“I always drive safe. It’s a minivan.” Just as I turned toward the car, which had been moved to the school while I slept by a helpful human Council employee, I tracked a flash of hot pink in my peripheral vision. My head whipped toward the movement, a predatory instinct that made me more than a little uncomfortable. About twenty feet away, Ashlynne Carson, the little sister of one of Danny’s classmates, was chasing her wayward “Welcome Back to School” balloon as it floated toward the parking lot. Ashlynne’s mother, Candace, was busy talking to Mr. Walsh and didn’t see her daughter in danger. And Nina Paltree was backing her huge Yukon out of its space and had no clue that Ashlynne was behind her. In fact, it seemed like no one was watching Ashlynne at the moment.
Without thinking, I sprinted the short distance at top speed. I caught Ashlynne under her arms and scooped her up, springing to the side, out of the path of the car. It would have been a graceful rescue had my foot not caught on the curb and sent me sprawling across the sidewalk. I wrapped my arms around Ashlynne’s squirming body, rolling across the pavement and taking the brunt of the impact on my back.
“Ow,” I grunted as Ashlynne and I rolled to a stop.
“My balloon!” the little girl wailed. “You made me miss my balloon! I want my balloon!”
“Everybody’s a critic,” I mumbled.
It seemed that while no one had seen me barrel across the parking lot at superhuman speeds, everybody had seen me take a dive on the pavement. Typical. Candace scrambled across the sidewalk and pulled Ashlynne from my arms. I could barely make out her “thank you”s through her alternate sobbing and fussing at her daughter. Nina drove the Yukon away, unaware of the drama left unfolding behind her.
A few other parents huddled around Ashlynne and her mother, while Principal Walsh and Casey ran to help me.
“Libby! Are you OK?” Mr. Walsh helped me to my feet. With every movement, I discovered new bits of gravel buried in my knees and palms.
“I’m fine,” I assured him, even as I hissed in pain. Once again, vampirism did not stop the pain response. If anything, I think my sensitive nerves felt it more acutely.
“I’ll go get Nurse Anne,” he called over his shoulder, jogging into the school building.
“Oh, careful, hon,” Casey said, turning my hands over. “You’ve got some pretty good scrapes on your hands. Let’s get you to the nurse’s office, and she can clean those . . .” We watched as the wounds on my palms closed on their own. The bits of gravel skittered across the pavement as the healing flesh pushed the rocks out of my skin. “Up.” I watched the color drain from my friend’s face as she backed away from me.
“Casey . . .” I began.
“Don’t.” Casey held up her cross necklace as if that would ward me off. (It wouldn’t.) “I knew you seemed too healthy. You moved too fast. You were too pret— I knew something was wrong.”
“There’s nothing wrong,” I told her.
“Oh, sure, nothing’s wrong,” she scoffed. Her head snapped toward Mr. Walsh, who was following Ashlynne and Candace into the school.
“Casey,” I said, with a little more warning in my tone than was probably wise.
“I don’t know anyone who is a vampire,” she said. “And I don’t want to know you.”
And with that, I watched as the closest thing I had to a friend climbed into her car and drove away.
4
Your relationships with other members of your family will change, just as the rest of your life has changed. And if you thought those relatives questioned your parenting decisions before, just wait until they find out you’re a vampire.
—My Mommy Has Fangs: A Guide to Post-Vampiric Parenting
I knew it was only a matter of time before Les or Marge showed up at my door. Casey was a serious gossip.
I’d expected to have more than forty minutes, though.
When Mr. Walsh emerged from the building with Nurse Anne, enormous first-aid kit in hand, I’d had to explain that the emergency medical care wasn’t necessary as I’d done my healing all by myself. There was no time like the present, I supposed, to update them on my new condition. Mr. Walsh spent a grand total of two seconds looking vaguely uncomfortable with the idea of a vampire parent before clearing his throat and handling the situation with his usual aplomb. He assured me that this wouldn’t change my son’s educational experience at the school and said to come to him if I had any problems. He’d even understood when I’d requested that he not release Danny to his grandparents. He’d dealt with much more complicated custody situations than mine, though in most of his cases, the parties involved had pulses. And while Nurse Anne remained silent, as I was leaving, she slipped a card into my hand detailing the meeting schedule for the Newly Emerged Vampires Support Group.