Hourglass

Here, I was afraid, and even my best friends could possibly turn into my enemies.

I glanced up from my rice, hoping to meet Raquel’s eyes, but she was looking at Dana. Her expression was unreadable.

“Give it time,” Lucas murmured, as everyone bunked down for the night. He curled behind me, as he had before; I’d never been so grateful to have him close. “I think we’ll be okay.”

“But Dana—” She’d been raised in Black Cross. She’d been willing to leave Balthazar to his fate. How could she accept me so quickly?

“Shhh.” He said it as if he were soothing me, but I knew it was a genuine warning. The others were lying down, too, and they were close enough to hear every word.

The lights were put out, and I lay next to Lucas—both in his arms and a million miles away. He fell asleep quickly, to judge by his deep, even breathing and the relaxation of his arm around my waist.

See, Lucas thinks everything’s safe. He’s not worried a bit.

No, he’s a hunter. He’s used to resting when he can so he’ll have energy to fight later if he must.

Well, then, I’ll try to be a hunter, too.

As soon as I gave in to my exhaustion, sleep grabbed me quickly. I’d been more tired than I realized. My head, my eyelids, my limbs—all of it felt so heavy—

The darkness folded itself around me, as warm and comforting as a blanket.

“Get up.”

The flashlight’s beam blinded me, jolting me from sleep. I felt Lucas shift and heard him groan, “What’s going on?”

More sternly, Eliza repeated, “Get up.”

I pushed myself up on my elbows and squinted, trying to make out shapes in the room. The darkness coalesced into forms—most of the Black Cross hunters, standing around us in a semicircle, weapons on their hands.

Dana told them about me.

My stomach clenched so painfully I thought I might vomit. The rushing of blood in my ears, quickening with my pulse, deafened me to almost anything else. My whole body seemed to go cold, and I kept thinking, Go back, go back, like I could somehow stop time and make all of this not be happening. It seemed like there had to be some way out, but there wasn’t.

Lucas’s hand closed over mine. Though I knew he had to be as frightened as I was, he said, evenly, “You’d better tell us what this is about.”

“You know what it’s about,” Eliza said. “Don’t you?”

“Yeah. I expect I do.” He took a deep breath as he quickly scanned the room. Dana wasn’t there—coward—and she’d no doubt taken Raquel with her so Raquel wouldn’t protest. But I realized that he wasn’t looking for them, but for his mother. Kate was nowhere to be seen. Did she have any idea what was going on? Surely not. They had come up with some pretext for sending her away, and the one person who might still have been in a position to help us was gone. “What happens now?”

Eliza’s smile was cold. “Now we go upstairs and have a little chat.”

She meant the ground-level room where Balthazar had been kept.

I felt like I couldn’t move, like they would have to drag me up there. But Lucas squeezed my hand and said, “Come on, Bianca. You and me. Let’s go.”

His strength flowed into me, and I managed to get to my feet. “Can I get dressed?” I asked. I was surprised how steady my voice sounded.

Eliza shrugged. “Throw on your jeans. But move.”

In our jeans and T-shirts, we made our way up the stairs onto the harbor. It was very late—or very early—whichever way you wanted to look at it, the dead of night. No boats floated upon the river, and even the omnipresent roar of traffic was only a whisper. Briefly we were outside, a taunting taste of freedom, before they pushed us into the storage room. Blood stained the concrete floor.

I thought for sure they would handcuff us, the way they had Balthazar, but they didn’t. Lucas and I stood in the center of the dark room. The others surrounded us. When the lights were flipped on, the starkness of the scene—the angry faces surrounding us and the weapons they carried—made my stomach clench even tighter.

“What is she?” Eliza demanded of Lucas.

He began, “She was born to vampires—sometimes they can—”

“Skip it.” Eliza’s hand rested upon a stake in her belt. “We heard your little story. What we want now are facts. How strong is she? What powers does she have?”

“You’ve seen her work out and fight along with the rest of us.” Lucas stood partly in front of me, as if trying to shield me.

“If you don’t know what she can do by now, blame yourselves.”

“This is a really bad time for backtalk,” Eliza warned.

Lucas’s eyes narrowed. “From where I’m standing, this is a really bad time, period.”

“You got that right,” said somebody.

I noticed that all the hunters were looking at Lucas—not at me. He was the one they talked to, the one they wanted explanations from. Although they were angry with Lucas, he was still a human being. Still a person.

I was only a monster.

Eliza’s fingers tightened around the stake. Would she really use that on me? I was still alive, which meant being staked wouldn’t paralyze me: it would kill me. I knew nobody in this room but Lucas would care if she did. Strong as Lucas was, he couldn’t possibly defend me against twenty trained, armed hunters. My own strength and fighting skills wouldn’t add much to our chances.