“Who did you think we were?” Leanna asks gleefully. “Vampires?”
But, to my ultimate annoyance, it’s Corbin’s face that glows with the most satisfaction. “Hmm,” he observes. “Maybe you’re not as brave as you thought you were, huh, Little Slayer?”
Now untied, my sister leaps to her feet, her eyes blazing with fury. “How dare you?” she screams at the group. “How could you—?” She breaks off and I realize she’s this close to crying. I don’t blame her. My whole body’s still trembling, amped up with fear and adrenaline. I scramble to my feet and cross the campsite to be by her side, shooting Corbin my best Raynie Look of Death.
“Nice,” I growl. “Real effing nice.”
“What?” he protests, holding up his hands in mock innocence. “You’re just lucky it was us and not the patrol. I mean, let’s face it, you guys weren’t exactly subtle, crashing through the forest like that. We heard you and saw your light a mile away. And if the guards caught you, there’d be hell to pay.” He grins wickedly. “We saved you from a fate worse than death, if you want to know the truth. You should be thanking me.”
I scowl. “Well, next time don’t do us any favors, okay?”
“Aw, don’t be like that!” Peter begs, evidently in a merry mood. He prances over to me, playfully hooking an arm around my shoulder. I shove it away. “Hang out for a while. We’ve got beer and burgers.”
“Yeah, you should stay!” Mara pleads. “I’ve made way too much food—even taking into account the boys’ appetites.”
“You can’t go back now anyway,” Leanna interjects. “You’ll get caught by the patrols for sure. We’re far enough out not be noticed here, but go any closer and you’re sitting ducks.”
“Yeah,” Peter adds. “You’re stuck with us ’til at least two. That’s when Johan takes his twenty-minute snooze.”
I’m about to retort that Johan can stick his twenty-minute snooze up his ass, but Sunny suddenly cuts in. “Fine. We’ll stay,” she says, breaking away from me and plopping down on one of the log stools. I stare after her. What is she doing?
Corbin flashes me another one of his annoyingly sexy grins. As if he’s won somehow.
“Fine. I guess we’re staying.” I shrug. “But for the record? I’m still completely pissed off at you and I will get you back for this.”
“Fair enough,” Corbin replies with another smirk. He hands us each a can of beer and I take my seat next to Sunny at the fire. “I shall look forward to bearing the brunt of your revenge, Little Slayer.”
I roll my eyes and turn my back to him to address my sister. “You okay?” I murmur.
“Yeah,” she whispers back. “Just more ... embarrassed than anything.”
“Yeah. Imagine how I feel. I’m supposed to be the big bad vampire slayer here. And I got tricked by a bunch of amateurs.” I sigh. “If only I thought I could take on all five at once ...”
“Don’t even think about it,” she admonishes me. “Besides, as jerky as they might be, they aren’t the bad guys here. They’re your fellow slayers and you don’t want to be all getting in trouble with Slayer Inc. on top of everything else. Besides,” she adds, “we’re going to have to postpone the escape plan anyway. Otherwise one of them might report us to the headmistress and we’ll miss our head start.”
She’s right, I know. We can’t trust these guys as far as we can throw them. (And without vampire powers, that’s admittedly not very far at all.) Still, it sucks we’re stuck at school for at least another day. Not to mention stuck out in the woods for the next two hours with the Alpha-bets.
“Who knows,” Sunny adds. “Maybe they can help us in a way. You heard what they said about the guard Johan. They may know other useful stuff like that.”
“Right.” I sigh, reluctantly agreeing with her. “You see, this is why you’re so much better at navigating the various high school circles of hell than me. You’re way more diplomatic.” I take a sip of slightly warm beer. As a vampire I can’t eat, but I can drink my weight in alcohol and not get the slightest buzz from it.
The others settle around the fire and Mara starts placing uncooked burgers on a small grill plate. The sight and smell of bloody meat assaults my senses and it’s all I can do not to beg her to put a drip tray underneath and let me drink all the greasy droplets that fall into it. Unfortunately, I recognize that kind of odd request would just make things awkward.
“So, um,” Sunny says brightly, obviously straining to come up with conversation with our archenemies. “How did you guys all find out you were destined to become slayers?”
Five pairs of confused eyes look over in her direction. “Destined?” Mara repeats doubtfully. “No one’s just destined. We all chose to become slayers.” The others look at one another, nodding in agreement.
“Wait, what?” I interject. “I thought you had to be born into the whole thing. Once a generation there is a girl, etc., etc.”
“You’ve obviously seen one too many Buffy episodes.” Varuka sniffs haughtily. “In real life, no one’s born to be a slayer. It’s a choice they make when they turn twelve. You apply, take a test, go through boot camp, and if you make it, then you can come here and start your training.”