The Vampire Stalker

Chapter 1

THERE WAS A FESTIVE vibe in the air that reminded me of the Fourth of July. Except I didn't get this excited on the Fourth of July.

Today was the day I had waited a whole year for. I was finally going to get my hands on a copy of The Mists of Otherworld, a book so hotly anticipated there'd been a whole new segment about it on TV last night.

I stood in the line outside the Book Nook with my best friends, Luisa and Katie. We'd been there since 7:45 A.M. — brutal for a Saturday morning, but worth it — wanting to get a good spot in line before the store opened at nine. The atmosphere was electric. Besides dozens of teenage girls, there were women in their twenties, moms with strollers, a few grandmas, and a handful of teenage guys.

Luisa stepped away from the line and glanced ahead. "I wish they'd let us in already!" She stumbled a little and grabbed Katie's arm for support. Believing that her shortness was a curse, Luisa insisted on wearing the highest wedges Payless had to offer. The result was that she rolled an ankle at least once a month.

"I just hope they don't sell out before we get to the front," I said.

Luisa's brown eyes widened. "Amy! They can't sell out — you preordered for us, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I heard on the news last night that some of the shipments were delayed," I replied, feeling nervous as I spoke the words. The idea that I would have to wait another day to read about Alexander Banks — the gorgeous, fearless vampire hunter — was too awful to contemplate.

"I am getting a book today, even if I have to bodycheck someone to get it," Katie announced.

We laughed, because Katie would never hurt a fly — literally. When I'd visited her at the camp where she worked over the summer, she'd ushered even the smallest bugs out the cabin door. However, she was five foot ten and the captain of the girls' ice hockey team, so a body check or two wasn't out of the question.

"All I know is, we have to read it by Monday morning," I said.

Katie and Luisa nodded. If we didn't finish it by then, we'd have to cover our ears in the spoiler-filled hallways of our school. There had only been one book so far — Otherworld — in Elizabeth Howard's planned trilogy, but it was a sensation, and most people we knew had been sucked in.

I felt the cool breeze on my face, and looked around at the swaying trees, appreciating the crisp autumn weather. Some would say it was a waste of a beautiful day, because I planned to spend it inside reading The Mists of Otherworld. But sometimes it was nice to read on a lovely day, especially when the world inside the book was so dark and gloomy.

One of the best things about the series was that it was set in my city, Chicago. But Otherworld Chicago was very different from the Chicago I knew. It was a place where mortals stayed in their homes after nightfall. A place where you didn't trust anyone who wasn't your kin.

And it was all because of vampires. As the series told it, for centuries, vampires had existed in isolation in northern Scandinavia, preying on the residents of remote villages. Then in the 1920s, the vampires had decided to leave seclusion and migrate all over the world, creating more vampires as they went along.

Otherworld Chicago had been hit especially hard because one of the world's most notorious vampires, Vigo Skaar, had moved there with his coven of several hundred vampires. Vigo, and his vicious second-in-command, Leander, had been terrorizing the city ever since. As a result, innovation had stopped completely, and Otherworld had not made any technological advancements since the 1920s.

The line surged forward, a sign that the store was opening its doors, and there was a chorus of squeals and some jostling.

Luisa frowned at Katie. "It's going to be a stampede. I told you we should have come earlier!"