第 12 页

----------------------- Page 117-----------------------

Raoul would charge them head-on while Kristie attacked from the side. The plan suited both their styles, though I wasn’t sure if they were going to be able to follow this strategy in the heat of the hunt. When Riley called everyone together after an hour of practice, Fred immediately started walking backward toward the north; Riley had the others facing south. I stayed close, though I had no idea what he was doing. Fred stopped when we were a good hundred yards away, in the shade of the spruce trees on the fringe of the forest. No one watched us move away. Fred was eyeing Riley, as if waiting to see if he would notice our retreat. Riley began speaking. “We leave now. You’re strong and you’re ready. And you’re thirsty for it, aren’t you? You can feel the burn. You’re ready for dessert.” He was right. All that blood hadn’t slowed the return of the thirst at all. In fact, I wasn’t sure, but I thought it might be coming back faster and harder than usual. Maybe overfeeding was counterproductive in some ways. “The yellow-eyes are coming in slowly from the south, feeding along the way, trying to get stronger,” Riley said. “She’s been monitoring them, so I know where to find them. She’s going to meet us there, with Diego” he cast a significant glance toward where I’d just been standing, and then a quick frown that disappeared just as quickly “and we will hit them like a tsunami. We will overwhelm them easily. And then we will celebrate.” He smiled. “Someone’s going to get a jump on the celebration. Raoul give me that.” Riley held out his hand

----------------------- Page 118-----------------------

imperiously. Raoul reluctantly tossed him the bag with the shirt. It seemed like Raoul was trying to lay claim to the girl by hogging her scent. “Take another whiff, everybody. Let’s get focused!” Focused on the girl? Or the fight? Riley himself walked the shirt around this time, almost like he wanted to make sure everyone was thirsty. And I could see from the reactions that, like me, the burn was back for them all. The scent of the shirt made them scowl and snarl. It wasn’t necessary to give us the scent again; we forgot nothing. So this was probably just a test. Just thinking about the girl’s scent had venom pooling in my mouth. “Are you with me?” Riley bellowed. Everyone screamed his or her assent. “Let’s take them down, kids!” It was like the barracuda again, only on land this time. Fred didn’t move, so I stayed with him, though I knew I was wasting time I needed. If I were going to get to Diego and pull him away before the fighting could start, I would need to be near the front of the attack. I looked after them anxiously. I was still younger than most of them faster. “Riley won’t be able to think of me for about twenty minutes or so,” Fred told me, his voice casual and familiar, like we’d had a million conversations in the past. “I’ve been gauging the time. Even a good distance away, he’ll feel sick if he tries to remember me.” “Really? That’s cool.” Fred smiled. “I’ve been practicing, keeping track of the

----------------------- Page 119-----------------------

effects. I can make myself totally invisible now. No one can look at me if I don’t want them to.” “I’ve noticed,” I said, then paused and guessed, “You’re not going?” Fred shook his head. “Of course not. It’s obvious we’re not being told what we need to know. I’m not going to be Riley’s pawn.” So Fred had figured it out on his own. “I was going to take off sooner, but then I wanted to talk to you before I left, and there hasn’t been a chance till now.” “I wanted to talk to you, too,” I said. “I thought you should know that Riley’s been lying about the sun. This four-day thing is a total crock. I think Shelly and Steve and the others figured it out, too. And there’s a lot more politics going on with this fight than he’s told us. More than one set of enemies.” I said it fast, feeling with terrible urgency the movement of the sun, the time passing. I had to get to Diego. “I’m not surprised,” Fred said calmly. “And I’m out. I’m going to explore on my own, see the world. Or I was going on my own, but then I thought maybe you might want to come, too. You’d be pretty safe with me. No one will be able to follow us.” I hesitated for a second. The idea of safety was hard to resist in that exact moment. “I’ve got to get Diego,” I said, shaking my head. He nodded thoughtfully. “I get it. You know, if you’re willing to vouch for him, you can bring him along. Seems like sometimes numbers come in handy.” “Yes,” I agreed fervently, remembering how vulnerable I’d felt

----------------------- Page 120-----------------------

in the tree alone with Diego as the four cloaks had advanced. He raised an eyebrow at my tone. “Riley is lying about at least one more important thing,” I explained. “Be careful. We aren’t supposed to let humans know about us. There are some kind of freaky vampires who stop covens when they get too obvious. I’ve seen them, and you don’t want them to find you. Just keep out of sight in the day, and hunt smart.” I looked south anxiously. “I have to hurry!” He was processing my revelations solemnly. “Okay. Catch up to me if you want. I’d like to hear more. I’ll wait for you in Vancouver for one day. I know the city. I’ll leave you a trail in…” He thought for a second and then chuckled once. “Riley Park. You can follow it to me. But after twenty-four hours I’m taking off.” “I’ll get Diego and catch up to you.” “Good luck, Bree.” “Thanks, Fred! Good luck to you, too. I’ll see you!” I was already running. “I hope so,” I heard him say behind me. I sprinted after the scent of the others, flying along the ground faster than I’d ever run before. I was lucky that they must have paused for something for Riley to yell at them, I was guessing because I caught them sooner than I should have. Or maybe Riley had remembered Fred and stopped to look for us. They were running at a steady pace when I reached them, semi- disciplined like last night. I tried to slide into the group without drawing attention, but I saw Riley’s head flip around once to scan those trailing behind. His eyes zeroed in on me, and then

----------------------- Page 121-----------------------

he started running faster. Did he assume Fred was with me? Riley would never see Fred again. It wasn’t five minutes later when everything changed. Raoul caught the scent. With a wild growl he was off. Riley had us so worked up that it took only the tiniest spark to set off an explosion. The others near Raoul had the scent, too, and then everyone went crazy. Riley’s harping on this human had overshadowed the rest of his instructions. We were hunters, not an army. There was no team. It was a race for blood. Even though I knew there were a lot of lies in the story, I couldn’t totally resist the scent. Running at the back of the pack, I had to cross it. Fresh. Strong. The human had been here recently, and she smelled so sweet. I was strong with all the blood we’d drunk last night, but it didn’t matter. I was thirsty. It burned. I ran after the others, trying to keep my head clear. It was all I could do to hold back a little, to stay behind the others. The closest person to me was Riley. He was… holding back, too? He shouted orders, mostly the same thing repeated. “Kristie, go around! Move around! Split off! Kristie, Jen! Break off!” His whole plan of the two-pronged ambush was self- destructing as we watched. Riley sped up to the main group and grabbed Sara’s shoulder. She snapped at him as he hurled her to the left. “Go around!” he shouted. He caught the blond kid whose name I’d never figured out and shoved him into Sara, who clearly wasn’t happy with that. Kristie came out of the hunting focus long enough to realize she was supposed to be moving strategically.

----------------------- Page 122-----------------------

She gave one fierce gaze after Raoul and then started screeching at her team. “This way! Faster! We’ll beat them around and get to her first! C’mon!” “I’m spear point with Raoul!” Riley shouted at her, turning away. I hesitated, still running forward. I didn’t want to be part of any “spear point,” but Kristie’s team was already turning on each other. Sara had the blond kid in a headlock. The sound of his head tearing off made my decision for me. I sprinted after Riley, wondering if Sara would pause to burn the boy who liked to play Spider-Man. I caught up enough to see Riley ahead and followed at a distance until he got to Raoul’s team. The scent made it hard to keep my mind on the things that mattered. “Raoul!” Riley yelled. Raoul grunted, not turning. He was totally absorbed by the sweet scent. “I’ve got to help Kristie! I’ll meet you there! Keep your focus! ” I jerked to a stop, frozen with uncertainty. Raoul kept on, not showing any response to Riley’s words. Riley slowed to a jog, then a walk. I should have moved, but he probably would have heard me try to hide. He turned, a smile on his face, and saw me. “Bree. I thought you were with Kristie.” I didn’t respond. “I heard someone get hurt Kristie needs me more than

----------------------- Page 123-----------------------

Raoul,” he explained quickly. “Are you… leaving us?” Riley’s face changed. It was like I could see his shifting tactics written on his features. His eyes widened, suddenly anxious. “I’m worried, Bree. I told you that she was going to meet us, to help us, but I haven’t crossed her trail. Something’s wrong. I need to find her.” “But there’s no way you can find her before Raoul gets to the yellow-eyes,” I pointed out. “I have to find out what’s going on.” He sounded genuinely desperate. “I need her. I wasn’t supposed to do this alone!” “But the others…” “Bree, I have to go find her! Now! There are enough of you to overwhelm the yellow-eyes. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” He sounded so sincere. I hesitated, glancing back the way we had come. Fred would be halfway to Vancouver by now. Riley hadn’t even asked about him. Maybe Fred’s talent was still in effect. “Diego’s down there, Bree,” Riley said urgently. “He’ll be part of the first attack. Didn’t you catch his scent back there? Did you not get close enough?” I shook my head, totally confused. “Diego was there?” “He’s with Raoul by now. If you hurry, you can help him get out alive.” We stared at each other for a long second, and then I looked south after Raoul’s path.

----------------------- Page 124-----------------------

“Good girl,” Riley said. “I’ll go find her and we’ll be back to help clean up. You guys have got this! It might be over by the time you get there!” He took off in a direction perpendicular to our original path. I clenched my teeth at how sure he seemed of his way. Lying to the end. But it didn’t feel like I had a choice. I headed south in a flat- out sprint again. I had to go get Diego. Drag him away if it came to that. We could catch up with Fred. Or take off on our own. We needed to run. I would tell Diego how Riley had lied. He would see that Riley had no intention of helping us fight the battle he’d set up. There was no reason to help him anymore. I found the human’s scent and then Raoul’s. I didn’t catch Diego’s. Was I going too fast? Or was the human’s scent just overpowering me? Half my head was absorbed in this strangely counterproductive hunt sure, we would find the girl, but would we be ready to fight together when we did? No, we’d be clawing each other apart to get to her. And then I heard the snarling and screaming and screeching explode from ahead and I knew the fight was happening and I was too late to beat Diego there. I only ran faster. Maybe I could still save him. I smelled the smoke the sweet, thick scent of vampires burning carried back to me on the wind. The sound of mayhem was louder. Maybe it was almost done. Would I find our coven victorious and Diego waiting? I dashed through a heavy fringe of smoke and found myself out of the forest in a huge grassy field. I leaped over a rock, only

----------------------- Page 125-----------------------

to realize in the instant I flew past it that it was a headless torso. My eyes raked the field. There were pieces of vampires everywhere, and a huge bonfire smoking purple into the sunny sky. Out from under the billowing haze, I could see dazzling, glittering bodies darting and grappling as the sounds of vampires being torn apart went on and on. I looked for one thing: Diego’s curly black hair. No one I could see had hair so dark. There was one huge vampire with brown hair that was almost black, but he was too big, and as I focused I watched him tear Kevin’s head off and pitch it into the fire before leaping on someone else’s back. Was that Jen? There was another with straight black hair that was too small to be Diego. That one was moving so fast I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl. I scanned quickly again, feeling horribly exposed. I took in the faces. There weren’t nearly enough vampires here, even counting those that were down. I didn’t see any of Kristie’s group. There must have been a lot of vampires burned already. Most of the vampires still standing were strangers. A blond vampire glanced at me, meeting my gaze, and his eyes flashed gold in the sunlight. We were losing. Bad. I started backing toward the trees, not moving fast enough because I was still looking for Diego. He wasn’t here. There was no sign he had ever been here. No trace of his scent, though I could distinguish the smells of most of Raoul’s team and many strangers. I had made myself look at the pieces, too. None of them belonged to Diego. I would have recognized even

----------------------- Page 126-----------------------

a finger. I turned and really ran for the trees, suddenly positive that Diego’s presence here was just another of Riley’s lies. And if Diego wasn’t here, then he was already dead. This fell into place for me so easily that I thought I must have known the truth for a while. Since the moment that Diego had not followed Riley through the basement door. He’d already been gone. I was a few feet into the trees when a force like a wrecking ball hit me from behind and threw me to the ground. An arm slipped under my chin. “Please!” I sobbed. And I meant please kill me fast. The arm hesitated. I didn’t fight back, though my instincts were urging me to bite and claw and rip the enemy apart. The saner part of me knew that wasn’t going to work. Riley had lied about these weak, older vampires, too, and we’d never had a chance. But even if I’d had a way to beat this one, I wouldn’t have been able to move. Diego was gone, and that glaring fact killed the fight in me. Suddenly I was airborne. I crashed into a tree and crumpled to the ground. I should have tried to run, but Diego was dead. I couldn’t get around that. The blond vampire from the clearing was staring intently at me, his body ready to spring. He looked very capable, much more experienced than Riley. But he wasn’t lunging at me. He wasn’t crazed like Raoul or Kristie. He was totally in control. “Please,” I said again, wanting him to get this over with. “I don’t want to fight.”