Vampalicious! (18 page)

“So it wasn’t having me as a daughter?” Ivy inquired softly.

Mr. Daniels squeezed Ivy’s shoulder affectionately. “No,” he said. “Certainly not,” he added more forcefully.

Olivia saw relief wash over her sister’s face. “Thanks, Mr. Daniels,” Olivia said triumphantly.

Ivy felt like she’d just had a blood transfusion. “Would you be willing to tell my father what you just said?” she asked.

He looked puzzled. “I suppose so, but why?” Ivy exchanged glances with her sister.
We have to tell Brendan’s father the truth
. Ivy thought, shepherding him further into the corner by the pantry, so no one else would overhear. “If we tell you a secret,” Ivy said, “will you promise to keep it?”

Mr. Daniels paused, studying the serious expressions on Ivy’s and Olivia’s faces. “I will,” he pledged finally.

“Remember when you told us about Karl Lazar,” Ivy said, “the vamp who fell in love with a human and went into hiding?”

“Yes,” Mr. Daniels agreed.

“Well, we found him,” Olivia whispered.

“You did?” Mr. Daniels’s eyes widened. “Where?”

“In Franklin Grove,” Ivy replied. “He changed his name to Charles Vega.”

“Inconceivable!” Mr. Daniels gasped.

“But true,” said Ivy. “My dad is our
real
dad. And he thinks our mother died because he got her pregnant with a vampire baby.”

Thankfully, Mr. Daniels understood at once why the girls wanted him to speak to their father. “Lead the way!” he said.

Ivy knocked lightly on the study door. “Dad?”

“You may enter,” his voice came faintly.

“Dad, Mr. Daniels is here.” Brendan’s father followed her into the room, and Olivia came in behind him. “He has something to tell you.”

“Your wife’s death was not your fault, Charles,” Mr. Daniels said simply.

Her father bristled. “I appreciate your concern, Marc, but—”

Mr. Daniels put up his hand. “Let me finish. I have been studying human-vampire childbirth for nearly a decade, and your daughters’ particular case around the clock for two weeks. When the girls’ mother was impregnated, the human cells and vampire cells separated and formed two entirely distinct embryos. From that moment on, the pregnancy would have been completely normal. All my research confirms this. There would have been no toxic effects from the vampire DNA in your wife’s womb.”

“Then what killed her?” Ivy’s father demanded.

“Human medicine and science have greatly advanced,” Mr. Daniels said. “But even now, in this day and age, there are unpreventable fatalities during childbirth. It is the way of nature. It is
human
nature, Charles.” Mr. Daniels spread his hands. “It has nothing to do with vampires.”

Something changed in Mr. Vega’s eyes. “Are you sure?” he asked, his voice faltering.

“I am as sure as a geneticist can be,” Mr. Daniels said gently.

Charles Vega rose slowly from his desk and came around to stand before Mr. Daniels. Then, to Ivy’s amazement, he threw his arms around Brendan’s father. “Thank you,” he gasped. “Thank you.”

“You are most welcome,” Mr. Daniels replied generously.

Ivy’s father turned to face her. Beaming, he grabbed her hand. With the other, he took Olivia’s.

“Can the two of you ever forgive me?” he asked. “For deceiving you for so long? For being so wrong?”

Olivia’s lip was trembling. “As long as you promise to forgive yourself,” she said tenderly. “Dad,” she added with a gulp.

Their father pulled the two of them to his chest, and Ivy looked across to see Olivia smiling at her with tears in her eyes. She heard Mr. Daniels let himself quietly out of the study.

Ivy hugged her sister and her father as tightly as she could. For the first time, there weren’t any secrets to keep the three of them apart.

“I’m dreaming of a
black
Christmas,” Olivia sang to herself as she painted her nails frosted pink. It was Christmas Eve, and her sister was rummaging around in the bottom of her closet, checking to see whether Olivia had any shoes that might match the outfit she was planning on wearing for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner.

Their dad’s party—and all the emotions that had gone along with it—was just last night. But it seemed like ages ago.

“Did you see the look on my dad’s face when your parents invited us for Christmas dinner?” Ivy said.

“Totally.” Olivia nodded. She blew on her toes. “He was, like, all mushy.”

Charles and Ivy had brought Olivia home after the party, and Olivia had been completely impressed with the way he had come clean about everything to her parents—except the vampire stuff, of course. He was just like, “I’m Olivia’s biological father, but you’re still her parents, and I’m sorry I wasn’t honest the moment Ivy and Olivia found each other.” It was really brave of him. Olivia’s mom and dad were amazing, too— they took the news so graciously. And the best part?

“I still can’t believe we’re not moving,” said Ivy, examining the heels on a pair of dark pumps. “It’s like I just woke up from a bad dream.”

“That’s funny,” said Olivia. “Because I feel like I fell asleep and am having the best dream ever!” When Ivy and their dad left, she and her parents had had a little celebratory freak-out in the living room about the fact that Ivy was staying. They had jumped up and down and hugged. It was cute.

“Now this is what I’ve been looking for,” Ivy announced. She held up a pair of fire-engine red heels.

“Those are definitely
not
black,” Olivia noted.

“I thought I’d add a little color.” Ivy grinned.

Olivia chuckled. “So what do you want to do today?”

“I don’t know.” Ivy shrugged. “Now that I don’t have to finish packing, we can do whatever we want.”

“I feel like we’ve been so busy trying to keep you from having to move,” Olivia said, “that I barely noticed it was the holidays. I
love
Christmas.”

The smiling image of Santa Claus on a Christmas card pinned to the bulletin board by the door caught Olivia’s eye, and suddenly she had an idea. She was so excited that she waved at the air with her still-wet fingertips spread wide. “I know! We can go see the HB!”

Ivy groaned. “Olivia, we’re too old.”

“You’re just saying that because you grew up with it. But I’ve never been to meet the Holiday Bat. Don’t you think that’s sad?”

“No,” Ivy said. “What’s sad is going to see the HB when you’re thirteen!”

“Come on,” Olivia pleaded. “It’s the perfect thing to do on Christmas Eve. Please, Ivy.”

“Okay, but you can bet I’m not going to suffer through this alone,” Ivy qualified, whipping out her cell phone.

Olivia’s mom gave them a ride, and Brendan and Sophia were waiting for them outside Kruller’s Department Store. They pretty much tackled Ivy as soon as she and Olivia got out of the car.

“You’re not moving?” Sophia cried, grabbing Ivy’s arms.

“I’m not moving!” Ivy beamed.

“You’re staying,” Brendan whispered, pulling her close and breathing into her hair.

“She’s staying!” Olivia repeated, adding a little
whoop
for good measure.

They stood outside taking turns hugging each other until Brendan pulled open the door for everyone.

“I haven’t seen the HB in three blue moons,” said Sophia.

“How long’s that?” asked Olivia.

“Since we were six,” Ivy answered.

“Olivia, if you’re going to be hanging with the black cats,” Sophia teased, swinging her camera expertly by its strap, “you have to learn the lingo.”

“Oh, yeah? Put a stake in it,” Olivia said with mock Goth chilliness.

“Oooooh! Snap!” said Brendan. Her vampire friends laughed, impressed by Olivia’s comeback.

Arm in arm, the four of them made their way through the bustling holiday crowds and down the main aisle of the department store. Eventually they came to an elevator near the back. “Here we are,” said Brendan.

Olivia couldn’t believe it.
Kruller’s is a vampire establishment?
she thought.
I just bought a gorgeous hot pink miniskirt here last month!

The elevator door opened with a
ding
, and the four of them squeezed inside with a bunch of other shoppers. Sophia hit the button for five, the top floor. On their way up, a few people got off on each floor. Finally, the door opened on five, and the few remaining passengers walked out. Olivia started to follow, but Ivy grabbed her arm and gave her a meaningful look. The doors closed.

Ivy reached over and shifted the IN CASE OF EMERGENCY sign beside the door, revealing an alphanumeric keypad. She punched in a series of numbers, and a small metal panel automatically slid open to show a single round elevator button with an upside down
V
on it. Ivy pushed it, and the button glowed green.

“Going down,” Sophia announced.

Olivia watched the LED display over the door that showed what floor they were on. It fell from five to one in a matter of seconds, and then it read
B
for basement. Then the
B
disappeared, and the lights went out in the elevator, plunging Olivia and her friends into complete darkness.

Brendan wailed spookily like a ghost. Olivia could feel the car continuing to plunge downward.
How much lower can we go?
she wondered.
What if we crash into the bottom?

“Guys?” she said tentatively.

Suddenly the car jolted to a stop, and Olivia almost fell down.
Ding
. The red LED over the door showed an upside down
V
, and the door slid open.

Olivia could not believe her eyes. There was a whole other department store down here, and it was packed with Goths doing their last-minute holiday shopping!

“Welcome to Crueller’s,” Brendan said in tour guide mode, “the third-largest vamp shopping destination in North America.”

“I knew you guys had your own parts of stores, but this is...” Olivia searched for the right word, her head spinning with all the vampires and amazing vampire stuff around her. “It’s
vampalicious
!”

“Vampalicious!” Ivy repeated, rolling the word with her tongue. Her mouth curled into a devilish grin.