danger in the first place.
Even when he finally moved on to discuss some very basic moves, his emphasis was on using them to get away-not to stick around and beat your attacker into the ground. He let us practice some of these moves in the last half hour of the class, having us pair up to work with classmates and a dummy since we didn’t really want to hurt each other.
“Thank God,” said Adrian, when we broke out to practice. He and I were partners. “I thought I’d come to a fight class to learn how not to fight.”
“But he’s right,” I said. “If you can avoid the fight, so much the better.”
“But what if you can’t?” asked Adrian. “Like with your sword-wielding friends? What do you do once you’re in trouble?”
I tapped our blank-faced stuffed practice dummy. “That’s what this is for.”
Wolfe’s main move today was on how to break out of someone’s hold if we were grabbed from behind. He had a couple of techniques which weren’t much more complex than head-butting or stomping on feet. Adrian and I took turns being the attacker while the victim practiced the maneuvers-in slow motion and with almost no contact on our partners. That was what the dummies were for. I was about five inches shorter than Adrian and seemed pretty implausible as an attacker, which made us both laugh each time I made a move. Wolfe chastised us for not being serious enough but gave us high marks for learning the techniques.
This made me feel a little arrogant, enough so that when Adrian turned his back to get a water bottle, I sneaked up from behind and flung my arms around him, pinning his arms in turn. Wolfe had shown us how to break that type of hold, and I honestly thought Adrian had seen me coming enough to slip away before I even touched him. Apparently not. He froze, and for one moment, we stood locked in time. I could feel the silk of his shirt against my skin and the warmth of his body. The lingering scent of the overpriced cologne he wore floated around me. No smoke for a change. I’d always told him the cologne couldn’t be worth what he spent, but suddenly, I reconsidered. It was amazing.
I was so awash in sensory overload that I was caught completely unaware when he
“What are you doing?” he exclaimed. I’d thought he’d be impressed at my sneak attack, but there was neither approval nor humor on his face. My own smile faded.
“Testing if you could handle a surprise attack.” My tone was hesitant. I didn’t know what I’d done wrong. He looked uncomfortable. Almost upset. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” he said gruffly. For a moment his eyes locked onto me with an intensity that left me breathless. Then, he glanced away, as though he couldn’t handle looking at me. I felt more confused than ever. “Never thought I’d see the day when you’d throw your arms around a vam-someone like me.”
I barely even noticed his public slipup. His words drew me up short. He was right. I’d touched him without even thinking about it-and not just a formal Moroi handshake, like usual. Sure, it was in the context of our class, but I knew that I never could have done this a few months ago. Touching him now had seemed perfectly natural. Was that why he was upset? Was he worried about the Alchemists and me?
Wolfe strolled by. “Nice work, girl.” He gave Adrian a teeth-rattling slap on the back. “You were totally unprepared for her.”
This seemed to distress Adrian even more, and I could’ve sworn I heard him mutter, “That’s for damned sure.”
Some of Adrian’s swagger returned during the car ride home, but he was still quiet and thoughtful. I again tried to figure out his shift in mood. “Do you need to stop by Clarence’s for blood?” Maybe the class had exhausted him.
“Nah,” he said. “Don’t want you to be late. But maybe… maybe you can come by this weekend, and we can do a group trip over there?”
“I’ve got the dance on Saturday,” I said apologetically. “And I think Sonya was going to take Jill to Clarence’s tomorrow after school. Probably she can pick you up too.”
“I suppose,” he said. He sounded disappointed, but one day wasn’t that long to wait for blood. Maybe he was afraid Sonya would recruit him for experiments again-which wouldn’t be a bad thing, I thought. Suddenly, he straightened up from his slouch. “Speaking of Sonya… I was thinking of something earlier. Something Wolfe said.”
“Why, Adrian. Were you paying attention after all?”
“Don’t start, Sage,” he warned. “Wolfe’s crazy, and you know it. But when he was giving all his words of wisdom, he mentioned that stuff about not giving out personal info to strangers and how victims are often staked out in advance. Remember?”
“Yeah, I was there,” I said. “Like, an hour ago.”
“Right, so. Those guys who attacked you and Sonya seemed to know she was a vampire-the wrong kind, but still. The fact that they showed up with a sword implies they did some research. I mean, it’s possible they just noticed her on the street one day and were like, ‘Ooh, vampire.’ But maybe they’ve been watching her for a while.”
He flinched in surprise. “Wait. What?”
“The week before the attack. Sonya and I got dinner, and we were stopped by some random guy who claimed he knew her from Kentucky. She was pretty freaked out because she was a Strigoi the whole time she was there, and obviously, she didn’t hang out with humans a lot back then.”
Adrian took a few moments to turn this over in his mind. “So… you’re saying they’ve been checking into her for a while.”
“Actually, you’re saying that.”
“Right. Because I’m a genius.” More silence as we both considered the implications of Sonya’s situation. When Adrian spoke again, his tone wasn’t nearly so light. “Sage… last night. You never acknowledged my comment about vampire hunters.”
“The Alchemists have no records of modern vampire hunters,” I said automatically. “My dad once said that occasionally, some random human discovers the truth. I’d figured her attack was something like that-not some huge organized group or conspiracy.”
“Is it remotely possible that somehow, somewhere, the Alchemists might have missed something? And what do you mean by ‘modern’ exactly?”
Alchemist history had been drilled into me nearly as much as the philosophies that governed our actions. “A long time ago-like, back in the Middle Ages-when the Alchemists were forming, a lot of factions had different ideas on how to deal with vampires. Nobody thought humans should associate with them. Those who eventually formed my group decided the best way was to work with Moroi just enough to keep them separate from humans. But there were others who didn’t take that approach. They thought the best way to keep humans free was to eradicate vampires-through any means.” I was relying on facts again, my old armor. If I reasoned away this argument, then I wouldn’t have to acknowledge what it would mean if there were people actively hunting Moroi.
“Sounds like vampire hunters to me,” Adrian pointed out.
“Yes, but they weren’t successful. There were just too many vampires, Moroi and Strigoi, for a group like this to take out. The last records we have of them are from, oh, I’d say the Renaissance. Those hunters eventually faded away.” Even I heard the uncertainty in my voice.
“You said that sword had alchemy symbols on it.”
“Old ones.”
“Old enough to be from the time that splinter group was breaking away?”
I sighed. “Yes. That old.”
I wanted to close my eyes and sink into my seat. Cracks were appearing in my armor. I still wasn’t entirely sure I could accept the idea of vampire hunters, but I could no longer rule out their possibility.
I could see Adrian studying me out of the corner of my eye. “Why the sigh?”
“Because this is all stuff I should have put together sooner.”
He seemed very pleased at the acknowledgment. “Well, you don’t believe in vampire hunters. Makes it hard to really consider them an actual threat when you operate in a world of facts and data, huh? But then… how would
