A Killer First Date (2 page)

I poked him. “Behave.”

The parking lot was full of students crowding out of cars and jostling past us to get tickets. I already had ours in my jacket pocket.

Vanessa bounced up to us. She was nice enough, just so perky it kind of hurt. “Hi, guys!”

“Hi, Van,” Nathan said for both of us.

“Isn’t this superfun?” She beamed, her lip gloss catching the lights from the booths. Her straight brown hair swung as she put a hand on Nathan’s shoulder and smiled. She had to know he was gay but she still flirted with him incessantly. “Don’t forget to buy raffle tickets! We want to hold the prom somewhere really awesome this year!” She all but skipped away.

“Have you noticed everything she says has! exclamation! points!” I asked.

“She’s definitely caffeinated,” Nathan agreed. “And she makes me tired. But she’ll be the reason we won’t have prom in a barn that smells like cowshit like they did last year.”

“Too true,” I said. “I’m buying extra raffle tickets.” I shook my head at the way she giggled at everyone she passed. “Didn’t Brent break up with her? Like today?” Brent and I had bio class together.

Nathan shrugged. “The perk is undefeated.”

I looked back at the parking lot, watching for Nicholas. It must be eight thirty by now. I shifted from one foot to the other. It was dumb to feel nervous. It was
Nicholas
. We’d grown up together. We’d flung mud and insults at each other. But it was different now. Not the mud and insult flinging, we’d always do that. But now our world was tilted. He was important, and not in the comfortable one-of-Solange’s-many-annoying-brothers way. He was vital, like air and chocolate.

And he was here.

He broke out of the thinning crowd, the wind tousling his dark hair, his gray eyes like starlight. He wore dark jeans and a black shirt under his green army jacket. I knew the inside pockets would be filled with stakes and assorted deadly weapons.

“Yummy,” Nathan said, openly gawking. “
That’s
your boyfriend? I want one!”

I laughed and shoved him lightly. “Go away, Nathan. You’ll scare him with all that drooling.”

“But . . .”

“I’ll introduce you later,” I promised, trying not to fidget nervously. Nathan stepped back mumbling, but I ignored him. Nicholas walked toward me, his serious face touched with the slightest smirk. He’d probably heard every word we said.

“Hey,” he said softly, stopping right in front of me, close enough that I had to tilt my head back.

“Hey,” I said back, a little shyly. We weren’t at the Drake farmhouse or locked in a dungeon or otherwise running for our lives; we were breaking all of our patterns and I wasn’t sure of my footing. For some reason I felt warm, as if my cheeks were red. His smirk turned to a grin. “Don’t make me punch you on our first date,” I muttered, but I was grinning too.

He raised an eyebrow at the carnival behind me. “Want to ride the Ferris wheel?”

“That death trap? Hell, no. Let’s find the cotton-candy machine.”

“Deal. I bet cotton candy tastes good on you.” I swallowed, reflexively licking my bottom lip. He leaned in closer, his mouth just barely brushing mine when he spoke. “Ready?”

I nodded, breathless despite myself. He pulled back as if it was the most difficult thing he’d ever done.

Oh man, I was in real trouble with this new Nicholas.

We walked through the entryway, instantly assaulted with sounds and lights, with palm readers and paintings of bearded ladies, with whistles and bells and spinning pink cotton candy, and most of my high school student body all pressed together. I glanced up at Nicholas. His jaw clenched, unclenched. “Are you going to be okay?” I asked him.

He smiled, his teeth slightly pointed. “Sure.”

We walked the circuit, passing the food stands frying funnel cakes and burgers, and the game booths, ceilings bristling with giant, multicolored stuffed animals. I paused in front of the crossbow game.

Nicholas cocked an eyebrow. “Want me to win you a stuffed bunny?”

“Ha.” I rubbed my hands together. “I’ll win my own stuffed bunny, thanks very much.”

Nicholas passed the attendant a few dollars to pay for my turn. “I guess it’s nice to see you use your legendary aim for something other than breaking my nose,” he teased.

“The night is young,” I snapped back, lifting the plastic crossbow. “This is a pathetic weapon,” I muttered. “I couldn’t stake an undead mouse with this thing.”

“It’s supposed to be a game, remember?” he whispered, laughter in his dark voice.

I fired my three shots, all crowding into the bull’s-eye. With a triumphantly smug toss of my head, I looked at the openmouthed attendant. “I want the purple bunny.”

He tugged it down and passed it over to me. I slipped it into my bag while Nicholas shook his head.

“Dump this loser, Lucy, and run away with me. You’ll never have to win your own cross-eyed bunny again.”

I grinned up at Nicholas’s brother Quinn, who was smiling his charming smile, his arm draping casually over my shoulder. Hunter rolled her eyes at me from my other side.

“No way,” I said. “My aim’s better than yours. Plus, your girlfriend can hurt me.”

“Ooh,” Quinn said, winking. “Catfight. Hot.” He grinned. “Ouch,” he added when both Hunter and I smacked him. Hunter looked different, wearing a sundress instead of her usual Helios-Ra vampire hunter gear and her hair loose. Still, sundress or cargo pants, she knew three different ways to incapacitate someone using just her left elbow.

“Hunter probably wants to do a sweep, so we’re going to go make out on the Ferris wheel.” Quinn waggled his eyebrows at us. “Multitasking.” Hunter laughed as he pulled her toward the glittering rides.

Nicholas took my hand again. “I hear small families are nice,” he said drily, the way he always did when one of his many brothers was bugging him. “What do you want to do first?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Cotton candy it is,” he said, eyes twinkling.

I ate sugary pink fluff and we walked around, like any other couple. If he tried to shield me when the pop of the hunting games broke through the chatter, well, that was normal too. For us, anyway. When a girl in a blue dress ran toward us, I stepped in front of him reaching for a stake, thinking she might be
Hel-Blar.
But there was no screaming, no blood. It was just a night at a carnival, just two people holding hands and smiling, just sugar and starlight.

I should have known better.

Still, for now, our biggest concern was Nathan, bearing down on us, grinning manically. Linnet trailed behind him, quiet and mortified as always.

“Lucy,” Nathan said. “Hi.”

“Hi, Nathan.” I glanced at Nicholas. “Nicholas, this is my friend Linnet.”

Linnet smiled shyly. “Hi.”

Nathan stared at me so pointedly and pathetically I took pity on him. Besides, if he kept clearing his throat so hard he’d probably choke to death. “And this is Nathan.”

“Hey,” Nicholas said.

Nathan apparently coughed so much he’d swallowed his tongue. He just smiled and looked slightly insane. And I was sure his heart was doing all sorts of interesting things. They just don’t come cuter than the Drake brothers. Smothering a laugh I nudged Nicholas around them. “See you guys later.”

“Is he okay?” Nicholas asked. “His blood pressure was all weird.”

“He’s fine. He just thinks you’re hot.”

“Shut up.” Nicholas’s ears went red at the tips. It was totally adorable.

I laughed. “Face it, Nicky, the Drakes are yummy.”

He ran a hand over his face, embarrassed. “Stop it, Lucky.”

“Make me,” I dared him. I kept grinning, until his fingers closed around my wrists and he tugged me closer. I was pressed up against his chest and he moved me backward, as if we were dancing, until my shoulders touched the side wall of a booth. We were hidden in the shadows under a striped awning. My hands clenched into his shirt. He lowered his head, his mouth descending toward mine.

The kiss never landed.

“You vamped him, didn’t you?” I asked Quinn under my breath, when the attendant waved us through from the back of the line.

Quinn just grinned. “I only use my powers for good, not evil,” he assured me as we climbed into a swinging basket. The seat was cracked red leather, with a white-painted iron cage under our feet.

“Oh, you’re definitely evil,” I said as the safety bar clicked over us. He was close enough that I could see the flare of his blue eyes, the shadows of his cheekbones. His smile was slow and seductive. He was so beautiful it was sometimes hard to look at him, like staring into the sun too long. Which was ironic considering I belonged to a vampire hunter league named after two sun gods. But Helios and Ra had nothing on Quinn Drake.

He leaned closer still as the Ferris wheel creaked into motion, the basket swinging wildly on its hinges. “Are you scared?”

“No, am I supposed to be?”

“Yes.” He laughed. “So I can be all protective and macho.”

“Oh, right. I keep forgetting.” I grinned back at him.

The Ferris wheel turned slowly, bringing us up to the top, where it paused dramatically. The whirling, brightly colored lights of the carnival danced below us, and the porch lights of houses gleamed in the distance. The lake was a black spot, only faintly touched by moonlight. Out of habit, I did a visual sweep, checking for exits, defendable corners, the odd blue tint of
Hel-Blar
skin.

Quinn laughed again. I glanced at him. “What?”

“You’re checking access points or something, aren’t you?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Oops. Sorry. Occupational hazard,” I admitted.

“Let’s see if I can’t distract you,” he murmured, bending his head. His mouth touched mine, softly, tenderly. When I kissed him back, the kiss went deep and dark, like warm ocean water. We were floating above the world and nothing else mattered. The basket rocked lightly as the Ferris wheel creaked into motion again. His hands brushed my face gently even as his tongue touched mine with a hunger that made my head spin. I nipped at his lower lip.

We were halfway between the top of the wheel and the ground when Quinn went still. His hands froze in my hair. He tilted his head, his eyes like blue fire. I knew that look.

I searched the laughing crowds below us, reaching for my bag of weapons.

Nicholas turned his head so sharply that I reached for a stake out of instinct. He stared at the edge of the trees, on the side of the parking lot where it came up against the boardwalk. “Someone’s screaming.” I couldn’t hear it over the din of the fair. He pointed. “There.”

“Go,” I said. “You’re way faster. I’ll get backup and find you.”

“No, stay here,” he tossed over his shoulder before he became a blur of colors, leaving a whirlwind of discarded popcorn boxes and other litter in his wake.

“Yeah, right,” I muttered, already reaching for my cell phone to call Hunter. I pushed through the crowd toward the Ferris wheel. Before it rang I saw her and Quinn, their seat bobbing dangerously, third from the ground. Quinn leaped and landed on his feet, racing after his brother. Hunter jumped down just as I got there, her blond hair streaming behind her. The attendant squawked at her, waving his arms frantically. But she was already on the ground and we were running as fast as we could for the woods.

“Nicholas heard it too?” she asked.

I nodded, panting. I didn’t train at a vampire hunter high school like she did. My lungs were already burning. I ignored the pain and pushed myself to go faster. Hunter pulled a handheld miniature crossbow out of her bag and handed it to me. “Here, you’re better with this thing than I am.”

I armed it when we slowed down, picking our way carefully through the underbrush. We listened for the sounds of a fight, for another scream. A cloud of rotten mushrooms and green pond water hit us like a fist.

“Why can’t they smell like dead flowers like some of the others?” I gagged.

Hunter didn’t reply. But she did drop to the ground and sweep her legs out, knocking me off my feet. I stumbled and fell hard. A stake whistled between us, thunking into a tree. Sheer luck had me twisting so I didn’t break the crossbow or impale myself on it either. The
Hel-Blar
who’d thrown the stake clacked his saliva-dripping teeth at us, launching himself at Hunter. I released the crossbow bolt and it slammed into his chest. The moment it pierced his heart, his blue-tinged flesh disintegrated and blew away.

Hunter sat up. “Thanks.”

I sat up too, the stake in the pine trunk an inch over my head. “Back at you.” It would have caught me right between my shoulders if she hadn’t shoved me out of the way. I loaded another bolt and pushed to my feet. Hunter was already up and spinning on her heel, searching the shadows and listening.

When Quinn and Nicholas burst out of the trees I nearly loosed a crossbow bolt at them. Hunter’s arm stuttered as she stopped herself from launching a stake at the very last second. We all stared at each other, wide-eyed.

“Hell of a carnival,” Quinn said, shoving his hair out of his face.

“And I thought our school events were interesting,” Hunter agreed. “Lucy dropped a
Hel-Blar
.”

“I told you to stay at the carnival,” Nicholas said.

“Oh, right, ’cause you’re the boss of me,” I scoffed. “Get a grip, Drake.”

Quinn snorted. “Told you, little brother.”

“What did you guys find?” Hunter asked. “Another
Hel-Blar
, but we took care of her,” Quinn said.

“There’s a girl too,” Nicholas added. “Kinda drunk and weepy.”

Hunter sighed. “Is she okay? Do we need to get her to the infirmary?”

“She’s fine,” Quinn grumbled.

“Are you sure?”

“Fine enough to grab his ass.” Nicholas smirked.

Quinn glanced at Hunter, then at his brother. “Shut up, man.”

Hunter rolled her eyes. “Like I don’t already know girls love you, Quinn,” she said. She pushed through the branches, stopping only to glance back at him. “Shouldn’t we check on her?”

Quinn motioned to the trail coming out of the trees and leading to the fairgrounds. “She went back to the carnival.” He took Hunter’s hand. “Let’s go steal a rowboat,” he murmured at her. He didn’t even look back at us. “See ya.”