Blood Type

Blood Type

by

Melissa Luznicky
Garrett

Blood Type
copyright 2012 Melissa Luznicky Garrett

All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced, except for brief

quotations
, without permission from the author.

Blood Type is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and

events
are a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual people, places, or events are coincidental.

Published 2012

Cover design by Damon
Xeda

www.Damonza.com

for
those who
believe

in
the unbelievable . . .

A
cknowledgements

On
ce upon a time
I uttered two words to my dad that forever changed my life:
I’m bored.
It was summer in the Midwest, unbearably hot, and I’d already used my allotted television time
for the day.
“
All right
,”
he
said. “Come with me.”

I followed
him
to
his extensive library
where he plucked a
paperback
book from the shelf
—Stephen King’s
Salem’s Lot
.
“Read this,” he said, “or I can give you something else to do
.
”
Since I
knew
that “something else” was
code for
weeding the garden
,
I took the book
without complaint
and set off for a quiet
corner
of the house.

Now
I don’t know if my dad
just
randomly chose
any
book
from the shelf
or if he
handed over
Salem’s Lot
with a purpose in mind.
In any event, the story scared the
bejeezus
out of me and ultimately sowed my
love of three things:
vampire
s, reading, and storytelling.
So
D
ad, wherever you are,
thank
you for such an incredible gift.

Thanks also to my early readers
for
your
invaluable feedback: Nova Ordner, Natalie Allan, Amanda Wilson, Jennifer
Goehl
, Tiffany O’Connell, Alicia Madill
, Leah
Shvartsman
, and MaryBeth Mulhall.
Even if I d
idn’t
like everything you ha
d
to
say
,
I still
listen
ed
.
You all ROCK!

Thank
you
Damon
Xeda
for yet another gorgeous cover.

Thank you
to my wonderful husband
Ian
for jokingly suggesting
that I
name a vampire after you
.
When I first started writing this
book
, there was no Ian McAvoy
. I can’t imagine what this story would be without him
, just like I can’t imagine what my life would be without you
.

Thanks to Hannah, Jake, and Bea for
being patient—at least most of the time
. I
know
compet
ing
against an unfinished manuscript, which your
mother
considers a
nother child and, worse,
the baby
of the family
, must be incredibly difficult
.

T
hanks to
everyone
who didn’t laugh or roll
your
eyes when I
announced I
was
going to write
a
YA
book about vampires
when there are already so many to choose from
.
In my opinion,
however,
one
can never have
too many
vampire books.

Thanks to those who
did not
compare
Blood Type
to
Twilight
and Blake Ehlert to Bella Swan.
I love Bella, but s
eriously. Thank you
for letting Blake
be
her own person
.

Thanks to my friends and family
wh
o are even remotely curious about what the heck it is I do all day
and support me in ways both big and small
. There’s no feeling
in the world
quite like validation
.

T
hanks to my loyal fans
that
keep coming back for more and
pestering
motivating me to
write
.
I do it for you.

Finally, thank you to my newest readers. I do it for you, too.

~ Melissa

October
26

“Your parents are going to kill you,” Olivia said. “You do know that, right?”

I finished paying the woman behind the counter then tugged on my coat. “I heard you the first time. I don’t know why you feel the need to keep repeating yourself.”

I stopped in front of a full-length mirror
on my way out
and brought a finger to the edge of the gauze bandage
at
my neck, my apathetic expression masking the pain of the recent procedure. My parents probably
would
kill me, but I didn’t think that mattered much under
the
present circumstances.

The overhead lights flickered with the oncoming storm, and Olivia tensed at my side. “We’d better get out of here,
Blake,
” she said. “It’s getting windy. They say we might even get snow tonight.”

We left the parlor
, stepping
out into the cold October evening.
S
treetlamps cast intermittent pools of light on the busy sidewalk even as
s
torm clouds, heavy with the threat of moisture, shrouded the city in
near-complete
darkness. I wrapped my coat tighter around m
y body
and lowered my head against the wind as we hurried together to the bus stop.

“I will say your new tat is pretty awesome,” Olivia said, grinning as she looked at me from the corner of her eye.
“I would never have pegged you
for
a tat girl.”

The wind nipped the fair skin of her cheeks until they
glowed
like twin cherries
,
and
it
sent her hair swirling
around her head
in long white strands. She shivered and pulled the knit cap down over her ears and then linked her arm through mine. We huddled
together
for warmth as we walked, and I clenched my teeth to keep the shivering to a minimum. I could never seem to get warm enough these days.

“If you say
tat
one more time, I’ll
push you in front of oncoming traffic
.”
I gave her a playful shove and she cl
ung
to me even
tighter
to keep her balance
.

“Vampire
-
bite marks,” she commented with a snort
, ignoring my
empty threat
. “The drops of blood were a nice touch
.
Very c
onvincing
.
”

I tucked my chin into the collar of my wool pea-coat, blowing out my breath to create a pocket of warmth that floated up my cheeks and temporarily thawed my nose. I lowered my eyes to the ground, fixing them on the layer of dead leaves that had collected in the gutter and now lay lifeless.

“You’ll have to buy a
sexy
costume
to go with.
Like,
bright red.
And skin-tight.
Maybe you’ll start a new trend at school, and vampire
-
bite
tats
will become all the rage.”

She yelped as I gave her another shove, hard enough
this time
that one foot
sl
ipped off the curb.
“Whatever.
” 

“I’m not sure
who
I’m
going
as,” Olivia persisted
.
“I was
thinking about
the Bride of Frankenstein, but Gabe sort of
screwed that one up when he decided to act like a major dickwad. I’m so glad we’re not together anymore. Anyway, you’ll have to forgo the sweats and oversized flannels for one night.
It’s really not a good look on you.
” She patted my arm with
a
cashmere-
gloved hand.

“I’ll wear what I want
.
” I took a deep breath, insta
ntly regretting
my snappish attitude
. I said in a more measured tone, “I don’t even care about the stupid dance. And I hate Halloween.”

We fell silent as we came to the bus enclosure and stepped inside. The Plexiglass partition at least protected us from the wind, but
it did nothing to
stave off the lower-than-average temps
. Olivia broke free and toyed with the end of her scarf while I stared off into the distance, dreaming about a hot bath and my fleece robe.

A yellow car
whizzed
by and Olivia squealed and pointed.
“Banana boat!”

I cracked a smile. “I saw it. I just didn’t call it.”

“
L
iar,” she said, elbowing me in the side. “Hey, did you ever get
those test results back
?”

I nodded.
“Hemolytic anemia
.
”
E
xactly what
John
said the doctors would
conclude.

“
Hemolytic anemia?
Never heard.
What is it?
”

I
looked at the ground
as I answered. “It means there aren’t enough red blood cells in my blood. My body
can’t produce them fast enough
.”

“Why?”

I shrugged
,
but still could
n’t
meet her eyes. “There
are
lots of different
reasons
. My doctor thinks
my anemia
was caused by a toxin of some sort, but he’s not sure what.”

“Oh.
So what now?
”

I took a deep breath and
finally met her eyes
. “I have prescription iron pills that I’m supposed to take.”

“
Well
,
that’s good,
” Olivia said, sounding somewhat heartened. “That doesn’t sound so bad.
And m
aybe once all of this gets straightened out, your doctor and Coach will let you back on the squad.”

“
Maybe
.
”
  I didn’t tell her that the prognosis wasn’t good and I had a better chance of winning the lottery than ever cheering again. My heart raced
all the time
,
as if I’d just
run fifty laps around the gym
.
I was always out of breath and
h
ardly
had
the energy
to get dressed each morning
.

“I’m just glad they figured out what it was,” Olivia said. “Your mom called my mom last week, and do you know what she said?”

This was news to me, and I wondered why Olivia hadn’t mentioned it before. “What?”

“She said she thought you were
becoming
anorexic.
That, or depressed.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “I am
so
not
anorexic.
L
ast night I dreamed I ate five cheeseburgers from McDonald’s.”

Olivia laughed.
“
Seriously?
”

I echoed her laughter
, which ended in a coughing fit
.
“
Yeah.
I could actually taste them
, all
hot and salty
,” I said, once I’d regained my breath
.
“
And I was crying because I was so hungry, but I couldn’t eat them fast enough. I never got full.
But w
hen I woke up, the idea of a cheeseburger was so disgusting I actually puked
over the side of my bed
.”

Olivia stopped laughing
suddenly
and made a face.
“
Ew
.
That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard
, Blake
.
Seriously.
”

“
There are worse things,
”
I muttered.

“What?”

“
Nevermind
.”

We stood quietly
after that
and watched the cars and buses drive by, their headlights bumping up and down and lighting the store front of the Chinese restaurant
across the street
. My mouth watered at the thought of vegetable lo
mein
, even as my stomach churned. I felt constantly hungry, but everything placed in front of me ended up pushed aside or dumped into the garbage can. I’d lost
fifteen
pounds in the past two months, and it was only the threat of a feeding tube that had me choking down small bit
e
s of food in my parents’ presence. 

“Are you depressed?” Olivia finally asked, lowering her voice to a whisper.

I shrugged. “Mom worries about me not being on the squad anymore, but
I don’t really think about it much
. I couldn’t care less.”

“Ouch
. T
hat’s harsh, considering we all care about you.”

I shook my head, in no mood to argue. “I’m just . . . tired, Libby. I don’t have the energy for that anymore. It’s just . . . not important.”

I thought back to the day Coach called me into her office. It was the afternoon of our first football game, and we’d had a pep rally during last period to get everyone stoked. Only the pep rally ended in disaster when I missed my mark and wasn’t there to help catch Ashley on the basket toss. All you could hear was the
c
ollective gasp
from
the
crowd
as Ashley crashed to the ground, and then Ashley
’s
moaning that her leg was broken. She
had to be
taken away
by ambulance
.

“You’re one of the best,” Coach had said
to me later
. “You never miss your mark. But something’s happened to you, Blake. You’ve changed. You’re not the same girl you were at camp.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said
, slumping in the chair in front of her desk
.

Coach
gave me a long look
before taking a deep breath. “Did something happen over the summer? Is there anything you want to talk about?
You know you can tell me anything.
You just have to trust me.
”

I knew that look. It
was
the same look I’d gotten from my mom so many times it was seared in my brain like a rancher’s brand on a cow
’s
hide.
But when I shook
my head, Coach placed her folded hands on her desk and
studied
me with a pair of apologetic eyes. “I’m going to have to temporarily suspend you from the team.”

I sat up straighter in my chair.
“What?
But this is senior year! T
hat’s—”

“You’re not in trouble, Blake. I’ve already talked this over with your parents. They’re worried about you, and so am I. I see you walking the halls in a daze, like you’re half-dead. If you don’t have your head in the game, you become a liability to the other girls’ safety. It’s as simple as that. Do you understand?”

“But I’m not—”

Coach held up a hand. “Take a few months off. Get some rest,
gather your strength,
and
put
yourself back together again.”

“Well, you being on the squad is important to
me
,” said Olivia testily, pulling me out of my thoughts. “And it was important to our team
, especially the younger girls,
to suddenly lose one of their co-captains. You’re like an idol to them. They look up to you. Or they did.”

I snorted. “And that’s why it took all of two days to find a replacement. Yeah, I’m sure
everyone misses
me.”

“We
had
to find a replacement,” Olivia said. “But everyone wants
you
back.
” She came closer and rubbed my shoulder.
Her
voice was
soft again
when she spoke.
“
All you have to do is get better.”

I didn’t say anything, and the bus miraculously
appeared
. We boarded in silence and found a vacant seat near the back.