“I don’t hate what you’ve turned into,” Evan said softly.
“That’s nice,” Pearl said. “Frankenstein likes his monster.”
“You aren’t a monster.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am, both on a theoretical level and on a literal level.”
“You are whoever you make yourself to be,” he said.
Pearl rolled her eyes.
“Then let me put it this way: You have a chance to make up for this,” Evan said. He nodded at the Dairy Hut. “You have the chance to change the world.”
Pearl studied the burnt shell of the Dairy Hut.
“And you have a chance to dance with me,” he said. “There’s also that incentive.”
Gravely she said, “There’s also that.”
Chapter
TWENTY-EIGHT
Prom night.
Everyone drove up to the mansion at eight o’clock. Pearl and Evan joined Bethany, Zeke, and Matt, plus half the prom committee in the minivan. Kelli and her date followed. Others arrived in a steady stream of taillights down the narrow, winding driveway. In the minivan no one talked much as they pulled in behind the other prom-goers. Thankfully, Pearl didn’t see any limos—they’d done a good job discouraging that complication.
“Sorry about the cat,” Bethany said. “We didn’t mean it as an insult.”
Pearl said, “I don’t eat fluff. Or Fluffy.”
From the backseat, Tara said, “That was cool what you did for Ashlyn’s family.” After returning with Evan, Pearl had told Ashlyn and her parents the phrase to say to uninvite vampires. And to prevent nonvampiric visitors, she told them to lock their door. In her opinion, it was too little too late.
Everyone fell silent again.
Bethany parked in the gravel lot in front of the mansion. Red, green, and yellow strobe lights flashed through the windows, and disco-ball lights spun by. As she shut off the engine, the beat of the music inside thrummed through the parking lot. Song lyrics were muffled. Without moving, Pearl stared at the mansion.
“Everybody ready?” Zeke asked. Even his normal exuberance felt tamped down.
A stream of prom-goers flowed toward the entrance. Red satin and blue tulle, black gowns and tuxedos . . . A few of the girls hobbled on their high heels as they crossed the gravel. Pearl promised herself that she’d ensure as many of them survived the night as possible. Payment for Brad and for Ashlyn. “Ready,” Pearl said.
She reached for the door handle, but Evan said, “Wait!” He hopped out and then swung the door open and held out his hand. “Chivalry, alive and well.”
“I am swooning at your feet,” Pearl said, but she let her hand rest on his as she stepped out of the minivan. A cool breeze swirled over her skin but didn’t budge her hair, thanks to Kelli’s enthusiastic use of hair products. Everyone else piled out of the minivan in a flurry of formal wear. Together, they joined the stream of prom-goers.
Tiny white Christmas lights outlined the doorway. They winked and sparkled. The prom committee had interspersed aluminum foil bats in between the lights. At the bottom step, Sana and another member of the track team (Claire) collected car keys to the SUVs and other large vehicles, ostensibly to prevent drunk driving but really to prepare the evacuation vehicles. Bethany silently handed over her key. The mansion’s entrance was flanked by Sandy and Donald on one side and Mr. Barstow and a second teacher on the other. Evan nodded to his parents as he passed. Both of them watched Pearl.
“Dude,” Matt said behind her and Evan. “You forgot something.”
Pearl wondered what they’d forgotten: weapons, common sense?
Stopping on the threshold, Matt handed Evan a clear box with a single rosebud inside it. The bud lay in a nest of lace and green leaves. “It’s a corsage,” Tara said as she breezed past them into the ballroom. “You wear it on your wrist, and you pretend it doesn’t itch like hell.”
Evan managed a smile. “I meant to buy you one. I’ve been preoccupied.”
“I’ll excuse you this time,” Pearl said as Evan slid the corsage onto her wrist. The leaves tickled her skin.
“Whoa,” Matt said. “I think she just asked you for a second date.”
Pearl opened her mouth to protest but then shut it. Evan was looking at her with his warm eyes. A smile played on his soft lips. “Whatever,” she said. She was unlikely to survive the night anyway. She walked into the ballroom with her date in tow.
The DJ pumped music so loud that Pearl felt it through her toes as she entered. To her amusement, it was the Doors’s “People Are Strange.” (Tara had insisted that the DJ play theme-appropriate music.) Halting by the door, Pearl surveyed the scene: The dance floor was empty. Some students clustered around the tables with the rose-and-garlic centerpieces. Others, mostly boys in ill-fitting tuxedos, leaned against a wall in between the cutouts of Cullens. A few couples hovered by the appropriately bloodred punch. Other couples waited in line for a photographer who snapped photos in front of a cheesy crescent-moon backdrop. “Reminds me of middle school,” Bethany commented, as she entered behind them. “I kind of expected more. . . I don’t know.”
“Hey, why is no one dancing?” Tara said. “This is a prom, people!” She plucked one of the tuxedo boys off the wall and dragged him to the center of the ballroom. Kelli followed her lead, pulling her date onto the dance floor. Others joined them. The dancers bobbed stiffly up and down. As Pearl watched from the sidelines with Evan, one student attempted to breakdance. He toppled over.
Zeke and Matt swept by with Bethany in tow. “Prom photos!” Zeke called to Pearl and Evan. “Height of cheesy artistry! Must participate!”
Evan caught Matt’s arm as he passed. “Keep an eye on the punch bowl, okay? Last thing we need is everyone tipsy.”
“I can think of other ‘last things we need,’ but sure.” Matt veered toward the punch bowl. “Sustenance first,” he said to Zeke and Bethany. “Cheese squares are calling our name. Eat me, Matt. Eat me, Bethany.”
Pearl watched the prom-goers smile stiffly for the photographer. Every smile looked as fake as a mask. “You don’t want a photo, do you?”
“Only if you do,” Evan said.
She wasn’t one hundred percent sure she’d show up in a photo. Ordinary vampires didn’t. On the other hand, ordinary vampires didn’t attend junior proms with were-unicorn dates while plotting to sabotage plans for a mass murder. “I can live without a photo. Or, you know, not live per se.”
“Good,” he said, his voice serious.
“Evan . . . ,” she began.
He put his fingertips on her lips. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I understand.”
Both of Pearl’s eyebrows shot into the air. “I could have been about to say that your fly is down.”
“But you weren’t,” he said. He held her gaze, and then he broke the moment by not-so-subtly glancing down at his tuxedo pants. The fly was up.
Pearl peeked at the golden clock. She had a half hour before she was supposed to sneak downstairs. Her Family should be there already, guiding attendees to the cellar, waiting for the king and his guards to make their grand entrance. Pearl touched the rose on her wrist. Plucked, it was dying, but it smelled like sunset.
Softly, into her ear, Evan said, “I’m coming with you.”
She felt his breath on her skin. “Nicely heroic, but no.”
“You aren’t facing this alone.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“So I’ve been told,” he said. “Dance with me anyway?”
It was a slow song, and the couples had paired up, pressing against each other and swaying. Evan looped his arm around her waist and led her onto the dance floor. After a moment’s hesitation, she put her arms around his neck. His skin felt soft under her hands, like caressing silk. “You don’t trust me,” Pearl said as they swayed to the music.
He shook his head. “You shouldn’t have to be down there alone. Plus, you might need me.” His arms tightened around her.
She studied his face, so lovely and perfect. “You still want to save me, even after . . . what I told you I did.”
“Of course,” he said.
Gently, she touched the side of his face, cradling his cheek in her hand. She felt his warmth against her cool-as-a-serpent skin. “But you already have.”
He quit swaying, and he stared at her with his brilliant eyes, so earnest and pure. “You mean that?”
She wished he hadn’t asked. It had been such a perfect line. “No.” Pressing closer to him, she said in a whisper that was barely above a breath, “You messed up my life in a high-handed, daddy-knows-best, alpha-male way and reshaped me to suit your own ideals without any regard for my culture or family background, not to mention my personal wants and needs—and that’s if I’m being charitable. If I’m not being charitable . . .” Her lips touched his ear as she breathed the words. “No matter how you rationalize it or how wide you open those shining eyes of yours, you treated me like a lab rat. Worse, an expendable lab rat.”
“We can call this off right now,” Evan said just as softly. “Evacuate now.”
Drawing back a few inches, Pearl shook her head.
“You’ll make it through this,” he said.
She studied his eyes, trying to read him. “Why do you care?” She got why he cared before the ceremony was complete— he needed her to cooperate—but there was no earthly reason for him to care if she survived it. Maybe he was drinking his own Kool-Aid: Too much unicornness was making him overkind to puppies and babies and reformed vampires.
Evan twirled her in a circle and then spun her close. He touched her cheek with his cheek. She felt her skin tingle, and she inhaled his scent. He smelled like the forest. His lips next to her ear, he said, “It’s because you wanted to see the light in the library.”
The slow song ended, and a fast dance started. Around them, couples broke apart and began to wiggle. In the center of the dance floor, Tara shimmied with her arms in the air. Kelli and the prom committee circled around her. But Evan didn’t release Pearl, and Pearl didn’t move away. “Explain,” she said.
“That first morning, it was too soon for . . . any effect,” he said. “But you didn’t hunt. You wanted to see the sun through the stained glass. You stopped being a ‘lab rat’ for me then.”
Pearl didn’t know what to say. “Don’t come downstairs.”
“Why not?” he asked. “You just finished telling me how much you hate me.”
She considered several answers and rejected them all. Finally, she settled on the truth. “I have no idea,” she said.
“Very persuasive argument,” he said.
“If you try to come with me, I’ll break your arms.”
“Obviously, you secretly love me and have a difficult time expressing it.”
She swatted his arm but not hard. He faked a wince.
“Tell me, fair maiden,” he said, and bowed, “how do I earn your love?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Pearl saw a new couple walk into the ballroom. She felt the blood inside her slow, and the music seemed to fade. “Stay up here,” she said to Evan. “Keep everyone safe.” He followed her gaze to the door, where Jadrien stood in a tuxedo with Cousin Antoinette in a shimmery pink 1980s dress. Beaming, Antoinette surveyed the assembly. She looked as happy as a cat in a catnip field. Jadrien looked only at Pearl. His eyes seemed to blaze.
“For your love, I will,” Evan said.
She glared at him. “I’m serious.”
“And I’m not?” Deliberately turning his back on the two vampires by the main entrance, Evan looked into her eyes. For an instant she felt as if the world had shrunk to only them. Music cocooned them, blocking out all other sound. His eyes were luminous, full of dark rainbows, like the eyes of his unicorn self.
“Are you?” she asked.
“Ask me again in the morning,” he said.
He spun her in a circle with the music, and the moment was broken. She noticed the dancers around them had slowed. Smiles drained from their faces as they watched Jadrien and Antoinette sashay onto the dance floor. Pearl watched Jadrien and Antoinette progress toward her through the dancers. The students shifted aside, parting for the vampire couple—as if the humans could sense the predators in their midst. Stationed throughout the ballroom, the Karkadanns watched their every move.
Pearl hoped no one, vampire or human or otherwise, would do anything stupid.
Evan’s hands tightened on her waist as Jadrien and Antoinette halted beside them. Pearl really, really hoped she wasn’t about to get everyone killed.
Antoinette wore a replica of a Molly Ringwald dress. She’d twirled her hair up in a bird’s-nest style, complete with pink feathers. Gloves covered her arms up to her elbows. Jadrien looked handsome, as always.
“May I cut in?” Jadrien said. His voice was smooth, exactly the cultured gentleman that Evan had been imitating a few minutes earlier.
“Sorry,” Evan said, clearly not meaning it. “She’s my date tonight.”
Pearl saw the muscle in Jadrien’s cheek twitch. Antoinette looked delighted, backing up as if she expected a fight to break out in front of her. Pearl shot a don’t-be-an-idiot look at Evan. If she could have subtly whacked him on the head, she would have. Now was not the time for territorial macho crap. “It’s all right,” Pearl said to Evan. “He’s a friend. How about you dance with Bethany for a while?” She spun him by the shoulders and gave him a shove toward Bethany, who was sandwiched between Zeke and Matt by the punch bowl. Pasting a smile on her face, she turned back to Jadrien and Antoinette as Kool and the Gang’s “Celebrate” came on.
“Ooh, I love this song!” Antoinette said.
For a second the absurdity of that statement derailed Pearl. “Seriously?”
Antoinette began hopping up and down. Waving her arms, she gathered a circle of students around her. The students danced stiffly, shooting glances at Pearl.
“Humans really don’t know how to party,” Jadrien said. He wrapped his arm around Pearl’s waist, and she had to force herself not to chuck him across the dance floor. “Oh, Pearly, my jewel, don’t look so mad. You know we can’t resist a decent shindig. By the way, the theme is hilarious. And suitably sparkly.”
“You’ll tip them off,” Pearl said. She swung her arm up around his neck and breathed the words into his ear. “Humans aren’t that stupid. No one living likes this song, at least not unironically.” She’d been thoroughly briefed by the prom committee on this topic.
“Oh, yes, they are stupid, my delectable delight,” Jadrien said. “And by the way, you reek of them. Shower before we next kiss, m’kay? You may want to rethink cuddling them quite so much.”
“Always the charmer.”
He dipped her, and then swung her up and pressed her against his chest. “Forgive me. I just hate to see you having to play nice with sheep.”
“It will be worth it,” Pearl said. Over his shoulder, she spotted Cousin Shirley across the dance floor. She wore sleek black silk and moved like a ribbon, dancing to the music between two slightly stunned boys. She ruined the effect by continually checking to see if Antoinette had noticed her, obviously seeking her approval. “You can’t all crash the prom. You’ll be noticed.” This had such potential for disaster.
“Relax.” Jadrien brushed his lips against her cheek as he ground his hips against hers. “This is our night. Revel in it!”
She danced close with Jadrien until the song switched (abruptly, as Tara scolded the DJ) to the more thematically appropriate “Blood Roses.” Jadrien adjusted his and Pearl’s arms to a waltz position and proceeded to spiral with her across the dance floor. Couples scattered out of their way as they spun. He hummed under his breath, half in tune with the music.
Into her ear he breathed, “I suppose an appetizer is out of the question?”
“You really need to develop a self-preservation instinct,” Pearl said. He had to know that if he ruined the feast, either the king or Mother would skewer him. Of
course, Evan’s family would skewer him long before that, especially if his interference led to the cancellation of the ceremony. She wished he’d stayed downstairs like a good little vampire. “You at least left Jeremiah downstairs, I hope?”
“Chewing on the tablecloths, last I saw,” Jadrien said. “Your uncle Stefan should put him down. He gives your Family a bad name.”
“Uncle Stefan’s decision,” Pearl said. She often wondered why Uncle Stefan didn’t eliminate Jeremiah. He normally didn’t tolerate any deviation from vampire perfection— witness his reaction to her. Perhaps he felt a connection with or sense of responsibility for Jeremiah since he’d turned him. If so, if even Uncle Stefan had the potential for empathy, then maybe this plan wasn’t totally insane.
She glanced at the golden clock. Nah, she thought, still totally insane.
“Pumpkin time,” Jadrien said. He looked across the dance floor. Cousin Shirley and Cousin Antoinette drifted away from their dance partners. Pearl watched them hook arms and head off chatting, as if on a trip to the ladies’ room. One of the entrances to the cellar was in the hall across from the restrooms. She had to trust that the Karkadanns stationed there wouldn’t try to stop them.
She and Jadrien danced across the ballroom. “Follow my lead,” he said. He pushed her against the wall and began to kiss her. She kissed back, eyes open. She scanned the ballroom, filled with hundreds of prom-goers, and her eyes locked onto Evan’s. His fists were clenched. Bethany’s hand was on his shoulder, and she was whispering in his ear. But his eyes didn’t leave Pearl’s.
He mouthed the words, “Good luck.”
Jadrien maneuvered her closer to the door, as if the goal was a more private make-out session behind the tapestries that covered the mirrors. Unlocking his lips from hers, he smiled at her in the shadows. “See, easy-peasy.” He opened the door and slipped inside. She followed him down into the cellar.
Chapter
TWENTY-NINE
On Jadrien’s arm, Pearl walked down the stairs. Even intensive scrubbing hadn’t scoured away all hints of the mildew scent. The walls stank of centuries-old dust—or maybe that was the stench of the guests.
Drink, Slay, Love Page 25