"Ijust know you'll be brilliant, darling," Jareth murmurs, leaningover to kiss me softly. I close my eyes, enjoying the sensationof his lips on mine. He is an excellent kisser. And verysexy. And I love him to death
. . . er, undeath, I guess. I mean,the guy literally sacrificed everything he had—his job, hisvampire powers—all for me! How lucky am I to have a boyfriendlike that?
It's just that—well, between you and me, and you'd better not say anything!—lately, he's been . . .
different. More . . . cheerful, I guess you could say. Happy. Enjoying life. No more brooding. No more deep, dark secrets and heart-wrenching drama. Which is . . . good, right? I mean, it seems like it should be good. And it's not that I want him to live his life pent up, anguished, and miserable. Well, not exactly, anyway.
But you've got to understand, when I first met him he was so different. So much like me. The two of us were thrown to-gether and quickly bonded through our mutual unhappiness with the hard, cold world.
We came together as two lonely souls—desperate, tortured, filled with angst. We didn't trust. We didn't share. But there was a lot of dark, hot passion be-tween us.
Now, ever since he's gotten me as a girlfriend and has been able to worship the sun again, he's been so .
. . happy!
What's an Emo girl to do?
4
"Sunny, I need an extreme pep makeover."
My twin, sprawled on her stomach on her bed, looks up from her math homework, eyebrow raised.
"Excuse me?" she asks. "I don't think I heard you right."
"Ineed you to turn me into a prep."
"Okay, now I know I didn't hear you right." She sits up. "What the heck are you talking about, Rayne?"
"Am I not speaking English here?" I ask, getting irritated. It's already embarrassing enough to be asking this to begin with. "I need you to turn me into a prep so that tomorrow afternoon I can try out for cheerleading."
Sunny bursts out laughing. She throws herself back on the bed, tears of mirth streaming down her cheeks as she hoots and cackles. I've obviously just said the funniest thing she's ever heard and it's going to take her a while to calm down.
"Urn, whenever you're done ..."
"Oh my God, Rayne," she says, shaking her head. "You're too funny. I just got this total image of you in a cheerleading uniform with fishnets and combat boots."
"Uh, yeah. Hence the makeover request."
"Wait, you're serious, aren't you? How can you be seri-ous?"
"Come on, Sun. I asked you for a favor. Do we have to play Twenty Questions?"
"My sister, lover of the night, vampire of the Blood Coven, never before seen in anything but the color black, wants to be a pom-pom waving, football field-dancing cheerleader? And I'm not allowed to ask why?" Sunny snorts. "Yeah, right, Rayne. I'm not helping 'til you come clean. So what's the deal? You planning to play some crazy trick on them? Make them look like fools in front of the whole school?
Come on, tell me. I promise not to squeal. I'm your twin, after all."
"Sunny, there's no plan. I've just got to make the squad."
Sunny stares at me, patiently.
"Okay, fine. I've been asked by Slayer Inc, to try out."
"Really? Are there evil vampires on the squad?"
"I don't. . . I don't think so," I say, "Though who knows?Mr. Teifert just said they thought something weird wasgoing on. And he believes it has to do with Mike Steven'sdisappearance."
"That's funny. I was thinking it was probably you who made Mike Stevens disappear. Met him in a dark alley one night this summer. Seduced him into your power, then BLAM!Bit him in the neck. Sucked every last drop of blood from that asshole's veins."
I cringe. "Uh, yeah. Right. Except I don't drink blood, re-member?"
"What? You're still on the synthetics?"
My face heats. How embarrassing. I've been a vampire all summerand I've yet to pick out a pair of Donor Boys and start living like one. The idea of drinking blood from another human being just grosses me out and I can't help it. I figured onceI made the change I'd suddenly be ready to start sucking away.
But no. Just the thought of digging my tiny fangs into someone's neck gives me the willies.
After nearly dying of starvation my first week, they put me on synthetic blood. Sort of like soy milk instead of cows' milk. It doesn't taste all that good, but it's better than down-ing the real stuff.
The coven doctors believe it may have to do with the fact I had the virus. I'm not quite human, but not full-blooded vampire. So while I can't stomach solid food without throw-ing up, I still crave it with a vengeance. And while I can't sur-vive without human blood, I'm repulsed by the idea of drinking it.
I'm the coolest vampire ever. Not.
"Yes, I'm still on synthetics. So what?"
"Nothing. Just. . . it's weird."
"Not really. It's like . . . vegetarianism."
"A vegetarian vampire is weird."
"Wow. We've been here ten minutes and I'm not one bit prepped out yet."
"Fine, fine." Sunny groans, dragging herself off the bed. "Let's see what I can find." She walks over to her closet and starts rummaging through. "So Slayer Inc. thinks the cheer-leaders have something to do with Mike's disappearance?"