The Night the Vampires Came

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Y-You guys don't understand. I saw her! I saw my sister. They're holding her prisoner."

I rejoined my friends on the sunny boardwalk that was now completely picked clean of convenience store loot. While I was with Dr. Lemeris, Holly and Jack were busy scouring the boardwalk for intact bags of junk food to carry back to our house. Jack carried shopping bags with a smiling face over the words, "Thank You!" The bags were filled with various delicious snacks.

Neither of my friends looked especially interested in my revelation that I found my sister in one of the Levarsi tents.

"Are you sure it was her?" Holly asked. Suddenly, her perpetual coldness — which only last night had seemed like strength and will to live — now did nothing except annoy me.

Holly didn't care about anyone else except for herself.

In Holly's eyes, she was the survivor, and Grace was just dead weight.

Suddenly, I wondered if Holly would discard me just as quickly if I were caught in the Blight Rain. I couldn't believe I thought she looked radiant that morning in that matted blue sweater. Now it seemed stupid to me that she hand-washed it last night because being as stuck-up and as picky as she was — she wouldn't be caught dead in men's clothing.

She even took an hour that morning to powder down her face. I suddenly had an urgent desire to tell her the foundation on her face didn't match the color of the skin on her neck. I was sure if I said that, she would hate me forever.

"Even if it was her, what are we going to do about? Stop dreaming, Ailith! Do you think that the ancient pill is going to work?"

"Yeah, maybe it wasn't even her," Jack offered. "All vampires look pretty much alike. It's all grrr! Slobber slobber! Drink blood!"

"Shut up, jerk," Holly said and motioned for Jack to stop talking. At least she could see how upset Jack's comments were making me.

Undeterred, the oblivious Jack Fayer continued ranting on and on.

"Gawd, that's so creepy that your sister followed us all the way here from Windflower Springs. You're giving me goosebumps just thinking about it. If the Levarsi hadn't caught her, we might have been her next meal."

"Look, I have to get this pill to her!" I yelled, trying my best to contain my wild emotions at the thought of my sister being someone's science experiment. "I'll do it by myself if I have to."

"Are you just going to march in there, past their guards, and do it?" Jack asked with a laugh. "I think I saw dudes with guns walking back and forth along the beach. They'll shoot you both."

"Why? Do you have a better idea?"

"Uh — yeah. Save that pill for someone else! Who knows if it will even work after all this time?

"I'm going to go find out." I turned and started to walk away when Holly came and blocked my path.

"Okay, stop it," she said. "Ailith, you don't always need to be so direct and blockheaded about everything. Maybe if we asked nicely, they will let us."

"Well, good luck doing that," Jack said.

"I worked in customer service. I know a thing or two about manipulation," Holly said and walked over the nearest guard holding a rifle.

I saw her laugh as she talked to him. She flipped her hair and beamed. Even though the sky was overcast, her pearly white teeth looked like a blinding source of light. Back in high school, I would have rolled my eyes at her. It was so dumb that the popular girls thought they could get away with anything by playing stupid while bending over and tossing back their shampoo-commercial perfect hair.