Fangtastic! (12 page)

“You
know,” Brendan remarked, “you both do this thing where you scrunch your nose up
when you’re nervous.”

“My
nose does not scrunch!” protested Ivy.

“Yes,
it does.” Brendan smiled gently. He leaned back on his elbows. “One vampire
sister and the other human,” he said, his black T-shirt stretching across his
chest. “That doesn’t happen every day, huh?”

“No
kidding,” said Ivy. “That’s why Olivia and I switched this afternoon. I went to
the vampire adoption agency to see what I could find out about our parents.”

Olivia’s
head popped out from behind the screen, half her face still covered with
spray-on whitener. “What did you find out?” she asked.

“Nothing.
They didn’t even have a record of my adoption. Apparently, no one named Charles
Vega has adopted a child in the last four hundred years! I think they must have
lost my file.”

Olivia’s
face fell.

“I’m
sorry, Olivia,” Ivy told her.

Olivia
sighed. “I’ve been spending so much time thinking about my mother and
Great-aunt Edna and their history, you know, for this film project,” she
quavered. “I thought we might be able to get at least a clue into our
own
family.”

Ivy
nodded sympathetically.

Olivia
was silent for a moment, and Ivy couldn’t tell if there was a tear falling down
her sister’s whitened cheek. “I’ll be done in a sec,” Olivia whispered at last,
disappearing behind the screen again.

Brendan
stood up abruptly. “We should have a party!” he announced.

Ivy
turned to him in disbelief. “A party?”

“Sure.”
Brendan nodded. “Or have you and Olivia already celebrated the fact that you’re
long-lost twin sisters?”

Ivy
shook her head, and Olivia’s voice called from behind the screen, “I could use
a party!”

Brendan
looked at Ivy. “What do you say we go to my family’s crypt? We’ll bring some
celebratory A neg for us, and we can pick up a fruit smoothie for Olivia on the
way.”

Olivia
emerged looking like herself again. “What’s a family crypt?”

“Lots
of vamp families have their own tombs,” Ivy explained. “It’s sort of like our
version of a vacation home.”

“My
family’s place really sucks, though,” said Brendan. “I go there all the time
just to hang out and play guitar. You’ll dig it. Seriously.”

“I’m
game.” Olivia grinned. “My mom isn’t expecting me home till eight thirty.”

Ivy
smiled. “Then let’s party,” she agreed.

“Does
anyone else know you guys are twins?” Brendan asked.

“Well,
there’s Sophia,” Ivy replied. “She figured it out weeks ago.”

“Then
let’s invite her, too,” Brendan suggested. “The more, the merrier.”

You
are seriously the most amazing boyfriend ever,
Ivy thought.

Olivia
was bending down to put on the pink mule that was lying at the bottom of the
stairs. “Ivy, where’s my other shoe?” she asked.

Suddenly,
Ivy heard measured footsteps approaching from upstairs. “My dad’s coming!” she
cried. “He can’t see the two of us together! Olivia, you have to go!”

Brendan
whispered, “You mean
your dad
doesn’t even know?”

Ivy
practically pushed her tottering, one-shoed sister up the stairs. When they
reached the landing, Ivy hoisted the window open and helped Olivia tumble out
through it. She slammed the window just in time to turn and see her father
descending toward her.

“Hi,
Dad,” she said, trying not to sound out of breath.

“Hello,
Ivy,” her father replied.

“I
was, uh, just coming up to tell you that Brendan and I are going out,” Ivy told
him.

Ivy’s
dad glanced past her to the bottom of the stairs. Brendan gave him a friendly
wave.

“What
a coincidence!” Ivy’s dad said, and for a split second Ivy thought he knew
something. “I am also leaving, to go and inspect Mrs. Wendell’s new curtains.”

“Great,”
said Ivy nervously. “We’ll follow you out.”

Her
father peered into Ivy’s eyes suspiciously. “Ivy,” he said as Ivy’s heart beat
like a drum, “have you finished your homework?”

Ivy
blinked. “Almost.”

“Then
you’d best be back by eight thirty to finish it up,” her father said. “Shall I
pick you up something for dinner?”

“No
thanks, Dad. We’ll grab a bite,” Ivy said.

Ivy and
Brendan exchanged nervous looks as they followed her father back up the stairs,
through the house, and out the front door. Then Ivy’s dad kissed her on the
forehead and got into his black convertible.

“That
was close,” said Brendan as they watched the car head off down the driveway.

Then
Ivy grabbed Brendan’s hand and led him around the side of the house. They found
Olivia, looking slightly disheveled from having scrambled out the window,
staring up at a tall bush.

“Ivy,
what is my shoe doing up there?” she asked, pointing to the mule, which was
lodged on a branch near the top of the bush, like a pink bat.

As she
followed Brendan, Ivy, and Sophia into the oldest graveyard in Franklin Grove,
Olivia glanced over her shoulder. She was still a little paranoid that Toby
Decker might be following them, even though Brendan had done reconnaissance
before they left Ivy’s backyard. Brendan had said Toby wasn’t lurking anywhere
nearby, and they’d all agreed he must have finally given up and gone home.

Relax!
she thought to herself, slurping
her strawberry and mango smoothie. As she gingerly stepped over a fallen tombstone,
she was really glad they’d been able to get her other shoe down from that bush.

Deep
in the center of the cemetery, her friends stopped in front of a low, ancient
stone building that looked like it was sinking into the ground. A series of
three arches supported by ivy-entwined pillars made an awning. Beneath the
center arch, Olivia could dimly make out a hulking stone door with tarnished
bronze gargoyles on either side. In the middle of the door was an ornate square
plate carved right into the stone, inscribed with a single word: DANIELS. The
letters almost seemed to glow.

“Ready
for the underworld?” Brendan asked Olivia, who nodded nervously.

“Wait
until you see the inside,” Ivy whispered. Brendan ducked under the awning and
turned

one of
the claws of the gargoyle on the right. There was a series of dull clicks and
thuds, and suddenly the enormous door slid open. With a grin over his shoulder,
Brendan stepped into the darkness inside.

Sophia
followed right behind him, and Ivy went next.

Suddenly,
Olivia realized her heart was thrashing like a pom-pom. She wanted to walk into
the darkness, she really did, but somehow it was just too
creepy
.

Ivy’s
head reappeared. She flashed Olivia a devilish grin, grabbed her hand, and
pulled her inside.

Ivy
led her through the pitch blackness and down a flight of uneven steps. Suddenly
Olivia heard the strike of a match, and a tiny flame illuminated the darkness.
She saw that they were in some sort of antechamber, and it was
enormous.
It almost seemed impossible that such a big place could fit inside the
structure she’d seen outside.

Brendan
walked around, lighting a huge candle in each corner. Beneath the
cathedral-like ceiling, the walls were covered with huge, strange markings
carved deep into the stone, and the ground was grooved, as if a network of tiny
rivers flowed through it. A small tower of stone rose like a bony finger from
the center of the floor; a garland of long-dead flowers hung around it.

“T-this
place is incredible,” Olivia stammered.

Each
wall had an arch in its center which led to another room.

“That
room,” said Ivy, pointing to the passage on the left, “is where all the urns of
Brendan’s relatives are.” Olivia peeked in to see dozens of ornate stone
containers, each one on its own little shelf, rising from floor to ceiling. She
was overpowered by a musty smell and backed away.

Then
Ivy gestured to the passage on the right. “And that one his family uses for
some of their more valuable antiques.” Olivia could dimly make out an elegant
chaise longue, some gleaming candelabra, and a big old wooden chest.

“But
this one,” said Brendan, pointing to the middle room, “has killer acoustics.”
He ducked inside and started lighting more candles. The three girls followed.

The
middle room was lined with a series of life-sized bronze figures, sitting with
their backs against the walls.

“Are
there dead people inside those?” Olivia whispered.

Brendan
shook his head with a little chuckle.

Brendan,
Ivy, and Sophia each took a seat on the laps of the effigies as Olivia stood in
the center of the room, looking around her in amazement and fascination. She
loved the enormous tapestry of the silhouette of a huge leafless tree, which
hung high up on one wall.

Finally,
Olivia took a seat beside Sophia on one of the cool bronze laps. She leaned
back.
This is surprisingly comfortable,
she thought.

Brendan
opened his backpack and pulled out some plastic cups. Then he pulled out a dark
bottle, uncorked it, and poured a round for himself, Sophia, and Ivy.

“Is
that ...you know ...” Olivia stammered, desperately trying not to be lame. “Blood?”

“Not
really,” Sophia said.

“Sophia!”
Ivy exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

“It’s
true!” Sophia cried. “This stuff is packed with preservatives!”

Brendan
raised his cup in the air. “A toast,” he announced.

Ivy
nodded. “To family,” she said, looking right at Olivia.

“To
friends,” said Sophia.

“To
secrets,” Olivia said, grinning.

She
clinked her smoothie against her friends’ cups, and a moment later, their
laughter was echoing in the crypt’s perfect acoustics.

Ivy
hugged Sophia and Olivia good-bye outside the tomb. Brendan was staying behind
to hang out and start working on his essay, and Olivia and Sophia had decided
to walk home together, since they both lived in the same direction.

“Are
you sure, Ivy?” Olivia asked. “My parents would never let me walk home alone
after dark in a zillion years.”

Ivy
smiled. “I’m a vampire, remember? Night’s my favorite time of day.” With a
little wave, she set off across the graveyard.

Ivy
stayed off the main streets, enjoying the darkness around her. She didn’t have
to be home for another half hour, so she had lots of time. As she strolled, she
couldn’t help thinking about how happy she felt. It was strange, because in
lots of ways, it had been a terrible day: from first thing this morning, when
Serena Star had tried to implicate her on national TV, to her failure to learn
anything at the adoption agency. But, somehow, none of it mattered. Brendan was
right: there was so much to celebrate.

He
wasn’t even mad,
she thought tenderly.

Before
she knew it, Ivy was climbing the long drive to her house. She glanced at her
watch: 8:25 P.M., right on time. Her dad’s car still wasn’t back, though, so
she reached into her bag for her keys. After a few seconds of rummaging, she
realized she hadn’t gotten them back from Olivia.

No
big deal,
she
thought. She would just have to climb in through her bedroom window. Ivy calmly
walked around to the back of the house but was shocked to find that her window
was closed. With a jolt, she remembered that she’d closed it after pushing
Olivia out, so that her dad wouldn’t catch them.

Ivy
scanned the back of the house, and noticed that the window of her father’s
second floor office was open. She smiled to herself.
I have to admit, being
a vampire is pretty killer. After all . . .
she thought, taking a few steps
back and peering around to make sure no one was watching,
...it means I can
do this.

A
superhuge leap landed her feet first on the second floor window ledge. Ivy
deftly swung herself inside and shut the window. She wound her way down through
the house, pausing in the kitchen to grab a cookie.

She
stopped at the top of the stairs that led down into her room and surveyed the
damage.
I didn’t think it was possible,
she thought, smiling and shaking
her head,
but Olivia has made my room even more of a mess!

“Many
think there is no deep, dark secret in Franklin Grove,” Serena Star was saying
as the TV flickered to life in the family room. Olivia sank down on the couch,
relieved that she hadn’t missed the morning news. After last night’s graveyard
bash and then staying up late to do her homework, she’d overslept.

“They
say,” Serena continued as the camera followed her down Main Street, “that the
Goth culture here is no more harmful than football.” Olivia noticed that the
camel suede suit Serena was wearing was the same one she’d worn yesterday. In
fact, it sort of looked like she’d slept in it.