I couldn’t help it. I was tired. So tired. I dropped and grabbed her arm. “We don’t have to fight. ”
“Fuck you, Acari trash. ” She scrambled to get footing, but only slid further
. Rocks dislodged and tumbled down, striking the cliff side with a bounce-bounce, then they bounced right off a sharp ledge and down, away from view.
“They’re not all bad,” I said, putting words to my revelation as I had it. “Vampires don’t have to be bad. It’s these guys who are bad. ”
“Your vampire,” she spat. She didn’t look at me as she spoke, but rather her attention was fractured, eyes skittering all around as though she’d missed some obvious solution to her problem. “He doesn’t deserve the name. He won’t survive. Hugo won’t allow it. He’ll kill your McCloud. ” She looked at me then, her lips peeling into a lizard smile. “Hugo said he’d let me stake him. Staking a real vampire is so much more spectacular than the Draug we’ve—”
I lost it. I forgot how weary I’d become. I forgot about making peace. I let go of her arm. Shoved her away.
Bounce, bounce.
A horrific thud echoed along the rocks, her body hitting the ground forty feet below.
I rolled onto my back, looking up at the white-gray sky. “I tried, Masha. ”
I WANTED TO JUST LIE there. To sleep. To pretend I was anywhere else. I needed to save Carden, but could I? I seemed capable only of killing and screwing things up.
I’d killed Masha, and it took a minute for the reality to set in. She’d bonded with Alcántara. Would he be furious his Russian pet was killed? Would he be feeling her death even now? Would he find out I was the culprit?
I was on the verge of freaking out, but freaking out was a luxury I didn’t have. I made a mental list to calm myself.
I would:
Gather my stars.
Find Mei.
Go to class.
Pretend nothing had happened. Pretend I wasn’t hysterical.
Frantically try to find the killer before Carden was staked before my eyes.
Could I blame the Guidons’ deaths on the mysterious rogue vampire? But they weren’t drained, and exsanguination was one thing I was incapable of doing. I had to hope that removing my weapons from the scene of the crime would be enough to erase any evidence pointed my way.
As I climbed back down, I called quietly for Mei. No answer. Hopefully she was back on campus by now, headed to her music class.
With that thought came strains of her flute, high and keening, echoing along the rocks, as though I’d summoned her. I stopped to listen. I was imagining things, surely.
But the sound came louder. And I detected another sound, too. Guttural moans.
I shivered. I’d found my stars and stakes, and hastily wiped them clean of sand and blood and holstered them. “Like nothing ever happened,” I muttered, then took off at a jog, headed for the sound of the flute, which, unfortunately, was coming back from the direction we’d come.
Alone, I moved quickly, mesmerized by the rhythm of my steps, a soothing drumbeat in my head. But then I saw them.
I skidded to a stop, my heart exploding double-time.
In an instant, my stars were in my hands. I’d thought I had nothing left, but there I was, squatted, poised, ready for another fight.
Draug. A whole slew of them.
Coming right for me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Options flew through my mind, scattershot, like a pinball in a machine. I could run. But if that were Mei-Ling’s flute, it meant she was out there, probably in danger. Was she playing to give me a message? Was it a call for help?