Blood Wars: Book 4 (The Talisman Series)

by Brenda Pandos

  I slithered to my right just as Katie took notice of another junior to accost at our left.

  What was I going to do now? Hiding in the gym was the only viable option. When I walked in, kids were everywhere, and they all seemed to have the blasted stickers on. Sam pulled me toward the bleachers. We sat in the corner furthest from the door.

  “Maybe Phil is right,” she said indignantly.

  “Maybe,” I said, worried that if I played into it, Sam would relapse, “but it wasn’t Mr. Cruor’s idea to do the drive. It was the principal’s.”

  “Still, I don’t like it.” Her nostrils flared. “And Mr. Cruor gives me the creeps, you know that already.”

  “I do.” I kneaded my hands. Technically, I was supposed to be donating blood right now.

  Katie stomped up the bleachers, red faced.

  “Why haven’t you two given yet?” She’d apparently ditched her clipboard. “Don’t you see we’re behind?”

  I stopped myself from laughing in her face at her bluff. “I’m not so sure about it.”

  “Sure about what?” Katie leaned forward, hands on her hips. “Don’t be like Phil.”

  Phil slipped up the bleachers behind Katie with his finger over his lips. I tried not to give him away by reacting. He slid his arm over Katie’s shoulder.

  “What’s so wrong with being like me?” His easy grin spread on his lips.

  Katie glared, then her eyes fell to his sticker and my chest constricted. “You did decide to give.”

  What? How could he after everything?

  “Well, yeah.” Phil winked at me, which confused the heck out of me. What game was he playing? “We’re all drinking Cain’s mojo, aren’t we?”

  I tried my best not to react, but Sam’s gasp gave her away.

  Katie jerked her head backward. “Cain? What are you talking about?”

  “Never mind.” Phil removed his arm, but kept looking at me.

  Katie’s exuberant grin spoke volumes, and I no longer saw a way out of this. Angry as ever with Phil for caving, I stood. He’d purposefully pulled this stunt so I’d confess the teacher resembled Cain. He wasn’t going to trick me that easily.

  “Better late than never, right?” I turned to Sam and gave her a “let’s go” look before I started to climb down the bleachers.

  Phil’s hand slid into mine, and I pulled my hand away. With as much vitriol as I could give, I leaned forward. “I don’t want to be the reason we lose.”

  “Good,” Katie smirked before the three of us descended the stairs, leaving him standing alone.

  Katie escorted us the entire way to the RV. I tried not to look at Sam. I already knew what she was thinking, but I was so mad at Phil, I couldn’t see straight.

  “Oh, here it is.” Katie snatched up her clipboard and scanned down the list. With her red pen, she put checkmarks by our names. “You’ll be next. Just wait here. I need to compare my clipboard with Horace’s.”

  I rolled my eyes. Once Katie walked around to the exit door of the RV, Sam leaned in. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  I gritted my teeth. “We can’t.”

  “Next!” A woman called from the partially opened doorway. Her eyes locked with mine and my legs liquefied.

  I grabbed Sam’s arm without thinking and led her in the opposite direction. “We have to go. We have to go now!”

  We ran away from the RV and back to the hall. Though the distance wasn’t far, I could hardly catch my breath.

  “What is it? What did you see?”

  I turned to Sam, barely able to speak. “It was Rachel Delagrecca, Cain’s second in his vampire army.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  We returned to history, and I kept my eyes low. Pulling out my notebook, I waited for Mr. Cruor to show up and start his lecture.

  Phil poked my back with his pen. I ignored him. Then he pressed harder, hurting me.

  “Would you stop that?” I said, exasperated.

  “Why didn’t you do it?”

  Everything inside me wanted to confide in him and find out what he thought of all of this. Still stuck in my lies, I couldn’t say anything, though. “None of your business.”

  “Here.”

  Concealed to everyone but me, he flashed a shiny, “I gave” sticker.

  “Where’d you get this?”

  “I have my ways.” He passed it under his desk to me.

  Did I dare put it on? Did I have a choice? I wasn’t going anywhere near that RV and this was the only thing that would keep Katie from pestering me further. Trying my hardest not to crinkle the paper, I removed the sticker and slyly placed it on my shirt.

  Still confused why he was giving me the sticker, I turned around.

  “So you didn’t give?”

  “Heck, no.”

  My jaw dropped a tad. So he stole the stickers. What a genius idea. Why didn’t I think of that?

  “I need one for Sam, too,” I said quickly.

  He passed me another one. Did he steal the whole roll? Quick as a flash, I walked over to Sam’s desk and handed her the sticker wrapped up in a piece of binder paper.

  I returned to my seat and scanned Nicholas’ empty one. He’d be so proud of us for outsmarting this lame drive.

  “Class,” Horace entered the room, sporting Katie’s clipboard in his hands. He scanned the room, his eyes tightening on Phil behind me. “The contest is close. From my records, the seniors are ahead.” Everyone groaned. “Not to worry. There are still a few of you who haven’t given. Feel free to take the opportunity now.”

  Of everyone, two people got up and left the room.

  Horace continued to glare my way. I tried to look confident as the fear raced through me. I leaned over and pulled off the offending sticker, gripping it tight in my fist.

  He stepped toward me and stood by Phil’s desk. My heart hammered. “You’re not on the list as a donor, Mr. D’Elia.”

  “I’m not?”

  “No.” He tapped his pen on the edge of the clipboard. “I heard you’d given last month already.”

  “You’re right.” Phil lifted his hands. “You caught me. But, I felt left out. What did you expect me to do?”

  “Bring me proof. But there’s a bigger problem than this underfoot. Come with me.” Horace motioned for Phil to stand, then he stepped aside while Phil moved past. “Ms. Parker and Ms. King, you need to come, too.”

  “Me?” I held my fist tight in my lap.

  “Yes.” He gestured to my hand. “Open it.”

  I unrolled my fingers to reveal the stolen sticker.

  His lips thinned. “Cheating is a serious matter.”

  I tried to say something. His glare stopped me. Then he motioned for the three of us to leave the room. We marched down the hall to Mr. Brewster’s office in silence. He instructed us to sit while he went inside.

  Through the cracked door, I could hear him flirting with Candy, Mr. Brewster’s secretary. With Phil in the middle of us, I couldn’t even whisper anything to Sam.

  “Sorry,” I finally said, realizing this was all my fault.

  If I would have confessed ahead of time that I’d remembered, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

  “For what?” he asked.

  “For not standing up for you in the first place.”

  “Naw.” Phil laughed, and touched my knee for the briefest of seconds. Comforting and familiar, I wanted him to keep it there. “We should have just stayed home like Nick did.”

  I balled my hands together and squeezed. This sucked and who knew what Principal Brewster would do to us.

  “I thought it was sweet,” Sam said. “How’d you get them anyway?”

  “I used to know this vampire.”

  Sam perked up. “Really?”

  I coughed loudly as the door opened. Candy leaned up against Horace’s body while he propped open the door.

  “Lyle, I mean Principal Brewster will see you now,” she purred.

  In shame, the three of us filed past. Returning to Mr. Brewster�
�s office made everything come back to me. Phil’s disappearance. My connection to it. The parental interrogation. I half expected to find my dad sitting in the same chair as before, but the chairs were empty.

  “Sit down,” Mr. Brewster said from his desk.

  After harassing us without a jury, Mr. Brewster gave an ultimatum. To my horror, the deal was he’d lift the two-day suspension if we agreed to give blood. Before I could object, Sam and Phil agreed.

  When we left his office, I kept my head down. Candy’s giggles from the copy room made me feel even dirtier. We’d made a deal with the devil and he wanted our blood in payment.

  “We could run,” Phil said once we were out of earshot of the office. “Head for Mexico.”

  Sam laughed. “Right. As if we could do that. Why don’t you come up with a more realistic plan?”

  Realistic plan, my ass. At this point, I was so done fighting. A suspension would ruin any chance of going to a good college. What harm could there be in giving my blood?

  Once we were outside, we headed for the RV. All the students from earlier were apparently in class. I took a deep breath and knocked on the RV door.

  Rachel opened the door and flashed a devilish smile. “You’re back. Oh, good. You brought friends. I love working with the cute strong ones. You first.” She pointed to Phil, and curled her finger as if to entice him inside.

  With her hand splayed on his chest, she forced him to sit in one of the leather recliners. He looked entranced by her and everything inside me screamed to get Phil out of there.

  Rachel started to prep his arm, then pressed her fingers below the tourniquet. “Oh, this is a meaty one.”

  I looked away, unable to watch. Who was I to judge? Maybe I was over-reacting. Maybe Rachel’s new life involved her being a phlebotomist. After all, the room looked like a doctor’s office should: sterile and white with the assorted tools and gadgets.

  My eyes were drawn to the edge of the curtain. Behind it revealed something familiar taped to the wall. Hundreds of tiny pictures of people hung there, most of them with tiny red X’s over their faces. It looked identical to the lifeline chart my dad had in his secret office, but someone that looked like Phil was on the upper left hand corner.

  Rachel cleared her throat and some unseen person pulled the curtain shut.

  “No,” Phil objected.

  I turned to see her grab onto his arm, the syringe in her opposite hand. Light glinted off the needle, sparkling slightly. “Don’t move, honey. It’ll all-l-l be over soon.”

  “No!” He yanked away from her. Gauze, tape, packages of needles and tubes flew up and clattered to the ground.

  “Phil!” Rachel barked. “What are you doing?”

  Everything happened so fast. Phil pulled the both of us through the RV door. “I’m not doing it and neither are you.”

  Instinctively, I yanked my arm away. “What’s gotten into you?”

  “I don’t care what Mr. Brewster has threatened to do to me, you have to believe me. They aren’t collecting our blood to donate it,” Phil insisted. “It’s some kind of trap.”

  “Trap? Don’t be silly.” I tried to clear my head, unable to see another way out of this situation. “I’m not comfortable with it either, but we don’t have a choice. We have to do this or we’ll get suspended. I can’t have that on my record.”

  Phil gritted his teeth. “Fine, you can do what you want. I’m out of here.”

  He took off toward the parking lot. I went to open the RV door, and to my horror, Sam flew past me and ran after him.

  They began to talk, and I feared what about. I willed my arm to just open the door and get it over with. The fact Rachel hadn’t followed us outside told me we were over-reacting.

  “Sam, let’s go.”

  She wasn’t speaking anymore. They were kissing, right in the middle of the parking lot. My mouth fell opened when Phil didn’t pull away, only deepened the kiss further.

  Phil finally came up for air and locked eyes with me, then Sam turned.

  “Julia?” she asked.

  My hand covered my mouth. She’d blown our cover.

  Weaving herself out of Phil’s arms, she moved forward. “Julia. Come here. It’ll be okay.”

  “I…” I gulped hard, then turned to walk toward campus. “Never mind.”

  To my left, the RV rumbled to life, and I looked over just in time to get out of the way, as the stanchions and red carpet flailed behind like cans on a car of newlyweds. In the driver’s seat sat none other than Dr. V. himself.

  No. I hadn’t over-reacted. This was real and we were in huge trouble.

  CHAPTER NINE

  After Dad received the dreaded call that I was suspended, he arrived red-faced and followed my car home from school. I parked out front and beat him to the door, leaving it open. He slammed it behind me.

  “Russ? Is that you?” Mom called from the kitchen.

  I cringed.

  “Wait for me in the living room,” he said before he stalked off to the kitchen.

  They spoke briefly, and I could almost feel the temperature of the room drop. I waited, hands folded in my lap, for my punishment.

  When Dad returned with Mom, new veins had popped out of his neck as his eyebrows, resembling sleeper waves, slid down in a scowl ready for battle. He’d apparently become worked up again retelling the story. I gritted my teeth and avoided eye contact, ready to help them see reason. This was over a blood drive and so unfair.

  “I shouldn’t have to give blood if I don’t want to,” I defended before I could stop myself.

  “This isn’t about giving blood, Julia! This is about cheating,” he yelled. “I raised you better than this.”

  “Dad, you don’t understand. There was no way to back out. I couldn’t say no.”

  “And if everyone wanted to jump off a cliff, you’d jump, too?” he asked.

  I refrained from rolling my eyes.

  “No, Dad. This isn’t the same thing.” I actually took a stand for once against the mindless blood-givers who’d jumped off Cain’s cliff. I just hadn’t gone about it the right way.

  “Isn’t it?” He paced back and forth while Mom hovered in the hall. “I just can’t believe this.”

  From the tension, I knew there wasn’t any way to explain. I had no qualms about giving blood, I just didn’t want Cain’s greedy hands having access to it for whatever sick reason.

  “Fine. I’ll give blood. Just at a regular blood bank. That one was just creepy.”

  “Julia. This isn’t about the drive. It’s about our trust. You cheated, Julia. Cheated.”

  My eyes slid to the floor as the dread sloshed in my veins. There was no convincing them, and I hated that it undermined their trust in me. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. You have no idea how sorry.

  “This all started once that boy came into your life,” Mom chimed in. “He just came from nowhere. Some guy you met on the internet and we’ve never met or spoken to his parents. Parents that just let him move here unsupervised. He’s not a good influence on you.”

  “Nicholas wasn’t even there today.”

  “Really?” Dad interrupted. “Ditching already?”

  I sighed. “No, he went home… for an emergency. He’s a good guy.” You have no idea how good. Phil was the one who stole the stickers, but I wasn’t going to throw him under the bus, too.

  Saddened, I stared up at Mom. She didn’t know how important Nicholas was to us. That in our prior life, she’d actually befriended him when he needed a mother figure, when he was searching to find his place between vampires and humans. That he’d been too late to save her life from a vampire attack, and vowed to be my guardian after her death because of his guilt. And as I grew older, he fell in love with me and couldn’t stop himself from becoming known to me.

  “No technology,” Mom said, heartlessly. “No phone. No computer. No internet. No TV. You’ll stay home and think about your priorities for the next two days. And… no Nicholas.”

  �
��What?” I popped off the couch and held my pocket like they’d tackle me for my phone.

  With everything, I hadn’t even had time to tell Nicholas. I’d go dark on him, possibly when he’d need me the most.

  “Let me at least tell Nicholas I’m grounded.”

  “Your phone is a privilege,” Mom said, holding out her hand. “I’ll text him for you if he tries to contact you. How’s that?”

  “I have a better idea. Let’s call him right now.” Dad moved toward Mom’s hand.

  “No!” I cried, mortified.

  “What do you have to hide?” Mom raised a brow at me.

  The tears brimmed on my lids. “This is so unfair. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Dad froze, his mouth agape. “Nothing wrong? Then, no technology for a month, and all your visits with that boy will be here, supervised.”

  “What? What about my job?” I asked.

  “You can call your boss and let her know you need to take a leave of absence.” Mom put her hands on her hips.

  “But I’ll lose my job?” I shrieked.

  “You can get another one once you prove yourself.”

  I burst into tears. Did they not care that they were making things worse? I couldn’t believe they were taking things to this level.

  Mom softened at my sobs. “Don’t you understand? We’re not talking about a slap on the wrist here. This suspension goes on your permanent record. This will affect your chances to get into a good college, and if it happens again, you could be expelled. This is the start of a bad bad road and we cannot allow you to continue down it.”

  “Mom, this is so silly. Don’t you get it? It’s over a blood drive.”

  Dad put his arm around Mom. “This is going to be a tough lesson.”

  I stared at both of them, exasperated. It wasn’t that they weren’t going to see reason. They weren’t even listening.

  “Fine.” I ran past them, up the stairs, and into my room, slamming the door behind me.

  ~|~

  The next morning, I lay in bed and listened as Mom’s car pulled out of the driveway to take my little sister Rachel to school, and the garage door slipped quietly shut. Alone, finally. Pulling myself out of bed, I stepped in the hall. A note was taped to my door with a list of things I was to clean today, starting with my room. I sighed and padded to the bathroom.