Eleventh Grade Burns(69)

For a long time, neither spoke. Vlad thought about what Joss had said, about the Slayer Society killing every living being in Bathory just to make certain they’d rid the town of every vampire. He’d heard the love in Joss’s voice when he spoke of his sister. They must have been very close. Then Vlad sighed, resolving himself to whatever fate had in mind.

“Okay, Joss. Whatever has to happen, will happen.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew Joss’s slayer coin. Then he turned it over in the light and placed it neatly on Joss’s hospital bed, like some sort of peace offering.

Joss closed his hand over the coin and met Vlad’s gaze, an understanding passing silently between them.





27





SCORE ONE FOR EDDIE POE


VLAD SLID OUT OF HENRY’S CAR and closed the door. Henry had barely cut the engine when a group of girls met him by the driver’s side. Knowing it would take Henry several minutes to peel himself away, Vlad shook his head and headed across the parking lot, then up the front steps of Bathory High through a sea of students. The first day back after winter break was always hectic, but today was stressful too, knowing what awaited him in first period.

As he passed the small groups, several heads turned his way, but Vlad thought nothing of it. His mind was really focused on just one thing: the huge exam awaiting him in trigonometry. If he failed it, there was a good chance he might flunk the entire semester. If he aced it, which was just about as close to fiction as an idea could get, he’d likely pass. So today was really a life or death kind of situation for Vlad. He had to do well on that test... or Nelly was going to kill him.

He pulled open the front door and when he stepped inside, he couldn’t help but notice that everyone seemed to be holding a school newspaper. And looking at him. It was like a flashback in time to his freshman year, when Eddie had published that blurry picture of him floating down from the belfry.

Eddie. Eddie knew about the belfry.

His thoughts turning back to the present, Vlad met the eyes of several of his peers, and finally, his curiosity driven to the brink, Vlad pushed gently into one mind after another. A jumbled stream of words filled his thoughts, pummeling him like physical blows. “—monster.” “I had no idea ...” “—a killer in our town?” “What a freakl” “That picture of him biting that girl...” “Vlad is a vampire?”

With each word, Vlad’s eyes widened. He looked at the papers in their hands and swallowed hard.

Oh no. Not this. Anything but this.

At the end of the hall stood a very smug-looking Eddie Poe. It was all Vlad could do to restrain himself from racing down the hallway and breaking Eddie’s nose.

Otis stepped out of his classroom and snatched one of the papers from Kelly Anbrock’s hand. His eyes scanned the page and then, horrified, he looked up and met Vlad’s gaze. Vlad didn’t need to read his thoughts to know what was happening. Eddie had outed him as a vampire in the school newspaper. And by the look in Otis’s eyes, he’d used Vlad’s name this time. Otis’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and he thought just two words to Vlad: “They know.”

Vlad tightened his grip on the handle on his backpack and threw a glance around the hall at every single accusing gaze. His breathing picked up, his eyes began to water, and just as Otis had said, “Don’t,” Vlad turned and bolted back out the front door.

He raced down the front steps and the sidewalk away from the school. He thought he heard Henry call after him, but couldn’t be sure, couldn’t care. Didn’t care. Once he was clear of the school, he picked up the pace, moving as fast as a vampire can move, whipping between houses, around trees, until he was safe in his bedroom at last. There he paced back and forth, not knowing what to do. His secret was out. Those who wouldn’t believe Eddie surely wouldn’t doubt Joss. And Joss had made it abundantly clear last week that their friendship could not be mended.

It was over. They’d won.

The only thing Vlad could think to do was get as far away from Bathory as he possibly could.

He unzipped his backpack, dumping the contents on his bed. Then, with a determined pace, he grabbed several items of clothing from his dresser and closet, as well as the $54.38 from his secret box. It wouldn’t get him far, but it was a start. Zipping the bag closed, Vlad considered writing a note for Nelly, but nothing he could think to write would ever make her understand. He threw his backpack over his shoulder and headed for the door.