Free The Longest Night: A Drake Chronicles Novella by Alyxandra Harvey Page B

to this stupid farm. But it was worth it.
     Now I can take out the Drake bitch, as well as her brother and everyone else who stands
     with them.”
    “So you’re nuts, then,” Aggie said calmly. Cal was behind him, moving silently and
     steadily.
    “I’m saving us all.”
    “By becoming a serial killer?” she mocked, trying to keep his focus. Cal had nearly
     reached the edge of the circle. A few more steps and he’d be close enough to drag
     Nicholas out of the way. Solange and the others were still out of reach. She needed
     to buy Cal more time. And she didn’t think she could spray the arrow with the hose
     fast enough to extinguish it before it left the bow. “Way to be a hero.”
    “And you put the blame on Aggie,” Paige added, the fury in her voice not entirely
     a ploy. “You left that note. You killed Kali.”
    “I needed you guys out of the way. I didn’t think you’d find her so fast.”
    “Gee, sorry to ruin your murder plans,” Aggie muttered.
    “You should thank me. You went soft. So I turned you back into a weapon.”
    “You hid behind her,” Paige spat. “Asshat coward.”
    “And you attacked Cal that night at Conspiracy Theory. So it would look like I did
     it,” Aggie guessed. “And you framed Mary Walker last year too, didn’t you? You sick
     bastard.”
    “Maybe you two could stop taunting the guy with the fiery arrows,” Catelyn snapped
     from the shadows. “I’m not keen on going up in flames right now.”
    Cal was so close.
    “You planted Yen’s stake,” Aggie realized slowly. Reason fled like a rabbit. “And
     her necklace.”
    “She was one of us,” he said. “Whitethorn. But you’re just a disappointment.”
    “You used her against me. Oh, I’m not just going to hurt you,” she said pleasantly,
     even as rage tinted everything red for a brief searing moment. She suddenly understood
     vampire bloodlust a little bit better. “I’m going to end you.”
    “Cal,” Fletcher snapped, just as he reached out. “Stop. Or I’ll shoot Nicholas.”
    “You’re going to shoot him anyway.”
    “But if you take another step, I’ll shoot Aggie first.”
    “Well, shit. You’re trying to make me the damsel in distress,” she said. “You really
     are an asshat.” Her fingers cramped around the hose, cold and slick with icy water.
     “Don’t listen to him, Cal. He’s going to kill us regardless,” she told Cal. “We’ve
     blown his cover. How long have you been doing this, anyway?”
    “Long enough that you can’t stop me.”
    Solange moved again, eyes veining red as she struggled to break the chains of the
     Hypnos. Lucy looked like she was trying to meditate, her lips moving around the word
     “om.”
    “Fletcher, you can’t take us all on alone.” Aggie reminded herself to try to sound
     reasonable, but she was usually on the receiving end of pacifying lectures. She’d
     rather pummel Fletcher into the ground. Lucy was right. Giving them wasn’t any more
     fun than getting them.
    “I don’t have to,” he smirked. “Because I’m not alone. Not for long.”
    “Incoming!” Cal yelled the warning just as Whitethorn hunters burst into the yard.
    Crossbow bolts glinted like deadly sleet. One of them narrowly missed Aggie’s ear.
    On the plus side, if Fletcher loosed his arrow now, he’d kill his own hunters.
    Aggie flung the hose away, rolling low to avoid getting stabbed, staked, or otherwise
     turned into a human pincushion. She knocked Lucy off her feet, out of the trajectory
     of the flying missiles.
    Beside her, Catelyn clotheslined a hunter across the throat. “I don’t even like vampires,”
     she complained, as he gagged, stumbling back. “Sorry, man.” He still kicked her in
     the knee and she fell, screaming.
    “Stay down,” he barked at her.
    “You first,” she barked back. “This is
our
farm.”
    Lucy was the first to break free of the drug.
    “Om, you bastards!” she yelled, swinging a punch at the hunter. He flew back