Vampire Crush(27)
Author: A.M. Robinson

In other words, exactly what James was doing before I lured him back to the exciting hallways of Thomas Jefferson. I look to James with a smile, expecting to find some sort of wry recognition, but he doesn’t seem to have made the connection.

"Vlad doesn’t seem like the laying-low type."

"He didn’t for a long time – apparently when he was first made, he loitered a little too closely to the legitimate families and a lot of them wanted him dead. But then he cooked up this Danae scheme and has been working on that ever since."

I lean forward, excited now that we’re getting to something that I might already have an inkling about. "The Danae," I say. "I know that Neville is a part of it, but what is it?"

"How do you know that Neville is a part of it?"

"He has a tattoo with a ‘D.’ I’ve been investigating."

James doesn’t look entirely thrilled by that revelation. "I don’t know all that much about it," he says, "other than that it’s a sort of vampire secret society with members all over the world. There are official vampire courts, but the Danae is what really pulls the strings. Kind of like a high-class Mafia."

"But then that means that Neville can’t be Unnamed. Why is he slumming it with Vlad?"

"He claims that the Danae is interested in seeing where Vlad’s search might lead. Vlad, of course, is thrilled. He thinks that if he finds this girl, they’ll make him a member."

"That’s weird."

"Yeah, that’s kind of par for the course with Vlad."

"No, I mean about Neville being a representative of the Danae. Because in our interview, he seemed pretty bitter about them. He said he wished he could remove the tattoo," I say, but then shake my head. We’re getting off track. All I really need to know is who this girl is and why finding her will be enough to break through the social barrier. But when I ask James why they would care about finding her, he hesitates again, and I wonder what it is that makes him so close-lipped on this one subject.

"I think I’m going to turn in," I say, faking a yawn.

James smiles. "I can see your belly button," he says, and I immediately put my arms down, embarrassed at my blatant attempt at manipulation. We sit in an awkward silence, until he relents.

"I really don’t know that much about her," he says. "Vlad’s only told us what he wants us to know. I know that she has some sort of star birthmark."

"You’re kidding me. A star?" I ask. This sounds more like a My Little Pony than a person.

But James nods his head and confirms that yes, it’s a star. "And I know that she’s a sort of legend in the vampire community," he continues. "I know that there are certain beliefs about her blood."

"Beliefs like what?"

He hesitates again. "Some say that it can make a vampire’s powers immune to the sunlight, some say that it’s an aphrodisiac. And some say that it can reverse vampirism entirely. And that’s it. That’s all I know."

I wonder why he was so reluctant to tell me, but I’m glad that he did. "Thanks," I say. "We don’t have much to work with, but if Vlad’s working with the same amount of cluelessness I think we’ll be okay."

"Be okay for what?"

"For beating Vlad to the punch. For finding the girl, warning her about whatever he’s going to do with her." I stand up, my legs tingling after all this time on the floor. After nudging James’s legs to the side with the tip of a toe, I grab my sophomore yearbook from the bottom drawer of my desk. "Vlad has rejected Caroline, so we only have three hundred more high school girls to go. You know, maybe Vlad knows something he’s not sharing about finding her among the popular girls. He did home in on Caroline very quickly," I say, and then I realize that I’ve been chattering on without asking for advice from the person with insight into the vampire in question. "What do you think?"

James is silent. I turn to find him staring at me with a look that contains such a mix of guilt and shame that I can’t help but ask him what’s wrong.

"What if we let Vlad find her?" he suggests softly.

"I don’t understand."

He doesn’t respond, just continues to look at me, and suddenly I get it. "You think her blood might turn you back," I say in disbelief.

"It’s just one girl," he says, but I detect a note of uncertainty that suggests he’s been trying to talk himself into this way of thinking for a long time. "We don’t even know what they’ll do with her."

"I think we can assume that it’s not give her a free shopping spree to the mall! I would say that anything Vlad is wrapped up in is probably hazardous to her health. And you know that," I say, "or you wouldn’t be sitting on the sidelines. You don’t want to be a part of finding her, but you’re fine with reaping the benefits if it does happen."

And then James is standing, only I don’t see him stand. One second he is looking up at me from my chair and the next he is across the room, staring at me angrily.

"Since when do you even care about your classmates, Sophie?" he says. "Today I saw you sell out the only friend you seem to have. And for what? A stupid journalism project?"

"Hey," I say. "I feel really bad about that. And in a non-psycho universe, it wouldn’t have led to her ending up in the woods with a pack of hungry vampires."

"But it did."

"Fine. I’ll haul myself up on the stage and let people throw stones at me on Monday." I lower my voice, hoping to go down a path that’s more persuasive than accusatory. "But you know there’s danger and you’re letting someone stay in its path. In fact, you’re hoping that the danger catches them."

"So what do you want me to do? Just stay like this?"

I wait for the echoes of his question to die away. "You chose it," I say, wincing at how harsh it sounds.

"It was a mistake! And, okay, I watched a lot of Psychic Network back when I couldn’t sleep after my parents died, but maybe there’s a reason that Vlad thinks he’s going to find her here. Maybe it’s a chance to start over. Maybe – "

"Are you listening to yourself?" I ask, and then try to be more diplomatic. "I’m sorry that you are upset, but your mistake isn’t something someone else should have to pay for."

"You can stop," he bites out. "I get it."

The curt reply gives me pause. After a few moments of tense silence, I say, "So you’ll help?"

"Help you get in Vlad’s way? No."

"Then I guess you should go," I tell him, trying to make my voice firm where my resolve is not.