“Sure,” I hiss.
“They’ll be arriving in a minute,” Elia says, letting go of me. I don’t know where my gun is, but when I turn, I see that Trellis’s expression has changed completely, pain morphing into horror.Whowill be arriving in a minute?
“No,” he says, and his wide eyes meet mine. “Kill me!” he shouts, scrambling to his feet, and falling as his wound worsens.
And then it clicks. There’s only one organisation that a vampire like Trellis could fear as much as this.
“You work for the Council?” I ask, and Elia puts her hands on her hips, looking down at Trellis as though he’s no more than a child. If it wasn’t for the silver bullet in his shoulder, he could have transformed into a bat.
“I do some freelance work for them from time to time,” she says. “Sort of like a vampire hunter, but with brain cells.”
She glances at her phone, and I try to marry the image of this woman, a vampire who was able to overpower me completely, to the annoying girl who was sniffing me in class the other night. “I would leave, if I were you,” she adds. “The Council is not too fond of Callisto. Your lot never abides by the rules. So, unless you want to join my friend Eugene in his cell, you should go.”
She’s right about the Council not liking Callisto. Every time they’ve tried to include us in their treaties and set some ground rulesfor our operations, we’ve said no. One of Callisto’s most basic rules, which I now know Penny has broken, is to never cooperate with vampires. There’s a light drizzle, and it’s so cold it might at any moment turn to snow. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I ask, rubbing my bare arms. I have to make sure that the humans got home safely. “How do I know you’re not helping him escape?”
“Good point,” she concedes. “I’m afraid you’ll just have to trust me.”
“And why would I do that?”
I hear the choppy rhythm of a helicopter, and then I see it in the distance, a white dot drawing closer to the castle. Trellis moans, trying to get up again. If Elia is helping him escape, he’s certainly a good actor, because I’ve never seen anyone quite so terrified.
“You don’t really have a choice.” She cocks her head. “What would you get out of killing this man? Would it bring any of his victims back to life? Undo the trauma those mortals just went through?”
“I would stop him from organising something like this ever again,” I hiss. She’s right. I need to get out of here.
“Don’t worry. Once the Council have interrogated him, they’ll make him sunbathe.” She puts her hands behind her back, grimacing. “You really should go.”
Despite my instincts telling me to do the opposite, I turn back the way I came. The pain I felt in my arms, the sensation that they were about to break, has vanished. How? Dread settles in me as I walk down the staircase, searching for my way back to the main hall. Red velvet drapes decorate the innards of the castle. It’s still too quiet. There were at least a hundred vampires in the hall before I ran, and somehow, I can’t wrap my head around all of them vanishing like this.
When I finally reach the hall, with the bandstand and its separate booths, there are bodies everywhere—of vampires. That scream I heard, which I thought belonged to a human, could have been a vampire instead. And next to each unconscious vampire lies a broken wineglass. Did Elia spike their drinks? Though it isn’t something I want to consider, Elia might be on my side. The thought makes myhead ache. The world was so much easier to understand when hunters were good and vampires were evil.
“When I said you should go, I meant it,” a voice says behind me. Elia crouches down next to one of the bodies.How did she get here so quickly?“They’re taking Trellis away, but are coming back for this lot, so get out of here.”
“Why didn’t you kill them?” I ask.
“Because I’ve already killed enough,” she says without looking up at me. “Plus, these bastards might know things. Things we’ll never learn if we kill them now.”
I hate that she’s right.
“What’s that on your neck?” she asks suddenly, her voice changing. Too late, I remember that the makeup hiding the mark must have faded, revealing the Astra crest and its thorny vines. The lines burn. And that’s when I hear it. The sound of a gun being cocked.
I look up, seeing a narrow window and a gun peeking out of it. “Move!” I shout, and I throw myself on top of Elia just as the first gunshot booms. We tumble until we hit one of the unconscious vampires, and when I meet her blue eyes, they’re wide. “There’s another hunter,” I say, looking back. Penny won’t shootme,will she? “Get out of here.”
“Did you just save my life?” Elia asks, disbelief in her voice.
“Just hurry,” I say.What have I done?I turn just in time to see Penny jumping down from the narrow window. She lands and aims her gun. Elia has vanished already, with a speed which I can’t quite make sense of, but I’m glad she possesses. I stand, staring back at Penny, trying to keep my composure.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
I scratch my neck, trying to find an answer. I don’t think there’s anything I can say that would make sense to her. Handing over a vampire to the Council is not something that’s ever been done before, at least not that I’m aware of. And as I stare at Penny, without moving, I realise I’m in deep shit. Deep enough for her to undo all the work I’ve done until now.
“She helped us,” I say, keeping my voice steady.
One of the vampires next to her groans, waking from the effects of Elia’s poison.
Penny responds by shooting him, the sound of her weapon like thunder.
“You’ve become soft,” she says, reloading her weapon. “Weak.”
