Dead Is Not an Option

by Marlene Perez

  Then he rubbed his hands together and chuckled diabolically. He scanned the parking lot, and I stood as still as I could, hoping that my cover held and he wouldn't spot me. Seemingly satisfied that he hadn't been observed, he stripped off the gloves he'd been wearing and threw them into the Dumpster. He chuckled again, and the sound sent chills down my spine. He didn't sound like the man I'd known my whole life.

  What was going on? Was this some weird prank or something more sinister?

  I waited a long time after he left before I finally released the breath I didn't even know I'd been holding. I returned to the club, slipping in the back, through the kitchen entrance.

  Natalie gave me a distracted wave, but Rose sent a message my way. Are you okay?

  I shook my head. I just saw something weird. Mr. Devereaux—

  The thought was cut off when Ryan came striding toward me. "I've been looking for you everywhere," he said. "I should have known to look in the kitchen."

  "Sorry," I said. "Hey, is your dad here yet?" The chief would know what to do. I was already questioning whether or not I'd seen what I thought I'd seen. Mr. Devereaux was Sam's dad and my father's friend. But he'd seemed like a completely different person out there.

  Ryan frowned and looked at his watch. "No," he said. "And he's been gone for hours and hasn't checked in with me. That's not like him."

  A thought occurred to me. I had seen Officer Denton with his fiancée at the buffet line about an hour ago. Maybe he could help. "I'll be right back," I told Ryan.

  On the way, I spotted my mom conversing with one of her friends from work.

  "Mom, I need to talk to you about something," I said. I had to raise my voice in order to be heard over their conversation. I noticed the frown on her face and added, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's important."

  "Please excuse me for a moment, Joyce," Mom said. We went into the hallway by the bathrooms, where it was a little less noisy.

  I explained to her what I'd seen. "Mom, it was just so weird," I said. "And it looked like a body he was stuffing in there." I shivered at the thought.

  "Did you tell Chief Mendez?" she asked.

  "I want to," I said. "But he's not here yet."

  "What?" she said. "He left the station hours ago."

  I had a very bad feeling in my stomach. I realized then what it was I'd actually witnessed.

  "Mom, Dad needs us," I said.

  I ran outside without waiting to see if she followed. Officer Denton and my father were looking at something in the open trunk of my father's pink convertible. They both had horrified expressions. Mr. Devereaux stood off to one side, but I thought I detected a smirk on his face. I nearly threw up when I saw a leg dangling from the trunk. Somehow I knew the person that leg belonged to was dead. I took in the scene, and in an instant I knew what had happened. Spenser Devereaux was framing my father for murder, and Officer Denton was buying it. He said something, and my father put his hands behind his back so the officer could cuff him. Panic set in as I streaked toward them.

  "Rafe Giordano, you are under arrest for the murder of Chief Mendez. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say—"

  "No!" I said. The force of my protest sent Officer Denton flying against the car.

  "Daisy, it's okay," my dad said. "Calm down."

  I inhaled and then exhaled several times, trying to do as he asked.

  "It's not okay," I replied. "The reality of what Officer Denton had said sunk in, and my stomach gave an awful heave. "No," I said again. No, it couldn't be. Not the chief. Not ... Ryan's dad.

  "My father didn't do it, and I can prove it," I said. I relayed what I'd seen Sam's dad do.

  Mr. Devereaux looked at his watch. "I'm afraid I don't have time for this," he said.

  I added, "He threw his gloves in the Dumpster over there."

  That wiped the smirk from the professor's face.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Sam chose the worst possible moment to come outside.

  "What's going on?" she asked, looking from one of us to the next in puzzlement.

  "It's nothing, Samantha," the professor said. "Go back inside."

  "It's not nothing," I said hotly. "Chief Mendez is dead."

  "I don't understand," she said. "What's happening? Why is your father in handcuffs?"

  "Sam," I said. "Your dad..." There wasn't an easy way to say it. "He killed Chief Mendez and tried to frame my father."

  Officer Denton came back with a pair of gloves in an evidence bag.

  "No!" Sam screamed. "No! Daddy, tell them it's not true." The look on Samantha's face confirmed that she had been as oblivious as I was. It was worse than I had ever imagined.

  To my relief, Officer Denton took the cuffs off my father's wrists. "Think about it, Samantha," I said. "His weird disappearances? The woman with the birthmark? We both saw her that night, and then she was caught trying to poison everyone at Slim's."

  I saw the exact second when realization dawned in her face.

  "These people are my friends, Dad," Samantha said. "I can't believe you've been plotting to hurt them for all these years."

  "Ridding the world of vermin is expensive, but it's worth every penny," he said. "And I eventually found a way to recoup some of my losses." He grinned evilly.

  "You mean, illegally?" she asked.

  "I did it for you, Samantha," he said. "To make the world safe for you to live in."

  "What about Chief Mendez?" she said.

  "It was necessary," he said.

  "Necessary?" she screamed at him. "Necessary? He was Ryan's father. You killed Sean's best friend's dad. He was a good person."

  "He was a Were. Vermin." The disgust in her father's voice made Sam start to cry.

  Mr. Devereaux was telling us an awful lot for a criminal. It was almost like he didn't think it would matter.

  Mr. Bone stepped out of the shadows. His normally smiling face looked grim as he grabbed Mr. Devereaux by the arm. "Come with me, Devereaux."

  "What is this? A citizen's arrest?" Mr. Devereaux scoffed.

  "Not exactly," Mr. Bone said. The look in his eyes made Mr. Devereaux cringe. "Officer Denton," Mr. Bone continued, "please arrest this man." Mr. Devereaux was lucky that Mr. Bone was a law-abiding citizen.

  Sam collapsed into my arms as her father was cuffed by Officer Denton. Tightly.

  Strangely, there was a smirk on Mr. Devereaux's face. "I'm sure your graduation party will be a major blowout," he called out as the officer led him away.

  What did he mean by that?

  Mr. Bone and my parents followed them, and then it was silent, except for the sound of my best friend's pain.

  "Shhh," I said. "It'll be okay. It'll be okay." I was trying to convince myself as much as Sam. How could it be okay? Ryan's dad had been murdered. It couldn't get worse than that, could it?

  Then a terrified scream echoed in my mind. I looked around to make sure I hadn't heard it, and there was silence, except for the sound of Sam's sobs. I glanced over at the Black Opal. It was completely dark. Something was wrong. The power had been cut.

  "Sam," I said. "I need you to be strong now."

  She sniffed. "But my father..."

  "Something's wrong," I said. "Something is terribly wrong. I heard a scream."

  My words drew her out of her own misery for a moment. "I didn't hear anything."

  "I know," I replied. Sometimes I forgot that not everyone had powers like mine.

  I sent a message to my sister. Rose, is everything all right inside?

  Inside? Where are you?

  Never mind that. Are you okay?

  The power just went off.

  Something Mr. Devereaux had said finally sank in. The graduation party would be a blowout. Would he actually be crazy enough to endanger his own daughter? I started to shake when I realized the answer.

  You need to get everyone out of there now.

  WHAT? WHY?

  Please, Rose, just do it. I think the Scourge plans an exp
losion. Get everyone out of there! We'll be there to help in a minute.

  No, stay there.

  There was no way I was going to follow her advice.

  "Sam, I have to go inside for a minute," I said. "But no matter what, don't come in after me, do you hear me?"

  "Daisy, what's going on?"

  The dread on my face answered her question.

  "Something bad," she said with certainty. "And my dad's responsible. I'm going with you."

  "Sam," I protested.

  "Sean's in there," she said, her voice trembling. "And the rest of his family, including Katie. How could he do that?"

  I couldn't say no. "Let's go," I said. "But stay close to me no matter what. And keep a lookout for the members of the Scourge."

  "What do they look like?" Sam asked.

  "You'll know 'em when you see 'em," I said. "They'll be the ones trying to kill us."

  We approached the front door, which was blocked. A huge silver bar was wedged through the door handles, preventing anyone from escaping.

  A pudgy middle-aged man was guarding the entrance.

  He didn't seem to notice me at all, as his entire attention was focused on Samantha. He grinned evilly and stepped into Sam's personal space.

  "Late to the party are you, princess?" He was busy with Samantha, which meant I could use my powers of telekinesis to unlock the door. It was tougher than I thought, but I tried to remember Poppy's coaching and finally managed to get one end of the bar to wiggle a little.

  "Hands off, you moron," Sam said.

  I whipped my head around and saw that the creep had his hands all over Samantha.

  "What do you think you're doing?" I said.

  "He obviously doesn't know who my dad is," Sam said. She gave him a shove, and he released her.

  "Who's your daddy?" the man leered, but he sounded worried. Good.

  "Spenser Devereaux," she said. "The leader of the Scourge."

  "What?" the man said. He sounded caught off-guard, maybe even a little scared. "The boss didn't say anything about his daughter being here."

  It looked like he was buying Sam's story, so I returned my attention back to the bars.

  "He must have forgotten," she lied convincingly.

  I finally managed to free the bar. It hovered in the air, but I couldn't get it to move.

  "Let me call it in," the man said. He reached for his phone. That's when the bar flew through the air and smacked him across the face. He fell to the ground.

  "It took you long enough," Sam said. "That guy had breath as bad as a zombie's."

  "Is he breathing?"

  She stepped over him. "Would it be so bad if he wasn't? Let's go rescue our friends."

  Inside, it was chaos. Members of the Scourge were locked in combat with the citizens of Nightshade, paranormal and normal alike.

  Sam disappeared for a minute and I panicked, wondering if she'd already been snatched by one of the Scourge.

  They weren't really trying to do much damage, I noticed. There were no guns or serious weapons. They were just trying to keep everyone inside, until the explosion.

  Bane carried a bleeding Mrs. Wilder as Elise and Wolfgang forged a trail by knocking down anyone who got in their way.

  Sam reappeared at my side. "There's Katie!" she said.

  Jessica carried Katie as the rest of the Walsh sisters trailed behind. I flinched when I saw a short red-haired man move toward them. Jessica put Katie down behind her and then grabbed a nearby folding chair. She brought it down on his head, and the man crumpled to the ground. A tattoo stood out in stark relief on her arm and then faded away.

  As they moved toward the exit, a large blond woman stepped into their path and raised her fists. Before she could strike, Samantha launched herself at the woman and tackled her to the floor.

  "Come with me," I said to the girls.

  Sam was still smacking the woman with her purse. "Sam, let's go. We need to get the girls out of here and then find Sean and Ryan."

  With one last thump from Sam, the woman passed out. Sam smiled in satisfaction and then shouldered her purse again.

  "What do you have in there, rocks?" I asked her as we moved through the crowd. Jessica had picked Katie back up and the rest of Sean's sisters followed.

  "Even better," she said. "I loaded it up with rolls of quarters from the ring-toss booth."

  All around us, Nightshade citizens were doing battle with the Scourge.

  Flo was a whirring, kicking blur. She seemed to be everywhere at once.

  "I didn't know she could fight like that," I said. A voice at my ear said, "She's a virago, Daisy. A woman warrior whose powers are only activated when the city is in peril."

  "Slim! You're okay," I said, relieved. "A virago, huh?"

  I filed the information away for later. I was fairly certain there was a virago in Sean's family, one who would be starting high school in the fall.

  Natalie was on his other side, but she didn't speak to me. She was reciting a chant, and I was relieved when I realized it was a protective spell for the little kids.

  The few times she got close enough, I saw that Flo's tattoos were swirling as she moved.

  "Can you take the girls and get them out of here? As far from the club as you can go?" I asked Slim. "Sam, you go with them."

  "Absolutely," he said. "I'll take them to the restaurant. I have my catering van. They should be safe there. Please watch out for my sister."

  "I'll do my best," I said. But he and the girls were already gone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  When I turned around, Dr. Franken was right in front of me. She was the professor who had created and set loose doppelgangers of Nightshade residents.

  Her snowy white hair had been dyed sunflower yellow, and I finally realized who the woman in the white trench coat, scarf, and sunglasses had been. She'd probably been just waiting for a chance to take a swing at me. Her next words confirmed my suspicion.

  "You don't know how long I've been waiting to do this," she said.

  She came at me with one of the strong-man mallets. Instinctively, I put up a hand to shield my face—I didn't think to try using my powers.

  There was a cold blast of air from somewhere behind me. It passed by me and hit Dr. Franken with an icy accuracy. She stood rooted to the spot, frozen. I turned around.

  Circe stood there, eyes still shooting green sparks.

  "Thank you," I said as she walked over to me.

  "I would not allow one of the Scourge scum to kill you," she said. "That pleasure I reserve for myself one day, if I so choose." She put out one elegant long finger and pushed over the ice sculpture that used to be Dr. Franken. The statue hit the floor with a thump and shattered into a billion little pieces.

  I spotted Rose and Nicholas at the other end of the room. They were herding a group of the younger kids. I assumed they were heading for the emergency exit near the bathrooms.

  I sent a message. Slim and Sam are taking the kids to his restaurant. They should be safe there. Where's Poppy?

  She's with Liam. Fighting.

  Not much time, I warned her. I was sure that whatever was going to happen was going to happen at midnight. The witching hour. I saw her nod, then she said something to Nicholas and they disappeared from my line of sight.

  The Scourge had figured out that the front exit was no longer barred. A dozen or so people formed a human chain in front of the door.

  Liam and his grandfather approached them with lightning-quick speed but were repelled when the group held out large crosses.

  I concentrated as hard as I could, and the crosses flew out of their hands and over the heads of the vampires, finally landing in a corner. I hoped they'd stay there.

  "Get the psychic," one of them shouted.

  Penny Edwards came through the crowd with a bunch of the cheerleaders. Jordan jumped on the back of a woman who was carrying a flamethrower. Penny threw a handful of beads at one of the Scourge, and they turned into hissing snakes.
He recoiled in terror and ran from the room.

  Liam had been wounded. I could see cross-shaped boils rising on his face, but he continued to fight.

  Lilah Porter dove into the dunk tank. A second later, she flipped her tail, opened her mouth, and started to sing.

  Rose, tell Nicholas to cover his ears. Liam too.

  What?

  Lilah's singing.

  A haunting melody filled the room, and soon the males, Scourge and paranormal alike, were mesmerized by the sound and threw down their weapons. Lilah Porter's song of enchantment was working. One of the members of the Scourge caught on after he saw Nicholas covering his ears. The Scourge agent, an overweight man with a what would devereaux do T-shirt on, put his hands over his ears and then motioned to the others to do the same. Then they all ran. The club was nearly empty, but there was still no sign of Ryan. I couldn't be sure, but I thought that everyone had gotten out in time. I wasn't leaving without him, no matter what.

  I looked at the clock. Its hands were pointed perilously close to twelve. I knew it would suit Mr. Devereaux's twisted psyche to have the explosion go off promptly at midnight.

  "Ryan," I said, scanning the room. "Where's Ryan?"

  I saw a flash of green feathers. Ryan's mask. He had fallen to the floor. He was almost obscured by the wreckage from the battle. He was slumped over, leaning with his back against the bar. He was also bleeding profusely from his arm.

  "Silver bullet," he said. "It's lucky he missed my heart."

  Gun? I hadn't seen any guns.

  "Can you believe it?" Ryan said. "Wait until my dad finds out."

  His words gave me a terrible pang. He didn't know. So much had happened in the last hour, but there was no time to tell him of his father's death. At least, not until we were safely out of the Black Opal and far away.

  "We need to get you out of here and to a hospital." He'd lost a lot of blood, and besides, unless I'd guessed wrong, things were about to get even uglier.