Vlad raised a curious eyebrow. “And filling your backpack with them?”
Joss laughed. “Kind of. I’m thinking of becoming an entomologist when I’m older. I like collecting insects and watching them for a few days, learning about them. I have a bunch of jars in my backpack. I set the bugs free when I’m done, though.”
“Not a killer, huh?” Vlad forced a laugh, so relieved that Joss hadn’t been the creepy guy across the street who’d been thinking about Vlad’s blood.
Joss just stared at him.
“You are one weird kid, Joss.” Vlad had hoped to make Joss smile, but instead, Joss just looked uncomfortable.
He slugged Joss in the shoulder. “But not as weird as me. At least you have interesting hobbies. All I do is read.”
That did it. A smile crossed Joss’s face. “Well, I read, too. So who’s weirder?”
Vlad thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. He and Joss both spoke at the same time. “Henry.”
Joss hoisted his backpack over his shoulder, the heavy jars weighing it down. “So what are you doing out in the middle of the night?”
Vlad shrugged. “I guess I’m more of a night person.”
After a moment, Joss smiled. “Me, too.”
8
SECRETS EXPOSED
VLAD KNOCKED SOFTLY on Nelly’s door. "Nelly, I’m leaving soon.”
Her response was slow, heavy with sleep. "Okay. I’ll be right down.”
He listened at her door for another moment until he heard her get out of bed. Sometimes, when she’d just worked a late shift, he felt bad about making sure she was up before he left the house. But after what happened to his parents, the superstitious part of him insisted that he couldn’t leave anyone sleeping while he went off to school.
Downstairs he dropped his backpack on the kitchen table beside his sunblock. Stretching in the early-morning light, he retrieved a bag of blood from the fridge and glanced at the phone.
There it was, mocking him. Pointing out the fact that it was ridiculous the way he was brave enough to face a killer vampire last year, but too chicken to call Meredith and say he was sorry for not kissing her when she’d clearly wanted him to. Well . . . maybe she hadn’t, but Vlad couldn’t think of any other reason for her to lean toward him with her eyes closed and lips puckered like that. He chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully for a moment before reaching for the phone. Before he could overthink his actions, he picked it up and dialed.
Riiiiing . . .
Vlad’s heart skipped a beat, then knocked hard on his insides, as if trying to wake him from whatever bout of insanity had taken him in its grasp.
Riiiiing . . .
His heart settled some. Maybe she wasn’t home. Maybe he’d just have to try back later. Maybe —
“Hello?”
His heart punched him in the chest once, as if to say it had told him so. “Hi. This is—”
“Vlad?” Her tone sounded more curious than angry, something he couldn’t be more grateful for.
“Yeah. I just wanted to call and . . .” He wrinkled his forehead. Why had he wanted to call? Other than hearing her voice, what else was there? He had to have a reason. “. . . and ask you . . .”
“Ask me what?”
Vlad swallowed the lump in his throat and spoke before the little voice at the back of his head could tell him not to. “I wanted to ask you if you had a date to the Snow Ball yet.”
Meredith was quiet for a moment. “Vlad, are you asking me out?”
Vlad cleared his throat. Twice. Then he mumbled something unintelligible. Then he coughed.
“It’s just that . . . well, I already have a date to the Snow Ball.” She paused and then lowered her voice to a near whisper. “You know, when you didn’t call after the Freedom Fest dance, I wasn’t sure you were still interested in going out with me. So, I asked someone else.”
Vlad panicked. “I was just asking for a . . . a friend.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. I thought that—”
He forced a laugh. “Me? Go to a semiformal dance? That’s just nuts. I have way too much stuff to do. Anyway, I guess I’ll see ya around.”
“Yeah . . . see ya.”
She’d barely finished her sentence before Vlad placed the phone back in its cradle.
His heart deflated, along with any hope that he would ever get a second chance with the girl of his dreams. The center of his chest ached, and for a moment, Vlad wondered if his heart had actually broken into a thousand pieces. But when he placed his hand against his chest, he could still feel its beats. They were slower, as if his heart had been through a lot in the last few minutes. But it was still working.
Vlad bit into the bag and sucked until it was empty, then tossed it into the biohazard container beneath the sink. He grabbed his backpack and headed for the front door. It was weird that Henry had been walking to school without him, due to some early-morning student council meetings. Weirder still that Vlad had someone other than Henry to hang out with.
Vlad noticed somebody moving on the front porch—he could see them through the window. He smiled and opened the front door, stepping out into the morning sun. If it wasn’t for Joss, Vlad’s mornings over the past couple of weeks would have been rather lonely. “Hey, Joss.”
“Hey, Vlad. You ready?”
Vlad sighed and adjusted the strap of his backpack. “As ever.”
They wound their way between houses until they came to Bathory High. Vlad looked up at the school and groaned. “Why can’t it be Friday?”
“Because it’s Tuesday.” Joss chuckled.
Stephanie Brawn skipped over and smiled.
She wasn’t smiling at Vlad, of course. But she was smiling.
“Hey, Joss. You want a copy of the school paper?” Her tone was so sickly sweet that Vlad nearly vomited. He’d never realized how much he really despised Stephanie . . . until he heard her speak.
Joss smiled back. “Sure.”
Vlad mumbled, “Catch you later, Joss.”
He wandered up the steps before Stephanie could speak again.
The weatherman had predicted snow, so Vlad wasn’t sure what so many kids were doing outside, and he really wasn’t sure why they were each paying a bizarre amount of attention to the school newspaper. Nobody ever read that rag. Well, apart from the jocks and cheerleaders, who took great joy in the fact that at least one of them was featured on every page.
He made his way to the top step and paused, looking back over his shoulder. Several people were huddled together; he could hear them talking about something, but not about what.
With a shiver, Vlad hurried into the school and headed for his locker. The students inside were also paying annoyingly close attention to the paper. By the time Vlad saw Henry, his nerves had tangled into a large bunch in the middle of his stomach, but he wasn’t sure why. He gestured to the crowd of paper-reading students. “What’s up?”
Henry’s face was pale. His eyes were bigger than Vlad had ever seen them. He shook his head, held a copy of the paper up for Vlad’s perusal, and said, “Apparently, you are.”
On the front page was a blurry black-and-white photo of someone floating in midair, right in front of the school’s belfry.
Vlad’s heart stopped. Then it picked up the pace at three times its normal rate.
He shook his head. “Who took this?”
Henry pointed to the accompanying article. “It looks like you have a shadow.”
Vlad relaxed his arm until his backpack dropped to the floor. He leaned with his back against his locker and read the title aloud. “‘A Monster in Bathory? By Eddie Poe, freshman correspondent.’ ”
Vlad swore under his breath, but as his eyes scanned the rest of the article, he realized that Eddie was more of a problem than he’d thought. Eddie rambled about monsters, “inhuman beasts with purple eyes” that were invading the small town of Bathory.
Apparently, Eddie hadn’t forgotten about Vlad’s eyes flashing on Halloween night.
True to Henry’s theory, Eddie had been following him. He’d gotten close enough to Vlad to spy him leaving the belfry one night, and Vlad hadn’t even noticed the camera flash. So much for extrasensory powers. What good was being half-vampire if Vlad couldn’t tell when a clumsy geek with a camera was following him around? He finished the article and cursed aloud. His fangs pushed their way forcefully out of his gums, and he clamped his mouth shut to hide them.
That was the last thing he needed.
He scanned the photo again. It was grainy, gray, and dark. In fact, if Vlad didn’t know that he was actually capable of floating he might not have believed the photo was of him at all. It might have been a branch. A very pale, good-looking branch.
Vlad folded the paper with a grunt. “I think Eddie and I need to have a little talk.”
Henry nodded. “I thought so. He’s in the library.”
Vlad raised an eyebrow before turning to open his locker. “Hiding out? You’d think he’d be strutting some over ruining my life, or maybe swapping stories with Bill and Tom— they all seem to be on the same side now.”
“Your life isn’t ruined. Nobody believes him. It’s a joke. I mean, if it had been anybody else on the paper staff, they might think twice. But Eddie?” Henry forced a laugh. “The guy’s scared of his own shadow. He probably still sleeps with a night-light.”
Vlad dropped his backpack inside the locker and muttered, “What if somebody does believe him, Henry? All it takes is one or two and my cover is blown. Nelly would freak. Otis would be furious. Not to mention what the population of Bathory might think of having me around gorging on the blood of innocents.”
“Hey, as far as you know, that blood came from some psycho killer. Nelly has no control over who donates your dinner.”
Vlad shook his head. His heart hadn’t let up since he saw the newspaper. “That’s not the point, Henry. What if—”
“Vlad.” Henry locked eyes with him. “Everything’s going to be fine. Trust me on this, okay?”
Suddenly, Vlad felt a lot better. No matter what happened, at least Henry had his back. He nodded, and his muscles relaxed some. When he pulled his hand away from his locker, the metal was dented in. He and Henry stared at it in confusion for a minute, and then Henry cleared his throat and asked, “You still want to talk to Eddie?”
“Absolutely.” Vlad shut his locker, still wondering how he managed to bend the door, and turned to make his way to the library.
A loud, deep voice boomed over the PA system. “Edgar Poe, report to the principal’s office IMMEDIATELY! Edgar Poe. Right now, young man.”
Vlad and Henry exchanged glances before pushing their way quickly through the crowd to the principal’s office. From the hall, they heard Principal Hardwick chewing out Eddie. Most of what they heard were loud, low sounds of yelling, but every once in a while, a word would come through loud and clear. “. . . irresponsible . . . never in all my days . . . you’re lucky I don’t . . . childish antics . . . call your parents . . . ridiculous notions . . . wasting my time . . . two weeks’ detention . . . apology, young man!”
After a moment of silence, the office door opened, and Eddie made his way slowly into the hall, his eyes downcast.
The anger that had built up in Vlad’s chest subsided some. Not a lot. But some. It was replaced by pity.
Eddie’s cheeks were blushing bright red. He looked humiliated. Defeated, even. He clutched the camera that was hanging from his neck with both hands and let the office door close on its own.
Vlad’s fangs shrank back. There wasn’t anything he could do or say to Eddie that hadn’t already been done or said. Sure, he was still mad about the possibility of being exposed. But he was madder at himself than at Eddie—he was the one who hadn’t been careful. Eddie had just been looking for a way to be special, to be noticed in any way that could be deemed good.
Realizing he was being watched, Eddie looked up. The moment he caught Vlad in his sights, the embarrassment in his features disappeared, replaced by determination.
And that’s when Vlad realized that it didn’t matter if he told Eddie he’d been acting crazy, or that nobody at Bathory High believed his article to be any more valid than those in the Weekly World News, or that Vlad had been nice to Eddie ever since they first met in kindergarten. Eddie was determined to explore the depths of Vlad’s secret and expose him for the inhuman creature he was.
Vlad didn’t need to read his mind to see that. It was all there in Eddie’s determined glare.
Eddie nodded once, and then shuffled down the hall.
Vlad watched him and then turned to Henry. “I have a problem, Henry.”
Henry sighed, watching Eddie, too. “Yeah. And his name is Eddie Poe.”
9
SNOWFLAKES AND MEMORIES
VLAD OPENED HIS BOOK for the twenty-third time and snapped it closed again. Music thumped in a continuous rhythm, shaking the flame of his candle. How could he expect to focus on reading when several floors below, in Bathory High’s gym, Meredith was likely twirling around the dance floor at the annual Snow Ball with her handsome, charming, what-a-swell-guy date? And Vlad, who’d been too chicken to even approach the thought of asking Meredith out again, was left alone and dateless while his two best friends were busy downstairs with dates of their own. It was a rather pathetic situation to be in, so Vlad did the next best thing to attending the semiformal dance alone—he went to his secret sanctuary in the belfry to mope.
Vlad had every right to mope. Henry had scored a date with a pretty blonde junior whose twin sister happened to have an enormous crush on Henry’s brother, Greg. Joss had been even luckier than Henry, as he’d managed to score a date with the prettiest girl in the entire town.
Not that he deserved it. Not that anyone deserved a night out with Meredith Brookstone.
For about two seconds after hearing that Joss would be taking Meredith to the dance, Vlad hated them both with a deep passion. Then he felt an immediate mixture of guilt, stupidity, and self-loathing. Vlad should have asked Meredith to the dance weeks ago. But after their last date, he didn’t have much hope in the world that she’d actually say yes anyway.
Vlad tried keeping quiet about his feelings, but every time Joss would ask him if he could believe that Meredith had asked him out, Vlad screamed NO! inside his skull. And Joss couldn’t seem to take a hint. So finally, he’d snapped back one day at lunch that no, he couldn’t believe she’d actually asked him out, because who in their right mind thinks anthropologists are hot?
Joss had sulked the rest of the day, but Vlad wasn’t about to apologize. Joss had broken the biggest friend code there was: thou shalt not date the girl that thy best friend has a crush on.
All Vlad knew was that if Meredith’s name popped up in the next “who’s the better kisser” discussion at the lunch table, he might lose it all over his newest friend.
He leaned back in his chair and listened to the music drifting in through the arched windows. His breath formed small clouds of fog in front of his lips. The belfry was freezing, but he wasn’t in the mood to sit at home and watch Nelly busy herself with holiday baking. Besides, the idea that he was probably the only person besides Eddie Poe who hadn’t gone to the dance had made him feel particularly mopey—so, vampire slayer or not, Vlad had gripped the Lucis in his hand and threw glances over his shoulder at every tree, every bush, the entire way here.
He’d finished packing for the big winter break trip that afternoon, but there had been no further word from Otis, so he wasn’t sure yet whether or not his packing was in vain. Rather than stay home and pace (not to mention mope), he’d come here to eavesdrop in the freezing cold.
So far, it wasn’t doing much to calm his nerves.
Vlad held his hands up to the candlelight for warmth. The buckles on the backs of his fingerless gloves shined in the low light. Beside him, his father’s portrait watched with a smile. The candle’s flame shrank and, with a brief burst of light, went out. It was as if the belfry were
telling him it was time to give up moping and go home. Vlad whispered into the shadows, to whatever ghosts might be listening, “I can take a hint.”
He glanced over the ledge before stepping out of one of the archways and hovering slowly to a tree near the parking lot. From there he made his way to the cement. He couldn’t leave footsteps in the snow that seemed to come out of nowhere, especially not coming from the belfry. It’s the little things that get you in trouble.
The snow crunched under his shoes as he made his way around to the front of the school. Vlad might be cold, but his curiosity had not yet been quenched.
Two couples stood just inside the double doors. He recognized Henry right away, despite the fact that Henry’s face was buried in a scary-looking kiss with the blonde junior. They looked to be attached by suction cups that had been affixed to their faces. Try as they might to break free, Henry and the junior were trapped. And Vlad was pretty sure they were happy with their predicament.
But it was possible that they were attempting to gnaw each other’s lips off. Vlad wondered for a moment if any of his vampiric nature had rubbed off when he and Henry were eight.
The other couple was standing in shadows, not kissing, but clearly standing very close. The girl glanced over her shoulder, toward Vlad, and with a word to her date, who nodded and headed back toward the gym, Meredith opened the double doors and stepped outside.
Vlad’s feet were frozen to the sidewalk, but it wasn’t due to snow or ice.
Meredith pulled her satin shawl over her porcelain shoulders and, with a shiver, managed a small smile. “Hi, Vlad.”
Vlad cleared his throat and looked down at his feet and over at the doors—anything but into her perfect eyes. “Hey.”
Meredith folded her arms in front of herself. Had she really braved the cold just to say hi to him? Vlad knew he should say something, but he wasn’t sure what exactly. He’d narrowed it down to either something involving the weather or school, when she parted her pretty pink lips and asked, “Can I ask you something?”
Vlad smirked. “You just did.”