Sixteen Going on Undead (6 page)

At last I found her. She was at the other end of the crackers and cookies aisle, gesturing and moving her lips like she was talking to someone. Grateful that there were a couple people in the aisle, I made it half way down, staying out of sight. When I came within hearing distance of Mrs. Knowles, I stopped beside a cardboard display with the latest double chocolate fudge wafers on sale. For a minute, I was distracted, mentally counting up the amount of money I had in my purse to see if I could snag a package, but then I shook my head to focus on what Mrs. Knowles was saying.

If only I had that freakish super hearing thing going on that I had that one night, it would be easy. I strained harder, forcing myself to concentrate, to block out all other sounds around me except for Mrs. Knowles’ voice.

“She’s awakening more and more every day,” Mrs. Knowles was saying. My chest tightened for no reason as I wondered who she was talking about...and to whom. The other person must have said something, but I couldn’t even pick up a whisper.

I opened my eyes which had drifted closed when I concentrated. The closer I inched to
the her
, the more Mrs. Knowles and whoever it was repositioned so that I couldn’t see the other person. Not even a hand or a piece of clothing.

Did she know I was there? Did she want me to hear her?

Mrs. Knowles continued. “She’s valuable. You know that. She can be used. The others won’t stop until they get her. If they know for sure that—”

Someone bumped me, and I almost went flying over the display I’d been crouched behind pretending to tie my shoe. I glanced up in irritation, ready to tell whoever it was off, but no one was there. I searched up and down the aisle. All the customers that had been there before were gone. Swinging around to where Mrs. Knowles was, I growled under my breath to find her and the person she’d been talking to gone.

“Of all the stupidest—” I bolted to the end of the aisle and looked up and down. Almost running, I searched the store, but Mrs. Knowles was nowhere in sight. Checking my watch, I realized that the bus I’d been waiting on outside, had most likely left. I’d be standing out in the heat of the sun for another twenty minutes for the next one. I could so cuss my head off right about then.

While I thought about whether to call it a day or look for Mrs. Knowles one more time, if nothing else than to see who she had been talking to—the old woman had never been sociable and never had visitors to her house that I knew of—the feeling came back, of someone watching me.

This time when I looked up, I saw them. Three men, tall as anything, maybe like seven feet. That might have been an exaggeration considering my heart jumped up into my throat, but they were up there. And they wore thick black coats with hoods on them.

“In this heat?” I wondered.

What I could see of their faces, they weren’t monster-like, which is what I had expected. In fact they were hot as hell, rivaling Lorcan in beauty. I couldn’t see their hair, but their skin was pale, almost translucent, and their eyes were all green. I had the feeling that whoever these three men were, they were related.

They moved like a single unit, coming at me from different positions. I wasn’t waiting around to see what they wanted. I jetted in the opposite direction. Over my shoulder, I saw that they weren’t moving at the same speed I was. It could have been that they weren’t trying to draw too much attention to themselves.

“Oh crap, too late,” I quipped as I zipped between aisles. With their looks and style of dress, they stuck out big time. I made it back around through the bakery section with my heart pounding in my chest, hopped a baby carriage, and did a power walk toward the front of the store.

In my shorts pocket, my cell phone buzzed. I yanked it out and found that it was Ronnie calling. “Ronnie! I need—”

“Hey, I came to pick you up, and you already left—”

“Wait, you’re at my doctor’s office?”

He sighed. Ronnie hated when I cut him off. “I was. They told me you left. Now, I’m at the light ready to head back into the city. Could have had a ride. I
gotta
get the car back.”

“Wait!” I picked up speed and zipped through the automatic doors, just missing cracking my elbow on the edge of one since they moved so slowly. In the short distance, I spotted Ronnie at the red light on the corner. “Wait for me, Ronnie. I’m right behind you.”

I didn’t pause to see if he would agree. I closed my phone, tucked it in my pocket and took off in Ronnie’s direction. Scared to look, but knowing I needed to be sure, I checked behind me. The strange men had stopped in the lobby of the grocery store’s exit. They seemed hesitant to risk the sun. I stopped running and turned around to face them. Anger blazed in one of the men’s beautiful eyes. He took a step out, but his friend or brother grabbed at his arm. Steam rose from both their sleeves, and they jumped back with small grunts of pain. I thought I would pee in my panties at that.

Vampires. They were freaking vampires! Real life ones, here in my city...and after me. My throat went dry. My head began to spin, and I wanted to throw up. How did they get in the store in the daytime if they melted in the sun? No, that was witches, wasn’t it? Melting? I shook my head and ran a hand over my face. I didn’t know a thing other than what Hollywood produced like the Wizard of Oz.

Tires screeched behind me. A car door opened, and I heard Ronnie grumble, “Get in. I’m late.”

I continued to stand there staring at the men while they stared at me. Something came over me. My mind clouded. I took a step in their direction. Ronnie’s annoyed tone faded from behind me. I took another step.

“Get in the car.”

I don’t know who spoke in my head. I didn’t recognize the voice. I looked around me for who might have spoken, but no one else was near. At the entrance to the parking lot, a big black van, with windows tinted almost as dark as the body itself, turned in my direction. A warning went off in my head. Somehow I knew that van was coming to get the vampires, and once they were mobile, Ronnie and I might be in big trouble.

I spun around, dove into the car, and slammed the door behind me. “Step on it, Ronnie. Let’s get out of here.”

He shot me a dirty look before putting the car in gear. “Like I haven’t been telling you to come on. You know how
Renard
gets when I’m late. We’ll be lucky to get the car before another month, maybe two. What were you doing?”

I buckled in, pulled my knees up to my chest and stared into the side mirror. The van stopped, but the vampires didn’t come out. I leaned back with a sigh and closed my eyes. “Just drop it. I don’t want to talk about any of this.”

“Any of what?”

I didn’t answer. None of what had just happened was real. I was a regular teenager, with a regular life, and my biggest priority right now was to find a way to make some cash.

Chapter Four

I was still in serious denial when I dragged Ronnie to the mall later, but that was my favorite place to go, to blow off some steam, when my mother was getting on nerves, or just to hang out. You could do some people-
watching,
buy something healthy to sip on or something fattening to soothe hurt feelings, all in the same building. My main like was jumping from store to store, trying on clothes, and then when I was too tired to do anything else, go around to the back of the mall to the movie theatre and get lost in watching somebody else’s issues.

“Are you going to put in an application up here?” Ronnie asked.

I rolled my eyes at him. “You’re saying I’m a bum with no ambition?”

He shoved me. I started to chase him when he ran but didn’t when I spotted a cute boy. I’d remembered my sunglasses this time and was glad of how dark they were inside so I could enjoy the view. He was with a girl I assumed was his girlfriend. I sighed.

Ronnie came back. “I figure you should get something since I’m going to be busy this summer.”

I planted a hand on my hip. “My world doesn’t revolve around you, Mr. Jenkins.”

“Whatever. Which store?”

I was about to answer and then groaned. “Oh here we go.
Skank
-alert.”

Just ahead of us, with her pack of wild hyenas, was the dirty girl I’d mentioned before that Ronnie had fallen for last year. Annoyance rose in me, and I felt my nostrils begin to flare. Why did she have to come here today of all days? When I needed a serious break to pull my head together.

“Well, well, well, if it ain’t Tanesha.” She planted a hand on her slender hip and rolled eyes that were heavily made up. Her lashes had to be fake they were so thick and long. Black rings circled her eyes, not like somebody had belted her, although I wish they had, but like she had applied eye liner. I was jealous. No matter how hard I tried to put mine on, I screwed up in some way and had to scrub it off. The only makeup I’d ever put on that was half way decent on me was lipstick and rouge for my cheeks. That was it.

My mother liked to say I had natural
beauty, that
I didn’t need as much as Butterfly, but I know she was lying. And yeah, the dirty girl who was already simpering like a dang fool at Ronnie had been named Butterfly. What her mother had been smoking when she named her, I didn’t know. At one point, I thought she was making it up, but even in school, when I had been cursed to be in her French class, the teacher had called her Butterfly from the roll sheet. Whatever. It took all kinds, I guess.

“Hey, Ronnie, how you doing?” she whined to him, her voice so sweet, I felt a cavity coming on.

I took in her appearance. The color pink had thrown up on her entire body. A pink head band held her straight cold black,
permed
curls, back from her forehead. Pink and black dotted earrings dangled from her ears. A pink top that was cut too low and was too small hugged her rail thin figure, and she had matched it with a deep rose mini skirt and pink flip flops on her feet. Unlike my fingernails, hers appeared to be freshly done. The pink on her nails with flowers on every other nail glimmered with a gem in the center. Her toes were simply done in a French manicure. Each one of her friends was just as made up to perfection without a hair out of place.

I struck a pose, leaning into one hip and crossing my arms over my chest, mostly to hide the chipping paint that had started on my own nails. On top of that, the night before I had slammed my fingertip in the closet door and chipped one nail. It was wrapped in a Band-Aid, but I didn’t want Butterfly to see it.

“Buzz off, Bee,” I told her, knowing it irritated her when I messed up her name. “We’re just having a good time and don’t need the air polluted with your cheap perfume.”

Her eyes grew round. “For your information, this is—”

I yawned and tapped a fist to my lips. “Tell it to someone who gives a crap, Black Barbie.”

“What did you say to me?”

I bumped her aside and took Ronnie by the arm. He was looking daze-eyed again with a pretty girl
nearby,
although I hated admitting Butterfly was anything but a creature from the underworld. Then again, maybe she
was
underneath all the makeup. One could only hope.

When we were just a few feet past the girls, Butterfly called out. “Oh, hey, Ronnie?”

He almost tore my arm off turning around. “Yeah?”

She sauntered up, casting me a look that said I was an amateur and I’d never beat her at anything. She could have my best friend if she wanted him. A half second after that, her gaze dropped to my exposed fingers on Ronnie’s arm, and she cringed. I dug my nails in Ronnie’s flesh. He cried out and wrenched free of my hold.

Butterfly rested a hand on his chest. “I am going to this stupid thing my parents are dragging me to next Saturday, and I have to buy a dress. I was wondering if you could help me.”