* * *
“Aggie.”
Lucy stood in the doorway of the bedroom. Aggie put her camera down. She’d been thinking it might be nice to walk in the woods with a camera again, as well as a stake.
“We need to talk.”
“Are you breaking up?” Paige teased. Her smile died at the look on Lucy’s face.
“Bring your coat. We’re going out,” Lucy added, walking away.
Paige winced at Aggie. “Dude. What’d you do now?”
She reached reluctantly for her sweater and her coat. “Nothing.” Probably.
Lucy waited in a dark green truck. Nicholas’s brother Duncan had brought it over the night before. “Get in,” she said through the open window. Her red and white striped scarf was relentlessly cheerful against her grim expression.
Aggie slid into the seat. It already smelled like Nag Champa incense. There was a blue eye-shaped bead dangling from the rear view mirror. “It’s Greek,” Lucy explained. “It keeps the evil eye away. Solange brought it back for me.”
“Am I expelled?” Aggie blurted out as Lucy backed down the driveway. The sun glinted off the icicles dripping from the trees.
“You ask that a lot.”
Aggie noticed that Lucy hadn’t actually answered the question though. They drove for nearly a half an hour before Lucy pulled over. A path was already cleared through the trees. “Who did this?” she asked.
“Nicholas and Quinn,” Lucy answered. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“You need your eyes open, Aggie, and speciesism’s blinding.”
“I don’t trust vampires,” she said. “They’re the reason my sister is dead.”
“I know,” Lucy said. “I’m not saying vampires are all fluffy bunnies and lollipops. But neither are humans. We need to figure our shit out.”
“Is that why you never turned?” Aggie asked. They all wondered about it. It seemed as good a time as any to ask, with only the snow and the bare trees all around them.
“‘I’m more useful as a human right now,” she replied.
“But you’ll turn one day? Really?”
“Who else is going to save Nicholas’s butt? It’s a full-time job.” Her smile faded. “Too many people died at the Blood Moon battle for us to let this town turn on itself. One civil war is enough, thanks very much.”
The path led them to a circle of pale birch trees, drooping with snow. A bright red ribbon tied was tied around each trunk. In the center was a boulder with a lantern. Lucy took a packet of matches from her coat pocket and lit the candle.
“What is this place?” Aggie asked, feeling nervous for no reason.
“It’s a Spirit Stone,” Lucy explained. “Like the memorial gardens for fallen hunters at the academy.” There were names inscribed in the rock, starting at the bottom and spiraling up to the top. “Except each one of these represents the name of a vampire who died at the Battle of Violet Hill. Not just on that one night, but the weeks leading up to it. And these are just the ones we know about.” She pointed to a name. “London was Solange’s cousin. She was only nineteen.”
Aggie felt trapped. “I know what you’re doing.”
“Do you?” Lucy asked mildly. “Good. Then pay attention. The shape of your teeth or what you drink for breakfast doesn’t make you a bad guy. You know what does? Stringing people up in the woods to die. Draining someone of their blood when all you need is a mouthful to survive. And the inability to recognize that someone else’s life is just as sacred as yours.”
“But they’re not technically alive,” Aggie said quietly.
“They love. They laugh. They die. If that’s not living, what is?” Lucy looked her right in the eye. “So remember that, the next time a group like Whitethorn tries to recruit you.”
* * *
They found Kali’s clothes the next day.
There was a ragged hole in the back of her shirt at heart level.
Lucy tried not to cry. Someone called Aggie “Mary” under their breath. Everyone watched her suspiciously, waiting for more fang trophies or some kind of fit of rage. Lucy did regular sweeps for holy water booby traps. Aggie mostly stayed in her room, especially when she thought she could smell Yen: pine sap and bubble gum. She’d used pine needles from the trees in Central Park to rub on her clothes so she smelled cleaner than she sometimes was. Washing up in public bathrooms wasn’t always easy. Every time she looked in the mirror, she didn’t know who she was looking at, herself or Yen.
And she knew she hadn’t touched Kali, but she was starting to have to remind herself of that.
She decided to go for another walk, even though the last one hadn’t worked out that well. The cold was a welcome distraction, slapping at her like angry hands. Lucy and Nicholas were sitting by the solstice fire. Lucy set up a cauldron full of apple cider and judging by how wide her eyeballs were, she must have drunk enough to be running on pure sugar. A jeep crunched up the driveway and disgorged a black-haired vampire girl and a Helios-Ra agent. The famous Solange Drake, and to a vampire hunter, the even more famous Kieran Black.
Seeing hunters and vampires hug like old friends was just more confusing. It made Aggie’s head hurt. She ducked into the woods and kept walking, snow falling on her eyelashes.
She wasn’t surprised this time when Cal stepped out of the pines to walk beside her. Her heart quickened, but it wasn’t fear. It was something else. Something fragile, breakable.
“Do you believe in ghosts?” she asked.
“Of course,” he replied, hands in his pockets. “I’m undead, remember?”
“Do you ever feel haunted?” Aggie asked.
“Yes.” He didn’t pause.
“By Jane Corbeau.”
“How do you know about her?”
Aggie just shrugged.
“She loved vampires,” Cal said. “Almost as much as you hate them. She wanted to be one.”
“So you turned her.”
“Not at first. I got turned, just to make sure it was even possible,” he said.
“You were the test.”
“It was the only way I could stop her from running out and baring her neck to the first vampire she saw.” Aggie shivered. “Exactly. She was too trusting. Sweet.”
Two words which had never been used to describe Aggie.
“So what happened?”
“I changed. It was . . . unpleasant.” Aggie knew there was a wealth of painful information stored in that single mild word. “And I tried to talk her out of it. We were in the mountains. She slit her wrists in front of me. It was either bite her or watch her die. Turns out, I had to watch her die anyway.”
Paige would have hugged him. Aggie just stepped a little closer. It was all she could do. “And now she haunts you.”
“No, not her.” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “Not anymore.”
“Who, then?”
“You.”
He kept walking, but Aggie stopped in her tracks. She felt his words inside her chest like roses blooming: part flower, part thorn. “Me?” she asked stupidly.
“I think about you,” he said quietly, not turning to look back at her. His voice was smoky and warm, vulnerable. “All the time.”
“But . . . I try to kill you. A lot.”
“But you never do,” he pointed out. “And I think you could, if you really wanted to. “
That was even more of a compliment than knowing he thought about her. The cold seemed to fade away. She was warm down to her toes.
And then Paige barreled at them like a bear chased by honeybees. Catelyn chased after her, stake in one hand, flashlight in the other. “Aggie, thank God!”
Aggie caught Paige when she slipped on a patch of ice in her excitement. “What’s wrong?”
Paige shoved a crumpled piece of paper at her. “I found this.”
She blinked at it, nonplussed. “What is it? Report cards? Already?”
“It’s your confession. To killing Kali,” Cate
lyn explained. “And your promise to kill the others, starting with Cal.” She didn’t seem nearly as concerned about it as Paige. Aggie half expected a celebratory high five.
Paige frowned at Cal. “You don’t look dead. Well, any more dead than usual.”
Aggie scanned the note, reading the rest out loud. “Then I’ll finally be free to join my sister.” She went cold.
Paige shoved her, hard. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.” She hit her again, mouth trembling as she suppressed tears. “I thought you went full-out Mary Walker.”
“Paige, I didn’t write this.” She looked up, appalled. “God, don’t cry.”
Paige sniffled. “She’s a beast,” she said to Cal.
He smiled briefly. “I know.” He sounded so amused Aggie couldn’t take insult.
“Who would write this?” Aggie asked. “And why?”
“To scapegoat you?” Paige frowned. “Okay, now I’m really pissed off.”
“Gee, thanks. My impending death wasn’t enough?”
Paige waved that off. “You’re a dumbass, sweetie. But you’re not a coward.”
“Really feeling the love here.”
“You’d never have staked Kali in the back,” she insisted, now that she was thinking clearly again. “You’d have killed her to her face.”
Cal took the note from her. His fingers brushed hers, cool and electric. She shivered. “What are they scapegoating you for?”
“Attacks on vampires, what else?” Aggie said, feeling ill. She was so interconnected with vampire violence that someone could use her as a shield and it would be completely believable. She thought of the Spirit Stone and all the names marching in a spiral to the lantern light. “Well, screw that,” she muttered. She slayed monsters. She wasn’t a killer. There was a difference. She glanced at Cal, tall, lean, and silent beside her. Wasn’t there?
“Let’s get back to the farm,” Cal suggested.
They jogged back, the frigid air searing Aggie’s lungs. Paige coughed, holding a hand to the stitch in her side.
Catelyn scowled. “I don’t see why we’re rushing to rescue vampires.”
“Just come on,” Paige muttered, yanking on her sleeve.
* * *
The longest night of the year was full of stars and snow. The bonfire crackled cheerfully. Lucy was surrounded by her best friends and no one was trying to kill them.
Lucy frowned. “Something’s not right.”
“That’s just the three gallons of apple cider you drank,” Kieran said fondly.
“No, she’s right.” Solange stood up. Kieran reached for a stake.
“I smell something . . .” Nicholas paused, jaw clenching. “Gasoline.”
Before they had a chance to move, an arrow sliced through the air. It slammed into a bag of Hypnos powder hidden in the tree branches above them. The mesmerizing powder covered them. Lucy and Solange exchanged a glance, recognizing the same type of paracord that had trapped Noah, attached to the bag.
“Don’t move.”
Lucy knew that voice.
But it was too late.
* * *
When they reached the farm, Cal held them back, nudging them behind a concealing hedge of cedar. His arm crossed over Aggie’s hips and Paige behind her. Catelyn threatened him silently with her weapon. He just held a finger to his mouth for silence.
The twinkly lights strung through the trees looked like frozen fireflies. In the backyard, Lucy’s solstice fire burned bright and cheerful in a ring of melted snow. Standing around the flames were Lucy, Nicholas, Solange, and Kieran. They were still as statues; the only movement was their wild eyes, flickering furiously and helplessly.
“Hypnos,” Noah whispered from a tree branch, startling them. “And gasoline.”
Aggie didn’t waste time cursing, though she thought of a string of words that would have shocked the proverbial pirates. “What happened?” she asked Noah.
“I don’t know. I just got here. I was taking the high ground to see if I could follow the tracks in the snow.”
“And?”
“Too messy. Can’t tell.”
Aggie motioned to Catelyn to take the left and for Paige to circle around the other side. She’d go straight to the center.
Catelyn just stared at her. “Since when do we rescue vampires?”
“Put it this way,” Aggie said, feeling a strange sort of pride. “You’re rescuing Lucy and Kieran. And the farm. This is our home. Are you going to let someone just attack it?”
Catelyn finally moved and Aggie went to follow. Cal caught her elbow. “We need a plan,” he murmured in her ear.
Aggie smiled at him, grim but confident. “I’ve got a plan. Courtesy of Lucy.” She ducked low along the hedges until she reached the tap at the side of the porch. She forced it open when the ice threatened to fuse it shut. She grabbed the hose and hauled it toward the yard, spraying water at the fire. The flames hissed and sputtered. Water clung to the snow in icy rivers. Solange shifted slightly, her dark hair falling over her shoulder. Gasoline stung the air, dripping from the end of her braid.
Orange light flickered behind Aggie and she smelled more gasoline; this time it was burning.
“Down!” Cal shouted a warning. Aggie dropped, twisting to the left. A flaming arrow flew past her right shoulder, singeing her sleeve. Cal leaped, moving so quickly her eyes stuttered to see him. He was a whirl of pale eyes and pale teeth clad in shadows. He plucked the fiery arrow from the air before it could slam into Nicholas.
“Trap,” Nicholas croaked, fighting the lingering compulsion of the Hypnos. “Get out of here.” His eyes flared as he tried to move toward Lucy, but his body wouldn’t respond.
Another arrow sliced the air.
Aggie aimed the hose toward the back shed where the arrows were coming from. She turned the nozzle until the spray was a thin sword of ice water. There was a muffled shout and the farm dogs began growling and barking. They snapped at Fletcher’s legs, forcing him out of hiding.
He was soaked and surrounded but he still had another arrow nocked to his bow. He held the tip down over a small fire burning in the metal barrel Lucy used to collect rainwater for the vegetable garden. It was partially hidden behind the shed, the light blending into the Christmas bulbs strung everywhere.
“Gandhi, Van Helsing, stay,” Paige snapped. If they attacked Fletcher, he’d release the arrow and everything would burn.
“Yeah, you keep them off me,” Fletcher said harshly. His hand trembled faintly. He hadn’t planned on getting caught.
“You were wounded,” Aggie said, trying to hastily connect the dots before they turned into grenades and exploded in all of their faces. “I saw you. Cal saved you.”
“A necessary evil,” Fletcher said. “To keep my cover intact. Until we were ready.”
“We?” Keep them talking, Yen would have told her, until they’re distracted, and then move in for the kill. You only need a second. Of course, she’d been talking about vampires, not humans.
“Whitethorn,” Fletcher said. The facade of the meek, quiet boy fell away. Fire traveled slowly along the hidden ropes. They burned blue, hissing as they seared through the snow. “It took me ages to get myself sent to this stupid farm. But it was worth it. Now I can take out the Drake bitch, as well as her brother and everyone else who stands with them.”
“So you’re nuts, then,” Aggie said calmly. Cal was behind him, moving silently and steadily.
“I’m saving us all.”
“By becoming a serial killer?” she mocked, trying to keep his focus. Cal had nearly reached the edge of the circle. A few more steps and he’d be close enough to drag Nicholas out of the way. Solange and the others were still out of reach. She needed to buy Cal more time. And she didn’t think she could spray the arrow with the hose fast enough to extinguish it before it left the bow. “Way to be a hero.”
“And you put the blame on Aggie,” Paige added, the fury in her voice not entirely a ploy. “You left that note. Y
ou killed Kali.”
“I needed you guys out of the way. I didn’t think you’d find her so fast.”
“Gee, sorry to ruin your murder plans,” Aggie muttered.
“You should thank me. You went soft. So I turned you back into a weapon.”
“You hid behind her,” Paige spat. “Asshat coward.”
“And you attacked Cal that night at Conspiracy Theory. So it would look like I did it,” Aggie guessed. “And you framed Mary Walker last year too, didn’t you? You sick bastard.”
“Maybe you two could stop taunting the guy with the fiery arrows,” Catelyn snapped from the shadows. “I’m not keen on going up in flames right now.”
Cal was so close.
“You planted Yen’s stake,” Aggie realized slowly. Reason fled like a rabbit. “And her necklace.”
“She was one of us,” he said. “Whitethorn. But you’re just a disappointment.”
“You used her against me. Oh, I’m not just going to hurt you,” she said pleasantly, even as rage tinted everything red for a brief searing moment. She suddenly understood vampire bloodlust a little bit better. “I’m going to end you.”
“Cal,” Fletcher snapped, just as he reached out. “Stop. Or I’ll shoot Nicholas.”
“You’re going to shoot him anyway.”
“But if you take another step, I’ll shoot Aggie first.”
“Well, shit. You’re trying to make me the damsel in distress,” she said. “You really are an asshat.” Her fingers cramped around the hose, cold and slick with icy water. “Don’t listen to him, Cal. He’s going to kill us regardless,” she told Cal. “We’ve blown his cover. How long have you been doing this, anyway?”
“Long enough that you can’t stop me.”
Solange moved again, eyes veining red as she struggled to break the chains of the Hypnos. Lucy looked like she was trying to meditate, her lips moving around the word “om.”
“Fletcher, you can’t take us all on alone.” Aggie reminded herself to try to sound reasonable, but she was usually on the receiving end of pacifying lectures. She’d rather pummel Fletcher into the ground. Lucy was right. Giving them wasn’t any more fun than getting them.