Afterlife (12 page)

Mom and Dad hate the wraiths. They did everything they could
to stop me from turning into one and wouldn’t say one word to me about my
becomiilg anything but a vampire. The next words were hard, but I forced myself
to finish: I’m afraid they’d r ect and hate me.
too
.

They’re your parents. They wouldn’t do that. They’d accept
you. Like Lucas’s mother accepted him?

He didn’t have a response for that.

In her seat in front of Balthazar, Patrice started
shivering; apparently the presence of a ghost always created a chill in the
air. She glanced over her shoulder once, obviously curious about the cause of
the draft. I moved toward the door, unable to take much more of this, but I
looked long and hard at Mom before I left the room. Every time I saw her now
felt like it might be the last time.

I wanted to appear to her and to Dad so badly. I imagined
appearing before them, wearing the white camisole and cloud — patterned pajama
pants I’d died in, and slipping on the bracelet so that I could become solid.
Ifl did that, there would be nothing I’d want more in the world than to run
into their arms and feel them hug me again.

And then I imagined them turning away. If they did that — I
would never get over it.

 The other students had started talking about the
upcoming scrnool trip into the nearby town of Riverton days ago, but I hadn’t
paid much attention, because I doubted any of my friends would take part. The
trips were a recent innovation — a treat for the human students. Vampires
tended to skip it entirely, because getting to Riverton involved crossing
running water, which for them always induced chills, nausea, and sometimes a
kind of shock. Also, anything the humans enjoyed was automatically extremely
uncool to the vampires. The only human I spent any time with anymore was Vic,
who would probably stick around school to hang with Ranulf.
                                    
81
However, my plans were about to change.

After Mom’s class, as students crowded into the hallways, I
sought Lucas. I felt like he needed me, and after seeing my mother’s anguish, I
needed him, too. But as I carne along his right side, Mrs. Bethany stepped
smoothly to his left. “Mr. Ross.”

“Mrs. Bethany,” he said, casting one quick glance in my
direction; he’d sensed that I was there and obviously felt protective. Although
we both knew that I was invisible, something about that woman made it seem as
though she could detect me anyway.

But she seemed to be thinking about something else entirely.
“You have not yet put your name on the list of students joining our first off
campus trip. I seem to recall that you were fond of such outings.”

“Back when I could cross a river without wanting to throw
up, yeah.”

“Such discomfort is momentary,” Mrs. Bethany said. “It can
be overcome.” Lucas shrugged. “I don’t see the point.”

“I will share a secret with you, Mr. Ross. The secret of how
I learned to bear being dead.”

What would ever make Mrs. Bethany reveal something so
personal
?
Lucas’s face looked just as shocked as I
felt. “Urn, okay.” Then he shook off his surprise. “Actually, that’s something
I’d like to hear.”

“Right now, I suspect, you are attempting to forget what you
loved about being alive.” Mrs. Bethany’s skirts rustled as she made her way
through the crowd, people parting to leave a wide berth around her and Lucas.
“To distance yourself from those joys, believing yourself separated from them
forever. But that is a mistake.”

Lucas walked more slowly, obviously trying to take that in.
“But it’s not like I can
. ..
I don’t know, go get a
good hamburger or go swimming in the ocean
— ”

“No. Some things are closed to us. But surely you can enjoy
the entertainments Riverton has to offer.”

We’d gone to the classic movie house on our flrst date. He’d
bought me my brooch in the vintage clothing shop. It would be fun to visit some
of those places again, together. So what if I had to hide? Call it another take
on a “blind” date.

Maybe Lucas picked up on what I was feeling, because he
slowly nodded. “That’s true. I could still go.”

Mrs. Bethany smiled in satisfaction. “Remember your life,”
she said. “Don’t let go of it, any more than you must.” Then she straightened,
entirely formal once again. “I shall put your name on the Riverton list.”

“Thanks.”

As we wandered out onto the grounds, I whispered, “I’m so glad
you said yes.”

“That was kind of weird, wasn’t it?” He was clearly thinking
about Mrs. Bethany. “Her opening up like that.”

It was kind of weird. More than weird. I knew I should be
grateful to her — she appeared to be looking out for Lucas, in her own way — but
she scared me too much for that. I didn’t want to talk about her any longer, or
even think about her. Better to concentrate on better times ahead. “If it gets
us back to the movies, then it’s okay by me.”

Lucas laughed, and I basked in the pleasure of being just
another girl, looking forward to her weekend date.

 I could’ve just ridden the bus into Riverton that
weekend, hovering above Lucas, but we agreed that I might end up frosting the
windows. Instead, he took the brooch with him so I could zoom to his side once
he got there. Lucas took along a spare coat and a set of sweatpants in his
backpack; that way, if we were the only Evernight students in the movie house,
as usual, I could become solid and we could hang out like before. Maybe make out
like before. I was definitely hoping for that one.

My impatience only grew in the half — hour after the bus
left. It felt like eternity to wait, hanging out on the roof beside one of the
gargoyles and letting the soft rain pass right through me. I knew there was no
point in going to Lucas before he would for sure be in Riverton, but I was so
anxious to get there. Especially to that movie house, the very first place we’d
ever gone on a date. It was so precious to me that I could envision every bit
of golden scrollwork on the walls, the red velv·et curtains, the posters — Wait.
Was it possible that I’d loved it enough to bond with it? That it was one of
the places I could instantly travel to, and “haunt,” after my death?

Worth a try, I decided. I faded out slightly, letting go of
the material world around me at the school, and envisioned the movie theater in
as much detail as my mind could hold. Everything about it, the woodwork, the
frame of the theater itself, I willed to take shape around me.

And I was there.

Yes
!I
would ‘ve done a fist pump of
victory if I’d been solid. The theater hadn’t changed in the slightest. There
was the old — fashioned popcorn machine, a little brass cage with a red — and —
white striped sign. And here was the swirly patterned carpet, so thick and soft
I longed to have feet that I could sink into it. Tonight’s show, to judge by
the spotlighted poster, would be “To Catch a Thief.” Cary Grant, total glamour,
total romance. Could this be any better?

Well, yes, I realized. It looked like this was going to be a
crowded show, so Lucas and I wouldn’t have much chance to be alone. The movie
wouldn’t start for another half — hour, and already several people had taken
their seats — though they kept looking restlessly toward the doorway where I
had materialized, looking through me, for someone else — And then it hit me. I
recognized some of them — including, down in the front row, Kate.

Black Cross. I felt terror wash through me, so hard that I
thought I’d turn to ice. Tiley realized where Lucas went after being turned
into a vampire, and they remembered about tile Riverton trips from when be was
spying for them before. And tbis isn’t a handful of people like she brought to
Philadelphia — this is a full Black Cross bunting party.

They’ve staked this place out. They’re lying in wait to kill
him.

l
rushed out of the lobby; I knew I
must have frosted one of the glass doors, but I didn’t care. Black Cross Wasn’t
looking for me. If I didn’t warn Lucas in time, they’d pounce on him as soon as
he entered the theater. Even his strength and fighting skill wouldn’t save him
against a dozen vampire hunters.

As I made my way down the street toward the town square,
though, I realized that the party in the ilieater Wasn’t the only one. There,
sitting in a booth at the diner, ignoring a plate of fries in front of her, was
Eliza Pang, ilie leader of Black Cross’s New York cell. And, worst of all,
lurking in one alleyway near ilie square were Raquel and Dana.

The Riverton bus pulled in, and students began to pour out. I
only had eyes for Lucas and so paid no attention to the others, who were
laughing and talking, walking past me with no idea I was there.

Lucas was one of the last ones off the bus. He looked badly
shaken, almost weak. The running water must have affected him strongly. “You
okay, buddy?” said the driver.

“Okay. I’m going to get a coffee real quick. That will
help,” Lucas said. What he meant was that he could sit down in the coffeehouse
without anybody bothering him for a second. He thought I would come to him in
the theater and didn’t want me to see him looking so weak.

It doesn’t matter, just get someplace private, so I can warn
you! I didn’t see any Black Cross hunters in the coffeehouse, but that didn’t
mean there weren’t a couple I didn’t recognize. Quickly I darted after him,
hoping to whisper in his ear before he could go inside anywhere.

And then I just — stopped. Went blind. Lost everything.

Within an instant, I’d become unable to move forward, back,
up or down — anywhere. A trap! I thought in panic, thinking of that creepy box
back at Evernight, but this was different. Instead of a steady, inexorable
pull, I was simply held firmly in place. It was like the difference between
sinking in quicksand and merely being stuck in an elevator. Well, an elevator
with the lights out.

Had Black Cross done this? Were they after both of us? What
was going on? All I knew was that this imprisonment, whatever it was, kept me
from warning Lucas that he was in terrible danger.

Then I saw a single shining circle open up before me,
shimmering just like a pool in the moonlight. Carefully I peered out — and saw
my captor staring down at me in shock.

“Bianca?”

“Patrice?”

“BIANCA?” PATRICE LOOKED AS ASTONISHED AS I felt. Her face
seemed to fill the whole sky, or ceiling, or whatever else I saw above me in
this black, formless place. “You’re — You’ve become a wraith?”

“Patrice, I don’t have time to discuss this right now!”

“We have lots of time, seeing how we’re both dead,” Patrice snapped,
her expression clouding over. The old animosity between vampires and wraiths
seemed to be at work. “Eternity, in fact. Start with how you died.”

“Black Cross is here in Riverton, and if you don’t let me
out this second, they’re going to kill Lucas and any other vampire they find,
probably including you!”

The strange tar — pit drag on my movements released me so
quickly that I felt like I went flying. Light seemed to explode all around — but
it was only the streetlamps of downtown Riverton, in contrast to the darkness
that had enclosed me. As I made sense of the world again, I realized that I was
just in front of Patrice, who in turn stood in an alleyway just off the main
strip. She held in her hand a small makeup mirror, which was crusted with frost.
I must have been visible, but only just — as I reached out one hand, I saw only
the faintest gray outline of fingers and palm. Nobody would see me if they didn’t
know to look.

Patrice knew. She blinked once, then shook off her
astonishment. “Where are they?” she said. “Tell me quickly.”

“The theater. The diner. I don’t know where else. Lucas is
headed toward the coffee shop; we have to get to him before they do.”

She took off across the street, running as hard as if it
were her existence on the line instead of Lucas’s. I followed her, but slowly.
Being trapped had taken something out of me — l needed time to get my strength
back, time Lucas didn’t have.

Patrice got to the coffee shop while I was still two dozen
feet away. She didn’t so much open the door as burst through it, violently
enough that most of the customers looked up to see what the commotion was. One
of those was Lucas, who had been sitting in one of the green velvet armchairs
with his head in his hands. As he stared at Patrice, she held out her hand to
him, clearly urging him to leave.

That was the moment my view was blocked by the hunters.

Kate. Eliza. Milos. Ten or fifteen more that I didn’t know,
but each of them with the brawn of Black Cross troops. Somebody had given the
word that Lucas was in town, and told them his location. Patrice and I had been
too late.

Oh, no, I thought. Please, no.

“Weapons,” Kate said. The word fell as heavy and unyielding
as iron. She’d come here to kill her son, and the weight of it deadened her
eyes. As the hunters shouldered their crossbows, Lucas rose and walked toward
Patrice, ready to go — and saw his mother. He saw the attack about to happen,
and there was nothing he could do about it.

That meant it was up to me.

I stretched myself thin, into one long horizontal line, and
imagined myself like the sharp edge of a sword — then plunged forward.

“Fire!” Kate cried, just as I swept through the hunters. It
must have hit them like a slimmer, swifter stroke of ice, because they all
shouted and most of them fired blindly, their arrow — stakes slamming into the
pavement or nearby walls. But at least one got through, because the coffee — shop
window shattered in a spray of glass. People inside started screaming, and I
could see passersby on the street begin to freak out.

Lucas
!
I couldn’t see him. Though I
desperately wanted to find out whether he was okay, I knew I had to end this
before anybody else got hurt.