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loud.
    I didn’t bother telling her she wasn’t the first person to say that to me today.

Chapter 5

Solange
    Sunday, sunset
    The first thing I heard when I woke up was my mother’s voice.
    I hadn’t noticed her at first, waking with the fiery hunger that blurred my vision red and made all of my senses too sharp. I drained two bottles of blood before I could remember who I was. I wiped my mouth clean and felt better. Then I thought about Kieran and felt worse.
    “Solange Rosamund Drake.”
    Mom’s voice reverberated down the metal stairs into the underground safe house. Her tone could’ve been used as a rapier, and my head already hurt, but I couldn’t tell her that. She’d know I drank fresh human blood last night, to wake up with what I considered a blood hangover. Constantine assured me it was normal. It tooksome time for vampires to process so much blood, and live blood from the vein was so much more potent than blood bottled and refrigerated. You needed less, but wanted more.
    “Solange, get up here. Now.”
    I sighed and climbed up the metal ladder reluctantly. The tents were guarded day and night, but they were still vulnerable. Sunlight couldn’t be staked; the wind might blow a ceiling off and we’d be weak as kittens. So we slept underground during the day, and gathered as a family in the evenings in the tent. The tunnels under the mountains and under the forest were currently crowded with vampire families.
    The inside of our tent was lit with oil lamps, the grass was covered with thick Persian rugs, and Madame Veronique’s hand-embroidered tapestry of the Drake insignia hung on one wall. There were couches, wooden tables, carved benches, and a long medieval-style table.
    I pushed my tangled hair off my face and tried not to look guilty. “Hi, Mom.”
    “Don’t you ‘Hi, Mom’ me,” she returned sharply. “You were brought in unconscious at dawn.” She was wearing her black battle leathers. Queen or not, Blood Moon or not, Mom was Mom.
    “I just lost my way in the woods.”
    “Which is why you should have had a guard with you,” Dad interjected smoothly. His calm disappointment was every bit as bad as Mom’s temper. “I’m sure we talked about this.”
    I swallowed a retort, which would’ve had me grounded, vampire princess or not.
    “I’m a vampire,” I said. “It’s not like I’m defenseless.”
    “You’re also sixteen years old, young lady,” Mom snapped. “And you have a curfew for a damn good reason.”
    “I know,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry.” I needed to get out of here. I had to find out if Kieran was okay. I glanced at the door. Torches flickered on the other side of the painted canvas. I shifted toward it.
    “Where do you think you’re going? We’re not done here.”
    “Mom, I said I was sorry.” I was having flashbacks to this summer, when everyone hovered around me and worried. I literally itched under my skin. I wasn’t going to be the princess in the tower anymore. Not for anyone. “I have to go.”
    “Where?”
    “To see Kieran.”
    She shook her head. “He can wait.”
    But that was the thing. I didn’t know if he could.
    “I’m going.”
    “Solange.” Dad rose to his feet. He looked worried. “It’s not safe. For either of you.”
    “And we’ll be going on lockdown in a couple of days,” Mom added.
    “I know,” I said. “All the more reason you should let me go tonight before the Blood Moon starts. It’s not like I can call him from here.”
    Dad looked briefly proud. He always preened a little when one of us won an argument using plain, calm logic. It was the same pride Mom felt when we could hit a moving target with a throwing knife. Mom saw the look and sighed. “Fine. Back by 3:00 a.m.,” she told me sternly. “And take someone with you.”
    I grabbed my leather jacket off the coat tree. The inside pockets were heavy with stakes, daggers, and assorted weaponry. I stopped under the overhang, and I would’ve taken a deep