Hotblood

by Juliann Whicker

  “You broke the agreement,” Osmond said. Lewis glared at him, and I wondered if I should step between them to protect Osmond when Lewis shrugged and gave Osmond a grin that showed his teeth.

  “You’re right, I did. Dari,” he turned to me, and I could see the tension in his hands before he forced them down. A flicker of wind spread the tails of his shirt apart revealing his chest. The sight of his scarred skin confused me. I felt cold as I reached a finger out and touched the hot skin, tracing a line. There were so many of them, stripes that were too regular in size and direction to be caused by fighting. There was a pattern I felt I could make out if I had more light.

  “You’re a blood worker.” My whisper was carried away by the same wind that ruffled his hair. I pulled my fingers back as if they’d been burned and fought down the rising heat in me, the fury of my beating heart as it flooded me with an urgent desperation not to think. I didn’t want to know what the scars that he’d tried so hard to keep hidden meant. I turned away, wrapping my arms around myself shaking from a cold that had nothing to do with the night air.

  “Come on,” Osmond said before he draped his jacket over my shoulders. I turned to him, and grabbing tightly to his arm, buried my face in his shirt so I wouldn’t have to see Lewis, to look in the eyes of my brother’s cold-blooded killer, whom I loved.

  15 What Not to Wear to a Shooting Gallery

  When I got home I went straight to my room, and ended up ripping the stupid dress off of me when the laces were too much. I buried my face in my pillow and let the tears flow. Lewis was nothing like nice. All those weeks of talking to him in the halls, of seeing him and feeling good, of thinking I knew who he was, meant nothing. He killed my brother. I didn’t understand how Lewis could do something like that, and yet, Devlin had taken my soul. Was it any worse to kill someone than it was to take their soul? I’d felt so close to him, like I was finally understanding why he was here, but now… nothing. I was certain the tears would never stop and that sleep would never come, but the next thing I knew I heard a door slam and as I blinked awake the sound of a sports car’s engine in the driveway.

  Lewis.

  I bolted out of bed and ran to the window in time to see him peel out of the drive and down the street as quickly as he could go. I threw on my clothes and ran downstairs. Satan lounged in the doorway of the kitchen eating an apple with a knife, a purple bruise on his eye fading even as I watched.

  “Lewis hit you? What did you do to him?” It wasn’t rational but I couldn’t stop the instinctive urge I had to protect Lewis.

  “Dariana, good morning,” my mother said, her voice crisp and cool as the autumn weather.

  “What was Lewis doing here?” I demanded.

  Satan eyed my mother and shook his head. “I’ve got things to do,” he said, crossing to the front door.

  “Why don’t we talk over breakfast,” my mother said with a conciliatory smile.

  “Why don’t we talk now?” I asked but followed her to the kitchen. I ate the near raw steak and eggs all the while growing more and more impatient.

  “Lewis came to explain his absence.”

  “Absence?” I suddenly felt like I’d eaten way too much, too fast.

  “He’s heard something about releasing souls he thinks he should look into, but since it’s not his soul, he can’t exactly run off without telling us.”

  “Us? It’s not your soul. Why didn’t he tell me goodbye? When will he be back? Is it dangerous, will he be okay?”

  “It’s hardly necessary for him to tell you goodbye, Dari. The two of you were simply friends when last I checked.”

  “We’re soul mates, Mother. It’s not like that’s simple, and how would you feel? Oh I forgot for a second, you don’t feel. Why did he punch Satan?” My words were fast and hard but I didn’t care.

  Her face was pale as she stared at me before saying in a quiet voice I could barely hear. “I got the feeling that Lewis wasn’t in the best mood this morning.”

  “Why not? What was wrong?”

  “I don’t know. Perhaps it had something to do with you coming home with Osmond last night.”

  I felt a long slow chill start at the top of my head and flow over my body. I never gave him the chance to explain, to tell me what the circumstances of Devlin’s death were. If he’d left me, when he found out that I’d taken his soul, if he left with Snowy disgusted by what I’d done, I’d want to die if I had to watch him leave, never looking back.

  I got up and ran out of the kitchen. I’d gone two blocks before I noticed I wasn’t wearing shoes, but I was in a hurry. He had to stop at Old Peter’s to get his stuff before he left. It was cold on that October morning, I noticed my breath puffing in the air as though from a distance, like I noticed someone raking in the yard waving at me, and someone else honk at me when I darted across the road without checking for traffic first.

  I rounded the corner and finally saw the small cottage, smoke curling from its chimney. I slowed down as I got closer, realizing how I must look, but I pushed away the self-consciousness as I got to the driveway, and looked up it to see a long run of bare gravel, nothing left of Lewis’ car beside a pair of mild grooves where it had been. It was hard for me to swallow, my breath came in short pants that had nothing to do with my sprint. I ran again to the door, pounding on the screen until Old Peter opened the door and blinked out at me like an owl in the daylight.

  “Dariana Sanders, good morning.”

  “Old Peter, where is he? Has he gone yet? He can’t go until I talk to him, until I explain.”

  His eyebrows came close together in a line. “What exactly are you going to explain?”

  “I…” Old Peter was not the person to talk to about my brother. “Things went badly last night. I was upset and I need to see him.” My words were vague, and my voice was sounding more and more hysterical.

  “He’s gone now, left an hour ago. Tell you what, why don’t you come on in for some breakfast, and I can make you a nice tea that will help with that headache you’ve got.”

  “What?” I pushed my hair off my forehead, for the first time noticing the pounding. “No, that doesn’t matter. Do you have a phone number or an address? Some way for me to reach him?” He kept shaking his head in what was half negative and half pity.

  “The boy has gone hunting, Dariana. One doesn’t leave a forwarding address when one is hunting.”

  “Hunting? I thought he was trying to figure out something about our souls.”

  He shrugged. “He thinks he can find someone to help. Catching someone that capable and dangerous is what I call hunting.”

  “When will he be back?”

  He caught my eye and shook his head again. “I’m sorry, Dariana, but there’s no way to say.”

  I nodded and stumbled backwards, my head reeling. “Sorry for disturbing you. I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

  On the walk home, the only thing I could hear was my head pounding, my heart a dull throb that would never stop. It was the longest weekend I’d ever had. Saturday dragged, Sunday, every moment I thought, tried not to think, the memory of the scars always lurking right behind my eyes, the pain in his eyes before I turned away from him.

  I was sitting on the lawn, staring out into the woods on Sunday afternoon, when Satan came and sat beside me not asking if I wanted company. The only company I wanted was Lewis. I kept telling myself to hunt, to see if the Nether wanted to abduct me, but I couldn’t leave things like this: just hanging.

  “Seems you’ve been a little bit cranky lately,” he began with his usual tact.

  I glared at him and got up. “Oh right, because you’re so sensitive.” He raised an eyebrow, and I wanted to punch his face. I clenched my fist then shook my head and turned towards the house. It would only hurt my hand, and he’d heal.

  I stopped suddenly as my uncle Grim seemed to take shape right in front of me. I blinked and shrugged not caring that I was losing my mind.

  “Evening,” he said in that familiar d
ry voice that I somehow found comforting.

  “Grim. You’re the first person I’ve wanted to see today,” I said and noticed he looked even more tired and worn than usual. He looked how I felt.

  Half of his mouth lifted in a slight smile. “I could say the same to you. Brother,” he said looking over me at Satan where he was still on the lawn. He hefted something in his hand I couldn’t make out and threw it towards Satan’s head. Satan caught it in a movement too fast for his size and grinned as he put it on. “It has been too long,” he said stroking his old coat like it was a pet.

  “You came to deliver his coat?” I asked, noticing how Satan seemed to get fuzzy around the edges and blinked him back into focus. “It’s magic?”

  Satan grinned at me. “It’s a good coat. Thanks for getting it for me Grim. Took you long enough.”

  Grim gave Satan an odd look. “It did. I got a little bit distracted by a few things that Helen and you may find interesting. Dari, you’re welcome to join us,” he said as Satan lumbered over to us, still shrugging now and then as though to accustom himself to the coat.

  I shook my head. “It’s House of Slide stuff, right?”

  “It’s about your brother’s killer,” he said as gently as possible.

  I felt my heart constrict, and for a second I couldn’t breathe. “My brother’s killer,” I said in a voiceless whisper. “Did you find him?”

  He shook his head with a frown. “I’m afraid there are Wilds involved.”

  Satan’s rumbling chuckle startled me, and I smiled at him, wanting to laugh myself at the relief I felt. Lewis was safe, at least for the moment. “Finally,” he said with immense satisfaction as he slapped Grim on the back. “We’re finally going to see some action.”

  I watched them walk inside, feeling sick to my stomach. This wasn’t likely to end very well for me. I forced myself to straighten up and take a deep breath. Well, what was new?

  I sat on the edge of a chair in the living room, watching my uncles where they sat on the couch. My mother sat on a chair matching mine with a frown of concentration on her face.

  “Bliss is involved? Slide had a pact with Bliss years ago. I can’t believe that they’d want to break it over something as trivial as a hybrid. Hybrids in Wild families might be taboo, but it’s hardly worth bloodshed. Grim, are you sure that’s what you heard?”

  Grim glanced at me, and gave me a slight smile. “Times are changing, Helen. Hybrids are moving to the status Hollows had before the last war. Hybrids have never been popular and Wilds are always afraid of power they don’t have. I know I am.”

  “So Bliss is allied with how many houses? How did they get Hotbloods involved? I’ve never met a blood worker who was comfortable an arm’s-length from a Wild,” Satan said impatiently.

  “It seems,” Grim said frowning, “the blood worker wanted Devlin’s blood.”

  We sat in silence for a moment letting this sink in until I couldn’t stand it anymore. “What did the blood worker want with Devlin’s blood?”

  They all looked at me. “Devlin has talents that the blood worker could absorb and use for himself. Devlin could lean unlike anyone I’ve ever met,” Satan said gruffly. “It was more like compulsion than any leaning I’ve ever seen. If he wanted you to do something, you did it. Period. Come to think of it, I’m seeing why so many Wilds would be persuaded to join.”

  “But the blood worker, why would he still want to work with the Wilds after he has Devlin’s powers?” I couldn’t imagine Lewis hurting someone for power. It didn’t make any sense.

  “You,” my mother said simply. “Satan said that you ran into demons when you first came here, trying to draw you towards the river.” I nodded numbly. “The bloodworker wants your blood in a way he didn’t understand until he took Devlin’s blood.” She bit her lip and shoved her hand through her hair looking genuinely freaked out. “Nether blood is addictive. Satan can tell you all about it from the stint he had hunting Nethers.”

  I stared at Satan and he looked back at me with a frown. “Yeah. It’s lethal too. He won’t live very long if there’s enough Nether in his body, it’ll eat him away but, in the meantime, he’ll need more.”

  I stared at them and shook my head. Lewis was not this person they were talking about. He couldn’t be. He’d been around me enough times and never looked slightly interested in my blood. I’d been much more likely to rip out his throat than he was to pierce my skin with a knife.

  “How many blood workers are there? Do you have any idea who it is?”

  Grim and Satan exchanged thoughtful looks before Grim said, “Too many to know for certain. The only old Hotbloods are blood workers who get longevity from a different breed, but they’re also the ones who have enough control that they aren’t eliminated by other bloodworkers, not to mention Hunters. Maybe there are one hundred to two hundred on this continent. Satan?”

  Satan nodded. “There are more down south. There are always fewer Hotbloods in cold climates although you’d think they’d prefer the cold when they get so hot all the time.”

  I sort of stopped listening at that point. There was no way that Lewis had killed Devlin, not if that meant he’d be out for my blood. He hadn’t wanted me to see his scars because it wasn’t something he was proud of, but it wasn’t any worse than my Netherkind nature and my need to taste death. I felt a lump in my throat that I couldn’t swallow. He must hate me for how I’d treated him. He would probably never forgive me. I had to find him, to explain everything to him so he would understand. I wasn’t sure what there was to understand. He must understand that I took him for a psycho killer who wanted my blood. How could I be so stupid? I made some excuses about my headache, not really excuses since I had a very real headache pounding behind my eyes, and went to stare at my painting until I finally fell asleep.

  The next morning I went to school in Satan’s car with Grim at the wheel while Satan sat shotgun. He looked like he should have a shotgun. “We’re going to the city for the day, so if you kill anyone you have to take care of the body yourself,” Satan said as he dropped me off.

  I rolled my eyes and slammed the door behind me before adjusting my bag and walking towards the building. I looked towards the parking lot, automatically searching for the purple Mustang until I forced myself to focus on the old cathedral.

  “Your dance was amazing,” the first girl who saw me inside gushed. I forced a smile and nodded but I couldn’t stop the tension in my belly as I went to my first class and sat down. I knew Lewis wasn’t there. I knew he wasn’t going to be there, but every time Mrs. Briggs asked a question, I expected his warm voice to answer, those eyes to glance at me quickly then away when he’d said something clever. By the time class was over, I felt more tightly wound than a spring. I forced myself to walk the hall, to not look for his face on every guy I passed. I made it to lunch, focused determinedly on my casserole while Snowy dropped beside me with her usual grace.

  “So, how are you?” She asked with so much cheerful enthusiasm I knew she already knew about Lewis.

  “Great. Homecoming was so fantastic I didn’t think my life could ever find a moment to surpass that bliss, but amazingly enough, my weekend kept getting better and better.”

  “Ouch. Do you think you could tone down the sarcasm a bit? It’s not like you’re the only one who had a hard time. I had to get a ride with Smoke. I mean, come on, in that wagon, in my dress? And he kept going on and on about how fantastic you are to dance with. It’s not like you weren’t great, but like that’s what I want to hear after having a run in with Valerie, who ended up going home with Lewis. Maybe you did desert him, but I was his date too. Good riddance,” she muttered into her casserole and I stared at her bent head trying to still the rage triggered by hearing Lewis, Valerie, and ride all in the same sentence.

  “Lewis gave her a ride home that night?” My voice was quiet, and that was good, but I was burning very hot, as I clenched a carrot stick in my hand.

  “Dari, how was your weekend,�
�� Osmond said sitting across from me.

  “Gotta go,” I mumbled and left the table, the sight of Osmond, who had started this whole nightmare, was too much to take. My head pounded and my body was so hot I could feel heat rising off my skin. I left through the nearest doors and walked outside aimlessly until I remembered where Valerie usually spent her lunch.

  I circled the school slowly, studying the brown grass intently, the way the leaves piled up against one side of the building, the way the shadows fell across the sidewalk. I noticed the color of the stone, the way it looked cold, and the way I’d felt on the rooftop with the wind on my shoulders when I’d learned the awful truth. I blinked and looked around the parking lot until I found her.

  Valerie was perched on the hood of a car with a guy, throwing back her hair as she laughed. She was as bad as Snowy, as pretentious and manipulative, only what were her motives? Snowy always wanted the greater good. Even if that wasn’t my good, at least it wasn’t completely selfish. What did Valerie want? Maybe she set up the entire thing at the dance because she wanted Lewis, or simply didn’t want him here. I walked towards her, not bothering to keep a smile on my face. She watched me come with an amused look and said something derisive to her companion who looked at me nervously. He was on unsure ground with me, Devlin’s zombie sister who was something like the school mascot, and Valerie, who he thought might be his girlfriend.

  “Valerie, I’d like a word,” I said brusquely. “You can go.” I dismissed the boy and leaned against the car, glaring at her.

  “Go on,” she said in a low seductive voice to the guy who was wavering. “I’ll see you later. Now what,” she said once he’d gone out of earshot. “Can I do for you?”

  “Why did Lewis give you a ride home?”

  Her eyebrows arched prettily in mock surprise. “Who?” I growled and she shook her head slightly. “Do you know the meaning of the word subtlety? You’re mother’s the legendary Helen of Slide, you’d think something would have rubbed off. I’ll tell you because you look like you want to hurt someone and frankly, I’m not in the mood. Violence isn’t really my thing. Lewis took me home because he wanted to lecture me on chatting with you at the super fun dance. He didn’t like me interfering. So now I have a question for you, honey. What happened that night that got that oh-so-in-control boy in knots?”