Sunday morning, Katie woke me by bouncing on my bed. “Breakfast time,” she said. “Mom sent me up to tell you she needs help.”
I looked at my clock and groaned. “She never lets me sleep in,” I groused. Meals were always a major production at our house. Mom organized breakfast like a drill sergeant and everybody had a job to do.
After breakfast, I helped with the laundry. We always had tons of it. Sean was gone to college, but that still left me and my six younger sisters at home.
As I grabbed clothes out of the hamper in Sarah’s room, I spotted one of my shirts. She was a year younger than me and almost the same size. My clothes disappeared from my closet on a regular basis. Since I hadn’t been able to wear anything sleeveless lately, I didn’t mind when she borrowed tank tops, but it would be annoying if she started snagging my fall clothes—the stuff with long, concealing sleeves.
After Mom and I finished the laundry, I said, “I thought I’d head to Slim’s. Unless you need me for something?”
“Run along, honey,” she said. “You’ve been such a big help.”
When I got to Slim’s, Raven and a girl I didn’t recognize were sitting at the counter with Flo. There weren’t any other customers in the place.
“Sorry I’m late,” I said. I took the stool next to Raven.
“What kind of shake do you want?” Flo asked me as she got up and moved behind the counter.
“I don’t really eat sweets,” I said.
She frowned at me. “It’s tradition.”
Tradition for what? Raven and the other girl both had shakes in front of them, so I said, “I’ll have a strawberry shake, thanks.”
After Flo made the shake, she got out a can of whipping cream and topped it with a huge dollop of the stuff.
“That’s probably my daily caloric allowance,” I protested.
Flo gave me a smile. “Don’t worry. You’ll be burning it off.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
Raven said, “Jessica, this is Andrea. Andy, Jessica.” She didn’t offer any other information.
Andy was a statuesque girl with curly blond hair, but it was the tattoo on her left bicep that I really noticed. It looked just like mine.
She caught me staring. “Nice, huh?”
“I have one, too,” I said.
“Me, too,” Raven said.
“Are all our tattoos in the same place? Same shape?” Now I was really intrigued.
“I have a unicorn here,” Andy said. She pointed to a spot on her shoulder. “And an evil eye on my hip.”
“I just have the one on my upper arm,” I said. “The swirly one.”
“It’s a whirlwind,” Flo said quietly. “And we all have one of those. It’s the mark of a virago. It’s easier to just let people think it’s a regular old tattoo.”
“So you’re a virago, too?” Andy asked me.
“What’s a virago?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Flo said. “You all have the marks because you are all viragos, women warriors who fight when their city is in trouble.”
Raven and I exchanged a look. She was clearly thinking the same thing as I was, which was that Flo was crazy. Or that it was a prank. I looked around for a camera, but there wasn’t one there.
“Flo, you have a lot of tattoos,” I commented. It was a stupid thing to say, but my brain was having trouble processing the information.
Andy shot me a dirty look. “You don’t know anything about being a virago, do you?”
“And you do?”
“I know that you get the first tattoo as a novice and then a new one every year you are an active virago. That’s why Flo has five. She’ll have seven tattoos when she retires.”
“How do you know so much about it?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “I’ve always known I was a virago. I’ve been on active duty for almost three years.”
“Good,” Flo said. “Then, you should be in tiptop condition. You can help me get Raven and Jessica into shape.”
“I am in shape,” I protested. “Besides, I haven’t agreed to become a virago.”
“You don’t have to agree or disagree,” Flo said. “You are.”
“What if I don’t want to fight?” Raven suddenly said.
“You don’t want to fight?” Flo and Andy stared at her like she’d grown another head.
“I don’t believe in it,” Raven said. “I’m a pacifist.”
Andy snorted. “You won’t be when a vampire is trying to suck out your blood.”
I shot her a curious look. “Are you from Nightshade? I haven’t seen you around before.”
“I just moved here. Nightshade isn’t the only place where vampires live, you know,” she said. “And some of them aren’t nearly as friendly as the ones here.”
“So you’ve fought before?” Raven asked.
“Lots of times,” Andy replied. “We move around a lot for my dad’s job. You’d be surprised at how much evil is out there.”
“So that’s what we do?” I turned to Flo. “We fight evil?”
She nodded. “In a sense. Whenever your town is in trouble, your tattoo will swirl. But you don’t always know where the danger is coming from,” she added.
“What now?” Andy asked. “I’m raring to go.”
There was a shadow of doubt in Flo’s eyes, but I’m not sure anyone else noticed it. “Now we start to train. And after the graduation night, Nightshade is on high alert. That means we patrol the city in teams. Every night.”
As I finished my milk shake, I considered the news. It was overwhelming.
“Can I get you anything else? Flo told me you’d be training. Maybe you would like some protein,” a male voice said.
“Nothing else,” Flo said firmly. “We’re going on a five-mile run.”
“We are?” Raven asked. She didn’t sound thrilled about it.
I looked around. “Where is that voice coming from?”
“It’s my brother, Griffin,” Flo said. “But everyone just calls him Slim.”
“Florence’s little joke,” the voice replied.
I looked around again but still didn’t see anyone. “Am I delusional? Or is this a prank?”
“No prank, I’m afraid,” the voice said. “I’m invisible.”
“Like Invisible Man invisible?”
“Exactly,” he said.
“Close your mouth, Jessica,” Flo said gently. “Haven’t you lived in Nightshade long enough to notice things are a little . . . different here?”
I nodded, still speechless.
There was a slight stir in the air and then I felt someone sit down beside me. “I’m sorry I startled you,” Slim said. “I know it takes getting used to.”
“I’m sorry I acted lame about it,” I replied.
“Time to warm up,” Flo said. “Let’s go to the park.”
Once we got to the park, Flo made us stretch every muscle in our bodies.
Raven lay next to me on the ground and stretched out her hamstrings. “I hate to run,” she complained.
“Really?” I replied. “I love it.”
Andy made a point of demonstrating her flexibility by bending over backwards and walking on her hands.
“Very good, Andy,” Flo said.
“I guess we know who the teacher’s pet is,” Raven huffed.
I sat up and did a quad stretch. “My parents will never believe me about this virago stuff.”
Flo overheard me. “No, they won’t,” she said. “The truth of our existence is on a need-to-know basis, and right now, your parents don’t need to know.”
I stopped mid-stretch. “How are we going to explain going out every night?”
She shrugged. “You’ll think of something.”
“You want us to lie?”
Andy flipped over and landed on her feet. “It’s simple,” she said. “The lives of everyone in Nightshade, including your own, may depend upon your ability to keep a secret.”
It didn’t sound so bad when she said it like that.
Andy was obviously getting restless. “Let’s go, already.”
Flo led the way on our run, around the park, through the football field, and up hills. Five miles later, I was gasping and soaked with sweat. Andy was barely breathing hard.
I nudged Raven. “Get a load of superwoman.”
Andy heard me. “Jealous?” she hissed.
“I expect you to get along,” Flo snapped. “Andy, Jessica, you two have the first watch tonight.”
“But, Flo,” we both protested in unison.
“No buts,” she said. “Your shift starts in an hour.”
“Why me?” I wondered aloud.
Andy shot me a disgusted look. “Quit being a princess,” she snarled. “It’s your destiny, that’s why.”
“Is that true, Flo?” I asked. “Are we destined to be viragos, whether we want to be or not?”
“I can’t answer that,” she replied.
Can’t or won’t?
Flo was done with the subject. “Patrol for four hours, and then Raven will join me for the late shift. If your tattoos start to swirl, call me.”
Why couldn’t I pair up with Raven instead? Andy made it clear that she didn’t think she needed anybody.
I guzzled down some water, and then Andy said, “Are you ready to go?”
“But Flo said our shift didn’t start for an hour.” I was longing for a hot shower.
Andy’s lip curled. “Never mind,” she said. “I’ll start without you. You’ll have to catch up.”
“I’m coming,” I said. “Relax.”
“Relax and we’re dead,” she said grimly. She stalked off without looking to see if I would follow.
We walked in silence. Andy didn’t say anything for almost the entire four hours. It was dark by the time we’d made the last sweep.
It was Sunday night and Nightshade’s Main Street looked deserted. “Where is everybody?” Andy said.
I shrugged. “Probably the movies.”
“The entire town?” She snorted in disgust.
“No,” I replied, gritting my teeth. “Some people are probably having dinner at Wilder’s; some people are home. It’s a small town.”
“That’s one way of describing it,” she said. Her snotty tone made me bristle, but before I could respond, there was a loud crash. It came from the direction of the new store, The Look of Love.
Andy dashed to the front door and tried it, but it was locked.
“Let’s try around back,” I said. I ran behind the store and into the alley. Andy followed closely behind me. We heard another crash.
“It’s coming from inside the store,” I said.
There was a groan, like someone was in pain. I tried to open the back door, but that was locked, too.
Andy pounded on the door until it rattled in its frame. “Hello,” she said. “Are you injured? Do you need for us to call the police?”
No reply. Andy raised her fist to pound again, but I stopped her. “Give it a minute,” I said.
She fidgeted while I stood and listened. The sound was gone.
“Someone could be in trouble in there,” she said. She reached in her hair and pulled out a bobby pin, then she bent down and inserted the pin into the lock.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“Picking the lock,” she said. “What’s it look like?”
“Like you’re going to get us in trouble,” I said. “Andy, get up! Someone is coming.”
She stopped but didn’t seem rattled at all. Instead, she knocked on the door again, more calmly this time.
A light went on and the door opened.
“Can I help you?” It was the same boy who’d given Eva and me fliers.
“We heard a noise and thought someone needed help,” Andy said.
He stared at her. “As you can see, I’m fine.” But there was a trickle of blood near his nose, and a bite mark nearly covered his entire forearm.
I stared at it. It was filling with pus. What kind of teeth would make a mark that big? I’d never seen anything like it. Definitely not a vampire bite.
“You’ve been bitten,” Andy said.
The boy glanced down. “My . . . puppy got a little too rambunctious.”
Puppy? That wasn’t a puppy bite. He was lying.
“But the noise?” I asked. I tried to step into the store, but he blocked the way. “And you have blood on your face.”
“I was moving a box and bumped my nose. I bleed easily,” he replied. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a lot to do before the store opening.” He shut the door in our faces.
Andy and I looked at each other.
“Do you think we should tell Flo?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Tell her what? Seems like everything’s fine.”
Afterward, as I walked home, I thought about everything that had taken place. Why me? Why now? Those were questions that not even Flo had been able to answer.