I peek above the table, my heart pounding as the scene unfolds. The Alphas are masked, but I’d recognize those red cloaks anywhere. Not to mention their arrogant swaggers as they surround a helpless waiter who I’m guessing is pleading for his life in a stream of frightened Japanese.
“Where’s the door?” demands a familiar-sounding voice. I start, realizing it’s Leanna—Corbin’s friend and fellow Alpha slayer—one of the core crew back at Riverdale Slay School. She’s mixed up in this, too? “Where’s the door to this... Bite Club?”
The poor waiter continues babbling in Japanese, gesturing wildly with his hands, his eyes bulging from their sockets. To Leanna’s right, a shorter, stockier male figure—Peter, I guess—slides a sleek katana from its sheath and raises it to the waiter’s throat.
“Does this help jog your memory?” he asks with a sick grin. Geez, when did the Alphas become so bloodthirsty? Back at Riverdale they seemed okay, with the exception of jerky Corbin. And even he was just like your typical bratty bad boy. Not a serial killer going after innocent druids and restaurant employees.
I turn back to the scene. It’s probably lucky the waiter is wearing a black suit, because my guess is he’s peeing himself right about now. Not that I blame him. I’m semi-safe under a table and I’m still freaking out. At the back end of the café, his coworkers, mostly a group of teen girls, huddle fearfully, probably praying they won’t end up next. The rest of the place has completely cleared out.
“Good God, Peter, put that stupid thing away,” cuts in a third voice, this one haughty and definitely male. “Let the poor man go. He obviously doesn’t know anything.”
I watch as a tall, lanky figure strolls over to his friend and shoves him aside with such force that Peter goes sprawling to the ground with a surprised yelp. Yup, vampire Corbin—the gang’s all here.
As the waiter dives out of the line of fire, blubbering in relief, Corbin pulls down his hood, revealing a shock of black hair as he starts sniffing the room. I remember Rayne telling me his parents were killed by a vampire at a Blood Bar and wonder if all of this is just his way of getting revenge. Maybe it’s nothing to do with the Blood Coven and the Alphas. Maybe he’s just on a personal vendetta and we’re a lousy coincidence.
Not that any of this will help my sister if he discovers her inside, however. After what she did to him, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t consider her his BFF by any means and probably has his stake set to kill. I have to get in there and warn her! But how? They’re practically standing right next to the secret door I came through, though they don’t know it yet. And the only other entrance I know of is all the way back at that Harajuku house.
“Are you sure we’re in the right place, hon?” Leanna asks, putting a gloved hand on Corbin’s arm. He shrugs her off.
“Yes, yes, of course we are,” he says impatiently. He sniffs the air again, then places a hand on the red-painted wall. Even from my distance, I can see his eyes shining with excitement. “This is it,” he announces. “It’s behind this false wall.”
His three companions walk over to the wall, feeling for the secret door. But Corbin stops them. “Don’t waste your time,” he instructs. “Just bust it down. Vampires don’t deserve the courtesy of knocking.”
And so they do, hacking away at the drywall with seriouslooking machetes. It doesn’t take long for the wall to cave in and red light to spill into the café.
Corbin rips out a particularly large piece of drywall, letting me know for certain that he managed to score superstrength as one of his vampire powers. My sister would be so jealous. “Come on,” he says, stepping through the opening. “Let’s do this.”
The others follow and soon we’re Alpha-free again. The waiters and waitresses run toward the front door, whispering to one another in terrified tones. They’re the lucky ones and they know it. From beyond the hole in the wall, I can hear the sounds of gunshots, followed by piercing screams.
I slip out of the booth, my whole body shaking like a leaf with fear and indecision. What should I do? Should I call the Blood Coven? But they’d never get here in time! No, it’s up to me now. Sunny McDonald—the non-kick-ass twin—to save the day. But what can I do? I don’t have Corbin’s superstrength, that’s for sure. I probably can’t even fight a mortal Alpha.
Though... I could... look like one...
Inspiration striking, I close my eyes and concentrate with all my might, visualizing their crimson red cloaks solidly in my mind. And a moment later, thanks to my fairy powers, I’m wearing one. Along with a mask, just like their own. Of course, I’m sadly not able to conjure up any actual weapons, but since I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to use them, even if I did, I guess it’s for the best anyway.
I leap out of the booth and into the hole in the wall, ready to face whatever’s on the other side. It takes my eyes a minute to adjust to the darkness, and once they do, I kind of wish they hadn’t. The place is a disaster area. A complete massacre of epic proportions. Everywhere I look, mortals lie bleeding on the ground, pleading for their lives, while clouds of dust from staked vampires waft through the air. I accidentally breathe some in through my nose and immediately start choking, praying this isn’t all that’s left of my sister or Jayden.
But I don’t panic; instead, I force myself to take a deep breath before gingerly making my way down the hallway and into the changing room we started in. What once was a room full of giggling teens is now just a big pile of dust. My stomach roils and it’s all I can do not to throw up. I try to tell myself that I’d know, somehow, if my sister were dead—twin intuition and all that— but somehow I’m not so sure. And what about Jayden? My heart lurches as I imagine never being able to talk to him again.