I nodded, breathless despite myself. He pulled back as if it was the most difficult thing he’d ever done.
Oh man, I was in real trouble with this new Nicholas.
We walked through the entryway, instantly assaulted with sounds and lights, with palm readers and paintings of bearded ladies, with whistles and bells and spinning pink cotton candy, and most of my high school student body all pressed together. I glanced up at Nicholas. His jaw clenched, unclenched. “Are you going to be okay?” I asked him.
He smiled, his teeth slightly pointed. “Sure.”
We walked the circuit, passing the food stands frying funnel cakes and burgers, and the game booths, ceilings bristling with giant, multicolored stuffed animals. I paused in front of the crossbow game.
Nicholas cocked an eyebrow. “Want me to win you a stuffed bunny?”
“Ha.” I rubbed my hands together. “I’ll win my own stuffed bunny, thanks very much.”
Nicholas passed the attendant a few dollars to pay for my turn. “I guess it’s nice to see you use your legendary aim for something other than breaking my nose,” he teased.
“The night is young,” I snapped back, lifting the plastic crossbow. “This is a pathetic weapon,” I muttered. “I couldn’t stake an undead mouse with this thing.”
“It’s supposed to be a game, remember?” he whispered, laughter in his dark voice.
I fired my three shots, all crowding into the bull’s-eye. With a triumphantly smug toss of my head, I looked at the openmouthed attendant. “I want the purple bunny.”
He tugged it down and passed it over to me. I slipped it into my bag while Nicholas shook his head.
“Dump this loser, Lucy, and run away with me. You’ll never have to win your own crosseyed bunny again.”
I grinned up at Nicholas’s brother Quinn, who was smiling his charming smile, his arm draping casually over my shoulder. Hunter rolled her eyes at me from my other side.
“No way,” I said. “My aim’s better than yours. Plus, your girlfriend can hurt me.”
“Ooh,” Quinn said, winking. “Catfight. Hot.” He grinned. “Ouch,” he added when both Hunter and I smacked him. Hunter looked different, wearing a sundress instead of her usual Helios-Ra vampire hunter gear and her hair loose. Still, sundress or cargo pants, she knew three different ways to incapacitate someone using just her left elbow.
“Hunter probably wants to do a sweep, so we’re going to go make out on the Ferris wheel.” Quinn waggled his eyebrows at us. “Multitasking.” Hunter laughed as he pulled her toward the glittering rides.
Nicholas took my hand again. “I hear small families are nice,” he said drily, the way he always did when one of his many brothers was bugging him. “What do you want to do first?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Cotton candy it is,” he said, eyes twinkling.
I ate sugary pink fluff and we walked around, like any other couple. If he tried to shield me when the pop of the hunting games broke through the chatter, well, that was normal too. For us, anyway. When a girl in a blue dress ran toward us, I stepped in front of him reaching for a stake, thinking she might be Hel-Blar. But there was no screaming, no blood. It was just a night at a carnival, just two people holding hands and smiling, just sugar and starlight.
I should have known better.
Still, for now, our biggest concern was Nathan, bearing down on us, grinning manically. Linnet trailed behind him, quiet and mortified as always.
“Lucy,” Nathan said. “Hi.”
“Hi, Nathan.” I glanced at Nicholas. “Nicholas, this is my friend Linnet.”
Linnet smiled shyly. “Hi.”
Nathan stared at me so pointedly and pathetically I took pity on him. Besides, if he kept clearing his throat so hard he’d probably choke to death. “And this is Nathan.”
“Hey,” Nicholas said.
Nathan apparently coughed so much he’d swallowed his tongue. He just smiled and looked slightly insane. And I was sure his heart was doing all sorts of interesting things. They just don’t come cuter than the Drake brothers. Smothering a laugh I nudged Nicholas around them. “See you guys later.”
“Is he okay?” Nicholas asked. “His blood pressure was all weird.”
“He’s fine. He just thinks you’re hot.”
“Shut up.” Nicholas’s ears went red at the tips. It was totally adorable.
I laughed. “Face it, Nicky, the Drakes are yummy.”
He ran a hand over his face, embarrassed. “Stop it, Lucky.”
“Make me,” I dared him. I kept grinning, until his fingers closed around my wrists and he tugged me closer. I was pressed up against his chest and he moved me backward, as if we were dancing, until my shoulders touched the side wall of a booth. We were hidden in the shadows under a striped awning. My hands clenched into his shirt. He lowered his head, his mouth descending toward mine.
The kiss never landed.
Hunter
“You vamped him, didn’t you?” I asked Quinn under my breath, when the attendant waved us through from the back of the line.
Quinn just grinned. “I only use my powers for good, not evil,” he assured me as we climbed into a swinging basket. The seat was cracked red leather, with a white-painted iron cage under our feet.
“Oh, you’re definitely evil,” I said as the safety bar clicked over us. He was close enough that I could see the flare of his blue eyes, the shadows of his cheekbones. His smile was slow and seductive. He was so beautiful it was sometimes hard to look at him, like staring into the sun too long. Which was ironic considering I belonged to a vampire hunter league named after two sun gods. But Helios and Ra had nothing on Quinn Drake.
He leaned closer still as the Ferris wheel creaked into motion, the basket swinging wildly on its hinges. “Are you scared?”
“No, am I supposed to be?”
“Yes.” He laughed. “So I can be all protective and macho.”
“Oh, right. I keep forgetting.” I grinned back at him.
The Ferris wheel turned slowly, bringing us up to the top, where it paused dramatically. The whirling, brightly colored lights of the carnival danced below us, and the porch lights of houses gleamed in the distance. The lake was a black spot, only faintly touched by moonlight. Out of habit, I did a visual sweep, checking for exits, defendable corners, the odd blue tint of Hel-Blar skin.
Quinn laughed again. I glanced at him. “What?”
“You’re checking access points or something, aren’t you?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Oops. Sorry. Occupational hazard,” I admitted.
“Let’s see if I can’t distract you,” he murmured, bending his head. His mouth touched mine, softly, tenderly. When I kissed him back, the kiss went deep and dark, like warm ocean water. We were floating above the world and nothing else mattered. The basket rocked lightly as the Ferris wheel creaked into motion again. His hands brushed my face gently even as his tongue touched mine with a hunger that made my head spin. I nipped at his lower lip.
We were halfway between the top of the wheel and the ground when Quinn went still. His hands froze in my hair. He tilted his head, his eyes like blue fire. I knew that look.
I searched the laughing crowds below us, reaching for my bag of weapons.
Lucy
Nicholas turned his head so sharply that I reached for a stake out of instinct. He stared at the edge of the trees, on the side of the parking lot where it came up against the boardwalk. “Someone’s screaming.” I couldn’t hear it over the din of the fair. He pointed. “There.”
“Go,” I said. “You’re way faster. I’ll get backup and find you.”
“No, stay here,” he tossed over his shoulder before he became a blur of colors, leaving a whirlwind of discarded popcorn boxes and other litter in his wake.
“Yeah, right,” I muttered, already reaching for my cell phone to call Hunter. I pushed through the crowd toward the Ferris wheel. Before it rang I saw her and Quinn, their seat bo
bbing dangerously, third from the ground. Quinn leaped and landed on his feet, racing after his brother. Hunter jumped down just as I got there, her blond hair streaming behind her. The attendant squawked at her, waving his arms frantically. But she was already on the ground and we were running as fast as we could for the woods.
“Nicholas heard it too?” she asked.
I nodded, panting. I didn’t train at a vampire hunter high school like she did. My lungs were already burning. I ignored the pain and pushed myself to go faster. Hunter pulled a handheld miniature crossbow out of her bag and handed it to me. “Here, you’re better with this thing than I am.”
I armed it when we slowed down, picking our way carefully through the underbrush. We listened for the sounds of a fight, for another scream. A cloud of rotten mushrooms and green pond water hit us like a fist.
“Why can’t they smell like dead flowers like some of the others?” I gagged.
Hunter didn’t reply. But she did drop to the ground and sweep her legs out, knocking me off my feet. I stumbled and fell hard. A stake whistled between us, thunking into a tree. Sheer luck had me twisting so I didn’t break the crossbow or impale myself on it either. The Hel-Blar who’d thrown the stake clacked his saliva-dripping teeth at us, launching himself at Hunter. I released the crossbow bolt and it slammed into his chest. The moment it pierced his heart, his blue-tinged flesh disintegrated and blew away.
Hunter sat up. “Thanks.”
I sat up too, the stake in the pine trunk an inch over my head. “Back at you.” It would have caught me right between my shoulders if she hadn’t shoved me out of the way. I loaded another bolt and pushed to my feet. Hunter was already up and spinning on her heel, searching the shadows and listening.
When Quinn and Nicholas burst out of the trees I nearly loosed a crossbow bolt at them. Hunter’s arm stuttered as she stopped herself from launching a stake at the very last second. We all stared at each other, wide-eyed.
“Hell of a carnival,” Quinn said, shoving his hair out of his face.
“And I thought our school events were interesting,” Hunter agreed. “Lucy dropped a Hel-Blar.”
“I told you to stay at the carnival,” Nicholas said.
“Oh, right, ’cause you’re the boss of me,” I scoffed. “Get a grip, Drake.”
Quinn snorted. “Told you, little brother.”
“What did you guys find?” Hunter asked.
“Another Hel-Blar, but we took care of her,” Quinn said.
“There’s a girl too,” Nicholas added. “Kinda drunk and weepy.”
Hunter sighed. “Is she okay? Do we need to get her to the infirmary?”
“She’s fine,” Quinn grumbled.
“Are you sure?”
“Fine enough to grab his ass.” Nicholas smirked.
Quinn glanced at Hunter, then at his brother. “Shut up, man.”
Hunter rolled her eyes. “Like I don’t already know girls love you, Quinn,” she said. She pushed through the branches, stopping only to glance back at him. “Shouldn’t we check on her?”
Quinn motioned to the trail coming out of the trees and leading to the fairgrounds. “She went back to the carnival.” He took Hunter’s hand. “Let’s go steal a rowboat,” he murmured at her. He didn’t even look back at us. “See ya.”
Nicholas and I made our way back to the whirling lights of the carnival. Adrenaline was still buzzing through me, making the colors look brighter and sharper. The rides all seemed to be going too fast, people’s faces spinning and spinning.
“You know, I see a flaw in our carnival plan,” Nicholas whispered in my ear as a group jostled past us.
“What’s that?” Shivers tickled my neck when his tongue gently touched my earlobe.
“Too many damn people.” His words were husky, smoky.
I glanced at him. He’d just taken out a Hel-Blar and had smelled fresh human blood. His pupils were dilated and his fangs were lengthening slightly but not enough for anyone else to notice. “Are you speaking as a vampire?”
“No, just as a guy who wants to kiss his girlfriend without an audience.” His gaze roamed the edges of the midway. “This one’s empty,” he said finally, tugging me behind the Tilt-A-Whirl to a stationary merry-go-around. We snuck around the Under Repair sign and climbed onto the circular platform, wandering between painted horses, unicorns, and a red dragon. Two prancing white horses pulled a purple carriage. Gray eyes flaring, Nicholas pulled me inside.
Adrenaline and desire made me feel as if I were on fire, and that was before Nicholas even kissed me. Or I kissed him. It didn’t matter who closed the distance between us first; it only mattered that his mouth was on mine, that my hands were running over the muscles of his arms, that his cool fingers dug into my waist. His tongue stroked mine and I made a tiny sound that had him yanking me even tighter against his chest. I couldn’t get close enough. I shifted so that I was sitting in his lap. His teeth grazed my lower lip.
The carousel lurched into motion but we didn’t even pause. It didn’t matter, nothing mattered, not even whatever strange force was pushing us in circles. His hand tangled in my hair and he pulled my head back to trail his mouth along my neck. I shivered and pulled his face back up, kissing him deeply. I felt reckless, like a Roman candle burning in a dry field. He moved against me, responding just as quickly, just as desperately.
His fangs elongated so suddenly, one of them scratched my lip. A drop of blood welled, tasting coppery on my tongue. He jerked back, his hands still clamped around my arms but holding me away from him as if I were dangerous. My breath was loud and ragged. His chest was moving too, as if his body had forgotten he didn’t need to breathe.
He licked the tiniest of drops of my blood off his lip, slowly, so slowly I couldn’t look at anything else.
And then the carousel sped up, dislodging me. I fell against the side of the chariot, fighting the momentum of the spinning horses.
Nicholas frowned, also struggling to get to his feet. “Something’s wrong.”
Hunter
I didn’t even ask Quinn where he found the rowboat. It was small and painted white, with a flat bench in the middle. After I made a quick sweep to make sure there weren’t any other Hel-Blar in the woods, Quinn rowed us out until we were floating in the soft darkness, the lights glittering on the water. He slid the oars back into the boat.
“I’m biting the next person who interrupts us,” he said as a cool, soft breeze drifted over.
It was quiet here, the sounds of music and laughter thin and distant. The stars seemed really close. I could feel the mountain looming protectively in the darkness. Quinn sat across from me, leaning his arms on his knees. His hair fell around his pale face, lifting slightly when the wind picked up. It was a soft moment, romantic and slow, as if time were trickling to a stop just for us.
And then a blue hand grabbed the side of the rowboat.
A snarling Hel-Blar tried to haul himself out of the lake, right into my lap. The stink of rot and mildew slapped at us. The water churned, and the boat heaved violently.
“Son of a bitch!” Quinn kicked him in the face and he snarled, blood trickling from his broken nose. But he didn’t let go.
And he wasn’t alone.
Another Hel-Blar was scrabbling at the other side of the boat. I shot Hypnos powder into his snarling face, emptying the casing in my cuff. “Drop!” I ordered. His fingers, with their blood-encrusted nails, loosened and he dropped into the lake, the water closing over his head. Quinn wasn’t able to reach the first Hel-Blar’s chest with his stake without being in danger of infected saliva and savage biting. So he grabbed an oar and smashed him in the head until he floated away, bleeding.
“Looks like I just chummed the waters,” he said darkly.
“I’d better call this in,” I said, cell phone in one hand and flashlight in the other. I swung the beam of light over the dark lake until it caught the gleam of unnatural eyes. “There! Another one, swimming to shore!”
&nb
sp; Quinn groaned, his head falling back in frustration. “Let’s move to Spain,” he finally said.
“Why Spain?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, paddling the boat back to shore. “It’s really sunny there, probably not a lot of vampires. We might actually get to have a date that doesn’t end in mayhem and blood.”
I snorted. “Is that possible with a Drake?”
“Probably not,” he admitted. He swung the oar and there was a wet thud. “Incoming!”
Lucy
I steadied myself against a unicorn with garish lime-green eyes, his golden horn painted with glitter. It was difficult to focus on the carnival. We were moving too fast and everyone else seemed to be moving too slowly. The lights trailed, like smeared paint. They made me dizzy. Nicholas put his hand on my lower back, steadying me.
“They’re frozen,” he said tightly.
“Who is?”
“Everyone.”
I stared at him, then at the fair speeding past. I had to concentrate really hard, trying to pick out certain people and booths, like a ballet dancer spotting during pirouettes. I chose the Whac-A-Mole booth because of the hideous red-and-yellow glowing gopher on the roof. After a few rotations I noticed that none of the people in front of the game had moved. A little girl crying over dropped ice cream was in the exact same position, her mother leaning down toward her. The Ferris wheel had stopped, as had the spinning cups and the flying swings. One of the swings was still in midair, one girl’s hair tangling around her laughing face.
“Okay, this is seriously freaky,” I said. “Even for Violet Hill. We need Isabeau for this kind of magic.”
“She’s at the caves. Not exactly good cell reception there.”
Even the pigeons eating popcorn off the boardwalk were still as statues. “Everyone’s stuck.” I goggled at Nicholas. “Except for us.”
“And her.” He nodded grimly toward the fairground. I followed his gaze but it took another dizzying turn before I saw her. She looked about our age, had long brown hair, and stood in front of Brent as if she’d been kissing him. When she stepped back, letting go of his shoulders, Brent’s knees buckled and he dropped bonelessly to the ground.
Vampire Bites: A Taste of the Drake Chronicles Page 4