“Um, what the hell?” Connor wondered.

“Compliments of one of the Egyptian tribes,” a girl answered. She wore paint-splattered overalls and looked more like a university art student than a vampire. Her hair was a cloud of dark brown curls, her skin like milk chocolate. “This place is like an arts and culture expo. Totally awesome.”

Christabel was weaving on her feet. “‘Sometimes a troop of damsels glad …,’” she quoted.

The girl beamed at her. “The Lady of Shalott! That’s my favorite painting by Waterhouse.”

Christabel was momentarily distracted from her faint. “You know ‘The Lady of Shalott’?”

“I’m Sky.” The girl introduced herself, grinning. “And we should definitely hang out.”

“Totally. Anyone who—” Christabel passed out midsentence. Connor caught her.

Sky shook her head sympathetically. “Newly turned?”

“Very new,” Connor said, carrying Christabel through the crowd toward the Drake tent.

The drums reached a peak, and the belly dancers circled us in their embroidered choli blouses and beaded skirts, smelling like sandalwood incense and amber perfume. One of them flashed her fangs at me before the drums stopped suddenly and the girls dispersed into the appreciative audience.

“She was flirting with you, little brother.” Duncan grinned at me.

“She was not,” I muttered. “Give me a break.”

Sky laughed. “She totally was. She has a thing for Drake boys.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

Girls are weird.

“Ready?” Quinn asked when Sky wandered off and we couldn’t avoid the family tent anymore.

“Hell, no.”

“Me neither.”

Mom and Dad waited just inside the tent flap. The light from the oil lamps glinted off fangs, narrowed eyes, and Mom’s weapon collection.

“Congratulations.” Dad spoke first, his voice soft as smoke before it fills your lungs. “I honestly don’t know which of my children I’m angriest with right now.”

Chapter 4

Lucy

“What, are all the crazies out tonight? Moon’s not even full yet.”

Theo, the head nurse in the school infirmary, looked competent, calm, and thoroughly disgusted. Since he was still dealing with the fallout of the ghost town I helped blow up just a few hours ago, I couldn’t blame him. He eyed me sternly. “Didn’t you already blow up a bunch of people tonight?”

I nodded sheepishly. Kieran was already sprawled on a gurney. I helped Theo push him inside. He was even paler in the bright infirmary lights. There was no one in the waiting room, only empty coffee cups. The green curtains were drawn around all of the emergency beds. My nose burned with the sharp smell of antiseptic.

Kieran moaned, blood soaking through the makeshift bandage. Theo cursed. “What the hell happened to him?”

“Vampire.”

“I can see that.” He lifted Kieran’s eyelids and made a sound in the back of his throat that I couldn’t interpret.

My palms started to sweat all over again. “He’s going to be okay, right?”

Another nurse rushed over from one of the back rooms, her uniform askew, muttering. “That old hunter they brought in from the ghost town? The one who thinks he’s all tough?” She shook her head. “Big baby.” Her eyes widened when she saw Kieran. “Isn’t that Hart’s nephew?” Hart was the leader of the Helios-Ra and everyone’s boss. Technically, I guess he was my boss now too. Hah. The only person I’d take orders from was Helena Drake.

“Hel-Blar?” Theo asked me.

I shook my head quickly. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Kieran coughed weakly. “Not Hel-Blar,” he confirmed.

Theo nodded to the other nurse. “Get him on saline, and have the doctor check him out.”

“Right away.” She pushed Kieran behind one of the curtains.

I went to follow but Theo stopped me. “We got him,” he said. “He might not even need a transfusion, just rest. Like you.”

I blinked because there were two of him. Relief made my muscles weak, and the fatigue I’d been holding off rushed in. I wobbled. Theo frowned. “Go to bed, Lucy. Now.”

“I’ll just nap in the chair until the doctor’s checked Kieran out.”

He pushed me toward the door. “Go to bed,” he repeated. “I promise I’ll call if anything changes.”

“But …”

He closed the glass door in my face and locked it.

Rude.

I went back to the dorm because I was too tired to do anything else. Birds sang from the rooftops. Hanging out with vampires was hell on a girl’s sleeping patterns.

I dragged my feet along the path as the sun rose just enough to light the mist off the pond and snaking between the trees. I was glad campus was deserted so no one saw my pathetic shuffle-walk. I yawned so widely a bear could’ve mistaken my mouth for a cave and crawled in to hibernate for the winter. The grass glittered with dew and made the metal handle of the dormitory door slick and cold. There’d be frost in the mountains, settling over the embers and ashes of the ghost town where my cousin had been imprisoned.

I hauled myself up the stairs and down the hall to my new room. My roommate, Sarita, didn’t even stir when I came in, sleeping with her blankets tucked perfectly around her. She even slept neatly. I fell into bed still wearing my soot- and blood-stained clothes and muddy shoes. I should call Hunter and tell her Kieran was in the infir—