CHAPTER 8 A SURPRISE ATTACK

Soft skin glowed white in the moonlight.

Billy recognized an arm. Mae-Linn’s arm.

The officers helped to comfort Billy. Then they worked to uncover the rest of her body.

Her arms stretched out to the sides as if she were trying to make a snow angel in the sand. Strands of her shimmery dark hair covered one side of her face.

“Mae-Linn! Mae-Linn!” Billy choked out.

The officers pulled him back, away from Mae-Linn’s body. “Don’t touch anything,” the policewoman warned.

Trembling, Billy stared at Mae-Linn. Her eyes were open, staring up at the night sky. So empty. So vacant.

Her mouth was wide open, and filled with sand. Her nostrils were filled with sand, too.

I have to know, Billy thought. I have to find out how she died.

He gazed at the police officers. They stood above Mae-Linn, speaking quietly. They weren’t watching Billy.

In one quick movement, he threw himself onto the sand next to Mae-Linn. He heard the officers cry out as he reached for her shiny black hair. Pushed it away from her face. Away from her neck.

Billy studied her white throat.

In the moonlight he saw them. Two small puncture marks.

And a tiny drop of dried blood.

“No!” Billy cried, backing away from the body. “I don’t believe it! Just like Joelle!”

The policeman pulled Billy back as his partner rushed to examine Mae-Linn’s body. Billy barely noticed the weight of the man’s hand on his arm. The two puncture marks lingered in his mind.

Vampires! The vampires did this, he thought. Mae-Linn would be alive right now if it weren’t for them!

First Joelle, and now Mae-Linn. They have to be stopped! I swear I’ll destroy them, Billy pledged to himself once again. I’ll find them. And I’ll kill them. Every last one of them.

• • • • •

Still feeling dazed, Billy sat in the cold sand. Other police officers arrived. They staked off the beach around Mae-Linn’s body and strung yellow police lines around her. Finally one of them called Billy over to a cruiser.

Billy remained silent on the drive to police headquarters. The dark town whirred by as if in a dream.

The police station stood at the intersection of Main Street and Ocean Avenue. An old stone building. Bars covered the upstairs windows.

That’s where the jail is, Billy thought.

He shuddered.

I’m the last one to see Mae-Linn alive, he realized. Does that make me a suspect?

Inside, a detective named Mullins grilled him, asking the same questions over and over. Where had he met Mae-Linn? When had he last seen her? Finally, about an hour before dawn, the detective let him go.

Billy walked along Main Street, passing the closed shops. No one out at that hour. Except him.

He walked faster, eager to get away from the police station, eager to get home. He wondered whether he had convinced the police of his innocence.

No way, he concluded. Detective Mullins considers me the prime suspect.

Billy thought about the barred windows on the second floor of the police station. And about Mae-Linn. And Joelle.

He shivered.

I’m going to find the vampires, he vowed. These aren’t empty words. I’m going to destroy them.

He knew how to do it. He had spent a lot of time reading about vampires this past year. A lot of time preparing to kill them. He planned his revenge as he walked.

Sunlight destroys vampires. Fire does, too.

Or a wooden stake through the heart.

All I have to do is find them, Billy thought. That’s the hard part.

But he knew what to look for. Vampires couldn’t go out during the daylight. They couldn’t eat regular food—only blood. They couldn’t be seen in photographs or in mirrors.

I have all summer, Billy thought. All summer to find out which kids are vampires . . .

• • • • •

April stared up at the evening sky. She was annoyed.

Where are they? she wondered. Why are they always so late? I want to go into town and find the boys.

She pushed her straight blond hair out of her eyes and sighed. Kylie and Irene never seemed to hurry—no matter how hungry they were.

April pulled off her sandals. The cool sand worked its way between her toes, slid over the tops of her feet.

A whirring noise filled the air.

April watched as two bats twirled and became spinning cylinders, drawing up the beach sand and whipping it into miniature tornados.

Whirling side by side.

Dune grass thrashed the air. The wind whistled.

April shielded her eyes from the flying sand.

The whirling stopped suddenly. Sand fell back to the ground. The swaying grass became still.

Kylie and Irene stood on the beach, facing each other.

“It’s about time,” April snapped.

They ignored her and kept staring at each other.

“Mae-Linn went out on only one date with Billy,” Irene scolded. “I can’t believe you’re so desperate to win our bet that you would kill her for that. You know what can happen if humans start to die.”

“I didn’t kill her,” Kylie protested. “I didn’t even go to the beach last night.”

“Liar!” Irene replied. “You killed that girl. You’re a liar, Kylie.”

Kylie’s eyes blazed. “Take that back,” she growled.

Oh wow, April thought. These two will fight all night if I don’t do something.

“The police will close the beach if we’re not careful!” Irene screamed. “The food will go away! And you risked that just so you could go out with Billy and win the bet. Are you stupid or what?”

“I told you,” Kylie snarled, “I didn’t go near the beach.”

April could feel Kylie’s fury. It seemed to radiate from her, hot and intense. She took a step back.

Kylie hissed. Her fangs slid down.

Irene let out an ear-piercing screech. Her fangs lowered over her lips. Her face twisted in rage.

A chill of fear made April shudder. “Stop it!” she shrieked. “Both of you! Stop it!”

“Keep out of this!” Kylie growled.

To April’s surprise, they turned on her—and attacked, snarling and hissing.

April tried to back away. But they held her tightly in place. Two pairs of fangs closed in on April’s throat.

“What—what are you going to do?” she cried.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 602