Alliance (17 page)

“Chloe?” I call. “It’s okay. We’re here.”

“I’m fine,” comes her voice out of the darkness.

A soft
cssh
sounds and then I’m squinting because Maggie’s holding one of those safety lights again and the brightness against the dark inside the church hurts my eyes.

“Forgot I had this,” she says. She’s already put down the blankets and stuff in the middle of the room—I guess she can see in the pitch dark too?—and comes back to take the candles from me.

Arms free, I sheath my knife again and spin to find Chloe. She’s not huddled in a ball like I thought. Instead, she’s sitting cross-legged next to where Hannah is lying on the floor; Hannah’s brother sits next to the prone girl, one hand on her forehead and one on her neck.

I get closer to see if there are tear tracks on Chloe’s face, but she seems just fine.

“Shane, we’re talking!” she exults, and I nod even though I hadn’t heard any conversation.

Maggie brings a now-lit candelabra and places it near Hannah’s head.

“Any progress?” she asks softly. She squats next to the other guy, touches his knee. Something painful twists in my gut when I watch them together. It feels a little like jealousy.

He smiles, but doesn’t move his gaze from his sister. Now that’s concentration. “What do you think? You call the All-Powerful Caleb, he delivers.”

Maggie chuckles. Have I ever made her do that? I can’t remember but I’m pretty sure the answer is ‘no.’

Reaching up, Maggie brushes a hank of hair out of the guy’s face. What kind of guy wears his hair long like that anyways? Does Maggie like it?

“Thanks,” he says.

I can’t watch this anymore. It’s making me sick.

I turn around, thinking to go find Rachel, but I don’t have to search far as I find her in the next room.

“Hey,” I say from the doorway.

She turns, and I get a good look at her. She’s got a small flashlight—who knows where she nicked it from—clenched between her teeth, and her arms full of books. Her eyes are red but thankfully she’s not crying.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Why wo-on’t ah be?” she answers, and it takes me a moment to decipher her words since she’s speaking around the flashlight.

She dumps the books from her arms onto the floor, and I look down to see she’s got two different piles going on.

“What are you doing?” I can’t help it that the words come out angry—she’s messing with someone else’s property, and apparently doing it without any respect for that property.

She ignores my tone. “Check it out.” She tosses me two books and I catch them effortlessly. The flashlight makes me blink when she beams it into my face.

The books are dusty and old—the titles are faded but I read them out loud. “
Lamia
.” The Latin word for vampire. “
Monstrum consisto nox noctis
.” Monsters of night.

What is this?

Rach’s pumped about her discovery; it shows in her animated gestures as she points to one of the piles of books, then the other ones. “These are all religious texts, I think anyways. But this whole pile is about vampires, demons, warlocks.”

She looks up at me. “Who would put vampire books in a church library?”

I’m as puzzled as she is. “I don’t know. Someone who didn’t want them to be
found
by vampires? Maybe Maggie knows.”

Saying Maggie’s name turns Rach’s mood sour. She grimaces at me. “Where is your pet vampire anyway?”

“Rach,” I warn her. “She’s back in the church with Hannah and her brother. The ‘all-powerful Caleb.’” A little sneer comes through in my tone; I can’t help it.

Her brow wrinkles as she watches me with narrowed eyes. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

“What? No.” Unless that’s what this feeling that the lining of my stomach is being eaten away is. It could just be indigestion.

I can’t be jealous over a vampire. I’m a Chaser. We’re enemies, even if I can’t bring myself to kill her.

Rachel rolls her eyes and returns to her book sorting. She’s bent over the bottom half of a wall full of shelves, and suddenly exclaims, “What the—”

And she falls halfway into the wall, her head and torso disappearing into a black hole.

“Rach!”

I reach for her but she scissors her legs and vanishes. I hear a muffled “oomph” and then, “I’m okay.”

I can see the flashlight beam bobbling. “What are you doing?”

“There’s a hidden room—no, more like a… I don’t know, old timey gym or something.”

“Rach, get outta there.”

Her voice fades, “…kind of swords. Oh, wow…”

“Rach!”

Sometimes I want to strangle that girl. This is not a time to explore! And yet, I find myself following her through a tiny passage—so small that my shoulders almost get stuck even though I’m on my hands and knees—and into a long room with a high ceiling. Rach’s flashlight bounces off the wall several yards away, but I can’t make out what it’s illuminating.

“Rachel Marie Campton.”

Thankfully, she stops. “Hurry up,” she calls back to me.

I make my way across to her, careful not to trip on any of the uneven paver stones beneath my feet. I find her looking at a Muk Yan Jong—a wooden training dummy used in Chinese martial arts. It’s a big wooden post to represent the torso, and with two or three wooden “arms” extending out, and sometimes a leg that extends at a lower level. This one is really old though—probably dates back to the same time the house was built.

“Give me that.” I snatch the flashlight out of Rachel’s hand and start shining it around. She stays on my heels, silent now that I’m here.

We look at something similar to a gymnast’s pommel horse, except it’s made from wood. Next, a bar parallel to the wall, mounted at chest height.

We turn to the other wall, and there’s every kind of weapon you can think of—crossbows, swords, knives, throwing stars, even antique guns.

“What is this place?” Rachel wonders, but I am way ahead of her.

Vampire books.

Equipment-slash-training room.

Weapons and more weapons.

This house belonged to a Chaser family. Now Maggie calls it ‘home’.

I need some answers.

22 - Maggie

“Would you please tell these two to shut up?” Hannah’s voice is weak and rough, but it’s the most welcome thing I’ve heard in a long time.

Caleb and Chloe grin at each other; even Lily looks up from the orange she’s peeling a few yard away from the two C’s and me where we’re gathered around Hannah.

“Han!”

My best friend’s eyes flutter open.

“You did it!” Chloe exclaims.

She reaches up and removes Caleb’s hands from her person. “That’s enough,” she says softly. The bite mark on her neck is faded, almost completely unnoticeable unless you know it’s there.

Caleb respects her wishes and stands up, stretching his arms above his head. His back pops and Chloe giggles, another sound that makes me remember there are good things going on, even amidst all this craziness.

“Not used to sitting for so long,” he mutters, and I know it’s true. Caleb is one of the most active people I know. “Guess that’s what happens after you turn two hundred. Your body starts going.” He winks at Chloe, whose smile just grows wider.

“Hey, Maggie’s friend. Do you have any apples in there?” He moves toward Lily, and I’m probably the only one who notices the slight waver in his hand. He has to be weak after spending over an hour tending to Hannah.

“I’m not Maggie’s friend,” Lily mutters, looking down at her lap.

“Yes, you are,” I call out.

“See there, you are too. Now can I
please
have something to eat?” He drops down next to her but waits for Lily to rustle around in the bag. She comes up with two apples and tosses them both to him.

“Thanks.” He crunches into it, propping one knee up and extending his arm to rest on top of it. At that angle, both the muscles in his thigh and forearm are on display. Showoff.

I hear Lily’s gulp from where I’m sitting.

“We didn’t get to meet earlier. I’m Caleb.”

“Lily.”

He reaches out to shake her hand, but she hesitates. “Come on, I won’t shock you or anything,” he teases.

She takes his hand and he says, “
Zzzzt
.” She jumps. “Kidding,” he teases. He’s wearing his Flirtatious smile. I hope he knows what he’s doing with Lily. She can be awfully prickly.

“So tell me your strategy for Not Being Maggie’s Friend. I tried it for about… oh thirty years but she eventually wore me down. How’s it working for you?”

He actually gets a tentative smile from Lily. Shocking.

I look down to see if Hannah’s watching the interchange, too. She is, and she looks about as surprised as I feel.

“Who did you want to shut up?” I ask her.

She gives me her patented ‘it-should-be-obvious’ eyebrow quirk. “My brother and Miss Chloe here.”

“Caleb said we should annoy her into waking up,” Chloe says, looking worried that she might have done the wrong thing.

“He would,” Hannah says darkly, but I know she is kidding.

“You can hear each other?” I ask.

Chloe nods emphatically and Hannah just ‘um hmms.’

“What does that mean?” I ask, afraid I already know the answer. Is Chloe going to realize what it means, though?

“I think Chloe has witch’s blood in her veins,” Hannah says.

Shane and Rachel burst out of the library, shaking dust off of themselves, in time to hear Hannah’s comment.

Chloe looks up at them, worry now clear on her face. “Does that mean I’m not your sister?”

“Chloe…” Shane looks like he’s broadsided by the question. The longer he holds the awkward pause, the more Chloe’s lower lip trembles.

Finally, she lets out a little sob and gets up, but there’s nowhere to run—Shane and Rachel are blocking the library, and the rest of the sanctuary offers no hiding places.

“C’mere,” I say, and hold out my arms.

Chloe launches herself at me, and I shift out of the way so we won’t knock into Hannah. The little girl shakes and sobs like her life is ending. I let her cling and rub her back in what I hope are comforting circles.

“It’s all right, kiddo,” I murmur, using the nickname I’ve heard Shane call her before.

I look up and he’s staring at me and Chloe with a look of fear on his face. This time I know the fear isn’t about me, it’s about interacting with a tearful sister. Rachel stands halfway behind him, as if she’s unsure what to do.

‘Get over here,’ I mouth to him.

He comes over to us and squats, awkwardly patting Chloe’s shoulder.

Exasperated, I reach up and grab his collar, pull him forward so he either has to wrap his arms around both of us or topple over. Okay, so it isn’t a totally selfless move.

His arms go around me and we squish Chloe between us. It feels like heaven to have them both close like this.

“Of course you’re Shane’s sister,” I say when Chloe starts to quiet. “Rachel’s, too.”

“Yeah,” Shane echoes.

“Sisterhood isn’t all about blood, you know.”

She sniffles right in my ear. I try not to wince. “Really?” she whispers.

“Yup. Hannah’s
my
sister and we aren’t related at all.”

“I was there when you were born, tough girl.” Shane squeezes us both and lets go, sits next to me. “Legs were falling asleep like that,” he explains. He holds Chloe’s hand instead. I silently mourn the loss of contact for myself.

“You were?” Chloe asks.

“Yeah. Mom had you at home, remember?”

“Oh, right.”

“So even if your dad was someone else, which he might not even be, you’re at least my half sister.”

“Then you’ll still take care of me? You won’t make me go to a foster school like Rachel went to?”

“Of course not. Is that what you were worried about?”

She shrugs her little shoulders, wiping her face. She moves off of my lap but squishes herself in between the two of us. “I guess.”

“Well, don’t.”

And it seems he’s finally said the right thing, because she calms.

~o~

It’s just after dawn when Hannah informs me she can’t hold it any longer and I’m taking her into the house to pee.

Everyone else is still sleeping on the uncomfortable stone floor when we leave the church, so after she’s done we detour into the gardens just outside the servants’ quarters. I settle her on a wooden bench, worried because she still seems so weak.

“How are you?”

She shrugs. “Still feeling a little like I got run over by a mac truck. I’ll be okay.”

At least her color is better this morning, so I let it go. I find a soft spot in the grass a few feet away and flop flat on my back. I close my eyes and let the sun wash over me. This is one of the things I could never give up, one of the reasons I will never fully embrace my vampire side.

“What about you?” she asks. “Any nightmares from being back in this place?”

I don’t answer.

“Mags?”

“I never got to sleep, all right?”

“Oh, Maggie.”

“Every time I close my eyes I keep seeing Edward’s face right before they killed him…” Even now, awake, the taste of blood and death overwhelms my senses. I lean up on my elbows to shake the image.

“And thoughts of your resident hottie didn’t inspire sweet dreams?”

I roll my eyes.

“He’s not my anything, Hannah,” I remind her.

“What?” she asks, affecting an innocent air. “He hasn’t killed you yet, has he? I think it means he has feelings for you.”

“It means he needs me. Once he gets in touch with his Chaser contacts and picks up some new IDs and some cash, he’s outta here.”

She sticks her tongue out at me. “Well, I believe in romance, so I can think it means whatever I want.”

I bare my canines at her, my version of a stuck out tongue.

“Maggie.”

I jerk around at the voice and spot Daniel standing in the shadows next to the house. He’s human; I can see his green eyes from here. But he stays out of the sunlight.

“What’s up?” I greet him. “I thought you left.”

“I came back to tell you that you should ditch your friends. The witches and warlock are going to get you killed.”