swinging him off the pier for a moment and around. She let go and he hit the boards, rolling and sliding, catching the brunt with his shoulders.
He got to his feet and into the warrior stance Sangster had taught him, half turned, weight evenly distributed, toes curled to provide extra balance, one foot forward.
“Why are you following me?” he demanded.
She stopped, putting her hands in her coat pockets, spiky blond hair lifting in the wind. As she smiled, her fangs showed. Elle’s teenage look notwithstanding, there was no telling her age. She was out in the late daylight, so she could handle some sun. That meant she could be hundreds of years old, he had learned. The Polidorium hadn’t told him that—Sid had, because when it came to knowing about vampires, the redheaded Canadian had some game.
“At this point it looks like you’re following me,” Elle said, shrugging.
Alex looked around. He wasn’t carrying any weapons. That didn’t necessarily mean he couldn’t handle her—without weapons he had defeated vampires before—but the odds were against him. And he had too many questions. If she wanted to talk, he was more than interested. He relaxed his stance a little, holding up his hands. “Why did you try to poison me?”
“Poison? Are you talking about the worms?” she responded. “Well, naturally because the Scholomance wants you dead.”
“You say it like you’re not a part of them.”
She seemed to blur for a second and suddenly she was behind him, her arm wrapped around him, her dead hand up under his chin. Not squeezing. Just making a point. “Oh, I’m a part of them, boy. But let me tell you how this goes. They want you dead because they consider you a threat the way nits turn into lice. They don’t want you to suffer; they want you out of the way.”
Alex grabbed her wrist and twisted, moving away, and she let him. Then she grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed him against a metal pole.
“But that’s just being shortsighted, Alex,” said Elle. “I actually would prefer that you suffer. At least a little.”
“Why? Because of my freaking name?” Alex brought up his knees and smashed at her leather-bound torso with his shoes, sending her backward. He scuttled in the opposite direction, moving farther away and into a fighter stance again. This was insane. She could rip out his throat any time she wanted, and she wasn’t even trying.
He edged back against the umbrella and the table, ready to either fight or turn and head for the mainland.
“You don’t know who you’re screwing with,” she said through bared teeth. “And I’m not letting you destroy what’s left of my life. Tell me—what do you care about?”
Alex was struck by the strangeness of what she was saying. This sounded personal, and that made no sense at all. “Care is a big word coming from you,” Alex said. “You said yourself that you guys don’t give a damn about anyone, isn’t that right? No empathy, no love?”
There was a rapid plodding of footsteps up the marina, and Alex heard someone calling his name. Alex glanced past the poles to the main pier and saw his friends. Minhi, Paul, Sid, and Vienna were coming down the dock, splitting up. He saw Paul and Minhi go off on one trail, Sid another. Vienna was coming his way. In a moment she would reach the end of the pier and she’d be able to see him.
Vienna reached the end and turned left, and suddenly she was staring at Alex and Elle. She backed up instinctively, stopping at the edge of the water.
“What about this one?” Elle said, looking beyond him with a knowing smirk, her eyes invisible behind the glasses.
Suddenly she lunged, breaking into a jaguarlike run; he actually caught a blur of her nails reaching all the way down to the boards of the dock as she moved, and as she drove past him it felt like he had been sideswiped by a train.
“No!” Alex shouted, turning. Vienna was frozen at the end of the dock. Alex was running after Elle, trying to catch up, but the vampire was too fast.
Vienna hadn’t had time to move a step when Elle sliced by her, a small cloud of material puffing into the air as she ripped half of the girl’s sleeve away.
And then with a barely audible splash the vampire in the white leather coat was gone. Alex was running to the edge of the dock. He saw Vienna twisting,