“What is going—?” I started to say as I finally caught my bearings enough to tear the sheet from my head. Connor had dragged me deep into the bowels of backstage, behind the flats and prop table where stagehands rarely treaded unless they were racing across set to tend to a curtain that had been forgotten.
I blinked as I saw Mandy a few feet in front of me, the prop master and my very brief sophomore girlfriend, looking dazed like she’d hit her head or was half asleep. Then I saw someone’s long fingernails snake up over the curve of her shoulder, another hand sliding around her waist, and then the full figure of a person standing behind her, some woman I’d never seen before who looked crazed and wild even before I saw the glint of fangs.
Connor still had hold of my wrist. He must have seen the vampire first, must have realized, and grabbed me before anything worse could happen. Anything worse than the vampire Alec and Wendy were supposed to be hunting having found her way on stage—to kill the cast.
Chapter 15
I’d never been afraid of vampires in fiction. Not even when they were written to be scary, messy and brutal. Thinking back on Mr. and Mrs. Leonard, knowing Alec now, and being a vampire myself, I wanted to believe vampires didn’t have to be bad, that I didn’t have to be some dark, evil thing just because of what I was. But the vampire in front of me made my heartbeat stutter, and I couldn’t move.
Her nails were long like claws, clutching around Mandy’s waist and throat. She might have looked like anyone else from our town in a dark blue blouse, jeans, and a tan jacket. She wasn’t dirty or unkempt. She was just a woman, a few years older than me maybe, her skin darker like mine, not pale like Alec’s or the Leonards’, her brown eyes fierce and glowing, her dark hair in tight curls all down her back. If her expression had been neutral or smiling, she would have been pretty, nice looking, normal.
She dug her nails into the side of Mandy’s throat. I could hear Mark calling everyone together at the front of the stage, not yet noticing that I was missing as he went through his notes.
“Aren’t you a pretty young thing?” she said in a near hiss, sizing me up with eyes that seemed too wide, bulging. “Hadn’t seen you this close yet.”
Yet?
I saw Connor dig for his phone out of the corner of my eye, subtle, controlled movements, but if I noticed, I knew the vampire would too. She did, and tightened her hold on Mandy. I saw Mandy choke slightly, though her gaze remained glassy and distant.
“No back up, boys, or we’re going to take this quartet down to a trio,” she said. She was slightly shorter than Mandy, or maybe purposely hunching, so that much of her was hidden, using Mandy as a shield. “Do you know her, care about her? Or are you just sweet boys who don’t like to see any poor innocents get hurt?” The nails on Mandy’s neck dug in deep enough to draw blood, just a slight trickle that made my stomach lurch.
“Stop it!” Connor said, though not loud enough to alert anyone else. We couldn’t risk them coming back here and getting involved. “What do you even want? I didn’t realize vampires played with their food this much.” His bravado wasn’t as strong as I was used to; his voice shook at the end of each sentence, a small quaver and yelp in his voice like it was breaking.
I reached out and gripped his wrist as he’d grabbed mine to lead me here, and felt the tremor in it.
The vampire began a low, tittering giggle, as crazed as her expression. “Mmm, I am hungry, that’s true. But you’re more my prey tonight, dear,” she said to me. “See, they can’t sense you like I can. Smell you. They don’t know which one you are, but I knew the moment I got close. They think I’m crazy, stupid, that they can cast me aside when I’m done. That’s why I won’t lead them to you, not just yet. Not until I’ve had some fun.”
“Now isn’t that interesting,” Wendy’s rhythmic accent sounded from around the curtain. She appeared a moment later, elegant and calm in her strides, in her same leather jacket, her hair twisted up into a hasty bun, like she’d done it just before revealing herself, knowing she was in for a fight.
Connor shifted the hold I had on his wrist into a tight squeeze of my hand, lacing our fingers together as he backed up a step to let Wendy take his place, and tried to pull me along with him. I looked back at him and shook my head. Wendy was still only human, and I…I wasn’t. I let Connor’s hand go.
“Aren’t you a resourceful hunter,” the vampire said, sneering over Mandy’s shoulder. “I thought I lost you back in that town, but you followed me here again. No fair…no fair…”
“Who sent you to track down the boy?” Wendy asked. She didn’t look armed, but I knew the appearance of that was on purpose. “Did they also lead you here to hunt and rouse suspicion against the Leonards? Why?” Her words were clipped, precise, like leading an official interrogation.
“Wait…someone was setting up the Leonards to bring in hunters?” I said as what Wendy had implied clicked into place. “And now they’re trying to set up me? Why?” I shot at the vampire, louder than I intended to.
She didn’t respond, just giggled again and continued to run her nails up and down Mandy’s bleeding neck.
“Emery, I need you to get her out of the school,” Wendy said.
“What?” My eyes darted to her, my heart trip-hammering.
Wendy remained trained on the vampire. “Your police escort is out front. Use the back exit out of the school. You’re stronger than you think, stronger and faster than she is, given your lineage. When the opportunity presents itself, get her out of the school.”
“Oho,” the vampire said, amused by our discussion. “What’s this game now?”
“Emery…” Wendy said again to make sure I was ready.
I whirled to face Connor by the curtain. “Tell Mark I had to leave. Then get yourself home. I’ll call you.”
“What?!” Connor nearly shouted.
“Emery? Connor?” Mark’s voice called out.
“Please,” I said, holding Connor’s gaze for just a moment more, willing him to at least nod and acknowledge what I’d said. Once he did, I turned back to face the vampire. “Okay,” I breathed. Wendy had a plan; all I had to do was follow it.
But I didn’t expect her attack to hit Mandy. I knew it wasn’t an accident when a gadget like a tiny, portable Taser flung toward Mandy and latched onto her shirt, shocking her with sparks of electricity. Her body went limp, dropped, fell from the surprised vampire’s arms, who titled her head in wonder and grinned at me in the split second I had to react.
I vaulted over Mandy’s body, summoning the speed Connor and I had practiced, and pushed myself to run as fast as I could. I grabbed the vampire by the scruff of her jacket and raced out the stage back door, through the halls, and out the school to the bank of a ditch just down from the football field. It was hidden from view of most traffic with a spattering of nearby trees. I only just started to feel the vampire struggling, fighting against me, when I pushed her away and she toppled over into the ditch.
Skidding to a halt, I paused to catch my breath, before realizing I wasn’t even winded, just anxious and trembling from adrenaline. Wendy had a plan…I just didn’t know the next part. When the vampire got to her feet, I squared my shoulders and clenched my fists. She dusted herself off and cracked her neck from side to side as if it was all in good fun. I could only guess that Wendy thought my ‘lineage’—Alec—was older than this vampire. Whether or not that meant I was faster and stronger, I’d soon find out.
“Who told you to find me? Who set up the Leonards?”
The vampire laughed and shook out her dark curls. “He doesn’t like our kind very much. He’d prefer chaos, disorder to shake up the masses and give him leave to do as he pleases. I don’t mind a little chaos, you see. Of course, he thinks he can do away with me when he’s done, but I’m not concerned. I can have my fun, give him what he wants, and be on my
way…”
“Stop talking in riddles!” I yelled. “What’s his name? Why did he do this?”
“She isn’t going to tell you that, Emery,” Alec said, melting out of the shadows into moonlight. I’d forgotten he was on his way, and the tension sagged from my shoulders at his arrival. He looked more like a traditional vampire tonight—well, one who’d been shopping at Express Men; dressed in black slacks, a navy button down, and a longer black jacket than usual.
The vampire tripped back a step, her expression losing its glee for the first time as she hissed, “You…”
My new mentor’s notoriety with everyone we met was starting to nag at me.
Alec waved at her with a twirl of his fingers. “Me,” he said. “You are a difficult one to catch up with, aren’t you, my dear? And who are you, exactly? You’ve been causing so much trouble lately, and it seems you also had a hand in my children’s demise.” His eyes flashed with something darker than a predator, like I had seen only briefly before, reminding me that vampires were—or at least could be—killers.
“Your children…?” she said, her bug-eyes even wider as she hunched low, warring with whether or not to fight or flee, and which would least likely lead to her getting torn apart. Just how powerful was Alec?
“Mine,” Alec said succinctly. He tugged at his jacket, one sleeve at a time. “You weren’t going to play nice with Emery, but you’ll give me a name, won’t you?” he grinned and then immediately dropped the expression for something chillingly blank. “Who hired you? What are they after? Is their current ploy only to lead the hunters to kill Emery and do away with any witnesses to their crimes against William and Mallory, or do they have loftier goals? Tell me!”
The vampire flinched. She glanced at me. At Alec. Then up the hill I’d brought us down, where I turned to see Wendy moving swiftly across the grass.
“Mandy—”
“She’s fine,” Wendy cut me off. She slowed as she reached me, not seeming any more winded than I was. She nodded to Alec then turned to me fully. “My apologies for the shock, Emery. The voltage she received was the lowest possible setting, not damaging. My motivation is and always will be to make certain the right people are protected.” She inclined her head at me, including me in those she felt needed protection.
She wasn’t just a hunter, I realized; she was a soldier.
Wendy shifted until she was parallel with me, Alec bookending the other vampire between us on the other side of the ditch. The vampire tried to back away, but I moved to intercept, and Alec and Wendy moved to match me, until we made a circle around her, blocking any escape.
“I didn’t know they belonged to you,” the vampire said to Alec, hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.
“Pity,” he said, “but not the point at the moment. You still haven’t answered my questions.”
“Why bother?” she shot back. “You’ll kill me anyway once I give you what you want. Maybe I’ll take these secrets to the grave, and watch on from the afterlife as you squirm for the truth. They’re coming for you…Emery,” she said with a roll of her head toward me, knowing my name now and using it with a twisted curl of her lips, “and they won’t be nearly as nice as all of us.” She gestured outward to indicate Alec, Wendy, and herself.
“You’ll just kill more people if we let you go,” I said as that dawned on me. There was no vampire prison, and nothing could stop her from taking her next victim, which she planned to feed from tonight. It was why Wendy existed.
My stomach bottomed out as I imagined the night playing out like some gory horror movie. Mr. Leonard was the first time I’d seen someone dead, but I’d never watched someone die.
I looked to Wendy, to Alec, but they were focused on the vampire, preparing to take her down. And she just laughed. She knew she couldn’t get out alive, and wouldn’t tell us anything if there was nothing in it for her. She was going to die for nothing.
“Please,” I said, stepping forward as I saw the vampire ready to launch herself at Wendy, like she thought it the smarter choice for a last ditch effort. “Tell us something, anything.”
She paused, looked at me, frowned and shook her head. “No one is more dangerous than someone living a lie, kid. But who’s to say you’ll know the difference when the time comes.”
Her crazed grin returned, and the hunch to her form, low to the ground. Then Wendy called out, “Emery!” as she darted toward me.
The vampire didn’t train her sights on me though. She started to, then pivoted at the last second and launched herself at Wendy, catching the hunter off guard. They tumbled to the ground, and when the vampire jumped to her feet, she had a stake in her hand that I hadn’t even seen on Wendy’s person. She headed for me again.
I froze. Why do they say fight or flight when the third option is so much worse? When you can’t do anything but stand there and wait for the inevitable because you can’t imagine running? You know it wouldn’t do you any good, but you can’t stomach fighting for your life either if it means killing someone else.
“Emery!” Alec called, and I snapped alert, doing the only thing I could think of—I charged.
I charged the vampire as she gunned for me, and bowled her over like sacking a quarterback. She hit the ground hard, the stake thudding into the grass as her hand snapped to the side. I rolled away from her, grabbing the stake as I went, and held it up in defense, tried to imagine stabbing it into her heart like I’d seen in a dozen movies, but my hand shook, her face furious as she snarled at me. I couldn’t think or breathe as she rose up to come at me again.
Alec swooped in like a rolling wave of smoke. I couldn’t be sure if what I saw was reality or a mirage from him moving so fast, but he seemed like mist one moment and then was whole the next, falling upon the vampire and sinking his fangs into her throat. She flailed as he pinned her to the ground, drinking greedily, his eyes blazing blue and then…red, I thought, like some terrible demon.
The vampire shuddered and convulsed as he drained her of every last drop. When he was done, minutes later, the other vampire looked ashen, eyes wide but unseeing now, while I stared from sitting half on my hip in the grass, holding a useless stake. And then, as Alec released her, she crumbled into dust like she had never existed.
I choked and scrambled away. Mr. Leonard hadn’t crumbled like that. Or his wife. A stake had killed them both, but had still left bodies. The myth of vampires falling to ash was from something much worse, I knew now—from being drained until they were nothing but a husk of their former self.
I threw the stake away from me. I wanted to go home. I wanted to crawl under the covers and hide in the dark. I wanted to throw up. I wanted, more than anything, to be human again and to have never seen these things or felt this awful ache. But that was the one thing I couldn’t do. And when none of the other options seemed possible either, I pulled my knees to my chest and cried.
Chapter 16
Connor
Connor resisted the urge to race to Emery’s side when he saw his friend hide his face in his knees and sob. He was supposed to head straight home, not shout a hasty, “Em had to dash, Mark, hit with the stomach flu he’s been fighting. See you tomorrow!” before zipping out of the middle school and following after Wendy’s retreating form. He’d managed to stay out of sight and hide behind a collection of trees as he watched the fight.
Mandy had awoken with a shiver, suffering aftershocks from whatever Wendy zapped her with, a device the hunter had quickly snatched back before darting out into the night after Emery. Connor was left to pick up the pieces from their encounter, but thankfully, Mandy didn’t remember anything. Connor told her she’d tripped, hit her head and cut her neck on part of the set, and must be disoriented. She bought right into it in the aftermath of the vampire’s glamour, and headed around the curtains to the front of the stage without a second thought.
Then Connor was off, where he watched the fight unfold from the safety of a large tree. Alec moved so much faster than Emery; he seemed to dissolve and then reform in a completely different location. He drank the other vampire until she was nothing but dust, and Connor pumped a fist into the air from where he hid in celebration.
But the sight of Emery in tears reminded him of how real this was. It wasn’t a game or a movie; Emery had just played a role in ending someone’s life. The vampire, however twisted, cruel and murderous, was dead. The weight of that caused Connor to sway against the tree.
“Em...”
“Emery,” Wendy said, going to him swiftly after tucking the thrown away stake back into her jacket, “it had to be done. You will be safer now. It’s all right to be shaken, but do not be burdened by her loss. You were only protecting yourself.”
Connor nodded along, wanting to comfort Emery as well, but he knew he’d only upset his friend if he revealed that he had seen it all.
Wendy tried to place a hand on Emery’s shoulder, but he brushed her off, burying his head further into his knees. Alec stepped over to them, appearing so normal now, not wicked and fierce as he had while draining the other vampire. His expression was neutral, no common manic grin, no witty retort to rouse Emery. He swooped in, knelt down, and with a strength that awed Connor, pulled Emery up from his fallen position until both of them were on their knees. Alec crushed Emery against his chest and held him, hugged him.
“It’s never easy the first time, dear boy,” Alec said so softly that Connor barely heard him. “I hope there never has to be a second. Whoever sent her here will pay, but by my hand, not yours. I won’t let them take you as they took William and Mallory…” His voice hissed, hollow and haunting without any humor in it.
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