Travis still writhed on the floor. He started to get up, but I raised my leg like I was going to kick him again, and he decided to stay put.
The drummer, who had muscular arms as big as my thighs, blocked the door.
“Hi, Fang,” Skyler said. She gave him a dazed smile.
“Skyler, Travis doesn’t want you to leave,” he replied.
“Too bad,” I said. “We’re gone.” I briefly wondered if I should bust out a spell of some kind, but then I realized I had no idea what might work on vampires—probably best to just hightail it out of there.
“What are you?” the guy asked. There was a strange note of curiosity in his voice.
“I’m going to be your worst nightmare if you don’t open that door,” I said.
I was seconds from screaming, but I tried not to let my fear show. “Let us go.” I stood my ground but avoided staring into his reddened eyes, until he unlocked the door and stepped aside.
I half dragged, half carried Sky. I nearly turned my ankle again in my heels, but our pace didn’t slow until I knew we were out of their sight.
I helped her downstairs to find Vaughn waiting for us. Thank god. The tension in my body relaxed a fraction, but we needed to get out of here. Now.
“We’re leaving,” I said shortly.
“Is she okay?”
“She will be. We just need to get her out of here.”
“Okay.” Vaughn was usually unbelievably chill. Everyone at his dad’s catering company liked working with him. Always calm in a crisis.
That’s when I noticed the red stain on Skyler’s dress. “That’s blood,” I said.
Vaughn knew what that meant—the sight of blood made me pass out. “Breathe, Tansy,” he said as he checked Sky for wounds.
Even a little cut could cause me to get light-headed and weak, and I was realizing there was way more than a little blood all over Skyler’s white dress. I took shallow breaths, one after the other.
I couldn’t faint when Skyler needed me.
“We have to keep her away from The Drainers,” I said. “Especially Travis.”
Skyler stirred when she heard his name. “Travis loves me.”
“She seems okay except for these two marks on her shoulder,” he said as he took Skyler from me and hoisted her into his arms. He grunted. “She’s heavier than she looks.”
“She’s all muscle and unrequited love,” I said. “Which weighs more than you’d think.”
Skyler had been reckless, going out and looking for love in all the wrong places, ever since Con broke her heart and headed off for a study-abroad program in Europe. But tonight was the first time I’d been truly scared for her.
I looked more closely at her shoulder, and sure enough, there were two bite marks. Damn vampires. “We need to get her to the hospital.”
She smiled up at me. “I’m in love with Travis.”
“You barely know the guy.” I rolled my eyes, teasing her even though my heart was pounding in my chest. “Wipe that smile off your face.”
“I can’t help it.” She continued to rhapsodize about Travis, but I tuned her out.
I was gasping when we got to the car, but despite his initial complaint, Vaughn carried Skyler with no problem and didn’t even look winded.
“Where are her keys?” he asked.
I fished them out of Skyler’s tiny cross-body purse, which fortunately, she still had with her.
Vaughn placed Skyler gently in the back seat, and I got in beside her. He put the roof up on the convertible and took off.
“How’re you doing back there?” he said as we started down the narrow, twisting road that led to the freeway.
We’d barely made it onto the main road when Skyler started screaming.
I tried to soothe her, but she snapped her teeth at me when I tried to hug her. I’d never seen Skyler like this, not even at her worst.
“What’s wrong with her?” Vaughn asked. She hissed when he flicked on the overhead light with one hand while keeping his other firmly on the wheel.
She panted like a dog, her tongue hanging out. She opened her mouth to scream again, and I froze. Fuck my life. She had long, pointed fangs.
It was hard to believe what I was seeing, but I’d grown up on Granny Mariotti’s stories of the hidden world.
“Vampire,” I whispered. “The Drainers turned you into a vampire.”
She heard me and laughed. “He’s coming for me. Our love is eternal.”
Her whole body contorted, her limbs moving impossibly fast. She nearly ripped the car door off its hinges trying to escape.
“Skyler, close the door,” I said. “Stay calm. We can help you.”
To my relief, she obeyed me, but she started saying Travis’s name, over and over, like a chant.
“Ignore it,” Vaughn said. Clearly he hadn’t heard my earlier revelation. “She’ll be fine once we get her home.”
Skyler snaked an arm around his neck and tried to pull him into the back seat, nearly causing Vaughn to lose control. He was forced to let go of the steering wheel, and the car swerved wildly as he tried to pry her hands from his neck. I tugged at her hands, too, but she had a death grip on him.
Before we ended up wrapped around a tree, Vaughn grabbed the wheel again and managed to maneuver the car to the side of the road.
“Stop it right now!” I shouted. Skyler released him but began to claw at her own skin. There was the bite mark on her neck and another lower down, near her collarbone. Would this happen to me? I rubbed my neck, at what I hoped was just a scratch and not a bite, then drew my hand away quickly. I’d think about my own scraping from Travis after we helped my best friend.
“What’s the matter with her?” Vaughn asked. “Did she take something at the party?” Drugs might explain some of Skyler’s bizarre behavior, but she never touched anything stronger than booze. This was something much worse.
“Do you have any rope in the trunk?” I asked Vaughn.
His eyebrows shot up, but he got out and popped the trunk open, then returned with the rope he used for rock climbing and handed it to me. “I thought we were taking her home.”
“Nope,” I said. “We need to crash Granny’s book club.”
Skyler’s eyes went bloodred, and she lunged for Vaughn’s throat before I could stop her. He jumped back. “Jesus, what the hell is wrong with her?”
Maybe most people would think they were hallucinating or being pranked if their best friend suddenly sprouted fangs and a bad attitude, but I was a Mariotti.