Fashion Frightmare! (My Sister the Vampire) (7 page)

‘Ohhh! I was in such a hurry earlier to get the pashmina, I barely noticed the rest of these! All of them are so gorgeous, I almost wish I had a time machine!’

‘Really?’ Ivy wrinkled her nose as she looked at the rich costumes arranged around them, from cloaks to tunics and long, flowing gowns. ‘I don’t see what’s so great
about them.’

Ivy let her friend geek out over the old fashions while she turned to put the pashmina back in its case. The rich red silk felt soft against her hands as she arranged it on its velvet
hanger.

‘Olivia was right,’ she whispered to it. ‘Who would call something so gorgeous the “Vein of Love”? Yuck!’

She stepped back and closed the glass display case, before heading out of the room.

‘I’m
definitely
coming back again tomorrow to get some new design ideas!’ Penny started after Ivy . . . just as the lights flickered and went out.

‘Not this room, too!’ Ivy groaned. ‘Dad had better get on to somebody about this, or it’s really going to affect museum business. If they don’t get it fixed
–’

A loud clatter sounded behind her, cutting her off.

‘Penny?’ Ivy spun around. ‘Are you OK? Did you crash into something?’

‘It wasn’t me,’ Penny said. Her voice came from just behind Ivy, sounding suddenly strained. ‘Is there someone else in here?’

Suddenly, Ivy’s skin felt too tight. With her ears pricked for any sound, she heard every breath in the room . . . including that of a third person, only feet away in the darkness . .
.

Someone else
is
in here
, Ivy thought, a shudder running through her. Then she grimaced.

I’m scared of a stranger in the dark. I have to be the worst vampire in the world!

‘Hey!’ she yelled, forcing anger into her voice, above the fear. ‘Whoever’s there, stop creeping around right now. It’s not funny, it’s just
stupid!’

Shuffling noises sounded against the tiled floor on the other side of the room.

The lights came back on with a flash. Ivy blinked against the sudden glare, spun around . . .

. . . and found no one. Penny stood just behind her, eyes wide and panicked, but they were the only ones in the big, echoing room.

‘I don’t understand,’ Penny whispered. ‘I could have sworn I heard someone.’

‘I
know
I heard someone,’ Ivy said grimly. ‘Whoever it was, though, they must have taken their chance to disappear before the lights turned back on.’

‘Oh!’ Penny’s gasp sounded almost like a scream. ‘Ivy . . .’ She pointed, her finger quivering. ‘
Look!
’

Feeling heavy with dread, Ivy turned . . .

‘Oh, no,’ she whispered.

The intruder wasn’t the only thing that had disappeared.

The display case she’d closed only a few moments ago hung open . . . and the velvet hanger was empty.

Tessa’s priceless pashmina had been stolen!

Ivy staggered, reaching out for something,
anything
, to catch herself on before she could faint.

‘Ivy!’ Penny grabbed her arm to steady her. ‘Are you OK?’

‘No.’ Ivy’s voice cracked as she imagined her dad’s reaction to the news . . . and worse yet, how Alex and Tessa would feel when they found out their ‘Vein of
Love’ had been stolen.

In every possible way, tonight had been a total
fashion frightmare
!

I
n her bio-dad’s house the next morning, Olivia fumbled her way down the black-carpeted staircase, yawning and stretching.
Worry does not
make for good sleep!

After Ivy had told her about the theft, it had been impossible to drop off . . . and the fact that she’d heard Ivy tossing and turning all night long in her coffin across the room
hadn’t made it any easier! Olivia loved her vampire sister, but it was still seriously spooky to hear the thumps and thuds of a body knocking around inside a coffin, in the dark.
Talk
about nightmares . . .

Still yawning, Olivia walked towards the kitchen and found Ivy and Charles at the table already. Ivy had a full bowl of Marshmallow Platelets sitting, ignored, in front of her as she slumped in
her chair, rubbing her elbow.

‘I think my coffin needs a new lining!’

‘I’ll take a look at it later,’ Charles promised, not looking up from the newspaper on his lap. ‘Ah, Olivia!’ As she stepped through the doorway, he smiled and
pointed to a manila envelope that was on the worktop. ‘That was dropped off for you by a courier first thing.’

‘For me? Who would send it to me
here
?’ She’d only spent the night in Ivy’s house as a special treat, to celebrate Café Creative’s opening night.
Frowning, Olivia reached out to pick up the envelope . . . then relaxed as she recognised the handwriting on the back.

‘Jackson?’ Ivy asked from the table.

‘Yeah.’ Smiling, Olivia sank down into an empty seat and opened the envelope as Charles returned to his newspaper, humming a tune that sounded like it might have come from some opera
a hundred years ago or more. Knowing Charles, it probably had!

A thick sheaf of typescript slipped out of the envelope, along with a handwritten note:

These are the revised pages for the scenes we’ll be shooting in Pine Wood next month. I had to catch a six a.m. flight to get to that hospital visit in Chicago, but I’ll be in
touch as soon as I land. I miss you already!

A stab of regret pierced Olivia as she set down the note. It would be so many weeks before she’d see him again . . . but she felt a warm pride, too. Jackson was giving up his own free time
to visit some of his youngest fans in hospital . . . and as much as she might miss him now, the fact that he would do something like that was a big part of why she loved him.

‘I can’t believe you’re smiling right now!’ Ivy hissed. ‘Do you even remember what happened?’

Oops!
Olivia sighed. She hadn’t even realised she was smiling.
Talk about inappropriate!

But this was all
so
unfair. She and Ivy should have been basking in the success of the Café’s grand opening this morning. Most of the town
was
buzzing about it,
judging from the texts Olivia had gotten from friends all through the night! But the theft had cast a shadow – a shadow that only Olivia and Ivy could see.

As she stood up to pour some cereal and orange juice for herself, she shot a quick look at Charles. He was still humming happily over his copy of
The Franklin Grove Reporter
, and no
wonder: the front cover showed a giant photo of Reiko in last night’s fashion show . . . wearing the pashmina that had been stolen less than an hour later.

Suddenly, she didn’t feel hungry any more. And she knew Charles would not be humming if he only knew the truth of what had happened last night.

If the twins couldn’t find the pashmina themselves, they would definitely have to tell their bio-dad and stepmom . . . but there was no question about it: Charles and Lillian would both
totally panic. It would be enough of a nightmare for
any
of the museum’s treasures to be stolen – but Tessa’s pashmina, with all those vamp superstitions surrounding it?
That’s a whole new level of disaster!

Olivia tried hard to sound casual as she cleared her throat. ‘So, Dad . . . what more can you tell me about the’ –
yuck!
– ‘. . . Vein of Love?’

Ivy gave a nervous twitch that sent Marshmallow Platelets flying off her spoon.

Luckily, Charles – his attention still focused on the newspaper – didn’t seem to notice. ‘Oh, the origins of that tradition are so obscure, even vampires argue about the
precise dates,’ he murmured. ‘So, imagine how
long ago
the tradition must have begun!’

‘Right,’ Ivy muttered, looking green. ‘Just imagine.’

And now we’ve ruined it.
Olivia set down her spoon and swallowed hard.

The timer on the oven dinged loudly, and Charles’s head jerked up. ‘Aha!’ Smiling broadly, he tucked the newspaper under his arm and hurried to the oven. ‘After all her
hard work, I thought I’d give Lillian a celebratory breakfast-in-dead this morning!’

Olivia’s mouth fell open.

‘Don’t worry,’ Ivy mumbled through her mouthful of cereal. ‘It’s just the vamp equivalent of breakfast-in-bed.’

‘Indeed.’ Humming the thumping runway music from the night before, Charles scooped up the food and headed for the door. ‘I’ll be right back!’

When the twins were sure he was upstairs, Ivy sagged back in her chair. ‘I can’t believe this . . .
What
are we going to do?’

‘We have to tell the police,’ Olivia said. ‘It’s our only choice.’

‘No way!’ Ivy held her spoon as if it were a weapon. ‘This is a vampire issue. We need to deal with it ourselves. Besides, the police won’t exactly go into overdrive just
to find a stolen pashmina, will they?’

‘Maybe you’re right,’ Olivia sighed. ‘But what about Prince Alex and Tessa? They’re supposed to be spending today in Adamstown, half an hour away from here.
Don’t you think we should tell them first, so they can join in the search?’

‘Absolutely not.’ Ivy leaned forward, setting her arms on the table. Her eyes were narrowed with concentration, her investigative brain obviously hard at work. ‘I don’t
think we should tell Alex and Tessa anything unless they specifically ask about it.’

‘Right,’ Olivia nodded. ‘We don’t want to get Amelia and Penny into trouble.’

‘Of course not.’ Ivy shook her head. ‘Plus, it would totally ruin Alex and Tessa’s trip. We don’t want them to freak out about bad luck.’

Olivia winced. As wonderful as Alex and Tessa were, they were Transylvanian vampires to the core – which meant, they were intensely superstitious! ‘You’re right.’ She
took a deep breath. ‘So, where do we start?’

Ivy made a rueful face. ‘Honestly? I have
no
idea. But this is the most important mystery we’ve ever been faced with.’

Olivia grinned at her. ‘We are the Daring Detective Duo,’ Olivia said. ‘Come on. Let’s go to work!’

They marched together out of the kitchen towards the stairs, leaving the uneaten cereal bowls behind them . . .

And the doorbell rang loudly.

Olivia traded a quick, panicked look with Ivy as they both froze at the bottom of the stairs. Had Alex and Tessa found out somehow about the theft? What if they were here to demand answers?

Olivia hurried after her sister to the front door. Squaring her shoulders, Ivy swung it open . . .

Reiko beamed at them both from the doorstep. She looked as fresh and well-rested as if she’d slept for days, and her hair was coloured such a bright green, Olivia actually had to take a
step back.

‘Hi!’ Reiko bounced on the toes of her tennis shoes, looking at the twins expectantly. ‘Are you two ready for school?’

‘What?’ Olivia frowned, confused.

‘Oh,
no
.’ Ivy groaned and fell back against the doorway. ‘I can’t believe it. I was so focused, I actually forgot I’m still a fourteen-year-old girl who
has to go to
school
!’

‘Huh?’ Reiko looked between the two of them, frowning. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘I’ll explain later.’ Ivy sighed. ‘Come on, Olivia. We’ll have to wait until after school to start investigating.’

‘Maybe.’ Olivia glanced at the clock on the wall – then down at her pyjamas. She winced. ‘But only if the Daring Detective Duo don’t get an after-school detention
for tardiness!’

She gave Reiko a quick, apologetic smile –
Explanations will have to wait!
– then hurried upstairs, leaving the green-haired exchange student behind.

Four hours later, Ivy scowled down at her school lunch. Thank darkness she wasn’t dealing with Amelia-levels of popularity any more, and could trust that her expression
was enough to keep her cafeteria table clear of unwanted guests.

It wasn’t that she disliked the other students at her school – it was just that, with the mystery of the missing pashmina circling over and over again through her head, she needed
all the thinking time she could get. Right now, there was only one thing she could be sure of: the pashmina had been on display not as a “vampire” artefact, but rather as a
Transylvanian
one. That meant that the thief was
probably
not someone who was actually aiming to bring bad luck to Alex and Tessa, because the thief
probably
did not know
the vampire secret. Instead, it was more likely to have been just an opportunistic bunny who had seen it, liked it, and wanted it for themselves.