Vampire Island (9 page)

The class didn’t speak. Hudson wondered why they all looked so frightened.

“Count me in, Hudson,” Mr. Apple said at last, breaking the silence. He clapped one hand on Hudson’s shoulder as he used the other to select a cookie. “I, for one, would like to get to know you better by visiting your home. Sometimes a family doesn’t bloom to life out of a simple class project. We can do it all as a field trip, with permission notes from parents. Right, kids?”

The class spoke not a word. Not one peep. Nobody went for a buttercrumbly, either. Mr. Apple’s extra-cheerful crunching was the loudest noise in the classroom.

Hudson slunk to his desk. Every pore of his paper-thin vampire skin felt dry and thirsty and exhausted. He had complimented and admitted and even—
shudder
—apologized, and he probably hadn’t solved anything at all.

In fact, he was sure of it.

Maddy

“Idiot! You blithering idiot!” Maddy flew from one end of the family room to the other. As soon as she hit the wall, she jump-kicked it, using her boot as a lever to somersault midair to land and pounce to the other end. It was making her dizzy, but had the benefit of upsetting her sister. “Why did you prepare those icky von Kriks an Old World healing brew and put in on their doorstep, Hex? After all my hard work, you wrecked everything!” Swoosh, whoosh, kick, flip, swoosh.

Hudson looked up from his latest jigsaw puzzle of Gangehi Island. “Cut it out. You’re scuffing the wall.”

Maddy was not ready to cut it out.

“How was I supposed to know you’d deliberately poisoned our neighbors?” asked her sister, looking up from her toenails, to which she was adding a second coat of
rouge noir
. “I didn’t realize they were your precious von Kriks. They looked like hybrids that’d gotten indigestion off some too-human food, like mayonnaise or licorice logs. So I got out the Old World
Healing Balms
book and made a poultice.”

“Which one?” asked Hudson.

“The same detoxifier Mom gave me when I ate those jelly beans. When you crush burnt matchsticks with five goose feathers and water from a moonlit puddle.”

Hudson nodded. “Mom made gallons of it during that last Old World War, too, when some fruits ate beef jerky that they thought was dried fig.”

A mosquito was poised on the wall. Midsomersault, Maddy’s cherry-red tongue shot out. She landed on both feet and crunched.

Lexie shuddered. Maddy bared her fangs. Lexie hid her eyes. “Don’t show me your teeth when they’re bloody.”

Maddy bared them some more.

“You know, Mads, you’re getting scarier.” Lexie turned to Hudson. “The other day she made her eyes go clear.”

“You shouldn’t tattle,” reprimanded Hudson. He exchanged a significant look with Maddy. Good ol’ Crud, he was smart to be on her side.

“Clear eyes means there’s too much blood in your diet.” Lexie wagged her finger. “I better report to Mom and Dad. I don’t care if it’s tattling.”

“They’d agree I need the extra protein.” Maddy spat a crunchy ball of bug wings and legs, then did another flip.

“Hey!” Now her sister peered forward. “When did you get your ears pierced!?”

“Last week. They’re silver studs. I was planning to fire them out of Hudson’s air pellet gun straight into the von Kriks—before you went and cured them.”

“Please. That’s a toy gun.” Hudson sighed. “Its pressure wouldn’t hurt a chipmunk. What do you think the undead are made of, Maddy? Cheese soufflé?”

“It would have worked if they’d stayed cookie-poisoned,” Maddy insisted.

Lexie’s expression challenged her. “Slurp down all the bugs you want, but you’re too fruit-mix, Maddy. All you’re going to do is get in more trouble than you know how to get out of. You’ve got to learn how to ignore the Kriks.”

Easy for fruity Lexie to say. Maddy clenched her fists. It was horrible to feel so vampirey without enough power to do anything about it. If she were a true pureblood, the Kriks might have befriended her. As an enemy hybrid, all she could do was pester them and hope they moved away. But ignore the Kriks? Never. Their daily presence was nothing but an agitation. She turned a final somersault, then slumped onto the window seat. She didn’t even want to spy. Spying was for fruits.

Lexie hopped off to the kitchen and soon returned with a platter of apples, strawberries, tomatoes, and carrots fanned out just the way dishes were presented at Candlewick. “As the oldest, I demand you eat everything on this plate,” she said. “I even brought you a glass of cold water to help it go down.”

“Gross!” Maddy pushed the plate away. “No, thanks.”

“If you don’t eat this fruit, I’ll tell Mom and Dad who made those scuff marks, and who got her ears pierced without permission.”

“That’s called blackmail.”

“Actually, it’s called the truth.”

Something in her older sister’s face made Maddy take the plate. “Fine. I’ll eat it, but only because you’re so annoying.”

She’d just washed down her last slice of apple when the telephone rang. They all looked around in wonder. The phone never rang. Since everyone used cell phones, nobody even knew exactly where the telephone was located.

Brrr-rrrring!
Now Livingstones went scrambling.

“It’s in the games closet!”

“It’s behind the bookshelf!”

Maddy’s ears were best. She rolled under the couch and picked up. “What?”

“Is that any way to say hello?” asked the sugary voice on the other end of the line.

“Who is this?” But Maddy knew. Her blood surged.

“We are inviting you over for tea, neighbor.”

“Really?” As excited as she was, Maddy tried to sound casual. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“We think you’ve had a misimpression of us, Maddy.” Nicola’s voice tinkled sweetly. “We want to clear things up. Come over to the window and wave hello.”

So Maddy crawled out from under the couch and used her spyglasses to look through the window. At the pay phone across the street, Nicola von Krik, in a big floppy hat and buttoned-up trenchcoat, stood smiling and waving.

“What’s ol’ Nic von Krik up to now?” whispered Hudson.

Maddy put her hand on the receiver. “She’s inviting me over for tea.”

“You should go,” said Lexie. “That way, you can face-to-face apologize for the trouble you’ve been causing them.”

Maddy nodded. “Give me two minutes,” she said into the phone. She clicked off and smirked. “Good point, Lex. Making up with the von Kriks will win their trust. Then I’ll take them by surprise when I shine Dad’s solar-power flashlight on them. If they’re real purebloods, their skin will shrivel.”

At that, Hudson’s face clouded over. “Wait! Something fishy is going on with that invitation. And what do you think two angry purebloods are capable of, if they gang up together against one hybrid?” he asked sternly. “Who do you suppose would win that one?”

Now Lexie looked fearful. “Maybe you shouldn’t go, Maddy. You’ve taken this too far.”

“Oh, stop worrying. Later, bunions.” Maddy adopted an air of ease as she pulled on her coat and sunglasses, then tucked her inhaler, flashlight, and notepad into her pocket.

Hudson caught up to her at the front door. “I’ll stay in the family room. So if you need to echolocate, you know where to bounce an S.O.S.” He looked grave. “If you need me,” he whispered, “I’ll be right over. I’ll protect you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Although Maddy was quietly relieved to hear her brother’s courageous words. Crudson was turning out to be not so cruddy, after all.

She made herself think all-brave thoughts as she approached the unfriendly lion door knockers. She decided on the doorbell instead.

Snooks appeared with a smooth bow and crooked grin. “Welcome, invited guest.” As the word “invited” left his lips, the servant’s curse blew off as soft as a puff on a summer dandelion. Maddy strolled easily through the front door.

“The Master is napping. Madam is indoor sledding,” informed Snooks. “I’m accompanying her with this cheerful piece of music called ‘Moonlight Sonata.’” He moved off to the grand piano and began to play. Beautiful music filled air.

“Darling, look up…”

And Maddy looked up.

At the top of the stairs, Nicola was kneeling on a heavy silver serving tray. “Wheeeeeeee!” she squealed, pushing off. Maddy watched in fascination as Nicola first bounced, then skimmed down the stairs headfirst at an alarming bobsleigh speed, leaning into the curve of the banister, all the way to the bottom where, with a final whoosh, she shot past the first step, catching air, and then—

Bang! Both Krik and tray hit the floor and skidded across to stop at Maddy’s boots.

“Oh, exquisite fun! I rate myself a nine point six!” Nicola applauded herself. Then she stood and brushed off and picked up the tray, racing all the way back up the steps. She rubbed it down with a soft cloth. “Shined for speed. Your turn, Maddy. I dare you.”

Maddy hesitated. Obviously, it wasn’t the speed that bothered her. It just seemed like such a long, steep, twisty ride from top to bottom. She couldn’t rely on Hudson’s wings or Lexie’s strength, only her own sneakiness, which didn’t count for much in speed-and-strength moments.

But a dare was a dare. Maddy drew a breath and galloped up to meet Nicola on the landing.

“Hold tight to the handles,” said Nicola as Maddy kneeled on the tray, hunkering down. “That’s the trick.” Then two strong hands pushed her off.

“Eeeeeeeeeee!” A burst of speed, the carpeted steps rumpity-bumpiting under her, the flashlight flying out of her pocket in another direction, a final bump, then, swoosh, airborne—smack!—the platter touched bottom, and now she was gliding breathless to a graceful stop at the front door.

“I did it!” Maddy laughed. “I rate myself a nine point seven.” She tried to applaud herself but her hands held their grip. She tugged. “My fingers are stuck to the tray.” She wriggled. “My knees, too, and my cloak—ew, there’s sticky all over me.” Suddenly she realized. “Hey! I’m glued! I’m glued!”

At the top of the landing, Nicola laughed menacingly. “As I said, that’s the trick!”

“You didn’t rub down this tray for speed,” said Maddy as a cold pit fell in her stomach. “You put super-sticky glue all over it.”

“
Extra
-super-sticky glue! And I rate you a silly munchkin!” Nicola cackled again. Maddy recognized that imitation. Count Chocula.

Snooks continued pounding on the piano. In Maddy’s ears, this music didn’t sound cheerful, but extraordinarily melancholy. Suddenly Maddy recalled when she’d gotten lost from her family during an Old World outdoor Oktoberfest. It had been impossible to echolocate anyone while all the oompah music played. The live band had completely scrambled the radar. As it was doing now.

“Crud! Crud!” She wriggled helplessly on her tray as she bounced her brother’s name into the music static. “Hudson! Help help help!”

“Help help help!” Nicola imitated as she skipped downstairs and hoisted the weighted tray, with Maddy on it, so that both were held aloft over her head.

“Final proof,” Maddy gasped. “You
do
pick up echo wave frequency, and you’re as strong as—”

“A pureblood vampire,” finished Nicola calmly. “Which is exactly what I am.” The tray swayed as Nicola crossed the marble floor. No matter how hard Maddy pitched left or squirmed right, Nicola did not once lose balance. It was as if her skeleton were made out of steel. Maddy suddenly felt very, very small, and very, very stuck.

“Then why are you here?” she asked. “I thought purebloods preferred the Old World.”

“A lot of vampires are renouncing eternity and moving to Manhattan. There’s just so much to do here,” said Nicola. “Like getting seaweed wrap massages and ordering all this delicious human food such as Chinese takeout—which I’m sure tastes a lot better than you, Maddy. Especially since you’re a fruit-hybrid, it’s very likely that you’ll be much too sour.”

“You don’t
have
to taste me,” Maddy mentioned.

“Of course we do, silly. You are simply the most awful creature Nigel and I have ever encountered.” By now, they had entered the dining room.

“The Argos will catch you,” Maddy cautioned. “Slaying me violates the New World truce. You’d be exiled before the next sunrise.”

Nicola sighed. “Do you think we’re stupid? We’ve already made arrangements to freight-ship ourselves to an undisclosed location aboard a Fiesta Cruise ship. After we have you for tea, that is, you dumb little girl.”

“Well, I’m not so dumb that you didn’t escape my poison buttercrumb…” Maddy’s voice trailed off when she saw that the dining room table was already set for two. A cozy fire crackled in the fireplace, candles burned low in the candelabras, and all the vases were filled with thorny bloodred roses.

“Tea is served,” sang Nicola as she positioned the tray full of Maddy between the two place settings. “Come out, come out.”

“Come out, come out who? From where?” Maddy squeaked.

“If you’d added more chunks of raw garlic, you might have actually slain us, Maddy.” Nigel’s voice was soft. “That cookie trick was much too cruel for a part-fruit. But in the end, not cruel enough. We’re lucky your big sister is so kind, eh?”

Maddy stared around. “Where are you, Nigel?”

From under the table came the sound of a heavy lid being lifted and scraped back. Then Nigel appeared, looking sleepy but elegant in a dark running suit.

“Crud is
finally
wrong about something.” Maddy sighed. “Those weren’t clothes trunks, after all. Coffins, one hundred percent.” Her relief that Hudson could be wrong sometimes was marred knowing that von Kriks would soon be feasting on her blood.

“Time for Maddy tartar.” Nigel rubbed his spindly hands together. “Sorry, Maddy. Better luck next life.” He snapped open his linen napkin and tucked it into his collar. “Dearest Nicola, you must take the first bite of her.”

“No, darling, I insist, you first.”

“You.”

“No, you.”