Rodrigo, the vampire girl, and the poisonous tree guy all burst out of the house.
“What are we going to do?” the hot former pumpkin asked fearfully. “Are we going to get in trouble?”
“No,” Rodrigo said shortly. “Get in the car. All of you. Now!”
The three teenagers scrambled for the car in the driveway, and Rodrigo pulled a key from his pocket and clicked it. The car’s lights lit up as it unlocked.
Rodrigo ran to me and grabbed me. I screamed and thrashed, trying to hit him. He wrenched my arms behind my back, picked me up, and ran to the car with me.
He shoved me into the back seat, along with the vampire girl and the former pumpkin.
“Driver’s seat. Now,” Rodrigo ordered the poisonous tree guy, who was sitting on the passenger’s side. He tossed the keys onto the front seat.
“Aren’t you driving?” the poisonous tree guy asked, scrambling over the emergency brake to get into the driver’s seat.
“No,” Rodrigo said shortly. “Keep her alive. We might need her again.”
I thrashed and kicked Rodrigo in the stomach. He didn’t even flinch. He just grabbed my wrist and sank his teeth into it.
Ow! Ow ow ow ow! What was he doing? What was he doing?!
I kicked him again and again and again, but it seemed to make no difference.
Rodrigo surfaced, grimacing. He smeared blood off his face with the back of his hand. “Disgusting,” he muttered. “Cow blood tastes so much better.”
Then he turned into me.
I gasped, too stunned to keep on kicking. He’d just . . . he’d just . . .
“Get to the home base,” Rodrigo said with my voice, or rather my voice as it sounded in recordings, which was to say weird. “Something’s gone wrong. Loretta might’ve been captured. I’ll text you as soon as it’s safe.”
“Got it,” the poisonous tree guy said, slamming the front door and buckling his seat belt.
“Are we in trouble?” the vampire girl asked nervously.
“We’ll be fine,” Rodrigo said in that weird voice that probably sounded exactly like mine. “Just obey traffic laws, don’t look suspicious, and make sure nobody sees you. You shouldn’t be compromised, just me.”
Where’s Kegan? I thought frantically. She’s supposed to save me!
But I’d probably gotten here way before she had. I’d flown, and she’d been walking. I should have given her a head start to make sure she’d gotten here first. Stupid! Stupid!
Rodrigo’s grip slipped as he turned to shut the door beside me.
I lashed out with my good arm and punched him straight in the nose. Or rather, my nose on his face.
“I’M BEING KIDNAPPED!” I screamed. “HELP! HE’S AN ASWANG AND HE’S IMITATING ME!”
Rodrigo slammed the door, and my nose on his face healed immediately. Stupid vampire magic.
The poisonous tree guy started the car, and he started to back out of the driveway. I lunged for the door handle, but the no-longer-a-pumpkin guy lashed out and stopped me.
This was not the way I’d envisioned holding his hand.
We backed out of the driveway and then rocketed down the street at about twice the speed limit. I heard a siren behind us, and spun around to see a police car following us.
“YES!” I shouted. “Someone heard me!”
The vampire girl’s eyes widened, and she waved her hands. Everything disappeared around me.
“Wha . . .?” I gasped. “Wha . . .?”
“This is not a safe way to drive!” the poisonous tree guy shouted from the front seat. “I can’t see anything! Literally! Anything!”
The vampire girl waved her hand, and a circle of road appeared in front of us. There seemed to be no cars on the road. The poisonous tree guy leaned forward and floored the gas pedal.
“We’re gonna die we’re gonna die we’re gonna die!” the former pumpkin screamed, freaking out.
“Shut up!” the vampire girl hissed. “I can’t make us inaudible!”
“HELP —” I started to shout, but the former pumpkin slapped his hand over my face.
We rocketed down a hill, and then our driver swerved into an empty high school parking lot and screeched to a halt in the parking space right in the middle of it. A police car zoomed past, sirens blaring.
The vampire girl closed her eyes and breathed out.
Please tell me the bat officer’s looking for us, I thought. He’ll be able to find us. Bats can see with sound waves even in the dark, right?
My third grade teacher had been a werebat, and he’d had poor eyesight as a human, so he’d used echolocation a lot.
“Okay,” the poisonous tree guy said after a moment. “Make us visible again, Diana. Maybe change the color of the car and the license plate numbers, though.”
The vampire girl nodded, and everything reappeared around us.
Noooooooo, I moaned.
“Can we get out here?” the former pumpkin asked nervously. “I think I want to go home now. This isn’t what I thought I’d be getting into.”
“Don’t be such a baby,” the vampire girl snapped. “Rodrigo said we might be in danger if we broke the law to help people. What did you expect?”
“I thought I’d just be bringing people to him for help,” the former pumpkin said in a whiny tone.
“You can get out if you want to,” the poisonous tree guy said shortly. “If you don’t have any loyalty, you shouldn’t see Rodrigo’s home base. But don’t expect to be invited back.”
My leg muscles tensed, and I prepared to bolt the second the door beside me opened.
“… No,” the former pumpkin said reluctantly. “I’ll stay.”
I stomped my foot on his foot, furious.
“Ow!” the pumpkin guy cried, letting go of my face.
I took a deep breath. “HELP —”
The vampire girl slapped her hands over my face instead. “Can we, like, get moving?” she asked grimly.
Our driver nodded, and he turned the key in the ignition. We moved out of the parking lot, heading back into the street with total apparent innocence.
Chapter 18: Home Base
“Good job,” the centaur told the poisonous tree when we arrived at Rodrigo’s home base, which turned out to be no more than another boring, normal house. Seriously, Rodrigo had to learn how to make secret lairs properly. “Rodrigo called me a few minutes ago. It sounds like you got away successfully.”
The centaur had been ready for us the instant we’d arrived. He’d passed duct tape and ropes into the car, which the vampire girl had used to tie me up, and then we’d all hurried into the house under cover of her invisibility.
I’d had no opinion about her before, but I was really beginning to not like her.
“Did he get away safely?” the poisonous tree guy asked worriedly.
“Not yet,” the centaur said, “but he’s not trying to. He needs to make it look like she made it home safely, so there’s no evidence tracing back to him when she disappears.”
I sat up eagerly from the beanbag chair the vampire girl had dumped me in. Rodrigo would never be able to fool my family. Not in a million years.
“Won’t her family know the difference?” the former pumpkin asked, looking guilty as he glanced over at me.
Yeah, you’d better feel guilty, you attractive moron, I fumed. I was seriously considering downgrading him from “hot” to just “okay.”
“They seemed fooled when he talked to them on the phone,” the centaur said. “Apparently she’s grounded, so he’ll have an excuse to sulk in her room and not talk to them for the rest of the evening.”
I groaned behind my duct tape. They’d definitely be fooled. Why did I have to be so predictable?
That was it. No more sulking, ever again. Once I got out of this safely, I’d tell my parents that if I ever seemed to be sulking, it would prove I was actually an aswang in disguise. I could handle that. I was sure of it.
Now I just had to get out of this sa
fely. That was looking pretty difficult right now.
“What about Loretta?” the poisonous tree guy asked. He was sitting on the sofa next to the rakshasa girl and the former pumpkin. Nobody, more’s the pity, was sitting within kicking range of me.
“Unfortunately, she was captured,” the centaur said grimly. “I’m not sure how that will affect our plans for tonight. We might have to just cancel them.”
“No!” the former pumpkin cried. “It’s the last night my neighbors are out of town. We’ll never be able to get at their turning stone when they’re back! They’re haltijas!”
Haltijas were specters who specialized in protecting things. Among their many talents were the ability to see past invisibility and a kind of super strength while insubstantial. If a haltija punched another specter while both were insubstantial, the other one wouldn’t get back up. They often got jobs as security guards at banks or other places that wanted to make sure specters couldn’t break in.
Wait a minute. I sucked my breath in through my duct tape. Does that mean they’re planning to taint other people’s turning stones? ON PURPOSE?
I’d believe it of Rodrigo. But what was wrong with the others? Why on Earth would they agree to do that? Were they crazy?
Maybe they really were tainted. That had to be it.
“My target’s only vulnerable tonight, too,” the vampire girl said. “And you told us time was of the essence. We have to get as many stones tainted as possible before they start getting reported, right?”
“Yes,” the centaur said, “but without Loretta —”
“It doesn’t matter,” the poisonous tree guy broke in. “There’s already one stone tainted that could get reported at any time. The wereechidna was apparently stupid enough to touch her clan’s turning stone. Rodrigo told us right before she arrived.” He flicked a disgusted glance over at me. “So we’re already on the clock. Once even one gets reported, it’ll be all over the news, and every clan will have their turning stone locked in a safety deposit box or something.”
The centaur winced. “That complicates things. Especially since, without Loretta, we have only one night to work with instead of the equivalent of weeks. Okay. What are the most important stones to reach and the ones we can get at most quickly?”
“The mayor’s clan, of course,” the rakshasa girl said. “There’s only one tomte clan, and he’ll be extremely motivated if his clan’s one of the ones at extinction risk.”
“Sasquatches, too,” the poisonous tree guy said. “Three members of the city council are in that clan, and it’s the only one in the city.”
“Good,” the centaur nodded. “What else?”
“We should taint my neighbors’ stone,” the former vampire pumpkin said, raising his hand. “I went to a lot of effort to learn their schedule.”
“There are seventeen haltija clans in the city,” the vampire girl told him crushingly. “They’d just move to another one.”
The former pumpkin looked close to pouting.
He was seriously adorable when he looked pouty. Wait — no, he wasn’t! He was a jerk who thought it was okay to taint other clans’ turning stones! Grrrrr!
“What about the werebuzzards?” the poisonous tree asked, looking thoughtful. “There’s only one clan, and it would definitely scare the politicians if that’s one at risk.”
“No good,” the centaur snorted. “Their stone’s already tainted. Most of the buzzard stones in the country were tainted a few decades ago, but only half of those got reported and destroyed. The rest, the blasted birds just kept on using. Apparently it makes no difference to them.”
The vampire girl cocked her head to the side, and the former pumpkin looked confused.
I grinned fiercely behind my duct tape. Awesome buzzards. I almost wished I was one of them.
They quickly drew up a schedule with six key turning stones to taint, and then the four of them got up.
“What about her?” the vampire girl asked, tilting her head at me.
I tried to look innocent, as if I hadn’t been secretly plotting exactly how I’d escape the second one of them came near me.
“Well, we can’t kill her,” the poisonous tree guy said. “Rodrigo said we might need her later. Let’s lock her in the empty bedroom.”
“Of course we’re not going to kill her!” the vampire pumpkin exclaimed. “We’re not murderers, we’re just making sure taint gets legalized so Rodrigo can help more people!”
“Of course,” the centaur said smoothly. “That goes without saying. Jordan, would you do the honors?”
I tensed. The second he got close enough, I’d shift and claw him with my talons, and then —
But he didn’t get close. He shifted into his tree form, grew a small, pearlike fruit, and shook his branches until it fell to the ground. Then he shifted back to human, pulled a glove out of his pocket, and picked up the fruit in his gloved hand. He squeezed the fruit until juice welled up from the bruised surface.
He swung his arm back and threw the fruit at my face. I ducked, and it splatted into the beanbag chair behind me.
Ha! I thought smugly as something sticky and wet trickled down my neck. You didn’t —
And I was in a room totally empty of furniture, lying next to the window facing away from the doorway. I tried to wriggle, but my body wouldn’t move. Only my eyelids would open and shut. That poisonous fruit paralyzed me!
“— you sure we can trust them?” the centaur’s voice murmured behind me. “They only started today, and Damon seems wishy-washy.”
“What other choice have we got?” the poisonous tree guy said. “We don’t have time to call for help from Los Abarimon. Besides, if we did, we’d have to explain what Rodrigo’s doing.”
“Plots within plots,” the centaur muttered under his breath. “I can’t wait till we can act openly. Okay, if you’re sure they’re not going to screw up or change their minds and betray us.”
“Should be fine,” the poisonous tree guy’s voice said. “I chose Diana in the first place because she hates everybody and everything, and as for Damon . . .”
There was the sound of a door shutting, and their voices became muffled as footsteps walked away. I heard another door slam faintly downstairs, and then a car started up outside.
My face started to tingle, and then my arms and legs. After a few more minutes, I could move everything again, but my limbs and neck felt sluggish and numb.
Never mind that, I thought. The important thing was that they hadn’t thought through the whole “tying up a were” thing.
I shifted to vulture, slipping out of the ropes around my hands and legs. The duct tape remained sticky across my beak, so I had to shift back to human to rip it off. I tried to use my right hand at first, which was a mistake.
Oucccccccch!
I’d somehow completely forgotten that I’d broken it. I gritted my teeth and used my left hand instead.
Okay. So I was loose, but I was locked in a room. Now would be a great time for Kegan to arrive and save me. I waited hopefully.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Okay, fine, apparently I’d have to find my own way out.
I got up, wincing as I tried to use my right arm and quickly shifting to my left, and walked around the room, looking for ideas. There was no furniture, and the view outside the window was unhelpful, being nothing but a dark sky and a bunch of houses in a neighborhood I didn’t recognize. I probably should have tried to memorize our route here, but I hadn’t. It wasn’t like my memory would have been that amazing, anyway.
I paced in a circle. I had to think of some way to stop them from tainting six turning stones and destroying six clans. But how?
I stared out the window, frowning into the sky, and then the obvious occurred to me. The window was locked from the inside, not the outside. I gingerly used my left hand to unlock it, and then I lifted my left leg and kicked through the screen. It burst straight through, and I nearly lost my bal
ance. I hopped on my right leg as I pulled it out of there.
I stared down at the ground far below the window, swallowing. I was on the second floor. I had a broken wing. This was going to hurt, assuming I survived it at all. But I had to try.
It took me a few minutes to summon up my nerve, minutes in which I was desperately hoping that Kegan would show up and unlock the door for me instead. She didn’t.
I squeezed my eyes shut, took a deep breath, and shoved my head through the busted screen. I leaned forward as far as I could, then shifted into vulture form.
Aaaah! I was falling! Aaaah! I was upside-down! Aaaaah! One of my wings was OW OW OW OW OW!
I crashed straight into a bush in the next-door neighbors’ garden, and lay there, dazed.
I was still alive. That was good. But I’d hit my head hard. Did I have a concussion? Could you tell if you had a concussion?
“Heeeeeeeeelp!” I shouted as loud as I could. My voice sounded weak and dazed. “Heeeeeeeeeelp!”
A light came on in the next-door neighbors’ back porch, and a tiny gnome man stepped outside. He looked one way and the other, then jumped when he saw me.
“What’s wrong?” he shouted, his voice thin and high-pitched. “Are you okay?”
“I broke my arm trying to fly,” I mumbled, barely biting back a sob.
“Let me call 911,” he said. “I’ll be right back!” He scurried back into his house.
I nodded weakly, but it made my head spin. Owww. I probably did have a concussion.
The rest was a blur for the next few minutes, but an ambulance finally arrived with a dracula paramedic.
“Drink this,” the woman said, holding out a cup to me as she held my head up.
I took it fuzzily and sipped the blue-black liquid. I gagged. I’d forgotten just how horrible vampire blood tasted.
“Drink it all,” the woman said. “You’re going to need more than that, too.”
I nodded and I forced myself to take another gulp. I barely managed to keep it down. Revulsion filled my mouth, and I let out a tremendous shudder.
“Are you better enough to walk?” the woman asked.
“Arm still hurts,” I mumbled. “Still broken.”
Trials of a Teenage Werevulture (Trilogy of a Teenage Werevulture Book 1) Page 16