From Sunset Till Sunrise Read online

  “Maybe another garlic necklace?”

  “How do we get it on her?”

  “Okay, I got it. You go over there.” He pointed, but dropped his arm. His face fell. “Where is she?”

  I looked over. The doorway was empty. “Where’d she go?”

  He threw his arms up. “How should I know? I just asked you the same thing!”

  “She’s over here.”

  Tommy and I spun around, to see Abby standing right behind us, and she wasn’t alone.

  Herb was next to her.

  “Hello, boys. Did you miss me?” He had burns around his neck from where the garlic had been.

  Unfortunately, even in a group that contained an eight-year old girl, it was me who had the loudest scream.

  Abby stared straight ahead at us, not saying a word. Her face was pale and her eyes were sunken in. Her fangs were out.

  There was no denying it. She was a full-fledged vampire.

  I held my hands in front of me. “Abby, listen to me, this isn’t you.”

  Tommy whispered out the side of his mouth. “It’s not?”

  “Not now, Tommy!” I yelled.

  “You mean your psychotic little sister isn’t normally this creepy?”

  “I said not now!”

  Tommy and I backpedaled while Herb and Abby took steps toward us.

  Tommy aimed the Super Soaker at them.

  “Don’t shoot them!” I hissed. “I mean it.”

  “We have to do something!” Tommy snapped. “If we don’t, they’ll kill us!”

  “We can’t shoot her!” I said while Tommy kept them at bay with the Super Soaker.

  Herb smiled. “If you fire at us, your dear little sister will be hit, Devin. How are you going to explain that?”

  Tommy waved the Super Soaker at him. “First one I shoot is you, Herb.”

  He motioned toward Abby. “You waste your time on me, then Abby will get you. She’s just becoming a vampire. Her hunger is only going to build.”

  I gulped and reached into Tommy’s backpack. I took out the single-shot dart gun. I aimed it at Herb. “I’ll use this if I have to.”

  Herb’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think you will, but you especially won’t use it against her.”

  Abby took another step toward us.

  I swerved the gun at her. “Try me.”

  Abby stopped, still not speaking.

  “You’ll get tired,” Herb said. “We won’t.”

  Tommy shook his head, keeping the Super Soaker trained on Herb. “Before I do, I’ll make sure to shoot the both of you.”

  Herb smiled. “I guess we’ll soon find out.”

  Tommy glanced at me. “This is so cool! We have a standoff. It’s like those western movies!”

  I looked at him from the corner of my eye. “What?”

  “You know,” he said, the excitement clear in his voice. “Nobody can make a move without exposing themselves to danger. I love when they do this in the movies!”

  “This isn’t the movies!” I said. “This is our lives!”

  “All right, no need to be grumpy about it!”

  Nobody moved. We just stared at each other for I don’t know how long. And honestly, I had no idea what to do. I couldn’t just leave Herb and Abby there, but I couldn’t stay like this forever.

  Herb was right. They had the advantage.

  We would tire.

  They wouldn’t.

  I stared into their faces. There were barely any traces of their human selves. It was all vampire now. I thought about all the things that Lily had said about vampire life. There was no way, I could do that to either of them.

  Then it hit me.

  “Wait,” I said. “I have an idea.”

  I reached for Tommy’s backpack again, only this time something grabbed my wrist.

  I turned to see Bryce.

  His arm had grown back.

  There were around ten other vampires with him, surrounding us.

  Bryce grinned. “You two are coming with me.”

  For a moment, I froze. My heart shook like an earthquake going off in my chest.

  I jabbed the pencil into his hand.

  “Aaaaaargh!” Bryce screamed and released his hold on me.

  Tommy whirled and sprayed a stream of garlic water into Bryce’s face. Little boils started bubbling up.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. Herb lunged forward. I spun with the dart gun and pulled the trigger.

  It was empty.

  The pencil had stayed behind in Bryce’s hand.

  Herb grabbed Tommy.

  “Noooooo!” I yelled.

  Herb’s mouth opened. Before he could make a move, smoke surrounded us.

  The tingling in my body.

  Everything disappeared.

  In seconds, the mist cleared, and I was standing in some kind of office.

  Tommy was next to me. He clenched and unclenched his fists. “What the heck was that?”

  I rubbed my hands together. “That’s what I was telling you about. It’s a vampire trick. It was shown to me by—”

  “Hello, Devin.”

  I sensed her before I saw her. I turned. “Lily.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  TRUTH REVEALED

  I stared at Lily, and a million thoughts went through my mind. First, I had to know if she had been behind what had happened earlier.

  “Devin!” Lily threw her arms around me. “I’m so glad that you’re okay.” She squeezed me tightly, like she had been reading my mind.

  Tommy rolled his eyes, “Oh, please.”

  Lily let go of me. “What?”

  He snorted. “Nobody’s buying it.”

  Lily turned to me. “What’s he talking about?”

  “Tonight,” I said. “Were you behind this? Us being attacked?”

  She cried, “No! I would never do anything to hurt you. I hate that you even think that.” She looked down. Her lip quivered. “But unfortunately, I know who was.”

  Tommy and I glanced at each other.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  The tears started streaming down her face.

  She wiped at her eyes. “My dad. He approved this.”

  “What?” I said. “I thought he liked us. That he wanted vampires to live among us. What happened to that?”

  She looked at me through tear-filled eyes. “Bryce and Delia got to him. They filled his head with lies, and convinced him you were a threat. To him, to this school … to me.”

  “What?” I said. “I would never hurt you.”

  “I know that, Devin,” she said. “But you have to remember. Vampires have been hunted for years. My dad too. It wouldn’t take much convincing for anyone to tell him you wanted to destroy us.”

  Tommy’s brow furrowed. “But what about you? He knew we were friends with you.”

  She nodded. “That’s the problem. They all think I’ve gotten too close to you. That my judgment isn’t great, and that you’re a danger to us.” She grabbed my hand. “He wanted to destroy all the humans who knew about us and then move us again, Devin! I don’t want to move again.” Her breathing was rapid. “I like it here. I don’t know why he’s listening to them, but he is. Right now, I don’t know who to trust.”

  “I know the feeling,” Tommy muttered.

  “You can trust me, Tommy,” she said, and looked away. “But I don’t think you can trust my dad.”

  I stared at the tears on her face. “So what do we do?”

  She stepped closer to me and grabbed my shirt. “Devin, I hate saying this, but it’s now obvious to me that it’s one of them who bit Abby.” She paused a moment to compose herself, wiping the tears from her eyes. “They wanted to attack you from within your house. They thought we were getting too close. But I don’t know if I’ll ever get my dad back. He’s done this before. Gone on rampages like this. I thought he was done with it, but I guess he’s not.”

  “Wait a second,” I said. “You’re saying that
he’s killed like this before?”

  She sniffed back her tears and nodded. “Yes, that’s why we move so much. I couldn’t tell you before, because he promised that this time was different.”

  I studied her face, but couldn’t tell if she was telling me the truth.

  She never changed expression. “I’d never hurt you, Devin. I thought for sure he’d let this be.”

  Tommy blew air up from his bottom lip and turned to her. “So, what do you want us to do?”

  She looked down. “I don’t know. I just want to fly away from here. Everything is such a mess, and it’s all my fault.”

  Tommy turned to me. “I don’t buy it.” He reached into the backpack and pulled out the garlic powder. “I say we eliminate her.”

  Lily’s eyes widened. “I wasn’t responsible. I promise.”

  I grabbed the garlic powder from him. “Will you stop it?”

  He threw his hands up. “You’re making a huge mistake!”

  I ignored him. “Lily, if something does happen to the main vampire won’t all the other people in his line change back?”

  She nodded slowly. “Yes.”

  “And wouldn’t that make you a human girl again?”

  She looked up. Her tears stopped. Her eyes sparkled a moment. “Yes, but …” It came out as a whisper. She ran her hand down my arm until she grasped my hand. “I don’t know what to say to you. He’s my dad.” She walked over to a chair behind the desk, wiped her eyes on her sleeve, and looked back to me. “Maybe if only Bryce and Delia were gotten rid of, Abby would turn back. My dad’s not the one who bit her. He would’ve sent one of them.”

  “But what about you?” I asked. “You’d still be a vampire.”

  She nodded. “I know. But I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s my life now. Maybe I can talk to my dad. Make him stop this and see reason.”

  Tommy paced around the desk, eyeing Lily the whole time, like a detective interrogating a suspect. “So, where is your dad now?”

  Lily’s face twisted. “I don’t know. I’m hiding from him. He would hate it if he knew I was telling you all of this.”

  Tommy walked behind her, where she couldn’t see him, and motioned to me. He pantomimed hammering a stake into someone.

  I glared at him.

  Lily sprang up from her seat. “Listen, my dad’s a lot more powerful than me. If he even knew I was talking to you, I might be next, and I’m his daughter. Maybe it’s best that you just take Abby and run.”

  “I can’t run!” I said. “She’s a vampire. I can’t take her back home like this!”

  “Then we’re going to have to find one of them. I’ll help you. But if my dad finds out, I’ll be in just as much danger as you. Maybe more. If there’s one thing vampires hate more than anything, it’s going against the clan.” Her face was sad, desperate. Even though she was there to help us, she was the one who looked like she needed rescuing.

  I gave her a small smile. “Thank you, Lily. Where do you want to start?”

  Suddenly, her face froze, contorting with fear and pain. Before she could answer, black smoke surrounded us.

  It wasn’t like with Lily before. This was darker. Thicker. A burnt smell surrounded us. She reached out to me. I tried to grab her hand, but there was nothing there.

  The smoke enveloped everything.

  “Lily?” I shouted. I couldn’t see in any direction. I waved my hand in front of my face, trying to clear the air.

  Finally, after a few moments, the smoke started to disappear.

  Lily was gone.

  In her place was Mr. Moroi.

  He was standing between us and the door.

  Out in the hall we heard the snarls of other vampires.

  How had they found us so fast?

  “There you are!” he said. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He pointed to the door. “I’m clouding their senses. Nobody’s going to take the two of you from me.”

  Tommy flipped open the garlic powder bottle and held it in front of him. His hands trembled. “I’m warning you, stay back!”

  Mr. Moroi’s brow creased. “Stay back?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, we heard all about how you teamed up with Bryce and Delia.”

  His face fell. “Delia? Who talked to you about Delia?”

  Alarm bells went off. I had said too much. I didn’t want him knowing it was Lily that ratted him out.

  “We figured it out,” I said. “Now, leave us alone, and turn Abby and Herb back, or we’ll be forced to kill you.”

  Mr. Moroi held his hands in front of him. “Boys, I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’ve been played for fools. It’s probably my fault, but there’s something you need to know about Delia. She’s—”

  Suddenly, his head snapped back. There was a howl of pain and then a gurgling sound. He started convulsing. A black stain started to spread on his shirt.

  I quickly realized that it was coming from the wooden stake that had pierced his chest.

  Mr. Moroi shook violently, and then started to melt. First his face, down to his skull. Then his eyes and body. In seconds, all that was left was a greenish and black puddle on the floor.

  Tommy and I stood there with our mouths open.

  I looked up and my heart dropped. Suddenly, everything made sense. The sounds I heard in the bushes. The wiping away of the garlic powder on the floor. The eyes up in the tree.

  Herb’s words rang in my head. “When you get a supernatural being angry, they won’t stop at anything until they get even.”

  In his hand he held a large wooden stake.

  Actually, it wasn’t in his hand.

  It was in his paw.

  “Mr. Flopsy-Ears.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  WE MEET AGAIN

  I wanted to scream, but I was too stunned to make a sound. Everything inside me went cold. “I thought you were dead!”

  Mr. Flopsy-Ears reached down and moved some of the fur from his belly to the side.

  There was a long row of stitches sewn across.

  He turned the stake and pointed it at me.

  “Tommy!” I yelled. “Do something!”

  “I don’t know what to do!” Tommy screamed. “I have a ton of vampire stuff, not bunny stuff.”

  Mr. Flopsy-Ears leaped at me, holding the stake out in front.

  I jumped out of the way just before he struck the wall behind me. The stake briefly lodged in the wall before he yanked it out.

  I grabbed a chair and held it in front of me like a shield.

  Mr. Flopsy-Ears whirled around to face me.

  “Stay back!” I pushed the chair in the air at him, like I was a lion-tamer.

  Mr. Flopsy-Ears scurried behind the desk.

  “Will you do something!?” I shouted at Tommy.

  He grabbed a chair. “What’s Mr. Flopsy-Ears doing here?”

  “How should I know? I didn’t stop to ask him.”

  He looked around the office. “Where is he?”

  I darted my eyes back and forth, searching. “I have no idea!”

  I heard the sounds of little paws scurrying across the room.

  Tommy grabbed my shoulder. “I don’t see him.”

  I kept turning, trying to follow the sounds, but it seemed like it was coming from all directions. “I don’t know. He could be anywhere.”

  “You don’t have anything in the backpack that we can use?”

  Tommy rummaged through it. “I don’t know! We have no potion. No holy water. No anything!”

  “What about the garlic water?” I asked.

  “Why would garlic water work on a stuffed animal?”

  “How should I know? I’m just asking. You’re the one who knows all this stuff.”

  Tommy lifted the pencil gun and aimed it around the room.

  I motioned toward it. “Will that work?”

  He shook his head. “No. But maybe it’ll slow him down a little.”

  More scurrying.

  “Let’s get o
ut of here,” I said.

  Suddenly, something banged into the door.

  We jumped and spun around.

  On the other side of the frosted glass there were shadows, clawing at it.

  The door rattled.

  Tommy reached into the backpack. “I only have a few water balloons left.”

  “And garlic powder?”

  He checked the backpack. “Around half a bottle.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment. “That’s not going to last very long.”

  “What do you want me to do? Don’t blame me!”

  “I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying that you should’ve brought more.”

  He turned to me. “Well, that sounds like you’re blaming me. If it wasn’t for me we wouldn’t have any of this stuff to begin with.”

  “I know! I’m just saying—”

  Someone whistled.

  Tommy and I whirled.

  Mr. Flopsy-Ears was standing on the desk, holding the stake above his head like a spear.

  He wiggled his eyebrows a couple of times.

  “Oh, no,” I said. “I think he’s going to—”

  He reared his paw back and let the stake fly. It sailed through the air toward us, right at our heads.

  I grabbed Tommy. “Duck!”

  We dropped just in time, as the spear flew over our heads.

  Too late, I realized he wasn’t throwing it at us.

  It crashed through the door’s window, sending shards of frosted glass raining down on top of us.

  We looked up to see a dozen vampires staring back at us.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  A DJ SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT

  We jumped back from the door as the vampires clawed at the air.

  Tommy thrust his arm into the backpack and pulled out the cross.

  The vampires hissed, but kept their distance.

  Tommy and I stood back to back. He held the cross out to the vampires while I held up the pencil gun to Mr. Flopsy-Ears.

  Mr. Flopsy-Ears took a step toward us, smiling.

  “What are we going to do?” I asked.

  “Okay,” Tommy said. “The way I see it is that we have some things to hold off vampires, but we don’t really have anything to fight off demonic stuffed animals.”

  “So what does that mean?”

  “It means on the count of three, we get ready to run.”

  I peeked back over my shoulder. “What are you talking about?” I looked around the office. “There’s no place to go!”