I ran over to where Elias knelt. Dropping down beside him, I gently placed my arms around his shoulders. “Are you okay?”
He gritted his teeth as he answered. “I will be.”
Mom had gotten whomever she’d called on the phone and was demanding to know what was going on. She grabbed her keys from the peg in the hallway as she headed for the front door. I heard her shout, “I’m calling the meeting now, damn it,” as the door slammed behind her. “This is not on.”
Nikolai stood in the middle of the kitchen, not looking at us, his arms still wrapped around his chest.
I started to help Elias to his feet, but he jerked away from my touch and pulled himself up. His eyes were still catlike slits, and they watched Nikolai warily, as if expecting another attack.
This was all messed up, and I struggled to stay focused on the bigger issue. “Where would they take Bea’s mom?” I asked Elias, who was making a show of brushing himself off. “I mean, where would Ramses want the sacrifice to take place?”
“We’d never agree to go all the way to the lair,” Nikolai said. His face was still turned away, as if he were talking to the sink. “We’d want some safe place where we could leave her.”
The muscles of Elias’s jaw flexed as he tucked his shirttails into his jeans. “It sounds as though the hunter knows more than he’s said.”
Nikolai’s head snapped to glare at Elias. “I’m being hypothetical, you know—trying to consider what the coven would want.”
When Elias straightened his collar, he twinged slightly. Unconsciously, he briefly touched his hand to his stomach. My gut ached suddenly as well, as if I’d strained core muscles at yoga. I tried to catch his eye to see if he knew why we shared this sensation all of a sudden, but he was too busy trying to act unhurt and strong in front of Nikolai. His pupils remained slit, and his fangs showed clearly when he finally spoke. “I find it difficult that your expertise was never tapped, hunter. Did your coven never ask your family for advice on this contingency?”
Nikolai flushed, color darkening his cheeks. I expected him to deny it, but he said, “Of course they did.”
“That’s not very hypothetical then, is it?” Elias drawled sarcastically.
Nikolai shook his head. “Look, a lot of locations got tossed around, okay?”
“OMG,” I said in frustration. “I can’t believe you knew any—just tell us all of them.”
Nik’s posture was still closed off, his arms folded in front of his chest. His lips were pressed together, but he didn’t speak.
“He won’t turn traitor,” Elias quietly said to me with sympathy.
Traitor? I didn’t understand what Elias meant at first, but then I gaped at Nikolai. “You can’t be serious! You’ve got to tell us. Screw the Elders and their vows of secrecy. Someone’s life is at stake. Not just anyone—Bea’s mom! You know as well as I do that if your dad weren’t the slayer, your mom could have been taken instead.”
Nikolai took in a long, slow breath. He sounded a bit defeated when he muttered, “Swede Hollow or Hidden Falls would be my best guess.”
They were both parks in St. Paul that would close at sunset. I could see the appeal of either one, because both parks were sheltered in deep, heavily forested valleys that felt secluded and secret. I started for the door. “Come on,” I told the boys. “Nik, you drive.”
I pulled Nik’s elbow when I passed him, and he turned and followed me reluctantly.
“We can’t stop the hunt if it’s started,” he said.
“I’ve done it before,” I reminded him. “Besides, we can’t just sit here. We have to do something.”
I checked to see that Elias was coming as well, but he was nowhere in sight. I stopped at the door. “Elias?”
At the basement steps, I heard heels clicking on the wooden stairs. In a moment, Elias reappeared with the rucksack he’d brought with him when he moved in. At my expression, he said, “Your mother’s … display has made it quite evident that I must make good on my promise to find somewhere new to stay.”
I leaned in closely and brushed my hand along my stomach, feeling for the phantom pain. “Yeah, I swear I sensed the aftermath of that punch.”
Elias’s eyebrows jumped. “Indeed?”
I whispered, “Is it our blood bond?”
He nodded, though he seemed a little taken aback that I knew about the bond at all. “Perhaps the hunger accentuates the connection.”
The strap of the army green bag over his shoulder caught my eye, and I frowned. “You’re coming with me, right?”
“As you wish, my lady,” he said. I noticed his eyes had finally returned to normal. His fangs, however, had not completely retracted. “Though for once I agree with the hunter, I don’t know what we can do for your friend. Honestly, I may not be able to control myself if the frenzy begins.”
I wondered if I could.
I didn’t want to think about that right now, so I took his hand and led him to where Nikolai waited awkwardly at the door.
Nikolai stopped outside the driver’s side door, key in his hand. “Bringing the vampire is a bad idea, Ana.”
Pulling at the door handle, I found that Nik hadn’t unlocked it yet. The metal flap sprang back with a clank. “We don’t have time for an argument. What if you’re wrong about where they’ve taken her?”
“I’ve seen them hungry,” he said, unmoving. He stared at where Elias stood behind me on the sidewalk. “I don’t want him at my back when the others attack from the front.”
“Maybe, if we hurry, it won’t come to that.” It was all I could think to say.
Nikolai didn’t look terribly sure he agreed, but he finally opened the door. I slid into the passenger side. I pulled out my phone and found Bea’s number. I texted her to meet us at Hidden Falls. It was the closer of the two parks, and I told Nik so. Then, as an afterthought, I cut and pasted the same message and sent it to Mom. She didn’t want the lottery either; maybe she’d help us stop it.
Elias shuffled some of Nik’s things around before settling into the backseat. The car was littered with promotional CDs, concert posters, college textbooks, and empty cans of soda. He leaned back into the shadows, the flash of the passing streetlights illuminating a grim expression. “A plan would be helpful, lady.”
But I didn’t have one beyond the pounding desire to find Bea’s mom. We wouldn’t be much of a rescue if we couldn’t stop the hunt, though. I pulled on my bottom lip. “Magic,” I said after a few minutes. “What about magic?”
Nikolai started the engine and pulled out onto the street. “What about it?”
Shyly, I looked at Elias, not wanting to embarrass him. “Well, Mom had no trouble, uh, earlier … with …”
I couldn’t finish without turning to check on Elias. If my comment bothered him, he said nothing. He’d rolled down the window a little, and papers rustled in the backseat.
Nikolai, meanwhile, nodded a bit as if considering. He’d turned on the car’s air conditioner, and musty, moist air blew into my face.
“It would take a lot of witch power, but we could probably push back and keep them at bay. But that’s more of a stalemate than a check, you know?” Nikolai said. “We might be able to keep it up until sunrise, but we’d just have to do it again when the sun set the next day.”
But it would solve the immediate problem. “It’s a start.”
No one mentioned the one serious flaw. There was only one witch in the car. I had my own sort of magic, triggered when I pitted my vampire and witch halves against each other, but I wasn’t sure how effective it would be to hold back the hunt. Last time, I’d had the talisman to boost my strength.
The time before that, I only had to stop a fight between my parents and their minions—and I’d drunk Elias’s blood to trigger the power. I glanced back at where Elias sat. He seemed absorbed in watching the houses go by.
It wasn’t like him to be so quiet. “Are you okay?” I asked.
He ran his fingers through the short hair
s on the side of his head and then let out a long breath. “No,” he said. His voice was weary, but he clenched his hands into fists in his lap. “I don’t understand it, but the hunger is much worse all of a sudden. Like some kind of magical rebound … but that makes no sense.” He shook his head as if trying to keep his mind on track. “What’s important is that I thought I had it under control, but I don’t just feel weak, physically. I don’t know how long I can hold out—mentally.”
“What do you mean?”
He flicked his gaze at the back of Nikolai’s head. Then he leaned forward and cupped his hand in front of his face. He whispered scratchily, “I hate him. I hate magic.” In the strobe of a streetlight that we passed, I could see his eyes beginning to transform again. “I just—I want to—” His entire body clenched with the effort to keep his pupils normal. “I want to kill everything, Ana. Everything.”
Great—now I had a vampire in the backseat ready to go ballistic. Nikolai watched us furtively as he drove. I was sure he’d heard everything and was just waiting for an opportunity to say “I told you so.”
The bandage on Nik’s hand flashed greenish white as he turned the corner at the stoplight. It gave me an idea. I undid my seat belt so I could turn around more easily in my seat. “Don’t get in an accident,” I told Nik, who watched curiously.
Reaching around the seat, I offered Elias my arm. “I have witch blood,” I said. “Take some.”
Elias flinched back as if my touch were fire. Nikolai hit the brakes so hard, they squealed. I had to grip the seat to keep from banging into the dashboard. “I can’t,” Elias said, though his gaze focused hungrily on the flesh of my arm. “I’d become nosferatu.”
“Ana! What the hell are you doing?” Nik demanded, swerving us into a parking spot to the sound of multiple horns.
I ignored Nik for the moment. “What about the blood bond? Doesn’t that make a difference? You’ve taken blood from me before without dire consequences, remember?” I’d offered this before, when Elias had been injured. He’d had no problem then.
A light of hope seemed to soften Elias’s face. “The bond. Of course.”
Nikolai’s hand was on my shoulder, trying to get me to turn and face him. “This is so not okay. I can’t let him feed on you in my car!”
But it was too late. Elias sprang at catlike speed. His teeth sank deep into my forearm.
Chapter Eleven
I was vaguely aware that Nikolai shouted. The electric light of the coffee shop on the corner was a hazy blur. The only sensation that mattered was the pounding throb of blood moving through my body.
Somehow, I too tasted coppery sweetness on my own lips. Where was that coming from? I didn’t have time to process the thought as my gnawing hunger was calmed with every passing second. The sensation was like seeing a chocolate cake after a week of dieting. The first bite might be all my body needed, but I couldn’t stop. I wanted more.
The hammering beat began to slow. A coldness crept into my fingers and toes. My head felt separated, floating off to somewhere far away. I wanted to lie down in the calm emptiness of it all.
I heard the sound of wings fluttering.
And then there was a horrible rending snap, an electric shock of pain. I fell back into hard, clear focus.
Nikolai had gotten into the backseat, the door left open to the rush of wind and the hiss of passing cars. One of his arms was in a choke hold around Elias’s throat; his psychic blade buried in Elias’s leg.
Elias spat and snarled. My blood spattered his chin. His fangs were barred, but his eyes watched me warily. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice straining against the pressure of Nik’s headlock.
I looked down at my arm. It was a mess. I’d have bruises for sure, and another scar in the shape of a dotted crescent to go with all the others. But the bleeding had slowed and was already starting to congeal. My head felt like lead, but I answered, “I’ll be okay.”
“You nearly killed her,” Nikolai said.
Elias looked a bit chagrined but spoke to me when he said, “I went too far, and I’m sorry for that, my lady. But I couldn’t have killed you, not without killing a part of myself.”
Nikolai removed the blade from Elias’s leg with a magical pop that made my own twinge. I must have flinched, because Elias noticed it.
“The bond is much stronger now,” he said, rubbing his neck when Nikolai released it as well. We sighed in relief at the same time.
Nikolai’s eyes flicked between us. “Well, that’s creepy.”
“Perhaps,” Elias said, his eyes returning to their usual gray. “But it worked. The hunger is sated.”
A semitruck passed close enough to rattle the car. Nikolai seemed suddenly aware he’d left the door open. After pinning Elias under one last I’m-watching-you glare, he got out and returned to the driver’s seat.
“Why?” I asked. Nikolai started the engine, but I didn’t turn to face the front yet. “Why did it work? I thought you couldn’t get satisfaction from small tastes anymore.”
“Witch blood is more powerful,” Elias said, though he didn’t sound as though he was stating a fact so much as postulating a theory. He wiped his chin on the shoulder of his shirt, leaving a dark smudge. “And perhaps the bond added something?”
“What if we offered the vampires a taste instead of a full hunt?” I asked.
“Because it doesn’t work long term,” Nikolai said. “And it’s disgusting.”
“The hunter makes one accurate point,” Elias said. “During the Burning Times, there were many fewer witches, and there was talk of suspending the lottery. Offering smaller doses was tried, but the hunger rebounded, coming back harder and more violent each time. The queen was forced to offer herself, as hers was the only death strong enough to satisfy.”
“So the queen’s blood has special properties?” I asked. “Why? What are they?”
Even Nikolai, who’d been muttering angrily to himself, stopped and turned to see what Elias would say.
Elias shook his head; he sounded surprised when he answered, “I don’t know.”
Nikolai looked to me. “Are you saying you think there’s something actually different, like scientifically, in witch blood?”
“Or magically,” I said, since I hadn’t really considered the possibility of some molecular or cell-level specialness.
I thought about all the doctors and lawyers at the coven’s picnic earlier today. I could see the political advantages of making sure there were lawyers to protect us, but why were so many of our high-ranking Elders medical doctors?
There was also the book of names. It was an ancient record that traced witch marriages, births, and deaths. Everyone who was initiated was recorded in it, sort of like when Christians added names to Bibles at baptism. I’d always thought it was just another ancient tradition meant to make those of us who were uninitiated feel left out. But what if the early recorders were actually tracking something?
“Is our blood different?” I looked at Nikolai’s bandaged hand. His mom always took care of minor scrapes for any witch in need. I tried to remember the trips I’d had to the doctor for checkups, vaccinations, and such. We always used one of the doctors in the coven. I’d assumed it was one of those things you did to support the community, but could there have been an ulterior motive?
I turned around to face the front. “Nik, have you ever been to a doctor who wasn’t in the coven?”
He was checking over his shoulder for a break in the traffic so he could pull us back onto the road. “No,” he said. “There’s a witch in almost every specialty. We were even able to find a cardiologist in Rochester at Mayo when my dad had those chest pains last year.”
“Really? Doesn’t that strike you as kind of odd?” I asked.
“It’s an ancient calling. It’s a healer thing.” Nik shrugged as if he’d decided he didn’t like this theory anymore.
“Or it’s a blood thing,” Elias said quietly.
There was that bloodmobile at the
coven gathering. Come to think of it, I saw it there every year. “What if so many of us are doctors as a kind of protection? To make sure we get the right kind of transfusions and stuff? And so that no one looks too closely under a microscope?”
Nikolai shook his head. “I don’t buy it. Some mundane would have discovered us by now.”
“What if the difference is really subtle? I mean, I don’t know that much about the science, but if Elias can drink regular human blood as well as ours, the difference is probably almost undetectable. But it might be just the difference we need. I mean, maybe we can isolate that one bit the vampires crave and, I don’t know, make a synthetic substitute.”
“Now you’re talking science fiction,” Nikolai said. We’d come to the big brick apartment building on the corner of Highland and Fairview, and he made a right. “Where do you plan to manufacture this synth blood—in your secret laboratory?” He said the last word in a thick Dr. Frankenstein accent, with an emphasis heavy on the “bor.”
I was irritated by the intrusion of reality into my scenario. “I was thinking long term,” I snapped. “Of course, I wasn’t planning to whip something up in the kitchen sink.”
But Nik wasn’t done crushing my dream. “You’re the one who pointed out how many coveners are docs. Don’t you think they would have considered this idea, anyway?”
“Actually, I don’t,” Elias said. “Science and magic have often been pitted against each other. Your medical experts might understand that witch blood is different. They may even have researched it for their own needs, but I doubt they’ve considered what it means to the hunt. For our part, vampires have always assumed that the critical component to the hunt is the magic of death.”
“Maybe it still is,” I murmured. “In which case, Bea’s mom is screwed.”
We passed a business center. Lights were so bright here that the sidewalks seemed bathed in artificial sunlight.
“Perhaps there is a magic in death or sacrifice that’s essential to the first blood bond between witch and vampire,” Elias continued. “But the truth is, there’s something to Ana’s theory. I was slowly unraveling before Ana’s generous offer, and now … things are more stable. It’s a profound difference. One I could not glean from normal human blood.”
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