Fang Girl (29 page)

Authors: Helen Keeble

BOOK: Fang Girl

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“Why, thank you,” Lily said, her smile widening. “I’ll assume that was a lovely compliment.” She ground her cigarette butt daintily under one heel. “Let me make it crystal clear for you, little boy. You can shake off your silly cultural baggage, hold your nose, and work with me, or you can watch your empire burn. Now, should I start calling round and inviting the highest bid, or do we have a deal?”

A much longer pause. Then, “Deal,” Hakon said, sounding as though the word were being pulled out of him on barbed wire. “Alliance between us, as long as your progeny lives. And, Xanthe Jane Greene?”

“Yeah?” I said, fighting down a shudder at the leashed rage in Hakon’s voice.

“Tell Quincey Helsing I know his plan for the dhampir. And I shall make sure every Bloodline in existence knows too.” Lily’s phone clicked as Hakon hung up.

“Goodness, now there’s a poor loser,” Lily observed, snapping her phone shut. “Still listening, Xanthe darling? Really now. I should start running, if I were you.”

I pulled back from the connection, feeling like I’d been for a dip in a rancid pond. “Uh, I don’t think Hakon’s real pleased with you,” I told Quinns. “He said something about knowing what you’re up to with Van, and that he’d tell all the other vampires too. He sounded like it was a really big deal.”

Quinns let out his breath. “Over a hundred years of secrecy,” he said rather grimly. “Thrown away.” He glared, narrow-eyed, at Van. “You are
very
grounded.”

“Secrecy?” Ebon said, frowning. “Hunter-General, all vampires are quite aware that your group became corrupt after Stoker’s death. It is hardly a secret that you are vampire minions rather than vampire hunters.”

“What we wanted you to think,” Quinns said. “Had to, or you would have wiped us out after Stoker. Really, we are vampire hunters. Always have been. But we’re not hunting vampires.”

“Want to be a little
more
cryptic?” Sarah snapped.

“Being accurate.” Quinns shrugged one shoulder. “Not hunting vampires. Hunting
a
vampire. That’s the secret.”

“Only one vampire?” I frowned. Quinns didn’t strike me as a personal vendetta kind of guy. “Which one?”

“The first.”

There was a pause, while we all contemplated that.

“That’s … an admirably logical plan,” my mum said at last.

“Thanks.” Quinns drove in silence for a moment. “Slow, hard work, though. Got to stay low, appease the vampires, keep researching. Lucy didn’t like it. Kept looking for shortcuts, like creating a dhampir.” He shook his head. “Warned Lucy that Lily had to be playing her. Didn’t listen. Like you,” he added, cocking an eyebrow at Van. “Impatient.”

“While you’re sitting around researching, people are getting hurt,” Van muttered.

“People always getting hurt.” It sounded like a well-worn and long-running argument. “Bigger picture.” Quinns sighed in exasperation. “Doesn’t matter now. Cover blown. Traded for a handful of humans and a couple of teenage vampires. Ha.” Van glared.

“Wrong,” I said. Crap, it was contagious. Too much time in Quinns’s company, and we’d all just be grunting at each other.

“Oh?” Quinns said, neutral.

“Wrong,” I repeated. “Traded for”—I swung my finger to point at Van, Ebon, and Sarah in turn—“a supernaturally good fighter that no one can hide from, a shape-shifting spy who’s been close to one of your
greatest enemies, and a budding evil genius who thinks more like a vampire than the vampires do. And me,” I added. “The world’s only unkillable supervamp.” I sat back, folding my arms and ignoring the way everyone except Quinns was staring at me. I glared at the back of the Hunter-General’s head. “If you can’t defeat the bad guys with
that
lot, then you seriously suck.”

“Baby Jane,” my dad said slowly. “What are you doing?”

“Angling for a job, I think,” Quinns said, a hint of amusement in his level voice. Nonetheless, his eyes were thoughtful, serious, as he studied me in the mirror. “We’ll have a conflict of interests eventually, you know.”

My God, a complete sentence. I must have seriously impressed him. “I know,” I agreed. “But until then, we can help each other out.” I paused. “I warn you, I’m not coming cheap though.”

Quinns’s mouth quirked. “Suspected not.”

“You’ve got to take care of my family. And Sarah. Ebon too, if he wants. Keep them safe, hidden from the vampires.” I frowned, thinking. “And I want a credit card. Unlimited. I’m going to be doing a lot of traveling, and there’s no way I’m sleeping in sewers. Not to mention all the new clothes and stuff I’ll need.”

Mum gripped my arm. “But you’re staying with
us, Xanthe. You need—”

“I need to keep away,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Mum, Dad, Lily’s working with Hakon, and she can always find me. Until I’ve captured her, I can’t be in the same place as you.” I squeezed her hand. “It won’t be forever. I promise. And we’ll still be able to talk.” I looked at Sarah. “You okay to stay with them?”

“The ‘evil genius’ has always been more into directing minions from her dark fortress rather than getting her own hands dirty,” Sarah said dryly. Turning to my parents, she gestured at her forehead. “We’re linked together. You’ll be able to check up on her whenever you want.” She flashed me a wicked grin. “Don’t worry. There’s nothing she can hide from me.”

“So,” I said to Quinns. “Deal?”

His face cracked in a slow smile. “Deal.”

I sank back against the side of the van, feeling the tension ease from my muscles. My hands found my parents’ again. I knew that soon I’d have to leave, but I could enjoy this moment of peace for a little while longer.

Funding, a purpose, and my family safe. What more could a teenage vampire fangirl want?

Well … maybe one more thing.

“Hey, Van,” I said. “Want to go hunt some vampires?”

Acknowledgments

T
here are a vast horde of people without whom this book would not exist, but I must personally thank a few in particular:

First, enormous thanks to my agent, the redoubtable Nephele Tempest, for finding the perfect home for the manuscript. And second, to my amazing editor, Erica Sussman, and her equally amazing assistant, Tyler Infinger, for their sterling work removing the suck and adding the awesome.

To my copyeditors, for earnestly debating the correct spelling of “noob.”

Special thanks to Claudia Smith, whose professional translating skills kept me from veering uncontrollably
between English and American. And to Eljas Oksanen, whose book this is (and who, assuming the publication dates don’t change, now owes me one shiny Euro for
just
beating him into print).

To the rest of the Jade Cats—Rob Mathews, Joe McDonnell, James Donnithorne-Tait, David Till, and Diego Virasoro—for starting me off down this path in the first place. May the muppetry never end!

To the Ricepaper gang, especially Yoon Ha Lee and Nancy Sauer, for the comradeship and critiques.

To the fine folk who run NaNoWriMo, without whom I would probably still be working on chapter three.

To all my friends at LiveJournal, for the virtual support and encouragement over the years. We may never meet in the flesh, but you are the finest collection of disembodied pixels I know.

Heartfelt thanks to my mother, June Keeble, who on many occasions was literally left holding the baby while I frantically wrote to meet the deadline. Mum, the next book’s definitely for you (and I apologize in advance for the subject matter).

And last but by no means least, all my love and gratitude to my husband, Tim, who took me vampire hunting in IKEA.

About the Author

Helen Keeble
is not, and never has been, a vampire. She has, however, been a teenager. She grew up partly in America and partly in England, which has left her with an unidentifiable accent and a fondness for peanut butter crackers washed down with a nice cup of tea. She now lives in West Sussex, England, with her husband, daughter, two cats, and a variable number of fish (none of which are evil undead goldfish). If the above hasn’t told you everything you ever need to know about Helen, you can find out more about her and her work at www.helenkeeble.com.

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Credits

Cover design by Alison Klapthor

Copyright

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Fang Girl

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Keeble, Helen.

Fang girl / Helen Keeble.—1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: Although fifteen-year-old Jane has always loved vampire lore, she is surprised to awaken in her coffin with fangs, and she goes to her parents and younger brother for help in figuring out why undead factions are vying for her eternal allegiance.

ISBN 978-0-06-208225-1 (pbk. bdg.)

EPub Edition © JULY 2012 ISBN: 9780062082268

[1. Vampires—Fiction. 2. Supernatural—Fiction. 3. Loyalty—Fiction. 4. Family life—England—Fiction. 5. England—Fiction. 6. Humorous stories.]

I. Title.