almost true.
“She’s been seeing a new kid who moved into her apartment complex. The other kids don’t really know him yet, so I guess he didn’t get invited.”
“Next time, I want to know about any parties in advance,” my mother said.
“Yeah, okay.”
“I also want phone numbers and an address for wherever you are. And I want to know exactly when you’re going to be back.”
“What’s the address here?” I whispered to Evan with my hand over the receiver.
“Tell her 6 Riverview Drive,” Evan said. “You’re actually at my house, but it would be better if she thought you were at my aunt’s house.”
I opened my mouth to ask why it mattered but clamped it shut again. What did I care? Being at Evan’s house, even if only as his aunt’s patient, was good enough. I gave my mother the Riverview address and explained that it was going to be a slumber party.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” she said. “What about your leg?”
“My knee feels fine,” I lied. “Besides Mrs. Groacher is the next best thing to a doctor.”
“Well, I want to talk to her!” my mother informed me.
I rolled my eyes for Evan’s benefit.
“Yeah, I guess you can talk with her. Hold on.”
I held the phone out to Evan who took it and went in search of his aunt. He returned a few minutes later. “You’re all set. My aunt promised to chaperone the ‘party’ and bring you home Sunday afternoon.”
“That’s when I’ll get grounded and your aunt will get a call,” I said. “My mother will know something was up as soon as she sees all these ant bites.”
“You’ll be healed by then,” Evan said, placing my pink phone on the night stand beside the bed. The sleeves of his blue button-up shirt were rolled up, revealing pale muscular forearms. Over the last few years he had grown to look like a gymnast or a bodybuilder, yet he had not played team sports or seriously worked out in the school gym since we were in elementary school. Other than helping to coach girls’ soccer because his niece was on the team, I had never seen him near a sports field.
“Nothing heals in two days,” I informed him.
“That’s why my aunt told your mother the party was for the whole weekend. She promised you’d be home by Sunday afternoon.”
“I can’t stay here till then,” I protested. “Rachel and I are taking the bus to the mall on Sunday.”
“There’s always next week,” Evan suggested.
“Stephen King won’t be signing books at Books-A-Million next week.”
A loud crash came from another room. People were yelling. Evan snatched the phone back.
“I’m sorry but you won’t be seeing Stephen King Sunday.”
I opened my mouth to argue but Evan had already left the room, slamming the door behind him. I heard the ominous sound of a lock snapping in place.
What had I gotten myself into?
4
Thomas sat at the huge mahogany desk and stared out the large window beside him. An ultraviolet coating on the glass made it possible for him to look out at the sunlit grounds of the meticulously manicured estate, a property that had been in the clan’s possession since colonial times. One of the human gardeners swirled around a tree with a state-of-the art riding lawnmower. Apparently unaware of the hundred brutal souls inside who would like nothing so much as to drain the life from his healthy young flesh, the young man sang and bobbed his head to music that poured from a pair of ear buds. Thomas could easily have dissected the music from the small engine clatter to identify the melody, but his thoughts were elsewhere.
His eyes flicked to the tear-off calendar on the right corner of the desk. Most members of the clan kept some version of a death calendar, a stark reminder of the price one paid for exposure to the vampire virus. The last page of Belinda’s calendar sat there like an enemy flag to remind him that even the strongest among them couldn’t outrun the tragedy of their condition. Belinda had so far beaten the odds by almost two weeks, but ultimately she too would fall prey to mindlessness and rage.
Thomas tapped her calendar page and stared at the blood red numerals: 1825.
1825 days, five years, usually to the day, that was the lifespan of a vampire’s mind.
He leaned back in Belinda’s—now his—deep leather chair and smiled grimly. The irony was not lost on him. The clans were easily the most powerful force on the planet, bar none. Money, power, stealth, the clans had it all. Even individual vampires were physically stronger and often more mentally acute than the humans from whom they were spawned, but nature had issued one irrefutable, terrifying decree: the genetic mutations that gave them so much superiority would ultimately burn like a torch inside their skulls until nothing remained, nothing but hunger and rage.
“Zombies,” Caroline said as she stepped into his office, “I’m so sick of seeing them advertised on TV and in the movies. Have you heard of that show “The Walking Dead”? Makes me feel like flying out to California or wherever the hell it is that they film that disgusting mess—”
“What have we heard from the team in Maine?” Thomas asked. He had no time for pop culture nor novice vampires who actually still cared about anything humans said or did. It wouldn’t be long before the dwindling of her short lifespan would burn away all interest in anything but survival, but for now she had to be ignored. The short, previously plump but rapidly thinning, redhead was at least efficient in her duties.
“Carlson called in,” the young woman said. “He and the others are spending the rest of the day in a motel in Portland. They’ll be in the Town of Groacherville early tonight.”
“Keep me posted,” Thomas said, turning his chair to face out the window again.
“There’s one more thing, sir.”
Curious, Thomas glanced back at her.
“Our people caught two Vermont clansmen. Carlson wants to know what to do with them.”
“The bitch must know about the rogue,” Thomas spat, placing his hands on the cool wood of his desk. He was, of course, referring to the impetuous Vermont clan queen Claudia. His claws extended but his iron will kept them from scratching the desk’s perfect glossy finish.
“The Vermont people are under control?” he asked.
“’Captured’ is the term Carlson used.”
“Tell them to feed on vampire blood today…but carefully. And leave no evidence.”
“I’ll convey the message,” she said. She turned to leave but then paused. “I’m not really sure how all of this works, sir, but if I wanted to fly to California or wherever they’re filming that ridiculous show…do I get vacations?”
It would have been easy to snatch a pencil from his desk and hurl it through her chest but Thomas merely waved her away. If necessary, he would have her transferred to corpse cleaning duties for a few months. However, if she wasn’t better after that….
5
Hearing a girl scream, I gritted my teeth and slid to the edge of the bed. Though my knee miraculously didn’t hurt anymore, it felt as though several layers of my skin were being peeled away. I fought back tears and wondered why my gums and fingernails also ached.
“You can do this,” I told myself as I eased to my feet. The pain was like a living creature clinging to every pore of my body. The ants had done their job well. The clamor of voices beyond my room grew louder. Though my knee easily supported me, there was so much other pain it was hard to focus. I gasped and my vision blurred.
Something was wrong.
I touched raw fingers to the wall and willed myself to stay upright. I would not allow myself to faint. Taking a ragged breath, I shuffled toward the door. Boys were yelling now but I could no longer hear the girl.
Who was she?
“I’ll lock you in the basement if I have to,” came Evan’s voice from what sounded like quite a ways away.
Moving slower than a rusted robot, I crept toward the door. I had never felt such agony. The ants must have bitten every inch of my body
. The skin on my arms, stomach and legs was puffy with masses of red welts. I couldn’t see any evidence that Evan’s aunt had applied any cream or ointment, though that probably shouldn’t have surprised me. Judging by the lock on my door, it seemed obvious that I wasn’t really a patient. From the sounds of the commotion out there, it didn’t seem that any of us were.
I took two more steps and sucked in a breath each time. I now knew what a lobster in a pot felt like. It took all my willpower not to scream.
“Get that witch away from me!” a boy bellowed.
“Can’t you all just shut up,” a girl screamed. “Just shut up!”
At least she was alive, whoever she was.
“Erica, you should go back to bed,” Evan said. “My aunt will be back in after—”
“I can speak for myself, Nephew,” came his aunt’s high-pitched voice. “Young lady, either you get back in that room or I’m going to give you something that will make you sick to your stomach for a week.”
I paused, both to rest my pain-wracked body and to put my thoughts together. I didn’t know any Erica. I also didn’t remember seeing any new girls at the military base, but there had been a lot of kids there.
I inched forward again only to see the knob turning. Stopping, imagining the pain of the door striking my raw skin, I said, “Evan?”
“What are you doing out of bed?” Evan’s aunt asked has she pushed into the room. The rush of air from the door made me wince. “Don’t worry. That will all be healed up in a few hours.”
I didn’t believe her. Not even a little.
“Maybe someone should just bring me home,” I suggested.
“Might as well drive a wooden stake through your heart right now,” Mrs. Groacher said. She wasn’t smiling. “Now back up and get into bed. You’re not going anyplace, not until Sunday.”
Fearing the stern woman would grab at my raw arms, I did as told. The trip back to bed was quicker and, if possible, more painful. I eased myself down to a prone position and sighed as stinging nerve endings settled down. Exhausted, I could still hear the boys yelling in the background. A series of thumps and slaps seemed to silence them.
Nurse Groacher leaned over me. A vision of Kathy Bates’ character from Misery, the Stephen King movie, came to mind. I had a fleeting vision of a board being propped between my ankles as the woman smashed a sledgehammer against my feet. I knew I had to get out of this place but my body had done all it could do. Already my eyelids were growing heavy. I ran my tongue across the inside of sore gums and was glad I couldn’t remember fire ants crawling inside my mouth.
Nurse Groacher said, “I’ll be back in a couple of hours with….”
I didn’t hear anything else because blessed unconsciousness took me.
6
A blood-curdling scream stabbed like a knife through my ears. I sat bolt upright and heard the clank of chains. Cold steel chafed at my wrists. A white hot rage flashed across my mind. I snarled and yanked against the shackles that bound my arms to the cast iron headboard behind me. I kicked and felt another set of chains securing my ankles to the footboard. Somehow, I had allowed myself to be duped by the gorgeous but evil Evan and his mean-spirited aunt.
Rage surged like a living mass inside of me.
“Let me out of here!” I hissed and felt the skin inside my mouth rip. For some reason, the coppery taste of blood was driving me crazy. I ran my tongue across the wounds but could feel nothing. The pain was gone.
Something was different, however.
I probed my teeth with my tongue. They seemed to take up more space inside my mouth. Then the tip of my tongue passed across the point of an upper canine tooth. I felt an instant stab of pain but as with the earlier cut, the discomfort vanished as quickly as I felt it. The taste of blood sent my mind into an almost uncontrollable state of hunger. My stomach grumbled with need.
What was happening to me?
“Evan! Nurse Groacher!” I shook all four chains at once. “You better let me out of here!”
Through the walls, I could hear a muffled male voice also calling for freedom, but his pleas seemed to have no more effect than my own. If only we had been closer together, maybe we could have teamed up to escape.
Suddenly, I realized the pain from my ant bites was gone. I glanced down. Unbelievably, the hundreds of red welts all over my body had disappeared. It hardly seemed possible that I could have healed so quickly. Maybe the red marks hadn’t been bites at all. Maybe they had been some kind of a rash…caused by Nurse Groacher?
Even as I thought it, I knew it wasn’t true. I had still been conscious when the ants attacked me. They had been as real and painful as the recent marks on my skin. No, something beyond my understanding had happened; I intended to find out what, just as soon as I could get free of my restraints…and get something to eat. My stomach cramped in hunger.
“Evan, please let me go now. I promise not to tell anyone.”
Who would believe me anyway?
“Evan? Evan?” I kept up my calls for several minutes until it became obvious that either he wasn’t listening or didn’t care. Either way, I was on my own. I knew I should have been more frightened but something inside of me had changed. Here, chained and locked in a strange room, I felt more in control than ever before in my short teen life. I couldn’t put a finger on why I felt so different, so strong, but I did.
I was also hungrier than I had ever been.
Visions of barely cooked hunks of steak came to my mind. And the weird thing was, I didn’t even like steak…certainly not raw. Nevertheless, the image made my mouth water. I remembered the blood being squeezed from the headless squirrel. I imagined my mouth below that gray body, catching every drop.
“Yuck!”
What was happening to me?
I had to get away from this place. Now.
I studied my chains and the cast iron headboard for any signs of weakness. Not seeing any, I had moved my focus to the manacles around my ankles. The floorboards in the hallway creaked ever-so-faintly. All senses attuned, I inhaled and could smell his earthy scent. A whole new kind of hunger overcame me.
Everything stopped as I waited for Evan to unlock and open the door.
The sight of him struck me with an intensity I wasn’t prepared for. His strong chin and dark eyes were like beacons, and the open top buttons of his shirt revealed pale skin pulled over taught chest muscles, muscles that matched the ripples beneath the skin of his thick forearms. Awestruck, I watched him approach the bed with a brass key in one hand.
“My aunt gets carried away,” Evan said as he freed me from the manacles around first one ankle then the other. As he reached for my wrists, my eyes were drawn to his Adams apple and the taut cords to either side of his neck. I had an overwhelming desire to lick and bite into him there. It took all of my willpower not to give into the urge as he released the last two manacles.
“Are you okay?” he asked, leaning so close I could see every whisker of his five o’clock shadow. I held my breath and tried to focus on the distant wall with the bent gun, but even the sound of his voice sent tremors of need coursing through my body.
It’s true that I had had a crush on him for going on two years, but this was something else entirely. There was something animalistic about the way my mouth watered at the sight of him, the way the muscles between my thighs trembled. I simultaneously needed him to leave and to stay. My body was a quivering mass of hormones and every last one of them wanted one thing—him.
“The next twenty-four hours are going to be the hardest for you,” he said. “It’s a transition period for your digestive and circulatory systems.” The deep timbre of his voice made it hard to concentrate. “Considering how many more ants attacked you, you’re doing really well compared to a couple of the guys and Erica.”
Fury shot like electricity through my body. Though I didn’t know any Erica, hearing him say her name was reason enough to-to…. Breath whooshed from my lungs. I couldn’t believe the violent rush of th
oughts that had surged through me. In just a few seconds, I imagined ten different ways to brutally kill a girl I didn’t even know.
What was happening to me?
My stomach chose that moment to growl, which gave me an excuse to say something and take my mind off the beautiful dark eyes which bored into me. A part of me wanted those eyes to stay focused on me forever.
“I’m hungry,” I managed to say.
He got to his feet and half-broke the spell that had been holding me enthralled. I still couldn’t take my eyes off his powerful neck. My saliva glands were working overtime, which made no sense at all!
“Food could be a problem,” he said.
“You can’t afford food?” I responded, then suddenly realized how rude that had been. Everyone knew that Evan’s mother had died when we were still in elementary school, and a few of us had heard rumors about the legal battle he had gone through to emancipate himself from his aunt several years earlier. In short, Evan was a teenager living alone in his deceased parents’ huge house. Without a job, it wasn’t surprising that he couldn’t afford groceries.
“Get your ass down here and let me out,” I heard a boy yell. “Evan, let me out or I’m going to beat your ass!”
“Is that Paul Doucette?” I asked.
“Yeah, he’s going to be a real headache,” Evan said.
“So let him go,” I blurted.
And that girl Erica, too.
“You do realize something has happened, don’t you?” Evan said. The way he said it sounded ominous. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear any more. There had been so many kids at the military base.
“The base?” I said. “The explosions?”
“It’s not what you think,” Evan said. “No one died. Not yet, anyway.”
“So?”
“Do you remember the ants?”
I glanced to my arms, which strangely looked paler than usual, and nodded.
“Those ants carried a kind of virus, something the military was experimenting with.”
My eyes were glued to his.
“The Army was trying to create vampire soldiers,” Evan said.
Instinctively, my tongue swept over four extra-long, extra-sharp canines. “And you’re saying—”
“I’m saying those were vampire ants. Seven of you got bitten. You worst of all.”
“So we’re—we’re—”
I smiled. Obviously this was some sort of a party joke. At any moment, Amanda and Rachel were going to come running into the room, giggling at me for being so ridiculously gullible.
“I’m not kidding, Kayla,” Evan said. “You’re becoming a vampire.”
Suddenly, a dozen pieces of the crazy puzzle of the last—I didn’t know how much time had passed—started coming together: the ravenous ants, the out-of-control squirrel, Evan squeezing blood all over the ground, all of it. I wished I could faint, something I had done at least a dozen times in the past, but apparently my body was no longer as fragile as it had once been. I remained awake and aware, forced to face the horrifying reality straight on.
“So you just happened to stumble across this secret how?”
Evan’s