Blood Fever: The watchers (16 page)

I edged up onto my elbows. “My thought exactly.” I weighed my words. How much could I trust her? I decided it was all or nothing. “I’ve already tried a little. Investigating, I mean.”

“What’d you find out?” Eager excitement tinged her voice. I’d been right—despite our age difference, Mei was total good friend material.

“Nothing really. Trinity fought her attacker and ended up on the rocks near the cove. We already knew all that.”

“Well,” she began, “next we could…”

“Next we could…what?” I’d hit a dead end. “Anyway, we’re locked in.”

“We could investigate without leaving the dorm. I’m sure we could find out more about the latest killing if we asked around. Gossiping is all anyone has been doing since lockdown.” She was showing me a whole new side. Apparently her stoic act masked total unflinching guts. “It’s possible.”

I gave her idea real consideration. I was beginning to dig my new roomie, and it could only mean trouble. As it was, I had a sinking feeling the day was coming when the powers-that-be would drop Emma and me into some vampire coliseum and force us to go gladiator on each other. No, I had to protect her. “Possible, but too dangerous.”

“If there were three of us, it’d be safer.”

“Emma, you mean? Even if we convinced her, she and Yas
are inseparable, and I don’t know if she’d do it without him.” I loved Yasuo, but until I understood what was really going on with those Trainees, I wasn’t ready to have one hundred percent trust in him.

“Then it’ll be just you and me.”

I laughed outright at that. “You and me?” I gave it a moment’s thought. But then I dismissed the notion—I needed someone who’d watch my back, which I doubted Mei had the skills to do. “I don’t even know what your weapon is.”

“I don’t have a weapon.”

“What do you mean?” I sat up in bed—there’d be no sleeping anytime soon—and the rapid movement amplified the pounding in my head. “We all have weapons. Everyone’s assigned one on the first day.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Didn’t they have something waiting for you in your drawer?”

“All I had was this.” She stood and rifled through her dresser, pulling something out.

I hopped out of bed and pulled aside a corner of the shades to let in the watery moonlight. She held something long and thin, and I snatched it from her to make sure there wasn’t a blade concealed in there somewhere. I hefted it in my hands and peered down the length of it. “They gave you a
flute
?”

“It’s not a flute.”

“Masha is gunning for us. There’s a killer on the loose. You’re jonesing to go play Nancy Drew. And all you’ve got to protect yourself is a
flute
.” I crawled back into bed, suddenly overwhelmed. No wonder the vampires needed me to look out for her—they’d given the girl a
flute
as her only protection.

“It’s a D’Tzu,” she said, sounding amused.

“Okay, fine. It’s a…that. But trust me, call it what you like, but it won’t kill any Draugs. It’s not even metal.”

“It’s bamboo.” She held it to her mouth. “Shall I play it for you? It’ll relax you.” The way she’d said it—all calm and sure—sounded so culty.

“You’re scaring me, Mei.”

“The infamous Acari Drew is afraid?”

Laughing, I punched my pillow into shape and flopped my head down. “You don’t scare me, Ho. Go for it. Play your little flute.”

I heard her suck in a breath, then immediately winced at the sharp, high-pitched sound her instrument made. It reminded me of a cheesy kung fu movie soundtrack—like something that might play as an old wise man emerged from the mist.

I lay in the dark, patiently waiting for her to finish, wondering which would happen first, glass breaking or Kenzie knocking on the door, telling us to shut up.

But then something changed.

The music triggered something in my brain. There was a shift. A wave of calm. My headache subsided. I began to register a song where before there’d been only shrill, atonal notes.

The music became hypnotic. It surrounded me, filled me, enveloped me. As that high pitch hummed through my skull, memories swamped me. Mental snapshots of my mother, simple and random.

She unloaded groceries from the car, hitching a bag on her hip.

She put on lipstick and caught my eyes in the mirror.

She snapped her clutch shut with a laugh.

She widened her eyes, chugging soda as her Coke bottle fizzed over.

She hugged me, enveloping me in her lemony scent.

The images faded, but the scent lingered as I became aware of my bed again. Mei-Ling had finished playing. My pillow was damp. I touched my face—I was crying.

Mei had managed to reach deep into those parts of myself that I’d buried and forgotten. It was the most cathartic experience of my life. And it was the most terrifying.

That
was Mei’s secret. And her weapon.

And her talents would only be enhanced over time as she consumed more of the blood. I lay there, unable to speak. The possibilities were endless. Could she hypnotize people? Trigger reactions in entire crowds? Would she be powerful enough to influence even the vampires?

If vampires could harness her gift—gaining the ability to hypnotize with music, influence emotion, manipulate memory and thought, to
control
those around them—it would be a powerful weapon indeed.

“Would you like to sleep now?”

I felt a jolt of alarm. “Can that thing put me to sleep?” I had no doubts it’d work in the euthanizing sense of the word.

She sat at the edge of the bed, seeming calmed. When I saw her smile in the moonlight, I realized she hadn’t given me many true smiles. I liked the sight. “Relax, Acari Drew. You’ll wake up again. I promise.”

“Mei, it’s just Drew. You
gotta
call me Drew.”

She began to play again, quietly this time. For the first time since the bond, the gnawing in my gut subsided. In the moment before I drifted off, I hoped I’d get to feel my mother’s embrace one more time. But the black void of sleep was all that waited for me. Cold sleep and dreams of vampires.

I
was climbing.

All I knew was the rock in front of my eyes and my own breath reverberating in my head. My fingers found handholds without effort. My legs pushed me up—just as Carden had said they would.

Suddenly my perspective telescoped outward. A moment of vertigo as my head adjusted. I was climbing the Needle.

I saw the rock and heard my breath, and now I was aware of the sunlight, too, warm on my shoulders. It almost soothed the permanent throbbing along my neck and in my skull—
almost
.

The sun was warm, but the wind was cold, whipping against my legs. I realized they were bare. I wore my favorite old pair of cargo shorts.

A dream, then.

Smiling, I climbed faster. I couldn’t fall—this was a dream.

Carden was waiting for me, seated on the plateau near the top. I wondered for an instant why he was there if we were supposed
to remain apart, but then I laughed, understanding. “Anything can happen. I’m just dreaming.”

He smiled down at me, reached out his hand, and pulled me up and over to join him. “Anything can happen.”

I sat and dangled my legs. They were so small in comparison to his muscular thighs, thick like tree trunks swathed in plaid wool.

“Wait, is that…is that a
kilt
?” The wind was cold on my smiling cheeks. “You didn’t wear that when you climbed. The wind…I would’ve noticed.”

He leaned down, speaking close to my ear. “You’re saying you would’ve peeked up my plaid?”

The way he’d nudged his shoulder to mine set my heart pounding. I nodded to the preposterous scale of our legs, side by side. “I look so tiny, compared to you.”

“You’re just right, compared to me.” His broad hand covered my thigh, squeezed, warm on my chilled skin.

My body crackled to life. Thirst clawed me, and I rubbed my belly. Desire robbed my words. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came. I wasn’t good at this—not even in dreams.

“Do you know what your problem is, little flower?”

My problem? I pulled back to meet his eyes. “This is supposed to be
my
dream.”

“Your problem is that you underestimate yourself.”

“Oh, that.” I sighed. “Some people think I
over
estimate myself.”

“Those people are fools.”

“You don’t mean it. This is just a dream.”

He leaned closer until his face filled my vision. His eyes—they’d reminded me of honey, and in the daylight they looked golden. “Then we shouldn’t waste it talking.” He fully cupped my chin and tilted up my face. He brought his mouth a whisper away from mine. “I’ve wanted to taste you again. If this were my dream, I’d not waste it talking.”

I sank into the warmth of those eyes.

Carden was so close now, close enough to shelter me from the wind. Close enough to kiss. I
could
kiss him. I could fall into him, and what would it matter? After all, it was just a dream.

I
wanted
to kiss him. I’d wanted it ever since the moment our first kiss ended. This was just a dream, after all. It wouldn’t count.

“Just a dream,” I whispered. I closed the distance between us.

There was pounding. I gasped.

My heart?

Again, pounding. Was it the headache?

Carden faded. The rock disappeared.

Knocking. The sound was
knocking
.

Mei-Ling mumbled a complaint from the next bed. She was asleep, and we were in our dorm room. I was lying in bed, face crushed into my pillow.

I actually had been dreaming. Disappointment swamped me. Disappointment and need. If I ignored the knocking, could I fall asleep right back into the same moment? I needed to kiss him again, even if it was just in my dreams.

The person knocked again. That roused me. I quickly hopped from my bed. Whoever it was would wake the whole dorm and it’d be seen as my fault.

I swung open the door. “What the—”

A dark figure loomed in the doorway. The ambient moonlight made his eyes glow.
Carden.

Stepping inside, he closed the door and pressed his body against mine. His voice was a hoarse rasp in the darkness. “You called me.”

“W
hat are you doing?” I shot a look at Mei, still sound asleep. I couldn’t risk her seeing us. “You’re going to get us in trouble.”

He laughed quietly. It was a low, seductive sound. “Vampires don’t get in trouble.”

Instantly, I became aware that all I wore was my nightgown. Granted, it was flannel and came below my knees, but still, I was braless, cold, and after that dream, feeling very, very vulnerable. “You were banging hard enough to wake the dead.”

His eyes swept me from my head to my bare feet. “And you’re lovely enough to rouse them.”

I hastily grabbed my fleece and zipped it up to my neck. “Well…it was too loud.”

“I barely knocked at all.” He raised a finger, pointing into the darkness. “Listen.”

I paused. Sure enough, the dorm was utterly silent. It was the middle of the night. “I don’t get it. It was so noisy in the dream.”

He took a step closer. “You dreamed of me?”

I stepped back, babbling nervously. “Why are you here anyway? Because you’re not supposed to be here.” I shooed my fingers at him. “Turn around.” I snatched my leggings from the edge of my bed and quickly stepped into them. I felt too exposed, though I feared clothing wouldn’t do much to rid myself of the feeling. “We’re not supposed to see each other. I thought we were…you know…severing.”

“Are we truly?” He snuck a look, peering at me in the darkness. There was a question in his eyes. “Because you just summoned me.”

“I can summon you?”

“It’s more that I felt your need for me. Felt your desire to preserve our bond.”

Preserve the bond?

“I don’t,” I stammered. “Didn’t.”

His lips peeled into a naughty smile. “Tell me about this dream.”

It was fresh in my mind, how badly I’d wanted to kiss him. My body
still
wanted him, my blood pulsing hot just beneath the surface of my skin.

“Ah. Even now, I sense your desire.” Inhaling deeply, he took my arm and gently tucked it in his. “What did we do in your dream?”