As long as we were making a pit stop, I could use some snacks. I was headed for the slushies when I heard a male voice that sounded familiar. Travis.
I stayed where I was and scanned the store until I found him. He stood in the middle of the candy aisle with his arms full of three kinds of chips, bags of red licorice, and a six-pack of beer. But Skyler wasn’t with him.
My phone pinged, and I looked down. It was a text from a number I didn’t recognize. Not just a Drainers gig. Sundowner initiation tonight after the bat cave concert.
A midnight initiation. That sounded ominous.
Chapter Nine
I stood frozen until Travis got in line to pay. There wasn’t much in the way of healthy food in the store, but I found some decent-looking trail mix and bottles of iced tea. I hung back, not wanting Travis to spot me.
“Renfield, where are you?” Travis bellowed.
“I’m right here,” the guy said. “And I told you, my name is Gary.”
“What’d I tell you about talking back, Rennie?” Travis’s voice was hard.
“Not to do it,” the man replied, his voice quaking. “Could you at least call me Roadie instead?”
“Your name isn’t important, is it, Renfield?” Travis said, his eyes glowing red.
The guy slowly shook his head.
“Good,” he said. “Now pay for this stuff.”
Travis gave the worker behind the counter a dimpled grin. “It’s hard to find good help these days, am I right?”
The worker nodded in the same slow, slightly out-of-it way that poor Gary had.
I didn’t breathe until he lost interest in small talk and returned to the bus, leaving Gary/Renfield there to pay for his junk food.
I spotted some cheap earplugs in a bowl by the register and added some to my pile.
After I paid for my goodies, I ran to the car.
Vaughn was still behind the wheel, so I got in the passenger side. “Did you see?”
“The tour bus? Already on it,” he replied, then pulled onto the freeway. He stayed far enough behind the bus that I didn’t think the driver would notice the pink more-boat-than-car trailing them. “They make it look easy in the movies,” he joked. “But following someone is harder than it looks.”
“Good thing we stopped for gas,” I said. I hadn’t seen Skyler, but I knew she had to be with Travis. He had her under his control and probably wouldn’t let go until he’d sucked the life from her.
We continued tailing them until they pulled into a state park. It wasn’t even midnight yet, and I was already struggling not to fall asleep. The plan was to get a lock of hair from Travis and Skyler, but first, I needed to find her. If she wasn’t on the tour bus, she’d turn up at one of the shows, but I was impatient. The longer this took, the worse things he could be doing to my best friend.
This part of the state park wasn’t open for overnight camping, but The Drainers’ tour bus was too big to miss, and no irate park ranger appeared. There were already several cars in the parking lot near the cave’s entrance. We found a spot for the Deathtrap in the back, where hopefully Travis and the guys wouldn’t notice us.
A small crowd had gathered, and I recognized a few faces from the band’s website photos.
We were far away from the lights of the city, and the stars looked brighter here, brilliant against a dark sky. I could hear the rush of the waves, though Vaughn was holding my hand again, so it could have just been the rushing of blood in my ears I heard. Either way, it was a perfectly romantic night.
Except we were watching a nest of vampires.
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Vaughn said. “When we’re around The Drainers and their followers, we should pose as a couple.”
“Really? Why?” I glanced out the window. He’d said pose. Had he figured out that I had a crush on him? Sweat broke out as I contemplated the potential humiliation. I might not survive being officially friend-zoned.
“To protect me from The Drainers’ groupies and to protect you from The Drainers,” he said.
“I…I don’t know,” I replied.
“Let’s just try it out,” he said. “See how it feels.”
I was sure it would feel amazing—so amazing that I would want it to be real. More than I already did. But he did have a point. Travis and the other band members had already met me. We needed to go undercover.
Finally, I nodded. “Okay.” I tried to stifle a yawn.
“I can think of something to keep us awake,” he suggested.
“Like what?”
Before Vaughn could answer, though, The Drainers’ tour bus doors opened, and I sat up straight. “They’re on the move.”
We watched the band members and various girls in their entourage file out, but there was still no sign of Skyler.
The crowd grew to the point I felt sure Travis wouldn’t spot me. A couple of guys were setting up a makeshift stage about a hundred yards from the entrance to the cave.
“Let’s see if we can find Skyler,” I suggested.
We got out, and Vaughn came around to my side and grabbed my hand. At my startled look, he said, “Just trying out the couple thing to see how it feels.”
It felt amazing to have his fingers interwoven with mine, but I knew it wasn’t real.
The roadie set up the instruments while the band schmoozed the girls. I tried to see if I could hear anything about the Sundowner initiation mentioned in the text I’d received, but it was mostly giggling and gasping.
“Renfield!” Travis shouted. “Get your ass moving. Our fans want a show.”
“My name’s Gary,” the guy said again.
“We don’t care,” Ozzie added. Armando and Travis laughed.
Finally, the instruments and mics were ready and the band went on. Their music wrapped around an unwary listener like tentacles, pulling them in, its grip tightening until they were in the arms of a monster.
I didn’t want Vaughn to be compelled by the music, so I handed him one of the pairs of earplugs I’d picked up at the gas station, then I plugged my own ears. I wasn’t confident that I was strong enough to resist the enchantment coming from The Drainers’ music.
Most of the crowd swayed along to the music, so Vaughn put his arm around me and pulled me to his side as he rocked us gently back and forth.
It was a short performance, but the audience seemed pleased. Probably because they’d been forced to be. After the song ended, Travis said, “The rest of the event is invite only, so if you weren’t invited, get the fuck out.”
Vaughn and I tried to look inconspicuous as we loitered, and we weren’t the only ones.
Travis seemed to grow impatient waiting for the crowd to disperse. “Initiation time. Who wants to be a Sundowner?” Travis said. A few girls in the audience squealed. “Renfield, take the girls to the cave.”
Were they going to turn them? I tried to remember what I’d learned about how a vampire was made, but my heart was beating like a kick drum so loudly, I couldn’t think.
“But you ordered me to guard the…” Gary hesitated and then spit out, “The coffins, my prince.”
Rose and Thorn had been right. The Drainers’ human servant, Gary, guarded the coffins.
Travis waved his hand. “They’ll be fine. We’ll need your help with dinner.”
The other guys in the band laughed, and then they all trailed after Renfield and the girls.
“Let’s follow them,” I said.
“We should search the tour bus first,” Vaughn suggested, “while we have the chance and they’re occupied.”
“Good idea,” I agreed. “Maybe they left Skyler alone in there while they’re going off to do whatever it is that vampires do to ‘initiate’ people.”
I thought we’d need a bit of luck to even get close to the bus unnoticed, but apparently everyone was busy wat
ching The Drainers and their “guests” disappear into the cave.
After the last Drainer entered the mouth of the cave, Vaughn and I hustled right up to the bus without a care. The tour bus was a luxury model, but it was filthy. As soon as we opened the door, an odor hit us like a slap in the face.
I coughed. “Don’t they ever disinfect this place? It has a funk you can almost see.”
It was like someone had used Axe body spray to try to cover up the smell of a blooming corpse flower. Granny and I had waited in line once for the dubious privilege of getting our nose hairs burned. The world should be grateful that plant only bloomed once in a decade or so.
“She’s not here,” I said.
“Look at this.” He motioned to something suspended from the wall like Murphy beds.
“What are they?”
“Lead coffins,” he replied. They were all open, except for one.
“You don’t think…” I trailed off, too freaked out to say the words.
The lid creaked as he flipped it open. It was empty. He slammed it shut again.
“We can catch up to them,” Vaughn suggested. “Maybe Travis is meeting her somewhere.”
It was a good suggestion, except for the whole following vampires into a pitch-black cave thing.
“Do you have the charm Granny gave you?” I asked Vaughn. I touched my necklace out of habit.
“Granny said to never take it off,” he said, as though I’d just suggested he didn’t know the sky was blue. Duh.
I nodded. “Let’s go, then.”
We headed in the direction the vampires had gone, down a steep path leading away from the sand and toward the caves.
I wasn’t fond of enclosed spaces, and these caves weren’t open to the public, as evidenced by all the Do Not Enter signs we saw. My breathing sped up, the ragged sound filling my ears.
“Tansy, maybe I should go by myself,” he said.
“No,” I said. “I can do it. I promise.”
We made our way to the cave’s entrance. It was like walking into a grave, cold and dark, smelling like dirt and decay. The deeper we went, the more the temperature dropped, until I shivered in my thin summer clothing.
“You’re freezing. Here,” Vaughn said. He shrugged off his hoodie and held it out for me. I put my arms in the sleeves, and then he zipped it closed. We stood in the darkness, so close that I could feel his warm breath as he exhaled.
I started to move closer, but then I picked up a strange odor coming from somewhere in front of us.
“Do you smell that?” I asked him.
“All I smell is dirt and damp,” he said.
“I smell something metallic, coppery.” I sniffed again. “Blood.”
The empty feeling started in my spine. It hollowed out my bones, then left me with an unquenchable hunger. It spread to my stomach and then to my brain, until my entire body thrummed with it. My incisors descended and almost cut my tongue. The strange power that came with the hunger made me feel both more than and less than human.
There was fresh blood in the air, and I wanted some. The realization sickened me, and I stepped closer to Vaughn, unable to stop the shiver that overtook my whole body at the understanding that a vampire’s bite was changing me.
In the darkness, something slithered over my foot, and it snapped me out of my spiraling thoughts. I leaped into Vaughn’s arms, clinging to him like a baby koala on its mother. “What was that?”
He squeezed me tight and then rubbed my back, his hands making small, comforting circles. “As much as I’m enjoying this,” he whispered, his breath tickling my ear, “I probably should let you go.”
“You probably should,” I whispered. After I was back on my feet, we kept walking deeper into the cave. “I wish we knew more about vampires.”
“We know some things,” he said. “They need blood and they can be killed by sunlight.”
“I don’t think any of The Drainers would just take a stroll in the sunshine.”
As we moved deeper, we heard the sound of water dripping. Or at least I hoped it was water. “Maybe we shouldn’t continue,” Vaughn said. “We don’t know what’s waiting for us in this cave. I’m distracted…” He trailed off as I pressed my body closer to his.
I took his hand. “C’mon, let’s find Skyler and get the hell out of here.” There was something wet and sticky on the path, and I hoped it wasn’t blood. Or worse.
We walked along hand in hand, moving deeper and deeper into the cave. Eventually Vaughn had to stoop down to duck under the cave roof. This part was almost entirely without light, and I shuddered to think what we were walking into.
“What is that stench?” I groaned. The odor was like old gym socks, spoiled milk, and a wet dog had a baby.
Someone screamed, loud and full of pain. Another voice chimed in, the screaming echoing off the cave walls. Then, without warning, it stopped.
I swallowed back my own scream. The quiet was worse than the screaming, but I thought I heard a muffled sound coming from the cave’s interior. Then I smelled the blood, fresh and rich. My stomach growled, which was just horrifying.
“Something’s wrong,” I said and rushed toward the odor, but Vaughn grabbed my arm.
“Hold on,” he said as he took out his phone and turned on the flashlight, aiming it at my face for a second before he lit up the path before us. Not blood. Thank God. “Slow down, Tansy. I hear something.”
Suddenly, a great whooshing noise descended on us. Vaughn aimed his phone’s flashlight at the ceiling just as hundreds of bats streamed from the cavern. I put up my hands as one—a bigger bat with a white streak in its ruff—went for my eyes.
I shrieked. “No!”
It fell back, stunned by the light, but the rest of the bats escaped. There was no sign of the band, but the tang of blood was still in the air, and I knew what we’d find even before Vaughn’s flashlight shone on three dead bodies.
One of them was slender with dark hair. Sky?
The brunette was lying facedown, and my hand shook as I reached out, turned her over, and screamed again—her face had been almost completely chewed off. There was a lanyard hanging around her neck. A backstage pass for The Drainers.
My stomach clenched, but I managed to make it a few feet away before I threw up. Vaughn rubbed my back, murmuring quietly, “It’s not her, Tansy. It’s not Sky.”
I sobbed more. He was wrong. The girl looked so much like my best friend.
“It’s not her,” Vaughn repeated. “That’s not her.”
His words finally sank in, and I dragged the sleeve of his hoodie across my mouth before I took a deep breath and turned around.
I didn’t want to look, but I had to. He was right. On second glance, the dead girl was more muscular than Skyler and several inches shorter.
I didn’t know how long I stood there, but Vaughn finally grabbed my hand. “Let’s get out of here.”
“We can’t just leave those people,” I said.
“It’s a crime scene,” Vaughn replied. “We can’t move the bodies.”
He was right, but it just felt so wrong. I sobbed as we stumbled all the way back to the car. He fumbled with the keys, then finally opened the doors.
We jumped in, and Vaughn called 9-1-1. His voice quavered, hoarse and uncertain. The Drainers and their tour bus were gone.
We stayed in the car, waiting for the police to arrive, and I couldn’t stop my hands from trembling on the steering wheel. Hell, my whole body was shaking.
“We need to go,” Vaughn said.
“We can’t just leave them,” I gasped.
“The cops are going to ask what we were doing here,” he pointed out.
“Tell them we were…” My brain couldn’t come up with a solution.
“We can tell them we were looking for somewhere private,” he said.
I stared at him, my mouth open.
He shrugged. “Isn’t that what they’d expect from us? Since we’re a couple, right?”
“O-oh. Right,” I blurted out.
Headlights appeared in the darkness, and then a squad car pulled up a few feet from us.
An officer rapped on the windows, shining a flashlight in our eyes. “Are you the kids who called it in?”
Vaughn nodded. She lowered the flashlight before it permanently blinded us and then took our IDs and asked us a few questions.
The smell of decay clung to her skin. Oh, crap. Vampire.
“Stay here,” she ordered before returning to her squad car.
I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that had come over me. “What’s she doing?”
“Probably running our licenses, just to make sure we’re not wanted or something,” Vaughn assured me.
Then she and her partner took flashlights into the cave.
It was almost two a.m., and I was freezing. An uneasy feeling swept through me. “We need to leave.” I turned the key in the ignition, but the Deathtrap sputtered and died.
“What’s wrong?” I wasn’t sure if he was talking about the car or why I was freaking out.
“They’re vampires,” I said. But it was too late.
The officers emerged from the entrance to the cave. One of them stalked over. “There’s nothing there, except a mannequin someone obviously left as a prank,” he said sternly.
“But we saw…” I started to argue, but Vaughn put his hand on my knee.
“Thank you, Officer,” he said. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
His partner motioned him over and said something too low for us to hear.
He walked back to us, gun drawn. “Get out of the vehicle.”
When he said that, though, I spotted the gleam of his fangs.
Vaughn and I exchanged glances but did as he asked.
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Vaughn said.
The cop ignored him. “You’re coming with us.”
The Afterlife of the Party Page 8