Afterlife (13 page)

My strength remained shaky, but I had to do whatever I
could.

Already the hunters were regathering. Although a few of them
had doubled over in pain from my blow, they were straightening up, readying
themselves for another assault. My first thought was to possess Kate again and
order them to stop. Could I do that? If desperation was the key, as I’d
suspected before, then yes, I could do it. But as I rushed toward her, I felt
something pushing me back, until I came to a halt.

What the
— ?
Then I saw, shining on
her fingers, half a dozen copper rings. Copper, like any other mineral found in
the human body, repelled wraiths. Black Cross only knew a little about wraiths,
so far as I’d been able to find out, but apparently Kate had discovered enough
to pmtect herself from possession. I could strike at her, but I could never
again take over her body.

I’d just have to take them out one by one, then.

I plunged toward the hunter closest to me. To punch him with
that fist of ice, I would have to take form, and I knew that was probably a bad
idea; not only would it give me away to tons more Evernight students, but it
also would give Black Cross somewhere to aim. They’d probably looked up ways to
harm or demolish wraiths since our last encounter.

Instead, I whirled around him, a breeze becoming a gale,
willing myself to be colder and colder. As my speed increased, I could see
icicles beginning to form at the ends of his hair and beard. His skin went
bluish, and he cried out in pain.

Enough. I let him go, hearing him fall in an apparent
stupor, and rushed toward another hunter. Dimly I could sense the rest of the
fight around me: Patrice had taken on Kate, matching her blow for blow with a
ferocity I’d never realized she possessed. Lucas was in the thick of things,
too; he roared with rage as he tackled Milos to the ground. My emotions were
torn between being glad Lucas was okay, and terrified that this would be it
the time he would take a human life, the sin for which he could never forgive
himself.

But right now, the best thing I could do to help Lucas was
keep fighting. I forced myself to become a whirlwind yet again, whipping colder
and colder. Within moments of my wrapping myself around the next hunter, she,
too, fell prey to frostbite, or hypothermia, or whatever it was I was doing to
them. So I went after another, but as I began, I heard Lucas shout out in pain.

I couldn’t focus. In terror, I looked behind me to see Lucas
— fangs extended, face monstrous — on the ground as Milos raised a stake. Blood
flowed freely from a cut on Lucas’s forehead. They were too far away; I couldn’t
get to them in time — Then Raquel appeared, running from a nearby side street,
and slammed something into the side of Milos’s head. Milos fell to his knees,
stunned. As I watched in disbelief, Raquel cried out, “Lucas, get out of here!
Now!”

“What the hell are you doing?” Kate shouted. But Dana had arrived,
too, holding a crossbow aimed directly at Kate.

“This ends,” Dana said. She was shaking so hard that her
voice trembled. “This ends now.”

From the distance, I heard sirens begin to wail; somebody in
Riverton had called the police.

Lucas stumbled to his feet, obviously somewhat dazed from
the blow to his head — and deep in the urge to fight, and to kill. I went
swiftly to his side, unable to be anything more than a cool breeze against his
cheek, but maybe that would at least remind him of who he was.

Behind me, I heard Kate’s voice trembling with rage. “You
two will regret this.”

“I’ve got plenty of regrets,” Raquel said. She hadn’t budged
from her place between the hunters and Lucas. “What’s one more
?
”

“Damn you.” Quick as a blink, Kate dodged left and
shouldered her crossbow. Dana slammed into her side, sending the arrow flying
askew thank God, it Wouldn’t hit Raquel or Lucas — but then I realized it was
headed straight toward one of the Evernight students gaping at the fight, a
human girl who would never be able to dodge in time.

Although the next moment lasted no more than a fraction of a
second, it seemed to unfold before me in slow motion. The arrow, slicing
lethally through the air. Lucas, leaping with his vampire strength and speed,
directly at the girl in danger. Their bodies colliding, her shining dark hair
trailing behind her, both of them falling to the ground — just a couple of
inches short of the arrow, which thwacked into the side of the building,
burying itself inches deep in the wood.

The sirens came closer, and the crowds were growing — dozens
of witnesses, now, something Black Cross hated. Kate must have given some
signal, because I heard the hunters take off, running or stumbling as best they
could.

Dana called, “Lucas
!
”

From where he was sprawled on the sidewalk with the rescued
girl, he looked up at her. His whole body shook, and he didn’t smile. I knew
that, while Lucas might have overcome his blood hunger to protect another, he
was still too close to snapping.

“Don’t approach him right now,” Patrice said. She’d seen the
signs that Lucas was close to breaking. “Both of you have weapons. The police
will think you were part of the group attacking us.”

“We resigned last night, when Kate said we were gonna go
after Lucas,” Dana said. “Not that we exactly mentioned it to her or anything.”

Raquel said, “What was that — ice cyclone thing?”

“That was me,” I answered, still invisible. Everyone jumped.
“Dana, Raquel, you guys have to listen to Patrice. You’ll get arrested if you
stick around.”

“And no Black Cross to post bail this time.” Dana sighed.
“Raquel, baby, time to run.”

Dana took off, but Raquel hesitated a moment, searching the
air in vain for a glimpse of me. “
Bianca …”

“I get it,” I said. “I understand.” Which wasn’t totally
true — I didn’t know what, exactly, had brought Raquel around from the fear
that had led her to betray me. But I knew that something had, and that she and
Dana had risked their lives and left Black Cross in order to protect Lucas. As
far as I was concerned, that mattered more than anything else.

Raquel ran after Dana, disappearing around a corner just as
the pollee car pulled up. I realized that Patrice had stepped away from me and
turned to see that she had put herself smoothly between Lucas and the human
girl he’d saved — Skye Tierney, I recognized her now — so that Lucas couldn’t look
at her. Her quick thinking might have saved him from snapping. Or, more
accurately, saved Skye’s life.

As the cops got out of the car, Patrice whispered, quietly
enough so that only Lucas and I could hear, “Leave the explanations to me.”

 Within a couple minutes of the police officers’
arrival, I understood why Patrice had wanted to take charge of this. A century
and a halfs experience of providing supposedly rational explanations for
supernatural events was paying off. With expertise, Patrice played the part of
a terrified young girl, sure she had seen gang members from the city, and they’d
said something about an initiation, and it was just like those emails you got
sometimes where you heard that gang members were going to kill some innocent
person at random, wasn’t it?

The cops might not have believed that, but they believed
that her fear was genuine and, more importantly, that neither she nor any of
her friends had anything to do with starting the fight. The other witnesses’
testimony, including Skye’s, would back that up. By the time they got to Lucas,
the only questions they asked were about his head and whether he needed to see
a doctor.
                          
90 He
was able to answer their questions calmly enough. Although I knew he was
struggling, Lucas had won out over the blood hunger awakened by the fight, at
least for now.

Once the police left, I was eager to talk to him, to see how
he was — but so was someone else. Skye stepped to his side, glowing with
excitement and relief. “I just had to tell you, that was amazing, “she said.
“You saved my life. For real. I can’t thank you enough.”

“just glad you’re okay,” Lucas said, and despite the turmoil
I knew he had to be in, he smiled a little for her. That made Skye beam at him,
and I realized with a start just how pretty she was: sleek dark hair, pale blue
eyes with thick lashes, perfect skin, thin but not emaciated looking — All at
once, I wasn’t entirely thrilled about the fact that Lucas had saved her. Not
that I wanted Skye dead, but she was a gorgeous girl who was probably about to
have a huge crush on my guy. And that was not good.

“Do you really think they were gang members?” She looked
doubtful. “They looked kind of old for that.”

“Guess you never get too old to be stupid.” Lucas couldn’t quite
meet her eyes.

Skye put one hand on Lucas’s forearm. I was this close to
hating her when she said, “I’m kind of shaken
up… .
I want to go call my boyfriend back home — but before I take off, thanks again.
Seriously.”

just
like that, I suddenly liked
Skye a whole lot more. When Lucas waved good — bye to her, I murmured in his
ear, “It’s okay. We got through it. You didn’t break. Lucas, see how strong you
are
?
”

“I need to be alone.” Lucas stalked away from me, and I
wanted to follow but didn’t. His mother had just tried once again to kill him;
no wonder he couldn’t take any pleasure in his small victory over himself.

As I sadly watched him go, I caught sight of someone else — Patrice,
who now sat alone on a small bench. She appeared to be studying the hem of her
floral — patterned skirt for any rips or tears. Typically, she’d gotten through
that entire fight, giving as good as she got, without messing up her hair.

l
went to her side and said,
“Thanks for all of that.”

“Bianca.” Patrice lifted her head, with that faraway look
people got when they talked to me while I was invisible. ;’You’re a wraith
now?”

“Yeah.”

She settled herself onto the bench, clearly getting
comfortable. “Tell me the whole story. Start back when you and Lucas broke up,
which I now assume was not exactly the truth.”

Patrice had never been someone I confided in much, but after
the way she ‘d come through for us, I knew that I could trust her. So I told
her the whole story, as concisely as I could, from the beginnings of my
clandestine relationship with Lucas to our deaths to the current situation at
Evernight Academy. She listened  not as sympathetically as some people
might have, talking about how terrible it was and how bad they felt for us — but
she didn’tjudge. After all the guilt and recrimination going around, that alone
was a relief.

Once I’d finished, I realized I had a few questions of my
own. “Why did you trap me
?
How did you trap me
?
”

““d felt something following me around. Or following Lucas
around, I see now, but I knew I sensed it. Something ghostly. I Wasn’t
positive, but I decided to take action ifl felt it again. You’re chilly
sometimes, you know iliat?”

“How come you aren’t scared of me
?
Most vampires are.”

Patrice’s full lips quirked into a smile. “Most vampires are
pretty stupid about wraiths — I heard about the panic last year. What a lot of
silliness. But in New Orleans, where I started out? Back then, there was a
woman named Marie Leveau who knew everyiliing about vampires, ghosts, spirits,
you name it. I went to her when I was newly turned.” She gazed into the
distance as though she were trying to look into the past. “There was a man who’d
died
.. .
someone
I wanted to
see again…
well
. Bringing someone back against his
will turns out to be a bad idea.”

“I can imagine.” Adjusting to being a wraith had been hard
enough for me. For someone who had been peacefully dead, it was probably a lot
worse. “Did you trap him in a mirror?”

“And in the end, I broke the mirror to let him go.” From her
purse she pulled out the compact she’d used to trap me. The frost had melted,
and when she opened it, I saw the reflecting pane remained intact. “Since then,
I’ve figured out how to release ghosts without breaking any mirrors. It’s such
a pain, replacing them.”

That was Patrice for you — worrying about her cosmetics case
while she was messing with the line between the living and the dead. “Where do
ghosts go when you use the mirror to trap them?”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” she said. “Into the
mirror, as far as I know.”

To me it felt more like no place, some area between
existence and nonexistence, but mysteries like this were beginning to feel
almost routine now that I’d become a wraith. Besides, earthly concerns felt
more pressing at the moment.

I began, “You know, Lucas could use a few more friends at
Evernight Academy. And it would be nice to have somebody else to talk to.”

Particularly, I thought, another girl. Lucas, Balthazar,
Ranulf, and Vic were each terrific in their own ways, but hanging out with only
them did get a little sweat socky after a while.

“I don’t tend to make friends with Black Cross hunters,
unlike some people,” she sniffed. But I could see her regal features softening
slightly.

“Though I guess Lucas isn’t with them anymore. So backing
him up is basically the same as giving Black Cross the finger.” Not much of an
avowal of eternal friendship, but I would take it.

“And I guess I did miss you,” Patrice added. ““d been
thinking about you earlier tonight, actually.”

“Really?” That made me feel nice, being missed.

“You always did have wonderful taste in vintage jewelry, and
I wanted to hit the shop here to find something to wear with this outfit. Worth
a ride over the river, don’t you think?”