Dangerous Girls (11 page)

“D
id you see the hunters?” Ari asked breathlessly. “I heard they were out tonight. I tried to find them.”

“We…didn't see anyone,” Destiny said.

“I'm totally disappointed,” Ari said, shaking his head. “I really want to see a vampire.”

Does he suspect something? Destiny wondered. How come he's staring at Livvy and me like that?

“Where are you two coming from?” he asked.

They both spoke up at the same time.

“The mall,” Livvy said.

“Courtney's house,” Destiny answered.

Ari narrowed his eyes at them. “You're putting me on, right?” He stepped up closer to Destiny and pointed. “Is that blood on your chin?”

“Huh?” Destiny gasped and rubbed her chin
with a finger. “Oh, yeah. I just bit my lip. It's nothing.”

I don't like the way he's staring at me.

Is Ari lying? Is he actually a vampire hunter? Did he join the hunters? Was he at Coach Bauer's with the others? Did he follow Livvy and me?

I can't believe it. I went over to his house and asked him about everything. I practically
told
him I was a vampire. How could I be so stupid?

“Maybe I'll come by later,” Ari said to Destiny.

Come by with your hunter friends? To kill Livvy and me?

“Not a good idea,” Destiny said. “Livvy and I have to get our beauty sleep. I mean, school starts tomorrow. Remember school?”

Ari grinned. “Oh, yeah. School. I almost forgot.”

“Dee and I have to figure out what we're going to wear,” Livvy said. “That could take hours.”

“So, Dee, maybe you'll help me with my French this semester?”

Why is he playing this game? Trying to throw us off the track?

“Yeah, sure. No problem,” she said.

“Great.” He flashed Destiny a smile. “See you guys tomorrow.” He pulled the sweatshirt hood over his head, turned, and began to jog toward his house.

Livvy couldn't hide her fear. “Did he see us in the woods just now? Is he one of Coach Bauer's hunters, Dee?”

Destiny shook her head. “I don't know. I don't know what to think.”

They returned to the car and drove home in silence. Destiny couldn't stop thinking about Marjory Bauer. Again and again, she heard the woman's shrill scream as the wooden stake came down. She saw the stake pierce the poor woman's body. And then there was such a heavy silence, such a heavy, terrifying silence.

The poor woman wanted to die. She wanted her husband to kill her. Did Coach Bauer finally do it? Was he the hooded figure who drove the stake into her chest?

The twins crept into the house through the back door. “Oh.” Destiny uttered a low cry when she heard the voices in the living room. Peeking through the hallway, she saw her dad and Coach Bauer.

Bauer was even more pale than usual. He appeared very upset. He kept burying his face in his hands, then looking up and talking rapidly.

Dr. Weller kept shaking his head sadly.

Both men were speaking just above a whisper. Destiny couldn't make out their words. Frozen in fear, she held on to her sister and stared at the two men.

Is Coach Bauer telling Dad about killing his wife?

Did he see us there in the woods?

 

The next morning, a raw, gray day threatening rain, Destiny and Livvy gazed at Dark Springs High from across the street.

It was a three-story old-fashioned school building built of yellow bricks that had weathered to a muddy brown over the years. A thick wall of ivy grew up to the slanted, black-slate roof, darkening the front of the school even more. Two tall brick chimneys, side by side at the back of the building, coughed puffs of black smoke into the charcoal sky.

“It looks like some kind of haunted castle today,” Livvy said, adjusting her backpack on her shoulders.

“It's just your mood,” Destiny said. “And these sunglasses make everything look darker.”

The girls' eyes had grown even more sensitive. Now they had to wear sunglasses whenever they went outside.

“How are we going to explain the shades, Dee?”

“Maybe no one will ask.”

They crossed the street. Destiny felt a cold drop of rain on her forehead. She and Livvy jogged to the front entrance. They opened the door to the roar of voices and slamming lockers.

Ana-Li stopped Destiny outside the principal's office. “Hey, what's up with the shades?”

“It's some stupid eye infection,” Destiny said. “Livvy and I both have it.”

Ana-Li turned to look at Livvy across the hall, talking to a group of boys. “Wow. Check out Livvy's low-cut jeans. Are those sexy or what? I can't believe she wore those to school.”

Destiny sighed. “Livvy is Livvy.”

She caught Ana-Li examining her. “You're so thin, Dee. Are you on a diet or something?”

“Not really.”

“Bell's going to ring. You know where your homeroom is?”

“I just got here, Ana-Li. I have to check out the list. Catch you later, okay?”

“Donohue's for lunch? I'll drive.”

“Yeah. I guess. Maybe.”

Destiny pushed her way through a group of kids to get to the bulletin board where the homeroom assignments were listed.

“He's gorgeous,” she heard a girl behind her say. “Wait till you see him. I mean, movie-star gorgeous.”

“Someone said he's student-teaching for McCall,” another girl said. “But I heard he's the new college advisor.”

“Maybe he tutors after school,” the first girl joked.

Both girls laughed.

Destiny elbowed her way into the crowd around the bulletin board. She found the homeroom sheet for seniors and searched for her name.

“Dee, you're in Ms. Downs's room with me.”

Destiny turned at the sound of the familiar voice. “Courtney, hi. Hey, you cut your hair.”

“Last week,” Courtney said, puffing up the sides of her short, bobbed hair. “That ponytail
was so lame. Where've you been, Dee? I keep calling you, and—”

“Sorry. Really. Things have been weird.”

“Have you been sick? You look kinda pale.”

“Well—”

It shows. Everyone can see that I've changed.

“Move it. You're blocking traffic.” Fletch gave Destiny a playful shove. “Hey, what's up? I like the shades. Let me see them.”

He made a grab for them, but Destiny pulled away. She knew the bright hall lights would burn her eyes.

“Hey, Dee, I only wanted to look at them.”

“I've got an eye infection.”

“Gross.” He backed away, stumbling into some other guys, waving with both hands for her to stay back.

The first bell rang. The hall began to empty out as kids made their way to their homerooms. Destiny looked for Courtney, but she had disappeared down the hall.

Destiny hurried past two boys who looked very lost, obviously freshmen. She hurried up the stairs, her backpack bouncing on her shoulders, then turned to go down the first hall—and walked right into a young man.

“Oh. Sorry.”

She stared at him. At his wavy black hair slicked straight back, his broad, tanned forehead, the black, piercing eyes, the warm smile.

He wore a creamy white turtleneck over tight-fitting black slacks. He had a silver stud in one ear.

He must be the gorgeous new teacher. That girl was definitely right!

“Sorry. It was my fault,” he said. “I wasn't watching where I was going.” He had a slight Italian accent.

“No problem,” Destiny managed, a little overcome by his dark-eyed stare, his amazing good looks.

“My name is Lorenzo Angelini,” he said. He took her hand and shook it. “But everyone calls me Renz. I'm new here. I truly hope we'll get to know one another.”

A
s Renz watched the students hurrying to their classrooms, a familiar longing swept over him. Memories of his youth came flooding back. He pressed his back against the tiled wall, remembering….

If only he could make time go backward. Back to those bright, cloudless days two centuries ago when Laura Hanover walked her father's fields in the tiny farming village of Dark Springs.

Lorenzo Angelini had lived his life in a fog of hunger and desire. For centuries, he knew only hunger—the hunger to remember, the hunger to feed, and the hunger to find the beautiful, lost Laura again.

These desires shaped his life. He had been a vampire for so long, and had consumed so much blood—it had kept him from aging. He appeared young and robust. He could walk in
bright daylight without being burned up by the sun.

But daylight was no different than night to him. He lived only to survive the blackness that surrounded him day or night. He lived only to find Laura.

Laura with her creamy skin, her high, proud cheekbones, her sparkling emerald eyes, as green as the high pasture grass they walked through together.

Her voice…her wonderful laugh…

Renz could no longer hear them. Time had taken them away from him. And now he struggled to hold on to her smile, to remember the sweet gardenia aroma of her perfume. It took all his power to picture her walk, those long strides beneath the skirts that swept over the ground.

That night in the alley in New York, the vampire changed his life forever. Now he lived in eternal winter. Eternal winter…until he saw Laura.

A gray fall day. He had been running, fleeing one angry town after another, a stolen, beaver-fur overcoat draped over his tattered black suit.

“What town is this?” he asked the owner of the ramshackle, two-story boardinghouse. Dark
Springs, he was told. Lorenzo took a room for a half dollar a week. At the end of the week, he didn't pay it. He bit the old man's throat instead and drank him dry. The blood was sour, too old, spoiled like a wine gone bad.

That day, he saw Laura. A town market, villagers crowding the narrow Main Street and the open plaza. She was helping her father, carrying a basket of potatoes to a market stand.

Their eyes met.

He stared. She didn't lower her eyes. He felt something—an attraction. Did she feel it too? He couldn't tell by her slow, half smile.

He gathered his courage and walked over to the stand. He knew already that he was in love with her. He knew that he had to win her and keep her with him for all time.

He had to make her immortal too.

She laughed as he teased her about the potatoes. He drew a face on one and said it resembled her father. She grabbed it away from him and protested, “How can I sell it now? Go away. You will make us poor.”

But he could tell by the blush on her cheek and the flash of her green eyes that she didn't want him to go away.

Lorenzo knew his charms. So many young women had fallen for him, for his Italian good looks, his wavy dark hair, the mystery in his black eyes. So many young women had fallen…and died.

But not Laura, he decided. Laura will live with me through the centuries.

Soon, he was taking long walks with her through the pleasant little village, laughing with her…kissing her, gently at first, then showing his passion. What a thrill when she showed the same passion for him!

Seeing his tattered suit and, perhaps, the wild look in his eyes, Laura's father didn't approve of Renz. The couple had to meet secretly in town or at the bubbling springs at the dark rock hills.

One warm summer night by the springs, the scent of marigolds and pine floating in the air, a full moon high in the cloudless sky, Lorenzo wrapped Laura in a tender hug, brought his face close, and whispered, “I want you to be with me always.”

To his surprise, she pulled away. “Father will never allow it,” she said, tugging tensely at the long sleeves of her blouse. “He is set against
you, Renz. For reasons I cannot fathom. He will not allow us to marry, and as much as it tears my heart in two, I cannot go against my father. I have no choice but to follow his wishes.”

Lorenzo had expected as much. Farmer Hanover was a big, strong-spirited man, quick to anger. Once, in fury, he had heaved a pitchfork at a traveling salesman and nearly killed the man. And Lorenzo had seen him lift a three-hundred-pound hog off the ground and toss it back into its pen.

The man was a lion with a lovely, gentle doe for a daughter.

Lorenzo gazed up at the yellow full moon as Laura fell back into his arms. Tears rolled down her cheeks and stained the shoulder of his shirt.

“I would wish it any other way,” she sobbed, “but we must continue to meet in secret. If Father finds out, there is no telling what he would do. He could kill you, Lorenzo. If his anger got the best of him, he really could.”

“I know a way we can be together for always,” he whispered. “It will cause a little pain, but only for a short while. And then we will live side by side for eternity.”

She gazed at him, her cheeks red and
tearstained, her lovely, green eyes wide, brimming with more tears. “Lorenzo, my darling, what are you saying? I have explained to you that Father will not allow—”

“Your father cannot stop us, Laura,” he said. And then he could wait no longer, for the full moon had reached its peak. His curled fangs lowered from his gums. “Ignore the pain, my loved one. After this night, we shall know only pleasure.”

He sank his fangs deep into her throat.

She uttered a startled gasp, but made no cry, no scream of protest. She did not fight him or try to squirm free.

Drinking her warm, sweet blood, he knew she was his.

That moment was the happiest of his life.

As he finished, she sank her teeth into his chest and drank his blood.

The bloods mix under a full moon at its peak, he thought. And now Laura is mine.

Blood dripping from their lips, they kissed.

Renz heard the angry, shouting voices, but he didn't want to end the embrace. Hands grabbed him roughly and pulled him away.

Renz turned to see Laura's red-faced father,
chest heaving under his black coat, hands clamped into tight fists. His entire body quivered with rage.

Two somber, bearded men in long waistcoats stood at Farmer Hanover's side. Renz lowered his gaze to the muskets with their long bayonets in their hands.

“Kill him,” came Hanover's command.

The men obediently raised their bayonets.

Laura jumped in front of Renz and opened her mouth in a wail of protest. Her father shoved her aside, sent her sprawling to the grass.

Then the two men grabbed Lorenzo by the arms. They held him in place as Hanover raised his giant fist and pounded it into Lorenzo's face.

I can feel pain, Lorenzo realized with surprise.

The fist came down again, this time on Lorenzo's left ear.

He heard Laura scream again.

Another powerful swing and the fist caught him between the eyes. Pain roared through his head.

Groaning, Lorenzo climbed unsteadily to his feet. He jerked free of his two captors, ducked another swipe from her father's tight fist—and took off running into the woods.

Lowering his head into the wind, he dove through the trees. He could hear the thuds of the boots of the men pursuing him. But they could not shift shapes as he could. As he reached the trees, his body shrank into a new form, and he ran as a field mouse, low in the grass.

But his thoughts were not of escape. His thoughts were of Laura.

Her father came too late. He cannot separate us now. He cannot keep us apart. For I have drunk her blood and she has drunk mine, under the light of the full moon.

Lorenzo scampered into a deep hole in the ground. He could hear the men searching for him through the trees, cursing under their breath. He waited for their footsteps to fade.

Laura, I will come to you later tonight. I will come to you after your churlish father has fallen asleep. And I will take you away, take you far from here where you will no longer have to fear him.

 

He waited until the moon dropped behind the trees. Then, still a field mouse, he made his way through the tall grass of the north pasture, to the back of the low, pine farmhouse.

The field mouse stopped on the sandy
ground behind Laura's bedroom window. Its body raised up, shifted, cracking noisily, the sound of stretching bones, as Lorenzo resumed his human form.

He leaned against the rough wood wall and edged up to the sill of the window. Curtains fluttered in the gentle, warm breeze. The window stood open wide.
As if inviting him in.

Yes. Laura would be waiting for him. Of course, she would expect him to come rescue her. To come carry her away from this dreary farm forever. To lead her to a life that would transcend the centuries.

He gripped the windowsill and pulled himself up. His boots scraped the pine wall as he let himself inside. The silky curtains tangled around him as he lowered himself to the bedroom floor.

“Laura?” His whisper came out louder than he'd planned, but he heard no reply.

Can she be sleeping so soundly after the terrible scene at the springs?

Lorenzo untangled himself from the curtains and took a step toward her bed. “Laura? I have come for you.”

Still no reply.

Her bed came into view against the bare wall. Lingering moonlight cast blue shadows over the folds of the bed quilt.

“Laura?”

He could see her head, tilted slightly on the pillow, her fine, blond hair falling over her face.

Yes. Laura. Beautiful Laura. Waiting for him with her window open.

“Laura? It's me.”

He reached out a hand and gently touched the shoulder of her nightdress.

And then he raised his eyes to the bed quilt and saw it…

…saw it…

His eyes bulged and his hand fell off her shoulder.

Howling in rage, in shock, in pain, Lorenzo staggered back, fell back against the curtains. Let them wrap themselves around him again, muffling his screams, his wails of horror and sadness.