A Night Without Stars (26 page)

Laughing, she brought her hands together and beamed at me over her fingertips. “See what I mean? She’s so deliciously
unafraid
, Maximus! No wonder you’ve taken a shine to her. Why, I haven’t come across a human like her in ages. And to find one in the first town!” She clapped her hands again. “It’s unprecedented. It really is.”

Find one in the first town? What did that mean? “Maximus, what is she talking about?” I asked uncertainly. I tried to look at him, but he was staring at a spot on the wall and wouldn’t turn his head. 

“Ooh,” Angelique cooed breathlessly. “You haven’t told her, have you? You naughty, naughty boy!”

“Haven’t told me what? Maximus, talk to me!”

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s nothing, Lola. It doesn’t matter now.”

If it didn’t matter then why couldn’t he look me in the eye? Tension knotted in my stomach. I swallowed hard, forcing saliva down a throat that had suddenly gone dry. “Tell me,” I insisted in a voice that sounded strangled even to my own ears. “What did she mean, first town? First town for what?”

“What she meant,” Angelique purred when Maximus remained silent, “is that your pathetic little town is the origin, sweetling. The very first of its kind. A test, if you will.”

I took one step back, then another. I wanted to run, but the truth was one of those things that no amount of running could take you away from. “What kind of test?” I whispered.

Her blue eyes feverishly bright, Angelique said, “A test to see how long it would take to slaughter five thousand people. A test to see if we could get away with it. Spoiler alert.” She ran her tongue across her fangs and grinned. “We did.”

My knees wobbled. “You mean… Everyone else… You aren’t… You didn’t…”

“Slice them open, drink their blood, and feast on their flesh? No.” She waved one hand flippantly in the air. “I’m afraid not. Oh, don’t look at me like that! We
will
do it. Tonight, in fact. If ten of us can do this in one night imagine what ten million can do in a week! It’s going to be spectacular. I dare say even epic.”

Ten? All those people dead, an entire town destroyed, and there had only been
ten
of them? I staggered to the side, hitting my elbow hard against a locker. I barely noticed the pain. My mind was too busy trying to cope with everything Angelique had just revealed and Maximus had kept hidden.

Everywhere else… The rest of the world… Safe. Not destroyed, not dead, at least not yet. Just one town ripped apart at the seams.
My
town.

“You knew,” I accused Maximus, stabbing my finger at him. “You knew it was only happening here. You had to know! We could have… We could have gotten away! We could have escaped and warned everyone else what was coming but
you told us to stay
.” I spat the words out like poisoned darts. Maximus flinched and finally looked up at me. His eyes were dark and filled with guilt.

“Lola, you don’t understand. It wouldn’t have made a—”

“No. NO!” I shouted. “I’m getting Travis and we’re getting the hell out of here! I’m going to tell everyone what happened and you” – my gaze cut to Angelique – “are going to pay for what you’ve done!”

She ran a fingernail across her lower lip, pulling it down. “Is that so?”

“That is
exactly
so.”

“Oh pet,” she sighed. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. Telling everyone about our evil plan would be bad for business, you see. Ruin the element of surprise and all that. Now be a darling and come here, won’t you? This was all fun for a bit, although now it’s growing rather tedious.”

But I’d been creeping steadily towards my gun and in a flash I picked it up off the carpet and pointed it at Angelique’s head, aiming right between her eyes, just like Maximus had taught me. “The way I see you don’t have much of a choice. Now put your hands behind your head and stand against the lockers or I’ll shoot you dead. I swear I will.”

“I’m not very fond of threats,” Angelique hissed before she lunged for my throat.        

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The Only Good Drinker is a Dead Drinker

The gun went off in an explosion of sound.

Angelique struck me as my finger curled around the trigger, sending the bullet into the ceiling. Plaster rained down on us and lights flickered crazily as we rolled across the beige carpet.

Her fangs snapped half an inch from my face. I swung the gun around and brought the handle crashing down against the side of her head. She shook the blow off with ease and caught my chest with her knee, driving all the air from my lungs.

For a bitch in high heels, she was surprisingly agile.

Wheezing, I managed to tangle my fingers in her hair and yanked as hard as I could. Her high-pitched shriek could have shattered glass. We rolled across the floor. I threw a wild punch at her nose that deflected off the side of her temple when she ducked to the right. She wrapped her hand around my ponytail and gave a vicious pull that snapped my head back and had me seeing stars. I shook off the pain, knowing I was only one mistake away from a broken neck. Fueled by desperation I wrapped both my hands around the slender column of her throat and squeezed.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Maximus hovering over us, his eyes darting left and right, looking for an opening that wasn’t there.

Taking advantage of my momentary distraction Angelique twisted to the side, wrenching free of my grasp. Her nails raked down across my cheek and came away dripping blood.

“You fight,” I gasped as I jabbed my elbow into her throat, “like a girl.”

Her answer was to pick me up as though I weighed no more than a feather and throw me headfirst into the lockers. I hit them with a resounding crash and crumpled to the floor, temporarily stunned.

Breathing heavily, her hair askew and her eyes like blue fire, Angelique towered over me, a triumphant smile curling her lips. “Stupid human,” she snarled. “I should have ripped out your entrails and made you wear them as a necklace the first night I found you. No matter. I’ll do it now.” One hand drew back, nails curling into claws as she prepared to skewer me from the inside out. I closed my eyes and cringed, hoping it would be quick.

For the third time a gunshot ran through the hallway. For the first time it hit its intended target.

My eyes snapped open. In slow motion I saw Angelique’s mouth fall open in shock. Her body convulsed, jerking as though she were a marionette and someone else was pulling the strings, drawing her arms out to the side and sending her falling forward in a graceful swan dive. Blood spewed from her lips, showering me in a sticky red spray.

The gun went off again. Angelique’s stomach exploded outwards as the bullet ripped through her spin and came out her front, tearing a fist sized hole in her beautiful gown.

She fell to the ground beside me, one limp arm cradling her head. For an instant our eyes met. Her mouth opened and closed, trying to force out words that would not come.

I said nothing. Did nothing. I was paralyzed, forced to watch in horrified silence as the life slowly ebbed from her body.

Then Maximus was between us, his hands clutching Angelique’s shoulders as he shook her. “Where is the boy? What you done with him?”

Her head rolled to the side. When she smiled blood gushed out between her fangs and dripped down the corners of her mouth. “Hotel… but… too late. Was always… too late.”

Maximus let her go. She slumped to the floor, unable to support her own weight. Her eyes closed, her long lashes spreading across her pale cheeks like silk fans. One last shuddering breath lifted her chest and flowed silently from her mouth before she simply… faded.

“She’s dead.” My voice sounded hollow. I staggered to my feet only to fall back against the lockers. My entire body throbbed. I was pretty sure some ribs were broken. The scratch marks on my cheek burned. With Angelique dead I wondered if I would still heal. But that didn’t matter now. None of it mattered after everything I’d learned.

As though he could sense the cold fury building inside of me Maximus reached out to touch my face. I knocked his hand away. “Lola, I—”

“Save it,” I said bitterly. “There’s nothing you could say. I’m tired of your secrets and your stupid lies. I’m going to get Travis and my dad and we’re getting the hell out of here. I don’t want to see you ever again, Maximus.” The words burned in my throat like acid. Tears threatened to spill, but I blinked them furiously away. I refused to let myself cry in front of him. “Did you know they were going to come here? Did you know they were going to do this? You had to know, right?” I said, answering my own questions before he got the chance. “That’s why you’re here in the first place. You followed them.”

“Yes,” he said simply.

A mewling sound escaped my lips.

Again he reached for me, his expression pained. Again I knocked his arm away. “Lola, please listen to me. There was nothing I could have done. There was nothing anyone could have—”

“GO AWAY!” I shrieked, striking out at him with both fists. They bounced harmlessly off his chest, which only served to increase my fury tenfold.

He captured my wrists and pulled me tightly against him. “Stop it,” he ordered, his eyes flashing a dark, stormy gray. “You don’t understand. I’ve seen this happen a thousand times before. It always ends the same. There was nothing I could have—”

“If you say there was nothing you could have done
one more time
I will kill you. Do you hear me, Maximus? I’LL KILL YOU!” And at that moment I really would have. To think of all those people who’d died… Parents. Children. Teachers. Students. If only Maximus had said something… If only he’d
done
something… “How could you?” I whispered brokenly. I stared into his eyes, trying to see what I’d missed. Trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong with him. “All those people… You should have done s-something.” My voice broke. I sagged back against the lockers, defeated. “Just go,” I mumbled, turning my head to the side. “Just leave me alone. I mean it, Maximus. I never want to see you again.”

He released my wrists. “I’ll go,” he said, his tone devoid of any emotion, “if you promise to stay here until dawn. The drinkers are still out there, Lola. It’s too dangerous for you to go back to the hotel tonight. I’ll check on Travis. If he’s not back at the hotel like Angelique said I will find him and make sure he’s safe. Your father as well. It swear it to you.”

I was already shaking my head. “How can I trust you?”

His smile was bittersweet. “You don’t have much of a choice.”

I stared past him, not wanting to look in his eyes, not wanting to be swayed from the hate that was hardening in my heart like a stone. I had a thousand more questions I wanted to ask, but I was afraid I would crumple beneath the weight of the answers. “Go on then. Get out of here.”

He stepped back. I looked quickly, because even after everything I’d learned, even after all the secrets he’d kept, I still needed to see him one last time. I needed to give myself one last impression. One final glance.

His lips parted, as though he wanted to say something else, but with a quiet sigh he turned and walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts and one carpet badly in need of stain cleaner.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The End of Everything

I woke at dawn.

My muscles were cramped from sleeping curled in a ball inside the janitor’s closet and I stretched my arms high above my head, working out the kinks. I’d been surprised to fall asleep at all, but both my mind and my body were so exhausted I was left with little choice.

I went to the bathroom because a) I really had to pee and b) I wanted to see if the scratches on my face were still there.

They weren’t.

I pondered what that meant as I left the high school behind and made my way back to the hotel. Was I still connected to Angelique in some way? Would other drinkers be able to sense me? Or would my healing abilities fade away with time? I knew one person who would have the answers, but I shied away from even thinking his name.

Everything that happened last night, from learning the truth about the drinker’s plans to witnessing Angelique’s horrific, bloody death, was too much for my mind to handle, even in the bright shimmering light of day. So I bundled it all up and tucked it away in a dark, dusty corner, to be examined later when I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that both Travis and Dad were safe.

For some reason I expected Revere to look different after everything I’d found out, but as I race-walked down one sidewalk and up another I saw it was exactly the same. The houses were still vacant. The streets abandoned. The cars empty. Unbidden, Angelique’s voice echoed in my head.

If ten of us can do this in one night imagine what ten million can do… 

I shuddered and broke into a run. Other than getting back to Dad and Travis I didn’t have a real plan. With an entire day at our disposal maybe we would be able to make it to the next town and warn them what was going to happen. We could help them. Save them. No one else had to die.

And yet one single question filled me with doubt as my sneakers slapped the pavement and my breath escaped in short little gasps. One question that meant everything. One question neither Maximus nor Angelique had answered.

If the rest of the world was unharmed,
why had no one come?

Revere wasn’t closed off. People came and people went. How was it possible no one else had noticed an entire town had been destroyed? It didn’t make sense. It didn’t add up. Of course, there were a lot of things that weren’t adding up.

Or maybe I was just bad at math.

I sped up, drawing on every ounce of strength I had left. The need to find Travis, to make sure he and my dad were all right, was like a drug pumping through my veins, filling me with a frantic kind of energy. I didn’t stop until I was through the hotel’s spinning glass doors, and then I put on the brakes so quickly I almost stumbled over my own two feet.