High Society (The High Stakes Saga #3)

Chapter One

Maru

Yarrow had typed, Hide well, Maru. It’s been announced that you are wanted for treason.

Victor had declared me a traitor and stuck a target on my back. Fuming, I ran through alleyways and ducked between buildings, white-hot anger fueling my steps. I might as well have been declared a vampire. Now, I would be hunted by the same people with whom I occasionally hunted the monsters.

Ditching my communicator in a garbage heap seemed fitting. Victor was a piece of trash, after all. I marveled that I’d seen Enoch face-to-face and survived the encounter, and the timing of Eve’s clones falling from the sky gave me a chance to run.

I made my way into the city, toward the border as fast as I could. Tonight, I would read Eve’s letter and make a plan to move during the military shift change just before dawn. For now, I had to find a safe place – not only from the vamps, but from Victor and the military he would send to hunt me down.

I settled on a small apartment on the first floor of a six-story building. The unit hadn’t been broken into or ransacked. The deadbolt still slid into the door facing easily and there were only two windows to cover in the front part of the house. I pulled the cord, tilting the blinds closed.

Off the entryway was a small living room with matching furniture, its fabric puckered from years of use. Toy train cars were coupled together, sitting askew on the long coffee table as if derailed. There were stuffed animals in the corner – a bear and a unicorn, whose plush horn pointed at me as if warning its owner that I didn’t belong in the space. A small hallway led to a bathroom directly across from a bedroom. I pulled each door closed and kept moving further into the unit.

The last room was the kitchen.

On the counter was a candle, and in one of the stuffed-full drawers, I found a lighter. The wick caught the flame and illuminated the small room. I closed the blinds in the only window along the rear and then ran back to the bedroom. Tearing the covers off the bed, I quickly hung them over each window to completely black them out. Hopefully, the scant, flickering light would be hidden from any outside eyes.

I withdrew Eve’s letter from my clothes. The envelope’s flaps were folded neatly, sealed with a glob of hardened red wax. My stomach dropped as I broke the seal, but when I removed the paper inside and saw her handwriting, my heart thundered. The letter was dated September 1, 1777.

I covered my mouth as I read her words.

My heart sank.

My throat knotted.

I blinked away the tears that filled my eyes and cursed. She doesn’t need tears, I chided myself. She needs help. She needs me.

Once again, I was at the mercy of Yarrow. She was the only one I trusted besides Eve, and the only one who could gain access to what I needed.

* * *

Eve

I closed my eyes as I fell, acrid smoke filling my lungs as I cut through the air. I refused to look at where I would land. It didn’t matter. It would hurt like hell, no matter if it was land, sea, or anything in between. Instead, I focused my thoughts on Enoch. I told myself that maybe if I thought about nothing but him, I’d land close by. If the theory that Kael programmed us to land close to our targets was correct, then maybe the feelings I harbored for Enoch would help me find him fast, in whatever century we landed. I just had to concentrate on them.

My ears rang at the deafening sound of air being rent by the force of my body. My arms and legs succumbed to gravity, finding a surprising level of peacefulness.

But my heart? It thundered like it belonged in the sky I fell from, and desperately wanted to stay.

A series of explosions just below made my eyelids open. A second later came the impact, bone-crushing pain, and the uneasy realization that this landing was different from the previous two. I hit land; at least I thought I did. But this impact was harder because I was weaker. And this time, I wasn’t sure I would live through the jarring shock.

My heart stuttered and then slowed. There were more booms, explosions that vibrated the earth under me and hurt every inch of my body that touched it. In the distance there was hard, but steady galloping. The snapping of leather. I had an unexplainable need to see the horse and its rider, but I couldn’t tilt my head.

I inhaled and watched as plumes of smoke rose from all around me. I think I landed in hell. My eyelids closed.

I exhaled as darkness swallowed me.

* * *

“Who is the woman?” Mr. Frost asks.

“My mom,” I answer. My tongue feels too thick, my mouth too dry, and my eyes feel heavy. The lids droop until they shut.

Mr. Frost slams his hand down on the table, startling me awake again.

“What is your mother’s name?”