You would never be able to find those two vampires. They would be gone. Disappeared like they'd gone up in smoke. We didn't have to come back the other night! We shouldn't have! Why hadn't I thought of it then?
But... would Diego have agreed? I was abruptly not so sure of myself. Was Diego more loyal to Riley after al ? Would he have felt it was his responsibility to stand by Riley? He'd known Riley a lot longer - he'd real y only known me a day. Was he closer to Riley than he was to me?
I pondered that, frowning.
Wel, I would find out as soon as we had a minute alone. And then maybe, if our secret club real y meant something, it wouldn't matter what our creator had planned for us. We could disappear, and Riley would have to make do with nineteen vampires, or make some new ones quick. Either way, not our problem.
I couldn't wait to tel Diego my plan. My gut instinct was that he would feel the same. Hopeful y.
Suddenly, I wondered if this was what had real y happened to Shel y and Steve and the other kids who had disappeared. I knew they hadn't burned in the sun. Had Riley only claimed he'd seen their ashes as another way to keep the rest of us afraid and dependent on him? Returning home to him every dawn?
Maybe Shel y and Steve had just set off on their own. No more Raoul. No enemies or armies threatening their immediate future.
Maybe that's what Riley had meant by lost to the sun. Runaways. In which case, he'd be happy that Diego hadn't bailed, right?
If only Diego and I had taken off! We could be free, too, like Shel y and Steve. No rules, no fear of the sunrise. Again, I imagined the whole horde of us on the loose without a curfew. I could see Diego and me moving like ninjas through the shade. But I could also see Raoul, Kevin, and the rest, sparkling disco-bal monsters in the center of a busy downtown street, the bodies piling up, the screaming, the helicopters whirring, the soft, helpless cops with their dinky little bul ets that wouldn't make a dent, the cameras, the panic that would spread so fast as the pictures bounced swiftly around the globe. Vampires wouldn't be a secret for very long. Even Raoul couldn't kil people fast enough to keep the story from spreading.
There was a chain of logic here, and I tried to grasp it before I could be distracted again.
One, humans didn't know about vampires. Two, Riley encouraged us to be inconspicuous, not to attract the notice of humans and educate them otherwise. Three, Diego and I had decided that al vampires must be fol owing that guideline, or else the world would know about us. Four, they must have a reason for doing so, and it wasn't the little popguns of the human police that motivated them. Yeah, the reason must be pretty important to make al vampires hide al day long in stuffy basements. Maybe reason enough to make Riley and our creator lie to us, terrify us about the burning sun. Maybe it was a reason Riley would explain to Diego, and since it was so important and he was so responsible, Diego would promise to keep the secret and they would be cool with that. Sure they would. But what if what actual y happened to Shel y and Steve was that they'd discovered the shiny skin thing and not run?
What if they'd gone to Riley?
And, crap, there went the next step in my logical path. The chain dissolved and I started panicking about Diego again. As I stressed, I realized that I'd been thinking things through for a while. I could feel dawn coming on. No more than an hour away. So where was Diego? Where was Riley?
As I thought this, the door opened and Raoul leaped down the stairs, laughing with his buddies. I hunched down, leaning closer to Fred. Raoul didn't notice us. He looked at the crispyfried vampire in the center of the floor and laughed harder. His eyes were bril iant red.
On the nights Raoul went hunting, he never came home til he had to. He would keep feeding as long as he could. So dawn must have been even closer than I'd thought.
Riley must have demanded that Diego prove his words. That was the only explanation. And they were waiting for the dawn. Only... that would mean that Riley didn't know the truth, that our creator was lying to him, too. Or did it? My thoughts twisted up again.
Kristie showed up minutes later with three of her gang. She reacted indifferently to the pile of ashes. I did a quick head count as two more hunters hurried through the door. Twenty vampires. Everyone was home except Diego and Riley. The sun would rise at any moment.
The door at the top of the basement stairs creaked as someone opened it. I sprang to my feet.
Riley entered. He shut the door behind him. He walked down the stairs.
No one fol owed.
Chapters 10
Before I could process this, Riley roared out an animalistic shriek of rage. He was staring down at the ashy remains on the floor, his eyes bulging in fury. Everyone stood silent, immobile. We'd al seen Riley lose his temper, but this was something different.
Riley spun and raked his fingers through a blaring speaker, then ripped it from the wal and hurled it across the room. Jen and Kristie dodged out of the way as it exploded into the far wal, sending up a cloud of pulverized drywal dust. Riley smashed the sound system with his foot, and the thudding bass went silent. Then he leaped to where Raoul stood, and grabbed him by the throat.
"I wasn't even here!" Raoul yel ed, looking afraid - I'd never seen that before.
Riley growled hideously and threw Raoul as he'd thrown the speaker. Jen and Kristie jumped out of the way again. Raoul's body crashed right through the wal, leaving an enormous hole. Riley caught Kevin by the shoulder and - with a familiar screech - ripped off his right hand. Kevin cried out in pain and tried to twist out of Riley's grip. Riley kicked him in the side. Another harsh shriek and Riley had the rest of Kevin's arm. He tore the arm in half at the elbow and threw the pieces hard into Kevin's anguished face - smack, smack, smack, like a hammer striking stone.