Alliance (7 page)

“Hey, do you think Mr. Yu—” who owns the convenience store a block away “sells protein bars?”

“Eew. What do you want a protein bar for? Is this a new diet thing? I thought you were on an O negative kick.”

“It’s not for me. Apparently, I’m not above a little bribery to get into Rachel’s good graces.”

Hannah just shakes her head.

~o~

At dinnertime, I head down to Rachel’s room, planning to walk with her to the caf. I’ve given her the day to get settled; now I’m ready to “mentor” her.

Her door is open, and low voices come from inside. She’s got a room to herself—she’s already making friends? Funny, Rachel doesn’t seem like the social type.

If she really is making friends, I don’t want to interrupt. I stop while I’m still down the hall and use my ears. It can’t hurt to find out who she’s chosen, maybe head her off if it’s one of our few bad eggs.

“Does anything weird ever happen here?” Rachel asks.

“You’ll have to be a little more specific.”

My teeth grind together.
Lily
? Of all the girls in this school Rachel could befriend it has to be Lily?

“In case you haven’t noticed, this is a school full of recovering drug addicts, abuse victims, and orphans. Weird things happen all the time.”

I consider interrupting their conversation but I’m a little curious where Rachel’s going with this.

“I don’t mean ‘weird’ in that sense. I’m talking about abnormal things. Missing people? Kids with funky hickeys?”

Lily laughs, but it breaks off in the middle like she’s realized Rachel isn’t joking. “Umm, no. Sorry. Why do you ask?”

There’s a long pause.

“My mentor… you know, Maggie? There’s something about her… she just seems off somehow. Have you noticed?”

My pulse suddenly thunders in my ears. If Lily’s going to say something about my outburst the other day, this is a perfect opening for her.

“You mean like how she constantly breaks the rules around here but never gets more than a slap on the wrist for it? She’s such a fraud, but everyone in charge acts like she’s God’s gift or something.”

Umm… if Lily knew
why
I got special treatment she probably wouldn’t be so judgmental. But at least she’s not mentioning my fangs.

“Does Maggie make you uncomfortable?”

What? How does Rachel know about that?

Lily snorts. “Only with how she follows people around and tattles on them.”

Why is Lily covering for me? If you can call her disdainful comments ‘covering for me’.

“Oh, and she’ll be missing for days at a time, and if you ask about her all the adults conveniently have no idea what you’re talking about. She comes and goes as she pleases, ignores curfew. And I know for a fact that Director Phillips has caught her in the act of sneaking back in. The next day I thought she’d be in trouble, but she wasn’t. Everything with Maggie is no big deal.”

I had no idea Lily is so observant. I’ve attended school here for three years and didn’t think anyone noticed my special activities. Hannah and I have perfected the makeup and clothes we need to look like we’re anywhere from fifteen to twenty-one, but if Lily’s asking questions, and now Rachel, what’s to stop someone else from noticing?

“Where do you think she’s sneaking off to?” Rachel asks.

“No idea.”

“Do you think she’s doing something bad?”

What is with the twenty questions? I need to break this up now, so I clear my throat and move into Rachel’s doorway.

“Ladies, its dinner time. You heading down to the caf? I’ll go with you.”

Two sets of eyes glare at me with a hatred I don’t understand. What did I do to make them feel this way about me?

I set my jaw, unwilling to show them any emotion. As much as I dislike Lily and don’t even know Rachel, it doesn’t feel good to know they could feel such horrible things about me.

Neither one makes a move to get up from their sprawl on the twin beds; neither one speaks.

“Five minutes, and Karla will make rounds.” I leave, but not before both girls roll their eyes.

I’m halfway to the caf on level one, holding onto my temper by a thread when my cell rings. I don’t recognize the number, but I answer anyway. It could be Chloe.

The line opens and there’s a loud bang in the background, and a high pitched squeal.

“Hello?”

Nothing. Did they hang up?

Finally a croaky female voice speaks, “I-is this Maggie? W-we met at the hospital a few days ago. You tried to help me?”

The girl with the kid. “Samantha?”

Another slam comes, followed by another cry.

“I need help.” She sniffles.

I change direction, now running back toward my room. I need the special backpack at the bottom of my closet, the one I keep for situations like this.

“What’s your address? I’ll come right now.”

10 - Shane

“I’m in the back hallway. Pretty sure this door leads to a set of stairs,” Rachel whispers the words but I’ve got my cell on speakerphone so they’re loud enough to echo in the cab of my truck. It’s gotten muggy outside tonight, and the windows are rolled up. Don’t have to worry about any pedestrians hearing our conversation that way either.

“How sure?” Chloe asks from where she’s got her chin propped on the back of the bench seat. She’s the “lookout”, watching behind us. I’ve got my eyes glued to Rachel’s new school, just up the block.

It’s been hours since Rach walked into that school and I’m still buzzing with adrenaline, confusion… attraction. And still mad at myself. How could I let my sister walk right into a vampire’s territory on her own?

I tap my thumbs against the steering wheel, trying to fidget away my impatience. I hate not being in control of this situation. Plus the sun’s setting, so the familiar anxiety-slash-adrenaline is spiking in my blood.

“Where’d you get this phone, anyway?” I probably shouldn’t ask, but I’m curious. Did Rachel lift it off one of her classmates?

“I—”

A piercing alarm cuts off whatever Rachel started to say. She curses—barely audible over the noise—and then comes the sound of running footsteps.

“Come on, Rach,” I chant under my breath. I’ve got my foot poised over the gas pedal so when she comes out of the side door we’re outta here.

“Miss Campton!”

Crud. The faint voice is unmistakably male and sounds authoritative.

“Miss Campton!”

Sounds like a scuffle now, and my hope deflates in my chest. Of course it couldn’t be that easy.

“What do you think you’re doing, young lady? You don’t have permission to leave campus.”

“Sorry, Shane,” she mutters, and then the line goes dead.

I curse.

Chloe slaps me on the shoulder.

“Sorry.”

Crud, crud, crud. I knew it couldn’t be this easy to get Rachel out of here. My frustration is at a boiling point. I haven’t been hunting in several days, because I can’t leave Chloe without protection. I can’t get anyone at social services to get off their butts and help me get Rachel back. And now she can’t escape the school building.

“It’ll be okay,” Chloe says, shifting to sit back in her seat correctly. “We’ll have to just make another plan. Hey, look!”

I follow her pointing finger to the door I was just watching and see a figure in a hooded sweatshirt duck outside and start jogging for the street corner.

“Is that Rach? How’d she get away?” Chloe wonders.

“Nope, she’s too short.” I can tell it’s a female by the shapely legs, though. Oh, crap. It’s Blondie. Is she out for a hunt?

She hails a cab.

I look over at Chloe. I don’t like to take her on the chase, but I don’t want to miss an opportunity to take out Blondie and possibly some other vamps she could lead us to.

The cab pulls away, and I shove the truck in gear and follow. Or try to, anyway. There’s a lot of cabs in Boston, and traffic sucks. I miss the Midwest.

I track her to a rundown neighborhood that looks to be a prime hunting ground. Streetlights burned out, homeless guy on the corner, yards filled with junk and more dirt than grass. Yep, this is the kind of neighborhood where you don’t call the cops if someone turns up missing.

Blondie jumps out of the cab and dashes up to a front door of one of the houses in the middle of the street. Is she just going to bust in like that? It’s not a hunting style I’ve seen before, but she
is
pretty unusual.

I throw the truck in park and toss Chloe a stake, just in case. “Stay here. Lock the doors.”

“What’s going on? If she’s hunting, shouldn’t she be sneaking around?”

I don’t tell her I’m wondering the same thing, I just slip out of the truck and slam the door. Blondie bangs on the front door—I can hear it from two houses away.

I stay in the shadows between the houses and get closer. I’m downwind, so hopefully she can’t smell me. Even if she can, I can take her.

Someone inside the house screams. Without hesitating, Blondie kicks in the front door and disappears.

Crud. I can’t just run in without knowing if the house is full of vamps.

I palm my knife and find a window on the side of the house. Even from outside, the smell of filth is nauseating.

Through the window I see what looks like a living room. In the center of the room, a burly man holds a little girl by the neck. She’s turning blue.

A teenage girl—not Maggie—runs in from another room and launches herself at the man, but he knocks her away with a backhand. She crashes into a glass china cabinet and falls to the floor. She’s weeping, so I know she’s still alive.

I start to stand up. Someone needs to intervene here. Before I move, Blondie tears into the room from a different door. She kicks the man’s knee out from under him, sending him to the ground. She breaks his nose with the heel of her hand. It’s really a beautiful move.

The man is stunned enough to let go of the child. The little body slumps to the floor, unmoving. The girl in the corner, who now has blood all over her, is sobbing and screaming.

Blondie leans over the kid and touches her neck, and I bend my knees in preparation to launch through the window. I can’t let the little girl die. Blondie lowers her head and I freeze. Am I about to watch her rip out the jugular of an innocent child?

But then she covers the kid’s mouth with her own and I see the little chest rise. She’s doing
CPR
? The girl coughs and Blondie gathers her up into her arms. She moves to the teen and I wait for her attack—the girl is covered in blood. Instead, Maggie helps her up and gets her to hobble out the door Maggie came in only moments ago.

I can hear them talking through the thin walls of the obviously cheaply-built house.

“Where are we going?”

Blondie sounds completely calm when she answers, not even winded. “We can’t discuss where you’re going right now, but I promise you’ll be safe.”

“What about my clothes? Can I pack a bag?”

“No. We need to leave. Quickly.”

“I don’t have any money. I don’t have any way to get out of here.”

“Don’t worry about that right now. It’s taken care of.”

I come around the corner of the house as the girls step onto the slanted front porch. They stop. I hesitate, still in the shadows. It’s obvious the two girls need help, so I can’t kill Blondie yet.

“Where’s the cab?” Maggie asks. Then she uses a very unladylike word. “I asked him to keep the meter running—” She juggles the small girl in her arms and reaches into a pocket, pulling out a slim silver object. Cell phone.

“Hey!” A yell from the back of the house makes the other teen yelp, and Maggie pulls her down the rickety steps into the front yard.

Something slams inside the house. I can’t believe the guy is standing after that punch Blondie gave him, but apparently he’s mad enough to try for more.

The teen girl with Maggie starts to cry again, which causes the little girl to whimper. Maggie dials the phone and looks back at the house like she doesn’t quite know how to handle everything all at once.

Crap. Am I really going to do this?

I step out from the shadows. “You need a ride? My truck’s down there.” I yank my thumb toward where I left the truck and Chloe.

“Shane?” Blondie’s voice reeks of disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

A loud curse and footsteps getting closer give me some credence as I jog over to the group on the sidewalk. “I’ll tell you later. Do you want a ride or not?”

Now that I’m close I see her eyes are green. Green, even with the bloody teen standing so close to her? I can’t believe it, but I have to. I’m looking right into the evidence.

“Yes,” Blondie breathes. “We want a ride.”

I lead the way to my truck before the creep makes it outside. No way I’m letting Blondie into the cab with Chloe, so I pull down the tailgate. She frowns, but moves to lift the little girl up in the truck bed, then pushes the teen up there too before hopping in herself.

I latch the tailgate, and Blondie and I stare at each other from about a foot away. I’m intensely aware of her closeness, her lavender smell, and not in the way I’m used to—what I’m feeling right this second has nothing to do with violence.

“Give me your jacket.”

Her words knock me free from the spell I’m caught in. “What?”

“Samantha is bleeding all over the place. Unless you have a first aid kit in your truck, give me your jacket.”

She can’t have it—there are two knives sewn into special pockets in the seam and I can’t risk her finding them. I move over to Chloe’s window and knock on it. “Hand me some bandages, will you?”

Chloe quickly gives me what I’ve asked for, wisely keeping her mouth shut. I toss them back to Maggie, who catches them expertly and then sits with the other two girls against the toolbox that spans the back of the truck bed, near the cab. It’s one of the heavy metal ones made for construction workers who carry tools around. Except mine is filled with
my kind
of tools. Weapons.

“Mind telling me where I’m going?” I call out as I cross in front of the truck.

Maggie rattles off an address across town from E.W. House, not one that I recognize.

“You’re welcome,” I mutter as I get in.