Revealers (7 page)

No one says another word, and I know we’re all hoping someone else will volunteer to do it, or that Kelsey will get nasty and one of us won’t mind doing the deed. I pull on the chain of my necklace and I’m relieved to see the stone in the center is dark.

“Maybe she won’t show up,” I say.

“Troy?” a voice calls out.

“That’s her,” Dani says. “She’s coming.”

“Andreeeew,” Kelsey calls out in a singsong voice.

Her footsteps get closer and I stuff my necklace back under my cape so Kelsey won’t see it when it starts to glow. I realize the dugout light is still on and my heart quickens as I look for the switch.

“Out!” Dani says, pointing to the bare bulb, beating me to it.

I breathe a sigh of relief that the parking lot lights don’t reach all the way into the benches.

“Where ya hiding, guys?” Kelsey calls out.

“Damn,” Sascha whispers. “This sucks.”

“You boys ready for me?” Kelsey says as she rounds the corner. “You ready to …” She sees us and freezes. “Whoa, Sascha? Is that you? Julia Harris?” She nods at Dani and Z. “You girls partying out here?”

My eyes go wide as I wait for Sascha to throw the binder.

“Hey, Kelsey,” Zahara says. “Long time no see! What’ve you been up to? You got smart and ditched the school thing I heard.”

I’m glad Z has the brains to stall for time. I nudge Sascha and think I see a tear glide down her cheek.

“Ha, yeah,” Kelsey says. “Somethin’ like that.” She runs her fingers through her black hair and hitches up her baggy pants. “You seen Troy Dillon and Andrew White? They graduated last year, but we kinda have a date.” Kelsey winks and her black lipsticked mouth beaks into a knowing smile.

“Haven’t seen them,” Zahara says, “but we were just about to light up a joint—want to join us?”

Kelsey laughs. “Man, I had a feeling those two were gonna blow me off, but so what? I’ll party with you girls tonight! Show them, huh?”

She walks into the dugout and I elbow Sascha again. “Let’s get going, Sascha. Light it up.”

Sascha’s hand bumps into mine, and I realize she’s trying to pass the binder to me.

“I see you girls got smart and ditched that bitch, Margo. I never could figure out what you saw in her, Sascha, I mean, damn that girl…” Kelsey pauses and looks at each of us each in turn—her eyebrows raised. “What is up with the Little Red Riding Hood look? This is obviously some fashion trend I missed, and I’m thinking you shoulda missed out on it, too!”

I grit my teeth and hate that I’m feeling embarrassed to be wearing a cape. I hate that some three-hundred-year-old rule says it’s the only thing to go out hunting in. I hate that we’re buying into that rule. I grab the binder, and flinging it at Kelsey’s feet—a foot or so off. “We bind you to the earth!” I yell, but I’m pretty sure the binder won’t take.

“What the hell?” Kelsey’s head jerks around as the dirt and dust of the dugout floor start to twist up her legs. She stares at us for a split second, and then bares her sharp teeth. “Witches!”

She leaps up, morphs into a large brown bat, and flaps against the ceiling of the dugout, then heads toward the wide opening. A small sandstorm rises up trying to capture her before falling back to the ground.

“Reveal!” We scream together, our arms held high, aiming at the bat.

The spell hits, and Kelsey, human again, crashes to the ground on her back just outside the dugout. Sascha throws another binder at her. “We bind you to the earth!”

As Kelsey struggles to get up, the dirt rises up, engulfing her, twisting along her arms and legs and across her stomach—pinning her down. She cranes her head up, looking at us. “What the fuck are you doing to me?”

“I’m sorry,” Sascha says. “I didn’t want to do this.”

Kelsey struggles to move, but the binder’s too strong. “You’re a fucking witch! Shit! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I—I’m so sorry,” Sascha says again. She looks at me and her shoulders cave. “I can’t do this.” She runs back toward the benches and I hear her sobbing.

“I wasn’t gonna get you!” Kelsey spits out. “I just thought we were gonna have a smoke. I wasn’t even gonna tell you what I was, ‘cause we’re friends. Right, Sascha? Sascha! We’re friends!” She thrashes around for a few seconds then growls in frustration. “Let me go, okay?

You’ll never see me again.”

Bile rises in my throat as I watch her splayed out on the ground struggling, helpless. I think about all the vamps I’ve staked without thought—without really, truly caring about who they used to be.

“We can’t let you go,” I say, keeping my voice steady. “You’ve hurt too many people.”

“Oh, for God’s sake! I didn’t do anyone that didn’t want it. Hell, Troy and Andrew know what I am—we were just gonna have a little fun. I wasn’t gonna turn them! Please.” Her voice cracks and she starts to cry. “Sascha? Sascha, don’t let them do this, please!”

“Look, we’re all sorry, but you chose this—you knew the risks,” Zahara says, acting the hard-ass again, but I notice she hasn’t taken a stake out of her cloak.

“Oh, man, you sanctimonious shits are too much. But even if you bitches go through with this, it’ll have been worth it. No regrets!” Kelsey struggles and cranes her neck up off the ground.

The binder pulls on her and she throws her head back to the ground, and sighs. “Well, what the hell are you waiting for? You always torture your vics before you kill them? Is that what you sadistic freaks like? “

“No!” I say. “We don’t want to do this, but—”

“What’s a matter, Sascha, why ya hiding back there? Don’t you wanna stake me? Ya gonna let your prissy friend, Zahara, do it? Or what about you, Dani?” she snarls. “Show me how tough you are!”

“Will someone do it already?!” Sascha yells.

Dani looks at me with pleading eyes, but I shake my head. “Z?”

“Why me?” Zahara mutters as she finally pulls a stake out of her cape pocket. “I wish I didn’t have to do this, Kelsey, but—

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Margo says, landing by home plate. She stalks toward us with one hand on her hip, dragging her broom with the other. “She’s still alive?” She stands next to Kelsey, glaring at us all. “You couldn’t handle one stupid vamp without me?”

Margo drops her broom, pulls a stake out, and kneels down next to Kelsey. Kelsey’s eyes go wide, like she figured none of us would actually go through with it, but now she knows it’s really going to happen.

“Margo, no!” Kelsey screams, trying to twist out of the binding. “Please! Let’s talk—let’s—

“

Margo puts one hand on Kelsey’s upper chest and then slams the stake into her heart with the other. I hear the stake splinter as it goes through her and hit the ground. Margo turns her head as Kelsey implodes—her last cry echoing in our ears.

Margo stands up and brushes the fine dust—the last remnants of Kelsey—off the front of her shirt. “What was the problem here? You had her bound—why didn’t you stake her?”

Zahara takes a step toward her. “It was Kelsey—and you know—we know her and …”

“I don’t remember anyone complaining when we staked that librarian who used to do story time,” Margo says.

“That was different!” I say, amazed Margo is being so cold about this. “That was our first hunt and Miss Melissa was out of control—there was a definite kill-or-be-killed thing going on that night. Kelsey didn’t even show her fangs until we tried to bind her!”

Margo laughs. “Oh, please. Do you really think Kelsey was going to hang out with you—

no fangs involved? It’s classic vamp stuff. She was just trying to get close.”

Zahara looks at the rest of us. “I don’t know—I kind of think she did just want to party with us.”

I nod. “And it’s not like she could have taken all of us.”

Margo rolls her eyes. “It takes seconds— seconds for a vamp to mesmerize someone—or a group of someones. She was obviously going to try to get you under sway, and then take her pick.

And what would’ve prevented her from calling in some friends to help her finish you all off? She was a vamp; we kill vamps. End of discussion.”

“But I don’t think she was after us—seriously. If you could’ve just seen her.” Zahara kicks the ground. “Where were you, by the way?”

Margo jerks her head toward Z. “I … I was … I’m just late, okay?!”

“Fine,” Z says, “but don’t get on our case if you weren’t here to see the whole thing through! And I still say she wasn’t going to reveal.”

“And you know what?” I add. “My necklace is supposed to warn about danger and it was completely dark seconds before she showed up!”

“Actually,” Dani says, “it could’ve stopped working already. Your mom did say the stones could empty at any time.”

Margo takes a deep breath. “Bottom line, this is our job. We can’t personalize it.”

“Wow, sounds like you got some great insights into hunting during your little initiation,”

Sascha says, getting up off the bench. She walks right up to Margo—and I can tell Margo’s not liking the close proximity.

Sascha tilts her head and looks Margo up and down. “Apparently they exorcised the last remnants of feeling out of you, too.”

Margo’s mouth drops open, and then she narrows her eyes. “Well, you’ll find out soon enough, won’t you? Four more days until your birthday, and then you can decide for yourself whether or not a vamp’s worth crying over.”

“I’m out of here,” Sascha says, grabbing her broom from the corner of the dugout. “Happy freaking birthday, Margo.”

She mounts her broom and heads up, and I stifle the urge to remind her to use the cloaking spell.

“Don’t forget to cloak!” Dani yells out.

I shake my head, knowing Dani’s going to get shit for that.

Margo turns on Dani immediately, sneering. “God, you just can’t keep your mouth shut for a minute, can you? You always have to—”

“Leave her alone,” I say, standing between them. “I would’ve thought you’d be happy she’s trying to make sure everyone is doing the right thing—it’s what you’re always preaching. She just said what we were all thinking!”

Margo curls her lip. “It’s the way she says it.” She turns toward Dani and scowls. “You think you’re the only one who knows everything! You treat us like we’re preschoolers just learning about all this shit for the first time, and you don’t even know what’s really going on!”

“Hey,” Zahara says, reaching out a hand on Margo’s arm. “Chill out—this was tough enough without all the extra crap. okay?”

Margo folds her hands across her chest and looks down at the ground. She takes a few deep breaths and looks Dani in the eye. “Yeah, I’m sorry. And sorry I was late. I just had a lot to think about.” She picks up her stake, sees the point is broken, and chucks it in the garbage can next to the dugout.

Dani shrugs. “It’s okay. I do kind of say stuff you already know,” she says quietly.

“There, everything’s cool, right?” Z says. “Let’s talk about something else. Like lets hear some big freaking initiation details! How’d it go?” Z asks. “Are you feeling more womanly? Or more witchy?”

“Well, Sascha would probably say I’m feeling more bitchy than usual, but …” Margo pauses, as all of our eyes go wide.

I think we’re all amazed Margo is a little more self-aware than we might have given her credit for.

“But,” she continues, “let’s just say you all need to throw away any assumptions you have about what it is we do, and go to your initiation prepared to have the rug pulled out from under your feet.”

“Why? What did they tell you?” Dani whispers, her eyes bugging out.

“Yeah,” Z says. “You can’t leave us hanging.”

Margo doesn’t say anything and I can almost hear her mind working out whether Helena’s pet hunter can buck the rules and spill initiation secrets. I think she wants to tell us— she wouldn’t have laid the whole rug thing on us if she wasn’t at least thinking about it.

“Margo, you can tell us,” I say. “We won’t let on, right?”

Dani and Z nod.

“I can’t,” she says finally. She turns and picks her broom off the ground and wipes the dirt off the handle. “We just can’t be screwing around with hunts, okay?”

A car pulls up near the dugout and we all freeze.

“Is that Troy and Andrew?” I ask. “We’d better cloak!”

“No,” Zahara says. “My mom said Michael was going to ‘divert them’ from keeping their date with Kelsey.”

“Look, it’s the van,” Dani says. “It’s probably Michael or maybe Connor.” She wrinkles her brow. “But we don’t need a cleanup tonight ‘cause it was a …”

Margo puts her hands on her hips and glares at Dani.

“Well, you know,” Dani says, shrugging her shoulders.

My heart races, hoping I’ll get to see Connor again. The van lights go off, but it’s Michael who opens the door and gets out.

We head over, and Michael puts an arm around Dani and Zahara’s shoulders. “I was on decoy duty, so my mom told me what was going down tonight. I was kind of friends with Kelsey, and I know Sascha was, too.” Michael looks around at us. “Where is Sascha—did she leave already?”

“Yeah, she took it kind of hard,” I say, glaring at Margo.

Michael nods, like he’s not surprised. “Well, I didn’t know how you all would be doing, and even though it’s against the rules, I thought you might like a ride home in a warm van instead of having to stick it in the cold tonight.”

Margo and Zahara look at each other. Z gives the slightest shake of her head, and I know she’s following Margo’s lead and pulling herself back into traditional icy-hunter mode. I can’t help but wonder if she’d be able to do it so quickly if Kelsey’s body was still lying on the ground by the dugout.

“Thanks,” Margo says, “but I think we should fly home. Kelsey won’t be the last person we know on the hunt list, and we need to keep with the program. Right, everyone?”

“Yeah, right,” Zahara says, slipping out from under Michael’s arm. She takes out the flask from her cloak and takes a long swig, and then hands it over to Margo.

“Hunt list?” I ask.

Margo chokes on the brandy.

“Oh, my God!” I say. “Is that how it works—is there a list of spooks we go after?”

“What?” Margo sputters. “No! Well, sort of, but…”

“Come on, Margo!” I say. “We’re all going to find out what’s going on in a few weeks anyway—so what’s the big deal? Just tell us how a spook gets on the list. How did Kelsey end up being tonight’s hunt?”