Re-Vamped! (14 page)

“What’s
happening?” she whispered, terrified.

“Don’t
hurt her!” Ivy cried.

But
then nothing happened. Mr. Boros cleared his throat meaningfully a few times,
and eventually Olivia realized that he was trying to get her attention. She
forced herself to open her eyes and saw that he was holding up a yellowed piece
of parchment inches from her face. Its borders were filled with elaborate,
spiky designs, and in the center was a poem written in fancy black script.

“The
applicant will read the Blood Oath,” he declared.

Olivia
took a deep breath before starting to read aloud.

“‘Their
Night is my Night. Their Blood is my Blood. Their Secret is my Secret. This
Oath is my Coffin.’”

Underneath
the words, where a line for her signature might be, was a small blank circle.
Valencia Deborg looked at her meaningfully, still grasping Olivia’s index
finger in one hand as she held up her needle-tipped ring in the other.

Olivia
saw that Ivy was smiling proudly. Sort of surprisingly, so was Ivy’s father.
Olivia nodded bravely at Ms. Deborg as Mr. Boros positioned the paper
underneath her hand.

The
vampire touched her ring to the tip of Olivia’s finger. Olivia winced, and a
drop of blood bloomed like a tiny rose. She let it drip off her finger, and it
landed with a tiny splatter in the middle of the parchment circle.

“Olivia
Abbott has passed all three tests in her initiation,” Ms. Deborg pronounced.
“The Blood Secret is hers to keep.”

Olivia
and Ivy shared the biggest hug ever, and everybody started clapping—even Ivy’s
father and Valencia Deborg. Then the vampire officials led them all downstairs
to the living room, where Olivia was shocked to find Sophia, Brendan, Bethany,
and Mr. and Mrs. Daniels. They all erupted into applause the moment Olivia
walked into the room.

“Bravo!”
Brendan shouted. “A-positive, Olivia!” Bethany hooted like a crazed owl.

Olivia
just stood there, beaming.

“Everyone
who knows you know the secret is

in
this room,” Ivy whispered in her ear. Sophia started snapping pictures like
crazy. Ivy tried to step away, but Sophia begged her to stay there and try to
act natural. “I’m hoping
Vamp
magazine will want these pictures for
their ‘Stalking the Undead’ celebrity candid column!” she said excitedly.

Valencia
Deborg stepped into the center of the room and held up her slender hands. “As
you’ve guessed, Olivia Abbott has successfully completed the sacred rites of
initiation. She is officially sanctioned into our community by the Vampire
Round Table.”

“And
by ASHH as well,” Mr. Boros piped up from near the door.

Everybody
started clapping again, and then they all sang this bizarre song in some weird
language that sounded like “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow” played backward.
Olivia swayed to the music, feeling simultaneously awed and bemused by the
whole display.

Ivy
was so happy and relieved that her sister had passed the tests, she almost felt
like wearing pink! Everyone was milling around Olivia, congratulating her and
joking around. Meanwhile, Ivy’s father appeared, holding a silver tray loaded
with crystal flutes of deep red A neg. He handed them out, until the only one
left had a pink-and-white polka-dotted cocktail umbrella sticking out of it.

“For
Olivia,” he said, holding out the tray, “some cranberry juice. The little
umbrella was to keep the glasses from getting mixed up.”

Ivy’s
heart cracked open like a coffin at dawn.
Maybe he’s finally starting to
accept Olivia now that she’s an honorary vamp,
she thought.

A few
minutes later, Ivy spied her father sitting alone in the corner, sipping his
cocktail. She crept over to Olivia and gently tugged her away from Mr. and Mrs.
Daniels.

“You
should go talk to my dad,” Ivy said. “I think he’s finally started to see you
for who you really are.”

Her
sister approached him tentatively. “Thanks so much for the party, Mr. Vega,”
Ivy heard her say.

Her
father looked up, startled, as if Olivia had woken him from a dream. He stood
up abruptly, nearly knocking Olivia’s glass from her hand, and a bit of
cranberry juice sloshed over the edge of the glass and onto the floor.

“I’m
so sorry,” he blurted. “I have to . . .” He shot a desperate look in Ivy’s
direction but immediately looked away. “Please excuse me.” And with that, he
rushed from the room.

Olivia
shrugged at Ivy disappointedly before kneeling to wipe up the cranberry juice
with her napkin.

Ivy
sighed. Her father still couldn’t deal with Olivia, and he was probably still
mad at Ivy for breaking into ASHH. But that was all dirt and worms compared to
the way he’d been acting.
Why can’t he understand that I deserve to find out
about my real parents?
she thought.
Why can’t he make more of an effort
with my blood sister?

Ivy
walked into the kitchen, half looking for her father. Her dad wasn’t in there,
but she did notice that he’d put a tray of tiny pastries filled with ground
meat in the oven. She was opening the oven to check on them when Brendan’s
parents came into the kitchen with Bethany.

“I’m
gonna be the most popular girl at Franklin Grove Elementary once everyone finds
out that I go to parties with Ivy and Olivia, the two coolest girls ever!”
Bethany chattered. “They’ll probably want to do a piece on me in
Vamp
!”
She sucked in her cheeks like she was posing for a fashion shoot. Meanwhile,
Mrs. Daniels reached into her purse and pulled out a little white bottle.

“Time
for your VitaVamp, sweetheart,” she said.

“Ew!”
Bethany said.

“You
can have it in your A neg,” her mother told her, splitting the capsule in two
and letting the black powder drop into the glass, where it fizzed lightly
before dissolving.

“It
tastes worse than broccoli!” Bethany protested.

“Don’t
you want to grow up to be a strong vampire?” Ivy tried.

“No,”
Bethany answered. “I want to grow up to be a cheerleader like Olivia.”

They
all laughed.

Mr.
Daniels stroked his chin. “Ivy, do you think I might have one of those cocktail
umbrellas?”

“Sure,”
said Ivy, picking one out of the box on the counter and handing it over.

“That’s
just like Olivia’s!” Bethany squealed. “Can I have one? Please can I have one?”

“You
may if you’re willing to drink up your A neg,” said Mr. Daniels.

“Okay!”
Bethany agreed.

Brendan’s
dad dropped the umbrella in the glass, and his mom handed it over to Bethany,
who sipped at it demurely. “Totally yummy!” she declared and skipped out of the
kitchen.

Olivia
was sitting on the black leather living room couch with Brendan, talking about
their social studies teacher Ms. Starling’s strange obsession with the guillotine,
when Bethany bounded over.

“Olivia,
darling,” she said like a high society diva, “you look absolutely marvelous.”
Olivia giggled.

“Bethany,”
called Mrs. Daniels with a smile, “why don’t you tell Olivia about the latest
fashion at your school?”

“Let
me guess,” Olivia said. “Dressing up like opposite twins?”

“No
way,” Bethany sang. “That’s
soooo
last week.” She gingerly put down her
glass on the coffee table next to Olivia’s. “The latest is to dress half
Goth”—Bethany held out one hand, on which all of her fingernails were painted
black— “and half bunny!” She held out her other hand to reveal that the nails
were all pink.

Olivia
nodded, impressed. Then she had an idea. “You could even try alternating nails—
black, pink, black, pink, black.”

“Oh,
my gosh!” Bethany gasped. “You are a total genius! I’m going to do that, like,
the moment I get home!”

“Oh,
really?” Mrs. Daniels said skeptically.

“Please,
Mom, can I?” Bethany pleaded.

Olivia
suddenly realized she hadn’t seen her sister in a while. “Have either of you
seen Ivy?” she asked.

“In
the kitchen,” Mrs. Daniels answered. Olivia seized the opportunity to grab her
flute of cranberry juice off the table and head off to check on her sister. As
she walked, she sipped at her drink. In all honesty, it wasn’t very good
cranberry juice—it tasted sort of like overcooked broccoli—but she was parched.
She took a big gulp so she wouldn’t have to taste it.

Ivy
was just finishing laying finger foods on a square black tray.

“Hey.”
Olivia smiled, but as she said it the whole room seemed to go crooked. She put
a hand on the counter to steady herself.

“Are
you all right?” Ivy asked.

“I
don’t know,” Olivia replied, “but there seems to be two of you.”
And my legs
feel like Jell-O,
she thought.

Both
of the Ivys she could see rushed over and helped Olivia into a chair. Olivia
blinked hard.

“Still
seeing double?” Ivy asked.

“No,”
Olivia croaked. “Now there’s three of you.”

Suddenly,
three Bethanys appeared in the doorway. Each one was holding Olivia’s drink
with its polka-dotted umbrella.

“That’s
my drink,” Olivia said, realizing that she was thirstier than ever.

“Olivia,”
Ivy said slowly, “you’re already holding your drink.”

“Uh-oh,”
said all the Bethanys.

“Bethany,”
requested Ivy in an urgent voice, “can you go get Sophia?”

“But—”

“Now!”
Ivy said.

“Not
so loud.” Olivia winced. All these voices were hurting her head.

“Olivia,”
Ivy said, and there were four of her now. “Listen to me. Your drink got
switched with Bethany’s.”

“You
mean I drank blood?” Olivia heard herself say dumbly.

“Among
other things,” Ivy told her.

Suddenly
the voice that was supposed to be her own started talking and Olivia couldn’t
stop it. “Am I growing fangs? Am I a bat? Do I get my own coffin?” Each
question echoed the moment it was spoken, and soon it seemed like a bunch of
people who sounded just like her were talking over one another inside her head.
Then, for some reason, all those Olivias started laughing hysterically.

As far
as Ivy knew, drinking A neg shouldn’t really have any effect on a human other than
grossing them out. So it must have been Bethany’s VitaVamp that was making her
sister act like it was a full moon.

Ivy
noticed that Mrs. Daniels had left the vitamin bottle on the counter, and she
snatched it up to scan the label. “ ‘Warning,’ ” she read. “ ‘Not for human
use. If ingested by a human, dizziness, nausea, and hallucinations may result
for up to eight hours.’ ”

Ivy
went and knelt beside her sister, whose laughter had given way to a dreamy song
about bunny rabbits. “Good news, Olivia,” Ivy said. “Worst-case scenario:
you’ll hallucinate for the rest of the day.”

Olivia
stopped singing and nodded. “Your kitchen is sparkly,” she said happily. Then
she sprang to her feet and started spinning with her head flung back.

“Are
you okay?” Ivy asked nervously. “I’m great!” Olivia squealed. She clawed at the
air until she found Ivy’s arm. “Let’s go back to the party!”

With a
jolt, Ivy realized that that was the worst idea since the wooden stake.
Olivia can’t go back in there,
she thought.
What if the secretary of
human affairs for the Vampire Round Table and the top ASHH agent see her like
this and have second thoughts?
She had to get Olivia to the basement until
she was acting like a human again.

Ivy
looked toward the doorway desperately. She needed Sophia’s help if she was
going to successfully transport her sister downstairs.

“Olivia?”
Ivy said. Olivia looked all around. “I hear someone calling my name!” she
whispered in wonderment.

“Olivia,”
Ivy repeated, sitting her back down in her chair, “I need you to stay right
here for a second. Okay?”

“Okeydoke,”
chirped Olivia, planting her hands in her lap like a kindergartner.

Ivy
darted back toward the living room. Just outside the door, she bumped smack
into Sophia.

“What
did you say to Bethany?” Sophia asked. “She said you yelled at her.”

Ivy
shook her head. “It’s Olivia,” she whispered. “She drank Bethany’s drink by
accident. It had VitaVamp in it!”

Sophia’s
eyes widened. “Did she barf?”

“Worse,”
Ivy said. “She’s temporarily lost her mind! You have to help me get her to my
room!” She dragged Sophia after her to the kitchen.

Olivia’s
chair was sitting there empty, and all at once Ivy’s chest felt like somebody
had shoveled it full of coal. “Olivia?” she called. No answer. She said a
little prayer and looked in the broom closet, but the only thing in there was
the broom.

“Where
is she?” said Sophia.