06 Love Bites - My Sister the Vampire

by Sienna Mercer

  Sink your fangs into these:

  Switched

  Fangtastic!

  Revamped!

  Vampalicious

  Take Two

  Coming soon:

  Lucky Break

  Georgia leaned in to Ivy. ‘Looks like your

  sister has herself a royal admirer!’

  The realisation hit Ivy like a stake in the gut.

  Alex likes Olivia! A second thought followed

  almost as quickly. But Olivia has a boyfriend.

  Sienna Mercer

  MY SISTER THE VAMPIRE: LOVE BITES

  EGMONT

  We bring stories to life

  My Sister the Vampire: Love Bites first published in Great Britain 2011

  by Egmont UK Limited

  239 Kensington High Street

  London W8 6SA

  Copyright © Working Partners Ltd 2011

  Created by Working Partners Limited, London WC1X 9HH

  www.egmont.co.uk

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  First e-book edition March 2011

  ISBN 978 1 7803 1016 9

  With special thanks to Sara O’Connor

  For Sara G. Because I knew you . . .

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter One

  ‘I promise I’ll be quick,’ Olivia Abbott told her sister. She kicked the snow off her fuzzy wool boots outside the east entrance to the Franklin Grove mall.

  ‘As long as I don’t have to spend my morning surrounded by crazy, screaming fan girls,’ Ivy replied. The doors slid open and blasted hot air in their faces, sending Ivy’s black hair and matching scarf flitting behind her.

  As they walked inside the mall past all the familiar stores, Olivia said, ‘We’re more than an hour early. How busy can a book signing be?’

  She checked her reflection in the window of Trudy’s Beauty Palace. She was wearing her favourite jeans, pink-and-white striped sweater and rhinestone belt. It had been over a week since she’d last seen her movie-star boyfriend, Jackson, and it would be at least another week before she got to see him again – so she wanted to look her best.

  Since the film set of The Groves had left town a few weeks before, Jackson had called her every day and visited at weekends whenever he could. It was hard dating from a distance, and it was going to be even harder tomorrow when Olivia and Ivy left for Transylvania for a week’s vacation.

  Olivia picked up a noise, a hum of voices that got louder with each step. The twins turned a corner and Olivia couldn’t believe her eyes. They stopped at exactly the same moment, shocked by the roped-off line of girls that wove across most of the huge atrium in the centre of the mall. The bookstore wasn’t even open yet, but it looked like an entire prom was waiting outside.

  Ivy looked at the huge line. ‘Tell me this line is for free ice cream day.’

  Olivia crinkled her nose. ‘I don’t think so.’

  One girl at the front was clutching the entire set of Action Jackson dolls, and the girl behind her had a photo of Jackson on her T-shirt. The next girl was dressed up as an ice skater, the love interest in Jackson’s first movie, and the girl after that was holding the Caulfield Collection DVD box set of Jackson’s first six movies which, Olivia knew from personal experience, was very hard to get hold of. These girls weren’t waiting for a chocolate-dipped cone; they were waiting to gawk and giggle at and get autographs from Olivia’s boyfriend. It made her feel like a wet pom pom.

  ‘Revenge of the glitter zombie hoard,’ Ivy said, flinging her hands up like a cheesy horror movie actress.

  ‘It’s fine,’ Olivia said, pulling out her cell phone. ‘I’ll call him and we’ll say a quick hello before the doors open.’

  She dialled Jackson’s number but it went straight to his voicemail.

  ‘Um.’ Olivia hadn’t prepared for this. She had told him last night that she was going to come to see him before the signing. Why hasn’t he left his phone on? She took a deep breath. ‘No big deal. I’m sure Jackson’s told the security guard to expect us.’

  Olivia led her twin past the crowd towards the front of the line.

  ‘The glitter zombies are looking at us,’ Ivy whispered, pulling on Olivia’s sweater, still pretending to be afraid.

  ‘Don’t make eye contact.’ Olivia plastered her sweetest smile on her face and kept going. But she could feel four hundred eyes watching her every step.

  They reached the store entrance. The windows were covered with pictures of Jackson and pink and red hearts.

  ‘Be Jackson Caulfield’s Valentine,’ the sign boasted. ‘Buy his book and get it autographed!’

  But I’m his Valentine! Olivia thought.

  A security guard with an earpiece stood in front of the door with his arms crossed.

  ‘Good morning, sir,’ Olivia said, knowing that a little politeness could go a long way. But, like a secret-service man at the White House, he didn’t even flinch.

  Olivia refused to give up easily. She took a step forwards and put her hand on the door.

  The security guard thrust his arm across the door, right in front of her face. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’

  ‘I’m here to see Jackson,’ Olivia replied.

  ‘Yeah, you and every other girl in this line.’ He didn’t move his arm.

  She didn’t want to have to do it, but she didn’t have a choice. ‘Really, you should let me in.’ She leaned closer. ‘I’m Jackson’s girlfriend.’

  ‘You can’t be!’ shouted the girl with the action figures. ‘I’m his girlfriend.’

  ‘You are not.’ The ice-skating girl looked ready to spit sequins. ‘I am!’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ put in the girl with the photo T-shirt. ‘Last month, he autographed my magazine “Love, Jackson”.’ She thrust a crumpled magazine under the other girls’ noses. ‘See? I’ve got proof!’

  Olivia felt like she’d tripped flat on her face during a cheer. She didn’t know what to say.

  Ivy leaned in and said to the security guard, ‘Look, Jackson really is expecting to see us today. Can’t you . . . uh . . . check your list?’

  ‘There’s no list, young lady. Just that line behind you, filled with two hundred of Jackson’s “girlfriends”.’ He pointed to the end of the line, which had doubled in size since they’d arrived. ‘Everyone has to wait their turn.’

  ‘You’d better not be trying to cut in line,’ said the girl with the action figures.

  Ice-skater Girl glared at them. ‘We’ve been waiting here for hours! Who do you think you are?’

  ‘Uh, I, um –’ Olivia didn’t know what to say. If she told them that she really was Jackson’s girlfriend, she could get lynched. I must be the only girl in the world who has to line up to see her own boyfriend, Olivia thought.

  ‘No, no,’ Ivy told the girls. ‘We’re not cutting. Not at all. Excuse us, please!’ Ivy pulled Olivia away from the line. ‘Did you see the look in their eyes, Olivia? I may be a vampire,’ Ivy muttered, ‘but these girls scare me.’

  ‘Olivia, darling!’ called a familiar voice. />
  She looked back to see Charlotte Brown, the captain of the cheerleaders, waving her over. Olivia felt her already twisted stomach do another flip. Olivia spent lots of time with Charlotte on the squad and knew that Charlotte was mean even when she was trying to be nice.

  ‘You’re not in line yet? Did you sleep through your alarm?’ Charlotte asked sweetly. Her blonde hair was messy and her frilly silk blouse looked crumpled.

  She couldn’t have, Olivia thought. She wouldn’t. Did Charlotte –

  ‘Did you camp out overnight?’ demanded Ivy.

  ‘Of course not!’ Charlotte smirked. ‘Katie did it for me. I’ve only been here for three hours.’ She teased her hair with her fingers. ‘But I’m going for the “camped out overnight” look for the TV cameras.’

  Olivia couldn’t believe even Charlotte was willing to wait hours.

  ‘Too bad you can’t use your “special friendship” with Jackson to skip the line,’ Charlotte went on, using the biggest air-quotes Olivia had ever seen when she said ‘special friendship’. ‘You know, this could look to some people like you might have, um . . . stretched the truth about being his girlfriend.’

  Olivia’s jaw dropped. She did not just say that! But she kept quiet – she didn’t want to get kicked off the squad.

  Ivy stepped in. ‘And this could look like you were paying someone to be your Valentine.’

  Charlotte narrowed her eyes. ‘Paying is clearly something you have a problem with, freak, judging from all those second-hand clothes.’

  ‘This is vintage!’ Ivy retorted, smoothing down her black satin high-waisted skirt.

  This is so not how I pictured my morning, Olivia thought. ‘Ivy, let’s go to the back of the line before it’s out of the building.’

  She stomped to the end of the line, her face blushing, and crossed her arms.

  ‘Yeah, back where you belong,’ taunted one of the girls.

  ‘Just ignore her,’ whispered Ivy. ‘She’s wearing a pink glittery scrunchie.’

  Olivia gazed down the long line of girls holding signs with her boyfriend’s picture on them. Twenty different Jacksons were watching from the posters plastered around the atrium. His face was everywhere – but Olivia had never felt so far from her boyfriend.

  ‘I can’t take any more of this torture,’ Ivy whispered.

  Ivy Vega decided she could ignore the pink streamers hanging from the ceiling, and she was pretending not to notice the cut-out hearts covering every store window. But being stuck in line listening to love-struck girls randomly bursting into romantic songs from Jackson’s movies was just too much.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ Olivia mumbled for, probably, the thirty-seventh time.

  Ivy gave her sister another hug.

  ‘It’s not the waiting that’s annoying; it’s the Valentine’s.’ Ivy just hoped she could escape soon. No matter how much they tried to sell it to her, she couldn’t buy into the whole stupid cupids-and-candy-hearts scene. In two days from now, couples around the world would be exchanging cards because stationery companies had told them to. She just didn’t get the commercial side of romance.

  There was a young girl in front of them, with brown ringlets framing her face and a cute red denim jacket. She turned around and said, ‘Hi, I’m Janie!’ Then she a thrust a little box out towards the twins. ‘Candy heart?’

  ‘Oh no, I’m melting . . .’ Ivy pretended to crumple to her knees.

  Janie looked at Ivy like she really was melting.

  Olivia intervened, taking a candy that was the same shade of pink as her lip gloss. ‘Thanks so much,’ she said to Janie and then whispered to Ivy, ‘Don’t be such a V-day humbug!’

  Ivy thought conversation candy hearts were pure evil, but she took one to be polite.

  ‘Mine says, “Kiss me”.’ Olivia popped it in her mouth.

  ‘Well, this one says, “Sweetheart”,’ said Ivy, holding the offensive object like it was a clove of garlic.

  ‘Aren’t you going to eat it?’ Janie asked.

  Ivy forced a smile and bit into the chewy, dry candy. She grinned wickedly at her sister. ‘I wonder where the expression “sweetheart” came from. Actual hearts? I’m sure mine would be more of a sour heart.’

  ‘Ew!’ Olivia crinkled her nose and Ivy chuckled.

  Ivy’s vegetarian twin got squeamish at the mere suggestion of blood. Good thing she’s the bunny, and I’m the vampire, Ivy thought.

  Ivy and Olivia were twins born to a vampire father and a human mother and had only met each other at the beginning of the school year. Olivia’s adoptive parents had moved to Franklin Grove and the sisters had been getting to know each other, and all about their biological family background, ever since.

  Olivia nudged her sister. ‘Has Brendan given you any candy hearts for Valentine’s?’ she asked.

  Ivy felt her face form a scowl. ‘He knows I can’t stand all this cheesy Valentine’s stuff.’

  Olivia pretended to gasp. ‘No pressies?’

  Ivy did like presents, but she wasn’t interested in teddy bears with ‘I WUV YOU’ written on their tummies. ‘I don’t need material possessions to reinforce the strength of our relationship,’ Ivy declared.

  ‘But Valentine’s presents are the best,’ Olivia replied. ‘It’s my ultimate favourite holiday. I can’t wait to see what . . . you know who . . . will get me.’

  ‘Jackson’s going to be my Valentine,’ Janie boasted. ‘I’ve saved this one just for him.’ She opened up her hand to show a candy heart that read ‘I HEART YOU’.

  Despite the message’s assault on grammar, even Ivy thought it was sweet.

  ‘Jackson Caulfield is the dreamiest dream!’ declared Janie.

  Olivia smiled. ‘He is pretty nice.’

  The little girl squealed. ‘Ohmigosh, have you met him?’

  Olivia started to explain. ‘Well, a few weeks ago when that film crew was in town . . .’

  Ivy’s mind floated back to Brendan. She wondered if he was playing video games or practising tricks on his new dirt bike. Maybe she could call him to help her through the eternity of waiting in this line?

  As Olivia chatted with Janie, Ivy rummaged in her big black messenger bag for her phone.

  ‘Ohmigosh, you’re in a movie with him!’ Janie gushed. ‘You’re like a film star!’

  ‘No, no,’ Olivia replied. ‘It was just a small part.’

  Ivy finally found her phone sandwiched between her notebook and a vinyl record of The Killer Bees.

  But as she started to dial his number, she caught sight of a black-clad figure with curly black hair striding across the lobby. Her pulse raced – it was Brendan.

  What is he doing in the mall? By himself? Ivy thought. The third Dark Violet album wasn’t available until next week and he’d already bought the new sarcophagus racing game. They’d had a tournament yesterday which Ivy had won. What else could he possibly want to buy?

  Still clutching her phone, she watched him stop and look in the window of Hannah’s Homewares. He went inside but came out a few moments later empty-handed, with a determined set to his jaw. He glanced at a stationery shop, festooned in red ribbons. Could he . . . Ivy started to think, be shopping for Valentine’s?

  ‘Ha!’ Ivy laughed out loud.

  ‘What?’ Olivia asked.

  ‘Brendan,’ Ivy hissed.

  ‘In line for Jackson’s autograph?’ Olivia looked around, incredulous.

  ‘No, over there.’ Ivy pointed him out. He was peering in the window of the luggage store at a row of big leather purses.

  Olivia giggled. ‘Looks like he’s after some material possessions to buy for you.’

  ‘He couldn’t be,’ Ivy replied. He knew she thought Valentine’s Day was just a made-up holiday to trick bunnies into buying mass-produced emotion.

  ‘OK, if he isn’t buying you a Valentine’s gift,’ Olivia said, ‘why is he staring at ladies’ luggage accessories?’

  Brendan had crouched down by a display of matching green ke
y chains, wallets and bag tags with a big sign that said ‘Leather Madness!’

  Ivy pushed the call button on her phone and watched Brendan jump. He fumbled with his jacket pocket, pulled out his phone and tentatively put it to his ear.

  ‘Hey, Ivy,’ he said and she could hear the weirdness in his voice. Ivy watched him stop and lean against a wall. He couldn’t see her but she could see him.

  ‘Hey,’ she replied. ‘Whatcha doing?’

  ‘Not much.’ Brendan ran his hand through his hair. ‘Just hanging out at the Meat and Greet, waiting for you.’

  Ivy narrowed her eyes. Something was definitely going on. ‘But we’re not supposed to be meeting there for another two hours.’

  ‘Uh, yeah.’ He pushed himself off the wall and started pacing. ‘Since you’re leaving tonight, I don’t want to miss a single minute of our goodbye lunch.’

  At the mention of ‘goodbye’, Ivy felt the bats fluttering in her tummy for the thousandth time. A few weeks ago, she and Olivia had done everything they could think of to find out about their real parents. It took a lot of work and a little luck but they finally discovered that the dad Ivy had grown up with, the dad she thought was her adoptive vampire father, was actually their real father. And, to top it all off, he was the son of a Transylvanian Count. To him, it was no big deal, but to Ivy and Olivia it was unbelievable. Suddenly, they were vampire royalty!

  After much pestering, he had agreed to write to his parents with the whole Ivy and Olivia story, even though he hadn’t spoken to them in years. ‘If it will make you happy,’ their dad had said.

  ‘I know you have to go,’ Brendan said quietly into the phone now, ‘but I’m really going to miss you.’

  ‘I’ll miss you, too,’ Ivy replied. It would be the only time they’d been apart since he’d asked her out on their first date to the mall. But it would be worth it. She really wanted to know what her grandparents – the Count and Countess – were like.