7. Something to make yourself stand out from the crowd—whether it’s your intricate poetry or the parrot-skull necklace that shows your quirky personality or the violin you’ve been practicing since you were a child—bring the thing that shows off the way you’re unique. You want the vampires to see why you deserve to live forever.
8. List of contacts. The great thing about these message boards is that we have friends who’ve already crossed over that can show us the ropes when we arrive. You’ll want to get in touch with them and make a plan to meet up once you’re there, so be sure you have information like addresses, phone numbers, etc. printed out in case of electronic failure. Also, sad to say, keep in mind that some people are more willing to share their connections and good fortune than others. If you get a bad feeling about someone, even if you know them from the boards, steer clear.
9. Your sponsors and ways to contact them. It’s always possible that you’ll run into a snag in your plans, run out of money, get robbed, or even get hurt. If that happens, you need to know the people who you can call on to send cash and extra supplies. Make sure you have the contacts for your parents, grandparents, distant family, friends, online blog followers—anyone who, in a pinch, might be persuaded to give you money. Remember, too, that being inside Coldtown, there are images and experiences that you have access to that you might be able to trade for what you need. It’s not ideal, but it’s something we all have to think about.
10. A buddy. Trust me, you’ll need one.
CHAPTER 15
To die is landing on some distant shore.
—John Dryden
The gates loomed in front of them from several miles away, towering above the tops of trees and bright with floodlights. They’d been built after the outbreaks, at the height of superstitious fervor, and were constructed from planks of sacred oak, ash, and hawthorn—all soaked in holy water, and then nailed with thousands of silver devotional symbols from around the world. And beyond that, the tallest of the ruined halls, factories, and church spires were visible inside the walled city, some glowing with flickering light, some overgrown with a heavy carpet of ivy.
It looked nothing like a prison. The gates seemed as if they were the doorway to an ancient temple or the opening to some enchanted country. Tana had seen them before, on the news, but somehow, in footage from helicopter-mounted cameras, they hadn’t radiated the same feeling of majesty they had now.
As they rounded a bend in the road, the guard station came into view. It was small and ordinary, resembling a tollbooth. Two guards in heavy flak jackets stood together out front, sharing a cigarette. They looked up at the car when its headlights swung through the gloom, but they made no move to pick up their flamethrowers.
“Pull in over there,” Winter said, touching her shoulder and pointing toward a stretch of cracked asphalt curving down into overgrown grass. Other cars were parked haphazardly, some covered in a thick layer of grime. A hand-printed sign nailed to the post of a streetlight read TEMPORARY PARKING ONLY, a corner of it flapping in the wind. Underneath it, another metal sign said, RESTRICTED ACCESS AREA. PERMIT REQUIRED.
Tana pulled in and stopped her Crown Vic next to a beaten-up station wagon. She looked at the clock on her dashboard. In less than two hours the sun would be coming up.
“I’m going to walk over there and figure out the paperwork or whatever for bringing him in,” she said, turning in her seat. “Winter, you better come with me, since you knew what to say to that guard.”
Winter glanced at Aidan warily. Aidan winked.
“Here,” Tana said, ignoring them as she pressed her keys into Midnight’s hand. “If something goes wrong, just get the hell out of here before sunrise.”
“Oh, no,” Gavriel said, pulling a hand free and unlooping more chain. “If there’s trouble, I would be at its heart.”
“The sun’s coming up soon,” Tana reminded him. “And stop messing with the chains—you need to keep all that on until we get inside. You’re still supposed to be our prisoner, remember? This is your plan.”
He shook his head. “You bid me to bide, but if I’m to burn, then surely you will let me put that fire to some use.”
If his lazy, crazy half smile and the gleam in his garnet eyes were any indication, he meant every word he’d just said. He wanted trouble. But why he thought she could let him or stop him from doing anything, she had no idea.
Midnight grabbed for Tana’s fingers and squeezed them. “Just don’t take any crap from those guards, okay? Get that marker. No matter what happens, it’s worth a lot. We’re going to storm into Coldtown like heroes, you know that? People are going to talk about us online for months.”
“Careful,” Winter told his sister, nodding toward Aidan, who gave him a look of wide-eyed innocence in return, and then toward Gavriel, who was staring out into the darkness, thinking whatever thoughts blood-starved vampires who liked to quote Shakespeare had.