CHAPTER 21
My vision returned in fits and starts, and a little while later I could walk. The stuff jammed in my nose was clear tubing attached to an oxygen canister slung over Dibs’ shoulder as he braced me on my left side. Graves was on my right, his hair wildly mussed and his coat singed. Blood painted the right side of his face, and his jaw was set.
My heart almost burst. My arm tightened, and he gave me a sideways look. “Hey,” he said, quietly. “How you, kiddo?”
My mouth was full of poison. I spat again to clear it, and Dibs giggled, a high, nervous sound. “Peachy,” I managed. “Wha’ happen?”
“All hell broke loose.” Graves barely looked where he was going. Trees pressed close, the night like a wet washcloth over the eyes. I wasn’t blind; it was just dark. Country-dark. There was a sense of stealthy movement, and the glitters and lamps of eyes around me told me I was in the middle of a group of wulfen. “They got into the school. There was a vampire with red hair, she just looked at things and they started exploding. Shanks and Dylan—”
“Save your breath,” came Christophe’s harsh voice. “We’re not free yet.”
“Christophe?” I had to know. “Where were you? I thought—”
“Around and about. Be quiet now.” He didn’t bother sugarcoating the command, but then his tone softened. “You seem to delight in doing the worst, most dangerous thing possible. Try to restrain yourself for a day or two, hmm?”
I’m just trying to stay alive, Christophe. Thanks. I wished I could put my head down on Graves’ shoulder, settled for putting one foot in front of the other. I was reeling, step to side-step. The oxygen felt good and cool on my burning throat. My teeth weren’t aching anymore. Much.
My head dropped forward. I sighed. Coughed again, trying to do it quietly. There was a pause, all the wulfen stopping at once.
A howl lifted in the distance. Vampire. The hatred in it scraped inside my skull, the taste of wax oranges on my tongue over the foul-ness, and I found out I was shaking again. I didn’t have the energy to pull myself up inside my head and block it out.
“God and Hell both damn it,” Christophe said quietly, but with a coldness to the words that turned the darkness into danger.
“Shit.” Shanks sounded like he seconded that emotion. “Let’s hurry it up, people.”
“What happened?” I whispered. Graves just shook his head. His arm tightened around me, like he wanted to pull me away from Dibs. The small blond werwulf was quivering too. I couldn’t tell whether I was shaking him or he was as scared as I was.
“Someone just died. We can hope it was the Burner, she would be a high-priority target. Without her, the nosferatu are merely dangerous, not overwhelming,” Christophe said softly. “Just breathe, Dru. Do we have another oxygen tank?”
“Just the one.” Shanks moved away. They glided noiselessly through the forest. My eyes were doing funny things, piercing the gloom one moment and showing me moving shapes, sticks, and the texture of bark. My teeth would give a sudden burst of pain; then the darkness would return.
All the questions I couldn’t ask swirled around inside my head. My right arm tightened over Graves’ shoulders. “I thought you were inside.” My voice was a harsh croak. “God.”
“Is that why you ran into a burning building?” He sounded shocked. Go figure.
I thought I could throw the vampires off my trail. It was too hard to explain and I didn’t have the breath. I tried anyway. “Well, yeah. That, and—”
“Quiet.” Christophe was a deeper shadow, his eyes glowing weirdly blue. Most of the wulfen’s eyes just glimmered dully. Shanks’ were actually yellow, and I could tell whenever Graves blinked because the green gleams next to me would vanish for a moment and my heart would stop again.
The motion suddenly halted. Everyone froze. I leaned on Graves. His hand, spread against my sore ribs on my left side, tensed just a little, fingers gone hard. I tried not to breathe too loudly. The oxygen bottle made a small sound, and I winced. Dibs and I shook together, my teeth clenched to stop their chattering.
Little noises filled the woods around us. I couldn’t tell if they were the regular cacophony of the woods at night, because it’s rarely ever silent out in the country, or if it was something else. I felt very small, and very soft and pink in the middle of the wulfen.
“We need cover,” Shanks mouthed. He leaned toward the shape that was Christophe, their eyes glowing at each other. “How drained are you?”
Christophe blinked, slowly, deliberately. The blue glow of his eyes came back, settled on me. “And I thought you would take convincing.”
A movement that could have been a shrug. “I don’t want to die. And I’m responsible for them.”
“Granted.” The single word had sharp edges. “I’ll need to drink.”
The four words fell like a stone into a glassy pool and vanished without a trace. There was a collective sharp inhale among the wulfen.
“Wait a second.” Graves sounded like he was having trouble with this. I tried to hold my head up.
It dipped forward. Curls had come free of my braid and bobbled in front of my face. “What are we talking about here?”
Shanks didn’t even bother to listen. “You can’t take it from one of mine. So it’s me, or…”
A sliding motion. Graves sucked in a sharp breath, and Christophe was suddenly right in front of me.
“Dru,” he said softly. The hurtfulness was gone from his voice. “I need your help.”
I swallowed. My throat was full of smoky acid. “Yeah. Sure. What?”
Christophe moved in closer, but not as close as he had been before. Still, I could feel his heat. “Give me your hand.”
“Oh hell no.” Graves shifted his weight, like he was going to pull me back and away.
I stayed where I was, digging my feet into the ground. “What are you going to do?”
“I need to borrow something of yours. It will come back, I promise. It will save all of us.” Those blue eyes held mine, glowing in the darkness. Was it just me, or were they not quite as cold as they used to be? He smelled like smoke too, and under it was the edge of apple pies, spice and goodness.
Jesus. Even after all that he smelled like a bakery. “You’re going to have to give me the keys this time, Dru.”
It wouldn’t make sense to anyone other than Graves and me. I’d refused to trust him once before, and it had ended up with Sergej almost having me for lunch. Now we were out in the middle of the woods with vampires looking for us, and there were a bunch of terrified kids here in the dark.
Kids who had done their best to save me. Kids who would be in the cafeteria or heading for their first classes right now if not for me.
Way to go, Dru. You just get everyone in trouble, don’t you?
I licked my dry, smoke-tarnished lips. “It’ll get them out of here?”
“All of us.” Christophe sounded utterly sure. “I just need to borrow something of yours.”
What, the wooden swords? I left them behind, couldn’t carry them. “All right. What?” My throat was full of something. Graves shifted again, but I stayed where I was.
“You don’t have to,” Dibs whispered. He sounded scared to death. “Dru…”
“Give me your hand,” Christophe repeated. “Either one.”
I slid my heavy left arm free of Dibs’ shoulders. Blindly stuck my left hand out in his general direction. “I don’t know what you’re gonna do, but do it.” I leaned into Graves, who was shaking now too. I couldn’t tell if it was the stress of holding me up or something else. “They’re getting closer.” I didn’t know how I knew. The sounds in the woods drew close, nasty tittering laughter and the padding of booted feet.
Warm fingers clasped my wrist. Christophe ran his fingertips down the center of my palm, and a weird feeling shot up my arm.