by Gayla Twist
There were three boys crouching by a large tree, and I ran up to them. “Where are the cops?” I yelled. “Has anyone seen them?”
“Shut up,” one of them snapped at me. “They’ll hear you.”
“No, I won’t shut up. I want them to hear me. Just tell me where they are. Have any of you seen them?”
“I saw a couple of them over there.” A second guy jabbed his thumb in the same direction that the girls had indicated. “They’re huge. I don’t think they’re regular cops. I think there’s a whole SWAT team.”
Why would Tiburon bring in a SWAT team to bust up a keg party? I wondered, but I didn’t pause long enough to ask. Plunging forward into the trees, I started yelling, “Over here! I need the police right now! Over here!”
The boys must have thought I was crazy. They turned tail and ran in the opposite direction.
After crashing through the woods for several hundred yards, yelling my head off, my lungs were burning, and I had a stitch in my side. I had to stop and lean against a tree to catch my breath. If there were cops, they were nowhere close to where I was standing. Either I had been pointed in the wrong direction or...
“Oh, no!” I croaked. There were no cops. It had been just a false warning to clear out the woods of anyone I might have been able to convince to help me. Viktor’s plan was diabolical. He really meant it when he said I had to go to the pier alone.
“No way in hell,” I growled to myself, reaching for my cell phone but only finding an empty pocket. “What the...?” Where had my phone gone? I knew I had it with me when I left the house. Then I remembered an older boy bumping into me when Blossom and I were still in the parking lot heading toward the Tib. I thought it was kind of weird at the time because it was a big parking lot and you’d think there was plenty of space allowing people not to collide into each other. Suddenly, it made sense. Viktor had done quite a bit of planning.
I tried to think of what to do. I could go home. Just give in to my fear and abandon Blossom to her fate. That would have been an incredibly crappy friend thing to do. And I would probably never have gotten a good night’s sleep again. I was pretty sure Blossom was the kind of girl who would haunt me. Plus, killing my friend wouldn’t satisfy Viktor. He wasn’t that type of guy. He’d just keep coming for me. I had to face him at some point.
But I wasn’t going empty handed. I searched around the floor of the woods until I found a fallen tree branch. I snapped off several stake-length pieces, tucking some in the waistband of my jeans and the rest in my back pockets. I pulled my sweater down over the stakes in front to help keep them from falling out but left the ones sticking out in back for easy access.
As I retraced my steps through the woods toward the pier, I felt bad for my mom. In all likelihood, she would never know what happened to me. I laughed bitterly at the realization that I really was like Aunt Lettie.
I made my way to the banks of the Tiburon as I got closer to the pier. A couple was walking briskly toward me, the guy throwing a concerned glances over his shoulder. The girl looked at me, and her eyes widened. “I wouldn’t go that way if I were you. There’s a really creepy guy below the pier.”
“I know,” I told them in a low voice. I wasn’t sure how good of hearing vampires had. “He’s got my friend down there. I need you to call the police and tell them there’s been a kidnapping.”
“Yeah, right.” The guy rolled his eyes.
“I’m serious,” I said in a harsh whisper. “That guy has my friend, and I need you to call the police.”
“Come on, Sherri.” He grabbed his girlfriend’s arm and started pulling her away.
“Maybe we should call,” she said, looking back at me, a worried expression on her face.
I clasped my hands together in a pleading gesture and mouthed the word, “Please.”
“It’s just a prank,” he insisted. “We’ll get in trouble for making a false report.”
A dark figure was leaning against one of the pilings of the pier as I approached. I could tell right away by his cavalier attitude that it was Viktor, even before I saw his fangs gleaming in the moonlight as he chuckled with delight upon seeing me.
“Where’s Blossom?” I demanded, ignoring his glee.
“Oh, she’s fine,” he insisted. “In fact, she’s completely oblivious that she’s in any danger.” He laughed. “As usual.”
“Where is she?” I repeated.
The vampire grinned even more, the sight of his dagger-like teeth sending shivers down my spine. “Someplace safe,” he assured me.
I waited for him to do something. Anything, really. He was the one that had summoned me, so I assumed he had something in mind.
He just stood there, looking me over with an amused sneer on his face. I had thought he was handsome when we first met him at the castle, but his personality ruined his looks. He was sinister, creepy, and, more than likely, deadly.
Finally, I gave up waiting and said, “You wanted me here and I’m here.”
“Yes, I love it when dinner brings itself to me. It must be like when you humans get a pizza delivered,” he mused.
Did he really think he was being witty?
I thought about the stakes in my back pocket. Why hadn’t I asked Jessie anything about how to kill a vampire? Probably because it would have been rude to ask, If I stabbed you with a piece of wood, would it really kill you? And also because I was too busy thinking about how much I wanted to be with him. But I did learn a few things about being a vampire, and maybe that would help.
“What do you want, Viktor?” I asked. “You can’t touch me, you know.”
“And why not?” Viktor seemed intrigued.
“Because I belong to Jessie Vanderlind,” I informed him. “I am his companion.”
The vampire tilted back his head and laughed. His mirth lasted several seconds. A small voice in my head urged me to stake the creature while he was distracted. That would have been the smart thing to do. But it’s not easy to strike someone down in cold blood, even a member of the undead, so I hesitated, and the moment past.
“Thank you for that,” the vampire said, wiping his eyes. “If I hadn’t already decided to kill you, I might decide to keep you as a companion myself.”
“I am his companion,” I insisted. “I love him, and I would do anything for him. I give him my blood, and he doesn’t like to share.”
“My dear girl.” Viktor shook his head. “Jessie Vanderlind is precisely the reason why I’m going to drain you.”
“What?” I somehow thought he was still mad about me not opening the cell door in the dungeon or something. “Why?”
“Because he bloodied me, and he threw me out of his home,” the vampire said, his voice petulant. “I won’t kill him, but your death should teach him a lesson in manners.”
Crap. I was really screwed. “You don’t have to bother. Jessie doesn't care a thing about me.”
It was obvious the vampire didn’t believe me. “You just said you were his companion. You said that you loved him. Please don’t tell me you were lying.”
“No, I wasn’t lying,” I said in a small voice. “I do love him, and I would be his companion only...” I felt the hot tears welling in my eyes.
“Only what?” he asked, his eyes glowing. He was practically feeding off my pain.
“Only he doesn’t love me,” I managed to blurt, angrily wiping away a few tears that had escaped onto my cheeks.
Viktor sighed, letting his shoulders droop a little. “So sad.” He clucked his tongue. “My poor girl. I guess I’ll have to find some other way to revenge myself on Vanderlind.”
“Okay,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “So, just tell me where Blossom is and no hard feelings.”
The vampire laughed again. “You are truly delightful,” he said. “But no, I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” The mirth left his face, and his eyes turned predatory. “I haven’t eaten in several days, and I’ll need my strength to face Jessie. And besides, I’m sure your dea
th will at least hurt him a little. Every bit counts.”
“Fine,” I said resignedly. “Let’s get this over with.” I walked up to him, trying to keep my legs from collapsing beneath me. Lifting my chin, I looked him square in the eyes and said, “How do you usually do this?”
Viktor drew back just a fraction of an inch. I had surprised him with my willingness, and there was a moment where he was considering what to say. That’s when I pulled the stake out of my back pocket and jammed it into his flesh.
Chapter 20
Viktor realized what I was doing at the last second. He was able to deflect my blow away from his torso, but the wood plunged into his forearm. The vampire let out an animal-like shriek, his arm shriveling and quickly turning black.
“You bitch!” he snarled, yanking the piece of wood out of his arm.
Before I could think better of it, I grabbed a second stake and lunged at him again, this time hitting him in the shoulder. Viktor crumpled over in pain, and while he was down, I retrieved a third stake from my jeans and aimed for his back, intending to deliver a death blow.
This time, the vampire anticipated me and lashed out, striking me on the side of the head and sending me sprawling. “I am going to kill you,” he hissed, relieving his shoulder of my second stake. He was on his feet again and staggering toward me. “I am going to kill you so slowly and painfully, you are going to beg for death.”
My head was spinning, and I was seeing stars. But Viktor was still intent on my death, and he was standing right over me, so I hitched up my legs and rammed both my feet straight into his giblets as hard as I could.
It didn’t matter who he was—man, vampire, werewolf, whatever—that kind of blow was bound to hurt.
Viktor crumpled over and went down hard. I started crawling as fast as I could away from him and toward the Vanderlind Castle. My head was still ringing, but after a few yards, I was able to get to my feet and stagger. I could hear Viktor coughing on the ground behind me. “Run,” he wheezed. “I love it when they run. But I will find you, and I will suck you dry.”
The world wasn’t quite in focus. Double vision was making running very challenging, but I didn’t really have a choice. Viktor had gotten to his knees, and pretty soon, he would be after me again. I flung myself on the ground in front of the fake storm drain that led to the castle, jammed my hand between the bars, and flailed around for the latch that would open the grate.
Viktor was on his feet, stumbling in my direction, cradling his injured arm. My fear was turning my fingers into useless chunks of ice. I’d found the latch but couldn’t get it to release. “Focus!” I told myself, forcing my hands to stop shaking.
The vampire was only ten yards away. He was standing straighter and no longer favoring his injured arm so much. It had started to heal. He was regenerating. My fingers finally obeyed my brain, and the latch popped. I jerked the door open, scuttled in, and slammed it behind me. Fleeing a vampire by running into a castle full of vampires wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had, but I was desperate. Maybe I would be able to lock myself in the dungeon again.
I started army crawling down the tunnel, but I wasn’t fast enough. Viktor reached through the bars with his good hand, grabbed me by the ankle, and started dragging me backwards. “Hello, my tender morsel,” he said, pressing his face between two of the bars.
With my free foot, I aimed straight for his nose, my blow causing it to gush blood. He jerked back, and I was able to kick his hand and free his hold on me. “You stupid bitch,” he said, his voice muffled as he tried to staunch his bloody nose. “You’re trapped.” He snaked his hand through the bars again to feel for the latch, but I kicked him away. He tried again; I kicked again. I began to feel like a mouse being toyed with by a cat. “You might as well just let me in,” the vampire reasoned with me. “I’m going to kill you eventually. You’re only making how long I torture you even worse.”
“You’re not exactly persuading me to cooperate,” I replied, giving his fingers another kick while trying to inconspicuously hike up my sweater to access another stake.
His injured arm had healed itself completely by then, so Viktor grabbed two of the iron bars and tried to simply tear the door away. While he strained, I readied myself with a stake in each hand. Much to my relief, the grating was too strong. He couldn’t budge it.
“Don’t think I don’t know where this tunnel goes,” he told me. “I could just call the Vanderlinds. They never take kindly to thieves trying to sneak into their castle.”
“Please do,” I said. At least that would get him away from the damn grate.
The next time he reached for the latch, I deployed one of my stakes and stabbed him in the hand, then pinned it there with my feet, ramming the wood deeper into his flesh. The vampire wailed and thrashed, trying to free himself. I had the second stake clenched in my fist, ready for him to lunge his arm through the bars again.
Suddenly, Viktor’s eyes grew wide with surprise, and he was torn away from the storm drain with great force. I couldn’t see what was going on without getting closer to the bars, but I heard a voice command, “Leave her alone!”
It was Jessie. My heart began beating so hard in my chest it was painful.
“What do you care?” Viktor asked in response. “She’s not your companion. She’s just a little plaything you’ve used to amuse yourself.”
“Aurora is mine!” Jessie thundered. “No one touches her but me!”
I heard the blows and the scuffling of a fight. A body was thrown up against the bars of the storm drain. He turned his head, and I saw it was Jessie. “Aurora, get out of here,” he told me. “Go lock yourself in one of the cells if you can.” He got to his feet, disappearing from my view again.
“You already shamed your family over one human,” Viktor said. “Why risk your life for another?”
“What are you talking about?” Jessie asked, his breath heavy with exertion.
“Don’t think I haven’t heard the rumors,” Viktor laughed. “Stories like that never go away. Not even after a hundred years.”
Jessie was flung against the bars again. I scooted closer to the grate. When he glanced in at me, I held up the stake in my hand and vigorously nodded at him. I saw him draw breath to yell at me for still being there, but then he changed his mind. Struggling to his feet, he said to Viktor, “I judge a being on their actions, not on whether they have fangs.”
I positioned myself right up against the grate. I had my head bent low, trying to see the two vampires. When they paused to goad each other, they were visible to me, but then one would lunge for the other or go to strike a blow, and they would appear to be only blurry shadows. My eyes couldn’t follow them; they moved so fast.
“You’re pathetic,” Viktor informed him. “You treat our food better than you do a brother vampire.”
“You used to be human once.”
Viktor laughed an ugly, demonic laugh. “That was so long ago. Who can even remember.”
They started grappling again. It was hard to tell who was who. The moon wasn’t helping because it kept slipping behind the clouds, and then I could barely see anything but dark silhouettes. It was amazing how strong they both were, knocking each other several feet with their mighty blows. It was no wonder that my head hurt so bad from Viktor striking me.
One of the dark figures managed to hoist the other man over his head. “Now, Aurora!” I heard Jessie shout. I shoved the piece of wood through the bars of the grate just as Jessie threw Viktor at the opening of the drainage ditch.
My impulse was to jerk back and cringe as the body of Viktor came at me, but I forced myself to stay where I was with the piece of wood in my hands, braced against the iron bars.
Jessie’s aim was true, and my makeshift stake was driven deep into Viktor’s torso. I knew the vampire was screaming in pain, but I could barely hear him over the sounds of my own shrieks of terror.
I was somehow under the impression that a staked vampire would pop like a blood-filled w
ater balloon. That’s how it always happened in the movies. But there was very little blood besides the red stream that poured out of the corner of Viktor’s mouth as he gasped and clawed at his chest. He twisted his head to look back at me through the grate. It seemed like he was trying to say something. Maybe he wanted to hurl some horrible last curse at me or beg for forgiveness with his final breath; I couldn’t tell. His skin began to shrivel on his skull. His eyeballs dried in their sockets, and his flesh fell off like burned paper. It was horrible, but he was still alive, still moving, his jaws opening and closing. He extended his arms, reaching for me through the bars. I was paralyzed with horror, unable to move, unable to stop screaming, but I desperately, desperately did not want his skeletal hands to touch me.
Jessie came up beside Viktor and thrust him away with his boot. The body fell apart, the joints all unhinged, and then quickly disintegrated to nothing but ashes.
“Aurora,” Jessie said, crouching down next to me. “Aurora!” he shouted to snap me out of my hysteria.
I wasn’t screaming anymore, I knew that, but I didn’t know when I’d stopped. I dropped the stake, held absolutely still for what seemed like an eternity, and then started trembling all over. I was crying, bawling my head off. When Jessie went to unfasten the latch on the grate, I began whimpering, “No, no...”
It wasn’t that I was afraid of Jessie. That was not the complete truth. He was terrifying, but I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. I just didn’t trust that Viktor was truly dead. I had this wild terror that he would somehow reanimate himself and come after me again.
Jessie got the grate open. “Are you all right?” he asked in a gentle voice.
“Yes,” I said, my voice trembling. “I think so. Maybe a concussion. I don’t know.”
“You know I would never hurt you, right?” he said, mistaking my continued fear for terror of him.
