Never Bite a Boy on the First Date

There’s another cemetery right beside the high school – not the one I usually go to. This one is smaller and older, with tiny, crooked gravestones. With that on one side and the football field on the other, the school has a lot of open space around it. Only a couple of houses have a view of the front steps, and that’s across the parking lot. I was guessing nobody could have seen anything, especially that late at night, without vampire sight. It was only eleven o’clock now and already all the houses were dark. Unhelpful day-dwellers.

I padded across the grass that edged the parking lot, staying close to the shadows just in case. Long trails of purple-grey clouds slid across the moon. A small piece of glass crunched under my sneaker as I climbed the steps. Tex must have landed with a lot of force; I could smell blood spatters on the front door. And blood was the only thing I could smell. The scent of the attacker was completely masked by the overwhelming scent of Tex’s blood.

The door was, of course, locked, which made me wonder how Tex and his killer had gotten inside in the middle of the night in the first place. Not that it’s hard for a vampire to get into places like this. We have to be invited into private homes, but everything else is wide open to us. For instance, I could have just pulled the door off, but I thought that might be a little suspicious. Probably not an approach Olympia would have approved of.

Instead I climbed the big oak tree that grows beside the school’s front steps. Climbing trees is another thing that’s more fun with vampire strength and speed. I was level with the top floor in about twenty seconds. I wriggled along the length of a branch until I could reach the flapping corner of the tarp. There was just enough space for me to squeeze underneath and flip through the open window. The broken panes of glass were gone. Only a gaping round hole was left in the wall of the school.

My shoes hit the tile floor with a tiny squeak. I was in a long hallway lined with metallic-green junior class lockers. Moonlight slanted through the windows in the classrooms on either side and the matching round window at the far end of the hall, facing the back of the school. Another hallway bisected this one in the middle, making a kind of plus sign. Or a cross, if you want to be all woooooo mystical about it. As it turns out, crosses don’t bother me. They freak Wilhelm out really badly though, so I think maybe you had to believe in them when you were alive to be bothered by them once you’re a vampire. I would test this theory by throwing a Star of David at Bert, but that would be mean.

Holy water does irritate my skin, and garlic makes me sneeze for about an hour. Neither of them can kill me though – so much for those theories. I’m afraid it’s a stake through the heart, an axe through the neck or a whole lot of fire, and that’s it. Not stuff I have to worry about much in my everyday life. Unlife. Whatever.

I circled the spot in the hallway in front of the open window, although I had no idea what I was looking for. Clues? Graffiti scrawled on the wall: “I killed Tex Harrison here”? The floor looked as scuffed and ordinary as it did every day. I crouched and ran my hand across the cold, speckled tiles.

My fingers brushed against something that rolled. I caught it and picked it up.

A small red bead.

Hmmmmm.

Of course, anyone could have dropped that here any time. Hundreds of kids went through this hall every day. My own locker was right around the corner, in the bisecting hallway.

Still, I slipped the bead into my pocket.

Although I knew it wouldn’t do any good, I inhaled, trying to see if any of the scents here were stronger than the others. As I expected, there was too much of a jumble to pick anything out.

Except…No, I was wrong. There was one unusually sharp scent. It’s hard to describe how vampire noses distinguish what they smell, but if it helps, this one smelled a little like mist and moonlight and jazz and tuxedos and antique books. (I know, I bet that was really helpful.)

As I separated it out from the rest of the muddle, I realised that it was surprisingly strong and getting stronger.

Or…closer.

I whirled around.

I wasn’t alone.

Chapter Five

IF I’D HAD a heartbeat, it would have skidded to a stop.

He was standing in the doorway of a classroom, his hands clasped behind his back. The moonlight dappled the floor behind him, hiding his face in shadow. All I could see was his long, lean outline.

I was pretty sure he was staring at me.

A long moment passed. He didn’t move. I didn’t move. Oh, I thought about moving. I thought about leaping right out that broken window. I figured the fall wouldn’t hurt me too badly and then I could run all the way home.

But he had probably seen my face already, so it would be a bad idea to do anything vampire-y right now – like, say, survive a three-storey fall.

Anyway, I couldn’t have moved if I’d wanted to. I was way too freaking scared. He just stood there. He had this eerie stillness about him that I’d never seen before. I couldn’t even hear him breathing or fidgeting or anything. The hallway was completely silent. Just me and a sinister figure in the dark.

Kira, you’re a vampire, I told myself. He should be scared of you. What’s he going to do to you? Is it worse than being locked in a coffin and fed through a feeding tube for a hundred years?

But the other half of my brain was merrily reminding me that criminals often return to the scene of the crime, while gory pictures of Tex’s bleeding corpse flashed across my mental movie screen. Tex, who had been killed by a vampire.

My mind started racing again. Do vampires kill other vampires? How would he do it? IS HE HIDING A STAKE BEHIND HIS BACK?

When he finally did move, I nearly leaped out of my skin. All he did was take a tiny step forward, but it startled me enough that I jumped backwards, crashed into the lockers behind me, slipped on the floor and fell over.

So much for the preternatural grace of vampires. I’d love to know when that’s finally going to kick in.

And then, all at once, he was right beside me.

“I’m sorry,” he said, kneeling next to me as I sat up. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Really?” I said. “You’re just naturally that terrifying?”

Now that he was out in the hall, I could see his face, but that didn’t help because I’d never seen him before. He looked like he was my age, with coffee-coloured skin and close-cropped, curly black hair and a dancer’s body, which I mention only because his shirt was open and I could see his abs above his jeans, and these were definitely abs worth mentioning.

I found myself thinking, Man, I hope he’s a vampire! Not that I knew anything about vampire-vampire dating, but it had to be less complicated than dating a human, right? Unless, of course, he’s the killer vampire. Hot or not, I don’t date murderers.

“You startled me,” he said, with a hint of a smile. His voice matched his scent, sort of moody and layered, like he would have fit in perfectly as a saxophone player in an underground 1920s jazz club.

“Uh, no,” I said. “You startled me.”

“I did,” he said. “I apologise.” The unspoken question hung in the air between us. What the hell are you doing here? I would have asked, but I was trying to come up with a good answer myself. Plus I was a little distracted by how perfectly shaped his eyes were. If Michelangelo and Rembrandt and the top casting directors in Hollywood all got together to design the perfect face, they’d probably start with this guy’s eyes. It was kind of impossible not to gaze dreamily into them.

“I’m Daniel,” he said.

“I’m Kira,” I said, although in my daze I nearly slipped and told him my real name, from back when I was a human. “Do you go to school here?”

And then he took my hands in his and helped me to my feet.

Wait, let me go over that one more time.

His long, elegant hands slid over mine, gripped my fingers gently, and lifted me up in such a smooth motion that I was standing before I’d even had time to recover from the softness and strength of his hands.

Which is why I nearly missed his answer – but seriously, right then his hands seemed a lot more important than anything he could possibly say.

“I’m new. Tomorrow’s my first day,” he said, and he let go of my hands. Which was disappointing, but it sure seemed like he’d held them a moment longer than necessary…hadn’t he?

“Oh,” I said. “Tomorrow. Wow.” Yeah. There were many things about this situation that were short-circuiting my ability to form sentences.

“Yes,” he said. “Not quite the welcome I was expecting.” He made a small gesture towards the window, which reminded us both that we were standing in the midst of a murder scene in the middle of the night. We stared at each other again for a long moment.

I broke first. “Oh,” I said, like it had just occurred to me, “you must think it’s so weird that I’m here, don’t you?” Implied: Because I think it’s pretty weird that you’re here. I laughed nervously. “OK, this is going to sound crazy, but I…needed a book from my locker.”

He cocked one elegant eyebrow at me. “A book?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Shakespeare. Macbeth. Very gloomy. Lots of mu—” Don’t say murder! “ – umbling. Mumbling about…witches…and stuff. Have you read it?” Oh, that was suave. Clever and romantic, all in one fell swoop.

“A long time ago,” he said with a half smile.

“Well, we have a test tomorrow and I have to finish reading it, so I thought I’d get it now.” I trailed off lamely, wondering how much he had seen of me climbing through the window and searching the floor.

“Oh,” he said. “Of course. I’d have thought they’d cancel any tests scheduled for tomorrow, but it’s always wise to be prepared.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s me! Prepared.” For tests, yes. For strange, hot boys in moonlit hallways, not so much.

There was another pause. Two could play this little game. I lifted an eyebrow at him.

He laughed softly. “All right. I have a confession to make.”

Score! Murder solved! Well, that was much easier than I’d expected. Wilhelm and Olympia would be so proud. Assuming I made it out of here alive. Well, you know, “alive”.

“I heard about the murder,” Daniel said, gesturing again, “and I’m afraid I was curious. I thought I should know more about my new school. I like figuring things out myself…I guess you could say I’m an amateur detective.” He rubbed his head, looking convincingly sheepish. “Do you think I’m terribly strange now?”

Yes, but don’t worry, the “terribly hot” part makes up for it. I couldn’t figure out whether he was lying. It sounded about as believable as my story – which is to say, not very.

“No,” I lied. “I bet lots of other students would have done it if they could have figured out how to get in. Um…how did you get in?”

“Through the boys’ locker room,” Daniel said, pointing down. “The lock was already broken, so I just walked in.”

HMMMMMMMM.

Possibility one: Daniel was lying, and he’d broken the lock himself to get in, which he could easily do if he were a vampire.

Possibility two: some other vampire, possibly of the murderous variety, had broken the lock earlier this evening to come up here and revisit the crime scene, as I hear criminals do all the time.

Possibility three: that’s how Tex got in last night – as did the vampire who killed him.

“Isn’t that how you got in?” Daniel said innocently. “Um, yeah,” I said. “Of course. Lucky break for me.”

He glanced at my hands. “So…where’s the book?”

“I was just going to get it,” I said, trying to look all casual. He followed me down the hall and around the corner to my locker. I laughed awkwardly. “I guess I wanted to look at the crime scene too.”

“A fellow investigator,” he said with that hint of a smile again.

I rummaged through my messy locker until I found Macbeth. The clang of the door closing echoed way too loudly along the empty hall. Daniel and I both went really quiet for a moment, as if he was also listening to be sure we were alone in the school.

“Let’s get out of here,” he whispered. He led the way to the nearest stairwell and we padded softly down to the bottom floor. I noticed that he didn’t seem hesitant about where to go – he led the way straight through the last door, turned left and headed right for the locker room. Either he had a good sense of direction or he knew this school better than he was letting on.

I’d never been in a boys’ locker room before, not even when I was dating Zach, king of high school athletics back in Georgia. To put it politely, the smell was much…stronger…than in the girls’ locker room. Daniel chivalrously held the door open for me, so I had a chance to glance around when we first went in. I spotted a row of mirrors over the sinks, off in an alcove. Wouldn’t it be useful if I could spot Daniel in one of those – or not spot him, as the case may be – if, say, it turned out he had no reflection? But getting any closer would run the risk that he’d notice my lack of reflection too.

I watched him as he wove through the benches. Was he avoiding the mirrors like I was? If he was, he was pretty casual about it. We made it to the door that led on to the football field and I checked out the broken lock. It looked like a super-strength job – as if someone had just grabbed the door and pulled, snapping the lock mechanism in half.

Outside, the clouds were clearing up, and rays of moonlight sliced across the football field in front of us. Daniel paused in an oval of silver light and looked down at me.

“It was nice to meet you, Kira,” he said.

“Yeah, you too. Welcome to the school,” I added wryly. “It’s usually not quite this exciting. Um – I mean awful. Well, OK, it’s usually awful, but in a different, really boring way. Um, but I’m sure you’ll love it.” OK, stop talking now.

“I’m looking forward to it a lot more now that I’ve met you,” he said. A slow smile spread across his face. It was a sexy smile, a candles-and-black-lace smile – the polar opposite of Zach’s dopey let’s do it in a closet leer.

“See you tomorrow then,” I said, smiling back.

He touched his forehead in a little salute and started to walk away across the football field.

“Daniel,” I called after he’d gone a couple of paces. He turned and looked at me, walking backward. “Did you find anything upstairs? I mean – about the murder?”

He smiled the same smile again, but for some reason, this time it sent chills down my spine.

“Oh,” he said. “I have some theories.”

Then the moon went behind another cloud, and when it emerged again, Daniel was gone.

Chapter Six

ISPENT THE REST of the night trying to make lists of clues to help me solve the mystery. To give you an idea of how well that went, here’s what my “Daniel” list looked like:

DANIEL

 Hot

 Likes hanging out at murder scenes at night

 Really hot

 Says he wants to be a detective

 Great abs

 Starting school right after the murder – suspicious?

 Extremely, totally, remarkably hot

And here’s another list:

SMILEY GUY

 Looked at the crime scene v. suspiciously

 Also very hot

 Where have these hot boys been hiding?

 Too smiley to be a vampire?

 Really cute smile

 Find out name…investigate further…critically important: great abs or not?

 Like, seriously cute smile

So it wasn’t exactly Nancy Drew-calibre work. Perhaps you can tell that I’d been stuck with Zach for the last six months of moving and hiding and not meeting hot new guys, so I was having some side-effects. I don’t normally obsess over abs that much. At least I don’t think I do. Then again, my experience with hot-guy abs is fairly limited so far. Presumably in, like, a century or so, I’ll be all blasé: Oh yeah, abs, whatever – been there, done that.

I checked Tex’s blog again to see what the last entry said. Scrolling back, I saw that he usually posted twice a day – once in the morning to record his breakfast and morning workout, and once in the evening to talk about what else he’d eaten, how totally kickass he was and what sports he’d watched that day. He’d posted the last entry on the morning of the day he died.

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