“Yes!” Mom cut in, probably a little too fast. “Yes, he’s done.”
Dad frowned. “I guess so.”
I stared at Levi. As much as I hated to admit it, Tommy’s words kept sneaking into my mind. Could he be a vampire? He seemed so nice.
Suddenly, Lily’s leg pressed against mine for a moment, and that’s all it took. I couldn’t focus on anything else. It was like there was a mini-sun shining on that one spot.
The doorbell rang.
Mom turned toward it. “Who could that be?”
Tommy glanced at me. “On my signal,” he whispered.
I shook my head. “No! No signal!”
Mom stood up. “I’ll get it.”
As soon as she walked out of the room, Tommy turned to Levi. “I have a question!”
Levi smiled. Wow, his teeth were bright. “Yes?”
Tommy banged his index fingers together, like a cross. “Um, can you tell us about your school?”
Levi didn’t react to the cross whatsoever. “Of course.”
Tommy turned to me, shrugged, and whispered, “I thought that would work.”
“Just stop,” I said out the side of my mouth.
“Well,” Levi said. “The Nosfer Academy of Talented Understudies is one of the premier acting schools in the country.”
“It’s strange that I’ve never heard of it,” Dad said.
Levi leaned back in his chair. “We’re very exclusive. We only want a select few. Those who can fly above the rest, if you will.”
“And you want Devin?” Abby blurted.
Levi laughed. “The whole purpose of the dinner and dance is to drum up interest in a few special kids we would like to enroll. If they like what they see, perhaps they’ll join us, and if they don’t, then no harm done. We all enjoy a good meal and call it a night.”
Tommy leaned forward. “Will there be any garlic in the meal?”
Levi shrugged. “I don’t ask the chef what he uses for ingredients.”
“I hope so,” Tommy said. “Because I love garlic. Do you?”
“Depends on the dish,” Levi said.
“Is there any reason why we’re discussing cooking?” Dad cut in.
Tommy shook his head. “No, just curious.”
Dad’s eyes ping-ponged back and forth between Tommy and me before finally turning back to Levi. “Sorry about that. I wish I could say that this was unusual, but it’s not.”
“Oh, it’s quite all right. I was a kid once, many hundreds of years ago.” Levi laughed again.
“So, I heard that you’re very big in the theater?” Dad asked.
Levi placed his hand on his chest. “Not as big as I used to be, but I’ve been in many Broadway shows, national productions, and an occasional movie. Though I’m probably much bigger overseas in the European market. But now I’ve decided to give back. That’s why I run a school, to train the next generation.”
“That’s very nice of you,” Dad said. “Just curious, is there a lot of money to be made in running a school?”
“I don’t do it for the money. I do it for my love of theater. That’s one of the reasons why we’re having this event. A theater always needs actors. They’re its lifeblood.” He glanced at me.
Wait … what did he say?
Mom came back into the room. “Look who’s here!”
Herb walked in behind her. “Howdy, neighbors!”
Mom dragged a chair over from the dining room table. “Here you go, Herb.”
He took it from her. “Thank you, I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.” He laughed. “Not that you’re a stranger, but then again, I’m no Blanche Dubois.”
I turned to Tommy and mouthed, “Who?”
He shrugged.
Herb and Mom sat.
Mom pointed to Herb. “Levi, this is our neighbor Herb Dorfman. Herb, this is Levi Moroi and his daughter, Lily.”
Herb cocked his head. “Did you say Moroi? What an unusual name.”
Levi nodded. “Yes, it’s European.”
“Transylvanian,” Tommy whispered.
“Shut up,” I whispered back.
“What brings you over, Herb?” Dad asked.
“Oh, uh … Devin mentioned that new neighbors were coming over, and you know me. Nobody’s more neighborly than Herbert T. Dorfman, where in this case, the T stands for ‘Time to make the new neighbors feel welcome.’”
Levi bowed. “That is very kind of you.”
“Levi was just telling us about his acting school,” Mom said.
“Acting!” Herb shouted. “Why, I’m no Marlon Brando, but I’ve dabbled as a thespian in my time.”
“Who?” I asked.
“That’s great to hear,” Levi said. “Perhaps your child would like to check out our school as well. We’re having a dinner and dance this Friday night.”
“Oh, I don’t have any children. I seem to be always locked in eligible bachelor status.”
Levi arched an eyebrow. “No children and no spouse? Well, at least you don’t have to account for your whereabouts to someone all the time.” He rubbed his hands together. “You know what? Why don’t you come out Friday as well? We’re always looking for qualified chaperones, and you seem overly qualified.”
“Herb’s getting to go to the dance, too?” Abby asked. “And I can’t?”
“You’re not going,” I said.
Lily touched my hand. Jolts shot through me. “I think we’re going to have a lot of fun at this dance, Devin. It’ll be a great way to get to know each other better.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out, so I just nodded. Her perfume started to reach me. I was dizzy, but in a good way. I couldn’t recognize the scent, but it seemed familiar. Like something from when I was younger.
“Everybody’s going to the dance but me!” Abby yelled. “I want to go, too!”
“You’re not going!” I repeated.
“She can take my place,” Tommy muttered.
“That’s not fair!” Abby said.
“I’d love to chaperone,” Herb said. He reached into his pocket, fished out his phone, and held it up in front of his face. “Let me just get your number, and—” He fumbled with the phone for a few seconds, and then stopped and peered over the screen. He looked back to the phone and dropped it.
It crashed to the floor, followed by the unmistakable sound of glass breaking.
Herb stared straight ahead at Levi. His mouth hung open.
Levi’s eyes narrowed. “Is everything all right?”
Herb nodded slowly for a moment, before finally speaking. “Yes. Uh … yes. Just a little clumsy, is all.” He reached down to pick up his phone and twirled it in his hands. “I guess my screen cracked.”
Levi bolted up from his seat. “Well, I’m afraid we have to go.”
Lily stood as well.
My heart dropped. I didn’t want her to leave.
“So soon?” Mom asked. “But you only just got here.”
Levi walked over to her and grasped her hand. “In the theater, nighttime is when everything comes alive. We have a special performance planned for Friday night, which Lily has to rehearse for.”
Lily nodded. “I can’t wait for you to see it, Devin.” She smiled at me.
Just hearing her say my name made me dizzy.
Levi bent and kissed Mom’s hand. “Thank you again for having us.”
“Oh, my!” Mom said. “Well, you’re welcome here anytime.”
Levi smiled wide. His teeth were definitely whiter than I’ve ever seen on anyone. “Now that we have an invitation, you won’t be able to get rid of us.”
They both laughed.
“But call first,” Dad said.
Levi shook Dad’s hand and then turned to Herb. “I’m sure we’ll also be seeing a lot of each other.”
Herb didn’t say anything.
“And I’ll get in touch about chaperoning,” Levi said. “Since your phone is broken, let me give you my card.” He reached i
nto his pocket, took out a card, and handed it to Herb.
Herb pinched it between his fingers and pulled it quickly back.
“I’ll walk you out,” Mom said.
Lily turned to me and smiled. “Can’t wait to see more of you, Devin.”
My heart felt like it would explode any moment. “I can’t either.” I winced. Should I have said that?
Mom walked out of the room with Levi and Lily. Abby tagged along after them.
“I think I’d better get going, as well,” Herb said.
“You sure, Herb?” Dad asked.
“Yes, I, uh … have some things I need to take care of.” His face looked pale.
“Okay, that’s too bad,” Dad said. “Well, you can show yourself out, right?” Dad looked back over his shoulder to check for Mom. “In that case, I’m going upstairs before your mom gets me to help her clean up. If she asks, tell her I’m on a very important call for work.” He bolted from the room and up the stairs.
Herb waited a moment, until we heard Dad’s door close. He rushed over to us and held up his cracked phone.
“What’s going on?” Tommy asked.
Herb glanced at the door before continuing. He leaned in and whispered, “When I took out the phone to get his number, I tried to discreetly take a picture of them.”
“And?” I asked.
Herb closed his eyes a moment. “I snapped one without their knowing.”
I shrugged. “So?”
“When I looked at it, they weren’t in the picture. They have no reflection. They’re vampires.”
CHAPTER FIVE
VAMPIRE PREP
For the last half-hour I had done nothing but watch Tommy preparing for the night. So far he’d put duct tape in the shape of crosses all over my windows and arranged several cloves of garlic by the door.
I’d passed by open sewers that smelled better than my room.
I waved my hand in front of my nose. “This is ridiculous. I’ll never be able to fall asleep with all this stink.”
“Better a little smell than a vampire midnight snack.”
“We don’t even know for sure that she’s a vampire.”
He waved dismissively. “Please, you heard what Herb said.”
“I know, but we’re just supposed to take his word for it? He couldn’t even show us any proof because his phone cracked.”
“Yeah, but why would he lie about them not showing up in any pictures?”
“I’m not saying he’s lying. But you also have to remember that he’s old. He might not know how to use his phone the right way. That happens to my parents all the time.”
“He said he took the picture and didn’t see them afterwards. Not all of us, them! He didn’t see them!”
“I know, but—”
“No buts!” Tommy said. “We need to be safe. Did you know that vampires always seek out the cleverest members in a group? Those are the ones they try to turn. Because they figure that those are the ones who can change everyone else.”
I shook my head. “That’s not true.”
He ignored me and kept talking. “And no offense to everyone in your family, but I don’t think there’s anyone else here even worth changing.”
“Again, just because you say ‘no offense’ doesn’t mean that it’s not offensive.”
“All I’m saying is that if I were you, I’d be very careful tonight.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out a small container.
“What’s that?”
He opened it and started sprinkling the contents on the floor.
“Hey!” I rushed over and grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?”
He looked at me. “What? It’s garlic powder.”
“Why are you sprinkling garlic powder on my floor?”
He looked at me like I was nuts. “Uh, because your mom’s out of regular garlic. This is all she had in the kitchen.” He pulled his arm away. “Now let me finish.”
I watched him sprinkle the powder around my bed, his sleeping bag, and the windows and pictured just how much trouble I was going to be in when Mom saw it. “Will you stop already? I think that’s enough.”
“I can’t! We need all of it. If they get past the window, this is the last line of defense we have around where we sleep. You can never be too careful with vampires.”
I pictured just how messy this was going to wind up being. “Yeah, but then we’re going to have to clean all this up.”
He waved his hand at me. “Yeah, don’t worry. We will.”
I already knew what that meant. I’d be left doing everything myself.
Tommy searched around my room. He went to the dresser and lifted the bottles of Florida Sunshine Herb gave me. “Maybe we can use these?”
“Are you kidding me? Those are novelty gifts, like the stupid T-shirts he bought.”
“They can’t label it as Florida sunshine if it isn’t true. People would sue the company for false advertising.”
I grabbed the bottle from him and held it up in front of his face. “It’s a bottle! That’s it!” I put it back on the dresser. “Now think of something else.”
There was a knock at the door.
I whipped my head toward the sound. “Oh, no …”
“Devin?”
I exhaled. “Yeah, Dad?”
He opened the door. “I just want to say …” He stopped speaking. His nose wrinkled. “What the heck is that smell?” He looked down and waved in front of his face. “What’s that stuff around your bed?”
I followed his gaze and pointed. “That stuff?”
He nodded. “Yeah, that stuff.”
I tried to remain expressionless. “It’s garlic powder.”
“Uh-huh.” He stared at me for a moment. “May I ask why you have garlic powder sprinkled all around your room?”
“Mosquitoes,” Tommy said.
Dad’s eyes narrowed. “Mosquitoes?”
Tommy nodded. “Yeah, this keeps them away. It’s a very bad time of year for them. Their mating season and all.”
Dad leaned back and peered into the hallway before turning back to us. “Okay, I don’t know what’s going on, but thankfully, your mother’s in bed right now or there’d be murder. Probably mine.” He waved his arm across the room. “So, I don’t care what you do tonight about mosquitoes, bedbugs, or whatever other reason you have for putting garlic powder all over. You want to sleep with that stuff around, that’s fine. All I know is that it reeks in here, and this better be all cleaned up by morning.” He took a step out the door, stopped, and turned back in. “And one more thing. If your mother yells, I knew nothing about this, understand?”
We nodded.
“Good.” He looked at us once more, shook his head, and walked out.
I grabbed Tommy’s arm. “Mosquitoes? Is that the best you could do?”
“He bought it, didn’t he? Or did you want me to tell him vampires?”
“I don’t know what I wanted you to tell him, but saying mosquitoes is stupid.”
“You have to realize that right now we’re protecting your family. Until we know for sure what’s going on, there’s no need to panic anyone else.”
“But you told me that you did know for sure.”
He shrugged. “Well, I kind of do, but there’s always that little bit of doubt. Anyway, they’re not the ones who need to worry.” He pointed to me. “You are. Remember, vampires will seek out the smartest, and since they know I’m not part of your immediate family, the next one in line is you.”
“There’s no way they would pick you over me.”
“Let’s agree to disagree on that. Either way, though, we have to be ready. I suggest we take shifts sleeping.”
“Seriously?”
“Of course! We can’t go to sleep knowing there are bloodthirsty vampires right across the street, just waiting for the chance to come in here and either feast on us or turn us into their soulless, zombie slaves, right?”
“Well, no, but—”
“No but
s. That settles it. We’re sleeping in shifts. I’ll take first watch while you sleep.”
“How long is each shift?”
“Let’s say two hours.” He walked to the closet and rooted around a moment, then brought out a bat. “You don’t have a wood bat?”
I shook my head. “Who has a wood bat? Nobody uses them anymore.”
He looked it over and sighed. “Okay, I guess it’ll have to do for tonight. But we need to start thinking about getting wooden stakes.” He eyed my dresser and motioned toward it. “Do you think your mom will notice if we break off a piece and carve it into a point?”
“You’re not doing that! Now, stop it and let’s go to sleep.” I clicked off the lights and jumped into bed. “I just want you to know that I bet everything will be fine in the morning.”
“Of course it will be.” He tapped his chest. “Because I protected us. Now, get to sleep, because I’m getting you up in two hours for your shift.”
I sighed. “Whatever.”
Last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was Tommy pacing the floor, holding the bat up by his shoulder.
I blinked several times, until my eyes fluttered open. The sun seeped in through the windows. It was daytime. I sat up, took a look around, and rolled my eyes.
On the end of my bed, fast asleep, was Tommy.
I shoved him with my foot until he rolled off and crashed to the floor.
“Hey!” he yelled. “What’d you do that for?” He sat up and rubbed his head.
“You were sleeping! You said we were going to take shifts and you’d wake me in two hours. Instead, you went to sleep.”
“So, I got a little tired. I wasn’t asleep for that long. Maybe, an hour … two, tops.” He reached up and felt his neck. “I don’t feel anything, do you?”
I checked mine. “No, nothing. I told you this was stupid.”
Tommy stood up. “What are you talking about? You should be thanking me instead.”
“Thanking you?” I pointed all around the room. “Did you see all this? Now we have to clean it all up.”
He shrugged. “First of all, the mess is a small price to pay for safety. And second, we’re not cleaning it up! We can’t. Not as long as they’re out there.”
I jumped off my bed. “So what do you want to do? Just keep it on my floor forever? How do you want to explain that to my mom?”
From Sunset Till Sunrise Page 4
