Blood Moon (5 page)

I touched the pendant protectively. “Yes.” Nicholas gave it to me over the summer. I’d switched out the velvet ribbon for a more durable chain when it became obvious that velvet was too delicate for my present circumstances.

“I don’t think you’re allowed to wear vampire crests at school.” She was aghast.

I stared at her for a full ten seconds before answering, “
Om Namah Shivaya
.”

She blinked. “Huh?”

How to explain that my mother taught me Vedic mantras as a way to deal with stress and the imminent loss of my temper. Especially when punching someone in the nose was inappropriate. I speared her with my best Helena Drake glare instead. We were saved by a sharp knock on the door.

Hunter was on the other side, eyes wide. “Kieran’s in the infirmary.” Her blond ponytail swung anxiously.

“I know. I brought him there.”

Seeing Hunter, Sarita stood at attention as if this were a military school and Hunter a general. “Hi, Hunter.”

Hunter threw her a distracted smile then frowned at me. “I’d ask you why you didn’t come tell me, but you look like shit.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said drily. I grabbed my sweater. “Let’s go check on him.”

We hurried out of the dorm and into the cold late-autumn evening. My breath misted in the air. Winter was definitely on its way. The trees shivered, scattering the last of their leaves. Students hurried to the dining hall and down from the gym, bundled in thick sweaters.

“What happened?” Hunter asked. “And can I tell you how sick I am of this place?” she added as we neared the infirmary. The fluorescent lights made squares of white on the grass.

I didn’t know what Quinn had told her about Solange and her struggle. Or if Kieran had mentioned it. “It was a vampire,” I said. “I went to meet Solange last night and we found him like that.” Lie. Big fat lie.

Hunter paled.
“Hel-Blar?”

I shook my head. “No, he was lucid. It was just a vampire bite. He lost some blood. Theo didn’t look freaked out or anything.”

“Theo never looks freaked out.”

“Did he call you? What did he say?”

“Kieran’s mom called,” Hunter replied as we stepped into the bright, medicinal cleaner–scented room. “She won’t come to campus. She’s not … Well, she’s fragile.”

“She is?” Kieran never mentioned his family, beyond his dad, whom he’d once thought the Drakes had murdered. It had been Hope actually, the Helios-Ra agent who’d taken over the society along with Kieran’s uncle. She’d tried to kill Solange too.

Even dead, I did
not
like her.

Theo came around one of the curtains and eyed me critically. “Better. But you need more sleep. And protein.”

“How’s Kieran?” Hunter and I asked together.

“He’s got a few stitches, lost some blood. Probably have a scar. Could have been worse.”

“Can we see him?” Hunter asked. “And the answer to that question is ‘yes,’ Theo. He’s my best friend.”

Theo just snorted. “You need more sleep too, Hunter. You lost more blood than he did, and it wasn’t that long ago.”

“Yeah, yeah. Where is he?”

“He went home.”

“He did?” She sounded surprised. “His mom didn’t …”

“No, his friend Eric picked him up.”

“Kieran has friends?” It was a stupid question. Of course he had friends. I was just used to seeing him as Solange’s boyfriend, or before that, as the annoying agent from the annoying secret society. Which I was now a member of. When, exactly, had life become so ridiculously complicated?

Oh yeah, when I’d had to Taser my best friend.

“Lucy, are you coming?” Hunter was waiting for me by the door. “Theo’s right, you need dinner. Cafeteria’s that way.”

“Aren’t you eating?”

She shook her head. “I want to call Kieran, then I need to put in some time at the gym.”

“I hate you.”

“Why does everyone say that when I mention going to the gym?” she muttered as she walked away.

When I got to the cafeteria I felt lost in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time. I’d gone to the same school and had the same friends and driven down the same country road to see them nearly every day for years. I never really noticed that until now. But recent events had kicked me out of my safe cocoon. In the past few months alone I’d been captured by hostile vampires, been held in a dungeon, gotten stitches in the back of my head, and electrocuted my best friend. None of those things made me feel as awkward or helpless as this tidy cafeteria with its antique floors and stained glass windows and the pause in the hum of conversations as everyone stopped to watch me in the doorway.

I wasn’t used to being the one who hesitated uncertainly.

No way in hell I was going to be that girl now.

I forced myself to step forward, trying to smile with a breezy nonchalance I was nowhere near feeling. I struggled to ignore the itchy weight of so many eyeballs tracking my every move. The Helios-Ra student body wasn’t exactly large—there were only about thirty students per grade—but most of them were here right now, whispering about me between mouthfuls of meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Even though I was starving, I suddenly couldn’t stand the thought of bringing my plastic tray to an empty table and pretending I didn’t notice all the staring. Ordinarily, I would have just introduced myself to the first friendly looking group, but I didn’t have it in me yet. Tomorrow. After I talked to Solange and Nicholas and Kieran.

I grabbed a protein bar and a banana for later and decided to
text Solange again. I knew she must be fine, since no one had called to tell me otherwise. But I should probably apologize for the Taser thing. And let her apologize for trying to bite me.

“God, you’re still here?” someone sneered. It was a girl who’d given me attitude the first day I’d moved into the dorms, only she was with two guys this time. I could practically smell the testosterone and it wasn’t coming off them. I nearly groaned out loud. I so wasn’t in the mood for this. And I’d watched enough 1980s John Hughes movies to know this wasn’t going to go well.

“I can’t believe they’d let a vampire spy in here,” she said. There were a lot of stakes on her belt. “You know you don’t belong here, right? I mean, you’re not stupid enough to think this is normal? Especially with all of the agents coming in to protect the town from all of your friends.”

The other students fell silent around us, openly eavesdropping.

“You know what? I’m a little tired from beating people up all night to deal with your issues.” I wondered how much detention I’d get for starting a brawl in the cafeteria.

“We’ll be watching you,” one of the guys warned, looming.

“I’ve been loomed over by the best,” I informed him. “You need to practice.”

“Oh yeah?” He stepped up closer, purposefully bumping me back.

I had a lovely daydream of breaking his nose.

In fact, I was making a fist before I’d even realized it.

“Whoa.” Hunter’s friend Jenna was suddenly beside me. “Ben’s an ass but he’s not worth scrubbing toilets for a month.”

I paused. “Detention is toilet duty?”

“For hitting another student, yeah.”

I lowered my fist reluctantly. “Gross.”

“She’s a traitor, Jenna,” Ben insisted, looking vaguely surprised that she wasn’t automatically on his side.

“And you’re being a Neanderthal.” She narrowed her eyes warningly at him. The freckles on her nose didn’t make her look any less intimidating. She turned to me, ignoring them. “Want to go for a run?”

“Yes.”

And that was scarier than any bully.

I was sweaty and panting painfully at the end of the track when one of the teachers pointed at me.

“Lucky Hamilton?”

“Close enough,” I sighed. Clearly, I was going to have to reeducate everyone on campus. I hadn’t gone by Lucky since my first day of regular school.

“The headmistress wants to see you.”

I winced. “I didn’t do it.”

He quirked a smile. “Her office is on the ground floor, the brick building there.”

Jenna wiped her face with a towel. “Tough luck, Hamilton.”

“Shit,” I grumbled. “Classes haven’t even started yet.”

“She probably just wants to warn you that Hunter and I are bad influences.” She grinned.

I snorted. “Please, Hunter gets straight As.”

“And she’s dating a vampire.”

“Details.”

“Just watch your back. School’s tense right now,” Jenna added.

I thought about Ben and his cronies. “I’m getting that.”

“Even Hunter’s getting crap from Ben and Jody,” Jenna said, reading my expression. At least I finally knew the girl’s name. “And after that doctor changed Spencer to save him, everyone’s been extra jumpy. She was fired.”

“But Spencer would have died.”

Jenna shrugged one shoulder. “Better dead than undead.” She smiled apologetically. “Old Helios-Ra motto.”

I ground my teeth. “Racist. Or specie-ist, whatever.”

She held up a hand in defense. “Hey, I like Spencer, fangs or not.”

“I know. Sorry. It makes me cranky.”

“Makes Hunter cranky too. Should’ve heard the mouth on her. I had no idea she knew words like that.” She grabbed a bottle of water from her gym bag. “Anyway, just be polite and Bellwood shouldn’t come down on you too hard. She’s kinda mean but she’s fair.” She nodded toward the office. “Don’t keep her waiting though.”

I glanced at my watch and forced my rubbery legs into a jog. I had to make this fast if I wanted enough time to meet Nicholas before campus curfew. I’d break it if I had to, but I’d rather not. I was already on the school radar as it was.

Bellwood’s office was at the end of a row of empty classrooms. It was ruthlessly organized and neat, almost as ruthlessly organized
and neat as Bellwood herself. Sarita must just worship her. I waited in the doorway for her to acknowledge me. She didn’t glance from her computer screen. “Sit.”

I only barely resisted the urge to bark like a dog.

Instead I sat down, wondering which of my many infractions I was about to be busted over. She finally looked at me after a squirming moment of awkwardness. There were laugh lines at the corner of her mouth, implying she must at least know
how
to smile. You wouldn’t know it to look at her now. I reminded myself that I’d survived Lady Natasha and countless vampires, not to mention Solange’s mother. I could survive a high school principal.

“You did very well on your placement tests,” she began without preamble. “Which is why you were put in eleventh grade despite your admitted inexperience with the League. Your grasp of vampire customs is impressive, Lucky, but your knowledge of the Helios-Ra is considerably less impressive. You’ve been assigned a private tutor to help you catch up. You’ll have to work hard if you intend to graduate with the others.”

“Yes, Ms. Bellwood.” Should I have called her Headmistress Bellwood? It sounded like something out of a Victorian boarding school.

She looked at me finally, stern but not unkind. “I know this must be a big adjustment for you.”

“I guess so.” Understatement.

“It’s an adjustment for our students as well.” Had she already heard about my run-in with Jody and Ben? Impressive. “Which is part of the reason I agreed to this transfer when Hart requested it. He runs the League, Lucky, but he does not run this school.”

“Um, thanks?”

“If the events of the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that the world is clearly changing and we need to be strong enough to adapt if we want to endure. My sole purpose at this school is to train my students in the best way possible so they’ll survive. I don’t need to tell you a vampire hunter’s life can be abbreviated.”

I nodded.

“I understand you have special allowances because of your association with Hart, but that will only get you so far.”

I hadn’t even taken advantage of any special allowances yet. I wasn’t even sure what they were.

“I’m trying to say that taking out seasoned hunters who were technically doing their job by attacking a vampire nest is frowned upon,” she continued. “But since you also saved Hart’s nephew by bringing him to the infirmary last night, you’ve already managed to balance out your transgressions. Which is fairly impressive in itself. However,” she added sharply, “I would greatly prefer for your name not to come up with such frequency.”

Me too. It was hardly stealthy.

“We’ll be watching you.”

“’Cause that’s not ominous,” I muttered. “Yes, ma’am,” I added out loud.

I didn’t bother telling her she wasn’t the first person to say that to me today.

Chapter 5
Solange