Blood Fever: The watchers (12 page)

“Your name?” he demanded.

“Acari Kate.” Her eyes were fever bright. It made her look like a junkie whiffing a fix.

“All right, Acari Kate. You’ve climbed before?”

She nodded, pleased with herself. “A lot.”

“Have you ever done a free climb, climbs-a-lot-Kate?” There was a hint of derision in his voice, like he’d seen her type before.

Her lip curled. “That’s all I do. I’m from Colorado, and there we—”

“So you know to imagine your path before you begin,” he said, cutting her off. Acari Kate didn’t like it, but I did, guessing that it was for the benefit of those like me who’d never scaled a rock in their lives.

Shielding his eyes with his hand—the glare can’t have been easy on vampire eyes—he pointed up the face. “Search for the shadows along the rock. Those are the cracks and ruts that will be your handholds.”

“I know,” she said, and took off.

Carden’s smirk spoke more to his disgust than amusement. “This is not a race. If you try to compete with Mother Nature, you will lose.”

We watched her climb, and she
was
impressive, scrabbling up the cliff side. I made a mental note to beware if I ever found myself facing her in a combat ring—the girl had killer fingertips.

She paused at a difficult point, searching for a handhold.

“See how she finds her center,” Carden told us. “Her breath, her movements…She remains composed and even.”

Kate bent her knee to her chest, nestling her foot in a crack, then lunged, stretching high for the next handhold.

“Ah, there. Did you see how she used her legs?” His gaze lingered on me as he said, “You must let your legs do the work. They’re stronger than your arms.” I felt his hand over my heart again, even though he was several feet away. A phantom caress soothed me. Reassured me. “You must never think your arms
weak. You’ll only panic. Trust your legs—they have all the power you’ll need.”

I believed he’d catered his comment to me, the person who’d just recently managed her first series of successful pull-ups.

When he glanced back up, Acari Kate was near the top. He shouted, “That’s enough. You’ll be unable to make it all the way.”

But Kate upped her speed, calling down, “No, I can make it.”

“My role is not to scold you like wayward children.” He set his jaw in a grim line as he faced us. “The intention was to discuss climbing. I fear this has become a lesson about pride.”

I’d been mesmerized by the sight of Kate scaling the rock like a spider, but Carden’s tone demanded my full attention. What lesson would he teach Kate when she came back down? I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to have to see this side of him.

I hadn’t realized Priti stood behind us until she announced somberly, “Pride kills more surely than the fiercest competitor.”

Dread prickled my skin. So sure they were. But why?

Pebbles crumbled loose, skittering down the rock wall, and we all swung our heads, looking up the cliff. What did this girl think she was trying to prove?

“Almost there,” Kate shouted with satisfaction. More rocks trickled down. “Whoa.” She laughed, a rolling, self-satisfied cackle that sounded crazy. I wondered what was wrong with her. The wind carried her laughter over our heads to the sea.

Carden stalked from the cliff face, looking disgusted. We parted to let him through. His arm brushed mine as he passed, and breath whooshed into my body, my traitorous lungs sucking in air, trying like an animal to catch his scent.

“I can reach the top,” she shouted, sounding determined. Maybe she wasn’t nuts—maybe she just had something to prove.
Hell, maybe she just really liked climbing. She was mere inches from the top now.

“Vanity outlives the man,” Carden muttered behind me.

“Acari Kate,” Priti called. “You will return. Now.”

“A Scotsman said that,” Carden went on, sounding as coldly impassioned as any vampire. “Robert Louis Stevenson.”

“Okay, okay,” Kate shouted. “I’m coming back down.”

But she didn’t. I squinted into the glare. Watched as her leg pushed her up. She reached an arm over the ledge. Hoisted herself higher. She froze.

And then Acari Kate screamed. A terrified, shrieking scream, like she’d looked over the ledge only to be faced with a nightmare. A large chunk of rock broke free and bounced down, and we had to jump back not to get hit. Tiny rocks dislodged, crumbling down around us like hail. She screamed again, and this time it seemed she barely stopped for breath. It was one long, uninterrupted cry.

Everyone gasped when her foot slipped. But then her arm slipped, too, and she began to fall, the image surreal as both her arms spun in the air like a slow-motion windmill.

I clapped a hand over my mouth, aghast, as she tumbled down, bounced once against a jut in the cliff wall, and landed with a chuff in the sand.

Her body was still.

After her screams, our silence was deafening. There was only the breathing of the girls around me, heavy like we’d just run laps. Waves crashed behind us, a loud, rhythmic thrumming reminding us that we were minuscule and meaningless and that life went on without us.

Finally Carden broke the silence. “This is enough.” He
gazed out toward the sea, and what I saw in his expression was unexpected. Beneath the anger, I imagined I saw sadness, too. Had he really wanted to help us? Did he want us to succeed? To live?

Watcher Priti told him quietly, “Perhaps it is time for your demonstration.” Her tone was that of one adult giving another a hint.

And then she turned and stepped away. But as she did, I spied her sliding a small device from her belt. She keyed something in. Was she
texting
?

I darted my eyes away so she wouldn’t catch me staring. It was a shocker, that was for sure. Her device seemed too small for a phone, but who could guess? For all I knew, the vampires were more wired than Silicon Valley.

I heard her speak to Carden behind my back. She’d pitched her voice low, but the wind carried it to me. “They’re coming.”

It was a long, slow walk back to where we’d begun. What had Kate seen? What would Carden have done to her if she’d made it back down alive? Or had he known she wouldn’t? There was still more than an hour left in class. I wondered just what this demonstration of his would entail.

He walked us all the way down to the surf. Foamy water rushed up to us, then back again, leaving the sand glassy in its wake. I hated swimming, but for once I wanted to slip off my shoes and feel the frigid water roll over my feet. Maybe the cold would shock my body out of this numbness.

“Acari Kate’s foolishness teaches a valuable lesson.” Carden’s voice was hard. Whatever sentiment I thought I’d seen earlier was gone. He was pure Vampire once more. “Only when you master your emotions, will you master your surroundings. Today I will
prove this by climbing”—he pointed to the sea stack far offshore—“that.”

“Will
we
need to climb that?” Some panicked Acari had spoken without thinking. Had she learned nothing from watching Kate plunge to her death?

“No,” he told her. “Not today. But perhaps someday. Someday you’ll face your biggest fear.”

I chafed my arms. I had a feeling there were fears that would dwarf even that giant chimney rock.

Carden stepped into the water. It swirled around his calves, the deadly riptide sucking at his feet already. He looked blasé about the whole thing. “The average temperature of the North Sea in winter is six degrees Celsius. That’s forty-three degrees Fahrenheit.” He paused. “It is not yet winter.”

Easy for him to say—he was a vampire. Surely he didn’t feel a thing. An Acari I recognized from my dorm put words to my thoughts. “But we’re human. We’d freeze in that.”

He crossed his arms at his chest. “A normal human can survive this temperature for thirty to sixty minutes before reaching exhaustion or unconsciousness.
You are not normal humans.
A normal human could stay alive up to three hours in this water. You have been consuming vampire blood since your arrival.
You are not normal.
So stop thinking you are.”

He stepped deeper. “In a real situation, you won’t have a wet suit. You’ll be wearing clothing, and it will be heavy and cold. You must learn to manage the pain. The panic.” The water soaked his jeans, the denim dark and clinging to his thighs. It mesmerized me.

“Situations have a way of taking us by surprise. There will come a day when you’ll need to climb and you won’t have gear.
You won’t have a climbing kit or rope. You won’t be able to hook in or rappel back down. I’m here to show you that it’s possible. Because until you believe it, you won’t be able to do it.”

And then Carden simply turned and dove into an oncoming wave.

Priti chattered at us, droning on about the sea cliffs and stacks. About climbing kits. Free climbing. Bouldering. But I tuned her out, unable to do anything but watch his powerful strokes cutting through the water.

He disappeared under the surface, and concern nagged at me. I sent feelers out into the universe, trying to sense if he was safe. Somehow I knew he was. Somehow I knew I’d be able to tell if he were in danger.

“They call it the Needle,” Priti said. Water churned violently at its base, and Carden burst from the surface, riding the crest of a swell. It tossed him a few feet above the water, and he found his grip with ease. He began to climb at once. “McCloud is a local. It’s a particular favorite of his.”

I detected the hint of a smile on her face, and I wanted to smack her. I chafed my arms, trying to get a handle on these crazy thoughts. Was this jealousy? That she’d known something about him that I hadn’t? I was getting cold just standing there, and I hunched into myself, making myself watch instead of think.

The Needle dwarfed Carden, but his small figure clambered up until he reached a point where the rock forked into two. He swung like a monkey to the center and slipped between the cracks. The space was much larger than it seemed from afar, and he wedged himself in and began to hobble up, one foot braced on either side.

Near the top, he edged onto an outcropping. The glare off the
water had a way of distorting scale and distance, and I hadn’t seen it before. He stood, and I saw that, sure enough, a table of rock protruded from the side.

He walked to the edge. A collective breath sucked in, as loud as the ebbing tides. Then Carden dove off.

He swam back to shore. I’d expected to see giddiness on his face as he emerged, but he was grim. Sober. His white T-shirt clung to him, and I stared unabashedly. I didn’t care anymore—I couldn’t peel my eyes from him. He was magnificent.

Who was Carden McCloud, really?

Once more, the water churned and pulled at him as he returned to us, only now my heart felt as tossed as the seas.

I
stayed after, sitting on the cold, damp sand, contemplating the Needle, reeling from what I’d just seen. Would I have been strong enough to complete Kate’s climb? Would I have been brave enough to hold fast, seeing something so unsettling it’d made another girl lose her grip and fall to her death?

I’d thought I was alone with these thoughts, but then a heavy body plopped on the sand next to me, casting me in shadow. I knew at once who it was—his identity practically vibrated to me, echoing through my body with a pull stronger than the tides.

He’d said we needed to keep our distance, but Carden had sensed my distress before. Maybe he sensed my turmoil now, my need for answers.

I didn’t even look at him. I just said, “The girl who died climbing. Acari Kate. Why did she fall?”

“Pride goeth before a fall.”

“Please, Carden. I need to know—in English.” His nonanswer gave me the mental strength to angle my body to look at
him, and I wished I hadn’t. He’d wrapped his arms around his bent legs, and his shirt tugged against his body, outlining ropes of lean muscle. I looked down the beach, back to the scene of the accident. “She climbed to the top and saw something. It scared her enough to make her fall. What did she see?”

“Only Acari Kate knows what awaited her at the top.” At my impatient look, he chuckled, but he continued. “You’ve seen the mysteries this island hides. What monsters lie in wait. Not all are as brave as you in the face of danger.”

Had she seen a Draug? A vampire? How many creatures were hiding out there, lying in wait?

He added nonchalantly, “I believe Acari Kate must have bonded with someone.”

My eyes bugged open. “Seriously?”

He shrugged. “It would explain much.”

“With who?” I ran a mental catalog of all the vampires I’d seen on the island—the possibilities were endless.

“That, I do not know.”

I remembered her mania, her recklessness. “Was that why she was acting nuts? Is that going to happen to me?”

“You’re strong in mind and body. This island has made you forget, but it is time for you to remember: Your fate is not beyond your control.”

I flopped back on my hands, stretching my legs before me on the sand. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“You must credit yourself. This leg, for instance.” He smoothed his hand along my thigh. “You’ve worked hard to carve muscle where once there was none.”