Vampire Bites: A Taste of the Drake Chronicles Page 3

  “That’s hardly ladylike,” she said disapprovingly. Which was amusing since I’d heard the stories of what she did in her spare time—and it wasn’t taking tea and eating cucumber sandwiches.

  A vampire fled, disappearing into the woods. One of them shuddered, turned to ash, and drifted into the hedges. The stake tumbled to the ground. Solange’s second-oldest brother, Sebastian, wiped his hands off dispassionately and then turned to help his mother drag the half-conscious vampire she’d thrown into the tree toward the house. Connor was speaking quietly into his cell phone to Bruno.

  I pressed my back against the wall as a parade of teeth and feral smiles passed me. When they were all gathered in the parlor, I followed. I went to my favorite purple velvet armchair by the fireplace. Solange stood next to me, her eyes never leaving that of the young man currently being tied up. His shirt was torn, his dark reddish brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. His eyelids fluttered but didn’t open. I wouldn’t have opened them either if all seven Drake brothers were standing around me, glaring. Never mind Helena, who waved them aside with barely a flick of her wrist. She sniffed once, delicately.

  “He smells like kith.” She whispered but shook her head. “Kind of.”

  Liam frowned, sniffed as well.

  “Something’s not right.” His gaze narrowed, sharpened. “Left arm.”

  We all looked even though I didn’t know what I was looking at. The tip of a tattoo poked out from under his pushed-up sleeve. It looked like a stylized tribal-style sun but I couldn’t be sure.

  “Damn,” Nicholas muttered. “Helios-Ra.”

  Everyone looked totally bummed out over such a comic-book name. He stirred. There was a gentle waft of lilies and chocolate, almost right, but not quite. Everyone else was still scenting the air like hunting hounds, nostrils flared.

  “What?” I whispered to Solange. “What’s with all the sniffing? It’s creeping me out.”

  She didn’t have time to answer because he opened his eyes, suddenly, as if he’d been poked with something sharp. His eyes weren’t pale, not like every other vampire’s I’d ever seen.

  They were very black and very hostile.

  A date with a super sexy vampire can be deadly. Find out how in

  A Killer First Date.

  Lucy

  “I look stupid,” I said to Solange, who was sprawled on my bed. She rolled over to look at me, keeping her place in the book she’d been reading with her finger.

  “It’s just Nicholas.” She rolled her eyes. They were faintly bloodshot, but just enough to make her look tired, not scary.

  I grimaced at her in the mirror. I was standing in a pile of discarded clothes, wearing outfit number three—a pair of rolled-up, patched jeans and a black peasant blouse embroidered with green leaves around the neckline. “He might be your brother, Sol, but this is our first real date. You know, without vampires trying to kill us, or eat us, or otherwise horribly maim us.” I closed my eyes briefly, swearing under my breath. “I just totally jinxed it, didn’t I?”

  She nodded sympathetically. “Probably.” Her fangs poked out from under her top lip but she still looked like she was made of porcelain—someone’s morbid idea of a doll.

  I reached for my new favorite stake, an altered hairpin printed with turquoise-blue skulls. I slipped it into the embroidered purse I’d taken to wearing everywhere. It was heavy with stakes, a casing full of Hypnos powder, a pocketknife, and a bag of chocolate-covered coffee beans. Hey, survival should not be uncaffeinated.

  I looked at my reflection one more time. “I wonder if I should change back into that—” I cut myself off abruptly. “Oh my God, your brother’s making me stupid.” I resolutely turned my back on the mirror. I wasn’t that girl. And I wasn’t about to let a guy, no matter how damn hot he was, turn me into something I wasn’t.

  Solange grinned. “Hi, Lucy, welcome back.”

  I threw one of my discarded shirts at her. “We will never speak of this again.”

  “So where are you guys going, anyway?”

  “School carnival,” I said. “Why don’t you come too? You need to get out.”

  She stared at me. “Are you nuts? I’m not going to be your third wheel.”

  “So call Kieran.”

  “He’s on duty.” Translated: hunting the feral Hel-Blar vampires who were roaming entirely too close to Violet Hill for anyone’s liking. She pushed her black hair off her face. “Anyway, I want to work on my pottery wheel tonight.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’m sure.” She grabbed her knapsack, which hid an extra bottle of blood, just in case. “I should get going. Is Nicholas meeting you there?”

  “Yes.” Before I could stop it, thoughts of Nicholas made my heart stutter with excitement. Solange slid me a sidelong glance and stepped back. Vampires. They were so bloody sensitive. “I wanted to save him from my mother.”

  “She told me there was blood in the basement fridge if I was thirsty. Your mom rocks.”

  “Yeah, wait until she tells Nicholas that being the bloodsucking undead doesn’t excuse him from family dinners or safe sex.”

  Solange choked. “She wouldn’t.” Our glances met. “She totally would.”

  “Yup,” I said. “Wait.” I paused. “One more accessory.” I darted to my side table.

  She groaned. “You’re starting to scare me, Hamilton.”

  I grabbed a pendant I hadn’t been able to resist buying last week and slipped it on the chain with the Drake cameo I never took off. It was a silver heart, which was totally not me. Except for the words engraved in the center: Bite me.

  I grinned at Solange. “I’m armed with stakes and sarcasm. Now I’m ready.”

  “Is this a date or an ambush?”

  I snorted, looping my arm through hers. “What do you think?”

  Hunter

  “Is that all you’ve got, Wild?”

  It might have been easier to come up with a witty retort if I weren’t lying flat on my back in the mud, the dark forest towering over me. Even worse, Spencer was the one who’d put me here. In four years of school training drills, he’d never once taken me down.

  Of course, he hadn’t been a vampire until just recently.

  He looked the same with his blond dreads and turquoise beads. His transformation was so recent, he even still had his tan. It was just that his teeth were a little sharper and his eyes a touch more mesmerizing. But I knew better than to look directly into the eyes of a vampire, friend or not. Vampire pheromones were more complicated than that, but there was no denying they seemed to work best with eye contact.

  “Damn.” My roommate, Chloe, whistled. “Vampire blood is even better than those stupid steroid pills that give you a mustache.” She had intimate and unfortunate firsthand experience with those pills, and I still caught her checking for facial hair, tweezers in hand. Chloe’s mother had slipped them to her to avoid her getting dosed with a secret poison one of the teachers, Ms. Dailey, had been using on unsuspecting students. The poison was called Trojan Horse and it tainted weak hunters’ blood. When they eventually got drained by a stronger vampire, the vampire would be poisoned and also die. Dailey had tried to use me as a test subject after I’d “disappointed” her. There was no such thing as a simple detention at the Helios-Ra vampire hunter high school.

  “You used to suck, Spence,” Chloe added.

  “Ha-ha,” he remarked drily. Spencer might have been a classmate up until a few weeks ago, but he’d mostly focused on the new Supernatural Studies curriculum. Spells and magic fascinated him, not vampires. But when he’d been infected by a Hel-Blar and accidentally dosed with the Trojan Horse poison, the school doctor had opted to turn him completely instead of watching another student die in her infirmary. I’d rather have my best friend back—even as a vampire—than lying dead in the earth. I trusted him to be stronger than the monster inside. I had proof it was possible.

  So Spencer survived, the doctor was fired, and the school was still in an
uproar. That last bit was partly my fault, as I’d helped take down Ms. Dailey. And I’d collaborated with a vampire against another hunter. Even when that hunter was insane, collaboration with vampires wasn’t exactly normal procedure.

  And by collaborate I mean: date.

  And, even more mortifying, he’d rescued me.

  I was pretty sure that part had nearly killed Grandpa. He still wasn’t talking to me.

  I rubbed my sore shoulder. “You’re definitely stronger,” I told Spencer.

  He winced. “Dude. Sorry. Did I hurt you?”

  I dusted off my hands. “Again.”

  “Are you sure?” His eyes glittered. “It’s not exactly a fair fight.”

  I narrowed my own very brown and human eyes back at him. “Less talk, more walk.”

  He grinned even as I tried to kick in his new pointy teeth. And he evaded me easily, which was frustrating enough that I think I might have growled. Now I knew how Lucy felt, constantly surrounded by the Drake vampire brothers. No wonder she had such a smart mouth. It was the only weapon left to us sometimes.

  Like hell.

  I had blades in the soles of my boots, Hypnos powder in the cuff of my jacket, stakes on my belt, and training in several styles of martial arts.

  But I couldn’t use any of them because this was just practice and Spencer wasn’t the enemy, whatever the school board might have to say about him.

  When I landed in a pile of decaying leaves, Spencer was suddenly behind me instead of in front of me. I threw a stake at him, blunt end out, and as he was leaning out of the way, I charged again, taking him by surprise. I hooked my leg behind his knees and strong-armed him across the throat, knocking him off his feet. He fell with more grace than he’d ever shown in his human life, even on a surfboard, where he was at his best.

  And he took me with him.

  I pushed to my feet, winded and bruised but happy. Spencer’s fangs were a little too elongated. He suddenly looked as if he was in pain. He made a strange sound and stumbled back a step, holding up a hand as if to ward me off. Chloe and I exchanged worried glances and I put more distance between us.

  “Spence, you okay?”

  He nodded, reaching for a bottle out of his bag. The faint moonlight and the perimeter of lanterns around us made it look like cranberry juice. It wasn’t.

  And then Quinn was there, sauntering between us, his smirk easy and charming but his stance deceptively alert.

  “Shouldn’t you be taking it easy?” he drawled. He always drawled when there were other people around, but when we were alone he was surprisingly sweet. Especially for someone who was so eye-scorchingly hot.

  “This is taking it easy,” I told him, drinking from the water bottle Chloe handed me.

  “Yeah, no one’s bleeding.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “Or needs stitches. It’s like watching old ladies drink tea.”

  “Not quite,” Quinn said softly. Spencer had his back turned and when he faced us again, he was pale under his tan. Quinn’s blue eyes cataloged him briefly. “I told you, you weren’t ready.”

  Spencer’s smile was wan. “I’m ready for normal girls.”

  Chloe and I grinned at him. “Aw,” Chloe said. “That’s so sweet.”

  Quinn shifted so that his arm crossed me protectively. I briefly considered flipping him over my shoulder, just to prove I could.

  “You know,” he said conversationally, as if he wasn’t trying to shield me. “Most people who’ve recently been poisoned and had a blood transfusion might consider napping as a new hobby.”

  Chloe laughed out loud. “Oh, Quinn, you might be pretty but you have a lot to learn about vampire hunter girls.”

  “Like how to duck,” Spencer added, his voice sounding more normal. He was still standing on the other side of the clearing though. “I’m going to go.”

  I nodded. “Okay. Be careful.”

  “You too.”

  “And answer your damn cell phone,” Chloe called after him. “Why do you think we got it for you?”

  We both turned to Quinn. “Is he really okay?”

  He nodded. “Actually, he’s doing really well. Was he always this laid-back?”

  “Yeah. He was always the only one who didn’t freak out during exams and end-of-year battle testing.”

  “I know you’re really good at it, but maybe don’t beat him up for a while. It makes it that much harder to chain the hunger.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  His smile was easy again and he winked. “Ready to go?”

  I looked at my leaf-strewn hair and mud-stained cargo pants. “Not quite.”

  I darted behind a tree to change into the dress I’d brought in my gym bag. I pulled out my hair tie and brushed out the stray leaves. Then I traded my boots for Converse sneakers but kept the denim jacket with Hypnos stakes in the sleeves and pockets. The League and the school had issued alerts that students were to be fully armed when off campus. There were just too many Hel-Blar vampires around Violet Hill right now for anyone to be complacent. I grabbed my knapsack, which held a miniature crossbow and other necessities, and passed Chloe my gym bag.

  “I’m going to head back,” she said, plucking a stray leaf from my hair. “Someone has to cover for you while you have all the fun.”

  Since it was Saturday night and I was in my last year, I was technically allowed off campus. I wasn’t breaking the rules.

  Unless, of course, you counted dating a vampire as breaking the rules.

  I felt certain the league would. Grandpa certainly did. But times were changing and it was suicidal to pretend otherwise. For one thing, Quinn Drake hadn’t flirted with another girl in more than two weeks. Biblical types might have been murmuring about the apocalypse by now.

  He tossed his dark hair off his face, raising an appreciative eyebrow at my short dress, even though I had to wear cropped leggings underneath, in case I had to fight. “Ready?”

  I smiled back, my stomach doing that slow burn it always did when we were alone.

  Lucy

  The carnival didn’t look as cheesy under the stars, with the lights glinting off the dark water of the lake. I could smell popcorn and the ever-present pine from all the forests around town. I waited near the ticket booth, searching the shadows for vampires and making sure there was no mushroom-rot stench of a Hel-Blar. Just another hazard of living in Violet Hill. Even first dates needed a proper security sweep.

  We’d decided to meet here. I didn’t want my parents mortifying me, and the closed confines of a car apparently didn’t do anything for Nicholas’s self-control. I wasn’t worried; he did that enough for both of us. I glanced at my watch.

  “Don’t tell me the mythical Nicholas is finally going to make an appearance,” my friend Nathan teased, coming up behind me.

  I poked him. “Behave.”

  The parking lot was full of students crowding out of cars and jostling past us to get tickets. I already had ours in my jacket pocket.

  Vanessa bounced up to us. She was nice enough, just so perky it kind of hurt. “Hi, guys!”

  “Hi, Van,” Nathan said for both of us.

  “Isn’t this superfun?” She beamed, her lip gloss catching the lights from the booths. Her straight brown hair swung as she put a hand on Nathan’s shoulder and smiled. She had to know he was gay but she still flirted with him incessantly. “Don’t forget to buy raffle tickets! We want to hold the prom somewhere really awesome this year!” She all but skipped away.

  “Have you noticed everything she says has! exclamation! points!” I asked.

  “She’s definitely caffeinated,” Nathan agreed. “And she makes me tired. But she’ll be the reason we won’t have prom in a barn that smells like cowshit like they did last year.”

  “Too true,” I said. “I’m buying extra raffle tickets.” I shook my head at the way she giggled at everyone she passed. “Didn’t Brent break up with her? Like today?” Brent and I had bio class together.

  Nathan shrugged. “The perk is undefeated.�
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  I looked back at the parking lot, watching for Nicholas. It must be eight thirty by now. I shifted from one foot to the other. It was dumb to feel nervous. It was Nicholas. We’d grown up together. We’d flung mud and insults at each other. But it was different now. Not the mud and insult flinging, we’d always do that. But now our world was tilted. He was important, and not in the comfortable one-of-Solange’s-many-annoying-brothers way. He was vital, like air and chocolate.

  And he was here.

  He broke out of the thinning crowd, the wind tousling his dark hair, his gray eyes like starlight. He wore dark jeans and a black shirt under his green army jacket. I knew the inside pockets would be filled with stakes and assorted deadly weapons.

  “Yummy,” Nathan said, openly gawking. “That’s your boyfriend? I want one!”

  I laughed and shoved him lightly. “Go away, Nathan. You’ll scare him with all that drooling.”

  “But …”

  “I’ll introduce you later,” I promised, trying not to fidget nervously. Nathan stepped back mumbling, but I ignored him. Nicholas walked toward me, his serious face touched with the slightest smirk. He’d probably heard every word we said.

  “Hey,” he said softly, stopping right in front of me, close enough that I had to tilt my head back.

  “Hey,” I said back, a little shyly. We weren’t at the Drake farmhouse or locked in a dungeon or otherwise running for our lives; we were breaking all of our patterns and I wasn’t sure of my footing. For some reason I felt warm, as if my cheeks were red. His smirk turned to a grin. “Don’t make me punch you on our first date,” I muttered, but I was grinning too.

  He raised an eyebrow at the carnival behind me. “Want to ride the Ferris wheel?”

  “That death trap? Hell, no. Let’s find the cotton-candy machine.”

  “Deal. I bet cotton candy tastes good on you.” I swallowed, reflexively licking my bottom lip. He leaned in closer, his mouth just barely brushing mine when he spoke. “Ready?”