Yup, no relief at all.

Chapter 17

Lucy

I snuck out after my parents went to sleep.

I felt bad about it, but not bad enough to stay home.

I’d slept until noon and went to my afternoon classes, where Nathan informed me I was cranky and distracted. I had to walk to Mom’s work and wait for her shift to end so I could get a ride home. My car was languishing in a garage somewhere with little hope of resurrection. I would have to get a part-time job soon to replace it, but there were no want ads for vampire sympathizers. I wasn’t entirely sure I was qualified to do anything else.

When the sun set, my day didn’t exactly get better. There were more Hel-Blar roaming the edges of town and almost everyone was out hunting them down. Solange wouldn’t answer my texts again, and even Nicholas was in the caves and out of range. Christabel was still gone, though apparently the Drakes had received a photo of her to prove she was unharmed. That was something, at least.

But I couldn’t possibly be expected just to go to sleep and hope someone else figured it all out.

So when Hunter texted me and asked if I wanted to join them on patrol, I actually did a victory dance, scaring one of our cats under my desk. Finally, someone who didn’t think I was useless because I was human or because I was sixteen. I made a lump of clothes into a person-shape under my blanket and then pinned a note underneath to my pillow just in case my mom figured it out. If my parents found my bed empty with no note, they’d have twin heart attacks and die on the spot. Dad’s ulcer might actually explode. I tucked a chamomile tea bag next to the note, just in case.

Hunter pulled up to the end of my driveway and turned her lights out at precisely one thirty a.m., as planned. I snuck out of my window, landing in the bushes. If my parents caught me, they’d probably move my bedroom up to the attic and invest in a set of iron bars for the windows. I ran along the side of the driveway, staying close to the cedars and the lilac bushes. I had a vial of Hypnos up my sleeve, secured in an old tear-gas pen Hunter had given me, stakes in my shoulder bag, my cell phone, and a knapsack full of water, food, and a hand crossbow I’d “liberated” from the Drakes. I was prepared. Despite what everyone seemed to think about my supposed recklessness, I wasn’t an idiot.

I slid into the backseat next to a duffel bag bristling with more stakes, crossbows, and throwing daggers. Hunter’s friend Chloe was in the front seat, frowning at her laptop.

“Don’t you have wireless out here?” she asked in lieu of a greeting.

I snorted. “Please, we’re on dial-up.”

Chloe looked horrified. “How do you live like that?”

“We’re just lucky we have actual power lines. The farm down the road has to use oil for heating and solar panels and a generator for electricity.”

Chloe just blinked at me like I was a particularly strange science project. Hunter eased the standard-issue Helios-Ra Jeep down the road before switching the headlights back on. Her long blond hair was caught in a tight braid and she was wearing her school cargo pants. I was wearing black jeans and a black hoodie, which was about as military as I got.

“Did you hear?” Hunter glanced in the rearview mirror at me. “Hope killed herself.”

“Seriously?” Hope had run the Helios-Ra with Kieran’s uncle before the truth came out that she’d murdered the old director, Kieran’s father. She’d also secretly sent out rogue units to kill Solange. And she’d allied herself with Lady Natasha. The Helios-Ra had not been impressed.

“Apparently she didn’t want to deal with League justice.”

“Dare I ask what that even is?”

“You don’t want to know.”

I really did, actually. But I knew she wasn’t allowed to tell me, since I was an outsider and an outsider with vampire connections on top of it. She was starting to have those same connections, through Quinn. I wondered how the other students were dealing with that. Hunter had a way of making you think she could handle anything. I made a note to ask Chloe later.

“So where are we going?” I asked for now.

“Pretty much point to a map of the wilds around Violet Hill, and it’s crawling with Hel-Blar,” Hunter answered. “We’re still cleaning up from Montmartre and Greyhaven, and now this new thing with your cousin. Are you holding up okay after last night? We hear you got ambushed.”

“It was bizarre,” I admitted. “Saga had them controlled like she fed them Hypnos or something, but she just had that whistle. And they wore those copper collars.”

“We don’t know anything about her,” Hunter said, sounding both apologetic and frustrated. “We didn’t even know Hel-Blar could stand one another enough to go after some sort of political goal.”

“I know,” I grumbled in agreement. “It’s annoying.”

“It really is,” Hunter grumbled back. “Any word on your cousin?”

“All signs point to her being alive,” I said. I’d reminded myself of that about a thousand times today.

“I hear they were trying to get you,” Chloe said. “Bummer.”

“Yeah. How’d you hear about that, anyway? Quinn?”

Hunter nodded. “And word’s out through the League.”

“The League,” I teased, wanting to stop the burning in the back of my eyes and the way my throat was suddenly feeling tight. “I’m surprised you guys don’t go out in Wonder Woman Underoos.”