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I’d used my best Hollywood Dracula voice, but Ronan did not seem amused.
Leaning close, he gave my arm a little shake. “I told you, no jokes. I’m what’s called a Tracer. We find, track, and retrieve girls like you. ” He’d said that last bit as though it left a foul taste in his mouth. I tried to pull my arm away, but he held firm. “I am not, nor have I ever wished to be, Vampire. ” He gave me a squeeze before letting go. “Heed me, Annelise. There is no failing where vampires are concerned. Only dying. ”
His tone of voice chilled me. I rubbed my arm, still throbbing where he’d gripped me, and wondered about the Tracer thing. How elaborate did this whole scene get? “What did you get me into?”
“What did I get you into?”
“Yes. ” I was sure he’d used some sort of persuasive powers to get me on that plane. But still, I hadn’t been entirely helpless; I’d known Ronan wasn’t exactly swooping me away for a hot weekend getaway. But neither had I thought I was going to be a candidate for evisceration. “You’d said special school, but I didn’t realize I might be the one up for dissection. And what’s with all the hotties? Training in elegance and sophistication? What is this—some sort of geisha camp?”
Standing there, withstanding my rant, Ronan suddenly seemed tired. “I tried to warn you. In my way. ” He saw my furious look and amended, “As much as I could. ”
“Because you told me it was serious, all the while using your hypnotic googly eyes?” I brushed by him as he opened the car door for me. I kicked the snow from my boots before I got in. I had to admit, they were cool boots. “Hmph. ”
I clambered in. It truly was a beast of a vehicle—ghastly wasn’t an understatement. It had seating for eleven, and I crawled straight back to the far rear corner.
Ronan followed, sitting beside me. Despite my anger, the tug of his weight on the seat gave me a momentary jolt. Until I saw one of Ronan’s peers take the driver’s seat and his hot strawberry blonde charge claim shotgun.
“You had no place else to go,” he reminded me in a hushed voice.
“I had a place to go until they said I couldn’t start college. Wait. . . . ” I inched away so I could face him full on. “Did you set up that whole swim-test thing at the registrar’s office?”
He shrugged.
Busted. The bastard. “You did, didn’t you? How’d you even know I couldn’t swim?”
“I know many things. ”
“What, you’ve got, like, a Goth mind probe in addition to powers of persuasion?”
He gave me a blank look, and I barreled ahead, sensing I’d hit a nerve. “That’s right, don’t think I couldn’t tell. You used some sort of weird hypnotism or touch, or something, to convince me to come. ”
“Believe me, you’re not that easy. ” His tone implied I was all-around difficult.
“So that’s how”—I looked to the open car door, lowering my voice—“that’s how you Tracers do it? You have persuasive powers?”
“In varying degrees. ” Ronan glanced at his colleague in the driver’s seat. The guy was immersed in a chat with Strawberry Blonde, oblivious to the conversation in the back-back. “Most girls respond when I use my eyes alone. You’re more difficult. ”
“Don’t tell me. That’s why you kept touching me?” My heart fell, seeing the answer on his face. The way he’d taken my hand, all those touches to my arm, my shoulder—the purpose had been to enthrall me, to convince me to get in his car, onto his plane.
I scowled. I’d known guys like him weren’t interested in girls like me, and yet stupid me had gone there in my mind for just a moment. “You tricked me. ”
He went on the defensive. “You’d hit rock bottom, Annelise. ”
“And this is better? In what universe is avoiding a drunk father and subsisting on waitressing tips more rock bottom than this?” I slumped against the door, the window cool on my forehead. “Silly me. Being totally alone on an island of bloodthirsty monsters is a real step up. ”
“Believe me, you only arrive here if it’s your last stop. ”
“Harsh. ” I stared blindly out the window, wondering if he was right. Had I sunk that low? All I knew was that I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I had to find a way out. “I’m not that pathetic. ”
Movement caught my eye. Lilac was approaching. She already had a mini posse following her. A bunch of mindless electrons buzzing around her radioactive core.
But then I realized. If this was my last chance, it was their last chance, too. Lilac and her ilk were just as desperate as me. And that meant Lilac had secrets. She and I had something in common; I just couldn’t imagine what.
She climbed in—gracefully, I might add—and glowered at me. Gaze shifting to Ronan, she held up her parka. “Could you toss this in the back for me?” Her tone was saccharine sweet.
At his nod, she whipped it right at my face. The metal nub at the end of the hood string snapped me in the eyes.
“Oops!” Smiling, she gave an innocent shrug.
