He was only gone long enough for me to notice the flashing light on my answering machine and to press play. Grandpa’s gravelly whiskey-and-cigar-smoke voice rumbled out of the speaker. For some reason it made me feel like crying. I missed his confidence and certainty. It was in short supply right now. Even if I cringed at the actual words he was saying.
“Hunter, honey, I got a call from the school. Heard you did good. I know it’s hard, but you did what you had to do. That’s what hunters do and that’s what Wilds do. And you saved your friend’s life, the way I hear it. Your headmistress was making noise about seeing the school psychologist but I told her you don’t need that quackery. You be strong. You’re a good girl. I don’t want you going soft over a Hel-Blar. Vampires need killing, you know that.”
My bedroom door shut with a soft click. Quinn raised an eyebrow at me. I winced, knowing he’d heard every word of my grandpa’s message.
“He means well,” I said defensively.
“Okay,” Quinn replied with deceptive nonchalance.
“He raised me the only way he knew how.”
“Okay,” he said again.
I frowned. I didn’t know why I was justifying Grandpa. He was a good man. So was Quinn. One wasn’t mutually exclusive of the other.
My head was starting to hurt.
“Did you find it?” I asked, changing the subject.
He nodded, sitting next to me and holding out his hand, palm up. The white pill looked innocuous. Hard to imagine that something so small was making such a big mess.
“It doesn’t look like Chloe’s vitamins,” I said, confused. “Hers are huge and yellow.”
“I know,” he said grimly. “These aren’t vitamins.”
I blinked. “Wait. So there’s two kinds of pills making the rounds now? What the hell is wrong with people?” I sat back, disgusted. “It does explain why we keep running in circles.”
Quinn was staring at the pill as if it were a coiled cobra that might strike at any time. His nostrils twitched, his jaw clenched.
“Okay, what?” I asked uncertainly.
“This thing’s poison,” he answered through his teeth.
“Seriously? Is that what made Will sick? Not just Hel-Blar?”
“It’s toxic to humans,” Quinn explained. “But it’s absolutely fatal to vampires.”
The silence felt charged, like a battery about to explode. I grabbed the pill off his hand, as if it might start leaking acid. He shook his head once. “It’s only fatal if ingested.”
“So people are taking vampire drugs now? Along with some weird vitamin? That doesn’t make any sense.” I wrapped the pill inside a tissue. “Can you get your brother to analyze this too?”
“Hell, yes,” he said, putting the little package in his pocket. “I want to know what this is. I’ve smelled it before.”
“Where?”
“That’s the thing, I don’t know. I can’t remember.” He sounded annoyed with himself.
I scooted back to lean against the wall, the blankets twisting under my legs. “Spencer wasn’t taking drugs or vitamins or any of that stuff. He barely takes aspirin.”
“Spencer was bitten by a Hel-Blar,” Quinn said, also moving back to sit next to me. “He’s not a mystery.”
“Then why is his stuff all gone from his room?”
“It is?” Quinn looked surprised. “Is he that sick?”
“Theo says Spencer’s badly off, but stable. The meds are helping him more than they helped Will. But his room’s empty, just like Will’s was. And there’s that flu everyone’s worried about.”
Quinn whistled through his teeth. “Look, obviously I’ve never really trusted the Helios-Ra, and maybe I’ve lived in Violet Hill too long, but this has ‘conspiracy’ written all over it.”
“I know. And I won’t let what happened to Will happen to Spencer.” My throat burned. “I had to stake him,” I added in a very small voice. “I had to.”
“I know,” he said softly, sliding his arm around my waist and tucking me into his side as if he was trying to protect me. It was kind of sweet. I let myself lean into him. “He was Hel-Blar,” he added. “He wasn’t Will anymore.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“Because it’s true.” His hand stroked my back up and down, softly, soothingly.
“It doesn’t feel like that. It feels like a betrayal. I couldn’t help him, Quinn. I’ve never felt so helpless.”
“Hunter, the last thing you are is helpless.” He sounded so sure. I couldn’t stop the first tear from falling.
“I don’t want Spencer to die.”
“He won’t die.” His lips were in my hair.
“You don’t know that.”
“I know about bloodchanges, Hunter. And Spencer is strong and healthy. He has a better chance than most.”
I wanted to trust the little bubble of hope in my stomach, but I couldn’t.
“Will didn’t even recognize me,” I said brokenly. “And it happened so fast. Why did he have to attack Chloe? Why did I have to be the one to stake him?” More tears fell and I didn’t try to stop them this time. I cried because I couldn’t not cry anymore. Quinn just held me, not saying a word. His hand cradled the back of my neck, running through my hair. I sobbed and trembled and sobbed some more until I felt weak and dehydrated. And a little bit lighter.