CHAPTER 46
Lucy
Tuesday night
I slept for twenty-seven hours straight.
And then the only reason I woke up was because my parents couldn’t wait a second longer. My dad and mom had met me at the school after Hart had us brought to the infirmary to be checked out after the battle. I was too tired to even get to the car, so they let me collapse into my dorm bed and then they just stood there, teary eyed and staring creepily until I mumbled at them to go away. Mom called three times Monday, and Dad just drove over first thing Tuesday morning and waited in the parking lot. They weren’t pulling me out of school, mostly because I wouldn’t let them, but they wanted me home for recuperation. Bellwood had called off classes for the week anyway, while extra counselors were brought in for students and the extra agents were encouraged to leave campus as quickly as possible. There would be a memorial for the fallen, including Tyson, and a traditional Helios-Ra funeral for Hunter’s grandfather.
In the meantime, Dad was plying me with chamomile tea and mom kept baking me whole-wheat honey cookies. It was kind of nice to spend the day in bed with Gandhi and Van Helsing, even if they did have doggy breath. Just before midnight, after my parents had gone to sleep, Solange showed up at my bedroom window.
She grinned, pulling up the glass. “Hey, wanna have a sleepover?”
“Can we still do that? Since you don’t sleep at night?” I asked as she climbed inside.
“Then we’ll have a wake-over.”
I grabbed the knapsack she’d tossed onto my bed. “Please tell me you brought chocolate.”
“And licorice, sour gummy worms, and those gross marshmallow cookies you love so much.”
“And I don’t even have to share,” I teased, rifling through her stuff until I found the chocolate bars and sugar-coated worms. “There are definite perks to your being a vampire.”
We wiggled under my blanket, trying to squeeze into what little space the dogs had left us. I turned on music and we lay back and stared at the ceiling, the way we’d been doing since we were little.
“So.” I slid her a sidelong glance. “You’ve been kissing Kieran.”
She turned, blinking at me. Even with her pale eyes with their blood-ringed pupils and sharp fangs, she was still just Solange to me. “How did you know that?” she asked.
“I’m your best friend,” I returned, biting the head off a gummy worm. “I know these things.” I chewed the sticky candy and then swallowed. “Besides, you get this dreamy, goofy look on your face whenever you’ve been with Kieran.”
“You mean, like the one you get around Nicholas?”
“I do not look dreamy!”
She just grinned. “Sure you don’t, Hamilton.”
I smacked her in the face with my pillow. She returned the favor until I was gasping for breath and we were both laughing hysterically. The dogs lumbered off the bed with canine sighs. We laughed harder. I was flushed and exhausted by the time we collapsed, still giggling.
“I have another surprise for you,” Solange said, after glancing at the clock. “It’s in the back garden, where your mom grows all that mint.”
I sat up. “You left me a present out in the snow?”
“Yup. Go see.”
Bewildered, I stuffed my feet into moccasins and pulled a sweater over my flannel pajamas. I went out the back door instead of wriggling out of my window. I still hurt all over, covered in bruises, scratches, and aching muscles. And now my stomach was sore from all that laughing.
Standing in the snow, with his hands in his pockets, was Nicholas. His eyes were like starlight, his smile crooked and quiet. “You two kind of sounded like hyenas.”
I just launched myself at him. He wrapped his arms around me and let himself fall back into the snow, shielding me from the force of the landing.
“Hi,” I said, grinning.
“Hi,” he returned. “I missed you.”
And then words were just a useless exercise, a waste of two perfectly good mouths. His kiss was dangerous and slow, building heat through my body until the snow felt like it was melting around us. It was everything we’d been fighting for, necessary and silent.
Perfect.
Blood Prophecy
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