Drake Chronicles: 03 Out for Blood (27 page)

“It’s just because you’re a girl. You know, the first in hundreds of years and al that. Your change is a little different. That’s al .” She poked at her new fangs. “The royal courts are going to have a field day with this, especial y at the Blood Moon. The feral princess.” She groaned. “Someone’s going to write a song.”

“Probably. But think of how much harder you can bite them when they do.” Her laugh was watery, but it was a laugh. “True.” She stood up. “I’m tired. I’m going home.”

“Wait for me,” Marcus and I both said together.

Marcus pul ed folded computer printouts from his pocket. “Your sample analysis.” I grabbed it, skimming the charts and graphs. I’d skipped the majority of Uncle Geoffrey’s science lectures. That was the summer most of the girls my age in town miraculously grew boobs. I had fond memories of that summer. None of them involved anything that might help me decipher the blood analysis. I looked up, disgusted. “What the hel does this say? I don’t speak geek.” Marcus snorted. “Careful, little brother, or I won’t translate.”

“Just tel me what it says.”

“That your girlfriend was right.” He paused, clearly waiting for me to react to the term “girlfriend.” I didn’t. I’d take Hunter any way I could get her. If I had to start using words like “girlfriend” and turning down other dates, I’d do it. “It’s not vitamins in the blood,” Marcus continued. “Those pil s are a steroid.”

“Yeah, we knew that. Her friend’s already off those.”

“They’re not the real problem,” Marcus said.

“This just gets better and better. Hit me.”

“The second sample, from that kid who died?”

“Yeah?”

He looked grim. “He was poisoned.”

I went cold. Hunter said people at her school were fal ing sick al over the place.

“And the poison wasn’t just meant for him.” Marcus’s fangs flashed. “It was meant for us.”

Chapter 28

•

Hunter

Wednesday night

“Got something!” When Chloe’s computer beeped the next night, she dove across the room, elbowing Jason in the gut.

He rubbed his sternum. “The hel , Chloe?”

“I hooked it up to beep when it cracked the TH file password,” she said excitedly.

“I thought you didn’t want to do that on campus, where they might tamper with the connection?” Jenna asked as we crowded around the back of her chair.

Chloe waved that off. “I put in a few more security shields and a red herring or two. We should be fine. Besides, we’re running out of time and I’ve mostly been concentrating on my mom’s files.”

“So what’ve you got?” I pressed, bewildered by the gibberish on the screen.

“What did you find?”

“Another file hidden in my mom’s notes—labeled TH.” Chloe bounced in her chair.

I knew that bounce. She was onto something. “I want it.” She chewed on her lower lip as the screen flashed. “Different password.” She hit a few more keys. “This would be easier if I had my mom’s actual computer. I could dust her keyboard.” She tapped her foot impatiently. “Come on. Come on, I said!” It took a few more minutes but she final y grinned. “Gotcha, you sneaky bastard.” We al leaned in to read.

“That’s some kind of chemical breakdown, isn’t it?” Jason frowned. “For medications, or something.”

I skimmed the page, nodding. “Looks like. Here’s a list of side effects.”

“The steroid?” Chloe asked in a smal voice.

I shook my head. “No. Just the TH. And … holy shit. Holy shit, we were right. It
is
meant for poor fighters. It says right here that it should only be given to weak hunters who aren’t expected to survive vampire attacks.” I felt sick to my stomach.

“It goes through their bloodstream and makes it poisonous to
Hel-Blar
, to any vampires.” I remembered the blond
Hel-Blar
who’d disintegrated right in front of me after biting Wil . “The League is sabotaging its own hunters to poison
Hel-Blar
.” My head was spinning.

No one said anything for a long moment.

“That’s just …” Jenna shook her head, unable to find a word heinous enough to describe what we’d just discovered.

“There has to be some mistake,” Jason said doubtful y.

I marched over to my supplies and started shoving stakes in my pockets and checking microphones and night goggles. They turned slowly, staring at me.

“Hunter?” Chloe asked, as if she was afraid I was about to lose it. “What are you doing?”

“We’re taking York down,” I said forceful y. “Right now.”

“Um, we’re going to beat up a teacher? That seems like a real y bad idea.”

“We’re not going to beat him up. Give me a break. We’re just going to nail him for passing out that disgusting pil , and then we’re going to dismantle the entire League if it comes to it.”

Because sometimes you had to betray the League in order to safeguard it.

Sometimes you had to break the rules. Sometimes duty was hard and uncomfortable and burned inside your chest. Grandpa taught me that last part wel enough.

“How exactly are we going to do that?” Jenna asked. She held up her hands, palms out. “I’m al for a little payback, but I’m hunter enough to know better than to fight a battle I can’t win.”

“I have every intention of winning.”

“I get that, I real y do.”

I tied my hair back in a braid, tucking it under my col ar. “We use the same plan we had before,” I explained. “For now. Jason is going to nose around and see if he can’t get someone to sel him drugs.”

Jason winced. “I feel like I’m in one of those after-school specials. If I get branded a narc, I’m blaming you.”

I ignored him. “I’m going to e-mail this file to Kieran and have him give it to Hart.

And then Jenna and I are going to switch off shifts staking out York when he’s not in class.”

“Am I going to need a fake nose and a trench coat?”

“And Chloe’s going to ask York for after-school training help and act al clumsy and weak.”

She sighed. “I guess I should be used to that.”

“Are we ready?” I asked, sounding like a dril sergeant. “We need evidence and we need it soon.”

“Sir! Yes, sir!” Chloe shouted with a mock salute.

I made a face at her. “Let’s just go. Last class ends in an hour.”

•

I took the first shift, creeping around the pond to perch on a boulder at the edge of the woods, where I had a good view of the teachers’ residence. If York left the building for any reason, I’d be able to see him and fol ow him. I felt a little like a detective in the old movies Grandpa loved so much.

Thinking about Grandpa just made me feel worse.

Helios-Ra and our duty to our hunter ancestors was the glue that had held us together after my parents were kil ed. I barely remembered them, but I remembered Grandpa dressing up like Van Helsing one Hal oween and scaring al the little kids dressed as vampires. He’d taught me how to clean a wound properly, how to look for patterns in the movements of leaves and litter that betrayed a nearby vampire moving too quickly for human eyesight. He gave me my first stake. There’d been tears in his eyes last year when he got my report card. He’d always been proud of me.

Not anymore.

And I’d always been proud of the Helios-Ra.

Not anymore.

The difference was, I intended to do something about it. I wanted to be proud of the League again. And proud of myself. I wanted to make it right.

Making it right was surprisingly boring.

I sat on that rock for two hours, until my legs cramped and I’d nearly staked a chipmunk and a raccoon and traumatized a bunny.

Al the rooms in the teachers’ hal stayed dark. Even the motion lights stayed dark outside in the garden, where the animals liked to overturn the compost bin. The windows reflected the trees, the moon, the sky. Chloe was long since in bed, and Jenna wouldn’t relieve me for another two hours.

I was staring so hard at the residence that when Ms. Dailey spoke softly behind me, I fel right off the rock.

I leaped back to my feet, going red. “Ms. Dailey!”

“At ease.” She smiled gently. “Hunter, what are you doing out here?”

“I … uh … I couldn’t sleep.” I wondered why she was out here so late.

“Are you worrying about our little problem?”

I nodded. “We found out it’s even worse than we thought,” I explained in a rush.

“It’s some kind of weapon against vampires that uses students as carriers. It’s sick.”

She tilted her head. “Ingenious, actual y.”

I blinked at her. “Sorry?”

“I had such high hopes for you, dear girl. You’ve always been particularly talented.

A little too clever, clearly, and now, sadly, misguided as wel .”

“Misguided?” I echoed. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t think that scene with your grandfather wouldn’t be al over school, did you? As wel as your unfortunate and disgusting affiliation with that vampire.” I took a step back. Her expression was stil pleasant but she didn’t sound like the Ms. Dailey I knew at al . The instinct to run vibrated through me.

Before I could take a single step, she pul ed a syringe from behind her back.

She stabbed me right in the arm with it.

I swore and jerked back but the needle was stuck in my muscle, pumping its clear liquid into my veins. I scratched at her face, managing to get her blood under my nails before the dizziness assaulted me. I stumbled.

“What did you do to me?” I panicked. My tongue felt swol en; my feet felt as if they were on backward. I stumbled again and fel to my knees. She watched me dispassionately.

“I’m rather grateful you chose to hide yourself away here, where no one wil hear you. Very considerate of you.”

My fingers shook as I yanked the needle out of my arm. It tumbled into the grass.

“What is this stuff?”

“I think you know, a smart girl like you. It’s a rather potent overdose of TH. I’m afraid you left me no other choice.”

“What? No!” I clawed at my skin. My veins felt as if they were getting warmer, as if al of me was burning up. My breaths became shal ow and short. “It was York.

York.
”

She laughed lightly. “He’s far too pedantic for this sort of genius.”

“But he picks on al the weak students.” I was beginning to slur. I felt like I was hit by the worst case of the worst flu ever.

“Caught that, did you? Yes, his temper made my work much easier. I knew exactly who the worst students were, as they made him the angriest. He was so scared for them, you see. He wanted them to get stronger and be able to protect themselves.” She circled me, waving her hand to dismiss him. “This is much better. If they are going to die by a vampire’s hand, they may as wel become weapons in themselves.

A sacrifice for the League. And so eager to comply when they think it’s a secret pil to make them stronger. It takes a while for them to weaken, and by then—think of the vampires they might infect. Especial y if they’re like you, Hunter.”

“I don’t see … you … sacrificing yourself,” I spat. I tried to turn over but I was too heavy. The effort had me gasping.

“There’s no use struggling. I gave you quite a high dose. You might survive it. I hope you do, at least for a little while. Then you can take out that Drake brat as wel .”

She wanted Quinn to drink from me and die.

“Go to hel ,” I croaked.

Dailey pursed her lips. “To think I picked you for the next Guild leader. I had such hopes after the
Hel-Blar
attack, and after you staked Wil .”

“You’re crazy.” I had to cal Theo. I fumbled for my cel phone but my hands weren’t working properly. I couldn’t scream either. I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs.

“I’m just doing what must be done. With al these treaties and the
Hel-Blar
infestation, we’re losing our focus.” She was lecturing me as if we were in class. “I had to test you al , to see who was worthy to be a member of my Guild. I set blood traps for the
Hel-Blar
and they came like rats to cheese.”

“You got the
Hel-Blar
to attack the school?” She’d had me total y fooled. York hadn’t been the culprit. He was actual y the good guy—even though he was a jerk.

Dailey was the psycho. I’d had to stake Wil because of her. Spencer was sick because of her, at least indirectly. I was drugged and poisoned and crumpled on the ground because of her.

I real y, real y hated her.

I would have spat at her if I hadn’t been so thirsty and dehydrated, burning up with fever.

And I was apparently hal ucinating too.

“Get the hel away from her,” Quinn snarled, leaping to stand in front of me in a blur of pale skin, long dark hair, and sharp fangs. Dailey took a step back, startled.

“You’re too late,” she said. “I’ve already dosed her. It’s in her blood.”

“What’s in her blood?”

I squirmed, as if fire ants crawled under my skin. “Quinn,” I panted. “Cal Theo and get out of here. She’s nuts.”

Instead, he punched her. Her nose cracked and she howled. Quinn patted through my pockets.

“What are you doing?”

“I know you must have rope somewhere … got it.” He turned away for a brief instant, leaving trails of light and color like a smeared oil painting. He tied Dailey up and was kneeling at my side before I took another labored breath. His fangs extended farther, gleaming.

“You can’t bite a teacher,” I whispered through dry lips.

“I’m not going to,” he assured me. “I’m biting you.” Chapter 29

•

Hunter

He didn’t understand.

If he drank my blood, it would kil him.

I struggled fruitlessly as his mouth descended on my arm, closing around the puncture hole the needle had made.

“No,” I moaned. “No.”

His fangs bit deep and I cried out. The blood burning my veins rushed toward the sucking of his mouth. I tried to pul away but he anchored me down, holding me stil .

The grass was cool and prickly under me.

“Don’t,” I begged, tears stinging my eyes. “It’l kil you.” He lifted his head, eyes blazing.

“It’s kil ing
you,
” he said harshly, spitting out a mouthful of my blood. A welt formed at the side of his lip. It looked painful. He went back to the wound, drawing my poisoned blood out of my veins and into his mouth. He spat more into the grass.