“Let me do the talking,” I said once I caught up.
We knocked at the door and a very motherly looking lady opened it. She was older than we expected. I thought she might be Jill’s grandma.
“Mrs. Schneider?” I asked uncertainly.
The woman nodded to us. She was wearing an apron and her short gray hair was perfectly curled in tight waves.
“We knew Jill from swim team. We always competed against each other and liked her a lot. We just wanted to stop by and let you know how sorry we are about what happened,” I said.
Mrs. Schneider nodded again and stood aside, ushering us in, as her eyes misted over.
I was immediately struck by how stark the home was. There were no pictures of Jill anywhere. The paper said Jill was an athlete involved in track and swimming, and was also on the dance team. There are twenty-three pictures of me in various stages of my school career in my living room alone. Where were the pictures of Jill?
We perched ourselves in the formal living room on a suitably uncomfortable couch while Mrs. Schneider sat opposite of us in a very rigid wingback chair.
“So you girls knew Jill?” she asked politely. Both Piper and I noticed the lack of refreshments offered and took it as a sign to get to the point as quickly as we dared.
“Yes, we did. We were all shocked when she was attacked but then the accident… .” I trailed off, hoping she would step in and provide some more details.
“Yes, we were quite devastated.”
It was the appropriate response but the sheer lack of feeling behind the statement made my skin crawl. Was Mrs. Schneider medicated to keep her calm or was it something else? Something was not right in the Schneider household.
Piper surprised me by stepping in. “We understand this must be a very difficult time for you, ma’am, and the last thing we want to do is cause you more pain.”
Mrs. Schneider studied Piper for a moment and I couldn’t help but wonder if Jill’s regular friends had piercings. She finally replied, “There are all sorts of pain. Death seems like a release sometimes.”
Piper and I looked at each other with raised brows and then back at Mrs. Schneider. She was looking over Piper’s ear at something on the sofa table behind us.
Curious, I stood up to pace the room, but I was really trying to angle toward the table. There was some sort of paperwork scattered about. Piper asked how Mrs. Schneider was holding up as I maneuvered my way closer. I couldn’t read anything but I recognized the crest of the Tribunal on the stationery immediately.
Mrs. Schneider trailed off in mid-conversation, staring into space. Piper looked over her shoulder at me and mouthed, “Weird.” I walked back to the vacant-looking woman and asked, “Did Jill say anything about the night she was attacked, anything other than what she told the police?”
I might as well have slapped Mrs. Schneider for the reaction my comment caused. The once coolly detached woman started blathering incoherently, clutching her hands to her chest in fear.
“They promised they would leave us alone. They promised! Why are you here? Who are you? They said we would be safe!”
Piper jumped to her feet and I moved around the couch, reaching toward Mrs. Schneider to reassure her we meant no harm, but she slapped at my hands and accidentally knocked my sunglasses askew. When she looked in my eyes she shrieked and dove behind her chair.
“Leave us alone, we did our part! Jill is gone, isn’t that enough? We haven’t told anyone. She was a good girl, she never hurt anyone. We never hurt anyone. Just leave us alone!”
Footsteps pounded on the floor above us as if someone was rushing to Mrs. Schneider’s aid. Piper and I did the only thing we could do in the face of such hysteria and a possible tussle. We ran like hell to the car and sped away.
Once we were a couple blocks from poor Mrs. Schneider and my heart had stopped leaping out of my throat I said, “I’m guessing Jill didn’t die in a freak accident.”
“Ya think?” Piper retorted sarcastically.
“Did you see that poor woman?” I continued, ignoring her comment. “I’ve never seen anyone lose it like that. I mean, she was
scared
. And they didn’t have any pictures of Jill anywhere. It was like she never existed.”
I shivered at the thought of my parents wiping away all visible signs of my existence if the Tribunal decided not to give me a license. I didn’t like the way my thoughts were going. Piper said what I couldn’t bring myself to.
“Colby, do you think you have a chance with the Tribunal?”
I stared straight ahead, ignoring the orange lights and decorative witches “crashed” into every other door on the block. I raked my fingers through my hair and whispered, “I’m so screwed.”
For once Piper didn’t offer a sarcastic quip. She just nodded sagely in agreement.
Eleven
W
aiting at the Krispy Kreme for Thomas seemed to take a lifetime. When he finally sat down with tea in hand, I wasted no time with pleasantries.
“Tell me about Jill Schneider, Thomas.”
His eyes widened a moment and he paused before taking a sip of his tea. “There is nothing to tell,” he replied.
“Eent. Wrong answer. Try again.”
“It is none of your concern, Colby.”
“Eent. Wrong again. Boy, you really suck at this. It’s very much my business when I find out there was another vampire like me who was eliminated. You should have told me. I have a right to know.”
“It is not my job to inform you about every turned mongrel out there. And you have no rights. Not yet, anyway.”
“Not your job to inform me?” I asked incredulously. Man, this guy was something else! “It was you, wasn’t it? You eliminated Jill.”
“I am an Investigator for the Tribunal. I am not at liberty to discuss other cases.”
“But she was like me!” I cried out.
“No! She was not like you!” He slammed his hand down on the table, causing everyone in the booths around us to stare. He lowered his voice and continued.
“She was never like you. She was indecisive, weak and incapable of sound decisions.”
“She was only fifteen!” I said in her defense. What an insensitive jerk.
“Yes, she was fifteen. Another strike against her. She did not possess your maturity and strength. Even with those attributes, I’m still fearful what the Tribunal will decide for you.”
I stared into his hypnotic green eyes, unaffected by the mesmerizing power contained there. I was immune to his vampire voodoo but I wanted to have his undivided attention for what I was about to say.
“Listen to me, you bloodsucking bigot. Your kind created ‘mongrels’ like Jill and me. You have a responsibility toward us. You don’t get to sweep it all under the carpet because you can’t control your full-bloods.”
Thomas sighed deeply. “Colby, you don’t understand. We are talking about an ancient species here who can’t accept change. Most of the elders are”—he struggled for the right words—“a bit touched in the head. They don’t act reasonably or think rationally. They have lived most of their lives in fear of being murdered. Our laws and government evolved to protect all vampires and keep our lines pure. They don’t want a bunch of mongrels out there causing problems.”
“Like I just said—a bunch of bigots.” I took a deep breath and continued to look him in the eye. “I don’t have a chance, do I, Thomas? They aren’t going to listen to me at all, are they?”
He stared back unflinchingly. “Things don’t look good, Colby.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I wasn’t going to get a chance to defend myself after all. I was up against thousands of years of fear, bigotry and—if I understood Thomas correctly—ancient, whacked-out vampires.
“What if I knew where my Creator was? What if I turned him in? Would that prove my worthiness? I mean, it worked for you.” It was a shot in the dark, but worth a try.
Thomas weighed his words carefully. “If your Creator was returned to us, it would mean his death. He wouldn’t come willingly. It might exonerate you or you might be killed alongside him. It is up to the elders. They are”—he paused again—“unpredictable.”
My mind raced at the thought of getting back at the one who’d gotten me into this mess. If it wasn’t for him, I would be at cheerleading practice, leading a normal life. He deserved to get staked for attacking and changing a teenage girl, dooming her to an eternity of adolescent hormones and breakouts.
“I don’t like the look on your face,” Thomas said, interrupting my thoughts.
“Really? Well, I don’t like the thought of getting staked before being named Homecoming Queen, so we all have some adjusting to do, don’t we?”
“Colby …” His voice was low and forbidding.
“What did you expect, Thomas? That I would be thrilled with the news and gratefully follow you back to these elders like a sheep to the slaughter? Uh, I don’t think so. What do I have to lose? I either get killed by Chuck or one of your vampire police.”
“Charles Winthrop is very elusive. I have been tracking him for the last six months and have come up with nothing. Finding him is a lost cause for you.”
“Oh, is that so? Because you can’t find him no one can, huh? I got news for you, buster—I’ve seen him not once, but twice since he changed me. So if little ol’ mutant me can find him where big bad Terminator vampire can’t get a clue then maybe you need to find a new line of work.” I flounced back into my seat.
Thomas blinked at my outburst several times before replying, “You have seen him twice and said nothing to me?”
“Yeah, I guess we both have our dirty little secrets,” I retorted, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
He doesn’t tell me about Jill and now he has the nerve to look hurt that I didn’t tell him about Chuck? I don’t think so.
“Colby, this is an impossible situation. I can see you’re distressed …”
“Hah!”
“But you have to be realistic. Learning about the vampire way so you can defend yourself to the Tribunal is your only hope now. Not chasing down a rogue vampire you can’t possibly outwit.”
He was using his soothing-an-unreasonable-child voice and just to add insult to injury, he thought I was too stupid to live if I chose to use my time finding Winthrop. I couldn’t believe I kissed him, and liked it. A lot.
I stood up and calmly wrapped the pink chenille scarf my aunt had knitted for me around my neck. I picked up my gloves and pulled them on, tucking each finger in with flair. I grabbed my purse and looked down at him, trying to ignore how great he looked in his worn cotton pullover.
“I am going after Chuck. Stay out of my way. I may not be Blooded, Thomas, but I am something you’re not.
Desperate
.”
I meant to sweep from the room in a dramatic exit, but Thomas grabbed my wrist.
“I still want to help you defend yourself to the Tribunal.”
I used my vampire strength to pry his fingers off me and replied, “The trouble is, Thomas, I don’t trust you anymore. If the Tribunal decides I don’t get a license, then they send you to do the dirty work. So I have to ask myself: why would you want to help me when you’re only going to kill me in the end?”
He acted as though I had slapped him. “I wish you no harm, Colby, I thought you knew that. But understand this: there are many ways to die and if the elders decide that is your fate, I would make sure it was painless for you.”
I was so shocked to hear this revelation that I sat back down. “Would you really be my executioner, Thomas?” I asked incredulously. Who did this guy think he was, anyway?
Thomas looked past my shoulder. “It is one of my duties for the Vampire Council.”
I gaped at him, for once in my life speechless. I’d thought we were starting to become friends—more than friends, actually. I confided in him about what it was like to be different, a mutant freak in a world of full-blooded vampires, and he sat there supposedly comforting me when all the while he was responsible for the deaths of how many half-bloods before me? Maybe even Jill.
“You
are
the half-blood executioner,” I whispered accusingly and felt a small satisfaction when he winced.
“I am not the only one but I requested the duty, in case things didn’t turn out well for you.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. He wanted to kill me? No, he not only wanted to kill me, he asked to kill me!
“You
requested
it?! What about Jill, Thomas? Did you promise to help her, get all cozy and then throw her out a tree?”
His head snapped back. “Jill Schneider’s case is none of your concern and will only distract you from what you need to do. Right now the only thing that matters is making a strong defense to get your license.”
I felt my lower lip quiver and bit it to stop the tremble. I was not going to cry in front of him. “The only thing that matters to me, right now, is getting as far away from you as I can.”
I raced out of the doughnut shop and made it to my car before Thomas grabbed my upper arm.