But then I saw something on the road in front of us that changed my mind. A silver gray luxury car.
"Ryan!" I shrieked. "Follow that car! I think Rose is in it."
"Rose?" Ryan asked. "But isn't that Nicholas Bone's car?"
Naturally, he would remember the car that had almost run him over. I hadn't told Ryan about seeing Rose and Nicholas together at the club or their conspicuous absence following the attack, either.
It wasn't hard to trail them, because there weren't too many cars on the road at that time of night and the full moon gave us plenty of illumination, but Ryan kept way back so they wouldn't notice us following them.
"What is she doing?" I said crossly. Why was Rose getting involved with Nicholas again? It took her more than a year to get over him last time.
The car pulled into the alleyway behind Mort's Mortuary and stopped.
"I'll park around the corner," Ryan said, "preferably on a nice deserted side street. There's no sense in advertising our presence."
He took my hand as we walked, but I was too worried about Rose to enjoy it very much. As we drew closer to the back entrance of the mortuary, another car door slammed.
I counted twelve other cars; thirteen, including the one Rose had arrived in. Thirteen, a mortician's dozen.
Something was definitely up at Mort's tonight. I wouldn't put it past Nicholas to have a party in his father's place of business, but it wasn't like Rose to attend something like that. Although love does make people do crazy stuff. Or in my sister's case, stupid stuff like dating Nicholas in the first place. I still couldn't believe he dumped her without a word, just stopped calling and started avoiding.
Ryan waited a few minutes and then tried the back door. It creaked open with an absurdly loud noise.
We could hear the low murmur of voices coming from somewhere at the front of the building. This was it.
We tip-toed down the hall until we ended up in one of the smaller viewing rooms. The smell of flowers was strong. I hoped we weren't crashing some strange late-night wake.
The door was open and I went through as quietly as I could. Ryan followed behind me, but I don't think he was happy about it. We ducked into a small alcove and hoped they wouldn't see us.
The room was in shadow, lit only by the candlelight from a couple of candelabra set up near a makeshift altar of some kind. Definitely not a wake.
Rose was surrounded by creatures of the night. I couldn't believe that what I was seeing was real, but it was. I turned to Ryan and saw the same dawning realization on his face. Adrenaline pumped through my body. If creatures like this walked among us, anything was possible.
I counted four werewolves, at least six vampires, and a couple of banshees. The only person I recognized was Mrs. Mason, the president of my mom's garden club. I couldn't figure out what she was doing there, dressed in her orthopedic shoes and jogging suit, until I saw her wand. Mom had always wondered how Mrs. Mason managed to grow roses the size of a bread plate every year.
A tall hooded figure at the front of the altar said, "The Nightshade City Council meeting will now come to order." He lifted a bony hand and pulled his hood back. Instead of a face, an ivory skull gleamed in the candlelight.
City council? That was definitely not our mayor. At least I hoped it wasn't. It was hard to tell, since the guy was literally skin and bones, minus the skin.
"We have a serious problem on our hands," he continued. "As many of you already know, a body has disappeared from the morgue. A number of recent attacks in the area suggest that we're dealing with a vampire."
There was a rumble of voices as everyone began to talk at once. Skull banged on a gavel until there was silence.
"Hey!" shouted a short female vampire wearing too much lipstick (at least I hoped it was lipstick) and too little clothing. "We have nothing to do with this."
A tall undead male dressed in tight black satin pants and a frilly white shirt nodded in agreement. "We've been living in seclusion and following the rules the council set up for our kind for years. We are not responsible for these attacks."
A banshee said, in a voice like nails across a blackboard, "They didn't find fang marks on any of the bodies, so why do you think it's a vampire attacking these kids? There are many other species who feed upon the young."
Back in the alcove, pressed up against Ryan and trying not to breathe too loudly, I was wondering the same thing. I had personally seen the necks of both the girl at the morgue and the girl at the club. No bite marks on either one of them.
" The culprit is a different kind of vampire," the calorie-challenged leader boomed, "a psionic vampire. Instead of blood, this type of vampire drains its victims of their energy, their life force."
The group of blood suckers seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief that they wouldn't be getting stakes through their hearts tonight. Although when I thought about it, did vampires have breath enough to sigh?
"So this vampire," said a doubting voice in the crowd, "it sucks souls? How does it do it?"
"Psionic vampires are rare, but very powerful," explained Skull. "The vampire hypnotizes its victim before sucking out the soul. The vamp can also create fledglings by sharing its essence, much in the same way that a blood vampire would create a fledgling by sharing its blood. Or it could be gradually feeding from several victims who don't remember a thing. The victims' energy gets lower and lower until, one day, they end up like that girl in the morgue."
I shivered and huddled closer to Ryan.
"The demon must be destroyed," said a werewolf in the crowd.
Mrs. Mason said, "If we kill the head vampire, any fledglings will become human again. But if we don't, we'll have a whole renegade colony."
Skull nodded. "We think the girl who disappeared from the morgue is the vampire's fledgling. If we can find her, she'll lead us to the vampire. We'll take a vote on it," Skull intoned. "All those for extinction of the psionic vampire, say aye."
The room rang with affirmatives, but the cluster of vampires protested loudly.
Skull banged on his gavel. When the room grew silent, he said, "Those opposed, please say nay."
"Nay," shouted the vampires. "We do not condone the wanton destruction of one of our kind," the tall male vampire said.
"I must remind you that all paranormal creatures have agreed to abide by the decisions of this council," Skull said. "Do you formally challenge this authority?"
The woman vamp, who I privately nicknamed Skank, moved forward to speak, but the tall male put a hand on her arm. "We withdraw our objections at this time," he said, bowing low, before gesturing to the other vampires. They exited, with the leader's hand still tight on Skank's arm.
"Motion passed," Skull pronounced. "Any new business?"
A russet-colored werewolf stepped forward. "New-member business." The voice coming from the creature belonged to Nicholas Bone. My sister was dating a werewolf.
Skull picked up a long, ornate dagger and motioned Rose to the front of the room. He took her by the wrist. There would be no ceremonies that included daggers and Giordanos tonight, not if I could stop it. I made a motion forward, but Ryan held me back. I smothered a scream, but I wasn't quick enough.
Rose looked around like she was searching for someone. Daisy, you are in so much trouble, her voice said in my mind. I'm fine. But you won't be if you don't leave. Now.
I ducked my head back into the alcove and prayed no one else had spotted us.
Skull dropped the dagger and swore.
A werewolf with a beautiful silver coat froze and sniffed the air.
I heard a low growl. A shiver went down my spine. We were in trouble. There was what sounded like a very pissed-off puppy right beside us.
"Ryan?" I said softly.
"Yes?" he said, his eyes searching the shadows.
"I think it's time to leave," I said.
"Daisy," he replied, "it's time to run."
He grabbed my hand and we bolted. I was too busy running for my l
ife to worry about whether or not anyone was following us.
Then, I heard a loud panting behind us. I sped up, cursing all those nights I'd stayed home with a pint of Ben & Jerry's instead of heading to the gym.
We ran the block it took to get to Ryan's car. He slammed it into gear and we took off.
"Maybe I should join the track team," I joked weakly.
When we got to our house, Mom's car was in the driveway, but there wasn't a light on in her room. She must have already gone to bed.
I made some hot chocolate, and Ryan and I sat in the living room waiting for Rose to come home. Finally, she burst in the front door, thankfully unscathed, but clearly angry. "Daisy, what were you doing there?"
"Following you," I said. Rose stared at me with a strange expression on her face.
"What?" I whispered to Ryan.
"You were talking like Rose had asked you a question," he said.
"She did," I said. Now I was the confused one.
"No, she didn't, Daisy," he said. "She just had a really annoyed look on her face, which means..."
"Which means what?"
"That you read her mind," he said.
"But I can't read minds." My mind tried to process the information, but I had more immediate concerns; namely, one ticked-off big sis.
Rose stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. "Do you know how long it took me to convince Nicholas to let me be initiated? And then you barge in and ruin it."
"Ruin what exactly?"
"A secret-society meeting," she said.
"Not very secret," I commented. She glared at me, but I continued anyway. "I mean, it's not like Mort's Mortuary is the Bat-cave or anything. It's only a block off Main Street."
Poppy must have heard us, because she wandered in and plopped down in the big leather chair. "How'd it go?" she asked Rose.
"Not well," she said. "There was a ... complication."
"Do you mean that your boyfriend is in a secret society that evidently makes decisions about paranormal matters, or the part where he's a werewolf?"
Whatever Rose had been doing, it was obvious that Poppy knew about it. My sisters, as usual, were keeping secrets from me.
"Daisy, don't look like that," Poppy said. "Rose only told me tonight because she needed to let someone know where she was, just in case."
"But you knew that Nicholas was of the furry persuasion?" I asked.
"That's why he broke up with her before," Poppy admitted. "He'd just found out about being a werewolf."
"But neither of you said a word to me," I said. Left out as usual.
"I was going to, honestly, Daisy, but Nicholas asked me not to say anything."
"Go on," I said.
Rose sighed. "You can't say anything to anybody about this," she said. "You know I've been helping Mom with this case. And you know that I've been ... talking to Nicholas again. He told me there's a secret society in Nightshade that might be able to help."
"And Nicholas Bone is a member?"
"One of them," she admitted. Her glance strayed to Ryan's face with a particular intensity. What was going on? "The thirteen original families who settled Nightshade started it ages ago."
"The original thirteen?" Ryan said. "You're sure?"
Rose nodded, studying him closely. I stared at her and then glanced at Ryan. He seemed shocked by what he'd heard. "I—I've got to go. Curfew." He stood and walked out the door without a good-bye.
"What's with him?" I wondered, staring at the empty doorway. But my mind was still reeling. I quickly turned my attention back to Rose. "So, this secret society. What do they do? Are they good or bad?" The questions tumbled out of my mouth.
"I don't know," she said. "Nicholas wouldn't tell me much, but I do know they make judgments about the ... less than normal occurrences in Nightshade."
"You mean the supernatural stuff? You think they're the good guys? That dagger didn't exactly make me think of white knights and chivalry," I said.
"Nicholas would never do anything to hurt me," she said stubbornly.
I wasn't so sure, but I supposed I'd be snippy, too, if my boyfriend was an overgrown furball. There was a lot of stuff for me to digest: a soul-sucking vampire on the loose, my sister's boyfriend being a werewolf, and a secret society, which meant that the town's founding fathers (and mothers) probably weren't human. Nightshade was even weirder than I had thought.
Chapter Nine
As worn out as I was from the events of the previous night, on Friday morning my cheerleading career was off to a flying start. Samantha met me and the other new cheerleaders in the gym to give us our uniforms and teach us some of the routines. I had a hard time getting used to walking down the halls of Nightshade High in my cheerleading uniform. I tugged down the short skirt when I saw Wyatt Pearson staring at my legs.
When I saw Ryan and waved at him, my sweater rode up and bared a sliver of midriff skin. I felt exposed and slightly ridiculous. Ryan's smile of appreciation did make me feel better, though. So did the way he put his arm around me as he walked me to class.
"I'm not ready for this," I said.
"For class?" Ryan said.
"For the pep rally," I said. "I can't cheer in front of the whole school."
He brushed a stray lock of hair away from my face. "You'll be great," he said. "But I'm not sure I like the way all the guys are checking you out."
"Nobody even knew my name before now," I scoffed. "It's just the uniform."
"No," he said softly. "It's you. And I knew your name."
I smiled at him. "I know."
The bell rang, and Ryan sprinted to his class. I watched him go before I went into mine.
The only good thing about the pep rally was that I got out of class early. I met the other girls in the gym after sixth period. Miss Foster wasn't there yet.
Everyone was gathered around Samantha. She frowned when she saw me. "You're late, Daisy."
"I had a test," I explained.
She handed me a small, brightly wrapped box. I noticed that the other cheerleaders were holding similar packages.
"What's this?"
She smiled at me. "Just a little something. Open it!"
I looked at her warily. She didn't look like a vampire, despite her pale skin, black wardrobe, and bloodred lips. She looked like someone I could trust. Too bad I didn't believe it, not for a second. I didn't know whether or not she was the vamp, but I did know that Samantha Devereaux wasn't ever nice, not without a reason.
The other girls tore through the wrappings. I opened mine slowly and found a beautiful silver bracelet. Dangling from it was a small black symbol.
"It's an ankh," Jordan said. She was right. It was the same symbol as the one on Samantha's pendant.
The girls clustered around Samantha. "I love it," Penny cooed.
I stood there, lost in thought as the squad thanked Samantha. Why was she suddenly handing out presents? And why an ankh?
Samantha looked at me expectantly. I focused and realized she was waiting for a thank-you.
"Thanks," I said. "It's lovely."
"Well, put it on," she said. "We don't have much time. I want everyone to wear them to the pep rally."
I had intended to slip it into my pocket, but our uniforms didn't have pockets. Samantha took it from me and fastened it on my wrist.
She stepped back and surveyed me for a long moment. "That's better," she said.
Miss Foster arrived as we were warming up. She was dressed in bright white designer sweats with red trim. "Let's get ready, girls. In formation." She blew her whistle.
Samantha said, "Good luck, Daisy!" Before I could respond, she added. "And don't forget, you're a base during the pyramid formation."
I was surprised she didn't make a snide remark about my weight. There were two categories of cheerleaders, flyers and bases. The flyers were the tiniest of the tiny and the bases, well, weren't. I was going to be on the bottom of the pyramid. I just had to smile while I supported the entire squad on my b
ack.
And speaking of getting to the bottom of things, I had some sleuthing to do. I wanted to find out what the jewelry meant. After finding out from Rose that the ankh was associated with resurrection and the afterlife, I had a hunch I wasn't going to like the answer.
I didn't like wearing it, but there was no way I could take it off now, standing in front of the whole school.
We stood in formation while Principal Amador droned on. I thought my leg was going to cramp and bent down to rub it. Samantha frowned at me and shook her head. I quickly straightened.
Ryan and the rest of the football players sat in the first row. Great—he'd have a perfect view if I made a complete fool of myself.
The music started, and that was our cue. I hoped I would remember the routine. Thankfully, Samantha put me near the back, so no one noticed when I stumbled. No such luck. Penny smirked at me. A few minutes later, she nearly crushed my hand when she stepped on it climbing on my back for the pyramid.
As soon as the pyramid had formed, a figure dressed in a short black skirt and top darted in front of us. I saw a flash of red hair. Peering out of the corner of my eye, I was stunned to see that it was the missing dead girl.
I made an involuntary movement and Samantha, in the row above me, said through gritted teeth, "Daisy, don't you dare move. If you do, we'll all come tumbling down on top of you."
She didn't say "you idiot," but she didn't need to. It was still a struggle to remain still as a statue while the figure whirled and twirled and finally went into an impossibly long set of cartwheels and wheeled herself right out of the gym.
The room rang with applause.
I searched the stands for Ryan. He looked confused by my shocked expression, but he didn't recognize the show-off as the dead girl—only I had seen her in the morgue.
I wished I could run after her, but there was nothing I could do but watch her slip away. I caught Poppy's eye and she mouthed, "What's wrong?" from her seat in the stands.
It was too late. I just shook my head. She gave me a big thumbs-up, probably thinking I was just nervous about my performance.
Dead Is the New Black Page 6
