Эллен Шрайбер - Vampireville

I wasn't sure Alexander could remain so calm, knowing Luna and Jagger were in Dullsville. After the sun rose, I wouldn't be able to see my vampire-mate until nightfall.

As Alexander slept the day away, I would return to school and find Trevor on my own.

The next morning, I awoke to the sun scorching through the cracks between my curtains like a burning torch. I pulled the drapes tightly closed, covered myself with a blanket, and tried to go back to sleep. But I kept thinking about my mission—to save my nemesis from a thirsty vampiress.

I was in my bedroom scrounging for clothes for school when I heard the sound of a honking horn.

"Becky's here!" my mom called up to me from the kitchen.

"She's always ten minutes early!" I barked, pulling black-and-white tights over my legs. My best friend had always kept farm hours, but now that she was dating Matt, Trevor's former silent shadow, she insisted on arriving at school even earlier.

The sound of a horn blasted again. "You'll see him for the next six hours!" I murmured to myself.

"Raven," my mom called again. "I can't take you in today. I have a meeting—" "I know! I'll be down in a minute!"

The truth was if Alexander was waiting by the bleachers for me at Dullsville High each day, I'd set my Nightmare Before Christmas alarm clock for five thirty, too. But as I put on a black miniskirt and a torn Donnie Darko T-shirt, all I could think of was handsome Alexander sleeping in his darkened bedroom. I would face the sunny day without him.

As Becky impatiently honked again, I covered my already blackened, tired eyes with charcoal eye shadow and eyeliner. Finally I grabbed my backpack and waved to my mom, and climbed into Becky's truck.

"I'm disconnecting that horn immediately," I said in a grumpy tone as I climbed into Becky's pickup.

"I'm sorry, Raven, it's just that—" "I know, I know. 'I'm meeting Matt by the bleachers before school.'" "Am I getting annoying?" she asked.

"I'd be the same way if Alexander was waiting for me at school, instead of Trevor Mitchell."

"Thanks for understanding."

Becky passed a yellow bus loaded with preteen students heading for Dullsville Middle. Several students gathered at their windows. Some gawked at me, while the others pointed and laughed. I would have been surprised and perturbed, except that they did that every day.

"Well, speaking of Trevor…I have some major dirt on him."

"What's the buzz factor?"

"On a scale of one to ten, it's a nine and a half."

"Bring it on," I said, checking my ghoulish makeup in her broken visor mirror.

"Trevor has a girlfriend."

"You mean Luna?" I said, slamming the visor back.

"Luna?" she asked, confused.

"I mean, luna…tic. She's got to be a lunatic to date him. Anyway, who told you?"

"Matt said Trevor was seen with a goth at the carnival. I thought he meant you until he said she had ghost white hair."

"Goth? That's what people are saying about her?"

She nodded her head. "Yes. And that she's a major hottie. Matt didn't say that, of course, but he said that's what the soccer snobs are saying. You know how guys are, checking out the new girl."

"But Trevor despises anyone not sporting school colors."

"Yeah, but she dotes on him like he's a prince. She and her brother worship him.

So it's like he's captain of the soccer snobs and the goths. His head is going to explode.

"He probably likes her," she went on, "but it's you he really loves. It's obvious he's had a crush on you since you were kids. He can't have you, so he's trying to get second best."

I rolled my eyes and pretended to gag. "Thanks for the compliment," I said sarcastically.

"The good news is maybe Trevor will stop torturing you."

If Trevor became a vampire, his bite would be worse than his bark.

"Apparently she showed up at their soccer practice last night, cheering for Trevor," Becky continued.

"She did? I was afraid this would happen."

"Afraid of what?"

"Uh…," I began, stalling. "That Trevor would be popular again. After we've worked so hard to expose his inner monster."

"Without Matt by his side, no one cares what he says or does anymore."

"But who knows what…"

"We have our own lives now," Becky said proudly. "So who cares if he has one too."

I looked out the window and reflected on the rivalry Trevor and I had had since childhood. Deep down, I knew Becky was right, but I felt torn. Even though I detested Trevor and I was in love with Alexander, there was still a teeny competitive part of me that didn't want Trevor to be popular and have a girlfriend—vampire or not. Becky and I arrived late at the soccer field and spotted Matt walking down the bleachers, listening to his iPod. Becky raced over to him as if he had just disembarked off a military vessel.

I reached the slobbering pair. "Eh hem!" I said, coughing, and tapped Becky on the shoulder.

They broke apart their superglued embrace.

"Becky tells me Trevor has a girlfriend," I blurted out.

"I didn't say that," Matt said, looking strangely at Becky.

"But Becky said a girl was at practice rooting for Trevor."

"I guess. I thought you were done with him."

"I am, but gossip is gossip. Did Trevor leave with her?" I asked.

"She was with a creepy guy in a black knit hat. I think you'd like him. Pale with a lot of tattoos. When the team came out of the locker room, they had already gone."

Matt adjusted his backpack, grabbed Becky's hand, and started heading for school.

"Wait—did Trevor look different?" I interrogated.

"He wasn't wearing any tattoos," Matt said with a laugh.

"No, I mean unusually pale. Really thirsty. Redder eyes."

He thought for a moment. "He said he wasn't feeling well," he remembered. "Why all this interest in Trevor?"

The smitten couple looked at me curiously, waiting for an answer.

Suddenly the bell rang.

"I'd love to stay and chat, but you know how I like to be punctual," I lied, and took off.

During my first three classes I was preoccupied with confronting Trevor, so to distract myself I daydreamed about Alexander. I wrote our names in my journal—Raven Madison x Alexander Sterling, TRUE LOVE ALWAYS—surrounded by black roses.

When the lunch bell finally rang, I skipped meeting Becky and Matt at the bleachers. Instead I combed the campus searching for Trevor.

I couldn't find my nemesis on the soccer field, the gym, or the steps where all the soccer snobs ate their filet mignon baguettes.

"Where's Trevor?" I asked a cheerleader who was tying her sneaker.

She eyeballed my outfit with contempt. She glared at me as if she were a queen and I were a serf who had dared to stumble upon her castle. She picked up her red and white pom-poms and turned away as if she had already wasted too much time.

"Have you seen Trevor?" I repeated.

"He's home," she snarled.

"You mean I could have stayed home too?" I mumbled. The only reason I came to school today was to find him.

She rolled her eyes at me.

I glared back, imagining what it would be like if I was a real vampire. I'd transform into a spooky bat, swoop around her as she let out a bloodcurdling scream, and tangle myself in her perfectly combed blond hair.

"Duh. He's sick," she finally said, scrutinizing me as if I, too, were spreading contagions.

Sick? Matt said that last night Trevor was pale and wasn't feeling well. My mind raced. Sick from what? The sunlight? Garlic? Maybe Luna and Jagger had already managed to lure him to Dullsville's cemetery. Right now Trevor could be sleeping in a red and white coffin. I had to act fast.

I'd spent most of my life sneaking in and out of places—my house, the Mansion, Dullsville's elementary and middle schools. But since I was still a mere mortal and did not yet possess the powers of a shapeshifting bat, Dullsville High was getting harder to just walk, climb, or tunnel out of.