"It looks like these bodies might not have any blood as well."
"Severed arteries?"
"Not exactly," he said, and she felt his anger radiating through the wireless phone. "But it could be that the corpses were ex-sanguinated."
"Drained of blood," she said, thinking of the puncture wounds.
"You might want to see for yourself in the lab."
"I will, but now we"ve got another missing girl."
He drew in a quick, swift breath. "Who?"
"Student at All Saints by the name of Ariel O"Toole. Parents can"t locate her and from the looks of her apartment, I"d say she"s been gone for several days."
"Don"t tell me, she"s an English major."
"That"s right."
"And she took that vampirism cla.s.s?"
"Yeah."
He swore hard. "I"m on my way up there. The lab can call in their report. My daughter"s a student at All Saints. An English major."
"I wondered if you"d show up," Grace said, sipping from her drink as she sat at a table in the noisy bar, where music was playing loudly and a band was setting up in the corner. "Join us."
Trudie"s face tightened. She made fleeting eye contact with Kristi, clearly not as thrilled to welcome her as Grace.
Marnie tossed her hair from her shoulder and said, "Yeah, have a seat."
Kristi ignored Trudie as she settled into an empty chair, eyeing their drinks. "So what"re you having?"
"Blood red martini." Grace lifted her gla.s.s and twirled the long stem in her fingers, the scarlet contents threatening to slosh over the rim.
"What"s in it?"
"Blood, of course." She licked her lips, then took a long swallow. "Mmm."
Kristi nodded. "Yeah, right, like blood from a pomegranate or cranberry or-"
"It"s human." Grace laughed at her joke, but Trudie"s mood turned even darker. She shot her friend a "shut-the-h.e.l.l-up" look, which Kristi guessed, from the glint in Grace"s eyes, she was ignoring. Grace was enjoying this.
As was Marnie. "That"s right, we"re all into it. The whole vampire thing, you know."
Kristi decided to play along. "I"m in Grotto"s cla.s.s, too. Is he, like, the greatest teacher or what?" Before waiting for an answer, she added, "I guess I"d better have one."
She looked around just as a waitress dropped off a pitcher of beer and four frosted mugs at a nearby table. Once finished, the girl, a slight brunette with a streak of fuchsia in her hair, turned around and Kristi thought she looked familiar, as if she"d seen her on campus. "You"re in some of my cla.s.ses...?" she asked her.
"Yep. Bethany," she said. "What can I get you?"
Kristi pointed at Trudie"s drink. "I"ll have one of those."
"Good choice." She nodded her approval. "My personal favorite."
"Really?"
"Blood red martini."
"Made with?"
"Gin, vermouth, cranberry juice, and just a hint of grape juice."
"No real blood?" Kristi asked.
"Sorry," Bethany said, one side of her mouth lifting. "The board of health frowns on that."
"I imagine."
She glanced at Trudie and Grace. "Refills?"
Trudie shook her head. "I"ve got to get to the theater before Father Mathias has a heart attack."
"You"re in the production, right?" Kristi asked.
"Trudie"s character is Death," Grace said, and Marnie nearly choked on a sip of her drink.
"Fitting, isn"t it?" she joked.
"Whatever." Trudie finished her drink in one swallow and grabbed her purse.
Bethany was still waiting, and Grace said, "Why not? And make mine a double."
"Are you crazy?" Trudie said, horrified. "You have to go to the play!"
"I know, but I already saw it." Both Grace and Marnie seemed amused by Trudie"s concern, as if they had already swilled down several drinks. "I know the whole gloomy plot."
"I"ll be right back with those," Bethany said, heading to the bar.
"Why go to the play again?" Kristi asked.
"Required." Marnie picked up a few peanuts from the dish at the center of the table and tossed them into her mouth.
"It"s required to see the same play twice?"
Trudie glared at Grace, willing her to shut up. "Not if you"re drunk, it isn"t."
"Oh, get over yourself, "Death,"" Grace said, and she and Marnie laughed uproariously.
Trudie, flushed, muttered, "Screw you, b.i.t.c.hes," then swept through the surrounding tables in outrage, nearly running into a busboy with a tub of dirty dishes.
"She"s p.i.s.sed," Marnie said, and they laughed again.
"You know," Kristi said, as someone changed the music from hip-hop to country. A Keith Urban ballad could barely be heard over the conversation, "I almost believed you. About the drinks."
Marnie exchanged glances with her friend, then whispered barely loud enough to be heard, "Grace wasn"t lying. We doctor ours." To prove a point, she actually pulled a small dark bottle from her purse, then surrept.i.tiously unscrewed the lid and added a few drops of dark liquid to her gla.s.s. "It"s kind of salty."
"Like a margarita," Grace chimed in.
"Yeah, right."
Grace shrugged, as if she didn"t care what Kristi thought, and took a sip. Either the two friends were certifiable, or they"d decided to have a little fun at Kristi"s expense. Kristi didn"t comment, but waited for her drink as the music changed again. There was a loud eruption of noise at the nearby pool table when one of the players missed a shot.
A few seconds later, Bethany returned, left fresh drinks, and swept up the empty gla.s.ses.
Marnie reached into her purse again and lifted her eyebrows, offering a bit of the "blood" to Kristi. Though she wanted to appear to be part of their group, Kristi wasn"t about to drink down some concoction of unknown origins. She shook her head. Besides, both Marnie and Grace were already acting so giddy and drunk, Kristi wondered if whatever they were putting into their drinks might be a street or prescription drug that enhanced the effects of alcohol.
"Come on, Kristi. You"ve been asking all the questions," Grace said. "Don"t you want Marnie to add a little bit of real blood?"
"Nah. Got too much to do tonight."
"You don"t know what you"re missing." Marnie shook several drops into her drink, then some into Grace"s as well. Lifting her gla.s.s, she said, "To vampires," her eyes gleaming with mischief.
"To vampires," Grace agreed, clinking her gla.s.s to her friend"s.
Kristi hoisted her stemmed gla.s.s. "To vampires," she intoned, and they all took a sip.
The drink was strong, tasting of cranberry and gin, warming its way down Kristi"s throat. Marnie and Grace giggled all the more and licked their lips. They acted like they really believed in the vampire stuff, or at least found it incredibly hilarious. Kristi watched them as she sipped her drink, then put in casually to Marnie, "I thought I saw you go into Wagner House the other day."
Her own words "other day" seemed to reverberate a bit, and Kristi looked around toward the band, wondering about the sound. And was that right? Was it the other day? Or, had it been at night? She couldn"t seem to rightly remember. "It was after hours," she added, for clarification.
"Really?" Marnie"s smile wobbled a bit...looked like a snake crawling across her lips. A blood red snake. No, it was just her lipstick running...or...?
"We all go there," Grace said over the loud music, and she seemed to be having trouble staying on her chair.
"Yeah, we meet there."
"We"re meeting at Wagner House tonight." Grace again. "Maybe you"d like to come."
Grace"s words sounded funny, as if coming through water. And her image kind of wavered. Feeling uncomfortably warm and off balance, Kristi licked her lips and tried to respond but the words felt stuck in her throat.
"Oh, G.o.d, it looks like the drink really hit you hard." Marnie seemed concerned. "Let"s get her out of here."
"I"ll pay," Grace said, and flagged over the waitress...what the h.e.l.l was her name? Bethany...the girl in Grotto"s cla.s.s...She came over in a hurry and they began talking together. They grabbed Kristi under her arms and helped her toward the door. Lord, she was drunk, her legs hardly working. She heard phrases like, "Can"t hold her liquor...we"ll get her home..."
But that wasn"t right.
She"d been drugged. She knew it.
Somehow, someway, they"d slipped something into her drink and she"d been foolish enough to have trusted the waitress. d.a.m.n it all...
No one in the bar seemed to notice as she was hustled out a side door and into the dark, cold night. She tried to yell, but no words came, and when she managed to fling one arm out, nearly swiping Grace"s chin, the other girl laughed it off.
She looked like just another wasted college girl.
Now what? she thought, but even as the words crossed her mind they escaped again. Her mental acuity, at least for the moment, had disappeared. Blackness pulled at the corners of her consciousness and she thought she might pa.s.s out. she thought, but even as the words crossed her mind they escaped again. Her mental acuity, at least for the moment, had disappeared. Blackness pulled at the corners of her consciousness and she thought she might pa.s.s out.
Don"t! Stay awake! You have to keep your wits about you!
"Here ya go," Bethany said, opening a door as the two other girls guided her outside, keeping her moving while her own legs became less and less steady.
Outside the air was crisp, in stark contrast to the thick, noisy, warm atmosphere in the bar. "We"ll take it from here," Marnie said.
"I"ve got to get back inside...." Bethany, sounding p.i.s.sed.
"If anyone asks..." Grace"s voice, as if from a distance.
"I know what to say. Just get her out of here now, before someone comes."
Bethany had been the one to put something in Kristi"s drink.
Fool! You knew she was in Grotto"s cla.s.s as well!
She tried to yell, to call for help, but only the smallest sound escaped her lips.
The door slammed behind them and Kristi realized she was being held between Marnie and Grace and she couldn"t move at all, couldn"t command her muscles to do what her brain was asking.
For the other girls, all the joviality, the silliness of the evening, seemed to have worn off.
"Stupid b.i.t.c.h," Marnie said, forcing Kristi along a dark alley. "Stupid, snooping b.i.t.c.h."
"You want to know about vampires?" Grace asked as Kristi"s dread increased. "Believe me, tonight, you"ll learn." She grinned down with a malice so cold Kristi"s heart quivered. Behind her braces, just barely visible, were a set of glistening white fangs.
Kristi blinked again, tried to scream, made one last attempt to kick out at the two girls dragging her down the alley, but she was helpless as a kitten. Her limbs refused to move, her voice was mute, the world distorted, blackness threatening to overtake her.
She thought they"d shoved her into a car...but she didn"t know if that was right.
She was lying across a backseat, headlights flashing on the ceiling of the car, Marnie and Grace in the front seat. Was Trudie dressed as the character of Death, with her in the back? Or, was it Bethany?
Her mind spun and, try as she might, Kristi couldn"t find reality. Jay...oh, G.o.d...she thought of Jay. Where was he? Had she told him she loved him? And her father...was he alive? Hadn"t she seen Rick Bentz"s face in black and white?
Where the h.e.l.l was she?
She blinked and realized the car ride, if that"s what it was, was over. She was being half dragged again.