The Taste of Night

by R. L. Stine

  Harrison called Mark over and introduced him to Destiny. Mark studied Destiny for a long moment. “Where’d you meet her?” he asked Harrison.

  “At the diner.”

  Mark squeezed Harrison’s shoulder and grinned at Destiny. “When you get tired of this loser, come see me—okay?”

  Destiny laughed. “For sure.”

  “Hey, who wants to be in the game?” A short, stocky guy wearing a vintage Bob’s Big Boy bowling shirt held up a board game. “We’re gonna play Strip Trivial Pursuit. Who wants to play?”

  He got a lot of hoots and laughs in reply, but no takers.

  Destiny saw some guys watching her from the window. She was wearing a blue-and-white striped top that stopped a couple of inches short of the waist of her jeans. Guess I look okay tonight, she thought.

  Harrison placed his hand on her back and guided her through the room, introducing her to people. The touch of his hand gave her a shiver.

  “Hey, Alby? Where’s Alby?” Harrison called.

  A tall, lanky guy in black Buddy Holly glasses stepped out of the kitchen, carrying more bags of chips. He had spiky black hair, a silver ring in one ear, and a short, fuzzy beard.

  The bags of chips were grabbed away before Alby could set them down on the table. He came up to Destiny and Harrison. “Maybe we should order some pizzas.”

  “You’re the birthday boy,” Harrison said. “Order anything you want.”

  “Hey, thanks.”

  “As long as you pay.”

  “Hey—nice guy.” Alby turned to Destiny and his eyes went wide behind the big, black-framed glasses.

  “This is Destiny,” Harrison said. “Destiny, Alby.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Destiny said.

  Alby stared at her. “We met last night, remember?”

  Destiny squinted at him. “I don’t think so.”

  “Yeah. Sure, we did,” Alby insisted. “At Club Sixty-One. Remember?”

  “Club Sixty-One?” Destiny’s mind spun. “No way. I stayed home with my little brother last night.”

  Alby turned to Harrison. “She has short-term memory loss,” he said. “We studied it in Psych last term.”

  “I was home—” Destiny started.

  “We danced. You and me,” Alby said. “We had some Jell-O shooters. Remember? You used that fake I. D.? We laughed about that couple that got totally trashed and had to be kicked out? You wore those low-riding jeans.”

  “Oh, wow.” Destiny began to realize what was going on.

  And then Alby raised his head, and she saw the spot on his throat. The two pinprick red wounds on his neck.

  “Oh, no. Oh, no.”

  She stared at the cut on Alby’s throat—and ran from the room.

  chapter twenty

  “NOW YOU THINK I’M A PSYCHO NUT”

  “I’M SORRY. I CAN’T REALLY EXPLAIN IT,” DESTINY said, shaking her head.

  Harrison had followed her out into the hall. A couple was still making out by the garbage cans. Through the open doorway, Destiny glimpsed Alby watching her from the middle of the living room, a puzzled expression on his face.

  “You…don’t know why you freaked?” Harrison asked. He squeezed her hand. “Your hand is ice cold. Are you okay? Do you need a doctor or something?”

  “No. I’m fine now,” Destiny said, heart still pounding like crazy. “I’d better go. I’m really sorry I ran out like that.”

  He studied her. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah. Totally. I just…uh…I can’t explain it.”

  Actually, I can explain it. But you wouldn’t believe me, Harrison. If I told you that Alby ran into my vampire twin sister at the club last night, and she drank his blood, that wouldn’t exactly go over, would it?

  “You’re shaking,” Harrison said. “Can I drive you home?”

  “No. I…brought my car,” she replied. “I’ll be fine.” She forced a smile. “Now you think I’m some kind of psycho nut, don’t you?”

  He smiled back at her. “Yes, I do. Definitely.”

  “Great,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

  “But I kinda like psycho nuts,” Harrison said.

  That made her feel a tiny bit better. She leaned forward and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “See you at work tomorrow.” Then she ran down the stairs and out to her car without looking back.

  It was a hot, damp night. The steamy air made her cool skin tingle. She fumbled in her bag for her car key. “Where is it? Where is it?”

  A wave of panic swept over her.

  What did Livvy think she was doing? Except for her family and Ana-Li, everyone thought she had run off to another town with Ross. But now, here she was parading around in the clubs that everyone went to.

  Why was she showing herself like that? What were people supposed to think?

  Livvy must not care what people think, Destiny decided. She must be so hungry, so desperate for blood she doesn’t care if she comes out in the open.

  Ari flashed into Destiny’s mind. He had been dead for two weeks now, and Destiny thought about him every minute. Such a good, sweet person. He didn’t deserve to die that way. Destiny missed him so much.

  Livvy is desperate…so desperate, she murdered Ari. She didn’t give a damn that I cared about him.

  A tap on Destiny’s shoulder made her cry out in surprise.

  She turned and saw a flash of blond hair.

  “Livvy?” she gasped. “Ohmigod! Livvy?”

  The girl took a step back, her hand still in the air. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Not Livvy. An attractive platinum-blond girl with green eyes, dark eyebrows, and dark purple lipstick on her lips. “Is the party in there?” she asked, pointing to Harrison’s building.

  Still shaken, Destiny nodded. “Yeah. Third floor. You can’t miss it.”

  “Hey, thanks.” The girl turned and strode to the building, blond hair waving behind her.

  I can’t keep doing that, Destiny told herself. I’ve got to stop seeing Livvy wherever I go.

  She drove home, gripping the wheel with both hands, leaning forward in the seat, forcing herself not to think about anything but the driving.

  Her cell rang. Ana-Li, she saw. She didn’t pick up. I’ll call her later when I’ve calmed down.

  Entering her neighborhood, she braked at a stop sign. She could see Ari’s house across the street, windows dark except for his parents’ bedroom in the back. A sad house now.

  A few minutes later, she pulled the Civic up the drive and stopped a few feet from the garage door. Dad was still not home, she saw. He’s worked late every night this week. Mikey and I never see him.

  She entered through the front door and saw Mikey jumping up and down on the living room couch. “Hey—what’s up?” she called, pushing the door shut behind her. “Where is Mrs. Gilly? Isn’t she watching you tonight?”

  “She’s upstairs. In the bathroom,” Mikey said.

  Destiny could barely understand him. He had plastic fangs hanging from his mouth, and he wore a black cape over his slender shoulders.

  Destiny rushed over to him and hugged him. He pulled free with a growl, snapping at her with the plastic fangs.

  “Don’t you know any other games?” she asked. “Do you have to play vampire all the time?”

  “I’m not playing!” he insisted.

  “Mikey, listen to me—”

  “I’m not playing. I’m a real vampire,” he shouted. And then he added, “Just like Livvy.”

  “But, Mikey—”

  “Look,” he said. “I’ll prove it.” He held out his hand.

  Destiny gasped as she saw the deep red bite marks up and down his skinny arm.

  chapter twenty-one

  DAD MIGHT KILL LIVVY

  “DAD, MIKEY IS SERIOUSLY SICK,” DESTINY SAID, shaking her head. “And I guess I don’t have to tell you it’s all Livvy’s fault.”

  Dr. Weller had his elbows on his desk, supporting his chin in his hands. Th
e fluorescent ceiling light reflected in his glasses. “His therapist says he’s making progress.”

  Destiny sighed. She crossed her arms in front of her. “I’m not so sure. You saw his arm. Those bite marks…”

  “Pretty awful,” he agreed. He sat up straight, pulled off the glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Mikey has suffered a terrible loss, Dee. We all have. But you and I are a little better equipped to deal with it. He’s too young to know how to cope.”

  A dog howled in the holding pen in the back room, and that set off all the other dogs yipping and barking.

  “We have to stop him from pretending to be a vampire all the time,” Destiny said. She shuddered. “It’s not helping him.”

  “And in a way, it might be,” her dad said softly. “By playing the role, maybe it helps him work out his fears. Maybe it helps him deal with the frightening thoughts he’s having.”

  Destiny stared at the floor. She didn’t know what to say. And she hated seeing her father so sad and tired-looking. He’s aged twenty years this summer, she thought.

  When she finally looked up, he was crumpling the papers on his desk.

  “Dad—what are you doing?”

  He angrily ripped the papers in half.

  “Dad—?”

  “I want to bring Livvy home. I want to restore her to a normal life. Ross, too. But my work is going nowhere, Dee. I…I can’t find the formula. I’ve missed time and time again. I’m a failure. We have to face the fact.”

  Destiny wanted to say something to comfort him. But what could she say?

  “So many pressures,” he muttered. “So many pressures…”

  And that’s when he told her about the abandoned apartment building near campus. Vampires had been tracked there. Vampires were living there.

  “My hunters and I…we have to clean the building out,” he told her. “The pressure is on to take care of the vampire problem in Dark Springs. I’m the leader of the Hunters. I have no choice. My hunters and I have to go in there and kill as many vampires as we can. In two weeks. Sunday at dawn. After the night of the full moon. That’s when we’ll strike.”

  All Destiny could think about was Livvy and Ross.

  Were they living in that unfinished apartment building too?

  Could her father kill his own daughter?

  He couldn’t—could he?

  “I’m sorry to lay this on you,” Destiny told Ana-Li. “But I don’t have anyone else I can tell.”

  Ana-Li sighed. “I just came to say good-bye, Dee. I’m leaving tomorrow morning. I…I’m so sorry I won’t be here to help you.”

  She wrapped Destiny in a hug.

  “I’ll e-mail you as soon as I get moved into the dorm. I promise,” Ana-Li said, raising one hand as if swearing an oath. “If I can’t get my laptop hooked up, I’ll call you.”

  “Thanks,” Destiny said, holding onto her friend.

  “What about the new boyfriend?” Ana-Li asked. “Can’t you confide in him?”

  “Harrison? He’s been very sweet. And we’ve been seeing each other just about every night. But…I can’t tell him about Livvy yet. I just can’t. I don’t know him well enough.”

  Ana-Li grinned at her. “But you’d like to know him really well—right?”

  “Well…yeah. But I can’t think about that now.” Destiny started to pace back and forth along the room above the garage. She kept staring at Livvy’s bed. Livvy’s empty bed.

  “I have to find a way to warn Livvy. Livvy and Ross.”

  “Even after she was so horrible to you?” Ana-Li asked. “Even after she dragged you off in that parking lot and threatened to drink your blood?”

  Destiny stopped pacing. She gripped the back of her desk chair as if holding herself up. “She’s my sister,” she said through gritted teeth. A tear slid down one cheek. “She’s my sister, and I want her back. For her sake. For Mikey’s sake. For all of us.”

  She took a breath and let it out slowly. “But if Dad finds her in that apartment building near campus…if Dad finds her…” The words caught in her throat.

  “He wouldn’t drive a stake through Livvy’s heart,” Ana-Li insisted.

  A chill ran down Destiny’s back. “He might.”

  Destiny couldn’t sleep that night. Her thoughts swirled round and round until the room spun and her head pounded.

  “Dad might kill Livvy.”

  She pictured her mother, tall and blond and pretty, like her twin daughters. And so young. Destiny only remembered her mother young.

  Her mother was bitten by a vampire, a vampire who wanted to take her away, to make her his. She killed herself instead. She killed herself to escape the vampire’s clutches.

  That’s why Dad became leader of the Hunters. That’s why he is determined to wipe them out. They took away the love of his life.

  And that’s why he has been searching for a cure, a formula to restore vampires to a normal life. But he has failed. His daughter is a vampire, and he has failed to find a cure.

  And now he will hunt her down. And his hatred for vampires will force him to kill her. If he doesn’t do it, one of his hunters will.

  Unless I get there first, Destiny thought, rolling onto her side, scrunching the sheet to her chin.

  Unless I can warn Livvy.

  But how?

  After that fight in the club parking lot, I don’t think she’ll talk to me. If she sees me coming, she’ll change into a creature and fly away. If I tell her what Dad and his hunters are planning, she won’t believe me. She’ll think it’s a trick to get her to come home.

  So…what can I do?

  The ceiling spun above Destiny’s head. Light and shadows danced crazily, like wild creatures let loose in the room. Somewhere in the distance, a siren wailed.

  What can I do?

  And then she had an idea.

  chapter twenty-two

  ONE EVIL DAWN

  DESTINY SAT STRAIGHT UP AND KICKED THE COVERS away.

  Yes. Yes.

  Ross.

  Ross will talk to me. Ross always liked me. And he was always easy to talk to.

  I’ll find Ross. I’ll tell him what’s going to happen. Then Ross can talk to Livvy. And maybe…maybe they’ll both be saved.

  I’ll go at dawn, Destiny decided. When the vampires have been out all night and are falling asleep.

  At least I have a plan. I’ll go into that building. I’ll find Ross. I’ll tell him…I’ll tell him…

  She settled back down and shut her eyes. But she knew she’d never fall asleep this night.

  At a few minutes before six, she crept silently down the stairs, into the dark kitchen, dishwasher light blinking, and out the back door. Her old Civic refused to start until the third try. She looked to the house to make sure the grinding sounds hadn’t awakened her father.

  Then she slid the gearshift into drive and headed off, into a gray world, high clouds blocking the rising sun, bare black trees shivering in the cool, morning breeze.

  Not many cars on the road. A few sleepy-eyed people on their way to early morning jobs.

  Destiny realized she was gritting her teeth so hard, her jaw ached. This is the best time to look for Ross, she assured herself for the hundredth time. The vampires will all be heading in to sleep, weary after a night of prowling.

  Will I be able to wake him? Will he recognize me?

  Of course he will. He’s still Ross.

  She drove her car around the campus square. Squirrels scampered over the lawn. The sun still hadn’t burned through the clouds.

  A few moments later, Destiny pulled the car up to the side of the unfinished apartment building. She climbed out, legs rubbery, heart suddenly pounding. And gazed up the side of the redbrick wall at the rows of open, unglassed windows.

  Two large crows stared back at her from a third-floor window ledge. She heard a fluttering sound and saw a bat shoot into a window near the top.

  “Oh, wow.”

  So many apartments, she thought. Ho
w will I ever find Ross?

  I’ll just have to be lucky, she decided. I have to save him and my sister.

  Taking a deep breath, she made her way through the front entrance, into the dark lobby. She stepped past rolls of wire and cable and a stack of Sheetrock squares, past the open elevator shaft, and started up the concrete stairs.

  Her shoes echoed hollowly in the stairwell. The only sound until she reached the first floor—and heard the moans and sighs and groans of the sleeping vampires. Squinting into the gray light, she gazed in horror at the row of open apartment doorways.

  I’ll start here, she decided, gripping the railing. I can’t call out his name. It would wake everyone up. I’ll have to peek into every apartment until I find him.

  Her whole body trembling now, she forced herself to move away from the stairs, into the trash-cluttered hall, up to the first door.

  I should have brought a flashlight. I thought there would be some sun. The pale, gray light from the hall windows seemed to lengthen the shadows and make everything appear darker.

  Sticking her head through the doorless opening, Destiny peered into the dark apartment. She couldn’t see anything, but she heard low, steady breathing. She took a step inside. Then one more step.

  And in the soupy gray, she saw two girls asleep on their backs on low cots against the wall, dark hair spread over their pillows, mouths open revealing curled fangs that slid up and down with each breath they took.

  Destiny backed into the hall. The next two apartments appeared empty. No furniture. No sounds of sleep.

  A long, mournful sigh echoed down the hallway. It sent a shiver down Destiny’s back.

  She peered into the third apartment. And saw a scrawny, little man asleep on the floor, a pillow under his bald head, his sunken eyes wide open. Destiny gasped and backed away, thinking he could see her. But he was sound asleep.

  Moans and harsh snoring followed her to the next apartment. A man and woman, sleeping on a bare mattress, holding hands, their fangs dripping with saliva.

  Back into the hall. Nearly at the end now, and no sign of Ross. She stepped around a pile of trash, mostly newspapers and magazines, tossed carelessly against the wall.