Free Cold Blood by Heather Hildenbrand

they call him?”
    “ That and Lonely Lopez, Loony Lopez. There’s a bunch. He’s not really loony… I think. Heony’s really into the past, so he takes his job way serious.”
    “ So, Lineage is all about the history of famous Hunters and stuff?” I asked. I was letting Cambria lead the way, since I had no idea where I was going, and I had to dodge bodies to keep up with her.
    “ Basically. You also learn about your own family line. Is he making you do a research paper?”
    “ Yeah, some kind of family tree thing.”
    “ Snooze. You should ask Logan to help you. He’s a pro at that sort of thing.”
    “ Writing research papers?”
    “ Getting A’s.”
     
    *
     
    Math and History were uneventful. Cambria fell asleep in History, while Professor Hugo – who looked like he’d be more comfortable fighting wars than talking about them–lectured about the Cold War. I guess human history was still relevant, after all. I tried taking notes, so I could figure out what I missed, and find a way to get caught up, but I was distracted; either by thoughts of home or of everything that had already happened here. Thankfully, I didn’t get any more hate mail.
    When class ended for the day, Cambria and I were the last ones out. She waited near the door while Professor Hugo gave me a long list of chapters to read and a list of essays due on each one. Apparently, he wasn’t cutting me any slack, either. His thick brows knitted together and became one as he squinted down at me, but I wasn’t sure if it was something he always did, or if he already didn’t like me. I took the handouts from him and assured him I would get to work as soon as possible.
    “ So do you want to hang out?” asked Cambria.
    “ Sure, I–” I stopped outside the door at the sight of Alex leaning against the wall, arms crossed in a look of impatience. “Hey,” I said to him.
    “ Finally. You ready?” he asked, pushing away from the concrete.
    “ Yeah,” I said, trying not to sound like I’d forgotten –which I had.
    He started down the hall. I looked at Cambria apologetically, who was grinning like a moron at the back of Alex’s head, and then hurried to catch up.
    “ How long is this going to take exactly?” I asked.
    “ We’ll train until dinner and then you can eat and have free time.” He didn’t even look over at me as he talked, but stared straight ahead at the almost empty hallway, and kept walking.
    “ Until dinner? Every day?” I repeated his words because I wasn’t sure what else to say. If I thought I had a choice at all, I would have argued, but I knew that I didn’t. Just like I had no choice about anything else that was required here, just like I’d had no choice in coming here in the first place. “What about weekends?”
    n hu I’ll let you know once I’ve seen you in action.”
    I gritted my teeth, determined to be good enough to get the weekends off.
    I expected Alex to lead me out the front doors and back across the courtyard we’d crossed earlier, but he didn’t. Instead, he turned right and took a door that let us out in the back of the building, on the opposite end as my Defensive Maneuvers class. The door clicked closed behind us, and Alex turned and headed into the trees. There was no sign of a trail or path, and I had no choice but to trust Alex knew where he was going.
    We walked for several minutes, dodging branches and stepping over low bushes, until we finally emerged onto a wide trail and turned right, following it further away from the school. Even on the trail, Alex walked fast enough that he stayed a few steps ahead of me, instead of walking beside me.
    “ Where are we going?” I asked.
    “ Almost there,” was all he said.
    A few minutes later, the path opened up and the trees disappeared and we stood at the edge of a large clearing, bordered by tall pines and oaks. The grass was cropped short, like it had been mowed recently but it was still nice and green.
    “ This is where we’re