Эллен Шрайбер - Dance With A Vampire

I raced through his room and out the door.

Wham! I plowed into my brother head-on.

"What are you doing in my room?" he asked, stunned from our collision.

"What are you doing in the hallway?" I asked, rubbing my bruised arm.

"You were snooping around! What were you looking for?"

"I was doing a project for school and I needed your school picture. It's called Project Nerd."

I disappeared into my room and left my confused brother standing in the hallway.

"Valentine is making his presence known," I told Alexander, who was waiting for me by the Mansion's gate shortly after sunset.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his dark eyes concerned.

"He was at Hatsy's last night."

"You saw him?"

"No, it was all over school. Something strange happened. I guess Trevor still pines for Luna, because he asked Valentine how she was doing."

"What's weird about that?"

Men, I wanted to say. Even after Luna double-crossed Trevor at the Graveyard Gala, her ghost white fairy image was still emblazoned in my nemesis's heart.

"It's weird," I continued, "because Valentine appeared confused. Like Valentine didn't know, himself."

"That is strange."

"It gets more bizarre. Valentine grabbed Trevor's neck like he grabbed mine in the cave."

"In the diner? That's really weird."

"I know…"

"Valentine is thirsting for something," Alexander said, "and if he's becoming this brazen, who knows what he'll do next."

"I'm not sure what he's trying to find out, but one thing is certain—he's searching for it in Henry's tree house, and through me, Billy Boy, and now Trevor."

By the time Alexander and I arrived at the Oakley Park fountain, where Billy Boy had told me he'd be meeting Henry and Valentine, the boys were no longer there.

"We don't even have time to make a wish," I said, referring to the lit fountain, where a couple was throwing in a few pennies.

"Where could they be? They couldn't have gone too far."

Alexander led me by the hand and we hurried over to find the swings empty of any mortals, much less middle schoolers.

"There's a stage down there," I said, pointing to an outdoor domed amphitheater. "That's where Luna was waiting for me. They might be hanging out there."

Alexander and I hurried down the grassy hill and hopped over the few small bushes lining the sides of the amphitheater, then darted through the aisles of seats. The darkened stage, barely illuminated by the streetlight, was quiet and appeared empty as we headed around the orchestra pit. Alexander climbed onstage, then offered his hand and pulled me up.

We each searched a wing of the stage. All I found were cluttered chairs and music stands.

By the look on Alexander's face when he met me center stage, he hadn't found anything more than orchestra props on his side.

"We can try the rec center," I suggested.

Alexander nodded. "Point the way."

This time I took my boyfriend's hand and anxiously hurried back through the theater aisles and up a small hill.

We jogged around the fenced-in tennis courts and adjacent hoopless basketball courts, which had been worn down by years of players' squeaking sneakers. Oakley Park's rec center had seen better days. When Becky and I were younger, we spent many summer breaks hanging by the pool, Becky nursing her tan while I sequestered myself underneath a Hello Batty visor and an oversized umbrella. Now that many Dullsvillians belonged to Dullsville's new country club or the Y, the rec center had deteriorated.

The grungy dirt brown metal doors were locked and the handles were secured with padlocked chains. I leaned my head against the dusty windows. The few offices had their shades pulled closed. I peered into the game room. Several pool tables were still in good shape, while the Ping-Pong table was missing a net.

We heard voices.

"What's that?" I asked, pulling on Alexander's sleeve.

He put his index finger in front of his lips.

The voices seemed to be coming from the pool area.

Alexander crept past the pool gate and empty kiddie pool, now littered with leaves and debris, while I tiptoed close behind him. Who knew who we'd find hanging out at a park after hours.

The crispiest French fries and the best hamburgers in town came right from this snack bar—where now shreds of red and white paint clung for dear life to the rusty metal roof, begging for a paint job when the pool reopened for summer break.

Then I noticed a coffin-shaped skateboard, emblazoned with a white skull and crossbones, and Henry's and Billy Boy's bikes lying near what a vampire might view as a huge vacant grave—Oakley Park's empty swimming pool.

I raced over to the edge of the shallow end and peered into the drained pool with its chipping ocean blue paint.

In the deep end, Henry, Billy Boy, and Valentine were sitting in a circle facing one another, a lit antique candelabra next to them, casting light on their faces.

The boys didn't even notice that Alexander and I were standing only a few yards behind where the diving board used to be. As if in a trance, the nerd-mates seemed fixated on Valentine.

It was then I noticed each boy had pricked his finger with a pin, a bottle of alcohol perched on the pool's edge.

"I really don't think we should do this," my brother said nervously.

"C’mon, it'll be okay," Valentine persuaded.

"Billy's right," Henry added.

"Fine," Valentine said. "But think of this. Neither one of you has brothers, and mine has deserted me. This way we'll all be brothers—blood brothers."

Billy Boy and Henry looked at each other. They seemed to be mesmerized by that idea.

"Blood brothers," Billy repeated.

"For now," Henry said.

"Forever," Billy Boy said.

"For eternity."

"Over my dead body!" I climbed down the shaky silver pool ladder and dropped to the blue cement pool floor.

Alexander took off around the pool deck.

As I raced toward them, I could see the innocent mortals' bloodstained fingers within inches of touching a vampire's. I didn't know the repercussions of their actions, but I assumed they wouldn't be good. I jumped in between them.

"No!" Valentine screamed. "No!"

Valentine caught Alexander's stern glare and started to run up the ascending pool floor to the shallow end, but Alexander grabbed him by the shirtsleeve, stopping the fleeing vampire.

"What's going on?" Billy Boy asked, as if coming out of a daze.

"What are you doing here?" Henry asked me.

"I should be asking you that!" I yelled in a voice that reminded me of my mother's. "Both of you go wash your hands," I ordered. "Make sure you clean them with alcohol, too."

Valentine breathed heavily. "I was so close," he said, wiping his white bangs away from his fierce green eyes.

"What are you trying to do to my brother?" I argued. "What do you mean Jagger deserted you?"

Valentine balled his fists. "Where are Jagger and Luna?" he demanded.

"They're in Romania," I said.

"You are wrong," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"They haven't returned. And I know you had something to do with it," he said directly to me.

"Raven had nothing to do with it," Alexander said in my defense. "Any grudge your family has is with me."

"Do you know who you're protecting?" Valentine argued. "I knew from the moment I laid my hand on her in the cave—Raven is not ready to turn her mortal life over to you."

Alexander turned to me. His dreamy chocolate eyes turned sad and lonely.

"I never said that," I disputed.

"But you thought it," Valentine said with a cunning grin.

I knew Valentine's piercing comments were like a stake through my boyfriend's heart. Alexander stepped away from me as if registering a moment of utter isolation.