Vampires Rule (6 page)

“So what was it like?” Billy asked. “Being a
vampire?”

“I don’t think you want to know.”

“That bad, huh?”

Jack shook his head slowly, trying to find
the right words. “Actually parts of it were pretty good. It’s like
living in stereo. All your senses have the volume turned up as high
as it can go. Time loses meaning. Almost nothing can kill you. It’s
quite a rush.” He laughed. “I did some things no person in his
right mind would even think about.”

“But you had to drink…,” Billy cringed,
“…blood.”

“So? To vampires blood taste like the finest,
most delicate chocolate money can buy.”

“That’s disgusting.” Billy grabbed the empty
plastic milk container and put it in the garbage. “How could you
possibly enjoy drinking human blood? Vampires kill people, and you
talk like it was a trip to the zoo.”

Finally. This was his chance to clear up a
few things. “For your information I didn’t kill anyone. I lived
mainly on animal blood.”

“That’s still gross.” Billy made a face.

The sound of a cat meowing floated in through
an open window. Billy went to investigate while Jack continued to
eat. Billy returned almost at once with a fuzzy white feline in his
arms. The creature seemed calm at first. Billy stroked its furry
head. With a sudden whiny meow, the cat scratched Billy’s hand. He
half-dropped, half-threw it to the counter.

Billy cursed under his breath. “People dump
their damn cats on the edge of town, and they always wind up
here.”

Jack held his hand out and the cat walked
under it, rubbing its head and then body against his palm. “This
isn’t a stray,” he said. “She’s mine.”

“You have a cat?”

“All vampires do.” He introduced the cat to
his brother. “This is Blanca. Blanca, this is my brother Billy. You
remember I told you about him.”

Billy gave him another queer look. “You talk
to your cat?”

“She isn’t your average cat. Blanca has saved
my butt more than once over the years. She’s unbelievably
smart.”

“O-kay. I just didn’t know vampires liked
cats.”

“If you don’t know your prey, how will you
defeat them?” That was something Cowboy had taught him.

Billy sucked on his hurt thumb. He only
removed it from his mouth long enough to say, “I hunt
werewolves.”

“I thought only Silver can kill
werewolves.”

“Is that what she told you?” Billy went to
the sink, stuck his hand under running water. “It’s just easier for
her to do it than it is for the rest of us. I have to lop off their
heads with a sword. It gets bloody and messy. From what I hear she
does some weird hocus-pocus thing.”

Jack grinned.

Billy added, “I need to get a bandage from
the upstairs bathroom. Damn cat got me good. Be right back.”

After Billy left the room Jack ran a hand
over Blanca’s back again. She let out a violent hiss and arched her
back. Long white fur stood on end. She flashed tiny sharp teeth at
her owner.

Jack growled—an inhuman sound.

Blanca shot out of an invisible gun. She
raced around the corner, heading to the living room and disappeared
from view. It was the first time the cat had shown fear in Jack’s
presence. Blanca had seen him at his worst, sharp fangs and black
eyes. Why would she be afraid of him now?

What was happening to him?

Jack dragged his tongue over his gums,
searching for fangs. Still nothing. Strangely that didn’t reassure
him. His gut twisted in knots. Silver was wrong. The werewolf
hadn’t miraculously changed him back to a mortal. It had
temporarily robbed him of his powers and the curse that went with
it.

If he looked in the mirror, he’d see a
vampire.

“This must be our new student.”

It was three days after his transformation,
Monday afternoon, and Principal Hardwick stuck a huge hand out to
shake Jack’s. A big man in a dark suit, Hardwick was in continuous
motion like a five-year-old on a sugar high. He rubbed his hands
together, checked papers on his desk, paced the floor, and poured
coffee, all within a five-minute span.

During those five minutes, Jack got slammed
with reality. He couldn’t recapture his lost life. What was he
thinking? He shouldn’t be trying to return to school as if nothing
had happened. That stern voice in the back of his mind, the one
that sounded like his father, taunted him the whole time Hardwick
was talking.

He should have stayed home.

Fortunately, he had one thing going for him:
Hardwick had transferred to Jefferson Memorial a few years ago.
Jack hoped his luck would hold for the rest of his senior year and
he wouldn’t run into any teachers he used to know.

Principal Hardwick interrupted his thoughts
with, “Lunch is just ending. You’ll begin with your fifth period
class today. I like to assign a student to show our new people
around the school. This is Meghan Welch, star pupil.”

Hardwick gestured to a pretty brunette
standing in the open doorway. She flushed a happy pink at the
softly spoken praise. Smiling at Jack, she walked straight up to
him and latched onto his arm as if they were the newest, hottest
couple in town. “Nice to meet you.”

Hardwick continued, “You couldn’t be in
better hands. Meghan is student body president, editor of our
school paper, and head cheerleader. Teachers and students love her.
Follow her lead and you’ll do fine.”

Ignoring the girl and the principal, Billy
said, “I’ll pick you up after school.”

“Don’t bother,” Jack said. “I can find my way
home.”

Billy raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t
argue. With a lazy shrug, he left the room. The principal followed
suit, returning to his private office. Meghan pulled Jack into the
hallway. He already regretted telling Billy not to return for him,
but he didn’t want his brother to make two long trips in one day.
He was sure he could convince someone to give him a ride at least
part way. He could walk a few miles if he needed to.

Meghan went into a long, boring roll of what
classes were where and told him some things about the teachers on
his list. This obviously wasn’t the first time she’d shown the new
kid around. She droned on and on until he thought he might fall
asleep standing up. Her giddy voice sawed on his nerves.

“You’re in luck,” she said, hopping like a
demented rabbit. She waved his list of classes in front of his
face. “Your next class is English with Jersey Clifford. I have him
too. He’ll ask you to use his first name. Always does. He is so
cool and fun and super smart. Some of the girls have a crush on
him. Mr. Hardwick scooped him up from a big school out East last
year. One thing you should know about Jersey is that he loves
quoting poetry. If you want to make points with him, memorize a
poem by Frost or Yeats or one of those other dead poets. That’ll
impress him.”

Several doors opened at once and the hallway
flooded with rowdy teenagers. Some rushed to their lockers while
others strolled along with friends, chatting and laughing. Jack
froze to the spot. Feeling claustrophobic, he wanted to run for the
nearest exit. He hadn’t been surrounded by this many people in
years. Vampires shunned the company of mortals—unless they were
hungry.

“Where did you go to school before?” Meghan
asked.

“Uh...Boston.” He had to work to remember the
lie.

“Did you go to a smaller school than this?
Cause you look like a kitty dropped in the lion cage.”

A kitty? Annoyed with her unflattering
description of him, he fantasized about sprouting fangs and ripping
her throat out. Maybe losing her vocal chords would shut her up for
a while. He should be asleep in the abandoned house with his
friends, not listening to a peppy speech from a cheerleader.

Then he saw
her
, and his world flipped
upside-down.

Silver had her hand inside her locker. She
was talking to a blond girl in a crazy looking outfit, unaware of
his presence. He couldn’t hear what she was saying. His
vampire-hearing had faded. He took one step closer, desperate to
know if she was talking about him to her friend. The conversation
ended, and the blond girl walked away.

Silver turned, caught him staring at her, and
the ends of her lips slowly lifted. The surprise in her eyes
quickly became joy. She was glad to see him. The knowledge fueled
his confidence.

Jack totally forgot the cheerleader. He left
her standing alone and went to Silver, drawn in by her eyes. When
he reached her, he glanced inside the open locker, amused but not
surprised at the sight of the interior. She had put the textbooks
in alphabetical order. The inside of her locker looked more sterile
than a hospital.

She asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Decided to rejoin the human race.”

Her smile vanished, and she looked anxiously
at the faces of nearby students. Jack didn’t have to check to know
they were clueless. Most people didn’t believe in vampires. That’s
what made it so easy for them to roam free without being hunted by
every nut with a sharp stick.

After she was satisfied no one was listening,
she asked him, “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

She shrugged and closed her locker, a blush
staining her cheeks. Why did he get the feeling she was holding
something important back from him? He wanted to question her, but
he didn’t get the chance to do more than part his lips. Meghan
stepped between them, irritation evident in the tight set of her
jaw.

“I had no idea you two knew each other,” she
said. Meghan moved to stand beside him and looped her arm through
his again. When he tried to extricate himself, her grip tightened.
She was stronger than she looked. He couldn’t get away from her
without making a huge scene and drawing everyone’s attention to
them. She added, “I was assigned to show him around before his
first class.”

“How nice for you,” Silver said, her eyes
narrowed on the other girl’s face.

Jack thought he saw a glint of jealousy in
her eyes. Or maybe he had simply gotten in the middle of an old
feud. It was hard to tell. Still it gave him hope. Silver might
actually like him as much as he liked her.

“What classes did they give you?” Silver
asked him, ignoring Meghan. “Maybe we have some together.”

Meghan answered for him. “He’s going into
Jersey’s English class next, and you have Math with Mr. Barter,
don’t you? Too bad. The bell’s about to ring and we don’t want to
be late. See ya.”

The hallway emptied. Jack desperately wanted
to talk to Silver, but Meghan pulled him in the opposite direction.
Silver stared after them, mouth open. She wanted to talk to him
too. With a determined look, she followed them across the hallway
and into the classroom.

“What are you doing?” Meghan asked.

Silver forcibly removed Meghan’s arm from his
and gave her a gentle push toward the front of the room. “Jack and
I are good friends. He doesn’t need you to play Tour Guide Barbie
anymore. I’m here now. Take your seat.”

The threat in her eyes was clear. Not even
Meghan could miss it. The other girl spun around, swinging her hair
in Silver’s face. She went to the front of the class and sat
down.

Jack took an empty desk at the back of the
room and Silver sat next to him. The other students were too busy
with their own lives to notice the new kid. It gave Jack time to
breathe. Meghan turned around a few times and shot nasty looks at
Silver, but Silver didn’t notice. Her full attention was on
Jack.

Silver leaned close to him and whispered, “On
second thought, I don’t think you should be here. This is too
dangerous.”

“I’m not a va—you know what anymore.” At
lease he wasn’t displaying any signs of being a vampire at the
moment. “Why is it dangerous?”

“There are things you don’t understand. I can
explain later, but you need to get out of here. Go home and wait
for me.”

“Nope.” Jack stretched his legs out and
crossed them at the ankles. He folded his arms over his chest. “I’m
here, and I’m staying.”

“Do you trust me?”

He nodded reluctantly, knowing she would try
to use it against him. If he dropped out of school on the first
day, Billy would have his head. He had to have more of a reason
than ‘Silver told me to go home.’ He had a feeling what Silver
wanted wouldn’t matter to Billy.

“I promise I’ll tell you everything when I
get to your house later,” she said.

“Why can’t you tell me now?”

“This isn’t the place.”

“We could go into the hallway or the
janitor’s closet, or we could go to the parking lot for a few
minutes.”

She gnawed on her lower lip and played with
her bracelets. He waited for her to look at him. Her eyes remained
fastened on the multi-colored bangles. There were so many secrets
in those eyes; he didn’t know where to start.

The teacher entered with a loud voice. He
slammed the door behind him and tossed a thick folder overflowing
with papers onto his desk. Jack liked him on sight. The man was
tall and slender with a receding blond hairline and the palest of
blue eyes. He wore solid black, a turtleneck and trousers, but when
Jack looked at the man’s feet he had to stifle laughter. Jersey
Clifford had bright red sneakers on. A non-conformist.

Lily would love him.

Sadness washed over Jack, stealing his smile.
His friends were gone. They didn’t know what had happened to him
yet. They weren’t going to like it, and they wouldn’t want to be
friends with a human. He had lost them forever.

Jersey began to write on the chalkboard in
fluid cursive with curly letters. He spoke while he wrote, and his
voice was as charismatic as the rest of him. Jack felt drawn in
like a moth to a flame, and he wondered if the other students felt
the same.