Drake Chronicles: 03 Out for Blood (10 page)

“Hunter! Did you want to—whoa.” Jenna raised her eyebrows when I swung around. She was coming from the cafeteria with a basket and Spencer and Jason behind her. “Scary face.”

“Sorry.” I sighed, trying to shake off my mood. It wasn’t fair to take it out on them, especial y after getting mad at Chloe for doing the very same thing to me.

“You okay?” Spencer asked.

“I’m fine,” I grumbled. “Chloe needs therapy though.” He snorted. “Tel me something I don’t know.”

Jenna held up her basket. “Picnic time. You in?”

“Always,” I answered, fol owing them off the path toward one of the back fields bordering the woods. We did this every time we needed a little privacy from possible surveil ance cameras, bugged phones, and teachers in general. It wasn’t easy to hide in a school that trained you in spy maneuvers and combat. Campus was ful of bugs and hidden cameras. Sitting in the middle of a field was our favorite way to trade information. The potato salad wasn’t a bad incentive either.

We spread out a blanket and dug into the food right away. We sat shoulder to shoulder, angled out so that we could see in al directions and no one could sneak up on us.

“So what’s the scoop?” I asked, wiping mayo off my top lip. “Any word on Wil ?”

“Nothing new,” Jason said. “He’s stable enough but they’re stil waiting to see which way he goes.”

“It was weird.” I frowned. “Real y weird, the way that
Hel-Blar
just disintegrated.”

“Something’s up,” Jenna agreed, her red hair caught back in a messy braid. Her sneakers had little stars al over them.

“The Niner boys are whispering about some kind of pil that wil make them stronger,” Jason said, shaking his head. “I total y don’t want to narc but, man, I’m going to have to if I can’t figure out where they’re getting it from.” I went cold.

“Wait. What?”

“They’re saying it’s some kind of vitamin that makes you stronger.”

“Wil mentioned something about taking vitamins,” I said quietly. I looked at Spencer pointedly. “And Chloe’s taking al these vitamins and protein powders.” He frowned. “But her mom gave her those. She’s a doctor and a biochemist.”

“True.”

Jenna tilted her head. “If they real y are vitamins, who cares? I mean, I’m taking vitamin C right now. My roommate’s got that flu and I real y don’t want to catch it. If they need to think it makes them better fighters, where’s the harm? It’s not like they’re on steroids.”

“I guess.” I wasn’t sure why, but I wasn’t convinced.

“But we al agree we need to find out what’s going on, right?” Jason asked. “I mean, with the
Hel-Blar
and al the secrecy and some of the teachers being al weird?”

Spencer lay on his back, soaking in the sun and abandoning his watch. No one was paying attention to us anyway. It was too nice a day.

“We’l figure it out,” he said yawning. His dreads spread out around him like honey-pale snakes. “We always do.”

•

I didn’t see Chloe for the rest of the day. But when I went back to our room Friday evening after dinner there was a note on my pil ow. It was in her handwriting and read,
Sorry. I think I have a wicked case of PMS
. She’d left a chocolate bar and a new romance novel as a peace offering. I wasn’t mad anymore, but I was stil worried.

So I did what any vampire hunter would do.

I snooped.

I felt bad going through her stuff but I couldn’t help myself. It was no use booting up her computer and going through her files; some of that encryption stuff may as wel have been in ancient Babylonian for al that I understood it. Her gym bag was by her bed though, the zipper half open. I could see the white plastic cap on the bottle with the prescription sticker poking out. I plucked it out of the bag, along with the second bottle I found underneath it. That one was a popular brand of protein powder. I looked inside and sniffed it but it seemed innocuous enough. Not that I real y knew what I was looking for.

The second label described the contents as a multivitamin and it had Chloe’s name on it and her mom’s. They looked normal and even had the regular gross vitamin smel .

I should let this go. I was being ridiculous.

But it didn’t stop me from pocketing one of the vitamins in case I needed to get it analyzed later.

I was probably just being paranoid. It happened sometimes to hunters. And PMS

could total y account for Chloe’s weird mood swings and sudden obsession with working out and combat practice. Stil , I kept searching.

I didn’t find anything, though—just her normal assortment of nail polishes and data sticks and computer parts, and her secret bottle of peach schnapps in the back of her closet in her left rain boot. She hid a bottle there every year.

I was being a paranoid idiot.

I closed the closet door with a determined snap. I had enough to worry about with Courtney and the Niners and Wil to be rifling through my friend’s stuff.

Like the fact that Quinn was waiting for me in the clearing in the woods right this very moment.

The sun had ful y set while I was rummaging through Chloe’s things, which meant Quinn was out there with Kieran and Lucy. Kieran had gotten permission for me to train Lucy as long as we did it out of sight of the school and kept it quiet. It wasn’t a precedent they wanted to set, and there was something about insurance as wel .

Whatever. I didn’t want an audience. I felt self-conscious enough knowing Quinn would be there.

I took the bag of supplies I’d packed earlier and ducked out of the dormitory, cutting through the gardens to the woods. I avoided the squares of light fal ing over the grass from the infirmary. The woods were quiet and warm, thick with the smel of pines and the yel ow lilies from the edge of the pond. I fol owed the glow of light on the other side of the pine grove to the clearing where Kieran had already set up a perimeter of lanterns.

I paused at the sound of a footfal behind me. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” Spencer returned good naturedly. “And we’re not getting left out of another night of your stealthy fun.” Chloe was beside him, smiling hesitantly. “Okay?” I wrinkled my nose. “Okay. As long as I can kick your ass in the name of training.”

“Deal,” Chloe slung her arm through mine. “I want to get a look at one of the famous Drake brothers.” She lowered her voice. “I real y am sorry I snapped at you.”

“I know.”
And I’m sorry I went through your stuff
, I thought. But I didn’t say it.

Quinn, Lucy, and Kieran were waiting for us in the meadow. Quinn was leaning against a tree, looking dangerous and hot.

“Yummy,” Chloe murmured to me. Quinn flashed us a grin. I fought a blush.

“Vampire hearing, remember?” I murmured back.

She shrugged, grinning back. I tried not to feel jealous of the way he winked at her.

I turned my attention deliberately to Lucy. She was wearing an embroidered peasant top with jean shorts and Doc Marten boots. Her hair was in a straight bob, her glasses dark-rimmed.

“I’m so going to learn to kick your ass.” She smirked at Quinn. “And your brother’s.”

“Where is Nicholas?” Kieran asked.

“He’s locked in a closet,” Lucy said with grim satisfaction. After a moment of stunned silence, Quinn snorted out a laugh.

“You locked your boyfriend in a closet?” I asked.

“Cool,” Chloe approved. The rhinestones on her earrings caught the blue lantern light.

Lucy shrugged. “Serves him right. He locked me in there last week.” Kieran rol ed his eyes. “He was trying to save your life.”

“Whatever. Don’t make me lock you in there too.” She rubbed her hands together excitedly. “Come on, Hunter. Show me some stuff.”

“Yeah, Buffy,” Quinn grinned amiably at me, pushing away from the tree as we stepped farther into the clearing. “Show us your moves.” Lucy shoved him gently toward me. “Use him as your vampire dummy.”

“Hey now.”

“This was your idea,” she told him. “You’re the one who wanted me armed and dangerous.”

“What the hel was I thinking?”

She kissed his cheek, as if he real y was her big brother, then turned to me expectantly.

“First, I need to see your style,” I said.

“Steamrol er,” Kieran said blandly.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Can I practice on him?” I swept my arm out in invitation, grinning. “Be my guest.” She danced back and forth like a boxer, but she was al grace and little technique.

“Just run at him,” I suggested.

She lowered her head and charged him like a demented bul . Kieran waited until the last possible second before stepping out of the way, smirking. Lucy stopped herself, but only barely. Another step and she would have brained herself on a tree.

She whirled.

“Damn it!” She pointed at Kieran and Quinn. “Don’t you dare laugh.” Quinn pressed his lips shut with exaggerated care.

“It’s okay,” I said. “Take a swing at him now.”

Kieran backed up so fast he nearly tripped over his own feet. “No way. She already punched me in the face once.”

“Me too,” Quinn said. “She has real y good aim.”

“Good. I can work with that,” I replied. “Kieran, pretend to attack her.” He looked dubious but complied. When he grabbed Lucy’s shoulder, she turned into a wildcat. She flared, kicked, bit. I was pretty sure I even heard her hiss. After a few minutes, Kieran was scratched and bruised and she was panting and red-faced.

“Not bad,” I told her. “But you’l wear yourself out long before you do any actual damage.”

She thumped her chest. “I’m starting to get that,” she huffed. “I think my heart just exploded.”

“We should probably stick to stealth and escape. I can show you how to inflict the maximum amount of damage with minimum force, which wil buy you time to run away.”

Quinn pinned Lucy with a fierce and knowing glance. “But you actual y have to run away, brat.”

She made a face. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Show me your aim.” I handed her three rocks and pointed to a slim birch. She tossed her hair back off her face, took a deep breath, and launched them. She hit the trunk dead center every time. Spencer whistled through his teeth, impressed.

Chloe looked like she was ready to start taking notes.

“Is it true Hope tried to recruit you?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Lucy grumbled. “As if I would turncoat for some cheesy comic-book league.” She paused, winced. “Oops. Sorry.”

I shrugged. “Hope wasn’t true Helios-Ra.” Never mind that Grandpa had been rather sympathetic to her ultimate goals. Since Lucy had proven herself with her aim and the turn in conversation was making everyone uncomfortable, I showed her our altered ninja eggs.

She blinked. “I’m going to throw Sil y Putty at vampires?” When I explained what was in them, her eyes shone.

“Okay, these I official y love.” She proved her point by juggling them, ending with a bow and a flourish. “Let’s see you do that, 007,” she teased Kieran.

“You should get yourself some Hypnos,” I suggested. “I can’t give you any because it’s against school rules. But if you get some, I can give you an old tear-gas pen you can fil up and tuck in your sleeve. And I have a bunch of eggs without the Hypnos.”

“Uncle Geoffrey probably has a stash of the stuff by now,” Quinn told her. “Not that I approve,” he said to me.

I wasn’t the least bit apologetic. “You have pheromones, we have Hypnos. Cal it even.”

“We’re not the ones sel ing our weapon on the black market and taking unfair advantage. We only use our glamour to protect ourselves.”

“First, we don’t sel it.” I raised an eyebrow. “And second, are you real y trying to tel me you’ve never used your pheromones to steal a kiss?”

“I steal them the old-fashioned way,” he said. “With charm.”

“Lucy, aim for the big swel ed head when you throw those eggs,” I said.

“I usual y do.” She grinned.

“You should also get a staff or a walking stick, something you can attach a blade to or sharpen to a point. It’l keep your attacker out of biting range.” Quinn kicked up a long stick with his boot, throwing it to me.

“Show me,” he said as I caught it. I twirled it once. I admit I was showing off a little.

If he was going to insist on seeing me as one of the guys and a fel ow soldier, I was damn wel going to out-soldier him.

“Come on, Buffy,” he urged, pale eyes twinkling.

“Any time, Lestat,” I shot back.

We circled each other in a slow, predatory dance. It was easy to forget we had an audience. His blue eyes were sharp and hot, like the heart of a candle’s flame. It could warm me or burn me clean through.

“No Hypnos,” he murmured.

“No pheromones,” I countered, though I didn’t know how much actual control he had over that sort of thing.

He was quick, of course. Vampires always were. But we’d been trained to focus on that blur of movement, on the displacement of air, on the tiny meticulous details that might just save our lives.

When he came at me I had to convince my reflexes that I wasn’t actual y al owed to stake him. The first part of him that was close enough to un-blur was his fangs.

They were mesmerizing, but not so mesmerizing that I didn’t swing out and catch him in the sternum with the end of my stick. I could tel by the flare of his grin that he felt the impact. I’d never met anyone who enjoyed a skirmish quite so much. Even Grandpa saw it as duty before pleasure. With Quinn, it was almost like he was flirting with me.

I couldn’t be sure if he was going to lean in to tear out my jugular or kiss me senseless.

Instead, he kicked out and tripped me, but when I fel backward his hand was at my back to catch me. My left arm crossed between us, fist pressed over his heart to prove my point. I might have staked him in that moment, if the situation were different.

But I might not have been alive to do it.

His fangs rested tenderly on the inside of my throat. The length of our bodies pressed close together. I felt the coolness of his skin and wondered if the heat of mine felt like a burn to him. It was the first time I could actual y understand the seduction and the al ure of baring your throat to a predator. It had always seemed like madness to me, or the result of reading too many novels. It stil did. But there was the barest sway of my body toward him.