CHAPTER 36
As it turned out, it took more than just one trip to the Home Depot. Clayton and Jenny and Chris and I spent two nights (and Clayton and Jenny spent the days, too) running all over Austin, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Georgetown, Buda, and Kyle hitting every lighting and home improvement store in the area.
My plan was straightforward, but expensive and labor-intensive. We’d had to work our tails off to pull it off before two a.m. on Thursday—the date and time when Stephen had said I better be front and center in the boys’ locker room. We’d never officially talked about it, but I guess he knew that I could get into the school after hours. Apparently he could, too. Which wasn’t a huge surprise. For that matter, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a lair in the basement or something.
“You should leave now,” I said to Clayton once we were all set up. I’d already sent Jenny away. She had one more job to do for us outside, and then she was supposed to go home and stay safe. I think she hated missing the action a little, but I knew that she’d do the job. She had to. Without her, the whole thing could fall apart.
Chris we’d sent away long ago. He’d left to find Stephen and, hopefully, act like all was normal.
“No,” Clayton said, in response to my trying to shoo him. “I’m not letting you meet with that guy on your own.”
“Ah,” a voice said. “Isn’t young love wonderful?”
I spun around to find Stephen standing in the doorway, the metal door open to the moonlit football field. I stood stock-still, suddenly afraid he’d want to lead us outside to finish this. But instead he jerked his head, signaling for Tamara and Nelson and Chris to come in around him. Chris, I noticed, entirely avoided looking at me. For a second, I was terrified that it had all been a setup. But then Clayton squeezed my hand and I calmed down. Chris was just afraid Stephen would figure it out. Or, at least, I hoped that was it.
As soon as they were all inside, Stephen let the door shut. I held my breath, knowing that this step was key. Jenny had to be somewhere out there. And unless something had gone terribly wrong, she was slipping the lock through the bolt we’d welded on. Which meant that Stephen and company now had only one way out—through the locker room and into the gym.
I prayed she’d done her job. Because if they disappeared back into the night, my whole plan was shot.
“Do you have it?” Stephen asked. “Or is this where we say good-bye?”
“Of course I have it. You knew I could figure it out.”
“I wasn’t sure you could manage it so quickly.”
“I’m smart,” I said. “Ask anyone.”
“Believe me. I did.” He held out his hand. “The formula.”
This time, I’d decided on something a bit more fancy than Coppertone. I’d ransacked my mother’s bedroom until I’d found a decorative perfume bottle. And into that I’d poured my concoction. “It’s only a start,” I said to him as I handed it over. Clayton and I had talked about this, and we’d decided that I’d sound more realistic if I admitted that I hadn’t yet totally found the answer. Only an interim solution. “My research suggests there’s a permanent cure. But I haven’t come up with a workable hypothesis yet.”
“And this?” he asked, examining the bottle.
“Completely blocks UV light. That’s the culprit, you know. So slather it on, and you’re good to go.”
“For how long?” he asked, eyes narrowed.
“As far as I can tell, it’s good until you shower. But you should probably be careful, at least at first.” I figured that was a nice little touch, expressing an appropriate level of concern for my victim.
“I’m impressed,” he said.
“Thanks. I—”
“Show me.”
I blinked. “What?”
He handed me the bottle, then held out his hand to Nelson, who pulled out a portable black light. And black lights are just oozing with UV rays. Oops.
“Show me,” he repeated.
I chanced a look at Chris, who looked as surprised as I felt.
“I . . . well, okay. Sure.” My mind was racing, because I really wasn’t sure how I was going to manage this one. So I moved slowly. Taking the lid off the bottle. Pouring a tiny bit of my enhanced beach goo into my hand. Rubbing a bit into my hand and forearm.
“It will be morning by the time you finish that,” Stephen said.
“I’m just trying to be thorough,” I said. “You’re not hoping I rush out and get a burn, are you?”
He didn’t answer, and I dawdled a bit longer, hoping to buy some time. Didn’t work. He held the black light right over my arm and flipped the switch.
My hand burst into flames, and I screamed, jumping back even as Clayton pulled me away. Good thing, too, because suddenly Stephen was right where I’d been, fangs bared, hissing and screaming and swearing that he’d have my heart in his hand.
Behind me, Clayton yanked harder, but I stumbled and fell to the ground, my hand and arm raw beneath me.
That was all Stephen needed, and he leaped on me, his fangs bared. I rolled into a ball, trying to protect my neck, as Clayton kicked and jabbed and tried to keep Stephen away. It wasn’t doing any good, though. Nothing was.
Not until I heard Tamara yell, and I looked up to see Kevin burst in from the gymnasium, a crossbow loaded with a wooden stake. He had it aimed right at Stephen’s heart, and there was fire in his eyes.
“No!” I screamed, even as he let the thing fly.
I reacted without thinking, grabbing Stephen’s belt loop and pulling him down. I couldn’t let Kevin kill him. That had to come from me! Anyone else, and I was doomed to stay a vampire.
Kevin looked at me, baffled, but he didn’t have time to be confused for long, because Tamara whacked him over the head with the fire extinguisher, and he dropped to the ground, out cold.
“Come on!” Clayton yelled, grabbing my hand and running toward the exit into the gym. I followed, hoping Stephen would take the bait and follow, too.
“Beth!” The warning cry came from Chris, and I turned to find Stephen right there, a stake in his hand.
“You bitch!” he cried, then slammed the stake down. I screamed, expecting the pain . . . expecting to die.
But the stake burst into flames and I was standing there, totally unscathed.
What the . . . ?
“I knew you were a traitor!” That came from Nelson as he leaped toward Chris, and as I turned out of reflex, Stephen launched himself over me and grabbed Clayton.
I reached for Clayton, but it was too late. Stephen had pulled him away. Now he had his fangs bared and on my boyfriend’s neck. “Don’t even think about moving,” he said.
I bit my lower lip nervously, then realized that I’d sprouted fangs of my own—the product, I assumed, of being scared and pissed off.
Beside us, Nelson was still accusing Chris of being a traitor. “I always knew it,” he said. “From the moment I saw how hung up you still are on that pansy-ass girl, I could tell. And she doesn’t even taste good. What a freakin’ waste!”
“You’ve been feeding on Elise?” Chris yelled.
He rushed toward Nelson, leading with a stake. Nelson parried, his own stake out.
Tamara screamed and ran back toward the showers. They collided . . . and as they did, both of their stakes burst into flames. A blanket of fire surged over them, leaving them battered and unconscious on the floor.
I gasped, my hand to my mouth, my eyes half on the spectacle and half on Stephen. I heard Chris moan and knew he was okay. Or he would be. But he was useless at the moment.
I was all alone with a vampire holding my mortal boyfriend hostage. A vampire that I intended to kill because that was the only way to save myself.
Except—
I froze, trembling, as reality smacked me in the head.
“The stake,” I whispered. “You tried to stake me and it burst into flames.” Wild fury raged through me. “You’re not my master! You’re my equal. So who is? Stephen, who is my master?”
I rushed toward him, but he bit down, burying his fangs in Clayton’s neck and drinking deep.
Clayton screamed, and my legs went weak. My eyes burned, filling with all the tears I couldn’t shed.
“Come closer, and he dies,” Stephen said, even with a mouthful of flesh.
“You’ll kill him anyway,” I whispered.
“Maybe,” Stephen said. “But you don’t know for sure, do you? And he’s my ticket out of here.”
He stood then, Clayton limp in his arms, and raced for the back door. I held my breath as he realized it was bolted from the outside. Then he turned, confused, and headed the only direction left to go—out into the gym.
Out into my trap.
I stood perfectly still, hoping it would work. And, more, hoping that if it did, Clayton would be alive to celebrate with me.
And then they were both gone.
I leaped across the room, moving with lightning speed toward the breaker box that controlled the lights in the gymnasium. I had to get there before Stephen got out of the gym.
I reached out—almost there!—and just as I was about to flip the switch, Tamara tackled me from the side.
We rolled across the tile floor, one of her fists pummeling my face and body as the other fumbled for a stake. “You ruined everything!” she cried.
“Me! You’re the one who wants to be dead!”
She reached back and came forward, the wood in her hand ominous.
“I don’t have time for this!” I shouted. And then—because it just felt so good—I lashed out and punched her in the nose.
She screamed and cupped her nose as blood poured out, the scent of it making my fangs even sharper.
I shoved her off of me and took off running. I could see through the glass in the door that Stephen and Clayton were almost to the far side of the gym, and I launched myself at the light switch, flipped it, then jumped off to the side, afraid that the light filling the gymnasium would get me, too.
At first I couldn’t tell if it worked. And then I heard the scream. Low and terrible, it rang out and then silenced abruptly.
I whimpered on the floor, my arms around my knees as I counted to twenty—the number we’d all agreed was the safest.
None of us—not me or Chris or Jenny or Clayton—had been certain how long it would take to burn a vampire. But we figured, with all the UV lights we’d put into the light fixtures at the gymnasium, that it couldn’t take too long. Because we’d put enough in that you could get a sunburn in that room.
And surely Stephen couldn’t survive that.
The second I hit nineteen, I was on my feet. By twenty, I’d turned the switch off. By twenty-one, I had Clayton in my arms, and by twenty-two, I was back safe in the locker room, just in case Tamara got the bright idea of flipping that switch back on.
But Tamara was long gone. Kevin was still out cold, as were Chris and Nelson.
It was just me and Clayton, and I didn’t know what to do.
Because Stephen had drained him.
And if I didn’t let him drink from me right then, I knew that my boyfriend was going to die.