“Uh … how did you know about Mr. Sampson?”
Lucy crossed the room, and we were eye to eye, hers set and hard. “Get up,” she said.
I swallowed, my eyes dropping to her neck. Clean. Scrubbed pink. No puncture. No cuts.
“I thought you said Vlad—”
“Shut up!” Lucy shouted.
“Lucy—” I went to reach out to her, but suddenly my teeth were rattling in my head, my whole body receiving a ridiculous surge of electricity. I felt my blood boil, every hair on my body standing up on edge.
When my teeth stopped chattering, I looked up at Lucy, incredulous. “You Tased me?”
She smiled, giggled girlishly, and pressed one hand against her mouth. “That was neat.”
“I don’t understand.”
Lucy’s hand dropped to her side. She was still smiling at me, and for the first time, I noticed her two pointed incisors. They were longer and thinner than the fangs every other vampire I knew sported, and a weird, pale yellow.
“Caps,” she said, her tongue darting out of her mouth and licking the pointed edge of her left fang. “For now.”
“Vlad wouldn’t change you, would he?”
Lucy’s smile dropped. “No. But I don’t need him to now. And once I’m changed—” Lucy used her thumb to kick on the Taser again, a crackle of blue light zipping across the metal tines. I automatically shrunk back. “Vlad is going to be the first vampire I tell.”
“Who’s going to change you?” I wanted to know.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Lucy asked me.
“Yeah,” I said, “I would. That’s why I asked.”
Lucy stamped her black-booted foot. “Shut up!”
“Or what?” I challenged.
Lucy flipped the button on the Taser and my stomach dropped. “Or I’ll Tase you again.”
Well, she had me there.
“What do you want, Lucy? What do you want from me?”
Lucy grinned, the Taser gun held steady in her outstretched hand. “I don’t want anything from you,” she said. “It’s what I’m going to get
“Huh?” I asked.
“There’s a bit of a price on your head, Lawson.”
I gulped.
Lucy furrowed her brow when I heard the lock tumble on the front door. “Sophie?” I heard a familiar man’s voice sing. “Miss Lawson?” Then the unmistakable sound of footsteps clattering across the foyer’s marble entryway.
As Lucy cocked her head to listen, I saw my chance. I sprung on her, going chest to chest, my arms tightening around her waist, pinning them to her sides. I heard the Taser clatter to the floor; heard the “ooaf!” of air that came out of Lucy’s purple-lipsticked mouth when my body collided against hers. We clattered to the floor, me on top of her, her thrashing wildly, angrily, her black boots pushing against Mr. Sampson’s expensive comforter.
“Let me go!” Lucy groaned.
“Hello?” I called. “Who’s there? Help! Please, I need help!”
Lucy struggled against me and then lurched up, her lips locking against my neck, her fake fangs pressed hard against my skin. I stared down incredulously. “Are you trying to bite me?”
Lucy bit harder, and I struggled against her, the irony of living with a vampire and being bit by a human just an inch away. I let one arm go and used the heel of my hand to push against Lucy’s forehead, working to peel her and her fake teeth off of me. “Stop biting me!” I yelled at her.
“It’s okay, Sophie,” I heard. “It’s the police.”
I gave Lucy a hard smack on the side of the head, and she unhitched herself from me. I scrambled from on top of her toward the bedroom door. “I’m here! I’m in here!” The words were barely out of my mouth before Lucy was on top of me again, sitting on my back and grabbing fistfuls of my hair.
“Yeoooowww!”
“That’s enough, that’s enough!” I heard the words and felt Lucy being pulled off of me; I flopped flat onto my stomach, gasping.
“Are you okay, Sophie?”
I lifted my head barely an inch and stared down at the spit-shined shoes of Police Chief Oliver.
“Chief Oliver!” My cheeks hurt from the size of my grin.
The chief crouched down next to me. “It’s okay, Sophie. Everything is going to be okay. Are you hurt?”
I wagged my head and struggled to get up on hands and knees. “No, I’m not hurt. But Sampson—” I started.
“It’s all right. Mr. Sampson is just fine. I’m going to take you to him so that you can see for yourself. He’s doing just fine.”
“And Lucy?” I asked slowly. I looked over my shoulder to where Lucy was standing in the corner, just off the chief’s shoulder. Her arms were crossed, her lips pressed into a colorless, fierce line, and she was glowering at me, eyes fixed. I pried my eyes from her and looked up at the chief, relaxing as he slid his meat hook of a hand underneath my arm and helped me up. It took me a few seconds to steady myself on my jellied, quivering legs.
And then I was looking down the greasy-black barrel of a gun.
“Shouldn’t you be pointing that at her?” I whispered, my eyes going to Lucy, whose lips were now curved up in a satisfied snarl.
“Oh. Wait. It’s okay,” I said, looking back at the chief, my voice suddenly even. “You know about Parker. Don’t worry; I’m not with him. Parker’s not here.” I angled my head around the barrel of the gun, shielded my mouth with my hand. “I think Lucy might be working with him. We have to find him. We have to find him and get to Sampson. You know where he is. You know where Mr. Sampson is, right?”
Chief Oliver grinned broadly at me and cocked the hammer.
The breath left my body.
“Chief Oliver?”
“Don’t worry, Sophie. I know exactly where Sampson is. I can take you right to him. Would you like that?”
My eyes widened, held by the black gun barrel. “Lucy?” I whispered, my dry lips trembling, my eyes starting to water. I chanced a look over at her, and her eyes were fixated on the gun, her expression a freaky mix of terror and pleasure. At this point, I would really rather take my chances with the impish fake-vamp than with the chief and his exceptionally real gun.
“Don’t you worry about Lucy,” the chief told me. “Lucy is doing exactly what she was supposed to do.”
I gulped. “And that would be?” My voice was little more than a hoarse whisper.
“That would be to bring you here, bring you to the chief. Didn’t I do well?” Lucy asked.
I just nodded dumbly, falling against Chief Oliver as his fingers dug into my shoulder.
“And you, Sophie, did everything you were supposed to do, too. You led Sampson right to me.”
I felt my eyebrows rise, and I shook my head. “No.”
The chief grinned. “Yes. That night by your car? I was just out looking for some half-breed blood. Didn’t even count on getting the dog, but lo and behold—you hurt the owner and the dog comes running.”
I felt my lower lip start to quiver, felt the ache in my head. “Mr. Sampson rescued me … from you?” I whispered.
“Oh, yes. Beautiful moment, really. Would have been nicer, too, if I hadn’t had to Tase the son of a bitch. He did put up quite a fight.” He clucked his tongue, shaking his head. “Tough to see a dog whimper like that.”
I heard Lucy simper in the corner, her hands pressed up against her mouth, her small shoulders trembling
