Looking at the screen, Pearl wondered for the first time if the vampire was scared.
Before, she’d always figured that good vampires went to one of the Coldtowns or someplace they were supposed to be and that bad vampires stayed behind to attack people. But now that it was Aidan, who’d always been nice to her, and her big sister, Tana, out in the world, sick or newly turned, she couldn’t think of things that way anymore.
Of course, there were bad vampires like the ones who killed those kids in Tana’s class. Maybe the vampire that Hemlok was hunting was like that. But how could he tell?
Back on the show, Hemlok was getting extra supplies out of the back of his truck.
“There’s three ways to kill a vampire and be sure it’s dead,” Hemlok said. “You put wood through its heart, you set it on fire, or you chop off its head. Anything else is fighting a gunslinger with an open-handed slap. ’Course some people stand by bleeding them out, but to me, that’s like a silver nail in the head, might hold them for a while, but ain’t permanent.”
“And don’t forget sunlight, baby,” said Jeana, zipping herself into a chain mail shark suit. “Sunlight sure kills ’em.”
He rolled his eyes. This was a big part of the show, the relationship between the two of them. “Nobody looking to kill a vampire is going to be like, oh yeah, I guess I better get out some sunlight. That’s no weapon.”
“It kills ’em.” She tossed her hair. “That’s all I’m saying. Kills ’em good.”
He grunted and picked up a clear bottle, screwing off the top. “Now some of you been asking about which holy waters or wild rose waters to use on stakes or why I use holy water at all, since there’s been a whole bunch of hubbub about how it doesn’t really do anything. Well, first of all, I always use oil, not water, ’cause it seeps into the wood better and stays there. And I use rose oil that’s been blessed, so that’s double duty.
“And for all you people who say holy whatever doesn’t help taking down vamps, I’m out here in the field—so who are you going to believe, me or some scientists?”
Leaving that question hanging in the air, he hefted up a giant crossbow, its body carved into a crucifix. “Now, another common viewer question is which of my weapons is my favorite.” A wooden stake sat cocked and ready in place of a quarrel. “That’s this baby. She can drop a vampire from thirty feet.”
“It’s time to start killing,” Jeana said, tapping a white ceramic watch.
He smiled at the camera. “Okay, let’s roll.”
Pearl felt along the couch for the controller. They were almost to the part where the vampire came out from the bar. There was a chase after that, and Jeana almost got bit on the arm, but her chain bodysuit protected her. Hemlok wound up shooting the vampire with the crossbow and sawing off her head for the bounty.
Pearl didn’t want to see it. Not right then, after all the stuff the police had said about her sister, not when her dad had come back from the hardware store with wild rose vines for the lintels and a big blowtorch he didn’t explain. She clicked off the television and opened her laptop, booting up the feed for Lucien Moreau’s party.
Her dad hated that she watched stuff like this, where the vampires weren’t portrayed like villains, but today she didn’t care.
She brought another spoonful of cereal to her mouth as the inside of his mansion came on the screen. It looked like something out of a fairy tale, with its gold damask wallpaper and candles on sconces jutting out from the walls. Elisabet, Lucien’s consort, was on the screen, her beautiful dark hair pulled back into a chignon and the front of her dress wet with blood. Her red lipstick made her fangs seem even brighter when she smiled. Lucien Moreau, elegantly dressed in cream, his hair like spun gold, caught her up in his arms, whirling her around. His mouth was stained equally bright when he brought it to hers.
Pearl smiled.
That was where her sister was going. Tana was going to live like that, like a princess in a faraway city. Maybe, someday, Pearl could even join her. And once she did, she just knew that everything would be perfect forever.
CHAPTER 21
Dying is a wild night and a new road.
—Emily Dickinson
When Tana woke, the sky overhead was just beginning to darken. She could smell onions frying and heard music playing. People shouted to one another on the street, laughter in their voices. All the kind of stuff she might have expected to find in every city except this one.
Aidan was sleeping beside her, his jaws slightly apart.