Bleeding Hearts

by Alyxandra Harvey

  Ordinarily this would have been a great dream, full of poets and lace cravats.

  But it felt wrong.

  And my neck hurt.

  When I lifted my hand away from my neck, it was covered in blood.

  I wiped it frantically on my jeans but the blood kept pooling, dripping between my knuckles. And then it sparked and burned like embers before catching fire, as if my palms were filled with gasoline instead of blood. I smelled scorched flesh, smoke, spilled wine.

  I woke up choking on a scream, my hair damp with sweat.

  I couldn’t immediately figure out why everything hurt and there was dust up my nose. I was just glad I wasn’t really on fire. I lay there, cataloging my pains: the bruised hipbone from lying on the ground, the aching arm from where Aidan had grabbed me. No burns.

  I knew the sun had gone down because I was in near darkness, except for a sliver of honey-tinted light from the lamp. If I moved my head slightly, the light fell between the floorboards and onto Connor’s face. He really was beautiful, crazy or not. He’d risked himself to find me even though we barely knew each other. And for a computer geek, he had all sorts of interesting muscles. His eyes were impossible, mesmerizing.

  Open.

  They opened so abruptly, I started. Before I could say anything, his blue gaze caught mine, held it, trapped it. His lips lifted off his teeth; fangs lengthened and gleamed violently. I didn’t see him lunge, but the trapdoor by my head suddenly snapped open, showering me with splinters and dirt. I scrambled backward as Connor landed in a crouch, still watching me hungrily.

  Hungrily.

  “Not good,” I muttered, straightening. “Not good, not good.” I swallowed, tried to smile, tried to make my tone soothing and not shrill. “Connor.”

  He rose slowly, so slowly I couldn’t help but stay where I was, enthralled. I felt like a deer freezing in the shadow of a predator, hoping not to be noticed.

  It was not a nice feeling.

  Especially when he’d made me feel safe not a handful of hours ago. But whoever this Connor was, he wasn’t human. Even I could see that, unbeliever that I was. He wasn’t playacting or deluded. He was dangerous. And struggling for control.

  I put my hands up, as if that would stop him. He just kept moving, stalking toward me, backing me into a corner until I had nowhere else to go. I remembered Lucy, when I assumed she was drunk, telling me to move slowly, and Aidan telling me I could never outrun them. It wasn’t a theory I wanted to test. But just standing there didn’t seem like a good idea, either. And I was getting annoyed. I was used to people being scared of me or not seeing me at all. This wasn’t a pleasant alternative.

  “Connor, stop it.”

  He half smiled. It was more of a smirk, and it made him look like his twin. “I just want a little taste, Christabel.”

  “What?” I scowled. “And ew.” He took a step closer. I slapped a hand on his chest. “Hey! Back off.”

  He stopped but was still close enough that all he had to do was bend his head to run his mouth along the side of my neck. I shivered despite myself. His fingers clamped around my wrist, lifting my hand off his chest. His very still chest. I frowned over that while he lifted my hand to his nose, sniffing me as if I were a rose. There was a dangerous edge to him that he hadn’t possessed before.

  It shouldn’t have made him more attractive.

  Damn that bad-boy thing.

  I should have been furious. I should not have been feeling ticklish. I tried to jerk my palm away from his gentle nuzzling. His nostrils flared. Something moved across his face, something angry and cold.

  “Connor?”

  “No. Can’t,” he muttered to himself, as if I were a bottle of wine turned to vinegar. He tilted his head. “But …”

  And then he was pressed against me and I was pressed against the wall and there was nothing but his mouth on mine. His palms were flat against the wooden boards on either side of my head. I couldn’t have moved if I’d wanted.

  I didn’t want to.

  Instead I kissed him back.

  A lot.

  His kisses were the opposite of his laid-back, friendly personality. They were wild and burned all the way down to my knees. I barely had time to catch my breath between kisses. His tongue touched mine, I gently bit his lower lip, he made a sound in the back of his throat that made me feel faint.

  And then he pulled away, still leaning on the wall, head next to mine. His hair tickled my cheek and his hands were clenched into fists. His eyes sparked like embers.

  “Connor?”

  He didn’t say anything but I knew he was fighting some kind of battle. He wanted to advance, wanted to retreat, wanted something I couldn’t recognize and didn’t know how to give him.

  “Are you okay?”

  When he finally spoke, it was like his voice hurt. “No,” he forced out. “Get out of here.”

  Where exactly was I supposed to go? Not only was he blocking me, but I was kind of kidnapped in the mountains. Not a lot of options.

  “I’m not … safe,” he said. “Need blood.”

  “Gross.”

  “I’m serious,” he ground out. He lifted his head, fangs poking out of his gums, expression both hot and cold.

  Before I could react, the door swung open and Aidan barreled through it. “Christabel, behind me!” he ordered.

  But Aidan was technically my kidnapper, even though he’d already saved my life once. To say I was confused was an understatement.

  “Christa, listen to him,” Connor said, shifting to give me an exit. His jaw clenched. “Please.”

  It was the “please” that galvanized me into moving. I darted under his arm. Aidan shifted, meeting me halfway. I saw Connor twitch at the movement, like a cat suddenly focused on a fly, getting ready to swat it out of the air and eat its wings. Aidan shoved a jug toward him. It looked heavy but neither of them seemed to notice. Connor started to drink from it and I eased around Aidan’s shoulder to look at him, then frowned. Was that blood?

  It was getting really hard not to believe in vampires.

  Connor looked at me, made a strange sound, and then turned around so I couldn’t see him drinking. He tilted his head back to get the last drops.

  “He’s a young’un,” Aidan explained. “Sunset makes them a mite ornery. It can take years, decades even, before a vampire can wake easily. He’s already done better than most. Give him a minute.”

  Connor finally turned around, wiping his mouth. He looked partly chagrined and partly defiant. And mostly human again. I fought a small sigh of relief. Aidan looming next to me made it hard to feel true relief.

  “Let’s go,” Aidan said.

  Yup, no relief at all.

  Chapter 17

  Lucy

  I snuck out after my parents went to sleep.

  I felt bad about it, but not bad enough to stay home.

  I’d slept until noon and went to my afternoon classes, where Nathan informed me I was cranky and distracted. I had to walk to Mom’s work and wait for her shift to end so I could get a ride home. My car was languishing in a garage somewhere with little hope of resurrection. I would have to get a part-time job soon to replace it, but there were no want ads for vampire sympathizers. I wasn’t entirely sure I was qualified to do anything else.

  When the sun set, my day didn’t exactly get better. There were more Hel-Blar roaming the edges of town and almost everyone was out hunting them down. Solange wouldn’t answer my texts again, and even Nicholas was in the caves and out of range. Christabel was still gone, though apparently the Drakes had received a photo of her to prove she was unharmed. That was something, at least.

  But I couldn’t possibly be expected just to go to sleep and hope someone else figured it all out.

  So when Hunter texted me and asked if I wanted to join them on patrol, I actually did a victory dance, scaring one of our cats under my desk. Finally, someone who didn’t think I was useless because I was human or because I was sixteen. I made a lump o
f clothes into a person-shape under my blanket and then pinned a note underneath to my pillow just in case my mom figured it out. If my parents found my bed empty with no note, they’d have twin heart attacks and die on the spot. Dad’s ulcer might actually explode. I tucked a chamomile tea bag next to the note, just in case.

  Hunter pulled up to the end of my driveway and turned her lights out at precisely one thirty a.m., as planned. I snuck out of my window, landing in the bushes. If my parents caught me, they’d probably move my bedroom up to the attic and invest in a set of iron bars for the windows. I ran along the side of the driveway, staying close to the cedars and the lilac bushes. I had a vial of Hypnos up my sleeve, secured in an old tear-gas pen Hunter had given me, stakes in my shoulder bag, my cell phone, and a knapsack full of water, food, and a hand crossbow I’d “liberated” from the Drakes. I was prepared. Despite what everyone seemed to think about my supposed recklessness, I wasn’t an idiot.

  I slid into the backseat next to a duffel bag bristling with more stakes, crossbows, and throwing daggers. Hunter’s friend Chloe was in the front seat, frowning at her laptop.

  “Don’t you have wireless out here?” she asked in lieu of a greeting.

  I snorted. “Please, we’re on dial-up.”

  Chloe looked horrified. “How do you live like that?”

  “We’re just lucky we have actual power lines. The farm down the road has to use oil for heating and solar panels and a generator for electricity.”

  Chloe just blinked at me like I was a particularly strange science project. Hunter eased the standard-issue Helios-Ra Jeep down the road before switching the headlights back on. Her long blond hair was caught in a tight braid and she was wearing her school cargo pants. I was wearing black jeans and a black hoodie, which was about as military as I got.

  “Did you hear?” Hunter glanced in the rearview mirror at me. “Hope killed herself.”

  “Seriously?” Hope had run the Helios-Ra with Kieran’s uncle before the truth came out that she’d murdered the old director, Kieran’s father. She’d also secretly sent out rogue units to kill Solange. And she’d allied herself with Lady Natasha. The Helios-Ra had not been impressed.

  “Apparently she didn’t want to deal with League justice.”

  “Dare I ask what that even is?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  I really did, actually. But I knew she wasn’t allowed to tell me, since I was an outsider and an outsider with vampire connections on top of it. She was starting to have those same connections, through Quinn. I wondered how the other students were dealing with that. Hunter had a way of making you think she could handle anything. I made a note to ask Chloe later.

  “So where are we going?” I asked for now.

  “Pretty much point to a map of the wilds around Violet Hill, and it’s crawling with Hel-Blar,” Hunter answered. “We’re still cleaning up from Montmartre and Greyhaven, and now this new thing with your cousin. Are you holding up okay after last night? We hear you got ambushed.”

  “It was bizarre,” I admitted. “Saga had them controlled like she fed them Hypnos or something, but she just had that whistle. And they wore those copper collars.”

  “We don’t know anything about her,” Hunter said, sounding both apologetic and frustrated. “We didn’t even know Hel-Blar could stand one another enough to go after some sort of political goal.”

  “I know,” I grumbled in agreement. “It’s annoying.”

  “It really is,” Hunter grumbled back. “Any word on your cousin?”

  “All signs point to her being alive,” I said. I’d reminded myself of that about a thousand times today.

  “I hear they were trying to get you,” Chloe said. “Bummer.”

  “Yeah. How’d you hear about that, anyway? Quinn?”

  Hunter nodded. “And word’s out through the League.”

  “The League,” I teased, wanting to stop the burning in the back of my eyes and the way my throat was suddenly feeling tight. “I’m surprised you guys don’t go out in Wonder Woman Underoos.”

  “Hunter had a pair when she was a kid.” Chloe grinned. “I’ve seen pictures.”

  Hunter narrowed her eyes. “Are we sharing embarrassing kid stories? Because I’ll remind you of—”

  Chloe winced. “Sorry! I take it back!”

  Hunter smiled smugly.

  “I have a photo of Quinn dressed up like Batman, tights and all,” I offered.

  Hunter’s smile widened. “I’ll remember that.”

  “Do the Drakes sit around wearing crowns?” Chloe asked dreamily. “I’d love to be royalty.”

  Hunter and I exchanged a glance.

  “The Drakes aren’t like that,” I said. “Well, mostly. The brothers kind of act like princes, but that’s nothing new. They’ve always been bossy.”

  Chloe sighed. “Can you imagine being a princess? It must be awesome.”

  I knew Solange would much prefer to be a girl sitting in a car with her friends, like Chloe. Well, the old Solange would have preferred that. I really couldn’t tell with her now.

  “So, anything else weird going on?” I asked. Hunter and I had taken to sharing strange intel with each other when we could.

  “Besides the Hel-Blar, not really.” She turned onto a road that narrowed almost immediately to a dirt lane. Tree branches scraped at the windows. “There are a bunch of cabins down by the end of the lake,” she explained, interrupting herself. “Hel-Blar were spotted here last night.” She stopped the Jeep, parking it under a huge pine tree. “So we’re supposed to do a sweep. You?”

  “My mom told me one of the New Age shops was broken into this week.”

  “Why’s that weird?” Hunter wondered as we climbed out of the vehicle.

  “The only thing missing was a basket of bloodstone.” Bloodstone wasn’t red as expected, more of a dark green with rust-colored veins. It was used for healing in New Age circles. But because of the name, it held some interest for the vampire tribes as well. I’d have to ask Isabeau if she ever used it for anything magical.

  “Bloodstone?” Hunter repeated quizzically, adjusting the stakes on her belt.

  “Yup.” I was a little proud. It wasn’t easy getting the scoop on something Hunter didn’t already know, especially if it wasn’t about the Drakes. “Not even a penny out of the till.”

  “Huh. That is kinda weird.”

  “I know, right?”

  Chloe checked her weapons and tied back the enormous weight of her long black curls, pulling them out of her face. “Ready?”

  I loaded my miniature crossbow with a bolt, keeping the rest in my pocket. My aim was my best weapon by far, and it kept me out of easy reach of any attacking vampires. “Ready.”

  “Stay in visual range,” Hunter whispered, nodding at Chloe. “You take rear, I’ll take point.”

  We crept through the trees, toward the faint glimmer of the lake. One of the cabins had a motion sensor light that flicked on as we passed. Hunter was on the edge of the light, out of range. Chloe and I had tripped it. Chloe looked as irritated by that as I was.

  We patrolled the area, scaring a racoon, a porcupine, and two bunnies but no vampires. We eventually found claw marks in the mud on the edge of a garden and a thin trail of blood leading from there to the woods.

  “It’s dry,” Hunter said. “Not tonight’s, maybe not even last night’s.”

  But it ended at a pile of bones and fur.

  “That better not have been someone’s pet,” I said ominously.

  Hunter shook her head. “Looks like a badger.”

  “I’m not even going to ask how you know that.”

  “Definitely not an animal kill,” Chloe added, pointing to the dirt. “That’s a footprint.”

  We did another sweep, ending back at the main lane leading out of the forest, away from the lake. The wind rained autumn leaves over us. Hunter frowned, holding up her hand and pausing. Chloe frowned as well, squinting to see what Hunter saw. I didn’
t catch anything out of the ordinary either, just a bear-proof box for residents’ garbage and the glint of a soda can.

  “Hear that?” Hunter asked so softly I had to strain to hear her. She pointed in the direction of a clump of cedars. It was very faint, like a pig snuffing the ground for truffles. I nodded, eyes widening. The snuffing sounded more ferocious now that I suspected it was Hel-Blar and not someone’s escaped pig. “We need to flush them out,” Hunter mouthed.

  I nodded, pulling a hunting knife off my belt and jabbing the tip into my thumb. I swore under my breath. It hurt way more than it looked like it did in the movies. I squeezed the small puncture, letting blood drop onto the ground.

  Chloe’s eyes widened. “You’re nuts!” she exclaimed, impressed, and fumbled for her weapons.

  I shrugged one shoulder and wiped my thumb off so the blood wouldn’t make my grip on the crossbow slippery. Hunter raised a wickedly pointed stake. The snuffing got louder and turned to snarling. We could hear the clicking of jaws before we could see them. I lifted my crossbow, taking aim. The sound stopped abruptly. It was just as creepy as the snarling.

  Hel-Blar exploded out of the trees. A wave of rotten-mushroom stench made me gag. There were four of them, wearing muddy rags of clothing, probably the same ones they were wearing when they’d pulled themselves out of their graves. I released the crossbow bolt. The faint whistle of the arrow in the air made one of them stiffen and pause so that it caught him under the collar bone. Not my best work. I reloaded and fired again, this time piercing his heart. He fell to ashes and torn clothing. He wasn’t wearing a copper collar.

  Hunter was fighting two of them and I couldn’t shoot without the risk of hitting her. Chloe had one screeching, thick blood spouting from a deep gash in her side. Even her blood smelled full of decay.

  “Chloe!” I yelled. “Down!”

  She dropped, used to obeying orders. I aimed and fired, the bolt flying true. The Hel-Blar crumbled, still clutching her wound, saliva dripping from her many fangs before she turned to dust. Chloe threw herself into a roll, coming up next to Hunter. Another Hel-Blar fell to a combination of Hunter’s legendary roundhouse kick and a stake. There was only one left.