Stake That (4 page)

from your twin sister. Especially when the twin in question is dating a vampire. Which, I might add, is sort of your fault to begin with. Not to mention that the Blood Bar place sounds really dangerous. But I’m guessing this is just a joke to freak me out. I hope…

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 11 P.M.

Jareth

I ‘m so getting my hair dyed black. Tomorrow. I’d do it to-night if I could find a drugstore that was still open. Just get a bottle of dye and dump it over my head. Something. Any-thing. Just so I don’t look exactly like Sunny.

Sorry. Getting ahead of myself here.

So last I wrote I was in the Blood Bar, waiting for the vamp who’s supposed to suck me, right? And it was a long wait, let me tell you. But finally the door opens.

The guy who enters the room is nothing like the other vamps I saw hanging out in the sitting room. The half-starved, junkie looking ones. This guy, while definitely a vamp with gorgeous fangage, is like a Jude Law clone. I know! Drool, right? Seriously, the dude’s got the same dirty blond hair, same beautiful blue eyes (though his are rimmed with black eyeliner—yum!), and high cheekbones. He’s tall. He’s lanky. He’s wearing a black wife-beater tank and tight black pants. His buff arms tell me he clocks in mucho time at the gym, but at the same time, he’s simply tone, not bulky and meatheady like the bouncer, Francis, had been.

In other words, he’s the most gorgeous Goth guy I’ve ever seen. And he’s a vampire, too. Which automatically makes him not a poseur, like, uh, some of you. (Cough, cough, DarkGothBoy.) Anyway, I’m all staring at him, totally and officially and instantly in love. I’m thinking, he can jump me, bite me, have his wicked way with me. Whatever his little black heart de-sires. He can take me on midnight strolls through ancient, ivy-walled cemeteries and kiss me senseless under the waning moon. Forget whiny, annoying Magnus. Sunny can have him. I want a blood mate like this guy.

“Hi, I’m Jareth, and I’ll be your biter tonight,” he mum-bles in a deep, British-accented voice. OMG, yes! He’s En-glish, too! Major w00t! At this point I’m thinking this guy is way too good to be true. I wonder if he already has a blood mate, but I can’t imagine he’d be working in a place like this, if he did. Maybe he’s a lost soul, waiting for the love of a pure heart to redeem him like you always read about in those Christine Feehan books.

I watch intently as he wanders to the far side of the room, not yet glancing in my direction. He lazily sinks into the bed, extending his arms spread-eagle across the width of the pil-lows. His movements are slinky,
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almost catlike in their grace. He closes his beautiful sapphire eyes and smiles the most se-ductive smile known to mankind, his fangs slightly protrud-ing from his mouth. Aha! Now we’re talking. I wonder if he’s really as attractive as I think he is or if he’s using the Vampire Scent on me. Vampires have this pheromone thing going on that makes them irresistible to humans. Prob-ably how they rose to such power in this world. One grin and we’re putty in their fangs.

“If you have any special requests, please tell me now and I’lldo my best to accommodate you,” he purrs in a throaty voice, shifting in the bed a bit, eyes still closed.

OMG, this guy oozes sex. He’s practically dripping with it. I so want to jump him. Even more than I wanted to jump Ville when I went to see H.I.M. last fall. And that’s saying something. I shake my head. No, no, that will never do. One, this vamp’s not really interested in me; it’s his job to turn me on. I don’t want to be like the fat guy who falls for the hooker. Two, he’s one of the bad guys, duh. So even if he did—for some unfathomable reason—take an interest in me, I so can’t start hooking up with one of Maverick’s men. Then I’d have towar against my sister and her BF and that seems kind of lame. Not to mention I’d be nanovirused by Slayer Inc. A lousy situation all around.

“Um, hi, Jareth,” I say, realizing he’s waiting for an an-swer to his special requests question. Not that I can think of any. Well, not that I should say aloud anyway. Hm, maybe I should at least introduce myself.

“Nice to meet you. I’m—”

“God!” Jareth interrupts as his eyes flutter open and he looks straight at me for the first time. Though with that ac-cent, it comes out more like, “Gawd.”

“Uh, no,” I correct, though not unpleased at the idea. I like this guy’s style. “I’m not God. At least I’m pretty sure I’m not. Though sometimes as a kid I used to pretend I was Aphrodite. You know, the goddess of love? But really, I’m just—”

“Your Majesty! What are you doing here?” he asks, scrambling off the bed and bowing low from the waist. “This is no place for you.”

Oh-kay then. I stare at him, confused as all hell at this point. Is this some kind of weird role-playing they do here? Creepy. “Uh, no,” I correct, “I’m not a queen or anything, ei-ther. I mean, sure, again, I wish. But really I’m just—”

“I know very well who you are, Majesty.” His lips curl into a snarl, his blue eyes now a dark and stormy sea. He looks so angry. I take a cautionary step back. What have I gotten myself into? Does he know I work for Slayer Inc.? Is he going to alert the whole Blood Bar? Am I utterly screwed?

“Uh …” I manage, not at my most articulate.

Jareth grabs me by the shoulders, his nails digging into my skin, his gaze boring down on me. I’m shaking like crazy and amthis close to bursting into tears. Some cool slayer chick I am. The way he’s got me pinned I can’t even whip out my stake. “Why did Magnus send you? Does he not trust me to get the job done?”

What? I look up at him, meeting his eyes for the first time, Did he just say “Magnus”?

You know Magnus?” I ask, my voice totally croaky.

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This could be bad. Very bad. Is my sister’s boyfriend actually mixed up with the evils after all? Does this mean I have toslay him? Sunny will be so pissed if I slay her boyfriend, baddie or no. But then, I guess in the long run I’d be doing her a favor, right? Saving her from the Dark Side. Like when Luke killed his father, Darth Vader. Sort of. Okay, not really exactly the same.

He gives me a strange look. “Of course. I’m General Jareth of the Blood Coven Army. But you know that.”

“Ido?” I rack my brains. Then realization smacks me up-side the head. Duh, duh, duh. “Oh! You think that I’m—”

“You know, I must say, I’m quite offended,” Jareth rants, releasing my shoulders and running a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe Magnus doesn’t trust me. Sending his blood mate in to spy on me. And did he really think I wouldn’t recognize you? After that night at Club Fang?”

“Dude, you have the wrong idea,” I interrupt. “If you’d just calm down, I’ll explain. I’m not Sunny. I’m—”

“Insulting. Unbearably insulting. I must go have a word with him this very second.” Jareth pushes by me and heads out the door, slamming it behind him.

“I’m Rayne!” I cry after him. “Her sister.”

He’s so already gone.

I sigh, plopping down on the bed. These mistaken identity things really need to stop. First there was the whole Sunny getting my blood mate and almost becoming a creature of the night, now this. Definitely time to dye my hair black. Or de-velop an eating disorder like one of the Olsen twins. (Though that would force me to give up French fries.) But I have to do something. Anything to keep me from looking exactly like my sister.

Especially now that she’s the Vampire Queen and I’m the slayer.

POSTED BY RAYNE MCDONALD @ 11 P.M.

FOUR COMMENTS:

ButterfliQT says …

Wow, Rayne. I can’t believe u went into that place by urself. Weren’t you afraid they’d, like, kill u or something?

Rayne says …

Butterfli, we cannot all live our lives in fear. Some of us have destinies to fulfill. And, um, thanks for
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reminding me about the potential deathage. I really appreciate the support and encouragement… .

Anonymous…

Hey, Destiny Girl—you make yourself all high and mighty, but as far as I see it, you’re still at square one. You haven’t fig-ured out anything about Maverick or his plans. You suck.

Rayne says …

First off, if you’ve got something to post in my blog, post it as yourself. Don’t hide under anonymity. That’s, like, way lame. Second off, this isn’t some TV drama, where everything’s solved in forty minutes between commercial breaks. Let’s be realistic here. It’s gonna take a few visits before I save the day. But never you fear, oh Anonymous One. I will succeed. After all, I am Rayne, The Vampire Slayer.

SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 10 P.M.

Jareth the Jerk-Off

Quick entry before school as I didn’t get to finish telling you the whole story last night. Was way too exhausted.

I leave the Blood Bar—not much more I can do tonight— and drive home. I’m exhausted at this point and just want to crawl in bed and get some shut-eye. But as I walk up the steps to the house, I hear a distinct
psst
coming from the bushes. I turn to look. It’s my sister, Sunny, hiding in a bush. I scrunch my eyebrows. “What are you—?”

She puts a finger to her lips and motions for me to follow. She leads me across the front lawn and to an elegant black stretch limo I hadn’t noticed parked across the street. I climb inside after her and shut the door. The driver, obscured by a smoked-out glass window, pulls out.

I look, around the limo. Whoa. Very elegant. Very vamp. The seats are crushed red velvet and there are crystal de-canters filled with crimson liquid. Liquid I can almost guar-antee is not some fine merlot. Something inside of me aches a bit. You know, it’s so not fair that this is Sunny’s life and not mine. I did
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everything I was supposed to and now she’s reaping all the rewards. I should have the riches, the powers, the gothed-out limo. The hot blood mate.

Speaking of, Magnus is sitting beside Sunny, all decked out in Armani as usual. I can see why she digs the guy. He looks just like Orlando Bloom in
Pirates of the Carribean.
Long black hair, pulled back, deep soulful eyes. (Though that might just be a trick of the light seeing as the guy has no soul… .) I turn to my side and sigh when I see Jareth, the vamp from the Blood Bar, sitting next to me. Still dressed in his Goth best, a serious frown on his otherwise delish face. I sigh again. Great. He obviously sold me out. Sunny’s going to be
sooo
pissed I didn’t tell her the 411 about the whole slayer thing before heading out.

“What’s going on, Rayne?” Sunny demands. Dressed in flip-flops, jeans, and tank top, she looks so out of place in the elegant, Gothic vampire limo. Annoys me to no end the fact that she now belongs here more than I do, let me tell you. At least they didn’t fit her with a crown or something. Though I guess technically she’s not Magnus’s queen unless they get married, right? Can vampires even get married? I can’t re-member if that was covered in the training. I guess if they did it’d be more country club than church… .

Sorry. Digressing. I know.

“Uh, what do you mean?” I ask, not quite sure why I’m even attempting the innocent routine. There’s no way she doesn’t know.

“Jareth says he saw you down at the Blood Bar,” Magnus clarifies. He has a sexy English accent, too. According to Sunny he was once a knight in shining armor for King Arthur inCamelot. I wonder if Jareth was as well. Not that I care.

“He assumed you were me,” Sunny adds.

“Hm. I wonder why,” I say sarcastically, still mad at him forscaring me so badly back at the bar. “Oh, wait. Could it be that he didn’t shut up long enough to listen to one word I had to say? Could it be that he was too much in a hurry to run and go crying to Magnus before I even had a chance to explain?” I narrow my eyes and shoot daggers at Jareth. Jerkoff. Getting me in trouble with the vamps. So help me if this interferes with my position on the blood mate waiting list. “Thanks, dude, for selling me down the river. Two seconds and we could have cleared this whole thing up. But no. You had to
assume.
And you know what
assuming
does, don’t you?” I elbow the vampire in the ribs. “Makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘you’ and

‘me.’ Or however that stupid phrase goes.”

“I wouldn’t mind you turning into an ass,” Jareth growls in his throaty voice. “Then at least you couldn’t speak.”

“Oh yeah?” I cry, my blood boiling at this point. I’m, like, this close to smacking the guy upside the head. Or whipping out my stake, even. That’d show him. No one should be able to talk to me like that and live.

“Well … then I could, um, bray, and I bet that would be even more annoying.”

“I’d take my chances.”

“Jareth! Rayne!” Magnus scolds. “This childish bickering is not helping us get to the bottom of this.”

“You’re right,” I agree. Then when Magnus isn’t looking I stick my tongue out at Jareth. He scowls back
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at me. OMG, what a loser, right? And that “ass” comment was completely uncalled for. Especially since back at the Blood Bar he wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise while he ranted and raved and pulled out his hair. I take everything back about him being a sexy guy I’d want to have vampire babies with.

“Why were you at the Blood Bar, Rayne?” Sunny asks, her voice all concerned and big sister like. Technically though, I’m the older one. By seven whole minutes. Just cause she’s dating some guy who’s, like, a thousand years old doesn’t mean sud-denly she’s more wise and mature. “And that thing in your blog? About being a vampire slayer? Was that just a joke? Cause if that was a joke, it wasn’t very funny.”