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Saber laughed, but her voice sounded high and false to her.
“No,” she said. “I wish. No, I’m doing some work for him cataloging some art that he has. All of his prints and lithographs and stuff.”
“Oh,” Lozen said, giving her a weird look. “In the middle of everything, you’ve decided to get a part time job organizing a rich guy’s art collection?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“It would make more sense if you were sleeping with him.” Lozen sighed.
They drove straight to Saber’s house, and she felt jumpy and anxious the further she drove. Driving alone on the road made her feel vulnerable, and it occurred to her that if she was outside of her home at night, she was not safe.
“I’m scared,” she said, and Lozen nodded.
“Me too.”
They got to her house and, both feeling sort of hysterical, ran to her front door.
When Saber woke up Monday morning the next week, she had the distinct feeling that time was speeding up toward an event or conclusion. Then it occurred to her that the impending disaster she’d been waiting for was her finals, which she hadn’t prepared for, and began to study like crazy.
Finals ended on Thursday, there was a dance at school on Friday, and the Christmas party was on Saturday night. It was going to be a busy week.
That morning, her father had reminded her again that she needed to get a dress for his Christmas party in Seattle. After school, she walked to a little boutique downtown. The shop was decorated for Christmas, and with the salesgirl’s help she picked out a short, gold, silk, strapless dress that contoured perfectly to her body. It was most decidedlynother normal style, but she wanted to look amazing if there was any chance she’d see Ansel.
“That dress was made for you,” the salesgirl said, ringing her up.
That night, she and Lozen crammed so hard for finals that they forgot they were in mortal danger. They stayed in touch with the other members of their little vampire killing club, and so far, no one else had seen anything or been threatened.
Tuesday, Lozen and Saber both took their biology tests and turned in essays aboutThe Great Gatsbyfor their English final. Two down, and two to go for Saber, on Wednesday and Thursday. Lozen had high enough grades in calculus that she was exempt from the final and didn’t study at all for her American history test.
“IamAmerican history,” she’d said, when Saber had asked if she was worried.
Wednesday was a blur of number-two pencils and scantron sheets, but when Saber heard the final bell ring at the end of the day she sighed with relief and was pretty sure she’d done a good job. Thursday she finished her American history final before noon and was allowed to leave campus for the rest of the day. She and Lozen drove together around the island, got pizza, and talked in circles about what they could do to turn up vampires.
“It’s why I want to go to the dance,” Lozen said. “Somebody knowssomething.”
“They’renot going to tell us anything.”
Lozen shrugged.
“Maybe, maybe not.”
A lot of people were missing from school on Friday, there wasn’t much going on, and at lunch Saber and Lozen went off campus and didn’t come back, going instead to Saber’s house to get ready for the dance. They both had cute thrift-store dresses, and shared makeup as they hung out in Saber’s big private bathroom, with brushes, palates, and tubes of lip gloss scattered all over the counter. It was almost normal enough to make Saber forget everything that had happened.
Saber drove them to the school gym, decorated with a cheesy winter-wonderland theme. They got two cokes and sat perched on chairs at some high-top tables at the edge of the empty dance floor.
“Why are we here,” Lozen said, more of a statement than a question.
Saber laughed and looked at her.
“We can leave any time.”
They sat drinking cokes and watching as a few people tried to get the dancing going. Saber knew there would be dancing later, she remembered she used to like it, but wondered if she could really let go.
“Do you think the vampires would come here?” Lozen asked.
“I don’t know,” Saber said, taking a sip of her coke.
It hadn’t occurred to her they may be found at the dance.
