Half-Blood

And me? Wel , I tried to forget everything.

When dusk settled around us, we headed back to our dorms, making plans to meet up for lunch tomorrow. Alone, Caleb stopped me before I headed up the porch steps.

“Alex, I know you’ve been going through a lot. On top of everything else, school is going to be starting in two weeks.

You’ve got a lot of stress on you. And I’m sorry about what happened the night at Zarak’s.”

School was starting in two weeks? Holy crap, I didn’t even realize. “I should be the one apologizing.” I meant it.

“I’m sorry for being such a bitch.”

He laughed and gave me a quick hug. Pul ing back, his smile faded. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah.” I watched him start to turn around. “Caleb?”

He stopped, waiting.

“Mom… did kil those people at Lake Lure. She was the one who turned Kain.”

“I… I’m sorry.” He took a step forward, his hands coming up and then fal ing to his sides. “She’s not your mother anymore. It’s not her doing this.”

“I know.” The mother I’d known wouldn’t take pleasure in kil ing bugs. She never would’ve harmed another living, breathing person. “Kain said she’d keep kil ing until she finds me.”

He looked like he didn’t know what to say. “Alex, she’d keep kil ing no matter what. I know this is going to sound terrible, but the Sentinels wil find her. They’l stop her.”

I nodded, toying with the edge of my shirt. “It should be me who stops her. She’s my mother.”

Caleb frowned. “It should be anyone but you since she was your mother. I—” The frown faded from his face as he stared at me. “Alex, you wouldn’t go after her, would you?”

“No!” I forced a laugh. “I’m not crazy.”

He continued to stare at me.

“Look. I wouldn’t even know where to find her,” I told him, but Kain’s words came right back at me. You leave the safety of the Covenant and you’ll find her or she’ll find you.

“Why don’t you sneak back with me? We can download a crap ton of il egal movies and watch them. We can even break into the cafeteria and steal a bunch of food. How about that? Sounds like fun, right?”

It kind of did, but… “No. I’m real y tired, Caleb. The last couple of days have… ”

“Sucked?”

“Yeah, you can say that.” I backed off then. “I’l see you for breakfast? I doubt I’l have practice.”

“Okay.” He stil looked worried. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

I nodded and headed inside the dorm. There was another white envelope shoved in the little crack. When I saw Lucian’s sprawling handwriting, there was a weird sinking feeling in my chest. Nothing from Aiden.

“Gods.” I opened it up and quickly discarded it without reading it. Although, I was col ecting a rather large sum of money. This one contained three hundred, and I stashed it with the rest of the cash. Once things calmed down, I was going to do some serious shopping.

After changing into a pair of cotton pajama bottoms and a tank, I picked up the book of Greek legends and brought it back to the bed, thumbing to the section about the Apol yon. I read the passage over and over again, looking for something that could tel me what was going to happen when I turned eighteen, but the book told me nothing I didn’t already know.

Which wasn’t much of anything.

I must’ve fal en asleep, because the next thing I knew I was staring at the ceiling in my dark bedroom. I sat up and pushed back the tangled mess of hair. Disoriented and stil half asleep, I tried to remember what I’d dreamed.

Mom.

We’d been at the zoo in my dream. It was just like when I was a kid, but I was older and Mom… Mom had been kil ing al the animals, ripping their throats out and laughing.

The whole time, I’d just stood by and watched her. Never once did I try to stop her.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and sat there as my stomach twisted. She’ll keep killing ‘til she finds you. I stood, my legs feeling strangely weak. Was that why Kain had come back here? Had Mom somehow known I would seek him out and he would relay this message?

No. It wasn’t possible. Kain came back to the Covenant, because he was…

Why had he come back to a place ful of people ready to kil him?

Another memory stood out, brighter than the rest. It was of Aiden and me standing in front of the dummies in the training room. I’d asked him what he would do if his parents had been turned.

“I would’ve hunted them down. They wouldn’t have wanted that kind of life.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Mom would have rather been kil ed than become a monster preying on every living creature. And right now, she was out there, kil ing and hunting—waiting. Somehow, I ended up in front of my closet, my fingers drifting over the Covenant uniform.

Then I’d find her and kill her myself. My own words burned in my mind. There was no doubt what needed to be done. It was crazy and reckless—stupid even—but the plan took form. Cold, steely determination settled over me, and I stopped thinking.

I started acting.

It was early—way too early for anyone to be roaming the grounds of the Covenant. Only the shadows of the patrol ing Guards moved under the moonlight. Getting to the secure warehouse behind the training arenas wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be. The Guards were more concerned with possible weaknesses in the perimeter. Once inside, I found my way to where they kept the uniforms. My hands snatched one that fit and my heart raced as I quickly changed into it. I didn’t need a mirror to tel me how I looked

—I’d always known I’d look damn good in a Sentinel uniform. Black was a very flattering color for me.

The Hematoi used the earth element to glamour the uniforms so the mortal world wouldn’t suspect we were some paramilitary organization. To a mortal, the uniform looked like plain old jeans and a shirt, but to a half-blood, it was a sign of the highest position a half-blood could obtain.

Only the best wore this uniform.

There was a good chance this was the first and the last time I’d ever wear it. If I made it back… I’d probably be expel ed. If I didn’t make it back, wel , that was something I couldn’t think about.

You’re going to do something stupid. My feet tripped up when I remembered what Aiden had said. Yeah. This was pretty stupid. How had he known? My heart turned over.

Aiden always knew what I was thinking. He didn’t need a blue cord or a crazy oracle’s word to know me. He just did.

I couldn’t think about him right now or what he’d do if he found out what I was up to. I grabbed a cap off the top shelf, twisted my hair up under it, and pul ed it down so it shadowed most of my face.

Then I turned my attention to the weapons room—one-stop shopping for just about any deadly knife, gun, and almost anything that stabbed and decapitated. As sick as it was, I was kind of excited to be in here. I wasn’t sure what that said about me as a person, but then again, kil ing was part of being a half-blood, just like it was to a daimon.

Neither of our kinds could escape that—only the pures could.

I opted for two daggers. One hooked onto the side of my right thigh, and the other col apsed from six inches to two with a mere touch of a button on the handle. I put that one in my pocket along the seam of my pants. I grabbed a gun and made sure it was loaded.

Titanium encased bul ets. Deadly stuff in here.

With one last look at the room of death and dismemberment, I gave a little sigh and did what both Caleb and Aiden probably had feared. I left the safety of the Covenant.

CHAPTER 18

HOLY CRAP. MY DISGUISE WORKED.

I stayed in the shadows for the most part, refusing to let myself think about my actions. As I crossed the first bridge, the Guards simply nodded. One even catcal ed, obviously mistaking me for someone legal.

While I navigated the empty streets of the main island, I thought about the times I’d kil ed. I had two daimon kil s under my belt. I could do this. Mom would be no different.

She couldn’t be any different.

Being a young daimon, she would have speed and strength, but she’d never had any serious training. Not like the kind I’d had. I’d be faster and stronger than her. Aiden had practical y beaten into me the fact young, newly turned daimons would be concerned about one thing only: draining. At three months, she’d be considered a newbie—

a baby daimon.

I would just have to strike while she stil looked like a daimon, before the elemental magic settled over her and she looked like… Mom.

The main bridge proved to be a little more difficult to cross, but thankful y, those Guards didn’t have a lot of contact with the students. None of them recognized me, but they wanted to chat. It slowed me down enough to make my confidence waver.

Until one said, “Be safe and come back, Sentinel,” and stepped aside.

Sentinel. It was what I’d always wanted to be upon graduation, taking the more proactive route of dealing with daimons instead of guarding pures or their communities.

Once again, I stuck to the shadows as I made my away around the fishing and cruising boats. The townsfolk on Bald Head Island were used to the “intensely private”

people from Deity Island, but there was something about us they sensed. They didn’t know what it was that made them back off at the same time they wanted to be close to us.

Living among mortals for three years had been a truly craptastic experience for me. The teenagers had wanted to be close to me while their parents had said I was “one of those kids” they needed to stay away from. Whatever that meant.

I wondered what those parents would think if they knew exactly what I was—an almost-trained kil ing machine. I guess they’d been right to order their offspring to steer clear.

When I left the docks, I stuck to the sides of the buildings.

I wasn’t sure where to go, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t have to go far. And I was right. About ten minutes into what I lovingly referred to as the normal world, I heard quick footsteps behind me. I spun around to face my would-be attacker, gun drawn and leveled.

“Caleb?” I felt something halfway between disbelief and relief.

He stood a few feet behind me, blue eyes wide and arms raised. He wore pajamas, a white shirt, and flip-flops. “Put your gun down!” he hissed. “Gods. You’re gonna accidental y shoot me or something.”

I lowered the gun and grabbed his arm, dragging him into an al ey. “Caleb, what are you doing here? Are you crazy?”

“I could ask you the same question.” He glared at me. “I was fol owing you, obviously.”

I shook my head and shoved my gun back into the waist of my pants. I’d forgotten a holster—go figure. “You need to go back to the Covenant. Now. Dammit, Caleb! What were you thinking?”

“What are you thinking?” He glowered as he threw the question back at me. “I knew you were going to do something incredibly stupid. That’s why I couldn’t sleep at al . I sat by my damn window and waited. Low and behold, I see your crazy ass sneaking across the quad!”