Abigail Rath Versus Bloodsucking Fiends

by Catherine Schaff-Stump

  All my friends, supernatural or not, were heroes.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  It's Not Me, It's You

  When Mom rewgained consciousness, she and Dad talked and decided she was out of the profession. If my narrative were a work of fiction, there’d be some sort of training montage, and my mother would come back to kick monster booty. In reality, she was facing about a year of therapy for her damaged leg, and she’d lost some sight in her left eye. The good news was that there wasn’t serious brain damage from the fall. We were lucky.

  Life was going to change around our house some, but we’d manage, because my family is super awesome. Mom could still be a librarian, and if you ask anyone, they are tougher than monster hunters.

  Both Ned and Mr. Christopher made full recoveries. Ned was like me, not as bad as he looked, the vampire equivalent of cuts and bruises. Mr. Christopher’s condition was more like Mom’s. Being a good guy in the vampire world can be dangerous, because not everyone is a good guy, and Mr. Christopher needed a little extra protection until all of the rowan worked its way out of his system. That’s why he suddenly acquired two children. Ned and Coral were moving in. I thought Mr. Christopher was going to need a bigger house, but they were making it work so far.

  On the last day of school, Coral and I sat outside of Ms. Cheever’s study. We both looked around at the shelves of erudite books in the room. I hadn’t noticed before Coral was not a slouchy tie wearer because I’d been too busy either envying or hating her.

  “So, William?” Our one loose end, William, had avoided both the monster hunting community and the legal community. It bothered me he was out there in the world.

  “No sign of him,” she said. “Jerk.”

  I nodded. “Totally.” Anyone who enjoyed hurting and killing other people might not be a candidate for coexist, but I wasn’t sure we could do anything about it now that he’d disappeared.

  The door cracked open and we were invited in. Mrs. Cheever sat behind the big desk, super intimidating. Mom was in one of the wingback chairs. She had on a stylish pirate patch (no white patches for my mom) and her fashionable cane was propped against one arm. Dad stood behind her, his hands resting on her chair’s back. Two not-so-fancy chairs were out for us. Coral took one and crossed her hands in her lap, looking perfect. I didn’t know if she could get a job as a supermodel. I wondered what the effect of so much flash photography might be on a vampire.

  Ms. Cheever started in. “My understanding is you two have been having some trouble this year?”

  “Oh, we’re all straightened out now,” I said.

  “Yeah,” said Coral. “We’re BFFs.”

  Mom coughed. “Really?”

  “I understand that there are some special circumstances regarding your quarrel?”

  I looked at Dad. “Did you tell her?”

  Ms. Cheever nodded. “I understand, Coral, that you’re a vampire, and you mind-controlled the staff and student body.”

  “I did,” said Coral, “but I was under duress from my master vampire.”

  “Who is no longer in the picture?”

  “Yes, ma’am. That’s right. And I can assure you that even though I’m a vampire, my new guardian, Mr. Lee Christopher, will make sure that sort of thing would never happen again. I mean, not that I’d be tempted.”

  “Given the circumstances,” said Ms. Cheever, “you’ll understand if I ask you to leave our school.”

  “Oh!” I stood up. “Really, really uncool.”

  The authority figures in the room gave me the eye and I sat down. I adjusted my tie. “Ms. Cheever, Coral was no more misbehaved than me. Kicking her out because she’s a vampire is like bigotry.”

  “I’m not expelling Coral because she’s a vampire,” said Ms. Cheever. “You are aware that this school has an honor code?”

  Coral cast her eyes down. “Yes ma’am.”

  “Abby, you are also not invited back. I understand that you tried to burn Coral up, endangering her life?”

  “No! Well, yes, a bit. I was trying to discredit her at the time.”

  “You willfully harmed a fellow student.”

  I stood up again. “I was trying to save the school.”

  “And I don’t hold a grudge,” said Coral.

  “Thanks, Coral. I’ll admit it was a pretty crummy thing to do.”

  Coral waved it away. “You were desperate. Besides, I don’t think you would have killed me.”

  “No,” I said. “No. And I’m sorry. If I had it to do again, I’d do it a lot differently.”

  Mom cleared her throat. “While we agree with Ms. Cheever you both have committed serious offenses against the honor code at Wolcroft, we are more concerned with your safety. Wolcroft may not be the kind of place I want my daughter going to school.”

  Ms. Cheever’s brow darkened. “Wolcroft is one of the best institutions in this state, Mrs. Rath.”

  “Yes,” said Dad. “However, one vampire came to school and mind-controlled everyone and no one noticed but my daughter. If one vampire can come to this school, how many others could? No offense, Coral.”

  “None taken.”

  What did this mean? Was I done with school? “Well,” I stuttered, “where can I go? You can’t keep me at home.”

  “Of course not,” said Mom. “You need the socialization of school, and you need more advanced science than either your father or I could teach you.”

  “I am, after all, a humble actor,” said Dad. “Just because I’ve had an education doesn’t mean I can give one. Unless you want to be an actor?”

  “Um…no,” I said. “Too dangerous.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a monster hunter either, but one thing I understood now was you didn’t want to be a monster hunter. You ended up being one by accident, whether you liked it or not.

  “Public school,” said Mom. “Strangely enough, probably less dangerous. Probably more monsters in the system, but also more of them on our side, and we know where most of them are.”

  Who knew?

  We left Ms. Cheever’s office under the cloud of expulsion, but we still had final exams to finish. In one office interview, I had lost Bev, Jo, Mrs. Lester, and field hockey. Advantage? Vince would be cool with it, me and Coral at public school with him.

  How would Marty handle this?

  “And that’s it,” I said to Vince. “Expelled. A stain upon the honor of Wolcroft.” We sat at Big Mel’s, watching Coral skate by, guiding Marty. Marty’s lessons were starting to pay off. She had only fallen once so far tonight.

  “Great. My best friend has a record,” said Vince.

  “I’m curious. How many monsters do you know in public school?”

  “What?”

  “Just something my parents said, is all. Coral and I are figuring out how to break it to Marty.”

  “Can I get you guys something?”

  I looked behind the counter. The girl working behind the snack bar had gone off duty, and she’d been replaced by some polo-shirt guy. Then my universe wrung itself out. Polo-shirt guy was Ned. No army jacket. Slacks. Orange hair mostly sheered off, pierced barbell out of his brow. “Like woah,” I said.

  Ned crossed his arms. “A guy can’t change his look?”

  “What she said,” said Vince.

  Ned ditched the sulk and smiled like he was happy to see me. “Vince. Abby.”

  “You are looking very much more alive. It suits you.”

  “Undead makeover,” said Vince. “Are you using the sunscreen trick?”

  “Oh yeah. Can’t go outside now because I’m working, but it’s kind of awesome, being out during the day. I can spend a whole ten minutes out there now.”

  “That’s it,” I said. “Sun equals sunny disposition.”

  “You,” said Ned. “You tell Coral ‘Dad’ wants her home.”

  Vince skated away.

  “I’ll take M&M’s,” I said. “If they’re on you.”

  Ned pulled one off the wire tab. “They are.”

&n
bsp; “Thanks, Ned,” I said.

  Ned shrugged. “No big deal.” Ned grabbed his order pad and headed over to a table. He didn’t understand. I was thanking him for looking out for all of us, but Ned was kind of dense. Or not. It was okay. We understood each other.

  Vince wheeled back in. “Couldn’t find her. She must be gone already.”

  I popped M&M’s into my mouth and offered the bag to Vince who cupped his hands. I’d never known Vince to turn down M&M’s. “Gotta find Marty,” I said. “Gotta get this over with.”

  “It’s not like you’re gonna disappear,” said Vince. “It’s my turn to have you at my school for a while.”

  I scanned the skate floor for Marty. “Let’s roll,” I said. “She’s over there.”

  We skated across the floor. Marty was skating with a guy. I wondered if her crush on Vince was done. Then I recognized Austin Von Trapp and he recognized me. William looked worse for wear. His hair was greasy and scruffy, and his clothes were grubby. He gave me that dazzling smile, but now it looked like arrogance on wheels.

  Vince puffed up and raced forward. “Leave her alone, William. Get out now, and I won’t call Ned.”

  “You won’t call anyone, Cooper.”

  “It’s over, William,” I said, stoppering to a halt. “If you go now, we’ll let you leave.”

  “You’re not letting me do anything, Abby. I may not have bitten you enough to change you into one of us, but I do know that I can exert some influence over you.”

  “Screw that.” I turned, meaning to skate toward Ned, but I found myself facing William again. I narrowed my eyes. We were going to have to do something about this. No one had really given too much attention to my bite after we discovered I wasn’t, you know, changed.

  Vince pulled back and hit William on the jaw. William’s legs buckled underneath him. “I don’t hate you nearly as much as I did when you mind-controlled me,” said Vince. “But I still hate you enough.”

  A bubble of space developed around William and Vince. William snarled, which was unbecoming to his cute boy persona, and jumped on top of Vince. Vince deflected the pummeling fists.

  “You kids,” the loud speaker boomed. “Stop that!” Big Mel was on the job.

  Marty stood by like a robot. I waved my hand in front of her face. She didn’t even blink. I looked over her arms. She’d been bitten, I didn’t know how many times. Jerk.

  William pulled away from Vince, and he morphed into the little Nosferatu Ned and I had tried to track at the mall. Kids yelled and ran, skateland pandemonium. Mel charged forward, silver bat in hand. William grabbed Marty under the arms, lifted her up, and the two of them flew outside.

  I hated abandoning Vince to Mel and confusion, but following William was paramount. Outside, there was no sign. Mel and Vince stepped out. For the first time in my life, I was scared of the silver bat, the way Mel held it like a caveman’s club.

  “Ned’s beside himself,” Vince said.

  “Hey, it’s daylight,” said Mel. “No point getting him-self killed.”

  I guess as far as Mel was concerned, we’d joined the club. “I’m going back in, get everyone settled down.”

  The sun wasn’t low enough yet for Ned to spring into action. Then he and Coral could do some serious searching for William. But William had been proving really good at not being found.

  My cell phone rang. “Yeah.”

  Of course it was William, even though my ID said it was Marty. “I want you at Pacific Park,” said William. “Meet me in Santa Monica.”

  “Hey, Vince,” I said, “up for a little bus trip?”

  “Yes,” Vince said. “Hold on. I want to borrow something from Mel.”

  The Big Blue Bus dropped Vince and me off at Santa Monica Pier two hours after William’s phone call. I straightened the straps on my backpack as we got off.

  Any kid who grows up in the area has made at least one trip to Pacific Park. Mom is particularly fond of the sunsets over the ocean, when Pacific Park is lit up in the night. Right now things were beginning to dim, and the lights of the Ferris wheel were reflected in the water in perfect upside-downness. I figured Ned would be setting out toward Santa Monica by now, but even at vampire speeds, it would take him a while to get here.

  “Where do you think William would be hiding?” Vince asked.

  “He’s not hiding.” I pointed at the Ferris wheel. The LED lights showed a giant blue bat on the Ferris wheel. Over the top? Yes. William was turning out to be a vampire of questionable taste.

  Now that school was out, Santa Monica Pier was in full swing for summer. Pacific Park is located on the bustling pier. There was a concert for kids tonight, we discovered, as we walked in the front, which explained so many families. One of the kids pointed at the silver bat Vince carried casually over one shoulder. Vince waved at the kid, and swung the bat for his amusement.

  William waited in front of the solar-powered Ferris wheel, a gutsy thing for a vampire. Crowds of families avoided him, like he wasn’t quite there. The science geek in me appreciated the solar power, and my artsy side thought the LED lights, which could be changed into whatever configuration Pacific Park wanted, was just another example of how science could make art better. I intended for me, Marty, and Vince to all come back here this summer to appreciate it. I wasn’t about to let William take her away from me.

  “Nice bat,” said Vince.

  “You too,” said William.

  “How did you manage that?” I squinted up, sheltering my eyes from the LED lights.

  William shrugged. “You know. Bit the operator. He’ll do as I say.”

  Music faded in from somewhere, playing tag with the noise from the crowd. William gave Vince an appraising

  look, like he was something William had found on the bottom of his loafer. “Are you here to play white knight and rescue the girl?”

  Vince arched an eyebrow. “Yes.”

  “Good. I intend to kill you. I intend to kill you both.”

  “So,” I said. “Apart from being Larissa’s tool, what is your problem?”

  “What?”

  “Well, Coral can get along with everyone. Ned knows how to behave himself. What is the big, bad chip on

  your shoulder?”

  William’s lips became a tiny line. “You have no idea what it’s like, to live this long.”

  Vince shook his head. “Here we go.”

  I nodded. “Alone, so alone.”

  William stamped his foot. “Not funny!”

  I smirked. “If you get turned into a vampire and you are a brat, you stay a brat.”

  “Abby, maybe we shouldn’t antagonize William.”

  Vince was right. “Where’s Marty?”

  “Safe. For now.”

  I didn’t want to ask this next question. “Have you turned her?” I didn’t want to be responsible for Marty being a vampire.

  “No!” William looked pained. “I wouldn’t want to have Marty around all the time. She’s a dork.”

  Poor Marty. Rejected by an uncool vampire. I was ready to get mad, but I considered the source. “Ball’s in your court,” I said.

  “What do you want?” asked Vince.

  “Abby and I are going to have a little race to prove who’s the best skater.”

  “What is this thing with you vampires wanting to show everyone up?” I said.

  “I had a great setup, everything I wanted, and you ruined it. I’m not going to forgive you for that. Are you in or not?”

  “Sure, sure. But Pacific Park isn’t a good place. Look at all these people.”

  “That’s what makes it the best place. A good skater can avoid lots of obstacles.”

  “That’s right.” I was wishing pretty hard for my inline skates. Vince and I had rushed out of Big Mel’s with our traditionals. “You have skates?”

  “I have skates,” said William. “If you win, you get Marty.”

  “I’m racing too,” said Vince. “Twice as many chances.”

  William
shrugged. “It won’t make any difference. We start down at the beach.”

  William was right. The chances of either of us winning a race against him were pretty small. Why? Well, his lightning reflexes. Vampires could just plain old get up to higher speeds than we mortals could. That meant we were going to have to brain our way out of this.

  The skate path waved along the beach in an s-curve. In the distance, Pacific Pier lit up the night, contrasting with the last few stripes of daylight, charcoal and blue, reflected in the water. Living in California can be like living in a painting. Vince sat down, peeled off his Reeboks and put on his sneaker skates. William was wearing a pair of black inlines that looked pretty serious. He caught me looking at them. “They’re called Sizzlers,” he said.

  “I’ll look into those.” I laced up my not-built-for-speed white skates from the fifties. Also slowing me down would be my backpack, which I should take off for speed, but which I wasn’t going to take off since I was racing a vampire.

  Off in the distance, music from the concert echoed from under the pier, a mishmash of noise that didn’t sound like waves, didn’t sound like music. The path disappeared under the pier, into a cordoned area where railings were half-finished, behind orange construction cones designed to keep kids out, not writing their names in the cement the wood would be laid over later. The exposed rail ends poked out, just waiting for a vampire.

  I started to look at the path like a racer. There were some serious curves I would have to lay into. The unevenness of the wooden planks would slow me down a bit. That handicap would be there for all of us, but William could skim the path if he flew.

  William gestured toward the pier. “Try to keep up.”

  The three of us lined up. William gave us the countdown and we were off. William seemed to be holding back, so Vince and I were pretty close. That’s when we saw Marty.

  Marty was tied on one of the pylons under the pier. It was like William set up some sort of spotlight on her. She stared out to sea vacantly, frozen in that same vampiric trance she’d been under at the rink. Vince was out of the race in an instant, heading for her. I knew Marty was in good hands. My job was to keep William busy while Vince figured out how to save her.