Drake Chronicles: 03 Out for Blood (16 page)

Bad.

And now my
Hel-Blar
was closing in and staying just in front of Nicholas so that if I used my crossbow I risked shooting my own brother. I was usual y a pretty good shot but there were just too many variables. I exchanged my crossbow for the stake inside my coat and launched myself into the fray, hol ering.

I don’t care what Mom says about the advantage of surprise; a good battle yel can sometimes make the difference between winning or losing.

The
Hel-Blar
yel ed back and then we were grappling again, trying to see who could cause the most damage. He didn’t have a weapon. They mostly used their numerous fangs and the threat of their poisoned blood. I shoved the stake toward his chest and he blocked it, trying to shove it back. I held on with a viselike grip, my fangs burning through my gums, my fingers cramping around the stake. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a cloud of ash and heard Nicholas cough.
Hel-Blar
ashes were nasty.

I kneed the
Hel-Blar
in the groin and then used my free arm to drive my elbow into the back of his neck. Already doubled over, he staggered and folded further.

Right into my upraised stake.

The force of his flailing body drove me to my knees, and then I was alone with the ashes drifting into the grass and the bloodstained stake. I dropped it, scrubbing my palms clean in a pile of fal en leaves.

“Three down.” I pushed to my feet. “Not bad.” I dusted my shirt off, grimacing. “But I’m going to smel like soggy mushrooms for the rest of the night.”

“Did that seem kind of easy to you?” Nicholas wondered out loud.

“Easy? Are you smel ing the smel ?”

“Seriously. Didn’t they seem tired to you?”

I frowned. “I guess they could have fought harder. It’s not like they laid down and died for us like that chick at the school though.” A flock of birds winged into the sky in the near distance, interrupting us with their excited squawking. We exchanged a knowing glance, breaking into a run. Nothing tired out the
Hel-Blar
like fighting or feasting. And both would disturb a flock of sleeping birds.

We ran harder. The wind pushed at my face with cool fingers. Our feet barely touched the ground, broke no twigs, made no sound to betray our presence.

What gave us away was the shocked sound both Nicholas and I made, abandoning al of our training in two choked curses.

It was hard to stay stealthy when you stumbled across your baby sister, ankle-deep in a mountain stream, red-pupiled, fangs flashing, and stakes flying from her fingertips.

Hel-Blar
clicked their jaws at her from both banks, blue-tinged as poison beetles.

She looked our way. Either she didn’t have the time to recognize us or we’d real y pissed her off.

One stake whistled toward us, then another.

“Solange, no!” I yel ed.

Nicholas was too busy running forward, heedless of the stake aimed at his heart.

Because Lucy lay at Solange’s feet, sprawled over the black river pebbles, her blood leaking like red ribbons into the water.

Chapter 16

•

Hunter

Later Saturday night

I texted Quinn on my way to the infirmary to let him know I was safely on campus.

Chloe was standing right inside the door, a bandage under her T-shirt and another one on her forearm. She was pale and her pupils were dilated but otherwise she seemed al right.

“I feel good,” she said, weaving on her feet. Her smile went decidedly goofy.

“Theo’s nice.”

“Theo gave you painkil ers.” I was relieved to see she was fine.

“Yup. Better than vitamins. Better than
candy
.” She sounded shocked. And she was slurring her speech.

“Sit down before you fal on your face.” I nudged her gently into a chair.

She poked her bandage. “Do I have a ghost arm now? Can’t feel it.”

“Stop that,” I told her. “Or it’l hurt like hel tomorrow.”

“ ’Kay.”

“If you start drooling I’m taking pictures.”

“ ’Kay.”

I was grinning at her when the shouting started. I leaped forward just as the curtain to the back examination rooms swung open. Wil thundered toward me. I was surprised enough just to stand there and stare at him. He was faintly blue, his eyes bloodshot. It didn’t real y register at first. Theo and Jenna were behind him and so was Spencer, holding a cloth to his neck. The cloth was rapidly turning red, almost as rapidly as he was turning white.

“Stake him!” Theo shouted at me. There was a long hypodermic needle in his hand. “Stake him now, Hunter!”

“What?” I had the stake in my hand. I was close enough to reach him. I was also frozen. “Are you kidding?”

“Now!” Al three of them yel ed in unison. It was enough to get me moving. So was Wil , lunging at me, saliva dripping off his fangs. When did he grow fangs? There was mottled bruising on his neck and two festering puncture wounds. Jenna threw a tube of antibiotic ointment, hitting the alarm button on the wal . Help was coming.

But not fast enough.

“Shit!” I yel ed, because I had to yel something. Wil was wearing one of those hospital paper gowns, with the same tousled hair as always, the same earnest face. He was the class sweetheart for every class, even if they weren’t in his year.

He was nice to everyone. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, which made vampire hunting problematic. But his parents wouldn’t hear of him dropping out. So he did the best he could and immersed himself in the Science Department, where there was less actual fighting.

He was the one who asked the shy girls hiding in the corner to dance at school functions.

And now he was the one hissing at me.

Definitely not Wil anymore.

“Shit!” I hol ered again as his fist cracked against my shoulder. It didn’t reach my face because I’d leaped sideways, but not quite fast enough. There was blood on his mouth. And blood on Spencer’s throat and hemp T-shirt.

Every ounce of training snapped to attention inside me.

I went with my sideways lunge and then spun around so I came up behind Wil . He was in the classic newborn
Hel-Blar
frenzy, which I’d read about but never actual y seen in person. Their thirst for blood was primal and vicious and unstoppable. The moment I’d left his line of vision, he’d focused on Chloe, who was weaker. She was slouched in the hard plastic chair, giggling.

“You smel like old socks,” she told him pleasantly, before shaking her head. “No, like mushrooms.” She looked concerned. “That’s bad, right? I can’t remember why that’s bad.”

She was stil babbling to herself when he lunged for her and I lunged for him. My stake went through his skin where his hospital gown gaped open. I angled it away from his shoulder blade and then pushed with as much strength as I had, stil shouting profanities. Because cursing was better than thinking about what I was doing.

Staking a friend.

He yelped, tried to spin around to grab at the stake. He managed half a spin, just enough to meet my eyes before he crumbled into ashes on the shiny linoleum floor.

Theo was the first to reach me. His hands were on my shoulders.

“Did he bite you? Are you hurt? Hunter?”

I didn’t drop my stake, because I’d been taught never to drop my weapon, but my fingers felt weak, my palms sweaty. I thought I might throw up.

“Hunter, are you hurt?”

I shook my head, gagged.

“Hey!” Theo shook me. “You can’t go into shock right now.” I blinked, vision going back to normal. The gray spots floated away. “I’m okay,” I answered hoarsely. “What the hel just happened?” Jenna handed me a paper cup of water. “You just saved al our asses.” I drank, mostly because I didn’t know what else to do with myself. “I didn’t save Wil .”

“You saved Chloe,” she said quietly.

“And no one could have saved Wil ,” Theo added. He went to Spencer, who was leaning against the wal , eyes glassy and hair damp with sweat.

“He bit you,” I said flatly.

Spencer nodded weakly. “I’m okay.”

“I’ve already given him his first antibiotic injection,” Theo said, lifting Spencer’s eyelids to check his pupils.

“That didn’t help Wil ,” I said quietly, trying not feel the panic swel ing inside me.

“Wil ’s bite was worse,” Theo said. Spencer winced when he applied more pressure on his wound. “He barely grazed him. Stil , you’re al going to have to get out of here. He needs to be quarantined.”

“What? No!” Jenna exclaimed. “You just said he’d be fine.” He hadn’t actual y said that, but I didn’t point it out.

“Procedure,” Theo bit out tersely, swinging his shoulder under Spencer’s arm to help him to a cot. Chloe started to snore in her chair.

I was real y glad Quinn had agreed to help me analyze that pil . Something clearly had to be done. And fast.

I crouched by Spencer, waiting until he looked at me. I made sure there wasn’t a single ounce of doubt or worry in my expression. “You are going to be fine.” He nodded jerkily.

“I mean it, Spencer,” I insisted. “Don’t make me beat you up.”

“You can’t take me.” He tried to grin. “Even like this.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I never took any pil , Hunter. Not like Wil .”

“I know.” I reached out to touch his dreads but Theo’s hand snapped around my wrist.

“No contact,” he said. “You know the rules.”

I did know the rules. And I had about two minutes before the infirmary was swarming with people and we were hauled bodily away.

“We’l fix this,” I told Spencer confidently. Jenna hovered behind me looking grim, even though she tried to smile at Spencer. “I’ve already got us some help. We’l know something soon.”

“You’l beat this thing,” Jenna added fiercely just as the first response to the alarm barreled through the front door. We stepped back. If we were al quarantined we’d never get Spencer the help he needed.

There were two security guards and Ms. Dailey behind the first response team.

She assessed the situation at a glance, taking in every detail, right down to the dust on my sneakers. She used her cel phone to cal for another nurse and the head doctor for Spencer. She sent him and Theo and a guard into one of the back rooms. They’d probably tie him to the bed, like they had with Wil . I tried not to think about it.

“What happened?” she asked us. “Hunter?”

“I staked Wil ,” I answered. My voice sounded weird, even to me.

Spencer cried out from the back room and I winced. The guard swore. There was the sound of a scuffle and Spencer moaning. “I’m fine. I’m not
Hel-Blar
. I’m not
Hel-Blar
.”

“Hold him down,” Theo snapped. “He needs another dose.” Jenna and I swal owed miserably. My eyes burned.

“Hunter staked Wil ?” Ms. Dailey prodded.

“Wil turned,” Jenna said dul y. “Just like that. Theo was giving him his meds, checking his blood pressure while we tried to get Chloe to stop licking the tongue depressors like they were lol ipop sticks and then he just … turned. Ripped the restraints right off the bed frame.”

“And he bit Spencer?”

“Kind of,” Jenna said. “It happened so fast, we al tried to stop him. I don’t know if it’s fang damage or the scalpel he grabbed off the counter.” Ms. Dailey’s expression was hard but not judging. “And then what happened?”

“Wil got free, went for Hunter, then Chloe. Hunter dusted him,” Jenna said. “She saved Chloe’s life. And whoever else Wil might have come across if he’d gotten out of the infirmary.”

“I see.” Ms. Dailey looked at me for a long moment. “Hunter, you’re green. Why don’t you go on back to the dorm. We’l look at the security camera footage and then discuss this further in the morning.”

I nodded mutely.

“Make sure Hunter has some hot tea,” she added to Jenna. “And … why is Chloe drooling on herself?”

“She had stitches. Theo gave her something.”

“Right. You’l have to get her back to her room then. She can’t stay here right now.”

Chloe didn’t even wake up. Her head just lol ed from side to side as we hoisted her up and dragged her out. The last security guard eyed us suspiciously. We didn’t speak on the way to the dorm, not until we laid Chloe out on her bed.

Jason knocked on the door and poked his head in. “I had to check on my floor,” he said, coming in to sit on my desk chair. “Chloe looks al right …,” he trailed off.

“But you two don’t. What happened?”

“Wil turned,” I explained. “And Spencer was bitten. Maybe.” He paled. “What?”

“He’s in quarantine.”

“But he’l be okay.” Jason swal owed. “Tel me he’l be okay.”

“Damn right he wil ,” Jenna said, low and determined.

“And Wil ?” Jason asked, looking as stricken as we felt. “What wil happen to him?”

“Nothing.” I replied. I sat on the edge of my bed, feeling kind of numb but not numb enough. “I staked him.”

After a stunned moment, Jason came to sit next to me. “It’s not your fault,” he said firmly.

“You did what you had to do,” Jenna agreed. “Even though it sucks monkeys.”

“He was sixteen. And he was nice.”

“I know. But he was a student at a Helios-Ra school. He knew what he signed on for.”

“He didn’t even want to be here.”

“And that’s not your fault either,” Jason pointed out, trying to comfort me. I wasn’t entirely convinced I should be comforted. I’d just kil ed a friend of mine, after al . I should be painful y uncomfortable.

I must have said it out loud because Jenna shook her head. “That
Hel-Blar
woman kil ed Wil . You saved him.”

“Hel o? I staked him.”

“Yeah, and do you think he would have wanted us to let him become a monster?

The same guy who refused to let the maintenance crew kil the squirrels in the attic?”

“I guess not. Stil .”

“Yeah,” Jenna sighed. “Stil . You did good, Hunter, even if it doesn’t feel like it.”

“It feels like ass.” I rubbed my eyes hard so the tears wouldn’t drop. “School assembly on Monday is going to be a funeral too,” I remarked.

“Won’t be the first time.” Jenna was the color of milk in the faint light of the lamp. “I know what we need.”