Blood Prophecy (16 page)

“I never even knew this existed,” I said, staring at the intricate knotwork of bridges.

“It was built for the Blood Moon,” Nicholas said as we started across the first bridge. “As an escape route in case of Hunters or civil war or whatever. And I think the Chandramaa have the same setup, only closer to camp.”

It was sturdier than it looked and the rope handles made me feel more secure. “This is seriously cool,” I said, risking a downward glance. Bats dipped and whirled beneath us. “Terrifying, but cool.”

Nicholas slipped behind me to guard my back as we hurried between the treetops. “There’s this thing called gravity,” I reminded him as the rope bridge swung wildly and I tried not to throw up.

“There’s also this thing where I’d rather my baby sister’s minions didn’t eat my girlfriend.” He gave me a little push.

I ran faster, blood welling on my chafed hands. The air rushed
past my face, and pine needles dragged through my hair and scratched my cheeks. It was like being beaten up by Christmas. It was too dark and too high for me to see any vampires down below, but Nicholas was running as if they were right there with us.

“Shit,” he said, just before Solange’s voice drifted up to us, sharp and arrogant.

“Nicholas, why are we playing hide-and-seek?”

He shot me a warning glance as we stumbled to a stop. “Because I’m not in the mood to share,” he called back, sounding bored. I tried to peek through the branches at her.

“Families share,” she returned as vampires moved below us, like beetles scurrying in the undergrowth. They weren’t trying to be quiet or stealthy, and there were enough of them that even I could make them out from this distance.

“I’m beginning to wonder about you, big brother.” Her tone changed, seemed to throb with power. Nicholas flinched. “So come down here and bring
her.”

“Lucy?” he murmured.

“Yeah?”

“We’re going to need to run.”

Easier said than done.

“Maybe I could talk to her?” I asked dubiously. Nicholas just shook his head. I knew he was right but it still felt wrong to run away from Solange.

“Can you exorcise her?” Nicholas asked. There was sweat on his brow and his jaw was clenched. He was holding himself as if he were in the center of a storm.

“Well, no.”

“Then wait until you can.”

“Well, if you’re going to be all logical about it,” I muttered. I reached for his hand, squeezing tightly, while he struggled against the insidious compulsion.

“Lucy,” Nicholas said hoarsely. “Get out of here.” Even as he said the words, he tightened his grip on me and moved toward the nearest ladder.

I yanked on the back of his shirt. “Hey!”

“She’s stronger than me,” he said through his teeth. The veins on his neck looked stark, blue as ink.

“But she’s not stronger than
us
,” I insisted.

“Go,” Solange snapped at her guards. “Fetch them.”

I shoved my arm under Nicholas’s nose. “Drink.”

“No,” he said, going very still. “Lucy, get out of here.”

“Nicholas, you and I both know that’s not an option right now, especially since you’re currently cutting off the circulation in my arm.” I touched his hair, pushing a lock off his forehead. “And we don’t have time for angst. So drink.”

He finally lifted my arm, his touch cold and gentle. He didn’t look away as he sank his fangs into me, breaking the delicate skin of my wrist. The pain was swift and sharp, like pricking myself with a needle. I couldn’t help but think of Sleeping Beauty as a soft lethargy whispered through me. The need to close my eyes, to rest, to drape myself around him without resistance was seductive, tempting. Wrong.

“Nicholas, stop.”

I tugged on my wrist. His fingers tightened in response. His throat muscles moved as he swallowed. His eyes glittered, his inner beast prowling dangerously near the surface. I really didn’t want to stab my boyfriend. He hadn’t drunk enough to do me any harm, but if he took any more, I’d be too light-headed to fight.

“Nicky,”
I snapped.

Right before I punched him in the nose.

He jerked back, with a silent snarl. His tousled hair fell back over his eye, obscuring the mist-gray glint of his irises. I arched my eyebrow at him, knuckles feeling bruised. He slowly wiped my blood off his lower lip, looking miserable but like himself again. I poked him hard in the chest before he could get all broody about it. “Don’t,” I whispered. “Did it work?” I mouthed. He paused, then nodded. We shared a quick, grim smile.

“I’m coming,” Nicholas called down, disgruntled. “Call off your dogs.” It would buy us a few minutes. The vampires paused, scattered through the trees, one of them halfway up a rope dangling from the pine behind us. I didn’t think he’d spotted us yet. The wind made the branches creak ominously. It was enough to cover our sounds now but once I started running, they’d hear my footsteps.

“I’ll draw them off,” Nicholas whispered in my ear. It was almost a kiss. “You run like hell.”

I nodded, reaching back to activate the GPS tag so Hunter and the others could find me. He sent me one last complicated glance before he hurried across the bridges leading away from me. I ran as fast as I could, the bridges swaying and creaking under me. I glanced back just long enough to see him land in a crouch, his hair falling into
his gray eyes. The combination of the movement and the height made me feel queasy and light-headed, but I pushed through until I found one of the ladders. I shimmied down the length of it, the chafing on my palms leaving streaks of blood on the rope. I kept running, dodging branches and jumping over fallen trees.

I had no idea where I was or how to get back to the school van. At first that didn’t matter but now that I was hopefully far enough away from Solange, I couldn’t keep running blindly. Moonlight gave a blue glow to the snow that had managed to fall between the pines. It was enough to keep me from running into trees but not enough to get my bearings. People died in the Violet Hill mountains. Experienced hikers and climbers got lost and wandered for days until they succumbed to exposure. The cold air slapped at my burning lungs. I slowed to a limping jog.

I pulled the GPS tag off the hem of my shirt, squinting at the stamp-sized screen. Chloe had MacGyvered it especially for me, so that she could find me, but I could find her as well. I followed the blinking red dot, trying not to run into any trees. Branches scraped at me. Snow dislodged and fell all over me, soaking into my clothes.

And then I didn’t need the GPS anymore, I just had to follow the sounds of fighting.

I reached the edge of the woods to find the van running, high beams on. Jenna was sliding out of the driver’s seat, a crossbow in her hand. Chloe climbed over the seats to take over the steering wheel. Hunter was clinging to the roof, using the second crossbow. There were at least five
Hel-Blar
that I could see, snarling as they surrounded the van.

Hunter’s bolt slammed into the one standing between me and the van and he erupted into a cloud of putrid-smelling ash. I leaped over the stained and tattered remains of his clothing. “I’m weaponless,” I shouted at Hunter. “And I have better aim.”

She slid off the roof without a word and I vaulted up to take her place. Jenna took out another
Hel-Blar
just as Hunter lured the nearest one away from Chloe’s door. “Get in the damn van!” Chloe yelled. “Lucy’s back. Let’s get out of here!”

“We can’t just leave them here,” Hunter argued, dancing out of the reach of a blood-encrusted arm. The
Hel-Blar
attached to it clacked his jaws. Hunter staked him, using a roundhouse kick to shove the stake deep enough into his chest. “There are farmhouses nearby.”

“Oh my God,” Chloe shot back. “You’re going to be the reason I’m going to get killed before I can convince one of the Drake brothers to date me.”

One of the
Hel-Blar
landed on the hood, fangs flashing. The smell of slimy mushrooms made me gag. Chloe jerked back reflexively and then scrambled to slam her door shut. She honked the horn.

“Oh, like that’s going to help,” Jenna muttered, leaping onto the roof behind me.

I shot a crossbow bolt at him, catching him in the eye. Blood and stench splattered the windshield. Chloe shrieked. “Sorry! Sorry!” I yelled as she turned on the wipers. The next arrow caught him in the chest and went straight through his heart. Blood and ashes clumped in streaks, flung back and forth by the wipers. Jenna straightened behind me, shooting arrows at the
Hel-Blar
shambling behind us. He fell apart still gnashing his fangs.

Hunter was fighting the last one, a female who was shrieking and snarling. The sound was so high-pitched and awful it made my teeth hurt. I aimed my crossbow at her but Hunter shifted in the way. She threw one of her stakes. It went under her collarbone at a weird angle and stuck there. When she growled down at it, Hunter triggered the stake strapped to her forearm. It shot forward and she staggered, turning to dust.

Jenna and I slid into the van as Hunter raced toward us, her blond ponytail swinging cheerfully. She was barely inside when Chloe slammed the van into reverse. She slid through the icy mud, the van lilting dangerously as it careened toward the dirt road. The smell of burning rubber and exhaust replaced the reek of green water.

“What is that thing?” I glanced enviously at the stake-holder on Hunter’s arm as I caught my breath. “Because I totally want one for my birthday.”

Chapter 15

Solange

I let go.

I didn’t know how else to save Lucy. I couldn’t afford to call Constantine’s bluff. There was no reason to think he wouldn’t drink her dry, as he’d threatened.

I ended up on the stone stairs again. At least I wasn’t wearing a silk slip anymore. The tapestry pouch of boxes full of Viola’s memories was still slung over my shoulder. I felt disoriented and numb. Tears made my vision waver. I had to find someplace safe to hide before I fell apart completely.

I stumbled down the steps and out onto the first landing I came across. Torchlight flickered down the hall. I slipped into a room with an unlocked door. It looked relatively innocuous, full of heavy and elaborately carved medieval furniture. There was a huge cabinet
on the far wall. It was big enough for me to curl up on the bottom of it and still shut the door completely. A selection of woolen dresses hung on one side, smelling strongly of cedar and smoke. Light filtered through the keyhole. I tried to take deep breaths but I couldn’t stop the loud animal sobs from tearing through me.

London was dead.

She wasn’t undead like the rest of us. She was well and truly gone. There wasn’t even enough of her left to bury.

I cried until I felt empty and sick. The wooden slats of the cupboard were rough under my cheek and I’d lost feeling in my legs, except for the stabbing pain in my left knee. It was tempting to give up and stay here forever, hidden in an armoire where no one was currently trying to kill me or, worse, save me. I could fade away, becoming just another shadow in Viola’s subconscious. Gwyneth had done it for hundreds of years.

Actually, that wasn’t a comforting thought.

Gwyneth was half-crazy and alone. I could easily picture myself pale and thin, flitting between the stables and the castle, crawling over the moat filled with bloated corpses. I’d hide in the forest and eat leaves and bugs, cover myself in mud when it got cold. I’d forget this place wasn’t real. I’d forget my own name, Lucy’s, Kieran’s. Everyone. Everything.

I didn’t want that. A spark kindled in the cold pit of my stomach.

Apparently, I had some fight left in me, after all.

I’d miss my family. I’d miss the way Nicholas seemed to know what I was thinking before I thought it. The way Quinn smirked,
the way Logan teased me. My mom, my dad. Eventually, I’d even miss Aunt Ruby.

I already missed Lucy. I missed how cheerful and brave she was, and her irreverence for the things that would make other people quake with fear.

And I missed Kieran. I’d been missing him before Viola possessed me completely. She’d broken us up in the end. And she’d done it so she could be with Constantine. The rat bastard. He’d fooled me right from the start. He’d made me believe I was special, that he understood me the way no one else had. I’d let him kiss me. I’d even let him drink my blood, that night in the Bower when I’d cut my hand on the wine bottle. I’d let him convince me that the only way to find Nicholas was to take the crown and control the guards.

He’d done it all for Viola.

The same way she’d stolen my very body from me, to be with him again.

They had each other now, but at what cost? I wouldn’t sacrifice the world to be with Kieran. And neither would he. That was one of the things I loved most about him. He had honor and courage. He held my hand like I was just a regular girl.

London had died to keep me safe. If I stayed here and fell to pieces she’d have died in vain. I’d be selfish and weak, letting everyone suffer because I hurt inside. I’d be as bad as Viola. I don’t care what happened to her in the past. She still had no right to ruin so many lives.