I winced. “Puppies?”

“They’re fine. Isabeau took them all.”

“Good. Who eats puppies?” I shook my head.

“Yeah, Isabeau swore in French. A lot.”

“Hot.”

“Yeah, Logan nearly went cross-eyed.”

“So where are they now?”

“Isabeau’s gone back to the Hounds and Logan’s studying up.”

“He’s studying?” I shuddered. “For what? Girlfriends give exams now?”

“He’s an honorary Hound, remember,” Sebastian reminded me as we passed two more guards and entered the private family room. Logan had gone through the ritual initiation of the Hounds, something that was rarely offered to anyone not already connected to the reclusive tribe. “So he wants to know more about them. Connor downloaded stuff from some ancient library in Rome.”

“Do they know he hacked their system yet?”

“Hell no,” Connor replied from where he was trying to fix Mom’s laptop. “I’m just that good. Though even I can’t get wireless down here.”

“So what’s going on?” I asked. “Dad looks like he’s about to break into song. It’s kind of scary actually.” A grown man shouldn’t wear that kind of goofy grin. Especially when he was my father.

“We just got word that a Blood Moon is being called for November.”

“Seriously?” No wonder Dad looked so happy. Blood Moons were only very rarely called, and no one knew who exactly called them. It was essentially a week-long festival with the main night reserved for tribal leaders to talk treaties and various vampire issues. The last one had been nearly a hundred years ago. “Why now? ’Cause of Mom?”

Sebastian nodded. “And the Hel-Blar. They’re becoming a real problem, and not just here in Violet Hill.”

“Any word on why they swarmed the Helios-Ra school?” I asked.

Connor shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

“Well, it sure as hell wasn’t an accident. And you didn’t see that Hel-Blar disintegrate. It was weird.”

“We’re looking into it,” Dad called over to us. “And I mentioned it to Hart.”

“Good. There are a lot of kids in that school.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Not every day I hear you worrying about hunters.”

I shrugged.

Connor snorted.

“Shut up,” I told him. Sometimes the twin connection was a pain in the ass. I hadn’t said a word to him about Hunter, but he already knew I was into her.

If the royal courts and all their melodrama weren’t enough to stop me from thinking about her, I’d just have to think of something else.

“I’ll check out the scene in town.”

“Hot date?”

“Working on it.”

Chapter 13

Hunter

Saturday night

I know it’s not very secret agent of me, but I really, really love dressing up.

Even if it’s just to flitter around like dumb horror-movie vampire bait.

I love choosing a dress, shaving my legs, and painting my toes. I love pretty sandals with little heels, though I couldn’t exactly wear them tonight. I’d never get a good kick in with those, and I wouldn’t be able to outrun a raccoon. So I wore a pair of low-top Converse sneakers with my sundress. It was blue, with lace at the hem and spaghetti straps, which Grandpa thought were trampy because my shoulders were bare. I added a matching chunky turquoise necklace and pink lipstick.

Chloe grinned at me from where she sat on the edge of her bed. Against all odds, she was ready before me. And she wasn’t wearing any jewelry or makeup. Just jeans and a tight T-shirt. Her hair was in a simple braid. I barely recognized her.

“You look great.”

I twirled once. “If a vampire muddies this dress, I’m kicking ass.”

“I’ll help.” Her eyes shone. I’d never seen her so happy to fight before. She usually preferred flirting with locals at the club over the actual work of bait-nights. Maybe she’d just changed over the summer and I was being paranoid. I really hoped so.

“Where are your weapons?” She tilted her head curiously.

I held up my purse. “In here. And I’ve got a stake strapped to my thigh.”

“Ooh.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Sexy.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

At the bottom of the stairs outside our room were clusters of whispering Niners. They stared at us like we were movie stars.

“Creepy much?” Chloe muttered at them.

Lia was the only one brave enough to step out of the pack. “Is it true you guys go to town and lure vampires out of clubs?”

I nodded.

“That is so cool,” she breathed. “Can we do that?”

“You’re not allowed off campus at night until you’re sixteen,” I said as we shut the front door behind us. We hurried down the lane to the garages, passing students out for a walk or a jog on the track and others lying in the grass by the pond and catching up with each other. Night had just barely settled over the school, making the old buildings look somehow quaint and old-fashioned. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the ghost of a Victorian gentleman or a pioneer woman churning butter on the porch of the headmistress’s house. Jenna, Spencer, and Jason were waiting by the old van we’d booked for the night. It was unassumingly gray, clunky, and hideous. And it beat walking to town, hands down.