“So how do you like being a vampire?”
I dropped the nail polish and quickly turned around.
Jagger, wearing a white “Bite Me, I’m Transylvanian” T-shirt and black army fatigues, was standing before me.
“What are you doing here?” I questioned.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” he asked. His white hair hung in his face.
“I was just leaving—”
“I thought you’d be happy to see me. After all, haven’t you been spending the last few days searching for me?”
I stepped back and looked away from his blue and green hypnotic eyes. I didn’t want to return to Dullsville’s cemetery with him again.
“Luna claimed she saw you reflected in the Fun House’s Hall of Mirrors,” he said, walking closer.
I paused. I could barely breathe. I looked at the white-curtained window, planning to make my escape.
“But I knew better,” he continued. “You might fool her with those circus mirrors, but not me. I saw Alexander bite you and transform you right in front of my eyes. I regretted the day I didn’t get to you first.”
I breathed again. But only for a moment as he inched toward me.
“Isn’t Sterling fulfilling your darkest needs?” he whispered. “I thought you got what you wanted.”
“I did.”
“Then you wouldn’t be here, now would you? Sterling’s not cut out for what you really desire, is he? That’s why you are trying to find me.”
I paused. I stepped past him, but he grabbed my hand.
He lifted it. “You have very long love veins,” he said, running his finger along a skinny horizontal blue vein, his black painted fingernail in sharp contrast to my pasty skin. “See here, how it splinters off? As if you were pursuing a path with one love, but then you chose another.”
“I used to be crazy about Marilyn Manson. Now I love Alexander,” I said sharply.
He held my hand tighter. “We are the same now, you and I.”
“We never were, nor will we ever be, the same,” I argued.
Jagger didn’t seem convinced.
“How about we share a drink together?” he asked, lifting my wrist to his mouth. “Then we will be closer than ever.”
I quickly jerked my arm away. “Alexander quenches any thirst I have.”
“Is it everything you thought it would be? Being a princess of the night?”
“Why don’t you ask Luna.”
Then it hit me: If Jagger was here, where was his twin sister?
I raced past him, out to the deck of the treehouse, and looked out to the yard. Alexander was searching the poolside grounds.
A few yards from the treehouse, I thought I saw some long white hair poking out from behind one of the trees.
I turned around, expecting to find Jagger mischievously grinning. But he was no longer standing behind me.
Instead I saw Jagger and Luna darting from underneath the treehouse, through the backyard, toward my unsuspecting boyfriend.
“Alexander!” I called.
I was too far away to reach Alexander before they did. And what could I do against two real vampires, anyway? How could a mortal goth stop them?
Then I remembered. “Alexander—cover yourself! With a towel! Now!” I shouted.
He looked confused but snatched a folded beach towel from a lounge chair, crouched down, and enveloped himself with it.
I pulled my hoodie over my head and drew the strings tightly shut.
I grabbed the garage door opener from my pocket and pointed it at Henry’s house.
I took a deep breath and pressed my finger on the silver button as hard as I could.
The lights burst on, illuminating the entire backyard, including Jagger and Luna.
The two vampires stopped dead in their tracks. The sudden burst of bright light was like kryptonite. They shielded their pale faces with their skinny bleach white arms. They each hissed and fled into the darkness.
I flew down the ladder and raced to the pool deck. Breathless, I finally reached Alexander, still covered, on a lounge chair.
I aimed the garage door opener at the house again, pressed the silver button, and the once-illuminated backyard turned black.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I could see Alexander, his hair tousled, a towel by his side.
“Quick thinking,” he complimented, and gave me a long kiss.
“We better get out of here—,” I said.
“Jagger will be more determined than ever to get Trevor now that he knows we’ve found his hideout. They won’t wait much longer.”
8
Gossip and Garlic
If there ever was a morning I didn’t want to get out of bed, this was it. After pressing the snooze bar repeatedly, I unplugged my Nightmare Before Christmas alarm clock and stashed it under my bed.
What I couldn’t unplug was my mother’s voice.
“Raven!” she called for the millionth time from downstairs. “You’ve overslept. Again.”
After a quick shower, I threw on a black-on-black ensemble. I dragged myself into the kitchen to gulp down some of the leftover morning sludge that Dad called “coffee.”
I found Billy Boy already commandeering the chair by the TV with our new house guest, Henry. The nerd-mates were glued to the screen, watching historic footage of battleships blasting their cannons and devouring Pop-Tarts and Crunch Berries.
With every crunch of the captain and boom of a cannon, I felt like my head was behind enemy lines.
“Turn that off!” I whined, and switched the channel to the Home Shopping Network.
A petite blond with a perfect french manicure was modeling bedazzling silver bracelets.
“Hurry, there’s only fifty seconds left!” I warned Billy Boy. “You could own one in just five easy payments. The blue topaz matches your eyes.”
Billy Boy raced to the TV and wrangled the control out of my hand. “Get off!” he said, switching it back to the History Channel. “If you’d watch, maybe you’d learn something. Then your report card could be framed in Dad’s office, instead of ending up in his paper shredder.”
I stirred cream and a pound of sugar into a java-filled Dullsville Country Club mug and poured myself a small bowl of Count Chocula. The gun battle and excessive crunching continued. I could barely open my charcoal eyelids wide enough to see the chocolate vampires floating in the milk among the marshmallow ghosts and bats.
My mom burst into the kitchen in her Corporate Cathy gear—a crisp gray DKNY pantsuit and Kate Spade mules—and opened the fridge door. “Morning,” she said gleefully. “I thought you’d never get up.”
“I didn’t either,” I grumbled.
“I saw Mrs. Mitchell at the pharmacy last night buying Trevor some cough syrup,” she said, placing her Tupperware bowl filled with low-fat, low-taste premade salad in her Bloomingdale’s tote bag. “Trevor must have the same cold you had.”
“Yeah, he’s been out of school. It’s been the first time I only detested school instead of hating it.”
“Well, I think he’s on the mend. His mother told me a girl has been bringing him protein shakes and he’s feeling better.”
“You mean one of the cheerleaders, right?” I queried.
“No. Mrs. Mitchell made it very clear this girl is new to town and dresses—well, not very conservatively,” my mom said, grabbing a bottled water and closing the fridge door.
“You mean, like me?”
My mother paused.
It was Luna.
“Is it the white-haired girl Trevor was with at the Spring Carnival?” Billy Boy asked.
“It may be,” my mom answered. “I didn’t see them together.”
“I just saw her from a distance,” my brother said. “But a kid at Math Club swears she has a twin. They were spotted coming out of the cemetery. Her brother was dressed like he just stepped off a pirate ship.
“Kids are saying they sleep in sewers,” Billy Boy continued
.
“It’s not nice to gossip,” my mother warned.
“I heard they’re ghosts. One dude claims you can see right through them,” Henry said.
“And talk about tattoos and piercing,” Billy Boy added, “I heard he has more holes in his head than you,” Billy Boy said to me.
“I have tattoos,” I said, rolling up my sleeve and showing him a bat tattoo.
“Your dad told you to wash that off,” my mother advised.
“And he has pierced kneecaps,” my brother went on.
“Well, I’ll pierce your kneecaps if you don’t stop gossiping like two old ladies.”
“All right. Boys, you are going to miss your bus if you don’t finish soon,” my mother ordered.
Henry and Billy Boy placed their empty bowls in the dishwasher.
“Mom, did Mrs. Mitchell say this girl brought Trevor protein shakes?” I asked.
“Supposedly they are special shakes from Romania. I asked Mrs. Mitchell to get the recipe for me.”
Delicious drink, I thought. Ingredients: One cup crushed ice. One banana. One vial vampire’s blood.
“I don’t think you’d like this particular Romanian drink.”
Finally we got a reprieve from the gunfire, and a commercial for Garlic One gelcaps came on the TV. Billy Boy aimed the remote to switch it off.
“No, wait,” I said.
“You’re suddenly interested in history?” Billy Boy asked proudly. “Maybe I’m rubbing off on you after all.”
“Shh…”
My mom followed Billy Boy and Henry as they headed for the front door.
“Garlic One,” the commercial continued. “Natural and odorless. Helps promote cardiovascular health with just one capsule a day.”
Their slogan should say, “An odor-free way to keep the vampires away.”
I was struck with an idea. Why hadn’t I thought of it sooner? There was nothing I loved more than a brand-new plan!
9
Haunted House Calls
Hey, Beck, do you mind stopping at Paxx Pharmacy?” I asked my best friend when I hopped into her pickup. “I just have to buy a few things on the way to school.”
“But Matt will be waiting by the bleachers for us. I don’t want to be late.”
“It’ll only take a sec,” I pleaded.
The old girl was as hot-glued to her soccer sweetheart as I was to my vampire boyfriend. I would have been sickened if I didn’t understand her amorous devotion.
“Okay,” she finally agreed. “I could get Matt some candy. He loves red licorice.”
I remember when Becky and I would hang outside Paxx’s and eat twines of red licorice until we felt ill. Now, instead of creating new memories with me, she was creating them with Matt.
I turned to my best friend, who was wearing khakis and a pale blue button-down shirt. As long as I’d known Becky, she’d worn jeans and an oversized sweater. How long had I not noticed the change?
“Besides, it will give us a chance to hang out,” she added kindly.
Becky was right. I’d been so wrapped up in diverting the union between Trevor and Luna that I hadn’t any time left to talk, or even open my eyes!
Now that we had beaus, we didn’t cling to each other like we had before. Did that mean we didn’t need each other at all?
“It’s been forever since we’ve had girl time,” I agreed.
“I know, it’s great we have boyfriends, but I’m missing our friendship.”
“Me too!” I said. “We have to make time for us.”
“It’s a pact,” she said, extending her pinky finger.
“A pact,” I said, entwining my own in hers.
More than spending time apart, I felt like I was in the dark alone, not being able to share with my best friend the fact that our town was crawling with vampires.
“If I tell you something, can you promise not to tell anyone? Not even Matt?” I asked.
“Is it about sex?”
“No. It’s even more top secret.”
“What’s more top secret than sex?”
I was ready to spill my guts. To tell my best friend why my boyfriend was never seen in daylight. To explain to her why Jagger drove a hearse. Why the ghostlike Luna had suddenly come to Dullsville.
But Becky’s cherub face looked so happy, her biggest concern being what new outfit to wear to school, what brand of candy treat to buy for Matt. I couldn’t spoil her perfect world.
“We’re having a pop quiz in Shank’s class tomorrow.”
“Duh,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Everyone knows that.”
“Really?” I asked, almost horrified. “Maybe I’m losing my touch.”
I was hunkered down in the vitamin-and-herb aisle, studying Mother Nature’s remedies and filling my red plastic shopping basket with vitamin C and boxes of Garlic One gelcaps, when Becky finally caught up to me.
“I thought you were feeling better,” she said, holding several packages of red licorice.
“I am, but I want to stock up.”
“Garlic tablets?” she asked, confused. “I thought you were over your vampire obsession now that you are dating Alexander.”
“I am. I just saw this commercial—”
“Speaking of Alexander,” she interrupted excitedly, “would you two want to meet up at Hatsy’s Diner after the soccer game tonight?”
How could I tell my best friend no after we’d just made a pinky-swear pact to hang out more? As long as I was with Alexander and Trevor was home sick, I reasoned, we were all safe.
“Yes, that’s a great idea. I don’t think Alexander’s ever been to Hatsy’s.”
Becky and I brought our purchases to the counter. We stood, unnoticed, as an elderly clerk hid behind a tabloid mag and her teenage clerk-mate filed packets of developed prints.
“Those two kids I was telling you about were in here last night,” the elderly clerk gossiped. “I think they are cousins of that weird mansion family on Benson Hill.”
“I heard they look like walking corpses,” the younger one chimed back.
“They do. I just don’t get why kids today think it’s cool to look like they’ve just come out of a coffin.”
“I’ve heard one of them drives a hearse.”
Just then the elderly clerk put down her paper and spotted me. Her eyes bugged out like she’d seen a ghost.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “Have you been waiting long?”
“An eternity!” I said.
So Jagger and Luna were beginning to make their presence known throughout Dullsville. Were they bored, careless, or marking their territory?
Even though Trevor and I’d spent our lives at each other’s throats, I didn’t want Luna and Jagger after his. Besides they were looking to do far more damage than wringing his neck. A mixture of emotions flooded through me—protecting a fellow Dullsvillian from a deadly duo, thwarting a plan to have a nefarious soccer snob wreaking havoc, and diverting a plot to have my nemesis turned into a vampire before I was.
I’d have to get these tablets to Trevor. At any moment, Jagger or Luna could strike—or in their case, bite.
Though keeping up my new vampire identity was exhausting, I was really beginning to enjoy it. Everything I felt before as a vampire-obsessed goth I now had to live out—my distaste for the light and passion for darkness, having a secret identity, and being an insider instead of an outsider. I imagined the rest—flying high in Dullsville’s sky, living in a spooky dungeon, Alexander and I cuddling the day away in a king-size coffin.
As the sun began to set, I rode my bike to Trevor’s, with my Paxx Pharmacy bag safely inside my Olivia Outcast backpack. I’d already called Jameson and told him I’d be a few minutes late to meet Alexander. It was crucial that I keep up my vampire charade and wait until darkness until I visited Trevor, just in case Trevor spilled my visit to Luna. If he shared with her that I’d visited him after school the first day he was sick, Luna could assume Trevor was delirious from his cold medicine.
But now that my nemesis was on the mend, I had to cover my tracks. I couldn’t give them any reason to suspect I was still a mortal.
“I’ve been waiting all day for you,” Trevor said as he opened the front door. He was wearing plaid flannel pajama pants and a long-sleeve Big Ten surf shirt and was sporting a much healthier glow—a bad sign he’d be coming back to school, but a good sign he hadn’t been bitten.
“You missed me?” I asked with a saccharine grin.
“I thought you were Luna,” he said, disappointed. “We’re not buying Ghoul Scout cookies today,” he said, closing the door.
I quickly blocked the door with my boot.
“I’m putting the final touches on my health project,” I said, opening the door and stepping inside.
“Do you want me to feel better or put me in the morgue?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Why don’t you write down in your report the reason for Trevor Mitchell’s illness. Two words: Raven Madison. I’m sure the Infectious Disease Institute has heard of you,” Trevor said.
I ignored his rude comments and walked into his newly painted sunflower yellow kitchen, which still smelled like fresh paint.
“I’ve heard you’ve been getting visits from a ghostly candy stripper. I mean, striper,” I said with a grin.
“Sounds like someone is jealous.”
I pulled out my Paxx Pharmacy bag and placed it on the granite-top kitchen island.
“My mom already got me medicine.”
“It’s just a few things so I can get extra credit. Vitamin C, a bag of cough drops, and Garlic One capsules.”
“Garlic capsules? I’ll smell like an Italian restaurant.”
“They’re good for cardiovascular health. Should help you on the soccer field.”
“Didn’t you see all my trophies? I can play in my sleep,” he said arrogantly.
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