Yen’s advice throbbed in her ears. Turn your disadvantages into advantages.
He’d never think she’d know what he was.
Or that she’d be armed.
He didn’t bother with threats. He just lunged for her, deadly and sudden as black ice. She scrambled back and tripped over her own foot. She sprawled on the cracked concrete, skinning her palms raw. He crouched down, reaching for her.
She flung holy water in his eyes.
His screech lifted the tiny hairs on the back of her neck. As he clutched at his face, she fumbled for the crossbow in her backpack. Her fingers trembled but she managed to load the bolt and fire. It caught him under the heart. Blood oozed through his shirt. Yen had perfected the angle to give her just enough time to yank a fang out before they disintegrated. She wore them on a chain around her neck as a trophy and a warning. Aggie just wanted to hit the heart before he killed her.
She fired again and this time, she was on target. He hissed, turning to dust that clung to the puddles of black water on the ground.
Aggie ran to the Dumpster, trying not to throw up at the smell of garbage and the fact that she had just killed someone. No, not someone. Some thing. She flung the lid open, gagging.
Yen lay on masses of vegetable peels and slimy refuse, clutching her favorite oak stake. There was blood on her throat. Aggie’s vision went white and she clutched the metal side to keep from fainting. Her sister had been bitten. She was dead. Undead.
Yen stirred, cracking an eye open. “I’m not bit,” she croaked. “Just broke my collarbone so I had to hide.”
Aggie started to cry.
“Hey, the Kiku sisters don’t cry,” Yen said sternly, just before she passed out.
* * *
“You’re going to give me Santa nightmares,” Aggie said to Paige a little while later. Paige had changed into flannel pajamas covered with reindeer and snowflakes. There was tinsel draped over her lamp and from the picture frames on her side of the small room.
“Scrooge,” Paige said. She didn’t glance up from the gingerbread man she was adding to the miniature tree at the foot of her bed. “We’ve got two weeks off from school. Seriously, what’s there to complain about?”
“That’s two weeks I’m stuck here,” she grumbled. “With them.”
Paige shrugged. “At least we don’t have to deal with dorm showers. And running laps on that damn track.”
“Just vampires.”
“It’s not that big of a deal. Lucy and Nicholas seem to have it figured out.”
Aggie considered Paige her best friend. Well, her only friend, really. She was one of the very few people Aggie didn’t want to punch in the face. But Paige had weird ideas for a vampire hunter. Especially one banished to what basically amounted to a halfway house. Last year she’d hated vampires just as much as Aggie did, but a few months with Lucy and she just shrugged them off like they were normal.
“How can you be so comfortable here?” she asked Paige, getting up to peer uneasily out of the window. The snow was faintly blue under the moonlight.
“Hey, I’ve been here since August,” Paige said. “I’m considered rehabilitated.”
“Then why are you still here bugging me?”
“We all agree that I’m your best hope, delinquent.”
“Well, crap. I’m doomed.”
Paige grinned. “Have some candy cane hot chocolate. It solves all problems, both existential and mundane.”
“Now you sound like Lucy.”
“Who do you think keeps me stocked in chocolate?”
Aggie went back to the view of snowy fields and vampire shadows. “What do you think they do out there?” She wondered. “Besides the obvious?”
Paige craned her neck to peer over her shoulder. “I don’t know. Vampire meditation?”
She raised her eyebrows in disbelief. “Nicholas doesn’t seem the type.”
“Neither does Lucy. Have you seen some of her scars?”
“True.” She wiped the fog on the glass from her breath just in time to be blinded. The security UV lights set around the house switched on at the same time. The vampires covered their eyes, perfectly outlined in harsh yellow light. They made ideal targets.
Aggie stuck her head out of the window. “That wasn’t my fault!”
Paige rolled her eyes. “Way not to sound guilty.”
Aggie slammed the window shut as the lights went off again. She snatched a gingerbread cookie off Paige’s tree and bit its head off.
“I’m so proud,” Paige grinned. “That’s almost Christmas spirit. And you weren’t the one trying to decapitate a vampire tonight. Well, the second time.”
Yen wouldn’t have been proud.
Aggie knew that even before she found her sister’s stake on her pillow. Her belly went cold. “Did you put that there?”
Paige glanced over. “No, why would I?”
Aggie would know Yen’s favorite stake anywhere. It was carved with her initials on the handle. Aggie had done it herself with the needle broken off a pin. It took forever.
And it had been missing since the day Yen died.
* * *
Hunter had inherited her grandfather’s house after he died at the Battle of Violet Hill. She’d spent weeks finding and dismantling all of the hidden anti-vampire booby traps. Quinn didn’t find the second holy water dispenser until he took a shower and nearly died. They kept the whitethorn fence to discourage the other, less friendly vampires Hunter had no intention of kissing. Historically, whitethorn wood was used for stakes, long thought to be anathema to vampires. More importantly the fence was soaked in holy water. Nicholas skirted the wooden porch railing, just in case. He tugged on the back of Lucy’s coat, spinning her around before she could knock on the door. She gripped his arms to steady herself. When he leaned in, she stretched up on her tiptoes to meet him halfway.
The kiss flared between them until she barely felt the December cold. He slid his fingers through her hair, thumb touching her jawline. Their tongues touched and her fingers tangled in his belt loops to steady herself. Her breath was ragged and hot in her chest.
“Not that I’m complaining,” she grinned against his wicked mouth. “But what are you doing?”
“We’re never alone,” he said, kissing her ear slowly, until she shivered. “You’ve stuffed the farm full of crazy people.”
“You should be used to that. It’s how you grew up.” She leaned into him. “And I hate to say it but we’re not alone now. Security cameras, remember?” She waved at one of them just as the front door opened.
“Get a room, you two,” Quinn grinned.
Lucy just ducked under his arm, into the warmth of the tidy house. Hunter was adding another log to the fireplace in the living room. Lucy handed her a small package. “I made you guys something.”
Hunter pulled off the wrapping to reveal a small vampire Santa felt doll, complete with red hat and fangs. She shook her head, laughing. “You’re the one who keeps sneaking these into the Christmas garlands at the academy. I should have known.”
“You really should have,” Lucy agreed.
“She made the delinquents help her sew,” Nicholas pointed out fondly.
“Art therapy,” she maintained. “Also, I was getting blisters.” She dropped onto the couch, reaching for the plate of cookies on the coffee table. “Where’s your sister?” She scowled at Quinn.
He just shrugged. “You know traveling over time zones isn’t easy for us,” he reminded her. “She probably had to take a ship.”
“She’ll be here,” Nicholas assured her. “She’s never missed one of your solstice bonfires.”
“She’s never been this late either,” she grumbled. She ate two cookies.
The headlights of a car pulling into the driveway speared through the windows. Nicholas smirked. Quinn smirked back. Lucy eyed them suspiciously. “What have you done?” She peered between the curtains, recognizing one of the many Drake family jeeps.
And the pale gi
rl currently climbing out of the driver’s seat.
“Solange!” Lucy squeaked. She practically leaped over the couch to get to the front door. “You’re late!” she hollered, barreling down the icy steps. They threw themselves at each other like they were in some cheesy commercial and tumbled into the snow, hooting with laughter. Hunter and Kieran hugged, with nearly as much violence.
“Where have you been this time, fangface?” Lucy asked Solange, shaking snow out of her ear.
“Spain. And Iceland. But I’m home for good now. I miss my pottery wheel.”
“And me,” Lucy poked her. “You miss me.”
“That too.”
Lucy finally stood up to hug Kieran. “Hey, 007.”
“So you finally did it, hippie. I hear you started a halfway house for people as weird as you.”
“Weirder,” she said proudly.
Inside, they drank hot cider and ate sugar cookies until Lucy felt vaguely ill. “Okay, so what’s up with Whitethorn,” she asked, brushing crumbs off her sweater and willing to be distracted.
Hunter looked annoyed. “I don’t know. And I hate that.” She reached for the rest of the cookies.
“New group?” Kieran asked.
“Yeah, and they’re getting careless,” Quinn said. “We found three more vampire traps. Any one of us might have blundered into one them.”
“And not Hel-Blar traps,” Nicholas agreed. “Usually those are just stuffed with rotting meat and blood.” He made a face. “Not exactly appetizing for the rest of us.”
“Any Huntsmen in town?” Kieran wondered. “They fight dirty.” And they broke the hunter-vampire treaties in Violet Hill as often as they complied.
“Don’t think so,” Hunter replied. “Helios-Ra keeps a pretty close eye on them. Let’s say we don’t encourage them to hang around. And Whitethorn shares photos of vampire victims before we even know about them sometimes. Huntsmen generally can’t be bothered with online stuff.”
“Connor took a look at the website,” Nicholas told them. “But they post from a bunch of different computers and phones. They have proxy servers and he said something about VPN and a bunch more stuff that I didn’t get. Anyway, he won’t be able to physically pinpoint them until he’s back in Violet Hill.”
“What about Chloe?” Kieran asked. “She’s a computer ninja.”
“She left this morning to visit her parents for the holiday,” Hunter replied. “And all that would do is stop the posts, not find the group, right?” Nicholas nodded. “Whitethorn’s web postings are mostly helpful,” Hunter continued. “But this stuff about the traps is going to be a problem. Especially when some hiker blunders into one.”
“We’ll keep dismantling them,” Nicholas said.
Lucy thought of Noah strung up in a tree, slowly bleeding to death. “I hope it’s enough.”
* * *
Conspiracy Theory was one of the few places open late in Violet Hill that didn’t sell incense or freshly pressed organic fruit juice. The décor was comfortably shabby and heavy on the candles and paintings by local artists. It was half club, half coffeehouse, and helpfully looked the other way when underage patrons visited, so long as they didn’t make idiots of themselves. Aggie couldn’t stop herself from searching the crowd for Yen’s face. She’d done that for two years before it became obvious she was dead. When she finally made contact with the Helios-Ra, they’d had a list of the bodies they’d found after the battle. Yen’s name was on it.
Aggie was on her way to get another triple-shot caramel latte when she spotted Cal leaning on the counter. He wore a tight T-shirt and dark jeans and his tousled black hair accentuated the paleness of his eyes. He was smiling. Aggie paused. If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought he was human. It was the smile of the boy he must have been before the vampires came. She couldn’t think why it made her feel so peculiar.
But it was a nice change from obsessing over finding Yen’s stake.
And it made no difference to her if Cal liked his girls skinny and perky. And willing to snuggle up to a pale, perfect stranger. A girl like that, in a town like this, deserved to get bitten. Except that as a Helios-Ra student, Aggie was expected to save all girls from vampires. Even the stupid ones.
And now she really had no choice. Cal glanced over and saw her standing there. If she didn’t say something, anything, he’d think she’d been staring at him. Paige followed the direction of Aggie’s scowl, and accurately translated the set of Aggie’s shoulders. “You’re about to do something stupid.”
“Looks like.”
“Any chance I can stop you?”
“Nope.”
“I’ll be over here with my latte then.” Paige settled more comfortably on the squashy velvet sofa.
Aggie marched up to the counter, finding comfort in the press of Yen’s stake hidden in her boot. She stopped beside Cal, raising a pointed eyebrow at the girl’s hand on his arm. Which was none of her business.
“You can’t feed on her,” she said quietly, knowing he could hear her perfectly well over the music and the insect-drone of the cappuccino machine.
“This isn’t feeding,” he returned, mildly. “It’s called socializing.”
“Socializing? Please, I’ve seen you go three days in a row without talking.”
“I had no idea you paid such close attention. Should I be flattered?” His tone was polite, if faintly mocking, but his jaw was clenched.
“Hi.” The girl leaned over Cal to smile at Aggie. “Are you a friend of Cal’s?”
She was friendly and pretty. Normal. Aggie hated her instantly. “We’re not friends,” she said flatly. The girl looked uncertain. “In fact, I should warn—”
“Excuse us.” Cal cut her off. He smiled apologetically at the girl, but his hand clamped unyieldingly around Aggie’s wrist.
“I will break your arm, you undead leech,” Aggie snapped.
“And cause a scene? In public?” he returned. “Isn’t that against Helios-Ra Hunting 101?”
The crowd swallowed them as he forced her down the narrow hall and out the side door. There was the crunch of ice under their boots, muffled music, and thousands of stars overhead.
Aggie yanked free, a stake already in her other hand.
“Are you following me?” Cal asked her, annoyed. He didn’t look the least bit cold in his short sleeves. Aggie tried to keep her arms close to her sides for warmth, but not so close as to interfere with the range of movement if she needed to attack.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she replied, faintly mortified. “Does she know what you are?”
“Do you?”
She frowned, momentarily bewildered. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He sighed. “Never mind. What the hell were you doing in there, anyway?”
“Socializing.” She quoted his words back at him.
“Since you have the social skills of a rabid skunk, I almost believe you.”
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the first to say so.
“You were a little obvious in there, weren’t you?” she asked. “I thought your kind was supposed to be subtle?”
“My kind? You can say it, you know. ‘Vampire’ isn’t a dirty word.”
“Depends on who you ask,” she pointed out. “Do you even know her name?”
“Why bother? I just thought I’d drain her dry and then dump her body in the recycling bin at the end of the alley,” he said sarcastically.
He couldn’t know she and Yen had found a girl just like that once.
Something must have showed in her face because he took a step closer. “Hey, take it easy. I was kidding.” His fangs retracted. He looked concerned. Human.
She stumbled back out of his reach, her heart speeding up. “Don’t.”
“I wasn’t—”
“Just don’t.”
She broke her sister’s cardinal rule and fled.
* * *
Aggie bit down hard on her lower lip to keep it from wobbling. Yen always got mad
when she cried. “I want to come with you.”
“I know,” Yen said sympathetically as the chaos of Grand Central Station boiled around them. She wore combat boots, a parka, and jeans. Her hair was pulled back, even though it exposed her neck, which she rarely did. “But you can’t. This isn’t a vacation. You heard what Napoleon said, there’s a battle brewing in Violet Hill. Anyway, we can’t afford another ticket.”
“We could steal it. It’s nearly Christmas, everyone has full pockets.” Aggie was dangerously close to pouting.
“Ag, I’m not taking my eleven-year-old sister to a war zone. End of discussion.” She softened her tone. “It’s only a few weeks. I’ll probably be home by Christmas. We can go ice-skating again.”
“I guess.”
“And Mrs. Boneta is letting you use the storeroom to sleep in. So don’t you dare sleep outside. It’s not safe.”
“What if something happens to you?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“But what if?”
“Aggie, I know it’s scary, but you have to be strong, okay? I’ve left you all the extra money. You can do this.”
Aggie forced herself to nod. “Be careful.”
“I’m going to stake a few vamps and come right home.” Yen hugged her hard. “And if we’re lucky, I’ll find a way to get us into that school they have over here. You’ll see. It’ll be great.”
* * *
Aggie didn’t sleep.
Paige snored peacefully, wrapped in Christmas and a three-candy-cane mochaccino sugar crash. Aggie sat with her back to wall by the door. She’d flipped the lock and checked it more times than was strictly healthy.
She distracted herself on her laptop, which wasn’t much of a distraction since most of the sites she bookmarked were underground vampire hunter sites and Google alerts on animal attacks in the Violet Hill area. When an alert pinged, it led her to a secret website she could only access because she had three different codes. Whitethorn was run by someone in the area, but no one could figure out who.
A photograph flashed onto her screen. She’d seen countless victim photos, helping to sort out which were vampire attacks and which were actual animal attacks. Violet Hill was still pretty wild and rugged, even just a few miles outside the border of street lights.