Chapter Eight

I froze, unable to move for a moment. Please, don't let it be Rose, my mind repeated over and over as I drew closer to the crumpled figure lying on the floor of the bathroom stall. I opened the stall door slowly, reluctant to see. I could tell right away that it wasn't my sister, and I could breathe again.

I stooped down and gingerly checked for a pulse. Her wrist was so cold that I thought for sure she was already dead. Just when I was ready to give up, I felt a weak beat.

Then I heard, ever so faintly, Help me. Please help me, but the sound was in my head, not in my ears. Then nothing. Whatever or whoever I had heard had stopped the transmission. Either I was losing my mind or there was something seriously spooky going on here. I stared at the girl, but she was still unconscious.

I ran outside and prayed that the couple by the pay phone would still be there. They were. "Get help!" I yelled. "There's an unconscious girl in the bathroom." They jumped apart and stared at me. "Go!" I shouted.

"I'm a paramedic," the guy said. "Off duty," he added, in case I thought he was slacking on the job. "Show me where she is. Vanessa, you call an ambulance." Vanessa nodded and rummaged for her cell phone. Paramedic guy and I raced back to the bathroom and he immediately started CPR. God, why hadn't I learned CPR? I stood there, feeling completely helpless.

It seemed like it took hours, but I finally heard the sound of the sirens coming near.

Down the hall the lights were up, and club-goers were milling around, trying to get a glimpse of the excitement.

I waited until the paramedics had steered the gurney through the bathroom door, then I headed back to our table. Samantha rushed up to me. "Daisy, where have you been? We heard a girl had been murdered. Ryan was going crazy, but I told him you were probably fine."

"I was a little tied up," I said.

"If you didn't want to go out with him, you should have just said no," she said. "You didn't have to avoid him all night."

"I wasn't avoiding him," I said, "and besides, this wasn't a real date."

Samantha looked unconvinced. So did Ryan, who appeared at that minute. I wondered if he heard the last part of our conversation. It was hard to tell. His face was expressionless, but he looked like he was holding something in check.

Explanation time. "I found the girl everyone is talking about," I blurted out to him. "When I went to the bathroom. But she wasn't murdered. She was still alive when I found her, just unconscious."

His expression softened a little. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I assured him. He put an arm around me and gave me a hug, which I took as an encouraging sign. "Jesus, Daisy," he said into my ear, "I was worried."

"I didn't mean to worry you," I said, "but I had to get help, and then I couldn't just leave her there alone." I shuddered. "It was awful, Ryan."

"Why don't we take off?" he suggested. "I don't think anybody's in the mood to stay anyway."

Samantha and Sean had drifted over to a cluster of kids from school, so we went over to round them up.

"Let's get going," Ryan said. "Daisy's had a rough night."

"Daisy found that girl," Samantha told Penny Edwards. It'd be all over school tomorrow.

"Really?" Penny said eagerly. "What was it like?"

"I don't really want to talk about it," I said. "I just want to go home."

Surprisingly, Samantha didn't argue. As we left the club, though, Ryan's dad pulled up in a squad car. Just great.

I looked over at Ryan and he gave my hand a comforting squeeze. My mother wouldn't be happy when Chief Mendez told her what happened at the club.

Chief Mendez said, "It came over the scanner about an incident at the Black Opal and I remembered you were taking your date here tonight. You kids okay?"

"We're fine," Ryan said, "but Daisy found her. She's a little shaken up, so I'm taking her home."

"She's still alive," I offered, "or at least she was when the ambulance got here." I shuddered as I remembered the faint voice calling for help. A voice only in my head, I reminded myself.

The chief looked troubled. "Daisy, I want you and your friends to be careful," he said. "It's beginning to seem like someone is preying on young girls around here."

"I'm always careful," I said. I didn't mention that I was also determined to catch the culprit before someone else ended up dead.

Chief Mendez asked me a few questions, and I answered them as best I could. I didn't tell him about the weird feeling I'd had—like I'd been in someone else's head.

"Thank you, Daisy," he said. "I'll call you if I have anything else. But we'll probably learn more when we talk to the victim. Ryan, make sure you get her home safe."

We said good-bye to Ryan's dad and walked back to the car. Ryan opened the car door—the front passenger door this time—and helped me inside. Samantha fumed at the curb for a second and then stomped to the back door, tapping her foot until Sean finally opened it for her.

No one spoke on the ride home. We got to Samantha's house first. "Daisy, meet me in the gym at 7:00 A.M. sharp," she instructed, before getting out of the car. "There's a pep rally tomorrow afternoon and I have to go over the routine with you." With that, she flounced up the sidewalk toward her dark house.

Sean got out of the car, too, and came around to the driver's side window.

"Later, bro," he said. "Thanks for the ride."

"Don't you need a ride home?" I asked. Ryan gave me a look, the kind of look you give a clueless little kid. Oh.

"Samantha's parents are out of town," Sean said with a wink, just in case I still hadn't figured it out.

Ryan played it cool, but I saw a tinge of red creep into his cheeks. He put the car in gear and we continued home. I hadn't had time to think about it before, but this was the first time Ryan and I had been alone all night.

Despite the fact that it had been the least romantic first date in the history of first dates, I still wanted Ryan to kiss me.

He seemed to be taking his time about it, though. I draped my arm casually over the seat, so close that I could almost touch the curls that caressed the nape of his neck. He kept his attention on the road. I was glad he was a safe driver and all, but there were plenty of scenic views, aka romantic spots to park.

Then again, I'd seen enough horror movies to know that making out in a secluded spot was just inviting trouble, especially when there was someone or something out there attacking teenage girls. Going home like Chief Mendez had ordered suddenly held tremendous appeal.

But then I saw something on the road in front of us that changed my mind. A silver gray luxury car.

"Ryan!" I shrieked. "Follow that car! I think Rose is in it."

"Rose?" Ryan asked. "But isn't that Nicholas Bone's car?"

Naturally, he would remember the car that had almost run him over. I hadn't told Ryan about seeing Rose and Nicholas together at the club or their conspicuous absence following the attack, either.

It wasn't hard to trail them, because there weren't too many cars on the road at that time of night and the full moon gave us plenty of illumination, but Ryan kept way back so they wouldn't notice us following them.

"What is she doing?" I said crossly. Why was Rose getting involved with Nicholas again? It took her more than a year to get over him last time.

The car pulled into the alleyway behind Mort's Mortuary and stopped.

"I'll park around the corner," Ryan said, "preferably on a nice deserted side street. There's no sense in advertising our presence."

He took my hand as we walked, but I was too worried about Rose to enjoy it very much. As we drew closer to the back entrance of the mortuary, another car door slammed.

I counted twelve other cars; thirteen, including the one Rose had arrived in. Thirteen, a mortician's dozen.

Something was definitely up at Mort's tonight. I wouldn't put it past Nicholas to have a party in his father's place of business, but it wasn't like Rose to attend something like that. Although love does make people do crazy stuff. Or in my sister's case, stupid stuff like dating Nicholas in the first place. I still couldn't believe he dumped her without a word, just stopped calling and started avoiding.

Ryan waited a few minutes and then tried the back door. It creaked open with an absurdly loud noise.

We could hear the low murmur of voices coming from somewhere at the front of the building. This was it.

We tip-toed down the hall until we ended up in one of the smaller viewing rooms. The smell of flowers was strong. I hoped we weren't crashing some strange late-night wake.

The door was open and I went through as quietly as I could. Ryan followed behind me, but I don't think he was happy about it. We ducked into a small alcove and hoped they wouldn't see us.

The room was in shadow, lit only by the candlelight from a couple of candelabra set up near a makeshift altar of some kind. Definitely not a wake.

Rose was surrounded by creatures of the night. I couldn't believe that what I was seeing was real, but it was. I turned to Ryan and saw the same dawning realization on his face. Adrenaline pumped through my body. If creatures like this walked among us, anything was possible.

I counted four werewolves, at least six vampires, and a couple of banshees. The only person I recognized was Mrs. Mason, the president of my mom's garden club. I couldn't figure out what she was doing there, dressed in her orthopedic shoes and jogging suit, until I saw her wand. Mom had always wondered how Mrs. Mason managed to grow roses the size of a bread plate every year.

A tall hooded figure at the front of the altar said, "The Nightshade City Council meeting will now come to order." He lifted a bony hand and pulled his hood back. Instead of a face, an ivory skull gleamed in the candlelight.

City council? That was definitely not our mayor. At least I hoped it wasn't. It was hard to tell, since the guy was literally skin and bones, minus the skin.

"We have a serious problem on our hands," he continued. "As many of you already know, a body has disappeared from the morgue. A number of recent attacks in the area suggest that we're dealing with a vampire."

There was a rumble of voices as everyone began to talk at once. Skull banged on a gavel until there was silence.

"Hey!" shouted a short female vampire wearing too much lipstick (at least I hoped it was lipstick) and too little clothing. "We have nothing to do with this."

A tall undead male dressed in tight black satin pants and a frilly white shirt nodded in agreement. "We've been living in seclusion and following the rules the council set up for our kind for years. We are not responsible for these attacks."

A banshee said, in a voice like nails across a blackboard, "They didn't find fang marks on any of the bodies, so why do you think it's a vampire attacking these kids? There are many other species who feed upon the young."

Back in the alcove, pressed up against Ryan and trying not to breathe too loudly, I was wondering the same thing. I had personally seen the necks of both the girl at the morgue and the girl at the club. No bite marks on either one of them.

" The culprit is a different kind of vampire," the calorie-challenged leader boomed, "a psionic vampire. Instead of blood, this type of vampire drains its victims of their energy, their life force."

The group of blood suckers seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief that they wouldn't be getting stakes through their hearts tonight. Although when I thought about it, did vampires have breath enough to sigh?

"So this vampire," said a doubting voice in the crowd, "it sucks souls? How does it do it?"

"Psionic vampires are rare, but very powerful," explained Skull. "The vampire hypnotizes its victim before sucking out the soul. The vamp can also create fledglings by sharing its essence, much in the same way that a blood vampire would create a fledgling by sharing its blood. Or it could be gradually feeding from several victims who don't remember a thing. The victims' energy gets lower and lower until, one day, they end up like that girl in the morgue."

I shivered and huddled closer to Ryan.

"The demon must be destroyed," said a werewolf in the crowd.

Mrs. Mason said, "If we kill the head vampire, any fledglings will become human again. But if we don't, we'll have a whole renegade colony."

Skull nodded. "We think the girl who disappeared from the morgue is the vampire's fledgling. If we can find her, she'll lead us to the vampire. We'll take a vote on it," Skull intoned. "All those for extinction of the psionic vampire, say aye."

The room rang with affirmatives, but the cluster of vampires protested loudly.

Skull banged on his gavel. When the room grew silent, he said, "Those opposed, please say nay."

"Nay," shouted the vampires. "We do not condone the wanton destruction of one of our kind," the tall male vampire said.

"I must remind you that all paranormal creatures have agreed to abide by the decisions of this council," Skull said. "Do you formally challenge this authority?"

The woman vamp, who I privately nicknamed Skank, moved forward to speak, but the tall male put a hand on her arm. "We withdraw our objections at this time," he said, bowing low, before gesturing to the other vampires. They exited, with the leader's hand still tight on Skank's arm.

"Motion passed," Skull pronounced. "Any new business?"

A russet-colored werewolf stepped forward. "New-member business." The voice coming from the creature belonged to Nicholas Bone. My sister was dating a werewolf.

Skull picked up a long, ornate dagger and motioned Rose to the front of the room. He took her by the wrist. There would be no ceremonies that included daggers and Giordanos tonight, not if I could stop it. I made a motion forward, but Ryan held me back. I smothered a scream, but I wasn't quick enough.

Rose looked around like she was searching for someone. Daisy, you are in so much trouble, her voice said in my mind. I'm fine. But you won't be if you don't leave. Now.

I ducked my head back into the alcove and prayed no one else had spotted us.

Skull dropped the dagger and swore.

A werewolf with a beautiful silver coat froze and sniffed the air.

I heard a low growl. A shiver went down my spine. We were in trouble. There was what sounded like a very pissed-off puppy right beside us.

"Ryan?" I said softly.

"Yes?" he said, his eyes searching the shadows.

"I think it's time to leave," I said.

"Daisy," he replied, "it's time to run."

He grabbed my hand and we bolted. I was too busy running for my life to worry about whether or not anyone was following us.

Then, I heard a loud panting behind us. I sped up, cursing all those nights I'd stayed home with a pint of Ben & Jerry's instead of heading to the gym.

We ran the block it took to get to Ryan's car. He slammed it into gear and we took off.

"Maybe I should join the track team," I joked weakly.

When we got to our house, Mom's car was in the driveway, but there wasn't a light on in her room. She must have already gone to bed.

I made some hot chocolate, and Ryan and I sat in the living room waiting for Rose to come home. Finally, she burst in the front door, thankfully unscathed, but clearly angry. "Daisy, what were you doing there?"

"Following you," I said. Rose stared at me with a strange expression on her face.

"What?" I whispered to Ryan.

"You were talking like Rose had asked you a question," he said.

"She did," I said. Now I was the confused one.

"No, she didn't, Daisy," he said. "She just had a really annoyed look on her face, which means..."

"Which means what?"

"That you read her mind," he said.

"But I can't read minds." My mind tried to process the information, but I had more immediate concerns; namely, one ticked-off big sis.

Rose stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. "Do you know how long it took me to convince Nicholas to let me be initiated? And then you barge in and ruin it."

"Ruin what exactly?"

"A secret-society meeting," she said.

"Not very secret," I commented. She glared at me, but I continued anyway. "I mean, it's not like Mort's Mortuary is the Bat-cave or anything. It's only a block off Main Street."

Poppy must have heard us, because she wandered in and plopped down in the big leather chair. "How'd it go?" she asked Rose.

"Not well," she said. "There was a ... complication."

"Do you mean that your boyfriend is in a secret society that evidently makes decisions about paranormal matters, or the part where he's a werewolf?"

Whatever Rose had been doing, it was obvious that Poppy knew about it. My sisters, as usual, were keeping secrets from me.

"Daisy, don't look like that," Poppy said. "Rose only told me tonight because she needed to let someone know where she was, just in case."

"But you knew that Nicholas was of the furry persuasion?" I asked.

"That's why he broke up with her before," Poppy admitted. "He'd just found out about being a werewolf."

"But neither of you said a word to me," I said. Left out as usual.

"I was going to, honestly, Daisy, but Nicholas asked me not to say anything."

"Go on," I said.

Rose sighed. "You can't say anything to anybody about this," she said. "You know I've been helping Mom with this case. And you know that I've been ... talking to Nicholas again. He told me there's a secret society in Nightshade that might be able to help."

"And Nicholas Bone is a member?"

"One of them," she admitted. Her glance strayed to Ryan's face with a particular intensity. What was going on? "The thirteen original families who settled Nightshade started it ages ago."

"The original thirteen?" Ryan said. "You're sure?"

Rose nodded, studying him closely. I stared at her and then glanced at Ryan. He seemed shocked by what he'd heard. "I—I've got to go. Curfew." He stood and walked out the door without a good-bye.

"What's with him?" I wondered, staring at the empty doorway. But my mind was still reeling. I quickly turned my attention back to Rose. "So, this secret society. What do they do? Are they good or bad?" The questions tumbled out of my mouth.

"I don't know," she said. "Nicholas wouldn't tell me much, but I do know they make judgments about the ... less than normal occurrences in Nightshade."

"You mean the supernatural stuff? You think they're the good guys? That dagger didn't exactly make me think of white knights and chivalry," I said.

"Nicholas would never do anything to hurt me," she said stubbornly.

I wasn't so sure, but I supposed I'd be snippy, too, if my boyfriend was an overgrown furball. There was a lot of stuff for me to digest: a soul-sucking vampire on the loose, my sister's boyfriend being a werewolf, and a secret society, which meant that the town's founding fathers (and mothers) probably weren't human. Nightshade was even weirder than I had thought.