Blood Prophecy

CHAPTER 32



Lucy


“I thought she was dead too.”

I shifted awkwardly toward the familiar voice, the rope chafing my wrists. “Kieran? What are you doing here?” I frowned. “And what am I doing here? And, by the way? Where is here?”

We were inside the entrance to a damp series of caves lit with camping lanterns. I could see gleaming steel tables, manacles, and strange instruments whose purpose I had no desire to learn. A man in a stained leather apron was investigating the contents of a steel pan with a smile that made me shiver. There were stockpiles of weapons and opposite us, several barred openings in a row. Pale, fanged faces flitted briefly into view, then crawled back into the darkness. Humans were curled up behind the nearest gate, dirty and frightened. The sight of them soured my belly. Between us and them, and between us and the forest outside, were Huntsmen, agents in Helios-Ra gear, and Host vampires.

None of it made sense.

“We’re hostages,” Kieran explained, keeping his voice low. There were bruises on his face and jagged tears in his jacket. “They just brought me in. I was on my way to the Helios-Ra headquarters after my uncle sent a distress signal when they got me. I thought they were there to help.”

“We thought so too,” I said, thinking of the lockdown at the school. “And speaking of distress signals . . .”

“Don’t scream,” he interrupted hurriedly when I opened my mouth to do just that. “They’ll just chloroform you again.”

“Is that what that stuff was?” I asked, snapping my teeth together. “It was nasty.” I could still taste it in the back of my throat. I was so thirsty, it hurt to swallow. It made it hard to concentrate. I leaned my cheek against the damp stone for a moment. The cold helped clear the fogginess from my head.

“I don’t understand,” I said finally. “Is that really Hope?”

Because there she was, standing at a table, her blond hair swinging cheerfully behind her. She was just as tiny, just as cute . . . just as alive. “Hunter told me she killed herself last month while in League custody.”

“I guess she got better,” Kieran said darkly. Rage sent a dark red flush creeping up his neck. Hope was the one who’d murdered his father, after all.

“Kieran, don’t freak out yet,” I said, my teeth chattering from cold and adrenaline. “If you freak out, I’ll have to freak out too.”

His lip curled but he managed to get the homicidal gleam out of his eye. I felt only marginally better. Escape seemed impossible, not escaping, even worse.

“Get out of here,” someone moaned from a dark corner. “They’ll kill you.” The warning ended in a broken-sounding cough. Chains rattled somewhere down the line of caves. Kieran and I stared at each other helplessly. How long before someone missed us? Would Sarita tell someone I’d been taken away? Had she realized yet that the lockdown wasn’t school-sanctioned? Would York know what to do? And could they even find us? My head swam as I watched Hope speak into a walkie-talkie, then order two vampires out of the cave.

She’d thought Kieran’s father was too liberal and murdered him.

She’d tried to kill Solange.

She’d allied herself with Lady Natasha in order to take over the League completely.

She didn’t approve of treaties with vampires.

“She’s Dawn,” I said slowly. “She has to be.”

Which meant she was also the one who’d kidnapped Nicholas and had him tortured.

Now I was the one feeling the homicidal rage.

“And that’s Ms. Dailey beside her,” Kieran said, glaring at the woman next to her. They both looked our way. “I should have known.”

“The teacher who dosed Hunter with poison?”

“Yes.”

“I thought she was awaiting trial,” I said out of the corner of my mouth as they strode toward us.

“Apparently there are serious gaps in the Helios-Ra security system.”

“Apparently.” No wonder her alias worked so well. She’d been clear off any of our radars. “Hope has to be the one behind all of the disappearances too.”

“Clever girl,” Hope said, suddenly standing over me. She was thinner than she’d been before. “I’d hoped you’d join the League and our cause.”

“I didn’t join your cause,” I said. “You’re killing people.”

“Collateral damage.” She waved that aside. “We had to make everyone see the truth. A vampire gathering right here and the League looks the other way.” She shook her head sadly. “It’s not right. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

“You murdered people,” I repeated. “You’re keeping people locked up! And you framed Solange, didn’t you?”

“I had to show the League the worm in the rose.”

“You’re the worm in the rose,” I shot back.

She slapped me across the face. Kieran surged to his feet, getting in front of me as I staggered back against the stones. Hope looked down her nose at him. “Little Kieran Black,” she said. “You’ve always been more trouble than you’re worth. Better hope your uncle doesn’t think so.”

“Why?” he asked as I wiped blood from my lip.

“Because if he tries to break out of headquarters, you die. I couldn’t have him or his deluded agents interfering, now could I? Not tonight, not after all this careful planning.”

“What happens tonight?” I asked.

Hope and Ms. Dailey exchanged a significant glance. “I suppose we can tell you,” Hope conceded, pride lacing her words. “After all, it’s too late for you to get in my way.” The man in the apron started to slice long, fleshy lengths out of what looked like a half-calcified heart. Parts of it turned to ashes under his fingertips. I gagged and tried not to look. “Tonight, we finally take down the Blood Moon.”

Kieran and I gaped at her. “I don’t know how to get back there,” I said.

Hope just laughed, reading my sudden pause. “I don’t need you, silly girl. I finally have accurate GPS.”

“Where the hell did you get that?” Kieran asked.

“From him,” Hope replied, smiling, as two Huntsmen dragged a vampire between them. “He’s clean of weapons,” one of them said. The vampire flashed his fangs, hissing weakly. His gray eyes were practically all pupil. He was so pale he was the color of old ashes.

Nicholas.

“Get off him!” I yelled, struggling wildly against the ropes. I barely felt the burn of the twine leaving raw sores on my wrists. They knocked him down so that he landed on his knees, forcing his head forward. The back of his neck was bare and vulnerable and laced with bloody scratches. “Stop it,” I begged, still trying to squirm free of my restraints as the man in the leather apron approached. “What are you doing to him?”

“Retrieving my GPS coordinates,” Hope replied smugly. “Go on, doctor.”

Kieran was trying to hold me back, and he was clenching his teeth so hard I could hear them grinding together.

The light flashed off the hook in the doctor’s hand. I made a sound like an animal in pain because Nicholas wouldn’t. He was too still, too silent. I’d have tried to chew through my ropes if I’d thought there was any chance of success. Nicholas stayed on his knees on the dirty floor, water and blood trickling past him in deep grooves. A Huntsman kept his head down in a vicious grip.

“Nicholas, fight,” I pleaded.

He struggled weakly but it was halfhearted at best. He was twitching as if there was something screeching in his ear. The doctor stood over him.

This couldn’t be happening.

The smallest details seemed curiously important: the smell of wet stone, the mud on my sleeve, the snow drifting in from outside. Nicholas’s dark gray shirt, torn at the collar. The scuff of Kieran’s boot as he shifted. And then the slide of my own boots on the slippery mud when I launched forward.

A Huntsman grabbed me by the hair from behind as the doctor slowly inserted the tip of the hook into Nicholas’s neck. He dug around, widening the wound until he found a tiny metal square, the kind I imagined filled the insides of computers and machinery. Connor would have known exactly what it was called.

“It seems your failsafe worked,” Hope approved.

“Yes, I’d heard the signal satellites were blocked,” the doctor said, examining the bloody chip. “This way, when the coordinates were finally locked in and there was still no way to send the information to us, the pain led him here. It forced him to find us. If he went in the wrong direction it just got worse.”

Nicholas’s fists clenched on the dirty floor. “You bastard.”

“Secure him with the others for now,” Hope said. “And get the units mobilized,” she added to Ms. Dailey. “We’re ready.”

They snapped metal cuffs around Nicholas’s wrists, knowing he could have snapped through the ropes eventually. They shoved him hard enough that he crashed into the wall. He fell at my feet, blinking. “Lucy? I thought you were a hallucination.”

I dropped down beside him, smiling through my tears. “I thought they were going to kill you.” When I leaned against him, my hands came away bloody.

“Not yet,” he said, sitting up properly. “Dr. Frankenstein over there likes to have his fun first.” He noticed Kieran finally. “Shit, Black. Not you too.”

“Afraid so.”

“And was that really Hope?”

“Yeah,” I grumbled. “I thought we kicked her ass already too.”

“She’s ambushing the camp,” Kieran explained.

“Where all vampires, my family included, are weaponless,” Nicholas finished grimly. I tried to hold his hand but between the ropes and the cuffs, it was more of a tangle of fingertips.

“Those Blood Moon guards can protect them, can’t they?” I asked.

“Depends how outnumbered they are,” Nicholas pointed out as dozens of armed vampire hunters filed past us and out of the caves. Several Host vampires remained, stationed at the gates. They eyed Nicholas with particular distaste, seeing as his mother and baby sister had killed their leader Montmartre. With a tiara. He totally deserved it.

“How could they be working with Hope of all people?” I asked.

“Same deal she made with Lady Natasha, I expect,” Kieran said thoughtfully. “They deal only with Hope, she deals only with them, everyone else scrambles. Not to mention, if things go the way Hope wants them too, the Host might be the very few left standing. Instant power.”

“How long before someone realizes you’re missing?” I asked Nicholas.

He shook his head. “Could be hours. Depends how paranoid Mom’s feeling.”

“Hunter might catch on that I’m not there,” I added, “but only if Sarita happens to tell her I was taken away. It looked pretty official. Mind you, one of the teachers might be on to them. I think he was yelling, but it’s hard to tell.” The moments before the chloroform were fuzzy. “Chloe was cracking secret e-mails. She already found the hit list.” I slid Kieran a glance. “Which you’re on.”

“I figured,” Kieran said. “Hart knows there’s a coup in the works. Especially if Hope is using me to buy his silence.”

“Will he stay quiet?” Nicholas asked.

“I sure as hell hope not.” He crouched down beside us, keeping his back to the cave wall. “We need a plan,” he said quietly. He glanced at Nicholas. “What can you tell us about this place? How did you get out of here the first time?”

“They let me get out,” Nicholas reminded him bitterly. “So I could lead them right to the encampment like an idiot.”

“Tell me anyway,” he insisted, his inner boy scout turning military. “Access points, weapons, weaknesses. Everything.”

Nicholas rested his head against the wall behind him, his legs stretched out. He made his posture slump, made it as unthreatening as possible. I followed suit, adding the occasional shiver to make myself appear even more unthreatening. It wasn’t exactly difficult, since I was cold and still felt a little funny from the chloroform.

“I had help,” Nicholas said softly. I shifted to cover the sound of his voice, in case the other vampires were listening. “A good man died helping me get out. All for nothing.”

“Not for nothing,” I said sharply. “Not yet.”

He nodded, swallowing. “Lee created a diversion but it cost him his life. I tried to come back for the others, but I couldn’t find the caves, even with all the markings I left behind. I’ve been out every night, searching. But there was just too much snow.” He rubbed at his face with his bound hands. After a beat of stark, charged silence, he continued. “There’s a pond of holy water past the guards there. Each cell is barred and locked, a few have crevices between the two.” The muscles in his already clenched jaw tightened. “You’ve figured out by now that they’re keeping the humans to dump their bodies in town and blame vampires?” We both nodded. “And they’re taking vampires for the same reason, to frame humans.”

“Outright war.” Kieran exhaled sharply. “Damn.” I glanced around surreptitiously. “I count five vampires, three hunters.”

“Two more vampires in the back,” Nicholas added. “And one outside with two more hunters. And Dr. Frankenstein there.” He barely glanced at the man in the leather apron. Fear and fury made his eyes gleam like broken pearls. “He just likes torture. He thinks he’s a scientist.” He ground his back teeth. “But he’s just an ordinary zealot.”

“That’s enough chatter,” one of the Host barked at us. “This isn’t a party, children.”

We stopped talking, waiting for them to get bored and turn their attention elsewhere.

“Weapons?” Kieran asked under his breath, his lips barely moving.

I shook my head. “They took my stakes,” I said. I reached casually down to adjust my pants. “Shit. My phone too.”

They both shifted to check their own pockets, then nodded. “So we’re down to the element of surprise to get us out,” Kieran murmured. “Great.”

“And my teeth,” Nicholas murmured back. Kieran’s eyes widened. He moved over, shielding us. I lifted my wrists and Nicholas’s fangs elongated. He sliced through my ropes. I kept my hands held together so it wouldn’t be obvious.

“It’s not just us,” Nicholas said. “Them too.” He glanced at the dirty faces surreptitiously watching us from the cells. “They’ll fight if we can get them free. Regardless, once we get Lucy out, we get everyone else out too. Before or after the fight.”

“Agreed.”

I eyed them both. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” I stated as calmly as I could. “We will all get out of this together.”

“Lucy.”

“Nicholas.” I raised my eyebrows. “You know you need me. We’re already hopelessly outnumbered. And I’m a better shot than you. So be reasonable.”

“You first.”

“Oh God,” Kieran groaned. “We’re doomed.”