“Jeez,” he said, looking like I’d actually hurt him. “Take it easy.”
But it wasn’t easy. This wasn’t normal. It was survival of the fittest.
My voice took on an edge. “What are you even doing here? I thought being on this side of the island freaked Trainees out.” That was what Josh had told me anyway. “Aren’t you worried you might turn into one these zombified bloodthirsty monsters someday?”
He looked like he didn’t want to answer. Finally, he admitted, “Yeah, sure, it’s freaky. But we had to follow Yas.”
My eyes widened. “Yasuo?”
He gave a baffled shrug. “He’s been acting weird.”
“Understatement of the year.” It hurt that Yasuo was no longer my friend—he’d once been mine to know about, chat with, look for. “He used to be one of my best friends.”
“Yeah,” he said, with surprising sincerity, “sorry about that. The guys are still pretty sore about the whole Rob thing. You know, the”—he pointed to his teeth—“the fang thing?”
“Yeah. I know.”
“You should watch your back. They’re pretty balls-out for you.”
Classy. But I appreciated the sentiment, if not the choice of words. And wasn’t that just grand, because now I could never kill this kid. How much easier it’d be if he were as much of a jerk as the rest of them.
Could I put it off just a bit longer? But that was why Alcántara had assigned me this boy, wasn’t it? He’d know I’d have trouble “assassinating” someone like this. The Spanish vampire was testing me.
Could I avoid killing him? Evade my assignment altogether? I ran possible excuses through my head. Possible scenarios. Surely there’d be a way to pass my class without killing Toby-the-Trainee.
I heard someone approaching and spotted Rob and Danny, dragging a limp and pale Yasuo between them. “Found him,” Rob called. Then he spotted me and his eyes went wide.
Ha. The moron thought he’d killed me.
He shot Toby a glare. “What the fuck is she doing here?”
I gave him my brightest smile. “Happy to see me?”
“This time it’ll be the last time.” Rob flung Yasuo’s arm down, making him stumble, then strode toward me.
Standing tall, Toby put up his hands. “Rob, dude. Take it down a notch.”
Yasuo’s head lolled up, and spotting me, life snapped into his eyes. Like a flicked switch, he was instantly animated, his body shooting upright. It was like a rabid animal woken from sleep. One minute Yas was absent, the next he was there. Like, really there. He shouldered past the others to get in my face. “Nobody trusts you.”
Danny chimed in. “I agree with Yas. You’re toxic.”
I angled away from them. “Hey, didn’t you hear Toby? Let’s all chill out.”
Yasuo’s attention turned to farm boy. “Ignore her. She gets people to trust her. To tell her their secrets.”
“I’m here, you know,” I said. “You can address me directly.”
I regretted my words when he turned his full attention back to me. I had to look away from that creepy cold stare.
“Emma trusted you and now she’s dead. Amanda trusted you—did you know her secrets, too? How about Ronan?” Then he added slowly, deliberately, “I’ll just bet he tells you all sorts of things.”
Adrenaline dumped through me, acid blazing through my veins. What was he referring to? Ronan had shared the secret of Lilac’s strength with me just before I met her in the ring for the Directorate Challenge. Stupidly, I’d later confided it to Yas and Emma. Was Yasuo threatening me with this? Threatening Ronan? Were my friends his enemies now?
It’d been a secret big enough to save my life.
Big enough to get Ronan killed.
“What are you saying?” I asked carefully.
“I’m saying you’ll suffer.” His voice was a deep and otherworldly growl. The rationality that’d been in his eyes a moment ago clouded. “There has been a wrong, and I will right it to my death.”
Okeydokey. I took a subtle step backward. Righting wrongs till death was always my cue to exit.
Draug in the surrounding pens began to come to life, their moans turning to snarls. Someone among us was afraid and it smelled tasty. Toby shot a panicked glance their way. “Let’s get out of here, guys.”
“Not leaving till it’s finished,” Yas said in that creepy voice. “Till she’s finished.”
“Yeah.” Rob stepped forward. “Can’t leave this mess behind.”
Danny snickered. “Hot mess.”
Toby put a hand on Rob’s arm. “Let it go, man. What if those things smell her blood and bust out of there? I’m not getting eaten.”
Rob snatched his arm back. “They won’t eat you.”
Danny taunted him. “Don’t be such a nancy boy, Tobe.”
“There has been a wrong,” Yas intoned again. Suddenly he was pure rage, unhinged, his madness glimmering until his eyes glowed red with it. This was Draug Yasuo.
The whole scene was disintegrating rapidly. My gaze skittered right and left, searching for a plan.
“Looking for someone?” Danny’s voice was cool and amused in a way that scared me more than any Draug.
Crap. The attention was back on me.
“Because there’s nobody here but us,” Rob said with a smile.
“No vamp to come and save you,” Danny said.
Rob stepped closer. “Good times.”
“Get her,” Yas growled.
Danny loomed over me. “You think you’re better than us.”
“You’re even too good for the island vamps,” Rob said, in an obvious reference to Carden. “Where’d you find that skirt-wearing bastard anyway?”
I stood tall, deflecting the pain, dredging some dignity from down deep. “That bastard is a Vampire, hundreds of years old.”
Toby had wandered closer to the Draug pen, looking uneasy. “Hey, guys, these things are really freaking out.”
Rob ignored him and held my gaze. “Then where’s the old bastard now?”
“Where are any of her little friends?” Danny asked. “Oh, right. She has none.”
“None are left,” Yasuo declared in that eerie atonal voice. His eyes were really glowing now.
Ignoring Yasuo, I tried to sound braver than I felt and said determinedly, “Carden will be back.” Because he would, right? Carden would need to return sometime.
Danny glanced right and left, then gave me a stupid grin and a shrug. “I don’t see him.”
“Guys, seriously. These Draug things are starting to lose it.” That was Toby. At least one of these morons had a lick of sense. I imagined once the beasts were riled up, smell of fear or not, there’d be no stopping them.
“Yeah, guys,” I interjected, “aren’t you scared of the Draug?”
Danny took a step closer. “We’re not scared of shit. Especially not you.”
“Let’s just get out of here,” Toby said.
“You can. I’m staying.” Rob leapt at me, with Danny right behind. The pitchfork flew from my hands. Rob snagged my arm and curled his fingers into me, hard enough that I felt it through my coat.
Rather than pulling away, I hurled myself toward him, the surprise earning me a moment’s advantage. My hand found his collar, and I slammed my other onto his shoulder, grabbing as much fabric as I could. “Is this still part of your homework assignment? Because I think you failed.” I pulled and twisted, trying to choke him with the collar of his own shirt.
Unfortunately, the move gave him some ideas, because he went for my throat, too. “Not yet, I haven’t.”
We grappled, me squirming to stop him from getting a firm grip. The collar of my catsuit was snug against my neck, but not so snug he couldn’t easily wriggle a few fingers down there if I gave him the chance.
Danny stood close, cheering him on, chanting for blood. Toby mumbled some protest or other, but how successful could he be, really, when he wasn’t exactly doing anything to stop this? And through it all was
Yasuo, snarling and muttering. Had he completely lost it already? I couldn’t tell if this was madness or pure, cold-blooded fury.
Rob had me restrained in a bear hug now. This close, his hot breath stank like stale onions. He tipped his head to scan my neck and shoulders in a lingering perusal that made my skin crawl. “I live for girls like you.”
In that moment, I wasn’t just fighting Rob. I was fighting everything he represented. Everything he stood for. My body exploded into action, renewed kicking, bucking, scratching. “How can you feed with no fangs?”
“I’ll feed.” Rob gave me a gloating smile. “That’s why you’re here. It’s the blood in you girls that makes us strong.”
The moment the words were out of Rob’s mouth, Yasuo went ballistic.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Yasuo went nuts.
NUTS.
He flew at Rob, ripped him off me and flung him against the fence, repeatedly slamming his face against the post like a person might beat the dust from a rug. There was a hideous sound, a splat and crack like a hammer on meat, and Yas tossed him away, a bloody heap in the muddy snow.
“What the hell?” Toby shouted, backing away.
Danny dove to kneel beside Rob in the slush, watching helplessly as his friend writhed and spasmed, then glared over his shoulder at Yasuo. “Have you totally lost it?” Rob’s jaw hung loose, no longer resembling a jaw.
The Draug began howling like crazy, rattling their cages, because now they scented fear and blood.
But Yasuo just stood there, panting, his mouth agape, fangs longer than I’d ever seen them. Sharp and gleaming.
“What the hell…? What the hell?” Toby was paralyzed, rocking in place, looking like he was going to tear his hair out.
“You should get out of here,” I whispered to him.
“Screw this. I’m gone.” Danny hopped to his feet and burst into a jog. He called out a final, “Enjoy, mates,” before running off.
At least I heard him run off. I didn’t take my eyes from Yasuo, who was now staring like a statue. It was a terrible sight, that stillness. It was menace and hatred, frozen as marble. And it was all aimed at me.
Toby—good old Toby—must’ve sensed it, because he said, “Dude, let’s just talk about this.” He sounded as uneasy as I felt.
I sidled closer, telling him in a low voice, “You should follow Danny.” Yasuo was spiraling, and it was obvious he was all too happy to take Trainees down with him. Besides, the farm boy was a distraction. I desperately hoped the old Yas was still there, buried deep in that glaring creature, and this might’ve been my last chance to summon him. “Really, I’ve got this.”
“All you’ve got is the kiss of death,” Yasuo hissed.
“There’s death all around this island. Don’t pin it on me.” I edged sideways, but there was no escaping that stare. He was laser focused on me and yet completely oblivious to my words, my emotions. “Come on, Yas. Try to remember how we used to be.”
“Kiss of death. The sure thing.”
I put my hands up, taking a few steps back, thinking maybe I preferred crazy-unhinged Yasuo to this cold, calculated-fury Yasuo. “I heard you the first time.”
“People around you don’t die in normal ways. They meet grisly, fucked-up ends.”
“Take it easy.”
“It will be easy.” He lunged at me, and I darted aside.
“Don’t do this.” I’d been avoiding another confrontation with my old friend, but I was in survival mode. If he attacked, I’d fight. And I didn’t want to fight.
He flung himself at me again, but again I managed to duck and spin out of the way.
“Get a grip, man.” Toby was bobbing on his toes, unsure how or if to get involved. Why didn’t he just leave? Was he looking out for me or for Yasuo?
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” I pleaded.
“It does.” Yasuo was panting again, that madness once more descending like a film over his eyes. “Does.”
He attacked again, a broad swat at my head, then another. But his movements were erratic, and I evaded them easily. This wasn’t the old Yasuo—the old Yas had been eclipsed by a monster. This was a creature driven by fury but unable to strategize. Incapable of tactics. His weren’t maneuvers; they were motions, crude and predictable.
Maybe if I could stun him, make him stop for long enough, I could get away. The last thing I wanted was to fight him. When Yas leapt again, I deflected him, dropping and rolling to the ground, snatching the pitchfork from the dirt. “Please don’t make me do this.”
“You guys.” Toby tried to insert himself between us. “What the hell?”
Yas elbowed him with enough force to send the big, corn-fed boy reeling. “Don’t. Help. Her.” His voice had become an animal growl.
I tightened my grip on the tool. Even in my numbed hands, the wood was reassuring.
I thought of Sonja. Ruler of vampires. Had there truly been such a woman? Even if she hadn’t been strong enough to rule vampires in truth, then at least she’d had the guts to carve it into rock. Thinking of her words, imagining her, gave me courage. Sonja—if there was a woman who’d been that powerful, then I could be powerful, too.
I tossed the fork up and held it in my two hands like a fighting stick. No longer a farm tool, it was a javelin. A lance. A sword. A weapon.
Yas aimed a roundhouse kick at my head, and the stick deflected him easily. I jabbed his belly. I could’ve hurt him, but didn’t. Hurting my old friend was harder than I’d ever have believed. “I don’t want to hurt you,” I said.
The Draug were really losing it now. Could that be my fear they smelled? And was it fear for myself or fear of what had become of my friend?
Rob took that opportunity to moan. He was fading in and out, his breathing a bloody gurgle. The Draug shrieked in response, rattling their iron bars in their hinges.
“Oh fuck, oh fuck.” Toby was really flipping out now.
“Just get out of here,” I shot at him.
But instead of fleeing, he squatted and scooped up a rock. A coldly self-preservational part of my brain noted how Trainees didn’t carry weapons. Did vampires not carry weapons, either? Were they that proud? That arrogant? Something to consider…if I survived this.
Toby hefted that rock, and for a chilling moment it was unclear who it was for. Because, for a moment, his eyes were cold on me. Had he not wanted Yasuo to fight me because he didn’t want to fight me? Would one Trainee side with another, no matter what?
My musings were cut short when Yasuo swept a foot toward my ankle, but I managed to react in time, clocking his knee with my stick.
“Right wrongs,” he intoned.
I knew better than anyone how wronged we’d all been. But what if I were the one to set it all to right? This Sonja had become my heroine. My Wonder Woman. If Yasuo wanted wrongs righted, I’d be the one to do it. I parried him again. “Not if I right them first.”
He peeled his lips into a snarl. “Go to hell.”
“Oh, I’m there.” I jabbed him with the fork, but I hadn’t used enough force to budge through the thick wool of his coat. “Careful, or I might bring you with me.”
“There’s been a wrong,” Yasuo said.
“Not that again.” I jabbed again, and this time he took a step backward. I had the brief and disturbing thought that I might be able to herd him as the most mindless of Draug were herded.
“There has been a wrong, and I will right it.”
“You do that, Yas.”
He froze, staring at me as though trying to remember why he was there.
“What’s he doing?” Toby asked.
“Losing it.” I shot farm boy a look. What was he going to do with that rock?
“It’s your fault.” Yasuo addressed me, speaking in a wondering sort of voice.
“It’s nobody’s fault.” Toby inserted himself between us, his tone aggressively soothing, like he was trying to calm a crazy street person. “Let it go, man.” But he still gripped
that stone, his eyes flicking back and forth, returning to me over and over like I was a bomb he might have to detonate. “We don’t have to fight her.”
My heartbeat amped up a notch, my body preparing for something my mind hadn’t yet grasped. “What do you mean, We?”
“Ignore her,” Yasuo shouted, ignited once more. He shouldered Toby aside, pinning me with a murderous glare. “She’s selfish. She’s a killer.”
“Fuck it,” Toby said. “It’s just a girl.”
Just a girl.
It’s just a girl.
Yasuo lunged at me. Did Toby lunge, too? Later I told myself he did. Later, I told myself he hadn’t been flinging himself between us.
Because when I speared the pitchfork, I speared Toby.
There was a horrific moment. A sharp inhale. A gurgled exhale. His eyes met mine, confused. Bewildered. It was a weird look, like he’d asked me to prom and I’d surprised him by turning him down. It wasn’t the look you’d expect from a guy impaled on the business end of a dung fork.
He fell.
Yasuo laughed, a cackling, gleeful sound. “Told you. Killer.” He repeated it over and over, manic and high-pitched. “Killer. Killer.”
It hit close to home. Too close. I was a killer.
But I wouldn’t kill Yasuo. He might’ve been turning Draug, but he’d once been my friend. I wouldn’t attack him. Not like this. Not today.
I dug into my coat pocket. My fingers found my prized possession. Emma’s handkerchief.
I rubbed it between my fingers. It was a sacrifice. But a fitting one.
I pulled it out, holding it like a white flag in front of me. Yasuo recognized it at once, his eyes growing wide.
“That’s right,” I said. I waved it. I hadn’t washed it and wondered if it still bore some scent of hers. “You know this.”
He took a step forward.
“You want it?” I tied a couple of loose knots in the fabric. Just enough to give it some heft. I threw. “Then take it.”
Yasuo went for it.
I ran off. I ran like a crazy person. Leaving Rob and the body of Toby-the-Trainee dead and cooling by the paddock gate. Leaving my friend Yasuo behind, maybe forever. I ran until I realized my feet had carried me all the way to the water.
The Keep: The Watchers Page 21