where I’d bit it when the car hit the fence.

The driver’s door flew open. Kieran grabbed my shoulder. “Shit!” he shouted in my face.

I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. He was usually so calm and confident, like Hunter.

“I’m okay,” I told him. I tried to unbuckle my seatbelt but my fingers were trembling so much he had to do it for me. Adrenaline made me light-headed. “I just hit my best friend with a car.” Nausea rolled through me. “I’m going to hell.”

He crouched next to Solange warily. “She’s out.” He reached out to brush her hair off her face but stopped himself, drawing back out of reach.

“For now.” I slid off the seat. The cold air was bracing and helped clear my head. I took a few deep breaths. “Won’t last long.” I pulled a crossbow out of the trunk and armed it. I stood over Solange with my teeth chattering and my hands shaking, an arrow aimed at her chest. “I’m immune, I’ll stay with her. You get some rope or something.”

He pulled chains, ropes, bright yellow twine, and two pairs of handcuffs out of a bag in the backseat. The last time she’d lain so still, he’d had to feed her his own blood to revive her. This time, he cuffed her wrists together and then wound thick rope around her arms and torso. He used the twine on her ankles.

“Where is she?” Quinn and Connor skirted the slumped bodies sprawled in the road without a second glance. I spun around, crossbow still at the ready. They leaped out of the way. Quinn flipped into the air and right over my head. Connor landed in a tree, balancing on a lower branch. One time. I’d accidentally shot Marcus one time.

“Isabeau’s on her way,” Connor said, dropping back down to the ground. Snow drifted off his jacket. “Mom and Dad, are, of course, out of range. But Aunt Hyacinth went to find them and Christabel is going to keep calling from the barn.”

The twins circled their little sister carefully. I lost feeling in my toes. It felt like hours before Hunter drove up in one of the school vans. Her friend Jason was with her.

“Sorry,” Kieran said curtly. “If we called the emergency unit for the vics, they’d have to take Solange too.”

“I know,” Hunter said, all business. “Help me get them in the van.”

The victims were all breathing normally but the boy’s cheeks were white with cold. There was no way of knowing how far he’d walked or how long he’d been following Solange. Jason grabbed him under the arms and dragged him to the van without a word. Kieran helped the woman and Hunter guided the farmer as he shuffled toward the backseat. He sat down with a groan, looking confused.

I crouched in front of him, smiling gently and hiding the crossbow behind my back. “You’re going to be okay,” I told him. “They’re going to take you to the doctor.”

“Caught some hooligans in my field,” he slurred. “Did something to my cows.”

“Did they touch you?” Kieran asked sharply from the other side.

“High on something,” he mumbled. “Smelled like they hadn’t showered in weeks.”

“But did they touch you?” Hunter repeated.

The farmer smiled. “Had my shotgun. Scared them off good and proper.” We exchanged a sigh of relief. “Rather go home,” he mumbled. The wrinkles on his face were like crevices.

“Too bad,” she said cheerfully. “We’re taking you to the doctor first.”

“Smart mouth. Just like my granddaughter.” He opened one eye. “How do I know you aren’t after my cows too?”

I tried to buckle him in. “Do you know Cass Hamilton?” I asked. “The vegetarian animal-rights activist who hands out flyers at the farmers’ market?” He scowled. I patted his hand. “She’s my mom. Your cows are safe.”

He was still grumbling when he passed out. Jason slid into the driver’s seat as Quinn carried the woman to the back of the van. Kieran looked grimly at the neat row of bite marks on the back of her neck.

“At least it wasn’t Hel-Blar,” I told him. She’d have scars though, they all would. Apparently Solange had abandoned her delicate supper manners. Aunt Hyacinth would be horrified. I stepped back in time to see Quinn lean into the open window and kiss Hunter quickly, but fiercely. She touched his cheek. He turned and pressed another kiss into her palm before straightening up and stepping back.

The van sped away. We were left in the warped prisms of light from the broken headlight, three Drake brothers, a hunter, and my best friend tied up at our feet.

“Um, guys?” I said, staring at the edge of the woods. “We have another problem.”