Vampires Never Get Old - Zoraida Cordova Page 0,24

has been … a learning experience. I heard about the home and figured maybe I’d find what I was looking for there. And then…” She closes her eyes and shakes her head, like she knows that whatever she’s about to say is so, so ridiculous. “And then I saw your school and I couldn’t remember what it felt like to just be … a teenager. I got distracted. But don’t worry your pretty little head, slayer. Next stop: Resurrection Home. No pit stops. Girl Scout’s honor.” She holds three fingers up, pledging.

The bus begins to slow as we roll back into town. Since we stopped to pick up the passengers from the spirit bus, the football team is long gone and we’re the last group to get dropped off at the school, where a few stray cars sit, spread throughout the parking lot.

“No stops,” I tell Alma before I can think twice about letting her go. “I better not see you again.”

She winks before darting off the bus. “No stops.”

Alma is gone before I can even check to see which way she went so that I can be sure no one accidentally crosses paths with her. I sit perched on the hood of my car, waiting for everyone to slowly trickle out, until Ms. Rhodes drives off to return the bus to the bus yard. Ms. Garza tells me to head home, but it’s Peach and Landry who stick around the longest. Finally, after we’ve rehashed the highlights of the night, Landry digs out his car keys and offers Peach a ride. Peach studies me for a moment before making me pinky swear that I’ll text her when I get home. One day I’ll give her the answers she deserves, but for now I appreciate her treating me like a normal girl who should be cautious of men at night and other things that go bump in the dark.

After they leave, I wait a few more minutes for any sign of Alma before pulling my keys out of my backpack and unlocking my car.

I shouldn’t have let her go. All I can think about is those three bodies Mama and Aunt Gemma found. If I’d just been faster or stronger than the vamp who almost took out Wade, three more people would be alive.

With my back to the dark parking lot, wind tickles my neck, and I whip around to find Alma less than an inch from me. Loose wisps of hair blow across her face, brushing my cheeks. In one swift motion, I grip her neck with one hand and spin her around, pinning her to my cherry-red Dodge Neon.

“I told you to go back to the academy. No stops.” I yank her forward and slam her body against the car once more for emphasis, then reach through the open driver-side window for the stake I always keep in the side of my door.

“I don’t respond well to authority,” she hisses, and calmly grips my wrist. I see the vampire in her now. It’s in her stance and the way her whole body is ready for a fight. She runs her tongue over her fangs. “Besides, I have a proposition for you.”

I press the pointed end of the stake to the spot just above her rib cage, the spot I know so well. “I don’t negotiate with vampires.”

She swallows and her throat rolls against the palm of my hand. “Give me senior year. All I want is the senior year I never had. The minute I accept my diploma and walk across that stage, I’m gone; if not, I’m fair game.”

I study her closely, searching for the loophole. “Why senior year? Senior year sucks. You’ve got a whole eternity to relive senior year. Why Sweetwater?”

“You try living an eternity as a high school junior. Forever wishing you were a senior.” She eyes me playfully, like I’m not about to shove a chunk of wood through her not-so-beating heart.

Well, that does sound awful. I guess.

“Besides, I like it here. I like … the people.”

My grip on her throat tightens, and for the first time her eyes widen with discomfort.

“When I walk through the gates of the Resurrection Home, I know … I’ll change. Everything will change. I still feel human now. But once I’m there … among my own kind … I won’t be the same. I want to do this while I can still appreciate it. And if I get wind of any vampires stepping out of line, you’ll