Stake That by Mari Mancusi Page B

“Why, girls?” she asks. “Why would you do that?” She grabs a napkin and blows her nose. “You could have just told me you were uncomfortable with me dating. You didn’t have to ter-rorize the guy. I really like him, you know?” Ugh. I breathe out a frustrated breath. Now what? We’ve just scared off Mom’s date, which is a good thing, seeing as he’s pretty much confirmed as an evil vampire. But now she’s hurt and upset and feels like we’ve betrayed her.
    “He wasn’t right for you,” I say, putting an arm around her shoulders to try to comfort her. “You’ll find someone else.”
    She looks up. “Wasn’t right for me? He’s perfect for me!” Sigh. Just sigh. I open my mouth to try again, but nothing comes out. Sunny is edging out of the room, abandoning me to the tears. Coward!
    “Look, girls. I’m not trying to replace your dad,” she says. “I just… well, I get lonely sometimes. You have your own lives and are always out and I sit in the house by myself half the time. I’m not that old,” she adds. “I’d like another chance at love. And I’m asking you guys to be okay with that.” Mom heads upstairs, slamming her bedroom door behind her. I sink into a dining room chair. Did we do the right thing? This is so hard. So, so hard. ‘Cause I am okay with that. More than okay. In fact, I want nothing more than for my mom to meet a nice guy and live happily ever after. I just have one requirement. Prince Charming shouldn’t be an evil vampire. Is that so much to ask?
    Sunny reappears, her face white and her expression uber-serious. She’s holding a beige jacket in her arms. David’s jacket.
    “He left his jacket?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. This could be interesting. “Did you search it?” She nods slowly. “And I found something in his pocket,” she says, handing a folded piece of paper to me. “Look at this.”
    I take it and unwrap it slowly, my eyes widening as I read. “Oh, my god,” I whisper, looking up at Sunny, then back down at the paper.
    “Yeah,” she says solemnly.
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    The scrawled writing on the paper looks like a cheat sheet—like something a cheating student would bring to a test. And it’s got information. Lots of personal information. About my mom. About Sunny. About me.
    And about Magnus.
    This is so not good.
     
     
    POSTED BY RAYNE MCDONALD @ 10:30 P.M.
    TWO COMMENTS:
     
    CandyGrrl says …
    Ooh, that’s sooo scary, Rayne! Do you think Maverick knows you’re out to get him and sent a spy of his own? Good thing you scared the guy away! But what if he comes back?
     
    Angelbaby3234566 says …
    You know, now that I think about it, I think MY mom’s new BF might be an evil vampire, too. I’m so renting The Lost Boys and trying your guys’ techniques. Heck, even if he turns out to be human, maybe I’ll be able to scare him away any-way, which is good enough 4 me.
     
16
     
    THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1 P.M.
     
    Way More Than Six Feet Under
     
    That night Sunny calls Magnus and tells him about the David incident. He reassures her that everything will be okay and he’ll assign some vamps to guard our house and some others to try to track the guy down. Unfortunately, we only know his first name so it’s not like we can look up his address in the white pages. Sigh. I so should have staked him when I had the chance.
    Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    The next day my cell phone beeps as I’m getting out of school, informing me I have a text message. I scroll through and find it’s from Jareth, of all people. (No idea how he got my mobile number, maybe Mom’s right when she says there’s just no privacy anymore.) The message itself is short and sweet: MEET ME AT CLUB FANG @ 7PM
    For those of you who don’t know, Club Fang is this way cool Goth club in Nashua, New Hampshire, that’s also a big vamp hangout. Well, by night, anyway. During