Stage Fright (Bit Parts) (27 page)

Marcella lost her smile for a moment and puzzled over the mess.  Then she laughed and sped to Andrew, wrapping her arms around him once more and nuzzling his neck.

So much for arithmomania.

Andrew groaned as Marcella used the tip of one fang to draw blood.  The wound was tiny, no bigger than a shaving nick, but a drop of red welled up.  Marcella lapped it greedily.  “I’ll drain you drop by drop.”

“He doesn’t want to be your blood partner!” I shouted.

She shrugged.  “I already have one of those.”

“Then go find Martin if you’re so hungry.  Isn’t that what he’s supposed to do for you?”

“Not Martin,” she said, disgusted.  “Martin is a sickly little thing.  No, my new blood partner is one who can give me everything I want.  Power.  Strength.”  Her tongue darted out for another taste of Andrew’s blood.  “My voice.”

Her
voice
?  According to Hedda, nothing could restore Marcella’s voice.  Certainly, not a blood partner.  There was no time to think it through, though.  Keeping my eyes on Marcella, I made a blind swipe for the silver.  Instead of the bowl, however, my fingers closed around the teardrop of cold crystal that fit perfectly into my hand.

A pulse of power reached my fingers a fraction of a second before everything went white.

The explosion was silent, but a jolt of energy seared me from my toes to the crown of my head.  I must have been incandescent.  Marcella’s shriek nearly split my skull.  “What did you DO?!!”  The back door flew open with a bang and a gust of freezing air.  Marcella’s scream fell silent.

The flash had blinded me.  I groped for a chair, and when I found one, shakily sat.

“What
was
that thing?”  Andrew’s voice was as weak as water.

I opened my hand to show him.  “It’s a crystal that fell from the Bleak Street’s chandelier.  It’s pure energy.”  Or at least, it
had
been pure energy.  The burst of power had drained it completely.  Now, it was as dead as ordinary glass.

“No, not that.  The other thing.”

“Oh, you mean the vampire.”

There was a loud clunk as he fell to the floor.

More slowly than I would have liked, my vision returned.  Blurry shadows eventually coalesced into solid shapes.  Then, black dots danced before my eyes.  When the dots finally faded, I called Isaiah.

I fought to keep the tremor out of my voice, but when I asked him to come over, he sensed my fear.  “Lock the doors and sit tight.  I’ll be right there.”

Locking the doors was pointless, of course.  If Marcella wanted back in, a deadbolt wouldn’t stop her.

After hanging up, I considered making a second call to the police.  My dad’s voice spoke in my head: every crime needs to be reported.  Looking at the phone, however, I wondered how to do this without sounding either (a) crazy or (b) guilty.  I hoped Marcella was only making a cruel joke, and the realtor was still alive.  Unfortunately, deep inside, I felt the truth. 

If I wasn’t going to call the police, then I needed to deal with the evidence.  I took a black garbage bag from under the sink and dropped the bloody jacket inside.   Then I angrily kicked the thing into the entryway where Isaiah would see it the minute he came through the door.

He should have told me that his sister was a vampire!  Especially since I’d confessed all my secrets to him.  Was it because he didn’t trust me, or because he worried I’d run away if I’d found out?  Either way, I had deserved to know.

The grisly deed done, I joined Andrew on the living room couch.  The tea I’d fixed him sat untouched on the coffee table.  My roommate had a scary, faraway look in his eyes, like he’d taken a vacation from himself.  I put my hand on his shoulder and called his name.

He blinked.  “That was a vampire in the house.”

“Yes.”

“A real vampire.”

“A real vampire,” I confirmed.  I adopted a Romanian accent.  “Vampira lives!”

To my relief, he laughed.  And kept laughing.  His laughter had a weird, raw edge, and his eyes were wild.  For a moment, I worried that he’d lost it completely, but once he got himself under control, he looked better.

“Will she be coming back?” he asked.

“No idea,” I confessed.

He leaned against me, and I put my arm around him.  Part of me, the selfish part, was glad he’d been dragged into my vampire nightmare.  Hiding my secret had been nearly as stressful as the situation itself.  The rational half of me, however, wished he’d stayed in bed.

Which reminded me.  “Why were you about to attack your cell phone with a rolling pin?”

He ran his fingers through his already tousled hair.  “I finally figured out how Caleb found me.  He uses my cell phone to track my location.  I remembered seeing this ‘family map’ charge on the wireless bill a few times, but I never knew what it was for.”  His lips thinned.  “Now I know.”

Here I’d thought that Caleb couldn’t get any creepier.  Now, it was a toss-up between who was the bigger monster: Marcella or Andrew’s ex.

“Caleb and I are through,” Andrew said firmly.  “In fact…”  He fetched his phone and rapidly clicked the keys.  “I’m sending Caleb a breakup-for-real-this-time text, and I’m hitting send…now.”  He sighed.  “Good-bye Caleb.”

At least one monster was out of our lives.

The pounding on the front door made me leap off the couch.  “Don’t break it down!” I shouted as I scrambled to turn the deadbolt.

Isaiah plowed across the threshold as if expecting to face down an entire grieve of vampires.  His mouth was set in a fierce line, and one hand reached beneath his leather coat for the weapons hidden there.  He scanned the living room, looking for the enemy and finding only a wide-eyed Andrew.

“The vampire’s gone,” I assured him.

He relaxed a little and withdrew his hand from his coat.

Perry’s fist – clutching a giant, silver crucifix – poked through the front door.  “I’ve got holy water-shooting pistol, and I’m not afraid to use it!”

“The coast is clear,” I said.

“Oh.”  He came inside and tucked the crucifix into an inner pocket of his jacket.  “Perry Campbell,” he said, nodding to Andrew.  “Nice to meet you.”  He glanced around the room.  “What happened to the vampire?  Is he dead?”

“No,” I said stiffly.

“He soon will be,” Isaiah growled.

“Not he,” I said.  “
She. 
Specifically, your sister.”  Isaiah’s face registered an oh-shit expression that might have been comical if I hadn’t been so angry.

“How did she get inside your house?” Perry asked.

I fetched the black garbage bag and withdrew a corner of the bloody, gold jacket.  “She used the real estate agent to get an invitation.”

Perry’s swallow made an audible click.  “Shit.  Explaining this to Hedda is
not
going to be fun.  Are you
sure
it was Marcella?”

“Positive,” I said.  “She terrorized Andrew.  She even drew his blood.”

Andrew nodded.  “You might think I’m crazy, but she looked exactly like that singer.  You know, the one who sang Cool Ocean.”

“Cool Waters,” I corrected.  “Yes, that’s her.”

Isaiah brushed his hand across his face.  He’d begun to sweat.  “It couldn’t be my sister.”  His voice held a pleading note I’d never heard before.  “Marcella drinks from humans –
willing
humans – because she has to, but she would never do
this
!”

Perry and I exchanged looks.  Finally, Perry broke the silence.  “Face it, big guy.  Your sister is as unpredictable and ravenous as the day she was turned, and that was three years ago.”

“She’s not a killer!”

When no one said a word, Isaiah’s expression hardened, and his massive hands clenched into fists.  He abruptly turned towards the window and stared out at the darkness.

I glanced at my roommate.  Andrew, bless his heart, immediately understood my silent plea to be left alone.  “Hungry?” he asked Perry.  “I make a pretty mean 3 AM omelet.”  He shrugged, a little embarrassed.  “I always cook when I’m nervous.”

“Perfect.  I always eat when I’m nervous,” Perry said, already heading towards the kitchen.

When Isaiah and I were alone, I said, “You should have told me.”

His shoulders tightened as if he carried a weight he could hardly bear.  “You’re right.” 

At his misery, my anger melted.  He was already beating himself up.  There was no sense adding to his suffering.  “If it was my sister, I’d want to protect her, too.”  I rested my check against his back, and wrapped my arms around his waist.

He remained stiff in my embrace.  “My mother always said that when Marcella was born, she didn’t cry like other babies.  She sang.  She was a natural jazz singer.”  He paused, then added.  “She charmed everyone she met.  She could even make my father laugh.”

“I wish I could have known her then.  I’m sure she was amazing.”  I tightened my embrace, wishing he’d relax against me.  “But she’s changed.  Whatever came into my house might have looked like your sister, but it wasn’t her.”

“You have to believe me!  My sister may be a vampire, and she may be aggressive, but she would never – ever – attack a human.”  Finally, he looked at me.  “Not all vampires are monsters.”

I had yet to meet one that wasn’t, but now I understood why Isaiah defended Hedda so staunchly.  He desperately needed to believe that good vampires did exist, and that his sister was one of them.  “I’m sorry,” I said.  “I really, truly am.  But I know what I saw.  Marcella
is
dangerous.”

Isaiah dropped his head.  He was a man in the throes of a battle with his inner demons, and it looked like the demons were winning.  “It’s my fault that she is what she is.”

“She said you talked her into meeting Hedda, but I knew she was lying.”

“She wasn’t lying.”

My jaw dropped.  “You knew you were sending her to a vampire?”

“No, but I knew something was up.  Marcella called to tell me that she’d met someone who could get her the recording deal she’d been after for years.  If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in myself, I would have realized how worried she sounded.”  He closed his eyes and shook his head.  “No, terrified.  She was terrified.  But all I wanted was to get back to batting practice.  So to get her off the phone, I told her to take the deal.  I said the contract was worth whatever it cost her.”

“So you didn’t know.”  I hugged him.  “Stop punishing yourself!  None of this is your fault.”

He gently pushed me away.  “Then why does it feel like it is?”  The unanswered question continued to hang in the air while he put on his coat and left the house.

When I came into the kitchen, I waved aside Andrew’s offer to make me an omelet.

“Your roommate is an amazing cook,” Perry said.  “He also disproved the arithmomania thing.  Here’s to the X-Files!”  He lifted his fork to Andrew who saluted back in return.  “I think we should make him the fourth member of the anti-vampire league.”  When I didn’t reply, Perry’s grin faded.  “Where’s the Outfielder?”

“Gone.”  I struggled not to cry, but a few tears slipped down my cheeks.  “He refused to believe me.  He swears that Marcella isn’t dangerous.”  I slumped into a chair and wiped my eyes with the backs of my hands.

Perry sighed and stood.  “Well, he won’t get far since I have the car keys.”  He gave my shoulder an awkward pat.  “Don’t worry, Cassie, I’ve been telling Isaiah for years that his sister’s a menace, but he never listened to me, either.”  He nodded at Andrew.  “Thanks for breakfast.”

“Don’t mention it,” Andrew said.

After Perry left, everything came crashing down.  Suddenly, the vampire drama was too much to bear.  I lay my head on the table and indulged in a good cry.  By the time I finally stopped, I’d sobbed myself into a case of the hiccups.

Andrew, who had been rubbing my back throughout, came to my rescue with a teaspoon of sugar.  “Eat this.”

I grimaced but indulged him.  Sure enough, by the time the last of the sugar had melted on my tongue, the hiccups were gone.

“Works every time,” he told me with satisfaction.  “Feeling better?”

“Feeling tired.”  The clock said four-fifteen.  I could still grab a few hours of sleep before heading to the Mercury.

“Cassie.”  Andrew stopped me before I made it to my bedroom.  “Don’t worry; you’ll get through this.”  His face was drawn.  The day had taken its toll on him as well.

I smiled tightly.  “
We’ll
get through this.”

He smiled back.  “All the way to the final act.”

I nodded and went into my room, praying that the final act didn’t end in tragedy.

Chapter Nineteen

I found Andrew staring at Victor’s present the next morning.  He stood so close to the kitchen window that his breath fogged the glass.

“Like my new car?” I asked.

“
Your
new car?!  It’s a freaking Jaguar XKR!”

“It’s a gift from a vampire admirer, but I’m returning it.”  When Andrew raised his eyebrows, I said, “It comes with too many strings attached.”

The problem was getting the car back to Victor.  I couldn’t call him to pick it up because I didn’t have his number, and my own, mutilated Ford had disappeared as mysteriously as the Jag had appeared.  So unless I drove the XKR, I was without wheels.

When Andrew realized I’d be taking the Jag, he begged to come along.  “I’ve got to ride in that beautiful machine,” he said.  “Better yet, maybe I can
drive
it?  The only time I’ve been close enough to touch one was when I modeled at the International Auto Show.”

Although, my own pulse quickened at the thought of getting behind the wheel, I rolled my eyes.  “It’s only a car.”

“What do you mean,
only
a car!  How can you have grown up in the Motor City and say something like that?”

I laughed.  “I didn’t know you were into auto porn.”

He resumed his station at the window.  “That just shows you don’t know everything about me.”

I had finished showering and was brushing my teeth when Andrew grabbed my elbow and dragged me into the living room.  The TV was broadcasting a news story about a man’s body found in a Dumpster.  My chest tightened when they showed the victim’s picture.  Sure enough, it was Toby McIntyre, the realtor who had come to my door a dozen times.