Drink, Slay, Love
Page 29
“Redefining the high school social hierarchy was not exactly the master plan.” Opening her door, Pearl jumped outside. She crossed to the opposite side of the car and helped Bethany ease out of her seat.
“Change will happen.” Bethany held her ribs and winced as she moved. “Be patient. It may take a while before your blood has a real effect. Each vampire received only a few diluted drops. Also, keep in mind that we still need to find a way to introduce the vampires into the normal world.”
“For a perky person, you’re lousy at pep talks,” Pearl said. She carried Bethany’s book bag as well as her own, both slung over one shoulder. Hooking her arm under Bethany’s, Pearl helped her across the parking lot and through the doors. Other students raced by them into the school.
At first everything felt the same as they walked through the halls. But once they reached the junior class lockers, Pearl felt the stares. Students quieted as they passed. A few whispered. No one spoke to them.
But then a junior Pearl recognized from track—the girl with pink-lemonade hair, Claire—darted over. “Wow, you were so awesome. Where did you learn to fight like that? Can you teach me?” After that a second student approached them. “I saw one of them in my driveway Saturday night,” she said in a whisper. A third, a boy from the football team, said, “I’ve never driven so fast in my life.” One of his friends added, “I think I hit a mailbox.”
One by one, the students began to talk about Saturday: how
they’d run for their cars, how they’d seen the vampires,
how they’d driven faster than fast . . . as if seeing Pearl had freed them to admit the truth. Pearl and Bethany walked and hobbled toward their lockers through a cyclone of stories.
Zeke and Matt were waiting for them.
“Dudes,” Matt said. “This is awesome. We’re like heroes.”
“At least until everyone gets sick of staying home after sunset,” Zeke said.
“Right,” Matt said. “Until then. After that, tar and feathers.”
“It won’t be forever,” Bethany said. “People just have to be sensible until the tainted blood takes effect.”
Pearl propped Bethany up against the lockers and watched the students swirl around them. Some of the students sported bandages, which they showed off to their friends. Several of them waved at Pearl, Bethany, Matt, and Zeke. A few of them said “thanks.” One of them even asked Pearl for her autograph. She scrawled her signature on the back of his notebook. She drew miniature fangs under her name.
As she handed the pen back to her admirer, Tara scurried over. “Wait, keep the pen! You’ll need it for the sign-up sheet.”
“Sign-up sheet?” Pearl asked.
Tara thrust a clipboard under Pearl’s nose. “Once the blood thingy works, the vamps are going to need help adjusting, right? So . . . we need volunteers.” She pointed at the list of names. There were already more than two dozen signatures underneath the header: vampire rehab.
Behind Pearl, Zeke and Matt began to laugh.
“You cannot be serious,” Pearl said.
Gasping for air midlaugh, Matt said, “Best. Extracurricular. Activity. Ever.”
Pearl rolled her eyes, but she added her name to the sign-up sheet.
Instead of joining the Karkadann family for a dinner she couldn’t eat, Pearl perched on their roof. She wrapped her arms around her knees and let the first rosy rays of sunset caress her face. A few seconds later Evan swung himself up onto the roof.
She raised her eyebrows at him. “They let you out of bed?”
“Actually, no,” he said. “I feigned sleep and then slipped out.”
“Clearly, I am a good influence on you.”
“You tried to come see me after school,” he said, as if that was enough of an explanation. Maybe it was. He handed her a thermos. “I swung by the fridge in the garage on the way. B-positive on the rocks, courtesy of William and the blood bank.”
She’d learned on Saturday night that William worked at a hospital. He’d wrapped up Bethany’s fractured ribs and pronounced Evan exhausted. The healing, she’d been informed, was a ridiculous strain on the body. Even after nearly forty-eight hours of sleep, Evan still looked as if he’d been hollowed out by a melon scooper. “Thanks,” she said. “You look half dead.”
“So says the undead chick.” Stretching himself out on the roof next to her, Evan closed his eyes. “I have felt better,” he admitted. “If you could avoid pummeling me for a day or two, I’d appreciate it.”
“No promises.” Watching the dying sunlight spill over the other houses, she drank the blood. The ice added an interesting texture, kind of a blood smoothie.
“Any word on the king?” he asked.
“Apparently, Jadrien was right—the king left through the tunnels and didn’t look back,” Pearl said. “According to your parents, he’s holed up in his Boston stronghold again. No sign of any symptoms yet.”
“Give it a chance to work. It took you time, and you had a direct hit,” Evan said. “Even your cousin Antoinette won’t show signs for a while.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” Pearl asked. She watched the sun spread across the horizon as if it were melting into a puddle of red gold. A few stars poked through the deepening blue. She felt the coming night like an itch on her skin. “One thing
with vampires . . . you’re never alone. There’s always the Family. But if this doesn’t work, I will be alone. Just me in the sunlight forever. Literally, forever. You get the vampire-immortal thing, right?”
“You aren’t alone.” He sat up. He sounded angry. “You haven’t figured that out yet?” She looked at him and saw his scowl, a sharp contrast to his usual affable smile.
Without warning, he kissed her. It felt like sunlight on her lips.
He drew back. For a long moment she didn’t breathe.
“I heard about the new after-school student activity,” Evan said conversationally, as if he hadn’t just kissed her. “You know it won’t be that simple or fast. Rehabilitating several entire clans is likely to take a while. Are you up for this as a long-term thing?”
She was certain he wasn’t talking just about vampire rehab. She felt as if her eyes were drawn to his lips. “Depends. How ‘long-term’ are you? Do were-unicorns come with an expiration date? Because I’m not getting involved with anyone who is going to do the old-age thing while I remain young and cute. That’s just inappropriate.”
A smile twitched over his lips. “Does this mean you don’t hate me anymore?”
“Maybe.”
“No expiration date. Mythical, remember?” He scooted down the shingles and lowered himself in through his bedroom window.
She followed him, swinging through his window and over his desk. She landed catlike next to him. “I don’t hate you anymore,” she said.
“That’s a start.” He was only inches from her, but he didn’t move. She felt his breath, soft and warm on her face. “I don’t hate you either,” he said softly.
“For the record, you’re still an idiot.”
“And you’re still a bloodsucking fiend.”
“Kiss me again,” she ordered.
Outside, the sun sank, and the night began.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank the Edwards, Spikes, Eric Northmans, and Draculas of the world for not turning me into a vampire. I hate the taste of blood. I’d also like to thank my amazing agent, Andrea Somberg, and my brilliant editor, Karen Wojtyla, as well as Jusin Chanda, Paul Crichton, Emily Fabre, Siena Koncsol, Lucille Rettino, Anne Zafian, and all the other fantastic people at Simon & Schuster for making this book a reality. And finally, many thanks and much love to my wonderful family for being wonderful. You fill my life with sunlight.
Table of Contents
Cover
Half Title
Title
Imprint
Dedication
Chapter one
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter F
our
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Acknowledgments