Bleeding Hearts
Page 70

Nicholas crept out slowly, checking rooftops. When he waved us out, we followed quickly. Lucy had our backs with her surprisingly deadly miniature crossbow. The light glinted off all her silver jewelry. Down the street, the silhouettes of Hunter and Chloe grappled with a hugely muscled hunter. Even from a hundred yards away, I could see he was built like a bull, all neck and shoulders.
We couldn’t help them right now, though, not with three Hel-Blar suddenly on us. Nicholas staked one right away but the other two were quicker and more savage. They were chomping at the air, trying to get to Lucy. I kicked out but, since I wasn’t used to my recently developed speed and strength, I just ended up spinning myself around. Everything blurred as if I were on a merry-go-round. I spun back, trying not to be dizzy. Nicholas jumped in front of Lucy so quickly she stumbled back. She tripped, landing in the dirt. Her crossbow flew out of her hands.
A Hel-Blar grabbed my hair, saliva dripping onto my shoulder. I jabbed back with my elbow and heard his ribs snap. Whoa. Superstrength. I jabbed again, using the stake. The stench of mushrooms and blood was palpable. Nicholas threw his own stake, dispatching the Hel-Blar before his jaws could clamp down on my throat. He crumbled to ash.
The other one took advantage of Nicholas’s momentary distraction and punched him so hard in the stomach, Nicholas flew backward, sailed over Lucy, and landed half in an empty horse trough. He groaned, trying to get to his feet.
A Hel-Blar licked his lips at Lucy, teeth gleaming. She scrabbled wildly but her crossbow was out of reach. He shuffled closer, eyes so red even his pupils gleamed bloodily. Nicholas was too far away. My aim was nowhere nearly good enough. I threw a stake anyway, just to break his concentration on my cousin as his next meal. He batted the stake away.
Still, it was just long enough for me to kick the crossbow.
“Lucy!”
She grabbed it and struggled to reload it. I threw another stake, with the same relatively useless effect as the first one. The Hel-Blar ignored it and leaped on Lucy.
She lifted the bow and released the bolt just as he fell on her. She choked on ashes and dust, wiping them off her face. “That’s disgusting,” she panted, sweat fogging her glasses.
Nicholas skidded to a halt beside her. “Did he get you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, scrambling to her feet. She rubbed her knee. “Ow.”
He ran his hand over her head and her arms, eyes flaring silver. His touch was tender, but his voice wasn’t. “Stay behind me, damn it,” he said, as if there were rocks and whiskey in his throat.
“I was behind you,” she grumbled.
I bent to pick up a strap of silver stakes. Ashes dusted my hands.
“Oh no,” I said. “This was Emma.”
Someone screamed inside Saga’s house.
We ran toward it. Connor and Quinn jumped down from the roof and landed right in front of us before Lucy reached the door. Lucy whirled and nearly shot them. They were already tumbling out of the way.
Quinn’s smirk slipped. “Careful with that thing!”
Connor glanced at me. “You okay?”
I nodded, relieved to see that, although his hair was standing on end and his jeans were ripped, he looked unharmed. His fangs were out and his eyes looked like blue glass beads from Greece. “You?”
“Fine.” He looked at the house. “We’ll go around back.”
“Where’s Hunter?” Quinn asked sharply.
“She and Chloe are making sure we don’t all explode,” Nicholas said.
As he reached for the doorknob, a hunter came around the side of the house. Lucy leaped between him and the rest of us, even though he was holding a throwing axe and a crossbow of his own.
“I’m Helios-Ra!” Lucy shouted. When he relaxed slightly, seeing as she was all of sixteen, she darted forward and punched him right in the nose. “Sort of,” she amended as he reeled back, hit his head on the porch, and fell over. The stake in his hand clattered to the ground.
“Don’t you have Hypnos?” Nicholas asked, amused.
“Oh yeah. I forgot.” She shook out her fingers, knuckles already going red. “He had a hard nose, too. I might bruise.”
We heard another shout from the second floor and the recognizable sounds of a fight. A musket fired above us, showering splinters. I shoved past the others and burst into the house. The table was overturned and one of the jugs was on its side, spilling rum. I took the stairs two at a time.
“Shit, Christa, wait for me,” Connor called out, hard on my heels.
Chaos.
There were huge bullet holes in the walls; the window was hanging off its hinges. A human hunter lay in a heap by the door, her leg clearly broken. Connor bent long enough to relieve her of all her weapons.
Saga was standing on a bench, barefoot and waving her cutlass. She slashed at another hunter and sent him tumbling out the window, down the overhanging roof, and to the street below. She was as blue as the center of a flame, blue as spilled gasoline. Her teeth were sharper than her daggers. The smell of rot and mildew clung to everything. Two Hel-Blar circled her in the cramped room. She refused to move, even though there was blood on her legs. Her whistle, usually hanging by a braided cord at her belt, was gone. She was protecting Aidan.
“We got Hel-Blar down here!” Quinn yelled.
“So do we!” Connor yelled back.
“Well, you’re about to get more!”
Connor swore and rushed to the landing to stop the incoming Hel-Blar that got past the others.