I wondered what the others thought of that, or if they even realized it.
I sent Bobby a mental memo, and he sent back a see you there. I didn’t hear anything else the rest of class, as I tried to figure out how we were going to stop Raspy’s retinue, the council contingent, and their human helpers from releasing the gas. They all knew the plan and the lay of the land, and we didn’t. At least with the Mad Monk himself out of the picture, Bobby’s mesmerizing powers would be working at full force.
When the final bell rang, I dashed into the hallway, looking for the others in the explosion of students. Byron found me first. “You got the message?” he asked.
“Yeah, Lily sent the deets, thanks. Then Parker took my phone.”
“Who you gonna call? We’ll all be together.”
“Great,” I said, trying to inject enthusiasm into my voice. “Whose idea was this, anyway? Seems kind of sudden.”
Byron grabbed my arm, put it through his, and started leading me toward the parking lot. “Do you need to stop at your locker first?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Okay then. It was Bella’s idea. Memorial for Tyler and Teresa.”
“Trashing her parent’s place?”
“Word is they’ve put it up for sale and gone out of town. Moved in with relatives or something. We’re being respectful. Bella’s going to take up a collection for funeral costs … you know, in case the bodies are ever recovered.”
“You don’t think that’s a little weird?” I asked, wondering if Byron might be working with the vamps himself.
He shrugged. “Like there’s such a thing as normal. The word is that Tyler and Teresa busted their way out of the morgue vaults. How crazy is that? And have you seen the bite marks on Ulric’s neck? Nothing for it but to have a dead man’s party.”
I swallowed hard. Ulric. I was going to have to face him. I’d never confronted one of my, er, blood donors post-bite before. I had no idea if the same power that made them docile made them forget, or if they remembered every second of it. I so hoped for the former. I couldn’t tell if the latter would have Ulric outing me as a bloodsucker or thinking the bite constituted second base and wanting to try for a home run. With Ulric, it could be anything.
“I’m all for a party,” I said, realizing I had to say something.
“Cool.”
We were the first to the hearse, but Lily and Gavin appeared about three seconds later, arm in arm. Finally, Ulric and Bella showed up. The latter wouldn’t meet my eyes at all, which was just as well, because I didn’t have a clue what to say to her after what she’d done to me. I only knew what I wanted to say to her, but not in front of the others. It was more a gesture, anyway, involving my foot and her ass.
Ulric, though … As I was afraid they would, his eyes glowed like he thought he might get an encore on the necking tonight.
“Hey,” he said. He managed to toss a whole conversation into the word, something like I know. You know I know. I know you know I know, and I’m willing to keep the secret but I want more. I was going to have to do something about him. The question was, what?
“Gen and I are going together,” he continued, surprising the heck out of me. “We’ll take her car. I need to stop for party supplies.”
Now Bella looked from me to Ulric, suspicion narrowing her eyes.
“That all you want to do?” Lily teased, either missing the undertones or trying to lighten things up.
“As a matter of fact, no,” Ulric answered, a wolfish grin spreading across his face as he put an arm around my shoulders. He gave me a squeeze that was a little more than friendly, as if to let me know I’d better go along if I didn’t want a scene.
I responded with a pinch to his butt that was also a little more than friendly. Everyone but Bella laughed when he jumped.
“Don’t be long,” Bella said, locking eyes with me. I wondered just what they’d planned and worried for a second that whatever Ulric intended would make me late for it, but surely it wouldn’t. Based on the party at Red Rock, more and more people would arrive as the evening went on. The vamps wouldn’t want to play to a half-full house. Besides, they didn’t have our sunscreen additive … yet, anyway … so they couldn’t start until dark. Even if Rick really had gone over to the dark side, he had no more idea than Bobby and I did as to what was added to our bottled blood. Even if the vamps had gotten a sample, they’d have to reverse engineer the stuff. They couldn’t possibly have had the time.
“Come on,” said Ulric, steering me toward my car. “We really do have a stop to make.”
“Where?” I asked, echoing Bella’s suspicion.
“The hospital. I don’t care who ordered us out. You’re getting up to see Bram and you’re going to save him.”
We hit my car, one row over, and I ordered him in. As soon as the doors were shut, insulating us from the outside world, I turned on him.
“I want to help Bram. I do. But … ” What could I say that wouldn’t confirm Ulric’s … well, “suspicions” would probably be understating the matter. Denial was out. “I don’t know what a transfusion might do to him, without us doing the whole blood exchange.”
“So exchange. He’s dying or as good as dead anyway in that coma. Do you think he’s going to argue?”
I’d never really needed the vamp power of mesmerism. Bobby was an exceptionally special case, being able to control multiple targets and move things with his mind, so early in his unlife. As I understood it, powers generally grew with age, and not nearly so great as Bobby’s. I was only a few months old in vamp time, so my hypnotic powers were sketchy at best, but I poured all the sincerity and strength I could muster into my next words and hoped it would be enough for Ulric to go along. I could overpower him, but leaving him helpless and behind with vamps like Alistaire running around town seemed a little over-the-top.
“Ulric, when all of this is over, I promise to do what I can for Bram, but you have to trust me when I say that right now, we have to get to that party.”
“Something’s going on, isn’t it? Bella—”
“Yes. In fact, it’s safer for you if you don’t go. If I can drop you somewhere—”
“Hell with that! Why didn’t you warn the others?” He reached for his phone, and I had to put my hand over his to stop him.
“We can’t. Bella’s one of them. You’ve guessed that already. If we tip her off, if I chase everyone down and blow the party, they’ll just do it some other time and place when we’re not ready for them.”
“And you’re ready for them now? You? All by your lonesome?”
“Yes, me. And no, not alone. That’s all you need to know.”
“Bullshit. These are my friends.”
“Mine too, dammit.”
He was silent for a second, as if I’d surprised him.
“Well … all right then. What’s the plan?”
“No clue. Give me a second.”
I put the car into gear and started to pull out, gritting my teeth as I paused to keep from running over the throngs walking behind me, unaware that cars might be about to back into them. Logically, I knew that nothing could begin yet, at least on the vampire end of things, but sometime in the few hours between now and nightfall someone would be releasing Raspy’s new and improved formula into the air, creating a whole house party of highly suggestible teens. No telling where that might lead, if someone got suicidal or aggressive or—
I gunned the car to hurry the next sauntering pair along and hit the road as fast as I could. Ulric had a death grip on the dash until I suggested that the seat belt might be a lot more useful. Then I called Bobby.
Hey, stud, I said mentally.
Yo, babe.
Yo? Since when do you “yo”?
Um, trying it out.
I was not going to point out that Bobby was so not street. I suppose he was pretty fly for a white guy.
What’s the plan? I said instead.
Maya and Sid already have eyes on the place. Other than
that, we’re essentially on our own until evening when the vamps and the Feds’ strike team arrive. They’re staying away until then so the vamps don’t catch a whiff of the trap before we close in.
So we just hang tight until night?
We keep an eye on the collaborators and find some way to stop the release of the gas, or neutralize it without tipping them off.
Wow, is that all?
In a nutshell.
Can’t you just, you know, magic them into not releasing the gas? I asked.
The vamps may be waiting on some kind of signal before moving in, Bobby told me. We don’t know what it is, so again …
We can’t risk it, I finished for him. Okay, fine. I’ll watch Bella, but you’ve got Rick.
I understood that we had to let the council and Grunge Vamp go ahead and spring their trap, but caution and I weren’t exactly best buds. In fact, caution and I were more like plaid and polka dots, two things that just didn’t go together.
“Turn here,” Ulric ordered.
Who’s there with you? Bobby asked.
I looked at Ulric. I’m, uh, kinda bringing my own back-up.
Gina! It was loaded with that frustration I usually heard from teachers. What part of undercover don’t you understand?
You know, I told him, I put cloth covers on my textbooks, too, but it doesn’t mean anyone mistakes them for throw pillows.
Huh? What on earth does that mean?
Ta!
I tuned him out by focusing on Ulric. “Okay, here’s the plan. I’m keeping an eye on Bella. I want you to circulate. Keep a watch on everyone else. Make sure no one is acting strangely. Well, more strangely than usual. If someone’s hurt or there’s any kind of trouble, you see what it’s all about. I’m not going to come running unless I know it’s legit, in case it’s a diversion.”
“Gotcha, but—”
“You want to help, you do what I say.”
“It’s not that. What if Bella’s ready for you, like she was the other night? At least, I thought that’s what I saw. I was a little, uh, dreamy.”
“I’m ready for her this time. Just in case, you get to keep an eye on everybody plus me.” I wasn’t going to mention Bobby and blow his cover any more than it already was, just in case Ulric got mind-controlled or something crazy like that.
“This is Teresa’s road,” Ulric said, pointing off to the left.
It was hardly more than a gravel path. More like a long driveway than a street. Only a few drives led off of it, either to one-story homes on small lots or bigger homes mostly hidden behind trees. Some of the drives were paved, but most, like Teresa’s, were dirt. I nearly left the underside of my Nissan behind in a rut. The drive curved up a hillside, ending at a wood-shingled one-story house, well away from its neighbors and isolated by tall pines.
No wonder our villainous vamps had chosen it. The place was perfect. Only one rutted road out. No one would be making a quick getaway, even if they could easily get their cars out of the knot already forming on the lawn.
The only wrong note about the place was that it had a decent amount of windows. Releasing a gas there didn’t make any sense. We could just open the windows or break the glass or—but maybe it was like mustard gas or tear gas or something like that, strong enough to work even with ventilation. It was a scary thought.
I parked alongside the driveway far from the other cars. If my parking brake didn’t give out and send my car rolling down the hill without me, I ought to be able to get out quickly to give chase, or evacuate if need be. Bobby would be so proud of me for thinking ahead.
I was about to call and tell him when I spotted the hearse.
“The others are already here,” I said, proving I’d totally mastered the obvious, even if I’d completely blown the whole secret-identity thing.
“Guess we’d better get going.”
Ulric reached into his shirt and pulled out a big honkin’ cross of antiqued silver, flared stylistically at the ends. I recoiled, and it was all I could do not to hiss, which would be so cliché.
He gave me one of his shit-eating grins. “Don’t worry. If you decide you want a repeat of the other night, I’ll take it off for you.”
“In your dreams, Goth Boy.”
“Absolutely,” he answered.
I tried not to smile, but I couldn’t help myself. My teeth even peaked a little bit at the thought of a second helping of him. But then I remembered Bobby. Sweet, sexy, good kisser. All that and a bag of chips. Everyone always used that expression. It was one thing when the chips were lamo potato, completely another when they were chocolate. Anyway …
“Let’s go,” I said, getting out of the car. I left my door unlocked, for a quick getaway. Ulric followed my lead.
The door to Teresa’s place was slightly ajar, music leaking out, so all we had to do was push our way through. Inside, what I could see that wasn’t already covered in partiers was woodsman chic, if that wasn’t a total oxymoron. The furniture was made all of planks and rough-cut logs; the couch was covered in what looked like finely woven burlap. In the center of the room was an area rug that had—I had to look twice—moose and bears in fields of earth tones. Miraculously, there were no deer heads mounted anywhere … that I could see, anyway. I looked around for Bella but found Rick-the-rat first, chatting up some blond bimbo. Not that I had a problem with blonds—seriously—but there was no way they had more fun.
Ah, there she was. The living room looked right into the kitchen through a breakfast bar topped with something like slate. It smelled as though someone had spent the day baking apple pies, but with the family gone that didn’t seem terribly likely. I was betting it was some kind of plug-in or air freshener, like I probably should have put up in my place.
I didn’t want to get too close to Bella in case, like Ulric had said, she had a surprise waiting for me, but I watched her like a hawk. Only she wasn’t doing anything at all interesting, just standing beside a doorway in the kitchen that looked like it should have led to a pantry but apparently didn’t. Not the way she seemed to be talking to someone through the doorway before she turned and yelled, “Hey, Gavin says there’s a pool table downstairs!”
The exodus didn’t start immediately, but in ones and twos and threes, people eventually migrated to the basement, where there were only two very tiny windows way up high and only one other door out. I was totally not thrilled with the defensive possibilities, though it was hard to get a truly sinister sense of a place that smelled like apple pie. If anything, the scent was even stronger down in the basement, probably to cover the smell of mold or mildew or all those other basementy things.
Bobby had arrived a while ago with a small gaggle of geeks—it was totally a gaggle of geeks, a nest of nerds, a dollop of dweebs. My eye had been instantly drawn to him when he’d entered, but I quickly sneered and looked away for Ulric’s benefit. Speaking of Ulric, I steered him over to the one other door out of the basement and tested it. Locked. Of course. I twisted the little button in the knob to unlock it and still it wouldn’t budge. So not a good sign. Not at all. If anything happened, if we had a stampede or something, kids would get run over or bottlenecked at the top of the stairs. The place was a death trap.
Worse, as the afternoon turned into evening, more and more people crowded into the basement to keep the noise and lights in this supposedly uninhabited house from alerting the neighbors, who might call the police.
I relayed all the info I had to Bobby who, I was pretty sure, had picked up on it himself and was passing it along to Agents Stick and Stuffed via telepathy or whatever. Ulric left my side to circulate, as he had a few times already, grabbing himself a beer along the way, but this time the light coming through the two small windows was starting to dim. It was getting near show time, and I was as jumpy as a swimsuit model about to take her first runway walk.
He brought back a brew for me as well.
“You know I can’t drink this, right?” I asked him softly.
“Relax. I�
��m not trying to get you drunk. It’s camouflage, in case anyone notices you’ve been going empty-handed. Besides, a broken beer bottle makes a pretty good weapon in a pinch.”
“I’m not even going to ask how you know that.”
“Good. I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
I gave him a sidelong look and his lips twitched.
“Bella’s making a move,” he said, nodding in the direction from which he’d come.
Bella was headed for the stairs to the first floor. Rick, coming from the other end of the room, wasn’t far behind her.
You see? Bobby asked in my head.
Yup.
On it, he said.
Me too.
We converged on them, and when Ulric started to follow, I stopped him with a talk-to-the-hand sort of gesture. “I need you to stay behind. If something goes wrong, if you hear the hiss of gas escaping or smell anything at all, I want you to beat down the doors. Break the little windows. Keep everyone calm and get them out if you can. If you can’t, focus them. Get them singing Beyoncé or Kanye or, hell, Taylor Swift. Something to tune out the rest of the world. Got me?”
He didn’t look like he liked the thought of being kept out of the action, but he didn’t argue.
“Ulric, promise me,” I said, just to be sure he wasn’t silently plotting. “And don’t wait until you’re sure about the gas. If you even think you hear it, make a move. Okay?”
“Do I get a reward?” he asked hopefully.
“Yeah, maybe you get to live.”
He made a face at me and leaned in for a quick, hard kiss I was totally unprepared for.
I pushed him back, but his wolfish grin was already in place. “For luck,” he said.
I hit him, but maybe not as hard as I should have, and raced up the stairs after Bobby, only to hear a lock click into place before we could get through.
“Can you whammy it?” I asked Bobby, close behind him.
He closed his eyes and reached a hand out to the knob, as if he could see through the tips of his fingers.
I heard the lock click back out of alignment and Bobby gave the knob a twist, but the door didn’t budge. Just like the one downstairs, the door had been jammed shut.
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