Blood Prophecy
Page 73

“She was alive when you found her?” Theo asked.
“Barely, but yes.”
“Those bite marks are too perfect for all the blood she lost. And those cuts on her wrists are older, as if she was chained up.” Theo shook his head. “These damn disappearances and attacks are getting stranger and stranger.” The door shut behind them and we couldn’t hear what else he had to say.
“Solange didn’t do that,” I whispered, my knees creaking as I pushed off the snow. “She’s herself again. Plus she’s been at the camp.” My jeans felt like they were frozen right onto my skin.
“I can’t help but wonder if this Dawn chick would get better results,” the female hunter muttered, as she and her partner left the infirmary. “ ‘Cause we’re shit useless these days.”
Dawn again.
I had to physically stop myself from hissing at her name. Hunter reached for a stake out of habit before she realized it was just me and not a vampire. The hunters climbed into the van, cutting off their conversation. They drove to the smallest barn, which had been converted into sleeping quarters for families from out of town and traveling Helios-Ra hunters. Apparently it was full to capacity, which had never happened before. That was all very interesting except for the fact that I was frozen through and my fingers were numb.
“Let’s go,” Hunter croaked, sounding equally miserable.
We ran back to the dorms with considerably less stealth and grace. It was only sheer luck that had us back in the building and taking hot showers without getting caught. Feeling returned to my fingertips in hot sparks, burning under my skin and up my arms. I was still shivering slightly, even bundled in my flannel pajamas and Sarita’s bathrobe, which I borrowed off its hook. I snuck downstairs to Hunter’s room where everyone was waiting, also freshly showered and wearing every sweater they could find. Jason was pouring hot water from a plug-in kettle into cups filled with hot chocolate mix. I seriously considered kissing him for that. With tongue.
Chloe was already at the computer, her hair up in a towel, her eyes squinting at the computer screen. “I hope it was worth it,” I said, curling my fingers around the mug Jason passed me.
“Definitely worth it,” Hunter said. “We already know more than we did an hour ago.”
“Yeah, like the pond is freaking cold,” I said.
“Better that than being caught and expelled.”
“Better hypothermia than expulsion?” I asked through another violent shiver that trembled up my spine out of nowhere.
She waved that aside with a tired grin. “It wasn’t cold enough for that and we weren’t in long enough.”
I groaned, curling into a ball on her bed, still clutching my mug. “I feel like all of my bones turned into soggy noodles.”
Hunter crawled under the blanket next to me. Jenna rolled herself up in Chloe’s bed, moving over to make space for Jason. He slid in beside her after taking off the extra blanket and draping it over Chloe’s shoulders. “Now what?” I yawned.
“Now we wait for Chloe to be brilliant,” Jenna yawned back.
“Wake me up when the genius hits,” I murmured. My eyes were closing when my phone vibrated in the pocket of the bathrobe. There was a text from Solange. “Are you awake?”
It was so great to get a text from her, just like regular best friends, that I smiled at it goofily for a moment. “Oh God,” Chloe muttered. “You got something from Nicholas. I know a dorky Drake grin when I see one.”
“No, not Nicholas,” I said. “Talk soon,” I texted Solange back at the same time.
“Lend me your phone?” Hunter murmured. “Mine’s all the way over there on my desk.” It did look like miles away. I passed her my phone. She dialed slowly, as if her fingers tingled as painfully as mine did. Defrosting hurt more than the actual freezing. “Kieran, did I wake you up?” She yawned so widely she had to repeat herself. “Know anything about this Dawn person? Besides what Nicholas told Lucy?” She shook her head when we all looked at her, waiting for an answer. “Chloe’s doing her mojo. If she breaks the code can you crack some of your uncle’s files? Thanks.”
I took the phone back from her before she could hang up. “Call Solange, dumbass.”
Kieran groaned. “One crisis not enough for you, Hamilton?”
“Call her,” I repeated before hanging up.
“Dawn must be a Huntsman,” Jenna said, her eyes closed. “Or really old-school League.”
“And it sounds like she’s recruiting,” Hunter agreed.
“Is that a bad thing?” Chloe asked, still hunched at her desk. She’d broken out a bag of jelly beans and was munching through them mechanically. “I mean, don’t we need the extra help?”
“I guess it depends what she’s recruiting them for,” Hunter said.
“Evil,” I replied promptly.
“You can’t know that.”
“You didn’t see what she did to Nicholas,” I returned darkly. My tone was hard enough to crack stones. I remembered every scar, every bruise and every tear in his shirt. Most of all, I remembered that stark wild look in his eyes when he’d stumbled into the clearing where Solange had me pinned.
Chloe winced. “Sorry, I forgot about that part.”
“She’s torturing vampires and humans,” I reminded her. “And she hurt my boyfriend. So she gets a big, fat, karmic, steel-toe boot up the ass.”