But she did smell damn good regardless.
I wondered if she’d gotten into trouble for wandering around campus with a vampire. Or if that boy we’d taken to the infirmary had turned and now there was one more Hel-Blar that needed to be put down. If they kept attacking like this, it wouldn’t be long before the residents of Violet Hill began to wonder what kind of creatures lived in the mountains and the forests on the edge of town. Soon it wouldn’t be safe for anyone to go out at night—but try telling that to the college students and the wilderness freaks.
There were stories already, and stories were never good. We relied on secrecy, and the common belief that vampires don’t exist, to keep us safe. But the current pop culture obsession with all things vampire wasn’t helping us any. We really had to get a handle on this Hel-Blar infestation, and fast. Mom was sending out patrols, and Kieran said the Helios-Ra were scouting as well.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Hunter would be recruited for one of those patrols. She was good enough. I’d seen that for myself. And Hart had called her into the meeting at the caves last week and to the coronation. That said something.
I hadn’t quite been able to ask Kieran if she had a boyfriend.
The question throbbed like a broken tooth, impossible to ignore, impossible not to poke, just to see if it still hurt.
I never did this.
I liked girls—human or vampire. I liked them a lot, but I never wondered what they were doing or if I’d hear from them. Because I always heard from them, usually more than I liked. I treated them all well, don’t get me wrong. You couldn’t be raised by my mother and not treat girls with a hell of a lot of respect. But they knew up front that I wasn’t looking for strings, just a good time for everyone involved.
And none of the humans knew I was a vampire. I wasn’t stupid.
Well, except for that one time.
But that was a long time ago. It wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Besides, Hunter was different. She was strong and brave and sexy. I loved the way she looked at me, just slightly suspicious, as if she was thinking about kicking my ass. That shouldn’t be hot, but it was. And I was just itching to convince her to unbraid all that blonde hair. She’d look killer with it down.
Damn it, I was thinking about her again. About her hair.
“Shit,” I muttered. If I wasn’t careful I’d start writing sonnets too, like Karin had written for me. “I have to get out of here.”
The royal caves were a good distraction, because if you lowered your guard for a moment, you could get your head chopped off.
Right now that sounded perfect.
I nodded at the guards at the main entrance and strolled into the caverns. They were lit with torches, the tunnel opening into several larger chambers. The largest one was the Great Hall, which suited the Drake family’s very medieval tendencies. Just look at our only surviving matriarch, Veronique Dubois. She was even scarier than Mom was, and she could embroider your funeral shroud by hand. It was easy to accept Mom as a queen, or Veronique. Dad had that monarch thing going for him too. I had a harder time picturing the rest of us as royal princes. Connor didn’t like people, vampire or otherwise. He just wanted to be left alone with his computers. Logan dressed like a pirate. And I knew more about pick-up lines than I did vampire politics—and I didn’t have any great desire to learn more about it.
But I did have a great desire to stop vampire assassins from attacking my mom and my sister. So I’d man up and study vampire politics and show my face in court and pretend I knew what the hell was going on.
Anyway, it was better than mooning over Hunter Wild.
The Great Hall was drafty, the oil lamp lights flickering. It was saved from being damp and unwelcoming by the piles of thick rugs underfoot and the tapestries hanging from iron rods. Veronique had sent a huge banner embroidered with the Drake family crest and the royal vampire crest, which now hung behind a wooden table ringed with chairs. The chairs each had thick wooden backs, to protect against stakes, arrows, and daggers. Dad was all about treaties and diplomacy. Mom was all about the attack. Between the two of them they might actually be able to control the chaotic vampire tribes, at least for a little while.
Vampire tribes tended to be independent at best and belligerently autonomous at worst. Ruling them was mostly about making sure no one wiped each other out in such a public manner that we’d all be discovered. Prosaic but true.
“Quinn.” Sebastian raised his eyebrows. “You walked right by that girl. What’s wrong?”
“I did?” I looked over my shoulder. A vampire with short brown hair and beauty mark at the side of her mouth winked at me. I winked back. Then I turned back to Sebastian, horrified. “I didn’t even see her.”
“You’re off your game.”
“Shh, keep it down, will you?” I straightened my shirt. “I have a reputation. I’m going back. She’s cute.”
“Forget it. She flirts with everyone.”
“So?” I grinned.
“Just come on. Mom and Dad are in the back room. And we can’t handle any more disgruntled exes.”
“My exes are never disgruntled.” That was a point of pride actually. “Any more packages for Solange?” Solange’s bloodchange pheromones, coupled with the old prophecy, had sent more vampires than we could count into a frenzy. They sent her gifts, stalked her, and generally acted like asses.
“Twelve letters, three packages, and a box of puppies.”