Before Nola could really begin to think through what she had just seen, Kieran had returned to her side.
Nola moved her mouth for a moment, searching for the right words.
“I designed it.” Kieran beamed. “It took Desmond and Bryant a long time to find the material, but it works.”
“How?” Nola gaped.
“The material is waterproof and coated against the rain. It’s what the old triage tents were made of, back when there were doctors on the outside. They scavenged all of this, and then we built the pulley system. We put the fabric up to keep off the midday sun and any rain, but the rest of the time, we leave it open.”
“But the water?” Nola climbed up onto the truck bed to feel the fabric. It was light and thin, but coated in something that felt rubbery, like the Outer Guard’s jackets.
“The rain runs off of the tent and into a filtration system.” Kieran shoved his hands into his pockets, looking every bit the proud genius Nola had known him to be. “It’s rudimentary, but it gets the water for Nightland and for the plants clean enough to be used. And this is just one rooftop. If we could find the materials to farm on other roofs, we could feed the city. And if we could take all this with us, we could build a home somewhere without the smog of the factories and the stink from the river.” Kieran grabbed Nola around the waist, sweeping her into his arms. “We could help people, really help them.”
His dark eyes stared into hers, his gaze so intense she flushed and looked away.
“It’s brilliant.” Nola tucked her hair behind her ears and took a step away from Kieran.
“And it’s all because of you,” Kieran said. “All that studying in botanicals your mother was always making you do. It gave me the idea. I came up with the plan and built the pulley system. My dad did the chemical testing and pretty much everyone else in Nightland helped with the rest.”
“And the guards never noticed?”
“We’re still here.” Kieran shrugged. He lifted Nola’s hand that held the apple up in front of her. “Take a bite.”
Carefully, Nola bit into the apple. Her teeth pierced the skin, and juice flowed into her mouth. Through the bitter metal tinge of the ReVamp, she could taste the sweetness of the fruit. “It’s amazing,” she whispered. “It’s real food.”
Kieran smiled. “I know.”
Nola held out the apple for Kieran to take a bite.
“No, it’s for you.” Kieran shook his head, his gaze fixed on the juice dripping onto Nola’s finger.
“But it’s wonderful.” Nola took a step toward him. “You should enjoy the fruits of your labor.”
“No.” The light of the moon caught the corner of his eyes. No color broke through the shadows. Only black where emerald green should have been.
Pain ripped through Nola’s chest as the apple tumbled from her hand. “Kieran, you’re a vampire.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Nola,” Kieran said, reaching toward her.
Nola took a step back. Pain shot though her leg as something sharp cut into her calf. She didn’t dare look away from Kieran as warm blood trickled down her ankle.
“Nola, you’re hurt.” Kieran stepped forward.
“Don’t touch me.” Nola felt for the truck bed behind her. She stepped sideways, gasping in pain as she put weight on her leg.
“Let me help you.” Pain flooded Kieran’s eyes. “Nola, I would never hurt you.”
“You’re a vampire,” Nola spat.
“So, is Emanuel—”
“That’s different.”
“And Raina, and Desmond. You came out here to save vampires.”
“But not you!” Nola shouted. “You weren’t supposed to be like them.” Tears streamed down her face.
“Why?” Kieran asked. “Why does it matter?”
“You drink blood?” Nola’s voice quaked.
“Yes.”
Nola choked on a sob.
“But not human blood, never human blood.” Kieran took a step forward.
Nola tried to run, but her leg gave out under her, sending her tumbling to her knees.
“Nola,” Kieran whispered.
She could hear his heart breaking as he said her name.
“I’ve never attacked a human,” he said, his voice cold and dead. “I only drink animal blood.”
Images of Kieran sucking the life from a poor animal’s neck seized Nola’s mind.
“We have a farm for the animals,” Kieran said. “It’s no different from eating meat.”
“Yes it is.” Nola tried to stand, but her leg couldn’t bear any weight. “I thought you were trying to save the vampires. Find a way to make them human.”
“You can’t go back,” Kieran said. “Once you’re a vampire, the change is permanent. Either inject the Vamp or die. It’s a one-way trip, Nola.”
Nola sobbed on the ground. Kieran’s green eyes were gone.
I’ll never see them again.
“I had no choice,” Kieran said. “I was running out of time.”
“What?”
“After three months out here, I got sick,” Kieran said. “I had been giving out food, there was a cough going around. It didn’t do anything that bad to most people. But I didn’t have the same immunities. After a few days, I couldn’t breathe. My dad didn’t know what to do. He had been working on a new kind of Vamp. One that didn’t change people’s personalities. It wasn’t ready, but he didn’t have a choice. I was drowning. Drowning in my own body. I was terrified. I was dying.”
He knelt next to Nola, and she didn’t back away.
“He gave me a small injection of ReVamp like he did for you, trying to get the disease out of me, but it didn’t work. He had to give me a full dose. It felt like my lungs were on fire. I thought I would boil in my own skin. Then my lungs filled with ice. And then my whole body was filled with ice. I was sure I would freeze to death. But eventually, I stopped shaking, and I got used to the cold. It took a few days, but I woke up.” Kieran looked into Nola’s eyes. “I’m the first of the new vampires.”
Nola looked down at Kieran’s hand in hers. She hadn’t realized she had reached for him. His cold skin sent chills up her arm.
“Does it feel different? Touching me?” Nola said.
“I can feel the blood flowing through your veins like lava,” Kieran said. “But the heat doesn’t hurt.”
“They said in the domes that vampires hunt people, that they attack them and drink their blood.”
“The ones on the streets do,” Kieran said. “But not in Nightland. They only take blood they pay for.”
“Pay for?”
“There are desperate people in the city,” Kieran said. “They sell their blood to vampires. But most of us take the blood from the farm animals.”
“So, even though—” Nola glanced down at her bloody leg, her wanting to know warring with her fear of Kieran.
“I can smell your blood,” Kieran said before she could speak. “It smells sweet.”
“I smell like candy?”
“A little. But I’m still me. And you know me, Nola. You know I would never hurt you. I would do anything to protect you.”
Nola nodded, not trusting her voice.
Kieran placed his hand on Nola’s cheek. A tingle ran down her spine, leaving goose bumps in its wake.
“We should get you back to my dad,” Kieran said. “I think you need stitches.”
“I don’t know about that ladder,” Nola said. “I can’t even walk.”
“Do you trust me?” Kieran grinned mischievously.
He looked like the old Kieran. Her Kieran, who she knew better than anyone, planning something that would scare and excite her. The Kieran who had taught her to climb onto her roof. The Kieran who would save a city with a garden.
“Absolutely.”
In one swift movement, Kieran lifted Nola onto his back. “Hold on tight.” He ran to the open trap door.
“You can’t carry me all the way down,” Nola said as Kieran tw
isted onto the ladder, taking two steps down and shutting them into the darkness.
“Just trust me, Nola,” Kieran said before taking both hands off the ladder and launching them into the void.
The air rushing past them stole the scream from Nola’s throat. Kieran laughed as they sped through the darkness.
Nola tightened her grip, holding onto Kieran with every bit of strength she had. And just when she began to fear the ground, Kieran landed as light as a cat on the tunnel floor.
Gently, he pried Nola’s arms from his neck, pulling her around to cradle her as though she weighed nothing.
“I told you to trust me.” Kieran smiled.
“Mmmmhmmm,” was the only noise Nola could manage as she pulled herself closer to Kieran’s chest.
Kieran pressed his cheek to her hair, rocking her gently for a moment.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said.
“Of course you did. You always liked to scare me.” Nola let go of his neck and smacked him on the chest. “But I’m not mad. It’s nice to know—” Nola paused for a moment, searching for the right words. His heartbeat pounded through his chest and into her hand. Its rhythm beat slower than hers, pumping the cold blood through his body in a rhythm she didn’t recognize. “It’s nice to know your sense of humor hasn’t changed.”
Kieran beamed down at her. “Never. I’m still me, Nola. Just me with super strength… and a different appetite.”
His smile disappeared, and his eyes begged her to understand.
“You’re Kieran,” Nola said. “You’re still my Kieran.”
He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. The cold of his touch tingled her skin.
“I will always be yours,” he whispered.
A door rasped open down the hall. Kieran cursed under his breath. “We need to get you back to my dad.”
“It’s not bleeding that badly.” She didn’t want to go back to the others. Back to the worn hospital gown and cold tools. If she could just stay here with Kieran for a few minutes.
“It’s bad enough.” Kieran walked down the tunnel.
Nola felt his muscles tensing as though he were preparing for a fight.
“I don’t want to freak you out, but the other vampires will scent your blood.”
“Scent my blood?” Nola looked down at her red-stained leg.
“You smell like fresh baked brownies,” Kieran said, his voice tight.
“Do you need to leave me here?” Nola’s voice came out as a squeak.
“I told you before, I would never bite a human.” Kieran rounded the corner.
A dark shape waited for them in front of the door to the main corridor.
“But some of our people are recovering human biters,” Kieran said. “We don’t want them to relapse.”
“What happened to her?” a deep voice called from the shadow.
“Cut her leg,” Kieran said, his voice steady and calming as though he were trying to soothe a frightened animal. “I’m taking her up to my father now.” Kieran took a step forward. “You know my father. Dr. Wynne.”
“ReVamp.” The man leaned out of the shadows. The scars covering his face twisted as he frowned. “He made ReVamp.”
“Yes,” Kieran said. “Have you had ReVamp?”
“I turned long before the good doctor decided to save us all.” The long white scars cut through his skin as though something had clawed his face over and over again.
“Then you are one of the strongest to have joined Nightland,” Kieran said, still walking forward. “It takes a special vampire to understand how we must change to survive.”
“I did change to survive.” The man tossed his bald head back, displaying more scars coating his neck. “I changed because my lungs were rotting. I came down here to be safe from the Outer Guard.”
“Nightland is about more than being safe from the guards,” Kieran said. “Nightland is about hope. It’s about creating a better future.”
“Nightland is about rules.” The man took a step forward. “It’s about protecting one man’s vision while the rest of us hide underground.”
“We aren’t hiding,” Kieran said.
Nola clung tighter to Kieran’s neck as he shifted her weight in his arms.
“Every night we are working to make things better,” Kieran said.
“Better for the ones who haven’t been turned.”
“Better for all of us.” Kieran had stopped moving forward.
“Then why won’t you let us eat?” the man roared.
Nola flew from Kieran’s arms, landing on the ground behind him, knocking the wind from her. The thumping of fists on flesh came from behind her. The sharp crack of breaking bones and muffled yells echoed through the tunnel. Pain shot through her as she gasped, forcing air back into her lungs.
She rolled onto her side, trying to see who had been hit, but they were moving too quickly for her to know if either was hurt. The man lifted Kieran, tossing him into the wall with a sickening crunch. Dust from the ceiling fell into Nola’s eyes as the walls trembled.
The man took Kieran’s head, slamming it back into the wall.
“No!” Nola screamed.
The man turned to her. His eyes were pitch black. He opened his mouth, hissing and showing two long, bright white fangs.
Chapter Twenty
The vampire ran his tongue along the sharp tip of his left fang, coloring its point with his own blood.
Nola watched in horror as the vampire’s blood dripped down his chin, making him look more animal than human.
“Leave her alone.” Kieran launched himself onto the man’s neck, sending him face first into the dirt. He grabbed the man’s head, slamming it into the ground again and again until the man’s screams of rage stopped.
Kieran let go of the man, standing up and jumping over the blood pooling on the dirt floor.
He reached down to Nola. Red coated his palms.
Nola tried to reach for him, but she couldn’t make her arms move. The crimson pool seeped toward her.
“Nola,” Kieran whispered. “He was going to kill you.”
The man’s bloody fangs flashed through Nola’s mind as tears ran down her cheeks.
“He’ll wake up in a few hours,” Kieran said. “But I’ll make sure Raina’s found him before then.”
“He’s dead.” Nola’s voice cracked.
“He’s a vampire. He’ll heal. But I won’t let him hurt you. Not ever.” Kieran reached down for Nola again. “Can I touch you?”
Nola nodded, clinging to Kieran as soon as she was in his arms. She buried her face in his chest, squeezing her eyes shut as Kieran leapt over the man’s body. She could feel the uneven pounding of the floor under Kieran’s feet and the air flying past them and knew he was running. She wanted to look, to watch the tunnels fly by, seeing them as Kieran did. But she kept her eyes closed, afraid if she opened them, another pair of bloody fangs would be waiting.
Soon, Kieran slowed to a walk.
A door clicked open in front of them.
“What happened?” a voice with a lilting accent said.
Nola opened her eyes, and Julian was staring at her, his face tense. They were in the gallery. Julian held an open book in his hand.
“She cut her leg in the garden,” Kieran said, not stopping his stride as Julian joined them. “I was trying to get her back here, and we were attacked.”
“Someone thought she was a dinner bell, eh?” Julian said. “Did you kill them?”
Kieran shook his head. “Just smashed his head in. He’ll wake up in a bit. He’s in the last tunnel on the way to the garden.”
“I’ll get Raina.” Julian held open the door to Emanuel’s home before leaving them and walking back out through the gallery.
“What’s Raina going to do to him?” Nola asked.
“Nothing more than he deserves,” Kieran said.
The old woman in the kitchen looked up as they passed but didn’t try to follow.
“
What’s going to happen?” Panic clenched Nola’s chest.
“Raina will execute him,” Kieran said. “We all make the deal when we choose to live in Nightland. No violence within these walls. No attacking humans. No attacking each other. That man is a monster. We can’t keep him here. We can’t let him out in the world, or he’ll leave a string of bodies behind him, and we can’t give him to the Outer Guard—”
“Or he’ll tell them exactly where to find us,” Nola said as Kieran swung open the door to Dr. Wynne’s lab.
“What on Earth?” Dr. Wynne said, pushing up his glasses as he stared at Nola. “Was she stabbed again?”
“No, she cut her leg.” Kieran lay Nola down on the cold metal table. “The apple tree truck.”
“And your hand,” Dr. Wynne said, glancing at Kieran as he cut away the bottom of Nola’s pants, exposing the jagged gash.
Nola’s stomach turned at the sight of her own ragged flesh.
“Broken,” Kieran said. “Foot, too.”
“What?” Nola tried to sit up on the table to look at Kieran, but he grabbed her shoulder, holding her down.
“Do you need it set?” Dr. Wynne asked, seemingly unconcerned by his son’s broken bones.
Kieran flexed his hand and stomped his foot a few times. “Just the hand.”
“Pardon me, Nola,” Dr. Wynne said, disappearing behind Nola’s head. There was silence for a moment, and then a sharp crack and a muffled groan.
“Thanks,” Kieran said, coming around to Nola’s side, keeping his right hand by his chest and gripping Nola’s hand with the left.
“Are you all right?” Nola asked.
Dr. Wynne fluttered around the laboratory, gathering tools.
“Fine.” Kieran smiled down at Nola, only the corners of his eyes betraying any pain. “It’ll be healed in an hour or so. One of the vampire perks.”
“Speaking of vampire perks,” Dr. Wynne said, placing a tray of tools next to Nola, “I’m afraid your food is going to be distasteful for longer than anticipated. I can stitch you back together, but you’ve lost a fair bit of blood, and with the rust and filth on that truck bed, the risk for infection is too significant. I’m going to stitch you back together and give you another localized dose of ReVamp.”
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