CHAPTER 32
Okay, so the holy water on the basketball thing was great, but what came after was even better. After the tryouts, Coach called Nelson and Chris aside, which worked out well, because that meant that they were late getting back to the locker rooms. And that meant that all the other players had already showered and gone home.
They finally popped into the locker room, sweaty and humiliated. I wasn’t supposed to be in there (duh!) but Jenny and I couldn’t stand the suspense. So we hid in a corner and watched as Clayton sneaked through the room and grabbed their clothes while they were in the shower.
Jenny and I couldn’t see them (which I counted as a good thing) but as soon as they finished, we knew about it.
“Hey!” Nelson said, then let up with a string of curses. “Where’re my damn clothes!”
Clayton had made his way back to us, and we three crouched in the corner, trying hard to be invisible even while I kept my phone out and ready to snap pictures if they wandered our direction in all their naked glory.
And the beautiful part? I knew that unless they were going to stay naked in the locker room until sundown, they had to walk by us. Because there were only two exits to the room. One leading outside, and the other right by us. And the one by us led to the coach’s office and the bins of school-provided sweatpants.
For a while, nothing happened. And then the door opened. “Who’s that?” Jenny whispered.
I shrugged. The plan hadn’t included anyone else coming in. Especially not Kevin. Who was treading carefully and leading with a stake.
I stifled a yelp and pressed myself back against the wall, my eyes never leaving that sharp piece of wood.
Suddenly, I saw a flash of something, and realized that Chris had just bolted past, a towel wrapped loosely around his hips. He shoved Kevin to the ground as he went, then howled in pain as Kevin sprayed him with holy water from a squirt bottle in his other hand.
Nelson followed, but now Kevin was back up and fully armed—holy water and wood. A lethal combination. He wasn’t fast enough, though, and his stake missed Nelson’s heart and stuck in his shoulder.
I heard Nelson howl as he raced out into the gym, but I didn’t follow. I was a vampire in the boys’ locker room with a vampire hunter not ten feet away. Call me crazy, but staying put seemed like the best option.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
Footsteps. And then Kevin. Right in front of us.
“Beth,” he said, ignoring Jenny and Clayton and looking right at me. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Would you believe I walked into the wrong locker room?”
“No,” he said. And then he lifted the spray bottle and squirted.
Clayton, bless him, leaped in front of me, but it didn’t matter. The spray got me, and it felt like a million fleas had landed on me and were having a picnic.
I bit my lower lip, determined not to scratch. But I think Kevin could tell that I was itching. I mean, why else would his hand go for that stake.
“No!” Clayton yelled, even as I decided that now would be a good time to try a little vampire magic.
“We’re not here,” I said, looking him straight in the eye and pulling up as much mojo from my gut as I could manage. “You never saw us.”
He stared at me, not blinking, his eyes glazed over.
Beside me, Jenny tittered, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Clayton grab her arm and tug her back toward the wall.
I kept my focus on Kevin. I had to make this work. I might not be a glamour girl, but I intended to pull off this glamour trick if it killed me. (Well, you know what I mean . . . )
“We were never here,” I repeated.
He swayed a little, his eyes wide, and I started to mentally rack up my victory. Then he smiled, wide and smug, dimples lighting his cheeks. “It’s not going to work, Beth.”
He lifted the stake, and I braced to run even as Clayton and Jenny cried out “No!” in unison.
And then the stake came down and—
I blinked.
What?
He sheathed it. He’d taken the stake and slid it artfully into a camouflaged sheath in his jeans.
“I . . . but . . .” I was stammering, but what else could I do? We’d stupidly trapped ourselves in the corner, and I wasn’t going to race out of the room past a man with a stake. Especially since he didn’t seem inclined to use it.
“You’re not one of them,” he said, nodding in the direction Chris and Ennis had fled. “At least not yet.”
“How do you—”
“If you were,” he said, “the glamour would have worked on me. Not to mention the welts the holy water would have left on your face.”
“Oh.” He had a point.
He took a step toward me, his hand on the stake. I cringed, my eyes on his hand. “What are you up to, Beth?”
I paused, then decided I didn’t have anything to lose. “I’m trying to get my life back,” I said.
He seemed to consider that, and then he nodded. “Fair enough.” He pulled a business card out of his jacket pocket and held it out to me. “You need anything, you call me.”
I took it. I might be shaken, but I was coherent enough to know that a vampire hunter ally might come in handy one day. I started to say thank you, but Kevin wasn’t through.
“Just remember that I’m watching you. You turn, and I’ll be there.” He laid his hand on the stake. “I won’t like doing it, but I will end this thing. Got it?”
I nodded. I got it.
I mean, how could I not?