The Longest Night: A Drake Chronicles Novella (2 page)

“Wasn’t
Hel-Blar
,” he said. “But I can smell them.”

“Yeah, hard to miss.”

“Hurry,” Hunter said sharply.

Lucy swung harder until the metal finally gave in and budged. After that it was a
matter of opening the carabiner fully so Noah could wriggle free of the tangled cords.
He dropped to the ground, landing hard. Lucy followed, coming up out of her crouch
just as a
Hel-Blar
lunged from the cedars.

Hunter blinded him with her flashlight and then staked him through the heart, quick
and clinical. He crumbled to ashes. The rotting-mushroom stagnant pond stench intensified.

“Two more,” Hunter warned them.

Lucy stood in front of Noah, who was using the birch tree to prop himself up. He might
have said something about being saved by girls, but he wasn’t that brave. Also, he
was bleeding all over himself.

The
Hel-Blar
crashed through the undergrowth, clacking their jaws. “I thought we got rid of most
of these guys,” Lucy muttered, lifting her crossbow.

“There are a few nests in the mountains that we just can’t get at,” Hunter replied,
throwing a stake. It bit through his chest but didn’t quite pierce the heart. Her
follow-up roundhouse kick took care of that. Lucy released her crossbow bolt. It would
have hit true if Noah hadn’t slumped over, knocking her elbow. The bolt went wide.
The
Hel-Blar
sprang at her, vicious fangs gnashing together in anticipation. He grabbed her hair
as she stumbled, Noah collapsing in a moaning, apologetic heap behind her. Lucy knew
she couldn’t fight the strength of the
Hel-Blar
’s mottled fingers so she swung out and twisted so that she suddenly was standing
next to him, instead of being pulled toward his fetid mouth. She jerked her arm back,
the holster under her sleeve releasing a stake with deadly and forceful accuracy.

The
Hel-Blar
disintegrated into the snow. Lucy blew her bangs out of her eyes. “Just once, I’d
like a normal night.”

Hunter just wiped the ashes off her stake. Lucy crouched down next to Noah, who was
trying to claw his way up the tree trunk and back into a standing position. “Holy
water,” she said grimly as his flesh blistered around his wounds. “It’ll hurt like
hell but you’ll heal,” she assured him. “Who did this?”

“I don’t know,” he said, fury burning red veins into his pale pupils. “Some goddamn
hunter.”

Lucy nodded to Hunter mildly. “Well,
that
goddamn hunter just saved your undead life.” She hauled him up. “And she’s giving
you a ride home because I’m not carrying you, so shut it.”

Hunter was too busy examining the remains of the elaborate vampire trap with narrowed
eyes to worry about a vampiric temper tantrum. “This isn’t a Helios-Ra trap.” She
circled the tree carefully. She paused, noticing a rough symbol cut into the tree.
It was no more than three lines meant to represent a stake. “It’s that new underground
anti-vampire group,” she said. “Whitethorn.”

Lucy exhaled. “Well, crap.”

* * *

Her sister would have told her to go for the heart.

Knowing how difficult it was to successfully push a stake through a vampire’s heart,
especially when that vampire was conscious, Aggie chose a different approach.

Plus, a staking would get her expelled. And she was already on probation. Again.

She pressed against a tree, trying to ignore her numb toes. At least December in New
York had coffee on every corner and diner windows fogged with steam. There might be
coffee in Violet Hill but it
was probably made with chicory root and anyway, she was miles away from town with
nothing but snow, trees, and more snow. All this fresh air was unnatural.

Almost as unnatural as sharing space with a vampire.

She knew he was coming. She could feel it. Her heart sped up even as she told it not
to. It always did that. Callahan was on his way back home; it was Sunday night after
all, and Sunday nights were family night. Well, they called it family night but Aggie
knew a mandatory curfew when she was on the receiving end of one.

She kept her breaths shallow so they wouldn’t mist in the frigid air and give away
her position. Yen had once hidden in a garbage dumpster to cover her scent so she
could stake a vampire feeding off the homeless guys living in Central Park. A little
frostbite was nothing. She had two stakes, Hypnos powder in her cuff, and a steel
needle-stake in a holster under her sleeve. She was ready. She’d get him this time.

“Not
again.
”

Aggie whirled, stake stabbing the air. She narrowly avoided her best friend’s heart
and pulled a muscle in her arm for her trouble. “Shit, Paige,” she snapped. “I could
have killed you.”

Paige didn’t look particularly concerned. She crunched through the last of her bit
of her candy cane. Her fire-engine red hair was in two braids, woven through with
silver tinsel. No one did Christmas spirit quite like Paige. “Who are we not-killing
tonight?” She slid Aggie a glance, then rolled her eyes. “Never mind. As if I have
to ask. Your nose is going to run if you stay out here much longer.”

Aggie shoved Paige down into one of the bushes and reclaimed her position behind the
tree. “Snow down my neck!” Paige gasped. “Snow down my neck!”

“Serves you right. Keep an eye on that part of the forest, would you?”

Paige sighed. “Don’t you ever get bored of this?”

“It’s what we do. We’re hunters. And anyway, Agent Wild said we have to be prepared
to fight in any weather.”

“Yeah, she’s also dating one of the Drake brothers. I’d much rather be doing
that
.”

“Whatever, so she’s not perfect.” The Drake brothers were unfairly hot. There was
no sense in denying the obvious. “She has more vampire kills than anyone else at the
academy. She’d have taken Callahan out by now.”

“You know, this obsession of yours is bordering on a bad teen movie crush.”

“Shut
up
,” Aggie said, kicking snow at her.

“I’m just saying—”

“No, I mean,
shut up
. He’s coming.”

“Oh, God, here we go again.” Paige yawned and looked through her pockets for another
candy cane. The last time she’d tried to interfere she’d nearly lost an eye. Vampire
fangs were
pointy.
And Aggie bit. “Don’t go Mary Walker on me.”

Mary had lived at the farmhouse before Aggie moved in. Actually, she was the reason
there was an extra bed for Aggie. She’d been working through her issues, or whatever
it was the counselors called not killing vampires every night, when she snapped. She’d
managed to sneak holy water into the blood supply, and then guilt made her drive her
car into the lake. That part Aggie never could understand.

And she didn’t have time to think about it now.

Callahan emerged from the treeline, silent and graceful as any woodland creature.
He passed for human easily enough when he was in town, but stalking through the snow
with his eyes gleaming wolf-blue, he was definitely otherworldly. He was tall, black
haired and angular, with cheekbones that could cut through ice. The holy water scar
across his tip of his left eyebrow did nothing to detract from his beauty.

Aggie bent her knees slightly, getting ready to leap. She’d have preferred to be hiding
up in the tree, but it was coated with ice and too slippery to climb. She’d make do.
Yen always had. They’d barely
had enough to eat, never mind fancy weapons like the ones at school. Even at ten,
Aggie knew how to whittle branches into points and create makeshift stakes from rusty
fence railings.

His boots didn’t crunch in the snow. She could envy him that talent and still hate
him.

She forced herself to wait, to be patient. Hunter always said to choose your moment,
not to let it choose you. If she waited too long he’d be too close to the house. There
were practical precautions like blood stocked in all the vampire rooms, deadbolts,
UV lights, and nose plugs scattered everywhere; but there were also magical charms.
Aggie got herself caught in a spell on her first night at the farm. She was so determined
to prove that magic didn’t exist and vampires needed to be dusted, she’d ended up
swinging from a tree in a net, covered in some kind of magical blue slime that made
her smile goofily at everyone, including Cal. That he’d been the one to find her still
made her grit her teeth.

She lunged for him, stake in hand.

He dropped low at the last second, and Aggie flew over his head, too far into the
leap to correct herself. Momentum carried her forward, despite her flailing arms.
She had just enough time to hook her ankle around the back of his head. He stumbled
and they both plowed into the snow, leaving deep grooves.

Cal twisted so that he took the brunt of the fall. His arms closed around her shoulders,
pinning her on top of him. She snarled. His fangs elongated in a responding hiss.
She kneed him in the groin. He grunted in pain but didn’t let go. He did go faintly
cross-eyed, which she’d gloat about later.

Much later, since right now all she could think about was the shape of his lower lip
and his chest pressed against hers. If she leaned down slightly they’d be kissing.
She should lean down slightly.

“Pheromones!” Aggie shouted wildly, suddenly realizing why she was thinking about
kissing him. Her carefully planned attack veered ever so slightly into panic. She
struggled like a cat being dropped into a cage of dogs. “Asshat!”

“It’s instinct!” he shouted back, still not releasing her. “Move your damned knee
and I’ll let you go.”

“Paige, he’s hot!”

“I know that,” Paige replied from the bushes. “But I don’t play for that team.”

“Pheromones!” Aggie yelled. “Pheromones!”

“Watch your knee!” he bellowed.

An arc of freezing water stabbed between them. They yelped, jerking apart. Aggie was
soaked through, her teeth chattering before she’d even had time to wipe her eyes clear.
Cal rolled to his feet, shaking his head until his hair stood up in dark spikes. The
line of his jaw was distracting. He was still too close. Aggie crab-walked backward
frantically before standing. Paige snorted a laugh.

Lucy stood nearby, a garden hose in her hand. She wore striped hand-knit mittens and
a hat with a pom-pom. “Are you two quite done?”

Cal spat out a mouthful of water. Aggie crossed her arms over her chest, her lips
turning blue. There was already a bruise on her elbow where she must have landed on
it. There was a rip in Cal’s shirt which vindicated her slightly.

“If you’re flirting, you’re doing it all wrong,” Lucy said mildly.

“This from the girl who broke my nose,” Nicholas interrupted, amused. He came out
of the shadows, gray eyes gleaming. “A lot.”

“That wasn’t
flirting
,” she insisted. “Mostly.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “Shush, I’m about to
go all Yoda and shit.”

“We weren’t flirting,” Aggie replied tightly, horrified. “I was trying to stake him.”
If Cal thought for one second that she had a crush on him, she’d stake
herself
. Just because Lucy and Nicholas—a human and a vampire—were disgustingly cute together
didn’t mean it was normal.

“I don’t know why I bother patrolling. No one out there wants to kill you as much
as you want to kill each other,” Nicholas said. “Why, this time, Aggie?”

“He’s a
vampire
.” Her explanation might have had more impact if she hadn’t said it to another vampire.

“You know the house rules.” Lucy tossed the hose aside. Paige scrambled out of the
bushes to get out of the way. “And you know there are magical wards set all over the
place.”

“Why do you think she attacked me out here?” Cal muttered.

“One of these times, one of you is actually going to succeed,” Lucy pointed out. “What
then?”

“Cake?” Aggie supplied. Lucy’s eyes narrowed. For a girl barely older than they were
and wearing three different crystals, she could be surprisingly scary. “Sorry,” Aggie
added.

Cal just stood stiffly, fangs poking out from under his top lip. Lucy didn’t even
blink. Yen would have dusted him by now. Instead, Lucy fished a stake, a cell phone
covered in rhinestones, gum, and a tangle of nose plugs from her pocket. She handed
him the nose plugs. “Put these on.”

They helped block the lure of warm blood, especially after a battle. Aggie should
have worn hers to block Cal’s vampire pheromones. Rookie mistake.

“I can’t believe you turned the water on us in this kind of weather.” Aggie shivered
so violently she nearly bit her tongue in half.

“Maybe next time you’ll think twice,” Lucy said with an arch and thoroughly unapologetic
smile. “You’ve both earned yourself meditation time.”

Cal’s shoulders slumped. “Damn it,” he muttered.

“That’s ‘om’ to you,” Lucy corrected cheerfully.

* * *

Aggie forced herself to walk slowly, every muscle in her body screaming at her to
run. If she ran, her sister Yen would think she didn’t trust her.

At nine years old, Aggie knew two things for sure: a vampire had killed her dad, and
Yen and Aggie were all each other had left. If Yen wanted Aggie to hang out in Central
Park at midnight, she would do it. Even if there was sweat pooling under her arms
while the December wind blew frigid and sharp as fangs. Yen took care of her. She
was only sixteen but she knew which restaurant and grocery store dumpsters had the
freshest food, and where to sleep without getting hassled by social services, cops,
or gangs. She even took Aggie to the library so she “wouldn’t grow up stupid.” And
Mrs. Boneta at the deli always had a cup of hot chocolate for her, ever since the
night Yen had knocked out a thief just as he’d been about to pistol-whip Mr. Boneta
for the cash in the register.

It wasn’t so bad really.

Until the sun went down.

Mostly, Aggie hid and waited anxiously for Yen to come back from hunting vampires.
But for the first time, Yen needed her help. At Christmastime, people in thick coats
thronged the park for skating and snowball fights and there were pretty red bows everywhere.
It was nice, even if it got dark too early. But this year, people were going missing.