Bree Tanner - Part 4

Riley passed through the door first, and the kitchen of the

home was, as he’d promised, totally black. He motioned for me

to keep following and led me through a dark hall past a few

open bedroom doors, then through another door with a dead

bolt. We ended up in the garage.

“You’re brave,” he commented in a very low voice. “Or really

trusting. I thought it would be more work to get you upstairs with

the sun up.”

Whoops. I should have been more skittish. Too late now. I

shrugged.

“So you and Diego are pretty tight, right?” he asked, just

breathing the words. Probably, if everyone were silent in the

basement, they would still be able to hear him, but it was pretty

noisy down there right now.

I shrugged again. “He saved my life,” I whispered.

Riley lifted his chin, almost but not quite a nod, and

appraised. Did he believe me? Did he think I still feared the

day?“He’s the best,” Riley said. “The smartest kid I’ve got.”

I nodded once.

“We had a little meeting about the situation. We agreed that

we need some surveillance. Going in blind is too dangerous.

He’s the only one I trust to scout ahead.” He exhaled, almost

angrily. “Wish I had two of him! Raoul’s got too short a fuse and

Kristie is too self-absorbed to get the big picture, but they’re the

best I’ve got, and I’ll have to make do. Diego said you were

smart, too.”

I waited, not sure how much of our story Riley knew.

“I need your help with Fred. Wow, that kid is strong! I

couldn’t even look at him tonight.”

I nodded cautiously again.

“Imagine if our enemies can’t even look at us. It will be so

easy!”

I didn’t think Fred would like that idea, but maybe I was

wrong. He didn’t seem like he cared anything for this coven of

ours. Would he want to save us? I didn’t respond to Riley.

“You spend a lot of time with him.”

I shrugged. “Nobody bothers me there. It’s not easy.”

Riley pursed his lips and nodded. “Smart, like Diego said.”

“Where is Diego?”

I shouldn’t have asked. The words just ripped out of their

own accord. I waited anxiously, trying to look indifferent and

most likely failing.

“We don’t have time to waste. I sent him south the second I

found out what was coming. If our enemies decide to attack

early, we need the advance warning. Diego will meet up with us

when we move against them.”

I tried to imagine where Diego was now. I wished I were

there with him. Maybe I could talk him out of doing Riley’s

bidding and putting himself in the line of fire in the process. But

maybe not. It seemed like Diego was thick with Riley, just like

I’d worried.

“Diego wanted me to tell you something.”

My eyes snapped to his face. Too fast, too eager. Blew it

again.

“Sounded like nonsense to me. He said, ‘Tell Bree I’ve got

the handshake figured out. I’ll show her in four days, when we

meet up.’ I have no idea what that means. Do you?”

I tried to force a poker face. “Maybe. He did say something

about needing a secret handshake. For his underwater cave.

Some kind of password. He was just kidding around, though.

I’m not sure what he means now.”

Riley chuckled. “Poor Diego.”

“What?”

“I think that kid likes you a lot more than you like him.”

“Oh.” I looked away, confused. Was Diego giving me this

message as a way to let me know I could trust Riley? But he

hadn’t told Riley I knew about the sun. Still, he must have trusted

Riley to tell him so much, to show Riley that he cared about me.

I thought it would be wiser to keep my mouth shut, though. Too

much had changed.

“Don’t write him off yet, Bree. He’s the best, like I said. Give

him a chance.”

Riley was giving me romantic advice? This could not get

weirder. I bobbed my head once and muttered, “Sure.”

“See if you can talk to Fred. Make sure he’s on board.”

I shrugged. “I’ll do what I can.”

Riley smiled. “Great. I’ll pull you aside before we leave, and

you can tell me how it went. I’ll keep it casual, not like tonight. I

don’t want him to feel like I’m spying on him.”

“Okay.”

Riley motioned for me to follow and then headed back to the

basement.

The training lasted all day, but I wasn’t part of it. After Riley

went back to his team leaders, I took my spot beside Fred. The

others had been divided up into four groups of four, with Raoul

and Kristie directing them. No one had picked Fred for a side,

or maybe he’d ignored them, or maybe they couldn’t even see

that he was there. I could still see him. He stood out—the only

one not participating, a big blond elephant in the room.

I had no desire to insinuate myself into either Raoul’s team

or Kristie’s, so I just watched. No one seemed to notice that I

was sitting out with Fred. Though we must have been somewhat

invisible, thanks to talented Fred, I felt horribly obvious. I wished

I were invisible to myself—that I could see the illusion so that I

could trust it. But no one noticed us, and after a while I could

almost relax.

I watched the practicing closely. I wanted to know

everything, just in case. I wasn’t planning on fighting; I was

planning on finding Diego and making a break for it. But what if

Diego wanted to fight? Or what if we had to fight to get away

from the rest? Better to pay attention.

Only once did anyone ask about Diego. It was Kevin, but I

had a sense that Raoul had put him up to it.

“So, did Diego end up getting fried after all?” Kevin asked

in a forced joking tone.

“Diego’s with her,” Riley said, and no one had to ask who

he meant. “Surveillance.”

A few people shuddered. No one said anything more about

Diego.

Was he really with her? I cringed at the thought. Maybe

Riley was just saying that to keep people from questioning him.

He probably didn’t want Raoul getting jealous and feeling

second best when Riley needed him at his most arrogant today.

I couldn’t be sure, and I wasn’t going to ask. I kept quiet, as

usual, and watched the training.

In the end, watching was boring, thirsty work. Riley didn’t

give his army a break for three days and two nights straight.

During the daytime it was harder to stay out of the mix—we all

were crammed so tightly into the basement. It made things

easier in one way for Riley—he could usually catch a fight

before it got ugly. Outside at night, they had more room to really

work around each other, but Riley was kept busy darting back

and forth to catch limbs and get them back to their owners

quickly. He kept his temper well, and he’d been smart enough to

find all the lighters this time. I would have bet that this would spin

out of control, that we’d lose at least a couple of coven

members with Raoul and Kristie skirmishing head to head for

days on end. But Riley had better control of them than I had

thought possible.

Still, it was mostly repetition. I noticed Riley saying the same

things over and over and over again. Work together, watch your

back, don’t go at her head-on; work together, watch your back,

don’t go at him head-on; work together, watch your back, don’t

go at her head-on. It was kind of ridiculous, really, and made

the group seem exceptionally stupid. But I was sure I would

have been just as stupid if I’d been in the thick of the fight with

them rather than watching calmly from the sidelines with Fred.

It reminded me in a way of how Riley had drilled into us our

fear of the sun. Constant repetition.

Still, it was so dull that after about ten hours that first day,

Fred produced a deck of cards and started playing solitaire.

That was more interesting than watching the same mistakes

over and over again, so I mostly watched him.

After about another twelve hours—we were inside again—I

nudged Fred to point out a red five that he could move over. He

nodded and made the change. After that hand, he dealt out the

cards to both of us, and we played rummy. We never spoke, but

Fred smiled a few times. No one ever looked our way or asked

us to join in.

There were no hunting breaks, and as time went on, this got

harder and harder to ignore. Fights broke out more regularly

and with less provocation. Riley’s commands got more shrill,

and he tore off two arms himself. I tried to forget the burning

thirst as much as possible—after all, Riley must have been

getting thirsty, too, so this couldn’t last forever—but mostly thirst

was the only thing on my mind. Fred was looking pretty strained.

Early into the third night—one more day to go, and when I

thought about the ticking clock it tied my empty stomach into

knots—Riley called all the mock fights to a halt.

“Round it up, kids,” he told us, and everyone moved into a

loose half-circle facing him. The original gangs all stood close

together, so the practicing hadn’t changed any of those

alliances. Fred put the cards in his back pocket and stood up. I

stood close to his side, counting on his repulsive aura to hide

me.

“You’ve done well,” Riley told us. “Tonight, you get a reward.

Drink up, because tomorrow you’re going to want your strength.

”

Snarls of relief from almost everyone.

“I say want and not need for a reason,” Riley went on. “I think

you guys have got this. You’ve stayed smart and worked hard.

Our enemies aren’t going to know what’s hit them!”

Kristie and Raoul growled, and both of their companies

followed suit immediately. I was surprised to see it, but they did

look like an army in that moment. Not that they were marching in

formation or anything, but there was just something uniform

about the response. Like they all were part of one big organism.

As always, Fred and I were the glaring exceptions, but I thought

only Riley was even the slightest bit aware of us—every now

and then his eyes would scan across where we were standing,

almost like he was checking to make sure he still felt Fred’s

talent. And Riley didn’t seem to mind that we weren’t joining up.

For now, anyway.

“Um, you mean tomorrow night, right, boss?” Raoul

clarified.

“Right,” Riley said with a strange little smile. It didn’t seem

like anyone else noticed anything off in his reply—except for

Fred. He looked down at me with one eyebrow raised. I

shrugged.

“You ready for your reward?” Riley asked.

His little army roared in response.

“Tonight you get a taste of what our world will be like when

our competition is out of the picture. Follow me!”

Riley bounded away; Raoul and his team were right on his

heels. Kristie’s group started shoving and clawing right through

the middle of them to get to the front.

“Don’t make me change my mind!” Riley bellowed from the

trees ahead. “You can all go thirsty. I don’t care!”

Kristie barked an order and her group sullenly fell behind

Raoul’s. Fred and I waited until the last of them was out of sight.

Then Fred did one of those little ladies first sweeps with his

arm. It didn’t feel like he was afraid to have me at his back, just

that he was being polite. I started running after the army.

The others were already long gone, but it was nothing to

follow their smell. Fred and I ran in companionable silence. I

wondered what he was thinking. Maybe he was only thirsty. I

was burning, so he probably was, too.

We caught up to the others after about five minutes, but kept

our distance. The army was moving in amazing quiet. They

were focused, and more… disciplined. I kind of wished that

Riley had started the training sooner. It was easier to be around

this group.

We crossed over an empty two-lane freeway, another strip

of forest, and then we were on a beach. The water was smooth,

and we’d gone almost due north, so this must have been the

strait. We hadn’t passed near any residences, and I was sure

that was on purpose. Thirsty and on edge, it wouldn’t take too

much to dissolve this small measure of organization into a

screaming free-for-all.

We’d never hunted all together before, and I was pretty sure

that it was not a good idea now. I remembered Kevin and the

Spider-Man kid fighting over the woman in the car that first night

I’d talked to Diego. Riley had better have a whole lot of bodies

for us or people were going to start tearing each other up to get

the most blood.

Riley paused at the water’s edge.

“Don’t hold back,” he told us. “I want you well fed and strong

—at your peak. Now… let’s go have some fun.”

He dove smoothly into the surf. The others were growling

excitedly as they submerged, too. Fred and I followed more

closely than before because we couldn’t follow their scent under

water. But I could feel that Fred was hesitant—ready to bolt if

this was something other than an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord.

It seemed like he didn’t trust Riley any more than I did.

We didn’t swim long, and then we saw the others kicking

upward. Fred and I surfaced last, and Riley started talking as

soon as our heads were out of the water, like he’d been waiting

for us. He must have been more aware of Fred than the others

were.

“There she is,” he said, waving toward a large ferry

chugging south, probably making the last commuter run of the

night down from Canada. “Give me a minute. When the power

goes out, she’s all yours.”

There was an excited murmur. Someone giggled. Riley was

off like a shot, and seconds later we saw him fly up the side of

the big boat. He headed straight for the control tower on top of

the ship. Silencing the radio was my bet. He could say all he

wanted about these enemies being our reason for caution, but I

was sure there was more to it than that. Humans weren’t

supposed to know about vampires. At least, not for very long.

Just long enough for us to kill them.

Riley kicked a big plate-glass window out of his way and

disappeared into the tower. Five seconds later, the lights went

out.

I realized Raoul was already gone. He must have

submerged so we wouldn’t hear him swimming after Riley.

Everyone else took off, and the water churned as if an

enormous school of barracuda were attacking.

Fred and I swam at a relatively leisurely pace behind them.

In a funny way, it was like we were some old married couple.

We never talked, but we still did things at exactly the same time.

We got to the boat about three seconds later, and already

the air was full of shrieks and the warm scent of blood. The

smell made me realize exactly how thirsty I was, but that was the

last thing I realized. My brain shut down completely. There was

nothing but fiery pain in my throat and the delicious blood

—blood everywhere—promising to put that fire out.

When it was over and there wasn’t a heart left beating on

the whole ship, I wasn’t sure how many people I’d personally

killed. More than triple the number I’d ever had on a hunting trip

before, easy. I felt hot and flushed. I’d drunk long past the point

at which my thirst was totally slaked, just for the taste of the

blood. Most of the blood on the ferry was clean and luscious

—these passengers had not been dregs. Though I hadn’t held

back, I was probably at the low end of the kill count. Raoul was

so surrounded by mangled bodies that they actually made a

little hill. He sat on top of his pile of the dead and laughed loudly

to himself.

He wasn’t the only one laughing. The dark boat was full of

sounds of delight. I heard Kristie say, “That was amazing—three

cheers for Riley!” Some of her crowd put up a raucous chorus of

hurrahs like a bunch of happy drunks.

Jen and Kevin swung onto the view deck, dripping wet. “Got

’em all, boss,” Jen called to Riley. So some people must have

tried to swim for it. I hadn’t noticed.

I looked around for Fred. It took me a while to find him. I

finally realized that I couldn’t look directly at the back corner by

the vending machines, and I headed that way. At first I felt like

the rocking ferry was making me seasick, but then I got close

enough that the feeling faded and I could see Fred standing by

the window. He smiled at me quickly, and then looked over my

head. I followed his gaze and saw that he was watching Riley. I

got the feeling that he’d been doing this for some time.

“Okay, kids,” Riley said. “You’ve had a taste of the sweet

life, but now we’ve got work to do!”

They all roared enthusiastically.

“I’ve got three last things to tell you—and one of those things

involves a little dessert—so let’s sink this scow and get home!”

With laughter mixed in with the snarls, the army went to work

dismantling the boat. Fred and I bailed out the window and

watched the demo from a short distance. It didn’t take long for

the ferry to crumple in the middle with a loud groan of metal. The

midsection went down first, with both the bow and the stern

twisting up to point to the sky. They sank one at a time, the stern

beating the bow by a few seconds. The school of barracuda

headed toward us. Fred and I started swimming for shore.

We ran home with the others—though keeping our distance.

A couple of times Fred looked at me like he had something he

wanted to say, but each time he seemed to change his mind.

Back at the house, Riley let the celebratory mood wind

down. Even after a few hours had passed, he still had his hands

full trying to get everyone serious again. For once it wasn’t a

fight he was trying to defuse, just high spirits. If Riley’s promises

were false, as I thought, he was going to have an issue when

the ambush was over. Now that all these vampires had really

feasted, they weren’t going to go back to any measure of

restraint very easily. For tonight, though, Riley was a hero.

Finally—a while after I would have guessed that the sun was

up outside—everyone was quiet and paying attention. From

their faces, it seemed they were ready to hear just about

anything he had to say.

Riley stood halfway up the stairs, his face serious.

“Three things,” he began. “First, we want to be sure we get

the right coven. If we accidentally run across another clan and

slaughter them, we’ll tip our hand. We want our enemies

overconfident and unprepared. There are two things that mark

this coven, and they’re pretty hard to miss. One, they look

different—they have yellow eyes.”

There was a murmur of confusion.

“Yellow?” Raoul repeated in a disgusted tone.

“There’s a lot of the vampire world out there that you haven’t

encountered yet. I told you these vampires were old. Their eyes

are weaker than ours—yellowed with age. Another advantage

to our side.” He nodded to himself as if to say, one down. “But

other old vampires exist, so there is another way that we’ll know

them for sure… and this is where the dessert I mentioned

comes into play.” Riley smiled slyly and waited a beat. “This is

going to be hard to process,” he warned. “I don’t understand it,

but I’ve seen it for myself. These old vampires have gone so

soft that they actually keep—as a member of their coven—a pet

human.”

His revelation was met by blank silence. Total disbelief.

“I know—hard to swallow. But it’s true. We’ll know it’s

definitely them because a human girl will be with them.”

“Like… how?” Kristie asked. “You mean they carry meals

around with them or something?”

“No, it’s always the same girl, just the one, and they don’t

plan to kill her. I don’t know how they manage it, or why. Maybe

they just like to be different. Maybe they want to show off their

self-control. Maybe they think it makes them look stronger. It

makes no sense to me. But I’ve seen her. More than that, I’ve

smelled her.”

Slow and dramatic, Riley reached into his jacket and pulled

out a small ziplock bag with red fabric wadded up inside.

“I’ve done some recon in the past few weeks, checking the

yellow-eyes out as soon as they got near the area.” He paused

to throw us a paternal look. “I watch out for my kids. Anyway,

when I could tell that they were moving on us, I grabbed this”

—he brandished the bag—“to help us track them. I want you all

to get a lock on this scent.”

He handed the bag to Raoul, who opened the plastic zipper

and inhaled deeply. He glanced up at Riley with a startled look.

“I know,” Riley said. “Amazing, right?”

Raoul handed the bag to Kevin, his eyes narrowing in

thought.

One by one, each vampire sniffed the bag, and everyone

reacted with wide eyes but little else. I was curious enough that I

sidled away from Fred until I could feel a hint of the nausea and

knew I was outside his circle. I crept forward until I was next to

the Spider-Man kid, who seemed to be at the tail end of the

line. He sniffed inside the bag when it was his turn and then

seemed about to hand it back to the kid who had given it to him,

but I held my hand out and hissed quietly. He did a double take

—almost like he’d never see me before—and handed me the

bag.

It looked like the red fabric was a shirt. I stuck my nose in

the opening, keeping my eyes on the vampires near me, just in

case, and inhaled.

Ah. I understood the expressions now and felt a similar one

on my face. Because the human who had worn this shirt had

seriously sweet blood. When Riley said dessert, he was dead

right. On the other hand, I was less thirsty than I’d ever been. So

while my eyes widened in appreciation, I didn’t feel enough pain

in my throat to make me grimace. It would be awesome to taste

this blood, but in that exact moment, it didn’t hurt me that I

couldn’t.

I wondered how long it would take for me to get thirsty

again. Usually, a few hours after feeding, the pain would start to

come back, and then it would just get worse and worse until

—after a couple of days—it was impossible to ignore it even for

a second. Would the excessive amount of blood I’d just drunk

delay that? I guessed I’d see pretty soon.

I glanced around to make sure no one was waiting for the

bag, because I thought Fred would probably be curious, too.

Riley caught my eye, smiled the tiniest bit, and jerked his chin

slightly toward the corner where Fred was. Which made me

want to do the exact opposite of what I’d just been planning, but

whatever. I didn’t want Riley to be suspicious of me.

I walked back to Fred, ignoring the nausea until it faded and

I was right next to him. I handed him the bag. He seemed

pleased I’d thought to include him; he smiled and then sniffed

the shirt. After a second he nodded thoughtfully to himself. He

gave me the bag back with a significant look. The next time we

were alone, I thought he would say aloud whatever it was he had

seemed to want to share before.

I tossed the bag toward Spider-Man, who reacted like it had

fallen out of the sky but still caught it before it hit the ground.

Everyone was buzzing about the scent. Riley clapped his

hands together twice.

“Okay, so there’s the dessert I was talking about. The girl

will be with the yellow-eyes. And whoever gets to her first gets

dessert. Simple as that.”

Appreciative growls, competitive growls.

Simple, yes, but… wrong. Weren’t we supposed to be

destroying the yellow-eyed coven? Unity was supposed to be

the key, not a first-come, first-served prize that only one vampire

could win. The only guaranteed outcome from this plan was one

dead human. I could think of half a dozen more productive ways

to motivate this army. The one who kills the most yellow-eyes

wins the girl. The one who shows the best team cooperation

gets the girl. The one who sticks to the plan best. The one who

follows orders best. MVP, etc. The focus should be on the

danger, which was definitely not the human.

I looked around at the others and decided that none of them

were following the same train of thought. Raoul and Kristie were

glaring at each other. I heard Sara and Jen arguing in whispers

about the possibility of sharing the prize.

Well, maybe Fred got it. He was frowning, too.

“And the last thing,” Riley said. For the first time there was

some reluctance in his voice. “This will probably be even harder

to accept, so I’ll show you. I won’t ask you to do anything I won’t

do. Remember that—I’m with you guys every step of the way.”

The vampires got real still again. I noticed that Raoul had

the ziplock back and was gripping it possessively.

“There are so many things you have yet to learn about being

a vampire,” Riley said. “Some of them make more sense than

others. This is one of those things that won’t sound right at first,

but I’ve experienced it myself, and I’ll show you.” He deliberated

for a long second. “Four times a year, the sun shines at a

certain indirect angle. During that one day, four times a year, it

is safe… for us to be outside in the daylight.”

Every tiny movement stopped. There was no breathing.

Riley was talking to a bunch of statues.

“One of those special days is beginning now. The sun that is

rising outside today won’t hurt any of us. And we are going to

use this rare exception to surprise our enemies.”

My thoughts spun around and turned upside down. So Riley

knew it was safe for us to go out in the sun. Or he didn’t, and our

creator had told him this “four days a year” story. Or… this was

true and Diego and I had lucked into one of those days. Except

that Diego had been out in the shade before. And Riley was

making this into some kind of solstice-y seasonal thing, while

Diego and I had been safe in the daylight just four days ago.

I could understand that Riley and our creator would want to

control us with the fear of the sun. It made sense. But why tell the

truth—in a very limited way—now?

I would bet it had to do with those scary dark-cloaks. She

probably wanted to get a jump on her deadline. The cloaked

ones had not promised to let her live when we killed all the

yellow-eyes. I guessed she would be off like a shot the second

she’d accomplished her objective here. Kill the yellow-eyes and

then take an extended vacation in Australia or somewhere else

on the other side of the world. And I’d bet she wasn’t going to

send us engraved invitations. I would have to get to Diego quick

so we could bail, too. In the opposite direction from Riley and

our creator. And I ought to tip Fred off. I decided I would as soon

as we had a moment alone.

There was so much manipulation going on in this one little

speech, and I wasn’t sure I was catching it all. I wished Diego

were here so we could analyze it together.

If Riley was just making up this four-days story on the spot, I

guess I could understand why. It’s not like he could have just

said, Hey, so I’ve lied to you for your whole lives, but now I’m

telling the truth. He wanted us to follow him into battle today; he

couldn’t undermine whatever trust he’d earned.

“It’s right for you to be terrified at the thought,” Riley told the

statues. “The reason you are all still alive is that you paid

attention when I told you to be careful. You got home on time,

you didn’t make mistakes. You let that fear make you smart and

cautious. I don’t expect you to put that intelligent fear aside

easily. I don’t expect you to run out that door on my word. But…”

He looked around the room once. “I do expect you to follow me

out.”

His eyes slid away from the audience for just the teensiest

fraction of a second, touching very briefly on something over my

head.

“Watch me,” he told us. “Listen to me. Trust me. When you

see that I’m okay, believe your eyes. The sun on this one day

does have some interesting effects on our skin. You’ll see. It

won’t hurt you in any way. I wouldn’t do anything to put you guys

in unnecessary danger. You know that.”

He started up the stairs.

“Riley, can’t we just wait—,” Kristie began.

“Just pay attention,” Riley cut her off, still moving up at a

measured pace. “This gives us a big advantage. The yelloweyes

know all about this day, but they don’t know that we know.”

As he was talking, he opened the door and walked out of the

basement into the kitchen. There was no light in the well-shaded

kitchen, but everyone still shied away from the open doorway.

Everyone but me. His voice continued, moving toward the front

door. “It takes most young vampires a while to embrace this

exception—for good reason. Those who aren’t cautious about

the daylight don’t last long.”

I felt Fred’s eyes on me. I glanced over at him. He was

staring at me urgently, as if he wanted to take off but had

nowhere to go.

“It’s okay,” I whispered almost silently. “The sun’s not going

to hurt us.”

You trust him? he mouthed back at me.

No way.

Fred raised an eyebrow and relaxed just slightly.

I glanced behind us. What had Riley been looking at?

Nothing had changed—just some family pictures of dead

people, a small mirror, and a cuckoo clock. Hmm. Was he

checking the time? Maybe our creator had given him a

deadline, too.

“’Kay, guys, I’m going out,” Riley said. “You don’t have to be

afraid today, I promise.”

The light burst into the basement through the open door,

magnified—as only I knew—by Riley’s skin. I could see the

bright reflections dance on the wall.

Hissing and snarling, my coven backed into the corner

opposite from Fred’s. Kristie was in the very back. It looked like

she was trying to use her gang as a kind of shield.

“Relax, everybody,” Riley called down to us. “I am absolutely

fine. No pain, no burn. Come and see. C’mon!”

No one moved closer to the door. Fred was crouched

against the wall beside me, eyeing the light with panic. I waved

my hand a tiny bit to get his attention. He looked up at me and

measured my total calm for a second. Slowly he straightened

up next to me. I smiled encouragingly.

Everyone else was waiting for the burn to start. I wondered if

I had looked that silly to Diego.

“You know,” Riley mused from above, “I’m curious to see

who is the bravest one of you. I have a good idea who the first

person through that door is going to be, but I’ve been wrong

before.”

I rolled my eyes. Subtle, Riley.

But of course it worked. Raoul started inching his way

toward the stairs almost immediately. For once, Kristie was in

no hurry to compete with him for Riley’s approval. Raoul

snapped his fingers at Kevin, and both he and the Spider-Man

kid reluctantly moved to flank him.

“You can hear me. You know I’m not fried. Don’t be a bunch

of babies! You’re vampires. Act like it.”

Still, Raoul and his buddies couldn’t get farther than the foot

of the stairs. None of the others moved. After a few minutes,

Riley came back. In the indirect light from the front door, he

shimmered just a tiny bit in the doorway.

“Look at me—I’m fine. Seriously! I’m embarrassed for you.

C’mere, Raoul!”

In the end, Riley had to grab Kevin—Raoul ducked out of

the way as soon as he could see what Riley was thinking—and

drag him upstairs by force. I saw the moment when they made it

into the sun, when the light brightened from their reflections.

“Tell them, Kevin,” Riley ordered.

“I’m okay, Raoul!” Kevin called down. “Whoa. I’m all… shiny.

This is crazy!” He laughed.

“Well done, Kevin,” Riley said loudly.

That did it for Raoul. He gritted his teeth and marched up

the stairs. He didn’t move fast, but soon he was up there

sparkling and laughing with Kevin.

Even from then on, the process took longer than I would

have predicted. It was still a one-by-one thing. Riley got

impatient. It was more threats than encouragement now.

Fred shot me a look that said, You knew this?

Yes, I mouthed.

He nodded and started up the stairs. There were still about

ten people, mostly Kristie’s group, huddled against the wall. I

went with Fred. Better to come out right in the middle. Let Riley

read into that what he would.

We could see the shining, disco-ball vampires in the front

yard, staring at their hands and each other’s faces with rapt

expressions. Fred moved into the light without slowing, which I

thought was pretty brave, all things considered. Kristie was a

better example of how well Riley had indoctrinated us. She

clung to what she knew regardless of the evidence in front of

her.

Fred and I stood a little space from the others. He examined

himself carefully, then looked me over, then stared at the others.

It struck me that Fred, though really quiet, was very observant

and almost scientific in the way he examined evidence. He’d

been evaluating Riley’s words and actions all along. How much

had he figured out?

Riley had to force Kristie up the stairs, and her gang came

with her. Finally we all were out in the sun, most people enjoying

how very pretty they were. Riley rounded everyone up for one

more quick practice session—mostly, I thought, to get them to

focus again. It took them a minute, but everyone started to

realize that this was it, and they got quieter and more fierce. I

could see that the idea of a real fight—of being not only allowed

but encouraged to rip and burn—was almost as exciting as

hunting. It appealed to people like Raoul and Jen and Sara.

Riley focused on a strategy he’d been trying to drill into

them for the last few days—once we’d pinpointed the yelloweyes’

scent, we were going to divide in two and flank them.

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

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

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

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, semidisciplined

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

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 selfdestructing

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.

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

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.

“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 flatout

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.

Previous | Next


PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | BOOK 1: TWILIGHT | BOOK 2: NEW MOON | BOOK 3: ECLIPSE | BOOK 4: BREAKING DAWN | MIDNIGHT SUN